001oh yeah some reason for some reason that n disappears down there all they have to do is just push Stu time all right good evening if I can have everyone please stand for the bloodi good evening I think the best part of that Pledge of Allegiance with our friends over here in the audience thank you very much all right we're g to move right on to item 1B consent agenda um many of you just for the public I'll just speak on it very briefly um have probably noticed our agenda is going to be set up from here on out a little bit differently um and it's really to move through some items that we generally do piece by piece um in a consent fashion it's very common on other boards um but at any given
002time if there's continued discussion on an item that is in in the consent agenda item we can actually pull it right out um we don't have to to keep everything in that agenda but allows us to kind of get through some of the newon items a little bit quicker um but at any given time anyone at the table can certainly pull that out so just if you guys take a look at the agenda and noted the change up um that's what it is I mooved with the consent agenda for the November 13th 2023 regular meeting be approved which includes the adjustment of policy 0166 agenda as presented support motion by Mrs Coleman support by Mrs Shaw discussion really quickly Mrs Coleman would you just like to talk about um policy 0166 sure yeah the the
003change for that um is it's our agenda policy and the change is minor it's it's only taking out the spefic specific agenda item number reference for call to the public previously call to the public had always been I think it was item 1e or something and now we're since we're using this consent agenda it will no longer be in that same spot so we're just taking out that reference to onee that's that's a awesome any additional discussion hearing none Mr GOI yes Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr C yes Mr ker yes Mrs wal yes and I'm a yes that motion passes moving on to item 1 C superintendent report yes thank you again welcome our round friends um for the public if you don't know I noticed you're really good at the Pledge
004of Allegiance we do offer the Pledge of Allegiance in all of our buildings every morning all the way up through the high school and uh so so that is available every day for for all of our students so obviously you've been practicing so good job sorry Mr Hughes can I interrup um could we still do the introduction of the new employe okay got it thank you thank you very much so let's bring Miss hadam and her friends up to the podium for um happenings at Round Elementary School so we're um this is the staff that round this picture um we're really excited to be able to share a glimpse of what's happening at round and celebrate a few of our special programs um we have all of these folks here but there's also several teachers
005from around in the audience okay to offer support thank you all right so we're GNA start with Mr C Mr C is our head Watch Dog dad at Round And he's gonna tell you a little bit about what he does and what the program is good evening everybody um so as Miss hadam said yes I am the one of the runners of the watch dos program dads upgrade students um this program is about uh showing fatherly influence and presence uh within our building building or you know if you want to Branch out buildings um and we kind of act as another layer of eyeballs within the school outside the school safety officer so in that aspect making sure kids aren't wandering off making sure they're going to class things of that nature um we read
006with students we do activities with them um I was actually given permission to share this story about a student just keeping his name Anonymous um when I returned to volunteer last year um I had recently found out that his father passed away so I kind of made it my little side Miss while I was there volunteering to do an activity with them every single week and so over time we've kind of built a little Bond and um with Miss H's permission and the permission of the mom and the student I will actually be returning for him next year um as this Watchdog so um but it's a really good program I think it has been very beneficial for other students too I've had students help me build tables and um I remember sometime uh earlier
007this year I had students like Mr C you have tables to build you have tables to build so I'm like not guys but it it definitely helps motivate and students are they're all about it so um it's a really good program and I hope very much hope that it goes districtwide so yep um one of the other things that's really great about Watch Dogs is they spend a lot of time on our playground and so they're very good at helping students with sportsmanship which I much appreciate and I also have to do a shout out to Mr C because he became a employee of edu staff and he now par of Professionals in the district and we had another Watchdog that is going back to school to be a teacher so very cool so next
008up is K kids and we have um several adults who help with K Kids Mrs Vincent who teaches third grade Mrs Shelley gorer who does intervention at Brown and Mrs deart who teaches special ed and then of course Mr sarella fabulous parent of ours so they're going to tell you about K kids hi there um I'm Michelle Vincent and as Mrs ham said I teach third grade at round last year our third grade began what we just called kindness club we met once a week during our third grade lunch in recess we made care packages for our bus drivers we made posters to encourage the third and fourth graders at mstep time and we helped at first grade lunches we also started what we called friendly Fridays which we'll talk about in a minute then
009last spring Mr sarella who's a dad at our school contacted Mrs hadam to see if we'd be interested in starting a k kids group Chris Works in South Lion and is a member of the kuas club there he also works with the high school version of Kanas club called Key Club so his daughter Ava was in first grade last year and wanted to start K kids at Round I'm gonna have Ava tell you a little bit about why she wanted this for round hi my name is Ava SEL and I'm the president of K kids at R Elementary I wanted to say thank you to miss Vincent miss gordier and miss Gart for helping the K kids at Round Elementary possible I would also like to recognize the South L Bas club for charting our
010club K Kids is the largest service leadership for elementary school students it's more than 12200 clubs worldwide our club currently has 50 members at our at our meetings and events we learned leadership through our service I wanted to start K Kids Club at our school so that we could have fun and have an opportunity to serve our community I spent a lot of time with my dad at his ganas club and wanted to be able to do similar projects here at our school so far this year we have given candy and played games with our seniors collected over a thousand loaves of bread for Gleaners and made holiday cards for vet we are looking forward to doing more service projects throughout the year thank you for your time today hi I'm Amelia Ernest and I
011am vice president of K kids at round as Ava said we have 50 members in grade 2 through fourth in addition to the bigger Community projects Ava mentioned we have several ongoing projects at Round our K Kids help prepare bags for school breakfast our kitchen staff is so grateful for the kiddos who Skip their recesses to pick to put napkins straws and plastic wear into bags most morning our cafeteria serves breakfast to more than 150 students K Kids help speed up the process so those students can be served in a timely manner and send to class we also have our greed and game last year we started with friendly Fridays we have students who have pom poms and cheer as our students enter the building we love friendly Fridays however we have people say why
012are you only out there on Fridays we love Fridays we need some excitement on Mondays so now we have Merry Mondays and friendly Fridays the Kake kids organized into two lines facing each other pting a tunnel of pom poms we cheer and play music as the students enter good job so our greeting gang at first was worried about some of our kiddos who don't do well with loud situations but once they see us they're often smiling and very eager to enter the building so I gathered some quotes of what people are saying about our greeting gangs these are non-kid members and what they think about us one student said it brings you up when you're feeling down another said it's funny and it's fun to laugh it's like they're cheering us on so we're going
013to do a good job today it's a nice way to start the morning it makes me feel welcome and safe it makes me proud to go here another said if you're new you'll know it's going to be a good time here and my personal favorite it's a fun vibe I love going through the tunnel K Kids is an amazing program for our students we're so excited to have 50 sign up for our first year we have since done away with our former kindness Club because K kids can include more grades and we're teaching children ways to be kind and think of others we're doing this within the walls of our school and into the community I wish you all could have seen them interacting and playing board games with the retirees at Village Manor they're
014begging to go back and see their new friends this group is rewarding for the students but it's also rewarding for us as advisers and finally to share about round is our fabulous PTO we have um Mrs zacho Mrs Luca witz and Mrs elins to share some of their work at room hi everybody it's really nice to be here excuse me I'm very excited to have a chance to tell you guys a little bit about what our PTO does um because I think that we have the best board around hands down um and actually I do want to point out that my treasur Michelle Slater is also here so this is about half of our board um so we're going to start by telling you guys um about three separate things we do uh I'm going
015to start with some fundraisers and PTO events that we do throughout the year um so our biggest fundraiser of the year um the fall fund run it brings in a substantial amount of money enough so that we can provide funding for items throughout the school supplement field trips and host fun and familyfriendly events throughout the school year so um I I do have a little bit to say about the fun run because we just kind of finished wrapping it up um our fall fund run is two weeks of fundraising a lot more goes into it but two weeks of fundraising um with prizes provided by the PTO for registering hitting monetary tiers and raffle tickets for every $30 raised per student to be entered into a drawing to win five amazing prizes per grade so
016it's a big incentive for these kids they want a fund raise they want they want the raffle tickets they want a chance to win um then we have tiered schoolwide incentives as we get closer to the goals so this year the PTO provided Kona Ice for on the day of the event popcorn and bounce houses for the entire School the three top earners in the school also get to choose from a popcorn and movie party pizza party or ice cream sunday party that is provided by PTO um our top three earning students from each classroom so 19 classrooms also get to participate in the final assembly when the school hits its fundraising goal so this year we got to color blast Mrs hotam so we don't have a picture of that I'm the next okay
017leave that off on purpose after the Fun Run and all of the classroom parties and all of the assemblies um we move into trunker treat we do a teacher boo to let them know we appreciate all their help with the fundraising because we couldn't do it without them um we do our conf we provide um dinner for the teachers on their conference night um we're gearing up for Santa shop uh cookie walk which is for the staff we have parents that can bring in cookie and baked goods and the staff gets to pick what they like um we have our winter glow dance party that will be coming up in January Rollerama skate nights will start next uh month for the rest rest of the year monthly um we're trying to bring back the science
018night um for 2024 we do a ladies night out in the spring Su celebration a book fair um our round rocks talent show and auction and then in may we um we back the teacher appreciation week and then another fun thing we do is spirit sticks and birthday grams so that's what our year looks like and now Heather's going to tell you guys a little bit about our field trip yes the exciting field trip portion so the PTO actually voted to increase the field trip budget per grade and this was to help families offset the cost and make it more attainable so we could bring these trips back and include all of the kids um field trips that have come back in this past year and also upcoming is the um Variety Farms pumpkin field
019where we can provide the pumpkins to the kids um spice Orchard the planetarium soups exotic jungle the plant guy Castaway Cafe and the fourth grade pool and Library chip for it's usually on I'm going to speak about the purchases and reimbursements that we offer so the PTO is able to provide um purchases and reimbursements because of our generous families we provide improvements around the school for the benefits of all of our students some recent P purchases that we have made the Chromebook carts the PTO has been able to supplement full Chromebook carts for the Upper Grade so third and fourth grade classrooms in addition to the five carts provided by the district along with eight mounted wall units per classroom per per grade um currently we are working on Walmart and for first grade um
020classrooms as well we've done poll covers outside of the awning so if you see the respect and commitment and those that are out there those are purchased by our PTO the rug on the front entrance of the school shelves and books for classrooms books to supplement classroom libraries specific guide reading library books supplemental from because of our book there the book bags for our kindergarteners piano for our music room light table for the art room mileage club so if you ever see a kid sporting a necklace full of feet um those are pretty proud emblems at round and those are um given per mile that the kids run and those feet are provided by our PTO new toys for all kindergarten classrooms playground equipment PTO has purchased the last two years the spider the spider
021climbing wall um the honeycomb for the playground uh the N we are working on the ninja wall and our so new soccer net should be delivered tomorrow so our PTO offers nearly also um nearly $200 in reimbursements to all 30 staff members over 30 staff members so we feel like our PTO um we're very proud of our families and the continued support that we continue um to be able to provide our our kids at Round before you thank you before you change pictur who's the guy in the middle up there oh that's Mr fluhart that's our SSO um standing in front of some of the Inflatables that PTO purchased for H celebration for the kids um I hear he's out there a lot playing with you and he spends he spends um his morning out
022front he spends midday on the playground we have a hundred students out on the playground for two straight hours and he is out there with them um and then he is um did I say he was out front at the beginning of the day yes okay at the end of the day too he's out there at the end of the day in addition to walking around and checking doors and um I have him view a lot of security camera footage for me it's just super nice so yes but um all of those things in the picture the honeycomb and the spider web PTO purchased those the chairs for the courtyard those Big Boy chairs are actually um for swimming pools but they're marvelous outside in our Courtyard and we have hooks out there maintenance put
023hooks out there so we can leave them out there and um they dry fast because they're pool friendly those shelves the black shelves you'll see those in all of the classrooms that around the PTO has been helping me for several years to get some sturdy metal shelving um and sort of makes all of our classrooms look the same instead of whatever somebody could pick up at Ikea the fellow up there in the corner is the plant guy they paid for him to come recently and then um oh I didn't put the color out of me on there well it'll be in community life so you'll see it there but there's just some more fun things that's trunk or treat and um in the corner those are the high school they come and read the football
024team to our students so that's pretty fun so that's round thank you all for visiting us tonight we really appreciate you and they're all leaving because they want to go home go home okay just letting you know they're not being rude they ready they want to go home I want to give a quick shout out to the two young ladies that spoke in front of this crowd you guys did great great you're so great last year we started a a regular uh after each season athletic uh presentation so our new athletic director Brian Hassler is here to carry on the legacy of pres presenting for each season so Brian it's yours thank you board for allowing me the opportunity we're g to get this started with [Music] see video don't mess around too much because
025got there we go all right just to give you an example of what the uh board and the bond kind of provided for our football team and our Sports uh programs this year with the new uh scoreboard it's an awesome opportunity for us to be able to uh highlight our student athletes provide to the community and give a really great game day experience so fall Athletics by the number uh we have 12 Varsity programs uh three middle school programs in the fall 27 total teams uh for high school we had 415 participants uh 10th through 12th that was 299 and we had 116 uh incoming freshmen uh that participated in sports uh middle school programs we had 81 participants um so the sports were cheer sideline cross country boys cross country girls field hockey football
026golf girls pom pom sideline swim dive girls soccer boys soccer unified tennis boys volleyball and then for Middle School we had both cross country boys girls and volleyball uh one of the main things again is we're our student athletes um and the Excellence in the classroom continued um I remember last year when I came here I got to see uh JD's presentation and I know this is one of his big points um the Heartland scholar athlete Award winner goes to any student athlete that has a 3.0 GPA or higher uh this doesn't include freshman because they don't have that the marks yet so this is 218 of our student athletes of the 299 uh 10 through 12 had a 3.0 uh GPA or higher that's 73% um K scholar athlete Award winners 3.25 again this
027is 10th grade or higher 66% so I think those numbers uh say a lot about our student athletes and what they're doing in the classroom and what about what our teachers are doing to help Athletics uh one of the great things that I get to do as a athletic director is signing day we just recently on November 8th which was the uh first day that you could sign we had a fall Signing Day so this year we kind of did a group Signing Day in the media center we had 13 members of the class of 2024 signed uh n letters to play athletics at the Collegian level uh we have more coming we're going to do another Signing Day in the spring um so we do have some more athletes that are coming as they're
028making those decisions uh I'm going to go through this real quick uh College signing photos so uh Aspen Smith Morehead State University for cheer uh cam Herman Michigan Tech University for volleyball uh Caitlyn Shram otterbine University for volleyball Samantha Baker Cleveland State University for soccer Emma cast STL Northern Michigan University for soccer Katie schek Northern Michigan University for soccer um Mackenzie Jordan Concordia University for golf uh Sarah rowski Western Michigan University for basketball uh Drew darowski for Long Island University for women's hockey uh and now the Northwood pipeline for our lacrosse team starts we have Dylan aot um David Bullock Northwood University Drew Lockwood Northwood University and Jacob Ross Northwood University I always tell the student athletes I go one of the great things about that event is that when you get the sign you're
029trading the next four years for the next 40 years you're going to go you're going to meet friends that are going to stand up in your wedding um that are going to be a part of your life uh you're going to have coaches and opportunities so I think it's a great honor for them and it's a way for us to recognize them uh unified soccer this past year uh coach Lauren dep pestl does a great job she was assisted by Taylor Wagner our softball coach teacher uh they played a four- game regular season schedule including a game on the main field Under The Lights uh UniFi tournament was in Brighton this year uh the special education athletes receive a Heartland Varsity letter uh their Partners receive special unified patches for their varsity jacket um some
030exciting news upcoming uh for the UniFi program the basketball team's going to be at uh Little Caesar's Arena on March 17th after a Pistons game so it's kind of a cool opportunity and I know uh some of the students are pretty excited for that uh student achievement Student Success fall of 2023 I just heard this line uh recently in a meeting that I had with superintendent Hugh so wanted to pull it out um girls swimming dive we had one diver qualified for the mhsa state finals uh volleyball we had a great pink out night uh where they raised money for a Lashbrook scholarship former coach uh First District title in over 40 years we're still digging through the books because it might be the first district title ever um but according to the Livingston daily
031there was one 40 years ago so uh Seline cheer had a phenomenal high and night performance including some of our youth in the community uh football not that we encouraged this but during the gold out they did a uh one of the uh honorary captains taught them a celebration that they did the day did at the game they got a penalty for it we don't encourage it but it was pretty cool opportunity for them to honor their uh one of the captains that was at the game the honorary captains uh reading to elementary students uh the Battle of M59 we brought that home with our victory over Howell uh how actually their coaches found a sign in the locker room that had been there probably 20 years uh and it goes back and forth of
032like signing uh they had all their victories on there for some odd reason but not ours so we're going to go back and we're going to add those on there um now it's something that's going to travel between the two schools so it was kind of a cool opportunity there uh boy soccer had their biggest youth night to date uh it was a great fun night against Howell here picked up the victory there uh boys tennis uh had a family student athletes double event I think another opportunity um for our students and our families to get together uh girls golf Mackenzie Jordan qualified for the mhsa state finals uh Ethan Hawker was our regional coach of the year uh cross country had four individuals qualified for the state finals two boys and two girls Middle
033School cross country was the girls team zone for regional Champions five runners in the top nine undefeated season so uh girls cross country is looking uh to be have some future very bright PM pom was also instrumental in the higher night performance uh getting everybody uh included there some cool student leadership opportunities that we had this year we had a kaaa Leadership Summit uh we had 10 of our Juniors that that went to that uh we just started this uh past November 3rd uh with our swim coach and she's actually interning here as a social worker uh former alumni Allison julot uh doing a Heartland athletic leadership training um so it's basically four classes that the kids are going we have about 40 student athletes in there uh they're they're kind of examining what leadership
034looks like different examples of leadership and then they go over kind of three separate classes where it's listening effective listening as a leader effective learning styles as a leader and then leadership through Athletics so it's kind of a good opportunity for our student athletes chasing titles again we put a performance we performance does matter I believe uh we do want to develop our student athletes but again it's always nice to put in that hard work and see your success so we had our four student athletes there for cross country um McKenzie Jordan for golf and then our volleyball team with the first district title in 40 years uh I think what's important too is a staff that's focused on student achievement and Student Success so again from top left we have our uh doubles tournament
035for our families and our boys tennis team uh the middle uh we have our softball team that we were able to honor with the ring ceremony at the football game to the right we have top right we have Abid Abigail Goodrow our athletic trainer who uh was rewarded or awarded a life saving certificate on one of our football games actually our gold out a staff member from Salem uh needed life saving measures in our Press Box and she was there to perform that and uh actually get him home safe because of that um so it was pretty cool to be able to reward her and acknowledge her efforts uh bottom left is our cheer coach Candace far we were just actually yesterday at the Michigan High School coaches association um she won the coach of
036the year for cheer um the middle here we have Gary Strait who's the Mika assisting coach of the year for track and then bottom right is Ethan Hawker who's the regional coach of the year for golf so a lot of our coaches a lot of our staff members um that are pouring into our student athletes and it really helps a lot uh roll the credits I have to say stepping into this position um obviously it's a great opportunity I love being here but there's a lot of people behind the scenes that do so much uh that that I have to give credit to Liz straight we just mentioned her husband so I said I'm Gonna Save you after your husband uh is my Administrative Assistant she does a phenomenal job um Mary retel the event
037coordinator without her these football games um she coordinates over 25 plus people gets them going does a great job uh Melanie call our website coordinator I have to say I was looking at I love stats as an athletic director I was looking at some of the stats just what she's been able to do and some of our social media it's been the numbers have been great through the roof of of us being able to interact with the community uh and let people know what we're doing and promote our student athletes uh Deb Cadman concession stands coordinator Michelle Pock did an awesome job she does sponsorships for us and and a lot of these individuals I'll say have other jobs outside of Athletics and they're doing those as well too uh she goes a game Day
038meal um for the staff coaches that are involved Wade Foster Matt gut H Taylor Wagner help out at football games teachers Aaron Bell and Chris Foster the voice of uh Heartland and running the clock uh staff Carrie reesei and Jennifer seog that are there taking tickets working events and then facilities and transportation they did a phenomenal job this year getting our games uh Fields ready getting our our teams to places they needed to be and then cleaning up afterwards when everybody else is long gone they're still there you know when the lights are about to be turned off and and making the facilities look great that's it any questions Brian I I appreciate that you as a new member to our culture and our team as administrators and you you picked up very quickly on
039uh the number one goal we have across the district is student achievement Student Success uh competitive highly competitive in all facets of what we do and pushing that envelope on a regular basis and without an administrative team like yourself and the great coaches and have you know we couldn't push our kids the way we do and our kids are showing it that they can succeed so thank you thank you if you come up and Matt Marino and Matt will again he's our director of operations and transportation and man if you give us a quick update on where we are with our bond projects what might be coming up I don't even know what you're going to talk talk about t same thing but uh good evening board um I definitely do enjoy building good facilities
040so Brian's teams can win championships so um not much has changed since the LA last presentation uh we are making project progress on the baseball softball complex um that is anti to be done towards the end of November um we're slated to get our final building inspections the first week of December um but like I said we are making progress the restrooms are uh we got it all uh watertight so we could start the inside uh rough electrical and plumbing and heat um we did get the Press Box and bleachers installed and we will be starting the concrete Plaza and um putting up the netting long and anticipated softball netting uh the week of November 17th um as for the summer projects that uh are still out there uh we are finishing out punch list
041items um we did have our our big push of uh working on punch list items on the last no school day in October and then we will be doing another push uh right before Thanksgiving uh with our final push over the uh December holiday break uh we did make great progress over at farms most of the punch list is about 98% done over there um this building the hssc uh the chiller showed up finally um so that was swung into place last week uh they have to do the final electric or electrical and plumbing connections on that Chiller and then over at or creek we are in the process of demoing that Chiller out and uh that one is slated to show up at the end of November so we'll get those in hopefully as
042the weather stays halfway decent uh before snowfall and then just next round of projects um we're going fast and furious trying to uh in the design phase uh trying to wrap those projects up in the design phase the end of this week so we can get those out to bid and get those in front of you guys the board um again we are working on some Roofing Replacements we are working on some parking lot replacement at the high school um reconditioning some tennis courts over at the high school and then tag teaming some sinking fund projects with the bond work for economies of scale um replacement of the boilers 51 building um the high school pool we're working on a good project over um the end of March April ail working with Community Education to
043shut down for approximately six weeks and do an over overhaul of the pool uh we've put quite a bit of Maintenance into the pool but it's time to kind of uh refurbish um our 20-year investment there so and then uh tackling round hitting the lighting replacement over there so that's the quick update I got for you any questions cool and so the public knows this is our last uh big push this is our last uh summer we've had four Summers this will be four summmer so continuous work in the district and again thank you to the community for supplying the bond dollars to do all these projects definitely thank you mat all right next if we could have Mr F Gerald and our friend come up good to see you Kim all right good evening
044uh it is my pleasure to introduce to you uh Mrs Kimberly Dosey as our new uh business teacher at Harland High School uh we had a need with a uh a teacher taking a leave of absence um plus some uh additional personal finance classes we see coming down the road um that we needed uh Mrs dossey's help um she is going to be a great fit for us teaching personal finance and advanced marketing uh to finish the school year um Mrs doy has some cool experience she was actually a recruiter for washing off community Community College for some time and uh so pretty cool to have that experience and now be in the classroom with our kids and get them that experience to maybe take it to that next level in our CTE and business
045department um and then most recently she's been an um HR human resource specialist with Ann arbert public schools and during that time I went back to school at Eastern Michigan University to get her uh CTE certificate so um super excited to have her join our team and she's going to be great fit so here's Kimberly Dosey thank you um I just want to thank all of you this is great number of people in the community support so um thank you for allowing me the opportunity um to contribute to uh student achievement and uh Student Success great to have you the last thing on the superintendent report is the kind a service plan uh Rachel Boyce unfortunately had a family emergency and I told her to get out of here I'd cover it um but what
046I wanted to share with uh you recall that Mr Miner's been doing every six month updates on uh Esser and uh the monies that we got from the co recovery and also how our students were doing on benchmark assessments uh so I just going to read this and hopefully that takes care of the um requirement by the state to continue sharing the continuity of learning plan as funding required that districts develop a plan on how they will return to in-person instruction and describe any policies that have been adopted for a continuity learning plan um within six months of receiving the Sesser funds by the time we received the funds we were back in regular person instruction we still need to however document the fact that we're making this information available on our website and review
047that information every months in order to maintain compliance with our Essa requirement last year we documented this information with Mr Miner's updates regarding educational goals and benchmark assessments since the two went hand inand this satisfied the requirement we still have this requirement to review and update the continu of learning plan I'll use that term loosely because all it says is that we deliver instruction in person or through hva Harland Virtual Academy as an OP for students and families in grades 6 through 12 we have no other formal policy necessary for any types of Co protocols at this point we're not recommending that we make any changes you'll hear about this again in six months hopefully by that time we will have spent all of our eser funds and we will no longer bring these reports
048forward so I don't know if you have any questions I'll try to do the best I can to answer them or Mr Minister could all right that's STIs that requirement to bring that to the public so ends the superintendence report thank you Mr Hughes we are going to move on to item 1 D call to the public I just want to remind the public uh that speakers are asked to express themselves in a civil civil manner with due respect for dignity and privacy of others who may be affected by your comments each speaker may be limited to three minutes at the two and a half minute Mark I will will hold up my trusty yellow folder just to give you a virtual cue that you have 30 seconds left um so that you can wrap
049things up um it is no secret and just to remind the public that we have our own very own Deputy Chef here today this is your warning that um we will not be interrupting folks um there will be no yelling across the room you will be asked to leave um and so everyone can conduct themselves like adults um moving on let me get my trusty timer out here first up is Mary Beth Patria I'm so sorry if I butchered that hello I'm Mary Beth krius and I'm in bright and Township you know I wanted to bring up some things about the um kids in the wrong bathroom and I'd like to start off with that families are being aligned to culture instead of Christ know I I really feel that that's a big problem in
050our community that we're not looking to God and we're looking to what's the fed or you know just giving into a minority instead of looking at the majority I remember a mom of three kids who spoke at one school board meeting and she said her or creek student who uh her daughter went to a counselor because she felt like she was a boy and she praised the counselor because the counselor was willing to call her a boy's name instead of a girl and then she said she wish her oldest son uh would have had that kind of support so with the understanding that he feels like he was a girl so there should be a red flag to a counselor that two out of three kids in that household are confused you know is there
051abuse going on is there traumatic brain injury is there bullying that is the source putting uh giving a child the opposite sex name is like putting a Band-Aid on a broken arm and we really need to help these kids their brain hasn't matured yet m 1 and so these kids uh are going into bathrooms uh pretending to be someone that God did not create them to be and that is hurting these other kids and I'd like females on the school board to think what if that was you in a public restroom and a man came in there and you're doing your thing in the stall and they're right next to you how vulnerable you would feel now think of a high school girl who's in that situation those boys are dressing as girls but they
052still have male genitalia they still have testosterone they're not in the right mind they need help what is going to prevent them from doing harm to that girl so we need to look at that I'm not putting them down I'd like for these kids to get the help that they need so you know if we think of you know ladies think of yourself um and then generally speaking think of your mom your sister your nieces your daughters that if they're in that situation would you want them to feel that way to feel uncomfortable feel like well I can't even use the restroom when I go to school in fear that someone may hurt me so I just need you to really consider this and have counselors really talk to these kids and get to the
053road of the problem instead of just giving them a different name and hey go to whatever bathroom you can it's not hurting it's help it's not helping it's hurting the student population thank you next we have George skandy good evening everybody before I start my discussion making I have a I don't know how say request or something that you have to fix because if you stay over there we see only the screen and you are the most important person in the school board we don't see your face even spend some money by higher chair or switch the place with chu because you are most important than Chu you are the ones that elect Chu we want to see you guys before we see him so please fix that issue uh what I want to talk
054today is something that I learned not I learned but I was thinking about a discussion with my niece that she wants to be advisor for the kids that finished high school and they want to go and study in different universities and during this discussion I asked her why you want to do it uh why do you want to advise the kids what to do and where to go and she said because uh I'm looking to make some money that so that was the first thing that she told me and second uh since I'm finishing my graduate degree for uh psychology I want to learn more by communicating with kids what I learned from my life experience is the way how the schools especially the college Works in United States for me if you are not
055in the right place where you have to be or you didn't choose the right direction where you want to go you might end up studying for art or liberal art or whatever they call this one and what's happened after with those students when they finish the school they can't find a job and it's no wonder that they are so pessimistic after and that by be also a reason that they can go towards drugs towards things that uh none of the any parents wants to to hear about their kids so I have a good uh example from a friend of my son that finished this school about three years ago and guess what he bought a house he is ready to get married he has a tractor he bought his own car and he's working in
056a company they call triaa uh I think that they do pluming yeah triaa pluming and he is learning and making money in the same time and he Clos he told me I'm going to close this year with $85,000 in year so before um advice to the parents before you send your kids in the school high school to learn something that won't help in their life try to see also what is over there that the uh the college doesn't uh it's not necessary to to to go and this is what I I want to give to everybody every parents's advice and this is what I want to talk today not yeah thank you Mr Cindy thank you next we have Lori and do we have a microphone that I can take back at hello I just
057wanted to start off by letting you guys all know we know what you did and these aren't for the new people on the board we know you sold your sold to the Delo when you got took that pandemic money when people donate money or give you money to a school it strings aren't attached that is why the boys are coming in the girls bathroom and one of these days something's going to happen to one of these young girls and I sure in the head hope not and I don't know if there's any kids in here but we all know they can be sexually harassed in something happening to them and you guys need to stop this now and it's going to change pretty soon by next year and you guys got to remember when you
058you took that money it had these strings attached to it you knew the roles and you did it anyways so I'm here to tell you you know that it's wrong to have anybody going in that girl's bathroom if they're not a girl period and that has nothing to do about being transgender or straight or anything else I can care less what you are but girls that's violating what girls need to have privacy in there they have monthly issues going on who would want that kind of stuff in the in a bathroom with a girl and whoever does it's demented that is sick so I'm here to tell you we know you took the money the Plan D money has all these strings attached to it you have to follow the rules so I'm here to
059tell you you better stop it right now because this is wrong and none of these kids need to have to worry about having to go to the bathroom and wondering if someone's looking oldone and that's all I have to say this time so thank [Music] you thank you Lori next we have Angela yarer I'm Angela yber Heartland citizens deserve transparency and clarification of November 8th weekly update Rel uh related to the doj under the heading Department of Justice jce update it states that the district has worked cooperatively with the Michigan Department of the office of civil rights and the United States Department of Justice this cooperation resulted in reaching an agreement with the doj to meet prescribed expectations during the 2022 23 school year including creating and Reporting all incidents that involve discrimination the update
060leaves me with many questions first of all what did does it mean to create incidents the update literally says creating and Reporting all incidents that involve discrimination is this careless wording secondly what are these prescribed expectations from the doj third what exactly constitutes discrimination what definition is the district using fourth which Personnel in the district gets to decide what is discrimination is this a committee decision fifth does the Board of Education review the reports before they are submitted to the doj six what does the doj do with these reports and how long are they kept on file some students are 18 years old legal adults and these reports may impact their life opportunities seventh what is the end date for this doj presence in Hartland what does Hartland have to do for the doj to
061end its oversight lastly and perhaps most importantly how are students educated about what constitutes discrimination is there an in-person presentation and if so how does the school make sure students who are absent learn this information I would like Mr Hughes to hold an informational meeting with the public about the doj presence to alleviate fear and confusion in the community in the last week I have heard from three Hartland parents who fear reporting concerns out of fear that their concerns would be uh viewed as discrimination this does not even sound like America I also want to emphasize that according to the weekly update all of this monitoring is the result of a social media post of a concern regarding racial discrimination occurring at HHS how did a social media post turn into such an overreach of
062government intervention why was this not efficiently handled by the school I hope Mr Hughes meets with the public about this issue the community of Heartland deserves more than the vague and sloppy communication sent in the weekly update next up we have Ann Marie yber hello my name is an Marie Arbor and I'm a freshman at Harland high school I'm here today because my safety and the safety of other students is at risk I would first like to make it clear that I feel no hatred towards any person at my school I believe that every student should be treated with kindness and compassion there have been instances at the high school of students using the bathroom opposite of their own biological sex my older brother experienced this last year when he was in the men's's bathroom
063with a classmate who he had known throughout childhood as being a girl I have also experienced this about a month ago I was walking into the bathroom to change my clothes for cross country practice at at the same time as a person walked out who based on face and body structure I could tell was obviously a biological male it scares me that had I gone into the bathroom just a minute earlier I would have been taking my clothes off in a pres in the presence of a person who I can only assume has male genitals just a couple weeks later I was walking out of a bathroom stall when I noticed that same person waiting in line with the girls this is a problem that desperately needs a solution not only can non-transgender students be
064hurt by this but also transgender students themselves I can't imagine one of my classmates being harmed simply because boundaries are unclear one idea that may be suggested is that students who feel uncomfortable should use the bathroom in the office but this is simply not practical I can't march across the school to use the office bathroom whenever I need to use it this issue was not resolved when my brother spoke up about his experience and it has not been resolved when when parents have spoken out it's sad that I at 14 years old should have to come and speak at a meeting in order to protect my dignity and safety as well as that of my classmates all I ask for is a c time thank you for your time next we have just Scot wow
065that's a hard one to follow um takes a lot of courage to stand up here and say that uh but before I start I also wanted to say uh that everybody around really un undersold themselves they do even better more fantastic job than they stood up here and told you about from the staff uh to the PTO Mr fuart does a fantastic job and uh the dogs program is absolutely spectacular and I I would encourage all elementary schools to look into that but tonight I'm here to address the uh Department of Justice referrals and how the district handles the names and personal information of individuals in the district last Thursday Mr Hughes let us know in his update that if your students name is so much as whispered in relation to discrimination their name and
066personal information will be referred over to the doj and the US attorney's office no proof no evidence just a quick efficient referral to the doj what if they accidentally use the wrong pronoun what if they file a complaint about what happens in the bathroom what if they ask a question in history class do microaggressions count what happens with that information are they blacklisted from federal student loans federal grants federal employees the truth is and Mr Hughes will be the first to admit it nobody has control over over that information after it leaves the district so tonight I Call On The Board to provide oversight on these doj referrals and not to just sit idly by and let the administration potentially ruin the lives of students the board should control the policy as it release as
067it relates to releasing personal information not Mr Hughes students and parents still have rights in this district and speaking of Rights last year Governor Whitmer signed a law which requires school districts to parents of their rights by posting parents rights in the boardroom and in the schools the law requires that that little tiny piece of paper behind M pres president glock's head be prominently posted and I certainly see absolutely no prominence right there it's funny how the stadium signs don't get delayed and the commemorative plaques honoring administrators and trustees for spending millions of taxpayer dollars don't get delayed but parents right signage seems forgotten so I had a larger version printed and I'm donating it to the board so that the Stu parents in this room can be reminded each month about their rights I
068trust that you will take it from here to make sure that the situation is remedied throughout the district from the Michigan Constitution religion morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind schools and the means of Education shall forever be encouraged and from the revised school code it is the natural fundamental rights of parents to determine and Direct Care teaching and education for their children the public schools of the state serve the needs of the students by cooperating with parents so please remember who funds these schools remember who you represent and show some respect for the parents of this District by prominently displaying their rights and honoring their students personal information next we have Trisha fesler good evening board so most of these people have been up here have been parents
069but I come to you as a taxpayer and I'm concerned about the safety issues in this community in the school district I've been hearing from parents from the inside about students speaking up to them and the advice I'm hearing back from a board member here is the student should tell the principal how scary would it be to go up before principal and say this is happening in the bathroom I mean as a young girl I don't think you know your confidence level at the that age isn't what it is maybe when you're an adult so that's scary that's scary to have to go to a principal and say that so as adults I think we need to protect our students our children in this community and I did send all of you an email so
070I won't keep this I won't make this long and I thank you for those that did respond back to me and um thank you for taking care of this problem next we have Kim Burger good evening my name is kimberger I am a parent and a taxpayer in Harland School District recently I sent a letter to each of you some of you responded and honestly your your responses were staggering concerning transgender bathroom isses at Heartland High School for the parents in the audience it was a short and I think a respectful note and I'm just going to read it and then I will comment on it and ask the board to comment on what our what our policy in this school district is related to appropriate use of bathrooms Heartland board members I'm respectfully writing
071to request you take proactive measures to safeguard our sons and daughters as it relates to restroom usage at the high school there are numerous reports of trans students using their preferred restroom at school for the safety and respect for all our kids please put an end to this there are reports that many students won't even use the BET restrooms all day for fear of running into a biological mail in a girl's restroom and vice versa not to mention the increased possibility of sexual abuse that this practice opens up stop exposing indoctrinating and putting our Children at Risk by accommodating this woke transgender ideology as parents and taxpayers we will not put up with it period this isn't a minor request let's have a discussion period stop using the equally woke diversity Equity inclusion ideology as
072an excuse for allowing and even encouraging this no one is being excluded or discriminated from using tax-funded resturants please don't make this about uh discrimination or someone's being disenfranchised I'm not talking about uh the gender or transgender ideology I'm talking about safety in our schools I have a lot to say about that if anyone wants to talk about it offline but that's not what I'm asking the school board to do I'm asking you to keep our bathroom safe this young girl God bless her what what kind of Courage it took to stand up here and say that I don't know about you but if I would walk into a sports Arena or go to work and there was a gentleman in the bathroom while I'm there it's going to make me feel pretty uncomfortable so
073think about it for our our students I'm sorry I deviated from my Note let me finish it the demand is simple all student students need to use the appropriate restroom based on their biological sex not the one they prefer to identify with or make up trans kids have every opportunity Express the way they want to live that's fine in their personal lives I'm not here to attack trans kids but I don't have to agree with it and I certainly am not going to subject my kids to it especially as it relates to bathroom use or sports but that's a different topic for a different time at taxpayer funded schools please take this issue to heart and not turn a blind eye towards it this is not an equal rights or discrimination issue this is a
074safety issue for our kids take proactive action now and make it strong and clear mandate that no biological males allowed in girls' bathrooms or Sports and vice versa so I'm respectfully submitting this to you so once again I would please say this is not I'm not don't make this a discrimination issue this is about a safety issue and I'm here's the part I want to say to the parents that in the room the responses I got from some of the school board members first of all someone telling me well I must have heard something on the Internet and repeated it this is happening in our schools this isn't your say this isn't this is happening okay so that's one the second one said well if you have a problem go see the principal if you're
075okay we'll wait till our we'll wait till our daughters get um abused and then we'll take it to there and then the third one I heard was it's an administrative issue not a Schoolboard issue and I heard it's not a superintendent issue who's going to have the gonads to stand up and say I'm going to take on this issue and protect our kid moving on some item item 1e board reports and requests Mr you want to start us off sure sure uh I don't have a lot um I I do want to congratulate the all sports SC for wrapping up their seasons and for our presentation from our athletic director I thought it was great how we pointed out that there are student athletes and the amount of athletes that were see that Heartland um
076letter and that k letter just goes to show like how well we're doing not only on the field but also in the classrooms I thought that was important and that he pointed that out so I appreciate that um the other thing I wanted to share U and a Mr Hughes shares with us kind of news uh and the school board was made aware that that parent perception survey uh that they've been taking the preliminary data at least out for JK through 4 um talks about safety for schools and in this current year K through 4 or JK through 4 97% of the parents strongly agree or agree that their child is safe and I I think that's I think that's great and I think a lot of that again falls back to our staff um
077just kind of some the new things we've done here involving our new security teams and our our police ladies on officers so I thought that was great news and then I know they're all gone but well not all of them thank you round staff um what a breath of fresh air it is to to see those little people in their little faces and all the great things that they're doing and I'm sure all the otheres are doing that but it was just so wonderful so thank you for coming out tonight that I'm all set Mr K thanks Miss clayback uh first of all I want to acknowledge again M brisy and Miss Cheney for their time I have definitely enjoyed our our times with the advocate program that we did adopt for those that aren't
078familiar with it so each one of us board members has a school that we're assigned and spend time with so I just want to give highlight some things that um positive aspects that are going on right now with with farms uh the student leadership team collected 380 loaves of bread for Gleaners we heard earlier today round had over a thousand so it sound like our Farms got some work to do here so see if I can help them um first ever Trunk or Treat that occurred with Lakes Elementary it was a great event I personally was able to participate in that and uh happened to be on one of the teams that took home best costume for a third place costume award so we pretty proud of that with our Wizard Oz so I got
079to play the part of the munchs pretty excited about that and sorry for anybody I scared uh the sixth grade band took a field trip to the an aror Symphony I heard they had great time uh high school student uh came to Farms actually to promote College day and then the the annual band assembly put on by the high school choir and band had a great time with that the um the kids are very much enjoying their popcorn Fridays I think a lot of that is with the the PTO so thank you for that there was a a friendship day that occurred in memory of a former teacher Sandy Murphy so wanted to kind of acknowledge that cross country team had a great season this year we even have some kids that qualified uh for
080a race uh coming up I believe it's next weekend in Kentucky so congratulations to them also a personal experience I had to got to attend the lock in and it was a kind of record turnout this year over around 400 students they got to play games do crafts they got prizes pizza and and even some kids got the fortunate privilege of whipping me with some vball so I'm sure there was some that might be jealous of that opportunity perhaps uh what else do I want to talk about I think that was it for the highlights uh some upcoming events we've got reaching higher they're having their gu uation this Thursday so congrats to those kids and then following week on Tuesday is the turkey truck the students uh will run a mile they get to
081have a DJ and do some celebrations after so lots of good stuff going on at farms and hope to continue to hear fellow reports from fellow board members on and what's going on with all your schools to highlight with the community want to segue a bit to the topic that has obviously come up here this evening and also I would say you know my my tenure here on the board I don't know of any instance where I've received more emails about a particular issue so I definitely think it's something that needs to be discussed um and to everyone that reached out to either me personally or to all board members I do want to acknowledge your email it is important I want to thank you for sharing your perspectives on the top IC U my
082view uh is that you know we need to do a kind of a deeper dive into the the bathroom policy and locker room usage policy I want to make sure that as a district we are providing the safest possible environment for all of our students and that I I think we can improve in this area so look forward to having further discussions as a board on this whether it's in committee or however we move forward on that and then lastly want to thank Mr fugh for continuing to provide the community with weekly updates I do think it is a valuable tool that as a district Mr Hughes graciously does each week so I think that you know we need to keep this practice going and I certainly hope that members of the community are reading
083it and properly digesting it but will say that you know one item that I I do want to highlight which obviously was touched on on here this evening was the the update on the doj investigation uh specifically the the item that we as a district must continue to track and Report discrimination to the doj and that you know I fully support that we do as a district investigate discrimination and that it you know it will not be tolerated I also have concerns though about um the alleged incidents how they're going to be investigated and you know what uh when they will be reported to the doj and I think several parents acknowledged that and community members this evening I think we make we need to make sure that there is equal protection for both the
084accuser and the accused and that we have proper checks and balances in place you know for example you know what happens when we as a district if we determine that there's been some discrimination that has occurred what is the students or the family's rights to have an appeal in that process so I think we need to iron that out um also you know if some if we decide or judge that an accusation has been deemed false you know how do we remedy that and you know how do we ensure that that is not something that gets reported erroneously to the doj and so again for me there's there's a lot more that we need to iron out as a district and I would say in the in room I think we should suspend this practice
085and at the very least you know I would encourage the district to send out a letter to every parent saying that you've read this and that you need to acknowledge it and sign it and return it to the school because I do think it is something that's very important that parents are understanding that that we're doing here so again that's that's uh my my uh report for this evening and again thank you everyone for coming today thank you thank you okay so there's a lot to get to here so thank you to the round administrators Mr C the PTO um I think that you guys did an excellent job thanks to the students for speaking they were so cute all of us were up here not we're like smiling at them the whole time so
086hopefully they felt supported because they were amazing um I love that I love the K kids I think it's amazing I think you guys have some really really good things in your school that other schools can adapt because they're they're successful then when I was there you that you guys were taking the leftovers from the the launch room and you were putting them in bags for kids for the weekend like it just it really great stuff so good job to all of you um stats for the student athletes look great um we had a curriculum meeting Mr Fitzgerald did a great job um letting us know what all the changes were I support the changes um they're expanding on um the uh the trades they're adding more to it which I'm really thankful for um
087I uh also uh during that meeting I provided Mr Miner with the list of um books that I wanted to check into and they're the Brave books um they're Christian based B uh books that also uh encourage family so they're very positive I think that um you know just a balance so because there are Christian kids that need Christian books and want Christian books and I think that that would be very beneficial so hopefully hopefully I can hear back on that one because I think it's important important for those of you that are going to say oh Christian there are Bibles in the library according to Mr Hughes so this is totally not out of the norm um uh also see thank you I love the uh parents rights that you brought Jeff I think
088they're going to look Splendid hanging on the wall because I think it's important to understand that the parents are the the hor front to what their students are experiencing in our school um and uh so now I just bring the room down a little bit I'm not bringing the room down I'm just addressing things that have been coming to the board uh because that's what you elected me for um first things first the Department of Justice um the first time I was in a meeting that I learned of that process I uh had a lot of concerns I asked several questions this is about three months ago I asked several questions um you know who who at the Department of Justice gets the information um what did they do with it how long did they
089keep it uh how does this affect the kids in the future and nobody can answer that question and so I gave three months I follow it up I still don't have any answers so I'm very disappointed that we as a school district are giving the Department of Justice report outs of students that we believe you know have done something that we should report to the Department of Justice but we don't know what they do with the information and I I'm very disappointed in the update that just had a little blur that said you know and and your child's name could be reported because what I feel needs to be done is the district needs to tell the parents that their child could land on a a report out that goes to the Department of Justice
090so that the parents can get involved with their student and say listen Jimmy this is what can happen to you and this is why you really need to watch what you say you do like and if the parents know about it they can help us right because the whole point of all of this is to stop discrimination stop bullying stop all of this but if we hide it from the parents on what's going on how are they going to help us they're not so I really hope that more is said about this and that we I get the answers to my questions about that because I think it's important I know that you met with somebody today um that process I think was only through June 23 that's the other thing that I want to
091know about is um was it formally extended so if you can give me the those answers that would be great but I also think that you should let the public know and make a make a much uh larger broader statement about it and like Greg said suggesting sending it out to the parents and saying this is what can happen to your child because I don't think that telling them at a meeting that you're meeting with the family saying like well your child did X Y and Z that anybody listens to anything after that because most people are mortified nobody is encouraging their students to be racist or discriminatory or anything like that so I think we're we're we're missing a a big key factor is that engaging our family members and our parents to help
092us with this situation the second thing um and what I feel is very important is the number of emails that we received and texts and things like that I don't know if everybody got them because some of them were just um sent to me directly not everybody was on them um they were very passionate a lot of the the parents were very passionate about this um you had a student stand up here saying that she has been in in in a situation where a student of the opposite sex has been in her bathroom I too want this to stop immediately because there it's not about discrimination this is about safety this board is responsible for safety and anybody sitting up here that thinks that it's safe to let a boy in a bathroom with a
093female or vice versa a girl going into a bathroom with many males it's not safe I want to point out a couple of things I want to point out that as a mother I've taught my daughter from the age that she I can she can even remember don't go with strangers don't be left alone with a man or a boy in a closed room you know if you feel something there must there's something wrong run away get away from them make sure that you protect yourself now we're going to tell them well if you have a problem with all of that you have to go use a different restroom there is no law that I am aware of or anything that's been ruled on that says you have to allow a transgender student to use
094the bathroom of choice please show me a law you haven't been able to show me a law you say Elliot Larson act but that does not it's never been ruled upon it at uh the Michigan um Supreme Court the the Supreme Court won't even hear it the six District Court never like that I know of so if it has please show me because I don't recall that the other thing I want to point out is that five years ago six years ago if a man or a boy went into a girl's bathroom they were peeping Tom a pervert potential rapist um attacker a threat to girls those people are still around they're not gone so if we open this up if we open this door up and do a case-by casee basis as you've said
095and we say okay you can use the bathroom of your choice you can't control during football games during sporting events after school when all the girls are in you know gymnastics over here and they go in the locker room to change little girls unwilling you know unknowingly go in there and there's somebody in there that chooses to go in there because they identify as the opposite sex we need to be very clear and we need to set the tone in this District that we are for safety and we're sorry it's inconvenient for some students but there can be a gender neutral bathroom that those students can use because the majority of the students don't feel comfortable but yet they're not allowed to say anything because again the Department of Justice may find out if they've
096said something or if they say something wrong we can't put our students in that position we can't put the girls or the boys in that position because both sides are are we cannot guarantee safety so I am of an advocate that we we stop all actions right now until we can figure this out and that we assure this the parents who wrote to us and the parents that are concerned that are afraid to write to us because they get yelled down or you know it's it's cancel culture I can't be afraid of that because I feel like if we don't stop this now it's going to keep going and that's when it starts to get bad so we need to go with with what we know and that's why we created a boys room bathroom
097a girl's bathroom a ladi's room a men's room girls locker rooms and boys locker rooms because it's very clear who's supposed to go in those rooms and we cannot stray from that so I would like to be have more discussion about this we can have legal input that's fine because we should um it's not about discrimination this is about safety and that's what this board is supposed to provide to our students they deserve it they need it we got security guards for people that want to come in and hurt them but what about the ones that we don't know about so I just encourage everybody to think about that and um there's going to be more to come about this and and and again I want acknowledgement that we're going to stop the practices until
098we figure this out we're going to stop the practices and until we figure this out so that's mrki H thank you Megan um I spent some uh time over at Lakes Elementary and also at the high school this past week um and I had a great conversation with Melissa Frasier over at lakes and looking at some of the activities and things that have going on over there um and lakes partnered with Farms as Mr Keller said for a joint Trunk or Treat event and they also had um a Halloween costume parid a lot of parents showed up for that a lot of kids had fun and it was a great event really was and unfortunately now we're going to have to uh deal with Mr Keller's bragging rights for the next year about his munchin
099costume so I'll uh I'll Grace for that but um the haa annual districtwide co- Drive um was held and lakes little old Lakes collected 253 items the most they've ever collected that is really sell and when I was over there this past week I got to find out what 800 plus loads of red look like they had a do for uh donations bread drive for gleener food bank and had over 800 gloves of bread for cleaners that's pretty impressive and some of the young students Walking The Halls just wanted me to look and say hey what do you think of our 800 loaves of bread and I said yeah that looks pretty good where's the butter and olive oil okay um but yeah it was quite impressive um this morning I had a chance to
100meet over at the high school with principal Fitzgerald um assistant principal's JD wheeler Tom urick and uh the dean of students Jessica Gus one of the things we did discuss was the subject that came up here tonight and we talked a little bit about boys in girls restrooms and locker rooms and such and um first of all I just want to say that I I truly um felt some very very good uh um uh Vibes or feedback from the four of them regarding their thoughts on safety and they were quite quite sincere in letting me know that there hasn't been any um violent incidents yet and and I I believe that there haven't been but also the fact that yes there have been incidents where maybe a boy has gone into the girls locker room
101or restroom and that's something that we do need to address but also during our meeting we uh had a quick uh little review of some of the highlights going on at the high school right now during college application week 333 seniors began the process of applying to a postsecondary program that's pretty good an additional and this is something that really is near and dear to my heart an additional 30 students expressed an interest in the skilled trades and signed up to attend an apprenticeship presentation over at WCC for their skill trades uh field trip and that's great and that's something that we really need to expand on here uh providing information on things other than College and the seniors have com uh completed a combined total of 869 college applications and many seniors have already
102been accepted to a school that they appli to those numbers continue to grow so I'm very uh very happy to see all of that academic success over at the high school it's it's been a great job by the high school staff there and also too for those of you paretts out there um that every parent here knows that parenting is hard it's difficult sometimes we find out that we're not the best at it and there is a series of workshops that the leesa has uh put together and you can attend these workshops via zoom and do it anonymously but they're for various topics in fact they just had one earlier this week dealing with child anxiety but they have a number of upcoming um uh little presentations dealing with things like School avoidance effects of
103screen time building your child's confidence oing the ABCs of substance abuse and vaping lots of good stuff a lot lot of good tips and tricks for parents that uh are kind of wondering and scratching their head what do I do now well there are programs out there for you and I I highly recommend that you take advantage of them and again like I said you can join those anonymously via zoom and I think they're very very worthwhile so please keep that in mind and there's information about it on the Lea website and I believe we might have some information on our website although don't hold me to that I'll I'll check but um good good stuff for parents um next I'd like to um share my disappointment with the fact that after all of the
104emails that we received after all of the texts after all of the phone calls and such that we did not put as a discussion item the issue of what is happening with uh and the threat of what will happen thanks to the state with boys and girls restrooms and locker rooms um this is a big issue this is not an issue we need to form a committee on we need to come up with a policy we need to come up with it quick the very fact that we had someone of uh her age come up here and speak about that that should be a big uh a big warning sign for all parents and I can tell you that we're doing what we can up here we've done well with security we've done well with
105uh talking to our uh principles and staff but we need a policy and that's what we were elected for we don't need to have deep discussions or anything on that we need to get together on this now that's what we were elected to do that's what we will do sometimes you have to make decisions that are very very tough and sometimes it involves a lot of input not just from parents but also from legal sources and such but there there are things we can do I do know for a fact that other districts have come up with policies we will be looking at some of those and we will have something um very very soon for that it it really is a shame that we have to worry uh about this but what really troubles
106me is I was watching a a video on YouTube about some Chinese students they were about 10 or 11 and what they had to do in their class assignment they were given little tablets and on these tablets three-digit numbers about 25 of them were scrolling in the tablets and they weren't allowed to use pen or pencil or calculators and you could see their minds just going and they were using their hands and their figures it was amazing what they were doing really was and unfortunately 2023 in America we can't figure out which pathom to use well we need to figure that out quickly very complete thank you thank you um I had the pleasure of meeting Stan who is our resource officer at Village and Creekside um Stan has a I believe a social media
107following he's probably had people ask for his autograph uh when I get to meet him you can just tell the enthusiasm he has for being in that building every day when you know he may not feel like going to work but when he knows all The Smiling Faces waiting for him he couldn't wait to pull out his phone and show me a photo that a student had taken he and a student together and they had written thank you card so it's great to see these relationships we're building it's making a difference for our kids our staff so go St um congratulations to all of our student athletes um always great to hear their successes um both you know in sports and then in academics um the last thing I have is I would just like
108to thank the public for the tremendous support that the Heartland High School Pantry has received we put out a big push to social media to um to the community to help us Supply food and toiletry items to some of our students that have some some food and security and we make sure that they have something uh to put in their bellies every week they get a bag home every week so thank you to everyone who has donated if you don't know what I'm talking about or you want to help always looking for donations it is a completely donation based food pantry um the haa has generously donated we have parents in the district have donated so without all of the community coming together we we couldn't provide this for our students so I just want
109to say a big thank you thank you Mr strong M Coleman you have nothing to say about the safety of the bathroom since our last meeting I um I had the pleasure of um joining in a few different um community events and Community groups excuse me I have the floor you're okay um let's see a few weeks ago um the Optimus Club hosted the respect the law breakfast an event that came back um I think there was a short Hiatus for this but it came back and it was well attended it's a great opportunity to um Express thanks and gratitude for the relationships that we have with the local law enforcement and obviously in the last year or so we've been able to expand that relationship there were folks here obviously from the school district
110from the Optimus Club from Cheryl Stockwell um so it was a nice a nice Community event to bring people together to um to thank those officers for the work that they do um let's see one meeting that I get to attend and that I look forward to every month is the DPAC meeting that's a district uh parent action committee or um District PTO group there's a representative from each school PTO that that comes to that and we got to see some of those or hear from some of those amazing people today um they do really incredible work for our kids they um the work that they do the money that they raise goes to help a variety of things like Greg had talked about earlier um there's just a lot of great things that these
111amazing people do they give up their time and it's it's like a giant what I call a giant warm fuzzy when I go into that room because I get to hear the excitement passion that these people have for our kids so thank you to all the PT all the PTO board members and those volunteers that help make those events happen thank you for that uh another meeting that I look forward to um this one is only every other month is the um Senior Center Advisory Board um this is a great group of people um they do so much with so very little they um they have to go out of their way to find funding to secure grants to do fundraising they put on a variety of events they host a bunch of different services
112like flue shot um things like that different clinics that they do so it's a community service for our seniors as well as a fun a way to um what do I want to say to provide entertainment and Community a sense of community for maybe seniors who are um who don't get out as often as they as they should otherwise um so Kim garski and her team um do an outstanding job with with making Miracles out of the small budget they have um let's see the last item I have is so it's kind of timely that round Elementary was here today because you might have seen in social media one of our teachers Michelle Vincent who spoke tonight with the k k kids formerly the kindness Club um she was recognized nominated by a parents and
113was recognized for um for her work with with our students and it's uh w i I think it's called is it the teacher of the week I think I think they do this every week they provided her um a $100 gift card to spent at Kroger um on behalf of the club and then and to encourage more of the um activities that she's been doing with the kids um on the on the certificate that she received it says for outstanding contributions and dedication to the students of HCS which I can personally vouch for um three of my kids uh we had the pleasure of being in her classroom uh kindergarten and third sorry she is um she's an amazing teacher who does amazing things with kids and um she's one one that she always says
114is that her kids once once a vant kid always vant kid thank you for that all righty couple of things for me um I did want to say congrats to Cindy Shaw and being the volunteer the year um recipients um thank you for all the community um I know your involvement in various organizations certainly um over at the main campus of the um high school and so on and so forth thank you for all that you do I want to touch quickly on an all district meeting that four of us had the opportunity to attend so uh every couple of months all of the districts in Livingston County get together um and uh we have dinner together uh or I'm sorry yeah all of the school boards in the in the county um we learn
115from each other we get to have some um some great conversation and then there's often times some educational components to that to say where we are in various respects um as a county and so um one thing that I was really proud of is that they spoke a a lot about Heartland special education program um and how some of that uh modeling some of that throughout uh the county um it was was really beneficial and so thank you to all of those um teachers staff administrators parents students um that participate in that because it's being noticed throughout the entire County um they speak very very highly of what we're able to do with that sort of population um and that's something to be proud of they openly spoke about Heartland um in front of every
116other District so um I was that was really cool to hear and just really awesome to see um from a fruition standpoint kind of see the hard work that our folks do day in and day out so thank you on that um two last topics is um thank you for all your parents emails um I am not uh going a notice from the emails and I should have responded either via telephone or email uh to everyone um but uh your concerns in regards to the genders in the bathrooms is actually for those of you that don't know about four months ago uh we formed a Safety Committee and that Safety Committee um part of the work with the Safety Committee that came out of the Safety Committee obviously was the school resource officers and so
117uh I've received information and kind of questions Andor Curiosities from two board members um that that committee will then look into and um follow up on and so there's work to be done um it's a very complex situation it's not an easy situation um and if we're going to do it if we're going to do it we're if we're going to do something as a district we have to do it right and um and we can't we can't make decisions out of the blue that can't be implemented I think that you know a policy on paper is great but if we can't Implement things that's where it gets um it gets hard for administrators and so just taking all of that into consideration and um having some fruitful meetings in that committee to then have
118a recommendation to the rest of the board um and again for those of you that are not on the Safety Committee uh please continue to send your questions uh because we'll try and collate those into a fashion um by which we can get legal counsel way in and so on and so forth doj I think we're at a point probably from a doj standpoint and I appreciate all of the questions um to likely hold a closed session here soon uh and so I will work with Mr Hughes to get something scheduled with Travis and then um I will connect with Mrs yarber on your questions um I think I wrote them all down but we'll get some more information out we'll get some answers to you all as parents um and then I have some
119digging to do with some a note that's a parent sent me today and so uh we will Circle back on that topic uh obviously very important as you all know this is an active kind of item um occurring in our district and we need to be cogn of that um we also need to be cognizant of uh future ramifications obviously ensuring that our students our parents are aware um and That We're looping parents in early uh and so you know it no one needs to find out that Johnny got in trouble 3 weeks ago um you know four months down the road so looping parents in early looping them in on that and then moving forward I would like to request um perhaps this has never been done but it is what it is um
120perhaps we could have a drive here at the next board meeting for our pantry um I will get something out um but perhaps I'd like to collect um a drive for those students in our pantry um whether that be toiletries or something else uh so everyone take a look out before you come to the next board meeting um and we will collect for those um those individuals as well I don't think we've ever done that but hey uh we've never done a lot of things so we'll continue on in that fion moving forward item 2A bu replacement from the 2020 Bond Megan you mind before move forward if I can add one more thing because I was remiss I didn't say you should be so proud of your daughter for coming up here and speaking
121out because that was very brave and it was an excellent speech it hit me so thank you very much for doing that I appreciate that I hate to embarrass her but she was also the recipient and she can correct us but she uh won our oratorical contest last year is that correct Mrs yber and so um speaking obviously on a different topic but using her skills in different respects and got to take her family to a nice um presentation and celebrate that um up through kind of the regional Optimus Club all right item two I move that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent and the Chief Financial Officer approves the bus replacement purchase as support motion by Mrs pan support by Mr CA any discussion yeah so I'd like to I
122guess first acknowledge I'm sensitive to the fact that the community did uh vote in favor of a bond package and thank you for doing that the uh the package did include I believe $.1 million to be allocated towards purchase of new buses over five years or so if I'm not mistaken Mr Marino please correct me um speaking with Rachel the the budget for this year was 600,000 and that would be for buses fix buses in fact that would get put in place for the next school year so 24 25 my I do have a concern that the The Proposal today is almost 50% higher than what was in the actual budget itself and I know that increases in purchases to the bond is not something new it's it's it's not the result of an action
123from the district or anything that the district can frankly control um but but I do have some some concerns there and I was able to speak with Mr Hughes and Mr Marino and I guess I'll just say that you know frankly I wasn't convinced that we can't find a more financially responsible option in this case and one example I'll give is that on the bus replacement schedule that was in the packet there's actually nine spare buses which is actually a different category of bus than what we would use for extra buses for things like field trips athletic events so it's and then we have buses that are specifically for the was 41 or 42 42 routes it looks like and so that you know that's approximately 20% extra buses that we have and granted we
124do need some for things that you know scheduled maintenance occasional breakdown from a bus that we obviously don't plan or don't expect to see but you know in my view I think that that's a little bit excessive and I would like to see us start to whittle that down and you know trying to be a good Financial Steward for the taxpayers of this community I would like to move that we in include a maximum expenditure of $600,000 towards the purchase of the additional buses that way we stay within the budget that we um had signed up for when we put that bond package in front of the taxpayer that's why I nominated you treasure initially um I I Greg talked me about this and um I agree if we put a budget out there it
125wasn't that long ago and it's 50% higher I think a little bit of creep is okay but 50% higher early on um you know we just want to make sure that we're fiscally responsible so I support what he said that we need to reduce I have to ask um the 50% increase where how is that justified what what caused that let me hold on we'll get to the discussion on that I want to make sure that we capture the motion that Greg just made so Greg made a motion to put a cap um of $600 on the or 600,000 yes we wouldn't get the end it get a tank of gas for $600 $600,000 and that was seconded and supported by Mrs bondal discussion on that topic sorry Mr I wanted to be sure we
126CT that that's fine but uh it does leave me with a little bit of pause as to you know and as uh Mrs Blondo was saying of course there's always you know additional costs that come from just time itself over a certain period but 50% I I hope we're not just taking money that we're getting and and and just using it to you know hey while it's here let's just take it and run with it um I I I'd like a little bit of an explanation as to why we have a 50% increase Mr Hugh can you speak to that yep I can um we do use the uh Michigan bus purchasing program through the msbo uh they go out yearly and they bid all of the buses in almost every school district in the
127state of Michigan purchase buses through this uh process in other words we get the best deal we're going to find on a bus and so when we first started the process of uh the bond I think we estimated $1 to $110,000 bus we know that uh a truck today if you buy a F 250 let's say uh it's gone from 54,000 to well over 880,000 in the last four years so the reality is that the cost of doing business and purchasing is much higher uh this is a competitive bid if we don't purchase purchas these buses and sign up to purchase these buses by I believe it was uh December 18th or 13th December 13th uh then they're going to rebid and the new prices are going to come on these buses uh as we
128shared with you in the outline of the bus replacement schedule uh this is our replacement schedule for when we keep the buses on the road and so um there's probably more information than you asked for but that's the reality of no I'm I'm GL you answer that question yeah um and I I do realize that over the course of time inflation takes its ugly toll um when was this originally budgeted though how many years ago um yep I the answer to that is we budgeted uh for 41 bucks $4.1 million when we originally uh submitted our 2020 Bond so we submitted in 2019 uh and that Bond app showed uh at the time about $100,000 a bus we estimated to be more than that but over the life of the bond purchasing we'd get as
129many of the 41 as possible now the state law doesn't require you to buy the 41 that was our number we put on it so we're going to try to buy as many buses as we can so if if we spend this money as uh Greg I hope it's okay to S talk about our conversation or not um as I said to Mr Keller I don't think you can look at the $600,000 budgeted for this year as a budget number it's what was in the bond and what's in the bond is $1.4 million left to purchase buses so our plan is to purchase these buses get them here for next year remember they don't come until summertime for next year make sure we have those buses and then we start looking at how do one
130how do we reduce routes now this is a big conversation the board year years ago had on ride time on a bus and that's why we went to 42 route Universal routes to limit the number of minutes on the bus for students in order to reduce routes we're going to have to probably increase ride time but we know we have to reduce routes and and and reduce the number of buses needing to go on the road in order one to even get drivers because we're struggling with getting drivers to be honest with you we have had to pull a a a subd driver that has another job in the district we had to actually that person had to stop driving the bus so we could get someone out there because they were exhausted because we're
131trying to run our our our uh our Fleet with people that are doing other jobs in the district to make sure that the parents are accepting the fact we're trying to get their kids to and from school every day and so we're going to look at reroutes how can we reduce the number of routes that we have which means reducing the number of buses needed start selling off some of the older buses uh you can look at about nine years on a school bus and then once it starts getting into the heavy maintenance category it starts costing you more and more money I think we did a number I think I shared with you Greg our oldest buses that we want to get rid of are have Costas not only the cost of the bus
132but over $30,000 on average per bus to keep it on the road over the the time in which it's been on our Fleet we deal with really tough roads we do a lot of mileage that's even rotating the buses one year from doing our long routes up north to our short routes here so all of this coming together says we need to keep our Fleet in top notot shape so that we can keep running it we understand we got to reduce as I said to Mr Keller Matt and I said we understand we're going to reduce and so over the next couple years we're going to be looking at what those options are to reduce that number and that'll come down what about the uh spare buses how often do th those run how often
133are those used because Mr Keller you said there were what nine according to this um there's no there's no one day that I can tell you every day so many are used one day you might have four of them are in the shop getting worked on um one day you might have um four of them on field trips but those four field trips require eight buses or it just could you know who knows or if you dwindle down to where you just have a minimal number then if a bus you send all those out there's some in the shop and a bus breaks down a red light goes out you can't drive that bus it's got to stop immediately we got to send the bus out there so yeah we we've been heavy we we
134met we we said to Mr Kell yeah we we've been pretty good on the number of backup buses we have but we understand we're going to have to start reducing that what I'm saying to you as a board is I don't think the time is this year to limit us from purchasing the buses we need on our schedule we can move the schedule forward and then we'll continue to work on a plan we know we've got $4.1 million to spend on buses if we only have um 600,000 next year then guess what next year maybe we only buy five buses uh and there is another component that's going to help us as we shared with Mr Keller this year the state created a categorical and in the categorical they provided money to school districts for
135transportation needs now some of that can be attributed to um higher salaries for the drivers some could be for other things but we could also as a board say we're going to use 250,000 of that this year we anticipate about $370,000 coming in this categorical this year we can set that money aside say $250,000 of it and say we're going to also Al use that to offset the bus costs in the future on top of what we have left so we still can keep a schedule reduce the fleet and keep moving forward and keeping making sure we have buses that are safe every day has there been any investigation into uh leasing buses as opposed to owning them out right we have not we did years ago I think Matt said and it was cost
136prohibitive when you looked at purchasing a bus but then again I don't know what lease rates are today versus you know a $150,000 Machine versus a $100,000 machine years ago when we looked at it I'm sure lease cost at least picked up with that but we had looked in that the categorical money by the state I'm so sorry the categorical money by the state can that be transitioned so you know how the safety money for example we had to spend by a certain time frame this year that categorical money can push forward yeah the categorical money could from what I understand from Rachel and she's not here unfortunately um is that it can be pushed out but if it can't if we looked into it and and they said you can't you got to use
137it on this year we could use that on general fund costs like salaries and whatnot and then take general fund money and set that aside so there's a way to do it and still have your money does that make sense but I think it can be saved for a year out I think it has to be spent by 2025 when they give it to you in this school year I think but don't quote me that Mr K is your Comm in this year or in the plan extending up to 29 from an expense standpoint well looking long term obviously is my concern I think again and I'm hearing you know there's a lot of questions perhaps that still need to be answered and and so I think it wouldn't be prudent at this time for
138us to to go ahead and buy all those buses at one shot and you know with the intent of the categorical money being towards drivers I think if we as a district decide to use that for equipment and not salaries and other thing benefits then it will put us at an already you know a disadvantage potentially in getting drivers which we're already having difficulty getting and so if if the other districts aren't doing that then you know that's that's one of my concerns and and again I I I didn't hear anything to prove to me and again I'm one person on this board that having 10 spares which is what according to this replacement schedule that I'm looking at has for next year that we need all 10 of those and and that we can't
139safely and efficiently still maintain our current Fleet and routes for and get the kids back forth safely to and from the school at home at athletic events and and and we I think we can do all that and still stay in our budget because I don't want to see us jeopardize other areas where this Bond money could be applied because we already hear that we've got lots of other issues with projects with cost overrun so again I don't see an absolute need at this time to make the additional investment in in new buses beyond the 600,000 that we had originally planned and and one last question too with with the spares are we looking to purchase brand new spares as well with this no no we rotate out okay the older ones are the spares
140new ones are on the road okay but can I speak that yeah absolutely come on so with regard to the spares I want you guys to look at that that chart I gave you outlined of 2029 so we only have nine spares okay currently in our Fleet as part of my letter I said for next year we're going to look at reducing our numbers due to enrollment and due to our routes and due to our lack of drivers unfortunately and so by doing that reducing my routes it's a Excel spreadsheet calculation our route our spares increase by one at the end end of the day I'm not going to just go sell a bus you know that type of thing for next year because honestly I don't know where routing is going to be we
141do routing over the summer and so if for some reason our ride times get to be too high or we have too many kids on a bus I need that extra bus per se to go back to 42 routes so that year 24 25 I'm reducing to 41 routes with anticipation that we're not going to have enough drivers really so by doing that that that increases our spare by one okay if you look to 2526 we are looking to reduce our routes down to 40 again we're reducing our bus numbers because of efficiencies and things like that and if you look [Music] down to buy and sell we're looking to only buy seven buses potentially we were looking to buy nine uh but as through conversations with Mr Hughes and Mrs boy uh financially you
142know buses are $147,000 right now when I first started in this District I was buying them at 90,000 and last year we bought them at uh 117,000 120,000 right around that time uh so it keeps increasing in terms of spares um we do keep nine spares and we keep nine spares because we have 41 routes it's math um Doug our head mechanic may have four to five buses in the garage um he might have to send one to um the manufacturer due to warranty issues um at the end of the day uh when it comes to spares anytime as Mr Hugh said anytime we have a mechanical failure of a door uh red light burns out which happens going down our dirt roads very often unfortunately we may have to send a spare out so
143potentially we have had to use all our spares um given a situation the other one is we are sending field trip buses out also for athletics um and uh when things were good and hopefully we're getting back to the days of field trips we send two buses out for a building field trip and we send uh five buses out for an athletic trip uh we might have to send a spare to go rescue that bus which hopefully doesn't happen far away um to uh pick up those kids and bring them back to the district so while it seems a little topheavy uh I will tell you they are needed and they are uh definitely a blessing to have um and basically we want to make sure that kids get to and from school in a
144timely fashion and a safe manner so does that hope sorry yeah long wited answer sorry I think my preference would be long term and this is a different discussion probably not for today my preference would be to push some of these 2627 general fund into the into the categorical of the bond so that then you know we talk about a a safety cushion from our from our general fund balance I don't want that to get below you know 15% or whatever we're looking at it that third year I guess longterm when you're talking about strategic planning i' rather actually bump it so that so that the category so we can take advantage of the state funding categor we take advantage of the pricing and then actually level it out in 26 27 27 28 because
145the price G to be B elsewhere I just have a couple questions if you don't mind I like that idea and I agree um so how many miles are out of bus after or 10 year um roughly 130,000 really yeah we drive a lot of miles basically the moon and back if I added up all the drivers over the course of the year and things like that um so they do Drive quite a bit we do rotate our spares um we do rotate out um uh our routes to make sure that we balance them our head mechanic Doug does a fabulous job on those um and making sure that you know we balance them as best as possible some drivers would love to have the new bus every year but unfortunately we we have to
146balance that so um are there seat belts for every student there is not okay because I remember bouncing around in the back I wondered if they still had that fun no compartmentalization is still the safest form to travel on a school bus okay correct thank you good information thank you very much so sorry Matt just a quick question so 2018 or sorry 201920 we had 43 routes and and eight service spares again not talking about ath license RS so how many times did we have a shortage never we have spars correct so you had eight spares and you in fact had 43 routes right so more than we'll have today or in the future so technically we have two less routs yet we'll need two more spares I guess that's where again I'm correct and
147I don't I don't disagree with you but that and I would submit that can take action now from year to year though our routes may change and so the 43 routes was needed at the time when enrollment was at a certain level um and sometimes it's dictated by enrollment at a particular building so we don't necessarily have the same amount of buses for say a village and around so we might have to adjust routes um village actually had the most buses at their parking lot three years ago that has changed due to some as kids move in and out and so we have to be able to fluctuate that summer and as you can see from the time frame for purchasing a bus it takes over a year to even get one and so we
148do hop around a little bit but we've been seeing the trend decrease and that's why in my plan I'm outlining in the next few years that we're going to start moving them out so enrollment has shown that we can start doing that the other reason for the six is I'm trying to get rid of um I call them well I don't call them that that's what they are Max Force engines that are in these six that have not been uh very reliable um uh International has moved to a Cummings Engine which is much more reliable um these are the last of those engines um which is kind of something we want to do before they get too old because then we start getting into the maintenance cost of those buses jumping significantly on engine repairs
149which we have not knock on wood had to do on those so these the last of those those type of engines so and then I guess just one other thing for the board We There is some there was I guess some potential to I guess look at newer used buses and I again I just think there's a lot of things that we need to explore before we just you know jump into the pool and spend 50% more on our budget so I urging the rest of the board to take that under consideration when you vote and one last thing for me is we don't make this recommendation lately Matt's been doing this a long time we've been running buses a long time we run 93 square miles every day on roads that you drive and
150you know what they're like and we have to have Dependable bus uh service and we have to have Dependable transportation and buses on the road so we are recommending that you adop this as thank you all right moving forward voting on the motion to cap our bus purchased at an expenditure of $600,000 for this year um and then we'll move forward from that Mr heski I think there's a lot of good questions that need to be answered however um I will go ahead and say yes yes we C okay Mrs sh no Mrs Coleman no Mr CA well I struggled with putting a dollar amount cap on when the price of BU buses are going to fluctuate year to year I'd hate to kind of visiona us into some spots so my my voot is
151now Mr Keller yes Mrs B they talk me into it I don't feel like we should put a cap on it clarify it's it's for this year only that's the resolution that's for this year this um I'm gonna say now okay and I'm a no we're going to move to the original recommended action that was motion by Mrs Coleman and supported by Mr Costa any discussion on the original action to approve the BR replacement purchase as presented I do have I do have a question about that so are we going to we're gonna are we going to purchase buses next year or is this the bus is we're going to purchase and it's going to carry us for next year we purchasing then we have to make a purchase now we pay it when they
152come in in the summer and they're ready to go for the new year okay so they'll be here next year Y and then is there any like I didn't I wasn't able to really follow it was a great chart man don't get me wrong I didn't have time to look it all whole thing um so then the year after that is there buses on the agenda to to purchase more buses every do we purchase buses every year yeah yeah we do and so that was my recommendation that maybe we take a look at the longer yeah um and obviously that's not a vote for the table today but longer the long strategy actually where we pull the funding from especially if there's State funding that we can take advantage of and we're not taking out
153of our general fund right and it was it thanks okay any additional discussion the original motion tongue TI No Mr keski on the original motion um I Jan Mrs Shaw yes Mrs Coleman yes Mr CA yes Mr K no Mrs blondal I'm going to say yes and I'm a yes that motion passes that would be 4 to abens right yes 511 yeah is that how we report it yeah moving on item 3A uh moving on to discussion items excuse me item 3A 2425 High School curriculum guide I can start this would be should be way smoother than the conversation um we uh every year we come to this at this this month's board meeting to talk about the curriculum changes to the high school um I James want you to come up um gotta get
154kudos to James and his staff um every year they look to try to bump up achievement bump up Pathways for students um and he did a great job of outlining this in his document to make it easy to understand we met with the curriculum subcommittee um so the three you can can add to that conversation about what our additions are going to be um a vast majority of it is adding Pathways for students increasing uh things that they can take to go higher in certain subject areas and and make a cheat um even more beneficial for our students so you have it in front of you we can answer any questions and James is here to also answer I'll just start with I just want to say thank you for the time and effort put
155into laying out not only what the changes are but the rationale behind them and then obviously answering all of our questions in the meeting it was very helpful and um I'm sorry I had to leave a couple minutes early from that meeting but um but I appreciate the discussion and all the the information you're welcome thanks for your time and support I'd like to uh say too yeah thank you for uh doing that just in case anyone has any question about and I'm talking at a very high level here I'm not getting into the meat of every little change but there's nothing in this that does anything to and and we talked about this in our meeting there's nothing that is there to kind of dumb down curriculum but in fact enhance it correct correct
156enhance Finance knowledge I think all of our students could probably will benefit I do have a lot of questions but in the interest of time since this is a discussion it I'll just call you thank you's that sounds good all right anything else on that item thank Youk apprciate it y item 3D international travel proposal for the summer of 2025 I get head start on this all right so you remember last year Mrs zel and M harof came and proposed the trip that they're taking this this year I forget where are you going again this year Panama yeah June will be heading to Panama so this trip is proposed for the following summer yes and so I asked him to come and briefly explain it to you you have the paperwork there with the itinerary
157and uh I think James said you got four or five minutes oh yeah we're right all right good so I spoke to you last year about our company that we chose F and all of its benefits and so we're going to continue with this company but the purpose of proposing this trip to you now is because I wanted to bring the French program into the trip so it's going to be a French Spanish combination I thought it was pretty neat thing especially with um Kathy harof being our only French teacher currently I thought it'd be a good way to combine our forces and encourage kids to keep going forward especially that higher level so that's what we have in front of you so um It's a combination to France and Spain uh quickly the price
158is expensive and that's why we wanted to get this out to the parents quickly so that they could have many months to pay um we're hoping to have 20 French students maybe 25 Spanish students on the trip um travel would be round trip from Detroit they'll be traveled by motor coach and also high-speed trains which I thought would be a great experience for the kids as well especially going between France and Spain um as before breakfast and dinners are included we'll have walking tours seeing tours and I wanted to have Kathy give you us a quick minute or so about we we did France together as well so I kind of want to her to just tell you a little bit about what they'll be seeing in France yeah so um we're pretty excited about
159this um really sort of bringing the the language students sort of Spanish and the French students together to sort of help each other out in these these different venues so in France we'd be there for about three days so they travel overnight um first day is sort of a walking tour of Paris um unfortunately we can't actually visit notredam but we can sort of see the restoration taking place there's a chance for the students to do an optional verside trip the next day um Amy and I have been talking a lot about options for students who don't want to do that um sort of putting um uh chapon's in charge of maybe doing a tour the catacombs or taking students to the top of the Eiffel Tower um just sort of getting to see France
160for about three days um and again we are we are down to um sort of five sections of French and like three three and a half teachers of SP Spanish teachers so we're looking to really just combine the experiences and letting the students sort of get to to sort of lean on each other and really just sort of experience dual cultures um for sort of one trip which I think will be amazing so um we're just excited to bring this forth again also with your blessing like I did last year I wanted to go ahead and start the parent meeting I we wanted to have the meeting at the end of this month so that would give parents time to uh look at that give them at least 18 months to pay for the trip
161and also students be able to ask for a a Christmas gift like help put you fund their trip um so um if that would be okay I'd like to schedule that and then um if the board decides it's not in our best interest to travel then those parents would not lose any any type of money because that's part of ef's policy once the board gives approval then non-refundable action will go into place so if that'd be okay hey that's all we want to talk to you about tonight we're excited about it thanks for listening took the kids to Paris in 2018 and it was pretty amazing and then we had a trip planned in 2020 and of course Co shut that down and we tried to postpone it and it just didn't work and um
162there's just something so much about taking kids outside of Heartland and allowing them to use their language skills really understand the culture of a different country um um and then we're excited about having dual languages so they you know the the French students can help the Spanish kids in France and vice versa um in those sort of French speaking countries and really sort of coess um as a group of Heartland High School um ambassadors so we're pumped about it we hope you are too I have a question sure yeah last uh last time this was presented to us did a wonderful job great little dog in Pony was great wonderful I'm all for it from what I'm hearing right now but we haven't heard anything from any of the students that went on this last
163trip so Panama will be happening this summer um in June uh if you were if you wanted to hear comments about previous trips I'd have to grab some alumni from our last trip on 2019 no no what I'm saying is it would be nice to follow up and have the students come to the board AB tell us about their experience that's all I'm saying oh yeah absolutely we will make sure I'm sure we'll have plenty okay all right sounds good I don't have a question I just want to thank both of you for offing this opportunity for those students what an amazing thing that they had this chance they get to do to be with obviously teachers and St staff and safe people that's a great thing so thank you for doing that with kids
164not a problem mimic the same thing I think it's great that you guys do that because I know it's a lot it is so thank you for doing that I thank you so much here wouldn't have the courage to do that there a lot of teenagers in a very close close quarters for a long time yes we've got it good night everyone thank you I'm not hearing any issues let them go and have their bring back they parent meeting yeah all right I think so you guys know you can have the parent meeting right yeah thank you thank you all right and I'm for a future meetings December 18th right here 6:30 p.m. and then we have one January 15th 2024 6:30 p.m any informational items any of you would like to share um next
165Tuesday so next week is Thanksgiving um just realized that today and next Tuesday all day is the Optimus Club adopted family um fundraiser at backles so if anyone is hungry um please go to Mel and just mention um the adopted family program and they are fantastic and give us a percentage of those to support our students um in that program uh and so shout out to that um thank you to all of the families teams everyone that's participating in that program it's just pretty tremendous um and that's all I can any additional information items all right we areed did you find it Hing the I'm like