Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the February 25th Troy Board of Education meeting. We have all trustees present, and three of our four student reps, which we'll hear later on in the meeting. Could you please all stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, individual liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Before we get into our agenda, we would like everybody,
to observe a moment of silence in honor of, Mike DeSantis. Many of you know, he was a long time teacher at Athens, and, he passed away quite suddenly. He's certainly very missed by, our community. So let's observe, a moment of silence in remembrance of him and his family. Thank you. Everyone. Okay. We will start our meeting tonight with recognition. Our first item of recognition is honoring our
all state athletes from fall of 2024. And, Mister Jansen, if you'd like to do the honors. Well. Thank you. Doctor Mochizuki and members of our board looking forward tonight to being able to recognize our student athletes that have crushed it on the field and on the competition, courses in the fall semester and season as we are now wrapping up the winter season. But, to our student athletes and families that are able to make it. I thank you for coming. I'm going to be announcing today with Sports Arena and some of the coaches that are here supporting you, that have supported you all season long.
If you'll come up over here. We have our, certificates to pass out. Right? They are in alphabetical order. A couple of them. I'll read off, and I'll let you know if they're not here. So you can pass that to the side. And we have them come up to the front after they're done. And a picture at the end, please. They are going to be here for out. So speak. That's just for you. We're in sports. It's what we do, coach. All right, here we go. Our first one who's not able to be here tonight is Graham Bowman. Graham is a senior at Troy High School.
Who received All-State second team honors for boys soccer team. Was coached by Adam Spinks. Our next student athlete is Mark della Cat, who's also not here tonight. Is a senior at Athens. Third team all state with the boys soccer team is coached by Kevin McConnell. Just real quick. Making sure is Mark here? Nope. Moving to our next one. Who is here tonight, and that is Dhruv Gupta. Dhruv is a senior at Troy High. First team all state with the boys tennis team, who is also supported with his coach, Brian Miska.
If Dhruv would come up here. Congratulations, Dhruv. Oh, this would have been a. Definitely. Plans should have been here. Thank you. I want to make. And by all means, if they're parents here and they'd like to come forward and take pictures. They're more than welcome to go. Come on. Kids. Over here! I'll jump in there. Thank you for your questions.
Our next recipient, who is not here this evening. Truly, we don't have a second. But thanks for our next recipient. Who is not here tonight is Audrey Hamilton. Audrey is a junior at Troy High. Ryan, girls cross country. I was coached by Mike Mussina. Our next recipient of all state honors is Jesse Howe. Jesse is a sophomore at Troy High School. Boys tennis, first team all state, coached by Brian Miska. Congratulations to. All. In. The next.
Our next recipient is Cravath and Tory. For both is a senior at Athens High School. First team all state boys tennis, coached by Andrew Shipp. That we. Congratulations, both. Our next recipient of All-State honor recognition is Daniel Kaju junior at Athens High School. First team boys soccer, coached by Kevin McCollum. Which is give. All address and that
our next recipient is Nick a gunga senior Troy High School boys soccer third team. All state coached by Adam Spinks. And. Oh, okay. You understand the pitch count? Yeah. Thanks. All right. Our next recipient is Derek Kim, who was not able to make it tonight. Derek is a junior at Troy High. First team all state with boys tennis, coached by Brian Miska.
Our next recipient is now hool Lyrica senior, Troy High school boys soccer second team all state high. Coached by Adam State. No no no. I'm. Take a picture. I'm here with. You. That's great. I always like a good handshake. All right, here we go. Our next recipient is Matty Miller. Matty is a senior at Troy High School. Ran cross country.
For coach Mike Messina. Congratulations for all state recognition, Matty. And we'll get her on the flip side. Our next recipient is Neal. Naga. Paula Neal is a junior at Troy High School. First team all state for boys tennis, coached by Brian Miska. And Sandra. Okay. Give a shout, coach. Our next recipient is Ishaan Patel. Ishaan is a sophomore at Athens.
First team All-State for boys tennis, coached by Andrew Shim. And regional high. He was a. Day. Our next recipient is Keon Shanice, senior, Troy High School boys cross-country, coached by Mike Mussina. Yes. Congratulations.
Our next recipient is Varun Shetty, junior. Troy High School boys tennis first team All-State, coached by Brian Miska. Right. Thank you. And last, but certainly not least, Anthony Woo. Junior Troy High School first team all state boys tennis, coached by Brian Miska. With the weather yesterday and today, I know we're all looking forward to spring sports, which starts on March 10th. It's right around the corner, and we are wrapping up, all kinds of winter sports right now.
We did have one really cool story that came in, and I know that we've put some things out here, on social media, but, Nick Lusk, our powerlifting coach at Athens, had worked out something with one of our former, student athletes, once a Red Hawk, always a Red Hawk and Troy School District student athlete, where, Coach Lusk donated. Not donated. Allowed another district to borrow some of our weightlifting equipment to host, their first powerlifting event in 20 years. And then going through their student athletes and everything,
you talk about empathy, and showing sportsmanship. That's alive and well in the Troy School district. So thanks to Coach Lusk in their program. And everything that we stand on here with our core values and Troy. Thank you, Mister Jansen. Appreciate that. And, if when we're done with recognition, we'll break for about five minutes or so. If we can have all of our athletes join together. Right up here and we'll get a group picture of all of them. Okay. Thank you again. Next, under recognition, we have two items, for our, our mission moment.
Our audience may remember in January, we had some, weather related, issues, and we didn't require our students, to be at our January meeting. So we pushed our mission moment from January here to February. So tonight we have two mission moments. So it's my pleasure to start and to introduce our first mission moment. We'd like to recognize an Eye East sophomore for excellence displayed in her middle years program, otherwise known as NYP Personal Project. The capstone experience of the IB Middle Years Program is my pleasure to welcome I East Principal, Mr.
Patrick Griffin, to introduce Theora, Linda and her work with the Youth Peace and Language Association. Mr.. Chris. Thank you, Doctor Mitchell. Thank you, board, for having us this evening. I'd like to introduce you to a sophomore, at Ieast, Farrah Ferrando. Before I talk about her specific accomplishments, I'd like to give some context as to why I wanted to brag about her this evening. As you may know, the International Academy is the largest all IB diploma granting institution in the Northern Hemisphere. Since all of our students are enrolled in the full IB Middle Years Program.
All of them are required to complete a capstone project during their first semester of their sophomore year. All Iowa 10th graders have a class built into their day, where they spend a semester engaged in a project based learning venture. Each student selects their own topic to build up to be developed throughout these 20 weeks. This is known as the MIP Personal Project, and every year I'm blown away at the projects that students create. While I can certainly find something to brag about with all of them. One really stood out to me this year. Cyrus
during the project brainstorm back in August, led by her teacher, Jason Garza. Cyrus settled on the concept of language acquisition. She wanted to develop a project about learning languages, a passion of hers. Since middle school, FIRA naturally gravitated towards learning new languages. She already spoke four languages conversationally before embarking on this project. After some reflection, she settled on the Middle East as being a part of the world that could benefit from learning some basic parts of the English language. A war had broken out in the region, and thyroid saw a need.
Her learning goal would be to study the Arabic language, something that she had zero to minimal knowledge of. As of August 2024, the catch with the MYP personal project is that it can't just be a learning goal. All students are required to create a semester long project. Some choose physical things to create. Like building a drone from parts for photography, cookbooks for college students on a budget, or some choose to learn how to build an app meant to track, inform, and improve student mental health.
That was narrator's personal project in her sophomore year, and I brought her a t shirt that she gave out as a prize. I believe I answered a question about her at this. Called me time. And, Nora's app was available to download in the App Store and contributed to hundreds of students overall improvement in mental health, specifically, just at our high school. But I'm not here to talk about narrative. That's the next mission moment, so I'm just going, look at it from my spot here.
Some students learn a skill like strengthening cultural ties through learning henna art. Learning American Sign Language to create interpretation services. Or even starting their own business at age 14 by learning how to cut hair. I volunteered that year and got a great haircut right on the east gym floor. The virus project, however, was all of the above and more that I renamed her project of the Youth Peace and Language Association, or Why Play? She aimed to help English language learners halfway across the world in the Middle East. So after setting out to teach herself the Arabic language,
she started sharing her ideas with other like minded individuals, all happening during the day at Ieast. Soon enough, she had developed a social media following 16,000 followers as of today. Hundreds of interns and volunteers, and soon hundreds more individuals in the Middle East who expressed an interest in learning English through the play. It was a virtual language exchange program that soon outgrew just our school. Students from schools all over the world wanted to help, and thye were recruited them to be a part of her project.
Individuals in Palestine in the Middle East began to learn English from virus interns and volunteers, who would teach them conversational skills should they find themselves needing to communicate in English. This project has empowered the next generation through language, culture, and connection. It's just one of the 138 projects IEEE sophomores created just this year. Not only has Theora created an incredible project, but she is also a remarkable all a student at the International Academy. She's also a member of the Mental Health Youth Advisory Council, along
with many other extracurricular activities at Ieast. She is a wonderful example of a globally minded citizen, and she is going to go on to do things even bigger than this project. We are so proud of her and I know her family is too. Who joined us here tonight? FIRA is kind, determined and selfless. All of these traits are on full display as the founder of the Youth Peace and Language Association. Thank you for the opportunity to recognize her project and accomplishments tonight. Can we take a picture over here? Is that okay? Yeah. Unless there's.
Yeah. That's safe. Yes. Timer, would you like to make some remarks? I don't have to speak tonight, so we'll put her on zoom. Thank you guys so much for having me here. I've been passionate about learning languages since middle school. It all started when, I started learning the Polish language, and then I went on to study Spanish. At first it was like just an assignment to me, but I actually started learning it outside of school, listening to Spanish songs like La Bachata and dancing to them in my own bedroom. Always keeping my 600 de Duolingo streak.
Downloading language apps. And I just got interested in, like, immersing myself in a whole different lifestyle and getting to know a culture despite them being so different or being across the world from us. But now I decided to settle in the Middle East because I am very passionate about what's going on in Palestine, and I just want the liberation of that nation. So this time I decided that I wanted to teach the Palestinians English, and I wanted to learn Arabic myself,
so that those in Palestine can learn how to ask for emergency relief, communicate with other people, and use it on their daily lives. So yeah, that's why I founded the Wife Kelly Association. I'm definitely going to take this on future years in high school. And thank you guys so much for having me here. Great. Thank you. All right. Are there. Before we always as a board get to ask questions about leadership. So any. Yes. Yes. Any, any questions. Question. How many languages do you speak and what languages are they?
Okay, so I did drop a couple of languages. I guess the hardest one I've tried to attempt was Chinese or Hindu. Right now I've been studying Polish. I've been focusing more on Korean and Spanish lately. Yeah. And then, of course, as you mentioned above, Arabic. I might even take French as a, like my second language for, the IB. And I know there are a lot of languages out there. Yes.
Yeah. Impressive. The question that I have for you is how did you develop your global community? So, you know, we mentioned that you had others from, you know, other schools around the world that joined your project. How did you do that? Yeah. So I actually have a lot of experience already with marketing. So the main thing that I used was Instagram. Basically I would make reels and posts that are both in Arabic and English made by the interns,
because obviously I'm not that fluent in Arabic just yet, but, they would market towards, those who are basically all over the world, not just like people who only speak English or people who are only in America. These posts would be targeted towards everyone around the world. And, I would provide opportunities which are tailored, made for anyone such as like blog writing, teaching Palestinians English, coordinating the program, stuff like that.
So did you actually coordinate, you know, someone on one side of the world with somebody, for example, in the Middle East, to have a live conversation to practice there? Yeah. English. Okay. It's like a lot of Google Sheets. It was. So you were quite a connector then? Fantastic. Fantastic. Any anything else? I guess we have a certificate for you if you want to come here. Can you speak
of languages? Just for us? To the next round. Of. For our second, mission moment. It is our pleasure to recognize the superintendent, student advisory board, executive committee, and their work on the MLK day of Service. Mrs. Montante. Thank you, Doctor Chesky. And thank you, Board of Education. Tonight, we're thrilled to celebrate an extraordinary group of student leaders
who make up our students. Superintendent and student advisory board, executive committee. These remarkable students have taken on the challenge of leading our 56 member sub group, demonstrating outstanding dedication in leadership from planning and setting agendas to running meetings and orchestrating impactful activities and events. They have truly set the bar high. This is the third year that we have had an executive board lead the group, and these six students have done an incredible job. Most recently, they successfully organized and executed our incredible citywide MLK celebration Day of Service
in an event that brought together hundreds of families in a meaningful way. The feedback we received was overwhelmingly positive and it's all thanks to their vision and commitment and hard work. If you couldn't attend, we invite you to check out some of the unforgettable moments captured on Facebook and on our Facebook page or in previous newsletters. While many don't realize just how much time and effort and meticulous planning goes into making such an event of this scale a reality, it's a it's a huge undertaking. These six leaders tackled the challenge with enthusiasm, teamwork, determination, deliver in an event that will be remembered for years to come.
Even Doctor Mitch Haskett commented that this might have been the best MLK abundance the district has ever hosted. So kudos to my wonderful team back there. Next up for SAB is our middle school leadership conference in the spring. They launched that last year and we're excited to bring it back again this year. So look forward to that. And we've already begun, some of the initial planning for this. Another fantastic event. At this time, we'd like to invite our exceptional executive board members to come forward, to be recognized for their dedication and hard work.
Nora Albee's she's already mentioned before. Alice Lazare, Mas Ali Vihaan, Kay Holt, Angelina, Marty and Ria. And so this group also will come back here. So this group also, we did something a little bit different. We planned a basketball game, a staff versus students basketball game this year, which we didn't have previously. And it was our fundraiser to help pay for some of the MLK activities that we did this year, which was a huge success.
And packed, packed the house and, and had a wonderful event. They also, reached out to several businesses in our community to create baskets that we raffled off at the event as well. So any of you, would you like to talk about the wonderful things that you have done here? We. President. Well, I mean, first of all, thank you so much for recognizing the six of us here today. But I just want to say that the work that goes behind planning MLK day, but then also all of our CB events goes beyond us.
So a huge shout out to our TSD admin. You know, Doctor Chesky, Miss Montaigne, Demas Holmes, Misty Bilodeau, without the guidance and just the confidence that our TSD admin gives us. We won't be able to organize events at this citywide level. Not to mention our incredible ASB members. I agree with what doctor McCaskey said. A lot of us have been organizing this event for the past four years. I think this is one of our smoothest MLK days, and that is just a testament to the dedication and passion
of our staff members from all four of our high schools, not to mention the Student Equity Council and key Club. And so the SSP is really a community initiative. We have people from all around the community and we work for the community. And as a senior, I just can't wait to see what our underclassmen do next. So thank you for having us. Great. Hey, we have some certificates for them. Any any questions from the board for this astute group of students?
What was the hardest part of you know, you talked about the event going smoothly. What was kind of the hardest thing that you guys had to overcome to do a outstanding Dean event, or are you such pros? There was nothing hard. I'd say one of the toughest parts, as we have so many activities going on at once. So blanket making, a blood drive, and more so kind of just organizing that. And, again, we have around like over 50 ACP board members.
So figuring out where they go and just making sure everything runs smoothly. Especially with the fleece blankets. I think that's definitely one of our more, tedious service projects. And so that took a lot of preparation. Even before the meeting, we had a nurse, volunteers, come in and project lead members to help us get those blankets prepared. So I would say that was probably one of the toughest parts. But I mean, again, we have a great board. And, with help from everyone, we were able to pull it off.
But yeah. Great, great. Well, congratulate. And you are truly the epitome of student leadership. And for that today. They're all the same. Okay, sure. You take a picture. No, we're not here for something else. That's it. That's. That's no stranger to get in the cars. Oh, you do that.
As well? Yeah. All right. Ready for one? Got it. Are you nice? Come on. You don't. Really know your name? Right. You. Absolutely. Have to thank you, Miss Montana.
And thank you to our SSA, the executive board, for all your your efforts. This year. And lastly is our student spotlight. This evening, we have an opportunity to recognize the creative achievements of students in the TSD Creative Guild. Tonight, we recognize someone who is no stranger to us. She is known and appreciated by so many. And both her school and the Troy School District. We're all excited to welcome from the IEEE. She's the one and only Nora, the elves here to tell us more. Mr. butcher.
Good evening, Board of Education. Tonight you are about to witness the talents and passions of one student, the likes of which we have never seen before. Behold, a senior student from the International Academy East. She's exceptional. She's extraordinary. She's a force of personality. She is. Narrator. And this. This gonna both those of us here tonight probably already know who this is.
And all the wonderful things that she does. What often crosses my mind whenever I see narrator is, how do you have time to be here right now? She takes the hardest classes. She's the SSA president. She's doing scientific research and the biggest commitment of all. She's babysitting her cousins all the time. But that's not all. This year, Nerida has joined us in the Creative Guild. And boy, are we lucky. I am constantly impressed by the energy and commitment this young person delivers to our community.
I'm excited to share tonight clips from two special projects one. The first episode in her new podcast, The Adventure Mindset, featuring an interview with one of her dedicated teachers. And second, a first of its kind promotional video about her school. The International Academy is there simply isn't enough time to talk about how wonderful Nora is. Thankfully, we have a few more months before graduation day. But Nora, I'll tell you now and I know everyone else will agree. You can be anything you want to be.
Whichever path you choose, you're going to be the best at it. And you'll have a Wikipedia page to prove it. I just know every moment with you reminds us why we love serving the Troy community. So thank you for finding the time to join us here tonight. I am proud to present your hostess with the Mostess. Hello and welcome to the Adventure Mindset Podcast. I am your host, Marina SL BS, and today I am excited to bring you a discussion
that highlights a unique approach to physical education called Adventure Challenge and how it fosters both leadership and personal growth in students. Honestly, when I when I tell students that they are not going to have, fitness testing, their their faces light up. So we use the avenue or the medium of physical activity to be able to teach skills that students are going to need throughout their their entire life. Like that cooperation, communication,
trust, teamwork, that kind of thing. And that whole, like, faces lighting up thing is something that really resonates with me because in elementary school and middle school, I took those, those physical education based PE classes. And so there were all these sports units, and I was never one of those, like, top athletes. And so I didn't I enjoyed those classes, but I didn't feel like I was reaching my full potential or what PE could look like. And so when you first told that to me as a freshman,
I remember that moment where I was like, what? Like, this isn't going to be like one of those classes. And so that inclusivity of adventure challenge is something that I found to be really beautiful. And I still think that's what really attracts students and draws students into this course is it's inclusive for everyone, and it's all about, like this experiential learning. You learn all of these like life skills through activities. The International Academy East, more commonly known as AA East, is a public high school that fully incorporates
the International Baccalaureate or IB curriculum. The IB program blends rigorous coursework with extra curricular requirements to develop well-rounded students who will become the problem solvers in Leaders of Tomorrow. To help manage this workload, teachers hold afterschool office hours multiple times a week, and many long weekends are designated as no homework weekends so that students can recharge and relax.
A special part about II is our social house system, with six houses that bring together students from different grades, just like the Harry Potter houses. But don't worry parents, there is no sorcery happening here. Only a whole lot of magic. Whether you are arts or Stem oriented i.e. I will provide you with the academic and extracurricular opportunities needed to help you thrive. And how do I know all this? Because I am an AA student from the class of 2025.
The opportunities and experiences that I have gained here have shaped me into the person I am today. And for that, I am forever grateful. For more information about our application process can be found on our website IU today.org. We are excited to welcome you as a Phoenix oh oh. Really appreciate us getting the opportunity to continue
doing Student Spotlight and share that with our Board of Education. Before we take our photo and before you ask any comments or questions ourselves, I'm going to give Merida an opportunity to share a few words. Okay. Well, after that introduction, I don't really know what to say to talk like this. But, you know, first of all, I just want to thank you for, your kind words, Mr. Butcher. This year was my first year coming back to videography after middle school.
I kind of let it go for a few years in the middle, and there were a few nerves going to be coming into this year. Few skills I had to brush up on. But Mr. Butcher has been, a mentor that I couldn't even dream of, honestly. He's been there to give me, the resources, the teachings that I need. He's been a mentor for me. Not just in video work, but also with, public speaking career advice. I mean, Mr. Butcher really does it all. Perhaps what I appreciate the most is whenever I come into the studio, Mr.
Butcher is like, okay, Norita, what do we want to get done today? And I'm always like, I want to finish the project today. Like the building closes at 11. Like, let's let's go to the end. And sometimes we work until I think I think 9 to 9 p.m. for sure. But, all of that is because Mr. Butcher is like, your goals are my goals, and we are going to make that happen. So can we just give a round of applause for Mr.. He's so awesome. We basically matched today to. I also just want to thank both of my parents who are who are here today. My dad is recording over there, and my mom is
laughing and maybe a little embarrassed. But, they're truly the biggest cheerleaders that I could ever ask for. And it means the world to me that whenever I make a video, when I come home, they're like my first views on YouTube. So that means a lot to me. And then I also just want to thank thank the district for allowing the Creative Guild to even exist. You know, it's such a brilliant opportunity for our student producers to bring their creative visions to life, and that really goes a long way. So thank you to you all. And, thank you, Mr.
Butcher. Yeah. Thank you. Questions for narrator from the board. I want to know what's next for you. Where are you headed from here? So right now, I'm thinking about pursuing computer science. The realm of. I am really into science. But my end goal is hopefully to become a physician who is implementing AI and decision making into healthcare. So, yeah. Wonderful. Go ahead. I have a maybe more broader open ended question.
But you know, clearly you've made the most of your time, in the district here and especially probably in the last four years. What do you take away with you? Oh, that's a beautiful question. I think what I've taken away just in terms of, like, life is that in order to have an impact and make a difference, you need to connect with people around you. What I have found the most value in over my past four years is going out into the community,
meeting people who are very different from me and connecting with them over our shared desire to create and spark positive change. We just talked about MLK day, and my favorite part about MLK day is sitting next to these like kindergartners and preschoolers and cutting fleece blankets with them, partly because I'm scared they'll cut themselves. But also because, I think that's what life is about, right? Trying to inspire others to make a difference and be positive. And I think that if you are able to truly inspire people to be optimistic
and look on the bright side of things, then you've you've lived a good life. That's beautiful. Well said, well said. Go ahead. I what questions? So. Narrator. It looks like you do just about anything but everything. You here as a board rep. You do ask me. You were an emcee at, culture show. I mean, I've seen you just about everywhere. One, the first question is, how do you get the time to do all of this? And to what do you tell the students, like the kindergartners that you're talking about?
Are that to figure out, what do you tell them to be able to do the things that you have done like that? Well, as far as time goes, I am I really don't like it when people say they don't have time for things, because I think it's all about making time for the things that you love and are passionate about. I'm a big foodie. I always make time to eat. But I also I love I love making a difference and so I make time for that as well. And so the way I see it is that we have 24 hours in a day, 9 to 10 hours should be for sleep.
The rest rest between school and what you're passionate about. It's all about you. How you divvy that up. And if you truly want to do a bunch of different things, it's all about your time management. Don't procrastinate. Do your homework on time. And not just like all the professional career things you want to do, but also making time for family and friends. And so it's a hard balance. It definitely is. I'm not. I'm by no means perfect. I'm sure my parents can can say it. You can say more about that.
But it's it's a learning process, you know, and if you just continue to do what you love, then you'll find out how to find a balance. And as far as what to say to to those younger students, you know, when I was in kindergarten, in preschool, I wasn't, you know, thinking about everything else that I wanted to do. It was really just take one thing at a time. And that's really how I do things now as well. I mentioned how I took a break from videography, from ninth to 11th grade. But in middle school, that was all I did.
That was all I loved. And so for those younger students, you know, find something you love and just stick to it. And if you do go away from that for a while, there's no like and limit to when you can come back to it. And maybe as a senior or when you're older, you'll come back to it and and grow and develop from it again. So, it's truly just about managing your time and, doing what you love. Wonderful. Very well said. Excellent advice. Yeah. So if you want
to minister for that kind of information. So. Yeah. Of this year. So we're gonna send. Over. Just to remind you, before we bring the mighty athletes to come on up for that picture. Okay, so that ends our recognition for tonight. I'd like to ask, our student athletes to come up, all together for a picture. We're going to take a five minute recess. If you, care to stay for the rest of the meeting, you're invited to do so.
But if you would like to get on with your evening, this would be a good time. For everyone to leave the meeting. So, student athletes, come on up. Come. Should All right, well, thank you everyone. We are going to go ahead and reconvene our meeting. Once. So thank you very much. After such a impactful amount of recognition. Hate to call everybody back, but we have business to to conduct.
So we will continue on. Doctor Mitchell asking any additions or deletions? There are none. Okay. Tonight we do not have public communication on agenda items. We do have some public communication on non agenda items. We don't have a very long meeting tonight. So we will have our speakers speak a little bit later on in the meeting. So with that we are going to get into approval of the items on the general consent agenda. Tonight, our consent agenda consists of minutes of the January 14th,
2025 Board of Education workshop, minutes of the January 21st, 2025 organizational and regular Board of Education meeting. Our December of 2024 Treasurer's Report. Schools closed to open enrollment motion A schools of Choice 105 and 105 C motion and approval of our secondary course description book. May I have a resolution, please? Mr. Hopp, be it therefore resolved, that the Troy Board of Education
takes action to approve items A, B, C, D, E, and F on the consent agenda. Support. We have a resolution by Mister Hobbs supported by miss. Any any discussion on any of these items? Okay. Hearing none. All in favor of approval of the consent agenda, please say yes. Yes. Yes. Opposed? Say no. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. Any personnel tonight? There is none. How about curriculum? None as well. Okay, then we'll move on to business, and we'll ask Mr.
Trudel to come up. Thank you. And good evening, board. Tonight, our agenda for your consideration are five separate items. So go through this quickly. Item number one is the consideration for the athletics phase two project. I'm just going to work kind of mirroring what was done last summer, at both high schools. But we will be reversing kind of a workload as we went over in our workshop. So, as we discussed at the workshop, an RFP was issued for all of these bids, all low bidders,
good responses received good coverage on all of the different categories. So, it is recommended to, approve this as an expenditure of the 2023 Capital Projects Fund. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're being asked to consider a resolution, for approval for expenditures for phase two of our athletic facilities renovation. May I have a motion, please? Miss, any be therefore resolved that the bid for the high school athletic renovations be awarded as follows. And that this amount be approved as an expenditure of the 2023
Capital Projects Fund. Is process tracking and excavating for site work? For $8,315,200. E and L construction Group for general Trades for $1,414,000. Great lakes Hotel supplies for foodservice equipment for the amount of $80,766 CSM mechanical for mechanical work at the in the amount of $348,185.
Innovated energy controls for electrical work in the amount of $803,307. Shop integrated and turf for Synthetic Turf Solutions, Inc. for synthetic turf in the amount of $978,545 with a contingency of 8%, which comes to $955,200, for a total of $12,895,203. Support.
Okay. We have a resolution by miss any supported by, Miss Aleix. Any questions? Discussion on this. Go ahead. I know that we talked about this at the at the workshop. But just to confirm for the because it's, you know, it's a quite a large number. This is, this is within that plan budget that that we had going in. Yeah, there was some modifications and like any projects. So the total budget between this summer's work coming up in that last summer was around 27 million. So between both projects, we're about 180,000 under the budget.
So coming in just for we would like. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor of the resolution, please say yes. Yes. Yes. Opposed? Say no. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. Next one. The next item on the agenda for your consideration relates to moving services. So this would be for moving services this summer for the six elementary schools that are going to be getting, new furniture. So as part of the new furniture process, which is still being finalized right now, this will provide the moving services that are necessary
to move the old furniture out and then bring, the new furniture and, with the installers. So there was a few bids received and the low bid through Premier Relocations LLC, that we have worked with them before. So they're interested vendor. So therefore, I would recommend approval to you tonight. Great. So we're being asked to consider, a resolution to approve expenditures for moving services. May I have a resolution, please? Doctor Melton? Therefore, resolved, that the bid for professional moving services
be awarded to Premier Relocations, LLC in the amount of $246,180, and that this amount be approved as an expenditure of the capital projects funding support. Okay. We have a resolution by Doctor Mountain, supported by Mr. Hoppe. Is there any discussion or questions on this? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor of the resolution, please say yes. Yes. Yes. Opposed? Say no. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. So the next item for consideration relates to network and wireless upgrades throughout the district.
So our technology department was working with Barton Hollow, to look at some infrastructural upgrades relating to our network switches on the back end, as well as all the access points throughout the district. Just to continue to improve our wireless connectivity and the stability of the network. So, people driven network or people driven technology rather was the low bidder. They didn't meet all of the required specifications. We have worked with them before as well. So again, another trusted vendor, that Cisco network, typically does recommend as well.
So, for your consideration, as part of the 2023 Capital Projects Fund. Great. Thank you. We're being asked to consider a resolution for expenditures for our network and wireless project. May I have a resolution, please? Mr. Hoppe, be it therefore resolved that the purchase and implementation of a network and wireless solution from Cisco Networks be awarded to people driven technology in the amount of $2,154,355.01, and that this amount
be approved as an expenditure of the 2023 Capital Projects Fund support. We have a resolution by Mr. Hart supported by Mr. Ma. Any questions discussion on. Let's go ahead and sending it out to support. Is any of this part of the Does any of this come under the E-Rate program at all? Yeah. So the the start of this work won't take place until after April 1st, and that's because of a new window for the E-Rate funding, which would start. So we would fully utilize that allocation. Estimate.
Right now, we're hearing around $500,000 would be contributed towards this project. That would reduce this cost by 500,000 once we get the E-Rate been formally awarded it. Yeah, because we're not into a new window. That net begins April 1st. That's wonderful. Thank you. And I know we discussed this in the workshop. I just for the benefit of the community. Community? How old is this equipment? How many, how old or how that. Well, placing this equipment right now, we do have some switches on the back end that tie everything together.
Between and a 15 years old. But the actual access points themselves, which you might see in here, those are around six years old, going on seven years old. And that's usually the end of the useful life of those types of equipment. Great. Thank you. Okay. So let's vote all those in favor of, the resolution, please say yes. Yes, yes. Opposed? Say no. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries. Then the next item is consideration for the down security system.
So the suspense, system that we have been piloting and two elementary schools, Bemis and Leonard elementaries, for about a year now. So we've gotten good feedback. I know Mr. Holmes had shared with you a document, that contains some good feedback, both positive and constructive feedback. But again, things that are very easy to tweak. And it's good feedback for us to have as we go into the next ten elementary schools. Which is what this bid did pertain to. So, we did issue the bids and, through education, I'm sorry, through,
Bart Mallow and our technology department. We did want to recommend the purchase through VMC Inc. They are the ones that did the other two schools. So we will proceed. Pretty much once this is awarded, they can start pulling wires through all the classrooms and then install the equipment. You know, likely over the next year. So. Okay. Thank you. We're being asked to consider a resolution to approve funding for the purchase of a PA Bell and security system. May I have a resolution, please?
Be it therefore resolved that the purchase of the Epic system be awarded to VMC Inc in the amount of $1,826,553.30, and that this amount be approved as an expenditure of the 2023 Capital Projects Fund support. Okay. We have a resolution by Miss Aleix supported by Mr.. Is there any question discussion comment on this? Go ahead and so much I want to thank you for getting us some feedback. I know when we had a workshop, because this was piloted at two of our elementary schools will now be,
installed in the remaining ten. And we had asked for some, some feedback how you know what the usage look like. So I do appreciate, you know, providing that and, the feedback I think was, you know, from release about 10 to 15, staff and, and teachers and other staff in the elementary schools of, of using the system. So I appreciate that. Okay. Okay. Go ahead. Yeah. My question is regarding can we use any of the security dollars
that we get, since this is considered a painting system to do with the safety and security grants, and I wonder if we could use any of our safety grants for this that it would be eligible to use under the 31 Double-A grant, which does relate to mental health and security. Right now, what we're doing as we're going through at our retreat will actually be going over our our general fund, Second Amendment. As part of that process, we're kind of looking at this post Covid era of funding and how are we going to utilize all these grants to cover a lot of the staffing positions? So we do have our Shield staff as part of this grant already.
It has been since its inception. So if there is any dollars that needs to be spent, this would be an eligible purchase that we could push into that grant. So if I understand it correctly, we are already using up our safety grants for other things. And so this one is being funded by our capital projects. But yeah, you know, the state's intent of 31, it was to really extend at a state level the funding that was there through the federal government during the pandemic, supporting those mental health positions, specifically,
that was the key area that they identified going forward post-pandemic that they wanted to continue to support. So we'll do as much as we can to shift any of those positions into that grant. And then anything that remains, we could then backfill with a purchase like this, this equipment. Wonderful. Thank you. Appreciate. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Hearing none. We will vote on the resolution to purchase the PA Bell and security system. All those in favor, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? Say no. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries.
The final item for your consideration relates to the cafeteria tables. As for what? Before at Martel Elementary, as we did back in October, we purchased similar tables for Leonard Elementary. So likewise, word spread. They want the goodies, too. So, we want to make sure that we have good functioning cafeteria tables in all of our, cafeteria. So, this one specifically relates to Martel. Again, we want with the option that's just a little bit more. But again, the durability of this table, in total for I think this one was 15 tables.
It's about a $5,000 difference in total. So again, a minimal amount that we will likely get a much longer use out of these tables. Okay. Great. So we're being asked to consider, authorizing the purchase of cafeteria tables for Martel. May I have a resolution, please? The center be therefore resolved that the purchase of cafeteria tables be awarded to school specialty in the amount of $39,786.15, and that this amount be approved as an expenditure of the Capital Projects Fund support. Okay.
We have a resolution by Miss Sandler supported by miss. Any, any questions discussion on this okay. Hearing none. Let's vote on the resolution. All in favor please say yes. Yes. Opposed. Say no. Thank you. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Trudeau. Okay, so that concludes business. We're going to now move on to public communication. For non agenda items. We have four speakers tonight on a variety of topics. Again just a reminder that this is an opportunity
for members of the public to address the board. So there will not be a dialog miss. Any will set the timer up. So you have three minutes to speak. So we'd appreciate if you kind of watch your time and conclude your remarks. When your three minutes are up, and, you had an opportunity on your form, but you can also let us know if you would like to have some follow up. Outside of the meeting. Okay. So I'm going to invite our first speaker up, Mr. Joey Colby. And if you state your name, your residence, and
get into your remarks. Hi. My name is Joey Colby Bernhardt. I live at 5125 Shady Creek Drive. I am a clinical social worker. I have a practice in Troy. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight about a very pressing issue that has been affecting many students and teachers in our community, which is the ongoing shortage of ADHD medications like Adderall and, vyvanse. These shortages have made it difficult for children to access the medication that rely on to focus, stay engaged and regulate their emotions,
which as a result, many students who were once able to manage their symptoms are now struggling. In the classroom. This is not their fault, and it is not the fault of the teachers nor the parents. This is something that has been going on for a long time now. But it's creating significant challenges that impact both learning and teaching. Nearly every clinician that I speak with, whether in school, social work, school, psych or private practice sees these same difficulties, around district salt, you know,
everywhere, teachers are doing their best to support students. But the reality is, is that they need more help. This is why I'm urging this board to recognize and acknowledge the impact that these shortages are having, not only on students, but on the educators who work tirelessly to support them. Obviously, I know the board cannot simply fix the Adderall shortage, but my hope is, is that there can be some work done and ensuring that there might be additional classroom aides to help manage student needs. More behavioral staff to assist when students are struggling, additional school
social workers and possibly an additional school psychologist. Expanded access to school based services to provide additional support when medication is unavailable. I think, thing to acknowledge here is, is that medication a student might be able to get medication for a month, but the pharmacy will not have it next month, or they'll have a lower amount, or they'll have to change the medication that they're taking. So if they're taking Vyvanse or they're taking Concerta, they'll be given just regular amphetamines salts. This again, is not effective.
And it does lead to students having issues and learning, as well as having the ability to affect teachers as well. And again, I want to reiterate that it's not the students fault, nor the parents nor the teachers. I know that there is work being done, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak. And I thank the board, as well as the administration for their commitment and time to our educators, students and parents. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay. Our next speaker is Miss Victoria Czapski. Yes. Sorry.
My thought. I don't know if I have napkins. Hi, my name is Victoria Chayefsky. I work for priority waste that I put the priority waste I address down on there. I want first they done for opening your bed. As far as for your waste disposal needs. But I'm here to talk to you about the educational component of it. I'm the environmental specialist, and what I've been doing for the past 11 years is I go out to schools and I teach about sustainability and recycling. It's a pre-K through 12th grade program.
It is based on student comprehension levels. So I meet the students where their needs are. So if I go into an elementary school and I ask them, where does everything go? Once you put to the curb, if they can't answer that, then I know a direction to head into. If they can't answer. I had a different direction with the middle school and high school levels. Again, I take them where they are, but the high school levels. I also include the fact that there's job opportunities. A lot of times the students don't. They only see what they see in front of them, what their parents do, what their teachers do, what their friends parents do.
So I explained to them, as far as sustainability, there's a lot of job opportunities there, but they have to start working at at the high school level. They need the math, they need the science. For example, MSU has US packaging engineering program. You have to apply for that while you're in high school. They also take a small group of people. Western Michigan University also has a similar type program that deals with paper as far as how to create different types of packaging, something that, again, it's a small little program.
It's absolutely free. I have been to schools under JFL, and that's where some of the problems have been coming. Is that I'm no longer with GFL now with priority. So analysts have been in schools in the past. I have been that, Athens High School, speaking to some of the students there. And I also give them additional hints as far as being Michigan Green School, Michigan certified, I know some lot of the teachers ask me questions about what to do with the waste from lunchroom. They asked me what other activities they can do, because some of them
have been doing it for quite some time, and they're looking for new ideas, and that from being in all the different schools I can get different ideas from different areas. I want to, again, thank you for your consideration and I hope you also consider priority. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Our next speaker is, Mr. Ali, a PD, and. Good evening. Oh, yes. And for residential parent. Three weeks ago, the superintendent, along with, three school board members, wasted upwards of $10,000 of taxpayer money
attending a four day conference in DC called Advocacy and Equity Institute. In a nutshell, this was a cabal of woke lefties working overtime to push the Marxist and racist agendas of Dei deep into our schools. For example, one of the speakers urged school board members and administrators to adopt educating for American Democracy roadmap. One of the main goals of this organization, which is spelled out right on its website, is to get administrators and school board members, to, quote,
make diversity, equity and inclusion integral to K through 12 civic in history, education and quote. This is an organization funded by wasteful spending from the Department of Education and promoted by organizations or people paid by the now infamous and corrupt USAID. Not only is our district wasting money on Dei propaganda conferences in DC, but they're also wasting more than $10,000 a month to pay the salary of choice. who works very diligently
to push racist and Marxist Dei propaganda in all our classrooms. She's probably the only employee in the district making a six figure salary with a degree in social justice. What a disgrace. What a joke. The only real experience she had before being hired. Hey mister Hyperion, your comments are needed for mister opinion. And excuse me, Mister, every racist and dangerous propaganda like critical race theory. Any funding that Mister Happy we did, we'd appreciate your comments.
Not be not be directed about employees are Mister happy hit in your comments. You can not be directed towards employees. You can't name employees by name in token name and mister happy idiot. Please. Your comments cannot be directed at employees of the Troy School District. No, your comments cannot be directed at specific employees. The fact doesn't matter. Says it right on the phone. It does matter, I can direct. No, you cannot speak. These are several times nothing. No. Can be stated directly from the website.
Are are the programing on many human rights issues, including critical race theory, Christian nationalism, alternatives to policing? This is what the they consider a white male nationalist. It's a white male that goes to church every Sunday and voted for Trump. And this is the organization Mister uppity and you cannot name staffs by name and public comment. Comrade, can you shut him down at or around know? Okay, your time is up.
The workforce, administrators and teachers, your time is up. Yes it is. No. Please leave the mic off a yes executive. Please leave the mic. I urge to please leave the mic. Please leave the mic. Anything. Please leave the mic. Please leave the mic. Ask parents to request if you want. Please leave the mic. I'm asking for a response from the board members regarding this issue.
You asked members if they can request it and that's what I'm asking you. Response to my please leave the mic. We can have a have a conversation outside, but you know that you should not be calling out names of staff members. During public. Oh no. No, if they are promoting no, no thank you. Mr.. No. I'm sorry. Please. Thank you. Please leave the mic. Please leave the mic. Okay. I'd like to invite up our final.
I'd like to invite up our final speaker of the night, Mr. Jake Van Loon. I don't know, like, I don't need any help to walk for me. Thank you. Hi, Mr. Van loon. Thank you so much for welcoming me to this board meeting. I have two things that I wanted to speak about. I'm a member of a mutual aid group. We operate out of Pontiac, and a lot of our residents have been affected by recent federal actions that are resulting in, people feeling threatened for price action. Generally speaking, we work closely with the community.
So the concerns that I have currently are in Spanish and English. They call them constitutional rights, and they have been reviewed by the lawyers. If anybody has somebody that they love who speaks this language or any other language, we would love to provide cards, to be used in the event of somebody threatened by this action for free as a free resource to the community. Outside of that, I run a company called Empowerment Tutor. We're switching our name to a common education. And the reason for that is that I started Empowerment tutoring in 2019 with the goal of helping kids, who were low income, with math, science.
I mean, you name it, you know, I mean, it's done for these teachers and for me. I was a materials analyst at Castle Laboratories in Auburn Hills and decided, that I could see that the learning loss was a barrier rapidly. And I wanted to make a change in my community. I live in Birmingham, but I spend a lot of time in Pontiac, and I have people that I love in Pontiac from when I live there. Very much. I'm going to university. And as I went further into tutoring, I became involved in afterschool programs through some of their car vendors.
I kind of started they weren't really doing a great job for a lot of the schools. And so I developed 20 programs with my business partner, Norman. Once he has a PhD or he is a candidate for ADHD medication through DePaul University. Our programs, I think, are some of the best in the world, and we just want to share them with Detroit school District. I'd love to see resources with Superintendent Chesky. I have some work and a lot of things. I just want to show you one of our elementary programs very briefly. It's a very fun one.
This is the wonderful world of cardboard. This relates into fields of obviously packaging. But what we do with kids is we teach safety. We have special specialized safety gloves and specialized cutting tools so that they can track, measure, draw and decorate their own life size buildings and things like that out of cardboard. And they work on teams that we call firms to produce these, different projects. Like one of the projects that we do with them is that there's a cardboard fashion show
where they create costumes of different things that they would like out of cardboard, and they provide all of the materials for them. And, the kids have a really, really good time with this, and we make sure that all of our afterschool programs are also connected to grant funding and competition. Thank you so much for my time. I appreciate you, thank you, thank you. Okay. That concludes, public communication. We are going to, move on to other. We have, two formal other items, and then we'll turn it over to our students.
So our first item of other, is, we are being asked by the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, to celebrate the success of the individuals with Disabilities Education Act on its 50th anniversary. So it's been 50 years since it's passed. And as well as to continue to remind the federal government to live up to its promise to, fund Ida, appropriately, Congress has never funded the program higher than 18%.
And this year, funding has been dropped back to 10.3%, costing Michigan roughly $650 million this year alone, in funding. So school boards in Michigan are joining together to pass a resolution in support of the Ida for Funding Act. Signed resolutions will be shared with members of Congress at the K-12 Alliance symposium in April to show both the strong support and need for action on this issue. So we are being asked to, accept and pass the, following resolution.
So may I have a resolution, please? Doctor Middleton whereas public education is a cornerstone of our democracy providing fundamental skills and opportunity to children across the United States. And whereas in the decade following the Great Recession, students across the US lost nearly 600 billion from the state's disinvestment in their public schools. And whereas prior to the Covid 19 pandemic, both state and federal funding for public schools was already failing to meet the critical needs of students across the country. And Whereas, since the Covid 19 pandemic, students have needed
additional academic, social, emotional and mental health needs being met through targeted programing and additional personnel, enhanced professional development opportunities, new technology, as well as critical updates to school facilities. And whereas research has consistently shown that increased education funding positively affects academic performance, increases graduation rates, and impacts future earnings, and whereas the individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Ida was passed in 1975,
the federal government committed to pay 40% of the average pupil per pupil expenditure for special education to ensure that every child with a disability has access to a high quality education. And Whereas the financial pledge for Ida has never been met and is currently funded at approximately 10.7%, leaving a gap of billions of dollars needed for students. And whereas Troy School District is proud to serve a student population that includes 10.69% of students with disabilities,
and whereas when Troy school districts cost to deliver the important services required under Ida are not properly funded by the federal government, it requires us to reallocate money from other programs to make up for it. And whereas the federal underfunding of Ida has negatively impacted the academic opportunities of all students for generations, not just those with disabilities, now, therefore, be it resolved that the Troy School District Board of Education calls on Congress to immediately pass the Ida Full Funding Act
as 2217 dash, H.R. 4519, which would create a ten year mandatory path to fully fund Ida and the Troy's School District Board of Education and calls on the state legislature to provide an adequate, equitable, and sustainable funding increases to districts to mitigate the harm caused by decades of underfunded schools. Support. We have a resolution by Doctor Melton, supported by Miss Alicia. Is there any discussion of this resolution?
Okay, all in favor of the resolution, please say yes. Yes. Opposed? Say no. Okay. Thank you. Motion carries and we will get that sent to the alliance. Our final, formal other, is, for this board to approve, a candidate for the 2025, Michigan Association of School Board. Board of directors election. We had biographical data, for eight years and eight county for six year, eight county, candidates,
that are, looking for, to be elected to a three year term. So there's one seat. We had the opportunity to read the bios of these eight candidates. We had the opportunity to listen to live interviews or taped interviews of four of the candidates. And so we are ready now to, pass a resolution with the candidate that we will send our vote to for MSB. So may I have a resolution? Please
miss any be therefore resolved that the Troy Board of Education hereby cast is ballot for the following candidate to serve on the 2025 Michigan Association of School Boards. Board of directors. Randy Randall Meisner of Fitzgerald Public Schools for region eight for a three year term support. We have a resolution by miss and supported by Mr. Hoppe. Is there any discussion on this? Okay. All those in favor of Randall Meissner as our region eight candidate for MSB board, please say yes.
Yes, yes. Opposed? Say no. Okay. Thank you. Resolution passes. Okay. Now we are ready to hear from our students. Unfortunately, Christian, the town of itch from, Troy College and career was not able to be with us tonight. All right, I'm gonna turn it over to you first to tell us what's going on at east. All right. Good evening, everyone. I hope you're all having a terrific Tuesday with major events and club activities.
It has been a busy month, at Ieast, but last week was our midwinter break, and students and staff enjoyed having the entire week off to relax. We also deeply appreciated the extra time to recharge and stay warm on February 6th and 13th. And I would like to send our thanks to Mother Nature and Miss Kendra Montana. At the beginning of the month, our Southeast and East Asian Student Association
had their third annual Lunar New Year's celebration. Students celebrate Lunar New Year with traditional foods, decorations, games and shows. This year's event even included a ramen eating contest. And things really boiled down to the last noodle. On February 7th, we had the pleasure of welcoming prospective eighth grade students from outside the county to shadow our freshmen and experience life at the IEA.
These students had the chance to ask questions, interact with teachers, and build connections with upperclassmen at the highlight of the day, however, was the grand reveal of our new merch featuring IED stationary, bouncy balls, and other must have items in house happenings. The week of February 10th was our spirit Week, and Valentine's Day was the day of our Winter Olympics. This year's Spirit Week featured barbecue dad versus soccer mom day
party versus slumber party day. At the end of the week, House Kira missed one Winter Olympics and took home the Phoenix Cup for the first time. On the other hand, how Simonds one penny Wars and select the One True Way food pantry as the recipient of our school wide donations. This was also our first Winter Olympics with snow outside, and students loved participating in the snowman building and snowball fight events.
Let's just say that these competitions were Snow Joe. Plays. Powderpuff volleyball practice had begun as well. The big game between the juniors and seniors is scheduled to take place on March 20th, and my sources say that the seniors are predicted to win by a large margin. Lastly, Finnish Honor Society is in full swing with various student led events. So far, there has been a so your own plushie event, bingo event,
and an event where students watched Coco in Spanish while decorating cookies. Because as we all know, sugar is the key ingredient for strong language comprehension and that is all I have with current news from Elise. Thank you. Great. Thank you. I think you might have a career as a stand up comic to learn how to. Play any any questions for an area. All right then we will move on to Adam from Troy. Hi. All right.
Good evening. Members of the board and of the community. I'd like to thank you guys for this opportunity to update the community of Troy happenings. In the recent months. So backtracking to January, the end of the first semester at Troy High School meant saying goodbye to retiring teachers and staff, including Michelle Hakala from the Business department and Mrs. Melissa Kurth from our administration. Since their departure, Mrs. Robles has stepped in as the interim assistant principal for the semester, while Mr. Cooper, Mrs. Walberg and Mrs.
Costas teach in the business department in place of Miss Hackler. On a different note, we have, in light of the loss of Mr. DeSantis from Athens, I would like to express on behalf of Troy High School our unwavering support for the Red Hawk community, as well as for the rest of Troy. No matter how deep the rivalry runs, the Troy class will always be there to support the Red Hawks. In times of grief and of hardship. Moving into February, from February 2nd to February 10th, Troy Coats participated
in a series of fundraising events in order to generate a total donation of $78,500 to the love for the, which he got his foundation established to honor and support the league. Hockey family. The legit hockey family is extremely involved in the district and after undergoing a hardship in early January, we were ecstatic to help out a family in the Troy High community. $78,500. Our total amount is a record donation amount and we were glad to see so many fun events go to court. Go towards such a great cause.
Some highlights included Troy has got talent, power puff, ticket to Skip it and Coinstar, which ran at Troy High, Bullen Park Middle School and Smith Middle School all simultaneously. On the note of Activist Week, our donation recipient from last year on my own will be visiting Troy High School tomorrow to our leadership classes in order to reconnect with impacted individuals and bond with community members looking toward the future. We have our Middle School Leadership Conference on March 8th from 930 to 2:00. Troy High School Leadership and Student Government will host seventh and eighth graders
from Troy High middle schools, which include bake, bowling, Baker and Smith. And this will include a day of leadership training, learning about the high school experience, and exploring Troy High School. If you have students in seventh and eighth grade, I highly recommend attendance. Visit at Troy Heights. Do go and Instagram for more information or ask middle school administrators. Senior Citizen Prom is May 1st. We will be hosting a prom like dance for senior citizens in the community. Dinner, music and dancing will be provided. Please reach out to Troy High, Student Government or myself if interested in attending.
And as always, go goes. Great. Thank thank you Adam. Any questions for Adam? Okay. Congratulations on your successful fundraising. And it's always wonderful when you're supporting someone from your own community. So it's very, very nice. Okay. And finally, Diana, good evening. Members of the board, staff, students and families, thank you for this opportunity to share some recent updates from Athens School. Since the district board meeting was canceled in January, I would like to provide an update on the events that took place in December.
In December, we held our annual students versus staff basketball game where the staff won. But both teams had great moments. Additionally, the girls RedHawks basketball team gave back to the community by adopting three local families for the holiday season season, providing them with gifts and holiday cheer. Avid Student Council supported the Troy Police Department's operations, like organizing our annual gift card drive, which helped over 40 families. Furthermore, student council hosted a ball drive collecting 33 units of blood for the Red cross.
Moving into January, Athens continue to see exciting achievements and events. On Tuesday, January 28th, Athens National Honor Society inducted over 100 new members recognizing their dedication to academic excellence and service. Earlier in the month, on January 14th, Athens hosted the second session of Athens Family University, where over 40 families connected with our building administrator to learn about grades and grading. Looking ahead, the third session will take place on Wednesday, March 5th at 7 p.m..
Our athletic teams also had an outstanding month. The Athens wrestling team secured both a Blue league title and a district championship. Additionally, Steven LaSalle was named district and regional runner up and will compete in the mHSAA state tournament on February 28th and March 1st. The Athens bowling team also had a great session with her season sorry winning the Oakland County Championship, the old AA Red League title and the regional championship. They will compete at state finals this Friday, February 28th.
In addition to ongoing academic and athletic achievements, we have some exciting events coming up. Ninth Grade Curriculum Night will take place on March 19th, providing information to incoming freshmen and their families. And I'm sure most of you are aware that Athens takes great pride in Charity week, and we are thrilled with the success of this year, raising $100,502. And these funds will be donated for the next steps of seniors. Throughout February,
Athens community has come together to honor the memory of Mr. DeSantis during Charity week, we dedicated one of our spirit Days in his honor, allowing students and staff to pay tribute to him by wearing superhero gear, anything Star Wars or comic book theme, or even a quarter zip to show our love and appreciation for him. Additionally, a poster was placed outside of his classroom where students shared their favorite memories and many reasons why he was so loved. And that concludes the latest updates from Athens Athens High School. Thank you again for your time. Great.
Thank you Diana. Okay, we are going to, go on to other from the board. So I'm going to start with you, Stephanie. Do you. We're ready. Yep. But remember the first spot always if that's you get that. Yeah. You get the best. I just want to, recognize and acknowledge the amazing student leadership that continues to be on display every month for here. I'm so impressed with our kids, and it makes me think to like, wow. What?
A path our students have come through. All of these kids were someone's kindergarten student. Yeah, of these kids might have been someone's pre-K student. And it's amazing. And I'd like to extend congratulations to our amazing teachers who have poured into these students as they become the amazing young adults they're headed off to be. And of course, not to ignore at all their parents who continue to pour into them with video recording and as I like to call them, Mama Roxy in front of homes, making sure their kids are honored.
It's it's an honor to be a part of this great community. And I'm so pleased to be a mom. I also want to recognize and acknowledge, the members of our community that will begin celebrating Ramadan on Friday. So we hope that you have a blessed Ramadan and that, it's a good time for you. So thank you. Great. Thank you. The spots. Anything? I forgot we were going this way. This is. I'm not totally prepared, but, I'm just going to keep it short and sweet. I had the opportunity to go to DC to,
ask our legislators to fully fund Ida. So it was not a wasted trip. It was very important to our district, and I stand by that. Moving into the new year, I'm once again very grateful to be part of this board. I'm very excited to be up here. Again, congratulations to our student athletes, all of our teachers. I'm thinking this, we're now at the end of February. I think we're all in the swing of 2025, and I'm looking forward to seeing what
the rest of the school year brings. Great. Thank you, Doctor Melton. I wanted to just recognize that it is career and technical education Month. It is seen that in the district newsletter. Thank you. I have this part is near and dear to my heart. I have two children that have benefited from the career and technical education pathways, at the high school level, which there's many to pick from, but also at the Oakland schools, technical campuses as well.
I was super excited. My oldest, just was hired by Fanuc, no wonder, as a robotics technician. And that started here at at, at Athens High School in a mechanical, mechatronics class. So, these pathways help kids figure out not just what they want to do, but what they don't want to do. So, for example, like business class was a cost accounting. Not so much. But providing kids those opportunities is so important. And I also wanted to recognize the work of of current and previous board members who laid the groundwork for that, by going into classrooms
and getting feedback from students about what was important to them and, and finding out that they really needed that opportunity to have some experiences to help make those decisions. And I also want to thank administration for, putting the the time and money into this, because I think where we put our money and where we put our time tells a lot about what's important to us. And the district created a supervisor of career readiness and technical education, and they hired Mike Monaco for that. Who, couldn't be a better fit.
So we have a person that's really guiding this process from all the way from elementary school through high school. So I just wanted to recognize that and express my appreciation for the for the district's past work in that area. Oh, and one more thing, that I'm super excited about is the career accelerator program. Yes. Leads into that, too. And that is again, stemming from that work that our previous, board members and current board members have done. As well as I know, Christine de Vlado has worked very hard on that, so I'm thankful for that as well.
Thanks. Right. Thank you, Mr. Hop. So I just wanted to call out really quick, my appreciation for, a specific newsletter that the school district actually does an inclusive newsletter. I really enjoy it as a parent, and I just wanted to kind of give props to it. I really think it's a really thoughtful resource that really highlights a lot of the initiatives the school district is doing. And the celebrations within our community. And I appreciate that. It also gives us an opportunity to really, like, deep dive into those celebrations a little bit more and learn up a little bit as a group.
Last month there was information on Martin Luther King Jr. They had a Holocaust Remembrance Day, which included a survivor story, which was really moving. There was also a some great book recommendations on, building a strong community, which was great. This month they had Black History Month, Presidents Day, they had a podcast from Marathon Students Elevating Voices, which was really cool, information on Ramadan, which is coming up soon. Also talking about American Heart Month. So there's a lot of things in this, in this newsletter that I think are important to look at.
And I know it's a lot of hard work to put all of this together. So I personally want to call out Mrs. EMC for doing a lot of this work, because I know it's really hard to put it in a digestible format for everybody. So I appreciate all her work. Work great. Thank you. Lee. So I might be a little more relaying information. I, last week I attended the Government Relations Committee board meeting for the Open County School Board Association. Commissioner Dave Woodward gave a little bit of an update about,
some Oakland County level things. And as they relate to school and school related funding, some things don't necessarily apply to us. Some districts work directly with Oakland County for their school resource officers. That doesn't apply to us in particular. But he did remind me, of an interesting program that Oakland County has. And it's an Acorn to Oak grant program. And I think this this is something that we might be able to put up on our website. There are four, there are four review deadlines.
The next one is coming up March 15th. There's one on June 15th. And there are $1,000 grants for, Oakland County residents aged 8 to 18, and, in four different categories. One is business and entrepreneurial, community impact, educational achievement achievement as well as for extracurricular investment. So I think that's a, you know, a great resource that we can share with our community as well for students, you know, who might be able to
to fulfill some of the requirements. And they're under those. And the good thing is there's, there's for for grant date opportunities during the, during the year, I do also want to say that, I as well attended the Advocacy institute, you know, and it's it's good that we pass the idea for funding act resolution. We spent quite a bit of time in DC, lobbying and talking to all of our, our elected representatives from the state of Michigan. Bipartisan
congresswomen and men, as well as was both of our senators. In the 50 years since the 50 year anniversary of idea and this the individuals with Disabilities Education Act, where we as districts are required to teach and educate all children. The promise was 40% that districts would be reimbursed. 40%. That has never happened. It's gone as high as 18, I think. In the 23, 24 fiscal year for our district,
it was somewhere around 8 to 9%. And so the ask this year, as we talked to, all of the staff and the represented in the senators, in particular, was asking for a hearing. A hearing has never been granted on, the act to fully fund what was promised. And so we spent quite a bit of time, lobbying for that. And I know that's really important to our community, you know, and not only affects
general education, it affects students with disabilities, you know, and it definitely affects when we look at Ela education. And I know that's something of particular importance to our community. So it's, you know, that was one of the main things that was that was discussed during, our time in DC. And then last thing is we have, Ramadan starts this weekend, LED starts next week. So I want to wish all those families, they're celebrating and participating. Those, you know, a happy lent to a happy Ramadan.
Great. Thank you, thank you. Sunny, I'm going to start off by paying my respects to Mr. DeSantis. Who is our Athens teacher? He is. I have a personal connection with him. My daughter had him for as an AP history teacher. She adored him. He's an amazing teacher who deeply cared about the students. Not only the students, fellow teachers and public education and Troy in general. So, he's definitely taken away much way too sooner than, from this world.
But, he definitely poured his heart into the students, and in making sure they all, each and every one of them have learned so my sincere respects to him. I want to congratulate the Athens and the Troy High teams for their charity week. And, an activist week. Great job with the love for the Chicago Foundation as well as the next steps for seniors. Great job. It builds a huge amount of character for all these students to actually do all the work and fundraise for these organizations,
and help, help the ones in need. I also attended the National School Boces Association conference, and in addition to Ida funding, which both of them have spoken about, we've also tried to lobby for many of the title, and Grant funding as well. There's many of those, and we've learned a lot about many changes that are coming so fast and so quickly from the federal government and how that is going to impact us,
our students, our schools, and how we can help every one of us. So it's a great learning exercise. I understand that we do spend some money of school money for that, but I think it's useful, to for all of us, for advocating for our students, for our schools. Definitely mentioned that. Next thing, Black History Month, I want to pay my tribute to generations of black Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship. And all the civic civil rights that we enjoy today are on their shoulders.
And I do appreciate that. I did attend, the college and career fair yesterday. And, the first time I'm attending after Covid, it was amazingly well attended. There was standing room only anywhere. One thing that surprised me is this time we had equal number of colleges as well as careers, as well as a lot of work programs. I would say maybe equal numbers.
Which brings me to the February's the CTE Career Technical Education Month. And so it definitely was a very successful it was standing room only everywhere. And I and I think I want to appreciate Mike Monaco and, who did that? Who else was the one responsible for that? That was mainly Mike. Yeah. Mike. Okay. Wonderful. Nicely done. Two things that I want to bring to attention to the, audience. One is as part of our consent agenda, we did pass, school of choice,
thing where we did for one year. Extend school of choice to about 70 plus students this year, about 77,000 students. And this is a one year thing, but definitely our audience, our, our community should, be involved in the decision making for the future of this choice program or School of Choice program and how our community should proceed for the future, because the number of students are reducing and we need to figure out how to deal with that.
And I also want to bring up, attendance area review committee meetings. There's a lot of attendance, four of them all over March, at four different middle schools. So I really recommend all the parents who are involved who would like to know about it and give their feedback to attend and give their feedback, to the attendance at to us and to the administration as to what their thoughts. And we will definitely consider that. And I wish everybody happy Ramadan and, lunch. Okay. Thank you, Doctor Chesky.
Yeah, just a couple things have been, as usual, already mentioned. But, listen to your point. Yes. Our, attendance review committee meetings, are scheduled to take place. We have four meetings at each of the four middle schools. The first will take place March 6th at Baker. Then March 10th at Boland Park, March 11th at Smith Middle School and March 20th at at Larson Middle School. Our entire community are welcome to any, any one or all of those if they wish. You can get additional information. And the TSD newsletter that just went out this past Friday is all kinds of great information.
Thank you. Mrs. Montante. In that particular newsletter or our, our website, if you didn't catch those, those particular dates. And thank you, Doctor Melton, for mentioning our career accelerator program. We, we have match day. Tomorrow would be a very exciting day over at Troy High in the in the audit or. Excuse me, in the media center. We're going to match, just about about 72 students. A little over 70 students with 36 businesses throughout the Troy community. This is a 20 hour pre internship experience. The numbers grow.
What more than, more than 100% over last year, almost three times the number over last year as well as business partners. So we're excited to see that that program continue to grow as we provide students an opportunity. To extend their learning beyond our classrooms, get into businesses across our community, and see what the world of work is all about. To your point, sometimes, what I the best choice I make is the choice I don't make. And I don't know that until I know better. And so having an opportunity to sit in an office, might remind you that you don't want to do that. You want to.
You want to pursue something else. And so this is a great opportunity. I thank Miss Montante and, Christine de Plato, for their work. Doug Teets as well for their work on, this particular program, March's reading month is right around the corner, next week. And we have some of our buildings kicking that off already this Friday, as well as, next week. Our. While we have some wolves here, they'll be, I'll be there Friday, to, to kick off March's reading month. Friday or, excuse me, Monday morning. It was I'm looking forward to that. So I would encourage all of our, our board members if, if you'd like,
if you haven't already got an invite and you'd like to, be provided an opportunity to, to join in some, marches, reading month activities, please just let Judy know and we'll make sure to get that message out to our buildings. They would love to have. They loved that board members, reading in our classrooms. And so you'll be inundated with opportunities to read in our classrooms across the school district. So certainly where you are more than than welcome, Nancy, I just want to congratulate our Detroit High school orchestra teacher, our triangle Troy High School
Orchestra teacher, Wendy Stuart, who was named the 2025 teacher of the Year by Michigan chapter of American Strings Teachers Association. So congratulations to Wendy. On that, terrific award. Great. Okay, so everybody's taken all of my other, which is the privilege of going last. So all I need to do is remind everybody. First of all, thank you, for your attendance tonight. Our next meeting will be our workshop. Our schedule is a little bit changed in February because of of winter break.
And so we have a meeting next Tuesday, March 4th, which will still be over at the the admin building, starting at 6:00. So people are welcome and encouraged to attend. We also have a, special board workshop on Saturday, March 8th, where we're going to be doing a deep dive on the budget. So I think that's on everyone's calendar. And then our next, our next board meeting.
Would be the 18th. I need to have these calendars in my head. So back at this building, March 18th. So with that, if there is no further business, again, thank you everyone. For the great others. Thank you to our students. Congratulations on all the amazing things that are going on in your buildings. And, we will see everybody next week. Meeting adjourned.