001e e e [Music] he [Applause] :30 p.m. item 1 a Pledge of Allegiance please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance indice item 1B approval of agenda items SL items for discussion I move that the agenda for the September 16th regular meeting be approved support motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mrs Shaw any discussion hearing none Mr goleski yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs bondal yes I'm a yes that motion passes item 1C consent agenda I move that the consent agenda for the September 16th 2024 regular meeting be approved support motion by Mrs Shaw supported by Mr Costa any discussion on item 1 C consent agenda on board can I um um ask you to add one name to the recognition of tenure uh Rachel Patterson in inadvertently
002left her off Rachel Patterson thank you any concerns with the modify of item three on 1 C the modification hearing none Mr goleski yes Mr Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs bondel yes and I'm a yes that motion passes item 1 D super attendance report thank you um just uh to remind the public uh November we will U be voting on a countywide special ed millage the countywide special ed millage I've presented information to all of our families a couple of times now there's also a leesa website U this is a leesa um run election however it benefits all of the schools in lyston County uh for Heartland specifically uh back in 2015 uh it did not pass however it passed across the county therefore uh we uh have
003uh realized the gains from the special ed millage um some people have asked uh if it's for special education services for students what you know how does it impact a general ed student well the reality is uh this is about $1.8 million that we have to provide the services at a certain level for our special needs students which they deserve uh to be educated they deserve a free and appropriate education and so we would have to pull that money from General Ed funds in order to supplement it if it does not uh get renewed and uh um there's it's a renewal and it's also an increase of a little bit of money to bring it back to hold based on a Headly override so please look for that information um please know that when you
004go to the polls uh as always it's a school election it'll be the last thing you vote on basically because under the law school issues are last on the ballot and please consider uh that our special ed students uh deserve a well-rounded education uh like all of us do so um just wanted to touch on that real quick Rachel do I need to add anything no you did a great job but if you do go to our website um there is a link that we'll right on the homepage that will take you to the um leesa provided website uh for all the detailed information about the ballot proposal so um Mrs where are you at come on up come on [Applause] up so this is Amy zel she is one of our high school teachers
005you've seen her before on uh extended trips summer trips uh she's here uh in this part of the agenda to give us a summary a quick summary of their trip to Panama that the board approved yes hello everyone uh very excited to tell you all about our trip that you graciously um approved and the kids were very very excited about so I wanted to go ahead and begin um we started our trip here in June uh bright and early at 3:00 a.m. at the airport and uh we had uh 35 students attend they were mostly um going to be 11th grade going to be 12th grade and then recent graduates so we had a nice uh group all of them had had at least three years of Spanish experience so we met here at DTW
006and connected in Miami where of course we had a big storm but we made it and then finally we we end up making it to Panama and there was our travel shirt we all were in our 35 shirts there um when in Panama we had all different types of discovering to do one of the things about Panama was learning about the history and architecture so we were able to go to the Panama Vio which is the old city you can kind of see in this picture here and also you can see the new so you can see the old and the new how they kind of combined together oh we were able to even see some of this modern architecture in their biodiversity Museum too uh speaking of biodiversity one of the highlights of the
007trip well so many to talk about but the photos I have represented here were the students in the bottom left here they were doing their uh snorkling in a in a reef uh up on the other pictures we actually went to a farm a pineapple farm and the kids were able to actually eat the product the produce right from the ground like right from the tree and it was seconds old before they were able to tr to taste it uh and here again there the biodiversity Museum so the kids can understand how important Panama is um to the the habitats of that region one of the best things about the trip is the language portion of the trip and um you can see in the middle picture here we were having a lunch and one
008of the restaurant owners children came up and was showing us his toys and so the kids really liked interacting with him but we also had I think which was probably the best day and one of the things we love about EF was where the students actually were given $20 each they're broken into groups and they actually had to use the $20 to buy a meal for a family of four a typical pananian meal and then at the end when they had all these fresh ingredients from the market they had to gift it to someone and that was such a huge giving forward thing and it was all in Spanish and just watching the kids be so excited about it and then watching the reaction of the people who they gifted the food to was really
009overwhelming and the kids really um loved that so much so as as a the leader of the group it was just a check plus plus for me um one of the things also we think of Panama you don't really think about the folklore there you know we have our folklore and our Traditions here but the kids actually got to experience it firsthand like girls were put into dresses they got their hair done and they were all learning a traditional dance even the guys got to participate as well and um that was a really neat thing that I wasn't even expecting so the kids really all a sudden all the girls start going getting their hair done they were very excited about that um this of course a seventh Marvel of the modern world the Panama
010Canal that was a really lovely place to be um there me florus to see The Ships coming through we actually saw a few ships passing through the locks we saw them working and we got to see the huge IMAX presentation Morgan Freeman telling us all about it so it was just a fantastic opportunity for the kids to see the new this is the old locks in the front and then they had the brand new locks in the back because the uh ships are so much bigger anymore this day was a special day we actually took the children to an indigenous Village and this indigenous group The the way they make their money is by tourism and they actually invite tourists in and they feed the US an amazing um lunch of tilapia plantain you can
011see the fresh fruit all these um items around are tapestries that are made by them this is their only income and um they were able and we were able ble to interact with them and you could only get to them by long canoe so that was really cool of course while we were there uh the the uh Sports had to break out so they actually did a big uh soccer match beforehand but right here you can see they're kind of doing a little afterward playing a little basketball and so uh you can see our kids and then one of the indigenous men in their um traditional outfit too and at the end when we wrapped it up the great thing is it's we're together which seems like a short period 7 days but the things
012that these kids are put into that they have to navigate really just binds them as a group and so that's what we loved about this experience the kids become so close they know each other so well and then you can see right here on the uh the right we had our our awards for the kids that really outstanding in so many different ways we got to recognize them and then of course right here in the front was Gabrielle we couldn't have done our trip without the excellent tour guide right from um Panama you could tell he loved his country and it it really rubbed off on the kids it was genuine and so he his love for his country rubbed off on them and it made them love it too so it just an overall
013just wonderful wonderful opportunity and experience for the kids so we wanted to they thank you so much to all of you guys for that France and Spain's coming this summer kids are super excited about that and I'll be seeing you a little later in the day today um our next trip I got to I got something for you think about it Galapagos Islands don't say no thank you thank you thank you so much [Applause] all right next we have uh curriculum it's curriculum's month so uh Dave I believe you have two things to share with us tonight uh stem and assessment scores if I'm not mistaken I do thank you um I have Mr Anderson Mr Costello and Miss McFarland come up um Chris is our farm stem teacher uh if you remember last year
014I had um the elementary stem presentation and last year we added farms in Middle School to to that trajectory towards High School um and Chris has done an unbelievable job U at fifth grade stem but I'm going to have him talk about his program right thank you thank you Dave so last year was our inaugural year uh with the fifth and sixth grade stem so we rolled out with the spob bolt robots coating windup toys activities and simple machines and then so the fifth graders last year to change it up for them this this year as sixth graders we've added an extra twist to the spal robot racing track track or they'll have to add a load and get that around the track without losing uh their is it usually usually I don't need these
015oh is that better all right and so need it when I came to no no we were excited weren't we so um this year the sixth graders then will have to add we add have to add a load a carriage to carry the Rocks around the racetrack so what we do let me go here we go so teamwork is essential the most important thing um with with this when students come into stem early on there's always that bad habit of wanting to just hurry up through things so I really want to focus on them about coming into class getting into a team I let them choose their team we're 100% always in a team and then we we focus on the stem Learners Mantra which is I may not know the answer but I know
016that together we can figure it out so one of the things I added this year was a fifth grade and sixth grade uh teamwork students of the month where I'm just looking I'm observing I'm not like these three boys here they they were just doing this so well working together coding talking uh making changes and it was fantastic to see that problem solving fits right in with teamworking uh communication patience there's frustrations there's try again keeping notes not changing our notes um as far as erasing and staying positive works with all the activities and here you can see what the the girls doing the cup they have to on the very first first day of stem I have them work together and in these activities they can't always talk uh and they can sometimes only
017use one hand and they've got a stack the cups up uh into different uh shapes windup toys a lot of fun the students get a bunch of windup toys they look at them they get to dissect them they get to do research with them wind them up and see how far they will go so again we're using that research collecting data there's math involved in there and then when they're all done working with the windup toys then they'll create their own windup toy racer and so I think by last semester last year some of the students had the windup Racers which which is a spool rubber band a pencil a washer they had I think the record was about 60 ft which was pretty cool simple machines like the SPO robots I try to break
018it into kind of sections so they start off with um looking at 3D instructions and creating simple machines that way then they'll look at pictures as you can see there with the buildings and try to to design and create that building based off a picture and then we get into creating our own designs often they like to make elevators windmills are the favorite or combining a couple different simple machines um is a lot of fun as well and then probably the Highlight is the coding the spheral bolt uh we start with a simple one block coating which is uh we roll out some PT putts so they have a couple different pot putts they're coating again working together coding um giving each other an opportunity and and then we go into the the mini racetrack
019which you'll see a short video here in a second and I think the thing that I'm I'm most proud of the kids and is they'll they'll come up to me sometimes there'll be an individual from a team they'll have a question and I just guide them back to their team get them to work together allow make sure everybody gets that chance to communicate make sure they're listening to each other and then 99% of the time they end up solving the problem without me having to solve the problem for them so it's really cool to see that and then the coding competitions um if you know me I love to compete I think that's a a it's a great way to get kids involved in school so anytime we can compete we were competing today um
020with the mini RAC trcks that's that's the thing where it can be kind of funny because I have to hurry them along especially the fifth graders it's like if you want a race we got to hurry up so sometimes I got to put them on a clock so I've got a short little video here that I'll share with you it's going to go quick it's about 10 [Music] [Applause] seconds and they're always excited so so there you go so I just want to add on to um this is just Chris's second year in the St position and the kids loved him so much they would beg to they'd come into school early to get into his classroom they wanted to skip lunch to be in his classroom like they won't leave him alone um he
021had a Cadet teacher last year um who was a senior and he would stand in the middle of the racetrack coding his own robot and you'd have to ask him to move out of the way but he he was so excited cuz he's like I've never experienced anything like this and so he was just beside himself and just like he was no longer helping teach he was like became one of the kids and he was like where was this when I was here so it's just been Chris has been absolutely phenomenal um we've let him kind of just take his own way given him a little guidance and the kids are just beyond excited to be with him I want to thank Annette and Colin too because they oversee that whole stem uh starting at
022the elementary level and working their way up um they've been an integral part in this whole stem program as we're moving it forward and I'm going to talk a little bit about the ramifications of that of stem with science and math in a second but thank you Chris thank [Applause] you and real quick um I know that uh it's been public lished the M live uh published a bunch of data um about a different way of data and I want to explain some of that uh typically when we get our scores back from our state assessments they always they only come back in silos so you have third grade ELA fifth grade science you know 10th grade math and everything we look at is in grade level and content within that grade level and we're
023always looking to see how we're doing in those individual silos and then we kind of try to piece together how is the district doing on a big picture basis um and we make some guesses on that and how we did collectively over all these bits of data and what the MLive data did was it gave us for the first time data across the entire District scaffolding from third grade all the way up through high school and and in each content area so we can look at Ela the entire District they took all of the proficiency scores of all the kids from third grade all the way up through 10th grade and then they put them all together and they came up with a proficiency percentage and they did it for the all the districts in
024the state so that's what that data was from we had never seen data like this before so it was a pleasant surprise about how we did as a entire an entire District because this is a health check of our curriculum and instruction and our scaffolding how that's how it that's how I took it is how well do we do it from 3rd to 4th to 5ifth and and and blend it together it takes a lot of people to for us to do this it's about collaboration relationships the teachers do a phenomenal job the principes do a great job of leading all that from the instructional coaches um we can't have that kind of data success without everybody on board uh when we work so just to recap that a little bit in ela there's 539
025school districts in the state of Michigan in ela we are ranked 16th that's top three % in math we were ranked 17 out of 539 that's top three in science we were ranked second in the state and a lot of that has to do with the fact that we have stem now we have instructional coaches working with our teachers our teachers are collaborating at a higher level all those things together um finished second top 1% in social studies we were ranked fourth in the state that's top 1% and then they took all of the content areas across every GR grade level and and testing area and we were 12th ranked 12th as a school district overall so we're really proud of that data and it just shows um the culture at least to me the
026culture that we have here the collaboration culture and how we scaffold really really well with our instruction we have a lot of room to grow we have a lot of kids we still want to move up but when you see it compared to districts on a big scale like that um it it it verifies a lot of the work that we're doing so I wanted to put that into context what that data means thank you Dave thank you and and and again uh the board has heard us talk often that you can pull all kinds of data you can pull all kinds of information and try to compare District to district and it's just comparing apples to oranges when it comes to State assessment scores it is what it is every district is engaging in
027the same assessments that our students are engaging in and our students perform Med at a level that makes us puts us in the top 2% of all the school districts in the state of Michigan we should all be extremely proud of that and and that is from top to bottom every single employee in this school district makes this happen creating environments that kids can learn in making sure they're clean making sure we're feeding them making sure we're transporting them everything that everybody does is so essential to us being able to say our school district has students performing in the top 2% of every school public school district in the state of Michigan if we can't celebrate that I'm not sure what we can celebrate to be honest with you that's pretty darn awesome so just
028wanted to thank everybody for everything they do so thank you and thank you Dave and your team as [Applause] well uh lastly a bond update there's really not a lot to talk about um we're wrapping up some projects and getting ready for uh bids to come in for some other projects for next summer right Matt so uh Matt's not going to come up we'll just leave it at that so ends the superintendence report thank you item 1e call to the public again um this is just a reminder to those in the audience that um you must present yourself in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by your comments each speaker will be given 3 minutes at the 2 minute and 30 second Mark I
029will wave my yellow folder um just to give you a heads up that you have 30 seconds left at the 3 minute Mark you will be asked to step down from the podium please do not interrupt any speakers any of those folks who choose to interrupt can excuse themselves from the meeting [Music] Jason Wolford good evening uh glad to be here appreciate each of you yeah uh I'm Jason Wolford and I'm speaking tonight regarding the contract or the potential contract with the Department of Justice uh this is just a friendly reminder to each of you tonight that we're a constitutional republic a government in which Sovereign power is exercised by the representatives elected by the people we are constantly being told that we're a democracy when in fact we're a constitutional republic therefore we must
030look at our constitution for the decisions that we make as Leaders both here and around the United States unfortunately I believe that we're being or being believed to or or told uh that uh we should be a democracy and unfortunately I believe that we're almost living in a totalitarian oligarchy democracy which is very concerning a few days ago I spoke on a panel and I was asked what the greatest threat to our system of law was and I responded the administration State we are run by three branches of government legislative executive and exec judicial uh not the madeup admin state which is being pushed on all of us to be the fourth branch that doesn't exist I believe tonight as you discuss reviewing a contract with the Department of Justice that you would vote no
031as we are seeing an overreach of our government we witnessed an overreach just a few years ago in our state and many others during covid when our governor was held to the Constitution she declared a state of emergency and shifted powers unconstitution Al to the Department of Health and Human Services therefore allowing our government to decide who could go to church who should live who who was essential and what businesses could stay open I mentioned to say that we have a of a few people voted for a school board to represent us we did not vote for the Department of Justice to make decisions for our children and I can see already all of us have seen the weap weaponization uh in our country of the FBI and the Department of Justice and others like
032them so I'll say this again and again that the power belongs to the parents the power belongs to those that we elected therefore I encourage you tonight as a board to vote down this continued relationship with the Department of Justice each of you have been elected and or getting paid to do a job and I'm asking you to do that and not shift that to the Department of Justice I would hope that the school lawyer and the representation for our school district has counseled you in the area and has reminded you of our constitutional freedoms and not allow the infiltration of the Department of Justice over the lives of our children our families our school district and those are rights of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and for those of you in leadership
033Andor on the board that may be scared of being bullied I'm asking for you for the sake of those that have come before us like our forefathers who gathered in Independence Hall 248 years ago and declared themselves to be free that you do the same thing also for the lives that have been taken or given for the sake of our freedom I ask you to stand up for the people lastly the government is not our God the government is not our physician the government is not the parent to our children vote no on the extension or the furtherment of this agreement Mr Wolford please wrap it up thank you I didn't see I'm wrapping it up thank you uh lastly um I just want to remind you that the Department of Justice people do not
034live in Heartland they live in DC and a majority of them send their kids to to private school thank you for your your time tonight thank you [Applause] Tiffany [Applause] be good evening I'm Tiffany beard and the vice president of the PTO at farms intermediate school and I want to address two significant concerns regarding the use of PTO funds in our district first there's been a recent request by an appointed board member to use PTO funds for an artw walk while an artwalk walk might be a great Community event directing PTO funds as prize money for a handful of students is not fair to all of the other students These funds are intended to serve our PTO funds are raised by parents and students specifically to support our school's educational needs and to enhance student
035experiences with things like assemblies lock-ins Kona Ice field day and popcorn asking us to redirect these funds to an external program undermines the trust parents place in us to support their own children in our school directly furthermore using PTO funds for external programs could jeopardize our tax exempt status which is critical for our continued operation second I need to discuss the issue of Chromebooks I understand that there was a decision years ago that we did not need one device per student but Chromebooks have now become essential as as essential as textbooks for classroom instruction and mstep testing these basic educational resources should be covered by the school district's budget not by PTO funds some PTO are struggling financially and it is not fair to rely on them for sorry for essential resources especially when not
036every PTO can contribute equally according to Chuck the 2020 Bond program allocated $6.5 million for technology Replacements and upgrades this Bond money is what should be going towards the Chromebooks or it should be coming out of the district's general fund PTO should not be forced to carry the burden of the district's inability to properly fund these essential Educational Tools I strongly urge the board to reconsider how we handle the funding for the Chromebooks and other requests for PTO funds if the parent support if if parents and supporters within the community find out that their money is going towards items that the district should be funding they will be less willing to donate to the pto's in the future bottom line art prize money and Chromebooks are not an appropriate use for PTO funds I'm asking
037the school board to find a better way to pay for essential resources either using Bond money or the district's general fund thank [Applause] you Julie Tucker hi um I just first want to thank you all for being up here it's a huge commitment and I appreciate your dedication to our school district um I'm Julie Tucker I'm proud to be running for the Board of Education um a lot of people know me but a little bit about me I do have three daughters in our school district who I'm very proud of um I'm a wife of 20 years as of next week and I'm also an independent business owner and as a business owner I know the importance of communication I know the importance of budgeting um as a realator I also know the importance that
038a school district has on our property value and I also know that a school has a huge impact on bringing families into our community and these will be things that are very important to me as a future board member um as a candidate I am honored and proud to be endorsed by our Heartland teachers our teachers are our foundation of our school district and it's essential that a board and our board uh communicates with our teachers understands what their needs are supports them and gives them the tools that they need in order to make our students most successful possible um I'm also a very proud parent in this school district and um our Student Success does start at home similar to the roles of our teachers it's important that us parents communicate with our teachers
039we know what our students are doing we have those relationships we have those respectful conversations how we communicate and respect others is a direct reflection of how our students and our children are going to respect and behave others um as a board member I will will not be bringing any of my Republican agenda to the board um it is a nonpartisan position and um I will be bringing the values that are important to our students to their education to their future to their safety to our community um a few things that I've done in our community uh I have started a um scholarship called because of you it's a gratitude scholarship that gives students the opportunity to give thanks and appreciation to a teacher an admin a coach somebody who's been impactful I think it's
040extremely important that we teach our children how to be gra be grateful and give appreciation um I've also funded and started several fundraisers for our school district um one being next uh next month a 5k for the basketball team so participate in that um I've volunteered coached for several years and last year I successfully brought the homecoming parade back to our school district and that is really what I wanted to talk to today um we have our next meeting is next Thursday I'm so proud that this has uh moved into the hands of the students it's important that uh we in order for the prey to be successful has to be St a student base and this is also teaching our students the importance of community involvement teaching them leadership so save the date for
041Friday October 11th 5: p.m. roads will be closed at 4:30 um come support the high school the students their programs their clubs their Sports and it's a great way that we're bringing the community and students together thank you [Applause] Jeff [Music] Scott good evening my name is Jeff Scott I have three children in the Heartland district and I am running for Heartland School Board this November I wanted to speak on both of the action items on tonight's agenda uh first as far as the superintendent contract extension goes I do want to point out that the superintendent already has a three-year contract which is the same as all the other administrators and uh longer than anyone else in the district as far as I know so I do expect tonight during your discussion to hear why
042why extending that contract would benefit the citizens the students and the parents of this community also and and even more disturbing is the fact that you've asked to put that on the agenda as an action item but refuse to provide a copy of the contract that you refuse to sign so how can you extend a contract that you refuse to disclose to the community second and and most importantly I wanted to to address the doj agreement I I do appreciate that someone took a few minutes to put together an FAQ on the agreement something that I suggested you do with the last one but was met with a firm refusal the obvious question though is why don't you post this on the website and on social media and make it available to all parents and
043all citizens rather than just the few people that come to these meetings my single largest problem with the agreement is the fact that this district has still blatantly refused to pass any policies or procedures that address how such an agreement will be implemented and what the effect is on the students will parents be notified when their students are referred to the doj what are the long-term ramifications of that will parents be able to review the Dei curriculum that they're teaching in the class classroom is there an opt out for parents who don't want their children taught this will Harland create a page on its website that keeps parents updated on how this is going what's being spent how it's impacting the community and are you going to fill this vacant de Z Zar the Dei
044Zar position which is budgeted at over $200,000 a year to the taxpayer in an environment where plummeting en rollman is affecting budgeting and we had another member of the community mentioned the school couldn't even afford Chromebooks and we' budgeted $200,000 for a dear you can't find these answers in the agreement they're your responsibility to answer through the policies which you set what happens from here well I hope it's not the same thing it's been for the last 2 years refusal to answer question refusal to be transparent refusal to communicate in any meaningful way I'm going to leave you with a few reminders of your ethical responsibility to this community in your own body laws one is to put the educational welfare of students first students number two is to make policy only after a discussion
045at this public board meeting some of you have sat here for years and refused to have any meaningful discussion whatsoever furthermore your own bylaws dictate that you shall maintain two-way communication with the citizens in this District so I hope moving forward you can start living up to this Ella nicotin Ella nickon hi my name is Ellen yukin I have lived in Harland Township since 2005 uh for those that don't know yet I am going to be on the ballot this November for fourth district county commissioner so the reason I'm here is I believe I want to you know remind everyone that I believe that public transportation is very important and it's very important in that it benefits everyone not just some people but it benefits everyone um so so for those that don't know uh
046the MTA up in Flint they have spent the last 20 years about on and off trying to get their uh buses into Heartland you know trying to ask various businesses um they've all said no I believe that everyone should support public transit regardless of politics so why am I here right now at a school board meeting um so it is come to my attention that some people in this room may be going to Flint tomorrow um this is actually a really great opportunity because you know I work in Flint and I take a public transit up to Flint you know I think for those that are going to be going to Flint tomorrow I think there's a really good opportunity to try out the public transit infrastructure that we have right now uh we there
047is no bus stop in Heartland yet but there is one in Fenton Howell and Brighton so you know I if if you are interested in um incorporating public transit into your trip to Flint tomorrow please um talk to me thank you [Applause] Barbara tankovich thank you once again for letting me speak uh just two quick comments before I pray uh convictions should be in all aspects of Life Family Church business without being ashamed of those convictions you shouldn't change from whether you're on the board whether you're at home they should be the same and also politics is policy and that's what we all have to live under so we do talk politics okay in God's word it's Romans 1 18- 20 for God does not not Overlook sin and the wrath of God is revealed
048from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who in their wickedness suppress and stifle the truth because that which is known about God is evident within them in their inner Consciousness for God made it evident to them for ever since the creation of the world his invisible attributes his eternal power and divine nature have been clear L seen being understood through his workmanship all his creation the wonderful things that he has made so that they who fail to believe and trust in him are without excuse and without defense father God I have asked that you would prepare Hearts to hear your word and that they would accept them because we know from the foundation of the world you knew that Adam and Eve your first creation which was very good you said would fall
049because of the Free Will that weiv and that Rebellion which is sin has come upon everyone but you gave us a solution you sent your son Jesus to come in the flesh to experience everything that we have experienced and that through his sacrifice taking your wrath that this word talks about unto himself at the cross that those who believe in him accept the gift the free gift of what he has done in his flesh to suffer for us that they would believe and come to a saving knowledge and that by his resurrection from the dead we too will be resurrected to either heaven or to hell in jesus' name thank you moving on to item 1e committee and building reports Mr goleski you want to kick us off yes thank you um I will be
050making appointments later this week to visit uh Legacy and the community center and I'm looking forward to that starting off the year um working with those two centers and much like probably everyone else is going to do I want to give a big congrats to Hartland for their uh mstep scores um great job and one thing we need to do as as much as we need to congratulate the students for their achievements and we must do more for that um I want to congratulate the teachers of those students by facilitating that level of academic achievement and last but not least I think it's extremely important to congratulate the parents who have made education a top priority with their kids good job to all um I also hope we can use these results as sort of
051a springboard um to brag about the district as a place of academic achievement and put somewhat a little less focus on our on our district as sort of an interventionist District which is fine and by no means uh is that meant as a message to not be proud of those achievements as well but to really focus in on the fact that we are a district of academic achievement and then I also want to uh say uh sorry to my counterparts John Connelly and Brighton and Jason Bedford and Howell for not having the scores we do sorry thank you thank you Mr galeski Mrs Shaw thank you um a couple weeks ago um Mrs brisky and Mr Ur at farms made some time for me which was great um it's always nice to be able to
052sit down and sort of hear what's going on in the building and not that we don't miss Mrs Cheney but I know Mrs brisky is very enthused and is bringing some new ideas to the building um it's always good to see excitement um and I'm sure that that excitement just knowing Mrs 's personality I'm sure will not wne throughout the year it'll still be there the last day of school so um I look forward to meeting with them monthly I know next month we're planning on doing a tour of the stem Center so I'm happy to see to see that um hopefully they don't ask me to to do anything other than just observe but um such a great program I'm so happy that we offer that to our students um and I know later
053in the the um meeting today we will be talking about all of the board goals for 2024 25 um building and sight um is one of the Committees that I was on and I know thank you Mr Hughes to you and your team that um came up with some goals for this year um I think the thing that I am most proud of when it comes to building in sight is the um the secure education consultant that we had come in a few years ago that identified a lot of areas where we could make improvements in um securing our buildings and making things as safe as possible and that list is almost compl complete so excited to see that um and then the other committee that I um serve on is the Personnel committee and
054um I know that you know based on some conversations we had during that committee that there will be a lot of work done this year to address um some of the concerns and some of the things that we want to see when it comes to the Personnel in our district so and though all of these um I know we'll be on our website eventually and we'll be talked about later and so I don't want to rehash every bullet point here but thank you again to the Personnel team that um came up with some goals and took the time to meet with us as well so that's it for me thanks Mrs Coleman sure thank you um echoing What Glenn said um it was pretty exciting to um see the numbers that that we had been
055speculating about and had talked to Chuck and Dave about um it was nice to see those um published and to be able to share that great news with the community um it it's really super exciting and a big congratulations to all the teachers and staff the students of course for all their hard work um it's great to see that um let's see I sat in on uh three committee meetings since our last meeting and obviously the focus um in those discussions was primarily on the goals that are on the agenda tonight um all the the draft recommendations that each of the teams brought forward I Comm um I said in on the Personnel committee building a site and curriculum as well and I also uh set in on the senior center advisory council meeting at
056the beginning of the month um Chuck also joined that meeting to talk a little bit about the leesa um special education millage which was great that's a great group to get that information in front of since they're a little bit further removed from the schools um their 50th anniversary celebration is coming up on the 25th and I believe tickets are still available if anyone is interested in attending um the open house and they had a a fall a free week of fun at the beginning of the month they were very successful um there's a pickle ball tournament on November 8th through the 10th which is usually a hot commodity and um Kroger is actually doing a presentation to explain to the members how to use their digital coupons and their app and they're providing lunch
057um space is limited and it's this week on the 19th but I thought that was a fabulous idea um since all coupons seem to be moving to digital and that's the perfect target market to hit with that training so um let's see and then quickly um I had the pleasure of meeting with Misty gun our new principal at Creekside this morning um Creekside is the build one of the buildings that I've been assigned to so I had a great time chatting with her getting out on the playground for a little bit and um see chatting with some of the teachers so I'm looking forward to those monthly meetings with her and I will have the pleasure of meeting with uh dy over at round on Wednesday thank you thank you Mr Keller okay thank you
058I also had uh I had the chance to sit in a couple committee meetings this past uh month uh the Personnel committee health and safety as well as the finance committee not to belabor things that have been said but I thought it was very good discussion by the team and uh good job to the to Chuck and the edmin team for uh what I thought were some additional more objective metrics that were added which I felt felt were needed and I'll just note for the board here on the finance committee I'll say the Highlight is you know if we want to hit the 15% fund balance we got to make sure we don't get uh overly zealous with some with projects so keep that in mind um on the unplanned expenditures but I'm confident that
059uh Rachel will be able to make sure everything's in order and we'll we'll hit those goals so um with respect to the building reports I had the privilege of meeting with uh Mr Howton and Mr shanaver uh this past week and it was a great visit I also was able to meet with Deputy King so previous schools have been part of our forest team so getting to interact with our our local U Sheriff's Office was a was great interaction for me some of the the highlights there's a lot so I'll try to keep it brief but we we had some very successful boys and girls uh cross country teams that uh did very well this past week uh boys and girls both finished first at the the Holly Invitational so congratulations on that and also
060beat uh Novi on September the 11th we had several students who received the HMS awesomeness Awards which I had to learn what an awesomeness award was I can imagine what it might be but um just to kind of give you some highlights that you know wants to recognize students who had shown great work ethic some leadership skills or just in general a good positive in influence on some of the others and so those students names were Rowan fry Jaden Hendrickson Danny dearin I apologize if I spelled get that name pronounced wrong Colby rice Kennedy creger Aubrey sukus Braden hotton and keep up the good work to everybody keep uh next is um interesting and Mr jalon science class they had an opportunity to release to I guess learn about the life cycle of uh super
061monarch butterflies and so they were able to go and release these off in their migratory U insect and so then essentially they have a 9month LIF lifespan and then the students from the University of Kansas will actually go to Mexico and see which ones end up there so it's kind of a neat project that the team worked on highlighting on some of the stem um they had a Lego Hopper prototype race that they uh were involved in so I think much like Mr Anderson at farms the the the kids are loving that while I was there we actually had 20 different cadat teachers that were visiting I think it was from 11th grade and higher so that was neat to see them kind of jump through the the different classrooms I think there was uh
062eight different ones in total uh we had the new student breakfast for any students that are new to the district so thank you for uh counselors mlan and Hansen for running that and then I think last but not least I want to kind of just acknowledge that the Heartland Middle School student council met and wanted to thank uh Mrs smarch and Mr jalon for supporting that that ends my report thank you Mr Keller Mr Costa thanks Mr gach uh like all my other board members up here that we had several committees and I figure we can talk about that when we get to that portion I thought it was like Mr Keller said some good conversation um in regards to the high school uh I did have a great conversation with Mr Fitzgerald and I've
063got a some points here uh he mentioned the Freshman link program got to a great start uh those freshmen met with their link leaders before school as well as the first couple weeks um I thought they're transitioning well um college application week is coming up for the first week and he went on to explain how it's not just College um that the counselors are helping them navigate it's a applying for military or trade schools or apprenticeships or the workforce so that's coming up in October and then lastly uh Mrs Tucker kind of sold my thunder a little bit about the homecoming uh but it is a big week coming up um on October 11th they've got the parade at 5: the game at 7 and then the dance is on the 12th so with that
064I'm all set thank you Mr CA Mrs bondal um yes congratulations to the school district for the the great School that is an amazing thing CU I know we needed to bounce back from Co and it's definitely a great bounce back um and uh I have not been to see U Mrs Frasier at Lakes yet but I will be making an appointment um and as Chris stated um we did have uh committee meetings that we'll be discussing what the uh goals are and uh that's coming up so that's my report thank you thank you Mrs blondel uh very quickly for my report um I get to V visit Village multiple times a week um and so uh just a couple of things that are going on there they just had their big mum sale all
065of many of the elementary schools obviously in our district had that um and so that was their main fundraiser but their their large fundraiser for um the fall will be their Hedgehog hustle which is kicking off next month so if you know a kiddo that goes to Village or um have a kiddo that goes to Village I'm sure they'll be getting their videos out to ask you for donations in their Hedgehog hustle um that's the biggest fundraiser that they have of the year um one plug I do want to make um that many might not be aware of is much like the high school um Pantry at uh that we have at the high school um that Mrs Shaw runs there was um parents that pulled together and and actually started one at Village as
066well and so they support several kids every single weekend through spring break through the holidays um and so I did notice on Costco that there is Easy Mac is on sale so if anyone wants to pick drop an extra one uh and drop it off at Village or the high school I'm sure that would be very much appreciated um my last plug would be for Adopt a Family many of you know and I will say it till I'm blue in the face until Christmas time comes we support roughly 400 students in our district through the holidays and so that provides gifts for the children a holiday meal and then sustainable food items for those kiddos who might have food insecurities through that long winter break um if you're interested in adopting a family donating participating
067running a drive with one of your sport sports or Club teams please please let me know um it certainly takes a village to kick that off and make it a success um and I know that the students and families on the other end of it Christmas morning are really um just thankful and and really feel like like our district has wrapped our arms around them so um more to come on that that ends my report item 2A doj monitoring agreement I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of District Council and the board president approves the board president signing the doj monitoring agreement as presented support motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mr Costa discussion yes I'd like to uh put in a few cens here um first I think it's very important
068that we recognize that um Mr Mrs Gregory and Mr minsker have done a very very good job at working with um the doj with past requirements and I think they've done uh as best of a job as they could to this point um within the confines of their job duties and legalities and such and I do want to say thank you for those efforts I really do um the board if you recall in our last meeting we met in private um at the uh end of our meeting and we met with our district um school district U attorney who was kind enough to answer questions that we had and boy did we have questions and for those of you that have reviewed that board packet you can see that you can turn just about every
069sentence into a question and ask why how when there there's tons of that in there we asked a lot of questions um uh three of us did and um we got those question answered unfortunately some board members were upset that we were asking questions about something so complex and comprehensive I'll let you figure out how that divided up but we do have uh an issue here where the extension has no solid real quantitative measurements other than record maybe incidents which can be very subjective in nature um the doj has already cost the district by not providing feedback when asked and then telling the district that the questionnaire that we sent out wasn't good enough my concern is not with the administration of this District I think they're doing a fine job in handling this mess
070but my um suspicion is with the doj I have absolutely no faith in that that organization whatsoever I don't see any fine line of when we may or may not be good enough as a district and there's too many questions that although they were answered to the best of our attorney's ability I think there's still a lot of questions out there one of my main concerns is that they are now mandating that we work with a group called The Great Lakes equity center in developing some curriculum and some programs that are supposedly going to help our staff our students and if you check out the Great Lakes equity center you will find just a world of CRT type documents and resource materials I am no fan of that and I will not let that invade
071our district whatsoever so [Applause] we have a discussion to get through so can you guys please thank you I want to give everyone else a chance to discuss as well I I do have a comment too um so as as Glenn said I think our school district has done a great job thus far um you know I've looked at a lot of the evidence and things that um I've been asked or I've asked about and Jas Wolford said at best this is a constitutional republic I asked for feedback that none of this document or anything that we're doing would uh usurp any student teacher parent administrator anybody's constitutional rights and um I was not given confidence while Travis tried um our lawyer tried um he did not provide us and he couldn't with um anything
072that that would go to the Supreme Court as far as the Constitution is concerned um we as a board signed an oath to the Constitution of the United States of America I brought my own Bible I put my hand on that I raised my hand and said that with everything I am I will protect everyone's constitutional rights and um I just I do not feel comfortable signing this kind of a contract because I I I do not think that uh everyone's constitutional rights are protected so that's my statement thank [Applause] you any additional discussion before I go I'll go last that's fine yeah I'd like to just make a couple comments some of what I want to say is similar to you know Mr galeski and Mrs blondal so I apologize for kind of repeating
073or being a broken record but I think it's a very important issue and and you know needs to be restated and you know again you know I have a lot of confidence in our team to to try to do the best with what um what's in front of them so you know I just I'll just say in advance you know how I may vote tonight is not a reflection of my confidence or my trust in in our team including several of you that are sitting up here on this table instead it's it's more a result of my conscience and terms of you know whether or not I feel that this is something that is you know constitutional and you know at the end of the day I I think that potentially some of the countermeasures
074that they're wanting us to look at like Great Lakes equity center Etc you know if if you go back just a few short years and all of this is available on the office of civil rights website they've archived content that in my mind and again it's not that the district wouldn't try to avoid this but I feel that our hands may be tied and and again in instituting some of this material we would invite a title six violation while we're trying to work through and and solve another problem and I I just I just don't think that that's a a wise move I think we're we're somewhat relying on the uh the doj's own interpretation of of um of the laws here and you know we just saw with the Supreme Court where they overturned
075the Chevron difference which basically said and I'm not an attorney again my opinion that you know you can't rely on an agency basically to provide its own interpretation of what the law does or does not mean and and so I think I'm very reluctant and skeptical about you you know basically just taking their uh interpretation as gospel and you know as Michelle stated you know I swore an oath of the Constitution and that means a lot to me I urge all of you to dig deep and think about what it means to you who you are up here trying to serve I think all of us want what's best for the kids we may not all agree on how to get there but I do think you know again need to take a a deeper
076look at uh where what you think the community uh is imploring us to to do tonight so again without getting into any further detail I think that's all I have to say thank you thank you Mr [Applause] Gad so I don't necessarily need to kind of rehash what the fellow other board members have said um the facts page that was provided in the packet does kind of speak for itself so we're we've been put in this situation again in my opinion where we need to come some agreement with the doj I know that Dave and Kate and Chuck and the team have worked for the last year to try to come up with the best we can do to show the doj we're we're going to finish this up and we're going to be done
077um again I I think everything is in here to show that I mean I don't think anybody wants to be in this situation we don't want to be here heartland's a phenomenal District um but the fact of the matter is they're here so I I think if you look through I think we've done the best we can meeing your team to get this plan so that's all any additional comments before I go um I I oh I'm sorry I thought you said no I'll wait oh um well I don't completely disagree with everything that Mr goleski or Mr Keller Mrs blondal have said um I and I completely agree with what with what Mr Costa said that this is not a place that any of us wanted to be in um I don't think that
078the the risk that we set ourselves up for regarding litigation any lawsuits um anything that the doj would bring down on us if we don't enter or maintain some kind of agreement I think is that alone is a huge risk to the district as well so was just something else to consider which I'm sure you all have but I'm just I'm saying it out loud that that's that's a huge Factor as well do you want me to go do you want to go real quick well Robert's Rules says you go everybody goes and then I can go again so it's up to you you're good go ahead okay so um I failed to to say this and I really wanted to is that I do not agree with any bullying of any sort um this
079has nothing to do with that um there nothing to do with that this has to do with the fact that parents at home you need to tell your children don't test the waters because a lot of the things that I was I went over the the incidents with Mr Hughes today and um a lot of them seem to be testing Waters I don't think that uh that uh anybody in this community in my opinion um wants to teach your children to dislike another group of of students for any reason especially color or sexuality or anything like that but parents you really need to talk to your kids I know you think they go to school and they've got your values but once they get into school they're out of your sight um I think that
080you need to have the discussion with them tell them not to say anything to other kids that that you know would delineate the the two or you know separate them from anyone else um and that's really all I had to say is parents step up please thank you thanks Miss [Applause] f is someone interrupting um first and foremost I do want to thank the team um you know Miss blondal Miss Coleman and I actually so in full transparency this was not the original agreement that we were proposed with um and we did come to the table to negotiate with the doj and so I do want to thank you for your efforts and several people had given us questions and things like that to ask during that time um it was a very lengthy discussion
081a very detailed discussion um and I'm proud of the ability for us to stick up for our district because I don't think any other district has um and that was very apparent in those discussions and so um kudos to the team who has you know has taken it to the table and said this you know this isn't right or this is right or we need movement here we don't need movement here we're comfortable with this we're not comfortable with this because those discussions were linkly they were hard they were challenging um they were challenging when you're not not an attorney and so I think that um I do want to you know share my gratitude for those folks who are involved in this process and for those who continue to be involved in this process
082ask questions of Kate Dave Chuck um because it is it's a it's a very um it's a very in-depth process uh we had a member at call to the public ask several questions and some of this I think we baked into our um FAQ into our not our FAQ handbook but um we will continue to um you know dependent whether or not a doj agreement exists or not um we will continue to follow our normal optout policy we will continue to follow um our not normal notification policy um when students are involved and we will Contin continue to there was a third question on there let me look keep the district informed yes we will continue to keep the district informed um via various FAQs uh you know letters out um whatever that may be
083because I think that that's important um I think it's important to involve parents in this process um you know you need to know when your kids are are not acting in a way that's conducive to a positive learning environment and we need take care of this at home I understand that some of our students and some of our families don't have the support at home um but we as a community need to wrap our arms around those kiddos as well and so um I think that that's very important uh everyone at the table has obviously had a a moment to shed light on where their head is in this and I've had lengthy discussions with many of you at this table probably one person in particular who her and I talk about it probably once
084a week um just on kind of going back and forth and um full transparency of where my head is is we're in a position where we can control this um where we control what goes out where we control what goes in um and quite frankly I'm fearful to lose that control because I think that that to me is is where your might as well hand over the keys and so I think that that's important for the community to understand is that um you know this would be something that the Dei committee from a board level is tasked with monitoring being involved in um where historically I don't think that that connection has been made um or that level of board presence has been has has been present um so I I just want to be
085very transparent and I'm happy to have any offline conversations on my own opinions um but you know think that it's worthwhile for the public to hear that as well is that in this situation we still get to control things um and I don't know that we would be in that position in the future [Music] any additional discussion um one last item um regarding the threat of uh a lawsuit by the doj the doj is not going to sue the district and put us out of business the doj is going to sue us strictly for compliance it will take months maybe a year or more before anything is ever um initiated to the point point where we have to worry about that and I think in the interim I think we can do a good enough
086job as a local school district in proving that we can control these kinds of situations I really do so I really don't have a fear of this lawsuit that uh you know people are anticipating I'm more fearful of lawsuits by parents of kids who are either wrongfully accused [Applause] [Music] wrongfully accused of a crime they didn't commit or something of that nature and I can tell you that one of the primary um um people that is involved with the whole reason why we're talking about this right now there has been a lot of Destruction in the lives of some of the people that were involved in that incident and it's it's rather sickening so I cannot in good conscience even remotely support this [Applause] so any further discussion yeah I guess just one one other
087comment I think I I can appreciate some concern or consideration with the belief that we're able to sort of control the outcome and and I think that's commendable but I you know I I guess I don't share that sentiment um I think ultimately we need to be up here and not make decisions based on fear of some other consequence [Music] I and you know and frankly just to close out I I find it somewhat ironic that you know the some of the tactics or concerns essentially we're trying to you know we're getting bullied and harassed into an agreement in attempt to solve harassment and bullying I find it a little bit strange that that's that's what's happening [Applause] so any additional discussion all right I just want everyone to pay attention as to how this
088vote goes Mr goleski no Mrs shock yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr CA yes Mr Keller no Mrs blondal no I can't and I'm a yes that motion [Music] passes you can excuse yourself from the meeting thank you goodbye goodbye goodbye goodbye you can leave no I'm not leaving y you've been elected and you have failed this she's got to go no kick her out ready item 2B superintendent contract I moveed that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the board president approves extending the superintendent's contract through June 30th 2028 based on the highly effective evaluation rating support motion by Mrs Shaw support by Miss Mr Costa um Team I did uh send you guys all an email I want to be very clear that the contractual agreement in which I've been discussing is really
089not a package change it's just structural changes of MCL appeal language um there is no longer highly effective in our rating scill and so it's things like that um but I did want to have this because whether or not we vote on this rollover I'm just going to plug and play that term back into that new contract again you guys can see it you can compare it no change in package it's just the the MCL language the legal language around that any discussion well I think as we've talked before um at the board table um the longevity of a superintendent matters and not only just for Mr Hughes but for what we establish for the district moving forward even past our our time on the board so um I think it's important that we provide
090job security to to a superintendent which also provides security for our district and our community so um I don't I I think that Mr Hughes based on his highly effective rating over the years and what he's done for this District um extending his contract to 2028 I think is a easy decision for me any additional questions I hit a comment okay so so for for me um you know we we've heard several months of you know teachers railing against us that we don't support them and I'm looking at this contract saying teachers don't get this length of contract and I think that um for me I would want everybody to have the same length of contract and I have been steadfastly saying since I got on the board that I don't believe anybody deserves that
091L that long of a contract so that's that's my opinion and I'll vote the way that I I I just have a comment I I have absolutely no problem with a three-year contract we have it for the teachers we have it for the admin I think that's more than adequate for the superintendent and when when you think about this in the state of Michigan um excuse me please leave I'm done with the interruptions you got to go for the second time um in the state of Michigan we elect representatives State Representatives every two years um they're pay at a little over 70,000 and they manage $82.5 billion in state programs State monies State Investments um and they also do it for about 10 million people uh right now we have about 5,300 students in the
092Heartland School District we pay our superintendent a very fair wage um it's it's no secret or mystery that it's a uh um uh uh six-digit um salary um it is I don't think it would be a problem if we kept it at 3 years I do not feel that we're in danger of losing our superintendent and maybe I'm just talking and maybe I'm assuming something I shouldn't but I don't think we're in danger of losing our superintendent with a three-year contract I don't even think Tom Brady ever got a 5-year deal um when he played I really don't but when you take a look at the the difference in let's say what a state rep has to do what they make and what they can control and what a superintendent does that does not mean
093I am not for keeping a good superintendent I do not think that filling a superintendent role uh especially a district like Harland is going to be a a tough thing to do should should there ever be a disappointment with the contract of three years so therefore that's why I uh I can't go along with it thank you Mr goleski I just have a quick comment um not in no way do I need to be comparing us to Brighton because clearly we outscored them on those tests um you know down the way uh you know they have Dr Outlaw who just was given a 5-year contract and and you got to wonder why are they doing this and I think it comes down to stability like I want my kids teachers to be here I want
094my kids administrators to be here and it starts at the top um culture I think culture is important here in Heartland Mr Hughes sets that tone and quite frankly it's clearly working so to extend this out another year I think is the right thing to do because it promotes stability for our kids and I think that's why we're all here so I personally am absolutely for it I do just want to make sure you understand Mr C I'm sure you do but I would be this would be four and not five but I just want to make sure you yeah oh yeah we're not no we're not doing that I just fact that bright is Brighton's throwing a fiveyear extension at Mr Outlaw and we're asking to just put another year onto this I think
095I think it's more than reasonable if if what we're doing here works and clearly it is working and Glenn I hope they didn't sign a contract with Tom Brady for his announcing because it's questionable I guess I want to add some add some comments as well thank you for sharing the the contract this morning didn't have a lot of time to go through it but I did want to ask some questions specific to the language in section 4A that it says we may do so by March 30th so I'm trying to understand or make the connection between extending the contract that says it must be done between March 1 and March 30 through here we are middle of September yep so can you answer validity to that I actually got a piece on that if
096you remember several months ago from thr um and it might not have been several months it might have been last year when we were determining what to do as next steps and I can certainly forward that to you um that certainly as long as Mr Hughes is agreeable we can do that extension again this will be a plug-in play um when you take a look at the new contract it's all updated MCL there's no we didn't change salary we didn't change any of that kind of stuff um it's really just getting it to current language okay and then I guess you know the other thing that has kind of been touched on is you know we've got a great administrative team we've got great teachers and they all get you know a three-year contract and
097you know i' I've heard you know we need to look at the superintendent when we evaluate him which is sort of a culmination of his team and to me it only seems able that we you know all have the same three-year contract and so for me given that we still have a three-year contract I think my inclination is that we would want to leave it within that you know current status um and you know I guess sort of in general I think there's lots of other upcoming things for the district right we're we're talking about doing a strategic plan which in in theory there could be different goals that sort of come out of that and you know it just it feels like we're a little bit guilty of maybe not reading the room asking
098yeah we can we ask sure but should we be asking I guess I ask my fellow board members if we really should be considering this at this particular time and you know I guess I don't don't think Mr Hughes is a a Flight Risk I've not ever received receiv received that feedback from him but either directly or indirectly I think he's he's shown his loyalty to the district and I think you know he would I haven't asked him so I won't ask him to ask the question but I think he'd be the first person to admit that you know we're all Eagles and we should kind of all be on the same team so again my my opinion is we should leave the contract as is for now and we look at things maybe in
099in next year or you know January February March time frame after we've had a chance to go through our strategic plan thank you Mr [Applause] Keller any additional discussion again we're only voting on this term I just want everyone to be aware of that and then the contract will be in your email once I plug and play all right sorry Mr goleski no Mrs Shaw yes m Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller no Mrs blondal I'm I'm a no and I'm a yes that motion passes you will have the final contract in your emails by next week item 3A out of the country trip for Ecuador is that Ecuador Ecuador y okay actually the gpos islands so if I'd like to bring in Amy up again and tell you a little bit even
100shorter than her first presentation just to say here's what we're doing yes Amy I do want to thank you for circling back CU a lot of times I think we don't we support things as a district but we don't ever see what the fruits of those labors are down so thank you so much for doing that no I I appreciate it and I appreciate you entertaining my next big idea um so my goal is for the next 5 years um to try to have a trip every summer so the next thing on my list is to uh pitch a trip for galopagos which is a part of the Ecuador um and that'd be for summer 2026 um like this summer how we've combined the French and the Spanish together to kind of as a team
101um my idea was actually to combine the Spanish with ap biology I thought thought it'd be a cool thing to try to capture another student group in the building and give them opportunities to travel um and not just be so selective in regards to the Spanish trip so requirements would be three years of Spanish um by the time the trip has it it goes on in summer 2026 or completion of AP biology by that time um yeah I know Mr Hughes said you all have the packet here so same company EF Tours it'd be an 11-day trip um 35 students for one bus Which would would be five adult chaperons if response is over the top EF says I can get a second bus with 55 students and that would be nine chaperon so I'm
102just kind of keeping that in mind not not sure how it'll pan out with this this other group of students who'll be able to travel um some of the highlights the students can see they'll be able to go to keto the able to see the equatorial line then we'll also spend majority of our time on the Galapagos snorkeling hiking seeing the Charles Darwin Research Center visiting the wild big tortoises um Cloud forests butterfly gardens we'll be able to go to local markets experience waterfalls uh four of the islands specifically will be um able to be explored uh the cost of this trip is large it's um $5,200 so for that reason I wanted to ask for you to look into it now and consider it because I'd like to give the PE the families two
103years to pay for this and I also I have set up as as I have in the past a informational meeting for October 1st knowing for and well that you all will be debating And discussing the trip and um at this meeting I would tell the parents that upon enrollment upon Schoolboard approval the trip will go so they can enroll but if if you all decide that's not something for our school district then EF funds EF would return anytime of funds that were done and the trip would be cancelled so but I wanted to let you know that I really want to go for this I'm excited for all kinds of students to experience it and I would like I'll be holding this informational meeting October 1st hoping for your blessing on the trip okay
104any questions thank you for being willing to take this on I would go on field trips to Greenfield Village and I would have to take a day off of work to recover so thank you for you know spearheading this I know it's a lot of work and it's time away from your summer break so thank you for providing these opportunities to our students it's awesome not a problem they they love it it's worth it thank you I have a quick question please actually have a couple sure um this is the third time um since I've been on the school board that we've been asked about um okaying a trip and the last time it happened I mentioned that I would really love to hear from the students and find out how it affected them I
105don't care if they had a good time or bad time that's irrelevant I want to know just what kind of either inspiration or learning took place and how it affected them okay and I would really like to see some of the students that have gone on some of these trips um and I I hope we can do that I am not against sending kids on these trips especially if they're paying for them by by themselves but with that I have to ask how does the fee um affect payment um for the families of the kids and who pays for the chaperons so EF Tours handles all the money so I I'm out of the money part of it so the the families can set up a monthly plan or they can set up some type
106of an individual payment plan whatever they want to do they also have kind of like a GoFundMe style page where kids can send that out to friends and relatives to to have support as donations as well which I which I think is a really great um tool um so all money will be handled through that group chaperon so the company rather than hiring their own individual chaperon it's a uh 6:1 ratio so for every six students a chaperone is paid for by the the company I would assume business-wise they're factoring those costs into the student price um so for each six a shapon is paid but there are some fees that shapon do pay for instance they um Insurance Etc like that mhm so they're not completely free but they are definitely definitely discounted okay
107um by the way uh your presentation earlier with the slideshow that was great that was fine I think a nice little way to cap it off would be to hear from the students and that's all I'm requesting sure so other than that I have no other concerns or or what have you so we can do that just one clarification I want to confirm the the cost of the event is actually % paid for by the parents is that correct parents and students and any way if they if they wanted to fundraise any way shape or form they're more than welcome to do so I stay out of all monetary parts of the trip I just put it all together okay thank you quite welcome thank you thank you thank you thank you any additional questions
108all right item 3C oh sorry 3B 2425 District goals um as many of you obviously have been participating in committees um and I know the Committees that I've participated in um you know we've really been trying to be very objective when it comes to goals and then we've been trying to match them with myip which is really important and was obviously a reflection as part of of the masb tool training um was to not obviously run parallel goals and not have opposing goals so I do want to thank each of you because I think we've tweaked a couple of things um we've put some reality into the goals Rachel um you know into our finance goal I think we have to understand that uh Rachel can only meet that goal as long as we don't
109provide any type of large um investment that we're that we would you know go down um to keep our fund balance healthy and so um I appreciate those conversations I appreciate the conversations of risk um I appreciate the conversations around um just really trying to be metric driven um which was a little bit new for some of these goals and so thank you all for participating in that um the only one that I think might require some additional discussion after tonight is how our Dei committee leans into the work with the doj um and so I will follow up with members of that Committee just to ensure that we have line of sight as to how each of you can um lean in on that work um create structure and policy around some of that
110work um particularly around some of the questions that were raised tonight anything you guys want to call out in particular um yeah um first of all yeah I to agree with you Megan I am very happy to see now that we have actual quantifiable goals and uh sort of a metric driven type system and um again I thank Mr Hughes and his team for coming up with those that's that's very good um I think it adds uh a lot of uh confidence by by the community knowing that we actually have things that we can go off of numbers I was looking at the health and safety uh uh goal for HC HCS uh the strategies continued and then the assessment and I had a question based on that third column of assessment for health and
111safety and there's something here that I I I just I'm scratching my head I would just like some clarification and essentially it's the last bullet uh not the second to the last bullet uh in the assessment column it says compare the number of expulsion hearings with the previous year the goal is to have less um the reason why that just struck me as something that um just doesn't sit well you know the final uh expulsion hearing uh goes before the board and I can't recall ever having anything like that I I am not looking to expel more students but I'm I'm not looking to reduce the number of expulsion hearings if they're warranted and that's what concerns me um there was a lot of discussion on that actually and um Chris and Greg please chime
112in um we had a robust discussion on that in health and safety and I think the point there wasn't necessarily to not um appropriately follow our expectations of behavior so on and so forth but it was to try and identify early interventions on kids that might need it and take those early interventions prior to getting to an expulsion hearing we know that the majority of those kiddos that actually make it to an expulsion hearing whether or not whatever their parent decides is the next step for them often times it's it's a repeat offender um and so how do we get to that kiddo sooner uh it wasn't necessarily to be lenient or LAX on our on our structure um guys please chime in if I missed anything yeah that's what I was asking for clarification
113I just wasn't sure of how that came about yeah I think originally there was a goal but rather than you know try to hold the team accountable for something that's a little bit outside their control right and we don't want to have a metric that might encourage people not to go through a process that's warranted we felt let's just move that to an assessment item as a as a stretch Target if if we can have less that would be great but obviously to your point if it's warranted we need to still follow through so that's why we sort of moved it as from a goal and and are recommending that it be an assessment item okay yeah that's the only thing that really struck my my eye yeah thanks for letting us offer Clarity CU
114I can understand if you're reading it you're like yeah are we going to beax and not do what we we say we're going to do no and maybe we can just even put a point a a sentence of clarification just indicating um you know structurally it's meant to be early intervention and not not a change in process or policy as we see today all right any additional comments I was going to say maybe put that under strategies just add it to the yeah sounds good and thank you all for your participation um in the Committees I know that um you know we have a pretty Equitable split some of us are on the same committees together so um we get to challenge each other but I enjoy the challenge of thought and so and even
115challenging you know our Administration team um because it's good to have that outside Viewpoint and so thank you all for your participation in that I heard that even the ones I didn't attend obviously were very well and um structured and supportive and I again I think some of those committees are going to become more robust over time just given our circumstances within our district um where other committees uh are a little bit more um capable of meeting on a quarterly basis and and kind of not necessarily um only when when big financial decisions are made Rachel item 3 c um School administrators association association Master agreement so just make a note uh Renee this didn't make it on the other I saw that extended agenda for some reason but it should be 3C per the
116original agenda um so just make a it's a technical note so yes uh we've been working with uh gosh probably for almost a year now if I'm not mistaken would you I I think about a year uh talking with our administrators that are cumed under the Harland consal School District Administrative Association um they petitioned the district to organize um they had the votes to organize we sat down and began bargaining with them uh bargaining uh led to the document that sits in front of you today you'll notice that it's been te by myself and Tom urick who is the representative president um went through all of these different components uh that they wanted to see uh captured into a master agreement obviously once this uh Master agreement is put into play uh it would go
117on our transparency page as all the other Master agreements exist there for anybody to see uh transparently so this is a process and bargaining is is uh not always an easy process and especially in this case and and we shared this with our team and that is that what we're bargaining is a brand new agreement there's really nothing that you're bargaining like really the district is providing uh is is agreeing to capturing the language right so uh but at the end of the day it went really well we felt really really good and I think their Association uh would say the same thing that we thought it was a really good process and we're in a good place and we think this is a fair agreement uh for the three years out um uh for
118this group so if there's any questions yeah Mr Hughes could I guess just for the members of the public as well as maybe some other board members benefit is there anything that's sort of fundamentally different with the the contract in front of us versus sort of how how we operate as a team today can you touch on maybe some of those points that would be different than what we're doing already I don't think there's a lot of fundamental differ is I think the biggest difference is that um um the ability to bank unused sick impersonal days um I arrived in the district back in 2000 uh and since then administrators have never been able to bank sick or or personal days that were not used and remember the motivation for banking days is if something
119happens in your family that you can tap into those days for FMLA and for other things that you need to take care of and there's never been those there and what the district did is provide a uh what we called a gap letter that said you could petition for up to 60 days to get you there if you needed it um but now they'll have an opportunity to bank the days to build that bank and then the motivation to bank it beyond the 60 days so that upon retirement uh they could cash those days in so uh I think that and it motivates everybody to be at work and doing all the things that we have to do so um again I think it's something both sides agreed was desperately needed that's one big difference
120in here that you would see that's not in the others uh there's some days that we've given um you know a couple more days in there I think there's four days in there that they wouldn't have to work that the teachers don't work that when the teachers weren't working and the students weren't in school uh the administrators were having to come in so those days will be given there's four days there um guarantee that the first two Act of God days not having to come in uh snow days or the building power down uh other than that it's pretty much basically everything we've ever done um and and been doing thank you Mr Hugh was there any discussion on a cap for a bank today or is that open-ended and it's unlimited so you know
121yeah it's open-ended unlimited the difference is that you can cash in up to 60 days upon retirement so while you could Bank 200 days uh let's say you had 200 days banked and you had an F La situation you could po potentially cash those days in to on FMLA right to take care of a a spouse to take care of a child to take care of yourself um but now you're you're incentivizing trying to bank those so that you can have the more days you have available the more comfortable you feel and say in some in case something happens thank you y uh obviously if you have questions on this spend the next 30 days to get your questions to cheuck um and uh if you want to understand more about how that bargaining process
122worked with those um administra administrative Representatives um I'm sure he'd be happy to share this agreement actually leads us into to needing to revise policy 1410 and 14101 and so um Mr Hughes do you want to review that yeah again um you've seen 1410 and 14101 many times because each year you have to revise it um now remember that this is always covered non uh representative uh units in our or people in our district so as we worked with the um administrative unit uh to create that Master agreement we felt I felt this is me and I did talk with Megan uh that I was going to do this right Megan I think I let you know uh I thought it was only fair that if this administrative group was getting these things in their
123Master agreement we should carry those over to the non-representative group that are not part of their Association and that this just covers that you can see where we've made sure that we U we're going to be moving to PTO days there's another piece Greg I I didn't talk about instead of calling them sick and personal days you just have PTO days that's pretty standard in Industry um the bank days is a vacation day cash in for 52e employees um a a 52e employee getting a a two-day July 4th is it hasn't always been guaranteed just guarantee them of two day uh so you can see that in here again nothing nothing that wouldn't be um replicated from the master agreement that we are asking you to um agree to again any questions on this policy
124um please get those to Mr Hughes before for um the next meeting because we will be voting on these both policies and obviously uh operationalizing that contract item 4A future meeting October 21st um 6:30 right here uh in the boardroom and then item 4B any informational items from any of you all I do Megan I I I I want to add something um so I've I've got some thoughts I want to add um as far as information for the public so I wrote him down uh real quick here uh it's important to mention that important election coming up is W in the special education millage and the school board um it's only two months away so I urge the public uh don't be complacent uh do your homework regarding the special education millage also do
125your homework regarding the candidates running uh back in March the non-homestead millage renewal passed in this community because the community did its homework um you guys took the time to disseminate facts versus Miss leading information and I want to thank you for that I urge you to do the homework again in regarding to this upcoming election for our school board again in this education millage uh I want to share with you some behaviors that Local School District Board of educations have experienced when a couple of newly elected trustees came on board and I feel it's important you hear it some of the tactics and behaviors that they've used for that District spreading misleading information about the district not positive or supportive of public schools not willing to engage in learning constructive dialogue not willing to
126represent the best interest of the district not willing to work collaboratively not willing to listen to multiple perspectives not willing to draw on reliable sources not willing to have the best interest of the students staff family and Community routinely opposing the district routinely using procedures and complaints to drag out meetings and trying to ground things to a halt where nothing is ever good enough so with that I I I urge you the public please do your homework and voting Harding is heartland's a great community um our schools make our community it's a place where people want to live I for one I'm very proud of the schools and what they do for our kids so please please please do your homework for this upcoming election so is is that aimed at anyone here on the
127board Mr Casta that that was this was directed to the public okay do their homework yeah I think it's a good idea I have one piece of information that um there was some email traffic today between the board and a member of the public um in regarding to some August changes in Title 9 UM and then the halt that was or the stay order that was then disseminated um and so we have not made any changes in regards to that August transition and I just want to be transparent about that um there's no sense in making changes until there's a final ruling on some of that um and there's also no sense in making changes for half of our district and not the other half so um we have chosen to kind of just stay
128steady until we understand more about where that might go in the future all right item five adjournment thank you all for your time e