Test. Test. The time is 06:30. I would like to call this regular Board of Education meeting to order. The first item on our agenda this evening is the call to order for those Board of Education members who are present. Trustee Goodrich, could you perform the roll call, please? Certainly, madam president. Trustee Sutton Kennedy? Present. Trustee Fields? Here. Trustee Goodrich, I'm here. Trustee Townsend? Here. Trustee Espy? Here. Vice President Lee? Here. President Hawkins? Here. We have all Board of Education members present. The next item on our agenda is the pledge of allegiance.
I would like to invite those in attendance to stand and join us in reciting of the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next, that takes us to achievements, awards, and recognition. At this time, I will turn it over to doctor Zachary Ross. Thank you, madam president. At each board meeting, the board invites one of our wonderful buildings scholars today.
You're welcome to come to share your points of pride. Training. Thank you for having us here today. I just want to acknowledge our parents who are here, who are both the students here today. And thank you for your participation and your support. And, we'll have our students to read our important points of pride that will introduce themselves. Hello. My name is Mackenzie Guyton, point of pride. Our community curriculum night was a big big success. Families and staffs had fun at with a chili cook off and won prizes. Over 100 students and families came to celebrate our school and the learning in our
classrooms. Thank you. Hello. My name is Kyrie Davis, point of flight number two. We're excited to announce the kickoff of our Makerspace STEM program on January 14. A fun family STEM night. This event will spark interest in science, technology, engineering, and math while making learning fun for our students. My name is Rose Redden. Wait. Hello. My name is Rose Redden.
That's what I get. Point of pride number three. Erickson held a Pennywise fundraiser that pull our school together in just two weeks. We raised over $800 to provide Thanksgiving baskets for families in need. Point of pride point of pride number four. We are thankful for the one eighty program who helps families in need. At our school, they give toys and clothes to them on the holidays. Point of five number five.
We deeply appreciate our partnership with Mosaic Church led by pastor Shannon Nelson. The consistent donations of food and time have greatly benefited our staff and families, including the recent recent provision of hand packed weekend mailboxes for every student, so SNAP benefits will be stored. Hello. My name is Rose Red. Point of pride number six. We are especially proud of our winter choir concert held in December marking the first event in three years. The concert was a great success featuring students who sang, danced, and narrated with over
100 families attending to enjoy cookies and hot chocolate together. Point of pride number seven. Erikson successfully implemented its first out of school time before school academic program, which has been well received by our community. The morning program has serviced over 30 students offering academic enrichment in literature, math, stem, and cultural activities. We look further forward to fur future grant funded initiatives to look for further enhance students' academics.
Thank you, Doctor. Sharif and thank you Erickson Scholars. If we could have all of our parents, caregivers and staff from Erickson Elementary School to stand and be recognized, please do so at this time. Outstanding job, Erickson Scholars. Can I ask what grade are they students are in? Hello. I'm in fourth grade. Alrighty. Oh, fourth Alright. Thank you again.
Next, I will take the next, I will turn over the next appreciation over to doctor Zachary Ross. Thank you, madam president. January is Board Appreciation Month. This is from the Michigan Association of School Boards that reminds us that the key to a brighter future for Michigan's children is a strong public education system. Every day, students count on public schools to help prepare them for a successful future. Whether they understand it or not, they count on adults across the state ensuring they
have access to resources to help them learn, keep their building safe, and have qualified teachers to guide them. It takes a pure, unwavering commitment to a community to make this all possible. Yet, at the end of the day, the true superheroes contributing to the success of our scholars are just ordinary citizens with extraordinary dedication to public schools. Those are our school board members. These individuals approach their work volunteer work like it is a full time job, and
I can say that these board members definitely do so. And even for some, they value their work on the board as more important than their chosen profession. Their job is to establish a vision for the education program, design a structure to achieve that vision, ensure schools are accountable to the community, and strongly advocate for continuous improvement in student learning. The job of a school board member is tough. The hours long and thanks few and far between.
Too often, we're quick to criticize school board members without really understanding the complex nature of their decisions. We have to remember to take time to thank them for their untiring efforts. The month of January marks the observance of school board recognition month. This is an opportunity to show our year round appreciation for these servant leaders and begin to better understand how local trustees work together to prepare today's students to be
tomorrow's leaders. We encourage you to join with others throughout our community, state, and nation to salute the individuals who provide grassroots governance for public schools. And so at this time, I'd ask our team to come and support, the gift for our board of education. In the back, they also have received a certificate of appreciation from the Michigan Association of School Boards, and it reads for each one of them, for your dedication to
our children and public education in Michigan. It has the board member's name, my name, Ypsilanti Community Schools, and it's signed by Del Winger, the president, and Don p Wartuba, CAE, and executive director. Let us give a round of applause of thanks giving thanks to our school board members. Thank you so much, doctor Zachary Ross, for those very, kind and heartfelt words, expressing
appreciation for the school board. Would any other school board members like to say anything at this time? I just want to say thank you, for sharing appreciation. And then also just, you know, thank everyone for being here and for volunteering your time. I've enjoyed my first year as a school board member, working with you all. I appreciate all of the support, and all of the extra time that everyone has put in to, support my onboarding into this role, and everything else in addition to
everything that we are already doing, and just share some additional appreciation for you all as well. Thank you, Trustee Sutton Kennedy. Any other comments from the board? Yeah. Hi. Also, I'm in my within my first year. Right? We're coming up with this is our anniversary of our one year of service, which is super exciting. And I just wanna thank all of you for supporting our onboarding, giving us a friendly look, guiding us in the right direction. I also want to just thank, the community, for continuing to show up, our scholars
for continuing to show up and doing the work. We do this work for you, for our schools. You've you've entrusted us with the leading, of our our district. And so we really I really appreciate that, and that faith you put in us. And, I don't take that lightly, so thank you. And, again, thank you to the folks on this school board. Thank you to doctor Elena Ross Elena Zachary Ross, just has been a really amazing
steward of the district and, deeply appreciate the time you all put in every day, particularly also your cabinet who sit quietly and silently in every board meeting for hours and hours. Thank you. Thank you, Trustee Espy. I'd like to thank you. This would be my twelfth year on the board. I'd like to thank the community for putting a faith in me. I'd like to say I know I haven't been showing up that much in the year 2025 because of family commitment.
But family is good now. My son is home. He's doing good. I got my mom under control a little bit. Just a little bit. Being 83, that's hard to do, but she's under control. This year is gonna be a good year. I'm able to free up time now to really dive deep and really commit to this board, and I'm looking forward to doing my job on this board and saving
my kids in this community. So I'm ready to get to work, and I'm excited to get to work. And we got work to do, and I'm here. So thank you, doctor Zachary Ross. Thank you, Cabinet. Thank you, board. Thank you for all your support, and I'm ready to go. Thank you, Vice President Lee. Other board comments? I would just quickly like to, also thank everyone that we were working with for the overall team, the board, administration, superintendents, our teachers.
I especially like to thank our scholars and our parents, so that's why we're here. I would love to go to to take my place. Well, anyway, so, I just wanna say thank you, for always, supporting us as board members. This job is not easy. Most people think you just come to one meeting to do several meetings a month and then also attend a few activities. But it is a blessing and a privilege to do so. Thank you.
Thank you, Trustee Townsend. Yes. Trustee Goodrich and then Trustee Fields. Or were you first Trustee Fields? Okay. Rock, paper, scissors. Is that right? I'll just briefly follow-up everyone else's expressions of gratitude. Thank you so much for the kind words and, you know to everything everyone said. I'm looking forward to working with all of you in the next year as we apply ourselves to our service and support of our scholars and the community that elected
us. Thanks everyone. Thank you, trustee Goodrich. Okay. I did owe thank you, to the board, to everybody, the the support that we have. I think we are a good team. We work well together. We're here for the Scouters, like we said. If it wasn't for them, we would there would be no us. You know what I'm saying? That's the reason why we're here. I wanna thank doctor Zachary Ross and her her team, for all the support that they have. We work well, you know, as we come together and, try to make sure that
we are doing the right thing for the community. And and I wanna say thank you to the community for trusting in me believing that I can do this job and that I, you know, I am here for for whatever whatever it takes to get these kids together and make them happy and get them everything that they deserve and need, that's what I'm here for. Thank you. Thank you, trustee Fields. And and I won't, repeat, but I will echo the sentiments already shared by the
board. This is my I had to do the math three times, in my head. And I was like, this cannot be correct. But this is my fifteenth year on the board, and it has been, an important, and a humbling journey. And I just thank this community for continuing to trust me to serve this district. I appreciate everyone who has a hand in making sure our scholars, our educators, our paraprofessionals, all of our educators, no matter what their titles are in our district.
We can't make this happen without people showing up every day and being committed to making sure our scholars have everything they need in our school system. And I also wanna just say a huge thanks to our community for being engaged, for being involved, for showing up, for believing in us. When these I say it every year, and I think it's important to say every year. When we brought two different districts together, we didn't know what the future would hold for, this district. And to see where we are in 2026, is absolutely astounding, to see see the
progress we've made over the years and to see the lives that we've touched in this community from seeing our scholars enter at kindergarten and then to see them and usher them through as they walk across the stage at graduation. So I just want to say thank you to everyone, and especially this board who works tirelessly, behind the scenes. A lot of work is unseen. This board is committed to the work, engage in this community, travels to conferences for professional development opportunities, and shows up for YCS students.
And I think a big part of our success as a board and as an eight member team with our superintendent has been the fact that we have placed our scholars front and center. Every decision we make, everything that we do is driven by what is best for every scholar in this district. So I just want to say thank you to the community for allowing us to serve, and thank you to everyone, who is part of this team every single day, from us all the way down to, you know, everyone in the district who has
a hand in making sure everything happens every single day, day in and day out for our scholars. Thank you again, doctor Zachary Ross. It's all it's a pleasure. It's been a pleasure over all these years to work alongside you, and I don't I would be remiss if I didn't give, miss Haynes a big shout out for keeping us together. So thank you. Next that takes us any other comments before I move on? Alright. Next that takes us to the acceptance of our agenda. Is there a motion at this time?
Madam 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? Support trustee Sutton Kennedy. Thank you. Supported by trustee Sutton Kennedy. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. Next, that takes us to before we move on to our next agenda item, I
wanna make sure we take a moment, because I didn't read it after we acknowledge the board, for board appreciation month month, which is our mission statement, which reads as follows. Our YCS mission statement, the purpose of YCS is to develop mindful, engaged students with the skill set, work ethic, and attitude to contribute to a community that honors diversity, equity, and justice. Next board members, that takes us to item five on the agenda, which is our
first public comment portion for this evening. Miss Haynes, have any public comment I see you walking this way. While you're walking this way, I will read the public comment protocol. Pursuant to board of education policy zero one six seven point three, the board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express their views. Please limit statements to three 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. All remarks shall be made at a respectful and professional manner. I would like to invite up miss Leticia is it Harry? Hori. Thank you, miss Leticia Hori. Good evening, George. With me, I am am with our Washoe Intermediate School District Bridge team, and I
am a wraparound facilitator coordinator, care coordinator for that team. I have the pleasure of working with a number of our students across our district, especially here within YCS. The two students that stand here with me are two students that are, with their parents' permission and with the guidance of Doctor. Shreve, at Ericsson, have worked really hard, to make very significant areas of improvement. This young lady here came in a little late because her parents went to the wrong building, but we thought it was very, this was a huge reward for them
to work hard, for their behavior goals and knowing the importance of participating in community. So if you would allow it, I would like, participating in community. So if you would allow it, I would like for these two students to just, especially this one who had accumulated, to just speak her name and and say good evening to the board. Hi. Hello. My name is Hello. My name is Leah. And hi, everybody. Hello. That is so My name is Kylie. Hello, boy.
Hello. Hello. I just wanna say thank you for all of your support, the continued support, with our bridge team that continues to push out, and thank you for allowing our students to speak. It was because of all of the work that everybody puts in, we are able to put supports in place and make it successful. Thank you very much and thank you for welcoming. Of course. Thank you. Thank you again to Erickson Son and especially thank you for bringing those, scholars back up so that they can introduce themselves to the board.
Next that takes us to, the, election of our acting chairperson and appointment of our temporary secretary for the organizational part of the Board of Education meeting. At this time, I would like to have a motion to nominate, acting chairperson for the organizational meeting. Madam President, I move to nominate superintendent Zachary Ross to serve as acting chairperson for
this organizational meeting. Thank you. A motion has been made by trustee Goodrich. Is there a support for this motion? Thank you. Supported by trustee Fields. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. At this time, I will turn it over to doctor Zachary Ross who will serve as the acting chair point person and who will appoint a temporary secretary. Once all officers have been elected, newly elected president and secretary will begin their duties. Doctor Zachary Ross. Thank you, madam president. At this time, I hereby nominate, appoint Julie Haynes to serve as temporary secretary until
such time as the secretary of the Board of Education has been elected. Just to review board, verbal nominations for candidates for each of our four offices will be solicited one at a time. Nominations for office do not require seconds. Once all officers have been elected, the newly elected president will preside over the meeting. If more than one person is nominated for a single office, the majority vote should be used to identify the majority candidate for that position.
If only one board member is nominated for an office, I shall seek a motion to elect that board member by acclamation. The election of officers shall proceed in sequence until all officers are elected. So we will now move to the annual organizational organizational meeting and begin with learning who has an interest in serving as president of the board. Doctor Zachary Ross. I would be interested in serving as thank role of president.
Thank you doctor Zachary Ross. Yes. I would, like to just share, how again humbled I am to have served on this board, having been part of the consolidation, bringing two districts together, having the debt relief, seeing the ups and downs of this district, and to see where we are, as a board. My leadership, on the board, has been unwavering. I have centered scholars making sure that every decision we make is made through a lens of equity, making sure our scholars have everything that they need in our district,
working diligently to make sure our board, participates in and takes advantage of all professional development opportunities available so that we can continue to strengthen our role as school board members, being visible in this community, attending, events, meetings at the board table, meetings outside of the board table, and in addition to all of those roles as a school board member, I have carried, I have also, been very proud of the work that
we have accomplished together. In particular, having made sure we adopted a new strategic vision, for the next, five years. So this board has accomplished much together and it has been, proud to serve, in this community and importantly serving on this board in pursuit of educational excellence for our scholars. Thank you, trustee Hawkins. Are there others who are interested in serving as president of the board?
And for the third time, it is open. Still, are there others who are interested in serving as president of the board? Seeing none, it is stated that there's one person, we would move by acclamation. So it appears that there is the acclamation has occurred and there is support for doctor Celeste Hawkins. May I have a motion? I move that. I move that for doctor Hawkins, the elected as board president for until the twenty
twenty seven organizational meeting. Is there a second for the nomination? Support, trustee Sutton Kennedy. Any discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing that, may I have a roll call? It's just Yes. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The motion passes seven zero. The vote is to have Roger Celeste Hawkins serve as president until the twenty twenty seven organizational meeting.
Congratulations, president of Austin. Thank you, doctor Zachary Ross, and thank you, Board of Education. Now the office is open for vice president of the board. Who has an interest in serving as vice president of the board? I do. Trustee Lee. Thank you, trustee Lee. Will you please share your level of interest and assets that you bring to the role of vice president? Yes, please. I have been on the on the school board for now twelve years. I have been supportive and been in many roles as secretary. I've and vice president.
I am very supportive of the president role and and I do will support and I am supporting all the trustees. I have been in many meetings and I so committee meetings, I am on those and I attend those regularly. I know I have not been, all the way here, but like I stated before,
that now that my life has calmed down some, that I will be more inattending and more attending more events in the community and more supportive of my fellow board members. So yes. Thank you, Jesse Lee. Are there any others who have an interest in serving as vice president of the board? And finally, are there any others who have interest in serving as vice president of the board? Seeing none, it appears that by acclimation, there's support for trustee Sharon Lee.
May I have a motion? Yes, doctor Zachary Ross. I move that Trustee Lee serve as vice president until the two thousand twenty seven organizational meeting. Thank you. Is there support? Trustee Fields, I support. Is there any further discussion? I have a question. Not necessarily. It's a discussion. But as we're doing the roll call and it talks about you stop at four, is that different Yes. Than Yes. So if there's four if if there's more than one nominee, then we have to do the narrow it down to the one candidate.
Okay. So we do the roll call vote. Okay. Then it says stop for each candidate. That's why you see you had a fourth for each candidate nomination. Yeah. So if there was more than one, that's what you're thank you for clarifying. Yes. That's the acclimation part that the board has voted. If there's only one, we can skip past that and go to just that next part of nomination and then go to voting. Yeah. Because that's kinda like it was misleading because that's why I said yes before because I thought it was more of a voting as opposed to the roll vote. You know what I mean? So thank you for clarifying that. Thank you for asking. That means there might be more than one person with that question.
So, yes, that's that rule by acclamation. Yeah. So we don't have to go through the four. There's only one. Okay. And so thank you. Alright. So any, additional discussion item? Julie, we will take the roll call vote. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The motion passes seven zero. The vote is to have trustee Sharon Lee serve as vice president until the two thousand twenty seven organizational meeting. Congratulations vice president Lee.
Thank you. Next, the office of the secretary of the board is now open. Who has an interest in serving as secretary of the board? Doctor Zachary Ross. Trustee Sutton Kennedy. I have an interest in serving as secretary of the board. Thank you, trustee Sutton Kennedy. Will you please share your level of interest and assets that you bring to the role of secretary? I'm interested in serving as in the role as secretary and believe my skills align very well with the responsibilities of the role. I have, acted as secretary in multiple capacities organizational skills, attention to detail, maintenance, maintaining
accurate records and minutes. And I believe those skills will, allow me to be successful in the role. Thank you, Trustee Sutton Kennedy. Are there are there any other board members who are interested in the role of secretary? And finally, are there any other trustees interested in the role in serving in the role of secretary of the board of the board? Seeing none, it is by acclamation. Again, it appears and it appears that there's there's more majority support for trustee Sutton
Kennedy. May I have a motion? Madam chairperson, I move the And election of secretary Felicia Sutton Kennedy to serve until the twenty twenty seven organizational meeting. Thank you, trustee Goodrich. Is there support? Support, vice president Lee. Thank you, vice president Lee. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, miss Haynes, will you call the roll call vote? Yay. Yay. Aye. Aye. Aye. Yeah. Aye. Thank you. The motion passes seven zero. The vote is to have trustee Sutton Kennedy to serve as secretary until the two
thousand twenty seven organizational meeting. Congratulations, secretary Sutton Kennedy. Now the office of treasurer is now open. Who has an interest in serving as treasurer of the board? Doctor Zachary Ross. I trust Townsend, have interest in serving a full treasury. Thank you, trustee Townsend. Will you please share your level of interest and the assets that you bring to the role of treasurer? I I have seventeen years experience in the financial industry and also seventeen years, in
the real estate industry. Been a long time being an advocate over thirty years. I've served in some capacity of the departments for the board for the scholarship, for the foundation. Area that I've all been quite to sell in, in various boards that I serve on. Thank you, trustee Townsend. Are there any other board members who are interested in serving as treasurer of the
board? And finally, are there any other board members interested in serving as treasurer of the board? Seeing none, it is appears that, we are here again at point of support, through acclamation for trustee Townsend to serve. May I have a motion? I, trustee Espy, nominate trustee nominate, trustee Townsend to serve as treasurer until twenty twenty seven organizational meeting. Thank you. Is there support? Trustee Fields, I support.
Thank you, trustee Fields, for your support. Is there any discussion discussion? Seeing none, miss Haynes, will you please conduct the roll call vote? Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. The motion passes seven zero. The vote is to have trustee Town Townsend to serve as treasurer until the twenty twenty seven organizational meeting. Congratulations, treasurer Townsend. Thank you all for the opportunity to chair the organizational Thank you again Doctor.
Zachary Ross and thank you Ms. Haynes for serving in these important roles for the organizational part of our meeting where we elect officers. Now board that takes us to the appointments of our board committee, membership for board committee membership and liaisons. Liaisons. Board members, is there interest in a board member who is willing to serve in the role of parliamentarian? That's me. Vice President Lee. Alright. I have a question about that. So parliamentarian and would that be I mean, and the and she's the vice president.
Do they ever kinda and, like, is that the how do those kinda work? Can you help me? I mean, you know, with her being vice president and then you have the parliamentarian. So you can Yeah. Anyone can go outside. Yeah. No. That's a great question. Trustee Fields, I know that vice president Lee has served in the role of parliamentarian for years, in her role as vice president on the board. And any board member can serve in that role, having an understanding of parliamentary procedures, Robert, rules of order. Absolutely. So to answer your question, there wouldn't be a conflict. Okay. I'm just asking because I wanted to know.
Oh, no. I just answered. No. No. She'll throw it to me to say, You know, but I know she have, but I'm just saying when I wanted to because we've never really never mind. Just that's great. Never mind. Okay. Thank you, Chuck's, vice president Lee. Yes. Thank you for serving all these years in the role of parliamentarian. Any other discussion or interest? Alright. Thank you Vice President Lee for serving in the role of parliamentarian. Are there board members who, have an interest in serving on the Head Start Policy Committee? Okay. That's me.
Alright. Vice President Lee, I know this has been a committee you have, served well in and have enjoyed serving, for the district. Mhmm. Mhmm. Are there other, does this role require just one or can there be more than one board member serving? I don't know if we've ever had two. I just thought I would ask today. We can look into it further and if other board members would like to join, let us know. Okay. We can put somebody else in that role with you as well. So Vice President Lee, it sounds like that you're comfortable continuing in the role, as
Head Start Policy Committee Liaison. Yes. Anyone wanna take it? No. Okay. Okay. Alright. Next that takes us to number three which is our legislative relations network designee. Is there a trustee interested in serving in this role? Trustee Sutton Kennedy. I'd like to continue serving in that role. Thank you, trustee Sutton Kennedy. Are there any board other board members interested in serving in that role? Alright. That takes us to number four which is the WASB representative for the school board.
Is there a member of the board who is willing to serve in this role for the Washtenaw Association of School Boards? Trustee Espy, I would like to serve in that role, please. Alright. From the representative. Thank you, Trustee Espy, for serving in the role. Any other members interested? Alright. That takes us to number five, which is our Ypsilanti Foundation Board Liaison. Do we have a trustee who is interested in serving in this role? And just for clarification, I know that at our December meeting, trustee, Townsend, you mentioned
that there might be a couple of could you share more? So you have the liaison role that does not have any voting power. You simply just represent the board of being that are also looking for actual board members. Right. Yes. Right. Right. Completely. Yeah. Okay. So, I'll Okay. Thank thank you. I appreciate that clarification. Who might be interested in serving in the role as the Ypsilanti Foundation Board Liaison?
Liaison? I was gonna be the director of the matter for the in serving. Okay. Perfect. Thank you, trustee Townsend. Anyone else interested in serving? Next, that takes us to the MASB Convention Delegate and Alternate. And I know we always have so many trustees who are fighting for this role for these roles. So who would like to serve, in the role of delegate and alternate for MASB? I'm always the delegate when we go to Lansing.
So You serve in that role so well, Trustee Fields. I know. I just go and sit and listen what they're saying. But, yes, it's in Lansing this year. I'll be the delegate again. You will. Thank you so much, Trustee Fields. Trustee Sutton Kennedy, I'll be interested in serving as the delegate again this year. I mean, sorry. Alternate again this year. It's alright. Okay. So I have, trustee Fields who is willing to serve in this role again as the delegate. And as the alternate, I have trustee Sutton Kennedy. Anyone else interested in those two roles?
Thank you, trustee Fields and trustee Sutton Kennedy. Next, we have the, coordinated school health team. Is there a trustee interested in serving in this role? Trustee Espy. I would be willing to serve in that role. Excellent. Thank you, Trustee Espy. Is there there anyone else interested in serving in this role? Seeing none, that takes us to number eight which is our sex education advisory board member. Is there a trustee interested in serving in this role? Trustee Espy. I would be interested in serving in this role. Okay. Alright. It's gonna be a busy year for you, trustee Espy.
Alright. Both of those kinda overlap. Okay. Excellent. Anyone else interested in serving in the sex education advisory board role? Alright. So to recap, we have Vice President Lee serving as, our parliamentarian. Vice president Lee also serving as the head start policy committee, liaison for the board. We have trustee Sutton Kennedy serving as the legislative relations network designee. We have trustee Espy serving as the Washington Association of School Boards representative. We have Trustee Townsend who is serving as the Ypsilanti Foundation Board Liaison.
We have the delegate for the MASB convention, serving this year. We have Trustee Fields as the delegate and Trustee Sutton Kennedy as the alternate. And for the coordinated school health team and sex education advisory board, we have trustee Espy. Thank you board members for serving in all of these important roles. Now that takes us to the appointments of our subcommittees. First up is our policy subcommittee.
Is there a board member interested in serving as chair and board members interested in serving on the policy subcommittee? Madam President, I would be willing to serve on the policy subcommittee. I just wanted to remark as we're all aware that it's gonna be a big year for that subcommittee as we transition our policies, and I recognize our role in catalyzing that. And so I'm I'm willing to serve in that in some capacity on that subcommittee
in the last year of my term. But I also am very committed to doing support and capacity building, however the they transition to the next leader on that subcommittee. Okay. Alright. So what I hear is that you're interested, in continuing in the role of trustee Goodrich and you would be open to serving as chair again in that role. Are there board other board members who are interested in serving on the policy subcommittee? Trustee Sutton Kennedy.
I'd be interested in serving on the policy committee again. Thank you, trustee Sutton Kennedy. And I would also be interested in serving on the policy subcommittee. Are there other trustees who are interested in the policy subcommittee work? Alright. I think that, we are probably all in support of you serving as chair. I'm honored. Thank you. Yes. Thank you so much for continuing in that role.
Alright. Next, that takes us to our Financial and Operational Planning Subcommittee. We have the chair and, additional trustees who might be interested in serving on that subcommittee. Madam president, I will be interested in serving on the community. Thank you so much, trustee Townsley. Are there other board members interested in serving on the financial and operational planning subcommittee? Trustee Fields interested in serving on the committee. Thank you, trustee Fields. And I would continue serving on the committee. Any other board members interested?
Taking us now to Strategic and Educational Performance, our DTN subcommittee. Are there trustees who are interested in serving strategic and educational performance subcommittee? I'm interested in serving on that committee. I'm not as chair of, I would, trustee Espy. I would be willing to serve as chair of that committee. Perfect. Thank you. So we have Trustee Espy who is interested in serving as chair. Vice President Lee interested in serving on the committee. Other board members? Trustee Sutton Kennedy, I'd be interested in serving on that committee as well.
Well. Okay. Excellent. And next that takes us to our community relations subcommittee. Do we have trustees interested in serving on this subcommittee? Trustee Fields? I'm not his chair. To be very clear. Be very clear. Yes. Oh, I would like to serve as chair on the Community Relations Subcommittee. Thank you. We have, trustee Fields who is interested in continuing to serve as chair for the community relations subcommittee. And then I heard vice president Lee who is interested in also staying on that, subcommittee.
Trustee Town and trustee Townsend who will continue on that subcommittee as well. Thank you, board members. So just to recap, for our policy subcommittee, we have trustee Goodrich serving as chair, trustee Sutton Kennedy who will be serving on the committee and doctor Hawkins, myself, I'll be serving on that committee. Next, we have for financial operational planning subcommittee, we have trustee Towson who will serve as chair, trustee Fields, and Hawkins will, serve on that subcommittee again.
Next, we have the Strategic and Educational Performance Subcommittee where we have Trustee Espy who is willing to serve as chair, Vice President Lee, and Trustee Sutton Kennedy who will serve on the subcommittee. And last we have for Community Relations subcommittee, Trustee Fields who will continue to serve as chair in that role, and Vice President Lee and Trustee Townsend, who will serve on that subcommittee. Before we move on oh, that comes later and immediately.
I was looking for all of the long list of things that we need to approve. Okay. Yep. That's later in the agenda. So at this time, I would like to take a motion for, the appointments of our board committee members and liaisons. Trustee Sutton Kennedy move that the following appointments of board representatives be approved and in effect until the next organizational meeting in January. Do you have I can list them if you want me to. Mhmm. Do you have them written? Yes. Perfect.
Number one, parliamentarian, trustee Lee. Number two, Head Start policy committee, trustee Lee. Number three, legislative relations network, designee, trustee Sutton Kennedy. Number four, Washington Association of School Boards representative, trustee Espy. Number five, Ypsilanti Foundation Board liaison, Trustee Townsend. Number six, Michigan Association of School Boards, convention delegate and alternate delegate, Trustee Fields, alternate, Trustee Sutton Kennedy. Number seven, coordinated school health team, Trustee s Trustee Espy.
Number eight, Sex Education Advisory Board, Trustee Espy. The following committees may include one to three members unless otherwise noted. Number one, policy policy committee trustee and chair, trustee Goodrich along with, Trustee Sutton Kennedy and Trustee Hawkins on that committee. Number two, financial and operational planning subcommittee. Chair, Trustee Townsend along with Trustee Fields and Trustee Hawkins on that committee.
Number three, strategicandeducationalperformancecom Subcommittee Chair, Trustee Espy, along with Trustee Lee and Trustee Sutton Kennedy on that committee. Number four, community relations subcommittee chair, trustee Fields, along with trustee Lee and trustee Townden on that committee. I support that motion. Oh. I was just getting ready to say a motion has been made by, trustee Sutton Kennedy. Is there support for this motion? Trustee Espy, I support. Thank you. Supported by Trustee Espy.
All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. Next, that takes us to our presentation this evening which is on the proposed retirement plan, administrative review, and structural update. At this time, I will turn it over to doctor Zachary Ross to introduce the presentation for this evening. Thank you, madam president. At this time, I'll invite Josh Williams from Williams and Company to come. The board has, in the past, reviewed, the retirement opportunities staff for the great people.
I appreciate everybody's, time that they there's not anybody in they're not seeing an employee
that's probably been in contact or met a representative in person of the current of the current plan. And so with that hands off provider, that self-service model, find that Ypsilanti actually has a duplicate model right now because Voya offers the same thing. So in 2012, when Voya put that in, and Ypsilanti's current model, they have two self-service models that, as we find as we look at a lot of statistics from participation, we find that participation ends up being very low in that self-service model.
Now the one thing that we're able to offer now, and we started rolling this out, we actually first rolled out this program with, SAG and ISD as a pilot program to say, okay. What we could do is with Williams company, we can offer a single source provider relationships with relationships under a full service model. And under that full service model, what we provide is we not we provide a, first of all, a level of financial product that is, we'd say we can't say exactly, but we can say very, very comparable price independent with everything out there in the market including what's facilitating what we believe in planning terms has.
Secondly, we provide, monthly educational programs, educational meetings to all the public school employees on every on a multitude of things, not just on the retirement system. On the retirement system, not just on, the four zero three four fifty seven defined contribution plans. It's everything from tax planning to, we do a lot with, health insurance HSA contributions and, multitude of other things. I know every month we do a different presentation, educational program for all the, for
all the, employees that they're able to attend. And we change it up every month in the school of the school year so that they have the opportunity we try to tailor it as well to what's going on. And so for instance, with, we're doing a tax planning once a while, we're doing that in February, March, and leading into tax season so that they can prepare how they need to. And then, a multitude of other things such as college planning, insurance planning, things like that. So the ability for us to to offer that to all of the employees at a competitive at a at a price that matches that are close to matching.
We can't legally say that we for sure match it because we don't have the exact numbers, but I can tell you that it is it is very, very comparable. We're able to then replace the current provider that is in this lane that is duplicating what Voya is doing as a self-service model. And provide a full service model that would then offer a much better understanding of our or opportunity for employees to understand what their benefits are, what the state retirement system offers, as well as and ultimately what that would do is, we find is
increase participation. So we find that as employees understand their benefits, participation goes up. And that goes beyond just the four zero three. We find that, I think in the, pilot program we increased, I don't have to pull the numbers, but I think it'd be I think it was 15 to 20 we find that ends up being a positive all the way around. Secondly, we look at it with new employees. As we look at the the idea of what's going on right now in public schools and the cons and this perception of what this new the new retirement system
is for brand new employees. I can tell you, working with thousands of school employees, it has a very negative perception. Right? The the current employees don't have a great perception of what the new employees are coming in under for as far as retirement bills. I tell you, the finance guy will run all the numbers. And as long as you were looking at working till 08:60, I could actually put out an argument that it's as as good or better than what, the employees that have been here for twenty years. And it it has more to do with the perception and the lack of knowledge
behind the system more than it does the actual benefits that they're gonna be receiving from the state. So, we find that trying to get that education out to those younger employees, and we actually do that right now with, Ipslane. I know we just I come in every year, she brings me in. We do the, new hire orientation to try to help them the decision that they need when they first come in. But, I'd tell you the goal behind that is to try to increase employee retention. Try to keep the new teachers that are coming in, new school employees, in the
position. We see that the newer employees have a much higher turnover and have less of a are less apt to stay in their in the same position or in the same job until retirement. We're trying to encourage that because the retirement system that they have offered you through the state didn't offered me through the state didn't straightened them. So we wanna try to promote that new retirement system and and make sure that everybody is, able to take advantage of that. So, we wanna do, go through all of that and then also look at, one of the last pieces to it, also look at, one of the last pieces to
it is, as we started looking through Ypsilanti's plan documents, the current plan document that you have with your current provider, the one thing that stood out in that plan document was that the liability for tracking all of the contributions and everything else still lies the liability still lies on the district. Well, the provider may be doing it if, according to the document, if anything, if there was ever a mistake mistake made, the liability still falls under the district. And when, under the program that we're bringing in, we have a third party administrator,
GSA Consulting, who, I don't know the exact the district. And I tell you, you'll probably take a a loan off of the payroll department when it comes to, having to make any contributions or anything like that. Everything then just goes to one third party administrator.
And all of the loans distribution and everything else is all handled through them, and there's one point of contact for the payroll company. So it makes it easier on them in order to, not have extra piece pieces that they have to keep track. And they can also increase the number of plans that are offered. I know, currently, if, Delaney's got a four one a plan as well, and we're able to, they're able to use to move to that plan on top of the four So as we looked at it ago, in summary, we're able to, reduce the
district's liability. We're able to try to put the educational programs out there, increase employee, engagement, employee education, make sure that all of these things are provided to the employees. Williams company actually has a proprietary software program called LifeTrader that we're able to, illustrate to every employee. We offer this, complimentary to every employee that requests it. And we're able to map out a financial plan on how the state retirement and
have them and be able to show that if they were to work at implementing public schools until they retire, how much better their benefits would be as opposed to leaving their homes. So it helps their homes. So it helps help promote that help promote that piece as well. And then, like I said, we want to, try to increase participation in all benefits, not just four three four fifty seven. We wanna try to, through that education program, we work with the district, to help tailor those education programs so that it helps increase all of the benefits for the,
public school employees. And studies show that the better that employees understand their benefits, the more appreciative they are. So everything that's available, we wanna make sure that the employees are are fully understand what those benefits are, and help increase that employee's allowance. As we're here asking for the board to review the proposal, I know we had a chance to talk to the committee and was looking at to replace that current plan and then implement a new plan under, and I know that we, typically ask
of the Board to approve that process line. Alright. The floor is open for board members to ask questions. Trustee Townsend, do you have a question? Yes. I was when I was going through this, I see there's parts in here that talk about hardship, withdrawal, and a financial loan. Yep. Can Yep.
Can you just because I'm using 401 k. Right. So I'm just measuring into this 403. Sure. For about a year or so. Yeah. And my my question is, what is that rule and it will draw what So the so, there's two different provisions there, loan provision and hardship provision. So hardship provision as is is pretty well spelled out by the IRS, what it is that that that qualifies for hardship provisions.
And under that, the, employee is typically audited or anything like that, to be able to justify why it is that they took distributions out of the plan through. Now if somebody were looking to try to get money take money out, they could do it under what, the loan provisions of the of the plan. If if the Ypsilanti's plan is similar to other districts' plans that, your current provider
has, I can tell you that the loan provision, in our plan has a has more flexibility than what your current plan does. I believe your current plan, when you pay so the IRS allows you to take up to $50,000 50% of $50,000 whatever is less out of your $4.00 3. You can borrow that and pay it back over 500. Right? So that that that helps a lot of people, especially when it comes to, credit card debt. We also will recommend that, but also, first time the loan repayment came as a
payroll deduct through payroll system. The downside of doing it as a payroll deduct through payroll is that if somebody has an outstanding loan and decides to separate service, they have to pay that entire lump sum back prior to separating service. The plan that we typically implement says that the the repayment comes as a direct deduction out of the checking account, and they take the loan with it. So it's not a it's not a financial hardship type if they have an outstanding loan, they can't be paid outstanding loan. Any other questions, trustee Townsend?
No. Okay. Thank you. Other board member questions Sutton Kennedy. I having not been a member of the subcommittee that was a part of this discussion, I was just wondering, if someone could share more about the motivation behind the, behind this proposal. I could just share why I brought it to the subcommittee. Right just reviewing, we know that as we've been looking at the fact of our negotiations and thinking about our staff members, many of them did not have our current
plan. We only have about a 125, staff members that even participate in, utilizing any of these additional, funds. And so we know that we contact we already work with Williams and Company to educate our new teachers, but we have no other in house people who can provide that education, background on what all of these plans the first of all, the 21 retirement plans, but also but then going into the four zero three B, plan.
And so when looking at opportunities, there's not there's really no other option that of a single source. You can have multiple other, companies, but then it puts the hardship on the business side. So in looking at, over just the last few years, other ISVs, other districts have been saying, okay. We can have, a single source option that has these educational components. And those are the peep pieces that we can think about retaining staff, that whole
myth of the retirement system being forced so that people just leave. Or if you put in the time, look at how much in that life track that he talks about. It literally shows you, okay. If you stay this long, this is how much you benefit. This goes to your spouse. This goes to your children. All those kinds of things. So, again, we don't have that in house expertise that can offer that background on retirement on the four week b as well as those monthly, educational components.
So that was one of the pieces when we heard about that that opportunity was there. We're not getting anything currently with the plan the the plan we have. And so for the same cost, we can give these educational opportunities if it could take pressure off of the business office. That is a huge a huge benefit for us. But there really is that, educator training, that will come with it that we can also talk share about as we're going towards negotiations with our teachers to show, people
are taking taking advantage of all of those pieces and seeing how they are connect. And so the board reconnects in terms of the benefits. Thank you. I can give you another question after that because when you say we have, like, you said a 100 some employees out of how many employees we have? Like, I mean, we set that's very low. It is very low. Mhmm. And when we think about creating long term wealth retirement, we're we really have to send this message, like, we're not trying to have people work and then become a
participant because of lack of money that's coming from Social Security and whatever. So that's that's very concerning for me that we have such a low number. So with this new plan, it would increase the educational component. So, ideally, we would have a percentage of employees that we're gonna be at at least 50%, you know, because that's really really concerning. We have people that retired, and they don't have anything.
Well, they have the I mean, they have some requirements. But I'm just saying, this is that additional stuff. And yeah. So you that's the value. Right? Like, value added. Let people make personal decisions and choices. And are you thinking about the additional piece and how, like, it benefits you now to do that Do it with without the taxes being added. All of those pieces. We when they share the classes, some of the list they have is, like, the HSA and the FSA, benefit. And so, again, we we have some knowledge, but typically people call Sue or and
I, and we're not the experts in this area. And so, again, we have a like a void, but before this, there's not been someone we can say, okay. Here is the expert. Here, we're offering the district is offering. So it sounds like the hope is that by bringing in a third party to be able to actually, have these conversations with staff that they'll be more invested in utilizing this because they'll be able to ask the questions they have and get advice on how to utilize the service rather than it just be, like, go in and
do your own thing, which then ends up going back to Zoom. Is that essentially the goal is that by having someone having a party involved, it will encourage more engagement with the server with the retirement package. Yes. Absolutely. So could this benefit someone that was hired, say, like, in 2014 compared to someone that was hired now? Yes. Yes. And that's the the important thing because, again, so just going personally, like, I'm a
part of that old system and it's called MIP. That is that has changed. There's now 20 at that point, I have basically in one option. Now there's 21 that they come in and they have to elect. Think about how serious this is. They have to elect it sooner than they tell me the number of days. That's why I'm going. They have seventy five days when they come in. That's why we've asked them to come in before to work with the with the educator the new educators. They make that decision. So they have set by law, Michigan law, they have seventy five days when they're
first hired to decide between these and it's permanent. You can't go in and be like, oh, I was now it's 2025. I wanna change it. And so that's the seriousness of these decisions, and that's why Sue and I I don't we like we can give you the paperwork from MPSS, but we we don't we we don't wanna help you make that decision. We really would like an expert to be able to talk about the nuances of the plan. Okay. Because that's what I was gonna ask. Any feedback or teachers or employees on your service, but she just said it was
five out of five. So Yep. And I'm I'm I wanted to see that. The other, so we also because of the education and the, like, tracks analysis and everything else that we put out there, public school board, we also thought Michigan Associates of Retired School Personnel has also partnered with us in order to do all the the employee that's been here for twenty years versus the brand new employee. And we find that the it's the difference between the two that it that creates the requirement to have the specialty and what the difference is because they provide financial
education to the school employees, at the end of the day, the majority of their retirement benefit is coming from the same institution. And if you don't understand what the retirement benefit is that they're Okay. Yep. Thank you. Other questions from the board? Trustee Sun Kennedy, I have one more question about the, timeline here.
I see that we have the board discussion, which is what we're doing here right now, and then, like, legal administrative review and those other things. And I was just wondering if this will come back to the board at a later time and where that falls in the timeline shared here. Yeah. If if the board had more questions or those kinds of things, then if the board, kind of by consensus, it looked like we can move forward, then we would, move forward with making sure that our attorney, and I have to send over and thank you board members and thank you Josh for this presentation.
I just had one quick question, and it was along the lines of education. Mhmm. Could you you maybe speak a little bit to what does some of that financial planning and education look like? Say in a district like this. Like, in I'm assuming you've done this work Yes. With other districts, and in other capacities. But what does that because if there's a lack of engagement, I'm wondering, like, what makes the difference for you in terms of engagement and in terms of being available
to help people to kinda see and plan out their financial futures after retirement. Excellent. And and with the the the format of the presentations and and the delivery of that, we are we are very flexible in the district, I can tell you. And of many other districts, we're doing two per month. We so we we pick a seminar every month that we're gonna present. We present it twice. And we present it twice based on the schedule that the employees, to make sure that we can get support staff, transportation, certified staff, everybody makes sure that it's at
a time period where everybody is able to attend or attend virtually, we'll provide virtually, or if, response we could do in person as well if if people wanna have an in person Mhmm.
And then, we'll we'll put out, notifications to every employee that it's available, and then we try to keep it there for them. We don't want to we don't we know that we're we'll be at the Lou's employees if we have a hour presentation. So we try to keep it very short and sweet Okay.
And just a couple of more follow-up questions. An employee's, I'm assuming, can also, in addition to the many options that you provide, they could also probably just schedule an appointment to get questions answered? Absolutely. Okay. Great. And then the virtual options that you provide, I'm assuming that those are recorded so that employees can look back at those? They can be. Yes. Okay. I guess we can work with the district on that. We may have the district record it and put it on their website if they
have some sort of district portal. Mhmm. We oftentimes have the landing page for the, the work review and the other benefits as well on the on the district website and work with, Okay.
Thank you. And my last question is, I'm assuming too that this will be part of a once this, you know, we we go through the process and it comes back to the board for consideration. Something like this will be built into an onboarding process for new employees coming to the district? Absolutely. We always encourage that the district implement that as part of the onboarding. Okay. We can we can do that as part of the overall package, which is oftentimes in our, benefit, education piece that comes along with onboarding. Okay. Thank you so much.
Anything else from the board? Thank you for your presentation. Alright. Thank Thank you. Alright. Next, that takes us to our consent agenda. Is there a motion at this time? Madam President, Vice President Lee moved that the Board of Education approved the 01/2025 regular board meeting minutes to personnel matters as per the presented list dated 01/05/2025 new hires and resignation.
That's an error. That should say 01/05/1926. Oh, k. It's okay. It was it you were you read it the way it was presented. Vice president Lee, do you Repeating that with the current year. Okay. Two, personnel matters as per the present presented list dated 01/2625. New hires and resignations. I'm sorry, Vice President Lee. One more time. 01/05/2022. It's just the year was wrong. Oh, okay. Yeah. We'll get it right.
Okay. Two, personnel matters as per the presented list dated 01/05/1926. Yes. New hires and resignations. Yes. Thank you. A motion has been made by vice president Lee. Is there support for this motion? Trustee Fields, I support. Thank you. Supported by trustee Fields. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. That now takes us to item 10, which are our organizational meeting matters. And we have some action items to move through.
The first one is our district compliance officers appointment. Is there a motion at this time? Madam president, vice president Lee, move to designate the following staff to serve as district compliance officers. Officers. One, the assistant superintendent as five zero four compliance officer, and two, the director of human resources as district compliance officer and ADA coordinator in compliance with policy numbers 2260.01
and four one two three. Thank you. A motion has been made by Vice President Lee. Is there support for this motion? Support Trustee Townsend. Townsend. Thank you. Supported by trustee Townsend. Any questions on this item? Seeing none, a motion was made by vice president Lee, supported by trustee Townsend. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. And before we move to our board of education meeting schedule adoption, once we come back and we get to item 11, just please note for that the, organizational meeting
matters are annual, matters that we adopt at our organizational meeting every year. That now takes us to our board of education meeting schedule adoption. If board members could please look at their calendars, have their calendars regularly available, and look at not only our district scorecard, but our, 2,026, meeting schedule for subcommittees, our small group meeting dates, as board members with our superintendent, community meeting dates, and, state
of the school address meeting dates. I know that the information has been shared with the board in advance to review, looking at all of the meeting dates that have been, placed on our calendar for consideration. Are there board members that have comments, questions, or conflicts? Madam president? Yes. I just have a quick clarification, I think, for those on the policy subcommittee. For the April date, it's listed as March 29. I'm assuming that means April 29. That day of the week would make sense. April 29? I think.
Under So under April meetings for the policy subcommittee. There was just an error. It should read April 29 instead of March 29. Okay. Thank you, Trustee Goodrich. The floor is open to the board for questions, comments. Okay. Yes, ma'am. For January 28 Say that again. For January 28, Wednesdays are not good for me necessarily. So and, we have a small group, one and two, on Wednesday, January 28. I have prior engagement, so I can't.
The Wednesdays are not good for me is what I'm basically saying. So if I can miss it if you want, but I'm just saying. You give me notes, but that's not a good day. Wednesday is not a good one or Thursdays. I see you got Wednesday and Thursdays. I got two equipment, and then I do back to back until April. Then I'll be fine. But Are there other days that work better for you? I guess yeah. I guess other Mondays when we're not meeting, but right now, Wednesday and Thursdays, I have commitments. So Wednesday to Thursday, do you have commitments?
Okay. Yep. Yep. Yep. Until April, like I said. Anything after April will be fine. But right now until April. Often till April, you have conflicts? Yes. Okay. Yes. What about the rest of board members? Are there any conflicts? Trustee and Kennedy had a question also about the sub the small group meetings. Are those ones that we usually do after school hours or early in the day? Are there typical ones that, 05:30 then 06:30. Okay. Yeah. That would be a concert for me on Wednesdays as well.
Miss Hayes, do you mind? Does anything work on the early part of the day? Okay. Miss Hayes is gonna grab the information for us so you know so everybody knows what group they're in. They're back to backing us. Okay. I was like, I was in the early days. The first one? I think we had to get off as well. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's true. That's true. Who was it? It was pretty bad. Yep. Yep. Okay. Maybe we'll figure this out by process of elimination. I was like, I just remember having to be in and then out. So you remember, trustee Espy, that you were in the first meeting, which met at
05:30? Yes. And that was you and who else was in the small group? Maria says Trustee Goodrich said they were there, and they also believe that Trustee Townsend was there. For this past calendar year, that was our small group. And they're every other month and not in December. Sounds like you might need to look for a different day than Wednesday. You don't have any days. I like that weird thing. Unless it's time. What other times can you do with me? Okay. Thank you so much. During the day, I can do on Wednesday, just not the evening for me.
Okay. So just to confirm while we're thinking about, how we might adjust the dates for the subcommittees. For small group number one, we have Trustee Espy, Trustee Goodrich, and Trustee Townsend. For small group two, that leaves Trustee Fields, Vice President Lee, and Trustee Sutton Kennedy. And these small groups meet back to back. So it sounds like, Doctor Zachary Ross, that there might need to be some adjustments for small group number one, altered in date. Number two as well. Number one and number two.
Oh, because you all are in okay. Got it. Just to let you know, it may be a problem with me Mhmm. For the small group for four weeks. Because every week for four weeks, my son has to have a bronchoscopy. But, hopefully, after that, it'll be be alright. So and I'll be up at the hospital all day. But other than that, it'll be hopefully, after four weeks, I'll be able to be
there. So any day I don't know the dates. They're just random any day of the week. So I don't know. But I can get on at the hospital, but then I may be jumping on and off. Oh. Okay? Okay. Looks like Tuesdays are better for board member than before date of Master of August. Tuesday. Sounds like Tuesdays work for me.
Too high on? Tuesday, one of my holiday. Head start means that starts at 05:30. So So that's more that's more than that one week. Right? So it looks like that one would be the same. No. We can move it to so Well, it would be March 23. Like, for example, March 23 and then March 24. What will we get our own talk? We would we would need to look because our schedule, like, just doesn't include negotiations, the district calendar. So we will have to come back and quote more dates for those.
Because it's Tuesday, the third Tuesday of the month. Okay? Okay. Yeah. They're on the list. So we said we need to know what's not available so that we can do that plan. K. Okay. And don't forget, the district calendar is, has been voted on until June 30. The entire district calendar can change after June 30. Okay. So it sounds like for just to recap, for the small group meetings, we are
looking at an alternate date of Tuesdays to schedule these. And we'll follow-up with, board members to get those dates scheduled. Okay. Before seven. So 05:30 versus 06:30. Unless it's a thirty minute meeting. Uh-huh. Trustee Espy. Yeah. So, on April 23 right now, I have the WIC annual budget meeting listed as long as well as the my kid work group, committee for educational committee.
And I'm wondering if there is some adjustments because I cannot move the annual budget meeting. Is that do you have that there too? On the twenty third? April, we just don't have there many days that administrative department Yep. And everybody has to be a budget. Yeah. But, yeah, April April 23 is a WIC annual budget meeting, which I'm required to go that's basically the primary role of that committee. It's two. Oh, it's a Zoom meeting. So maybe I can do both. Got it. It's a Zoom. April 23. If you can find anything else, type a little bit.
I was just informed it's a Zoom, so I can probably Wait. Both things happen. Okay. Normally go with that. Alright. So April 23 is okay. Trustee Espy, you think? You know, we'll make it work. Yes. Alright. I'll big deep. I had a question about July. July? Uh-huh. Are we I don't see any board meetings on that day. Or in that month? No? Okay. Do we get that one off? The goal is to be to not have a meeting that month, but if we need to have a meeting, we will have a meeting. Yep. We have about seven meetings a month.
This is so yep. Madam president, can I ask what the community engagement meeting is? It seems like that one is one that shows up in these later months, and but that seems to be different than the community subcommittees. So I'm just curious what the what the community engagement meeting is and entails. Yes. So these are placeholder dates that were plugged in, and this came out of our December meeting when there was conversation around Community conversations.
That we might engage the community. So that's why these dates were put on the calendar so that board members could look at their schedules to see if these dates might work. And then part of the charge of the communications subcommittee would be to start the work and working with the administrators to see how this could look. What are the goals? What are the objectives? Kind of what are we trying to achieve through these conversations with the community? So that's why we place these dates on here. Yes. Trustee Buttridge.
I don't wanna go out of order, but I just wanted if this might be a place to, that I could bring about what we discussed about the possibility of doing some community engagement around board service Yeah. Since we do have an election year coming up. So I know that I it specifically made the request to start thinking about dates after we already had this slate of dates proposed, but I just wanted to put a pin in that and and articulate that to the chair of the community relations subcommittee, is something that we might undertake as part of our community relations work as
we come into the election year. Mhmm. Thank you for raising that, trustee Goodrich. And as the board recalls, prior to this, our newly elected board members who are now, in their one year anniversary of serving on the board. As a board, we had discussed the importance of having some dates available to invite those interested in serving on the board. We know that we have two board seats this year that will be up for reelection, election and reelection. And so, we we wanna create some space for members to come and learn about
what it means to serve on the board, a Q and A session. The ones that we had, offer, were successful. I know trustee Sutton Kennedy was at one of those sessions. And, it was a really informal discussion, but it really provided an opportunity and space to be able to share what it means to serve on the school board. So thank you for lifting that up, Trustee Goodrich. And really, I think, through the Community Relations subcommittee Mhmm.
Mhmm. Yes. I agree. And, Trustee Goodrich, could you remind us I don't remember if this was sent in the communication you shared, prior to the meeting. But, the filing deadline, I don't know if you have that committed to memory at all. July, the exact date this coming I I believe it's in July. I don't remember the exact date off the top of my head right now. But so ideally, if we last time. We're able to, it was the twenty sixth last time.
So it's probably, like, the last. Mhmm. Yeah. Okay. So so if it might be possible to schedule something with enough lead time so that while people are in the process of exploring and discerning, they they have an opportunity to I I would love if it were possible for us to have this sort of engagement with enough lead time so that, people have lots of time to
think about it before the filing deadline. Mhmm. So just looking at this the calendar, it looks like we have on the calendar an April community engagement Meeting and we also have just ahead of that filing deadline and we also have a June, Community Engagement Meeting. So there might be some consideration within the Community Relations Subcommittee to think about those those being the dates since they're already placeholders. So just a just a consideration. Okay. Okay. Alright. Perfect.
Board members, do you what other questions, concerns, or conflicts, might you see in looking at the calendar? Wednesday, May 27, will be a conflict for me for the small group meeting. Okay. Unless it's going to be okay. When was graduation? It it has been well, his for many, many years, it was June and then it moved to May. Right. So I know we can probably plan on graduation being in May, but I don't
think the date, has been set. It hasn't been set yet. We're waiting on a convocation number. May 21? Do we have the time? Okay. So graduation, did everybody hear the date? It is, scheduled for May 21. And that will be at the vacation center again, I'm assuming? Yeah. Okay. And then details every year always sent out by, oh, no.
No. It's okay. The time. I don't we have the rehearsal and all that and then Okay. We have time. So just They just put a placeholder in a big box. At least just holding it. We know it's gonna be on the evening of, Thursday, May 21. Good question. Other questions, conflicts, considerations? The we have a state of the school address. That's something new? That is something new. Doctor Zachary Ross, would you like to speak to that? Yes. A part of the rollout of the strategic plan and working with the board president,
she stated that that will be a piece will be a wonderful opportunity to make sure that we had, multiple times that we gave updates on the strategic plan and on district matters. So that was one of the pieces of the community, engagement part. And then working with the subcommittee on, okay, what are those other two way type of communications other than just speaking at people at more of a that's more like
the state of the school address. Any questions about that? I was just looking because I know with, October, the queue is coming around. Mhmm. And so I wanna say, yeah, I thought there was a The QE conference in October? Yeah. That's 1st Street Of Ireland. It's October. Yep. In Chicago. October.
And then the MASV one is October 10 due to '17. Mhmm. And that's gonna be in Lansing this year. Yeah. She did put that on the school. That's on the, district scorecard calendar. And remember the scorecard is just Yep. Like a draft of item. Okay. Yep. Alright. Alright. Other questions, considerations? Am I kinda, like, waiting to for her to look at other dates I was talking about before? I think it was Mer. But on the small groups. With small groups also though, I have that communications like, Wednesday, April 8.
Like I said, I'm not I won't be able to do any kind of Wednesday or Thursday to after April. But I see that we have a community relations sub and financial. So I'm on both of those committees, and they're on April 8, which is a Wednesday. Okay. If we can yeah. And then I'll be better after after the month of April. Okay. Yeah. So those two subcommittees, just to reiterate the communication the community relations, and finance and operations on April 8, we'll be looking for additional funding to this.
Because usually we were usually we usually, we met on Monday, but I know it's probably getting worse than ever normally. You don't have any more Mondays? I know Mondays. We only got so many Mondays in a month. So yeah. And that's when your conflict ends in April. Is that when your conflict ends in April? Uh-huh. Is that when your conflict ends in April? Yeah. The one for anything on Wednesday and Thursday up until after April. After April. As of April. Free. Your schedule frees up in May. It freed up as far as those dates. Yes. But right now for the until April. Yeah. Any other conflicts? Can I can I just also share? Yep. I forgot one part that we were talking about that happened.
That some of those second dates, that you see, they in a way in the in the past, we always had the two dates. One was always like a workshop, and one was a board meeting and it was needed. If it wasn't needed, it was canceled. We have to have out some additional workshops before if the board asked for workshops for those, for those dates, like, that was, like, the preferred, so there wouldn't be such a such long, you know, the intention about that.
I just didn't say it all. Okay. Mhmm. I do wanna name that Monday, October 12, which is listed as a can cancel, is Indigenous Peoples' Day. So, yes, we we saw that. We just didn't have additional ones, and the day after that. And that's one of those dates that are listed that we can cancel if if if if if needed. So just to make sure, like, with July July. Uh-huh. Do we do want are we sure we don't wanna put a placeholder for a week just to get access to y'all a chance to do it?
That's why we get to Okay. Yeah. We would we we could easily, add a place holder date, but with the understanding that July is the month that we are taking off, I if there's some pressing for business that needs to come before us that we need to meet about, July.
Correct. Okay. And we will have to look now. A placeholder schedule. Done at any time. So I'm just saying. Make a case. Make a case. Mhmm. Make a case. Yeah. And the only conflict that I have is, I won't be here for the policy subcommittee subcommittee meeting on, June 18. I will not be in town, that week. But the committee can certainly meet without me. To keep the work Oh, that would be a lovely That'll be right when the
update hits. We'll have a little work, I think. Alright. So I know, miss Haynes that you're capturing and I know you are too, doctor Zachary Ross, some of the updates that we need to make before we finalize the calendar. Is there anything else that the board is noticing that we need to consider before we move on? Okay. Mhmm. I do. Yes. The other one was in. Yeah. I and I didn't hear any conflicts with board meeting dates.
Yeah. And you can always add them. We just need to make sure we both the board votes for after today. And that's the main thing. You can always add board meetings as long as you give the public the notice. The notice, the posted requirements. Yeah. I had a question before we move to, before we make a motion. Do we need to amend anything or make any notes to the motion or we can accept it as is knowing that those changes to the certain things are gonna come? Yeah. The only thing that we absolutely we need to be made.
And from what I heard in the discussion, there were other topics or meetings that we needed to make adjustments to, but not our Board of Education meeting schedule. Alright. That takes us to the adoption of our Board of Education meeting schedule. Is there a motion at this time? Madam President, Vice President Lee, move to adopt the Board of Education meeting scheduled for 01/26/2026 through 01/11/2027.
Thank you. A motion has been made by Vice President Lee. Is there support for this motion? Trustee Sutton Kennedy, support. Thank you. Supported by Trustee Sutton Kennedy. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. Thank you board members for reviewing all the dates so that we can get a final calendar in place. Next that takes us to item number 11 on our agenda, which is the business items for review and approval. And the first item, under number 11 is our use of the facsimile signature authorization.
Is there motion at this time? Madam president, may I ask prior to us doing this, it says this is about the director of business and finance. Are we able to make that recommendation right now? I'm sorry. Say Are we able to make the recommendation? Do we without or without the person in place? For the office, not the person. Yes. Not yes. Not attached to a person. No. No worries. So item a is the use of the facsimile signature authorization. Is there a motion at this time?
Trustee Sutton Kennedy, move to authorize the Director of Business and Finance to file the necessary forms with the appropriate designated banks to use the facsimile signature of the school district superintendent on check draws of the general fund, school service fund, debt retirement fund, payroll accounts, student activities fund, and trust fund. Thank you. A motion has been made by Trustee Sutton Kennedy. Is there support for this motion? Support for Trustee Townsend.
Thank you. Supported by Trustee Townsend. Any discussion on this item? No. I serve as the interim. It just and and it they're just making sure that the superintendent is on our checks. Mhmm. And so that's if unless something happened differently, like, it's something. If I weren't here, they'd have to change the name of the district to superintendent on the check. Okay. Any other, discussion on that item? And I know this question was raised by a trustee, prior to the agenda, well, after the agenda came out, and just for the board's information and knowing and for
the public's information. The superintendent always is the is the business administrator for the district. So by proxy, the superintendent, is authorized to serve in the role, to make sure that all of our documents and signatures that are needed, that falls under the superintendent's purview. And then the superintendent then designates someone. And in the case that we have a Director of Finance who is in that role, the superintendent would designate the Director of Finance or designate someone to serve in
that role. But by virtue of the role of the superintendent, the superintendent, is the, is the person who is the business administrator for the school district. And that's also in the Michigan State Code. Next, that takes us to the execution of contracts and oh, I'm I apologize. Given the history and I was ready for the next item. So to recap, a motion was made by trustee Sutton Kennedy, and supported by trustee
Townsend. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. And now that takes us to, the execution of contracts and signing of documents on behalf of the district authorization. Is there a motion at this time? Trustee Thompson will designate and limit there to the following administrators to sign contracts and cover documents on behalf of the district, superintendent for objections need, and director of business and finance. Thank you.
A motion has been made by trustee, Townsend. Thank you. I blanked for a second there. By trustee Townsend. Is there support for this motion? Support. Trustee Espy. Thank you. Supported by trustee Espy. Any discussion on this this item? Seeing none, motion was made by trustee Townsend, supported by trustee Espey. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. That now takes us to the bank account signatories authorization. Is there a motion at this time? Ma'am president, trustee Fields, move to approve the board president, superintendent, board treasurer, director of
business and finance, and finance accounting supervisor as official signatories of signatories of bank accounts for the district. Thank you. A motion has been made by Trustee Fields. Is there support for this motion? Support Vice President Lee. Thank you. Supported by Vice President Lee. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. Next that takes us to the depository for school district funds designation. Is there a motion at this time? Trustee Thompson. Trustee Thompson moved at the Board of Education depositories for the following fund.
Normal operations, deposits, and withdrawals, one, Michigan Liquid Asset Fund plus, MILAF. Bank of Ann Arbor and Fifth Third Bank, bonded indebtedness paying agents, Bank of New York. Two, Huntington National Bank, and three, US Bank. Thank you. Supported by Trustee Espy. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. That now takes us to the electronic transfer officer, ETO designation. Is there a motion at this time?
Madam President, Vice President Lee move that the board treasurer or director of business and finance be appoint appointed as electronic transfer officer, ETO, in accordance with policy number six one four four. Thank you. A motion has been made by vice president Lee. Is there support for this motion? Trustee Fields, I support. Thank you. Supported by trustee Fields. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. Next, that takes us to our audit firm designation. Is there a motion at this time?
Madam president, trustee Espy, I move that the Board of Education designate Yao and Yao or Yao and Yao as its auditor for the year ending 06/30/2026. Thank you. A motion has been made by Thank you. Supported by Trustee Townsend. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. That now takes us to the legal counsel designation. Is there a motion at this time? Trustee Sutton Kennedy move that the Board of Education authorize the following law firms as legal counsel for the district, True Law Firm, PC Retainer and Collins Blaha and Blaha,
PC. A motion has been made. Thank you, Trustee Sutton Kennedy. By Trustee Sutton Kennedy. Is there support for this motion? Trustee Fields, I support. Thank you. Supported by trustee Fields. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. That now takes us to the newspaper for bid notices and other legal postings designation. Is there a motion at this time? Madam president, trustee Espy, I move that the Board of Education designate the Ann Arbor News for bid notices and other legal postings. Thank you. A motion has been made by trustee Espy. Is there support for this motion?
Trustee Fields, I support. Thank you. Supported by trustee Fields. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. That now takes us to the meeting posting responsibilities designation. Is there a motion at this time? Madam president, trustee Fields, move that the superintendent or designee would designate an appropriate available person to post notices of public meetings. Thank you. A motion has been made by trustee Fields. Is there support for this motion? Trustee Espy, I support. Thank you. Supported by Trustee Espy. All those in favor?
Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. We are now at action item number 12 under business and finance. And we have the approval of the State of Michigan Treasury Building Assessment to award contracts to TMP Architects and Granger Construction. Is there a motion at this time? Madam President, move vice president Lee move that the Board of Education approve the State of Michigan Treasury Building assessment and authorize the contract awarded to TMP Architects in the amount of $1,006 and Granger Constructions in the amount of $45,000.
Thank you. A motion has been made by Vice President Lee. Just one correction. The amount is, 106,000. Oh, that's okay. 1,000. It's okay. I just wanted to make that, correction. A motion has been made by Vice President Lee, with the corrected amount. And is there support for this motion? Support by Trustee Townsend. Thank you. Supported by Trustee Townsend. Any discussion on this item? Yes, please. Is there any way we can see who was the three architects and the contractors
that bid and the amount other bids. Yeah. We have a mister Vertuel here. We have three companies that came in to, present and then with the interview team. It was, IMAG, because that's a, architect company, King Scott and T and T. And then, we had Clark Construction for, this construction management company, Bartonello in Granger for a construction, construction the bids for the, I thought I had printed off the bids
for the, construction management company. But the, the for King Scott and, IMAX, they were quite a bit higher, like, 250,000 for IMAX, and King Scott Scott was a 175,000. One of the reason why the architect's company is a lot, they they done TMP. This is less of money is because they, done our report in 2013 when the two district merged. They know our buildings, so they they can actually see the capital improvement we have
done throughout the years. And, so they can try to compile the information a little quicker. And if we we vote on this tonight, we're gonna start next Monday and take a smaller building. I'm gonna work with them on the first building, make sure we get everything that we are looking for. Mhmm. And then the construction management company, one reason why they're less than the other company is they're a local company, and their people live in town. They don't have to pay for hotels and stuff like that for their company. So there was quite a bit cheaper too.
So, you know, but since this goes with our strategic planning. And can I pause to just add because the bids are high are the level they are, they have to follow the state requirements of opening the bids and public on a certain day, like, all of that? So that's why I kinda just came this way because we have to follow the state of Michigan bid process. They did they had to follow it and open it and have it available and publicize it. So that's why this bid is not like our typical just coming to the bid,
board has to go through a specific bid process that the state has laid out, not for the way that we're saying. Typically, when we do a big bid like this, we'll have a walk through or interview process for the contractors. And then we two weeks later, they turn their bids in, and we have to have a open bid. Contractors can come to the office and then or anybody that wanna see what's going on can tune in or the bee present can watch us open the page?
So, you know, there's no secrets to it. You know? Go in a dark room, open the video for anything. Any other questions? And this is what we're saying. So they're gonna be looking at each and every building, they're gonna look at everything, from outside all the way down to the outlet on the wall. So I think the electrical need to be upgraded in the building. The technology needs to be upgraded, the heating, cooling plants on the roofs, and furniture,
the flooring, everything. T, TMP will let, our technology director, work with them and pick the technology part of it to, the engineer company that work with TMP before that sorry, Steve. So And I just wanna lift up so the last one was done, I think, in 2013. We the board the the board at that time used that data so you get all of that assessment, and then the board used the data for the long term
planning. So that's the same plan we used. So, you know, obviously, it's that now, that ten years is up. We're trying to look through that plan that they have, but it they also use it for sinking fund, ideas and implement implementation of what years. As as you know, we're getting close to the end. So we need that data. For the sinking fund, we need it for the long term plan. And if at any time, we're considered buying and those types of things, the information
from this, plan, this assessment would go into the what is necessary for those plans. So that this this one this piece is really important. It also I want to lift up I know it's in the background. Just lift it up. That is a requirement of our of us receiving the Public Act $321. So, because we decided they originally went for the bids. $24.24. 24 when we first Yeah.
Were awarded. Said we were gonna get the funds. We did not not receive as you can remember, we did not receive the PA three '21 funds till later. We'll access to them. So we wanted to wait until, as you know, all the capital projects have been completed. Because if you get the assessment before those projects, then it's not a great assessment when we knew we had playgrounds being put in, a boiler, like huge pieces. So the timing of this, just the why, number one, we have to spend the
PA $321 within the three years. So it either has to be this year or next year. Number two, it's a requirement from the state. And number three, we just finished all of those capital budget. So that's kind of the why for, like, right now. And Granger and, Granger and TMP is not raising their price either. Either. They held to that, price the 24 pricing. So Okay. Yeah. We I called and double checked, and they are holding to the pricing. Mhmm. Trust you, Tim. Then if we ever decide to do a bond or anything, we already got the
report paid for. Oh. Next couple of years, we'll have the the report. We'll go off of this report. We don't have to go out and bid again, Yep. Which will already have been done throughout the whole district. There's they go room by room, and, every zone square into the district, they look. So we're gonna start with, Ace, because that's a small building.
I'll work with them on that, building to make sure we get everything we want. They're gonna put it in a spreadsheet format so we can add it to our work order system, so we can order parts that the guys come to me and say, hey. I need this part for this unit. I can be able to look it up. I won't have to physically go out and and look for it. And then, during midwinter break in February, we're gonna they're gonna have two teams do the two large building, the middle school and the high school. And then after that, they'll finish up working nights with the two teams hitting all the elementary schools.
And then all of this will be done by May? May, what they're saying is, and they'll have a report to us about June. I don't I don't know if I missed it. I I was probably listening for way over my head. What why are we having two different I mean, I it's one of them architect company that will go around and kinda pinpoint what we want. And they are commanding the company to put a price tag on it. How much will it cost to do this? Okay. Oh, so one's gonna go see what's wrong, and then they're gonna be Ranger's gonna be used to maybe Give us pricing and stuff.
So they work they'll walk around together when they're So they're not necessarily gonna fix it. They're just gonna tell us what it's gonna take to fix. Yep. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Mhmm. Thank you, mister Birchwell. So to recap, a motion was made by Vice President Lee supported by Trustee Townsend. All those in favor? Aye. Those opposed? That motion carries. That takes us to our public comment our second public comment for this evening. And we have already read the, Board of Education, public comment protocol, but I will
read it again in case, the member of the community was not here at that time. Pursuant to Board of Education policy zero one six seven point three, the board recognizes the value of of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express their views. Please limit statements to three 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. Jeremy Haley.
Good evening. Jeremy Haley of Sea Township, and welcome to the New Year. I'd just like to address a few things. Last time I was here, there was a teacher here who, you know, taught for the special needs classrooms, and she was complaining about what was going on. As I recall, there was another time had another meeting. A parent actually came in and complained about the same thing. I'm just asking that have you guys looked into the situation to make the situation better for those students. K? And on to AI, my phone I have a Android, so it got recently updated.
And when it did, I got a notice the next day. It says, hi. I'm Gemini from the AI Google, and it was connected to my messages. And it asked me to accept it or not. I still haven't accepted it because I scrolled down, and it said it may make up names or comments or conversations. How is I'm again asking, how is the school addressing the AI and these issues that AI has with students and the schools planning to use AI? How do they disseminate what's real and what's not?
At at at age, it's really hard for them. And trust me, at some of our ages, it's really hard for some people to disseminate it too. And, the lawyer thing that you wanna do with the new policy to go to one thing, I think that'd be a horrible idea because it's easier for the if you look at it from this perspective, it's easier how they wanna change things and take you all to the same thing as everybody else. In the end, it's easier for the attorneys while they make them more money.
That's how you look at it. Because if everybody has the same thing and you can tweak it here and there, oh, it's easy for them while you and everybody else has the same thing. I mean, I'd like to see IPPSI have some individuality and stick to what it has and maybe change within and buck that system of those attorneys and found out those attorneys not just represent schools, they represent cities. So there could be some conflict there. I don't know. And the last thing about retirement, it's nice for you guys to have retirement things.
If I was I'd do something as such. What I'm about to say is, you know, if you ask a financial person, hey. How about gold and silver? Would you have that in your portfolio? A lot of them would say, hell no. Don't touch that with a 10 foot pole. I asked my friend who went to a financial adviser, and he's and because things are changing in the market and stuff. He said, yeah. Get some gold, but get the ETFs on it. Why I'm bringing this up is because recently, if I could just finish real quick,
the market has changed such that all those people who did the ETFs and silver got recently wiped out because the market's changing. And all these financial people don't push financial resiliency into buying gold and silver. You buy gold and silver, it's not an investment. You buy it as to hold your money in like a bank. That's why I'm saying these people that you talk to, they don't say that because guess what? If you go buy Fisco Gold, those people from those companies don't make any money.
So I just look at it that way. Thank you. Thank you Jeremy Haley for your comments this evening. The board, has your comments documented and typically it's our practice and I know you've been to many of our school board meetings and we follow-up in writing to members of the public to address some of the questions that were raised. So someone from administration will make sure they follow-up with you to answer the questions that you raised at the board meeting this evening. So thank you again for your comments.
Next we have, a discussion item on our agenda which is, to consider formally revising our agenda template. We had a request that came in, from one of our trustees, back in December to consider, revising our agenda template in order to move our public comment section up earlier in the meetings, which would appear after awards, achievements, and recognition. Trustee Goodrich, I'm not sure if you wanted to say more about that, but, you
can if you would like to. Sure. Thank you. And also, I don't wanna take credit for this. I know I'm not the only person who's been making this request, and thanks for the opportunity to consider formally changing our template to bring public comment earlier in the meeting. I know that, I think it's a real strength that we have two public comment periods so that we have an opportunity for folks who wanna come and address us, at at our business meeting, and I know it is our business but we are also invested in being available, for the common for the public to come and address
us. And I think formally moving that earlier in the meeting would make it more accessible especially for families, parents with kids who need to get home. Our meetings can run quite late and sometimes we have quite a lot of, presentations. So having it where we have situated it after presentations can really filter out a lot of people who would like to engage with us. I I think it's so having the two having one early and then one that comes after we've conducted our business just provides a greater breadth of opportunity and moving
this one a little bit earlier would make it more accessible. So thanks for the opportunity for us to consider changing our templates. I know it's we've done this on a one off case when we've had longer presentations, but we don't always catch it. Thank you, Trustee Goodrich. The floor is open for board members as we consider formally revising this agenda template. What comments do the do the board members have? Trustee Espy, I support, the idea. Just looking at this week or this board meeting versus the one in December, I
see sometimes there's a discrepancy between when we, accept the agenda. So in that, just being mindful of that piece. But yeah. So, essentially, after achievements and awards of providing that opportunity for public comment would be something I would appreciate, recognizing that there will be an opportunity then for a second public comment later similar to what we've done this week. I don't know if there's a recommendation on the length of time for that public
comment period or if that's something that we can look at. That would be my only thought is that just so that we can make sure that we do get to the required agenda items as well. Thank you, Trustee Espy. Any other board comments? She's asking Trustee Gilbert is just asking that we move the public comment to after the achievements in the award. Or at least prior to presentations. I think it could certainly go after the acceptance of the agenda, at least in my In December, we did the acceptance of the agenda as our third item, and
then we did achievements. This month, we did achievements and then acceptance of agendas, but those seem to be interchangeable. And it's to me, what I'm saying and what I'm noticing is the public comments always come after achievements and awards and recognition. This is something that we have requested in recent board meetings. This was this is relatively new from, I think, the past two board meetings that it's been shifted to where it is. It it is always after achievements and awards, but it is often much after achievements
and awards if we have a number of presentations on a given meeting day. So I guess the other way to articulate it might be moving public the first public comment session to before the presentations. Yes. It's typically after the presentations, many times we're paying an attorney to come. We have closed sessions, those other things.
So in the past, we've kinda tried to weigh it back and forth because and you have administration and students sometimes in those presentations. Yeah. So we wait sometimes, when there's those controversial things or when, like, people were going to different districts and filibustering type of thing, then you're then you still have your people waiting. And so that was kinda originally the reason why public comment was moved. There there was a board subcommittee, a whole conversation about that, especially when people were
going to the different and it talks about the time. Like, we tried to we had guidance from the law firms, what to do because people were just coming to board member meetings, and taking that time. So then your administration, your other guests who are coming for presentations, and especially when we're paying attorneys to come to a board meeting, presentation at that time.
I know it's a different time. I just wanna give you the historical perspective of it. And I do appreciate that we are we are limited in our ability. Like, we can't put a cap on a strict cap on the overall amount of of public comment time. We can designate the amount of time an individual person may comment and we can enforce the end of that time, but we can't say all public comment is limited to thirty minutes. Right? May we be able to say, given that we have two public comment periods, that
the first public comment period is is limited to a certain amount of time, like twenty minutes, and then the second public comment time, which is towards the end of the agenda, would not have that limit? Is that possible to have a set time on the first public comment period? I think you can and I'm gonna pull the policy. It's how many like, the board president could say we're going to to a whole certain ones. So, like, if you have a certain number of them, I don't know about the
minutes. I'm looking for legal approval. Like, typically, what they'll do is, what they'll do is, have you take a recess. That was I can't remember the law. You have to take the recess and then you can come back and say you're holding until a certain time that what was happening before the Mhmm. Yes. And we can look at the full board policy which is in our bylaws, what it says there. And then we can also get additional guidance. My if my memory serves me correctly, I believe there is some pretty strict guidance
on making sure you allow members of the public to be able to address the board. Individual board members I mean, community members have three minutes to address the board. But the idea is that you don't limit, participation from the public. But we can we can check into that, definitively to your point about, putting some parameters around the time. We just need to make sure that we are, making sure we're within the bounds of what our policy say and what the law says.
No. Yeah. It was requested. Yes. And I wonder too because we don't have as many, almost to do what you said the opposite. If the board intention is to have the, citizen participation early and if something is occurring where you have the attorney, then perhaps saying, hello, board, and we have to move it so that we can accommodate those since they're rarer. So what I can ask you to do is try and make sure that we can accommodate those. Since they're rarer. So what I can ask you to do is try and make sure that we can take the Yeah.
So I wanted to share my agreement, with the idea of adjusting public comment, and I like, what you just proposed, doctor Zachary Ross, as a sort of way to to do both, building off of the idea that you just shared at Trustee Fields, and showing that we prioritize and really value public comment and making that permanent change, but allowing ourselves to move the presentations forward if we know that we have scholars coming in or attorneys coming in because that's the more rare, item.
So we want them to use that for the exception rather than always having to request the public comment move. So we would still need to make a motion or some sort of decision around our agenda related to public comment, but we can still, make adjustments as needed, if we know that we have attorneys or, scholars coming in to speak with us. Yeah. My biggest pain is when we have a ton of presentations and role questions. We just as long as we have active conversations in mind that making the shift,
I'm good with that. I think these last few things we've done that, just and then it I'm hearing
two different things right now. One is creating one is shifting the default to being earlier. Right? Which is what we've done for this meeting and the meeting before this. Right? And then making changes to that when necessary if there is, someone who's being like, a lawyer who's on the clock. Right? We're paying for for money, basically, versus if we're, you know, here and we're gonna go through a number of presentations from within the district. So and then I think the other was saying leave things as they are and
then we'll make the adjustment as needed. Both are saying we'll make the adjustment as needed. One is suggesting that we keep it the way it is and make the adjustment as needed, and the other is saying let's move it to the earlier end of the agenda and then make the adjustment as needed. Is that what I'm hearing? Trustee Field, are you saying that we want to keep it the current way and then make adjustments as needed? Right. So today was different and and it was different today by request. Yes. And I'm just saying So do. Yes.
You picked up on the difference. Yeah. Yes. I personally would like the default to be the earlier version. Okay. I would also be supportive of shifting the default to the earlier position. I really like and and and trust that that our leaders who are setting the agenda can then make the the call when we know that we have a financial or personnel reason to prioritize the timing of the, of the presentations that we can
like, then we've got a really clear switch for when to when to move those up ahead of public comment. And we don't have to we don't all have to be vigilant about let's move it up this month, and let's move it up this month, and let's move it up this month. If Mhmm. The only comment that I would just jump in and make, and vice president Lee, and then if other board members wanna jump in, it it really is whatever the pleasure of of the board is. I would say the cadence of our meetings have been such that in the history
of our meetings is that we've made adjustments along the way to accommodate the public. We didn't used to have two public comment sections. Now we have two. And I think we've always been very mindful every month that we have a board meeting if there are some shifts that we need to make and we need to pivot because we notice there's a topic or we have a number of, members who wanna speak and we have all these other agenda items that we make that shift in the meeting. And so to the points being made by Trustee Fields and Trustee Townsend, and other
board members who who may have, alluded to this, is that I just wanna make sure it's clear that there's not a problem. Right? Like, we haven't had, like, this groundswell of not being able to accommodate public comment. But I appreciate the consideration and thinking about but I think this board has been really mindful and receptive to making sure we make adjustments as needed when we know how our agenda is situated to make sure the public is not sitting here through a lot of agenda items, and then they have to wait until they address the
board. So I just wanted to make that comment. Vice President Lee. Cabinet, I assume. They're getting overtime for being here. No? No. No. No. No. I'll just Texas. Okay. Alright. Because, we have made accommodations for the public. This is aborting. Aborting. There's two common public comments on here.
I'm not being hard or anything. I appreciate the con the public comment, and I appreciate the pop COVID comment. The kids come. They do their presentation, and they leave. There's call to order, pleasure of reaching, achievements and awards. And then there's acceptance of our agenda, and then there's the public comment. The first one. I don't know what else we have to do to appeal to the public comment
section. But I will go along with whatever the board decide, but I just don't know what else you guys want us to do. I I don't know what else you want us to do. I really don't. Trust the good rich kids. I mean, the order that you just articulated would I I I think would be great. Like, that that would be just a the the that's all I'm requesting is the order that, essentially, we did today.
Trust Healy, yes. I would I I think that it was the confusion is that today, we followed a, order that aligns with the request. So this is the order that we're requesting. I think I'm hearing everybody. I think one of the things that will be different about this year, if you have any potential about all of these opportunities, I think that was the perfect turn
to really educate the public about the purpose of the board. Because sometimes people wants to do. I'm just asking for this to go after this. We can make adjustments to the process.
But I think And is that simple? Yeah. Because I appreciate that. Because if we're inviting people to present and they prepared to present, if they don't get paid extra, and now they're waiting for public comment that could happen anytime. Now we've got staff members, guests, new people who are presenting the the board waiting as well.
So somebody's gonna wait, but the person who is prepared to come to the meeting is gonna now wait. That's the that's the issue to just right? You know, like, that was the and it could be a public. In the public field that you're serving, there and then you have to come, another possible has to wait in And most of those people were older than they. That's a good point. That's another good point. We wanna be respectful of everybody's time.
And I guess my my probably my last comment is that I will make is that, what I'm hearing, well two things. One, it doesn't sound like this has been coming up. These are kind of infrequent times where we've had to make adjustments. We don't typically have to make a lot of adjustments to our meeting agendas. And so, I hear, Board members saying move it up and I hear board members
also saying, that we can continue to pivot as we have been and just leave the agenda the way that it stands. So again, it is the pleasure of the board, as to what we do. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Yes. And that was addressed in board policy because we had a long dialogue about it. It is number four about that the presiding officer may call a recess or an adjournment to another time when lack of public decorum or so interferes, with the conduct or orderly conduct of the meeting as, as to warrant such action.
So they would adjourn the meeting and then they would begin the that they'd say whenever they're gonna come back to it, and then they would begin again with those comment So then might it be possible for us to continue as proposed with the agenda similar to what we did today with public comment being the first one, being after consent agenda or achievements and and recognition. And maybe we say a few people or whatever it is, we sort of have
a time, and then we call a recess if we have people waiting to present and so on and continue at the second public comment period. And I'm just throwing that out there because I know that recently we did we have started making requests to move public comment forward, and those requests came out of observing us having folks in the public here waiting for three hours or more to before we got to our public comment period. There was one time we didn't get to public comment until, like, 09:30. And then the second public comment was about thirty minutes later.
So, second public comment was about thirty minutes later. So, you know, we do have two public comment periods, but when we're not getting to the first one until three hours into the meeting, it it kind of they kind of end up running really closely together. And we also had that meeting where we lost about 10 people who did wanna speak with us, but were unable to participate. I know there is a lot that we do have to manage with, you know, someone's gonna have to wait. So if there's any way for us to figure out a balance that we can,
support, public comment, and make it more accessible, especially for that first period. And those who can make wait could possibly, share their comment in that second period as well so that we can balance presenters as well as that public comment. So I just wanted to throw that out there if that is an option for us to, you know, be in the middle there or compromise. I would just add that, in our in the history of just being on the
board. Right? And I I said this already, but I'll just reiterate it and say it again is that I've appreciated And our meeting cadence switched from twice a month to once a month because as a board, we decided we wanted the meeting frequency to be a little bit different. So as a result of having a meeting maybe that's just once a month, it's gonna be a longer meeting. Right? So, you know, we're trying to make adjustments and pivot and accommodate a lot of
different things for the board, for the public, for our administrators, for our staff. We didn't have one pub we didn't have two public comments. Now we have two. And so I guess I'm just saying all that to say is that I'm trying to balance staff preparing for presentations because I hear that loud and clear and I do wanna be respectful if there's a planned presentation that we don't also have staff members who are waiting after they've worked all day. I think that's a big consideration. We all have full time jobs.
Right? And so I'm just trying to be really mindful of what that could feel like, and what that could look like. Like, when somebody has to wait, our respecting our staff time, I think, is really, really important. And I know we also respect community members' time, which is why we have two portions of the meeting where there's public comment section. And and I hear there's probably if I'm hearing comments correctly, it seems like, maybe the board's lean is to keep the agenda the way it is and to pivot.
But I could be capturing that incorrectly. So it correct me if I'm wrong. I guess as a offer to to consider for the board is maybe we see it's January, maybe we reassess this in June and come back to it and see what we if we need to make adjustments for the later part of the year. I'm just throwing that out there as another consideration because I know that everybody is not in agreement in one direction versus the other. But it sounds like the majority of the board is leaning more towards this, leading
things the way they are and pivot as we need to. So, board help me out with where we are. I just wanna address, Trustee Sutton Kennedy's statement that you just made. I remember that both those Board meetings that you are referring to. And if I'm correct, those two board meetings, they were very long, and it was a rare occasion for both of them. And I fell for that. Those, people that I'm sorry.
The community that wanted to make a public, comments. In that board meeting, after that board meeting, that's when we the board president and the superintendent, that's when they really caught the next board meeting. They caught that, because that one we had another long meeting, the next one. And they caught that, and that's when they moved the public comments up.
So that first one that you're referring to, yeah, they did they didn't catch that, and it was a rare occasion. And, you know, I apologize for that board meeting. You know? So I do recall that one. So like I said, it was a rare occasion that that happened. So, with the agenda, you know, they normally the president, board president, and the superintendent,
they normally are good with catching if we're gonna have a long meeting or not. And we'll they you will catch that and we'll adjust the agenda, you know, and we could move the public comments up, You know? So I don't know. But, you know, whatever the board is willing to do, I'll go along with you. Madam Presley, am I speaking? I wanna name that, I have appreciated the willingness of the of you all to
make shifts upon our request. I wanna acknowledge that that was based on request when we did shift it. It was a request I think I made, and then I believe, another trustee, trustee Goodrich, made it for the following meeting, which, again, it demonstrates your willingness to work with what we're and so I really appreciate that. And I think what I've heard is this recognition that right now, there is an
ask for us as board members to be vigilant about what's going on within the space to figure out if whether or not it's a need to request that shift or not, which is, obviously, we're amenable to. But I think that, one thing as I think about presentations versus public comment, because, obviously, all these people matter, is that what I can recognize is that when a presentation has to be cut short, I still have the information in front of me,
because we get it within the board packet. When a person from the community doesn't have an opportunity to speak, I don't actually end up hearing what they had to say. And so I think that is part of why, for me, it's important for us to be able to do that earlier in the meeting, and work with the like, bring the agenda forward. So that's just something I wanna hold is that those folks who come into the space and while that did happen on a couple occasions where we had a recess and people were still waiting, I wanna name that this is not the first time
people in the community have actually said something to me about the length of time to wait for public comment. And within the year I've been on the board, I've been I've had at least two people approach me and say, wow. It takes a really long time for us to be able to say something. So, yes, it was something that was noticed and glaring during the long the really long meeting, but it's not not something that is a new concern for the public. And so I just wanna I want to offer that information up that the re
the shifts have happened because of the glaring issue that we've heard in a couple of me previous meetings ago. But the concern from the public is not a a new, piece of information. If I might, I just wanna I I think I've had separately similar similar, feedback from different members of the community, and that's part of what motivated the individual requests and this sort of invitation to consider a broader shift. I was here a lot as a as, an attendee at board meetings back when
we used to have a more frequent board meeting cadence, and that did also provide more opportunities for the public to engage with the board when we had meetings more frequently. I understand there are lots of really compelling reasons that we are on the cadence that we have now, but it does reduce the number of dates available for members of the public to come and address us. Totally agree agree that education about the chain of command and the the protocols for bringing issues is really important. And I think we've made a lot of progress in that way. And I do think that the occasionally, folks hit roadblocks, and it is useful for
this venue to also exist, when people feel like they just haven't been able to make any progress trying to follow the chain of command. You know, the we we have public comment for a reason so that that opportunity for daylighting exists. I if the will of the board is to stay with the current the current default and for us to be vigilant about making requests when we are seeing ourselves set up to have a a really long state of presentations before, public comments.
Certainly, all of us who are concerned about that can do that. I think if we follow-up on some of the communication things we talked about in December and make sure that once one person makes a request, that that that, that that request is then reflected back to everybody so that not everyone is then we know when the request has been made and whether or not it's being considered so that you who are setting the agenda don't have to feel three or four or five different requests for the same change. Perhaps that might be useful.
I know I I felt very bad that that one meeting that I did not catch it and make the request, And I think I've not been vigilant enough about those things. So that's, yeah. I guess staying with the default then just shift the responsibility to each of us as individuals to be on the lookout for that and to make those one off requests for each meeting that's potentially set up to create a really long waiting period for public comments. Thank you, Trustee Gulbridge, board members.
I do just want to note that to the public and at the board table just to say it publicly is that I don't think there's ever been on purpose. Right? Surely we have anomalies where we have very long board meetings. But, I just wanna reiterate how I appreciate the Board's ability to be able to pivot, and read the room to know ahead of time if we need to make
shifts. Shifts. The superintendent and I set the agenda. We we are looking at how many presentations. And I guess I'm looking at the totality, not one off. Right? Like, the totality has been that we've been very responsive, to the meeting and making sure we have opportunities for the public. And we've always made sure every member of the public who wants to address the Board could address the Board. Because it's important for us to hear from members of our community. I don't want to go into, I guess, too much other detail other than, to
say if there are concerns that are ever raised by members of the public that I would wanna know that. Right? So it's the first time Trustee Espy that I heard you say that. Right? And I don't know, Trustee Goodman, that this also come to you, but it's probably the first time that I've heard you say that too, that members of the public have been coming to me saying this is problematic, the meetings. Right? So I can't do anything about anything unless you come to me and tell me if there are concerns. Otherwise, we are just responding.
We're pivoting. We're being flexible. We're being adaptable. And it sounds like where we are now is that just to kind of recap, and certainly we can, you know, have more discussions about this if we feel like we need to as a board, is that the majority of the board wants to keep in place what we have and to pivot as necessary. But, again, as I shared earlier, if I am misreading what the consensus is on the board, please correct me. I see trustee Sutton Kennedy saying yes, that's what I hear. Trustee Field, yes.
Yeah. Vice President Lee, yes. I see Trustee Townsend shaking her head, but I don't know if that's because of the Mint or Yeah. If it's the will of the board, I support maintaining where we're at and just being mindful of when we need to make pivots. And, again, I appreciate that you all have been very receptive to that, and that has not been a problem when we have requested it at any in any situation. So I can like, that has not been an issue so that we can continue
to show up in that way. And yeah. Thank you. Thank you, trustee Espy. Trustee Goverick? I think my my one I I hope this would not be an owner's request, but I would love if we could just keep a little bit of data and track when we have cards that where people have already left by the time we get to public comments. Because I know we have had meetings where there were stacks where folks were no longer here. So that would be just a small piece of data that would help us kinda get a finger on the pulse of, what the impact is on the the public
for the meetings as we are setting them up moving forward. Yep. Not to add another thing to miss Haines' plate, but I'm sure that she will be happy to to to make sure we keep track of that so that we can have some data. Okay. Okay. So we are moving on from this item. We'll leave the agenda as is. We'll make pivots as necessary and we'll get data, along the way to see, to to Trustee Goodrich's point. That takes us now to board superintendent comments. Board members, what comments might you have? Thank you everyone for your time and for being here and for engaging us in
conversation. Other board comments? Also, happy New Year. Any other work comments? Go ahead. Trustee, Townsend. So beautiful. Beautiful. She could reward. I just wanna say, it's been a long night. But I brought two of those at the what do we have? The the, Art Eats and Beats or something. Yeah. I bought two of the little light things. I think Kim mister Kim. Oh. I bought two of those from him. Okay. And they were really nice. So I bought them as gifts, but I just wanna say those are really nice.
So, you know, I think they made them here. But Oh, wow. Those are popular. Those are really nice. I just wanna say I bought two of those. Alright. Excellent. You have to send me a picture of it. I don't even know what You might not wanna see mine, but it is Zeta one girl. It is Zeta. And I know and I did a Michigan, and they light up. You can change the color of the lights, and they and I so I got them sent them. So yeah. Love them. Okay. Yes. I'm just saying. Alright. Excellent. Alright. Other board comments? I just wanna say thank you to the board, for you know, we sit at
these, you know, board meetings and it's hours and I I appreciate everybody just being here, staying engaged throughout the duration. Thank you for all board members support for the, election of our officers. And welcome to trustee Sutton Kennedy serving in a new role as secretary. And and and thank you to, trustee Goodrich for all the years of service serving in the role as secretary. I know the transition will be a smooth one, and we're available just a quick
reminder to the board, today, I had, requested that if you had comments about the proposal for Qube, if you could share any comments about the draft that was submitted by doctor Lopez, we can, you know, are be able to make changes to it, and wanted to kinda just check the post of the board to see if presenting I know the last queue, we kinda said, we've been presenting back to back, and we took some time off from that, which was nice to just enjoy the conference as participants versus participants and presenters.
But just wanted to to make sure the board, felt comfortable with the proposal and if board members, are interested again in presenting at the upcoming Q Conference. Oh, attendance and presenting. Yes. Okay. Back in Chicago. Yeah. It was two years ago in Chicago. Right? Chicago was two years ago. Yeah. Chicago was very nice. Okay. Thank you board members and, thank you again. I think I said this at the December meeting. But thank you again for arranging doctor Zachary Ross and your team, for making those
two, tours accessible for members of the community to learn about our strategic plan and to be able to get into the buildings and see. And I know that second one went very long, as you had a very long conversation with members of the public, but a huge, huge thanks because that was in the middle of you preparing for your evaluation. December was just a really busy month, so I just wanted to acknowledge that I know a lot of work goes into the logistics in setting that up. Miss Haynes, your cabinet, everybody who had a hand in that, mister Virtual, of course.
Just just the grace and and the willingness to be flexible and to be able to share important moments about our strategic plan, and show people our building so that we could really brag about all the great work that we're doing, not just in word, but in action. So I just wanted to say thank you again for making sure that was, able to happen. And thank you for the gifts, and and board appreciation month. Really appreciate it. I haven't looked at it, but I'm excited to to see what I have. Townsend's, comments.
So Oh. Well, well, well. Looks like we're gonna see round two. Okay. Round two. I'm here for the I can't wait to open it now. Okay. I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, and I know that it's late, in terms of comments. But just thank you to all the, board members. Any other board comments before I turn it over to the superintendent? Doctor Zachary Ross? Again, just, welcome board appreciation month.
I just want to just, again, say thank you for your service, your willingness. We've talked about these committees and dates, and and, yes, the only dates you have to vote on are the board meeting date. So being flexible, if you if there's something that comes up, please let us know. We'll work to find alternative dates for those things that are already listed. Thank you for your service. We started giving you all those times and dates because she was available. We have it on this date, and then we have these other meeting dates. And especially several other subcommittees are not her date, like, the historic and So we
wanted to try to give you that full calendar. Upcoming, just real quick, because we have a January 26 meeting. So we did try to put that second one so that we could, have that opportunity if there are more agenda items to add to a second meeting. But the Ipsy versus Lincoln basketball game, I know people really look more to that. That is this Friday at 6PM. So just lifting that up. You got invited, January 14 to the STEM night at Erickson, and then reminding people
that there is no school and recognizing that the team day on the nineteenth on that Monday. But on that Monday. But for several Mondays, I've taken off. We have several holidays and chewing all day. You know, we're excited. We've go go grizzly. How about that? Go grizzly. That's it, doctor. Yes. Alright. You don't need it again in two weeks. That that is Touche. Indeed. Indeed. Alright. Anything else from the board before we move? There will be dinner before our meeting. Which our trustee set and committee?
There will be dinner at our meeting in two weeks. So prepare to come in advance for some, hopefully, good food provided by the the the SFE group from the From the last conference. Last conference? Remember we went to the MESB. The exhibit thing, and then I won that Yes. Board dinner. So it's gonna be scheduled for the next meeting date. Yes. Yeah. And we're working off it's with our next meeting date. So prepare to come early. We're working on final details. Would you mind if I have some questions for you, Julie, and, doctor Hoffman?
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we're cashing in on that free dinner. Yeah. Looking forward to it. I feel like there was something I have forgotten. Oh, the twenty sixth is also legislative breakfast in the morning. Okay. So that'll be a long day because we have a board meeting that day as well. So just as that's why. Hybrid? Okay. Alright. Thank you. Alright. Seeing, no other business before the board this evening, we are adjourned at 09:45PM.