Good evening. Welcome to the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education special meeting, called to order at 06:33PM. Please stand and 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. This board of education special meeting is a meeting of the board in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business. We value community input,
and public comment will be heard under agenda item six. If you wish to speak tonight and you have not already filled out a yellow card, they are located on a table near the entrance. Once you've completed the card, please put it in the box on the same table. Please note that cards must be completed prior to speaking. I will call the names of those who I have a card for during public comment. Tonight, there are four new business items that will be brought forward for approval, followed by finalist interviews and appointment for the vacant board seat. Jessica Gupta submitted her resignation from the board on February 10 with an effective date
of 03/01/2026. State law requires the board to appoint a trustee to fill the position within thirty days. After the board has heard from the seven candidates chosen to move forward to the interview round, the board will have a discussion of the candidates followed by public comment. After public comment, each board member will identify candidates they're interested in seeing fill the position. After all board members have spoken, we will then take nominations. For roll call, all board members are present. So for section three, new business 3.1,
fiber maintenance action item, mister DeLuca. Thank you, president Blake. With your approval, can I bring, mister Frank Kobyak up to our director of technology? Wanna say thank you to the board for, listening to the or hearing the new business today. This was a project that we were working in the fall, and we didn't, anticipate having, a special meeting today. So we have to hit our e rate, application, which is due April 1. So I wanna educate the, the board and the public on what is e rate. The e rate program established on the Telecommunications Act of 1996, was is critical in funding in supporting school districts and maintaining and expanding their technology
and infrastructure. Through this program, eligible school districts receive discounts ranging from anywhere from 22% to 90%, and a school district like Rochester Community Schools receives an e rate about 40%. Our application for e rate is due on April 1, and so that's why we're bringing these four forward tonight. So thank you, mister Frankeliak, for joining me. Our first one that we have up, tonight is recommendation for approval of fiber maintenance. The RCS network infrastructure is enterprise level network that connects all of our sites through a hub and spoke configuration. This includes having fiber lines that connect the entire district,
which could be both above ground and below. To minimize the downtime, a vendor is selected who can provide assurances when the when we have outages within our fiber network. Based on this information, we're we're recommending to the Board of Education awarding the following contract to FiberLink for the following reasons. Award winner was the lowest bidder. They have proven reliability and demonstrated to us that they can fulfill the contract, And the contract award amount is $30,000 Does the board have any questions? Any questions or discussion? Trustee Patel. I I just had one question, and it really pertains to all of the,
four bids that we're gonna cover tonight. Can you just talk about, the first when you were ranking them, the E rate piece and how since that's a percent, the amount of money that we can have returned, how can the ranking or the rate the the number be different, you know, like a five versus a four? Is that based on the what their bid was? I'm gonna turn that over to mister Frankovich as his team was the ones that did the, the bid, bidding and opening the bids up. Up. Yes. Good evening, everyone. Thank you, doctor DeLuca.
Once again, just wanna thank the board also for making time for this. So, the E rate, and the whole RFQ or request for proposal process is pretty, like, it's directed of how it has to be handled. So you publish, bids. In this case, we had two. We had the fiber link, or the, the, the fiber maintenance, and then you had network electronics, which is the other three. And then you open them up, and then you have to have, basically a comprehensive matrix how you look at things. So the E rate, reimbursement is consistent, but that looks at how much things cost and then how much in proportion we would get back for the rebate for it.
In this particular case, we had two strong bidders, and both very strong recommendation for, their reputation in the field. But FiberLink is our current incumbent, and based on that, they know our systems. There's a four hour downtime, and that matrix, they came out on top. Thank you. Any other questions or discussion on that? Trustee Lecui. Well, this is a little bit uncomfortable, but I just want the public to understand that trustees were initially asked to approve these items without the usual bid documentation. And I understand it's last minute and and all of that.
So I brought up the concern, probably the day after we got our board packet. And we eventually received some comparison matrices, which I appreciate, and, that's where Trustee Butel's question came from. But the actual bid amounts still haven't been included. And when I asked about that, I was told that I that wasn't going to be provided to us. But the problem is if you don't include the pricing from the different companies, we can't really tell if we're maximizing the value of every dollar or even verify what the lowest bid amounts are. And that's just a bit of a concern for me because it's important for us
to be able to do our fiduciary duty to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. So that's why I feel like I have to abstain out of principle on this vote just because I feel that we should have had the documentation. Although I bet I mean, I don't doubt the work that you've done and that we've got that. But we it is important for the board and the public to see the basic numbers behind the recommendation before a vote is taken. If I could just say the, district has a urgency page, which this will be posted on. In the expedience of it, this good feedback in the future, I understand exactly what the board of education is looking for,
and we we fully own that. We'll make sure that's there. I anticipate tomorrow it being up, but we wanna make sure before you commit to anything, we brought it to you. So it's a proactive vote, not a retroactive vote. And so that's why it was in a expedient fashion. So in the future, we'll make sure we definitely provide that. Any other questions? Trustee Yannis? This is more of a procedural question. Are we voting on each one individually or as a group? I was planning to do each one. Is there a motion to approve fiber maintenance as presented? Moved by Trustee Ennis. Any support? Trustee Alsbaugh?
Any further discussion? All in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Nay. Abstain. Was that the six zero one vote? Okay. I'm so used to seven. Five zero one. Alright. Section 3.2 is firewall maintenance. Action item again, mister DeLuca. Alright. Recommendation for approval of district firewall maintenance. The firewall is a critical component in the in an enterprise network serving as a barrier between internal corporate net corporate networks and external networks. Its primary purpose is to enforce an access control policy, ensuring that only authorized traffic is allowed to pass through while blocking unauthorized access.
Our current firewall is reaching the end of service, which was set for five year span. Based on this information, we recommended the Board of Education awarding the following contract to Delta Networks for the following reasons. Award winner was the lowest bidder as well as the incumbent vendor and solution. Only one bid was submitted to, through the RFQ process. The cost of the award contract is $70,000. Is there a motion to approve the district firewall maintenance as presented? Trustee Lozanne, support by Trustee Alspa. Any discussion? Trustee Yanis? This is just anecdotal, but I was recently out of the country,
and I tried to access my my board email, and it was a great firewall. So just wanna throw that out there. We'll take it. Alright. All in favor of the motion? Aye. All in favor, say aye. Aye. No nays. So that is six-zero. No. I abstain. I sorry. 3.3, uninterrupted power supply action item. Doctor DeLuca. Recommendation for approval for an uninterrupted power supply purchase. The primary purpose of a UPS, a universal power supply backup, is to provide power during an emergency that happens with power outages. Un uninterrupted operation and connected electronics are important to keep up and running during this
time. It acts as a safeguard against power disturbances, protecting sensitive equipment from sudden power loss, voltage fluctuations, and power surges. We are recommending the board based on this, the information that we are recommending INECOM TSG as the, bid winner. The award winner was the lowest bidder as well as a familiar partner with Rochester Community Schools. They have proven reliability and faithful demonstrated the ability to fulfill the contract. The contract award amount is for $188,000. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the universal power supply backup as presented?
Moved by Trustee Nannes. Support by Trustee Boutel. Any discussion? All in favor, aye. Aye. Nay. Epstein. It's a five zero one vote. Now wired infrastructure, doctor DeLuca. Recommendation for approval of district network infrastructure equipment. In 2017 with funds available from the RCS technology bond, the district replaced and updated the wired network infrastructure. Half of the wired infrastructure was replaced and the other half was upgraded via software. The half that was upgraded via software was then replaced in the 2021. It is time to replace the infrastructure that was purchased new and has reached its
end of life in 2026. Based on this information, we recommend the Board of Education award the following contracts to Delta Networks for the following reasons. The award winner was the lowest bidder and as well as the incumbent vendor and solution. A portion of this bid estimate is worth $590,000 and this would include the end of life and support of our network switches to be replaced as well. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the district network infrastructure equipment as presented? Trustee Lausanne, support by Trustee Allspa. Any discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any no?
Any abstention? Abstain. That's a five zero one vote on that. We are now at section four of our agenda which is finalist interviews. Thank you again to the applicants who applied to fill the board vacancy. On March 9, we narrowed the pool of candidates down to seven. Just before this meeting tonight, we had each candidate draw a number to determine the order in which they would be interviewed. The order is as follows, Dana Cadman, Kristen Hall, Lauren Salushka, Nick Blazcheck, Lauren Gracie Parker, Sherry Wynn Perdue, and Jamie Rockcliffe. Candidates will be asked to sit at the table up front.
Each trustee will ask one question and then I will ask a closing. There will be twenty minutes per interview. The time will flash on the screen. It'll actually start blinking at nineteen to give you the idea, that you have to wrap up by about twenty. There are six questions and then a thirty second closing. Each question is not timed so you can spend as much time on whichever ones that you like the most or you think require more time but at the end it will come in under twenty minutes. During each interview, we ask that the other candidates wait in the staff lounge until it's their turn
to interview. We also ask that the other candidates who are not interviewing not communicate with people who are watching the interviews in person or online to ensure fairness to all candidates. Do any of those being interviewed have any questions? Do board members have any? Mr. President? Vice President, yes. Section five of our handbook says that the board president drafts these questions with input from the board. Can you explain what meaningful board input consisted of in this case? Sure. So it does say that, and I I requested each trustee to send me two questions from the handbook,
which has suggested questions, and then one question of their own so that I could see what types of things people were interested in. The deadline, first, I didn't have a deadline, and then I think you asked me. So I set a deadline for Wednesday for questions. Some of those questions didn't get used, for various reasons. Your question that you submitted was about pending litigation, so we didn't use that question. I prepared the questions there, and you didn't provide any alternatives. I didn't use, trustee Annas' question for a different reason. So on Thursday evening, I took a look at everything and I put together six questions.
I actually had seven and I finally struck one and that's where we are. So I also have maintained those questions. I have not distributed or circulated to the board in order to keep the integrity of the process and not have people know what the questions will be ahead of time. So Mister president. Trustee Lozen. I'm lit cuy. Oh, my gosh. I'm sorry. And do you have anything to say? I just I do wanna clarify that my question did not ask candidates to weigh in on any lawsuit. It was about trustee communication and transparency and the limits of board authority.
And I also did send you an alternate question, but I don't see my questions represented in your question list. So your first question was basically the subject matter that you're alleging in your lawsuit. Would you think it's okay for a board to do x, which is exactly what you're alleging in your lawsuit? Board legal counsel advised us not to use that question. The second question that you sent was sent Friday, and as I told you, I finalized the question Thursday, which was a day after the Wednesday deadline. Well, mister president, I would have sent you the other question sooner, but you didn't respond to any of my emails.
I've I've received no feedback. I just now see the questions here. I see that neither neither of my present my questions were used. So with all due respect, I would just say I didn't have much of a voice in the process this time and I'm not gonna pretend that the question you've given me is my question. So I ask that you go ahead and read it. I think you could probably do it with more enthusiasm than me. I'll do my best then. Alright. At this time I invite Dana Cadman to the table and Christina Whitmore will show the rest of you where you may wait until it's your turn. It it would be if it's solid,
it means it's on. Okay. Oh, there we go. Now I can hear me. Alright. We can start now. The first present or first question will be from Trustee D'Auteu. Alright, mister Cadman. If you could please tell us why you are interested in joining the Rochester School Board at this time and what skills, experience, or qualities make you a fit for this position? Well, my reason for wanting to be a trustee goes back to college. At my commencement ceremony, the speaker was Bob Keeshan. Some of you might know him better by the name Captain Kangaroo, and he spoke very passionately about the responsibility of each generation to ensure that the
next generation of children had the education they need to pursue whatever dream they could imagine for themselves. And that has stuck with me some forty years later. I believe I wanna be a trustee because I don't think the district is going in the right direction currently to provide children with those skills and education that they need to pursue their dreams. If you look at, mischooldata.org, you will see that Rochester Community Schools, our students have some of the highest test scores in the state,
which is great. But the flip side of that coin is that our test scores are going down. They've been going down for ten years. So by way of analogy, our ship is sinking. It's just not sinking as fast as the other boats around us. I would bring ten years' work as a consultant, twelve years as a business analyst, looking at projects and helping organizations to prioritize these projects, based on budget and resources to ensure that those projects are going to help achieve the outcomes that the organization desires.
And that's what I would like to do is help make sure that we're setting priorities so that the students of this district can achieve the dreams that they've set for themselves. Thank you. And when you're ready for the next question, just kinda raise your hand so we know. Rochester there we go. Rochester Schools is considered by many to be one of the best districts in the state. However, some say we're a district in decline. What is your view? Is RCS a top school district, a district in decline, or would you use some other description? And on what do you base that opinion? Well, I just gave that answer. We're one of the best in the state, and our boat is sinking.
And we need to do something to patch the holes. And I'm just not seeing it from the leadership, of the last several administrations to do anything about that. One of the responsibilities of a school board trustee is to hold the, superintendent accountable for outcomes. And to the best of my recollection, anytime that that conversation has come up, that conversation has been squashed. And yet the superintendents have been giving, glowing reviews even though the outcomes that parents desire aren't being achieved. So I wanna,
again, help turn that bus around. Oh, sorry. That's okay. We'll get this figured out by question six. I'll do. That's fine. Question three. What are the top two or three challenges that Rochester schools is facing, and what ideas do you have to address those challenges? Top challenge would be budget prioritization. Again, going back to mischooldata.org, great resource. It's just there's no filtering. It's just data. You can look at it any way you want. If you look at Rochester Community Schools from 2006 to 2016 and 2006 is as
far back as I could go, so I'm not cherry picking data here. If you look at that ten year period, the amount of money spent on instructional expenses was expanding faster than the rate of inflation. And I'm not talking about the general fund, the budget. Instructional expense expenses is a portion of that budget, and it was growing faster than inflation. And what did we get for our money? Steadily increasing test scores. For ten years, our students were improving year over year. Now let's look at 2016 to 2026, the last ten years.
Test scores have been going down. And at the same time, the amount of money we're spending on instructional expenses has been decreasing. Even though more money gets added to the budget every year, the amount of money that you're adding is not keeping pace with inflation. Our budget is actually shrinking, and it's showing up in the results of our students' test scores. And you have to ask, well, if the budget, the general fund is increasing year over year, but the amount of money that we're spending on teachers and curriculum is decreasing, where is the money going? I'll tell you. So instructional expenses year over year on average have been increasing 3%,
again, less than the rate of inflation. Central office administration has been growing at the rate on average of 7.8%, double instructional expenses. And yes, to your point that you made two weeks ago, Mr. Blake, HR is important. Accounting is important. Finance is important. All those backend and processes are important. But why is that part of the budget growing so much faster than what should be our top priority, which is the education of our students? And what's even more surprising and appalling, the amount of the rate of growth in the general administration portion of the budget is growing on an average 13.8%.
General administration are the expenses directly tied to the board of education and the superintendent's office. Why is that part of the budget growing at a rate four times faster than what we spend on our teachers and our curriculum? It's shown that when we invest in our teachers, when we support them, when we give them good curriculum, they produce amazing results. And now we're tying their hands behind their back, and that needs to stop. And that's what I would do when I get on board is reprioritize the budget. I would start picking through every line item to find out why are these areas growing so big,
and what fat can we cut out of there so that we can spend it on our teachers and our students. Trustee Lozen. Okay. After review and discussion of issues, the board operates by a majority vote of trustees. When the majority vote is different from your position, how would you handle that? Well, it's majority vote. So beforehand, you have your discussions. You present your side of the argument. If you're open minded, you listen to the other side of the argument. That's what adults should do. And then you have the vote. And if the vote doesn't go your way, then you move on to the next topic.
No hard feelings. We don't need to introduce personalities into it. We just that's the way businesses operate. Thank you, Mr. Cabinet, for coming out tonight. RCS serves a diverse group of students. What should the board do to ensure that every student, regardless of ability, background, identity, or characteristics, not only receives a top notch education, but also feels a sense of belonging in this district? Well, again, it goes back to budget prioritization. First and paramount, as I've already stated, making sure that they get that quality education.
I was very fortunate. I graduated Midland Public Schools, which at the time when I graduated was one of only 85 in the entire nation that offered every advanced placement and examination that was available. And when we think of AP, we always usually think of AP math, AP chem, whatever. A friend of mine, she graduated with credits in AP music composition, another one, AP German. So to make sure that everybody feels, welcome and included, provide them opportunities to excel at whatever it is that they're passionate about. And again, that goes back to providing,
curriculum, providing courses, providing activities where they can all participate and excel and and achieve those dreams that they're dreaming. That's how we support our students, not by spending it on central office administration and whatever goes on in the general administration budget. Thank you so much for coming out tonight. My question is, RCS is a public school district. What does the phrase support public education mean to you? And what do you think a board trustee should or should not do to support public education? Well, to support public education,
that means supporting, everything that goes on in our school, supporting our students, as as I've already mentioned, supporting the parents and caregivers of those students, supporting the instructors, the teachers who provide that education, providing the people who support those teachers. So to support the schools, we need to look at the entire operation top to bottom, all angles, and make sure that we are providing those supports that are needed on the front line. If we're not supporting our teachers and the people who interact with the students, then we're not doing our job.
Well, you've blown away our time here. That's great. I could have added three more in here. Please take thirty seconds and tell us or you can take longer because you have it. And tell us anything else you would like us to know. Well, I I think I've had the opportunity to say I I mean, I know I sound very single issue, but, I mean, I think that's part of the problem here is we need focus. The board seems to be going in many different directions all at once, and I believe that by, again, prioritizing the budget, sound like a broken record, but, you know, prioritizing the budget and supporting our students, that should be our our top goals.
I really appreciate the opportunity to come out here and, you know, speak my mind and and, have you get a chance to get to know me and and my concerns. I feel, it's important I'm disappointed to know that I won't be selected, at the last board meeting. If you look at the recording and zoom ahead to two hours and fifty six minutes, you'll hear one of our trustees say, not once toy not once, but twice, if you don't believe in the enhancement millage, you don't deserve a place on this board. Again, that was said not once, but twice. Well, I was one of the people who came up and spoke against the enhancement village,
so I guess I'm not gonna get your vote. That's unfortunate because if you were doing your job, if you were being objective and looking for the best possible candidates, you could put aside your personal biases and stop viewing, the district through the lens of a single issue. I mean, I believe that I bring a lot of business experience and skills that could be of a benefit to this board. I think I could do a bang up job on this board. Now on the flip side of that coin, maybe you want somebody who's got more relationships in the district,
and, you know, you've got a couple of candidates here tonight who have that. Ideally, you want a candidate who has both business skills and the relationships in the district. I mean, people like Lawrence Halushka and Nick Blazic. I mean, they've got the perfect mix. They would be ideal candidates, but they're not gonna get your vote either because, again, they don't, you know, they just don't fit the bill. So I'm just disappointed that, you know, we're kind of wasting our time here, that, you're not going to be a little bit more objective in how you look at things. And that's everything I have to say. Thank you. Next candidate is on our way in.
Good evening. Good evening. Miss Hall, thank you for being here. And, we're gonna different people are gonna ask you questions, so it's just follow the bouncing ball. My first question is please tell us why you're interested in joining the Rochester School Board at this time and what skills, experiences, or qualities make you a good fit for this position? Thank you for the question. I have always been passionate about politics in general and community service and being involved in my community. I started out my career, as a political fundraiser and in government. One of the things I'm most passionate about in having a son in the district
on an IUP is he would not be where he is today without the teachers, so that's always been that. My mother was a paraeducator growing up. She started out as a lunchroom lady, so it's always been involved in our family. She started that when, she'd stayed for breast cancer, and the school was nice enough to give her a job while she went through treatment. With that said, one of the things I applied four years ago. And in that time, one of the things I'm most passionate about is I work in manufacturing, women in manufacturing, and recognizing that there's a lot that our students can do,
not just in the collegiate path, but also in the trades. And I am very passionate about that. I did my undergrad at Michigan State. I did my master's at Oakland. I taught at Oakland. I'm a certified project manager, and I manage, international complex budgets and very comfortable with p and l's. And I think one of the things that we really need to focus on is the fiscal responsibility of the district as well as ensuring that our students reach their potential. Thank you. Rochester Schools is considered by many to be one of the best districts in the state. However, some say we're a district in decline.
What is your view? Is Rochester Schools a premier school district, a district in decline, or would you use some other description? And on what do you base that opinion? Yes. There's a reason why I will keep my son in Rochester schools. And when I look at the ones in Oakland County, there are three that come to mind. One of the things that I think this district, like all of them, are gonna struggle with is a rapidly changing global environment where our students need to be prepared. So in that, I think for The US side of education, I have great concerns overall. For Rochester,
one of the things is we're taking away from the district when we have some of the challenges that the board is seeing, that the public is seeing, that we're this divided. At the end of the day, our students come first, our parents and the community. And if we are not together on that, we just from a public perception standpoint, that's where Rochester is struggling compared to other districts. I think we have a better opportunity to remain and focus on what we're good at, which is excellence in education, which is our athletics. But right now,
there are challenges from the public perception. In the corporate world, a lot of what's going on, we would have eliminated. It would have been taken out by consultants. So I think one of the things when we look at, we have to get back to a business perspective and the decorum in maintaining ethics above all else and allowing our publicly elected figures to be involved with community, to allow the community to say what they need, but to recognize that it's a business. And with that, that's how we take care of the students. What are the top two or three challenges that Rochester schools is facing,
and what ideas do you have to address those challenges? The first would be the ability to come together from optics realistically. Right? I think and I know this sounds redundant, but we have so many sides, and it's so contentious right now. That's not what it's supposed to be about. Politics in general, we become so divisive and so divided that we cannot have respectable conversations and hear someone's different opinion, respect their different opinion, and then decide what's best or go with a unanimous or right majority rule.
It starts at the top. You have to change what's going on, and that's what projects down. If we allow our students to see in our community how divisive we are, what are we teaching them to go into a world and challenge to the thing and not hear and be respectful? Kindness and respect. And it starts from parents, the community, and that's how we instill it in our children. Otherwise, we have we allow the disrespect to continue. The next thing that I'm most concerned about right now is that one of the things Rochester is really well known for is having an excellent budget and being well
balanced. From an outsider perspective, and I had some good discussions prior to with some members of the community that raised great points, some of which I hadn't considered, some of which you see. My biggest concern right now in everyday what are we watching is that the geopolitical and the concerns for fiduciary responsibility are getting harder and harder. Realistically, when I sat down today and calculated the price of oil from my corporate perspective working internationally and what that impact is going to be on the supply chain just
in mine, you then look at the operating cost, the transportation cost. If we continue on this path, which is where the current situation is today, and when I looked at this three weeks ago, it's a very different financial picture three weeks later. Correct? With that, what happens when we push the district to a point based on rising cost, based on rising infrastructure, based on being an automotive state and continued decline, we have to then begin to look at how do we solve for that. We cut services. We cut the critical ones. That scares me as a parent.
So whether or not I go forward with this, that is still one of my biggest concerns of if we privatize some of the critical services, if we continue to not be able to support. That's what keeps me up at night as a parent, and that's something that I'm gonna champion for. And seeing it in my professional career, I would say faster than a lot of people write. I work with global supply chains. I work internationally on different calls. I'm seeing different markets. I'm working with precious metal commodities. I feel like I have a great vantage point to look at it as well as spending enough time with McKinsey over the last year and doing corporate reorgs for
that. I have great fear for how do we protect the critical services that run the district, and I'm gonna end with that thought. Sorry. It's a little bit harder when you're watching the clock and keeping this going, so I'm just gonna as eloquently as you can. You're doing fine at that. Trustee Lozano. After review and discussion of issues, the board operates by a majority vote of trustees. When the majority vote is different from your position, how would you handle that? Fine. You go and you make an excellent argument. You listen to others at the table, and that's what's part of being a team or that's majority rule. Just because if I have a different opinion on something,
I'm going to speak passionately for what I agree on or disagree on. I'm going to make my points coming out of government and coming out of a political environment as well as a corporate. Right? I may not agree with everything, but I will follow the leadership at the top, and I will follow the framework of which my leadership team puts forward. When I worked for, you know, a governor at that time, I may have had different views than them, but publicly, I'm going to put forward what is best for that. And I go back to my first thing. We need to be kind and respectful,
and I can hear different opinions, and I can have someone have a very different opinion from you. I can take different constituents that may not agree and may, you know, challenge what I'm saying. We've lost the art of being able to debate. Thank you for being here. Thank you. RCS serves a diverse group of students. What should the board do to ensure that every student, regardless of ability, background, identity, or characteristics, not only receives a topnotch education, but also feels a sense of belonging in this district? That's a great question.
It starts from having a community that is open and fair and recognizing that we all bring something different to the table. We have to call out bias when we see it. We have to call out discrimination when we see it. We have to recognize our own inherent bias and what we bring to the table. So that starts with teachers and making sure that, you know, not every student is going to learn to the same ability. Having a son with an IUP, he's not, you know, the most popular.
He's not he struggles with friends at times. Right? He's we're teaching him that it's okay to not be, you know, the most popular kid or the most different one. You bring something different to the table. And middle school, high school is one of the most challenging times. Right? I think everyone gets out of it, and they have a different perspective looking back. We have to have the ability to recognize those that are doing well and those that are struggling. I would say that on this generation more so than before, we're more aware of mental health concerns and challenges. We're better at recognizing them.
We have different systems in place that safeguard the schools. Everyone brings unique talent to the table. We have to figure out what it is, and we have to be willing to not necessarily always measure by the test scores or athletics or all of that. Right? It's very important, but it's not necessarily what's going to ensure that all of our students are successful. I was told growing up, right, you're gonna go to college, you're gonna go to grad school, this is what you're going to do, and it wasn't until I started working in manufacturing. I've never been as passionate about the trades as I am.
I worked as chair for Michigan of women in manufacturing. I think we need to encourage different paths for all of our students and give them opportunities to learn about these different paths. It doesn't matter. We all need to have a very sound education. Right? We all need to have the fundamentals. Some will go on and be doctors, lawyers, or that. Some will be phenomenal trades. Some may choose not to be in the workforce, but we have to allow them to have different opportunities that let them explore what they're doing. And it goes back to the same thing.
We have to be kind and respectful. People are different. We have different views. We look different. We sound different. We cannot allow and continue to just bully everyone into different things. And I really hope and I see it in the current curriculum. I see it in my son. I see it when I go and I work with different school districts that don't do it as well as Rochester does. And it's something that I'm really proud of. And I you can pry my cold dead hands before I'll come out of the school district for my son. That's how passionate I am about keeping him in Rochester
because of the services that we receive and we're recognizing his differences. Thank you for being here. RCS is a public school district. What's the phrase support public education mean to you? And what do you think a board trustee should or should not do to support public education? If I remember correctly, Rochester is 60 square miles. It's one of the largest ones, which is also what sometimes why we get snow days because we have a lot of roads to plow. Public education means that everyone within this district has a seat at the table and is able to receive the benefit of a
great education. We have a lot of great private schools around here. That's wonderful, but it caters sometimes to a different public education should be open and free for all who reside in the district, and it gives trying to think of the best way on how I want to approach this question. If you live in the district and regardless of where you are, if you're in Dearborn, if you're in Warren Consolidated, if you're whatever, you are entitled to an education of where you live. And that means you should receive the full services of which that district can apply. One of the thing that's great,
right, is it levels that everyone's coming in on the same playing field as opposed to where I was with private school or that where it's a different one. That's wonderful. I love those that choose to go the private school route. For me, I came out of public education. I'm passionate about public education because it just gives so much to anyone that is residing there that can go forward. It's not a great, succinct, eloquent answer, but everyone's entitled to learn in a healthy environment and make the most of what is offered to them.
And I think that's wonderful that we provide that. Okay. So finally, you can put please take thirty seconds or you have more than that, and tell us anything else you would like us to know. Perfect. One of the things that may not be reflected in my resume is that I was a corporate board secretary for one of the top 25 banks in the country. I was elected and appointed to a state board. I understand how board governance works very well. I was responsible as a secretary for having, you know, all of the board packets, all the minutes,
the redacted minutes, understanding when it goes into private committee. I have a very strong background in public service, and one of the things I think that puts me apart is I've taught. Right? I've been on the same front with teachers that I understand what it's like to be a professor. I have worked with different countries and continue to do so. I didn't wake up as a child and say, oh my gosh, I'm gonna go sell catalytic converters. And that's what, you know, brings me the most joy in my life. No. But I've been afforded an opportunity for a very large corporation
to make critical decisions. And I'm very confident more than I was four years ago with what I would bring to the table from my education, my passion for politics, but I say that tongue in cheek because politics has changed so much. Why did we go into politics initially? It was to make a change in our community. It was because we wanted to advocate for people, and to me, I still believe that's the foundation. I teach when I can riding lessons because I enjoy giving back to my community and watching children learn and grow.
I wouldn't have you know, four years ago, my son was a kindergartner. He's now a fourth grader. It's a very different thing each year that you get to watch them go through, and I am more thankful for that school district and that school specifically. They've allowed me to be a better parent to help teach my son because I'm not, on certain thing, an elementary school teacher. I have a different approach to it. And my I'd shared with others, you know, one of my dear friends is a AP history teacher at Birmingham and watching her go through union negotiations and teaching for that long without a contract,
I could see it from her perspective. I remember my mom coming home, you know, and what she did when she worked with special needs children, what she did with before and after school. I've always been really passionate about it. And what I think sets me apart is my business foundation right now and going through mergers and acquisitions and going through reorgs and understanding when you have to make tough cuts, what that looks like to preserve the essential services because at the end of the day in my field the customer comes first, but you still have a leadership board to report to.
I got my three minutes left on that one. Yeah. I'm passionate about what I bring to the table. I'm not concerned about some of the challenges that we've been facing in terms of getting in front of constituents or getting in front of the community and listening to tough feedback, right? That's part of growing. That's why we've gone through executive training, right? You have to make tough decisions. You have to listen to individuals. You have to be able to have a tough skin to handle what's going on
and still at the end of the day get up every day and be really passionate. And, you know, nothing excites me more than watching my son grow, watching students that I get to teach, working with, you know, different schools when they come in and they get to see what the trades are about, and you get to recognize that everyone has a different ability or you get to highlight to someone that, wow, I could do something in manufacturing. That's an awesome feeling. And so for this district and for what I really strongly believe is that
we're lacking sometimes in the ability to cut through difficult things, be kind and respectful, and get it done. Right? You walk on a mani anyone that's walked on a manufacturing floor or been with plant managers, they're not very kind. They're going to choose very choice language, and that's part of it. Right? I respect your opinion. Thanks for bringing that up. Okay. We didn't hit this that one. How am I gonna improve? How am I gonna make it better? Son comes home and, you know, didn't do well with a friend. What do we do? We can do hard things, and we learn through our failures.
And I believe that to my core, we've made great decisions for the district. We've made some not great decisions. We learn from our mistakes and we keep going forward, and we have to do it unified. Thank you. Gave you back eight seconds, which in corporate, that's pretty solid. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Lauren Salushka will be joining us next. Good evening. You interrupted a very good conversation back there. Well, thank you for being with us here tonight. There are seven questions, and I'll start with the first one, and then it'll kinda go down the line. But please tell us why you are interested in joining the Rochester School Board at
this time and what skills, experiences, or qualities make you a good fit for this position. Well, I moved to Rochester School District, in the late nineties. I had two kids back then, and primarily my move here was for the education. School had a really good reputation. Since then, I had three others, and we put four through the Rochester schools. And the fifth one graduates this spring. So I really believed in this school system. Really liked it. I have been a coach since the eighties in high schools and started coaching here
in 2001 in this area, And I've coached at all levels, division one and division two football and lacrosse at area high schools, including Rochester Adams and Rochester Stoney Creek Rochester Hills Stoney Creek. I have been a substitute teacher. I've been quite involved as a parent, and now I have three grandkids, one born a month ago. I'll show pictures to anybody who wants to see it in the lobby afterwards. I've started several businesses, worked as a consultant in marketing, usually in strategic development in the area.
So I loved the schools. My wife also graduated from Rochester schools and did well in her in her in her class. Go falcons. She did well in her career, so we really liked it. I also fell in love with the culture here. I'm from the East Side. It's beautiful, so that part's easy, but the culture I really loved. So I got very involved. The work that I did and the coaching that I did, I was known for somebody who worked with big collaborative bat bodies. And as a director or as a head coach, you had to take very strong willed people, bring them together so that you're all pulling on the same oar,
but they had to all be listened to. Especially in division one men's football, let's just say there's egos involved, and everybody has to feel that they're heard. But some decision has to be made, and you can't have some people pulling away, some people not pulling away. So these are collaborative structures that I was a part of and did extremely well. I want championships. I want awards doing it. And it wasn't because my insight into those particular things is brilliant. It was how you brought people together, make sure they were heard, and make them feel like they were all working towards certain goals,
that they had to put some of their needs aside, but they also had a buy in with the programs they were part of, be that coaching or business. The reason why I wanted to get involved at this point was several years ago, I really didn't pay too much attention to the school board because I thought the schools were doing quite well. Obviously, I graduated five kids through the school system. But I started noticing what I thought was questionable questions of integrity on decisions coming out of the administration.
And then I was looking at the board whose job really is to supervise and support the administration, and there was all kinds of questionable decisions coming out of that. And it wasn't so much the question of the integrity. There's always contention on any kind of a board, but the perception from people that I knew. I'm somebody who's known as not, let's just say, not being shy. I like people. I like talking to them. I like talking to parents more than most coach coaches. I got to know the administrators of the buildings, the principals. I got to know the teachers.
I got to know the parapros. I got to know the facilities people, and those are important people to get to know. And I started hearing more and more from them their lack of trust. Now whether that was justified or not, it's a it's a problem when the perception is there because then everything you try to do is misunderstood or there's a big pull against it. And I saw that happening more and more. And in the last six months, some of the things that I've seen going on, I haven't known exactly what it was, but I've started to ask questions and dig in.
And I thought there's something that needs to be done to bring the board so that we don't have the factions that are turning at each other and everybody feels heard. It's a majority bowl but board, but it's a collaborative body, which means everybody does need to be heard. That's why that's why I decided to run for board. Thank you. Rochester Schools is considered by many to be one of the best districts in the state. However, some say we're a district in decline. What is your view? Is RCS a premier school district, a district in decline,
or would you use some other description? And on what do you base that opinion? I'll base the opinion mostly on the people who are still involved. I stopped coaching about four years ago on what their views are. I think it's fantastic. I love the school. I love the school system. That's why I don't like to see any kind of dysfunction within it. Now I know we're forty fourth of 50 in the country, But my kids go to school in Rochester schools, and I moved here because these are incredible schools. So I'm stepping up not because I wanna blow my summer or have to sit
where you guys are. You guys know the work that's involved in this, and it's just great for the pay that you're getting. But there's times when it's time to step up, and I feel that I have those qualities to bring the con get rid of the contention in here and bring our supervisor the support and the supervision that I don't see happening because of all the pulling and the tensions that are going on. How can he do his job, and how can we measure the job that he's doing if we're not supervising him properly, and we're caught up in all the all the fire that's going on?
I appreciate that people have the passions that they have, but we have rules, and these boards are run by rules. The revised school code. We have a state and a and a federal constitution that trump all rules and guarantees things like the freedom of expression, but we have things like the revised school court, code, which tells us how public schools must run-in Michigan. It's not arbitrary. We have to align ourselves to that no matter our positions. We have the open meetings act, which directs how public boards must conduct their business.
It is not arbitrary. No matter how passionate we feel, we have to conduct ourselves by this. And And then there's Robert's Rules, which provides structures and processes for running meetings. I'm seeing these cast aside. I understand some of the reasons for the complaints and some of the reasons for the lawsuits. Now I'm not for or against any of them. A majority rule rules. But on any collaborative board, like if you look at a supreme court or any kind of a court, there's dissenting opinions, and it's important that we listen to them. They hone our views.
And more than anything else, each one of you was elected for the way you view things. When I'm on the board, I don't care if you and I are diametrically opposed. You represent part of this community. You must be listened to. And if more of us vote one way than the other, it's important that people hear the dissenting opinion, but the majority rules. And after that decision has happened, we get to see and take a really good look at did it work, did it not work. Can we look at what we've done and not let our egos get in the
way and say, this was pretty good. We need to make adjustments, or you know what? They were right. We have to stop. It's not about the polarity of of our opinion. This is supposed to be about the kids, and we have to put our sides our sides and our views second to that, and I haven't seen that going on. That happens in groups of people. I understand the contention, but it needs to be brought down, and that's something that I've always done a very good job at doing. Thank you. What are the top two or three challenges that Rochester schools is facing,
and what ideas do you have to address those challenges? I I would say the number one that I'm looking to address is the view of the integrity of the school board. There are two things that need to be addressed. I don't have an answer because I haven't looked into it deeply enough, and I don't wanna go just from the screaming and yelling that I hear online, especially when it's anonymous. But there's two problems. One is, what is the problem with the integrity? And I don't know the answer to that. But why is there such a perceived problem with integrity? Like I said, I speak all the time.
I had a working relationship, and some of them are just friends. One of them is my neighbor. Those who run the school buildings, the administrators who run the school buildings, the principals, and the teachers, and really listening to the parapros, they're afraid to speak up now. Now it doesn't matter whether that's justified or not. The fact that they have that shouldn't be there, and it makes his job almost impossible to do. That has to be changed. If we have to change the board, we had a decision back there. There were seven of us. There's seven of you. We thought we would just swap seats, and we'll all just swatch out. So so there's food and drinks available for all of you back there,
and we're just gonna take over. But to look at what those perceptions are, when I talk to these people and they tell me they're afraid to speak up and they don't feel like things are being monitored, that's a problem. We're not talking to each other anymore. I I saw, mister Russo a couple of weeks ago. There was don't need to go into the problem was, but there was a problem I heard from the seniors and juniors who I know. I'm close to the kids that I coached, and they're getting ready to to, graduate. So I make sure that they vote this year. But they had a question of something that I had followed a little bit online, and I'd seen the communications that had come from the school.
And it wasn't clear something wasn't clear to me. So I did the craziest thing that people usually don't do. I walked up to mister Russo, and I shook his hand and asked him the question. And I'll be damned if he didn't give me the answer, which would be the answer that I would have given. And I couldn't believe that I hadn't heard that through all the communications and the noise. And I thought, are we supporting him enough? Mister Russo may be the best superintendent we've ever had. How would we know if we don't support him properly? Because we are supposed to be the ones who supervise and give him his goals. And then we also manage him and place him.
He may be the worst superintendent ever. How are we gonna know that if we didn't support you and actually give him a chance? This was your first superintendent position? He's done great with a learning curve. He needs the support. And until we put all this other stuff aside and this becomes our battle and the perceptions change, we're not gonna know if our superintendent is doing his job. He speaks with one voice. The board does not. The board votes, and they have decisions. But it's important for us to hear the minority and the majority opinions. After review and discussion of the issues of issues,
the board operates by majority vote of trustees. When the majority vote is different from your position, how would you handle that? I got people for that. I always I always say let's just arm wrestle and get it out of the way. Same way I think I kind of expressed it. I can save a little bit of time on this. If you and I have differing opinions, it's my job to discuss it with you and win over your advice. And if not, I can express my opinion. But once the vote is made, that's how this works. If I take the position, that's how this works. And I don't undermine it. I try to support it. Now if your position is shown to really work,
I give my mea culpas. Hopefully, I helped inform you a little bit on your decision, and I get on board. There's nothing wrong with being wrong. Something wrong with being obstinate and not admitting it. But if I end up being right, it's also not it's not an it's not a time to dance on your grave. When this starts to get personal, we have a problem. This is about the kids. They don't care at all about the board and the decisions, but we know that these these decisions you make filter down, and they have an effect on them. We are just a school board.
You do we do not have our finger on the nuclear codes. School board, it's important, but the egos and the views of everybody have to be put in in in line. If I got outvoted, I got outvoted. If it doesn't work, I should get behind it. If I feel strongly about it, I need to get more support. I need more people on the board with my view. And if the community wants that, then that's what we should do. Because if we sneak it in or we cheat or I lie about what I'm doing and then I turn my decision over afterwards, the community in the end is not gonna support it.
And right now, they're questioning the integrity of this board. That can't happen. When they're right or they're wrong, that can't be the case, and it needs to be addressed. Thanks again for coming out. RCS serves a diverse group of students. What should the board do to ensure that every student regardless of ability, background, identity, or characteristics, not only receives a top notch education, but also feels a sense of belonging in this district? Excellent question. Thank you. Trustee Ines, That wasn't your question? Okay. No. I wanted to give congratulations to whoever came up with the question.
I don't think it's a huge issue in the schools. I was coaching teams where I had, a varsity team where no. It was a JV team at Stony Creek where I had two girls on the team. It changes the makeup of it, but it adds to the flavor. Everybody can't have their own flag, and everybody has to listen to everything they say. This is a community. People move here because there's a culture here, but they bring something of their own to it. So to just say come here, do anything you want, and everybody has to get out of your way. You can't do that, especially with thousands of students.
So there has to be some core values that we have that they all aspire to, and they do. Kids have got this down pretty well here. That's why people come to Rochester schools. So did I. So we give them something that this is communal. This is who we are. Go to Adams. Go Highlanders. Go to Stoney. Go Cougars. Go to Rochester. Go Falcons. They have their different identities, but they all pull together when it comes to Rochester schools. There's a distinction, and I hate the way it's been rephrased. Everybody talks about diversity, and many times it's not diversity.
It's division. And I don't care if you put a different shirt on it, and there's a big difference in it. I'll give you an example. I was talking earlier with you about my son being in, Rochester Stony Roger Hills Stony Creek Orchestra, which is amazing. When you get there at the beginning and they're all warming up, they're playing their different sounds, it's a cacophony of noise that that some people find it to be pleasant. It's just crazy. They're all playing their different sounds and running over each other. But when they start to play a symphony, they're all playing different things, but it works together. It's harmonious.
And the distinction between something being divisive or something being diverse would be that. Divisiveness is never harmonious, but you wanna hear the different instruments, and that's what we want people to bring in. So regardless of their heritage, regardless of their gender, regardless of any differences, it's how do you come in and be appreciated as a student here. And we have to give them an identity that they all share together and then support their expression of it. And I gotta tell you from what I've seen the years working in the school, I don't see that as a big problem.
All humans, all kids are learning how to get along with each other. That'll never go away, but we can't teach them that, especially if we don't get along with somebody other than us. We're teaching division, not diversity. And I don't care what the program's called. If it's not harmonious, it's division. And if it is, you have true diversity. And I've seen all types in this school district, and I've seen beautiful diversity. It's not a horrible problem. I don't wanna create a problem where it doesn't exist, but I like that it's being addressed.
Thank you for coming out tonight. My question: RCS is a public school, and what does the phrase support of public education mean to you? And what do you think a board trustee should or should not do to support public education? I didn't hear the first part of the quote. RCS is a public school district. What does the phrase support public education mean to you? What do you think a board should or should not do to support public education? I think the best thing you can do is have five kids and put them through the school system. So I think I may win at that one.
What a trustee does to support it? Well, you're setting the curriculum. I think, first of all, what you think is your best interest and listening to the parents. What do the parents want for their kids? And each one of you is on here because somebody voted for you, so everybody else on this board should be listening to you. It should be done in an open way. The transparency is a problem. There's a difference between keeping things personal or private and in secret. And as I said before, with the revised school code and the open meetings act, there's rules for what's allowed. You you're not gonna talk about every last thing.
I coached football. There were so many parents whose kids put a lot of work in, and they're all starting quarterbacks. And you have to tell some of them it's just not for them. And the meetings you have to discuss this, you don't tell every last detail to somebody who doesn't wanna hear it. So there's a certain amount that you guys meet that's let's just call it private. Right? But it's not secret. They have to feel like they have a voice and that they're hearing you. We can't do things that are even perceived as we're trying to get around a corner and sneak something by them because we think it's best.
These parents came here. They paid taxes. They moved here just like you, just like me. We are accountable in the end to them. If they have questions, we have to answer their questions. If they don't like it, run for run for the board. But we do have to answer them. We have to be responsive to them. I think that's probably the best way to say reporting, being supportive of public education. And you're at the twenty minute mark. Perfect. That works. Thank you, Boris. Oh, before we start, can you just say your last name so we're all getting it right? Vlazak. Mister Vlazak, thank you for coming today.
I'm gonna start with the first question, and then it's gonna jump around. Could you please tell us why you're interested in joining the Rochester School Board at this time and what skills, experiences, or qualities make you a good fit for this position? Well, I'm joined I'm interested in joining the Rochester School Board just because I am part of this district. I have three kids in this district. I believe in this district. I'm tied to this district, not short term, but long term. So that's very important to me to see what what's going on for the future of not just my kids, but the entire community as a whole. I'm very proud to be a Rochester community member.
I do love the schools my kids are in. So to me, it's very important to the future continues on and the success path forward. So with that being said, my background is in I run a couple small businesses. I have as I said, I have three kids. And I manage, you know, I manage over about a 100 people at any given time, wide variety of personalities, beliefs, communications, and it that requires a lot of communication as does being part of the school board. So when you're and more importantly, dealing with the community, which is extremely important.
I believe communication with the community is key, very important. And the other reason I'm part running for the school board because I feel there's been a huge lack of communication from the school board to the community. Thank you. Rochester Schools is considered by many to be one of the best districts in the state. However, some say we are a district in decline. What is your view? Is RCS a premier school district, a district in decline, or would you use some other description? And on what do you base that opinion? Thank you. That's a great question. I believe RCS is a premier school, but as any premier school or anything in life that's top notch premier,
there's always room for improvement. At any time when you feel you're you're at the top, I feel like that's when you stay you mellow out. You feel comfortable. You never wanna feel comfortable when you're at the top. You always wanna strive to be better, keep moving forward, and grow. The second you get comfortable, that's when you start falling. So I wanna my skills are to never be at the bottom, and I strive every day in my personal life, and I'm enthralling my kids. Always reach for the top. No matter how hard you have to work, you work hard and you keep going, and that would that's my personal belief on Rochester School.
Even though it's a great school district, there's a lot of room for improvement across the board, and that starts with the the board of education and that all the way down, you know, working with the teachers, the community better, feel hearing the community's feedback. How can we improve? What does the community wanna hear? So when you're when you listen to the community, the community thrives, the school district thrives and grows in itself also. What are the top two or three challenges that Rochester schools is facing, and what ideas do you have to address those challenges?
Let's see. Well, I believe one of the biggest challenges right now, unfortunately, is the school board. Every time somebody turns on the school board, it honestly looks like a Jerry Springer show. There's a lot of fighting. It seems like you agree, Jason. There's a lot of fighting. It's inconsistent. And that's unfortunate. As a taxpayer and many taxpayers in the community, taxpayers don't don't do not wanna see that. I personally don't. And to be honest, I never had any interest in running for a school board until I attended some of these school board meetings. That's when I really realized and I felt I if I wanna see a change,
I can only step up and do make that change for my change that I can bring myself. I believe that's a big turn off for a lot of parents in this district currently at this time. I've heard many times from the school board say worried about loss of enrollment. Why aren't these seats being filled? I do believe that big part of that is the school board, the constant fighting, the disagreements. I believe there's a major lack of working together as a team. When the school board is a team that represents the community, It's not a Jerry Springer show. I hate to use that analogy,
but you are a team that represents the community, and that is very important to the community and what the taxpayers wanna see. The other challenge I believe facing Rochester School District is lack of leadership in some of the schools. I've experienced this personally. I feel there's lack of communication specifically in the special education department. And unfortunately, from my personal experiences and multiple multiple other parents that I've talked to, they feel the same way. There needs to be more direct leadership in that department itself and clear guidance on guidelines across the board.
Thank you. Excuse me. After review and discussion of issues, the board operates by a majority vote of trustees. When the majority vote is different from your position, how would you handle that? Well, like an adult. I understand that everybody has different views and different opinions. And like you said, it's a majority vote. Majority wins. Whether you agree with that, the the majority you you lost against, you accept that decision. And I do hope when you in that during that vote before decisions made, things were thoroughly talked through, talked about on both sides, great communication amongst each other because that's what a team does,
they communicate. The team of on the Rochester Community Schools, the board is a team that represents the taxpayers. Now on any team, even the US Olympic men's hockey team that just won the gold, they had a lot of disagreements. But at the end of the day, they work together, and that's what a team does. Now if you disagree, that's okay. You may not win every time. Majority rules. That's the that's just simply how it is. And I respect that, and I will abide and move forward. I'm not gonna saur on it. I'm not gonna cry about it.
You just gotta move forward. It's okay. So that's, thank you. Thanks again for coming out. RCS serves a diverse group of students. What should the board do to ensure that every student, regardless of ability, background, characteristic, or identity, not only receives a top notch education, but also feels a sense of belonging in this district? Excuse me. That's a great question. That one really hits home to me. So can you say it one more time? I'm sorry. Yeah. So RCS serves a diverse group of students. What should the board do to ensure that every student,
regardless of ability, background, identity, characteristic characteristics, not only receives a top notch education, but also feels a sense of belonging in the school in the school district? Yep. Thought I heard that correctly. It is a great question. And at the end of the day, every student matters. It doesn't matter what your beliefs are, your personal beliefs, my personal beliefs, the students are what matters. So you're on the board for the students. Teachers are here to teach the students. People are here to make sure these students are successful in life. Everybody has different beliefs,
as I said earlier, and that's okay. Our the board's job, if I was elected, my job would be make sure no matter what that student's beliefs are or what their background coming from, they matter. It's I think it's really important to be working with the parents on different things and gathering feedback on what they say. How can they how can the school system improve as a whole better? What can they do better? And that comes back to with the teachers providing feedback all the way up the chain. And that's and that's how you're gonna get get the best outcome for the students.
When we start putting the students first, that's what matters. And I personally feel like that's what's been forgotten with some of the meetings I've attended here. We're here because of the students, not to fight back and forth. That's extremely important. I feel like that's been very forgotten. Again, I can speak on my own, experiences and multiple parents I've talked to. As I said, there's I have a son with a disability, and I feel like there's a huge major lack of communication in that department. I can even reference as early as last week as I've had a huge discrepancy.
But I've as one parent, I've had a meeting with mister Russo, and we've talked about some things. I appreciate his time. But I still feel like there's a major lack of communication and leadership just in the special education department. Now I can't speak for other other parents and other communities, other parts of the community, but I would venture out. A lot of parents have opinions that they would like to share, but they may be scared to share them because they don't wanna come here in front of the board and hear and the biggest thing I'm hearing from a lot of parents I've talked to is, why would we go to the board if we're not even being heard?
That's extremely they're like when I come to these board meetings, one of the things I've noticed is that you have a lot you have a variety of people coming up here. And I understand it can be hard sometimes coming to yell or complain. You get compliments, and that's awesome. But one of the key things I've heard is that people have legitimate concerns maybe about their students, but I've never once seen a follow-up on the next meeting. Hey. Let's talk about that situation that happened. What can we do? You've never heard any follow ups. And I think that's a big part of the what the community wants to see is and you would hear more from the community,
not just your inner circles. I'm not saying that's anybody here, but you would hear more from the community about what matters, what they wanna see, and what matters to their students instead of just people come give their three minutes and they're cut off and move forward. They never hear again about it. And I think that's been a bad misrepresentation of what Rochester schools really is and can be, and that could fix a huge problem. And that would ensure making sure things moving forward, you have a clear agenda of what needs to be focused on.
Thank you. Thank you for coming out tonight. RCS is a public school district. What does the phrase supporting public education mean to you, and what do you think a board trustee should or should not do to support public education? What can you say that one more time, please? Sure. No. RCS is a public school. What does the phrase supporting public education mean to you? And what do you think a board trustee should or should not do to support public education? Education? What what public education means to me is everybody deserves an education. No matter their race,
gender, their personal beliefs, everybody deserves an education. No matter what what where they live, it is their right to have an education, and they deserve that. Absolutely. Not just the student, but the parents who send them to this school. This is a great school district. Very proud to be part of it, and the parents are too. They deserve the best education possible in this school district or as a matter of fact, any school district around. It's extremely important that we're hearing the students, and not just the students, the teachers also. The teachers are here every day.
They're being underpaid, unfortunately, and I support the teachers in that aspect. My sister-in-law is a teacher, and she goes to work every single day, and she has three kids. She has to come home, help. She wants to be with her kids, make dinner, spend time with her husband, and she's exhausted. These teachers are exhausted. So it's not public education just isn't about the students, but it's about the teachers. The people who support the teachers is across the board. This is one big system that needs to be working together in unity to make sure that everybody, not just the students,
the teachers, the staff, the paras, who are also underpaid, are getting what they need to provide a great education for our students. Us taxpayers want to have the best teachers. We want to have the best facilities. We want to have the best of everything. Of course, who doesn't? But it all comes back to making sure there's communication and consistency across the board. And at the bottom back to your original question is, yes. Every student deserves education no matter what. Thank you.
And I first I before I forget, I wanna apologize. I I didn't get to talk to you earlier, so I apologize, miss Alsbach. Pleasure. Thank you. Okay. So final question is please take thirty seconds and tell us anything else you would like us to know. You have more than thirty seconds left. Okay. Sorry to talk fast sometimes. Yes. So I believe in this school district. I think it's a great school district. That's why I moved here. Could could've moved anywhere I wanted in this area. We chose this school district because we heard nothing but amazing things about it. I love my neighbors. I've met some amazing parents.
I've met talked to almost everybody on the board except miss Olisbach. And if I'm saying that, I apologize. And, again, I'm sorry we could talk. But I'm very proud to be of the school district, and I'm very passionate. As I said earlier, I had no intentions of running a school board, but in my my heart streams were pulled and for not the right reasons, but that that's why I'm here tonight, you know, and I appreciate everybody who asked me to come here and speak in your time. I believe the future is more important now than it's ever been. And this is one of the things I probably would never thought of ten years
ago when I was in my single phase, you know, running for a school board. I was worried about where I was gonna go Friday night. But now here I am on a Friday night and more at home. Oh my god. Is it 10:00 yet? Time for bed. But now I realize with three kids, and I wake up every day and we get them on the bus and send them off, like, it's extremely important that they're having the best education, that they're feeling wanted. As I said before, I wear I wear my pink socks, and you may notice for my daughters, one for each of my daughters, and I wore this autism pin from to represent my son tonight.
Because to me, the future, I'm not worried about my daughters. Full transparency. I'm worried about my son. As I said before, when I if you guys remember, I came here in November very passionate. It I realized then, you know, his future is not gonna be like mine or a lot of other people's. He's gonna have some tough roads ahead of him. And it's my job as a parent to make sure it goes as smooth as possible. But part of that, what I realized is I've had many other parents I've talked to where that road, they're facing the same challenges. And as I said, my heartstrings are pulled.
That's when my heartstrings are pulled. That's when I decided, if I wanna see a change, the only person I can hold myself hold accountable is myself. And that's why I'm running for this board. So I understand, and I wanna address one thing to from miss I'm sorry. I don't wanna torture your last name. It's Annis. And miss Annis. You know, I do wanna address one thing. I understand there was this video circulating on circulating online of me. I just wanna tell you, I didn't have that video, and you made a great point to me earlier. You're right. I probably should have said something about that.
But, you know, like I tell my kids, the I don't I don't wanna post that. When I my daughter the other day, she said something called her stupid. And I looked at her, you know what? Say thank you to that person. You say and she's like, wait. What? And she's extremely too extremely smart. I don't even know how she's my child. So she gets from mom for sure. But I said, say thank you and smile. And then if they say something else that's not appropriate, you say, thank you. That's oh, that's awesome. And you just move forward and you address it like that. Don't be the lower person. No need to no need to push back.
You just smile and move forward. You know, I think she got that, and that's why we didn't have much time to talk earlier, and that's why I didn't address that. So I wanna be really clear about that. It had nothing to do with the video that goes about me. You know? It's just not it's not worth it to me and to go make some kind of statement like that. I'm just gonna move forward. I believe in life when you fall down, you get back up. So that's why I'm here tonight. My son fell down. We fell my my family fell down together, but we got back up and we moved forward. So with his overcomings when we first started here.
So I'm hoping to represent the community and work together. That's the biggest thing is working together. I don't know if we have to get a boxing ring and get some gloves off everybody in here and just let it all hash out one time and call it a day so everybody can move forward and let the community say community see this is what a team really is because I believe that's that's what the community wants to see. And I know it's hard when people come up here and bash you and this and that. That's not fun for anybody. You guys are taking your time out. You're not getting paid for this,
but you obviously ran for this position for a reason because you believe in the community and you care. And I have the utmost respect for that no matter and let me be really clear. I this is a nonpartisan position, and I think that's extremely important that that has been forgotten. It's about working together for the community, the taxpayers, and most importantly, for the kids because that's what matters. And that is why I believe each one of you are here and myself and the six other five five or six other candidates are here tonight because we all care about the community,
the kids, and the future of this community. So with that, I appreciate everybody's time tonight. Thank you so much. So thank you, guys. Thank you. Hello? Hello? Hi. Thank you for coming here tonight. I'm gonna ask the first question, and then we're gonna kinda bounce around, and others will ask questions as well. Please tell us why you are interested in joining the Rochester school board at this time and what skills, experiences, or qualities make you a good fit for this position. K. Well, hello. Thank you for having me. My name is Lauren Gracie Parker. I am a mom,
a wife, and excuse me. I've been here, in RCS since my daughter was second grade, and we left and came back because we really value and believe in RCS. Right now, I have a kindergartner who is also in school, and so I'm starting all over. My oldest graduated and and is now at Kettering. She came out in 2025 from Anne's High School. I really believe in public schools for all and to serve all. With my time here, I've volunteered,
the first time around. I was room, a basketball coach with Rara and and Musson. I was the junior great books chair, strong veterans literacy. I actually went to University of Michigan and graduated with English and political science degrees. So I've something that I'm passionate about, with with children and, you know, to help them get along. You know, since I've returned, Ed Moss and I've joined the PTA. I was the chair for kids' night out. I've done a room parent again. I really believe in the reaching back and helping kids,
giving them all the resources possible, not just mine, but, you know, everywhere that possible. Rochester Schools is considered by many to be one of the best districts in the state. However, some say we are a district in decline. What is your view? Is RCS a premier school district, a district in decline, or would you use some other description? And on what do you base that opinion? I absolutely believe that we are a premier school district. I would not have returned to the area if I didn't believe that. I wouldn't fight as hard, for the school district if I didn't believe that. I think there are trends as far as with,
you know, population declines. What they know with, you know, SAT testing was a a big, point of contention. But if you're looking overall with COVID and how we've made changes and improved like, I again, I have a a daughter who just graduated, and I remember SAT SAT prep with her and, you know, getting getting to the meat of it and how much preparation is involved and how much of a role her school played. I do not believe she would have had the success that she's having if not for RCS.
I, you know, had the pleasure of going to the presentation about the school district and looking at overall trends with, population decreases, and how it progresses in how the district can respond. So it's not just, you know, you have these negatives here, and you're a victim of your of what's going on is how the district responds. We have experts. We have amazing staff who can look at these sets of problems and these datasets and figure out solutions. And I think that's important
for school district to and for the community to have faith in, you know, what's happening and what's in the our district is responsive to to what's going on. What are the top two or three challenges that Rochester schools is facing, and what ideas do you have to address those challenges? So I believe the kind of politicization of our school district is a problem. It chokes out kind of the the room for progress, the room for error. No one is perfect. I don't believe everyone gets you know,
has the same, ideas and opinions, but collaboration is where it's at. But right now, we're not where we need to be to optimize the experience for our kids. And I think most of the work is done anyway on a building level. But right now with, you know, kind of what's going on, it's distracting for the kids. It's distracting for the community. It's distracting for our parents. We have, I believe, about, you know, 15,000 kids in the district. Roughly, that would be 7,007 different families that we get two kids,
per family. So there's there is there's so many voices that need to be heard, and we need to listen better, and to be to be accessible so that they understand that we're the school district is here for them, as much as they're here to get an education. And the two people begin to respond to no one knows exactly what every community member wants. But if we, as a board, who is a board, get out there and make yourself visible, and really have a back and forth to listen. Like, meetings are great, but you're talking. You kind of,
you know, separated a bit, but I think getting in the community and listening is great. Also on that note, I think we need to listen to kids and and parents more. Excuse me. And I think that's also a problem. I don't think they feel like they're being heard. The loudest voices tend to drown out real progress sometimes, and there's not discounting their issues because there's, you know, there's issues that they can can, you know, bring up that are very legit legitimate, but the focus needs to be on education. The focus needs to be on academics. So if we can kind of drown out the noise a little bit or ignore
the noise a little bit and focus more on kids and putting kids first, I think the the district can can move forward as it's continuing to do because, again, it's I believe it's something we are disraced, and we can't let ourselves get distracted. After review and discussion of issues, the board operates by a majority vote of trustees. When the majority vote is different from your position, how would you handle that? So I am a big listener. I understand my opinion is not gonna be the prevailing opinion all the time, but I want to hear what goes into the decision.
I really value getting as much information as possible, making my decisions. So my decision isn't the in my opinion, isn't the prevailing one. That's great. I wanna know, you know, what's going on and how I can also support because just because it's not what I want doesn't mean it's the wrong answer. Like, you have to give grace. You really have to work together, and collaborate so that you can move in the same direction as a board and support. You don't have to win every argument. You don't have to be, you know, first and foremost, but you have to remember why we're all here,
which is for for kids. So if we can put kids first in our decision making, even when we don't get what we want, I think the board can move forward even if it's not. My voice isn't in a part of the majority. Thanks again for coming out and interviewing. RCS serves a diverse group of students. What should the board do to ensure that every student, regardless of ability, background, characteristics, identity, not only receives a top notch education, but also feels that sense of belonging in this district? So I think, again,
it goes back to listening a bit because of the voices that don't feel like they're heard, those kids who don't feel necessarily that they belong, are quieter. The families are quieter. They kinda come in, do what they have, and get out because they don't fill that community. So we have to reach out when we know that, you know, there's been historic issues, or trends and make sure that we're keeping that that open because we don't wanna lose any voices. The task is to educate all children. So we need to make sure that we're refined in our approach so that we
can address the needs of all kids and really listen and and clue in, because, again, the ones who are kind of feeling that strife are maybe the ones less likely to speak up. So we have to especially in the you know, without anything kind of organized to reach out and, you know, that I'm aware of, it just has to be kinda be a bit broader to make sure that we're welcoming, and we'll listen and and that they know that we're here. Thanks for coming out tonight. RCS is a public school district. What does the phrase support public education mean to you?
And what do you think a board trustee should or should not do to support public education? So supporting public education to me is make sure we're fully funded. That's very important. I believe that if adjusted for inflation works, public schools in Michigan are 2,500,000,000.0 underfunded. So to really put public schools first, in their needs to, excuse me, to, you know, to really, really advocate for public schools for, proper funding. And can you last part of the question again?
I got a little bit lost. And what do you think a school board trustee should or should not do to support public education? So as a school board trustee, to support public education, I really believe you should I'm trying to think the right way to say this. I you have to look For ways to build. You have to look for ways to collaborate. Our public schools, they're all interlocked. We have different stakeholders. You have your your taxpayers. You have your your, your your staff. You have your your parents. You have your your families. So you really have to find a way to build each and not as a
silo. I think they can all work together, but you have to be relentless in your action to to progress. That doesn't mean that you blindly agree with everything that's going on. I think, in fact, indeed, you do need to speak up when things aren't, you know, aren't going your way, but you have to, again, keep kids first in what advances student outcomes because student outcomes are why we're here. So make sure that all of your your actions reflect back to the central question of how can this positive positively move forward,
for student outcomes, for the whole child. So this is your final question. Please take thirty seconds and tell us anything else you would like us to know or you could take longer. I am very, I guess, pro public schools. I'm I'm fairly involved. I volunteer. I listen. I try to learn. I'm always learning. I value, continued learning. I love this district. I wanna see it continue to move forward. I want to see a ease a focus on kind of collaboration. I wanna see listening to teachers more. I want to see listening to students more.
I really wanna see a return to why we move back to the district, which is putting students first. I strongly believe in that. I strongly believe in supporting, the whole child. There's there's academics, there's safety. There's so much that goes into it to making it from your district, and we have great families. And And I think we need to consent to continue to serve those families the best way that we know how. And then again, I think it becomes to being student centered and really making sure that we're moving forward, for positive for everyone in the district so that all voices are continue to be
heard, and we continue to to really, create great citizens, and great lifelong learners. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome. We're going to jump around with questions. Trustee Patel will start. Mrs. Perdue, thank you for being here. If you the first question is, please tell us why you are interested in joining the Rochester School Board at this time and what skills, experiences, or qualities make you a good fit for this position? Sure. I'm just finishing up, an appointment as the, president and past president of an international organization devoted to writing science Can you pull
that just a little closer Sure. To literacy. And I loved the opportunity to meet people from all over the world and work for them on initiatives that are you know, go across different countries. But I live in Rochester, and some of the best times I had were when I was on the PTSA, working with parents and students doing reflections. And, I care a lot about education. I have a PhD in educational leadership, and I teach teachers. I also teach first year students. I think that the schools,
the k through 12 schools, they help create college ready students. And at universities, we're trying to create student ready colleges, so I like the idea of the reciprocity. And I know at different times, you've had a lot of, you know, OU people and and other college people on the board, but I thought I could bring a perspective as a higher educator, who also has had a lot of, work experience with nonprofits. I'm also somebody who tends to like to work across the aisle. I like to understand why people take a different perspective.
As I tell my students all the time, every day in life, you're confronted with issues and challenges for which there isn't a perfect answer. You're gonna have incomplete information. The key is to use what you can gather, and at some point, you'll have to make a decision. And you have to be prepared to see how it gets operationalized. And if there is a problem, be ready to redirect, and that's been my approach to leadership. I'm not a micromanager. A school board position is not a superintendent position,
and a superintendent is not a micromanager. I'm not suggesting that. But I think I offer insights about how to work together and about many of the issues that the school is looking at in terms of curriculum. And I bring a perspective of somebody who who's had a lot of years in education, but I think you have a lot of terrific candidates. And I also am researching generative AI, which is a issue that is increasingly confronting k through 12 educators,
and I figured out ways to, use it effectively with my students, and teach generative AI literacy, which isn't so much how to use it, but how to understand the things you need to ask before you use it and why you can't outsource your thinking to it. I can use it a lot more than they can because I already know how to do a lot of those things. And so we do scenarios and things. And I think I would bring that attention to those issues that I've already researched
to the, you know, to the curriculum and the policy. Thank you. Rochester Schools is considered by many to be one of the best districts in the state. However, some say we are a district in decline. What is your view? Is RCS a premier school district, a district in decline, or would you use some other description? And on what do you base that opinion? Yeah. And I think that's, an issue that many schools are dealing with. Like most districts, Rochester experienced post COVID learning decline, particularly in areas like literacy and student engagement.
And what stands out to me is how the district has responded. I think the strategic plan reflects a strong focus on data informed instruction, targeted literacy. I really was impressed with the focus on reading, and grounded in science and systems that are also gonna allow the educators to be motivated and to have data early enough that they can respond. Because a lot of times in k through 12 education, you get the data at the end of the year,
And it'll tell you where a student is at, but it doesn't tell you where they where they injured. So that student may have gone up two grade levels, but it looks like maybe they're not a they're not a success because they're not at grade level. The approach that you're taking, according to what I was, you know, the data that I pulled together shows that you're trying to get data in the hands of teachers earlier and also to reward those educators, so that they wanna stay. And because that's a big problem across the board and it's here too,
as educators leaving the field. I know our scores are high, but I also always look at the scores of the students who aren't doing well. And I think a lot gets focused on literacy and of course that's my jam. I'm a writing center director and a researcher, but I I look at those math scores too. And I wanna see us improve, but I think we do that with a strategic plan that really focuses on those five pillars that you've identified. So I would say Rochester isn't a isn't a school in decline.
It's a school facing challenges that are similar to other high performing districts and those that haven't been historically high performing. And it's really important that we look at what schools that are having success are doing, but also always tailor it to our own community. Context is everything. So I'd say you're doing the things that you need to because we don't want those numbers to keep going down. What are the top two or three challenges that Rochester schools is facing,
and what ideas do you have to address those challenges? Well, I think I think one of them is, communication. I think we have to, and it comes from the top all the way down. I think it's important that transparency always be the standard. My mom, when I was when I was a little girl, always told me, avoid all appearance of evil. They were pretty, you know, Christian conservative, but I I I grew up in in that. Always avoid evil, I mean, by the the phrasing evil.
So always try to make sure that you anticipate the way, your decisions and your interactions with other people are gonna be viewed, and think about it. Try to try to turn around and look at yourself from your audience's perspective. And because I'm a rhetorician and I study audience, I think that we can improve communication. And it's been hard. It's been hard across the globe, and it's not it's not a new thing. People have moved to the polls. Our left, our right, right,
wrong. And what we need to do and I'm not saying it's just a Rochester problem because it's not. But we really need to work on looking at each other, talking to one another, asking questions with goodwill, and communicating to the constituency why we make the decisions and how we base them. And I'm not saying you weren't doing those things, but I think that's an important challenge, for the district. And we're a changing and growing district. So we have to keep reevaluating what are the needs.
I was just talking to somebody the other day, and they said, it just seems like every kid has ADHD or this. And I said, yeah. We're inundated with information from every direction. And it sometimes feels like you don't know where to focus your attention. You take a brain that is under 25 years old, hasn't developed impulse control yet, and it is a harder environment in which to help people learn. And so I guess I'm talking more global than local here. I think we're we're facing the same challenges that a lot of schools are facing,
but we see it from the inside because we're in Rochester. So I don't think we're particularly odd or particularly unique in these challenges, but I think we have so many resources. And, I liked the fact that the strategic plan was informed by focus groups and other things, and I think that's something that the school can do to keep improving. So I kind of kind of, went around your question a little bit and talked more about the challenges I think schools in general are facing.
But I think those are two. After review and discussion of issues, the board operates by a majority vote of trustees. When the majority vote is different from your position, how would you handle that? Yeah. And I think that's that's life. Right? I'm not queen of the world. I don't wanna be. Sometimes people have information that I didn't have. And let's face it. Sometimes there are just more people who vote one way than mine. Maybe the approach that I was gonna take, could have yielded more fruit. But we ultimately have to make that decision.
It's based on incomplete information. We're human beings. I don't wanna be right. I wanna do what's right for kids, for the district, for the families here. And that means that you you work together. And at the end of the day, you know, you finish the voting, you walk out, you so called win some, lose some, and then you shake hands and you go out and you remember these are good people who are giving a lot of their time and I would think in most cases their decisions were very thoughtful and they were based on the facts and ideas
that they were able to pull together. And I'll go for the next one. Thanks so much for coming out and interviewing this evening. RCS serves as serves a diverse group of students. What should the board do to ensure that every student, regardless of ability, background, identity, characteristics, not only receives a top notch education, but also feels a sense of belonging in this school district. And I think that's a key concept. In the last twenty years, we've really heard that sense of belonging come up more and more. And, you know, I've had the, opportunity to talk people talk to people of different beliefs about issues like gender and
everything. And my my I always come back to this. I want kids to see themselves in their setting. I want them to see themselves in school. I want them to have a sense that they're not alone. There might be issues of identity that I didn't understand or I haven't experienced myself, but I don't want kids to die. I don't want them to hate themselves. I was a kid who was bullied because I was awkward.
My therapist once asked me, how do you see yourself? And I well, I read this book, the cat ate my jumpsuit once. And it was about a girl who was awkward. Right? And I said, I still often see myself as that awkward middle schooler who thinks too much about things other people don't. And I know that kids who are different from me were just thinking about different things. And we all thought everybody was looking at us. And there are markers of being in life that do make you stand out more
and make some people more vulnerable. And I think the district really needs to remember that it's about kids. They're not fully formed yet. They're trying on things, and we want it to be safe for them. We certainly don't want to prescribe what they're gonna be and how they're gonna be, but we wanna give them an opportunity to be in a in an environment. We can't we can't provide a fully safe environment, but we can encourage civility. I don't think you can teach empathy, but you can hone it.
And I found that when you hear each other's stories, when you give them opportunities to meet people who have come from different circumstances, like I grew up, I was first gen. I wrote a story recently about being that awkward kid and watching my dad, the kind of kid who grew up walking uphill with no food in his belly. When you hear these stories, you're implicated. You no longer see it as us them. You you start to see a kinship even if you worship differently and you love
differently. There's that kinship of, you know what? We're we're human, and let's let's encourage these factors, these the kids to express kindness to one another, and let's demonstrate it. And I think it has to start with us. We have to remember that everything that we say and everything we do is modeling for how they're going to interact with each other. And so I always wanna remember that every single one of you, I may differ with you on different issues.
Maybe, you know, you more than you. I don't know that's true because I don't know either of you, but I know that if we sat down at a table together and we had communion, we we saw eye to eye on something. We shared experiences that I'm less likely to vilify you. And that's what I think we need to do in a district is to remember that we're not one size fits all. But education policy and justice system, all of those things were designed to fit one size fits all.
So it's never gonna be perfect. We're gonna have to do a lot of course correction. The world is different. But, ultimately, if we start with modeling that that civility, modeling that empathy, and showing students that they matter, that all of them matter, and we show it by the way we treat one another, we're on the right path. Thank you for coming out, and I apologize. I have a cold, and I apologize. I was keeping away from everyone. RCS is a public school district. What does the phrase supporting public education mean to you?
And what do you think a board trustee should or should not do to support public education? I thought a lot about that over the years because, for my daughter's first formative years, we lived in Flint, and it was what you would call a failing district. And they had brought in, different companies to try to reform the school and outsourced a lot of it. And I made a difficult decision as a, as a teacher and as a person who values education to put her in a private school.
And I was very, you know, I I struggled with that because I knew I had the resources to provide her with what I saw something better, but I also knew that I was changing the dynamic of the the people she'd rub elbows with every day at school, and and I wanted that. I think the most important thing is that we remember that, a free and public education is I still believe it. I don't mean college education. I mean, education is critical to a democratic society,
and it's critical to, leveling the playing field that for some kids. I my friend was a student teacher at Holmdale School in Flint, and I used to go in and do some activities with the kids. And she would tell me stories about some of them hiding underneath the porch over the weekend with the food that the school sent them home with because maybe parents were fighting, or bringing enough food home for the rest of their family so that they could and we have to remember that public education
allows us to ensure not that we're policing families or trying to make them into our own image. I would never agree with that, but it allows us a basic, a basic, infrastructure of support that we're scaffolding support for humanity. We are investing in the next generation of kids, and that should be as fair and equal as we can make it. And not every member I remember my daughter did the, did the program where she was assigned to work with a kid who had had
a lot of needs. And I remember going to this I think it was the sparkle awards. You probably know what I'm talking about. But she came home, and she would talk to me about how working in that program made her think about, her own gifts and talents and the things she took for granted. And I think that's where public education is at its best. When I was at the meeting, the last meeting, and I watched all those representatives of the different schools come up and talk, that made my heart sing.
Watching young people, that was the best part of the meeting is watching those young people come up and give reports about their school. And I want that available to every student. And I think public education is the most important vehicle for that. So as a board, we wanna stand strong and encourage that the growth of the best public education that we can provide. And, ultimately, I moved here and she got to go to school in Rochester, and I was able to get involved.
Do what you can for those who can't. Please take the last thirty seconds and tell us anything else you'd like us to know. I'd just like to thank you for this opportunity and for the work that each of you do. You all play an important role, and I think anyone who, who, gets this position will provide something that you guys need. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Alright. Okay. Missus Rockliffe, thank you for, being here tonight. I'm gonna start with the first question, and then it's going to bounce around. Okay. Please tell us why you're interested in joining the Rochester School Board at this time
and what skills, experiences, or qualities make you a good fit for this position. Sure. Thank you. So I have been volunteering my time in the school district for fourteen years. Started in when my oldest went to kindergarten, I have volunteered at all levels, elementary, secondary, and the past six years specializing on the PTA council at the district level. So I have a wealth of knowledge, not just as a parent, but as a parent leader and a volunteer. I've worked with,
parents in every building. I meet twice monthly right now with the parent leaders in all the buildings. So I feel like I have a really good handle on parent concerns, not just my own. My kids are past the elementary days, but I still know what is, of concerned elementary parents through those relationships. And I'm at the time of sort of the natural end of my term with PTA Council. It's time to move on, let some other people take over the work there. And working on the school board seems like the next best step to take that
experience, that knowledge I have of the district, the relationships with parents, the relationships with administrators, with teachers, and put that to work to continue doing the amazing things we're doing here in the school district. I mean, all all of what we do with PTA is for the kids, and I'd like to see us get back to that here, at all levels. Rochester Schools is considered by many to be one of the best districts in the state. However, some say we are a district in decline. What is your view? Is RCS a premier school district, a district in decline,
or would you use some other description? And on what do you base that opinion? I I would say far and away, this is a premier district. My husband and I moved here primarily for the schools. My oldest, our oldest graduated last spring, and was amazingly prepared for his, college education. He got into his dream school, and I know that was in large part to the opportunities he had here, in Rochester. The AP classes, the dual enrollment he was able to do at Oakland University.
So on the other hand, we have a large population of special education students that we educate up to age 26. Both of our neighbors are part of the ATPS program, and I see the opportunities they have. We have another student, who is a different learner, who is in virtual school through the district. So I am pleased to see that Rochester is meeting the needs of not just our top students, but all of our learners. And I think that's important as, education becomes, different and students learn differently,
that we grow and expand. Maybe population wise, we're declining a little bit, and we might need to look at what that means for the district. But, I would recommend this school district 10 out of 10, for everything that it offers. What are the top two or three challenges that Rochester schools is facing, and what ideas do you have to address those challenges? Well, one thing we have seen is that there is some declining enrollment, just because of natural fluctuations and birth rates and things, but it's not necessarily even across the district. So we have schools that are having space and schools that are still at full
capacity. I know that's something that's been talked about. I was part of the master planning committee last year, and we looked at a lot of data on that. So, we need to look at that and what that means for us as a district. Obviously, we have a lot of challenges just in getting getting things done, and and collaborating. I think we need to get back to putting the kids first in everything we're doing. It's everything we do with PTA, and I wanna take that to the next step. After review and discussion of issues, the board operates by majority vote of trustees. When the majority vote is different from your position,
how would you handle that? I'm not always gonna agree with everyone, and I'm not gonna change my vote to be in the majority if I truly believe what I'm voting for is the right thing. I'm not afraid to voice my opinion. And I think it's important, though, if I'm not in the majority and we decide to go one direction, that's the direction you have to get behind. And maybe it's talking to people to find out more information about why this is the right direction. But, ultimately, we're not gonna get things done if we just hold on to,
I'm upset that I didn't get my way on this. We gotta come together and collaborate and keep moving forward. Thanks again for coming out. RCS serves a diverse group of students. What should the board do to ensure that every student, regardless of ability, background, identity, characteristics, not only receives a top notch education but really feels a sense of belonging in our district. Yeah. I think there are a lot of varieties of learners and students, and I think we already do some really great things well here in Rochester.
We hear that a lot of people come here for our special education department. But there's also a lot of students in the middle. You've got special education. You've got your high achieving learners. We need to make sure we're meeting all of those students in the middle, and I think the best way is to be talking to parents and students to find out where everyone is at because people aren't always gonna bring their concerns to the forefront, if they're not connected. So I think it's important to be in communication with with our families and what
they need. People don't always know that they can reach out and they can work with their administrators and they can work with their teachers because they may not know who they are, especially in a big high school or a big middle school if you if you've only seen the principal or you've only met the teacher once. So I think it's important for us to be asking what our families need. Thank you for coming out. RCS is a public school district. What does the phrase support public education mean to you? And what do you think a trustee should or should not do to support public
education? Well, public education is the way that every student can access a whole education that will meet their needs, whether it's special ed, whether it's physical disabilities. So we need to support that wholly and fully in whatever way that is, whether it's, getting the top notch teachers, whether it's funding the programs and the things that need funding. We need to put all of our support into, working with community organizations and anything that can enhance our,
education here in Rochester. We have a lot of great organizations in this community that bring in programming to our schools, and so I think just looking at all the resources available and putting all of those resources to use. Please take thirty seconds and tell us anything else you'd like us to know, and you or you can take longer. I guess I just wanna share that, I recognize the importance of this position. I have benefited as a parent to two children in this district. I've seen my children benefit from it. I've been fortunate to work with amazing people in this district,
parents, parent volunteers, teachers, secretaries, administrators. And I feel like I have sort of an unparalleled knowledge of this district after fourteen years, and an experience that probably a lot of other people don't have. And I think it's time for me to step up and take that knowledge and experience to the next level and do some amazing things for the kids here in Rochester. Thank you. We're now going to take a short break, and then we'll come back and discuss the candidates. Excuse me. Excuse me. Can trustees return to the table, and we'll start up again? This thing is,
like, fragile. It's gonna break. Okay. We are resuming our meeting. We're on section I'll just go left to right. Let's start with Trustee Lozan. I just want to say thank you to everybody that came out tonight especially, the candidates and then everybody else supporting. We had some very good questions so hopefully everybody is feeling a lot more relieved now after before you it's my understanding that one of the candidates has withdrawn. So Tonight? Yeah. Kristen Hall is my understanding. Oh okay. Wait. Did you say Kristen Hall just withdrew? Oh, okay. Okay.
Thank you. I'm just gonna go are we allowed to mention more than one person? Oh, okay. I just want to point out, my top choice would be sorry if I say your last name wrong. Blaszak. Nick Blaszak. Seeing that he's a parent of three young children in the district, he truly understands what is at stake. And I feel he would take his role very responsibly up here at the board table. He's a business owner. He has strong skills in budgeting, planning, responsible decision making. Obviously, his businesses are successful. And just as importantly,
he is very involved in the school district, special education, as he mentioned, his son. So he knows he has shown a real commitment to his family, and I have no doubt that he would have a a commitment to the rest of the students in the district. He's very thoughtful, dedicated, and clearly ready to serve. I have, seen that you have filed to run. I am confident that you will be a strong voice for not only with us, but for our community and especially for the students. So thank you for your time tonight. I appreciate it. My second option, I would like to nominate,
Dana Cadman. I do I agreed with a lot of the points that he was saying that, you know, our district is headed in the right direction in a sense. But at the same time, there are some things that we really need to change our focus on. I believe that your skills and your expertise of your data analytics would become very welcome at this table. You're very knowledgeable with all of that. So thank you so much for your time for that. I agreed with the comment that he said that we are all adults, and we need to be open minded up here at the board table. We need to prioritize our budget, support our students.
And I don't agree with the comment of the enhancement millage. If you don't vote we ask for it, that you're not for public education or you shouldn't be up here. So thank you for that comment as well. Trustee Yanez? Thank you. I'm sorry. Is that all you? Did you have anything? Okay. Okay. First of all, thank you to all the candidates that, applied and went through this process. It, I believe in many ways is harder than running a campaign. It's not often that people have public interviews for a job, even if this is considered a volunteer gig without pay.
With that said, there were two actually, three individuals that, that I really was impressed with. One, unfortunately, has withdrawn her name, Kristen Hall, but I wanna thank her for stepping up and going through the process. But, the other person that I was impressed with was, Sherry Winn Perdue. And, I she said some things during her interview that, that really resonated with me. Her background in education leadership, I thought, was really key. Also talking about researching generative generative AI. I know in this district this is,
something that we've been talking about. We've formed an AI committee to look at how we are, coaching educators to use that tool for our students in the classroom and how we coach our students to use that tool in the classroom. So I think having someone up on this board who's informed that way would be extremely beneficial for the students that we serve. The world is moving and evolving, and if we don't catch up, we're not gonna have kids that are, educated to be competitive in the world.
And so that to me was a really key thing that I appreciated hearing. Some other things, that she brought up, which, you know, I would agree with when I started serving on this board is there's a challenge in terms of how we communicate. And being able to honestly look at how we do that, and be thoughtful about it and having someone with fresh eyes come and, share their perspective, I think would be a good thing to have. The other thing she said which I thought was really key, that she doesn't want to do what's right. She wants to do what's right for kids. And I heard her talk a lot about kids in her interview,
and she focused and centered on the kids in this district. And for me, that that's really key. She also brought up, our strategic plan a lot. She was the only candidate that talked a lot about our strategic plan and the process that we're using. And I was impressed by that, that she had done her research, because that's important. So for me, oh, and then the third person, would be obviously, based on her years of support would be Jamie Rockcliffe. She is someone who, has walked the walk and talked the talk. She's invested the time in this community as a parent.
And, you know, I'll be the first to say that you come to this board table thinking you know what you know, and when you're on the other side of this dais, and you get to see how the sausage is made, you realize there's a lot you don't know. But one thing that Jamie has in her favor are connections with people. And we are a people focused organization. We're about the kids we serve, and we're about the educators who serve them. So her background in that, I felt was really strong and could be a huge benefit to this this table.
But if I had to rank them, I I would rank them, with Sherry Wynn Perdue as being my number one and Jamie Rockcliffe as my number two. Trustee Osmo? I I want to thank everyone who came out tonight. I'm sorry if I coughed on any of you. I tried to be careful. I know public interviews are very hard and, I think we heard some really great things tonight. It was great to hear many candidates talk about how everyone has a seat at the table, that we can disagree and come together as a team, as mister Halushka said, to pull together in the same direction. Mister Blazak said that this is a nonpartisan position,
and I do believe that, and this should not be a place of political theater. Miss Hall, I'm sorry she dropped out because I did think her professional, attitude and her business attitude would be something that the board could really use. I'm looking for a candidate who comes to this work honestly, who is here for the kids, and who wants to collaborate. And I think we had more than one candidate that could be a good asset to our board. To that end, I would rank the candidates as, I think Jamie Radcliffe comes with a wide perspective and a very good parent voice
with strong relationships. Like I said, Kristen Hall, I was interested. I'm sorry to hear she dropped out. Sherry Wynn Perdue, I think, talked about very good educational issues and made an excellent point that she has a perspective of where we want our kids to go or one of the options that they could go to. So she would be my second choice. And I do think Ms. Lauren Gracie Parker came to this position, which is so, such honesty and such unique concerns and a true love of children that she would be one of my choices also. Just keep going, and I'll go at the end. So. I also want to thank everyone who,
submitted their applications first and then those who were chosen and who interviewed here because it's certainly not easy, to do this in public. So to have the courage to come out here and do that, I really do appreciate everyone putting themselves out there. And, I think as I'll be repeating some of the things that my colleagues have said, I think there are many people who would make, good school board trustees. For me, I really appreciated, Sherry Wynn Perdue for many of the reasons that, trustee Annas had, indicated. I just kind of going through her interview,
I appreciated the, the experience she has and, with seeing where our students are going to be and so that reciprocity between, the k 12 and the college years. I also appreciated that she referenced our strategic plan. And, again, at least as far as I can remember, she was the only person who referenced it, and I appreciated the work she had obviously, the homework she had done to prepare herself. I also, appreciated her communication, some of her comments there and, maybe the need for the board to,
improve in that area. And she didn't mention it tonight, but in her application, she has already registered for a school board governance course as well. So I appreciated that, she's understanding you don't know what you don't know, and so she was already taking steps, to learn more about that. So those were some of my points there. And then my, I guess, my second choice, is Jamie Rockcliffe. For me, it's about the dedication she's shown over the last fourteen years of being focused on students. The fact that,
she does have those relationships through, really all grade levels, right now and the ability to, have a pulse on what's going on in those various areas. She also, just by being involved for so long, knows I mean, each school has their own personality. You know those types of things. You know the administrators in the building. You know the administrators, in our central office as well. So those would be my top two choices. Trustee Lecui? Well, I'll be honest. I don't expect to influence this decision very much,
but, I can point out that I want to thank everyone for coming, for going through the work of of interviewing. And I'll mention a few people that I thought did a really great job and would make great school board trustees. And the first person I would nominate is Lawrence Halushka. And he's already running for board, so clearly he's serious about this, and he brings a lot of the qualities that I think we could really use right now. I was impressed at his calm, friendly, and funny demeanor. Maybe he's the sort of personality that could bring this board together. Maybe we need, like, a coach for our team.
Not to mention he's put five kids through this district over a long span of time, so he's seen a great deal. And he mentioned regularly some of the qualities that my other board candidates are looking for because he regularly talks with administrators and teachers and he mentioned facilities people and students like those that he coached regularly. He seems to have a good understanding of the board's role too. And that's important because there's lots of volunteer opportunities you can do throughout the district. Not all of them equate to what you see on the board which is focused on being the fiduciaries of the district and you know managing.
He mentioned several times we've got to support our superintendent and we've got to supervise our superintendent. We need strategic thinking. We need to set goals. And so I like that that's something that he could probably bring to this board table if we were to select him. I think he could be a constructive addition. Another person I was impressed with was Nick Blazak. He's also he he just came when he was doing his interview, I thought he seemed really genuine, really real. Like, this is a parent in the district with young kids. He said he's invested. You know? He's got a long time to go in RCS and wants to see it be
great. I liked the point that you brought up when you said, yes. This is a premier district, but we shouldn't be comfortable with that, you know. Like we should keep striving and that's what you want to see out of a school board trustee. You don't want someone that just says, this is a premier district. Our job is done. No. You want someone that's going to keep striving and pushing forward. So I like that you're a parent advocate. You've seen a a wide variety of things with your own kids even too, and you're looking for systems that are actually working for students, not just something that looks good on paper.
But is it working? And how do we know? We listen to parents. We listen to the community. So that stood out. Another person that was I I guess I could go on about all of you, but Dana Cadman, you have been a long time parent advocate in this district also and you clearly did your homework because during your interview you were telling us all of the you know, you were looking really deep at our budget and the finances and comparing the growth between teachers and instruction versus administration and trying to figure out,
okay, what can we be doing better as this district? And I appreciate that as well. So anyways I want to thank everybody again for coming out and, we'll see what happens. Thank you. So I what I'm looking for in this position is a person who has the heart for the job but also the head for the job. And so, I think some people tended towards one direction or the other and it's trying to find the balance. I'm also looking for who I think will be a good collaborator because that's what it's all about.
That's what we need to do. Not one of us can really do anything on our own without working with other people and so I'm seeing what what could bring cohesion not not not rubber stamping, not we're all the same, but what how could we have a collaborative better collaborative relationship. I interviewed for a vacancy for the board in March, or I'm sorry, May 2023 and I did not get selected. I can't there was another vacancy that came a little bit later several months later and I did so just for anybody who doesn't get selected you never know. There's also elections this year.
I'm gonna do probably what I shouldn't do but when I didn't get selected I wondered why and I wanted to know what it was about these other people that was, you know, and Julie won it by the way. Totally unfair but, so I you know I'm gonna comment on each person and I really do respect all of you that came out and I think this is a big thing to do. I'm just gonna go in order but, Mr. Cadman, I did appreciate that you were very focused on the budget, on business type of and you have some business acumen clearly. To me,
what didn't what didn't, make me want to choose you is because it seemed like that was the only issue that you you kind of every question you brought it back to that. And so budget is important, it's something we need to do but to me I was looking for a couple of different areas and it seemed like it was very narrow. That's just, I'm really bummed that Kristen Hall pulled out. I, I think I'm cursed because my first choice, when we narrowed the the selections down a couple weeks ago dropped out that night and then Kristen was my first choice tonight and she's dropped out. So I if I like you apparently you don't have a good future.
So, so I can I can tell you that she had the best balance of the heart and head that I thought out of any of the candidates? You know, I love that she had a business background. You know, I'm the only person up here who who works a full time job out of the education field and I feel like sometimes it's different language that you're speaking from what we're hearing here. So I'm really bummed and I hope that you consider running for one of the open spots in the fall. Mr. Huluska, I liked a lot of what you had to say. You're definitely a likable guy.
I think I could work with you. I think we would not always see eye to eye. There were there were two things that are keeping me from voting for you. The the first is I sensed in your application in here that a little bit of this like I'm the one who can fix it. I'm gonna come in here and bang these heads and I'm gonna get this straightened out and that's good to a degree but it was just a little too much for me. The other thing and this is just a philosophical difference that people have that we could discuss. When we were asked about diversity your your thought immediately went to division and so
I think versus acknowledging some of the positive things about diversity and I I get what you were saying and I understand the point you were trying to make is we all should kind of blend and be part of a group thing, but it's also hard as a white male straight person to understand why diversity and recognizing that is important for for some people and just kind of papering over it, you know, that didn't speak to me. So, Mr. Blazek, I you are clearly a dad who cares. You want to help out. I I'll just talk about I know that you have a specific issue with special
education department and I I'm leery of putting a person on the board who has a specific ax to grind against a specific department or issue. So because it's such a broad role. Sherry Wynn Perdue, I have I did not vote any points for you when we narrowed it down. I did not even put you on my ballot, I don't believe, and I didn't have you even front in mind tonight and you truly impressed me. I think your answers were so thoughtful and so knowledgeable and you're just not at
all what I had in my mind but I I was so impressed. I really was and so many things that you said and like on the flip side for the diversity question you said you know every kid needs a sense of belonging they need to see themselves at school. You kind of went where my mind would go for that question but you know you've talked about data, you talked about the learning decline, we're not we're not forgetting that or pretending that didn't happen. You you know you talked about how we're all humans and how we could sit
down and talk and we would probably would be better we no matter who we were we probably would understand you. I believe all that. Jamie Rockcliffe, you have the longest history in the district clearly. You've done the most work for us. I have some concerns at the end of this year that we're losing two of our most senior trustees and there's a lot of institutional knowledge that'll be lost. You know somewhat you know more about the district than anybody I know. You've been in all the schools, you know all the teachers, you know all the principals, principals, and so, you know, you clearly would be, this is the logical next step for you. So I'm gonna let my colleagues talk and I could vote for several of these
people but I do truly appreciate all of you coming out. So hold on but I believe the next step is yep I just gotta gotta get the rules. Alright, so we're now at six point public comment. When your name is called please move to the microphone and address the Board. When addressing the Board you will have three minutes to speak. We will try to let you know when you have thirty seconds remaining. Please be mindful of this time limit. When addressing the board, please state your name and the relationship to the district. To protect student privacy,
we ask that no one identify a specific student without their permission even if the student's name is not used. Any comments that could directly identify an individual student are not appropriate in this forum and will not be tolerated. We will stop the meeting to protect student rights and privacy. Please keep your remarks focused on broader issues and avoid any personal references that may compromise privacy. Also, we ask that you address your comments to the entire board and not to individual board members, school district employees, or to members of the audience. The board will not be responding to comments or questions during the meeting,
however, someone will follow-up if needed. The board reserves the right to exclude from our meeting an individual who engages in conduct that constitutes the breach of the peace. So the first person is Deborah Benethom and then Carol Beth Lecuy. I guess we'll have a sitting con oh no, it's over to the side there. Sorry. Is it on? Okay. Perfect. Hello. My name is Deborah Benathom. I'm a Rochester resident and have taxpayers since moving here in 2002. I have three children that have graduated from RCS and have went on to U
of M and MSU. This is my first school board meeting. Hence, I didn't know which microphone to go to. I have never met any of the candidates or any of the current board for that matter. I came here tonight to see for myself how this board operates and see if it really is as contentious as I have heard from my neighbors and from media. It was disheartening to learn at the beginning of the meeting that one board member was silenced from the interview process. It was very evident that all of the candidates care about kids' education in the
community. And I, too, thank you all for submitting your names for this important position. However, this board is fractured, and the board needs someone to build this district and this board back up and ensure the board makes this a priority. There was one candidate that answered all of your questions and showed great understanding of the education and community issues. It was also disheartening as you just went through your comments that only one person on the board mentioned this candidate.
Again, he has the background and life experiences to build RCS back up. I implore this board to look at this interview process objectively and appoint mister Haluska, and I, again, have never met him, so I may be mispronouncing his name as I do not know him, to start to build bridges and start to gain the respect of this community. Thank you. Carol Beth Lukuy and then Shelley Brown. Well nice to meet you. Thanks for coming to the meeting. I'm Carol Bethlet Cooley.
I'm a trustee on this board and I wanna talk about the process that we just witnessed. This was not the board interviewing the candidates. It was the board president interviewing the candidates. And I'm not singling out this board president, but I'm taking aim at the deeply flawed process we've created and the consequences of these bylaws. We've dramatically increased the power of the president to the point where it's no longer a board of seven equals. We saw that clearly tonight. The interview process and criteria was entirely decided by one person.
He'll claim there was input, but here was my experience. I submitted two questions. My first question was, what is your view on the balance between an individual trustee's freedom to share public information with the community and the board's authority to restrict that communication and impose consequences through bylaws? And my second question was, we should not and cannot discount the impact of social media and other forms of communication. Share your perspectives on how you think public communication should be handled by trustees. What's fair game? What's out of bounds?
I never heard back about either of them. I thought the first question was relevant because this board majority recently approved a bylaw restricting trustees speech. President Blake wrote it and it got the district sued by me for violating my constitutional rights. One might argue that we can't ask anything about this for legal reasons because the district is facing a lawsuit, but I would say nonsense. How a candidate answered would have no bearing whatsoever on whatever legal strategy they're cooking up. We have a good idea about how each existing trustee feels and the public deserves
to know how potential appointees view things like transparency and free expression and the proper limits of board authority. Blocking that question creates the appearance that the process is being controlled to avoid scrutiny of Blake's own position. And my second question was even more basic and I honestly don't know why it was rejected. These are not fringe questions. They're specific and relevant questions and that's what I was looking for. Not something that can be answered with vague platitudes. Not something where you're gonna find everybody answering the exact same thing.
But something where a candidate could show us how they think about real issues that affect a trustees role and relationship with the public. Should candidates not be asked about the limits of board power simply because the board has recently exercised that power controversially? But my concern is less about the questions and more about the process. I'm being asked to decide tonight on candidates that have not addressed things that I as a trustee find important. They have addressed things that the board president deems worthy. We should have been allowed to ask our own questions instead of being censored and just so there's no pronunciation problems I'll explain.
I'm talking about censoring me not allowing me to talk versus censuring me which is punishing me for talking but of course this board has experience with both. Anyway, this process is just one example of how the board is increasingly being run by one person. Imagine if we elect somebody who takes a car one day. Three minutes. Thank you. Shelley Brown and then Stephanie Vandell. Do I get nine minutes? Okay. All right. I could take them. I'm Shelly Brown. I'm a taxpayer and a resident in this District. I'm here to highlight give some highlights of the enhancement millage discussion that took place
on March 9. Superintendent Russo's presentation slides and comments were cursory at best. Details seem limited to points focused on the positives of the millage, such as showing increased per pupil revenue to the District. With the absence of similar detail on negative points of the millage, such as an explanation of donor status, the portion of our tax dollars paid that will be given to other school districts. This week, I will be sending out a request for missing information.
Comments made by the superintendent and trustee Alsbach describe the donor amount as minimal, which reflects their very callous disregard for taxpayers living on fixed incomes, perhaps seniors or disabled. Any new taxes on top of the last school district millage, our library millage, the smart bus system that no one uses, the DIA, etcetera, etcetera, may be bringing these people to their breaking point. Spending opportunities were listed while stating that they would be covered by sinking funds,
bonds, the general fund. No immediate needs that can't be funded were identified. So I don't appreciate the strategy of asking us to send more funds, and you'll find a way to spend them. The superintendent said the resolution to place the millage on the ballot is not the board's endorsement of the millage. Trustees and superintendent comments said placement of the millage gives the community opportunity to share
their voice on this. Such statements seem disingenuous as demonstrated by trustee Ausbach saying, this is the board's endorsement of the millage. Anyone that votes against it does not support public schools. How dare you say that this community has not supported prior millages? Our votes apparently only matter when they support your position. Further, if the community voices desired, why did the board delay presentation of the millage until the last minute?
Why did they not allow for a q and a session with the community? Why did the discussion occur in the farthest outskirts of this district away from the greatest numbers of voters? Why did the board not push for placement on the November ballot when turnout is greater? In closing, I will say, redistribution of wealth is not a lesson that we should be teaching our children, no matter if we're the recipients of donors. Money management, fiscal responsibility, and living within one's means will serve as a sound financial footprint for our children
and community. Taxpayers have been generous. We are seeing the ugly side of Oakland County public schools and the gang of four. Big tell, Allspach, Blake and Inez. Stephanie Mandel. Apparently view the community as a personal piggy bank to use however they choose and bully those who oppose the money grab. Thank you. Stephanie VanDale. My name is Stephanie Vandell, and I am a taxpayer in the district. Thank you, Shelly. You brought up some very good points.
As this district continues to slide into near communistic properties. Yeah. Yeah. Bunch of communists, you know, live with it. So, I'm very disappointed in the fact that you guys are raising my taxes. So, yeah, it it's being put on the ballot. You guys have decided that, you know, I need to pay more money to and you guys just need to have this little slush fund of whatever you're doing with whatever.
I mean, it's it's it's disgusting. It's not your money. My millage for OISD is being raised after this brilliant August vote from 3.6 to 5.1 mills, and I find that disgusting. I pay enough taxes. I don't need four people to make decisions for me. It's my money, not yours.
Don't go along with these delusions. Oh, it's up to the voters. No. You guys had a choice of whether to put it on the ballot or not, and you made the choice. The four of you made that choice. So So now you're gonna make the rest of us pay for your choice. You're disgusting. The four of you. You're disgusting. Only a fool chooses to raise taxes for themselves. All four of you should be ashamed of yourselves, and I hope you're drummed right out of office in this next election.
And I hope the rest of you sit in minority. I am so completely angered at the fact that you would sit there and raise my taxes. And on the anniversary, the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of our republic's founding, you're gonna raise my taxes. That's horrible. Every single time that my mortgage is due, it'll be an extra forty months a month in August. And then join in rep course. So shut up, Jason.
Hello. Mike Remo, longtime resident and former board member. I'm not going to talk about the candidates too much specifically, but I'm more interested in talking about the process pretty much like Trustee Lucui did. I've been hiring people for thirty years. And as a trustee, I was actually involved in an appointment process. And I'm really dismayed by what this process has become. These were largely kind of generic questions. And maybe we got some sense of people's personalities, but I'm really not sure how these questions address skills, experience, or even as you guys noted, strategic plan.
You guys all were excited about that. You didn't ask a single question about it. You know, it was a little bit more like an audition. And so, for example, there was no questions that directly raised board behavior, and that is the thing that every single candidate in one way or another referenced. So they had the sense of what the community cares about, and your questions didn't even reflect that. And even when they brought it up a little bit, they only scratched the surface, and it's because you didn't have enough detailed questions. You know, without the ability to be able to tailor the questions to each candidate, you really lose the opportunity to truly probe their strengths,
their judgments, their priorities, or even to fact check them because there was a lot of stuff that was said that really wasn't very accurate. And by not allowing follow-up, you lose the chance to clarify what they meant or dig deeper into the interesting or otherwise concerning things they might have said. You really couldn't challenge them or learn from them. So, you know, different candidates call for different questions. For example, Dana, who did an outstanding job talking about the financials, I would have loved to have heard more on his thoughts on education, but she didn't really have a whole lot of detailed questions on that. You know?
I think coach, who did an outstanding job on this, has strong leadership experience. He has relevant experience handling conflict, pressure, and demanding parents. But I'd wanna know, what does he know about financials? You know, there's a lot of skills that go into this, and I'm sure that if there had been some good questions, I bet he could have nailed those. So this is what real interviews are for, and you've got none of that. You didn't even set up a second interview. You know, almost every ordinary hiring process, even McDonald's, requires a second interview, and you didn't do anything like that.
This would give decision makers a chance to reflect on how people, you know, what they said, reflect on their comments, revisit, follow-up on concerns, follow your gut, and learn a little bit from them. But the worst part is that this interview, and trusty McGully touched on this, this interview was not conducted by six independent trustees. The process was entirely controlled by one person, the powerful president role you've created. Now the problem isn't this president. The problem is that you've created this powerful thing that allows this president to decide
everything. And, you know, and it's not just this president. It's past, present, future, whatever. To give him that much control is bad. I didn't vote for trustees to be elected to be Donald. Thank you. Joanna Van Rafforst, Amy Hoekstra. Did you say name? Oh, okay. If you're Joanna Van Ram. I am. I am. Yes. I am Joanna Van Ram. A retired person. Our kids went to the school here, but they're 33 and 36. My husband and I moved here because we bought a dental practice, which we successfully ran for thirty four years,
and now we're retired. I wanna bring a perspective because I know there's a I'm I haven't been to a school board meeting in two years. There's a lot of passionate people here, and I really respect that everybody. But it's weird to have one side and the other side. It's like a wedding or something. Anyway, I I would like to share that there's a whole lot of people in this community, taxpayers, tax taxpayers, that that are just happy. They're they they live in a lovely neighborhood, and they're not so focused on the nitty gritty of what's going on.
And this perception that we have this horrible school board and they're all dysfunctional I think a lot of that was manufactured by a few people. And outside influences that, funding lawsuits. And that to me is kind of bothersome because, you know, we still are paying the taxes. It's just our kids aren't in school. And I think there's a little more hype hyper awareness amongst some of you that I'm just saying the average person appreciates all of you, every single one of you for being on the board.
And I'd just like to have the drama and the theater and the lawsuits go away because that's our money that we're paying. Thank you. Amy Hoekstra followed by Dan Buley or Boley? I can't quite. Buley from Oakland Township taxpayer. Nice and tall. Okay. Hello. My name is Amy Hoekstra. I am a Rochester Hills community member and taxpayer, a parent of three children in RCS, and a teacher and a curriculum consultant in this district. As you can see, I'm all in. This community is my livelihood,
my future, and my children's future, and it's also a community my family chose. We chose to be here because of the schools, because of the people, and because of the diversity within this district. I love this community, and I'm proud to be part of it. I watched the last board meeting from home, and I'll be honest, I was disheartened by the tone. The anger and harsh words directed at individuals volunteering their time to serve this community do not reflect who we are at our best. Because at our best, RCS is a place of growth, opportunity, and deep care for students.
I see that every day. I see it in my fourth grader who is excited to go to school and be part of a welcoming classroom. I see it in my middle schoolers who are learning about history in meaningful ways that shape their how their understanding of how the world works. And I see it in our teachers who go above and beyond to create engaging, impactful learning experiences. We are doing great things, and that's why I want to thank you for your decision to place the Oakland County Millage on the ballot. That was the right decision, not because everyone agrees,
and we see not everyone does agree, but because everyone deserves a voice. This microphone represents only a small portion of our community. A vote allows all stakeholders, families, and community members to be heard. That is what a strong, respectful community does. Because when we talk about funding, we are really talking about students. In my classroom, I teach 36 students at a time, all with different needs. Some need enrichment. Some need additional support. Some are facing challenges that go far beyond academics.
And while we are doing everything we can, the reality is this, our students need more support. They benefit from smaller class sizes. They benefit from additional adults in the room. They benefit from trained paraprofessionals who can help them succeed. These are not extras. They are what it takes to meet the needs of today's students. So as this moves to a vote, my hope is that we, as a community, can shift our focus from division to respect, from assumptions to understanding, from conflict to a shared commitment to doing what's best for kids because at the
end of the day, that is what unites us. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Louie and Eleonora Richardson. Dan Bo, taxpayer in the district, Vietnam veteran, retired law enforcement. Wanna refer back to, superintendent Russo's presentation at the last meeting, and he did talk about the pros. Very he glossed over all the good things. You failed to mention that well, you did bring up the Utica School District as a comparison school district. And I think we learned from, rep trustee Lacuti that we get an additional $10,000,000
per year, more than the Utica School District. Yet, you and the other Board members, the majority here, for our all for this enhanced millage, another tax on the taxpayers. We talk about costs and somebody mentioned, one of the ladies just mentioned we shouldn't talk about lawsuits or costs, we're all good, everybody's happy. But I have a long memory, a few years ago, two or three years ago with, two of the trustees that are still on this board that cost $200,000 in attorney fees for the Duvernal lawsuit. They're still on this board,
they should have been removed for their actions and their conduct. Not to mention the uns the settlement that was sealed. Okay? So let me move on to the money issues. McDaniel I can't think of his title, but Mr. McDaniel pursued a bond issue of 2.57 that's going to cost about $1,000,000 a year in interest on a $48,000,000 bond that will mature in, 2036. Now, that $1,000,000 figure might be a little lower, but it's still going to cost the taxpayers money.
And the bond is people underneath to understand and I'm not even a financial person, but the bond is a finance is financed by taxpayers. Federal and local. Okay? So apparently, mister McDaniel and other experts in our finance area here in administration are not paying attention to the experts. For example, Jamie Dimon last year mentioned that there's going to be a bond crack in the bond market. What is a crack in the bond market? That's when bonds plunge, they go down, and banks are no longer able to cover the liquidity
for that catastrophe. He said that's coming. And if you look at the financial market that we're just look at it. You can see what's coming. There's gonna be a financial event. So, we need to, get the majority off the mismanagement of money, not so biased in these tax proposals. Look at the taxpayers in the community and bow out and say, look, we're gonna have this November, election in November. At least speak to the county officials. We're gonna have this election in November, not in August, where you're gonna disenfranchise the voters.
Thank you. Eleonora Richardson followed by Liz Schreck. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Eleanor Richardson, and I am a special education teacher working with students with autism in Rochester schools. Tonight, I invite you to look beyond the test scores and the reports and to see the reality of our categorical ASD program, where progress is not always measured on paper, but in moments that change lives. We deserve a trustee who understands that this work is not just academic, but it's but it is deeply human.
Every day with each communication, emotional regulation, independence, and how to live with dignity. For our ASD students, progress is not always measured in test scores. Sometimes progress is student making eye contact for the very first time, using words instead of aggressive behavior, and it's a count or it's a count transition without anxiety. These moments may seem small, and in our ASD classroom, they are everything. You may not see the invisible work that makes those moments possible. You may not see the careful design visual schedules that bring predictability
for a child's day, the behavior strategies that prevent crisis, the sense of accommodations that help a student self regulate. These supports are not extras. They're essential. They're the foundation of daily learning in our ASD classrooms. You may not see the level of teachers' expertise it it takes to build the structure or the patience and intention required to build trust, sometimes over months, so student finally feels comfortable enough to learn. You may not see the daily victories,
the ones that don't get recorded on IEP progress notes and report cards, the ones that live in a glance, a single word, and a moment of connection. Our students with autism are capable of incredible growth when they're given the right support. What truly transforms lives is when we connect that structure with meaningful inclusion, especially through our peer mentors. I have seen students who once had no voice begin to communicate. I have seen real friendships from where there was once isolation. I have witnessed peer mentors grow into comp compassionate,
empathetic young leaders who will carry these experiences with them for the rest of their lives. This is not just a categorical ASD program. This is our community, a program a community where students Thirty seconds. A A community where students learn to understand each other, support each other, and grow together. Thank you. Liz Schreck and then Rick Baldig. Good evening. My name is Liz Schreck, and I am the President of the Rochester Education Association. I spend a lot of time with educators. Recently, I've made a point of asking them, what is most important to them in a new Board of Education trustee?
What traits are essential? And what a trustee must understand about our daily work? While their answers touched on many themes, one word stood out above others: trust. As educators, we're looking for two kinds of trust. First, we need to trust in the Board's commitment to our shared mission. Educators want a trustee who trusts their professional expertise. Whether it's a special education teacher celebrating a quiet milestone or a secondary teacher adapting lessons on the fly, our staff performs highly specialized work that goes unseen.
We need a trustee who trusts our dedication and seeks the expertise of educators when making decisions about curriculum and instruction. Educators want a trustee who prioritizes the whole child. Academic success is inseparable from mental health and emotional well-being. We need a leader who looks beyond test scores to foster a district culture where psychological safety and social emotional learning are treated as foundational pillars. Educators want a trustee who is visible, a vocal supporter of public education.
They want a leader who shows up, not just for performances or for themselves, but to witness the daily realities and the amazing learning happening in our classrooms. This visibility builds the trust that ensures decisions made in the boardroom are grounded in the reality of our schools. Second, we need trustees who are themselves trustworthy. As you consider this appointment, we ask, will this candidate be a partner who honors and amplifies the work of our educators? Will they be an approachable partner who builds bridges? Or will they be a barrier to our work,
focusing on personal agendas and the authority of the position rather than the needs of our students? Ultimately, we want a board culture of safety. The members of the Board of Education guide and steer this district, and that is a significant responsibility. However, that steering is most effective when it is focused on creating a culture where educators and students feel safe. True progress is found in collaboration and solutions, not in division or conflict. The future of this district is being built right now with our students in our classrooms. Every morning, our students walk through the doors Thirty seconds.
Trusting the adults in this community to do what is right for them. Please choose a leader who remembers that, who values us as essential partners, and who we can trust to champion the mission of public education. Thank you. Thank you. Rick Baldick and then Deanna Harless. Is Rick Baldick here? Rick Baldick? Sorry. It's It's really hard to hear. Deanna Harlow is next. It's very resonant. Good evening, board. Rick Baldick, resident district. And I watched the last meeting, and was hoping to see a lively debate on the enhancement millage, and it just didn't happen. What I saw was one chart
on foundation allowance, which was just grossly distorted, and then no discussion on local funding, which is what a what a what a millage is. This is all local funding. We were told that other counties that have these enhancement millages, which is Macomb and Wayne, that they were able to hire teachers, pay them more, do them all these things because these enhancement millages. There was a problem with that. That's just categorically not true. Okay? I mean, it doesn't even resemble the truth in any way, shape, or form. If anybody would would take the time to look at it,
we we have so much more funding than the districts in those two counties. It's ridiculous. And after the meeting, I thought, god, consciously, I know our property values are that much higher. So I went and checked. I looked at every district in Macomb County, every one of them. There is one district in Macomb County that has more funding per student than we have on a local funding basis, and that's more consolidated. And it has nothing to do with the enhancement millage. It has to do with their industrial base. Okay? That's got the tech center. It's got General Dynamics.
I mean, it's got several square miles of, you know, nonhomestead taxes. GM alone puts over 12,000,000 in in into that local funding all by themselves, so that one stands alone. If you look at all the rest of those districts on a per pupil basis, we are outfunded. We're funded better than by 3 or $400 per student. Every single one of them. It's not even close. And then you go to Wayne County and you got one district there that stands out as well and that's Dearborn. That's because that's Ford headquarters. They pack up high half the thing.
So Dearborn enjoys that same luxury that that Warren does. Otherwise, the rest of them are the same way. Now if if you really needed more money and you made a case for it, I think I'd be willing to listen to that. I'd wanna look at it. But but if if you have to use a false narrative 30. To support a millage, it's obvious she shouldn't be doing it. Supporting false narratives is not supporting public education. It just makes you look bad. Deanna Harless and then David Tallman.
Good evening, board. Just to kind of echo what was said, the acoustics in this room are kind of bad. So when you're announcing the names, all people are clapping, like, I can't hear them usually. Just just so you know, like, you I understand you wanna move things along, though. So, but so about though what I want to talk about I want to be clear from the start this isn't about any of the individual candidates. I think you know we have a lot of amazing candidates want that are willing to step up and serve on the board and that in itself is something to appreciate. However, there's been some issues with the process. Over time we've seen a pattern emerge in how vacancies on the board are filled.
Particularly these vacancies occur close to an election cycle. Regardless of the intent patterns matter. They shape public trust, and right now that trust deserves your full attention. Further undermining the trust issue is how the interview process was structured this time. At the last meeting, it was addressed and one of the trustees asked about interview questions and President Blake wouldn't commit to allowing board members to ask questions of their choosing. And now that's what we're hearing today actually happened that the board members other than President Blake didn't even see what questions were being asked till they got here tonight.
That's totally different than how it was done in the past. Much like how at last board meeting, suddenly public comment was done completely different than how it's done in the past. We can't keep changing things at the last minute without meaningful input from the public or even from the other board members. Specifically, the fact that the board president was the sole individual determining the questions asked of the candidates, and tonight he referenced that for some of them he had input from district attorneys, that seems very backwards. It's very important because when one person controls the question and the flow of the
meeting and the timing of the meeting, they also influence the direction of the conversation, what qualities are highlighted, what qualities are glossed over, and ultimately how candidates are evaluated. Even if this is done with the best of intentions, it creates the perception that the process could favor a preferred candidate of the one person who is setting the tone of the meeting. That's perception is critical in governance. The board president is an important role, but not a superior one. The president is elected by the board to facilitate its work, not to act independently of it. Each trustee holds equal authority,
equal responsibility, and it's supposed to be equal voice, but that is not what we're seeing here. When something as significant as selecting a new board member is effectively filtered through one person's lens, it stops feeling like a board decision and starts feeling like an individual's decision. That's not how a representative body should function. A strong process would reflect the full board collaborating on interview questions, being transparent in how candidates are evaluated, and clear, consistent criteria applied equally. Thirty seconds. These are not complicated fixes, but they're important ones.
Because ultimately, this isn't about who is selected tonight. It's about whether the community can trust how that decision was made. Good governance requires more than just the right outcome. It requires a process that is above reproach. I would encourage the board moving forward to take a hard look at how these processes are structured and ensure they reflect the collective nature of the body, not the discretion of any one individual. Thank you. David Tallman, Michelle Manhire. How you doing? I'm Dave. I have kids. I like Dana, and I like the dads. Even though I'm usually really hard on referees, I'll give a coach a pass on this one.
I had a good opportunity about a month ago to watch the, podcasts that the district put out with the about AI, and, I gotta say I I loved it, and I hope there's more of that coming. It's the kind of openness, that we need in this district. I I was hoping there was gonna be four or five out by now, but I'm sure they're working on them really hard. But, especially the one where the two where the three high school students from the three different schools kinda collaborated and played off each other. High school students are beyond amazing to me right now. But, it did send me down a rabbit hole, because I didn't know that much about AI.
My my sixth or seventh graders use it. They they each have a couple of small businesses that they're running, and they pay the $20 a month, and make it back a 100 times. And what this is what they tell me, and I and I believe them because they have money. So it's all that matters to me. But, it it's a it's more of a Grand Canyon than a rabbit hole if you start looking into AI and what it's coming around the corner. It's either Terminator's gonna get you or we don't know what the hell is gonna happen, apparently. And the more videos you watch, the the people that are supposed to be experts act like they don't even you
know, when they when this flip the switch gets flipped, just about anything is gonna happen. But, I was I was a little bit concerned when I went down that whole rabbit hole, and then I looked back at those at the the the AI and stuff. And I and what I'm talking about with my kids, what they what they see at Rooter is, they they really are kind of being held back on it. Like, and I understand if you're you're trying to do a creative writing assignment and they're over there asking, Chad GPT to do a forum, that's probably not gonna work. But, you know, there's, some of the stats on it. There's 2,500,000,000
queries a day on Chad GPT right now, and 50,000,000 users are added every month. And, Altman and these Altman just did a a a thing in India. You should watch it. He talked about India, talk about education quite a bit in that. But he basically said somebody asked him, are you gonna end up firing all your workers? He goes, fire my workers. We're not I'm not worried about that. He said, a tenth grader with, a 100 agents who knows how to use them can do my job, can run my company better than me. What am I worried about my workers' work? Their their my company is gonna be obsolete if if this works out the way
I think it's gonna work out. And I'm wondering, are these kids gonna be from RCS? You know, in ten years, the people that are gonna be running this world are 12 right now. And let's make sure that those kids are our kids. Let's don't hold them back. Let's, do every I'm glad that there's a committee and they're looking into the best ways to integrate it into daily. I I think every class that there is at the high school, you could figure out 10 ways to to to use that as a tool to make their learning better. That's all I have to say about that. Thank you. Thank you. The the last three people are Michelle Manhire,
Kristen Hall, and Pam Mittner. Good evening. Michelle Manhire. Three, kids, one still in the district. I was gonna talk about something else tonight, but being here, has has really changed that perspective and experiencing, the interview process as I did. I've been in the district for over twenty years and very, very much paying attention to everything for those twenty years and have seen so much change in recent years in particular and not necessarily change for the better. So I came in here with the intention of listening to everybody's interview and trusting
that you all who are dedicated to this position yourselves would take it seriously and to really listen to all the candidates also. Well, instead, I arrived and I was hearing questions that kind of blew my mind. It was all about Thoughts and feelings and things like that. There was not one single question about, did this person know what the oath says that they're about to take tonight? Does this person own every bit of what that oath says?
Does this person understand and or know or be familiar with MCL three eighty point one four that we all look to bandy about? But do they know? Michigan compiled law. Do they know about this? There's an entire section just on education. How not serious are we about this interview situation? Not one question like that. Not a question of, are you familiar with the IDEA? Do you know what it is? Do you know what it stands for? Do you know that it's a legal given that your child will receive FAPE?
What's FAPE? Do they know what FAPE is? Do they know what all these lovely little acronyms are that the institution loves to throw around? I myself am from an abundance of the special education world. Our district has amazing people, very dedicated to this. They've gotten my three kids through. That is admirable. The fact that a particular candidate tonight said that they were in that position themselves, so to speak, turned into Jason's upset that they're gonna have an ax to grind.
Sir, that's insulting. That's insulting and not serious. Not one question, except those pertaining to let's make sure that everybody's identities are paid attention to and that everybody feels like they belong. Of course, they belong. They're children. They're children in school, k 12 school. They're there for an education. They get to go home, and they get to belong there. If they wanna come to school and be a serious student and absorb the education that we're affording them Thank you, Christopher. You belong. And then Pam Mittner. You need to be more serious about this. Alright.
I'll make my comments quite quick. Thank you to the board. Thank you for everyone else. It was really actually great to meet the other candidates briefly. Everyone did really well. I took my hat off and sat there and listened to the other candidates, and I apologize. I didn't get to your dinner or Lawrence. Sounds like you guys did great. Good job. What made me withdraw is listening to, Sherry when when she went on and took the gentleman about AI and having come from China a couple times this year. So appreciate the communist comment. Kind of a little bit off on that one. She's gonna call that up. Our students are gonna be really far behind,
and Sherry had the best comments to me about sitting as a parent about what's coming and her understanding of education and everything else that was coming forward that that was the stronger candidate tonight to me, and just use my business acumen to say no. That that's a stronger one. It's a better one for the district. That's all. I think everyone can be involved, and I hope everyone goes forward and continues to support the district. We've got to get rid of the divisiveness just even of tonight how long this meeting went on. It's not let's get down to the billable hours and look at everything of how
much time we're spending on this. But thank you for the process and for being involved. Thank you to the other candidates, and I know you guys will make a good decision. Thank you. Thank you. Pam Mittner? I just had some thoughts as I was sitting here listening to everything tonight. Is it true that the teachers have August 4 off or have a lot of flexibility on that day to go stand at the polls and talk to the teachers? I think that's probably a big reason why most teacher or school villages are held on a day when no nobody else is going to show up,
so they can tell their parents of the teachers the way they want them to vote. But what I want to emphasize also is that those of us who support Carol, Beth and Shelley are not against teachers. I believe that teachers are very hardworking, caring professionals, and they should be put prioritized near the top of the budget. So what we need to do is be able to see how our money is being spent. And then we need just to reprioritize that money to make it so that it
goes to the teachers and the materials they need and not to the administration that keeps growing. So basically, that's that's what I have to say. Alright. That is the end of public comment. Before I go on to the next section, I flipped my page so fast that I skipped over one of the candidates, and I did not intend to do that. And I'm so sorry for doing that. But Lauren Gracie Parker, I did not get to make my comments and I just want to make them really quick. I I loved her, stressing of listening and I like the fact that she has a recent graduate and
a kindergartner. That's probably a story but, I think that gives you some good perspective from each end. But what I really liked and what I wrote down is her statement about we need to reach out to the quiet ones. That those are the ones that those are the kids that get overlooked sometimes, you know, and I have thought that too. You know, I don't have a quiet one, so he doesn't get overlooked. But, I know other kids who do and and I think the kids that are here or here or that have issues, but the the the quiet kid that sometimes that's the one that you really need to focus on and I apologize for skipping over those comments.
Alright. So we are now at section seven which is the board appointment. We will now be taking nominations for the vacant board seat. Nominations require a majority vote, which consists of four votes. Does anybody have a nomination? Trustee Annis and Trustee Lozan both one of them. I would like to bring forward the name Sherry Wynn Perdue for this vacancy. Trustee Lozano? Nick Do we do do we name them both and then vote? Alright. Share. That's what I thought. Trustee Lozano, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. No. You do one more.
If you have a nomination, you name make it now too. Nick Blaszak, please. Okay. Buddy over here? Lauren Salushka. Okay. Any other nominations? Jamie Radcliffe. Any others? Okay. So the way this works, we start with the first one. Whatever the first person that gets four, they're appointed. So all those in favor of appointing Sherry Wynn Perdue to the board, please say aye. Aye. Aye. No. No. I'm sorry. Congratulations to Sherry Wynn Perdue. You've been appointed to fill the vacant board position. Alright, try again. Congratulations to Sherry Winfordu, no applause needed.
You've been appointed to fill the vacant board position. At this time, I'd like you to come forward and we will have Mr. Murphy administer to you the oath of office. All right. So I'm gonna what? All right. Go ahead. Congratulations, Ms. Perdue. Here to administer the acceptance of office and the constitutional oath of office. The first line I'd have you sign, reads, I do hereby accept the office of member of the board of education of Rochester Community Schools dated 03/23/2026. I feel like this is a marriage where you're supposed to say I do.
That's next. K. It doesn't say raise your right hand, but I feel like that makes it more official. So if you raise your right hand, please, and repeat after me. I do solemnly affirm I do solemnly affirm that I will support the constitution of The United States That I will support the Constitution of The United States. And the Constitution of this state. And the Constitution of this state. And that I will faithfully discharge. And that I will faithfully discharge. The duties of the office The duties of the office of member of the board
of education of member of the board of education of Rochester Community Schools of Rochester Community Schools according to the best of my ability. According to the best of my ability. And if you'd sign and print straight there. K. As a trusted notary of the state of Michigan, congratulations. I left my stamp in the back, so I will stand back there and turn this in for you. I'm going to pass down to you our Board of Education Handbook for your use. We do again want to thank everyone who participated in the process. We really do appreciate it. And I know some of you are running for the Board,
so you'll still be out there and some of you should run for the Board. And so we will move on. We're gonna put you right to work because we have more work tonight. The, section eight on our agenda is the officer elections. The office of president has been vacant since 03/01/2026. Under our bylaws, the vice president will take the role the role of president if they are willing. I am currently the vice president. I have been clear with everyone from the beginning that I was not willing to accept the role of president in 2026. Therefore, we must fill the vacant office of president.
Does anyone have a nomination to make president? Which president? Trustee Lacoue? I do. And I wrote something, and I'd like to read that so that I Before before you read that, I think I was supposed to say there was supposed to be a motion to open nominations for president apparently. So Trustee Alspaugh and second for the motion to open nominations. Trustee Lozan. All in favor of opening nominations say aye. Aye. Seven-zero. I can go back to seven-zero. The okay. Now you were about to say something. Okay. Well before before I nominate someone,
I wanna speak to what this board needs in its next president because I think this board needs a leader who can lower the temperature, who can treat trustees fairly and allow open discussion without trying to control every conversation. And I believe Trustee Shelly Lauzon is the best fit for that role. She's organized, she's friendly, she's approachable, she's consistently professional. She asks thoughtful questions, she takes her responsibilities seriously, and she represents the Board well. She's not been known for shutting down discussion, and I believe she'd be more open than we've seen in the past to hearing
from all board members when setting meaningful agenda topics and guiding discussion. She's fully capable of running meetings. I'm sure she could read the script and she can handle the responsibilities of the position. So for those reasons, I nominate you, Trustee Shelly Lozad. Alright. I have not done this before. Are there any other nominations? Trustee Alsba. I'd like to nominate Trustee Barb Annas as, president because I think that she has a large institutional knowledge and, I also at the moment, as far as I'm aware, she's not running for elections so that she could be unbiased.
And I think she would serve our, board well. Okay. First, Trustee Lauzan, do you accept the nomination? I do accept it. I don't expect it, but I accept it. Thank you so much for your kind words, Carol Beth. Trustee Alspa, do you accept the nomination? No. I'm sorry. I tried. Trustee Annis, do you accept the nomination? Yes. I do. Okay. Now you ask for if there's discussion. Yeah. That's what I thought. It's just not right here. Alright. Discussion? President Blake. Trustee Lacoue. Well, before the board votes, I would like to briefly explain why I will need to vote no on Trustee
Annas. And the reason this matters is because of what we've been hearing throughout this meeting. Over the past few years, the power vested in the board president has grown well beyond that of being simply one of seven equals. The role has increasingly been used to control board processes, whether it's the board applicant process like we just saw, whether it's complaints or communication with lawyers or deciding what does or does not make it onto our agenda. So I think that we should just think carefully before handing that power to the board member who's most recently known for calling the question,
which shuts down debate and not standing for the pledge of allegiance. I'm not sure why the board would want to reward that kind of leadership. Any other discussion? Okay. I will do what I did last time and give my answer yes and no. First for Trustee Lauzan, I actually when I was thinking about who I you I thought of you for this role. I actually reached out and asked if you would consider the secretary role and you said you wouldn't consider that role because the district does things and you don't want to put your name on things that you don't agree with and so that gives
me pause about the president role because sometimes you are going to have to do things that you might personally disagree with. So that's probably why and you're the newest person on the board and I just think well That's true. So I wouldn't nominate her either. So both of you are fairly new but I it's not a personal thing. Trustee Annas has been on the board, the longest or second longest. She has the knowledge to run this. This is not an endorsement of her views on the pledge of allegiance. Trust me on that. I have put that on my page,
But I think she can run this board and she knows it inside and out and so that's why I will be voting for her. So first we take a vote on the nominee. President Blake? Yes. I mean, since you brought up the institutional knowledge, should we talk about some of the things that she has supported during her time since 2017? I think we've talked. I mean do you have more that you need to say? Alright. I won't. I won't. We'll proceed as as you wish. It's up to you. Alright. So first, we're voting on Trustee Lozan for president. All in favor,
please say aye. Aye. All in Aye. All opposed say nay. Nay. Nay. Did you what did you vote? I I'm sorry. I missed I I wanted to abstain from this one because I'm Understood. You. That's understandable. So that is a two four and one vote that does not carry. The next nomination is for Barbanis for president. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. All opposed? No. Any Shashi Lowesen? What did you or no? Okay. So that is, and you have taken it. Correct? Okay. So that's a four two one vote.
The motion does carry. Barb Annis is elected as president of the board. Thank you. We So Thank you. We are now ahead. May I say something? Sure. I guess. I would just like to say thank you to my fellow Board members for your vote of confidence in this appointment. I recognize that not everyone supported my selection, and I respect the diversity of perspectives at this table. As President, I am committed to being fair and impartial and to ensuring that Robert's Rules of Order's newly revised edition are followed with integrity so that every trustee is treated equal
equally. In return, I ask for your grace and cooperation in upholding these standards, and I will extend that same respect and fairness to each of you. And I would also like to welcome, our new trustee. And I, there should be the handbook in front of you. And I look forward to, going over the checklist with you, the new member checklist, which is enclosed in that, and take some time to review it because I look forward to working with you and serving in the best interest of all the students, that we represent. And if there is no objection,
I would like to move to adjourn this meeting at 10:24. Seeing none, we're adjourned. Meeting adjourned.