Good evening. And welcome to the Rochester community schools, board of education, regular meeting. Called to order. At 6:04 PM. For those who choose to do so and are physically able please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who is here. This is the board of education, regular meeting. And it's a meeting of the board in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business. To preserve its freedom to act. This body follows Robert's rules of order. Newly revised. This process is not a tool to be used to circumvent fairness, and as president of this governing
body. I will work to ensure that this isn't the case, but please know this. I'm not a parliamentarian. And I will extend grace to you all for not knowing everything about this process. If you're willing to extend that same grace to me. For the public before the school board. Who may be asking, why is it so important that we follow Robert's rules of order? There are several reasons. Reasons. This is a public meeting of the board of education. But it is not a meeting with the public. A town hall or a political rally. Expectations of decorum will be enforced on this body. And the public attending this meeting by following Robert's rules of order. It allows the body to go about their business in
an orderly and efficient manner. And it also allows for every member to have a voice. About the issues before this body. Ensuring fairness for every member at this table, including, and especially for. Those members who are in the minority of opinions on matters before this board. When you entered the auditorium. At the door back there, you may have noticed a large poster with the school board's norms and information on effectively communicating with school partners. Partners, these norms were agreed upon by the board and reflect our commitment to ensuring that the business of this school board is done in a fair and expedient. Manner, you can also find a copy of the chain
of information to help parents and community members. Effectively communicate with school partners. Partners. This information is also on our district website. Within our board of education handbook. We value the input of the public comment. Are we value public input and public comment will be heard under agenda item five. If you wish to speak tonight and have not already filled out a yellow card. They are found on the table, near the entrance where you entered. Once you have completed the card, please put it in the box at the same table. Please note that cards must be completed prior to speaking. I will call on the names of those who I have a card from during public comment.
Number two item number two on our agenda. This evening is roll. Call. And all board members are present with the exception of Dr. Wynn Perdue, who is absent with notice. Item three is our spotlight. On success. And this is always a joyful time of the year. Maybe a little sadness for, for our, our district, but certainly a lot of joyfulness for our retirees. And I will hand this over to David Murphy. David, take it away. Thank you, president anes. Good evening, Dr. DeLuca, president anes, board and community. Tonight we gather for a truly special occasion.
Celebration of dedication, pass passion and immense impact. We're here to honor 37. Remarkable staff members and educators who have retired during this school year, or will be stepping into retirement in the coming weeks. Their collective commitment to our students and community is nothing short of astounding, totaling and incredible 897 years of. Service think about that. Nearly nine centuries of guidance, inspiration, and unwavering support for generations of learners. Learners, whether working directly in the classroom. Or supporting our students behind the scenes. Each of each of these individuals is poured their heart
and soul into shaping minds, fostering dreams. And building the foundation of our community's future. Tonight. We have the privilege of expressing our profound gratitude for their tireless efforts. Efforts, their distinct sacrifices and the indelible mark that they've left on our district. To help us honor everyone equally this evening. If you'd please hold your applause until all names have been read. If you are a retiree in attendance. Please make your way to. My left in this area to decide of the. Board table and kind of look toward that camera and back. And then when all the names are called and all of you are up here, I'll ask president anes and
Dr. DeLuca to join you for a group picture. Please join me in recognizing the extraordinary careers of our exceptional retirees as we call them forward. And before I forget. And before we start that I would like to thank. Part of the team from HR that helped set up the refreshments. And did the invites and the RSVPs tonight. Becky Jennifer. And Bridget tour in the back one is in the back row. So thank you team for your help. From the administrative center, Lori bombard, Michael Sinick Christie Larson. Laurie Schneck and Paula Sutton. Brewster elementary school, Cindy NAK.
NUAC Brooklyn's elementary school, Lisa Rebo and Karen Vascos. Vascos Delta Kelly elementary school. Bonnie Jackson and Shannon, Paul. Facility operations center. Suzanne Sanchez and Jason Grant. Or you should be up here by now. If you're following directions up here. They're gonna follow your lead. I can do that. We had a good working relationship past few years. Hampton elementary school SA Sandra bar. And Teresa Hendrick or Teresa Hendrick. Hart middle school, Jojo dash. Steven Vanier and Kimberly Vince. Hugger elementary, Amy Baisley. Pamela McDonald long meadow elementary.
Catherine Christie. McGregor elementary, Brenda Tormo. Meadowbrook elementary Kelly cubic. North hill elementary. Shand Mala and Karen re. Rena Ruther middle school, Steven. Durio Nicholas clack and Dylan McKee. Rochester. High school, Teresa Arnold. Tara Dodge. Michael JJO and Katherine Carachi. Kawai Stony Creek high school, Sherry Humphrey. Humphrey Amy SARTA and William Slade. Van who's in middle school. Lisa elder and Martin Frisbee. Frisbee and Wes middle school, Linda Clems. Clems that's here. One more time for our incredible retirees. Lori's gonna fun together. It be better.
They want thank you all again for your service and thank you for coming this evening. Again, just reiterating Mr. Murphy's sentiments. We appreciate our retirees and. That's a lot of institutional knowledge walking out the door right now. So. Thank you so much for their service. We're off to item four, which is communications. And this is where we reference various communications that we have received. 4.1 secretary of the board. Good evening. At this time, in addition to the 10 emails we received through the RRCs board portal on our website. Those are all in our board packet. We also received a follow-up email.
From Mr. A Agarwal. Regarding an article on screen times. And two communications from NHA regarding the testing of THC. THC. Thank you. Next on the agenda is item 4.2 members of the board of education. This is where members of the board of education share communications that were shared directly with them, but were not shared with the full board. Did any board member receive communications from the public? Trustee Loza. I received an email from a parent rainy lid key. Asking since we issue Chromebooks, why do we not have typing classes? She's a seventh grader that is still.
Having a hard time typing. And then also she's asked why we don't have second language in the elementary school anymore before COVID we did. And. Now we no longer offer any type of second language. So she was wondering about those two topics. Topics. Thank you. Any other members? Trustee Blake. I received an email from Jason. O Croix asking with some questions and comments about the enhancement millage. I received an email from Jason. Toronto. First of all, letting us know where he felt that there was a lice problem within the schools and asking about that. And also questions about the vacancy process and, and how.
Or why people got interviews. Interviews. I also had some emails back and forth with Lawrence ska, sending him graduation photos, and he's sending me photos. That's it. Thank you. Secretary of Buell. Vitel I received one email from Lori bombard. Regarding my response to her email. Thank you. Next? Yes, I'm sorry. Trustee. SK, I received in emails from Dave wood of the rah rah board. And I'll cover that more on when. We do board reports and I also receive emails from the Oakland county school board. Again, that'll be under committee reports. Thank you. Next up, we have item. Five, which is public comment.
This is limited to 30 minutes, and this gives 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, which looks like this. Please fill one out. Now they're located at the back of the, the. The room by the door. If we have more than 30 minutes of comments, the rest will be heard under agenda item nine. When your name is called, please move to the microphone and address the full board. When addressing the board, you will have three minutes to speak. We will try to let you know when 30 seconds. Is 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 student without their permission. Even if the student's name is not used. And any comments that could directly identify an individual student are not appropriate in this form and will not be tolerated. We will stop the meeting to protect. Students' rights and privacy. And please keep in mind your remarks focused on broader issues and avoid any personal references that may compromise privacy. Lastly, we also ask that you address your comments to the entire board and not to individual board members.
School district employees or two members of the audience. The board will not be addressing or responding to comments. Comments or questions during this meeting? However, someone will follow up if needed. The board reserves the right to exclude. Anyone from our meeting who. Engages in conduct that constitutes a breach of peace. First up for public comments. We have, I believe it's is it Kevin Carter Jr. Hello there. I'm Kevin Carter. I'm a representative of scouting America, a community organization. I'm leading this initiative to bring community organizations into schools. Before I begin, I would like to thank Mr. Paul Hardy.
Hardy representative Josh Shriver, as well as the scouting units and other community organizations here today to support this initiative, as well as the RCS. RCS board of education for having me speak tonight. A little bit about me. I'm an Eagle scout out of troop 60 and venturing crew, 42 55 out of Rochester and Rochester Hills. I was recruited almost 10 years ago by having representatives coming to my elementary school to talk about the benefits of scouting. Right away. I want to join. And now looking back, that was one of the best decisions that I've ever made. In the past a representative would recruit youth from classrooms and they would rise steadily through the program.
To become strong and independent men and women. But more importantly leaders in their community. Right now scouting as well as other community organizations cannot go into Rochester community schools to recruit from classrooms. And this is a shame. Granted if every unit from scouting, as well as every community organization came into classrooms, it would disrupt the learning environment, but that has never been. The case in the past, only one Cub scout pack is affiliated with an elementary school in the district. So there would only be one pack going in to an elementary school. Furthermore scouting America does understand the importance of maintaining a
learning environment and will do what is necessary to foster growth in youth. Only letting in one community organization is not fair to the other ones. The RCS board in cooperation. With the elementary PTA and school admin should require community organizations to fill out a formal application. Before entering classrooms. So not only the learning environment is not disrupted. But also students have the opportunity to learn outside of school, through participating in these many community organizations, the Rochester area has to offer. The last objection I would like to address to bringing scouting into schools is to make clear that scouting America
is not a religious organization. I've been in multiple units. Alongside Catholics, Protestants. Hindus and atheists alike. I've helped plan. Outing meal plans to accommodate every one of their dietary restrictions. Whether for allergies or religious reasons alike. This is a common practice in all units. Because scouting is a place for everyone, regardless of creed or race. The declaration of religious principles. Encourages Scouts, 30 seconds to recognize an obligation to something greater than them to grow into the best kind of citizen. This call Scouts to serve something greater than themselves. Whether it be a creator, their community or something else,
else entirely. Most importantly, this is no one else's, but the Scout's job to determine what or who to recognize as greater than them. I certainly hope that in the future, RCS and scouting could come together to make a positive impact on the youth and the community. For today's youth. Thank you. And for tomorrow's leaders. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Josh Schreiber. Hello. Thank you. I'm here to speak in favor. Of Scouts coming back into the schools. My father was a boy scout. I was not a boy scout, but. My father was able to. Make me a better man, because of his presence in
the boy Scouts, he was able to teach me so much. About how to take care of stuff, how to meet deadlines, just how to be a good person. And until his dying day, he passed away this past January. He was always on time. He was always dressed well, he was on his HOA board and he always served all the way up until his final moments. I'll get to my speech now. Scout law teaches that a scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful. Th. Thrifty brave, clean and reverent. That's something that we should want for all of our children. Countless Eagle Scouts from Rochester across Oakland county have built
trails, improved parks, organized food drives and completed meaningful projects. Projects that still benefit our town to this day. These young men carry forward a tradition of quiet, steady responsibility that makes our community stronger. Scouting does not replace the important work of families in schools. It compliments them. It offers safe, structured, and purposeful activities that teach young people to be dependable. Honorable and ready to contribute to society. To the parents here tonight. Consider giving your children the gift of scouting. To our educators and board members. Please reopen your doors to these time tested programs.
Programs, the virtues and habits formed in scouting help produce responsible adults who become the kind of citizens. Citizens, every community needs. Rochester has always valued. Valued opportunity, hard work and neighborly care. Let us continue that proud tradition by championing scouting America. And the enduring lessons. It offers our young people of so many generations of Michigan residents. Residents I'll I have I've I have another minute I had to chop some of this up cause I wanted to make sure it fits in. So now I have a little bit of time to freestyle. Which is fine by me. I I'm not sure. So you guys, are you guys on summer vacation? Yeah. Yeah. They're on summer vacation and they're here. That's the kind of people that we want. That's the
kind of, that's the kind of next generation we want. We want children who are gonna show up here. On their first is their first week of summer. Pretty much. First week of summer and they're here advocating. And so I will end with that. These are the kinds of people that we want in our schools to be able to benefit our culture. To be able to take it further. I wasn't a boy scout and I'm a state representative. And so these guys are way ahead of me. I never, would've been here in my first week of school, so let's, let's take it further and let's let them back in the school. So. They can help our children achieve greatness. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Stephanie van Dale.
My name is Stephanie van Dale. And I'm a taxpayer. And I have three Eagle Scouts. Scouts two, all three of them are now in the Marine Corps. So they came from troop 60. And they had been recruited from. Hugger elementary. And I'll tell you something. The reason why the Scouts are asking to come back into the elementaries and into the schools. Is because of people with body language, like you, Barb. I find it highly. Ironic that you have, you know, went on for three or four minutes about Robert's rules and giving the minority. A whole voice and all of that garbage. Whereas like at every single meeting.
You choose to talk over or not even acknowledge the two people at the ends of the table. So, you know, take that and suck on it. Other than that. Scouting has really helped my kids because now that their Eagle Scouts, they ended up getting. Higher rank when they went in the military. So they got paid as E two S. S throughout the whole time that they were in bootcamp. And they learned a lot of other stuff like camping and working together in teams. And. All of the family. Activities. And I'm so very proud of them. But the reason why the Scouts were kicked out is because you guys don't. Don't do anything about the policies.
And hold the principles. Accountable for equal. Participation. Of communities. Of C communities, different community services coming into the schools. You let the girl Scouts do plenty of stuff, but you never let the boy Scouts do it. And your principals reflected that. I noticed that right away after COVID you guys don't treat the boys equal to girls. And so why, and, and even now scouting America accepts girls. In different. It goes true by troupe and they girls. Can go to a boy, girl troupe, or go to an all girl troupe or an that it's accepted.
By scouting America. And it it's a shame. That you guys let the principles run. Down what was a strong. Organization in this community. And I'm very thankful. I understand. I know I have 30 seconds Barb. Shut up. So I also wanna say. That it's a, a true shame that you do would not Institute something that has. Equity in it for boys and girls. Throughout the schools. And you should be having the principals. Read up and do something on the policies. Thank you. Next up, we have Steven Carter.
Hello everyone. My name's Steven and I am a citizen of the community. And. A student and I am a life scout in troop 60. And venturing crew 42 55. Five. I first joined Scouts when I was in first grade after some recruiters from Cub scout pack 6 0 1 came to our school and showed off how cool scouting. Is shortly after my mom signed my brother and me up to begin our scouting careers. Careers through elementary school. I frequently attended Cub scout meetings, earning special belt loops and meeting new friends. Until eventually after touring a couple of local troops, I joined troop 60.
As a scout kids like me are free to hang out with other kids in our troop and in our community. Scouting has had a major impact on my life by enabling me to become a more social. Person a stronger leader and has taught me what it means to be a good citizen in our community. Scouting has formed me into a more social. Person by putting me in an environment where I may not know everyone. But I still feel accepted this first meeting. The first meeting I attended in troop 60. One of the Scouts went right up to me. Greeted me, looked me in the eyes, shook his hand, shook my hand and introduced himself. This made me want to become more social and accepting
towards others who may. Be new or not know anyone in the room. Also by allowing me to connect with different Scouts in the area. I was able to make new friends with people I pro probably would've never met. Scouting has also made me into a better leader. And scouting America Scouts are taught and mentored. So then they have some leadership experience. Whether leading a Campo or Eagle project. And by learning about real world skills, put into action Scouts, learn how to manage people, budgets and teamwork. This experience prepares scout. Scouts for the work real world, as it enables them to plan fun outings deal with keeping a budget and
sticking to it. And teaches kids to work together in order to have successful outings. Outings by planning, outings in projects in the community. Scouts learned to deal with managing people managing money. And to get the experience. To get the experience kids outside. Of scouting, like gets gets scouting America, pro scouting America's program. Finally formed Scouts into contributing members of society. Scouts learn what it means to be good citizens by learning about our country. Through merit badges. And by doing service projects, projects, merit badges such as American cultures, American heritage. And American labor are just some of the many patriotics badges Scouts can earn 30 seconds.
Through these Scouts learn about the history of America and what it means to be American. By doing service projects, Scouts, or in service hours that could be used to rank up and win awards. Through this Scouts also make the community. We live in a cleaner and healthier environment. I don't know what I would be doing right now. If scouting wasn't in my life. Through service leadership and interacting with others. Scouts like me learn what it means to be an upright citizen and a strong leader. Thank you, everyone. And goodnight. Thank you. Next up, we have Dr. Kevin Carter. The whole Carter family came tonight. Thank you. Yep. Got 'em all. Thank you. Good evening, president members of the board. My name is
Dr. Kevin Carter. I'm a parent in taxpayer in Rochester, community schools. Thank you for giving me a few minutes to speak to about why we, the district should allow scouting America to recruit members in our schools. So as a parent, my first priority is. Raising children who are honest, responsible, and caring. The scouting America exists to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices throughout their lives. By teaching them values that the scout oath. And scout law in our family. Like I'm sure in yours, that's meant learning to be trustworthy, helpful, and kind values that closely line up with what this district teaches. Teaches and celebrates being a graduations recently. I know it was preached and talked about many times there.
SCON has supported many child's EDU my child's education in very practical ways. Through merit badges rank requirements. My child has had to set goals, manage time, complete projects, and speak in front of others. You can see tonight that they're good at it. Those are the same skills that help with homework group projects and other classroom presentations. I've seen my child grow more confident, more organized, and more willing to take on leader. Leadership rules at school because of the experiences that they've had in scouting scouting also reinforces the importance of citizenship and community service. Goals. I know that this board and our teachers all value. Scouts have, have to learn how local government works, follow current events, volunteer in their committee.
And plan service projects that actually help people. So when my child helps clean up a park, supports a local charity or participates in a service project, they're not only just checking a box, but they're actually. Learning what it means to be an active and responsible citizen. In Rochester in the greater Rochester area. Another reason why I support SCON is its focus on health and wellbeing. Our kids spend a lot of time on screens. I know it's a big topic about topic, especially in the media nowadays. Nowadays under academic and other social pressures scouting gets them outside, moving and working together, hiking, camping, learning for a state and solving real world problems that they'll. Face as an adult, this combination of physical activity, teamwork and responsibility has an incredible positive impact on my child's
confidence and mental ability. I'm sure on all. Students within the district. So long scouting to recruit in within Rochester community schools doesn't force any families to participate. It simply gives parents access to information about a voluntary. Program that many of us find valuable. Many parents don't even know this exists district re partners with other community organizations and has processes for groups to serve students to share information or use school. Facilities treating scouting like any other qualifying youth organization offer an equal limited access under clear guidelines would be fair and consistent. This way I expect. So as a parent, I'm not asking the district to endorse one group or another. I'm
asking that you allow a program that clearly supports leadership character. Citizenship and student wellbeing to have the same chance to reach families as any other org, youth organizations. Many parents are looking for constructive value-based activities. For their children and scouting's one proven option. Thank you for your time. And considering this request, I respectfully ask that you allow the boy Scouts of America scouting America. To recruit new members within the Rochester, beginning schools under the same reasonable guidelines you applied to other community organizations. Thank you for your time. Lastly, we have Carol Bethle. Kuey. I'm Carol Beth. Kuey. I'm a trustee on our board. And I was gonna talk about something totally. Different today, but I've been listening.
To all of you who came here and now I think I'd like to talk about that because I don't have. A time typically to respond to public comments and I've been really moved. Moved. And I only learned recently that Scouts were kicked out of our schools from being able to do this. And, you know, I am also, I echo Josh Schreiber's comments when he said he's proud of you for. Organizing and coming here to advocate for something good. I, there were a number of things that stuck out when they were. Talking about this, you know, they talk about how. Scouting allows them to serve something greater than themselves. It fosters dependability and honorability and contributing to society in
some really meaningful ways, getting kids outside and off of screens. And. Connecting with each other, forming social skills and real world world skills, learning how to work with a budget and work together. And service projects that make our community cleaner and healthier. These are all good values that uplift our country. It's nothing controversial. I'm really surprised that they haven't been allowed to do that. And I would be. Interested in discussing making a change. And maybe coming up with some sort of a process. Or something for community organizations like this. To be able to do what they were previously allowed to do. So thank you again for coming here tonight, you made
a really great presentation. Next next on the agenda is item six, the consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered routine in nature by the board of education and will be acted upon. By one motion. There is no separate discussion of these items. If any member of the board requests discussion of an item, that item will be removed. Removed, please say which item you would like pulled from the consent agenda. And as a reminder to members, the maker of the motion will speak first on their motion. However, any further explanation beyond the item number. Has been said is considered out of order. Tonight our con consent agenda.
Consists of item 6.1 human resource recommendations. Item 6.2 board of education, regular meeting minutes. Of May 4th, 20, 26. And item 6.3 board of education, regular meeting minutes. Dated May 18th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. So moved by Dr. OSPA. Seconded by trustee Blake. Is there anyone that wishes to pull anything from the consent to Jenna this evening? Seeing none. I will take a vote those in favor of approving the consent agenda as presented, please.
Say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. I believe that is a six oh vote. All right. Moving on to reports. We have item 7.1, which is the school board. Liaison and committee assignments. Each board member is assigned. As a board liaison for specific schools throughout the district, as well as committee assignments. And this gives. Individual members an opportunity to speak about what they've been doing related to these two items. So I will start, who would like to share some information. Trustee, but Vita in addition to attending the superintendent's business and operations
committee meeting, which will be covered under the super. Superintendent's update. I also attended a health and wellness committee meeting that focused on reviewing the health and wellness fair that was held in may the. Event was a joint effort between the PTA council, health and wellness committee and the Rochester community schools, health and wellness, community and city. Connection subcommittee. We discussed what went well, identified areas for improvement and shared ideas to make next year's event, even more successful. I also attended a sex education advisory board meeting. After reviewing the program, the consensus of the committee was to continue using the share program at the secondary level.
There were however, a few items that the committee chairs will follow up on with the program to ensure greater. Consistency across presenters. Finally at Rochester area youth assistants, where I'm a liaison for the board, we're working to finalize. Next year's budget, family enrichment opportunities. While also identifying additional fundraising sources. The need for financial assistance has increased substantially. And Raya has provided approximately $9,000 in assistance to students and families so far this year. These funds help ensure that students can participate in educational, extracurricular, and enrichment opportunities.
Alongside their peers. If anyone is interested in supporting Ray's mission. Please consider making a donation. Raya is a nonprofit organization and contributions can be made directly through its website at a Y a. M i.org. Thank you. Thank you, secretary of you tell anyone else. Trustee SK. OSPA I attended graduations as most of our trustees do. And I wanna repeat our congratulations to the students and to the parents. I know that's quite an achievement to get your students graduated. I also attended the S B O C the superintendent's business and operations committee meeting, which along with.
Trustee Butell that will be covered under reports. I am the liaison to the Oakland school's board association, government relations committee. Which is where we get updates from. Our, where we get updates about laws that are impacting education. Right now, the biggest thing we need to do is we need our legislator to pass the budget so that we have that because schools are mandated to have their budget done. By June 30th. The legislators should have it done by then also. But last year we saw it go way into the fall, which creates a lot of instability for us when we're doing our budgeting. I also attended. I'm also the liaison to the rah
rah. Board and for rah, rah, we are wrapping up. Our end of the year. I attended an HR committee where we talked about evaluations. We're going to be doing a budget committee meeting soon. And just like our budget is public. There will be a public budget facing. I believe in the late June. And you can see what Robert has planning. We are also working on our strategic. Plan. And we also have still have spots in the summer camps that are the weekly camps. So if you're interested in your child attending one of. The weekly specialty camps. Sometimes those don't even fill up till the week before. So there's still some opportunities for
your children to have wonderful experiences with rah rah during the. Summer. Thank you. Thank you trustee. OSBA. Yeah, trustee Blake. So I did quite a bit going on this time of year with all the schools, but with my assigned schools, Baldwin, univer, or Baldwin, univer, Baldwin elementary. Is having its 100 year anniversary this year and they're really doing it up. I went to the ice cream social, and then they showed me all the new murals that they had. Installed. They were able to get ahold of somehow the original bell that rang when the school started. And they had that there. Yeah. They somehow there was a story of how they got it, but anyhow, also Ms. Kaki, Kaka, excuse me, prepared this video of
the history of the school. And she spent forever doing it. It was over 30. Minutes long. So that was, that's a nice thing going on over there. Van hus. And I went to the. Viking country open house, which is basically a tour of the school. See all the extracurriculars, meet all the teachers. I had multiple teachers come up to me who I did not know. Who knew me and who wanted to share things. And so that was helpful. Finally Delta Kelly is another school that I'm a liaison to. And a parent. So I'm at the, I feel like I'm at that school every single day. There was there, there are all these activities lately ice cream socials. And we did the fifth grade ukulele concert
and the night at the ballpark. In bowling international day market day. It's like it really, my calendar. I can't even think straight, which is nice. The seniors came back. They did the touch, a truck thing this week with fire trucks and all of that. And it was nice. This morning was the graduation. And so I attended that as a parent and a board member. So I'm a little today. But I did want to thank as, as a parent. Now I did want to thank Ms. Petrona and all the teachers at Delta Kelly for. A wonderful experience. We're about to move on out of there. My child started in second grade. So he didn't have
all the same friend group. That everyone did. You didn't start at the same time. And I was worried and they took him right in and. And loved him, taught him, kept him safe and he, he flourished. And so I want, I want to personally express that to everyone at Delta Cohen. Thank you. I'd also like to share, I'm a liaison for Meadowbrook elementary and I attended their. Monthly PTA meeting on May 20th. They were wrapping up planning for their spring carnival or their fun fair. They called it. Which is an annual event for the students there. Spring also means sports throughout RCS. And we have many
talented teams. Competing for district and state championships. And I just wanna highlight two teams in particular on May 30th. I went to. The Adams Highlanders, varsity soccer team. Who was playing against the Rochester Falcons. Falcons and they defeated the Falcons and went on to. The district, a quarterfinals against Troy. Which I also attended last week. And. Unfortunately, they lost Troy. But they had a great run. Both teams did. So that's great to see. And then also a shout out and congratulations and good luck to. The Adams Highlanders, varsity baseball team.
They are competing in the final four for the state bask or baseball championship up in Lansing this Friday on June 12th. 12th and anyone can go to MH, I think it's S a, a. To purchase tickets. If you wanna go and cheer on the Highlanders. Highlanders. And yesterday, along with Dr. DeLuca sitting next to me, I attended the IA graduation ceremony for our RCS. RCS seniors. And it was a great celebration. And it was the last one to wrap up graduation season here for our RCS students. And. Just congratulations to all of our seniors who did graduate.
We wish them. Nothing but success in their future. Next on our item under reports, we have 7.2, which is the superintendent update and filling in. For Mr. Russo who's. Who's absent today. We have Dr. DeLuca. Thank you, president and us. Yes. Filling in for Mr. Russo. I'm gonna try to do my best with reports. In the superintendent business and operations committee. The committee discussed a few, a few items that are gonna be on the agenda for tonight. One is the energy bond and the next one was a general fund budget that will pres presentation today by Mr. McDaniel. One that I wanna highlight was.
An a topic called bus patrol. Bus patrol is an initiative being piloted by the district to add five to 10 stop arm cameras. To the school buses to gather data regarding the number of stop violations that will occur. There is no cost for the pilot. And no tickets will be issued. It's really the district trying to understand the, the program that is offered by bus patrol. What kind of data that we can receive from. Violations of going past the buses and then to see if this is a viable program for our district moving forward. In the superintendent steering committee. The steering committee agenda items consisted of 5 0 1 west university
RFP. And the discussion that was had in the committee report was. To look at possible RFP drafting for, for 5 0 1. Also in the committee, we talked about the. Closed session, the truth and budget hearing. And then this writer me that we currently are at right now. And in the superintendent's business and operations committee, we also talked about the energy bomb, energy bomb, bonded detail, and then talked about the budget amendment. As well in those committees and that wraps up the committee reports for the superintendent. Thank you, Dr. DeLuca. Oh, we, yes, trustee. Lozan.
For the bus pilot, is there an incentive or like a kickback or something that we get from it or is it just peer? Here's a camera. I'm gonna try my best at that. There, there are incentives. I, I don't have that in front of me today. We, we can provide that for you, but there are incentives. Incentives with the program itself? Yes. Trustee Luk kuey you mentioned a steering committee was discussing drafting the RFP. RFP is steering committee involved in drafting the RFP, or is that. Being delegated to the administration. Yes. Appropriately. From what, from what, what I take for a minute, it was a discussion of possible way. A timeline. So that's all I have is the timeline of the
RFP and can speak to that. I was at that meeting, I believe. You weren't there were you. Yeah, no, we're not involved with drafting it. The administration is drafting the language for the RFP. Good. My other question, Madame president. Is I noticed we've got the, we've got the report here for SBO C and at the last meeting we discussed, including those in the. Board packet the committee meeting notes. Is that something that we're going to follow through with, as we agreed to at the last meeting, I believe that you inquired with the superintendent via. Email, if he has not responded.
I would say that you need to wait to hear back from him. Regarding this issue, he's not here to address it. Okay. I'll check in next meeting. Thank you. Next up is item 7.3, the strategic planning update for year three, Dr. DeLuca. Thank you. Can be outta president. I'm gonna ask our cabinet team to join me at the podium to present the strategic plan for year three. At least for me, . Keep them there. Well, good evening members of the board of education tonight. Did we have the cabinet team in front of you today? Talk, discuss the. Strategic plan initiatives for year three. Also to do a brief overview of strategic plan year
one and two. To begin. And you see on the slides here for those who are in the audience, those are at home. And those, the board here at the table tonight, our strategic plan consists of five. Categories that we really guides us through our work each and every day in Rochester community schools. So those are our learning. Teaching leadership, professional development and community engagement. I'm gonna on the screen here. I'm gonna flash a couple of, of dates here. Do we have a remote here, Laurie? Okay, here we come. I'm not gonna read them in, in entirety, but give the board a second to see where we started with. This process and then kind of currently where we're at,
as you can see, there's a lot of dates that are up there on the, on the board with regards to our current strategic. Plan. I want to, to highlight. Really the work that we started in 2023. With G and D associates to facilitate. Multiple stakeholder feedback meetings. Meetings input from our students board of education, our administrators. To really get to where we call our deliverables today within the district. I'm gonna jump forward. To may of 2025. And that was after. Year, one strategic planning that we currently. Not currently, but we wrapped up, there was 21 Deliv deliverables that we completed within that year. One strategic strategic
plan. And I'll speak, frankly, with the board tonight, 21 deliverables was a lot for our, our team to, to take on when you're talking a deliverable is. So minuscule with regards to the exact type of work that we're trying to do, a deliverable could be anywhere from the, you know, choosing. A table or a learning, learning environment. To, you know, changing lighting in a classroom. I mean, there. When you see strategic plans across the state and in the country, there usually are broad. And so it was new for us to really look at deliverables that were. Specific to and identifying a problem or a movement that our district wanted to do.
But the F 21, that first year was a challenge for us. That challenge comes from, you know, the work in the organization. It's not just this team that stands in front of you today. It's. It's the principles. It's our teachers it's consultants that we're doing the work a along with our entire team. As we move forward though in 2020 5, 26, this current school year. Mr. Russo decided to create a steering committee and that steering committee really was to guide our team on how to navigate the current strategic plan year two. And we felt that steering committee was the voice of our district. So then we could hear if we were gonna go, I'll just use the framework of left or
right. The steering committee could. Say we're hearing from the system that we need more attention to deliverable. Number one, rather than deliver number four. And that we would have to move that one forward and get that done quicker because the system needs that or push one aside so that we can get maybe after the first of the year. That we'd be able to start on that deliverable. The strategic plan steering committee also works hand in hand with Mr. Russo. I'm planning our team Rochester. Team Rochester is all of our cabinet members, our principals directors, supervisors in the organization, our leadership team to, to allow feedback. From our leadership team at our team Rochester meetings, we
had four team Rochester meetings this year that brought in all of these, our, our supervisors and director. Directors principals as a whole to. Discuss these strategic plan this year. Currently right now we have strategic plans that year one that we move forward that we're currently working on. There's a few. You and you're two BF strategic plans that we completed and some that we're currently working on. And what we've noticed is that the strategic plan process doesn't end within. One year or two years is an ongoing process that you're going to lift, continue to lift. Left because it's not a one and done, we found with our strategic plan deliverables is we're able to lift these, get the organization energized and moving towards.
Towards a, a movement could be classroom environments. It could be anywhere from. Our culture. So there's so many different pieces that we're able to BR to lift that we know that you just, you're not dumb at that work. It's gonna continue on in years, three, four, and five. However though we do need to onboard some new things that our community has mentioned, especially our, our staff and our students have said, these are our priorities within the district. And that brings us to year three strategic plan. So during the board retreat that Mr. Russo had with our board of education, it was acknowledged that our deliverables would be moved to target.
Targeted transformational goals. And while they're still maintaining the foundations of G and D and associates, these transformational goals. What would be reduced from 21 or 15 deliverables to a more. Manageable number for our organization. And that's what we're gonna hear bring here in front of front of you tonight. So I'm gonna present the first two learning transformational goals for our district, for the board's pervy. The first one focuses in the learning category. And the vision is students will have a meaningful input into practices and approaches to learning and collaboration with RCS educators. Educators, the transformational goal that our steering committee. Our team Rochester and our CVA team has come up
with is develop an inclusive decision decision making process that intentionally incorporates student voice. And representation the success criteria for focus group or our, our plan. Number one is by January 1st, 2027. Processes will be developed to incorporate student voice and decision making at the district and building levels. And by June 30th, 2027. Operational processes will be embedded. To consistently incorporate student voice inappropriate decision making. Now, I'm sure the board has questions for that first plan. If I ask, we're gonna hold off on questions till we get the cabinet team, I'll kind of round
so we can. All ask those or answer those questions. I'm not the specialist in all these areas. Areas plan two focuses on learning. The vision is a variety of specialized focus areas in individual schools will enhance college bound and direct to work pathways. Pathways also career and technical education offerings across the district will enhance college bound and direct to work pathways. Pathways enabling students to access career certifications. Advanced coursework options and post-secondary credit. The transformational goal for plan two is design and implement schedules, structures, and learning opportunities that provide. Students with access to career awareness.
Sorry, sorry. Career awareness. Career exploration and pathway specialization. The success criteria is by June 30th, 2027. We will offer, we will offer increased career-based opportunities and. Content for a variety of pathways. District-wide. Good evening. For plan number three, the focus is in teaching. The vision is that RCS will utilize a multi-tiered system of academic and behavioral support. Second part is part of a proactive approach to behavior. RCS teachers will continue to utilize a deep knowledge of their students' learning needs.
Through relationship building while modeling positive behaviors. Behaviors also by providing a variety of evidence-based resources and supports RCS educators are empowered to personally meet. Every student at their level with the appropriate pacing. Breath depth and level of challenge. The transformational goal for plan three is to design and implement MTSS team structures across district and school levels. That build collective capacity. To address the full continuum of learner needs. And the success criteria is by June 30th, 2027. A district-wide framework will be established for consistent implementation of
collaborative data-driven practices and tiered supports. Supports across all schools. Good evening. I've plan four leadership. Our vision is cohesive development. Op opportunities will deepen the talent pool of leaders. While creating sustainable systems that enable RCS to evolve. Our transformational goal is develop current and aspiring leaders. Establishing processes for equitable access and building sustainable cap capacity for the future. And then our success criteria by September 1st, 2026. Process will be developed to embed training for current administrators through learning modules and coaching. Implemented or implement throughout the 26 27 school year. By December 31st, 26th processes will be designed to identify aspiring
leaders. In applicable training. Good evening. Focus area for plan number five. Is PD professional development. Vision being that district departments and schools will collaborate to ensure. Coherent professional learning experiences. The transformational goal for this area will lead to advance and sustain consistent. PD and training systems that drive aligned practices and the success criteria. Said by the end of the next school year, a professional learning schedule be created for implementation during the 27 28 school year. Both for teachers and PD and departments for training. Plan number six under community engagement. The vision is to support parents and give caregivers.
Who are new to the district, transferring to a new school or interested in advocating for their students. Students RCS will provide onboarding. Support and collective opportunities. The transformational goal is design and implement integrated opportunities for new family onboarding. Support tours and collaborative experiences. District wide, the success criteria by June 30th. 2027, a systemic process. Will be developed to welcome new families. Into the district using a variety of tools and platforms. Platforms, thank you to, to my colleagues for presenting tonight.
I, I did want to, to point to the board that. We wanted to say, thank you for. Meeting in a, on a weekend to do a board retreat, to, to kind of hone in on what a transformational goal is, but for us to have a manageable. Strategic plan that will not sit on a shelf. That will be the work that we do next year, along with your one and year two work continuation, but really the focus of our work that like I. Said doesn't put on a shelf that comes in weekly, daily in our discussions with our teachers or staff. To move the district forward within these six transformational goals with that. I will open it up for questions. Our, my teammates
will help me as well for, to answer any questions that you may have. Okay. First of all, thank you all for being here and presenting us. I know we pushed it to this meeting, so we appreciate you. Coming this evening to any of my colleagues have any questions, Dr. OSPA. I have questions on two different plans, but I'll start with one and give my colleagues opportunity. First of all, thank you. I appreciate you bringing this. I appreciate that you have deliverables, but you also have kind of a larger. Esoteric goal about how we make the organization better, but then exactly. What does that look like? And I had a two questions on the CTE goal.
It does say that you will increase opportunities. So I was wondering, and it's okay if we don't have the answer to this and it comes later. But what's your baseline. How many opportunities are these students getting? And what grade levels are we talking about? Kindergarten. Are we talking about high school? When you talk about baseline, we can definitely give you a data to, to support that with, with our current structure is, and we're gonna be reviewing. That in that committee, when the committee is swarm for that specific vision area. We would use data to, to, to drive on where we're at and where we want to go. The one thing I'll preface to the board tonight. And we talked about this as a team is. We hate to box ourselves in just with us to
say, where does this go? And I'd like to say, this is where I want to go personally, with CTE. But that committee that's gonna be working throughout the summer. Into the fall would be the ones that say, this is the visionary where we want to go at CT. So those programs, but the data would be definitely be used. I hopefully that answers your question. So the committee's going to meet, and you're not really sure whether they're talking about K-12 or maybe just sixth grade. Well, I would, I would assume it's not gonna just be sixth grade. I know. Yeah, I could. I would. And I'm say assume, but though from a leadership perspective, we would never want a strategic plan just to be. For one grade level, it would be K-12. With career focus from the state of Michigan. And following that with our, my KIPP goals and moving
forward. I look forward to the update on that plan. I do have another question, but. I think it's a quick one. Do you want me to ask it or give us someone else a turn. On the LA the second to last one on professional development. Who will be designing and delivery in this professional development? Yeah. Could you repeat the question? Regarding the professional development. It says there'll be a schedule of professional development who is going to design and deliver. Are we going, are we bringing in speakers? Are we going to. Oakland schools, are we using our own experts? Yeah, there's a lot of. A lot of professional development of obviously already occurring a lot of training in departments already occurring. The thinking behind the goal is to a better collaboration
of all of that. So union contracts align. To training and to PD. And so topics if they sometimes do and sometimes won't could carry over. So there's more, more cohesion I can between to teaching and learning. End of the. District and the operational end. Again, a, a committee will be formed, which covers all those areas. So where that will end up. I'm not exactly. Sure of specifics. The goal though is more cohesion. In a better communicated overarching plan. Excuse me for all of those employees, teachers, and. Departments alike. Secretary of Vitel. I'm just gonna go back and follow up on a
couple things on number. Two that trustee ALS spa was talking about. The success criteria. Says by June 30th, 2027. So that would be too late. For the fall of 2027. So for kids to register, right? Like you'd have to make changes or know what you wanted to do in January. If it was actually gonna be something that we would implement. In the fall. Right? So what is the timing on this? So with the success criteria saying by June 30th, obviously it's indicating the end of school year. That planning committee is gonna start looking at.
Scheduling options. I would I'd assume with, with regards to programming that would come in from the board. So that usually that happens us, I'd say around. January February with scheduling happening in March to end in March. Before we go on spring break. So just because it says June 30th doesn't mean that we'd have like packaged up and then we won't deliver something until June 30th. I think it's saying that we gotta get it before. Then, so you're gonna see work being done. In the fall to start looking at a, a bunch of options. Like I said, I don't want to get into the hole of like what they would be, because I, I personally have my own thoughts on what they would do, but I don't wanna. Steer it, no pun intended to where we want to
go, but it could be 10 week courses. It could be a variety of things with opportunities with regards to Oakland schools. With our O tech classes that we offer. I mean, I can go on and the list can go on on about what this committee could look at, where we want to go with CT. K. K-12 but the expectation is that this would actually be something. That kids would be able to register for fall. It's gonna have to be, yeah, it's gonna have to be not just registration. It could be just exposure too. I, I, again, I. Don't wanna just steer it towards just the registration or course offerings, but it could be an exposure opportunity. Currently
we have exposure opportunities at all. Three. Grade levels or, or, or, you know, elementary, middle, and high. Is it to keep those, continue those or enhance those. Outside of on this plan as well. You that, yeah, go ahead and that a little bit, I can add to that a little bit. And speaking with Ms. Malsbury. One of. The state increase in expectations is at the elementary level. So, if you're looking for exposure opportunities at an elementary level, you're not necessarily bound by the scheduling card of a secondary. Student. So to Dr. DeLuca's point. I don't think you should look at this as main
as only. Classroom scheduling opportunities. As you've seen Ms. Malsbury do a wonderful job of doing sort of add-on. Opportunities for kids bringing back. Former students who are in the professions now. There's many different ways that this can go. But they aren't only in that classroom for high schoolers or middle schoolers category. Yeah, that actually to follow up on, on this category as well. I when looking at all of them, this one seems to be heavy in terms of. Impacting students. So when I think about impacting students, there's gotta be teachers as well involved in that. So.
And the thing that I appreciated about what we did in the early part of the process. Of our strategic plan was any goals that we had. Had numbers attached to them in terms of what the internal cost would be to meet those goals within the strategic plan. And so what I'd really like to know is. You know, based on what we're seeing here for plan three. How is that reflected, like in the upcoming budget discussion that we're gonna have? Is it, you know, something that we'll see outright. Or will there be follow ups so that we get to see that there is gonna be funding? Associated with subs, specifically some of these goals. That's what
I appreciated in the early phases of the design of this process. And I think that's what I'd like to see moving forward. Anyone else? Yeah, trustee, Asper. trustee Blake. That's interesting. So for me, looking at this number three, kind of jumped at me as, as really important one. And particularly number three, under the vision by. Providing a variety of E evidence-based resources and supports RCS educators are empowered to personally meet each student at their. At their level with appropriate pacing, breath, depth level of challenge. That seems really important. And transformational, I know we
talked a bit about a bit. Back a couple of meetings back about. Dealing with gifted learners and so forth, which is probably. A part of this. And then the success criteria is there's gonna be a framework. And I, I just have a hard time with. Abs these abstract things, and I'm trying to think. Can you help in some way? What will that look like? What will be an example of how that's going to. Yeah, and I know we haven't done it yet, so maybe you can't tell me, but is there something. You can share about what that's gonna look like. That's gonna transform the whole district. And let every, each kid get the appropriate pacing and breadth, the depth of all that. Any, anything you can help me with that at this point? Yeah, absolutely. And
I appreciate. You bringing that up because plan three is one that I'm particularly excited about because MTSS just, isn't something that when we look at. We can just check off and then it's like said and done. And so in looking at the work that we have done in previous years of the strategic plan, specifically in year two, we're taking some of those plans in which we've already done work and we're gonna be continuing those, but then also. Looking at just like the overall. Organizational structure of it in, you know, like anything looking at what's really going well, what are areas that we
can improve? And where do we take this here to really maximize and support all student learning. And so I know that doesn't exactly address your specific question. But with a district our size, we wanna make sure that our processes and our systems that are in place. Are really consistent coherence and it leans into the work that we've already been doing. Trust you Blake. I can, I'm gonna follow up on that one. I was involved in the. The breakout sessions with G and D with regards to kind of hearing why this came up from MTSS. And I think this will help for your thoughts here. And your question in our district, we it's a large
district, 23 schools. We have great teachers doing MTSS. MTSS supports for our students. We've had principals who have even myself, when I was a principal doing some good MTSS structures within their, their own buildings. Buildings, we have pockets within their feeder schools doing it. And so what we saw was when we heard from our community was there was, it was hit or. Miss on where you were at in the community. And this, this strategic plan would bring it cohesively together as Rochester community schools. Multi-tier system of supports, not just Mr and Mrs. You know, teacher X. System of supports an example I'll use for you at
Rochester high school, I had algebra one MTSS structure. It was mine. I implemented it and I pushed it forward. It was great for my students there, but it wasn't great for all Rochester community schools. And we need to hear from all. Of our great MTSS structures that are happening within the organization to provide one coherent MTSS structure moving forward. I hope that helps. I'm looking at your eye contact. But you're like, okay. But hopefully that's kind of where that's what I was hearing from the community about why this is happening in this, in this school, but not at this school. And this would be to bring it all together. Secretary betel I think you had another question. Well, I will say I appreciated trusty Blake question, because
that was a lot of mine too. I I'm really struggling with what we are going to see. At the end of this coming year. I also had some questions on. You know, like one of the big projects. Projects or plans this year was on alternative scheduling. Right. And we haven't really received a report on that. And I expected to see. Some follow up that would identify. What you know, where, where are we with? You know the review of start times. Cause I know that was one of the things they were looking at. Where are we with reviewing? High school schedules and opportunities there.
I've heard something about potentially looking at changing some of the middle school scheduling. But again, I don't see that. Reflected in the current. Proposed plan. For year three. So I feel like there's sort of a disconnect. Like where's the continuation. To make sure we actually are completing the things we said we were gonna do this year. Yeah, president, I'm sorry. Trust you, Patel. I don't have an answer for that specific to your, to your questions. I'm looking back to. You know that plan and I don't have it in front of me, but though looking at what the goal was of that plan. Was moving towards, you know, looking at what options that
would be to survey our, our population, staff, students, and community. With regards to what's out there. I'm not an owner of that plan. I know Mr. Hempton, Mrs. Hempton and Mr. Kuzi led that work. And so I'd have to get back to you. On the questions that I would hate to speak at the microphone tonight, do that. No, it's where they're at. I will say this though. I think we communicate well. For a board and in our team with regards to our cabinet notes and at our board table to where, if that is the will of the board, we need to lift it to. Mr. Russo. And then we can bring that to the committee work that's being done. That's just, you know, seeing next
year where it goes, if that is. A a point that the, the board says and, and plan three. We want to see this. I think, I would say communicate with us so that we can lift it within their committee to bring it forward. I guess I mean to that point, I mean, to my fellow board members. You know, we we've one of my things is following up on some of these PLAs past plans that we've had. And identifying if they've been. Successful or not like, how are they. Impacting our students, are they doing what we thought they were going to do? I'd really love to see us identify. Obviously in conjunction with the administration.
What some of those items might be for tracking going forward? We had had some, one of the plans we talked about getting an update in, you know, November on literacy and seeing how we were doing and. I think there was some other discussions, but somehow documenting that too. And maybe making that part of the strategic plan. So we know what we're tracking to. I understand if we're being successful. I struggle with a lot of these to understand what we're really gonna do and what we're gonna see at the end of the year. Madam president. Trustee LA kuey, I'll follow up on that a little bit. First of all. Thank you for your presentation. I agree with reducing the
number of plans that we have because 21 plans or 19 plans are that was never a. A feasible kind of idea. So to follow up a little bit on what trustee Butell is saying. Over the past year, several board members have made it clear. They've been asking for goals tied to measurable outcomes. And that's how we would know whether. We're achieving the goal or not. And unfortunately, I still don't see that reflected in these, in these goals. I'm seeing more success criteria. That's focused on building processes and systems again. And many of which we already have in place. And I understand we're always trying to improve of course, but creating processes or systems is not the same as
a result. And it's not necessarily strategic. We need to know whether students or the organization is actually improving or benefiting. So as a board, we need to know what baseline data we're starting from, what specific outcomes we're trying to improve and what evidence will. Demonstrate success. So for example, if we're implementing MTSS structures, structures, what student achievement or growth metrics should improve. And by how much. And if we're expanding career pathways, how many additional students will participate or earn certifications or receive post-secondary credit? If we're improving family onboarding. What impacts do we expect on family engagement or retention?
How are we measuring it? For a long time, I've been saying the board. Should accept one of the board's core responsibilities, which is vision and goal setting. And administration of course should provide recommendations and their expertise. But the board shouldn't simply delegate the entire process. And then evaluate success based on measures developed by the same individuals, responsible for carrying it out. To use a simple analogy. It would be like a teacher telling students, you get to decide all your projects for the year and exactly how you're gonna be graded on them. No, the administration's role. Is figuring out how to get there. And the board's role is supposed to be determining where there is and
how we'll know if we've arrived. If administration develops the goals and the plans and the measures of success. I'm not really sure where the board's role in setting direction even comes in. So I don't really find this to be effective governance and to be strategic. We really need more meaningful success criteria. And we needed to know when is the appropriate time for the board to establish that. Anyone else have comments? Comments? No. Great. Thank you. So just to, to talk to trustee LAI's comments and, and trustee Lai, I don't know that you asked a
question, but hopefully. I can provide some clarification if that's okay. Yes. Sure. I don't necessarily fault you because the board didn't do its job in establishing what goals it was expecting. To see. Okay. Do, do you want me just to share information? Yeah. I'm looking to listen, you know, and, and again, we're trying to, to follow the G. And D process. So when they first. Initiated the process. They consulted with the community. Had had different forums from that. They developed vision narratives from those vision narratives and the community input, they then established the 100 and.
46 deliverables. And again, this all follows. Follows their process. So we are trying to respect that process. As we move forward. And these six plans were derived from those 146 deliverables as were the 23. And the. 19 before that. So again, trying to respect that process, that the board. Delegated us to do. Madam president, secretary Patel, Madam, I, I would say that. I agree. I mean, right. The, the, these are the vision. I don't think. Anyone's disputing that I think the. Question is what we're identifying as the success criteria.
And through the discussions with Scott Fuller at G and D. He was very specific that. There should be measurable. They should be smart goals. And I think that's the piece that. You know, some of us are questioning that we're not getting down to. Specifics about how these are going to impact students or that it's going to. Increase family engagement or like, you know how it is. It's more. Process, like we're gonna have a process in place. Versus that process is going to have X impact on. Students or families or staff. Piece. So I think that's. That's and I may be.
Not speaking. I don't wanna speak for you, but that's, that's my. Concern trustee LACOE. Did you have something else you wanted to say? Yeah, trustee betel did a pretty good job of explaining that again. It just really boils down to the fact that for something to be a goal, we have to have a way to. Measure it so that we know if we've achieved the goal or not. So designing a processor system. Can help you to get there. That can be part of the how, but it's not the goal itself. We've gotta know where we're starting. And we have to know how we're gonna get there, but we have to know what end result are we judging. So it's not just checking the box for if
we created a processor system, because. Maybe creating a processor system. Isn't actually helpful. We don't know. We have to be able to measure the result in order to know whether the system or the process. Was doing what it was supposed to be doing. Yes, trustee Blake. Well, I'll just say, I don't really view this. Like we're teachers grading our students here, but so I do appreciate what we did. I. I I'm sympathetic to some of what I'm hearing over here that. At times, you know, at times I would like to see like more concreteness kind of, but at the same time, I don't, you can't just pick a number out of the air. We're gonna.
Have, you know, this many more. CTE programs and know that that's exactly the right number. Not 10 more, not 10 less. So, but I think at the end of the day, I, I feel a little bit bad for you all, cuz it's like you're trying to hit a moving target, figure out what it is we want and we don't all want the same thing and we don't all want the same thing from one day to. Another, it doesn't seem like, so. But at the end of the day, it's our job to make known what we want to see in here. And so we've gotta figure out. How to communicate that the right way and not just let people do all their work and then come and then, you know, crap all over it. So that's something I think. We have to figure out. Anyone else? Seeing no other answers. Thank you all for being here.
Appreciate your time. Next up, we have item 7.4 under reports, which is the budget presentation. And I believe that is Mr. McDaniel. Hi, good evening. All right. So I will. Also yield to my cabinet colleagues, but they've been up here for a while, so we're gonna let them sit down. But on the budget, we are only. Reviewing the general fund budget. This. This evening. So I do want to note for the community. Typically we would show these at the end, butwe. Have included this in cabinet notes. Last week's cabinet notes. And we'll of course go through these at the budget, hearing the small funds, sinking fund, carrying steps, food service bookstore, student activity, and the.
Debt service fund while also be shown at the hearing, but not being shown tonight, which is a little bit of a break from our process. That is based on the board's request to have shorter presentations. So. I will try to go through this as quickly as I can so we can get to questions. Questions. But one of the adjustments that the board has asked us to make is to try to reduce the variance between. Our budget at year end and the actual results of that. So we've been a little bit more aggressive. When it comes to updating the budget, we're removing revenue. For state grants that we. Don't believe we're going to spend. So in the past, we might have a placeholder in the budget. To make sure that the revenue tied out to the
expenditures. I'm not doing that for federal revenue, because that's a little bit of a different process. The state normally gives us more latitude of saying here's the allowable costs. And you guys can budget. However, when it comes to federal revenue, we have to have typically an approved budget either through Oakland schools or the Michigan department of education. So. I'm trying to leave those budgets the same, so that. They match exactly as to what was approved by the state or by the I S D. ISD. So looking at, at this budget and we're gonna actually look at the final budget for 25, 26 as well as next year's budget for 26, 27 with more.
Focus being on next year's budget. We've adjusted grant expenditures, no changes, federal grants. Grants and less conservative budgeting. So moving on to the next slide, we'll get into next year a little bit. As trustee Alba mentioned, we do not have a state budget. We have some commonality. For example, our people foundational allowance in all three proposals is 10,300. But we've also ruled grants that are not included in the proposal. For example. 31 AA is included in a several different forms of what we haven't allocated additional funds for 31 AA. AA we removed additional one-time retirement funding. We have a enrollment decline of 174 Ft based on
our PowerSchool. Projections and the federal budget may still impact state aid. The federal process is a little bit different because they forward fund. So we have a better idea of what's happening there. For next year, whereas the state we're waiting on their budget. So there's aspects of your three strategic plan included. Included. You'll see when we talk about. New projects. A lot of that, or some of those items are carryover from strategic plan year two. There's other pieces that may be supporting. Current strategic plan three year goal. Year three goals. Excuse me. So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to Dr. DeLuca to talk about his
departments. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. For the technology department, we see a B a budget. I would say flat with regards to. One, one or one Chromebook replacement. We're continuing on the program that we rolled out two years ago. And then we implemented as well last year. Also classroom technology improvements are going to be looking at a public address system. Our PAs are starting to fail within our elementary schools. And we're gonna start with a pilot program. At Hammond Hamlin elementary with regards to finding pricing pricing point that we had an RFP recently go out to start replacing our PA. Systems a lot of that will be grant funded. However, though, we do have some needs that would require general
funding for that project as well. Also wonder one staff device upgrades. Upgrades are an, an area that we need to start looking at and start replacing our staff. Laptops, they're going on six years old right now. So we did do a replacement last year that we, we put some budget aside for our staff laptops to. Replace the hard drives, upgrade memory. And now it's starting to look like we have to start replacing our, our staff laptops. So those are focal. Points in our technology budget. That you'll see that Mr. McDaniel would go through. Do you want me to go next slide? Yeah. So just to highlight central support is made up
of a few different pieces. You'll actually see this, this same. Numbers throughout the presentation because it's also human resources. Resources it's pupil accounting. So. This is the bulk altogether. But wanted to, to highlight what Dr. DeLuca mentioned, Chromebook's classroom technology and where that would appear in the budget. Looking at the numbers here, the largest changes that 2.8 million. Which is the public address system. That'll come through 31 AA. And I think the board. Will be asked to approve that at the June 22nd meeting, but that's being shown in the budget here. When it comes to, to facilities. Some adjustments here. This also includes includes security. We have a few adjustments there, mostly related
to grants. Grants. I can't remember if I mentioned this at the beginning, but I do want to mention that when it comes to benefits, benefits retirement rates for next year. Didn't go down for every employee. That went down for the more tenured, the better. Retirement plans actually dropped a couple percentage points. And so the rate that we pay is lower. So you'll see the benefit numbers typically. Decrease because of that. That's not all of our staff, but we still have a pretty tenured staff. Overall, almost 2000 employees. When you think about coaching contracts and things like that. So you'll see an adjustment there. Not a whole lot in you with facilities. That would come outta the general fund. I know we talked about energy bond. That'll that'll come later, but next
we'll have Mr. Murphy to talk a little bit about human resources. Resources. Hello again, the HR budget includes ongoing. Cost for worker's comp ADA. Accommodations the software that we use on a regular basis for hiring. And evaluations. None of that is new also for sub rates. Substitute teacher rates. Current plan is to keep. The same pay rate for substitute teachers, as well as the same ratios. Ratios for the building subs that we employ, which is one per elementary, two per middle, and three per high school. Some new costs are associated with the Qualtrics platform.
Which will be a multiple department split. I believe the HR department will be paying 25% of the cost of that. And the reason for that is there. There's an employee experience component of Qualtrics. Qualtrics, which will include some more ongoing. Employee experience, surveying and planning to improve the overall employee experience based on the results of that survey. Surveying so more to come. You'll hear much more on that next year. But that's getting up and running right now for utilization next year. And then of note. The R AA contract expires June 30, 20, 26. As I noted last week, there's a tentative agreement on
that contract. So there'll be more info coming and expect a recommendation to the board for approval. On June 22nd for that contract. And then next year, there are three contracts that are expiring the teacher contract, the secretarial contract and the paraeducator contract. So it'll be a busy spring in the HR depart. Department next spring with those three. Next slide. And then again, this is kind of repeat some of the ongoing. Cost associated with the, the budget. Related to HR and then the bottom. As Mr. McDaniel mentioned is not just HR, but is encompassing of many different departments. So you've already seen those
numbers on a prior slide. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Next we'll go into teaching. And learning. There's not a whole lot of changes to the. To the human resources budget as Mr. Murphy mentioned. Hello again, I will be presenting tonight for teaching and learning. So new cost will be purchasing of the K five integrated literacy curriculum. Also review of TK through fifth grade literacy material to align with public act 1 46, 1 47. Associated dyslexia, screening, professional development for staff grades. TK through 12 and then purchasing of the middle school,
social studies textbooks. Textbooks. And then the ongoing costs are very similar to what we had this year. Benchmark assessment cost per pupil. There is a note there, the expansion of requirement cost in the 26 27 school year. Professional development guest teacher cost. Consumables for our instructional materials that we use in the classroom. And then the cost of elementary field trips. Yeah, I'm not sure that I have a ton to add here, but you'll see some adjustments for basic programs. Programs increases in salary. Trustee Butell. I just remembered that we had mentioned the
descriptions of what all these categories are and I have left those on my desk, so I don't have those for you. So I'll try to. Walk you through each of these basic programs. This is our elementary. Middle high school, general education. It also includes our pre-K programs and our summer school programs. So the teacher's contract is one of the big reasons why. You're seeing increases in salary and benefits because they got a, a 2000, I think, per. Step increase as well as a step. And then you'll see some adjustments there to supplies and materials. A lot of this is the El the elementary literacy. Purchase. The next category.
Is instructional staff support. So this is improvement of instruction. You'll see a lot of grant funding here. As well as this is where. Ms. Gauthier is her salary and benefits come from her team. The special education. Leadership department, the teaching and learning leadership. All of those pieces are here. You'll see an increase in some salary. Here, but it decrease in benefits. Benefits and then turn it back over to Ms. Gouthier for the special education, right. So for the 26th, 27th school year. Thank you again for your support. For our categorical programming, we are very
excited to be. Adding two elementary ASD classrooms to the district to meet student needs as well as one additional classroom at our post high program. In the area for a S D. Next year, we will be able to complete our categorical alignment. And so we will be doing those. Changes. So that's moving location for one elementary, a S D program. And then also moving the location of our two element. Elementary, emotionally impaired programs. So the cost. Associated with those moves. And then all of our self-contained or categorical programming will be aligned with their feeder schools
for elementary, middle, and high schools. So. Thank you again for your support and then also the support of the community for that. Our ongoing cost and special education are very similar to this year. We have ongoing costs with our non-violent crisis intervention training when it comes to de. Deregulation. With skills, our nursing services. Services translation services for families. And then of course our instructional materials, staffing curriculum. In related service services materials within the field that we use within special education. Yeah, so added needs. This includes a special education budget.
But also is our, our grant. So title 1 31, a lot of the instructional services on top of our, our GenEd program, our budget. Budgeted here as well as our CT programs. So you'll see some increases here for salary. Some other small adjustments. In the added needs category. Pupil support is our next slide. Some changes to benefits here, but increase in salary. This is guidance counselors. Nurses, psychologists, speech and language pathologists, teacher consultants, social workers. And our noon recess bus pairs. So if our, if you're a non-instructional you're in the lunchroom or you're on,
on the playground, that's where you'd. You'd find our paraeducators that perform those services for us. And then again, instructional staff support. So this is where the leadership, the administrators in the, in the. Secretarial staff that support the department's there. We already talked about that with teaching learning. So I won't belabor that point. Next we have Ms. Grind to talk a little bit about communications. Great. Thank you. So most of the budget for communications is really ongoing costs. Parent square is now ongoing. Versus new. Print publications. I'm gonna take the opportunity to say one is coming out next week.
That's the one that highlights our seniors special edition. Video services, software licensing, new equipment. Those are all ongoing costs. Our new cost this year is Qualtrics. Mr. Murphy mentioned that human resources is. Taking 25% of that. Allocation. We also have 25% because there is a survey mechanism. Through Qualtrics that we look forward to using in the coming year. The other 50% is through the teaching and learning budget. Now the reason you didn't see that is because. They it's, it's an ongoing cost for them. They've already
had that portion budgeted. This is just a new way to get there. All right. So as he purchase services, we've been able to, to make some adjustments throughout the budget, including salary and benefits. We've already kind of talked about this slide. The biggest here's the PA system. Next I'll jump into business and operations. This is business support. So this is our business office and our purchasing teams. Really just some minor updates to salary and benefits here. Kind of the same with student enrollment. They're part of that central staff support. So you've already saw those numbers. Transportation, we will bring bringing a, a contract to.
The board for approval to extend Durham's contract by year on June 22nd. You'll see some increases for next year, as well as some adjustments for fuel. For fuel in this budget. Next is our enrichment programs. Programs, some true ups to actual. Costs for projected. Camps and programs at Rand. So you saw some, you'll see some decreases there. And then the next slide I'll, I'll take you to is kind of the overview. We've hit a lot of the expenditures, but I'll, I'll share that on the next slide. Here's the, the adjustments to revenue. I want to talk a little bit about local revenue going down. That mostly is just an offset. So property values. Decreased because of some abatements.
So that means local. Property taxes went down and the state makes up the difference for our foundational allowance. So. It's not quite one for one, there's some other things that we've done with grants. Grants to reduce those, but you'll see the adjustment there. We've added some additional federal revenue. Made some adjustments to our transfers in and other financing sources, which is really the payments we get from Oakland schools. PA team being the largest. Before we get to the expenditure side. You'll see, this is about a 2.1, 2.2 million use of fund balance, which is down from the four. Million that was in the amended budget. Again, we're trying to more aggressively. Cut budgets to reflect what we think is gonna be
actual spending. So I'll give you an example of that. If I'm an elementary principal. Maybe I have a $20,000 teaching supply budget. And maybe for the year I've spent. $12,000 that we've actually cut a check for. And I have a PO for $8,000. The difference. At this point in the year, we probably don't have much coming off of that PO. Unless it was back order delayed. So. Well, it appears that they're gonna spend all $20,000. We've started to cut into that budget a little bit because you know, we're in June. And there's still 8,000 to spend. That's probably not likely. So there may be some areas when it comes to the overall budget where we might have cut a little
too deep. And may see some overages rather than a surplus, like we would in the past. But are hopeful that overall. It'll be 2.1 million at most. That we need to take from fund balance. Going to the next slide. You'll see the total expenditure. Budgets and changes. Changes. I think we've hit the ones that aren't. Aren't self-explanatory a few times. One that maybe isn't is general administration. So that's the board of education and the office of the superintendent and deputy superintendent. Other support is mostly our athletic programs. Programs community services is our SROs, our enrichment programs. Programs our school-aged care programs. Programs and then building improvements. That's sort of a self-explanatory
it's some of the larger projects. Projects outside of operations, maintenance, and security. One piece to note for next year. The note or the loan on the 5 28, 5, the current. Administration building is being paid off. The last payment was paid in the 25, 26 year. So that goes away in 26, 27. That concludes what I have presented for you. Are there any questions? Questions. Thank you, Matt. And the rest of your team, Dr. OSPA. First of all. I really appreciate you guys doing this as a team. Matt is our brilliant numbers guy, but it helps with you guys explaining where those numbers are going.
And what your department's goal is. I just wanted to go back. If you don't mind to slide 21, where you talk about the enrichment budget. And my question would be, I think the enrichment programs are mainly tuition based. Yes. So is this a breakeven or does the general fund contribute to the enrichment? Yeah, we'll see what actuals are, but right now, we're about breakeven. It might be, it might swing. You know, $10,000 either way. We'll have to see how those programs end. But right now, the goal is to, to be about a break even. And is that. Historically what happens also at pretty much breaks even. Yeah. There's been some good years and some bad years, you
know, COVID being a, a horrible year for us. If we go back to 2020. We continue to try to do things to, to move that in the right direction. If you guys saw the enrichment brochure you have until June 30th, I guess I can make the plug to the community. If you want that hard copy paper. There is a QR code that you can scan and opt in. I think we've had about four or 500 people. That have opted in to receive a hard copy brochure. And there's actually some zip codes that we might. Send out a postcard or something. As well, because because it's such a sliver, like my assistant Meg, for example, doesn't receive a hard copy of the enrichment brochure. She's in the district. But when you look at the total.
Households in that zip code, it didn't make financial sense to send it to that small group. So we may send a postcard or something like that to say, Hey, are there any other groups? Outside of district boundaries that might be interested in, in coming to enrichment programs at RCS. RCS anyone else? Secretary of Vitel. Could you talk ag? I don't think we mentioned. Dollar amounts for the PA system. Do I remember that right from, was it 4.8 million for that? Yeah. I'll maybe defer to, to Dr. DeLuca a little bit, but I think. The total with all the options was over $7 million.
I think depending on how we. We've how we phase this in with elementaries that it's around four, four and a half million, just elementaries 2.6, just elementaries is 2.6. Middle school, 3.4 with middle school. So four, four and a half with every building. But we talked about the. Was it 2.8 million or something. That is the difference between this current year and next year on the capital outlay. Yes. So what has been budgeted for then just the elementary? We budgeted to use all of those funds. So we put every dollar that we could in that, but that doesn't mean that that full 2.8 goes to.
Goes to that pH system. Sorry, my son is a driver restraining. It's his first day. So no take care of your son. It's important. No, thank you for the question. The project will not be completed in one year. We have to spread it out over two years. So anticipating using the remainder of our. 31 double a grant funds. For elementary and middle, and then going in for the next, seeing where the state allow allocates for us for three, one a then the following year would be our high. Schools. So hopefully that, that tracks, it's not all in one year that we're gonna complete the project. Thank approximately what was it? 2.6 million then from 31 for
elementaries. And I don't have it in front of me, but elementary's in middle. Was. Around three, it was still over $3,003 million. Total and we're expecting to primar cover most of that with 31, double a. Yes. Okay. Yep. Yeah. And if it's funded this year too, we may dip into some of those dollars. For unlike what we've done in the past, which is to wait a year. We always have that carryover where. There's extra money. Yeah. But we were trying to get out of the business of. Putting staff in there. We want, we're looking for larger projects to kind of spend that money. Trustee LACOE I had a couple questions, but I was actually also
curious about the PA systems is that everybody are all the teachers using PA systems in the classrooms. Classrooms. We have PE systems throughout our, all of our classrooms, our hallways exterior in the building, large. Group assembly areas like gymnasiums auditoriums in 2003, our PA systems were upgraded internally within the speakers of our. Classrooms in the last bond in 2016, we, we did not replace the components of classroom speakers. Speakers. We just replaced the head end room. Brains of the system. If you wanna call it.
Those are are, are, are dying. And they're slowly. They're not, you can't buy them anymore. And so with our new security initiatives with strategics, strategics the kind of connecting strategics to our current PA systems. You have an analog system that we have that's 20 years old and you have a digital system that's up and running. And we're trying to get the two to communicate. We we, our technology department and Jeff do a great job. Right? They're like we got it. They're always, we got it. But they're, there are some concerns I have with. Security in our PA systems being able to. Function properly at, at elementary and I won't name it. Usually a two-way system is beneficial with PA systems. If
a student has a problem in a classroom, the teacher can then radio contact. The office using the button and then doing two way, you're starting to see those fail in this new system and I'll which I'll be presenting on the 22nd. Any student can touch, touch the button on the wall, communicate with the office. A principal can choose that they want to connect with. These five classrooms, do a PA announcement and be done with it. At the district level, I can do an all call for every classroom. If I wanted to, it's a little more intricate than we. Currently have right now in the analog system. Hopefully that answers your question. That was very helpful. I understand a lot better what you're talking about now. Thank you. Yeah,
no problem. I had another. Question I noticed in the cabinet notes and actually, first of all, so all the information pertaining to the budget that was in our cabinet notes from June 5th. Is that going to be included then in the next board packet on June 22nd. As well as the hearing. Great. Okay, cool. So I also noticed in the cabinet notes that there was talk about waiting the foundation allowance formula. To reduce sword, get rid of the, of categorical funding. I'm not sure how far they're going with that, but I was just curious, is that the state's. State's way of addressing the complaints regarding flexibility. It, it could be. That's a big question that we
don't know is how. The compliance works with that. So I, I think our compliance team in, in the teaching learn department is gearing up and preparing as if those. Same 31, a requirements for at-risk students or English language learners. Learners are about the same though the pot of money is shifting. So we'll see, that'll be an interesting. Battle, because I think it's the governor and either the house or the descendants, two of the three proposals have the weighted funding. In and the one doesn't. Okay. Dr OWA. OSBA in our Oakland schools, county board association, the government relations committee. I went to they did talk about the weighted formula.
And there's two proposals that have the weighted formula for English language learners and at risk. But we're unclear if the weighted formula will also be for special education, but that's where we have to get the three budgets to cohesive into one thing that they actually. Pass then we'll know more about the weighted formulas or the categoricals or how it's all gonna shake out. Trustee Luk Luk. I was also wondering at the next budget meeting. Are we gonna have a syncing fund project list? Like we had last year. Yeah, I think we can provide that. A big piece will be dependent on what happens next with the energy bond. Anyone? Yeah. Trustee Blake.
So just, I don't have any like specific questions, but more of a big picture question when we. Entered into the last R E a contract in 2024. We agreed as a board that we were gonna dip into this fund balance each year, we were gonna have to do that in order to have a competitive contract. And I think. Some were nervous. I was, but we were willing to do that. We, we thought we needed to, it ended up in the first year that we had a surplus, so we didn't have to do that. And. Then the second year we approved 6.6 million of fund balance and went to four. And then it's ended up at 2.1. So that is
a great thing too. But now next year we're doing. We're approving 5.6 million out of the fund balance, which is. You know, less than we approved last year, but we didn't actually spend it. And I, I have a hearing of other districts like Troy, you know, recently announced that they're having all of these budget cuts and. Other districts, I haven't dug into why that's happening to them. But is it something we need to worry about? I mean, what, at what point we're gonna drop from 19 and a half to 16.8 on our fund balance. I. I'm told that that's still quite healthy. But you can't do 5.6 million every year at some point. That becomes a problem. And we've got another contract in
another year, so I don't know. Are you, are you on this? Like, do we, are we gonna know, are we gonna get an alarm bell before? We're all of a sudden gonna have to. Take some drastic measures. Measures. I would love to say yes. It's sort of depends on what the state does. So, you know, we have projected our expenditures, but if the state were to cut funding, you know, that would be. Very catastrophic for the budget. Let's say that 10,300. In the budget, didn't come to fruition. That's $250 per pupil times, you know, almost 14,500 or 600 pupils. That's a. Ton of money. So you know, we're continue on this process, which isn't ideal.
From a budget standpoint, this budget. Is our best guess, but it's not a great guess. I'm being honest with you. The really the one that kind of the rubber meets the road is the first amendment. When we have a full state budget. We have an idea of how many students showed up by that time. We're usually through count day, even though the audit isn't done. That's given time for Mr. Murphy to replace all the retirees that. He talked about earlier, so he knew, know some new salaries and things like that. I will say there there's some things that we've tried to do to. Make sure that we're adding as much to fund balance as we can. For example, we haven't bought school buses in a number of years, we would love to buy school buses. Buses, we're gonna come to a point that we're gonna
have to buy school buses, but there may be other options out there for us when that time comes around. I don't wanna to delve too deep into bus patrol, but, you know, I think I shared in cabinet notes that Virginia Beach schools. Are funding 10 to 12 police officers because they have so many. Tickets that are being issued. I don't, that's not necessarily the situation that, that I think we'll be in. I think we have a pretty. Pretty compliant community when it comes to school buses and red lights. We often get reports of the hazard lights. Not the yellow lights on the top, but the hazard lights being. On and the buses being pulled off on the side
of the road and that's an illegal stop, which, which it's really not, but. We'll see, I mean, that's one of the reasons why we're doing the pilot, but we continue to explore different options. For investments, you know, we made the transition to Huntington because that's gonna bring in a lot more interest. Than interest revenue than staying with commer. So there's things that we're trying to do to. Offset or mitigate the risk of not having a state budget. But something catastrophic happens there. We may have to make some harder decisions, but at the same time, we have a very healthy, fun balance, and we have some time to make those decisions rather than having to. Do that immediately.
I know that's not a warm and fuzzy answer, but. Trustee Lacoy kuey Ari. My last question has to do with caring steps, this or the what we are now calling the RCS early childhood building. I was wondering if we could see an overall snapshot of this building in terms of like how many students are being served here. What programs are operating here, how the space is being used and what the overall well, we, we got a little bit of the financial picture. In the cabinet notes, but this year I saw we're transferring another 150,000 from the general fund to carrying steps. And you mentioned that this is gonna be the final
report that we'll be providing about it as a separate fund. However, we still need to know what's going on in this building. Just like we get to know about what's going on and all the other regular. School buildings. So I'm wondering how we're going to be communicating that then going forward in the communi in communications. And if we could have some of that other. Information. Yeah, excuse me. Excuse me. Was this informa? Did, did you ask this question last week? Did you ask this prior to this meeting? Did I ask this question prior to this meeting? Yes mm-hmm. no, I'm asking it right now, so that hopefully by the next meeting, we can have some of that information. When we talk about Kim.
I just, I just wanna remind members that, you know, the board packet goes out. The superintendent notes go out. And it's an opportunity for members to provide questions prior. To a formal board meeting so that the administration could be prepared to answer it. And I really feel like that's a question that you should have provided prior to. Coming here tonight to talk about the budget because this information was provided ahead of time, president Anis. Yes. I was looking at this earlier today and I'm not asking for. All the numbers right now, I'm asking a question. Hoping that in a couple weeks, by the time we have our next meeting. Okay. It will be provided. I
don't understand your criticism. Well, I understand your question. And I guess I, I just wanna reiterate to my colleagues here that, you know, the idea that we have this discussion at the board table and it's public. Facing is really great, but we also have to give the administration an opportunity to be prepared, to answer questions. It's a great question that you're asking. And I appreciate it. I just wish I had heard it. Last week when everyone knows that, you know, we're encouraged to try and provide these questions ahead of time, but go ahead, Mr. McDaniel. Thank you. When I have. The question though, right? I mean, I don't understand your
criticism. I've said what I said. I'm sorry. You don't understand it. Go ahead, Mr. McDaniel. Yeah. So when we decided to end the, the caring steps, tuition childcare program, we had said we were going to align. The ECSE program because it's G S R P intuition. Like we do every other G S R P intuition based pre-K program, which was in the general fund. So. I can follow up with Mr. Russo. Russo on that question, but right now, it will not be a, a separate fund. Can I as a trustee detail, just to follow up on that for, just for clarity. What we saw in our board packet. The transfer. That was really just through.
Like August the end of August when everything closed here from a daycare center, is that correct? That's correct. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for. Qualifying that yes. Trustee lek. Lak. Well, I'll just say that. I still think that we do need to understand what's going on in this building. Just like we should understand what's going on in all the regular school buildings, but. To your point about my question. I'm asking it right now because that's when I have it, but I will follow up and I can send an email if that's easier. Just so that we can make sure that all the parts are answered. Thank you. Are there any other questions? Questions. See none. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Thank
you to the administration team. Appreciate your work. Next up, we have new business item eight, which is the. Energy bond. And I believe that is Dr. DeLuca. Yeah, you're placing playing musical chairs tonight. Is there a is there a motion to allow. Train to conduct detailed inspections and assessments. Throughout Rochester, community schools, facilities. And develop comprehensive scope documents and solicit competitive bids to present to the district with a firm cost estimate and final project proposal. Proposals for review. Can I have a motion please? Trustee Luanne. And secretary Butell.
Discussion. No discussion. Oh, Dr. OWA. Just do we have an idea when we would get that final proposal to look at? I can answer that. Yes. Working with Trane and facilities department. Currently, they're trying to hone in on the scope of the work. Which is a large scope. I would say it'd be one of our first board meeting when we come back from July break. Perfect. Any other questions? Questions. Okay. Seeing none. I'd like to take a vote. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. That is. A six oh vote. Thank you all. Next up is item 8.2, the non-union administrator compensation for
26, 27. And this is an. Action item for Mr. Murphy. Hello again, the following is a recommendation. For compensation increase for non-union administrators. This group includes cabinet. Directors supervisors, managers, coordinators, athletic directors, and. Executive assistants for 2020 6, 27. The position, title and pay grade matrix will not change. There are no new positions. Positions. And there are no movement of any current positions from one pay grade to a new pay grade. It's recommended to increase the salary schedule by 2.5%. Both the matrix and the new schedule.
Reflecting a 2.5% increase to each pay grade have been provided to you this evening. This increase was recommended by Romberg, Stover and associates. Associates who completed our salary study last year and continue to work with nearby districts. Districts on similar projects this year. Additionally, I would recommend all employees not currently on step 10 of their respective pay grades. Advance one step. If their end of year evaluation is effective or higher. The total projected cost of these increases, including base salary and benefits. Benefits is $361,123 and 89 cents. Cents. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Murphy.
Is there a motion to accept the HR recommendation recommended changes to the non-union administrators and executive assistant. Compensation as presented. Moved by Dr. SPO. Seconded. I trustee Patel. Any discussion. Dr. OSBA I just wanna point out that our consumer price index has gone up eight point I'm sorry. 3.8%. So I've worked with other organizations that do a cost of living increase, and they're all they're going with a, a 3.8% increase. So, this is less than that. Thank you for that feedback. Any other comments, trustee. Luk.
Laie well, last year. I remember when we had the presentation about this and I had some concerns back then, but we were, we were sold this system based on four major benefits. Benefits which was supposed to be recruitment and retention. And transparency and structure and consistency. And before approving year two. I would've wanted evidence that those objectives are actually being achieved and. I am concerned because we received a letter that's in our board packet from the technology applications coordinator who writes she's retiring. Solely due to the way that the non-union administrator salary schedule was implemented. And. That the plan had the opposite effect of its stated
purpose to motivate and retain employees. She said she was placed at the lowest step for her grade level. Despite having five years in the position. Plus prior teaching and software engineering experience. And she received only a 0.6% raise. I'm a little bit concerned about how people were placed on this scale. And if you know, steps are getting manipulated, depending on who the manager is and stuff like that, because. It's it's just kind of strange. If she wasn't actually effective. That should have been addressed in her evaluation, but if she was. She shouldn't have been placed on the bottom step.
And then I found out that. None of the non-union administrators received ratings below effective this year. So I'm wondering if everyone. Advances a step annually. How does the system distinguish between exceptional performance and satisfactory performance? These, these are not union-based groups. And so typically merit would be involved. So. What evidence do we have that it is meeting the objectives of recruitment, retention, transparency, and structure, and consistency, and have any other. I mean, I, I don't even know how to know if any other grievances have been made that didn't get
to that level yet, because the only reason I. Knew about this one is cuz this person happened to write to the board packet. So what evidence do we have that this system is actually working, as you recall, the creation of this schedule was a. Was really a necessity out of. Legal proceedings at the state level and recommendations from the office of retirement services whereby. If one didn't have a salary schedule associated with it when they were going to retire. There was disputes about their pension. So multiple organizations recommended. The creation of a salary scheduled to begin with. As was covered last year, we hired out an expert
in the field. To not only create it, but to do an evaluation of where we currently stood with all of our positions. Positions and help us. Determine which position would go on, which pay grade. Help us determine where that pay grade should start from a salary perspective and where it should end. And then we had to decide upon how to place people initially. Which was sort of the hardest part in the process. And what was decided at the time. Was to take everyone's current salary. This was explained when you asked the question and I, I believe it was explained in the cabinet notes, but I'll repeat it for the public. Since the question was asked tonight. That in 2020 3, 24, wherever someone's salary was.
Once the schedule was created. The decision was to, to hold them harmless, essentially. And then place them on the next step up. So that did not result last year in an equal increase for all employees. Employees, some increased more than others. One way to look at that is if someone was placed on step nine or 10, it didn't mean they had nine or 10 years of experience in that area. It meant that their pay grade for that position based on the. Analysis of other districts. Districts, what they were earning was already at the top of where that range should be. So as you, if you notice there's a few individuals that don't have an
increase for. Next year, because when it was an analyzed, their position was our, we were already paying it. Above market. There were others that were. Paid sort of below market or someone who was here. Eight years may have been placed on step two because their salary. Dictated that based on the rule we decided. So to be clear, a step placement initially on this process had nothing to do with the amount of experience. One. Had it had to do based on their current salary. Placing them on a scale and then moving them up to the next. Now that they're all on the salary schedule. You're right.
That in most years, I would expect most people to advance a step. Given a budgetary situation that would allow such a thing, cuz it would always be the privilege or the right of the board of ed, not to approve that. Right. This is just a recommendation. So in harder budget times, I could see a decision. To not grant a step because you're right. There's no union contract dictating that. There's no union contract dictating an agreement to the percent increase. You're relying upon myself. And the analysis that I choose to partake and recommend. Be to do you know what you wish with the
salary schedule for the next year? So again, that initial placement wasn't. Based on overall experience, but the placement of the position itself. Was based on market. The market at the time. To the question of is it working? I don't know that one year is sufficient to analyze that. Not naive. That not everyone likes how much money they make in their job. I'm not naive that, that everyone last year was happy with the way this played out, because some people. Were pretty flat for a year. Or received a very small increase based on the rule we decided. To to follow essentially.
So going forward. This recommendation this year. Essentially moves everyone a step that had an effective rating. You're correct. I'm I believe I've received them all back at this point. There are no they're all either effective or Exem. Exemplary. So if you approve this. All of these individuals would move a step unless they're already on step 10. And then the step itself would increase by 2.5%. The steps are roughly 3% in between each. The the increase is 2.5. So it's. It's roughly a five and a half percent increase for the bulk. Of the employees associated with this. And those specifics are listed for you in the packet. Any other questions, trustee, Blake.
Yeah. I, so when I joined the board, which wasn't, which was just a couple years ago, there were not. Every person. My understanding is every person. Didn't get written reviews. So I think some did, but not all. There was just an yearly vote. Of 2% or whatever percent and it would go up and. Now we have actually a standardized review process. We have. A standardized schedule and it's kind of like similar to how the teachers are. You go up step in a percent and we get to control the, at least the. Percent. I think we probably control both. Every year. So I just don't know how. Else you with this many people, I mean, you look
at all the people that were listed in here. I'm not sure how else you would do it, or what evidence, maybe evidence would be like less. Turnover or something like that, but that takes a couple of years to really. Figure it out. I don't know what you would find out after one year. Like what evidence after one year of this schedule? Would we have that showed that this was. Effective, but I do think if you're giving and that you've got one woman that you're talking about, who is upset about where she was placed. Placed when people were placed based cl closest to their salary. Can you imagine if every person was just individually given random different. Raises based on what the superintendent thought. I mean, we
certainly wouldn't be in a position to evaluate, but you would have so much unhappiness. I can't even imagine. And. Our HR department would spend so much of their time dealing with that. I think having one disgruntled person is not as bad as what would happen under any alternative. Madam president trustee. Luk. Kuey well, first of all, I appreciate you explaining how people were initially placed. That makes sense. To me, one thing I'm still wondering about is. How are we distinguishing between low and high performers? Because honestly, I was really surprised that there was not even one person who got below an effective rating.
So essentially everybody's just going up the same amount. Yeah, that's the job of a supervisor. That's the job of, of an evaluator trustee. Blake is right. These are not jobs that are mandated by state law to be. Evaluated annually. For the most part, if they're instructional positions, then they are. For instance, the assistant superintendent of elementary and secondary. Yet those are instructional positions. They're still. Expected to be evaluated every year, but an accountant in the business office. Has no there's no law dictating what that evaluation looks like, or even that we do it annually. So you
were right. I mean, a few years ago. It was essentially to the will of the supervisor or who was ever in charge of that. Department on whether those were happening every year, every other year. And we've set a standard now that they're, that they're in place every. Year, I would be more concerned if we had someone not effective. Someone to me that's not at least effective would automatically be going on an improvement plan and their job would be on the line within a year. Effective is the minimum we expect. And there's ranges of effective there's folks that I have areas they want to work on.
That they have goals for next year, but overall they're still effective. And that's absolutely expectation of all employees. I would be very concerned if anyone wasn't. Wasn't effective, but how are we motivating people? Well, I think again, that's the job of a district, a department and a supervisor. I mean, if you. Obviously, if there's a, a will to create merit pay and you want to give each supervisor of. A bucket of money to give bonuses based on who they. Think are doing the best job. That's the will of the board. I tend to agree. With trustee Blake that does comes with it. Some risk. That comes with it. Some real.
Careful analysis of how that's getting decided. And how the folks are being evaluated and whether that's being done in a fair manner. Because the the risk of it is how the others that aren't receiving that would. Would would accept that or take it? Not that it's not doable. It would just come with additional conversation and it would be something different than I've heard of any other school district doing. But not impossible if that was the will of the board. Okay, well, I guess that Dr. Excuse me, can I follow up please? You? No, you haven't recognized Dr. OWA. OSBA I just wanna verify in the budget that we are talking about. This increase is this increase included in
that budget. Or would this be an additional. Yes to the budget. Yeah, no, this was done in conjunction with the. With Matt and the business department to know where this was headed. So that could be included. So it's budgeted for, yeah. Thank you. Trustee Luk Lui. Okay. Well, back to the merit pay idea. You were, you were talking about how there's risk in doing that. I'm, I'm just wondering how it's different from what you see in the corporate world where people do get bonus. Bonuses based on good job performance. I don't know, I don't work in the corporate world. Dr. OSMA. I just wanna remind the board that we had merit pay in the superintendent's contract. And we purposely took it out. So it was the
will of the board at that point, not to give merit pay. So I think we need to have some careful consideration if we're talking about. Going changing our idea or changing our, the will of the board on that topic. President Anis trustee Le kuey didn't we give our superintendent. Merit pay bonus, like four months into the job. I seem to recall that we did. His first year. Yeah, it was four months in. Okay. We're off topic. It is, it is outta the country and it wasn't four. Months that he got a mirror. Are there any, is there any other discussion regarding this topic? Seeing none, I'm gonna take a vote.
All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. I all those opposed. No, I think we should be considering merit. Okay. So that is a five. Four one against and the motion passes. Passes. Thank you. Mr. Murphy. Oh, you're still here. I forgot. The next item is 8.3, the first reading of policy 8 0 0 3, website and digital. Content accessibility, just as a reminder, this is the first reading and it's gonna be brought forward on our June 22nd meeting. For approval by the board. That's correct. You did part of my introduction for me. I appreciate it. The journey
we've taken with this particular policy this year. If you recall, we have already updated this policy. Once this year, we were being proactive. When we knew that ADA regulations were going to cause us to. Need to revisit our language as it relates to website. And district content accessibility, electronic accessibility. We jumped the gun a little bit because we changed it. And then our recommended changes from Miller Johnson. Our policy consultant provider. Initially or eventually sent to us. So what was done then was an analysis with their help of what we had already done. What their boiler PLA language was and what they would
recommend. Doing to our current language to sort of catch it up and, and be. What they would see as adhering to those new laws. So that's what you see in front of you. I will not read through the, all these strikeout areas and red lines. You've had it, I think since last week or earlier this week. No, there is no earlier this week, since last week. So, if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. But this is again, is the first reading. This will come back. In the 22nd. For a recommend recommendation. To approve. And even if you don't have questions tonight, the time in between. Is like available to answer any or get any clarifications
needed. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Questions trustee. Luk. Kuey well, I do wanna acknowledge that. I think that this version is better than the version on February 9th, cuz it expands beyond the website and includes other digital platforms. Platforms too. So that's a good thing. My remaining concern is that we still don't have clear timelines. And I'm just afraid that if you don't have timelines, you don't end up getting things done in a timely. Man manner and the language that I was seeing in this policy was language like. As soon as reasonably practical or periodic accessibility audits or we'll remediate in a timely manner. And it's just vague
and. The board doesn't really have a good way to monitor. Follow through. If policies are too vague. So that would be the thing that's holding me back. Right now from voting to approve it. Because if the board is responsible for setting policy, I would wanna be able to set policy that we would actually be able to. Feasibly enforce. Can I ask a follow up? Certainly when it comes to timelines, are you looking for. A response timeline or a fixed timeline. The first, I think is easy. The second might be hard to predict based on what the fix is. So could you clarify? So I could talk with Mr. Russo and Mr. Blaylock if needed. If that's a desire of more than just yourself of
the board, is it. To respond to the person making the inquiry, or is it a timeline? To address, fix and complete, whatever it is that may be falling short. Well, I mean, responding is certainly the first step, but there's, there ought to be some sort of a reasonable timeline for when a problem could get fixed. I can't tell you exactly what that would be, but that would be something the administration would. Be able to come up with, I would think. Thank you. Any other questions? Comments. Yes. Sorry. Trustee Loza. . I would say it really depends on what it is for a timeline. Everything would be different. I think.
Just at least touching base with somebody just to say we received it. We're working on it. Get you an answers, you know, as soon as we can. Just make sure that we have that, that touch of communication with them. But I don't think that you can put. The variance different, like a timeline on. Somebody, I mean, you could have a plethora of different communications. Dr. Oswell if this is the way the language comes from our legal counsel, I would recommend keeping this language, but I think this is a cons. Constructive point to add into the AR the corresponding AR that would say. You know, that might be a better time that they will get a response within X.
And all efforts will be made to resolve the situation within Y. I think it's better addressed in administrative regulation than, or administrative rule than the policy itself. I agree with you, Dr. OSPA. Yes, trustee. Pete. Well, I was just gonna comment on putting an actual. Time in place for fixing it because often it is not internally that we're doing something that we have to reach out to our vendors to make. A fix and we know that. Sometimes that can be difficult. And I know things that we've been working on have taken much longer than what I would personally expect. So I think it's tough to identify what all of
those potential timelines could be. Thank you for that. Any other comments, say none. Thank you, Mr. Murphy. Appreciate your time. You're welcome. Next up is item nine, the remainder of public comment. But we do not need that going on to item 10. That's additional comments from members of the administration. Dr. DeLuca, do you have anything? Else to add. Thank you. Madam president just wanted to. Thank the board for your commitment to our students with over. 1200 students graduating. Last week, the week ago, or more than that, it feels like forever, but the commitment by the board was
amazing. Thank you for showing up to the. Multiple graduations. Not violating opens open meetings act to have the board in one room with our administrative team principals. Principals and the collegiality that happens there within the graduation ceremonies. We only see each other in this venue, but though it's, it's just awesome. Our students see it, our staff sees it. Our administrative team also felt it. So I just wanna say thank you for taking time from your families, our graduations, as, as our board. Understands here that you've been to, many of them, our graduations are a huge undertaking for our staff. It's our administration team, our staff, our facilities team, custodial
team are all input. And then our families, we have parents and. Are doing all night parties that after our graduation. So it's a big community event for three nights. The community's in a buzz and a lot of, you know, Instagram pictures going across the community and just a good feeling for, for everyone. So. We take it for granted. Sometimes we think graduates walk across the stage. Not only at a graduation at Oakland university, but we had some board members attend race graduation, which is instrumental when you. Hear the stories from a race graduates. And I, I appreciate you guys taking time outta your day. There. And then at the IA graduation yesterday. So.
Now that that's over, we can take, I always say it's landing the plane at the end of the year. I feel like we kind of landed the plane we're home and we can kind of wrap up the school year here. So. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. DeLuca. Next we're onto item 11 announcements. Two more wake-ups people. June 10th, the last day of school. Not that anybody's counting. Right. June 22nd. We will be here again. For a closed meeting at 5:00 PM. The truth and taxation and budget hearing at 5:30 PM. And then another regular board meeting. At six o'clock and by here, I mean the RCS early childhood education center.
If there is no objection, the meeting will be adjourned. Seeing none. I adjourn this meeting at 8 21. Thank you all to. Your poorer attendance.