001welcome everyone we're going to call to order the caledonia community school board of education meeting for july 25th if you could all stand for the pledge please allegiance thank you could we please have a roll call asper summit barbara garcia here esich morris here they do you're white thank you before we get started just so that everybody knows dr martin could not be with us tonight he is home with covid unfortunately julie had a meeting or i'm sorry a family vacation that was scheduled before this meeting was so she apologizes for her absence as well if you are here for public comment we do ask that you fill out a public comment card and please turn those in at the back of the room we ask that those are turned in before public speaking starts
002please know that when you speak at the microphone we do need to make sure that we are hearing you so that it is recorded you do have three minutes to address the board and we ask that you direct all questions or comments to the board as a whole and please make sure your contact information is on here in case we need to follow up with you thank you we're going to continue on to four which is our consent agenda we have the june 20 2022 meeting minutes we have the july 2022 personnel report and the july 2022 payables i moved that the board of education approve the consent agenda as presented may i have a second second by katie are there any questions revisions anything on that nope can we have a roll call please
003summit yes barbara garcia yes yes morris they do yes white yes motion carries on to five reports and information 5a is bond update am i handing that over to mr wilson mr hess who would like to lead us good evening board members again my name is paul wills with plant marine cresta and we're here to give a board update as part of the 2020 bond going forward so if you recall from the may 2022 presentation the total bot is 88 million dollars um unfortunately the district cannot issue more than that as approved by the voters so that is kind of our circle of funds if you will for all the projects that are being considered going forward in terms of the summer's work technology improvements both infrastructure and devices continue so mr hubble's done a
004great job on continuing on with that push as you're driving you've looked at the elementary school you see all the safety cones up there with uh individuals still working as as of six o'clock this evening uh mr house has done a great job with the roofing programs going forward and there actually looks like they'll be wrapped up earlier than anticipated so well before the start of school going forward we're actually at a major milestone with the bonds so again the phase one if you remember is about 15 million dollars of interior improvements site work roofing etc we're really getting into the phase two which is the dutton elementary and the caledonia athletic complex which you see renderings up on the board here going forward so i'm going to start with dutton elementary we did receive
005bids last week i want to commend both tower pingster and chrisman company for receiving very good bid coverage so the district does continue to receive a lot of bids i think we had five to six bids in every single category um going forward and that does help with i'll call it the backlog of work going forward we're actually doing post bid interviews this week and next week i'll be reviewing them with the leadership team in the next week and a half going forward just so everyone knows it's about a 60 000 square foot building so we have not cuts the size of the facility to save costs going forward our goal is to present that in august both for review and for approval very similar what we're doing for the caledonia athletic complex to keep
006us on schedule for that targeted 2024 fall completion going forward switching gears to the caledonia community center on july 18th we did receive township approval uh so i know a lot of people like what's kind of going on with you know the ground breaking and then we're in this in this holding pattern if you will if you remember back from the may presentation uh we did confirm the increased square footage about 47 000 square feet so again this is about a 38 percent increase than was originally anticipated but if you look at it it's actually not just a swimming pool obviously there's a resource centers in there obviously the ymca's activities in there i do encourage community members to look at the floor plans i mean these are amazing floor plans going forward and as
007you can imagine with an increased square footage you're going to have increased costs so we did issue a bet addendum 2. so again one of the things we looked at is going from a structural steel to a precast concrete uh exterior shell and that saved the district about three and a half million dollars so again if um that voluntary alternative was not taken we'd really be looking at almost a nine to ten million dollar additional cost for that program the good news is actually that project is going to be funded roughly 6.3 million through phase one savings and contingencies you'll see that in your board packet in the letter that kind of describes the 6.3 million dollars of funding going forward just so you know the architectural team the construction management team and ourselves we're
008on fix fees so we don't make more money if you do spend more money so again that's our commitment to the goal to the district again within the 88 million dollars going forward so next steps again you hear a lot of material challenges roofing costs are almost 40 a foot so i think the district did a phenomenal job beating that from an acceleration standpoint we are seeing actually a little bit of a slowdown so people are looking for that 2024 backlog work so obviously the 23 calendars filled up very quickly but a lot of contractors looking at that summer of 24 how do i create that construction time frame going forward we're going to be coming out of the ground both for the caledonia athletic complex as well as dutton here in the fall and
009right now for phase three scope that's really gonna be the 24-25 timeframe but we're actually recommending the district just hold off on any of that design process until we come out of the grounds for both dutton and caledonia athletic complex there's a large contingency for site work as you can imagine building on green spaces you want to make sure you come out of the ground and there you don't have any surprises such as bad soils things of that nature the district has done a phenomenal job with soil borings with geotech with surveying so we're not anticipating so again we'll have a better idea probably sometime in the spring of 24 i'm sorry 23. uh relative to where we're at those contingencies to really start talking about phase three going forward so again the good news
010is in your board packet you do have the cover letter plus the rockford construction uh wrap up for the caledonia athletic complex and so at that point i'd like to turn back over to the board for any questions have for the bond update or if mr hess has any additional talking points thoughts or comments okay any board questions yes i think i didn't receive the in package community center okay and such uh there is no we did not include one of the documents that he's talking about and that's okay okay okay sounds good thank you additional questions between now and and we received the bid packs are we at risk of any new costs coming through on the community center no actually we did confirm with every major contractor i think there's a cabinet contractor
011that you know again there's not a lot of cabinetry in there but pretty much everything for the primaries are ready to go uh we've actually talked about um even starting foundations as quickly as the next couple weeks so you'll start to see some moves i do come in rockford they've done a great job really holding a lot of these costs at bay uh knowing that you know we're waiting for township approval which you know was a slight delay but we feel very confident with the numbers that we have from those contractors which will be outlined in that rockford account so thank you anything more all right thank you thank you very much i'll just step up to a gentle part two of that for my part paul referenced pausing with any of the future work
012that we have going on and i think that's important to recognize right now as we bring dutton elementary and the caledonia community center out of the ground we want to stabilize those costs and make sure that we're in the right place so that we can move forward with other things that we have remaining we're going to compile a list of everything that's remaining on the bond plan and work with you to make some decisions about what we're going to complete seeing as these two projects are probably going to be close to 12 million dollars combined over budget so we need to be intelligent we need to be thoughtful we need to do the right thing but we need to make sure that you you understand that we are pausing on any future expenditures we're not
013starting any of the next big projects until we know exactly where we are and you are comfortable with it understood thank you questions on that jason uh when do we anticipate having that list of things that are being paused i think we're gonna be talking in the september board meeting and the october boarding board meeting anything additional for mr hess mr wills the document that he referenced was a budget document that spoke to exactly what i was talking about and we chose not to include that because it would muddy the water and confuse things a little bit so we want to make sure it's clearer and understandable for everyone perfect when will that document then will we eventually be getting that document absolutely yeah okay part of the package for the september october time perfect
014okay thank you very much all right we're going to move forward with six which are discussion items 6a is our pace representative mrs dubison hear me now perfect so uh prior to last month's um prior to last month's meeting i did receive communication from ms aaron davis that she would be interested in learning more but i wasn't able to connect with her until after the meeting so i wanted to make sure she knew what she was agreeing to before i brought her name to this group for approval or to recommend her so i've had great conversation with her she's really excited about the opportunity to both learn and represent our district on this important committee she is a parent of correct she is a parent of a student with special needs in the community in
015what age group just out of curiosity elementary elementary okay thank you all right we appreciate her willingness to serve in that capacity no thank you are there any questions on that no all right thank you very much we're going to move to 6b which is caledonia community center bid pack 2 mr hess okay bid bag 2 was actually officially opened um almost 8 10 months ago we officially approved the bid pack at the board meeting in october of 2021 however we are back at a point now where we have had the delays of redesign and the delays getting planning commission approval and getting it all together and we are finding ourselves with that approximately six million dollar budget change um so we thought that might be a good idea to bring it back to the
016board at this point in time for a uh for an approval vote um as i said um we did see a six-month delay six to eight month delay originally from the redesign of the structural of the facility and then you know moving forward with the site plan approval but we are at this point where we are preparing to dig in the dirt and get ready to go beyond that i did attach the original approval with all of the notes and everything and we have the updated timeline and key analysis on the bids from rockford as well as plant moran's comment to the project if we like paul had said before if we had stayed with the steel and brick steel and block construction and not made that pivot at the time we would be in
017the area of nine to nine to ten million dollars over budget instead of at six so i think we are still in a good place we're holding at a 38 percent increase which is unfortunate but um we are at a place where we can begin to move forward and get this building in in progress for the public and get it open we are looking at originally what was going to be a january 2024 opening we're now moving that to late summer early fall of 2024 so to reflect the six to eight month delay that we've seen with everything so far so are there any questions on the status of this project are there excuse me are there any other costs that we need to be aware of foreseeable is a great word um mr wills
018alluded to you know cost doesn't stabilize until you've got a hole in the ground and you've started to actually build um he and i have both you know reminisced and rec recalled wonderful times digging a hole in the ground and finding complete structures finding foundations uh finding a septic system that you didn't know existed there's a few names for it in the construction industry but most of them are not very polite um but there are surprises that can be had and that is one large area that we need to clear the hurdle first and make sure we've stabilized our cost beyond that we don't see anything um as he implied there are some areas of the business that are slowing down there are some areas that are still challenging example um about a year ago
019you could have ordered 16-inch water main and you would have received it the next day on a truck it's now a 13-month delay you can order it tomorrow you'll see it in 13 months so little surprises like that may pop up but i believe that everything that we have moving forward is accounted for and at least you know in progress to be on order so we'll get it up for the building jason i'm gonna restate a little bit just to make sure i understand so the bids came in and we're about 6.3 million dollars over what was budgeted but with the additional savings from contingencies and some others we've made up that six point whatever million at this point yes this project is not going to affect any other projects but it will take over
020all of the contingencies that we've saved and for the past two years it will take up all of the different savings from interest from you know where we saved money on the parking lots where i saved money on the roofing where we saved a lot of things this is going to eat all that up offer still stands to drive a bobcat if i'm just saying you just want to do that i understand that so this is a point where we got to be very concerned about where we go next take a hard look at what our options are and then as a board as to what we feel items up to the bigger picture absolutely so just please keep us in the loop as we move through this and we'll hope for the best as
021we start to dig right keep moving forward thank you very much at this time we're going to move on to seven which is our board and superintendent reports our curriculum and learning committee did you want to report out at least on your date so we did not meet um this past meeting with um to the board meetings really really close together so we'll have another curriculum and learning committee meeting next tuesday august 2nd 7 30 am yes thank you kyle thank you and to finance and operations committee thank you finance and operations committee meeting was held july 21st it's called the order at 7 37 a.m without public comment dr martin discussed the status of the district properties located on eagan and patterson the eagan and proposed dutton property were both revised downward by the
022developer due to property utility limitations egan was revised down from 320 300 excuse me 325 000 to 228 000 and patterson was revised down from 1 million to 750 000. 84th street property sale remains an opportunity in a topic of discussion for the board mr hass provided an update on both dutton elementary and caledonia community center bid packages the community center and dutton are over budget by 38 due to material and labor cost increases and unexpected site work both projects will be a topic of discussion at the july 25th board meeting bus driver wages were another topic of discussion and the concern over rising competitive wages the july curriculum committee meeting was canceled however dr martin indicated that the social studies curriculum public review process will be extended up to the august 8 board meeting
023to allow additional time for public comment in the discussion the chair shared his personal frustration with the curriculum evaluation process citing one of the biggest issues appearing to stem from the publisher's end by limiting the board's right to consider the curriculum and online media resources meeting adjourned at 8 57 a.m the next meeting is august 4th 2022 at 7 30 a.m thank you are there any questions for the finance committee all right thank you very much any board reports this is our adopt-a-road week and i realize all of you have very busy schedules based on the emails that i've received so i'll follow up with a text message later when i try to compile a date that maybe at least a couple of us can go get it done so thank you superintendent report you
024got us covered there i will as you know dr martin's out sick tonight but i'm darryl kingsbury the assistant superintendent uh and during the summer time you know things uh move pretty quickly and it's hard to believe that we're approaching about one month before school starts so giving me a dirty look because he needs extra time to get things done on our buildings but uh you know we're feverishly preparing for our kids to come back in the fall it's always exciting there's a lot of work to be done during the summer and we commend all of our staff that are here during the summer taking care of all those things that really go unseen especially our custodial crews and our people in the buildings just getting those kids prepared and ready to go for the
025school year when it gets started when it starts so as i mentioned dr martin will have more of an update next next meeting which is august 8th thank you at this time i'm going to ask please make sure all cards are turned in and we will start with our public comment again you do have three minutes to address the board we ask that you make sure that we can hear you through the microphone when you do speak first up we have bob thalin followed by james and then elizabeth good evening thank you for hearing me so one year ago my wife chris and i saw dr martin in an interview say that he had no evidence of crt within our school system so we responded to this board showing evidence that it had and only
026one of the school board members approached us to find out whether that teacher or that device of ideology was still even present in the school system so we didn't know exactly either so so we decided we would take a look at it as well so with that we looked at the pd we looked at the scl programming and now we were looking at the curriculum which you guys have to our dismay we found race gender theory being recommended and incentivized by virtually every government and educational institution that influences our school that included kisd department of ed federal department of ed national teachers union cdc and now even the usda so to be clear we're not talking about theoretical crt what we're talking that's easily dismissed as a university theory uh what we're talking about is
027the praxis of that theory in forms like dei transformative sel and things like that that have been integrated into otherwise good programs the term for k-12 education infused with crt is called culturally responsive teaching and it was coined by by gloria ladson billings she's a self-described crt scholar and current member of the culturally responsive learning advisory board at savas the very company that produced the curriculum that you guys are now considering so she literally wrote the book on bringing crt into k-12 education and it's called critical race theory and education the superintendent said there's no crt in our curriculum but here it is we know this because chris tried to use the curriculum public review process which looked like it was designed to be difficult open building times were limited not communicated well so it
028was just hard to access it let alone if you're a parent with somebody who's got kids at home trying to find time to get in here is nearly impossible beyond the several books in the proposed curriculum weren't available for the first three weeks so we couldn't even see those in the times that we had we were able to get here and the supplemental resources are not available at all and and those oftentimes are through sources we would consider to be biased like npr nothing could be viewed or taken outside of the room because the school claimed copyright concerns i know a little bit about that and they're real there's no merit to it savas allows the school and teachers access the materials to trial run the content community access the materials outside of the room
029shouldn't have been an issue we informed the board of our difficulties with the review process and the board president responded with as a board we rely on the expertise to choose the best option referring to the curriculum committee the curriculum coordinator also said something very similar to chris while she was reviewing the materials and said that his only obligation was to endorse the curriculum committee's recommendation so therefore i don't know what the public review process is really for if we're not if our input isn't being considered um is it just virtue signaling or or are you guys going to take a look at it i hope you do regardless we supplied you with our limited review of the new curriculum which describes struggling the troubling issues that we found we request you reject the purchase
030of it until concerns about factual inaccuracies and the impact a crt advisor on the savas material is addressed thank you for your time thank you next we have james followed by elizabeth my name is james earnest i spent two hours today reviewing the social studies books that have been recommended for adoption had no problem getting in here i have a phd in the history of christian life and thought and i've worked full-time in academic publishing since 1996. i have no special expertise in sociology psychology geography or economics i was interested primarily in the content of the history volumes i spent most of my time in the american history volume less time in the world history volume these books are published by one of the leading educational publishers the authors and the boards of advisors have
031appropriate credentials from recognized universities private universities like harvard public universities like michigan state religiously affiliated universities like baylor and brigham young also numerous smaller universities and colleges in the u.s history volume i read the pre-civil war section and the section on reconstruction then the presidencies from reagan through trump i found straightforward factual narration of events without bias partisan disagreements are covered by reporting what both democrats and republicans said or thought judgments are not made this is not a critical book it is also not a social history or a people's history or a history from below it is structured largely according to presidencies and wars in this sense it is an old-fashioned presentation but along the way it describes the major developments in society the book is generally generously illustrated with photographs graphs and tables are
032used well to clarify information important primary texts are included throughout questions for students to consider are not leading questions they invite students to ask why questions for themselves i spent less time on the world history book i read the section on the origins of christianity where i have academic expertise i saw a couple of very minor inaccuracies in any book trying to cover the whole history of the world experts in a particular small slice of history will find things to quibble with again i found no bias if the book as a whole is like the section that i read closely it is a good book my review of the history volumes inclines me to accept without qualms the judgment of the professional educators who have selected this curriculum for our district i will add picking
033through the long lists of consultants for a book to find one to criticize for debatable reasons having nothing to do with the book is not an intelligent or useful way to review a textbook thank you elizabeth it's a little better without the mask okay hello my name is elizabeth alexander our family moved to caledonia in 1999 my daughter and son both attended caledonian community schools kindergarten through 12th grade my son is my youngest and he graduated in 2019. i have worked in the caledonia community school district in a support position since 2007. i was the enrichment coordinator at both duncan lake and craft meadows for several years in 2019 i moved to the position of library clerk at craft meadows i have a master's degree in education and over 20 years experience working with middle
034school-aged children in either a teaching capacity or a support staff over the past two years i have witnessed our school board administrators teachers and support staff navigate an extremely stressful and confusing time in education with incredible professionalism and consideration for all of our caledonia families and students but i'm not surprised my experience as a parent and employee over the many years is that this district has some of the most caring teachers administrators counselors custodians bus drivers and support staff they strive to know and support our students to the best of their abilities every day in fact i think that is our district's greatest strength i also believe that our teachers and administer administrators work diligently to provide curriculum that provide that meets the academic needs of our students and provides great engagement while also following
035the rigorous guidelines mandated by the state and federal departments of education the teams who select the tools and curriculum used in the classrooms are experts in their field who have specialized in these subjects and grades they teach i believe there are some teachers in the audience today who taught my children i would like to thank them for the care and teaching they provided they are thriving as young adults and they had a part in that finally i would like to thank all of you on the school board for everything you have done for our staff and our caledonia families especially over the past two crazy years thank you very much at this time we are going to as a board we're going to move into closed session this is a closed session that is informational
036oh yeah we won't do that yet we're going to go backwards thank you i was so caught up in the public speaking so we're going to do our action items first which is 9a which is our pace representative i move that the board approved the nomination of aaron davis as ccs pace representative for a three-year term beginning august 2022 through july 2025 may i have a second please second by kyle any further questions or comments on that we have roll call police summit yes barbara garcia yes esich morris they do yes white yes motion carries and again please thank her for us on to 9b which is caledonia community center bid pack 2. i move that the board approved rockford construction inc to enter into contracts with contractors per recommendation recommendation documents for the construction
037of the caledonia community center i have a second second by kyle any further questions for mr hess on that all right could we please have a roll call summit yes barbara garcia yes morris yes they do yes fight yes motion carries thank you now jason's told me we can go do the closed session route so at this point in time and i apologize the weather's nice i'm just trying to get you all out of here faster so this is a closed session that is informational only for the board there is no planned action coming out of closed session just so that you're all aware okay thank you during the time that we're gone will the recording be left on okay we're going to need a motion to go into closed session i move that the
038board convene in closed session under the open meeting act mcl 15.268. paragraph 1h to consider a letter from its attorneys dated july 20th 2022 for the reason that the letter is exempt from disclosure under state law due to attorney-client privilege second second by kyle thank you roll call please summit yes barbara garcia yes esich yes morris yes they do yes white yes motion carries thank you we are oops we are coming out of closed session at 7 23. there's no action to be taken so i just need a motion to adjourn move first by kyle second second by katie all in favor say aye aye any opposed all right we're all set thank you