I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This Board of Education regular meeting is a meeting of the Board in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business. We value community input, and public comment will be heard under agenda item six. Sorry, agenda item five this time. For roll call,
all board members are present. Agenda item three is our spotlight on success. And for our spotlight tonight, we are highlighting our elementary music program, and I'm going to turn it over to miss Hempton to introduce that. Thank you so much, president Gupta. We are, very proud of all of the arts here in Rochester Community Schools, and specifically, we've been thinking about our music programming, both with our marching bands at a recent meeting and as a celebration as well of our Michigan Music Conference participation. And all of that work, starts building in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade.
And so our elementary music educators are here this evening, to share a bit of what they do with us. And I'd also like to introduce Erin Holden who helps us coordinate our music programming k 12. Thank you very much for having us. And this is with me tonight. We have Shay Socrates with Baldwin, and Shay has brought some musicians, tonight. We have Kara McDevar from Hugger. We have Nikki Rose from Meadowbrook, and we have Josh Pizzet from Hampton. And it's true that all the wonderful things that happen in our music department would
not happen without the solid foundation of skills that these kids receive starting in the elementary school. So it's amazing to see the marching band, but we can't do those things until they learn their skills here at the elementary level. So we'll hand it over to them to tell you more about that program. Thank you. So we feel so lucky because we get to teach all the kiddos. Right? We get them from TK all the way to fifth grade. So that gives us this beautiful oh, sure can. So we're so lucky that we have our kids from TK to fifth grade.
It gives us this really great experience to have these kids and build relationships for five to six years. Right? And during this time, not only are we making music and memories and helping build problem solvers, but we are fostering creativity. Now way back when, when I was a music student, I remember I got to, like, gather around the piano. We got to sing some songs and maybe got to touch an instrument. It is so not like that anymore. So we wanna give you a glimpse of what elementary music is like in Rochester, and we're gonna start with just what do we teach. So, Kara, could you give us a sneak peek of some of the things we teach?
Sure. Hi. I'm Kara McKeever from Hugger Elementary. One of the concepts that we teach, K through five is melody. And, like Nikki said, we're not just opening a book and just singing some melodies. Even our youngest learners are analyzing and looking at the shape and the melodic contour. And then we learn steps, skips, and leaps. And then we play melodies on different instruments like recorders and xylophones, and we're singing and creating complicated melodies in a really fun and engaging way. Hi. I'm Josh Baze. I'm from Hampton Elementary.
And going along with that melodic contour, when we get into the older grades, we start to explore harmony. And in harmony, we have a lot of different variety of concepts that we explore. Some of those come through rounds, which are repeated songs that create harmony when sung in different groups. We also have ostinatos, which are repeating patterns that can be either rhythmic or, melodic. And speaking of rhythm, beat and rhythm are some of the most foundational parts of music. Obviously, you can't dance it at a wedding if you don't can't keep a beat.
So one of the big things that we wanna make sure that we do is instill that to our young learners. And one of the ways we do that is by teaching beat versus no beat, song sounds that, have a pulse to them, sounds that do not. We also, start to explore more of iconic notation and standard notation, to explore how, sounds can be longer and shorter, and create lots of different rhythms. I'll turn things over to Shane now. Hi. My name is Shay Socrates. I am the proud music teacher at Baldwin Elementary. So in Baldwin's performance tonight, we have fourth grade,
and you were going to hear students play chords and maintain a simple rhythmic ostinato on ukulele, explore call and response between the singing and the mallet parts, and demonstrate ensemble singing skills by staying in key and performing together as a group. But don't take our word for it. We wanted to give you a true experience of what it is to be like a musician as an elementary student. So we made a video for you guys, and this is students from all across the district. So we're gonna show you this video and then we'll have our Baldwin Elementary musicians
perform. If you ever find yourself stuck in the middle of the sea, I'll sell the world to find you. If you ever find yourself lost in the dark and you can't see, I'll be the light to guide you. Find out what we're made up. And I know when I need it, I can count all you like for three, two, and you'll be there. Because that's what friends are supposed to do again. If you're tossing and you're turning and you just can't fall asleep,
will remind you, oh, find out what will they do when we are called to help our friends in need. You can't And now we're going to welcome, two classes, from Baldwin's fourth grade to perform a song called Cielito Lindo. Cielito Lindo is one of the most famous Mexican folk songs in the world. It was popularized by a man named Querino Mendoza y Cortez in 1882, and it is often performed by mariachi ensembles. The chorus, aye aye aye canta y no yores,
means sing and do not cry, encouraging us to sing and embrace music in a way reminding us that joy can exist alongside hardship. Our performance features students singing and demonstrating mallet parts in place of traditional trumpets and violins, along with a simplified harmony and accompaniment pattern on ukuleles rather than guitars. I hope that you enjoy it. Thank you guys so much for performing. You're so amazing. Give another big round of applause for Baldwin Elementary Musician. Again, we wanna thank the board, administration, our community for all of the support for the arts,
especially the elementary, music team. Here's our team. And, again, thank you so much for your continued support. Erin, any closing thoughts? Thank you for having us. And do you have any questions for us? Yeah. Just a second. I just wanted to say I know on behalf of the whole board, we just wanna convey our deepest great gratitude and, appreciation for all of the solid work that you all do with our students every day throughout all the grades all the way up through high school, with the music program. And thank you for bringing a sampling of that to us today so we could
enjoy it as well. Trustee Lecue? I was gonna say when I was starting out in music ed, one of my great influencers was, John Fire Robins. And I love how he his philosophy was like to create tuneful, beatful, artful kids. And I love what you showed us tonight with you you showed us it was like an informants. Right? Where you're showing all these different activities where that's exactly what you're doing with the kids and it's fun to see them get up here and to have so much fun with it and make it come alive. So thank you for what you do. It really makes a difference. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Now we're going to move on to item number four,
which is communications. This is where we reference various communications that have been received by the board. Secretary Butel, will you please give us an update? At this time, 19 communications have been received and are in the packet for reference. Thank you. Now we're going to move on to 4.2, which are our reports from student representatives to the board. And, who do we have coming up first? Alright. Good evening, everyone. My name is Olivia Vazenko from Rochester Adams High School, and it is my pleasure to report on our recent events tonight.
Within the last month, we have officially entered our final semester of the twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six school year. To start off the semester, we initially implemented our PSAT and SAT prep for the underclassmen, in which the students have their train on Tuesday modules to better prepare for their spring testing. Additionally, on January 20, we recognized our Highlanders in this year's classic art and writing arts. We are so proud to announce that 14 Highlander students have been honored for their incredible talents. Another area we recognized our talented students was the theater love fest. This took place on January and was an opportunity for schools in the district to
perform an act in Bay City. Students were able to connect and support local theater. This was also seen as an opportunity for students to direct their own acts and receive feedback on how to improve their directing skills. Last Friday, our teachers had their first professional development of the semester where teachers worked on common assessments for their students and reflected on their midterm exams. Later in the meeting, a professor from Oakland University came in to speak on what teachers are seeing with their students' use of AI. This showed why teachers may like it or dislike it. On February 4, we honored six of our student athletes in committing to their collegiate sports.
We are also very proud to announce that our student, Ava McDonald, was a finalist for the MHSAA Scholar Athlete Award, representing not only our school, but our entire district as the only finalist. To continue to recognize our sports, we have our unified sports Team season officially coming to the end this week. This is an inclusive program combining individuals with intellectual disabilities and without being on the same team for training and competition, specifically basketball. This month, we have so much to look forward to within the district. We are so excited to begin bringing our Charity Week to life. We are having a meeting with our teachers to incentivize their participation in Charity Week
and explain our events that we have planned. While Charity Week, in honor of the Sam's Smile organization, begins on March 1, we're having our annual pep assembly on February 27, as well as our parent gala in our senior area that same night that will take place from six to 8PM. Those are all of my reports for this month. Thank you so much for your time this evening, and I look forward to reporting back next month. Good evening, everybody. My name is Grace Colucci, and I am Rochester High School's board representative. As semester two begins for RHS, there are many exciting opportunities to help our Falcons start this new semester off strong. The forty two Strong Foundation visited our student leadership cohort last Monday,
teaching students how to build a sense of community at RHS and grow as individuals by living out taste traits in real life. During the PD day last Friday, RHS staff engaged in a professional learning surrounding technology and the AI use in classrooms. They learned about a number of tools and their purpose in an academic atmosphere. As students begin to prepare for the SAT and PSAT tests taking place in April, Rochester has opened up many prep opportunities for students to become successful. Along with Blue Book, Khan Academy, and the SAT Club, RHS has in person prep sessions during advisory.
Students can sign up for either math or English sessions taught by media center staff to specifically help students become familiar with the platform on the SAT called Desmos, practice certain concepts on ELA related questions, and go over test strategies to help students improve their score. The RHS course fair also took place January 28 during advisory. During this time, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors visited three classes they are interested in taking in taking next school year. Each teacher had a short presentation on class expectations and the course description. Students had the opportunity to ask questions as well.
Seniors had a meeting in the auditorium about upcoming senior events to make sure everybody is informed. Along with many opportunities to help our Falcons grow, moving forward, there are plenty of other events taking place at RHS that we are looking forward to. The RHS student council is as busy as ever. Charity week preparations are in full swing. Student council is putting together a pep assembly on February 27 to kick off the week, a parent breakfast cook off, lunch blitz, coin stalls, and our annual Falconfest, And finally, ending the week with dance decorating at at RHS. This Thursday,
Mr. Rochester will also be taking place in the school auditorium. This is an event hosted. Oops, sorry. This event is an annual pageant for eight talented senior guys, consisting of a pun contest, a talent show, and a Q and A session. As winter sports are actively underway, there have been lots of exciting accomplishments to recognize. Our RHS dance team competed at Nationals this weekend and were declared back to pack back to back POM National Champions. We are so proud of them. We also hosted a varsity send off last week, Sunday, February 1, with performances from Reuther,
West Stance, and JV teams. The crosstown showdown also took place Jan on oh my gosh. I'm sorry. In January at Oakland between RHS and Stoney Creek. The boys' team won, and the girls' team lost against Stoney. Our unified team also played in between the games as well. We had lots of student support from the student section, cheer, and the dance team. Our wrestling team also attended OAA white the OAA white league meet this past weekend, and we had many great wins. Lastly, thank you to everyone who came to our eighth annual Falcon Friendship Game. This event would not be possible without our amazing players,
students, and staff from our amazing and supportive student section, and we also got a chance to hire a principal. This night was truly special. To conclude, I would like to give a few special shout outs to people that have helped contribute to the greater culture culture at RHS. Last week, we celebrated National Counselor Week. Thank you to all our RHS team and for all they do. We're also holding an appreciation day for our shield team this Thursday. Congratulations to all of our senior athletes who officially committed to their colleges last week. We had 11 athletes sign. Our wind ensemble was selected to perform at the Michigan Music Conference January 22 through
the twenty fourth. This event featured school ensemble concerts, performances from honor choirs, all state bands, and orchestras. Our one act name Crossfire, which was a soon written play, was performed at Rochester on January. They also attended Love Fest. Former RHS Deputy Hagelin and coordinator of the Deputy Sheriffs Association presented the RHS Student Council and NHS with awards for their support from their families during the holiday season. That's all for this month's report. Thank you all for your time and attention. See you next month.
Good evening, everyone. My name is Karina Morfin Munoz, and I'm the student representative from Stony Creek High School. I'm excited to share some recent highlights and accomplishments from our school community. This past Friday, February 6, was a professional development day for teachers, which gave students the day off while staff participated in training and collaboration. These days are an important opportunity for our teachers to learn, reflect, and work together so they can continue creating the best possible learning environment and make every student's school experience meaningful and successful. Winter sports continue to bring energy and excitement to Stony Creek.
Boys basketball has been fighting hard and earning wins along the way. The team continues to improve each week, and we are proud of their effort, determination, and commitment on the court. Girls basketball has been having an outstanding season. Most recently, they earned an impressive win against Clarkson on Friday, February 6, showcasing strong teamwork, focus, and competitive spirit. Our hockey team has also had great success. Most recently, they secured a win against Birmingham this past Friday and continued to represent Stony Creek with pride, resilience, and sportsmanship on the ice. In the arts, our theater club recently attended Love Fest,
where they performed their one act play, Tracks. In addition to performing, students had the opportunity to watch productions from high schools all all all around Michigan, making it an inspiring and enriching experience. We are incredibly proud to recognize Dossa Joffrey and Brodie Salisbury, who received outstanding acting awards, as well as Alex Felton, who earned an award for his student directing. Their achievements reflect the dedication and talent of our theater program. The Stony Creek dance team also had an incredible weekend competing at nationals. Varsity advanced to finals in Palm, placing twentieth in the nation, and junior varsity made finals in both Palm and jazz,
earning fourth place in palm and fifth place in jazz. These accomplishments highlight the hard work, discipline, and passion our dancers bring to every practice and performance. Looking ahead, our theater students are currently preparing for the spring musical Footloose. Performances will take place from April to April 26, and the cast and crew have been working tirelessly to bring this high energy production to the stage. Student council has also been hard at work preparing for charity week. The week will kick off with an assembly on February 27, followed by a variety of events the week after.
Students are excited to come together as a school to give back and make a positive impact beyond our classrooms. Overall, it has been a busy and exciting time at Stony Creek. Our students continue to stay involved, motivated, and proud of their school, and it's inspiring to see the many ways they support one another both in and out of the classroom. Thank you for your time, and have a wonderful rest of your evening. Good evening, everybody. My name is Manny, and I'm excited to give you the announcements for the past couple of weeks. As Friday at ACE, teachers toured the facilities and learned the organizational philosophy for the companies that run the
Fox Theater in Chimera Chimera Park. The ideas they learn will be used to make ACE an even better school, serving all types of students. Staff are also able to get information about career experiences and how this can be turned into a beneficial learning experience for students. Understanding the experiences that enhance our lives, we've been going on field trips about once a month at no cost to the district. Just a few days ago, the entire school went to the Henry Ford Museum. It was a fantastic field trip. Students went on a scavenger hunt to find all types of cool things around the
museum. A lot of our students were very interested in the old cars. It was also a very eye opening experience that such a great museum is right here in Detroit. Our favorite parts included sitting in a plane from the nineteen sixties and seeing how large trains were in real life. Everybody was in awe about being able to sit in the actual bus Rosa Parks sat on and made her historical boycott. It was especially meaningful as we were able to see it during Black History Month. Next month, we will be visiting the Holocaust Museum in Farmington Hills.
Two weeks ago, we have we toured the great Oakland University campus. The students got to walk around and learn about all the different facilities. Before you can see yourself at a college, sometimes you have to see the college for yourself. This was our fourth college tour this year, and students have been preparing for life after ACE in many ways. RCT prep continues with English and Math this week. And next week, we will have our students completing common apps, applying for scholarships and filling out the FAFSA and doing Zoom interviews with professionals across many professions.
The staff at ACE have been meeting the needs of our students population by securing more opportunities that focus on the future during their college work and plans. As for activities, we will be holding another U of M versus MSU tailgate, full of fun activities and fundraisers to help money for Sam Smiles. We're also selling Valentine's Day candygrams all week. Outside of school, several of our students are participated and attended the great tradition of the Crosstown Showdown. Finally, Ace is excited to welcome all of our new students that have joined us from
across the district. Our new students have been amazed by the culture and environment at ACE. We look forward to more students in the future. Thank you for your time. Good evening, everyone. My name is Alexia Boda, and I'm the student representative for IA. To recap, we had our class officer elections for the juniors and the underclassmen for next year. And last week, we kicked off our Super Bowl game's canned food drive. Our canned food drive started last Tuesday and will continue until Thursday with the opportunity for students to either bring in cans to their a one classes or for families to donate money online.
So far, it is doing very well as we have passed our original goal of raising $1,000 and have raised that to $2,000 Looking ahead, on Thursday, we will have one of IA's favorite events, our International Food Night. This is a night where the IA community can either bring in food to share with everyone, or people can just come and enjoy a bite to eat from all over the world. We will also have some of our students performing and showing off their talents. Before leaving for mid winter break, on Friday, we will follow a half day schedule, and we'll be having our Winter Olympics. Back in October, we had Fall Olympics with almost exclusively outdoor events,
but now we we will have Winter Olympics with all indoor events. That's everything for today's meeting, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon. Thank Thank you. Always a highlight of the meeting to hear from you all. Moving on to four point three, members of the Board of Education Communications. This is where members of the Board share communications that were shared directly with them but were not sent to the full Board. Did any Board member receive communications from the public? Don't see any, so we'll go ahead and move on to item five point zero,
which is public comment. And for public comment, we are, this is, provides an opportunity for board members to hear from members of the community. If you wish to speak tonight but have not already filled out a yellow card, please fill one out now. If we have more than thirty minutes of comments, the remainder will be heard under a future agenda item at the end of the meeting. When your name is called, please move to the microphone and address the board. When addressing the board, you'll have three minutes to speak. We will try to let you know when you have thirty seconds remaining.
Please be mindful of this time limit. When addressing the board, please state your name and your relationship to the district. To protect student privacy, we ask that no one identify a specific student without their permission, even if the student's name is not used. Also, we ask that you address your comments to the entire board and not to individual board members, school district employees, or to members of the audience. The board will not be responding to comments or questions during the meeting. However, someone will follow-up as needed. So to start us off, we're going to have,
Shelly Brown, followed by Stephanie Vandell and followed by Mike Carino and then followed by Trustee Lecui. Hi. I'm Shelley Brown. I'm a taxpayer and resident in the school district. As a taxpayer, I once again see the Rochester Community Schools District caught up in an unforced error, a lawsuit that the gang of five on this board, trustees Butel, Anas, Ausbach, Blake, and Gupta brought unnecessarily onto the district. I've attended in person and watched many recordings of your board meetings.
I have observed trustee Lucuy's questions and requests for additional information on a variety of topics, which appear to be reasonable in relations to decisions affecting students and taxpayers. I often wish more of you were asking similar questions. In the end, the majority of the time, trustee Lecuey's requests are voted down, or negative comments are made by fellow board members. Your censure of trustee Lecuey and recent bylaw changes appear to be directed at limiting
her ability to effectively perform trustee duties, which are the very duties voters elected her to perform. I appreciate all the slings and arrows that trustee Lacoue must fend off at these meetings. An individual of less fortitude would have quit by now. Asking district employees to better explain large expenditures up for approval and items in the budget, asking the superintendent for information to support his performance prior to be given a raise,
speaking out for the protection of biological girls in sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms, and asking questions about curriculum is what voters expect of a board member. Additionally, informing taxpayers of a proposed countywide tax increase, which is reported to have been discussed by other districts, is of key importance to me as a taxpayer. I hope that trustee Lecuye's lawsuit is successful, which will definitely be for the betterment of this district,
your students, and us taxpayers. Thank you. Miss Vandeo? Miss Vandeo? My name is Stephanie Van Dale. And are we good? Okay. My name is Stephanie Vandell, and I am a taxpayer in the Rochester Community Schools District. I have had two graduating sons and one who's upcoming to graduate. This year marks the two hundred and fiftieth year of our republic. And the First Amendment is about freedom of speech, freedom of religion, all of the good stuff that we fought to enshrine in our Constitution.
And I would like to thank trustee Lecui for standing up and, being my hero. I really appreciate it because you really do. You really represent everything that I want in a trustee, and you are my voice. Shelley, you are too. But I I I have to really say that you speak for me. Thank you for suing this district for their stupidity and the five people who follow the stupidity,
shame on you people. You have absolutely no idea what kind of mess you've stepped in. Really. You guys are disgusting. I can't believe that you would sit here and restrict her freedom of speech when we had a superintendent who did the same thing to a parent, and we've had all this other stuff going on. And, like, we make national news, and it's just very confusing. Why would you guys wanna be in the national news?
And and I it just, you know, it makes no sense. And so, you know, my sons are in the military Thirty seconds. And, you know, not standing for the flag at the Pledge of Allegiance really disgusts me, Barb. So, you know, you're on my list too. Anyways, for all that you represent, Carol Beth, thank you for all that you do. And I also want to thank the Mackinac Center for representing you. They are amazing,
and I plan to put them on my donation list for this year. Thank you. Mr. Reno. Hello. Mike Reno, longtime resident and former Board member. Mark Kelly was a naval aviator and an astronaut, and he's now a United States Senator serving Arizona. He's being targeted by the Trump's Department of Defense because he exercised his free free speech. He has to defend that right now and go to court. Our own Michigan senator, Alyssa Slotkin, is being targeted for the same thing and may also need to go to court.
And I draw attention to these things because there is very clear and undeniable parallels between what you are doing to trustee Lecui and what Trump is doing to senators Kelly and Slotkin. You'll say it's apples and oranges, but to the public, you all look orange. Privately, you may oppose what Trump is doing, but your public actions tell a very different story. The obvious similarity is limiting free speech, but also similar is the selective targeting. One of you is exercising your freedom of speech by not standing for the pledge of allegiance, And the board isn't censuring or disclaiming or complaining or doing anything about it,
but you'll rain fire on Carol Beth for being open about a tax proposal. This is selective targeting. Just like Senator Kelly, Trustee Lecuee is asking court to intervene when every internal avenue has been exhausted. This is the normal process that we follow to right a wrong. Of course, she needs backing and who can afford to personally take on a quarter of $1,000,000,000 institution with a institution with a stable of seven law firms. I'm grateful the Mackinac Center has taken this on, not because it's her, but because of the constitutional principles that are involved. Focusing on who filed the paperwork is a distraction.
Freedom of speech transcends political ideology and whether it's the Mackinac Center or the ACLU should really make no difference. Her motives are solid. Carol Beth has explained this is bigger than just her. Sure. It's a freedom of speech issue that should concern us all, but it's more. If Rochester is allowed to just wave a magic wand and make anything they want confidential, school boards all over Michigan are gonna copy it and it's gonna expand secrecy. You are the seed for this, and I hope this case serves as the roundup that stops you from spreading.
This is no longer just the community complaining at the podium. Now that you see this is real, I hope you will choose to fix this at the next meeting. If you don't, any expense on the street is 100% upon you. You'd be choosing to pit political domination against freedom of speech. This has nothing to do with students, and so I'm encouraging you to deescalate. Trustee Lacoue? I'm Carol Bethlet Cooey, a trustee on our board. And because our board voted this year to keep all agenda decisions behind closed doors, I'm speaking as a resident so the community can see issues that I'm asking to
discuss and we'll see if they ever get a spot on the agenda. So tonight, let's talk about schools of choice. Grosse Pointe families are already in Lansing opposing the bills that would force our public school districts into schools of choice. Trustee Sean Cotton spoke as well. Here in RCS, we should be just as concerned. We have over 2,000 empty seats. We spend over 15,500 per student, but for non resident students, the state would only send about $10,050 and that's because state money would follow the student for basic classroom costs,
but local residents fund the buildings and infrastructure. So that leaves Rochester taxpayers covering roughly $5,000 per non resident student. Superintendent Russo briefed our board on this last meeting and I haven't seen questions or comments yet from the board, but given the stakes for both enrollment and our local tax payers, I believe this should be a prepared agenda item with open board discussion and feedback from the public, not just a casual informational update. If Grosse Pointe trustees are speaking up in Lansing,
we might want to consider pushing back publicly too because our current funding structure is simply not set up for this, not at the moment, and it's not fair to our residents. So my questions are, when are we as a board going to discuss this in public and are we prepared if these bills move Okay. Moving on to the 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 by 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. Our consent agenda today consists of 6.1 human resource recommendations, 6.2 Board of Education special meeting minutes from January '3, Board of Education close meeting minutes from January '4, Board of Education regular meeting minutes January '5, Board of Education regular meeting minutes,
01/26/2026 and six point six, Board of Education retreat minutes, 01/31/2026. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Moved by Trustee Butel, support by Trustee Blake. Any discussion? Trustee LeCouille? Could we remove Item 6.1? Okay. So Item 6.1 has been removed. Any further need to pull an item? Okay. So with that, all in favor of the consent agenda as presented minus 6.1,
Say aye. Aye. So that's a seven-zero vote. And that brings us to 6.1, which is the human resource recommendation. Trustee Lecui. I'd asked a question on Friday because we had a couple special education teacher resignations in this packet. And I asked about the scope and sustainability of some of these roles. And I understand that we're working with a really limited applicant pool. Alright. I understand we're working with a limited applicant pool. I understand that the role is really tough. And also at the same time retention is so important.
So my question was, have we been thinking about what can we do to make the role more sustainable so we keep good people and so that students don't lose services? Mr. Murphy? Yeah. I mean, it's really my job to only think of that for all jobs. So, you know, we have feedback loops when people resign. We have feedback loops when people retire. Many conversations are had interdepartmentally, about the tougher to hire positions. We've talked about that even at the board table about the shortage, especially in the special education realm.
However, also each individual has their own, desires as well, right? We can work toward all of those things and still lose good people. People move on for various reasons. Obviously, you're not going to discuss any individual situation, but those things are constantly, reflected upon. And any feedback we get, is taken to heart to try to do all we can as a department, as a district to support our staff, to retain our good staff. And, again, different different individuals have different motivations in that realm, but leads to many conversations amongst departments.
And it's a concern not only in our district but statewide. There's simply not enough educators, as a whole and especially when it comes to specialized difficult positions like categorical teachers or ancillary staff. Any other questions or discussion? Okay. You're going to make a motion? Well, I move that we approve Item 6.1, the human resource Report. All right. So all in favor of 6.1, say You need a second first. Sorry. So moved. Thank you. Okay. So moved by Trustee Butel,
seconded by Trustee Annis. All in favor, say aye. And that's a seven-zero vote, and it passes. Moving on to agenda item seven, which is reports. Tonight, we have a superintendent update. Mr. Russo. Thank you, President Gupta. A few things today, just to update our community. Trustee Locuste spoke during public comment about, the universal school choice bill that I have talked about here and that I have briefed the board on. What and she touched on a few things, so I want to just be really clear about what it is and what it is not.
Right now, it's it's getting some, feedback. It's getting some feedback from a lot of districts and from a lot of community members. I know our superintendents of Oakland County, we are opposing this bill, and not because it's just a universal school of choice, but because there's a lot of things that aren't structurally that don't make sense of the way the bill is written because of the way we are funded. Oftentimes our legislators and some folks in in many communities want us to compare us to states like Maryland or Rhode Island or different states where they have different funding
structures. And this bill would create universal school of choice where, students can cross county lines based on availability that the board would have to set. So for example, we could have three elementary schools that have open seating right now, and we would have to set the board would then have to set what that threshold is and when the school of choice window would open and close. So let's just say, for example, as a practicality or logical example of this,
let's say we had 50 seats open at one of our elementary schools and 70 people were applying to go there, or let's say more than that, we would then have to create some type of system that would discern which students would be accepted and which ones wouldn't based on the 50 open seats. And as you know, at TK through five in our elementary schools, not all of them fit into one box. If they're in the third grade and we have a third grade open seat, they might be accepted. But we might have 20, we might have 20 applicants for a single seat in third grade, where we'd have to create some type of discernment, and who,
where, and when we would accept students. It also, it also just it stands in the face of local control of each and every district based on our structure, our tax structure, and each individual district's bylaws. Some school districts don't have school of choice like us. Others have school of choice that you start in kindergarten. Other school districts, don't have any policy written because it's part of their city ordinance. So there's a lot at play here. It is not getting much traction right now. It's getting a lot of pushback, but, we're watching that closely. I'd like to also talk about the cell phone bill,
which the cell phone bill has passed both the Senate and the House, and it's waiting for a governor's signature. I think, Ms. Grine is going to talk about our survey that we gave to our staff and to our community later in relation to that. What we'll do is once that bill is signed, which it was expected to be signed already, we will take our feedback from our community and our staff and juxtapose that against what the mandates say in the legislation once that package is signed by our governor. And lastly, I have an SPCC update. Last two, week and a half ago,
Mr. Murphy, week and a half ago, we met with an SPCC. Some of the topics we discussed was purchasing. 5,003 was our purchasing package that we've been talking about seemingly for eighteen months or more. And we sent it back with a couple of just adjustments from legal to make sure that some of the words that we were kind of discussing during SPCC could be defined better. So we'll bring that back to either SPCC or a first reading here, depending on timeline. And then, there was a question from a board member about, the policy, if there should be a policy for sex education advisory boards,
should it be in our policy? And it's a state law. So writing policy does or does not make sense. It's the same whether it's in the policy or not, really is kind of a moot point at this point because it's part of state law that we follow. And so, it was suggested that we have a link to what those standards are for sex education advisory board on our, teaching and learning page of our website. Anti moonlighting, we brought that to we had a discussion after the board asked us to go back and take a look. We'll be bringing that back with to our communion groups for discussion,
talk about more specific language, maybe some examples that can be included in the language for policy. And once that has once that loop has been closed, we'll bring that back for consideration to our board. There's a one trustee asked for, communication channels that, some policy written on that. We're waiting on, language as a suggestion to come back to SPCC again. And then, we talked about just our times for meeting, considering that we had new people from our board since the election in January, and positions and assignments to our committees.
And so we'll bring that back. We, we talked about when the best meeting time was and if it was better to do online or in person. And those are my updates today. Thank you, Mr. Russo. Next, we have the President. Trustee Lecuis. I had a couple of questions. I was wondering first, Mr. Russo was talking about the schools of choice, and you said that it was based on availability that the board would have to set. I was concerned that it was something where the state was actually going to look at what our availability was and tell us, like, no, you have this many seats and you're going to need to fill it. Is it is it true does the state have say or does the board have
say? Because, I mean, would we be able to say we have zero availability? Like, I'm just wondering how that works. So the so each individual district would have to set parameters for what school of choice would be based on the parameters inside the legislation. So what the legislation says at the moment as a proposal, is that local school districts would have to establish a timeline, what their threshold for availability is. So let's say, you know, I'm gonna make numbers up, but let's say this board decided that 3%, availability means that we would accept students.
So then we would take 3% of each building to say this is available here at Brewster or not at Musson, or I'm using those as arbitrary examples. And and we would have to create that. It's not going the way the bill is written now, it's not universal. That language is not universal for all school districts. Okay. Looks like I'll ask my next question after hers. Trustee Aalswah. Thank you very much for your report. I did have two questions. You said that you expected the cell phone bill to be already signed, so I assume signing is pending. My question is, will that be effective immediately or at the beginning of the next school year?
Do we know? It has to be in play before the 'twenty six, 'twenty seven school year. So, okay. And my other question is you discussed meeting times. Were you talking about your committee meeting times or were you talking about board meetings? Yes. SPCC board committee meeting times. Trustee Lecue? My other question was, you mentioned that someone in the Policy and Curriculum Committee was asking about a policy for the Sex Ed Advisory Board. And I was just curious what that was in reference to, because I know that according to law, we're mandated to have a sex ed advisory board. But for instance,
I wasn't sure we had a policy to direct how people were selected for that. So is that because that's something that's not mandated according to law. Is that the sort of thing that the policy and curriculum committee would be able to do, would be to set parameters for how we do this election? It is. It it could be policy, but the state law does say who you have to have on the committee. Right? There are there are certain occupations. There are certain percentage of parents, etcetera. So Correct. Yeah. The process of how those folks are selected or, for example,
if if again, I'm going to use an arbitrary example. This is not real. Let's say we have to have a clergy on our board. Let's say the clergy didn't show up for the entire year. There's no repercussion for that. There's no legislation, that says that we couldn't replace that person halfway through, etcetera. So the process for that is left up to the administration. Right. So what is our current process for selecting members for the sex ed advisory board? I believe since I've been here, I can't speak to previous. We so previous, we had a different person who retired who ran it.
I don't know what that process was. When the new person took over, that was put out to say who might be interested, and she she reached out to folks who she knew might be available and met the criteria for, each individual, what's the word, for each individual occupation and stipulation for who has to be on there. So if there had to be a police officer, they would call a police officer, etcetera. So who runs the so whoever is in charge of the sex ed or advisory board selected who was going to be on it. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. And if I'm not wrong, there was an application process put out that solicited interest in from some people,
not to everybody. I'm not saying it went out to the whole community, but that in order to participate, you had to fill out the application. So when she selected who she who she chose for the sex ed advisory board, they filled out the necessary forms and Well, she she had a list of potential people who met the criteria is my understanding, but correct me if I'm wrong. And then, she used the application to determine if they were actually interested and willing to participate. Right. I believe that's correct, but I can confirm. Okay. Moving on to new business, agenda item eight,
eight point one. We have a first reading of policy 8,003, which is an action item. Mr. Murphy. Thank you, President Gupta. The following is an update to policy 8,003, web accessibility. The edits included remove outdated contact info. Five zero one was still listed. Expands the web accessibility coordinator role to include both the executive director of strategic communications and the director of technology and creates an email address to report concerns with accessibility. Administrative regulations will be updated to reflect the same changes.
I believe those were communicated out, starting that thirty day review window during the last, board update email. So as you can see in red in your attachment are the changes. They are slight. We add the director of technology as part of the complaint process, and then at the very end, add that title underneath web accessibility coordinators. Include a link to an email in which folks who have difficulty accessing aspects, of the website or otherwise can reach out, a phone number and the address to the Administration Building.
Happy to answer any questions. Any questions? Trustee Lecuet? I asked several questions on Friday, maybe about four questions. The first one I asked was, I noticed that this specifically applies to the district's website, and I was just wondering what about other portals or digital learning platforms that students and families use throughout the district? Yeah. The policy itself is reflective of the website, but there's a whole undertaking to update all of those items. There's an update to ADA law that takes effect in April that really ramp up,
the expectations for public bodies, including school districts. So we're working toward that with a team in many aspects. And, again, this this may be specific to the website, but there'll be ongoing work, in, you know, Google Classroom accessibility, building level newsletters, and it's an undertaking. We've already added some tools to our website. I don't know if you you've noticed, but there's an accessibility link on our website now that's sort of step one for us to to start that process, but it will be ongoing. And part of the change here to policy was to create a,
like, a backdrop of having more people aware when there is an issue. So if they if that email is sent, it's gonna hit four people at once, essentially, and then we're gonna work as a team collaboratively between comms, tech department, HR from an ADA five zero four, adult five zero four perspective to make sure if there's an an issue that it gets corrected as soon as possible. So it will be ongoing work though, and and many districts are undertaking this to do their best to meet the requirements of that updated law. Trustee Nkoye?
On that topic, I noticed we're expanding it to include these multiple different roles, and I was wondering how those roles work together and how they coordinate. Is there a different spot where we can see information about who's responsible for what? Because the concern is that if we don't know whose responsibility is whose, there's a gap in terms of accountability. I mean, it's really everyone's responsibility, and I think that's why we deliberately put a team together for it. So we have ongoing meetings happening right now to get these items updated, to get tools like we just purchased to review.
I mean, you noticed, closed captioning has been added, I believe, to the, board meetings. These are all part of the process that the team is working on, but it's really dependent on the issue. Some something might be slight and in one department where someone can't access a certain link that might be handled way differently than an ongoing series of videos produced by teaching and learning maybe that don't have closed captioning. So that was our intent was to not make it specific so there are multiple levels of responsibility and that us as a team,
independent of who's in these positions, multiple positions would be responsible rather than a single point of success or a single point of failure. Okay. So it sounds like within the team meeting, it gets delegated kind of on the fly depending on what it is. Well, to be clear, we haven't had a ton of these over the years, and don't expect to get a ton of complaints. But if there is one, someone needs to be connected from the tech lens. Someone needs to be connected from the, you know, are we violating someone's rights from a from a five zero four perspective lens. And then someone needs to be available from the the comms end to get together
to to collaborate to decide how to best resolve whatever that issue is. So we've got some experts on the ground updating and training. You think about this, like, from the HR lens, we have an HR section of the website. Right? At some point, we have certain people responsible for updating that. And as these tools get updated and as the expectations get updated, we've got contacts in each department that would need to work to do that. And then also might be the solution when when there's an issue, if someone calls with an issue or sends an email to the address,
depending on who those folks are. So I think we've got it set up in a in a way that, to our best of our ability, can quickly respond. And then, if someone seems to not, you know, has the week off or has a day off, it's not one single point of failure either. The goal is to not inhibit anyone's ability to see the information we're putting out and access the info on our website. And and to your point, homework and some our other digital, communication tools as well. Trustee Lukumi? The other question I'd ask was, as part of the policy, the time the timeline was a little bit vague.
It said as soon as reasonably practical. And I can understand how you might want some flexibility for that. But is there some kind of outer limit, that we're looking for so that families have a general idea of how fast they might be able to expect a response? I mean, I think that was intentional. I think each issue is very unique. One might cause us to create an RFP to purchase a new tool to make something more accessible while another might be someone mistyped a link. Right? So, I think I think the proof will be in how responsive we are,
and our goal will be to respond immediately. But I think it's I'm not sure how much more productive it is to put within forty eight hours or twenty four hours. Some will be solved quicker than that. So I think, again, if this isn't working and we're getting multiple complaints and we're not being responsive to the community, that will be communicated as well. Right. And I and I don't mean to suggest that if you put something, it means we should wait until the very last minute of that deadline every time you respond to an issue. I just I just meant an outer limit kind of an idea of we're gonna at least respond to you by this point in time,
if not sooner. And when we presented this initial policy to the SPCC group, nobody questioned that or had feedback to that regard. So following that process, essentially, we run that by the group. As a as a subcommittee, we bring it here for feedback as well. This is a first reading. So if there are suggestions between the first and the second that, you know, a majority of the board wants to look at, definitely can always willing to adjust. Oh, yes. I I understand that fully, and I'm not part of the policy and curriculum committee. So this has been my first time seeing it since we got it in our
board packet, and I asked on Friday. So I assumed people shared that out. That's part I mean, the design of a subcommittee, I believe, is to have a group working that then shares to the full board. So I I just I'm making that assumption that by the time we get here between the SPCC meeting, it being in the superintendent notes, which you read and then had questions about, that it's at least gone through multiple layers of review. But again, we've gotten to this point before and had to make adjustments and that's it's always possible too.
There's always limitations. If you only have three trustees in a committee, Once you bring it to the full board, there might be more ideas that come out. That's all I mean by that. And then the next part I wondered about was, the district will perform periodic accessibility audits of its website. And I wondered, how often will those audits occur and who performs them? And I was curious about that. Ms. Grange was following up on that. Hello? There we go. Thank you. Good question. You know, the, as as the community knows, the district adopted AudioEye and anticipate that being a real game changer,
for our website. AudioEye has the capability to provide a type of continuous auditing, of our website. And, I think that that auditing, you know, most of the things that we're finding from it, it's, it's color changing. You know, maybe, schools manage I think I think it's it's important for the board to understand schools and departments manage their own pages. So, we are through the strategic planning process looking to build that capacity and build upon that capacity. But, as schools I'm going to use a PDF as an example that AudioEye may detect that that
PDF may not be as accessible as it should be for a reader. So that would flag it. We would change. We'd make those changes and the fix is relatively easy, right? Color contrast. Perhaps a flyer may not have, it might be Here's I'm gonna give an example that we actually found. It was black writing on red with a red background. Very difficult to see or to read. So, simple changing of that color contrast. So those are things that that AudioEye will pick up. Another big one,
well, it's one that we found is, alt text. So if you see a picture, it has to have alternate text to go along with it. And, AudioEye is really great because it has that AI capability. If it's noticing something, it will actually help fix the problem. Those problems that it can't fix, it'll flag for somebody else to fix. So it's an AI tool then that is just continuously performing audits? It utilizes AI. Is that so the AI but I'm just trying to understand the question. My question was the who's performing the periodic audits?
When do they occur? Will we get reports about that? Or but it's the AI tool that Well, I'm saying that AudioEye is a tool. It utilizes AI to help with the auditing process, right? Who runs that program? It's a tool on, I mean, AudioEye, the company. It's a tool on our website. Now when reports come in, that comes into the district. And there is the committee that Mr. Murphy had talked about that helps to go through if there's anything that's flagged that needs extra attention that members of that
team can then assess and fix as appropriate. And again, through the strategic planning process, that capacity We're building upon the capacity of the entire district because schools generally manage their own pages So really, it's that continual education as things come in And, you know, we look to, I think it's important for the community to understand this website exists for our community. And when problems come in, we want to fix them. Right? If somebody is having accessibility issues,
we want to help them. And we're going to help them as soon as possible. I think one of the questions that you had asked earlier, if I can just, add to that. You know, when, an example would be, if there's an accessibility problem and you were asking about as soon as possible, One example is we might have to submit a ticket to FinalSight, our provider, to help us find a solution. And they may not be able to get back to us immediately. So, we're going to work with that individual to to help their urgent needs as much as possible. Right? We we want to help people.
Sure. I don't doubt that at all. I'm just I'm just saying from my perspective, I would prefer if this policy had a few more specifics to it, even if it was, you know, in terms of a, outer limit, like I keep saying, just something that's written there so that we have a general idea of about how long it's gonna take to get barriers, fixed and when we're going to get reports back from the board and who's doing the monitoring and when I feel a little bit unclear about some of these answers right now. But, I don't know that anybody else on the board shares any of those feelings or
not. I have not heard looks like people are ready to go. I think if you're wanting reports, there's I don't know. Do you want to report every time a PDF can't be read? Is that what you're looking for? I'm not necessarily asking for something specifically. I'm I'm just wondering what, like, when are we going to see stuff like that? Has that been thought through? Because I'm not seeing any of that in the policy. I would just offer that, I think that that is very operational in nature. And so that would be something for our superintendent to be overlooking, overseeing,
and and and, looking at. And if we have an issue with how we think he's doing that well or not well, we take that up in his evaluation. Mr. Murphy, did you have something to add? Yeah. There's also just so you know, there's the more specifics are listed in the ARs that were shared. So, like, the website audit that you mentioned is Director of Technology is responsible for that. The training is an annual expectation run by the tech department. So some of those specifics aren't listed in the policy. It's true, but they're in the more operational administrative regulations.
Okay. So, lots of discussion was had on that at this point. We're going to move on to 8.2. Madam President? Yes, sorry, Trustee Anderson. Can you clarify for me, Trustee Lecui, did you submit all of those questions prior to coming to the board table? I didn't hear you say that. Yes, I did. You did. How did you do that? I was a privy to my question. On Friday? Okay. And I just want to point out that you get the board packet on Wednesday. Correct. So Okay. I'm going to interject here because this is not going to be in the agenda item. Sooner to give them a chance to be able to answer them.
You're saying that I need to provide them with fewer I'm going to call this meeting to order. We have gotten off of our agenda item. We're going to get back to the agenda. We're on eight point two bond sale resolution. This is an action item as well. And, Mr. McDaniel? Thank you, madam president. So, per the resolution in the packet, on November 10, the board authorized us to, refund the bonds, authorize the superintendent or myself to accept a bid on behalf of the district. There were 18 bids received on January 29,
and we have done so and accepted that. So this really just affirms the work that we did. So the resolution is recommended to be presented or approved as presented. Thank you. Is there any discussion on this? Madam President? Trustee Lecui. I just want to say good work on this. This is great. It looks like it's we're saving more money than what we originally thought we were going to. So great. Our financial picture looks even better. Trustee Annas? Sorry, Alsma. Couldn't tell who said that. Just for the sake of the public, could you please remind us how much money we're saving?
Yes. Over the remaining ten years of this bond, dollars 8,600,000.0. Mr. McDaniel, it would be important to note too, I think there were you said there were 18 bids on this, which was you want to just share what the information they gave us about that number? Yes. I mean, we were very happy, 18 bids. I think there was that was a lot. There was a very tight spread. So it was pretty much unanimous that the bonds were very strong. The school district is very strong financially. I think it was like a 0.12% difference or something like that on the spread.
So, yes, the market responded very well to the management of the district and the governor the governance that the Board has provided financially and our taxpayers are going to reap the rewards for that. So thank you. And I'm realizing I did that in a little bit of the wrong order. So I'm going back now to make the motion to approve the bond sale resolution as presented. So I'll move that. Is there a second? I second. Trustee Blake. And is there any further discussion or questions? With that,
all in favor, say aye. Aye. That's a seven-zero vote. Now we are on to Item 10, which is additional comment by members of the administration. Mr. Russo. Thank you, Madam President. I will end, after we have a few folks from our team that would like to share some information with our Board and with our community. Miss Grine, would you like to go first? Section 164 ks of the school State School Aid Act now requires school districts and intermediate school districts to post district administered student survey questions and results on the website.
RCS has created a dedicated webpage under the communications community relations site to share information about district wide student surveys administered after January 2026. Although not a requirement, RCS is also sharing results from the personal technology device survey that was available to community members from January 12 through the eighteenth of this year. Thank you, miss Crane. Doctor. Luca? Thank you, mister Russo. Last month, the MHSAA and its legislative body introduced effectively immediately the implementation of student athlete in
NIL or commonly known as name, image, likeness. For those who are families and student athletes who don't know, NIL allows, student athletes to financially gain through using their name, their image, or their likeness. As a member district of the MHSAA, we will follow the NIL guidelines, which are being discussed with our current teams as well as our coaches. As a district, we will be offering training for our coaches as well as, team, kind of, get together so we can educate our student athletes on what NIL is and then how you can apply to, the NIL portal on the Michigan State,
website. Parents and students who are interested in learning more about the NIL and the application plot process, we developed a link on our website. If you go to our main page, navigate to athletics. And then on the athletics tab, there is an NIL, site that we've created for more information for our parents and student athletes to look at. Thank you, doctor DeLuca. Miss Hampton. Thank you, mister Russo. I would like to, give a few, notes of thanks as well as update the board on the content of our, professional learning that we experienced together on Friday, February 6. Our elementary staff engaged in a day focused on literacy instruction and,
preparations for our ongoing transition to structured literacy practices. Building administrators, our elementary program consultants and learning consultants collectively designed and facilitated an impressive body of work that allowed us to differentiate across staff needs and grade level assignments as well and furthered our efforts towards our implementation time line. As you know, on April 20, we'll bring a proposal recommendation to the Board of Education for resource recommendation in the area of literacy.
Specifically, staff engaged in breakout sessions that were related to the decodable text that they use in their K2 classrooms as related to the data that they're receiving around their children and the growth they're making in foundational skills. Third through fifth grade, spent some time thinking about learning more about research on the reading brain. And then all of our staff also looked at instructional resources that are alive and well across our CS classrooms right now. Sorry. In the afternoon, our staff, returned to their buildings and continued their look at our winter benchmark data as well
as thought about, instructional designs for either tier one or two in response to those data. There were also some several presentations and learning engagements that were related to regulation, positive behavior support as well as responsive behavior support. So all in all, it was a very robust day that would sit under that sort of heading of multi tiered systems of support would be how I'd categorize, the time that our educators spent thinking about their current state and then, what's next as we look forward to a new resource within Rochester Community Schools.
Thank you, mister Russo. Thank you, miss Hinton. I just wanna close by saying two things. First, I wanna thank the at least the police for throwing their sirens for us. I I wanna thank the parents of, the Baldwin Elementary students here for for taking time and getting them here for that presentation. If you weren't smiling and clapping during a presentation like that, something's wrong. And so I also want to say thank you to our team, my cabinet team that held on the fort while I took a few days off last week. Much appreciated. All your hard work every single day is very much appreciated.
Thank you. Thank you. Now we're on to Item 11, which is announcements. I just have a couple. So on February, our district will enjoy a midwinter recess. And then our next regular board meeting will be on Monday, February 23 at six p. M, right here at the Early Childhood Education Center. If there is no objection, the meeting will be adjourned. Seeing none, the meeting is adjourned at 07:27 P. M.