001[Music] We're going to go ahead and get started for if everyone could rise for the >> pledge. 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. >> Okay, this is our August 25th, 2025 board meeting. Uh, let the record show all members are in attendance with the exception of Scott George. Is everyone okay with the agenda? Do we have any communications? >> Okay, we will move on to our board committee updates starting with finance committee. Mrs. Saunders. >> Thank you, Madam President. Um, present in the finance committee tonight. Mr. Mr. Mallaloy and Miss Rafie they sorry brain fade um discussed that most of the vendors were very happy with the transition into the AC a payments
002and that is going well. A lot of the vendors are turning their stuff in on time. Um our food service spendown is still being done. Uh the new high school serving line is going to uh take care of a good chunk of that for this year. Um looking into a new grant opportunity that would afford some funding for some new equipment and some of the other schools. Our sinking fund project spending right now for this year is going to be uh the two projects for the middle school athletic complex. uh the roof repairs for lather and Donnelly street repairs. Um Mr. Wasnki reported that uh the audit prep is going well and that's projected to begin in two to three weeks and he did let us know that they're projecting increases regardless of the provider
003for health insurance renew renewals for 2026 and they are currently working on options with the uh representatives and that's it. Thank you. Policy committee, Mrs. Bterall. Yep. >> The policy uh committee met this evening as well. Um in attendance was Miss Childris, Miss Picassio, Dr. Stan, and myself. And um we were received some communication from Miller Johnson for some potential changes to some administrative regulations and um a couple policy changes, small. Um we did review those tonight. Um we're going to discuss it a little bit further, get a little bit more clarification on the policy change um recommendation um for the employee salary schedules. Um and then we're going to discuss it at our next board meeting or our next committee meeting. Um but other than that, that's all we really talked about this evening.
004Thank you. Item eight, comments from the audience focused on today's agenda, and we have none. Item nine, approval of the general consent agenda items. A, organizational and regular meeting minutes of July 28th, 2025. B, building committee minutes of July 28th, 2025. C, curriculum committee minutes of July 28th, 2025. And D, bills payable. A motion is in order. >> Support. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Item 10, new business. A, human resource report. Mrs. Williamson. Thank you, Madame President. This evening's human resources report reflects the onboarding of 13 new staff members, the rehiring of two staff members, and the resignation of eight staff members. In addition, we have one non-disciplinary termination that was processed for an employee who has been on leave since March 5th of 2021 due to an injury
005not sustained um during her work with Garden City Public Schools. Um, we also have one paraprofessional who will be completing her apprenticeship as a student teacher through talent together. Thus, she will need to take a leave of absence from the GCISS. Then finally, we have one GCEA member from Cambridge who was awarded a position at the middle school. So that's a change as well. So if there are no questions, it is my recommendation at this time to accept the report as presented. >> Motion is in order. So move support. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Item 11, comments from the audience. And again, we have none. Item 12, review and recommendations. Superintendent, other central office administrators. >> Madame President, thank you. Uh, first up, would like to request a close
006session for purpose of quarterly update and review of progress on mutually developed goals. Motion is in order. >> So, >> any discussion? Kathy, may we have a roll call vote? >> Lynette Childress. >> Hi, >> Chase Mallaloy. >> Hi, >> Jill Bterbaw. >> Hi, >> Margie Sanders. >> Hi, >> Sarah Rafie. >> Hi, >> Jamie Picassio. >> All right, thank you for that. Um, excited for the start of the school year. It's hard to believe that we're putting summer 2025 in the books, but uh all good things must come to an end. Uh Garden City will welcome students back with a half day for all buildings on Tuesday, September 2nd. Uh that is a day after Labor Day. Uh so we are well prepared and looking forward to welcoming our students back on September 2nd.
007Another item we have, we have a uh bounceback reminder. We're looking forward for sort of that annual unofficial start of the school year with our bounceback. That's this coming Thursday, just a couple days away. Thursday, August 28th from 4 to 7:00 p.m. at Memorial. Happy to host there. Got a lot of community agencies and departments um and our service groups that will be attending. So, we're looking forward for another uh great day. Weather will be cooperative and uh it'll be a nice night out at Memorial. So, uh, hope to see board members there. Uh, in regard of the school budget, no secret, sadly, we still do not have our school aid budget. Uh, statutoily, uh, the Michigan legislature had an obligation uh, to pass and deliver a school budget by July 1. As we know,
008July 1 has come and gone. August one has come and gone, and September 1st will quickly be upon us. Fortunately, with with fund equity and uh some other dollars, we will be able to continue operate. We will be able to uh continue to make payroll. Uh but for those of you who were not in finance committee or not finance committee members, the expectation is we will hopefully receive our school aid dollars on October 20th as scheduled. Um, and you know, I do work with the K12 Alliance, um, vice president this year and past president of Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, two advoc advocacy groups for public ed. So, we're continuing to network and work with those members of the legislature who are cooperative and receptive, and hopefully I'll have an update for you in the
009next two weeks or so, but we are hopeful we will have a budget in place prior to the due date of that first school aid payment on October 20th. Right. We can keep our fingers crossed. Um, I will be putting an update out to the community later this week. I will also include an update on our community el eligibility uh provision for district-wide free breakfast and free lunch. As a school district, we're proud we're going to continue to offer free breakfast and free lunch for our students for the 2526 school year. Uh, our eligibility uh comes from the FDA. a lion share of those dollars to fund that programming with a small portion coming from the state. Uh so the FDA funding is still in place. So we're going to continue with our free breakfast
010and lunch programming. If we wind up with a shortfall from the state, we'll use food service spin down dollars to cover that difference. So um you know, I've talked with Mr. Rnooki at length and we know uh philosophically and uh also research uh based decisions are important and we're committed to making sure our kids are well fed. A couple updates on sinking fund projects. I know the community is very excited that Donley Street is open and complete. So the Donley Street easement uh driveway if you will is complete and we have uh that smooth surface now there that is school district property. The cement prop area there has been resurfaced that connection between Radcliffe and Wildwood. Uh so the speed bumps were painted on Friday and uh that is officially complete that job. Lather's roof
011uh we will be working on the punch list items but the Lather's roof renovation is complete. Uh they've got a bit of flashing to finish a bit of trim work on the south side of the building. But overall we're looking great at Lathers. Uh Garden City Middle School athletic field looking forward to completing phase one. We're about 95% done with phase one. We've got some fencing items to uh tweak and finish. Um but overall, we're in pretty good shape there. We need to get it striped uh once we do some site work and maybe do another reeding or over seating on that, but we're excited to open up that and uh have another resource uh for our student athletes. Couple of awards I want to reflect on as a reminder to the board. Uh, we've
012got a great award and worthy recognition for Miss Lynette Childress, recipient of the MASB President's Award. And MASB executive director along with officials from MASB, Michigan Association of School Boards will be in town here in Garden City on Wednesday, this coming Wednesday. They've had to make an adjustment to the time. We've moved from 12:30 now evidently to 1:30. Kathy, I'm going to ask you to give me a reminder or maybe you can contact MASB. We want to lock them in and make sure that that is indeed the time. I know they they're visiting districts on Wednesday. Uh and we understand that there can be delays, but if you wouldn't mind maybe we make a conver uh confirmation with them with that 1:30 time. So Lynette, if you can be here in person uh barring any
013changes to MASB's schedule and Mr. Wroa's schedule, we'd like to have you here in the boardroom at 1:30 uh p.m. this coming Wednesday to receive that president's award. And certainly that invite is to all any any board members who who can who can attend. Yes. Welld deserved. Uh also want to give a shout out to the business office and Mr. Wiznooki in particular and Brett Mik our accountant. They have been recognized uh as recently as last month with the Mazelle Cypriano award. And that Cypriano award uh recognizes uh proper controls in business office, proper controls in place for risk management, insurance claims and excellence in transportation. Uh only five recipients this year, Berkeley Public Schools, Dearborn Public Schools, Dexter Public Schools, Redford Union School District, and Garden City Public Schools. This is the first time
014we've received that award, so congratulations to the business office. Uh let me see. Do we have Oh, let's talk about strategic plan. We're happy to host MASB. I will be making announcements to staff on Wednesday. Uh you have that initial calendar put out in the Friday's board memo regarding the strategic planning process with our MASB consultant, Miss Julie Kamiski. Um so we were working on the district strategic plan with a goal of having a draft document for board approval at the December 8th board meeting. That is our last board meeting of the 2025 calendar year. So, uh, correspondents will go out to student groups, staff, community, and we have a schedule that'll go out, I'll get that out later this week, uh, for those stakeholder input sessions. Uh, then there will also be a retreat
015day um, in October. And then a final day for the implementation and that'll be uh for key district staff, key administrators and teacher leaders for that implementation meeting. And then we'll go ahead and bring that document, that revised document, updated document to the board at December 8th. So the community can look forward to an email. There'll also be a district-wide survey that'll go out to all stakeholders uh that will mirror the questions asked in those stakeholder input sessions. So for some reason folks can attend a stakeholder input session, they're welcome to provide input directly through that survey. They'll crush that data, share that data with us. We'll work on that strategic plan um retreat day. That's a Saturday in October. And then uh we will, like I said, we'll bring that draft document to the
016board on December 8th for approval and update the district strategic plan. So sort of give us a mission and vision for the next five to six years for the district. Uh, let me see. I believe that's going to conclude my comments. Any comments at all from the cabinet team tonight. Dr. Stan. >> Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Just take a moment to to say how excited I am for the start of school. It always feels like a massive relief when the instructional staff come back to school. It's been a lonely summer. Uh, and there are two unsung heroes that I wanted to recognize. Uh Katie Lewis and Michelle Rudder have been through the summer grinding the work of enrollment, back to school registration, school of choice, the drops and ads. It's really busy work. Really kind
017of stepped it up. It's our last week and uh they could use a nice shot in the arm. If you see them, say thank you to them. Recognize their good work. uh because it's really they're they've been soldiers on this effort and we do this every year but man it feels like a new year like the first time every time we do it. Yeah. So thank you for that. Any other cab member comments? I want to give a shout out uh to Mr. English and the great work he did with facilitating uh teacher and new staff professional development and it's just very impressive with the work that's taken place including the the work for the AI committee and implementation of our uh AI tools but uh all in all I mean I I I don't
018think we could have had a better sessions sessions for our newly hired staff. Kevin I'm going to put you on the spot would you give us a couple highlights from that teacher professional development this year? Um yeah, so uh we started off uh on Thursday with our brand new teachers year one. Um so we we housed them here. Um had warm introductions from uh nearly every cabinet member. Uh did a tour of the district. Enjoyed a pizza bread from Villa. Um and then came back to begin uh some CPR training uh in preparation because it is state law that requires uh new teachers to uh be CPR certified. And then on Friday and Monday, uh we continue that tradition of having our mini conference. Uh so four sessions each day that staff could choose from
019uh ranging from everything from um SCOP strategies, so learning to to support our English learners to CPR to sessions on artificial intelligence and AI. Uh from Brisk and school AI, two of the tools that we will be using and implementing this school year. um to uh a session on evaluations which uh Miss Williamson and I uh conducted and then uh a reading strategies session to traumain informed practices. Uh so a little bit of everything. Uh as well as a session Dr. Shaka led on uh safety assessment um and risk reporting. Uh so a little bit of everything. Um we're looking forward to continue to adding adding to our offerings uh for staff uh you know as as years go on. Kevin, thank you. And I appreciate your nimleness with uh with a quick response for
020being put on the spot. Well done. That'll be reflected positively in your evaluation. Uh I also want to invite and remind the board that our staff opening day is this Wednesday, uh October 27th at 8:30 in Oly auditorium. Very excited to host this year's keynote speaker, Miss Blair Braverman. uh she is an idiot racer and author and uh her speaking uh I would be giving her a gross injustice to say it's entirely it's it's very inspirational and moving. I mean, it's just uh it'll be a top-notch hour presentation uh and sharing from her. And what she will do is she will draw analogies from literally her life on the trail uh being a musher and and working a dog sled team talking about leadership and how teachers can inspire leadership uh from their students, how
021principles can inspire leadership from their teachers, and how district leaders can inspire leadership from their building leaders. So, we're excited to host Blair. Uh, we'll also then honor years of service from staff. We'll welcome new staff. I'll give an update on some of our projects. And as of like 6:15 this evening, I confirmed that we will also welcome our two new facility dogs for a a brief preview. They're still in training, but our facility dogs that will be starting with us in January of 26 uh will be on site uh to meet staff and greet staff. Uh we'll have them there around 11:00 a.m. in Olyri. So we'll welcome Blark and Onyx. They are litter mates and they are still very much in training uh with the facility up in Chesning, Michigan. That is the
022unleash dog training. So, we're going to be excited to bring them to the district and have this opportunity for another resource for for students. Yeah. And as a dog lover, I'm very excited about this. So, all right. And I think that'll conclude my comments. Thank you. Item 13, review and recommendations. Members of the board, does anyone have anything? Okay. Um at this time we are going to take a short recess to go into closed session for quarterly update. Okay we are back moving on to item 14 adjournment. >> Madam President >> Mrs. Rocky >> I move that we adjourn. >> Is there support? >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay. Thank you everyone. >> Meeting is adjourned. Relax. Come on.