00124 to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence. >> 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. >> Thank you, >> Madam Secretary. Please call the role. >> Mr. Hmerson is absent. Mrs. Risner >> here. >> Mrs. Wat is absent. >> Mrs. Albert, I am present. >> Mrs. Wallace here. Mr. Smith >> here >> and Mr. >> I am present. >> We have a four. >> All right. Five of us. Um and we will move on to review and approval of the agenda. It is my understanding we do have a modification to the agenda. Mr. Ridgeway. >> Yes. Under acts 10 um close session negotiation
002section 8 C collective bargaining. I want or I'd like to add 8H attorney client privilege information regarding legal advice. And you have that motion. >> No, don't have a motion. >> Okay. Amen. >> Do you need the the jargon? motion to amend the agenda as discussed. This is going to test her skills today. >> Yep. 8H. >> So section 8H, attorney client privileged information regarding legal advice. Chair calls for a motion to board of education at agenda item under close session section 8H attorney client privilege in regards to legal advice. It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Hearing and seeing none, please call the role. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mrs. I vote yes. Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> And Mr. F. >> I vote yes.
003>> Motion carries. >> All right. 5-0. Move on to communications and presence remarks. Good evening to all those in attendance and welcome to our new high school principal, Stephanie Howard. Congratulations again. Um, also welcome those who are watching online. Mark your calendars for these important dates. August 1st, kindergarten uh school of choice window ends. August 18th, middle school and high school meet the teacher night from 5:00 to 7:00. August 19th, elementary meet the teacher night from 5 to 7 and August 20th, first day of school. Can't wait to start uh see every start back for a great year. Go Blue. And with that, move on to administration and Mr. Ridgeway. >> All right, so our um summer school uh developmental kindergarten through 8th grade is starting back up for the next three weeks. Um our
004summer food bro program is continuing. We have places where kids can get breakfast and lunch, the high school, um first kids learning center and Beetle Lake Elementary, and several places where kids can get lunch. Um the ones that are offsite are typically, uh I guess I would say we'll come in our school van and they'll they'll do that out of the van or out of the out of the outside of the school building. Um I would like to call for a policy committee meeting. That's Aaron, Sheay, and Ashley. We don't need to discuss the exact time frame, but we really need to meet in the next two weeks so that we can get our policy stuff ready. So, we'll just check on vacation schedules and when you guys are available with Shay also, um my
005anticipating it will take a bit of time because we have a fairly large update from TR and then we also want to take a little look at a couple of policies that the nurse wanted us to to look at. And then I want to call a building committee meeting. This is going to be just fairly short, but to set the steering committee members for the bond issue. So, the um the bond team, you know, they they're pushing really hard. I sat down with our administrative team. We have a fairly large list of names. We want to make sure that we come to conclusion. It should be about 20 to 25 people in total. Some community members, some staff members, and some administration. Okay? And two board members. So, think about that as well if you're
006interested as the board member. I guess I would talk to Bo to figure out who the board members will be. Um, there is a summer school showcase on Thursday, July 30th. So, if you hopefully have received this, um, but it will be from 9:00 to 9:45 for the elementary and 10:00 to 10:45 for the middle school kids. And basically, they will celebrate the finish of summer school. Um, they all are doing uh projects and you'll be able to see their projects. So, if you're interested, and that's at the high school. Fall sports begin on August 11th, and we are hosting a fall sports kickoff event August 15th at 7 p.m. Um, we will introduce all the teams. They'll be down at the stadium. In conjunction, there will also be a football scrimmage. And a lot
007of, like I said, all of our teams will be down there at kind of a kickoff. We did it last year. It was pretty popular, so we're going to try it again. And then finally, we received a community member sent a um communication and I forward the email to you earlier today. Uh but uh on Thursday, August 14th, Lancing Community College is hosting a day of learning on anti-semitism. And if you have any interest as board members in attending, please let me know. I believe that is all of the communications that I have. >> And you did send them an email? Yeah, email was sent to all all the boards >> and it's a free event. Um U BG Lincoln reached out to me today to see if we would share that. So I said
008I definitely would. All right. Uh Madam Secretary, any communications? We >> We do. We have two items. Uh we would like to thank the Mary Ellen Educators Fund for the grant totaling $2,177 to Harper Creek Community Schools. And secondly, the American Heart Association. Thank the following teachers for their volunteerism in coordinating the kids heart challenge. Morgan Smith, Beetle Lake Elementary. Christina Guthrie, Soma Elementary. Paul Cotts, Wattles Park Elementary. Uh Harper Creek is grateful for their work in leading this event and the impact on students and families. >> That's all I have. >> All right. Thank you for that. District updates, curriculum. Mrs. Williams, good evening. Good evening. Well, July there's not a ton of report. Mr. Rididgeway shared that we do have our second half of summer programming up and running. We did something just
009a little bit differently. We have the same group of students for some cohesiveness for the six weeks. Um still running on a four-day schedule, lots of um learning and experiences and um so we're excited to have the remaining 12 days. Well, now we only have 11 days. Um, the best thing I hear about it is kids are tired when they come home and they're happy when they're there. So, you can't that kind of sums it up. Um, I do want to lift up the Ashley Burner and Aaron Wagaman and Libby. Um, they're kind of taking the lead um of running the show and they've done a great job. So, I just want to lift them up as well as the teachers dedicated when they could have summer off, they are there. And you know, I've
010gotten texts and emails from some that even worked over their break. So, um, that's the main thing. As far as, uh, what are we doing in July? We're getting ready for our new teachers, sending welcome letters out, getting ready for their professional development. Keep in mind, remember, we do here on if you can, on the morning of um, August uh, oh shoot, 15th, I think, we'll get that confirmed here. Let me look just real quick. Yep. August 15th, we'll have our breakfast with our new staff and Mr. Rididgeway and the principles will be here to officially have them do a photo op and sign. So, we would love to have you join us. >> What time is that? >> I'm sorry. >> 7:30 8. >> 7:30. >> Yep. We'll start the training at 8. So,
0117:30 to 8 we'll be signing and eating. Um uh we did send a group um from our high school as I mentioned to Lemonia to the reading apprenticeship and they came back with good energy. So more to come on that and how they'll implement it. And then just working on our professional development um plan as it aligns with our school improvement plan. Um nothing major changing other than you know from um the spring our high school will be taking a year to pilot. So, um towards the end of this calendar year, um I'll have them report to you in December like how's it going? Um and the main why is because when you do instruction similar to how math should be taught now, a lot of the foundational pieces are set in the first units
012and we piloted in the middle of the year. We just needed more time. So, um that's the skinny of the curriculum instruction assessment department and uh lots lots of good things. Did you have any questions when you reviewed the report? >> All right, that's all I have. >> Thank you for that. Mr. Robinson, good evening. >> Thank you. Good evening. Um, I submitted a report as well. Um, if there's any questions on it, I'd be happy to answer them. Um, if not, I'd just like to raise up um our custodial teams. Some of the work I'm seeing them doing this summer is pretty impressive. Um, and we had a small issue with Sonoma here a few Fridays ago and I'll tell you they were on top of it before I even got there. So, it
013was really nice to have him there and doing some good stuff and Derek, their supervisor is uh knocking it out of the park. We'd like to let those folks know that they're appreciated for sure. Um, projects were continuing. You probably noticed if you drove around the district, we did fill quite a few of the bigger potholes. um had them actually milled down and filled. We couldn't do them all um because but our our parking lots we're going to have to really look at here in the near very near future. Um especially like over by the stadium and some of the other areas student lot those are getting we are going to have them sealed the high school parking lots and the roads. I'm we're hoping for that to be done early August sealed so they'll
014all be nice and crack filled sealed black and then all the new lines painted. And then we're also working on uh we will also have Wallles Parks parent loop um prior to school starting too. So we're going to create a little bit of a different those of you Mr. P and a couple were on the safety committee. We took a ride over there and just looking at the new uh route for our parent drop off pickup I student drop off and pick up when they drop off our parents. So um we call it that. Um, but that's really the long and the short of it. >> All I got. >> Where do we stand at with the wait room? Uh, I know we've got stuff ordered, but where do we stand at on the balance?
015Do we know? >> What do you think? >> Um, >> what's the latest you've heard? >> As far as timing? >> Yes. >> Uh, you're looking probably September now. >> And the money side of things, we're at what? Still like 175 out of two 250. >> Um, I think I think you're pretty high. I think you're like 170 180 in that area. >> We'll have the floors. Most of the weight equipment is is is already ordered and purchased, but it'll it'll be pretty close to being complete complete. So, feel pretty good about it. Good. >> It'll be it's it's well on the way. I've seen mock-ups of it and excited. >> Jim, my only other question. Have we got any funding for the filter first? >> Um, we we submitted it. Um, I don't think
016we've seen anything yet. Um, and that seems to be the uh way it's gone across the state from talking with other facility directors as well. They submitted it, but where it's at lancing, we don't know. >> So, okay. >> He's sitting here shaking fat ass. >> And we're set to be reimbursed for most of this first initial project, right? All I think all the initial project. We're a little concerned about filter future heating up with filter purchases. >> Testing because testing is about 20 bucks a unit. Um we're going to have to, you know, we're going to probably put a few more drinking stations in than we are required to just because of what we have to do in elementary with some drinking fountains and stuff like that. Um so, okay, >> it'll be won't
017be a cheap venue. That's for sure. Folks in LK appreciate our efforts. >> Okay. Anything further for Mr. Robinson? >> All right. Finance and Mrs. Obermeyer. Good evening. >> Good evening. We just had a meeting a couple weeks ago where you passed the but the budget, the final budget and the new budget. Um I was hoping to come here today and tell you exactly what Lancing had to say and it's the same as where it was uh when we met on the 23rd. The Senate um has put out theirs which was $10,08. Um it had a similar setup to the usual structure of uh school funding. Uh the house put out something that kind of shook things up a bit and um was giving more per pupil but less in categoricals. Um so it it's
018still out there. We haven't heard um they then you know recessed and hopefully they'll be back. I think they're back this week. So, hope is we'll find out more this week. Um, >> it's interesting. We just haven't heard any rumors either. It was gonna happen. >> Yeah, normally you hear things and >> neither one of us. >> All we heard was it was going to be settled July 1st and it didn't happen and now they come back in session I believe tomorrow. >> And then um the federal level there's also, you know, talk there too. Nothing concrete, but the um there's delayed funding in some of the titles. are not our big title one, but um some of the the other title grants, there's delay funding, which means they're still in discussion. That's really all
019I have other than the the normal um board reports, the pre- audit. It's audit time, so you guys will be here for the auditor soon. Um first week in in September. Ours is a little late. Um first week in September. Cash balance is good. We earned a total of 313,000 in interest uh this year over all of the funds more significantly more than normal and a lot of that has to do with um my lap and and just doing things a little bit differently um having the bare minimum in our checking account and trying to invest as much as possible. >> Anything else for Mrs. Overber? What was our what was our budget assumption for >> 10,000 per pupil? Yep. And that's what the governor came out with and the Senate came out with 10,08
020and the House originally came out with 10,025. >> So we feel pretty strong about that. We just it's just the way the house had done it. They had basically took a lot of categoricals, put them in a pot of money and said here you split them up. um which actually would you know for Harper Creek specifically we would probably would come out ahead of that because we don't get as many categoricals as some other >> correct >> but there certainly would be schools in the state that would come out on the wrong end of that too >> but just just so you know we don't know but I would anticipate this week I think they're going to come out the budget there's a lot of pressure on I think those three people >> I would
021hope >> representative Hall the Senate leader I can't remember the name and then U governor when we're getting a lot of push back >> because we have to push have a budget by June 30th. >> Yeah. >> And >> happens every year, >> right? >> They want us to do our job without doing theirs. >> All right. I'll move on to technology. I see Mr. Maynard is probably on vacation some. >> He is. >> Good for him. >> All right. So, um just a couple of things. Student devices. You may have heard this already, but uh we are migrating to Windows 11. Windows 10 will not be supported anymore. So, we basically, if Carlos, Carlos is our tech person that's here today, he could tell me if I'm inaccurate in this, but I think every
022computer has to be handled to make that happen. So, that's a lot of computers to touch uh to to make sure it's it's happening. So, a lot of work. Thank you, Carlos, and as well as Justin and Brendan. Um so, our projects Jim just said that we we are have order hardware pair and some more licenses for clocks and we're going to do um and notification system. We're going to do Wattles Park and Sonoma next. Our safety committee kind of set that up as the next group that's going to go down that road. Um and we have to spend the money before the deadline for those safety grants. That's the other piece that and installed both things. Um, and they said talked a little bit about software. Our server software has to be upgraded to
023be aligned with best practices. Um, a lot of our team went through uh FBI fingerprint training this week and there's lots of things that are best practices that we want to make sure that we're doing as a school district to make sure our data is safe. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Maynard. Uh, comments related to agenda items? And seeing none. Consent agenda. Madam Secretary, >> here calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education approve the consent agenda as follows. Approve the general fund check, school services fund check, school lunch, and student and school activity fund checks in accordance with the list discussed. Approve the following minutes as reviewed. June 23rd, 2025 public budget hearing meeting minutes. June 23rd, 2025 naming of facilities public hearing meeting minutes. June 23rd, 2025, special budget
024meeting minutes. >> So move approve fiscal authorizations. Authorize the signature of the superintendent of or his designate for all forms, reports, and applications for local, state, and federal grants and related programs, including public employment program, VOTE, and other others that are appropriate for the general operation of the district during the 2025 2026 fiscal year and authorize the district to retain the services of SET, SEG for workers compensation insurance and farm management for the handling of claims for unemployment compensation for the fiscal year beginning July 25th and ending June 30th, 2026. >> So moved. >> All right, it's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion >> hearing? And seeing none, please call the role. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace. >> Yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >>
025And Mr. Bess, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries. 5. >> Thank you. >> Information, discussion, school safety, Mr. Ridgeway. >> All right. So, we met and we have our building emergency operation plans. I think you can take a look. I put one on Ashley's side of the table and I put one on everybody else in front of Aaron there. So, you can take a look if you'd like. But that is basically what will be at the building level in the offices so that administrative staff specifically can flip very quickly um to see exactly what to do in a case of emergency. Examples u medical emergency um a bomb threat. Don't have many of those anymore. Uh let's say we had a severe weather issue or a lockdown or a something called secure mode or
026something called shelter in place. We made sure that we are matching our vocabulary with the state of Michigan requirements um and we want to do some training on this and so we did talk about um the binder and we talked about training a couple things in the binder there you'll notice if you look into it there's some phone numbers and so the suggestion was is that every 3 months we take a look to make sure the phone numbers are accurate there's two or three pages of phone numbers um we want to make sure that uh we our resource officers were there and they had said make sure that your folks know when you go into an emergency, go into a lockdown, secure in place, that we should switch our radios to channel one because they
027have access to channel one for communication. So, that's some a piece we want to add. Uh, and there were some other suggestions building in um a little bit of safety training every month at uh school level uh staff meetings. Doesn't have to be a lot, just a couple of minutes of reminders of what to do because the next stage in this is going to be what we call flip charts that are going to go in every classroom. And we are going to bring in Joe Humphre who is the vend the the main vendor for this project. He's going to do a short training um on August 19th which is our PD day about half hour or so about the flip charts and what they mean. So a flip chart basically would have this um binder
028a smaller portion of what teachers would have to deal with in their classrooms. So, what to do in the case of a lockdown, what to do in a case of secure in place, what to do in the case of severe weather. Now, we have lots of drills that we practice all these things on, but we want to make sure that in that moment they have something to look at if they are, you know, under stress. And so, that that is going to be the new addition. Now, we currently have um binders and folders that are in the classrooms, but this will be quicker, easier, and e and I think easier in that stressful moment to to work. Uh we talked about the fact that we are going to have a rave test. So, we talked
029a little bit last year rave panic alert. So, anybody in our district can push up the panic button, any staff member that calls 911 and tell us about emergencies. And then the U 911 center can use the rave alert to push out um notifications. For example, the other night we had a light pole at the football field. One of the transformers blew and so we all got alerted at 1:37 in the morning that trans that transformer blew and they had to do a call out there which is good because it gets us gets the right mindset. But the next phase of this is when a rave alert goes off, the camera associated with that area. So let's say I called 911 from the middle school. Whatever phone I used, the camera nearest that phone will
030come on at the 911 center. So if it is really the worst case scenario, they can get eyes on the situation now instead of having to figure it out. So we're gonna we have a tester on July 23rd to see if it works. Hopefully we're I think we're the test site. >> GPS system. >> What's that? >> I think the integration GPS radio that spots us. So if you're on our cell phone, it'll spot you and do the same thing on campus. >> Yeah, it's interesting. And Aaron happens to work at the 911 center, but if we do a rave alert, there is a GPS from wherever that phone was on our campus. So it helps first responders go to the right spot. Not just there's one at Harper High School. There is a rave
031alert in the back parking lot. What or however you guys say it. South parking lot and was gonna happen. >> Yeah. A map comes right up and I mean it the technology is remarkable and it it when seconds matter, it it means makes all the difference. >> So I'm excited for that. Um we're planning for next year uh doing building meetings. We did Wattles Park Elementary last year, but we're going to go to each building for a meeting so that we can hear on the ground floor issues that the schools might have about school safety. Um, we talked a little bit about uh big outdoor events like example football games coming up. And then Chris Young, the emergency manager for the county, told us that the stadium cameras are available, which means there I don't
032if you've seen them, but they have cameras on a large pole that sit in a parking lot and then the police officers can look at that remotely during the event in case there's an issue. So, we just suggested if we needed that for a big event that that's available. Um, and then we had the upgrade to the 911 tower at Soma and I was happy to report that we didn't have any interruption of service. So, it seems like everything is working well and even better at Soma than we had before. So, we'll continue to test that out. Lindsay's here from Soma. So, I'm sure she'll let me know if we get beefs and stuff from the radios like we were before. >> All right, move on to strategic plan update. >> Oh, jeez. doing lots
033of talking. All right, so first thing here is I'll just the poster that we're going to put in every classroom. So, we're in process of getting these laminated and ready to put out. And so, um Carla and I will ensure that those are in every single classroom. That's our first step. We also will talk about it with our staff. We'll have this posted on the website. Everything will be out there. But I know some board members were asking a little bit about, you know, how are we doing on some of these? So, I don't want to go through the entire thing. It would take way too long. I'm just going to hit some of the highlights and I'll I'll do that at each meeting so we can kind of see what that progress looks like.
034So, the very first thing on this on this priority is our drive student achievement. Actually, hold on. I got this on the computer and find it real quickly so you can follow along in the audience of the board members. So, here's the poster. So, this is set up in our strategic priorities. Basically, we have five of them. So driving student achievement is the first thing and one of the very first things that we have worked on for a while is having a written curriculum and what we're working on right now is ensuring that written curriculum is communityf facing and so there was a great idea. So Laura um is tasked to be in charge of this particular outcome and the idea was to put our written curriculum in with our course guides and we looked
035at those at a meeting already. So when you push a button as a parent, so my child's taking algebra one, you push it, you can see the units taught, um the strategic or the the priority standards as well as the scope and sequence of the timeline for every class that we have in DK through 12th grade. I thought it was an ingenious way of doing it because a lot of schools you go to the like here's your curriculum page. You have to push through a bunch of buttons to get to it. Now as a parent, I'm in second grade. Boom. I can see what's going on in ELA. I can see what's going on in math. We think it's a really good good idea. Uh PD plan again Laura is in charge of this particular
036one and she has created our PD plan for the year. Now there may be adjustments here and there but for the most part where's the money for the PD coming from and approximately when is it? A good example of PD that we're doing differently than we used to do years ago is we bring consultants in. So we have bridges for math. We have uh uh >> amplify for ELA. So we bring in consultants and they go to our our teachers classrooms, observe the classroom and then give teachers suggestions on what to do. They also meet with groups of teachers, smaller groups of teachers on how to improve their instruction with the resource. So again, it's a it's a really good way to do it. That's one example of the P. We also have PD days
037that we have planned out. Um the second thing, creating a culture of collaboration. uh we did have a way of measuring how our PLTS were doing administratively. It wasn't like a evaluation or anything of the actual teacher or the group but it helped us understand which group needed the more help. Last year we pulled back from that because we thought it was a lot of work on the principles but based on our strategic strategic priorities we're going to put that back into place so that we can see every quarter how our professional learning groups are doing on those early release days. So we think that's really good. Um we have have the structure for the the volunt volunteer program as well. So leveraging community volunteerism uh a backbone of a system. So visualize this. You
038go to you want to volunteer for Harper Creek. You go to our website. You push I want to volunteer a button and then you fill out a form that just says where do you want to volunteer? What are the things you'd like to do? And then that form goes to people at the buildings who schedule and organize it. So setting up that whole backbone of the system using technology I think is going to be good because we want to make it user friendly. So if I'm a senior um in our community and would like to go and read the students and I want to do it at Sonoma, the only way to do it now is to call the office. This way it will be much easier for us to say, hey, you can go
039to our website just simply fill out this form and you can do that. And in in addition, if you're going to volunteer at school, you have to be cleared in your background check. So you can push the button to fill out your information that goes to HR to look at your background check and that the whole the whole thing can work through. So I feel really good about the backbone of that and getting that up and running very quickly. Uh improving communications. We do have a draft communication plan set and I know that Mr. Mr. Maynard is uh responsible for the um training of our communication plat platforms and he has some ideas to start the school year of how to use power school as a parent um how to use Bloom Blooms if you're
040in the kindergarten through sixth grade. We changed Blooms to K6 because we weren't getting much usage in 7 through 12 and it was actually a little bit harder to use. So we're going to look for another communication platform for 7 through 12 that's easier to manage. uh investing in our people. We're going to double down in succession planning. We started last year, but we want to continue to get better. Um and what we want to continue to get better at is mentoring as well as job shadowing. So, let's say I would like to be a principal someday and I have interest. Well, you can go shadow the principal. And then if you do that a few times, maybe if the principal is at a meeting, then maybe you'll step in as the principal for a
041few hours that day while we have a substitute teacher in your classroom to get get experiences to see if it's it's something you really want to do. That's just an example of of things. And we've we've done that. That's something that we have done. We're like I said, doubling down to to get better at that. And then creating our future, the biggest thing we're working on is this facility plan. uh making sure that uh in a couple weeks we'll be able to hear from the uh I'll call it the construction team, the architect, construction manager as to what they found in our facilities and see what the direction is for our potential bond issue coming up. And as I said earlier, a piece of that pie is is the steering committee that I'd like the
042building committee to to finalize before we take the next step. >> So any questions on strategic plan? I kind of went through it quickly, but >> just just a comment. Thanks for doing that. And uh you know, we we've all been part of we've seen strategic plan documents that are just pieces of paper. I I I think it is important that at every meeting we have we have an agenda item focused. This this is this provides the direction where we're going. So >> yeah, >> the major the activities we do should align with the strategic plan. So I'm grateful. Thanks for the update and thanks for in advance for having it on the agenda every month so we stay focused on this >> and remember we we have assigned different administrators to different pieces of
043this plan. I I have just a couple pieces and the other people have other other parts of it. So it's not me that's doing the work, it's our group. When our administrative team meets for our retreat in late July, we're going to take a look at the strategic dashboard. We have an outside group that's helping us get it ready because the dashboard needs to be communityf facing and give information to the community of how we're doing. So things that you know we can look at data all day here internally but if you don't understand it doesn't mean much. So we want to sit down and say what things would the community want to know about the strategic plan stuff. For example in academics I'm sure they want to know about test scores. Um I'm sure
044in some cases they want to know about behavior. They want to know about uh attendance. um all all those types of things. What's it look like in our you know we do that uh uh perception survey every year. So how are we doing in communications based on the perception survey? We can post those results. >> That's a good >> All right. Thank you for that. I'll move on to the MHSA hockey co-op. >> All right. This is kind of an interesting situation. So, uh, Melissa Fisel came to me and said that, um, that she would like to enter into an agreement, our school, our high school specifically, with several different schools. This is a two-year agreement, so we can see how it's going after a couple years. It's for ice hockey specifically, boys ice hockey.
045The the partners are Ly Norex, um, Kazoo Central, Harper Creek, Three Rivers Schoolcraft, and Gailsburg. Ly Norex would be the host. Um, and any student athlete within our school would be eligible to play on this ice hockey team. Now, we had a partnership with Go Lake when I first started, and that's I think it went away after the second year, and now there's some interest to do this again. So, Mela, it doesn't hurt anything to enter the co-op for us. And so, I'm asking the board to uh formally approve of us being in this co-op for the next few years. And then we will monitor how it goes, how much participation we have, is a good fit for us, how's the travel time is. I mean, it's obviously in Kalazoo, so >> they have a
046rink identified. >> My guess is it's going to be Wings West. Okay. Wings West >> is where they'll practice. >> Ice hockey players travel all the time regardless. So, it is what it is. >> So, going to Koo is a huge huge deal, right? Um I I would only say to make sure that our we're talking with the association um the local association to see how it works with thection and the >> you know who's in charge of that now the the high school part. >> I can get you uh well it's still Mike Irons is still the team. >> So >> okay yeah I'll talk to Mike about it. >> It just might be good for the association to to be aware so that they're not surprised by it. >> Okay. I will give
047him a I'll give him a call. >> So he just does the rest of the association is not Mike. So I can get you I can't remember who's the head of it right now. >> So Sarah, do you know if there's a high school team that exists in Battlefield? >> There is a very very welldone JV team. >> JV. Yeah. >> But no high school team that you know of. >> I don't think it's high school. >> Okay. >> I think it's like >> so we wouldn't be stepping on anybody's feet here if we had some Harper kids that were >> there's the jun junior colonels and the colonels who would flow into that area. Um so I can get you all those names and that information just make them aware >> so I know
048who it is. Yeah. >> Is >> yes and no. >> Any reason you would uh withhold action tonight? >> No, absolutely not. >> Okay. >> No, I think it's very exciting. I think it's great. >> All right. All right. We'll move on to the school bond loan revolving fund application. >> Okay. This I can't say this is the last year we actually have to do the application, but this will be the last year we have to borrow money. So those in the community, I just I'm really proud of the fact fact that um our 2008 bonds, which were supposed to be paid off in 2037, are going to be paid off in 2034. We estimate that we're going to save, and I say this as a community, about $15 million in that bond issue. And
049you might ask, you know, how how is that possible? We refinanced a couple different times, so the interest rates were much lower. And the the board did that somewhere around 2017 2018 when the interest rates are really low. And then also, you know, our SUV, the uh the amount our property is worth in total in Harper Creek has increased. And so with those two factors were able to pay it off earlier, which is really really good news. Way back when we wanted to leverage the maximum amount possible to build the high school, and so they got into this school bond qualification loan program. And so we've been borrowing from it year after year after year after year. Well, this is the last year and we are set to borrow $33,000. Let me get down to
050the bottom. $537 and then we'll be in the repayment phase after this, which will be which will feel kind of good to start paying off a loan. As I said, it will be paid off by 2034, which is exciting. And at that point in time, it would open us up for a larger, when I say a larger bond issue, we could raise a larger amount of money with the same mill we currently are uh leveraging. So, exciting news. I'm asking the board to just approve this. This was this was um created by and the numbers came from our our uh our finance company, PFM. Um am I inaccurate about that? >> This came from me. >> Oh, you created it. Yeah. Well, look at you, Tim. Yeah, I did this. Uh, this is just it.
051So, what this is is an applicant. We we foresee having to borrow 33,000 based on our number right now. Last year, we uh thought we would have to borrow 200. We borrowed 200. The year before that, we thought we'd have to borrow right around 700. We had to borrow 700,000. >> So, it's pretty accurate there. >> Yeah. >> But I am I am definitely recommending that we move forward with this. We have to do it by state of Michigan law anyway. So, but it gives you an idea of what what the process is behind the scenes. >> Okay. All right. Let's move on to the student handbook. >> Okay. I do not have a student handbook in front of you, but I did send an email out today with a draft. If you haven't seen
052that, please take a look because I will be asking at the next meeting for you to approve it. Um, now there's not a lot of major changes. The student handbook is directly connected to our policy book. So I I want to we need to have a policy meeting to make sure our policies are um recommended and approved by the board which ties directly to student handbook. We did change the um schedule at the high school and that changed a lot of our requirements to for graduation. So that is different in the handbook. Um there's a it was recommended and it's in the handbook to change from a four-point grade scale to a 12-point grade scale. So what does that mean? So, it's kind of like at college, at least in my in my opinion, you
053could get a 33, a 37, a 23, a 27. Right now at Hyper Creek, you can get a zero, one, two, three, or four. So, I'll go with the good end. Four is an A, three is a B, two is a C, and on down. Now, if you get a B+, that would be equivalent to a make sure I got this right. I believe a 3.0. That sound right? No, B+ would be 3.3. >> A B would be a 3.0. >> Yeah, it's the one that we also shared in the course book. >> It's the same thing in the course book you've already seen. >> Okay. >> I just want to make you aware of the stuff that's in there that's >> maybe different. I think that's the major stuff. Everything else is basically policies
054that um are updated from. But please take a look at it. If there's anything in there you don't aren't aren't feeling good about, I'll talk with the policy committee if there's any questions or any choices we have to make, but generally it's it's pretty pretty much the same as previous student handbook. >> All right, thank you for that facility naming request. >> Okay, so we received another facility naming request. Um, so basically, uh, Ben Lincoln, uh, Gary Lincoln's son, reached out to Bo, had a conversation, then he said, "Well, we need to meet with Rob just to give you the inside out about what our policies are and what what's going on." And so we did that, and the request specifically is to name the gymnasium floor in honor of Gary Lincoln. Um, our policy
055says we we go to the facility naming committee for a recommendation which comes back to the board. But the first step is is me telling you this is a deal and then taking it through that process. Um, is there anything else you want me to add? So, one thing that um Ben had said said in the conversation that I had with him, actually I had it with Bo and Barry were in the room at the time, but he said that if we were to do this gymnasium floor that he would um do a sixf figureure donation to Harper Creek Community Schools, just so everybody's aware of that. >> Um you want to tie it back to our strategic plan? >> Yeah. So, one of the I'm gonna pop this back on the screen because then
056you can unless I maybe X out of it. >> Double check if I did. Oh, shoot. But under the strategic plan, one of the priorities um strategic priorities is to um improve community business partnerships or corporate corporate partnerships. And so even though it's not a corporation that we're talking with, but it is a different way of thinking about funding and how we can fund schools, uh, because we know that we have businesses in the community who are very supportive. I just saw Marshall had Marshall Community Credit Union donate 400,000 to their project. We want to make sure that we are doing things like that. So, this is a way for us to look to see how we can um explore business partnerships a little bit differently as a school district. >> But I you know,
057we have to definitely follow our policy that we have. We got to go through our committee structure to do it >> and leverage extra resources, which obviously we never have enough funds to do what what is wanted. So, this is a way to bring in some extra private dollars uh at really no expense to us. >> Yeah. So, next step and I would get the naming committee together and then I would come to the board after that with a recommendation from the committee. >> Mr. Smith, >> when I believe I'm on the naming committee, so just let me know when you'd like to get We probably want to get together as soon as we can. So, >> correct. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, any questions on that? Reservations, concerns? Okay. Uh, new hires. >>
058Okay, I got a whole bunch. Uh, and we did add another one in from the from the the email that I sent Friday. So, here are the recommendations for hire. We we have Caleb Bartum, a special education uh co-teer at the middle school. We call a co-teer or someone that goes into the classroom to help special education students. So, they're co-eing with a general education student or sorry, general education teacher. Uh, Brady Guan, how you say it correctly? >> Yeah. Gone. >> Gone. Sorry. I tried. Great. Brady gone. >> You must be Brady. >> Hi, Brady. >> Social studies teacher in the high school. Um, Mark Lowry. Now, Mark was someone who retired from the district and he would like to uh continue with the district. And one thing with this motion within this motion
059is that we would grant grant Mark tenure because he already has tenure in the district but when you retire your tenure expires and so we would grant him automatic tenure. We did the same thing with Dar Smith when she came back as a retired teacher. It's a it's kind of the newest thing for people to you know it's a it's something they can do with the retirement system where they can come back and teach. There is limitations on amount of money that the person can make especially in the first year. Um but you know it really is good for us to have some of these folks back um who have been working for 2530 years and have a lot of ability. Uh Luke Overwick, math teacher at the high school and Seth Schubert, social studies
060social studies teacher at the high school. You'll notice we have four high school hires. Uh so we're you know kind of excited about um getting that staff finalized before the start of the school year. Any questions about any of the the where their salary levels are on the sheet >> and we'll it'll be in the motion. >> Like Brady made it out of five people, right? >> Yes. Good job, man. >> Yeah. Brady was a student teacher for us last year with Mr. Crackle. Did an outstanding job and then he interviewed well and the committee decided that to offer him the position. >> Excellent. I mean, they're not huge numbers in terms of applicants, but they seem to be heading in the right direction. >> You bet. Yeah. Better than one or two. >> All
061right. Um, we are going to uh entertain a motion to go in close session, which means that the board will retreat into our room. After that, we will come out and go in uh we'll do action. So, if anybody wants to stay, they may. Um, but we don't know how long we'll be in close session for. So, audience, feel free to uh retire to your homes if you want or stay. So, Madam Secretary, uh, do you have a motion? >> Chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education meet in close session under section 8C of the Open Meetings Act for strategy connected with collective bargaining and section 8H of the Open Meetings Act for attorney client communication for legal advice. So moved >> support. >> Been moved and supported. Do we
062have discussion? >> Yeah, I would like to bring Laura Williams and Ginger Overbermire into close session with us and Cara will come in and take notes. >> Okay. Uh, also just so the audience hears it, we will have comments from the audience after we uh uh release back into uh open session. So um any other comments? >> My guess will be 20 minutes is please call the RO. >> Mrs. Risner. Yes, >> Mrs. Alward. I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> And Mr. Bess, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 5. All right, we are now in close session. 7:32. >> All right, thank you for that. And do we have comments from the audience? No comments from the audience. All right, move on to action. Um, MHSAA hockey
063co-op. >> Motion. Chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education accept the administration's recommendation to enter into an MHSAA cooperative team agreement with Ly Norex Community Schools, Kalamazoo Central, Three Rivers, Schoolcraft, Gailsburg, and Harper Creek Community Schools for boys ice hockey, which will allow Harper Creek High School students to participate as members of the ice hockey cooperative. support. >> It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> As a reminder, it is a two-year agreement, so we'd have to look at this in two years. Continue. >> All right. Please call the RO. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> And Mr. Bess, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> All right. Thank you for
064that. Action item B, school bond loan revolving fund application. >> Chair calls for a motion that the Harbor Creek Board of Education certify the 2025 annual Michigan school loan revolving fund application as reviewed and discussed. >> So moved. >> Support. >> It's been moved and supported. I'm not sure who got you're going to get the support to Ashley. Okay. >> Do we have discussion hearing? See none, please call the role. >> Mrs. Risner. >> Yes. Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mr. Bess, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> Thank you for that. Action item C, new hires. Maybe >> calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education approve the following new hires. Kayla Bartram, special education co-teer, middle school, MA9,
065master's degree, Concordia University. Brady Gan, social studies teacher, high school, BA1, bachelor's degree, LBN College. Mark Lowry, science teacher, high school, $250 day, first semester, MA13 thereafter, second semester. Luke Overwick, math teacher, high school, BA4, bachelor's degree, Michigan State University. Seth Schubert, social studies teacher, high school, BA7, bachelor's degree, Trinity Christian College, teaching certificate via alternative. >> Before we move your support, do you want the tenure uh portion added to that motion? >> Yeah. Can we add the the part that uh Mark Lowry would receive automat >> grant tenure? >> Grant granted tenure immediately. >> He's a former teacher retired so he's taught for 25 years and obviously we're hiring him back because he's effective. >> So move >> been moved and supported. um with the additional verbiage added. Is there discussion hearing? Seeing none,
066please call the role. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> Mr. Fus, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> All right, we're going to move on to action item D, Harper Creek Education Association teacher contract ratification. And uh before we read that motion um I believe two of us will not be able to have to stay in correct >> I don't think right and so what the the rule is uh really simply is the remaining members there's three uh it has to be a majority vote so it has to be at least a two to one vote to pass the rat >> okay >> that's Michigan law meeting law >> chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek
067Board of Education approve the master agreement between Harper Creek Board of Education and the Harper Creek Education Associ Association, MEA, NEA, for the 2026 through 2028 school years as discussed and reviewed. >> So moved. >> Support. >> It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> Hearing and see none. Please call the RO. >> Mrs. Risner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mr. Smith >> Mr. Best >> I abstain. >> Motion carries three 02. >> Thank you. And action item E. Secretarial contract ratification. Secretary contract ratification. >> Chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education approve the Harper Creek Community School Executive Secretarial Group contract ratification as discussed and reviewed. So moved. >> Been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? >> I
068just want to double check. I didn't ask this question. Is there anybody that has a familiar relationship with us in the secretarial unit? >> So I don't think so, but I'm just asking. >> I don't believe. >> Just confirm. >> Then I know. >> So everybody's eligible to vote in this. >> All right. Please call the role. >> Mrs. Risner? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Alward? I vote yes. Mrs. Wallace, >> yes. Mr. Smith, >> yes. >> And Mr. Bess, >> I vote yes. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> All right, items for the next meeting. Uh, as usual, I'll reach out by text and email, but anybody have anything right now? All right, if not, meeting adjourned at 7:38 p.m. Good night.