HCS Board Meeting - 07/21/2025

001[Music] Hey, [Music] [Applause] organizational meeting. Um since uh part of the organizational meeting is election of officers, I'll get the meeting started as a superintendent. So if you could please stand for the pledgece 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. >> So, the first order of business will to uh be to call for nominations uh for president. >> I nominate Greg Keller. >> All right, hang on one second. I got that. You'll go first. Uh I just wanted to let the audience know the process. Uh the first thing I'll do is I will call for the nomination of the president. Once all nominations have been made with a support, I'll call for a vote

002for the office of the president in order in which nominations were received. Once a candidate has gotten four votes, the president-elect will assume the chair and then commence the rest of the meeting and go through the nominations and elections of vice president, secretary, and treasurer. So, we will open the nominations and I heard Glenn Glenn, you nominate Mr. Keller for president. >> Yeah. >> Is there a support? >> Support. >> Mr. Scott is a support. Are there any other nominations for the office of president? >> I nominate Kristen Coleman for the office of president. >> Miss Shaw, is that uh for Mrs. Coleman? And is there a support >> support by Mr. Campbell? Are there any other nominations for the office of president? None being offered. We'll go back to the very first motion. Glenn,

003if you would read the motion and we'll go forward with that. >> I nominate Greg Keller for the office of president. >> Motion. >> I move that. >> Okay. >> We we nominate Greg Keller for the office of president. >> Okay. Motion by Mr. Um, Gogleski supported by >> support >> Mr. Scott. So the motion the first motion on the table. Motion by Mr. Gogleski supported by Mr. Scott that the board of education appoints Mr. Keller to serve as a president of the Harland Salads schools board of education. So is there any discussion on that nomination? Yeah, I I have a few things I'd like to say. Um, you know, I I really respect Mr. Keller and his role as treasurer over the last year. I think he's done a great job, especially lately. I

004think he's done a great job at kind of trying to unite the board. I also look back at some of the decisions and votes that Mrs. Keller made, Mr. Keller has made over the last few years and where he's really showed backbone and leadership. One that comes to mind is uh when this board voted last September on bringing the uh Joe Biden Department of Justice into our school district. It was approved by a vote of 4 to three and Mr. Keller is one that stood up against that. gave a lot of reasons why we shouldn't cowtow to the uh Department of Justice and and let them continue to interfere with our schools. uh even though that vote failed that day and this board did sign an agreement with the Department of Justice to force uh

005DEI training on our students. Thank God uh everything that's happened since has reversed that awful decision that this board made. But I can't stop thinking back to that day and how despite the pressure uh from people at this table, despite the pressure from other forces, despite the pressure of having the US government stand over you with a pen, a piece of paper, and try to force you to sign it, he stood up against that. And it is, as I said, everyone will agree today that was the right decision. um now that that the Justice Department has turned over, the Department of Justice has backed off. Uh the Department of Education has stepped in. Um but he made the right decision on that day and so did Mr. Gogleski. But but he's the one I think

006that um that deserves that president role because he really showed leadership on that day and not very many people would stand up under that immense pressure. So when I look for a president, I want someone who's going to stand up for for all the parents and all the students in this community, no matter what the pressure is. I want them to to try to make decisions and guide the board in a way that's going to be right for our students, for our parents, for our community, for the educational outcomes of those students. And I I have confidence that Mr. Keller will be able to do that. >> Any other discussion? >> None. heard. We'll start the vote starting with Miss Custodial. Miss Custodio, um, do you support the nomination? >> No. By Miss Custodial. Mr.

007Scott? >> Yes. By Mr. Scott. Miss Mr. Gooleski? >> Yes. By Mr. Gooleski. Mr. Keller. >> Yes. >> Okay. Yes. By Mr. Keller. I could jump over to you and put you in order. Miss Coleman? >> No. By Mrs. Coleman. Miss Shaw? >> No. By Miss Coleman. Mr. Mr. Campbell. >> No. By Mr. Campbell. That motion fails. Three to four or 43. >> Right. Go to the next nomination. Um, Mrs. Shaw, will you read that nomination? >> I move that the board of education appoints Kristen Coleman to serve as president of the H Heartland Consolidated Schools Board of Education. >> And supported by >> support by Mr. Campbell. Any discussion? No discussion being heard. We'll vote. We'll start with Miss Custodial again. Mr. Miss Custodial. >> Yes. By Miss Custodial. Mr. Scott. >> Yes. By

008Mr. Scott. Mr. Gooleski? >> Yes. By Mr. Gooleski. Miss Coleman. >> Yes. By Miss Coleman. Mr. Keller. >> Yes. By Mr. Keller. Miss Shaw. >> Yes. By Miss Shaw. Mr. Campbell. >> Yes. By Mr. Campbell. That passes 70. I turn the gavl over to Miss Coleman. Congratulations, President of the board. >> Thank you. Thank you. And um thank you to my fellow trustees for your support. I appreciate it. And thank you for all the the conversations that I've had with each of you over the last week or two uh regarding all of this. I appreciate it. All right, moving on. Um, a call for nominations for vice president. >> I motion to nominate Craig Keller as vice president. >> Is there a second? >> Support. >> Okay. Mr. Gogleski has nominated Mr. Keller, supported by

009Mr. Scott. Any other nominations for vice president? >> I nominate Cindy Shaw for vice president. >> Their support. I'll support that. So, Mr. Campbell has nominated Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mrs. Coleman. Any other nominations? Okay, nominations for vice president are closed. We'll move to the first move to the first motion. Mr. Gogleski, if you could read the motion. >> Yes. I motion to nominate Greg Keller for the office of vice president. >> Okay. Support. >> Support. >> Okay. Okay. >> Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none, we'll proceed with the vote. Miss Custodio. >> No. >> Mr. Scott? >> Yes. Mr. Goleski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shaw? >> No. >> Mr. Campbell? >> No. >> And I am a no. >> Move on to the next. That feels 34. All right. Mr.

010Campbell, could you read your motion, please? I >> motion to nominate Cindy Shaw for the office of vice president. >> Okay. So, noted. Oh, and I'll support. All right. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. Miss Custodio. >> Yes. >> Mr. Scott, >> no. >> Mr. Goleski? >> No. >> Mr. Keller? >> No. >> Mrs. Shaw? >> Yes. >> Mr. Campbell? >> Yes. >> And I am a yes. Motion carries. Moving on to the office of secretary. I open nominations for secretary. >> I nominate Jeff Campbell for the office of secretary. Okay. Mrs. Shaw, >> I will second that. >> Okay. Nominates Mr. Campbell supported by Mrs. Custodio. Any other nominations? >> I nominate Glenn Gooleski as secretary. Okay. Mr. Scott nominating Mr. Gooleski. Do I hear support? >> Support. >> Okay. Are there any other

011nominations for secretary? All right. Hearing none. Uh Mrs. Shaw, could you read the first motion, please? I move that the board of education appoints Jeff Campbell to serve as secretary of the Hartland Consolidated Schools Board of Education. >> Do I hear support? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, Mrs. Shaw has moved to appoint Mr. Campbell supported by Miss Custodio. Any discussion on the motion? Okay. Hearing none, we'll vote. Miss Custodio, >> yes. >> Mr. Scott, >> no. Mr. Gogleski, >> no. >> Mr. Keller, >> no. >> Mrs. Shaw, >> yes. >> Mr. Campbell, >> yes. >> And I'm a yes. Motion passes. >> So, we do not need to go on to the second nomination for secretary. We'll move on to the office of treasurer. Opening nominations. >> I nominate Greg Keller for treasurer. I'll second.

012>> So motion by Mr. Scott, supported by Miss Custodio for Mr. Keller for the position of treasurer. Are there any other nominations? >> Okay, Mr. Scott, can you read that motion, please? >> I move that the board of education appoints Greg Keller to serve as treasurer on the Hartland Consolidated Schools Board of Education. >> Okay. Is there any discussion? Second. >> Oh, sorry. Uh, so motion by Mr. Scott, support by Miss >> Yes, >> Miss Custodio for Mr. Keller to serve as treasurer. Any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. Miss Custodio. >> Yes. Okay. >> Mr. Scott. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gogleski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? Yes, >> Mrs. Shaw. >> No, >> Mr. Campbell. >> Yes, >> and I'm a yes. That passes 61. Okay. And that that concludes board elections. Thank you everybody. Moving

013on to item 1 C, approval of agenda. Items for discussion. I'd like to remove uh the authorization of designates for treasur and secretary responsibilities from the consent agenda. >> That is item eight under 1D. >> Does the motion need to be read first before you can amend the agenda? >> Yeah. Well, >> I don't I don't think you need any approval to remove from the consent agenda, but I don't >> You don't, but we're motioning for the >> Okay. >> the overall agenda. >> Okay. >> Um we haven't read the consent agenda motion. So, I think we need to sit on that till we get to item 1D. Does that make sense? >> People would like to hear. >> I'm sorry. >> I I didn't hear what you said. >> Oh, sure. It was already

014read once. Can you read it again? The first motion? >> Me? I didn't make the motion. >> Okay, my bad. >> I just I don't think we need a motion to remove I think anybody can remove an item from the consent agenda, but we may need a motion to approve the agenda and then remove it. Yes. I think it has to be of the topic of discussion until before we can make an adjustment to it. >> All right. So, we're back to 1 C. Agenda. Approval of agenda items for discussion. >> I move that the agenda for the July 21st, 2025 regular organizational meeting be approved. >> Okay. Motion by Mrs. Shaw, supported by >> support >> Mr. Campbell. Okay. Any discussion on the approval of the agenda? I would I would like to remove

015authorization of designates for treasur and secretary responsibilities from the consent agenda. >> Okay. And I agree, Mr. Scott, that you don't need a second for that. Um being that it's just pulling it out of the consent agenda and we'll address it separately after the consent agenda. I move to add an item 3B for discussion, which is the res uh the resolution I shared with the board uh about two weeks ago titled resolution requiring searchable PDF format documents for admin for administrative documents. Move that that be added to discussion and be would be 3B. >> I'm sorry. Can you just can you read that one more time for me, please? >> The name of >> the resolution that I sent out to the board was titled resolution requiring searchable PDF format documents for administrative documents. >>

016Resolution requiring PDF searchable documents. >> Resolution. Are you content if I leave the um the wording in here abbreviated? >> Sure. Yeah. >> So, if I say um motion to add the resolution requiring PDF searchable documents. >> Perfect. >> I think we all know what we're what we're talking about there. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. From the table, is there someone who motion? >> Support. >> I will give support to Mr. Keller. I heard that one first. Okay. Any discussion? >> I mean just just so the audience is aware. So I I know everybody at the board table is but I had shared a resolution with the um with the entire board about 10 10 days ago which is uh simply asking for documents received by the board and those shared with the public for these

017meetings to be in a searchable PDF format which is a little more user friendly. Currently a lot of what we see is images I'm sorry uh documents saved as images rather than text. uh it becomes very difficult to be able to search for anything in your email and it's very difficult for members of the community to participate uh with some of these meetings with uh large picture documents rather than text. So I'm asking that we have a discussion about uh improving the searchability of our documents for the board and for the community. >> Okay. Any further discussion? All right. Hearing none, >> Miss Custodio. >> Yes. >> Oh, wait. Actually, I would like to reread the motion to make it clear. Um, Mr. Scott has motioned to add the resolution requiring PDF searchable documents and

018Mr. Keller supported this motion. We're now voting on the motion. Please restate your vote. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Scott. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gogleski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shaw. >> Yes. >> Mr. Campbell. >> Yes. >> And I'm a Yes. >> All right. So, this will now be item 3B for discussion. Okay. Any further discussion related to the original motion on the table which was presented by Mrs. Shaw, seconded by Mr. Campbell for the agenda. >> Just would like to get some clarification first on the um item action item 2A which is the strategic plan where we are going to be looking at the vision, the mission, the beliefs and the goals. I did want to get some clarification around the goals. I think at our last meeting

019we talked about specifically goal statements is what's going to be on the table for this meeting and then we talked about um having a separate discussion this month around the objectives and I don't see that on the agenda. So is that something can you clarify what what the goals piece of this action item is intended to represent? >> The goals as I understand that are outlined in the strategic plan as presented. I don't know if you have anything further to add to that, Mr. Hughes. >> Just doing the goals. >> Yep. >> Goal statements or objectives? >> Just the goal statements. >> Goal statements. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So, it's the Yeah, the goal statements. Was it the vision, the belief statement? Um, but it is not the objectives. >> Thank you. Then I

020have nothing further to add. >> Okay. Any further discussion on the approval of the agenda? Hearing none. Miss Custodio? >> Yes. >> Mr. Scott? Yes, >> Mr. Goggleski. >> Yes, >> Mr. Keller. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Shaw. >> Yes, >> Mr. Campbell. >> Yes. >> And I'm Yes. Motion carries. >> Item 1D, consent agenda. >> I move that we remove the uh adoption of board of education meeting dates for um simply because I have a conflict with the next uh date. >> Okay. So we can take it out of the consent agenda and then we can vote on that separately. >> Yeah. >> Any further discussion? Oh, wait. You didn't have a motion. We didn't have the motion. All right. We need >> The motion wasn't read. >> What's that? >> The motion wasn't read.

021Could somebody please read the consent agenda motion before we jump ahead? I move that the consent agenda for the 20 July 21st, 2025 regular meeting be approved. >> Is there support? Thank you. >> Okay. >> Can you please restate? >> Yes. I I move that we remove the adoption of board of education meeting dates >> for 2526. >> Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion or changes to the consent agenda? So both seven and eight have been removed then. >> Correct. >> Okay. Miss Custodia. >> Yes. Mr. Scott. >> Yes. >> Mr. Goleski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shaw? >> Yes. >> Mr. Campbell? >> Yes. >> And I'm a yes. Motion carries 70. So, we'll need to read as separate motions item seven and item eight. Um, Mr. Goleski, would you

022like to read a motion? Um, given that you don't want to to proceed with that tonight or I don't know if you want to make an an an amendment to what was presented. >> I I was hoping to make an amendment to one of the dates. >> Perfect. So, if we can get a motion on the table, then we can talk about an amendment. >> I motion to move a date for the next meeting from the proposed agend uh schedule. >> Are we talking August 11th or August 4th? >> August 11th. >> Sorry. As a point of order, shouldn't those actually be moved to action items? So um one what was originally 1 D8 shouldn't that now become 2 D and then the 1D7 which was the adoption of the education meeting minutes that should

023become 2E and we would take that in that order. >> It was my understanding that since they're part of the consent agenda they would be addressed >> prior to that but this is the first time we've run into it. >> Yeah. I mean, I think according to Roberts, we would want to just move those as separate action items and take them at that time. >> I'm I'm fine with that, but we have a motion on the table. He's read a motion, so I I feel like we need to address it or you need to resend your motion and we'll come to it later if we set them up as if we add them to the action item section of the agenda. I motion that we add it to the action item of the uh agenda

024as the last okay discussion item. >> You have to resend your prior motion to change the date. >> Okay. I resend my prior motion to change the date. >> Support. >> Thank you. >> So that would make number seven action. 2 D. >> Yes. >> Number eight would be action item 2 E. >> Flip them. >> Yeah, you got to flip them. >> E, and D. Yes. So Kristen, you've got that. >> 2D is authorization of designates for treasurer and secretary. And then item 2E meeting dates is adoption of meeting dates. Moving on to one E, superintendent report. >> Yes. Um, first of all, let me congratulate Danielle Custodial to the board table. Uh, great to have you. Um, you know, you were placed on the board in a unanimous 6-0 vote and I'm sure

025that you'll work hard to collaborate with each other and make this board that much better. So, welcome. Good to have you and look forward to getting to know you. >> Absolutely. [Applause] have a number of things tonight. Just a reminder to the community that um we do have uh district back to school would be August 14th and of course for the students will be August 18th. So that's not that far down the road. Four more weeks for our students to to return. Um I do want to introduce our new staff. So, we have a number of new staff members. Um, we'll start with the middle school, Mr. Shane. Um, we had Mr. Galardi who uh was um approved last meeting but was out of town. So, Mr. Shine, if you would um >> Good evening

026everyone. Chris Shenever, assistant principal at the middle school. It's great to be here tonight. Hopefully summers are going well. Uh looking forward to what's to come here. It's It's coming up quick. Uh we had a a thorough uh interview process and a lot of strong candidates and the one that stood out and came right to the top was Mr. Joe Bernardi. Um he comes with years of experience. He's got a family in the district and I know his passion for teaching um and the way he connects with kids is going to be a true asset to what we have uh here in Hartland and we look forward to having him in the H Heartland family especially at the middle school. So he'll be teaching social studies seventh grade. Joe Bernardi. >> Thank you, Mr. Shane,

027for the kind words. Uh, I just wanted to say thank you to the board for, uh, having this opportunity to come and greet you all. And, um, yeah, as Mr. Shane said, I'm, uh, grew up in this community and grew up going through H Heartland schools and stuff. So, I'm super excited to be back here, uh, and just be part of this community that I've loved my whole life. So, thank you very much. [Applause] Mr. We also had a >> also had a uh a hireer at the last meeting. Uh Mr. W, if you would bring your new hireer up and introduce >> Good evening everyone. Um I am very proud to present Allison Dicki. uh who will be joining our team at Village in first grade. Allison's a Western Michigan grad. Uh student taught

028in Chelsea and was so good they couldn't let her go and she stayed on. Did a long-term sub. So just like uh Chris mentioned in his interview process, Allison rose to the top for us. Uh is going to be a fantastic member of our first grade team and our building. So welcome Allison. Thank you so much to all of you guys and I can't wait to be a part of village elementary staff and work alongside such amazing colleagues. Thank you guys. [Applause] Unfortunately, Miss Briskey and Mr. York are out of town. So, Miss Gregory, if you would introduce our new hires at Farms. >> All right, we're going to do both of them here at the same time. So, Mrs. Briskkey was kind enough to send me her words of what she would have shared

029about these lovely ladies. So, Mrs. Cotti Nicole is a recent graduate from Michigan State University. During her interview, she was very professional and expressed her love for teaching. In addition, we believe Nicole will be a true asset to farms as she has also had a special ed degree in the area of learning disabilities. She completed her student teaching both in a general education and a special education classroom and fell in love with the general education teacher role. The team sees her as an amazing fit for farms and we cannot wait to collaborate around interventions and specific academic strategies that will help all learners. Welcome to farms, Nicole. [Applause] And then we also have Emily Dancer. Emily comes to Hartland with many years of experience as a classroom teacher and is also a former curriculum coordinator.

030During her interview with the team, she was very they were very impressed when she described a typical day in her math classroom. Her teaching strategies align with the farm's mission that all students can succeed when making instructional when making the instructional match. During the second phase of her interview, she conducted a math lesson that mimics the structure we have been implementing at farms to ensure our fifth graders master the curriculum. Emily will bring many talents to the farm's fifth grade math and science departments. Welcome to Emily. [Applause] Thank you for this opportunity. I'm really excited to be a part of H Heartland Schools. >> Likewise. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I can tell you take what you do very seriously. I'm so excited to be a part of this team and wonderful community.

031Thank you. [Applause] Miss Gun, are you in? Uh, all right. Come on up. I'm pleased to introduce you to Sydney Coochuk. Sydney will be teaching kindergarten at Creekide this coming school year. She comes to us with three years of experience in early elementary from Springfield, Ohio. But before uh leaving for Ohio, she is a graduate of H Heartland and has gone to Creekide herself. Um our interview committee loves Sydney's enthusiasm and energy. They felt that she's a great addition to not just the kindergarten team, but the entire Creekide staff. Um, I talked to Sydney's previous principal and he stated that she has joined a veteran team of teachers and was a posit stabilizing positive force. She has run professional development at for the school even as a brand new teacher. I talked to other references

032as well. She's extremely hard worker, a go-getter with leadership opportunities, and has an amazing job with her students differentiating instruction and building a great rapport with her students. We're excited to bring her to the new Creekide team. Hi, thank you Mrs. Gun for those lovely words and I am so excited for this opportunity to be back at home at Creekide and part of Heartland Community. So, thank you so much. >> Congratulations. Miss Gun, you will bring uh McKenna before the board in August when she can be in town. So, all right. Thank you. Welcome to H Heartland, everyone. As I usually do, I change up my order. Um, so what I'd like to do is ask Mr. Borg to come up and introduce our uh students that are here from the class of 2025 that

033were in the top 10. Thank you for taking time out for being here so we can recognize you. So, Mr. Borg, >> thank you, Mr. Hughes. Uh, good evening, everyone. Uh, the class of 2025 was certainly a very special and talented group, and we want to take one more opportunity to celebrate them tonight before they uh head off to uh their next endeavors. Um, as Mr. Fitzgerald stated at graduation, this class was offered more than $7.3 million in scholarships and grants. Their post high school plans include fif include 56 different schools, six apprentice pro apprentice programs, and four military branches. Uh, and our graduates are leaving us to pursue their futures in 14 different states. With that said, we would like to recognize some of those uh fine students, our top 10 for the class

034of 2025 in alphabetical order. I'd like to call up Emma Baris first. Emma is the daughter of Jennifer and Michael Ferris. In the fall, Emma will attend the University of South Carolina Honors College to major in marine biology and minor in Spanish. Next is Grant Henen. Grant's parents are Amy and Michael Henson. Grant will be attending the University of Michigan Flint to study computer science. Malia Clump. Malia is the daughter of Jill and Mark Clump. Malia plans to attend Eastern Michigan University to study cyber security and computer science. Next is Satie Malik. Sadi's parents are Stacy and Mark Malik. Sadi will be attending the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and plans to major in philosophy, politics, and economics on a pre-law track. Next is Ava McKG. [Applause] Ava is the daughter of Mary and Louis

035McKe. Ava will also be attending the University of Michigan Ann Arbor to study biology. Connor Renault. [Applause] Connor's parents are Cheryl and Richard Renault. In the fall, Connor will be attending the University of Michigan Ann Arbor to study human origins, biology, and behavior on a premed track. Trevor Renie. Trevor is the son of Anne and James Renie. Trevor will be attending the University of Michigan and Arbor to pursue a major in aerospace engineering. [Applause] Annelise Row. [Applause] Annalise is the daughter of Shannon and Keith Row. This fall, Anelise will be attending Michigan State University to study biology on a premed track. Sky Schlutoter. Skye's parents are Katie and Jeff Schlutoter. Sky will be attending Central Michigan University on a c as a central scholar, double majoring in actuarial science and commercial music. And Jack Whitel.

036Jack is the son of Michelle and Dean Whitel. Jack will be attending the University of Florida where he plans to study aerospace engineering. So, as I said, this is a great group. We're uh certainly privileged to recognize them one more time before they uh shove off to their future endeavors. We certainly want to wish them the best and remind them that they always have a heart have a home here in H Heartland. Great job, guys. [Applause] I'll So, I'm not trying to chase anybody off, but you do not have to stay unless you want to. So, if you want to leave and new hires, you want to leave, right? You do not have to stay. >> Well, we're not yet there. We're getting to baseball in just a second here. Uh, Mr. Hassler, why don't

037we do this? Why don't we introduce the baseball team, then the archery team, and then you do your presentation. That way, if they want to stay for the presentation, they can. If they don't, they don't have to. How's that sound? of the baseball team. Come up. 2025 state champions. >> Up by coach Gunther. >> Am I standing up for him? A big accomplishment. didn't want to look. >> I know. We didn't >> Well, we shook their hands. >> I say it's a team that didn't shy away from playing the best competition all year long. Um they got hot at the right time. Um made some very close games, um very exciting games, but in the end they got to the championship game uh as a team. Um, great individual moments throughout of of individuals from

038the team lifting each other up to get them to that point. I think it's a cool thing is that this is the third KAA team to win the state championship in a row. Um, it was also the third year in a row that a team from H Heartland was playing on the last day of the year. So, it was uh softball, girls soccer, and baseball. So for them to end the season with the state championship against the number one team ranked in the state uh and to have the statement that they did to have the poise that they did. One of the things they kind of said and it was in the articles was this is so us. I mean in their first I think all the way up through regionals they had nine runs

039uh in five games, four or five games at that point um to make it that far. So, their pitching was stellar, their defense was stellar, and as a as a overall accomplishment, I think it was again 10 years from the last time the team won the state championship for H Heartland. Uh, they came together, they did it uh the right way um as a as a true team and they celebrated each ex success um along the way. So, I have coach Gunther up come up here. anybody you can just you don't have to say anything but this is coach Gunther one of our own teachers puts a ton of hours working on the field uh him and his staff uh Alex Trojan also a teacher uh coach Kelvin Gatawa uh coach Zalinsky another teacher in

040the building that they put in the time and effort uh to help make these student athletes the best that they can be uh the student athletes again from top to bottom um it's tough again in any sport. There's nine spots on the field for playing. Um, and you have 18, 19 kids on a team, but they stuck together, uh, played together as a team and ultimately came out on top. >> Yeah. Thank you guys for all the support, and we're happy to represent H Heartland the right way. So, thank you guys. [Applause] >> Yeah. just want to say congratulations to all of you. Um, not only you guys getting a lot of attention here locally, I've I've also heard that folks in Lancing have invited you to the capital to potentially uh, you know, be

041recognized by a partis bipartisan group of legislators. So, I I hope you all take the uh the Representative Wolfford up on his offer to go. But again, congratulations on your efforts. And uh, of course, you realize that the Tigers are trying to imitate you right now. Yeah. So, I hope they succeed the way you guys did. Good job, guys. All of you, congratulations. What an amazing season. But I tell you what, it was pretty amazing to walk into this room today and there's a whole different energy than usual that that you guys brought and I appreciate it. And you're all welcome back anytime every month to feel free to come come bring that energy to the board table. So, thank you and congratulations. >> How many outgoing seniors? Anybody playing college level? >> Yes. So,

042we have Northwood. Um, we have Wright State. Um, what do we have? Elma, I'm correct. Um, Wayne State and Frack >> and Frack was consent. >> So, five nine seniors, five plan six playing one hockey studying. >> Mr. Gunther, uh, I want to thank you for, you know, you and I every once in a while have fellowship in the wait room. We got to do a better job this next year and seeing each other in the weight room, but we we've had lots of fellowship over the years. And, um, Mr. Zalinski, uh, you know, certainly been a great addition to our team and and coach, I don't know you as well as these other two. Uh, but thank you for being role models for our young people because we talk a lot and we talk

043at uh, captain's meetings. We have some captains here that came to the captain's meeting. We had the coaches meeting and we talked about you build legacy by doing it the right way. You do it the right way. You follow reason, respect, and responsibility. you you have the attitude and you do it the right way. And I hope that you take that with you as you leave H Heartland and and pursue your dreams. And remember uh what I said at graduation for the students that were at graduation. Be the difference makers for those coming back. Remember, you set the tone, right? You set the tone on what your program looks like and the legacy you leave behind. So, I know coach buys that and we'll expect to see that. So, congratulations. >> Thank you guys for

044having us. [Applause] Next, we'll have Coach Shelby Ericson and the archery team. [Applause] You may recognize them. Again, this is becoming second half for these guys. They were here after they won the state championship. Um, again, they're they're a kind of a dual season uh team. They go in the in the winter and the spring. So, from the spring standpoint, after winning the state championship, they had the national championship. Uh, the team competed very well. They won first place the national championship um in the 3D division. We also had Asher Adams uh I'm not sure if he's here or not. Uh was first place tied fourth uh four individuals that tied for first place uh at the national championship. Um a phenomenal again that's backtoback that we've won the national championship in 3D. Uh from

045there they went on to world championships was about a month ago. um finished as runner up as the world champion um for the for the high school division. The middle school division uh was first place. So again, the future's bright. Um I just think over the course of uh I don't know how many years has it been that this program has been in >> since 2006 2007 >> 2006 2007 uh you'll see it as you drive in the town that the boards that we recognize continues to grow. Um but I think most importantly again is the again from early we talked about the scholarship money uh that they they've gotten in participating in the sport. Uh the recognition that they've done it um it's again it's a it's a year kind of a year- round

046sport that they're doing. Uh the dedication that they take as as athletes uh and to to compete at that high level in and out. Um and really from an athletic standpoint they they they they operate again a lot on their on their own. Uh obviously we're not we're not hosting meets. it's just practice and stuff and they're going they're traveling far farther away. So, I'll say coach Shelby um coach Jellison who's also involved uh who just retired as a teacher are phenomenal. Um anything we ask um from them they're they're spearheading all of that with with their athletes and they do a great job um in leading in leading these young student athletes uh in the sport. Uh, again, I think this is one of the cool sports. I always I always talk to, you

047know, when students want to get involved, like you talk about golf and bowling, and I I think those are longevity sports, like this is a longevity sport. It's something that they can take with them, not when they're done in high school, but forever. Uh, hopefully one day they can be giving back and and teaching um some of our own student athletes how to uh with the with the 3D competition and what's the other one? >> Bullseye. So, um, and again, I I just think the opportunity that that it affords, it's not always, we talk, obviously, we're doing the spring athletes. Um, we, you know, we there's always a lot of the big sports that we'll see and you get everybody at, um, the football games that come out, but I think there's a so many

048good sports, um, at H Heartland that deserve the honor and deserve the recognition and and this is just another one of those sports that continues to achieve year after year at at a very high level. And I'm super proud of them and uh, everything they've done. I'm glad they're they're able to come out uh obviously in the summer uh here. It's it's it's a time commitment for them to do that, but it's it's great to honor them here. >> I don't know if you guys want to say anything, coach. >> Um I just want to thank all of the board members for your support and without you, this program wouldn't be here without Coach Jison. Mr. Jalison, he helped start up this program. He started this program in 2007 2006 and they've continued to grow

049since then. and I'm um truly grateful to be their coach and I am extremely proud of all of them as individuals and as a team. So, thank you for being a part of this journey. >> Any questions, comments? >> Yeah, congratulations again. Um, for those who aren't familiar, what can you quickly describe what is 3D archery versus I I can sort of anticipate what uh bullseye would be, but what is what makes it 3D? >> So, there are six different animal targets and they range um from different distances. So, they start at a 10 meter distance and then they go to 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. So they have they shoot at a a turkey, a coyote, a bear, a pong horn, a white tail, a ram, and so they get to shoot and

050rotate through those targets. So each round is of five arrows, and the total score is out of 300. So just with the bullseye tournament, the total score is out of 300. One of our archers actually shot a 298 out of 300. So Jaden Boshaw, congratulations to him. Um, but yes, that's what makes it 3D is they shoot at actual like foam 3D targets and then for Bullseye, it's a 80 cm 10 ring target and they shoot three rounds of five arrows at 10 meters and then three rounds of five arrows at 15 making that score out of 300 again. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. So, do the middle schoolers and the high schoolers practice together? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Well, we have so we have separate practice times. We all practice

051on the same and then there are different days where we'll do mentoring high school. >> Yeah, that's awesome. I really like the idea of having wider age ranges practicing together, being together. I I think it has a it does a lot for both ends of the spectrum and something a little more unique when a lot of times in the school you're just surrounded by people within a couple years difference. But I really love the idea of expanding that like we do in robotics and and some other organizations. That's really cool. I love catching up on you guys' events with Facebook. It's something I always look forward to. Uh, I think your uniforms are awesome and I they like they always stand out in the pictures and you guys did a phenomenal job. Congratulations. Keep it

052up and thank you very much for representing H Heartland like that. >> And I think one of the things too is the that you don't really grasp the size of it. Um, I think at nationals there's over 20,000 archers, right? So the fact that we're having that great of success in that big of an environment uh says something for this program as well. >> Big congrats. And for those of you that actually um hunt during bow season, remember venison stakes make great gifts for board members. Okay, so just so you know. >> I'd ask same question. How many outgoing seniors and is there opportunity collegiate level or local sports clubs so they can continue their skill? So I had four seniors this year and two of them will be continually transferring to Thank you all.

053Uh I can tell you honestly since this program started, I have never as a superintendent or a high school principal been pulled into any issues whatsoever within archery. And so what you guys do and how you do it, you heard me say about the baseball team, we do it the right way. We build legacy the right way. You all do it. So, thank you very much for representing H Heartland the way you represent us. We appreciate it. >> I think that's it, guys. Thank you. And with only four seniors, that's a lot coming back for next year, too. So, >> thank you guys. >> All right. All right, on to the H Heartland Athletics Spring Report. Uh, spring athletics by the numbers. Uh, we had over 421 participants uh at the high school level, 284

054uh 10th through 12th grade, and 137 uh freshman, 137 participants in boys and girls track at the middle school program, one of our biggest programs there. Uh obviously archery, baseball, boys golf, uh the two lacroses, soccer, softball, tennis, track, and boys volleyball. So 11 varsity programs, one middle school program, 23 total teams. Uh here's just a track of the uh the numbers through the last three years. Uh you can see archery's going up, baseball's stayed the same, boys golf stayed the same. Uh boys lacrosse down a little bit, but girls lacrosse made a a big jump this year. We had a new coach there uh with some had some great success which we'll talk about. Uh girls soccer staying similar, softball making a little jump. Girls tennis going up. Uh track very high numbers and

055boys volleyball. Uh again, excellence in the classroom. Again, we've always talked about this seems to be pretty much a set kind of standard across the board is so H Heartland Scholar Athlete Award which goes to JV and Varsity. Uh first semester 3.0 GPA or higher. We had 79% of our student athletes that achieve that mark. Uh KAA scholar athlete award winners, which is varsity only, uh cumulative 3.25 GPA or higher, uh 67% of our kids. Uh this does exclude freshman student athletes. Uh unfortunately, we do have some great student athletes, but I think it it also gives them something to work toward um as they're going through high school. And again, we always talk it's, you know, the biggest thing is it's it's student athletes. Um, no one's going pro right out of high school.

056Um, and to take that opportunity uh to have those grades um to help you as you go on is something very important and I think it works well with our our staff, our teachers, uh our administration that are all on board and helping these students become the best they can be on the field and in the classroom. uh 29 uh members of the class of 2025 have signed uh national letters of intent to play athletics at the collegiate level. Uh here's just a few of them. Uh some of the schools, Grand Valley, Central, Wayne State, um ST4, uh the Saints, Sienna Heights, actually, which is the last year that you'll be seeing that unfortunately um as they're not going to be a school after this year. Alma, Michigan, Adrian, uh some great opportunities for our

057kids to go on and play sports at the next level. And and I always tell them when we do our signing days, the biggest thing I said um even I say this to freshman when they're coming in is you're trading the next four years for the next 40 years of your life. The friendships that you make uh when you're playing sports uh and whatever experiences you do are going to last. You're going to um be able to take those friendships with you for the next 40 years and those connections as well. Uh we do a good thing about the spring is we get to do our senior athlete recognition ceremony. Some of them were here already. Um let's go. So, we start with our Heartland Scholar Athlete is award that I added uh last year.

058This is our second year. So, it's basically the top uh scholar athlete who plays a varsity sport and has the highest GPA. So, these were some of the female nominees. Um Emma Barers who was here, a top 10 student, Satie Malik, top 10, Ava McKG, uh Maline Ray, uh Braden Crow on the baseball team was here, Grant Henson, Alex Hernandez, Connor Renault was just here, top 10. Jack Whitel, another top 10. Uh the two winners uh were Ava McKay uh for playing basketball with a 4.3289 GPA and Jack Whitel snowboarding 4.28. Uh another award that I added at the ceremony uh teammate of the year. So this is something that the coaches nominate. So we had three female nominees, uh Emma Dickerson, uh Caitlin Kelly, Tatum Wakeom, and then for the boys it was Nolan

059Bell and Austin Hawkins. This is something that the coaches and the admin uh vote on. Um the coaches basically send in a nomination with a write up of why they think the student athlete uh was deserving of this award goes out to vote. Uh the two winners were Emma Dickerson for basketball uh and Nolan Bell for football. Emma also played lacrosse as well. And uh Nolan was also track. Uh 2025 male and female athlete of the year award. Had some great nominees for this one. Uh for the boys, Eastston Culver, three sport athlete, uh football, wrestling, lacrosse, uh state, uh finalist, all state in wrestling, uh part of, uh some great lacrosse teams. Max Katillitis, hockey, lacrosse. Um part of the state championship lacrosse team his freshman year. Mike Sinsky, hockey, baseball, recent state champion.

060Uh the winner for the boys was Eastston Culver. Uh again, this is a nominated uh by the coaches uh and then voted on. Just a three sport athlete. And I know he had a tough uh senior year as he tore his ACL, but he still even despite that uh he had the the confidence of the coaches and even with a torn uh knee injury, he went on to compete at the state wrestling tournament and finished all state. Note Max Calitis, who was a nominee, was actually our choice one athlete of the year, which is the the local one with um choice one bank. Uh the female side, Grace Cooney, uh volleyball. Izzy Depest, basketball, soccer. Uh Jaden Garcia, dive in and gymnastics. Izzy Depest uh was the uh winner for the girls. A great uh

061all-around athlete for us. Uh her commitment not only in the classroom um you with unified sports as well, uh basketball just she's just one of those players. She doesn't say much, but she leaves it leaves it all on the court and on the field and left a great legacy for for those that are following. Uh some student achievement. Uh we talked student achievement, student success. So for spring, we had a great spring. Uh baseball was just here. Kaa West division champions, district regional and state champions. Uh boys lacrosse was regional champions. Uh girls lacrosse, phenomenal year, regional champions, and they were state finalists. Uh, girls soccer, KLA West division and KLA conference champions and district champions. Archery, national champion in 3D event, back-to-back, placed fourth in the bullseye event and the world runner up in

062the 3D. Track and field had four individuals qualified for states. Uh, first team all state athletes, we had one baseball, one boys lacrosse, one girls lacrosse, one soccer, and one softball player. So, she had great representation uh at that at that level. Uh here's some of our we talk chasing titles. Uh up in the left is girls soccer winning the district title. Uh baseball uh I believe that's the uh district title that they won at Howell. Boys lacrosse regional title. Uh here we have boys lacrosse with their regional title at Novi. Girls uh regional title as well which was won here. Uh chasing titles. Girls lacrosse state finalists. Uh first time that they've made it that far. Uh, Coach Ryan Scoiel, a graduate of here, played here, came back. We're we were lucky enough to

063get her uh back coaching. We we kind of took her from Brighton. She'd been there for the last couple years, and uh she did a great job uh with the team, and I look forward to uh what they're going to do. We had Claire Pilac was a all-state athlete there for girls lacrosse and was the Livingston County uh player of the year as well. Back-to-back titles, our archery team that we talked about. Uh this is so us, the H Heartland Eagles. uh baseball 2025 state champs. Another photo that's going to be going up on the wall in the gym. Overall for the year, I fig do a quick recap. We had four KAA league titles, three KLA conference titles, four MHSA district titles, four MHSA regional titles, five top eight MHSA finishes, four top four

064MHSA finishes, one MHSA state finalist, three state champions, archery, uh, gymnastics and baseball, five individual state titles, gymnastics and wrestling, one national championship, 27 all-state first team athletes, two all-ameans, and 29 ath athletes to play at the next level. So overall, it was a great year 2024, 2025. Uh roll of credits, spring 2025. Um I have to thank a lot of there's a lot of great people in this district from the admin team. Um James Fitzgerald, JD Wheeler, Jessica Gus, Patrick Bour, they go above and beyond making sure that the kids um know that they support athletics. um going to their events, uh talking to them at lunch about their events, knowing what's going on. Uh Jennifer Sog, my administrative assistant, Mary Rashel, event coordinator. Uh special thank you to Melanie Kale, uh who is

065a website coordinator. She's actually stepping away from that role. Uh Cameron Montene is stepping in who's one of our esports uh coaches. So, it's going to be kind of a good to have that esports uh presence as well while he's working with the website. Deb, cabin, car, obviously Carol Hayes and community ed. Uh the weekend building scheduling and also facilities, custodial and transportation. Uh again, us hosting events, softball, girls soccer districts, boys volleyball regionals, girls lacrosse regionals would not happen without a phenomenal facilities, custodial, and transportation staff to take our student athletes to and from games. >> Excuse me. board. I I I uh challenge you to visit the high school and go down to the athletic office and you can't find your way around because there are so many trophies and because we're out

066of trophy space. So, Matt, you got to work with Brian. We got to find a place to put a trophy case up and uh and get those trophies displayed because that office is like packed. It's crazy. >> Yeah. And we're getting them getting them labeled and we're moving some of them down, but it's you know, I'm waiting uh for NHS season to come into play. so I can get them in there to dust those trophies off and kind of reorganize that too. Get some service hours. So, >> all right, >> Mr. Hassel, I just want to say thanks for all that all that you do. I think one of the things that is shared with me frequently is that you are always present. You've gone to state champions, you've gone to regional. I think having

067you there and I mean I I know teachers and and you know there's coaches and parents, but I think it says a lot when the athletic director comes and supports teams and as they're rooting on. Um, I I think it just, you know, makes it all that much more special for our for our students to see like, you know, you you've taken the time out of your life to come and support them. So, thank you for being a great leader for our student athletes. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> And I'd like to add as somebody who's been a part of athletics for a while, how much I appreciate everything that you do. You go above and beyond and it's very much appreciated. >> Thank you. I'm just sitting here, you know, as a board,

068we're always looking at how do you raise the bar, how do you get better, and I'm was staring at that um slide with everything you've accomplished this year and thought, "Oh my gosh, how do you beat that?" Just a phenomenal year that that you've coordinated. So, I appreciate that. and also the fact that you still have such a focus on the academics and and the student as a scholar that's shows in in starting out your presentation with uh the GPA and and rewarding and awarding those students that perform and it it really feels that everything you're doing on the field is a benefit to that person in the classroom too which is really important. So thank you for all your work and and congratulations on a great season. >> Thank you. >> Congrats. One of

069the things I always say to my coaches at the meeting is availability equals opportunity. So like as as coaches when we hire coaches, you know, we want them to be available for student athletes. And again, I know coaches a lot of times you have your your season like baseball starts in March, but they're around. They're working hard and all of our coaches are doing that. And on the flip side, I tell the student athletes like if those coaches are available, that opportunity is yours to take. It's not something that's given, but you got to work for it. And we have kids that work very hard to take advantage of those opportunities. So, it's a it's a good mutual uh agreement between everybody. >> Thank you. [Applause] >> And and part of your presentation is what

070Brian's going to have to work with in the near future. >> The room really cleared out for me, I guess. All right, good evening board. Um, yeah, so summer is underway. I roughly have 10 weeks to uh tear things apart and put them back together uh before school starts. So, we're feverish feverishly working on building 51 uh and getting that underway. Um the HVAC is in progress. The units actually showed up on Friday and the contractors worked on Saturday and they're working today. We roughly had 20 to 30 individuals working in the smallest building in the district. So, um, they're working to get those units operational by startup for Wednesday. Um, so we can keep moving on that part. Um, the carpet is installed, which is looking fabulous. Um, and one of those pictures is

071actually the new boiler system for that building. Um, the domestic wells installed also, so there's new water in that building. Um, we are anticipating inspections on August 1st and then, um, moving um, 51 out of Creekide and back to their building hopefully the week after that. And then Creek Side teachers will have their building back. Um the team room is underway also. Um exterior block uh walls were completed on Friday last week. The interior slab has been poured. Um and then we're going to start working on interior walls, electrical, and all the other things that have to be done inside that building. Um roofing is also complete. Um that building we're not anticipating completion until middle of October to end of October. We're trying to improve that uh start date or that I'm sorry, that

072completion date, but um you know, we are at the mercy of uh inspections and permits and things like that from the state of Michigan. So, we are our contractors are working diligently to finish that project up. Um some other projects that are happening around the district. Um so, we did complete our door project. Uh 16 openings were replaced throughout various buildings. So, that has been completed. The lakes's exterior wall is in progress right now. Uh we're anticipating that being done uh for the start of school. Most likely we will be putting um temporary doors back in place um because that is a requirement to have occupancy for those that building. Um and then the windows will be in place for that building. Um those should be here prior to the start of school. Just some

073other things going on. I thought I'd update the board. Um you know while we're doing a ton of projects and obviously that was not a complete list. Um the maintenance team and custodial staff are working for the new school year. Um so you know custodians are cleaning roughly 1.1 million square feet which is a large space. Maintenance has already performed 200 repairs which when it comes to maintenance they're doing repairs from just you know replacing pencil sharpeners, fixing curtains or blinds all the way to replacing motors and electrical components and things like that actuators which are more labor intensive. Um some other projects that we've done over the summer, uh we're doing selective uh concrete replacement sidewalks such as out out front in front of the boardroom uh at uh various buildings such as farms,

074lakes, high school, um and creek side. Um we did finish repainting the gym ceiling here, which turned out fabulous. Uh we did install new scoreboard at uh Farms, uh which will be great for um Farms Intermediate as well as high basketball. Um we did replace some backboards and some other various projects also. Um one of the big projects we actually took on also is we've been working uh for a few years to recondition our gym floors. Uh we started at uh or creek and then last year we did Farms Intermediate and then this year we took on the high school. So the high school has a brand new floor for Mr. Hassler and his basketball team to excel at as well as volleyball. Um and I'm sure they're excited to get on that floor um

075this season. Uh we do have new scoreboards that you all approved at a previous board meeting that is scheduled to ship uh next week and then we will install hopefully prior to the start of school year as well as the volleyball season. And that's my update. Any questions? >> Matt, do you have any uh projects that you expect to come before the board next month? >> Uh I do not think so. >> Okay. I think we're we're a little tapped out at the moment, but um there will be a future door project probably the month after that. Um so we have to start investigating that. I'm focusing on getting these projects done, getting the kids back in school, and then we'll start some various other selections and and things like that that need to happen.

076>> Okay, >> thank you. >> No problem. >> All right, cool. >> Thank you, Matt. And thank you. Uh please let your team know how much we appreciate the work that they put into everything that they're doing. Appreciate that all. >> Let's see. I think that ends. Yep, that ends superintendent report. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Hughes. Uh, next up, item 1F, call to the public. Renee, do you have any additional cards? Okay, I have one card. And just want to reiterate that of course we um that as as speakers approach the podium um please um express yourselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of those who may be affected by your comments. You'll get three minutes and I'll raise my yellow folder here at 2 minutes and

07730 seconds to let you know when to wrap up. Uh Dave Van Oer, please. >> Well, I guess it's nice for you guys to stay short this evening and you guys get to get home. I was looking at that agenda. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, long night." So, I was looking over a few things, giving you a little constructive criticism here. One of the things that came up a few uh weeks ago or a few months ago was you're talking about your mission statement. The mission statement is actually already given and that is in the constitution section one article 8 and that's your that is actually your mission statement. I know you're writing one and you're spending time with it. I listen to the consultant and everything. You know he's got a lot of nice

078things for you to think about. You guys are thinking about a lot of important stuff. It's good to set your sights on what you want to do and set goals so you can get ahead. But this is in fact your mission statement is is a section one that is rich religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. That is in fact your mission statement which as I understand is on your wall back there. So I don't know why it's small. Maybe it's just a general reminder for all of you what your responsibilities are. And every time you have a meeting, it reminds you of that, which is a very positive thing. But it is also your mission statement. Therefore,

079it's also worthwhile because we're on in the knowledge business. We're in the teaching. Yes. So, it'd be nice for the public to know. Maybe a sign somewhere where they can actually see that and be reminded of it. You don't need to stick it up there. your walls already too crowded and I'm going to get to that in a second, but maybe over here somewhere because I do think it's worthwhile because we're in the knowledge business to give knowledge and to share and every time they come here you give an opportunity to learn a little bit from you guys. Uh the other thing I wanted to talk about was the wall. The wall is kind of interesting because it's kind of the the the good sides and the bad sides of of things because we talked

080about it and you guys made changes and being willing to make changes is very important if you want to be successful and you want to move up. I've been involved with a number of very successful organizations throughout my lifetime. I've been very fortunate with that. But one of the things that they all have in common is the willingness to make adaptation and change. So the fact that you moved your posters on the wall shows that you have a willingness to make adaptations and change. Now what I would also suggest and I know everybody's going to spend your money and do things with your time and I apologize for that but I also know this is something that I have some understanding of and some ability and so I offer it for whatever it's worth because

081that's part of our responsibility as citizens. 30 seconds I can be fast. Clock's still a problem. need a bigger poster. But on H Heartland Living, you guys are really not the community. The schools are a subset of the community. So, it does need to take up space on your wall. You've actually got kind of a a an arrangement problem there. And you really need to be able to get rid of that because you've got trapped white space is what is someone once told me. And then that needs to be a little bit bigger. And you simplify your message. Hopefully I haven't taken too much time. I would like I'm really happy to see things like successful state championships. It's really nice. I've been involved in successful state championships teams and it's really nice. I can

082go back there 40 years later and the banners are there and I can say, "Yeah, I knew those guys because I was one of them." Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on. Committee and building reports. I don't anticipate we'll have too much to share, but Miss Custodia, do you have anything that you'd like to share? >> I have nothing to report. >> Mr. Scott, >> none. >> I do not. I did uh send out today the list of building assignments. So hopefully everyone got that. If you have questions, let me know. But otherwise, best wishes as you continue to uh branch out amongst the admin team members. >> Thank you for that, Mrs. Shaw. >> Nothing. Mr. Campbell? >> No, ma'am. >> I just have one quick plug um for the

083senior center um as Mr. Hughes um sent out to all of us I think just this week, maybe it was today. Um there are some ad spots that are going to be running now on um WHMI and they're actually for all six of the Livingston County uh senior centers. They're also going to do an on location session with WHMI on September 4th from 11 to 1 um at the senior center. It's during their annual openhouse. Um so hopefully we'll get some good traffic there too. Um, also, uh, at the last, um, advisory, uh, committee meeting, we, um, we reviewed the budget for the end of the fiscal year and everything looked great and they're actually going to be making a deposit, um, of some surplus funds back into their MYAF account, as I understand it,

084Rachel. Uh, something to the somewhere around 13,000, I think, was the number we heard at the at the meeting a couple weeks ago. All right, I think that's that. Moving on to item 2A, HCS strategic plan. >> I move that the board of education adopts the vision, mission, beliefs, and goals established in the strategic planning process as presented at the June 16th board of education meeting. >> Support. >> Okay. Motion by Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mr. Campbell to adopt the vision, mission, beliefs, and goals in the strategic planning process. Any discussion? Um, yes, I do have uh something regarding the goals. And Mr. Keller, I think you said earlier you asked a question regarding um or you made a Yeah, you asked a question regarding measurables and and goals and things like that. And could

085you run through that again as far as what you were looking for? >> Yeah, sure. So, I just wanted to kind of clarify for the board and for the public that the strategic plan item that we're voting on is of the goal statements and not the objectives, which will be something that I think as each year goes by, right? We'll continue to update those objectives and that's what um I wanted to clarify. So I think um in my in my mind you know we have to have a separate conversation at a future date uh meeting to understand and kind of digest the goals and come to some agreement on what we want those to be. Sorry I should use the word objectives to not clause cause any further confusion on that. >> Okay. as in

086the uh uh report that we received and went through, we have things in here stated as priority objectives. So, you know, these objectives that you're talking about, what I guess I'm making a disconnect here. Do we already have objectives as listed here or are we going to set other objectives as well? >> I can uh answer that. So, if you recall in the strategic planning process, as Greg walked us through the process, he uh we got a number of stakeholders together, um we had our strategic planning uh weekend uh Saturday, uh many many voices in the room. We went through the process. The goals were established in there. These are the goals you're adopting tonight. We then uh Greg took all the administrative team aside. He shared with the board that the board's job was

087to ensure that they agreed with the vision, mission, um, beliefs, and goals. Now, the people on the ground actually having to accomplish the goals were tasked with developing the objectives. So, the work to be done and the work that we will show the board that we're working towards. And so, you have those in that document that you're looking at. And we didn't ask you to adopt those as they are tonight, but definitely we will come back at the next meeting for a discussion because you as a board were charged with establishing the goals. You then charge us, the administrators, the superintendent and everybody else that does the work on a daily basis to set our objectives. We've set those objectives as you see in that document. We feel those are very concrete objectives. I think

088Greg even said at the podium, remember in that public education some objectives, some uh things that you're working on are it was completed or it wasn't completed. And so you'll see some of those types of pieces in there. But our job is to make sure that we've had the conversation about what you see in that document, what those objectives are, why we think those are important, and then we ask that you adopt those objectives based on the input from your administrative team. charged with creating those objectives. So that's how it is designed and that's how it should be taken as the board of education. Okay. The the concern that I have looking at all the priority objectives for all of the goals, there is only one that has any kind of measurable number. There's only

089one that's really quantifiable. Realize a 3% increase in student growth. Okay, that makes sense. Um, you know, if you go to goal two, for example, um, priority objectives, market parent perception survey results by quarter. Okay, how do we know we're doing that? Well, are we going to have some sort of measurement from um parent participation from last year to this year or there's a the most of these are just tasks. I I I I'm not really seeing actual measurables with some of these things. the the other items that you know the mission statement and um values and and what have you that's all fine well and good um but with the priority objectives is listed in the report um I'm not really seeing where anything is a true measurable >> I guess I'm confusing because

090I thought that that was the question I was seeking clarification on is the priority objectives that are listed in the presentation that's posted on our website My understanding is that we're not including those as part of what we're binning as goals for tonight. >> Tonight, not tonight. We'll talk about them at the next meeting. >> Correct. The objectives will be addressed at the next meeting where we can have a discussion surrounded around surrounded specifically around the objectives. Tonight we are approving the higher level below the the tactical the >> Could anyone please just read one example just to make sure we're on the same page. I don't have it printed. >> I don't have either. >> I don't need the mission vision or belief >> in the goal area. >> Just the goals. >> Yeah,

091I have a copy book prior to the development. >> Academic >> Mr. Keller, academic programs, culture and learning environment, communication and community engagement, personnel and leadership, finance and operations. >> So those are the only goals we're voting on tonight. >> So >> they're not even goals. Those are just areas. >> Those are goal statements. Those are >> So for example, for academics and programs, the strategic goal statement is Hartland Consolidated Schools will provide rigorous and student centered educational opportunities that maximize potential So, and then the priority objective is as Mr. Goleski stated, realize a 3% increase in student growth. So, we are voting solely on the strategic goal statement. We are not voting on the priority objective, >> the 3% growth. >> Yep. >> So, okay. >> I I I echo some of the concerns

092with with how this kind of ended. I I know everybody had a lot of excitement during the process, especially, you know, we got feedback from almost 800 people in the community. We had a great working session um and and went over some of this stuff. Where I kind of um got disconnected is our strategic plan says it's for 2025 through 2030. And that's what was in the proposal from MASB. And I really got excited about that because it's so forwardlooking and um and was excited to see some of the ideas we came up with at at the strategic plan. We did talk about goals, ideas that were going to be five-year projects. But then this final version we got really doesn't include anything much further out than 12 to 18 months on on those objectives.

093And so that is what's really concerning to me. Mr. Goleski and I attended a a seminar down in Cincinnati a couple weeks ago for the school boards for academic excellence and they put on a really good um program on strategic planning and and we had the conversation with a facilitator. Should a strategic plan have goals that are you know 3 to 5 years out? A lot of us involved in the corporate world or other nonprofits hear about be hags the big hairy audacious goals those goals that are are three to five years out and and that facilitator said yeah absolutely you need to have these these big picture items you need the small stepping stones but you need to have some of the big picture stuff too so I guess my concern here is um

094yeah the mission vision values that that we're looking at that but how or are we trying to make a a roadmap forward for the next five years if all we're looking at is what we're doing this year or next year? Uh and if you look at some of the objectives at the end of the report, there are some great ideas that would take five years to implement. expanding uh CTE um new buildings, bond projects, those are three to five year projects, but I feel like this uh strategic plan as it exists doesn't take those into account at all. And I I guess that's where I have the biggest issue. I really want those big goals that we can all of us can can um can gather around. >> If I believe I remember this correctly,

095Mr. Janicki at the podium steered us away from doing those large goals three to five years, right? We kind of talked about that already. Um, I think we've had this as a board for probably six to eight weeks to kind of talk this through if if we wanted to make any changes to goals. I haven't heard any of these discussions before about making any changes. Um I mean if we want to look at three to five years that's probably a conversation for another day but we we're we are we need to vote on what's in front of us here and you know educa what what we're doing in Hartland can change in 12 to 18 months and to set goals five years down the line. I mean you think about what was happening five years

096ago. Um I don't know. I think you just get into a a a you know I think looking at what is happening now and what things we need to happen now and and we've talked about re reviewing the strategic plan and our goals at least twice a year and and at least annually right that will give us that ability to adjust where we're going and where we want to go. Well, I I don't want to get into some silly semantics game here or what whatever, but when when priority objectives are written on this and we're going to vote on this and approve this, am I going to hear a month or two down the road, well, wait a minute, we have our objectives. You voted on it. It's right there. No. Priority objectives such as

097this, increase parent knowledge of district community partnerships. What is that? How do you measure it? How do you measure success? How do you know you're on the right track? We're going to increase it. Incre What are we increasing? This is where I'm I'm having a bit of a problem with some of these objectives. Now, if we're going to discuss these objectives again and come up with some concrete quantitative uh measurements, fine. But if we're voting on this, I don't mind voting for the goals, but I certainly don't support the priority objectives in this packet as actual objectives. >> But again, it's my understanding the priority objectives that are in the packet are not part of what we're approving today. Correct. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> Is there any further discussion? All right. >> So,

098how do we how do we >> how do we craft a motion or does this motion catch what we have just discussed? >> It doesn't have the word objectives, >> but it has the word goals. >> Correct. Right. >> Goal statements. Right. >> Well, what if we added that? Exactly. Statements. I think that's what's missing in this motion to Mr. Scott's point, I think we would probably all feel more comfortable if it said goal statements. >> Yeah. I I fear that we have this 40page strategic plan and if we just vote to approve part of it, it's going to come back later that well, we approved this 40page document. when in reality we're approving about >> about about two pages worth of text which is the um mission, vision, values, and goal statements. So then

099I'd like to motion to amend that the board of education adopt the vision, mission, beliefs, and goal statements established in the strategic planning process as presented at the June 16th board of education meeting. >> Okay. So motion to amend by Mr. Keller, >> second >> supported by Mr. Gooleski. and the motion to amend. You would like to add the word statements following the word goals in the original motion. >> That's correct. >> Thank you. >> Is there any discussion on that motion to amend? >> Hearing none. Miss Custodio. >> Yes. >> Mr. Scott? >> Yes. >> Mr. Gooleski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shaw? >> Yes. >> Mr. Campbell? Yes, >> I am a yes. Motion to amend passes. So, the motion will now read that the board of education adopts

100the vision, mission, beliefs, and goal statements established in the strate strategic planning process as presented at the June 16th board of education meeting. The original motion was brought forward by Mrs. Shaw and seconded by Mr. Campbell. Is there any further discussion? >> So I I know there was comments about these objectives and whether or not they meet kind of the expectations of the board going into this process. So is it are we just going to have that discussion at the next meeting then? >> I believe that is the plan, Mr. Hughes. >> That's what I said. Yep. >> Yep. Perfect. So next meeting we'll so if we have um if we have ideas on on solidifying these on making them measurable you know we have our teachers have grasp goals for their for their um

101evaluations. I feel like we need to have some measurable um objectives here. So should we submit those to someone over the next month? >> I would say hang on to those. Um, our recommendation at the end of the day is going to be that you adopt them as written. If you want to have discussion at the table to change them after we went through the strategic planning process, then that will be up to you as the board and we'll take that advice uh and whatever the board decides. So, I would hang on to them until our discussion phase. >> Does that satisfy everyone at the table? >> Say, but Mr. Scott, if you have ideas, I'm certainly willing to >> have you send them to me. So >> yeah, I know >> I think if

102you've got ideas um that you don't mind sharing and obviously no discussion, no reply all, but if you can share those with the group, I think that would be appreciated. >> Okay, great. >> Can I add something, >> please? >> Um I know like teachers have graphs, goals, and we have our strategies and things like that. The objectives the admin put together are the objectives. They don't include the measurables. That's we have to come up with that and talk about that about what that measure is going to be. So we're going to recommend that the objectives are passed as they are but then we have to have discussion about what those measurables are going to be. We didn't even get that far >> in the process if that makes sense. >> Yeah. So do you

103think so do you think the admin could have those prepared for the next meeting so that as a board we can look and say okay we want to realize increase in student growth and know the timeline that we're looking at and um maybe some of the the tech or whatever you're you're going to measure. >> Yeah, we still have to have those discussions. So we're going to be talking about those things anyway. So we can do that. >> That was our plan. >> Y okay. And I guess I'd like to ask if we can at least plan for the three to five year window even though I understand that maybe year two those things might need to change but I think if we're not looking at them now and keeping them on the radar and

104then again consciously deciding nope this doesn't apply next year the following year then we you can kind of pivot as necessary but I think if it falls off the plan then I think we lose sight of it and I think there was a lot of them that which is why I've been kind of harping on whether or we're approving objectives today is because there's a lot of them that aren't on there that I wanted to see. And since they're not in our year one window, I'm concerned that we're not going to be working towards those. I think a lot of the confusion is is in the definition of of uh goals, objectives, and measurables. And that's one thing maybe that uh we didn't clarify enough when we started this. But if you're saying, Mr. Minsky

105that we are going to set those measurables later. Okay. Then I can agree to that. >> And to go back to what you were saying, Greg, is when the administrative team met, we did look at things. Okay, what's our first year priority out of the things that came out of the list from our Saturday meeting? What maybe could be pushed back to year two? Because we're going to have to re-evaluate what does this look like next year and do those objectives look like? And so we did have some of those conversations with our team and a lot of it will depend on how things go this year, but we picked as a group of admin what we felt was an appropriate starting point. >> Yeah. Okay. So again, if you can kind of map out

106year two and three, that way we can kind of see how it all fits together, that would be great. >> Yeah. So as you know, just as an example, so goal area five, finance and operation. uh HCS will be fiscally responsible while providing quality services in a safe safe and well-maintained learning environment. And I know when 40 of us were in a room doing the workshop, safety was a big centerpiece of that and we talk about safety and we have probably six or seven ideas related to safety at the end of the report, but the priority objectives for goal five don't really contain anything safety related directly. you know, maybe there's some intent in there with some of them, but I think we just need to close the loop a little bit on that and

107and say, okay, let's make sure our priority objective is related to to safety since there were some safety concerns from from the community, from teachers, um, from board members. I'd like to see those in the priorities. So right now, just for those who don't have it in front of them because it was not included in the board package, priority objectives for goal area five, finance and operation are plan for a bond, review wage scales for non-union staff, and complete a technology assessment. >> And for reference for those in the community or those listening in, um, it was, you're correct, it was not included in the bond or in the the board packet, but it is available on the website. >> Yeah, but it's two two months in a row. it was not included in the

108board packet even though there were requests from the board to share it with the community in that board packet. >> Well, and that would also keep us in compliance to with our agenda policy. [Music] >> Yeah. I was told I was told last last month I asked why it wasn't in the board packet and I was told it'd be in this month's board pack and it wasn't again. So, I I feel like those in the community who are provided the board packet who go to to seek out that information, I realize it's not a lot, you know, but those that do, I think should see everything that we're discussing and this was left out. >> Is there any further discussion >> hearing? None. Again, the motion on the table presented by Mrs. Shaw, seconded by

109Mr. Campbell is that the board of education adopts the vision, mission, beliefs, and goal statements established in the strategic planning process at the June 16th meeting. >> Miss Custodial, >> yes. >> Mr. Scott, >> yes. >> Mr. Gooleski, >> yes. >> Mr. Keller, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shaw, >> yes. >> Mr. Campbell, >> yes. >> And I Yes. Motion carries. Item 2B, universal preschool. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction authorizes the district to establish a universal preschool program and to enter into an agreement with the newly formed Livingston County GSRP consortium. >> Support >> motion by Mrs. Shaw support by Mr. Campbell. Do I hear any discussion? >> Yeah, I just you know I want to thank Mr. Minsker and

110and Rachel for meeting with me over the past week to kind of talk through some of my concerns about uh what we're voting on today. I think first of all I I do support, you know, making more um preschool more accessible for kids. I think I may have a different approach than kind of what the state is looking to do, but I certainly can appreciate that that's not necessarily a H Heartland issue. That's that's an issue with Lancing. I guess if it's me, you know, I would give the money to the parents to decide, you know, what whatever market solution they wanted to use to for preschool. I would prefer that the state took that approach. But understandably, they did not. Um, but having said that, I still have, you know, some concerns that locally,

111um, even though it's LEA and it's still local, I I would still prefer that all decisions be made, you know, by this local board and by the local staff and that there's less muddying of the waters by adding, you know, another entity that parents and staff even have to sort of navigate through if they have issues. Um I I am hoping that if this is adopted that LEA will put together some type of um you know guidance or um book or manual or something so that staff and parents if they have disputes or issues that there's a resource for them to kind of follow through so they know that if I have an issue about X I can go speak with Y and that there's a way for them to to try to remedy that.

112I do worry long term about what this project or program will do just to the local small businesses who do run uh preschools and who who do compete against um educa, you know, the free education business. I think ultimately my concern is that that's going to continue to expand and it's going to sort of squeeze out the market or obviously a free choice relative to something that someone's going to have to pay for. I do have concerns with that and in general I have not yet come across an industry where where the government version runs more efficiently and cost effectively than what what you can find in the private sector. So, you know, again, those are my concerns, but understand that those are maybe concerns in Lancing and not here in H Heartland. I do

113have confidence that whatever the board does, the team will do its best to to work through any of the challenges that we may be faced with. I would, you know, I would ask that any periodic updates are shared with the board so we can kind of understand how things are going. Obviously, there's an exit clause in this contract. And so, if we choose to as a board, I you know, I want to that gives me a little bit of hope, I guess, that, you know, we do have a sort of an exit clause that we can we can um utilize. And then I think lastly, I'll just say, you know, I'd ask the team, the admin team to please share any uh recommendations with the board on what we could use collectively to sort of

114evaluate whether or not it makes sense to continue next year with this process. So, and again, thanks for sharing your thoughts with me as a admin team. to touch on one thing you said about the communication piece. There will be handbooks, parent and staff handbooks that will outline all the procedures and all those things. Those are being developed. >> Dave, I'm sorry. Will those handbooks be something that we then approve as we would handbooks for the high school? >> No, that's the consortium that's all through. >> That's all the GSRP classrooms in the county. >> Okay. Just want to make sure. Just uh a quick question regarding the um although it's for a very young age group, is there any way to review the type of curriculum that they're going to present to the students

115and just what exactly is going to be presented to them and >> where would we find that? It's >> called creative curriculum. I've already reviewed it. So everybody in the county I'm on the uh the committee that put all this together. Um, and so that's the that's a curriculum that state approved it because it links to all the state standards. >> Um, it's been it's been I mean it's three-year-olds, so it's very basic fundamental things that you have to go through, but it's very consistent >> with that age group and early childhood and the skills that they need to do. And I reviewed it and it's all fine. >> Okay. Well, even though it's for three-year-olds, I still I mean, um I don't want to just accept anything that the state approves, but um yeah,

116I'd like to >> Yeah. >> see it as well. So, >> we we've we've used that curriculum for a few years now. It's not just starting now. We've we've always used it. >> Okay. So, uh Miss Boy, is this completely financially neutral? Are there any financial pitfalls, chances that we have to start coming out of pocket to to supplement or support the programs? >> Not for this program. No. Um, you know, GSRP is reimbursement based, so you only get what you spend. you don't really have an opportunity to make money but you don't have that opportunity to lose money either unless you know if if you have a an issue with um numbers because what they do is they allocate um a certain number per pupil. So if you don't have classrooms that are full

117but you have the full cost that you can't cover that that's where the issue would come into play. Um from what I understand um the classrooms that we have uh set for next year are all full. Is that Yep. So, I don't see there being an issue um in that regard. >> How does that look as this grows space and staffing? What's the plan for that? Is there any projections looking out the LSA the state's provided? >> Um what we plan on doing because a lot of school district has space. We're we're limited to space. So, uh as we convert our uh we we're adding these classrooms to the 51 building. So as we move through that process, as we are able to increase the number of classrooms, then we'll make decisions on the rest

118of the classrooms that are there. So right now it remains a uh GSRP and child care center and then eventually you're seeing how full you can get could be something down the road again under bonding for is there a time where we see growth in the district and we have to build a new building. Maybe something happens there if this is really successful down the road. Is there any further discussion? Right. The motion on the table again brought forward by Mrs. Shaw supported by Mr. Campbell. Universal preschool. >> Miss Custodio. >> Yes. >> Mr. Scott. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gooleski. >> Yes. Mr. Keller, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shaw, >> yes. >> Mr. Campbell, >> yes. >> And I am a yes. Motion passes. >> Moving on to item 2C, school bond loan fund. >>

119I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the chief financial officer approves the school loan revolving fund annual application as presented. >> Support. Okay. >> Motion presented by Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mr. Campbell. Is there any discussion? Just want to say I was happy to see the number is smaller this year than it was last year. So, thank you Rachel. >> It's not me. It's just as luck would have it. I can't take credit for that one. >> It is nice to be in a pay down status. So, um you know we there is a mandatory date that you have to have that that balance paid off. um believe it's 2035, but as things stand right now, we um anticipate that being much sooner. Okay, any further discussion? See motion on the

120table for school loan bond or school bond loan fund m brought forward by Mrs. Shaw supported by Mr. Campbell. Miss Custodio, >> yes. >> Mr. Scott, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Goggleski, >> yes. >> Mr. Keller, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shaw, >> yes. >> Mr. Campbell, >> yes. >> Na, yes. Motion passes. Moving on to item 2D, which came from our consent agenda, which is the uh authorization of designates for treasurer and secretary responsibilities. >> I move that the board of education designates the superintendent or CFO as treasurer and secretary designignate. support >> motion by Mrs. Shaw, support by Mr. Campbell, authorization of designates for treasurer and secretary. Any discussion? >> Yeah, I I sent the board some information or some concerns on this. Um, I appreciate we're, you know, trying to follow our our

121policy, right, which is what we should do. But I I had some concerns about the lack of uh clarity around the motion. And so I think as a board, if we're delegating our authority, we we we need to have a better understanding, I think, of what the legal ramifications are of that delegation. So I would ask that, you know, the board consider postponing this at least until we have a better understanding of what that means. So would you suggest Mr. Keller moving this to um to have a discussion at a policy meeting? >> No, rather I would you know to not take any take any more time in this meeting. I would I would actually move to postpone this item to next month's meeting so that we have an opportunity to get more information and

122that way this board has all the information that they need to make a decision as to whether or not we truly want to you know designate cart blanch authority to others or if we want to refine the motion to be something more specific in scope. >> But however this is like a copy and paste from that policy that we have. So really, we would have to update the policy, >> right, >> to match what we're adopting, right? Wouldn't one have to follow the other? If if this I think is almost word for word what's in I I don't remember the policy number that Mr. Hugh sent us today, but I would think we would have to update that policy if we're going to change what this says. I mean, all of these come right from

123that policy of our organizational meeting, >> right? But it does say does per O154 it does say it designate an administrator to assume and I'll keyword here specified responsibilities of the treasur and secretary and I don't believe this motion captures what the specified responsibilities are. So for that reason, I I'm offering up that we propo postpone, excuse me, what this motion would capture. And again, I understand that was in the policy, but you know, the previous two years I've been sitting here for organizational meetings, we have not we've not done this. So this is something that we're doing now. And again, thank you for doing it, but I think we need to understand it more. So personally, as far as I'm concerned, this should go to policy and be stricken from the policy. We did

124this because what we've heard from the board, some members of the board, is that we're not putting everything in the the um um organizational meeting that's in the policy. So, we put it in there. And this is an emergency in case something were to happen. Let's say uh you're on vacation as a treasurer and we have to sign a bank loan because we need to do something really quickly, you know, and so we just have to have some latitude. We don't need to do that. I don't think it's ever happened since I've been superintendent that we've had to do anything in emergency setting. Therefore, probably the reason why we've not put it on the organizational meeting agenda in the past, but because we were called to task of following the board policy as it is,

125as far as I'm concerned, you postpone it to your policy committee and strike it from the policy committee. And that way, you don't have to give us authority to do anything in an emergency situation, but it might require a special meeting to have it as quick as possible to get four members in the room to say, "We need to sign this and we need to get it done." We have done business that way in the past, >> but the motion could also delegate that authority for a treasurer, secretary to a president, a vice president, some other member of the board if if we chose. So again, I think there's a lot to consider and I think we should at least postpone it. Potentially policy is ultimately what we need to do to to tighten this

126up later, but I think as of today, I don't know that it is prudent to vote on it now. >> Yeah. the um I I did not interpret it as emergency use uh because if you read the policy um that word what was the word specific duties what and then and then if you if you look at the policy for the treasur's responsibility we're really assigning all treasur responsibilities to the CFO and superintendent all secretary responsib responsibilities to the CFO and the superintendent. And so I I guess that's where I I took pause to say is that really the intention of the board um that that the secretary and treasurer will have zero responsibilities because that's pretty much what this motion does. There's nothing to say it's emergency. If you look at the policy for

127those positions, we are assigning all duties. So we're essentially as a board saying we our secretary and our treasurer are purely symbolic. They are going to give their signatures to the administrators and the administrators can affix them to checks, diplomas, uh meeting minutes without any approval of those individuals. If I would I I would not want that personally to have that responsibility. Um Mr. Keller and I had an experience where I got a reimbursement check and he said, "Oh, my signatures on there." He never signed the check. Uh he never approved the check, but his signature goes on every check even though he doesn't have a chance to to review them. So, we are not This is not emergencies. This is all duties being given over. So, I think as a board we need to

128decide if that's truly what we intend to do. >> So, Oh, go ahead. >> Sorry. So, if I'm hearing you correctly, Mr. Scott, you're saying that the verbiage is what you would like to see changed with emergency. You and Mr. Keller, >> emergency was only that only came from Mr. Hugh's email. There's nothing in the policy or the motion that that makes any um reference to emergency use >> and that's what you would like to see changed. I guess I just I would like if we're going to designate responsibilities, I'd like them to be itemized and and spelled out so that there's no question later on about what we as a board decided to do. And if that is full responsibility, if we say, "Hey, our treasurer is just a figurehead and a signature," which

129it has been for, you know, however long, then that's fine. But that's a decision we make as a board. >> You see that, Mr. Mr. Keller, in your experience to have that review of all those items, I mean, not having that seat before, is that something you would see is appropriate or is that too significant of a task to go through? I get it. The some discomfort having your signature on things you didn't know was going to go through, but is that how much goes through with his signature on it? >> Rachel, checks. You sign a signature card every year and that's what gets printed on the checks and then your review of those checks. Yes, it does happen after the fact, but that's those checks are included in in that packet. So, I mean,

130that's that's the process that that it's been. Um, and it's what it is. you'll have to sign it again because we'll have to do a new one because we have uh a new president and um a new secretary. So, I'll bring that to you for the next meeting and then those three names will go on all the checks. >> And we really can't think of anything else besides that that we assign your names to. And again, the only thing I can think of is in an emergency situation where we would sign our gas lease. Um, you know, that we don't have time to say, "Hey, you got a oneweek window to get this done." Might be a reach out to say, "Hey, can we sign this?" Uh, you know, "Hey, treasure, we're signing this on

131your behalf or whatever." It could be an emergency situation, but in most cases, we'd have time to have a emergency meeting, try to get four board members together and say, "Hey, can we get this done as a special meeting?" So that's how we see it but you guys can change it. >> So what so what is the role of the treasurer? Because if we have a role of the treasurer and and they have five duties and we as a board say all five of these duties are now assigned to administrative staff then what is the role of the treasur? I guess that's what I'm trying to figure out. They have no role. >> Double check numbers. It's uh noted in policy 0171, same as it is with secretary, president, vice president. >> So again, I

132think it's kind of a bigger discussion, more broad discussion as a board. So, you know, again, that's why I'm recommending we at least have some more time to think about how we want to handle this and that we postpone to next month for action. >> Wouldn't it be more appropriate for the policy meeting, though? I I agree with the postponement, but if it's if it's affecting policy, we're having policy meeting at least to discuss it there and then still move to making an action item at the next board meeting after discussion during policy. >> But if you've already made the designation, then what what would it matter? >> So then just resolve it at the policy meeting. >> But you've already delegated the authority is what I'm saying. So, how can you >> so we

133>> do it the other way around? Because you you need to understand what you're delegating first before you can decide whether you want to delegate. Not >> just delegate and then figure out what you just delegated. I think it has to be delegate second. >> So, we need to either vote on the motion as it is or someone needs to make a motion to postpone this vote now. >> Correct. Correct. So, if if Mr. Keller, if you would like to motion make that motion, we can vote on whether or not to postpone it. We can still postpone it to the next to the August meeting. There's a proposed date for a policy meeting that would take place before that where we could address the policy side of it, right? >> And still have that discussion

134in the August whatever meeting that's that dates in question. Is it is it the current interpretation of our policies of our bylaws that we have to assign designate all treasur and all secretary duties to administrators? Is that the current interpretation? >> It's not my interpretation. My interpretation is based it includes the words I think it's the word specified >> specified >> that was in that. So, so when it says specified, that doesn't say to me all, >> but if I read the what's on the table, right, it says that the board of education designates the superintendent or CFO as treasurer and secretary designate. So, it doesn't >> specify what we're designated. >> Correct. Because the policy says specified. This just says who those people are that we're designating. And then per the policy, we have

135to designate someone. the policy says it's for specified. I agree that it's still vague, that there's no we haven't specified exactly what those are and that that's a great policy discussion, but but to me, this is simply following the policy, saying that we're designating. It doesn't say exactly what duties agreed, but it's saying we're designating. We're following the policy. The policy is what needs some more work. So, >> but the policy does say you a spec specified responsibility. So we this motion doesn't match our policy. So you either have to change the motion to designate what you're specifying or we have to postpone it. And I just thought for purposes of not belaboring this topic, we would just postpone it. >> Um then if you would like to postpone >> make a motion. So I

136will I move to postpone that the board of education designates the superintendent or CFO as treasurer and secretary designignate >> support >> motion to postpone the current motion on the table brought forward by Mr. Keller supported by Was that you Mr. Scott? >> Yes ma'am. >> Thank you. >> You want to specify postpone to we've had that issue >> postponed to the August meeting >> to the next meeting? Yes. August the reg the regular >> regularly scheduled meeting >> support. >> Thank you. >> Question on the motion to postpone. >> So tonight we've elected a secretary, we've elected a treasurer. Do they have any responsibilities? >> What's listed in the policy? Those are their responsibilities. Yeah, we we have a major disconnect with the actual policies of 0713 and 0714. Um, which needs some rework

137because these are >> understood. Got it. Noted. >> But is there any discussion pertaining to the motion to postpone? >> Okay. For the motion to postpone the authorization of designates for treasurer and secretary responsibilities. The motion to postpone was brought forward by Mr. Keller. Supported by Mr. Scott. Miss Custodio. >> Yes. >> Mr. Scott. >> Yes. >> Mr. Gooleski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Keller. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shaw. >> Yes. >> Mr. Campbell. >> Yes. >> I am a Yes. >> You can just move to the next one. >> Yes. Since that has been postponed, that ex that original motion is no longer on the table. We're moving to item 2E, adoption of board meeting dates. >> I had a uh request I have a request to >> We have to read the motion first.

138Can somebody read the motion? I move that the board of education adopts the proposed meeting dates for the for 2022 2026 as presented. >> Support motion by Mrs. Shaw supported by Mr. Campbell. Adoption of board meeting dates. Any discussion? >> Yes. Um the proposed board meeting for August 11th. Um, I originally on my calendar kind of set aside the 18th, not realizing the conflict with the first day of school and I realize that's, you know, that's quite a a D-Day in itself. So, um I realize the need for change, but um is it possible to maybe move that date further into the week, such as the 19th as opposed to the 18th? Um, and I'm only asking this purely on on personal reasons. I my calendar for travel just uh is is booked in August.

139So, >> um, given that there's several calendars to consult, >> um, because obviously we would want I would want to have Chuck and his team present and availability of the room. >> Yeah. Um could could we consider um amending the list of meetings to remove or cons reconsider the the August meeting and pass the other dates so that we can get those locked in and then we can revisit. I don't know how the timing would be for that. when we have to call a special meeting then in order to >> meet again >> to have the regular meeting. So I think we would >> maybe we should just talk out loud if we can all make the 19th. >> Could we talk about it at the policy committee meeting or is that only for policy?

140>> It's a public meeting. >> So we could right? >> Well, it's proposed. It's on the agenda. Proposed date of August 4th for a policy committee meeting. Um, that would give everyone time to make sure that So, we're proposing August 19th. >> I can say I have a conflict with the policy meeting. Put that out there now and the 19th. >> Okay. >> I think it's just going to be >> I have a tough with logistics. >> I have a conflict with the policy meeting. >> Okay. That's a proposed date. >> Yeah. That >> But Mr. Mr. Campbell, you you are available on the 11th. >> I am >> I do have a a conflict with the policy meeting, but the policy meeting since we're not voting on anything, making decisions, any any thoughts I

141can communicate with the board as a whole via email and >> just do it that way. Yeah, >> potentially could look at the 25th. That would be the fourth Monday. If Mondays are better and we just move it out a week. Does that work for you, Mr. Koski? >> No, that doesn't. No. No. >> Other than the 19th, that's that's it. So, >> well, you get six. So, that's a >> I mean, we might have to just leave it on August 11th. I >> Yeah. >> Or we could all spend our Friday nights, maybe. Uh, maybe not. We won't have a quorum, Glenn. >> There definitely won't be a quorum. Um, >> but we would have a quorum on the 11th. If Mr. Gooleski is unable to attend, would we still have a quorum? >>

142Yeah. >> Okay. Is there any further discussion? >> Okay. The motion >> Sorry. is the 8 18th is just absolute no way. I mean, I know it's a busy day, but just not possible, not feasible. >> Can we just move the first day of school? >> I would not do that to I would not we should not do that to our staff and teachers and principles and >> too much >> I feel. Okay, hearing no further discussion, we're back to the motion on the table, which is adoption of board meeting date. Uh, let's see. That was brought forward by Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mr. Campbell. Mrs. Custodio, >> yes. >> Mr. Scott, >> yes. >> Mr. Gooleski, >> yes. >> Mr. Keller, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shaw, >> yes. Mr. Campbell. >> Yes. >> And

143I'm a yes. That passes. >> Okay. >> Item 3A, resolution to designate legal counsel for discussion. >> So I I can jump off here. So, um, you know, I I put together a resolution shared with the board, asks that it be added to the agenda that, uh, designates and expands the legal counsel available to the board of education and to the district. And so, a little history, you know, I I like to spend time looking at um what other districts are doing, reviewing policies as we change, you know, a lot of districts make similar policy changes at the same time. And um in in looking through a lot of other districts, uh what I'd found is that most districts in the state of Michigan do include a designation of legal legal counsel resolution during their

144organizational meeting and at that time they identify usually two to four law firms that that the board is authorized to conduct business with. And uh I think we had asked Mr. Hughes a few months ago um about our relationship with our current legal council and to see the retainer and and I think we found it been quite a few years since we had even opened this door or investigated opportunities. So I kind of put together this resolution as a jumping off point. I I I do believe that this and have asked that this be added to our policy committee agenda as well. Um, our legal policy is one sentence and is very very vague. Some people interpret it very narrowly and some people interpret it very um uh broadly and so I I think that

145brings an issue. So, we have very little policy on legal and um and practically no procedural rules other than kind of these unofficial um rules that we as the board hear about but but are never anywhere in writing. Um so, my idea is to expand the number of law firms that this board and the and the district has the ability to consult. uh realizing that there are different firms that have different specialties um and and may be able to deal with different issues. Also realizing that our current law firm um is I don't know if everybody saw the MASB update. MASB has pulled their support of Niola and now they're supporting Thun as their policy provider. So, um I think that's going to probably eventually put us in a position where we literally have all

146our eggs in one basket where we no longer have any recommendations for Neiola um from Niola for policies etc. and Thrun is our our legal counsel and our policy legal counsel and and we could get in a position where we need alternative viewpoints, alternative uh legal answers and and are bound um because we don't have an option. So, so there's two things that this resolution does. One, expand the the firms that we're able to go out to. And two, I'd like to find some policy, some even if it's short-term, until our policy committee can um some joint uh agreement of this board of of what it takes to pick up the phone and call an attorney. I think the unofficial policy right now is only the president or the superintendent can pick up the phone

147and contact an attorney. I know there have been several times myself where I have wanted some some legal opinion as it relates to the welfare of the school district and have not been able to have a phone call with counsel or get a legal written opinion of council. I think that is a dangerous situation for any of us to be in. um we are not experts in everything and there's a lot to learn and to know up here and uh a lot of legal landmines to navigate and so being a member of the board representing the constituents of this community and being denied access to legal counsel that relates to the welfare of the district I think is a very dangerous position. So my proposal in this resolution is that we give more people the

148ability to reach out to legal counsel. I'm fine if those opinions are shared with everybody. I'm not looking to hide anything, but I think each and every one of us deserves the ability, the right to get that um legal advice on behalf of the welfare of our students, our staff, etc. you know, I put in the resolution that any two board members, there's been concern about, you know, one person uh running up the bill or whatever. So, I I had in here any two board members could agree to pick up the phone and call an attorney. But in talking to some of the attorneys on this list I put together who who many of whom interpreted our policy very broadly to mean any one of us should be able to pick up the phone and

149make a call. Not any two, anyone. There's nothing in our current policy that prohibits that. So maybe this is maybe this is too narrow. Maybe we need to broaden it that any one of us should be able to pick up the phone and and receive legal advice if it benefits and directly relates to the welfare of the district. So that's what I have put in here that was included in the packet. Um I look forward to discussing it. Just to clarify for the board, uh you're correct that Niola and and the uh MASB situation. However, we did get notified by Niola who uses Varnum Law, which is very respectable law firm. Um and they continue and will continue to provide us policy through Niola with no issues in the near future. >> In the near

150future, absolutely. But I think the the signal from MASB is probably that Nola is not long for this world and they've had a lot of changes as of late. So right now Niola, you know, we've they're not perfect and we've had discussions, but they have four or five law firms, six law firms maybe that contribute to those policy changes. So when that when if that goes away, we're going we're going back to just one resource. Mr. Scott, I do want to say thanks for putting this together. It's something that as a board member I've struggled with um admittedly. So I I think this thing does two things that I am excited about. one is expands who we can work with as a district because I think you know just like there's not one single board

151member that sits up here that makes decisions there should not be just one single voice that provides us with legal advice and opinion. Um, the second thing that I really appreciated is, you know, whether or not we can have more than just one person pick up the phone. And I think that's the right direction because at the end of the day, all of us are up here and we represent people in this community and when certain members are not allowed or provided with legal access, I think, you know, that's that's telling the community that their voice didn't matter. And that's that's something that I wholeheartedly reject. So I appreciate that the attempt to sort of broaden what the current protocol has been with respect to legal coverage >> and I personally don't see how any

152one of us can be held responsible for setting policy if we can't act access legal um advice. So >> I like I like the uh expansion. My concern and thought would be if all seven of us call with a question and acrew fees for the services. How would that work? And I wonder if we happen to call with the same question but to different law firms and we don't know what each other are doing. Maybe that would be the benefit. I do see the issue of one to two people controlling that contact. But if there's that communication before we do reach out perhaps um and then we don't run up those legal fees because I see it was good Jeff you noted the uh within the normal boundaries and limits of the district uh district

153procurement policies and procedures but I imagine there's a fee every time you call for legal advice and if we get a bill all of a sudden just to establish that communication which will help the board grow together too as we as we reach out. >> Yeah. So, I I understand. And so, so to be clear, I put on here, I don't know, nine or so law firms. My my intent is not to actually end up with that many law firms on the list. I just kind of went through what other school districts were using, found law firms that had a specialty in education and kind of gave the list, and then some other board members, I believe, added a couple suggestions. So, my idea is not that we work with nine law firms, but that

154we can maybe pick a few a few to work with. I actually asked one of the law firms that that question. Um, it's a law firm on here that doesn't they specialize more in giving board advice rather than doing what Th does with policy and um, uh, bonds and all that sort of stuff. and they gave me a couple examples and maybe I don't want to speak for them, but maybe they could give us some some more hard details. I asked that question and and he said one board they work with um and any of the board members can reach out to them any time and their average annual bill is about $4,000. So for the board advice, so it's it's not a lot of money. Um, and we could certainly put some controls in

155place if if needed. Uh, if if people thought that was appropriate, but most of these are billing, you know, 7 minute increments and a 15minute phone call might cost $75 or whatever. But I think the advice we're getting is is well worth paying. And I would suspect that most in the community would assume that we already have the ability to do this. If you talk to other school boards, a lot of them, you know, what do you mean? I pick up the phone and talk to my attorney whenever I have a question. Um, I think we're an outlier here in the fact that our board is is hand handcuffed and in the fact that we only have a single firm. Um, the other item of note, um, if I can remember my my train of

156thought on that. Um, I don't remember where I was going, but, um, but we we I think we do need the ability to to pick up the phone and get advice. Uh, there's, you know, there's times I wonder if there's something I can legally say at this table. you know, we we all know things that happen in the school and can we legally bring them up? Can we legally discuss them? Um, those are questions that I think we deserve answers to, not somebody's interpretation of maybe a phone call that they might have asked legal counsel. Um, if if if if we're if we're everything gets filtered down to, you know, a somebody asks a question and then gives a verbal, who gives a verbal and a recap, you're not getting the attorney's advice, you're getting

157some secondhand interpretation. Um, also, you know, as far as the Open Meetings Act goes, um, you know, gatekeeping is decision- making. So I if somebody prohibits you from getting legal advice on one thing or another that is the same as as pre you know trying to shape the decision and that's I think what we're trying to avoid here. Um if if I'm prohibited from getting legal advice on it on something I want to bring up at the table, then I'm probably not going to bring it up because I don't know what the legal ramifications are. >> So I shared um with you, Mr. Scott, my concerns and changes to this. I don't think it's appropriate that it's a resolution. This should be brought to a policy committee. I agree we should have something in writing

158about how we contact legal. I don't agree to a lot of the items that you have in here, especially to board members being able to contact attorneys. We just had discussion for three months about $60,000 of an agreement with the township. Um, I I have never been told I can't contact legal. I think the board president does have the authority to speak on behalf of the board and I have nothing I have no problem with putting something in policy, but I think this resolution um it's it to me we need to make sure that it's still going through the board president or the superintendent. It will I anticipate it's going to cause chaos. If if two board members are able to act and speak on behalf of the board and ask questions, I don't think

159that that's a good policy and plan that we should be put in place for this board. >> I think there's some simple controls that can take away that thought of people just contacting an attorney at the drop of a hat. There really are. Um, one, you can make it known as far as what you want to contact the attorney for ahead of time. >> I wasn't finished, by the way. >> Oh, >> go ahead. >> So, my other, you know, concern to that, and I asked Mr. Scott probably 10 questions which have still gone unanswered. when have we received poor legal advice from thr um you know maybe looking at some other law firms or reaching out to them but you know thr is the expert in public education in the state of Michigan when

160have we received poor legal advice that was one of the questions I that I asked and are we going to continue to ask law firms the questions until we get the answer we want that's my concern is that we're just going to go down the list and what if we need to contact a law firm that's not on the list if we're looking for or a specialized attorney which will take board action. How we have handled it in the past is that as needed, we've contacted other law firms for legal advice at the superintendent's discretion. I agree we should have a policy in place so that we all know how this works and that we have a policy. But a a resolution, you know, again, we we've you are the one who authored a resolution

161in December for a policy committee and we haven't had any. This would be a perfect example to bring to a policy committee. >> And I think you just illustrated though why it's important to have the resolution because we haven't had a policy committee yet and it's going to take some time. >> So with the resolution, you're basically making a declaration to the community that you're going to work on something. Who is it up to to call a committee policy committee meeting? >> The board. >> That was my idea. >> The board, right? The board has not called one. You haven't called one. Right. >> I haven't called one. Mr. Scott hasn't. >> I don't set the agenda. It >> So, to be clear, I in my email to the board with this resolution, I I

162did recommend that this go to policy committee. I don't believe I guess my issue is our current legal policy does not prohibit us from picking up the phone and calling an attorney. So I I guess we're just coming you're I I I think I should be allowed to pick up the phone and contact an attorney based on our current policy because our current policy is one sentence. Um what I'm trying to do here is put something in place. As I said, most districts in the state do set their legal at during their organizational meeting. We haven't done that in quite a while. So, I'm just trying to kind of uh re reignite that idea of of setting out the school year on a with everybody being on the same page. I'm glad that you've been

163able to access legal advice. I have had uh a few instances where I've asked for legal opinions and been denied. Uh that puts me in a really a really tough spot. And these are not um off-the-wall issues. These are you know issues of literally do I have a legal right to review information. If if somebody tells me if an administrator tells me I do not have a legal right to review it information generated by this school district and I'm not allowed to get a legal opinion otherwise I I'm a little concerned. That's what I'm talking about. And I never said through doesn't offer good advice or it offers poor legal advice. I just think that as most districts do in the state, we need to have more than one option, more than one specialty. Again,

164one of these firms I interviewed offers um that's their specialty is more the the board member legal advice of the questions we often have around the table. You know, going into close session, a board member should be able to talk to the attorney, say, "Hey, is this a legitimate reason? What, you know, if I vote for this and it's not a legitimate reason, what is the recourse?" Somebody should be able to ask those questions, not just wonder or try to find, you know, some AI attorney to ask questions to. >> Mr. Goalowski. >> Yeah, I I I think that there are some fairly easy solutions to ensure that we either don't um duplicate efforts or um begin asking things that are just not really appropriate to go to an attorney. I that's just a matter

165of writing policy and uh writing some ideas down. I I think there's easy solutions to that. Um I wouldn't want to see any kind of cross efforts like that myself. Um, but in terms of having a couple of board members having some serious questions regarding the law, I can't think of a good argument as to why those board members would not have access. Um, as a board, our names are going on policies. We're in charge of enacting things for the school district. each one of us is going to come across issues that are going to need some professional counsel. Um I think we have to ensure that we have that available to us and by enacting some some guidelines or guard rails or whatever you want to call them, I think we can make sure

166that no one is calling a law firm to talk about their parking tickets. Um, we can do this in a in a nice organizational manner. We can. So, >> um, Mr. Scott, you mentioned that each of the the firms on the list has they have specialties in education. Were you able to confirm if they actually work with public school districts, like all of them? >> Um, I I can't answer that for 100% certainty, but but I'll give you 99%. Uh almost every one of these I pulled off of um uh organizational meetings for other districts in the state of Michigan and then reviewed the the website of the attorney's office to ensure that they had some some um educational experience andor uh attorneys within the firm that specialized in education and made a few contacts

167with some to to confirm and gather additional information. So, um I I would say yes, but there there may be an outlier because some were some were added or or suggested to be added by other other board members. >> Okay. >> When I was researching this topic myself about a year and a half ago, I can tell you that three on here, I could definitely say yes. Um the others, not so much. uh couldn't tell you with certainty but definitely like um Coleman Allen um Thomas Moore. So >> okay thank you. Um and then I I assume you know that that there is a resource available through MASB um through their attorney council. I >> I'm happy to share my experiences with them. Um, I asked a question once and uh they emailed the administrators

168and said, "Hey, this guy's asking questions." They suggested we get our own legal opinion and I was told by the district, "No, we're not going to get you a legal opinion on that." So, that's why I'm coming down this road. Yeah, I'm happy to share those communications with you. >> Thank you, >> Miss Coleman, and the board. Uh for Danielle's purpose as well, um in my history here as a superintendent, um we do have board policy and bylaws that say that the um board president is the spokesperson for the board. We've always uh garnered that the board president kind of directs traffic and that anytime the board president has ever come to me with a concern from another board member and ask for a legal opinion, we're able to obtain a legal opinion. We share

169that with the board as a confidential document. Legal opinions are not voyable, are not available for the public. They are for the board and the board only to digest based on legal opinion. And anytime that that has ever happened, that process has worked to get that information out to the board. So technically, the board has access through the superintendent and the board president to have the conversation to say, I have a legitimate reason why I need to know an answer to this that has to do with the business of the board. and it's worked well for us in my tenure as a superintendent. >> Um, I don't understand the logic in a board who's in charge of the superintendent asking the superintendent's permission to contact an attorney. >> It's a board president actually. >> So,

170if the board president So, so the board president can tell individual board members they don't have legal access is is our policy. currently >> whatever your conversation how you approach it with I would imagine >> yeah so so that means the board president decides who gets to talk to an attorney and who doesn't >> and I can say that I have made requests for legal opinions on things and it has been rejected so again I'm >> yes >> excited that the board is considering this resolution >> thank you is there any further discussion Okay, moving on to our second discussion item, item 3B, uh motion. Oh, I'm sorry, not motion, that was from my notes from earlier. This is a resolution requiring PDF searchable documents for discussion. >> Yeah. So, um I uh I had

171sent this out to the board about 10 or 15 days ago as well. This one did not make the board packet, but um I can read it. It's pretty short. I can read it for the benefit of those in the audience who didn't have a chance to review it. Um, again, it has to do with the board and the community reserving receiving searchable PDF format documents. Whereas the H Heartland Consolidated School Board of Education believes transparency and accessibility is fundamental to effective governance and public engagement in the operation of the school district. And whereas the board of education is committed to ensuring that all stakeholders, including board members, parents, staff, teachers, and community members have access to information shared by district administrators. And whereas documents and searchable PDF format allow for efficient navigation, text searching,

172and accessibility for individuals using assistive technologies. And whereas existing district technology makes it feasible for administrators to produce searchable PDFs without undue burden. Now therefore be it resolved that all documents other than text emails prepared, submitted or shared by the district administrators with the school board andor with the general public including but not limited to reports, agendas, minutes, budgets, policies andformational materials shall be provided in a searchable PDF format. Be it further resolved that in cases where a searchable PDF cannot be produced, administrators shall provide a written explanation to the school board and where feasible include textbased alternative transcripts or summaries. So that's the resolution. I'll give you a little background on this. Um, you know, prior to being on the board, I I had submitted several foyer requests to to the uh to the

173school district. And what I continued to find is the the foyer request would come up fairly empty. And once I was on the board and sat in the seat, I realized how the district communicates. And that is in pictures. So all documents, most most documents that this board receives are scanned as images and then sent to board members. Uh that includes our weekly updates, uh our board packages. So that means that they're not searchable. that uh I think is a disservice to the community when it comes to transparency. I think it's a disservice to us as board members when we're asked to track and navigate a slew of information that comes at us um but are literally unable to find the information because it's all shared in pictures. We've had uh I've had private conversations.

174We've had at least one conversation at the board table and my request has been very simple that uh the documents shared with the board, the documents shared with the community be shared in a professional searchable manner for everybody's benefit. Um you know you you'll see a presentation be given uh up here at the podium from time to time. We receive those in advance, but again as as images literally instead of save as PDF, somebody prints it, scans it in low resolution, sometimes scribble some notes on it and sends it to us. I I think it's unprofessional and I I think it's it makes our jobs much more difficult. You know, when we get we talked about check registers. The treasur gets check registers in not in a searchable format where we have 40 50 pages

175of checks. We can't go through and and search them or look for names or or find them if if they're in our email. We can't just search ABC vendor to find out where the checks are. We would literally have to go back and open every single um um PDF and search it. So, uh it's it's really simple. It's a simple ask from the board that the information we receive be searchable. Another example, I believe like with relates to the legal um a few weeks months ago, a few months ago, I had requested a copy of the retainer agreement from legal counsel. Well, it ends up in an update in a picture format. So now today, if I want to go find that retainer agreement, I'll never find it. I can't search the legal name. I

176can't search retainer um because it came as a picture inside a an email that had virtually no text. So the emails we get are are pretty much text free. Um now the forward the the forward- facing documents that the community sees on the website, you'll notice have the same issues. I I believe there's issues with accessibility. That's why I've included in here that the the formats we use uh be available for those that need assistive technology. Uh so people who have site issues, etc. can still find ways to view our materials and participate in our meetings. >> Is there any further discussion on this resolution? >> Mr. Hughes, I know you had emailed us about some information. would you provide an update? >> Yeah, absolutely. Um, obviously, uh, Mr. Scott sent all this out as

177I was going on vacation, so I didn't have a chance to. Uh, actually, I worked more on my vacation, my wife said, than I've ever worked before, unfortunately. So, just goes to show you, superintendent can't go on vacation. But, um, so, uh, I have, uh, reached out to Mr. Usher, our technology director, Mr. Minsker, and, uh, Miss Gregory. We're and asked him to pull some thoughts together. I came back to the district today. We'll start working on some thoughts. Mr. Usher has already started going back through our website making sure that everything is uh ADA compliant. Um we do have board policy. I would recommend the board take a look at 74 7540.02. Um if anything, the board should in my opinion just point to this policy and say, "Hey, make sure that we're ADA

178compliant on our websites. make sure that we're ADA compliant with what we put out on our websites for people to see. Um, it's a really it's it's not an easy function to be honest with you. Um, Mr. Usher does periodically randomly check certain websites here and there to see functionality. Uh, that would be a full-time job for somebody to check every single website, every single website in the district and every single um department website and this and that, but he does that randomly. Uh, he's going to continue that. He's actually asked me for some things today that I'll send him to repost that would be ADA compliant. Um, I'll ask him to run some compliance on other websites to be honest with you. um Supreme Court, DOJ, um Lind County Commissioner's Office, uh Lind County

179Sheriff's Office, um different entities to see how we compare in regards to errors versus non-errors and to see if you know and try to share that with the board hopefully so you can see where we sit on our ADA compliance on our websites and how they are is you know in line with others or are we in better shape, worse shape, but we appreciate that Mr. Scott has brought this to our attention as he should as a board member, we embrace that. We'll go back to our policy as it exists and we'll double check things and make sure that we're compliant where we need to be compliant. So, under under the under the rules that we have to be compliant under, >> but I I believe it was your position before you left that the

180compliance does not apply to the internal communication with the board. And so that's why I put this resolution in part so that the um communication we receive from the district is in a in a user-friendly searchable format. So even if you believe that that com you know federal or state compliance issues don't apply to these internal communications that we still as a courtesy get uh get searchable documents. >> Any further discussion? I thought I saw you going for your microphone. No, >> I was going to stand up for Mr. Scott because I I'll ask him this question but I don't I don't know the answer but I think I do. Did you intentionally send an email to Mr. Hughes just prior to him going on vacation >> for the this resolution I put out? Um

181>> because I'll say I didn't even know Mr. Hughes was going on vacation. >> I I not every board member was made aware of that. >> We have a we have a deadline for these meetings if you want something to get included in the agenda of the Friday. What's the deadline? The It's about 10 days in advance. >> Five days actually. And I know, >> but you were well in advance. >> I know there's been some complaints at the table about that timeline. I believe I provided these about 10 days ago or maybe a little bit more. I I tried to take into account feedback from those at this table um about the timing of of documents and I wanted to make sure everybody had a chance to review these uh in advance. Okay. >>

182Thank you. Any further discussion on this resolution? I think so there is resolution. Is there something just to move forward with this so it doesn't just die? We've talked about searchability before which is difficult on the website. Can we reach out to Mr. Usher to set up a meeting to discuss? That's something I can't speak to the abilities on the technology side of things. What do we do moving forward? It's great to talk about and there's issues. I recognize those too. I support your concerns. But how do we now? Now now what? We just talked about it for a period of time now. How can we move forward? >> I'd be happy to meet with you and somebody else and Mr. Usher and Mrs. Braden and uh you know we we we've been through this

183and we we do what we can do to make those compliance. So >> yeah, >> do what you can. Maybe there's nothing else we can do, but then we have an answer, right? Perhaps we can continue communication. >> Uh small group of us or reach out to Mr. Hughes and see. So, President Coleman, both these resolutions have been discussed as discussion items. Will they be action items next month? >> That's our standard process. Yes. So I I would say then if there's any feedback from administrators and or trustees on the resolutions generated from meetings or your own thoughts, share them with me and I'll see if there's some tweaks we can make that meet in the middle or keep everybody happy. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Moving on to item 4A, future meetings.

184As was mentioned earlier in the meeting, there's a proposed date of August 4th for the policy committee of the whole um to discuss uh revised policies that we've uh we've got waiting from Neiola. And then August 11th is our regular meeting um as we just approved earlier in this session uh 6:30 on the 11th. >> Hey, I missed something. I want to recognize Renee, by the way, for the work she has done with the agendas in adding table of contents and everything else to make it easier for people to find everything in the agenda. And yeah, I don't believe she's gotten a boo of thank you. Um, but I know she's put a lot of effort into that and I do want to recognize Renee and thank her for that because she has been working

185at that diligently. Thank you. >> Saying that out loud. >> Okay. commen on that. Um I'll be out of town. I'm chaperoning band camp on the 4th. So I anticipate my absence for that. Not to reschedule that meeting, but just to report that um anticipation. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I too have a conflict. I will not uh be available on the 4th. >> Okay. >> You will not be present. >> Okay. All right. It's still a quorum, but maybe perhaps offline we can try to find another date that works for more people. We'll see how that goes. >> Or um >> because it's not a uh meeting where we're going to make decisions. Um if we email everyone, >> at least you know what our positions are. So, >> okay. >> All right.

186We'll consider that. Thank you. Um item 4B, information items. Does anyone have anything else to bring forward? Okay, then we will adjourn. It is 9:13. Thank you.