All right. Good evening, everyone. We're going to go ahead and start, our workshop. Oops. It's Amina. Yep. Ayesha's here. Okay. All board members are present. Oh, Amina's not here. Okay. She's coming. Okay. Now we can start. So we are going to do a bit of change to the agenda tonight. First of all, we do have a guest speaker, that is, going to be addressing us. We'll introduce her more formally in a moment. But one of the follow-up items from the last Board workshop was, to get, information, on the new legislation,
PA146 on reading, so that we can understand where that is. So we're going to, let our speaker, educate us and then we'll have some discussion after that. We also have this is a workshop. There is not going to be any decisions made here tonight. It's absolutely critical for the Board to discuss the budget. That is something that, legislatively, we have to get put into place. We've got a lot of issues with budget. So we're going to do our teaching and learning update. We're going to do,
our our discussion of business services and budget, and then we will move into public communication. Some of the discussion, that will happen may also inform, some of the public communication that many of you are here tonight, to share. So with that, Doctor. Machesky, I'm going to turn it over to you. Yes, thank you very much. To introduce our speaker today. Yes. We're very pleased to have Doctor. St. Martin, with us this evening, a director, for, technical assist for the technical assistance center, with MBE. So doctor St. Martin, if you would, please. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for having me.
It's a gift to be here. So as doctor Machesse mentioned, my name is Kim St. Martin, and I am the director for Michigan's MTSS technical assistance center. And I am here, in part because, I did want to write what is now referred to as the Public Act one forty six. So I've I've spent approximately five to six years, in helping to be a part of the legislative, process, if you will, back when it was senate bill eleven seventy three and more to senate bill three
eighty and etcetera, etcetera. So, my goal today is to provide an overview of public act one forty six and certainly to answer questions that you may have. So, Public Act one forty six is it is referred to as the k 12, so kindergarten through twelfth grade literacy slash dyslexia law. And these are bipartisan laws, and it really encompasses public act one forty six and public act one forty seven.
And the reason why I'm tuning in tonight on public act one forty six is because public act one forty six focuses on currently practicing teachers, so teachers who are in service. Public act one forty seven focuses on preservice teachers. Both of these laws are tied together, so they go hand in hand. So that's why that's why you see k 12 literacy slash dyslexia laws, the bipartisan laws because they both go hand in hand. And I think someone just yes.
Is it okay to ask the questions as you're Absolutely. Please. So what are preservice teachers? Can you help me? So these are, teachers in training. So So they are students at universities like University of Michigan, Western Michigan University. So they are teachers, learning how to get your pre service teachers. They're students that are learning how to be teachers. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. And so, I'm focusing on public act one forty six because they are currently practicing teachers. But public act one forty six and one forty seven, they are bipartisan laws,
and they were signed by governor Whitmer on 10/10/2024. And the goal of the k twelve literacy dyslexia laws was to improve reading outcomes for k 12 learners. And the goal was also to impact pre service education as well. So these are frequently referred to as the k 12 literacy dyslexia law. So, some people do say dyslexia law. And I really do gently remind people that these have the k 12 literacy slash
dyslexia law because what you're gonna see in a moment is just referring to them as a dyslexia law is not really accurate. I wouldn't say that that is an accurate way to describe them. And some people forget that the the grade levels span kindergarten through twelfth grade. So I just wanted to to make make a note of that. So let's talk about the components of Public Act one forty six. So Public Act one forty six does encompass what was referred to as read by grade three.
So the formal statute that many of us in education know as read by grade three was twelve eighty f. That's what what it what it was referred to as in statute. So read by grade three is within Public Act one forty six. So some people ask, gosh, is there a separate read by grade three law? The answer is no. It is now within Public Act one forty six. So, it includes read by grade three,
and elements of read by grade three were enhanced or revised. Many of you probably already know that read by grade three, even before Public Act one forty six, was already revised. It it it no longer had included, retention. That that all that happened even before Public Act one forty six was signed into law by our by our governor. But there were some changes to what we refer to as re by grade three once re by grade three was embedded within Public Act one forty six.
And some of those changes are here, on this slide or you you have the hard copy in in front of you. So the acronym IRIP referred to as individualized reading improvement plan. So IGRIPs are still in public act one forty six. They were in read by grade three. However, they span kindergarten through third grade. So that so that is a change that is now in public act one forty six.
They now span kindergarten through third grade. It is no longer required to develop IRIPs for fourth graders. And, Michigan Department of Education, my colleagues at Michigan Department of Education, we are working together to examine some of the language within Public Act one forty six because there is a section of Public Act one forty six that reintroduces the same acronym, the IRIP acronym, IRIP, but it isn't it doesn't stand for individualized or individual reading improvement plan.
It stand it stands for individual reading intervention plan. So same acronym, means something different, and it has raised a lot of question about, wait a minute. Are IRIPs for all students that go all the way up through twelfth grade? And we're working on clarifying some of some of that confusion. And so that is work that is happening right now within Michigan Department of Education. So to be continued. But I just want I want you to know that, in in any district to know,
even in the frequently asked questions that are already on the Michigan Department of Education website, Everyone is aware that that point of confusion exists, and we're working at clarifying some of the terminology. So developing IRIPS though in fourth grade, even though it used to be in read by grade three, that is no longer required in public act one forty six. And that's an important note in that second sub bullet, of of this slide. Public act one forty six does require a level of IRIP information to be reported
to intermediate school districts. So the student level information is de identified, so obviously, you know, preserving student information. So it's de identified. It it is to be provided to intermediate school districts, and then it is sent to Michigan Department of Education. And, again, these are all things that Michigan Department of Education is aware of and are working to figure out the most efficient and effective way to to address those things. Yes. So the ISD is the one who removes the identification,
or is it the district that removes the identification? I well, because it you because the districts because individual schools and districts collect that information, it it would presumably be districts because, you guys pull the information of individual students. And, certainly, having ISDs have access to that information without parental permission certainly not exist. Right. So it would be something that would be de identified, within the districts, the schools in the districts, and that would go to to the ISDs. Yep. It's a very, very good question.
Another notable change is that the term diagnostic assessments. So diagnostic assessment was in the original version of read by grade three, and that term is no longer referenced in public act one forty six. And that does not mean, though, that using data in a diagnostic way isn't still good practice. I mean, I very much when when myself, when I when I work with teachers,
I say we want our educators to be diagnosticians. We want them to use data to be able to improve instruction. But diagnostic data is a type of assessment data. And the, when Public Act one forty six became law, that was no longer a required assessment. So that that that is not it's not in here. And one of the reasons why was because Public Act one forty six, many people confused this law with diagnosing dyslexia.
So the term diagnostic assessment, many people provided feedback and said, well, this means you're diagnosing dyslexia. And that is something that requires very specific expertise, specific steps, not something that a diagnostic assessment, as it is defined, could could could do. And so, in in the Michigan MDE dyslexia handbook, we still talk about the importance of different different types of assessments, and we still give a nod to the importance of diagnostic assessments.
But having, the need to have a list of approved diagnostic assessments, that is not in it's a requirement within public act one forty six. One final point to note of a change that was in read by grade three has been changed in Public Act one forty six is that there's a term referred to as district identified coaches. And that language has now been infused into public act one forty six. So those are the biggest changes,
that used to be things that were in read by grade three. Those are kind of enhancements and things that are now in public act one forty six, that many people may say, they're kinda similar to read by grade three, not the same thing. I wanted to point them out because they have been, they've been we've been feeling a lot of questions about them. I have a so can we go back? Yes. Absolutely. Oh, we'll go back. Hang on. Just gotta figure out which button it was. So I'd like to understand more Can you give me some examples or give us
some examples of what these diagnostic assessments were that were previously referenced and are no longer referenced? And I guess my question is, you know, and and we've been we talk a lot about data and what kind of data we'll be providing, and so it's interesting that that this law might go, in some instances, towards less data. So, one, I'd like some examples of what those are, and reference and required are two different things. So explain that for me. Absolutely. So,
some so currently, right now, you could actually go to Michigan Department of Education's website, and you could pull up a list of what's referred to as extensive assessments. That term, extensive assessments, was categorized was a term that was used for diagnostic assessments, meaning they give you a more extensive information about students. So I'm gonna I'm gonna give you a name of one. Okay. Okay? DIBELS deep. It goes it goes DIBELS is the name of the product. It goes deeper into understanding, reasons for why students may not be able to,
are not being able to, blend and segment the sounds they're hearing in words, for example. And so, there's a series of their of assessments. Many diagnostic assessments, can can still be used, but what what happens though is that they don't have a lot of rely they're not necessarily reliable and valid measures. So I'm gonna get statistical for a moment, but some of the technical adequacy behind these measures are there. They have been studied enough to be able to say that if we were to
administer them, they are reliable, they're valid, and, frankly, you could use other sources of data to get some similar information. And so, there are still teachers, regardless of whether it's on an approved list or not, still will say, we need more information about a student. You could still administer an assessment, but it wouldn't necessarily have to be an assessment that is administered for every student Okay. Who is reading, at a level below grade level expectations.
That help answer your question? Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for your question. So but keeping with the same topic of assessment, so there are some assessment requirements in Public Act one forty six. So they are broken up into kindergarten through third grade and, broken up then into fourth through twelfth grade. So for k through three, public act one forty six, in in the law says that there needs to be reliable and valid screening and progress monitoring assessments.
And it's and the law specifically outlines the assessment measures that need to be used to assess for and the term I'm gonna gonna define shortly is characteristics of dyslexia. So what you see on this slide are the types of things that the screening and progress monitoring assessments need to be equipped to assess for. Meaning awareness, letter sound correspondences. And all of these things that you see up here,
all these things, the newest one is the one in bold. So, the one in bold is pretty new related to public act one forty six. It's referred to as rapid automized naming. And rapid automized naming is a very specific assessment that measures, dyslexia characteristics. So it is looks at processing speed. So individual students' cognitive processing speed, and it's done in a way by which students are naming known colors,
objects, letters, words. Now the reason why it ranges from objects to colors, letters of words because if you've got a student young enough who doesn't yet know letters, asking them to name letters isn't necessarily an indicator of their processing speed. It could be an indicator they may not know letters yet. But the assessment is timed, but it is there is, we don't want teachers teaching kids, rapid automized naming. It is just an indicator their processing speed,
which when I get to the definition of dyslexia in a moment, I'm gonna help I'm gonna try to connect the dots and and explain this better. In MDE's dyslexia handbook, we do talk about the utility of rapid automized naming. It is an indicator of processing speed, and that could give us more information about if you've got a learner whose rapid automized naming assessment data is indicating that they there is there's there could be, they could be at risk. It could be an indicator that there are dyslexia characteristics and that it could help
give more information to figure out what we may need to do to intensify instruction. But it doesn't have any instructional utility, meaning, I had a teacher say, well, what should I do? Should I give flashcards and have kids just name objects? It's like, well, that that's there isn't instructional utility for that. I mean, your ability to process information, that is neurobiological. This that's there's not necessarily anything that I can do to show you pictures of
things that is going to improve that. And so our Michigan Department of Education handbook does talk about that, and that is something that I just want wanted to be transparent question regarding that. Yeah. Does that account for ELL students who may not be able to name the object in English in a rapid manner? There actually is a whole other section in here specific to English learners. So there is a section in the read by grade three revisions, in this section,
there was an enhancement done specifically for English learners. So the previous version of read by grade three did not take into account language proficiency. So the edits to read by grade three did include a language proficiency examination, like like an assessment. Like, the the WIDA is a very common language proficiency assessment. And so the WIDA, if a student has a certain score on a language proficiency exam, they would be exempt
from any type of dyslexia characteristic, like, screening because the the function of their data is because of language proficiency. So we we we would have to take that into consideration. And so that was one of the enhancements, when elements of read by grade three were revised and integrated into public act one forty six? That's a really good question. And, Michigan Department of Education is in the process of, of creating the assessment review team,
and perspectives on that team include English learner perspectives so that we could ensure that we have, the right voices and perspectives to to attend to English learn learner needs. It's a great question. I have a question. Yes. So I'm just wondering who you're talking about assessing these students. Is this on each teacher? Are there individual screeners? Are there specialized screeners? Like, how does this work? Yes. So simple. There is going to be,
what you'll see towards the end, but I'll give the big big reveal now. The big reveal now is January first of twenty twenty six. Michigan Department of Education is, required to release an approved list for, screeners and progress monitoring assessments. Now the, there is, there's flexibility across districts in how how students are screened and how that how that works. So, for example,
in some of the districts that I have the gift of working with, some of them use an assessment, team. As it like a sweep team for lack of a better term. Some do have teachers who are who even are a part of that assessment team. So assessment team comes in, teacher is a part of that assessment team. They divide up the kids, so it's done pretty quickly. So there are account there are it is a district decision on how to ensure
that this this assessment data can be collected. And I am gonna talk about what coaches are also responsible for, participating in because coaches being a part of that process, I also see very, very pretty. So simplify for this for me one more time. So is this law requiring each district to have a specific screener? Yes. You know, I I hear you saying, like, there's flexibility, of how districts are going to implement this. But it is there under this law, is there going to be a requirement for each district to have x amount of
screeners or teachers being trained? Like, say I I don't even know how it would work in Troy. Hey. We're looking for screeners. Who wants to volunteer? Or is there a criteria for these teachers? So there was already a requirement in read by grade three for a screener. Mhmm. Yes. For a screener and for diagnostic assessments. That was already happening for, k three. Mhmm. And so, yes, staff is already a requirement, and, Michigan Department of Education has, still has up the the approved list. Mhmm.
There will be a list for screening and approved screening and progress monitoring assessments that districts can choose from. And then it would be, it would be up to the district to go through the review and selection process to choose the assessment that would fit their context and ensure that individuals have the appropriate professional learning and to ensure that people are appropriately trained to administer and score. Yeah. Fourth through twelfth grade is a little bit of a different situation. So one of the biggest misunderstandings of fourth through twelfth grade is that some people
one of the biggest misconceptions was that all students from kindergarten through twelfth grade were going to be screened and have their, progress monitored, and that that is not true. So when students in grades fourth, through fourth through twelfth grade, only adolescents who demonstrate any of the following characteristics that you see on this slide, only those students, would you need to to dig dig deeper. And so you may have students that,
already have, are not doing well on district approved, reading assessments, English language arts, for example. They may have a reading deficiency. There are a number of students, especially when you get into and there are hundreds of students in the middle school and the high school. And so if you think about this as they cast the net, we we do not want to assess kids that we do not need to assess. If you have existing data Okay. We should not we we should move move on. We should only focus on the kids in which we we believe that there is
something that we need to be we need to see if there is intervention needed. Kim, can I ask a question then about K through three? So every child gets assessed at kindergarten, but if they don't need to be assessed the next year, does everybody have to be assessed every year? Three times a year. Three times a year. Even if a child is demonstrating proficiency in reading? Three times a year. And, and I know that within the Michigan Department of Education and frequently asked questions,
we do address that. The threshold does does increase. You know, as students the there are concrete examples where you may have a kindergartner who could look as as though he or she is where they need to be at the middle of kindergarten. And then by the end of kindergarten or certainly by the middle of first grade, without the ongoing screening, all of a sudden it's like, woah. What has happened? Because the expectation does shift over time. Okay. And so,
but the goal of this is to screening should be quick, efficient. It it it should not be a laborious, task that is that I mean, it and this is where the list and doing a thoughtful review and selection process. And that is frankly why when we think about diagnostic assessment, diagnostic assessments take a long time. So to do a diagnostic assessment on every single learner, if you don't need that type of information is, in my opinion,
not a good use of time. I'd rather spend that time teaching. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, that's a really, really good good question. How long does an hour screening take? Depends on the grade level. And I could I mean, I don't wanna I don't wanna misspeak. Depends on the grade level and the time of year. Because if I am a kindergartner at the beginning of the year oh gosh. I'm gonna I'm gonna be guessing. We won't wait until Yeah. Twenty minutes. Yeah. Just give us one Twenty minutes, two hours. No. No. No. It's definitely not two hours. I I would say it it could take it could take That's a little bit.
Fifteen, twenty minutes. I don't know. I don't think it's too long. But okay. Doctor McCheskey, hold me to I will get the answer. So Thank you. You have because I really don't wanna misspeak, but that comes up a lot. And I do want it also varies based on the type of assessment based on the publisher. And so different different publishers have different assessments, and they have they have different administration and scoring protocols. And so, like, what I may say for one assessment may take more time or less time based on another assessment.
But I promise I am gonna get a couple of examples for for you guys if if that's fair. Yeah. And I Thank you. I still have a couple more questions about the k through three. It's slide number five, the, the assessment requirements. And I know you you went a little bit more into detail about the rapid auto line naming. Yes. But there's a list of others on there as well. And so did those others previously exist in the current law? And is that why they're not highlighted or bolded?
Yeah. So So so I think what I'm trying to get at, you know, and and I'm not, I'm not a teacher. I'm not an educator. So so, teaching kids how to read at that level is out of, you know, my wheelhouse. But, I do wanna understand, because this is for us. I think this is also information that is for the community as well. And so I think sometimes there's this sense that, everything we're doing now or that we've been required to do now is somehow, and this is not to say that there's not improvements that our district is always
looking to make, but there's a sense of there is what is now that's all gonna go away. It's all bad. And what's coming is all something completely do new that we are not doing. And so I just and and I didn't and I'm asking this because I didn't honestly know. So everything on that list is not something brand new that we're not already required to do. I wouldn't say that. What was in read by grade three was the so read by grade three did not include any definitions.
It didn't. Okay. So, like, if you were to open up the original and I don't even think I have the original copy. If you were to if if I were to pull the original 12 e d f and go to the back of the of the wall like, I could give you PA one forty six right now. And if you go to the back of PA one forty six, you're gonna see definitions. And if you go to screening Okay. You're gonna see what's on there. If, if you were to go to read by grade three and go to the in what go to the back where you would expect definitions, you wouldn't have you would not have seen robust definitions.
What you would have seen was, it was commonly referred to as the five big ideas of reading, which included phonemic awareness. So you see phonemic awareness up there. You would have seen alphabet principle or phonics. You would have seen fluencies. You see oral passage reading fluency. Yeah. June has seen all those words where you would have seen fluency. You would have seen comprehension. You would have seen vocabulary. You don't see vocabulary up there. So this, Public Act one forty six, does spell out these, what is in a screening assessment a lot differently.
However, many people, if you look at the list of of assessments that were on the approved list for Michigan Department of Education, many of those assessments on the list had all of these things, all the the bullets here except for, I mean, rapid automized naming wasn't overtly named. Okay. But some of those publishers, the vendors of the assessments added, rapid automized name naming to their assessment suite. And even some of the other assessments on that list would have done letter sound correspondences as well or letter naming.
They would have done nonsense word reading. So this is not and I think what I'm trying to get at is is an understanding of this is it's things may be more defined, a little narrower, but it's not necessarily changing everything that has been before or that or that individual districts have necessarily already been following because of the prior law. For I would say now again, knowing I've only had a few conversations Yeah. With doctor Chesky, but, for some districts,
no. They're like, we've been like, this is not very different for what we've been doing. For others, based on some of the other things that you see, some may say, oh, this could be different. I mean, again, that's where I don't have the full context. No. No. No. Of course. But it's it's not necessarily all new. Some things might just be defined a little bit better, but some of these requirements did exist in the prior law. Yeah. Okay. It's a really, really good question. Okay. So the assessment requirements for fourth to twelfth grade,
the whole purpose of why we would be wanting to assess fourth to twelfth graders, the big idea is even with read by grade three, the the truth is I mean, I'm gonna be really candid and transparent with you guys. Early intervention is is probably one of the biggest bangs for the buck. I mean, it is true. The truth is, though, we have we have kids beyond who have passed their grade that are struggling to read. And a lot of the work that I do now is frankly with adolescents in
middle school and high school. And so we we do we have to do something for our kids beyond third grade. So but fourth through twelfth grade is really about getting those learners additional reading support. So the need to screen them only if they demonstrate any of those bullets, you know, like, they have a reading deficiency, they have some type of data that indicates, like like, ELA course performance data seems to be lacking.
Only if then we have to collect additional data really for the purpose of getting them access to some intervention, at the secondary level. K? And then if you have learners at the secondary level who need access to intervention, at that point, we would want to three times a year to say, okay. Are we moving the needle? Are we are we are we working at accelerating their their reading outcomes? So I do wanna define what we mean by dyslexia. The reason why I'm defining it is because the one of the biggest misconceptions
of PA one forty six is that this was about this was about this diagnosing dyslexia, and it's not. But I wanna define it because the term that is pervasive within public act one forty six is dyslexia characteristics. So I can't really talk about dyslexia characteristics if I don't define what dyslexia is. So I'm defining what dyslexia is. And dyslexia is and this is taken right out of public f one forty six. So dyslexia means both of the following.
So both of the following. So it's a specific learning disorder. So dyslexia is in the, diagnostic statistical manual fifth edition, DSM five. It is a learning disorder. And I say that because depending upon the space and place in which you're situated, there are some people who say dyslexia does not exist. I would not feel comfortable saying that. It is in the DSM five. It is in the DSM five. It is I I I have with me here the dear colleague letter from the
US Department of Education that acknowledges that dyslexia can be something that can be written into IEPs. Even the final section of the MDE dyslexia handbook, we do talk about how how students, where dyslexia can be situated regarding special education referrals. In the book, learning disorders, it is chapter six is called word level reading disability, in parentheses is dyslexia. So I wanna be very candid.
It is a specific learning disorder, and it's neurobiological. So meaning it impacts impacts the brain, actually the left hemisphere of the brain. And it is characterized by difficulties with accurate or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding skills. And this is typically results from a deficit in a term that we refer to as the phonological component of language, and I'm gonna explain what that means in just a minute. And it's often unexpected. So we wouldn't expect there to be a difficulty in relationship to their other cognitive
abilities because they've whoops. Because they've been provided effective classroom instruction. Decoding with spelling because they've been they've been provided effective classroom instruction. They've been provided intervention to be able to address these issues. But the second component of dyslexia is is also true. This it is a specific learning disorder, and it also included includes secondary consequences. And those secondary consequences are things like problems with reading comprehension,
reduced reading experiences. And those reduced reading experiences and difficulties in understanding what is read, that leads to, impeding your growth in vocabulary, and it also can lead to social, emotional, behavioral difficulties. And so, we do have some some students, even as adults, if we don't feel comfortable, we don't feel successful in doing something, we tend to escape or avoid what we do not feel comfortable doing. And so we so it can lead to,
social, emotional, behavioral difficulties. So this is the definition of dyslexia that's in public act one forty six. Kim, is it a spectrum disorder, or is it kind of an all or none? I mean, you either have it or you don't, or are there varying degrees? So that's a yeah. So it there's actual it is a continuum that ranges from mild, mild to more profound and severe difficulty. So it is kinda along a continuum. Mhmm. And, one of the resources that I've left you guys with in in one of the last slides, next school year,
I'm gonna, the Michigan MTSS Technical Assistance Center is actually gonna be hosting a k twelve literacy dyslexia research network where doctor Sharon Vaughn and others are gonna come. And we're actually gonna try to unpack this this continuum Mhmm. That ranges from mild to more profound, significant and persistent difficulties. And so, yes, there is a there is a range that we certainly need need to unpack, and we need teachers and coaches and others to understand. Mhmm. It's a great great question.
But the characteristics of dyslexia actually, I pulled a couple of examples. But in Michigan Department of Education's dyslexia handbook, page 15, which is table one, includes dyslexia characteristics that range from preschool all the way through twelfth grade. So I've given you a sample of them for k three, on slide 11. And then I've also included a sample of them that would range from fourth through twelfth grade. So it certainly is not the complete list. If you were to look at table one on page 15 of the MBE dyslexia
handbook, you would see the full full range of them. And these are dyslexia characteristics that may it may is emphasized. May, may be indicators, characteristics of dyslexia. Because, certainly, just because, for example, stuttering is a preschool indicator, a characteristic of dyslexia. And I myself, my son Mason was a he stuttered, and he he certainly doesn't have, any characteristics of dyslexia. He is a he's a, above average reader. So may these may be characteristics of dyslexia.
Multi tiered system of support is also included in this, in the public act one forty six. And so it outlines what tier one, which is classroom instruction for for all students. This includes students with disabilities, so all means all. And it outlines, what what tier one curriculum resources should include. And it and this is where the k three, you know, individual reading improvement plan shows up. And this is where, the the the other acronym that we know is a point of confusion shows up.
It's that last bull bullet. It's the term individual reading inter intervention plan. And, again, we know that that's a point of confusion, and it's something that we, my colleagues at Michigan Department of Education, are working on clarifying. The other point that is made here is that, tier tier one and intervention, we talk about a code emphasis instructional approach. And this and and this is a code emphasis instructional approach means direct and explicit instruction on the code system of English.
And it's at the sound, syllable, morpheme, and word level. A lot of people, I mean, including myself, I mean, I just never learned this when I was in college. But if, you know, the fact that we have 44 sounds in the English language, we have 26 letters of the alphabet. But in in actuality, the, there are about I've seen a study of about over a thousand different ways in which you can combine the 26 letters of the alphabet that could actually, represent the 44 sounds in the English language.
And even something like morphemes. Morphemes are, are are units of meaning. So even when I say cats, these at the end of cats, that s, that means something. That means plural. It means more than one. And so, so our language is fascinating, and a lot of people assume that the English language is really complex. It's hard to understand. And the reality is is that we can teach kids that there is a logic behind the English language. And so the code system understanding the code is something that is going to help
prevent and intervene to be able to help, address some of the learners that are on that, continuum of mild to more complex severe consequences of of, characteristics of dyslexia. So code emphasis instructional approach is something that we that we have, that is in public x one forty six. So is the term the science of reading, and that appears. And I wanna just be really, really honest about what it is and what it's not. The next slide is gonna talk about what it's not.
I wanna talk about what it what it is. So the science of reading is a large body of scientifically based research. And so these are studies that are studies that have a high likelihood. Now I'm gonna get real technical. These are things that are like randomized control trial, quasi experimental studies. These are things that have demonstrated outcomes, that are going to improve reading and writing outcomes. They don't happen by chance. But the science of reading,
these are things that have research that's been conducted over fifty years. It includes studies that have occurred in multiple languages, not just English. And it really means that there's a substantial body of evidence to inform how proficient reading develops, how writing develops, and why some some individuals have difficulty learning how to read, learning how to write, and how we can most effectively assess and be able to teach to improve reading and writing. But here's what it's not.
It is not just a philosophy. It's not a fad, a trend, a new idea for I'm gonna age myself. I mean, I I mean, I'm 48. I've got readers now because I it's hard for me to see. But it used to be called scientifically based reading research. SBRR used to be the term back in, like, the early two thousands. This is not something that is, like, brand new. Even, so this is not a new idea. This is this is something this is also not a political agenda. I've heard people talk about it as a political agenda. It's not a one size fits all approach.
I've read articles where people think this is just about phonics. This is not just about phonics. The science of reading, there are studies, scientifically based studies that have that have been conducted that talk about, how kids can most effectively comprehend, what they read and how writing and reading are reciprocal and how writing improves comprehension. So there are a lot of studies that don't just talk about phonics. And so I wanna be very, very transparent about that,
what it is and what it's not. This is the piece that I that I also wanna point out. Section 23 c subsection three a through e is, shows up in tier one, which is classroom instruction and intervention. And it says the instructional methods and curriculum resources described in the subparagraph must not include instructional methods or curriculum resources that minimize the importance of primarily using letter sound information to decode or recognize unknown words.
And so including but not limited to any of the following. So the following are eighth a through e. Prompting, our students to guess unknown words using pictures and illustrations, skipping over an unknown word, identifying only the first sound and guessing, memorizing a word in its written form, using predictable text. Now I will say using context clues. So if I am looking at, at one of those if I'm using context clues, for example,
I would use context clues to be able to understand, define words, and make meaning of what I'm reading. That is a strategy that I actually use with adolescents when they are in discipline specific text and the teacher's not there and we're not providing teacher directed instruction on vocabulary. That is appropriate. But when we are when we when we have the regions of the left hemisphere of our brain that are responsible for reading, all three regions have to work together. So we we we can't have kids guessing words in lieu of teaching them the
code. They have to understand the sounds of our language and how those sounds come together with the let the letters and letter combinations, and we've got to to give them the practice in being able to read words that include those letter sound combinations. So this is this is very, very important, and it's going to prevent, it's gonna prevent reading difficulties, and it's going to help be able to intervene and ensure that our student we can accelerate the re reading outcomes. Can we go back to that for a second? Yes.
I have a question. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the lawyer that I am. So there's that entire last part. So just understand the promotion is that or the goal is that a through e are not the primary mode of identifying or reading a word, but those a through e are not prohibited. Correct? Right? Because it says, unless such instructional methods and curriculum resources are being used to confirm the meaning of unknown words after decoding has been attempted. So that's just to confirm the meaning of the words.
Right. So so when so these four things would not be used in lieu of teaching kids some like, actually using a code emphasis approach. So this would go hand in hand with the code emphasis instructional approach Okay. That you see right here. So, yep, that is so this is something that is, that when when you asked me, I I forgot who asked. Someone asked the question about, is this I think it it was you. Is this something that we're already doing? And I said, well, it it depends.
Some districts would say, yeah. We're like, this is right in alignment with what we've already been doing. This could be the section where some say, this may be something that we have to, do some digging, and we may have to And and the reason that I the reason that I that I ask, right, because when it says that these are things that must not must not be included, people see them not included and then just see a through e. And so, you know, as you know, clearly, our district is other districts will be reviewing our reading curriculum and, you know,
seeing what changes need to be made. But I bring that up because if people see the must not include and see a through e and then their child comes home and is using these other things to make meaning of a word, then, you know, people need to understand that some of these things are not it's not must not be included at all. Right? There's a, it's a it's a it it's a finer does that make sense? Because people can see must not include, and then they just see that a through e is not a part of reading
at all. Whereas in fact, it might not be part of learning how to read a particular word, but it can be part of reading in the context of understanding and making meaning. So I I you know? That that was a little bit of a concern that I have because without your explanation, I looked at b, and I thought that's a valid strategy. I mean, I still read that way. Yeah. And so it there's some and I didn't get that from reading that paragraph. So it's yeah. I'm a little concerned in that,
you know, to Amina's point. We don't want people confused that what are really valid strategies for content understand for comprehension, are being precluded. I mean, what would be a real bad consequence of this legislation is that we can sound out words, but we're clueless as to what we're kids are reading. And one of the things that I give you guys so much credit for and is to even have this type of a of would you call it a work session or a work Workshop.
Workshop. Yes. Because these are the types of conversations that need to be had. Because, so I could I could show you a, institute for education science practice guide. It's a research supported document that talks about how to help how fourth through fourth through ninth graders read. Recommendation three is about comprehension. One of the strategies does talk about vocabulary and talks about comprehension. And it does talk about kids using the surrounding context to be able to define unknown words.
So in the context of defining an unknown word for vocabulary, that is appropriate. And one of the, doctor Sharon Vaughn, who's going to be doing the, helping to lead the k twelve literacy research network next year, one of the topics is gonna be misuses of the signs of reading. And there are some folks that don't have, that last part. If you're looking at where it says, but not limited to limited to any of the following unless such instructional methods and
curriculum resources are being used to confirm the meaning of unknown words after decoding has been attempted. There are several states that don't include that caveat, and there are people who are misunderstanding and saying, well, but but if but if I really am reading something and I don't know if I've read if I've decoded the word correctly, I do need to use surrounding context to really be able to say, is this making sense? Am I actually defining the word? Now I will say, as a former teacher my myself,
I am gonna totally date myself. But I used to I used to use something, I used to use the four blocks method, and I used to use something called guess the covered word. And this is back in the transparency days where they had colored transparencies, and they just had invented the little Post it notes. But, I mean, I used to have to put I did a picture walk, and I and I taught through grade. And I had to cover the the bolded word, and we used to core read the passage and over and we used to say
blank over the covered word. And I took the Visa v pen, marker and put the the words that they guessed, and I would expose the letter, and I will cross off the guesses that were not right. We would expose the letter, cross off the guesses that were not right until we finally got to the correct word. And that was being done instead of teaching them the code. And that was not an like, that's not skipping over an unknown word to use the meaning of the passage.
Like, that like, I shouldn't have been doing that, honestly. Like, I should have taught them the code. I should have taught them I I was using guess the cover word because I really wasn't teaching them the sounds and connecting the phonemes, the sounds of our language to the the the graphemes, the letter letter sound combinations. And I my my mantra is know better, do better, and there are things that I wish I had do overs. That's one of them. And and there's certainly others, but you're right. There that be,
there's a time and a place where that has to be done Mhmm. To understand what you're what you're reading. Yes. So you just update because, again, I I go back to sorry I would tell today. That's okay. The vast majority or a a lot of people I don't wanna say vast majority. Not everybody will sit and read the headline the headline. Right? The the the, I I the the the sentence and then read all of it very carefully, they will see must not include a through e, and they're gonna think that a through e is never appropriate when we're teaching kids
to read. So I think it is very important for people to understand even after we as a district update and make whatever changes we need to to comply with the new law, a through e will still exist because if people get the sense of that a through e cannot exist at all because this is it must not include in really big letters, they're gonna get the sense of it can't be there at all. So I think I think that's very important to figure out how to, you know especially when it's being presented. And we're being taped today, so this is gonna be, you know, people are gonna be watching this at home.
It's very important for people to understand that must not include has a caveat in there. So a through e is not, you know, prohibited as a part of any reading curriculum. And it's after decoding has been attempted. Yeah. Right. So we have to decode. Yep. Yep. We have to attempt to question for you. Yes. So you were a great teacher, I'm assuming, and you've taught that method. And you've taught No better do better. No better do better. I get that. But all the students that you have taught are doing great, I assume, right now? Well,
I I mean, I wish I could go back and keep track of what thirty two thirty two is. There are there are many ways Yeah. To peel an orange or to teach, I'm assuming. Sometimes I feel like these type of prescriptive laws can make it difficult. Just let me know. Yeah. So there are the final few slides. So there are things that Michigan Department of Education is responsible for for doing. So MDE is responsible for defining, providing a coaching model. And that includes expanding the coaching model to include grades four through 12.
Because currently, the coaching model in, was required for read by grade three. So read by grade three did include the coaching model for for, grade for actually pre k through grade. And we are also updating the assessment list. Again, 01/01/2026 is the is the date circle on the calendar. And January first of twenty twenty six is the date again. And that's when the the list of evidence based tier one reading curricula, and materials will be published as well.
And Michigan Department of Education is also responsible for developing technical assistance. And the technical assistance and, again, there's a lot more, you know, words than what I have here on the slide, but the gist is, how to select and use the assessments. So how, so how to carefully select screening assessments, progress monitoring assessments. It's technical assistance in structured literacy. That's another term that is defined within public act one forty six. Technical assistance in evidence based instructional methods and curriculum materials and understanding dyslexia.
So I said earlier that we would be, you know, to, doctor Phil Parch. Did I hear from make sure I got your last name correct? Yeah. We would be providing next year some professional learning in understanding that that continuum of mild to severe, profound difficulties in dyslexia. That's an example of further understanding dyslexia. So those are some of the Michigan Department of Education responsibilities. So questions. What I mean, we've been doing questions all throughout, but what additional questions do you guys have for me? Yeah. So I, so we've I would say even over the,
last six months, we've we've gotten questions and some feedback from the community of the new law has been passed, why haven't we been implemented the changes? And so I just wanna make it then a clear right. So an official list of approved assessments has not been released yet. No. It has not. Okay. And there's not been a published list of of of curriculum that that is recommended. So the, not for Public Act one forty six. So yesterday, the,
section 35 m as in Matthew, that, there were three lists that were three rankings list that were released. Now 35 m is out of state aid, and that is $87,000,000. It's a it's a competitive grant competition. And the rankings list were for tier one early elementary curriculum materials, intervention, and professional development. K? I actually have those printed here with with me.
Now just know, state aid, our our state budget went into effect officially October 1. In the very the slide that I went over, public act one forty six was signed into law by governor Whitmer February. So state aid was already in effect. Section 35 m was already written. Many people are getting the list the the rankings lists that were just released yesterday, they're thinking that yesterday's lists are one and the same as public act one forty
six. And that's not that's really not not the case. And so I want I wanna be clear about that. February is when the the tier one class wide elementary reading curriculum list, needs to be released for public act one forty six. And that is the same date when the assessment list for screening and progress monitoring assessments needs to be, released. For districts who want to apply for the some of the $87,000,000
that are a part of section 35 m funds, the application for those funds that's open now, is it's available via neck Nexus, and people can go online, to be able to access. There's even a nice, YouTube tutorial on how to how to navigate the list and how to apply for for funding. Sorry. I To unmute. Go ahead. I was I have a question about that. So is it, like does it make sense for a district to apply, like, for this 35 n money if the things on that list might not be the
same things on the PA one forty six list? Or is there some sort of assumption that probably they will be or no? Yeah. So I certainly don't wanna speak for my colleagues at Michigan Department of of Education because, doctor Jennifer Sailor and miss Demisha Wells Smith are not here. But, so I would encourage people to speak to directly communicate with them. But it has been communicated that the things that are on the tier one, list And, those things that are currently on the section 35 m list will also appear on
public act one forty six. However, there needs to be, another process by which, additional vendors can submit to have things. Because, I mean, let's be honest. Like, not every vendor perhaps submitted or or or desired to to submit. And so, but I but I do not want to misrepresent my colleagues at Michigan Department of Education. So it is possible that that vendors and approved assessments and curriculum may appear in 2026 that are not a part of the approved training under a 35 m?
There are no assessments on 35 m. So, like, so the assessment list that I'm referring to, 01/01/2026 per one PA one forty six, that is not a part of 35 m. So there is no training available under 35 m for assessments that may appear on the list in January of twenty twenty six? No. There's not. Now I I say that, now what will I think confuse people is that, when I look at the professional development list,
one of the, one of the, one of the, you know I we're we call them partners. Even though some people may call them vendors, we call them partners. But NWEA has a science of reading literacy suite. So it's a professional learning series that's on science of reading. Even though they, you know, one of the things that they do publish is our assessments, but this is this is like, they're on this professional development list, but not for assessments. This is for professional learning. And the reason I ask this question is because we've we've been asked and received
comments, and it appears more as of, you know, as of 10/01/2024, it's all been decided, and we as a district are not making use of things that are already clearly spelled out. And so the information you're pro providing is that there are certain things that are a part of this law that have not been clearly spelled out and will not be spelled out until January of twenty twenty six. And so it's very hard for us to implement changes when we don't know, right, what those changes we know what the law is,
but some of the very specifics under the law have not been published yet. And so it's very hard to implement things that have not been defined. Yeah. And if I could just add one thing. So I I I would be very I would this is Kim St. Martin's opinion. So I don't want anyone to say, you know, that I'm not speaking for the state department. I'm not speaking for the Michigan MTSS technical services. Kim St. Martin, my own opinion. You know, entering into a decision on a curriculum,
resource review does take time. And and, it it it really requires due diligence to ensure that you that the people who are gonna be, leading up the review work, have built their background knowledge and, frankly, what is in in public act one forty six. Even just unpacking that section 23 c subsection three. Right? Even just unpacking that is really important. But it's also important for your teachers as well. The list that I'm talking about right right now,
these things and perhaps more are going to be on the list. What what these lists have done, like, for tier one, if we stick with tier one, we've helped to unpack evidence, which is only one thing that is important for a district to attend to. But you guys also have to attend to things like usable. How usable is it for your teachers to be able to implement in their classrooms? You also have to attend to supports. What what is gonna be needed for your teachers and staff to be able to
successfully use those things? And you also have to think about what are your needs as a district. How can you build upon what you already have in place? How can you build upon it? How does it meet the needs of your students? Again, I don't have any any context of that, and I would I would argue that a generic list would never be able to adequately address the be be able to, read between the lines and say that this is good for fill in the blank 800 plus needs of districts and thousands of schools across the state.
But you also have to say, how does it fit? How does it fit with your current priorities and what you are what you're focusing on? So I I I just wanted my opinion is you have to have a review team. That team has to be led by individuals that not only are working in tandem with central office, but it has to have you have to have a way to, engage your grade level teachers in that process as well. And people do have to have access to professional learning. And so, and I certainly I don't wanna assume what's already been done,
but I just wanna be very mindful that I I, I do know that, doctor Rice, our our state superintendent, even today, we were at the legislature, and he was he was presenting at the, house oversight committee and, was advocating for more section 35 m funds because I do think that we really, as a state, need more funds for districts to be able to implement aspects of public act one
forty six. I hope it's fair for it's okay for me to say that. Yeah. And I apologize I took That's okay. Took too long. I actually have three questions. K. one is about the timeline of this law. So you talked about, tier one reading curriculum material to be published January 1. Is there a timeline by which or a deadline by which the schools have to adhere to the law for Yeah. So '20 2027 to 2028 is the implementation window for for public act one forty
six. And that, that was intentional. I mean, I like, and and and what I'm saying is is a matter of public record. If you were to go back into the archives when the senate was going through the senate education committee was, listening to senate bill five sixty seven, senator Paul Henke had said that they wanted to extend the timeline to 2027, 2028, specifically, to allow, assessment vendors, but also districts and schools to have a a longer on ramp to be able
to think about attending to curriculum and assessment decisions. So 2027, 2028 is is the time frame by which implementation would happen. And I and I've had a couple questions. Like, people have said, what about, is there something in Public Act one forty six about waivers? There is nothing in the law that says that there's a waiver. So, I mean, I have not seen that in the law. I would encourage people to reach out to my colleagues at Michigan Department of Education just to get an official answer, but it's I I I'm it's not in PA one or you said So my
Okay. The is it by the 2728 school year, or is it by September 28? Or So there is, so a decision needs to be made, August of twenty August first of twenty twenty, '7 would be when the decision, for the universe for the screening assessment, screening and progress monitoring assessments needs to be made because then, schools and districts would have to be you have to have people trained to be able to administer the fall assessment,
the like, to be ready by the beginning of the school year to do your fall screening assessment for kindergarten. Right? Think about kindergarten through grade. It needs to be approved or needs to be implemented because those are two different So August need need needs to be selected, and so you would have to be approved probably prior to that. It would have to be approved, by August 1. You would you would be, I mean, again, I don't know how long you're We would be looking for we would be bringing a a recommendation to the board, May of twenty seven for implementation fall of twenty for the fall of twenty seven
to '28 square. Okay. But where we start our reading curriculum process next this coming fall? Yeah. The idea would be that we would, to to doctor Saint Martin's point, when the the comprehensive list comes out January of twenty six, we will have a a, our literacy leadership team will be ready to look at that list, begin putting a a comprehensive process together. Our goal would be to bring that process, the the intent of that process, the structure behind that process to the board in May of twenty six for implement
twenty seventh. For February, that we would bring a a process Okay. That we would lay out for the board May of twenty six so it's clear both to the board and the community what our process will be Okay. Going into the 2627 school year. So So the 2627 school year would be pilot Mhmm. Feedback, community input. Process. But it'll be about a year and a half, process. And to to doctor St. Martin's point as well, You know, this this implementation will also, take some time. We when whenever you implement a curriculum,
in particular, a curriculum that is as inclusive and as extensive as a reading curriculum k five, will will mean additional professional learning for staff. It will mean time necessary, to, fully unpack and understand the the work. So I'm I'm looking at two solid years of very intensive implementation and support for staff during that implementation period. And that includes the four through 12 assessments as well, the same timeline? The assessment list is going to span all the all the grade levels.
Can they and, again, it that is something that's gonna be driven by the research. And so the assessment team I mean, more information is gonna be coming on that. But the research, the the review process is gonna drive what gets on the list, what what assessments, what measures, for what grade level, what's reliable, what's what's valid. So more information to come. Yeah. I guess the only point I'm making is we have a plan k through five, but we need to comprehend secondary. What that what that implication is. Right?
Yeah. And if and if and if you're a secondary student and you have dyslexia characteristics, the primary consequences, you're likely struggling with some multisyllabic decoding issues. In your secondary consequences, because of the multisyllabic decoding issues, it's impeding your ability to comprehend, reduce reading experiences, reduce topic and background knowledge and vocabulary. Okay. Still have two more questions. Yes. Sorry. Being patient. So this is a theoretical question. You're going to publish a list, in January, but, the law does not require you to follow anything in the list.
The law has a set of requirements that you need to adhere to for this. I'm asking you the question so that you can clarify. Mhmm. So if us, as a school district, find a curriculum that's not in your list, theoretical question, but still, would adhere to everything in the law, that is required, that is specified. Is that possible? Yeah. I mean, I wanted to pull so you you are right. I mean, so the the law does not require that you have to choose a tier one
reading curriculum from the list. Just like you don't have to choose from the section 35 m, list right now. That that's just a competitive grant. So you are right. It does not it does not require that you have to do that. With that said, though, I did I did include in one of the resources, I included a link to the k 12 literacy dyslexia page from Michigan Department of Education. The frequently asked questions document does does reiterate just what I said.
You're not required to choose from that tier one reading curriculum list. It does talk about within, section two that there are districts do have to have assurances that what they are using is aligning with Mhmm. The science of reading. And it and it outlines the types of skills. But you're not required, to choose from the tier one reading curriculum list. Assessments is a different story. Right. That is a different story. That is a requirement, and the, frequently asked questions does does out outline that as well.
So as a follow-up question, what is the body or or organization that's going to approve what we have chosen and say, yes. This require this needs the law. What body is that? Is that MBE? Yeah. So that is information I I don't wanna steal their their thunder. That is communication that's gonna be coming out, from my colleagues at Michigan Department of Education. So you think it's them? Yeah. I I I know that the what what I can say for the section 35 m, list, that was the committee for literacy achievement.
But I'm I'd like to wait until my colleagues at Michigan Department of Education communicate because there would be, communication regarding assessment as well and communication regarding what's happening for public act one forty six. I hope it's okay that I'm I just don't I just don't wanna say I'm also trying to understand. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. And the last question is, all of this is mostly reading curriculum, or is writing part of it or separate? Can you help me understand that? Yeah. That is that is a really good good question.
So, so reading and writing are reciprocal, skills. And so I do want I do wanna wanna talk about that a little bit. So this these are called the k 12 literacy. The fact that we're saying literacy, we do start to morph a bit from reading into writing because literacy in and of itself, it means reading and writing. With that said, though, when when like, if you were to open up the Michigan Dyslexia Handbook, we talk about,
like, the the heuristic or the framework that we use to try to define how reading develops. We introduce people to something called the simple view of reading, and then we talk about a pre k through grade learning progression that's developing skilled readers. But there's also a simple view of writing, and there's also a pre k through grade learning progression that develops writing. And I just want to be very honest about the fact that the simple view of writing talks about transcription skills.
So there are things that like, the mechanics of writing. Kids making sure they have good posture, how they're positioning their paper, like using the right writing utensil, pencil grip, you know, even even, like, motor control. Like, those are all transcription skills, really important. And we say that these things get increasingly automatic. And there's so that's, like, one one body of of things within the simple view of writing. And and it's don't let the name fool you.
It's not it's it's it's not simple. It's just it's it's easier for people to understand. It's, transcription skills multiplied by, translation skills, and these are things that help kids write. They generate ideas to write. And these things need to be increasingly strategic, And these are things like making sure kids are generating text that they're writing. These are things like planning. They're drafting. They're editing. They're using word choice. They're thinking about writing different text structures.
They're writing different genres. And writing is mediated by attention. It's mediated by working memory. And, we can so reading and writing do go hand in hand. They are reciprocal processes. However, many people think they are two sides of the same coin, and that's inaccurate. Because I could put I could put four words up here, and we could probably all read them. And then I could just randomly say four words and say spell them. And for some of us,
many of us, we may not be able to spell them, like onomatopoeia. We could we could read it, but our ability to accurately spell it would be a challenge. And what that means, is that I mean, if if you can spell a word, you know, it's, if you can spell a word, you can read a word. But if you can read a word, it does not mean that you can spell a word. And so these two skills are very much connected, and it is important. And I say that because if we think about the primary consequences of dyslexia,
spelling is something that was a was something that would have a primary consequence. It was difficult difficulties decoding, accurately decoding text, spelling. Even when it comes to screening, we reference a spelling, screening assessment not required in PA one forty six, but we say assessing kids' spelling. And I'm not talking about the good old fashioned spelling test where you just are given a test that you memorize. I remember I had spelling books when I was a kid in elementary school. It was painful.
So it's not what we're talking about. It's not what we're talking about. But the point is is that reading and writing do have a very reciprocal relationship. And I say that because, you know, you are benefiting reading when you are teaching spelling. And that's why a really good phonics and decoding lesson plan should incorporate spelling and dictation at the word level and sentence level so you are starting to get at those reciprocal skills. Now what you're also talking about is and and I know,
like, thinking about, perhaps think reviewing a spelling curriculum. And I, I mean, I don't know what your review process is. I just encourage people to think about making sure whatever you're reviewing has those transcription skills and those translation skills. And a lot of the tier one reading curriculum resources do integrate writing into reading because they want kids to write about what they've read. Because writing about what you've read increases comprehension,
and it also builds topic and background knowledge. And even the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, it encourages kids to write, about mathematics, to to write and explain how they've come up with responses. So even at the secondary level, we have kids writing more about across core subjects. And, again, a lot of my work right now is in core subjects. It's in it's in secondary schools. So, they they do they do benefit each other. And a lot of the things that you will see on the tier one rankings list for 35 m,
they do you you'll see on the the documents that have reviewed these, you'll see connections to writing, but I I still think you need to be very mindful that there is a simple view of writing, and you've gotta attend to transcription skills like handwriting, pencil grip, you know, those early skills and making sure that kids are writing across genres and that they are drafting, editing, planning, text structure. And I certainly I'm not an expert in a lot of what what was reviewed,
and I certainly don't know if you guys have been reviewing, so I don't wanna speak to that. Does that help answer your question? Thank you. K. So the content of writing and the creativity of writing is not a component? It is. It absolutely is. I mean, it, absolutely has a has a has a component. So genre, text art. So if I am a teacher and I am, if, like, think of if I'm doing folk tales, biographies, absolutely. There is there's 100% a creative element to it, and there's also an element about kids writing about what they're reading.
So I'm saying it's a bothand. I'm not saying that it's one or the other. I'm saying it's both. Yeah. I I guess the real issue on the table kind of being, in part of the reason that we asked you to come was there was, some sediment that we should not continue to enhance our writing curriculum, that we should keep things as they are, even though we know there are some weaknesses in the writing con curriculum about construct, so phonics and some of those things, but that we should just wait until the reading curriculum comes in 02/1927.
That, to me, seems very shortsighted when we know that there are issues, that will help us to enhance and align our curriculum more with kind of what the future intent is. And so but there seems to be, some notion amongst members of our community that by enhancing our writing curriculum today, we're going in an opposite direction of what the reading curriculum is telling us to do, and therefore, we're going to be wasting training time,
resources, and so on. And I'm so I'm just like, is there gonna be a writing curriculum that's going to come out? Or if we have a general idea of where we need to potentially put more emphasis in our writing curriculum, to make it align with, you know, some of the tenants of this law, that would be a wise thing to do. Yeah. I mean, there's what what you're and I'm and I'm more than happy, to have more conversation with you guys. I mean,
you I mean, I can actually go through what the various review rubrics looked at about how reading how writing was integrated into reading. It was mostly there there were some that looked at handwriting. I mean, I there, some do it well. Some curriculum resources, not so much. Now, again, I did not personally review these. So I'm not like, there was a committee for literacy achievement who did. And so I am not gonna pretend to be an expert on on all these things. But I I also don't want to
to say that I know what you guys have reviewed. What I do know is that, you know, that there is that I mean, I can't imagine that teachers don't want kids writing about what they've read just like writing create creatively. Right. Right? I mean, so I mean, even kids writing summaries about what they've read, I mean, that's a really good thing. And so, I I mean, I I know you guys have to do what works given the context of your district, and, neither myself or or anyone, I I wouldn't feel comfortable coming in and and and weighing in on that.
Yeah. And I guess I'm not asking you to do that. I guess I'm asking is, you know, is the reading and writing curriculum moving in a way that is, you know, again, kind of to Amina's question, kind of a totally new direction so that the kind of writing work that we've done, particularly when we have, identified, that one of the areas in our writing curriculum that we really wanna focus on is phonics, which seems like it's consistent with the work on decoding. I'm just asking, you know,
like, that to me makes perfect sense for us to do. And if when we're going through a reading curriculum in 2027, there's something that is great for writing, then we can evaluate that at that time. It just I mean, part of the big issue is, you know, do we just let two years of students just keep doing what they're doing when we know that we could do some things to improve? Miss Rose, the answer at the end of the day No.
I understand. But I'm what I'm looking for is is, you know, are by us doing that, are we going in a contrary direction from I think that was a question that was brought up in the other workshop too. I know that you were, traveling. You know, if we adopt this writing curriculum and then this reading curriculum comes up, is what we are going to do with writing going to drastically change? Right. That's the that's the question I was asking. We asked of our teachers. And and not only is it are we working counter Right.
To where that is. And I guess I'm not hearing anything that you said that would suggest that would be the case. For sure. Also don't know enough about what you guys have been looking at to even weigh in. But I did say to doctor Murcheski that I'm more than happy to continue to have conversations to to to see I mean, you know, teaching is important. Right? And, and it is important for kids to, to understand how the mechanics of writing and to write, to build topic and background knowledge and to write across multiple genres,
and it's important to be explicitly taught in how to do that. And so I certainly but I am more than happy to learn more and to be able to support you in any way that I that I can. My my mantra has always been as a teacher, know better, do better. And, Let me ask the question this way. Yeah. PA one forty six is gonna spell out specifics on what and how reading is to be both assessed, right, and taught. Is there any component in PA eighty six that is specifically gonna say
what the writing curriculum needs to be. Because there are districts like ours where we actually have two separate. So we have a reading curriculum that is that is separate from our writing curriculum. So for example, in grade, our students take both a reading class and a writing class. It is most often with the same teacher. When it is not with the same teacher, those teachers collaborate together. And so our writing it's together, but it's also separate. So we have a very robust writing curriculum that is in addition to and separate
from our reading curriculum. So this law will not prescribe or address requirements for writing curriculum. Right? That's a better way of asking what I'm trying to get at. Yeah. So that's so that that is I think that's the the main point. And so this law in particular does not inform, right, in how we move on that question. And I don't I also don't think it's fair to ask somebody who's not here to consult us on that or, you know Yeah. I I wasn't doing that.
I'm and you you stated you stated the question better. I wanted to make sure, because we had discussion, we don't wanna be doing something that is contrary to the law. But it sounds like the law is silent on this, and so, you know, we have the ability to look at what, you know, our professionals are recommending, knowing what the intent of the reading law is and understanding where we have some deficiency. And I think when you speak about writing, you speak it very differently from what our writing curriculum is,
which is a thing of its own. And so when you speak about writing, you speak more about transcribing the physical writing skills, whereas our writing curriculum is Creative writing. Is is covering all of the genres of writing, drafting, generating ideas, all of those things. And so if it I I would hope though that any writing curriculum includes the transcription skills because That's the basic. It does need because that is important when kids are actually learning their letters and sounds as well.
Absolutely. Thank you so much. Other quest just other questions before we let Hume go? Well, thank you so much. We appreciate the time. And It was a pleasure to be here. Thank you, doctor. Yeah. Okay. We appreciate it. Just time at the door. Okay. So so do you do you want to Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's a good time. Yeah. So with that in mind, for the, purpose, Dan, before you get going, For the purpose of the, continuation of the discussion that we had in the May workshop,
the Board had an opportunity to, ask a number of questions, and the district provided follow-up to us. We want to share that with the public, so that they have the, I don't have that with my Oh. I don't have it set up. You don't have it set up? All right. Then let Dan come on, and then we'll circle back to that. Okay. Go ahead, Dan. Come on, Dan. Sorry. But we do want there was information that was shared with the Board that answered or addressed a lot of the questions that we had as a board. I wanna share that with the public,
and then I really wanna ask the board, what else do we need? Is that comprehensive enough? Is there additional information that's required? Because the, resolution, on the writing curriculum will be on the June 17 board meeting. Okay. Okay. But while you're doing that, Dan. Cool. Can you guys stay back there, please? Good. I brought everyone here today to listen to my budget, so so before we get into budget though, we do have a few relatively simple, business services items on our agenda for tonight and then for your consideration at the next meeting.
So one, food service extension. So this, by law, we have to go on an annual basis with the food service company if you contract it out. So in this case, Chartwell's last year was the year of their contract, and then this is the renewal of five renewal periods that we do have with them. So or I'm sorry. Four renew it's a five year contract, four year renewals. So this is the renewal year or year two. So this process goes to the state of Michigan. So you have to kinda send your budget to the state. They have to approve the budget between you and Chartwell to make sure everything looks
good. They kind of break down here all the different sales projected, the expenses, the state signs off on it, and then they give you what they call free approval. So basically, they're they're blessing that contract, for us to then present to you tonight, for your approval at the next board meeting. So all of this is approved approved by the state. It's essentially dictated by the state as well. They put caps on everything. So it's not really a lot of wiggle room, so to speak, with, the actual the fees and all of that that's associated with this. So, you know, there there's really not a whole lot to discuss.
I know this was included in your board packet. You guys can see the administrative fees, the management fees. Those components are negotiated between us and a food service company such as Chartwell. So everything else though is really just projections based on the cost of food and flavor and everything. So and then this right here is the letter, that MDE did approve our request. So now we can bring it to you for approval. And then as soon as you approve it, we can then start July 1, with another year with Chartwells. And then, obviously, you know, we are gonna continue conversations.
Our plan with Chartwells going into next year is to hopefully do something similar that we did at Baker where we kind of brought you guys to that building for a workshop, got to experience the food. Our goal is once the Troy High Kitchen servery is done, we'd like to do something similar in the fall. It'll give us an opportunity to go there and then really have a conversation of where do we as a district wanna take this food service program. So we're gonna we're gonna get together a committee that would involve some Charbel staff, some administration, from across the district. And and, you know, as far as we wanna take it,
whether that's community surveys, just to kinda get a general sense of where do we wanna go in terms of investing in equipment at the building levels, serving different types of food. Obviously, they're under the purview of USDA. They have restrictions they have to follow. So, we're gonna do our best though to try to just take a holistic view of that program across the district at every level and then start putting together kind of a strategic plan of where do we wanna take it. So, that'll be forthcoming, this year with them. So, Dan, I do have a question, and this is beyond the money and beyond the contract.
But, and I brought this up with Chartwell when we had that, baker meal is I still am concerned that even though the food is all free, only 65% of our students take advantage of it. Mhmm. So I don't know what Chartwell can do to improve that. Mhmm. I mean, if 35% of our students don't want our free food Yeah. We gotta do something about it. So Yeah. And that's all related to menu options, and that's where I think we can get some feedback from parents. I don't know that we've ever surveyed families, you know, on the food offerings in the district.
I know that the schools do have some say in what menu items are put on, the the monthly calendar. So but if if there's a way to improve the offerings, a lot of it's predicated on the equipment you have to serve a specific type of food. You know, they're putting in a in a middle school, they're putting two to 300 students in a half hour through that line. So, you know, they're at the mercy of whatever equipment they have to offer that food. So that's where we'll continuously assess and kinda put together a list that we can bring back to this board and say, here's what we really believe we need to invest,
whether that's food service dollars or bond funds. How can we implement more of those dollars into the food service program, just to expand those offerings? And I think to that, it would be what I was thinking of. It would be useful to have. It was 65% at the beginning of the year. I don't know if it's still that. Is it still 65%? Yeah. But I would say it would be good to to see, you know, some year over year period if it's staying the same, and it might be affected by economic circumstances. Those are sort of things too that are outside of the food quality. But, so I think that I don't need that information now or for,
you know, for the board meeting. But, next year, it would be good to get some or start generating some year to date of how many students are accessing it Mhmm. Especially if it remains free. And then, and then maybe some, you know, a student survey once a year. So we have some year over year data to see if students are satisfied or if they have suggestions. Mhmm. Some kind of improvement plans to try and increase that number, I guess, would help. I know we just we had our wellness committee meeting,
which will tie into the food service program. That might be a good venue to where we can ask some of these questions as well. But our goal ultimately was to have some sort some type of strategic plan available that can say this is exactly where we wanna take this program. This is the small dollar amount that we need to invest in these equipments, but there's other things perhaps that we can change beyond just spending dollars on it as well. So Yes. Absolutely. But for now, this is just a one year contractor to all. Did can you just clarify what that one line student a la carte and adult sales? What does that mean? So so the the big dollar amount here,
the 5,800,000.0, that's your free meals. So that's your breakfast, your lunch, your snacks. The a la carte is that essentially anything that has to be smart snack approved, but it doesn't follow the same guidelines as a traditional meal does. So a student that would wanna buy something, it could be a cookie, it could be a bag of chips, something that is still within the criteria of allowable to sell within the program without losing federal funding. So, some students do opt to purchase those things. Okay. But we don't get reimbursement for that stuff. Correct. That's just local revenue.
Okay. Yep. Same thing with catering and head start, great start. Those are just various different caterings across the district for different events for teacher appreciation or whatever it might be. But that money, even though the general fund, you typically have a club account or a student activity account that pays for those, caterings, that money then does go into the food service funds, fund balance essentially. Yep. K. K. Anything else on this? Alright. And the next one so at our board retreat back in March, I had talked about First Student coming up for a contract renewal.
So First Student has been negotiating with the Teamsters Union. That is the union that, supports their drivers and all the workers, outside of just driving. And so they have been in long negotiations. I would say, our district has been in a fortunate position with the rates that we pay the in that we were kind of ahead of the game before all the rate increases in the market were coming into play. So they more or less ate the cost of it this year, since we're already under contract with the with the route rate, which I'll show you here in a minute. So in looking at this,
we have a great relationship with First Student. You know, they provide a great service. They're not immune to the struggles that are there across the industry with respect to driver shortages and such, but they're doing better. We've seen a significant improvement this year because their new rates are actually in effect already. So that it gave their drivers a a well deserved bump in their pay. They they were battling outside of schools, truck driving jobs, things like that. So, FedEx, UPS, there's a myriad of different jobs that they can take. So we've had to compete with those markets essentially to ensure that we have an
adequate level of drivers to provide this service, to our community. So in going through the negotiations with First Student, we kinda went back and with what the rates should be. I called a few different districts in the surrounding area that do contract their transportation. The rates are all in line. We were, you know, 20% lower than a lot of districts in the area, which is good for us for this year. But we do know that that inevitably is gonna come back to us, next year. So we also worked with Clark Hill on this contract. They're the ones that put this together for us. They have a lot of data too because they do the same contracts for dozens
of other districts. So they've got a lot of pricing data too that they can compare against, which is good. All of which is in line with what you're gonna see here in their rate. So traditionally, you do like a one year renewal at a time. In order to try to spread this cost impact out over a two year period, we suggest perhaps we look at a two year renewal, in order to help alleviate some of the cost increases that are coming our way with respect to this contract. So just as a quick breakdown here, this is the sheet that I used to go through this.
So this column here is our current rates. So you pay a daily rate essentially for a regular ed route, a special ed route, special idea of in district routes, out of district routes, depending if they're going to a different school district for a special ed service or a center based program. We have extracurricular field trip routes, midday shuttle routes. We have eight monitors across the district that go on those buses to service their students and to assist those drivers and then our summer routes for regular and special ed. So you can see here, about just over $4,000,000
is our Contract this year. Going into next year, we're looking at a total increase of about $760,000. What I wanna point out is we went back and forth and really focused on what the special ed rate is because there is an inherent increased cost into transporting a special needs student. There's additional supports that are needed on those buses. There's additional harnesses and and different things that you have to ensure that that bus has in order to be in compliance with an IEP, but also to make sure that that child is safe.
We wanted to look at that rate specifically and say, okay. Is that is that rate of $3.38 from the prior year a good rate? Is that covering your cost? Is it not covering your cost? And we felt like it it needed to go up more than the general rate does. That also helps cover some of the cost of these monitors. You know, there's only so much that you wanna push the the hourly wage up, you know, on our end here. But inherently, there's other aids that might help out on those buses beyond those eight monitors. The other important part to note is while this is an 18% increase in next
year's rate and then 9% in the second year, When you report in our district, all of our special ed buses are % used for special education. When a bus is used for a % special education, you can report that cost to the state of Michigan. Well, this the special ed report is a forty ninety four report. Those costs then get reported to the state and then the following year, you get 70% of that increased cost back in your state aid. So from our lens, if that's the case, this is our net increase then because we're gonna get $377,000
next year from this year's cost increase. And then likewise in in the true net effect is about a $389,000 increase. So when you're looking at that, then it's, you know, it's a little bit more palatable, less than 10%. So that that's the the balance that we're trying to juggle, making sure that we're reporting accurate cost to the state of Michigan, ensuring that first student is able to cover their cost on their end too. So Yeah. So in total over two years, it's about just under $600,000. 2 questions. The first one was the the special ed cost.
So were we underpaying those drivers until now? It's really on their end. So they're they're looking at the total pot of money and then how do they break that out when they bill us. Mhmm. So we just said, you know, is there is there a need to shift more of those dollars on their tracking on their end to ensure they're allocating more to special ed? Okay. Were we getting more turnover in in those drivers? I wouldn't say it's significant, but typically, there is a little bit more turnover. And I think it's a comfort level of that driver as to whether or not they have the capability to service a special needs student depending on what the IEP
calls for Mhmm. Things like that. Okay. Okay. The second question was with the the three electric buses that we got. You needed special drivers and special or a little bit technologically savvy drivers, I remember. Is that cost additional to this or no? It would Kathy just essentially worked with her whole, full group of drivers and and found a few that were willing and and actually eager to drive an electric bus. So those two actually are set to come hopefully by October. So there's no additional cost?
For No additional cost for the driver. It it really comes down to the state grant, covers the actual physical bus, and then we have another grant that is going to cover what we apply for it. We're hoping it'll cover the cost of the installation of the chargers as well. So When are they supposed to arrive? The buses? They're they just went into production. So we're hoping the actual frame and body will be done sometime midsummer, but then they gotta go on the inside and do everything else. So we're told September, October. Okay. They don't like to give us a specific date in case it doesn't hit that. But yep. Yeah. So k.
Any other questions on this? So I remember we did the bus study. And I think if you scroll down a little bit, this is for an estimated how many buses on regular? Yeah. Is that 32 routes? And I do remember one of our studies had up to 39 buses Mhmm. I think. It's kind of If we implement the changes Right. Right. Right. Change. We're not Right. So this is just an estimate of, like, if we stayed at 32. Correct? Not an estimate. This is if we keep our No. No. Not an estimate. Yeah. That's that's what I meant. Like, if we keep it current. Yeah. This is today's round.
So we Right. We are not we have not evaluated. We're not we haven't we have not made a decision Yeah. About what we will do in future years about start times. This is just Mhmm. For next school year, we're doing the contract for them to keep running as we we are currently running. Okay. Yeah. That's the other one. We do have the final report. We'll bring maybe in August when when we're ready for that. That did have a minimum of 39 regular ed routes. I remember that. So it would be about seven to eight additional routes depending on the exact routes
and all that. Yeah. Okay. So, like, obviously, if we decided to go with the results and study and somehow change start times, then we would just adjust our contract? Not like Yeah. You're you're literally just paying for the route Got it. Per day. Okay. That's all it is. The rates are gonna remain insane whether it's thirty three hours. In theory, you just add more routes at the same rate. Yep. Yep. Okay. Good questions. Anything else? Mhmm. K. And then I'm just I'm gonna do the other two real quick because they're very quick and then we can focus on the budget. Okay. So we have an asphalt and crack ceiling,
bid that was put out. It was a single bidder. We reached out to multiple bidders and try to generate more, cost competition there. Unfortunately, with their schedules and everything else, there just wasn't, enough bidders. But the cost, I believe, is is a fair cost relative to what we paid in the past. So this is based off of a plan. This one here. So there's we did a study as a district, our operations team, where it was a three year plan. So you can see '25, '20 '6, and 2027. We're just following this plan. So they went around the district. They've identified specific areas of parking lots at every building.
So this work would essentially cover the whole district in a phased approach over the next three years. So the total was $83,000, for this bid or $89,000. I'm sorry. So we don't foresee that we're actually gonna utilize all that. That's kind of the max. If you did every little piece, they're just gonna go through with the for instance, we also had some identified areas at Athens. This study was performed months ago and now that we're kind of nearing that finalization of the Athens design, there's some work that likely won't happen there. It just doesn't make sense to fix it when they're potentially gonna rip it up
in a year or so anyway. So So, Dan, in situations where you have just for the sake of audience, in situations where you have only single bidder how do you make sure that that's an appropriate bid? They look at historical payments. What does it pay other contractors, you know, and then from there, you can look at what is the rate of inflation and things like that just to make sure it's a reasonable cost. If it's not, then they would rebid something, if they felt that it was just way too high. So they're working with dozens of vendors every day. So they know, like, okay. 89,000, that's a reasonable cost.
But if it's not, then they would rebid it or hold off for a little bit if they needed to. Thank you. Why is this coming from the general fund instead of, like, a sinking fund or something like that? Then they it's almost like painting. So, like, the nature of the the work, they don't consider a permanent fix. If I was to replace the asphalt, yes, it would be allowable. But in this case, you're kind of just painting the crack, so to speak. So, unfortunately, it's just part of our maintenance budget. So and we'll that'll be part of our budget presentation as to what we're gonna do with respect to So under just under the law and funding,
it this really is appropriate in general. Fund. Yeah. I think maintenance is general fund and then repair and replace is sinking fund. And then the last one, relates to, Detroit Preschool. So they are looking for this pavilion. So this is, consortium based pricing. So this pavilion would go on the north end of the building. It would kind of give a a nice front look to the building, but it'll give them an opportunity to have a covered space for kids to go outside if it's rainy or if it's too sunny, but also to have outdoor class time if they wanted to, outdoor events with parents and families in a covered area.
So this is something that they've been asking for for a couple of years. We just had to wait for the appropriate time, to in order to charge it into the sinking fund. So, the bid came in for the consortium pricing, I should say. It was a hundred and $18,000. So that'll be paid for by the sinking fund. And then, the goal is to order and get it installed, as soon as that comes in. This is towards the Square Lake side? Yes. The North side. North side. Yep. Yep. It's kind of open, patch of grass on the far right side when you're looking at it. And what's the capacity? I mean, like, how many people can you fit under that?
That's a good question. Let's see. Twenty five fifty. It's about a thousand square feet. It's the same size as a classroom. You probably could fit 30 to 35 people. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's good size. Okay. Are we gonna put picnic tables or something under it? That's our intent once they get it in, and then, the surface underneath it is, I don't know if it'll be mulched yet or I would assume it'll be a mulch. That way, the kids can play on it. Mhmm. But they would likely install some sort of, picnic table or something too. Mhmm. Anything else? Okay. Now the budget. I got a request here to take a,
short bio break. Okay. We'll do that. Alright. Let's take five. So I'm gonna ask everybody if they would please take their seats, and we are going to reconvene our meeting. I got a Sprite. I had to go through. That's why I didn't take it. Bye. Okay. Thank you. Dan, we're ready to get into our budget discussion. Sure. Okay. Alright. I promise I will I will make this as famous as possible. I know budgets are always such a fun topic for everybody, but, I I think it was important. I you'll notice with this presentation, I didn't put at the next meeting,
you'll get the traditional, very detailed price function code and all of that. But with this presentation, I wanted to kinda leave it more narrative based, talking about the the methods and assumptions and all of that behind where these numbers came from. And then, obviously, as we go through, if you have questions or anything, just, you know, hopefully, it's more interactive. I know we're at the traditional board set up here, but, we'll try to keep it interactive. So as we go through, there's kind of four parts to this presentation. So the final amendments from this year and then the proposed budgets for next year
are all embedded. I wanted to break it out fund by fund, but then include the amendment which then generally ties right into the projected amount for the following year. So first, we'll just touch base a little bit on the truth and taxation process and establishing of millage rates. That's the public hearing that'll happen on June 17 right here. That's required by law for us to go through that process and lay out what our millage rates are. General fund will do budget adjustments and then budget assumptions for next year, and And then we'll jump into our ancillary funds. You can see them listed there and then the special revenue funds as well.
So we'll go through one of, each of those out. So quickly just taxable values. I thought this was a good reminder. I didn't have this in the initial presentation. I updated it real quick. I finished it at 2AM on Friday night, so I didn't quite have to put it in there. So I wanted to throw it in there. Just as a reminder for both the board and the community, looking at all the different tax rates that you might see on your tax bill or you see in the, you know, community newsletters, whatever it may be. So homestead, that just means your primary residence. So generally speaking, that's the home you live in. That's your primary home.
In in certain rare cases, it's a non commercial agricultural property. Non homestead, those are your business or rental properties, secondary homes. You might own a vacation home, and then just, typically commercial related property or commercial agricultural property. And then the total taxable value, if we talk about that, that is the combined homestead and non homestead rate. Those values the total value is always capped each year, at the lesser of the rate of inflation at five percent. So going into just some rough numbers, so every year the county sends us an l forty twenty eight.
That is the form of taxable values. We typically get that in April. We take those numbers. We plug them into our calculators. We calculate out the millage rates, every year. So you can see last year's summer of twenty twenty four, those are the rates published for homestead, non homestead, and then the number combined there in orange. And then again looking at 2025, so the upcoming summer's, taxable values that we will use as part of our calculations. So the rate this year, just under 5%. So, again, higher than we've seen pre pandemic, but, it's kind of been the trend since the onset of the pandemic is these taxable
values have been increasing much higher, than typical. But the Hadley amendment, we'll touch on that in a minute. That does restrict it to that cap of 5%. So the different taxes that you'll see kind of throughout this presentation and in the community, state education tax. That is the six mills that everybody pays. That is homestead and non homestead properties. That is an amount that goes right through the city to the state of Michigan, and then that's where the foundation allowance, the bulk of it comes from. The operating millage, that's the one that our voters, approved back in November. So that one is the 18 mills on non homestead properties.
So primarily businesses or vacation or rental homes. So that 18 mills, the state does assume that the district levies that amount and collects that amount when they calculate our foundation allowance. So when we say we're getting $10,394 a student, about 2,000 of that has to come from this 18 mills. So they're only giving us $10,003.94 minus the 2,000. So if a district doesn't have that, that's where you're in a pickle and now you've got $20,000,000, loss of revenue out of your general fund. Full harmless,
that was also tied in with the operating millage, so this only applies to homestead properties. So this does not get, levied on the business. This is the one, every year we calculate based on enrollment, taxable values that we just looked at, and the foundation allowance. Those factors get plugged into a calculator that the state of Michigan gives us. And then from there, we calculate out, as you can see there, on this current year, the rate was 2.7294 mils. So each year, we have to look at our enrollment projections. That's why that information is so critical. We have to take those numbers and we have to plug that estimate into,
that calculator. Because if we estimate too high or too low, we have to do a true up calculation at the end of the year. And And then we have to look and see, okay, how far off were we based on the actual fall count that happened during that school year. So then you have to take that difference that you've calculated and apply it to the upcoming school year's, hold harmless rate. So, again, something that we don't want any volatility in that rate, on the taxpayers, on the Troy taxpayer. I don't wanna be paying more next year and less this year, and then it just creates a mess. So that's something that we take, very seriously.
It's something that we looked at as a cabinet group as well, this past Monday. So we wanna make sure that that rate is as accurate as possible. So the the rates that we'll go over here, they're they're 99 percent final. There's a live taxable value site that the state has that we will update it one more time prior to the June 17 meeting. At some point, you gotta cut it off and calculate it. But we just wanna make sure that we're using the most up to date information prior to the approval. And then the intent of this one is to essentially recognize that the state changed the funding model in 1994 with proposal a.
And so if we were at that time receiving $8,000 a student, let's say, and the state says, nope. We're shifting the funding of the state of Michigan, and now you're only gonna get $6,000 a student. They they wanted to hold us harmless by saying you can collect that extra $2,000 that you should have been getting, but you have to get it from your local municipal or your your local community. So that's that voter approved full harmless millage, that the voters also approved last November. And then lastly, sinking in debt fund, those two millage rates are are levied on homestead and non homestead properties,
and that's based on the total taxable value across the whole city. And that is, the fiscal twenty five rate was point nine six zero six. And then the that funds is the 6.1 mils there. So the Headlee Amendment, I mentioned that. So that was voter approved back in the late seventies, and that was an amendment to the Michigan constitution. And what that does is it essentially says that every year you've gotta automatically roll back your millage rates to ensure that you're not exceeding that 5% or greater increase in the tax rate from year to year. So we run those the sinking fund and the operating millages through a calculator.
Those are the two that the Hadley Amendment applies to. We run that through a calculator, and then the calculator will tell us, okay. You were point nine six last year for sinking fund. This year, you're point nine four. Whatever it may be, the county tells us what that reduction fraction should be. So every year, that's what we're doing with those two. So looking at kind of what is taxed or levied, I should say, homestead properties within the city. So you can see in the blue is the state education tax of six mills hold harmless. We're projecting about 2.53. Again, we'll we'll tweak that a little bit here over the next week.
And then your debt fund and sinking fund at six point one and point nine five four one respectively. And then this is on the known non homestead side of things. So these are your businesses. These are your secondary homes. The the primary difference between this and your homestead is that green bar. The green bar for a homestead property is your hold harmless, and then the green bar for a business is the operating millage. So businesses pay significantly higher amount, with respect to that green column there. The other three are the same that homeowners pay. So there's really only one difference,
between the two. And then looking at the combination of of all of those millage rates combined, you can see here the blue being homestead and then the green being the non homestead. So we're at just over 15 mills total from the school district for homestead and then just over 31, for non homestead. So jumping in to the general fund side of things. So first, we'll look at the adjustments made. So not much has changed from our board retreat when we presented the third amendment. So really, again, we're going through we're looking at our categorical funding. We essentially look at the May state aid report and say,
okay. Where are the exact numbers at right now? From May to August when the last one comes out, there's typically not a lot of changes. So we've we've pretty much know by May this is what our funding the final number should be. We also go through federal funding, on the grant side, the state grants, and then we say, okay. This is what our anticipated expenditures are gonna be. Let's take those and adjust the revenue and expenditures accordingly. And then if we have to defer any of that grant dollars to next year, then we put that in the budget. So look at ISD related funding sources. So we have GSRP, IDEA,
various smaller grants that come through the county, or through open schools. So we go again through those and we just update them. And then, likewise, we go through all of our purchase services, supply purchases, salaries, benefits, everything. We go through it one more time just to make sure that we haven't missed anything. So in total, there's about 9,000 accounts that you have to go through. So it takes time. I know our finance director has he's off today because he's been working twenty four seven, it feels like, the last couple weeks to make sure that we have everything as as good and tidy as we can. Going into next year,
budget assumptions. So as we go through, we look at the house, the senate, and the governor's proposal for funding. They provide a foundation allowance recommendation in their budget proposal and then all of the separate categorical. So what we did this year is we took all of those categoricals. We listed them all out and matched it up to what we got paid this year. And then we said, okay. What's the governor? What's the house? What's the senate? And then looking at that, we took the lowest of the three proposals just to ensure that we have a conservative estimate on our revenue. So we went through line by line and took the lowest proposed option between the
three proposals right now. We also looked at what is our blended FTE count. So for those that may not know, our FTE count that we get funded on is a combination of 90% of that current fall and 10% of the prior spring. So you have to look at both of those and that's what ultimately you're funded on for that school year. So we do have a decrease which is anticipated. That's part of our enrollment projections. We're seeing about a 50 to 200, FTE reduction year over year. So we're gonna go from in our projection and that's what this budget was based
off of. 12/02/1974 to 12/01/2023. And then the lowest foundation in the three budget proposals was, $392 per student. So that was again factored into this. The larger piece that we've been working through as a district, is the expenditure reduction across the board. This is not unique to Troy. Every school is going through it right now. Every director or CFO that I have talked to from surrounding districts, they're all battling the same problem. Some of it hits the news, unfortunately, but it's not a problem that we weren't aware of.
Districts lost, in this case, 28,000,000 of funding through ESSER funds over a four year period. A typical increase annually pre COVID for a district of this size would have been about a million, maybe $2,000,000 if you were lucky, annually. So just to put that in perspective, $28,000,000 of ESSER funds is gone. Where Troy is in a good position relative to other districts is our fund balance was at one point a little bit over 20%. Our goal is 15%. That's what our board policy states. When you exceed that 20% mark, we're governmental entities.
We're not here to make a profit. We're here to service students, just to train, attract, retain staff, and then, you know, provide results from that. So our goal is not to make sure we have twenty, twenty five, 30 percent fund balance. Our goal is to ensure that we're we're using those dollars appropriately, but we can afford to go from 21% down to 15%. That's where you're gonna see terminologies of there's a deficit in all these districts. It's not a deficit. It's it's a use of your fund balance. You have a large savings account of money sitting there that you can now start
to spend down. We've been fortunate to where we can essentially transition all of those positions that we had with $28,000,000 of extra funds over a four year period. We can transition over a three year period and say, okay. How can we continue to provide those supports to our students and give our staff the the supports they need outside of the classroom to continue to service the students that still have those needs? The money may not be there, but the need is still there. So that's the challenge that every district is having the same conversation right now.
So as we went through through a process of attrition, we have targeted $5,000,000 of total reductions. About 2,000,000 of that relates to salaries. Another million of that relates to the retirement and the associated benefits. And then 2,000,000 of that also comes from an additional 2,000,000 comes from purchase services, things like conferences, different softwares or consulting fees that we may pay. Those are all getting removed. And then a substantial amount of that, about 500,000, I have earmarked from, repairs and replacements that were coming out of our general fund that we can now
shift into our sinking fund because we have a bond to pull some of the sinking fund cost out of as well. So it's a very holistic view. I know our cabinet team and administrative group has had extensive conversations, pretty much since the fall and then more recently over the last couple of months, trying to figure out how can we make this work and be responsible with the dollars, but also recognize that we do have some fund balance that we can spend now. So looking at this so you'll see our original budget there on the left column. We had projected just over 15% fund balance remaining after this year.
After everything shook out, we're projecting just under 17%. My understanding is our cabinet team last year had extensive conversations and we reduced about 10 to 12 FTE or so going into this year. So, again, a phased approach where we wanted to reduce it a little bit. This year, we're gonna show a loss of just under, that 3,489,000 right there. So, again, we've kinda closed that gap a little bit. But again, end the year at 16 to 17% fund balance after this year. After the $5,000,000
of reductions that we have been talking about over the last couple of months, we're now gonna show, a a little bit higher next year, but again, that's based off of a very conservative revenue budget. But we wanted to ensure even with the conservative revenue budget, we're still at just over 15%. And then in the twenty six, twenty seven year, our projection is that we would based on a very, very conservative revenue budget, we would be at maybe 3 to $500,000 loss for the year. So we're closing that gap over a two year period here. So, again, I I just wanna reiterate that you're gonna see things in the news.
You're gonna read about it. And I think a lot of it is misguided. They're they're not looking at it in the right sense. You know, for years, districts were less than 15% fund balance and, you you know, credit to the federal government. They put a lot of money into districts and had allowed our fund balance to to skyrocket. Average statewide pre pandemic was 14%, and then now it's around 20%. So at at the beginning of the pandemic, that was actually one of the the floated ideas that the state legislature looked at. So, look, districts are sitting on $5,000,000,000 of savings.
It's time to shrink that down a little bit. So, you know, for us, we're we're trying to leverage that to our benefit. Dan, I think it's really important for semantics because legally we have to develop a balanced budget. We have a balanced budget here. We're choosing to, you know, actually not, ramp down our spending as, as consistent with our revenue so that we can use that fund balance that we've been very, responsible in, you know, saving for a time just like this.
But I think, you know, again, we have a balanced budget here. It just happens to use, some of our fund balance. And I think that's really important how we message it because legally we have a responsibility to pass a balanced budget. This would be a balanced budget. Even though revenues are less than expenses at this point. The $29,000,000 ending fund balance right here, that is the number that can't go negative. So when districts get to a 5% fund balance mark, that's when the state starts calling and say,
hey. You've gotta make a plan to raise that up beyond 5%. So we're not close to that. CPA firms, legal firms, they're all recommending 15%. Some will say 20%, but I think there has to be a give and take. You know, you you obviously wanna be able to pay your staff and and continue to invest in the the programming and all of that. So our goal as a as a cabinet team, and I know the board's goal is that 15% mark. So And and I will just for perspective for the the new board members and and certainly for the time I've been in this district, you know,
we've been very judicious in terms of using that fund balance so that we never have to interrupt programs or we never have to lay off staff. And at least in the sixteen plus years I've been on the board, we've never had to do that. That's the purpose of the fund balance. Any questions on this general fund before I move on? I have one. Is there a way for us to be able to look at the, like, five c in, like, a detailed format, the $5,000,000 what that was? Like, I heard you said about salaries and retirement and all that. Yep. Will that be somewhere else? Yeah. Yeah. We do have that information. We are working on it.
We're working on it. We're working on it. Okay. Because yesterday, we were updating it. But we do have that information. Yeah. I'll share that. Thank you. And that's primarily why you don't see, like, the super broken down detail just yet because I don't wanna pull it out of one function code if I know it's gonna be another function code. So we just wanted to make sure we had an accurate list essentially, that we can provide in tandem with the actual budget line items. Thank you. So quickly moving on over to, the 2019 cap capital projects fund. So this was a bond from 2019 issuance. There's about a million dollars left. So we've kind of been looking at the current bond and and developing the projects
associated with the current bond dollars and how can we then just take some of that and basically apply it to the million that remains from this bond. So now that we're kind of through the design phase on all of these projects, our goal is to essentially zero out that, fund balance or that million dollars of that bond this year and then that bond will be closed out. Mhmm. So, again, that's really just it's renovation projects throughout the district. It's all within the the ballot language of the bond at that time. So, our goal is this fiscal year coming up, we would be able to spend that down. And it's and it has to be spent down by the end of twenty twenty
six full year? Mhmm. Yep. And then the the more recent bond, the 2023 capital projects fund. So this is the bond that the voters approved in November of twenty twenty two. So again, this schedule on our finance end for the board's presentation purposes is based off of actual expenditures. We're meeting biweekly with Barton Alo on this budget. So it's it's a a very fluid budget in terms of planning the projects and then seeing the timelines of when those dollars are gonna be spent. But we have a very detailed cash flow that Barton L. O. Generates for us, so we know exactly how much we're gonna spend every month on the various projects,
and that's something they update every couple months for us. So, based on the current expenditures in the middle column there, that's our projected end figure. So we'll be at just under $80,000,000 spent of that hundred and $90,000,000, issuance for that first series. So, that'll leave us just over a hundred million dollars remaining, which will, again, go towards the Smith New Smith Middle School and then partially towards Athens, and then furniture playgrounds, all of that. And then next year, based on the cash flows that Barton Al did provide, we're looking at about $63,000,000
in expenditures, which would then leave about $47,000,000 left, with the goal that hopefully in spring of twenty twenty six, we would be looking at issuing that second series of around a hundred and $80,000,000 of the bond. Then, why is there such a difference between the original budget and this amendment for this, fund, like, almost double the fund balance? Was it some construction projects got delayed and that was the reason? It probably was still kind of in that design phase when that original budget was passed last year.
So now that they fine tune the construction schedules, that's gonna ultimately dictate the amount of expenditures in the fiscal year. Yes. Yep. Okay. So that that's why I say it's tricky to bring a budget like this, like an original budget. It's based on a cash flow at that point in time. But as projects change and evolve, timelines might be tweaked. That's ultimately gonna drive what the amendment is. Yeah. This is all construction. So Yep. But as part of our annual audit, this fund specifically is always tested. So that's something that they're going back in and looking at. Okay. $79,000,000
of expense. What did you spend it on? Does it align with the ballot language? So that's something there's there's a lot of oversight with the bond fund. Sounds good. And then on the other end of a bond fund is the debt fund. So the debt funds is the 6.1 mills that we levy on on all properties across the district. Those dollars generate enough revenue to pay the principal and interest payments on the debt that we owe for the dollars that we generated for construction. So, again, this is all just based on essentially an amortization schedule. It lists out all the principal payments,
all the interest payments, and then from there, we can project out what our total expenditures within that fund, for the year are. Is this the one that gets impacted by the interest rates? It can. So a lot of the dollars so we we can invest some of this. We don't invest the fund balance portion of this. That's something we're reviewing right now. You wanna leave enough liquid cash in this account just in case you needed it for some reason. But, general fund dollars and and these dollars are kind of like a high yield savings account through Bank of America.
So right now, we're around three three and a half percent interest on those. The capital projects money, the 70,000,000, that is invested in kind of a tiered bond structure now. So we we laddered the bond dollar invest or the bond investments, I should say. So that way we have some that are maturing in three months, some are maturing in six months, some in a year, some in two years, and that is all generated based on the cash flow statement provided to us. So we found that the the savings interest rates at Bank of America and the general savings were starting to
dip a little bit, and now is an opportune time to push those dollars into actual certificates of deposit or US treasuries, things like that So where now our rates are in the four to four and a half percent range. I see. And then those interest dollars then go back into that specific fund, and then it just helps pay for additional projects. Oh, that's good. Thanks. So sinking funds. So the original budget, there on the left, we have an ending income balance of just over a million dollars. We're looking at about a million 6. That was intentional. We wanted to start to build up this, reserve if you will because we wanna start looking at what do we have to
spend out of the general fund that we can shift into this. Now that we are fortunate to have a bond fund that can absorb a lot of what would have ordinarily went into the sinking fund. All the flooring, paving, things like that around the district traditionally have come out of this, fund can now come out of the bond funds. So then we can just move the cost from the general fund over. So you'll see it. There's a very intentional build up of that, fund balance there on the right. Obviously, that's gonna come down significantly. We're starting to look at different projects around the district. We traditionally spend about a million and a half to close to $2,000,000
out of general fund on things that half of which we probably could move over. So that's where we're going through now and being very strategic and making sure that we have projects that are eligible for the the sinking fund, with the goal of pulling that pressure off the general fund. Capital maintenance fund. This fund was established about ten years ago as I recall. So again, this fund is the fund specifically that we looked at putting the turtle woods money into, to to house it in here. So as part of that process, we would then be strategic in how we can utilize that to cover various projects
around the district, you know, depending on how we wanna spend those dollars. But for now, we felt like this will be an appropriate spot to to house that money to keep that out of the general fund and then kind of earmark it for special projects of sorts throughout the district. When are we scheduled to get that money? Do you know? Earliest I heard is maybe December. December of '20 '20 '5? Yeah. Okay. So how come it's not in the budget for twenty twenty five hundred twenty six? I didn't put it in there only because it wasn't a sure thing just yet. Okay. So once I get the actual notification,
then we would amendment amended at that time. Okay. So I I could certainly put it in there. I mean, we can always amend it later on, but that's why it was not shown in there just yet. The difference between original and amended for 2425, is that just interest earned? Interest earned. Yep. And then food service budget, so we kinda went over this earlier. So, again, this year, we'll end just over $4,000,000 of total fund balance. And really a lot of that has been a build up of the Troy High Kitchen dollars that are being spent this summer. So that spend down is really gonna hit our books next fiscal year.
So that's where you're seeing that reduction plus a projected increase in total fund balance there. So, again, we'll continue to get those excess fund balance reports from the state of Michigan. And then from there, we're required to commit to a plan submitted to them. They have to approve it, and then we start acting on it. But the largest one, about 1,300,000.0 of that is gonna be the Troy High, kitchen and servery upgrade. So, we plan to see that. And then we do have some, just some modest increases in the food service worker wages that we're planning. That's an area that we are quite low in the county,
with respect to what we pay them. So that's something that Gail and Nicole have worked hard on in in assessing what is the appropriate rate to elevate them to, but also making sure that we're not gonna put ourselves in a position where we're losing money every year or so. And this is also based on a continuation of the free meals, which was unfortunately all of the proposed budget stuff. TCC, so our Troy Career Center Fund. So this fund is essentially all federal grants and some state grants. So revenues always match expenditures. So this is our Michigan works programming, and then our adult ed as well.
So those dollars flow in through the state, and through the ISD for the county and then the matching expenditures. So, again, this program also gets audited every year for every third year. It just depends on the total dollar of expenditure, but, they were out of last year, so I don't think they'll be out this year for it. But, again, it's they provide the budgets to us, and we're more just a fiduciary agent for them. That's something that we have for over fifty years now have partnered with Michigan Works in Oakland County on this program. So, again, there's not a whole lot on our end other than really the bookkeeping piece of
it. So and then community service. So this is our care and the community recreation, programming. So you can see here that they're running a a a pretty efficient program there. So, again, a slight use of fund balance there. Notice they use the word use of fund balance, not deficit because it's intentional. We wanna bring those savings down a little bit, but what this entails is not increasing costs or prices for the community. So how can you maintain a level of programming without increasing the cost of the community as much as possible? And you do that by spending down that fund balance a little bit each year.
So cost go up always for staff as part of their bargaining contracts or salary schedules, but we also recognize that we wanna make sure we're not pushing out too much cost to the community. So, again, a slight use of fund balance there, but again, sitting at a healthy $2,000,000. And then the preschool funds of this one so about 2,000,000 of that total $4,900,000 revenue, about about 2,000,000 of it relates to the tuition based program, and then just under 3,000,000 of it is actually GSRP funded through the state of Michigan. So that's kind of the split we're seeing right now in terms of total funding.
But again, there's a slight difference there with the change in fund balance. GSRP revenues equals expenditures always. On the tuition side of things, that's where you can generate a little bit of a a profit towards that fund balance. So, but again, trying to run a very lean program to where we're not pushing costs onto the community, to the extent that we can. So, likewise, they're also part of, or sitting at just over $2,000,000 of total plus balance. Dan, do you anticipate about the same ratio of two to three as in three students
in from GSRP 3,000,000 from GSRP and 2,000,000 from tuition paid for next year? We've been adding a class or two each year. I don't know if we're adding any more next year. I mean, we'd have to get more slots. Hopefully, shifts I know it's it's a matter of finding space in other buildings right now is is the larger issue. But if you can add more slots, then obviously, that's gonna bump up the GST. Yeah. We're not adding a ton of tuition. You're paying the tuition? Yep. Converting this. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So you're basically converting tuition paying community members to GSRP where then the state is
covering the same exact preschool exemption. Does the state pay about the same as the tuition? What do you mean pay? As in, like, per student, what the state pays us for GSRP is equivalent to what, a parent pays? I would say it's pretty close. Pretty close. Yeah. We get between 12 and 16 thousand a student for GSRP. So when you look at a tuition rate, I mean, it it's comparable. It's just the burden that shifted from the parent to the state of Michigan since they've increased those income thresholds so much. But it's the same curriculum, I believe. Right? Yeah. That's traditionally how it how it is.
So and then the last one here. So these are student activities and, school activity funds. So these are internal accounts. So we treat them more like a savings account. So if a particular club raises money, we hold on to it as a district, and they get an account that they can then either put money they raise into or they can pull from if they wanna pay for a particular expense. So, again, this one is really just updated each year based on the actual amounts that come, in and out. We put a flat 3,000,000 temporarily because we're trying to find a good report that will give us the actual amount. So we'll update that specific number based on what the actuals are,
And then we increase it a little bit just to give us a a month of potential expenditures there. So that's all I got. Any questions from your end? So you just want to, alert us the process. So we're gonna have our, community hearing on the seventeenth, and then we will adopt the amend the amended budget for this year as well as the The proposed. Next proposed budget. And any idea of when we think we might get a real budget from Lansing? We're here in September, maybe? Yeah. I mean, that that's that's the challenge is
you're basing your staffing decisions for an upcoming year based on a number that We don't have to assume the lowest to be responsible for itself. That that presents a a pretty big challenge for us. But, you know, we've got three proposals, which is nice. That gives us some type of basis. I mean, I've been in situations where you don't even have that by the June, but I think there's a recognition that you need something because we have to pass it by law before July 1. So, you know, we'll see. And then at that point, we'll amend it based on what actually happens. But k. Other questions on budget?
There's some other questions I know that's that Stephanie had asked for. We'll get some of the information Yeah. Prior to the meeting. Yes. Okay. K. I will send that prior. Okay. That's it. Alright. Thank you, Dan. Thank you. So now we are going to turn it back to Rich because he has the charts we were asking. So this is the information that was provided to the board, on, the questions that we asked based on the May workshop. Correct. And I shared this, I shared this with you all, in my my email to you.
There were several questions. One was the the rubric itself. Could we could we see that rubric in more detail, in terms of how, the the various curriculum that were looked at were, Scored. Were scored. And so, you can see we use the, our strategic plans for building capacity, deepening learning, early childhood to career, and and equity and well-being were the were the, filters, if you will. The five curricula are from left to right, same on each one. And then, the zero through three were, they they were scored zero through three,
and they were scored zero through three based on these criteria. So this is the same information that was shared. This this information was shared at our workshop in May, but this specific information was not shared. So this is what we wanted to make sure that you had available to you so you could see how the teams have scored those rubric or Okay. Has scored those curriculum. Can I because it's really hard to read? Can we know from left to right what the Yeah. So the They're a little fuzzy. Left is, the left is the units of study, if you do know that one.
Chris, do you know the others? Yeah. Okay. I apologize. Being a writer, benchmark education, step up to writing, and writing by design mode. It's okay. So that's how they were scored by the literacy leadership team. Okay. Good. Again, that's the rubric that we used. There was also a question of, was there additional was there information? So this information shows, the the, this is the m step scores, grades three to five. Obviously, you can see that, but this decouples the writing from the reading. So this is writing only. This is the the information I think we shared aggregate information,
and the question was, what about reading specifically? So this then segregates that out. This combines all the three grades? Yes. Three three three. Correct. Is this information that, is accessible to the to the district? Mhmm. Or is it generally available on the it's it's it's generally available if you know where to look. But we have we we can get more granular as a district. Yes. How do we compare to the light districts and maybe state and our ISB,
generally speaking? I mean, I can we can get that information as well if you if you feel it's necessary. Again, it shows high level of proficiency in writing over time. It has gone down. We and there's it should be it should be acknowledged. It's gone down a couple of points since each each year since spring of twenty two. We we do believe, and I think the the team did a a nice job of explaining that some of the areas that we believe, need the most, attention were the spelling, the grammar, the, conventions, and that's that was clear from the surveys from parents as well as from staff
and and from the data itself. I think it it it showed that. So that's why, there was a feeling that the, those updated read read it reading units, the units of reading, were up units of writing, excuse me, were, that it was would be appropriate to adopt those. Look at that three year time period. The writing curriculum didn't change. Correct. Yeah. That's correct. And then lastly, there was a question of could could we wait? And so I shared with the board, just in complete transparency, I shared with the board, what what I laid out as what I believe so there there were two questions.
Should we wait for writing? Should we wait for the the reading curriculum? Excuse me. Should we wait for reading before we make a decision on writing? And so and can and could we wait? I put this chart together, and I think it it dovetails nicely with the conversation that we had earlier with doctor Saint Martin. This is what I this this meant this matches what we have planned all along based upon our curriculum adoption cycle. So we do know that January of twenty sixth, the NDA is gonna come out with a recommended list, their tier one, reading curricula list along with the,
assessments. The intention would be to spend January and through May of twenty six having our literacy leadership team take all of that information, put a plan together, a detailed plan for materials adoption like we would in during any adoption cycle, bring that to the board, lay that plan out for the board around May time frame of '26, for approval, and then we would spend, school year 2627 in that materials adoption process. So there would be a very clearly laid out plan for
what are the what are the curricula that we're looking at, what, what are where are opportunities for parents to see that curricula, the, and and so forth. So that'd be a very transparent process, with the intent of bringing that back to the board May of twenty seven with a recommendation, then the twenty seven, twenty eight year would be implementation. One thing that I think is also clear that doctor Saint Martin said is that, and and we saw this even with the last reading adoption, it takes, in some cases, more than a year to fully implement a full blown reading,
curriculum, even one that has been updated. And because it takes time to work with staff, the professional development necessary, new staff are are included in that and so forth. So it could take one up to two years for for, a a complete adoption, And during that time, we would not be looking at writing. We would be looking solely at reading. So my point, my recommendation was we should move forward adopt adopting the updated, writing units that would provide us the opportunity to,
do the work with students during the period of time that we are also looking at, a reading adoption. So we don't lose anything in terms of, our instruction with with our students relative to writing while we're we are, in tandem doing this this reading adoption. Looking at this, I would assume even if we were I mean, we will adopt some type of newer updated reading curriculum for 2728 school year. Is that That's that's correct. New new and or updated. Correct. Yeah.
So during that year, we would not be piloting additional writing curriculum. Correct. So there would not even be a chance of adopting or adopting or implementing a new writing curriculum in the 2829 school year. Yeah. Earliest we would even do that then would be the 2930 school year because That that's what that '29, we would be piloting, if if anything new. Yeah. That's what that that asterisk is really designed to say. That would be the earliest we would even be considering looking at anything new relative
to writing. Right. But because our intent our our focus is going to be on reading during that period of time, and rightly so. Yeah. So what I believe that adopting the the the the updated, writing units that have been proposed makes most sense for us to provide ongoing instruction, make sure that we're filling the gaps that have been identified in spelling and and grammar and the conventions and so forth while we're doing our due diligence relative to reading. So the other question that I that I have,
you know, we spend a lot of time looking at this and and asking lots of questions. The we currently use the the the curriculum that's that's being proposed for writing is one that we currently use and I think has been in new in use at least since my now ninth grader was a kindergartner for the last ten years. Yeah. So this is not like a wholly new entire curriculum. What would so and my understanding is so this curriculum is one that that has been in use for the last,
at least, ten years. And what would be updated and in addition to and some of the things that were piloted were the addition of spelling and the addition from grammar. Correct. Okay. Mhmm. There's no other question. So I I wanna ask something, budget wise. Adopting this new writing curriculum, I think I remember, you said 1,800,000.0 or something? No. Hundred million. Hundred million. Oh, maybe. Right. So sorry. I was off by promoting one minute. Sorry. But zero makes a difference. That's okay. Yeah. 180,000 basically would be for the next four years.
Four, potentially even five years. Yeah. Four years. Mhmm. At least more, Yeah. Minimum. Okay. And does that hundred and 80,000 include any kind of professional development, additional dollars for the adoption of the new writing? There there is professional development available. I I think what I shared with the board was given this is in this is not new curriculum. This is this is just Adoption. New new word units and enhancements. I I wouldn't expect the professional learning to be significant. The the professional dollars to be significant. Okay. Alright. That's it. Thank you.
So, again, as I mentioned earlier, we will be voting on this at our next meeting. Is there any additional information? I mean, you asked for the comparison of the M STEP just with like districts. Mhmm. Other data that is required for people to, feel comfortable in making a decision. Okay. That's great. Good morning. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. We have one other thing before we're gonna open for public comment. Miss DePelato, we're going to ask you to make some remarks. I know we have a lot of people in this audience interested in theater, so we wanna interested in theater. So we wanna make sure that everybody is operating from the same basis of information,
and then we will, open for public comment. Thank you. Thank you, Doctor. Hillepar. The the I prepared a few slides. In response to some questions that were asked by the board for additional information regarding the Athens theater program. And, I'm hoping that these few slides can just provide some basic information as to how we arrived where we are currently. One of the questions that's been asked is about enrollment in the courses, the theater courses at both Athens and Troy High over the last five years. You can see starting at the far right hand side and then moving left what
that enrollment looks like. So it begins in the twenty one-twenty two school year where we had some students who were still virtual who were coming out of emerging out of COVID. And then back into our full in seat program. Every year we tally our student requests. So we have a student driven schedule at the high school. All of our courses are based on student enrollment every year. It allows us to create a new schedule every year based on our student needs. And you can see, that from twenty twenty one, twenty two, we'll be at 126 students who who put in student requests for theater classes to this year 67 total students.
And that's 67 students from Troy High and Athens. So it's important to note that the decline in our enrollment and in theater course, the theater class itself isn't unique to Athens. It's also at Troy High School. One of the things that we've spent a bit of time talking about and looking at is, as our classes have been our curriculum has been reviewed in ninth grade and tenth grade. We're moving into eleventh and twelfth grade where our electives lie. Our electives lie. And it is our intent to be able to look at our theater course in alignment with our English standards to be able to provide theater as one of our
English electives, which will allow students to be able to embed it more intentionally into their course selections while satisfying it on graduation requirements. So that's something that we hope for. So when we look at that student request, the student the number of student requests results in our small number of theater sections. So we need fewer sections to be able to teach fewer students. We often across the district use experience and expert staff. In a variety of roles shared between between buildings. So it's that is not unique and what is happening for us next year with Mr.
Vickers. So Mr. Vickers is an experienced theater teacher. He has expertise in theater. And sharing him would be similar to, what we currently do right now with our choirs. So we have a shared choir teacher between Troy High and Athens. We have shared art teachers across the district. We have shared language teachers. We actually share teachers in secondary in every single subject area. In in one way or another across our middle or our high schools. Because that is how we staff when we look at our staff across. We would never post for a new art position if we had a teacher who could teach art and have room in their schedule who we already employed in the
district. So it's just our practice for staffing. And we follow that same practice for staffing in theater. Again that last goal there is to just name that it is our goal and our intention in working with Mr. Vickers to be able to grow that enrollment in theater and grow back more sustained programs in our buildings. So we prefer not to have to share staff when possible. We love having our staff in our building school time. Our our principals would tell you that right away and I know our students would too. Having access to your teacher throughout your school day is the ideal situation. So each fall we internally post for our schedule c positions.
This is an example of some of our schedule c positions. So play director is what is listed as our theater as our theater director position for schedule c. Our schedule c positions are posted each year and posted only internally first. So they are open only to our staff members in the district first to be able to fill. And then we post those schedule c for, if they are unfilled outside of the district. Experienced, our band director are is our band teacher. Right? So Mr. Nutting is our band teacher.
Mr. Cable is our band is our, is our band direct our band teacher and our band director. And the same for orchestra. And you can kind of go down that list and see where the extension of our classroom hits schedule c. And that is often what very much happens in our schedule c positions. And that is how we've come to anticipating that mister Vickers will be that theater director at Athens High School next year. Because this is an interest of his to move forward as the classroom teacher that would be a natural extension of his classroom. So I this slide is just to emphasize that,
we recognize the school district recognizes that we have a robust and dynamic student participation in the Athens Theater Company. We also have a robust participation in our Troy Theatre Ensemble. There's no intent in this work to merge or combine the theater programs at Athens and Troy High. So similar to our programs in choir, similar to our programs in any other content area, we are not interested in merging. We have, an individual who works in our district, mister Vickers, who is very capable of managing those two spaces and plans to do so.
The Athens Theater Company will continue to exist in its own entity. We are not again not merging that with another entity. What's in the box below is the proposal of what our current our current programming which I've listed here as previous programming and future programming is as we've designed it for this coming year. So previous to now, so this year and before, Athens Students have access to one play and one musical. Those are both housed in the last year. We're housed at Athens High School. Troy High School students had access to one play and one musical. In our future programming,
we are proposing that Athens Students have access to one play in November is the plan for this year and one musical in April which is a combined musical this year hosted at Troy High. Troy High students have access to one play in January of this year and one musical in April which is a combined also again hosted at Troy High. One of the drivers of why it's being hosted at try high this year is for there to be a live music ensemble. So currently Athens does not have their their pit set up. That is something that we hope to be able to change for Athens To be
able to engage in the participation of student musicians in that production as well. And then finally, these are just two little snippets that came directly from Mr. Vickers. So some reflections from him. I think for you as a board and for this community to know that, these are his words that he stated here about his commitment to nurturing and growing the Athens Theatre company. I I think that it's important to just recognize that this is a passion. That he is, very much committed to, being able to embrace that unique spirit of Athens and the traditions of Athens,
once he has an opportunity to get started. That second paragraph that's there really just asks our students who are interested, to be a part of joining the official Schoology group. So that is where mister Biggers organizes everything. He doesn't use, social media or students' personal emails or phone numbers. He has a formalized Schoology platform which students and parents can see. And all of the audition information and those draft rehearsal schedules are already up for, this first play that will be coming up. So the first play of the year is that in high school. So, again, the interest in in me being here is just to be able to provide some
information on how we arrived where we are now and some background information that we are kind of working from. Miss, can I ask questions? Mhmm. And, if you go back to this, previous slide, there were some questions that the fact that it's a combined musical opportunity for some students would be minimized because there would be lesser spots. Can you address that? Sure. So one of the one of the state this was a question during our parent, our parent presentation as well. The selection of Les Miserables is to be able to focus on a larger cast
and provide an, as many opportunities for students as possible in that musical. And one of the other conversations that we had during that, that during that parent meeting was this structure that's proposed here is not a commitment to it always being a combined musical. You know, Mr. Vickers talked about perhaps in the future it's a musical at each school and a combined play. He talked about getting to know the students to be able to build to their strengths and select different shows based on the strengths of the students who are there. Mr. Vickers also talked about wanting to be able to select and blame is to put
on so that no students had to be cut. So that there were enough parts for all of our students to be a part of that. And one of the other things that we did talk about was removing barriers wherever possible. So as we go into this endeavor, we've talked about you know providing transportation for our students from one space to another if that's what's needed and then identifying those barriers along the way. It's also not the intent that Troy High would always be hosting the combined show. So that would be a rotating space as well. So how we work together in that one Troy opportunity, it really opens up opportunities for our kids to put on different kinds of shows
that may have been limited from having smaller cast sizes. That's right. And then in terms of the, for the musical, for example, for the live ensemble, would that be open to both Athens and Georgia students? Yes. Okay. You mentioned earlier in the presentation that you want to sort of regrow the program even though both programs have robust interest. Is there like a metric you're using for that? Like number of kids in theater class or how many sections? Like, can you talk to that a little bit? Sure. So I think, missus Emmer, just to kind of, decouple. So and I think this has been hard too in our communication from the district.
So when we talk about enrollment and regrowing, we're specifically talking about our classes. Mhmm. Right? So we're not talking about regrowing the theater company because that is robust and active. Right? So we recognize that that's there. Our hope is always that our theater courses will influence and and grow into those that theater company. But our anticipation in growing our enrollment is we would be measuring it through this. So through student requests and sections of theater. And again, because right now it exists as an elective that doesn't count as part of your English graduation requirements, we know that with a sixth period day are many of our students have to
make a lot of difficult choices. So we're hopeful by being able to integrate that into that option for students. It will create space in your schedule for them to be able to I feel like a lot of the communities talked about in their, communications to us about regrowing being two directors, two programs. Is that something that's, like, off the table forever? If not No. I think like, regrowth plan for that? Yeah. So what we would hope to do is to be able to see a theater teacher. So to build the capacity past what one person can handle when we look at our theater courses. And when we split our theater courses and we have theater teachers at each of
our schools, again, that schedule c position is posted annually and that is a typical extension of the classroom. So that would be a natural component for us when we're looking at being able to reintroduce someone to be able to share the load that's here. But right now, 67 students, isn't a load that can't be carried by one of our teachers. Got it. Thank you. Yeah. As we look at, you know, how will we staff classes like this, you know, know, and I know we have a lot of students here tonight. I think it would be maybe you can explain, you know, what is the purview of the board? What is the purview of the administration in terms
of making some of those decisions? Sure. And I appreciate that question. So in our in our staffing work, as a as a school district, our work around staffing and making those staffing decisions is an administrative decision. So we typically and one of the reasons I walked through this so in detail with with you as a board is we typically don't stand here and talk about student enrollment in classes, how many classes that we offer, who's teaching those classes. Those are all, those are all explicitly administrative decisions. And those are decisions that are made with our building principles in partnership with myself,
and, in looking at what staff we have and how we decide who staffs those based on teacher experience, based on certification, and based on student requests so that we can build out the appropriate number of sections to meet our student requests. Thank you. Any other questions from the board? Okay. Thank you, missus Detola. There's 27. How much time do you have? So we have actually, there's 28 because we or did you just count? We left one Okay. Bring it on up. So we have a lot of public communication tonight. I'm going to ask, if any of what we talked about tonight answers any of your concerns and you want
to, not speak, that's perfectly fine. For those of you that are speaking, you need to keep your remarks because with this amount of communication, public communication will be here at least for an hour. So, I'm going to ask you to keep your remarks under two minutes. And if other people have kind of made your point, Again, you can make a decision of of whether, you know, you want to speak. Again, I want to thank you for your patience. But given the amount of public communication we have, it's and the the board the work of the board has to go on.
And this tonight, the items that we discussed, are very critical because we're going to be voting, on, budget, on curriculum. As, Ms. Leach, alluded to with, Mrs. Diepilato, because a lot of these are about theater, the board is does not make decisions, on how theater is. So we welcome your input, but that really is an administrative, decision. So with that, I'm just going to take these in the order we have. I'm going to do two one minutes. I don't have two minutes. Okay. So, Ms. Anay will, kind of tell you when your time is up.
And I'm just gonna do these in the order that I have them. So I'm gonna ask missus Sandy Smith. And if you could also just state whether you have a child in the district or whether you are a student in the if you could state whether you have a child in the district or if you're Candy Smith. I've been a tour resident for thirty four years. I do have two children. They graduated some time ago. I when I found out about the anticipated, merging of the two theater programs, I was very upset, and I felt a need to come and speak. The theater program at Athens, actually changed my son's life and the trajectory of his life.
He he ended up studying musical theater in New York, And a lot of it was because of the a the legacy of the ATC. I understand that there some things are gonna be kept separate, but I don't want you to forget the kids that will be left out. My son was a kid that was a little kid. He was bullied. He was, excluded and got into Athens, found out he loved it. He wanted to be on stage. As a five foot kid, he was in the chorus of Oklahoma, then man of La Mancha. He grew. He then was a principal player in Les Mis,
and then he was god, literally, in god's spell. I don't want you to forget those kids. We're not out here to have the next Tony award winner. If we do, great. If we don't, that's okay too. Again, my my son gained confidence, camaraderie. The kids that were bullying him were now standing up applauding him. I don't want us to lose those kids by having programs that are combined. We may have the best talent in that show, but we're gonna be losing so many kids, and that we'll gain so much. And I think Christa Manfredi has built a legacy.
She may be retired. Her legacy about fifty years should live on. And I hope that we we will continue to have two theater programs. Thank you. K. Thank you. Next speaker. Alright. We we can't have this again. Please reserve your comments and have the next speaker, miss Olivia Lee, please come up to speak. And if you're a student, please no. No clapping. No clapping, please. Good evening, members of the board and all other attendees of this workshop. My name is Olivia Lee, and I'm a student and actor at Athens High School.
To say I am disappointed with the handling of Krista Manfredi's replacement is an understatement. Miss Manfredi, along with the Athens Theatre Company, have made such a, positive impact on who I was as a student, actor, and person. Prior to joining theater, I had very few friends, very and very low self esteem. I never showed my full personality for fear of judgment. In joining theater, I gained a family as well as a mentor. I knew I within the first rehearsal, I knew I wanted to come back. I knew this was how I would spend all of my hours after school. I made so many friends and built so many relationships. Although the dish although the district promises that the legacy and traditions will not be
dissolved, that's just not true. The only way to ensure that is to have our own director that knows the company. Many amazing people already know how to get our attention, call our nerves before shows, ensure bonding during rehearsals, and know all the inner workings of the theater, or at least are willing to learn. When asked in a student meeting why he'll be doing Les Mays in the spring at Troy High, Mark Vickers told us it's because he's not comfortable with the ins and outs of the Athens stage, which is why it makes perfect sense for us to gain someone who is more than comfortable. Any person of real interest would be more than willing to step out of their comfort zone to ensure a smooth transition process upon roughly 50 kids.
Many people who were not given any chance to apply for Manfredi's position know better than anyone just how much the Athens Theatre Company legacy means to the people involved and would be able to be director and or adult advocate for us as actors. On May 26, we began petitioning for our company to have our own director. Our goal was to get a 50 signatures. As of 6PM today, we had 575 signatures and still climbing on change.org and on paper petitions combined. We received over three times as many as we'd planned and over 300 in less than a day. The company alone is not the only group that cares about this.
The student body cares. The community cares. If the problem is lack of funds, we'll host fundraisers. If it's lack of interest, we'll recruit. This group, along with the other actors and crew members who have worked so hard to make this company a family, are willing to go to great lengths to keep this family. And I hope you see this in our desire to get a director of our own. It should be noted that we're not asking for the world. We just want a seat at the table, preferably more than I should. Great. Thank you. I'm going to I'm gonna ask you to please be professional, particularly our students. Okay. I know that we want to give everybody an opportunity to speak.
And by, you know, clapping and carrying on, we're we're eliminating people's time to be able to speak. I'm going to actually call, like, two people in a row so that, you know, whoever is up next, when the one speaker is finished, they can start making their way. So our next speaker is, missus, Carrie Donnebeck followed by mister Steve Donnebeck. Thank you. I'm here to advocate for keeping Athens' theater program with their own two shows next year and having their own director to lead this program. In correspondence that were sent from the Troy School District to the community,
something that was mentioned was the shift in interest. As a parent group for ATC, there's no evidence of this for the after school programming of ATC. The student interest is strong. The shows that have ran the past four years have amazing student participation on stage and behind stage. In addition, as parents, asking questions on the team call, It was stated that all of the opportunities would still be there for the Athens kids. This is not the case. The combined musical that runs at Troy High is not the same opportunity as running a musical for only Athens Students in their home theater.
ATC is rich in history including running a fall musical and a spring play. If Troy School District is really interested in expanding upon opportunities for collaboration that could mean adding a combined musical. Not taking away their individual musicals and putting it in place there. Please consider hiring Athens High School, their own theater director, to run two distinct shows at Athens High School. The interest is definitely there. The support is there. I'm skipping ahead. There's no new models that this new idea is gonna work by combining them. If we had to compare it,
it might be, like you said, comparing that our band teacher does the marching band after school. But that's two band directors at two high schools for two marching bands. None of that is combined. Theater's its own unique opportunity. So these comparisons don't even do it justice. But I just put it out there for food for thought. Just as mister Vickers said, his comfort's at Troy High. Athens students find comfort daily not only in Athens Theater, the large facility, the beautiful facility but also backstage in the choir room, downstairs in their dressing room,
and in the theater hallways. If your words are true and were said on growing this program, then combining Athens and Troy High School for a spring musical is not the avenue to pursue. Thank you for considering the role of directors. Thank you. After mister Donnebeck is, missus Janice Ray. My presence today is no slant on mister Bakers. I'm sure he's highly qualified. I'm a parent of a 24 and soon to be 26 grad. They began involvement with ATC in the second grade, starting at Castello and continued on through Larson. Having a community program such as ATC,
it draws in and gets the whole community together. A reduction from four shows across the district to three shows across the district, Any way you add that up, it's a reduction. It's not, you're not gaining anything. Civilization, when it's thriving, it has the aptitude to fund the arts and to nurture the arts. Any reduction in our participation of the arts is an admission of our failure to make these kids thrive. We have to give them the opportunity to what does it say in blue blue
bill that says, empower students to connect with their world, their community world, and the big world. Thank you very much. K. Thank you. After, missus Janice Ray is, missus Michelle Malicek. Hi. My name is Janice Ray and I have a current ninth grader at Athens. When miss Diplatto virtually attended the April Athens PTO meeting, she described one of the ways that we're trying to help with the gap in budget was by not replacing teachers when they retire. This approach may work for classroom settings as she also mentioned that enrollment is down, so retirements could open an opportunity to add students to existing classes.
However, I don't think that this same method works for an after school theater program. Emerging them with another school is not the answer. First, I wanna say that I'm deeply saddened that these changes are being driven by cost savings and doesn't appear to be in the interest of the ATC students. Secondly, the communication regarding this change was very poor. ATC students and parents were the last to know, some finding out from Troy High students after it was announced at a Troy High awards banquet. When we finally received a communication with the district, it was very vague and left the door open to a lot of interpretation and false information being spread. The communication specifically said Athens and Troy will move to a collaborative theater model.
My assumption and I'm guessing others was that the programs were combining. We then received another district communication stating concern about recent public statements and have caused confusion and frustration among families and goes on to state that ATC is not being dissolved and that the program will remain based at Athens and productions will be held at Athens. This completely contradicts the first communication. Then there was a parent meeting held to discuss the changes and it was said that the musical will be combined between the two schools, but the play will be separate. So first the programs are being combined, then they're being kept separate, and now it's a combination of both. I wonder why there's so much confusion and misinformation.
Additionally, this seems to have been rolled out without a plan. In the parent meeting, it was brought up by multiple parents, the issue with transportation, with having the musical at Troy High. It was said that they are looking to the possibility of buses, but nothing's been finalized. There's no guarantee that that's going to happen. There were other issues brought up around being able to participate in sports and other clubs while doing the musical, which was doable when all were held at their home school. Now that a t c ATC students will have to report to another school, this option may not be available, which takes away opportunities from ATC students. Thank you. K. Miss Michelle Malashek and followed by miss Michelle Taylor.
Okay. Should I just go ahead? Yep. Okay. Good evening. My name is Michelle Malzic. I'm a parent of a child with dyslexia in the Troy School District as well as a former educator. I'm here tonight to express a concern and highlight an opportunity. While our educators are doing their best with resources available, there's a critical need for expanded training and support to meet the diverse needs of all students, especially those with learning differences like dyslexia. Despite the Michigan Dyslexia Handbook being available for several years, its full recommendations have not yet been put into practice. To support my child, I had to seek structured systematic literacy instruction with the code emphasis approach outside of
the school day. Our district must take further steps to ensure these evidence based practices are available to all students within the school system. Right now, there is a powerful opportunity through section 35 m, which will provide 87,000,000 funding that can also be used for professional development, high quality instructional methods, and stronger intervention systems. These resources are meant to help districts meet rising expectations and improve student outcomes for students like my daughter, particularly in literacy and support for students with dyslexia. Now is the time to take advantage of this funding for professional development.
To date, the district has not communicated a clear plan to implement additional professional development for LETRS training. I strongly urge the Troy School District leaders to pursue this funding proactively. Another concern is the lack of meaningful parental involvement in the recent instructional decisions surrounding the writing curriculum. During the curriculum adoption process, parents were invited to only attend one informational meeting at the end, and they were sent a short survey. Input was requested at the very end. Parents were an afterthought. Families should be valued as partners from the beginning,
not consulted at the end. I ask that you wait to adopt a core curriculum and that you fully engage parents at every step of the curriculum adoption process. Reading and writing are skills that are intertwined and are that students and families deserve better. Thank you. Miss miss Michelle Taylor followed by mister Chris Taylor. Hi. My name is Michelle Taylor. My son, Braden, is a freshman at Athens High School. He's here tonight. He has a biology exam tomorrow, but he's been here tonight, and this is important to him, and that is why I'm here.
He is a member of the Athens Theatre Company. I listened in on the informational hearing held by miss, Deepalato. The informational meeting, as you can see, unfortunately, has left us more concerned and raised more questions than it answered. I wanna first state that this is not about mister Vickers. I've heard amazing things from Troy High parents about him. It's about us having our own theater director. This is about opportunity, especially for half Athens High School students. Miss DiPelato's comments that Troy High and Athens currently share other teachers is not the
reassurance that she believes it to be. Her all her comments have told me is that Troy schools are cutting and continuing to cut their arts programs. I am concerned about classroom opportunities, especially at Troy Athens. I am also concerned about the transportation after school for students participating in the musical in the spring. It's said, who's paying for it? We just sat through your budget meeting. Who's paying for this bus that potentially will go from Athens to Troy High? Has anyone discussed logistics at all? They haven't. They just made a plan and said we'll figure it out later.
So thank you for listening to me. Have a good night. Thank you. Mister Chris Taylor followed by missus Emily Byrne. Good evening. Chris Taylor, resident of the city of Troy, and I was told I would have two minutes. I will add one minute as it comes to an end. Okay. It doesn't have a two minute button. Sorry. Okay. Resident of the city of Troy and father to a freshman at Troy Avenue. I would also like to thank the board using your own words, the amount of students we had here. Most of them have their first appointment tomorrow morning, in about less than eight hours. Just to echo my wife's point, there is no plan for transportation. I think that's been very apparent this evening.
More so, when you look at trying to grow the class size and the class interest with the theater department, I don't understand how that is going to be capable when you are now limiting the amount of classes that you will be offering. And following along with the slide that you showed where you have the decrease in the participation in the class, if anybody talk to the students that did it in the twenty three, twenty four year and were no longer able to do it in the twenty four,
twenty five year, Was that because of scheduling? Was that because of more AP classes? Has there been any consideration to maybe we need to offer at different times during the day, not just less, less opportunities? Another point that was made by the assistant superintendent, was touting the qualifications of mister Vickers and the ability to handle teaching it teaching it both schools and running the theater department of both schools. Well, that is great, and I will echo my wife's point. This is not about mister Vickers.
What is plan b if he leaves? There does not seem to be any sort of follow-up plan. If he leaves, are you going to hire one theater director or are we now back to trying to hire two? And if this is a cost saving measure, then please say so. But also remember that the next time you come to us asking for a new bond. Missus Emily Burns followed by mister Joe Furlato. Good evening. My name is Emily Burn, and I'm a Troy resident, parent, and a teacher. I'm here in support of adopting the writing units of study. The writing curriculum committee used their expertise to dissect each potential curriculum in order to
see if it would meet our high one choice standards. They overwhelmingly decided that the writing units of study is what is best for our district. I trust their opinions in this matter because they are the specialists in the field of education. I also trust my own experience. Over the past two years, my first rate daughter has blossomed into a wonderful writer. In fact, it's her favorite subject. She comes home with her writing samples and I laugh out loud at them. She details real life events with thoughtful reflection and insight. Not to mention, the parent survey came back with 90% of the hundreds of participants agreeing that their
child's writing improved to some degree. So there you have it. This seems like a no brainer. But if I haven't convinced you, please at least do your research and your homework. Are these studies on the topic funded by a reputable and by a source? Are the opinions you are hearing about from TSD families? After all, if you look hard enough on the Internet, you will find someone who agrees with your opinion. So please don't get confused by circulating posts or flyers being passed out at children's sporting events or spam messages that come to your personal phone on Sunday at night.
Tactics like these are designed to distract you from the objective well researched conclusions of those actually educating our district. I hope this board is, is capable of making an impartial decision as elected officials such as yourselves must account for the needs of the district, not unethical personal vendettas. Please live up to your stated goal number two. Partner with the members of the TSD community in support of public education. I ask, when this topic is up for vote, will you be a partner? Thank you. Thank you. Next, mister Joe Ferlato followed by mister Joseph Haas.
My name is Joe Ferlito, and I'm a parent of a kindergartner in Troy Schools. I moved to Troy because of this district's reputation for excellence. And if I had known what I knew now what I don't know about the district's approach to literacy, I may not have made that same decision. Unfortunately, I'm not alone. I've heard this sentiment echoed by many other parents lately. As we heard today as part of Public Act 146, an approved list will be released in January and the Michigan Department of Education released the list of 35 ms, recommended literacy curricula and early intervention programs yesterday. Not surprisingly, Troy's current curriculum was not on that list. Now that list sets the table for what will be,
on the list in January, presumably something that will be similar as what we heard today. Potentially changes but definitely similar. The writing curriculum current currently being piloted doesn't align with any of those state recommendations for '35 m either. In my opinion, this district seems to suffer from a smartest person in the room mindset. Board often says we trust the recommendations of our expert of our experts. Forgive me if I don't share that trust, especially when so many other experts disagree, experts around the country, experts in Michigan, including the Michigan Department of Education, and experts in other leading districts that are reaching very different conclusions. Doctor Machesky,
you've said that this writing curriculum is not an either or but a yes and, that it could supplement one of the recommended core programs and but, honestly, that sounds nice, but there are other options that integrate far better with the state's recommended programs. It's highly questionable whether this pilot writing curriculum is a supplemental fit at all. Regardless, most of your questions to doctor Saint Martin today indicated that you'd like that many of you would like to follow the minimum requirements by the law. Let me offer you a golf analogy. People ruin their scores with what's called an anyway shot. That's when you walk up to the ball with the wrong club, realize it's not the right choice,
but for whatever reason, you hit the shot anyway. It's a small decision, but it wrecks around. Don't let this writing curriculum be your anyway shot. You know it's not the right fit. Don't push forward out of convenience or pride. Choose the right club and take the better shot. Thank you. After mister Joseph Haas is let me read that. Newcomb. I'm sorry. I can't read what the first name of. My name is Joe Haas, Athens High School, class of 1991. I no longer live within the school district boundaries, but grew up here for nine years of public education, including all four years of high school.
For two of those years, I I participated in the Athens Theater Company without taking theater courses. For fifty years, the ATC hasn't just taught a group of students how to put on a performance at a minute past eight. It's helped them become better people. It's taught them intangibles like teamwork, self confidence, and loyalty. And once you join, it doesn't just become a part of you, you become a part of it. The suggestion to rotate future musical productions is penny wise and pound foolish. For every current and former Athens Student and their parents and guardians whose blood,
sweat, and tears made this program into a model that can be emulated by every high school that strives for excellence. Setting aside the logistical challenges for students, while one year may allow a larger cast and crew, future plays effectively risk taking away chances for them to participate in an extracurricular activity that delivers pound for pound, value for the dollar, 1 of the best opportunities for self improvement beyond the classroom. I understand that decreased enrollments and reduced budgets require tough decisions, but to take a blade to a program that devolves dozens of students from all
grade levels and all walks of life and is folly for a district that prides itself on not just excellence, but well roundedness. I was lucky enough to have the Athens Theatre Company touch me as a student thirty decades ago. Please keep the light going. Thank you. K. Newcomb I'm I'm sorry. I couldn't read your first name. And after Newcomb is, miss Serena Coker. My name is Alastair Newcomb. I am a 2020 Athens graduate, proud member of the Athens Theatre Company community, and was a former choir kid. So Athens Theatre Company and Chris and Manfredi were of the first people and areas where
I felt like I had a voice, especially at a time where I felt completely voiceless and completely vulnerable to everything I was bullied. I was and then I I guess I was bullied immensely. You cannot get rid of this community. There's I lost my shirt. Miss Serena Koka followed by, miss, Arashram Singh. Arashram Kosh. Yes. Hi, Singh. Thanks. Okay. The lack of transparency in this situation is concerning for many reasons and brings to question the amount of power that is on unchecked at an administration level.
Merging the extracurricular Athens Theater program with Troy Highs would disproportionately harm students at Athens and would take away opportunities from kids that need it the most. These kids, being those who aren't the most competitive and are just looking for something to do after school. I would know I was one of those kids. Even now, as a neuroscientist, my theater experience is the reason I succeed in communicating my science to the public and to adjudicators today. Making this program more competitive will essentially cut the program in half and become exclusive to those with the most time,
the most money, and the most resources. This directly refutes the TSD mission statement of providing each student the best opportunity to learn. If the combined show was really meant to provide more opportunities, it would be added in the summer. Athens would still get their own musical in their home theater. And while some administration may claim this move is out of financial necessity, the teacher who directs the extracurricular theater earns roughly 3.5 hun $3,500 per show. This is chump change compared to the rest of the budgeting you heard tonight, so I fail to understand how this could be a financial issue.
I am a taxpayer in Troy. We voted for you. I voted for several of you. You have been entrusted with the voice of the community, and that trust includes the responsibility to act as a check on administrative overreach. Yet here we are watching an irreplaceable educator be quietly pushed aside and a thriving program crushed. So I urge you to stand up for our students, our educators, and our values. Give Athens their own theater program, investigate the superintendent and administration's handling of this entire situation, and ensure that our district's future is not built on the dismissal of its past.
Thank you. Okay. Next speaker is miss After miss Singh excuse me. Is mister Lynn, Friesen? Good evening. My name is Harsimryn Korsing. I'm a proud graduate of the Troy School District and now a student at the University of Michigan. I'm also the daughter of an educator and an administrator, and I plan on career. Sorry. Excuse me. I plan on pursuing a career in education policy. I'm here because I care deeply about what kind of education we give to our youngest learners, and I speak today in strong support of the units of study curriculum. For the past thirteen years,
I've seen what good writing instruction can build. Confidence, critical thinking, empathy, and power. Power to tell your story. Power to understand the world. Power to change it. I wanna begin with what matters most. I am who I am today because my teachers didn't just tell me how to write and sound out words, they taught me how to think. They taught me how to write with purpose, revise with clarity, and communicate with confidence. It has enabled me to be successful in everything I pursue, whether that be drafting and proposing real policy to Detroit Public Schools or presenting before
state legislators. That is what units of study does. It treats students as instruments of change, not just test takers. The loudest critiques from come from advocates of a misunderstanding of science of reading, centered almost entirely on phonics instruction, on the belief that if we just drill decoding skills enough, comprehension will follow. That is not how learning works. Comprehension is not the product of decoding. It's the product of thinking, of vocabulary knowledge, of engagement, of background knowledge. Decoding without purpose doesn't create lifelong readers or confident writers.
Most of these critiques come from individuals who have no training in up to date curriculum design, literary instruction, or pedagogy. And while every parent is entitled to care, caring is not the same as knowing, and educators are the ones who truly know. Troy students are thriving. We're one of the most top performing Michigan districts. Our students excelled because our teachers use rigorous, thoughtful, research based curricula like units of some. The research show it works. The students show it works. Thank you. Okay. Mister, Friesen followed by miss Maria Charbaji.
Hello. I'm Sorry. This is for three minutes, so I'm just gonna summarize my main points. Okay. So I'm so ready. You can set the timer. K. I know you guys don't have don't have any jurisdiction over how ATC is run, so I'm not trying to convince you to be like, do it this way, do it that way. But you have administration over who's hired for the imprisonment of mister Freddie. And I would like to say that if mister Bickers is chosen to be the new ATC director, that I'm scared that our culture as JTC could get,
sorry. I'm scared. Could get left behind because a big part of the culture is tech dinners, which are is building opportunities for team bonding and inside jokes. And he does not plan on doing it that way. So I my my what I'm scared of is that if we don't have the chance to do those, we will not be able to properly be the ATC. We will be a secondary TTE or, Troy theater ensemble. And that's not anybody's fault, but I believe that if mister Rickers is chosen to be the new Athens Director,
our culture as the ATC with our energy and our hustle and our risk in our right, it will be left behind. And it's really, really sad because this is a really big part of my life, and I really want to be able to because the tears are not from, me being sad. It's from me being very nervous, so don't worry about that. And since I have time, I just wanted to say that the Troy Athens, classes are different than the Troy Athens Theater Company because I don't I don't I'm not in any of those classes. I do, like, ceramics and painting, and I'm still here. So looking at the enrollment in,
Troy Athens classes, it's should not be a deciding factor for the enrollment in theater ATC classes because it is very important to me. I don't even have any of those classes. So please take that into account when you are looking at the enrollment that is not enrollment to the to the HCC. Thank you. Thank you. So was this was that heard? No. Miss Maria Charbaji followed by miss Vanessa Malushi. Hello. My name is Maria Charbaji, and I'm currently a sophomore at Athens High School and a part of the Athens Theater Company. Before I start,
I'd like to clear up some misinformation I've heard being spread. We do not hate mister Vickers nor the Athens nor the Troy Theatre Ensemble, and we show respect for both. The second piece of information that I've heard is that regarding our current director, Kristine Anne Ferdie. Of course, the use of her replacement is very upsetting, but we've come to terms with it. Our goal is not to get her rehired as we understand that cannot and is not going to happen. However, we would like our own and sole director. Elaborating on this, I would like to talk about the unfairness of advantages given to mister Vickers throughout the hiring process.
Upon doing our own risk research on the collective bargaining agreement or the CPA produced by the Choi Education Association as well as the Choi School District, we have found some inconsistencies. At the virtual parent meeting last Thursday, assistant superintendent Christine Diplata mentioned that because he's going to be your next theater teacher, mister Vickers is given the first right of refusal. Missus De Plata also states at the parent meeting that the job was never posted and privately awarded to mister Vickers, which contradicted what she said today. It also states article 37.1,
all new or recently vacated schedule c clubs shall be posted. Looking later in the document, we could see play director is listed under schedule c. Nowhere in the contract does it claim that that the in school subject teacher refuses first right of refusal. I would also like to note that this that the decision of merging the companies was supposedly in production long before we or our current director were aware of them. And even when they came out, we were the last to know. We believe as students of the FNC or company that hiring mister Vickers is unethical and that the board of education should should considering should should considering hire someone else
to be the sole director of the Athens theater company and that the job should have been publicly posted as stated in the CBA. One last thing I would like to make is Thank you. Miss Vanessa Malushi followed by miss Charlotte Sherman. Hello. My name is Vanessa Malushi. From the beginning, we haven't had good communication with information being relayed to us in what we feel is a very vague and last minute manner. We wanna have a strong community with the ability to properly communicate and work as a team because that's what's vital to success. What's made this a very frustrating experience for parents and students of the ATC was
the unclear and quick change we weren't prepared for and didn't have a voice in. That's why we want to make our voice heard now because we aren't sure it will ever be. Along oh, many emails have been sent by parents and students alike and no responses. This further adds fuel to the fire. Oh my god. Because, because we never got a follow-up in the form of a personal message or when we did get a message sent out to the community as a whole, we it only scratched the surface. We were never given the opportunity to ask for middle ground. Clear communication ensure ensures that messages land exactly where they're intended and understood accurately.
But feeling we weren't given that in our only follow-up email explaining the future plans, we now ask what is the next step, not just for the ATC, but for how we're gonna communicate to avoid this problem and frustration in the future. We wanna we want closure, and we know that it isn't too late to make a change. Will you please take what we've said into consideration and see how the community feels about this change for the future? Because change can always be good, but you need to understand where we're coming from asking for a second separate director. Because slapping our label on every show we do and saying,
oh, well, you have your own company just won't be a satisfactory solution for us. Thank you for your time. Miss Miller Sherman followed by miss Anna Regal. Good evening. My name is Noah Sherman, and I'm here to speak on behalf of students who believe in the importance of keeping with the ATC at Athens. I'm a freshman at Athens High School, and although I have not been here for a very long time, I feel like working with the ATC has really connected me to other people who made me feel like I was really at home. My passion for theater grew during middle school, but I never had the opportunity to join since all my classes were both.
I saw a strike in the fall, and I immediately thought I want to be there and perform. So I decided to do the spring play, God's favorite. Once I joined ATC, I made so many friends that I really care about and love. I personally think that student matinees is what really brings students to join and to see how the shows are put on so they can also want to go up there and be on stage. With matinees gone and being performed at Troy High, lots of students lose opportunities to perform in front of their peers and for other students at Athens. This seems really unfair not only to the ATC, but to the students at Athens that look forward to seeing these matinees every single
year. Mister Ricker told us in the student meeting that Athens will not be getting matinees at least for the musical. An Athens Student mentioned, I don't go to the place. I don't find them interesting, but I like the musicals more. We're supposedly combining due to low interest with the goal of increasing company numbers. However, Athens will Athens will have an opportunity to put on a show that brings a lot of students. We want to grow our company by taking away one show by taking away the one show that students can for sure to we're not effectively achieving that goal. Thank you. Thank you. Missus Anna Riegel followed by miss Bella Ray.
Alright. We couldn't hear you. Can you repeat that? I'm sorry? I wish I could hear you. Oh, miss Bella Rae is next. Go ahead. I joined Athens Theatre Company because my friends had the idea too after seeing Shrek and because of the things I'd heard from people who watched the student matinee and that were in the play. It's also worth mentioning my own personal passion for theater. I can say from experience, anyone who has joined Athens Theatre Company has planned on staying. In Shrek, more than 50 people were involved in the play. In God's Favorite, there was over 40. I'd like to add before continuing the class is different from ATC,
and the enrollment numbers are separate. And considering the fact we're talking about the company, I feel it's important I added that. The only reason there was a smaller cast in our recent play was due to a mix of the spring play always being smaller and our intended cast being busy at the end of the year. It's also important to note that the play had less roles than Shrek as well. And all the individuals in our most recent play were planning on coming back in the fall. Enrollment has not been an issue within the company. We are not we have not been seeing a huge decline or a shift as miss Montante explained in the email when it comes to ATC.
And saying that there has been is just wrong, especially because of the impact it's had on so many and because of how many people have shown interest in this company. I've personally had people approach me asking questions about how to join. There doesn't seem to be a good reason to combine the companies considering the kinds of inconveniences and lost opportunities that me and my community members have expressed. We've recently been informed that a couple ATC cast members have been emailed by TTE discussing their placement in cast in the cast of the spring musical. Auditions have not yet happened.
It is not fair to the rest of our cast members who have who haven't been shown in a proper light, to tell someone that they have a role. It's especially upsetting considering how mister Bickers ensured us fair auditioning system. That promise was broken. K. Thank you. Miss Bell. Hello, Ray, followed by mister William McFarland. Hello, members of the board and those of you taking time out of your day to hear our voices. As recent as a few weeks ago, I had incredible relationships with a handful of Troy Theatre ensemble members. However, due to this recent situation, those relationships have nearly disintegrated. In an informational email sent out to one Troy,
miss Montante noted, we are excited about the opportunities for students across Troy to come together for larger district wide events, something many students have expressed interest in. Upon speaking with multiple TTE members, one explained to me that a number of them believe we are stuck up and that we don't care that Vickers saved our theater department. It was also mentioned that the original emotion toward us was annoyance because of Athens, and how that annoyance grew once the petition and plans to talk to the school board came out. On the other side of that, Athens Actors have expressed some concerns about this collaboration taking place in the spring.
One noted, I've always had trouble with people talking about me behind my back. Especially with all this drama going on, I know that's going to happen again, and I don't know if I can handle this, as theater was a sort of safe place for me. Another said, I'm scared that we will be the Athens kids. The members of Troy Theatre Ensemble have been complaining about ATC's reaction to the situation, saying we aren't giving them a chance and are just rude and angry, while meeting us with hostility and anger. Based on this, why should we have any reason to believe their feelings will change? These are the real voices of the students the district claims have expressed interest in the collaboration. We are being spoken for,
and it's not fair. Has anyone expressed this interest directly? How many emails have been received from parents and students alike regarding this interest? How many emails regarding disinterest or dissatisfaction? We were never asked how we felt. All this for student interest, while some actors are looking at other shows to take part in at outside companies. Thank you. Mister William McFarland followed by missus, Clarice Harwood. Hello. My name is William MacFarlane, and I am a member of both the Athens Theater Company and FESPY and Troop three seven two nine. And on behalf of both organizations,
I'd like to speak upon an issue that we find most concerning, that being transportation. When it was announced that the Athens Theater Company and Detroit Theater Ensemble would be merging next spring, the Douay Niz, it was announced that there would be bus fares to transport members of the eighth TTC from Athens to Troy Hopney. However, there are approximately a large number of members of the ATC who drive. And because of this, they must drive from Athens to Troy High, and it takes around twelve minutes, and it uses approximately 0.18 gallons of gas to go from Athens to Troy High.
Multiply this by the amount of rehearsals and tech week, and you get quite a costly schedule for students who drive. And there has been no announcement of any gas money or gas change. And when it was, there was no confirmation on it. So my concern is that there has been no accommodations from Detroit School District to help the students of Athens who have to drive from Athens to Troy High for rehearsal. Listen. If this thing were to go along, I would prefer that we would be treated equally. Look at the pillars. The pillar is to attend to the social,
emotional, and physical well-being of all. Are we really attending to that if we don't provide equal support for both parties? TriHard comes from an affluent part of the community. They can more than afford to do this. I feel like what we need, if we were to go ahead and do a command show next spring, is proper support for all. Because accommodation is important. I think we can all agree that. And if the TSD could do this instead of leaving us in the dark when it comes to transportation, that would be most helpful. That is all I'm asking for.
Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you, miss Clarice, Harwood followed by missus Annalise Miller. I'm not sure if she's here. Hi. I'm Clarice Harwood, parent of a second grader. I'm also an educator for over twenty years. As of yesterday MDE released its section 35 ms literacy funding list tied to $87,000,000 available to help school support reading success using proven methods I have always taught in districts that have an ELA core and writing couple TSD is seeking to enhance a separate writing curricula,
a hundred $80,000 to be exact just to add grammar and writing to what they're already using. Teachers can do that on their own. They don't need to read a script to do that. During the last workshop meeting, one of the board members asked why the teachers want to continue using units of study. The answer was choice and that word came up four times. Most of these students are six to 10 years old at best. The only choice they should have at this age is the choice in the kind of text structure they are going to apply in their writing or the choice in
the genre of book to read to build background knowledge as doctor Martin mentioned and supplement the topic they have been reading about in that module. Choice in voice and style of writing. Choice with which mentor text they want to emulate. What they need from the age of six to 10 is guidance, structure, and a framework for their writing coming from the reading. Educators study, have advanced degrees and continue their education to keep up with the evolving industry just as I hope and expect my doctors to do.
Education is no different. Now back to that 35 ms grant, the deadline to apply is fast approaching. Our neighboring districts such as Birmingham and Rochester are already piloting the cores on the list that came out. If TSD does not take advantage of this 35 grant, our TSD teachers will be at a disadvantage. Also, the next time the district asks voters to pass a bond, this will be remembered. We know bonds don't pay for curriculums, but this grant can free up money. Thank you. Thank you. Is, miss Annalise Miller followed by missus Erica Brodderdorf?
Good evening. I just wanted to begin with recognizing how dedicated these students are. I had the opportunity to go to the Larson Band performance, the award winning Larson Band performance, and take three sixth graders out to ice cream while they sat patiently waiting for their opportunity to speak. I'm a member of this community. I have three students in Troy Schools. I'm also an educator in a district that has a robust theater program, and my husband and I are both active members of the professional theater community in
the Metro Detroit area, and I've worked as a creative artist for the Detroit, creative creativity project. Combining the two programs will limit the students at Athens. When you combine a show, there will be less opportunities for students to earn parts. There will be fewer opportunities for crew members. It is a limit for our students and we need to recognize that. Combining students for one show sounds like a great idea, but when you're subtracting the second show that should be there right,
it is going to be a hardship for them. Students have to earn their way up to being upperclassmen to get a chance to be a bigger part. We're combining two very large schools into one show and that really limits opportunities for them and it limits their community. Look at how dedicated they are, that they work together, they created meetings together, they conference together, they've handled this like very, very mature adults whereas I think I was a bit more spicy when I heard what was going on for my son and he handled it really,
really well. He's a ninth grader, it's a viable community there and you really, really shouldn't limit their opportunities. And we see this combination, and they, more importantly, see this combination as a situation that will limit them. Thank you. Missus Erica Broderdorf followed by, mister Alex Karpap Karpowitz. Hello. Thank you so much for letting us all speak. My name is Erica Broderdorf. I'm an alumni of Athens, the class of '87. And, I was heavily involved in, the theater company all four years.
Most of the other speakers have kind of made points that I was planning to make, but I feel as someone that does not have a child in the, school district and, is this far out from my time there, it's still very important to me. And I think that, everyone should know that. And it should, it should continue. I think Troy has always been very heavily, sports oriented. That was not me. I tried. I tried, soccer. I tried, volleyball. I tried cheerleading. I didn't make it on anything. And then I found drama,
and that was my thing. And so I really think it's important to give all the children as many opportunities as they can. Les Mis is a great show. It's a huge cast, but I know from my own personal experience, that that's not the case in many, many, place. And I still do work in the theater. I work, downtown at the Detroit Opera as the wig and makeup crew leader. And even in in the professional world, you know, roles are very limited. I just think, it's very shortsighted. I think, hopefully, things can can be resolved somehow. I know that they would never consider merging the soccer teams.
So I I think it's unfair to, consider that that these kids should deserve that sort of treatment. I think that's kind of it. I had a lot more to say, but, maybe I'll just ignore it. But in any event, thank you for the opportunity, and thanks for staying so long. Thanks. After Alex is doctor Jen Anderson. Good evening. First, I'd like to commend the ATC students and parents for sitting through two and a half hours listening to presentations provided to the board to have their voice heard. Please remember during the next school board election that after you sat here for two and a half hours to have your voice heard and clapped for your colleagues, you were seen as an annoyance and shushed.
This is how certain board members perceive you. You gave them your time, but they can't give you your time and space to express yourself as in a community, and they just want to get through this and get home. Since I only have two minutes, I skipped an email reply from doctor Machesky prior to the May meeting which read, we are deeply committed to best practices in curriculum design, selection, and implementation. We agree wholeheartedly that decisions around curriculum must go beyond popularity preference. They must be grounded in evidence and aligned with strategic goals with a clear focus on improving outcomes for all students. That said, the true impact of any curriculum lies not in just its selection but its implementation. But during the May,
very few of the curriculum selection components that Doctor. Machesky referenced could be found in the presentation. Specifically, One, there was a single slide at the end of the presentation, slide 28, that outlined curriculum implementation. Curriculum implementation is a central component of curriculum success as Doctor. Machesky suggested. It is surprising that curriculum implementation was not featured more prominently and detailed more broadly in the presentation. Two, unfortunately, there was no information presented for how the proposed curriculum will improve outcomes for all students, more specifically, how this curriculum will eliminate COVID learning loss. In 2014, '20 '15,
third grade DLI proficiency stood at eighty four point six percent. As of twenty twenty three twenty twenty four this has dropped to sixty three point two percent, a twenty one percent drop. This is an all time low for Troy School District. I keep hearing about experts, so why did a community member need to point out there was a writing curriculum M STEP data available after the May 6 workshop meeting, which was subsequently shared by Doctor. Micheski tonight? And yet the writing or curriculum gaps that were shared by Doctor. Micheski this evening showed a declining trend, even post COVID. Twenty four was worse than '23, and '22 was worse and '22 was even worse than that.
And yet this is somehow promising. And while COVID was obviously the precipitating factor for academic achievement, we need to keep going on and get a point. Doctor. Jen Anderson followed by Mr. Nicholas Fragnoli. Hi, Lauren. Thanks for listening. I'm really proud of our students. They're so proud, and I think that's a testament to our writing units of study that we have. And I wanna speak about two other students who, like, are, formal former Hamilton Hawk, Amina Ahmad. And her writing was actually her elementary writing was actually used to inspire changes in
her district, such as creating a culturally responsive care calendar. And it's been shared with staff and students across Troy and shared with the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit. And, I also wanna speak about her brother, the late Bilal Ahmad. And they learn they both learn that their voices mattered. And just last year when they're only 12 and 13 years old and students students at Boland Park Middle School, they were inspired to share their writing at a Troy City Council meeting where they waited almost three hours, as you did today, to speak up against current injustices in the world, and they spoke up for people that cannot.
They spoke for a ceasefire in Gaza for peace, for love, and their speeches are inspiring. They're writing beautiful, so much kindness and purpose. And their parents have said time and time again that along with the family and faith, that Troy Teachers help them become who they are. Our students don't learn this by filling out worksheets or working and spelling workbooks. They know their voices matter by writing volumes to authentic audiences, honing their craft with feedback. Amina and Bilal understood the power of the written word. They spoke to city council and shared their beliefs, and now we have a timeless video,
a legacy of Bilal's heart, one that we could cherish forever. Amina told me that she will keep writing to keep healing. What role models for us all, we're so proud of our students like Amena and Bilal and all of our students. And we want our children to keep writing, keep creating, and keep inviting us into their lives. Students, you matter, and your voices matter. So please vote yes on adopting the right units of study. Thank you. Mister Nicholas Fargoli, are you here? I'm not speaking. Okay. And then, miss Mikaela, I would like to say hello to all of you.
I was class of 2019 graduate. Doctor. Milton, I have here as principal. What I would like to say is what you guys don't see here are TTE members. You all you see is ATC members sitting here fighting for their right for their musical. Now why is that? Was it that TTE was promised an advantage over ATC? As clearly pointed out, Athens did have a combined choir teacher for both schools. We lost out on opportunities as a Athens choir with a new director taking over. Would you guys like to afford the ATC the same opportunity and give them their
own teacher? Because as many people have previously stated, you're losing out on a lot of opportunities in the band, the orchestra, and other things that go in than just the actors for each show. Please take into consideration those students as well because you do harm to them too. Thank you. Alright. That, concludes, public communication. Can I get a chance to put my name on your name as well? Sure. Thank you. Please identify yourself, though, when you come up. Thank you for your consideration. My name is Emily Follett Monoroso. I am a 2005 graduate of Athens High School.
As a student, Kristin Manfredi and the ATC provided me with an opportunity to develop public speaking skills and confidence in front of others as I just displayed. And those skills have served me in my career. I'm now the executive director of a national nonprofit, and I credit much of my success to skills that I developed on stage in my high school years. Importantly, I recall that as a student, I and my peers' ability to participate in after school activities was at times limited by our ability to access reliable transportation. Cars, car insurance, and gas money are not universally available to high school students or their parents,
especially in the Athens district as compared to the Detroit district. It's reasonable to conclude that transportation complications created by taking this newly blended Detroit School District musical infrastructure off-site will limit participation by Athens Students whose families are less economically advantaged. Transportation and resulting participation issues aside, combining the THS and AHS, theater programs, even if just for the musical, will necessarily decrease the real number of opportunities Troy Students from both schools will have to access robust roles that will allow them to develop critical communication and social engagement
skills. This is a problem, especially in a real world working landscape where employers, myself included, are increasingly noticing and reporting that young people entering the workforce across the board have decreased confidence and ability to communicate effectively in person and over the phone. Robust theater programs where these skills can be developed are a solution to this to this problem. In conclusion, fewer students able to travel to participate and fewer roles to fill is just so counterintuitive. Troy students deserve for these programs to be bolstered and invested in rather than streamlined
and cut. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you, for your public comment. I appreciate the respectfulness that you started to show towards the end. Again, it isn't that we're trying to stifle your enthusiasm, but this is a meeting where we need to get, allow people to have their opportunity to speak. Okay? So with that, I'm going to move on to any other, that the board will have. Stephanie, anything? I would say thank you to all of you who have spoke this evening. We appreciate and hear all of your feedback.
Also, I wanted to get a quick update. I know at the beginning of our terms, we talked a little bit about since we talked about budget today, about a board treasurer and, the finance angle. And one of our assignments was to start to reach out to other boards. So when I've been at the open schools board, workshop sessions, I've been talking to other board members about, do you have a treasurer, where they do, and most do have a treasurer, like, was reported to us. And an interesting development that I heard about that I wanted to share and kinda put on a a later docket to talk about is the idea of a finance committee,
including board members and administration. That's something that, almost all the other districts that I talk to said. Like, oh, yeah. We have a charter review signed checks. But most important piece is based on the finance committee that has regular detailed updates on financial things. So we need to make sure we talked about that, and budget season has something to think about in the future. Okay. Thanks, Scott. Thank you. Mhmm. Ms. Park? I'll be brief because we've been here for so long. But, thank you to everyone who's sat through this very long workshop. Over the weekend, I attended my first graduation ceremonies for Troy High,
Athens, and IA, and it was very, moving to see and hear all the success that our kids are, everything that they're accomplishing in our school district. It was very inspiring. I also would have had a senior graduating this year, so it was especially touching to be able to hand, diplomas to friends, friends of mine their kids. So that was a wonderful thing. We have one more graduation to go to on Wednesday for TCCHS, and that's just as exciting to me. And I think what we have to look forward to for
everything that we heard about all the, hold on. Sorry. My brain is starting to turn off. I do want you all to know that we do hear your concerns. We do. We're not just kind of letting it fly over our head. We do take it all to heart. Okay? We all sit on this board concerned for this community as well, and we just I just wanna make sure that you know that we hear you. So I took all of your words to heart, and I just thank you for sitting through this long meeting and waiting patiently to have your voice be heard. So thank you. Margaret? Just thank you as well to all our community members that came out for a
variety of reasons. Your, input is always welcomed. And I just real briefly, and this is down the road as we, you know, I know we're in the continual process of working at MTSS and I mean, it's at one point, you had said, we would kind of follow-up with the the state complaint. There were some actions that needed to be taken around that. I think some some time has passed. I don't think anything has to be in place until fall. So just making sure that we get that on, someplace between now and the fall. Okay.
Thank you. I don't have much. I just wanted to, again, thank all the speakers today. I know, we had a lot of business to go over that was especially important as well. But, your your concerns are just as important. So I'm glad that you were able to stick around. And I apologize that you have finals tomorrow that you have to stay up. But good luck on that and good luck on your last week at school. But thank you very much for showing up. Appreciate it. Thank you everybody for coming and and speaking. I usually have more, but it's late. I will be attending the government relations committee meeting, tomorrow for the Oakland County School Board Association.
So I'll report on that, their June meeting. Okay. Great. I don't have anything additional to add, but I do also want to thank each and every one of you who stayed so late and spoke to us and made sure that we believe you we hear you. Doesn't mean we always agree with everything you're saying, but we definitely hear you, and we take that into heart. I'm looking look for solutions that will help the situation along with solving the problem. So we'll do our best. Thank you. Doctor Vachevsky? Nothing other than that's been added. Look forward to TCCHS graduation tomorrow as well as Project Search on Thursday.
We'll be right back in this room, 10:00 on Thursday. If you wanna see a real, exceptional ceremony, you know, this place will be full and, there'll be a lot of, a lot of students. Very excited and a lot of tears. So, look forward to being there and, welcoming, our partners from, Corwell as well to that, to that graduation. So and I too thank our students for sticking it out tonight and their parents as well. Yeah. Okay. With that, again, I will also add my thanks. And, again, our intent was not to have to have you sit through two and a half hours. We did not do that purposely.
The business that the Board needed to get done tonight is critical for decision making, in our, in our June meeting. So, that's the reason why, you know, we, we focused that upfront. With that, we're going to adjourn this meeting. Our next meeting will take place here, in two weeks on, June 17, 07:00, and that will be a regularly scheduled board meeting. So with that, if there's no further business, we will adjourn and wish everyone a good night.