001Heat. [music] Heat. >> [cheering] >> Sorry about that. That's me. Sorry. All right. Thank you. Item 1B, approval of agenda. Items for discussion. >> I move that the agenda for the January 12th, 2026 regular meeting be approved. report. >> A motion by Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mr. Keller. Is there any discussion on the motion? >> Okay. Hearing none. Motion on the table is approval of agenda and items for discussion brought forward by Mrs. Shaw supported by Mr. Keller. Mr. Gooleski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Campbell? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shaw? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yes. >> Mr. Scott? >> Yes. >> Miss Custodio? >> Yes. >> Nami? Yes. Motion carries. Item 1 C, consent agenda. >> I move that the consent agenda for the January 12th, 2026 regular meeting be approved. >> Support. >>
002A motion by Mrs. Shaw, support by Miss Custodio. Is there any discussion on the motion? I'd just like to point out that there were a couple of small um errors that were corrected in um in the minutes from the last meeting. Um, the current copy is in front of you. Um, just a slight wording change. I feel like Renee, I feel like there was two changes that I sent you, but now I'm I'm forgetting the second one, but there were very minor changes. Um, if you have any questions, please let us know, but the current version is in front of you here at the table. Any further discussion? Okay, hearing none, the motion on the table is to approve the the consent agenda brought forward by Mrs. Shaw supported by Miss Custodio. Mr. Goggleski, >>
003yes. >> Mr. Campbell, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shaw, >> yes. >> Mr. Keller, >> yes. >> Mr. Scott, >> yes. >> Miss Custodio, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes. Motion carries. >> Item 1D, superintendent report. Mr. Hughes. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, I'm going to ask Mr. Wreck to come up and talk about happenings at Village Elementary. I noticed his staff is back there. Thank you for attending tonight. All right, everyone. Uh, first of all, just would like to start off by saying happy board appreciation month. Appreciate you all. Oh, begin again. Uh first of all, thank you for having me and happy board appreciation month. Thank you all for your service to our community community. So I'm here for village to discuss our wisetime program. Wisetime is our intervention block for all students.
004So what is it? It is a dedicated time slot in our in our school day Monday through Thursday [snorts] to address the needs of all learners. I look at it this way. If I was training runners and I had all the runners in the class, I would do my best to get them all going. But at some point, I got to let the fast runners run fast. Medium runners run run together and the low runners get what they need. And this is our opportunity to build a system that is flexible and data driven to be able to address all of our our students. When we use the word intervention, typically that is centered around helping a struggling learner. But in this block, it's all learners. It really means giving a student what they need during
005that time frame. So we have a cycle and it works between the marking periods. uh it begins with our data days. Then it goes into the actual execution of wise time. We progress monitor. We check how they're doing and we finish with those end of unit assessments. Those could be teacher created the big assessments, early benchmark, MSTEP, all those things. We use as much data as possible to see how we are and we begin the cycle again. So we start off with our data days. Data days are and these are grade level teams. So it's our grade level classroom teachers. It's our reading support reading recovery teachers, our building interventionist plays a huge role in these. Uh our special education resource room teacher that supports that grade. uh anybody else that has the ability to
006come in and help review the data with us. So we look at state benchmarks, current reading levels, uh assessing using Delta math, um grade level assessments, teacher observations, then after we look at where we are at, we decide where do we need to put our efforts and we identify that intervention target. So that always centers around math or literacy. Then we take that data once we've decided that and then drill down and start dividing our groups and we build our wise time groups for that next six to eight weeks. Once we have our groups created, we fill out a parent letter that goes home that says what who their wise time teacher is going to be, what the purpose of it, in what area is it below, at or above grade level. So, we try
007to provide that communication with parents. part of our MTSS system. We review and update our intervention tracker for more traditional interventions that happen during the course of the um that we've been working on. We schedule any new staffings for students that we have concerns about we need need to meet on and then we prep and get ready to roll. As I said, wise time is a scheduled time. When I build the schedule for the start of the year, we build the teacher prep and special schedules, the lunch recess schedule, and then wise time. So, this ensures maximum support for all of our support staff to assist the classroom teacher. So, we could take instead of dividing 80 kids between four teachers, we're dividing 80 kids among seven adults. So these are wise time groups from
008the fall and you could see this our growth in or our goal in first and second grade centered around reading growth and each of those blocks is what our represent our groups. So, it could be a low developing skill that they needed practice on or they needed additional instruction all the way up to they're above grade level. Let's push them in third and fourth. In third and fourth grade, we focused on math growth in our some of our growth through wise time. This was a very flexible system. this was a lot of extra practice where they were at. And we knew a lot of our students had the ability and had the skill to be able to progress. So maybe they just needed some extra work in that area. And once they showed some showed
009their proficiency, they moved to the next group. So, our teachers were meeting every two weeks on these students and regrouping and hopefully moving them up the ladder as we as we progressed through the course of that wise time cycle. So, what we did was we completed our cycle at the end of last semester before break. They came back, our first and second graders took the early literacy benchmark winner assessment. Um, we are one of the few schools that that does that. We because we need it. And we jumped up 27% more proficient than we were in the fall. We showed 90% growth in first grade, 82% growth in second grade, 24% increased proficiency. And then in third and fourth grade, using our Delta mass screener, we saw you can read that growth there. and our
010increased proficiency. So what's interesting about that is starting tomorrow we go back into the lab again, take that data and the cycle starts again. But what's really great is some of the ancillary benefits that come from wise time teaching is is a very personal profession. They focus on their kids. They love their kids. They want to grow. It takes a lot of trust to put growth of your students on your colleagues and we have to do that because we know that's what's right for kids. So when we have data days, we work together. We're very collaborative. We have accountability of all the things that happen at Village. We have accountability of our scores. We have accountability of this health and safety of our kiddos. So, and that also builds more relationships because those those students
011are working with other teachers in their grade level. They build different relationships throughout the building. Students know more adults and have more opportunities to build those with staff. Uh, and we get to maximize staff expertise. If we have a high group and we one of our special education resource room teacher taught a high higher level and has expertise in maybe pushing those students, the they'll take the high group. Just because they're a special education teacher doesn't mean they're going to take the the low the low group. It's about being meeting our kids where they're at to help them grow. So we think that is one part of the puzzle that has led to our growth. It's we take these seriously and we we own them and we're never satisfied. Like I said, we're going to
012go in the lab again and try to try to get this group of village kids to continue to grow. We're really happy with where the direction we're going, but it takes constant work. It takes that perseverance that our staff has built and that our students have built. And it reflects over that four-year period where we've jumped up into in these areas from my school data. So, we're we're really proud of our wise type program. We think it's adding to the academic growth of our students and um I am open for your questions and this is the most elementary presentation I have ever put together. >> Mr. Rick, um is this something that's done at all elementary schools or just at village? >> Um right now. >> I I can't answer. Every every school does a
013little bit different intervention. We do some typical intervention where we will pull a student out that might need some very targeted support during their academic block. But we thought it was really important to uh set that time aside for all students to build on what we're doing in the curriculum to support the curriculum outside of that time. I know that Mr. Mitzer back in the day really brought this program to Round Elementary. And so it's it's if a school needs it, I think they would they would certainly do it. It's I would I'd be remiss if I didn't say this is more work on on the staff because it's another prep. You know, they have their reading block, their writing block, their math, social studies, science, but they take this work on because they know
014the benefits of it. So, they willingly jump into this work because we know where we where we want to go. So, >> I was happy to hear you say that this also affects some of the kids who are highly capable and maybe are exceeding their levels and it doesn't exclude them. I'm happy to hear that. So, >> well, and I think there's a there's an opportunity in those where um like I from my example at the beginning, we want that if that child has an opportunity to run fast, let's let them go and and let them find some challenge because that might be the first time that they've been challenged and we'd like them to have that in third grade wise time, not AP language. We want their challenge to happen when we can where
015we can meet them. I I can add to that too. The questions your answer is yes. All the elementaryaries have something like this. They all have that extra block of intervention time in addition to the core instruction. It all looks a little bit different depending on their staffing and their schedule and things like that, but they all do something similar. >> I just wanted to say that all of the staff's dedication really shows in that growth. So, congratulations to all of you for your hard work. Awesome. Thank you so much, Jason. >> Well, here's some real hedgehogs up there for you. Thank you for your time. Uh, appreciate it. Have a good night. >> Thank you, Mr. Rack. [applause] And thank you, village staff, for all that you do. And, and I think that uh
016Jason's absolutely correct. None of this happens without you and the extra that you put into making sure that every student gets the services and receives intervention that they need and we appreciate that. So, all right. Uh next, uh Mr. Usher is going to come up and I have asked Mr. Usher just to do a current state of the technology in the district. Uh where we are as it sits today. Uh I haven't asked him to go beyond today. I just want the board and the community to be aware of where we are in regards to our technology and what we have in the district. So, >> particularly pertaining to the 2020 bond and just catching you up to where we're at. So, here we are. Okay. I wanted to reintroduce all of you because you
017don't see them very often. They're kind of like ninjas out there. all of my staff, technology folks, um, and they they just get things done. So, I just wanted to kind of reintroduce all of my technology staff to each of you, that's a list of all of those folks. Um, the three folks on the end down there on the, uh, uh, the right hand side of the screen you're looking at, um, those folks are from LEA. We have uh some shared consortium work that we do with those folks and we've been in a consortium with them since the technology consortium at LSA was introduced quite a number of years ago and those are the three guys that every once in a while pop in and and do some work here at H Heartland. So all
018told we have 105 years of technology experience in education with all of those folks that are sitting up there or that are pictured up there. So it's quite a bit of uh quite a bit of expa quite a bit of experience for uh supporting technology and education here at Harland. So with regard to the 2020 bond, I want to talk about where we're at, where we started and uh where we've gotten to up here to 2026 now. So first of all, we're going to talk about tech. There are different uh different categories within the bond. This is going to be technology infrastructure. So for a lot of folks this is a little on the dry side, a little boring. Um but to us technology folks we get kind of excited about it. So one of
019the things that we did in 2021 we went through and replaced all the network switches, servers um and a lot of the cabling that existed in our district. So there in those four pictures, you see um some different racks and the MDF um and some different switches and so forth um that are that are that are throughout our district right now and just how nice and clean. I guarantee that that's those spaces did not look that way prior to 2021. Those pretty little 1-in cables were long huge 10-ft cables or six foot cables that were draped all over the place. It is so much easier for us to support um the district right now with all the work that was done on those switches back in 2021. We also have replaced a number of rack
020UPS's. Those are the uninterruptible power supplies, the battery backups in each of the racks. We've been working through those and we've replaced um fiber that ran to all of our IDFs throughout each building um in the district across the district. We had a a fiber that was installed when the buildings were built for Creekide and the high school and in that case Or Creek back in 96 and everything else was pretty much put in in 2004 or 2006. They were I mean it's 20 years old. You get to that point you have to start to think about replacing that that heavy uh infrastructure. So that's what we did. We'll move away from technology infrastructure now and we'll move into the area of technology safety and security. And in that category, the very first thing that
021we did, if it comes up, there it is, is we added a bunch of security cameras. A couple of years ago, we added cameras to Creekide, Lakes, Round, and Village that had little to no cameras. We added um we replaced all the cameras at farms in the middle school, and we added cameras to the high school, the 51 building, which didn't have cameras. Oh, they had they had a couple cameras. No, we had a few more there. And we put cameras in the Oxfield. We put cameras out at the the new team building. We added cameras to the current field uh out in that space out there. So, we're much better covered as far as our access to uh uh to to cameras and recordings. Those different cameras that you see there are cameras that
022we actually have installed in the district. Those are just a bunch of different types of cameras. Um um the one on the corner, the brick building, uh I'll show you that one. That one's or I'll just talk about that one real quick. That one's a triad camera. It's actually got three cameras and it can see 270 degrees which is really cool. Um, and those are really advantageous because it's got three different lenses in it that sees those 270 degrees. Uh, and it replaces the concept of having three individual cameras. Um, the access control, so the the badges and the cards that all of our staff walk around with. Um, we replaced those along with the um, uh, at the same time we were doing the cameras, we replaced access control, we replaced the server, we
023upgraded the system so that the cards that we now have are encrypted. They're much much much more difficult to to copy. Um, which is really helpful and makes me feel a lot more secure and safe. And then the card readers on the outside of the buildings we replaced as well, so they are they are capable of reading the encrypted cards. We added access control to the preschool and legacy spaces here at this building. And I know you've all walked down that hallway when you've done some closed sessions. So, you know, you have to have a badge in order to get through there. It's much safer at this facility to have those those uh those spaces closed off. We added buzzer systems to uh uh the oh this space here. Sorry. Um yeah, we added buzzer
024spaces here to legacy and preschool. We added access control doors. I'm sorry. The previous one was access control doors um at Lakes uh here at Legacy and and all of our office doors around the district now have uh wireless uh door card readers in them which is helpful if you there's an emergency they push a button those doors will lock. Uh it's nice to have that level of security and safety. Uh we replace the phone system. Uh those are three different types of phones. The one on the lower left hand's the office phone and there's a teacher phone and then there's a conference phone. We have a couple conference phones across the district in a couple different conference rooms and places where it makes sense to have them. We replaced our major phone switch. That
025was a huge thing. It needed to be replaced. The old one, which was a Cisco phone switch, was way out of date and we needed to have something new. So, we have this uh new phone switch uh which is really nice to have. And moving on to interactive classroom technology. A lot of you have been in the classroom, so you've seen a couple classrooms, and you have uh an example of one over on the wall over there, the interactive flat panels. We placed 311 of them across the district. We had nine that were installed in other places. We've taken th we took those nine and we placed them in other in like conference room areas and uh collaborative workspaces and stuff like that where we didn't have panels before. So, we do have new panels
026across the district. uh the computer replacement. That's something that's uh that was a big that was a big project and it always is whenever we do computer replacement. So, we've got labs, we've got laptops, we've got desktops, we've got um we've got Chrome boxes and Chromebooks and we replaced uh over the course of a three-year period 970 desktops and 549 uh Chromebooks so far that were out of date. So, we had to replace all those up at that point. I will talk just to scoch about series 2. There is some money left in the bond for tech earmarked for technology to replace series 2 Chromebooks. So Chromebooks die every 5 to seven years. Uh they they have to be auto updated. Um and the auto updates run out. they just stop working after a period
027of time. And once that happens, we have to get new devices so that they can be used for testing and so we can have uh so we can administer them. And um out of the uh uh out of the 2020 bond, like I said, we replaced a number of them so far. We still have more to replace. Um and we do have a built-in refresh cycle for that. Uh that's how many we did not have that many district Chromebook carts planned uh or spread out throughout the buildings prior to the 2020 bond. We've built ourselves up to six H Heartland schools um owned and purchased carts per elementary, 13 for farms in the middle school, 18 for the high school, and then two here at the SSC. for the remaining Chromebook refresh. Uh those are
028going to be conducted in 2029 for those buildings that are available there that you see, 2031 for the middle school and the high school and 2032 for the SSC. Uh we put some technology in the STEM and collab spaces including 80 iPads. We have some 3D printers at the seven and 8 building, the the middle school. Um, we put AV systems in each of our collaboration spaces. So, panels and boards and audio systems and then we have the robots. I know that I remember Mr. Gogleski, I think it was, went over to farms and saw the uh STEM center over there and saw some robots being run. Correct. Yeah. So, those are that just give you an example of the robots that we uh that we have in those spaces. Um, the last thing that
029I'm responsible for is the the pack in the auditorium. And I just wanted to just give you a slide and let you know that we did some work in the performing arts center in the auditorium, including replacing all of the curtains, which were in desperate need of being replaced uh replaced. So, we have those new curtains. We have red main curtains at the high school now and a nice pretty blue curtain over here at this building. And we replaced the uh the entire lighting infrastructure um has been replaced which and those are the two new consoles there at each of the two buildings. And then that's a view from the stage out to the lights in each of the two facilities. And that is catching you up to date with what we've done with 2020
030bond as far as technology is [clears throat] concerned. >> What would you say is lacking technology wise in the district? Well, I think that we definitely need to have additional Chromebooks. So, we would like to see and Jason will attest to that back this back there because each year that we do testing, we have to move Chromebooks around from building to building. Not all the buildings, but certainly when we test at the high school, we have to borrow Chromebooks. So, we would like to be able to move um hopefully in a future bond uh to a situation where we have two Chromebook carts. Nope. One Chromebook cart for every two classrooms districtwide. And that will take care of the the the need for currently us to have to move Chromebook carts around the place. >>
031Is there um any kind of financial recovery from some of the used equipment, not not Chromebooks specifically, but monitors and things like that? Is there? >> Yeah, I'm glad you asked that question. So, one of the things that we didn't do in this past bond is we didn't replace monitors at I think, correct me if I'm wrong, Jason, I think the whole high school, the elementaryaries didn't receive monitors. I think the main building that received new monitors because they were in desperate need of it was the middle school. Otherwise, we didn't replace those monitors. So, we did rec uh we did, you know, reap some savings as a result of not having done that. So, we do try to put equipment where it needs to be used clearly. Um, and then not put equipment when
032we don't need to replace it. >> Um, there there's probably no great savings from any kind of like third party sale of older stuff or anything like that. Or >> Mr. Goleski, by the time we are through with it, nobody wants it. >> Okay. >> We use we use the heck out of it. Yeah, we really do. >> It's uh pitched, right? Yeah. It's a it's a great question and it would be a I'd love to be able to say yes, we could do that, but it really >> I'm just wondering I didn't know if there was any uh recourse for that or any kind of Okay, >> it's a great question. >> Okay. Well, thank you all very much. Appreciate your time. >> Thanks, Scott. >> Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it. >> All
033right, so ends the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mr. Hughes. Do you want to bring up the lights, please? >> Lights. >> The lights. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Next up is item onee. Call to the public. Speakers are asked to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by your comments. Each speaker may be limited to three minutes. I'll hold up this yellow folder at about two and a half minutes to let you know that your time is almost up. First up is Michelle Walker Schaefer. So, here I am again, still fighting for my bus stop for my son. As as you guys know, I've been trying for four months. Um, so coming at it as a reasonable way of asking
034with common sense reasons why we're asking and how it can be easily accommodated. I'm going to think that there's got to be more to this. Chuck has pointed out many times that he remembers my son. He had my son 10 years ago, 15 years ago. My son was not a good kid. Okay? He was that well what misbehaved child that probably ended up in Chuck's office many of times. We're not dealing with that child. We're dealing with the child that is kind, [snorts] popular, involved in sports. We built our business deals deals. It's a liquidation company that is to help the community. We brought it to H Heartland. My 11-year-old helped build that business. My 11-year-old is that kid that you see standing out in front of my business at Christmas waving in an elf
035outfit with Santa for fun to help to make little children smile. He hands them coloring books. He's the same kid that the 10 families we fed this year and the 13 families we fed last year, H Heartland families, he's the one that loaded the five boxes in each one of their trunks because he knows it's what needs to be done for others less fortunate. So, I'm going to let my son stand up for himself tonight. And I hope you take a little bit more personal interest on the personal success of a child that deserves to be in school and have a reasonable bus that does not affect anybody else's problems, anybody else's day, or anybody else's schedule other than opening the door once on an already given route. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Walker Schaefer.
036Next up is Colatin Schaefer. Since this is most about me, I want to say that I want to go to school. I love going to school. I want to see my friends. I'm asking, please give me a bus stop. My mom is a scared driver in the snow and rain and she does not like driving in the rain and snow. Thank you, Colatin. That was very brave. Sorry, Colton. [sighs] Next up is Mr. Scott. You can skip me for tonight. I'll I'll bring my comments another night. >> Okay. Thank you. Next up is Eric Chicetti. Good evening. Uh, I'm here tonight to bring some attention to an issue we're having at Lakes. Um, my daughter is in the first grade in Miss Barb's class and as of Saturday, uh, we've received treatments for lice three
037separate times. Um, I know that Miss Frasier and Miss Barb are working with us trying to get this resolved. We've asked to have the district nurse perform like a head check and according to the lace protocol you guys have here. Uh, that's not something you were willing to do. Um, each time we go to get treatment, it costs us about $125. So, as you can see, this is adding up really quickly. I shave my head every day, so that's not because of what happened. Um but for my daughter who is sitting at home crying uh you know we can't continue to keep doing this. So please if uh if you guys can please look into that policy and protocol um so we can get this addressed. It is affecting multiple classrooms. Uh I know of
038students in the fourth and also in the kindergarten uh also in the latch program. Uh so we were advised by multiple parents that someone should come tonight and bring this up to the the committee here. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Chicetti. Um, Mr. Hughes, would you um follow up with the Lakes team? >> Yes, I'll follow up with our school nurse as well as the Lakes team on that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Next up is Mr. Jason Schaefer. Well, I didn't know what my wife was gonna say. So, Chuck, you're probably aware. We actually sat down with um the IEP meeting. We met with uh six staffers trying to figure out a solution to keep my kid maybe virtual schooled and um and homeschooled as well. So, based on that meeting, we took
039just over two hours. I figure six staff members, that's about $360 plus my time out of work, my wife's time out of work. So, we times that by what, 10, would you say, Jeff? Um, we we have thousands of dollars into the school staff, which we don't want to do. Um, and not know what my wife was going to say. I couldn't believe my son came up here. Um, so basically all we're asking for is that original bus stop back at Granger, the stop at Mac and Faucet. Just trying to figure out a solution here. Um, and just like my son said, my wife will not drive if there's snow on the ground. So that's that's what we're trying to accommodate. I think that's about it. You guys know our concerns. Jeffy, if you want
040to take the rest of my time up. Probably got a minute and a half. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, uh, committee and building reports. Mr. Gooleski. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, as far as a building report, um, I don't have anything this month, but, uh, there there is a visit coming up in the next couple of weeks, uh, to farms. So, during the next meeting, I'll have something to say. Um, regarding uh committee um not necessarily a committee but uh we had a very uh productive u um situation that came up where we met with uh Mr. Hughes and um Mrs. Gregory to talk about um some of the things that we can do to better the communication from admin to the board. and I thought it was very very positive
041um and very very productive. So uh I'd like to thank Mr. Hughes and uh Mrs. Gregory for that. >> Great to hear. Thank you, Mr. Campbell. >> Yep. Uh Creekide Elementary was able to uh speak with principal Gun. um happy to brag for them that depending on the source uh they're ranked second or first in Livingston County uh and 22nd in the state and that's uh based on the number of students proficient in math, reading and language arts. Um what that basically means achieving and succeeded at educating all of their students uh when it's everything's looked at and taken into consideration. uh school also received recognition from representative Wolford which they're very proud of. I asked principal gun why that is and she credited the curriculum and commitment of what she uh referred to the
042staff again as quality staff. Um also specific credit was given to the extension team and the entire staff's focus on progress over perfection and individual student growth. uh which is something principal wreck uh touched on today too was growth um activities in the school currently have the change drive uh taking place to generate funds for their school dog and districtwide uh reminder that school count is February 11th uh before our next meeting. So wanted to share that. But congratulations on uh Creekide Elementary doing an awesome job. >> That's great. Thank you Mrs. Shaw. >> Nothing to report. and I have not had a chance to get to round since 2025. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Keller. >> Thank Thank you, [clears throat] President Coleman. Um, so give you some updates on lakes. Um, progress reports
043were ready to go last Friday, so hopefully all the parents were able to go and take a look at those. Uh, coming up this week, there's a Sky Dome Planetarium on the 14th. So, the kids get to experience a journey through outer space. So, I'm sure that will be pretty fun adventure. Uh, as a reminder, yearbooks are going to be on sale or they are on sale now. I think it's $14. So, hopefully um make sure you get your order in on that. Still need some art supplies. So, again, styrofoam cartons and some newspapers, things like that. So, anything you can offer to the team, that would be much appreciated. Um, if there's any kids listening, just a reminder, no school next Monday on the 19th, I'm sure you're very disappointed. We've got an upcoming
044uh PTO restaurant night on the 20th uh at Hungry Howie. So, any purchases at Hungry Howies those evening that evening will go in support of the the Lakes PTO. So, hope you can help them out. Um, and then I think the last highlight for that would be we've got some volunteers that are needed for the second half of the school year. So, if you have the time and the interest, would love for you to reach out to the PTO and express your interest and see what what kind of schedule you can arrange with them. So, that ends my building report, but then just to kind of talk about I'll call it a committee report, subcommittee report as Mr. Goalleski touched on. Um, I think it was a very good meeting and again I also want
045to thank Mr. Hughes and Mrs. Gregory for their time. I thought it was a very good discussion that we had and also thank Mr. Goalki and Mr. Campbell for your particip participation in that meeting. Um, and just for the rest of the board, um, we were kind of working through some potential language on a policy. So hopefully here in the next before the I think it's the 26th is our next policy meeting. So, I think you'll see something in that packet and and I still owe Mr. Hughes some um edits or suggested edits, I guess, for for that policy. So, I'll send those out. Um second topic is, you know, also in followup from last month's meeting was the the conversations around FOYA and that myself, um Mr. Scott and President Coleman, we did meet
046uh with Mr. Hughes and Miss Braden to kind of talk about the FOYA procedures and policies and some of the things around how do we come up with our estimates and what do we charge and again I don't want to rehash all the discussion that we had. I think Mr. Hughes summarized some of that in his report to us but I did think it was a a good meeting and potentially be some further discussion on that. Um but again, just wanted to make sure the rest of the board was aware that the meeting did occur as um committed to. So, thank you. >> All right. Uh at the middle school, I know I was I was expecting kind of a slow report with the holidays, but they do not slow down over there. So, um
047lots happening uh before the holiday and then also coming back. Uh something really cool, Mr. uh driving in in woodworking worked with his students. They had an idea this year. I think it's the first year they've done it to build craft items during class and then sell them to support adopt a family and toys for tots. And in six class periods, they created crafts and raised over $1,000. So, a big a big salute to uh Mr. Jarnovan and all those students for raising over $1,000. Um, moving into sports, seventh and eighth grade boys basketball finished in December with winning records. So, big shout out to Coach Silverston, Coach Clayman, and uh the student athletes on the team. The uh jazz band had a great performance back in December. I can attest to that one. My
048son's in the jazz band and absolutely loves it. So, a shout out to Mrs. library and and all those uh band members who stay after school a couple days a week to uh to make sure they can bring us that jazz music. Uh the choir had a great holiday performance that was in January, so thanks to Miss Reed and and those students. Uh the cheer team smoked it. The gold team took first, blue took second, and it sounds like uh the high school teams all took first as well. So, a big shout out to Cheer. Um, and then the students of the month at the middle school for December, the seventh grade student of the month was Xavier Ruck Casim and eighth grade uh student of the month, Molly Ston. This month's students, seventh grader
049Weston Windell and eighth grader Brendan Shippy. So, uh, big thank you, big congrats to the hardworking students. Um, and then last but not least, the staff at the middle school wanted to make sure we recognized uh National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, which was last week. So, a big thank you to SRO Deputy Dustin in the back of the room who spends his days at the middle school, but also all the SRO's and SSOs throughout the district. Thank you very much for what you do. >> Thank you, Mr. Scott. Miss Custodio, >> I don't have anything this month. I think Mr. wreck covered everything for village. >> Awesome. Thank you. Um I just have a couple notes. Um the senior center advisory council met uh just last week um and Mr. Hughes came to visit with
050that group um I think for the second time to um talk about bond ideas um and is gathering information. Obviously he's gathering information throughout the community um through all of our different parent organizations etc. Um and they um they truly appreciate that he reach re reached out and asked for their input. Um there was a little conversation in the room um after you left and they were they were definitely supportive of or happy that you had the support for what they wanted to do and were had a good listening ear for them. So they they were definitely thankful. Um they've had a variety of events recently of course through the holidays. Um their events have been relatively successful which is good um because a lot of those are fundraisers but they do make an effort
051to make the events and classes affordable for everybody. Um, their travel committee has done a fantastic job putting together a variety of tour and travel options. There's a ton of options on the calendar already for 2026. So, if you're a member, you should check those out. Um, uh, let's see. For Legacy High School, I wasn't able to connect with Mrs. Connley before break, but we are meeting this week on Friday, so I'll have a report next time from Legacy and HVA. Uh, for main campus high school, I met with Mr. Fitzgerald the last week before school break, which was a whirlwind. Um, all the students and staff of course were up to their, you know, they're up hip deep in um, in finals and all the exams and all the crazy, but um, I hope
052everybody had a wonderful and restful break and that your semester is off to a great start. Um, today um, I was able to attend the unified basketball game against Brighton. Um that is um truly one of the things I look forward to the most during the basketball season is those unified games and it was truly it was a treat for me selfishly speaking that I had three boys participating in the club. Um so that was a ton of fun to see them interacting with all the kids. They all had a great time. Um so thank you to Mrs. Depest and to her assistant coaches and to all those students that participate in the peer-to-peer program and then also um in the unified club um during um during club time on Fridays and after school. Um
053I also wanted to put in a little plug for our cheer teams um in case you hadn't heard though Mr. Scott alluded to this um our high school competitive cheer teams both JV and varsity did come in first place uh this last weekend at the cheer competition at Kersley High School in Flint. Um varsity is currently undefeated. I'm not sure what JV's record is, but varsity is undefeated. Um, both teams will participate in a fierce competition this weekend at Stony Creek High School, um, which Stony Creek is now the two-time defending state champions. So, um, should be some great competition. If you're if you're in the mood for a little cheer competition, please check it out and cheer on our girls. I think that's all I've got for reports. Moving on to item 2A, school
054of choice for discussion. Mr. Hughes. >> Yep. So, uh, I asked Kate Gregory, uh, assistant superintendent for personnel and student services to take a look at where we are in regards to the board's continued support. Uh, years ago, the board supported open enrollment for school choice. Uh, under policy 0122. uh the board still can change that direction if they chose to. Uh that is a prerogative of the board on whether or not we have school of choice or not. Uh and what we wanted to look at for sure is where are we currently and do we want to make any changes to our school of choice open enrollment. So currently in H Heartland schools, open enrollment means uh any grade level there's an open enrollment mean unlimited seats available if you apply and you go
055through the process and you meet the qualifications for school of choice. And once you become a school of choice student, you know, you are in the district uh and you have all rights of a district student until such a time as you're no longer in the district. You choose to leave. We we don't uh ask you to leave. So, um, so Kate was going to look at the numbers so that we could determine whether or not we should present, uh, a different plan other than what we've been doing. Uh, should we be doing limited enrollment at certain grade levels? Uh, or should we continue open enrollment? So, I'll let Kate take it from there. >> Good evening. So, yes, I pulled numbers. Um, for those of you that don't know, we run school of choice
056applications twice a year. So, we will actually open the plan is to open February 1st and it will close July 30th and that will be for next school year. Open enrollment. We currently run all grades. Whoever applies, we have the conversation. We go through the application um and I will make that judgment based on the criteria that we have of whether they're accepted. The second time we run is in November the 1st through the 15th. We have a two-eek window there and that is on a limited basis and it's for second semester enrollment. So that pretty much has to be an an limited basis because if we don't have the staff in the room currently, we can't take on more children than we have staff to teach them. So roughly around 200 kids I would
057say we get in that first of the year enrollment period give or take. um and anywhere from five to 15 for a second semester enrollment. Currently, I would say looking at numbers and where our staff are at, we are in a fantastic spot. I feel very comfortable going into a full open enrollment for next year looking at the staff we currently have and in the room in our um our rosters. though we have committed over the last few years and I think this is why we're sitting here talking as well is that our teacher rosters and their case loads are not at their contractual maximum. We do our best especially at the elementary level specifically that we try and keep those class numbers lower um than what that contractual limit is that we are able
058to go to. also looking at building space because we've made that commitment. Our buildings are running out of space in terms of if we want to keep the really low number, we probably need to have the conversation of what does that look like in the future. So, this is more future building than a current need that we have right now. So, right now we have one potential open room at Lakes and maybe we could make something happen at Round, but all of our other elementary K6 space is being utilized by our teaching staff. But again, our rosters are are lower in numbers. If we see this boom in student cho or school of choice students, then there's very likely that I could be back here in front of you saying, "What would you like to
059do? Would you like to increase increase that case load, that roster size, or do we limit school of choice in the summer? I [snorts] will tell you our major um gains I would say in our numbers are obviously kindergarten. We get close to 70 to 80 kids that apply at the very beginning of their schooling and then 9th grade is another big chunk as they've done some private schools and then they have to us for high school. So, we're looking at 20 to 30 there usually. Um, and the rest we kind of dabble with in between. So, we I feel like we're in a great shape right now. We can open student cho or school choice enrollment for next year. I don't see any problems going forward. But come next year, depending on what our
060numbers look like, we might be back here saying we need to make some decisions of what that looks like. Wasn't there uh at one point um when Mr. Vaneps was here, wasn't there a limited number that we were accepting? And and I I don't know why the number sticks in my head, like 200 or something like that. I I don't know. >> We first like a second semester enrollment. Yes. So, I talk with all of the different buildings and kind of pull numbers and look at what our average class size is to try and determine, do we have space? You know, I'll reach out to the high school counselor and she'll say, "9th grade, I really don't have any more room in algebra." And so, maybe we're not going to take nth graders at second
061semester. That is limited. when we can pull them in the spring and early summer, we still have time to finesse things within our schedules if we need to to make it work. So, we have been at least to my knowledge for first semester full year enrollment there. We've had that open completely for a while >> now. If enrollment gets to the point where maybe we are out of space at either an elementary or or high school um class, what would happen with that overflow then? What would we have to do? Um >> so at a secondary level, it's a little easier, right? Because we can put a teacher on a cart and they can hop to different classrooms that are open by a prep and our our kids are switching every hour. So that's a
062non-issue. the K6, it becomes tricky. That's where we have to talk about the portables that we used to have around here or if that does, and I'm not saying it is, but if it does become a conversation about a future bond, do we have to build another building? What does that look like in the future? Again, that comes back to you as part of that decision making. >> Yeah. Just as a security issue, I would really like to avoid the portable kind of >> Yeah. And I don't I don't foresee that being an issue right now. Okay. All right. >> So, one of, if you don't mind, um, one of the things that we're doing in the collection of data for the future bond is having those conversations with all of the stakeholders to say
063where are we? And one of the things that's clear is that um, our classroom space at the elementary schools through farms are filling up. and and I think Kate touched on it is right now we have room in the buildings if we're at maximum contractual limits, right? So there's room there, but that becomes not necessarily the greatest feeling for parents that have 30 in a first grade classroom. But the reality is we have that space. And when you do go to bond, you do have to show the treasury that you're going to if you built a new building, let's say, you have to show that you're 70% capacity the day you open the building. Uh so the other option may be that we do some add-ons, you know, Creekide or Lakes. We build a a
064twotory add-on at each of those buildings that and that's a more fiscal responsible way to do it. So that's going to be all the conversation that the board's going to have to have is what does a future bond look like and what are the needs of the district to address those types of situations. So I think what Kate just said though is next year with open enrollment we're going to be okay. But we and hopefully by next year the board is digesting all the information on the future bond and starting to put that into play. So we'll have a plan. >> Uh thank you Mrs. Gregory. So, so we're talking essentially about 2728, right? >> 26 27 right now. We're in good shape. >> Good. Right. So, is there is there something that specifically leads
065us to believe that there's going to be a large bump in that year? >> I don't know that it necessarily leads us to believe. I think this is the year that we have to use to gather some more data of because we are seeing a little bit of an increase with our our elementary size classes. We saw the dip and now we're starting to build back up a little bit. So, I think it's just something that we have to pay attention to and I guess we're sitting here just bringing the awareness to you so that you have the information. >> Okay. Um because we we've obviously had more enrollment at all of the schools than we currently do now. Um, so I'm just trying to figure out I to me it seems like this is
066uh should be an item to talk about at our strategic plan meeting this summer. Um, because it certainly seems uh more of a long-term item. So that would be my recommendation to maybe give give our strategic plan coordinator a heads up and uh maybe have some ability to work on it at that meeting. >> Thanks for that suggestion, Jeff. >> Any other questions for Mrs. Gregory? >> Thanks for your time. Thank you. We appreciate it. Item 2B, high school English trip. >> So, the um Mr. Fitzgerald contacted me because uh we have our guests here tonight um who are going to talk to you about a overseas trip that they would like to put together. So, Miss Gus, you're representing Mr. Fitzgerald tonight. >> I am. >> Go for it. >> Good evening. Um, I
067have two of our outstanding English teachers, Miss Jen Loda and Miss Elaine Bell, that want to talk to you about an opportunity they'd like to offer to our students. So, I'm going to let them talk about it. So, we've been asked to keep this short and sweet, so we don't want to waste your time. We will be skipping around a little bit. So, I'm Jennifer Looda and this is Lane Bell. We've been teaching together now English 11 for about a decade. Um, together we have 33 years of teaching experience. We both sponsored clubs. We've both traveled with students. Elaine in a journalism factor and I traveled with DECA students. So, one of the things that we love is building these relationships outside of the classroom, watching them gain their confidence and seeing where they grow.
068So, we also believe that it's really important to be global learners at this point. And so, we're proposing a trip to Ireland and England in the summer of 2027. And so, Elaine's going to tell you a little bit about the rationale as to why we think these places are important. Hi there. So, one of the things we did is we did some research on some of the different travel companies. And so, the EF company is one of the companies that our district has already used for some of the world language trips. And so, when we were looking at information, the slide that you see right now is basically a survey that they've given to previous students from 2025 from all their different tours, trying to get some feedback about how valuable these tours are to
069them. So, one of the things that I was asked to do was to kind of talk to you a little bit about the curriculum connections and why we picked Ireland and England. So, one of the things with travel is it gives the students an opportunity to grow in their mindsets. It gives them a global perspective. It gives them the opportunity to grow personally and to experience cultural um experiences that they wouldn't naturally get here in our lovely little town of H Heartland that we love a lot. >> [snorts] >> Um, so one of the things that's neat about this trip is it's going to give them access to a variety of different situations. And so Mrs. Lo is going to talk to you about our itinerary in just a minute, but just to go over
070quickly some of the curriculum standards that connect to this trip. um we're going to be able to expose them to some of the English standards in reading where they'll be exposed to a variety of our um canonical authors like Yates and Shakespeare. We'll get a chance to visit author's homes. We'll get a chance to visit some really incredible museums. They'll get a chance to get an experience to look at countrysides as well as Dublin and different things um in London. And so the other thing that we're going to focus on too is just really giving them the opportunity to be immersed in not only um history but also in cultural and literary contexts. And so Mrs. Loa gets to have the fun task of telling you some of the neat things that we're going to
071do with these kids. Um schoolboard approved of course. So um so yeah. So we just wanted to give you a quick overview of that. >> Okay. So, like I mentioned, we are planning on Ireland and England. And so, we will um the potential dates that we have blocked off, which this may be a little flexible. Um but we're thinking of leaving in June of 2027, about the 8th through the 16th. This will be a 9day trip. Um so, we do again have some flexibility as far as getting the best rates. So um we will start with um Clani um in or Ireland and Dublin. We'll spend about five days there. We have added an additional excursion where the kids will get to do learn a little bit about Irish dancing and do a workshop. We'll
072be touring some castles and museums as well. The next part of our trip will be to England where we'll be in Birmingham and London. We'll get to see um Shakespeare's birthplace. We will go to the um Global Theater. Um I think there's an additional museum there as well. So, we'll get to actually see a play in addition to that, which we thought was pretty cool. And then we'll be returning home after nine days. We're going to skip this video. Um what you're seeing here is the entire presentation that we plan for the parent information night. So for time sake we'll just kind of um skip through that. So the cool thing about um EF and Elaine will tell you a little bit about that is that once you leave with the students and you arrive
073in the airport, your tour guide meets you and they stay with you the entire time. So, these are um experts in the guide in in the areas that they're guiding us through. They'll navigate us. Plus, we always have a liaison between us and EF. And so, that brings me to um kind of some of the things that are included with our trip. So, we will have a full-time tour director. We'll have probably two different tour directors. one that is specifically an expert in Ireland and then a different one that's an expert in England. And one of the things I loved is literally they promise the second we go through customs, they greet us and they never leave leave our side until they say goodbye to us again at the airport again. And I love that
074idea that one of the things they pride themselves in is safety, safety, safety, organization, logistics. They're experts. They're also teachers at heart, so they make sure that these tour directors are immersed in the culture and they know their content. Every single detail is organized for us. Um, we have very detailed information about we asked what hotels would we be staying in, where are they located, what's the rationale for how they're chosen. So, we have lots and lots of details to share with parents. And so, one of the things that Mrs. LD and I thought was important is that parents have an accurate expectation of what the trip involves and so that's something we feel is important for parents to be aware of. So, so there's a lot of things covered for the trip. There's a
075couple things that um kids will be responsible for obviously passports, baggage fees, snacks, and any upgrades. So, and we'll go over all that with parents. So, um, as of right now, um, the cost has been quoted at four $4,419. This includes a $200, uh, discount enrollment fee as long as they plan the trip with us by February 6th. Um, there's also a $95 deposit that they'll have to um, put down on the day that they decide to go. That is part of the total cost included as well. So we um are aware that this is a an investment. So um we have looked into different options for them to fund raise to pay both um bi-weekly or monthly. And again that would be up to each parent and what their financial situation is. Um I
076think we're skipping that. Um, another thought, um, another opportunity that kids will have for this, which I thought was pretty cool, is um, the University of Southern New Hampshire will offer, um, additional college credits. So, should they want to journal during this reflect, this is something they will have to decide that they want to do before the trip, but this gives them an opportunity to have three college credits that they can take with them when they leave high school. So, we thought that was pretty cool. That's at a very minimal fee um as opposed to what a normal per college credit would cost. That's usually we're looking at about $650 per credit. They could do this for $550. So, we thought that that was a pretty cool um option as well. We also could get
077additional PD. We'll talk about safety a little bit because we know that's on everybody's mind in this day and age. Yes. So, one of the things that we also really liked about this company is they have a ton of local EF offices abroad and so there's many different resources for us um for 247 help in case there is any emergencies. All the tour directors are um qualified and trained for medical emergencies. So, that was another thing that we really liked with it. Um they have mandatory safety training for all of us. Um, since this will be Jen and I's first time traveling with EF, there's specific training that will be given also. Um, so that we'll be prepared for this trip. Um, and then they also offer a peace of mind program that's built into
078every tour for free and they have a lot of details that goes into that. But that was really encouraging to me that they have things in place should there be unexpected um, things that happen. So, and then if you see all those little dots on that map, those are all the different locations where they have offices with staff prepared to help if there's any kind of unforeseen circumstances. So, we felt very comfortable um that they have a lot of resources to help us. Um and actually um a lot of what is already been um executed by like the our English lang or our um sorry our um foreign language classes they do a Spanish trip all the time. This is the exact company that they go through. So Howell Novi um >> Grand Blank many
079of the um many of the surrounding districts also use EF. Yeah. So we just thought that was kind of cool. And then there's also just we're going to just skim through these just to show you what we're going to show the parents, but they have a lot of resources. The we have our personal website that will be set up for us for parents to use as a resource. They'll have options to use personal fundraising pages. There's scholarships available for students to help them. There's also going to be um information about insurance for parents that would like to um book insurance options. So um that's this is like just a quick overview of all the different options for parents to to support them so that since it is a big um [snorts] cost up you know
080they want to make sure they have options for for what they can do and there's some unforeseen circumstances. So that's like a quick overview. We'd like to have a parent informational meeting at the end of the month to see what the interest is and to offer um this option to our our students. we're interested in taking sophomores through seniors um on the trip. And then this is like a travel support um line they'll have available for parents for information. And then this is just a quote from a student who went on the same trip um from a different school. So, thank you so much for your time and letting us um present this idea to you. We're excited to give our students the chance to do this and to incorporate some of our learning for
081literature that we've done in our classes. And then we do have some brochures for you just to show you an example of some of the materials that EF has provided for us to give to parents at anformational meeting. And then if there's any further questions, we'd be happy to talk to you or if you think of something, you're welcome to email us. >> Elaine, [clears throat] um I would ask uh depending on what the board decides at the next meeting, it'll be an action item. Sure. >> Um that you make sure when you meet with the parents that you highly encourage them take the insurance. Sure. because we don't know what's going on in the world today. And so we anytime the board uh comes forward with a response to a request like this, we
082always assure the board from administrative side that we're going to really encourage the parents to buy the insurance. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> It just makes sense. So please do that. >> Sure. Absolutely. Thank you. >> One quick question. What is the criteria for students that wish to get in on this? Is there is this open to anyone? >> Sophomore through seniors. Yeah, we're not going to take any freshmen, but um we thought that we'd want it we wanted to accompany the current curriculum that they're doing. And so as they're reading these things about them now, they can actually do some real >> is there any kind of academic criteria that they have to show good standing in their English class or or what is there anything like that at all or >> So one of
083the things that I was going to do um Jen and I will talk to the world language department and find out what kind of characteristics they ask of the students. One thing that we were talking about doing is just double-checking that students don't have a a disciplinary concern um before going on a trip. So, kind of like the same rules that we would have for extracurricular participation. So, students that are, you know, on probation for behavioral issues or wouldn't be able to participate due to to foreseen disciplinary issues, that would be the same kind of policy that we would follow also. But it doesn't have to be an honors student. So any student in a regular English class or an honors class could participate. >> I just want to say how amazing this is. High
084school has definitely gotten a lot cooler um since I was in high school. And you know, thank you both too because you've done this before. You're taking time away from your short, precious summer to give this amazing trip and memories to these students. So, thank you for um just one more thing I feel like that our H Heartland teachers think of to do to bring these experiences to life for our students. So, thank you for bringing this to them and I can't wait to see what you guys think of next. [laughter] >> Thank you very much. We appreciate your time. >> Yes. >> Sorry, I just have one one quick question. Sorry. Um, you mentioned that the the the pricing could be locked in with that $200 discount if you lock it in by February
0856th or something. Our next board meeting isn't until after that. So, I I just wanted to make sure like will the pricing be affected if we don't I mean, are you just are you going to continue to move forward or how is that going to work? >> Yes. So, one of the questions we well we posed was that in the past it's been practiced that it's okay to have an informational parent meeting sometimes before the vote. Um, so if that's okay with you, that's what we've been asked to do by AF because the more time we can give parents, the less expensive the monthly fees are. Um, it is difficult though with timing. So they want to give us a discount for our students only within a week of theformational meeting. So that's what's kind
086of tricky for us for timing. So we want to respectfully of course wait for the vote, but we're also trying to figure out timing with the meetings and deadlines. Could you tell us when your next like meeting vote would be so we could maybe try to look at dates? >> 16th. It's February 16th is the next meeting. So, it's a week and a half after. >> Okay. So, we might need to postpone theformational meeting then to be able to offer the discount. >> Well, or I mean I guess um I guess I just wanted to know how it would play out. Let's just say if we were to vote it down. Let's say we don't pass it. Would people be able to get their money back if if you're proceeding with this? I'm all about
087getting as much of a discount as you can. I just wanted to make sure that we weren't going to be shooting ourselves in the foot by by taking the money and then oh sorry you can't get this back. >> Sure. They have a 7-day cancellation policy that for any reason for seven days they can cancel but yeah I didn't realize the voting date was so late. So we probably want to try and look at those dates a little more carefully. We have a scheduled meeting with um the EF director on Wednesday and so that's where we were going to try and finalize dates and like enrollment. So that's helpful to know when your voting date is so we can make sure that there's no penalty for any parents until after your vote. So thank you
088for telling us about the official date. I do know in the past with EF tours that they have allowed the parent meeting, they've allowed the deposit and they have shared with our staff that if the board were to say no, everybody got the full deposit back. >> Oh, great. Good. >> So, that might be something to double check because we were not in a crunch for >> Okay, great. >> the board to make that decision. We could have the parent meeting. >> That would be helpful. >> They could make their deposit and commitment for the $200 discount and then they they always had the board had the final say that they would return those funds. >> Oh, great. Thank you, Kate. [snorts] President Coleman, could we also consider two options? One is we have our
08926th meeting, right, where we could maybe potentially slip that in as a special item to vote on or I think, you know, if there's I don't know everyone's opinions of it, but perhaps someone could make a motion to just approve it today if there's not a lot of questions. So, I see those as two potential items that we could consider tonight just in the interest of the students and staff who are trying to plan for an important trip, which you know, I guess I'm a big advocate of global travel. I think it, you know, it helps round students out. And so, you know, I I wish I would have had that benefit um back when I was in high school, but um it's definitely something that I I'm I'm glad that you've taken the time
090to try to organize. So, appreciate that. As Vice President Shaw said, appreciate it on behalf of the students. >> Thank you. >> Um, couple things. President Coleman already hit my question on the timing. Um, and I think Mr. Hughes hit my question on travel insurance. It looks like that's an extra fee. >> It is. >> I I also saw as another fee there some tips mentioned, >> right? >> Is there a like some general guidance around what parents should expect? You know, you go to the restaurant, right? It's kind of 20%. So, are you adding another 20% to the $4,400 as a >> general rule? >> That was something I was looking through. That's a question I have to pose like to the company to see how it's typically handled. It looks like it's $10
091per day is what it looked like for me when I was trying to research it. Um, but that was something I wanted to clarify with the company. Do they mean is it per student? Is it per tour? Um, so that was something I wanted to clarify. And since we have had teachers go on these trips, I wanted to ask them how they usually handle the tips because I did notice that also. And so when I was looking at the materials, when I looked, it said $10 a day, but I did want to clarify that detail to find out like what's expected. >> Sure. Um, other question. You talked about the college credits. Sorry, it might be my phone here. the uh college credits. Does that $550 is that already wrapped into the $4419 or is
092that a separate fee that one would have to pay if you're interested in pursuing >> the credits? >> That's a separate fee. Okay. >> So, not everybody would receive those credits unless they chose to do that because there is some preliminary work that they have to do beforehand and then they would have to obviously journal and and do whatever the expectations are throughout the duration of the travel. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, they offer undergraduate credits, like college credits, as a separate additional $550 for three undergraduate credits. They offer for free. Um, they talk about like some certifications that they can put on their college application essays and and when they're doing applications for college, that's free. They called it like a Nobel Prize certificate. That would be free. And then they did say there's
093an option for a free high school elective credit. that's included with the tour. But that was something we wanted to clarify with our counseling department just because this is our first trip. We wanted to double check like what is the the fine print on that? Like how does that work with our counseling department? >> Okay. And then I guess one other question and uh trip is the communication piece. So how do parents get in touch with their students when they are overseas? Is it just expected that you know you're kind of on your own if you have global travel on your phone you can communicate with your parents that way or what is what's kind of the >> well they have that 247 like support helpline should they need to get a hold of their
094children they could go through that third party but um like I am a I'm a Verizon carrier and I just recently went over to Europe and I had no problem whatsoever and I don't have any global plan it it worked quite well. So, um I think that's something that we would have to ask >> regarding [snorts] those two positions we haven't been in. >> Yeah. Again, I I'm sure there's emergency um methods, but again, just checking in how you doing, what' you do today, that kind of stuff that isn't really an emergency, but the parents just want that peace of mind to know that, you know. >> Yeah. I believe in the past um the teachers in the past that have gone on trips have offered um they do some posting through social media too
095like as like updates of like how the tour is going and what students are doing. And then I I know friends that I've had that have traveled abroad have used Facebook messaging and that's usually free um because you can use the internet services and that would be a free way for parents to communicate with their kids. So that would be an option without the the different cell phone service. All right. Thank you. Last question. On the map that you had up there, I saw a reference to flying from Paris. Is that >> just a generic picture that they had? >> That was extra. We decided >> Yeah, we decided not to do that part. >> Got it. Thank you. >> I was trying to find it. There we go. >> Yeah. So if you see
096the little dotted lines from London to Paris, that was an additional days and it was also additional cost and we felt like that was not really the focus of the trip and we're trying to keep it a little more reasonable for the students. So um and we also looked into some of the lodging and you know different details. So we felt like London and um Stratford upon Avon and Dublin was a better choice for our kids. >> Thank you. I know that the trip to South America, I think that was capped at 40 students. I think they are at that number now. I don't know if that's based on the experience they want the kids to have um or just more manageable group, but if you have the potential for hundreds of kids to go,
097will that be so many chaperones per group or how would that be just to make sure? And then would you have to make cuts if you don't have chaperones? I know you said the company will provide um you know a guide, but is there something also from the district parents going? I think it was another $600 >> uh for the parents to go, but >> Sure. So, our plan since this is our first trip is to keep it a fairly small size. Um the way the tour works is we'll be on a bus together. Uh the reason why is a lot of the locations we'll be traveling will be small towns and villages and locations where a bus is the best way to travel along Ireland's coast and things like that. So the minimum to
098go on this trip would be 12 students and that would be two chaperones and then the bus will hold 52 people and really um that would include chaperones which would be if we wanted we could have up to eight chaperones but we're not planning on needing that many adults. Um we're both used to supervising 33 students at a time so um we want to give the most students the opportunity. So um depending on how many students sign up, we don't foresee taking any more than one bus full for this first trip just so we can be familiar with um you know the trip and make sure it's a small enough intimate group that students have a special experience. It's controlled. Um so right now that's our thinking at theformational parent meeting will get a better
099feeling for it. But we're not planning on taking hundreds of kids on this trip. That would be a little too big for our first one. So, thank you. That's a great question. >> We will be grouped with other students in the event that we have a smaller size. So, I know Novi is doing one as well. So, they're trying to coordinate. >> Go ahead, Mr. Scott. >> I I just want to see if there was interest in I know uh Mr. Keller mentioned trying to see if we can approve this tonight. Is there interest in doing that or >> Well, there were a number of questions that Mr. Keller had that we didn't have answers to. So, if those would hold anybody up from making a decision, I know there were some follow-ups that you
100wanted to make. Um, you've got a meeting what, this week, Wednesday. So, I don't know if if there were any answers that would hold somebody up from making a decision tonight, then I don't want to force it through. Um, if you'd like to wait for um for these ladies to circle back to us, we could add, as we've done in the past, a special meeting on the 26th um to have a 15minute meeting to make the vote and then go into our committee meeting after that since we've got that date on our calendars. Um, >> what what was the date again for the meeting, the parent meeting? We were hoping to do it on Monday, January 6th, but I believe that's your same um >> thing. But that would help us with that 7day ability
101to cancel. >> It would it would still meet that. And >> that would help. >> Yeah. To meet the deadline for the time for the pricing. >> It's not been unusual for the boards of the past to uh be here and uh override board policy and make that determination tonight so that they can go forward. So, I guess I would suggest maybe you ask if there's anybody that would hold it up. If not, I think it would be a great idea for the board to put aside policy and make a motion to approve the trip tonight. >> Yeah, I'm I'm I'm fine with that personally. I just know that there were a number of questions that we didn't quite have answers to. So, um >> I know I'm okay. I just they were just general
102questions, but okay. >> I think it's probably more appropriate for the parents to get the answers than me personally, but >> understood. Um, I know I I would be in favor of that. >> I I then move to set aside policy and approve the trip as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion on the table by Mr. Scott supported by Miss Custodio. Set aside policy to approve the proposed high school English trip as presented. Any further discussion on that motion? >> I just have one thing. I hope it goes well. So, you're still doing it when my kids are in high school because this looks like an amazing trip. >> Thank Yeah, we're kind of excited about it. >> Yeah, Mr. um Gogleski and I were joking about trying to create a a policy where a
103board member needs to go with on this trip. >> Absolutely. >> Well, and I'll piggyback on something Mr. Goleski always says. We hope we can hear back from you after you go on the trip. Oh yes, for sure. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> All right. Hearing no further discussion, motion on the table brought forth by Mr. Scott, supported by Miss Custodio to set aside policy to approve the proposed high school English trip as presented. >> Mr. Gogleski. >> Well, as long as I'm going, sure. Yeah, >> I'll take that as a yes. [clears throat] >> Uh, Mr. Campbell? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shaw? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yes. Mr. Scott, >> yes. >> Miss Custodio, >> yes. >> I'm a yes. Motion carries. >> So, when you return, you're going to have to come
104back and do a presentation of all the [snorts] great things. >> We will for sure. And we'll have wonderful pictures. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you. Thank you for your time. >> Thanks for all the detail that you included in that. >> Y >> Okay, moving on to item 3A, future meetings. As we've already mentioned, Febru or January 26 is our policy committee meeting here at 6:30. Then our next regular meeting is February 16th, also here at 6:30. Any additional information items? >> I have a question. So, it's come up a few times and I know we don't engage drink call the public, but could we discuss the bus issue? Was that something just to make sure we're all on the same page and have the facts? I'm happy to
105talk with the family tonight, but just to see where we're at, >> we would need a motion to add it to the agenda for a discussion. I believe I don't know that that falls under information items. I don't know, frankly. >> I would say as long as you include the words to override policy that it'll take care of it. >> Um, >> true. Okay, let me update you. But if we could speak, if I could speak with the family and if anybody else wants to participate and I can update to see if it's appropriate next time just to make sure we're on the same page with the facts as they're understood and um try and get some closure for the family for this. >> That would be outstanding. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Any
106further informationational items? >> Can I did that last vote just set aside policy or did it also approve the trip? It set aside policy to approve the trip. >> Yes, as presented. Set aside. Thank you. Thank you for clarifying. No, it read to approve the proposed. Yeah, set aside policy to approve. >> So, we're good. Thank you for checking. >> Walk it out. It's not approved. >> Yeah. No, agreed. Thank you. Okay, then we are adjourned. Thank you.