##VIDEO ID:C4ScXxadxek## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e h the time is 6:39 I'd like to call this regular Board of Education meeting to order the first item on our agenda is the uh roll call for those Board of Education members who are present trustee Goodrich would you please perform the roll call certainly Madam president truste Schindler trusty Fields trusty gainsley here trusty Townsen here trusty goodr I'm here vice president Lee here president Hawkins here we have all Board of Education members present next that takes us to the Pledge of Allegiance and at this time I would like to invite the members of the public the board and administration to join us in reciting of the Pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God with and for all next that takes us to the acceptance of the agenda is there a motion at this time to accept the agenda as presented Madame president vice president Lee move that the Board of Education accept the agenda as presented thank you a motion has been made by vice president Lee is there support for this motion Trust thank you uh all right so that motion was um supported by trusty Fields all those in favor I those oppose that motion carries next that takes us to um achievements Awards and recognition and at this time I would like to turn it over to Dr Zachary Ross thank you Madame President we are excited to have the homes Elementary School come today with their points of Pride and so we are just going to welcome you there because it's always you're always home at homes welcome homes um our principal was not able to be here today but we have a place he had to print intro on [Music] [Music] video here school like start right here in as soon as you walk into our school you see the homes hands of Pride wall last year in October we had our first four handprints of our first four Scholars who earned their handprints on the homes hands of Pride and as of November 21st we had two four 6 8 10 12 about 25 handprints we just put up four more uh last week and uh we are growing uh in our home's hands of Pride students and staff earn their handprints on the wall by by exhibiting the values of homes Elementary School and uh and by exceeding their growth goals for nwaa reading and math so we are excited to be celebrating all of our Scholars for doing those things each and every day at school new to this year we have new uh hoodies that students get that students earn when they also earn their hand involv get to walk around very proudly with their homes hands of Pride hoodies I'm going to turn it over now people who are all right Kathleen Miller I'm the culture and climate coach at Holmes Elementary School and I wanted to share a couple of things tonight but this particular outing was in the middle of about September 12th and we have a staff member on board I don't know if you know Crystal web but she had some connections to the Tiger game so she got tickets for all of the students to attend her she's also affiliated with a T-shirt and um company that also does hoodies so she uh we got purchased all of these t-shirts all the orange t-shirts are the students and the blue t-shirts are the staff and we were a able to get to the game for the first five innings and the children just had a f just a fantastic time it was a great celebration we were in groups we were able to walk the kids around the stadium had our pictures taken if you've ever been there you know they huge at around deck chairs that are there so the kids climbed into there and we got our pictures taken all around the stadium and just had a um I am Jessica Green I'm the media specialist over at home s year um we started something new when I came over we call it the home stem news Weekly News we PID it every Friday morning I play it and it includes um a recap of the week before what's happening next week shout out birthdays every third Friday we do a principal corner with m comes on and say whatever he wants to say and address the students um and reminders um we're going to be adding Spanish to it um so they'll either say a segment in Spanish or a Spanish word of the day we haven't decided what that will look like yet real and soon the fifth and fourth graders will be editing it theel rather than me doing it so there is a really um sort video just a little nit bit of what it looks like so it's not the full news but it shows you what's on it e what do you call what Mr Queen thank you Donald now for this week's [Music] principal my name is my name is so the students we go by grade level um I just got done with the fifth graders this week um and I'll start on the third graders and then we're rotate back around to um missal classes up and when we go back around the students will start editing but we end with the third graders when we come back to school in January yeah I put EV and anything in there from bloopers so when the fifth graders are gone they'll have a whole blooper real when the third grader starts so and they they love it they come down Miss green when you come do our class I want to be on announcement so they like it um and they love them they though oh yeah you you want Shir didn't show me though I didn't down M go ahead and Sh share what your I would like to talk about the news it's fun to have everyone see you on the projector and to find people we know on the news was one of my middle school students when I T I'm the one looking old hello everyone so I am Erica harro this is my first full year with homes steam Elementary as a student supports coordinator I work for a nonprofit organization uh communities and schools of Michigan I am so happy to be with homes coming into homes I don't did a lot I'm like the Care Bear there um it's been a lot so the store consists of good perks so coming to school it's a good perk to come to school to learn um ATT tent that part of attendance being safe being respectful being responsible so we have I uh started the PBIS Rewards app to where it's on our phones it's on our computers um we have we have QR codes at each's door for the teachers and we can just walk by if we feel like you know one of the kids oh they helped today or they were respectful they did this they did that we can go by market and then they'll come to the school store so in the school store I got a little bit of everything I got um I got Bluetooth headphones I got markers I got crazy funny pencils I got journals I got books I got coloring books I got um tablets let me see I got stress balls I got bikes the PS4 is the grand finale they have to have five ,000 points to get the PS4 so I have all the kids every day coming to Miss Erica like I'm saving my points I'm saving my points we want that PS4 we been we doing this we doing that so it's working it's working I um Donal and McDonald so me and Sh is kind of on a a one-on-one um let's see who gets more they get to pick who they want to have McDonald's with me or Mr shoot so yeah with the friends so when they earn the McDonald's that's 600 points is it did we take 500 points oh and we got a lot that's we got the school store Wednesday so uh yeah when they win they can also bring a friend so the them the friend and the grownup get McDonald's so it's a lot of perks um I enjoy them they make my day because I make they day um coming in like I said as a CIS in Michigan it it's a lot um like I said being the care Bearer is giving them the extra push in learning to be successful you know a lot of kids need that you know we never know what's going on in h front we never know what can be going on at school so you know they come and talk to me we sit down we laugh some just be like Miss ER I need a hug and some days I might need that same hug so it be a lot but I'm happy to be there with a lot more to come I'm I'm coming with so much that I can't wait to see the smiles because I enjoy it but yeah and being the coach coach having Erica and this particular is extremely helpful um especially to deescalate I the kids it might be disregulated it really does help um you know see and we're in the same room so we have the same room yeah we in the same we're in the same room but our offices next to us so a lot of times it's like if they can't see me it works for us so did you hear that sound that that's my app I just gave three points for so it's interesting because they get three points a day for just showing up to school and if you can't we started at mid-september but every child should have over 100 points now just for showing up every day so it's uh school's open the stores open Wednesday you want we've given out a few basketball kids have bought basketballs and um a lot of school supplies I said y today at lunch we have a microphone system like stores going to be open on Wednesday you might want to think about using your points to maybe buy something somebody something for the holidays you know so they can go [Music] through um the school store is cool because we earn points for meeting Expectations by being respectful responsible safe and attending school then we can use our points to buy cool stuff awesome Meg again look well our instructional coach was um going to present but she has other um things going on that she needs to be at so our school has what's called feev tutoring and there are7 students right now that are accessing and learning from this math tutor uh this is an online program it's done twice a week some students are the whole class is doing it and they Tuesdays and Thursdays for some classes and I believe it's Monday Wednesdays for other classes so the attendance rate right now is 69% of the students are sitting down and opening that up and doing this particular tutoring program the average is 75% of the exit tickets so that's not too bad we just started using this uh about a month and a half ago but the uh the average section so I have a little note here that I need to read so you can understand so um so basically for any child who has 20 plus sessions um with 11 participation points or more the average growth through this program is a year and a half so and we should far exceed that for many of our students so that uh 11 points is that 10.9 so you can see we are very close to that do you have any questions on the Fe tutoring good because I don't know if I get answer just culture um hi I'm Miss bidney I am um the steam coach over at homes Miss Lego was not feeling well so she could not be here um I'm going to talk about the flexible furniture for small group learning um the teachers in The Scholar ERS have all been really enjoying the um dry erase rainbow tables that we got at the school um they are used for their small group instruction time and it really has improved engagement it makes the lessons a lot more exciting kids are excited to work at the table and get to I mean everybody likes to write on tables right they're allowed to do it they get to use all the colors and stuff so um it really does help kids look forward to that small group instruction time and helps everything um a lot more fun all right so now we're talking about all things steam um I have to say Holmes has done an amazing job of embracing this very different way of learning and teaching um the scholars have really been blossoming with the ability to be more creative um they've been having a lot of fun they've been inventing new things and as you can see in some of the pictures they've been doing a lot of teamwork um they've been learning how to communicate they've been learning how to work together productively um they've been learning that their ideas and their their the dreams that they have about things that they could make can actually come to life by you know just putting some odds and ends together and constructing something new um and they've it's really helping with communicating a lot as well um we're also partnering with some organizations like Project Lead the Way and semis and with them we have a lot more to look forward to um with Project based learning and Outdoor Learning um especially coming in the spring and there are two major things that we would like to highlight um and that is the steam career Carnival that we had on November 14th we had at least 200 people um walking through our hallways and learning from um different career experts from all six career Pathways we had Hands-On activities they were all community members that came in um it was really really cool to see all these different people learning so many cool things and there was just so much joy and fun and laughter in the building that night and it was really awesome um and the second thing that we want to talk about is Lego robotics um we've been doing that since the beginning of November so it hasn't really been that long and they are really great it's been a lot of fun they're building and they are programming and they are um really gearing up for spring competition so we have Gavin again um and he has really been a huge part of the team he is very consistent and he is I would say our head engineer he has really pretty much built this whole robot that he's going to bring up and he would like to share his experience with robotics he's a fifth grer about yeah [Music] I wanted to join robotics so I can be an engineer when I grow up in robotics I have been learning to follow building instructions and work with other people we built a car together and we are programming it to complete tasks so we can be ready to compete in Spring thank you so they're just getting to the point where they're learning how to program right now nice and everything is done on Compu they give it the instructions and attachments will go to this and it will help move gather and do what it needs to do so much information online huge there's you know there's abundance an abundance of information out there so we were looking at different um additions that we could put on there to let them exchange their tools really easily but Gavin last Thursday created his own way to add on tools and stuff like that which was really great and it's that kind of creativity that is amazing to see from our from our Scholars [Laughter] [Music] part and we have that we have um our Spanish teacher has been using that as well so we trying to integrate Ste all thank you appreciate it board questions or comments yes oh for the principal okay thank you yes um I just want to say thank you to our homes staff um parents who have joined us um everyone who's here tonight and a special thank you to our home scholar Gavin for his presentation tonight let's give everyone from homes Elementary a round of applause next we have several other presentations so I'm gonna turn it back over to Dr Zachary Ross for our achievements Awards and recognitions um that we have thank you Madame President this uh next person was re already received the award at the WID I'd love for Miss to come stand while I'm talking and in honor of national come on up we want people to see who you are and and honor of national Head Start Awareness Month the WD awarded Miss use of the with the Washington County Head Start awareness award recognizing an exceptional individual affiliated with Head Start she loves her role within his start and is someone who has been at batty Early Learning Center since the building was opened in 2004 she's worked for ipsilanti Community Schools for 29 years and now is beginning to serve children in the program of the children that she had taught when she first started in her role she began her role at Fletcher then to Perry Early Learning Center and Elementary School and now at batty she speaks about her role with passion and commitment and prize herself in caring for children as though they were her own children to be in her presence is to know what it means when you love what you do you are not working it's your love there for um it is not work it is more than a job it's a calling youf is called to be the best version of herself and her role as assistant teacher and due to her longevity she is beholden by those who knows her I can tell you when I walk in the building like she comes we get I get usually a hug just like the student she is so passionate about her role and we just congratulate you and thank you for your service thank you so much I really appreciate it for recognition I haven't seen before you know this is my second time that they recognize me and I really appreciate it and I understand there's a lot of people behind me they can't get theog recognition after me like that because we haven't seen a lot or before that recognition for the teachers maybe some but you know we haven't seen a lot and I'm afraid that I'm appreciate it SL and thank you all for the recognition that you give us and a lot of teachers going to be encouraged by that thing when I go back tell them their story and you know the recognition that I always get it from you guys thank you so much and I appreciate it conratulations thank you so much Miss Yousef for your commitment dedication and unwavering support to our students in this district and to the entire Community well done congratulations next we will just recognize that the national special education day December 2nd special education day was first celebrated in 2005 which was the 30th anniversary of the individuals with disabilities Education Act idea president J J Gerald Ford signed the law on November 29th 1975 idea made education available to All American children and this day honors the progress that has been made in special education before Ida many individuals with disabilities receive little to no education schools were not required to make accommodations for children with disabilities while some states offered special uh schools the education and resources were not necessarily equal additionally many parents could couldn't afford to send their children away to a special school the law stipulated that children with disabilities had the right right to the same free education that every other child had access to between the ages of 3 and 21 there are 13 different areas where children may qualify under the idea for services Ida EA was instrumental in increasing graduation rates for students with disabilities at ycs we value our support staff and are grateful for all you do for our students I see some um of the members in the room if you all would just stand um just to be recognized today special uh support staff student support staff thank you for your thank you also we have National inter Scholastic Athletics administrators day December 15 on Sunday December 15 2004 we celebrate we celebrate a at atic administrators day at ipsan Community Schools we honor respect and value our athletic department we want to make sure we recognize the importance of providing quality experiences and opportunities for growth leadership and the development of young people through sport this would not be possible without the work of our athletic administrators directors coordinators and support staff thank you for all that you do for our students staff and Community I don't see any of them here but let's give them a round of of Applause and last but not least we would like to recognize um two special board members the Board of Education whiches wishes to recognize and thank trustee Meredith Schindler and trustee Jillian gainsley for their years of service on the ipsan Community Schools Board of Education we want to thank you both truste gainsley and truste Schindler for your service thank you for your support thank you for all that you've done on behalf of the students and the staff as well as this entire community and especially just a personal thank you um before we move on to our presentation I just would like to invite um any board members who would like to make any comments at this time I know that um this board is better because of trusty Schindler and trusty gainsley you have both left such an indelible mark on this community you have done so much to support the students the Educators and all the staff throughout this district and you have had an unwavering commitment to these kids these scholars in our school district it has been a long road we value you we appreciate you and we are certainly going to miss you thank you for all you have done and all that you will continue to do in your next chapter um Beyond this this work it's a it's hard work hard work but it's hard work so thank you for all you've done board members yes trusty C rich um as we prepare to welcome our newest board members I've been thinking a lot about the role that each of you had in um in supporting and being a resource for new board members certainly were for me when I was Discerning whether or not to run for the board and then as a new board member myself um so I really appreciate the the positivity and the um the care with which you've come to this role and the the way in which you've modeled and supported those of us who have joined the board since you so thank you for all that you've done yall looking at me any um I would just personally like to say I'm G miss my buddy we have Shindler and I we know our seats and so I really appreciate all of um just your positive attitude about everything uh the wealth of knowledge that you have especially I will never be on the policies committee because you knew those policies um I I just really enjoyed working with you um gainsley um you have a very tough role to f um don't nobody know nothing about tax more than gainley and millages and all of the other stuff so I I do appreciate um all that you have taught me while being in this role um I'm going to miss our looks like is this me no so um I do appreciate you so much um your friendship your kindness um I wish you much success and both of you much success in your next Endeavors um I'm still looking for my keychains wherever you go um yes and so I just I just know you all are going to go ahead and do great things and you will truly truly be missed um but we are so much better and I'm so glad that we were able to do what we did with you two here um so it was the right place at the right time we just really really um are going to miss you all so but thank you for your service and dedication to ycs and me too and um trusty James I'm going to miss you my neighbor I just said that I'm like my neighbor's going to be gone you know like she said we always know where our seats were you know we have our own have our own little thing that we do but again thank you for your service on both of you um I think that what we got done probably couldn't have been done without you guys you know so I truly appreciate that and I know that these next steps in your life and your new Endeavors is going to be like awesomeness and you know come back and visit us and um we're going to truly miss you and thank you again for your service for both of you please me now I'm trusty gang thank you you know it was rough coming [Music] in yeah but um we made it so thank you keep your head up good luck for all your future possibilities whatever you want to do you can do it girl you got this okay so thank you it was a pleasure working with you because you knew what you were doing and you helped us along so thank you very much all right Mar oh I'm sorry you know we got that respect thing going on here trust trust me soon oh girl thank you you know when I came in you helped me alone you know no judgment you know you was there you was the real thing and I appreciate it you know so it's GNA be all right you'll be all right we G be all right I'mma miss you too okay so good luck with you thank you you know so you two going to be missed okay but I know you going to bigger and better things all right you don't know about it's it's better it's better we gonna put that out there all right so good luck ladies you being missed okay thank you I everyone thank you and trusty gainsley I have never heard anyone describe a millage in such compelling detail and make it something you really want to make happen I it's incredible I've always thought like wow like how did how did she do that um because I was a treasur before you and I didn't I didn't grasp a quarter of what you get um so I just want to say it's been one of the biggest honors in my life to be part of this group um and what a difference like we've really this whole like look at this this is incredible guys like this is this is the work and it's happening and I mean you can't ask for more than that right I mean kids are thriving because of the work of the people in this room and and wow you know so thank you for letting me be part of it just thank you so much for your kind words and it's been truly an honor to work with all of you um over the last six years and um you know whatever portion thereof um I think when I came on to this board uh you know we went through some challenging times and I think when I came on this board though and and you know and Dr Zachary Ross also came on right around the same time as I did and um having uh you know this group of incredible women uh United behind and inredible woman superintendent has been just such a a great experience and truly it's so amazing to see how it pays dividends to for the whole district and for every student that we work with um and I'll also say thank you so much um to uh Meredith and you know just the the care and like the um the humanity that you bring uh even you know when there's tense moments I think we can count on you to be the one who's like you know the the most the the like love that exudes off of you is something that I just have deeply appreciated um since you guys have all already made fun of me for being a numbers nerd I'm GNA throw out a g to soapbox for the last time here but I'm just reflecting back on like what has happened in the last six years and what we have been able to accomplish and the things that when when I came into this board at the beginning of 2019 never were things that I would have imagined right like I came in and said yeah like we're going to reduce the debt that that you know ifny was paying out $2 Mill million doll a year in debt service and that seemed like an absolutely impossible thing and we have done it yes we are like that I came on and we were talking about whether we were ever gonna get back to 4,000 students we are at 4,000 students people are seeing the success they are coming to this District we've got you know International recognition with the cognia award of the Excellence of student achievement that's happening in this District we are one of the only districts in the entire state of Michigan that has had two districts merge and then actually been successful that's right so this is the blueprint we've done the hardest work that anyone could possibly have been asked to do with it with with odd stacked against us right with the the not having the Promises Kept in terms of that debt relief and we have made it right and we've made it work and we've made it work for our students so I'm just so incredibly proud of this team and this board and this entire district and all of the Educators and the students who have made all that happen um and I'm uh really uh sad to leave and also really happy because I'll just I'm going on long but I I'll also say that like when I thought about a year ago I thought maybe I'm not going to run again and I was looking for people to run and inviting and recruiting and controlling people to and you know look who would run and I'm also just so pleased to find that there are some really Stellar community members stepping into these roles um so thank you uh thank you to our future board members um thank you to you know Dr Hawkins who who chose to take on another term um and all of you who are still here um it's really amazing to that I've learned so much from all of you and I just am so pleased to um be leaving this district and and really good so thank you all um I would love for one of you or both to show your gift trusty shandler would you read the to cute um mine says Meredith you have served assiduously on the ycs board of education your leadership and unwavering commitments to our commitment to our students families and Educators has left an indelible mark on our community 2015 to 2024 w wow I gotta get the G almost the fifth in my life but who's counting that's a lot of years yeah but they good yes enjoy and and every you know so often on a Monday if you want to text us and let us know what you're doing while we're here feel free um but you will you will definitely be missed um and I know you'll stick around in some shape form or fashion and you'll always have ycs um in your heart in in some way and and be out there you'll be out there advocating for us um the next thing before we transition to our next item on the agenda um is to welcome our two new board members um who are here with us this evening um we want to make sure we take an opportunity to to to to launch them into this new era or chapter in their lives with the ycs swag so if we could have our newest board members newly elected board members uh da and Telisha if you both would mind standing so that we could welcome you with a ycs welcome that's how we kick it off in ycs welcome Felicia Sutton and Don espie to ycs we are we are glad to have you part of the team any words so sorry thank you excellent all right before we all break down in tears um let us move on to our uh first presentation for this evening um I will T it over to Dr Zachary Ross who will present um our auditor for our audit report thank you so much Madame President and we just want to thank our partners from Yo and yo who have worked with us over the past several U months to um prepare this audit presentation and uh we'll have timers and then I know Mr Butler will follow thank you Elina uh my name is Tim cross and I'm a principal at yoan yo and I was out here with my team uh working on the audit along with Damen and his team to bring you the financial results here for June 30 2024 we issue you three reports each year one is the financial statements the next is a single a report and the last is our management comment letter so I have highlights here on each of those first slide is a financial statements uh we have an unmodified opinion or an unqualified opinion that's the highest level of assurance that we can give out and as it's paraphrased here school's financial records and statements are fairly and appropriately represented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the US that's a great thing to have in your audit report I'm going to go over a few highlights uh most of my comments are going to be on general fund which is the column on the far left uh you do have some other funds here uh syncing fund your willowrun debt fund and non- major funds include your cafeteria fund or your food service fund your student school activities fund and your iolan debt fund the uh General funds the most important one it's the only one that can have unassigned fund balance and it's responsible for covering any of the other expenses other funds cannot so you ended June 30 2024 with 34.6 million in assets that includes things like cash prepaid expenses and accounts receiv for your July and August state aid that you had not received yet you ended with 16.9 million in liabilities that includes things like accounts payable your normal bills for vendors supplies utilities it includes your payroll including your teachers approval for that July and August balance a contract that is paid out after June 30 it includes unearned Revenue money that you receive but have not spent yet um that'll come up uh spending in fiscal year 25 you take your Revenue less or I'm sorry your assets less your liabilities and that gives you total fund balance of $17 m646 th000 which is an increase from fiscal year 2023 how much of an increase you make uh that was a increase of 8,375 th000 from last year okay this is your income statement summarized for fiscal year June 30 2024 uh again it has the same funds uh I'm going to point out a couple of unique things that you had happen here this year so in general fund you had some forgiveness of debt of about $4 million that is included it's both a revenue because you received a benefit and an expense because you paid it out to pay off the debt and that also affected Willow Run debt fund this year does about $16 million forgiven for that so that 23 million 219 and that 23 milon 56,000 in the middle there that includes $16 million of benefit and revenue and then expense payment for that principle that was forgiven so in general fund you had 95 m217 th000 of Revenue uh that includes your state aid your foundation allowance that includes some federal dollars like Esser Title One idea it also includes local sources like your property taxes interest Revenue would be in there and then also County programs from the ISD so gsrp act 18 would be in that amount also you've ended expenses of 86,87 th000 and you the difference between those is that 8, 375,000 net income that brings you to that 17,640 ,000 I mentioned earlier in fund balance so as a percentage of expense that puts your fund balance at 2.32% last year it was 12.03% as a government School District the state has you adopt the budget each year for revenue and expense and you're held to that you're you should spend within that budget uh the state does not worry too much about Revenue you can be over on Revenue what they really want you to watch is the spending so they uh they are going to take a look at your 86 m841 th000 in expense and compare that to the budget of 85 mil 232,000 and see that you overspent it by about $2.3 million for fiscal year 24 uh this did not format well here uh but I will try to go over it nonetheless so a big part of this pie chart is your state aid your foundation allowance makes up about 46% of your Revenue I think that's shown up here on the bottom right hand corner of the PowerPoint uh your local Revenue accounts for about 19% about 17.5 million in your Revenue that again includes your property taxes interest income you have uh that orange part on the left there is the federal dollars that's about 26% of your Revenue at about $2,198 th000 that number is going to shrink for fiscal year 25 esser's period of availability ends September 30th 24 so you got most of that spent down through fiscal year June 30 2024 and then you have some other miscellaneous sources I mentioned the interdistrict the County revenue is about 4% about $3.7 million and that other financing sources which doesn't shows up kind of uh scrunch together up at the top is about 5% at 4.8 million and that includes some of that forgiveness of debt that affected general fund so the expenses where does the money go so the two biggest parts of the pie here are salaries at $ 31.8 million that's about 37% of your spending employee benefits is about 25% so that would include things like payroll taxes retirement and uh health insurance those two together make up about 62% of your spending but you do also have a lot of people costs and purchase services so that would include things like edges staff parapros uh school districts that are Outsourcing Transportation would also be included here at about 15% or $ 13.1 million and then some of the smaller percentages here supplies and materials is about 5% you've got Capital outlay that would be repairs and maintenance about 1% just under a million dollar and then general fund had 7% of principal and interest that it was obligated to pay for June 3024 and then other at about 10% includes again that $4 million in debt forgiveness among other miscellaneous uh transactions this is a snapshot of your fund balance so that far right is the 20 million or 20.32 per I mentioned earlier and then the previous years you've been pretty steady uh you had a low there in 2020 at about 7.7% early warning is generally 5% uh it's not you know a written rule but generally when you hit single digits you get close to that 5% mde will usually reach out and say hey what's going on on what are you going to do to stop this or or build fund balance so uh you've been above that here for the past three years but certainly at 20% you're well above that uh 5% early warning Mark that we generally look for uh so up above I have some comparisons there so all the numbers I'm going over for Ipsy are June 30 2024 but as far as the state as a whole all of the school districts in the state the latest and greatest information we have available is 2020 3's fiscal year so you're right around Pier at uh 3500 students to 4,000 students at 19.9% and then the state as a whole is a little higher than you at 21.87% I mentioned uh three reports so I went over uh every all the highlights for the financial statements I have a slide here that summarizes the findings in the single audit report so the top one there is a significant deficiency for ORS contributions that's the retirement amounts that you pay with each pay period this has been in your audit report for a number of years uh it was a material weakness last year so that is reduced as a significant deficiency and this is just uh a monitoring that has to happen between what you is supposed to be paid for retirement expense versus what the state is expecting you to pay so there's different refences commonly on those uh pay reports uh some of those are follow up uh are followed up by your team but there's got to be a uh you know a better way a better method there to track those and try to minimize those and reduce the followup uh the one below I had mentioned so when you overspend the budget uh that's a violation of the law even at a dollar the state views that as a violation of the law but at $2.3 million that's a big amount so that is material weakness and material non-compliance in the audit report and that is repeated down below uh you see that 20 24-2 again under the federal Awards and because that budget affects your both Federal Awards uh that come direct from the Department of Education and the state of Michigan mde uh there is a potential there that there could be or are issues and the budget to actual and the federal Awards and then uh back up to the top that 202 24-3 is procurement so there were transactions that we would have expected to see some kind of uh documentation whether you're using a Consortium to procure and purchase that or if there was some kind of quote or sealed bid process that should have happened uh there was no evidence of those and going back down to this is a finding that you had last year and so that audit report and that fiscal year was well underway and completed in probably January February of 2024 so this finding is the same as last year so Child Nutrition and also child and adult care food program had issues between the counts the meals that you served at the schools and what you requested from mde so those amounts should always match and uh for the same reason the count methods and the way you were accumulating information last year basically carried all the way through or a large part of 2024's fiscal year you have the same finding again and 2024 D5 is uh material weakness and non-compliance for payroll documentation for Head Start so you have to document the methods that you are charging time for people when they work on a federal program or any kind of restricted program and you're using direct certifications but those direct certifications didn't match the people that were charged to Head Start so you need to make sure whoever is being accumulated and uh charged as a head start person you're getting those there should be semiannual certifications done through the fiscal year and that should support we are charging to Head Start uh the last one is for leap uh it's uh a material it relates somewhat to the budget violation so there were charges or payroll that we would have expected to be charged to as a dispersement and some of the dispersements should have been charged as payroll and so you want to make sure that there is a check and balance there that whatever is being charged to these is coded appropriately and one of the good controls that you can have in place there is using that budget to identify this is what we are expecting to spend according to our budget but we potentially have an error there because we charge it to the wrong account and that would show up in some kind of budget to actual analysis uh so this is the last report of summary this is our governance letter our required communication between uh the Auditors and management in the board these are things that are not findings or not Material weaknesses or significant deficiencies but there are a few things we think you should be double checking and making sure they happen so the top one is bank reconciliations right now they're done in Excel which could be okay but you want to make sure that you're documenting who prepared them who reviewed them and the dates those happened so because they're an Excel uh there's a tendency to save it somewhere on a you know share Drive uh you want to make sure there's some kind of documented review and prepare uh notes uh somehow so it's clear that they're happening Timely the more timely this happens the bank wck happens the more likely you are to catch or detect errors and then of course you want to make sure things are reviewed to minimize any kind of uh air in the preparation outstanding checks uh this is uh related to the state's skite laws so you have to make sure that if you write checks either for payroll or dispersements if they don't clear you follow up on those and try to reissue it I think they lapse or two or three years depending on the type of transaction and you have to remit it up to the state for them to deal with that so you do have it's not a material amount but you do have some checks that are over that two to threee period that should be remitted to the state uh Bank transfers so uh in a f cash environment you are potentially collecting cash in another fund uh but you need to transfer that cash over more timely to make sure that it's not sitting in general fund it's moving over to a debt fund where you're going to eventually make that payment that's a pretty routine thing to collect cash in one fund and it has to be dispersed out to other funds so for example property taxes you typically get like one check for that and you have to move it to the other funds like a sinking fund and debt fund but you don't want to build that that cash and that other fund you want to move it over to the fund that it's going to remit the payment information technology General control so there's a couple of things here uh one is you want to make sure multiactor authentication wherever it's available isn't enabled so passwords aren't enough today uh it looks like new world has the potential to use uh multiactor authentication but it's doesn't look like it's enabled so that is something you want to look into uh that greatly reduces the likelihood of uh somebody getting unauthorized access to any software Network and then there was a situation where a terminated employee uh there was no documentation that they were removed from all the software so you want to make sure that you've got a checklist and it's happening for each terminated employee so that you're removing them from any software or any network access uh so that they can't still access uh confidential information or any District information uh once they've left the district uh the bottom one is federal equipment records so this is really specific to inventory so you have to tag things that you purchase with federal dollars uh I believe the federal rule is 5,000 or above mde still wants you to do that for different uh it type things like uh Chromebooks even uh smartboards that type of thing that might be less than $5,000 and they want you to perform at inventory every two years so you want to make sure that that process is documented and happening so those are it's a lot of information a short window we did meet with the finance committee uh before the board meeting and went over this in a more detail and more conversational uh this is uh very similar presentation that I just gave them with a little less information uh for the sake of time uh I'm going to turn it over to Alina and Daman is there anything else you wanted me to cover that I I didn't at this time no I just want to make sure that the board knows how much you really were actively participating um in this whole process to make sure that everything got done on time so I just want to thank you for that um Tim met with me probably every few weeks and typically you're not you meet with the superintendent once and so he just helped through helped us through making sure that we had everything so that we weren't into the same process as last year going all the way out until January so that's again where you see some of the overlap because we didn't we got the last audit back in I think January or February even so to be able to make those changes we're we're catching up so they uh Mr Butler will talk about kind of what they have in place and have started since August for this new year I just want to again thank them for I had access to the system this year when we went through uh I literally was on their system going through step by step because he was so involved and so we see the findings we also know now all the pieces and where we are so I'm really appreciate you well thank you I I don't want to you know Miss the deadline and I know you don't want to miss the deadline either so we worked really hard to get this done um we tried to Loop you in as much as possible we're out here working with your team and Auditors are disruptive we ask a lot of questions we go back and forth and we interrupt management from their day dayto day uh so you know we were out here working with Damian Barb was really um I know I don't think I saw her here today but she was really helpful in this whole process too so uh we appreciate you working with us and filing this on time I believe you got your state a in November as you should and uh this is all done and wrapped up now thank you so thank you any questions from the board I do have one uh if you can answer it 20244 you said that one was last year and then it happened again this year so if it happens twice is there a penalty for that so I I guess it's an important context that we finished this audit I think we filed it in January February 24 so that finding did exist last year and even in a best case scenario if you finish your audit in October there's going to be a repeat if that control wasn't fixed so if you're already going into January February uh and trying to fix that it's going to be really hard because five months of the school district is already happened and you're in the middle of the school district already and it's hard to make a big change so what that is uh that dash4 that's the eligibility for Child Nutrition and cacfp and so those are counts that are previously they were manual so there basically as meals were served at the schools there was basically a manual count with a pen and paper and then those have to get accumulated into a spreadsheet so they could be summed up and then they were put into a request to mde to get paid for those meals served and so that's a very air prone type of process and not something that was you know able to be completed before your fiscal year 24 started okay so so I I think Damian's going to cover that we did Cover a little about that Finance but I know there's efforts made through the summer in order to try to move to a electronic point of sale type system okay and as far as the penalties uh I am not aware of any uh I I believe at some point mde did meet and say they weren't going to look for any money back um um so I am not aware of any penalties that are going to result from any of these okay thank you any other Bard questions or comments thank you so much for your time and attention and wrapping this up for us thank you good evening Madam president Madam superintendent board trustees that's a lot to hear that is a lot to hear it's even worse to go through but we are fixing it we are fixing so we have uh worked with the audit team quite a bit and we filed our uh letter for corrective actions and we've established our uh a pattern to fix what what's broken part of what's happening is the transition from um manual processes into digital processes within new world as we go through and uh digitize some of the processes we're finding that we have coding issues we have to fix our coding make adjustments and when we make adjustments we reclass of individual employees that triggers an or error so we're going through and fixing it as the errors are getting smaller but we still have them training is a big uh big part of what we're doing in the business office no one in the business office has been in that position longer than 2 years so this is a new process for a lot of us so we're we're working with uh the state state has been here quite a bit for Food Services to go through some of the uh changes that we need to make in some of the uh shortfalls we have a lot of the the Food Service challenges stem from covid we haven't been ordered in seven years we were C in we were supposed to get audited in 2020 the pandemic hit everything kind of went ay so now we're picking up the our last HS in 20 uh 2017 so there were a few things going on that we had to uh had to we have to fix and have been overlooked been U overcome by various events so we're working to fix uh our food service processes the uh Food Service management team is working in training individuals on uh meal magic we're actually being uh we have a staff visit this week the state is is in the district and they'll be going through and watching our food service processes uh to see where we're making improvements but we're working with the team to continue to train and get everybody on the uh same page so that we can meet the standards that the state requires um training ac across the board for procurement is is big and people uh we have emergencies and we made a we we made some a large purchase of safety seats very quickly and we we know that we have to uh get with the Consortium and as we transition uh various directors make sure everybody has access to the bid uh system and understands how to use it so training is a big step on uh what we need to do and what what processes need to take place uh our as far as monitoring goes we're establishing our our cut offs for the year every every month the business office will have time to go through and check boxes and make sure we're doing everything according to uh the budget new world is a big uh Challenge and getting things fixed there and getting those processes together training for the uh business office and how we interact with the uh various departments across the district is something that we're working on to make sure everybody is on the same page as we get to as we move through we're halfway through the year already when we get to June of 2025 these findings won't be won't come up again on the screen now are the highlights of where we're going to focus our attention we work very closely with the ISD to make sure our system is uh up to par we've had some uh some modules that we that were not implemented here that we're in use in other places and we're getting the uh training tler Tech has uh sent us some information to help us upgrade our system as well so the training we get at individual departments payroll uh accounts payable and at the director level we have our grants uh know Barbara Boone was mentioned is uh managing our grants so we have a better idea of the processes we need to take getting uh District employees and uh Grant managers involved so we can keep all our those uh those numbers and those budgets Tighter and that that that's all all my bullets on the the screen next slide so as we Implement our our corrective actions and corrective actions memo we'll continue to update the board on any changes what questions might you have um so I wanted to First say um thank you I know you've been in this Ro about less than two years about two years right and you immediately had to come in and um get your whole team that was new to to transition to use a new world um because we wanted to get away from the old of spreadsheets and all that good stuff just to make sure that we can have stuff um done timely I know that there was a big transition in that and um the board had concerns that we wanted to have something stressed to have done and you have you and your team have steadily worked on that so I do appreciate that I do um um understand you you all came into something um that really needed to you had to dive in and do some changes and stuff and that's a lot so I appreciate all of that that you've done um I also want to make sure that people understand so we have the correct narrative about um out there about the budget violations um that was simply due to to um uh a report of the budget not being modified but the funds were there to cover what was looks like it was overspent but when you have a budget you have to follow the budget so um I just want to make sure that people understand it wasn't that we technically didn't have funds but we just needed to do it was a procedure ISS issue and so I'm sure that we will have the those changes modified just like you said in May we'll make sure that we have all of our um just make sure that we're looking at the budget to modify it so I do appreciate you keeping the board and the finance and operations team AB breast of everything and I'm I'm confident that um we will get these findings corrected and um it's a process that's I mean really that's all it is it's a process so I do appreciate that and I wanted to publicly say that to you because you took on a big charge and you and your team are working through this and I'm I'm confident that we are in good hands to make sure that we're right direction thank you we definitely are thank you other board questions um I don't know if I have a question um I to think you I know that this has been a long process and there are a number of things that we are in the process of making sure we have a better handle on um as we move forward and I guess as a um suggestion um that might I don't know if it would be helpful uh to you Mr Butler at all in any way so it's just an option that I'm putting out here and maybe for the board to consider that maybe we have some additional checkpoints that we build in throughout the next year in order to have a sense of being on track and where we are because obviously things happen right and so because we are transitioning to these new systems it's a lot it's a big learning curve for everyone involved everyone has been in the role as you stated two years or less um so that's a lot for the team to absorb um so my suggestion that I would put out for consideration is to just think about sitting on the finance committee you know now I don't know if that will be the committee I stay on but if I am just a consideration is to maybe think about um how we might have additional checkpoints throughout the year that would be my only comment we we do have a plan to uh have our have a cut off so we can monitor spending move on to the next month so that is and it works okay okay and just so those come back to the so we can talk about it as a board so that y thank you so much um other comments or I will probably you said for me additional checkpoints but you said you have that that would have been my suggestion as well did I hear the gentleman right that we over spent 2.3 million yes okay now with that are we going to be penalized in some kind of way to what happens with that up so the state they're going to inquire why the budget wasn't modified and it's just a matter of going through and spending and projects and it was just oversight so that that's another area of training and uh modif modification controls where the that that cut off on the monthly cut off will help us avoid that in the future they're not going to like send anyone to oversee us or anything like that right you're just gonna I have defer I as because we're not in the deficit we're not in a position where we're losing money I we just overspent the budget we had we had the funds to to cover the budget we just didn't account for it the budget I put together was overspent okay so we we had a um presentation I just wanted to remind Bard in May when uh Mr Butler did the presentation we should have done the amendment at that point as well so we did he did a presentation and we didn't do that action item asked about but we didn't do the action item um for the amendment and that is what we need to be looking for that Amendment every May to sh up because we are still meeting um as you know with especially the big grants to seek the leap all of those we have to meet monthly with those reporting agents agency so we should have been able to say oh look these are here's we're not just our all those other Federal we need to say yes we need to make that Amendment although it's 1.89% so not huge we should know to the dollar like he like uh Tim said not even $1 over so we should expect that we're amending because you're projecting out really far when we're making the budget um in June so by June when you adopt that that budget we don't know how much we're getting in state aid we don't know our counts we don't know our staffing so we should be expecting those amendments to be happening okay trusty um so how often are we allowed to amend the budget in a year it's ongoing corre you can amend it as many times as you want and it doesn't actually count until if he's doing it at himself it has to be what the board voted on right and so that's what that's what really um counts so even though we make modifications for example for the Consolidated app every December because that's when they allow us to if we're not making the modifications at the board approved budget then weend to this time we're going to have an issue so we have to make sure that it comes to the board for approval it's your budget that the state is going to look at that our Auditors are going to look at so and then my only other thing as far as what Dr Hawkins was stating was um when we have um employees that leave the district that may have access then maybe we need to have you know an automatic process with HR and we have a process through uh with with it and HR there's a full process as well as this year we have just um begun doing yes ink2 I could not my brain um and that is now more automatic as well so okay and we you are thank you you just if you can remember you just purchased that so some of these things that he talked about as an add-ons like we have the new world that the wsd um Works throughout the county but some of those um additional components because we were using spreadsheets and things we did not even have access to those so those are what they've been getting trained on when he talks about the training so last year when we came back and did give you the update saying they're going to training it was on their brand new things so then as we're they're putting them in that's where they're noticing the coding problems and those other system um things system um problems that we have to really get down to the function Cod and make sure that people are properly placed in there that's also what happened with um when you saw the gsrp um listing we send a list to the ISD but again that has to continue to those have to talk to each other because um that's a direct CT piece that has that when we talk to them Barbara's like no this is this was corrected but it was not at that time so we have to do much we're gonna we're have to just be right up on it I have a question um so we're talking about the we didn't have that in May would there have been I I know where putting checks and balances in place now but would there have been someone who should have noticed that we didn't have that action like goingn over before we got to this point I mean I'm not as sure if it's you or Carlos or whomever that might be when he presented you guys because don't you guys kind of look at it before we even come to the board member when would you guys had known to say hey this is missing or did it just just didn't get CAU asking um you're you're mentioning for me the amendment yes yes when you said that we should have had that Amendment but it was an action item I did I really I did huh actually did I did bring that up um okay but okay I'm just gonna make sure it just happen it's okay I just wanted to is there normally something that should should have been in place before we got to this point it's just I'm just asking a question because I don't know either you know but I'm just wondering before he presents it to us does he BR to one of you guys before we actually see it to say hey because that's another that's another check and balance right yes and so that's we have have done some again to really talked about these things and put some things in place um even with some things that we didn't see as a line before I even asked him to come in to kind of explain some things so that I do have that credibility that is necessary yeah I'm just yeah just wanted to know okay other four questions or comments thank you m Butler thank you thank you you next that takes us to our first public comment section for this evening and before I invite our first um speaker up I would like to read the public comment protocol which reads as follows pursuant to Board of Education policy 0167 point3 the board recognizes the value of public comments on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express their views please limit statements to 3 minutes in duration participants shall direct all comments to the board and not to staff or other participants no person may address or question board members individually and all remarks shall be made in a respectful and professional manner the first person I'd like to invite up would be Deborah Stevens good evening board good even as you know for most of the or at least part of the four years I was here before as the Early Childhood special education teacher and upon coming back to the district I'm the early intervention teacher so went to little ones at esbrook and that's what I'm here tonight to speak about an issue a serious issue that's impacting our youngest and most vulnerable Learners children in the early adventure program many of who have complex needs and disabilities at the end of last school year the early intervention team was asked to move classrooms to accommodate increased enrollment at esbrook they were assured that the program would have access to a full classroom previously used by the Bright Futures program however just before school started we were informed that we'd be sharing that space and despite our concerns about the challenges this would create unfortunately the shared Arrangement has forced us out of the majority of the classroom and our program is now operating for the most part in a hallway outside of the classroom that we are promised let me explain why this is not just inconvenient but untenable first this violates the Privacy rights of our families and students early intervention play groups are often family's first introduction to the district these sessions require confidentiality both to respect family dignity and also to comply with furpa conducting these groups in a public hallway sends a clear message that their privacy and Trust are not priorities adding to this employees from the Bright Futures program have entered the shared space during IEP meetings further compromising student and family privacy second this setup compromises the safe of our children many of the children in this program have compromised immune systems mobility issues or complex medical needs hallways cannot be child proofed or made safe for todlers who are just learning to explore their environment Additionally the Bright Futures team has not cleaned or maintained the shared space adequately leaving behind choking hazards and other unsafe conditions that put these young children at risk and finally this Arrangement undermines the professionalism and reputation of our district families often come to our playgroups with a mix of Hope and anxiety looking for guidance support and re Insurance asking them to sit in a hallway sends the wrong message it says that their children their families and their needs are an afterthought if our District's goal is to increase enrollment by offering high quality education then the way we treat our youngest and most vulnerable students must reflect that commitment efforts to collaborate with the Bright Futures team and building Administration to find Equitable Solutions have not been successful theyve not been willing to compromise or address these concerns making the current situation even more challenging I understand that resources in space are limited but this situation cannot continue I urge the board to prioritize finding a suitable safe and private space for the Early Intervention Program one that upholds our commitment to every child and family in this community thank you for your time and considering the needs of these families and children and I'm happy to work with District leadership to help find a solution thank you Miss Stevens next we have Kirsten St did I say that correctly Kirsten I apologize Kirsten kirston Sunderman you got it all right hi my name is Kiron I am a relatively new resident of iilani Township um we moved here with our family in 2019 and we are um now living in a home having rented for a little while when we first arrived our son Thorin is four years old and he uh has demonstrated a need for additional support in language and speech ever since he was two years old he was found in you know the doctor's offices doing their jobs um um that he had less than 10 words of language when he was two years old and so he's been through the program um designed for little ones from the very beginning process all the way through to where he is today so he went through um the program where we had a speech therapist come to our home for the first year um and then he went through weekly therapy of walk-in therapy in while he was three and now that he's four he attends twice weekly therapy with Miss Christie um and we also attend the weekly playgroup program that is offered in the space that Miss Deborah was just talking about so I wanted to offer first my compliments to miss Christie and the rest of the staff um at estherbrook who have just done a phenomenal job in communicating with our family and really um meeting our needs uh Thorin is now a very vocal very verbal excellent Storyteller that is his personality by nature and they have met his personality exactly where it is and really helped him to unfold and flourish and we are exceptionally grateful for that um and with that being said I do want to just add to what Miss Deborah has shared the space that she's referring to if you have not seen it is in it's probably half the size of this room and of that half the room only half of it can can be used for the children because of the dangers that are located on the other half of them as you can see these little ones can't be around the toys that are six seven eight nine-year-old um after school program students need in order to to meet their needs there's a ver there's a difference in their needs um and so literally 50% of the classroom we come in to use the space and it's completely inaccessible um and even within that really have to be very mindful of the space that we do use that they don't get into items that are inappropriate it takes a lot of additional time and resources from the staff in order to create that space um it seems very peculiar to me as a parent that we're coming into a space that's labeled as for these children but actually it looks like we're the borrowers rather than um sort of the owners lending out the space to another program um she's talking about a hallway and she is not exaggerating it is literally a hallway it is about um probably 20 to 30 yards in length about 8 ft across and um that's where the kids play I'm not exaggerating they have a little kitchen with their little toys and they have a rug that they can sit down and push their trucks on and in that hallway there are four different doors to four different classrooms that come off of it and that can disrupt their engagement at any period of time so um I would just like to add my personal comment onto what Miss debah has already shared um and ask the school board to please consider finding an alternative solution that would meet the needs of both groups thank you thank you Miss Sunderman and next we have Amanda Smith a lot shorter than some of the previous speakers I think um I just wanted to Echo my gratitude for um all of you who have served on this board in the past you know eight nine years that I've been watching but in particular to um Dr Hawkins for rejoining again to Meredith Schindler for your time here I know I have bugged you from the beginning and um to Jillian gainley who's finishing her term as well so um a lot of gratitude to you all um Jillian served on the I Community Schools um board uh Foundation board for um some of her time here so I appreciate her a little bit extra for that and the work that she put in um as uh as a member of that board that I chair so thank you again thank you Miss Smith any other public comment cards that have come in Miss Haynes or Solomon or Dr costarella thank you so much next that takes us to our consent agenda is there a motion at this time M president trusty Fields moved at the Board of Education approve the November 4th 2024 regular board meeting minutes Personnel matters as per presented list dated 12224 new hires resignations and retirees and number three corrected October 7th 2024 board meeting minutes thank you a motion has been made by trusty Fields is there support for this motion support vice president Lee thank you support reported by vice president Lee all those in favor those opposed that motion carries next that takes us to item eight which is our strategic planning um our Monitor and evaluation session um we would like at this time to invite our facilitator uh she's already joined us to join us at the table uh for our board self- evaluation and we will also uh move into our superintendent progress monitoring session so at this time I would like to turn it over to Mary Kerwin thank you so much Madam president um we'll begin with the board self assessment it has been the practice of this board to do an annual assessment the same night as the assessment excuse me of the formal evaluation of the superintendent so in December it assures that everyone who can that four means always three usually two occasionally one seldom or never and then zero question uses aun process with the superint neither the [Music] the board ensures that a Systema program is maintained by the staff to orient newly elected or accounted board members to their duties and responsibilities as well as to acquaint them with board policies and operating procedures and I just wanted let the board note that um earlier this afternoon we did riew R responsibilities with your newly elected I think that this community will be well served they are aware they set back immediately four roles and they them immediately policy back the board operates according to written policies that are updated on a regular basis policy is adopted both board and staff and the board acts as a policymaking and governance SP the superintendent is held responsible for administration and evaluation of school programs before making a decision on any matter other than the superintendent's comy the board allows the superintendent ample opportunity to develop staff for for Action the board does not respond to emotional pressure and does not write instant policy it provides the superintendent with an opportunity to develop policy pro pro proposals the board understands and uses Rules of Order board members arrive at meetings prepare to discussions and do not waste valuable meeting time board members are representatives of the entire Community not just of special interest and are committed to Citizens special interest group recommendations considered the board explains its position and the reasons which may prevent it implementing all [Music] recommendations the board and superintendent work well together in a spirit of mutual confidence the board respects the daily executive responsibility of the superintendent and the superintendent respects the governance responsibility of the board in cooperation with the superintendent the board has received a set of criteria in goals which are monitored for Progress during the course of the year fairness and diligence are used by the board in the superintendent evaluation process official actions of board members concern the welfare the school system only no board member uses her office for patronage personal profit or only the entire board can decide a course action board members are careful to speak cover on issues only as individuals Maj responsibilities of the board include establishing priorities and ensuring smart holes are in place so that the priorities are clear ofest they were supported by the superintendent had to do with putting together those smart goals and tracking pieces it is not unusual uh for any boards to do a Reconciliation Amendment often in January but can be done again as you said times we wouldn't want to do monthly but that we're aware that a Reconciliation Amendment again it's the board's budget it's the board's policy so those pieces need to be put in place and I think it was good evidence that this board of education has a keen interest and seeing that those are followed through so commend the board for that um two pieces and I added a third so we usually at this time talk about what this board does well I think this assessment shows a consistently we talk about the Cog report National and international you say highight that one of the pieces they pointed out the governance of so you about what theard does well Advocate I think we advocate for the students I think we all have different strengths and we appreciate those strengths and use them as a team as well I would uh picky back on that just to add that I think um as a as a team um we have demonstrated through our actions that when you stay focused on what is best for students the outcomes are what we see in front of us right we don't pretend to be a perfect District but we strive every day to be better than we were before and this board stays FOC focus on kids and I think that is one of our biggest biggest successes I'd like to I guess piggyback on that I I appreciate the opportunity tonight that to celebrate some of the wins that we've had um while we continue to strive for continuous Improvement we always know that there's more work to be done I think we have really outstanding leadership so I think we've hired an extraordinary superintendent and done you know what as much as possible to support her and then also Dr Hawkins and vice president Lee I mean I think we have really outstanding leadership and that really shows thank you thank you um I would add Mary that we um we listen we listen to each other we listen to the community we listen listen to whoever our stakeholders might be our administrators we listen really listen um and we use that to kind of guide how we make decisions being present being engaged um really wanting to represent well who we are as a district and a community I have one more we we're curious and we ask really good questions [Music] anything else on that I I just also want to share from the training earlier that one of the things uh for the newly elected but not yet serving trustees was um uh the idea of listening that listening is a key leadership program the other thing that's unique and special to the culture in this district and saw reflected tonight was um calling our students Scholars um and that goes throughout the community and that has done intentionally and unintentionally people now think of our young people as Scholars and that is something that this board in their visioning process really emphasized and so it's neat sometimes Visions just sit but to see that that's been U completely embedded in what makes uh ycs so special I think is one of the qualities that needs to be pointed out anything else in this section I don't want to leave anybody okay um changes what changes would you like to see or would you like to consider going forward oh yes I wouldn't say necessarily A change but um uh a re return and continued dedication to um open and frequent communication uh I know at masb um when we presented our communication plan how enthusiastically that was received um and I know that we've had a really busy fall um and so just making sure especially as new members join our team that we're that we're staying um on top of maintaining those communication protocols um as as stringently as we can so that uh so that we can continue to do the work that we that we value any additional recommendations for changes I don't know that it's necessarily unop me but I guess it is but I think we can can still continue working on communication kind like what she said but communication um we've improved on that but I still think that it still can be improved but we have definitely improved in our communication um as board members you know and as a team and um we definitely get it from our superintendent she every week she tells us what's going on but I'm thinking like just as a board I think we that's a continuous Improvement I think is communication the final question I added was if you'll remember um last time we added new team members to the board was during the time of Co and it was uh quite a challenge uh to build a team when you're just a little on part of a screen right you know when we're playing Hollywood Squares and you're just a little box on the screen and so that um they're really needed to be intentional Outreach so as part of this one I ask you what kind of intentional Outreach might you make to the new team members so that they will feel included a part of the team and have uh uh the kind of guidance that uh has benefited many of you sitting at the table so I'm happy to volunteer I very much enjoyed the opportunity to have dinner with both of our new team members tonight and really appreciate that opportunity for coming conversation while many of the rest of you were in the subcommittee meeting um and I'm grateful that Dr Hawkins has offered me the opportunity to be part of the onboarding process and that was so valuable to me joining the board during covid so I'm excited to have the opportunity to support in that role I um I'm a coffee person so we'll have coffee just time permits it'll be over a break if you're around um but I I do think you know uh making time to be intentional about relationships um is important and um I'm excited that we have new team members coming on and um I'm always available uh to support in any way training whatever mentorship I'm always available for that because I received that when I came on so it was very appreciative appreciated me um I would just say to add to that um something that I will continue to do and something that I did do was you know just to initially kind of welcome and and say congratulations to the two to the incoming board members and you know giving them time to catch their breath after they realized they won um and then thinking about kind of for them what that transition would look like um and just availing I guess oneself to to make sure that the doors are open and they feel comfortable reaching out um I know for me um when we had a change in and board seats it was important for me to build relationships with board members I didn't know and that took a lot of time I know trusty Townsen and I had a lot of meetings and we had a lot of lunch and uh you know we we talked about things that were not always Bo related just because we needed to get to know each other and cultivate those relationships and I think that's important because you spend a lot of time together on this board um but I think those reach outs go a really long way um and so I think as a board um I appreciate truste Goodrich taking on the opportunity to participate in training but also knowing that that's an open invitation that will come out to make sure board members have an opportunity to be part of what that training will look like um so so yeah I just wanted to say just the reach outs I think are important um because we all sat in that seat and we had no idea what we signed up for and boy did we learn quick um so I think just being there being supportive um reassuring um you're not going to learn it all in one day it takes time um but I think as season board members we have a lot of valuable insight and and information to share and just know that you know we sit at these tables but like we're just folk right we're just here we're trying to do good work in this community and we know what it's like and we will make sure we will make every effort and attempt to make sure your transition in this new role is successful you know what sometimes you want to leave it alone and just get loose okay get loose know okay okay all right leave the board alone work alone and everything and relax I'm here anyone else should be shame did just want to mention there is kind of an Old Guard component over here and that they came through um the the historic uh merging of school boards and then going through multiple administrations and uh whenever there's a stakeholder group that comes in part of the time shared by the stakeholders has to do with the history yeah a good recognition of the Heritage so so if that might be new to you uh then and then again these would some of the old guard might be uh people to um enjoy a cup of coffee with or beverage of your choice or just have an open-ended chat because I know that it is very it's it's very important to stakeholders about um uh the value of the history in this community that's just a side yes please mayor I want to say I mean I'm leaving but I'm happy to get together everybody has right yes and and I want to say for me I'm I'm more of the outgoing person I'm more of a community person so if you ever want to hang out with me I love to go to all the games and football and stuff I do all that so if you want to hang out with me you know that's where you catch me at that's you know I was just there Friday our home game so but I like going to the football games and the basket and all that stuff but you're welcome to hang out we can hang out at one of the games something like that I'm G for that that's really nice to know activities all right is there anything else on that again you you all scored the highest on this rting um currently the superintendent uh the highest that sheet can go now under laws effective so last year we were highly effective I think now we're we're going to move to effective it's going to be the highest for you as well but you have uh achieved top scores on on your evaluation this then gets set so that from an outside accreditation they will see that you have consistently been conducting your self assessment and that these words on this page matter in their meeting and the conduct that you put up around it okay part two uh in conjunction with roles and responsibility and governance training that the newly elected trustees received tonight we also did the ree organizational PowerPoint that I developed uh for training one of those pieces had to do we're laughing now because you talked about being outgoing was DC the different personality types and what you might find on a board and the value of a steady personality type um and uh trusty Shindler you will be leaving leaving us with steady but but very valued also uh someone who's conscientious and that would be uh trustee G gley who would look at those numbers and seriously sweat over those numbers to make sure that we are accountable for the treasures that the district leaves us so both of you will be missed we do have strength and balance on this board but uh you really are appreciated and have added so much to what uh what we've we've been able to do here in this District we're going to move on um again the idea of the pre-organization meeting is that we can during this month month in December um share what might be happening in the new year and how we might be how the assets of uh board members um can contribute to what is occurring in the New Year in the year of 25 um so that when we look at officers what is needed um and so we have the four positions available uh president vice president secretary and Treasurer we know from listening to the auditor report and then the pledge from administrators in charge of finance that there will be a lot to monitor um when it comes to serving in the role of Treasurer um uh and we're going to miss our treasure but uh so who wants who will sit as treasure this year for 25 who's interested in that position okay is there anyone interested in that labor intensive position okay all right um I'll just make a quick comment on it that um I think when I came into the board I was told um that that there was no way you could possibly take an officer role your first year uh I don't feel that's true um I did uh and I I wouldn't recommend being president your first year that's really a lot to to take on to think about the Cadence of the meeting and everything um but I would um really encourage um as as both of you come on I I you know having you know watched your debates and all that stuff I think you're um you know very cap people and and uh we just when you think about committee chairmanships and just step up and we did talk about that and I did tell you that they would be asking you to consider serving as an officer so that would be fine um we're now secretary have a secretary um anyone else interested in the position of secretary I'll just say that I would be willing to continue but you know if someone else is a deep and a binding desire to serve as secretary I'm happy to arm wrestle okay um uh for the position of vice president again serves uh in the place of the president when needed and then other as um assignments as tasked vice president feel interesting anyone else vice president okay and then the hot seat uh the role of the president is uh really does take a lot of added effort um who has an interest in serving as president 2025 I'd be willing to continue in the road and again if uh if uh during this month you have a spark where you think oh my gosh you know I'd really like then simply share that won't you U please call um uh the cting president and then share if you changed your mind or you'd like to you know reconsider it you know these these uh roles in fact people sitting at this table have been a different so is just because someone's sitting there doesn't mean this uh this group of officers has excelled this year has worked really really hard and so I think appreciation should be given to the officers the idea of having the pre-organization meeting where we talk about it we're not making a decision but simply that we share and discuss is to prevent surprises which stun people and can be um a hurtful and Dishonored members of our team and that's why we we do this in December okay um any anything else that someone would like to add at this time okay with that Madame President uh we might move on to your request for close session for the purpose of evaluating the superintendent thank you um Mary herwin for getting us through that process um at this time I would like to take a motion to move into Clos session is there a motion at this time Madame President trusty Schindler I moved at the Board of Education convene and Clos session under Section 8A of the Oma to consider a personel evaluation of the superintendent thank you a motion has been made by trusty Shindler is there support for this motion trusty Fields I support thank you supported by trusty Fields all those in favor I I those opposed that motion carries the board will convene in close session the time is 8:38 p.m. e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e the time is 9912 the board of education is back in Open session next that takes us to our first action item for this evening under human resources which is the adoption of the superintendent evaluation and at this time I would like to um share with the public that this board of education met in Clos session for the purpose of evaluating the superintendent our evaluation is a consensus document and we would like to share the results prior to the adoption the Michigan Association of Schoolboard superintendent tool we use covers professional practice student growth and progress towards districtwide goals after reviewing evidence the board awarded superintendent Zachary Ross 18 of 18 possible points in the area of governance and board relations trustees do you agree with that finding yes yes the board awarded superintendent Zachary Ross 15 out of 15 points possible in the area of community relations trustees do you agree that was our finding yes yes the board awarded superintendent Zachary Ross 20 of 21 points possible in the area of Staff relations trustees do you agree that was our finding yes the board awarded superintendent Zachary Ross 15 of 15 points passable in the area of business and finance trustees do you agree with our that that was our finding yes the board awarded superintendent Zachary Ross 27 of 27 points possible in the area of instr instructional leadership trustees do you agree that was our finding yes each category has a weighted score and the result of all categories in professional practice is 100% or three using the district growth model and assessment data for the the determination of student growth the board awarded superintendent Zachary Ross three of three points power possible with a weighted score of 100 trustees do you agree that was our finding yes yes in the area of progress toward districtwide goals the board awarded superintendent Zachary Ross three of three points possible trustees do you agree that was our finding yes the total score for all areas is 100% therefore superintendent Zachary Ross is ranked effective which is the highest ranking at this time may I have a motion to adopt the board's evaluation of the superintendent Madame president vice president Lee move at the Board of Education adopt the Personnel evaluation of superintendent Alina Zachary Ross thank you a motion has been made by vice president Lee is there support for this motion truste support thank you supported by truste Shindler all those in favor I those oppos that motion carries I will sign and date the superintendent evaluation today's date is the nth thank you Miss Haynes I will have superintendent Zachary Ross pass this to you after she signs thank you next that takes us to action item number 12 under business and finance is there a motion at this time trusty towns and mooved that board of education accepts the audit report for the fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 as audited by an independent firm yo and yo a motion has been made by trustee csen is there support for this motion trusty Fields I support thank you supported by trusty Fields all those in favor I I those oppose that motion carries next that takes us to the acceptance of the transfer quote for magnet schools is there a motion at this time truste towns and moveed that the Board of Education accepts the quot the quote from transfer Inc for the magnet schools for $106,500 thank you a motion has been made by trusty towns and is there support for this motion supported by truste Shindler all those in favor I those oppose that motion carries next that takes us to the adoption of the ipsan PA 321 resolution is there a motion at this time Madam president trusty Fields move that the Board of Education adopt the ipsan PA 321 resolution thank you a motion has been made by trusty Fields is there support for this motion support trusty goodr supported by trusty goodr thank you all those in favor I those oppose that motion carries next that takes us to a donation for ycs events is there a motion at this time trustee towns and move that the Board of Education accepts a donation from Waker chemical for $1,000 for ycs events thank you a motion has been made by truste Townson is there support for this motion thank you supported by trusty Schindler all those in favor I those oppos that motion carries thank you for this generous donation to iolan Community Schools to whacker chemical next that takes us to the second public comment portion for this evening um Miss hay has have there been any public coming cards that have come in I see heads nodding no so that will take us to item number 14 are there any Board of Education subcommittee reports at this time um vice president Lee I have a meeting for the Head Start committee on Thursday so I will report next year okay in January right sounds good thank you vice president Lee any other subcommittee reports ohy trusty F did we have one communication communication yeah we did have a Communications um trying to think right before Thanksgiving I think yeah I want right yeah right before Thanksgiving um we had a review they went over a couple plans I did see your call after the after it was over um yeah so we met with Lambert and they went over a couple just with their followup um the different Communications that's got going on they I think it's giving no what is it Tuesday thank you together Tuesdays together Tuesdays yes and they've been getting those out I am online to do one I'm still waiting to find out which company has not been done yet I did get a list but every time I pick one that one's been done so I'm trying to find out who I can do it on and then I'll turn mines in um I think trusty Townson have you completed yours yeah I think she's still working on hers no man okay so so we're still working on the on the hours but they have been um I've been I've seen a couple they look really good it's a it's a nice concept with that um what else did I write down because I didn't bring that I didn't bring my my my notebook um that's okay what else who was what else are we talking about you had them Focus On Athletics thank you I asked them also to um focus on Athletics because I thought it' be nice if they Spotlight some of the all the sports what's going on during the week and I think they were going to reach they said they reached out to Danny and I'm not sure what they came out with that yet because I haven't seen anything but I thought that would be a good suggestion as well not to just focus on you know us as as you know stakeholders or or board but the students that's what we're here for right so it'll be nice if they can focus on some of the student athletes and see what you know what they're doing and whatever Sports is going on during this time so they're working on that so I would like to see that is that it um I think that was it pretty much um it didn't go the whole hour we only went about 30 minutes you know because oh I'm sorry yeah so so we didn't meet so we did meet um I think I had to think about I was sitting like did we meet this week time is going by so fast I'm like yeah we did it right before Thanksgiving so we haven't got a new um date for the next one we probably won't meet no more I don't think before the first year because next week will be be out for two weeks so we probably won't meet again until after January and that's and that's what I have all right yes so thank you that's the communications all right uh thank you trusty Phils thank you vice president Lee any other subcommittee reports um the wb's board of directors did meet in November right before Thanksgiving um and I thought I emailed over the dates for 2020 4 did I do that I don't remember yesterday um but I'll do it tonight or tomorrow morning um for all of our annual meetings um and we're in the process of trying to come up with uh what we want to do as far as uh our continuing ed education those types of things so I will get that emailed out to the board also the ycs um foundation will be meeting this week Wednesday okay um and we um also the scholarship Committee of the foundation uh we have a date scheduled to start getting things rolled out so we can get um scholarship information out earlier this year um and that's all that I have for right now oh well we had the Budget Finance and budget mean I think we know that now so what all that we discuss we discussed it twice um so we are all confirmed on what we need to be doing um so other than that yeah we're all set on our thank you trusty Townsen any other subcommittee reports before we move on to board superintendent comments all right I just want to begin by pausing and and wanting to turn to Dr zachie Ross to say congratul we are so fortunate to have you your evaluation is outstanding because you are outstanding and we are so fortunate to have you at the HM leading this District um and I can't wait to see what else we do next I can't wait so board comments I just want to say everyone have a relaxing safe happy holidays you know just relax your mind your body and your soul enjoy your family enjoy yourself and just just enjoy each other because anything can happen so just enjoy yourself oh and good news my son is on the list for a double lung [Music] transplant yes I am so happy so just everybody enjoy this holiday and just relax and thank you everyone and I appreciate all of you that's it thank you vice president Lee yes shmer I don't remember all the details but I wanted to congratulate Dr Zachary Ross on a big award won selected by your fellow [Laughter] superintendent other board comment um I wanted to just wish everybody a happy holiday also want to acknowledge Ace um we went to their Thanksgiving Day event lunch in the food was great a lot of laughter good just being around the ycs family Miss uh Tillerson and their team did an excellent Miss Davis they all did a excellent job as usual the place was beautiful um also I wanted to again thank our board members that are leaving for your service I'm sure we'll see each other in some other I'm probably on some other board so I'm pretty sure of that um also welcome our new uh board members they'll be reading those binders um um and just we had a this was a very successful year thank you to all our staff team Administration um we accomplished a lot this year um so I'm looking forward to what's to come and if you can avoid calling me I'd appreciate it until January but thank you um congratulations Dr Zachary Ross and um you all be blessed well I just want to say happy holidays to everyone as well I think this is it before the first of year right I think right this is it so yeah so happy holidays to everyone and I will not avoid calling her I call her often so that's that's not happening so yes and also welcoming our two um members I apologize that I didn't reach out prior today but congratulations um that's not me but I'm just saying you know you'll get you'll get to know me and um and welcome aboard we I guess we'll see you guys in January right right okay yes yep and um congratulations Dr zachos I I saw your information on LinkedIn so I I I thought I add the video on there you know I just want you to know how I found out but congratulations um um it's it's a good thing to be recognized by your peers absolutely and to um and I I I just have to say that every time we go somewhere somebody always knows you and it's always a good thing it's a good thing and I'm not just saying it be funny but really truly it is and they have good things to say about you when we go places so that says a lot for representing ycs you know and getting this and putting this out there on the M thank you and happy holidays a couple of things I'm gonna first start with a a somewhat self-serving announcement um so congratulations to the district and thank you the Mr CR gella the district uh just got awarded a $200,000 filter first grant um from Eagle nothing to do [Music] with um I had a uh Community member uh reach out and say wait we why are we filtering lad out of our water in our schools does that mean that lead and the water in our schools no what uh what what you need to know about some of the filter first it's a state law um that uh that the the lead and copper rule across the entire country is getting stronger to be more protective of our water um and District or municipalities have 10 years to implement that rule that stronger rule we didn't want to wait 10 years for school district for our school children to to make sure that they have the cleanest water possible and so that's why that Grant is available um it's said filter first so that we don't have to keep testing the water testing the water we are also testing the water but we also know that we've got that extra layer protection and filtration for all of our our schools many of us have these bubblers these are um new level of CER certifications on those bubblers so those are coming into all our districts I'm excited about it and uh thank you to all the folks who make those grants happen I know they are not easy to administer thank federal government uh we really appreciate both of you and all the work do Daven and Mark on that um I also want to say congratulations to Dr Zachary Ross on another successful evaluation um since I won't get to say this again um I was going to say earlier in the uh Rec perspective that there's really only one vote in six years of making votes and making decisions on this school board there's only one decision that has really mattered and that was the decision to bring Elina Zachary Ross on as our fulltime superintendent um that is the one decision that has made absolutely everything else possible and I'm I'm timed out over here so um so thank you um and I think that just as we were as I was reflecting on some of the pieces that go into that evaluation recognizing the fact that Alina had didn't um you know this was a brand new district 10 years ago and so we didn't start from it wasn't a it wasn't level right like some of those things really weren't there six years ago and in the time that that Dr Zachary Ross has been there she's really built this District into a truly success successful School District so um in addition to being a great leader she's a great leader who has overcome a lot of obstacles to get this District to where is so thank you um and then the third thing I'll say and then I really want to stop is a huge thank you to miss Julie Haynes um I'll admit to having a little bit of senioritis my last year on this board uh Julie has kept me together kept me moving um and uh really has brought brought this board together for many years now so I I just appreciate all of your your work and how much you do the service me okay all right um the last thing that I want to say um to the board is that the green and blue bags are for me I gave you all gifts um for the holiday so enjoy them um and just thinking about all the comments I guess that were made and just kind of reflected on all we've accomplished to your point uh trusty Townsen this has been a busy year we have accomplished quite a bit um just thinking about where we were even five years ago and and how we were all dreamers um at this table thinking about the debt relief thinking about being a destination District thinking about all the things that we wanted to accomplish as a as a board as a district um and I couldn't agree more trusty gainsley with your comment about one of the best decisions this board made and the vote that counted was bringing you to this District it has made all the difference um your reput reputation not just in this community but across the state across the country globally it matters it matters to our kids it matters to what we do and how the work moves forward and just feel blessed and fortunate to be part of this team and welcoming new board members and and saying bye to board members who have sacrificed and gave up Monday nights and they'll get them back now um it has just been a pleasure to serve alongside with you um in this role um we've done a lot and I I feel grateful that we've accomplished so much um and I look forward to all we will continue to do together as a team um and stay the course and keeping kids first so thank you to all our outstanding staff our outstanding scholars in this District our outstanding parents um and this outstanding community that we get to serve in I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and um I'll see everyone in 2025 Dr Zachary Ross thank you Madame President boy what an emotional board meeting um just first I just want to thank uh thank all of you board members for the feedback um that you gave today um I truly appreciate it and I appreciate the fact that you are supportive not just today but all year um and not just supportive to me but as Dr Hawkins talked about it's like keeping out those students first asking the good heart questions um that ensures that this whole team that you see around you um and you see my friend Charlotte up there and that's a part of our team as our teaching staff and a professional staff and all of those that are part um you make sure that you listen and as Carlos would say and take the post everyone in the district and so thank you for being who you are because that's the only way we can as administrators um lead so I just again as the valuation is here Mary you're just always there that constant talking about the C constant and um supportive I think I wouldn't my self evaluations will look totally different if you weren't here um yet you remind me of the the Northstar where we are supposed to go and to to keep that level high but we also have to continue to deliver so thank you for that reminder and to our to my team here thank you to all of you guys because the the evaluation is a reflection of your work so thank you for your hard work um and thinking about hard work we do have some exciting things happening like the book Nook un vending unveiling ribbon cutting ceremony is on December 11th um from 10: to 11:30 uh that one is going to be the one at the high school we know we have them going through and thank you Dr cascarella for showing us the one that at homes with the big red ribbon on it and so our students it's it's exciting to think that our students are excited about the literature about getting books like that just excites me so much that we have true Scholars and that that's something that they're looking forward to um then also on December 11th I'm just proud to share with the board that um the director of the seed Pathways program which is a US Department of Education funded program to train teachers to work with multi lingual Lear Learners um reached out and said they're just grateful to partner with ycs on their project they've been so impressed with the ycs teachers commitment to learn Equitable and evidence-based practices to support their students learning and their dedication to ycs students and family this month on December 11 um the 15 15 ycs teachers will be completing the required courses for the mde ESL endorsement and they hosting a celebration Dr Carlos Lopez and I will be attending the celebration at Wayne State University on December 11 but think about that we have 15 people through the grow your own grant that um we reive through the department of Ed that are getting will be endorsed like they were they completed so that is something Bor thank you for your support in that and we'll go and support the um staff there um we also have uh staff that are graduating uh from Eastern coming up we have this this week as well um a a celebration for them at the wsd from the par to teacher program so the work that you're doing is definitely seen and there's evidence um the strategic planning we remember everyone thank you for taking time to meet with SJ Apple they will be here to present uh the findings from the plan that they listen to the students and the staff and community and stakeholders and you all of you in January so we'll start off the year looking forward to hearing about that whole how that was culminated um in that new strategic plan and thank you each for participating we know that this is the last board meeting of the Year December 19th and 20th just a reminder is a half day and um we return back on January 6th and we welcome our new board members at that January 13 meeting um to you all thank you for being here and for we look forward to working together um lastly just uh two other things the resiliency Center open house has had to be postponed um as we know Miss Allen is still healing and so we will uh ensure that we get you that date for that uh launching of the resiliency Center open house when she's able to return um however do have the magnet Community presentation at Park Ridge and so we know that um with just like we do boots on the ground our summer we go out to the community that's one of the things that we said with the magnet Grant we don't want to have the family and Community me meetings here we're going to go out to different spaces each month through the community and park ridg is the first one on December 17th at 6 p.m. so thank you trusty Townsen for hosting us and last but not least I just am appreciative um of both you trusty gainsley I don't even want I'm not trying to talk too much and you trusty Schindler you all have just been true Partners you call and let me know about things you ask great questions you're so supportive just I know again I could not have been here these years you you see the churn of superintendence but your support just has been unwavering and the public needs to know it's not like oh your support because you cheer on you will say hey hey what about this have you done this I love it because that's how we stay together and um I just appreciate you and thank you for your service um thank you for staying for my evaluation um I'm just just so grateful for you all and so you did ask about the award I gave you the paper cuz I asked them too I didn't know who I didn't know I thought it was they gave superlative Awards in regular in these Awards and I had no idea so Tracy Davis is a superintendent ameritus at uh from was Washo um public schools are you that's where you are and Susan efield so this is the Tracy Davis and Dr Susan efield she roic leadership award those two um women were have been amazing superintendent and known throughout the country and continue to support as a matter of fact Miss efil is my mentor right now so when you see on their Mentor meetings she had been one of my mentors and Miss Davis had been my mentor through the ASA Urban superintendent Academy so um when my colleagues and peers nominated me obviously for the award um which I didn't know if you read I'm like you all really did some they talk to somebody around here um but um they were just reading off like this award and what it meant and then when they called my name I was like Wow and it just said here's the award it says um for Visionary leadership resilience and Innovation um inspiring change and breaking barrier in education so it's from The Institute for education and Innovation and I think the best part is that the peers had to recommend you and you had to be voted on by the superintendent Across the Nation so it really means so much so again I could not do any work without all of you without the staff that's involved administrators and our community even am us all of us because you push us to be the very best for our students happy uh holidays all the holidays are coming up so please I agree get some rest everyone all right anything else for it