Good evening. This meeting is being called to order at 05:31. For those who are able and choose to do so, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Item two on our agenda for this truth in taxation and budget hearing is roll call. And for roll call, all members are present. Item number three is the truth in taxation and budget hearing. And for that, I will hand it over to mister McDaniel. So I don't know if we're gonna can you guys see it, the presentation? You need somebody to plug in.
Alright. Well, there there's there's a reason that normally this started at 05:45. So there's not a whole lot of content. Let's talk about we're we're gonna start off by the with the tax rates. So, looking at our taxable values, right, these are the municipalities that fall within school district boundaries. Auburn Hills, Rochester, Rochester Hills, Oakland Township, Orion, Shelby, and Washington, and you'll see there's been growth in taxable values for all those groups. It's up about 9%, compared to 4.8% last year. Just a reminder when it comes to our funding that six mills, on commercial personal property and 18 mills on all of their non homestead property to
fund the school district. This board will remember a few years ago that we renewed the operating millage, the non homestead operating millage. So it's still pretty healthy, 18.6764 mills. We're only allowed to tax 18 mills, but that is reduced typically each year. So there is some cushion there. You'll see that it used to be 19.004. So it's reduced from there. The state covers the balance that local property taxes do not. We also have some extra voted millage. This is the bond,
the debt service. We just refunded that as this board is aware. And Then we also have the sinking fund. So just a little history taking you back to tax year 2013. You'll see we used to have a 6.7 millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters millimeters mill And the sinking fund, just like the non homestead operating millage, is reduced each year. So that started off at 1.5 mills and is down to 1.4308. But because tax values increased, that means the revenue that the district earns from these property taxes increases as well. So,
we saw an increase there of almost $5,000,000 when you think about the general fund, the debt retirement fund and the sinking fund. That is it on tax rates. Any questions on tax rates right now? All right. So going into the budgets, we'll start by our priority every year. Balanced and equitable spending plan minimizes any negative impact on student programs, team based collaborative. The budget must be approved every year by July 1 regardless of where we stand with the state. We do not have a state budget. There's a a bunch of assumptions in this budget because we don't have a state
budget. I'll say I may be a little less confident than I was on June 8 based on current, state of the state legislature and some of the challenges that are, being proposed by them to help, I guess with their issues and concerns puts more pressure on the school district. Trustee Blake, asked a question about, you know, how confident do you feel with this budget? And I said, you know, we are waiting on the state, we're still at the mercy of the state and there's some things out there in the state that would, be very impactful to this budget. But, you know, we have to approve a budget by July 1. So we're going with what we know and and what there's commonality with amongst all
three branches. As far as the foundation allowance, we're using our enrollment projections down January, for funding, and we have until June 30 to adopt a budget. So, that is what we're going to do hopefully today. This is the general fund budget. Very hard to see. We went over it on, the June 8 meeting, so I'm not expecting you to go through the budget, but this is the full budget. You'll see there is a use of fund balance for both the final budget and for next year. I think this year I can't read it from here but about $5,700,000 Our other funds,
these were shared in our cabinet notes. I I haven't received any questions on the budgets, and typically don't receive any questions on these small funds. But of note, the debt service fund that pays the 2026 now bond refunding and the 2016 series two. The sinking fund, I think, is somewhat self explanatory, and there'll be a report on that later. Our bookstore fund, very small fund that mostly makes up our high schools. Food service fund feeds our kids a lot more state revenue now than there used to be. And the student school activity fund, which is parent collected or student fundraise funds that support,
you know, anywhere from our student councils to our football teams, to all of our school based programs that aren't funded through state or federal funds. And that is it for the budget presentation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. At this time, I have no public comment. So if there is no objection, this meeting will be adjourned, seeing none, at 05:42. And we'll restart for our regular meeting at six p. M. This evening. Thank you. Good evening, and welcome to the Rochester Community Schools Board of Education regular meeting,
call to order at six P. M. For those who choose to do so and are physically able, please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you all for being here. This is the Board of Education regular meeting, and it's a board in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business. To preserve its freedom to act, this body follows Robert's rules of order newly revised. This process is not a tool to be used to circumvent fairness. And as president of this governing body, I will work to ensure that this is not the case. But please know this, I am not a parliamentarian,
so I hope, the same grace that I will extend to you all for not knowing everything about this process, if you are willing to extend the same grace to me. For the public before the school board who is who may be asking why is it so important to follow the Robert's Rules of Order, there are several reasons. This is a public meeting of the Board of Education. It is not a meeting with the public, a town hall or a political rally. Expectations of decorum will be enforced on this body and the public attending this meeting by following Robert's rules of order.
It allows the body to go about their business in an orderly and efficient manner, and it also allows for every member to have a voice about the issues before this body. It ensures fairness for every member at this table, including and especially for the members who are in the minority of opinions on matters before this Board. When you enter the auditorium this evening, you may have noticed a large poster, with the school board's norms and information on effectively communicating with school partners. These norms were agreed upon by the board and reflect our commitment to ensuring that
the business of the school board is done in a fair and expedient manner. You can also find a copy of the chain of command, for of information to help parents and community members effectively communicate with school partners. This information is also on our district website within our board of education handbook. 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, and they look like this, And they are found on the table,
when you first entered this building or actually this room, I should say. Once you have completed the card, please put it in the box on the same table. Please note the cards must be completed prior to speaking, and I will call the names of those who I have a card for during public comment. Item number two is roll call on our agenda. And for roll call this evening, all Board members are present. Item number three on our agenda is spotlight on success. And tonight, we're going to honor and recognize, some MHSA state champions.
And for this, I will turn it over to Superintendent Russo. Mr. Russo. Thank you for the minutes. Doctor DeLuca, would you like to do the honors? Good evening, members of the board of education, mister Russo. Tonight we'd like to welcome, to the, board meeting tonight, our state our final state championship, recipients for the state of Michigan. I wanted to, let the board know when you have over 500 member districts in MHSAA and thousands of students, participating in our playoffs, competitions across the state, to receive the accolades of state championship, a state title winner,
is not an easy feat. Our first one tonight will be, introduced by our athletic director from Rochester High School, mister Dean Allen. Mister Allen. Good evening, board of education, mister Russo, and RCS cabinet. My name is Dean Allen, and I am the proud athletic director at Rochester High School. It's my pleasure to introduce to you the 2026 MHSAA division one number four singles state champion, Jilly Knooster. Jilly is a rising sophomore who helped lead her tennis team to an OAA white title and also helped them capture their first regional championship since 1991.
She finished her fabulous freshman season with only one loss. Please welcome state champion, Julie Knuster. Thank you, Mr. Allen. Congratulations, Jillian. Our second, recipient tonight, would be from Adams High School and presenting that is athletic director, Calum Graham. Good evening. My name is Colin McGrann, and I am fortunate to be the Rochester Adams High School athletic director. Today, we'd like to congratulate Ben Vento, our most recent champion golfer. As a freshman at Adams, Ben was named the Michigan High School Athletic Association Division one Lower Peninsula Individual Champion,
following a three way tie that was decided in a playoff on on Hole 10 at Ferris State Cockegee Golf Course earlier this month. Shortly after that, he was also selected as Mr. Golf for the state of Michigan by the Michigan Golf Coaches Association. So we are truly proud of his accomplishments and excited for his his future as well as what he accomplished this year. Let's give a congratulations to Ben. Yes. Thank you so much for that, and congratulations to these athletes. I'm, amazed. They're they're rising sophomores, so they'll be around for a while and keep making records.
I love that. Next on our agenda is item four, and this is communications. And this is where we reference various communications that we have received. Secretary Butel, your item 4.1. Take it away. Yes. In addition to the three communications received through the Rochester Community Schools board portal on our website, we also received a follow-up email from Jason Johnston about concerns at Adams High School. Thank you, Secretary Buetel. The next item on our agenda is 4.2, members of the Board of Education. This is where members of the Board share communications that were shared directly with them
and were not sent to the full Board. Did any Board members receive communications from the public? Trustee Lausanne? I received a follow-up e mail from Kevin Carter regarding requesting placement on the agenda for Boy Scouts. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Vice President Blake? So I was copied on an email from Iwa Oma Hen regarding ATPS and concerns which she had regarding safety and space there. And then I also was contacted by Jackie Markert asking me to follow-up on that same issue. Thank you. Trustee Lecuey.
I also exchanged some communications with Kevin Carter regarding Boy Scouts and board policies. Thank you. Oh, treasurer, doctor Oswey. I received, a e mail summarizing the Oakland School Board's, meeting we went to with the legislative update. I also received communications regarding my position on the RARA board where I represent the district, And RARA is doing their budgeting, and their budget will be on their website in July. And if you're interested in great new capital improvement projects they have, like replacing the turf or improving the parking lot,
you can look on their website and find out more about it. Thank you. Next up is public comment item five on our agenda. This gives an opportunity for our board members to hear from community members. If you wish to speak tonight but not have or have not already filled out a yellow card, please fill one out now. If we have more than thirty minutes of comments, the rest will be heard under agenda item nine. When your name is called, please move to the microphone in, the podium in the center of the room and address the Board. When addressing the board, you will have three minutes to speak.
We will let you know when you have thirty seconds remaining. Please be mindful of this time limit. When addressing the board, please state your name and your relationship to this district. To protect the privacy of students, we ask that no one identifies specific students 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 students' rights and privacy. Please keep your remarks focused on broader issues and 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, we will have someone follow-up if necessary. The Board reserves the right to exclude from our meeting an individual who engages in conduct that constitutes a breach of peace. Starting off this evening, we have Stephen Carter. All right. Thank you very much. My name is Steven Carter,
and I am a scout in Troop sixty and Venturing Crew four thousand two hundred and fifty five out of Rochester Hills. And I'm gonna recite the scout law. So scouts, please stand up and join me. A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. You could all sit down now. Alright. So what do these mean? Well, let me break it down for you. To be trustworthy means to tell the truth, to keep your promises, and to be honest with anything a scout may do. To be loyal means to show support for your family,
friends, scout leaders, school, and for your country. To be helpful means to look for ways to improve other people's lives by assisting them without expecting a reward or payment. Being friendly means to be a friend to all regardless of race or nationality and respects them even if their beliefs and customs are different from their own. A scout is courteous means to be polite, respectful, and use good manners to everyone regardless of age, background, or beliefs. Being kind means to treat everyone in a way that you would want to be
treated. Be obedient means to follow the rules of our families, schools, troops, and obeying the laws of our community and country. Scouts respect authority figures without blindly obeying but instead try to find ways to change unfair rules in an orderly way. Scouts are cheerful, meaning that they do their best to make others happy, to look for the bright side of life, and cheerfully do tasks that come their way. Being thrifty means to not waste food, natural resources, or supplies, and practice the Leave No Trace principles in the outdoors. Being brave means to be courteous when facing challenges and conquering fears.
It doesn't mean to have no fear, but rather learning to push past it. Moral bravery in scouting also means to stand up for what is right. A scout is clean doesn't only talk about maintaining personal hygiene, but also talks about keeping your body fit, your mind pure, your speech honorable, and your environment and community well maintained. Being reverent is staying committed to your own personal religious duties, honoring the religious convictions of others even when they may differ from your own, and showing respect for the world around you and recognizing that there is something much
larger than yourself. So whether you are on a week long summer campout or giving a speech in front of the school board, Scouting America prepares scouts for the future by providing the skills and lessons to help kids grow both individually and as a team. Thank you, and good night. Thank you. Next up, we have Richard Hall. Good evening, Mr. Roussel, board members. My name is Rick. Okay. Go ahead. All set. Good evening. My name is Richard Hall. I'm a proud graduate of Rochester High School class of 1974, and I'm the president of the Rochester Transportation Association.
It's the union that represents school bus drivers and monitors who safely transport thousands of Rochester students each day. Our executive board respectfully urges you to reconsider any proposal to extend the current transportation contract for an additional year without addressing the underlying challenges. While a one year extension may appear to provide a short term stability, it does not address the fundamental issues that have contributed to declining, decline in transportation, staffing,
and service quality. For the last three years, our collective bargaining agreement has limited annual wage increases to 2%. During that same period, inflation and the cost of living have risen significantly significantly fast at a faster pace. And while neighboring school district have adjusted their compensation to remain competitive. As a result, Rochester drivers and monitors are now paid approximately 4 to $6 per hour less than their competitive counterparts in surrounding Southeast Michigan districts. According to some of the most recent contracts we've obtained,
including the most recent one with Ann Arbor and Durham. Compensation is only part of the challenge. Rising health care costs and benefit packages have not kept pace with the market and have made it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain qualified transportation professionals. The consequences are evident. Annual driver attrition has exceeded thirty five percent, meaning more than one out of every three driver leaves each year. Constant turnover has created staffing shortages require remaining employees to work additional hours and cover
unfamiliar roots. The district has experienced an increase in school bus accidents, a trend that is often associated with the loss of experienced personnel and continuous training of new drivers. Students and families have experienced more frequent transportation delays and service disruptions, reducing the reliability the parents from the Rochester community schools have come to expect. The Rochester Transportation Association believes these challenges cannot be solved by extending the existing agreement under the same terms.
Thirty seconds. We respectfully recommend the board undertake a broader review of transportation wage structure structure modern benefits package are essential investments that will improve recruitment, increase retention and reduce turnover, enhance safety and provide more reliable transportation service for Rochester families. So with that being said, thank you for your time. I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you. Next up, we have Luke Amel. Hello. Hello, board members. I am Luke Amel. I am a sophomore at Rochester High School.
I've been scouting ever since I was a little boy at I was at a Cub Scout troop that was at University Hills Elementary School. I cannot remember how I got into scouting, but it has been such a fun and good experience for me, and I fail to see why we can't share it with the people at our school as my favorite part of scouting has been to get to know everyone that's in it and how we can help each other out in fun and good ways. I used to be a very shy kid that didn't like to speak a lot,
very bad at leadership. But throughout scouts, I have become an amazing leader. I was leading my troop as my senior patrol leader, which is the head of the head kid in the troop for the past six months. It's fun experience, and kids don't learn a lot about the things that we teach with social skills, basic things like knot tying. As well as teamwork and leadership. We do a lot of fun things that I think people don't know about. And if we can share these, it will be a helpful experience for everyone inside.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay. This next one, I apologize. Is it Rashad Markeidan? Makeda. Apologies. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Rishab Makeda. I'm an incoming senior at Rochester Adams High School, and I'm a scout in True three sixty based right here in Rochester Hills, Michigan. I was first introduced to scouting as a kindergartner at Brewster Elementary when leaders came in to my classroom to inform me of the amazing opportunities that could be presented to me in Cub Scouts. I later joined cub scouts, and they were right.
Amazing opportunities. It was so much fun, but the real opportunities and leadership, education came to me when I became a boy scout in sixth grade. This past fall, I had the opportunity to pay my experience forward when I did my Eagle Scout project at Hamlin Elementary. There's so much that today's youth can learn from scouting and it is essential that it is presented to them in every way possible so they know the opportunities that
they can receive. And the easiest way to do that is through their schools. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Dylan DeWitt. Good eve good evening, everyone. I'm Dylan DeWitt. I am a graduate graduate from Rochester High School and Eagle Scout from Trip three sixty. Scouting has been part of my life from first grade to now. I still use all the skills that I've learned from it in everyday life. The program is such an important part of today's youth as it teaches not just the outdoor skills that many people think about when people hear scouting,
but they also teach the real world leadership, communication, and practical life skills. These skills I've been able to translate to everyday life, and I've found a lot of success outside my troop in both school and I now own my own business as well. And with that, I was prepared with scouting with skills like financial literacy, where I was able to learn budgeting and tracking income and spending through our campouts where we had to plan, professional communication where we were presenting different things to our troop to teach and learn
ourselves. As well, I per as well, I participated in the OSDC early college program where I was able to apply skills from scouting there as well. I do not think that I would have been as successful without scouting, with the skills that they taught me through organization, presentation skills, time management, and project planning. And, these skills not only are going to treat me for now with school and what I'm doing, with my personal time, but in the future with corporate jobs and higher education.
As well, one of the programs that really stood out to me through scouting that they offer is called NYLT, which is National Youth Leadership Training. It's a week long training which teaches scouts who are from sixth grade or 13 to 18 about different leadership skills that really hold our community together and bring better citizens to our community, with conflict resolution, goal setting, and a lot of things that we see in people that we wanna have in
our community. Lastly, scouting's brought me friends and community that I'm gonna have for a lifetime, And I don't think that any other program brings as much of the different skills such as integrity, service, and ambition that Scouts does. Overall, the friends we've made along the way is really what is the big thing in scouting, and I don't think without the networking through schools, we would be able to have as big of a community there. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Kevin Carter Jr.
Hello, Board. I am Kevin Carter, an Eagle Scout from Scouting America Troop sixty and Venturing Crew four thousand two hundred and fifty five. Again, I would like to thank everyone here tonight, scouts, scouters, friends of scouting, and the RCS boards of education for having me here tonight. I'm here today to talk about RCS board policy 7006. So this Board Policy regards solicitation. RCS Board Policy 7,006 states, as a general rule, the district will not allow charitable and nonprofit organizations and or individuals access to district
communication system, access to school property, and or access to school staff and students during hours of school operation. For the purpose of solicitation and fundraising, solicitations by students within the schools or on school grounds for any cause is prohibited except as they relate to school sponsored activities, end quote. The current practice for solicitation has been in place for over a decade now after community members address the board of education to request that all community organizations have equal to access to schools. I understand why RCS why the RCS board had made this rule at the time.
It was a logical thing to do and a good way to afford enforce equality, but not all community organizations are created equal. Scouting America has been chartered by congress with over one hundred fifteen years of history being active in this nation. Since its founding in 1910, over 130,000,000 youth have participated in it. Scouting units are operated by local charter organizations, making them grounded in their local community. But most importantly, it is an advancement based character model,
meaning every award earned has real work and real growth behind it. Everything on my uniform, it was not given to me. I worked for it. So there should be a process to determine whether or not an organization should be allowed to enter schools. This policy should be amended. So lastly, wrapping up, I would like to say why I'm here today. I'm not here for myself. There are plenty of other things I could be doing right now on a beautiful day like today. I'm here on behalf of those who are still growing, still learning, for those who will someday grow into strong men and women because of the partnership
between RCS and outside community organizations. I welcome the opportunity to meet and discuss more equitable solutions that serve students, families, Rochester Community Schools Thirty seconds. And the broader community for a stronger youth, for stronger scouting and for a brighter future. Thank you. Next up, we have Emerson Brown. I am here today, and I am Emerson Brown. I am in PAC 188, and I go to McGregor Alimentghuri. And today, I am gonna come for PAC 188 because I think we should all be able
to go to scouts because scouts is a great opportunity to learn and have fun with people you know and love. And it's a great opportunity for girls like me to have leadership opportunities and to be able to have the good time that I've had. I've only been in scouts for a year, and I haven't missed a single meeting because it's always fun no matter what. And I love how grown ups can participate too.
They can also be scout leaders and watch their kids grow and learn, which I think is very special. And I also believe that scouts is the place to be no matter who you are, where you are, what genre you're in, or what you like. Thank you. Next up, we have Dan Bowie or Val? Dan Roe, Oakland Township resident taxpayer, Vietnam veteran and retired law enforcement. Couple of meetings ago, I mentioned mister McDaniel was not here that Jamie Dimon mentioned there's going to be
a crack in the bond market within six months or six years. What does that mean to the school districts across the nation? About 85% of the bonds that go through the country are school bonds. School bonds are federally regulated based on assessed taxes by the state, which they're allowed to assess, give assessments on property. But when you tie a school bond to taxes, which they all are tied to taxes, now you're in violation of the sixteenth amendment. You cannot tax on unrealized gains.
Taxpayers aren't realizing any gains on those taxes. So bond referendums have been currently put forth by many school school districts, including Rochester schools across the state and across the nation, and they speak without boundaries or definition to what taxpayers receive in exchange for their financial sacrifice to fund perpetual bonds, which are Ponzi schemes. Again, in violation of the sixteenth amendment, you cannot get money, federal money, for unrealized gains. That's in the sixteenth amendment. School school districts use values based on nothing more than speculation and wish list wish
list approaches to determine how much money they need from taxpayers. If they were doing this for the kids as they say they're doing, then the teachers and the kids would benefit. We're we're on a race to the bottom. We're forty fourth in Michigan in the country. We're racing to the bottom of 50. And none of you seem to be concerned because as a superintendent, we get $10,000,000 more per year than the Eunuchar School District, which is basically comparably the same. What are you doing with that $10,000,000 The collateral damage to the homes of taxpayers have been put up for collateral bond
projects without taxpayers even understanding how the game is rigged and how this game actually works. RCS recently obtained approval for a board bond refinancing, then they follow with a 1.5 millage that you're supporting as a board across the county that they don't even know what they're gonna do use it for, but you're asking for the millage. This is a systemic school problem across school districts, what I'm talking about across the country. Thirty seconds. And it appears the kids and teachers do not benefit nor do the taxpayers. Again, we're forty fourth in the country.
What are you gonna do about that? Sit there and wonder and keep racing to the bottom with your policies? Not doing not doing the taxpayers any good. And what's gonna happen across the country, in my opinion, to offset this bond crisis, what's gonna end up happen having to happen because 42,000,000 homes are affected right now, 42,000,000 across the country. Thank you. That's time. Last up, we have Carol Beth Lacoue. I'm Carol. I'm a trustee on our board and I was looking at the district's job postings recently and noticed some new openings for part time health science instructors.
It got me thinking because it reminded me of a question I've been asking for months and our board keeps refusing to answer. When are we going to publicly discuss the state's new health education framework? Parents have contacted us with concerns. Many parents have simply pulled their kids from our district without saying a word. I brought forward a parental rights and local control resolution more than once and the board has refused to even talk about it, not voted it down, refused to discuss it, and that's a problem. This isn't a fringe concern. Other local school boards have already reviewed this framework and rejected it making it clear
that for their districts they will respect parents rights to teach their own beliefs to their own children. Meanwhile the district has already begun a multi year health curriculum review process. My concern isn't that staff aren't doing their jobs. My concern is the order of operations. The board should not be a rubber stamp at the end of a process. The board is supposed to provide direction at the beginning. If committees are determining which standards will be incorporated and recommendations are later brought to the board for approval, then we should be discussing this framework now before those decisions become baked into the
process. This issue matters because parents deserve clarity. Health class is required. It's different than sex ed. Families want to know what will be taught, how it will be taught, and what rights they'll have to review materials and make decisions for their own children. Many parents are not interested in broadening required health instruction to include belief based concepts about gender identity across multiple subject areas. That's a major change from what most parents assume health class is supposed to be. And frankly, if we're serious about addressing declining enrollment,
we need to listen to what families are telling us. For many years, about 90% of Rochester area residents chose our public schools. That number has dropped to around 75%. One in four families who pay taxes here has chosen not to use the schools they're funding. Meanwhile our school age population has been growing. Our district's own strategic plan survey shows that concerns about politics influencing curriculum district direction and trust in leadership are factors influencing these educational choices. Thirty seconds. But whether you agree with these families or not,
dismissing them is not a strategy. For years, this district ignored parents' concerns about literacy instruction until state law forced a change. We shouldn't make the same mistake again by refusing to have an open conversation simply because a topic feels controversial. So I'm asking again when are we going to have that conversation? My other question is regarding the boy scouts here we've had a we heard from them last time too. That's true. I would be curious if any board members Thank you very much. In revising our plans. Next we're going on to our consent agenda item six.
All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered routine in nature by the Board of Education and will be acted upon with one motion. There is no separate discussion of these items. If any member of the Board requests discussion of an item, that item will be removed. Please say which item you would like pulled from the consent agenda. As a reminder to members, the maker of the motion will speak first on their motion. However, any further explanation beyond the number has been said is considered out of order. Our consent agenda tonight consists of Item 6.1,
human resource recommendations Item 6.2, current bills payable for 05/01/2026 through 05/31/2026, in the amount of $24,541,895.37 Item 6.3, Board of Education meeting schedule for the twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven school year Item 6.4, the MASB virtual back to school legal workshop, CBA 102 and CBA 105 for trustee Doctor.
Alspaugh in the amount of $375 Item 6.5, the NSBA, which is the National School Board Association AI Smart Certification for trustee Doctor. Alspaugh in the amount of $275 Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Moved by Vice President Blake, by the second. Seconded by Secretary Yutel. Trustee Lukuy. Could we pull items six point two and six point three?
Sure. We'll continue to vote on the other items within the agenda within this consent agenda. So we will be voting on item 6.1, six point four and six point five. All those in favor of supporting these items, please say aye. Aye. Okay. That is, I believe, a seven-zero vote. Trustee, would you like to speak to your motion? Or would you like to discuss why you pulled the items? Oh, I have to put the motion on the table first. Thank you. Thank you, Secretary Buetel. So we'll need a motion to approve Items six point two and six point three
of our consent agenda. Madam President, could we make them separate? Approve Item 6.2? Sure. I'll need a motion to approve Item 6.2, Doctor. Alsbaugh and seconded by, Vice President Blake. Trustee, would you like to speak to why you pulled this? Well, I've mentioned reasons at many previous meetings, but people can feel free to check out the bills payable discussion from 11/18/2024, about an hour and ten minutes in if they'd like to see some of that explanation. Okay. Voting now on approving consent agenda item number 6.2. All those in favor,
please say aye. Aye. Aye. Those opposed? No. Okay. That is a six-one vote. Next up is approval of item 6.3 on our consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve item 6.3? So moved by Doctor. Alspaugh, seconded by, Vice President Blake. Trustee, would you like to address why you're pulling it? Sure. Yeah. I have no concerns with this schedule, and I'm pleased to see that we're reverting back to our previous structure of alternating board regular meetings with work sessions. I wanted to just clarify that you're still planning to record all of our public
board meetings. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. All those in favor of approving item 6.3 of the consent agenda, please say aye. That is a seven-zero vote. Alright. Moving on to item seven for reports. That is the superintendent update. Mr. Russo. Thank you, madam president. Just three updates for you today as part of the superintendent report. Number one, our RFP for five zero one West University should be live in the Rochester post starting July 2. My second update is in regards to the budget, the state budget. I'm sure that as you listened in our,
truth in budget hearing today, that the state legislature has, is not any closer to a budget deal. What what was eternally hopeful in the spring has now become dire as we approach June 30. It does not seem unless there's some some radical changes in the next few business days that we will have a budget on time. So, as, as I've stated before and I did last year and I did this past week, I've I've communicated with our community to, reach out to our state legislator legislators urging them to get us a state budget. As you as you may or may not know for the for the community,
we have to, by law, pass our intended budget for next year, not knowing what any funding structure will look like. Right now, we're taking a best guess estimate, and putting what mister McDaniel had mentioned, the three kind of commonalities of all three houses, the state, the house, and the governor's budget, and making our best guess based on our projected enrollment. So if there's any community members who are watching tonight and have a chance to read the email that I sent last week, I would appreciate reaching out to our state legislators for, urging them to to pass the state budget as their it is their requirement by
law. And lastly would be a sinking fund update for summer projects. I'll turn it over to doctor DeLuca who'll come up to the podium and walk you through it. You have in front of you an update in so that you can take this with you, everything that mister or that doctor DeLuca will be referencing today, as part of the superintendent's report, we try to do this so that you have something to take home with you that that is accurately depicting what what the message is. Thank you, doctor. Thank you, mister Russo. For seeking fun updates as our facilities and maintenance teams enter their peak summer operation across Rochester Community Schools, This report provides the Board of Education with an executive overview of active sinking fund
projects scheduled for June, July and August. Infrastructure and technology modernization efforts are currently underway across all 25 district buildings. These projects focus on structural safety, instructional environment enhancements, compliance and critical technology life cycle replacements. All projects are currently on schedule to support a seamless reopening for the upcoming school year. In facilities and infrastructure and capital projects, the maintenance team is executing a rigorous site improvement schedule categorized by district level. The district wide concrete repair and replacement is actively underway at all of our 25
school buildings to ensure pedestrian safety and ADA compliance. Specific at the high school level, at all three high schools, insulation of our new science room exhaust fans has commenced to improve lab ventilation and safety. Specific to Adams High School, our foods room countertop replacement is underway as well as the stormwater drainage improvements are being executed at the front of the building to prevent the seasonal pooling that occurs. At Stony Creek High School, specialized mechanical work is being scheduled to begin on the orchestra lift. And then at the middle school level,
we have targeted HVAC modernization, capitalizing on areas not covered by the previous bond. Right now, crews are, looking at the aging climate control infrastructure. This includes installation insulation of, new heat pumps, tempering coils, and ventilators to optimize indoor air quality and temperature regulation. Specific to the elementary level, elevator modernization, comprehensive mechanical upgrades are underway at Hugger Elementary and Musson Elementary to ensure long term operational reliability. Playground upgrades and repairs at our elementary level, safety and surface and equipment repairs and replacements are being executed at Hugger,
Longmeadow, McGregor, Brooklands, Delta Kelly, Hamlin and Hampton Elementaries. Site drainage, critical playground drainage site work is being done at North Hill Elementary to mitigate muddy fields and water retention and interior modernization, new cafeteria and gymnasium flooring is being installed at Hampton Elementary and Musson Elementary. On to technology. The technology component of the sinking fund focuses on student devices and access to our network reliability across the district. Currently, right now, we're replacing 4,000 Chromebooks and that's district wide at all levels.
We have network switch refresh at all 25 of our school buildings and then we have our power supply or UPSs that are being replaced at all of our buildings as well. Mr. Russo, that completes my report. Thank you, Doctor. Deluca. As you can tell, I know that, you know, school's out for summer for kids, but that's when a lot of the the facilities and groundwork are take take hold and really you can see all the all the things happening across the district. So when you see construction cones, I know Michigan has two seasons, winter and construction. The schools have to participate in that same seasonal work. Thank you, madam president.
Thank you, superintendent Russo and Doctor. DeLuca. Next up, we have item eight, which is new business on our agenda. And for those of you paying attention, we have a lot of items to cover under this agenda item. First off, we will start with Item 8.1, which is the renewal of the district membership to the Michigan High School Association of School Boards or the MASB in the amount of $11,611.79 and the MASB legal trust fund in the amount of $437
And I believe, Neil, I have you down as an action item, but I don't think we need to No. We would just, at this time, ask the board for a for a positive vote to renew our district membership to MHSA. Okay. Is there a motion to renew the district memberships to the MHSA in the amount of $0 the Michigan Association of School Boards, MASB, in the amount of $11,611.79 and the MASB Legal Trust Fund in the amount of $437 as presented. So moved by Doctor.
Wynn Perdue, seconded by Trustee Lausanne. Discussion? Madam President. Trustee Lucui. Could we separate these out into two different votes? No. We're presenting them as three into together as a group. So if I were to amend this to is there a way to do that? Are you saying there's no way to separate out the two organizations? We must group them together no matter what? For the expediency of and of all the items that we have, is there a particular reason why you want to do that? Because I would intend to vote in favor of one and not in favor of
the other. Well, we are presenting them as three together. So you can choose to vote for them altogether or none at all. Any other comments? Madam President? Trustee Lacui? In that case, I suppose I better explain my vote. I have no issue. You have not taken a vote yet, so I am preemptively explaining my vote so people understand. I haven't recognized you. I'm taking a vote first. All those in favor of approving item 8.1 on the agenda, say aye. Madam President, point of order. Trustee Lucui You didn't allow me to finish my statement You were going to make
a statement on a vote you haven't taken So therefore, I'm taking the vote first Thank you No, madam president, discussion occurs before we take the vote That's how this always works. You asked a question and I answered it regarding separating them and I'm moving on to the vote. Discussion occurs, then the vote happens, then we move on to the next item. That's how You asked. You asked. We're following Robert's rules, Right? Right. You asked if you could separate them, and I answered your question. So I'm moving on to the vote. And I would like to And you tried to preface the vote by saying you wanted to explain it. And I said,
no. I'm taking the vote first. As chair I will take the vote first and you are you will be welcome to explain your no vote afterwards I we're not I'm not supposed to explain my vote after we take the vote that's when we move on to the next discussion item if look it up in Robert's rules please I'll give you time okay You know what? Then vote is how it works. Quite frankly, the fact that you have to explain it is not necessary either. You can either your your vote is what you're saying. So you can choose the vote or not. I'm taking the vote. Madam president,
let's complete discussion. I I can look up the number if you want to give me a chance to do that. But Trustee, Lukuye, say what you need to say. Thank you. Okay. I have no issue with MHSAA. I would be voting no on the MASB recommendation. I've said this before and throughout my time on in service to this board, I am convinced this is still true. We're governed by Michigan law, the revised school code, the open meetings act. We don't need to pay quasi authorities to tell us what to do. And if we did want to have trainings, there are cheaper ways to go about it. Actually, even when we pay this $10.11000
to the MASB, we still have to pay $100 per class when we want to take classes. They also give us these extra lawyers, but we don't need the extra lawyers. We have district lawyers that reliably tell us what to do and we certainly use them. So that is one reason why I will be voting no on this item. I wish I could separate the two out, but I don't have the ability to do that. Yes, Trustee Ospach. So I recently attended the Oakland, County School Board's dinner, and they had an executive director from MASB there. And I think he made a really good point.
We, as trustees, expect our students to learn and improve ourselves. How can we not expect our trustees to be learning and improving themselves also? So I find this valuable, because education is a complicated industry, and it has helped me better understand budgets. It has helped me, connect with other trustees and get better ideas. So I think it's unfortunate that people would choose to take all of their information from other sources rather than a source that is supported by trustees.
Thank you. Point well taken. Vice president, Blake. So as far as the MASB, I know that there are people on the board who do find it very valuable and that there's there's so many different options that they offer. Subject matter experts are important to learn from, but even if you don't think there's any value in any of the services they offer, I saw it in the packet that our amount that we're paying is $11,000 a year and that entitles us to partake in in a certain risk pool in the set seg insurance and that it saves an average district $22,000
a year from buying insurance separately. So I don't know what our number is exactly, but it seems like that more than makes it worthwhile. I'd also like to point out that in terms of the $100 that, the district pays for each individual board member to attend specific trainings, the state legislature has codified into law a rebate for school districts that choose to participate in MASB training. So even the state legislature sees the benefit and value of making sure that school boards continue their education in terms of their knowledge about how school boards operate and
maintain their operations. So if there's no other further discussion, I will be moving on to the vote. All those in favor of approving item 8.1, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. So that is a six-one vote. Oh, I'm sorry, five-two. Apologies, Trustee Lausanne. Moving on right now to Item 8.2, which is the PA system. Is there a motion to approve the recommendation for a new PA system with an estimated total of cost of $4,805,935
plus a 20% potential variance with funds coming from the 31 AA grant as presented. Trustee Lausanne, seconded by doctor Wynn Perdue. And I believe this is an action item for doctor DeLuca. Take it away. Thank you, madam president. Following a comprehensive RFQ process, Rochester Community Schools selects audio enhancement with installation services provided by BSC as preferred public address system solution. The selection was based on a vendor's availability to meet the district requirements for reliable communication,
safety and security integration, accessibility, ease of use, sound quality and long term scalability. The proposed solution provides targeted communication capabilities, two way clashing communication, an intuitive management interface and high quality audio performance throughout district facilities. Audio enhancement solution demonstrates strong compatibility with the district's existing technology safety infrastructure, including Syntegix Crisis Alert, smart interactive flat panels, assisted listening devices, and the district's power over Ethernet network environment. The platform also supports future growth through the availability to add communication peripherals,
displays, microphones, speakers, and other emerging technologies as district needs evolve. In addition to meeting the district's technical requirements, audio enhancement and VSC provide a comprehensive implementation, training, support, and warranty model that supports long term sustainability and operational success. Their proposal demonstrated the best overall combination of functionality, integration, service, and value, making it the solution best aligned with Rochester Community Schools' communication, accessibility, and safety objective. The estimated total cost of the project is $4,805,935
I have now have in front of me Mr. Jeff Vancovic, our Director of Technology, to go over a presentation for the board before a vote. Thank you, Doctor. DeLuca. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for, this opportunity. We've met before on a few other initiatives in our technology services team. I've shown this before, but we're really big on recognizing that technology, in the process of selecting technology is very cyclical. Things reach end of life, they become obsolete, needs evolve and change. The one thing that's got to be key, especially if you're successful in our department is you have to listen to what the needs are from the experts and the end users. In this case,
it's our students, it's our teaching and learning department, it's supporting the instructional pedagogies, which obviously is our priority in our district. So we're at the budget and communicate, which is we've done our research, we've done a lot of groundwork with focus groups looking at our infrastructure. Now if we come before you with a recommendation and with your approval, we'd love to hit the ground running. Currently our PA systems, the last refresh was 2017, but it was using a pretty old infrastructure, I think thirty plus years. If you think about the speakers in here and I know that sometimes been a hot topic as we've added monitor speakers and whatnot for the board meetings,
That little box is the PA speaker for this room. So imagine children in here, imagine things going on. From that point of view, it's an old system. You have basically a microphone in the office. It's like just a big old mic. You can hit it. Sometimes principals will call in with an extension, but you're using old wires. Each classroom could have a different experience. Sometimes they're loud. Sometimes they're not. Most students would say in passing time, you can't hear it. A lot of our schools have pride and, they have their fight songs and school music, going on in the hallways. You can't often hear it, you know, audibly with it going on.
So all of that, in there was kind of a need for us to say, let's check into this. So what we did is we conducted a focus group, actually several of them. We had about 60 participants, and it became very clear, so we stopped it at 60 participants, but we had a pretty wide range. And in there, we were able to not only present current technologies about what PAs can do now, and the word PA public address system, it's a pretty wide area of what it can do. But so when we presented that, we're able to get feedback of, is this helpful? Is this a priority? And should this be something we really classify as big enough to go before the
board of education in our district? So with their feedback, we had a set of criteria. But before we did that, we wanted to establish the priority. So on a one through five scale, looking at the features and functionalities of a PA in its current iteration, not an older one like we have like an analog one, you will see that the ratings were extremely high, not only with how people would use it, but on top of it, the level of we should look at this right now. So, with that and with the focus groups, we identified five criteria and this is how we established which vendor we went with with the RFQ. I'll talk to you a little bit about that process,
in a second, but you'll see without getting too far into the weeds. The first one was obviously the functionality of the public dress system. You really struggle if you want to talk to two or three classrooms alone right now, it's usually the whole building or not. You can zone in some of ours, but if I'm on the bus loop and I'm a principal, I can't pull up my phone and talk to just the exterior of the building. With the new systems, you can. If it's something like I'm going to talk to the freshmen classrooms about their first pep assembly at a high school, I wanna talk to just those classrooms. It's as simple as select, select, select. I'm talking to just those classrooms. I could be in the cafeteria, as select, select, select. I'm talking to just those classrooms, I could be in the cafeteria and I need to address the masses,
I can hit the button and just address the cafeteria. So the functionality on these newer systems is significantly beyond anything we've seen before. Accessibility, we wanna make sure people can hear, but that that's a a really hot topic because we have assisted living, learning, listening devices, that we wanna make sure interface with some of these systems as well. But on top of it, you have, sometimes the need to have the bells maybe be a little muted for students who might be triggered by that noise. Sometimes if you listen to our bells, they're very they cut through as they're supposed to, but you might have different tones for different classrooms depending on the age.
For our elementary principals, you might be able to have it where I just want third grade classrooms to ring for lunch, fourth grade classrooms to ring for lunch, we can't do anything like that right now, so accessibility. Future expandability is also key. As a tech director, anything we look at, we have to think five, ten, fifteen years down the line. And so also what can we do in this system, the one that we're recommending will grow with us. Last two, integration with our current infrastructure. We came before you about two years ago with Syntegix, if you remember, and that's something that we've been able to successfully implement. The issue is Syntegix isn't realized with our current system.
So if there is a crisis, we can like share that there's a lockdown, but if we want to get a little bit more granular, you know, say there's a hold, say that there's secure, say it's evacuate, we can now have those types of functionality with a new system. We can't do that with our current PA systems. And last thing is training and support. We want to make sure that if we buy a car now, we can get the parts five years from now if we need them. And a lot of these systems, we bought a system in 2017. I understand why we did it because we had a finite amount of resources, but those parts were already old because it was for an older infrastructure.
So as we look forward, this new system would allow for it. So, with the focus groups, just going a little quick on this part, here are the hot topics that people wanted. Obviously, reliability, our CareHawks, which is our current system are starting to break and so we're using legacy parts. We want to make sure they're accessible. Customization was really big, especially from our instructional leaders and our site managers. They want to be able to use it for different ideas that can't be realized in our current system. Two way communication. I haven't talked about this yet. There's actually a button where a student can hit the button and now they have an active speakerphone with the office.
We used to have that a long time ago, I felt, and the systems got away from it while it's back. So if there is an emergency and a kid could be very little, it's so easy to operate, can hit the button, office, hi, how can I help you? And they're talking just like they're in the classroom. Professional development and training, I wanna make sure people know how to use it, and then the usability and feature preferences, allowing the customization for each of our sites. The community and collaborative use is big and that kind of talks a little bit about some of the opportunities we can use such as having, specific songs or specific tones that are used at different times of the day in
different buildings, Implementation and rollout considerations, I'm going to talk about that. And then what's our long term vision and leadership with it and that's something we'll talk about how we believe this system can grow with us. So, the RFQ process was initiated on May 6. It went through May 20 it was a little bit more on the ambitious side, but this is not a huge space, believe it or not, for school technology. The PA market is not that big. There's only so many solutions. Questions about the scope of work were submitted by a few different potential vendors. We actually had three different companies inquire about it. But when we shared our criteria,
which was also in the RFQ advertisement, only one company really met it and that was actually the company that submitted, which was VSC for the audio enhancement product. For what it's worth in this process, we looked at, talked to neighbors, we talked to our current solutions and partners with vendors. Audio enhancement is the one that everyone seems to be going with. So just a brief overview. The EPYC system is the piece of audio enhancement we're talking about. This would live in the office, this big kiosk. We can actually order more than one if we needed to depending on the site. I think of the Schultz campus. I have a colleague,
Janae behind me, she works in ATPS, but then you have Ace on the other side. So we might have two kiosks because we have two different programs, in that particular site. There's a couple other cases like that as well. But it's pretty easy. You see the map of the school, you touch all the schools or you touch your zone or you just touch the two rooms you wanna talk to and then you're talking just through the mic. If a kid calls from a classroom or a teacher calls from a classroom, it rings on there and they're talking just from the mic. Bell schedules are a big thing, often that we have testing going on, we might want to shut the bells off for just certain parts of the building, we might want to change it to a half day,
we might have had a snow day or cold day that's involved us to shift on final exam schedules. All of that is super complex in our current system here. It's literally a web interface. We can change it and modify it really quick. The other thing too, and I've talked about it, the Syntagix alert system is not able to be fully realized in our current system. This one we would get all the alerts and we can even personalize them so we can have kid friendly messages for elementary and then as students get older, they can change. And then lastly, the sound fields, in a space like this, you would probably have about 12 speakers in this system that would be put in
this type of a space. So you're not having two speakers super loud, you're having sound dispersed. And that's going to allow us to realize some other opportunities with accessibility as the system grows. So, if approved, we would love to get Hamlin Elementary done this year, this summer. Excuse me. The reason why we like to get Hamlin Elementary is that's looking at Shelly. Well, Hamlin also their care hawk is showing signs of end of life. But also it's a very unique building and if we get it just right at Hamlin, it's gonna allow us to scale to the other elementaries throughout the year fairly quick. The nice thing with Hamlin as well is,
you know, we know that site, we've already kind of walked through it and so we'd be able to hit the ground running with your permission if this was approved. Our target would be to get the elementaries done this year. We would then realize all the old systems, make sure we have enough parts to keep the secondary going for one more year and then hit secondary the year after. So I don't know if there's any questions or if anything left out. Do any members have any questions? Doctor. Alspa. I just have a question. How disruptive you said you're going to do the elementary schools, it looked like during Hamlin will be first, but it looked like during the school year. How disruptive is it to a teacher in a classroom if you're putting new speakers
in her room? Great question. We would do that after the schools and so it happened in the evening. And what would happen is, basically, you do a classroom. It's not like you would do, like, eight stardom and then there'd be some dust and all these things for a couple of days. You do one classroom and you move on. Our IFP install was done the same way. So, the nice thing is the buildings are cooler and the installers don't have to worry about, you know, walking in and disrupting teaching. Thank you. Any other questions? Trustee Lucui. I was just curious if the 31AA grant is fully funding this or if there's other dollars that would be needed? Great question. Right now, the first phase of it,
with your permission, would cover it. And then we anticipate that grant to be renewed. If it's not, then what we would do is we would collectively work with this group and figure out if we want to, A, hold off on secondary, we would have enough parts to keep it going for a little bit or B, we would figure we have sinking fund or maybe look at other funding streams as well. Great question. Any other questions? Okay. Seeing none, we have a motion on the table, and I'd love to take a vote. All those in favor of and I'll just repeat it, approving the recommendation for a new PA system with an estimated total cost of $4,805,935
wait, $4,000,805.09 okay, now I can't say it. Dollars 805,935 plus a 20% potential variance with funds coming from the 31AA grant as presented. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Okay. I believe that's a seven-zero vote. Thank you very much, Doctor. De Luca and Mr. Vrykovic. Moving on to, let's see, we have item 8.3, the 2026 tax rate certification. That is an action item with Mr. McDaniel. Take it away.
Yes. Good evening. So we do this every year. We had the hearing before. We're just asking to implement those tax rates. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the 2026 tax rate as presented? First by Doctor. Alsbaugh, second by Doctor. Wynn Perdue. Any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. I believe that's also a Any opposed A seven-zero vote. Next up is also you again, Mr. McDaniel, and that is the twenty twenty six-twenty seven organizational items.
Take it away. Yes. So we've made some minor updates to the annual organizational items. We've added special education under Troon. We have removed the Caring Steps Fund from the list of accounts that are approved because there is no Caring Steps Fund anymore and no Caring Steps bank account required. We've also updated the treasurer position to be the designated commissioner for the Rochester Avon Recreation Authority and made an update as Huntington sold their investment portion of their business to Argent Institutional Trust.
Thank you. Mr. McDaniel, is there a motion to approve the annual organizational items as presented? So moved by Trustee Lausanne. Is there a second? By Doctor. Alsbaugh. Any discussion? Secretary Vitale? I had two questions. When you said it was updated, I'm looking at it in the packet and it's not updated right. Is that correct? What part? Well, I'm still seeing on page one, Caring Steps Fund under Comerica Bank depository. Oh, yes. Yes, we would remove that. We removed it from Huntington as we were making the transition to from Comerica to
Huntington. So we would also need to remove it there. And then did you say that we don't have anything at Huntington Bank anymore and it's now called something else? The investment portion of Huntington's business was sold to Argent Institutional Trust. Okay. And, I'm sorry. And my second question was I had asked, but I had not received an answer about, for the sex education advisory board. The, board is to approve the two co chairs, but those are not listed here. Do we know when those will be covered? It's a great question. It has to be before the start of the next school year before students come
in. So, when I talked to President Annas about this, and I know that it was your you have a few questions for a few months about SEAB. I had a meeting with our Camden on Monday and we are we feel that we'll be in a good spot to coordinate all of that prior to students reviving when we come back for our Board meetings in August. So, August 17. Okay. Any other yes, Vice President, Lake. So I can't get it to pull up, so I'm going by memory. So tell me if I'm wrong. But in there,
there's some places where it lists the board president as under certain things towards the beginning. But then other places, like, where it's who may contact an attorney on behalf of the district, it doesn't have the board president. I wonder, do we does that need to be in there, or we are we doing that under our bylaws and it doesn't have to be listed in there? Correct. Your bylaws. Because we were listed in other places where the board member's president is listed. Yeah. I think in this case, it's because it's directly referenced in your bylaws. I don't know if the other references where you mentioned are actually specific in the bylaws.
So we've called them out here, but I can work with Mr. Murphy to clean that up as we look at the board policy, the handbook and the administrative regulations. Yes. Well, I guess on that note, I think it does make sense to list the board president there too. I don't see why we wouldn't. Another question I just had was, what prompted the recommendation to move the RARA commissioner role from mister McDaniel to the board treasurer? And what are the responsibilities of that role? Is there reporting back to the board that happens? Or Doctor. Osman? So according to the charter of RARA,
it needs to be a trustee, not an administrator. And what I and the reason it was designated to the treasurer is because it the call went out about who would like to go to these board meetings. I said I would do it. I volunteered. So, what it involves is, you're on two committees, and the committees meet once or twice a year, especially now towards the end. I think we've had three meetings, one of each committee and the board. The board meets once a month, and, the minutes are public on the website. And we just go over whatever the business is of RAVA at that time.
And they're also open to the public. Thank you, Doctor. Alsop. Trustee Lucui. Okay. Well, what what especially concerned me about the organizational items was the elimination of the separate Caring Steps Fund because I am concerned that we should still have a better understanding of the utilization of this particular building. We need some type of reporting framework to understand the utilization, the full cost of the programs, the extent to which general fund dollars are supporting this additional building. So I was curious what plan administration has to report out on this building and
its enrollment, its programs, its utilization, just so we don't lose visibility into this building? Sure. I I would just like to clarify that this is not the fund itself. This is the actual bank account that the board is approving. So that's the removal of the the checking account for the Caring Steps Fund, not the actual fund itself. Okay. But in terms of reporting framework, what what are we gonna have in place? Because before, we had carrying seps fund as a separate budget that we would see. Mhmm. So what are we going to have? Yes. I think if it's okay with you because this is just the funds and we'll
get to the budgets next, we can tackle that question. Okay. I'll ask the same question next time. Any other questions? Okay. Seeing none, I'll take a vote. Is there a motion to approve the annual organizational items as presented? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Hearing on that is a seven-zero vote. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. And you're also up next for item 8.5, which is the approval of the twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven fiscal year budget. The budget and just before you begin, the Board spent time reviewing the budget proposals at the June 8 meeting,
and it was also reviewed during the Truth in Budget hearing prior to this meeting. Take it away, Mr. McDaniel. Yes. So I'll just add that it was also discussed at the SBOC, Superintendents Business and Operations Committee on July 1 as well. We made some minor corrections to formulas and math and headings and things like that, but materially this budget hasn't changed. So, that budget has stayed consistent throughout both with the general fund and the other funds. So we're asking that you approve all the funds listed below, general fund, bookstore fund,
food service fund, the student school activity fund, the debt service fund and the sinking fund, not the carrying steps fund. So to Trustee Lecue's question earlier right now, it'll be budgeted as any of our other buildings are. So it'll be held in the general fund. We have GSRP programs there. Right now, we don't break out a Hampton GSRP program versus the ECEC GSRP program. So reporting, at this point will be consistent with how we report all of our other school buildings. Thank you, Mr.
McDaniel. Are there any questions? Yes. Vice President Blake. So I know we all talked about this last So I'm not going to say the same things I said then. But, I do have this question. So we don't know what's happening with Lansing. We possibly may have, depends on what happens in August, we may have a different number in terms of money coming to the district. We so these are really, you know, just guesses. What when is the first time after all of that that we get a more accurate budget that we can make any changes if need be?
Yeah. So, November, December is typically the time frame. It sort of depends on when the state approves their budget. So last year, they approved it in early October, which made it a little bit harder. But certainly once the school year starts, our staffing has settled, our enrollment has settled. Hopefully, we have a state budget then and that's sort of the first time that we have a good clear picture of what the year is going to look like. But we are, you know, to your question, four or five, maybe six months into the fiscal year. Any other Doctor. Ospa? I just wanted to say that, I know we look at the budgets every year,
but sometimes I just wanted to say that was very helpful to have the descriptions of the different funds. And I appreciated that. That kind of took the budget packet and made it a little bit more decodable. Any other questions? Trustee, Lecui. While you brought up GSRP, I wondered if you could review for us how we're getting reimbursed for GSRP and where that shows up in the budget. Yes. So it's part of basic programs for the most part. There are with our GSRP budgets, some additional areas where you might see, for example, the administrator, the director there, director Miller,
she would be budgeted in the two twenty function codes, which is instructional staff support. I'm not sure what it's called in that sheet, but I can pull that up. And then sometimes we get funding through GSRP for playground equipment or capital outlay that could be budgeted elsewhere. So the bulk of that is in basic programs, specifically function 118 for pre K. Thank you. You have a follow-up question? Yes. With GSRP, I noticed we did receive a few we received some information about, the early childhood center and GSRP. I saw we have about 13 classrooms dedicated to GSRP throughout the district,
and it looks like about 228 kids enrolled. I was just curious. Do you know offhand how many of those would be RCS residents versus residents from other districts? No. I don't. Okay. That would be useful information to have. The what? If I may. So, that service for for student placement is done through the county. So we would contact them once enrollment is over to have that information. That's not something that so first, we fill our seats and when they're where there where there are open seats, the county then says here's 18 seats or four seats or whatever and and tries
to find the nearest location to the resident to whatever district may or may not have open seats, if that makes sense. So we will we'll have a little bit movement there for a while. Sorry, if I'm not. We'll have a little bit movement there for a while. And once that's settled, we can get you that information through Open Schools. Do you think that'd be useful information to know? I do. For right now, it's not settled. So like if we it's almost like the enrollment that we could we keep the Board updated on enrollment through the summer and sometimes we have exits, sometimes we have so it's really not a good measurement stick until we get closer to the end and programs start to run.
Thank you, Superintendent Russo. Any other questions? Trustee Lacoup. Yes. Well, regarding the early childhood center, the other information that we found out and the information the board received is that this building currently has 13 rooms. It includes an empty room, a couple rooms being used for storage. So I do still have questions about the intended capacity and current utilization. So I'm hoping that we'll continue to be able to see information budgetarily speaking so that we understand the utilization of this facility, going forward. Do other board members agree that it would be helpful to have some sort of
reporting mechanism so we know enrollment cost of programs because we can see also that caring steps fund it reflected only 81,000 in revenues and expenditures but that was including a $27,000 transfer from the general fund in order to make that balance out. So again we're taking money from the general fund to maintain this building separately. So does, superintendent Russo, do you want to address that now? Trustee Blake? So in answer to the question, yes, there's some of that information I think is helpful.
But as we do but this my understanding is that there was a different caring steps fund because this building was different. It it did daycare. It was tuition based. It was not a district program. But now that that isn't the case anymore, we don't keep a separate, you know, thing about Hamlin Elementary. How much did we spend or gain or lose for at that school? And this is similar to that. So, yes, it would be fine to it would be good, and I would would find valuable to know how many kids we have here and so forth, but there's not going to be a separate fund anymore that we'll know whether this is a gainer or loser because there's not that for any of our district buildings.
Madam President, Trustee Lecui It's a bit this is a bit different than our other we get foundation allowance to cover what goes on with the K through 12 and special education. There's other money that supports that. There is this is still very tuition based in terms of some of the programs that are housed here. So I do think there is a difference between this and Hampton Elementary, for example. Trustee Blake, would you like to respond? No. I I there's she I mean, there are there are if we're folding this into the district,
it has to be treated the same as the district. We also have, you know, the Schultz campus, and that's a different and has lots of different programs. And some way we receive money from here and from there, and we don't break it out by building. And I think we have to get past this idea that we're gonna break this out by building and how much of it will profit and loss by unless we're gonna do that with every building. And I don't know any school district that does that. Thank you. I'm you've asked, I have a very brief statement, and it's simply that we do do that with the other buildings. And that's exactly why we should do it with this one too.
What do you mean we do that? We don't do a profit and loss and Would you like to speak to proceed? Blake? I I don't understand what she's saying. We do get capacity numbers. Yes. That is why what I said is understandable. But we don't get financials per per building. Profits and loss, we have this many students, we bring in this much money, we spend this much on the teachers at this elementary or this middle school. I've never seen any I'm going to stop I'm going to stop this discussion right now because I feel like we've gone off topic. What we're talking about right now is the approval of the 'twenty six-'twenty seven fiscal year budget. And is there a motion to adopt all 2026 budgets as presented?
No, I have started I have something on the table that I am bringing. I've started speaking. You're interrupting. A brief a brief question is simply that don't we know we do know how much each building is bringing in and not because we know what the FTE is per student. I called the question. I called the question. Trustee Osmos called the question. Okay. Well, that's what I was getting ready to do. Is there a motion to adopt all the twenty twenty six-twenty seven budgets as presented? So moved by Doctor. Ospaugh. Do I have a second? By Secretary Butel. All those in favor,
please say aye. Aye. Aye. All those against, opposed? Hearing none, that is a seven-zero vote. Moving on to Item 8.6, which is the approval of the twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six budget amendment. This is also an action item for Mr. McDaniel. Take it away. Yes. So I'll be brief here. Same story as before, different school year. We recommend that you please approve the general fund, carrying SEP's fund, bookstore, food service, student school activity, debt service and sinking fund budgets. Thank you. Did you take a breath in that or what? Is there a motion to approve the twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six budget amendment as
presented? Moved by Doctor. Wynn Perdue. Is there a second? By Secretary Vitell, is there any discussion? Can I just ask clarifying? Was the motion to approve all twenty five-twenty six budget amendments or approving all of them? Yes, on 8.6, yes. All those in favor, please say aye. Any opposed? Hearing on that is a seven-zero vote. Moving on to item 8.7, transportation contract renewal. That is also an action item for Mr. McDaniel. Services and anticipate that we will go out to bid for transportation services during the twenty six-twenty seven school year. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Is there a motion to approve a one year contract extension at a 3% annual
increase with Durham School Services as presented? Do I have a motion? Anyone? That's Doctor. Alspa. Do I have a second? Trustee Blake. Discussion? Doctor. Ospa. Mr. McDaniel, could you please explain, the relationship between we've heard one of the union president Kim, and but yet I believe this is an outsourced service. So could you explain that dynamic to us, please? Yeah. So, this board plays an interesting role as you and the superintendent that we, subcontract with Durham School Services to provide transportation to our students.
We are not the employer of our bus drivers, our monitors and our office staff. So when it comes to, I guess negotiating wages, we don't do that. Durham does. We signed a contract with them to provide services. So, you know, as I heard, the president speak, we can share guidance of where we plan to go. Like I mentioned to you guys, during the presentation, briefly that we will go out for an RFP next year. There's other transportation aspects that I think we've talked about that we're looking to implement. Bus patrol is something we're piloting. There may be other aspects. I know,
middle school athletic transportation is a hot topic. So there's other pieces there. I think the biggest thing when it comes to the services that Durham provides for us, it's getting bus drivers. So I think I shared in cabinet notes with the board, that they've been able to, exceed the typical, summer hiring numbers to increase that by an additional 5% for us, which is about five or six drivers, so that they can provide additional services to us, meaning athletic trips. One of the the big costs for athletics is transportation. Sometimes that means we're able to get nouvelle,
which is school buses or yellow buses. Sometimes that means we have to pay for national trails or, and you get those big beautiful charter buses that, I know our athletes love to take the state competitions. But those come with a cost. So as we can get those costs in line and are able to subcontract more of those services to Durham, that provides additional budget that we've allocated to do other things, which could be middle school athletic transportation. Doctor. Ostbach? So thank you for explaining that relationship. I understand that the bus drivers and the union president are not our direct employees.
You did say that there is a 3% increase. I'm wondering if there's any language in the contract or any commitment from Durham to pass on any percent of that increase to the drivers. And I understand you may not know because they're not our employees. Yeah. No. There is not. I think, as the President mentioned of the Rochester Transportation Association that they saw a couple of percent increase sort of in line with those. You know, it's not really our business as to how they spend the money, it's what we pay them. So, you know, we do acknowledge that it was a challenging year.
We were short drivers, that caused different issues, that we had to respond to with late buses and having shield sometimes stay over if they needed to. I know our principals and our secretaries and sometimes our teachers took a big load of that if buses were running fifteen, thirty, forty five, sixty minutes late to help, care for those kids that they shouldn't have to. Madam President. Doctor Wynne Perdue. Yes. I just wondered if there is a way for us to, subtly encourage Durham to pay attention to the needs of,
the Transportation Association as they were, explained to us this evening by mister Hall. I know it may not be that we directly are responsible for their salaries, but morally and, because they are transporting our kids, I think we indirectly do. And this is the last year of the contract, so I think there must be some way that we can encourage them strongly to address those concerns. Yeah. It's an interesting dynamic because, you know, as part of seeing the letter and talking to some of our colleagues,
in the Tri County area, I've learned that some of those rates are lower, but they may get better benefits by being direct hires of the school district. Like, school district to the East of us pays $21 an hour, which is lower than we do. There's others that are to the south that that pay $28.50 to start off. So that's a pretty big difference between ours. And then, I guess to the West of us is about what we pay. So it's an interesting market. I think one of the challenges when it comes to transportation and bus drivers is
the market for staff is changing. It used to be sort of more the retirees who like that summer schedule. Now I think, one of the challenges is we're seeing people leave for twelve month positions, meaning they go get jobs during the summer and then they don't show back up in August when it's time to return to school because maybe they're driving for Amazon or UPS or, you know, there's a countywide transportation system that took from our pool of candidates as well. So there's some challenges there for people that want to work, twelve months versus a school year calendar.
Vice president Blake. Yeah. I I do have a lot of sympathy here for what the gentleman had to say when he was was up here. I mean, some many people know this. I was raised by a school bus driver for Rochester, so I'm, you know, in that mentality. But I think a lot of this, like, the root cause was a long time ago when when it was privatized. You just said wages. And I know my mother's been retired for sixteen years, and she made more an hour than what you just said when she retired, and she has a retirement. So the wages have went way down, and,
you know, there's no state retirement anymore, all those things. Like, I don't know what we can do here in 2026 to change that. And I also worry, though, we say, well, we can kick it off for a year and we'll do another RFP in a year. But the RFP will get I don't even first of all, I don't know what options there are out there. You'll have to tell me that. But, also, whatever options there are, generally, the person that we would take would be the lowest bidder, which would be even lower cost, which would be paying even less. So I don't know. And I'm assuming we would take the lowest bidder, and and that seems like it puts us in more problem.
But I I do know that we have a lot of problems with transportation. We do. And I know we're trying we've been trying to fix it, but it's a continuing thing. It's not just this year. It's been every year since I've been in the district. People it's it's constant, and I don't know what we can do, but I think we have to try to do something. Superintendent Russo, you wanted to address that? Thank you, president. I I there's a few things, Trustee or Vice President Blake, that I know Mr. McDaniel can kind of address and so can I? But as a general statement, I think it's important something you said to let the community know. When we were falling short bus drivers this year,
for example, Mr. McDaniel has a good relationship with their leadership, and so I wanted to insert myself and to Doctor. Quinn Perdue's commentary that to encourage some things to happen and they did come back and respond with hiring more bus drivers than than, than we've had previous. And so I think keeping the relationship, I'm talking very, like, 30,000 foot view here, and Mr. Ray Daniel can address some of the things, trust you, Blake, that you asked. I I think keeping the relationship going and helping, helping them understand what our needs are and what the needs of our drivers are,
what the needs of our students are, and continuing to build the relationship seems like, the best option now, knowing that some of the things you said that going out for bid again, changes changes a lot of things and starting fresh and borrowing new sets of problems that we've worked through when we when we started this relationship. So, we don't just say, yes, we signed the contract and then we let it be. Mr. McDaniel talks with their leadership often and I am talking to them more and more. Secretary Vitale? I guess I have a couple of questions. One, and maybe I just misunderstood this.
I thought there are five we had a five year contract with them and that expired and we're extending it one year or this Correct. This would be the sixth year based on an RFP now five years ago. So I guess my question was why did we choose not to do an RFP this year? Yes, I would say that was, really on me and us not having a director and trying to change banks. There's a number of transitions that are having to occur sort of by contracts that are out of our control this, I guess, fall for the rest of 2026.
So just with the number of things going on and missing the Director and the budget work and things like that falling to me, we did not go for an RFP this year. I guess, you know, my concern is the, our in the end, our students, right, that they've had this huge turnover that we have, there's been more accidents. And luckily, those have not, for the most part, involved students and injuries. But know, the concern is if we keep getting new people all the time and maybe the training is not there,
what will that what will happen? Not to mention the inconvenience to our families for, routes that are late and, you know, that type of thing. So I don't I guess I still don't quite understand what kind of conversations we have had from the standpoint of what we could do to improve our situation and what the from a cost standpoint, what that would mean for the district too? Yes. One thing that we can do that won't affect the cost standpoint is that additional hiring of drivers. We had 10 drivers,
I think it was, that did not return in August, which put us below the 105 routes that we were intending to serve. So, Durham was able to come through and help us out in some ways. For example, they were able to get four drivers that they paid room and board from Ann Arbor to stay here at a hotel and drive for Rochester, near the end of the school year. There's things like that that, we're able to push them to do, but those other locations need to have sub drivers as well. So I think I shared in the cabinet notes, this past week that there's hiring events, Monday through Thursday from 9AM to 2PM.
You do not need a CDL. We have two or maybe more board members that won't have this position next year, it seems like. So we will train you to drive buses and you can be a direct part of the solution next year. But that's what we're trying to do is is to get those subs because that makes everything easier. It makes, more time for training. Our safety supervisor is a licensed bus driver. So that means when there's a short route, they go out instead of working in the office. Now part of that is our philosophy that we believe we need to send a
bus to pick up kids whether or not it's an hour late or longer because we believe that there's some kids out there that that's their only way to get to school. Other school districts have went the opposite direction and said, all right, sorry, you know, if you live in this neighborhood, we're canceling this week, get to school. It's not gonna be on a bus. So we've tried to avoid that. But, you know, when we get beat up, for having buses running late, that's always an option that we can do. So far, our philosophy has been we need to send a bus because there's a kid out there that that needs it. Superintendent Russo,
did you wanna I just that that I mean, there's a there's a lot of questions that this brings up. Right? If we there there's other options too. We can talk about opt in busing. We can talk about consolidating routes again. We can talk about, you know, RFPs and all all of the things. The the issue is I I think one of the things that mister McDaniel brought up and Trustee Blake brought up, the the market is changing for drivers. Right? And that's very apparent with Amazon and and and other other not not just, things you need to see the l for, but if you're a driver, you can do other things, right, Uber and etcetera.
And that's true that these are pretty confined hours and determined hours, but then there's it's it's only for nine months a year. And so, it just there there's a lot of different when we say what else can we do, what else can we do, there's a lot of things we can do, but we have to measure it against what the cost is. Going back to, hiring our own drivers or doing something like that is a big decision to make. And to be to be fair, I think there's been a couple districts who tried that, also moved back from food service, and then came back again. Right? I was part of a district in a former district that did the exact same
thing mister McDaniel was talking about where we canceled specific routes by week, to alleviate. We said, okay. This week, we're gonna share the burden, and this week, it's gonna be sub x, and the next week, it's gonna be sub z. And we canceled four or five routes per week until we could get the drivers back. So, there are a lot of options, but they're bounced against other pluses and minuses. Bless you. Thank you for that perspective. Any other questions? Yes, Secretary Abitell. So do you think that there is anything that could be done before the 'twenty six, 'twenty seven year,
from the standpoint of changing this contract or, having more discussions that would help improve the number of drivers, the quality of the drivers, the retention, that type of thing? The feasibility would be questionable, right? Because I think one thing we could do would be to raise pay rates and make a 12 schedule. I don't have a great use, for those drivers in July and August yet, but that could be something that we could look at so that we could compete with Amazon or UPS or some of those other, you know, Uber Eats even. Like, you don't need a CDL to do that.
And, I was guilty of ordering that today and gave a tip. So they're probably making just as much as our drivers are now. So All right. Any other questions? Seeing none, is there let's see, we have the motion on the table, so I'll take a vote now. And this is the vote to approve a one year contract extension at a 3% annual increase with Durham School Services as presented. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. So that is a five-two vote. I voted aye.
Oh, that was you were an O, too? Doctor. Wynn Perdue, Doctor, I'm sorry, Trustee Luzon? And were you a yes, Trustee Luzon? I voted yes. I don't see another option right now. Okay. And so that was a five-two vote. Thanks. Okay. Like some song, we're over halfway there. Item 8.8, the second reading of Policy 8,003, which is our website and digital content accessibility. And this is an action item for Mr. Murphy. Take it over. Thank you. Good evening, everyone.
This has been well established territory this year. We've been back and forth with this policy a few times. June 8 was the first reading. Having received zero questions in between then and now, I'm here to recommend approval, at the second reading for the update to Policy 8,003, website digital content accessibility. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Is there a motion to approve the update to Policy 8,003 regarding website and digital content accessibility as presented? Moved by Doctor. Alsbaugh, seconded by doctor Wynne Perdue.
Discussion? Trustee Lozant. Well, I spoke at the previous meetings What? I'm sorry. Trustee Lacui. Yeah. That's me. I spoke at the previous meetings about my concern with lack of clear language and timelines and the fact that the board has no real way to monitor follow through when policies are too vague. So for the reasons I stated before, I'll vote no on this one. All right. I'll take a vote now. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Okay. That is a six-one vote. Moving on to Item 8.9, the RAA tentative agreement.
This is also another action item for Mr. Murphy. Take it away. Good evening again, President Ennis, members of the Board, Superintendent Russo. It's my distinct privilege to bring forward a recommendation for your approval regarding the tentative successor agreement between Rochester Community Schools and the Rochester Administrators Association, the RAA. While the details have already been shared with the Board, I would like to take a few moments to publicly highlight the framework of this contract and recognize the collaborative effort that brought it to fruition. First and foremost,
I'd like to extend my gratitude to the RAA negotiating team. Led by Adams High School principal, Luke Swanson, the Association's team, which included Lisa Fosnaw, Wendy Darga, Janae Hayes, Ryan Starr and Jason Kluszak, approached this process with professionalism, mutual respect and a shared focus on what is best for our schools and our students. I also would like to formally acknowledge the broader RAA leadership team, including RAA President Dan Mooney, Vice President Sarah Crowley, Secretary Josh Rinkel,
and secre and oh, one of those is Treasurer. Sorry. Josh Rinkel and Lisa Fosnaw, who I believe is Treasurer. Their ongoing steady leadership and open communication ensured that our discussions remain productive and solution oriented. I'd also like to thank our Board team, which included Mr. McDaniel and Jason Ort for their hard work and dedication. The collective bargaining process requires a balance of advocacy and compromise, and this agreement represents exactly that. It honors the hard work of our administrative leaders while maintaining the fiscal responsibility our
community expects. To summarize key components of the agreement, this is a three year contract, which will expire 06/30/2029. Base salary compensation increases include a 3% increase to the pay scale in year one, a 3% increase in year two and a 2.5% increase in year three. This also includes an ongoing $2,500 annual payment for administrators that are at the top of the pay scale who are not able to earn an additional step, adds a new step 10 in the final and third year of the contract and
maintains a $2,500 annual stipend for all administrators to recognize the extensive duties required outside of the normal workday. This agreement also incorporates targeted adjustments to the tax sheltered annuity contribution as well as minor adjustment to longevity pay and additional updates to orthodontic and vision insurance allowances, which are now, if approved, would be in alignment with the teacher allowances for those same items.
We've also added some additional language regarding large building support. This would establish clear enrollment thresholds, 600 students for elementary, 900 for middle and 1,700 for high schools, which would then trigger consideration for additional administrative support. Total cost of this agreement is $1,800,000 over the entire three years. This agreement was ratified by RAA membership on 06/16/2026. It reflects our deep appreciation for our administrators who serve as the backbone of our
buildings and it positions RCS to continue attracting and retaining top tier educational leaders. Therefore, I recommend that the Board of Education approve the tentative agreement with the Rochester Administrators Association as presented tonight. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Is there a motion to approve the Rochester Administrators Association or RAA agreement as presented? Moved by Shelly Lauzan sorry, Trustee Lauzan and seconded by Doctor. Alspaugh. Discussion?
Trustee Lucui. Well, first of all, I appreciate the work that went into negotiating this agreement. In addition to teachers and support staff, principals are some clear MVP players in the school district. They manage both adults and students and teachers and discipline and all numbers of things. And I think this agreement seems fair and reasonable, and I'm happy to support it. Thank you. Any other comments? Doctor. Ostwald? I just want to express my appreciation for our administrative teams. Being a principal is a lifestyle choice and especially in high school, and I appreciate it.
As a teacher, I know there are many days where I say good night and the principal is like, Yeah, I'm here till 10:00 because there's a football game or there's a basketball game or elementary, there's a science fair. So our schools are communities and our administrative team are the parents of those communities and those families, and I really appreciate the work they put in. Thank you, Doctor. Ostwald. Any other questions any other comments? I would just like to echo what my two colleagues said here at the table. With the motion on the table speaking of the table, we will now take a vote. All those in favor of approving the RAA agreement as presented,
please say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Hearing none, that is a seven-zero vote. Thank you so much to everyone involved in these negotiations. We appreciate your work. Next up, we have item 8.1, and that is the MYKIP goals. This is an action item for Kimberly Hampton. Mrs. Hampton? Good evening, Board of Education. I am here, as you've mentioned, for the approval of the MYCAP continuous improvement plan for the school year 'twenty six-'twenty seven. The Teaching and Learning department recommends the approval of the 2026 Michigan Continuous Improvement Plan
as presented to the Board on 05/18/2026. This recommendation directly supports the RCS strategic plan and our continued efforts to utilize a multi tiered system of academic and behavioral supports guided by strong data analysis and responsive instructional practices. This proposal has been reviewed and vetted by the teaching and learning leadership team as well as multiple stakeholder groups as described in the presentation on May 18. Thank you, Mrs. Hempton. Is there a motion to approve the MIP goals as presented?
Moved by Doctor. Ospaugh, and I'll need a second and seconded by Trustee Looson. Discussion? Trustee Lecui. All right. So the myHIP goal. Now personally, I find the 3% goal or it's 1% per year to be not particularly ambitious if we're trying to increase something. And I was looking in my school data at grades three and six and eleven to observe trends. And I can see that some years we gain almost three to seven percentage points in some grades and subjects in one year. And I also noticed some of these grades and subjects are much lower or much
higher than others. Like, for example, if I look at grade 11, the grade 11 SAT, their English was 81.8%. That's pretty high. Their math was 56.6% in the in the trend. So if we're looking at areas that need recovery or stronger areas, I would imagine that we would have different types of goals because a 1% increase if you're at, for instance, 97% is really different than if you're at 52%. So I guess my question is, how did we arrive at 3% as the right target for all of these grades
and subjects? The 3%, encompassing over that three year span was recommended as a range, for the district to consider in terms of overall progress across the past three school years. The activities and strategies that support that goal are targeted in ways that address the groups or the distinguished assessment types that you've just mentioned. So for example, while the goal is measured at that 3% improvement, the activity that would address the mathematics rate, for example,
of proficiency would be a different activity and body of strategies than would address the 97% proficiency, I believe, was an example you gave. But one of the challenges with both proficient and partially proficient in the rating really relates to the way that MTSS process is working in our schools. So to be grade level and detail driven is how that's operationalized. When the goal is looking at the system rather than individual students, we're taking a mark that encompasses that group within those subject matter in a way
that is a more universal marker. So the best way I think I can answer that question. Vice President Flake. Yes. I had some similar thoughts than what she was just saying in terms of 3%. Did that sound like and I said some of this last time, but did that sound like it was really ambitious enough? But even more so, we're we're kind of in very different places in different grades in terms of there's some where we're very well. It's almost like we're I feel like almost like we're I feel like how are we gonna do a whole lot better? There's others where, like, oh, we need to do a lot better. And and so three for all of it seems just kind of like a broad
brush. But I was thinking about this, you know, over the past week. This isn't the only place in which we can talk about or impose or work for goals within the my kit. Right? I mean, we can have it as part of superintendent's goals. We can have it we can just talk about it and and let you know or but really, I I want you to tell me because you're more of an expert than we are in terms of what not right now. I'm not asking. But in terms of where what areas do you really feel like we have work to do and we wanna set higher goals?
In which areas do you think, you know, we're doing okay? So it doesn't have to be in the context of this meeting, but I I just think, like, a 3% improvement on all this across the board. Like, that's maybe fine for my KIPP, but I I think most of us wanna see a little more thought and a little more specific specificity through some process. Superintendent Russell. That's a it's a great point. I think, my trusty de Cooley's question, miss Hampton's response, trustee Blake's question, In a in a district that has 23 building servicing students and we are required by law to have a goal that encompasses the district,
it's very easy to look at that and say, right, even from a board seat or a community seat to say, well, 3% over three years sounds and you're not really diving into, like, very specific things. Right? It's very it's overarching, and it's meant to be that. I think the word that miss Hampton used that I'd like to reiterate is operationalizing this. And through our principal's goals, goals, through superintendent's goals, through things that we are focusing on, we might go into building a at building a elementary and notice that across the board in grades k through five,
literacy is really moving at a rapid rate. But math might be something to focus on. Whereas I go to building b elementary, and it could be polarizing the opposite. That's where we operationalize where we need to work. Right? How we need to work, not where. Right? And so I just it it's I I and this is a very genuine statement. I like that you are very in tune with the mic if there's a lot of boards that don't know what that even is. And when I came here, that seemed to be a focus for for many board members. It wasn't just one or two. Like, this seems like it's sitting on the side. It's not part of the fabric.
And what we tried to do was make it part of the fabric of getting principals and teachers to start thinking about what this means and how to operationalize it. And to that end, we've we've made some great accomplishments. And I'd just say that this is not meant to be, like, I want four kids moving from 77 to 79% in phonics. This is an overarching district goal that's required to us through school improvement by the state. And I'll stop talking because I talk a lot. Madam President. Trustee Lacui. Well, in some of the responses I'm hearing, I'm I really feel like we're,
in some ways, confusing operations with the outcomes we're looking for. And this is 3% over three years. So really, it's 1% each year is what our goal is here. And I'm wondering by law, would we have been able to set different percentages for different grades and subjects? I I I don't know the answer by law for different grades per I I don't know the answer. I'll have to something answer if she knows the answer. But I would say that it was I'll remind it was in the superintendent cabinet notes, and then it I think it was answered at our last meeting. If we achieve that,
it can be we can have a different number. Right? If we get 3% the first year, we're not gonna sit there and say we don't have a goal anymore, right? But to make a goal that might be 5% or 7% to set us up for failure instead of set us up for success seems wrong organizationally. Ms. Hempton? I think what I would add to that, Mr. Russo, as a part of what you've mentioned in terms of bringing this process into the fabric of the organization through various leadership groups, from the classroom to building leadership level to the curriculum work that happens,
with our consultants and coaches. And our work really is to not have this be set apart from the daily practice of our school routines. And so when a goal is set in the aggregate or for an organizational goal, the decision was made within these groups to do this one goal very well as compared to what might turn out to be six to seven goals that require a monitoring structure within my KIPP that begins to fragment the conversation and bring leaders into
a myriad of tables for decision making that pull apart not only that coherence but our ability to really enact how this intersects with the strategic plan. And so our intentionality with one goal and one percentage was targeted for those aims. And the opportunity to change a percentage or to expand the goal certainly is there. But it was made with intention so that we might all lean in across the same body of work as we get going with this. There certainly is not a legislated percentage that needs to be accounted for in the
MICIP process. It really is about how do we think about not individual students and not cohorts and how they grow over time. We, too, would have been quickly drawn to, well, what about this particular group that we're studying? And the goal of this organizationally is really about systems, curriculum analysis, professional learning analysis, not about supporting a specific child to reach the next measure in their learning. And so with that, the grades three, six and eleven were also strategic in nature in that they are transitionary periods for
children. Third graders are first year at that test, transition to middle school in sixth grade and then, of course, that sort of exit game day with the SAT. And so that grouping was also intentional on our part. Any other questions? Yes, Madam President. Madam President. I haven't acknowledged you. Doctor. Purdue? I just wanted to say a a couple of things. 3% is statistically significant. However, I think when we consider this in relationship to some of our other strategic plans that you guys have talked about with helping teachers and all of our staff understand
data and use it effectively. I think what, my my trustee colleague is suggesting is that and what you're suggesting are not really that worlds apart that you're both saying that as we look at this and we see improvement or we see continued delay, we can zero in on very specific measures and make different goals. And I think that that these two can work in tandem. I think right now, you're really focusing on helping everyone use data,
and that's something I teach data literacy, and it's not easy. Use it effectively, figure out what sources we can pull from, and use daily within the classroom and to evaluate grade levels and specific subjects, and then zero in on places where we're not seeing the kind of growth that we like or realizing there's a big gap in these two areas. And so the 3% overall isn't going to be, hard to meet or the accurate measure of what we need to do. And I think right now too,
in that three years, it takes a long time to too often in education, we jump onto a bandwagon of new language. And I think three years, thirty six months, when we really think about the time we have, we more more like we have eight months out of three years with new people. And I want us to keep focused on the fact that we are building in more evidence supported practice all the way down to every level. And I think our next goal for this could be higher,
and it could be more specific and measurable to different places. But I see this as a step in the right direction based on my own experience with teaching data. Sorry. Thank you, Doctor. Purdue. Anyone else? Madam President, Trustee Lacui. All right. I understand that there has to be a balance between setting goals that are too low and goals that are too high. My concern is that 1% each year is setting the standard too low. And I understand that we chose 1% each year for all of the grades and subjects,
but I didn't actually hear a solid answer to my question about if we could have set different percentages for different grades and subjects. And I'm assuming the answer to that is yes. It would be represented as different goals, I believe, yes. Okay. So we could have had different goals for different Okay. That was all. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none, thank you, Mrs. Hampton. Let's see. I believe the motion is on the table. I'd like to take a vote. All those in favor of approving the MYCAP goals as presented, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed?
No. Okay. That is a six-one vote. Thank you, Mrs. Hempton. Oh, okay. Evidently, we need to take a comfort break, and we will do so for five minutes. Our agenda is item 8.11, strategic plan year three. And I'm listed as the action item, but I'm going to actually hand this over to you, Superintendent Russo. If you can just touch on a little bit on the year three strategic plan. Thank you, President Namis. I was not able to be at last week's meeting, although I did watch.
It sounded like there were some thoughts that individual board members regarding strategic plan year three. At this point, we do can you hear me? Sorry. I'll start over. So last last week, I was not able to be at the meeting. I was able to watch the meeting, obviously not interact because I was not, I was not participating, but it sounded like there were some, individual requests, individual board member thoughts and responses to strategic plan year three, as proposed. At this at this time, we have not, modified or changed anything from the last
Meeting to this meeting, so I would ask that the board for consideration, today, put a motion and approve strategic plans year three, for the 2627 school year. Okay. Thank you, superintendent Russo. Is there a motion to approve the strategic plan year three plans as presented? Moved by Doctor. Alsbaugh. Is there a second? Is there a second? Doctor. Perdue, did you second? I didn't see you. No. Oh, okay. Okay. Vice President Blake, discussion? Is there any discussion on Item 8.11, strategic plan year three? Yes. Secretary Butel.
I support the intent behind many of the projects and appreciate the work that has gone into developing them. However, as we move into year three of our strategic plan, I cannot support these projects as presented because the project success criteria continues to focus primarily on creating processes, frameworks, schedules and systems rather than demonstrating measurable improvements in student outcomes. As a board member, our responsibility is not simply to approve activities, but to ensure the strategic plan initiatives have clear metrics that allow us to evaluate whether they are making meaningful difference for students.
Before approving these projects, I would like to see more specific success measures that identify how student achievement, engagement, readiness will improve and how those improvements will be measured. Without that information, it will be difficult for the board and the community to determine whether these initiatives have been successful. And I I have some examples, like, for each of the projects, you know, student voice, how will we know student voice is improving? Could we measure with student survey results, percentage of district decisions that include student input? You know, I have potential suggestions for each of them, but those are my thoughts.
Okay. Anyone else? Trustee Iokui. Yeah. Similarly, at our June 8 meeting, I spoke about how these plans are still measuring processes and systems rather than outcomes, just like Trustee Butel just mentioned. So rather than repeat everything I said a couple weeks ago, I wanted to focus on an issue that I don't think we've resolved yet, which is when exactly is the board supposed to influence strategic priorities. And I sent a motion to the board that I was considering making because even
MASB says local board should develop, approve, and implement district goals in the strategic plan. And, of course, that doesn't mean we write out the action steps. Administration's role is to figure out how to get there, but the board's role is determining where we're going and how we know we'll arrived. So if strategic planning is one of the board's core responsibilities, there should be a defined point in our annual cycle where all trustees can publicly discuss priorities, desired outcomes, and measures of success before the plans are substantially developed. So with that said,
my motion is I move that the board establish a formal annual process for trustee input into strategic order development. Point of order. Yes. Secretary, Pinto. There's currently a motion on the floor, so there would need to be a replacement for it. A An amendment? Right. Yes. Are you are you proposing to amend the current? So Yeah. I propose to amend our current motion and or to actually replace the current motion with this new motion, which is that the yes. I'm allowed to finish.
Doctor Ospaugh has my Most of an idea. This goes against our board norms. If you have three people that wanna put this on the agenda, because this is creating a new process and really a new, a new subject. So if you have three people that wanna put this on the agenda, you can do just like every other trustee does, and you can ask us if we'd support putting it on the agenda, or this could be discussed in a policy meeting, but it's not something where we just replace a motion because it's significantly impacting a process, which we've talked about how we don't like processes to begin with.
And this creates a new item. So I don't feel like it's appropriate to replace the motion and I feel like this should be its own agenda item if you have the support for it at a future meeting. Well, Trustee Lausanne or, Liquui? Well, what I would say to that is that this is a strategic plan item and motions can naturally arise under these items. This would be this is not something totally not germane to what we're talking about. It is related to what we're doing here with the strategic plan. Yeah. I'm not saying it's not germane. I'm saying it's significantly a replacement. It's a new process.
So I'm just thinking it does not go under this. This would be a new agenda item is the way I would Under Robert's rules, that's how motions are made. They're under items. If you're replacing a motion that has to do with the same topic My you are allowed to do that. You can vote it down, of course, if you don't think this is a good motion. Is our board norm. This is a new process, which I wouldn't I can't say that I support or don't support it, sounds interesting. But this is a new process. So therefore, it would be its own agenda item and our board norm for putting things on
the agenda is that you have three of us, not even a majority, just three of us that wanna support it. And then, we can put it on a future meeting. So, point of order. Yes. What is your point of order, trustee Lacounette? I believe trustee Alspa is confusing two different rules. No. I don't believe she is because I I recall at a separate meeting, you also tried to make a motion to amend the agenda to change an item, and, you did get support from three individuals at the table, and that was put on a subsequent meeting.
So what I would recommend, if you would like to do this moving forward, with this particular motion, that you if you have support of three people, we can put it on the next agenda, and we can modify what, we're voting on today. But what we're voting on today is the strategic plan, year three plans. And since the last meeting, you had an opportunity to come forward with this motion along with two other individuals that supported what you're proposing. And you did not do it until forty five minutes until our closed session this
evening. So, I agree with Trustee Alsbaugh because what we're doing is we are adding another layer of expectation to what's going on with a strategic plan and what our expectations are of the administrations that are the administrators that we tasked to do this job. So I'm not saying that I don't agree with what you're proposing, but what I'm saying is the way in which you're going about it right now is out of order. And, if you want to have this on a future agenda, which I think you should bring it if you have the support here at this
table tonight, then you can have it put on our next agenda so that we can discuss for this year three plan, to implement what you're proposing. But you you're not going about it in the in the appropriate way. And I agree with what Trustee Alsbaugh is saying. Does anyone else have any other comments? Yes. Madam President Trustee, to respond to what you're I just wanna clarify if they have to be two separate things, and I would support what, trustee Lecui is suggesting. But right now, we're being asked to evaluate the strategic plan year three.
I think that is separate. I think we can talk about changing the process and we should talk about changing the process. And I would also remind my colleagues that part of a strategic plan is processes. And I go back to the data discussion that we just had. Part of it is changing the way that we look at problems and issues and growth. And so sometimes in a strategic plan, it is rethinking the way that we, look at an issue. So, changing our evaluation, talking about the processes is part of a strategic plan.
And so I do think that is part of outcomes is changing the process. So I want to remind us that that can grow out of this system. We sometimes find that the way that we've been looking at things has to change. And so I do see that as growth, and I do see that as evidence of success. Trustee, Blake. So we've been we're two two years into the strategic plan, and we're going into the year three. And every year, I think there has been some level of discomfort or disagreement by some people on the board with how the process was.
And so we've changed it a little bit and we've we have a board member that is assigned to work with the cabinet, on it, I think now, but not all board members. And something it's leading it's it's not leading to satisfaction what we've been doing by the board, you know, by a lot of people on the board. And so I think it would be sensible to think of how we can change this process so that we're all smiling and happy about these versus not. I don't know what we can do about your three goals at this point.
I guess we could still try to work on it. And I think, you know, going into future years, though, I I would support a discussion of how to change the process. Okay. Any other comments? Madam president? Trustee Lucui. Alright. Well, I don't need to replace the motion right now but I did want to mention that making a motion within an agenda item as long as it's germane to that agenda item, one trustee can do that you don't need three trustees to support a motion within an agenda item as long as it's germane. However, we don't have to discuss my motion today.
In fact, it sounds like we have support of three trustees and we could put it on our August meeting, to discuss that motion. Okay. So moving forward, all those in favor of approving the strategic plan year three plans as presented, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. No. Sorry. Can I see a can I see a show of hands? Ayes. So one, two, three, four. Okay. That is a four three vote. Were you an I? Okay. Oh, and all those against opposed? No. No. Okay. So that's three. Okay. Next,
we have item 8.12, which is the superintendent contract. This is an action item and, for trustee doctor Alspaugh. So pursuant to Section 18 of the superintendent's employment contract, I move that the Board extend the term of the superintendent's contract for an additional contract year with a term, continuing through 06/30/2029, with an annual salary of $267,500 for the 'twenty eight-'twenty nine school year and that authorized the Board President to execute
a contract amendment on the board's behalf to memorialize this extension. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the superintendent contract extension as presented? I see Doctor. Winn Perdue and, Trustee, Treasurer Alsbaugh. Is there discussion? Sure. Doctor. Alsbaugh? So for those of you who aren't familiar with the superintendent's contract, it is on the website under the transparency button. It is a standard, historically, the or the norm in the industry is that these are rolling contracts. Our superintendent does not have a rolling contract. The Board has to specifically authorize an extension of that contract.
And what we're doing here is the mechanism that is spelled out in the contract. I think it's really important that we recognize the leadership that Mr. Russo has brought to our district. If we look at Board governance and relationships, he has maintained a proactive relationship with the legislators. He's always talking Mark to his tail. I'm just playing of order. Are we allowed to say positive or negative about Mr. Russo's performance? I thought that's what we're not supposed to do. So I would just say, I think he has exhibited reasons that we should extend his contract,
and therefore, I support this. Thank you, doctor Ostwald. Any other comments? Trustee Lecui? I'll let her go. Okay. Trustee Lozano. I've said this in email when I was talking with Doctor. Alsace. I just feel because this contract is for it's not the last year. We still have two years left, so it would be three more years. I feel like it's just premature to extend it one more year when we have a whole another year. I said I would be more interested in having this conversation next year with all the last year left. Doctor. Osba. And I really appreciated the conversation we had in email.
You were really honest, and I appreciate your thoughts. I will just wanted to kind of give you some context, though. In the nature of the industry, superintendent jobs, especially one as amazing as being the superintendent of Rochester, these jobs don't come up rarely. So, if it could be interpreted as a vote of no confidence, though, therefore, people would start looking and jobs don't always come up. So that was my logic in, giving a vote of confidence by a contract extension at this point. Yes. Trustee, Luzon. Even though he's still under contract, they would think that they how they would start looking for another job while they're
still in a two year contract? Superintendent jobs don't come up often, but I understand and I really appreciate the dialogue that we had in the email. Trustee Lecui. Well, we prematurely opened up this contract to give Mr. Russo a raise before he completed a full year on the job. And we specifically wrote this contract to avoid the rollover issues that we experienced with previous superintendents. He still has two more years to go on this job like trustee Lozan mentioned. Right now his contract is good through 06/30/2028, so I don't think we should be discussing any extension until at least June 2027.
Okay. Any other comments? Yes. Trustee, Alspa. Well, I respect that. I and I agree that we particularly put things in this contract to stop the rollover. I just wanna clear Point of order, madam president. What is your point of order, trustee Lacouna? I only bring this up because I get stopped all the time, but I believe Trustee Alspa has already spoken multiple times. Right? And I believe what You speak multiple times on a on a topic as well, and I've been lenient in allowing you before. So I'll let Okay. She has a brief statement. That's totally fine. Well, I appreciate your revenge interruption. I just wanted to specify that this is like you're right.
We designed the contract, so it wouldn't roll over. But this is a mechanism specified in the contract. So he's not trying to do something or we're not trying to do something outside of the contract as written. Literally, in the contract, it says we have to talk about it in the last board meeting at June. So we are within the bounds of what the con of how the contract is written. Trustee Blake. So I don't love the rolling contract concept, but I understand that that's the industry norm. I've talked to enough people that have confirmed that he's not making that up. That's really how it's done.
And, I just wanna put this kind of on the record because I still see all kinds of things online that people say that are on incorrect. There's this number they keep saying he got a $60,000 raise. It's for sure. We put this job out in early twenty twenty four and our range was $2.25 to $2.75 and our search consultant told us that that was a very low range. We would have a hard time filling this job at that range. We hired him in in 2024 at $235,000
He received a 4.25% raise for his second year to $2.45. He received a 3% raise to his third year at 252.5. He received a 2.98 raise or will when his fourth year starts to $2.60 and this year the the this additional year that we're voting on is a 2.88% raise to secure yet another year and puts him at $2.67 5. So the entire from day one of his contract to five years in,
he will have gone up $32,500 which is 13.8% raise over the course of five years. I don't find that to be excessive, and so I will be voting for it. Thank you, trustee Blake. Any other president? Trustee Lacui. Well, I mean, I think that talking about the prior raise is going on a bit of a tangent. The point is contracts were agreed to, and it was based on a number of factors, including level of experience and whatnot. But the point is now prior experience has shown that these kind of extensions are
not good for the district, and that's one reason why I believe that still there's no reason to discuss this until June 2027. Thank you for sharing your opinion. There is a motion on the table, to approve the superintendent contract extension as presented. And, we've taken a vote. And, wait. Did I do that right? Have we taken a vote? Yeah. All yeah. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. So I believe that's five. What are any nays? No. So we have two nays. So that is a five two vote. And, I would just like to personally say I appreciate the job that superintendent Russo is
doing. And I will also recognize that we are going into an election year, and there are three board seats up here. And, if this is, some reassurance for him that his work here is valued and we want to maintain, the quality of this district. Met her husband, didn't we just vote? Yeah. And I was using my point of privilege as the chair to expand. We're going to move on to item 8.13 for the board handbook, and this is an action item. So we updated our
annual meeting calendar for the next school year, I believe, earlier in our consent agenda. And, we subsequently had to update our board handbook to reflect the fact that we will have, in addition to, regular Board meetings now, we are going back to having one work session a month as well. Is there a motion to approve the Board handbook updates as presented? Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. So moved by Secretary Butel and a second by Doctor. Alspaugh. Discussion? Trustee Lacoune.
Well first of all I appreciate that this proposal restores both the work session agenda outline and it adds approval of the agenda back to our meetings which should be there so thank you for that those are important items and it's time we put them back I think that was a mistake actually in the handbook it's I'm gonna approve that as presented for sure number eight and number nine say reports or new business, new business or reports. Are those meant to be redundant like that or oh, okay. It doesn't really matter to me then. Okay. I move to amend the proposed board handbook by adding a new section,
Section 2.2.6, recording of board meetings, to provide that regular board meetings and work sessions shall be video recorded and posted on the district website and to renumber subsequent sections accordingly. So there's, an additional motion on top of the current motion, but I also would like to make a motion. I just made a motion. Is there a second to Is there a second for Trust okay. Trustee, Lozano seconds Trustee Locuis' motion. Can you repeat that, please? Yes. And if you look at your sheet, this is just number one on the board handbook update.
I move Number two. Oh, okay. Yeah. Number two, sorry. I move to amend the proposed board handbook by adding a new Section 2.2.6, recording of board meetings, to provide that regular board meetings and work sessions shall be video recorded and posted on the district website and to renumber subsequent sections accordingly. Okay. So this is to amend the current motion on the table. And we're in the middle of a motion. You can make a motion when we're done dealing with this one. Point of order? Yes. This is an honest question.
I think we have moved to adopt the bylaws. So we had a motion on the floor. I think your motion either is that a replacement to amend? The motion. Amend. Alright. Thank you. She's amending. Right? She's amending. I'm amending the proposed board handbook. Okay. Additions. Yes. Trustee or secretary Vitell. I guess my question, just to make sure that I'm fully understanding it, is to Trustee Lacoue on her motion. Is this anything different than what we're currently doing? No. This is basically just writing down our current practices into the handbook where it would
belong. Okay. Any other questions about her? Yes. Trustee Blake. The only thing I wonder is, are there time I mean, we do record every meeting now, and I'm good with that. But are there ever times when we may have a special or an emergency meeting or some kind of thing where we're not able to set up the recording and then that becomes a problem? This this says regular board meetings and work sessions is what it says. So that gives us the flexibility to record special meetings if we choose or not, I suppose. No, it doesn't. It specifically only says regular board meetings.
Well, it doesn't mean you can't do more than what the rule says. I support recording our meetings and, posting on the website. But since this is practice that we're already doing, and I agree with Trustee Blake that I don't think we should lock ourselves in in case something happened because if there was a reason we needed to have a regular board meeting, for example, in an elementary school, media center, we've moved we we know that that would take away from that media center for the kids for a couple of for a day while we set it up. So I totally think we should record it.
I support our current practice, but I don't think we should put this in writing because it limits our flexibility. Okay. Madam president, any other comments? Madam president? Yes. Trustee I wonder if we can I'm trying to find it on here. I wonder if we can amend it to just add unless the majority of the board finds a compelling reason not to record a meeting. Or I don't know. I don't know. I'm trying to think of scenario. I'm not trying to say we want to do this, but I just I like to leave an escape hatch in case there's something happens
that we can't set it up. There's, you know, some reason. Madam president? Yes, trustee. I just like to remind the board that we've been doing this for years without issue. There hasn't been one exception. So we could cross that bridge when we come to it perhaps. Any other comments? Okay. I okay. So then we have to vote on this. Right. Okay. So we have a second for Trustee Locuey's motion. All those in favor of amending the proposed board handbook by adding a new section 2.226, recording of board meetings, to provide that regular board meetings,
the work session shall be video recorded and posted on the district website and to renumber subsequent sections accordingly. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? No. Abstention. Abstention. Okay. Two abstains. Okay. I did want to point out, and that was a mistake I made, in so I need to make a motion to amend the original, motion, which outlines, the two meetings, which has item number three is approval of the agenda, which is, what we used to do, not in keeping with our current norms. So, I want to,
make an amendment to, remove item three under 2.24 and Item three under 2.25 to reflect what we currently do in terms of our board meeting agendas. Before you get a second, could I ask as maybe a possible rewording? Could we say something like restating it, motion to restate this, to say motion to approve, the updates to two point two four and two point two five minus item number three,
and then go into the what we added and section 2.26, recording of board meetings to provide the regular board meeting and work session shall be video recorded and posted on the district website and to renumber subsequent sections accordingly. Yes. We could do that. I'll need a second for that. Thank you. Trustee, Doctor. Ospaugh has seconded my motion. I'll give you a minute to write it. Thank you for writing it. Okay. So what I have is, motion to replace with to approve the board handbook update to 2.2.4
section 2.2.6, recording of board meetings to provide that regular board meetings and work sessions shall be video recorded and posted on the district website and to renumber subsequent sections accordingly. That sounds great. And we have a second from doctor Osbah. So is there any further discussion? Oh, yeah. Trustee Lacoue. Well, I'm just so sad because I was complimenting you at the start of this meeting because you for putting me in the Please don't interrupt me. This is my statement. I'm really sad because I I thought that you had an appropriate change of heart and you realized that it was right and good for boards to approve the agenda
at the beginning of meetings. This is standard practice amongst boards. It's part of Robert's Rules. This is how the board takes ownership of their agenda. And it's especially important for a board like ours because our agenda gets created behind the scenes. It's the superintendent and the board president who creates the agenda perhaps with the help of the steering committee, but this all happens behind closed doors. When you approve the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, that's when the full board, because we are actually seven duly elected trustees,
that's when all of us agree that, yes, this indeed is the board as a whole's agenda, not the board president's agenda, the board's agenda. And that's why it's done. And when you take that away, you are essentially suppressing minority voices who might want to voice that, well, I I would propose that we add something and who might want the public to be able to hear what is being added. And it's also especially sad because at the beginning of every meeting, madam president, you state how you want to support the the minority voice. This would be an excellent way for you to do that.
It's quick where, you know, we don't you're not allowed to discuss the topic itself unless the board agrees to it, but it gives each board member a chance if there's something that they wanted to say to state it and the public gets to know it's not squashed behind the scenes. So I'll just speak to that because there is a mechanism in which individual board members can bring items to the agenda for discussion at this table. And that is by prior to, coming to the table, getting the support of two other members and approaching the president in a dialogue to
request that information or whatever that item is be put on the agenda. And there's been a history, for years of hijacking hijacking the agenda through the approval of the agenda. And, quite frankly, it was something that, was discontinued, and it's helped our meetings run more smoothly. So I defend this practice. Any member has the opportunity to bring an item to this agenda. If they have the support of two other members and they can talk to the president, it's all about dialogue. It's not about bringing, a page of motions to present to someone in forty five minutes before we have
a closed meeting. So, you can disagree with me as I disagree with you. And if anyone else has a comment, they're welcome to chime in now. If not, I'll go ahead with the vote. Madam president? Trustee Lacoue? Well, first of all, I gave you my motions ahead of the meeting. I'm following your example. I'm trying to make sure that everybody has the motions that I planned to make. But to your point about how we have a process and that you can find two other trustees, can you answer is that done publicly or is that done behind the scenes? That is done through individual dialogue with other board members.
If you think that dialogues that we all have with individuals about issues. And the idea is to build about issues. And the idea is to build consensus so that by the time you get to the table, you can have a dialogue that is honest and genuine and forthright. There's no hiding behind a door about what we wanna discuss. It's having individual discussions away from this table. There's a difference there. And I I'm really, quite frankly, annoyed by the inference that there's all this nefarious backdoor dealings,
because you have an opportunity and you did. You provided motions, which quite frankly, you could have provided when this board packet came out on Wednesday at five p. M, because that is what our board has requested as a deadline to meet so that changes could be made. And you have that time, Trustee Lucui, and you chose not to use it. So you can sit there and try and lecture me, and I can sit here and try and lecture you. We do not agree in this procedure, so I'm going to proceed to take this vote and you can vote for it
or you can vote against it. That is your choice. Madam President, I have another question. What is your question? You said that we've had problems with approval of the agenda before. You said that it Yes. Caused trustees to hijack the meeting. And I wonder how it's possible for any trustee to Please go back. Finish. Please let me finish. Okay. How is it possible for any trustee to hijack the meeting when in order to discuss anything, it requires a vote of the majority of the board to discuss it? Okay. So since 2022, which I believe is the year that you join this board,
our norms and the expectations for the dialogue, the relationship, the trust that has to be built amongst board members has not been here. And I won't point fingers that it's you or it's any of us, but that level of trust doesn't exist. So in order for us to do the business of this Board, there has to be conversations away from this table. And so you can argue that you're not going to get what you want on the agenda because you don't physically get to approve the agenda at every meeting.
But we have not taken away a mechanism for you to still use your voice and have conversations with us individually about items that are of concern for you or items that you wanna see put on the agenda. You have to get other people to agree with you, and you have to have that through dialogue. And you can have that away from the table. It doesn't all have to happen right here because quite frankly, it's 08:45 in the evening. And I am sitting here discussing this with you, and it's ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. So I'm sorry that you don't agree with me,
but that is my perspective. You have yours and I'm gonna take the vote. So there is a motion on the table. All those in favor of approving the board handbook updates as presented, please say aye. Wait. Woah. Woah. Woah. This is for your amendment. You have to have the whole piece. Oh, okay. Do you want me to read it? Yes, please. Please read it. Thank you, Secretary Wattell. So right now, we have, the motion to approve the board handbook update to 2.2.4 and 2.2.5 minuteus item three under each section
as presented and, by adding a new section 2.2.6 recording of board meetings to provide that regular board meetings and work sessions shall be video recorded and posted on the district website and to renumber subsequent sections accordingly. Okay. Madam President? Trustee Locuey? Well before we vote on this I'm realizing the way that trustee Buttell advised you to make that motion it would mean that I wouldn't be able to add any of the other amendments that I wanted to do to the board handbook. So I'd like to amend your motion, and I'd like to amend I or perhaps what I'd like to do actually is
replace your motion because I I I'd really like the chance. I I sent these to everybody. I'd I'd really like the chance for everyone to have the chance to vote on my ideas it's very difficult I I send these things ahead of time I don't get responses sometimes my emails, but, I move to replace this motion with the motion that is I move to amend these proposed board handbook suggestions by adding a new gosh Okay. We've gone on by adding a new section two point two point seven presentation guidelines to provide that formal presentations should generally be limited to no more than twenty minutes
and that supporting information beyond the essential presentation should be included in the board packet whenever practicable and to renumber subsequent sections accordingly. I have a question. Because I'm replacing it. We voted to include her item number two, and now we're voting. We're back to the original motion. I'm replacing this motion, which would end the discussion item. No, that's not that's not perfect. Madam President? Yes. Trustee Alsbaugh. I think we have one, two, three, four possible amendments. I think there's an amendment to remove item three,
and then there's these three ideas that Trustee Lecui and did technically send us. But if you weren't stuck to your board email forty five minutes before the meeting, I was at a doctor's appointment with my daughter, so I didn't have time to discuss this. So, my suggestion, and I'm open to Trustee Liqui would support this. Can we vote on number three, the idea about 2.2, the idea about 2.7, and the idea about, limiting voices of people as four separate amendments and just see what we get?
I would like to do them separately because Yeah that's what I'm asking. Can we do them as separate amendments? That's what I'm asking so can we go back to the original motion and then So we'll go back to the approval of the agenda should we be removing the approval of the agenda from this first so people can voice on that so we'll replace it I won't replace it with something new I would like to replace the motion well I I actually don't want that motion so perhaps you can suggestion can we go back to the original motion and then let's I move we amend the motion to remove number three,
which is approval of the agenda. Let's vote on that amendment, and then we'll just vote on these ideas as amendments each. Okay. I think that might be clear. That's much better. I agree with you, trustee Elsba. Okay. So someone is telling me what we're voting on. Okay. I move we So I'm to replace. I amend no. I'm gonna keep the original motion on the table. No. The motion on the table is to replace. It's been moved and seconded. So you have to replace it. If someone wants to remove approval of the agenda, that's the person who should replace it.
Okay. So, So let's just I'm sorry. I'll call them. So All you have to do is say what you want. The original motion, I would just make make a, replace the original motion by striking out item three under 2.24 and item three under 2.25 as presented. Is that correct? No? No. You just There we go. I think you just want to say, I move to replace what we're currently voting on with motion to approve the board handbook updates as presented minus item three under each one.
Okay. That's it. Motion motion to replace with approve the board handbook updates as presented minus item three under two point two point four and two point two point five. Correct. But my understanding is that has to be the last motion because that closes discussion. So all these things she wants to do come first, and then that's the final. I thought we agreed to vote on a subsequent motion. We're gonna vote even after the main one? Right. Per per doctor Alsbaugh's suggestion is break out the individual ones that trustee Lecui would
like to add. Subsequent. Yes. Doctor Winford. I think this is an important issue, but there are too many changes here for us to process right now. I don't think I can make a good decision on this right now. I think we should get, I think we should propose to look at this and come back and vote on this in August. There are just too many changes and there are too many other things on the agenda. I'm not necessarily opposed to any of these items, but I would like to look at our with all of this in mind and all these changes. So
I probably am out of order, but I am asking if we can table this until our next meeting so we can actually look at this carefully and compare it to other Board handbooks and make a good decision. Do you move to postpone until August meeting? Yes. I'll second that. So but back to the original motion. Or you can interrupt with a postponement. Okay. So we're going to interrupt to postpone the proposed, handbook updates, as presented by Trustee Lukuy, correct?
You're just going to say motion to postpone until the August 17 I think she's postponing this entire motion. Yeah. That was the whole discussion. Oh, but even this part? The whole handbook, everything we moved to August. I think point one through you want to postpone it till August. Okay. All right. So, we will be postponing item 8.13, the board handbook update, as presented. Okay. Doctor Wynne Perdue. Doctor Wynne Perdue We already moved and seconded it. Okay. Motion to postpone 8.13 until the August 17 meeting. Okay. That's where we're at.
All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Okay. Wow. That's a seven-zero vote. Okay. So we'll have that on our August, seventeenth agenda to revisit that. The last item on our action item is 8.14, the OCSBA bylaws and resolutions. And I know I separately I have this separated out for you, but I think I'm gonna do it under one. Is there a motion to approve the proposed amendments to the association bylaws, and, approve the proposed amended resolutions as presented? So moved by Treasurer Bull Treasurer Butel.
Sorry. Oh, my god. Is there support by, Vice President Blake? Discussion? Seeing none, I'll take a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. All those opposed? Seeing none, that's a seven-zero vote. Oh, thank you, Joy Howe. Okay. Item nine, remainder of public comments. We have nobody else. I have no more yellow cards. Number 10 is additional comments by the members of the administration. Superintendent Russo. I am gonna take advantage, of just saying I I appreciate the thoroughness of of all of this, but,
you know, we've had a few meetings where the meetings were long, and it was brought to the attention of administrators and some of the teachers in this in this, you know, coaches and some of our internal people who do the presenting about the length of the meetings due to the due to the length of the presentations. And I just want to make a note that it's 08:55, and we had one nine minute presentation. So I think there's some learning to do for all of us through this. And this is in the interest this is not to be throat casting stones, but it is in the interest of transparency that it's not you know,
when we have discussions about data or students and things that are happening and that becomes the reason that the meetings were long, I just wanna say that that is not the case. So I do appreciate that it's an open discussion and that I said that I'm not casting stones, but at 09:00 with a nine minute presentation if it needs to be noted. Thank you. So noted. Thank you. Next, we have item 11, which is announcements. Our next board meeting is August 17. There will be a special meeting, with a closed session for the superintendent midyear evaluation at five p.
M, a regular meeting at six p. M, and that will be here at the RCS Early Childhood Education Center. If there's no objection, the meeting will be adjourned. Seeing none, I adjourn this meeting at 08:56. Thank you.