0012025 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. All right. Uh, Madam Secretary, please call the role. Mr. Halverson, here. Mrs. Risyner, here. Mrs. Wat here. Mrs. Wallace here. Mrs. Alward, I am here. Mr. Smith, here. And Mr. Best, I am present. Everybody is here. We have a quorum. All right. Thank you for that. Um, Mr. Ray, it's my understand agenda. There are no modifications to the agenda. All right. By the way, my clock says 603, so sorry for being a couple minutes behind. Um, we'll start with communications and president's remarks. So, good evening to
002those who in who are in the audience tonight and those watching on YouTube. Um, the summer in full swing. The campus has slowed down, but the planning for next year has ramped up. Congratulations to our boys track team for the second year in a row. They have cinched the MITCA team state championships. Pretty pretty cool thing. our first two back well only back-to-back state championships in sports uh with the exception of the quiz bowl which was a non-sports. Um Harper Creek had many individuals that participate in the state meet as well. DJ Wood is the state champion in two events 110 meter hurdles and 300 meter hurdles. Um all stack all state track athletes. Izzy's Miller took second uh in shotput fourth in discus. Dominic Lowry won fourth in the 1600 meter. Zack Kitchen seventh
003in the shot put. Treycon Quat Cotton won seventh in the high jump. And Cassidy Prattley took seventh in the high jump. Super proud of all those U students and the wonderful season they had. And just want to take a minute again to thank um Mr. Greenman for his uh 40 plus years here at Harper Creek. And with that being said, move on to administration and Mr. Ridgeway. Okay, just a few things. I actually updated the board a touch on this on Friday, but uh we have our summer care happening. We have 72 students signed up. It's at Veto Lake Daily actually from I was asking 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. So, we are staffing that, which is, I think, a real benefit for our families. uh summer school. Um we have going from developmental kindergarten
004through 8th grade the weeks of June 9th, June 16th, June 23rd, July 14th, July 21st, and the 28th. Um we do have some of the kids at the high school. So that would be 2 through 8th grade. There is a high school um credit recovery happening as well at the same time, but the credit recovery is online, so a lot of the kids don't actually come to school. And then the DK through first graders are at Belel Lake Elementary. And people are kind of curious why why would you do that? We had to um partner with a outside organization. We're partnering with Community Unlimited. Let's make sure I got that that right. And that's so that in the future when we go for grant funds for summer school, we have an organization that we're partnering
005with and we'll be more likely to secure funds. So that's one of our reasons. And they're doing a nice job too. They're doing five days a week though at at Bele Lake and the other ones are four days a week. Um summer food program, you know, it's they do a nice job. Obviously, we had a little dinner before with the board and Mr. Greenman. But just so everybody knows, anybody online that's listening, um it is free to all children 18 and under. You don't have to be H Harper Creek student. Let's say that you have relatives in town, maybe you're a grandparent, you have your grandchildren here, and they're under 18. um they can come and get free breakfast and lunch every day. The high school is serving breakfast and lunch. Be like elementary serving
006breakfast and lunch and we have a bunch of satellite stops that are doing lunch only. So come on down and take advantage of that system. And beyond that, I just want to one I guess one last time I've been talking about Mr. Greenman for a long time, a graduation speech and different times where we've had some gettogethers, but he's uh meant the world to the districts. um we want to thank him for his time, but he's also meant a lot to each of us individually as a really a mentor, you know, someone that's that's uh always there as a listening ear as well as great advice. So, thank you. And I, you know, I'm sure that there, you know, he's going to have a great time of retirement, but we sure will miss him. Thank
007you for that, Madam Secretary. Do we have any board communications? We do. We have two donations to make note of. Uh we'd like to thank the Junior League of Battle Creek fund for its generous donation of $3,000 to support the closing clothing closets and basic needs of students at Soma Wles Park, Beetle Lake, and Harbor Creek Middle School. And we'd also like to take a moment to thank Sack Rider Farms for its generous donation of $10,000 to support the weight room project. Thank you to both um organizations. Uh very very very kind of them. uh move on to district updates, curriculum, and Mrs. Williams. Good evening. Good evening. Um do you have any specific questions before I give the highlights of instruction and assessment report? All right. So, just kind of a highlights. Mr. Ridway
008already mentioned our summer program is thriving and we're excited to be up and running. Um you said how many is it? 280, but it's 288 actually. So, I told the wrong number, but a lot of great happening um also want to point out something that we put in your packet um around our workable curriculum that table or visual if you will just a reminder that our NWA data is what we are using to monitor one of the measures our student achievement in addition and state testing. Unfortunately, our state testing, you don't get the results. We take it the spring till late fall, which is a bit like an autopsy. So, as we're working through things, we want to be able to respond and do a data protocol, which we um have started doing with our
009leaders on our NWA because we get those results right away. Um, and what is typically bubbling up is the revival curriculum, which we have approved and we're grateful for. Year one of our ELA is showing some growth. Um, there's a ton to implement with this reading program around PTA. Um, so we're working on that. And then the second one is career college readiness. As you know, Terry has been they presented to you in March. Um, the empathy stage of building those structures so that our students K through 12 will be able to um experience and have awareness um before they get to 8th grade some career so that they can start their courses somewhat and then we talked about the social emotional learning. So those three elements we will continue to move forward with next
010year implementing the tier one curriculum structures for those that really have any questions. All right hearing see none move on to facilities and Mr. Robinson. Good evening. Thank you. Uh I submitted a report and questions on that. A couple things I'd just like to highlight. Um, first of all, thank you to uh, you know, Leah Peterson along with the maintenance and grounds. Great job for graduation now. Our efforts, you know, it went really well. We heard lots of great things postgraduation concerning the weather. Many people considered the weather rather gym. So, that's pretty awesome. And then, uh, continuing our building assessments. Last Friday, I had electrical, civil, exterior, and some interior folks all around all the buildings. This Friday, we have civil, pardon me, electrical, mechanical, and building interiors. So hopefully we're wrapped up and
011then what they will do together. Yep. I'm I'm really excited about saying the assessment. Um I I tried to explain to as many board members as possible. Our building committee did listen to the outline of the plan in terms of the time frame, but in general they're going to finish in July and then they will start presenting to internal then going to external with that facility assessment said and then we will gather data for a few months um and hopefully with a steering committee that will come to the board in and around December January to give you hey this is what we think as a community some staff members some board members this is what we think is the plan that is best fits up. So really starting from grounds there. Very excited about the
012the work. Um and um hopefully we can get to that point. It's been it's been a good experience as far as King Scott along with Clark together. They're already estimates actually she's really excited about having That's all. Two quick questions. Filter First, do we ever get funding for that from the state for the filter first project? Um, we we do have a grant. We're working on that. We're hoping to see more funding for that because granted will not cover everything. Um, we have submitted part of the grant as far as reimbursement. So, I'm not sure I don't think we Okay. And then on the um the uh property that we own with a home on it, rental house. The rental house. Have we heard any more back from EMTT as far as the control burn?
013I working with them right now. They used it today, as a matter of fact, for training title, but let's say inter but uh they used it today for training, you know. But yes, I'm still working with Lieutenant Gel. We're still got some things we have to do electric. Yeah. Quick update for the board. The rental house. Um, we do not have a renter there anymore and we are in process of potentially demolishing the house. We're getting pricing right now in process and we'll have all that continue to have all that land there and there was a chance of doing a controlled burn with the fire department. That's what he's talking about instead. So it would save some money. We still have stuff to do. Abatement that would still have to be done of course removal
014of the burnt. Has Clark andor King Scott made any reference to uh the use of that property in in their long-term plans. Okay. It's a pretty narrow piece of property build. Yeah. to know if they, you know, with a potential middle school in the future if they had any thoughts as far as moving stuff around. Gotcha. All right. Any further questions for Mr. Robinson? All right. Uh, move on to finance and Ms. Obermeer who is not here. So, I believe Mr. We just had we had a quick meeting. I don't want to go into too many details. Uh the one big thing coming up is we'll have our uh budget hearing and uh we'll talk about that in a second, but more than likely uh I think it was June 23rd is the right date
015um at 5:30. But we are expecting to be better than what we have been showing, right? We we talked about that a little bit last meeting and so that will be completed and ready to go for the budget meeting. Um, but one thing I do want to show and this is it's maybe a point of pride uh for for the finance department but the the interest earned this year. So we have interest in CDs as well as something called my to date we've earned 295,000 in interest and that is much much improved from anything that we've seen in the past. So we're really proud of that. And then I also wanted to talk just a touch and Jinder wanted to share the news but I have keep saying that if we pay the bond back
016early which we are we're on we're on par to pay it back in 2034 instead of 2037 three years early um we got the estimate back on Friday they said we would have realized a savings and interest of $15 million. And so we really want to promote that to our community to say, you know, the boards collectively, you know, there's been a lot some people that have been here where we've refinanced um done a a lot of different things to try to get that down to the minimum cost. So that's a pretty good savings. It's almost the amount that we might be asking for for a bond. So pretty good. How many times have we done that since you've been here now? Refinancing? It's at least three. Uh we refinanced every loan we had twice.
017Twice. Okay. Definitely. And we saw our bonds, I guess not loans, but our bonds were all at the lowest possible interest rates back in when was the interest rate lowest? 2019. Yeah, something like that. Okay. So, that's is there any questions on finance though I did not answer? Committee, you met and you know, we're getting ready for the end of year budget. I had asked Ginger to get it to the committee before the meeting, so she's she's working on that now. All right. Uh we'll move on to technology and Mr. Maynard. Good evening. Um this is just the highlights. It's the time where we transition from school year to summer. We're working on all sorts of little projects and we got some big ones too including adding HDMI cables to the classrooms. Uh one I
018wanted to touch on which is the Windows 11. Um that's the big u it's been in the news a lot. Windows Windows 10 support is going away this fall. So we're working diligently to try to migrate their student devices to Windows 11 before the start of the school year because we're going to have to do it anyway. So, um it's kind of a rabbit hole project. When you want to upgrade one thing, you have to upgrade other things to support the first thing and so on so forth. So, we're working on that and there's going to be some server upgrades and stuff, software, not hardware that we have to take care of. So, we'll be working on that this summer and along with all of our other fun things, getting carts ready, installing cameras, all
019of that fun stuff. But nothing super significant. But unless you have questions. All right. Hearing seen now, we'll move on to comments related to agenda items. Nobody's got any comments or out there. All right. Move on to the consent agenda. Madam Secretary, chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education approve the consent agenda as follows. Approve the general fun school check school lunch and student and school activities unchecked in accordance with the list discussed. Approve the following minutes as review May 12th 2025 of facility public hearing minutes. May 12th, 2025 regular meeting minutes. May 12th, 2025 close session minutes. May 19th, 2025 building committee meeting minutes. and June 5th, 2025 budget committee meeting and moved and supported. Do we have discussion hearing? See none, please call the role. Mr. Herson, yes.
020Mrs. Risner, yes. Mrs. Wat, yes. Mrs. Wallace, yes. Mrs. I vote yes. Mr. Smith, yes. And Mr. I vote yes. Motion carries. 70. All right. Thank you for that information, discussion, school safety. Mr. Ridgeway. Okay. We did not have a school safety meeting. We decided not to hold it. We did a I gave an update via email. You know, we are finishing up the um building and classroom level emergency operation plan. We we uh going back and forth with the consultants. Hopefully we can get that done soon. Uh completing the camera and the classroom notification project over the summer that Mr. Maynard had talked about. But we are the biggest thing is brainstorming a few training. Um, and so one of the ideas that we have is maybe, and we have to negotiate this and
021go through the processes, but what if we had a training day during the school year for all staff, um, that we just do school safety, not a PD day, not a anything else, but just we'll just concentrate on school safety with the new plan as well as making sure we're all updated. Got some ideas from the committee that said, "Hey, if you're doing that, let's bring in our substitutes that teachers. let's bring in anybody else who might be in the classroom with kids and try to train everybody. So, we are in process of not only scheduling a date, but also trying to figure out exactly what that training might look like. I had suggested to the committee maybe bringing in an outside group um to do the, you know, the active shooter type training. Um,
022last time we used our resource officers, but sometimes it can be good coming from a different source. So, that's that was the school safety update this month. Any questions? Move on to the tax levy request. All right. So, this is uh we annually set our tax levy. Where's my rotation? It's here somewhere. This is what we call the L429 form. And what this does is it sets Whoa, hold on. It sets it sets the taxable amount for two things. Our non-h homestead millage, which is 18 mills, and we will continue to levy 18 mills. Long history here. Uh, a while back, we did a 10-year time frame for a non-homestead, so we don't have to go back to voters anytime soon, but that sets anything that's not a homeowner's home, excluding a farmland, but at
02318 mills. uh so maybe a second homes and businesses and then the other piece of the pie is our debt and this is paying off I I'll say the high school for lack of a better term but we are um suggesting through PFM to stay at 7.12 mills again and as I said if we continue this process we will have this paid off in less than 10 years 2034 so I'm asking the board to approve basically the L4029 form to set mill rate for next year. All right. Oh, thank you for that. We'll move on to set budget hearing date. All right. This is easy as it gets. So, make sure I got the right date. June 23rd. And I had heard through the gravine that 5:30 was a good time for our board. June
024June 23rd at 5:30. Anybody have a conflict? I may not be able to be there, but as long as you have a I'll certainly try. Fourth. Fourth Monday, right? Fourth Monday. So we we kind of set the fourth Monday aside. It the meeting will probably last I say half hour probably we have to have two meetings a hearing and a workshop or workshop uh special meeting and it'll probably take I would say in total 40 minutes 45 minutes to go through the process and this has to be done before is it June 30th or July? Has to be done before July or June 30th by law. Okay. All right. If anybody cannot make it please let Robert I know. Uh move on to MHSAA membership resolution. Again, annually we have to agree to abide by
025the MHSAA, the Michigan High School Athletic Association's rules and then we can participate in their tournaments. Um they also provide uh gez I'm going to say the wrong word probably catastrophic insurance if there was an event that occurred with one of our athletes. So if we're a member and uh the athlete has a physical as per the the the rules um then we would be covered under that catastrophic insurance as well. But generally it's we promise to follow the rules they will allow us to play in their tournaments. So I would strongly suggest we move forward with the MHSA membership resolution. All right. Thank you for that. Move on to new hires. I we may have a couple folks in the audience in the audience. So, um I'm really excited to recommend our new hires.
026You know, this time we have five on the list. Um met with every single one of these people. Very excited. So, first is Amber um Vandis uh for a third grade at Beth Elementary. And you can see what the salary would be. That's that's kind of what you're approving as the salary level. And we had a I don't want want to say we we wanted to make sure that we had a mix of different uh experiences and those may be coming first in um Amber does have experience outside the district so she would get some experience. Bobby Van Wormer would be fourth grade teacher at Snow Elementary. Uh Elena Clearary, a second grade teacher, a first year teacher at Wild Park Elementary. Uh Holly Morris, she is here tonight and she w it was in
027um as a substitute here, got her teaching degree and I think is very excited about sixth grade English. I'm very excited to have her as well. And Amber is back there, too. So hi, Amber. And then finally, Stephanie Howard. I think in your blue folder, if you didn't find it already, there was a bio of Stephanie. Um you heard Mr. Greenman talk just a little bit during dinner about just his conversation with her. I'm I'm really impressed. I I think this is someone that is going to uh really do a great job. When I talked to the staff originally and said, "What is it you were looking for in a principal as a staff member, they were pretty clear. They really wanted somebody that's going to continue the the cultural climate, the relationships that that
028Mr. Grieman does such a wonderful job of, but they but they also said we really need to make sure we have someone that can help us in our with instruction in the classroom. We want somebody to push us a little further." And I think Stephanie um Howard brings both of those things. So, I'm I'm very excited about her. Um, she will be uh, you know, here on site uh, starting on July 1st and so I will ask her to come to the board meeting in July. So, you can meet her in person, but at least the bio gives you an idea of who this person is, some of the background. Um, but a really impressive person. She happens to be a graduate of Harper Creek, so you know, some connections here is is helpful as
029well. Um, and so I am recommending to hire Stephanie uh, Howard as well, high school principal. and I was on the on the the first uh committee that interviewed her and um really strong on the X's and O's. So, I think she can bring a lot of good things to Harper Creek. Anything further there? All right, move on to high school mural. Okay. Wasn't sure what this is all about originally, so just to give you a visual, and I can't really see this visual too well, but I'm going to put it up here anyway. It's a little bit It's like pencil drawing, I think. You can see it. Okay. Right. I'll try to turn it again. Okay. So, it says choir drama band. Um, break a leg. It's got the HC banner where this would
030sit. We did the tour if you were on the tour on the back of the stage on the back wall. So, it's not public facing is what I was trying to explain. It's actually going to be behind a curtain most of the time. but they wanted to have something where they could do a legacy of their of the really the whole d the whole arts department. Um they would and I don't know if if any of you were participating in plays or or musicals as as a youngster, but they would take one block under this mural and kind of commemorate each of our performances. So if we did Annie, you know, you would see Annie with the name of some of the uh kids that were in that in that. So, that's a piece of
031that as well that would be below it. Um, I think it's, you know, I'm never sure about murals because they kind of last forever and it's tough to, you know, go backwards on those, but because of the location and because they're trying to build their program. I I'm okay with us putting it there. Um, because I don't think it's going to be one that's going to like be an eyesore someday. what I told well what I will tell them directly but what I told our administrative team and I just don't want to have it where people are spray painting and you may have seen that in different places as well I don't want that it's got to be neat it's got to be orderly um but I am fine with doing it so I am
032recommending that we allow this to occur um on the back wall of the stage not something that if you're an audience member you more than likely not even know it's All right, move on to comments from the audience. Any comments from the audience? Still none. All right, move on to action item A, tax levy request. Madam Secretary, chair calls for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education set the school district's tax levy at 18 mills for operating purposes on nonhomestead properties, 7.12 mills for debt retirement purposes on both homestead and non-homestead properties for the 2025 tax collection year and the taxing units of the city of Bale Creek and the townships of EMTT, Ferdonia, Leroy, Marshall, Newton, and Penty. and moved and supported. Do we have discussion hearing and seeing none, please call
033the role. Mr. Herson, yes. Mrs. Risner, yes. Mrs. Wat, yes. Mrs. Wallace, Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mr. Smith, yes. Mr. Best, I vote yes. Motion carries. All right. Action item B, set budget hearing date. Chair called for a motion that the Harper Creek Board of Education approve the recommended budget hearing date of June 23rd, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. as discussed in review. So moved, supported. Been moved and supported. Is there discussion? The only discussion is we we do advertise this. It is a public hearing. Um Carl and I were discussing today that process. So, just so you know, that is something that we we have to do it this way. We can't just set it. The board has to set it and then we formally have to announce it. Thank you for not missing
034a beat. Please call the role. Mr. Herson, yes. Mrs. Risner, yes. Mrs. Wat, yes. Mrs. Wallace, Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mr. Smith, yes. And Mr. Best, I vote yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you for that action item C. MH MHSAA membership resolution. Chair calls for a motion board of education approve the 2025 2026 MHSA resolution as discussed in review. So move it's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion here? See none. Please call the role. Mr. Herson, yes. Mrs. Risner, yes. Mrs. Wat, yes. Mrs. Wallace, yes. Mrs. I vote yes. Mr. Smith. Yes. And Mr. Best, I vote yes. Motion carried 70. Action item D. New hires. Chair calls for a motion that the Harbor Creek Board of Education approve the following new hires. Amber Vandy Amber Vandy, third grade Elementary School,
035BA9, bachelor's degree, Western Michigan University. Bobby Van Warmer, fourth grade teacher, Sonoma Elementary. MA20, master's degree, Western Michigan University. Anna Clear, second grade teacher, Waddles Park Elementary, BA1, bachelor's degree, Michigan State University. Holly Morris, sixth grade teacher, middle school, BA1, bachelor's degree in communications, Western Michigan University, alternative pathway teaching certificate. And Stephanie Howard, high school principal, Masters of Education and Leadership at Columbia University as discussed in review. support been moved and supported. Do we have discussion here? Seeing none, please call the role. Mr. H, yes. Mrs. Risner, yes. Mrs. Wat, yes. Mrs. Wallace, yes. Mrs. Albert, I vote yes. Mr. Smith, yes. Mr. Best, I vote yes. Congratulations and welcome to Harper Creek officially. Um, all right. Action item E, high school mural. Chair calls for a motion that Harvard Board of Education approve the
036proposed high school drama mural as presented and discussed. It's been moved and supported. Do we have discussion? Hearing see none, please call the role. Mr. Herson, yes. Mrs. Risner, yes. Mrs. Wat, yes. Mrs. Wallace, yes. Mrs. Alward, I vote yes. Mr. Yes, Mr. Best. I vote yes. Motion carries 70. All right. Um, anybody have anything for the next meeting? All right. Uh, as usual, I will send you a text and an email. Otherwise, we are adjourned at 6:33 p.m. Good night.