001Call the meeting to order. You can all rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. Can we do a roll call, please? You bet. Wonder gem here. Klein. Oh, nope. That's not right. It's an old one. Yeah. Campbell got to update that. Stafis here. Guardian here. Wait. Okay. Hold on a second. Van here. Dan here. Hi here. All right. Thank you. Got a form. Please note as a courtesy of members of the audience and the board of education, please silence your cell phone. Uh public will only be able to speak uh during public comment if signed up. Do we have any forms, Mr. Merkel?
002No, we do not. Thank you. All right. First order of business is approval of agenda. Can I get a motion? All right. All those in favor? Opposed? Passes. Second item of business. We have a ceremonial Ulta office for our new member, Amy Campbell. Yes. So, Amy Campbell, it's her very first board meeting here with us at Granville Public Schools. Very excited to have Amy. of English would raise your right hand and please repeat after me. I do solemnly swear or affirm I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this state and the Constitution of this state and that I will faithfully discharge the duties and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of
003the office of member of of the office of member of the board of education of Greenville public schools. the board of education of Granville Public Schools. Kent and Ottawa counties, Michigan. Kent and Ottawa counties, Michigan. According to the best of my ability. According to the best of my ability. Welcome. All right. And welcome Thank you. Yes. All right. Next item is the reports agenda. The board members report. Joe, you want to start? Sure. Show Amy how it works. I was I wasn't going to put her on the spot. So So uh a lot's happening. It's been a while. So I just got a couple of things. Uh the 25th of March was the Freedom Rider um assembly, I guess. Uh which was pretty cool uh to see and observe. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the
004whole thing, but I caught the majority of it. Uh, that was awesome. Uh, I did a little spring breaking in Florida. While I was there, I caught a conference in Orlando, uh, for work, and it has to do with here as well, and it has to do with safety and security. So, um, the keynote speaker's name was John Michael Keys. He is the father of a young girl that was murdered in a school shooting in Colorado in 2006. Um, and it was interesting to listen to him talk about how resilient uh the community and the families were and his family was at that time and the negotiator that was on that scene gave her side. So, they switched as they were talking. It was pretty awesome to see both sides of that story. Um but
005the revival of that is that it sparked what we currently have today uh through I love you guys our standard response protocol which is about to be law here. Um it means that we will do the same standard responses to emergencies that every other school district will across the state of Michigan. So it was really cool to participate in that. That's it sir. Uhhuh. Good. Thank you. Amy, do you have anything? Yes, I do. All right. Fantastic. First off, thank you uh for everyone, the administration, the community, all the board members for being so welcoming and answering lots of my questions as I sure they will uh continue to occur. But thank you. I realize that this was an atypical process for somebody being placed on the school board. Um, I hope that in time
006people and the community and board members will get to know me. Um, and I'm excited to serve. Um, so thank you very much. Um, it was an honor to be selected for this. Um, I had the opportunity to attend a an event at that was co-sponsored by Granville Public Schools and KDL. Um, this was a book discussion around the anxious generation. Um, and we had several of our um, social workers um, attend and facilitate this along with parents. Um, and it was great. I, it was a nice opportunity for parents to talk with both our social workers but also other parents on how do you navigate social media, phone use, electronics, parenting. Um, so I thought it it was a very nice opportunity for parents and for the community to connect. Um, I also uh
007was attended the VIP and me dance at Cummings Elementary with my son. Um, and a good time was had by all. It was um great time. Those events are always fun, but um I look forward to doing more things in the future. Great. Thank you very much, Bob. No report. Thank you, Sally. Sure. Um, I also attended the Freedom Rider presentation and that was just inspiring, amazing, and it was so cool that two really outstanding young students are the ones that pretty much organized bringing um this gentleman to our school district to make his presentation. And I think he really made history and the facts of history very real and pertinent to their lives. So, that was really cool. Had a lot of chance. Uh Brett and Amy and I spent some time reading together
008at uh Central Elementary and other various schools for March's reading month. Um I was able to go to um Century Park when we just had the author Terry Mo there. Um that was a collaboration with KDL here in Granville and she's was an amazing presenter. got kids to understand the process of how a book is written, the illustrations are created, how sometimes it takes literally years and years for a book to be published. Um, but then showed them some of the tricks of her trade as an artist. She's a Calicott winner and um, it was just a true honor and privilege to do that and uh, yeah, so it's been a really good productive time here in Granville schools for me. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Amy. Sure. Um I also heard a lot about
009the anxious generation presentation. I was very sad I couldn't attend that. We were at a lacrosse game, but um a lot of really great information, especially from school psychology, uh work that we're doing in the buildings also and conversations we're having about phone use and all of that stuff and the freedom writer. Um those are great. We have the uh plays coming up this weekend, correct? So the Adams family, if you haven't gotten your tickets, get them. It looks like it's going to be so much fun. Um, I would like to welcome Amy also. Um, we got to have lunch together the other day and she's not kidding. She's lot lots and lots of awesome questions coming through. So, um, I would expect to have a whole bunch of really cool stuff going on there.
010We had our young musicians and singers um, at the White Caps game. Great job. They had a blast. All those parents were excited. The Robo-Dogs have been inviting more people to sign up for their autonomous robot combat competition. So, battle bots basically, which I think is so much fun. Um, uh, we have some fundraisers going on for band. So, if you know band kid, I'll sell you some greenhouse stuff. Um, sports are in full swing. We have lacrosse. Everything's really busy. It's so much fun. Like, I know that Brent always every single spring we're like, "Oh, isn't it so cool? They've all come out with their little, you know, covered up legs and shorts now and they're all ready to go. We have a ton of our um track and field kids out constantly doing
011stuff. I think we have the most um pole vault kids we've ever had, so that's exciting. Um it's nice seeing all the seniors preparing for their open houses and getting ready for that. And then um I think our four Oakstown um amazing shake students are here today and man I cannot wait to hear their presentation. I'm so proud of them. So good job ladies. Good job. So that's all I've got. All right. All right. Um seems like forever ago, but had an opportunity to read at Central and at East Elementary. It was cool. Really cool for me at East because that's where I went. So the first classroom I read in was my first grade classroom and the second class was my third grade classroom. And then it was crazy to think my parents went
012to that school. So they were there in the ' 50s in the same in the same classrooms. And then how much it's different cuz back then I would just walk and go to my grandparents for lunchtime and didn't have to check out or anything like that. Could just walk and leave and come back. But do that now. Yeah. Yeah. You can't do that now. Um, but I mean how amazing the teachers are are there. I mean they are special people. I enjoy my time there, but that wouldn't be for me to be there the whole day with with first and third graders. But it's amazing, you know, the job that they do. And then uh just been around baseball and lacrosse, walking around the high school, the different events going on. And then also for
013all the parents and students out here, the power of AP classes here at Granville, the opportunity that you have. My son took part in that. So, he's graduating from Grand Valley now in three years just because of the AP credits that he had. And my second son is on track for that, too. So, just when you get to the high school, take advantage of your AP classes. That's all I've got. Yeah. Good. Thank you. Um, thank you everybody uh for your sharing everything. A lot of good stuff going on. Yeah, the Freedom Rider. Touch on that. I know a lot of people have, but it was just a really cool experience. This is a gentleman that was that uh was from Chicagoland area became a um a member of the freedom writers uh during the
014social movement in the gosh I get the dates wrong but 50s50s right um but a gentleman was 88 years old Richard Gleason is his name and he happens to now reside here in West Michigan right off Lake Michigan Drive at Covenant Village he and his wife reside there and it was really he he did a really nice job of of giving a speech um and the thing I think that was that was neat for me was at the end so many of these kids who are sophomores in high school, because I think there was only two sophomores in the entire school that opted out of going to it. Every other sophomore in the in the high school went to it. There were so many kids that lined up to get pictures with him, right? Here's
015this 88-year-old guy, right? And you think, okay, what do these 16 16 year olds, you know, have in common with this guy, but they were just genuinely, you know, wanting to shake his hand and meet him. And some of them didn't even want pictures. They just wanted to go up. and the way he was able to connect with a lot of those kids. Um and and some of them, like I said, didn't even want a picture, but they just wanted to talk to him and get some words of encouragement uh from him um was really cool. It was really cool to see. So, um and I I know Joe, you know, actually, you know, talked to a couple of the organizers and even said, "Hey, maybe this is something we can did over Wyoming, right?"
016Um so, and and I know uh Mr. Gleason or Reverend Gleon's very much open to that. So, um really would like to to do more of that if he could. So, um so thank you for all those who were able to support that. I know it wasn't there in the middle of the day. So, I appreciate, you know, the support there for that. Um, also got a go chance to go to one of the boys lacrosse games. Um, got to boys tennis. And boys, I don't I didn't realize they were playing tennis, but they're playing tennis now, uh, this spring as well. Uh, um, then also part of a girls soccer game. We got to winter wins that was held at Granville here. Um, that was a really cool event. I' never been to one
017of those before. All the band stuff we do, never been to winter wins. Got to one of those this year. Um, yeah, looking forward to the Adams family. Um, that's going to be fun this weekend. Um, and just, you know, I'm gonna ask a a favor everybody. It's a busy time of year. Um, I've got a senior. Um, so a lot going on, you know, for everybody when it comes to all the year-end stuff with all the different uh um awards nights and everything else that's going on. So, uh, be patient with our staff, be patient with our teachers. They've got a lot going on in the classroom, but a lot of stuff outside the classroom as well. So, um, if everyone just, you know, give them a little break here as we wrap towards
018the end. And plus, you guys know your kids as well, right? they're jumping and ready to get out of the classroom as quickly as they can. So, it's it's everything to keep them focused for the uh the hours we have them at school. So, uh appreciate uh everything everyone's doing here as we wrap up the end of the year. Um and that's all I have. So, okay, Roger, you know, you got a couple things. I have a lot. Yes. Uh first starting out, uh just want to say uh congratulations to everyone involved. of course all the community with our bond um our people, our architect, our construction manager, all the hard work um our staff put in. But uh we won an outstanding design award from American School and University. Uh they have an educational
019interiors uh showcase edition and they sent us a plaque. Um we uh received an award for the best common areas within a building and some of those common areas uh include a lot of the uh breakout areas for students, the robotics center and how that's laid out with um one of our gyms there and so on. So at the middle school at the middle school yes the middle school and robotics competition center combined. So, just want to say uh kudos to everyone cuz I know everyone was involved in that in some way, shape or form. So, this plaque will be at the middle school. Uh also would like to congratulate Mr. Joe Brazil. We found out late Friday night. Uh Joel won the division 2 hockey coach of the year in the state of Michigan.
020Uh they had a wonderful wonderful season and he's just an amazing human being. So, congratulations to Joel. Um, he is it's very welld deserved. Uh, and now for the best part, my favorite part of my report, we have some amazing students here to showcase some of the great things that have been going on. We're going to start out with Central Elementary. So, Mr. Delme, are you here? Yes. How you doing, sir? Come on up. You guys come up here. Great. All right. So, what I have in front of you guys here, come over here. Yes. Perfect. This is our student council. These are all of our kids we have from first through fourth grade. It's a little bit of adjustment of course because we don't have sixth grade anymore and I forget about that. Oops.
021Sorry. Um, and I want to have Mrs. Marshall who is our student council adviser. So, um, just want to share a little bit about what our student council does. So, I'm not going to do a whole lot of things. These guys are going to share a little bit what they love about it and what they do. Um, but just to give you an idea how we do student council, we have two students from our third grade classroom and our fourth grade classroom each. So, there's four there. And then we have one student from our each of our first grade classrooms and one from each of our second grade. Um, our teachers then work with the kids as far as finding our representatives. So, kids volunteer in the classroom. They write a letter as to why
022they want to be on student council. They speak to their classroom as to why they want them to vote for them. They do a vote and teachers support that. So that's kind of our process. And these guys are our student council members that do a lot for our building. So I'm going to share a little bit about what they do. And these guys are going to share those things, too. Okay. Can you guys do me a favor? Come on over here cuz we're going to go right here so all the board can see as well. Come on this way. Come on this way. Keep coming guys. Keep coming. Come on. You got lots of room. There we go. Good deal. And then parents, we'll get pictures too if you want. We'll get them back up
023there. Get a nice little picture. So, um, so here we go. We're going to share a little bit like what our student council does. So, who wants to share about our announcements and welcoming? Who did we have? I was going to share that. Is that you, Everett? All right, Everett. Go ahead, buddy. You got it, brother. Um, for announcements and welcoming, we have Come on out here when you're speaking. Come on out this way. There you go. Right there. Perfect. Perfect. That's good. So for our announcements and welcoming two kids I think a pair of first grader maybe a pair of two kids from two different classes and two go to the doors and hold them up and like welcome our students and give them high fives and hold the doors open and for announcements
024two kids come down like in the picture. Um, we announced like our lunches and people's birthdays. So, the date is and the pledge and that's all I got. Yeah. And they have a great joke always at the end, right guys? There's always a good joke. Right after the pledge, they do a joke, which is the biggest hit of all of it. Um, all right. So, what we got next here? The kindest tree. Birthday notes on lockers. Who is that? You, Fiona? Go ahead. Do you want to share a kiddo? Every time it's someone's birthday, we write a note and stick it on their locker just to make them feel special cuz it's their birthday. And our kindest treat is whenever someone sees something will someone do everything kind like hold the door or stuff like
025that. They write it down on a leaf that's in our classrooms and the I think the outside teachers have some too. You write it down and then stick it on the tree outside the classrooms and then the office. Yeah. And I I want to know like you check out like on the bottom it says heart student council when they put these on those there. So every day our kids look forward to seeing happy birthday signs on their lockers. So it's pretty cool stuff. Nice job. You guys are awesome. Who's got this one? I think it was Wyatt. Does somebody else want to jump in? He's not here. You want me to do it? All right. You want Ezra, you got it or you want me to do it? All right, I got it. So, no
026worries. No worries. So, pumpkin carving contest in the fall. We do a pumpkin carving contest. So, families and kids uh at home uh create their pumpkins and they bring them in and we do a vote for the school. All the kids vote throughout the day and teachers. Um and and again, I say Mrs. Marshall. She didn't want to speak because it was kind of intimidating to her, but uh she helps organize all these things. So, thank you to Mrs. Marshall for doing an amazing job with that, but uh it's a pretty fun event. We actually um put it down the hallway and it it's it stretches out pretty far. All those pumpkins that come in, right, guys? It's pretty cool to see all those. Yeah. So, we do that in the fall. And then there's
027a couple big hitters. Who Who's here? Who's got this? Is it Mason and she does the first? All right. Go ahead. You got it, sister. food drive. Um, so everybody collects food and puts them and puts the canned food and conditioner and soap and stuff in the boxes outside their classroom. And then every week, two student council members count all the food with Mrs. Marshall and then we put that in her classroom. And at the end of the drive, we count up who classroom has the most food or beer or stuff like that. and they get like a pizza party or movie night. So, it just really encourages people to donate their stuff. Mhm. Yeah. You got the rest, Mason. All right, brother. So, we make posters for spirit day and we just tell people
028like when and what the spirit day is and make also Christmas parties and we tell people what the Lord's giving. So, Like spirit days, like dress up days, right? Like homecoming and and like when you guys did dress like Mr. Gal day. Yeah. On April Fools, you guys did it and I did not know about it and they all dressed like me. I realized how predictable I am. All right. Um and then the winter gear drive. I don't know if they mentioned, but that's something we did this year kind of cool. Mrs. Marshall's idea because every year during uh winter time, it's getting enough snow pants and stuff for our kiddos. So having those are super helpful. Anybody who's been in a school knows how valuable those extra snow pants are and stuff for us.
029So, um, and of course hats and gloves. So, I'm going to ask you guys now just to share and I'm going to kind of divide it up. So, Sage, can you share me one thing that you've learned from student council this year? Um, one thing that I learned from student council is that like when you hold the doors, like when people come in from student council, when I was in first grade, I thought you just like push the doors and then and then and then it let it partially close and then the other person does it. But but now I know that or someone just like holds it up and like volunteers. But now I know that the student council people hold it open for them. Awesome. And do you like holding the doors in
030the morning? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you guys have competitions. Who gets more high fives, don't you? Mila, what do you like most about student council, kiddo? That you can do fun events. What's that? That you can do fun events. You get to do fun events. Yeah, it is pretty cool. Ezra, what's thing that you've learned from one thing you learned? I love the announcements. It's really fun. What's so fun about it? What's your favorite part? Telling the joke. Telling the joke. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Also the pledge. Also the pledge. Yeah. It's pretty cool, huh? We got flags throughout the building. So, we get to do it all through the hall. Usually, it's kind of funny cuz we do it right away in the morning, so people are still kind of coming in. Everybody's right in
031the hall. So, you see some in the hall, some in the classrooms. It's pretty cool. But then the joke is the best part cuz when they say that, everybody kind of giggles. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Paul, what do you like most about student council? Uh, I like doing the announcements. You like doing the announcements as well? Do you guys like talking on the phone? No. Like doing that announcement part when your voices throughout the whole school. If you didn't catch that strangers. Okay. What's that? I don't like talking to strangers. Yeah. Well, you guys do an awesome job. So, you guys do an awesome job. So anyway, I just want to say in front of all of our Borelli's people, thank you guys for being leaders in our school because you do understand that
032the first voice that people here in our school is yours. You know that that's pretty cool. So you guys do awesome job leading. I really appreciate all the time you put in. Thank you, Mrs. Marshall, for all of your work as well. But I just want to share what our student council does. Thank you so much. Next is Cummings Elementary. I see them in the back. Please come forward. [Music] Uh good evening. Uh thank you for having me. My name is Alan Basker. I have the privilege privilege of serving at Cummings Elementary this year and I bring with me some incredible incredible young people. um you're going to hear about them in a second, but um so to kind of recap, I I started in July and I came and I met with our building
033leadership team and we talked about our priorities. We talked about things that are important and first and foremost is safety, right? Everything that has we every decision we make has to be centered around safety. And one of the concepts um that we were floating around was how do we do this uh world without fifth and sixth graders? At Cummings, we relied on them for safety. We relied on them for a variety of different uh activities in the school. And through those conversations um a topic of bus buddies popped up of how do we help transition our youngest littlest kids who have never been in school before. How do we get them from their classroom to the right bus at the right time safely? Um and that is an undertaking that um as as a father
034myself makes me anxious, right? Um and so we as and I this is a building leadership team and our amazing teachers Miss Morlo stepped up and said we're going to develop this system um to ensure that we are going to have our fourth graders who although 10 years old maybe 11 now yeah 10 10 and nine uh young people be ready to go. And so I think it was the first or second day of school um we did a vetting process. We helped make sure that we did all the training to make sure all the students were ready to go. Um, and I think by the like the second week of school when we were full days for everybody, we were ready to go with this program. Um, and we watched from afar, well, I
035had my hands in it just make sure everything went smoothly, but we watched this process happen extremely smoothly. Um, and that spark was lit that that we have an incredible group of kids um, able to provide various different engagement opportunities for the kids. Um, and so through that, we started with bus buddies, it grew to breakfast buddy. We have a new we need a new adjective. So, just to give you a heads up, we have breakfast buddies, bus buddies, lunch helpers, and cone crew. Um, so what that looks like, I'll give you a quick description. I have two videos um to show the kids and a couple pictures and then you guys can answer question or ask questions of these young people. But, um, our bus buddies, like I mentioned, they help get the kids
036there um in the afternoon, make sure they get to the right spot. our breakfast buddies. We identified that um our youngest students eat lunch in the caf or eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Um and opening milks is not as easy as what it appears. Um so we have some breakfast buddies who help facilitate positive conversation, a welcoming environment. Um and obviously help with some of those needs that happen. We know it's the same thing with our lunch. Um we have uh close to well we do have 100 young fives and kindergarters in our lunchroom. We have some amazing lunch staff who make sure that everyone gets a warm meal and it's tasty. Um, but to get around to every single need is a real challenge. And so I pose that to our fourth grade team
037and said, "Hey, help me out here." Um, and so some of those folks even give up their lunch and or give up their recess. They don't give up lunch, give up their recess to help in this this role. And then um, I think it was about November, uh, my friend Case watched me chase my tail and set up cones every every day and pick up the signs and make sure everything was there. Um, and I don't know if it's your idea or my idea, but either way, we found an idea that um, we were going to go um, so Case and and a buddy help set up all the stuff. And so if you watch our dismissal, you see two little kids, not little, you guys, two young young men run by and pick up
038all the things. Just as a very thorough process to make sure everybody gets to the right spot. So, kind of fun thing. So, let me put this to the video a second. This will help. They'll introduce themselves first. My name is Jacob and I'm a lunch buddy. Um, my name is Kinsley and I am a reading buddy and a breakfast buddy. My name is Noah Kennawazic. Um, my student role is being a lunch buddy. Is Isabella and I am a bus buddy. Is that you guys want to say your first name and what grade you're in? Sure. Jacob, your first name. You said sure. Hi. You're going to talk to them and you're going to say your name, grade, and what you do. Um, my name is Jacob Hop and I'm going to put I'm
039in fourth grade. Nice. Awesome. Cool. And you have a great shirt on. Yes. My name is No. Hello, my name is Noah and uh I'm in my name and I'm in fourth grade and I didn't think you're left. My name is Kinsley and I'm a breakfast buddy and um a lunch hopper. That sounds great. Um, so I'm going to try playing the video, see if we can get the sound. Um, uh, so I apologize. I just record this on my phone in my office. Um, but asking them what kind of impact they have helps me just like interact with the kids and like I notice them. I think it's helped me throughout just like I think it's helping me like know more kids and it's like I know that I don't see them like anywhere
040but the mornings and stuff but it's still like fun to see them in the halls and like cuz they're so like tiny and cute and it's just fun because I feel like I'm more nicer around them and social. I know I'm making a difference to the kids because I make sure they're safe and they know that they have someone to care that cares about them. I'm making a difference to know that they would eat their lunch, make sure they're having fun outside, and then making them make sure they're all safe. Uh so so I apologize for the sound. Um I think if I'm trying to incorporate everything um sense of belonging has been a huge focus of our school and not only does this provide this for these guys which is a it's a side
041benefit they are enriching that in others which is incredible. So, I actually asked the teachers um I said, "What what are you noticing about this new initiative? What what things are changing?" And so, they mentioned the safer and cleaner dismissal process, which is great. Um better and positive engagements in the hallway. Um I don't know if you guys know this, but you're you're tall and scary to the little ones. So, when they know you, it's even better. And obviously facilitating positive conversations to start the day. We we we have the goal of having five people greet um a student every morning and that counts our youngest people helping out too. Um so here are some photos that I snagged while they're doing this. Um on the left right there, this is a one of our
042young leaders walking this young fibers back to class after breakfast. In the middle is Case going above and beyond to make sure the students don't have to walk in the snow. That's hard to do at dismissal time. And on the right uh is Charlotte walking a group. It looks like a young five group um either to or from breakfast. So they they the these guys go above and beyond. Um it's hard enough to come to school these days to talk about anxious generation. Um but not only do they do a great job, they are enriching others as well in the process. Um what these folks don't know is that we have kind of a behind thescenes approach to make sure that we are pairing the right people with the right things. And so we are
043tracking the engagement of these particular stu well these students but also many more too. um higher engagement in the classroom at their attendance is being monitored and then also establishing them the sense of belonging like we mentioned before. So um how do we make this systematic? Right? This is a great group of of upper classmen that we call them and we want to make sure that this is systematically continuing for years to go. Um and so we have established roles um definitions for each thing. We are hearing um what is working, what is not working, making tweaks, and then we're finding ways to recognize these students um in different ways. We did a rock wall day and I have one more thing planned next week that I can't tell you about right now. Um but
044uh just kind of a way to say thank you because these students could just sit back and enjoy um but yet they're at a board meeting after a long weekend um to be here. So um so these are some of the leaders we have. I think we have 20 in total um who are helping in a variety of different ways. Um some of these these folks are all listed up there. And then just if you have any questions or or things you would like to ask this group, I would love for for them to be able to speak on our behalf. So yes. Have any of you had an experience with one of the little kids where you knew that what you were doing was really really important that day? Can you tell us about
045it? Um, yes. So, a kindergarter didn't really know how to milk, so I taught him how to do it and now he does it all by himself. That's awesome. That's That's awesome. So, when you're doing the cones, how much time does that take to set it up and take care of them at the end of the day? Okay. How many are doing it? 10 minutes, but and then and then how how many are are doing it with you? Okay. Are you starting to train any third graders now that you're getting to the end of the year? Getting ready getting them ready for next year. Actually, Case learned how to to lower the flag cuz that's going to be something for tomorrow. So, he learned that today. Oh, cool. Lower the flag. So, so how does
046it make you guys feel when you do these things for these kids? Yeah. Yeah. It's good, right? It makes you feel good to be able to give back and do something and and and help somebody out, right? Whether it's teaching them how to open the milk, right? Or pick up the cones or whatever it may be or leading the the kids back to class. So, thank you guys very much. That's awesome. You guys are doing that. I I just wanted to say thank you because uh you guys all have a servant's heart. You're helping others and there's a soft place in my heart for people like that. So, thank you. Great job. Thank you, Mr. Bosser and Cummings Elementary. Appreciate it. And now, uh Oakstown Intermediate is here. Some of the best of the best
047in the amazing shake had a great experience and they're here to tell us about it. So, take it away, Mrs. Bile. All right. I am very excited to introduce to you the four students who were able to go to Atlanta for the global baking shake. They were our top students that um we had amazing, generous donors who allowed all four of them to really go. We have a video to show you our highlights of their trip. I think it speaks for itself. And then the girls are going to give you a little more information. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So, as you can see, they had a miserable time. Um, they
048had so much fun. They worked incredibly hard to be there. And I did a little research today. Okay, the girls do not know this, but um there were over 50,000 kids who competed in Amazing Shakes to get to Atlanta and there were 420 there and our girls were all in the 150 and higher. So, we are incredibly proud of them. First time and they will tell you the majority of the students there are seventh, mostly eighth graders. So, they competed against kids who had been there multiple years. They met kids who had been there multiple years. So, we were just incredibly proud of them. So, I'm going to ask them a few questions that way you can hear from them. Uh, Haley, come over here. They can hear you on the mic better. Okay. What
049were the highlights of the Global Shake for you? Uh, probably meeting all like the people there and getting to see just Ron Clark Academy itself and it's fun to like bond with your team and getting to know all them and it's just a fun experience getting to meet all the people there. So, were there any kids from our school on your team? Uh, no. No. So, the kids were all put in teams. Uh, two of the kids were on the same team, but mostly they were with kids from all over the world that they didn't know. And they spent the whole weekend with those teams. So, all right, Claire. Um, what would you say to people if we were asking them to either donate or support the Amazing Shake? Why should they do that? Yeah.
050Um, I would say they should donate because a lot of kids don't realize how helpful the Amazing Shake really is. like it really helps you get jobs in the future, have like a really successful adult life, and it's just very helpful. Right. And Ruby, you met a lot of people. Tell me tell our board about maybe an adult and maybe a student who impacted you while you were there. Um, yeah. So, somebody who really impacted me there was one of the teachers named Mr. Bonner. He was really encouraging and welcoming and he was really nice. Um, and a lot of the kids were very encouraging also. Like before we'd go to the next round, we would always give each other hugs and pump each other up. So, it was really nice to have that experience.
051All right, Valentina, you placed in the top 50, which was amazing. We were all super excited about that. But how did just being there and knowing how successful you were there, how did that impact you right now? And how do you think it'll impact you in the future? Well, to start off, good good evening everyone. I'm Valentina. I go to Oaktown Intermediate. I'm 12 years old in sixth grade. And um it's impacted me now. My confidence has boosted really well. I'm able to go on stage and just shake someone's hand and have a conversation. I'm able to go up to a teacher or an adult and I'm able to have a right handshake. Some adults right now don't know how to handle very well or have a great conversation, but also it will help me
052in the future with um being successful and getting to do interviews. These interviews that we're practicing on stage and these handshakes and these conversations are life-changing. They can help in our future. So that's what I would say. Perfect. So, one of the things you noticed the gauntlet was circus themed and they had some pretty awkward moments that the students had to navigate through the man with the plate like he was just a head on a platter and they had to navigate that. There were things like they had to pick which chess piece they most identified with. So, there was lots of very interesting things, things they had to know about politics, things they had to know about um just all anything, right? There was just random things and the kids just had to be prepared.
053And then the work the room, the students are in this huge area and they had to interact. Some of you have judged work the room for us before. However, at this work room, there were people serving treats and that was actually a test to see if the kids were more concerned about getting a treat than having the conversation. Um, sometimes a judge would drop a pen and that was also a test. Are they going to help them pick up the pen or they just worried about getting points and moving on? So, the competition taught all of us a lot, including myself. I learned a ton about what we can do next year. These girls are highly motivated and want to continue to compete. Um, any questions for the ladies? Do you do did any of
054you think you were an introvert or an extrovert prior to this competition? And then how much of an extrovert do you think you became? So, would any of you consider yourselves introvert? meaning she tend to be a little bit quieter. And it was very interesting though. There are students who compete and I think um I think Ron Clark would tell you he's an introvert. So there are people who are introverts there that they do their thing and then they're probably real tired after that. I have a couple questions. First of all, what houses are you in? Oh yeah. Is it Bendy? Um, I'm actually the head of house for Alturismo. What? That's amazing. Altruismo. All right. That's I know. You and me. We're both. Um, and then my other question was, what did you think
055was like which of your challenges stood out the most to you? Like which one? You could either say you liked it the most or you were like, I did not like this one the most. The most memorable like a challenge or something like that or question. work the room because it teaches you skills how to like have a conversation fast but not end it in a mean way or something. Just be like, "Oh, I have to get going. I have to go to other judges." It teaches you those skills to like be nice but and it teaches you how to end a conversation. But also, that was one of my favorites cuz I'm really good at that. Before we did this, I got an award for it because I'm just really good at ending conversations,
056starting conversations, and just like talking about conversations. Are mom and dad here? Is she really good about just ending the conversation and moving on? Yeah. Okay. I've got one of those, too. I know how that feels. Yeah. All right. Ruby. Um the like most challenging was probably the um guy with your body. It's just kind of awkward and we had to figure out how to like talk to him without it being awkward. So, you couldn't shake his hand, could you? Yeah. Without shaking his hands. There was like a dump tank station and I just kept I kept throwing the ball and I kept hitting it like over and over again. So, I was happy about that. But the guy, he was like trying to discourage us. Like he was being like rude and trying to
057get us like get us down on ourselves. So, I had to like push it off and just try and still be kind to him. And that was that was kind of hard. Yeah. I agree with Ruby. Probably the one with the no body because like you it was just so awkward between him cuz he' just like stare at you and like you didn't know what to say because you couldn't shake his hand or like and he had no body. So like and he was like asking us like how to make his station more like fun and like realistic and stuff and it was just hard cuz he'd like just be staring right into you and you did not even like anyone know what to say. So yeah. All right. Oh. Yes. First of all, I'd
058like to say you four ladies are amazing. You're truly amazing and you're everything we want a Granville student to be. I'm just curious for future Amazing Shake students. So, kids in Granville that will be doing this in the future, if you could each give me just one thing that would be a suggestion or recommendation for those people as they go into the Amazing Shake. So, what advice would you give? um to really just stay confident and have charisma. And when you have confidence, some people might not see that you're really shy or really scared. But when you have that confidence, nobody sees it. You just have to go for it and like work hard at it. Just really have confidence and charisma while doing it. Um I'd probably say like be yourself. Don't try to
059be anybody else. And like fake it till you make it. Just shake it off. Don't show them that you're nervous. Just keep on being confident. Yeah, I agree with Ruby. I would say just like be yourself cuz there's a saying and it's like be yourself cuz everyone else is already taken and I feel like that has like a true meaning and like an impact on you cuz sometimes you want you see someone do really good and you want to be like them but then you forget to say what you actually want to say like what comes out of your heart. Yeah, I agree with all of them. They all stole money. Yeah, just be confident. be yourself. Cuz like if you try and be someone else, it's like just hard to be someone else. Just
060be yourself. And they're really like the judges are really looking for you and like your answers, not for someone you saw over there um in their answers cuz they might have gotten a low score and you just got yourself a low score, so you're trying to be like them. Are you all fifth grade or fifth and sixth? Um she's fifth and sixth. Yeah, you're all sixth and you're only fifth, right? Wow. is gonna take the world by fire. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. That's right, Miss B. I I do have to say I you know so many times you did a great job so many times I it was great to hear that you guys were able to raise the funds and I assume it was probably from a lot of
061outside donors and yeah and I think it's I and I don't know how we how we do this but I know companies are dying to figure out how they can help how they can participate and I think the model that this this takes and bringing those folks in Right. And and and make them a part of it and they go, "Holy cow." Yeah. And everybody I've talked to like that's the type of stuff we want to sponsor. Right. And it's like how do we get other groups, you know? I mean our dogs another great example, right? They've been able to get that sports like we've got a lot of cool groups and we got to figure out how to use that model to bring my employees. So thank you very much. Good job. Thanks everybody.
062Thank you everybody. Thank you. [Applause] All right. Good to see you. Well, that cleared up. Yeah. A lot of good stuff. A lot of good stuff going on. All right. Moving along. Uh, old business. Any old business? No old business. All right. Consent action agenda. Can I get a motion? All those in favor? Opposed? Passes. On to regular action agenda. Uh, the filter first drinking fountains. Can I get a motion? Sorry. All right. Um, it is recommended the board of education authorize the purchase of drinking fountains from Ferguson to complete filter first upgrades at multiple buildings in the amount of $117,414.39. Ferguson was awarded Omnia contract number 02-138 which fulfills the bid requirement. Apologize I did that out of order. Okay, turn it over to Heather. Uh, yes. So, Builder First is a new law
063that was um approved through the state of Michigan for K12 schools and early childhood centers. Um it has been one of those laws that's kind of a slow roll out. Um when it first came to fruition before actual law, um our maintenance team took um the steps to start testing our water um throughout the the different buildings at that time. Um it was shortly I think just before 78 building opened. Um so we had you know a lot of construction going on. Um the early childhood center obviously um everything was good there. Found a few um uh fixtures that um needed to be replaced and worked through that there. um can say that we are lead free um and this project will continue to to put filters on all of our drinking fountains that we
064have throughout the district. So, um other than that, I'm sure there'll be some technical questions and I have uh Brian Meppelink here. Um he is the guru. He's been working on this. We do have part of the requirement of the law um is to have a plan in place. Um it doesn't have to be posted. Um but they've worked very hard and diligent and our plan has been approved um by the state and Eagle um is the department that oversees that that part of the plan. So So Heather um under the funding it mentions a grant. What how much of the grant paid is paying for this? All of it. All of it. Okay. And where's the grant from? The grant is through um Eagle through Michigan Department. Yeah. Oh, is that correct, Ryan? Through
065Health and Human Services. Yeah. Through Eagle. So, they mandated something paid for it. So, that's actually good. Yeah. You don't see that very often, do you? Yeah. And then you've got here uh the replacement will start the summer of 2025. What's the timeline to install all of these units? Yeah. So our our maintenance staff will do um every build well so we don't need to do anything at 78. We don't need to do anything at GEC or Oakstown. Those are all good. Um the biggest building left then is the high school. So, um, DHE will be doing those installs and a lot of those too are in the in the concrete block. Um, so they'll work on that this summer. And then our team um will take care of Cummings, Central, Southeast, Centry Park, and
066Grand View. I think that's it. Um, so every both of these units, right? Both of these units are include water bottle. Is that pretty common for kids to walk around with a water bottle? It's very common now. It is. Okay. It's kind of nice that we have that then. Yep. And then what's the typical time frame? How long does uh filters last before they got to be replaced? They have to be replaced once a year. Um and then testing for each building once a year. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you. So, you kind of took the wind out of my sales mic. My question I was gonna ask about the the funding of it. So that's great. I'm glad they're paid for. I was I was trying to understand if we don't have any water fountains
067that are failing, why are we replacing? But if it's a no cost replacement, I mean the the piece with the water fil water fountains is we have to add the filter. Okay. Yeah. So regardless of whether we have lead contam lead contamination or not, we have to filter. Got in the elementaryaries we have um bubblers of place. Okay. bubblers. Mhm. And they are um water only. They're not cooled. Okay. And in order for um state legislation to be met, you have to have a cooled unit with a bottle filler. Okay. So, we will be replacing all those and that'll just be a basically a swap out with a bottle fill frame mounted to the wall. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? That's great. All right. Could we do a roll call? Okay. Van, yes.
068Stephus, yes. Cardin, yes. Dan, yes. Campbell, yes. Wonderdom, yes. Hibbore, yes. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. On to uh 6B, the iPad uh refresh or replacement p purchase. It is recommended the board of education approve the purchase of 1,750 11th generation Apple iPads and 1,750 device cases for a total purchase price of 594,75360. Can I get a motion? So support and Walt is here to tell us about it. All right. So, this is the replacement of the majority of the iPads that we have deployed in the district to staff and students. We have approximately 2,200 iPads that are deployed in our fleet. Um, kindergarten, first grade, and second grade have iPad cards in their classroom and then staff have an iPad assigned to them for use as well. Um, this
069would replace the majority of those. The reason why we're not replacing all of them in this case is we are replacing to try and be costconcious. We're replacing fifth, sixth, and seventh gen devices. Those are the devices that Apple is falling off support. So those devices will no longer get security updates and at some point they can no longer get apps installed from the Apple App Store. So this would replace all of those devices with a new 11th gen iPad. And then uh the majority of those devices are student devices. So there's a student case that we purchased to go on those devices and then a different case for staff. So the key date that's in this explanation in the background is 2014. Mhm. So have they actually the majority of these actually lasted that
070long? Well, so uh originally we had kind of planned a 5year refresh cycle for iPads and generally we had historically stuck to that. In this case, some of our fifth gen, sixth gen devices have been in the fleet for six, seven years at this point. So, iPads generally are pretty durable device for us. So, we've been able to get a little bit longer life out of them. Nice. That's nice job. Nice job. Just to clarify the funding source for this. So, this is the this is uh 2024 bond dollars that we be uh replacing or paying for the replacement of these devices. So, just clarify that. Okay. Thanks. Any other questions? All right. Can we do a roll call? Campbell, yes. Yes. Dan, yes. Stephus, yes. Wonder, yes. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thanks, guys.
071No other regular action agenda. So, we'll move on to discussion items. 7A, the operating and syncing fund rem. Sure. So, in my uh in a previous board update, uh I let you know that we're getting close to the time where we're going to have to go back to the voters for our sinking fund renewal and our operating millage on homestead properties. And we also will have an enhancement in there uh through the county as well eventually. But we want to talk to you about the sinking fund and the operating millage on homestead properties. that Heather has a presentation here and we'll have some discussion. Um, yeah, I'm not sure why. Oh yes. Um so we talked about this a couple years ago and we talk about it every um budget hearing um in June um
072regarding the levy for operating millage, debt millage and syncing fund. Um so as a result of proposal A um statewide school finance back in 1994 um Michigan school districts now levby 18 mil local property tax on non-h homestead property. So it is not your individual house. Now if you had a second house or a vacation home that that would count as paying that levy. Um so in order for districts to um continue to levy that we have to seek authorization from the voters um prior to their said expiration date um in May 2nd of 23 or on May 2nd of 23 the voters did authorize us um that 18 mil levy and that will is set to expire December 31 of 2026. Our operating levy uh millillage generates approximately $3,75 per pupil for Granville public
073schools. Um the operating levy and the syncing fund levy are both subject to headley roll back and that's when your um annual growth on existing property values is greater than the rate of inflation. So you can essentially you can receive a headley roll back in 2022, let's say, and not receive one in 2023. So it can go down, but it can't go back up until you take it back to the voters to authorize that. So ours had um been rolled back quite a bit prior to May 2 of 23. So, we went back to the voters for the 18 mills, but also you can add a a buffer in there, if you will, to kind of combat the Headley roll back. And the voters um very graciously approved that as well. Um so, we can
074never though levy more than the 18 mills. So, even though there's 19 available, you can only ever get 18. If we were to receive a roll back, what would roll back is that one extra mill and then you would until that's um depleted then then it would touch the 18. So what is a syncing fund millillage? So syncing fund is different than a bond. It is um a limited property tax and it's kind of considered a pay as you go method for funding maintenance and infrastructure projects. You don't incur any debt debt or interest expense through a syncing fund. Um the tax is levied each year and the revenue generated from that levy is designated for building upgrades or repairs. Um the expenses are audited annually not only by the auditors that come in and
075audit us for each year but we also have to submit to the department of treasury. There are allowable uses and there are determination letters from the um department of treasury. So, we have to be very careful and make sure that you're not utilizing it for something that's unallowable. And we can never use um syncing fund revenues for salaries or general fund operating expenses. Like I can't pay the heat bill, I can't pay the light bill with syncing fund dollars. Um our syncing fund has been rolled back. The initial proposal 10 years ago was a 1.4 mil. Um, and that was authorized May 3rd of 2016. It will expire December 31 of 2026. Um, and again, you can see what it's been rolled back to, 1.3502. And our scing fund millillage generates approximately $575 per pupil.
076So, the other piece that's happened during that 10-year period is new legislation that allows um language to provide more flexibility for uses in the scing fund to include buses and technology purchases. Um, and because we would like to take advantage of that added flexibility, um, we would like to the ballot language will say that this is a new levy. It won't say that it's a renewal. Um the syncing fund has been in place since 96 in Granville. Um and taxpayers continue to pay what they've been paying providing the district the ability to take advantage of this new allowable uses. Um so again just real quick difference between syncing fund and bond. Um you know when B voter voters approve the bond um it allows the district to borrow funds i.e. debt by selling bonds to
077receive a a lump sum of proceeds at the time. And that allows us to um create or complete large projects that um we wouldn't necessarily be able to do um in the short term. Net debt is paid back over time. Um bond proposals like I like to equate it to your mortgage on your house essentially. That's what that is. So, our current debt levy for um Granville is 5.05 mills is what we levy each year. Now, I just wanted to give you a breakdown from 2016 through and and I know we're still in year 2025, so that number is not complete yet, but um by project type because these are our really our large main projects and how they're cate categorized in our accounting system. So, when you're looking at like land purchases in 2020
078and 2021, you're like, "What's that?" Well, that was that was um the GEC purchasing that um and then paying that off. So, um that's a large purchase. You can see like throughout the years um we've invested a lot of money in roofs. Um very important. You know, that I guess that's the thing too like about the sinking fund. It's not necessarily things you see. It's not exciting, but it's very, very important, right? Um I mean, because if you didn't have it, you'd be taking that money out of your general fund, which you're using for your classroom, right? And you're you're not going to have that environment in the classroom that we're able to provide, right, for kids. You don't want buckets and whatnot collecting water. So, um site improvements. Um, I know it looks, you
079know, 2025 really large number. That was the high school turf that we redid. Um, roof improvements 2024 was also the high school. Um, so it kind of gives you a big breakdown there. And I I will send this out to all of you so you have a PDF of it. Um, and then what I did is I took it by building. Now remember like during this time we also were finishing up one bond in like 2016 2017 and then we had to start of another bond. So you look at central and you're like wow that seems pretty inequitable like 152,000 over 10 years. Well during that time some of that was supplemented with bond funds. So, um, some of those may look like we haven't put as much money into one building or another, but
080if you look at it together with the bond funds, we have we have done that. So, um, and I tried to break it down by building. I know it says Oaks, but obviously that was the old middle school, but we wanted to make sure we kept that all at the same address location. So, Heather, from a building perspective, we just to try and help um set a common perspective across that even even with bond money that was spent. For the most part, all buildings pretty much have the same equitable space based on their neighborhood, the community, the population, the number of students that go there, and the level of technology and equipment is comparable across all those schools. Correct. Correct. All elementaryaries and then you go up from there. Correct. Correct. There you go. So,
081all Can I help you out? I have a question as far as site improvements. Can that include uh for the future, can that include safety improvements, whether it be glass doors, lock down hardware, uh lock down shades, that type of stuff. Mhm. Yes. So, that right now we have to be careful. I can't do security cameras right now, but with the new language I could do security cameras. Um the lock down buttons, they consider that tech right now, so I can't do that either. Um, but yeah, that would provide a lot more flexibility for those types of items. I mean, and I I know Walters brought cameras to you guys before. That is a monster and making sure that you're continually keeping up with the technology, let alone the server space that it takes up,
082right? So, um, yeah. So, really important is that new flexible language. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. What do you what's the term you're thinking about or you guys are thinking about going after this time? Because we had it it was like I can't remember the days. It was 10 years and we said ah that's not working for us anymore so we're going to shorten it. So that was the that was the operating village. We did that just a few years ago. So like yesterday so are you go ahead. I mean well the recommendation for operating will be four years. Okay. Um, you know, I can get behind a 10-year syncing fund. If you all decided you wanted to go shorter than that, that's fine. 10 is the longest we can go. Yeah. Personally, I mean, even
083in the operating rate and all these, I think you look at like Hudsonville, right? They're going every year, right? You know, for because they want to try to get every dollar. And with everything, it's changing so quickly at the state level. I mean, we thought funding was pretty good last year, right? And then all of a sudden, boom, the new funding, you know, uh, formulation comes out and we're like, "Oh crap." Right? And and so whenever we start to see some of any of these, I'll say rollbacks, right? You know, where our expectations 18% and all a sudden it's down to 17.5, it's it feels like gosh, even that half percent. Could it make a difference for us, right? You know, and and I it's just something to be, you know, consider, right? as we
084see a a large change coming, you know, in education and how do we position ourselves to be as flexible as possible and be able to maximize what we can, you know, um get I it's a balance. I get it. I just want to have that discussion and start to have, you know, start to think about that a little bit because even even like we said with 1.4 and we had to head the roll backs to one or to 3.5 or 1.35, right? Um, now granted that was over a long time, so that wasn't nearly as stressed as what we were seeing in the other one. Um, but it just just something to be thinking about, right? And we'll, you know, obviously you guys are our experts here, but uh um just something to be thinking
085about because want to try to maximize that as best we can. Mhm. I think we set we we set ourselves up great with the operating millage on homestead properties because we did that 19 and if you get that roll back, you get that, you know, you're always you can only levy 18 no matter what, but it gives you that little cushion with with that piece, you know, syncing fund as as Heather mentioned. I mean, I remember when I first got here and you guys have had it since 90 what 94 was it? 96. 96. I know when I first got here I was like wow because that the things we've been able to do with the scing fund dollars in this district have really made the difference. Obviously the bonds make a big difference when
086you can have a middle school robotic center etc. But those things help so much through the sinking fund with roofs and and and carpet and you know all those things that people don't go, "Hey, wow, we're getting a new roof." You know how many times you do that with your house, right? You're so excited. No, you're not. You're not excited. But to be able to do that for our buildings and keep them, I mean, the longevity and the safety and everything there, the sinking fund is the really the best thing going in in my opinion because it is a pay as you go. Um, and it's very clear and pardon the pun, concrete in in what you are getting. I mean, she was able to really lay that out and and show that piece to
087you. And now the fact that you're going to have technology and bus purchases that can be a part of that. So if you're looking at safety with cameras as an example, it allows you a little more flexibility with that piece. So So Heather, with that in mind and you're looking at projecting, does the 10year seem more appealing to you or does the flexibility of going to a smaller increment for the syncing fund seem to be make more sense? I mean, I'm sure planning wise it' be nice tenure because then you know what you have. I you know when I look back historically so you look back 96 until now regarding the roll back and you've had you had two renewals in there from 96 to um it would have been 2015 is when we received
088our first roll back on so that first 10-year period on um on the syncing fund. After that once it was approved we were good. We were at 1.4 for for two years and then it I mean it's it's so dependent on the growth in your in your district too, right? H you add housing ads, housing starts and you don't have people leaving your values go up, right? Um you know I think being cognizant of that is it's very important. Um you know the biggest chunk was like a year or two ago when it dropped. So, um I don't have I don't have a good crystal ball anymore. I'll tell you what. We have the flexibility to add the like an extra half a percent or something like you add the 1 mil for the operating
089fund. Can you add an extra I Yeah, I can I mean I could talk I could talk with our um I could talk with TR about that. I I just don't I I guess I would be confident at 10 years for at the 1.4. I think I think the cycle of the 10 years here has shown to be very little change in those 10 years in that rate of that pullback. Um and and I think people are used to in Granville having that 10 years. And the nice thing is, you know, like I said, every year, I mean, and you know, Heather does this. She lays out, you know, this year, here are the things we're working, you know, we're we're doing, and it it's very very visible, very there as far as what's happening.
090So, I I think our I think our community gets syncing funds um and they get what those do for us and they do all those projects, but they also keep that money out of the general fund, you know, having to use general fund dollars to do that. And it's not a loan. It's really not like I mean, it's not like a a mortgage. It's it's a pay as you go type thing, which is great. So, so with the money, I guess, you know, maybe another couple questions on that, right? I love the idea of, hey, let's use it for other things as well. My only concern, right, is if you have two kids and you're making, you know, $10,000 a year, now all of a sudden you're adding two or more miles to the, you
091know, whether it be security as well as uh uh, you know, every, you know, I can't remember the other one. SEC or uh buses and security, right? you know, how much is going to be taken away from that budget that was used on other things and do we see a shortfall then? So, so I'm just going to give some credit to the people that came before me to answer that question. Like it it all goes back to the planning, right? Like I know um you guys have you've already approved um boilers at Century Park. Um you know, there's still some um spots of the high school roof that need to be redone. You know, I I think I think we can make it work where you can still buy two buses, you know, at what,
092like $225,000. You can still allocate $250 for emergency should you have some sort of flooding event or you need to rip out a gym floor before you get an insurance claim settled. Like, I I think there's still opportunity that you could have a half million dollars. I tell you what, I will sleep a lot better at night just on the whole one one replacement cycle knowing that there's that available while still at the same time being able to redo boilers and you know and those other projects. So, I think we've set ourselves up really good because we've we've been very lucky and we have some beautiful new facilities and remodeled facilities that I think as long as we continue, you know, working with Brian and his team and um maintenance that I think we'll be
093okay. Like I think we can spread that out. I do I do agree, right? We have to all understand it doesn't mean there's more money in the pot. Yeah, use it for more. It's it's more miles to pay, right? That's my concern. Um, how many other school districts have a sinking uh like when this Oh, so I um so this is how we compare. Um, and you can see not everybody in Kent, but majority do have you have a few that have a wreck millillage and that's different because they're running auditoriums and different pools and stuff like that, auditorium. So I highlighted our line so you could see that we do rank four out of four from an operating which is good because that means we're levying 18 mills. Our debt ranking in the county
094is four number four and our overall total millage. So when you add up the operating debt syncing and wreck mills, we rank number six in terms of that's low to high by the way or well yeah so we're the sixth lowest total millillage in the county. Brad, you look like you were going to answer. I was just going to say something about like the pool the high school pool. Is that like we don't have to have money set aside extra money for that at any point that you know crystal ball. What? You mean like building a new pool? No, just the maintenance of it or anything. That's been our biggest buoy the last how many years, right? Always we get a surprise of $300,000 to fix, right? So again, that's another benefit of the scing
095fund, but that like there's there's different obviously there's different operating like like all the chemicals and stuff like that that you have to put in that comes out of general fund that can't come out of syncing fund. But yeah, what's the next big expense on our on our radar, right? because I mean a million for the turf, right? Or you know that's a site improvements, right? That was the big one last year. The next like if we go back and we look at our our facilities, what our facilities team has looked at and stuff. So the the next big things would be that high school roof, that second turf field at the high school needs to be redone pretty quick here, maybe two years. Um you know, I look at it selfishly and I think,
096well, there's an unfinished building in this district. I'd love to finish out the GEC. That would be something that would have to be phased though. We can't do that all in one summer just because we don't have enough. We don't have the money to do that. But so Heather, um, has it truly been a detriment to get the roll back from 14 going down to 135? Now, how much of a detriment has that been? Because a lot of this is of the scing fund dollars there. I I'm not I'm not trying to be negative here, but I'm thinking of the taxpayer and the Headley is there as that safety valve. Yeah. So, has it really been that much of a detriment? So, I tried to include two so you guys could see the revenue that
097was generated each year. And there's a little blip in 2021 because that year um the district we had um we we received um a refund if you will from um one of our insurance pieces and instead of putting it in the general fund, we had projects that we wanted we put it towards. So that there's that number where it's 2.752, that's actually $297,000 higher than what the actual levy was. So So that that little blip there. So it has steadily gone up based on like you said on property tax increases. So and this year, you know, it it's gone up about $200,000 a year. So it's been manageable even with the roll back. Okay. So my second point, um, prior to our building years, uh, where we've put over 200 million into debt, our millage,
098wasn't it around 3.2, 3.3? It was 3.2 when we went out and the voters approved the increase to 5.05. Correct. Yep. And at some point it would be nice to give that money back to the voters so that if we're good stewards and we really think about what we need versus what we want. And in in addition to that though, we have done the refundings that have I understand that. No, I know. I'm just I just wanted to say like No, it's good that you're saying it. Yeah. But, you know, as the debt starts to mature to that point, it would be nice to if we can. So, the community since 96 has supported this and that's that's it speaks volumes to the quality of the district. But if we can at some point begin
099to reduce that, they're still going to support. I feel very confident they're going to support the syncing fund. If it's marketed right, it'll happen. But we just need to be conscious of the fact that we have a lot of buildings. We have a lot of new buildings. We're adding we've added buildings and we need to really be careful of especially in these next few years. The budget may be tight for a while. How do we manage that and still maintain all of the quality programs that we're attempting to do? That is what you probably lose sleep over is that question, right? And opening that syncing fund to give more flexibility will definitely help us maintain the programs out of the general fund and it'll also maintain a great learning environment for students. Um, yeah, but
100I I hear what you're saying, Bob. I I think we just need to be cognizant of what our community has given us and any opportunities we have to say, hey, we're not asking for more. We're giving back some. We want to make sure if we can do that, we definitely do that. Is that what I'm hearing you saying? That's what I'm saying. Think of it as a scale, right? We don't want to tip the scale in the other direction because it's not there yet and we don't want to even get close to that. That's I think a really nice thing, especially with the bonds they've passed in combination with that syncing fund and the operate bill, is that, you know, we have facilities that from a growth standpoint um were set up for a long
101time. Correct. I agree with you. Yeah. So, so you know, to say, well, you know, in five years, well, we need another building. I I don't see that happening unless you get what's called wool baby growth and then that's a different thing. Um but I do think we've set ourselves up with the facilities we have for and and the bond was designed that way for long-term growth to set us up so we didn't have to keep going back uh every you know 3 years or 5 years or whatever and saying well now we need another building. So I think we're in a good spot there. These help us maintain those building, maintain the quality programming we have and not go crazy by raising raising our mill rate. So is the timing are these going to
102go in concert and are we doing them um earlier in the year? So yes, next steps um in conjunction and discussion Roger and I and John sat in with our legal um you know we should consider seeking voter support November 4 election um to reauthorize both levies. Um, what I need to do is I need to wait until June, the June 2 board meeting to bring you a resolution to approve because I need to get um the information from the equalization department at the county to see, you know, if we got a roll back and what that looks like because that'll change the language in the resolution that's brought. Okay. Um and then so yes, looking at the the 19 mil over a 4-year term um and seeking a 10-year term for the sinking fund.
103And then we just have to file uh once that resolution is approved in June, we have to file that with the clerk before August 12th in order to place it on the ballot. And again, we already, you know, it seems like we just did this one and passed it. So it's I mean it's if you look at it it's the same. The thing with you can't say renewal for the syncing fund as Heather mentioned because you're adding buses and technology for the flexibility but it really is just a not really and you're going to stick with four year on the four on the yeah 10 for sinking. Four on the operating and stick with the 10 for sinking. Our community is used to the 10 with the sinking. So, I would say we should stay
104with that. I was really I'm really impressed at where we're ranked for debt and such. And I think that that's going to have a powerful statement for our our citizens because, you know, that shows good stewardship and and wise wise moves with money. So, and considering we did pass some major bonds Yeah. uh not too long ago which did make it go up some and yet we're still where we're at which is good. That's amazing. Um we just like Bob said need to be very cognizant and careful in the future of not keeping that going up. Agreed. And we will have bonds fall off too right in the in the future. So we'll have to talk about that when we get to it. Thanks Heather. Yeah welcome. Any other questions from anybody? No. Nice job.
105Thank you very much. Look forward to seeing that in a second. All right. No public comment at this time. All right. The next uh workshop board meeting, the Grand Board of Education will be Tuesday, May 6, 2025 at 700 p.m. at the administration building. We got a lot of events obviously coming up, so we'll see you guys at those. We are journ