001e e e [Music] [Applause] item 1 18 everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all item 1B approval of agenda items for discussion I move that the agenda for the June 17th 2024 meeting be approved support motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mrs Shaw any discussion sorry I'd like to um move the minutes from the May 13th meeting into out of the consent agenda that will essentially be added then as 1 C two any additional discussion hearing none Mr goleski yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr ker yes Mrs blondal I just want to be clear we're voting on
002pulling that out okay cuz I all right yes I'm a yes and I'm a yes that motion passes can I can I just clarify yep we were voting on The consent agenda items minus the minutes so because we don't have to vote on pulling anything out of the consent agenda so that vote just just so everybody's clear the vote was for everything else in the consent agenda except for the minutes all right moving on to item 1 C again pulling 1 c one out of the consent agenda I move that the minutes from the May 13th 201 24 regular meeting be approved support Mo motion by Mrs Coleman supported by Mrs Shaw any discussion yeah so I the reason for my request uh to remove from the consent agenda I just thought in the uh
003the notes there under the close session section it stated that the session was not convened due to uh some board and Community member concerns that needed to be reviewed I'm sorry it should state that and I think it had different verbiage basically mentioned A disruption from the community but I just wanted to kind of get it corrected that it was actually um a decision made as a result of some Community member and board member concerns that were expressed I think when we Departed the closed session room the the comment made was I just got off the phone with our legal council I don't want to represent the entire board so we we are going back into session and postpone this and we aren't going to do anything tonight and then we'll get a legal brief
004for the entire board so again I just wanted to further clarify the notes you want to add my comments you're saying just to revise the comments correct from my comments from adjournment you're saying correct from the way it is classified in there today which is that it was due to the disruption of community members cuz I know in our notes it says clearly any Community member that disrupts would be asked to leave so I'm presuming we would have asked them to leave if if it was due to A [Music] disruption perhaps people should have been asked to leave because it was a circus um I guess my I think it kind of I think the minutes as written already kind of reflect that it says plainly that president gach made the decision to adjourn the
005meeting I'm happy to add in the but the reason is not correct though the reason is the fact that we had two people on the phone with attorneys trying to figure out if we were doing the right thing and also that there were people outside of the room that weren't part of the board and one standing inside the room that's a disruption by people in the community I mean we voted out Pier to go in a closed session and then two two community members who are running for school board followed us down the hall with their phones stood in the open doorway with their phones on while we attempted to go into Clos session so I mean it's correct they they definitely disrupted our ability to conduct board business but at the end president gach
006made the decision due to to the legal but they absolutely tried to not allow us to go into close session I mean why standing in an open doorway with your phones no they wanted to get clarification if it was legal again we we made the vote to go in to close session so at that point us unable to do that that definitely was A disruption from no at that point we were not sure we could well we actually were because we voted so and I know I know president gach do you plan to speak on the fact that by we did have the legal ability to do that or is that something that we was going to come later yeah I'll speak to that later okay so if we add the comments if we add
007president glo's comments that you cited I assume from a recording of some sort what went on that because that was sounded verbatim um so if if we add those comments as further clarification would that suffice I would just like to see the disruption from the community members be removed even though that's what happened I think the official reason is because there was clarification that needed to be sought after right so if no one was standing outside the door that question still would have existed would it not and therefore we still may not have adjourned the CL session may have existed but we would have had the door shut with just board members in a closed session and that was not able to happen because there were community members standing in the doorway recording what what
008is written here is factual the reason that we did not have a close session is stated that president gach made the decision not to I'm not disputing that piece of the the notes it was the Community member disruption that I felt was mischaracterized do you not I'm sorry go ahead let's get back so 1C technically is actually 1 c234 the motion on the table so if we could go back to that motion and then and get that done with and then we need to move for the minute so if we can just do that so we can stay in order I would appreciate that motion it was a motion by Mrs Coleman supported by Mrs Shaw again that's for item 1 c 2 34 mhm any discussion on those three items hearing none Mr goleski
009yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs blondal yes and I'm May yes that motion passes we're going to move the minutes out and we'll now need a motion to accept the minutes or amend the minutes by motion we amend the minutes support can we be specific yes I'd like to amend the minutes to uh remove the sentence that Greg spoke [Music] of it sounds like there was additional verbiage that was also motioned are we taking that you don't have to include your additional verbiage just asking to remove that particular item so we're not motioning to adopt the minutes we're motioning to amend the minutes just to be clear so everyone we have clear delineation I'm sorry motion by Mr goleski and did I hear support okay support by
010Mr Keller again any discussion on the motion to amend the minutes I'm G to get a tongue twister today hearing none Mr goleski motion to simp amend the minutes not adopt the minutes yes Mrs Shaw no Mrs Coleman no Mr Costa no Mr Keller yes Mrs blondal sorry yes and I'm a no that motion does not pass we now need to actually adopt the minutes so I move that the minutes from the May 13th 20 24 regular meeting be approved as presented support motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mr Costa any discussion hearing none Mr goleski no Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller no Mrs blondal I'm a no all right I'm a yes that motion passes moving on to item 1D superintendence report welcome everybody good to have you
011here tonight quite an agenda tonight um we got a number of things to cover here the first thing I'd like to once again uh just point out is um to thank Scott Van EPS assistant superintendent for personnel Scott came to the district back in um 1998 as an assistant principal at the high school I was fortunate to work with Scott for many years as the high school principal and assistant principal collabora team um Scott moved to central office I believe in 2006 as the assistant superintendent for personnel and student services he's had much fellowship with students throughout those years staff and the thing that I have said before and I'll say it again is what Scott taught me over all these years is to always treat everybody with a human side humanity is absolutely essential
012in building a culture that we have here in Heartland and our culture is one that is about collaboration working together solving our differences and moving on and sometimes consensus means as he taught me very well is we don't always agree on everything but when we leave the room when we're done with the conversation it's behind us and we move forward and Scott for all that you've done for this district for all that you continue to do you're on the Rotary Club you're on the chamber uh you're on the Optimus club and you do so much for this community uh and your passion will be missed and so I just want to say congratulations to you as you move into retirement you have been a rock for this school district [Applause] thank you well Mr Hughes
013I want to thank you for that I also want to recognize that uh nice tribute you made at the graduation totally unexpected and uh brought a tear to my eye but uh you know uh it's been an honor and a privilege to serve for you it's been an honor and a privilege to serve this community uh I live here four miles down the road um I look for to remaining vibrantly involved in in different capacities um and I'll tell you on the record this is the first board meeting I'm not worn a tie to so feels good re re but he's a rebel with a cause of course so um so thank you Scott next Mr Fitzgerald if you could come up to the podium and bring our friends uh we have five wonderful young
014people that uh we're going to start with our top 10 Mr Borg thank you um um so last year we had uh been asked uh to highlight our top 10 and as I said to the students tonight it would have been nice to be able to say hey come to the May meeting before school got out but they were still competing for those top spots and still not sure who's going to be there and um that anxiety and that effort brought you here tonight and so uh Mr Fitzgerald if you could introduce each of our guests tonight yeah thank you very much um what am what an amazing honor uh to be top 10 in this class um class size of about 430 seniors uh the class of 2024 as I mentioned at graduation was
015offered over $4,700 th000 in scholarships and grants they plan to attend 76 different schools 11 apprenticeship programs four military branch this class has shined academically and Beyond and what I see with these when I when I read their bios that were in in in the paper um they were all involved not just academically they were involved in so many other ways um from Athletics to clubs to organizations to volunteering in the community um so they they went above and beyond the classroom which is which is amazing and to be top 10 in a class of this size and in a class that was so successful is truly amazing so I I want to honor them tonight um I'm going to start it's vacation season right so we had we reached out to all 10 they
016were all super thankful to be invited um five students um weren't able to attend but I want to honor them first we'll go alphabetical and then I'll honor the five that were able to attend um first of all or first off we had uh Lily Davidson uh parents Nicole and Jeff Davidson and next fall Lily will be attending the University of Southern California to study environmental environmental engineering next up Faith Martin parents Holly and Paul Martin faith will be attending Grand Valley State University in the fall to study nursing next up Holly McCracken parents Jennifer and Clayton McCracken Holly is attending M I'm sorry Holly is attending University of Missouri to study finance and Chinese language Alexis Moser parents Tim and car and moer Alexis will be attending the University of Michigan an arbor to
017study ecology Evolution and biodiversity and last but not least Joey Wagner CA parents Katherine and Joe Wagner next fall Joey will be attending Michigan State University Honors College to study computer science and conduct research through his professional assistantship awesome all [Applause] right all right first up Lizzie armor parents Tony Andis [Applause] armor in the fall Lily Lizzy will be attending University of Michigan an arbor to study biomedical engineering all right you can stay up you can stay up here all right next up Kate McIntyre parents Lisa and David [Applause] McIntyre Kate will be attending a Maria University in Florida to play softball and study Finance next up Ashlin MAA parents Stacy and Mark [Applause] MAA Ashen will be attending University of Michigan an arbor to study computer science next up Bryce Saxton parents Robert and
018canarina Saxton Bryce will be attending the University of Michigan an arbor where he will be studying psychology and last but not least Asher Smith Parents Ryan Smith and Lindsay [Applause] harith Asher will be attending University of Michigan Ann Arbor in the fall where he will study data science and political science so congratulations to our top 10 [Applause] congratulations again and yes you're free to leave you don't have to stick around all right thank you all for attending and you you should certainly be proud of your accomplishments next we have some new hires as I let the board know uh we've got a number of new hires you have some packets plus we have a couple new administrators uh on deck tonight um so let's start with James again and Patrick and friends why don't you
019all come up and James introduce our new hires at the high school please hang out here sure all right all right thanks for having us uh we are introducing three new teacher hires and Adena students um first off I'm going to start with uh Miss Erica Garder down here at the end Erica is going to be teaching social studies for us Global Studies in government uh Erica joins us from Michigan State University uh she is a Brighton grad I believe and student taught in Northville and uh when I reached out to one of their assistant principles there they said you better hire her cuz she's amazing um and she she showed us that in her interview uh she's top-notch and we are lucky to have her and so I'm introducing Erica Gardner come on thank
020you so much for this opportunity to teach and also to learn in the Harland Community thank you [Applause] great all right next up teaching Ela 9 and Ela 12 for us next school year is Dominic Mio he is a Heartland Grant and has children that will be starting here in the district very soon I believe at Creekside correct um Dominic uh interviewed with us uh about a month ago a little bit less than that um did an outstanding job our committee just was so impressed with um how engaging he is and how engaging he will be for our students um really just makes this the content material and and the subject matter that he's talking about come to life uh currently was teaching in a Plymouth Charter Academy and uh we were lucky to scoop
021him up here in Heartland he's going to be top- noge for our kids they're going to just just love him so Dominic M thank you for the opportunity it's been great to see new and old faces in this whole process Ela is the best topic to teach so I'm lucky to keep doing it here thank you so much all right next up we have Connor Collins uh Connor will be uh teaching special education for us this uh fall um he'll be co- teing or team teaching Ela 12 and economics um Connor is going to do a great job for us he's coming to us from fville schools he has some unique experiences in his life um he is specialed and Ela certified which is amazing it is unique if if you're going into education secondary
022education special education with a Content area uh cert uh certification with that is outstanding and we are fortunate uh to have Connor bringing that to us in addition to his great experience and um when I reached out to his principal how upset she was to lose him because he is a dynamic dynamic teacher over there in fville and we're lucky to have him here joining our team in Heartland Conor thank you all for the opportunity to be here um I know I've come to a really great place and just can't wait to get started I know it won't be long uh summer is going to be shorter this year with as early as you all start but uh it's all going to be worth it I didn't have the luxury of getting out sooner this
023year either so um but it'll all be worth it and I can't wait to hit the ground running thank [Applause] you all right all [Applause] right all right um I do want to say before I introduce our last candidate all four of these candidates I'm introducing today um had outstanding competition that they went against we had some great um candidates that they interviewed as well or interviewed alongside of them um so for these four that to come out um as as being hired says something because we really did have have great applicants this year um last but not least we have administrative dean of students hire uh Mr Patrick Borg um I had the privilege of knowing Patrick a little bit um as a principal uh as a um as a coach and a dad
024in the community and he is an Allstar at all three um he's a phenomenal person um he comes to us with some principal experience from here on Valley schools and Brighton um schools as well um and when Patrick started talking to our committee about uh wanting to be on this team at Harland high school and wanting to work hard and knowing what that means and building relationships in order to do to do so um the committee really really enjoyed him for that um Patrick's great at seeing the big picture of supporting students or supporting staff and students and supporting our staff so that they can support our students and that's what we're all about at Heartland High School um I'm blessed and and privileged to introduce you to Mr Patrick [Applause] Borg well thank you
025uh first of all I just want to thank the board uh Mr Hughes appreciate the opportunity I really look forward to working with you guys and for each of you uh like James said couldn't be more excited to work with James work for James JD and Jessica on that team at Harland High school um this was something that just kind of found me and uh I think when things in life find you they find you for the right reason and like I said I couldn't be happier to be here to be coming back to Heartland my family be a little bit jealous because I get to come home to Heartland um we've since moved we've moved about seven eight years ago out of Heartland but I get to come home to Heartland and they get
026to have Heartland as an adopted home but couldn't be happy to be here this a great community and uh I'm really really excited to be a part of this community once again and to work hard for the students and the staff of Heartland and to be a part of all the great things that we've got going on in this community so thank you very much all right I lead the way Patrick all right uh Crystal brisy if you would come up with your new hires please thank you thank you okay well hi everyone happy summer yes this is also my first time up here so I'm excited about that and I'm excited to also introduce you our candid Cates our first candidate is Aaron lesel she will be teaching fifth grade math and social studies
027Aaron comes to us with years of experience of as well in teaching she talked a lot about during the interview collaboration with not only staff but parents in the community um she touched on Student Success which we know is huge in Heartland and our main goal and the multiple ways to ensure that all students are participating and comprehending in the curriculum that was the deal breaker so after all the competition this is is Aaron [Applause] lell thank you so much for this opportunity I'm really excited to be a part of the Heartland Community and to continue to grow in my teaching career with you guys so thank [Applause] you next is Amy tennis Amy tennis will be our new band director at farm so we are excited about that when I started doing the music
028interview you find out and the lies are here that everybody knows everybody knows everybody so it was very interesting because that's a lot different than just a general education teacher Amy lives in the district she has two boys in the district a senior going to be a senior and a sophmore she's already active in the high school band booster organization she helps with the football games and most recently helped with the Memorial Day pancake breakfast we were definitely our committee was impressed with the multiple leadership roles she held in her current District or the past District um the multiple leadership roles she held outside of the band um she is adamant to continue the positive outlook that we have on the music program in the community and before I let her come up here I
029also want to say that not only is Harland choosing these candidates but they are also choosing us they both come to us with experience and I think that says a lot [Applause] thank you to the board for this opportunity um I'm joining a fabulous team of Allison and Brad Li not to mention the students the family members of this community who actually I noticed there's a group of the boosters here tonight um so I want to thank you for this I'm very excited to be joining this team [Applause] [Music] I know that I had put this information out to the community and for the parents of the community um but if you don't know um Mickey Cheney has retired this year and Crystal brisky is our new Farms intermediate principal so [Applause] Miss Frasier if
030you could bring up your candidates good evening everyone I am thrilled to introduce Laura BAC we are adding a section of kindergarten at Lakes this year and Laura will be teaching kindergarten for us she comes with a wealth of knowledge and experience um she taught for years in North Carolina um even spent some years doing a dual language um kindergarten program there we were so impressed just listening to her talk about her experiences are my kindergarten team is excited to have somebody that can come in and hit the ground running um former administrators described her as an excellent collabor collaborator and has very high expectations for students which is absolutely what we are looking for at Lakes so welcome to [Applause] Laura thank you very much for this opportunity to teach in Heartland schools I'm
031looking forward to working with the youth here in [Applause] Heartland congratulations congratulations good to have you feel like we should be handing out Eagle p Miss Gregory if you could bring our new hire up for Creekside yep Misty you can come up too because I'll introduce you so Kate I'll let you start with our new hire here all right so we have Danielle Moran here teaching third grade at Creekside um so our Creekside staff uh the committee met and as everybody's kind of shared our candidate pool this year was fantastic and I know decisions were were tough but they felt that Danielle here was the perfect candidate to fit in with their team so she's taught two years in Pennsylvania she lives in Brighton is a Michigan State grad and she'll be teaching third grade
032and she's got an ESL background as well so welcome to um thank you so much I'm so excited I know I'm very early on in my career and even just meeting with the team so far I see how much opportunity I have to grow and I can't wait to hit the ground running and really just learn from those around me so thank [Applause] you congratulations thank you congratulations so I know Danielle has introduced herself to Mrs Right so all right very good so Mrs gun is here um this is Misty gun we went through the interview process had some great candidates um we had uh like always in our process we have board member parents um staff and administrative assistant and central office staff and Misty came out 100% on top if you want to
033come up to the podium you can Misty um when we looked at Misty she has what a background she's been a instructional coach she's been an assistant principal she's been a principal she's coming to us from Grass Lake where she's been a principle for the last two years uh when we contacted Grass Lake uh there is nothing but great things to say about Misty and uh seriously I hadn't seen so many positive really encouraging letters of recommendation as well as when we reached out to those people that you didn't provide us information on they could say nothing but great things about you Misty I know that you will help Creekside continue to move forward and that Creekside is in really good hands with you so welcome Misty [Applause] gun first of all whatever they said
034they lied thank you so much for this opportunity I'm really looking forward to being a part of the Heartland family and coming into Creekside and joining the staff and the students and growing and learning myself and leading amongst all of them and working as a community to just build better and be part of a family so thank you misty misty come back oh yeah official yesc all of our new hires uh thank you so much for choosing Harland and I think you said it well Crystal you all chose us um and we are so excited to have you uh is nothing but a pleasure when we get to sit down and meet with you and talk with you get to know you and we know that you will continue to do great things and number
035one take care of our children love them care for them and remember the tough decisions really aren't very tough because if it's good for kids that's what we do all right so don't stick around you are welcome to leave if you want to stay stay but you're welcome to leave all right thank you thank you all all right next we have our budget hearing Rachel I think the podium is yours on our budget hearing stinker yeah well thank you I appreciate it I did I was counting um e e in the capital projects funds legally were not required to adopt budgets for those funds so um the information that you have there is really just that just for informational purposes only so jumping into our uh general fund uh Revenue snapshot here for fiscal year
036ending uh June 30th 2024 as well as June 30th 2025 you can see not much change year toe about $7.5 million um each year also you can see the different categories uh that make up our different sources of revenue um and those categories may stay pretty consistent uh year-to year with State sources being our largest category and that's really a function of um our number of students we have times our foundation allowance which is set um by the state uh in 2024 that number that Foundation allowance number is $968 per student so you can see that that number times our number of students really is what drives our our overall budget uh in any given year now for 2025 um the state has not released its budget yet so we're not sure what the foundation
037allowance is going to be and as you know our pupil count doesn't take place till October so right now this is large largely an estimate but we are using a $241 increase uh which is about a 2 and a half% increase on the foundation allowance uh per student uh we're also budg in decline of about 80 students um and that's really based on the projections that we have done uh by our third party U enrollment consultant at this point but we'll Tre that all up when we see what actually happens uh after the start of the year on the expenditure side uh for 2024 compared to 2025 you'll see there's about a million and a half uh uh dollar increase there in expenditures um really that's a function of uh fiscal year 2020 4 is
038artificially low uh at this point uh we did have quite a few Staffing vacancies this year mostly with uh bus driving staff we were short um maintenance staff uh dispatching staff uh we had a lot of teacher uh vacancies uh early retirements uh leaves of absence and whatnot and so that that really brings down that expenditure number but we have to put that back in for next year since we do expect that to uh to correct itself uh in 2025 we also did have some capital projects uh uh planned for 2024 that aren't going to materialize by June 30th and so therefore we have to reduce those expenditures in 2024 and we've restored them um again for 2025 um and so those things in combination with uh inflationary adjustments contract settlements and whatnot uh is
039what makes up that that change in expenditures from from year to year um again you can see the different categories we have uh that make up our different um our total expenditures with instruction and support service serves to instruction being the largest categories um again those are pretty consistent year toe and again that makes sense because we are in the business of educating kids so that's where most of the expenditure should be uh if you take our those same expenditures and break them up a different way um you could see that uh our biggest source of uh our expenditures are in salaries and fringe benefits which again makes sense being a service based industry that's where bulk of our um expenditures are going to be um and once again those categories remain pretty consistent uh
040from from year to year uh taking a look at our general fund fund balance over time um again fund balance is we can think of as your savings account or what's left over after you pay the bills um also you see here on this orange line is our percentage uh fund balance percentage to uh total expenditures and that's really a metric common metric that we use uh in this business to kind of determine the O overall Financial Health um of a school district uh experts will tell you about 15% is uh considered financially stable financially healthy so you can see we are well above that and so we were we are sitting in in really good shape uh you've heard me say for many years year after year uh really the reason why we got
041here is because of all of that onetime Federal covid relief dollars that that we have started to receive since the 2021 um fiscal year and again we have been uh very thoughtful and deliver it and how we've used that money being careful not to add Legacy costs or or costs that are continue over time using those those onetime onetime dollars you can see we are projecting a decline in fund balance over the next uh three years and that's really again those one-time revenues you cannot you can't count on them we have a pretty good idea of where our expenditures are going to go um but every year the the revenue is a is a question mark so we are watching that you know we we we'll may be forced to make adjustments down the road
042if those one-time revenues are not replaced with something more um consistent and sustainable because you can't continue to use fund balance or dip into that savings account year after year it's just not going to be not going to be sustainable so another way of um looking at these uh these onetime revenues kind of kind of drying up is what we' been kind of referring to as this this funding Cliff um and so the the the bars here show our revenue and the gray section of of each bar is what those onetime sources um are in each year you might think well wait a minute I thought you said they're onetime sources why are they showing up in each year um those are all different it's different in every given year so across this period of
043time we're looking at about between 30 and 35 individual different grants that don't repeat year after year so that that makeup does uh does shift um that yellow line being our expenditures plotted um over time and so you can see in those out years where um there's that Gap there those are those years where we are are dipping into the into the fund balance even with some of those uh onetime uh onetime dollars and so since 2021 till about 23 24 a bulk of that gray area those onetime sources have been uh from federal covid relief funding but what we're seeing in 2024 and in the out years is that's kind of shifted a little bit more towards State categorical funding the state's kind of gotten in the business of putting a lot of its
044dollars on on one-time uh categorical uh sources so uh We've really been pushing I know the state superintendant have as well as the the business officials have really been pushing the legislator to uh legislature to uh Focus the focus the dollars on more consistent uh Revenue sources like foundation so that we can uh more easily plan it's very difficult to make plans when you're guessing what kind of one-time Revenue you might get that you might be able to use for for your budget in the out years um so uh it'll be interesting to see where that shakes out um over the next couple years uh as our economy hopefully starts to settle down we probably start seeing some more normal uh inflationary increases uh more inflationary Revenue adjustments um but as of where we sit
045right now uh we are in very good shape so that's all I had prepared to share with you today but I'm happy to answer any questions that you have um I have a question about um you said on the out years are you taking consideration possible grants or are you kind of putting those off to theci side and waiting till that year to determine if there are grants available which may change the yep the grant so yes so there are some so some of the the grants that we get year after year I I plan that we will continue to receive some of those grants um also some of those you can see those one time uh that that gray area that I do have in fiscal 25 and 26 and 27 that's kind of
046spending down some of those one-time uh monies that we currently know that we have uh some uh have been written into the budget uh the state budget for this year that they will likely continue in the next couple years and so those ones I have kept in U but the ones where um it appears to be strictly one time I have taken out for purposes of of doing our projection but grants kind of pop up right I mean like you you can't anticipate what the grants are going to be available is that correct so like in the 25 you could have you know potential five grants that you could apply for is that how it works there's always grants available um that will come up they not much these these um one time grants were
047huge chunks of money which okay yeah the co yeah the co and and now more so the shift and uh if you if you look at the state budget they have something like 200 different line items you know all different categorical sources of funding we don't qualify for all those all those items but um you know that the hope is that they they start to shrink that down and and really start putting more of those dollars on on the foundation so that you know we can we have some sort of consistency and we can you know make better plans right in out years okay thank you I don't have any questions but I just want to thank you as always for having the patience to walk through all my questions and answer them yeah no
048problem thank you that's what I'm here for so good all right thanks everybody okay thank you very much Rachel and uh we'll come back to budget later on in the agenda um that so ends the superintendent report mov on to sorry moving on to item 1e call to the public speakers are asked to express themselves in a civil matter a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by your comment each speaker will be limited to 3 minutes and 3 minutes total we have a lot of folks to get through tonight and we have a lot of board business to also get through tonight you will be asked to step down after 3 minutes um and anyone that chooses to interrupt other speakers please note you will
049be asked to leave the meeting I will wave the card I don't have a bright yellow envelope today so I will ra um I will wave the card when you have 30 seconds left um as part of your minutes and first up we have Carol Hall good evening um after the last school board meeting I was very curious about the case from Virginia that involved a female high school student it was insinuated that she was attacked by a transgender student after a bathroom policy was put into place to allow students to use the bathroom of their chosen gender upon completing multiple research inquiries from four different sources I found that she was indeed assaulted which is awful however it is there that the story completely differs from the story presented at the last meeting the
050facts from The Trial paint a much different picture the bathroom policy allowing trans students to use the bathroom of their choice was not put into place until 2 months after the assault it was revealed that the student were having a consensual relationship that had and had met twice before in the girl's bathroom to have an encounter it was revealed that the young man would wear a skirt to enter the bathroom prior to the bathroom policy both parties acknowledged that the relationship was consensual however the third time that they met up the young lady refused his advances he then proceeded to assault her this is terrible and should not have happened but to imply that this was due to transgender students that were and that there was a bathroom policy in place that facilitated this assault
051is completely false please do your research before putting forth claims that are inflammatory and fearmongering I also researched the myth of bathroom Predators experts from 16 states in the district of col Columbia reported no issues as a result of non-discrimination protections the experts included law enforcement government officials schools and Advocates none reported incidents where Predators had taken advantage of lgbtq non-discrimination protections a public information officer with the Baltimore Police Department called the bathroom Predator talking point the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard the following states reported no incidents after the policy was instituted Texas Maryland Florida Nevada Oregon and Hawaii research from four universities that have inclusive policies showed no incidence of inappropriate behaviors 23 school districts across the US indic including 640,000 students and none of them had experienced issues concerning inappropriate bathroom use
052uh let's see I lost my place a National Coalition of 250 sexual assault domestic violence organization stated the following those who are pushing the proposals have claimed that these rules are necessary for Public Safety and to prevent sexual assault against women and children as stated by the CRI Rape Crisis centers shelters and other service providers who work each day to meet the needs of all survivors and reduce assaults and violence throughout the throughout Society we speak from experience and the experience that we and we state that these claims are false keep in mind as you contemplate I need you to wrap it up okay keep in mind that as you contemplate restricting bathroom use that the Missouri school district recently was found guilty of barring a transgender student from the using the bathroom of their
053chosen gender in the school district was fin $4.7 million um please consider the consequences as you vote on this possible bathroom policy thank you next up we have Julie ohashi good evening so sage has received a foyer request of Schoolboard member emails that yielded four file boxes full of correspondents which have provided context for the bathroom policy that's come before the board today through these emails we've discovered that Mr Keller Mr goleski and Miss blond Deal's attempt to normalize prejudiced attitudes towards trans student population and to exclude them to single them out via this policy what is clear from these emails is that there is a context of fear and Prejudice that informs this bathroom policy that seeks to segregate trans students by placing an undue burden on them through bureaucratic processes that violate their
05414th Amendment rights even though your legal team may have weighed in on it what the ACLU emphasizes is that the rationale of this policy could be interpreted and likely by the courts as being illegal this policy will harm and punish already vulnerable trans children it will create a registration a registry of trans kids in Heartland schools think about that a registry of trans kids how dangerous is that when that information gets into the wrong hands will school board members be able to access the trans registry are Schoolboard members a part of the eligibility process these are huge concerns to parents what kind of extra training will be provided to the admin tasked as Megan stated in the last meeting as deter in the true needs of the student what will qualify admin to be the
055expert in determining what a trans child's needs are what are the written procedures used to determine if their needs are not necessarily to necessary to be met what's the safety net for the queer kids who don't have safe or supportive homes that this policy will harm the most what's the plan to support those most vulnerable kids furthermore this policy will render the district as well as individuals on this board financially vulnerable to punitive legal ction as well as yet more intervention from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission further damaging the district's reputation Among The Wider community and thereby threatening everything from District enrollment and revenue to residential property tax values a Heartland parent wrote to the school board um back for uh in support of inclusive bathroom policies in November when around the time Clean Slate
056members were working in the back Channels with a small group of anti-lgbtq community members to really support in this discriminatory policy in response to this parent Mr goleski who has no expertise to claim in the area of child psychology medicine or even education responded by comparing the transgender experience to other things quote self harm self-hatred self-mutilation avoiding reality the psychological delusions of a small minority and extremists he drew comparisons in that November email between transgenderism and alcoholism and parental abuse quote transgenderism is weaponized against religious perspectives he claims Miss blondal responded to this parent not by addressing her concerns but by asking if she could have the parents permission to post quote post this on social media to allow everybody to provide their feedback no doubt to further inflame this small group of political supporters
057who have spread such rampant and dangerous misinformation on social media regarding students that Mr Hughes was compelled to issue a cautionary response email to the board members on the matter these are just a few of many examples we've discovered through the Foya that clearly illustrate the motivating factors and attitudes behind this discriminatory restroom policy it is not about safety it is not about protecting kids it is being driven by both implicit and explicit biased against trans children and by religious Notions please step down your three minutes are up no place in the public insti your three minutes are up please thank you next we have Laura Moore [Music] [Applause] um hi I'm Laura Moore um I have attended a vast majority of the meetings in the four past four years and my concerns both as
058um an alumnist a Community member a parent a teacher and a labor union leader run very deep in the meetings that I've been to but my current concerns today are focused mostly as a union member a leader and a teacher and certainly the other rol is I can't check as I come up to the podium in my more than 20 years of employment with the district up until recently when I offered up to a group that I was employed by Heartland Consolidated Schools the question was almost immediately are you going to be hiring more recently that question has changed to oh I've heard how's it going so my my response has changed from we'll hire the best which I still think is true to the staff is amazing we work together we put together a
059high quality education and our administrators support our teachers last meeting President gach uh charged the Personnel committee with solutions for a low confidence shown in the board staff survey I'm sorry shown in the staff survey about the board we're happy that our concerns will be addressed and Heartland is unique in hiring many alums and having so many employees that live within the district boundaries or bring their children via School of Choice to Heartland part of the smalltown field that people still enjoy we're happy to have our or we're happy to have the opportunity to offer feedback that's been taken seriously and is being considered I'm looking forward to the committee report this evening and the solutions that will be implemented it's not difficult to see from the comments what your employees are looking for they're
060looking for policies that respect our professional work in the classroom they're working for Pol or they're looking for policies and procedures that support our students even in their most difficult School moments being that decisions that students make that unfortunately lead to discipline or students find finding themselves in difficult social situations or students struggling with Coming of Age situations that are unique to school settings I bet there are many people that never deal with some of the issues that we see on a daily basis we're also looking for fierce advocacy for public education including supporting national state and local policies and budgets that keep funding in public schools and finally we're looking to be treated with respect by all board members what you say about our work and our students it matters you set a tone
061for our district in our upcoming school year your professionalism and preparedness at this meeting or sadly a lack sometimes thereof make a difference your posts on social media your work with Community organizations your spoken and written opinions and actions in both large and small groups they make a difference your respect for our professional expertise are sadly sometimes a lack thereof makes a difference so we're looking forward for your Solutions we're looking forward to continuing to focus on high quality education for our students and we're looking forward to working with [Music] [Applause] you next up we have Tanya Christine good evening I'm speaking tonight on behalf of our queer youth who don't feel safe enough to come to these meetings anymore I'm here to discuss the harms that the proposed discriminatory bathroom policy will cause studies
062including recent FBI hate crime data show the spike in anti-lgbtq legislation and hateful political rhetoric we among the reasons lgbtq youth contemplated suicide at over twice the rate as their classmates specifically anti-lgbtq policies in schools adds to that risk compromising students safety and their mental well-being these policies create a hostile environment for lgbtq plus children which per the ACLU of Michigan who is Consulting with parents is ground for lawsuits once these kinds of political ideologies are embedded in our schools they are no longer a safe space where kids are able to thrive and learn instead they become a place where children become targets and are isolated because of this marginalized families are moving away some are pulling their kids and placing them in nearby welcoming school districts While others are having to go total virtual
063learning the fact is marginalized kids are actively being pushed out of Heartland schools it happened all this past school year and will continue to in my opinion the truly devastating part is that Heartland has taken the bathroom policy one step further than corrup by polishing the legal legal end of things however just because it may be barely legal it still doesn't make it right this bathroom policy will have far-reaching effects on the trans kids who live in rural districts Statewide as they will use hartland's bathroom policy as a template to follow so congrats to this board you and this district will be very well known for your exclusionary stance harland's reputation will be secured as being unwelcoming and unsafe schools for any kid who isn't white and straight this school board under new leadership has
064advanced several measures this past year that hyperfocus on lgbtq [Music] kids you have enacted policies that attack equal access to school spaces and activities Bann Pride flags and other support of symbols like safe space stickers discouraging the use of accurate pronouns Etc so what will you do next for staff to out students ban books ban curriculum attack trans kids who want to play sports because we all know that this is not stopping with bathrooms as concerned parents and School staff we apologize to the lgbtq youth across the district and the county and promise to continue opposing these harmful policies that have no place to yeah please wrap it up thank [Applause] you next up I have Elaine [Applause] Marie good evening first in case I don't have time at the end I just wanted to
065tell Mr Hughes you're doing a great job hang in there we all know what you have to deal with and you're doing the best you can in spite of what you have we're sorry you have a school board determined to make your lives harder we're sorry you have to think about policies like this when you should be thinking about prom in college and what you're going to do after you graduate it isn't right for those of you without supportive parents you can't come out for fear that your home environment will become unsafe too we see you just please hang in there you are valid you are valued we must move away from the harmful National level political rhetoric in these meetings and start putting our energy towards the discussions that will truly help our kids
066reach their fullest potential Heartland can be a place where all kids feel supported welcomed and respected as humans so that they can be successful in life every student deserves to have access to an equitable safe School environment it's every parent's goal to raise kids to become adults who will go on to make our society a better place so let's start acting like it we must pay attention and vote for the Schoolboard candidates who will be true educational leaders focused on our children and not these farri magga agendas thank you [Applause] I apologize but Stephanie miklo mlo Mose I apologize um just just a brief introduction um I um have a son in schools so um but I'm a stakeholder in the community I've lived here 26 years um I also attend in Central Michigan University
067and my final paper was on the high rate of suicide this is back in 1995 so I thought by now might be more well known but the high rate of suicide in lgbtq students um they don't who don't receive the support and if you're going to out them to parents I find that apprehensible and vindictive in and just mean-spirited and politically motivated I think I don't I don't think people like that belong on a school board frankly uh first staff comment on the survey while differing perspectives are natural it's essential approach them them constructively and professionally unfortunately the Hostile interactions and disrespectful behavior from certain board members and their supporters are unacceptable and counterproductive to our shared goal of providing quality education this conduct creates an unsafe work environment and administration from focusing on student
068learning by forcing us unsafe work environment excuse me for forcing us to address unfounded criticisms and unreasonable requests next more than 30 years of my life has been spent in pursuit of becoming the absolute best teacher that I could be for the district in that time I have never felt unsupported by my district administrators or my colleagues but I need to talk about our current School Board and the impact it is having on the job you are paying me to do we are running under two separate Boards of education on the um one that values the work we are doing and one that literally ran on the idea of tearing it all down under the name of Clean Slate as if there was nothing worth saving no matter how they try to address that phrase
069up and explain it away we know what they meant excuse me we know what they meant and their continued actions prove it as elected officials it is true that our board was chosen to lead the district but they don't represent just represent the people who elected them they re represent the entire community and in my case the people that the district employs most importantly they represent every single student that walks down our halls and yet so much time is spent at our board meetings looking for ways to exclude certain students over the course of the last year okay I'll conclude right now but this is from a teacher that works here so I thank you Barbara Gaza Madame President Mr Hughes school school board members and guests my name is Barbara gazda and I am
070a re ly retired social studies and English teacher for Heartland high school I'm speaking today after my retirement not because I feared any retaliation for my administrative team but because I had already been a target of social media bullying by the community and I didn't want to go through it again these and other instances were questioning my curriculum several years ago a person who had never met me never had a student in my class was very obviously fed misinformation from an AP parent per the curriculum set by the college board AP students study five areas including political ideology in the ideology unit we study the generalizations of party beliefs and T take several different quizzes to see where a student might fall on the political Spectrum we then discussed the factors of political ideology family
071religion gender level of Education geography Etc this is part of the AP curriculum and yet I was vilified in social media for daring to ask political questions in a political science class the second time was last year when I had a picture in community life of my AP students zooming with the national con institution Center scholar to review for the AP test it was a photo from the back of the classroom so you could only see the students heads what in the world could be found wrong with that well I also had a flag of China in my classroom I teach AP comparative government and politics the governments of China Mexico Russia the UK Iran and Nigeria are studied per the College Board curriculum but rather than thinking that it was a good thing for
072students to understand the world around them and the various types of government in the 94 countries I was made out to be a communist and anti-American do teachers follow curriculum our scores show that our students do well on tests that cover curriculum my AP scores are consistently higher than the state and Global averages for getting a three or higher I helped write the Michigan standards for civics in 2019 so I know what to expect my resume includes International Studies varied job experiences prior to teaching taking professional development with the national Constitution Center the Bill of Rights Institute I Civics Hillsdale College and the history societ historical societies thank you next up we have Jeff Scott good evening my name is Jeff Scott I have three students in the Heartland district and I've been called many
073things in my life an entrepreneur a father husband volunteer Schoolboard candidate and now tonight as you all heard by secretary Shaw she simply refers to me as a disruptive Community member as you heard about in the minutes simply for trying to hold the board accountable for the superintendent evaluation process that each and every one of you adopted in August of 23 so let's go back to where all this started in the spring of 23 when Mr Costa illegally altered the superintendent ofal ation process in violation of the Michigan Revised Code making a mockery out of this body by dropping the scores of three duly elected sitting board members Costa was dethroned due to his malfeasance and president glabach stepped up to take charge of the superintendent process after Consulting legal counsel the 23 evaluation was
074deemed unlawful and thrown out the board immediately voted to adopt the masb superintendent evaluation Pro protocol process which will be conducted here tonight in Clos session at last month's meeting in violation of the masb protocol the board voted four to three to go into Clos session to hear the superintendent self- evaluation I'm holding in my hand appendix C of the MB masb evaluation tool which all of you should have in front of you it's page number 20 in your packet for tonight and I'm going to read exactly what it says should happen prior to a board going into any meeting for the evaluation prior to a meeting number one the superintendent prepares a self- evaluation compiles evidence and provides it to the Board of Education that did not happen prior to last month's meeting number
075two the board members see clarity as needed regarding the self evaluation and the evidence provided Mr Hughes did not give you guys that information and the ability to ask questions before you went into a meeting so how can you vote to go into a closed session against the masb protocol which each and every one of you have adopted and by the way I did talk to masb legal council last week about this and he said none of this was explained to him when he was asked to wait in so I'm sure you're going to give us a reason why you could have gone in and just decided not to but the bottom line is you figured out a way to do it without it it was against protocol and yet you're going to stand here
076and call me and other people who try to hold you accountable disruptive community members well guess what we will continue to hold you accountable for your actions and make sure that the number one goal the number one job of the board to conduct the superintendent evaluation is done properly and according to protocol thank [Applause] you next up I just have um it says Kelly good evening uh my name is Kelly and I am just here to speak on behalf of some of the teachers here I don't think everyone is aware of the 2023 24 Heartland Consolidated School staff survey where these important stakeholders had a chance to weigh in on what leadership is and isn't working within the district half of the comments written on that survey revealed rampant teacher dissatisfaction specifically citing the Clean
077Slate board members goes blondel and Keller not one comment was in support of these three board members some teachers are scared to speak out but they are the heart of these schools and their words deserve to be read into public record first comment since GLG galeski Michelle blandel and Greg Keller came on board it has been a struggle to say the least they know very little about how educating students works and often bring politics and personal views into the educational setting which has made it a lot tougher to do the work they are much more stuck on bringing societal issues into the school than providing a well-rounded education to our youth next I am a member of this community along with being a teacher here and the negativity that has been revolving around our schools
078over the last few years is upsetting that is why I specifically am questioning sending my own children to this school district next there are a few members Glenn galeski Michelle blandel and Greg Keller who seem to treat the board position as a Pulpit for their political and religious views they do not seem to understand the educational realm and seem to have little interest in doing so their continued harassment and questioning of the district makes it hard to do the work the District employees are here to do which is educate kids next I have grave concerns about the competence of some of our board members and their lack of empathy or understanding toward the needs of all students next the past few years have been really difficult to be a teacher in Harland the ridiculous actions
079by the school board and public meetings has been embarrassment they are focusing on problems that don't exist instead of seeing the issues we need to deal with next the social media posts of Mr galeski are concerning at the very least and while it is his personal page the threatening tone of some posts is dangerously close to creating an unsafe and hostile work environment Miss blondel explaining how much time she doesn't have is maddening we're all busy after all if I acted in my classroom the way board members do in meetings unprepared barking out of turns snide and rude comments and not looking for progress I would be fired and rightfully so next when my own children graduate from Hartland I will seek employment elsewhere if these Trends continue Heartland has is and will continue to
080lose good teachers directly because of current Board of Education members go galeski and blondal thank [Applause] you next I have Terry [Music] P good evening the following is the continuation of the 2023 2024 Heartland staff comments first comment the three new board members only want to cause trouble the old board was always so supportive of the district and involved these three don't seem to know how great the district is or they wouldn't keep attacking the Great employees that we have next with the addition of extremists on our school board and the real possibility of them having voting power come November if I had any length of time left in my career I would be seeking a teaching position in a different School District next I'm concerned with the efforts of some of the board members
081to manipulate situations and the narrative to fit their own political agenda I cannot say this strongly enough that school boards are supposed to be nonpartisan and represent the interest of all students and that is currently not the way it feels next after 19 years as a teacher in the district it is unfortunate to see the climate change regarding the perception and value of teachers it is discouraging to see seasoned Educators resign from their positions because they have become targets of unfounded school board and parent attacks next As for the board it's hard to feel supported when teachers are constantly attacked and criticized during board meetings morale is low next the three board members galeski blondal and Keller definitely have their own political agenda and it is not focused on what is best for all kids
082they have turned their our board meetings into a circus of politics and do not support or value teachers they say they can they can say they do but actions speak louder than words next the three board members goaly K and blondal are not supportive of teachers or public education for all students I do not feel supported by the school board with a divisiveness and unnecessary drama and attention these three board members have brought to our community next there are three board members who aim to stir the pot and cause tension these board members also use their position to undermine the work we do and plant seeds of distrust blondel goaly and Keller are creating a really divisive community that does not focus on helping all students they do not represent they do not understand the
083work we do dayto day and focus on issues that are not even happening in our schools next I do not feel that all current members of the school board are truly invested in supporting Harland students marginalized students in particular Schoolboard meetings often do not address the real issues that students and staff are facing next I am disappointed with the insensitivity of three board members Glenn Greg and Michelle thank you next up I have Shannon [Applause] Hall I apologize my my sign holders went on strike so um so my name is Shannon Hill um and while I don't actually live in the district right now um I did actually go to Heartland schools from kindergarten through 9th grade I had Mr Hughes as a principal um I now live in Pinkney with my kids um and
084I'm here today representing the Livingston County Community Alliance and the Livingston um prevention project um so our goal is to prevent uh teen substance abuse here in Livingston County um so um I'm sure that many of you know that vaping is becoming a problem and that back in 2022 more than 2.5 million youth across the United States reported VAP use um in Livingston County alone in the 2017 to 2018 myi survey 1,228 uh Livingston County High School juniors reported vaping use within the last 30 days um we know that this is due to a lack of knowledge on the students part the parents part and the school's part um and we have a solution to that which is programs that are offered specifically by Karen bergbower and Associates which you guys might be familiar with
085um however they are Grant funded and in order to get grant funding we have to have data and the myi survey has been uh like shut down by every school district in this County which is our primary source of data for these programs so um we have to work with you guys to to get more education um because things are getting worse Vapes are now containing things like fentanyl THC psilocybin which are commonly found in shrooms um and there's no way for you guys to know this unless you're testing every single Vape that's being confiscated so we have got to keep these programs in the school so we want to work with you guys to find a way to um to get this data collected even if it's not from the myi server because the
086the safety and the long-term um success of the youth in this community depends on making them making healthy lifestyle behaviors so that's all I had thank you so much next up we have Aaron Dennis Aaron Dennis Harland teacher since 2003 20 years of the highest level of Effectiveness rating that you can receive on my evaluations so I am around and kind of know what I'm doing um I doubt that I'm going to be able to change anybody's mind tonight um so I'm not going to go from that perspective instead what I'm going to do is offer some boots on the ground perspective of what I see every day and and maybe do a little speaking for people that are too afraid to speak for themselves um I want to remind you of an email that
087I sent to all of you a couple of months ago where I talked about what public education is so every year I'm given a roster of kids um they come from a variety of backgrounds different um different experiences different needs different abilities the beauty of working in public education is that we take everybody it doesn't matter what your race is what your religion is what your sexuality your family's politics your gender your academic ability your educational plan your medical conditions your financial standing we take all of that and we figure out a way to work for you and to help you to be successful public schools are for building up not for tearing down and that is a theme that I keep hearing come up tonight in the call to the public the students that
088I work with here have a lot of things in common but one of the main ones is that they are used to having people look down on them for a variety of reasons a lot of my students made the choice to come to school here because they wanted to feel more accepted or at least rejected less that's kind of sad that they had to go to a different school to feel like they were welcomed and when I look at my virtual students there are far too many of them who see their in school experiences being so bad that a better choice is to go home sit in your room alone teach yourself calculus in physics and just try to get by we have to do better for those kids please don't think that this is
089any weakness on the part of my students I don't have straight kids coming to me telling me that they're being bullied for being straight I don't have white kids coming to me and telling me that they're being bullied for being white I don't have Christian kids coming to me and telling me that they're being bullied for their religion bullying doesn't work that way I want to I want to talk about um the fact that this is the second year in a row where we have taken a specific subset of our students the lgbtq community and during pride month we've looked at policy and procedures that directly affects them we need these kids to feel that they're not broken that there's nothing wrong with them and to show them that they deserve to walk these halls
090with the same ease that every other student does when they come into our schools thank you for your time next up we have Tristan beard [Applause] hello my name is Tristan Barett I am 11 and I'm at sixth grade at farms z school I will now get started the last day of school one my teachers wore a political shirt promoting candidates range for the Harland School Board against my my mom it affected me by making me feel uncomfortable I did not want to talk to her for the rest of the day I am politely asking for the board next time to ensure these rules stay and to make it so no teacher will wear a political sh again and not to make any other K kid feel uncomfortable my mom did bring this up to
091Mr Hughes but still I have not received any sort of apology for what happened thank you Harland school board members for listening to my innocent and Sate [Applause] Kelly ker it was my understanding that tonight there would be a group of people reading staff comments from a recent survey that paint newly elected board members and a negative light the negative comments Focus largely on claims of political and social agendas of these board members for background this is supposedly an anonymous survey which 279 of about 500 staff responded of those 279 that responded 88 provided specific comments while it's impossible for the public to know if some of the comments were made by the same person in duplicate after reading them what is clear is that this is a coordinated effort by a small group of
092staff that were upset by the passing of policy 8805 which requires the removal of stickers and flags in classrooms that promote social and sexual agendas the coordination of these negative comments being publicly read tonight was done by a Livingston County hate group known as Sage this group pushes social and sexual agendas onto our children after Gathering more information from other HCS staff I have learned that there is a definite fear and firm belief that the survey is not Anonymous there is fear that if any comments are raised that do not align or agree with the ideas of Mr Hughes there will be retaliation this also explains the anomaly that there were not there was not even one positive comment about these newly elected board members there is true fear of administration retaliation given I only
093have three minutes I will share just a select few of the excerpts and comments from HCS staff that have been gathered outside of the staff survey comment one I'm appreciative of board members who ask questions and actually try to get things done to make our workplace safer goleski Keller and blondal were instrumental in onboarding the safety officers which have been a great asset to our schools unfortunately the reality is that the three members work so hard to be shot down in any idea of change just because of who they are and not because what they're trying to accomplish teachers and staff are afraid of speaking up and filling out surveys for for fair retaliation loss of hours or pay comment two the survey is never Anonymous comment three why would I fill out a survey
094on how things are going when it's not Anonymous and is tracked back to my email how about going old school and providing paper copies for all to fill out now that is truly Anonymous no way I'm having that tracked back to me by the way I really like how Glenn Greg and Michelle seem to question Chuck it seems others just sit there and have nothing to contribute comment four interesting reading the results of the survey that was sent out I may only be a bu driver but I can smell it when something is up why is the superintendent as well as his puppet sha Costa and Coleman so afraid of being transparent I like how go gasi backs everything up with facts and is quite loud when asking for the truth Keller actually stands up
095presents papers with facts to Chuck blond deal is nice but also does not back down that is why they were elected to bring out the truth they have done a good job the question I have here is why are Chuck and his puppets so afraid of the truth what are they hiding in closing please think about why there was not one person willing to say anything positive about the newly elected board members that the community elected don't forget thousands of votes even teachers this should speak volumes for the fear of this survey and changes required in the future Tiffany bar hello my name is Tiffany bar and I a candidate for the Heartland School Board first I'd like to address the incident my son Tristan talked about that occurred on the last day of school
096where he felt uncomfortable and upset when his teacher wore a shirt endorsing candidates running against me I did reach out to Mr Hughes and he agreed that it is completely inappropriate for a teacher to display any kind of political support in the classroom he assured me that he would address this issue with his staff and take a appropriate actions thank you the reason I decided to run for this Schoolboard position is simple I care deeply about our children our teachers and the future of our community as a parent I've experienced firsthand the challenges within our school district I've also seen the issues that have gone unaddressed for far too long and I believe it's time for a change over the past few years I have worked tirelessly to improve our schools from enhancing the integrated
097Pest Management program to ensuring the removal of contaminated materials at Village Elementary I have tackled significant problems I have addressed safety procedure violations in ensured proper rate on testing and resolved concerns with our aestus Management program my focus has been on making our facilities safe and providing parents with the information they deserve I am running for this position to continue to work and to be a strong advocate for our teachers it is upsetting to see our dedicated Educators being undervalued some teachers are being told they cannot earn any more money and should not be in child child care to make money in fact a recent newsletter stated Child Care is not in the business to get into to make much money Heartland teachers can earn more at Panda Express some of them than they can
098as a 25 plus year employee here at Heartland this is just unacceptable the great Start program offers free preschool and takes pre pre free preschool but takes decreases our teachers pay if we do not sorry lost my spot if if our teachers do not take that pay cut they could be forced to lose their jobs this is a disgraceful way to treat our Educators additionally it is being said that fundraising money at the preschool is being used to compensate wages Yet chuck had told me that those funds go towards special treats and things so which is it these teachers I have spoken to have shared with me that they did not participate in the staff survey because they are in fear of losing their jobs they do not trust the administration and they know that
099is not truly Anonymous fiscal responsibility is another key aspect of my campaign where are our tax dollars going it is infuriating that this board approved two brand new work trucks with less than 40,000 miles on them yet when our teachers request funds for supplies totaling under $50 for finger paints they are denied and have to pay out of their own Pockets it is outrageous that certain teachers who have dedicated over 25 years in Harland are only paid 14 something an hour our District's resources must be managed wisely to ensure that every dollar spent directly benefits our students and teachers I will continue to fight for our teachers and to get the support and compensation they deserve and to create a safe and supportive environment for students to learn and grow together we can create a
100school environment where every child has the opportunity to arrive and where teachers are supported and valued thank you next up we have Holly Naylor hello I'm Holly Naylor I'm a taxpayer a voter and apparent to three children currently in Hartland schools is everyone in this room aware that being on the Heartland Consolidated School Board is a nonpartisan position the Oxford dictionary says that being nonpartisan is not biased or partisan especially towards any particular political group Miriam Webster says it is being free from party affiliation bias or designation it means that those elected to our school board should not represent a specific political party or group we do not have Republican Democrat libertarian or any other party designation on the ballot for these roles instead you are all elected to represent all of us it is
101very difficult to honor your own personal values and opinions and at the same time be a nonpartisan representative especially during these extremely divisive times it takes maturity humility and discernment it takes thoughtfulness and intentional decision-making in how you represent yourself in the community I am not talking about restricting Fe Free Speech rights of elected officials everyone in this country is free to speak their opinion as loudly as they want but I was raised to know that just because you can doesn't mean you should like maybe you should not run for an openly partisan party delegate position while also serving as are running for a nonpartisan School Board role it makes it hard to trust that you can be fair balanced and nonpartisan in that case there are almost 3500 families currently enrolled in Heartland Schools
102board members who speak in derogatory terms about those who vote differently from them need to recognize that 35 to 40% of people in Heartland did not vote like you in 2022 when you trash talk from your seat at the table or use your microphone out in the community you are in insulting around 1,00 people that you represent you are making it crystal clear that the opinion of a third of Heartland School parents just doesn't matter to you what does nonpartisan mean means that you are willing and capable of working with a team including people's who opinions do not align with yours nonpartisan means that you can ask hard questions and have difficult discussions in a respectful manner that shows you want to figure out a solution that works for for more than one group not
103just for the people who applaud your every gotcha moment nonpartisan means that when you sit in that chair you represent you do your best to represent all of us if you are not able to leave your ego at the door and humble yourself enough to be open to serving the needs of more than one group this is not the job for you stick to running for a partisan role thank you [Applause] Dave Van Aller hey van AER van AER that was hopefully I do better with the microphone this time I'm repeating a little bit of past ground to clarify some things and help people out and uh I'll just start with again as I've said section one article 8 encouragement of Education religion morality knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind
104schools means of Education shall forever be encouraged I'd add to that tonight since we included religion in there I'll add some more to that and we'll go to other topics later uh this is uh from Hosea my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge I will reject you from serving as my priests since you have forgotten the law of your God I'll also forget your sons the important mission of educating people it's very critical for us to know as much truth as we can don't have time to discuss truth tonight but there's my religious comment so I brought this picture in last meeting got a little excitement for some people it was to illustrate a point it was not anything anybody's running around posting on the walls undermining your school
105it got a reaction as I hope that it would but this picture that I posted last time was at your pool for over two years in the entrance of your school so I'm clarifying what I said before to make sure that everybody understands because we're talking about branding here I want your school to do well so you need to know or encourage your employees to Brand properly this is what has replaced it now as your new Club swimming program the Hurricanes were your product and now you are penguins or at least a penguin hurricane I don't know what that actually is this is an article that I was posted in your community life promoting the new new swim program if you look on here you'll see three references to Heartland and nine to huran Valley
106and the team that's come in here and is operating our program now you'll see in the practice that they're operating that there are going to going to be nine references just on the first page to penguins and hin Valley two to hean Valley one to Heartland and only one to our program so that's they're promoting their stuff over ours as far as I can see the website where the kids go to I'll make this as fast as I can first page it's a hurricane penguin you've got four references to heartlander hurricanes 15 to Penguins you've got shirts with Penguins you've got Penguins on in front of hurricanes penguins penguins penguins penguins penguins same page reference to here in Valley penguins penguins penguins penguins penguins penguins penguins penguins one for hurricanes 19 for Milford last one
107and I will go because we're almost out of time we are out of time 30 for Penguins 11 for Heartland representing Heartland as one of their locations they the penguins have six and we are one of their six now we no longer are our own program thank you next up I just have a card that says Julie is there just a Julie in here nope moving on I'm not done Barb you're next you're [Music] next no I wasn't done to see him thank you again for letting me speak for a well-rounded education it is our god-given duty to teach children the true founding of this Republic not a democracy this Republic's biblical principles but not pushing to be a nationalist Christian Nation that some purport conservatives are trying to do which is totally unscriptural based
108on a Biblical worldview and Free Will children will be prepared to choose their path as an adult and well-informed citizen of these United States as the founding fathers of the Constitution encouraged of which we are greatly lacking in this current culture Proverbs 226 train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older he will not depart from it but will remember setting June as pride month and all that entails in today's sinful rebellious culture is blasphemy and an Abomination against God the creator of the universe it's interesting that God 's inspired word knew these things were going to happen history does repeat itself I will remind you about the true meaning of the rainbow of God when he made a covenant with man and the token as is his rainbow
109in the heaven which I did last year Genesis 9:13 through1 17 I set my bow Rainbow in the cloud and it shall be a token or a sign of a covenant or solemn pledge between me and the Earth and it shall be that when I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds I will earnestly remember my Covenant or solemn pledge which is between me and you and every living creature of All Flesh warning Proverbs 16:18 Pride goes before destruction and a hoty spirit before a fall Mark 106 through 9 but from the beginning of creation God made them male and female God never makes mistake he's perfect he's almighty God Psalm 1199 how shall a young person keep their way by taking heed and keeping watch on thems according
110to God's word confirming his conforming his life to it Jesus said not to forbid the children to come to him have I become your enemy me because I tell you God's truth Saint Satan is your enemy reject him and turn your heart towards Jesus to be saved this is a quote from the Netherlands resistance during World War II on of Christian Christians as the will of the students go so goes the will of the nation and look where we are at teachers are not vetted to see if they have been brainwashed by American hating professors who will turn and indoctrinate the children we vet our candidates to vote for or at the least we should but we must vet those who teach our children thank you very [Applause] much all righty moving on to item
111um onef committee and building reports Mr goleski you want to kick us off sure yeah I'd like to uh say thank you to uh Mr Fitzgerald for making me part of uh the process for looking at a new dean of students that was very good to work with the team I like that a lot um and I also want to say a big happy congratulations to all those 20 U 24 graduates who are probably not even remotely listening or care to listen to a board meeting but congratulations anyway um I do want to talk about a Personnel committee meeting that we did have about a week and a half ago and um a lot of the things that were discussed at the cult to public were brought up in that meeting and what I find
112really interesting is that you can have so many people supposedly upset with three individuals and talk about that repeatedly one not citing one incident two never mentioning any one particular person but naming the three it it kind of reeks of being laid out and having an agenda and to hear some people come up to the microphone and accuse people of having a political agenda while they wear their social cause dour shirts well I I'll tell you it loses a lot of punch when you come up here and complain so um with that um I have nothing else to say Mr sh nothing for me Mrs Mrs Coleman sorry um yeah so obviously there were no building reports to share since our last meeting but um I do appreciate being part of that process last year
113and I hope and at least some form we'll be able to continue that um the next Senior Center advisory council meeting will be July 10th so I'll be able to share some more information about that at the next meeting and um I don't have too much to add um from the person committee meeting that Mr goleski referred to um but obviously as as everyone knows the committee was asked to come together by president gach to Res to discuss and review the uh results of the staff survey and to try to determine how to address the concerns expressed in the staff comments obviously particularly those um regarding the current climate of the school board um in an attempt to try to foster a better understanding of opposing viewpoints um in turn um demonstrating a willingness to
114to work together for the betterment of the district it was agreed that we would um in small groups get together prior to each board meeting to discuss the topics on the next board agenda topics covered in committees Etc in an attempt to better understand each other's perspective so obviously with open meetings act we can't get together in groups of more than four unless it's an open meeting so so um we will attempt to on an ad hoc basis whoever is interested get together set up times to meet for coffee or something something in person we all agreed that getting together in person would be better than trying to do a zoom or something um and we'll try to begin to bridge that Gap and hopefully Foster some type of better environment here at the board
115table that will eventually trickle down and hopefully be felt by our staff it's a meager it's a small step um but it's the first one that we have all agreed on um as a step in that direction to address those concerns thank you thank you Mr Costa thanks Mrs gach uh yeah so I also was part of the Personnel meeting um and obviously the minutes are available for the public to see uh is true we did have conversation around trying to get other board members to talk to one another which some of us do um already we have conversation with our administ ation um I I don't know if it's going to help um again the goal was to kind of try to figure out what's going on with our staff and and why they're
116so upset and quite frankly I I I I don't have a solution to it um one of the comments in me during the meeting was they don't care they don't care about the comments so I find it disheartening I I wish I had more for you on the Personnel meeting uh I encourage you to look at the minutes um for our finance meeting because I had that this month uh Rachel I know you already spoke about our budget I'm so grateful that we have you you look at all these other districts around that are Financial Peril and that is not the case here in Heartland so I thought the finance meeting was great um we're in a great spot with our fund Equity balance and then lastly uh we did have a safety committee meeting
117um and I know Mr Keller was there as well uh great news about Village Elementary there there there was no issue with our water our air our soil uh the experts came through and made that c crystal clear to all of us so let the public be assured um that there is absolutely nothing wrong at Village it was great to hear the experts say that we all sat around and got to ask great questions um and I'm I'm really excited to talk about that and I know those minutes Mr Hughes are coming out shortly to the public he's nodding his head uh and with that I'm all set Mr Keller all right thank you I also did not have a building report but um we will be uh reinstating hopefully that for the future so
118expect an email from me next week asking for your requests for specific buildings and I guess if there's any specific changes I know Mr Hughes was able to get some feedback from the staff so thank you to the staff for those of you that shared your feedback and thoughts um but I do think it was a good program and looking forward to a new rotation next year um Safety Committee again Mr Costa touched on the safety meeting that we had at appreciate the outside um eagle and Nova coming into our meeting to have kind of a you know a third thirdparty um review of the situation and looking forward to Future activities surrounding the the closures of of those um reports I think the notes came out just prior to the me uh tonight's meeting
119I haven't had a chance to review them but I'll certainly follow up with any questions so thank you Mr Hughes for getting that out also want to Echo Mr Costa's comments regarding the budgets I know personally that putting budgets together is very time consuming it's an art it takes a lot of educated guesses and I know Rachel does a great job of you know trying to take in all the various um buckets of information that we we get in uncertainty so congratulations to Rachel for completing that Monumental task again and then lastly uh Personnel committee I did not attend but Mr galeski attended for me I did read the notes so and thank you to the three members for your um discussions in those meetings look forward to having the the smaller group sessions to
120try to brainstorm on on future activities around the uh survey of results and that's all for me Mrs blundale I did not have any committee meetings so I have nothing to report out on thank you just a couple of things for me thank you to the creek side team for involving me in your process to hire a new principal U much like Mr goleski um Creekside was my assignment this past year um through that new um program that Mr Keller LED and it was really um it was good to hear the staff and staff's feedback in a different way and so it was a very thorough process thanks thank you to Kate for leading that process um and I'm pretty confident uh I happen to know um the president of the school board in which
121he's coming from and I got several text messages about how awesome of an individual we're getting so um they were a little jealous of us I'm certain um just to add um for the rest of the board um or excuse me before I hit that Safety Committee um thank you to Eagle and Nova for coming together um there was consensus there wasn't really any disparate comments about the safety of Village or the safety of the environment around Village quite frankly um you know they were able to review some previous things with us that that occurred back in the 90s um and some processes that occurred up up until today really or um and so uh they were pretty confident that we would be able to close that out uh within the the school year there's
122a lengthy process in reporting uh features that need to be accomplished um and I would hope that the Safety Committee would continue to um potentially add that as one of their board goals for coming up um to the board please give me any committee changes that you are requesting by July 8th um so that for our organizational meeting we can go into the new school year with any changes um or send me along ones that you might enjoy sitting on um so that we can keep you there um and then be a little bit more deliberate moving forward all righty all right item 2A 2024 25 parent student handbooks um before I read the motion I just want to say that due to the number of the suggested edits that were submitted to president gach
123prior to the meeting um and the timing of some of those edits coming in and being able to assimilate everything I'm going to read an alternate motion um I move that the Board of Education postpone agenda item 2A 2024 2025 parent student handbooks until the July board meeting and then any further edits are submitted to president gach no later than Monday July 8th so that they may all be incorporated into the motion for discussion and vote at that meeting support motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mrs bondal I'll just give um a little tidbit of information that um I sent to the board in an email uh basically as we take edits through the handbook because the handbook is such a big robust uh document we need to take each option individually and so in
124order to have those um I have to have them in front of the board obviously I have to have them well before the board meeting so people can consider their options um in order to follow Robert's Rules of Order we really need to move through each edit and then we actually adopt the the document as a whole and so um to better allow people time to get their edits to me um we are proposing that we um postpone that or Mrs Coleman proposed that we postpone that um what will happen is edit all edits will be to me by end of business on did you say the eth um I will collate them with Mr Hughes and then I'll actually get them out to you prior to the board meeting um probably earlier than packet
125release so that you guys can kind of take a look at those and and work through those and then we wouldn't accept any more edits after that we try to be very systematic and how we moved forward um but just wanted to be transparent with the public Mr CL can we make sure like any of these edits because obviously haven't seen the most recent ones are these going to be ran by um thr if they're needed some of them might might not be it just depends okay all right I have a motion and and uh Mrs Coleman you might want to email your motion I know you have it written out to Renee so that we don't have to she doesn't have to feverishly write but um motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mrs bundal
126is there any further discussion on that motion hearing none Mr goleski yes Mrs shaww yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs blondal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes item 2B new and revised policies I moved at the Board of Education upon recommendation of the superintendent and the assistant superintendent of personnel approves the new and revised policies 1240 evaluation of the superintendent revised 6350 prevailing wage new 6520 payroll deductions revised and 8 800 religious patriotic ceremonies and observances revised as presented support motion by Mrs Shaw supported by Mr Costa any discussion hearing none Mr goleski yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs blondal yes and I'm yes that motion passes item 2 C Food Service equipment and kitchen upgrades I move that the
127Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and Chief Financial Officer approves the food service equipment and kitchen upgrades as presented motion by Mr Costa supported by Mrs Coleman any discussion hearing none Mr galeski yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs blondal yes may yes that motion passes board policy 4120 employment of support staff I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the director of Community Education sets aside board policy and authorizes the employment of gymnastics coaches under the supervision of a family member support motion by Mrs Coleman supported by Mr Costa um I know I've spoken with a couple of you that had asked me um I personally have um skin in the game on this one I have a
128daughter that has been with Heartland gymnastics ics for probably since she was 12 months old so uh a little over 8 years um and you know I think that um setting aside this policy to allow for the coaching to continue is instrumental not only for our wre program but also for actually our competitive programs um and if we weren't to set aside this policy I think that um it would crush our competitive teams quite frankly um you know the Gordon family is is very in Ed in gymnastics um we've never had any conflicts of interest arise and and they challenge each other they they don't always agree on everything um but I think that it it has gone tremendously well um and um we are very impressed with their ability to maintain really strong business
129order even amongst family yeah um Megan it I'm kind of surprised this is even on isn't there just an easy way that we can just simply change the reporting structure in the org chart to where it wouldn't be a conflict uh for example like um having the two coaches report of the same person that the uh um director does but also providing instruction to those coaches based on director input I mean just really simply just dialing it in there without making big waves yeah I think that normally if this were to come up in a different probably Department um 100% I feel what you're saying I would have a problem with someone not necessarily knowledgeable in gymnastics evaluating people that are supposed to be coaching gymnastics in a report but to kind of have that
130that sort of uh uh coach by proxy though where the director could say this is what needs to happen and then the person gives those exact orders to the coaches as a not not asking for that one individual's input especially if they're not gymnastic related but just to just to bypass the the uh conflict uh conflicting um flow of the way things uh are that way they won't be out of uh or they won't be uh out of compliance with the policy we got Brenda and uh Carol back here if we need to call up yeah Brenda I yeah Carol I don't know that do you have any thoughts on what Glenn is saying I I think as they're making their way up you know we've done this in the past uh we we we
131hired a mechanic that was under um Doug his son uh and did board policy uh over Road board policy and it worked out fine uh Brenda's daughters they've been coaching under her for a long time the programs had a a long good history hisry good standing and I would hate personally to see that you know here we charge Brenda with running the program but then we're going to have her assistant coaches you know supervised by somebody else other than the person running the program and this is why we brought it to you so I think I'd hate to see that happen and I think Brenda does a great job so I don't know what else you want to add and I agree with that I'm not a gymnastics expert you know Brenda definitely is and
132her daughters and all of her coaches are well in terms of reporting I mean just the things that maybe they would report to Brenda you know just report to you and just by proxy you would just tell Brenda and you know to to make it clean without a if it would be like a Personnel issue or something they could definitely come to me but as far as coaching skills I really don't have a knowledge of that well no no no no and I'm not Carol I don't want you coaching anyone no but no just for some of those issues that do come up that require a certain organizational um platform um like you're talking about Personnel issues or whatever it would go to you but in the meantime Brenda could still direct um the other
133two coaches and when it comes to matters of decisionmaking or Personnel issues it just goes through you first that way no one has to worry about you know the the potential conflict of yeah and Carolyn I work well together so if there was anything that I thought was going to be an issue I always bring it to her attention too yeah I guess if I could interject um I guess my concern is that if if there's a a workaround for the policy then then somebody could take advantage of that workaround when you know in a different situation you know and there would be maybe someone who's not qualified but just because they're related well nobody will notice if I have them report to so and so on paper you know what I mean so I
134guess I I don't I don't know I don't think it's that huge of a deal to have to make a vote but I hear what you're saying I I I agree with you too and I'm I'm thinking that another option would be to Simply make a simple little revision to the policy um that either we could say something like any exceptions made are on a Case by casee instance and do not reflect any evidence of of precedent or um Can should only affect those services that are not directly School related or something like that because this is a community uh thing it's not really part of our core school so uh any deviation from this policy needs to come to the board so I think your your verbiage is is well taken and perhaps we
135can add that on a future board meeting if you want to get but um just shoot that in an email um because current currently any deviation from this process this current policy has to come to us and so inherently um I think we're able to kind of push back on that precedence but if we want to add verbiage in there to allow for flexibility within that 100% um but would love to still at least deal with item 2D today and then maybe bring forward policy if you're agreeable to that yeah all right any additional discussion yeah I mean I guess I personally have not received any negative feedback whatsoever about the program so that's a great thing but I guess just as a member of the board I do worry to that we would sort
136of vote to violate a policy when our our job up here is to set policies and then we're kind of sending a mixed signal I think to everyone that we're setting aside the rules for for some and I think that that you know potentially becomes an issue of consistency so I guess I struggle with that and I would more prefer an approach that Mr goleski offered where we don't actually have to violate a policy again I I I don't want to see anybody have to change jobs or anything that would affect the program but I I think we should find an alternative solution that aderes to our policies so I think let's work let's still move forward with item 2D and then I we can bring back policy revisions yeah is there any additional discussion
137Mr goleski yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller no Mrs bondil yes I'm a yes that motion passes thank you ladies thank you item 2 e building Furniture purchases 2020 Bond I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the director of operations approves the furniture purchases for Village and Legacy as presented support o motion by Mrs Shaw support by Mr Costa can I uh I don't think Matt's here I thought there was another building Renee was it just the two buildings did we miss one Rachel no it does say Village and round on here it's just yeah it's it's it's lumped together the village and round purchase are lumped together so I think if the motion needs to include round though I don't know
138that it necessarily needs to have that word in there as long as it's referring to this okay dollar amount or Mo I think we should be clear thank you any discussion hearing none Mr goleski yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs bondal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes item 2 F 23 24 budget amendments thank you Rachel I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the Chief Financial Officer approves the 20 23 24 budget amendments as presented support motion by Mrs Coleman supported by Mrs Shaw any discussion hearing none Mr galeski yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs blondal yes not yes that motion passes item 2G General Appropriations act resolution for the
1392425 budget I moved at the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the Chief Financial Officer approves the general Appropriations act resolution 2024 2025 as presented motion by Mrs Shaw supported by Mrs Coleman any discussion hearing none Mr galeski yes Mrs sha yes Mrs Coleman yes uh Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs fondil yes I guess Rene's keeping your eyes Rene you're keeping me on my toes here item 3A revised policy number 1241 non- Reemployment of the superintendent for discussion Mr Coler do you want to bring that one forward sure thanks um just wanted to bring this potential policy in front of the board the the basis for this policy is from the actual state statute for the state State superintendent position and I think some of the the changes that
140don't currently exist today would include um a an abil inability excuse me to sign a contract with a superintendent within 6 months of an election where we're potentially seating new board members or two months after an election and I think the other main point to note is that that there's a difference in the the length of contract currently a local superintendent would be uh eligible for up to a 5-year contract and with the state superintendent uh that would only be three years so again kind of aligning it with what we do at the state level as well as what we currently do today anytime we're considering um our administrative team we look at a three-year contract for them so this kind of aligns both the superintendent and his administrative team into one um I'll call
141it contract sequence or Series so I don't know if you have any other questions but you know again the language is highlighted in green there was some I guess additional wording um that I didn't recognize I think maybe Megan I don't know if that's something you added about the applies to the state superintendent in the parenthesis there sort of De captured off so I'm assuming that piece of it would be removed if it were adopted but otherwise I think everything else is laid out I would ask that other members on the board Reach Out directly to Mr Keller if you have questions specific to this before the next board meeting um or you know happy to try to pinch it and answer any questions but I think you would probably be most from an intention
142standpoint I would just have suggest having the brief time to look at it uh it would concern me that we would lock into something that is not intended for a local superintendent and again not that our neighbors to our side are are the perfect Community but if you look at what Brighton just did they just offered their superintendent a 5-year contract because I think they feel that they recognize they want stability and I think limiting whoever is sitting here to three years would would be a mistake so I I think there's a difference between the local superintendent and the state one but again I'm I'm going to do some research and look around so sounds good item uh 4 a future meetings um July 22nd 2024 um is uh right here uh for a future
143meeting item 4B any informational items does anyone have any all right item five closed session superintendent evaluation discussion I move that the Board of Education upon the request of the superintendent and the recommendation of the board president enters into closed session to discuss the superintendent evaluation support motion by Mrs Coleman reported by Mr Costa um real quick just want to address this obviously the board got a board brief from me um after the last board meeting where there was a consensus amongst masb and our local Council in regards to last board meeting we did have to modify our process slightly um which masb is very aware of um and which we've done and so we will obviously be finalizing this evaluation rating today um we will be shutting down the zoom uh uh and we
144will be asking folks to leave and then um because there's Mr Usher has been so kind to actually stay so that he can resume the zoom um when we come back and so um we're going to ask everyone to exit this room and then he would um have his all of his um technical goodies over there not sure what to call them um but and then we would come back um after our closed session with our moderator so just want to give everyone the heads up Megan they're free to sit out on the benches and outside of this room if they choose to um that's okay the building will be open awesome but we will ensure that um in the recording for the um that gets posted uh we will have that second piece of
145our meeting as well so motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mr Costa any further discussion on this motion just real quick Megan thanks for the clarification from the legal team I guess for me personally I'm you know someone who voted against the close session last month I think for me personally this particular vote is you know a clear um eligibility for the superintendent and you know as I would for any other employee I think it's certainly reasonable to honor the request that Mr Hughes has made and so I encourage the rest of the board to also vote in favor of the close session any additional discussion hearing none Mr galeski yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller yes Mrs bondil yes and I'm a yes that motion passes please note
146no one from the public is welcome to follow us to close session it'll just be the board we're going to go to uh the conference room in the front office okay is there enough room e e e all right so we are now back we are now back closed session um with the unanimous vote unanimous vote to come out of closed session into Open Session to facilitate the rest of this um process yep so we are now going to uh I'm going to go through the scores for each of the areas uh and then we'll go through the score for growth and the score for uh progress towards goals so in the area of governance and board relations a category score of 3.41 uh a bunch of sixes and a seven community community relations 3.1
147a bunch of sixes and a seven staff relations 3.42 A5 71429 business and finance a 3.9 instructional leadership a 3.65 that is an overall score of 3.54 9048 an adjusted score of 89% and that is for the areas a through e in the area of student growth highly effective A4 in the area of progress toward districtwide goals highly effective four that results in an overall total score of 3.77 38 9524 a total adjusted score of 94% which Falls within the rating of Highly Effective so as I said I will provide you with a copy of this spreadsheet for your records along with some additional notes some things that I noted as we went through the process um I want to remind you all that we have our summer Institute coming up in uh Gord in
148August and we' love to see you up there in August uh we have our fall Institute happening uh in Lancing this year so we love to see you come up to Lancing uh for fall Institute uh and any training or anything along the way that you think uh would be helpful please feel feel free to reach out uh we'd be more than happy to help you out with that as well with that I turn it over to the board president absolutely um I do want to thank the board for your involvement in this process and your detailed involvement in this process um you know it was really nice to see that we could come to consensus on some things and and really hear each other out and ensure that we understood where um everything was
149you know where each of us had scored our superintendent um and I appreciate uh Jay facil ating this for us as our first time I think we've all learned a lot um and it was very insightful to have someone to walk us through the process so thank you um and with that after facilitating this closed session I move that the Board of Education um adopts a highly effective rating for superintendent Hughes for the 2324 evaluation period support motion by me Mrs gach supported by Mrs Coleman any discussion hearing none Mr goleski I I do because I I just I don't think that uh your mic age your mic for our out here um I don't think I can just fully agree with that and walk away yet I don't want to be um antagonistic or
150anything like that I just I just can't agree with it so Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr Costa yes Mr Keller no Mrs blundel I do want to preface this by saying that it is above what I scored Mr Hughes um I think he is effective but highly effective I'm not sure but I feel like I need to vote Yes because we need to close the superintendent evaluation and I really don't I can't affect the score anymore and I'm a yes that motion passes item is that six board meeting adjourned at 10:28 p.m. I'm very proud of everyone for a 10:28 pm adjournment e