call this meeting of the Board of Education to order uh the board would like to welcome the audience and thanks you for attending viewers may watch Board of Education meetings and board committee meetings live at tcaps.net backboard recorded meetings may be viewed on demand at the same address please rise and join Mrs M Ross's kindergarten class of Eastern Elementary in the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the
flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands Nation God liberty and justice for all okay we had the review approval portion of the agenda uh I would
like to make a change to the agenda okay um I'd like to move item D2 under uh discussion to consent sorry it's D sorry one discussion to consent D2 okay and that was how it was sent from the finance committee and I believe in the executive committee we accidentally either didn't move it or
we put it on the wrong one so so I do have B1 moving to consent that's the transportation School Bus purchase from from consent yes find it at some point
firearms policy that's the firearms and weapons policy correct okay B3 okay I'll get to reorder this in a second after I get the other changes so I'll move that one onto discussion um I do also have an additional discussion item that I will uh suggest putting uh as item uh a and then we'll bump everything else down which is meeting
schedule um we've got a lot of things to figure out with meeting so I'd like to put that as a so we can get that done because it may affect some other discussion items um so if that was became a everything else would go down once c e e and f and then uh
item B3 off of the consent we go to item G any other changes policy um under discussion which is C if you want to just add it to oh thank you so yeah so
we that works so yes thank you that would be I think easier to so we we'll scratch it from uh the consent calendar we will move it to the discussion item that's already on for board policy which is now section one that can just go in as an additional number be item d8 it will become d8 okay after we get
through the uh so uh do I have a motion to or any other changes but motion to approve as amended I move to approve the agenda as amended second um sty police I think oh sorry sorry Tammy please conduct a walk take me a while trusty Binger yes trusty
Raymond yes trustey bird yes trusty pack yes trusty Schmidt yes and Trust yes motion carries um so moving on to the next uh discussion item recognition to found Dr okay so uh tonight uh we originally were going to have possibly I'd let you know the West High School uh stem group they wanted to wait until maybe the opening of the stem Labs with that um so we'll uh we'll see from them
a little later but tonight we do have um our next round of teaps compass Award winners so I'm going to go ahead and pass over to Connie Taylor to introduce our award winners thank you so much um for tonight if you are present in the room when we call your name will you please stand while we read your recognition and then when we're done you can have a seat and then when everyone is done we'll call you all up to receive your certificates and we'll get a picture with you and the Board of Education okay we're going to start out tonight with our winner from
the ask me group Gary Garvin Gary is wi all right Gary's not here but I am going to tell you about him his nominee says Gary cares I remember when Gary started for teaps in 2000 from when he started at the high school third shift to lead position at corage ask anyone Gary was always there to do his best he's the ground's department now and never leaves until the job is done and done to the best of his abilities he's always looking out for the safety of staff
and students he's been with teaps for 24 years he's put on 100% in everything that he's done his endless hours and dedication is worthy of this honor he arrives early and leaves late why because he cares he cares about the job he cares about the way things look and most of all he cares about the safety of teachers staff and students when he was the lead at custodian for many years the students at the secondary school now see him and remember him he's done something positive to make them students come up
to say hello Mr Gary we honor Gary Garin our next winner is Matthew O'Brien bus driver best nominator said that he's always willing to jump in and help where needed he helps staff around facilities and transportation all the time he's extraordinarily reliable with outstanding attendance he also volunteers for extra work he pre-trip an extra bus every morning he's a great role model for students and very seldom
has disciplinary issues on his bus his calm demeanor helps him work great with our elementary students also because of his knowledge and attention to detail he's part of the state police pre-inspection team and he goes through every bus and expect inspects them for our mechanics and lastly he transer support students for for SSN he's a strong and consistent presence for the students who need him most congratulations man' all right our
next Honore is Emily Dillinger wit from tcea Emily's an instructional coach at Blair Elementary she goes above Beyond being an intrical part of our school her commitment to improving her practice in in order to support the development of our teachers is inspiring Emily's aspires leaders follow through the teaps teach America program and also as a member of the Blair leadership team
she serves as a district Ela curriculum coordinator and stepped up to serve as administrator for Blair summer school program to Absolute rave reviews they might add Emily's impact is so great much greater than she realizes within our building she's a trusted adviser for staff they seek her out to bounce ideas receive feedback and learn Emily has done an amazing job cultivating relationships within the building and Beyond her work as summer school administrator absolutely stands out the staff loved working for her and
she helped to create a fun family-like environment most importantly our students reported having so much fun the staff and students alike thoroughly enjoyed summer school as a testament to her vision and Leadership I'm proud and honored to work alongside Emily congratulations our next Honore is Ryan rager lead principal at East Middle School his nomination it says is
with great enthusiasm that I recommend Ryan Ranger for the compass award in his new role as lead principal of East Middle School he has consistently demonstrated the exceptional leadership dedication and positive impact that this award celebrates he has fostered a positive welcoming environment at East Middle School he's known for his approachable demeanor creating a space where students staff and parents feel comfortable sharing ideas and concerns this open communication style has been instrumental in building trust and collaboration with the school Community
Ryan's commitment to fairness is evident in all of his interactions he consistently applies policies and procedures equitably ensuring that all students have access to the resources and support they need to succeed this commitment to fairness has fostered a sense of respect and belonging among students and staff alike Ryan is incredibly hardworking and dedicated individual he's often the first to arrive and the last to leave demonstrating a tireless work ethic in his pursuit of Excellence for East Middle School he actively participates in school events engages with students
in the classroom in his visible and supportive presence throughout the building congratulations Ronnie next I have Shelley Burton with our non-affiliated support child care shell is the toddler manager at teaps monor school she miss shell is a beloved Lead Teacher guide in our community and has been for the past seven years shelle's very committed not only to monor methodology but also
the program she has helped curate recently Shelley has gently taken on a position to Mentor our new toddler team she does this on her own time she has provided training and professional learning to her team to help them better understand monory education and the school culture Shelly is a true mon storian she encompasses Grace courtesy and peace in all that she does she's a true advocate for early childhood education and the parents in our community she understands that this expertise for our family is
far more than just school it is creating an environment where students and families feel nurtured safe and connected she celebrates all that is good in TCAP strategic plan for seal learning in our District's very youngest Learners congratulations sh next we have Ken O'Brien a building manager for facilities Ken has always been a person I rely on to lend a listening
and understanding ear that is hard to find in a leader nowadays he responds to my emails and text timely I feel comfortable sharing anything with him whether it's simple facilities needs or a personal issue I feel it's important to have the open two-way communication relationship with management and staff and can does exactly that empowering others by giving staff resources when he can and supporting them to take ownership of their work he engages in transparency he builds trust and The credibility by ensuring that his staff
members are informed and involved and values their opinions he also demonstrates empathy Ken can see things from the team members as well as management side and takes into account ideas from both Ken has calm relaxed demeanor that is perfect for the job he does and for the people he manages congrat congratulations Ken next is Christine Novak Food Service kitchen leader at Long Lake Elementary Christine
goes above and beyond each day for the students at our school She's a wonderful person to work for and makes the days fly by with laughter and love for what we do Christine not only ensures that every child receives a nutritious meal but also creates a warm and welcoming environment where students feel care for and valued her leadership inspires the team to work together seamlessly and her positive attitude is contagious she handles challenges with Grace and always finds ways to make the cafeteria a bright spot in everyone's day
Christine's hard work and compassion make a real difference in the lives of both students and staff and we're lucky to have her Christine is dedicated to making sure that every child gets the nourishment they need while uring that students have access to the same quality meals regardless of where they are in line she's especially Vigilant when it comes to the safety of students with allergies always double-checking ingredients daily even for familiar products to prevent any risk her commitment to detail and student well-being is unmatched and her
compassion makes her an exceptional leader I feel truly fortunate to work alongside someone who cares so deeply about the students and our team congratulations Christine and lastly we have Kristen Harish TC caps us special education Aid Eastern Elementary School her nomination States I want to recognize the special ed and behavior team at Eastern they work the work that they do is so important and they all
excel at it to pick one person would be difficult since they function at the team this group is so observing and I hope you'll consider recommending them as a group Christine inspires others with how to approach their job there are days that are pretty challenging but she does not let a hard day impact the next day she starts the day fretch which is important for the students she's a fierce advocate for her students she supports teaps by supporting students she makes those teams stronger not only by improving the educational outcome but
also showing true acceptance for all students and displaying a recognition that each student brings something special to our community all students should be valued and she demonstrates this each day the impact that she has on the school is invaluable the world of education is rewarding but it's also hard the work that she and the team does and the attitude in which they do it helps everyone come to work each day with a positive outlook we feel fortunate to work with Christine and the team
and Christine is lucky to have them congratulations and if all of the award winners will please come up front and be recognized by the Board of Education that's thank you for
doing nomin but to get it from somebody that works for you I didn't say hi yet
how are you I figur I'd see you after sty I don't think I'm very much need it anymore but I just
oh up one time no well it didn't seem like it I'd be
like you know I as people filter out that's fine um go ahead and say the next item on the agenda is public comment and uh the board has set aside this time for public comment and individuals addressing the board should have one opportunity to speak which shall be to three minutes individuals should not make personal attacks unrelated to actions affecting the school system and we
strongly encourage common courtesy and constructive feedback detailed rules and procedures including complaint process are outlined in board policy 2504 Tammy the first comment would be Scott Richards Richard from Green Lake Township um America spends United States of
America other Industrial books
all boys AR pornography if the kids want to look up pornography taxpayer money does not need to be spent on the other thing I'd like to talk about is Jordan de of Marquette Michigan Jordan de is a very sad story and
a lot of people get caught up in that especially they going crazy and sad last thing I like to talk about is uh the First Amendment I'm should make no law respecting any establishment of religion some people think that's freedom of Rel you know why that came about because the Dan bar Baptist got a hold of Thomas
Jefferson because they were afraid that the government push one denomination religion like these pilgrims and these Puritans that came across the sea they were religious persecution maybe the queen of France was C Catholic so you couldn't be Luther in France they would take your property and K you out on the streets or maybe the king of England was a church of England so you can't be Catholic so
we kick all the Catholics out and pick their property that's why freedom of religion came in to the First Amendment it wasn't to take religion on government I think the most Integrity honest people Christian us to say answer to God should be in government look at our government look at all the weights that's coming out from Elon Musk and boys do not need
to be in girl Sports boys have bigger Hearts they had bigger lung capacities they got more muscle mass they should not be competing against against being students Trump was right there's only two genders male and female the next is Sebastian Eden
Ellison so I'm a senior at West High School I'm also in the health science program at CTC but I'm also a member of nths wmen Corral model un the msvma bo Scouts of America have two jobs and I'm also the president of West's GSA apparently some members of the community believe that we are promoting
suicide or promoting gay sex I'm sorry that's cannot be further from the truth I've been hospitalized for Suicidal Thoughts I've been hospitalized for suicidal actions and a community that has been created by ogsa has helped save my life and it's supported by some of many our Educators here I'm bisexual and have a boyfriend a lot of people say I'm confused or natural and get called I get called slurs and receive death threats often just for existing even by many adults in our communities this has been happening to me since
what 10 or 11 I would say and the whole time I knew many of those in power either supported it or did not care and it was made even more clear when I was 13 at West Middle School when rocks with thrown at me well I would say size of my fist they were thrown at my head and when myself and others reported it we were told by principls and staff that oh no they were just calling me happy and they wanted that's how they
show that they wanted to be my friends do you guys think that's true and that was made oh do you think they wanted to be my friend when another student with a trump flag on the back of their truck tried to follow me home after school what about when I was pushed up in the wall of the bath at westu High by two kids and choked and the whole time nothing I get called schs walking to class on a normal basis issues like this are ignored and put off by a
lot of teachers and and frankly most administrators at the lower levels yes there are teachers like Mr werman Miss Cole Mr Gillespie and Miss Miner who coincident is here today who they'll do anything they can to address it but nothing done the Department of Education stated that they no longer support us by removing title n protections to those like myself and many I know who are gender nonconforming this is why we need an organization like our GSA now more than
ever so people know that they're not alone so they know that there are people who support them even when our government bodies refuse our GSA will be there to support them we have created a safe space where people can have fun where people can be safe and a space where hopefully like with what and to me can help save their life next is Jordan
Teasdale my name is Jordan Teo I use any pronouns and I'm currently a senior and I've been a student at West in seventh grade I had to leave West last year because of the sheer amount of bullying I was enduring it was so mentally straining I felt like I was going to kill myself I did not receive any support from any staff during this time the bullying I have endured while being at teap schools is degrading and
I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemies I've had slurs yelled at me I've had items and food thrown at me in the cafeteria I've been barked at all while just trying to mind my own business all in front of Staff members mind you and these staff members did absolutely nothing I know many other students who have experienced the same thing as me and like me have not received any support my mom has had to call the school my dad has
had to call the school my sister has had to send an email to the principal outlining exactly what has been happening to me just to been just to be told we'll look into it we'll look into it it was never looked into I was brushed off and I was ignored and I was forgotten you all ignore the bullying and tell me and other students like me that the things being screamed at us in the hallway you tell us to not give
them any power and that words will never hurt us and yet these words are slowly destroying us mentally and slowly killing student Souls making them feel worthless and making them not even want to show their faces at school the GSA is meant to support queer students who feel like they have nowhere to go and the in fact there are people who think that we want to push students to hurt themselves is disgusting the GSA was made to uplift support Inspire and give a voice to queer students who feel as if they've been silenced their whole life we won't
be ignored and our voices will not be silenced any longer thank you for your time next is brace Kar so I'm here to talk about Wilbur the therapy dog at Westwoods Elementary School um so I lived by
the dog uh two of my kids go to the school there and uh I walk my dog regularly along the Fisher Road and uh this dog attacked my dog so I looked into it a little bit further and um you know and talked to the owner of the dog and said I don't think it's appropriate the dog goes to school anymore considering it's showing a propensity for violence and uh you know the person doesn't want to take the dog out of the school and so I looked into a little bit more to figure out how the dog got allowed in the school in
the first place and there's an application from 23 to 24 and an application from 24 to 25 and on both those applications to be a therapy dog here at teaps they indicated that the dog is a uh mixed breed is all it said and the Certificate of Insurance that they Supply to you to prove that they are insur and the dog is covered says that the dog is a Labrador retriever mix um
the dog's veterinarian records that are also part of the foia to teaps shows that the vet knows it's a pitbull it is a pitbull and I believe the owner is not telling you it's a pitbull and not telling the insurance company that it's a pitbull because it wouldn't be assured and it wouldn't be allowed be a therapy dog in the school so you possibly have a dog that is even once it does let's say attack a kid at school the insurance company is just going to deny the claim saying that's not the dog that they were told that they were insuring that the person submitted a claim
for a bre or insurance policy for a breed that isn't that dog if you look at the Certificate of Insurance and I emailed all this to you before the meeting if you haven't had an opportunity to look at it because it was only two hours ago but if you look at the Certificate of Insurance Number one you're not listed on there as an additional insured that's a mistake the school should be listed on there as an additional insured if that person cancels the policy mid midterm the dog would be without insurance and you guys would know nothing about it if you're listed as an additional insur then the insurance company notifies you with
coverage stops second you'll also notice that the uh location of the insured is a PO Box in North Carolina and they're using an LLC in order to ensure the dog there so I doubt the insurance company even knows that this is a therapy dog in Michigan and at tcaps and I'm sure if there is an incident you're going to end up getting sued and the insurance compan is going to deny coverage and we'll be on the hook for it I don't want our dollars going to that but more importantly I don't want any kids to get attacked by this dog your application doesn't
indicate on it um do you know one thing your application should add do you know of any propensity for violence that this dog is exhibited make the owner at least answer that question and likewise every time that they apply for a uh the year they should have to update their recognition of whether the dog has attacked another person or another dog so um thank you Mr C your time is up appreciate if you look into the dog thank you next
is Bill Weisner the TR City and uh I was glad to hear from the two students that spoke on this issue of homosexuality and I think if this was allowed to be spoken of more
people would realize that um I I agree with them no one should be physically bullying anyone but there's a difference between physically bullying and communicating and disagreeing someone and it seems like for 20 years 24 years I followed this uh one side only has been introduced in other words this is people are born that way well
if you look at the real information which teaps doesn't have in their libraries there's not one book showing a compassionate view on the other side there's 500 books TC West TC Central 400 promoting the homosexuality is normal it's very risky Behavior especially for the men and um there's reasons that that occurs and uh one of them is environmental association with their father is often times for the men
hard for some reason it doesn't click and they identify more with their mother and then they gain these attractions but the information on both sides should be shown right now it's only one side The Librarians from TC West TC Central were complaining about book Banning but the book Banning is really one-sided and those sexually explicit books listed on my website TCF family.org you can go right to the table there is 52 books listed there's 37 of them in either
tcaps TC West or TC Central they're all sexually explicit not one of them should be shown should be promoted to these kids it's not something they should be learning and they can learn like Scott said elsewhere there's plenty of places we shouldn't be we should should be protecting them and not encouraging this this is a picture of book burning in Nazi Germany 1933 and people say it was the right
side doing it but that but actually the quote here from the book this book Nazi Germany's dirtiest secrets and I hope some of you got it we sent this information out to thousands of individuals um but a quote from here why was it then when why was it then since we were completely a non-party that our purely scientific Institute was the first victim which fell to the new regime the answer is simple We Knew Too Much it would
be against medical principles to provide a list of the Nazi leaders but he says not 10% of the men who in 1933 took the fate of the Germany into their hands were sexually normal homosexual was all over and it's not good for them and it's not good for society now thank you Mary Van
Valen I'm maryan Bal I live in the city and I want to start by just thanking you for your service um this isn't an easy job you have and I hope you know your appreciate it I'm here to because I noticed in the packet that you're going to be talking about an ad hoc committee to look at differences in um academic achievement and I
just um just really hope that that committee can take form and address what we're seeing in terms of just trying to balance out opportunities for all of our students and um we certainly have evidence from our report that we have a whole lot of kids that that need something more and so I hope
you'll consider that committee thank you again all right thank you uh that is the end of uh public comment requests um we will move on to the next agenda item which is the superintendent report talk about M yes so I had the opportunity uh share some information from Lancing uh the governor has uh put out her plans for the school aid budget
of what her thoughts are um and they are uh definitely a lot of positive things there um that we've talked about and that we've shared with our staff on areas that we're continuing to try and advocate for for instance the Transportation uh categorical um of the 125 million is in the in her current budget not increased um but it is uh in there um and uh and definitely an increase in the per pupo Foundation to
10,000 per student again not quite the 500 we were hoping just to shy under 400 um so you know there there's definitely a lot of good there there's still some areas that I want us to try and continue to look to advocate for the mental health and school safety money was again 150 million versus the 300 million that was there 2 years ago it's the same as the total last year you might remember there was only 25 million originally and just before the election it was added a supplemental of about 125 million um so the governor went
with that number versus the original number of the 300 million knowing the amount of of uh Staffing and things that we could use in that school safety and mental health dollars that is something that I think um we're going to continue to try and work with our uh Northern Michigan uh School Alliance to try and advocate for more funding in those areas um but again a lot of a lot of good things in there um for us to advocate for and continuing it'll now be talked about with
the house and the Senate um I will tell you that I think that there's not a ton of hope that we will have a school year budget by July 1 even though we're required to have an adopted budget by July 1 it is probably more likely to be closer to October 1st so which means we will start the school year without knowing what funds we have most likely um I hope to be pleasantly surprised but the speaker has already kind of tampered that saying that it's not really required in law and that uh he expects
that it'll it going to take that long so um we're going to continue to watch it again I think advocating for all we can in the foundation um trying to increase that school mental health and school safety funding at least keeping the transportation categorical if not adding more and again those items that I shared with the board and our staff for all of us to continue to advocate for so that we have the resources that we need to not only continue what we're doing now that's essential but even if there was
an ability to hire some more people to help again in those critical areas of mental health um school safety uh um with atrisk dollars um that are there all of those items um she has put in some money more for uh literacy uh that we're going to see the component um but with that there's also a transparency component um um mostly for districts that are failing in the uh bottom 5% um
that are quite a bit but we do expect there'll be some things that all districts will share with parents and others that are part of the metric that she's created but we'll see again where the legislature agrees or disagrees and points of difference are and continue to work at that so any questions on any of that I actually have a question about Federal funding um because uh Michigan Association of superintendent and administrators and Michigan Association of school board jointly had a webinar two weeks ago about navigating the
federal executive orders and they talked quite a bit um among other things about Title One title two title three um you know expecting that there could be some real cutbacks if not eliminations of those Federal funding so I'm just wondering what you might have heard in the past two weeks along those lines not a lot you know I think that the important thing has to be realized is obviously that has to go through the legisl legislative and appropriation process
and there are many um districts uh that especially you know Southern districts that have much more poverty than Michigan that that would be a real a real um uh a real hurt for those those States even more more than Michigan um that tend to be more red Republican districts so I think that you know we'll see where that lands I I'm more optimistic that that because of that need across um areas uh of the South
and places such as Alaska you know that their legislators are going to be pretty Keen still on making sure that students get those title dollars as a component um could it be tweaked and for some things for such as vouchers others that are there could be you know will we're in a little bit of a weit and see pattern on that element and title to is professional development right so that's something that we learned in curricul committee that correct our district has used funds for for the instructional rounds so that's also important and I don't know
can you just speak briefly to title three what that is for us um our title three others are title three is the immigrant immigrant program yeah it's it's very low amount of funds yeah but every dollar matters and so we'll continue to look at that and work with our our advocacy groups at the federal level and working with all of our legislators to um make sure that they understand the realities of that so thank you $2
million or something in federal restricted funds budg is that correct last year no we have way more than that way more than that total CU that's what I thought I was uh seeing was reviewing you think of the title to specifically maybe no it just said Federal Income Revenue Federal
restricted uh from the budget information that we got last year so I was just kind of curious about that we we'll share what that is but it's much larger I mean I'm in the byet total of our budget it's around 20% Christin what do you think I would think so somewhere right in there um of our total budget of federal dollars when you take food service in you take a lot of those elements in of all the title funding it's uh in that neighborhood you
get any clarifications on it I see what you're looking at three million yeah yeah two million yeah and it looked like it was a sizable drop just from the prior year so what was that line item just to be clear to rep public Federal restricted money for our general fund Revenue 2.9 the general fund right here um okay all right any other questions okay and then for district highlights
uh give you uh TC West and TC Central basketballs fight the freeze uh game is Friday February 14th at West Senior High nickolay bank is sponsoring tickets attendees are asked to bring cash donations gift cards or warm clothing for the TCAP student support network uh West Senior High wrestling girls wrestling participated in the mhsa is first individual girls District Tournament TC West girls who moved on to Regionals are Abby doal Anna beers Eddie
the good anuka yunker and Alex Moser Moser sorry um and then on the boys side um for the boys individuals three Titans qualified for individual regionals Brady vaugh Matthew Quigley and Gavin Brown the boys team won the mhsa districts in Marquette last week and will compete against Davidson and regionals this Wednesday in Oxford Central High School student athlete leadership organ organization Salo volunteered at the special Olympic uh games this past week um at
Grand Trevor Resort uh Salo members are student athletes selected for leadership skills they meet monthly develop those skills support other school clubs and teams and work with future children at our feeder schools and serve the community Silver Lake Elementary Schools family reading night on January 28th was a success with 113 attendees the event featured reading activities for all grade levels um there was dinner and books for students to take home West Middle School students engage in Rich learning experiences this month students
showcased impressive vocab vocabulary at the spelling be with top spellers uh Finley noan Nolan s ambrosus and Roman Douglas earning honors um and then we had uh Mrs babits and Dr witz classes uh commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day with the gallery walk-in discussions U Mrs deette digital media students gained Real World experience with uh designing travel cups for clients and Mrs
Don Hugh's class celebrated Lunar New Year by creating festive lanterns Westwood hosted 16 tcaps Elementary Middle School Educators on January 28th for the instructional rounds uh District visit I know that uh trusty Binger was able to make that and be able to see those instructional rounds I don't think anybody else just that's I thought um but um but a great work there and and really uh excited about uh continuing instructional rounds Across The District Central High School's Key Club worked hard
on its first weekend on the first weekend of February pulling together 20,000 dried meals these meals will be distributed locally through Father Fred and on February 8th 24 West Senior High band students participated in 17 events at the annual msboa District Sol onomo Festival in Kingsley 16 of those events uh events received medals 14 earned first division ratings all students who earned first division ratings have now qualified for the state solo and Ensemble Festival in March so I know a
lot of other things going on across the district as well robotics is getting ramped up I know soon and and are in their build and uh um again just uh ski teams I know are right in the midst of getting ready to uh start all their uh their state tournaments and so uh In the Heat of of winter sports kind of starting to get to those tournament times and uh again robotics will get going really in March with their tournaments and so excited to see that and again we'll be hosting a regional at
Central High School this year so more to come on that so that's what I have for district highlights what's the update on the opening of the two uh Innovation and Manufacturing centers the the lab at um the practice area at West Senior High will be available for the students to practice the inspections Thursday or Friday so it'll be fully open that's temporary occupancy just so they can practice on the for the robotics team about Central and so Central is a
little bit further behind right yeah Central is further behind we anticipate the first week of March but our goal right now was to get West Senior High available so both teams can practice is is the biggest problem the doors some of it had to do with more of a fire rating um we had to remanufacture a couple of the doors based on the fire rating that was required by the fire department and that required order in different doors okay so last we heard at Finance
it was going to be end of January possibly first week in February now it's early March the the goal that we have been focused on is getting the bigger practice room at West Senior High available so that they can practice their robotics I met with the robotics team in and folks and so they had asked they said we're not ready for a move and all that they said we need practice space so that right now was like our ultimate thing to try and get they're inviting Central to come over from that standpoint to get that um but they are they are struggling still to complete
you know getting all the the necessary materials and getting inspection set up all that to be able to do that and so right now um Central is definitely behind West West is much closer to being you know finished but again waiting for some components to be able to really finish it up from that standpoint it's still going to take a little bit yes the teachers focus is to move the week prior to spr break so that's what we've been working on is there anything that we can do as a district um is this all a state inspection process or
and materials it's m it's everything materials labor everything we're in every day check in looking and the robotics team from Central do they have the transportation they need to get over they'll work at that for sure with it so they have a trailer for their yep robots One update live in was uh the skiing results were um Central did take the girls
today so the then Central and West second and third in boys to so all all all both girls and boys were in the top see yeah move on okay congratulations have a lot of snow to play it's it's been a great just out at Shany and it's definitely nicer than last year so um okay um any
other questions moving on to PO committee reports first po curriculum committee January 28th up by valer okay so we called the meeting to order at 8:30 a.m. there were no public comments we approved the meeting am minuts uh from January 7th as posted um a new committee chair was appointed um given Erica M More's move to finance committee so I will now be the chair for this
coming year we approved our meeting schedule however we so we are sticking with Tuesdays but we slightly adjusted our time to 15 minutes earlier to start at 8:15 a.m. um and then in terms of agenda we miss hoton um presented a few updates and changes to our district course catalog mostly they were approval U um seeking for approval of virtual classes both Middle School and High School
levels but I will give a shout out to a couple of um in person two are at nmc the pre cambian geology of Michigan and another introductory craft skills and then also at our two primary high schools and advanced placement research class um so those are new additions to our curriculum this year and that has been moved to our consent calendar uh for approval this evening um under informational items um
Misty Warner who is our District's director of whole child systems um gave us basically notified us that there is a film called screenagers like screen and teenagers but this is the elementary school Edition which is going to be shown at Central High's Auditorium on Monday March 3rd uh doors will open at 5:00 p.m. the film will run from 5:30 to approximately 700 p.m. so this is going to be promoted in
all 11 of our elementary school's newsletters as well as the district social media posts and we truste that we would do our part two to share on our Facebook pages um again this is a an effort to help parents students families in general understand how technology and screens impact young people's lives and of course will'll be shown at no cost um moving on we got an O to uh Traver City High School we got a
nice overview um by principal Jen choic talking about uh the growth that travor City High has experienced this year with their new um Compass Learning Center so I'll just kind of skim over some highlights here first of all to be clear Traver City High School still offers full-time inperson classes to students who are seeking an alternative path um to complete their High School um get
their and get their degree but they also now have all these virtual classes and some kids are taking a a mix or a blend so she talked about the growth um there's been a big growth in the in the number of students enrolled it fully virtually it's jumped from 58 students to 129 just in 3/4s so far meanwhile inperson has slightly declined um from 135 last year to about 115 currently so you can see how it's more than balanced
out with the with the uptick and the virtual um a nice positive for the in-person classes is that the average class used to be about 25 students per teacher now it's to about 12 which is more in line with national standards for academic success um and they're projecting a total of about 50 students graduating this year from TC High um and then we moved on to talk about uh instructional rounds with Mr torth
our chief academic officer for elementary providing an overview of what instructional rounds are basically it's an opportunity where a host school will will have about 25 to 30 teachers and administrators visit with a given purpose um for Long Lake Elementary for example they really wanted to focus on opportunities for the teachers to grow but also really Drive academic
achievement for their students so um they get basically observed by by Educators who are peers this is all within our district and this is where Miss hotton talked about how um this was used the federal title 2 fund funding um instead of coming out of our general fund so um after the instructional rounds observation period then the teachers and administrators come together and they basically brainstorm in small groups come up with their key takeaways
and observations present that to the host School staff and that's where I was able to um immediately following curriculum actually witness this at um Westwoods elementary school and then uh lastly on the agenda we had our usual celebrations and successes and there were numerous um items uh many of which concerned our music department so number one Central High School's Corral and East Middle
School's sixth grade choir both won their divisions at the 106 KHQ holiday choir competition and got checks for $11,000 each for their Coral programs secondly Cherry null Elementary School library received $1,500 from from the grand Travis Regional Community foundation's teaps Excellence Endowment for new books third um they highlighted West Middle School and Elementary School celebrating Martin Luther King Day which was as you know uh a new half
day of instruction this year focusing on the life of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King and fourth um there were four music teachers who recently presented education sessions to 2,000 music educators at a conference in Grand rappers and that was Emer D Chad Ms Kelsey Brunell and Stephanie Shaw bra fifth the TC Titans robotics got a shout out as they were launching their new season six monor band and Orchestra teachers Crest Smith and Stephen Bolinger
and lastly Nick nissle from the president of Northwestern Michigan College gave a shout out to Blair Elementary School's instructional coach Emily wit who was also a recipient of the compass award tonight for her partnership with nmc called Leadership Academy which is for fourth and fifth graders with that uh we adjourn the meeting at 10:08 a.m. and our next board curriculum committee meeting will be
Tuesday February 25th at 8:15 a.m. okay thank you um any questions on that all right when we move on to board finance and operations on January 30th reporting out by trusty Raymond all right um we had a little bit longer of a meeting so um I will try to be brief um so we met on January 30th at 8:15 a.m. Dr Van Wagner started the meeting as acting chair uh we did not have
anyone attendance for public comments um under procedural items uh we did have a a small change to the January 9th 2025 uh committee meeting minutes um so those minutes were posted as amended um and then we had our our appointment of committee chairperson which was myself to be selected for that role uh we then reviewed uh the meeting schedule we are keeping the same uh Thursday 8:15 meeting time for thee meetings this
current year uh we then had a um discussion on the first budget amendment to the general fund and school service FS um there is a presentation on this tonight so this was moved from committee to discussion uh and we'll have obviously a lot more conversation about that here in a few minutes um the next item under uh we moved on to bid services and purchases the first item was um for transportation a purchase
of 577 passenger conventional school buses um and then one eight passenger uh is it eight okay 188 passenger Transit bus sorry um those purchases also included two-way radios cameras uh tablets which is what we use the tablets for our security so um students can swipe their badges on and off the bus uh so we know where they're at um and then computer uh for the Mechanics for repairs
um this item is for an amount not to exceed 1,461 1275 uh and that's funded from Capital bond funds Transportation the next purchase uh under capital projects is for Blair and Cate Elementary lockers uh these are to replace um aing lockers most of which I believe were original or at least 20 years old um so this recommend is to
uh award for an amount not to exceed $246,000 which does include a 10% contingency and that's funded from Capital bond funds uh that's under the consent agenda this evening um next Capital item is is for elementary buildings and permanent walls uh so this project includes construction of permanent walls to separate um kind of a sliding accordion doors that are splitting a couple of the rooms at Cherry Long Lake and will Hill um
and then at Silver Lake they're going to um create a permanent wall um to create an existing classroom into two smaller classroom so this project is for an am not to exceed $161,500 and is also funded from Capital bond funds uh and is on this evening's consent agenda uh the next item is uh for Traverse Heights Elementary classroom and cafeteria Edition so um actually pretty exciting news for Traverse Heights uh expanding their
building with by adding uh three classrooms expanding the cafeteria renovating the music room um and adding a new bathroom to the existing to an existing classroom um this this uh item was moved to this evening's discussion agenda just to uh it's for amount not to exceed 3,254 680 so just with the scope and the dollar amount we just wanted anyone else that would like to have an opportunity for comment to have that so it's
under this evening's discussion uh agenda um the next item is West Senior highs uh circulation uh and driveway expansion um so this is uh expanding the West Senior High uh drive all the way around the building it's actually going to happen in a couple of phases um new ashall new parking lot new sidewalks new sow melts um and then a little bit of a for expansion at Long Lake Elementry uh
again just the scope and the dollar amount we moved this item to this evening's discussion agenda uh this was for an amount not to exceed 4,458 366 um the last item under capital projects was uh West Senior High restroom renovation um and so this is to move two uh group restrooms um into individual single uh user stalls um
so not changing the number of restrooms just changing you know from kind of group to individuals so this amount was for uh this project was for an amount not to exceed $575,500 uh also fund funded from Capital bond funds and is on this evening's consent agenda uh we then had our Capital project update which we actually had uh really the only couple of items that we've got going on right now are
the uh manufacturing uh centers so um trusty Ballinger already asked the question about when those would be available we just went over the projects and um pictures and where they're at right now so um again waiting on uh some long lead items um and um state inspections uh as Dr Van Wagner so our next agenda item was uh under F was for a finance update Dr Van Wagner mentioned this in his uh update that uh the
governor put out her State uh budget um and so obviously continuing to monitor those developments will provide updates as they come out um the next item under uh just general discussion was for related to filter first requirements um so this is a Statewide um mandated drinking water management plan that's required for all Michigan Schools and Child Care Centers um districtwide
drinking water Outlets uh were completed audits were completed last summer um this really has to do with just clean drinking water adding filters to uh source and then signage for what is drinkable water versus non-drinkable water I guess um we then had a brief conversation just about uh school day on January 20th 2025 uh that day we did actually not meet the state requirement for the 75% um attendance
so uh we either have to use um one of our inclement weather days or potentially um have a reduction in state funding for that day so there's like a I think it's like an odd calculation so we actually don't know what the what the dollar amount potentially could be until the end of the year yeah not until August so and then we had our standing item uh just up review of upcoming District purchases which uh since the bond passed
um there are a lot of so um we went through some of those items so no other items were discussed we adjourned at 9:26 and the next uh Board of finance and operations committee meeting is February 27th 305 all right thank you any questions on finance I will do the executive committee report out skipping some of the procedural items we did talk about
full policy updates which were placed on consent calendar minus the one that was moved to discussion um and we also did go over agenda items for February 10th and February 24th but hold on to that as we get to the discussion item because there's changes uh potentially plenty with uh some of the scheduling to discuss um then as far as information items HR Miss Taylor shared that tcaps is actually well staffed and it's uh
typical for this time of year we're starting to see some openings low and it it was picking up we are currently have an opening for a plumber numerous uh spring coaching opportunities and obviously drivers extended day staff um and special education teachers as well some of the ones that are obviously on every every report that we're still working on uh as far as Communications uh the student support network uh update uh we were able to offer assistance
to 507 students throughout tcaps in outs and other organizations as well and uh we have already shared with the fight Freeze event taking place on February 14th the West Senior High during the West Central basketball game and for enrollment uh we do have a power school pre-registration that's open that is now open and we are taking uh as
my kindergartens and registers as well so that is now on there and the dates and information will be posted on the district website for enrollment and uh keep so keep an eye on that as well uh the next uh oh I did also on that uh in advance there was a request from a couple of board members to had the ad hoc committee which is now on as a discussion item um so we can have that
uh later today and then the next board executive committee meeting is Thursday February 27th 4M in this room any questions on exec I Board office hours I believe that January 23rd but there's no my report out is that there was no report okay so we had a um we were to have the meeting by Google there was a technical snafu in which we didn't really know what was happening because there
was a lot going on that night and um tamy absolutely was trying her best to to get U me into the room so that I could um answer but it turns out that nobody showed up okay so I kind of sat there anyway we sat on the on the phone for an hour and uh so no harm no fall but um I think we're looking forward to making sure that works for the future yep well thank you for being the uh testing that out and getting The Kinks out of the way so much better you
than me you're still you're still going old school you're going in person uh next up is February 27th trusty pack is in attendance we have now moved the location to the library on wood um and that again is at 6:00 6: to 7 in person at the library February 27th truste pack in attendance and we are again alternating between virtual and on promise to try and get as much engagement as we can we do want to hear
feedback U moving on to consent um do I have a motion to approve the consent calendar as amended I move that the Board of Education approved the consent calendar as amended and without discussion second all those in favor say I all those oppos say nay motion carries uh onto discussion item uh we did add um a discussion item which is
uh meeting schedule so after after we had the executive committee there was there was a number of other changes um but one of them I would like to defer to Andrew uh start all right um I have a letter that I would like to I guess just read um so dear school board members and Dr Van Wagner uh please accept this letter as resignation of my position on the
tcaps board of education effective February 11 2025 um I have recently had a change in my professional career which has already required significantly more of my time while it's exciting for me personally it is Bittersweet as I have come to the necessary conclusion of resigning my seat on the teaps board this decision was made after careful consideration as I want to be fair to my fellow board members Administration and staff and the students and families of this District I know
that I will no longer be able to dedicate the time and attention that I feel is required of me to this role I have thoroughly enjoyed my four plus years serving on the board and have appreciated the opportunity to support this school district I'm very proud of how this board has handled the business of the district over my tenure we have navigated an unprecedented Global pandemic enhanced student services set a strategic Direction with the compass plan and helped to pass a crucial Capital Levy that will help build and maintain the infrastructure needed for the
Student Success in the future I want to thank my fellow board members both current and past for their dedication and professionalism teaps Administration and staff members for their assistance and attentiveness and the tcaps family and community community members who supported me with their vote last but definitely not least I want to thank my wife and family for their support and understanding as I performed this role as it took me away from them on numerous occasions I do hate resigning in the middle of a commitment that I have made but again I want to be fair to
the district and to my family I know that this decision will create additional unexpected work for the board and I truly hope there are no hard feelings for that um I obviously do still have kids in the district and I have every intention of still being very involved in their education um just in a less committed role I know that exciting times are ahead and I wish you all the best of luck as you guide the district through those thank you so first of all before we go into any discussion IEM yeah thank
you it's a lot of work uh which obviously does not come with pay so uh a little jealous but I do do greatly appreciate everything you've done and being such no one's forcing me to um but then on to uh what that does AFF is is just so everyone's aware of the process is uh we have a 30-day uh window where we do have to
appoint a new board member um and quite frankly we haven't had a a vacancy for the first four years that I was on the board since Andrew was appointed um and so we do have to have a discussion of how we want that to work we do have a couple of dates in play February 24th we currently have as a study session however um I know that at least one board member cannot attend and and Andrew will not be with us too so
it may maybe it sounds like the advisable thing would be for us to delay that until afterwards or later in the year wherever um that may fall and that was kind of the direction of Tim Tim Gwenn when we met with him as well that he thinks it would be beneficial to wait until after we have a new board member appointed and everyone can be there so and we also did have a March 3rd date that we cancelled uh but we could reuse that date so we do have to have things
one one meeting uh I would suggest and this is where we get to the discussion portion is how we want to do the appointment I would I can't imagine that there's any other way that we want to publicly post this appointment and have People app and have a process for uh determining that and we would have to do so no no later than our March 10th for meeting so with that the question comes is a the selection process and then
be the meeting date whether it be February 24th or March 3rd so I don't know if anyone wants to kick off with uh really again the process my my suggestion would be we we have this posting that goes out fairly promptly there's a period of time it could come with a list of questions that could be if we you want input you could send them to me and I can put them together we can have some discussion at the
table of what those would be um do need some guidance from for the application for the application as well as the interview so I would suggest that we on the when you turn in the application you have some standardized questions why why you want to be on this things priorities things that kind of like the questions that you would be as kind of election cycle um that would come in writing to the board so we have that to be based on then the question
becomes is do you uh do we use February 24th or March 3rd to do interviews um or do we use that board meeting to uh Whittle down the candidates and do interviews on so two different ways to go I Eric is the only person I think been through well I was part Andrew could tell you might have the best um so I filled the vacancy and it was actually like over the holidays so uh we had
I think there were like 18 or 19 applicants and they met and narrowed it down to I want to say four three or four people that interviewed um it was also virtual at that point in time uh but yeah so they they used two separate meetings they had a meeting where they narrowed it they just took they got uh you know answers to the questions that they put out when they put out the public notice that there was a vacancy and then they used a meeting to narrow down to the three
people from those questions so it was just written written answers to those questions and then they had you know verbal interviews at a second meeting think you submitted your resume as well people would yeah or and a cover letter probably but yeah go ahead and so that was that was my biggest stumbling factor is like if you have four people who apply I feel like you would do it that you would just probably want to just do interviews and call it good in
that one meeting whereas if you have a large number of people who apply then you'll probably want to use that meeting to narrow it down so obviously we can have you can give some general guidance to how we do this as well well but I would like to know again like is there any at least any alternative opinion to the fact that we're just going to post this we're going to have people fly with standardized questions at least um and if anyone has any of those questions that they won't consider they can send
them to you could use your executive committee I just going to say we did a committee um last time that did of the board to narrow down and then to the interviews at that point so that's an option as well yes so if you make the deadline there ex cutive committee date if you only had four applicants then you would know that the March 3rd 10th date would be all you need to do okay so we could do that where the March 3rd would be used as needed I think that that's smart because that I really the
24th doesn't really give enough time I think yeah we again won't have all board members side I think that's the if anything we would use the March 3D to narrow it down if it's not needed then we would just do it on March 10th either way we can say the final the final interviews would be March 10th right in selection in selection yeah yeah yeah and if we don't need to have that additional meeting we don't have
so could you remind us what's the next executive committee meeting and who will be February 27 but that would just be if you I mean you could just decide like if you only had for you know if you had a smaller number you would know by that meeting to say yes you needed to have a March 3rd meeting or no you would just do it at March 10 right and kind of just based on numbers but what I got feeling of numbers would be but then at least then we're saying the final interview is going
to be on March 10 so regardless of our process internally everyone knows that that's when we're going to be either interview them all or narrow it down in that committee yep okay so February 27th and that would be president vice president and one rotating member yeah but I think we would just be talking about whether we put it whether we need to have that addition unless we have a lot of if we have a lot of meeting then we'll be adding that meeting I see the March 3rd okay so I think we hold
the March 3rd date sense and use ited we'll bring everybody that applied on merch sense there's a small it's but let the applicants know whether or not there's a narrowing down too yeah yeah exactly and that just gives the time to be transparent and allow everyone to know where the process is but also have a definitive date of this is the time we need you to interview do we have a a date certain of when people need to apply we can backtrack it will be
as late as possibly can give people yeah it's at 400 p.m well yeah I guess for peoplework everything going be nice for maybe if it's tomorrow maybe the 27th I'm just thinking give us a day to get that Friday the 28th everything out to the board members well you want you would want to know by executive committee though which is what day 27 2 oh the 27th okay so then I would say we get everything out the 21st is two weeks enough I think two weeks is fine
thoughts so applications so so we would yeah we would get everything probably you know um well no we' have to if we got it out get the application we got it out in two days time Wednesday that would give everyone two weeks which would be the 26th yeah yeah we'd have to get the application off the 12th and if the deadline was like you know 4:00 on the 26 yeah I wonder if Wednesday
February 12th is realistic that's day after tomorrow and you're asking for input of all Us in terms of what would those key questions be I feel like Friday might be more realistic for you I can I can also send you what was available we we hav't we have all the questions we we'll send out so we can look at it and then make suggestions they meant to be pretty basic questions they don't meant to be like hi yeah and you want input for the questions for the interviews too well I just wanted to I no I think
that would be we can do that later if you yeah I think we can get through we'll share out tomorrow what was done and then if you have anything additional you really are passionate of wanting to think about on that application get it discussed and then I'll confirm with Scott what that is and we'll send it out as soon as we have it together from you yeah basically we'll get it out as soon as we can and we'll close it at February 26 at 4 pm to allow us time for the meeting on February 27th the the thing I also suggest
we consider is some people particularly in certain areas of Finance may need a little bit of time to go through their company to make sure that it's acceptable to the company um and sometimes the larger the company more time it takes to go through so we don't want to give it too short a period of time I know that it is unfortunate that we do have a very specific 30-day date to make a an appointment that's so backtracking it with
but it'll it'll take certain people out yeah accordingly and those could be people that would be valuable on I think you know if you don't make Wednesday the 12th and it's even Friday you know it's it's a good 10 days 12 days it I think that's a really we'll make sure to get it out on our social media for somebody to app I'll ask the record Eagles obviously everyone is on notice if you if if someone
is interested in applying they don't have to they probably going to have to ask anyway before the official application comes out so they can start working on that today today if they're enthusiastic ready to go so um yeah so I think that's all we can do so um any other discussion on how that lines up any other input again this is a new process for us all Scot I just want
to make sure it was clear so that the um posting can be done before you guys are done looking at the questions because once they start submitting their resumés or their applications that's when the questions go that's how did it in the past when they emailed their information then the questions would go out to them so we can get it out or Tammy can get it like posted before you're done looking at questions that makes sense we can get it posted tomorrow and then say you
know application will be open towards the end of the week gives people the chance to talk with their employer in that element then once it's live we'll make sure to put out there a message that it's live and ready you know to to complete so is that a Google where they're just putting in their name their email address as an expression of Interest no I just think we'll post it it's there so people will know and then we'll say you know but you know towards the end of the week you know maybe we'll even give a date Thursday or Friday we expect application to
be posted and must be completed by the date on you know was at 4:00 at least gives let everybody know the bankes out there to have those conversations then after they have that employer conversation they can be the application of because they may even want to know what kind of are we talking about in in terms of time you know for some of these folks that yeah are busy okay so I think that takes care
of uh then we would obviously left to be determined later is is rescheduling Tim Quinn um and we've got a few other I don't think we have to deal with them today we do have a few other study sessions with the two we have three right now but we mainly need two so and you know just on that topic so we do have a confirmation of space at the is at the ISD at Northwest Ed uh we do have confirmation from uh Dr Nick zeric that
his team's ready and we'll begin setting up some dates for focus groups um we have a first draft of questions that I just got Friday haven't had a chance to look at them yet um of uh for the surveys so we're going to as a team sit down tomorrow start take a look at that I'll share those with the board so you can get a flavor of what those are from the professional survey company that we're working with and uh right now we're on for a timeline it looks like we can get it together to be able to have that first date that we have set up
in April to be able to have our first session all right and the groups that you're thinking of surveying are families teachers separately mhm staff community members okay and students okay good last time we did parents and community members on the same survey the survey company thought it'd be a good idea to separate those they wanted one separate for parents and they thought it'd
be best to have one separate for community members outside so there is that did they consider it all having a survey go to the people that were recent graduates uh we don't have a lot of addresses and stuff for that the hard hard part you know so they would be able to as community members though interesting okay before we move on trusty Raymond I just want to genuinely
say thank you for your four plus years of service um I've always really appreciated working with you on the finance committee and on the board at large and um I think you know during those first couple of tumultuous years of our our first term together uh you really stood out on the masking dilemmas we had to face every month back then um as a hospital administrator your voice was really important
to us on the medical side of things and then I also really appreciated how strongly you felt about the cell phone policy that we revised in the summer of 2023 and making sure that um our kids are focused on learning and engagement because that's what it's all about so thank you again and to your lovely wife and family for the sacrifice of your time I want to say thank you too i' I've only known you you know a short
while relatively but um I've always been struck by your your care for the children you always put them first and um really appreciate your financial mind which I'm going to miss and um really wanted um that you conducted yourself like a true gentleman every time I've seen you so I really appreciate that thank you and good luck thanks all right um live long in Prosper so moving on
if there's no other comments about the schedule and obviously clearly things to work out still as we move through the year uh but we will move on to uh discussion Item B school safety update okay um so the tcaps Emergency Operations teams re team recently met for the second time this year um the this team is committed to ensuring a proactive approach to the emergency preparedness uh system that we have and this team consistently
evaluates and refines safety measures to protect student staff in our school Community across the district the team is compromised of diverse a diverse group of professionals including principles both Elementary and secondary um an Elementary staff representative a district nurse a facilities operations manager member of the Glen Li administra team and it's led by Patrick mcmanis um they are meeting at least once a quarter and the team is engaging in comprehensive discussions about a range of critical topics these include reviewing and updating Emergency
Operations plans for each School assessing the effectiveness of Security Management Technologies refining reunification procedures staying informed about legal developments related to school safety and ident identifying the most effective professional development opportunities for our District staff Beyond these regular evaluations the Emergency Operations team is dedicated to researching emergency emerging best practices collaborating with local law enforcement and seeking innovative solutions to enhance school security by staying ahead of potential threats and
ensuring all Protocols are up to date the team is working to foster a culture of preparedness and resilience within the district through these efforts tcaps is reaffirming its commitment to maintaining a secure and supportive learning environment for our students and staff so just wanted to give you that update just continuing to work and uh try and learn everything we can and again always wanting to be prepared but hopefully hoping we don't need to thank you uh moving
on to item C uh which is the amendment to the 20 2422 25 general fund budgets and school service funds um going to go and I'll pass it to Christine um so this is the slide that we shared with uh finance and I updated it so it didn't create confusion at the top um their original adopted budget back in June was a deficit of 4.4 million with our anticipated positive variance of
1.5 we did plan to draw just shy of $3 million from fund balance which was planned um we've had some changes um from June till now there still will be changes from now until this June um but these are some of the highlights they're not all inclusive and they're not meant to add uh to get the total at the bottom because we do have about 15 to 20,000 account codes however these are some of the highlights um we did sell worth of Boss excuse me um that
net uh Revenue uh was a little bit over $516,000 um we had uh some changes obviously in our Revenue per pupil um because we had a decrease in students other than what we projected um the bottom line really is we're projecting a better outcome at the end of this school year where we would only be drawing about $2 million from fund balance not three and that still has um a possibility of getting better than that by the time we adopt our final budget in June any
questions right way all right any other questions thank you um we do have to um approve the amendment the budget I have a motion to do that I'll move that the Board of Education approve the amendment of The 2425 general fund budgets and school service funds Food Service program student school activities fund and Community Services have
a second second uh Tammy please clean up to R vote truste Schmid uh yes trusty Raymond yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty bird yes trusty pack yes and yes motion carries um moving on to the next discussion item which is now it D policy uh def to Dr and I will go ahead and pass it up to C all
right in addition to the revised policies that you approved during consent agenda as is normal anytime we need new policies we do bring those to the board of education for your review and discussion the first couple on there 3201a financial management for federal funds that's a brand new policy through trun um and it's an optional policy we did ask our business office to review and because we do um receive federal Awards it was at their advisement that the board go ahead and adopt that policy it is
basically just the process and rules and regulations in which we would abide by inter including internal cash management um and so on and so forth related to any federal Awards don't think there's a that stands out above that that most of us Layman are going to understand unless there's something that Christine Thomas Hill wants to point out to you all right the next policy on there is also a new policy to trune 3229 use of um generative artificial intelligence um
this one basically is just when we adopt our um our acceptable use policies for our technology in the district as you can understand that those policies have been around a long time there was no reference to artificial intelligence AI in that policy so trun just went ahead and adopted one or created one U for us and it essentially is the acceptable use policy for AI and basically if you read through it it just talks about how we're supposed to use it appropriately and for educational purposes
AI should be used to supplement and not you know not used for um exclusively for instruction the teacher should use it as a tool um and use so in a way that in compliance with the remainder of the board policy and the general acceptable use policy so pretty generic but just wants to point out that we had not previously referenced to Ai and our acceptable use policies I appreciate how this policy um references that employees must thoroughly review AI
generated material can't just rely on it so um I think that'll make a lot of people feel better about using AI yeah I agree with that um the only thing I noticed was that under section c for training it says employees may receive training on the legal and ethical use of generative Ai and its integration into the curriculum not every employee is going to choose to use generative AI but it does seem to me that if they
do so choose we should expect them to receive that kind of training so I wondered if in our administrative guidelines because I understand this is a legal requirement in the main policy if we could put something in our um a administrative guidelines that where we expect the teachers to get some training on the ethical legal use you think that you have some contract issues with that you would have to compensate for that time and recognize that um so I think there's some things we'd have to look in budget in that element before we
could go and do that um we're obviously offering it you know right now um but I do think that you know that's a consideration we'd have to look at with bargain um with the with her our Union group yeah and that's I mean I think that's uh appropriate and good point um I just I mean out of the 500 teachers we have there are about 40 who attended that training last week voluntarily that's oneth and all for the cause
agree again it's just when you know when we we require you know that's a contractual issue that we'd have to work with but definitely something we can take back and have a conversation now okay thank you you could also have discussions in staff meetings you know can formal which we don't get a ton of time of you know especially at the elementary level so you know there's always a lot of things from that standpoint that's there but I think that team's going to explore every way shape and form to do it
and then we'll look you know and have conversations on you know the requiring part versus the opportunity that deal but see what we can do and if there even Grant dollars and things to help support coming forward in the future possibly that we can consider that all right I'm going to lump the next several together the 42 or 4402 4403 4405 4509 and 4503 all of these policies are the result of changes that have been made
to the Michigan revi school code sections 1248 and 1249 there was a huge revamp of those last year that went into effect on July 1 um including the change Ching of a definition I shouldn't say change but more defining the definition refining the definition of teacher as it's utilized in the school code right now it makes specific throughout that when we talk about teacher we're talking about the K12 teacher of record we also have teachers who are non tenure eligible in which several provisions of these
wouldn't apply to so it differentiates those there's been a change in our evaluation system previously we had four rating categories we've gone down to three rating categories so that is reflected throughout all of these different policies in addition we also have some um appeal rights for evaluation that didn't previously exist so I think TR thought rather than going and making significant revisions to the policy you'll notice when we did the revised policies those were all crossed
out entirely and they just replaced them with new policies to reflect all areas of placement performance evaluation reduction and recall non-renewal and again performance evaluation of administ ators so unless there's specific questions it's very similar to what we had previously it only reflects the statutory changes made in sections 1248 and 1249 of the school code okay any questions as those as a group made it real easy for us
by highlighting those so thank you you to Kendall that was her was for doing credit work credit is due um and then we did add um to this discussion item 348 firearms and weapons um yeah just a quick comment I mean I'm going to support this um I'm not supportive of more guns in our schools uh I get the amendment is just making this inine with state law which we have no control over while reviewing the policy
under permitted uses to be uh uh has caught my eye that a person can get permission from the superintendent to carry on uh District property and I asked the superintendent I because I was curious like in what circumstance or an example would our superintendent give permission uh to someone to carry and the example he shared did not involve more guns in our schools which I I'd like to hope that if that ever was the case that we would know about it um so so with that um I'll make a motion uh that the Board of Education
approved policy 3201a financial management for federal funds 4229 use of generative AI 4402 placement 4403 performance evaluation 4 405 reduction of force recall 4409 non-renewal 4503 performance evaluation and um policy number 3408 firearms and weapons as presented a second thank you for the perfect motion as
well and uh that is uh is there any other discussion on the items um then uh Telly please conduct the RO call um trusty Schmidt yes trusty Binger yes trusty bird yes trusty pack yes trusty Raymond yes and president Newman yes motion carries uh moving on to the next discussion it which is bids uh Services it is amended um to
remove the one part move to consent but other than that I will defer to Dr um yes so I will will go ahead and pass that to Christine so um this item is a very large project it's the West Senior High circulation project it does also include a small addition of the driveway to Long Lake Elementary School um it's an extension of the right turn um exit out of the building to kind of make that
a little bit longer so people aren't stuck waiting for left-hand Journeys um but the um extents uh to which we're doing construction at Westing High it is planned over two summers um the first summer uh will take place a major renovation at the light at herkner Road um we had been asked and been working with the road commission to eliminate the second light we have for our current exit so everything would be at herkner road so we will have an entrance and an exit on herkner road included that with
that will be a crosswalk and a sidewalk all the way to the school from there and then another crosswalk on our property when it does cross over traffic um the first summer will be the front entrance with the everything aligning to the light a Bus Loop and then to the left of that right in front of the new innovation and manufacturing center will be a parking lot and parent drop off we're moving all the parking up to the building so people aren't Crossing in front of vehicles and then the next summer will be the other side which will
be staff and student parking um and then uh some modifications uh to the rest of um the parking lot where the athletic entrance is we'll have a small uh drop off area for athletic buses and then the um existing parking lot by track um and Tennis um will actually get um a top coat so uh that's a two summer project uh pretty lengthy um this includes sidewalks curbs um some extension of snow melt um we have some
88 parking right by the main entrance um I think that's it good it's still going to remain two it's still going to remain one way but it's going the correct way now that we have a dedicated bus sleep we don't have to go the way we're going right now to let students off the bus good sence yes signage is included in the package and the cost is for both bases yes okay the West former West High School parent this makes me so happy
but thank you because I know our you know our parents have been asking for this for a long time so thank you for getting done they starting it imagine growing up in England and then coming in and try I remember know every time I got am I right am I wrong but the sidewalk issue it's like aside from the the crazy you know roundabout but it's the sidewalk that's black their up we've had num emails about
the sidewalk over the years and eliminating that second light will cause a lot of um less congestion on North Long Lake Road too so confusion yeah that's always kind of weird yeah still well that is um lots of good stuff I know it doesn't look like one thing you need is a lot of good things um any other discussion or motion sorry make motion I'm make all the motion I just had a quick question so
did you say the existing parking lot uh footprint would remain the same where it's the staff side The Long Lake Side parking lot would that remain the same no all of the parking is being moved up and instead of having the road in between the building and the parking the road will come outside and so all of the parking will be up next to the road okay so like that vacant land now you know when you first enter on Long Lake Road we're not using much of that okay it it's the same footprint but just a
little bit excess on the outside for a new outside Road okay it still be green space and you have a picture of it that we had sent earlier with the sidewalk we had sent about a week or so ago tie it as for so okay I'll I'll move that the Board of Education approved the contract for the West Senior High circulation and Long Lake driveway expansion reced by Davis Construction manager for this project for a total not to exceed $4,450 366 that does
include a 10% contingency and is funded from Capital Bond second second all right uh Tammy please the open vot um trusty Raymond yes trusty bird yes trusty Ballinger yes trusty pack yes trusty Schmidt yes and president Newan Bale yes motion carries um moving I think there's another y item yes the next one is Traverse Heights Elementary thank you um so this one
is a three classroom Edition um on their North End um that is for uh lower L um so all of those classrooms will have a restroom inside them um we're also adding a restroom um in between two existing classrooms those two classrooms will now have access to a shared restroom and then an expansion of the existing cafeteria um which currently isn't big enough to house the number of students that we already have so expanding that so that it is um matching the size of other elementary schools um
and then a renovation of the music area the music classroom uh the only thing not included in in this is the furniture fixtures and equipment and we will bring that next month all right any other questions on that item do I have a motion I education contract Bo travor sites Elementary classroom and cafeteria addition
to hallmar construction for a total not to exceed 3,254 680 uh that also includes 10% contingency and is funded from Capital bond funds second uh Tammy please conduct our um trusty Raymond yes trusty P yes trusty Balinger yes trusty bird yes trusty Schmidt yes and president yes motion carries um I have a quick question for Dr Van Wagner or Christine Thomas Hill
um about Traverse Heights it it wouldn't have affected my vote so why I didn't ask this before but the growth at Travers Heights can one of you speak to the numbers there in terms of enrolled students because we you know we've been talking in recent years about overall some declines you know in student enrollment but this is a elementary school where we actually had some growth and I just wondered if you could briefly touch on that I'll give a little bit you know and then maybe she maybe has better numbers on it but you know when I I can tell you when I first came to
the district I was very worried about having to close Trav Heights we were around 180 students 179 students 179 students when I first came and so to see that turn around that we're now over 300 M uh students I think there's a lots of things I think um that you know the the the staff the principal um you know have done an awesome job of of bringing a ton of energy to that building um that I think there I think uh that it is still
one of I you know the most affordable I still don't know I can call it affordable areas of housing that is within the city um that we've seen you know uh families be able to move into um and so I think that you know you take all of those things combined I think that there's a lot of people maybe even that were in the neighborhood that weren't sting their kids there that the excitement and all of that that they've seen um you know Brian K has done a wonderful job of taking the staff and the
culture I'm a part of you all know the house program and a part of his PBIS system that he's done and um you know it's just it's a wonderful every year I get the chance to um interview the part the the student of the year fifth grader the the groups and and every one of the kids when you meet with them we'll talk about the PB system there and the leadership component and so um I think all those things combined have just made it a really really strong school that people want to send their kids to
so over 50% increase in student enrollment in four years is what I heard no not quite 180 to 300 not quite 40 40% increase strong um so this would be how many classrooms exactly three okay yeah that's great well along the frer we've had a lot of housing grow and more going you know um expansion of king court multiple apartment units and we have two Head Start classrooms in that building
as well so you know plus a head plus a um nmca AG gsrp classroom so it just goes to show what it difference a grade administrator can make and staff the teachers have embraced that and do a great job every day and and you go in that building and it is just full of energy there's a lot of energy but they do a great job with that and and so it's a good fun to see really
all right um so we got then we are moving on to discussion item now F ad hoc committee um I did send out a note um with kind of some of the the thought process and I guess t let kick it off first well thanks Scott and and thanks Holly for the assist um and I'll start by saying uh of all the wonderful positive things
we're doing for kids F this from opportunity in this District including the student support network um and that needs to be celebrated however um um when this 2024 annual education report uh came out made public in early January became obvious um that there is a lot of work to do um for our kids who are economically disadvantaged and this problem
is not unique uh to teaps um a lot of the things aren't in our control as a board um but some are and um so this is something for us to do something about it as a body if we wish I I shared some ideas of what it could include you know as far as scope for the for the committee but ultimately that would be up to the ad hoc to determine this will be a short-term temporary two
or three month uh subcommittee of the board um that will bring back recommendations to this body um uh to set some attainable reasonable time sensitive goals to move the needle on some of these outcomes um for these for these economically disadvantaged kids I also shared um a a record Eagle story from
2015 10 years ago from from CED and that was the last time one of our buildings was nationally recognized as closing the student achiev achievement gap which is enough to celebrate but the reason why I shared it was not only did they then closed the gap between the low Achievers and the high Achievers but everybody's scores increased a rising tide LIF all boats so I want to be clear that what I'm what I'm proposing is not taking
away from high Achievers that this if if we're strategic and use best practice um and and and you know allocate some of our resources based on student need that we can we can move the needle on this this this problem um so that is my proposal um ideally it it comes back I would like it to come back to to to us by our May meeting if possible um it's not meant to
be a study session it's meant to like bring action um to the board so that was my idea and and and I shared this with Ty but since I know a few updates as well one of the things that I have is I think there's great interest um in that I don't think you necessarily have a problem with the concept it's more about execution because I and to be quite Frank I think virtually every member has indicated that they would like some in on on
it to some extent which creates a problem because if we're talking about everyone wanting to be on it then we it's a a board issue not an ad hoc issue um um which I know why you don't want to do a stud why you didn't want to do a study session but you've also only seen I think one that all study sessions aren't created equal and I think uh you one of the study sessions we did several years ago was a Strate planning which does include action so I don't know again my biggest thing is
even if we're going to have something that all the board members care greatly about we probably need to find a way to do it as a board rather than as an ad hoc um I don't want to use the study sessions just a generic term but I do think that maybe we need to get one of those on first and then break out after that I don't know I'm I'm actually generally supportive of the concept loan and how you guys want to do it is yeah I I would just um also I think
back to the what we did in the summer of 2023 with a cell phone policy where it took us three months from start to finish I think from the first public comments of parents saying we want to see a different policy to then we asked the administration on the spot hey bring us some sample policies and then we studied them and then another meeting or so before we finalized it and Connie Taylor worked with us to get our input and consulted
lawyers and all that but it took three months that was and that was not a study session that was just regular board we did use our regular board meetings but anyway I could just see a lot of different could be shaped um whether it's a study session or a subcommittee or full board regular um I think I think maybe the functions of breaking down what we would need to answer the very good objectives that you put together in
your proposal tie makes a lot of sense like first we we need a lot of data I think to be gathered for the board to study before the board can then discuss and make recommendations to Administration for what we would like to see so maybe that is if we could kind of break that down into two or three chunks then we could figure out collectively well how do we want to facilitate that information gathering well in two three months is the idea so two or three
meetings um you know and I'm not an educator I I I don't know this but I know this room has some of those those and who understands the best practice I think the data is the outcomes the data is that 133 page Beast um so I think the data is clear uh and I guess it's up to us how urgent we want to take this well I think on that point I do think it's urgent but one thing that I think we've all uh painfully learn is
um when you're in a government a publicly elected position things move slower than we want them to be even when we have control over the speed and that's partly to do with the fact that we can't like you reached out I couldn't have any real discuss I talked to you but we couldn't talk as a group until today yeah um which for most people in private world is like we could have probably had this done by now um so I want to um well and and I and I
just and I'm happy to have a discussion and I didn't know where it was going to go either but I wanted to take a swing I I do care deeply about it I I think we can do better with political will and public support um will it be hard absolutely will it take a lot of work absolutely I don't even need to be on it so I'm curious if who's here is actually wants would serve on it I would so and and here's my other I do want to discuss this a little bit more because one of the things that I think is important about the language here and what my
understanding of this is is not just looking at all of the things that you know make an inequitable situation for students or a disadvantage students we we kind of know what that is already I think the biggest thing and we've all talked about this for months is the funding um we have social support network that does all kinds of work but it's it's never enough right and not really funded and not really funded and to me when we're talking about um assessing ways to
increase funding to to close that Gap that's what we're talking about it's it's actually more narrow than what we're I think what we're discussing and I think that's a great idea because I mean some of us have been doing work outside of this just trying to get funds together or trying to work with Gran tours or whatever I know I am you know I've been doing that so I think it's a it's this is probably a good way for us to consolidate some of our efforts and say this is what we need these
are needs that that need to be met financially and let's make these recommendations who's going to go do what does that make sense yeah I mean and and how we budget our values and how we allocate our resources equably based on student need which is part of our Board of practice um and you know and I would like to move the needle on say third grade reading so 40% of our economically disadvantaged third grade readers are not proficient in Reading nearly eight out of 10
of our economically disadvantaged eighth graders are not proficient in Reading uh excuse me in math so as we talk about all of our people working on certain things like I I'd like to take a stand and put ourselves on the hook and say we in one year two year three years would like to see this metric improved by X right yes we're going to provide warm clothes and food and and personal hygiene items but we're also going to budget our values um and we're going to allocate
resources based on need so but again that's just me one person and I think this this ad hoc um you know and just because ad hoc recommends something to the full board doesn't mean necessarily mean the full board will accept it or approve it um or can Implement well sure I mean it it all has to be workable right and and that's why we have a wonderful superintendent to execute on vision and goals and strategic priorities you're
laughing at the wonderful part AR I'm saying I would be delighted to contribute to this project with a bottle of Tums for the superintendent well you know I think that much like when we had our last study session I think it would be good for the board you know and this is going to take time to really see exactly what we are doing right now you know to have an idea of our schools that are more economically disadvantaged of
how Staffing is being allocated how title funds being allocated 31 a RIS dollars being allocated to kind of see that spectrum and say Oh either we didn't know that or I don't know that looks right or you know to know our SSN how much money do we get what are we doing with that you know how much are we raising how much maybe should we try and raise and what's a different way we redirect staff to maybe do that so I think there's lots of things of you know I would also
not discount thinking about this in your strategic Plan update that's going to happen soon as well um but I do think having an idea what's there and then the board can give some input into oh maybe we don't do that anymore and we do this like Ty is saying from a you know what you allocate you resources too but you know in the short term I don't know you all see you know all those line items of and the federal dollars of all that from that standpoint Andrew's got a great point I
want just just so the students know I know it's eight and but after this discussion item then you can come up uh we can finish this one up and then we'll do it so yeah yeah that's fine maybe it might not be it and again this is my last meeting so take this for what it's worth but you know one of our uh strategic plan goals was um provide additional resources and supports for diverse Learners so that all students can be successful so maybe I
know the plan right now is to have um study sessions in April to to renew and update the Strategic plan but maybe you do between now and April you have this H committee that three of the board members are more versed in what has gone into that so that when you go to revisit the Strategic plan you at least have three of the board members that are more well vered in what it would take and what what's currently happening and what's available to happen yeah I mean current state is a good point to John's Point like what is the current state and
then you know it's on us what is the desired State yeah and that that's what you put in your updated strategic plan is you know when you're focused on whatever those goals are I would support that a friendly amendment I support that Andrew and that's why I guess you know there's there's a lot of different ways to do this though I um do need the the the board to kind of come up that's one idea um I'm okay with whatever again I I do believe that the number of people
everyone at least had a a desire or at least a a verbal desire to think about one to be to a certain degree we've addressed it um in a couple of study sessions I think that what makes this proposal perhaps a bit different is we kind of suggested that we would like a study section session that then the staff decided what we needed to know and they filled it in
but the questions that we asked a lot of times were kind of secondary to the information that we got if that makes sense and I think that with ties we're back to how do you say these are the sorts of questions that we think need to be answered and we're directing it with with the caveat
that we do not run the schools that the superintendent runs the schools all we can do is gather the information um so the practicality of some of this becomes important the other thing is I think that sometimes we have some resources that we don't always think of that we don't use so one of the things I
really like at Travers Heights is that you see the cooperation of the older students with the younger students and that can reinforce in two ways on some of the learning you know so whether you have students that tutor a bit more or do some Innovative things it reinforces what they are doing but at the same time it doesn't necessarily mean that you need a whole lot
more money and a lot more staff so there may be some Innovative things that we could do um that would be practical and actually build community um so those are things I think we do have to get good data because I've seen an awful lot of projects where you see what the problem is but you don't know how the problem configures and so you never figure out what the moving parts are
so you throw money at it and a lot of times you really don't accomplish a whole lot I think that's particularly true in publicly funded programs um so I think we have to be careful with that um would the board oppose if we just sign the students papers now so probably best really to actually R rule here okay
relax is we really should take um just a uh five minute break five minute break recess a recess and do this and then it's the way we should do it yeah to do them in the middle do that and then come back to order in that element so something new that somebody put across me other night yeah no I know technically yeah so uh um okay so we'll take a we will take a five minute recess if you would like to come up and you need a form signed uh come up and we can sign them for you
right now and then uh
e e
board is ready to restart we can cly restart little ear um so we we were discussing item and we will return to the discussion item
which was obviously uh the ad hoc committee or how to handle this I think the general gist is that I think there's a United uh desire to do something here and then the question again just comes to how so we do have to have a decision I I feel like there's so much information that we do need to know first that we all should get that information and then figure out how to deal with it that does slow down your timeline but uh at the same time is I do think that we're really looking this is
going to be a long-term thing it should be part of the Strategic plan as well which we're going through that can be part of the discussion process as well so again I'm okay to do whatever every board member but my preference would be to start with the study session to get a lot of that data on the paper and then out of that study session have a commitment to would the study sessions be any different than the three we had last year on student achievement yeah the student achievement was pure there was a
lot of data I think we can you can we can give guidance to tailor that study session to get the data that we need that this wasn't presented then I think I lot lot of the funding I think we looked at sh Shar data I'm not really I'm not talking about funding I guess I'm talking about outcomes is what I'm talking about and you and whether it's a financial solution and or you know and you know like if you look at the Corte talking about datadriven instructional practices but I I just want
to be clear I'm not talking about fundraising I'm talking about outcomes I agree with you on that one I'm really um and and some of it will take money um but again uh I'm I'm fine with what if we want to wait and but I also don't want to study it to death because and and I feel like um I I've watched the three achievement ones from last year um and they were interesting for sure but they were not but again that's I
think way you're getting off is like we uh we can set when we set a study session we do give of what the objective outcome was so that objetive of that outcome was to to get that data that's what we asked for and that's what we got given so like we've also again had study sessions with strategic planning we've had plenty of other study sessions in the past that have that do lead to different things so I don't want that's and that's kind of why I said I don't want the idea of a study session being somewhere that something goes to study at
to death or something goes to die or just or just hearing for one is not really I mean to be honest we only been getting back into study sessions recently because of that and because of uh during Co they we kind of went away from then everything was a just what what's going to happen today um but I'm okay with again any alternative proposal I do want to make sure we leave staff enough time to prepare for anything one of the things i' mention is appreciate
you know what Ty is thinking you know the to least know the resources that are there now if if if it ever you know we go through Mission based budget with every building principle there any of those meetings that board members would want to sit in to be able to hear that and see how that is and what those resources are that's something that we can make sure to let you know when they are and welcome to sit in on when we have that conversation of what we're thinking their federal dollars are to you can see building by building what that looks like open invitation on any of those from that standpoint to see
that so if there are any specific data points um mission base budget yeah they're already scheduled yeah end of end of March March right after spring break you know and I like for example I'd be curious of Travers height so we're adding three lower L classrooms for next year right so one one of the strategies could be like so it's one of our Title One schools um you know you know could we have uh less splits say in lower yeah
uh lower L because of these new classroom for example like how do we treat splits in Title One schools how do we treat classroom size in title school yes so it's and you know I guess I'm fine sitting in on meetings um because I also watch the mission Bas budgeting study session right and and and I get it but again you know we are in charge of the budget and how we allocate resources um and budget season will be up here really quickly that's why I propos
the may I think the May meeting I think we already well in budget session the well we're never out of that yeah and that's the other part though too is like we are never out of it and there's always changes so like I don't think there's ever nearly a good time to start anyway I think we should start as practically when we as soon as we can um but that's kind of why I gave that like I worry about setting a timeline because it these things do take a lot longer
than they should so and you know I think it'd be good for you to see the El because I'd argue that our tital buildings like especially bling you know they get right off the top on Ft and general fund dollars above and beyond all the other buildings plus they're at risk plus they're tit I will ask is that enough I guess and it's a good point you know but just to give you an idea what that is you know and and are you is your priority to take away from one to give to more that's a board decision from that standpoint you know we kind of we put that out there from you know every kid has to have a classroom and a teacher you kind of have to start from
there and then you go okay what's those fringes that you have and a lot of times again the buildings have their title $1 or they at risk that's directed to that Building B on their student population and that is what we use to direct a lot of that and again if the board wanted to change some of those perspectives that's but I think it would be important for the board to understand what those are sure you know to be able to make that decision from that standpoint no we do it based on what we think our professional judgment is to try and do that as equitably as possible you know
with that in mind but if the board thinks differently I think it's important for the board to look at that and understand that and know what that is yeah so I I have a couple of thoughts um one is the title one funding issue that's just really bothering me at the federal level I feel personally very nervous about the the future and so I am right there with you Tai in terms of trying to think how we can close
the achievement Gap but if the intention is that we as a board would make a recommendation to Administration to allocate dollars and then you know we find out next week that the current Administration is not going to support title one anymore you know everything is upended so I I just wanted to that's not to shoot anything down I just wanted to share that that that is a very real concern I have um and it just messes with the timing of this but
the other thing is just best practices nationally um you you know I always think that is great for teaps if we look you know to other districts and nationally through our associations and and all the professional networks that our administrators and teachers have um just in this District alone we we talk about all these things that we employ to boost academic achievement we have professional development for our staff we have um collaborative routines
we have instructional rounds we have tutoring we have mentoring we have Interventional um behavioral coaches like we have all of these techniques te that are all intended to boost student achievement but if we can't afford them all we should have a better idea of which ones are the most coste effective which ones really are making the biggest impact and I think that's the data that we don't have as a board do we currently have outcomes as a goal we have any specific outcomes excellent question because
I've asked that in curriculum when we buy a new curriculum what is our expectation uh to achieve with that curriculum and I don't think we all those things are wonderful but to what end I guess right and um and again I'm not here to blame teachers or Administration but I I I do want us to it's to again look at some of those numbers that I shared and then ask yourself if you're okay
with those numbers because I'm not yeah I think no one is and that's why I think everyone is excited about it but that's also again why I think it comes back down the board meeting to do it I also wonder if we need to look at it um Elementary sort of first because I think that kids are so different between high school and Elementary and I think how you address the problem is going to be different um so I'm wondering
if if that would be at all useful as well because I think Elementary is what you I don't know much but I do know earlier the better yeah right and yeah that's your foundation so if that would make sense to narrow the scope like if it seems like too much of a beast and we want to focus on earlier the better and third grade reading like I'd love that and third grade math and third grade math run them both so I'm I'm wondering though if like the ask
of administration is give us some data that we can't get from Mi School data right that that where from which you know you you cited these numbers um so that we can make some informed decisions and recommendations about what we think the priority should be as a district where our funding should go well I mean so so I mean 58% of all of our third graders are proficient
in Reading 40% of our economically disadvantage third graders are proficient in reading so we can set the goal at I don't know 45% 50% in three years what do we need to get there I'm not sure I'm not an educator I'm not a professional we have a wonderful team that we will consult and ask what do we need to do to get to 45% which Again part of the problem I'm trying to figure out how to tie the two together but like this that exactly like that exact thing is what we talk about
in Str planning too well and I guess I then then I'm confused why there's no outcome in our strategic plan there's nothing that talks about well the first thing I'll give you was the first one that have been done a long time you know from that aspect and so I think there was a lot of getting systems in place and those kind of things of of you know curriculums that we didn't have documented those kind of things so I think you know the board's always thought that 2.0 was the next step and if this conversation leads to that I'm fine you know this is the first time we've had this so I don't expect all of a sudden we're going to change
I remember the timing of that strategic planning was coming out of covid with a lot of unknowns where the numbers were hard to measure and these numbers right now should have a big asterisk by them because they're all coming out of covid I know that everybody knows that right but it was harder to it's harder to talk about specific outcomes when you don't even know how much learning you know you're still trying to figure out how many kids are back because of learning loss and sure like that's really but there's some studies you know I can't talk a lot about this that um I got called from the Detroit news last week
that there's a study that's coming out this next week that shows us very high in the state both in math and reading increases back to the level pre-co and we're one of the few District that that's the case again not the Mark I think we want you know that was exactly my quote in there I said great we have some things you know now is having some great achievement you know you know change but again is it enough is it what what do we aspire to be even if we don't make the goal what do we aspire to be you know I think that's
what ties getting a little bit and then the figure of the resources from that standpoint but I do think simultaneously understand helping give us some direction to try and meet that goal you know there's things that you're going to have to maybe say we don't do anymore you know that some people might be upset about you know because there's you know I always say this is like spinning plates that you try and give a little bit here a little bit there and we try to give more to those buildings that have more kids in poverty but I tell you all the time that one of the hardest parts about this is stretching every
dollar but again are there things that are the mess best mentioned that don't cost anything you know think those are some insights that would love to hear from the board you know if you have a goal in mind you want to try and reach then we got to try and talk about then at that point at least what our resources to do that so in the at least in the in that time period at some point it's going to be important for the board to give very specific data you want so that in some time for us to be able to share that with you if we be able to see what we're doing now and then at some
point to talk about what we wouldn't do to try and put more resources towards something if you think that's your your pro just remember we've done this before it's been 10 years I think we can do it again as a district and not not building by building but as a district so again like to move forward L on it because I don't disagree with any of it but like we've got to figure out how to move forward on this particular item do you want me to make a motion or who does someone want to make a motion uh you're welcome to make a motion I
don't know consensus yet of but um I'm open to again someone has a FR an idea at this point I mean I I would just go back to what I said earlier I mean I think and I I totally understand that there's a lot of data and a lot of work that's happening on this specific uh metric of the compass plan but as you're going in I think it's I think it's if this is what you really want to focus on going into the revision and the updating of the compass plan for this next uh
cycle for three years like you know it's probably not a terrible idea to have if you can get two or three uh ad hoc committee meetings in before you start getting into the survey data and the actual study sessions for the updated strategic plan that would give you some background information on what's an appropriate what's an appropriate Target not not like what's an easy target to get to but what's a stretch Target for us to get to um it's just you know otherwise we're going to be sitting here talking for another hour but I mean
I think that that's a reasonable thing is you know like let's have a have a couple of committee meetings and then at least three of you go into that strategic planning session knowing like this is the background information and these are reasonable goals the only C I'll give to that is like for the Strategic plan for the surveys we got about a week to get that done on the timeline you have now you know just giving you that caveat if you're going to have something change yeah I think I would leave that as total separate thing I really would but I
think we should really focus on on Elementary and even if we look at K or prek to to second or third grade and really look at what's going on um to your your thought about moving resources around I think we're way ways from there yeah and you know that's the hard work I mean we're almost there right now but again I don't think
it would hurt again the invitation is open to you know to learn what those are so you know what we are doing now that you may go oh that's enough or no that's not enough or okay if we give more oh I just heard that they get this and maybe is that the best place for it you know just the invitation is out there if you want to hear that because I mean I fully was in support of what was coming out of Easter you know I didn't want to see split classrooms I wouldn't want to teach one I understand
so moving again I think how about this to merge the proposals and again I would take a a note this isn't achieving what what the objective is but um I do think it's important to do it through strategic planning it's the ideal position to do it in and we it's literally coming up in April so this is where we should deal with the specifics but to Andrew's point we don't even know what the specific should be and what the goals are so it's kind of a cross between a
an an ad hoc and a regular board meeting because I know everyone says that they want to be there but scheduling is going to be difficult so I would suggest we choose a date in March which I realize is spring break at the end and we've got a March 10th board meeting so we could literally pick a date around the 17th we won't do that because it's St Patrick's Day but we could do the doesn't have three on Monday we can just choose a day that works and is convenient schedule it study
session get the data out use that spring what's that 21st 20th 20th that's the day before spring break isn't it so yeah so you'd have to that's just again I guess we can if that's an acceptable then we can figure out a date but I would suggest that we have a meeting study session in there any board member who wants to attend can come I understand if you don't want to but that way we don't have to have an add you don't technically I don't even know if you need a well you need a for the
basics you need a quorum if it's a board meeting however if the board gave me some direction that if there wasn't enough we didn't think to make it a meeting and AD hog but otherwise if we have four members that show up we'll plan it initially as a board meeting but if some reason numbers change we could go with that lower we would just you know we just have to cancel it from that standpoint yeah we cancel it and put have committee um that that's good pick a date yeah that way I'm trying I'm
trying to drive because I would like I think it's important to get a meeting in before stre planning I I I agree and then if you and to do that I think as I AG it will be after your new board M yes it will which also would be that was one of I was going to wait to do this but this is one of the reasons that I did it tonight was because I knew that the strategic planning so you're already giving them more work when you're leaving no well to have someone here that was here the whole time I do not have
I do not have the uh the the district calendar to know what dates you guys can even do works for you outside of Mondays and when you say you guys who all do you want I think that that would be depend on the data I think we can get those questions you did give a nice like some of the questions so that would be a good start um do you want a purely Focus academic do you want business you know resources do you want you know I
think we could start with academics yeah I think J and Dan Jesse would be secondary so it' be Dan and probably um or just Dan and um Britney and Britney bryy and Dan Britney do right Y and yeah so there we go so we got that we set it as a we set it as a board meeting study session board meeting um optional yep optional and if we don't and we will ask to say if you're coming in on and if we don't have enough then we have set it as a committee meeting
and permission that we could J is on vacation that right I just which day the 20th it's can we ear in the week like the 18th or 19th 18th I think could work and Dan are you on 18 no I'm here Dan what days would work for you in Britney do you know that 18th or
19th 18 yeah 18th if I were to choose one it would be the 18th T I'm meeting with um all principles that week before spring break uh the eight non City Schools you know in open enrollment I was meeting on the just as far if we're talking timeline uh Sandy Jesse and I are meeting on March 7th
to talk about Mission based budget for elementary school so I don't know what what's we're talking about finances versus outcomes and I think we're really talking outcomes and academic only at this point in this conversation that day Dan yeah so really just you and Britney is all I think the board's looking at what you know probably needing there at that point for initial conversation you know dig in six o' yeah that's
good six o'clock or five o'cl matter I I'm just what if you have a need or anyone has a need that's fine I do know I do whatever 5:30 you need it later is that what you're saying oh no I was I was just saying oh we doing it at we have a meeting I have a student advisory till 445 and then you and I are supposed to be meeting on the 18th till 5:15 oh
maybe that's the student advisory February 18 that's February we're March oh Tuesday March 18th that's helpful Tuesday Mar 18 right so on that Dan Dan have a preference on time you have a preference on time I don't o' talking Tuesday just to make sure and not be so late five o'clock would that work I think so and we can get like sandwiches or something if that helps that's great you know for members
we'll just I'll have Tammy work with you guys for an RSVP to kind of know who and we'll work on something from that standpoint okay so the 18th of March 5:00 pm will be a study session of the board uh on this topic and but the board would allow uh if if we do not have enough attendance we which we know ahead of time we will change it to a committee corre meeting and the board would be okay as otherwise it's
essentially a committee of the whole I trying to figure out if we needed just confuse us do I need do I how would I have how we have a a meeting a Comm unless we create an ad hoc if needed um at that point it would just be whatever members would able to attend make a motion and do it then yeah I mean I can make I guess the motion should be technically that we call the we we we call the board meeting why don't we do
this why don't we call it a meeting for now and then what we'll get a better gauge as we get closer on who's going to be there and then and if some point we don't think there's a quorum I'll work with you at that point to post for a committee meeting we have I feel can I just make a motion about it yeah I'd like to make a motion that we have a study session on March 18th at 5:00 pm to discuss outcomes student outcomes and achievement um at the elementary level if for some reason we don't have a
a quorum that that become an ad hoc committee meeting on the same subject I think that will cover and you're giving me the discretion if we feel there won't be enough board members to do so correct okay second okay so we have a a motion we have a second I think we've discussed it plenty um but if anyone has anything uh other than that please uh ATT please conduct a roll vote trusty bird
yes trust Schmidt yes trustey Ballinger yes Rusty P yes Rusty Raymond yes and president Newman B yes motion carries um um I superintendent van Wagner I just want to add one more thing um if there is a district that you know about or any of your peers know about um where theyve really addressed um you know students andow academic achievement close the
achievement Gap however you want to phrase it or if there's a conference that you're going to um I mean any any kind of opportunity for us as a board I think that would really be beneficial doesn't have to be obviously in the next three months it could be any you can't control the timing of a conference for example but you took us to a subset of us to Kell Marine School District a few years ago to see and learn about Project based learning that was so incredibly helpful for us to understand what
we were doing in standing up academic communities and so I think that would I would like welcome the opportunity to you know visit a district and especially somebody like us with same resources and you know because you know just do recognize there are districts that get you know with poverty $25,000 a student with federal funds stay that way I don't know but you know so like finding a a light district you know in that element is something that you know we'll work at
trying to identify that if there is in the state or even somewhere out of the state but you know they took a a group of kids property in Harem MH and they put him in the charter school the Harem children's zone no well been there and those kids are amazing but Jeffrey Ken raised about $50,000 I think per student to be able to do that I had the chance to have dinner with Jeffrey candid much like to know how that broke out I'd also like a ton of resources they raised to
be able to do that but did great work phenomenal now just to bring this back down just i' I've got to make a decision here so either we're going to close out uh or I have to uh allocate a new chair so I'm okay with either one that's fine no we can move on can move on I do have one quick thing but I know that we we've got a public comment here we to call Quick too yep um but um I do want to go a a correction of something I had said publicly um I had the chance to meet with Alyssa slack and and and uh last
Saturday and I'm not sure if I was misquoted or I said it wrong but to put on the record straight we have about you know we've had roughly close to 500 students in our mckin vento program that we run um that are homeless those are not all teaps kits right okay that's about you know we're about 270 you know right around our teaps kids in that element we do have over 500 in our student support network in that element but I want to make sure that we do run that program and do all the
support and all that Katie is kind of her and team and ginger team's a onep person show you know with or a one a group show that does that work but you know again that's kind of our our there are other students from other schools that are part of the mckin ventil program with that so I just want to make sure I'm good to to clearly identify but again we have lots of kids in needs and we are well over half of the kids in that number that do fall under homeless components that are tab kids but and
still a shockingly high number yeah yeah yep and I would personally like to encourage anybody with Deep Pockets to donate to student Support Network as soon as you can and a lot all right um so anything else any I think we closed out on that topic um moving on to public comment is there additional public comment there's not okay um so closing remarks again I I feel like there's nothing else to add
other than thanks again to Andrew uh this would be uh last meeting and definitely bit of sweet but thank you for serving and pleasure serving with you so um there will be a posting on the website within the next few days but the uh candidates will be asked to interview on March 10th uh at the regular board meeting with more more information to come shortly um with that do I have a motion to ajour the meeting I'll move to meeting second second bet all right all those
in favor say I those say name uh the next Board of Education meeting will be Monday February 24th at 6 pm and oh no one I think it's March 10 it will now be what are we on now March 10th probably March 10th 2025 at 6 pm. um in this room so um appreciate it and your meeting ised