His personal Facebook post and from Judith Monti regarding homeschooled students playing on district teams. At this point, we'll move on to the PTA Council update. Mrs. Rockcliffe. Good evening. My name is Jamie Rockliff. I am the current president of the Rochester Community PTA Council. And just an update, we have been off to a busier start than usual this year. Earlier this month, we hosted our annual leadership day with about 80 executive meeting on our theme for the year, United for our Kids.
We also hosted training that day for many of our PTA and PTSA leaders. We are very excited to announce that this Thursday, September 25, we will be hosting Screen Smart, a digital safety presentation in collaboration with National PTA and with support from Meta. There are only two of these marquee events being held this year in the country. This free event will be held at Adams High School from 06:30 to 08:30, includes dinner from PETA Way, student and parent panels, and remarks by META officials, including Monique Dorsonville,
director of external affairs, and Jennifer Hanley, head of safety policy for North America. The presentation is for adults and students aged 13 and up, but all are welcome to attend, and there will be a planetarium presentation for students under 13. Registration is available online, through noon on Thursday, and then will also be walk in available that evening. Authors in April held its annual kick off during the September, announcing this year's fourth and five great author, Ben Hatke. He joins Julie Fogliano, Angela Angela Dominguez,
and our first ever fourth time returning author, Neal Shusterman. They'll all be joining us the week of April 27. Many of our committees have begun meeting to discuss plans for all the upcoming events this year, including Reflections, Founders' Day, Legislative, and Safe Routes. The reflections theme for the year is I belong, and schools will be starting their local program soon. So keep an eye on your school PTA newsletters and social media for more information about students, participating. Finally, our first council meeting of the year will be this Thursday at Musson Elementary School at 09:30.
Thanks. Thank you. And we'll move on to agenda item 4.4, which is our PAC update from Jackie Markert. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I hope you had a restful summer, and your school year is off to a great start. My name is Jackie Markert, and I have the privilege of serving as chair of the Rochester Community Schools Parent Advisory Committee, PAC for short. For those who are unfamiliar with PAC, we are a parent led group dedicated to empowering families of students receiving special ed services through communication, education, and support. We are fortunate to have parent representatives in almost every RCS school,
including ECSE and ATPS, who are here to listen, assist, and to help make life just a little better for families navigating special education. PAC hosts monthly meetings throughout the year. Our first meeting takes place tomorrow evening at North Hill at 06:30, where superintendent Russo will be our guest speaker. These gatherings are an opportunity for parents to connect with one another, learn from district leaders, and stay informed about issues that directly impact our students. Our meetings are public and all are welcome to join. This year, the PAC's guiding theme is inclusion in action.
We believe inclusion is more than a concept. It's something we actively create together. It means ensuring that every parent and every student feels seen, valued, and supported. PAC will use this theme to shape our discussions, priorities, and goals for the year, and we invite our administrators and educators to join us in building a stronger, more compassionate school community. We have some wonderful events planned for the upcoming school year. This fall, we'll host a parent enrichment session titled From Understanding to Advocacy, A Parent's Guide to the IEP. This will be a two part series designed to guide parents through the IEP process
from start to finish, equipping them with both knowledge and advocacy tools to feel confident and collaborative every step of the way. Our family favorite sense our family favorite event, sensory friendly Santa, will return to the Rochester Firehouse on November 22. And, of course, our flagship event, the Incomparable Sparkle Awards, will take place at Adams High School on April 16. The Sparkle Awards are truly a night of joy and inspiration, an evening where we celebrate kindness, honor extraordinary efforts, and remind ourselves of the power of community. It's one of those events you leave with your heart filled and your hope renewed.
At PAC, we believe every small step of support and connection create can create a ripple of belonging for our students and families. And we invite everyone to join us at our meetings events. Whether you're a parent, educator, or a community member, all are welcome to join. Thank you. Thank you. We're now moving on to public comment. And this provides an opportunity for board members to hear from community members. If you wish to speak tonight but have not already filled out a yellow card, please fill one out now. 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, and I'll 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 if needed.
At this time, I have, one person who, one yellow card, Judith Monti. Hello again. I was here, last board meeting, and I had a couple of things to talk about, my son as well, regarding home based students in athletics. And I just wanted to follow-up on a couple of things. At the last meeting, again, I and I just for those of you that weren't here, I share that my son was declared ineligible for athletics because Rochester does not have a clear policy for home based based or dual enrolled students. And that's despite the MHSAA regulation one, section nine that indicates they are allowed to participate if a reporting mechanism is in
place. I did reach out, just following that meeting to the board president. My my name was just mentioned previously, and I appreciate her getting back to me today. But in her note, she described the rule as requiring students to take 66% of their coursework directly with Rochester. My own reading of section nine is that 66% refers to the credit load equivalency, not seat time. And the MHSAA handbook states the two schools may set up the academic reporting procedures that suit them. And I would like to highlight that there are other Michigan districts that already apply
that rule in this way that I've interpreted it, which does reassure me that we can come hopefully to some workable arrangement to allow home based students to participate. I did also wanna note that Rochester does not currently have a policy for home based eligibility and I think, the the president's note did indicate that there was a policy but not that I have seen or that any of the schools have been able to share, which is why I'm here hoping that we can collaborate together, with the district to create a policy. Just in the absence, you know, of that guidance has made things very confusing and very frustrating.
Honestly, very heartbreaking for a lot of the kids in the area that aren't allowed to play. So again, this is not about changing a policy. It's about creating one, so that families and administrators have clarity, consistency, and really fairness moving forward. Again, for those of you that weren't here last week or two weeks three weeks ago, I'm not sure when, earlier this this month, our family situation, is very much part of this. My daughter has significant medical needs that have really, required extensive travel sorry. For many weeks at a time. So again, traditional school just isn't possible for my my son.
He has to travel extensively because we can't leave him here alone. So it's really prevented us from being able to have him in a traditional school, because it just just to keep the family together, we have to go on a lot of medical extended time trips. And it was reassuring to hear someone from PAC just here tonight saying that she, you know, you were applauding inclusiveness and welcomeness and making sure everyone feels heard and important. And again, my son being dual enrolled with Stony Creek High School and at home, it feels very much like this is an opportunity to walk the walk,
not just talk the talk. I see I'm out of of time here. But, again, I respectfully ask the board to consider establishing a clear policy and advise who I can work with to to kinda support that. Alright. That's the, only public comment cards I have at this time. Madam president? Trustee Lecui? I asked a question about this actually, over the weekend because we received I'm sorry. Trustee Lecui does information in our cabinet notes? You you it's a this would be a point of order. This is public comment right now. So do you have a point of order? No. Talking about the public comment that we just heard. But there's there's no public comment.
Little bit of information about it, and so I just want I appreciate that. But there's this is public comment. This is not the board commenting on it. So you you could have it's not a discussion item. Well, it's just I recognized you if you had a point of order. You do not have a point of order. Point of order, madam president. Okay. What is your point of order, trustee? My point of order is that trustees are allowed to make comments about agenda items. And right now, we're on the agenda item called public comment. I'd like to ask a question about the public comment. And my question has to do with what we were just hearing about.
And I was curious if the board was interested in coming up with some kind of policy because I know that we don't have a policy. I I suggested it back when I was on the policy agreement. You could, make a motion to add something to our agenda if you would like to. I don't think I could. That that time has passed. No. You may ask if you can you can do it in two parts. You may ask, to now I'm I'm I've lost it. But the, to make a saying I should suspend the rules? Yeah. To suspend the rules. And then you may ask the question to add an agenda item if you would like to, but this is not the time for this discussion.
Well, I'm I'm just making a comment about public comment. Okay. And that is that the MHSAA, they set the threshold, the 66%, but it is an RCS decision on what coursework could count toward that 66%. So my question was how RCS makes that determination for what coursework could count toward the president of 66%. Hopefully, we'll find out more information soon. Trustee trustee Lacoue has finished her comment. We are not having a discussion on this. Moving on to agenda item six, it's the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered a routine in nature by the
board of education. Tonight, we only have one item, so we will treat it as a regular motion that can be discussed if needed. We have current bills payable for 08/01/2025 through 08/31/2025 in the amount of $14,971,442.45. Is there a motion to approve the current bills payable for August as presented? So moved. Moved by trustee Annas. Is there support? From trustee Blake. Alright. Is there any discussion on this before we vote? Madam president?
Trustee Lecui? I just had a question. I was looking at the legal invoices, and you correct me if I'm wrong. I thought we used to use Troon law firm more for FOIA related requests, and I just happened to notice that we're using Miller Johnson more now. And I was just curious if there was any reason for why we have switched. We we have not switched. We did not use Troon at all for FOIA. It's always been Miller Johnson for as long as I can remember. Okay. So, alright. All of those in favor of approving the current bills payable for August, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, please say no.
I abstain. That's a six zero one vote, and the, bills payable for August have been approved. Next, we're moving on to reports. And first up is the superintendent update. Mister Russo? Thank you, madam president. I have a few updates for you tonight, somewhat robust in nature. The first is a report on SBOC, that was held last week. The superintendent's Business and Operations Committee met on September 17. Discussion topics included scheduling an October meeting, financial performance for the twenty four-twenty five school year, and a discussion regarding the audit. The meeting was attended by representatives from Yoh and Yeo,
who is our auditor, who discussed accounting pronouncements, the audit and testing, and asked questions of the committee without the presence of management. Moving on, legislative update. As you are well aware, I'm sure, the board is in making the community aware, we still have no budget, from the state of Michigan for this school year. As if we hit October 1, we will have a government shutdown for the state, and, we will move to what they have passed earlier as a skinny budget. There hasn't been much movement since July on this. And in talking to our legislative liaison this morning or I should say this afternoon,
it doesn't look like there was much movement today. Tomorrow, they are off for a holiday, and so that gives us just a few business days left in the month September for them to to come up with a budget. Moving on to the budget discussion. Alright. So that's that's item 7.2. Alright. Miss Durazo. Thank you, Madam President. In closing the 2425 school year, the Board of Education approved a budget that would use $5,069,846 of fund balance. As district staff finalized the trial balance, the actual numbers show an addition of fund balance of approximately $300,000
The district received approximately $750,000 more in state revenue than was shown in May related to categorical funding, while local revenue also increased by approximately 300,000 Administrators also did not overspend their budgets, which also contributed to this difference. The majority of the budget difference is from the remaining discretionary budget items that administrators across the district did not overspend, totaling approximately $3,000,000 There are other areas where district estimates saw savings like transportation both in route and fuel costs. Overall,
this is a 2.2 variance on the budget total. A more detailed discussion regarding the results of the twenty four-twenty five fiscal year will be presented on November 10 when the audit is scheduled to be presented. I just wanted to clarify. You said overspend their budget, but you meant that they didn't spend their full budget that had been allocated. Correct. K. Nevertheless, in June, the board asked me to create a savings of both a $2,000,000 option and a $4,000,000 option for discussion. And I believe that's our, that is part of this discussion. At this time I'm not recommending the board take any action
of these items, but I have placed this information in front of you for discussion. As we move through having or not having a state budget and depending on the length of the of the state shutdown, I may have to come to you with recommendations that would impact the budget. As you know, we do not have one as of today. I would like to walk you through these packages presented to you so all board members know exactly what we are talking about. All the items I mentioned have been discussed and presented through a lens that has the least amount of impact to the classrooms while maintaining our operations and services to students as best as possible.
So if we take a look at the sheet, I'd like to work from the bottom up. We are gonna look at package a first. So package a, the total savings that that this package rec that comes close to is 1,953,000.000. And when I say move from the bottom up, I wanna talk about the personnel changes and then move up the sheet. So as you can see, departmental staffing restructure means no school building impact. So that would be FTE that's spread across central office, not at the school level. Expenditure changes as part of this package would be a 10% cut to all building
budgets, a 10% cut to department budgets, and a custodial restructure, which estimates about 280,000 there, which is an estimate of 40,000 per position. Now before I move up, I wanna be clear that if this if there's no action taken, etcetera, or if this moves into January or February, that some of these numbers would change based on positions we have now, and so the reduction wouldn't be realized to the full amount. Does that make sense? Mhmm. K. Questions? Do you want questions as we go or How about if I'm gonna end up with package a. Okay. Got it. And then revenue changes that would be part of this package would be parents pay
credit card fees. Right now, they do not pay credit card fees. The district bears the responsibility of that, which range from 1% to 3% depending on the credit card. Increased credit ahead fee. And as you can see, that is what the summer programming includes summer programming. So students or families who want to take classes who that that are not recovery based but that are trying to get credit ahead for the next school year, we'd increase that fee by $15. That would be a revenue of another $17,200 and then increase the athletic ticket price a dollar, which is based on your last year's sales would realize us about $52,000
Questions? Trustee Lozan? Can you explain what a custodial restructure would look like? Yes. So right now, this would be seven positions at secondary levels. So if we reduced seven seven FTE, for lack of better words, the seven contract to positions at 40,000 per position, that equals 280,000. At secondary. At the secondary buildings. Madam President? Just one second, please. Trustee, Madam President, point of order. Point of order. Yes, trustee Lecui? When a trustee calls out, madam president,
it's supposed to signal that Okay. Well, I thought I just thought you wanted to be recognized, and I still had people to be recognized here. So you call out all the time. So, trustee Lacui, what is it that you what is your point of order? Alright. Sorry. My my point of order, I I just explained, is that when a trustee calls out madam president, that will signify that you Then you must have had a point of order. So what is your point of order? No. That was well, now I was asking to be recognized. Oh, okay. Well, I am recognizing others. That you're not going to recognize the point of order. Is that correct?
Your point of order was you're you're talking in circles because you called the name I'm talking about Robert's Rules. And when a trustee says madam president, you're supposed to recognize So so then I would have said, point of order. What is your point of order? Because I am still calling on people over here. Do you have a point of order? My point of order was that I called out madam president, and now you're telling me that I'm not supposed to be recognized because you're choosing to go to the Trustee Lacoue, I am I am indicating that I do not need six people who call my name constantly to be recognized. I am looking for hands.
So, at this point, I am calling on, I apologize, Trustee Alsbaugh. Thank you for recognizing me, madam president. I have two questions that I think would be straightforward. What is the current price of athletics or and what I'm getting at is how big of an increase is this and what is the current price to families of the credit ahead? For the ticket price, we are currently at $5 We would increase that to $6 Correct, Doctor. DeLuca? We are currently at $5 with a $1 service fee, so it'd be to $7 I believe. Thank you.
And increased credit ahead fee, I am not sure of that, but I can get back with you. I'm not sure what the what the fee is right now. Trustee Liqui, did you have a question? Yeah. I had asked I had asked about this, when we heard about it once we received our board packet, and superintendent Russo answered a couple questions. I he did not get to my question. I'd asked over the weekend if we could have a regular budget update with charts for the twenty four-twenty five school year showing where we're at in terms of fund balance because it's possible this may negate some of the concerns surrounding this larger deficit.
At the time in June when we had approved that, we thought there was gonna be a $5,000,000 deficit. And now we're finding out it's not a deficit, it's actually a surplus, which is great news. But we gotta understand the size of that swing, and I don't understand why why it's taken so long to get information about the close of books from June and why we should be waiting until November for more information about that. Because until we better understand that situation for what happened last year, it's gonna change what happens this year.
So I'm not sure why we're talking about this because at the time when this was proposed, we thought we had a 5,000,000 deficit from last year and a $6,000,000 deficit for this next year. And right now, we just don't have that same outlook anymore. Well, I'll just say that the board had specifically requested that he provide $2,000,000 and $4,000,000 cuts, which is why he is presenting those tonight. But I will, turn it over to Mr. Russo to answer some of those other questions. Thank you, madam president. So in terms of, why it takes long, if you're saying what wait how long to get this information.
When we present in June 30 what our projected, end of year will be, we take into account all of our liabilities, not knowing at at all some of our numbers like insurance for the month of June or what the time cards were or what the fuel costs were, all the things that have to be added for the month of June. And we prepare this a week ahead of time for you in June 30, which means that June 23. So there is zero point zero chance that we can have those numbers for you on June 23. I understand that. But it's September 22 right now,
though. Correct. And so when we go through the summer to reconcile all of our accounts, and mister McDaniel cannot be here today, but our accounts are in the thousands in the number of accounts we have. All of that has to be reconciled to the best of our ability to prepare for the audit, so we have to be sure of what we're what we're speaking of. We don't have charts right now to show what happened in 'twenty four, 'twenty five? Can you say more about charts? Like what we normally get for our budget updates. I mean, I I I don't know if I'm sure we have charts. I don't know if they're compiled for the last quarter yet.
I don't know. But if you have them up to that point, much like at the middle of the year when we gave you, an estimate, we then gave you another estimate of what it would be and there was barely any change to that. If you remember, we had that conversation at this table when you thought there was a $9,000,000 difference, but there wasn't. And that was because just looking at what our revenues and our expenditures are, they don't match up like a retail. Right? They they don't match up until we could state a I don't think I don't think we're talking about the same question anymore. I'm just looking for could we have a chart to see what happened for the
final You just want the $4.25? Is what you're saying. Right. I I'm I'm wondering if the board can have that, and I'm not sure why we would need to wait until November 10 in order to receive it. It's actually typical to have quarterly budget updates. We learned about this, you know, last week. It's something I've been calling for for a while, but even the MASB rep mentioned that it's actually very normal to have quarterly updates, not just two updates like we had last year. Well, I can get with mister McDaniel and have those sent to you. Thank you. Trustee Gupta? Yeah. I would say that, for me, it it is kind of surprising that, in the in the at the end of the fiscal year,
our final budget update, with the majority of our actuals at least on the expenditure side, really on both sides but more so on the expenditure side maybe, are are, known. You know, I I guess I would like for us to figure out a way in the future that we could have some sort of update that lets us know. If if, you know, departments across the district are underspending their allocated balances to the extent of $3,000,000 that's gonna show up throughout the year, not just in the last quarter.
So I guess it would be good for the board to get some sort of update that helps us stay abreast of that. Trustee Annas? So my question is around that. In this proposed budget that you have here, the building budgets which, proposes a 10% cut, can you talk a little bit about, what that is specifically at a building level? Does that directly impact students? At whose discretion? Can you give us some more clarity on that? Yes. So, for building budgets, they have, been allocated funds for supplies for, for things that students would need in the classroom,
maybe replacement of textbooks, different things that students would need across for programming and for sciences and such. So, a 10% cut looks different at every building. Right? At the elementary level, the 10% cut is, much smaller of a margin because their budgets aren't as big as a high school, for example. So, and I'm gonna use arbitrary numbers. If the if a budget for Rochester High School might be $100,000 in supplies, a 10% budget would be a $10,000 cut. But at North Hill, it might might be $30,000 and so that would be a $3,000 cut. But the the reduction we're talking about impacts supplies and things the principal can buy
on their own for running the building on a day to day. Trustee Lozanne? I guess I wasn't done kind of with the custodial. I was kind of looking like how, Trustee Innes was like, how does that look though? If we're getting rid of custodial services, how does that affect daily operations? Or is it cutting staff and giving more or giving more duties to people? Are those people that are taking on more getting more money in return, or are they just taking on a bigger workload? Or what does that exactly look like? Yeah. And I can speak to it a little, and I think doctor DeLuca might wanna jump in here. But,
if we reduced a human, right, a contracted employee for each, that workload would be spread spread amongst those remaining. We contract services with our I'm sorry. We contract services with a third party company. So their rates for, for employment, we we don't have, we we don't have a lot of, we don't have a crystal ball to say, would they go up? But these are actual numbers for if we saved right now. The estimate is 40,000 per person. So if they raise the rates the next year, right, to for employment, then that might that reduction might be smaller. Right. It's not a guess.
It's I mean, this is what we have for seven employees would be about $280 but next year if their rates went up, that would be maybe a little less. Right. It's like an estimate based off of what we do now, but we don't know if we changed that. Correct. Okay. Trustee Blake? Well first of all, obviously, I think like everybody here, we're really thrilled to hear of the change. I mean, we were expecting a $5,000,000, deficit. We ended up with the $300,000 surplus. It's now been two years in a row that we have added to our maybe more, but two that I know of that we've added to the fund balance.
And I remember last week from the SBOC meeting, I believe they said it was about $48,000,000 with the fund balance, which was over 20%. We asked, well what's good? He said, well 10% is not good, 15 is really good, 20% plus is amazing. So, that's something that we should feel good about. Moving on to this budget though, what my question is is we had asked you to prepare these two scenarios and we haven't even gotten to the more dire scenario yet. Thinking that we were $5,000,000 in the hole last year and expecting to be $6,000,000
for the coming year. Has anything that happened at the end of this past year, anything that we've just experienced, made us think that our budget for next year may not end up in the same place? Is there something that we learned that maybe we can readjust that and realize that we weren't going to be $6,000,000 deficit? That's a great question, Trustee Blake. I will say that it's it's a very difficult question to answer today because we don't know what our state budget will be. So what we did was budget it at what we thought was a reasonable amount
for next year. That could that could come in a lot more. Right? One budget presented at the state level gives us a lot more than we budget for. Another cuts many of our categoricals which would mean that we would have to make decisions on what we'd want to keep and move that to a general fund issue or reallocate in the best way possible. So for that answer, it would be difficult for me to do today because I we don't have a state budget. In years past, that could be answered more articulately with with knowing what we're getting.
But if I just spell out one follow-up, you may not know on the revenue side, but maybe you learned something on the expenditure side that you could still That's a very good point. Yes. So when budgeting for this coming school year, we're gonna take a look at what we plan to buy in teaching and learning, for example, what we plan what we can control. Right? There are some things that that sometimes we can't. Right? A goalpost falls over and it's $100,000 So we have some discretionary funds to use for purposes of that, and we don't wanna cut those too much because we don't wanna be in the
opposite problem that we are in today, whereas we're adding to fund balance instead of going into a larger deficit. But in terms of planning, what we know we're gonna buy in terms of textbooks, programming, etcetera, we're gonna start that process in January and February hopefully a little bit closer. I I do wanna mention though that that this is while it's not 2.2% of the, of the total budget as a variance, while I understand a $5,000,000 swing is something not to shake your head at. Right? But it's also something that districts are are seeing, not just us, but our larger districts are seeing very similarly,
because the state revenue, came in more. So even that 700,000, right, would be a big would be another big swing. And you add up all these little things that we happen that happen when we have 23 buildings and departments that don't reach the allocation that they were given, it does add up quick. Trustee Annas? This is just a comment to follow-up what you were saying, Superintendent Russo, about not knowing what, the expenditures are going into the fall and I think we have to factor in where economically we are as a country in a very different state now versus a
year ago as well. So, I think in our last meeting we were talking about, or maybe it was the meeting prior, fixing the AC units on top of buildings. And my question was, you know, if, we proceed, you know, how much do, tariffs impact this work? And I think that's something that we have to think about really thoughtfully, especially moving forward for supplies that I mean, we're a huge district. We buy a lot of stuff in terms of school supplies, and I think it's something that we have to be mindful of in terms of tariffs and how that impacts us as a consumer too.
So just making that point. Can I respond? So that's another valid point tariffs increasing and not really knowing what they will be. One thing I wanna put kind of a blanket on is that we have the the idea that the federal government might shut down. Right now, as it sits today, it doesn't look like it will impact us grandly because we've captured that money. The the title grants have been kind of, front loaded to us. And so I don't want that to be a point of contention for the board as well. Trustee Ospa? So you said that part of this swing in the budget is due to departments not spending their fully allocated amount.
My question is what made this year different so that they didn't need to spend that or are we building in too big of a cushion? You know, dollars 3,000,000 is not chump change to spend or not spend. So I'm wondering, you know, was it not a big curriculum implementation year? How do we better excuse me how do we better right size that budget so we don't have this big cushion that that may or may not fall at the end? That's a great point. So as there's a couple of things that impact that. Yes. We could probably, if we needed to,
cut, but that would be based on need. Right? And some of these grants that have come out with literacy grants, for example, it's and I'm not a CPA, but to look at what we what we spend, and then we don't get grant funds back from that. Right? We're not we don't realize that till the end of the school year. That's when those expenditures and, you know, we could you could pull the you could pull the our sheet in February, and it'd be very unbalanced because expenditures and revenues aren't matching what they do in retail. But you make a very good point about planning forward and what
planning a little closer to what's necessary. But, again, we definitely don't want to be in the opposite situation that we are in today where we didn't have enough to cover things and come to you with a we plan to have an even budget and come with a $4,000,000 deficit, for example. Jessica Lecuey? I guess just building off of that, because I thought that was a really good question, is are we going to learn at some point, you know, like, what kinds of discretionary items went unspent so we can just have a better idea of what we were planning to spend money on but we didn't end up spending money on? Yeah. I think there's a I mean,
when you say discretionary so if it's discretionary at the building level and they didn't need supplies, a certain supply, I don't know if we could name what they'd be, but we can ask, like, what did you spend from what did you not spend from years prior, if that's the question, in terms of the building budgets. Yep. Or departments, for example. You know, and in servicing buildings, for example, our our contracted company buys some of their, supplies. We buy some of our supplies. Some of our maintenance costs, might not be as might not have been as large, right, as as before,
but we can look into that. Any other questions before we go on to package b and I'm assuming some of these are repetitive on what's listed? Yes. And I just want to before we move to Package B, Madam President, I just want to mention and remind everybody that on November 10 we'll have, a very detailed presentation based on the audit. So we'll be able to answer some of those questions at that time too. So if you look at package b, it is everything in package a plus a few other items which equates to a $4,000,000, reduction or I should say budget adjustment. If you look at the revenue changes,
nothing was added in the revenue section. If you look at expenditure changes, we maintain the 10% cut to all building budgets, a 10% cut to department budgets. We maintain, the custodial restructure and then the things that are added in there are cut all athletic transportation, cut all field trip transportation, cut all field trip costs, and no off-site conferences. So I want to come back to something before we even go to personnel changes again. Just a reminder that we we sat for for weeks and potentially months to go through this to say what what cuts, what changes can we make that would have the least impact on k 12 education
teaching and learning through the day. And so that's all of these recommendations are through that lens. For personnel changes, we keep the department staffing restructure. Those are central office positions. And then secondary tier three service restructure. So what that means is looking at ACE and the service model there, can it be can it be shifted back to the buildings? So that's a $1,200,000 in savings should that be the decision. When you're when you were talking about the field trips, was that the elimination of field trips or elimination of funding?
Just the transportation. So, Well, and funding. I mean Yeah. Field trip costs. So that would be everything involved. Is there elementary field trips a 100%? But is that saying they no longer would have field trips or that they would be paid for by parents and parents would be transporting? I guess I just Well, that would be a decision. But I don't that would be a decision to make. Anyone else have any questions at this time? I do. Trustee Elspa? So, this is on both packages that you talk about a department staffing restructure. How many FTEs would that be? I believe it's five FTEs.
Thank you. Trustee Lazar? I just have a question overall. If, say, as a board we think that one of these should just take place no matter what, is that something that we could vote on to not today, but to have it added back in? I'm I'm looking at just, like, the credit card processing fees. I think that one is kind of, like, we should just do that anyway. I think that's something we could ask the, administration to potentially provide us more information on as to what impact that might have, and if the board is interested in something like that. Trustee Ospa.
Sorry, I just, along with, Trustee Lozano, I had another thought. I assume when you say no off-site conferences you're talking about professional development for staff. I do think professional development for staff is very valuable, but I think there might be a middle step where if we got to this point, which I know we're not there now, I would wonder if there's no out of state conferences versus, you know, if there's something we can do. I know there are conferences that I go to as a teacher that, you know, are within the county. So it's nothing but a registration fee. But if you get to something that's, you know, in San Antonio,
the cost is a lot different. So if we got there, I I would be interested in some nuances in that number because I do think, there may be a middle ground because professional development is very important. Trustee Elspa, that's a very good point. We talked ad nauseam about what that could look like. Right? There are nuances there. To pay for travel that's out of state is is a lot of money. But even to travel to Traverse City, right, there's a there's a there's a cost there. And depending on how many people we send, so there is some nuance there. And we can always provide, professional development in house for probably a lesser amount by getting these people in than
sending people out. But to present this as a package of 4,000,000, we recognize the nuance. We do recognize the nuance. Thank you. Trustee Blake? It's funny, Trustee Alspaiting, you can tell which of us works in education because I would say the off-site conference would be the first thing I would take off. But, I mean, if you're talking athletic you know, if you're talking field trips, cutting all field trips for kids, if you're talking, you know, a number of these things, absolutely I would cut. And I know we're not really getting into the weeds here about all the items,
but, and this is maybe not the time to do it, but I appreciate that you did this, but you can look at these and see, like, some of these would just be completely unpalatable and some we might have to do. And some, you know, you would question you kind of question, Well, if you're able to do this restructuring with, you know, custodial and you don't think it's gonna hurt the district, maybe why wouldn't you just do it? But, I don't know if this is the time to have this discussion. But I appreciate that you did these, but some of these obviously hurt more than others. Trustee Annas? I appreciate what you just said,
Trustee Blake, because I do know that, you know, this was a heavy ask of you, superintendent Russo, and your team. And I appreciate that you took the time to really be thoughtful about it and come to us with some really concrete, suggestions and with dollar amounts associated with it. And I think it's really important, for our community to see this as well based on where our state is in terms of not passing a budget. There are districts, and thankfully not the one for the table which I serve, that will have these kinds of cuts to make.
And I feel very thankful and blessed that we have, a fund balance that can, handle where we're at right now. That's not to say that in the future we shouldn't be looking at ways to, you know, be mindful of what we spend, but I appreciate the work and effort that was put into this. And I'm just thankful we don't have to make this this kind of decision right now. Can I just I can take any more questions, etcetera? I just want to put it from my lens, just put a cap on some of the things, that that were said. So when when we have difficult you know, this was asked of us,
and it was a good exercise to go through to say, what is the least impact? Right? The the least impact that we could have and still meet the needs that the board was asking. What what we're doing is making the best, worst decisions. Right? And that's a very difficult place to be in. And to trust Ianis' point, I don't believe we're there. I'm not I'm not making any of these recommendations to you at this point. And it's not to say that it wouldn't happen in the future based on what where this where in the state, where we are with the feds, But it was, it was definitely looked at. Every single decision that was made was, okay, how would this impact students?
Right? The conference situation, for example. Yes. It would be not great for staff, but it didn't impact class size. Right? We didn't take away programming. We didn't cut a cut a literacy program, etcetera. So, again, we would these are all the best, worst decisions. K. Trustee Blake? And I just wanna say I appreciate that you didn't just jump to cutting headcount and and cutting teachers and you thought of other areas. Alright. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. And I think you're leaving this next one too. Recommendation regarding the 501 West University Building. Thank you, Madam President. So just a little history.
I'm gonna read a few things here, about 501 West University for the community and for our board. 501 West University is a vacant, multistory, special purpose property that was formerly utilized as an administration building. The building contains a gross building square foot of 88,504 square feet based on the drawing. The site area is 4.3 acres or 188,963 square feet. The original portion of the building was constructed in 1889 per municipal records with various additions added. Since The building improvements are in fair condition with dated interior finishes.
Any future use of this building would require a comprehensive rehabilitation program. The building was vacated in 2022. According to reports, asbestos abatement was performed during the 1989 renovation. In recent years, there have been varied perspectives around the future side of the community across the community. Previously in 2022, an RFP was offered to sell the property. The district received seven offers ranging from $0 to $2,100,000 Yet no decision was made regarding that building's future at the time. Time. K12 or K26 enrollment trend forecasting does not indicate a need for this building based
upon our ability to house current enrollment as well as the future five year forecast projection of the enrollment of 13,401 students. To that end, there is not a current estimate to renovate since the last estimate in 2019 was minimally $19,000,000 And you may know that the construction costs have gone up between 3045%. The current annual cost of maintaining the building slash property as is sits at 85,000 around $85,000 for utilities, dollars 15,000 minuteimally for insurance, $2,210 s for ground maintenance that was last year's numbers with minimal custodial costs at the
current time. There are non profit and for profit entities interested in purchasing the property. The property is zoned residential. Total estimated cost for demolition ranges from $1,400,000 to $2,100,000 and the average of those two numbers is $1,800,000 which includes asbestos abatement if necessary. And I can talk to that in a minute. A recent appraisal for five zero one West University rendered a market value of $2,100,000 and hypothetical market value as vacant land is $3,400,000 A sale for commercial purposes would be subject to rezoning in the city of Rochester.
Five zero one West University serves as a surplus property to us. There is no necessity for use currently or for the foreseeable future, based on the results of our master property planning engagement which indicated moderately declining enrollment. Demolition of the property can be achieved using sinking fund dollars, but there is a risk of unanticipated costs associated with the demolition. Keeping and tearing down five zero one West University offers us time to decide if we want to utilize the space for any school based services in the future. This would require us to seek a capital project bond from our community in 2028
or beyond. The potential sale of the property as is or after a demolition may realize one time money that can be attributed to our general fund or fund balance without restriction. While there are no guarantees regarding the enrollment, zoning, construction costs or purchase prices All of these factors have been considered using the information and data for which we have access. Based on all of the above and in the interest of operational efficiency and financial stewardship expected as your superintendent, it is my recommendation that the RCS Board of Education move to sell, as is, five zero one West University in Rochester, Michigan. Alright. Any questions?
Trustee Gupta? So just to confirm, did were we able to confirm that it is zoned as residential? That is what our city council told us. So, yes. That's the yes. Trustee Blake? Well, I just, wanted to ask trustee Gupta what happened with our plan. We had a former trustee who came in front of the board and accused you and I together of having a secret plan to turn this into a IB school for me and a robotics facility for you and put it online. So, our plan obviously was foiled. But in any event,
the, the cost for this building, it looked like or the appraisal was 2,100,000.0, as is, I think, and appraisal was 2,100,000.0, as is, I think, and 3.4 if it was knocked down. But then the cost of knocking it down was more than the increase in value, if I read this correctly. So we wouldn't want to knock it down, I would think. There's the historical value to to consider, but it's this has been going for years, and nobody's come up with a viable plan. So preliminarily, the recommendation sounds sensible to me. I'm curious if you could talk more about the ambiguity or risk associated with demolition
of the building. Thank you, madam president. So there's a couple of things that that could happen. You know, when when you do a construction project, and I believe for those who have done this, you always add between 10 to 15% to every project. So our estimation, may be bigger. There's there had there was asbestos abatement done in 1989 as I mentioned, but I'm not sure that the asbestos underneath the building was taken out either. Right? When they do asbestos abatement, when they add something to the building, they do it based on what they can see, what they notice.
But there could be places where asbestos abatement needs to be, need to be done. And the estimate for that right now is between $407,100,000. Dollars 400,700 thousand, but that is by no means meaning that is that's a range that they believe. It could be more. It could be less. It could be zero. But those are risks that we would bear with that. Trustee Innis? And just to clarify, those funds, in order to do that abatement, if necessary, would would be sinking fund dollars?
Yes. We could use sinking fund dollars. Okay. I had a question and I know that I think I know the answer to it, but I just want to say it so I can hear it. So we put out an RFP to sell the property as is. I know that there's a process that we go through, in terms of drafting the RFP and sending it out for bid, and because we're a public institution, you know, it's all public, obviously. It's all public facing. But, you know, I've heard some rumors that there are some, as you stated in the document, there are some non profits potentially that wanna organize and potentially purchase the property or
what have you. But in terms of putting out the RFP, can we put any, preferences in the language for the RFP that, you know, while we would, prefer it, you know, be used for a positive outcome, not that homes aren't positive, but, in terms of if it could be used for community use or something of that nature. I've you know, I don't have the wording, but could you do that for an within an RFP draft? Could you be that specific? Is it and then the other question is, is it helpful or is it harmful to be that specific?
Because you know that you're gonna limit a certain pool of buyers whereas you might, you know, attract others who think they can lowball you because the last thing I want is for us to get, you know, an undervalue, for that property. Sorry. That was a lot of questions. No. That's good. I understand that there's a lot of sentimental value to this, and I also know that there's a lot of people who want some type of community center, etcetera. That sounds wonderful to me. As your superintendent, I will say that homes bring students usually, and so that's something that I think about in terms of the sale,
but I do not I would not recommend being specific. Quite frankly, from just some personal experience, I don't think that I don't think that, that will limit or engage anyone any more or less, to be specific. I think if you want to do this, you'll present something to us. Just so we're clear, an RFP, to to put that out, does not necessarily mean you go to right? When we have RFPs, we don't lowest bidder on everything or we don't go with the highest bidder on everything. It's about what the board wants to do. So I think it would be better to be,
yeah, I I wanna say, like, non biased at all in anything and just put it out. Trustee Alspa? So I have a couple of questions on this and I'm thinking about, you know, yes, that is a beautiful building. It's a wonderful location. It's historic. You know, I have some emotional attachment to the beauty of the building and the historic and the way the location and all that. But all that put aside, you know, if we look at the future uses of this building, you said it's zoned residential, but there's not a residential structure on it right now. So, I'm wondering what would the future of that piece of property be? Would somebody have to,
buy it, demo the building, and then build some types of houses? If we sold it to someone, who then could they get it rezoned? And, I mean, we could have a charter school an IB charter school there. So I'm just kind of concerned about what our control over the future use of that is, and what happens when we sell it. Can they do anything with it? I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Russo. I mean, I think that's an absolute risk. I believe that the city council right now, I mean, I can't speak for them, but I think their intent is good from conversations with folks there.
I think there's a lot of people who are out there intending to do, good with this property, whether it's for profit, nonprofit, or it's a or it's a builder who wants to demo the building, grade it, and then put, you know, approximately if you if you read the appraisal I know it was very riveting reading all 75 pages. But if you read the appraisal, I believe they said you can get between twenty and twenty two homes on there. Yep. And so the I think there's there there is risk. There is absolute risk, which you said, trustee Alspa, about, you know, okay. You sell the property, then someone comes in and puts the charter school,
etcetera, in there. Do I think that would be do I think that there are people who are, considering that right now? In the past year and a half that I've been here, I have not seen or heard anything like that. Madam president? Trustee Lausanne or I'm sorry. Trustee Lecui? I was curious about the timeline and process for the RFP. Like, when when would we be listing the property? How long would bid stay open? And what might our valued our evaluation criteria look like? Yeah. So I have not explored any of that yet because this is my recommendation to you, and you would do you would have to vote on that whether tonight or another
day. And then we would go through and and get all the fine details for you. Just putting it up in the middle of right now, I don't know if there's any difference. There's no recommendation between now or February if it makes a difference in terms of who's buying. So I haven't explored that at all. Trustee Lausanne? What do we have a plan or a thought if we do not get any takers, or, like, a bottom line number? What happens? Like, how long would we wait? What happens if somebody doesn't people are too scared? Or and to follow-up with depending on what goes there, that's kind of the city.
I would say that the city has to approve what gets built there, so, like, we can't do that. But do we have, like, a bottom number that we would ask for it? Would we start higher and then work from that? Or what's the game plan for that? Well, I was just gonna say it's it it would be just like the first time around, it would be the board's decision. If they felt there was an offer that was, acceptable, they could take that. If they didn't, then, you know, you could either change course or, you know, put it rebid it. Trustee Annas? I was just gonna comment. If you wanna see what what was done in the past,
off of Old Woodward, there was an elementary school. It was sold. It used to be the former, OPC. It was sold, and that city block is basically, I think, a carbon copy of what we saw in the the, analysis that we received. I mean, that's potentially what what could happen on this side of town. I'm I'm gonna make a comment that's a little bit different than what everyone else has said. This is a central, highly desirable location within our district. And if we get rid of it, I mean, we'll I don't think there's any chance of ever finding something like that again.
And although we don't have an immediate need for the space, our district needs continue to grow and evolve over time. By holding onto this property, we preserve valuable asset and the flexibility to meet future educational or community needs without the much higher cost of acquiring land later. Selling now is a one time gain, that may provide, you know, some funds to us, but keeping the property safeguards long term opportunities for our students, staff, and community. So I would just urge everyone to consider taking the longer view as well, and looking at it as a strategic investment in the future of Rochester.
But, obviously, this is a seven person board, and, you know, it gives us something to think about, and, you know, we can talk let me know if you're ready to vote on it at our next meeting. I think we deserve to allow the community to have some time to, provide some input prior to us voting on it. Trustee Annas? Just to follow-up your statement, I'm curious. So would you be open to demoing the existing building and just letting the land sit there until the district may need it.
Is this what you're comfortable with? That's really what I would be thinking of so that we didn't have the ongoing maintenance costs of it. And we would just be keeping the land. Good to know. Thank you. Trustee Blake. So if I read it, and I can't remember now, but it was, like, a I wanna say 85,000 a year or something in maintenance cost. So was it 100? 104. Oh, with the truck. Okay. So a 100,000 a year. So the demo cost I saw two different numbers, but it was, like, a million and a half, and then one place, it put a million 8. So you you would take fifteen years of maintenance to
to be equal to the cost of just demoing it. And then there's I don't know. It it's something to think about, but I just don't know how long you hold on to it, I guess. I don't know. Trustee Annas? And the other thing to consider too is that, the real estate market has softened, at least for residential properties. I'm not sure what it is for commercial, but, I mean, again, this can only be used for residential purposes. So it would be interesting to see in terms of, you know, what the construction rates are, you know, what what's that looking like too,
if we anticipate, you know, putting it on the market and having, someone buy it to build, you know, 20 plus homes on it and it's a soft market, that may not be, a gamble that, you know, a builder is willing to make and a developer is willing to make right now. Trustee Lecui? I have a attachment to that property, and I think it's really sad what's been happening with it because it's basically just been sitting there and worsening and worsening and worsening over time. It's been quite a few years sitting there unoccupied,
not not doing anything, and it's just costing us, you know, about 100,000 every year. And like the administration reported, we have declining enrollment. We don't really have I I understand it's hard to get rid of that piece of land, and it doesn't feel good. But given the state that it's in right now, I would be prepared. I think it's the responsible thing to do to, try to move forward with this and sell it and be done with this instead of continuing to let it just sit and keep rotting year after year after year.
Alright. I think that's, all the comments for this evening. And I'm sure we will hear from our community, and we'll be back then to make a decision. Alright. We have one item of new business. It's the second reading of policy 04/2003, which is an addition to our personnel policies that would fall under a section titled employee salary schedule. This new policy section is to ensure compliance with the statute and set out the policy for the creation and approval of those salary schedules. You'll see that the addition we discussed at our last meeting is included in the version we're voting on today.
Before I open this up for a motion, mister Murphy, do you have anything to add? You you covered it. You covered exactly what I was gonna say. So it's listed there for your consideration. I'm happy to read it if you like, but I know you can all read. So, you you've sort of covered it as is with the italicized being the addition that I think trustee Lecuey first brought up and then we discussed. Then that was my understanding of what the common agreement was to add. Yep. Is there a motion at this time to approve the addition, I'm sorry, to approve policy 4003 as presented?
So moved. Okay. I heard from Moved by trustee Annas with support from trustee Gupta. Is there any discussion on this before voting? All of those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. That's a seven o vote, and policy four zero zero three is approved. We're now moving on to additional comments. Item 10.1 is members of the board of education. Individual board members may use this time to share information about school visits, updates from committees, or organizations they're assigned to, or express their personal opinion. Each trustee has three minutes,
and there's a timer on the smart board for your reference. If you run over that time, I'm happy to ask the board if they are willing to extend the time. At this point, trustee Lausanne. Point of order, madam president. Trustee Liqui. I believe members should be recognized as they request, or we should start rotating the order for fairness? I I'm not even sure how to, deem the point of order. I will turn that over to my colleagues to, vote on whether they feel that, we should change the order or do it in the order that I have been
doing. So, I will ask all of those in favor of keeping the current order, please say aye. Madam Preckett, would you like me to explain the point of order? The the point of order would be for me to make a decision on. And I have determined that I do not wanna make that decision, and I'm gonna let the rest of the board do it. Okay. The the point of order is because we don't have any kind of board bylaw or handbook that requires us to speak in a specific order the way that we're doing. Point of order, according to Robert Robert's rules, is proper if a member believes the chair is not following the rules or is
acting unfairly So by making sure that certain trustees always have the final word. So trust me, let me that's been happening. Our board didn't use to operate this way. Our board used to operate by just saying, does anyone have any comments to make? And if Point of order, madam president, we have deviated from the agenda. This is not an agenda item that we have. Right. And so we it's something we can certainly add, but as the chair, the chair gets to determine the order. You've asked. I can certainly ask the board if they agree with the Could we agree to allow trustees to just volunteer if they have a comment to
make? Unfortunately, I I I've just found that every board member makes comments for the most part. Trustee did not tonight, but normally it's the case. I just go down the road. Order in which we speak. Instead of dictating that the order must proceed in a certain way. Lecui, I'm gonna call on the people. If if you would like to bring that up as another discussion item at some point, we are happy to do that. Okay. So you insist on just making sure that it always follows I'm gonna continue with the order. Correct. So, Trustee Liqui, did you have any comments? No, I'm gonna pass. Okay. Trustee Annas?
Just briefly, thank you again to Superintendent Russo and his cabinet and his team who, put together some pretty comprehensive discussion items for tonight's meeting. I appreciate all the effort. And, go Lions. Trustee Blake. Sure, I do. So, I don't we didn't have comments last time, so I didn't get to say a couple things I wanted to say, but, welcome back everyone. We're off to a good start. We're doing all kinds of the fun fall activities. To me, that's one of the most fun times of the year. I did wanna thank the administration, and again, we talked last time about the mold situation at Delta Kelly.
But I wanted to say that I was impressed with how, diligent and and transparent and communicative that mister Russo was, that he came to the you know, I was there the night that they had discovered it. I was actually at the school. Mister Musio was there. Talked to mister Russo that night and multiple other times, and he kept the community, informed, brought in two services, came to curriculum night, held a meeting with the teachers, held a meeting with all the parents. And I'm sure that maybe not everyone is happy because some people never everyone is
happy, but I've heard a lot of people who felt who were initially concerned who felt very, comforted by the way that the administration handled that. So I wanted to thank that. There are also a number of things I think that we can be thankful for tonight. We heard earlier that our finances are in a lot better shape than we thought. We have to still be diligent, and, obviously, we don't know what the state budget is gonna be. But, it's a huge relief that we didn't have to take $5,000,000 out of our savings. That that's a great thing any way you look at it. Our SAT scores were up this fall,
which is something we've been working hard on, and we've seen movement there, and that's great. That's something we've been looking for. And on our other test scores, I don't have it written down, but I did last time. But some of them some of them are up. There's some that are not. But we we have a little bit of a mixed result, but overall much more good than bad in that report. And those are things that we have hoped for. And so, all and all of these things that we've had concerns about, I see movement. I see improvement. And I wanna thank the administration and
everybody in the community, the teachers and the parents, and continue to have a great school year. Thank you. Trustee Elszabal? So I also wanna thank the administration for doing some real good, homework and giving us a lot to think and talk about. I appreciate, the topics you brought tonight. Because we are trustees and we get copied on all the school newsletters, I wanna thank all the members of the community who are donating to the individual elementary color runs. I was really surprised at some of the fundraising amounts that our community has dedicated to the elementary schools, and I hope the kids have a lot of fun doing the color runs.
I myself went to Falcon Frenzy. I was amazed. They had horses and goats and robots and bounce houses for yeah. Dunking tanks too. And it was a wonderful community event. I saw a lot of people there. I also attended the gold rush at Adams, and, again, it was a wonderful community event. It was a great disappointment to me that Adams and Stoney were on the same night, so I couldn't get to all three of them. And then again, you know, again for our community, thanking for support us at the, Hometown Hustle.
That was a wonderful day. I've just seen the kids dance in the color run and decorate themselves with the powder and seeing all the people out there. It really shows that we have a wonderful community that really supports us, and our schools are more than just a place where the kids go to learn. It's a place where our whole community comes together and, does good work and socializes and has great Friday nights. So I really appreciate it. Thank you. Trustee Gupta? Yep. Just, following on the gratitude theme. Thank you to the administrative team for all your hard work as this school year
has gotten underway. Lots of events, lots of ups and downs, lots of things to navigate. We do appreciate you all. And, also, shout out and thank you to the PAC for everything you're doing. Shout out and thank you to the PTSA. It was lovely to be at your leadership day and, always so impressed by, the service of our our community's parents to our district in in terms of volunteerism. And, with that, I'm just gonna leave with this. Go Browns. Alright. Well, it's been a very busy and inspiring last two weeks.
I had the privilege of attending the PTA Council Leadership Day, where the room was filled with passionate officers and community I'm sorry, committee chairs who dedicate countless hours to their schools and students. I also joined the North Hill PTA meeting and heard firsthand about the many programs and activities they provide for their students and families. I was able to attend our feeder school community tailgates before the football games. Both the Falcon Frenzy at Rochester High and the Adams Gold Rush had incredible participation in school spirit, and, just amazing what those communities put on.
This past Saturday started with the Hometown Hustle, where more than 1,400 people took part in the color run or the five ks, and some did both. The weather was perfect, the atmosphere was joyful, and the event raised important funds to support RCS students and teachers. A big thank you to everyone who made the hometown hustle such a success. And finally, Saturday night, was the sixth annual RCS Marching Band Festival, which showcased the talent and dedication of all three high school marching bands, color guards, and drum lines. Our students were phenomenal, and our staff continues to inspire and motivate them every day.
I'm continually reminded how fortunate we are to have such an engaged community, talented students, and dedicated staff. Rochester Community Schools truly is an amazing district, and I thank all those who are always looking for ways to make it even better. So with that, we're going to move on to, administrative comments, and, these are these are also limited to three minutes. These comments allow members of the administration to share information they believe is valuable to the board and or community, and these are comments and not discussion items. Mister Russo?
Thank you, madam president. Mister Murphy, anything to add tonight? Yeah. I just wanna recognize a few by name, related to the hometown hustle. I don't know if anyone truly appreciates the amount of time that Joanne, puts in, during the day and then after hours with some support and a lot of volunteer time by people across the district. Most, directly, the community relations team, Lori, Amy, Mark, Haley, you know, doctor DeLuca running the the show that day as well. A lot of others volunteer their time. So recognizing them all by name, for the tremendous amount of time and effort they put in to put that put
that on. It's not a small endeavor. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Doctor. DeLuca? Yes. I'd like to give a background on the tailgates and, I think the Gold Rush, celebration of the Creek, and then the Falcon Frenzy. I wanna give a shout out to our building principals, our high school principals, but also middle school and elementary school principals because the premise of the tailgate came about years ago with how do we pull this community together? And our high schools are our anchors in our community. And this year, I mean every year has been great, but this year was one that when you really saw the community just parents walking
their kids to the schools, parents, you know, being able to let their children run around and enjoy a family event that, was anchored by their schools, seeing past staff members, seeing community members that, once were never involved in our schools, are back and reengaged with our schools. So our high school principals deserve, high school principals, assistant principals, and their teams deserve a huge shout out because, no principal wants to run like it's like having a second homecoming assembly and dance at your high school, and, that takes months of planning to pull off.
Talking with the team though, this team is only going to make it better. So what you saw this year, is just a little bit of what we're going to do next year. And so that's how this team works, is how can we increase it for the community? And that's why it makes Rochester Community Schools such a great school district to live in and work in, is because of the people that we work with, but also the families that and the students that they send to our schools every day. Thank you, doctor DeLuca. Scott here. Miss Hempton. I would, like to echo a bit of gratitude for all of the events happening across the community, many of which have been named tonight that, really,
do a wonderful job of connecting both both families and students, along with our staff, both during the school day and off hours. I think, as Doctor. DeLuca said, that makes a strong, community all the way around. On, on another note, on Friday, February 12, the M STEP Spring twenty twenty five, Family Reports went home, with students. So be on the lookout for those if you have not seen them yet. And as we wrap up our fall benchmark assessments in grades K through eight, that information will be available in ParentVUE, around October 1. You could expect to see that reporting happening there.
This Friday has been, this Friday our staff will engage in professional learning, K-twelve, and there's been a tremendous effort on the part of administrators and, teachers to bring about meaningful learning for all involved. We're really looking forward to Friday. So thank you for the efforts to, bring quality, engagements with with our, RCS colleagues to be better for kids as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Just a couple things. It's I say this often, but when you go last, everyone kind of steals your material. So the RCS Band Festival, second year that I've been to it,
it's an incredible event to see all three together. You talk about the power of community. Doctor. DeLuca talks about the power of community. That was Adams and their feeder pattern and and Rochester and their feeder pattern and Stony and their feeder pattern. But when you get all three high schools together, it's a different level of community in that. It was it was fantastic. I wanna I wanna say that this is this is bringing down the the the tenor in here a little bit, but the, September is childhood cancer month. And I always find it odd that, we celebrate Breast Cancer Month. We celebrate other things throughout the years. And as an institution who's working for and about children,
we seem to pass over this often. And I don't mean just in RCS. I mean all across the country. And, I just wanna say that for anyone who's going through that or has gone through that, it's it is, my my thoughts and prayers are with you. And lastly, on a happy note, I have to say, happy birthday to Christina Whitmore, our executive assistant. It's her birthday tomorrow. She does more, to make this this place run well than anyone can see. It's like an iceberg. You see just a quarter of it. So, thank you, and thank you, madam president. Thank you. A couple announcements. On September 26, there is no school,
due to district wide professional development. And on October 6, our next Board of Education regular meeting is at 6PM at in the Reuther Middle School Media Center. For our next agenda item, I need a motion to move to closed session pursuant to section eight one h of the Open Meetings Act to discuss a written opinion from legal counsel, which is privileged and exempt from disclosure under section thirteen one g of the Freedom of Information Act. So moved. Moved by I'm sorry. Was that trustee Annis? And is there support? Trustee Gupta.
Is there any discussion on this? Madam president. Trustee Lecui. I just wanna state for the record that the board has not yet been provided a written legal opinion, and I haven't received a clear explanation of why council was engaged or why the closed session is necessary under MCL fifteen two sixty eight. I know opens meetings act does allow a closed session when the board needs to talk about something that's legally protected like a written legal opinion, but it's easy for boards to stretch that rule and we've done it before in the past. We've discussed privileged letters for both good and borderline reasons.
And if you're willing to pay a lawyer for a letter, you can technically put almost any topic behind closed doors. Madam president. That might be casting aspersions on motives. I'm not. If you're willing to pay a lawyer for a lie letter, you can technically put almost any topic behind closed doors, which might be legal, but want her again. She's canvassing this version on people's motivations that breaks one of our board norms. Not. I'm I'm stating I'm stating this right. Trustee Lacqui, I wouldn't agree. To pay a lawyer for a letter. This is this is a Nobody did that. This is a point. You can technically put almost any topic behind closed doors. And while it might be legal,
it does go against the spirit of open governance. And because I don't have enough information yet, I'm gonna just abstain from this vote. Okay. Alright. So all of those yes. Trustee Gupta? First off, nobody paid a lawyer for a letter. You got a legal opinion that we all got that you didn't that you didn't agree with. So now you're accusing other people of paying a lawyer for a letter. We all got the same letter. They the the law our lawyer said that this is a worthy reason within the law to go into closed session.
Madam president? Kupta, I would just indicate that, we are talking a little bit about different things. Trustee Lacui, I believe, is talking about what we'll be discussing in closed session. Madam president, when did we get the legal letter? Because I don't believe I've received it. Received it. You you received an email today. That's what that's what trustee Gupta's talking about. I did not receive a letter. The letter that we're supposed to be discussing is closed session. We're talking about two different things. She's talking about the motion. You're talking about the closed session. Okay. So everything I said stands.
Well, I Madam president, I call the question. Alright. So now we have another motion. So there's a motion to call the previous question. Moved by trustee Annas. Is there support From trustee Alsbaugh. All of those in favor of calling question, please say aye. Aye. Opposed, please say no. That's a seven-zero vote. We are now onto voting on the closed session. All of those in favor, please say aye. Aye. I abstain. Opposed, say no. Abstentions. That's a six zero one.
So we will be moving to closed session, and we're gonna end the recording, as we move to closed session. As when we return, all we'll be doing is adjourning. The recorded version of the meeting will identify when the meeting adjourned as will the minutes. So everyone can know when it ended, or you are welcome to stay here if you would like to. All right. With that, we are moving to closed session. You too.