001e e me order rise for the pledge i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you Comm have a roll call yes Wonder Jim here uh hbor here stephus here me yes danan here vck yes here all right so good great thank you uh please note as a courtesy to board to members of the audience and the Board of Education please silence your cell phone and public will only be able to speak during public comment if signed up I've got the forms here and any others well s hey Walt we're getting some feedback yeah we are that's not Walt no it's not I've been accused of liking the sound of my own
002voice but not all right uh can we get an approval of the agenda some support all those in favor yes opposed uh reports [Music] agenda let's start off down at the end how about that sure sure why not uh I'll step away from the microphone a little bit so keep that uh first of all I just wanted to say thank you to Roger to uh Kent ISD uh for today um you know congratulations to Amy Campell who will be our next board member if I'm stealing her Thunder I I'm I I'm sorry but also thank you to Mary Gunther for Having the courage to to apply for the spot as well and all the other candidates too um just one thing to touch on I missed the last meeting so I was ill I didn't
003want to come spread it to all you so um but just prior to that we did a reunification uh meeting at res life and I just want to tell you um Wood Mar easterly leading the way um it soon we're going to do a staff walk through which we'll all be invited to so you can see what that process looks like actually feet walking through the process uh then we'll do a fullscale drill um in the fall so we're kind of crawling here we're getting to the walking stage and then running will be this fall so I'll keep you all updated on that but Mark is leading the way and doing a great job so appreciate him awesome that's that's all I have perfect thank you glad you're feeling better yeah thanks all right Miss
004vck thank you um so this last month has been very busy and I've loved it um March's reading month as you know and so I've been able to go to a number of schools I was at Grand View and this week I'll be at Central and at West to be a guest reader which I enjoy doing greatly because that's the best part of being on this board not just want you to know um I was a able to also be a judge for the amazing Shake which was just just seamless it was a wonder it was just an incredible wonder and to see these kids perform so well under such high pressure it puts a lot of us adults to shame I'll just say that right now um enjoyed watching our hockey team and their
005faithful families and friends make it to the Frozen Four didn't quite make it P there but we were were just so thrilled for them that they made it even there um was able to attend the sixth grade concert that's led by our very talented and dedicated um choir teachers Ben Moore and Rachel niata um they did kids did a fantastic job um the other parts that I've been busy with however have not been as much fun because I have feeled literally dozens of emails and social media posts questioning the processes on this board and in in particular the process that we use to make this replacement that the ISD made for us tonight with um installing um Amy Campell and um many of the no not many all of the emails that I received stated
006their dismay at the lack of objective reasoning resulting in the need to actually send this decision to the ISD and I felt like I did my best to respond in a manner that reflected what I have believed to be the appropriate tenor called for by a board member and tonight I'd like to just address that slightly during our discourse regarding replacing um our board member I thought it was ironic that in the conversation that Dei came up I don't know if you caught that but diversity equity and inclusion came up in this conversation and it wasn't from me believe it or not it came up in talking about how we needed diversity on our board by needing more than just Educators on a board well the fact is we do have a minority of Educators
007on this board I believe there's only two of us that served in a classroom and even though I was a teacher I also began my own business and I am now a business owner in Grand Rapids and if anything we're a little Business Heavy that's diversity inclusion was also a word at practice here and it unfortunately has many negative connotations from this board um it's been portrayed in a negative light and even though we have seen clearly how in our district inclusion benefits all of our students inclusion as you know was a policy brought forth in our country and even applied at the local level because of historic institutional practices that excluded People based on their gender ethnicity religion or disabilities these people were denied the ability to participate Su successfully in a setting whether
008it be education or work-wise because they'd been harassed or kept down or bullied inclusion under this definition became the foremost argument for the support of Mary Gunther Mary was bullied and therefore deserved a seat on this board that that is inclusion I skipped over Equity because I felt like the only Equity that was involved here was the fact that when the initial 19 people were ranked that there was only equity in three people voting exactly equally the same of each person of all 19 candidates and what was equal was the oppression of the chance for other exceptionally qualified candidates to rise to the top and as much as a counterargument to equity in Dei is the idea of meritocracy even that ideal did not see the light of day in the reasoning for this ranking
009in other words as clearly was admitted there was no objectivity used in the decision- making that was guided here a Community member who supported that even as much admitted to the fact that during during his public comment that there was a push that they could have people could have made here to push their own list of top five candidates including himself and vote on them as you knew that Amy would not be here for a while at least and we went then to the ranked list of 19 people who generously gave their time to apply for this position this was a chance for Equity but at this point rather than using an objective means of evaluating these people instead there was a March lockstep move to rank these 19 people identically you can say this
010was your right but according to board policy it is not then after our interviews rather than even considering another option other than your first choice and my first choice you guys became obstructionists and refused to even consider another qualified person the so the so-called embarrassment of having to send this decision to the isdu board lies squarely at your feet and knowingly you gave a very manipulated version of Dei the spotlight I'm not sure if everyone has read that part of the board policy handbook I have I spent hours going through that thick thick thing giving your attention to the minutia of all the edits that we have had to approve Bob in particular I have a hard time believing you haven't read this part of the policy which dictates how board members are called to
011serve their Community it states emphatically and clearly that in fact board members are to use objectivity in their decision making and contact and I will read this this is from the part 2302 board code of ethics section A item number six each board member will render all decisions based on an objective evaluation of available information exercising independent judgment I take that very seriously so logically as I'm trying to figure out why you thought it was okay to be subjective in making your rank list I can only conclude one of the following options one you haven't read that part of the policy which is a board member responsibility number two you don't understand what objectivity means or three you deliberately met and chose to vote unanimously sidestepping the use of objective and independent thinking for your
012own purposes if it's the third item that happened I would call on you all to at the very least apologize for and denounce the decisions and actions you have taken at the most if you would feel so compelled you have breached your trust to this board and you might want to consider stepping down I say that we have that this has been a breach of trust with our community members on both sides of this argument because if I had done that Amy had done that Jason had done that there would be people here screaming down these walls and or skullking around placing propaganda flyers on cars the people of this community voted all of us into this office to act and good faith to follow the laws and policies that should be guiding our decision-making
013as we lead our school district good faith is an inherent and right Assumption of this position and it's imperative that we live up to this ideal I do not believe that um the actions were made in good faith and it was deliberate obstruction that being said if we are to stay as an existing body and now that we have Amy who will be joining us all of us owe it to the school district to our students and staff and to our families and businesses to move forward in the light of that good faith that they've placed in us I would like to make a very strong suggestion here that each member take the time to reread this part of our policy book what are our board book uh code of ethics and expectations this should
014govern how we conduct ourselves in practice and in presentation behind and in front of these folks here that are with us then I would encourage each of us to get together with other board members of whom we are not well acquainted one at a time and have coffee and just talk get to know each other Bob you and I are the Elder Statesmen here right we're the oldest folks on this board we should also be the wiser parties if we're not we're just old I invite you in particular to meet me for coffee and a chance to find even an inch of common ground that we could share so that we can come to this board and work together I think other symbols of unity could be that all of us verbally recommit to the
015mission statement the Strategic plan under which we sit as we meet I would also like us to unanimously approve and sign a board statement condemning overt and covert harassment in any form against any person associated with this body I think it is got to be done finished I'm sick of we've been charged within our purview to keep Granville Public Schools a destination District where this District as a whole can fulfill our mission statement so we need to find a functional means of moving forward our Greater Community deserves it the families we represent deserve it mostly every single child we serve deserves to have leaders who demonstrate how to resolve differences to be fair to be nice to have integrity and grit and to be wise there will always be differences in opinion how we navigate
016them makes the right kind of difference in our world and our kids world thank you thank you Bob Bob I appreciate your right to say that but I also want to say welcome welcome to the board Amy I look forward to working with you I think if you look at past meetings that have either been recorded or you look at the minutes you'll find that I am very inquisitive I try to be very fair and I try to make sure all sides of a subject are debated so welcome to the board thank you Amy oh I've got a lot okay so first of all welcome Amy went and listened to you did a great job with your interview today um congratulations on having the Kent ISD uh vote you in um I am super super
017excited about our hockey team and how they did they went to the Frozen 4 they played an amazingly close game Sally I just couldn't believe all the people that traveled out to see them um the other thing that's really impressive about this team is we had six of our players make all conference we had two of our players make all conference honorable mention we just had two boys make all state first team and we had two of our players make team Michigan these are huge honors we have an amazing coach in uh Joel Brazil and all the rest of our coaches um it's just been a pleasure to watch these kids work together um uh on the other side of what we have experienced as a family is there has been so much going on
018with band uh this coming weekend is it no it's in two weekends that we have the Winter Winds performing yeah yes yeah the week of um the 29th spring break thank you all right um but before that we just had band Festival where every single one of our Middle School through High School bands all received first place um then this last week on my mother's 88th birthday she drove all the way up here from Indiana to see the jazz festival where our seventh and eighth grade and our two high school jazz bands um performed and she said it was the best birthday she ever had so way to go band yeah um then after that deserves a clap actually and then um band again after that this has just been an insane amount of time
019for them um they had State solo and Ensemble at the state level we had over 30 students go to State and we had over 20 different events and can I just tell you the support that those kids give each other I was just talking to Jason they're filled in that room with students and grandparents and parents and neighbors and I it's just amazing so kudos to the band I'm so impressed um of course Spring Sports have started lacrosse had their first scrimmages this past weekend had some wins had some losses um what's super exciting is the girls lacrosse team just added a junior varsity team which means that program is growing it's going to kind of stretch our Varsity a little bit but it does mean that we are growing that program which is awesome
020robotics was just uh seated to move on to Ontario so they are of course doing everything that they do so well um soccer won a couple games this week um our Golf and our boys volleyball I think Pete are you on volleyball this year oh man okay so um that volleyball program is really starting to thrive too it's been it's been a joy um Sally talked a little bit about how we went to Grand View and Mr Scot did a beautiful job of honoring his top students and um then he honored us as board members which was so unnecessary but so so grateful for him he's doing just wonderful work down there um as well as I am a mentor down at Sentry Park which has been great um they are identifying students that might
021just need a little extra help so we craft once a week it's kind of fun um if you're interested let me know because there are so many students that could use this oneon-one time um March is reading month I'm going to go to Central as well and what is super cute is our lacrosse boys and our hockey boys are going in and reading to students that's adorable okay I love that um Adam's family is coming up and all those yep so that's what I don't know what all the roles are but um that's April 24th through 27th are they still taking donations to have your name on a gravestone I'm not sure so that's one of their um fundraisers to help is you can get your name put on a gravestone to The Adams Family
022so um and then I had I had one other thing that I wanted to add um on Sunday was my middle son's 20th birthday so we drove over to University of Michigan to take him out to lunch and give him a pie and um he is in Biochemistry and he's taking organic chemistry right now and I'm like man you okay I mean he's studying a lot but he said to me you know I am the head of all of my study groups whether it's in organic chemistry or psychology or he's taking a an um an ethnicity class which is super cool and he is the leader in all of those small group studies and so one of the things came up a couple couple meetings ago about our Pur student price and what that what
023that involves and if that's worth it and I'm going to say having had students in private schools that were well over $10,000 a student Grandville is nailing it we are an amazing amazing School District it is it is a it's a pleasure to see that our teachers our coaches our robotics Club any of our clubs they are doing I just I can't even say enough about it right like we had to choose private schools in a state that did vouchers right because that diminished our public Schools Michigan is so on top of it with a non-voucher state and our public schools are strong so I just want you to know that we are definitely definitely um going to come into some weird times with budgets probably but right now what we are doing with the
024money we have per pupil is it's a gift so thank you to our people who do our finances to our Administration to our teachers and man our students are they topnotch so thanks right yeah thank you you're welcome all right just uh also say congratulations to Amy and welcome to being on the board um I was going to congratulate Dr Merkel on his son's winning the oh yeah the state championship that but he's not here but that is uh at the banquet oh is he all right but I mean for an individual to win something like that is a huge accomplishment I was just going to say from from the family to the student all the uh the practices and time that goes into that is pretty incredible um last last week got to spend
025time walking I went just after school just to walk around the the practice fields and see everybody practicing on one of the nice days and it was just awesome to be out there and see just the crazy amount of students that we have uh participating in in all that is uh so awesome to see it was I was mentioning it's Roger before the the meeting but we were in spring break like Grand Valley Spring break the week before that in Florida and the the high schools down there were're just empty like after school and uh even even later on they locked them up and wouldn't let people into the onto the ground so it's my wife and I talked about that here that I mean if you go into our high school parking lot there's
026people there almost 24/7 I mean the teachers the staff that are you know volunteering their time to coach or do extra activities is incredible we have here and the parents that support it and then also for the reading month I'll be at Central this week and uh East next week so it's good to not be TR in for work so I can do some of that stuff but thank you cool good thank you um a lot of a lot of repeats right so thank you guys all for everything everyone's been doing and getting out there and uh second off apologize Joe I completely forgot your name I've seen your moment so I apologize at the beginning of the meeting so is it down there at the end it's all right God I know his name
027but I can't remember so I apologize Joel so that's my that's on me um uh but I want to thank all the applicants uh for the open board position um you know it was really uh great to see so much interest there uh uh in that opening um and also thank you to all the the input that we got from the public and we did receive a lot of uh correspondents um from folks uh so it it makes me feel good that people are paying attention and they know what's going on right with our schools and and with our Administration and with our board and so forth so thank you very much for all the input um that you shared there um welcome Amy as well um congrat ulations there back there behind the corner
028all right all right thank you um and and thank you to the kisd uh for you know taking over this process and and and finishing it for us um we mentioned obviously all the spring Sports going on um all the All State honies and the competitions with with powerlifting hockey cheer uh swim and dive I mean there was so much going on right I mean it so just congratulations to all those groups um went to the Jazz Fest or the jazz festival at North VI which was really cool and really great to see to hear them um all the All State solo Ensemble did owe that I mean just it's so cool to see all the parents and all the kids support each other um that was really cool to see um the amazing Shake
029just an awesome event I mean I don't for anyone who gets the opportunity to to do that or volunteer for it it's incredible I mean you got these fifth and sixth grade kids and they actually have one of the sections called work the room where you have a bunch of adults in there and these kids fifth and sixth grade they're responsible to going up to each adult and work the room I mean there's a lot of adults probably that can't do that I mean it's incredible to see uh on them go and just make small talk and and introduce themselves so that's really cool um talked about the uh uh uh the spring Sports um you know congrats uh to the athletic boosters scholarship winners that that event was last week or two weeks ago
030I can't remember now um so they give out their scholarships I'll build a plug in there if anyone's interested in volunteering it's a pretty low uh level commment but it is a group that does need the support and and people to help coordinate that we've got a lot of folks that are U I'll say aging out because their kids are graduating um that are working on that board so we're always looking for new folks to come and get involved again real low barrier entry real easy thing to do um if you have kids uh that are in sports it is a great uh group to be involved in um let's see here what else did I have on here the robo doogs you know their continue success you guys talked about that and I I
031if you didn't catch it on social media if you don't follow them on social media uh Doug or or one of the moderators made a mention that he's had 30 inquiries about joining the group and uh he said you know what all you have to do is transfer to Granville and you can you're more than welcome to so I mean again you we talk about destination District right just one of those those organizations those groups that really help set Granville apart and so thank you to all the coaches all the parents that put in the thousands of hours every year and to the students that make that a great uh event um and I think that is all all I have for now that's it Jason yeah there thank you I appreciate that Joe thank
032you that helps me out all right uh my first thing uh Mr wonder is here and our wonderful kids from West I know West is best bra all right so we're say it 17 more times there you go so we're going to turn it over to Mr Wonder Jam in the wonderful West kids yes so I am Wonder G principal here at West Elementary you guys want to face you guys are out of the crowd not they just kind of went for it that let's do it then if you guys want to see the presentation it's right behind you okay yes so I'm the principal at West um it is it is just the the joy of my life uh to be uh to be the leader over there at West um again I it's
033it's the building for those that don't know that I went to when I was here in elementary school so the the joke is that I don't get out much here in but I think that speaks to again we talk about what a special place this district is um it means so much to me to be back um serving serving our students and our families in that building so I have Noel in third grade Lea in second grade Maddox in first Emerson his sister in third and Henrietta in third grade here to talk about math Workshop this year so um this is is kind of a new building wide initiative that we took on this year as a staff collectively um I'll kind of get into the reasons why tonight um but it's something that we're
034really excited about that we've seen great results with our kids um and for our teachers as well so uh so just a few things that we'll go over um really the background as to why we felt like as a staff that we wanted to commit to this this year um give you all an overview of kind of what those routines are and what math Workshop looks like on a day-to-day basis within really a k to four classroom um talk about what the student and teacher impact is and then just a quick little Q&A session for our students um to share some of the things that they love about math Workshop about West you know all that all that great stuff and if you guys have anything that you want to chime in with just like
035we're in school raise your hand let me know and I'll you know we'll we'll make sure that you can share that okay awesome all right so so before um I guess not even before but just more the traditional kind of approach that our staff took on to math and instuction um it felt like before it was a lot of just kind of to sit and get um I I touch on it here as well but our our current math curricular tool that we use in Visions um is incredibly robust and has so many great things to offer our students K4 um that our teachers at times just didn't really feel like what is the best way to navigate it um because there are so many things that I could use within it um but in
036order to do all of that it takes way too much time so how how are teachers able to uh deliver instruction address core content efficiently it felt like before that that those things weren't happening and because of that because it was more of a sit and get our students are our students are not engaged they're losing engagement they're not having fun with math there's there's little opportunity to find the fun within math um and we know math is not just the concrete numbers right it's the idea of scheme it's the idea of Hands-On the manipulatives all that great stuff that we when we think of math instruction that it should be so so what are those ideal outcomes what did we want we wanted just that we wanted an increase in student engagement uh differentiating
037amongst our individual students we know every student um has unique learning needs um and a variety of different things that are going to help them learn most successfully in their classroom so the idea of of or at least some form of a instructional model that allows us to do that um continuing to assess and monitor how our students are doing within the classroom before the length of the time that lessons took um moving through one day at a time um did allow us to be in touch as best as we wanted to be with how students are actually doing within the classroom and again addressing that critical content strategically um not spending so much time on one thing or realizing that we have to bit in piece by the end of the year because oh
038the test is coming up and we took so long on this that we need to cram everything in what is a way that we can attack those things strategically and efficiently so that's where math Workshop comes in one thing that I that I apologize I didn't include here is the the the vast amount of research that would support this instructional model it is something that we feel is research-based um a lot of the um leadership things that we've been doing amongst our teachers this year has been driven from the research and how we're continuing to enhance the quality of our math workshop for our students so this is essentially what it looks like our students would start the math lesson with a number sense routine so I can give you an example of what this
039looks like Lea I was in your classroom back in the fall to watch Miss Gorno teach Ma and she's isn't Miss Gorno amazing yeah she is come on she's amazing isn't she um Miss Goro all she did was she wrote the number 20 on the board that's all she did and what Lea and her classmates did was they they talked to Miss Goro and showed her and demonstrated how they could create 20 so we had some students that said uh 10 * 2 tested my a little bit 10 * 2 we had some that said 20 + 0 we had some that drew a picture of what that might look like um we had some 24 minus 4 and then the board gets completely covered with all of these different ways to create the number
04020 and so that allows our students to share what they know it allows them to gain from one another and that takes 3 minutes maybe right so we're pretty efficient already from the get-go then we do our mini lesson and this is likely driven this is driven from our core standards this is um likely pulled from our curricular tool and Visions about 10 15 minutes maybe as a as a whole group um in order to deliver that and then student centers so our teachers then will have have small groups um likely one teacher is with a group um of students at the front um likely reteaching or doing some guided practice um maybe some students that are really excelling with a a certain topic so they're going to do a little bit more enrichment um
041but then there are others there are students doing other activities um around the room during that time um so you can imagine to a lot of the prep work especially in August September and October is the behavior is the routine is the structure that our teachers spend such a great time um coaching and building with our kids this is not something that is just here go do it because you can imagine what might happen with seveny olds and eight-year-olds in that fashion but it's really strategic and how our teachers laid it out and I'm just incredibly proud of all of them for that um and then at the end we have opportunity for students to share um for teachers to highlight great things that they noticed and celebrate our great students work so here's here's
042kind of the layout um of what it might again look like so we have our 5 to 10 minute number sense routine um and then our mini lesson you know through Visions um for those that don't know her to hly asley is our math interventionist at West um she has been really the leader and kind of you know Co co- with myself and our building team and driving this and laying this out um so we have our students maybe in different in four different groups so you can see maybe there's some teacher Le things with guided practice on our district we use the dream box and reflex curriculum for um for extended math opportunity and fact fluency for our second through fourth graders um maybe there's opportunity for kids to play a game um and
043then there's also you know our teachers are are are very big into into steam into having our kids be hands on so we're having that as part of that as well and what we found this year especially in building this out for our students is that adding that component again increases the engagement um I think I have it on another on the next slide but what we don't hear now where we heard before is when is ma done are We Done Yet when's the next thing coming because it's very predictive it's short lived in each station um it's consistent and we know those are the best things for our kids so this is Miss goros is it Lea and again miss G she's awesome so table one they're doing their reflex work on the iPad
044their fact fluency then you can see table two they're doing their math book with Miss Goro at the rug oh miss Gorno spot's not good on that one three back table paper okay yep so an individual paper there thank you thank you and then yes a quiet sense at your SE so then we rotate throughout that throughout that time right this is what it might look like in a fourth grade classroom uh this is from Mrs Davis our awesome fourth grade teacher um so more independent um as students are uh rolling through those small groups not the time okay uh so the impact that it has on our students uh meaningful time with critical content like we said it increases uh shorter more direct forms of instruction uh we're not losing our kids maybe throughout
045a 30 to 40 minute sit down math lesson like we used to um more opportunities to engage with math and love it and be Hands-On with it like those stem times um consistency with rotations um it's predictable it feels good no more when are we done and then more time on some of that extra stuff um we hear so often from our families that uh our kids don't know our multiplication facts they don't know their facts they don't know their facts they don't know their facts and so much of our new math curricula is is evolved around the concepts behind math but we do know the facts are important they just are in order to get to that piece of Mastery so this has allowed our students to to do that right and to do
046that at a really great rate and I have proof of it because around the district we have a little competition of our uh our fact fluency percentage on reflex West won last year we won we had the Krabby trophy at West the crab little guy on reflex that the kids know and love uh and we're still currently in first place we were the first to hit % uh fluency this past week so uh a little fun competition but again that's that's a testament to our teachers that's a testament to our students in in the hard work that they put in so and then how does this help teachers um this year especially it's allowed us to have really great conversation and have the same common understanding about what high quality math instruction is um the
047tools that we have with envisions um it it it's awesome and but this allows us allows our teachers to bring in what they know um and what they what they feel good with what they feel masters of and that's what we want for our teachers um we've done some professional development work at the building around um number sense routines math Workshop best practices we've been able to talk about these in our in our teacher PLC meetings and staff meetings um hly Ashley again who I mentioned along with Mrs Davis I'm our fourth grade teacher they're on our math vertical team um so laying out common assessments uh commitments those are things that they've um that they've done a great job with with the district and then have communicated that back to us at West um
048and then more time to hear students talk again we're not doing so much sit and yet anymore um we're allowing students to do we're allowing students to work and share and celebrate um and that's what we want that's what we want for Mars so I I won't click on the link but just a few weeks ago again Lea Lea I keep picking on you you remember when that lady came into your room and took pictures about you guys doing math Workshop yeah we had the school News Network about a month ago they came in and highlighted Miss Goro um it's again and Miss Gorno has has kind of been a leader for for our building as a teacher and rolling this out so they highlighted the great work um that our students were doing in
049that math Workshop time so it's very cool for our teachers and our kids to be recognized in that fashion so I have some some pictures from that article just for you can see so that's Miss Goro with a group of students at the rug doing that small group time and then some different shots of of the of the St and the steeve time so that's all I got I talk way too much didn't I guess no it's perfect no not too much okay all right so I do I do want to have our West students come up here and speak I do have a few questions that I put up here that I'd love for you to think about maybe answer one of them maybe answer all of them here are my three questions okay
050what do you love what do you enjoy about math Workshop why do you think math Workshop is beneficial to students why do you think it's a good thing MX is like I have no idea you and then number three what love about being at West so I'll give you one of those as well okay does anybody want to come up first you said you had no idea and now you're ready come on you want to stand or do you think on a chair you can stand on a chair if you want they said it was okay stand up come on man okay what do you love what do you want to say this is MX what do you want to say m about me or about us I like being at West because I hate
051I get hang out with all my friends awes awesome great thank you who's up next who wants to share come on um so I love being at West Elementary because number one West is best and also um it really gives students a great activity to do with all our fun events that we have like merch's reading month our M our mask reader um and also the houses those are really fun too every other Monday we have house meetings and those are really fun we get to enjoy time with other grades when we do those house meetings and we get to um have buddies and we get to know each other throughout the year so I love being at West again because West is best and all our students are wearing their house shirts you mentioned
052our house system yes all our students are wearing their shirts who's up next who wants to share something what do you think tell me what you love about Matt Workshop or just tell me what you love about being at West um come on you got what do you think what I like about math math workshops is that you get to like um go on your computers and do fra reflex or like drain box whatever you're on and the um those online programs [Music] [Applause] [Music] are talk about reflex Lea Lea come tell us how do you you know when you're done with your reflex come tell us you can answer that what do you have to do every day in order to be done with reflex you have to get something on the computer on
053the table what do you have to do you have to get your green light here stand up on the chair so we can see you like man careful you have to get your green light your green light what Lea means is you have to be on the program and work through the facts for about 15 to 20 minutes and then the syst says that you're good for the day that you've done n work with backs so if you get your green light that helps us with our 90% And and increasing right very [Music] nice on either tell me what you love about West or tell me your favorite math Workshop station in Mississippi you choose your favorite station what you love I like math work up cuz I get to do fourth grade math yeah
054so what kind of fourth grade math are you doing like I got pass um I don't know how to describe I got pass four digit time one digit multiplication yeah good for you so now you're continuing to to do more with that so Noel shared she just already mastered four digigit by on digigit multiplication as a third grade and I personally taught fourth grade and I know that that already for me was a fourth grade skill so good for you so another example of how math Workshop allows Mrs Smith to help you continue growing right amazing nice [Music] job so that's everything that I would have for um for our students um are there any other questions that you all might have for for myself or for our kids yes so you were talking about
055a vertical team so do you have a team in place to work with the staff at uh Oaktown as a transition from fourth to fifth grade in terms of continuing this good practice with Oaktown being new this year it was a lot of wait you know wait and see how their system goes so what we're excited about is I I think we're in the process of aligning our curricular tools a little bit better from K4 through fifth and sixth next year fifth grade and sixth grade we're using different things um what I mentioned reflex too Brian Moulder had already shared with us that he doesn't feel that reflex is a necessity next year for Oaktown because of the work that the elementaries have put in to help the kids Master their facts so fra is
056another system that is B is fractions based right so that might be something that the kids are using um so yeah there's that EB and flow back and forth between buildings the vertical team oakst toown Etc on what's what's best for our kids as they going up cool yeah I have a question for the kids for the students so I'm Mr Wonder Jim's dad why didn't say that what do you guys like best about Mr Wonder Jim oh that was a quick in the mail because we didn't really get to do this with Mr Moulder but on the morning um announcements we do one every week um every Monday um he always does a riddle for the week that um the students try to solve in the next he always gives us a new one
057and and tells us the answer to the last one and he also goes would you rathers every week so um yeah he makes those announcements really fun nice Leila I'm never going to forget your name now though um because it's nice no that's very acceptable thanks guys yes our riddle for the week was ask yeah the riddle for last week was what goes up and down but never moves my my answer to that was a staircase last year I did that and it was the temperature that was a good one um this week's is what tastes better than it smells and my hint was this is not a food you okay I think I actually know it well it's too early in the week you can't show say when they want to know us just
058a whisper because then everyone else will know yes so that is everything that is going on at West Elementry great work with math so very proud of her and congrats on the Krabby trophy guys that's all from your hard work so good job there yes crabby trop great job excellent job so thanks kids and thanks Mr Wonder Jim I hope you don't plan on instilling dad jokes into the morning thing stick with the riddles and my my my bit in between a was Dad okay well there you go I like that I I do the dad jokes at home and my wife looks at me says you know you're not not in elementary anymore it's not funny the adults laugh ah yeah but thank you so much good job appreciate it so uh I have
059a little more uh that i' like to mention I'd like to thank the 19 people who uh applied for our vacant Board of Ed position I would like to thank Mary Gunther for being one of two finalist uh and interviewing yet again at the kisd um and I you know Mary I I had a chance to tell Amy she was our person and I had a chance to tell Mary that she didn't get this opportunity and like she has in the past she handled that with class so I just like to to commend her for that I would like to thank Amy uh and congratulate her in case you're wondering why isn't she sitting up here uh what'll happen next is we'll set up a time with her uh very soon she has to take
060the oath of office um I am a lot of things but I am not a notary so uh we have people in our office who are and so she'll take the oath of office and uh we'll have some great conversation but uh just really appreciate uh her willingness and looking forward to her time on this board so very excited about that so here we are we have a new board member our seventh completing that once again um my question to you you the Granville Board of Education and the citizens of Granville including myself is now what we have a choice we can continue operating as we have since the challenging days of covid expressing opinions some of them online uh picking political sides even though we are supposed to be nonpartisan trying to prove the
061other side wrong and refusing to understand those whose beliefs may differ from ours or we can get back to focusing on treating each other with the respect each of us deserves while we make the world a better place for our kids when you first selected me as your superintendent a decade ago this board set aside personal beliefs for the greater good of our students our staff our school system and our community you would never have guessed that many members came from one side of the aisle or the other side that simply did not matter What mattered was how we treated each other with mutual respect we disagreed yes but always found a path forward that was best for our students and for our community after those tough conversations there was no resentment decisions were made
062and we stood unified so what has changed well we all know the world has changed we as a school district are a microcosm of the broader world a world shaped by families by social media by politicians and groups that used to come together for the common good in our case we serve a community of of diverse adults but in truth our primary responsibility is to serve every student who comes through our doors and honestly I cringe when I think about how they might perceive our performance in fulfilling that Duty you must all be sick of this I know I am the good news is we can change this moving forward we don't have to follow the chaos of society with all of its bickering and divisions instead we can focus on why we are really
063here and on what we all have in common because after all we have far more in common than we sometimes realize we all want what's best for our kids and our families we also love this place in which we live or we simply wouldn't be here let let return to a place where we can be proud of our Collective accomplishments and we have so many accomplishments you heard them already so I ask you the people I serve what will it be how will we move forward we have an incredible opportunity to unite and make Grandville what it once was and what it can be in the future I'll never forget the first event I ATT attended here after I became your superintendent my son was with me and when I asked him what he thought
064about Grandville he said it's a larger Community than we're used to but more united than I've seen anywhere they have their priorities straight and it shows as your leader and as a fellow citizen I'm asking each of you to put personal opinions and differences aside for the greater good of our kids they need us now more than ever and only by coming together as one can we give them the best I trust and believe in each and every one of you and I truly want what's best for the greater good I hope you feel the same thanks for listening thank you all right thank you for that um any old business old business business all right uh number four consent action agenda can you get a motion so moved support all those in favor yes
065yes opposed motion passes um and then regular action agenda the 2020 2024 2025 budget amendment can I get a motion so begin yeah support um you don't want to read the recommendation oh I [Music] apologize all right it is recommended the Board of Education approve of resolution within the 2024 2025 amended budget booklet as presented for the general fund can I get a motion so moved support Heather's here to answer any questions you may have uh good evening so we're going to spend a little bit of time tonight on um what's page three on the bottom of mine um the resolutions are on pages one and [Music] two so um really what I want to I want to touch on is um the the revenue and I I do want to go down by section
066so just because I want to make sure that everybody has an understanding of what is in each section and the reason for either an increase or a decrease um when it comes to local sources the majority of our local sources are from um the taxes that we collect in the summertime um and we've seen growth in this area to the tune upwards of um probably on average 6% % over the last however many years um I talked with those at the Kent ISD who are in similar positions and roles that I do and they said that Kent County while they haven't released it has a preliminary number of countywide that it's a little over um 6% going into this next year that doesn't mean that it'll be 6% for Granville it might be slightly different
067but um so that's what we're looking at there uh regarding State sources whenever you're um Tech base goes up so your local Revenue goes up that does have a slight offset to your state aid and that's formula driven based on proposal a um but the largest um decline there in our state revenue was um if you remember the 31aa money which was Safety and Security and Mental Health Services Etc um when the new budget was approved they um had cut that significantly uh there is a supplemental budget that we should receive um in April is what we're hearing now um that will give money back to that which it is included in that uh 54 million I did add it back in this amendment um but it's only half of what the original that initial
068amount was and then if we jump down to federal sources well it is slightly better than what had proposed in um last June um it's not anywhere near what it was as you can see the last three years of actual and again that has to do with and we we I know we've talked about this we've talked about it a lot as an admin team too it's those Co dollars falling off um and incoming transfers a lot of that is our act 18 funds which is also um based on property tax values but that comes to us through the K ISD and those are up as well so um kind of flat there a little bit up a little bit from last year and then the other is the indirect transfer from our food service
069fund um which we're estimating will be somewhere around 200,000 um like it was last year so Revenue um down from 23 24 and down um from proposed budget um basically on the state side of things State a side of things um when we look at expenditures when we talk instruction and basic B basic programs that's everything that it is our K12 costs um from the instruction side so those in the classro um and then added needs is all the special ed the special ed costs as well so we do still have some grants left that um Dr Mel and I have worked on um and so when you see some of those changes between like added needs and uh pupil Services some of that has to do with what's allowable in that Grant and how
070can we shift people to make it to make it work um so overall when you J jump down under uh Support Services you have um you know pupil assistant you have other instructional staff which it it tends to be more like your lunchroom playground um your general admin and then your school admin and you can see as we we go down the different departments Central uh includes um things like Athletics and um uh Human Resources Etc so and our community services so that's our community ad program a lot of that should be a wash although um pools are no fun intended never a wash when you're when you're maintaining an rning pools so um and then some small trans I'm sorry pardon the pun right yeah sorry about the pun um well you John started
071it you just tie into it I understand um so overall this amendment we're bringing tonight um looking at $828,000 deficits compared to the 946 um you can see how like in the proposed budget this number here this fund balance is based off of the final budget that was brought to you and we came in a little bit better at the 8,25 versus the 7,866 so um that's why this is the the new number here for balance as of Ju I one um brings us down to 7.1 million or 8.46% which is still slim yes yeah like we don't want it to get any Slimmer yeah we're working hard um to there's some onetime costs in here right we we opened a building we opened Oaks understand you know I mean don't get me wrong there
072was also some savings right when you ever take two grade levels and consolidate them into one place you're able to to get some savings there as well um but yeah so I mean that's something we're working hard at okay no what are the options to grow that fun balance I what are the options Revenue yeah well um I mean I think you want to be you want to be careful you want to um you want to look at Staffing but you like to try to stay away from just slashing across the board so I think that's why I say when we're when we're having a lot of conversation we're talking about that um internally we're looking at you know what are our nice toavs versus our need to haves we have some software programs that
073were put in place during Co that um we're looking at right like good you know so I mean we're looking at our expenditures it's hard to generate Revenue I mean I mean other than I mean we already take schools a choice but we can open the floodgates and you're just you still don't you know from your to year know what you're necessarily um going to get there I think we we do a pretty good job of through our School of Choice um I mean we lose from Fall to Spring every year and you roll back around to the next spring and we typically a little bit in the fall um but I think our School of Choice numbers that we've been opening for do a good job of of covering that loss from the fall
074following spring and then we think we always still have to think about just birth rates in general right because I mean people are just leaving Michigan yes and and to that point um I mean even in the budget the uh the state's budget um the next three years it's drastic for the number of students that they're projecting right so um I think when when you look at what you're doing is you've been adjusting the levers just right because the picture is not Rosy anymore right and it's it's it's it's cyclical it's the bell curve it's your bio rhythms it's you got it up and it's going to go down and um I think we I think the administration did an exceptional job during Co um especially with all the erer funds and now to try
075to slowly parachute to a level we can try and manage and ward off any significant uh negative effects to the district I think this shows we adjusting it really good thank you and like it I know I bring the budget and I talk about it um but it's it's not it's not even just our cabinet right getting together we get together with our admin team and it's nice because like they may see something through a lens slightly different than I do right so um I just I think we just really collaborate very well on bringing this to you yeah I appreciate that I mean and I appreciate your answer about looking at those programs right that we put in because I when we were here a year we talked about that and we said hey
076you know we we're able to spend a lot during that Co time and now we got to start figuring out what's working and what's not and it and it was right for kids right it's what kids needed yep absolutely but it's time now we got to you know start looking at what's working and what's not and make those decisions so great has the staff in general been kind of given the picture it's time to start tightening our belts a little bit what can you do to help I remember when I was teaching you know ask to really think about how many copies do I have to make that kind of thing I mean I know it's pennies but all that kind can add up I chuckle because I have sent out the copy email yeah
077we talked about we we've talked about like conferences and PD and and we yes and again we really focus on that you know nice to have versus need to have and so when you like software is great if you're using them right and then there's that Allin everybody's using it and then over time we don't really need it anymore because it it doesn't serve that same purpose and so I guess that's the best example other than the copies that I have of of that but um yeah we have we've talked a lot about that MH I think uh you know we put our money during covid into our greatest resource people we hired people to support our staff and supporting our kids and we've been fortunate over time uh thus far where we've been able
078to through attrition been able to uh maintain that at a a very high level um the forecast uh I don't you know and I know I gave you an update um you know it it's I I you know I think Bob said it you know it does go up and down and I think we're heading into a time that isn't going to be as up as it's been and um you know we are trying to look at for our near future um you know ways that we knowing we're not going to more than likely have that Revenue anymore that we've had you know how can we to the fullest extent do what we need to do for kids while at the same time um you know uh abandon things that aren't necessarily working or if
079there are things that are nice to have and we were able to have those how do we prioritize and and to the best of our ability but make no mistake our greatest resources are people and we try to do everything we can to have people working with our kids we've hired quality people to do that and we're going to continue to do that but you know I gave you the analogy you know last year it was sprinkling I think I even said it in a board meeting um and used that analogy uh right now looking at the forecast for next year while we don't have a concrete budget and we probably won't for some time um we do see where it's a steady rain it's not pouring but it's a steady rain so we all
080need to be cautious in how we're uh spending our money make sure they're they're on our greatest resource to support our kids and to make sure that um we don't do things because we've always done them we we do the right things and we abandon things that um you know aren't working or things that you know maybe were a little more nice to have during that time I know there are other districts that are sitting on 20 25% fund balances and I'm not going to speak to how they're there but I think my question would be is if right now now you have a 20 or 25% fund balance what didn't you do that we did for kids during Co and continue to do I bet you'd find a lot okay all right any other
081questions any other discussion all right it's a motion right yeah yeah so it's a roll call uh vote hibore yes stus yes Guardian yes danan yes vanck yes Wonder J yes passes nice job thanks Heather thanks Heather all right on the public comment I've got five five slips here Mr danan will keep time you'll have five minutes to address the we're going to start off with Jeff Johnston and on Deck is kayy janson's evening members of the board fellow Grandville parents friends and neighbors I'm pleased first of all tonight to uh learn that Amy Campbell will fill the vacant board seat uh but I'm not naive enough to think that maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all of our students is a given as a result I think it would be foolish to take
082that for granted when we know there are people putting their hopes in presidential directives that aim to root out some of the basic and essential protections our students rely on I find that ironic since some of the same people like to use phrases like local control or parent rights to push back against ideas from Washington that they don't like much comes back to this term that opponents keep trying to paint as somehow Sinister Dei and as long as some are going to keep harping on it as a plague I'm going to keep holding it up as a cure for ills like the deep-seated mistrust that many of us struggle with when we see people as different from ourselves it's worth considering what the president means when he goes about stamping out Dei just yesterday we
083learned that the Department of Defense not only removed a profile of Vietnam War Medal of Honor recipient Charles Rogers from its website but that the now defunct link has the letters Dei appended to the web address Rogers was black and that's enough to get him labeled and erased anyone needing help understanding the need for diversity equity and inclusion might consider my favorite current example this book from 2007 uh Committee of VIPs and professionals from the Grand Rapids area put it together to promote Grand Rapids and the larger community of Kent Ottawa moske and counties professional quality coffee table book uh Rich DeVos is named as as author you know so we've got big names here and it starts with 200 pages of photos showcasing West Michigan dining Arts beaches Parks festivals businesses churches you name
084it it's great stuff and if you were to ask The Talented photographers designers and editors who put this together I'm sure they would tell you that they chose the best content the best on Merit alone but even though this three count region is home to about 90 excuse me 92,500 black people and even though there are thousands of people in these 200 pages of photos not one black man is among them not one black family is anywhere to be seen in 200 Pages the few people who look to be non-white are mostly costume dancers and performers this is what happens when people with privilege and power claim that they pick the best on Merit and don't see color they are apt to neither look for it nor choose it nor even notice it in plain
085sight de I is not some weird subversive code it stands for three ordinary words meaning that we all deserve the same shot at success and a place at the table meaning that no one should be denied a fair chance or rendered invisible because of someone else's narrow Vision meaning that it's to our mutual benefit to welcome everyone's priorities perspectives and solutions I want to leave you with one takeaway tonight stop using the short hand it's too easy to pin ulterior motives on some cryptic sounding anagram or acronym but you should think harder about what you're standing against when you come out against diversity when you oppose Equity or when you reject inclusion thank you Kaye Jansen is up next and on Deck Adam Bush hi um I just want to thank you guys for passionately
086serving our community um thank you for working hard uh just looking at that financial report was anxiety and deing I don't know how you guys do it um especially with everything that's going on um you're amazing um thank thank you for making decisions that support all of our children I know I didn't really get to like celebrate with you guys in January I found out a little too late um January was school board appreciation month but um like I said thank you and thank you Miss Campbell because I am looking forward to seeing someone with such an extensive background and mental health on this board this is going to be amazing I hope this is an Awesome chapter for you and for our community up next Adam Bush on Deck Pete hibore I was originally
087coming up here simply to show some love and support for Bob Joe and Brent because wow you guys really took a beating at that last meeting that was brutal and the beatings continue online as we speak so for what it's worth guys I appreciate what you do and for staying true to your convictions I know it's tough when they come at you like that so stay strong stay true you are not alone and I was going to leave it at that until I recently saw the candidate rankings that each of you provided to Roger holy smokes talk about the pot calling the cattle black you other three up there along with a handful of your unhinged supporters continue to break these guys based on how they rank their candid choices but Sally Jason Amy you
088did the same exact thing Amy you even stated publicly after the vote that you gave extra points to anyone who previously ran for school board how many extra points could you possibly have given Mary Gunther if you only ranked her 17 out of 19 how about you Sally because you also ranked her 17 out of 19 and Jason you ranked Mary 19 out of 19 last place really do you three honestly believe that Mary Gunther is that qualified that unfit to serve on this board bottom of the barrel worst of the bunch or is this more so because she ran against two of you in the last election or perhaps because she has apparently garnered support from such extreme groups as Ottawa impact or moms for liberty or Grandville parents for Education the truth is
089that you ranked her that ridiculously low because you knew the other three board members would probably rank her high and you did what you had to to offset her score board members I can appreciate different viewpoints but I don't appreciate dishonesty or double standards as the saying goes what's good for the goose is good for the gander so Kettle collar of the board you can get off your high horses and stop being so judgmental your hypocrisy is oozing and there was nothing objective about your candidate selections your decisions were made before those interviews even started and it was strictly political don't pretend otherwise up next someone who should be home studying because he has senioritis Pete hbor on Deck Alan Traxler I I think I got all my homework done actually okay good that's Fant
090um so uh two weeks ago I came here to talk about well I talked about uh our conduct but um before that I addressed you guys and uh concerns to the um um the freedom writer we're going to bring in on the 25th I the founder and president of the Granville historical society and on March 25th uh we're going to bring in a freedom writer to kind of you know give an overview of his uh of his time on the freedom rights his um his work in like Ministry and like segregated areas of Chicago and um um yeah just like uplifting disenfranchised Youth and yeah so I mean I have I have DET details now um I'd say again you know connect with my dad about you know if you're very interested it it's going
091to happen from like 9:00 to I'd say 12: so obviously if you're interested at all on the 25th please show up I I'd be very honored to that invitation extends to you Mrs Campbell um and yeah so um I would like to note that um after I spoke about our general conduct uh concerning the um oh the vacan SE I um I received a lot of in-person interaction uh at school specifically um it and to my surprise it was there was a lot of people who I I guess I didn't know follow School Board um policy or who haven't even really talked to me that much who came up to me and said thank you for saying that I think I think Roger brought up a really good point when he um um when he
092said how are we going to move forward from this the students of Granville high school they see this they're not all here but they're watching two days weeks later and they understand what's going on so I guess I I don't and I don't I know if it's a lack of like uh just perspective on like who's watching but people are watching I think with the addition of Mrs Campbell I think hopefully we can move in a better direction thank you and it's Mr barup please thank you all right oh sorry Pete I'll just say my favorite one of my favorite coaching moments is still you hitting a home run and I you're were probably in third grade I think get it to the fence and right field Alan trackler hello and good evening um the
093robo dogs recently I believe had some funding cut um sorry if I'm not up on all the details I believe may have been Federal funding um I was a little surprised that the funding was even used cuz I I well first of all my ignorance I didn't know that some of that was used and disappointed that it got cut so surprised that it was in play surprised it got cut and then disappointed uh cuz any kind of cut from any program you need to make that up so the parents might have to step up we might have to do some more fundraising we might have to do some possible personal donations I'm fortunate enough that we can contribute in those ways Maybe by participating in fundraising maybe donating um but I know not everybody can
094do that uh I hope the value of robo dogs is appreciated by the board and by the community um from the way I see it the kids get a chance to program so they get to learn a programming language because the robots run on like different kinds of code and they get to build a robot they get to plan it out and do lots of practicing so the skills there are you know some science some technology some engineering and I thought that kind of stuff was really valued um let uh not everybody values art and music um so giving that this cut occurred I'm concerned about future program Cuts in funding for other extracurriculars um and I know that some sports are also more valued than other sports um so I just have my own
095personal concerns about what could be occurring in the future um I have a request that maybe the board could uh prepare for future Cuts in some ways regarding um extracurriculars uh cuz some some more may be coming and it's best to have a plan uh to prepare ahead of time rather than be caught flat footed so uh thank you for your consideration and um the they they all did wonderful seeing them play at the state championship was was it was incredible it's it's a well-run program and I hope all of you value it thank you thank you all right that concludes our meeting the next regular board meeting of the Grandville Board of Education will be Monday April 21st so in four weeks or so after spring break at 7:00 p.m. at the administration building
096um happy St Patrick's Day we are a jour