I'm good. Does it work? When you walk off, Good evening. Welcome. Welcome, everyone. I see a big crowd here. Welcome to our meeting. Glad to have you there. We are gonna get started, and we will call this meeting to three. And I would ask that we stand and begin with the pledge of allegiance. Again, welcome to our meeting. It's great to see all the student athletes in the crowd and their families. And we will have a spotlight, on your success here shortly. Just wanted to welcome everyone to our meeting and point out a few things. So as you, all can see, we have very special guests at our table this evening.
So we have Andrew Weaver and Carol Beth Liqui. Andrew and Carol Beth are our trustees elects. And at the end of this meeting, they will take their oath of office. Their service begins January 1. I would like to, remind everyone in the crowd that this is a public business meeting of the board. However, we do welcome public comment at various points on our agenda. If you'd like to speak, please fill out a yellow card. The yellow cards are on the table in the very back of the room. And you'll want to hand that to, someone in the back of the room who, if you can raise your hand if you're back there,
one of our Safe Ed, assistants will bring that up on the stage so that you can speak when it's time. We do have time for public comment after our business items on the agenda and then at the end of the meeting. On behalf of all of my colleagues on the board, we are grateful to serve this community, and we appreciate your support. Tonight, I'm going to begin the meeting by, with a roll call. All members are present, with the exception of President Beers, who is absent with notice. And I'd like to start by handing the microphone over to Doctor. Shaner. Thank you,
Madam Vice President. Once again, this evening, it's appropriate and fitting that we need to take a moment of silence. It's happened way too much in our organization over the last couple of years. But we once again lost a member of our team this past week. It's a great sadness and a heavy heart that we've lost Tim Mullins, beloved teacher at Adams High School and a proud graduate of class of 1985. Actually told that he graduated with with, consignor bishop.
Tim was well known for his kind heart, his generous spirit, and in my case, his vanilla cream donuts on Fridays, regularly contributing to local charities in the Greater Rochester area, especially neighborhood house. And I've been doing this about ten years now, and, we get some very special relationships across the school district, and some of them are pretty unexpected. When I first met Tim, he was a union rep, and I'm of course management. We've, we've forged a pretty cool relationship over the years. Like I said, it kind of revolved around connecting over Donuts. So ladies and gentlemen, please join me in observing a moment of silence in honor of Tim Mullins and,
offer your prayers or good thoughts or whatever it is that you'd like to do to his family and his friends who miss him dearly. Let's do that now. Thank you, Doctor. Shaner. Item three on our agenda is spotlight on success. And for this item, I will turn things over to Lori Grine, our Executive Director of Communications. Thank you, President Buhl, Vice President Buhl. Before we introduce the formal portion of this evening's spotlight, we wanted to acknowledge the Rochester Adams High School string quartet, along with music teacher Sarah Maurice, who greeted us as we entered the auditorium.
Students and Ms. Maurice, if you're in the audience when I call your name, please stand to be recognized. Yamu Sezgin, Doiye Kwok, Emily Lewis, Ryan Yu they are all standing in the back and Ms. Maurice. Thank you so much. You all were wonderful. Thank you for sharing your talents with us tonight. Much appreciated. We can move on to the spotlight portion, which is recognizing our student athletes this evening. Earning a state championship is the highest honor that a high school athlete can achieve. It takes superb athleticism,
self discipline, strength, skill, determination, and a true commitment to excellence. At this time, we invite Rochester Adams High School principal, Pasquale Cuzzimano, and assistant principal, Todd Coccamugio, along with athletic supervisor, Brian Hassler, to congratulate some very special athletes. Congratulations to the following Michigan High School Athletic Association state champions. First, for the Adams Girls swim and dive, Ryan Russell. Ryan is the 2022 MHSA Division two individual state champion for the hundredth butterfly.
She also earned all state honors by finishing third in the 100 meter backstroke and seventh in the 400 yard free relay. She also earned All American status in both of those events as well. She is coached by Tim Hickey and assistant coach Sasha Mueller. Next is the Rochester Adams High School girls' golf team. These athletes made history as the first Rochester Adams girls' golf team to win an MHSA Division I state championship. In a two day tournament, they captured the state title to win by 47 strokes.
The Adams girls golf team is coached by Jeff Kuchman and assistant coaches Bob Koltvett and Fran Sisilewitz. Congratulations to the following student athletes. Brooke Bejalo, Grace Wang, Ella Bailey, Olivia Dance, Laura Lu, Katie Fodal, John Harvey Ramakar, Alexa Camargo, Peyton Sage, Brianna Park and Hannah Wang. It was indeed a great fall at Adams. We're gonna finish up with the Rochester Adams High School boys soccer team. Rochester Adams claimed the twenty twenty two MHSA Division I Boys Soccer Championship.
Its first finals title since 1999. The state championship came following a two-zero win over Rockford, who had entered the game undefeated. The head coach is Josh Hickey. Assistant coach is Brian Fitzgerald and Kip Paschel. Managers are Liam Frazier and Adrian Montour. And congratulations to the following student athletes. Reid Dennis. This is numerical, guys. So if you remember how you stood during the year. Saul Castano Fernandez. John Coon. Jackson Craft. Cohen Schultz. Brendan Donahue.
Noah Murray, Brendan Duff, Matthew Vostriakov, Colton James, Luke Rosine, Ethan Borski, Brian Morad Shahi, Nick Hopkins, Connor Petrido, Spencer De Cracker, Mateo Ado, Jason Haber, Oliver Youngman, Michael Elserman, Nico f v Valides, Henry Hall, Young Shui, Anthony Page, and Ryan Trevador. And, again, the three coaches, Josh Hickey, Brian Fitzgerald, and Kip Bichell. Congratulations to all of our athletes.
That is that the end of the spotlight, Lori? Okay. Okay. Congratulations to the student athletes. Thank you to your families. I know it's a big commitment. What an accomplishment you've all had. You should all be very proud of yourself. Thanks for coming out tonight. I know you probably have a million other things to be doing. We'll just give a second to give to let everybody, get out of the auditorium. Oh, cool. Okay. Cool. Okay. Moving on the agenda. Communications, item four. Item 4.1, Secretary of the Board of Education. Please tell us, Joe, what communications have been received by the board.
Thank you, Madam Vice President, and for the last time, good evening neighbors. The board of education received five email communications since the previous meeting. Community member, Sourav Deb, contacted the board regarding esports. District parent, Julie Stalker, contacted the board four times, once about literacy essentials, the literary essentials Oakland project, reading recovery, sharing a link to the Soul the Story podcast, and the percentage of students living within district boundaries. Thank you. Next is, student representatives to the board. And we are going to start tonight with International Academy and Liv Cereal.
Liv. Hi, everyone. Can you hear me? Okay. Great. Hi. My name is Liv Serio. I go to the International Academy. I'm a senior. And it's so nice to see you all. Lots of stuff has been going on at IA, but I have to say it might be a bit boring. As all of our students are preparing for midterms right now, the school has a very studious environment. But we're still finding ways to keep it fun. We've been having therapy dogs come in biweekly every Wednesday, which is so fun. The dogs are so sweet and very cute. And we've recently been having a lot of seminars about mental health just to make
sure that we can keep all that stress that's coming up with midterms in check. But I personally love having midterms right before break because then you can just relax. And as miss Whitmore said earlier, become a slug during break and do nothing. But yeah. So, some other things that have been going on at school. We recently had our Model UN competition team go to a few, conferences. So the Canadian American Security Council conference was a conference we just went to, I believe about a week ago. And at this conference, our delegation was able to get seven awards with four of those being best delegate
awards. So it it's a really successful conference. It was really fun. And then coming up, Model UN also has Monarch, which is, a big conference at University of Chicago. One of the most competitive. And we're really excited. Or at least I know I am. Another really big thing that's been going on at IA is, our teachers and a lot of parents have created this, new program called the IABC, or the International Academy Business Coalition. And with this coalition, we've been having presenters come in from tons of different fields to explain to us, what it's like working in medicine, what it's like working in engineering,
how to have some tips for success that was, like, all about resume building. As someone who works on that team, I think it's incredibly rewarding to learn more about not just how to get into college, but how to get into the workforce. And it's like, it's easy to just see the next step, especially as a senior who's just applying to college right now. But, you know, there's so much more past that. Additionally, with the IIBC, we've been offering some internships with a company that's local, but also hugely abroad called ZF, which is an automotive supplier.
And, I personally have worked on the HR and the sales team, and I've absolutely loved it. These internships are, like, so enriching and such a great way to see other aspects of jobs. I didn't think I would go into automotives, but it's definitely become, a new possibility for me. Some other notable things that are coming up at IA. We have the Winter Fun Fest, which is at Bowers Farm, which is a farm right across the street from our school in Bloomfield Hills. This festival will have ice skating, snowshoeing, tubing, all that kind of fun stuff. And we have a night specifically for IA teachers and students and it's going to
be a great event We're so excited for it It's coming up just this winter in I think a few weeks So, yeah, it's something super exciting to look forward to And then lastly, I didn't only wanna bring it up, but my principal requested, I recently was given the opportunity to be the United States Senate Youth Program, first alternate. So two students are chosen, in the state to go with our senators, and work for a week in Washington. And she wanted me to highlight this opportunity. Yeah. But thank you so much. That's awesome. Congratulations.
Thank you. It's definitely worth highlighting. Every once in a while, we all have to toot our own horn, Liv. So thank you for sharing that. Next we have from Stony Creek High School, Jack. Good evening, everyone. I'm Jack Kojewski, and I represent Stony Creek High School. Two weeks ago was the conclusion of our annual canned food drive. We set a new school record with 2,068 cans donated, as well as $2,368 raised. All the proceeds went to the Rochester area neighborhood house and the generous students of
Stoner Creek were able to feed thousands of people around the community. Last week, our student council set up our Giving Tree, which allows families to donate gift cards that are to be given to our very own Stony Creek families who are in need during this holiday season. On December 20, our student council is hosting Adams and Rochester Student Council to a luncheon. Here, we will have presentations describing our charity candidates for our annual charity week in March. Joint discussions will be held, and we will choose this week's charity this year's charity.
With this winter season coming up, the start of our our our winter sports have started. Basketball, wrestling, swimming, and hockey, and especially hockey as they played last Friday and beat Troy High eleven-zero. On top of this, our virtual enterprise team just went to the Northwood Regional competition and took first place. They now have their eyes set on New York City in the spring. Moving on with clubs. Our Garden Club is planning a bake sale on December 20, and they will be sending a portion of their profits to a charity that helps the environment,
specifically in the Metro Detroit area. This week, Key Club will be meeting to make fleece blankets that will be donated to children at St. John's Hospital. She's the First will be having a cookie decorating sale on the sixteenth. They're hoping for the same turnout as their previous sale where they raised $400 Teen Court just had an informational meeting last Friday to discuss their second case of the year, which was held today. Our Winter Guard is currently choreographing their first show, which is on February 11. They are also preparing for a mini boot camp coming up in a few weeks
to learn new skills and tosses. Theater Club just held auditions for their one act show, Black Comedy, as well as auditions for the lead role in their spring musical, Les Mis. They are also very excited to be returning to the Love Fest, a massive theater festival where they will perform and watch other shows this January. And finally, our DECA Club is having a fundraiser on Wednesday called DECA Donut Day, so they can raise funds and be able to send kids to the international conference in April. They are also preparing for their first competition to take place at Lake Orion High
School on January 7. In November, they all wrote notes to veterans during their veteran breakfast, and on that same day, 25 students competed in a Shark Tank style competition against Milford High School at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Detroit, and they took home first and second out of three places. Our choir and orchestra are performing their holiday concerts tomorrow, and our band will be performing their holiday concert on Thursday. And finally, next week is Stony Creek's Spirit Week, where each day, students are encouraged to wear a specific holiday theme.
Monday is PJ Day. Tuesday is candy cane. Wednesday is swinter, which is a cross between summer and winter. Thursday is ski day, and, of course, Friday is ugly sweater day. Thank you, everyone, and I wish you a happy and restful holiday break. Thank you. Jack, did you say that the spring musical is Les Mis? Yes. Oh, great. I thought that's what you said. I just wanted to verify. Rochester, hi. Lucia. Hello, everyone. I'm Lucia Hernandez, and I am the representative from Rochester High School. I just wanted to start off by saying I hope everyone had a great and
relaxing break, and I am very excited to be back here with you guys this evening. I wanna start off by congratulating our A. R. T. S. Theater program for an amazing performance of Anything Goes. And thank you to everyone who came out to show their support. They are now working on their one act, Edgar, written by Rochester's very own senior, Crystal Orser, which is set out for 2023. Our can drive ran from November 11 to the eighteenth, and it was a huge success. We exceeded our goal of 10,000 cans by raising a total of 16,684
cans, setting an all time school record for the most cans raised. We were able to reach this goal with the help of our feeder schools, as well as our community neighborhoods. All the cans that were raised were donated to the Rochester area neighborhood house. And I think my freshman year, we raised only 6,000 cans, so it's truly amazing to see how much we've grown as a school and how much we're able to raise now. On December 4, our Girls' Varsity Dance Team brought home two trophies from their second dance competition at Henry Ford. They placed third overall and received the Judges' Choice Award. Congratulations, girls.
Our first and finest of Rochester marching band brought the holiday cheer this past weekend to downtown Rochester at the holiday parade. They played We All Need a Little Christmas, my personal favorite, Jingle Bells, and of course, the RHS fight song. Our winter athletics is in full gear. Our JV and varsity girls' basketball team took home the win against Adams last Wednesday, with a score of 18 to 53. While also fighting hard on the court, our ladies have been working off the court to help those affected by Hurricane Ian in Florida. With collaboration from the boys' varsity basketball team,
our Falcons were able to send four boxes filled with toys to the hurricane victims to spread some holiday cheer this season. This past Friday, our girls' varsity team took a well deserved first place at their first cheer competition at Troy. The girls have been working tirelessly, and their season is looking bright. So one of the biggest additions we have seen this past week is the introduction of something called advisory period. So this is something that our staff and administration have been working on for over a year. And it started off by some of our RHS staff noticing the busy lives of their students and understanding how quickly homework can pile up.
Especially with sports and extracurricular activities, it can often become overwhelming and stressful. In some cases, even take a toll on mental health. So to help with this, and take some stress off our shoulders, our staff and admin have piloted the advisory period. In this, each student is randomly assigned to an advisory teacher that they can access on their class schedule. Every Wednesday, either between second and third hour, or fifth and sixth hour students will be given one hour to complete homework, study for tests, or students even have the opportunity to get a pass to see another teacher to seek additional support and help throughout the school day.
We had our first advisory period last Wednesday, and everyone in my class was completely silent. They really utilized this time to catch up on homework or other school projects. And during this time, we were also given a planner that helped us organize our time after school, as well as we received a calendar for exams that walked us through how to prepare for the exams that are coming up in January. From a senior's perspective, it feels like I have a million things to do, and I never have enough time. So I cannot express enough how thankful I am for the staff and administration for influencing this. We are currently the only high school in the district to have this,
and we will be testing this out for the next three weeks, and then reevaluating at the end of the calendar year. Speaking of being a senior, we have, on December 21, we have our senior class fundraiser, Breakfast with Your Baby, in which we invited our senior parents to join us in the mall for a breakfast full of great food, memories, and most likely, a lot of tears. On the following day, December 22, at 7PM, our senior class is hosting a coffee house, in which anyone can sign up to showcase their talents in a relaxed, cozy, and most importantly, supportive environment. And that is all I have for you today.
I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful holiday, and I will see you all next year. Thank you. And finally, we have from Adams High School, Jack Donahue. Good evening, everyone. My name is Jack Donahue from Adams High School. It's a pleasure to see you all again tonight. Unfortunately, like my other reports, this one's gonna be pretty sad. At this time, I would like to use my opportunity to speak on behalf of the Rochester Adams family and talk about the recent passing of one of the Highlander's most beloved teachers, mister Tim Mullins. As doctor Shaner mentioned earlier, mister Mullins was a graduate of Adams High School.
And if you would have asked any of his colleagues, they would have all agreed that teaching at Adams was always his dream job. A football coach here in his early years, this beloved economics teacher was also very involved in charitable work, school spirit, and the success of his students. Mister Mullins sponsored the Interact Club, which is a group of students that sell donuts in our cafeteria every every Friday morning before school to raise funds for various charities. After the first bell rings every Friday, mister Mullins would sell the remaining donuts from outside of his classroom to students passing
by in the hallways and donate that money as well to various causes to help our community. While not everybody had Mr. Mullins as a teacher in the classroom, nearly everybody knew him through his constant presence during the school days and these highly anticipated Friday donut sales. His relationship with our student body was like no other teacher. Inside the classroom, he was a man who was known to help empower his students and genuinely cared about the success of his kids, both inside and outside of the classroom. He was quick to inquire about any recent sporting event, club activity,
or personal endeavor a student might have just briefly mentioned the day before, and he strived to make strong connections and learn about his students' lives. He was a name reader at multiple graduations and found so much joy seeing the seniors he taught grace the stage every May. Mister Mullins truly did live through his students and treated the kids here at Adams like his own. Last Monday, December 5, our community here at Adams was was both extremely shocked and devastated to learn about mister Mullins' sudden passing. School was canceled for the ensuing day, and it gave both the students and teachers much needed time to collect their own
thoughts, mourn, and pause their responsibilities while all sorts of emotions came swirling through their hearts and minds. I would like to extend a thank you to the Critical Incident Team and the RCVS District Board for making a decision to allow staff to process this on this Tuesday and give the students a day away from the school while everyone was just collecting their own thoughts. During that day, however, the school was open for students and teachers to join together if they so pleased, and many took this opportunity to come pay respects. In the hallway area surrounding Mr. Mullins' classroom,
students quickly began to compile bouquets of flowers, letters, cards, and messages on the wall surrounding his door. Many students and staff members have spent the last couple of days sharing photos, personal stories, and encouraging words with one another to help cope with the overwhelming sadness that our whole building has been feeling. A quote that mister Mullins was always famous for saying to his students in the face of adversity is, the sun will come out tomorrow. While our community is in its earliest stages of moving forward without a core member of our staff, it is important that we that we lean on this simple message that mister Mullins
preached for so many years. While mister Tim Mullins is gone from us, his legacy will certainly not be forgotten for a very long time. Tonight, we mourn the loss of a great teacher, colleague, coach, and upstanding member of the community. But it is important to remember that no matter what, the sun will come up tomorrow, and the only way to move is forward. Thank you. I just wanna say, Jack, thank you for those words. That was so special and so mature. I, I know that mister Mullins would be really proud of you and the other students, and of those words that you shared.
Very much appreciated. Thank you. Let's try to find a way to share that with mister Mulling's family, if we can. I think that's really special. I think they'd appreciate it, Xena. Item 4.3, members of the board of education. Any communications to mention? Michelle? I received a couple communications since our last meeting. Jim Benitez contacted several board members regarding public education. Julie Stocker contacted me regarding English language arts, literacy, and the science of reading. Jacqueline Butts contacted several board members regarding the Brooklyn's parking lot.
Skye Teaton reached out regarding the Be Smart program. Stephanie Mayuri contacted me regarding being new to the district and her interest in getting involved. And Sue Herrick reached out to share that she had recently attended the Rochester Symphony Orchestra performance and that it included amazing choirs from RCS, and it was one more example of how kids benefit from the great programs offered here at RCS. Thank you. Barb? I received an e mail from, Brad Basnick, he's the MASB legal counsel regarding advice on disclosure requirements.
Sarah Amish, the RHS teacher regarding recommendation. Brady Kraytz, who is, Rochester High School teacher as well, and the mountain biking team club coach, regarding donating mountain biking shoes to their club. Susan, Diminik for, regarding placement on the December agenda. And then Melissa Hoffman, the PAC chair, regarding a school rep at the past November. Thank you. Jessica. I received one email from Julie Stocker regarding enrollment statistics for the district.
Thank you. Next, we have item 4.4, a PTA council update. And we have Jamie Rockliff here on stage to give that update. Thanks, Jamie, for being here. All right. Good evening, everyone. Very pleased to provide a report on behalf of our PTA council. The PTAs in all of our schools have been busy this past month. In addition to events and activities in their own buildings, there is quite a bit happening council wide. First off, our Green Schools teams, collected leftover Halloween candy. They donated to several area organizations,
including the Oakland County Sheriff's Treats for Troops and Neighborhood House. They are currently moving on to collecting used and broken holiday light strings through January. And these will be given, to the appropriate places for recycling. In addition, many of our schools participated in Neighborhood House's holiday, giving program, in different ways, collecting items, games, stocking stuffers. They help Neighborhood House in their effort to, collect gifts for the holiday season for about 400 families. The National PTA Reflections program is underway.
Our schools have been holding their individual contests and are holding celebrations honoring their school level winners. Those winners will now be moving on to our district level competition, which will happen, later this month and into January. We are also pleased to announce that, Van Hoosen's student Brianna Park, will be featured in National PTA's, Reflections Showcase next month for her poem that went to the national level in last year's competition. This year's theme for Founders' Day, which honors our PTA volunteers who go above and beyond to serve their schools,
is be the change. The committee recently chose the winning logo design submitted by Maria Jose Morfin Munoz, a seventh grade student at heart. Her logo will be used to create this year's pin, invitations, programs, and more. This year's Founders' Day, will be held on February 7. Our health and wellness committee just wrapped up their weekly walks in November, and we'll start those up again in the spring. These are open to all parents in the district to join in a time for walking and community building and are held at Innovation Hills Park.
They also held a healthy snack spirit week challenge to encourage students to bring healthy fruits and vegetables in different colors each day for snack or lunchtime. Finally, all the PTA presidents at our 20 schools are participating in a book club reading Garbage Bag Suitcase by Shenandoah Sheffalo, a trauma informed consultant. And we will be having a Zoom with her to discuss the book at our January meeting. Additionally, the council is sponsoring a Trauma one hundred and one webinar with Shenandoah in February that will be open to the district.
Thank you. Thank you, Jamie. And thank you to the PTA for your partnership. Next, we have a PAC update. This is Melissa Hoffman. Alright. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Melissa Hoffman. I am chair of the Special Education Parent Advisory Committee for RCS. Our last meeting was held in late November at Longmeadow Elementary. We had a meaningful discussion with our special guest, Matt McDaniel, executive director of business operations for RCS. Mister McDaniel came to give an update on special ed transportation. The pack brought up sensitivity training for our special ed bus staff.
Although we did promise Matt he could go home early, he was kind enough to stay and address other concerns that came up during the meeting. We really enjoyed having him, and we hope to have more administrators attend our meetings to create ongoing dialogues in the district. Also in attendance was board member Jessica Gupta, who is currently the building representative for Longmeadow. We appreciate our board members attending our meetings and plan to continue to invite them to attend going forward. Also, at our last meeting, Concetta Lewis, superintendent for special populations, diversity, equity, and inclusion,
gave a presentation on the latest special ed numbers. RCS currently has nineteen ninety six IEPs and 500 504s, for a total of 2,496 students and their families that the pack works to represent. If that number sounds like a lot, it is, but I take that as a positive. The best thing about IEPs is the I, the individual. More IEPs means we are seeing our kids as individuals and meeting them where they are. And more excuse me.
More five zero fours means we value accommodation. It also means we are valuing our kids over the cost that these plans usually bring. There's always more we can do, and this number should always be larger. But I do think it emphasizes why every decision made, every consideration, and every idea brought to our table should always be done with our IEP and five zero four students in mind. A few announcements. On March 22, PAC, in partnership with the Michigan Alliance for Families and Kinzetta Lewis from RCS,
will partner to teach a free district wide IEP workshop. Caregivers with children with IEPs or who may be receiving an IEP in the future are encouraged to attend this important conversation. Recently, a message was sent from RCS to all RCS families, letting them know that special ed and five zero four students may be eligible for ESSER funds to address learning needs and social emotional programs, such as summer camps. Special needs summer camps in particular start preparations mid winter, so we should be so we are encouraging all of our families to consider how
these funds may help. Any questions can be directed to Karen Gilardi. Disability awareness workshop field trips are happening again for our third graders. This fabulous field trip is designed to give our third graders a hands on opportunity to learn about disabilities and teaches empathy and tolerance. This program is offered to all third graders across the districts. All field trips will be in May at one of our high schools. We will be communicating details through all elementary PTAs shortly. And finally, Sparkle Awards. Sparkle Awards are happening in spring. Please mark your calendars for a new date.
A date opened at Adams High School on April 26, so we are going to move the date from March so that we can have more time and have more things to celebrate by the time Sparkle Awards comes around. Sparkle Awards is a magical night where we celebrate students, staff, and families and all they do to make special ed great. Anyone who has made a positive impact can be nominated, and every nomination is recognized and celebrated. Nomination forms will be available soon soon. Administrators and board members are welcome and invited to attend this wonderful evening.
Thank you all for your ongoing commitment to our special ed students. Thank you, Melissa. Item 4.6, we have a DEIPN update, and I believe we have Mr. Albert Rush here. Good evening. I bring you greetings from the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Parent Network. We had our last meeting November 20 November 20, of Monday, November 20. We would like to thank the staff of Rochester High School for allowing us to have our meetings in their media center. We had various speakers talk about their personal experience working in a DNI environment,
either from work or their personal experiences. We had community building, adding and going to small groups where they could talk about, their their search situations and circumstances and and building partnership and work and working together. Also, we have representatives from our leadership team to the restorative practices for families that was held that was held, by Tiffany Golladay as we continue to look forward to doing all that we can to help in any way to bring diversity, equity, and inclusion into the, Rochester School District.
If you have any questions for us, please feel free to reach out to us at our email, rcsdeipn@gmail.com. Our next general meeting will be 01/23/2022. Thank you very much. Thank you. After all of those great updates, we move on to item five, our consent agenda. All matters listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine in nature and will be acted upon with one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If any member of the board or any citizen requests discussion of an item, that item will be removed from the consent agenda and will become the first item
of business under the new business portion of the agenda. Item 5.1, current bills payable for 11/01/2022, through 11/30/2022, in the amount of $17,502,298.91 Item 5.2, board of education closed meeting minutes for 11/14/2022. Item 5.3, Board of Education regular meeting minutes for 11/14/2022. Item 5.4, annual summer tax resolution. Do any members of the board wish to have any item removed from the consent
agenda? Barb? Thank you, Vice President Buhl. I move that item 5.1 on the consent agenda go to the new business portion of the agenda. Anything else? Or any members of the public? So the consent agenda includes items 5.2, 5.3, 5.4. I need a motion to approve the revised consent agenda as presented. Moved by Michelle, seconded by Barb. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. That's a six-zero vote. Next is reports. Item 6.1. We have one report this evening. Item 6.1, SACHS Education Advisory Board.
And for that, we have Susan Demenick, who is the administrator of student wellness and health for RCS. Susan, welcome. Good evening, and thank you for having me. This evening, I'm going to do, I'll be giving a report on reproductive health and, human sexuality education, our guidelines. The Michigan Department of Education for K-twelve Health Education Committee created reproductive health and human sexuality education guidelines that provide districts with best practices. Public school districts across the state of Michigan,
have continued to revise their guidelines to reflect these MDE guidelines and updates. So a brief overview of what the requirements and the options are for reproductive health. Public school districts are required to teach about dangerous communicable diseases that includes but is not limited to HIV and AIDS. Age appropriate instruction must be offered at least once a year at every building level, which means elementary school buildings,
middle school buildings, and high school buildings. For HIV and AIDS and sex education instruction, parents and legal guardians are notified in advance of the instruction content, along with their right to review the materials in advance, observe instruction, and excuse their child without penalty. So school districts can choose to teach sex education, but every district that chooses to implement the sex education must have a sex education
advisory board that goes by the acronym SEAB. So the sex education advisory board for Rochester Community Schools for the twenty two-twenty three school year, has a membership that includes nine parents, two students, one Board of Education representative, representative one person from clergy. We have a health care community member, the Rochester Community School Nurse, and two staff members. Our meetings for this school year, twenty two-twenty three, are scheduled bimonthly.
We began in September '22, and we will conclude in May 2023. So there are resources that are available from Michigan Department of Education for the public schools, and one of those resources is called the Exemplary Sexual Health Education Guide, which is also referred to as the ASHI Guide using the letters to create an acronym, for sex education in a Great Lakes school district. It's a template that was created by Michigan Department of Education.
And along with that, there's a document called the user notes that tell us how to use that template, the sex education guide for the Great Lakes School District. In addition, another tool that we use is called a summary of legal obligations and best practices for HIV and STI and sex education. And all of these documents are support documents from the Michigan Department of Education. So for best practices for us in Rochester, we follow the best practice and we present what is required by state regulation.
Our community partnerships remain a very integral part of our process. And updated guidelines are presented to the Board of Education for review. So for this evening, we're updating our process, informing our board members what we do, and sharing that information. Is there anyone that has questions for me? Any questions from the board? I think it was very self explanatory. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks for being here. Now we are on our new business portion of the meeting. So our first item of new business is the new item 7.1,
which is current bills payable for 11/01/2022, through 11/30/2022, in the amount of $17,502,298.91 I need a motion to approve the current bills payable as presented. Moved by Barb, seconded by Jessica. Board discussion. Barb. For full disclosure and transparency, I had this item moved to new business from the consent agenda because myself and board colleague Michelle Butel were reimbursed for preapproved expenses related to our participation in the
MASB Call Leadership Conference. I will also note that I did consult with MASB attorney, Brad Banasic on whether there was was a need to pull the item, 5.1 from the consent agenda, as both Michelle and I were on the financial ledger, for reimbursements. Mr. Banasic advised this wouldn't be necessary because it was reimbursement of actual and necessary expenses incurred by myself and Michelle in the performance of a function authorized by the board. Given that these reimbursable expenses were approved by the board majority,
I will take the attorney's advice moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. Any other board member comments or questions? Any public comment on this item? Seeing none, we will take a vote to approve the current bills payable for November. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. So that is the new item 7.1, and that is a six-zero vote. Item 7.2 is a human resources report. This is an action item. And director of HR and employee relations, Dave Murphy. Thank you. Good evening, Vice President of Bull, board members,
Doctor. Shaner, community recommending the following actions be approved this evening. REA resignation, Emily Adams, ASD teacher at Hamlin Elementary School REA retirement, Dan Pico, PE teacher at Adams High School. New hires, REA, Carolyn Evans, special ed elementary teacher consultant. Doctor. Petrina Hill, special education cognitively impaired teacher consultant. Courtney Morgan, speech and language pathologist. Megan Rigney, resource room teacher. And doctor Teresa Williams, special education elementary teacher consultant.
Following administrative retirement, Elizabeth Davis, chief human resource officer, effective 12/31/2022. Following administrative appointments, director of financial services, we're recommending Beth Granger to be appointed to the director of financial services position. Miss Granger came to us with experience from Elmont Community Schools where she was administrator of finance. Prior to that, she served as Business Manager, Payroll Director for Morley Stanwood Community Schools. Ms. Granger holds a BS in Accounting and Finance from Ferris State University,
and her, hire would be effective 01/05/2023. And I believe Ms. Granger is in the audience. Do you want to give a quick wave? Thanks for coming. Accountant. We are recommending Joe Gamera to be appointed to the accountant position. Mr. Gamera comes to us with experience as an accountant at Puckett, Clement and Schellenberg, P. C. Mr. Gamera holds a bachelor of accounting from Walsh College. And I think Joe is here as well, if you want to give a wave, come up and give a quick speech. No? Okay. And executive administrator to the superintendent,
Christina Whitmore is being recommended to the position of executive administrator to the superintendent. Miss Whitmore has served as the executive assistant to the superintendent since 2018. Prior to that, Christina served as a secretary in human resources and has been with Rochester Community Schools since 02/2016. Thank you. Thank you, Dave. I will take a motion to approve the human resources report as presented. Moved by Michelle, seconded by Scott. Discussion. Discussion. Any board member questions or comments? Michelle. Well, first, congratulations to both, Dan Picot and Beth Davis on their,
retirements and to, our new appointments. But I did have a question with Beth Davis' sorry for the feedback. With Beth Davis' retirement. I know she's the, Title IX coordinator. And could you just explain, who's going to be replacing her and what how that person was chosen? Yes. Initially, I will be the Title IX coordinator. However, we're going to go through a comprehensive training with legal counsel next week and get a larger team involved with that training. Out of that, we've been there's been some discussion about whether to have co coordinators to have some
redundancy and some ability to handle additional situations as they arrive as well as train the other needed aspects of the Title IX investigation, which would be investigators themselves and then decision makers. So out of that training, we may decide to adjust that model. But at least initially, there will be no time where there's not a coordinator that will be me effective January 1. Any other questions or comments from the board? I do have a question. The new hires for the The new hires for the The new hires for the
accountant and the director of finance, are those new positions? Or are they replacing someone? And if they're replacing someone who aren't, who they and when? Yes. The director position, Ms. Granger, is replacing Christy Beaky, who was in that position prior and left the district a few months back. So it's a vacant position. And then the accountant position is a new accountant position. There was a part time clerical position in that office that wasn't filled. And instead of that, we've decided to add professional staff and additional accounting mainly in the area of grants.
The number of grants and Matt can probably speak to this better than I can but the number of grants coming into the district and that are available to the district have tremendously increased. And a lot of Joe's work is going to be in the realm of those grants and helping to process those. Any other questions? Trustee elect Carroll Beck. I've noticed that we've hired new people to fill the role of director of financial services almost annually, and I'm wondering if we know why that turnover might be happening. I don't know that we can necessarily speak to that right now. But I mean, I don't Dave, if you have anything anecdotally or I don't.
I mean, I've been in the position a year or so, so I don't really have any historical knowledge of the turnover or, didn't conduct any exit interviews with anyone who had left recently. I think I would say it's probably indicative of, public sector versus private sector for this type of rule, but I'm not sure. I mean, we can try to get more information on that. We'd have to go back and look at the information. I have one more question. Those of us who've been watching have often wondered how the finance piece works. I know we have, three different director positions that fall under finance.
We've got the Assistant Superintendent of Business Operations, Dana Taylor, who works on contract. We have Matt McDaniel, who's the Executive Director of Business Operations. And now we've hired someone new to become the Director of Financial Services. I was wondering if you could help me understand the differences between their roles and, also wondering if there's an org chart published somewhere on the district website to help understand the structure and who reports to who and all that. Yeah. That's a really great question. And actually, so we have annually, and I don't know what I can't recall what the timing Doctor. Shaner, what is the timing of the typically,
we have a meeting where the entire department finance department comes and presents to us on their structure, their responsibilities. It's basically all things finance department, super informative meeting. I don't remember when the timing of that typically is. It's varied, but we've done it usually in the fall, right, Matt, with the compliance right before the audit? Yes. So what we can do is we can get that information on the last meeting and then maybe get some timing soon on when we expect that next meeting to be happening.
But it's a complicated department for sure. And that's why we typically have a work session that's dedicated to walking us through that. Just to be clear, though, we have had a succession plan in our finance department. And as Matt has increased his responsibilities, Ms. Taylor continues to, responsibilities, Ms. Taylor continues to shed those to Matt, and Matt is serving in that role at this point. So Dana is taking less and less of a role in the district. Follow-up on that real quick. Is she receiving less and less money as she's decreasing her role?
I didn't hear you either. I'm sorry. Can you repeat your question? As Dan Taylor's role is reducing, are we reducing what we're paying her? She's a she's the contracted service employee that that bills by the hour. Thank you. Any other questions? Any public comment on this, on the HR report? Yep. Just go ahead and come to the I can't see super well, so if you can just state your name. My name is Deanna Harless. I'm a resident of the district. I did fill out a yellow card, so it's probably up there now. I had a question on the title change. Is that something that is that a new position being added?
Just a title change? Are duties changing? It just seems like that's a big decision to switch one from an assistant role to an administrator role without any public comment on what the rationale is for that. I mean, everybody who's been reading things in the district for last year knows she was involved with spying on parents and all that, so it's just and filing police reports. So we're just wondering I was just wondering why what that was bringing about that change. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Is there any other public comment on the HR report? Yep.
I see a hand. Just come go ahead and come to the, microphone. And please state your name. David Vertoshnick. I filled out a yellow card afterwards. Thank you. As, Mr. Murphy has highlighted, he didn't quite recall, the exit interview. I just want to make sure it's practiced to the board to request to exit employee of all administrative staff as they exit so that we can reference back to that, when it does occur. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Any other public comment? Please state your name. Thanks. Sorry about that. Good evening. John Markle. Couple of things. First of all, yes, exit interview is very important. And the reason I would say that is because there's never been an employee who
has left who hasn't said, and their reason that they're leaving is because someone offered them a better opportunity or more money. But most employees historically do not leave because they're offered more money or a better opportunity. Most employees go looking before they leave. They're not poached. So that's very important that you have that information written down, someone talks to them and says what happened. The second thing I would say is you said earlier that you have positions that are critical inside of the district where it sounds like you're only one person deep.
That's not good. Because if that person walks away or, God forbid, we have a person who doesn't come to work tomorrow morning, and I think we all know what we're talking about, someone passes away, I've had it happen to me. It's a terrible situation to be in. Absolutely terrible situation to try and go, what did they do all day? So you may wanna you have succession plans, but the question is is do you have people cross trained? Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Any other public comment on this issue? So I think that if that's the end of the public comment,
we will take a vote. All those in favor of the HR go ahead. I was just going to comment on, Christina Whitmore and, her role change. And I can't speak to all of the specifics, but I think this has her position has organically grown over the last six years since she started in that role and has, while maybe the critical is not the right word for it, but has just become so important, to the organization and what she does there. And so I fully support that, recognition. Thank you. All those in favor of the HRO court as One more.
Can do we have roles and responsibilities for all district employees? We can get you that information. We can get you that information. I think you have some yeah. I think you have some meetings scheduled too with the, administration, so we can get you that information. All those in favor of the HR report, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That's a six-zero vote. And I just want to say congratulations to our two new administrators, Ms. Granger and Mr. Gamara, who are here. Congratulations. Welcome to RCS. We're excited to have you. I'm sure that we'll, start to see, miss miss Granger in many meetings,
coming up soon as we'll be entering budget season. Congratulations to Christina Whitmore, and congratulations to Beth Davis on your retirement. Next item on the agenda is the budget amendment. So this is the new item, 7.3. This is an action item. So Assistant Superintendent of Business Operations, Matt McDaniel. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Good evening. I'd like to bring your attention to the memo in the packet there. And if you'll go to page three, you'll see the breakdown of a few different categories of the General Fund budget, which is what we're bringing to you tonight for your approval.
The packet here, you'll see different categories of revenues and expenditures as well as when we look back at 'twenty one-'twenty two, the audited actuals, the original budget that was approved by the Board in June and then, the proposed budget that we're bringing forth tonight. I want to just briefly talk a little bit about each category and some of the changes in each one of them. First, you'll notice that there's an increase of about $2,000,000 of local revenue. This is the 18 mills, the local portion of the $9,150
per pupil that we receive. That fluctuates with property tax values. So as property tax values increase, the local portion of that funding becomes greater. If they decrease, then it reverses. In addition, to that category, there's also, other local revenue like tuition that's charged or enrichment programs. We also have ticket sales and, other smaller local revenue adjustments. State revenue is the biggest pot of money there as you can see. We're proposing $150,000,000 state revenue budget this year.
That will increase when we look to the future. We know that there's several grants that, is out there and that we have notified the Michigan Department of Education that we would like that money. So that is going to increase, but, right now it's $5,700,000 dollars That is the remaining portion of the $9,150 per pupil, which was an increase of $450 compared to last year. They also changed the way that special education is funded, allowing the district to, instead of prior, you could receive either your portion of the foundation allowance or,
special ed reimbursement of actual costs. This year, it's a little bit different. You get you don't get fully funded, for both of those but you get a portion of the foundation allowance as well as, some reimbursement for those costs. There's also a UAAL adjustment. This is retirement money that the state gives us. It's the unfunded actuarially accrued liability. The state pays us retirement money to pay back to them. So there's an increase there but offset, in expenditures as well. Another piece of the state budget this year was that they fully funded 31A,
which is at risk students. So, most of these adjustments or a big portion of them are grants and, you'll see corresponding expenditures related to each one of those. We do know, however, though, that state revenue is going to increase. We've applied for 98 learning loss, have not received an award for that but expect to. So likely when we bring the next amendment, you'll see that money. Security money is also out there. We've notified the state of our intention to use those dollars. We have not received an award letter for that. Part of that security money is also,
mapping and security assessments. So those are smaller portions than the, I think, $1,600,000 that was anticipated for security money, but additions to that. Looking at, federal revenue, you'll also see an increase of about 6,100,000 from the original budget. This is funding for ESSER II, childcare grants, from the federal government. 11 T money that we're going to utilize and we'll talk a little bit once we get to expenditures on how we're utilizing that money. And, even though that has grown, there are some reductions in there for our title grants because we submitted our final expenditure reports at the November.
They haven't had an opportunity to reallocate that money to us in award and, for us to apply for it, how we're gonna use that money and receive an approval. So, there'll be some increases there as well. And then transfers in and other financing sources, there's an increase of about $350,000 That's related to the PA18 or the special education millage, that Oakland County has. So increases there. So in total, we're looking at revenue of about $14,200,000 compared to the original budget.
And then, let's talk a little bit about expenditures. So you'll see we have three different categories here: Basic Programs, Added Needs, Adult and continuing education. That's all under the heading instruction. So basic programs is our general education program. These are, students directly serving or teachers directly serving students, excuse me. You'll see increases there. Part of that is the UAA L money that, we received increased revenue for, but we give that money back to the state. We also, anticipate health insurance costs being higher. And we've been talking about that since the pandemic,
that with the pandemic, people did not, utilize their health insurance. You know, some were scared to even go to the doctor. Right? And we we heard reports of people, dying of preventable, medical conditions because they were scared. So we've started to see that reverse over the last couple of years, since the pandemic began and, are being conservative in our budget and adding about $700,000 in health insurance costs. Added needs is the next category. This is where you'll see a lot of that, grant money. Though you'll also see in basic programs, that grant money as well.
And that, a lot of that is our, summer school opportunities. We did a spotlight on success a few months ago about, some of those opportunities. And, we plan to continue to offer those, next summer as well. There's also some before and after school tutoring, that's required by some of these grants and we intend to offer programming in all of our buildings to support that. Now jumping into added needs, this is where you'll see the bulk of the 31a money. This is special education as well as 31A, our CTE programs. This is Title I.
So about $5,300,000 increase here. This is related to 31A, and the increase in 11T money as well as some increase in special education costs. And then adults and continuing education costs. This is very similar to what I said about and awards. So that decrease will likely be an increase, once we get the full amount of carryover budgeted and approved by the state. Next is, pupil support services. So pupil support services, categories like guidance counselors, psychologists, speech pathologists, teacher consultants, social workers.
You'll see an increase of about $1,600,000 compared to the original budget. This is mostly related to the SYKES and the teacher consultants. So we're finally able to fill, planned open positions unlike last year where we used, some different contracted services because we were unable to do that. We'll still utilize some contracted services, but, I believe SYKES are completely filled right now. So you're seeing some increases for salaries and wages for those positions. Next is instructional staff support. So this is curriculum, this is improvement of instruction or professional development.
You'll see some ESSER II money here about $600,000 about $400,000 in 31A, about $200,000 in ESSER III. One example of how we're using those funds are the district math coaches helping our teachers with the new math curriculum that was adopted. Really minor changes here when we look at general administration. That's Board of Education. That's the superintendent. A small reduction there. School administration is the same reduction there as well. That's our principals, our secretaries, our main office staff. You'll see an increase in business support. That's related to an additional accountant
as well as some other changes in the structure of the business office. Operations, maintenance and security, about $400,000 increase. That's kind of self explanatory. That's our buildings, that's security, that's staff like Safe Ed. So you have $400,000 increase, dollars 150,000 is related to insurance. There's some money there that we've also allocated for ESSER to review our facilities and airflow and ensure that all of our buildings, HVAC systems, are operating correctly. Pupil transportation services, that's our transportation,
that's buses, that's Durham. I just want to point out the actuals were about $7,300,000 the budget went up to about $10,500,000 and that's related to the purchase of 25 school buses. So next year, those costs will leave and, we'll be closer, to that $7,300,000 number. Central support, a decrease there. This is, technology, human resources, categories like that. Small decrease there. A small decrease as well as other support. This is athletics and community relations. A big increase you'll see in community services. This is the majority of this budget is the school aged care program.
So the school aged care program, we talked about the childcare grant, excuse me, that was, we saw in revenue. School aged care is completely a community service. That's why you're seeing money increased here. Basic programs is the pre k portion of that. That's, you know, direct instruction with staff and students. So there's also some money for the childcare grant, in that category as well. No changes to loan principal, interest on debt or the inter fund transfer. And when you get to the bottom line, you'll see that instead of a use of fund balance of about about $1,100,000
we're anticipating right now an increase in addition to fund balance of $120,000 Thank you. Thank you. That was a super thorough, high level overview. I'll take a motion to approve the budget amendment as presented. Moved by Jessica, seconded by Scott. Discussion or questions from the Board? Yes. I got a grant question, Matt. Here we go. I had a sore throat a couple of weeks ago. Listen, so when it comes to grants, it feels like there's more money out there rolling around today than maybe he's been in years past. I mean, I'd love to get some clarity from you on is that just my warm feelings?
Or is that something that's pretty observable? Because when I look at the numbers, it just seems like there is more money available we're going after, which I like if that's the case in a literal sense. And then when it comes to applying for them, maybe just a little sprinkle, a little Scooby snack of info on how we have to go about attacking and obtaining that money. Because is it execution of the application, crossing T's, dotting I's, is it speed of application some kind of combination of both? Is there some kind of meritocracy component involved in all of that? Like just love a little overview of that. Sure. Can I get a little first of all,
we have an incredible team of people that are watching this closely, and we've landed an enormous amount of grant money? There's two things to be cautious about all of this money, it's one time money and it's we're going to be very, very cautious of adding long term cost to our structures. We're being very careful of that. But we have an incredible team of talented people, Karen Gilarity, Matt, and entire finance office that watches this very closely. The other thing that's really important to know about grants is how you use the money, how you spend the money and when you can spend the money. So it's very specific and I'll let Matt talk about that.
But just a broad overview, yes, there's a lot more money out there. We're applying for every bit of it that we can get, and we're watching the regulations on it very closely. Yes. So when I became the director, I believe in 2017, the director of financial services, federal grants was about $4,000,000 there is a state portion of those grants as well. But if you look at the budget there, you'll see that the actuals, audit actuals and federal revenue was about $9,400,000 the budget that we're presenting is about $17,200,000 in just federal revenue alone and that's all grants.
So yes, the grants are continuing to increase. They're also increasing at the state level as well. I had an opportunity to hear from Kevin Walters who said in the State Aid budget, there were 100 new grant opportunities. So it's great that there's opportunities out there, but there's specific requirements that we must meet. Otherwise, we lose that money or have to repay that money. So there's a very, specific process, for most of these grants to receive approval through either the Michigan Department of Education or Oakland Schools, to use those funds. And then,
of course, at the end of the year, there's an audit to ensure that we are using those funds as we said they would be used, and using them in an allowable way. So, there's a lot of grants out there, which is a great thing. But, we also need, staff to be able to ensure that those grants are being utilized, being utilized in the right way. And, you know, we also need help from our instructional staff as well to use those grants with fidelity, right? It's one thing to be able to get a grant and help offset costs. It's another way to, be able to really utilize that money and do some great things for kids.
So, we're trying to focus on both doing great things for kids and, keeping ourselves out of trouble. Thanks, Scott. And I assume that our new accountant will be will play a big role in this. Makes sense. Any other board member questions or comments? Carol Beth. So I noticed in the budget amendment that there's local, state, federal, and other financing sources. There's about $13,800,000 in other financing sources. I just wondered where that comes from. Yes. The bulk of that money is the special education millage. Got you. Good question. Go ahead. And then one more question is we're showing $5,000,000
in community services. So I was wondering what qualifies as a community service. Sure. So that is mostly school age care. The big increase to 2,000,000 is related to the childcare grant. So, it's been a great opportunity for our pre k programs, our caring steps programs, our school aged care programs to have these grants. There's been three rounds of these grants. Typically, our normal, budget for community services, which is mostly SAC, is about 3,000,000. But you'll see an increase of $22,100,000.0, related to the childcare grant. And we've been able to do some great things,
for our families that participate in, those programs. We've been able to offer tuition breaks, but also offer, a bonus structure that is attractive to staff, and we've been able to get families off the wait list. So that's been good. Thank you. You're welcome. Any public comment on this, the budget amendment? Seeing none, we'll take a vote on this item. All those in favor of the budget amendment as presented, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That is a six-zero vote. Item 7.4, construction bid awards. This is an action item. Matt, I'll ask you to speak to these. I know there are four of them.
So I think let's walk through all of them and then we'll need to take a motion to support or to, approve the construction bid awards and that's when we'll ask questions. Thanks. All right. So, thank you again, Madam Vice President. As you said, we have four recommendations. The first recommendation tonight is for the Adams High School dehumidification unit. The scope of this project is to replace the existing Nanitorium Dehumidification Unit, which was installed in 02/2001. And at that time, we had an estimated useful life of about fifteen years. So it's about twenty years after that, twenty one years after that.
So the replacement unit is going to sit on the same rooftop structure with some modifications. A new rooftop exhaust fan and chloramine evacuator system was installed last summer. So this will finish the dehumidification system. And this system is going to match those systems installed at Rochester High School in 2019 and in Stoney Creek High School in 2021. A little bit about this bid process. On November 3, the district advertised a request for proposals in the Rochester Post as well as posting the RFP documents on the purchasing pages of the district's website,
Sigma and BIDNET Direct. The district received 11 responses for four categories of construction trades on the due date and a public reading of bids was conducted on 11/29/2022, at two P. M. Those bids were reviewed and evaluated by a team from the District's Construction Manager, Frank Riewald and Son and the District's Director of Capital Projects and Facilities. All the accepted bids were found to be initially compliant with the required specifications and further detail in the bid summary. Bids were analyzed on bid content, completeness, inclusion or required submittals and compliance with the required specifications.
Interviews and evaluations were conducted according to the attached documentation. And, the recommendation was submitted by the district's construction manager and then reviewed by the This information we recommend that the Board of Education with following contracts. Category A, Masonry to Connolly Masonry Incorporated, dollars $8,720
for total current project costs in the amount of $788,543 Our second recommendation is for the Baldwin Elementary Fire Pump Generator. The scope of this project is to connect a new emergency generator to the recently installed fire pump. The installation includes, the required electrical connections to meet current code requirements, purchase of the emergency generator and installation of the new fire pump was approved by the board at the May. This recommendation is only for the electrical work required to tie that into the existing
electrical system. Again, these proposals were advertised in Rochester Post, Cigna, the district's website and BidNet Direct. District received four responses to one category of construction trade. And these public reading of the bids occurred on November 22 at 02:15 p. M. As I said before, bids were reviewed by the District's Construction Manager and the Director of Capital Projects. And all of the requirements were accepted were found to be acceptable. And we recommend that the Board of Education award contract for this project,
Category A Electrical to RH Electrical Services in the amount of $240,620 And we recommend that the Board of Education approve the allowances and construction management fees as detailed in the attached analysis in the amount of $140,176 for a total current project cost of $380,796 Our third recommendation is for the Delta Kelly driveway replacement. This project is to replace the existing curb and gutter along the Adams Road entrance drive. This project was designed by PEA Group and has received approval from the Road Commission
of Oakland County. This RFP was also advertised in the local publication, Rochester Post, with RFP documents on the purchasing page of the district's website, Sigma and BINNET Direct. And on November 17, the district received three responses on the due date and an opening was conducted at two P. M. On the seventeenth. Proposals were evaluated by the Director of Capital Projects and Facilities and analyzed for bid content and inclusion by the purchasing supervisor. Source of funding for this project and all the projects the four projects tonight is
the sinking fund. Based on this information, we recommend that the district award the Delta Kelly driveway and gutter replacement project to M. J. Chisholm Construction in the amount of $28,000 and to prove the contingency amount of 10% or $2,800 for a total not to succeed project amount of $30,800 And then our last recommendation for tonight is for the Meadow Brook Elementary roofing project. The existing ballasted roof will be removed and replaced with a newly fully adhered 60 millimeters EPDM roofing per our district standard.
There's two sections of roof that will be replaced. On November 3, the district posted the RFP in the publications and sites that I've mentioned before. And the district received five responses for one category of construction trade on November 22, and a public reading was conducted on that day at two P. M. These bids were again reviewed by the District Construction Manager and Director of Capital Projects as well as the Purchasing Supervisor. Source of funding again is the Singing Fund. Based on this information, we recommend that the Board of Education award the contract to,
in Category A, Roofing to William Molnar Roofing Company, dollars 269,003. And we recommend that the Board of Education approve allowances and construction management fees as detailed in the amount of $117,226 for total current project cost in the amount of $386,229 Thank you. Thank you. I'll take a motion to approve the four construction bid awards as presented. Moved by Barb, seconded by Jessica. Discussion or questions from Board members? Michelle? On the Delta Kelly project,
I see it's, I think it's affecting the bus lane entrance off of Adams. Will this project be done or be able to be done on a weekend or during a break so that it doesn't affect construction or traffic there? Do we know that? It's a great question. I'm not sure when that project is scheduled, but I, believe that, our director of capital projects, would work to minimize any disruptions to our our school day. Any other questions? Barb? Just an observation that on, a couple of the, the bids, there's a contingency of 15%,
but then on one, there's 10%. Can you speak to what the differences are between those contingencies? Yes. Well, each of those projects have different components of that. So depending on the details and unexpected changes, we're about to get into construction, change orders. And you don't know exactly what the project is going to look like until you actually get in and do the work. So there's different contingencies based on recommendations from our Director of Capital Projects and Facilities as well as our Construction manager, Frank Greenwald and so
on. Any other questions? Andrew? I do. Do we have a list that we can share with the community on where we stand for what was promised in the bond projects and sinking fund and where do they stand to completion? Because obviously, we have issues like long metal that still comes up where, again, there has been work done, but we've not achieved the end result. The Brooklyn School has been told there isn't money to fix their, parking lot and pathways. So it would just be good to have a list of where we stand with what was promised for bond projects, where we stand, and then ultimately what money has been shifted to other projects for the community.
Yes. We oh. Just wondering, you said that there were some things that weren't promised. Do you have specifics? You know, I can give you the the grand scope of what's been done in each of those buildings, but if there's specifics, that'd be easier for me to address. What, what wasn't done at Longmeadow? Brook the Brooklyn's, parking lot, I can look up the details on that one. So you don't you don't have the details? I don't have the details right off the top of my head. But that's why I said I think it would be really good just to see that list for everyone so they can go through them and we can start understanding what those details are. Because again, there is a lot of speculation and a lot of stuff that gets put out there. So I think it'd be best for the district to put out and we put
out clearly what is factual for everyone so we get rid of some of the rumors and speculations. Sure. If I could address the Brooklyn's issue. As I understand, the Brooklyn's concern is that there's areas of that parking lot that are not accessible, via sidewalk. So there are many areas of that parking lot that are accessible, the building is accessible by walking through the sidewalk and not through a bus loop or a parent loop. However, there are locations, to the citizens suggestion that do not, have sidewalk access completely to the parent loop.
So we have made many spaces available to respond to that need. I would guess there's probably 40 to 50 spaces that you can park at, that would not take you through a bus loop or a parent loop. But that's, one piece that, we've worked to respond to and have continued to work with, Principal Crowley, to make adjustments to increase safety for our students, right? Safety is one of our biggest priorities when it comes to to students, especially on our side of the operations. So we'll continue to, work that problem. And, you know, if you can give me some details on on what,
was not done at at Longmont, I'll be happy to speak to you just like I I did with the Brooklands. And I'll also add that, we do have a doc a standing document, that updates the sinking fund construction work, the bond construction work. So those are always updated after we approve, items like this. So that'll be updated, and that is forward facing to the community. Any public comment on this on the budget amendment? I I'm not sure that's on. Can you speak again? Do you want me to use my Oh, there you go. Go ahead. I won't use my outside voice then. Thank you. Good evening. John Markle. Quick question for you.
I heard I was doing some fast math, and I apologize. Mister McDaniel, you you moved kinda quick, and I appreciate that you do on a Monday night. The I noticed that it it sounded like, from fast math, your first project, you had a 14% construction management fee, and on the other two, it was up closer to 30%. Just rough math. Is that common in in municipal projects? Because and I know this is not a Q and A session, but I think it is something that you need to we need to understand. Because there's a huge disparity between the first project,
where it was about 14%, and the second and third project where you had construction management fees that are somewhere north of thirtieth, it sounded like. Again, I wanna be clear. I had my iPhone open. I'm going as fast as I can with the numbers that you're flying that you're that you're ripping off. But I think it needs to be understood because I don't know I haven't done a construction project in quite a few years, but 20% was kind of the the number, 25 if you got if you needed something special. So I don't know what's all wrapped up in that number. It did it sounded like you had your budget fee and then or I'm sorry.
You sounded like you had your budget, you had your contingency, and then you had your management. It's a pretty lucrative job if you're making 30% for managing a construction project. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Appreciate it. More another public comment. Go ahead and state your name, please. Hi. Dana Cadman. Quick question on the Meadowbrook roofing project. Will the does the budget also include money for mold inspection and remediation? Thank you for your comment. Any other public comment on the budget amendment? Seeing none, we'll take a vote on this. I think I might have just called it budget amendment.
What I meant was construction bid awards, item 7.4. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? That's a six-zero vote. The next item on our business agenda is item 7.5, construction change order. That is an action item. Matt? Thank you, Madam Vice President. As you know, change orders are a normal part of our construction process. Attached to the Board packet, you'll find a schedule of all construction projects as well as board approved costs and board approved change orders. Throughout this entire bond process,
the Board has approved change orders totaling about $9,500,000 This is the first change order requested for the new administration building project. This change order is for the bond program and is requesting additional funds for two main added scope items. One is the UPS or Uninterruptible Power Supply System for our network server equipment. The original plan was to move the UPS that was existing at the 501 West University location to, the current Administration building on De Quinter Road. However, due to the age and condition of that equipment,
I believe it's over 20 old, the existing UPS could not be relocated. The second added scope item is for the electrical system. The electrical inspector requested changes to be made to the electrical system in order to obtain permit approval. Based on this information, we recommend that the Board of Education approve the change orders for the bond projects in, the amount of $148,874 Thank you. Thank you. I'll take a motion to approve the construction change order as presented. Moved by Jessica, seconded by Scott.
Discussion or questions from the Board? Carol Bell? Sorry. I noticed it says that the UPS system must be relocated from the existing building. Does this mean this is related to the new Administration Building? Yes. This is related to the new Administration Building. It was previously supposed to be moved, and now it's going to be replaced. I'm just wondering how we're able to use money from the 2015 bond to relocate the system to the new Administration Building when our district didn't own this building when that bond was
passed? Yeah. So, you know, one piece that, we talked about using bonds for and, you know, it's all out there, right? So it's all approved, by the voters. They are the one that voted to allow for the bond. We had a certain time frame to utilize that money. We looked at several different options including, how, we could support our our network, our server at a different location if need be to ensure that we were in compliance with the bond. So, there's items in there that are approved by the voters and were approved by the voters. And, this is one of those items. The voters approved to use for a building that we didn't own yet to move
it to I don't know. That's that's where I'm just kind of confused. Yeah. The voters approved a a network, which is the Wi Fi, the technology. Right. Do do we have a list of other projects like this, to detail what the $20.15 bond money has been spent on in the new building or a budget for other anticipated costs related to the new administration building? If you actually go to the construction change orders, the item that the the board previously approved, there's a breakdown of total numbers for those projects. Is it Yep. And we have a breakdown of all the change orders approved as well.
Right. So you'll see the original board approved amount, any change orders, and then what is the new board approved amount. And then as far as the actual bond and sinking fund, as I mentioned, those, documents that are forward facing are updated after we approve construction bids or other funding that's allocated, and those are on our website. So we can get you a copy of that as well. Any other board member questions or comments? What is the total cost we have into the new admin building at this point? And if you don't I don't want to put you on the spot if you don't know that exactly right now. I think that's like, one of those things we can probably would follow-up.
I mean, I consider Matt an expert in many things, but I don't I also know that no one likes to be put on the spot with things like math. Do you have any other questions? We can get back to you on that, Andrew. So I would think that computer he has in front of him would have that information available to him. We're talking about a huge cost. And to simply ask how much we have into that new admin building, I would think is a number we should be able to get relatively quickly. We can get it for you after the meeting. We can get it we can get that for you. But it's all forward? I don't wanna put I don't wanna put Matt on the spot for this. Any other questions or comments?
Oh, come on. It's all forward. Any other board member questions or comments? Public comment. David Vertosh from Heidebeck again. As you are aware that we do construction projects and things do change and sometimes you have to adapt to that, but $160,000 I don't think that UPS only turned 21, 22 years old just yesterday. I think you're well aware that that has ended end of life when you purchased the building. So you should have been aware that that was a cost going into the building. I assume at that time you had mentioned that you did wanna up move the IT system and you mentioned that,
when you did purchase that building at that meeting. And so I think you guys should understand that. But another that's another $160,000. That that's not a small change order. And if who's making who's not aware? Who's looking at these products ahead of time to see what needs to be done? If I was in my engineering job and I had to say, oops. I forgot a $160,000. And I have a lot explaining up to do, at least up to the superintendent level. So that's not a small thing. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Any other public comment? Seeing none, I will take a vote. Call for a vote to approve the
the construction change order as presented. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? That's a six-zero vote. Our fine oh, we have two more business items. So, item 7.6 is a resolution to amend the International Academy letter of understanding. This is another action item. Matt? Thanks again. So, my last recommendation tonight is for the approval of the amendment to the IEA, International Academy Letter of Understanding. These changes are based on the agreement between the International Academy Teacher Bargaining Team, the International Academy Administration and the International Academy Board of Governors.
The agreement amends the letter of understanding to be reflective of changes made with the teachers' bargaining. Based on this information, we recommend that the Board of Education approve the amended letter of understanding. Thank you. Thank you. I'll take a motion to approve I believe I have to read the resolution, don't I, before we give the motion or is it after? I think we, take a motion to approve and then we read the resolution. Yep. Motion to approve. Moved by Jessica, seconded by Barb. I think we'll have discussion, and then we'll read, if you're okay with reading that.
Okay. Sorry. That was Barb and then Jessica. I was trying to write this down. Jessica, then Barb. Thanks. Discussion or questions? Carol Baugh. Sorry. I read through this and, I just was curious. Can you help me understand what exactly is changing and why in this amendment? I couldn't figure that out. Yeah. So the, International Academy teacher bargaining, team negotiated for a a shorter work calendar. I believe it's now a 190, workdays for the teachers and a 186 student days as well as changes to the hourly, compensation rate and,
to the stipend. Okay. I think that's what's in bold in the, yeah, I think it's in bold. Yeah. Okay. Good question. Any other questions or comments from the board? Any public comment on this issue? I'm sorry. I can't hear. You would have to Oh, he was asking if you could read the resolution first. Yep. We're going to read the resolution. Do you wanna go ahead and read that, Joe? The resolution is titled Resolution to Amend International Academy Letter of Understanding. A regular meeting of the Board of Education and Rochester Community Schools held in the state. The following preamble and resolutions were offered by
Jessica and Barb. Whereas, the district is a participating district in the International Academy and is a party to the IA letter of understanding as well as the consortium agreement that sets forth the terms and conditions by which the IA is governed and operates and whereas the participating districts and the fiscal agent districts have circulated a proposed amended letter of understanding, which is attached to this resolution as Exhibit A, for consideration and approval by the school boards of the participating districts and whereas,
after consideration of the proposed amended letter of understanding, the Board has determined it is in the best it is in the district's best interest to approve the same and to authorize the district's superintendent to execute the same on the district's behalf. Now, therefore, be it resolved that, one, the board hereby approves the proposed amended letter of understanding and authorizes the district superintendent to execute the same on the district behalf. Two, all other resolutions and parts of resolutions insofar as they conflict with the provisions of
this resolution are hereby rescinded. And that's it. Thank you very much. All those in favor of the resolution as read by Secretary Patel, please say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries six-zero. Madam Vice President, if I just quickly just want to recognize the teachers of the IA and all the people that were on the bargaining teams for their hard work on this. I know it was a difficult road for everybody and very emotional at times, and we appreciate everybody's hard work on it. Thank you. Thanks, Doctor. Shaner. Our last item business item is item 7.7,
election of temporary officers. So, this is a unique one. Every January, the board holds an organizational meeting to determine who will serve as president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary, among other items. A procedural vote needs to be taken now because President Beers and Secretary Patel will not be returning to their roles in 2023. So the results of this vote will be effective handbook, the ranking officer of the preceding board Will preside until the election of a president. In this case, myself, I currently serve as vice president, will serve as the acting president effective January 1 through January 14,
and will conduct any meetings necessary until such a time on January 14 that a new president has been elected. The second order of business is the election of a temporary secretary, which is our order of business right now. The temporary secretary position will be in effect on 01/01/2023 until a secretary has been elected in our 01/14/2023 organizational meeting. Nominations do not need to be seconded, and four votes are required for the election to this position. Per our board handbook, this will be a roll call vote. Is there a nomination for a temporary secretary?
Michelle? I would nominate, Jessica Gupta for that role. Okay. Are there any other nominations for secretary? First of all, Jessica, do you accept that nomination? Seeing no other nominations, we will Joe, do you have a Yeah. I have a question. So where in the board rules is there this provision for temporary secretary? I didn't is this in our board rules somewhere? This is because, there will be no secretary from January 1 through 'fourteen. I understand the practical problem. I'm saying that there's no provision for a temporary secretary. What I what I'm gonna yeah. This is just secretary, and there can only be one secretary.
So what I would suggest actually is that I resign as an officer now, that this board proposed that Jessica take the role under the rules after there's a resignation, you can install this new secretary. And then at the organizational meeting, you have another vote. This is what I think we I mean, I'm not I'm just not aware of any provisions. Yeah. And I understand what you're saying. I think this was because there will be no secretary. So you can serve until December 31, right? So you'll serve as secretary through December 31. And then all of a sudden, January 1,
we don't have a secretary. And I think this is something that the MASB guided us on as well. I mean, I would love for you to stay on through the end of the year if you can. And then I'll stay as a trustee, of course. But I'm only resigning as an officer. So I suggest I'm gonna resign. I I see what you're saying. Yeah. Okay. This is my resignation. As secretary? Yeah. Okay. So, let me be official. I hereby resign as secretary of the Rochester Board of Education effective at what is it? What is it, like, not August. August. Yeah. So we met resignation. Okay. So now I move for the under the board rules for an election of a
replacement secretary. Alright. So we will now be electing a replacement secretary. So, Michelle, I'm assuming your nomination of Jessica stands. And, Jessica, I'm assuming your acceptance of this nomination for secretary stands. Jessica's ticked because she thought I was gonna do the work for the next forty days, but I'm out. Okay. So we have the nomination of Jess trustee Jessica Gupta for board of education secretary. This will be through 01/14/2023, at which time we will, elect new officers, including secretary. This, should be a roll sorry. Roll call vote. Lor Laurie Grant.
Oh, that's okay. Laurie Grine. Could you please read the roll call of, our trustees? Vice President Bull? Yes. Secretary Patel? Well, Trustee Patel? Yes. Treasurer Butel? Yes. Trustee Inasse? Yes. Trustee Muska? Yes. And Trustee Gupta? Yes. That is a six-zero vote. Congratulations, Trustee Gupta, who is now Secretary Gupta. And thank you, Trustee Patel, for your service as secretary this year. Appreciate it. So that is the final business item on our agenda. We have public comment, which is citizens requesting placement on the agenda,
followed by citizens present at the meeting, followed by members of the administration and members of the board. So So we'll start with the citizens who have requested placement on the agenda. Tonight, there are three citizens who have requested placement on the agenda. There's a form on our website that is due the Wednesday prior to every meeting. And, if you can start by coming to the microphone and stating your name and relationship to the district. Reminder, you have three minutes to speak. Beth Markle followed by Chester Van Diehl. Beth Markle, please. I'm fine.
They just Go ahead. Go ahead. Good evening, Beth Markle. There are those of us who wonder why people are frustrated with and don't trust the RCS. Your FOIA process is a perfect example. You send a FOIA in via your own portal, and you receive no response for a week. Then indicate a ten day extension is necessary. This has been my experience thus far for every FOIA that I have filed to date. It's also automatically requested an extension for the simplest of requests. In addition,
you have what I have. I sent seven copies up, an additional copy for the public record. You send in a FOIA request, Then the questions begin. Was my FOIA received? How would I know? If it was received, when it was when was it received? And is there a record number attached to this FOIA? So I have suggestions rather than just throwing questions over the wall. My first suggestion is when a FOIA arrives electronically, send an immediate reply to the person who filed the FOIA that RCS has received it. This can be a simple automated function.
Next, I would say automatically assign a number to the FOIA request, which can then be tracked through the RCS system until the FOIA is fulfilled, and attach or embed that number in the automated FOIA response. Third, if the FOIA is being fulfilled, send a note, another automated email that says, quote, something along the lines of, your FOIA response is being addressed. Nothing fancy. Just keep people apprised of what of where their request is. Transparency in this process would go a long way in building goodwill with the RCS
community. Second, and this is a larger problem, in my opinion, another reason people are frustrated and don't trust the district is the RCS does not or will not answer simple questions through FOIA. For example, how do books end up in the library? One of my simple FOIA requests was not fulfilled per the request. I requested a specific piece of information. You ready? The policy or standard operating procedure, SOP, for acquiring books for RCS Library. My FOIA was granted, and I was sent a hotlink, rochester dot k twelve dot mi dot us dot about us dash department dash human
resources dash policy, which I read endlessly. My FOIA was granted, which is a legal term. A legal term used in FOIA responses is granted or denied or granted and denied in part. But linking to the human resources policies does not tell me at all how books are acquired, and it does not actually answer my FOIA. Legally, I have no standing to appeal this FOIA since it was not denied. If no district policy exists for the books, simply say that. Thank you. Next, I have so I have Chester VanDiel and Stephanie VanDiel.
Happy to have if you'd like to go for Stephanie, happy to accommodate that. Well, thank you for being so incredibly generous in allowing me my time, considering I filled out the email for myself first. My name is Stephanie Vandell, and I am a taxpayer. First, let me congratulate Andrew Weaver and Carol Beth Lacoue on winning your election. I'm so happy that you had the bravery to run for office. It will be wonderful to have the voice of two parents with young children just
starting their learning career and not just people who are using this position to begin their own political career. Joe, Andrew and Carol Beth, you are a breath of fresh air. Next, I find it interesting that on 10/03/2022, everyone in the district received a notice that a functionality within ParentVUE had stopped working. This function was the weekly grade summary email. I found it to be a handy tool to begin conversations with my boys at
dinner. The email stated that parents would need to work around by logging into the system. It was stated that we're working with the vendor to resolve. That was ten weeks ago. I have contacted the school counselor. I've submitted a talk to us inquiry, and I received a curt reply from Ronnie. Still working it. When will this be fixed? I know there's a workaround, but that's not what was paid for. The software was purchased with a functionality that worked, and now it doesn't.
Why is no one concerned? Taxpayers funded the software purchase. It should work, not have workarounds. It's the same way with everything this administration and this board touches. Just like when you were able to participate and use Zoom, or that time that the meetings were saved on YouTube, other school districts offer this ability, and Avondale also teaches their kids how to read. Thank you for your comments. Chester Vandale. Hello, friends and board members alike.
My name is Chester Vandell, and I am here tonight as a life scout working towards my Eagle rank. One of the qualities that scouting has taught me over the years is virtue. Being virtuous encompasses many qualities, 12 of which are stated in the Scout Law. A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, hopeful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Most of you may agree that many of these qualities are also beneficial in the academic space. For example, it is important to be a trustworthy test taker. It's important to be kind to staff and students at your school.
But what does it mean to be thrifty as a student? In my opinion, a thrifty student is able to utilize the resources that their school provides in order to maximize their academic journey. I would consider resources such as AP classes, summer programs, clubs, and opportunities such as the credit by exam to be ways in which a student can maximize their academics. While the latter is free, as required by law, many of these resources are quite expensive for students who come from a single income household yet still strive to be thrifty,
such as myself. Granted, although there are ways to reduce the numerous costs that accompany a thrifty pathway, many of these options require a student to be placed on the free or reduced lunch program. In reality, many households that are single income or even have multiple students struggle to keep up with the cost of academic activities, whether they are able to qualify for this program or not. Now, I may just be another voice in the sea of those demanding where the district should or shouldn't spend its money, but as a student,
as a high school athlete, as a member of the Cougar Marching Man, and most importantly, as a scout striving to be thrifty, I believe that my voice is important. From the wiser allocation of funds to athletic and music departments to the reduction in cost of AP classes and summer programs, I believe it would be easy for the district to prioritize its budget towards a thriftier pathway for students of all financial backgrounds, whether that's low income, single income, or even stable income. Thank you very much,
and have a wonderful night. Thank you, Chester. Good luck on your pursuit of your Eagle Scout award. Next, we have citizens present at the meeting. These are the yellow cards. I have, about five cards. Dennis Toluto followed by Bruce Felk. When I call your name, you can come to the microphone. And if you have a yellow card to give, you can come to the microphone and, after I read these names. And just make sure you turn in your yellow card. Dennis, go ahead. Good evening. Dennis Talluto, Rochester Hills, parent and grandparent. Also a recent school board candidate.
First and foremost, I wish to extend my congratulations to Carol Beth and Andrew for their victory in November and for, becoming, trustee elect. I also wish to thank them for an incredible journey this summer and fall. Getting to, getting to know them, getting to learn their hearts, getting to, learn about their passions. This board is very fortunate to have those two people. Regardless of what assignments or issues or matters come before the board,
going forward, Andrew and Carol Beth, always remember our mutual focus on honor, integrity, transparency, and above else, accountability. To the rest of the board, I'm not going to presume what's what you're thinking, what your thoughts are on the November election, but just know that everything has changed. There is no going back. There is only going forward, and you now have two highly motivated candidates, colleagues on this board.
And even though they only make up two of the seven, the numbers on November 8 told the story. They represent the voices of about half the voting population of this District. So it would be very wise, I believe, of the future Board, to embrace these candidates as colleagues, as peers. Heed when they bring forward issues. Heed those issues and work with them collegially to resolve those issues. Right? Working toward a better district.
Working toward, you know, a more equitable situation for, say, the parents in in the PAC community. 30. The electorate is awake. The electorate the electorate is now alert. They are watching. They're watching the current board. They're watching the new board to be seated. They're gonna be watching everything. So I just exhort you to collaborate. Thank you for your comment. Liz Spelt followed by Deanna Harless. Okay. I didn't come to talk about politics, but,
I wanna thank the board for their diligence and their service to the community, and I think you're doing a great job. So, I really came here tonight. I live on Oakstone Drive in my back up to Longmeadow Elementary School, and I've had a drainage issue for the thirty eight years that I've lived there. Most recently, they after the property was paved over at the school was for some additional playground area, the pro the problem got worse. I had been trying to make the city, the district aware of the issue because when we have a big rainstorm,
there was a river that was created behind my home, and the water would flow into my my, yard and make a huge mess. So, finally, anyway, this year, I contacted the district again, took some video of the river behind my home and brought it to the district. And, lo and behold, the project was approved. The, work was done in July, and I just wanna thank the district for approving the project and thank, Peter for bringing it forth. It was completed, I think, in July, and I really appreciate, the resolution to the problem. Thank you. Thank you for your comments.
Deanna Harless followed by, David. I'm so sorry. Dave Vracnik. I I need to learn how to say that name. Deanna. Oh, great. Thank you. Sorry about that. And David, same or do you have a new comment? New comment. Okay. Please tell me again how to pronounce your last name. Vert Vertoshnik. Thank you. Vertoshnik. Okay. I'd I'd like to thank, congratulate Jessica, Andrew, and, and Carol on their win. I always enjoy fair fights, so we'll see what happens next time. But, hey. That's election. That's how it goes. I also like to, as a fellow Eagle Scout, I'm glad to see some Eagle Scouts here, some future Eagle Scouts. If you ever take a survival class,
pair up with Eagle Scouts. They're the ones that always live. So I'm gonna let you know off the bat. So, thank you so much. It's great future leaders right there. The one thing I like to highlight, we talked previously about, improvements to the administrative building. One other consideration I'd like to bring to the board. I'm I'm sure you've all been there. Is if you look in back in the parking lot, there's some light fixtures that are, lighting for the for the cars, vehicles that when they park there. And a lot of those lights are really off cell center considerably. To me, safety is always important. You wanna make sure no one gets hurt, especially something that's obvious. Something like that falls on somebody, a light like that in their car or somebody's getting their car,
that could really that could kill somebody. So, please take consideration of that building and and and I know we've got the UPS now. I know we got new parking lot, but, there's something safety like that. That has to be priority. Alright. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Next, I have John Markle. I don't know if this is a new comment or if this is an old card. Followed by Jason Mick. Good evening. John Markle. First of all, I wanna wish you all a Merry Christmas. And it is that time of year, even though it may not feel like it right now, it is that time of year.
So I just wanna say Merry Christmas and thank you all for your service. I've said in the past I've sat in those seats, so I know what it's like. This comment though comes back to the earlier conversation about the sex education curriculum. And I wanna I've it got me to thinking, how do people get on these committees? How are they selected? You have fifteen, twenty thousand, 30,000 parents, something like that. How do you decide who sits on these committees? How are they picked? And then it got me to thinking, we have a lot of teachers that live in this school district who are parents.
So do we pick parents who are parents who are also educators? And if we are, are we really double dipping? Or are we going out and are we looking for a broad cross sectional area of people who would stand before who would basically be making these decisions? Now I know somebody who spoke about FOIA's earlier. I've known her really well. I've known her about thirty one years. Actually, it's thirty three years if you get right down to it. And she made a good point that when information is given back,
it's it's kind of pencil whipped. Because I get to read a lot of it when it comes in. And one of the questions was asked is who sits on that committee? And do you know there's only one person who sat on that committee who my wife knew who she was when she FOIA'd that information? It was your school board member. So you try to figure out and you try you try to get you try to understand and and you try to give the benefit of the doubt. You try to say, you know, they're good people. They're volunteers. They're doing the best they can. And then you ask for information, and the only person you can figure out who sits on the sex ed committee
is the person who sits on the school board. So maybe a little more transparency in the front end, when people ask a question, maybe going just a a tad bit of that extra mile and saying, hey, they wanna know who sits on this committee. And we know that it's made up of nine parents and whatever and whatever and whatever and whatever whatever. Maybe we should tell them who those people are. Just a thought. Merry Christmas. Thank you for your comments. Next is John Mick followed by Sally McBeath. Jason Mick, actually. So, hi, guys. I'm a parent of two young children in the school district.
So, first of all, I'd like to congratulate all the candidates that were elected. Second, I do appreciate earlier the calls for clarity and for those of us who aren't at every board meeting, you know, or are new to this process, like hearing the actual content of the amendment and what it's about and trying to state that more upfront, that's a good idea. But also to my fellow members of my community, and this may may not make me popular, but I would appreciate a little less obtuse innuendo and a little bit more clarity. If you have a problem with the book books in the library,
tell us what those books are. If you have a problem with our sex education, tell us what the problem is. If you wanna get on a committee, say, I wanna get on a committee, But let's not, like, give all this vague innuendo and kind of suggest that there's a sinister conspiracy when when it's just I think we're all caring parents and want to, get our questions answered. Let's be clear what those questions are is what I encourage you guys. So thank you. Sally Macbeth, followed by Laurie Baggett. Hi. I'm, Sarah Macbeth, and I am a parent of two three kids went through the district,
and I taught in the district for many years. And when I began here, I was dead against having my kids in public education. I helped found private school because I didn't want it. But Rochester schools totally won me over. So all our kids went through. And then I became a teacher for private, and then I became a teacher for public. Okay? So I'm a huge This is number one. But when I listened, I listened often to the meetings, And I heard parents reading from the books that are in our our library.
And I'm alone in the room, and I'm blushing furious. I'm thinking, That's in in Rochester Schools' library? Are you kidding me? And, I, you know, I've just kind of been waiting to hear something about what you all had decided. And when I I was here, working for the election, and I was in this very building as I was driving over, I like, I didn't intend to talk tonight. I was driving over. I thought, That library is so tiny, and yet the books that you parents were reading from that library made me blush. So I haven't heard a single word about what you're doing about those books,
let alone the I taught elementary, you know, let alone for the elementary kids. And it it matters so much, every one of these parents and every other parent we care a lot. So I'm I'm looking for that transparency or, I'm I'm looking for the book list. This is okay. This is and here's what you can do, because our, you know, our kids are so precious. And my two of my kids had Coach Mullins. So as we were talking about that all this week, I was seeing, like, my boys went, you know, to the events. So I love Rochester Schools. And I thank you for what you're doing. And I know it's a huge commitment.
That's all. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Laurie Baggett followed by Liv Serial. Good evening. I'm Laurie Baggett. I have one child in the district. First, I want to say congratulations to Carol, Beth, and Andrew. So proud to have voted for you and to have worked on your behalf to get you on that stage. Second thing I have is, back in October, I came here and spoke in regards to the board's self assessments pursuant to section
162 of the district bylaws that the Board believes in continuous assessment and improvement and will, initiate a Board self assessment using an assessment tool approved by the board. I sent a freedom of information request to the school district asking for a copy of the self assessments for the last four three or four years and also the self assessment tool that you guys decided to self assess yourselves with.
I got a rec an answer about three weeks later. There are no reports. There are no self assessments. And there is no tool that you guys look to or have decided on to self assess your actions. And I think it's important for the public to know that. So how do you hold yourselves accountable? Do you ever self reflect on the actions that you take? Because according to the bylaws, you're required to do that. And according to the bylaws and the FOIA information,
you're not doing that. So my expectation is that with Carol, Beth, and Andrew on the board now, that there will be some accountability and some self assessments in 2023, and they will be made available to the public. I'm looking forward to that. Thank you. Thank you. Our final comment this evening from the public is Liv Serio. Hi. It's weird being on this side of the table. But I just wanted to say really quickly, thank you so much to the board for, approving the amendment to the IA letter of understanding.
Just like at Rochester, Adams, Stony, every Rochester school, the IA teachers are incredibly dedicated to their work, their students. They're incredibly passionate, and they work so hard, just like every other teacher I've had leading up to my high school career. And I just wanna say thank you so much for approving that because they've been working really hard at it. Yeah. And happy holidays. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. That was the final public comment that we have this evening. Next, we have comments from members of the administration followed by members of the board. Madam Vice President,
real quickly. First of all, the flowers on your table are from Liv Serio, if you weren't aware of that. Liv, thank you very much. Every day, we educators get to be inspired by kids. And so as much as we give to you, we give back and we're proud of you and we appreciate you. And you are a compelling wife. So thank you. Thanks to Mr. Wrinkle for hosting us tonight here at Rochester High School. And most importantly, happy holidays to everybody. Appreciate our teachers, our staff, our support staff's hard work, and I hope they enjoy a hard earned winter break here coming up.
Thank you. Good evening. Thank you, Madam Vice President. I would like to extend our sympathy. And Jack, your message tonight for Mr. Mullins makes us all very proud. I'd like to thank personally the ADAMS staff for the care and the love that they extended in Tim's memory, to our greater community for your continuous support. We're very grateful, and we will continue to honor Mr. Mullins and the sunshine he did bring to our lives.
I'd also like for the community to know that on Wednesday, February 8, we are going to hold a safety summit here at Rochester High School. It will be from 06:30 to eight It will be a community partnership summit. We've invited our local and our local leaders, our local police departments, and our mayors are going to be invited in partnership with the Ascension Hospital, RIA and the coalition. It'll be a night of resources. It'll be a night of the safety protocols that we've been working on through our
professional development. And more information will be coming. Again, that will be February 8 from 06:30 to eight with a snow day follow-up February 9, just in case. Wish everyone a safe and happy holiday. Thank you. Matt followed by Dave. Or Dave followed by Matt. I don't know if you okay. It's a little bit quicker. I just want to take a moment to congratulate, Phil Chapman. He's, wore many hats for the district, but his last one was, as one of our grounds workers. He retired on November 30 after forty six years working for the district.
And I just want to thank Phil for his hard work and best wishes on his retirement. Also, just on a similar note, again, a thank you to Ms. Adams for her service, Mr. Pico for his and a congratulations on his retirement, welcoming our new hires, welcoming Beth and Joe, who stuck it out to the end of the meeting this evening. Congratulations. And Christina as well. And on a personal note, I want to thank Beth Davis, for being a true mentor, a help to me in this position and a friend and for all of her years of service in Rochester Schools, the positive impact that she's made on so many,
and a congratulations on her retirement. Thank you. Thank you. Board member comments. I have several things, but some of them may be covered. So I'll take comments from my Board colleagues. Michelle? Okay. Let's see if I can do this without too much feedback. I had the pleasure of attending the No Place for Hate assembly at Reuther, and I was impressed with the students who because they planned the assembly and they ran it, and I thought that they did a great job. I attended the Oakland County School Board Association meeting and dinner for which was just
recently, and that was for new school board members. And I attended with fellow trustee Barb Annis and Jessica Gupta and newly elected trustee Andrew Weaver. As the liaison to the Rochester area youth assistants, I attended their December board meeting and helped with their Kris Kringle fundraiser, and many thanks to the Rochester Downtown Development Authority for offering Raya that opportunity. For Raya, upcoming on January 20 during Fire and Ice, there will be a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for Raya at the Rochester Fire Department from five to eight.
And last but not least, Raya is accepting nominations for their youth recognition awards. These awards recognize area young people who have overcome obstacles to reach their goals or who make a difference in our community by volunteering their time to an individual or an organization. And nominations will be accepted until February 3. Simply Google Rochester Area Youth Assistance, and you'll find their web page. And then on the front, of the website, on the first page, is the nomination form. I also wanted to, just let the community know that,
the board has once again adopted a family from the New Day Foundation to support this holiday season. New Day Foundation is a cancer support organization that provides financial and emotional resources to improve quality of life and treatment outcomes. Our family has an 11 year old boy who has been fighting cancer for many years, but we all know that cancer doesn't just affect the person with it. It affects the whole family. So we're happy to be able to bring a little joy to this family of five by providing gifts from their wish list as well as items that were needed
for just day to day living. And that's my report. Thank you for organizing that this year, Michelle. Appreciate it. Any other board member comments? Barb? I did want to mention I attended the RIA. I guess they had their annual meeting, which I thought was really well done to explain what they've been up to as an organization supporting, at youth risk in our community. And, I'm just really proud of the partnership that our district the strong partnership our district continues to have with Raya. I think that's really crucial, for, including all students in our district.
Additionally, I know this is under, dates in our agenda, but on Saturday, January 14, at 08:30 a. M, the Board of Education will be having our special organizational meeting. And that is, to elect new officers for the upcoming school year or the upcoming new year. At that time, each board member will also be asked to sign a code of cooperation, which can be found in our board bylaws. Additionally, right after that, special organizational meeting, we'll have a Board of Education workshop.
And it will be the fundamentals of board service from nine to four that day. This workshop will provide new and current board members, with a broad overview of the individual role that board trustees in the school district, play in our governance and explore key aspects of board work. Topics will include board responsibilities, school district structure, effective board meetings, legal considerations, and more. Because all of our board members will be attending this workshop, this will be an open meeting.
And we invite any interested members of the community, to attend and observe, and learn as well. And again, that will be on Saturday, January 14. And both meetings will be held in the Stoney Creek High School Media Center. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Any other comments from board members? Andrew. So I do wanna make a comment. I was a little surprised after updates. We didn't get a chance to address the updates, so I do wanna address one of them. As we know, citizens requesting to be on the agenda have to submit a form. There's a process for that.
The DEIPN is a parent group. They have no technical affiliation with the district that's identified anywhere. What is the process that they get to get on the agenda? If there is one, what is that available to all parent groups? So I think that's something we need to address. I would hopefully like to see as we move into the new year that the citizens requesting to be on the agenda gets moved back up into its original spot where it looks like the DEIPN is officially taken. So again, we need to address that there's actual policies and procedures, which again for citizens there is. There's absolutely one.
We all know what it is. But that parent groups, if they are allowed to do that same thing, it needs to be available to all parent groups. We cannot be handpicking certain ones to be allowed to have spots on our agenda and not allow that to be available to everybody. Can I can I ask what specifically what other parent groups you're talking about? Any parent group. Well, tell me specifically. No. I won't tell you specifically because again, it can be available to any parent group. You tell me where the policy is that the DEIPN follow to get on the agenda. I would just like to say Tell me what policy they follow to get on
the agenda. Andrew, we can we can have a conversation about this. I think that, you know, as board members, as you'll find out soon, we sit on various committees. So some of some of us are assigned as you know, we'll be we're assigned to schools. Some of us sit on, committees in the community. For example, RIA, which Michelle spoke about. The PAC committee is one that we're that we are invited to often. DEIPN as well and PTA counsel. So we divide up who attends each of those meetings. I think that as part of the district equity,
statement that we passed, we we made a commitment to, you know and actually, I think that, Joe and I had a discussion about the PAC, representative representative having time to speak at the, meeting regularly as we had been giving the PTA counsel. So we consider these organizations our partners. I don't I don't wanna get into a debate about it right now. So we can stop. Asking. I know I'm simply asking, what is the policy to get on the agenda? I appreciate your question. I appreciate your question. I appreciate your question. We can we can talk about this coming up in January.
And if you have suggestions for changes to our agenda, we would be open to that. Do you have any other comments? So I have a few things to say. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see your hand. I don't know if you want the last one. Same way. Go ahead. Okay. I agree that one one thing that could be really helpful, I think, is, when citizens request placement on the agenda, if we do move that back to the beginning of the meeting like it used to be, if you're taking the extra time and effort to request placement, I think that would be a nice way to show respect to the community members and help them feel heard. I noticed a number of people speaking at public comment too about wanting increased transparency.
I think maybe something we could work on in the coming year is publishing who's on the committees and maybe what the mission statements are of the committees. And when they meet, that could be something that we could work on. And then one final thing is, I noticed a couple of times talking about literacy in our communications in our packet, and that's been brought up, many times throughout the course of the year. And I listened to the Soul to Story podcast, and I think it's hard to listen to that whole that whole podcast and read some of the research and not think that we ought to investigate what's going on
with reading recovery and units of study that we're using and compare that research to some of the other research with science of reading. So I'm wondering if it's possible to maybe put literacy on an upcoming agenda in the next year or hold a special meeting perhaps just about literacy where we can hear all of that research and invite the public to attend and listen to that too. I appreciate the suggestions. So I have three things, that are all kind of big. So the first, I will, this is a shout out to Chad Solinski. Chad is the Rochester High School AP history teacher and,
was recently one of 12 outstanding educators in our district or, nationally to be recognized this year by the organization Honored. He was nominated by three former students and supported by many more. Mister Zielinski is admired for the environment he creates creates in his classroom and for his ability to connect with students. He's affectionately known as mister Z. He has been a teacher at RHS for thirteen years. He is the junior class advisor, the National Social Studies Honor Society sponsor, and has been involved in two book projects to help students pass the AP US
History test, affectionately known as APUSH. We remain extremely proud of Mr. Zielinski, all of our teachers, administrators, and staff members who build and nurture trusted relationships with students that ensure success. Congratulations on that honor. I think it is definitely well deserved. I wanted to respond to mister mister Talluto made the suggestion to embrace our new colleagues as peers. I will say that, a few of us have had a chance already to meet individually with both, Carol, Beth, and Andrew. We have them at the table today. You know,
part of the re the retreat or work session that we have in January is intended for all of us to be there. Normally, this is something that only our new trustees would attend by themselves. I think that we're making an effort, for all of us to attend. So I appreciate that advice and just wanted to update you there. To, Joe Patel. Joe, I, you know, I this is your last meeting. I wanted to say a few words. I I really appreciate getting to know you personally and as a board colleague. Joe was appointed, last summer in 2021 and has served the remainder of this term with,
integrity. He's given us a lot to think about. I think he's, taught us a few things. I know that my perspective has changed and feel like I'm a better board member because I worked with you, Joe. And so I appreciate your service and your time away from your family and from some of your other commitments, including, many late night, work calls overseas, to be here. So I I very much appreciate that. To Kevin Beers. Yes. To Kevin Beers, who couldn't be here tonight. And, believe me, if we would have, if it wouldn't have been been sudden that he couldn't be here,
I think that, all of us would have tried to accommodate. Part of me wonders if he isn't here because he is very humble. And, potentially, he didn't wanna hear some of the things I'm about to say right now. But I do feel like it's really important to say a few things about Kevin. This is he's served seven years on the board. So Kevin was appointed in 2015, to fill a vacancy. He was elected by the community in 2016. '16. And so this is the end of his term right here. I wish I could if I could sing like Kevin, maybe I would have, like, sung a little song here, but no one wants to hear that. So I'll just say a few things about him.
Kevin's favorite word is awesome. His favorite sentence is, I'm debating whether to say this or not. I think I think he'll forgive me. His two favorite sentences, his first one is make it a great day, followed closely by hold on. I have to charge my phone. Sorry about that, Kevin. Kevin has four kids. So at any given moment, he could relate to anything that we were talking about, any curriculum decision, any budget decision that affected kids, anything that we were talking about that affected kids, Kevin had most likely experienced it. At one time, I think for several years,
he had kids in all three buildings. Now it's a little bit streamlined, but still. Kevin has served a leadership role on the board for the past three years. For the past four years, he served first as vice president and then, as president this past year. You know, Kevin was the one who, I think, all of us would agree, clapped the loudest at graduation. He he always addressed every graduate by name when he shook their hands, which really blows my mind, how he did that. But I think more than anything, Kevin really kept the main thing the main thing.
And I appreciated that so much. I think Kevin's superpower is his empathy. I think my colleagues would probably agree with that, and probably the members of the administration and members of the community that knew him would would agree with that. And so I wanna thank Kevin. Thank you for your service. There's not enough hot chocolate at dessert oasis. I don't think for all of us to thank you properly. But I think that all of us will, owe you a hot chocolate to really tell you thank to really tell you thank you. And then finally, I just wanted to say I was so honored to represent the board at,
the memorial service on Saturday for mister Mullins. So one of the first invites that I received when I became a board member was to serve donuts with mister Mullins outside his classroom on a Friday morning. So I got to see what that was all about. And he was always, one of the most supportive teachers that I ran into in any of the buildings. I think Jack's words really said it all about him. I I happen to have the privilege of being a parent of a student in his class. So I really appreciate what you had to say,
Jack. And so I just wanted to end my comments tonight with, something that was shared there at the service because I think it's applicable to every situation, to all of us, to our service. This is a quote from Steve Jobs, actually. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
So rest in peace to mister Mullins. Thank you to Joe. Thank you to Kevin for your service. And congratulations to mister Zielinski. And Kevin's email is still still active through the end of the year. He's at kbeersrochester. K12. Mi dot us. If anyone wants to send him a thank you note, I'm sure he'd appreciate that. Announcements. December 23 is a full day of school. Winter recess starts at the end of the day. I 100% apologize to Caroline Bullo because I got in an argument with her this morning and told her she didn't have school that day. So, Caroline, sorry. I was wrong. January 9,
classes resume. January 14 is our special organizational meeting followed by our workshop at Stony Creek High School in the Media Center. January 16, no school MLK day. And I am now losing my voice. Our final item on the agenda, item 11, is the, administration of the oath of office. So this is for trustee Jessica Gupta as well as trustee elect Carol Beth Lecuey and Andrew Weaver. This is, their service begins 01/01/2023. We are required to administer administer this oath and,
have a notary sign the certification. Our own Dave Murphy happens to be a notary, so he has volunteered to do this for us tonight. Thank you. Alright. So if you could each we're gonna do this all at once. So if you could each raise your right hand and repeat after me. I do solemnly solemnly swear I do solemnly swear. That I will support the constitution of The United States That I will support the constitution of The United States. And the constitution of this state. And the constitution of this state. And the constitution of this state. And that I will faithfully discharge the duties.
That I will faithfully discharge the duties. Of the office of the member of the board of education. Of the of the office of the member of Rochester Community Schools according to the best of my ability. Of Rochester Community Schools to the best of my ability. Thank you. Congratulations. And there's a form for each of you to sign prior to being notarized. Thank you. I'll take a motion to adjourn the meeting at 09:41PM. Moved by Barb, seconded by Joe. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. That's a six zero vote. Meeting adjourned.