HCS Board Meeting - 05/12/2025

001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Um, as Mr. Hughes is making his way back. Um we are uh starting our special meeting of the board of education um here at 6:15 p.m. And um item 1 a. Can you all please join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands nation for all. All right. Item 1B, approval of agenda and items for discussion. I move that the agenda for the May 12th, 2025 special meeting be approved. Motion by Mrs. Coleman, supported by Mrs. Shaw. Any discussion? Hearing none. Mr. Scott? Yes. Mr. Goggleski, yes. Mrs. Coleman, yes. Mr. Keller, yes. Mrs. Shaw, yes. Mr. Gamble, yes. And I'm a yes. That motion passes. Item 1 C, approval of the minutes from the April 21st, 2025 meeting. I move

002that the minutes from the April 21st, 2025 regular meeting be approved. Motion by Mrs. Coleman, supported by Mrs. Shaw. Any The discussion on item 1C, approval of minutes from April 21st, 2025. Hearing none. Mr. Scott, yes. Mr. Goggleski, yes. Mrs. Coleman, yes. Mr. Keller, yes. Mrs. Shaw, yes. Mr. Campbell, yes. And I'm a yes. That motion passes. Item 1D, call to the public. No cards, Renee. All right. Item 2 A, LSA election, June 2nd, 2025 for discussion. Mr. Hughes, would you like to kind of give the board an overview? Yes, I would. So, uh, when the Len Education Service Agency has um um positions to fill on their board, right? So, it's time for them to do elections. and they do it a little different than we do and that is that uh they open

003it up for people to apply and they have three candidates now in uh the Len Education Service Agency has five board members and traditionally what we've tried to do is to have a representative from each of the communities of the five public schools to sit on the board, right? It just makes sense. Now, legally, you can have up to two people from a district sit on the board uh at LSA, but not more than two from a local district within that ISD. So, um it's always worked out. It's always been a good uh fit for everybody. Um you'll remember back in February, I let you know that um Eileen Djanowski, who had represented H Heartland for many years, had resigned and they were doing interviews. and uh Lisa Marcella Oly who's here tonight. She'll you'll

004um hear from her during the superintendent report uh in the main meeting uh the regular meeting um she applied she interviewed with a number of candidates. Their board sat her on their board. So she's been sitting on the board as the Heartland representative. So she's on the ballot tonight to finish out the the term the the short term. And then there is Harold Frier who is from Fowlerville. He's been on the LSA board for some years. If you went to the um the meeting uh that we had in April, you probably met him. And then uh Pinkney has uh Cindy Mitchinowski or Mitchuski, I'm not sure how to say that. Um but she is uh their representative. So, this board in the second meeting tonight will have to appoint one of you as the spokesperson

005for the district to go to LESA on June 2nd and cast the vote that this board asked you to cast. Um, so there are three positions. There are three people. It seems like a no-brainer that the board would say whoever's going to represent H Heartland would go there and cast the vote for those three individuals. You also have to um appoint a alternate in case that person cannot attend for some reason that night. So that's really the process. Um again, it's as simple as it is. So if there are any other questions, I'd be happy to try to answer those. All right. So that's what you're going to do tonight in the second meeting and the regular meeting. any I was going to say so is it appropriate then for us to discuss now like

006who we who would volunteer to be or who would want to be that designated person? I'm happy to do that. I'm available on June 2nd. Um and then obviously we just need to find an alternate for me in case I can't go. But I'm happy to do that unless somebody else wants to. Any burning desire to go? No, Kristen, you was just volunteer back. I I'm not traveling that day. Okay, sounds good. One day. So, but we'll have to vote on that at the next meeting because this is technically the special meeting for discussion. So, trying to make sure we follow both the law and the uh intent intent around the LEA work that we are doing on June 2nd. Any additional questions for that discussion item? Did he want to volunteer for alternate? I

007said I could go. Oh, I'm sorry. I missed that. Thank you. Any additional questions for Mr. Hughes or I saw Mike walk in as well. He's here. All right. Item moving on to item 3A. We are adjourned on the special meeting. We will begin our regular board meeting in nine minutes. 12, 2025. Um, board meeting to order. Item 1 A. Would you all please join me in rising for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance 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. I loved all the student voices we heard in that. Thank you all. Item 1B, approval of agenda/ems for discussion. I move that the agenda for the May 12th, 2025 meeting be approved.

008Motion by Mrs. Coleman, supported by Mrs. Shaw. Any discussion hearing? None. Mr. Scott, yes. Mr. Goggleski, yes. Mrs. Coleman, yes. Mr. Keller, yes. Mrs. Shaw, yes. Mr. Campbell, yes. Emma, yes. That motion passes. We're moving right on to item 1 C, the superintendence report. Hello everyone. Um, Mrs. Lutzy, I'm going to jump you to the front of the line. Okay. So, woohoo. I'm going out of order. So, why don't you go ahead and line up the students and I'm going to introduce Miss Gun, Principal Gun from Creekide to introduce our special guest tonight. All right. So, something that I'm really proud of at Creekide is our peer-to-peer program. Um, these students work really hard. It's better coming from them than it is for me. So, I'm actually going to just turn over uh the talking

009all to the students to Miss Luty and Miss Bowling. Miss Luty. Good evening. Um, so we are very proud of our peer-to-peer program at Creekide. Um, we have over 40 students who are in our peer-to-peer program at Creekide. And um our peer-to-p peer program really works to support students with disabilities to increase their social connections and model appropriate behavior. Students in the peer-to-peer program um they learn and grow in areas related to friendship, kindness, communication, confidence, and responsible decision-m. But I know that you guys do not want to sit here and listen to me um tell you what students get out of the program. And so tonight, we wanted to have our students come and talk to you themselves and tell you specifically what peerto-peer this year has meant to them. And so peerto-peer is

010about making connections. I love peerto-peer because we get to learn about different people. I enjoy bringing smiles to their faces and I love helping others. Peer-to-peer is about building relationships. Every day I learn something new about my friends. Peerto-peer is about friendship. Peerto-peer has helped me make lots of new friends. I like to spend time with the students in the ERP and I'm friends with everybody now. Peerto-peer is about overcoming barriers. I learned ways to talk to other students who may not be able to use their words to say how they feel. So, I've learned to watch their facial expressions or actions to tell me what they may need. Peerto-peer is about kindness. Peerto-peer is important because we get to encourage others who need some support. Peerto-peer is about bravery. We can meet new people

011and you don't have to be scared to stand up for others and speak your mind. Peerto-peer is about confidence. Peerto-peer helps me learn that I am an awesome role model and a great friend to others. Peer-to-peer is about fun. I feel happy and joyful when I get to learn about other people and my friends, too. Peerto-peer is about being yourself. There are so many different ways you can be involved in peerto-peer. If you can find one that's good for you. Peerto-peer is about communication. Creekide should keep doing peerto-peer because it helps kids learn new ways to communicate. Peerto-peer is about leadership. Oh, wait. Sorry. Peerto-peer is about learning about yourself and others. I have learned that some minds work a bit differently, but that I can still become close with them. Peerto-peer is about leadership.

012I like being a role model and knowing adults trust me. This program has helped me realize that I want to be a teacher when I grow up so I can keep making a difference. Peerto-peer is about coming together. Peerto-peer peerto-peer makes everyone feel like school is a good place to be. Thank you for listening to what makes peerto-peer so special to us at Creekide. This is our third [Applause] year. Thank you so much for being here tonight. We just love to hear from our students and I know some of you have seen me in the school and those are my favorite days when I'm in the school and I'm watching you learn and I'm watching you interact. And this young man on the end, I'm going to point him out. He told his mom, "Mr.

013Hughes has really big hands." And I'm like, "They're not that big, you know." Um, but I remember that. So, uh, again, thank you all for everything you do. Board, do you have any questions for our young friends? Awesome. I just want to say thank you for being here. I loved what you guys said in explaining the program because you know adults in the room in the community we just see peerto-peer and it's hard to to really be precise about what that means and what it means to the students and what it means in the school. So to hear especially about the the positive role models you guys make is huge and thank you each and every one of you for being a positive role model in your school and that makes a really really big

014difference. So thank you very much and thank you from me and the rest of the board because what you're doing is really important. It's very good and I hope uh you have big success with it. And if there's ever anything we can do to support you in these efforts, please let us know. [Music] Thank you all. [Applause] All right. Thank you. Have a good night. I think I saw a table full of snacks out there for everybody. So, parents, I think, are allowed to have snacks, too, for bringing them. All right. So, next I'd like to introduce uh Lisa Marcelo Oly. Lisa, if you could come up. Um Lisa is the H Heartland representative on the LESA school board. Uh Lisa went through the interview process, I think I told you earlier, and uh was

015u appointed by the LESA board. She's now uh up to fill the seat for a two-year term if I'm not mistaken. And so, uh, Lisa, I asked her to come and tell us a little bit about herself as she is our representative for H Heartland. So, Lisa, I'm gonna let you go. Okay. So, I have been a resident of Livingston County for 30 years and in the H Heartland School District for 21. Uh, my husband and I, we have two sons. Uh, my eldest graduated Hartland in 2017. He was born with disabilities and, um, he has been in LSA programming since he was three months old. and um he has benefited from many of the programs in Lesa um as well as what H Heartland schools have done including peer-to-peer when he was in high

016school. He formed some wonderful relationships um with the students that were involved with that. Um he is currently a successful uh dog grooming blow dry guy at a um at a local um dog grooming place. My other son, Michael, was a 2020 graduate of H Heartland and uh he just recently graduated from Michigan State and he is in the throws of applying to PA school. He graduated Sumakum Lad both from um H Heartland and from MSU. So very proud of both my sons. I myself um am uh two years retired from General Motors where I worked for 32 years in testing and development at the Milford proving grounds. I hold a master's and a bachelor's degree from Purdue University. And I come from a very, very small town, way smaller than H Heartland, right on

017the border between um Ohio and Pennsylvania, kind of close to Pittsburgh. So, kind of a Steelers fan, not a fan. And um I feel very honored to um have been chosen for the LEA board position. Um I have learned so much about what has happened since my son has graduated out of the program. wonderful things going on there. I had a wonderful experience um with my son when he was in H Heartland. We were very well supported. He was very well um taken care of and he has really grown. He's very successful in his job and in in the community as a result of it. So um I want to thank you very much for your consideration and um to say you know H Heartland schools are fantastic. Both my kids benefited in two ways.

018So any questions for me? I don't have any questions for you, but thank you. I know we've met a few times and thank you for being um willing to be a voice on the LSA board and being willing to serve. So, um I mean I think your experience as a H Heartland parent and some of the things that you've experienced will be a great benefit to LSA in the community. So, thank you again for being willing to serve. Much appreciated. Thank you. It's an honor. It truly is. I want I've always wanted to give back because my both of my kids have benefited so much from H Heartland and Lessa. So, okay, just a question and it's nice to meet you. What are some of the I guess priorities that you see for H Heartland

019that you want to take back to the LSA board? So, I I come in to this position with no preconceived um ideas. Um Chuck and I have talked about having fairly regular meetings um to talk about what's happening at LESA and at H Heartland and to be a conduit between the two um and to represent LESA on you know on the LESA board but to um understand what's happening at H Heartland too and to bring those issues up as necessary. I know um Dr. Hubert has many ways where information flows through the professional channels but um I I've said I will happy to um have regular meetings All right. Okay. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you very much. All right. All right. We'll take that one off. And next, we're going to ask Mr. Howton to

020bring up Mrs. Lively and Mrs. Johnson. Um, our Mrs. Lively is our H Heartland teacher of the year. Miss Johnson is our H Heartland support person of the year. And Tony, I'm gonna turn it over to you to say really nice things about each of these individuals, right? Of course, it's a very, very easy thing to do, Superintendent Hughes. So, uh, again, very honored to be working with both of these ladies and I just want to share some of the things their co-workers uh, wrote about them as they nominated them for teacher and support person of the year. So, Mrs. Lively, our teacher of the year, Alice, Allison is an exceptional teacher and gives everything she can to her students. The HCS music program and our H Heartland community in large at large. Allison's endless

021energy for the music program of H Heartland spans over 20 years. She has been an exceptional teacher at multiple grade levels and buildings. She truly gets to know her students, not just by name. As a colleague, she is ready to provide help or bounce around ideas at any time. Allison touches the lives of hundreds of students every single year. She lays the foundation for the skills, attention, and camaraderie that have become synonymous with band and heartland. Her patience and professionalism are boundless. In addition to bringing enthusiasm and quality lessons daily to her classroom, she has pu uh published arrangements of music for elementary and intermediate bands. She writes drill for our Heartland Eagles and is irreplaceable on the field during band camp and on Friday nights during quarantine in the co years. She worked tirelessly

022to create videos and met with students individually when they were struggling with their instruments at home. She is a champion for every single student and is empathetic with their individual needs and concerns while simultaneously raising the bar for them personally and musically. Allison has had a hand in every grade level of this of this district. Her passion and love for teaching and her students and her students is immediately apparent. She goes above and beyond for this district. So, congratulations, Allison. Thank you for your dedication, kindness, and commitment to student success. Thank you. [Applause] Uh I can personally attest to Allison's work. My son is in band. He's a sen he's a sophomore now. Gosh, almost a senior sophomore now. And uh you know, fan has been a game changer for him. So, uh thank you

023so much. And and Mrs. Johnson, Jod Johnson here is our support person of the year. Uh we're thrilled to to celebrate her as such. Her dedication to student learning and success is truly remarkable, and she brings passion and care to everything she does. As a special education independence facilitator, Jod goes above and beyond to support students who learn differently and at their own pace. She has an incredible ability to connect with each student, recognizing their unique strengths and challenges. Her compassion, patience, and intuition make a world of difference in their educational journey. Jod doesn't just assist the she advocates, encourages, and inspires. She creates an inclusive and nurturing environment where students feel supported and empowered to reach their full potential. Her unwavering dedication to education and to the students she serves is truly commendable. So,

024congratulations, Jod. Again, we're grateful for your hard work, kindness, and commitment to student success. [Applause] and very proud to be working with these two ladies and thank you so much. Thank you. I want to say thank you Allison. Uh Allison, you were here last board meeting and you were like, "Yes, I'd love to to highlight my kids." And you are involved in so much and you're always got a smile on your face and I really appreciate that. And Jody, I don't it doesn't matter what kind of a day you're having at the middle school. Every time I interact with you, even if you're running in another direction, you're always smiling and you're always happy to be there for our kids. And I I picked up on the word, not only do you love our kids,

025but you advocate for them. So, thank you. [Applause] All right. Next up is uh Matt, come forward. Bond update. And remember uh community, everybody listening out there, you can visit our website and go down to the links and you will see that there's bond updates. So we keep everybody a breast of what's happening as well as how we're spending our scing fund dollars. Uh so that's all there as well. I think there's eight years worth of projects. So yep, definitely. So uh good evening board. Uh May update. Uh so we're working diligently to on the next round of bond projects. It's uh much smaller than previous years, but still important. Um so we are working on building 51. Um we're doing the HVAC, carpet, window, and domestic well replacement, which will be starting uh May

02627th. We've met with the Creek Side staff, and they've been awesome in terms of um moving out of their room so that we can move the building 51 staff and daycare over to Creekide and get that licensed. Um so we've been working on that and they will um be packing up and the moving company will come and move all that stuff. so they can start operation on May 28th. So, very quick turnaround. Um, we're working on the team room. Exterior brick work is complete. Those pictures are there for you. Um, underground waist lines are installed. The roofing trusses will actually go on this week. Um, so we're moving pretty quick on that. And then we'll start working on the interior walls and um, uh, floor. Matt, can you remind me what's going to be in

027that building? Yep. I know we're calling it a team room, but I didn't know what it is. So, it is a team room. Um, I call it like a varsity locker room type thing. Um, so we we have basically that locker room. We're still keeping the old varsity locker room for other teams as well as the visitor locker room. There'll be a smaller satellite concession stand, only two windows. If you guys remember years ago, we used to have a trailer that they used to sell concessions out of. We got rid of that. Um, and so this went in its place. And then there is a small training room also to supplement uh with the other training room that's also at the other fieldhouse. And then um storage. storage is always a big thing with sports

028and athletics. So, um serving that need also. Yep. Um and then syncing fund. We're still working on our syncing fund project. Uh selective door replacement will be happening May and June. Uh we're getting all the uh hardware in and doors in currently. Um so that'll start um after hours if we're still in school. So that will not happen during the school day. Um and then June time. Uh lakes. Uh we're before you tonight is the selective door uh wall replacement. Um we last did the wall replacement in 2018 and we actually did more replacement prior to I think 20145. Um as I was explaining to uh Mr. Scott, unfortunately it was a poor design of the building where water can get behind the brick and rust the uh angle iron and um metal ties and

029it's pushing the brick away. Um so we've been proactive in trying to replace that as needed as well as the same uh condition exists on farms and we've been working on that building also. Um and the high school cooling tower um the cooling tower went uh replacement itself went great. Um we were uh delayed due to frost laws as well as um getting our state inspections. Unfortunately, he was a few days uh behind showing up on site, but we made it work. Um and so we finished the tower install and we're finalizing some piping. Um, we're running on partial cooling right now, but the final piece should be is actually in the factory today and the guys are going to be out tomorrow to install it. So, that is it. Is that is that going

030to be a reoccurring thing then at Lakes with that wall maybe at farms too or is this fixed now going to try to What's before you today is actually the final um amount of it on lakes and I think we have one or two small sections on farms but they it's not moving right now. So, we'll continue to look at it. We've been using the senior fund to tackle that task as needed which has been extremely helpful. The senior fund has been extremely helpful for these types of projects. Um but uh lakes will be done after this before you tonight. Is that a fix or repair or is that to fix long-term things? It's a complete removal. So we're going to remove the condition as it exists today and rebuild it all the way up

031to the roof line. So it should not be existing. It should not be a condition in the future. Yep. So that is it. Any questions besides that? Good to you. Thank you, Matt. Yep. All right. Uh I do want to uh take a couple of minutes and thank all of the individuals in our community, our teaching staff, our board members, our administrators uh for spending eight hours on May 3rd, Saturday 8 May 3rd and we had what I thought was a really good conversation in preparation for the strategic plan. Um we were able to go through the vision statement and the mission statement and the guiding principles and set the goals uh areas um today. Uh so thank you everybody that was involved in that. There was 34 of us and uh it was just

032really good conversation board. You guys did a really good job and I really appreciate how there was just good dialogue right about what we can do and what we want this district to look like in the future. So that was very uh promising today. So the board knows, we met with Greg uh and we as administrators helped begin to develop the um objectives that will go under each of those goal areas using the final product if you recall where you put your dots up on the paper. So we looked at all that and we created some objectives. Greg's going to put all that together and eventually we'll feed it back to us and then certainly we'll be here in June to do the final presentation on where we are with year one for our strategic

033plan. Uh and I believe the hopes is that a year from now he'll come back and we'll do some work around year two and moving forward. So um it's it's been a really good process. So I just want to thank everybody for that. So, I'm going to go up to the podium and it is that time of year where I go through my evidence of effort uh because uh not too far down the road, it's time for you guys to do my summitative evaluation. So, I will go to the podium. I do want to remind the board members that you can ask questions, but we can't discuss um performance in the open form. So, just a reminder on that. Um and then we would plan to obviously go into close session in June to do

034our internal workings of the um performance evaluation. Um as long as there's no objection, I would like someone to facilitate that again from MASB. Um much like we did last year where they walked through each of the items. Um and I think kept us pretty much on task as opposed to going down rabbit holes. Um because I think each of us at any given time, myself included, can head down a rabbit hole very quickly. Sounds good. All right. I'll hand it over to you, Mr. Hughes. All right. So, again, um you have this in front of you. It is on uh the packets on our website. So, uh I I hope you've had a chance to take a look at it. Uh because I don't want to spend an hour and a half going through

035every slide and reading everything. So, if you have questions as we go, please just let me know. Uh I'll try to to make this very uh painless for you. So we had a finance goal and most importantly here what we want to look at is what are the goals that were established and then what are the assessment results the strategies in the middle of each of these are things that we did throughout the year to try to meet that goal. So, we wanted to make sure that we had another unmodified opinion in the 23 24 audit. And remember, uh, and for the community, we get our audit results in October of every year, September, October. So, they're always a little bit late. Um, we wanted to develop a balanced budget with at least a 15%

036fund balance. Um, and so that was important to us as well. We did have some finance meetings throughout the year and now that we have a new policy um we we haven't had any meetings as of yet uh because we've been pretty much doing them all here at the table. So everything that we've been doing we've just been bringing forward to uh the whole board. We did have an unmodified opinion. Again, this is uh thanks to Rachel and and I think it's important that everybody understands that my evaluation and the evidence of effort can't be done just by me, right? It's all of the people in the district that are working together to make this work. And so Rachel and her team ensure that we had an unmodified opinion, the best possible opinion by auditors.

037We will end the year with a 29% fund balance. We've talked with the board over and over about how we were very cautious, thoughtful, and deliberate about how we spent those dollars that came in, those onetime dollars. Um, some districts, I believe, over spent with those dollars. Not my district. In our district, we were cautious and we were making sure that we were moving forward in a way that we thought was best for the school district in the outy years. And so, we were cautious on how we did that. Thoughtful and deliberate. we'd like to talk about. And then we will review in June the budget because in June you'll have to also um create the budget and approve the budget for 2526. We've been busy this year with contracts as you know. You have

038two of them in front of you tonight. Uh the first contract that uh came to us was the new H Heartland Consolidated Administrator Association contract. We created that contract. We negotiated that. You approved that. Um we have been we did the extended maintenance agreement a couple of months ago, I believe. And then now in front of you tonight, we've been working with the H Heartland Education Association and the H Heartland Affiliates Association uh to what we think is right and fair for our employees. We know that we have to look at our employees who have worked with us over the years, not getting those big jumps in in salary adjustments, and we wanted to make sure that this time around we were going to be able to take care of them. And so you see

039some pretty good numbers in front of those contracts, but that was again thoughtful and deliberate and what we think we can afford moving forward for the school district and put us in the best place that we can and put us our employees in a place that is fair for them as well. We continue to visit all of our schools every year. We'll do it again in the fall. And we make sure that we have conversations with our staff about our financial picture. What does it look like? what's happening. We also meet with our organizations throughout the year and we're very forthright with them. We're upfront with them. We show them the projections. You know, one thing we do really well within our business department is projecting three years out and you always get that projection

040so we know where we're at. And lastly, um we anticipate another positive audit. Obviously, uh we don't see any issues within the audit process at this point in time. We implemented a new time sheet process. That was one of our goals this year. It's going very well. There's some bugs to work out anytime that you change systems. Um, but what this is is it reduced the amount of paperwork and it's more uh centered with uh technology online inputs for the hours so that we can easily calculate those and get everybody paid efficiently. building and site. Again, Matt talked about some of the work we've been doing. You've gotten updates all year long on all the work we're doing. We're at the tail end of our 2020 bond. And so, we've completed 90% of our construction

041project. We'll be pretty much done with everything this summer. Uh there will be technology. I think we talked about at the last meeting. There's always technology funds that can carry over for a few years, but that's by design. We do that on purpose to get the most bang for our buck. In regards to objective two, um we we continue to work with uh our SEC accountant uh um security team, and I'll share that in a minute. We've had some committee meetings throughout the year. We've continued to work on our bomb projects. Matt talked about uh these types of things that we're doing. Buses um you know buses sometimes people say you know buses why through the the bond program and I know that we've had this conversation but the public might not realize this. What's

042helpful in buying the buses through the bond process is that those dollars aren't necessarily coming out of our general fund. So if we were buying buses every year, we'd be paying car payments and interest payments on those buses out of our general fund versus the bond dollars. And so that's been very helpful in alleviating our general fund so that we can do other things. Sinking fund. Again, if you go to our website, you can find these slides, you'll see year eight, what we spent that money for, what we're projected to finish out in year eight. Then we also are already projecting out for year nine and the other types of things that we need to look at in the sinking fund such as the middle school boiler replacements, continued pool upgrades and doors throughout the

043district. Every year we're putting about $300,000 into doors because if you go into the buildings and you look at the doors, the salt and whatnot starts rotting those doors u pretty quickly and so we're constantly trying to replace those. Chuck, I have a quick question for you. Um just I was comparing the midyear evidence of effort presentation to this one and obviously there's a handful of changes on this list and on the year year eight list. Was there anything significant or anything like worth mentioning why some things came off the list or stayed on because there were some variations on both of those? Yeah. No, it's just a matter of what we think is a priority to get done versus what we can wait with and so we're adjusting this on a regular basis. Okay,

044makes sense. Thank you. Yep. technology department. Uh Scott Usher and his team, I know Jason's back here doing our meeting tonight. Uh they've completed 98% of all work orders that go in. Uh teachers, administrators, anybody in the district can put a work order in for a tech update, for a tech order, and that gets processed. So, they continue to be very efficient in completing those orders. maintenance department. You can see they had 4,619 tickets and they're at 97.7% completion. We do have replacement schedules. Certainly, we have a technology replacement schedule and Scott Usher talked about that at the last meeting. I believe uh this year, this summer, we'll refresh the SEC technology in this building and the middle school. Uh we continue to look at the bus schedule um and vehicles and equip equipment when

045we need to and those come to the board each and every time. I talked about the SEC safety review that we had done. Uh they had listed 56 items. You should have a copy of that. I know I've sent it out on a pretty regular basis with you. Um, we've only have one item that we haven't completed on the SEC safety audit and that's a door, an interior door between two classrooms at Village Elementary School and it's only because we cannot find a lock that's compatible. So, it's like can't find the lock. We have to change the door. How are we going to work this? And so, Matt's been working on it. But that's the only outstanding item. Everything else has been completed based on what the experts told us we needed to put in

046place to ensure we have a safe and secure environment. And remember now backtrack on what the staff say about safety in school, what the parents say about safety in school. All in the the mid 90% feel confident that we have safe environments for our students and staff. The board had asked us to do a top 10 list of things that we could do in the future. So, here's a top 10 list. Again, I won't go over all of them. I will tell you, I hear it regularly about the middle school bleachers because it doesn't have handlebars and ramps and things like that. So, that's on here as a replacement in the future along with the high school bleachers. Select flooring again, parking lots. We have a parking lot right out front here that's got holes

047in it if you've ever walked through the front parking lot. um select u pipe replacements and continue to look at bus replacements, technology and whatnot. Curriculum instruction, we want to make sure that we are always increasing our growth of students. And sometimes people get lost in proficiency versus growth, right? Because everybody sees the proficiency ratings that are sent out and compared uh from the MDE, but what we don't always see is the growth factor. And I think I shared with some of you that have been in my office, I actually pulled the sheets out for last year's report cards and show that all of our elementaryaries, for instance, hit the 100% growth index. Every single one of our elementaryaries hit that last year. That means that our students are hitting the growth expectation set by

048the state of Michigan, Michigan Department of Education. And that means that if a child comes in in third grade at a first grade reading level, let's say, or a math level, and they move at the end of that third grade year to the second grade reading or math level, they've made one year's worth of growth. Growth is more important to us than proficiency even. Now, proficiency is what everybody compares us to, apples to apples, but growth is more important. And we are constantly looking at how do we move every single student forward. And that's why we have so much invested in intervention along the way in our school [Music] system. I've already reported this out. You know that MDE reports out late, right? We don't get that data towards the end of the year. It's

049always into the new year. Um, you've seen all of this information and and again to the public, most of this information you've seen in my weekly updates. Most of this information the board has either seen at a board meeting or seen in my uh communications with you. I try to keep this fresh, always keeping our goals in mind, sending out pertinent information so everybody knows where we are throughout the year so that when we get here tonight, this is not a big surprise, right? We don't want the board to be surprised. I don't like surprises. So, um we have a very good uh rating in regards to universal all of our school buildings by the state of Michigan. in the last report card round were universal, meaning we don't need help. We're moving in the

050right direction. We're good. It's the best rating possible. And you can see that 94% of our parents this year rated us an A or B school district. I've shared rankings, different types of ranking mechanisms and where we are, and we continue to hold our own. We had very high rankings here in regards to the US News and World Report. [Music] We had extremely good rankings in the Michigan uh testing cycle, ranked number 12 out of 539 school districts or the top 2% in the state of Michigan. And I think that that in itself is enough said in regards to how our staff is working with our students to ensure that we're moving our students forward. We do have a grant, a 23G intervention grant that we've gotten um obtained. Mr. Minsker runs that. He shared

051this information with me because one of the components of the grant was to make sure that we um uh surveyed our staff and parents on how things were going. And you see very high numbers there. People are very uh engaged and helpful or uh satisfied with intervention. We had uh the staff survey. You've seen the staff survey. Um you've you've gotten all of that information as a board. Um you'll see that 100% of our leadership team members in Mr. Minsker's leadership team uh felt that um their input was heard by the administration. On the staff survey that everybody took, 96% of our staff uh said that they felt valued and support um by the current administration. And again, that's not just me. That's all of our administrators. That's central office. That's everybody working to support

052our staff. And 91% of our staff report they feel respected by their immediate supervisor, their building principal. We have a high graduation rate. We always [Music] do. and our personal goals. Obviously, we wanted to fill uh make sure that we fill all our positions. It's a struggle. There's it's no secret we have a hard time finding bus drivers and parapros and lunch aids. We have a struggle trying to find people that want to work, especially in in positions like a bus driver where you're splitting your day or a three-hour job working in food service. Uh so always trying to fill positions with the best people possible for our students. We wanted to make sure we trained all of our administrators and teachers on the new evaluation standards and we wanted to increase staff satisfaction in

053regards to communications. So we've had some committee meetings, our communication with our stakeholders. Uh this is how we make sure we get information out to our stakeholders. Uh, I've done 39 weekly updates this year. Again, I don't do that by myself. I can't do that without everybody feeding me lots of information. And believe it or not, sometimes I have to say no. I'm not putting that this week, right? Because they get fairly long. Um, we do community life. We try to spotlight teachers uh uh not just teachers, employees of the month. Uh, we've had 15 community and senior center meetings this year. the board had made that one of my goals is to be more visible in the in the community and meeting with people. Um, and each time that I do that, I've let

054the board know that I had that meeting and this is what we talked about. I've had six uh student meetings which included meeting with our student body at the high school as well as our captain meetings each um season and those have been uh very uh wellreceived and I have a new contact at the high school for next year. So, uh, the person, uh, Sadi Malik, who I was working with to set all that up with the students, has turned it over to another student. So, we're working together. Partners in progress. I continue to have different types of meetings with superintendents and the fact with Tyrone Township. Um, and of course, we have a social media person we employ to try to get information on social media. all everybody 100% were evaluated. Uh and we

055told the board we would do that. That was our goal. We finished that early on. How do our seniors feel as they leave Hartland High School? These are important questions uh from my perspective when I was a high school principal for 12 years. I wanted to know what did our students say about school, right? Uh do you have at least one adult that you can go to? 98.8% 8% of our students responded, our seniors, that they have somebody that they're connected to at the high school as an adult. That's powerful. That is absolutely important. Would you recommend Heartland High School to families and friends? 84.8% 85% said absolutely. And did you have a positive experience? 88%. So that's very good information for myself, the district, and certainly Mr. Fitzgerald and his team at the high

056school. We continue with our school of choice efforts. Yes, it's been down a little bit over the years. Um but we still had 193 new enrollies. So that's a good thing. Um I know that the board had asked in the past where are students coming from? Where are they where are they going? Right? So this graph has been shared with you. You've seen this before. The community have seen this. It just shows where do we get our enrollment from. So the blue is where they came from to us and the pink is where they dropped. The thing that surprised me the most about this whole thing was the out ofstate. I thought we would have lost a lot more students out of state based on everything I read about the exodus from Michigan. It wasn't

057that way with our numbers as far as where did our students go. Actually got more students that double the students that came in from out of state which was a surprising factor. Mr. Hassler does a athletic survey. Again, I won't read all this to you. U just trying to get a handle on our coaches and what our coaches are doing in our programs. Where did we hire people this year? Again, you've seen this. We've had 18 teachers. Uh, by the way, right now we have 17 teachers have retired this year. So, we're in the process. Uh, we had five first semester and now 12 this semester. Um, I understand the applicant pool is healthy. All the principles are getting the applicants in and they're very pleased with that they're getting in. uh as far as

058applicants for teaching positions in Harland. So that's a positive. What's the fill rate? As of April 30th, the fill rate is we had posted 56 positions and filled 86% of them. And the ones that are outstanding really are the student nutrition and the recess paras, the three hours in the middle of the day trying to find people to to do those jobs. We do keep track of, you know, where we have expulsion hearings and Mrs. Gregory, uh, student services, assistant superintendent for student services. When our students, uh, violate the code of conduct in certain categories that are starred in the front of each of our student uh, code of conducts, they go to an expulsion hearing. And the power of the expulsion hearing is that it forces the parent to be with the child to

059be a part of the solution. We've always said that our intervention base goes to discipline and behavior as well. When students misbehave, when they violate the code of conduct, we want to work with and intervene with the parents and our support services uh person, Nicole um Lusk, and work with the families, get them the services and help they can get so that they don't come back to us in another explosion hearing. And very rarely do we have a double. Uh Kate, I don't even know if we had doubles this year. One student that came back to us for a second hearing. So, and and then we do some things with that. I can't share all that with you. certainly would be happy to have a conversation with you, but uh we can provide alternates for

060those students uh that are struggling common uh discipline infractions, bus violations, disruptive behavior, and you can see those types of things that our building principles and and our staff are working with on a regular basis to intervene with students. And of course, our partners in progress are extremely important to us. Um, you heard it again at um the strategic planning session. You don't find districts that have that partnership with their local library, with their chamber, with their township working together with the school district. Uh, that's a real powerful piece of what we do to connect everybody together in the services that we provide. Health and safety continues to be important to us. people. You know, the big one here was the village monitoring wells. If you remember what we went through with that, um, so

061you know, I'll get to it, but, uh, Eagle has the final report and we're just waiting on Eagle, who is a little less staffed nowadays than they've been in the past. So, uh, they're we're just waiting for them. They needed no more testing, no more anything. They've got the report. It's just a matter of getting somebody to come in and grout all those monitoring wells and close them down once they say we can. Of course, um we've had limited uh policy committee on this issue. We did do the radon testing that was brought up last year uh from some parents. If you recall, we had a parent group meeting. I attended. I assured them that we would test all of our buildings. We did. We found exactly what we thought we'd find and that is

062we don't have any high radon levels in any of our buildings. And those were done remind you during winter break when the buildings were closed when the air handlers weren't up and running full steam as they do now. And we had no issues with radon in our buildings. So that was a positive. Again, the final report's been presented to Eagle for Village Wells and we're looking to close that down. We continue to make sure that we have um school safety as our number one issue. And so you can see the different things that we've done here. The really cool thing about our uh number six here, our resource officers and our uh school safety officers, all the same people came back this year. But after a year, they did not go, "No way. Don't want

063to do that." I was fishing this weekend with a former police officer who lives in Brighton, and I asked him about Foris. Did he know about Fortis? Yeah. You know, had you thought about maybe working for Foris? And he's like, "Nope, that's not for me. I couldn't do that." But he knew who our resource or our safety officers were and like Ron Flutter and there. And I'm like, "Yeah, great guys." He's like, "Yeah, they're great guys, but you wouldn't want me." So, that was an interesting conversation. Um, but we have some really good people in our buildings as you know. We continue to have things in in operation uh raptor and emergency operation plans and we just go through all of the safety components that we need to go through to be prepared in case

064something happens in this district, god forbid, but we got to be ready. our high school. Our parents again uh say that 94.1% agree that or strongly agree or agree that school's a safe place. And our staff reports 96% of staff believe that it's a safe place. Our school resource officers once again were asked these questions this year. Just like last year, 100% feel like our buildings are awesome and they just absolutely love what's happening in H Heartland schools. Uh, this is directly from our resource officers, including Deputy King, who came back, too. We didn't scare Deputy King away, so that's good. Maybe he'll come back again next year. Um, so here is I won't read all these, but uh, you know, I believe that I give the people in the building a sense of security.

065Um, I believe the kids feel safe. I truly feel that my present gives staff, parents, and students a sense of safety. So this is uh information that we're getting from our safety team. We continue to look at any place that we can do updates and that is the end of my presentation. Are there any questions? I have two questions. Um, in the finance section, we're at 29% or expected to be at the end of this year. What does that three-year trajectory look like? Well, mind you, we can easily project expenses. The revenue is the tricky part, right? But projecting out our expenses, um, we're still at about 16%. Okay. Year three at year three. Yep. Okay. And then my second question is, you know, and and as part of the evaluation process, obviously we want

066to understand how tickets are being closed out, but do we have I'm going to call it a wish list like where our staff or teachers or building leads can um you know, put in like a uh Yeah, we could use this or this technology or this um building update or you know what I'm saying? Like do we have a means of capturing some of that? Actually last year, so we're ahead of the curve on that one. Last year we went to our um staff and we said, "Okay, we've got some extra money. What do you need? What is it that you want?" And we compiled the list and we had that list and we worked through that list and uh last end of last year and this year we pretty much did all that, did

067we not? Oh, there's still stuff to do on the list. Oh, okay. Yeah. It's why the 29% fund balance like spend your money. Just food for thought. I just I think as things are changing and I'm sure Mr. Usher could attest to this. I guess having an idea or a consistent parking lot of things that are coming up just to have on our radar. Um because you don't know what you don't know. I certainly probably wouldn't be an expert in that field, but we have many people in the district that are um just food for thought. Thank you. Sorry, Mr. H. One quick question. Yeah, go ahead. Um, real quick with the uh buses that we have, how many are actually used? I know we have a problem finding drivers. I know we've had to

068reduce routes. Um, what's the uh the plan for purchasing additional buses? So Matt, we just had this conversation the other day and we're actually when we sold some buses this year, we're actually down buses from last year, right? Yep. So part of the last conversation we had about buses was looking at the fleet and kind of reducing it a little bit to kind of meet our needs as a district. Um so we actually are down to 56. We used to be at 59. Um so we're looking at long-term projections in terms of growth and enrollment. And so we're working our our fleet down to a more manageable level. We were at 59 buses, but that was when I did the projections prior to COVID, we were actually a growing district. And so, um, I meet

069with, uh, or I get site plans from the township in terms of what developments are going in. And so, I always tell the story in the eight years I've been here, only one development has gone in, but I have a whole file folder full of developments that are potentials. So, it's kind of one of those things. The unfortunate part is getting a bus doesn't happen overnight. You know, our buses took a year to get here. Um and so we have 56 in the fleet. We have 36 routes and we're going to continue to reduce those. Um the unfortunate part is we need enough spares to handle um five or six field trips out uh for athletics. Uh one or two field trips for school events per day. Um we could have four or four or

070five in the garage for work. And actually the new buses we got I just got four recalls on um because of electronic issues or things like that. So that's why we do keep the spares, but we try to make sure it's a manageable size for our mechanics. And and again too, I know you've said this before, what happens with the old buses? We you sell them. We And is the market pretty good for uh old buses or so. But uh a couple years ago, no. I mean, we only got probably $4,000 for a bus. Um a new bus is actually around 150,000 um uh shiny and new. Um, but recently the last batch we sold was about I think 11,000 12,000 per bus. Um, we get people that buy them to turn them into RVs.

071Uh, we got a couple actually residents in the community that did that. Um, we have some other school districts down south that uh, our head mechanic knows and they have actually purchased them also for down south. So, even with the rest, uh, so we do a very good job taking care of our fleet. Actually, our mechanics do a fabulous job and that's why they continue to call upon H Heartland to come get them. So, they Yeah. Keep in mind also board um should be in June that the Aman consult consultation group will come back to us. Uh they just wrapped up their survey of our parents. I think uh Tim told me that they had 245 responses on our survey and so they'll come back. Uh, interestingly enough, and I don't want to give too

072much away, but um, one of the comments midway through was it seems to them that efficiency-wise we're less efficient with 36 than we would be with 42 drivers. So, in order to be efficient, they actually have had are indicating that we we should have more drivers, but we'll wait for that report to come out and then the board can take action from there. So, y good. Okay, I had a couple questions somewhat related to President Glebach on the fund balance. I assume that already is kind of factoring in some of the contracts that are we're voting on tonight. Okay. Thank you. Um question about the um this whether or not seniors recommend H Heartland High School. 85 is good. I'm kind of surprised it wasn't higher than that. Are we tracking that year-over-year so we

073can kind of watch trend? Are is it going up? Is it going down? Kind of I guess if there was a constructive criticism to offer, I would say some cases there was trends and other cases there weren't. If you could kind of include some of that in on all the various metrics, that would be appreciated. I wonder too is that uh do they provide feedback beyond just the vote for why some may feel that way? Just if there's consistent areas of concern or that they have I don't believe they do a comment section, but All right. Any additional questions, team? And I think that ends the superintendent's report. Awesome. Thank you. Um, obviously over the next four weeks, um, feel free to meet with, um, Mr. Hughes if there's questions or specifics or deeper dives

074that you want to do, if you want to see data or what have you. Item 1D called to the public. We got P Mrs. Pam. Um, many of you know me. I'm Pam Shezer. I'm the currently am the board president for the H Heartland Affiliates Association. The association consists of the administrative assistants, secretaries, uh, parapros, meaning classroom aids, uh, media, and lunch recess. We have had discussions with Chuck and Rachel and Kate regarding instead of going to bargaining, our contracts up a year from June to um come to an agreement, extend the contract and um do a wage reopener and um work with some of the issues that we have. Uh we didn't feel our board and our members didn't feel we needed to go to full bargaining next year. We just need some clarification

075on some of our um dates in our contract because of the school year dates changing. Um we have some language in there that refers to employees before 1989. We don't have any. So we thought we'd just go in for the wage reopener and to address a couple other issues, especially with the minimum wage changes. We wanted to make sure that um we were our our biggest problem is our lunch recess and we wanted to make sure we were competitive with those salaries to hire those people and retain staff. We took our agreement to our membership last week. They voted unanim unanimously to agree to what we are presenting tonight and we hope the board will agree to it too. And I'd like to thank Chuck and Rachel and Kate. They were fair and um we

076worked together well. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] All right. Item one E, committee and building reports. Mr. Scott, want to kick us off? Uh didn't get a chance to go by the high school, but to dovetail on what Mr. Hugh said about strategic planning uh which most of us attended last weekend. I thought it was a fantastic experience uh a great way to put everyone's minds together and uh try to draw a path for the future in H Heartland in a very changing world. So I really am looking forward to what comes back from that and having a road map for the district. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Scott. Mr. Vogleski just to uh add to Mr. Scott's comment on last week and the planning session that we had. It has been um my

077experience every time we've had the ability to interact with staff and admin. It's been a very very pleasant experience and I'd like to see more of that happen throughout the year. Um, I'd like to uh kind of eliminate this silo that the board is in and uh be a little bit more interactive. So, thank you, Mr. Goleski, Mrs. Coleman. Uh, let's see. Um, I will be visiting Creekide this week. I rearranged we rearranged schedules for both Creekide and around to work around the MSTEP testing in their buildings. Um, so I will hopefully have a nice report from the end of the school year from both buildings. Um, these will obviously be my last visits to Creekide and Round. So I just wanted to give a shout out to Mrs. Hutam and Mrs. Gun um for

078and their staff and students for welcoming me and sharing the awesome work that you're doing there for our students. It's been a joy to uh visit each of those schools every month. Um, let's see. the senior center. We had a committee meeting at the beginning of May. Um at our last meeting, let's see, it was shared that the um that the H Heartland Township um has generously increased their um annual donation in support of the center, which is great. Um so, thank you to H Heartland Township and the other neighboring townships that also support the center. A lot of what they do at the center couldn't happen without the funds that you provide for um for our community. Um you'll see the bus that was purchased uh last year um in the Memorial Day parade.

079So uh give the seniors um a shout out there. They'll be there handing out I believe some candy. And uh Mary Lynn, Marilyn, I'm sorry I don't remember your last name, but you are on the committee with us and she is actually the grand marshall of the parade this year. So that's pretty exciting for the senior center too. Um recent events that they had there were very successful. They had a dinner theater that was almost sold out. They did a fundraiser at H Heartland Brewing. Thank you to H Heartland Brewing for always being willing to support all of our local organizations, especially with the schools. Um they had a spring music concert and a Mother's Day brunch. They've got a lot of stuff coming up. There's a Rocket show in late June. Those tickets should

080probably be on sale this week. Um they're doing a new event, a community garage sale where you purchase um it's actually like two parking spaces in the parking lot. Um, it's for 25 bucks and then you can sell your own stuff there at the garage sale. It'll be July 12th. If you if you're interested, check out more information at the senior center. Um, let's see. And their annual openhouse will be September 4th. So, if you're interested in learning more about what they do there, uh, mark that on your calendar, too. And then, I know I say this every year, but it is really an incredible experience to be a part of the senior's lasts at the high school. It's it's it's exhilarating. It's exciting. It's emotional even if I don't know any seniors. Um but

081um decision day and the senior walk are my favorites. So, thank you to the high school staff, to James, yours, too, Laura. Thank you. Um um for just for letting me be a part of that. It's truly a joy and it's a great way to kind of start that wind down for the the end of the year. Um, to everybody else, um, well, congratulations to all of our seniors and I wish you the best, but to everybody else who's still hanging on and I know the countdown is on. It is at our house, too, but I think what is it? Nine more wakeups. So, hang tough. You got it. Let's power through. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Coleman. Mr. Keller. Thank you. Uh, first of all, just want to wish all the mothers out there

082happy Mother's Day. I hope you had a good Mother's Day weekend. Um, I want to thank, uh, Mr. Howton and Mr. Shane for their hospitality this past year. Um, I'm looking forward to, you know, the the next uh the school assignment and for the rest of the board. If you have any requests for placements next year, please send those on. I hope we continue to keep doing that. So, I think it's been a good opportunity. And to kind of segue with what some of my fellow board members have said, I felt that the the weekend activities the past weekend um with the strategic planning event, I thought it was very good um opportunity for all of us to kind of have dialogue. Some of us that maybe don't normally get a chance to interact. I

083felt, you know, it was a good time to kind of have constructive dialogue and, you know, things were, I thought, uh, very positively taken on both sides, even, you know, in cases where we had different perspectives. So, for everybody that did participate, thank you very much for your time. And I think that's that's concludes my report. You Mr. Keller, Mrs. Shaw, thank you. Um, I did have my final school year meeting with Mrs. Brisky. Um, and again, her and uh, Mr. Urick are always open and welcome to me coming in and, you know, breaking up their day and taking time away from what they could be doing to show me around or just to let me know what's going on in the building. Um, so I appreciate that. Um, you know, I agree. I think

084continuing having board members visit buildings and and having an assigned building, I think it's it's a great thing and I I agree we should continue it. Um, and I just want to also say congratulations to the class of 2025. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Campbell. Uh, no report for Lakes, uh, but I did get to spend time with the seniors, um, and talk to them about drug use and abuse education, uh, prepare them a little bit as they're released from kind of the bubble that H Heartland's in. We talked about that and they're released into the world. So, that was, um, a good time spent with him. Uh, credit to Mr. Usher and the high school students for Mamma Mia. That was an awesome uh play performance and um spring athletics are killing it. So, we'll

085see how those uh end up as we get to the end of that. All right. And I have no report, but congratulations seniors. What an awesome accomplishment. And nine more wakeups. That seems close, but yet still so far away. All right, moving on to item 2A. Um, we are now under action items and we're going to do 2A, payment of invoices. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the chief financial officer approves the financial report as of April 30th 2025 and the payment of invoices totaling 2,117,34183 and payroll obligations totaling $4,789,51124. Motion by Mrs. Coleman supported by Mrs. Shaw. Any discussion hearing? None. Mr. Scott. Yes. Mr. Goleski? Yes. Mrs. Coleman? Yes. Mr. Keller? Yes. Mrs. Shaw? Yes. Mr. Campbell? Yes. Yes. That motion passes. Item 2B, LESA budget 2526. I

086move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the chief financial officer approves the LESA 202526 budget as presented. Motion by Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mrs. Coleman. And I see Dr. Hubert is here to answer any questions and anything you'd like to say on this year's budget or this next year's budget. Um, no, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight and if you have questions, I'll try to address those. I think overall from a financial planning standpoint, um, things are pretty sound at the agency. You may notice a deficit in the special education fund, but that's a purposeful spend down of our fund balance, particularly to support the implementation of some more staff to support students with severe behaviors that are in each of our local districts. So, we're

087staffing up in that area and um it's a one-year spend down because uh next year in the following fiscal year, we'll be able to use some of the restored special education mill that the voters approved. So, we needed this one-year gap. So, we figured our fund balance would be a good use of of support for that because we didn't want to wait another year to start implementing some of those support services. But, but otherwise, I think things are are pretty good overall. Um not a lot of major changes. We just have our eye out for what might be impending changes from the federal level. But so far, nothing has really um been clear in that space. So, we're just standing ready, but happy to address questions. Any questions? Um you you talked about some of

088the services to support the um behavior issues. Could you go a little bit more into what might be changing there, what what we can expect and how we can better take advantage of those services? Yeah, there's been a lot of conversation the past couple years on do we implement new programs, do we implement programs that are available in a center location in the county, so removing students from a district and go to another location. Most all those conversations have led back to where we've been, which is to bring services into the buildings in the form of staff that are working directly with the students, also trying to help support um your different tiered systems of support in general. But the proposal that's in our budget right now is specifically to bring behavior specialists into the

089buildings and um people that come with great experience and support uh within the county as a team but will be in the district in the culture of that district get to know the students and the families there versus right now our model has staff moving throughout the county. So, um, we think this is going to supplement what we do currently, but really help where you need to form more relationships and have specialized staff doing that. So, it'll be a couple professional staff in each of the districts. Um, and then also a teacher consultant that'll be in a countywide access so that somebody that can come in um, and just work directly with a teacher as a teacher. Um, not just to to fix it and and lead, but to form a relationship and keep ongoing

090conversations there as well. So trying to hit it from a lot of different perspectives all based on a lot of input that we've received around that that subject of severe student behaviors. Sorry. So specific to Hartland, how many I guess more paras might we expect to see as a result of that one time increase? It it would be one behavior consultant and one I I think pair is a fair explanation of the the position but with some specialized skills in the space of severe student behaviors. So um so two FTEES two okay yeah because I know a lot of our staff has requested some additional resources in that area. So thank you for taking that into consideration and and I I acknowledge that the requests are often you know beyond what our capacity is to

091resource the the needs. This would be in the more severe of the behavior categories. So um but I know we constantly get requests for people to help in the space of student behaviors. Uh but this will be at that that um upper tier of of needs. I think it's important too for the board to understand that this is on top of what we've already got in place. So we started two years ago, Mike, uh Crystal Briskkey, Jason Rack, they kind of represent us with Adrian Dean of looking at was there was there the ability to have that centerbased approach and it kind of didn't work out. So Hartland took it upon themselves and I think Mike you would agree that we said okay we're going to model how we can do this uh and kind

092of be the the guinea pigs if you want to on uh providing opportunity for our kids to have specialized attention where they're needed. And so we created a village elementary program with a behavior specialist and a teacher this year. That was two years ago. And this year we added one at Lakes uh so that we can meet the needs of those students and support the teachers with those students being in that specialized setting. And the hopes being that while we're working with them in their home building, we can begin to get them into elective classes, get them get them uh learning the skills that they need to be successful. So hopefully we can get them out of that type of situation, right? Because even if you had a center-based program someplace else, you still would

093be working to get those kids back into the school building. So we have that that we are supporting as a district and uh through LSA's help with the behavior specialist, but we we're paying for that. But this what Mike's talking about is adding on to that support mechanism so that teachers have somebody that they can work with one-on-one that Adrien Dean our special ed director can uh deploy the behavior specialist to work with Chuck Hughes with Billy for um three weeks if that's what he needs to help with that situation. So we've got some really good things in play and I think that that's going to be we we have a ability to model what we're doing. Mhm. Y are you going to assign these new to a school or they float to work where

094needed or to spread their knowledge and abilities to districtwide is it? Okay. Any other questions? All right. I do just want to clarify um I do know obviously we have a motion on the table um and there is actually a resolution that the secretary of the board signs um after we pass this motion. So it is in your packet just to be fully transparent that that's the formal process of adopting the LEA budget. All right. Hearing no additional dis Oh okay. Thanks Mike. Hearing no additional discussion. Mr. Scott. Yes. Mr. Gooleski. Yes. Mrs. Coleman. Yes. Mr. Keller. Yes. Mrs. Shaw. Yes. Mr. Campbell. Yes. I'm a yes. That motion passes. Thank you very much. To to dovetail on that, President Glabbach, can we have these resolutions posted online somewhere as we approve them? Because as

095it stands now, when we approve a resolution, it just kind of goes off into I'm sure we can talk about where the appropriate place is. Yeah, perfect. But I don't have an answer for you to right now. Thank you. Item 2 C, LESA election resolution for June 2nd, 2025. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent authorizes Kristen Coleman to represent Hartland Consolidated Schools and Megan Glabbach to serve as an alternate in the upcoming LEA bianial election. Further, further Oh, sorry. Further, the board directs them to cast votes for Yep. Harold Frier, Cindy Mishnowitz, Lisa Marcella Olyri. Motion by Mrs. Coleman, supported by Mrs. Shaw. Any discussion? Hearing none, Mr. Scott? Yes. Mr. Gooleski? Yes. Mrs. Coleman? Yes. Mr. Keller? Yes, Mrs. Shaw. Yes, Mr. Campbell. Yes, I'm a yes.

096That motion passes. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you. It's okay if you guys leave. Just don't have to stay. So, I know, but you're more than welcome to say it's totally up to you. Item 2D, natural gas purchase. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the chief financial officer and consultant consultant executive energy services authorizes the superintendent or chief financial officer to extend our current contract through BP Energy Holdings for the purchase of natural gas for Hartland Consolidated Schools from July 2025 through June 2030 at a price not to exceed $410 per mm BTU. support motion by Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mrs. Coleman. Any discussion? I just want to say thank you to Rachel for answering all my questions about uh what this resolution was for and you know,

097kind of why we wanted to do that. I do think overall it's a it's a good opportunity for the district to lock in natural gas purchases at a you know, a stable price and so therefore I I support it. I like the word backwardation. I think I'm That's not my word. I I can't take credit for that. But um I will share that Mr. Rob Bernardi is here. Uh he is our uh representative from Executive Energy waiting in the bullpen in case there's any questions. Um because I am definitely not an expert on commodity trading. So if there are any questions, um he's here to help us out. One quick question. Good job already. So I'm I think I'm good. Mr. Noleski. Um yeah, just just a quick question. If if the price does indeed

098drop, is there any adjustment made for future purchases or do we get some sort of discount on additional spending? Yeah. So after we lock in, you mean like what happens? Right. Right. Yeah. So, so this purchase is for 85% of our estimated need and then the other 15% is based on whatever the the current price is at that time. So, that's where you might pick up some of that that difference. Um but yes, we're we're pretty much locked in for the 85% of the estimated needs under this arrangement and we we we we take that risk and um the trade-off is we have budget stability, you know, for the next five years on this item, which between, you know, the natural gas and the electric is a $ 1.5 million line item in our budget.

099So, you can appreciate major swings could have a detrimental impact um to our Um that's where the benefit of this arrangement is is to provide that stability by taking that that forward uh pricing risk off the table. Mr. Scott and has there there was a note on last week uh about possible flu fluctuation prior to today. Was there any fluctuation in the market or um so the pricing that he sent as of Friday it ticked down a little bit. So, full disclosure, right now it's currently still not trading at the $410. Um, but the projection is that that will uh we should be able to hit that. Um, meaning it's higher right now. Yes, it's currently trading higher at that at that value. But the hope is that we can get it at that price

100or lower. Uh, if we can't, then we need to come back in June and and revisit that. Did I do good, Rob? Okay, great. So, are you watching it daily? I'm not watching it daily. Rob's watching it daily. Again, just to put it in perspective for the rest of the board, I think Rachel, correct me if I'm wrong, but it it's basically a 1% a little over 1% increase for the next five years versus having an infinite increase that, you know, we can't plan for or predict. So, I do again think it's a good idea. Yeah. putting it in terms of dollars. Um, you know, right now we're looking at $4,500 a year for the the natural gas portion of our of our budget is about $350,000. So for a price increase is about $4,500.

101That guaranteed for the next five years flat for the next five years is um it's a good deal for us. It's a good deal. All right. Any additional questions hearing? None. Mr. Scott. Yes, Mr. Goleski. Yes, Mrs. Coleman. Yes, Mr. Keller. Yes, Mrs. Shaw. Yes, Mr. Campbell. Yes. And I'm a yes. That motion passes. I almost just read Mrs. Clay. Item 2E, dear colleague Plan Resolution. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and hcs administrators approves the dear colleague plan resolution as presented. So motion by Mrs. Coleman supported by Mrs. Shaw. Any discussion? I would just like to say a big thank you. I know Mr. Minsker isn't here, but um you know there were I think with the the original version that was published in last month's meeting

102uh there were some areas of concern for some board members and Mr. Minsker took some time to modify that prior to last month and then I know worked with several board members over the last several weeks to fine-tune it. So I I think what's before us is something we can all get behind. Um, you know, it's uh I'm sure it's not perfect in anyone's mind, and some people would like to go one way with it, some another, but I think it really catches us in the middle and does a good job of capturing sort of what we can all agree on as it relates to uh the DEI that's been uh a thorn in our side for the last several years. So, I will support this resolution. Any additional discussion? I would, you know, again

103like to say some similar comments. I think, you know, appreciate Mr. Minsker's efforts to kind of uh champion or spearhead this as Mr. Scott mentioned. I think I know for me personally, if I would have wrote it, would have looked different and probably all would say the same about any of our finished products. But I do truly feel like it was a a compromise that, you know, 20 people came up with. So again, I know he's not here to hear it, but Mr. from Minsker. Hopefully uh somewhere in Italy you can toast and enjoy the fruits of your labor. So I hope he's not. Yeah. Safe trail. I say hope you're sleeping right now, but thanks to the the rest of the team here. Here. Any additional discussion hearing? None. Mr. Scott. Yes. Mr. Goalleski?

104Yes. Mrs. Coleman? Yes. Mr. Keller? Yes. Mrs. Shaw? Yes. Mr. Campbell? Yes. Yes. That motion passes. Mrs. uh Glabbach, on behalf of the administrators in H Heartland Schools, uh we thank you, the board, for the input that you did give us. Um Dave felt very good about the conversations that were taking place. And you know, the bottom line is we have a document now when things come up, we can point to it. And this is what we believe as a district to move forward. So, uh we thought it was very very important that we brought this forward. We thought that it was essential in the work that we are doing and where we go in the future. So again, we appreciate the input. Mr. Minsk, I agree, did a really nice job of trying to

105listen and still weigh out what we were doing and what the intention was. And so again, thank everybody. Appreciate it. Moving on to item two, a contract extension for ABM cleaning services. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the director of operations approves the contract extension for ABM cleaning services as presented. Motion by Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mrs. Coleman. Any discussion? Just to clarify, this is for high school and middle school. Correct. Thank you. And Mr. Marino, your comments from last meeting stand very happy with service. No changes. Any additional discussion hearing? None. Mr. Scott, yes. Mr. Ogaleeski, yes. Mrs. Coleman, yes. Mr. Keller, yes. Mrs. Shaw, yes. Mr. Campbell, yes. And I'm a yes. That motion passes. Item 2G, Livingston County Sheriff Road Patrol extension of services.

106I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the assistant superintendent of personnel and student services approves the Livingston County Sheriff patrol road patrol extension of services as presented. Motion by Mrs. Coleman supported by Mrs. Shaw. So I wanted to I wanted to let the board know um you know you gave me some direction at the last meeting. I went back to the township uh manager loose uh and let him know what our concerns were that we needed to make sure that we clearly had uh information in there and a contract to sign uh that you had indicated and we needed to look at reducing the cost. So we went from that 30% to that 20%. We still think as a district, my recommendation and our staff's recommendation is that

107the board uh uh sign off on this because we think that there's a lot of value in that road patrol and that relationship that we have uh that allows us that access to that road patrol uh and not just our SRO's in our buildings. Not that Mr. King and Mr. Jeff are not awesome, but they're also busy working in the schools every day. So, thank you. In addition to this, I know there was some discussion and nothing's been put on the table, but I don't there was talk about um additional presence in the school, you know, would we add a third um officer, so on and so forth. I think, you know, modeling that out, having Rachel model that out against the 15% fund balance in three years. Um but I don't it doesn't have

108to be a this or that. It can certainly be a this and that. So if somebody would like to work on that to bring forward in a you know additional meeting obviously a little bit time crunched with August being school start but that would be for consideration of the board in addition to this. Yeah. I mean I guess from my perspective I I do want to acknowledge the efforts made to try to take the the feedback from the board in terms of cost and some of the concerns brought forth about the contract. I think though for me, I'm still not quite yet convinced. My my personal preference, again, only mine, but I would rather see the money that we would allocate to this contract go towards either another SSO or another RSO that we can

109kind of keep all of our security team kind of under the same single point of contact and, you know, wonder direction. Um, putting my board hat aside, I even as a H Heartland constituent, I I would rather see the the deputies allocating their time to, you know, monitoring the future Chick-fil-A line that's coming and, you know, might be a big traffic incident. So, I mean, for me, I' I'd actually like to make a motion to um to the board that to to divert the funds that we would allocate from this contract and set that aside for, you know, another RSO or SSO to be determined at a future meeting. So, you're throwing a motion on the table, but I think there probably has to be additional discussion. So, you can we'll certainly move forward with

110that motion. That was not on the agenda. So, um, you can it we need to add it as an item and it needs to walk through just like anything else. So, you would vote this one down and add that one if that makes sense. I I think um I agree that we need some additional staffing. Um, my concern is that by taking this piece first, we're not looking at the big picture. and we have a finite amount of money to spend. And so if we're spending this money now uh to pay the township and that then inhibits our ability to add additional resources in the school, I think that would be a detriment. I think I know the discussion at the last meeting was, you know, it's it's take it or leave it, one thing

111at a time. I think that's a a a um short-term approach. I don't think it's a holistic approach. I think we should be looking at our security coverage as a whole for next year and deciding how we're going to proceed. Um, not just peace meal because again, if if we if we approve this today, then that's $60,000 a year that we don't have to spend in the schools for direct um direct resources for our students and our staff. The other thing that that kind of concerns me about this, I went and looked at the township's budget and they had initially budgeted, it looks like, to cover this entirely and then and then had some budget amendments to to roll that back a little bit. Um, they don't have the revenue issues that we do where

112our revenue is at a standstill. They have some steadily increasing revenue. I think they have the capacity and the ability to cover this in full and still provide most of these services. I I don't think that uh if we don't pay this contract that they're not going to be in the village patrolling in the morning. I mean, that's I don't think they're going to not um run license plates when illegal activity is reported. That seems that doesn't seem like a expectation we should have to set for them. that just sounds like what what they're going to be doing in the natural course of their of their um patrols and of their jobs. So again, I'm I'm not saying it's a no forever, but I don't think that me or any one of us can be

113in a position tonight to approve this without understanding the bigger picture. And just to uh add to Mr. Scott's concerns, some of the expectations that we were given in our board packet. I I would expect them to do these things regardless. And I uh it it sounds like a list of expectations that are obvious already happening and don't need to be in here. So, I'm thinking for the dollar value, um we may want to consider having um the funds to add more um um controlled uh employees that we hire through foris group. I can speak from working the road that if you don't have these directed patrols, you just end up where you end up. Whereas, if these directed patrols are approved and you're assigned these directed patrols, you maintain your presence in that area

114as best you can. I think it'd be unfortunate to lose any of these bullet points. I recognize the cost but the value which I don't even know if Miss Gregory you spoke to that and I think Superintendent Hughes um the extended hours of the coverage that we get uh the weekends and the ability to call them when there's an incident or you want additional focus that staff might tell you about or parents you get a call about to redirect them. Um yeah, I think all the officers are good here in the county. They're awesome, but it's just if you lose his direct to patrol then you these would these would just fall off. I mean, there's no assignments, you know, to be here in this area. And then to add on what was brought up

115last last month at the meeting that I wasn't aware about are very good points, too, just that presence. It sounds like in addition to this, uh, and I'm just spitballing here, but in addition to this, there's a desire, depending on how this goes, could go one way or it, could go the other. Either way, it sounds like there's a desire to understand how to increase resources within our buildings as well. Am I hearing that as well? Absolutely. Yes, that's okay. So, um just a matter of how does someone want to lead that discussion with Rachel and Mr. Hughes and bring something back to the board table? Um Rachel models everything out for three years and she'll tell you all the pros and the cons if there's potential grants that we can you know cipher in

116to to get certain things. But um this while we're here and all talking would does someone want to lead that initiative? I mean I'd be willing to lead it but I would want to put the condition that we either postpone this vote or um vote against it for now. But I think probably the preference from the vote from the board would be to at least postpone the vote on this. And Mr. Hughes, if I'm mistaken, please correct me. But I think we have basically until the end of the calendar year contractually. I know we want to get something in place before the next school year. But, you know, with respect to some of the expectations that were put forth, I I guess even though, you know, we've got four four members of the partners in

117progress, of which I see two of them are offering to potentially pay money, but I think, you know, if the Cro-Main library board picked up the phone and said, "Hey, will you do these same things?" I'm I have a feeling Sheriff Murphy or whoever is going to say, "Yes, we're going to do that." So again, I I don't know that we necessarily have to spend the money specifically with the township to get this done. So again, I'm asking for the board's consideration. So I will make the motion to postpone the vote on the Livingston County Sheriff Road Patrol extension of services contract. A second. I have a motion by Mr. Keller to postpone this vote on the Livingston County contract um and supported by Mr. Goleski. Okay. Um discussion on that motion. I I want

118a lot that's kind of intertwined. I've also had conversations about how this partnership has worked in the the last three years. I I don't support postponing this and I do support moving forward with extending this contract. Um, I've also spoken with some of our SRO in our buildings with people in central office in the township and I I think this relationship should stay in place the way that it is. I have nothing wrong with looking at additional, but I think for me personally, this relationship should continue. Mr. Goleski, I heard you as well, I think, over here. Yeah, I and again it's it's just boils down to getting maximum bang for the buck in terms of what serves us best. Um, I'm not too worried about and and I I want to caution when I

119say this. Yes, I am worried about the relationship, but I think it's more important, especially with um stretch spending, that we allocate these dollars wisely. So, I think I Oh, go ahead, Mr. Kimble. With consideration for this too, if we look at Mr. Hughes's presentation, it shows the um safety level that the staff, the students are addressing to with what we have right now. They feel safe and comfortable and it would be great to get more officers within the school, but in the uh current configuration that we have right now, which this would extend. Um you look at how everyone feels within the district and the schools and they they seem to approve of what we have now. Um, as someone that has received a reward from these individuals, um, I have seen, those of

120you who have been in town for a long time, the pre before this was put into effect and the after. I mean, if you just sit at Springerfield, you can see the difference in how people are driving, how people are driving through the village. they're not running the four-way stop when, you know, the mom that was 5 minutes late used to run the four-way stop. It was probably me. Um, but I think that I think it's been a huge benefit. Um, you know, I think we should always take a look at what our safety team looks like. Is it sufficient? Do we need more? Are there buildings that are struggling? So on and so forth. But, um, those are just my discussion comments. Yeah, I I think postponing it would be a prudent thing to

121do. And I don't I don't think anybody's talking about not continuing the relationship or not um having coverage. I think the idea is we're just kind of putting the cart before the horse to allocate some portion of funds, you know, two or 3 weeks before we start budgeting for the year and before we have an idea of what the big picture is going to look like. um this, you know, we we could end up in a situation where add we're able to add a whole new person, a whole new deputy to the township um maybe and it'll only cost us $100,000 and we can get the services of both. You know, we don't know um what the options are here in full because we haven't evaluated them. we haven't looked at them and I don't

122again I I doubt I highly doubt that um you know if if we don't agree and and and it keeps getting referred to as a Livingston County uh agreement but it's not a Livingston County agreement it's a Hartland Township agreement. So, um, but with the Livingston County Sheriff, I understand. But our but our but the contract is with H Heartland Township. And so I don't know. Um, but did the sheriff agree to these bullet points? Those are from him or did we or did the township say that they will Yeah, the the township said that they will sign off on this as as they hold the main contract, right? And the sheriff's very clear that their sheriff is not going to be um uh have two bosses, two people to answer to. They're going to

123answer to the township. Township says we're going to release these people to cover these expectations. Uh absolutely for the school district. So that's the weekends, that's the driving, that's being in our parking lots, it's being at Springer. They don't have to do that. And and I think you made a good point um Mr. Campbell that yes, it sounds great that well the township could pick up the whole cost and we'd have these two road patrols. Potentially the township will, right? Potentially. I'm I told you last time I'm sure the township will pick up the cost. But that takes their accessibility out of our hands and our ability to say we need them here. We need them here. We need them here. And so we think for this cost, it's well valued for the district to

124make sure that when Deputy uh King is in our middle school, he's in our middle school working. And I can't pull Deputy King to say, "I need you to go do road patrol over at Village because the parents are are driving through Village crazily to get to Round through all that traffic." And so I think that again, it's up to the board. We've done what we can do to say we think this is a really good situation for us. We think safety-wise that our staff and our parents, someone said, have said, "Hey, what we have is good. This is a good deal for us to have coverage and to have access to these officers. If the board doesn't want to do that, then that's your prerogative and we'll figure it out. But we think it's

125a good deal and it and it's a good partnership with the township." Okay. Go ahead. Sorry, you haven't had a chance. Yeah. Um, thank you. Um, so Chuck, the U, Mr. Keller alluded to this a few minutes ago, but what is the timing on the contract if we don't if we don't vote to approve this tonight? Does that affect our ability to participate in the contract or have this relationship down the road? This uh contract starts uh August 1st and so we wanted to get ahead of the curve so that the township and Cheryl Stockwell who also pays part of this contract uh knew what everybody was doing ahead of time so that when they take it for approval for the August that it's taken care of is my understanding. Mr. Keller. Well, first of

126all, I guess the contract that I read expired December 31st of 2025, which is the current contract. So, I think I think we have time. But I guess just to make sure it's clear to everyone, I I I very much value the the job that the the sheriff's off, you know, deputies have done for the for the township. For me, it's about a prioritization of the school's resources. And I think when we, you know, you're paying for a 100% of someone's time or you could and you're not getting 100% of that person's time, that's why I'm questioning the kind of the spirit of this agreement. Again, I think from a H Heartland Township perspective, they will fund this. And I'm quite certain that if we ask the township to send somebody or if we ask

127the, you know, Sheriff Murphy or the under sheriff and we need something, I I'm I'm confident that they will provide that. So again, I I'm just asking for the board to consider prioritizing the resources to, you know, what it where can we get 100% dollar for dollar for what we spend. And I think looking at another RSO or an SSO is is a better use of that those monies. Okay. So we have a motion on the table to postpone this. Um that is by Mr. Keller supported by Mr. Goleski. Moving forward, Mr. Scott. Again, motion to postpone, not the original motion. Yes. Mr. Gooleski? Yes. Mrs. Coleman? Yes. Mr. Keller? Yes. Mrs. Shaw? No, Mr. Campbell. No, I'm a no. That motion passes. Um, this motion is postponed, so we will not go back to

128the original motion. Item 2H, HA extension agreement. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the chief financial officer approves the HA extension agreement as presented. Support motion by Mrs. Coleman supported by Mrs. Sorry. Um motion by Mrs. Shaw supported by Mrs. Coleman. Any discussion on item 2 HA extension agreement? Yeah, I have a comment. Um, with the following agreement, um, Mr. Campbell and myself um, have to recuse ourselves from deciding on that and and remove our vote. Mr. Gowleski, I think that's the next one. HA, right? Yeah. Yeah, that what I'm say. Yes. Right. I'm just saying I'm using that one and and rightfully so. I we have um uh spouses that work in the school system. Um there is a conflict of interest and there is a

129law stating that we have to do that. However, um with this one and there is no law, but to me it's just sort of a matter of integrity that for the HA who went about and supported certain candidates on this board, I do feel that there's a bit of a conflict of interest in voting on this by those that may have received that support. And although there's no law against it, I just want to bring that up as a uh as a point. Any further discussion on the HA extension agreement? Hearing none. Mr. Scott. Um I'd like to say I missed the when you said a little more discussion, but it was great to see that the teachers getting a big bump in um next year and that's been a big discussion trying to make

130sure our great teachers get the pay they deserve. I'm not saying this gets you there, but it's uh it's good to see uh see a big increase for next year. So uh looks good to me. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Goalleski. Yes, Mrs. Coleman. Yes, Mr. Keller. Yes, Mrs. Shaw. Yes, Mr. Mr. Campbell. Yes. I'm a yes. That motion passes. I want to I want to thank um Kent Wel, who's back here as the president of the HA and his team who just uh I I can't say enough of the working relationship that we had. And I share this story and board you, you have to understand this. I shared this story with other superintendent. We have all these new uh um that used to be non-bargainable items that got brought back to bargain into the

131contract. We were able to do that very very quickly and relatively um painlessly because of the working relationship that we have with the HA. So I just want to say thank you and you know certainly we always wish it could be more but we also have to be thoughtful and deliberate as we look at the outyear. So thank you for your time and effort and Kent in particular as the board as the president. So, thank you and your team. Thank you. Um, I do have a question um for Mr. Hughes. When and it may go before you you started your current position, but when did the board stop being involved in contract negotiations? And I asked this because I've been told by a couple of different people that either are on a board in another

132district or served on a board in one of the local districts that um they they were quite amazed when giving me information about doing um contract negotiations. I told them no, we don't get involved in that at all. At all. Nobody does. So, I can tell you as long as I've been in H Heartland, the board has not sat on the negotiation table uh for contract negotiations. Um we we try to keep the board apprised of, hey, uh for instance, when I told the board numerous times over the last year that when we sit down with the teachers, we got to take care of our teachers. U that's what we were doing. Knowing that we also have Rachel to project that out that we're going to have to be able to justify that projection to

133you. Um, but I can tell you as long as I've been in H Heartland, and I'm sure the HA could respond, uh, the board has never sat at the table, uh, to do negotiations in H Heartland. Well, what I find interesting, too, is that the MASB also, uh, puts on classes for board members to deal in negotiations, yet we don't set our foot in there. So, I think if you want to make a change, Mr. Gogleski, you just bring you would bring that change to the board table and then we would add it to the agenda if it's an official change. Very good. Yeah, but we're on item 2, HAA extension agreement. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the chief financial officer approves the HAA extension agreement

134as presented. Motion by Mrs. Coleman, supported by Mrs. Shaw. Any discussion on HAA extension agreement? Hearing none. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. Yes, just to explain as Mr. Gleski uh pointed I I plan to um pass on this abstain from this vote just an ethical conflict uh with my spouse being employed by the district in this capacity to explain that when my vote comes around. Awesome. Mr. Scott. Oh, sorry. Can we continue discussion? Sorry. What um does this dictate how many parapros or or classroom aids are we're adding? No, it does not. So I guess from the um feedback from the teacher survey that seemed to be a big component is getting more more help more assistance in the classroom. Um I see on here we're adding a central office staff member but not promising

135anything in the classroom and that's stood out to me. Was it the who who requested the addition of the central office staff? That was uh our suggestion as we were moving the three members out of the union to still have a union member in the front office as a 52- week employee answering the phones. Um starting at 6:30 a.m. in the morning to take care of the attendance issues that we have to take care of for substitutes and things like that. So that was our suggestion as we negotiated this process in response to parapros in the classroom. I'll remind the board parapros are dictated by IEPs. Parapros are dictated by the student IEPs that are developed and the hours of service needed for each child that happens to have an IEP. So it wouldn't be

136a matter of creating a formula saying this building gets 10 paras or this building. No, that's not how it works. Par classroom paras are dictated by IEP services needed. But what about the like the two FTEEs that Mike just talked about? That's and it you said classroom pairs but that's different. That's district resource. Correct. And they don't do they fall in this they wouldn't fall in this contract. No. No they No, they're LSA employees. So our behavior specialists the one at Village and one at Lakes are employed through LEA with special capabilities and and they're they're not in this contract. So they're paid differently. Okay. So even so I guess I have a different question. So so going back then to clarification on the central office staff. So is there a net change in the

137central office staff? Yes. By one. So we're adding a central office staff member. We're reducing a legacy um secretary from a 44 week for a 52 to a 44 and we're adding a 52 week in the front office. Correct. And so who handle is who handles this stuff now? It's spread out all over the place. So it just strikes me as uh h having just seen the survey results from the teachers and the lack of resources in some classrooms and some schools to then turn around and say, "Yep, we just listened to what you said." And our response is we're adding more central office staff, especially after when there was a central office staff member on the agenda a couple months ago. Several community members stood up and said what uh that they thought that

138was a poor use of resources. So it seems like just re repackaging the sausage here. Um do we have the ability, Mr. Scott, are you done in your discussion? Do we have the ability to hire this theoretical? So say we wanted to bring in two more behavioral specialists at lea in theory. Do we have the ability to request that? Absolutely. Okay. And and I would say we don't know exactly what our parent numbers will be next year. We can predict by the students we currently have and where they're at. But that is a that's a situation that we evaluate. I sit my HR director um the special education director we sit and we have already gained feedback from our buildings of what our students needs are based on those IEPs and we sit in the

139spring and determine so there is a chance that yes we will need additional paras there is a chance that no we won't it is truly based on those IEPs and what those teams create now at the same time that behavior specialist that's coming from LEA alsa is is kind of more administr ministrative. I guess they're not an administrator with H Heartland, but they're a little bit higher. And so they're going to help and they're going to work with Adrian and hop into the buildings that are needed and help identify and support the teachers and the paras that are at that level. So it is somebody with a little bit more training to come in and support. So I think we will see additional classroom support and teacher support through the through the help of LEA

140and um what we've been trying to build over the last year and a half two years because this was something brand new that we started with village last year and expanded to lakes that hasn't ever been done and it's actually working and so we're pretty excited about that too. So obviously there's progress to be made and and we're seeing that and we're learning as we go, but we are adding some of those additionals as well. Right. But as a board tonight, we're saying the only thing we can guarantee is more help in the central office and to me that just seems backwards. Can I just ask a clarification clarification question? Does this agreement prohibit us from adding any further support? Absolutely not. We can add support when we need to. Um this agreement also for

141instance the front office position will help alleviate some things out in the buildings such as doing all the enrollments. So a central enrollment situation so that the secretaries aren't taking time to enroll kids throughout the year and to go through that process. We're going to take that on at central office and we think that's a better model for keeping track of where our kids are coming from and where our kids are going. How we can survey parents when they enroll. Why did you choose H Heartland? How can we can I know Mr. Kelly, you've asked this a few times. Can we survey why they left? Like having a central person that can be in charge of that is going to be helpful to us. So, as we bargained this contract, we bargained these things in

142the contract. So, all of these that you see in front of us are part of this bargained contract. And so, um, we think that they're positive. The the HA felt that they were positive and so we can move forward with this. And that's that's just those conversations that occur. And we can always add the the board, you know, we we hear some uh people say, well, we need more support. We have one building, for instance, that the staff and the principal consciously made the decision to forego parapros for an extra special ed teacher. So instead of having two parapros, they have a special an extra special ed teacher. So it does two things in that building. One, it brings the number of case load uh down for each of the special ed teachers. And two,

143you have a teacher that's trained with specific capabilities of helping intervene with students that are pull pushing in and working with kids in the classroom on a regular basis. It works for that building. They like that. Sometimes they might forget that they have made that conscious decision. Uh but that's how they do it in our district and that works for that building. So you really have to try to understand and I will tell you um that we had a lot of conversation with the HA Kent I'm going to point to you um about support and we created a list of all the support mechanism in play for all of our teachers throughout the district and I think Kent you even said to me we need to make sure our teachers see this list regularly. So

144you can deny that but I think I don't want to put you on the spot but I think we talked about that. Yeah. So, so and then just one follow-up statement I get I think just to reiterate what Pam shared is that the the membership voted unanimously as a tenative agreement. So, they are happy with this. I I understand and I will support the agreement and I like the fact that they're getting again a good bump next year. I think we have to tread carefully here as we promise more resources to the central office and um and and not making those separate promises to the to the teachers and to the schools. Um that's going to put a lot of pressure on and again we're you know same same thing as last time we're we're

145asking to approve an agreement the month before we do our budgeting. Uh I would rather see this at a point where we have our three-year projections and we can say hey look we can add eight paras in the district and a central office person. That makes this a a much better situation than to say approve central office first and then approve building resources. I just don't like being put in that position uh where we're we're forced to again put the cart before the horse uh and and do things out of order. Of course, I think um all of the um the folks are doing a great job. They deserve every bit of the raise and more. I would just like to see a little a little more forward planning to make sure that the buildings

146are getting the resources they need. Any additional discussion? Um, one quick comment. Um, I think uh based upon and I I don't have it broken down, but the uh personnel survey that was done, I did see if correct me if I'm wrong, but at least a couple of remarks talking about the need of maybe more parapros. And I I'm definitely all for that if we can somehow increase that as opposed to uh you know other personnel other office personnel. So any additional hearing none Mr. Scott? Yes. Mr. Gogleski? I abstain. Mrs. Coleman. Yes. Mr. Culler. Yes. Mrs. Shaw. Yes. Mr. Campbell. abstain. I'm a yes. That motion passes. Again, I want to thank Pam and her leadership team for the hours we spent uh working through this and uh great conversation. Uh we thought it

147was a win-win for everybody. Uh you'll notice in here for instance and and I thought this was going to be a re really hard sell for their unit is um the lunch recess parah um not only getting the 6% but also getting an extra dollar added to that first year of that salary uh schedule uh because those are really hard positions to fill and so we wanted to make it more attractive again attracting and retaining uh and and you went out and you talked to your members and they said absolutely we support this. So, I think that this is a very fair contract for them and it takes care of a lot of the needs that everybody had. So, again, Pam, thank you and your team and please tell them that for me. Thank you.

148Moving on. Item 2J, high school gymnasium scoreboards. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the director of operations approves the high school scoreboards purchase as presented. Support motion by Mrs. Shaw, supported by Mrs. Coleman, any discussion on high school gymnast gymnasium scoreboards? Not gymnastics. Sorry guys, we don't have scoreboards. Do do we have like a complete failure of the current one or what are we getting for the price here, which is pretty hefty. Are we getting like now graphics or something that we can do or Halo all the way around? Not quite. That'd be cool. Um, so your first answer to your first question, no, we don't have failure of the current scoreboard. However, the current scoreboard is original to the building which was put in 2002. Um,

149we've found that we are unable to get replacement parts and service on that. Now, I'm going to knock on wood because it has been stable. Um, but, um, we don't want to get to a point during an event that it fails. Obviously, we wouldn't be able to, you know, have a scoreboard for that event. Uh answer to your second question, it is two video boards similar to what's out at the football field or we've installed currently in the pool um which allows for multi-function um as well as two static um I'm going to say basketball scoreboards um that can be used when the video boards are not in operation so that the um they don't need to have somebody man it or a person to uh load the graphics that type of thing. Um but

150the graphics have be um the video boards have kind of become the norm in terms of athletic events and things like that where students are are loading uh content and video on the board. Uh example for football games um the students in the graphics art uh classroom, Mr. Buter's classroom, created content for senior nights and things like that, video montages and and that type of thing. So, it sounds like there's some going to be some integration between the curriculum and the athletic complex. So, okay. As someone that's had numerous problems with home electronics, is there a lengthy warranty on some of this stuff? Because the first thing to always go south are technology. Yeah. Yeah. Technology. And so, um there is a a warranty period on that. There is a um Dacttronics has been very

151good um to uh I'll say the athletic industry across the state. Um we have a rep that is in Michigan that honestly anytime I pick up the phone and call him, he does answer for me. Um there are replacement modules in each board. So if you look at the football field on the back panel, it says replacement parts. Um and uh anytime we've had uh the baseball or softball uh you know the kids hit them with the baseball, we've been able to get replacement parts and they usually ship within a couple days. So, we've had pretty good success. Okay. I just don't want us to be behind the eight-ball if for whatever reason maybe we don't replace this in the next 10, 15 years that we still have the availability to at least repair it.

152So, I will say yes, but technology is ever changing. As Jason's sitting in the back, he can probably attest to that too from tech tech department, but um we have found that uh it has techtactronics has kept up with the times. We've signed you up to fix it. Yeah. You know, I was talking I was talking to Mr. Marino about this and one of the things I thought was cool was with this package um maybe you can expand on there's going to be some real world opportunities for students to learn technology that they will probably be able to take on with them. And I thought that because it's an industry standard. Yep. This software that uh we use, we just use on a much smaller scale, but this same software is used in Lil Caesar

153Arena and many colleges. Um so as students learn it in high school, they can transition that to college application or even pro application if they so choose, which is nice. Um they've been supportive in providing materials and things like that that eventually when it gets integrated in the curriculum, they can start using that software. Does the old scoreboard you said it's old but working? Does that go to another property or way? That's going to be thrown in the garbage probably. Is it just Okay. So, I will say they are very old school and in going to other gyms through different sporting events and districts. We we need an upgrade. Yeah, we need an upgrade. And we've been very diligent as a board as well as a district is upgrading our current. This is kind of

154the last. We started probably back in 2018 with the baseball softball and migrating and upgrading everything else. So, it's been it's been nice. Hey, Matt. Um, question on the scoreboard. So, is there any like energy savings or anything that we'll see as a result of kind of migrating to LED technology? Is there anything like that? Probably not. Make Rachel happy with No. So, we got great rates on electrical, too, by the way. Lowest in the state. But um no, we're actually going to be using a little bit more just because they are bigger boards and there are four of them versus two of them. So they are still very efficient, but they're just they're different than what we currently have. So So no grant or anything available for high efficiency appliance. Probably not. Not for

155scoreboards. We might save money if we would turn them off right after every event and not just keep them on. Get a motion sensor for it and everybody leaves it shuts off. I guess just last general question. What's the source of funds? Is this a syncing fund or is this fund? Um and Rachel can speak to it too, but um these are bond dollars that were approved as the you know from the taxpayers as well as the board originally when we wrote the bond application. Um athletics has some funds that they are allowed to use for equipment and this is what Mr. Hassler and Mr. Fitzgerald decided to use. So thanks Matt. Y any additional discussion on the scoreboards? Was that um the universe telling us something? It was. I don't know what that means.

156I'm just going to stay here for the next round in case. Okay. Mr. Scott? Yes. Mr. Goalleski? Yes. Mrs. Coleman? Yes. Mr. Keller? Yes. Mrs. Shaw? Yes. Mr. Campbell? Yes. I'm a yes. That motion passes. Item 2K, Lakes Elementary, masonry repair on the exterior wall. I move that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the director of operations approves the masonry repair at Lakes Elementary as presented. Motion by Mrs. Coleman, supported by Mrs. Shaw. Any discussion? I know some of that came up in your bond update, but any additional discussion on that? Uh, one one comment about the the bids for the masonry. Um, and this has nothing to do with the actual job itself, but the discrepancy in the bids is is pretty extreme. Are we not maybe defining our

157scope of work as best as we should or So, uh, Mr. Scott asked the same question. What we, when we did our post bid interviews with each contractor, we did find out that some of them lumped alternate ones and twos into their base bid. So, alternate one was basically to do the work outside of the school or outside of the summer and do it during the school year, which is not advantageous for us, but a possibility that we would need to to look at. Um, we determined as part of post bid that we don't need to do that because the contractor could meet the timeline. And then the alternate, sorry, and I'm going off memory, two and three were for um adding concrete and some other things as part of a um refrigeration package that

158we were looking to do for food service. Mhm. But we ended up pulling that project because the state of Michigan came back and put some limitations on us um in terms of that project and wanted us to build a 2-hour separation wall and some other things that we decided were not and uh going to meet our timeline for summer as well as our budget. So um we're just going with the base bit in front of you today for that project. Yeah, I just wondered because and it could easily be the situation where one just charges more, but um sometimes some of these uh quotes that we see uh I'm just hoping that we're able to standardize our scope of work to all biders and we do a pretty good job even the high one. I

159mean ultimately they might not have wanted to do the work and they just threw a number at it and decided you know what if they take it great I'll make a lot of money. I don't know. So it's one of those things. No that's a possibility too. cautious about that at the same time. All right. Any additional discussion? Hearing none. Mr. Scott? Yes. Mr. Goleski? Yes. Mrs. Coleman? Yes. Mr. Keller? Yes. Mrs. Shaw? Yes. Mr. Campbell? Yes. And I'm a yes. That motion passes. Moving on to item 3A, 2526, parent student handbooks. Who's tackling this? But normally it's Dave that reviews this. Kate. Okay, here we go. Normally it's Scott Van. Oh yeah, you're right. You're right. Miss Gregory, what you got for us? Okay, not too much this year. Um, we have one change

160to the secondary handbook. It's just with their attendance makeup time, going back to a half an hour of makeup time for the tardies instead of a full hour. So, the high school team thought that that was a valuable change. Um, and then the second two are a little bit bigger in chunks. We have our transportation. It's been a little bit since they went through and revised the policies. So, they're consistent in all three handbooks. Um, so you can can see through those changes. I don't think there's anything huge within there. And then similar for our um school health regulations. Our school nurse went through, we weren't necessarily aligned in all three levels of our handbook. So, she went through and created um some updates there that met state standards and true practices and and follow

161some of the guidelines that she has to follow with the school. Obviously, sorry guys. Obviously, this is for discussion. If there's things that you that come out as, oh my gosh, first time I read um why is this in there or anything, please contact Kate. I know we have a couple of new members. This is something that comes forward every year. Um and then once adopted is adopted as policy and and we are very thankful to have it adopted by the June meeting because July 1st we are looking at the next school year. Um so parents are signing off on the handbook and so forth. So we would like all those changes updated and completed by that that time that we're rolling out to parents looking at the next school year. So if any questions

162come up over the next month I am more than happy to answer those questions. I have an easy question probably, but the postcards I see we're not going to mail those. Is that just for cost savings cost savings and and parents like to see the immediate and it's released on myar a lot quicker? It's 2025, man. We Well, I know, but there's, you know, people that don't like to use apps and things. Can we like put out some notice in advance of that so people aren't looking for them? Because I feel like that's the one thing everybody's checking their mailbox. I'm I'm sure we can with our uh buildings when they send out their initial letters that we can share or in even Chuck's weekly and the new app for H Heartland Living. So, if

163you didn't sign up for it and you saw it in my weekly, add that to your phone and you'll get automatic updates, snow days, road closures, hey, check your check your parent portal because the routes are out. So, there you go. So, there's a good opportunity, right? See, unplugging. That's heated up for you. Item 3B, something is happening in the background. Some noises. Um, item 3B, policy committee date. Um, I just want some feedback from you all. I can send out a doodle poll to get concrete dates, but are we looking on solidifying Mondays? Do we want to try and do it a little bit earlier than 6:30? What works with you all? Um, I know some of you all have structured work schedules, others not so much. Um, do you want to change it

164up from a Monday to a Wednesday? I would like to avoid Fridays. I think everyone probably would. What's your preferences? And then I can send out a poll. Personally, um, I prefer keeping it on Mondays. For those of us that travel quite a bit, um, any other day but Monday can be a real bear. So same here, same time seems to work also. 6:30 and I think that's fine for me too. I I think my my bigger question is what what is the structure of these? What what can we expect? what what what are we doing during these I think the first meeting is there's some policies that need to come forward at the first meeting but I think the first meeting that discussion has to occur around what is the structure what does it

165look like um and they are not decision-m meetings correct as of now at all it was just discussion just to flush out questions um my understanding is from that policy committee a draft would then be brought for approval to the board table correct So, and then any new policies would go there for feedback before coming to the new to the board table. Right. Okay. I would say I would caution for whatever you as a board want to do. But I do agree with if we're going to have the if you're going to have the policy committee and you have discussion that that's the discussion as a board meeting would be so that it becomes action item at the next meeting because if not so slow it would slow it way down. So right. So, so

166it would be a discussion item at the policy committee meeting and then the next G meeting we have it would be an action item to vote on. Yes. Do you guys are you guys okay with that? We can draft some language even to bring to this meeting that spells that out. As long as it fulfills any legal obligations. It's a meeting we have to given it's open it's yeah the same. So there will be much less discussion here here and more action and yeah I like that. Okay. Um I guess I'll sorry just to weigh in on date. I'm I also would like to keep it Mondays and I'm open to going earlier if that Do we have So you're going to send out a poll with like Yeah. Just give us Mondays at Does

167earlier work for you, Mr. Campbell? I know you said this time works. Yeah. Um 6:30 seems to work good but flexible. Okay, Mr. Goleski. I agree. Like is 5 too early, 5:30 too early? It's not. Can make it work. 5:30 6 o'clock. Um 6 615 620 625. Well, keep in mind too if it's an open meeting, if there are people that want to attend, you know, um I I'd be open to six for sure. Okay. Support. And my my availability depends on the sports season. Okay. All right. Item 4 A, future meeting, June 16th, right here, 6:30 p.m. Um, item 4B, proposed July organizational meeting date. What is the proposed date on the calendar? July 21st. Can everyone make that? Right, Renee? Yeah, it's it's on this agenda. It's at the bottom for It says

168July 21st is proposed. Does anyone have a hard conflict with the 21st? I get you probably don't have your calendar and for those of you that has wives probably need to check in. I don't know about you, but my husband would be lost without a family calendar. Yeah. Let email me, I guess, in the next week if there's a hard conflict with the 21st, please. Okay. Yeah, let me know. All right, we are adjourned. Item five. It hasn't