06:31. It's board of education meeting. It's called to order. Trustee Goertridge, could you please do the roll call? Certainly, madam vice president. Trustee Sutton Kennedy? Present. Trustee Fields? Here. Trustee Goodrich? I'm here. Trustee Townsend? Here. Trustee Espy? Here. Vice President Lee? Here. Six present and one absent. Next on the list is pledge allegiance. If we can all stand, who's able to stand? And could trustee fields lead us in the pledge of allegiance, please.
Next on the agenda is acceptance of the agenda. Do I have a motion? Madam vice president, I move that the Board of Education accept the agenda as presented. Is there support? Support trustee Sutton Kennedy. Motion was made by trustee Eppsey, supported by trustee Sutton Kennedy. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passed six zero. Next is presentation. And at this moment, I would turn it over to superintendent, Selena Zachary Ross. Thank you, madam vice president.
At this time, we'll we'll ask John if you our wonderful I was going to try to think of some wonderful adjectives because he's just done such an amazing job. Mister Burchwell, you've done such an amazing job, preparing over the summer. I know you had, a presentation last month, and, this month, he's coming back. You asked for the presentation along with some the budget, presentation.
So we'll have mister Burchwell along with mister Butler. Mister Burchwell has also added some pieces to this presentation to make sure that you had an update. We are just so thankful for the work that he and his entire team, because I don't wanna leave out the team, has done this, over the summer to, prepare our buildings for and grounds for our scholars, mister Burchell and mister Butler. Thank you. Good evening. So not flicking.
K. There we go. So we'll start with the playgrounds tonight. Like we said before, they're ordered. They're ordered and they're, they're supposed to be starting to show up on location on September 8. The turf is gonna start showing showing up at, Sampson. We're gonna use that for, like, a lay down yard for all the, turf for underneath the, playgrounds. We're getting away from wood chips. We spend about 30 to $40,000 a year just on wood chips to fill in. Where the turf, we won't have to worry about that anymore for all the playgrounds,
that are gonna be the new ones installed. That'd be September 8. The, the playground installation will follow, like, the dual immersion because they need their playground as soon as possible. Holmes Elementary and then Extrabrook and Erickson. Erickson Glass because they actually have, like, three different islands for playground. So they can actually rip one portion out and have the playground still for the other two for the children can play on. The budget was, 1.6. I'll let Damon talk about the budgets. So as the budgets come in, we're, processing all the funds that are, paid out
to all of our contractors as they come in so we can build our, drawdown request for all of the state funds. And right now, we are under budget and should stay that way. This is where it gets the prompt? As far as equipment goes, though. For the three playground from PA 321 will be Holmes, Estherbrook, and Erickson. That's the the playground budget for PA 321. The, dual Puentes, that was 500,000 for the whole building to open it up, and
I think we spent I have to look at that number, but I think it was, like, 200,000 on playground equipment for that building. So I have a question. Right? Correct. It should be if there's yes. If there's no unsourcing circumstances or anything. Yep. It's a artificial grass with foam underneath it to give the cushion because you're required to have safety standards, for, like, swing set, slides, and stuff for when the kids hit the ground, they have a cushion. So this is, we're just getting away from the wood chips because they're expensive and
labor intense. I have to have the ground screw come out there a couple times throughout the year to fluff them back up or add more. So this way here, only thing you have to do, you run, like, the sweeper over it a couple times a year to keep it clean. So it would any more questions? The landscaping in is almost completed. I added some more landscaping. So, if you go over but drive by Ace, they're gonna be over there working tomorrow because you still just didn't look quite right. And we were working off to the old scope.
And then once you get it stuck in, you realize, oh, I could use a little bit more here or a little bit more there. Like, over at, Puente's, I added some more to change order. Same thing with Holmes, if you drive by Holmes. Okay. If you drive by Holmes, elementary, you see we, we've kinda spruced that up a little bit more. We added more plants, more mulch. So the we did a change order to add to it, but we're we'll let Damon talk about the budget there. So the budget is based off of, the initial, plans when we drew the drew up the, the spend plan for the the debt funds.
And these are the bids that come back for various reasons, discounts or changes in in materials, whatever we initially, it was gonna cost this much. We found out the materials were a little cheaper here and there. So we were we're looking to be considerably under budget here, but under budget here kinda covers other places. But as far as the landscaping agreements that we've signed, this is where we stand. Yeah. My bad. I should be on the mic. Is it, like, roll over? Do you put it in the budget? How does that do? Because that's, like, you are you allowed it for this much, but it's, like, not
even half? So it'll we'll we'll make adjustments. There there are a couple of programs or or, projects that we set out that have gone a little bit over, so it kinda covers our area. Okay. It it's it's a kind of give and take care in there. Okay. Because that's good. I mean, if we ever to have that much and still get some bids for, like, almost less than half than what you were looking to spend, you know, that's a good deal, but I just wondered how you do when you have the such a big deal. We're we're still going through when to to cover all of the the areas of the the spend plan. These funds will be moved around to to cover the we have some overages.
We have some, some some It'll bounce. Below. Right. That that is the plan. Thank you. I just wanna clarify. Is this for the whole five year plan? Five year this is a whole five year plan of watering. They're weeding. They're adding more mulch every year. They're for How much? Even the even the change order. Yes. Thanks. Yep. No. Hi. You may not have that this answer, but I am curious what I would like to hear perhaps from some of the folks in the school buildings how, they're gonna
move forward with supporting the enrichment of those students while those playgrounds are in development. That's something that I'm interested in understanding and knowing how that's gonna, what alternative is gonna be available for those students, up until those playgrounds are functional. I know that most of the playgrounds, if you wanna be tore out, but they're gonna still be, like, swing sets and slide. They're gonna try to do it in different locations. Just some places we can't we gotta tear it all out. Like, I think Extra Brook, their large play structure is gonna get tore out first, but they're still gonna have their low smaller play structures in there.
Same as home, we can move that shift to location a little bit. They can keep their older equipment going while they're installing the new stuff. So that was the plan last I talked to the, we we build fund, the company that we're working with. Thank you. Alright. With the added you said you added more landscape at ACE, immersion, and homes. Right? Yes. And we'll sorry. The middle school. In the middle school. Correct. Was that a added cost?
Yes. It was an added cost. We call it a change order. But did it it not go over? No. It did not go over the budget. And so we're still under budget, and it's still with the five year plans. Every time I ask them if they can do something, I ask them for the five year plan to go with it because I just want them to be able to take care of it all, work with our staff to train them. We're gonna once everything get installed, our ground screw gonna start working with the experts on how to take care of the the landscaping. And you don't have that amount of how much it was?
It's about $30,000. Thank you. Any other questions? Alright. So we're working with the, Triumph Modular for the four classroom portable, and we, we're gonna come to you on September 8. Right now, the dollar figure is 1.3, for it. The reason why it's higher than the budget is because the cost of installation have gone up since we first started looking at the plan of it, and we're, at first, you wanted four class four portables, and we got it narrowed down to one
with four classrooms in it. So with all the, building building with the cost of the building and even the tariffs made the building gone up, like, $80,000 since September. But that is the total price. That's including electrical getting hooked up, sewers getting hooked up, heating, fire alarms, everything. That will be the total price for the bill. So it's a little bit more than the actual budget. I'll let Damon talk about it. And this is one of those areas where the, the savings we had in landscaping
or in in other areas, not it's not just landscaping, will go into the bids at a little bit higher now because time is just, you know, yesterday's price isn't today's price. But continuing to budget and make the with the the money saved in one area, we have funds for another. So to to be clear, we had pro the budget proposed was with the idea of getting four portables. Yeah. But because of current pricing, it shifted to being one portable, that's costing the same
as what we had predicted four would. Actually, a little bit more than what we predicted four would. When they proposed, they had proposed one portable with two classrooms. So we're we're gonna install one portable with four classrooms. So it's just cost effective just to have a larger building, larger footprint. But, yeah, we're doing away with eight classrooms. Okay. We also taking in mind that we initially started with portables, with with trailers, and this is a modular build. There's a difference in the structure as well. It it's affordable.
It looks like, it it's, the portables of twenty, thirty years ago are not the same portables that we have today. They look like regular buildings. From from the facade on the brick to hardy board, they're gonna use all the same fixtures that we use in our current buildings. So there won't be all the little cheaper, like, equipment like your flush valve, your door hardware, even the lights. Everything's gonna be comparable. The heat and cooling system is gonna be what we use right now. We were able to pick and use all the same fixtures and everything for it,
doors and So we're not buying double wide trailers? No. They're not the what? We're not buying double wide trailers. No. This is this is not the old school Right. You know? It's a modular out behind the building type of thing. Our district has it just like that. They have four classrooms and one modular, though he's saying. So I've seen that before, so I know it works. Yep. Yep. I had a question. Is this the modular that you mentioned will be connected to the building through, like, an easy way? Are we still doing the easy way? Yes. Or are we unable to do that? We're still doing the easy way. We have to keep it 30 feet off the building.
We're gonna have, like, a, cover breezeway to go from one building to the other. If we hook it to the building, we have to bring that building completely up to modern day standards. And, it'll be still cost it'd be very costly. Any other questions on this? So for for the boilers this summer, we replaced the boiler at Esterbrook that was part of the Sinking Fund projects. Ace, y two c s, and Chapel all received new boilers. They was felon on us, so we we had to move forward that on the
boiler that was part of the PA three twenty one. And the high school, I'll be coming to you on, September 8 for a change order to, be able to install the new boiler at the high school. That price there is the price to remove that big orange boiler, and we're getting two smaller ones like the picture on the lower right. And we see we see a considerable, reduction in gas once we get the newer boiler and for the high school. Saves a lot of space to put on it. Yes. It was like, oh my god.
It was big. Yeah. Not the picture. Yeah. We saw it last year. The picture on the bottom, the gray one, that's going into that high school? Yes. We already have one in like that right now in the high school. Okay. And, usually, that we call that the summer boiler that you always wanna keep help dry out the building when you have a lot of air condition. And that was able to run even when it was down to 10 degrees, which we never thought that would be able to keep up, and it kept the building going at 10 degrees. So, so if you have two more and we start modulate them for they can
be on low fire, it would save us energy. We already done this concept in four of our other buildings. It's been proven to save money, and we usually have a pretty big return on investments from that. So you say you're getting two more like this? Yes. Okay. And they'll work in, work together when they're working. Okay. I'm just fine. Alright. I was just making sure because it's awfully small for that to go to. It is. But it it works. It it's been proven. So Alright.
Take it off. Yep. Any other questions? That's okay. I hit two times for one. Yeah. I was looking. Okay. All the signs are completed. If you drive around the district, the signs are, installed. We're just waiting for the toppers to get labeled and the bottom of the sign to be labeled, and the electrical work is completed for it. We're waiting for Solomon to do his part of the, project. Hopefully, by Thursday, that will be done and, for her new electronic signs for the
district. I mean, that's gonna be really nice for, like, if you have snow days or anything like that or some big event in your building, you can always advertise it out front of your building for the parents to see it when they're dropping off. So billboard I just want I wanna clarify. Like, today, you saw the sign lit. That is not the topper. It's that is the wording. Like, that would have been the message part where you could say, don't forget Yeah. That tonight is the ribbon cutting. Mhmm.
It's just we didn't have the topper. So the white part is the topper where the school's name would normally be. Yes. And then it will be like, the address would be on the bottom. And then where you saw the name where it said Ypsilanti Puentes, that will be the message part, the digital part. So just to clarify right now, what else? White parts. We're just waiting on the toppers. Yep. And we just would want those things not to be 500 and 600 even though we know they're really 600,000 or 500,000. Right? Yes. Those periods at up there?
Yes. They should be commas. It's 600,000. We budget it. Time you add, like, like Should there be commas and not periods? I'm asking. Oh, yeah. It should be a it should be a Okay. I comma. Yeah. Just I was looking at, like, what what the heck? But I just saying just Yeah. Commas in those two areas. Yeah. It should be. He's like, I was just asking. No. You're right. Just asking. I'm sorry. The reason why it's a little bit more is because we had to do electrical and everything gone up in price since we first started the project. But they were they're gonna be good, though. They were they were already starting off.
They were on the right track. So The billboard is I'm finding it extremely difficult to give a billboard company wanna take on adding just one billboard. I found a lot about billboards. It's like a three year process because we wanna advertise on '94. We gotta get federal approval and everything. As soon as you talk to billboard companies and they find out you want one, they don't wanna talk to us. They wanna do, like, 10 of them in a row because it's just it's such a long process to get permission and everything. But I'm still making phone calls and chasing town leads for billboards.
So and, you have any other questions for this slide? Alright. The painting where, is completed. And for all the commons, classrooms, and hallways, I'm working on a punch list right now with all the, contractors. We're holding our last check until all the punch list are done. Just, and they're more we like I said before, we used two of the local contractors that actually went to school here, everybody that worked for them. So, they was actually really good to work with.
If you notice, we budgeted a a million, and we came under that because of the, we asked them to give us a price of a of second shift because of Grizzly Camp and everything going on. And then, we was able to fit it in and have them start working day shifts till the school gets out. And, like like I said, the contractors choose to work second shift, so they didn't charge us second shift premiums. They just gave us day they charged us on day shift premium. So we were actually able to get it to come back under budget.
Because if you remember back in, when I first came and asked you for it, we was at, like, 1,200,000.0, and, we was able to work with our contractor to get that brought back under budget. Not much was there. So Mister, one of the trustees asked me earlier today about this building, and I was not able to answer the question if it was in the PA 321. It was not. It was only for, like, this building that affected the students.
So that was my understanding when I took over. So alright. Any other questions? Well, the the summer chiller for the Sink and Fund project at the high school, they told me today they're about 98% finished. They're finishing up the controllers today on it. We had, Trane provided a rental chiller because they didn't meet their deadline back in May. They were supposed to have it done May 15. They had some hiccups, so they gave us a rental chiller for it. They took it offline last Friday, and they're just finishing up all the final checks
and everything before they turn it completely on. But they guarantee me they'll have it Monday ready to go. The roof shat Shatford is complete. I'm sorry. I didn't update some of my slides, I thought. But HY2CS is done. Ford, they're waiting for the metal flashing to get delivered so they can put that on, but all the new roof's been installed besides the metal flashing. So and Devlin Field, the track is complete. You see the new pictures down there.
The scoreboard makeover should happen. The rest they've been painted. They'll they're supposed to be coming, putting vinyl lettering on one day this week. I'm waiting for the phone call from the, the vinyl sign company to take care of that problem. Or I assume it's not a problem. It's a good thing. I mean, it's gonna look really nice. So So we can go walk on the track now? We should. So I'm just waiting for the scoreboard to get done, and then I'm gonna And then we then we can walk on the track. Walk on the track. So I just wanna get everything done. If you drive by, all the red been taken away, and it's been painted black.
It looks the field house looked really sharp. The bleachers been power washed, so it's not mossy. The light's been all fixed. So they can have football games this year there? They should be able to have football games. We had a sprinkler system in. We We probably got one of the nicest stadiums for middle school Wow. And turf. I mean, not for the foot the, the grass where they can play Nashville turf where they can play. Yes. So we're, we should be really proud of that stadium over there for the middle school. So, again, we talked about the, the modular with the four classrooms, portables.
Filter first is completed. All the they all got their new drinking fountains with the bottle filler with the lead, filters on it. Now the process going around now to start taking bubblers out. We're hoping, when I go to MSBO, we'll find out if the state will give us some give us another round of grants. They're hoping they will to help for removal of old bottle filler or drinking fountains. If not, this boy is gonna have to incur that price for removing of the old drinking fountains and the bottle filler bubble or just in the classrooms.
So, for the drinking fountain. So and, if you go but if you tour Puente this tonight, you'll see the little kindergarten bathrooms on the 600 Wing with the little tiny toilets. They're all completed. The, security vestibule at the high school completed. So now when you walk in to the high school main entrance, there's another set of doors. There's a camera there. They can talk to you through that, so you ain't just walking into the building to be able to go wherever you want. You can at least get out of the weather while they check your check and
make sure you're supposed to be there and let you in the building. So Okay. It makes it it's a really nice, thing to have over there, keep the students safe. Above ground storage tanks at Samson. If and tomorrow, you'll probably see a big white tank sitting over there for the, storage tank. We're still waiting for the permit to be completed at the, state level. We're hoping to get that any day now for Mercer can go ahead and start, installing the stuff and doing the repair, taking out the old 30 year old tanks with the insurance toys we needed to do it.
That's why we're replacing that with above ground tanks. So any questions on any of them items? Alright. Alright. Alright. We we got all the buildings clean waxed all the floors, top scrubs. I really gotta give it to my custodial staff. I had 12 custodians working all summer. Even with the sixth, building getting used for GLC, they was able to do about a million square feet of, top scrubbing and waxing. We've introduced some new products in there to save time, that's more durable for the,
waxing and stripping into the floor and top scrubbing. So, but you gotta just hatch off to my custodian staff that was on the floor crew. They really worked hard this summer to make it happen. The only school that didn't get done, they're doing it tomorrow, will be Ace, y two. They're gonna be at the cafeteria done tomorrow in the, hallways. But all the carpets in the that building that building is kinda unique. I got carpet classrooms. They all been shampooed this past summer too. So the book deposit story is finished.
So I'm taking all the excess curriculum and everything that we have in the district. I've been putting it over there on shelf. So if somebody needs something from Ericsson, they can go over there and grab it off the Ericsson shelf or something. So that's the, and they said, how is that the old Willow Run High School right next to the facility department? So and then, again, kindergarten bathrooms are completed. The ribbon cutting ceremony went off great tonight. That was this evening. So any question with this swatch? When you, did the sink lowered the sink in the bathroom, did we get that
fixed? Yep. If you look if you yes. It's fixed. We put back splashes up. Then we still back splashes. Okay. So it just helps you out. So but, yeah, that's all fixed. I had a company come in this weekend and cleaned the cafeteria. They scrubbed all the the ceiling, the beams, and everything down over the weekend, and then we put got the cold base on. And, but, yeah, it's it's all been taken care of. Everything you guys pointed out, it was taken care of. So Yeah. Any other questions? Well, I can do this before. Yeah.
With the amount of work that has been done, I I'm pretty sure our teachers and scholars and parents will appreciate, walking into the buildings and them being of a a standard of excellence that we talk about. But this is I mean, I yeah. You all did a phenomenal a phenomenal job in a short amount of time. So our suit I don't know who wants to be Batman, who wants to be Robin. That's right. But but I appreciate everything that you all have done.
Anything we've asked or needed clarification on, you all have always been quick about getting a response, and I really appreciate everything you have done for the district. Thank you. Yes. I was gonna say that. Thank you very much. Go ahead. That you are truly appreciated. I thank you. The board, thank you. You are appreciated. Thank you. Thank you. And I'll just did all that as well because this was a really big list of things to get done over the summer to just make our buildings feel more
welcoming, look nice, and just have a great place for our students to learn. And I appreciate everything that I've seen and heard and to accomplish so much over this short summer because it did go by quickly. It did. And I can see all the hard work that's been done. And those signs, I don't know who designed that, but thank you. It's they look amazing. I appreciate it. Yeah. And for me, I I appreciate I I asked all my questions as I went along, though. But, and just looking at how you guys are able to navigate some of that.
You know, you're looking at the you know what I mean? Some of that you're able to I hope that you're getting the best cost, but we're also getting the quality work. So I'm you know what I'm saying? That's what we that's that's what's important, though. Right? We don't want just to it's a cheaper bid and shall we work with that. Right? So we we're it sounds like you put a lot of time into making sure we got the best that we can get within our budget. You know what I'm saying? And being able to to that. So I like the new playground. I can't wait to go see it. I know one of them, we were looking did the swing come? Is it the no. Slide. The slide. There's a slide. A swing. It came? That's what we were talking about that the other day.
Talking about? Yeah. And the swing. Wasn't there supposed to be a swing at one of these playground? You're gonna be moving one from another building over to Puentes. Eventually. Right now, we're still looking into if it's if we meet the cold requirement for the safe fall levels and everything. I've I've already I've made a couple phone calls to see if they can fit it in. Yeah. They haven't got back with me on it. I just I I just can't wait. I've been in for a long, long time. My kids went to. You know what I'm saying? So I know what what it used to look like. Yeah. So they would have this change and this beautified and make it really nice up to, you know, what we are.
Excellent. Right? We wanna still look good to the community. What we want them to know that we care and we listen. You know, we want our kids to have the best of whatever the everything they can have the best of. Right? Right. So when they see the playgrounds and look how nice they're and they're up to date. I mean, those are nice playgrounds. You know what I'm saying? So I appreciate your work in that, and our kids are gonna be so happy when they're out there playing on the new playgrounds and the new look. And so thank you for all your work, both of you. Because we some picky women. Seven of us? And you dealt with seven picky women?
Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Next, we have public comments. No. Seeing none. Next week on the agenda is the consent agenda. Is there a motion? Madam president, madam vice president, move that the Board of Education approve number one, 08/04/2025, regular board meeting minutes. Number two, personnel matters as per the presented list dated 08/18/2025, new hires and resignations.
I have a question. Do we have a list that says I didn't see one in here, but is there a list? It is one? Where is it? I just didn't see it. I mean, I'm not seeing you don't have it. I didn't see it, but okay. That's not smart. Okay. Then she did a 69. She removed? Alright. So I need to reread that again, please. Madam vice president, I move that the Board of Education approve 08/04/2025 regular board meeting minutes. Thank you. Is there support? Support.
Motion was made by trustee Fields, supported by trustee Esty. Mhmm. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none. Motion passed six zero. Next, we have action items, students affairs. Madam vice president. Thank you. Trustee Fields, move that the Board of Education approve the NWEA purchase for a pay upfront three year contract tolling in the amount of a $117 and a $112.50.
Is there support? Support trustee, Sun Kennedy. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none. Motion passed six zero. Next, we have motion for yeah. Let's see. Thank you. BSIS for teacher, PD, and curriculum for special education purposes. Doctor Carlos Lopez, assistant superintendent. Is there a motion, please? Madam vice president, I move that the Board of Education approve the SIS four teacher
PD and curriculum for special education purchase in the amount of 100,001 $101,200. Is there support? Support, trustee Sutton Kennedy. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, motion passed. Six zero. Next, we have action items, business and finance, acceptance of a quote for Corwin. Is there a motion, please? Madam vice president, trustee Sutton Kennedy, I move that the board accept the quote for
Corwin for $108,215. Is there support? Trustee Field, I support. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none. Motion passed. Six zero. Next, we have acceptance of a quote. YCS art and social studies collaborative Project Proposal. Madam vice president, I move that the Board of Education accept the quote from YCS Art and Social Studies Collaborative Project for $9,292,500 dollars.
Is there support? Trustee Field has support. Do we need anything? I would like to know a little bit more about this. Okay. Is there anyone in the space who would like to speak about? Definitely. I can speak on it or doctor Lopez. This is a part of our '99 d, social studies grant. So, this, person, Nick Azaro, will be working with our social studies teachers and, and our art teachers, at the elementary. He'll work with our social studies I mean, I'm sorry, our art teachers so that
he will not be pulling our scholars out of their regular classes. So he'll be talking with them, getting the student voice. He's already worked with, talked to doctor Lopez about the social studies, curriculum to get their voice in creating, projects about their identity and about each one of throughout the, throughout the project to find out what they want to create. So they'll create projects that they will then demonstrate part of, that grade level.
They'll create our projects, for and they're gonna actually use their own. So the I wanna make sure that, talk about the materials. They're gonna use materials, that they'll create. So we don't know yet which materials and which types of, forms, mediums. That's the word I'm looking for. Mediums they're going to utilize. So that's the important part is to have their voices there as we've been talking about experiential learning. It's it's gonna be hands on, doing some of the things that our social studies
teachers have been talking about throughout the units. As we get to secondary, though, they are going he's gonna work with the social studies teachers to be able to demonstrate, how with them through their own work so he can have he can work with them kinda on their own, not through the social studies class kind of they're independent enough to work with them individually on special independent projects to, work to almost have, like, a district wide competition almost on their
display. So he anticipates them having a kind of a showcase of their projects so that they can, have their projects shown at the buildings or even in the administration building to show, like, Ypsilanti history and not through from the previous till now. So those works are anticipated to be left either here throughout the buildings, and they
will know that those independent works aren't necessarily gonna stay with them. So it could be through photo. So some of those things that, are in this amount are, like, cameras, are the development of them so that it could be left in terms of from history till now so that it will have that student voice that we want to make sure that our scholars see themselves.
They know that history. They're able to go from history to now. Great. And so he's only on loan for this year to to do this project. He would not be like a YCS employee or anything, but it's to kinda we know the quality. We know that he has the teaching degree. He can work with our teachers and collaborate. Trustees and Kennedy, so to confirm, essentially, our students will be working with this artist to, create art that illustrates the history of Ypsilanti.
And then so that, art that comes out of this will be will represent will be represented through our scholars, and then we'll have that sort of, like, history, you know, art that shows the history of Ypsilanti, but it's not coming from outside. It'll be created here. Yes. Yep. And and it's a artist who's also a educator. So that's the positive part is that we do actually get authentic education happening, which is that's the unique part is that we we can we know that our what the teachers worked in with the social studies curriculum will be done throughout this work.
It won't be set aside where we sometimes don't have that connection to our social studies curriculum. K. Do you have a question? Everything will happen here on-site. Like, that's the other part that's important that it's here in our classrooms and under our supervision with our Can you share the name of the artist? I don't know the Nick Azaro. He's one of our Nick Yes. Yeah. Now he would do this here or at his business? Here. He he worked he works for U of M, but he'll be doing this.
He won't work for U of M while he's doing this. It'll only be during this time while he's doing this project. Okay. Okay. Again, motion was made by trustee Ebsie. Ebsie. Ebsie. Okay. And, supported by trustee Fields? Mhmm. Okay. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, motion passed six zero. Next, we have acceptance of a quote Black History one zero one mobile museum.
C. Sorry. What? I said a vice president. Yeah. Subject c. Oh, I'm sorry. I did skip one. Okay. Acceptance of a quote redemption incorporated social studies professional development and learning. Is there a motion? Madam vice president, I move that the Board of Education accept the quote for redemption incorporated social studies professional development and learning for $40,000. Is there support? Support, trustee Townsend. Any communication? I would like more information about this if possible for clarity about it.
Certainly. This one is additional professional development for our support staff. Part of it is, work with communication about identity with our transportation, all of our support staff throughout how to work in collaboration with identity, with, I'm trying to think of the word, with identity, with, commune with service public service, with how do you
bring in the belonging pieces of our, of the work. Also, how do we work with our community and making sure that they know that extended outreach when we talked about, what are we doing with why are we, going out into our community? So all of those community meetings, community pieces. We've been working with our, with those community liaisons, but we are short. We have only we're down one. I'm looking at Carlos's fingers.
He put up one finger, and then he put up two. We're missing one, and so we need some more professional learning with that, and that will give us the additional training as well as I know today well, not today. Doctor Lopez doctor Coscarella did some training, but we need some additional training with, our support staff on how do we work with our communities, with our it's really about our nonprofessional staff on how do we build that culture.
I'm excited about this. Mhmm. I'm very excited about it, and I like the topics, that you all have on here. And I think it's it's very necessary when we talk about culture, of a a organization such as ours. But this is this is so good. Any other comments on the board? Again, motion was made by trustee Goodrich, supported by trustee Townsend. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, motion passed.
Six zero. Next, we have acceptance of a quote, Black History one zero one, mobile museum to Ypsil to visit Ypsilanti Community School. Do I have a motion? Madam vice president, I move that the Board of Education accept the quote for the Black History one zero one Mobile Museum to visit Ypsilanti Community School for $797,950,000. $79,050.
Thank you, trustee. Is there a support? Support, trustee Saint Kennedy. Motion was made by trustee Espy. It's draw supported by trustee Sutton Kennedy. Is there a discussion that we need? Yes. I think it would, madam vice president, it would be good to, have the public, you know, get a little bit more information in regards to the Black History one zero one Mobile Museum. Thank you. Zachary Watts, could you please give us a little context on this, please? Thank you. Yes. So this is a museum.
So if you've heard that they came during the summer, they came as a camp. This one is they come to the buildings like how the field trips the the field trips, they come to each they all have an opportunity to come to the each building, almost like a field trip. They are a museum. They bring they bring artifacts. They bring they demonstrate. They have, information for the scholars. They they do presentations for them, so they'll do and yes.
And I guess that's what you call it, immersive experience. You know, when they come, they and, the students are I'm trying to think, oh, my words are bad. So the students, they do an assembly. That's the word I'm using. Like, an assembly for the scholars, but they get to touch and see artifacts. And it's the instead of taking the scholars to the museum, they bring the museum to the scholars. So these people have are educators and that types type of thing. But then they also do professional development because it's great when you have those onetime
assemblies, but if you don't do they offer two hour professional development as well, so that our the learning can continue to happen because if our educators don't do anything afterwards or before, then it's great when they come, but there's no more. There's nothing else. And so, that's the other thing that they do is they offer not at the same time, but they come at another time with the building administrator, and they work
it out. So the so we also added in there where build the building administrators can independently say, okay. Here's when I want to have that for my building. So each building has the opportunity to say, here's when I want my professional development. Here's when I want them to come to my building. So it's kind of that choice thing. We just have it set up so buildings can make that choice. But this is a opportunity where they are going to come. They'll visit.
They'll bring that museum. You'll see it set up in front of they'll bring their things, and they'll have the professional development along with it. And then you'll see the book pieces so they can okay. Here's how they wanna give those out. Here's that opportunity too. They will not go to our high school. It's it goes up to, like, the end of middle school, and they won't go to the early learning centers. It's it's it's called the Black History one zero one mobile museum.
So if you So clarification. So you said I know that I know it doesn't say they'll go to the e l ELAs, but this says they do can go to high schools. So but we're not having them go to the high school on this one? We we're not. It's just how it's really hard to, like, navigate the schedule for the high school Okay. For those type of assembly. So that was the only reason. So this is gonna go k through eight? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I really appreciate, the relationship, to the, inquiry arcs in our Michigan educational, like, social
studies standards in this program. I'm also excited to see that there is some specific history and language within the living proof film that highlights the relation the action in within Michigan, for our students, and that it appears that the, that the founder of this, movement is, in fact, someone who has spent time within, within our area in Michigan, has taught in Detroit,
and so it's very exciting to see someone who is relatively part of this our regional community, coming back and providing this type of education here. Yeah. That's enough. They're educators. Not, again, not like a comp a program or a company. Mhmm. Yeah. And they they work in other school districts too, isn't isn't it? Mhmm. They're they're a known educational program. Absolutely. Anything else from the board? Again, motion was made by trustee custody, supported by trustee Sutton Kennedy.
All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none. Motion passed six zero. Next, we have acceptance of a quote, We Empower LLC. Is there a motion, please? Trustees and Kennedy move that the Board of Education accept the quote for We Empower LLC for $78,000. Is there support? I support. Is there do we need a discussion? Yes. We do. Okay. I'm assuming this goes with the 99 b grant too.
Okay. Yeah. Everything for this month and next month will. Is this one, mister Burton, doctor? Okay. Mhmm. Okay. So we had along this one was today. Oh, this one's super exciting. This one is the student boy is this the student voice one? I know there's another one coming. Okay. Oh, this is so exciting. So our scholars will this one is high school. Both high schools will participate. And so the students will as you see the weeks that they'll participate in, and
it is this also the leader one? And so the scholars will each week, they'll get a book booklet, and they are going to go through leadership development as you can see which one about identity, unity, and community, each one of those modules. And as number one, they'll all grow gather together, so it's about 30 from both both of our our high our high schools. Then as they're going through, they will choose a problem of practice. So the, in different states, they have chosen to do things on on Saturdays like
a a community event or it might be something about unhoused folks. It might be a community garden, whatever that might be. So they meet once a month, and so, they will decide what that project is. And they'll be working on whatever that project. They might partner with the org they can partner with Park Ridge. They can partner whatever it is. And so the person that they were working with will help them to partner with partner with that organization. And so they'll be learning about themselves.
They'll be growing as leaders. They'll be garnering voice. They'll be putting out releases. And then at the end, they'll do this big project, and get their other scholars to do it with them. And so it's about really having this leadership and voice development, and learning about advocacy. So it's super it's a whole they they've a whole pro like, a whole program that they go through. And you see kinda each one, and that's why they call it the we empower
because they they know that our scholars have power. They just don't necessarily know the process. So they go through each time they each unit they get, they grow, and they, again, they have a booklet, and they write, and they journal, and they talk about it, and then they work together. And it's primarily for tenth and eleventh graders. Any comments on the board? Is the, the CEO, is he from this area? He's not from my area.
He's not from his area? No. Okay. No. This one this one is the actually, this person was selected from is opening day speaker and was selected by our building administrator. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Again, motion was made by Sutton trustee Sutton Kennedy, supported by trustee Espy. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, motion passed six zero. Next, we have the acceptance of the YCS LEA contract could I have a motion,
please? Madam vice president, I move that the Board of Education adopt the revised YCS LEA contract for the 2025, '26, 2026, '27, and 2027, '28 school years for a total of six hundred and sixty four thousand eight hundred and two dollars and seventy eight cents for additional technology support services. Is there support? Support. Trustee Townsend. Do we need any contents of on this? I mean, I know what the the contents is. They might be good for the public to know. That's exactly what you want to do.
Yes. Board, as we were, as I was meeting with the director Matthew Cook from the WISD, as you know, they provide our technology services. We have, again, been so so fortunate to have wonderful service, by them, and, you know, we had we the board, adopted the next three year contract, a few meetings ago. And upon a conversation, that contract was, really much based we looked at and it
was based off of what the previous years had been and some additional growth. But then we looked at the footage of what the next three years would be, especially as we were opening up Fuentes and the need that we had. We looked at we were expanding. For example, we're doing a pilot at Estabrook. We're really excited about that, but it's with audio enhancement, and it's including, which is wonderful for our scholars there and our newcomer centers. And that is for the entire classroom.
It is a multilingual, a piece where all the students and the teacher will be able to speak in English and all the students will be able to hear in whatever language they speak in. And so that's a new technology pilot. I'm just giving a few examples. We opened up all of our maker spaces, which is all technology. And so when we started talking about all the additional technology that our magnet grants will be adding on and, pointers and other things, we knew we would need additional technology services.
And with that, that comes personnel, and we know personnel, is additional cost. And so as we talked about it, we will need additional support, which is about a site coordinator and also the PowerSchool administrator because the students that will be adding into Puentes, it's a lot of PowerSchool pieces that will be added. And so, we thought we needed a a instead of halftime, we need a full
time because we've a lot of what we need with parent concerns are PowerSchool, that back end piece. And so we will need a site expand to a full time site administrator because right now, we have a part time. We that's split. So we need our own site administrator as well as we need a full time PowerSchool so that when we're having these, know where our students are, we need attendance, all of those things, we need our own at YCS.
Thank you. Thank you. So this is over three years, which means that rep this total cost is for the three years. So, basically, looking at this as, like, an additional a little bit more than 200,000 each year. Yes. Any other questions for it? I think you got the Zachary Mills. Again, motion was made by trustee Goodrich, supported by trustee Townsend. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Hearing none, motion passed six zero. Next, there's public comments.
Thank you, Julie. Seeing none, next is board super board and superintendent comments. Sure. Any comments? We have our next legislative breakfast on September 15. Just throwing in that reminder, today because I think we'll meet the, just the week before it. And so I wanna make sure that folks are aware. I have that on your calendar if you're interested in coming, September 15. It's usually a Monday.
Yes. We'll be back. I think we just get back this the Sunday before. Yeah. 07:30AM for that legislative breakfast, and then it was really great to see everyone at the, ribbon cutting today. Very exciting, to see our new administrators and just to open the building and see all the positive energy and, you know, community already gathering around. Yeah. So thank y'all for your support. Thank you for being there. Thank you for being here.
Thank you. Oh, okay. I just wanna say yes. Thank you. We, it was nice. We had seen everyone at the ribbon cutting, and we had our fun time last week at the, retreat, and it was fun. Appreciate it. Thank you for everything. It was a good learning experience, getting us ready for the upcoming year. I was also wanting to give kudos to, trustee Sutton Kennedy for her bilingualness. She really represented us well. That just like, I had this look at my face like, what?
That was a hidden talent, and she was so good. And and that just really gave me a good feeling as a board, to be honest. You know what I'm saying? Because she threw out that gym that we didn't know she had and stuff. So she's gonna be very useful over there at the winters, I'm sure, having that, that knowledge. So I just wanna say thank you, and you do well. Thank you. I would just like to, thank the superintendent and the central staff to regarding the board retreat. It was very good. We learned a lot of information.
We picked up on our drawing skills. But it it was it was good at working on a strategic plan, understanding having all of those different presentations, from support from our support services. And, the the one teacher from Perry did a excellent job. Megan Carr. Megan Carr. I just wanted to public publicly thank her, and their entire team for all of their work, doing the history for Perry. We have, like, phenomenal educators, and so I just wanted to just publicly thank her
for that. The Puente's, ribbon cutting was excellent. The babies, they are ready. Again, thank you in transportation and the finance team, for doing their job, all of the marketing communications team for, getting the word out. And I'm just excited for the New Year. Opening day is tomorrow. No. It's we're it was good. I'm excited for twenty twenty five, twenty six school year. So thank you. I would also just like to voice my appreciation for doctor Zachary Ross and the,
central office administrators, for the amazing opportunity you all provided for us in a board retreat. It was very insightful and, you know, really delving into that strategic plan, had a lot of value to it. And, yeah, I'm really excited for what's coming up. I think that Fuentes had a really great ribbon cutting. We had the opportunity to tour. There are plenty of beautiful spaces in it and, give students really a great opportunity
to be, connecting with their their fellow classmates as well as educators. I love the way that we have developed the teaching staff there, and I'm I'm really looking forward to seeing, that community continue to grow. So thank you for that, and, just appreciation for my fellow board members as we go through these, this time period as well as our our our staff and teachers
as we enter into a new school year. I am very excited to see, to welcome in this new year. We have so many amazing programs coming through. We have a lot of new opportunities, whether it's through CTE, whether it's through our, Puentes Multilingual School, and our magnet programs. We have a lot of really great things happening, and I'm so excited to see our students have opportunity to take advantage of them this year. Anyone else? No? I just wanna say, I am so thankful to serve on this board, to serve
in this district, and to serve with everyone. I just I'm just thankful for this community, and you guys are teaching me so much. I am still learning. Even though how old I am, I'm still learning. And I thank you. Thank you. That's all I have to say. Just thank you. Happy to say everyone. You know, I you know, I'm entering this in a space of gratitude too. This we I think the this board is tremendous, and I thank you for, again,
just the trust that you have placed in us as a administrative team and the fact that, like, I think about the board retreat, the growing that we just continue to do and the opportunities that you give these scholars. Today was amazing as I think about that ribbon cutting. Like, the new opportunity that this 02/2526 school year has for everyone as we embark
on the the new strategic plan. It's just like newness is coming to life, and it's because, you instill trust and faith and, belief, and then that gives everyone else the opportunity to flourish and to believe in themselves. So I also am thankful. I'm thankful to the facilities, staff, and, just you all are tremendous. So, John, under your leadership, I'm just again grateful to you.
I know that, your your whole bunch, they are exhausted, but I know they have to be proud of everything. And board members remember that they are looking forward to taking you on a tour of the other spaces. I know they look very familiar to some of the things that you saw, but the each building, they've done special touches. We're just thrilled about tomorrow for our, educators for opening day at the middle school. You could already feel the excitement, with last week, the new educator boot camp by
talent management. Thank you to anybody who helped with the talent management, the the, unions that supported us, the other educators that participated. Thank you for that. The new educators were they they they came the one thing that was unique this year is that we had so many educators from out of state joining us, out of the country joining us. And they were like, we're so excited, and they were just and they come with
a because and I mentioned that because a lot of times we have people just straight out of college. But they were like, I've been teaching for years, or I worked at EFC before and I moved, and I wanted to come back. I you I'm like, yes. I remember you. They were and and that's that was really, reassuring to know, like, I moved out of state, and I wanted to come back to Ypsi. And so I was so thrilled about the new teacher boot camp, and so that
was exciting. So we have that happening this week. Then the YCS conference, we have 26 sessions, four sessions each, on Wednesday. So, board members, tomorrow, you have, John Burchwell has gotten parking spaces for you. Tomorrow is at, YCMS, on Spencer Lane. So we look forward to you joining us tomorrow. You are welcome. You don't have to be there on Wednesday, but you are welcome to join us
on Wednesday where we will be there on Wednesday for, the YCS conference. There, we'll be there all day. Tomorrow, we're only gonna be there in the morning because teachers have educators have set up in the afternoon, but Wednesday, we'll be there all day. And then we have the welcomes. So you're also welcome to come in the afternoon to the middle school and Ypsi
Connected in the evening from is it four to six? In the evening for the welcomes for our families. I know we're gonna get right out of there on time so that they can welcome the families in. Then on Thursday, we have the welcomes of the elementaries in the early learning centers in the evening on Thursdays if you want to stop on in. And then on Friday, I just had to welcome you to, the AI conference at
Appointis. So we'll be there all day for the artificial intelligence conference where we will be, having breakout sessions if you wanna learn about artificial intelligence, or you can meet us at the transportation department to get learn about the new app. Community can come out. There will be bounce houses and food and meet learn about their routes, meet the drivers. So there are things to do all week at YCS, and then get your rest
on the weekend because we will be ready for our scholars on the first day of school as we want to welcome them back with bright smiles, lots of energy on Monday, August 25. That they're this the the scout the, officers will be working with the principal, and then they're gonna send it out. Yep. They're meeting this week. Yep. And then they're sending it out. But we the scholars got the boys. So she's meeting with them, and then they're gonna send it out because the the
the officers at the high school work with doctor Hugan Harris Hugan, and then they they work it all out. Well, it's not just at the high school. It's both of them. Yes. Thank you, doctor Zachary Ross. And what we've been waiting for, it is 07:48, and this meeting is adjourned.