001[music] All right, welcome everyone to our October 27th, 2025 board meeting. Everyone can please stand for the pledge. 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. >> If there's any audience members that would like to address the board this evening, we just ask that you fill out the board speaker form on the table next to the door. Let the record show all members are present this evening with the exception of Jill. Is everyone okay with the agenda? Everybody on the slide just mar so over there. [laughter] Okay. Um I don't believe we have any communications. Uh board committee update finance committee Saunders. Thank you, Madam President. Joining us in finance committee tonight was
002Jamie Reette, a representative from YO, Miss Dina, the GCA president, Mr. Fischer, and Miss Williamson. Um, we went over our upcoming uh audit presentation. Um, the one thing of note was that a report on the federal grant money is not released yet. um due to the government not releasing their um compliance supplement piece that they need to finalize the report and I'm not going to steal any of Steve's thunder. So that will conclude the finance committee update. [laughter] Uh the policy focus committee uh in place of Miss Budwal we have Miss Childris. Did it go on? >> Okay. Uh tonight myself, Miss Picassio, and Dr. Shaka reviewed the board policy associated with the naming of facilities, and we also reviewed and discussed draft policy for the facility dogs prepared by Miller Johnson School Board Policy
003Services. And that was it. Thank you. Moving on to item eight, presentation. A the WEDA exit presentation. Mr. English. Uh good evening members of the board of education and Mr. Fischer. Um tonight we want to recognize 14 students who exited our English learner program during the 2425 school year. Um these students scored a 4.8 or higher on the WEDA access test or a 5.0 on the WEDA alternate assessment. This is the highest number of exits that we've had since before 2019. On average, we've had seven students exit each year and last year was double that. Um, so scoring a 4.8 or higher on the WEDA assessment is no easy feat and we're incredibly proud of our students and appreciative of the support of our English learner teachers and coaches uh and all of the support
004that they have provided to the students as well as their families. Um, so I would like to have members of our team tonight uh Miss Aiss, Miss Oberman, Miss Alahif, uh, present the students with certificates to celebrate their hard work uh, and their exiting of our EL program. Deb. [laughter] >> Sure. >> You want to read who's here? >> We test the mic. You may have to push it kind of hard. >> Okay. >> All right. So, the students we have here with us tonight. Do you want to read those ones first? >> Go ahead. >> All right. I'll start off with Hi, I'm Miss El Dave, Miss Norah Alave, and I'll start off with the first grader, Miss Melody Gathro. [applause] Congratulations. [applause] ASHMA ALUBASHI [applause] and we have Selena Crease. [applause] >> [applause]
005>> So, I guess we'll read the rest of them. Um, Mas Abukora, she's a high school student. [applause] Abdul Ahaidari, 2025 graduate, [applause] and Lucaya Hernandez. [applause] We have Khaled Alwah first grader [applause] Kazali and Amamira Kamona. [applause] We also have Ran Fry, [applause] Padia Jafari, Mortasa Jafari, [applause] Olivia Kamra and Sophia Tomminets. [applause] Thank you. >> Great job. >> Right. Thank you. And congratulations everyone on your hard work and dedication. Moving on, we have comments from the audience focused on today's agenda. And we have none. Item 10, approval of the general consent agenda items. A, regular meeting minutes of October 13, 2025. B. Building committee minutes of October 13, 2025. C. Curriculum committee minutes of October 13, 2025. A motion is in order. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Item 11,
006new business, a human resource report. Mrs. Williamson. >> Thank you, Madam President. Since our last meeting, the district has welcomed six new employees who will serve as pair of professionals throughout the district in various roles. So, pending any questions, I recommend that the board approved the human resources report this evening. A motion is in order. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, motion passes. Item B, the 2024 2025 audit. Mr. Wnooki and Jamie Rivet from Yoyo. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh, our fiscal year ended on June 30th, 2025, and during the month of July, we had our our preliminary audit from Yo and Yo. Uh, we had our on-site audit during the month of September. And um, as recent as just about this morning, we were able to complete our audit
007um, and Friday, you know, last week. Um, so it is our pleasure to um have uh Jamie Revette from Yo and Yo uh with us today at the meeting to um go over those results. So Jamie, take it away. >> Perfect. Thank you very much. So I love your news monitors. These are new since I've been in here last. So they're looking good. So today we get to go over the highlights from the audit. And as Steve mentioned, um we actually are still waiting on the federal um compliance supplement to be released. So that is out of the hands of all of us in here and it is uh across the US that we're waiting for that. So we are able to release the financial statements. Those have already been submitted to MDE but we
008are waiting on that compliance supplement to finish up the single audit. So we're going to go over the highlights um today. Let me just make sure I'm go okay perfect. So the audit results really are broken down into three components. One is the financial statements which where we come in and audit that information presented. The second one is internal controls. So the audit standards require the auditors to gain an understanding of your internal controls. So I always say it might look good if it's the way it's on paper and your processes and procedures, but they're only effective if everybody's doing their job along the way. And then the last item is compliance. So MDE has specific things they want us to check as your independent auditors as does the uniform guidance related to federal grants.
009So the next um slide that I have is talking about the audit results. So management are really the ones that are responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles which are the rules that we have to follow. And then what happens is my team and I come in audit that information presented and then issue you an opinion which the district was issued an unmodified opinion. Um, and we kind of joked about it in a in the meeting before this one about it that sounds kind of negative in nature, but that it really is the best opinion you can get. It's a clean opinion. There are no material modifications that need to be made to the financial statements. Now, my next couple slides are on the
010balance sheet. Um, and again, these are as of June 30th, uh, 2025. So, I'll just point out a couple things. The first one is your first column here that we have is your general fund, which is the operating fund. And then we have your special education fund. Also, I know you refer to it as your center program. And then the third column are all the other funds of the district combined into one column. So that includes your food service fund, student activities and scholarships fund, debt service fund, your two syncing funds, as well as your capital projects fund. So all that information is audited separately in the financial statements. If you wanted to look at any of them individually, we could. So, a few things to point out on your general fund since that's the
011operating fund is you did have about 13.9 million in cash as of June 30th. Um, and then you can see in towards the middle of the page there about the fourth line down, we have about 10.4 million in due from other governmental units. So, that's just the money that you're getting in July and August for state aid. And then the bottom of the page has the liabilities listed out. I'll just point out two things here is the acred salaries payable. So, that's about 4.3 million. that is really all of the um time that the employees have worked and earned that just hasn't been paid out yet. So, a lot of them choose to get paid over the summer. So, that's just sitting in there as a liability as the district because we do have to
012pay that out and we do owe that to the employees. And then we have some unearned revenue. So, that's just revenue that we've received, but yet we haven't met all the required stipulations to recognize that as revenue yet. And then the second half of that really then looks at the fund balance. So there are some requirements as to how we have to classify this. And the general fund does have some ass um assigned fund balance about 1.2 million. So that's based on your budget that you adopted for next year um that we were looking at the expenses exceeding the revenue of about 1.2 million. So we did assign some of the fund balance to help offset that. And the third column, your non- major fund. There are some restrictions there of the food service fund
013as well as the debt service, your capital projects and syncing fund. Those have to um stay restricted fund balance too. You can't use those for any any purpose. Um then I have a slide on your revenue and expenses for the year for your general fund and special education fund. And the big focus is the third line there of the change in fund balance. So we did have revenue that exceeded expenditures this year about 2.3 million for your general fund. The special education fund that fund always breaks even. So it's always fund balance of zero. The change for the year is always zero. And then the third column um we talked about this too earlier is that you know that looks kind of bad that you've spent 6.8 million but that's the purpose of those funds.
014That's your capital projects fund. That's your syncing fund. So we had some fund balance and revenue in there. is that accumulates the whole purpose of that fund is to you get the proceeds and then you spend that on enhancements for the district of what the voters have approved that um expenditures to be spent on. So the majority of it about 3.9 million was related to your capital projects fund and another 2.7 million was related to the syncing fund expenditures. This is my favorite slide for you guys. Um I've been here for quite a while. I'm not sure how many years I've been doing the audit now but it's been a while. I mean back to where we were barely had any fund balance. Um and I too sit on a school board in my hometown
015and we were in the same boat and we were hovering at three or 4% fund balance. So to see the improvements at the district over the past few years um I gave Steve a lot of props in that room because he really deserves it. him and his team and how well they did on this slide especially you're we are talking about $60 million budget and to come within $1.3% of revenue and having the actual be higher than the budget is I mean if you're going to be off let's be off that way and then the expenditures I mean 03% that's how accurate he was his team was and then the board in here to follow through approve those budget amendments so I know how hard that is. That first column is your best guess with
016the information you have as of that was adopted in June of 2024. So before the fiscal year even started. Then throughout the year things happen. So that second column is your final budget. So that is your best guess closest to June 30th. You can't make any changes to that budget after June 30th. Well, we all know you get um invoices coming in in July and August. You get revenue coming in in July and August. sometimes, you know, you might forget about some of those invoices. So, to be that accurate, um, great job, great job there, um, on that finance department for being that close on your budget is really amazing. I audit probably 8 to 10 districts and this is this amount of money and being that accurate I have not seen yet this year.
017So, great job, Steve. Um, the next slide is then the change in a comparison to last year. So, I always like to look at, okay, where are revenues at in general fund compared to last year and where are expenditures? And there wasn't a lot of lot of fluctuation here for you. Um, your revenue um was about a 68% change. Um, two things I'll point out there is your federal revenue actually did decrease about 1.8 million. However, your state revenue then came in and offset that as we did see a one-time um increase there which was about 2.1 million. So those two did offset each other to keep it pretty flat compared to last year. And then the expenditures, I mean, it was just a very slight difference compared to last year for the total expenditures.
018I have a pie chart in here because I always think it's a little bit easier to visualize and see where your revenue is coming from. Um, you can see here the green section about 81% is coming from your state aid. And then we have local funds of about 8%, that's your property taxes, transportation fees, and investment earnings. And then we have federal grants of about 6%. I've also included a five-year trend of your general fund revenue just so you can kind of see, it's great to compare to last year, but it's kind of like, well, how far have we come? And you can see we've been a on an uptick besides a slight dip in 2022, but we've been on an increase there for the past few years. So we did increase revenue about 413,000
019over last year. And then this slide is your general fund expenditure. So now we're looking at where the funds are going. And you can see here if we add your instruction and supporting services about 87% is going back into student services and support. Um and those includes your basic programs are under instruction and added needs. And then your supporting services are pupil, business, transportation, and athletics. Our transfer out number that all goes to the special education fund or your center program fund because like I said, that always has to to net to zero. So that um transfer gets done at the very end to make sure that fund zeros out. Um and then we also have the similar chart here for your general fund expenditures over the last five years. And again, just a slight
020decrease compared to last year, about 209,000. This slide is taking your student enrollment and we just are dividing it into your total general fund revenue and your total general fund expenditures. Um, just to see, okay, what does that calculation look like per pupil? So, we did receive about 18,775 per pupil. And this is just purely taking your total general fund revenue and expenditures. And then the um expenses out are spending almost all of that, turning it right back and spending it right on to right with the um students about 18,000. Um your your enrollment trend um over the past three years, we've hopefully seen that leveled off. We talked about that, too. and hopefully that those um enrollment for 2026 is going to be, you know, pretty much leveled off and right within line of
021where we were for 24 and 25. Um my last couple of slides is I'm also required to report to governance um the required communication. So there are some estimates in the financial statements. Um one of them being useful lives of capital assets as well as some um expectations and assumptions that go into the net pension liability and OPB as well. There are some new standards coming up that we will work with Steve and his team to make sure that we're in compliance. Um and then we had one past adjustment that you'll see in the letter once the audit is totally finalized when that federal piece comes out. um it was very immaterial and it had to do with some lease receivable. Um but I just wanted to point that out. And like I mentioned, in
022addition to auditing the financial statements, we also have to gain an understanding of internal controls. And we did not have any items that we needed to notify that would be considered material weaknesses or significant deficiencies um and no non-compliance. Now, we did test the idea or special education fund is our major program for the single audit. And like I mentioned, we're just waiting for that final um compliance supplement to be released so we can get that finalized too. And then my last slide that I have are just some future challenges that I wanted to to mention. And this isn't just for Garden City. This is really across the board at all districts. um you know seeing an increase in the employment and benefit costs. Those are year-over-year just continuing to increase. Um staffing challenges, you
023know, it's a industry issue of teacher shortages and making sure that um you know we're able to get those positions filled. Um the state economic and political condition. I don't think we need to talk more about that. Um and then eroding federal revenue sources. you know, the ESSER funds are are all gone. I know you've done a great job at budgeting um you know, going forward and not relying on that, too. Um and then we have the pension obligation of about 69 million. That is really your portion um of that pie that's required to be recorded um on the district-wide statements. With that, I just want to quickly thank Steve and Brett and their teams for all their hard work and professionalism with the audit. um we come in and we ask a lot of
024questions and you know they don't seem too annoyed with us and they're very friendly and you know get us our answers and we do appreciate it. It's a it's a collaborative team effort to get this out the door. Um and when you get the final packet you'll see it's it's a pretty thick packet. Um so I do appreciate all their efforts. Are there any questions that I could answer for you? Thank you, >> thank you, >> Jamie. Thank you very much. Much appreciated. >> Yeah. [clears throat] Mr. >> Do we have a couple more words to give? >> Can we can we share a couple more? >> Thank you. >> All right, let's see. We have Fatima Kazali. [applause] and a brother and sister for the first time. MORTAZA JAFARI [applause] can be in the
025picture too and Jafari. [applause] Thank you. [applause] >> Just real quick with the two siblings. Um, not only did they pass the readita, but they're doing so well and high achievers. The testament of all the hard work and dedication. They're taking AP classes. So proud of them. [applause] >> Congratulations, guys. We're so glad you could make it. Item 12, comments from the audience, and we have none this evening. Item 13, review and recommendations, superintendent, other central office admin. >> Madam President, thank you. I just want to uh again recognize and get a word of thanks out to our fabulous EL team of teachers with Miss Lif, uh Miss Oberman, and Miss Ois. Thank you for the good work you do to support our kids and to create an environment where all kids can succeed. Uh
026public education is the cornerstone of democracy and I'm very proud that we have opportunities for all of our students. Thank you and congratulations. Uh board members, I do want to give a shout out and just a thank you to those uh stakeholders across the community that participated in the strategic plan retreat day. Uh we had great stakeholder uh representation and input uh over the eight hour day over at Garden City Middle School. Uh we had a number of our administration participate. We had board members participate. We had city leaders uh including uh team members from our police department, fire department, and our own garden city library with a city councilman there uh as well as students, teachers, and parents. So it was a very productive day. It was a long day, but it moved along
027very well. I'm pleased that we have uh belief statements and a revised mission and vision. And then our our next step is Saturday, November 8th. We have the employee implementation group uh to really just drill down, finalize that document and then ultimately we are on schedule. I'm happy to report to bring a uh strategic plan uh to the board for review and hopefully uh approval on Monday, December 8th. So, a lot of good work took place and I want to thank everybody who's been involved in that. Uh we had the uh input sessions certainly and then also those stakeholder surveys. So, we've and they were very impressed. Julie Kaminsky, Dr. Kaminsky, our rep from MASB, she was very impressed with the amount of feedback we received. So, we're in good shape there. Big shout out
028to our business office for the good work they did uh managing our finances and uh board members, as you know, going back to 2015, things were different, right? We were in a much different spot financially uh and with our morale, but through good work, dedication, and having the right players involved, we have come a long way for this district. And when I became superintendent, one of the things that I was adamant about was that we are going to preserve this district uh well into the future and we were going to rem uh retain our autonomy. And the only way we've been able to do that is through uh collective teamwork of everybody here uh across the district, across our collective bargaining groups, across our employee groups, and with a supportive board. So, it's something certainly
029to celebrate because who would have dreamed that we'd be looking at the the fund balance we have right now, which is a healthy fund balance and respectable. And I want to go out there again and share, you know, the community has consistently supported the district because we have delivered on things we said we were going to do. Uh we still have work to do and uh I've got years in front of me and there's still projects we're going to bring to the table and we're going to continue to focus on academic growth and expanding um and improving our facilities. So, we've got a lot to be proud of, but I want to thank the board for their support and trust over the years and certainly thank our employee groups, our parents, and our voters. And
030Steve, Brett, thank you uh to be able to work those numbers and and deliver a a budget with all of the unknowns we have. One, it's a testament to your skills in the accounting and business area, but more than that, and what I'm grateful for is your work ethic. uh you guys are here late and uh you put in a lot of good work because you believe in our mission and you believe in our kids. So know that you have my gratitude and I know you have the boards as well. Uh again, I want to thank yo Jamie's great to work with. The entire YoYo team have been great to work with. A special shout out too to our community coalition, Garden City Community Coalition. I want to thank Dr. Stan for being part of
031that Garden City community coalition. We had a couple big events last week. Um, and I want to thank uh, Commissioner Kam uh, Kinesis and um, everybody involved in the coalition for the uh, senior event that took place last Wednesday recognizing our senior citizen communities from uh, good things come in threes from Garden City, Inkster and Dearborn Heights. We had a wonderful dinner at HYP athletics in Dearborn Heights. Uh, a lot of involvement uh, from Commissioner Kinesis office and the community coalition and it was a wonderful event. Great to see some folks dressed up and just enjoying themselves with some good food. Uh board members, I do want to share that I did receive an inquiry today from our friends at WDIV. Hello, Superintendent Fischer. I'm a reporter working at a story for Monday, October 27th
032about how school districts are preparing for a pause in SNAP benefits starting next month due to the government shutdown. I'm interested in how this will affect Garden City Public Schools and what steps you are taking uh to manage and mitigate concerns with this. And I responded, thank you for the inquiry. Uh and I will share that Garden City Public Schools remains committed to ensuring that all and I capitalize all students have access to meals each school day, including both breakfast and lunch. As a school district, we've worked to proactively address issues of food insecurity. And we're proud to share that we maintained our community eligibility provision so that each enrolled student is eligible to participate in a free breakfast and lunch program. Moreover, the district hasorked with the Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeast Michigan.
033And we message and support two monthly mobile food pantry events involving gleaners in our community. We also have a school sitebased food pantry that opens twice a month to support our residents. So, they're going to cover that and pick up that uh piece uh this evening as well as what other districts are doing. So, I just wanted to share that with you. Uh we take food insecurity very seriously and we've worked hard to that and and coincidentally, perhaps no coincidence, uh food service falls under uh Mr. Wiznooki's purview. So, Steve, thanks for the good work on top of the budget with food service as well. Uh as we like to say, never a dull moment. Um board members, we did have an invite. I hope you can attend next week. We got a very special
034invite. Actually, it's a couple weeks, but the Garden City High School NHS induction on Tuesday, November 11th. That's at 6 PM. That'll be in the Garden City High School MRC. Any comments at all from our cabinet team? I do want to give a shout out to everybody that was involved in supporting the trunk or treat event. Also a community coalition event. Uh great turnout from the community and just another great way that the schools involved in multiple things to support our kids and families. Um, next regular board meeting is Monday, November 10th. I can't believe we're in a November already. Putting October in the rear view. That'll be at 7 p.m. And our location, we have an away game that'll be at Douglas 34 campus is the venue on November 10th. Madam President, that concludes
035my commentary. >> Derek, I just had just a couple quick Sure. So, yeah, you know, again, thanks for all the support from the board and from you and Stacy and everybody and, you know, especially to the business office. Um, had a little bit of turnover last year or so. Brad, I think last year at this time you've been there for like two months, maybe two months. But, you know, during all of our um transitions periods, you've been able to just kind of slide in and kind of take control of some of our vacancies and just basically allowing them to run without without hesitation, without pause. And um to have to have a member on my staff that's like that, it's just it's just so reassuring to me that I know what's going to get done.
036I know you're going to do the right thing. Um, all your work on the budget, on the the audits. Um, part of my job is just to make sure everything keeps moving up there. You know, there's a five or six person team up there. A lot of different components. As Dererick mentioned, it's food service, it's um, you know, accounts payable, it's benefits, it's, you know, payroll. And just I just have to make sure things keep moving. And, you know, to have um, a B a member like Brett on the team is, it makes it makes my life a lot easier. Um, these jobs aren't easy. Um they're not easy. Um I I often wake up in the middle of the night thinking about things as I'm sure [clears throat] Jared does. You know, you there's
037there's no you know I always say you know Friday night like that's just one day closer to Monday. It's about Friday [laughter] >> and you know there's there's truth to that because you just you know to have the roles like this you can't have an off switch. You always have to be thinking and it's um again to have a member like you it's it's a it's a blessing. So thank you for all your work. Thank you for all your um you know your hard work and um you know things you've taught me. I mean it's you know your your knowledge and things especially the special ed has been um very enlightening and again it's it's a pleasure to have a member on the team and the business office team. So thank you again for all
038your hard work. So thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay. Item 14 review and recommendations members of the board. Anyone have Miss Childress? I don't know. >> Can't tell. There's no light. >> Okay, I have a light. [laughter] >> The light bulb went on. >> There you go. Thanks, Mrs. Robie. I want to start out by giving props again to Steve and Brett. You guys phenomenal. Seriously, I I can't even just in my small brain budgeting for my house get as close as y'all did. You did awesome. I want to talk a little bit about um five of the seven of us went to the MASB conference this past weekend and it was just so refreshing to not only sit down and share a meal with my fellow board members but just to share
039their lives. We get together, we talk schoolboard stuff and this was a chance for us to get to know each other more on a personal level and I really really enjoyed that. Um, as far as the conference, I would have to say the thing that I took home and enjoyed the most was the classes on AI. At one point in the conference, someone said, "Tradition is peer pressure from dead people." And it made sense to me and it made me think that I am so petrified of AI. But after taking this one particular course where they showed you how school AI worked for schoolboard members, I'm kind of looking forward to playing around with it. So, thank you all who was able to be there that if you weren't able to be there, we missed
040you. And I think that's all I have. Anyone else? >> President Rocky. >> So again, this year I feel like a broken record. I say it every year, but fantastic, fantastic job. As someone who has worked at used to work in audits, I know how tedious they can be and to come with 1% every year is amazing. I I at the conference, I too was at the conference and when I see people from other districts that I' I've gotten over the years, they say, "How's Garden City?" I'm like, "I don't want to knock on someone, but we're doing well." And we're doing well because we have people in the right places who have a good handle on things. Um, and thank you for that. Thank you for staying up on things and current um on
041on the budgets and I know you lose a lot of sleep. You have to um over our state and our federal, but you do a great job and we respect you guys and we appreciate you guys. Uh, the conference was terrific. Um, I too an old lady has to learn some new tricks. So, I took the AI courses and I'm glad I did. Um, we learned a lot about how as board members we can use it um for getting reports, to get talking points, to get a pulse on what's happening in the community. Um, it was it was really good. Um, also um very informative information for board members, districts, and municipalities um on what's happening at the state level with the budgets um for school districts in particular. Um it was really informative letting
042us know um I spoke to um people afterwards as well. Um but the the big presentation was you know the the news of the big biggest per people funding ever and then the other shoe drop because they let us know all the things that they stopped funding that we still have to pay for. Um so they just said you know it's great celebrate it but make sure we're being fiscally responsible with it because it's not all it looks like it's going to be. we still have all of these expenses to pay that are no longer being funded. Um it was rolled into per pupil funding. Um and you know again I think it's really important that as community members, as staff, as board members that we are reaching out to our elected officials at the
043state level and letting them know how it is affecting us because it is going to affect us as a district. Um you know it will. We appreciate them fighting for us those that are. Um and uh also um they kind of gave us a heads up on bills um that may be coming down the pike and we call them unfunded mandates because they are they won't come with funding attached. So it was it was really informative. I walked away kind of my lot and swinging through my mind but I'm really glad I went. I'm really glad I went with those other board members who could go. I I think we got a lot out of it and we enjoyed our time up there. And Traverse City was absolutely beautiful. >> Um the leaves were incredible.
044So, uh, it was a good we got. That's it. Anyone else? Okay. Item 15, adjournment. >> All right. Madam President, >> Mrs. Rocky, >> I move that we adjourn. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, we stand and adjourn. Thank you everyone for coming.