001All right, I'd like to call the Harper Creek Board of Education regular meeting for Monday, January 12th, 2026 to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance, followed by a short moment moment of silence. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the it stands under madam secretary. Please call the role. I am present. >> All right. Thank you for that. >> All right. Uh we're going to start with the sixth grade camp presentation. Who we got represented? >> Anything you want to do? Hi. First of all, It's a big ask you guys each year. Last year we had a family. So that So vital because here I will will them start. I asked them, "What is All right. So, our friend Andrew could not join today. He
002had something come up, but he said, "I uh sixth grade camp is the best. I love that we did archery. I love the games we played. I love getting to stay overnight with my best friends and the food was so It makes me want to have a cabin on a lake. >> We didn't have to be inside. Sixth grade camp is >> memorable means something easily experience like this where I stayed away from home. This is something important because it helps you experience new things and teaches you about outside survival skills. Mrs. Morris, sixth grade English. Um, I said unifying going to camp extends extends the students and teacher relationship outside the classroom. It helps the students see that we're just big kids at heart like playing in the woods, too. >> Charlotte added hers
003a little bit late and so her slide didn't make it up there, but that's okay. Um, Charlotte had a very menacing picture of shooting a bow and arrow right through the target. Right through actually a what was it was like a playing card. >> Yeah. And she got the bullseye right away. So, uh Yeah. Um and then for me, sixth grade camp is a tradition. So, uh going to camp is a right of passage that has been happening at Clear Lake for nearly a hundred years. Their mission of No Child Left Inside is one that has continued to get kids excited about playing outdoors, respecting nature. Um they get to see the strengths of their peers that they don't get to see at school. And it so the top corner is um myself with my
004sixth graders and then the bottom in the front right that is me um Harper Creek alumni at Clear Lake camp. Um I don't even know what year but a while ago. So uh it is it is a right And then I think it was more skip on the same thing like I didn't remember which camp I went to in the area and I get there the first day I'm like this is familiar and I walk and I'm like oh I've been here before like here was my here's where I sat for dinner. So yeah it was really exciting. >> Yeah. We just wanted to share like the level of I guess camaraderie that the staff had this year and the kids had this year. It was an experience that I walked away feeling like I
005watched so many core memories happen in real time. So, thank you for that. And um I I just I can't capture enough how much fun we have. >> Thank you questions. >> Board member have any questions? I just as a grandfather of the sixth grade. >> How was the weather this year? >> Good. >> These are my team. It was >> wonderful. in school. >> So these are all sixth graders, right? So it's 11, 12 years old, something like that. That's awesome. >> Very cool. Thank you for each of you speaking. I know how hard that is, especially when you're younger, but um 40 years ago, I was out there myself and um had a great time. So, I really like a lot of the thoughts that each of you guys had. Um, I think
006it kind of dialed in some of that and it brings the importance back to the board of how important this is. So, um, thank you for each of you guys coming today. We appreciate it. All right. Um, good evening and again, uh, apologize to the, um, audience. We got a little bit of a late start. We did have a five o'clock meeting that ran over just slightly. So, with that, we're going to start with the organizational meeting this evening. um and election of officers and uh I think I reached out to everybody um via email. I believe I spoke with almost everybody after the last meeting. It's my understanding that um nobody's looking for any change of officers at this time. And if not, uh like to entertain a motion to retain the current slate
007of officers for the um 27 school year. That be 26 27 26 >> 2026 calendar year. There you go. >> Chair calls for a motion. The Harper Creek Board of Education appoints the board officers as follows. President Vice President Barry Smith, Treasurer Sarah Wallace, Secretary Aaron Albert. >> It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> All right. Hearing see none. Please call the RO. >> Mr. Herson, >> yes. >> Mrs. Risner. >> Mrs. Wat. >> Mrs. I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace. >> Mr. Smith. Yes, >> Mr. Fox. >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 70. >> All right, thank you for that. I'll move on to organizational meeting B, board committees. Um, did anybody I didn't hear back from anybody anybody, but did anybody want to make any changes there uh that they're
008looking to do? >> Okay. Let's just leave things the way they are. They're working well. Everybody's enjoys where they're at. Move on to um well, buildings. Did anybody want to change buildings? We would normally do it through seniority. Everybody's happy with where they're at. Okay, let's move on to annual authorizations. Want me to read them and then there are several authorizations that the board of education does at the annual meeting. First, authorize the following banks for the deposiitories. Southern Michigan National Bank, Michigan Liquid Asset Fund, general fund payroll trust agency debt retirement need authorize the signatures for the various of the school district as follows. The general fund, payroll, debt, future need, trust agency, support treasurer, the board president, the superintendent or finance director. Desate the second Monday the month at 6 in the boardroom
009of the administration building for the regular meeting. Authorize at no cost of board meetings for individuals who submit a request. responsibilities of the treasur to the finance director and appoint the secretary to the superintendent as the secretary of the superintendent as the secretary. Designate the finance director as the electronic transfer officer. Designate technology director as the copyright enforcement officer. Authorize superintendent or finance director as his design to invest monies on behalf of the district. Good news tonight. We have big investment this month. And then retain uh Trin Law Firm for the 2026 calendar year uh for matters concerning bond issues, elections, and other specialized services with a not to exceed retention fee of 2500. >> Okay. Would you like to read the motion? It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Hearing seen
010none. Please call the RO. I vote yes. >> All right. Thank you for that. Move into communications. President's remarks. Again, good evening to everybody uh in the audience and watching online. As we gather for our annual organizational meeting, I want to thank our board members, our administration, staff, and community for your dedication. Tonight's about setting the foundation for another year of collaboration, transparency, and progress. Together, we'll continue to make decisions that put Harper students at the heart of everything we do. And with that, we'll pass it on to Mr. Ridgeway and administration. >> January is board appreciation month. So, board, we appreciate you and we appreciate the time. Uh, board members here at Har Creek are not paid. They are valid, completely volunteers. And so, the work that they put in is just for the
011community, the students. and thank you very much. Um, high school theater did a performance for elementary students. It was completely studentled. Um, it was it was good in the sense that we're getting authentic experiences that kids are doing. I think that's really good for real life experiences. They still are today. last half day of school uh January 15th and 16th for um end of semester exams in the afternoon elementary doing PD middle school high school doing records the last day of the first semester is Friday 16th no school for students on the 19th is a professional development day um beyond the serial bowl which is the partnership breakfast is coming up um forgot the date on there but it is January 29th um 8 o' 7:30 is Sonoma winner showcase is at January 30th and
012then the Battle Creek joint board meeting is February 11. Now if you have not RSVP just simply tell me and I'll send it in. Okay. And then I did have a conversation with Wild Men's Club and they will be coming to do a presentation in February um about their finances as well as about >> All right. Thank you for that. Madam Secretary, do you have any communications? And we received a very nice card by the staff of the school. Very cool. >> All right, I'll move on to district updates, curriculum, and Mr. Abraham. Good evening. Um, first off, I just want to say thank you. Um, here for just over a month now. Uh, the transition I think went really, really smoothly. I want to thank Laura. I want to thank my team. I want
013to thank um everyone in central office has been absolutely fantastic um really helping um to get me moving in the right direction. On this report, you can see the early warning indicators. Um the report does look a little different to kind of go along with the earlier board meeting. It goes right along with our five um points of our strategic plan. Uh but the early warning indicators is uh something that I am planning on having be uh like a bedrock report um that's consistently in front of all of you every every month. Early warning indicators um is is one of the broad umbrellas of MTSS to just kind of make sure that we're tracking our students, tracking where they um where they are and where we really need to spend our um our time and
014energy. So, this is just attendance percentages. This just gives us an idea like if you look at DKK in August, that means that roughly 96% of our students are attending school, right? That they're attending school um regularly. Um and we really that number somewhere between well 90 and 95%. So anything really above 5% is something that we can spend some energy on and we should be spending energy on. Um but that's where our numbers are now and there there are some like if you look at November uh sixth grade in November you'll see that that jumped to 20% and then dropped dramatically in December as well. Um really again for our our building leaders and for me as well is this should just be asking questions of you know why is this taking place and
015and again how are we spending our energy um as a school district ensuring that we're reaching every student. If we go to the next that is um that's honestly that's discipline referrals. Um again one of the early warning indicators is is really tracking um what students um in general and what kind of referrals are being written up. So, uh to kind of go along with PBIS, if we see a consistent behavior showing up time and time again, we should be teaching the replacement behaviors for that. Um I will say to you as an administrator now for 14 years, 14 and a half years, I've never seen numbers like this before in my life, which means we've been doing a really wonderful job with PBIS and Harper Creek. I mean, to give you a rough idea,
016um in in other districts, we were happy the end of the year to have um last year we had 1,400 discipline referrals in in the middle school that I came from and that was a drastic improvement to give you an idea that that's absolutely fantastic and a lot of kudos goes out to the the schools and the teams for the time and energy um that we're putting in. That's those that's fantastic. Um the next would be uh course proficiency. Um, again, time and energy should be spent on students that um are not passing classes, of course. Um, it's a little bit harder to get course proficiency for our DK through all of our elementary students because we're really only inputting grades um before parent teacher conferences, really when report cards are due. Um, so therefore,
017I put NWA data up there as well, which gives us an idea of where they are, where our students are proficient based on the state standards as well. And then you'll see that take off in fifth grade. Um just to sit on semester one fifth grade that would mean that 92% of our students um have a an A B C um anything below D. So there' be 8% of our students have D's and Fs that again some of our energy needs to be spent to make sure that we're getting those students um getting them what they need to make sure they're passing their classes and again be proficient. Um this is just um again a great umbrella to making sure that we're spending our energy in the right direction and making sure we're hitting every
018single kid the best that we can. So again, this this should be a staple on on border port. I look forward to next month really. Um we should have our middle of the year NWA testing. So uh DK all the way through um 8th grade should have all of our new updated NWA testing which is going on I believe mostly this week. So, I'm really looking forward to jumping into that hoping that we have some jumps um that we have 40% perhaps goes to 55%. We kind of we get an understanding of all the hard work that our teachers are putting in um towards our students. So, next month you can expect to see this report along with a little bit deeper dive into where where we are with our NWA diagnostic. Any questions? Do
019we have norm data on the um the attendance? >> I guess help me with your define >> what what the trends look like over past years and how we are doing uh now >> um just through anecdotal conversation that I've had throughout the district. I know we're in vast improvement from CO. So we are trending in a positive direction from that. Um but I can definitely look up to see that. >> Just wondering specifically monthly. >> Any further questions? >> All right, move on to facilities, Mr. Robinson. >> Oh, thank you. Um, I have I submitted a report last week. Um, and a couple highlights are if there first of all, is there any questions on that report? It wasn't very long. Um, so couple highlights I just wanted to touch on really quick is
020uh the uh we talked before about the bomb. You're going to see that a little later tonight in the presentation. We also have the high school weight project that's moving forward. I believe equipment is being ordered or been ordered for that for the remainder of that through a donation. So we're excited to get that going. I think 11 or 12 weeks delivery for that. So that'll be right the end of the school year. So um also uh lastly we talked before we are officially hosting the wall of heels. Um we got that uh all confirmed. We are working right now. So you know in my report I just touched on the dates. It will arrive on the 18th and then we will begin we will set it up on the 19th and it will be
021open the 21st 20 21st 22nd for 24 hours and then that Sunday will close 30 so it can be torn down and moved to the next location. We're really honored to have that. Um I've been working closely already with the Red White Blue Foundation along with our our middle school principal and our high school principal working on getting tours already getting that that ball rolling. last time they were here. Of course, our students were in school, so we're hoping to take advantage of that. Excited for that. Good stuff. Any thoughts, questions for Mr. Robinson? Really cool that we're hosting that again. Very proud of the district and thank you, Mr. Robinson. Um, all right. Move on to finance and Mrs. Oberer. Good evening. Um, as you can see, we went up in general fund tax
022and student activities. You can see that due to large $250,000 project he spoke of yet still in that cash balance. uh the future needs uh you'll see that went down a little bit and that's because we finally got our paid for you guys months ago. Um and then the big thing that Mr. CDs and my interest rate% the My interest. >> Excellent. >> The next one I'm just going to touch on a little bit because I will be talking a little more in revision to talk about later in the meeting. Um, but we were in good shape. We had of the 11 state payments which is 27% you'll see we're at 32% of that and then teachers were paid 11 out of 27 payrolls I just try to it's very generic but it's just trying
023to show you guys where we're at the biggest instruction at the bottom huge but that's normal based on how we are funded through August but we pay through and then our spending is where it should be when I do this I look at previous years I'll talk more about later. >> Thank you board members. Any questions, comments, thoughts? All right, thank you for that. And uh move on to technology. And Mr. Mayor, good evening. >> Project money. Awesome. We have a variety of models going working model is going well a little warning that Okay. Anything board? All right. If not, I will move on to comments related to agenda items. Nobody in the audience has any comments related to agenda items. All right. We'll move on to the consent agenda. Approve service approve the following
024minutes of education meeting January 826. and supported. Do we have discussion? >> See none, please call the RO. >> Mr. >> I vote yes. >> All right. Thank you for that. information discussion bond programming presentation. Mr. Ridgeway, you want to get us started there? >> Yeah. So, we have our partners from K Scott, Rob Atkins, and we also have our partners from Clark Construction, Jamie Carter will be the one presenting, but there's also several members of the crew in the audience waiting to answer any questions you might have. I'm going to start the PowerPoint presentation. I'll let Mr. Atkins >> take that and let's see if everything works out well. We'll be all set. >> Okay. All right. Well, thank you for having us. We're glad to be here. Um, this is pretty exciting because
025tonight we're um bringing you an actual board program recommendation. We prepared this presentation to kind of highlight the work that's been completed to get us to this point. Um, and then um Jamie will be going over uh the improvements recommended for the district and then we'll end with our next steps as well. Certainly members have questions as we go through this feel free to interrupt us but we have really want to kind of outline the journey we've been on to this so the work completed to date uh we started this whole effort back this summer kicked things off in May and King Scott and Clark sent in the technical teams really did a comprehensive assessment of all the fac the sites and everything for the district. We met with key staff throughout the summer months
026and also got firsthand input of what they've been experiencing in the buildings etc. All this information was gathered and this work really was the whole summer. Then in September um bond steering committee was formed. Uh I believe we have almost 35 people on this committee made up of parents made up of community members, staff, teachers, a really good comprehensive group and they started to consider all of the improvements that were identified in the assessment. So we spent, you know, kicked that off in September. We had meetings in October and then November we had some community meetings and we invited community members. We had one at each of the elementaryaries uh so parents and other community members could come so they could see firsthand a lot of the things that um have been identified in the
027assessment. At that same time in November, a community survey was also done. We got a lot of input regarding the survey from the survey I should say regarding the improvements under consideration. The good news is during that whole effort we we got a lot of confirmation of things we identified. Certainly there were additional things that each of the buildings and things directly related to people that assessment team heard of. But we took all this data and all this information and then the steering committee met in December. We had two meetings both on the 17th and they task of actually identifying high priorities. So, and that's really what led to program recommendation that is being delivered tonight for consideration taking in all the input going through all the recommendations all the feedback we received from the
028various things that were done. So during our assessment process, we identified a lot of need within the buildings. So just to kind of give you some context, we really identified over 96 million. And on this slide, you can see a breakdown between the amount of improvements identified for each of the elementaryaries, the middle school, high school, this building here, the building. Please that building that is a price for a new building. This is the old building and a lot of need. So as we process, this is one of the things it would point out those are future dollars as well. So there's Um we also identified you know as you can see improvements transportation. So um what the district has before them is a financial opportunity for August this year to put the voters bond
029proposal. This zero mil net increase would generate roughly 28 million. So we had 96 million of need identified and that was the task of the steering committee is what are the critical needs and that would bas as as we know right now from your financial consultants. The next time the district would have the ability to do a bond would be 2034 just to give some context. So for this $28 million bond program that we're presenting tonight, you can see here how the totals break out per building. So you can see the elementaryaries all total from five to six million and then we have roughly seven and a half million for middle school. for the high school the administration building. Um, this is a technology recommendation technology for it and I believe that's a new firewall
030district. There are no uh improvements being recommended within this recommendation for athletic facilities. facilities are really good priorities really high school and middle school and then we did have some items identified for transportation. So right now you can see we've identified roughly 28 million consideration and I'm gonna turn it over to Jamie and she'll provide a little more details also. for anyone who gets up numbers like I sometimes can the 28.1 um and we're talking about round 28 we'll make sure that uh when we do the final numbers um with your financial team but that is exact it's really close so we just left it like that for now um so I'm going to kind of group some of these together where they have uh similar things so um at Beetle Lake um their the
031main project is addition class edition here classroom edition. That's actually similar for all the elementary schools. And I'll mention to you when we're looking at the screen, the technology items at the bottom, the four of those are the same in all of the academic buildings. So, classroom AB uh with projectors like Jim was mentioning, um some network infrastructure, wireless access points, uh PA and clocks, that's going to be the same in all of the the academic buildings. Um similarities uh for all of the elementary schools um are the playground structures for the two through five uh the security film for classroom edition. Um this at Beetle Lake has remodeling of the art in Spanish on that wing. Um they also all include furniture for the classroom edition. um some mechanical work in the office area
032and then uh standby emergency generator for some of those critical uh infrastructure needs. Um and then this school also has playground equipment improvements above and beyond that. Um Soma again really similar a little bit different layout uh but the same classroom addition furniture mechanical generator. Um, this one also has some uh storm water work as well as reconstructing the bus drop off um and playground improvements there. And then then again, really similar at Waddles Park uh for classroom addition there as well as furniture, mechanical, generator, the the technology items we talked about. Um, and then reconstructing the the drop off and expanding the south lot there. All right. And then the middle school, the main work here is infilling the pool to create classrooms as you can see highlighted there. Um, there's some other work
033as well. Uh, wrestling room flooring, reconstructing the parking lot, um, more security film, replacing the auxiliary gym flooring, um furniture, um and then it air conditioning and then the same technology items there. The high school, the major component of this is the roofing uh but also um security film um and some mechanical work there as well. And then admin, um, as Rob mentioned, that's really the the district firewall, the technology portion of this. And then the transportation building, replacing the transportation lot, fencing, um, soundproofing and offices, and then some electrical, replacing power poles. Okay, so that basically highlights the bond program that's recommended for board consideration. So for tonight, um by the board uh approving this proposed bond program, what you're basically authorizing is the King Scott Clark team to prepare an application for preliminary
034qualification of bonds. And that's all within the treasury process. So that would be our next step. And um so that's really the action that we're looking for tonight. and it's just that to prepare the application per this scope. So, I'm going to end with just kind of outlining some next steps. Um, so tonight we're here to get the bond program recommendations so we can then start the bond app, but also too, um, what we're targeting to start this month is really starting to prepare for a campaign to promote this fund. And, um, it's really getting all the the Scott Clark team. I know the district works with K12 media. They would be part of this planning and uh so we would be starting that as well as we're preparing the bond app and going through
035the treasury process. The next time we would come before the board would be in March. Um our target with Treasury is had to have this application review on March 18th. We have to have the bond app into your council on March 12th. And then going through that review process with Treasury, we would then bring the actual bond app to the board for approval on March 23rd. And again, that's just approving. That night would be to approve the application that would then go through Treasury. We are also targeting in March to present the final facility master plan. So we've been working on this assessment. Right now we've been focused on this identifying this bond program. Now we're going to wrap everything up into the facility master plan. And uh we would like to present that to
036the board in the March meeting and really show not only how this bond program fits within the master plan, but also what are the longer term items that the plan has identified that you could consider for a future bond. Um okay. And then I can advance this. Whoops. Too much. April. Um April, we will be going through this Treasury process uh and we'll be really um in full swing preparing for a bond campaign. We'll come back to the board at your May meeting. So May 11th, that's really where everything becomes locked in and it's real. So up to, you know, up to that point, we're just working through the Treasury process. So May 11th, the board would be asked to call the election And then May 12th, if the board calls the election on May
03711th, May 12th is when we would start promoting the bond and in effect start the campaign. Um, right now with all of our bond elections, bonds are passed through absentee voting. So, it's critical we start the campaign on May 12th and we work really hard to inform the community about this bond before the absentee ballots come out. And um so June 20th is when absentee ballots uh come out for u military and for people that live outside of the country. And then June 25th is when absentee ballots are then mailed out to the general public. all the voters, registered voters. Um, so we want to make sure the voting community is well informed by June 20th, and that's going to be our goal. And then July will be in uh full campaign swing. Um, and
038then August is when we have the election. August 4th is the actual vote day. And then there's in person voting that appears I think it will start on August 2nd. So that's how we get to the election. Um I would open it up to entertain any questions from the board. >> Yes. So I I'll start that answer. Um, yes to all the above. We will have a lot of opportunities. The goal will be to get information out and and continue to meet with community groups. I know uh, Superintendent Rididgeway has already met with a lot of groups. We'll follow up and continue that. And I know um, Superintendent also has some other engagement efforts that can be done before you actually call the election as well. Um, but to answer your question, yes, we are
039going to want to because our challenge is to really reach the silent majority. Like our school community is going to know and we're going to mobilize our school community, but the silent majority is the group that we really have to work hard to get them informed. Um, that's the first step and get them motivated to vote. >> That's a great question. Couple thoughts. One, as you can imagine, to get from 96 million to 28 million. >> There's there was a lot of detail on a lot of stuff that didn't make the cut. I think they did a good job setting the right priorities. But we've had a lot of discussion about okay, once we make the call, how do we get out to people and make sure communication is clear. we understand what are the
040potential push backs why would people be no votes and how do we so yeah there's I think there's a lot of ideas about how we do that how do we bring people together we'll be talking about that this group probably every month between now and August came up at the ste meeting was we don't get a lot of people to a inerson meeting if we just say hey we're going to do a but we might get a lot of people I say we're going to have a community discussion about school choice. We know that's an issue within the community, an issue with the bond. And so if I can get people in the room, have a discussion about school choice, also talk about what we're looking at for building prospects, maybe I'll get more people
041in the room because it seemed like when I was able to get people in the room face to face, even those that may have lean no or were no last time, when they hear it's a zero increase, when they hear some of the facts of the nature, One fact that people don't understand, I was talking to somebody just the other day at Sweeters and they said, "Well, you know, you got to pay for all those school choice." I said, "No, every school choice student comes with the foundation allowance the same as in I mean in district students, you know, and that was like a learning experience for that community. >> We thought that was a good idea of getting people in the door to start the conversations controversial issues Other questions? All right. Well, thank
042you very much for our time. Obviously, if questions come up, I think you guys know how to get a hold of us. We'll be happy to answer them. But >> I want to get hold of you. >> Yeah. But anyways, I think uh we've got a really good program and we're going to touch a lot of areas of the district. Even if it's 28 million, that's still a big chunk of money. So great opportunity for the district. Thank you. >> All right, we are going to move on to the school safety update. Mr. Ridgeway. >> Yeah, just really quick, we went to Lake Elementary today, which was nice. As I said, they really do a nice job. I'm not not just saying that blowing smoke is our in terms of school safety, they are the
043I would guess the most conscientious really want all to be very good. There would be at the excellent level. Everybody else is at the very level. Uh but there were definitely some trainings and some uh drills that that lake would like to do with all of our school resource officers. If one thing at the lake is we don't have a alternate spot for kids to run to. Let's just say we had issue and the kids were on the playground. They couldn't go back inside. Where do they go? Well, you have what do they call theest trees? in the woods. Um, and so they want to say, "Okay, where should we go? Where should we tell our teachers they should go outside the fence and hide? Go through the fence on the other side so they
044can't see them." And then we also want to practice evacuation drills. And for Bele Lake Elementary, their evacuation would be on a school bus to a location. So those are the things that came up. Uh, beyond that, um, talked a little bit about the January 19th school safety training. It's in the morning. We're having an outside person, Joe Humphre, come in to talk. They're the ones that wrote the emergency operation plan. There's been some questions about the flip charge in the classroom. So, he wants to take care of answering that. One thing that's been suggested is we have all classroom doors locked. Um, we'll talk about that at the uh 19th meeting and it'll be a question. We want to have a board all classroom doors shall be locked during the school day, which is
045the recommendation of school experts. So, that may that comes back to us in February as shall um talked a little bit about some other school safety um folks that we talked to. There's a we work with Joe Humphre from company. I talked to a company that's called Shield in Michigan and they have an idea of having a school safety director at a school like Harper Creek and that person's full-time job would be school. My job is, you know, it's not 24 hours school safety. It's important, but there's other things. So, if we had somebody that was just looking at school safety all the time, just think how much better we could in terms of preparation. So, I may bring that back up. I know school safety money has obviously up in the air at this
046point. Probably will not receive any this year, but we will see things happen. But if so, I might recommend I think that was it. Um, I think that was all that we talked about. >> Sounds good to me. >> All right. If no questions for Mr. Rididgeway there, let's move on to this strategic plan update. >> Yeah, continuing on. Lots of things happening. The things I highlighted this month were student achievement. Very proud of the student achievement results. very proud of direction that we're going. We'll see how those results look here next month. Collaboration amongst the district and not just collaboration on Wednesdays, but collaboration and developing um Jim had talked about how our attendance has gotten better over the last concert. I mean, our school staff is meeting with parents, calling parents, going through
047processes all the time to help attend It's not something that's done. It's done in collaboration isolation. On top of behavior, I don't know if you notic that is very very good. I don't that number again because we have a positive behavior support system in place that most high schools don't. You know that we have other high schools high school see how we did it because they can't get that implemented so they're doing a really nice job not perfect but much much better and then of course the bond initiative has taken up a lot of time and it has taken up a lot of work but I think it'll be well go through this we do a really nice job I think we'll be really proud of the resultce that happens August 4th I think is
048the final election day it's kind of funny that that's not election day anymore election day starts absence The last time we had 51% of our voters were absent. So we've got to just assume that we've got to get the information and help people vote when the absentee comes out. Not waiting. That was a huge lesson learned. That's about it. We talked about other things, but generally speaking, those were the highlights where the time was most spent on the strategic questions. Okay, I'll move on to the overnight uh future city competition field trip. >> Okay, I only bring this to you because it's brand new. It's a new competition. Very similar to bridge building. Uh it's free to the to the school district. Uh it could be sixth through eighth graders. We happen to have eighth
049graders. I believe there are six that are going to go to the competition. When we did bridge building the first year, it was a small number like that, but the kids will go on January 20th and it's overnight because the group that's organizing it, they're paying for it. They want the kids there the night before so that they can have competition. But the kids have been preparing. They make their own cities. U actually read something online at a different district. They're doing the same thing. That's kind of cool. So it says I just reading through showcase solutions to citywide sustainability challenge but they had to create their own city before they went and then they present that at the competition six eighth grade kids two chaper one female one male for the hotel room situation
050I already have approved the trip if you want to tell me no that's great but uh generally speaking I think that uh we are not we are always in favor of field trips and we need to be talking about this next year. I would not bring it to the brand new >> Showcase collection is the uh suburb suburban show collection collection. Yeah, it was I guess I could pop this on. >> I believe Erica Jenkins is also just kind of gives you I don't want to go too fast. It looks really good. >> I didn't mention it in the report, but we we did put the application in for the lab at high school has happened. There will be a visit coming up soon where they go actually through the classroom and how they're going
051to give you. >> All right, thank you for that. Um, digital sign RFP creation. >> Okay, we've talked a lot about a digital sign out here on B Drive North and Lake Road. And so we kind of got to get to a point where we take take a step. So a step would be to create the send it out. Jim and I have already discussed this. He's in process. We would work with Kings. You have to have a design for them to do the RP for. So, we've already started that process and um then that will go out that give us a price that we can bring back to the board to see yes or no. Of course, we'll look at the budget. We'll look at all the other factors, but this will be a
052first step instead of every month we just talk about it. This will be a positive step to see if we want to move forward with real something like that. Those are pretty big, but something like that. Yeah, >> certainly one that like the way I would describe it to a sign company, I say I want to be able to project on the sign so you can see somebody's face like recognize somebody that kind of quality. So I guess when I was in my previous district, I actually said the words, I want it to be the same quality as a fire sign. >> Smaller, but the same quality. That'll give us, you know, we, like I said, we've been talking about it. There's no action for this. We're going to create the RFP unless somebody looks
053at me and says, "We shouldn't do that. It doesn't hurt anything. Doesn't cost anything. Oh, I like that. I vision structures. Okay. >> All right. Any further thoughts? >> Item F 202526, revised budget. >> I'm gonna pass this along to finance director. see the original revision next to each other looking at I'll make it as big as you need to. Is that big enough? >> So, as always, I just want to point out you're actually passing the resolution that's really hard to read. This is the same information that you're used to seeing every week. It's the same information, but I'm so I'm going to talk off of this, but you're passing the resolution. Um, a couple of changes. So, the revised budget, one thing that I have to say every time is what I know
054as of last week when I was making this budget. That's what this reflects. Um, a couple of the bigger things. The foundation allowance was $10,50. We budgeted for $10,000. So, that automatically was an increase of $136,000. Just that $50 per pupil. We were we're up um 35 students FTE from the spring count. So um there's a payload. It should be 2745. So we're up 35 students. Um which is 350,000. Um, I updated I don't know if you guys remember back in June when we had our meeting, retirement was up in the air and so I left the revenue and the expenditure percentage the same. I didn't touch it. In the end, there was a major cut to um one of our retirement things. And so it's actually um decreased by about $800,000 in retirement >>
055to the negative. So that's why unfortunately at the bottom and and I kind of told you guys this in October when I did the major outliers um the insurance estimate we originally put at 8% it was actually more like 2.5% of an increase um but there were some changes um in in the at the government level that we weren't sure if they were coming down or not. That's why we were a little more conservative in in June. Um I updated some of the grants to reflect what that actually happening. Um, if you look our um, for example, our our improvement of instruction 221 and our 283 went up, but the actual cost didn't go up. That's our grow your own. We have to put it in that in that section. So, uh, sorry, back to
056the revenue. the local taxes increased, but that actually takes away from our our state revenue in uh general fund. The um increase in federal is mostly due to grow your own. And then our increase in incoming transfer is special indirect. We estimated it at around 300,000 and it's actually around 450,000. That's something new I talked to you guys in June about that we were trying to get the direct um for special ed and that that did in fact happen. In the end at the bottom what really what you guys really want to see is uh the bottom line I still have us um in the negative. This is conservative but I do have us negative very similar to where we were in June. It just changed revenue. We got more revenue but we also had
057more expense. >> So it sounds like we had a lot of pluses with that one big offset of 800,000 >> the retirement. Yeah. Is that a year-over-year hit or is that a one time? >> So, we we've had it for the last at least three years. Uh about a million dollars each year and then this year it just it stopped. But we also had a lower a little bit lower of a percentage in retirement that we owe for each. >> So, it's that that $800,000 >> it ended up being about actually a $600,000 loss between the two. >> Okay. But it won't go further. it won't go in year over year. >> We just no longer will receive that money. So, yes, it's a hit year after year. Um, we did add more to the
058fund balance last year um which you guys know from the from the audit and from me telling you before the audit. And so, in the end, while we are in the negative, our percent fund balance uh did increase to 14% overall. explain just a touch more just so the 11.15 fund balance was our guess before our audit. After the audit, we had a little more money in fund balance than we thought. So that increased where we were at. And even with a 794,000 negative bottom line, we still would remain at 14%. So in the worst case scenario, we would still be at 14%. We always think that we're going to finish better than that. >> So right now and change or is that 16? >> Where where would we be at after the audit bills?
059>> Around six million%. >> Oh, right now if you give me >> 16%. >> So the 14's after the end of next year. That's our >> unless we get we make things greener as we always do. >> Sure. >> School of choice. Yeah. >> Every student we have in the district is 10,00 we receive 10,50 no matter if they're in district or school choice. By the way, I don't know if that's been added recently, but I like that the side notes there. >> Thanks. >> I haven't sub for budget. >> A little added bonus for you there. >> And then Ginger talked about I just real quick the actual resolution if you had not seen this board, but look like this. Now, I don't know if we want Erin to read the entire thing. It's
060very long. >> But generally speaking, so if you looked at this because you know, you go back and say the revision matches the numbers that Ginger presented. It's just written in a totally different manner. And when you do a budget, it has to be positive, but that includes your balance. So even though we're at whatever it was 98 whatever the number was with our fund balance we definitely in a positive >> further there. >> All right let's move on to new hire. >> Okay I'll just go go go through the shifting here. So Ryan Renard a long time uh teacher and a current wood shop teacher and coach previously is retiring this Friday actually. And so we are doing a little movement. Jared Dell, who is a current high school math teacher, will move to
061the wood shop. Um he's really someone that does have a a background in that category. So that's why he was a good move. And then we are going to hire somebody named Brian George. Um he comes to us from nearby district. I think Gailsbury Augusta. He would come in at the MA13 level. He I believe has been in to see how the classroom runs and then he would start officially on next Monday as the teacher of record of that class. He's been kind of substitute >> that's correct spelling his name. It >> is correct. >> GS just wanted to make sure All right. Uh let's move on to uh item H, K12 media bond, content marketing. >> Okay. So, as part of the whole bond, I probably should have done this right after the bond
062so you all match up, but um we've talked a lot about working K12 media. U they have quite a record of passing bonds. They've only had one bond not passed in the last 11 years. Um the actual content package pricewise is just below $30,000 298. Um, and with that we would get uh the videos the videos that you see that that are on on Facebook or that we post about 10 of those and then they would also be the lead on creating graphics for everything that we do for the B so that we have a consistent branding message. Now, the folks from King Scott and um and Clark Construction, they would be responsible for like the materials that come out, but with the branding that matches so that we all match up. And so, I'm
063going to call a meeting now that we haven't done yet once the board passes the program, I would call a meeting at the end of January to get all those groups together to say here's what everybody's going to do. Now, I don't need uh the approval of the board for 29,890, but I I want to make sure I brought it up in case anybody had pro problems that we probably shouldn't spend that money. I the only reason I think it's good money spent is we continue to talk about getting this message out. They have a track record in this area. As a matter of fact, I talked to the owner and heard of Barton Marlo. They're very large. They are now hiring them to do all of their legit. You want to take a look.
064is still on their website, but Union City used them recently. You can see the market and that way we'll have a concerted plan. So, I don't need an action item for this. I just simply want you to be aware if there's any discussion what we're getting for this money. It's it would be equivalent to what we spent for the election last time because we will not have to spend very little money on the election investment passhudience. Yeah, I know Ashley sat on the committee that was helping with the bond and we really needed some help, I believe. And I think this >> this will make sure that that that appreciate that. >> All right. Uh we're going to move on to comments from the audience. I believe uh did you Evol, did you put your
065comment card in. >> Why don't you just come up and talk? We'll get a comment card afterwards. >> Come on up. A >> just state. >> My first time ever here. >> State your >> one of our top bus drivers, by the way. >> State your name uh and address for the uh record. And um you have three minutes. >> Three minutes. Okay. My name is Ael and as of just a month ago I live in Portage now 9708 Oakland Drive Michigan but I used to live in in East for 37 years. So both my both my boys were high school and then Sonoma Elementary and then graduated from Creek. Uh pleased to be here. I'm Dutch by birth and I'm an American by choice. Uh but I do not to impose my my original
066culture upon you. However, I'm Dutch and I didn't know I don't know if you knew, but the Dutch people actually invented copper wire. You know how they invented copper wire by any chance? Two guys fighting over a penny. And why am I saying this is because uh it's important where we spend our money and how we spend it. uh copper white does it mean that first we should never be afraid firstly or hesitant to make investments but we need to be careful how and where we invest what is the investment the students and their success that is where the investment lies um the dollars that we spend have to have must have a direct impact on the students and it should correlate there to their success that is what how I that's how I feel
067this is what this school district is all about that the students succeed and that they prosper. Um and unfortunately this is primarily about the sign we're talking about up front here. Um because you can say well what about prestige right? What about prestige? What makes more sense though for building or sign or the students prospering and making great strides in academics. I just want to urge you put serious thought into the true priorities of the school district. Please consider can you say with your heart on hand on heart that whatever investment or expense expense that is made does it go to the benefit of the student body. >> Thank you. That's all I have to say. >> And just for the record he is actually also a rocket scientist. Am I right? >> And he
068works with and he works with NASA. >> Yeah. Well that's true. I've worked with the government. I've worked with Boeing. I've worked with some some military contractors that I can't talk about that is my from my previous work when I was in a technical business manager for a manufacturing company. So, it's not about building although some of it is used there too. But yeah, I have a pretty extensive uh experience in that particular market and I also actually have a consulting business on the side. But I'm supposed to supposed to be retired now. So that's why I'm driving a bus, but I'm only driving a bus because I want to give something back to the community. I wanted to do it because I wanted to do something on the side that once I was retired,
069I thought, what can I do to help? I decided to again. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Our our our students are in good hands when you're driving that bus. I know they are. Thank you. >> All right. Um, anybody else on comments from the audience? >> Okay, let's move on to action item A, bond programming approval. program authorization of funds in accordance with the state guidelines. >> Been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Hearing seeing none, please call the role. I vote yes. >> Thank you for that action item B 202526 revised budget for the board of education 2026. been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> That was six minutes, not five. So, >> any other comment? All right. Please call the role. I >> vote yes. >> All right.
070Thank you for that. Action item C. New hire. calls for a motion board of education approved for 101 degree Michigan. >> It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? And see none, please call the role. Yes, >> I vote yes. >> Thank you for that. Items for the next meeting. >> Yeah, we her and I had talked about that. I haven't prepared for this meeting but we will >> anything else. >> All right. Good evening. Meeting adjourned at 7:30 on the dot.