Speaker 1: Good evening and welcome to the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education regular meeting. Call to order at 6:04 PM Would everyone please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, Speaker 2: Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and Nation. Under God, Speaker 1: This Board of Education regular 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 five.
If you wish to speak tonight and have not already filled out a yellow card, they're 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 for roll call. All members are present 3.0 on our agenda is Spotlight on Success School Resource Officers. Speaker 3: Thank Speaker 4: You President Blake. Our school resource, we are proud today to honor our school resource officers who do an incredible job in our community, inside our schools and around our schools.
Our SROs serve as an integral part of our school community by building valuable relationships with students and parents, educating students in the community, supporting emergency management, investigating threats and ensuring safety and order throughout the day and the year. Mr. Shedden, Speaker 3: Good evening. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to you and, and certainly honor the fine individuals that we have supporting safety and security of the district through our School of Liaison program. I'd like to take a minute just to introduce a few folks that are here.
Our, our school officers are supported by command staff of both Rochester and Rochester Hills, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. Really kind of a unique situation we have is that that partnership between two departments something that's a little bit unique here within Rochester Community Schools that I think gives a certainly a, a, an added benefit to the program. Here I have a representative from both departments, chief George, the chief at Rochester, captain Paul Workman from the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, Lieutenant Jason Beck
and from the Rochester Police Department we have Officer Justin Chisholm. Officer Amy d Dreamer was unfortunately unable to make it tonight, but in her place is Officer Joseph Vic who's been working there. And then our partners from the sheriff's office are Sergeant Dan Racher who supervises the unit Deputy Sarah ***** And Deputy Josh Vander, who unfortunately was also unable to make it tonight. It's just a great knowing that these folks based on their training and experience are, are out in our Rochester community schools community.
So much more than cops in the schools. These folks make that lifelong relationships. As was said, you know, whenever we have a situation where Deputy ***** or Officer Chisholm, it's like celebrities have arrived at the elementary school, all you hear is Deputy G, deputy G and high fives and everything. So it's that kind of relationship that's helpful. That last up until even the high school when recently we had Officer Hermans who was a former school officer who was at Stony Creek for a period of time and it was, he just got a biggest kick outta the fact that kids
that he supported in elementary school a few years back were now at Stony and we're recognizing him. And so that tells you something about the relationship that these these folks make in our schools and the importance of having them there as not only police officers but good friends and trusted adults that are there to help our kids. So with that in mind, I'd like to have Officer Chisolm come up and talk about a little bit more about the elementary school programs. Speaker 5: Hello. Thanks for having me tonight. I will start at the beginning kind of where we start in the elementary schools, we start out in kindergarten with our first presentations.
These are conversations with the students about safety, how to cross it, a crosswalk, the importance of bike helmets being seated on a bus. And they're also introduced to the dangers of weapons and instructed never to touch them to go find a safe adult even if it looks like a toy and they're unfamiliar with it, to never assume that that something's a toy. And we also go over with them how to dial 9 1 1. It's changed a little bit so we don't use the prop phone anymore. We show them like an iPhone and if they don't know their parents' passcode,
how they can actually hit the emergency button on the home screen and they can get to where they can dial 9 1 1 if their parents were having an emergency or they needed to do so for whatever reason. And that safety talk continues on into first grade and then we move on to second and third grade presentations in our second and third grade presentations. It's more personal safety, but we introduce the uhoh feeling, which is the way the video portrays having butterflies or knowing that something's not right and listening to your body and your gut instinct. We have discussions about body safety
and once they reach second grade we kind of, you know, have talks with them where you don't need as much help in the bathtub maybe from people and you don't need as much help getting dressed. So we introduce them and have a conversation about what that looks like and why private parts should remain private unless a doctor has to look there or perhaps their parents have to help them out with a injury of of some sort. And then in third grade, it's the first of a couple presentations where we introduce drugs, we talk
to them about legal drugs, medicines in the home, the safety of only taking medicines that are prescribed to you and how something could be safe for you in third grade but it wouldn't be safe for your baby brother or sister. And perhaps something is safe for your high school brother or your father, but it's wouldn't be safe for you to ingest that or take that. And then we introduced a little bit about alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. It's kind of a changing time we're in where vapes are made to taste like candy and marijuana is made into things like edibles that look like candy.
So unfortunately we have to start that talk a little bit sooner with the kiddos and they are educated kind of on the effects that that can have negatively on your body even once you reach the legal age of 21. So we kind of, you know, let them know once it turns 21, it just isn't against the law anymore. It doesn't mean that it's healthy for even us adults that choose to use them. And that is the second and third grade presentations. In summary, I'm gonna turn it over to my partner, deputy *****. Speaker 6: Good evening. So once we get to fourth grade, they receive two presentations from us.
The first presentation is about bullying, mean kids, how to prevent it, how to stop it, and also changing the lens as to why it might be happening. And then they get a presentation on different types of abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse. And we, you know, it's a pretty broad presentation that we try to invite them to talk to us separately if there's something going on at home that they need to talk to us about. And we talk a little bit about child protective services and how we're all a team to keep kids safe. In fifth grade we talk about making good choices.
Again, peer pressure, bullying, why kids do things that they know they're not supposed to do. They're gonna get that oh feeling and they know they're doing it, they're gonna get in trouble, there's gonna be a consequence. We talk a little bit about what Children's Village looks like, what happens when you get caught shoplifting or damaging somebody's property. And then we circle back to drugs again. It's such an important topic to teach these kills these students so they don't start something and we introduce 'em too, like on our spring breaks, Christmas breaks, we do vape stings in our cities
to make sure these kids stay safe no matter what. So it's super important. So those are the four final presentations that they get from us. And then other things that we do, we do guidance, we do drills, we make sure people are being safe at crosswalks, buses, any kind of thing that comes up you would think about, we're doing it every day, right? Even reinforcing walking in the hallway, you're gonna find me on the playground, making sure kids are being safe. I do like the zip lines at two of my schools, I'm not gonna lie, but the importance is for them
to feel comfortable and come up to police officers, whether it's any of us or any officer they see in the streets. I try to remind them that we do practice three drills at our schools and every drill we practice is something that you could use at Target the airport. It's a life skill that they might have to teach their parents who don't get locked down drills and they think of that a little bit differently after I explain that to them. Thank you. Speaker 3: Okay, I'm gonna talk a little bit about our middle and high school programs that our school resource officers conduct starting in middle school. We continue reinforcing what they've learned back
with our elementary SROs. We, we continue that theme and we make sure our high school and middle school SROs are out there in the school building being seen. We want the students to know that they can come to us if they ever need anything. We want to be very comfortable with law enforcement. So we re, in seventh grade we reinforce substance abuse. We talk about drugs, we talk about peer pressure, the importance of thinking for yourself and making good decisions to stay healthy. Global digital leadership classes, we've done presentations that talk about internet safety, social media safety,
not automatically trusting that the person you're talking with online is out, is who they say they are. So we want the students to be safe online And in practical law classes we talk about the criminal justice system and the Fourth Amendment. So we practical law, we sometimes will bring in other guest speakers, we'll facilitate bringing in other resources and experts in their field in law enforcement, we brought in people from the crime lab. We've all sorts of things. Forensics class, we've brought in the crime lab, do guest speaker presentations.
We've also presented on operating while intoxicated and in forensics and how blood work and things. We look for like different kinds of drugs that we look for in people's system and how we get actual alcohol level out of a blood sample health class. We talk about, we continue talking about dangers of drugs at the high school level. We continue that theme all the way through from elementary all the way up middle into high school government class. We talk more about the Fourth Amendment, how it relates to police investigations. We get a lot of awesome engagement from our students asking
us about the Fourth Amendment, how that relates to the school environment and the different Supreme Court decisions. And then the most recent addition to the classrooms. We get into math classes of all places. You'd never expect that you'd see deputies presenting in math, but this just came out of a conversation with the district's math coach trying to figure out ways to show kids that math matters out in the real world. And we talk about how in policing, math is everywhere, especially in crash reconstruction. So we get them in contact with our crash reconstruction unit. We bust all three schools
to usually Adams high school or one of the high schools. They teach them how we measure skid marks, how we look at the coefficient of friction and how we, the calculations that take place to determine a minimum speed at a crash. So we, we continue that all the way through the high school. We make sure, and in general SROs are just available to our students. We want 'em to know that we're there for 'em if they ever need anything. Thank you. So I think as you can see, one of the unique things of the program here in Rochester is the ability, as I said, these are not just cops in schools. They have a role in the educational process. They're making those relationships
by presenting these programs and they're starting early, starting their elementary school, which is really unique and and beneficial to our students. So as a safety and security consultant for the district, I certainly appreciate my working relationship with all of these folks and I think it, it should make everyone feel safer that they're there and ready to respond. So thank you. Thank you. Chief, Speaker 7: If you all wanna come up front, we're gonna go ahead and and grab a quick photo. Speaker 1: Section four of our agenda is communications. This is where we reference various communications that we have received.
Oh, I'm sorry, 4.1 is the secretary at this time. Secretary Butell. Can you make a report? Speaker 8: Yes. At this time we've received 10 communications that were received through Contact the Board. In addition, we received five other communications that that did not come through. Contact the board. The Fed's robotics team extended an invitation for board members to visit and to attend a competition. Progressive Insurance contacted the board regarding damage to a parked vehicle that was supposedly caused by a bus. Robert Bloomingdale thanked the board for their time
and for allowing him to present. At our last meeting, Nisha Hawk thanked Mr. Russo, trustee Sspa and Gupta for attending the annual Ramadan Interfaith Dinner and Matthew Harris, Lauren Danki and David Uig invited the board to attend this year's RCS Jazz Showcase taking place on Friday, April 10th from six to nine at the Strand Theater in Pontiac featuring big bands and jazz combos from all three high schools. And that's it. Speaker 1: Thank you. Section 4.2 is
where we hear from student representatives to the board. We have one from each high school is Elizabeth Schultz. Ready? Okay. From a, from Adams High School, that part comes next. Speaker 9: Alright, good evening everyone. My name is Libby Schultz from Rochester Adams High School and it is my pleasure to report on the recent events tonight at Adams. We are continuing preparation for the upcoming SAT testing, which will take place at the beginning of April in order to ensure students maximize their performance throughout this testing period.
Our schools have SAT prep during the day, every Tuesday in alternating hours each week. During this time, seniors are offered college advice or are able to complete homework and prepare for their next hours. These preparation methods have been very useful for our student body and we cannot wait to see how this helps our students with their upcoming testing. Some upcoming events at Adams include the eighth grade Welcome night, where eighth graders have the opportunity to get school tours, look at clubs they may be interested in and learn more about their future four years as a Highlander. Additionally, this Friday and Saturday as well as next week,
our Adams theaters having their spring play of something rotten. Our theater students have worked extremely hard on this production and it is $20 per ticket in our auditorium and we hope to see you there. This past week, we recently concluded our charity week with Rochester Estonian Ace, where our students had the opportunity to come together and raise money for Sam Smile, a local mental health organization that was created in honor of our past student, Samuel j Dewey, who unfortunately took his own life his sophomore year at Adams. In order to share Sam's story, our school focused on talking about the importance
of mental health specifically for our students. We wanted to share their message of letting your smile change the world, but never letting the world change your smile. For Adam specifically, we kicked off our charity week with our annual PEP assembly, which included new games like wigs, match, blind date, teacher pizza, pizza box rates, dodgeball, and so much more. We are also so incredibly grateful to introduce our new projector system in our gymnasium. This system being the first in Michigan High School in a Michigan high school gym projects designs put together by our council onto the gym floor for everyone to see.
Because of this, we were able to positively highlight each game as well as make it new and intriguing for the students and staff. Carrying on to our later week of Charity week, we had Spirit Days, including Monochro Monday, Jersey Day Athletic Year, Wednesday Twin Day, and finally wear Green Day to honor Sam Smile and Mental health awareness. Aside from our spirit days, we had our food auction every day, hosted charity galas, kids night out and had other fun events like the Hot Wing eating contest, PIA Senior, a boys' basketball game, and to finish the week in ice cream bar.
Overall, I would like to send a big thank you to all of our sponsors, students, and community members. It is because of your generous donations that we are able to make an incredible contribution to Sam Smile. Additionally, our winter sports have come to a close. Some seasons highlights include wrestling state finalists, congratulations, deacon Morgan, Don Bakari, Demetrius Thomas, and Max Vost, our boys basketball team ending their season as district champs and our cheer team finishing third at states After having amazing record of seven to three as our spring sports gear up, we would like to wish all
of our teams good luck and congratulate all students on their new rosters, which are sure to provide a successful season. Thank you so much for your time this evening and I look forward to reporting back to you next month. Good evening everybody. My name is Grace Colucci and I'm Rochester High School's Board representative as RHS reflects on this past month, many exciting events and opportunities have taken place for our falcons. First, RHS is continuing to hold SAT prep opportunities in our media center. Staff held a grammar and reading workshop last Wednesday during advisory. Many more math and language arts sessions have opened up
for future advisories as well that students can sign up for the RHS. Instagram is also continuing to post a vocab word of the week along with a Desmos lesson link, a practice math question and a worked out solution to follow. These posts have been very beneficial to students since it is a quick way for them to get prep and a quick reminder to study. As RHS enters scheduling season, we make sure that all students have an individual five minute meeting with their counselor to make sure the classes they're taking next year aligns with their academic goals. Students have also been engaging in Xow prep opportunities in terms of scheduling. RHS is looking forward
to hosting our annual eighth grade parent night. On March 11th, we'll have welcome intros for students and parents curriculum info, a full tour of RHS and A clubs and Sports Showcase to wrap up the night. Since seniors do not have to worry about the stress of scheduling anymore, they have plenty of exciting dates to schedule on their calendars. First cap and gown pickup will be on April 24th. Honors convocation will be taking place on April 30th. Night with the Stars will occur on May 1st, prom on May 13th, and the last day of school and Senior Sunset will both be held on May 19th. This past week has been incredibly busy for RHS Stuga
as our annual try High. Charity Week was in full swing first. We hosted a pep assembly on February 27th, the Friday before Charity week. This was a great way to kick off Charity Week and make our student body aware of all the exciting events. Our spirit, our Spirit days were Meme Day, twin Day, neon Day, Disney Day, and PJ Day. We also had charity raffle baskets available all week, which had lots of student involvement. Our first event was our boys volleyball tournament on March 2nd. Next, we hosted a parent breakfast on Wednesday during advisory where parent volunteers cooked their best breakfast food that night.
We also host our annual Falcon Fest and we invited all of our younger falcons to come to the RHS Mall and play carnival games. A tape a teacher was also hosted on Thursday, March 5th, along with our Raising Canes lunch blitz. On Friday, we had coin stalls and our try high dance set up the decorations turned out amazing. And finally, to wrap up the week, our try high dance took place from seven to eight at RHS. We also hosted our first silent disco from five 30 to six 30. We are so grateful for everyone who contributed and participated in our events. This charity week was truly one of a kind. As winter sports conclude for our falcons,
there have been many exciting accomplishments to recognize. The cheer team had an open invite to their practice on March 5th, and this allowed our Falcon family to watch the team prepare for states. Then this past weekend, they returned as the D one state runner ups. We are so incredibly proud of their hard work and resilience. The RHS Boys Swim and Dive team also had leagues a few weeks ago at Clarkston. There were tons of personal best points scored and state cuts this season. To conclude, I would like to give a few special shout outs that has helped contribute to the greater culture of our school. RHS is proud to announce our new Oakland 80 Career and College Navigator. Coach G, she's available
to offer students support in variety of areas including interview prep, FAFSA applications, and career exploration. She'll also be HO hosting support sessions during upcoming advisory days. The RHS or the RHS Rats Theater Group is proud to announce their spring play as clue they'll be in full production April 23rd, 24th and 25th. That concludes this month's reports. Thank you all for your time and attention Everyone. My name is Carina Morphin Munoz and I'm the student representative from Stony Creek High School and I'm excited to share some of the latest updates and accomplishments from our school community.
One of the biggest highlights recently was Charity Week. Our kickoff assembly took place on February, Friday, February 27th, which started a full week of activities focused on giving back. Throughout the week, we had Spirit days, five food sales, two food auctions, and many opportunities for students to get involved and support Sam Smile. One of the most popular events was Ticket to Skip it on Thursday, March 5th, where students could purchase tickets to leave class and attend an event each hour. The day was filled with excitement and had amazing participation from students across the school. On Friday, we held coin Coin stalls, which required teachers
to pause class while they counted the coins their students brought in. In addition to our classic roadblocks, such as the oven, MIT, where teachers must count coins while wearing oven mitts and silver streak where teachers have to slide every silver coin across the table 10 times before counting it. We introduced a new roadblock this year called Cougar Graham. During a Cougar Graham, our mascot Cosmo enters the classroom and distracts everyone for 10 minutes. By dancing, interacting with students and occasionally making the coin counting even more difficult for the teacher, it quickly became a favorite among both students and staff. The week wrapped up with the Try High dance on Saturday at
Rochester High School, bringing students from multiple schools together to celebrate the end of a successful charity. Week. Tomorrow we will also be holding Senior Sidekick Day. Underclassmen paid $15 to rent a senior for the day. Seniors will carry backpacks, announced their students' arrivals to class, and in some cases be dressed up by their student for the day. It is a fun tradition that brings a lot of laughter to the hallways. We are still calculating the total amount raised during charity week, but the level of participation from students was amazing to see. Last week we also held virtual parent-teacher conferences. These conferences continue to provide families
with the opportunity to connect with teachers and stay involved in their students' progress. Our winter sports teams have also had an exciting season. Our cheer team won the state championship and is now celebrating three state titles in a row. It is an incredible accomplishment and a testament to their dedication and hard work. Our varsity power lifters also competed at their state meet. Congratulations to Trent and Ricardo who placed in the top 10 and to Kyle and Julia who placed in the top five girls basketball. Finished their season with an impressive 19 and five record and had a truly outstanding season. Boys basketball also had a strong season
and continued to represent Stony Creek with determination and teamwork. Our DECA program also had great success at the state competition. Bra Limon was voted to represent Michigan DECA as the Vice President of Business Partnerships, which is an incredible honor. In addition, Stony Creek had four international qualifiers and six medalists. We are very proud of their hard work and determination in the arts. Our theater students continue working hard as they prepare for the spring musical. Footloose. The casting crew have been dedicating many hours to rehearsals and we are all looking forward to seeing their work come
to life on stage later this spring. We also recently hosted our eighth grade Welcome night. Last Thursday, the evening began with a meeting in the auditorium followed by a club and sport fair in the cafeteria. I had the opportunity to speak on behalf of student council and it was exciting to meet so many future cougars and share what makes Stony Creek such a special place. Looking ahead, scheduling for the 20 26 20 27 school year is already underway. Students attended grade level meetings to learn about course opportunities and have now submitted their scheduling cards as we begin planning for next year. Finally, we recently held the senior parent meeting on
Wednesday, March 4th. Seniors and their guardians gathered for cider mill donuts while learning about the many events we have to look forward to as graduation approaches. It made the upcoming celebrations feel very real and very exciting for many students. Overall, it has been another busy and exciting time at Stony Creek where our students can continue to stay involved, support one another, and represent our school with pride. Thank you for your time and have a wonderful evening. Speaker 10: Good evening everyone. My name is Nanny Lee and I'm excited to share with you the fun experiences that we've had at ACE over the month. Over the past month, our schools provided opportunities that go way far
beyond textbooks and tests. These experiences help us grow academically, socially, and emotionally. One of my favorite highlights this month was welcoming Chef RT to the ACE and a TPS students at Schultz campus. The chef from the, the chef from the Food Network didn't just demonstrate cooking skills, but she also shared her personal journey and her cultural background and the challenges she overcame to build her career. It reminded me that success doesn't happen overnight. It takes passion, resilience, and she encouraged us to take risk when it doesn't.
When it comes to choosing and succeeding in our careers. For many students, including myself, our eyes were open to creative career paths and showed us that our interests and hobbies can turn into real opportunities in the future. We were able to sample some of her amazing butter chicken and she signed an autograph. Chef hats for every student we're very thankful for the team at Chartwells and RCS for this great opportunity. Later on in the day, we had the opportunity to participate in a school ride yoga session in high school. It's pretty easy to fill overwhelmed with Stu
with assignments and extracurricular activities. This mindfulness break allowed us to slow down and take a breath. Many actually taking care of our mental health is not a weakness. It is a strength when students feel balanced and supported. We're better learners and better humans to each other and our school community juniors at ACE continue to meet every Monday for prep for the SET, last month was language arts and math, and this month it is science and social studies. Earlier today, we experienced an amazing and meaningful visit to the Holocaust Museum. Learning about it in history is one thing,
but experiencing a museum makes it more powerful and impactful. Visiting the museum allowed us to connect with the tragedies of people from the past. Experiences like this help shape us not only as students, but responsible citizens who understand the impact of our actions. Some students even said this field trip was the most informal field trip they've went on so far. This year, on February 26th, teachers held on phone parent teacher conferences By calling every single parent helps. It helps strengthen the communication
between family and teachers. Education is a team support, and when teachers and parents work together, United students will feel more encouraged and motivated to do their best. Finally, last week for Charity week, we raised money for Sam Smiles. We found it great. We found it a great way for our school to come together and raise money for an oppor for an important cause, while also giving back and working together, building school spirit and developing a sense of responsibility to give back. That's all. Thank you. Speaker 11: Good evening everyone. My name is Alexia Boda and I'm the student representative
for International Academy. To recap, last month we hosted our Winter Olympics inter International Food Night. Both events were a huge success and we had a great turnout. In addition, we concluded our canned food drive where we raised 524 pounds in $2,130, providing 6,783 meals. We were partnered with Gleaners last week, our language oral started. These are IB requirements where seniors get recorded having a conversation with their teacher for 12 to 15 minutes. In the foreign language they're learning.
HL students first speak about a story they learned and then converse about a completely different topic, and US L students speak about a certain theme and then converse about a different topic. Today, waterworks started. Seniors make teams of five and compete against each other. They try to get each other out with water guns. This is a super fun event and many seniors participate. Looking ahead, student leadership is planning different things to do during Kindness Week, one of which is kindness. Interviews with these, they will interview different teachers and students and those people will be able to nominate people who are kind to them or others. These interviews will be sent to teachers
to show in their first hours. Another is Kindness Close pins, which they will randomly put on people's backpacks in the hallway. This is super fun and will help remind everyone to always be kind. They're also starting to plan all of the senior events for the end of the year. One event is the senior picnic. This will take place on an upcoming half day and parents and teachers will cook while seniors hang out, eat and do fun activities. We also will have a secret senior Spirit week. All the seniors will get the chance to dress up a certain way and have fun with their graduating class. Last week, approximately 300 IB students and educators from across the state came together
to adv advocate for fair and consistent credit policies for IB coursework. It all began on Tuesday when IB SOM board members brought seven students current and alumni to the capitol in an effort to educate house representatives and encourage support for the IB resolution. Three of those students were IA students. Wednesday was the capital day and proved to be a huge success. All IB students and their chaperones were charged with active advocacy. They were divided into a blue group and a white group. The blue group was responsible for talking with assigned house representatives in the morning while the
white group attended the Senate session. After the rally, the blue group attended the house session and the white group followed up in person with thank yous to the senators. The resolution passed in the Senate. It will now be sent to the president or chancellor of each public institution of higher education in Michigan, the Michigan Associa Association of State Universities and the Michigan Community College Association. The resolution in the house was referred to the Government Operations committee. This was not entirely unexpected as any resolutions that involve something that might be constructed as policy typically gets referred to the committee.
This will be another opportunity for our students, staff, and families to testify in front of the committee and garner even more support. The I-B-S-O-M board is already working on next steps. That's the update on ia. Thank you for your time and I look forward to our next meeting. Speaker 1: Thank you to all the student representatives. Section 4.3 is for members of the board of education. This is where members of the board of education share community communications that were shared directly with them, but were not sent to the full board. Did any board member receive communications from the public trustee Lozan? Speaker 12: Yes. I've received a communication from John Grossen
backer who expressed his, he's very against the enhancement millage is what his email was about. Speaker 1: Anybody else? Trustee Kui? Speaker 8: Yep. Mike Reno wrote to me on March 6th. He noticed that our, our agenda lists the enhancement millage discussion as the third item in new business, and I see it's already been about 40 minutes and I'm wondering, I think there's a lot of people here who would like to discuss the enhancement millage sooner than that. So I tend to agree with him and wonder if maybe we respect their time and move that up earlier in our meeting.
So as a result, I move to amend the order of business. So the item 8.3 countywide enhancement millage is taken up directly after public comment. Speaker 1: So you're moving to, you're in your comments, you're moving to amend the agenda. Correct. So are you moving to suspend the rules to do that or, Speaker 8: Well this, well, this motion I, I could move to suspend the rules if you prefer, but I'm, that's Speaker 1: My under my understanding is that's the, the process. Speaker 8: Well, typically motions can arise out of agenda items that we have in our agenda, but if you'd prefer I make it that way, I can do it that way. Speaker 1: Yeah. Go. I'm, yeah. Who's your second?
Speaker 8: Do I have a second? Speaker 1: Trustee? Osba, are you seconding? I also have a communication. Oh, well I guess we're off of that. We'll come back to that. Who seconds the motion? I do Trustee Loza. Okay, so motions to suspend the rules are not debatable and you need a two thirds vote. So is all in favor of the motion to suspend the rules? Say aye. Speaker 8: Aye. The motion to suspend the rules to put the enhancement millage sooner? Yes. Speaker 1: Okay. Are you Aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. And I'll oppose say nay. Nay. Nay. Okay, so that's two five.
That does not pass. Four. I'm sorry. Two four. Whoops. That does not pass. Has anybody else received any communications? Trustee ospa? Speaker 13: I received a communication from Brenda Pilgrim, who's the assistant director of government relations at MASB. As a follow up to a class I took about governor government relations. That was very informative. Speaker 1: Anybody else receive a communication? I did receive a communication from Stephanie Van Dale who wanted to let me know that I should be disbarred and she wants to file a complaint with the state bar of Michigan against my law license and to, but
nonetheless, have a nice F-ing day. Section five public comment, which is limited to 30 minutes. We are now on agenda item five, public comment. This provides an opportunity to board members to hear from community members. If you wish to speak tonight but have not already filled out a yellow card, please fill out one. Now, if we have more than 30 minutes of comments, which I think we will, the remainder will be heard under Agenda item nine. 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 30 seconds remaining.
Please be mindful of the time limit when addressing the board. Please state your name and your 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 a breach of peace. Because we have so many tonight and we only have 30 minutes, I'm gonna go with the people first who are wanna speak on an item that's on our agenda so that we can hear from them before we vote on the agenda. Shelly Brown, point of order. First Speaker 8: Point of order.
Yes, Mr. President, you're breaking from our norms. This, when did this Speaker 1: I I'm doing that to be helpful so that we can hear from the people before we get to the, Speaker 8: Because some people arrive to these meetings early so that they can put their name in and receive the benefit of going earlier in the meeting. I don't think it's fair Speaker 1: To change. Well the first person was you. Do you think that you need to speak before other people? Speaker 8: No, I'm not. I wasn't the first person who was in this room. The Speaker 1: The first thing that came to me was you, that you were handed to me and your name was first. Do you think that you should speak before members of the public? That shouldn't be. Speaker 7: I think that Speaker 1: People should speak. The first person is Shelly Brown.
The second person is Rachel Bake, followed by Dana Cadman. Speaker 7: Okay. Hi, I'm Shelly Brown, taxpayer and resident in the district. At the last school board meeting on February 23rd during the consent agenda, trustees were asked to voice their approval for current bills payable totaling $14,318,602 and 41 cents. As a taxpayer, I am always curious as to
what makes up these substantial blanket approval amounts. When questions were solicited, trustee Lai attempted to explain her discomfort was seeing recent legal expenses which involved the previous board president and had not been shared with the full board. Trustee Lai was unaware of the legal expenses until she appropriately asked to receive information on them prior to the board meeting in which she would be asked to vote on them.
Trustee Kui was repeatedly interrupted by trustees, Blake and S and SPE, who it appeared did not want information on these expenses to be shared with the public. No one was concerned that Trustee Oui had not been informed of the purpose of these expenses. In the end, trustee Oui appropriately voted no due to lingering questions surrounding the expenses while the other board members present voted to approve the expenditures to those who voted yes,
you gave the appearance that either A, once again you received information that was not shared with Trustee Kui or B, you are derelict in your duties and poor stewards of our taxpayer money by voting to approve expenses that you knew nothing about. Either choice reflects poorly on you. Later in tonight's meeting, the agenda says you'll discuss the countywide enhancement millage. I'm left wondering, will you fully discuss the pros
and cons of the millage? What might you hold back from your taxpayers? Will you explain how it will be a good investment for taxpayers to participate in a millage that most likely will take more dollars from us than we'll get back In return? 30 seconds. Will you explain why Rochester Hills, taxpayers, homeowners in this school district should be the piggy bank for other school districts in Oakland County? Lastly, will you continue to pursue additional ways
to silence any trustee willing to share public information contrary to your agenda? Thank you. Rachel. B. So my handwriting is horrible, but my last name is Baker. Apologize. Yeah, it's fine. My handwriting's horrible. On 10 November, the board voted to center Carol Beth saying she wrote confidential information in an editorial, but I understand Mr. Russo just a few days ago shared some of the same information with a PTA group at Ruther Middle School. So I'm curious about what process was used to clear
that information and who determined that it was no longer classified. Because if that process wasn't taken, then why are we not censoring Mr. Russo? I don't understand why we're here looking at another millage increase. I think we just passed a sinking fund. It looks like we have a general fund of $238 million. The district saved money by refinancing bonds. We have almost 50 million in reserves, but yet we're looking at more. I haven't seen anything that's a self-audit on how we're centering and looking at our own budgets.
How are we doing that now, let's say the money's the millage is gonna pass. I think later on today we're gonna see some charts that are gonna put up some money. It looks like they're looking to allocate $105,000 to sensory spaces for special education. $200,000 for calm spaces for special education, but 5.1 million to athletic fields. I ask if that's correct. It was in your own chart, Mr. Russo. The deck also talks about $5 million on school safety, but $9 million to improve high school auditoriums.
So I wonder where the priorities are with that second topic. I don't know if all the officers were here, but if they can still hear me, my neighbors and I have called the Oakland County dispatch multiple times on traffic that builds up on Char Wood. It's the subdivision that's just north of Van Hausen and Adams. On Friday, I took the day off. I was walking. One of my dogs just happened to leave right about the time pickup is, and as I walked through the neighborhood back to my house, there were no fewer than 30 cars parked on
either side of the street. In our neighborhood. There's no way a firetruck can pass that street. There's no way kids can walk on the curbs because there's nothing but cars on the curbs. Some cars were even parked in front of signs. 30 seconds say no stopping standing or parking. So here's the hard part to hear. My 6-year-old died from a car accident going four miles an hour estimated by Oakland County Sheriff, four miles an hour. There is no way the cars that do manage to drive down that street are going slower than four miles an hour.
So I ask that you guys please force parents to use the loop at Adams and Van Huen. They can pick up their kids in the loop. This community does not need to bury another child and I ask thank you. I ask you cops to write tickets in really big ones so that parents can remember the hefty ticket they had to pay and not the life that they took. Speaker 14: Thank you. Speaker 15: Evening Dana Cadman taxpayer in the district. I'm here to speak against the enhancement millage. The numbers just don't add up. Reviewing budget numbers. Looking at the last 10 years, these
RCS budget has increased on average 4.4% a year. During the same period inflation has been 2.7%. So that represents a real expansion of the budget adjusted for inflation. 1.7% a year, 1.7%. Doesn't sound like a lot, but we're a quarter billion dollar business. So we're talking about adding, again, post inflation, $4 million to the budget and you have to ask what are we getting for our quarter billion dollars? It's certainly not student enrollment. We've gone from a high of 15,004 students in this building
to 14,359. That's a drop of 4%. It's not educational outcomes because we've gone from a high average SAT score of 1159 down to down to 1109 drop of 50 points. That's not surprising given that over the same period we've gone from a high our edu, excuse me, instructional expenses as a percentage of the budget. Our 60 we're 64% this last year. They're 59, we've dropped 5% and again, a quarter billion dollar business, that's $13 million drop.
So I would ask you before you propose that we add another tax and increase the budget that maybe instead you look at reprioritizing the budget. In fact, I would challenge this board to present a report to the public and show what are the top six expenses each year for the last 10 years and present those numbers as dollar figures and percentage of budget. And I think the taxpayers and parents of this district would be surprised and possibly appalled to see where the money has shifted over the last 10 years. Thank you. Speaker 1: Next we have Colonel Mark Gerhard, followed
by Shannon Fascia, followed by Liz Schreck. Speaker 16: Colonel Mark Gerhard. I'm a resident of Oakland Township and I'm a voter. I actually came here to talk about something completely different, but I witnessed something in the first agenda item that absolutely made my blood boil and it's taking everything I can to maintain my bearing at this moment. I served in the Marine Corps for almost 30 years, retired as a colonel and I deployed to three different campaigns fighting for this country. Some. And I personally witnessed this, some people that I deployed with that took an oath to that flag
and that fought for that flag returned under that flag in a casket while they were doing so. So when I see a member of this board refusing to stand for the basic principles that the freedoms that our constitutional republic provides them on a daily basis, it absolutely makes me live it. Speaker 14: Yeah, six. Speaker 16: To have the goal to to make yourself a spectacle and for whatever reasons you have not
to respect the flag and those who have served under it, I think is an absolute abomination and you should consider resigning. Amen. Any public servant should be willingly and gleefully praising what this country owes them and they owe this country. I don't believe that anyone in a capacity in a public service should ever disrespect the flag that many of us, including myself, have served under and literally given all four. Thank you Speaker 1: Shannon Fascia. Speaker 8: Good evening. My name is Shannon Faso and I'm a parent of three children
and a member of this community. I'm here tonight to talk about and make a comment on the Oakland County wide enhancement millage that will be discussed in a few minutes. We'll likely hear tonight the talking points soon, that the millage is necessary to keep our schools competitive and will benefit students across the county. On the surface that sounds reasonable and wonderful, but many of us, but for many of us, the bigger concern is not just the proposal itself but how this process has been handled. The millage has been openly discussed in many districts
across Oakland County for months. Yet here in our district elected trustee Carol Beth Kui was ED and publicly accused of sharing confidential information simply for writing an opinion piece, using information already public and already discussed elsewhere. When an elected official is criticized for speaking openly about a tax proposal that affects the public, it raises serious concerns about fairness, transparency, and whether meaningful discussion is truly welcome. In our district. We may hear
to tonight's vote about placing the proposal on the August ballot, but the problem is the August elections traditionally have very low turnout. Putting a tax proposal on this ballot in August makes it easier for it to pass without a broad community participation. Decisions that affect taxpayers for years should be made with full public awareness and strong engagement, not snuck in when fewer people are paying attention. There's the issue of spending without clear accountability.
For over the past decade, Michigan has spent nearly $1 billion on literacy initiatives. Great. But we were aiming for getting the top 10 ranking in fourth grade reading, and instead we now rank the bottom 10. Now our governor wants to give another 625 million for literacy initiatives pumping more money into the issue all while the state repealed accountability measures like mandatory third grade retention. Meanwhile, states like Mississippi kept strong retention policies and science-based instructions in their literacy and they have significant improvements in literacy.
Families in this community care deeply about education. We all want strong schools, but families also want transparency, accountability, and responsible stewardship of our taxpayer dollars. That's why I want to recognize Trustee Carol Beth and Trustee Loon for asking the tough questions and advocating for the community as a whole. The people who live here and pay taxes here and send their children to these schools deserve a real conversation, not a carefully managed PR presentation. Thank you. I encourage the board to listen thoughtfully to the community tonight and to ensure Thank you.
You hear voices of those who would Speaker 1: Actually have put in the bill Shirley Frazier and Pam Milner. Speaker 17: Hi, good evening. My name is Liz Shrek and I'm the president of the Rochester Education Association. I'm here to urge the board to pass the resolution of support for the Oakland County Regional Enhancement millage. While this is a procedural step, it is also a strategic one that could determine our district's long-term ability to maintain parity with the educational standards and funding levels of our neighboring counties. We often hear the narrative that our schools are fully funded, but our balance sheets in our classrooms tell a different story.
According to the MEA, when you adjust for inflation and the skyrocketing costs, Michigan districts are still struggling. We have less purchasing power than we had in 2012. We are providing a 2026 education on a 2012 budget. Rochester is one of the highest performing districts in the state, but we are not immune to these pressures. A recent nationwide poll showed that more educators than ever are balancing second jobs alongside their classroom responsibilities. When a parent gets an email response at 8:00 PM they shouldn't have to wonder if
that teacher is sending it while on a 15 minute break from a second job in 2026. That is the reality for money. Internal REA surveys show that over a third of our educators work a second job. In order to remain a world-class district, we have to be willing to provide a world-class investment in the people doing the work. A regional enhancement millage can help make this a reality. We don't have to guess if an enhancement millage works, we can just look at our neighbors. In Macomb and Wayne counties, their enhancement millages have been a game changer like them. Rochester can use these funds
to bridge the continued gap in state and federal special education funding, ensuring that these programs receive the full investments our students deserve. We can expand mental health and wellness supports. We can maintain a cutting edge technology infrastructure, all things that directly impact our students' daily lives. If passed by voters, these funds would ensure that Rochester remains a leader rather than falling behind to the members of this board who've expressed hesitation. I am not asking you to personally approve a tax increase. I'm asking you to trust the voters of Oakland County.
By supporting this resolution, you are simply allowing the citizens of the community to decide for themselves. This vote represents a key decision on whether to provide Oakland County taxpayers the same opportunity as those in surrounding areas to consider a regional approach to school funding educators and families who move to Rochester for our reputation. Believe our schools are worth this investment. Please support the resolution. Give our community the choice to give our educators and students the financial stability they need. Thank you. Speaker 1: So the the next two are Shirley Frazier, Pam Milner,
Shirley Frazier, Pam Milner. Those are the last two on the agenda items. Then we have Carol Beth Kui. Unless you wanna skip, go on to someone else. Speaker 17: I am Shirley Frazier. A lot of what I wanted to say has been said. First of all, I couldn't agree more. If you cannot stand for the pledge, get out. Yeah, that is disgusting. Totally disgusting. You are a representative of these children. What a poor representative and whoever got involved in the kids being able
to protest ice during school hours. That again, is disgusting. Political should not be done. Okay. As for why we can't just have months ago, have had an open discussion on this millage. Also unbelievable. What are we playing games? Where are the facts? Maybe we'd like this millage. Maybe we wouldn't at this point, we're very angry and have less chance of voting for the millage because nobody was brave enough to put it out there. Maybe there's a lot of good things, maybe not,
but that's our right. We're gonna be voting and you've been hiding it from us. It's disgraceful. So it's time you bring it all out. Let us see. You have less students than you did before and you want more money. Why? I have no idea. We have a lot of money and we need to use it properly and we should not be teaching our kids politics in school and different things such as that. And definitely I expect everyone to stand for the flag.
Speaker 14: Thank you. Speaker 1: Pam Milner and Carol. Beth Kui. Speaker 17: Pam Milner. And I'm very concerned about the way our schools are going in the whole country. Not to mention my own community. My understanding is that this discussion on the enhanced millage was opened up in October and it's supposed to end March 31st. Today is March 9th. That doesn't leave a lot of time for the public in our community to research it. Other communities allowed their constituents
to have the time to reach it, search it. Since October, being informed about potential tax increases is something that should always be allowed to be shared by any trustee. Carol Beth is constantly being shut down when bringing up what she considers to be relevant information to taxpayers. When she is able to get a small bit of her information out in the meeting, I always want to know more. But generally she's not allowed to tell us more in the info she was forced to resort
to putting in the Detroit news and other news outlets is what I consider to be public information and is FOIA foible information when researching. I discovered some of the information relayed in her article was taken from material only board members have access to. That does not mean it is confidential or should not be shared with the public. In fact, it is the transparency we get from Carol Beth, which is needed so that parents and taxpayers can make better informed decisions. The refu earlier today, the refusal
to move discussion about the tax proposal sooner in the meeting is typical of the lack of respect for the consideration citizens with of with timely concerns. If Carol Beth is not allowed to share the information, only trustees are privy to. How are voters supposed to make informed decisions in August? Thank you. Speaker 1: Next we have Carol Beth Kui. Speaker 8: How many more do we Speaker 1: Have? We have like 12 more. Speaker 8: Okay. Are we gonna allow Speaker 1: Everyone to go? Well, we have to decide. We have two time for two more now
and then we have to decide if we're going to extend. But typically under our rules, the second half of the stack would have to come later. Speaker 8: I move to suspend the rules to allow the rest of the 12 cards to go. Speaker 1: Okay. Do you have a second on that? I second that. Trustee laws on. Okay, so then we, this is another vote that needs two thirds. All in favor say aye. Aye. Was that two? Aye three. Michelle, what were you be? If it was one or two, I would say
yes, but I'm gonna say no on this. So that is three to three. Speaker 2: You're so weak. Jesus. So, Speaker 1: So the last two we have at this point of order, Speaker 13: Mr. President, I feel like we've lost a quorum. Speaker 1: I'm point of order. Sir, could you please take your seat Speaker 13: Point of Speaker 1: Order sir, please take your seat. Speaker 13: We've lost decorum. Can we take Speaker 17: Re recess? Speaker 1: Our next few people are Kara Beth Kui and John James. Speaker 8: He just brought up that you're violating open meetings Act on public comment neutrality. Speaker 1: Do you even know what that means? What he's saying? Speaker 8: Shall we ask him? Speaker 1: No, you don't. Speaker 8: Do you know what means Speaker 7: Mr. President? Point. Point of order. Point of order. Mr.
President, please allow her to finish her comments so we can move on with this meeting. Let's just, Speaker 18: Jason, person I've ever seen up Speaker 1: There. The audience. Please be quiet so we can hear those speakers. Oh, Speaker 8: Alright. I'm Carol Bethle Cooey. I'm a trustee on our board and because our board voted this year to keep all agenda decisions behind closed doors, I'm speaking as a resident so the community can see issues I'm asking to discuss and tonight I'll speak again about the state's new health education framework. Here's the problem. Our board has
been refusing to discuss this. I brought forward a resolution for parental rights and local control multiple times and they've rejected even talking about it. Recently I noticed a health class review appeared in our cabinet notes and this is a document that's distributed to board members only the public only sees it if they submit a public records request. I learned that the district is starting a multi-year health review and that some subcommittees, these are curated committees, will be determining which state standards to incorporate and then they will bring those to the board for approval. This is backwards.
The board is not supposed to be the rubber stamp at the end. The board is supposed to show leadership that sets direction for our district in the best interest of our community. We should be shaping what the advisory committee's review, what staff prioritizes and what eventually comes back to the board. In Rochester, we've already had parents contacting the board with concerns. Families are not asking for more focus on political or ideological sex and gender topics. They're asking us to say focus on education and to handle sex and gender with restraint transparency
and respect for the wide variety of views in our community. And honestly, it's become a statewide concern. The Michigan House just passed House Bill 53 64 aimed at requiring legislative approval before the state health standard changes could take effect. Now whether people agree with that or not, it does signal that many Michigan families are worried about the ideological nature of those changes. Nationally, we're seeing the same thing. Courts are weighing in on parental rights when schools try to hide gender pronouns, alternative names or other forms of transition without parents being informed.
So what should we do? We need to stay neutral. I'll repeat that. Stay neutral. We need to build trust. We need to keep required health class basic, keep sex education clearly separate and transparent with clear parental notice and rights. The correct process. Thank you. Speaker 1: 30 seconds. Speaker 8: The correct process should involve a public board discussion at the start before the direction is baked in. No surprise approvals after the work is done. Kind of like what we're seeing with this enhancement millage
and that's how we respect our community. Rebuild, trust, and keep our focus where it belongs. Speaker 1: John James. Mr. James. John James is the next speaker Speaker 16: In the army. We had a saying mission first. People always, you cannot accomplish the mission working against the people you serve. That's exactly what's happening in this school district. Members of this board, thank you for the time. I'm John James, west Point, graduate Apache Combat pilot, a rock war veteran, father of three running for governor of Michigan. I'm here as a dad and as your congressman.
This is my district, these are my constituents. And what's happening in Rochester is exactly the reason why I'm running. I wanna speak directly to the board about Trustee Lacoy. What Carol Beth Lacoy did took courage. What I'm not seeing out of this board here today, Speaker 14: School Speaker 16: Officials briefed you behind closed doors, handed you a message to sell a tax hike to voters and told you to stay quiet. You said no, you wrote the truth. And for that the board censured, you stripped your committee assignments, adopted a written gag rule in silence and elected official from speaking freely to the public, she represents, they silenced an
elected official for telling the truth. That's exactly what I'm running against. Across the state in Rockford school officials secretly encouraged a young girl to adopt male identity without ever telling her parents that family had to hire an lawyer just to get answers because the school decided it knew better than them. I have three sons. I think about families like that each and every single day. If it can happen in Rockford and if it can happen in Rochester, if it can happen in this board meeting, it can happen everywhere in the state. Every morning, moms across the state, pack a lunch, zip up a coat, kiss their kids goodbye
and trust the adults in the school are gonna take care of them. Three out of four of those kids in this state cannot read at grade level. Michigan has fallen to 44th in the nation for literacy. And instead of fixing that, school boards like this one are more interested in silencing true tellers and making decisions that belong to parents. That trust is sacred and I'm gonna be protecting it. This is very simple. Kids cannot consent. Parents have a right to know. And if it's not acceptable between adults and a workplace, it's not acceptable between adults and someone else's child in a classroom. That's right. My record speaks for itself.
The federal Parent's Bill of Rights, the App Store Accountability Act, the federal scholarship tax credit I've delivered now. Michigan needs that same commitment from this board. Speaker 1: 30 seconds Speaker 16: To this board. I know I can count. I want every parent in this room to know that I see you and I'll be fighting for you. I have a long memory and I won't forget the cowardice that I've seen here today. Better schools, stronger family, a government accountable to you down to the school board level that Michigan is coming and it starts right here with every one of us. God bless you. God bless Speaker 1: Us. Thank you. Thank Speaker 14: You.
Speaker 1: The remainder of public comment will be later. The remainder of public comment will be Section 9.1 of the meeting. We're now on section six, the consent agenda. Agenda Item six is the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered routine in nature by the Board of Education and will be acted upon by one motion. There's no separate discussion of these items. If any member of the board requests discussion of an item, that item will be removed. Please note that the items removed will now be discussed separately under the consent agenda and will retain the, I'm sorry. So our agenda consists
of tonight's 6.1 human resource recommendations 6.2 Board of Education regular meeting minutes from February 9th, 2026, 6.3 Board of Education regular meeting minutes from February 23rd, 2020 6.4 A-S-B-C-B 3 0 8 a guide to understanding the legislature virtual for Julie Alba in the amount of 1 2520 $5 6.50 CSBA dinner meeting for Michelle Butell and Julie Alba in the amount of $90.
Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Speaker 16: So moved. Speaker 1: Moved by Trustee Annis, supported by Trustee Alba. Is there any discussion Trustee Kui Speaker 16: 6.1 Speaker 1: You'd like to remove 6.1? Speaker 16: Correct. Okay, Speaker 1: So 6.1 has been removed. We now have 6.2, three, four and five as I've already read them. Motion to approve those items. All in favor say aye. Aye. A Aye. Did you, you said okay. Six. Oh, alright. 6.1 has been removed. Did you trustee?
So we do a motion to approve 6.1 separately. I have Speaker 13: Approved, yep. Speaker 1: Okay. Trustee Janis. And again, any discussion Trustee Lacoy. Speaker 8: So back on Thursday, it was the day after we got our agenda packet. I believe I wrote a message to the superintendent, an HR director because I noticed that one of our new hires has a resume that highlights Lucy Calkins and Fountas and Pinnell as skills. And I simply asked the question, since those practices are contrary to the science
of reading, which is an important direction in our district strategic plan, I asked if this hire is familiar with our current K through two literacy expectations and what onboarding or training they'll receive to ensure alignment. And really my goal here is simply to make sure that new hires are set up for success and that instruction is consistent for families. Speaker 1: Is there any other discussion? Trustee yba, Speaker 8: President Blake? So Speaker 13: I am, I'm sorry. Speaker 8: Could I get an answer to my question? Speaker 1: Who are you asking? Speaker 8: I I suppose I could ask. Excuse me. I was recognized superintendent. She she's recognized
Speaker 1: I, Speaker 8: Okay, hold on. I asked a question and I so that I know before we approve, Speaker 1: Say the question again please. Speaker 8: I, so the question is, we, we see Lucy Calkins, we see Fountas and Pinnell. So what kind of onboarding or training is happening? And is our new hire familiar with the science of reading and our literacy direction for K through two students? Speaker 1: Mr. Ruso? Thank you Speaker 4: President Blake. We did receive the question and assume that this would be brought up as part of the consent agenda. So Mr. Murphy, if you'd like to address it. Speaker 3: Sure. Thank you for the Thank you for the question. Yes, I mean there's building level training,
there's district level training, we're proud of our teachers. They come to us with a wide range of training in the past. It's pretty common to be trained in those areas four to five years ago. So this new hire, although coming mid-year, will be subject to the same training and expectations of all of our staff and all of our PD trainings within the district. So I'm confident that she will do a great job. Speaker 8: Mr. President, Mr. President, a follow up on this. Speaker 1: Can we, alright, we'll get to the other question first and then we'll try Ms.
Alba. Speaker 13: So I've been a teacher in many districts and I've been part of many boards and sat through many board meetings. And if you are trying to work against developing a good talent bank, scaring people off and behaving like this and calling them out is a really good way to do that. So I just want to apologize to this new hire and tell people. Think about if you just got a new job and somebody on the board called out your resume, I don't know who this person is, but you would know it was you And that is, this person is probably thinking it's a dream job
to be hired in Rochester. It's fantastic. And I understand if Mrs. LAI's question is kind of a bigger question about how we onboard teachers, it does not need to be tied to a single person. So I wanna welcome this person and tell them that we value them and that we are a wonderful place to work. And I'm sure you will be trained and your skills will contribute and will upgrade your skills. Speaker 1: And, and I'll just make a comment too because you know I responded to your email, you could have asked a generic question about onboarding without calling out a specific teacher. The resumes are in the packet, it's easy
to identify the person and you've done that and put that person on the spot. You could ask general questions about onboarding and training and that would've been appropriate, but I don't think it's appropriate the way you've done it. Mr. Speaker 7: President, keep going. Mr. President, Speaker 1: I call the trustee Anis. I call Speaker 8: The question No, Mr. President, I had a follow up. Speaker 1: She's called the question. I know we have a, alright, hold on. Barb called the question all supported. All in favor of calling the question say aye. Aye. Aye. Speaker 8: No. Speaker 1: All right. So three and three.
So that does not pass. Now do you have another question? Speaker 8: Yes, I'd, I'd like to clarify something here because my question is not personal and actually I never said anybody's name. I merely called out practices that are contrary to a direction that's quite important in our strategic plan that has to do with student learning. And I am, and like I said, my goal is not to scare anyone and no one should feel scared by that. It was a red flag to me when I noticed someone marketing skills that are directly contrary to our strategic plan.
That's all, all it would've taken was a quick conversation, Hey, are you familiar with this? And are you willing to learn? And I'm sure the person would most likely say yes, point of order, but point, Speaker 1: Point of order. Trustee Butell, Speaker 8: I thought Trustee Laou indicated she had a follow up question. Right now I feel like it's just a, you know, ongoing, Speaker 1: Alright, trustee Lei, please complete your Speaker 8: What, what rule have I broken? I actually don't understand what rule I broke. Speaker 1: So is that your question or do you have another question? Speaker 8: Well, no, there was no point of order. I'm saying that's out of order to call the
Speaker 1: Point of order. What, what, what, what are you saying? Now finish your, Speaker 8: I'm clarifying something because we had a board member just try to misrepresent that's not, I am allowed to make another comment and we had a board member trying to say that I was making something personal that wasn't, I was speaking to our strategic plan and asking what onboarding or training was being provided. Okay. And if that was rectified so we can make sure everyone's on the same page and that families and their students are getting consistent training in alignment with the strategic plan. Speaker 1: Alright, any other questions or
Speaker 13: Comments? I have a question. Speaker 1: Trustee Alba, Speaker 13: I would like to ask all of us if you feel that bringing up someone's personal resume and making this a, it is a personal matter for that person. I understand and I actually shut up and done. You know what, you're out of order. I understand Trustee LA who he is like concerned about Lucy Calkins. I actually share that, but there are better ways to do this than making it political theater. Speaker 1: Alright ma'am, we're gonna have to ask you to be quiet. Thank you. Okay, thank you.
Alright, so we are having a motion to approve 6.1. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? Okay, so that's 6.0. We're now on agenda seven agenda IDA seven is reports. And first we have a superintendent update. Mr. Russo. Speaker 4: Thank you President Blake. I have one short report before we move on to the other two items. Under this, the report is that we received our meritorious budget award once again, I believe we are nine years running. Is that correct? Thank you Mr. McDaniel. I continue to be grateful for the historic
and sound fiscal management and stellar budgetary practices of this district. And this is a direct benefit to our community and to our students. The the phrasing that was used when granted the meritorious budget award was this, congratulations to you, your staff and your district on receiving the prestigious 25 26 meritorious budget award from the MBA, from the Association of School Business Officials International. Your dedication to sound fiscal management and strong budgetary practices is truly commendable. So that's the short report I have. I wanna thank Mr. McDaniel and his team for his, the relentless work that they do
to make sure that we are in a good financial position in the district. Speaker 1: Thank you and congratulations to Mr. McDaniel and his team. Item 7.3 is a strategic plan update again, Mr. Russo. Speaker 4: Thank you Speaker 13: Mr. President. Item Speaker 4: Seven Speaker 1: I Speaker 13: Presentation. Speaker 4: So right now I would like to turn that over to Mr. Rayel for in the enrollment presentation. Speaker 1: Yes, thank Speaker 15: You Mr. Russo. So I have a, a fairly brief enrollment projection. We use PowerSchool predictive enrollment analytics to do our enrollment projections. I want to remind the group
that there's really four major factors that drive our enrollment projections. This is kindergarten, right? We're graduating seniors and then the next incoming kindergarten class replaces them. And so up until fall of 2025, you'll see in a chart on the next slide or a future slide that it was fairly stable up until 2025 and that's where we saw a little bit of a dip changes in grade level cohorts. Cohorts, excuse me, I can't speak right now as they move across the years, for example, we know that our ninth grade cohort usually is bigger than our eighth grade cohort
because we're getting students from private schools. Typically K eight schools changes in out of district enrollment. This is really minor for us. We're not a school of choice district. So a couple pieces to note here, really this is decreases in foreign exchange students. A few years ago we might have had 15 to 20. This year we have six. Next year we're expecting about four. So you know, that's declined. And then changes the number of of dwelling units or homes available in the district that's slightly increasing. So when we go to our projections,
I wanna remind the board that 135 student loss was what power school predicted for 25 26 fall 2024 ft. This is audited numbers was about 14,775. Fall 2025, we did see a decrease. It's still unaudited, there's still section 25 E adjustments. That's the adjustments that if a, a student is here in Michigan and maybe went to a neighbor and then came here, then we get a portion, a prorated portion of that FTE that's still to come.
And then the, the fall audit is still being closed. But right now that's looking about just under 14,700. We will take you to the projections for 26 27, you'll see about 174 student reduction and you'll see TK is fairly consistent. We'll see what happens with those actual numbers. And then some decreases sort of throughout the grade levels, right? 174 overall, but it's not specifically in kindergarten. Sort of spread through K five through middle schools and through our high schools. And so I want to also point out in this presentation
that there are some factors that PowerSchool does not consider when they do our projections. Special education is one of the big ones. And so I've highlighted there our special education FTE year over year. You'll see in fall 2022 that was 440 and then it increased in fall of 23 and fall of 24. And then we saw a reduction in fall of 25. There's some other special populations that aren't included in these projections. One of those is the Virtual Learning Academy Consortium VAC that replaced the RCS virtual campus.
And so we were just actually talking about it this morning that we saw an increase in the number of students, even from fall semester or first semester to second semester, there's almost a hundred students, I think it was 94 that we're expecting for VAC for the second semester. So that's up from, I think it was 67 in the first semester. So that's a growing population there, but one that is not in these projections. And you know, another factor that needs to be considered when you think about that chart on the prior page that there's other pieces here that can affect our actual number that we're paid on versus
what the PowerSchool analytics are showing us. And that concludes my enrollment pre presentation. Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. Anybody from the board have questions or comments? Ms. Trustee Butell? Speaker 8: I, I guess I had a couple questions and I had emailed the board as well. Mr. Russo, you were included on that too. Just as between this and you know, where we wanna go in the future. A couple things we've, there has been some mention over a couple of the meetings in the last year about looking at school
of choice at our earliest grades like TK and kindergarten and what that would be, what that would look like over time. And it seems like it could be helpful to understand, you know, what that impact would be as we're looking at budgeting for next year and future years. And the other item was that I've heard mentioned over the last year too was class size, especially at the elementary and what our options could be there for limiting some of those class sizes, making them smaller. Do we have space for that? You know, what are our options there?
So I, I just wanted to throw that out from a board perspective to see if my board colleagues were interested in that information as well because I know that would be work for the administration to pull some of that. Speaker 1: Did you wanna respond? Speaker 4: I can respond. I think the question was to the other board members, but I'm happy to kind of set the stage for Speaker 1: What I mean if, alright, well then back, go ahead president. If you're at, I, I responded to the email and I gave you my thoughts already on that, but I know, but I definitely want am interested, this has been one
of my things since I first came on on the public here and started even wanting to be on the board is the class sizes. And I firmly believe, especially in elementary, but probably the whole way that our classes are too big. So anything we could, but I, I keep hearing well there's just no way to address that. We don't have the space or the teachers and, and so forth. And so if there was a way to address that, I would love to hear it. I don't think it's something you'll be able to say to right now, but absolutely that's like one of my top, top priorities. Trustee Kui. Speaker 8: Alright, one thing I mentioned, I I received the email too
and one thing that could be helpful for us as a board if we wanna consider those kinds of questions is, you know, it was nice, we've got this enrollment presentation and we see the FTE projections, which is going down over time and we know that that's helpful for financial projections. What's also helpful is if we would see the headcount trend. I think in our last cabinet notes it said it was something like 14 two something and I mentioned back on Thursday, I believe, you know, how about if we could include the headcount because I know we have those numbers now President Blake thought it was, there wasn't enough time to add it
to this presentation, but if you give us headcount and you show us, you know, by building and stuff too, what we have then we as a board could set targets if we wanted to address class size, we could say to the administration, alright, let's work on this, what would it take to get this class size to this level? And we can compare it with what, you know, what restrictions might already be in our teacher's contract. But we need the information in order to be able to properly set targets and give a little bit more of a directed question to the administration. And in doing it that way, the question won't be
so open-ended that we don't know what to do with it. It'll give us better answers. Speaker 1: I believe I responded to you and was pretty open to everything that you were saying about that. So great, let's do it. But it's just not something that we can do sitting right here. But, and I, I don't wanna pick a number outta the sky 20, 22, 25, like what's the right number? I think there should be some thought to go into that. That's Speaker 8: Why we need the information first. So get us the headcount information, which is done for staffing and facility utilization and then we can have that discussion. Speaker 1: Yeah, a hundred percent we can get that information. You would Speaker 4: Just to be clear, you'd need a little more information than that.
We would have headcount information, you would need facilities information, you would need to know categorical programming, you would need to know office space. There would be a lot of things that would go into that contractual what's in the CBAs, which is fine. And we can do that if that's what the board, the board is directing. We are fine to take a look at can we reduce class sizes if that's a goal. What I think what we'll find in the end, which this is my, I like to call it an an educated guesstimate, is that we can happen in pockets in our district and in some places where it's overcrowded, meaning
that there's no more space available, that if we're at a hundred percent or 95% capacity, for example, then the, they would then have a decision to the board, and I'm looking 5, 6, 7, 8 steps down the road to look at redistricting at some level. That's awesome. Like red attendance boundaries, redrawing the attendance boundaries if we want it to be even across all elementary elementaries in terms of class size and or if we're looking at the secondary. But we are fine to do that. I I, I saw the string of emails, I didn't see all of them. I don't know if someone took me off, but I did see the original intent and I'm fine with doing that.
Speaker 7: President Blake. Speaker 1: Trustee Janis. Speaker 7: So my question regarding these two items that you propose Trustee Butell is how does it specifically tie into our strategic plan? And, and because every, every decision we make at this board should reflect what is currently happening within our strategic plan. So how does that tie into our current strategic plan? Speaker 8: Well, I didn't go through the like the projects for this year specifically, but to me, under our vision for our students,
we have indicated in many areas that we hope for them to make progress. And personally, I feel when you have smaller class sizes, it's easier for more individual attention, which would allow for students to make greater growth and to become more proficient in those areas. So that's that piece of it. The school of choice piece really comes in more from a funding perspective. And would we, if we have declining enrollment, would we need, I mean, and they could be opposite each other, right? But do we need additional students in order to be able
to have the funding that we need in order to do the programs that we even currently have? Speaker 7: Thank you. Yeah, I guess I, I did, Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just wanted to throw in there just what you said, but make it clear, I think that those two issues that you raise are almost in direct contrast to each other. If we do one, it's going to adversely impact the other. Speaker 7: Yeah, and I, I just wanted to comment on, on what Superintendent Russo brought up at the end of his comment and that I think especially if you're gonna try and tap into the issue of smaller class sizes, we have
to be really cognizant of the fact that it has been decades since we've looked at redistricting. And one thing I think that our district prides itself on is equitable services for all students within this district. And so my concern with trying to focus on smaller class sizes is that you will have to look at the imbalance that could potentially happen within the district and we would have to be really cognizant of how that would impact student learning. Speaker 1: Just to comment again though, but is it, is it, it's also an issue
of equity if you've got one elementary where the classes are 20, 22 kids and you've got another one with the classes are 30. Absolutely. Speaker 7: Absolutely. And to me, addressing that issue goes to looking at redistricting versus, you know, trying to come up with a solution when the problem is there and you just aren't willing to address it. And for me, that is the issue of redistricting. I mean, it's been decades since our district has done it and especially with declining enrollment. For me personally, I think it's, it's a question that is sitting there like a big elephant in the room
that we're dancing around. Speaker 1: Any other comments? Trust yba. Speaker 13: So our conversation has kind of morphed and kind of moved around. I'm interested in hearing some of the information, but I just do wanna remind the board that if we get to redrawing our attendance boundaries, which you are right, has not been done in many years. I have a very clear meeting of the board, a very clear memory of that board meeting that happened in Adam's auditorium where there was hours of public comment and you know, my personal experiences
that resulted in my children being redistricted, it resulted in a district line going down the middle of my sub. So I'm not saying we don't need to do it, I'm saying we just need to be very aware of what it will do to families and very intentional if we decide to make any moves in that direction, Speaker 4: I offer something. Thank you. I understand that the original question was about should we open our district at K one, for example, for school of choice? And the other was should we look at lower class sizes, right? These are like things that boards will take up
and the superintendent and their teams will come back with data and et cetera. There are models out there where k where k when we open our, our district to school of choice for K one, it does help us fill seats from K all the way to 12. So we get 13 years of that student. So even if they're a school of choice student from Utica or a bordering community, they feel like, like they, they're in the Rochester community. There's models across Oakland County that do that. When we talk about, when we talk about the Class size issue, I I I, I'm a, I'm a hundred percent fine with going through this entire process.
I just want the board to know and our community to know that even if we end up doing that to, to we end up drawing lines of redistricting, we still might have pockets of unequitable situations where we have 22 kids in a second grade room at school A and 27 kids at school B in a second grade room because the minute you redistrict people then move. We have move-ins, PowerSchool, predictive, our predictive numbers then change, which is fine, but you're never going to get
complete equity across the district. And I just want the community to understand what that means, right? For example, we have a hundred set, we just noticed that our prediction is 174 student loss. We don't lose them in one grade at one building. So we could lose 50 kids at the across four middle schools and really it reduces our class sizes by three or four in our elective areas. For example, we might lose 60 kids at the elementary and if that's across 13 elementary schools at 252 classrooms, we're not going to get
complete parody across all of our grades. K five. I just want the the board and the the community to understand how that works. Because when we say like there's been things thrown around by, in this community and by this board specific board members who have said, well we have 2000 open seats. They don't occur at Stony Creek. 2000 seats doesn't occur at Delta Kelly. It happens where you have 22 students in a second grade room, but you have 27 over in another school. Thank you. Speaker 1: All right, so back to, because then Speaker 8: Blake, Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 8: So do we need to make an official motion or is it just understood at this point that we'd like
to see the information on? Where are the 2000 open seats so that we can start to figure out some of the answers to these questions? It sounds like we need to know where are the open seats in our district and we need to understand the head count and stuff by building to, so we can see where might it make sense to be addressing some of these questions. And, and to address Trustee Ann's point, if she's worried about a strategic plan, I'm sure we can tie it to one of those 19 strategic plans. They are certainly broad enough that we can do that. Speaker 4: I, I'm, I'm happy to provide, I'm sorry, I'm happy
to provide for the board if they'd like, what the headcount will be, what our prediction is, headcount by building for next year. I don't think you'll find where 2000 open seats are at each single school because we still have move-ins and move outs between March 9th and August 31st. But I'm happy to provide it. Speaker 1: Right, and we, we did the facility study and we found, you know, some of the buildings were 103% of capacity and some are like 78%. So I think what we need to do is get our heads together as a board and figure out exactly the questions that we want answers to so you're not, you
and your staff are not spending their time spinning your wheels or doing things that are not pertinent to what we're looking for, but just have this in your mind that these are things that we're talking about that it sounds like we have a number of people who are interested in No, we don't need to, we don't need to set. Will you speak to one another? Regular. All right, so is there anything else that we need on that topic? Okay then item 7.3 is the strategic plan update. Mr Har Ruso, Speaker 4: I have the strategic plan update. I believe that our board was provided with the hard copies from this. If, if not, there you go.
If not, they'll be provided to you. Speaker 1: Okay. They'll Speaker 4: Be provided to you. Before we close today, plan nine. We have plan nine, plan 13 and plan 14 as an oral update for the board and for our community. Plan nine is to implement safety and security upgrades and refinements. Plan nine focuses on implementing safety and security upgrades and refinements across the district. The visitor management system implemented in 25 26 school year is a component of strategics security solution and is built on the crisis alert infrastructure. The system enables dynamic reporting and real time logging of both students
and visitors at each site. The strategics infrastructure was fully implemented in spring 25. The visitor management system includes one office, one main office kiosk inside each of our four built of our buildings and one to two vestibule kiosks depending on the site. In the fall, a district wide campaign was launched to provide a clear, provide to clear directions for signing in and signing out of each building. As part of the deployment staff receive training on how to effectively use the system. Since its initial launch, the secondary schools have utilized the visitor management system to assist with student check-in and checkout processes which have created greater
efficiencies for attendance. As of March 6th, 2026, a total of 82,527 individuals have checked in and out of our system. This includes 55,688 students and 26,839 visitors. Strategics has recently re released a more robust version of the visitor management system, which will be integrated into our kiosks over the summer in 2026. Not only would it be easier usage from both the user end, but for individuals monitoring the system. The only thing I will add to this writeup is that to think that we are able to track this right Dr.
DeLuca at 26,839 visitors across all of our 23 sites electronically is something that was not done just a year and a half ago. So it's incredible. Plan 13, strengthen the tool and process for non-teacher evaluations. The vision for this plan is to ensure evaluation structures continue to evolve alongside the needs of our students and educators. While our existing systems have served us well, our goal now is to build upon that foundation shifting toward a model that prioritizes continuous growth and provides timely, relevant
and personalized feedback for non-teaching staff. The committee is making steady, measurable progress toward the goal of universal implementation by September 1st, 2026. When considering administrative and athletic leadership, the committee has successfully updated and communicated the new evaluation tools and procedures for non-union staff and athletic directors, ensuring those roles have clear modernized benchmarks for success. For collaborative development, the committee is leveraging a unique partnership through Oakland School's Human Resource Leadership Academy. A specialized team which is led by one of our own HR supervisors, includes member
and includes a member of our clerical staff is currently developing an updated paraeducator evaluation tool. Any questions there? Speaker 1: Any questions so far? Trustee lacoe or Trustee Osba Speaker 13: I in the non-teaching staff I heard you mention athletic directors and administration. Is that building administration or central administration or both? Speaker 4: Mr. Murphy? Speaker 3: Yeah, those are for non-union administrators. So central office administrators and then athletic directors who are part of that group too. But we decided to kind of branch off their evaluation
to do a little more specific to their role. Speaker 14: Thank you. Speaker 1: Anyone else? Speaker 8: Mr. President? Speaker 1: Look who we i'd. Speaker 8: I suppose I'd like to raise a question of privilege to be honest, but that's a Robert's rule term when you're having trouble hearing, I guess in the meeting, honestly, I know Mr. Russo's got his sheet and he's reading it. I wonder if we would be interested in just including these write-ups in our board packet so that we can read them and the community would be able to read them. 'cause I'm sitting three people away
and just the way this room is constructed, it's very resonant and the sound is bouncing everywhere. I can't hear anything so it's hard to ask questions when I can't even really hear what's going on. Speaker 1: Well I usually, we receive these in hard copy and we didn't today, so I understand the concern, Speaker 8: But even the community, instead of receiving a hard copy at my desk here, it'd be nice if we could just include it in the board packet itself. And also maybe the sound issue just as a musician, I'm trying to think like what if we had shells or something behind here so that it dampened some of the sound that's bouncing everywhere. Well
Speaker 1: I'm not a sound expert, but if the administration wants to look into doing something like that, I'll let them decide to do that. Did you sell Speaker 8: This Speaker 13: Building? Actually Speaker 8: Buildings that have Speaker 1: I'm Plan 14. Please Speaker 4: Be quiet. I'll just move on to Plan 14 focuses on developing additional training materials for business operations. The internal controls for the business office have been updated and changes to the internal controls are in process of being implemented. The updates have been shared with principals and administrators. Feedback is also being obtained from other groups, including clerical staff, but the director of financial services position currently
unfilled work has slowed on the strategic plan but is still expected to be completed by the end of the school year for full implementation for the 26 27 school year. Speaker 15: Any questions on that Trustee? Lacoe? Speaker 8: Alright, I guess my general perspective from, or my general question from your perspective, what is the baseline problem we're trying to solve in this plan and what improvements are we looking to see by June, 2026? Speaker 4: Just for Plan 14, Speaker 8: Right, Speaker 4: Mr. McDaniel? Speaker 15: Yeah, I would say it's better knowledge amongst all
of our staff of our district operations. For example, there, there may be an employee that only does it, one reimbursement maybe takes one field trip per school year and they're unfamiliar with it. So trying to get information out to all staff members in a easy to find way that they can access and be knowledgeable about our, our practices. Speaker 8: I guess, I guess when I'm asking about a baseline, I'm just trying to think how are we, how are we going to know in June, 2026 that we've improved on that if, if we've improved on better knowledge of these things? Speaker 15: Yeah, I think there's a, a couple measures of, one is we,
there's probably more documents, there's more information out there and available to staff members as well as hopefully less issues, right? If they can find the information in the process quickly and easily, then we shouldn't have to redirect them to what the process is. Speaker 8: So are we tracking how many issues we had at the beginning of the year so that we can know at the end of the year if, if there are fewer? Speaker 15: It depends on the issues. Not all issues are being tracked, but some of the one, the major ones that we want to correct are Speaker 8: Which ones do we track.
For instance, Speaker 15: I would say, you know, one that comes to mind is any issues with reimbursements. So if somebody say asks for reimbursement but does not show, let's say they're at a conference and so I'm at a conference and I go to Applebee's and I pay with a credit card and I sign the sheet and I just turn that in. Well, I can't say for certain without the itemized receipt that you didn't purchase alcohol and the district is reimbursing alcohol. So I would say that's, you know, one that we're trying to fix. Speaker 7: Trustee Blake? Speaker 15: Trustee Janis.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I, I think if our trustee Kui would look at the second to last paragraph, there's an example of how it would help with efficiencies, which I would appreciate if I was especially a staff member in this district and had to track my mileage instead of submitting, you know, a map that shows my distance. If there was an automated way to do that and it looks like you know what you're trying to implement, which is the automatic mileage calculation that seems like it would be a lot more efficient
and a lot less paper. So that's a good thing. Speaker 1: Anything else on that? Trustee Loon? Speaker 12: So I had a hard time hearing as well. Are we looking at like a digital form that everybody's filling out type thing? Like for reimbursements? Because for example, my husband's company, they have an Excel spreadsheet and it has the mileage right in it. You type what you drove it, calculates it, boom, done print. Speaker 15: Yeah, so you know, if we're using the mileage example, yes we're looking to create a digital form that will, I think pull from Google for mileage and then automatically reimburse that.
So for example, right now if I were to be reimbursed as, you know, a staff member say driving to Grand Rapids for a conference, then I would have to print out the map to, you know, to wherever that address is in Grand Rapids, submit it, business office would do the math and then double check it and make sure that the map was there. If the map wasn't there and I just did the math, well that means everything's delayed because now I have to ask you for the map and remind you of what the process is. So in the future, assuming that we can get this to work like we think we can, then I'll just put in the address,
Google will automatically take care of that for me. And then the business, that will already be the check that the business office needs to reimburse for that mileage. So quicker reimbursements and less paperwork in that example. Speaker 1: Thank you. Anything else on that one? Okay, so then we are now moved on to, do you have any more on the strategic plan? No. Okay. So we're moved on to 8.1, which is our new business 8.1 Adams High School countertops. That's an action item with Mr. DeLuca, I believe.
Speaker 19: Thank you. President Blake. The district advertised a request for proposals for the, at Rochester Adams High School food countertops project on February 12th, 2026. In the local publication, the Rochester Post and posted RFP documents on the purchasing pages of the district wipe website Sigma and bid net Direct. On February 12th, 2026, the district received seven responses for two categories of construction trade on the due date. A public reading of bids received was conducted on February 24th, 2026 at 2:00 PM The funding request is to replace the countertops of the foods room at Adams High School.
The scope of the project is to replace the existing, existing plastic laminate countertops that are failing and warping with solid surface Corian countertops. The solid surface co countertops are resistant to water, moisture and LA will last longer than traditional plastic laminate countertops. Included in the scope is providing new sinks and faucet as well. The existing countertop sinks and faucets at Adams High School are 20 plus years old and a need of replacement. We have completed similar projects in the food C classrooms at Stony Creek High School and Adams High. Rochester High School bids reviewed and evaluated by a team by Frank Rewal and Son and Pete cio, director of Capital Projects
for Rochester Community Schools. And all accepted bids were found to be initially compliant with the required specifications per the detail in the bid summary. The bids were analyzed on bid content, completeness, completeness, inclusion of required submittals and compliance with required specifications. Interviews and evaluations were conducted according to the attached documentation and recommendations submitted by Mike of Frank Al and Sons was reviewed by Pete CIO and Jennifer Fickle, our purchasing supervisor. We, based on this information, we were recommended the Board of Education award, the following contracts, a millwork
to BJ Construction Services for $36,900. B Plumbing First plumbing for $9,250 for a total of $46,150 for the contract sum of $446,150. We recommend the Board of Education approve the allowances and contract construction maintenance fees as detailed in the attached analysis and amount of $36,398 for a total of $82,548. There's a lot. Speaker 1: Okay, so is there a motion to approve the Adams High School Food Countertops project
in the amount of $82,548 coming from the sinking fund as presented, moved by Trustee sba, supported by Trustee Butell? Any discussion? Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? Aye. That's a six oh vote. Motion passes. Now we're on to 8.2. Change orders again, Mr. DeLuca, Speaker 19: Mr. President, if I can bring a, a guest to the table, Mike from Frank Rewal for this one to join me. Would you approve that?
Speaker 1: That's fine. Thank you Speaker 19: Sir. This change order closes out four projects and requests additional funding for one project. The two non sinking fund projects that were completed are the filter first phase one project funded by the general fund grant. And the other project was for the renovation of the Stony Creek serving area funded by the food service fund. These projects were completed for less than the original funding request approval. The Sinking Fund Pro program closes two recently completed projects and requests additional funding for one project. The two projects that are being closed with surplus funds are one, the water infiltration project
for Adams High School, Rochester High School, and Hugger two, the pool filter replacement project for Adams, Stony Creek and Rochester High School. The sinking fund project that needs additional funding is the Adams Storm water project. Additional funding is needed to address the, the additional drainage work that it will be was discovered during the construction activities last summer during excavation activities, it was discovered that there were sections of broken and undersized piping in the main entrance drop off loop, loop and auditorium parking lot that needed to be replaced. In addition, it was determined that an additional manhole, an increased piping size would be needed
to better drain the water from the main entrance and courtyard area. The additional manhole will be provided will provide a more direct route for stormwater to flow to the courtyard area from the courtyard area, excuse me, and stormwater system in lieu of flowing it in lieu of flowing into an existing manhole that, that, that it does. Now, based on this information, we recommend the board of Education approve the change order for s sinking fund projects in progress and the amount of an increase of $607,792. And I yield it back to you Mr. President. Speaker 1: Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the s sinking fund change orders
for completed projects and projects in process as presented in the amount of $607,792? Speaker 7: So moved. Speaker 1: Trustee Alba? Trustee Beel, any discussion? Speaker 7: President Beel or president? Sorry, Blake. Speaker 1: Trustee Ennis, Speaker 7: I just had one quick question and that was regarding, I understand that you know, they're, you're using some of the funds that were from the, the general fund grant and then the Stony Creek service
or serving area, the food service fund. My question is, there's a lot of regulation around the usage of food, food service funding. Am I thinking of the wrong bucket of money that comes from utilizing that money? Are we able to shift it as you're proposing? That's my, I guess it's more for Mr. McDaniel. My question. Speaker 15: Yeah, so I, I think these change orders are closing out the projects, the additional requests specific to Adams will come out of the sinking fund. So to, to answer your question, no,
we cannot use food service fund for the Adams Stormwater project. Speaker 7: Thank you. Speaker 1: Any other discussion? Trustee Alba? Speaker 13: Can you tell us a little bit, this may be a question for you sir. I appreciate you being here. So as a parent of Adams students, the drainage has long been an issue over there flooding in the cafeteria, I think there was a baseball field behind the building that was moved up the hill to allow for drainage. So I think this is like maybe the third time we've tried to solve this problem. Can you speak to the history and why this will solve the problem forever?
Speaker 1: That's why Mr. GaN you's here. Speaker 16: So this is the third project. The first, the first project really was work just within the courtyard as, as you said, the baseball field was moved and there was a retention basin put out there and the first project was within the courtyard itself that did not do the project. It did, you know, not solve the problem. So the engineers went out, they did the entire system, took the old drawings and what was there and basically they came up with a new system that worked. But there was a couple of things that were found while we were doing that system that added
to the problem that they were have why the water was backing up into the cafeteria. If you can imagine water, right, it takes the easiest path of resistance, right? And the piping was running in the wrong direction when it was originally installed and the water's getting diverted around corners. And so when this was all dug up, the engineer basically make it a straight run so that water does not back up into the cafeteria interior of the school. There it goes all the way down to the gym I think at times. But so that, that's why this is needed.
It was discovered last year during this process we could not do all the work. We would not have had time to open up the parking lot before school started when this was right at the end of the work. And it is very technical work. It's right at the front entrance. The columns that are holding up the canopy that's over the entrance and so forth. This work goes right underneath that. So it's a very complicated, so we couldn't do it last year with the project. Speaker 13: So this is kind of like where you find the problem and you open up the wall in your house and you find more is there and this is this, this piece of it, correct me if I'm wrong,
is kind of a continuation of the bigger fix. Speaker 16: That is correct. Speaker 13: Thank you. I appreciate the clarification. Speaker 1: Any other discussion on this issue? Okay, so we're voting on motion to approve syncing from change orders for completed projects and projects and process as presented the amount of 607,000 7 92. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any nays? Okay, that's a six. Oh, I actually think this is a good time to take our five minute break before we get into the next topic. Speaker 4: It is gonna be a video that takes us a little bit back about Michigan School funding basics so you can understand
how we are funded, how we got here. And then I will have a 10 or 11 slide presentation on what the enhancement millage is, how it came about, et cetera. Speaker 20: There is nothing more important right now than our kids' education, but understanding how we fund our schools. Not so easy. Before 1994, things were simpler. Local property taxes funded local schools, but that created problems. People were upset over high property taxes and there were big funding gaps between school districts around the state. So in 1994, legislation was placed on the ballot. It was called proposal. A Michigan voters approved it
and school funding in Michigan changed dramatically after proposal. A local homeowners property taxes no longer funded local schools. Instead, a statewide education tax of six mills on all property was established. Other sources like state sales and income taxes, lottery revenue and use taxes also contribute. So while local homeowners felt relief, small businesses did not proposal a limited how much this tax can increase by 5% or the rate of inflation. After proposal, a districts began receiving a per pupil payment for the state called the foundation allowance.
The state's lowest funded schools received a basic level of funding from the state. Over time, this narrowed the funding gap between school districts. Let's take a closer look at how the state allocates funds to school districts. The first step is to count the students. They do this twice, once in October, once in February. Each district's enrollment is calculated by adding 90% of the current October count to 10% of the previous February count. The state decides the amount of foundation allowance for each school district and multiplies that number by the number of students in the district. The foundation allowance has two components, state aid
and local non-homestead property taxes. The state calculates their portion of the foundation allowance as if the district is collecting 18 mills, whether it actually does or not. If the voters do not approve the 18 mills levy, it does not receive the full foundation allowance. With taxpayer approval, districts can also tax local homestead property to fund construction technology and purchase of land. Here's how Rochester compares to some other districts in Michigan. As you can see, Rochester Community School's Foundation Allowance is quite modest. Rochester Community Schools plans a budget for every fiscal year that is
sustainable and promotes growth. Minimizes impacts on student programs is team-based supports. The district's strategic plan is open and transparent. While the foundation allowance is the major source of funding for Rochester Community Schools, it's not everything. It also gets a tiny bit of federal funding. Inter-district funding comes from the county Act 18 special education tax. Let's take a closer look at where that revenue comes from. It includes the renewable 18 mil non-homestead property tax tuition from special programs, dues
and fees, community service like preschool and other miscellaneous sources. So how does the district spend its funds? It budgets in four main buckets. Instruction 60% that salaries for teachers to educate our kids and supportive services. 38% like counselors, speech therapists, psychologists, social workers, athletics, transportation operations and maintenance administration and community service such as recreation and enrichment programs and school aged care. And finally, debt service and capital outlay like paying for copiers,
furniture and equipment. Most of what school districts spend their money on is salaries and benefits for teachers and support staff. That makes up to 82% of the RCS budget and the district carefully monitors the budget to make sure it doesn't overspend. The district also maintains an adequate fund balance to make sure it has enough money to continue operations in case of surprise expenses or state revenue shortfalls. This is especially important since school districts don't receive the first payment of the year until October after school starts. It sure is complicated, but here are three things to know.
One proposal, a limits how much funding Rochester Community Schools or any local district can raise through property taxes. Two Rochester Community Schools performs competitively on a modest foundation allowance. Three Rochester Community Schools maintains an adequate fund balance to hedge against uncertainty and ensure stable operations. So thanks for watching and thanks for caring about our children's education. Speaker 4: Okay, so our first slide that we're gonna discuss today is what is a regional enhancement millage. You learned that since state, you've already learned that since 1994. The state controls our school funding. The exceptions that we have currently are
bonds and sinking funds. What bonds and sinking funds are used for a bond is we can use it for capital improvements sinking like projects for, for our facilities, et cetera. Sinking funds can be used for maintenance, for tech, for buses, for things that, that, that are adjacent to instruction and to bonds. When we have our, because of our sinking fund and when we got it, we cannot purchase buses out of our sinking fund because it wasn't approved when we got that. What happened? Just was that a weird noise? Sorry. Okay, so what a, what a regional enhancement millage is.
Cons, constituent school districts can request a regional enhancement millage proposal be, be put before voters must be proposed on a countywide basis. It passes or fails on, on a county-wide basis, not by local communities. So everyone in the county has a chance to vote if it's, if it's approved tonight. If it's not approved tonight, it still might be, we will get to that in a minute. It still might be. All voters have a yes or no answer, but our board is being asked to pass a resolution or not pass the resolution tonight on whether it should go to voters for a vote if approved.
The intermediate school district collects and distributes funds equally to all public school districts and academies in the county on a per student basis. And each district has local control over how the money is spent unlike bonds. Just gimme one second slide back. The unlike bonds or sinking funds that are restricted funds, or like some of our grant dollars that are restricted, that we can only spend in certain buckets and enhancement millage is unrestricted funds raised by local communities. So we could use them for a lot of things. Our next slide just shows you Michigan Counties with, who have passed an enhancement
millage in the state of Michigan. I wanna draw your attention to Wayne and Macomb County on only just to take notice of that because those are, those are border districts that are able to provide a little more resources and, and staff et cetera because of, because of the, the millage that they have passed, the enhancement millage in the county. An example, I'll just give you an a brief example. We border Macomb County. Utica has enhancement millage like all of the other districts inside of Macomb County in UCS. They, they get an extra $420 per pupil
annually that equates to about 10 and a half million dollars to them annually. Whereas we do not have that option inside Oakland County. And it may be the will of the people of Oakland County that that's not what they want. I'm an Oakland County resident as well. Whether I vote yes or no is up to me, but I'm as your superintendent, I'm telling you, just giving you comparisons to what the reasons are for why this is brought about. I'm gonna spend a couple seconds on that as well. This has been discussed in this county for the course of 15 years of whether should we go for it? Should we not go for it? What are the pros?
What are the cons, et cetera. This is not new in terms of its I idea or concept. Like I said, this has been talked about for 15 years. Next slide please. This slide I illustrates and it's kind of, if you can see it from the crowd, that's it's little hard to see with the numbers. But in 2010, 2011, what this graph is showing is that our foundation allowance was nine one $9,116. And the rate of, and by the rate of inflation it was 94 40. So already in 2010, we were underfunded
by $300 per pupil under inflation. And as inflation rose, our pure pupil allocation did not rise at the rate of inflation. As you see at the end here and projected in, or 24 25, we received two thousand two hundred ten thousand two hundred thirty five dollars per student. The rate of inflation, if it grew at that same rate, would've been, we should have been funded at a base level at 13,140. There are other grants and other monies we receive. We receive state grants, we receive federal grants. We there, there's other monies we receive. Those are one time monies that are volatile,
Bless you, and not sustainable. And not sustainable annually. It's not something we can plan for. We can't budget for it. We can't, we can't budget for one-time monies that we think may or may not go away. I'll give you a couple examples, and this is not a hit on the legislator legislature, but two years ago we were presented with a budget, lemme start over. Two years ago, the governor presented a budget that when was supposed to go through the process that it's going through now that the governor presents a budget, the house takes a look, the senate takes a look. They've all, they all give their own versions. Say these are our priorities.
They try to meet in the middle. That base foundation that was proposed from the governor that we thought was coming up until October 1st, which is two months past the legal deadline, they should give us money and approve a budget was wiped out, completely wiped out. There was no increase. So we can't plan for things that are one-time funds or at the will of the political winds of change at, in Lansing and or the federal level. I I will. Another example of this, a real life example is 31 31 AA funding, which is stands,
which really is about safety and security. Not, I could go in about 20 different ways on this, but 31 AA funding. We have a robust number that gives us funding for two years for safety and security. But those are one-time things. If that goes away in two years and right now there's Republicans and Democrats that are deciding should there be block grants? Should this be a foundation, a per pupil allowance? They're discussing how they want to fund us. It's not about whether they would do or not. It's about the how. And if these go to block grants and we have 31 AA dollars that go away, we should not be hiring staff to have a sustaina to,
to put them on a annual budget if that funding is going to go away. Next slide please. So the proposal is this, that in on August, on August 4th, the proposal is 1.5 mils to be levied over six years. It generates approximately $781 per pupil annually in, in Rochester. And I'll get to what that really means in a couple slides for a six year period for, for, for the school districts in Oakland County at approximately $300 per year at tax on a home valued at 400,000.
Collection will begin in December 26th if successful. Next slide. So these next two slides are just two different ways to look at some really good information. August 4th ballot, one millage 28 districts where we're going to, if if passed, it would be $781 per pupil per year. The levy is 1.5 mils And the collection is December 26. Again, this says at the bottom, real just to reference that these, these are general fund monies and passes for an entire county or not. I think the, the good comparison to make is in terms of all county or not, is the transportation,
the bus transportation one that happened a couple years ago, whether you voted yes or no, the entire county either receives the public transportation that was provided or doesn't. Some communities needed it, some communities didn't, but it passed on a county wide basis. Can you go to the next slide please with voter approval? The region, so this is another slide that basically says the same thing, but when we talk about the $781 per pupil, that's the average of year 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, and six. So what these are, are projections of student enrollment and inflation for, for home prices going out six years
to the best of the ability, right? When we say $781 per pupil, that could fluctuate. If there's a recession and things go down, that could go down drastically. If inflation, it goes crazy and how, and home values go to, you know, five, six, 7%, then that we receive more because you're, it's based on the value of your home. Next slide please. Okay, something that, just to address this. So one of our community members spoke today and talked about what our priorities are and what our, and I don't think the word was planned, but thought that this might be
what we planned to spend the money on. What I wanted to do is give what the title says of this is RCS impact current and potential opportunities. What this really is, is just putting a, shedding a light on things that we can spend, general fund dollars, sinking fund dollars, bond dollars, and I'll go through all of that in each one of these pictures and where money comes from, et cetera. But I wanted to give the community an idea of what big ticket items are, for example, and what ongoing costs are. For example, these are not promises of what we'd spend the money onm gonna say that again for the,
for everybody, these are not promises to what we'd spend the money on, but for example, the school safety in your top left picture, there are a pa, indoor door security system that has, Dr. DeLuca is about 20 years old in this district. Speaker 19: That's correct. Actually the infrastructure and wiring is even older than that. Speaker 4: So the infrastructure and the wiring is older than that. It would cost between four and a half and 5 million to replace that at all 23 facilities. So we put, I put that on there as a consideration. I'll go through all of these student technology. We right now refresh our Chromebooks for every third
grade level and we do this for everybody. And it costs about between 1.2 and 1.4 million per year, depending on the size of that grade level. We can use sinking funds to do that. That doesn't mean I'm gonna take, if, if, if a enhancement military passes I'm, it doesn't mean that I'm spending money on that. If it doesn't pass, we have a sinking fund that we use for it right now, staff technology, 2.8 million for, for every four or five years auditoriums at the high school. Some of that can be out of bond dollars, but it costs $9 million to refurbish the auditoriums.
That's seats, that's lighting, that's sound systems. Carpet, Playground equipment is about $1 million total for all of our elementary schools. If we were at place. That special education sensory spaces is 105,000 total to create them calm spaces and, and eight to 10 new classrooms. If you look at those side by side, the calm spaces has 200,000 total, that's across the district and eight to 10 new classrooms is 200,000 per room. So we do get reimbursed a little bit on special education. We don't get reimbursed enough. In fact, John James was here talking earlier.
He put forward a bill to try to get a, a package of one-time funds to hit us, but no one is really speaking up at the federal level about how we get special education dollars and how we've not gotten it for 50 years. So we have $200,000 per room at a special education for a special education classroom, a new one to set up that includes teacher salaries and benefits plus the supplies, everything we need to set up a classroom and go high school athletic fields, 5.1 million and you'll see classroom furniture at the elementary, if we were to place all of it, it's four and a half middle schools, 3.3 high schools, 4.2.
The reason we put, sorry, the reason we have been very intentional about saying the RCS impact current and potential opportunities is that we don't want to, I I I'm not here to sell the enhancement millage. I'm not here to say it's good. I'm not here to say it's bad. It is up to our board to say we want this to the voters or no, we don't. But I wanted the community to have an idea of what things cost. Because if I came to you and said, if we get this enhancement millage, I promise you I'm going to spend blank on blank. If it doesn't happen, we have to figure out a way to do that
in a, in a, in a state where the, our funding is volatile and we have to figure out a way, are we gonna cut other programs in order to do that? It doesn't mean that because I, I don't want to make commitments of like, yes, we're gonna spend this amount on this, this amount on this, this amount on this. As we get closer to it, as we get closer to August 4th, we will have more definitive about our needs based on a budget that we know is coming. Right now, we have no idea. We have a, we have a governor who says we have of $250 as a per pupil expenditure and we don't know where that's gonna land.
To make promises for August 4th about what we're gonna spend money on for the next six years is very shortsighted for this community. That's my opinion as a superintendent and as a member of this community. Next slide. So I am gonna talk about the first thing here very briefly. I'm gonna turn it over to Mr. Murphy to talk specifically about rising healthcare costs, competitive wages, categorical teacher retention bonus that we, that we have expenses going out. The first bullet point I will cover by just saying increased cost of construction good and services since 2020. 2021 is about 30% up.
We did not plan for that to happen post COVID. When we go to replace our drainage at atoms, it's a lot different than it was a five year, five year ago. Price is a lot different than it is now. For example, Mr. Murphy. Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think I'm breaking any news here talking about rising healthcare costs, but just to, so you understand the scope, you know, over a thousand people rely on our healthcare as a, as their direct employer. That number, that total of 25 million was 20 million not too long ago. We've seen, we've realized double digit increases the last
two years increases between, you know, two and 10% in the years before that. So overall, that's a rising, rising amount of money that it costs the district each year. Again, as a reminder, we're considered an 80 20 school district, which means the district realizes 80% of the cost of healthcare plan and the employee contributes 20%. Second one here is competitive wages. As the prior slide showed, you know, over time it does get difficult to compete
with two counties nearby that have more funding allocated for salaries or other items. I think we pay very fairly, of course our people work very hard. We want the best of the best. We want to attract the best of the best. We want to keep the best of the best in order to do so, we have to remain competitive. So that, that's just another cost that, you know, over time increases not just for us, but for all of all school districts, all society, I suppose. And then the third thing I wanted
to highlight was something we added into the last teacher contract, which does have a cost to it, but it was intentional, I believe on both the, the, the teacher's union and the school district. And we realized that we have an attractive special education program in this district. And the, the shortage of, of teachers that you hear about so frequently is really accentuated with the special ed staff. There's less special educators statewide than there are teachers available to teach some of the other core classes. We instituted a sort of a retention bonus that scales up.
It doesn't matter if you were here for 20 years or two when the contract was agreed to, if you remained with us the following year, your salary went up by a thousand dollars and then if you stayed the next year, 2000, scaling up to five and then staying at five. So is that working time will tell, but I do think it puts us at a possibly a competitive advantage to recruit and retain those educators that are, that highly and spec specially trained to do those very, very difficult classes. The downside is because our special education department
and our classrooms are, are a successful model, those, those rooms continue to grow. So even what we budgeted a few years ago for those classes, we are expanding categorical programming due to the need in the district. So that amount of money over time will continue to grow and I wanted the board to be aware of that as well. Speaker 4: Thank you Mr. Murphy. Next slide. So the timeline to come back. So local enhancement millage resolutions are adopted within 180 day period between October 30 and March 31st in February
and in March are when the are, when the Oakland County school boards were presented with resolutions for voting period about, I'm gonna say about 40% of them have already voted on this. So this slide says right here in that next bullet point, if approved by school boards representing 50% of the student population plus one student, that's the rule that if 50% of the students represented by school boards representing them, so big districts might have more students representing
the total population. Small districts have less 50% plus one, it gets on, it gets on the ballot. That has already happened based on the 40% of school districts that have voted. And I'm saying about 40%. It's what I've, I have accessed the information. Oakland School Board adopts a resolution by certify certifying the text of the, the ballot proposal to the Oakland County clerk, that hap clerk that happens in April. And then the proposed date for election would be Tuesday, August 4th, 2026. That is a general election
of all the people in Oakland County. Next slide and last slide. The board's resolution is not an endorsement of the millage itself. The board's decision is to whether to place the regional enhancement millage on the ballot and enable community voice. I I've, I've said this to our board back in September when we started talking about this as a potential possibility. This is, I have, I don't have a horse in the race in terms of, I I'm not here proposing it or being a proponent and I'm not here saying it's bad, good or indifferent. I'm the superintendent of the school district that thinks we border in Macomb County.
There's, there's reasons we could use the money. If we don't, we will figure things out. I'm going to lead either way. So I asked the board I for after April a or after I finished this Mr. President, there's a resolution for the board's consideration that has been board for a board vote for the six of you. Are there any questions? Speaker 1: Well, let me see first before, is there a motion to approve the resolution requesting regional enhancement millage election. So moved. Trustee Annis moved is their second trustee.
Okay, any discussion Trustee? Trustee Loza? Speaker 12: So one of my biggest concerns is I see rightfully so, teacher salaries, para, you know, pay increases for everybody. My concern is how can we, because it's six years, so how can we try to, if if this passes, not depend on this money, say it doesn't pass again in six years, it doesn't get renewed. How can we not be, you know, like addicted to millages to be able to ensure to pay everybody we saw it with,
you know, with grants and stuff, those positions, once that money's gone, those positions are gone. I don't want to have to accept this money and then six years down the road it doesn't pass again. And then we have to, we can't afford the teacher salaries or the increases that we have done. How can we guarantee that that's not gonna happen? Speaker 4: Well, we wouldn't guarantee anything either way. I'm just gonna be very honest to guarantee something six years out is shortsighted just being very transparent and honest. I hope that's how it's being taken. I I you're saying if it passes, you don't wanna be reliant on it, right? Yeah, I mean I, there's definitely decisions
to be made regarding that. Should it pass, right? If a perfect example is we have monies coming in from other grants that we have to say how long can we sustain certain roles, the, the salaries for the certain roles and can we use a different grant? Do we have to reimagine what the position looks like? Is is there a way to save certain programs by moving people around, et cetera. These are hap these happen very transparently and conversations for months with our cabinet team annually, whether we have an enhancement millage or not, because the grants are all over the
place and change annually. So your message is heard a hundred percent, but I just can't give you guarantees for, for six years out. Speaker 1: Trustee Butell, Speaker 8: I had two things, so I'll, I'll just say 'em both and then you can address 'em. One, we even heard a, a community member speak earlier about whether we are a donor district or not, meaning what we collect here, does it stay here or does it go elsewhere? And then the other thing I would say is that, you know, if we, if we put this on the ballot and if we want our community to pass it,
I do worry about the items that have been identified here for potential issues. Because I think our parents would want to see how is their student going to be directly affected by this. So is it, you know, the lower class sizes, is it some new program or curriculum? Is it, you know, those types of things. So those are my comments and questions. Speaker 4: Thank you. And I, I don't wanna make light of this topic, but I had it in my notes to talk about donor district.
I missed it, so thank you for catching me. The first is, so, so based on your enrollment in each community and your house value, some districts become donor districts to the county, which means they might collect, I'll give, I'm gonna give an unrelatable example and tell you exactly what we are. Some districts are way out of balance like this. Birmingham, for example, is going to collect, if this passes, would collect about $11 million and give back four so that their, their base, the Birmingham people who live in Birmingham city school district, they, that's
what they collect is 11 million, but they're only gonna get 4 million back for their students in Rochester. We would collect based on numbers that we can project right now, we would collect 10 point, 10.9 and get back 10.8. So we are an $80,000 district, donor district, so we would get about $10.8 million annually if this passed, we would collect 10.9 million from the people who live in this community being a donor district of 80,000. Secondly, you worry about what, what's identified
and how, so I I'm gonna say this, we, we were very cautious not to promise things because of things we might be like Secretary Butell, you said earlier today, talking about lower class sizes, talking about potentially bringing in K one, not that those decisions are made, but having these discussions and what we didn't wanna do is make promises about yes, if we have this money, this is exactly what we'll spend money on, lowering class sizes, et cetera. We would be looking at all of these things and and asking our community what, what they'd use it, what we'd like to see,
what they'd like to see us use it for. But we didn't wanna make commitments today because some of these things we might wanna do anyways or we might receive other funding two years from now that changes it, right? Just our, our governor's proposal, just to give you a an idea, our governor's proposal right now dumps about 600 million in literacy funding. If that happens, that's great. We can hire some people in for literacy, but it's also one time funding funding. It's no guarantee to repeat. So we can't plan six years out about, yes, we'll have a literacy coach at building a, et cetera. That's going to be sustainable. There's, there's a lot of moving parts here.
That's why we didn't wanna commit to say, yes, we will be doing this. Exactly. We would want some community input on it as well. Speaker 1: Trustee Patel. Speaker 8: And I guess I would say that, you know, even what's listed in here says potential opportunities. And I guess I would just say that if in the future if we put this on the ballot or if it gets on the ballot anyway and we think it would be beneficial, I think we will need to provide some, not guarantees, but things that we think we're doing. And I know you had talked about as we got closer to
that timeframe as we go through our budgeting process, that sort of thing. But I think it would be, it would behoove us if we did come up with, you know, for next year if it passed, here are some of the things that we would do in order to let our community understand those areas. Because a lot of what I see on here are things that, you know, could be done through the sinking fund or you know, potentially held off until we do a bond or something like that at some point with that type of money. Speaker 1: Trustee Kui.
Speaker 8: Alright, I've made several notes about this. And first I hope we can all agree that as a board we should only put something on the ballot if we think it's a good idea and we have to be honest about what this vote means because in Rochester, every school funding request placed on the ballot over the last 30 years has been fully endorsed by the board. So the claim that voting to place this on the ballot is just for voters to decide and somehow not an endorsement Doesn't make any sense. Of course, it's an endorsement. If you don't support it, you vote No, that's true.
And for over 30 years, every district in Oakland County has been fully capable of placing its own bonds and sinking funds and villages on its own local ballot to meet its own local needs without meeting county intervention. And that's how it should be. Now we're being asked to support a countywide millage that would send some of our tax dollars out of this district and into a system that decides winners and losers based largely on student enrollment. Just like Mr. Ruso just said. I was also concerned when I saw the ballot didn't mention that we're a donor district. I'm glad we cleared that up right now. But as we saw earlier too,
because Rochester's enrollment is declining, the amount that we give away is only going to grow over time. And before asking taxpayers to support this, just like Trustee Butell just said, I believe we owe the community some answers because in my opinion, RCS has no clear purpose or need for this millage. We talked about the meritorious budget award earlier today, right? We've seen recently that we're doing very well financially. We have 230 million in revenue, 48 million in reserves, and a $10 million a year sinking fund. That's like the richest in the state.
So we're not actually starved for funds. Not to mention that Oakland County has some of the highest property taxes in Michigan, and we already contribute more to state school funding than almost any other county. And we operate with larger budgets than most DIS districts in the state. So I am concerned if I'm hearing that our teacher salaries are supposedly less competitive than districts and surrounding counties because it would make me wonder where our money is going. We are hearing that Rochester needs this millage to keep up with districts like McComb and Wayne that already have enhancement millages.
But even with those enhancement millages, those districts often lack strong sinking funds and have far lower taxable values. So the comparison doesn't hold up, no disrespect intended, but I don't think that Utica is a great example because that district is so much larger than Rochester. But for an example, let's compare local funding in Rochester to Chippewa Valley and McComb because they're a lot closer to us in size. They're 108,000, we're a hundred thousand. Their local funding that they take in is 23.5 million. Ours is 33.7 million.
So we already collect over $10 million more than they do in local fund funding. And now we're being asked for more. I also saw this claim that state funding hasn't kept up with inflation, but our foundation allowance has increased by 33% over the last six years. And on top of that, in the last couple years, the state has started giving us over 2000 per student in categorical funding. That's additional. So when the per pupil spending is well over $12,000, we are well in excess of inflation.
So the question before us is, which is it? Are we in great financial shape or are we in such urgent need that we have to put a new countywide tax on the ballot? This community is extremely generous in funding our schools and our taxpayers already pay more than most to support public education. So if we're now being told that even with all of that, we still can't get enough money to teachers to stay competitive, then I would suggest that the problem is not simply revenue. The problem is how the money is being managed and the answer can't. It's, and the answer cannot be to just keep going back
to taxpayers for more. We're not in need of this millage and we shouldn't be putting it on our ballot. If we treat our taxpayers with respect, then they'll continue to respect our requests in the future when there is a real need. Speaker 14: We don't wanna be the boy who cries wolf. Speaker 13: This is not one of those times. Speaker 1: Anybody else? Is there any other trustee you wanna speak? Trustee Swell. Speaker 14: Oh, I thought he Speaker 13: Recognized me. Go ahead. So I wanna thank those of you who came out for public comment and gave us your thoughts on this. I appreciate you leaving that nice weather. I know I was reluctant in coming in here
and Trustee Loza was talking about being out with your kids, so I know we'd all rather be someplace today. So I appreciate you giving your thoughts. I do appreciate Trustee Anne's comment about it being a funding cliff, even though it is a longer funding cliff. I understand that and I appreciate Trustee Butell bringing up the donor. It is a very small amount, but it is a fact that we are a donor district. Yes, this is an endorsement. This is an endorsement of public education and of letting our voters decide if we treat the taxpayers
with respect, we will listen to them and give them a vote. We will not impose our personal political agendas for Lord knows what future purpose, to honor them. We'll hear from you. Now, this is not about whether how I will vote on the millage. It's about if you get to vote, voting against this resolution is voting against public education. It's voting against the taxpayers. I'll wait Speaker 14: Voting for money. Speaker 13: It's voting against the taxpayers deciding if you vote against this, you do not support public education.
And just like me, Speaker 14: It's bold. Just Speaker 13: All Speaker 1: Right, excuse me. We need to have quiet everyone. Please. Speaker 13: Just like many of you are calling on people to resign based on what they're doing with the Pledge of Allegiance. No comment on what you're doing. I am, I take this and your, your outrage is partially because you honor your military service as a military mom, I honor my service to public education also. And if you can't be that representative for public education and you can't give our taxpayers a decision, a vote,
you have no business being on this board. Speaker 7: President Pat, president Blake. Speaker 1: Excuse me, everyone. Trustee Enis. Speaker 7: So I will be voting to approve this countywide enhancement millage. We talk a lot at this board table about local control and community members have a right to use their voice through their vote at the ballot box on this issue. Speaker 1: Okay, everyone has spoken. All right, I'll, I will you have another thing to say? Speaker 8: I had a question. Go ahead. Okay. I I disagree of course, as you know, but if you wanted to let the voters to decide
why not put it on the November election ballot where there's 60% turnout instead of August, there's 30%. Speaker 1: I, I mean, the answer is that we didn't pick this. This is not decided by us. The check. Anything else? Alright, so I am going to share some of my thoughts now on this. First of all, the public is going to decide because this is already received more than 50% of votes we've already heard. So the, the public is going to decide this and I would just urge people to listen, read up, become educated about it and come to your decisions.
Some of the things that I think about though are that a lot of the funds that we are receiving and that we have received are allocated for specific things. There are a lot of handcuffs on what we do. So for instance, the bonds, the sinking funds, all of those things have to be used on capital type projects. They cannot be used on salaries and things like that. We receive a lot more and more and more every year. The money that we get from the state is for this or that. And it's not free for us to spend. So when I think of what I would think of some of our most entrenched problems,
which I've already mentioned is lower class sizes. We can't do much about that without more money to hire more teachers to spread that out. When I think about the teacher's wages and, and particularly I think we have an issue with competitiveness in the early years of teaching, our, my understanding is our early years are not as competitive as our later years. So in order to do that, it costs money. And it costs money that is unencumbered. We can't use bond money. We can't use sinking fund money for that. We have to have money within our general fund. So these are the kinds of things that are attractive to me.
And if I, if we do get this money, the board will have input on what we do with it. And I see some of these things on this list and I too think that's not the way I would want it to be. But that's why we will get to decide that. I, I do wanna address another thing. So I, I am gonna let people make their decisions. Maybe as we get closer, I will come out with my opinion at that time. But I'm interested, we'll see. But I, I do want to address something 'cause I hear this happen over and over again. People don't who say, it's one thing to say, I don't want to vote for this because I can't afford more taxes
or I have this reason or that reason. But a lot of people say, well, I don't wanna do it because the money's already mismanaged. There's fraud, there's waste, there's abuse, and that's all the things. So if you, and, and so whenever I've had a conversation with anybody about this, I've asked them, okay, be specific. Tell me like what is the fraud? What is the waste and abuse? Well, okay. And I can't, I'm sorry, I can't speak if everyone is talking. So I ask people, tell me what specifically don't be so vague.
And because on the one hand we have all of these outside organizations that have given us these awards, these meritorious budget awards. We have clean audits every year. We have s and p who, who did an evaluation and came very positive about the district and our strong fiscal management pro policy. So I think if you're going to say that we mismanaged money, that it's incumbent to name it, name what? Because the majority of our sal money, 82% goes to salaries. So who do you wanna get rid of? Who do you wanna fire?
Who, who is it? Which teachers do we not need? Which counselors do we not need? Which employees do you want us to fire? Or which programs do you want us to get rid of? Which classes do we no longer need? Which sports should we ax? I mean, there's gotta be something. Or some people say, well no, it's none of that. It's the administration. We wanna get rid of the administration. Okay, we wanna get, I've heard people say it's the other people up on the stage with you. Okay, who do we wanna get rid of? Should we get rid of this special education director? We don't need that, right? It's only one in five students in our district. Should we get rid of the HR person who handles a thousand employees?
Should we get rid of the curriculum? Well, if people would quit students, we wouldn't have that. We get rid of the curriculum. That's right. If, should we get rid of our curriculum director? We don't really need a curriculum director for elementary, do we? Is it that important? No, it is important. So what is it, what do you wanna get rid of as the business director? We shouldn't have a business director. We shouldn't have anybody hand handling $230 million. No. So I'm all for, can you please, I'm all for hearing. How can we be more efficient? I am all for hearing.
How can we can be more efficient? But when you ask somebody to be specific and tell you what and not use euphemisms and actually use specifics, they can't do it. Even my colleague, even my colleague who when we, I don't get paid. So that wouldn't save any money. We, we, my, my colleague has been part of, excuse me. My colleague has been part of this process for the last three years. She's been part of the budget process. She's never identified a single line item to have re replaced.
She's not said anything. She has not argued for anything specific. She identified one $40,000 invoice, which she and I together talked to our auditor and our auditor told us that that was not material. And she's, and people have said, DEI, I just heard someone out there say, get rid of your DEI director. We did that. We don't have that position anymore. So I am not saying that we have no waste or that there's no monies. Excuse me. Excuse me. I'm not saying that there's no money that can be saved anywhere. I'm saying name it. If you're going to say that there's all this mismanagement
and all this fraud, come forth with it and do it at the time that we're adopting the budget, you don't do it. When we're voting to pay for the invoices of things that we've already approved, when we, our budgeting time comes up, name it. So whether you choose to support, I'm, excuse me, I'm almost done. Excuse me, ILA, whether you choose to support or oppose this millage, that'll be your choice. But if you're gonna talk about fraud, ways to abuse mismanagement and you can't name it and you can't put dollars on it and you can't, then it's just a slogan.
You're not engaged. Point of order. Engaged in critical thinking. Mr. President, you're taking a political position. I'm almost done. And Speaker 8: Now point of order. Speaker 1: What is your point of order? Speaker 8: My point of order is that you are stating things that I have not actually said. Well, not Speaker 1: All of this is to you. Okay, Speaker 8: Well you were referencing your board colleague with gestures. I'm talking and I have not talked. Well, I will respond to you point of order comment since we've all had a chance to speak some of us more than that. I call the Speaker 1: Question, I got one person here. First Speaker 8: I call the question excuse minute, you have not been recognized.
And so point of, I hope that I have a chance to respond to you in a second with some of your questions because you're making claims about me that are not true. But, but it's, when you say words that I have not said, you're misrepresenting to me. I, and that is something you are not allowed to do about your board colleague according to Robert's rules. Speaker 1: I, whether you decide to do with the mid millage will be your vote. But if you cannot come up with the doubt, come up with the information. What are, what is this fraud? What is this waste? What is this mismanagement? What are all these terrible things that are done? Which people are you gonna fire?
Which teachers are you gonna get rid of? Then it's just a slogan. It's a political position. It's not a serious Speaker 7: Vice President Blake. Speaker 1: Trustee Anis. I'd Speaker 7: Like to call the question. Speaker 1: Okay, we have a motion to call the question. All in favor say aye. Speaker 7: Aye. Aye. Speaker 1: It's for opposed. Speaker 8: No. I wish I could have responded to your question. I take the vote. Speaker 1: That's a four two. Okay. So on our motion to approve the resolution requesting regional enhancement millage election,
all in favor say aye. Speaker 7: Aye. Speaker 1: Nays? Speaker 7: No. Nope. Speaker 1: That's a four two vote. Speaker 7: Thank you. Speaker 1: Thank you. K 8.4 is the enrichment brochure Action item with Mr. McDaniel. Speaker 15: Thank you Mr. President. I'm gonna do my best. Dr. DeLuca impression, the district advertised request for proposals for the community education brochure printing services on January 15th, 2026. In the local publication, the Rochester Post and posted RFP documents on the purchasing page of the district's website, Sigma and bid net Direct, the district received six responses on
the due date of January 29th, 2026 at 2:00 PM This purchase is for printing brochures, beginning with the 26th. 27 school year has an option to renew the contract each year for a maximum of four additional years. The current practice is to produce the brochure three, three times or printings per fiscal year for fall, winter, spring, and summer as 64 pages. But bids for additional page formats were also requested and included in the bid summary bids were reviewed and evaluated by Sarah Mallets. Our enrichment supervisor compliance with the bid requirements was reviewed by Jennifer Fickle, our purchasing supervisor. The original bid documents are on file in the purchasing
department and the bid summary is attached. The source of funding is the general fund. Based on this information, we recommend that the district award a contract to Michigan Web Press for the community education brochure printing for the 26 27 fiscal year and the amount between $9,386 and 8 cents and $16,189 and 36 cents per printing. Dependent upon the number of brochure pages for each printing. I'd also like to note that we've contacted Michigan Web Press because as we discussed at this table, we're exploring different options which may not include printing a brochure in the future.
So we've notified them they did not request to pull their bid. So we feel good about that and we'll continue to explore different options or opportunities to maybe try to cut costs down on that, that brochure, but are still in the process of exploring different options. Thank you. Speaker 1: Is there a motion to prove the community education brochure printing not to exceed 16,000 189 36 per printing? Depending on the number of brochure pages for each printing with the source of funding being the general fund as presented. Speaker 7: So moved. Speaker 1: Moved by trustee
and is supported by Trustee sba. Is there any discussion Speaker 7: Trustee? Speaker 1: Trustee Annis? Speaker 7: So I, I just had a question. Is this the current printer that we use for printing the brochure? Yes. It's okay. And then you mentioned that you had reached out to them and shared with them that, you know, we may be exploring other options in the future. Can you, just, for everyone's information here, can you explain briefly what those options might be to be an additional cost savings to the district?
Speaker 15: Sure. So with, you know, three printings per year, right at these prices, that's, you know, upwards of $48,000 at the max. So we know that our community is diverse and there's opportunities where maybe a QR code might be the better way to access this than a hard copy. We do know that they'll be sent out, what quarterly, three times a three times a year. We send out updates to our community, not just on the enrichment brochure about in the happenings of the district. So there's op maybe an opportunity there that Lori and I were discussing the possibility of maybe we could try
to, to join forces and maybe some cost savings there. I think there's opportunities for us to allow people to opt in, right? If you still want that hard copy, then maybe you send us an email or a letter or you know, go to a QR code to opt in and we still print rather than thousands of brochures, you know, however many people request. So I think there's a variety of different opportunities. We are in a digital age, so a digital option will be most likely offered sometime soon, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the hard copy brochure is going away forever.
Speaker 7: Thank you for that clarification. Speaker 1: Any other questions or discussion? Okay. For our motion to approve the community education brochure, printing not to exceed 16,000 per printing with the source of funding being the general fund as presented. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any nay? Okay, that's six. Oh, okay. The next thing on our agenda is 8.5, which is the trustee selection process and candidate selection for interviews. I wanna thank, first of all everybody who applied.
There were a large number of people who applied. A lot of people who sounded interesting and I think could be good board members. And I am happy that we have a district that we have so many people who are interested. I will say that there were two of the applications that didn't technically meet the requirements. One did not have a resume, which was required. One was after the deadline. I still gave those to colleagues and they can make their choice. Also, I just received notification that one of the applicants has decided to withdraw their application.
Gary Chai has withdrawn his application, so don't vote for him. The, the way that we're doing this is each board member has a a ballot. What they are supposed to do is take and write up to six people that they like. One would be your first choice, two, et cetera, going on down. You can vote for up to six. The first person gets six points, the second person gets five points and it goes on from there. Once everybody turns this in, I'm gonna take about five minutes. Tally this all up. We're gonna come up with the six candidates with the highest point. The board will then vote to invite those individuals
to return to be interviewed on Monday, March 23rd at this location. There'll also be an open house to meet them, followed by the interviews. So at this time will each be board member, please complete their form and pass to me once complete. Speaker 8: Mr. President, Speaker 1: Trustee Lai. Speaker 8: I had a question about the interview process for next time. Speaker 1: Okay. Do we, can we do that after or do we need it for, for your selections. Speaker 8: Oh, is there gonna be more discussion? I didn't know how you're running this section of the meeting. You want me to vote first and then we'll talk about that? Sure. Okay. Speaker 1: You wanna thank the administrators for being here tonight?
They don't need to be here for this. Actually, we're just gonna take a break now because now I need to total these. Okay, everybody. Trustees, please come back to your seats. Jason, should I sing? Oh God, do you remember that? Is that loud? You can't make me laugh at her. I'm sorry. Okay. So at this time I'm gonna go through each person's ballot and tell you in order who their first six choices are. And then I'll tell you who the people are who are going to be returning to interview. I'll start with Trustee Alba in first place.
Lauren Gracie Parker. Second place, Jamie Rockcliff. Third Jordan Hixson. Fourth. Sherry Wynn. Perdue. Fifth Brandy Miracle. And sixth is Tonita Johnson. Trustee Anis ballot. First is Jamie Rockcliff. Second is Kristen Hall. Third is Nita Johnson. Fourth. Lauren Gracie Parker. Fifth. Sherry, Wynn, Perdue. She did not put a sixth. My ballot number one. Katie Opolis. Number two.
Kristen Hall. Number three. Jamie Rockcliff. Four. Devin Bone, five. Kelly Klein and six Tanita Johnson. Michelle But's ballot number one. Jamie Rockcliff. Two. Jason Croy. Three. Kristen Hall. Four. Katie Opolis. Five. Sherry, Wynn, Perdue, and six Courtney Caldwell. That's right. And then we, those are the only ones we are considered. No, I'm sorry. For Trustee Lohan number one.
Nicholas Blache number two. Lawrence Haluka. Three. Dana Cadman and four. Stephanie Nofa. Trustee Kui one. Nicholas Blache two. Lawrence Haluka. Three. Charles Stofer. Four. Dana Cadman. So when you total that all up, these are the six people that we will be inviting back for interviews in two weeks. Jamie Rockcliff, Kristen Hall, Nicholas Blazek,
Lauren Haluka, Katie Olis, and Lauren Gracie Parker. In addition, if any of those people back out, these are the three alternates. The first two are tied. So we would have to, we would have to invite both of these. Dana Cadman, Sherry Win Perdue and Tanita Johnson are the three alternates. Again, we want to thank everybody who applied. We really do appreciate it. So I think we need a motion on this, right? Okay. So can I get a motion from the board to invite the people I just listed to interview for the vacant board seat as well as the alternates that
we will contact if someone was not able to fill their seat. So Speaker 8: Moved. Speaker 1: Trustee Anis. Trustee Butell. Seconds. Do we need any further discussion on this Trustee? Look away. Speaker 8: Just wondering if the ballot, if the ballots are gonna be included in the meeting minutes for the next one. Okay. Speaker 1: Okay. All in favor of that motion, say aye. Speaker 14: Aye. Aye. Speaker 1: Aye. No Nays. So that's a six Oh vote. And if, if, does anybody have other questions? Chris Lui. Speaker 14: Is Neil's my time? Speaker 8: Okay, there we go.
My question was in these past board appointments, 'cause we've been through this a number of times, board members have been allowed to submit a question and ask a question to the, when they, when they talk to the board president, they submit a question to the board president. So the board president can compile all the questions together and then ask their question at the interview. Are we following that same process next time? Speaker 1: I wanna read it over again because there it is in the handbook of how it can work. But I think what it's, it's also been posted Speaker 8: In the board packet. Speaker 1: Okay. But I believe what I read was that the president
or acting president will compile the questions, but what I was intending to do was ask people to send a couple questions so we can see that we don't have duplicates and make sure that the questions flow and all of those things, and then get it all together before that night. Speaker 8: I guess I'm just wondering, I know the way that it's written in our handbook, we've, we've, we keep moving more and more power to the step, to the board president's role. And the way that it's written is the board president will draft the questions with input from the board. And that just seems really vague. I mean, how, how much input are you going
to be accepting or rejecting? Are you rejecting questions behind the scenes? Are you, well, I haven't gonna be writing them all. Like, Speaker 1: Are we doing this? Well, I haven't gotten any questions to reject, but my intent was to ask people to send me the questions they'd like to use and take a look at them and go from there. Speaker 8: So more than likely we can just show you the question. We'd like to ask and ask that question at the interview. Speaker 1: I, I, I think, I don't want to promise that because I don't want to end up with crazy questions, but I'm not intending to write all the questions Speaker 8: When we interview. Is each board member gonna ask a question as we've done in the past?
Speaker 1: That's my expectation. Speaker 8: Okay. And most likely, unless it's a crazy question, we'll get to ask whatever question we write. Speaker 1: I'm not promising anything I'm promising to work with you. Speaker 8: Okay. That's, that's the answer. Speaker 14: Hold on. Let's see. Mr. President, Speaker 1: Trustee sba, Speaker 8: I have a question. Could you just repeat the names one more time please? Speaker 1: So the six people who will come are Jamie Rockcliff, Kristen Hall, Nicholas Blazek, Lawrence Haluka, Katie Opolis, and Lauren Gracie Parker. Thank you. So the, the three alternates are Dana Cadman,
Sherry Wind, Perdue, and Tanita Johnson. Thank Speaker 14: You. We did, we're done. Speaker 1: Alright. Time to listen to the public. So we're now at section nine, which is the remainder of the public comment. I will call the names and you move your way up. We have David Tallman, then Mike Reno, then Van Dale, I'm assuming that's Stephanie, Speaker 14: Please. Speaker 15: Dave Tallman. I'm a RCS alumnus and parent. And a question. Very much a super fan.
I'm not one of those meanies who want to end public education or something that we hear so much about. I'm one of the other guys. I I think that you're, you're all doing a, a good job and I think that tonight didn't go as well as I hoped it would. That I do feel like, I mean, I know all of you people and I think that you're all good public servants, but it, this has a sneakiness feeling to it to me.
The, the fact, you know, I know you didn't choose that it was on the August ballot, but you did choose when to talk about it and you did censor Mr. Kui for getting it out there. You're not shy about telling people when things are happening. You know, we get a lot of messages from the district, we get a lot of, you know, output for what's coming up. And I feel like waiting till nine 30 at night at the outskirts of town after all the other districts voted on something for something this important is diabolical. That's what I think. Thank Speaker 14: You.
Speaker 15: That's enough for tonight. Have it going. Speaker 1: Mike Reno. Speaker 3: Mike Reno, longtime resident and former board member. So for this matter that you guys went over tonight, PTA meetings don't count. And it's sort of playing off of what he said here As a taxpayer, I was first officially informed about your millage endorsement on Friday when you released this agenda. So you released it on Friday and you voted today. You know, you've been secretly talking about this for a year or more, and yet you give the public one day to offer feedback. So thank goodness we had Trustee
Carol Beth Kuey on our side. Otherwise we'd all be in the dark about this until Friday. So on behalf of the community, shame on the four of you guys. And thank you Carol Beth. So people need to know and understand what it cost Carol Beth to speak up when she exercised her constitutional free speech rights. You forced censured her, you punished her, and you punished those of us who put her there. You know, you removed her from committees and as you like to say, that's where all the real work happens, right? You also tried to publicly shame her by using district-wide communication systems
that is retaliation and it's censorship. So again, shame on the four of you guys and thank you Carol. Beth. So with this crazy bylaw, think about this. You just announced this on Friday. If she had written her op-ed last Tuesday, you still could have CD her and punished her for this. This is just stupid. So special thanks to Mackinac Center for helping Rochester by backing Carol Beth's lawsuit to defend her constitutional rights. But this is a pattern. You passed bylaws to silence trustees. You filter access to legal opinions,
you block access to district data. You stop them from offering agenda items. You even have taken away their ability to speak at the board. You know, Carol Beth had to stand up here tonight at a podium and speak as a citizen and you all sit there pretending this is like normal and okay, you know, so shame on the four of you guys and thank you Carol, Beth and thank you Shelly for standing up for this stuff, for putting up with this crap and standing up for the people who put you in these chairs. So there's an election coming up and for anybody watching this crazy show for the first time
you are now, you have now seen exactly why Carol Beth and showing seconds back up. Mrs. Van Dale. Speaker 13: I will not swear. I will not swear. My name is Stephanie Van Dale and I am a taxpayer. I have two alumni who are serving in the Marine Corps and one soon to be alumni who has signed up for the Marine Corps. And it is offensive to me whenever anybody sits down during the Pledge of Allegiance, which have said multiple times. But you know, Jason, you pointed me out earlier about how I sent you a a letter by myself
and I also, you forgot to include the fact that I sent you a link to the foundation for individual rights and expression, also called fire. And it was a link to A PDF, which brought you to know your rights about public comment periods. And one of the things that is there is that you can speak your mind. Government officials can't silence you because of your point of view or because they disagree with you. That's viewpoint discrimination and it's unconstitutional. My viewpoint is that if there are boys going into girls' bathrooms
at any school in the district, that is disgusting and they have a mental issue and parents should be told. You seem to have a problem with that. That's my viewpoint. I have three minutes in which I can express that viewpoint. There's no such thing as trans. There's boy, there's girl, and then there's mentally incompetent. Now criticism is protected speech even if it's harsh or uncomfortable. And that includes criticism of government bodies,
public officials, public employees, and others, which means your little triage or whatever garbage you read before people speak is unconstitutional in itself. I can get up here and say the F word for three straight minutes and you wouldn't have, you would have to sit there and smile just like you are right now. Government officials can't censor you for expressing an offensive view. Offensiveness is subjective and it is the bedrock principle of the underlying first amendment, which is why I said I wanted to file a complaint against you
because as a lawyer you're incompetent 30 seconds and you don't know what the first amendment is. That's why I said that. So in conclusion, since I only have a couple of seconds left, like I've said at other board meetings, I will campaign against any raising of my taxes because I have calculated out the fact that you people, if this thing goes through, are gonna cost me an extra 40 bucks a month on top of my mortgage. Thank you. So you owe me 40 bucks
Speaker 1: Followed by Samuel Van Dale. Speaker 21: Who did you say? Who'd you say? Who'd you say Speaker 1: Repeated? Lisa Haluka and then Samuel Van Dale. Speaker 8: Okay, I couldn't hear over the applause. Good evening. My name is Lisa Haluka. I am a district parent. I'm also a graduate of this district. I am also a child advocate. I'm a prosecuting attorney. I am a law school dean and professor emeritus. I am a attorney as well as a former superintendent, board school, board president and head of school. It's from that context with which I speak. There should never be a question about anyone's freedom
to speak, and yet it is all I see from these board members with respect to Carol Beth's efforts to speak at these meetings. The point that there should never be a restraint on someone's first amendment rights is made even more clear when the speaker is engaging in discourse over events that affect directly people in their pocketbooks and in their children's lives. And it affects them because these people who are trying to speak specifically Carol, Beth and Shelly as well, are elected officials speaking about issues over which they possess a fiduciary
duty to respond to their constituents, who elected them to sit in the chairs which you occupy. That's why they're there in the first place. Now, there may be constraints on free speech, things like obscenity and safety and whatnot, but let me tell you that one thing that is not a constraint on freedom of speech is strategic secrecy. That is not a reason to curb free speech. More to the point and a more finely honed requirement. As the state legislature has supported the freedom of speech by saying in the Opal Meetings Act, that board's business by law must be conducted openly in a meeting
placed before the public. You cannot go ahead. You cannot argue that the censure of Trustee Kui is based on any kind of justified constraint. And it's not just the censure, it's every board meeting that I have attended and I have started to attend every single one of them. I witnessed consistently the members of this board besides her attempting to restrain her ability to speak freely about her thoughts, her questions, her opinions, and her contributions to the board's business, which should be your primary concern,
not the power plays in the condescending way with which you treat her. The board should be running based upon Robert's rules. And the only way that you can get away from Robert's seconds rules in support of the Open Meetings Act is by your own board policy 1001 requiring the abandonment of Robert's rules only upon two thirds vote of the board there is, or arguments before about things that had to be kept secret because the attorney-client privilege, Mr. Blake, you know that they are not, because that only applies in an attorney invoice when there was pending leg legislation.
And the foyer request in question, in the question that Trustee Leow asked about was not in that stature. Thank Speaker 22: You, Samuel Vandel. My name is Samuel Van Dale. I am currently a student at Stony Creek High School. I've been up here multiple times before and I want to tell you like what's truly been going on in the schools. And so despite my valuable input, I have seen absolutely nothing change. It's actually changed for the worse. And you guys keep doing that and you guys don't vote in the student's interest.
And so the one thing that I can really point out is that the board keeps working alone. They don't value community input from things like this from the time where you, the community review. And so there's that constant uneasy tension from Jason's eyes darting around the room from Rousseau, not looking people into the eyes from SBA, looking down, doing whatever she wants, and they're like, yeah, you got a couple people looking, looking at me.
And so I respect you for that, for actually having the balls to look at me. And so the one thing that kind of seems strange to me is the voting. 'cause it never changes. It's always five to two or it's 5 1 1. It's always something like that somehow. And so the one thing that I noticed is a lot of board members are putting their own political beliefs into their actual meeting instead of keeping it neutral. I mean, you guys are elected officials keep your own
political views out and do what's best for the community. And so even earlier Jason slipped up and said five out of two or five to two just out of pure habit because that is how insanely predictable it is, is that it's not even thought about. It's instinct. And so the one thing too is there's very little engagement with everyday people. Like I asked Jason earlier about how why not have these at the beginning of the meeting,
it's just gonna last the same exact amount of time. And so he just brushed me off of people have to get home and it's like, yeah, I want to go home too. And it's like if this happened earlier, 30 seconds, it would've been perfect. And I'd like to thank you Carol, for actually coming out to the community and giving us valuable inside information that should have been sent out as a district-wide email months before anything has happened. You guys should get it one day, send it out the very next,
within 12 hours. It's insane. Speaker 1: Thank you. Terry Ganzer, there's Terry Ganzer and then Terry Robertson. Are either of those here we have Dan Boas, I think it is. Okay. And followed by Deanna Harless, Speaker 3: Good evening taxpayer of Oakland Township, Vietnam veteran, retired law enforcement. What I've learned is we, since 2018, we've lost a thousand students. We've gained 400 employees. Any business that has that type of activity won't be in business very long. You want to propose a re a resolution to go along
with this August 4th vote when in fact you're actually disenfranchising all the voters in the high vacation season that would vote yes or no. It should be on the November ballot and your voices should be, should bring that to the county. Whoever made the decision for the August ballot, that can still be changed. Article four, section four states, we are a republic form of government. Therefore stop teaching our children that we're a democracy. The author of the Constitution, James Madison, said that democracies are dangerous. So you know, the state of Michigan needs to both as far
as the state of Michigan, this district, you need to start teaching our real American history. 'cause this is what's coming, whether you realize it or not, it's in the news from the president. You're gonna start teaching real American history the way it's supposed to be taught, the way it's been taught well before a hundred years ago, okay? And it's gonna be taught or you're gonna lose your funding as a district and the state of Michigan will lose its funding as well. So that $10 million extra a year that you have more than Utica, that will probably, you're gonna need it. My final request, not only as a veteran, but we have families, the majority
of families in this district have a a within their lineage. They have military people within their lineage, and yet we have Trustee Anus who sat here during the Pledge of Allegiance, totally insulting not only those families, but every memorial grave with 17 to 29 year olds, tens of thousands who have fought for you and I and as a combat veteran. I take totally disrespect like that personally. And what I'm gonna ask this board to consider is a censure vote on Anis. Speaker 14: Yeah. Speaker 3: And as
and and as far as, as far as funding funds and needing extra money for this 1.5 mil 30 Speaker 1: Seconds. Speaker 3: Thank you. I understand why you want want that information, but as a business you should start with your, you retain your teachers, they're the eight plus employees, okay? And you start cutting salaries, starting with the superintendent and work down through these people that are paid to do what they do to keep their positions. You do a reduction in force there first. But if you have 400 employees
and a lot of those are administrators that they need to go. Speaker 1: Thank you Deanna Harless. Speaker 7: Good evening. I'm Deanna Harless. I'm the mom of two kids in the district and I wanted to talk to the board tonight about the rollout of the recent millage and how that information has been handled. At the center of the issue is something very simple Public trust. When a school district ask, ask voters to approve a millage, the community has a right to clear, accurate, and transparent information that's fundamental to the relationship between the district and the taxpayers who fund it. That's why it's troubling that trustee Carol Beth Lai was centered
after sharing information that many of the community believe voters deserved to hear as a trustee. Her duty is not only to the board, but also to the public. Transparency is part of that responsibility. It's true. Superintendent Russo asked that certain information remain private, but a request for privacy does not override the public's right to understand matters that directly affect a ballot proposal. Public officials such as the SASO do not get to decide which facts voters are entitled to know. What makes the situation and even more confusing is that some of the information was surfaced through multiple other channels through foer requests
that were fulfilled through statements made by administrators elsewhere. When the information is eventually released anyway, the attempt to suppress it only damages the credibility. The sequence of events creates the appearance that transparency was treated as a problem rather than a priority. This is a recurring problem with the sport and this administration that should concern every member of this community. The issue isn't here about personalities, it's about governance and whether this board supports open communication with the communities, especially when asking for taxpayer dollars. Cing a trustee for sharing accurate information that was not legally protected sends the wrong message.
It suggests transparency is discouraged rather than expected. If the district wants community support for future initiatives, rebuilding trust must be a priority. I urge the board to reflect on how this situation was handled and to recommit to transparency, open communication and respect for the public. Also, at the beginning of the meeting, president Blake reminded us not to identify any students and you know, I think that's really important and I really do. But earlier today, Deb Lotton from the MBA revealed where Carol, that students go to school and bar Van is like the comment that is unacceptable
and it's really unacceptable that so many of you at that table continue to post on that page to support that page, to share that page, and not even just you at the board table, but administrators that work for the district. That is not a district approved communication channel, but it's revealing public information about private information about Trustee lacoe minor children. 30 seconds. Her children are young, they deserve the protection. Her someone not liking her is not a reason to put them in danger. Thank you. Speaker 1: Jessica Thomas. Richard Bosler is
Jessica Thomas or Richard Bosler here. Okay, Jessica. First, Speaker 7: Good evening, members of the board, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here to advocate for strengthening and protecting recess time for in our elementary schools because recess directly supports academic success. My child, a student at Hugger Elementary came home on multiple occasions concerned about not receiving recess time. After hearing this several times, I looked into it further through communication with both my child and his teacher, I learned that morning break was often shortened or canceled.
I also learned that it was not uncommon practice to withhold this time for individual or class-wide behavioral consequences or for when students had not completed their in-class assignments. When I raised this concern with school leadership, I learned that there's currently one contracted 20 minute recess period after lunch, and that any additional break time is left to teacher discretion. It was stated that instructional time is the first priority. While I understand the importance of instructional time, current research shows that recess directly supports rather than
competes with instructional goals. It is also a low cost, high impact support for children with attention challenges and sensory needs. Expert guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Pro Prevention emphasizes that recess improves focus, behavior and academic engagement. Due to the many benefits of outdoor unstructured play, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that recess not be withheld for academic or behavior reasons. Further schools commonly provide 20 to 60 minutes
of daily recess consisting of unstructured play for elementary students with a single 20 minute recess period. Our students are currently receiving the minimum end of that spectrum. Short brain breaks can be helpful, but they're not developmentally equivalent to recess where children engage in gross motor development, social interaction, risk taking within safe boundaries, self regulation and self-directed play. Because morning break practices can currently vary by classroom or school. A clear district policy would help ensure
that all elementary students have consistent access to this important part of the school day. I respectfully urge the board to consider adopting a clear policy that number one guarantees a daily morning recess time for all elementary students. 30 seconds. Two, prohibits withholding recess for academic or disciplinary reasons, and three, recognizes recess as an essential and protected component of the instructional day. Treating recess as a priority and not a privilege, supports better behavior, stronger academic outcomes, and healthier children.
And I truly believe this is beneficial both for both the children. Thank you and the teachers. Thank you. Speaker 16: Richard Bosler, you're our final speaker. Good evening, superintendent Russo board members. My name's Rich Bosler and I've been a taxpayer and supporter of Rochester Community Schools for 35 years. I listened to the state of the state addressed by Governor Whitmer and this sounded a lot like it. She wanted to throw 88 billion now towards the budget. And what you've done tonight reminds me of the same thing
of throwing and asking for more money. And my question from board members is, why isn't this sent out as a petition? First, why are you deciding this? You shouldn't be at all The reallocation of funds. How does this help our young kids? Nowadays as well by homes, you are just adding up a tax rate for property and I certainly was one of the petitioners that went out there and did ax my tax because that would really throw a lot of these communities in a loop. And I actually hope they get enough petitions on that ballot to get on the ballot.
As far as matters of public concern regarding the Rochester Community School includes thoughts of floating millage proposals at taxpayers, meaning individuals and businesses. Actually this should have come out last September or October, November, and you're censoring a board member that doesn't make sense at all. The thought of censoring any board members from committees and other assignments for keeping taxpayers informed of the many revenue streams outlined to pay for education in this district, which covers from the state budget, which we had discussed by Mr. McDonald today, as well as through property tax.
New millage or or renewals as a public concern. Stripping of a board members of verse three, free speech on such a topic only costs money and legal fees. That's waste. That's waste. Rochester Community Schools does not have a good track record of paying legal fee invoices in the past, which were approved and paid late. That's Baha and Cohen. Remember two of you weren't there. You weren't on the board then you weren't serving as superintendent and that those invoices, you couldn't tell what was paid, what they were paying for. I saw those invoices and I'm an auditor
and I worked in taxes as well. Certainly any millage proposal entered on the ballot this year or forthcoming years. 30 seconds. We met with why at this time the basis for such a millage, how past years monies have been spent, not to mention status of pupil count in this district compared to prior years and future year expectations. Line item detail outlining waste review and reduction. What was this building used for by the way? And did it really achieve what we needed it for and bought capital spending? That's where I'd go first. I recommended support a hundred percent of the Rochester Community School Board State thank Mrs.
Kui status on committees and other assignments that you, she was elected to rather than waste money on school legal fees. Speaker 1: We're now moving to section 10, which Speaker 16: Is additional comments. Find waste Speaker 1: 10.1 members of the administration. Mr. Russo, Speaker 4: Latest of the thank you President Blake. Just the lateness of the hour. Just one announcement. I am having a community conversation on March 25th at, at our administration building in the Harrison room from seven to eight. I'll talk for about five to 10 minutes and then it'll be question and answer session. You okay? Okay. Okay.
That's it. Thank you. Speaker 1: Okay. Section 11 for announcements. As we've already mentioned on March 23rd is our BOE special meeting at six 30 in this room we're to interview for the board vacancy. There will be an open house at 6:00 PM for the candidates to meet people. First March 30th to April 3rd is spring break classes resume on April 6th? Yeah. Speaker 18: She's not Speaker 16: Dropping Speaker 1: Out. That she's dropping out. Okay, well I'll look at that in a minute. April 13th, the board of Education regular meeting is at 6:00 PM in the Early Childhood Center.
And before we adjourn, I, I wanna check this. So hold on. Speaker 8: It sounds like somebody dropped out one of the, sorry, Speaker 12: My mic was not Katie Str, I don't know how Speaker 1: To say her last name. Okay. So we have one of the candidates who's dropped out. The problem with that is that we have a tie in the next place. So well Speaker 13: Hold on. I move that we invite them all. Speaker 1: Well hold on. We invite Speaker 13: The alternates. Speaker 1: No, the way that it works under, I believe our bylaws is that we get to decide whether we wanna have a six person and we, whether we have five or we want have seven. So we're we're talking about, excuse me ma'am.
Alright, so what do people think? Do we want five? Do we want seven? Speaker 13: I moved Mr. President, I'm invite all the alternates. Mr. President Speaker 1: Two. It would be the two that's tied. Speaker 13: Mr. What? Speaker 1: It would be the two that tied. Speaker 13: Excuse me. Okay. Speaker 1: Everyone's talking to me at once. Can we try one, one at a time? She, she. Trustee sba, Speaker 13: Thank you for the recognition. Thank you for the recognition. I move, we vote, I move. We invite both of them since the tie and I believe that would take us to seven. Speaker 1: Okay. So that's a move. Is there a second for that? I second. Second. Trustee Enni. Any discussion on that?
Okay, so the motion is to invite Dana Cadman and Sherry Wind Perdue to take the place of Katie Opolis. Yeah. At our interviews. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any vote? Dana Cadman, Sherry Wind, Perdue. Speaker 13: Gotcha. Aye. Speaker 1: Aye. Any opposed? No motion passes. Those are the people invited. Speaker 13: Okay. Alright. Speaker 1: If there is no objection now the meeting will be adjourned. Seeing none, the meeting is adjourned at nine. What was it? Nine 50. Speaker 13: So.