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I call this meeting of the Board of Education to order the board would like to welcome the audience and thank you for attending viewers may watch Board of Education meetings and board committee meetings live at tcaps.net backboard Bo meetings may be viewed on demand at the same address please rise
and join Miss Parker's second grade class at chero Elementary in the Pledge of Allegiance [Music] unit States of America and to the Republic for which it
stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all right we are moving to the review approval portion of the agenda um I do know that there
was at least a technical change as well um I believe there was two policies that were both on consent and discussion uh 5202 5206 um so I would like to strike both
of those with consent no other changes needed because they are already on discussion is there any other changes to the agenda I'd like to remove 545
546 and 5707 okay um can you repeat though 5405 546 5707 okay
545 will become discussion item 10c 17 546 10 c19 and 57071 [Music] C20 it should be 5 46 should be number
18 yeah sorry 57 so 54068 5707 thank you any other changes if not can I get a motion to approve as amended I to
dis amended second second uh it was tight but we'll give it to Josie here although Ohi because there's a change can we do um trusty Pat yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty bird yes trusty Moon Moore
yes trusty Raymond or I'm sorry trusty Schmidt and trusty Newman Bale yes motion Caris um okay moving on to recognition def to Dr yes so I'm going to go ahead and uh introduce uh um our high school
principal at West High School Joe esper who's going to talk about our National Merit Finance all right good afternoon I'm going to give you a little background on what we're recognizing today and then I'll call our two seniors up uh so this afternoon we get the opportunity to
celebrate a pretty extraordinary accomplishment um we're recognizing both mine buildo and Jackson Hawk stutler both seniors of Trevor City West for achieving the very prestigious status as a National Merit finalist uh so just a little background on that I'm sure
everyone knows this but in case you don't uh each year there's about 1.6 million high school students uh that enter the National Merit Scholarship program either on purpose or on accident because they take the National Merit uh scholarship PSAT usually at their high
schools at West and Central we do that in October of junior year um so out of that um the mer competition pulls a pretty talented pool of individuals that they Nam commended students and then those students have to go on uh and
confirm their performance in the SAT but also uh submit information about their academic record it has to be impeccable uh and among the best in the country they have to get an endorsement from their school and they have to submit a pretty comprehensive application showcasing their achievements so of that
initial $1.6 million students uh typically less than 15,000 uh are named semi-finalists that advance to the finalist standing so we're very fortunate to have two inaps this year mine buildo and Jackson Hawk I'm GNA ask them both to come up at this
time so they can stand um and have eyes on them which both of them do not like we'll read a few things about them indig to come right over here okay so first we'll highlight mine BW uh meline has consistently
demonstrated Excellence throughout her journey and teaps uh her foundational years were at Central grade and Willow Hill up through the tag program and then to West Middle School uh and then at tror City West Senor High meline has truly shined and
been able to dive into some of her interest and passion so academically speaking since this is a mayor competition we talk about some of their academic record uh she's she's tackled 12 honors courses and 10 college board advanced placement courses including AP
Kul and Lane at West Senor High uh wead are also in the college Kel and differential equations class this year um and has definitely um Fe her intellectual curiosity and problem solving abilities throughout her years
at West theond the classroom meline is quite a leader around West Senior High she was Captain of our volleyball team um definitely inspired and motivated her teammates and she is the president of Our National Honor Society which is the biggest student group at West Senior
High so one of the things we like to do uh when we have this unique opportunity at Central or west and the student is named a National Merit finalist we get a few uh remarks from their teachers so a few of mine's teachers um wanted to share these things uh Julene Jackall
said mn's thinking of problem solving is consistently ahead of everyone else including the teacher he's extremely thoughtful of the content and has exceptional executive functioning skills Bridget Sharon and language arts observed meline is the type of student that comes around once only every few
years she has intrinsic motivation that sets her apart from her peers uh although she's naturally gifted both academically and athletically she strives to work Beyond her natural gift she's a remarkable she will be a remarkable sailor reference to her
future plans Miss bcho Praises her exceptional linguistic skills in Spanish Mr ready emphasized her maturity perfectionism and incredible kindness and her counselor Miss Lee said meline is a natural leader both confident and
dedicated admired and respected by her teachers and peers she has a commitment to Excellence Keen sensitivity to others and an intense desire to learn at the highest level so we know mine's family is very proud of her parents Audra and Nathan are here as well as her brother Nolan running from tennis practice to
get here um definitely their support on the journey uh has been a big part of this as well and now meline sets her sites on a new challenge after West attending the US Naval Academy um her dedication to service an unwavering pursuit of Excellence when will undoubtedly serve her well in her
next chapter as she serves our country so mine on behalf of travor City West and our entire staff and the community we congratulate you on this remarkable achievement [Applause]
now you get to stay up here always say nice things about Jackson again uh so next we're we're happy to recognize Jackson hawler who has also earned the prestigious title of National Merit finalist Jackson's was Journey began at the monory Children's
House uh and then the West Middle School culminating in a great four years at Trevor City West Senior High um also an outstanding academic record one thing I will point out though is like with National Merit students is no formula you know so it's not uh kids that took
all the same courses or kids that have all the same interests I would say both jackon and meline will both outstanding have taken very different paths at West and kind of throughout High School um and Jackson's case had nine honors courses seven very rigorous AP courses
including AP Kelk and AP chem is considered one of the more difficult APS that teaps offers but uh Jackson's talents go far beyond the classroom he's a leader on our TC Titans Rob team team 3767 if you stop by Trevor City Central
on Friday or Saturday check it out um the robotics team under Jackson's leadership has has achieved not only state level recognition uh but worlds which he now believes is the standard talk to Jackson and Jack and some of the guys from the team they're already talking about like we need to do this to
get to stes we need to do this get to the worlds they have a great plan for this weekend uh at TC Central and they had a great plan last uh the other weekend at Lake City but that's a testing to Jackson's leadership his Innovative thinking and his ability to inspire those around him so a few um
notes from Jackson's teachers U Miss Junkin wall says Jackson has usually solved the problem before I finish reading it uh he often finds connections and is an excellent collaborator which is one of those qualities you have to use uh if you're familiar with how robotics works it's a very collaborative
Endeavor um I mean to that end Jackson and his crew last week I think it was Wednesday was the first night they got to practice in the new innovation and manufacturing center um those aren't open to the public yet but ours is far enough ahead that the teams are able to practice there so they've invited I think they've
had all Rapids there already green Spire uh the Raptors from Trevor City Central are coming over um so there's always that collaborative element with with Jackson uh his counsil miss cam added Jackson is a leader he's highly intelligent he's very personable um
instrumental and growing the robotics program K Myers highlighted Jackson is driven brilliant creative as work ethic and problem solving skills are far beyond his peers his talent shines especially in robotics and the robotics coaches and
Professional Engineers have stated that Jackson's CAD skills and creative problem solving ability is well beyond theirs and Dan R who is one of our well is our lead Mentor for the robotics program and just a few few words to say
about Jackson he said Jackson epitomizes the T Cap's core value of success for all by demonstrating just how much learning as possible through Superior programs and extracurricular activities he's maximized his full potential at Trevor City West he's taken learning to
a higher plane by digging in and actively learning skills both from the formal classroom and his time in robotics his Knowledge and Skills combined with the ability to apply to a technical problem achieves achieve Superior results through his leadership he's extended this opportunity to the
rest of the robotics team he's already performing at a cleic level as a senior in high school so there's there was actually one other quote that I didn't put in here but I was just talking to one of the 10th grade teachers the other day and they had seen the press release they knew this was coming up and U they
said not to put it in the presentation so I did but they they um they said you know I was teaching a class that was probably like the one class he wasn't super interested in and I noticed one time I was walking around and he wasn't actually doing what he supposed to be doing he was like sketching out something for robotics but I just let
him go because it was like I couldn't even comprehend what he was doing it was so Advanced had let him go with that um definitely have the respect of your teachers um also Jackson certainly couldn't be here without the the support of his family his parents Tara and Brad
and his siblings Jonah and Finn Jonah has already graduated from Trevor City West uh Jackson has number of college acceptances and I believe is did you make the final Y and he is committing to the University of
[Applause] Michigan his taist will be well utilized there uh certainly connects with his interest and he's talked about the technology and the items they have available there that he thinks he can really engage in during his college Years so we know he will continue to
excel so Jackson your dedication intelligence and leadership are an inspiration to all of us we're incredibly proud to have you represent Trevor City West your [Applause] highight get a photo at you stand I
know is we're [Music] [Music] so we're not part of something one more round of applause [Applause]
[Music] okay congratulations again um moving on to uh public comment uh I assume there is public comment so I'm just going to go ahead and say the board is set aside this time and individuals addressing the board shall have one
opportunity to speak you shall be limited to 3 minutes individuals should not make personal attacks unrelated to actions of in the school system and we strongly encourage common courtesy and constructive feedback detailed rules and procedures including a complaint process are outlined in board policy 2504
Tammy Scott Richards SC Rich Green Lake Township I'd like to first of all them two students that spoke CL school just want you to know I'm praying for them I'd like you guys look up the story of Jordan B
marig sad story I wonder if these books are in the library white Roy gender clear all boys AR Blue I wonder if any of those bols had anything to do story the other thing is the Schoolboard
candidates have put in applications I would like them to be put out on the public so the public can read them over before you guys V on and I would like all eight candidates to be able to speak keep their mind from the school inste being cut
down 3 minutes is much to listen to thank you you see web even good to see you all uh I'm Reverend Lucy wter web and I'm a local spiritual leader here as well as the small business owner in travor city and
a parent as well I've known Jesse Forester for about four years now and I've worked alongside her um in our work with the salt Coalition and it was in fact at a teaps meeting where we met um about four years ago uh we were here
together at the other building speaking about the importance of creating a school community that honors the diversity the equity the inclusion and the belonging of all children all parents all people with do School community and since then I've witnessed Jessica serve as a powerful leader in
our um in our community not only through our shared work with ass salt Coalition but also in her own faith community uh and when she served on the Human Rights Commission and as a volunteer I think one of her greatest strengths is that she listens and then leads she listens and then leads and she
listens and then leads over and over and over again I've watched her take the time to really slow down and do the important work of gathering information listening to the community and Discerning a path collectively before taking action and she doesn't get stuck there sometimes we get stuck in the
listening mode she listens and then she has the capacity to not only move forward and act from that listening place but take powerful uh action and lead to bring others alongside her in that action on behalf of the community she has the ability to see the
big picture and build a relationship when it really matters she doesn't shy away from connecting to those who will help move the work forward and I trust that she will continue to listen and to lead in her service um on the TCAP school board to listen to parents to
listen to children to listen to teachers and to our community as a whole her legal background gives her key skills to be able to navigate the many UH responsibilities uh that you must tend while on the board from managing properties to budgets to any possible litigation that may arise and lastly
she's a parent within the gcap school system and it feels so important to me to continue to prioritize the leadership of those who are most directly impacted by the decisions of this body uh to be a part of that decision making process I trust you will continue to make decisions that are in the interest
of not only her own children but all the families in this district and put uh community and Education First in her leadership I encourage you today to appoint Jessica Forester to the vacant position on the taap boort thank you Anna
matley good evening thank you for giving me the opportunity to read my comments and to kind of talking suppor of Jessica Forester I too have had the honor of being able to serve next to her in various Community engagements from a volunteers perspective I value the commitment that each of you have as our
school district for meeting the needs of all students part of your success as a board is your ability to listen to evaluate to make decisions and move forward as a team I'm a parent of two adult children who graduated from West High School in 20 and 2022 I've been a volunteer since the
fall of 2014 as part of a weekly School mentoring program at Travers Height Elementary and the past two years I've also been a volunteer Young Life leader at Traver City High School each Monday yes Jessica comes with a solid professional resume and a demonstrated passion for seeing that everyone in our
community has an opportunity to thrive she Champions the principle that when the least in our community Thrive then we all do better her community activism is firsthand as she brings her time her talent and her treasure she has a
realistic understanding of the needs of families in the school district along with the importance of education for the future success of all students Jessica has compassion and is an authentic Communicator where people feel heard with sincerity and respect she builds
consensus and problem solving by acknowledging all stakeholders and their competing priorities Jessica uses this engagement to help facilitate the best solution possible I've been able to serve by her side during times when challenging the status quo was not only
the right thing to do but was also not extremely popular her unwavering Integrity her Grace Under Pressure and her leadership was courage for many part of her Integrity is pursuing successful long-term Solutions and not quick fixes
for complex problems I have no doubts that Jessica will be an excellent addition to your board and her positive impa impact will have a lasting reach as I like to say Jessica's a deal thank you Ann Odell
hello my name is an Odell I retired from teaching from the Franken moth School District I presently live in Lela County I'm here before you to share a bit about Jesse Forester who is a finalist for the open seat on the teaps board of
education I presently serve on the salt core team with Jessy salt being an acronym for Spiritual activist leading together I would first like to share a little bit about the principal who hired me in Frankenmuth she eventually became our
superintendent and then she continued on to become the mayor of Franken Mo during her time as PR as principal and superintendant her motto was a place for all kids the reason that I share that is
because Jesse displays so many of those traits that this woman exhibited I have the utmost respect for everything that Jesse puts her heart and soul into Jesse is someone with very strong moral
principles her listening skills are readily apparent the moment you meet her and she listens to all sides of an issue we've worked on many different areas in salt and some of those issues
could sometimes get messy and complicated but that's where Jesse's patience and perseverance to reach a consensus with everyone's input shines through I always get a sense from
working with Jesse that at the end of the day the conclusion felt like it was just the right thing to do and she will always have the students best interest in mind in addition to all those qualities that I mentioned that
Jesse exemplifies I've also observed her as a very dedicated mother of three children if elected to serve on the teaps board of education I know that she will always strive to create an environment that
encompasses a place for all kids I would like to thank all of you for your hard work and your dedication that you display by serving on the board thank you Jennifer
butin hello MERS my name is Jennifer botin I'm a um travor City resident and a local business owner a community volunteer and my most important job is Mom to six-year-old twins they just turned six
who started kindergarten in the teap system this year at Willow Hill Elementary my kids are not in the same class as Jesse forester's kids um and we didn't meet on campus we met outside of
campus at a random workout class but when she found out that I had kids entering the school system at teaps she offered her insights and offered to become a friend and I think that that's just one quality that exemplifies
embodying what you hope for in an elected official and somebody who represents you someone who's open and willing to meet people where they are where I was as a mom just entering the school system in a type of environment that's totally different from when I was
in kindergarten with safety regulations that um that have been implemented because the world has been changing with the way parents and teachers communicate and parents are allowed to communicate with each other all of it feels almost like a different language learning a
totally different way of being and I've been able to count on Jesse this whole year as an ally and as somebody who's able to really thoughtfully help me navigate the beginning of my kids education in the system and it's not
always easy when you have kindergarteners who have fights on the playground or miscommunications with their teachers and every time something has come up she's really listened deeply she's offered creative and thoughtful
insights that account for many different perspectives and I know that her advice is advice that I've been able to count on and I think that um I know that you probably have other candidates who are really qualified for this job and um I'm
grateful to all of you for your leadership in the district I just think it speaks volumes when you're able to have somebody sit on a school board who is experiencing every day with her own children what we're going through as parents of young children um going through the teap system so for those and
for all the other more eloquently Express reasons that other people in the room have already shared um i' urge you to please consider voting for Jesse for vac school thank you very much Julie delen hi hi my name is Reverend Julie
deline I'm the senior pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Travers City I am also a mom to a TCAP student at Eastern Elementary um I am grateful it looks like you have four very strong candidates um for the open position I'm here today to support Jesse Forester uh
Jesse was one of the first people that I met when I moved to Traverse City about a year ago uh our church is part of the salt Coalition uh where Jesse is the lead organizer and I when I met her I was just just blown away by her
intelligence and by her energy by her pursuit of justice and equity and inclusion in this community um as as mentioned before she's a great listener and she took the time to really listen to me and uh as we imagine what could be
together I think she would bring a fresh perspective to the board um she has an excellent ability to analyze challenges and move people to Solutions um she has an ability as has been said to listen well to others
including those who might disagree with her um all while holding to her own integrity and values so thank you so much Beth Strauss hello I too am here to support Jesse Foresters um domination so my name
is Beth stra and I live in travor city with my husband and my two children um and we currently attend Willow Hill I have two children at Willow Hill so I do appreciate the opportunity to share my insights and express my strong support for Jessica my family and I relocated to Travers City about three years ago and I
met Jesse while we were volunteering in my son's kindergarten class from the very start she welcome me with open arms offering ideas on how to integrate into the community as well as nav ating my children's set up in at Willow Hill over time I witnessed Jesse firsthand
unwavering her unwavering acceptance of all whether she was speaking at the church accompanying a woman who recently overcame homelessness at a doctor's appointment to advocate for her care or simply just being president School handing out lollipops with me and um
participating in classroom activities she definitely represents empathy integrity and a thoughtful approach in all that she does this year I faced a very small personal challenge where I learned my son was struggling with reading fluency and stamina which led to his situational
anxiety mornings became difficult for us where he would say mom my tummy hurts mom my head hurts please don't send me to school I don't want to go to school and all of this was just a result of him needing a slight tweak to his learning needs when I when I received this information I was immediately
overwhelmed and panicked of course as a mother um what interventions do I take how do I engage with teachers effectively am I asking too much of Willow Hill am I asking too little I don't know where do I go for support so the first call that I made was to Jesse
in a moment of panic she said let's go get some coffee let's talk we sat down and she listened I feel like I'm a good mom but I'm certainly not a good teacher which I've learned um but I was able to strategize with her and understand how I can help break down some things for my
son to get him the support that he needs needs Jesse just sat there and listened she understood and through this conversation she helped me understand what teachers face every day our educators are nothing short of superheroes in my opinion they balance the needs of diverse students of 25 to
30 sometimes in a classroom um and on top of the needs of the students they're also balancing the needs of all the parents um Jesse helped me understand that walked me through that and she she kind of taught me how to push back where it was needed but also allow some Grace
where that was needed as well just due to the overload um of the teachers so to this day my son is back on track with reading as 20 second okay the moment I re so that moment reaffirmed already what I know that many of the the
children in teaps need more intervention they need more one-on-one help and they need someone to advocate for them we need to work together um and I believe that Jesse will be the advocate Champion for both children and teachers to Inspire and motivate and uplift our school with that I sincerely urge the
board to you your time is up new voice okay thank you Erica Master Monica hi thank you so much I have had the privilege over the past few months to co-lead with Jesse on a community project I've been able to witness
firsthand how she leads here are a few things I've seen first Jesse does not shy away from a complex decision or issue she leans in with curiosity asking questions to further her knowledge and understanding she does this graciously in oneon-one interaction interactions
and seamlessly in a group setting she looks at things from all sides and encourages other perspectives in order to make the best decision secondly she is passionate about seeking a solution where everyone threats this includes fellow fellow board members teachers administrative staff
and students as a mom of three young children who are in the TCAP school assistant she has vested interest in the well-being of this District she will bring a fresh and current perspective to the table there's so many other qualities that Jesse would bring to this board but I'd like to touch on how I
feel as a leader working alongside Jessie as we've been planning brainstorming hashing things out and discussing strategy I have never felt more empowered as a leader what we are trying to accomplish is something far bigger than I have ever done I'm confident bringing my ideas
knowing that be heard and considered I feel empowered in my skills and abilities I believe that she can bring that to this board as each board member as well thank you Betty Dickinson hello my my name is Reverend buddy Dickinson I'm a spiritual leader
in our community and a nonprofit leader as well as a business owner and I'm also a teaps parents with two children at little Hill Elementary School I'm here tonight to wholeheartedly support Jessica Forester for the open position for the school board as a parent deeply
invested in the well-being and future of our schools I believe Jesse is exactly the kind of leader that we need her extensive leadership experience from serving on Church leadership teams to Leading with salt has equipped her with the unique ability to gather people across diverse
perspectives she's also served as the chair of the Traverse City Human Rights Commission and led in various innerfaith spaces demonstrating her commitment to peacing and Community Building as a community organizer she's had one-on-one conversations with over a
hundred individuals in the last couple years just think about that several of these people have mentioned that as well and when she does as many of um her Advocates here have recognized she listens deeply she listens well she seeks to understand needs and build
Bridges this has given her a pulse on the heartbeat of our community enabling her to Advocate effectively for the underserved she's a thoughtful listener and empathetic Problem Solver she's able to navigate complex issues with both Clarity and confidence her heart for
inclusion and her commitment to making travor City schools safe welcoming for every child to thrive is undeniable with three children at teaps Jesse's actively involved volunteering as a lunch buddy at Willow Hill Elementary and engaging in community um with many
Faith leaders as well she identifies real needs within our schools and works towards thoughtful Community centered Solutions her background in law strengthens her ability to approach challenges with discernment and articulate complex
issues Jessica's strengths lie in her ability to empathize with diverse pers perspectives and Foster spaces where all voices are heard she balances competing concerns and strategic planning with wisdom and Grace her proven track record
as a community organizer Peacemaker and bridge builder makes her an invaluable asset to our district I'm confident Jesse's leadership will enrich our school board and shape two caps into a thriving Community for all students so I urge you to consider her for this
important role thank you Rachel vilia good evening my name is Rachel vent migua a T's parent two kidos at Eastern and a resident and I'm here to express my support for my good friend Jesse Foresters candidate um candidacy
for the open school board position as an attorney a dedicated Interfaith Community leader organizer and most importantly a parent of three teep students Jesse brings a deep commitment to Integrity collaboration and Student Success Jesse has spent years working to
bring people together whether through her legal legal expertise her role in the salt Coalition or her service on the TC Human Rights Commission she understands that leadership isn't about competition it's about working together for the good of our students teachers
and families like my own that's exactly the mindset we need on this board she knows firsthand the Deep strengths and challenges of our district she has volunteered in our schools and engaged with families of all walks of life she recognizes the incredible dedication of our teachers and staff while
acknowledging the critical issues we must address her ability to listen problem solve and lead with compassion will make her such an asset for this board she is one of the most caring open-minded and compassionate individuals I have the pleasure of knowing most importantly Jesse is
committed to making sure every child in teaps has the opportunity to thrive she's not running for personal gain or politics she's running because she's a Community member and a parent who cares and has the qualifications to succeed and that is the exactly the type of leadership our schools need I strongly
encourage you to appoint Jessica Forester to the teeps Board of Education thanks so much for listening bill weer Bill wner Travers City and um um you can find most of our my stuff
at down at the bottom here TC family.org check it out if you haven't uh this Proclamation from morality that I've handed out tonight is definitely on there and I'd like anyone to read this and dispute these statistics on here um
all people are created in God's image and should be treated with love and respect but all behaviors aren't equal and the behaviors on here it's actually promoting immorality and high-risk Behavior check it out this is not
something to be promoted one word on the human right commission that came out of Germany and um they had a human rights something I don't know the exact name but came
right out of uh Germany and they were trying to explain why homosexuals were born that way that sort of thing and that's a way to advance that cause that's specifically there's you can read it on my website look up um
Germany Dr Scott live that sort of stuff I'll mention again uh from tattle Michelle Howard she mentioned again uh she's complaining about book Benny but she has 800 books moting
homosexuality and four on the other side compassionate view why are these books being hidden from young people in the schools they're only seeing one side complaining about book bang same thing with TC West TC Central 500 400 book no
books on the other side uh at least tattle has 1 half of 1% showing the truth um this is book Banning book burning that happened in Germany that's when they burnt the data on uh one guy
quoted a historian he said not 10% of the people leading Hitler's Germany were sexually normal that's what they were burning because they didn't want that information out and again those who are so-called allies
of this movement this is Hitler's Germany Dr Lively's book I hope some of you downloaded it seeing with a young man promoting this to Children there you not allies your enemies of these children when you promote it and the
last ones Running Out of Time an Oxford study this is on your agenda finds transgender surgery increasing depression suici side ideation rates uh i' look up that article uh before this guy took his life he wrote he would
never have done it if it hadn't been tricked into this movement thank you Mr wear your time's up thank you Darcy Pian hi it's good to be back I haven't been here for a while I've been on a number of boards in the area I teach a life skill CL in called salt so I was
kind of surprised to see another salt um ours is seven areas of life training and we do that every Monday morning so I was in the jail today um I did send a letter to the board and I hope that you read it and I just want to give a different
perspective here tonight um Mr Andrew Raymond will be missed um I appreciate the opportunity to offer an opinion regarding his successor for the remaining time of his term here on the board according to a to a majority of
current school board members three attributes were considered especially important experience in finance I haven't heard that yet uh connection to elementary schools and someone who communicates well with others also someone who brings a unique perspective
uh to me a unique perspective is is subjective but that's okay um I'm an advocacy not an act activist um and I really believe that more importantly here the candidate should have the ability to fill Mr Raymond's remaining
two years without taking time to undergo a process of instruction and training Andor training during the interviewing process the tcaps board members gave Mr Scott Hardy five votes I believe he possesses the attribute the board is
seeking at this time I um and I believe he would step into the role immediately due to his background experience and knowledge of the role of what his responsibilities are as a teaps board member I realize he may Garner some
criticism due to his involvement in other local committees however being one that's been on a lot of committees can I please everyone all the time he is a good choice the teaps board
members gave Mr Peter Mooney four votes he is also a viable good candidate I believe Mr Mooney would step into Mr Raymond's shoes rather quickly and with his experience bring valuable schools to the teaps board I do not know him personally but uh his background
experience and knowledge of the school district is helpful for solving problems and finding Solutions he seems to be in a position to take on the task and being an AS set to this board now and into the future I trust you will think about not
only the here and now but the future of the teaps board an election will take place in 2024 board members I am a proud parent of two kids that attended this school West Junior High and West Senior High I
have 14 grandchildren that I'm very proud of and I care very deeply about children and I thank the school board for their service Mary van valon i' already emailed you about my support for
Jessica but since the last meeting I have been thinking a lot of those students who spoke and I want you to know that my expectation of the school board and
everybody who interacts with students is that every student will be so respected every student will feel connected and every student will feel
safe thank you I don't have a pen so I didn't write anything it's justel Marcelo betti uh good evening my name is Marcelo betti and I'm here tonight to speak in support of Jessica Forster's candidacy for the open board
seat I am an attorney uh with a local nonprofit organization that provides uh lowcost or free immigration legal services to lowincome individuals and the reason I mentioned this is because it was through a work rated matter that
I first met Jessica several years ago during the time when she was a member of the Trevor City Human Rights Commission at that time one of my clients was experiencing unfair treatment by a local government agency and I reached out to the commission uh for help and the
commission and Jessica in particular stepped up and helped mediate a negotiation with the agency and thus helped protect my client's rights I was very impressed by her problem solving skills and more importantly her commitment to improving our community
and protecting some of its most vulnerable members that was the first but not the only time that I have seen Jessica working to advance Justice and the public good uh in addition to other matters that she's handled in her role as a human rights commissioner Jessica
has dedicated extensive time to serving as a volunteer as a teacher and as a leader within our community this is a person who is deeply committed to the public interest and who is willing and able to use her qualifications to advance the common good all while
displaying utmost integrity and compassion um as a father of school-aged children I would be very very happy to see Jessica become a part of this board because I am confident that she has the skills and the demeanor to Be an Effective board member thank
you conclud sorry all right thank you that completes public comment um so moving on to the first discussion item which is the election of uh an interim board so the board uh this this vacancy
just some technical details this vacancy will uh or this appointment will expire on December 31st 20 26 um just highlighting some of the things said in previous meetings this the candidate pool was very strong and we really appreciate everyone for
applying it does make our jobs a little bit harder but I think that's something we do appreciate um after we did a little bit of the process where we had an executive committee we we called a meeting to narrow the candidates down uh to no more
than five we ended up with four because of the tied vote process um um and we also set out a list of kind of rules of how we're going to do today to try and make it uh so we knew what we're getting into before we got to the table we then
posted all of the packets for the finalists online and encouraged the public to to provide any feedback that they wished and plenty of feedback was received so we do appreciate the engagement um in this and and every
candidate received support and uh it again go to the quality of the candidate poll when we uh went through the rule process if you didn't watch the meeting we chose that there would be 5 minutes for each candidate to speak there will be that you do not have to use the five
minutes it will not be seen negatively if you uh or less um but we did have five minutes for the candidates to speak the board will we uh asked to only ask clarifying questions um and the responses will be limited to one minute
there will be as soon as we're done with that there will be we'll move straight to voting uh you will we will be voting for the top up to the top three candidates the F the first uh Place vote will get three points from that uh
trustee second place two third place one you cannot vote for a person more than once however you do not have to vote for more than one candidate so you can vote for one two or three candidates um if there is a two-way tie we will just vote vote for the candidate
we support um if there is a three-way tie we will vote again with just the three board members rather than the four if there is a four-way tie we haven't discussed that we will deal with it then
um the uh the appointed candidate will be invited to sit um at the table uh there will not be a voting member because they do have to take a oath of office that will not be performed until after the meeting um so that I believe is the clarification of everything
discussed up until this point um if there's no clarifying questions on the process then we can just move to the first statement which is Jessica good evening thank you very much for the honor of being a for the Board
of Education um I'm honored by the support tonight I try to not tear up hearing all of that and to be one of the among of these four finalists it is really wonderful to see how much care um we have for our school Community we all
want as best for our students and it makes me very proud to be a teaps parent and that pride and desire for working towards what is best for each child to reach their individual level of achievement is a core reason why I would be honored to serve on the board of
education as has been stated I am the parent of three young kids all of whom are within the teap system and we are at the very beginning stages of their education we will be within the TCAP system the next 11 to 13 years and for this reason I am deeply invested in what
happens now within the school system as it will directly impact my family for the next decade or more and I'm not only invested in the success of t but I am an asset to the board of education's ability to fulfill its responsibility to support Dr van Wagner
And the tcaps community I recognize that public education is immensely complicated and that the decisions Weighing on the district are heavy and layered I recognize that the district feels the impact of budget constraints all while trying to build an equitable
mission-based budget that balances the need of our very economically diverse student body but as you see from my experience and from the kind words that were spoken today I do not shy away from the hard things I do not shy away from
weighing into the tension through compassion with the goal to work towards the best uh resol the best situation given the current circumstances I bring a fresh perspective to this board but one that is rooted in experience as an attorney I
am experienced in finding Solutions in complex and layered situations I am experienc in reviewing regulatory policy to apply to help my clients come into um into compliance with state and federal laws I actually enjoy policy sign me up
for that stuff because of this experience when I see a complex problem my thought process goes to the larger strategic question I don't get stuck in the weeds because yes we have to solve the problems that come across our desks but we must be focused on the larger
Strategic Mission in addition my experience on the city of Trevor City's Human Rights Commission particularly while I served as the chair on that commission as as valuable to the board because I am experienced in running a public board cooperating with staff and recognizing the
responsibilities and the limits of serving on a board within the public sector I am experienced in bringing Divergent views together to build a cohesive Strategic Mission my role as a lead Community organizer for the interfaith organization salt which has
been mentioned multiple times today has allowed me to build deep CommunityWide relationships that have helped us further our mission to make this community a place where everybody can Thrive the relationships are valuable to me serving on the board of education as
we continue to consider what's best for our teaps community including teachers and staff and including our students and programs like the student support network I thrive in a place we're building relationships listening and advocating for what is best for our
neighbors is the focus I lead through intentional relational equity and the results are clear ass salt has made massive strides to building a more Equitable community and empowering leaders as we go as a tcaps board of
education trustee this is what you can expect from me you can expect me to lead through relationship you can expect me to lean into the difficult conversations and not shying away from the tension all with the goal of supporting our superintendent and setting policy that
helps our students Thrive I will work hard I will act with humility and compassion I will listen with a goal to understand and I will keep my focus on working with all of you collaboratively so that we can fulfill T's mission to
support every student on their academic journey I thank you very much for your service to our community and I hope for the honor to serve alongside you thank you thank you um I believe we do if there's any clarifying questions we do it by
candidate before we move on it's probably the easiest way um so is there any clarifying questions from board member and just to be clear when we laid this out to board members um there was an expectation of not needing to ask questions so if you do not get any questions please do not see that as a negative um it was just purely the way
we trying to make sure that if there's anything that's key clarifying that we could ask that so is there any hi Jessica thank you for um speaking and applying um just a just a couple of quick questions have you um ever had a
chance to review our budget I have yes okay and uh one of the things that we're faced with as board members is the possibility of having um a much lower budget you know in given years and not being able to provide um in that kind of
situation um what what kind of viewpoint or strategy would you see using for that yeah thank you trusty bird yes the um the unique context of this District um with the geographical scope and as I said with the
economically diverse student body that we have um the constraints of State funding I hear I also I also reviewed the um study session from October to really understand what you all are facing um and my goal and what I would think is that as we set into strategic
planning that we want to continue to allocate the resources that we have available to us to meet our strategic plan and then also my role as an advocate and my experience as an advocate would help to advocate for more funding like CommunityWide funding support this um the student support
network like I mentioned before um advocating even at the state level um so I believe that there's an opportunity for us to support both from a strategic standpoint and setting policy to really focus on those strategic um goals that this this board's going to set within the next few months um and also
advocating as much as possible for more funding um so that our students can Thrive thank you I did for uh forget to say that we were limiting response to one minute but you nailed it anyway thank you for that um any other
clarifying questions I just wanted to ask about the time commitment we had a question about that um to all candidates and I I did see your response uh and I wondered if it if it exceeds um 15 to 20 hours per
month how would you handle that I believe and also my answer I said that um I recognize that there's times where it will exceed that so I would absolutely be able to handle that um if I am appointed to this board this is going to be a main my main priority um I
can balance the work that I do with all along with the responsibilities of this board um and I would put um my full heart into it um and and to balance that and um get a lot of support for child care so thank you for the question I
appreciate it any other clarifying questions thank you thank you um the next candidate is Scott H um I put together some remarks I don't think it will take five minutes to do do this but let me before I get into the
remarks let me state that my name is Scott Hardy long resident of Travis city um I went through the entire kecap system as did my wife I have four grandkids at Westwoods Elementary I have a daughter who's a teacher at Westwoods
Elementary and we talk elementary school a lot because of the frustrations and also the Exemplar performance of my grandkids so I'd like to talk them here at the meeting first and foremost let me thank the teaps board and administration for all
you do the students and parents in this area uh public education is really at the heart of any successful community and we have a school system here we can be proud of as to this appointment this is a two-year replacement term which is
completely unlike endorsing a prospective new board member for a full four-year term we're about to embark on what may become a very volatile time for public education and that new board members going to need to be up to speed immediately this could all happen
quickly and will require a collaborative and informed response from all of our teaps board members federal government is about to is going to force the state and intern tabs to possibly deal with the reduction in the general fund revenues that you
all have I was on the board previously when a very hard financial choices were presented to the board and we had to make some difficult decisions for example closing and selling Old Mission School was presented to the
entire board as one of several difficult choices while I was on the finance committee chair of the finance committee do we continue to spend well over $1 million a year to support around 160 students on Old Mission Peninsula or do
re do redirect that $1 million plus into curriculum and instruction for the other 9,000 students we were teaching at the time um additionally we could actualize another 1.2 million from the sale of
that property that we could reinvest in those same classrooms the entire board based partly on recommendations from our financial team chose to sell it was a very tough choice and a choice that this board may also face in a different fashion in the
very near future I strongly believe that most of the Improvement we need to see in student performance will start with classroom teachers and their administrators whether it's test scores behavioral issues student apathy or even cell phones we need to involve those who
are being asked to implement those policies what and what they think will work as board members it's not our role to involve ourselves in that process but we can ask our loan director Port the superintendent to encourage Dan and
Jesse to make sure we we have regularly asked classroom teachers for their opinion lastly let me say thank you to the other candidates whove volunteered to serve out this two-year term your willingness to serve is greatly
appreciated as Is your amazing sense of community commitment whomever you chosen I believe they're doing this for the right reason now I'm happy to Feld any questions that you may have at this
point thank you any clarifying questions I just have one question Scott um and I you have served for six years prior and then um didn't choose to run again and why
now I have a really strong commitment to public education and you're about to embark on a very critical two-year period that's going to need all hands on deck and I was asked by a couple of people if I would throw my hat in the
ring on this and I agreed to do that because again of my belief in public education and also because I have a vested staking this I have four grandchildren and a daughter and a cousin who are all involved in the tecap system and it makes our community better
if you prosper so it's public commitment it's public service it's what I've done all my life and it's what I want to continue to do thank you any other question um yeah actually I have a similar question um a related question and that
would be would you be willing to run and campaign in 2026 if you were elected for a another ter I've done it twice before I won't State unequivocally that I would run again for uh 4E term but it's
certainly in my blood to do so and I guess it depends on how successful I am and helping the tkfs boort coales around some of the problems you've got and what's outstanding going forward so yes with the qualifier also I need to ask my
wife always the most important thing okay any other questions thank [Music] you um the next uh candidate is uh Becky Lent
good evening everyone um I have no volume sorry uh my name is Becky lent I am honored to be here was very excited when I found the posting on the website and I'm just excited about the
opportunity to be a bigger part of teaps and travor city um couple of things my family moved here not quite three years ago from Arizona so I am new to Traverse City in that regard um we were in
Arizona for 45 years not quite a native though um but in my time in Arizona I was a teacher so I was a school teacher for 26 years there um retired from teaching in Arizona taught second grade
fifth grade sixth grade seventh grade 8ighth grade math English Science High School English High School Cambridge program English high school algebra and then summer school for a couple of different things um as well as a gifted education program that was
multi-grade third fourth fifth and sixth grade students all in the same claster so when you ask about expertise or knowledge in the areas of curriculum planning budgeting working as a team um
being an advocate for students for children for parents for families I've been doing that for a really long time and I absolutely love it um when our family came here I was able to then like
I said retire from teaching my husband was also a school teacher and he got a position at TC West Senior High teaching American Sign Language the West Senior High School family just completely embraced our
family family and I cannot thank them enough his time there was shortened unfortunately by a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and that is where that West Family really came into play for us I
have never seen the response and the outpouring of support so that speaks directly to you as a board of education the things you provide for your administrative teams at the different schools as well as the support you give for the
teaching staff the support staff on campus um they really stepped up for us as a result of that I went back into the school and took on a position at West Senior doing um they called it school
safety liaison it's a very politically correct and fancy way to say campus security so as a retired teacher um I was in a position to then build Rel relationships with students with an entirely different goal in mind to support their mental health their
emotional health and their mental health and emotional safety um outside of that role in teaps I have had leadership roles when I was in education um member facilitator
sponsor founder of academic committees curriculum committees um I founded a grant writing committee at two different schools so when you talk about budgeting and finance not only am I amazing with mathematics but I also have a strong sense of
organization and um the capacity to really come up with creative ways to find avenues for funding that may or may not have been previously considered um I've had different business Partnerships in my time um with the Society of Automotive Engineers
they've now gone International The National Society of black engineers the um Arizona Coyotes and the Arizona Diamondbacks as far as Sports programs and academics back in Arizona um Community groups I've been involved in Special Olympics in Arizona
I was also um a parent advocate for students and well for young adults and adults with disabilities um I volunteered at a program called One Step Beyond which is
for adults with disabilities and how they fit into and what has their role become as a community so again that access to VI diversity I have been living my entire life and my entire career um I also am a parent of two
adult boys one of them stayed in Arizona when we moved he does not like the cold or the snow or the rain we have a lot of that here I have found but our younger son is here with me he is an adult with disabilities and so we have already in Michigan and
here in Traver City gotten involved with time is up okay thanks oh wait oh wait we do have could be I would say we do have there could be clarifying questions somebody asked me about my Michigan stuff I'm just kidding sorry you good um
any clarifying questions I'm just GNA ask about the the time commitment again um if it exceeds your expectation of 12 12 to 20 hours per month how would you handle that so I actually just recently um left my
position at West Senior High School so I am now a stay-at-home mom so I have time to invest in teaps and the community for as much as you need I'm still going to the robotics
event this weekend and on Sunday to the musical at West so yeah I'm very invested in the community so those hours would not be issue I would say I just have a quick um question and um thank you for putting
your name in um so I know you just moved here three years ago and just trying to understand a little bit I think a strength of a board member is the connection you know to our community and so um outside of that West Senior High uh connection what are some other areas
that you are connected to the to our community you are wonderful that's where I was going when we were in at time um we we have already so um my husband and I and then my son and I now we have become active with the um northern Lakes
Community Mental Health programs and services here um we've been I've been a parent advocate for other families that we've met I already am a volunteer with um Special Olympics of Michigan area 2 um I've also I am currently an
advocate for a wonderful lady um with the northern Michigan disability Network she's deaf um I'm also fluent conversationally in Spanish and in American Sign Language so I've done some
things there with the disability network with her in the courts in the last six months um and I also brought in a couple of teachers from Arizona to move here to Michigan and helped them and supported them to complete the process through the
Department of Education and then the last one mdhhs Michigan Department of Health and Human Services I have to remember all those um working with them and again working as an advocate to support their programs and things they have
available thank you all right any other clarifying questions thank you thank you thank you and then the final candidate is uh Peter money hi uh first of all thank you for the
consideration and uh picking me to be one of the top four obviously these other candidates and other people were pretty fantastic too and you all have mentioned that um so you know we submitted all the information uh you guys have read a lot about that uh you know and understand understand what I do
for a living one of the things that you I wanted to just share with you is part of the reasons as to why um so operations manager for McDonald's and one of the things that I absolutely love about my role my position is the opportunity that I'm able to give people that don't know or see or understand
that they have it within the McDonald's system uh the way it's set up is that you don't need education degree and those type of things to be successful within McDonald's um there very diverse owner operator through from the bottom
to top and most people that are owner operators today are don't have the education be excuse me Beyond High School um and so the opportunity that we're able to give and whole lot of people to their fullest is just amazing and it's one of the things why I love
what I'm able to do I also uh coach youth wrestling I'm a volunteer coach for youth wrestling program on Trevor City here and another thing that I try to do through that is uh get the kids to understand their
fullest opportunity that they have and wrestling is what they say is 90% mental 10% physical so in the youth and the younger kids it's really about emotional IQ we really trying to get them to understand their body physically
mentally uh and it is such a reward as you go through the season and you see the kids and what they're learn and they're able to do and push themselves harder and it really transpires to other different aspects in life um so something that I'm very passionate
about um my position has also allowed me to really be in the public eye and see all different types of walks of life of life and dealing with owner operators um to you know improve people to a customer
clientele base um and just having an understanding and approach of empathy and being able to understand people's hard earned money and what where they're spending it and why and things like that so it's been a learning curve especially
as I was younger um coming out of college but it's taught me a lot of things through the process so it's been enjoyable and I like being there so um then uh approach one of the
approaches with MC what they talk about is that you begin with the end in mind uh and it's part of how we train our managers so people that want to step up and do some type of manager role and we continue continue so beginning with the end in mind trying to set up uh this
here to be speaking in front of you guys um I guess my Approach was a little different and so I decided to ask my seven-year-old son uh you know humbly why do you think I should be on the board what I should tell them something
about me um and uh his name is finnean but uh story that I always told him is I started wrestling when I was a kid and when I was 6 year old I didn't win a match I didn't not only win a match I got pinned in the first period every single time for the whole entire season
smile on my face uh my dad always says you want to do it again next year heck yeah um so last year was my oldest son's First full year of wrestling and he we tell that story because he had a lot of success last year um he likes to remind
me of that sometimes that you know Dad you remember your first year this year was a little different uh he had a different experience he's a bigger kid uh and he's wrestling older kids most often and so we talk about is work ethic and what he said to me he said I think
you should also tell them that just like when you were a kid you were very good you weren't very good as a wrestler and you stuck with it and your first year you didn't win a match you got pinned and then you never gave up for the rest of your school years and you got better same with being a wrestling coach that
you were a kid just like when you were a kid you keep coaching and now you're a really good wrestling coach what I emphasize about this is work ethic uh I would say you know in general obviously I don't have the resume that others do people are here that you guys selected into the top four uh but I would
approach it the same way as I do in life it's with my work ethic and I will give it everything that I have and that I can um and that's just how I am so I appreciate uh thank you for again the opportunity to be here uh even if I'm
not selected I've learned a lot through the process um if I want to do this later in the years and I understand what what things I have to do more to set myself apart so I appreciate it thank you thank you any clarifying
questions you said you had experience um up the other way see that um that one of the things you do is you project for each of the McDonald's that what is it 16 different
franchises you project what their budgets are going to be and then you analyze them uh in the next month so you actually can see how you're meeting targets that kind of thing really
interests me because I think sometimes we plan things but we have a little bit more difficulty assessing how that money what the bang for the buck was and so
um that would be a whole different concept I think for us to consider in finance I don't know if that business model can translate to an educational model with public
monies um but that would be something I I'm wondering if that was something you would think of as well I mean again it's about setting targets and how do we get there so again like already mentioned the begin with
the end of mind right so like the end of mind so how can we pick some of these numbers um and sometimes you know it's projection but it's obviously a lot of history education research understanding um so I think the philosophy could be applied uh
you can keep trying you know you're going to fail try again um so maybe you start small small budget something and try to implement it and then if you see success and you can continue on with the philosophy to bigger uh budgets I
guess thank you any other clarifying questions I would just ask um if you were selected would you be willing to run a campaign and run for re-election one for election in
2026 yeah that would be the ultimate goal um I know as some people mentioned that I know there's a lot of decisions a lot of important things happening over the next two years um but I'm invested I have a first grader and a pre
kindergarten um I'm here uh my wife and I so Day thought we would retire up here um we had the opportunity to move up here and actually raise our family so uh we have a a very exciting story during Co not everyone does but uh so yeah I'm
invested here uh we're here forever and uh yeah I would I would definitely do it um as long as I feel like I can do what I need to do um again with my work ethic I feel like I can but uh I also can recognize and
acknowledge if it's not I'm able to do Beyond then I wouldn't do it so most likely yes what are you what kind of hours do you put in as a operating manager di like per
week you want like the ball part yeah like are you doing 60 to you know 60 hours a week yeah I it's I have a flexible work schedule I have a really strong team um so you over see 16 restaurants although I have five
supervisors and then there's general managers uh so a lot of times it's I do work busy work behind my computer so I'll be at a work office in my house um obviously I go out and have meetings in a lot of restaurants too but I it's not
I put on a lot more time earlier in my career so that I could get to a point where I have more time to do things like this that I'm passionate about that I want to do uh so I'm in a position where I think I have time to commit to which is why I'm doing this now is that I
didn't give you a definite number answer no I don't do 60 uh probably more like 40 45 okay thank you any other questions I just wanted to clarify that since I asked two candidates the same question and the
other two candidates a different question but the same to each other um it was only because we were limited to one question each and I based it on what was in the paper just wanted to clarify that yep um Perfect all right and then so I think without any other questions and
that um ends the process of uh interviews um we do thank you sorry we uh we do have um a five minute recess um mainly this was added there was a discussion of whether people who
are uh nominate or are up for the appointment would want to be here um so we did offer a 5 minute recess um if they wanted to leave if they wanted to get closer to home that's fine too I also do need to
clarify one legal um reporting of of how I do something so I so we will have a 5 minute recess we will return in 5 minutes which is uh 7:29 it's e
e e e e e e e e without objection we will end recess um so I have provided everyone
with uh sheets um all you have to do is actually just fill in your line um allocating again you do not have to vote for you cannot vote for more than one one person once that you do not have to vote for uh
three people it's one two or three um please allocate three points for your first choice two points for your second one point for your third we will then uh I'll gather the sheets I'm going to do mine first I'm going to hand it to T so there's no um change and then um part of
why we're doing it this way just for clarity is I I think we it was a strong belief that it's it's un less bias if everyone vot independently rather than wait for one person who could set a tone so we're doing a vote after we do that
officially we will have a motion and a roll call vote to elect that member so that's the process I'm going to turn mine into Tammy um I will tablate I'll turn everything into Tammy after that quick question you on our name line is that we we fill it out on our name line
is that correct yep fill it out on your name line okay thank you and do we hand them to you sad or hand them to me and then no our tablate and then Tammy will double check that way we go to twostep process to speed this up I probably should have
gone sat next to Tammy m waiting for me no virgin Virg okay so the numbers did match the the tally sheets are of public information but we again we did this to avoid any bias and the votes were as follows
Jessica eight votes votes Scott 11 votes Becky one vote Peter six votes so with that the person who received the most votes was Scott Hardy um and again for the formal process it it is required that we do have a motion to do it so if
I can get a motion I move that the Board of Education approve Scott Hardy as our inim board member yep second second um Tammy please conduct
um trusty Moore yes trusty bird yes truste Ballinger yes trusty Pac yes trusty Schmidt yes and trusty Newman Bale yes motion carries um I do appreciate again I know this process was
hard um and I really do encourage everyone to stay engag in act you know we do have elections coming up there may be more vacancies um and I really do encourage active particip ation because I believe that every situation will be different
for who will get elected so I do appreciate it um we would invite uh Scott Hardy to join join us at the table he is not a voting member again he has not taken the oath of office yet and
we'll do so at a later time um if you wish to choose so you do not have to uh be you can choose either side but it's your first test thank you so much again to all everyone that applied please or thank
you thank you yeah stay involved we'd love to see you down the road thank you by the way I'm honored yeah thank you always one of the probably most awkward parts of this uh r
especially when you get great candidates like that so great candid um so moving on uh to superintendent report deferring to Dr Van Wagner okay so I'd love to make this short but it's not going to
happen so um let me give you uh um a couple things that I need to get the board some feedback on um that I can kind of make Maybe so the first is is we're obligated we received an offer for a piece of
property just very recently um and we have a little bit of time um so it was a non-solicited offer uh just came in um for the piece of property um that is uh
um I believe at this point it is so it's section n12 of Southeast Court 80 acres uh section five Grant Travers County I believe this is the the Potter Road the Potter Road property yes um and so it's an
unsolicited offer for $167,000 just dropped in the mail we've tried to respond with no response back um you know I I uh I when we had have an unsolicited I have the ability to just not do that but I still feel an
obligation a little bit to notify the board that I have that you know all the discussions we've had so far is that we weren't entertaining that you know that that property for sale but I just want to make sure that everybody at this point is good with the the response was
by Friday April 18th should remain open um but my intention was you know hey we can't even respond can't get people to answer so either I'll be able to and deny or it'll expire on April 18th but if you're okay I I just didn't was planning on not putting it on the board
of up um and moving forward unless there's any issue with it okay the second one's a little bit more complicated uh the board you may remember we entered into a uh lawsuit on
insulin and the board was a little apprehensive but did it well we've run into some real issues with the data that the the legal team has required us to provide and we're not getting a lot of information from from our insurance company directly relx there's an issue
where there's a disagreement whether it's a self it's a self-paid option or if it's a directly only the insurance carriers um uh job and so we we've had to kind of been told to guess
at some stuff in numbers and we've had staff I think at this point that are not feeling comfortable putting their name on some affidavits are signed that this is factual information for sure and and there's a lot of we don't have this information paragraphs were we
putting in putting in and putting in I am now finally at the point where um I think it's best to stop it's just it's it's absorbing a lot of Staff time and again I have people saying I I really don't feel comforable putting my name on it I don't either from that standpoint
I'm depending on staff so at this point I know that if we do not provide more information trun has uh told me that um there will be Judgment of dismissal on our um suit specifically with it but with considering how much work this is
in the other ones where we've not really gotten a lot of money the part of the factual data I'm I'm I want to let you know my plan is to stop and not provide any more information and I just want to gauge the boards if there's any issue that you have with us doing that at this
point how how many funds have we expended on you know no money that we' exped but time a lot of our time you know I've had to go back and forth with TR multiple times you know they've given us a little paragraph to put in that you know we do not have this information at
this time we've had to put it in multiple spots and it still isn't satisfying the the ultimate fron Law Group um and I just have staff at this point that are a little bit like John I don't know what to do so um I just I
don't feel good about it and I just uh just would like you know to have the effort information of the board that if I stop at this point and let you know that we're not moving further um I I don't know if you know and con I might just ask your just thought so do we need
an action of the board to to end that you know do I just let it go did the board approve for us to go into the then I would suggest you have a motion to withdraw so that's not withdraw withdraw but to failure to yeah right and that
was kind of my point he's indicated they're they're asking for question about a self-funded plan our plan is saying we're not self-funded therefore we're not going to provide you this information because we're not self-funded and I tend to agree with our plan we're not self-funded so there's a
question of applicability to us anyway so instead we're just filling out this whole sheet that says we don't have this information we don't have this information because technically you're supposed to get it from your self-funded carrier so at this juncture I would just suggest that there be a motion that the district not provide any additional
information and if that results in a dismissal I think I I would maybe recommend withdrawing rather than getting a dismissal because you can do a withdrawal without prejudice and so if you ever wanted to bring the suit later you could okay so so my thought is we
could either do one or two things we could add it to the discussion to do that take a super majority we could add it on to the study session if it's just too long and we don't want to do that tonight from that standpoint I just wanted a little bit of direction I didn't put it on there because we just got notified of this yesterday and and I
just and I just wanted to you know if the board said nope keep going but it just kept going and didn't really you know that if if if the board's willing and and it sounds like we are no one has any issues with this we may as well just deal with it tonight and um after your
superintendent report we can just make that as a as an item to the agenda which would take a super majority okay I appreciate that thank you with those and so now on to better and really better um so so uh from a legislative standpoint
um some interesting things have transpired uh we obviously have the governor's budget from that standpoint um we're getting some conversations with uh legislators uh in Lancing had the chance to have a call uh with Tim Kelly
who's the chair of the house uh um education Appropriations um and the one one conversation we were able to have that he showed some verbal support for was the transportation categorical so the governor put it in and now house
Republican is telling me he has some real thoughts and he likes that and some support so I think of all of our kind of bulleted things that's another one that kind I think is a good thing that we have from that standpoint um now what in in interestingly happened is that kind
of very quietly the House Republicans passed a bill um that essentially funds school aid at $1,025 per student um but that's all they funded they didn't fund any categoricals anything from that standpoint and it's a little
bit we think of a political move to be able to show that they don't want to shut government down and maybe just maybe it kind of sends that the speaker acknowledges that we should get a school budget done by July 4th that could be the good news that comes out of it
otherwise it's created a it's supposed to be a safety net they can't come to an agreement they could pass that bill and at least get EIC services I don't think it'll come down to that in any way I think it was more of a political message but $25 more than the governor on the
foundation I was like good message you know and then second that recognizing that it'd be good to have a budget by July 4 for schools would be a good thing other than that it really didn't mean anything so just if you hear that and I know some board members have I just
wanted to give Clarity I did have the chance to talk to John Roth this morning um pretty much ackn just that and so uh so that's where we're at from a legislative standpoint I'm continuing to try and set up meetings I did have the chance to Friday a part of the government Relations Committee with
Trevor connect talk to Jen flood the governor's uh budget director I did bring up our 31a issue with the forms um and we have solid data showing of our like Partners In the state having the same issue um so I did that I also have the chance to meet with Senator caleri's
Chief of Staff who is the Senate education Appropriations chair so um making some ground on that talking talk to MD legislative Lees on today as well so really trying to hit that that as you know right now we're projecting a million dollar loss because of those
forms we are trying to get a hold harmless Clause put in and so working hard on that going to have to set another meeting up with Tim Kelly on the house side to try and have that conversation but I'm trying to all of the entities involved raise the red flag I don't know that many have but I think
they recognize now that it's a problem uh I don't know the have an IDE how to fix it but you know that the the very kids that you're you know that the need it the most of the free and free breakfast and lunch that's been done are now going to be penalized because more kids have gotten it which is a great
thing but that money to be penalized for those kids that really need those services so going to work hard to try and keep advocating for that of those items that we've identified and and try and make that happen and I have a question on that has Masa or masb done anything on that front not really they I
don't think that I think I'm one of the first to kind of bring it to the Forefront because we've identified had the letter and done that and I think they're all sit going oh yeah we thought that could possibly be well we have some data that show it shows it is for kind of the first time so I think that um
they'll rally you know continue um but we're definitely going to have to continue to lead that charge because there are some districts because of their status of as a c building that they only have to certify every five years so it doesn't impact them as much where because we only have two and not our entire District then we have to
Advocate and we have to certify every year so it's not everybody in the states being affected by this but there's a core group of us that definitely are yeah and that $1 million reduction you're projecting for next year 25 26 correct yeah okay
correct we were held harmless this year this year but the MD has sent us a letter saying they are no longer going to do that and so that's what we're trying to see if there's a way even if it was 95% of our previous year's allocation and work even triple our efforts on forms you know if we can just
get some kind of stop Gap measure to not seriously hurt our you know atrisk funding for kids you know those supports the most um advocating hard for that okay not nothing I was trying to think of how much money we lose is most
SPG for free lunches out of our budget than is well yeah I mean it's it's hard you know from that standpoint so um and you had also talked about the administration with board input was going to try to come up with some new creative ways to get parents to fill up those forms where's that you know we've
talked a lot and try and talk to counterparts um you know I I'll be honest with you I think that we've just got to try and find every way to have our staff in front of parents um I had the chance uh Dan and I had to meet with all of our PTO presidents last week um
and great meeting and talk talking about what role our PTO can have you know you have to be very careful because federal laws you can't put incentives you can't do a pizza party you can't you know do anything you could do something though of just naturally you know who who got the most forms you know turned in and
and you know to try and do that just for a contest of with no you know we we're going to we're looking all those ideas that we can do in staff and every you know uh parent teacher conference and back to school and how can we make sure we have Chromebooks there with a fillable form those kind of things those
are the those are the things we're thinking about of really just trying to get our staff in front of it you know it also actually affects our federal funding as well of title one because it goes off that so we're looking at a $275,000 reduction I believe right Dan 275 you know in Title One funds yeah you
know from that standpoint so it's of utmost importance I met with chander today you know talking about it from the EA about just even their help and and all that so we're going to put an allout effort next year you know with that um but there are law limits from the
federal government you know like that un honestly there's some shady things a little bit that are being done out there of I know you know one said well we just put a range on the form of salaries and can't do that you know and so we want to make sure we stay within the legal bounds but we are going to put every bit
forth in that as well um but also seeing if we can get something to keep us from getting hit so hard this year okay so that's it on the legislative front front um District highlights uh uh lots of great things going on um I'll start it off with uh
this week uh we have a robotics tournament uh at Central High School um both uh the Titans and the the Trojans uh um are will be there from from uh the robotics teams and um they they're
practicing I just got a picture a minute ago of both teams together at the TC high Innovation manufacturing center with the field all out and uh I was able to share a picture of the field out this morning uh with the board and so excited uh Friday Saturday and uh um you know
we'll we'll have the the robotics tournament Regional at Central High School we alternated each year between Central and West so excited for uh the Titans and the Raptors actually of TC Central um to be able to go at that so uh would encourage you did Josie and I
talked a little earlier we we we'll see invite the board and maybe a walk around to be able to see the teams and just kind of a little bit of tour of the pits and all that so I'll get something out midweek here of uh you know time and stuff like that if you have an interest um and just really really excited to be
able to to have that here right in our own backyard and and uh have our kids be able to to participate in that random question will they be able to expand into the manufacturing centers not yet not not this year yes they will
they'll be able to use it actually so one of the nice thing is when there are a few schools that have something similar is when something breaks something like that they may be able to 3D print apart or you know uh use you know a saw whatever that is normally what you do is you have somebody that's there a volunteer adult that works with
the kids and has that and so you can have that complete facility open as a repair shop and Manufacturing shop and those things for those kids that need it for maybe when their robot broke down to be able to do that so while we're not able to do it this year with it we'll definitely be able to do it West next
year so so some things uh with Athletics uh our Central High School girls elpine ski are the division one state champs uh excited for them and and uh the great great success that they had our Central High
School girls basketball team our big nor Conference champions and District Champions and still going hey West got second in Alpine Ski I'm not there yet I'm not there yet hold on hold on mom hold on mom I've got you I'm just doing hours I saw
okay basketball tonight too yeah and girls basketball one tonight Central High School okay so there we go fres off good team all right um and then Central High School State qualifiers um Carter Bon for bowling um Michael rer wrestling and Grady Rous wrestling and then West
High School girls and boys downhill ski teams both finished as state Runners up in division one um but the Vasa Ski Club boys won the state championship and uh I believe that's both there kids from both schools correct the vessa um I think
there's a West and a central oh be are together okay yep that's I thought and uh so they won the state championship including second place finish for West High School student Liam WMA uh Matthew Quigley finished third in the state in the mhsa wrestling state finals at fordfield so lots of great things going
on with uh finishing up the winter sports and spring Sports started today and so uh so that was fun to see the kids out on the fields and being utilized already and and uh and just getting excited to have have all that
going on um also some other things our Central grade visioning has started uh a team of approximately 25 individuals which includes uh Beth and Josie um have been a part of that group the team includes principales teachers um at Central grade our TCA president the
administrative assistant at Central grade Dan is also a part of the the group several Central Central neighborhood members uh Central great parents the city of travor City members of our sustainability committee current high school students who attended Central grade tcaps Administration um as
well a team of Architects and construction management employees have led the group through high level Concepts to determine high level priorities which will be presented to the board at the April 14th 25 meeting so exciting on where that's going and we'll be excited to show you kind all
the conversations and everything they've had and start to look at what some pictures will be um at Blair Elementary our reading month celebrations are in full swing and staff is incorporating things we've are learning through the science of reading some fun things are being are also going on including
Blair's favorite book we are doing a March Madness style bracket where classrooms and staff are voting daily to determine Blair's favorite book and our second grade classes gathered uh today for Coco and reading time uh with both a read aloud book and Silent reading time um we we have uh reading night
March 18th the theme is bedtime stories and an tisdel and mighty Miss May are coming to read of the school and preparation for the event we've identified three vocab words from the story that our students may not know each word has been assigned a week to be the secret word the goal is for the students to hear the word so often from
all of them that they are able to guess the secret word by week Friday or of the week by Friday and also Define the use correctly um TC West Senior uh Kira Adams was name in na HS scholarship National semi-finalist um academic weapons from
TC West TC store Trey store Dylan G gregowski did I say that R Jo yeah thank you uh Ryan goodd and Tucker Binger uh from West High are your 2025 Regional academic world quest Champs uh they'll be heading to Washington DC to represent
Michigan it's a great experience my own daughter had the chance to do that and just an awesome experience for those kids to be able to go do uh West Middle School PE teacher Eric wiin in the tcaps academic Excellence endowment helped make PE even more fun at West Middle School with the purchase of the nine
square uh in the air grant so they were able to get a grant and have an awesome uh nine square so you might remember Four Square well now they made a nine square and so appreciate uh the grant that they received tabs monor is celebrated Black History Month students
at tabs Monas celebrated Black History Month by hanging an interactive version of respect ARA Franklin the Queen of Soul by Carol Boston Weatherford along the fence on the school playground and for the public along the Buffalo Trail come by and share a story with your children many thanks to Mrs D librarian
for sparking the idea and to our student leadership for getting the work done Cate Elementary successful and will attended Title One event on February 27th was a bedtime story night theme where books received a uh students received a voucher to pick out a free book from the brilliant book book fair
visited six different story and activity stations and enjoyed Refreshments the stations included a shadow puppet show a green screen Imagination Station glow stories uh reading with cor therapy dog Gracie uh a mascot reading with Monty
from the pit spitters uh Troi from Central High and C's very own cougar vendors included the uh tattle Farm to school and Dolly paron imagine Library so a lot of great things that are not all of them but a great section across the District of great things that
are going on with kids um and and uh just uh excited um the musical is going on at West High School I've heard phenomenal things um I know a few have had the chance to go I'm headed there this weekend I had the chance to see
minda uh today called everybody you know Joseph an amazing technol yep and uh just yeah I've heard as always it's phenomenal but like I've heard even ex this year um so just excited uh those kids do an amazing job our staff like I
said came in today and she didn't know exactly what day it was she but uh they do a phenomenal job and just appreciate that and uh if you get the chance and you would just want to see our kids just in an awesome light um in our our arts
program um please take the opportunity to go see it so that's what I have for you tonight so good yeah right good stop thank you you um before we move on to the next or next item which is Bard committee
reports um can we I guess first we have to have a a motion to add to the agenda which would become item 10h the discussion that we had with to withdraw our complaint for the
insulin pricing litigation y so we would need to amend the agenda um to add that discussion item um which would again require a super majority so I don't know if anyone can I
make a motion to add to the discussion um insulin pricing litigation case um we can discuss further Last Action on as we move forward second second all right um
we do require roll call vote on that one so uh please Atty please conduct a roll call vote um trusty bird yes trusty Moore yes trustey Ballinger yes truste pack yes trusty Smith yes and trusty noan Bale yes with unanimous through one a super majority that is added to the
agenda um and we'll get to that at 10 H um so moving on with the uh agenda next up Bo committee reports first up curriculum committee pointing out by trusty B okay well we met uh February
25th myself trust trust SE bird and pack and um we had one public commoner which was an unusual and very welcome um element um by Diane Arnold about the uh
school calendar that was proposed at that time we moved on to approved meeting minutes as well as a district course catalog um additions which are in consent tonight we also got a very thorough presentation on the CK
materials purchased which is uh was also given at the finance committee and it's also in discussion tonight so um for further details I highly recommend looking at watching the curriculum committee recording that's available on our website and then we moved into
looking at um the standardized data for winter test scores nwea for grades K through five both Ela and math as well as uh middle schools grades 6 through 8 Ela and math and also
the PSA for 9th and 10th graders um we briefly touched on uh the input for Meaningful student achievement outcomes we had a good preliminary discussion to try to tee up our study session in a few weeks um and you know didn't make any
particular recommendation but we did talk about the meaningfulness of trying to set growth targets for all students and then also continue to look at the disparities between um socioeconomically disadvantaged students
and others um so looking at that overall growth as well is closing the achievement Gap and then we also um looked at our school calendar which is on the discussion agenda tonight and last but not least many celebrations and
successes as always and our next meeting will be excuse me uh Tuesday April 1st and I love to say that's no fooling at 8:15 a.m. maybe not now
yeah um okay next uh up is board finance and operations committee reporting up by trustee M yes so uh our board Finance uh met Thursday February 27th meeting was called to order at 8:15 there was no public comment we moved into procedural
items um the um draft or the meeting minutes from January 3r 30th no changes uh were recommended so they remain as posted uh we moved into an acceptance Grant um which is on the discussion portion of the agenda but just wanted to say thank you again to the Grand Travers
Band of adawan Chip chipa Indians for the 2% Grant um we're honored to receive the $25,000 um and again it's on discussion uh we moved into bids and services uh so the first item is uh uh from curriculum is the ELA uh Elementary
adaption and the CK again um this is on the discussion um on discussion for tonight so I'll kind of move through that uh next item was Safety and Security um the district uh is looking to purchase some safety Shades uh this
purchase will add safety Shades to all k through eight buildings in Traver City High School as recommended by secure environment Consultants uh monory and Long Lake already have those security Shades uh so the board finding is recommending to proceed with the purchase and installation of safety
Shades from Busters blind and Window Film through the uh interlocal purchasing system uh for a total amount not to exceed $ 57,8 se4 which includes a 10% contingency uh this is funded from
Capital bonds um uh and this is on the consent agenda tonight um next item is technology um these are art cameras or cameras for art Department visual performing and applied Arts uh this is
uh for the purchase of digital cameras and accessories for art at West Middle School Central High School and West Senior High School um there were uh 33 cameras purchased uh or were asking to be purchased through uh Amazon and 43 cameras through um B&H Photo uh the
board finance committee recommends to purchase the cameras and accessories for a total amount not to exceed $444,999 which includes a$ % contingency again funded from Capital bond funds uh and this will be placed uh on the cons
is this on our consent yes this is on our consent agenda sorry technology yeah uh next item our student Chromebooks uh this um project is the annual purchase of Chromebook books and accessories for the incoming sixth through nth grade students and additional Chromebooks for
the compus Learning Center uh the board finance committee recommends uh to purchase Chromebooks the cases and headphones from peop driven technology for a total amount not to exceed $886,000 will ensure that teaching and learning experience remains seamless and
productive this project is eligible for reimbursement through the E rate um which is a 60% Grant back uh for reimbursement the board finance committee recommended to uh purchase the network and Wireless upgrades from people driven technology for a total
amount not to exceed $272,100 which includes a 10% contingency funded from Capital bond funds um this is also on the consent uh calendar uh then we moved into informational items um we had a capital
projects update um which uh yeah uh we went through in depth um the Manu uh manufacturing and Innovation centers um the West uh senior high fences are down the furniture is in place and we just got an update since our board Finance
meeting that kids are in the space uh at West Senior High um also Tech um technology installed TVs um and robots are being used there um next item was the draft calendar uh which is on the discussion for tonight
uh no I'm sorry no we had a discussion on the draft calendar um uh moved on to finance the bond sale update which is on discussion so I'm not going to go into much detail um and again we had 11 competitive bids lowest bid was 5if
third uh again thank you to our finance team for keeping um uh with that stable Outlook so um with a percentage of 3.23% um next item um we went Christine Thomas H did a really great review of
our budget timeline so I would encourage all Board of AD members to to look at that and watch that um and then we moved into upcoming District purchases lots of purchases um in because our agenda is so long I'm not going to go into details um
but lots of purchases coming up uh for the district um and then just another item that Dr Van Wagner threw out is is just to start to think about our district owned buildings and properties um with recommendation that the Board of Education consider our long-term plans
during our strategic planning process one of those specifically was um the Oak Park uh property which um Northwest Ed is leasing which their lease ends in 2030 so just want to sort of look to the Future as to what we're going to do with some of um those properties from a from
a long-term Vision um and then we adjourn the meeting and at 1011 um our next Board of Finance board Finance meeting is Thursday April 3rd and Scott will be a part of that on our finance committee TBD TBD Tech TBD technically
but prepare yourself uh and that's it I just wanted to clarify one thing at the manufacturing Innovation Center the robotics team is practicing on that field but the classrooms haven't been moved over there right correct yeah so
the plan right now is is we we have temporary occupancy okay so the pitch you will still see few things in the background that are being done so um what the plan is right now is that we will allow them to be able to practice everything in there they moved a little
bit of their their toolboxes stuff like that but the plan is is to have the um over spring break that the final floor ceiling will be done and completed at that point got it um and uh and hopefully um garage door um right therea
both schools okay um and then the week after spring break the the equipment will be moved in working with the teachers being there they wanted the teachers there um so the week after the new equipment and the equipment that are in the existing rooms will all right now Elmer's is scheduled to come in and make
those moves of all that equipment and set up and so hopefully we'll have that all set up ready to go by the very end of March got it thanks for that clarification I misread the photo um and I feel I do feel slided a
little bit in the finance committee there with you guys questioning whether I was watch going to watch the finance committee just had to acknowledge that I did because it was like if I think like if if president y watches or something I was like geez I'm watching
so I uh I did I did I do watch all commit me and then uh I like it was a test to see if I had so so a board uh executive committee report out um from the February
27th meeting um obviously procedural items no public comment um we did have a lot of new policies that we talked about that we're still catching up from when we didn't do any policies while we're
updating all of our policies and then we had the joy of uh that we had just modified I believe modified a bunch of Poli that then got rescinded so we had to remodify them back to the way they were originally um which is probably going to be the joy of uh government for
the next uh period of time so um so that there is an awful lot of policies on there there's also a lot of policies on there that are very minor um using changing one word just a changeing legal definition so um but that did that was a
significant uh time going through all of those um we talked obviously about the uh UPC meetings and laying out um with the the additional meeting that we scheduled and appreciate everyone for attending uh as far as HR updates we are
currently at a highing low because of the timing of the year but we are getting projections on staffing needs and obviously uh core uh subject teachers but critical content areas including special education English language World
Language um and aligning with the is is some of the focus areas that we're uh slightly concerned about um we also obviously are always hiring uh bus drivers Food Service workers and a number of other critical uh places but
we did hire a plumber and I take it his on boarded and good to go good to go all right so um moving on to Communications uh uh we have ribbon uh cutting uh on
April 10 2025 for the TC West and uh TC Central High School Innovation and Manufacturing centers uh West High School is at 400 p.m. Central High School at 5:30 uh the sunshine bus uh we it is a
discussion item as well with the reception of a grant so I'll leave that to that discussion item and then the Strategic plan survey updates so all of those strategic plan surveys are I believe now out and and um we're communicating in a number of different
Avenues to try and get the participation up as much as possible we do only have a few weeks of um can I mention one thing with that been a couple things that I met with chander today that some staff were a little worried about with n size that could be identifiable so we we made a
few adjustments that she and I got with the data company today um that just really it it changed from uh the staff from the building they're in to just grade range okay um so just to protect identities we didn't want anything like that so she and I meant those changes
were made later this afternoon okay um so obviously encouraging everyone in the public this is a critical process for us we do it every three years your participation is listened to um please fill out the surveys and encourage others to do so as
well um we did discuss the draft 2025 2026 school calendar um and obviously we've pretty much covered uh most of that with uh having more early release days less half days so we uh the next committee meeting
is April 3rd at 400 p.m. and we adjourned at 5:20 so any questions right sustainability committee reporting out by trusty bird all right I'm going to give over the very first part of it to Joseph
because I was 20 minutes late she's going to report on what she remembered yeah and and just really briefly um the first item on the agenda was looking at Michigan Green Schools certification um so in the state of Michigan I guess they have various
levels of certification and uh West Senior High has had certification it might have lapsed somebody said and TC Central High School definitely has it still so uh just basically the committee talked about we might want all of our
school buildings to apply and get certified um but the deadline for this year is this month and so since that was so near term we basically had a consensus that we would aim for next year and that gives us a lot of lead time to work towards that
goal okay thank you sure and um thanks for alternating on prayer for me messaging and supports for school was one of the things we talked about um again Green Schools um how do we do that um we also talked about this being
student L um in many ways so we talked about some goals for the those projects um doing that by starting in elementary schools we talked about a mentor program between old students and younger to encourage and promote green policies and
sustainability um Tom discussed Tom being one of our our staff in the dining Food Service Food Service F service discussed a districtwide wellness program program and how some schools picked it up and um how that worked so we talked a lot about like
Cutlery it was kind of an interesting conversation and and some of the different materials that are used in the cafeterias and how can we move back to some of the things that we used to use that you know you washed it's kind of it's it's pretty simple but there was a
a good discussion about that um we uh talked about just the districtwide sustainability strategy um looked at working on how housing near the schools we talked about Blair the housing project um we talked about reevaluating once Central grade is completed um
something to reevaluate on once it's completed as many things change in five years we talked about student engagement um by possible Partnerships with outside organizations um such as for Earth Day and beautification day um Eagle classroom and and different ways that
kids can come to school and take pride in their their school grounds um we talked about waste reduction and composting um Ste student leadership groups needing to like kind of help spearhead this stuff with the composting and the waste production we talked about some different options for that
different organizations in town that will come and pick up the compost for free and uh distribute it to the community which is really cool um we talked about uh piloting a program at the tcaps monu for the 25 26 school year for
composting um let's see building operations and efficiency we Al we talked about how lights are in the process of becoming LED faucets are transitioning to low flow and um that solar panels are on hold because of numbers and funding but we did also
discuss having a presentation um by a local organization schools on solo program that can actually get those for us for free so those are some really nice possibilities out in the community um we talked about the grounds and
Landscaping um you know U native species versus others and what has worked and what hasn't the trash that sometimes is near them um and some of those dilemmas that we have and and the upkeep and maintenance of those things so um they talked about partnering with local
groups who might like to help with that whether it's the Children's Garden or the Botanical Garden or Master Gardeners clubs um on um let's see we talked about having plots the Children's Garden for
each school and then we um maybe started trying that out at monor first and then we have our our next meeting where we're hoping to talk a little bit more about Gardens and schools the solar project and having a possible presentation from
uh Tim pum from Keen Innovations and that'll be Thursday March 13th at 3 p.m. only update I want to give I did talk to Tracy today and um already applied for Michigan Emerald School in Green School which means that they've completed 15 to
19 activities um to be a part of that so had some good conversations with her some ideas they've got some things going but some that I think you know definitely that as we talked about here that she wants to get started so some ground level is that the like the first level no that's the second level they're at cool yeah Green School is first and
then y then the emeralds next okay with Ever Green the top okay wonderful she said that they were the process of getting seeds together that I don't think they've actually got the greenhouse fully
planted mon no um not quite yet I think they're still evolving but also um that is in process we and talked about facilities that there was a grant uh for West Central High School for a new Greenhouse as well so and I was at TC
high and they jumped me and they're like we want one well there's is it will or Hill is where um there was a greenhouse Trevor Heights well has a hoop well not really a hoop house but Trev sits has a
greenhouse Hill was it Hill not my that's something we're going to continue to work at there's some Grant funds um Dan built a monstrosity one when he was at uh at Westwoods you know has a hoop house and solar panels
you know in the hoop house we could live in you get all the credit you get all the credit hopefully we so we are trying to standardize size and some of those kind of things moving forward after that I I went out there and you know when I
went back and you know it's like a army tent have to stoop over all the time right so working at it but definitely uh a great thing and and some things we're looking again maybe standardize and figure out how do we do it at our
buildings um any other questions um next up superintendent Board of Education student advisory committee putting out my trusty Bud yeah that was a as always the student advisory councils are delightful um we
had a full house I think probably one of the biggest ones yeah we had a good real good attendance so Jesse was there um I was there you were there and there our trustee uh facilitator and um we talked about graduation and and like gathering
information for that graduation process and what works and what doesn't for students um we they did some reflection on academic integrity and Ai and did some group discussion on that and it you
know some of their feedback was really in in alignment with some of the stuff we were talking about here um they talked about how AI isn't going away and and it's important to to know and use it so you know having guidance on that setting standards for for teachers
grading um teachers grading with feedback um rather than just AI um the uh College expectations versus high school expectations with that and some of those different elements they
talked about doing training programs um or well rather he explained the training programs that we have in place right now for for staff and I think um students were glad to see that because they were kind of like we should have this we're like that's happening um and the students expressed
that a lack of understanding can create fear but working on this because AI is so fast and furious um the fear more so is I think that they feel that teachers might mistrust them and so that you know they were kind of addressing that situation
we talked about postsecondary opportunities and preparedness as part of that graduation thing um Jesse did a really nice presentation on what's available to students um during their career College ready phases um things like Z and resume counseling CTC career
day visits etc etc um there was a long list of things um also listed some optional things like career internships um dual enrollment job Shadows International trips there was another big list of things and then the
students broke out into discussions on what they felt was effective and what wasn't and um the one the one thing that came up a lot was they just didn't like zel very much they didn't think it was great um they liked more one-on-one with
counselors which you know connection is is always key um they felt like the counselors are more welcoming in that regard rather than like a computer screen um they would like to see like one main
area for all things post high school so instead of having it sort of distributed everywhere then School like like we you know at West we have it we know where the counseling office is and we know there's a ton of that stuff in there so they enjoy that the fact that they know
where they can go um communities um they said are not equal in requirements and consistencies um the academic communities stem Global in arts yeah so some discussion to be had there um they
like resume help they like mock interviews news um they like that they think the CTC visits need more guidance especially in e8th grade um having gone through that myself I agree I thought CTC is such a wonderful program and like
my son didn't hear about it until like the second year so I was sort of like oh this is great let's go um the um more output for student internships and work programs more opportunity with college visits
more econ and Financial Training P personal finance you know there was some smart kiddos in that this group right they were smart um those are survival skills right right but it it really spoke to to me that they
knew smart more um Early College push and dual enrollment um honors options and Junior and senior and not just AP so they kind of felt like they needed a middle ground for some of those options um they like the college fair and career days that happen and they like uh
personalized programs um and uh so we did a that whole discussion of positive and negative so they could see both sides and we encouraged them to reach out if they have any ideas on what would make their senior year more
beneficial yeah good so and I'm not sure what the next one is uh coming up S it out March for the sustainability March no student advisory no student advisory that's not for a little bit
April usually it's after yeah we have one more left after we get back like the 16th okay yep thank you did how did they discuss or consider having kids that almost spent a year at
various schools come back and talk to them need to drink like you know having fresh come back yeah they did they talked about a possible sort of like a experience Fair yeah and that's what like shadowing is when they talk about doing the you know you can do job
shadowing you can do school shadowing um I know our schools do that already right with kids that are coming from like one school to another or maybe another grade going up to high school so those things are available but um I'm not sure if they have programs right now for college
students to Shadow or to Mentor but I'm certain that it's something that could be kind of a neat opportunity for college kids like usually over the holidays they get you know a month off and to bring them back into the high schools to kind of say this is something
I wish I knew or I wish I would have prepared for or this is what I did to get where I'm at this is these are you know just I feel like I've seen panels like this yeah a lot of our teachers do that they'll bring back to talk to underclassman it's very common with all high schools all three high schools so
great that's cool cuz some kids can't see you might want three schools but you can't go to all schools you know then as far as CTC don't we have a program now where everyone is twice they go and visit e8th
grade and 10th grade and 10th okay I well um okay any other questions okay moving on to nutrition nutrition and fitness uh reporting out by trusty P this one's easy they rescheduled it for April 3rd at 10:00 in
the morning snow day shortest report out ever we will uh we will hear the report in a couple of months um next up Bard office hours reporting out by February February 27th report out by trusty P um
I had one visitor it was Bill weasner we talked for an hour and a half um and it looks like they're going to use thorough be conference room on the second floor and it's not marked you know so you have to come in and ask where is this going
to be I thought it was going to be the communication room right off to yeah and it could be a couple of different ones depending on availability I know that I think we got most of them though in the throw be room but I we'll we'll try and get a hold of Michelle if there's a way we can have a sign or something not
using your R yeah um so we can yeah we can try and get a sign or and I'll when I say because I usually just say t or Travis you I would just say the thway room as well if that's why it's going to Scott we made a change just in the beginning of the year because we were having low
attendance we weren't sure if it was a parking issue or a um you know just hard to access and so um we thought we if we moved it to the local public library that parking and easier to access and then we're also doing some Zoom calls to
see if so hly did the first Zoom call yeah check didn't do anything [Music] yeah so trying a little bit different to see if we can get more I'm no longer responsible for parking so that's a good
thing um and then I did want to because you were in person correct I was you in person yeah I was I'm wondering if it would help to have some topics to say you know people if you would like to discuss this or bring your
ideas that we're going to be looking at moving Central grade to Alaska would you like to come and talk about it you know I don't think we're going to do that but just I thought I would throw it out
there it'd be interesting if you had any way to come and talk I got um well I mean we are trying different things and I'm glad we did verify because the next Board office hours this March 13th um trusty
Ballinger in attendance virtually right so yeah we are trying different things as well to to see where we can get engagement I will take any topic so you will be still in town for that yes yeah it's it's this Thursday
the 13th okay yes um I thought you said April I'm sorry right you're talking about you're talking about March I said did I say I thought you said April but I could be wrong March 13th yeah we do it a little earlier in the month the month of spring break because we will not get anybody showing up March 19th no the
night before spring break no um so March 13th virtually uh link on the website and obviously uh yep that be see how that one goes so you just go to the main uh is it ts.net
board and there's a link there yes okay Board office hours great um okay um we are moving on to consent uh do I have a motion to approve the
consent calendar as amended a motion approve the consent calendar as amended a second all right any discussion all those in favor say I I all oos say nay motion carries moving on
to the discussion items umed sorry Speak anything um uh office position um so first off obviously welcome to Scott that does uh leave there is no automatic position appointed
you know to either both officers so we have a vacant officer position and we have a a vacant uh position on the finance committee as well um two parts to that is first we do have to to
approve a treasurer um and to be completely Frank I'm I'm interested to see what you guys say so I move to to nominate Scott Hardy for treasurer
okay um I don't get a vot nope so you want to do it or not too bad kind like the Army here so are there any other nominations okay um so uh we it does require a majority
vote so um Tammy please conduct a ro for vote uh trusty bird yes trusty lore yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty P yes trusty Schmidt yes trusty yes um so I declare
by m by unanimous vote Scott Heidi as treasur of the Board of Education until the next organization meeting in January um okay and then the committee assignment uh obviously I I know that
there was there was a few people who talked about wanting to switch committees I don't know if that's actually true anymore so is there any other move or do we want uh is Scott is that where everyone would propose Scott
Finance yes I would love to do that okay good we're full up on curriculum and I don't I'm trying to remember in the organizational meeting if actually requires a vote but we can it does not I do not believe it does right no the I
mean you know the it says that the board president has the ability to do but you've done it by conversation but you know committee assignments are not required by vote of the board it's at the you know like I said you've done it by consensus conversation but really
it's the board president's role to assign okay and then the committee picks their chair correct we pick that chat the next so prepare yourself oh for another one of these unsolicited at least get a vote next you be able
to they didn't put all this in the brochure wasn't in my important packet y you should see what other assignment you're getting coming up um there is H okay so that uh moves
through that discussion item um mve on to school safety up update find Dr Wagner okay here we go okay um and bear with me we've had something that I was texting with that but we're
all good down with that with the police that they say please helped us out greatly with um so uh the Michigan State Police office of school safety is currently hosting behavioral threat assessment and management also known as bam training around the state and TCAP
staff will be in attendance PA 272 of 24 recently signed by the governor requires all K12 schools to have a behavior threat assessment and management team by October 1st 2026 the the BTM model is what the district is already using um
when a threat is received to safely assess evaluate and provide needed support services for everyone involved um and I got to tell you that our folks do it right now a great job we have just tweaked and tweaked and tweaked and Patrick has led that work and just uh
really feel good about where we're at but always can learn more always looking at best practice and so our team will be there to continue to learn more uh tabs is also currently providing CPR and AED professional development training in each building across the district um
training between six and 10 staff members per site it's a two-year certification taught by current staff of members and administration transportation and licensed child care as you can imagine this is a large task that requires additional training instructors time constraints and oversight of current needed
recertifications we are interested in streamlining the process and are exploring ways to ensure that all necessary Personnel are trained efficiently and efficiently uh and effectively this may include redistributing workloads are identifying additional resources to train support the efforts um on a side note one of our
trainers Kendall um is out of commission to train now le she got her training in the the night before the night before she was doing training and the next day they had the baby a month yep so but baby's healthy and good we got to see him today and he is gorgeous Mr Darby
Shay he's adorable so needless to say she's not doing CPR training at the moment so uh but we are going to be looking at more of that it is a requirement now with teaching sechs and things and so um Patrick's doing it but we're going to continue to try and see if there's a way to find some more people to get trained and to be able to
do that um also right now teap school buses are currently being inspected by the Michigan State Police as required by law on an annual basis and so our mechanics and and Tyson and the whole team do a great job of being ready for that and uh last year we were fortunate
not to have anything but if we do they've been immediately fixed and that recertified and back on the road and so our team takes a lot of pride in making sure that their buses are safe and appreciate all their work so that's what I have for our safety report for din um
just one question which I don't know if we know or not obviously when we used to do training we didn't do the training but we let the various police networks use both of boss for training and they using another facility not wor but I I can tell you um just because I drove by
and see it I do know that I'm the place were using um the um uh Trojan athletic complex and they had cars in there and they were doing searches and different things so I know that there's and I think and sometimes they do some things in this building walking through in the
evening okay so they have had some of that when we're out in the evening generally we don't have a lot of evening activities and so I do know that I've seen of the police be bringing dog and such through doing some training here in this building I just the only reason I mention it is because I know that there was twice that
I drove by both of us and like I was like what is going on there armed for everyone around and it looks so if there is such a situation where it's dramatic then we should at least yeah make sure that and without us having a vacant building now I don't you know see that
in the near future in an active building like I said this is the only one and we let staff know if there ever is but um yeah I that's I just happen to witness that um out there so that goes through Patrick he approves all that does all that so if there ever was you know on a
building we do have scheduled again for as soon as um school's out we have scheduled another reunification practice um as we had done so that is being scheduled right now and so we'll make sure the board has details on that
all right any other questions uh moving on to uh board policy um defer to [Music] Dr there you go and I will go and pass it up to cany all right there's a few
new policies for our consideration uh Dr F already mentioned our threat protocol process so this was an optional policy through trun but given that we do have such a remarkable system we decided to um codify that in policy and adopt the threat protocol or threat assessment
response policy which you have before you so unless anyone has any questions it does mirror what we're currently doing in our district in the event that we have a threat and then policy 575 um as you recall earlier this year
um there was a requirement that all students undergo oral or dental exams um is a condition for enrollment when they come into school um or they have a timeline to get that or they can also submit information that it runs contrary to any religious beliefs but very
similar to immunization but now also with um oral exams so that policy reflects that statutory requirement and then is also referenced by President Newman bale as you know we've kind of had this little bit of a
whiplash going on with Title 9 regulations um we had some changes that were to go into effect this July which we did Implement and adopt our new title 9 policies to reflect the new regulations and then earlier this year a
federal court in the case of Tennessee versus Cardona reversed the 24 regula regulations and we reverted back to the 20121 regs um and so the policies have now reverted back to the ones that we had prior to adopting the
2024 uh regulation update policies and so that is referenced in multiple policies so you will see those listed but those changes are all statutory and are all required by virtue of the 2021 um reversion what was the biggest change in
those the biggest change well the one I'm going to there's there's a few um they expanded the definition of um gender to include transgender identification um and gender identity and that has been reverted back
um to the previous G definition of gender and then also there were some um expansions to protect students that per pregnancy is being one of the protected classifications but um some of the stuff that we actually really liked about the
changes in the regulations were the streamlining of the process um one things that a lot of people don't understand is that title n investigations take a substantial period of time based on the procedural requirements um for the number of folks who have to touch the person that does
the investigation can't be the person who makes the decision who can't be the person who does the appeal there's significant due process review timelines so any given Title 9 investigation can take anywhere from 30 to 120 days just
by virtue of the they had shortened that period of time which was allowing us to streamline those investigations but now we're back to the previous Rags now keep in mind too though in Michigan we still still do have Elliot
Larsson Civil Rights Act which does I you know recognize gender identif U Identity or is a protected classification which in Michigan is still good law but the Title Nine Federal RS do not thank
you um and then I know there were a few policies that that were pulled that item 17 the first one that was uh was 405 yeah and I I mean I I support this and it kind of goes back to what's going on in in Washington and uncertainty and uh
you know in our study session next week on um educational Equity closing achievement gaps um and you know and so title one and it got discussed during finance and um so I just given that you
know I'm new Scott's new um maybe people watching don't quite understand title one especially round parent and family engagement so I was hoping somebody can just help us understand um a little bit especially like the you know the parent you know compact the School parent
compact um you know and how we engage uh with those families participating in title one yeah if if staff are not able Ready Or there's any specific the other option for the board is to remove them to to
approve the policy without those policies the agenda for the next meeting to allow staff time I will give you me personally obviously the board will speak so I can't do it but if you want more time uh then I would propose that I
thought Jesse sent a clarifying email to help exactly what you're asking I thought that that yeah so I'm looking just for a high level because that was a private email I'm just looking for a high level briefing of of you know how we because I think it's pretty great I think what we're like the example I saw
with Travis Heights is something I think is pretty phenomenal so if there's an opportunity to again I share the I mean I I support the Amendments um with that 5405 um but I do think it's important to talk about how we engage with families
um with title who participate in title one I can just give a super General overview of that paranid is replicated at Oliver title school so Travers Heights Blair Long Lake so Lake corate Cherry null all have those family nights
that they they bring families in and obviously there's an emphasis on Community Connection and fun but with each of those nights there is an academic emphasis and it's usually around reading so I know that we did a highlight in our board curriculum meeting recently with that Long Lake kind of that rainforce theme night same
idea great turnout um right around 200 families came in obviously the whole Community is invited uh but it's that same emphasis with that connection to have having uh specifically those funds used for families to come in with academic emphasis right we have the food
we have the fun party like atmosphere almost Carnival like but some of those stations or room are definitely dedicated to that that math and uh literacy aspect and I would only add um when our title funds are received we are we are required for some of those funds
and they tell us how much we have to set aside to support those Knights and it all comes from our from our Title One funds and the documents you shared I again I think it's um very impressive I thought you know and and especially with the school parent compact where we are sharing responsibility with improved
student academic achievement with with parents and students so um again so with that I I'm I'm supportive of it I hope that we'll continue to talk about Title One um you know policies especially it's very timely right now um so moving on to the to the next one which does have to
do with title finds and again I support this amendment um but I was looking again just for a high level and I think you just touched on it a little bit like how and why do we use Title One funds to supplement not supplant state and local funds that would in the absence of title one should the Department of Education the US
Department of Education um you know go away be spent on Title One programs yeah and we're going to go into depth definitely more we more next week on this because Dan and I are going to give you a breakdown exactly of what schools receive the funds how much they receive and then those are all dictated by our
census poverty rates in those areas um but those are all in addition to the general fund we receive and whatever programming we do is really designed at interventions academically with kids during the school day above and beyond
what we're funded through mde um and it really is for those kids who are farther from opportunities and how do we ensure that they have as many opportunities as possible clarification for the board so Jesse does is right now all of our federal and state programs so all of the our Consolidated application has to be
done through MD for both state funds and federal funds that we get in excess of our general fund dollars so a lot of the reporting and all that's fallen in her role so when she says that she's the person that gets to type a lot of that working with her team and submitting that so that's uh you know for ke12
she's doing that for the district so and again in the wording is State wording right as far as MD is above and beyond is that idea of the S planning right because we looked into for instance can you just fund teachers at Traverse Heights can I have a third they're 100%
being reduced can I have a teacher there third grade teacher and fund them with Title One funds no because that's not above and beyond the idea of above and beyond does fall into our Behavior math reading intervention and I and I think that boosts my understanding hopefully
all of our understanding The public's understand of why Title One is important it's roughly I think around million and a half dollars that really support our economic disadvantaged uh students and then next one I pulled this 5707 which had to do with school wellness and and Dr Van Wagner already touched on that we
are going to work we're going to work hard on lobbying our legislators but we're also going to work hard with the things that we can control to help our this important that is very important and and so that's I'm not going to dwell on it I think you touched on it during your report uh so with that I will uh make
the move that the Board of Education approve as listed and discussed board policy that is as it was written but probably not the you did exactly what as listed and discussed the Board of
Education approves board policy as listed and discussed probably would be you that's how I would reite that I'll second Jesse can I ask you a question are those Title One funds pass through funds from the federal government in other words does the state AC those
title funds or they simply passed through from the feds I I don't do that side of it but I believe they so it does it does go to the state then the state appropriates through you know so one of the things that could be good about that is you know if for some reason the
Department of Education you know again I I don't have a lot of belief that without Congressional movement that can happen it can be downsized but even in the worst of scenarios um I think block grants would go to the states and then from the states that that money would pass
through based on those Federal Rags okay might be a delay in yeah because right now the the Michigan Department of Education actually does the auditing of all those federal funds already they have a they are paid by the federal government to have that role so when you do your Consolidated app it's your state
federal all wrapped into one and you have a a consultant from MDA that Audits and approves all of those expenditures so you know from that standpoint I I would see it as it it as it still passes through now that that's the way that that would be yeah thank you for that
that was W Am I Wrong by that in anyway thank you okay and I wanted to make sure I think somebody mentioned 5202 and 5 206 202 and
206 no two that con I don't know if you touch on those there was two they were on the main point that be question yeah those were are simply they're affected by the title 9 regulation changes so
those changes are all statutorily required thank you um so there is a motion on the table and the motion I believe is that I that the Board of Education approved board policy as listed and discussed um did I have a second I'm sorry who was the
second sorry um so with a with a motion a second Tammy please conduct a ro trusty Schmidt yes trusty P yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty bird yes trusty Moon Yeah Yeah and trusty Newman
B yes sorry I thought you I don't have my name so I apologize it's not even that long of a meeting here um so motion carries uh next item on discussion is the bond ratification resolution
to okay so essentially this is is uh this is ratifying the bond sale so um this is uh the amount of um just over $90 million um in the sale um an important
uh part with this so you know I think is very important to our taxpayers is the true interest cost that after all of the uh bids were done um sat at 3.23 uh and some further down decimal
points of percent but you know 3.23 on on uh municipal bonds it's a very good rate and and a lot of that is because of our team working hard and our board what we've done financially over the time so to be able to have a very good doublea
minus uh stable credit rating um allows that to happen um so fifth thir Securities was the lowest bid um I know that the the from Finance Christine that the difference in all the bids was very little they were all with inmal points
of each other there were 11 compe I believe and so uh so really excited about that um I know that uh we will have that March 10th approval here and then the closing is 13 and that's when the Mone money hits the the account and
uh as you know we already have a lot of planning and everything going on to start for this summer And So It Begins based on uh that again you will remember that that is the last of the 28 18 um Bond and then the first sale um the
first series of the 2024 uh Bond any other questions on that because if you do it's going to be [Music] W it March 10th oh no was it February 12th yeah that's not good that's not a
much of a spread so I just yeah is good and the double A obviously that is a shockingly small amount compared to again where some other districts were and I think in the finance that was one of the things is
only 30 districts have that rating now yes I think we're I think we're right around less than 2% of the districts in the state have a rating of that or better so we're a good company and so again fiscal responsibility it's identified you know by standard in PS in that rating and so um you know let's not
screw it up just just a thank you too to our our finance department and team and yeah thank you for all your hard work yeah I can't tell you I had the chance uh just this weekend has sat with a couple of folks from trun you know going through this and and the first
thing they say is that you just I hope you're lucky you know how lucky you are at the team because most districts don't have the kind of expertise that we have and and again Wes and and Sandy and and uh Christine and all that team um it's we should not take it for granted
no thank you [Laughter] yeah um okay um any further discussion motion I moved that the Board of Education adopt the bond ratification resolution detailing the terms and conditions of the Trevor City area
public schools competitive 2025 Bond sale a second all right um any other discussion Tammy please conduct a ro um truste mmore yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty bird yes trusty pack yes trusty Schmidt yes and
B yes motion carries um next discussion item acceptance of a grant def okay again twice a year we get the opportunity to apply uh to the Grand Trevor B Ottawa and Chip Indians 2% Grant uh this is comes from their gaming
uh proceeds and uh very very fortunate to again receive a $25,000 grant for our student support network um and Al ask Ginger any other things to add with that that that might be important we have already met with the Father Fred
organization so uh we are Full Speed Ahead we working right now with our transportation team trying to finalize all of the stops and um so far everything is um going on as scheduled
so a part of our SSN work in the sunshine bus we have food and clothes and Ne Necessities throughout the summer um for students to have because you know there needs don't end when the school year is over and so Ginger and and uh uh
working you know with uh all of our SSN Team ktie all um they do an awesome job of having those dates and partner organizations and uh uh opportunities to be able to to get paperwork for uh en rolling in school um all those things so
if you have not had the chance to catch that Sunshine bus it's really cool um and they do a lot of good work with it and uh this helps our SSN that does a lot of that unbelievable work that is so needed by so many of our kids very appreciate it yes big thank
you um I moved at the Board of Education except the grant TR span of Ottawa and Cha Indians 2% pleas trusty bird yes trusty pack yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty Moon more
yeah trusty Schmid y trusty no yes motion carries um moving on to uh bids and services and purchases to to okay um so the we have our um
curriculum uh adoption English language arts um with cka and so um I believe that uh we've had presentation say anything to add yeah just just real quick I just took a couple stets from the I know everyone received this
presentation I think for Scott and Mr hardy has not seen it yet so just real quick uh the idea that we started the pilot um two years ago and this year we had 11 teachers that were early adopters in all the schools we gathered feedback throughout the year and note that
feedback was reported back to principls and also other teachers um just real quick here I just want to highlight between these two slides this is something that we're continuing to work on for K2 it's 120 Minutes of implementation and then for um sorry
that's K3 is 120 minutes and for 45 is 90 so if when we talking to teachers this is a concern for teachers about finding this block of time so we're trying to be a little proactive with our HR department when we do our schedules with specials to make sure we find these blocks at times it's not always possible
but as far as teacher concerns like I said I wanted to mention that 120 120 Minutes especially for K3 is is something that we are working on go is it daily that's daily yep just real quick I want to also uh
emphasize some of the data that we used during our board curriculum and board Finance meeting um specifically highlighting when we look at our econ economically disadvantage students we saw more than a Year's growth through this four-year study and then coming lastly to our CK
CL uh cost and contract so it's a five-year contract um that includes all classroom kits all digital access also one year of boost reading I discussed at board finance and board curriculum that the Boost reading is for one year um going to gather some data on that and
then extend it possibly for years two through five materials cost 1, 9,98 which that includes a 10% contingency um to account for any student fluctuations um this is funded by 35j
our literacy Grant and that'll be I know there's some um Talk there about the curriculum Department budget but the vast majority if not all of this is going to come out of 35j uh we're going to continue to look into our PD plan um that funding can also come from 35j and
Jesse and I have been working on possible funding out of title too question yes sir clost include digital licensing as well it does it's comprehensive yep and digital licensing will be JK also will be able to use that digital licensing as they
are we have a couple different programs they're using right now and they've um we've been working with JK that diff the differentiation of those kids that come in the JK they have some that are ready for preschool some that are pretty close to kindergarten so they have that that flexibility most excited for how many
acronyms have changed in the last few years catch on I'll be talking acronym in no time the JK one always gets me too obviously because it's like Dan can you just go back a second to the um block time Sor what did you
call it the the block time or yeah the 90 minutes and the 120 Minutes how does that does that mean uh like you know straight or can they have it can they break that up they can break it up um it's preferred for for K3 if we try to
keep that in that block but it's not like we can't deliver the curriculum without doing that quite honestly ly when we look at our special schedules with our 11 elementary schools shared time sharing teachers with secondary that's super hard to achieve in all of our schools then you throw in obviously
lunch and in an additional recess but that that's our goal like we're trying to get a scheduling committee together with HR uh that has Elementary principles to do our best to figure out where everyone wants specials in the afternoon but to see where those blocks could could could open attention spans I
mean at that age the 90 and 120 Minutes that's yeah and 100 yeah it's not 120 Minutes on the carpet oh no kiding I'm kidding okay any other
questions just do again I want to clarify and probably good for the motion is again that it is 1,199 which includes a 10% contingency J does have I was I was going to say that good thank you okay I moved that the Board of Education approve the purchase
of the ELA curriculum for one m11999 which includes a 10% contingency from the 35j literacy Grant and if necessary curriculum Department budget
second um is there any other discussion the only thing I'm hearing and I don't no I mean I'm just not sure exactly the impact of it
is when you're putting in the 120 hours for this I'm hearing that it's affecting some of the other that they used to teach and one of the big ones is science yeah and science is
basically doesn't have as much time and so that's something I think we need to keep in mind but I but I think as they recall there's so much integration with a lot of those other subjects in this particular program that
can be done that you didn't have to supplement it to make those things happen and that was why it was preferable yeah that's true of science and social studies so we're trying to make those connections with the curriculum you know the number one thing when we talk to especially upper L and
we talk to teachers and students's engagement with the curriculum and how much has gone up since Journeys and a lot of that is because it integrates that science and social studies that teachers are that students and teachers are interested in so yeah we'll keep an eye on not exactly it's not to throw a
stone it's just understood okay any other discussion we have a motion on the table and Tammy please conduct a a second okay trusty Ballinger yes trusty mmar
yes trusty bird yes uh trusty p yes trusty Schmid yes trusty Newman Bale yes motion carries um moving on to the draft 2025 2026 school year calendar to Dr mik Okay
so we've had the chance to talk about this um this is a calendar this does not require a vote um of the board just really an acceptance and I'm providing it um we had the chance to have the the feedback during our committee meetings um I would like to announce um that the
TC uh EA has ratified of the calendar um so I know that they were very happy with that outcome and process again some highlights some feedback that we had from parents I know when we all met is is there any way for us to reduce down um half days and and uh especially and
so this does go from 10 to 8 and it goes 8 actually to 7 early relief days which are very different and only one half day which is the last day of school so we bring consistency to parents of when we get out so they don't have to guess between the two we've managed to be able
to really get our professional development and get agreement on what happens during those early release days to bring PLC work into that time so our teachers don't have to do so much maybe after school um so they're able to really concentrate not have work a full
day in that aspect so um we think it's a step in the right direction you know we are we are bound by 180 school days 1,98 hours 5 days of professional development required for our teachers and so um you know not a lot of flexibilities there
but I think we're trying to do what we can we'll continue to see what the state might bring in flexibilities in the future but I think overall we improved the calendar I know that we have some real solid agreement with our our teacher Partners um as well as TC uh caps had the chance to give feedback in
this as well so um just want to uh let you know that we are moving forward with this calendar and at this point um Ginger will have a a release for the calendar uh for saying um coming here in the morning to our parents and so they have that for spring break to be able to
make other future plans and all those kind of things um so uh we'll uh make sure that that gets done so and you forgot the most important thing for parents which is a two week winter break with three weekends so that's a good
long break there you go um and go ahead t no no I mean I just want I mean it's I think you said eight um half days Rel days but I think it's I think it's 10 we went from 10 to 8 went 12 to 10 I'm sorry 12 to 10 you're right thank you I
did miss be it's all good it it yeah and but nine of them are early released is one's a half day that's right thank you yeah two less and your numbers are correct we did with Good Friday um So Good Friday falls on spring break oh it does um but also we were able to we kept
indigenous people's day as well as Dr Martin Luther King Jr day um on early release day still plan on making sure that we do those teaching and Honors that are built into our state curriculum that are there um and yet extending that day and hopefully helps our parents out
a little bit with work and and pickups and all those kind of things and so again stuff in the right direction but Ty thank you for that correction got I knew it was too less I just went too more can I just make one more comment too is we um we were looking at obviously we're always looking at
cost-saving measures so by bringing in all of the PLC time into the the early release days that's a significant savings to the district because we were paying for that time outside of the school day and as well as doing a different format for our opening kickoff
day is also a saving so there's a lot of that that went into play thinking of how can we best utilize our time and resources um for the calendar so all in all very great knowing our budget you know shortfalls that we have going into this next year that's a part of those
things that we put together to make an impact towards that that we get later on the budget process we'll share but we're already again trying to in and put in in action these things that are cost savings to really get the bottom line to that point that we're going to need to come our 25 26
budget I'll say congratulations this is like threedimensional chess to come up with this and you've pulled it off and our team and you know again think Jesse Dan be a part of that with Connie U Christine you know all of the team to sit down with again this is a process of
partnership with our our staff and uh I I'll just be really honest I mean you know from going to really a little bit of of serious change to it um I I couldn't say it couldn't have it couldn't have gone smoother I mean our EA Partners our TC capsu partners and
our team working together just came and listen to parent feedback to everything to the extent we can um and and I just I truly feel we made a better calendar this year you think following year will uh cooperate as well what's that hard to
say my role no no no this is this is for next calendar year the following year hopefully will work as well well we'll worry about that when we get there I'm just trying to get through tonight back it's like the budget
time forward to the next challenge fa enough and know we should uh on that we uh can worry about uh item h uh which is the withdrawal from the insulin lawsuit that we added um I think we I don't really if there is any further
discussion we can have it I could take a motion as well so um I don't know if anyone has prepared motion sh yeah I is something over here that I wrote the problem is number probably a good idea to list the case number in it I I'm going to it to
the lawyer no probably got it you can have mine if you want it but I can see had none of that so yours is probably you could probably do drop in the case number I didn't even know well we didn't even have the I move that the Board of Education approved a superintendent or is
designated to withdraw or dismiss conditional dismiss conditionally dismiss our participation in complaint against various defendants who Supply insulin coordinated by th law um and that was actually not through that was dur through FR fr's law we we our
contracts be true well so technically was friend and true okay and case being INR insulin pricing litigation case number two colon 23- md- 03080 VM RLS mdl
number 380 [Music] and the United States uh Court of New Jersey [Music] I second from Beth um obviously we covered it already but if there are any
questions um otherwise uh Tammy please conduct a ro but trusty bird trusty P yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty moonar yes trusty Schmidt yes and trusty new yes motion Carri um that is
discussion item U public comment I am seeing none um moving on to the close session portion of the agenda um one area we didn't cover is is the
laws have changed Scott now that you are not allowed to participate in a superintendent evaluations you are allowed to be present but you're not allowed to uh say anything of yes so it's it's a difficult uh one
but um the board are welcome to say yes or no it's up to the board I can't even invite you the board will me to be okay with yes okay um so with that we are now at the Clos session portion of the agenda may I have a motion for the board
to go into close session I move to enter into Clos session for the purpose of conducting a periodic Personnel evaluation as Allowed by the open meetings act 267 of 1976 section 81 or 881a Clos session was requested in
writing by the employee second give it to Josie here was a very tight tie um any discussion Tammy please conduct a ro vot trusty Schmidt yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty bird yes
trusty moar yes trusty P yes and trusty n yes motion carries we will return to this room after closed session um and we are now in closed session for [Music]
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[Music] everyone I'm back if there was no objection we will return to open session we are now in Open Session um closing remarks thanks I know it was a longer meeting uh mentally draining one for the U going through uh this process but
obviously welcome again uh to our new trust soon to be new trustee uh Mr hardy and um the next uh Board of Education meeting is Tuesday thank I was thinking it
was I think it was already March 18th I was like it was we're not quite there yet but um the next Board of Education media is a study session on Tuesday March 18th at 5:00 p.m. um and it is uh in this room um as well so I appreciate
everyone and with that do I have a motion to adjoin the meeting motion toj motion wej uh we do have a faster one but do we have a second there Beth second right thank you um all those in favor say I all opposed say nay meeting
adjourned [Music]