001Okay, we'll call the regular board meeting to order for the Caloni Community Schools May 19th regular meeting. Join us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let's call the rules. Garcia here. Randal here. Collins here. Eich here. Con here. Morris here. Nicholls uh Jennifer had given me advanced notice that she would not be here tonight back in mid-March. She's on uh a vacation. Okay, we'll move on to public comment. Board recognizes the value of the community comment and educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express their views. Please limit your statements to three minutes. Participants should direct all comments to the board and
002not to staff or other participants. No person may address or question a board member individually. The board cannot accept public comment regarding personnel issues. All personnel issues are referred to the superintendent for resolution. Remarks should be made in respectful professional manner, which I I know is always the case. So we thank you for that. Our first person for public comment is Christina Donaldson. Good evening. Uh my name is Christina Donaldson and I am here before you once again as a concerned parent. If you recall, my last address to the board was back in March of 2025, and I requested a followup from the board regarding concerns of fate uh free and appropriate public education being provided uh to my son, Daniel, a 10th grade student who was non-verbal with an IEP. If you were not
003in attendance, I highly encourage you to go back and review the public comment. Since then, I have not received any response um from the district or followup in reference to my request. In spite of my many advocacy efforts, though some progress has occurred, uh we remain challenged in finding common ground in a number of areas. When I reflect back on my notes from 2023, I do see a common thread. Examples include, but are not limited to, teachers and staff remain nervous and fearful to openly support the student often um silence in meetings. Teachers and case managers have limited restriction um communication with the parent and parent is instructed to speak with administration regarding my son's education. There has been a continued denial of request and services. And last, but certainly not least, we continue to
004require meeting after meeting, year after year. For the past few years, we've held over 25 meetings, often scheduled for up to four hours that include a large uh team up to 8 to 10 people, building principal, multiple um district administrators, teachers, and staff, and also the district's legal counsel and attorneys. Um these 25 meetings um add up to a lot up to about a 100 hours per person uh for both time for staff and legal counsel. That's up to about a,000 hours of staff and legal legal counsel's cost and time which the average attorney's cost is up to $400 per hour. This is a lot of time vested and obviously money put into fighting what I consider against providing a better education for this student that could and should have been used to provide resources
005and opportunities that are readily available and at the fingers at at the district's fingertips. I was shocked and appalled as a parent during a meeting this last month that left two attorneys and one attorney lay utterly speechless as a district administrator stood up, pointed her finger at me, and addressed me with an elevated tone of expression as if I was a child. Our meetings have turned from being student centered and focused to often feeling like a courtroom drama and a personal attack on on a parent that is advocating and seeking for the best interest of their child. I leave you with a statement, two statements, um, from recent articles. A statement from a recent, uh, special education teacher, and I'm almost done, um, from a special education teacher here in Kent County who recently resigned.
006She states, "Putting all the pressure on teachers is how islands are created. That's how you isolate teachers and burn them out." She goes on to say that I can't in good conscience continue to participate in a system that is not only disrespecting me by adding to my case load but also compromising the education of students that I come to love so much. A second article from the special education um group. When a school district weaponizes its authority against a parent advocating for their child's best interest and basic rights, it erodess the public's trust and violates both moral and legal obligations. The emotional toll this takes on a family is immeasurable. But legally, the implications are even more farreaching. We must hold institutions and individuals accountable. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Steve Fruerstein. Did I
007say that right? Close. I'm trying to get it right. How do you say your last name? Firestein. Fire. Firestein. Was way off. That wasn't close. I didn't choose it. I was born with it. I understand. Um I have some comments about the proposal for the trail head parking. Um, I'm not speaking for just myself. I'm speaking to represent all the residents of the village that are opposed to this. I have two points to make. The first point is the only explanation that has been offered that I have ever heard is that this is for uh to accommodate the village merchants who have requested more parking. If there is any other explanation, I would sure like to hear it. There are approximately 10 merchants who may be served by this proposal. Heavy emphasis on the word
008may. Today there are more than 100 petition signatures that have been gathered by those who oppose the proposal and that number is growing. That translates to more than 10 to one not in favor. 10 to one. Isn't that kind of overwhelming? Point two is benefits. Can anyone explain how this proposal is of any benefit for those who are not village merchants? And what about benefits for the schools, especially the students? Many students of all ages frequently use a section of the trail that will be affected by this proposal. For the school board to allow this proposal to be implemented, surely there must be some benefit for the students. What are those benefits? How does this benefit the students? To those who might say the proposal does not affect any trail user, I would say it's
009not wise to force trail users to navigate an automobile parking lot, especially for trail users that are young children. Um, lastly, where where is the uh for this proposal? Where is the document that clearly defines the purpose, objectives, and the CL costs along with the supporting documents? I haven't seen it. I don't know anybody who has seen it. Does it even exist? What is this all about? Why are we doing this? What's it going to buy us? What does it accomplish? And what this boils down to for me is that a bet of more than $100,000 is being considered for a proposal that hasn't even been defined. We don't even know what the requirements are. Um, one of the most probably the single most frustrating thing is the non-existent transparency and communications from everybody involved,
010the village council, uh, school board, there's been almost no communication. And that fuels mistrust and the belief that what are they hiding? Why aren't they telling us these things? Um the village council has said, "We're not sharing and telling you uh information because we don't have any." Well, tell us that you don't have any and tell us why you don't have any and when are you going to have information? Um this this whole thing is just terribly frustrating. Um thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Firestein. Next is Jeffrey Guzmirez. Oh, do I have to? Is that right? Did I say that right? Kushmir. That's good enough. Kushmir. Thank [Music] you. I love this what we have here. I just have to comment. These are the most intelligent, considerate people that I've seen in
011the way you conduct yourselves. Accolades and this isn't false accolades because I really do appreciate professionalism in whatever anyone does because that's what we should do. We should take our positions and utilize them for the good of the purpose we serve which is the community and the ser and the students etc. Excellent board you've conducted with the way you conduct yourself when people are speaking and giving them just that extra few minutes. We just had an episode at the village council where they've decided to cut our public comment minutes to two minutes and at the end of that time during the special meeting for this trail head application, it came out going in a village council meeting. Okay. So, um I want to comment that I have just received I myself and the few people
012in the crowd have just received the application to the DNR for the trail head. Okay. At no time since March now and thank you, Superintendent and Tim, Miss Morris, you've done your responses are are great. Okay. I'm not here to do anything other than to awaken the board to nuances regarding this project and the things that have gone on that are just not totally in light of the public according to our oath. If you think about it, we're we take an oath to our nation and our country, but we also take an oath to serve our administration and the people to do the best at all in an equal and fair manner and give consideration to all aspects of the data presented. Up to this point within recent history, meaning the last couple months, none
013of the public had any clue that this trail head was being in operation and what the program in the background was. There's been talk for years. I've been out here 35 years. There's been talk for years about requiring and needing parking out here. Okay. So in the midst of this time period when we all when I woke and saw this the public notice in the Sun and News was the first notification that I had along with several other neighbors that had any idea that this was happening that they wanted to take the ter trail head grind it up into pieces and put 23 parking spots in and no one's explaining why other than the fact that we need parking. There's a word I like from Hillsdale College. It's imprimus and that's their monthly publication. It's
014Latin for in the first place. And in the first place here, this project would not be typically at this stage of having spent so much of your energy and the village energy and taxpayer dollars going full steam ahead and no one knows about it to counter. I have the package here. It is minus the 79 pages of the fiveyear 10-year plan that was connected to the ax to the end of the download. This is directly from fle and vandenbrink. I have something that the village council did not have to look over. The village council I confirmed Jeff Niles, council member. I asked him specifically, "Did you have this package to review in the midst of making your decision about what you'd like to do with public property and public school property?" You got No, they
015did not have it. I just recently went to the village hall and specific we have they put out Freedom of Information Act things to do that. I go directly to the horse. That's what we live by out here. This is a country environment. Let's talk to each other. Let's inform our inform our friends. Let's talk about what we think we're going to spend our valuable money on. It's not just a in space that money goes anywhere. There's not enough information given to any of us. Number one, it's our tax money. It's township tax money. It's state tax money. It just doesn't come from someone else. It comes from each and every one of us. I pay village taxes. I am a business owner in the village. I would like I'm going to get on to
016other tax with this. But consuming this package brought me totally incon in a certain level of confusion about how all this came about and how it started. You should know more about what you did. Mr. superintendent did a wonderful job in writing a support of the village and that and that's the accolades for supporting each other but the reasons why this has come about is not clear to anyone here on this board and it's certainly not visible from our own village it wasn't your issue to come to us and communicate to us that you are doing or a partnership and a program but you are key this council is 100% responsible for what happens there. You own the properties. You should be a good guardian of what it is. And that means pro or con
017that you have all of the information inside this packet. Thank you for giving me additional time, President Morris, but this is critical. If you'd like a copy of this, I did the tax roles in the village. The village businesses between Maine and Church contribute $10,000 to the village coffer each year. That's it. $10,000. Okay. You want to spend half a million dollars for what? For more profit for these folks. I understand the trail head. I live on Mil Street. I watch it for the past 12 years. I've been out here 35 years. I see no issue in parking. I see people coming and going off the trail, getting out of their cars, unloading their bikes. I've never seen anybody fighting over a parking spot or having to drive an extra block to get it. Never.
018There's only one time in this village when they need parking. That's when the dance studio is operating and she runs classes every 30 minutes for some x number of students. And that traffic load is unbearable no matter how many parking spaces you have. Okay. The second thing is they want to bring business into the village and more people to use the trail. That's fine. We already have a ton of traffic between the school system and all that. We don't need to bring more business and more traffic into the village. We are a village and that's what it is. It has an inlet and an outlet and that's what it is to try and accommodate the onslaught from M37 businesses in our future. Literally think of this. Tens of thousands of more people traveling that corridor.
019You don't even have to advertise to stop in here. If you're operating your business well and you're doing it, I'll leave with another point. I don't want to go on about this. A couple of things. We will protest this DNR application. and Superintendent Wheel Dryer made it completely clear to the village that in order for them to you to be involved with the village in changing that trail head that they have to have approval from the DNR in order to get the funding from them. We intend to stop that fully, dear board. And it has no it's not a reflection on you. We're happy to share and that's the whole point. Why am I researching all of this? Why are we researching all of this to come to this realization that this information should have
020been given to the public earlier by our village council? And it did not happen. Jeff Niles did not receive this package. I went on Monday, I went Friday, I went in and asked specifically, do you have like all municipalities should in any capital project, any improvement project that there is a copy of that proposal on the table out there or readily available to the public. It wasn't. I had to ask for it. They did not have a copy to hand me, nor did they have a faximile or a digital file. I had to ask for it. She in turn contacted Fleece and Vanderbrink, our good person, Steve Tyranny over there, and he was to send the package. It missed getting air on Friday. That delayed me being able to analyze this for a whole weekend.
021No one's fault. Error on pizza part, but we got it on Monday. And that was the first time that anyone's had their hands on it outside of the count the the engineering people that were serving it to everyone else. You have no idea in content. And just to give you a hint of the content in here, there's a half a dozen. I don't need to hand you anything, but there's a half a dozen. Mr. Kmir, I got to Yeah, I know you got I got to cut your time at this point. I do appreciate your comments. We are not making any decisions until we hear more from the township on this project. I'll say that on behalf of the board right now. Thank you. At some point I would like to have either a special
022meeting or an agenda item this specifically so that we may interact with the board. I graciously thank you for the amount of time we've had here. Thank you very much. Well, thank you. I mean uh next on the list is Sylvia Murphy. Is that correct? Welcome As Jeff said, we are a village. There are 14 businesses in the downtown area approximately. Five of them have their own parking lot. We are surrounded by side streets with unlimited parking. And this parking lot proposal is uh a waste of money and it's very expensive and it's not needed. I want to bring out some other points too. Allergies are a problem. If anybody has allergies uh right now, you can relate uh to the pollen count and you you look at that um daily. And um dust pollution
023is a problem. A lot of kids have allergies from dust. The trail head is a filter for the dust that comes off that grain elevator. And anyone who lives in the village will tell you that there is a lot of dust that come off there. It's on our cars. It's on our porch furniture, on our windows. It's it's dirty dust. And those trees when they have their leaves filter the dust. They catch it. If those trees are uh eliminated, and there's probably more than, you know, in that parking lot area, probably 60 trees. If they're all eliminated, the dust will be free to move. It be heavier. It'll move through the neighborhoods and pe more people will be exposed to this dust pollution. Another point, um, we made it before, this is a walled parking
024lot. You cannot see from either side what's going on. Great place for a crime to happen. A child abduction, a car theft, drug sales. It's very possible in this enclosed parking lot that's proposed. Um then finally, I'd like to end with uh we live in a stressful world. Uh children and adults are stressed. We need a place to go to calm down at the end of the day. And it's nice to be able to have a trail, a nature trail right there to calm your soul, body, and spirit and u a peaceful place where you're surrounded by God's creations and to enjoy. And we have a real gem there at the trail head. And we want to keep the trail head a natural trail head and not a parking lot. Thank you. Thank you for
025your comment. Moving on to item six, consent agenda for a April 21st, 2025 regular board meeting, May 13 committee of the whole meeting, April 20 25 payables, and May 2025 personnel report. Is there a motion? I move that the board of education approve the consent agenda as presented. Second, discussion see Garcia, yes. Brando, yes. Collins, yes. Eich, yes. Con, yes. Morris, yes. Moving on to item seven. Superintendent report. All right. Thank you. We've got several things to report to you on tonight and we'll begin with Dr. Diaz who's going to give an overview of the mirror program. We talked a little bit about this in the committee, but just uh to provide a little bit more information on that and then she'll also just quickly provide a wellness committee update and I'll be handing it
026to Sarah for that. Forgot about that. Yes. Um, so Mera is an opportunity for us to expand our Would you use your microphone there after picked up? Yes. Is that better? Um, Mera is a program for our middle school students to begin uh receiving exposure to manufacturing and other types of trades uh ahead of the high school experience where they have more opportunities through Kent ISD's KCTC program as well as um the um prime recent grant that we received for the high school to expand those manufacturing opportunities and giving students an opportunity to earn earn certifications prior to leaving high school so that they are uh job and employment ready. So, we're very excited to be working with Kent ISD under a grant. um they will provide the lab for our students with the equipment
027as well as training for our teacher and um we'll start this next fall with a single elective opportunity and then we will navigate the following year um to create that full STEM offering of five hours a day uh for students to be able to experience this program. Any questions? Yeah, we just are very grateful to Ken ISD for uh looking to us to be one of the two districts in the county to uh be uh starting out this new program. So, we're very excited about that. Provide more opportunities. All right, Miss Dere. All right, just giving um a wellness committee update from the work that the committee did this year. Um a little background on the wellness committee because we participate in the national school breakfast and lunch program. This is one of the requirements
028that we have is to have a wellness committee. Um and part of the work that we're to do is to really look at um specific to our district. What are the things that we can do to help promote um wellness with our um students and with our families. Um we know that that um really impacts instruction as well. Um the key areas that we look at are are housed around nutrition and also physical activity. So um as part of the committee we have different members on the committee that represents different stakeholder groups including some teachers, administrators, um school health professionals, board member, um parents. So we met about three times this year and as part of that work we looked at our current goals. We then aligned our goals to our trienal assessment tool. Another
029requirement is to really each once a minimum once every three years is to go through this trienal assessment tool to monitor our goals that we have and how we're coming along with those and and provide all these documents to um we put on our website. Um so this year we aligned our goals so it matched with our trienal assessment and then we also looked at things um how we're doing on our goals, what can we add. So, a few areas that I was just going to highlight tonight um that we're excited to be adding. One, we already implemented a bit is getting out information to our families on what are some good um healthy snack ideas. So, providing that um information in a easy flyer, what are some good like quick backpack snack ideas, snack
030ideas for families um that just are healthier options so parents don't have to always think about, oh, what am I going to give now? So, just something to help. And then um another idea from our food service department is we're going to start next year with promoting what is called um a moo food mood boost foods. And this is um ideally at the younger levels but then introducing them to um different foods. Um what that what are the benefits of those? for instance like blueberries would be highlighted pictures of blueberries out kind of promoting what are the positive effects of of this food group encouraging kids to try something new and what are the you know what things can they see from trying these new foods. So just kind of getting the promotion out there
031and some education out there to our students. So we're excited about that. So all these documents will be posted on our website and then we'll pick up this work again next year and continue on. So this just each year we'd like to give an update to our board and our community of what's what's going on. Any questions? Questions? Will the full list of mood improving foods be on the website? We can add that on there. Yes, I'd like to see that. Exactly. We all need that from Yes. All right. A few other updates for you then uh this evening. Um first of all um just to mention that uh here we are coming to the end of the school year and so last week on Wednesday night it was wonderful to have our senior recognition
032night where 184 members of the class of 2025 were recognized for academic achievement uh with a variety of awards and scholarships. So uh that was a wonderful wonderful thing to see from outstanding class the class of 2025. Tomorrow night, of course, is commencement, 7 o'clock at Calvin College. So, we look forward to that. It's just the highlight of the year for sure. Um, also, as we uh wrap up the end of the year, just a quick note that we have had a couple of um athletes qualify for the state track and field uh championships. So, uh in Discus, Cody Myers placed third in the regionals and Hannah Dwi finished second in the 3200 meter run. So, uh, they will both be moving on to, uh, the state finals and that will take place on the
03331st of May at East Kentwood. Um, then also just a couple of other things. Uh, we'd be remiss if we didn't just really thank our community for their outstanding support of our nonhomestead election and, uh, the renewal of that millillage um, passed with more than 64% of the vote. So very grateful for that endorsement from our community and uh we look forward to continuing to serve the community well. Um we also on the subject of finances I want to just uh quickly provide an update on uh the revenue conference that uh happened last Friday and just give you a little bit of information about that. I shared some things but I think we need to just uh we'll throw this up here and uh give you a few uh background things and then if you
034have any questions be happy to answer those. So what the consensus revenue estimating conference is this happens twice a year in lancing and uh they do that in January and May. If it's a year where things are kind of odd they will sometimes add a third uh one of these but what they're trying to do is track where revenues are coming in uh through for the state. And of course that's important. That's crucial because that's what drives the state budget and uh based on uh the various different kinds of revenues they have that can vary. Uh income taxes could be uh changing through the course of a year uh sales tax if sales tank if the economy is bad you could have an impact on those sorts of revenues. So they try to bring together
035they do bring together the house fiscal agency, Senate fiscal agency and the state treasures office uh to look at those revenues and they reach a consensus on where they see things currently and where they predict those things will be going. Keep in mind that the state's fiscal year runs from October 1st to September 30th where ours of course runs from July 1st. So they're a little bit offset from where we are. But there's one in May that was held last Friday is particularly important because it establishes the official uh assumptions and numbers that they will be used they will be using preparing next year's budget. Of course uh again their fiscal year doesn't start till October but they need to provide these numbers to us as soon as possible because we're required to have a
036budget in place next month and uh while that's you know only partway through their budget year. So these this is a very important number uh and yet it isn't final kind of ever because these uh revenues vary all the way along. So um we in looking at this year's budget process uh while uh we are supposed to have a budget in place we must have one in place by June 30th uh the state has in recent years really tried to target having numbers to us by July 1st. um they do not seem to be nearly as far along in that process this year as they usually are at this time and that's probably in large part due to the return of split party control in Lancing. Um typically by now the House, the Senate and
037the governor have all put out their budget proposals. Um as of uh the last I have seen, the House has not yet put out their full budget proposal. They passed a sort of emergency thing back in March, but that was only if a budget can't be resolved by October 1st. So, uh, the Senate did put out their version, uh, a week or two ago, and the governor of course is the first thing that came out in February. So, um, usually by now, uh, getting these numbers, they are deep into negotiations. Um, that hasn't even really started yet and the House hasn't even put out their plan to negotiate from. So uh we will see how this progresses but uh just for our own planning purposes it's making it particularly difficult this year and even more
038guess work than normal uh for us and uh so I would not be surprised if we're coming to you uh here in June with a budget that you know represents our best guesses and then that we will come back again uh once that budget is finally approved in Lancing which frankly I've seen in the past situations like this may not be till August or even later. there was a year it didn't really get past till the end of September which is their kind of drop dead date. So, uh we will see where this progresses from here. All right, but as far as the actual numbers, uh here's what they looked like. And there are two big pots at the state level. The school aid fund is the larger of the two and then the other
039is called the general fund. And uh so looking first at the school aid fund, they're both in the chart on the right, but the little purple box highlights the school a fund's number. So um there the school a fund revenues tend to be a little more stable. Um a lot of them are based on the sales tax and uh particularly in the last couple of months uh with a lot of talk about tariffs. There has been um some really steady purchasing that's been happening uh people potentially trying to get ahead of any the imposition of any tariffs. And so uh sales tax revenue has been uh pretty good. And so that has meant that the school aid fund numbers have been going pretty well for the current year. And then as they're projecting ahead into
040next year, they are um they're taking guesswork based on all the economic factors that they see. And they are projecting that rise to be 2.1% uh next year on the school aid fund side. So in real dollar terms, they are projecting that to be 389 million. So again, that would be from the um from the October 1st, 2025 through September 30 of 2026 time frame that they're looking at there. And so that is what drives our uh our revenue that we would get from the state next year. If you figure uh right now in the state with the number of students that there are um a $100 per student increase in the foundation allowance, that basic amount that we get per student, that costs about $138 million for the state to do. So if everything
041else remained the same in the entire school aid budget, that increase, that 389 million could handle about $282 a student or a 2.9% increase. Um right now um the current proposals that are out on the table that have been uh thrown out so far are all talking far in excess of that for the per student amount. So the governor proposed 4.1% back in February. The Senate just two weeks ago did 4.2% as their proposal. the House back in that uh emergency skeleton budget that they put out uh that was at 4.3% that they were proposing uh back in March. Well, the issue is uh 4.1 or 4.2 or 4.3% when your revenue is only going up 2.1%. Somehow that math doesn't work. So, there's going to be some sorts of gives and takes here. the
042state does have a little bit of uh kind of cash on hand that was carried forward a fund balance like we always talk in terms of so they do have a little bit of money to play with but of course they don't want to spend it all at once. So um this is kind of where we've been thinking uh things we're going to land and we've been talking about for uh the last month or two. So, but just to let you know that that is what came through on Friday and uh so we are waiting to see the full package right if the per student amount goes up 4% where are they pulling expenditures down to balance out at that 2.1 uh increase number. So that's on the school aid fund side. When we look
043on the other side, the general fund which pays for all the other functions of uh state government um they have revised that uh projection downward for the coming year and that is coming after a slight revenue decrease that they're seeing in the current year. So just to clarify that so a year ago uh the revenue was here they are projecting a not even a small increase a decrease in the amount of revenues on the general fund side for the year that we are currently in that will end on September 30th and then for the next year they are planning uh for an increase again but at a 4.3% which uh from the last time they did these projections is quite a significant decrease. You can see uh there's a red number there right to the
044left just to the left of the purple box where you see the number is minus 363.1 that's $363 million less that they are expecting now to get in revenues for the general fund. So while in some senses that doesn't impact schools uh on the other hand it quite often can because uh in many cases in recent years there has been a move to put more and more things that have typically been paid for in the general fund and that's primarily community colleges and universities and to have the K12 school aid fund pick up those costs to the point where we now are pushing a billion dollars a year that comes out of the school aid fund to pay for those expenses that previously were carried in the general fund. So uh while they will they
045the number you see there in real dollar terms go up 620 million is the projection currently on the general fund side they have another hurdle beyond that as well and that is we are coming to the end of the period where road funding in the state has been paid for through bonds through borrowing and uh there was an authorization done by the voters some years ago and that has been paying for the vast majority of all the road projects that have been going on over the last several years and that money is now uh going to be used up. So there is an awful lot of conversation in Lancing right now about how road funding is going to be done moving forward. Uh the kind of amounts that we're talking about are like they're spending
046right now $3 billion on uh road stuff. So you can see that the whole general fund budget's only 15 billion. So um that's a big number to try and add into that budget. And so how will they do that? And that's something that um we're hoping that they do the right thing and that they don't use school money to shift things around and free up more uh money on the roads. Uh but we just don't know at this point and this may add to the difficult negotiations that lie ahead for the state budget. So, just wanted to provide you with that overview of where things stand uh currently and um certainly happy to try and answer any questions you might have about what came out on Friday. Do you know from year to year that
047that school aid fund we have universities being funded, colleges and universities being funded from that? Do we know where that uh how that may have changed? Um so um over the last couple of years that number has stayed pretty steady. Uh essentially 100% of community college funding now is being paid for out of the school aid fund. And uh in the last few years up until I would guess uh I'm going to just operate top of my head here. I think up until 2022 or 2023 um they had been steadily increasing the university number. There is still more room to go on the university side. Um my understanding is that they cannot um have scholarship money uh coming out of the school aid fund because some of that scholarship money goes to students who attend
048private colleges. And so that would not be permitted um out of the school the way the school aid fund language is written, but there are other operational things on the universities that they could still push over yet. And so that's what is of high concern. Thank you. Any questions? Any other questions? It's not about the the Friday, but um what is the logic behind having schools come up with a budget before they give us accurate? You're asking me to give an opinion. Um, so many years ago, uh, it was during Governor Angler's administration that the the state used to have their fiscal year line up with schools. We were all on a July 1st to June 30 fiscal year, and um, there was a one-time uh, adjustment made uh, back there during the Angler years,
049and I don't remember exactly what year it was, but they extended their fiscal year that year, and there were reasons, but I don't really know what they were. And so that has made us in this offset position uh ever since. Uh we are required by law to have a new budget in place before our next fiscal year begins as you would expect. Uh but that's the problem is too way too frequently we don't even know what those numbers are going to be. And so that the state budget number is one big element. And then the other of course is the uh the student count number which we do not know the bulk of that until the first week in October. So yeah we that's why we have to budget conservatively and why we have to
050uh look at our past trends and all those sorts of things and that's more that we will be continue to work on next month as we come to you with that budget proposal. So logic, I don't know. What else? Okay, I got a couple other things in uh to bring you up to date on not budget related. Uh first of all, in just a few minutes, we're going to talk about the Kent ISD board election. So, um just so that um you all look through those uh things, of course, the two names that are up as candidates for Kent ISD board are David Drake and Laura Featherston. So, uh when it comes time to make that motion, those would be names if the board is uh inclined. Those would be the two names. David Drake
051and Laura Featherston are the two candidates for two positions that have submitted the necessary petitions for the Kent ISD board. And then of course as part of that um the board will be needing to appoint a member of this group to go represent the board at that election um which will take place on June the 2nd. And there also need to be an an alternate appointed. So we had talked about this briefly at committee. I didn't know if anybody was willing to volunteer uh to put their name forward for that. So when we get there, we know how to do the motion. Anybody in there there? There has been uh Jessica's is volunteered to step up as delegate. Thank you very much. And to avoid me appointing anyone else, Jen has decided to step in
052as the alternate. So thank you, Jen. Of course, if anybody else wants to, you can throw your name and fight over it, but that would be great. Those would be the two names. Uh, then that would stick in there. Or a second alternate. Yeah, sure. All right. And then, um, let's see. I got to make sure I've covered everything. I do have one other thing to, uh, discuss. Yes. And so, uh, we, uh, in a few minutes, we'll have, uh, a water main authorization, um, action item, uh, down the road. We've continued to uh work on this issue and appreciate uh Calonia Township and trying to work through this issue together. Uh attorneys representing both the district and Calon Township have been working on an agreement between us to make sure that everybody's clear on
053all the elements uh that go into this. And uh so the board should have uh some recommended language in front of you uh when it comes to that action item that um we um after our discussion at the committee meeting are looking at uh doing this as a conditional approval. Uh and that would be pending uh the ability to finalize that agreement between the township and the district. uh outlining all these different responsibilities connected with this because again the project would be carried out um under our in the midst of all of our construction at the stadium. But of course in the end the township will be taking possession of that and so just to make sure that everybody's squared away on how that all is going to work and the supervision of that uh
054construction work and that they will be prepared uh to take ownership of it as soon as the work is complete. I will give the board just a heads up that we may need to do a special meeting. Um, our attorney is recommending that when that language is finalized that we um probably would be best to have you come together and to officially authorize the signature of that document. Um so um unfortunately may be asking you to come together uh for what would be a one action item uh quick special meeting uh to authorize that um and that would then make this um make this motion active. Okay. So that was that was the latest in that particular issue. Any questions on that I can answer? Just one. Yes. Just do you have a sense of
055the timeline on that? Um they're uh they have been moving very quickly on the legal back and forth uh today. Um the one of the attorneys was not available for a while and since has returned and now it's moving quickly. So uh the thought um was that if we had had a couple of more uh days, this would have been all set. We could have done it tonight, but um we are not in that position yet. So, um, he he said he thinks in the next 24 hours it should be finalized. So, but then the township of course has to look at it themselves too and their board has to take a look. From our point of view, when is timing become an issue to us? Um, well, right now I don't really think it
056there is a timing issue from a standpoint of construction. Um we have been designing and uh preparing to work around uh the existing water man uh for the duration of the project. Um the operative issue is the the bid that is in front of you tonight is good through June the 2nd and it would be more expensive to um almost certainly to go out and rebid that uh because you know in a sealed bid environment when nobody knows what the others have bid um you get lower bids once numbers are out there those bids don't tend to be as good. So the motivation here is to try and get that sealed up and uh be enable us to uh authorize this contract which is of course what this motion is about. So June 2nd is
057kind of that uh timeline. Um okay that that's the timeline under which also I'll add that um the bid numbers are guaranteed. Uh we could of course go back to that contractor and say would you extend for another week or so uh if necessary but uh I think it's just in everybody's best interest to get this squared away and then work could commence uh fairly soon. We would love it of course if this work was done um prior to stadium opening for the football season and um so at this point all seems to be like we could get it done but uh we do need to move forward. So that's why we continue to push for this. So So it sounds like special meeting potentially next week. Uh next week or the week after any
058questions. Okay. And that finally is it. Thank you D. Move on to my right page here. There we go. Too many agendas in front of me. Action items. Uh, A 8A 25 2025 bond series 2 ratification resolution. I move that the board approve the resolution ratifying the sale of the 2025 school building and site bonds series 2. Second. discussion. Just say again, we had really good pricing when this came in and appreciated the work of our financial advisors um where we delayed that sale for a week or two uh based on the market conditions at the time and absolutely the right move and so we got much much better rates for our taxpayers. So appreciate their help. Thank you for the guidance on that too. It it was a good decision and uh appreciate that
059very much. Any other discussion? Shall we call the role? Collins, yes. Eich, yes. Con, yes. Brand, yes. Barbara Garcia, yes. Morris, yes. Motion carries. On to an 8B Kent ISD budget. I move that the board approve the resolution to support the 2025 2026 Kent ISD budget. I second. Any discussion here? This is the the budget for the KISSD. We uh are asked to approve this um on behalf of all the services provided by the Ken ISD and uh it needs required each board of the county participating schools needs to vote on it and if passed by a majority it becomes uh a uh passing in effect budget. So we call the role. Eitch yes. Collins, yes. Brandal, yes. Con, yes. Trevor Garcia, yes. Morris, yes. Motion passes. On item C, Kent ISD school board election.
060Bear with me. I move that the board approve the resolution designating Trustee Con as California's representative and Trustee Brando as California's alternative representative for the KISSD electoral body to elect the following two candidates to six-year terms on the Ken ISD Board of Education. Candidate one is David Drake and candidate two is Laura Featherston. second. Seconded by Sean and Yeah, my only comment was just going to be that they've both been serving on the board for um I think one for maybe four or five years and the other for almost 10 years and I think we've had uh good experiences with the communication from the ISD and have appreciated their service thus far. Great. Thank you. All right. Should we call the role? Con? Yes. Randall, yes. Barbber Garcia, yes. Collins, yes. Eich, yes. Morris, yes.
061On to item D, textbook adoption. I move that the board approve the adoption of the following high school textbooks. Krugman's economics for the AP course fourth edition by Anderson and Ray at the cost of $7,200 for the AP economics macro microeconomics class. Human geography a spatial perspective AP edition by Sengage National Geographic at the cost of $6,300 for the AP Geography class. Forensic Science for High School, fourth edition by Barbara Toby at the cost of $4,850 for the Forensic Science class. Is there a second to that? I can second it. And any discussion? Is there a way can we make a motion to separate each of those to vote on them separate? We could vote on each one of these separately if there's a second and a prevailing vote on that motion. Yeah. So procedurally
062I think what would need to happen is we do have a motion and second on the table. So uh that motion will need to be dealt with and then based on the result of that motion would then determine what would happen next. Um so either this existing motion could be have an amendment proposed or we could take a vote on the proposed a motion right now on the table and if it if it doesn't meet with approval then we go back to the draw. So we can't amend the current motion to do either. So, I think you're heading down the path of amending the motion to vote on each of the textbooks individually and and discuss them individually. And is there a second on that amendment? I second that. All in favor of the amendment
063indicate by saying I. We should have discussion first, but I'm sorry. Discussion. Any discussion? So, I have a question. If we reject one, any all of these books, what happens? Is that AP course canled effectively until that happens? Are these new ones, right? Um, yes, those three are. So, does that cancel the course indefinitely for our students? Uh, that's a great question that we were discussing. D, you want to take that? Well, I I think what would happen is um the high school would need to go back um and look at other textbook opportunities. So, um can't say right now what the result of that would be. Okay. And then a follow-up question because we are coming up to summertime when our teachers have off. Um, I mean, I I assume that them looking at
064this textbook stuff for all of them, it's over and above regular course load. Do we have to pay someone extra to work through summer to review these? Um, my expectation would be we probably would have to do something like that, I would think, depending on how long that took. So, I have a question. Um when we were reviewing the textbooks in general I and at last week's meeting we talked a little bit about how um we don't know if some of these have the interest of the students that would even justify having the course. So in the situation where that would apply that would come I mean we don't know that right until so we I think Dr. DS has a little bit you have information on that. So yes, so there were uh 17
065students that primary tallied it was their first choice for a course and eight students that secondary tallied. Uh so a total of 25 students. This is for the human geography course. Correct. And then the other courses are pull that up real quick. So for the forensic science class, we have two sections. 50 students uh selected that as their primary choice. 31 selected it as an alternate. And for AP microeconomics, we have one section where 32 students selected it as their primary choice with 13 selecting as their alternate. And for macro, one section with 28 selecting as their primary and 14 as their alternate. So keep in mind we're voting on the the amendment to separate these as seven individual considerations. Just make sure the discussion towards that questions towards that. Any other discussion? Okay, just
066so to be clear, the thing we're voting on is not the books. It's that to separate it and then we're going to come up with a second motion on these or we're going to restate the motion to vote on each of the the books separately rather than as a whole. So, we need a vote on that amendment. Okay. So during this discussion we shouldn't be discussing the textbooks but rather I'm rather no it's okay rather if we want to attempt to pass this as a whole or if we would rather consider each of the books or curriculum separately individually. So I I do think if I could just offer a suggestion on the amendment. I think it would be better rather than right now to say vote on each one separately. I think it would
067be better to amend the motion to address the concern. If there's one book that's of more concern than the others to pull that one out separately and then because that would stay truer to the original motion made. The original motion was made to approve the three textbooks. So if the amendment were to be to remove one of them, that would keep it tighter to what the original motion would be. So um so that would just be a piece of advice. Trusty code would have to rephrase the Brando made Brando made the amendments. I'm sorry. Brando will rephrase it to indicate the particular textbook or being removed for its independent consideration. Yes. Wouldn't that been whoever made the original motion or are you saying the second when you amend the person making the amendment would need
068to do it. So I believe that was you who made the amendment. So you would need to rephrase your amendment. So I would amend that we pull out human geography from this group of three and vote on that individually. I second that. And is there any discussion on that amendment as stated? Should we call the role on the amendment? Garcia, no. Eich, no. Collins, yes. Brandal, yes. Con, yes. Morris, yes. Okay. So now that has been removed. Shall we continue with a motion to approve the human j I'm sorry the crude men's economics for AP course and the forensic science for high school course. Is there any discussion on those two curriculum items? I just want to make a comment on that. I really um I was able to review the c those courses um
069and the textbooks and um the forensic science in particular was really really excited about that for the students. Um my daughter had uh forensic science through the Michigan virtual and um it's just exciting to bring that where you have hands on versus just doing it online. So, that one particularly really stood out to me and I thought it was was a great ad. So, I just wanted to make that comment. Any other discussion? I'll echo Jess's comments on that. I I was impressed with with the book in particular and and the course of study. It's a really unique opportunity for Calonia students to to have the forensic science in the high school and uh I'm excited to hear the feedback from the students on it. I guess this partially applies to this, but I was
070a little bit confused about the last one where it was said we only talk about if we remove it instead of the actual subject matter. I just want to go on the record that I am disappointed that the wishes or the critique of one is going to cause 25ish interested students to lose out on an AP course for a college credit. Um, and I also think that it's going to be historically extremely difficult because this falls under social studies and the last time we had a topic similar, there was still unhappiness. Unfortunately, history is going to make people uncomfortable. Sometimes me, sometimes you, no one's going to be happy, but history is a fact. It's not opinion. So, I just think it's a shame and that's why I voted no. Any further discussion? Recall a
071role on the decision on Kugman's economics for AP course and forensic science for high school course. Michelle, do I just use the same? Okay. Barbara Garcia. Yes. Isich. Yes. Collins. Yes. Randale. Yes. Con. Yes. Morris. Yes. Motion for those two curriculum items passes. Now we will consider the human geography a spatial perspective AP edition. Is there a motion for that curriculum item? I think that uh that was already moved and seconded as part of the original and the amendment was to separate them. So it remains uh available to be discussed and should be voted on. All right, we have a second on that. So discussion on that curriculum item. Do because I know other books were reviewed. Do we have an idea? Say this doesn't go through. Do we have an idea of a turnaround
072for another book to look at? What like a time frame? Like we would have to reach out to the publishers. We would have to reach out to the publishers. I've never been, you know, told my voice was too soft, so I don't think about that. I apologize. Um, we would have to reach back out to the publishers. As I shared, we returned any books that we did not select from all three of the adoptions back to the publishers. Um, so we would have to start that process over. We would go back to the instructor as well and ask for um a third book for them to take a look at unless they felt very strongly about one of the other two that they had already taken a look at. So we don't really know a
073time frame then on that. I don't. So they looked at three. They picked what they picked out of the three. Yes. So, for all new adoptions, we offer the opportunity for staff to review three different curriculum materials. Um, depending on the publisher, there's a cost now for piloting. Some still allow for some free access to review materials. So, we give them an opportunity to choose three and there were, I believe, 14 that were approved by College Board. So, they selected three of those from that from that list. Okay. So, I I would just say I think it's awesome that um you are looking into having another social studies AP course offered. um you know in talking to um teachers and other people I think it's important that we stay competitive with other schools and that
074you know if another school is offering you know five social security social studies courses and we're only offering two I think it's it's our due diligence to be able to offer that um my in review of this particular book and again I there's no other books I could compare it to from a social studies perspect perspective. Um so I could only go on this particular one. Um I just found it um biased in some ways and so um knowing that there is a is a bias and knowing some of the uh policies that we have in place um that I can easily review if needed if people people on the board need to review that. um you know there's some specific policies that in my opinion do not align with with the um with the
075non-bias aspect of our of uh being able to approve a curriculum. So, for what that's worth, I um I just think that it's really important as a school board that we always consider books that are factual and um straightforward and don't sway and try and um persuade one way or the other. And just in again in this particular book, I felt it was really evident. And so, I would love to review other social studies books, AP courses in particular. I just don't think this um book fits our community standards at this point. So, [Music] I I do have a question. What did you feel like was biased about it? Yeah, I actually wrote down some specific pages um that I uh reviewed and I came I actually came prepared because I knew I'd probably have
076that question. um specifically um this book if you go through every single chapter um the National Geographic um was part of the co-authoring of it which is in and of itself is fine um but it just seems like in every single unit or chapter they had their own opinion um and so op an opinion can go either way right and so I first of all I didn't think it was needed I don't know why we need National Geographics opinion on the material that was covered. So that was kind of the first like um situation. Um but I'm going to read you a specific example so you know exactly what I'm talking about. Um page 131 uh the uh opinion was walls that divide and it it raises concerns about bias, missing context and lack of
077balance. Especially important when teaching students who are still learning how to think critically. The section about the Israeli security barrier says, quote, "The wall built by Israel is a reminder of Israel's occupation which in itself is inaccurate." So that statement by itself, Israel is not an occupied, it's it's a nation. So that is inaccurate and can provoke anger, resentment, and violence against Israelis. This is a one-sided view. It leaves out the key reason the wall was built. There's no there was nothing in there that says why they built the wall. Um and it honestly it's to protect civilians from terrorist attacks, especially after the major violence in the early 2000s. Um, the article doesn't clearly reject violence or explain Israel's security concerns and in fact practically blames or defends the violence on the Israelis because
078of it. Um, the part about the US southern border wall also lacks balance. It doesn't explain there are legal ways to immigrate or that the wall is meant to support those laws. Instead, it uses emotional examples like a baby's diaper on the fence and blames the wall for people choosing dangerous paths without discussing personal choice or responsibility. The term quote undocumented unquote versus quote illegal unquote is a subtle way to reinforce this idea. It also uh mentions President Trump in the connection with the wall, but ignores that border barriers and enforcement existed under both parties long before his presidency. That framing also makes the article feel politically slanted. Finally, there is an outdated Pew Research statement from 2017 on public opinion which may no longer refle reflect current views, especially after the 2024 election. Including
079this kind of data, especially along racial lines, feels unnecessary and divisive in a school setting. Overall, there are several inserts of such articles that are simply not needed and are opinionbased. The schools we or I'm sorry, the books we as a school choose should always include multiple viewpoints and updated balanced informations. Students deserve materials that help them explore complex issues fairly and thoughtfully. Um, I'm not sure what grades, you know, these even affect if it's freshman, sophomore, like I, you know, I was going to ask that as a question, but regardless of that, we that's something we should consider. And then um based on everything I just said um as of right now in my opinion this um this particular book does not reflect the policy around the adoption of textbooks which is based u
080which is to base its decision on the suitability for the maturity level and educational accomplishment of the students who will be using the material freedom of bias and the impact on community standards to name a few. So, I hope that gives a little insight to my concerns. No, it it does. Um, especially since you recited two of the concerns that we received. Um, I think though the the point that I kind of am thinking about is in that Mexican or southern border wall that they talk about, they talk about people who supported it traditionally or through the census. I don't know how they gained that information, but they also talked about people who were against it. It was bothsided. And the main point of the walls that divide us isn't to upset people who do
081not want people illegally immigrating into the US or to talk about Israeli or Palestinian issues. It's to say that walls are a divided issue. Some people are pro putting up border walls. Some people are anti-putting up border walls. And I understand what you're saying about Trump because we have always had like security there. However, it was part of his campaign was build the wall. I don't think they threw that in there to be crappy to him specifically. I mean, I also know that this is probably just wasted breath, but I feel like it's important to be said because our teachers wasted a lot of their time essentially if their thought process and their insight is thrown away on something that's an AP course, not core curriculum, and saying that a kid is mature enough to
082be taking college courses and getting ready to go off to wherever, but also they can't read about difficult issues that divide people, I think is insult. ulting to our community and to our students. And we as parents have parental rights. And we know if we sign our kid up for a college course that they're going to be reading probably things at a much higher level than those of us who are in elementary, middle, high school. No. And I honestly appreciate your comments on that. Um, just I would say a couple things. Uh, my comments are my own. I did not I don't I I I read the feedback and they were not recited. Those were my own words and I took the time out of my day to come here to and spent like I
083don't know four or five hours here to review every single one of these books. Were you able to review these books on your own or did you also get some commentary from from feedback? No, I searched online. I flipped through it, but at the end of the day, I also take a lot of consideration from people who have reviewed it like our teachers. Good. No, that's great. So, I also just want to mention I um I have talked to uh community members, I've talked to parents, and I have talked to teachers um about content in general. and I really feel like I've done my due diligence to uh research and um and I appreciate the words. This is not a teacher thing with me. This is um I trust our teachers 100%. I think that
084we have fantastic teachers. I think their heart is in the right place. I think they want to teach what um we approve and they will respect um the decisions we make. Um, I think that uh I don't want this to make it make this a teacher issue because I trust them 100%. Um, this is more about me as a school board member. I was elected for a reason and content in our schools and curriculum in our schools is one of the things that parents and the community have entrusted um to me and I need to make sure that I stand by those principles that I think was the purpose of them electing me and I don't think this book um gives equal opinion on matters and I just don't think we need to allow bias
085um in part one particular way in our schools. So I'm going to be will be voting no for this particular book. Any other discussion? Um, I'll I'll add I agree with much of what you said. Just I'll add that and know that we we don't offer a geography course, which with an AP course like this, you want to build off it from what you've already learned. Well, if we don't have an AP or geography or AP course, um, what good is learning about how people migrate across the world if you don't know where these countries are even located? Um I I think one of the problems that Jess didn't mention that I have with it uh aside from the the Israel um occupation is there's no talk of asylum laws. There are asylum laws in
086many countries and and that should be known as part of the story as as well as immigration. There should be it known to these students that there is an immigration policy that you you can follow and that the country does have the right to decide and select what it sees as being a contributing person to society. Um and does not talk about the con the the the problems that are caused by a country that's has border laws that aren't being enforced and how that impacts society. So, I I'm excited to have AAP social studies course. I think we need more of them, but I don't think that this is the right um curriculum item to to bring to to to Calonia. So well yeah I just want to make a point on the you know
087not having a basic geography and then the AP but we have other thinking about this after you brought it up um last week um my twins a couple years ago one took the standard government the other one took the AP government so we have other instances where you don't need a building block that's not a a hangup for me um I mean one took it because it was an AP course the other one took it because the standard was only one semester instead of two semesters and might take something else. He should have been in the AP one, but yeah, schedule based and he had other other plans, but we we do have other examples where you don't need a like a precursor to the AP course. So, I'm I'm not hung up on that
088on that issue. Um, I guess when I was um thinking about this, the reality is that I don't know that you're going to find a text that is completely free from bias. I'm not sure that that is an achievable goal. Maybe we need to consider alerting of our policy. Um, with that said, I do think that one of the things you said, Jessica, I appreciated, which is um, you know, presenting things um, presenting both sides of an issue or encouraging thoughtful discourse of an issue. And the reason I was happy to make this motion and vote in favor of this is because I think that our teachers will encourage good discourse on these issues. That's what we want them to do is to learn how to think, not to learn what to think. So, um
089I continue to be uh in support of this textbook recognizing that as you mentioned, it doesn't need to build on previous text uh text or uh courses, but it does need to meet the AP College Board standards in order for kids to be well prepared for that College Board uh exam. So, um, those are my comments. Yeah, and I I honestly appreciate that, Britney. I think that's that's great. I I without h seeing another book um I at the end of the day, we need to um have books that are going to uh make our kids able to test right to the exam, right? At the end of the day, we want our kids to be able to test out and save money on the back end for college. I mean, that's the whole purposes
090of a AP courses. And so, just going to reiterate, I'm 100% on board with that. Just this particular book, and I'm not saying that there's never going to be any bias in any books. I'm not I I know that all my kids have gone through high school and oh my gosh, college, that's a whole another story, right, on that. But um so I'm not oblivious to know that there's probably going to be it's just that this particular book when I was going through every single chapter it had an opinion almost in every single chapter and it was unfortunately it was always one seemed like a one view opinion. I just think there's got to be better books out there that will more match but still test or still you know um provide that education to
091be able to pass the test. I just think they're we just need to look at a different book. That's my that's why I'm voting no. So, for what that's worth, I think if we're truly going to inspire critical thinking to our our students, uh opinion isn't necessarily needed. If you're reading if you're reading the curriculum and you're reading about um migration from country to country, you should be able to form your own thoughts without having provided opinions from the the questions that are asked for the study. So, any other discussion? I'm sorry. Can I just ask you to clarify what you said? You just said that you don't think it's necessary to inspire critical thinking. No, I I think it is important to I don't think opinion is nec I'm glad you asked. I I
092don't think the opinion that especially in this book that was teed up to inspire critical does inspire critical thinking. I think it pushes the student in in one direction with their opinion. So, okay. Thank you for clarifying and sharing that. I'm I I think we need more critical thinking and whatever we can through its text inspire that but without without someone else's opinion and I think that our teachers do a really good job of um of having the conversations and with critical thinking like um again we've been in the school system a while and I would talk to my kids I make so how is school to go today and they're they're they want 99% of the time you know our teachers teachers are really good about not about facilitating a civil conversation and not
093giving away how they particularly feel personally. That's a great testament to our school system because there are school systems that are not like that. And I think that because we have good administrators and they've made expectations what they are and we have got a a board that has also stood by those principles of hey keep all that out. The teachers have done a great job. It's not that it's empty or we don't want it but I do think they do a great job of facilitating it. So where I'm going with this is hats off to the teachers who have done a phenomenal job of trying to keep this stuff very very neutral. Right. So that's I guess I just wanted to add that. Any further discussion? Well, we we have a secretary prom now upon
094Miss leaving. Yeah. that. So, Miss Secretary Proton, please call the role. Are we voting on that? Yes. So, I So, we are voting on the approval or denial of the human. So, the motion on the table is to approve the human geography text. Okay. So, a yes vote would approve it and a no vote no. Barbara Garcia. Barbara Garcia. Yes. So each is gone, right? Okay. Collins. No. Grand. No. Col. No. Morris. No. Motion fails. On to item 8E, monument sign bid package. Mr. S, do you want to need a motion? I'm sorry. Is there a motion? It's a lot of numbers. Go ahead. I move that the board approve the Chrisman Company to contract for the manufacturer and installation of monumentous signs with these contractors under the following work categories. Category two, Earthwork Belting
095Contractors, Inc. for $22,620. Category 10, Concrete Early and Associates, Inc. for $41,700. Category 11, Masonry, J&M Masonry, Inc. for $33,600. Category 25, signage universal sign inc $43,85. Category 28, electrical Excel electric ink for $17,600 for a total cost of $159,325. Second second discussion. I there's really no changes from this from as it was presented in committee. Um any questions? Any questions? I would only share that for the record the uh the budget for this service uh that was done by the for the for the bond was 251,000. So this represents a significant savings in the package. Thank you. Please call the role. Red, yes. Con, yes. Barbara Garcia, yes. Collins, yes. Morris, yes. Sign bid back passes. And 8F, Catalate Paving. Is there a motion? I move that the board approve a contract with the
096Michigan Paving and Materials Company for the site work and paving at Kettle Lake Elementary at a cost of $369,4860. Second by is there any discussion? Seeing none, please call the role. Barbara Garcia, yes. Collins, yes. Con, yes. Randall, yes. Morris, yes. I'd like paving motion passes. Thank you. Because they're planning to start next Monday. Schedule. I move that the board approve a contract with structure structure tech, Inc. for the construction management services at the site work and paving project at Kennall Lake Elementary at a cost of $59,100. Second second discussion I would only add here that my estimate from Wednesday night at committee was low. Um I did not have taking into account the extent of the uh got to find my line here. Uh the geotechnical materials testing actually went up in price uh
097from previous projects and uh we are covering the cost of the warranty audit program um on this project because we felt that was a probably a definitely good value as they will look at it at a year from now and two years from now and bring the company back to uh make corrections. Uh this is a notoriously unfriendly parking lot sometimes so we wanted to make sure we had that kind of coverage. Do we know what the difference was? I had originally estimated based on some previous work with them at 37,000. Uh which if you look at the first two lines, that's about 37,000. Um and you bring on the geotechnical testing uh line and the incre and uh just everything kind of increased a bit, but bringing on those two factors definitely uh increased
098the cost. So I apologize for a bit of a low estimate, but um here we are. this project entirety is still well under the uh predicted budget that from the construction management firm. Okay. Any further discussion? So So are we still approving this at a cost of 591? Yes. Even though costs went up. That's the cost. That's the total cost. That's the total cost. Yes. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. I just need to That's a good number. Okay. Anybody discussion? Please go. Collins, yes. Yes. Randall, yes. Robert Garcia, yes. Morris, yes. Motion passes. Now on to 8H, which is the amended motion that was provided before the meeting. I move that the board conditionally approve Rockford Construction to contract with Fiser Edema Excavating for the relocation of the water line at Ralphie Meyer Stadium at a cost
099of $140,000 contingent on successful execution of a legal agreement by June 2nd, 2025 between Calonia Community Schools and Calon Township detailing each party's responsibilities and obligations regarding this project. Second discussion. Just wanted to clarify just so public knows we're still have these right on this. We are correct. Correct. And that's what's part of uh involved in that legal agreement is uh to really stipulate exactly how that 50% is being calculated on what elements of the project so that there's no misunderstandings. the township has approved at this point up to uh $80,000. Um and so the contract before you represents one element of that and that is the actual work to be performed at 140. So each party would have 70,000 of that. But then there are a number of other fees uh design costs uh
100etc that were also would also be included. Any further discussion? Please call the roll. Yes. Grand. Yes. Con. Yes. Barbara Garcia. Yes. Morris. Yes. Motion passes. On to item nine, discussion items for anticipated board consideration June 16. Kent County Enhancement Military Resolution. All right. So, we uh at our committee meeting had a visit from the Ken ISD superintendent Dr. Ron Gorman uh discussing the enhancement resolution uh that they are uh proposing to bring on the November 2025 ballot. So, um we will be bringing that for you next month for your consideration. Are there any other questions on that at this point in time? I don't think we have any other questions on that. On to item 9B 202425 final budget amendment. Sarah. So, yes, we have um next month planned to look at a final
101budget amendment to wrap up this fiscal year um with our June budget amendment. And then also um we'll be having our public hearing for adopting our fiscal year 26 bud proposed budget as well. So, that will also be taking place next month. Um and then couple more items that will be coming next month is looking at our food service contract renewal. Um and then our school loan revolving fund resolution um for be participating in the school bond loan fund estimating what we are looking to borrow to participate in that. And that is the resolution that is enabling our us to maintain seven mills on our taxpayers to make the debt payments. Any questions? Okay. And to item So you we covered all went all the way through E. I think there I guess you're right.
102Uh item E F MHS SAA resolution. All right. Well, this is uh the standard resolution that comes before the board every year for uh Calon schools to continue participating in the MHSA and all those state tournaments and the administration work that they do as a whole. So, uh that resolution will also be before you next month. Okay. Are there any other items? Nothing else right now at this time. Okay. to item 10, board comments. Seeing none, I will add one item. We do have the I'm sorry, John. I'm sorry. I just want to add um in looking at next month with the food service contract that just remind everybody that my wife is employed by Chartwell and I will be not voting, but just wanted to get that out there ahead of time. transparent to
103be transparent. Thank you. There'll be a lot to talk about in in June with that regard. Um just a reminder to the board that we have adopt the road coming up again. It was just here, but it's back. We're doing it three times a year now. And the dates are July 19 through 27th. So, I'm going to be trying to nail that down. So, any feedback you can provide either now or in the text thread that we have going would be appreciated so we can get that scheduled. Then, we had mentioned at our committee meeting about the July meeting schedule. So, I didn't know if there were any further thoughts on that at this point. So, can we cancel like we cancel a committee meeting last minute or or do we is it because it's
104I don't I guess I don't know how that works. Um what's the best way to handle that? We want to I think we want to keep our actual board meeting is what we're thinking, right? If we're going to keep a meeting, we're going to keep the board meeting. That would be certainly I think that's preferred. Okay. Yes. Um And if we in years past, my understanding is the board has cancelled their July meeting alto together. So okay, um we can make that step to cancel the committee meeting and keep the regular board meeting at this point and then make a further determination when we get into July. That's where we stand right now. So the the meeting date would be July. I don't have my calendar. see if we can agree on a date and
105committee would be the date that is currently on the calendar is July 28th for the regular board meeting and um so as we talked we would keep that but we would if we think we're going to cancel the committee meeting would be on the 23rd on the Wednesday prior. Is that good timing looking into what we anticipated with the start of the school year as we look into August? Yeah, I think that would be fine. Uh especially if we still have that regular board meeting on the 28th. Um you know, there was a time we didn't have committee the whole meetings before the board meetings. So I think we can make it work um for a month and give people relief from at least one meeting during the height of the summer. But yeah, I'm
106okay with that. Well, I was just but just going through the board. That's dead week, but I don't think we have anybody with high school kids in sports except for me. So, I'll be around so that's okay. Okay. So, am I taking that as cancelling committee though? Canceling committee will hold. Very good. Item 11. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. All in favor? We are journey.