001Heat. Heat. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Dearbone Public School regular board meeting. It's Monday, January 12th, and I call the meeting to order. >> Uh, roll call. Uh, President Oji >> here. >> Trusty Bezi >> here. >> Trusty Droio >> here. >> Trusty Pelichkov >> here. >> Trusty Sub >> here. >> Trusty Zaher here. Trusty Mos >> here. >> Okay. So, first of all, before we start the meeting, I really want to thank the board and their support for the presidency. I promise to collaborate and work with everyone and uh we have a great team and hopefully this is a great year to give back and and do uh what's needed and uh as a team we're going to work together to do what's best for our kids. Um so, do we start?
002So, forgive me. It's going to be a little fumbling at the at first as I get used to it. So is there any citizen participation? >> No, we're doing the pledge of The next item is pledge of >> allegiance. I'm looking at the wrong one. >> Okay. Uh so next item is pledge of alleg Yeah. The next item is the pledge of allegiance to the flag. We have Mr. Muhammad Abu Salah, principal of Makala Elementary School to introduce the students that will lead the pledge of allegiance tonight. All right, greetings. So, today I have some awesome aviators with us. We have Yasmine, Elena, Zakaria, and Yousef. Thank you guys for having us. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic
003for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> Good job. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you for coming. What's your name? >> Good job. >> Yes. >> Great job. >> Congratulations. >> What's your name? >> Good job, me. >> Good job. Yes. >> Good job, Elena. >> Yousef, right? >> Congratulations. >> Good job, Yousef. Good job. Okay. >> Next item. >> The next item is the superintendence update. >> Retirements. >> Sure. I'll Good evening everybody. Happy new year. Welcome back to everybody and congratulations uh President Al Jahi, Vice President So, Secretary Zar, and Treasurer Bazzy on your new appointments. We have three retirements this month. Alfredo or better known as Al Lini, building operations specialist, Stout and DFSC president, 42 years of service, effective January
00423rd, 2026. Irene McCarthy also from Stout Custodial C 25 and 13 year years of service effective January 9, 2026. And finally, Lynn Osborne, Barry Career Center Health Teacher, 11 and 1/3 year years of service effective December 31st, 2025. Uh, thank you to L, Irene, and Lynn for your years of service and congratulations. I have a few items today. This past weekend, many local and state leaders as well as members of our Dearbornne community gathered to celebrate and witness the inauguration of Mayor Hammud. On behalf of all of us here in the Dearborn public schools, I want to congratulate the mayor on his reelection. He is a great partner and always there to support our students. I also want to congratulate city council members and all who were reelected or newly elected. I sincerely thank you
005for your continued support of the Dearborn public schools. Not all communities are as fortunate as we are to have this type of positive and collaborative relationship with our city officials. I know we all value and appreciate the strong partnership with the city. I'm also pleased to mention that uh this past weekend we uh were um told that we our OST grant was approved. This is our partnership with access and our partnership continues to thrive. The five schools that will have the that will have the OST grant in their buildings are Gear Park, Lori, Miller, Salina Elementary, and William Ford. Very happy for that partnership, too. Uh March is reading month seems like it's far away, but I'm sure you're also getting invitations as am I. Um if any of the board members would like to
006partner with me, uh visit a few schools and co-read, please let me know. I'll do all the work. You just show up. And >> I've already got that agreement with >> Oh, okay. Working behind my back. Okay. Um, finally, a potential bond. Uh, we have been working very hard in central office and beyond with partnerships across the district to uh prepare for the proposals that we were tasked with last um study session. just pleased to announce that we are moving forward with all that. We have a lot of momentum and a lot to share in the coming days. Thank you. That's it. Uh next item is rec Sorry. We're good. Next item is recognition and acknowledgement starting with commendations. Good evening district members, board president, fellow trustees, and our superintendent. My name is Noel Tofak
007and I am currently a junior at Forson High School. >> And my name is Rammy Abdullah, also a student at Forson High School as well as the president of my class. And with that being said, let us begin with today's commendations. Commendation to the future medical professionals club at Dearborn High and their faculty sponsor Missaheder Salah Hernandez. The club hosted a schoolwide activity at Salena Elementary where the high school students ran stations in the gym to teach elementary students about health issues and careers. The teens the teens handled all the setup and cleanup. They were helpful, respectful, and a joy to have at Salina. It was a very rewarding experience for the elementary students. >> Commendations to Dalia Drew, 2022 Dearborn High graduate, who is awarded the University of Michigan's Meadow Lion Award. Drew was
008recognized for her outstanding quality of character, intellect, integrity, and academic record. >> Accommodations to the students from the Edel Ford High School DECA Club and their sponsors and adviserss, Mr. Sha Elliot and Mr. Danielle Pletky. At the district competition in December, 11 students qualified to compete at the state level and one took home a blue ribbon. Awardees include Sophia Khalil qualified in both basic office systems and principles of marketing. Zanab Ahmed qualified in the entrepreneurship series. Mahmud Fani qualified in restaurant and food service management series. Adeline Grant qualified in hotel and lodging management series. Jenna Habel and Maash Harmon qualified in entrepreneurship team decision-making. Taho Ho qualified in principles of finance. Caroline Quatz qualified in principles of hospitality and tourism. Verd Moses qualified in personal financial literacy participation. Raquel Rodriguez took a blue ribbon in
009automotive services marketing series. Joan Sharief qualified in principles of business management and administration. And Zarya Townsend qualified in professional selling events. >> Thank you guys for listening and acknowledging our commentations this evening and having us here tonight. Thank you. >> I I I did want to say something. Um, so I've great um presentation. Um, thank you so much. Uh, one of the persons that showed up here, Noel, every time I go to Fortson, she's always involved with all the events. I don't know how she does it. Um, and I got to know her and now she emails the board and is an advocate. So, I I appreciate uh these two young people for what they do. And um I I love when our students gets involved. emailing the board and just being involved in everything
010is appreciated. Thank you. >> If I may add, Ramy, not only class president but a mean volleyball player, too. >> Oh, wow. >> Great job, Ramy. >> Mr. President, I I want to say also, Mia has big shoes to fill because she has her older brother who graduated from Fortson and uh her older sister who recently was graduating from the nursing program at Henry Ford College. So, Great job. >> Okay, next item. >> The next item is the gavl presentation. >> Okay, at this time I would like to present President Mos with a gavl, a gift from all of us here for your time served as president of the board. >> Thank you. right here. >> Thank you. So, and I I did want to say that we never got a chance to thank President
011Mazipa for his, you know, leadership. Um, a lot of people don't know what goes u on the board. For me, he was uh a mentor. He's somebody that I called when I wasn't sure. Uh his leadership was, you know, he led by examples. I really appreciate him even till the last minute. Um he has a lot of knowledge uh more than people could imagine. And uh he's appreciate it. He even had a chance to run again, but he said no. So uh it was his choice. >> We we didn't replace him, but it was his choice. But thank you. Uh thank you Trusty Maz >> and thank you to everyone all of my colleagues uh for making me a better president. Uh every opportunity that I have with all of you is something that I'll
012cherish for the rest of my life. So thank you. >> If I can add um I want to also personally thank you. you've showed me patience and you've guided me and uh your poise and and your delivery of of how you communicate has really helped me also to grow and I just want to personally thank you for all of that. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to board appreciation. January is school b school board appreciation month. Each year at our January meeting, we take a moment to recognize and thank our board trustees for their profound impact they have on our district. As many as you know, as many of you know, our trustees have a unique responsibility. They serve not only the P12 district but also Henry Ford College. This means twice the meetings, twice
013the committees, and a commitment to provide a world to providing a world-class work environment for 3500 district and college staff members while meeting the instructional needs of over 31,000 P12 and college students. Our trustees are true public servants. They are not full-time employees and receive only a small stipen for their immense commitment. They serve because they are dedicated to our community and driven by a sincere desire to give back. As we look ahead into 2026, their leadership is more vital than ever. Beyond their standard duties, they are currently navigating the selection of a new college president and a new superintendent while making critical decisions on infrastructure and instructional needs that will shape Dearbornne for generations. On behalf of our staff, students, and the entire Dearborn public schools community, I want to extend my sincere gratitude
014to our board of education for their untiring work and their commitment to always putting students first. Tonight, we honor our board of education trustees. Trustees Adel Mosep and Mary Petlov both were elected in 2020 to full six-year terms. Trustee Petrov has served 15 years on the board and is in her third term. Trustee Mos is serving his first full term after initially being appointed to fill a vacancy in 2019. Trustees Ali Kazzy and Nasri So both were appointed in September. Because they were appointed to vacancies, they will hold their seats until the next board elections are certified in November 2026. Trustee Pat Damrosio serving through December 2028. He has been a member of the board since December 2020. Trustees Jamal Aljahi and Amarzar both were elected to their first terms in 2024 and are scheduled
015to serve through December 2030. The Dearborn Board of Education and the hundreds like it across the state preserves public education as a pillar of our democracy. They ensure that our schools reflect our community's values, culture, and aspirations. They are citizens whose decisions empower students and build a strong local community. Thank you all for your service. >> Next item is acknowledgement of donations. President Eljam, congratulations. >> Thank you so much >> to all the trustees. Welcome. Superintendent Swore, Miss Harris. Donations for tonight. We'll start off with some donations from the education foundation. A donation of $1,000 has been offered to Salina Intermediate School from the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for owl club gear. A donation of $1,200 has been offered to Whitmore Bulls Elementary School by the Education Foundation to be used for US
016State Books. Donation of $180 has been offered to Salina Elementary by the Education Foundation to be used for the Young Fives program. Donation of $600 has been offered to Miller Elementary School by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for music equipment. And a donation of $1,500 has been offered to Zel Ford High School by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for drama club. And a donation of $110 has been offered to Howard Elementary School by the Dearborn Education Foundation to be used for alternative seating. If anyone was keeping total there, that's $4,590 offered by the Education Foundation to support our schools. Once again, incredible effort by the foundation. A donation of $3618 has been offered to McDonald Elementary School by Creative Needs Project U of M Dearborn students to be used for sensory
017room materials and equipment that will remain in the room for student use and individual student materials that will be sent home with each student. The following local businesses and individuals have made donations to support a positive reinforcement attendance and behavior program at Zel Ford High School. Donating $100 was Asafi Tax and Immigration, Mr. Sam Bedun, Venture Title Agency, Pure Tax and Immigration Services LLC, and Real Estate One coming in at $130. Donating $200 to that same cause at Zel Ford was Rimis restaurant, Sheba Discount Pharmacy, Pro Realators, Garden Foods Distribution Distributors. Donating $250 was Nice Price Dearborn and Access. And donating $500 was uh Alamin Halal Live Poultry, Abdullah Hammud for mayor uh and uh Zad Alami Medical Practice PLLC. and donating gift cards to support that effort was District 12 with $100 in gift
018cards, Yasmine Bakery with $100 in gift cards, uh, Jaalada Suites, $225 in gift cards, and Dearborn Fresh, $500 in gift cards. Once again, if you were keeping score there, the combined total of cash and gift cards donated to Edel Ford uh for this positive uh attendance and behavior program comes u to $4,255. And as always, we thank the individuals who make the donations to our district. It is truly a partnership that keeps our district going and we appreciate and thank all of those businesses and individuals who are considering the Dearborn public schools when they're making those donations. They are deeply appreciated. Thank you all. >> Thank Thank you. >> Next item >> The next item is approval of minutes of the following Dearborn Board of Education meetings. Finance Committee meeting December 8th, 2025, board report
01925-79. Policy Committee meeting December 8th, 2025, board report 25-80. Regular P12 meeting December 8th, 2025, board report 25-81. I need uh a motion to make any necessary corrections and move approval of these minutes. >> So moved. >> Support. Okay. moved by trustee Mazip and um supported by uh trustee Zah. >> So next item >> we have to make a >> um is there any corrections that is needed prior uh as we move the approval of these minutes? >> Then you have to attach a unanimous role if there's no thank you. If there's no uh changes then let's attach a unanimous roll call. Okay. >> Okay. >> Motion's approved. >> The next item is union leadership commentary. This section of the board of education meeting is being added to further enhance the already strong commitment and
020longtime partnership between district administration and all bargaining units. Both instructional and non-instructional union members serve on a wide variety of standing and ad hoc committees that drive the work and decision-making in the Dearborn public schools. In addition, administration meets monthly with the leadership team of all unions as well as a group meeting with union presidents. These meetings are not required, but are an extension of the collaborative partnership that has long existed in the Dearborn public schools. This section will further enhance the commitment to valuing all suggestions, views, and opinions brought forth by all staff members in the district. So, we uh don't have anyone today from the Association of Dearborn School Administrators. Is that right? Okay. We have from the Dearborn Federation of School Employees, Miss Tamika Young. Good evening, President Eljami, board member trustees,
021Miss Shore. Um, I am Shannon. I am the DFSE financial secretary. So tonight we are here first of all to thank you guys for your support in the happy board appreciation month. Next I would also like to say that I'm also here with our new trustee Margaret Sherara with the retirement of Alerini DFS president since 2018. We would like to introduce to you our new president Tama Young. We are excited to work together with Tama and moving forward. A few words to be done. >> I just want to say hello. Just want to introduce myself and looking forward to working with you guys. >> Congratulations. Thank you so much for what you do. >> Okay. Next from DFT. We don't have anybody from DFT speaking tonight. Or Kathy, you are sorry. You're You weren't on
022my list. I'm sorry. You are. Sorry. It says none on my list. We have Kathy Martin. >> Huh? >> Yeah. Yeah. Of course. You're welcome, Kathy. Kathy Martin from the Dearborn Federation of Teachers. >> Good evening. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Happy New Year and uh we appreciate our school board for schoolboard appreciation week or month. Um, I'm here today um because technology is moving at a rate that's really making our heads spin. I mean, we just can't keep up with what's happening. Uh, I know that AI is an issue and will probably continue to be an issue with regards to uh plagiarizing, cheating, whatever. Uh, but what I'm really concerned about, um, is I looked up the schoolboard policies and I was looking in the student code of conduct and I don't see
023any really strong policies regarding the use of technology. And since we've been back from break, um, I don't know how familiar familiar you are with the uh, the meta ray bands, the AI glasses. I didn't think we'd really have to deal with those until I found out they were worn to school on our first day back from break. And the issue is this particular pair uh were prescription glasses. So the teacher couldn't just say, "Oh, you're not allowed to wear them." Well, these glasses record video and audio in addition to if they're attached if they're um can connect it to the internet. They can if you're looking at something, it can give you answers or whatever. That's not my main concern right now. My concern is these glasses being worn, especially at secondary schools, in
024locker rooms, and in gyms. um restrooms actually locker rooms and restrooms. Um I know that they can't record long periods of time, but all you really need is a 10-second clip. And I understand that some of them have like a signal that lets you know that they're recording, but that could be easy to miss if people don't know what they're looking for. So, I did bring this up to Miss Swarore and Miss Ali Bazzy, and they're doing their part in trying to get like legal advice, but I'm here asking you all to at least come up with a policy or something that can keep our kids as safe as possible because it it it's kind of a slippery slope. And if something like that, it only takes one time. It only takes a few seconds.
025So, I didn't see anything. And I hope you guys can get working on something or at least some ideas because honestly we tried to brainstorm and if they're prescription glasses, I'm not sure what we can actually do. I know there was another case where they weren't prescription and they just had them take them off. >> So that's all I got for you today, but add to the pile. >> Yeah, I I do have a question on uh and uh I know um Bob is here. Uh Bob Eddie is here. >> I talked to him too. >> Yeah. So the question that I had is are you able to identify these glasses? I mean is there something that differentiate them from regular glasses or by looking at them you could tell >> if you know what
026you're looking at? Yes. Um because they do have like two cameras here and but they there's they're Ray-B bands. So you have to know what you're looking for. Um, but if I was googling them today looking and they look like regular frames, >> they're designed to look like any other pair. >> Yeah. Also, that um the light can be um disabled because there was just a case in Leavonia of a gentleman who was going around town and in public stores and he was videotaping people and his interactions and then posting them. He had a blog site and um people there was a news article about it because they discovered it accidentally when they found themselves >> Wow. >> on a a Facebook page or whatever he posted it on. So >> you they can also
027just turn the camera off or the light off that lets you know it's recording um somehow. Okay. probably not necessarily easily, but yeah, it's just one more thing that we have to um >> be on the alert for. >> I think finding a way to control any recording devices at all, especially at the high school level, is something it doesn't we, you know, because it's going to keep on growing and changing. So, we have to have that generic kind of no recording devices uh policy as opposed to saying ban Ray-B bands or ban this because we know they're going to find a way around it somehow. >> And I know people can record on their phones, but at least on their phone, you see it. You know, you kind of know what >> Well, and
028I want to I want to ban that, too. >> Yes. But the glasses to me are just a whole they're the next level of just invading people's privacy. >> Correct. Okay, >> thank you for bringing it to our attention. >> Yeah, thank you so much. And it's definitely something that we need to look at and >> Mr. It seemed like you already discussed it and they probably given a lot of thoughts uh with Mr. Addie. >> We have legal already working on an opinion and legal is already working on an opinion on this. The thing with technology, every event is precedent. It's the first time >> and it's it's difficult to keep up. So, I want to thank you for bringing it to our attention as well with the examples that you shared. >> Thanks.
029And that's why I'm here asking for a policy. Legal can give you an opinion, but you all can set the rules. So, that's why I'm here. >> Thank you so much. >> All right. Next item. >> Um, we have nobody here from the Dearborn Schools Operating Engineers Association. So, next item is special reports starting with a CTE update with Dr. John Barl. with that. Did >> I say your name right? Barl, >> you're pretty close. It's viral, like spiral. And and you've brought me to one of the reasons I'm here. Lots of new faces. So, I thought it was time to introduce myself and and let you know a little bit about I do. So, Mr. President, Madam Superintendent, trustees, more importantly to the students and parents and community members, you know, watching this on
030TV or in the video that'll be recorded of this. Uh, my name is Dr. John Byro. I am the CTE, career and technical education supervisor for Dearborn Schools. I manage a grant on paper, but I also serve a leadership role in promoting these career programs. And as I said, as I look around, I see a lot of new faces who maybe are not as familiar with what we do. Um, and I will tell you that in the background, I hear a low but growing murmur and rumble from students who are asking for these kinds of programs and asking for more than show up and do your reading and writing and arithmetic. Once you graduate high school and you walk out as an adult into Dearbornne, what do you have to offer to Dearborn as a
031community? And that's that's my area of of expertise. So I I just prepared this quick PowerPoint. Um it starts out as preparing the students today for the jobs of tomorrow. So Dr. John Artist when we started this um career center at Michael Barry uh we started to build you know a very old-fashioned dirty career center where we were going to do you know jobs for kids who weren't necessarily going to graduate high school. And he said no those are the jobs of yesterday. build it for the jobs of tomorrow. And I think we've done that. Um, another reason I'm here, next month, starting February 1st, is CTE month in the state. It is a celebration of these programs. Um, there is a huge push towards CTE in the in the governor's budget. There was all
032kinds of increased funding for this. There is a new 61V like victory grant uh looking at CTE deserts. Where are we not serving populations? Um, it's something that Lauren in the business office and I are looking at, seeing if there's something we can maybe utilize there. Um, so we'll do that. And I will tell you that when I started to put this together, I rewatched a video by this man, Dr. Kevin J. Fleming, I actually ran into him at our national conference down in Nashville just last month. Talked to him at great length. I will tell you that I I linked it up there. The success in the new economy was an animated video he made about six or eight years ago. It's still relevant today. It's nine minutes long. It is absolutely worth looking
033up on YouTube and watching and I encourage all of you to do it because he really talks to kids from his experience. Um, and some things about the college for all mindset and how that's become kind of dated. Um, and I'll call your attention to what I put up on the board here on the very bottom. That success at high success after high school is defined by your academic knowledge, by what you know, by what the SAT and the MSTEP measure. Absolutely no arguing. Our role as educators is to make you know stuff. But we cannot stop there. There are three other things he calls out that are essential for us to to give to our kids. One is life skills. You know, the high school experience, learning to interact with others, and also things
034like personal finance and healthy relationships and the things our family and consumer science teachers, which we are sadly lacking in like all districts in the state. Um, I bring that up because my daughter is graduating as one of three family consumer science teachers in the state this year. And that's a sad sad commentary. Um, but we need to provide those life skills, employability skills. We know them. We show up on time. We work hard. We don't wait to be told what to do. But students need to learn that and appreciate and get those employability skills. We all know that attendance in the generation from 18 to about 50 right now is a problem, right? We need to work on that. And then I call it technical skills. What is it you can do with that
035knowledge? You've gone to school. You got your A's, passed all your classes, you got your diploma, you're ready to walk, but can you apply it? Can you do something to it? Right? Or are you just studying knowledge for the sake of knowledge? There are some people who are going to be in academia. They are going to go on to higher education and college, but that's not every student, right? And so we cannot focus on just that. Um, so again, sorry to prostilitize here a little bit, but again, Kevin Fleming, if you watch that video, really made an impact on me. And as I talked to him, it really brought it back to me that our job really is to create well-rounded and whole students who are ready to walk out of Dearborn public schools and
036be our peers in the community. And and so that's what I'd like to talk about. We have some excellent uh programs in Dearbornne. Um, we call them career and technical education. They're a little bit different than traditional academic classes in that we have to do more. We have to address those categories I just told you. Um, so we do have a rigorous curriculum. I highlighted a word there. I said they're taught in sequential courses. When I was down in Nashville, I learned about the state of Virginia where to graduate there, they have something very much like our merit curriculum. Four years of math, four years of English, whatever. They have a requirement that students take either two or four for the endorsed certificate. Four sequential electives so that you learn something and then you come
037back the next semester and you apply it and then you master it and go on and apply it in a unique setting and then you do a capstone. So you're actually progressing as opposed to just churning through intro to this and beginning that and taste of this and explore that and you graduate without really having mastered any technical skills. to do that. In all of our career teched programs, we have hands-on skill training in dedicated labs. As you know, we just built a dedicated cyber security lab, the Michael Berry Career Center that's beginning to get used. Um, I walked in it today. We have a brand new construction trades lab that is almost done. Like, I walked in and it looked like a high school lab today. It's got bulletin boards and furniture and some
038hanging wires, but it's almost there. Uh we have career and technical student organizations and our accommodations. We talked about students who can compete against other schools at the state level. We do that integral to our career teched programs. We offer student certifications. So they can be little things like CPR first aid card. A little thing until you have a heart attack and a kid saves your life. But little things or big things. We have kids who get a Michigan mechanics license and who are in high school working as technicians at Village Ford right now. they don't have to go to college. They've got a job they can support a family on right out of high school. Um, and then those student certifications and some agreements with the state lead to college credit for those high
039school CT classes. Something I'm working on with the college, something you may hear. I have some again new ideas I brought from this conference that seem to be resonating with some of the difference makers at the college. Um, to maybe improve that process. Um, we have many of these career teched programs. I thought I'd just run through them quickly for you, but again, more importantly for students and parents listening who maybe aren't aware and if you have any questions, I can answer them. I will tell you that most of them are currently offered at the Michael Berry Career Center. And I'm I'm just going to point out I I do hear people saying, "Hey, I wish we could have all these programs at all the buildings." I do hear that. Um we have some problems
040and one of the reasons we built the career center was to centralize things. And I think I have a list of reasons, but there's two really main reasons. One is equity of access. Which elective programs are available at your high school should not depend on where you live. It should be available to every Dearborn student. I think that's non-negotiable. Um I do not love that you can take automotive at Fordson in a certified program right now and get your ASSE certificates. You can take auto with a sub at Edel Ford because we can't get a qualified teacher and Dearborn High does not have auto tech. To me, that's not fair. Centralizing those programs allows students from all the high schools to take them. Um, and that leads into the next thing, which is equitable use
041of assets. We are really struggling to find career teched teachers. They're tough. All teachers are tough to find right now. Um, but centralizing things does allow us to you know, hire one teacher to cover all three schools or we just built a $250,000 cyber security lab. I can't build that in four more buildings. We we don't have the funding for that. So, it is a an efficient use of resources. And so, I really am trying to work on sort of marketing and changing the mindset of, oh, I'm leaving XYZ school and I have to go to the center. No, the center is there for you if you would like to pursue some of these careers and it's there for a very important reason to be the best quality program for as many pro possible kids
042as we can. So, it's something we're working very very hard on. So, what do we have currently? Uh we do have I mentioned it quickly an automotive technician program. Um it is a three-year program starting in 10th grade. Some students start in 9th grade. uh they can progress through that, get their ASSE student certifications. More importantly, they can take the Michigan mechanics license and they're doing very well. The kids who take it are almost passing at 100% level because our teachers prepare them very well. We do have two students at Fordson, I believe, right now currently, like I said, working at Village Ford. So instead of getting a job at McDonald's or foing clothes at the mall or whatever, they took what they learned in school and they're I mean they got a job with
043benefits and a retirement plan and you know they make good money doing that because they're mechanics just like any other mechanic. You pass the test, you pass the test. And then secondly, construction trades. So we have a we've revamped our construction trades program and this year our 10th graders are the first ones in the new sequence. are taking a class called geometry and construction I've talked to you about before where they're getting their math and their hands-on training in the trades together in a classroom. We have a full section at Dearborn High, a full section running at Fordson. We had a grant last year. Out of that grant in phase one, we have remodeled two rooms at the Michael Berry Career Center. There's an artist conception of it right there. Um, we have created a
044trades lab state-of-the-art to really take these kids next year and bring them to the next step and to move those geometry and construction programs for the reasons I mentioned before, the Michael Berry Center. This is phase one. There was some money left over in that phase one grant. And with Mark Andrews, I've been working very closely, him and I have become best buds. Um, we've been working with some architects to do some proposals for um, expanding that automotive and trades program and including welding over at Michael Berry. We are out of rooms to remodel. So, I just thought I'd share with you there are some architect plans that are very pie in the sky. What if at this point I do not believe the funding for any construction has been done. It would obviously go
045through a board approval process, some community input. You know, there's a process for everything, right? But I thought I'd show you what the architects have come up with. Um, which is pretty exciting, which is just adding a wing onto the Michael Berry Center. If you're familiar with that, it takes up part of the staff parking lot, but we have room, trust me. Um, and they're looking at putting in an automotive lab, a state-of-the-art automotive lab that can handle things like EVs and self-driving cars and hydrogen fuel cells. So, there's some flexibility built into this to be the jobs of tomorrow. um another construction training lab so we can expand that trades program beyond the carpentry program it is now and some multi-use classrooms. It would look something like that. So very much like the existing
046Barry Career Center and that would be that automotive space, a big open space. It will look a lot like the local Ford dealerships because I'm pretty sure the architects walked over there, looked at them, then ran back to their computers and sketched them out. The idea being a smoother transition for kids. So again, this is not anything that is going to be built. This is something that could be built and something we'll probably be working on together with you over the next years. So that being said, go quickly over some other programs and then I know some of you have questions. I can see it. We have culinary arts and hospitality careers taught in our student restaurant. Um two-year program, usually 10th and 11th graders in 12th grade. Some come back for a third year.
047Some start in the college program. As you know, it's the only four-year degree that's at the college right now. Um, very successful. Our kids do an amazing job there. We have the Dearborn Business Academy. We are in the process of sort of remodeling that. It was a three-year program. We've kind of slimmed it down to two because it's been bittering and futtering starting. Um, just making it a little more logical and easy for the kids. The idea really is to prepare kids to leave high school and either go to college to get a business degree or more importantly take over a business, start their own business, pursue their entrepreneurial interests. So, we're really looking at maybe rebranding this as the Dearborn Entrepreneurship Academy. Um, because that's really kind of the direction the kids want to
048go with it. We do have a allied health and medical careers program. Most of you should be familiar with that. It is our largest and most successful program. We are cranking out certified medical assistants, dental assistants, EKG techs, pharmacy technicians. We have kids who go on a clinical rotation, kids who work with our athletic trainers towards degrees in physical therapy, personal training, athletic training. We have an excellent program in in health and medical careers. We do have a criminal justice and law careers program, sort of two-pronged. It is a two-year program. Um, it's designed to take one kid who has an interest in law enforcement and being on the ground and fill all those jobs in the FBI and police and law enforcement and anything else. On the other hand, we have a lot of
049kids who are in there because they want to go to college, get a four-year degree, and pursue something like law school or be a lawyer or be a judge or get involved in advocacy or whatever. Um it's the same content just applied two different ways and we find it really helpful that those kids work together. So it's a it's a great program. We have several of these kids who are now serving as uh police explorers and interns both in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights and the reports back are are excellent on them. We we're preparing very good kids. Education careers used to be called teacher cadet. This is aspiring teachers. Um Lynn Osborne whose retirement you just approved. uh did retire at the end of this semester. Um this class was taken over by me um
050with 30 years of experience. I have to tell you, it's the easiest kids I've ever taught. Um they they're I got a class full of kids who are going to be teachers. Like I'm almost ready to let them go right now. They're phenomenal kids. They're they really know what they want to do. Um we need to grow this program. As you know, we should be growing our own teachers. We have excellent students with so much to offer. Um, I'm really looking forward to this semester and working with these kids and and they're so excited to be out doing what they're doing right now. Uh, we do have a computer programming track. We run it through DCMST who has existing computer programming classes, their AP computer programming. We never seem to get enough kids to sign
051up to run this at Michael Barry. Uh but again for parents or student listening if there are kids who really know that's their career path and it's a very specific narrow path in actual computer coding we can find ways to have them interact in the DCMST classes and we can create that pathway for them without you know having to hire a teacher to teach two kids all day at Michael Berry right we can just fit them into an existing class so that is an option it's kind of a behind the scenes option we have digital design careers Um, again, a two-year program. It's really about using computers to design things. We find it fits two kinds of kids. Kids in the creative field, the artsy kids. We teach them the computer skills they need for
052things like illustration, animation, fashion design, interior design, that kind of stuff. On the other side, we got a lot of technical skills kids who need to know the the elements of design and how design works and how to make things in a in a logical and structured way. So we take technical kids and we teach them art skills. We take art kids, we teach them technical skills. This is where I tell kids who are interested in some kind of engineering, engineering support, drafting, architecture, things like that. Great program. Phenomenal teacher there, Mr. Aquino can do that. And lastly, we have some information technology classes. This is what we teach in that new cyber security lab. It is a three-year program with kind of exits each year. Year one is technician. you can work with a
053single user and a single computer. They get that um computer A+ certification. It's the same certification our entry level technicians here in the district work at. If they come back a second year, they get the network certification. Now you're working with a whole organization, multiple computers, multiple users, that level. And then the third year, those exceptional kids who want to go on, they can learn how to lock down and secure those systems. That would be the cyber security or the analyst level. So, those are all available to all our kids. We will be signing kids up for classes next year. Um, parents always ask. They just pick them the same way they pick other classes with their counselor. We do not have an application. We do not have a fee. We provide transportation. It is
054just another elective class they can take and it is open to every kid. Um, you will get some emails and stuff coming up. We have an open house, some meetings with our community partners, uh, great ways for students to find stuff out. So, with that said, that's my contact information. Um, email is best. That phone number, I'll tell you, just goes to my voicemail because I am I'm busy. I'm never at my desk, so I don't pick the phone up. Um, but if you leave a message, I will call you back. And again, if anybody wants to call me, do we have any questions? I see some nodding heads and twinkling eyes. So, >> anybody with any questions? >> I have I have questions. >> Go ahead, Trusty. >> Yeah. Well, before I ask, I
055I like to personally thank you for the work that you do. Uh, CTE is a growing area of interest from not just the students but even the state as you mentioned. So that is something definitely that we want to invest in as a district and hopefully with the bond proposal that will have some component that will add more CTE resources to our students. Um my question is if a student chooses a track, do they have to take three electives at Michael Berry or how does transportation work if they have only six course? We do have them there a half day, 3 hours. We know they still need to graduate and get that academic knowledge. Almost all of our programs are set up as a 2hour, two-year program. So when they go two hours in that
056and then we offer the social studies or language arts elective appropriate for that grade. So US history to 10th graders, econ and government to 11th graders, language arts to 12th graders, and the counselors and me work literally one-on-one almost with every kid's schedule. we find them a way to make that we will offer them something at Michael Berry to make that fit. Um the next question that comes from that too is hey you said they're two years pro two-year programs. Can they start one year and if they don't like it can they jump out? >> That was my next question. >> Of course they can. But I'm going to go back to what I said about those sequential electives. A lot of the certifications, a lot of the real technical skills training comes in the
057second year, right? After you've explored careers, found out all the stuff there is, found out the requirements, got the basic skills to see if you can do it, the basic knowledge, then you come back in the second year and work on your certifications, the college credits, all that stuff. Um, it's why I really encourage students to think seriously in ninth grade about this and start in 10th grade because if you start in 10th grade and you don't like it and you drop, you can still do a two-year program in 11th 12th. >> If you wait till 11th and you don't like it, you're kind of stuck. >> Right. And and we we have a a blessing and a curse. We have a lot to offer students. Sometimes they they have to make choices, >> right?
058>> Something else. Um I I go ahead. >> I just wanted to thank you um for everything that you do for the students. Um and I know that Mr. Salom reached out to you and you helped us with the infrastructure work and also we all agree that we need to bring this down to the middle school level and I know that you have a vision for that too. Um I just think someone like Dr. your payroll is hard to come by and I know I value what you do for us and our students as I'm sure the entire board does. So, thank you for everything. >> Absolutely. And I will extend now. We're not sure when it will be, but somewhere around the first week of March, we will have our um CTE openhouse at
059the Michael Berry Center where we bring local employers and colleges in, invite parents to tour our facility. This is also the 20th year of the Michael Berry Career Center. So, we will certainly have some kind of celebration of that and hopefully the ribbon cutting of the new facilities as well. So, uh I would encourage any of you who are interested to attend, give you a personal tour or pick up the phone anytime you want to come by. I can talk as you know at length about our building >> and you'll send us invitations for all. >> I will send Joanne invitations. I'm sure she gets them to you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Uh, I did have a question, but I'm going to take you on the offer and I'll email you because
060I really want to visit and and get to the center. >> Very impressive. Um, I'm not sure how many parents or kids are utilizing the center. Um, but a question on the as an example, the information technology career. So when a student stays for three years and they graduate, is there any credits that would um be used so they hypothetical they go for a four-year degree when when they're in college? How does the three-year translate into a four-year degree? It it they want to go there. >> Translates two different ways and I can give you two different examples. The f the first way you mentioned information technology. We use a professional industry certification at the end of the program as the outcome. It's comp TIA, right? So they do A+ in the first year, network
061plus in the second year, security plus in the third year. The college has programs to teach A+, network plus, and security plus. So they will give you that credit for prior learning. Just like if you come in with military experience, you've worked a job, those certificates can be turned directly into transcripted college credits through that process. >> Okay? And if it's the outcome, the medical assisting program, I'm trying to talk to them and say, "Hey, you offer the same certificate our medical assisting kids do. If they want to go to nursing school, can you give them the credit for medical assisting?" There's some legal hurdles to jump there. So, that's one way is what they learn in our class qualifies them for credit. The state requires that we have written agreements between the college and
062the high school. We're pretty good at it because obviously we only have to go through one board instead of two, right? But we have these things. Every one of our programs does have college credit. Some of it's really good. The IT program, they they have some really good agreements to get three or four credits. Some are not as good because the college wants to teach you all the stuff. And so that our kids get two or three credits, but they all can get credit. Um the example I was going to give in that is what I'm teaching that teacher prep program. um our kids who come to me can cover all those standards and get their it's called the YDA Youth Development Associate Certificate. It it's a weird thing. It allows them as juniors to
063be substitute teachers. Obviously, they can't till they're in college. Um but they can get that certificate. Uh what we have is the collegiate academy, as you know, which will allow them to senior year and that super senior 13th year complete an associates degree. one year out of high school, they can have an associates degree. Wayne State will take those associate degree kids and move them to a teaching certificate in two years. So, we have a pathway two years at Michael Barry, two-year associate degree through collegiate academy, two years at Wayne State. When you're three years out of high school, you're graduating with a teaching certificate. Your friends are just starting their senior year at college. So, we can save them a whole year of college. >> All right. Thank you. So, the reason I asked
064the question is when you go to the job market, some companies will ask for a four-year degree and try and see how that translate. I I think the most important things is that um these students leave the program with the skills >> um and that skill they could build on. >> So, and again, thank you for your time. I really do appreciate the work you do. You know, happy schoolboard appreciation month or whatever the honorific is. I do really appreciate the work you do. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Next item. >> The next item is the Michigan Vulnerable or Impaired Person program, the VIP program. Uh and to present on that is Miss Muna Alawi, Mr. Tottz, Captain Jim Rogers, and Corporal Brent King. Did I say that right?
065Mottz mouse. >> Mounts. Thank you. >> Ry got it. Mouse. >> Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for having us. Uh before beginning, I wanted to take a moment to send my deepest and sincerest condolences to Yousef Naim's family as we are all here in honor of him. on to the Naimm and Shimut family. Our thoughts and prayers are with you during this difficult time. I also want to thank the board for not only providing the platform for us to continue to educate and raise awareness for individuals with special needs and the resources available, but also for always joining us in advocating for change as we continue to do so in Yousef's name. I'm just going to give a little bit of background on some of the resources. Um, and then these amazing gentlemen behind
066me will go into more detail. On Dearbornne, we are fortunate enough to have what is called the special needs registry. And just to give some background knowledge on what that is, is if an individual has any form of disability, and it doesn't need to be singled out to autism or a cognitive disability. could be an elderly individual suffering from uh dementia or um Alzheimer's. They can be registered uh with the Dearborn Police uh and they'll have their photo ID and in case of an emergency if the emergency um and uh cars are have to go out to the home. They'll know that there's an individual that might be hiding non-verbal uh scared or might even come out with an aggression. So, they go in with caution. Um, and if, god forbid, an individual with a
067disability went missing, they are al or they find that individual in the community, they're able to identify them a lot quicker and return them to their loved ones because they have their photo ID on file. Now, that is limited to just Dearbornne. So, we are very fortunate to also have the VIP program. And VIP program is for vulnerable or impaired person. And this is great because this is for the entire state of Michigan. So we're no longer limited to just Dearborn. So if a Dearborn family was to travel to up north, you know, go to Melvinale, Allen Park, Dearborn Heights, wherever in the state of Michigan, they would be registered. The VIB program um is a basic fingerprint so that um if god forbid an individual went missing and the emergency uh personnels were to
068find them, they can identify them using their fingerprint. We have observed a neighboring school district conduct registration for their special education students successfully during the school hours and the process was very simple and very quick. It took about 2 to four minutes for each student to be registered. Uh we have also held two successful registration events in the community the last few months and families have shown a strong interest and need for this program especially with recent events. We can't stress it enough how important and crucial it is to get your uh loved one registered. I am honored to be joined today with individuals who have been leading the VIP program both at the county and at the local city level. I'm going to pass the mic over to them so they can further explain
069the benefits and the importance. >> Good evening. Thank you for your opportunity to speak here tonight. Uh my name is Corporal Bryant King. Uh Dearborn police officer about 20 years. Uh I can speak to these wonderful programs as both a police officer, first responder, and as a father of a special needs uh son. Uh I have a special needs son. It's 11 years old. Uh he has a list of ailments. Uh both of these programs would be phenomenal uh for him. The special needs 911 registry that we have in Dearbornne is again for any special needs. Um any from Alzheimer's to diabetes, anything that anybody wants the Dearborn Police Department or the Dearborn Fire Department to know about their special family member before we respond. The uh the address and the phone number are flagged
070as soon as they come through our dispatch center. The information is populated on our dispatch CAD cards and then it's pushed out to the first responders. This helps cut down response time as far as especially for looking for an individual with special needs that may have wandered away from the house. Uh also called alopment. Um that way the officers can look for that individual while they're responding to that scene. Okay. Uh the VIP program is very similar, but it's again a statewide program. Um the Dearbornne Police Department uh has now implemented um an officer that is working at the station to enroll these individuals uh Monday through Friday 8 to 4. Um we only ask that they bring in the uh the registration form which is a two-sided form filled out with basic demographic information
071uh signed by the parent, guardian or caregiver of that individual. And then the f fingerprints and photograph are taken at our station. There's no charge for that. and then they're enrolled into the program. Um, as a follow-up, the only thing that the guardian, parents, or caregiver have to do is mail that form to the send that form to the state uh level. Uh, whether that's email or paper mail. Okay. Um, as kind of being the Dearborn Police autism cop, as sometimes I've been noted, um, I receive phone calls from community members when an individual goes missing. I I feel questions. I I try to direct them on what to do properly. Um I ask everybody to call 911 as soon as possible as soon as someone goes missing. Um time is of the essence and
072the more officers that we can get there, the quicker, the smaller the uh search area is for us. Um I also receive phone calls from fellow officers about how to respond to individuals with autism um and what to do when they come across somebody with autism. uh can't tell you how many times that I've gone I I work in an office now in at the station and I've gone out onto the streets and assisted officers uh in dealing with an individual who's non-verbal or non-communitive. Uh we do have coreboards and 911 ready bags where we uh bring those out to the scene and we do try to attempt to communicate with them. I can tell you today that my son would not be able to use a coreboard. He uses an AAC device. Okay. Okay.
073So, but without his AAC device, there's no way to communicate with him. Uh having the V VIP program, uh we both uh we have mobile fingerprint scanners in some of our police cars. They're about the size of a deck of cards. They plug in right into our computer on in the car and they just take a fingerprint. Uh it's just one fingerprint and any one of those would flag up to the VIP program and we would instantly know what the uh emergency contact information would be for the individual. Uh the other option is the photo um that is submitted with the VIP program. We would take a photograph of that individual, send it to one of six officers that are working around the clock, depending on which officer it is, and then they run it
074through a uh photo identification program, facial recognition program, and then again, we would have that information as far as the emergency contact information. This saves time on our end uh as well as um because the only alternative we have as of right now is to wait until a loved one reaches out to us to see if they we have found their loved one. Um several times we've had to unfortunately bring individuals to the police station, try to make them as comfortable as possible um and then wait for that phone call. um uh what we could do then if if they were enrolled in the VIP program is to contact them and meet them up and return them home safely and sound as soon as possible. Thank you. >> Good evening. Thanks for having us. And
075I just wanted to comment a couple things that Corporal King had said. First of all, we couldn't have programs like this without this wonderful lady right here. She is our community advocate for stuff like this and we want to bring this stuff to the community. So, we can't say enough good things about Miss Mona. Now, when Mr. Mottz approached me about bringing this to Dearbornne, it was a complete 100% yes, yes, yes, all the way. I can't implement it fast enough because I'm a father of a special needs child as well. And I can only imagine the amount of angst that somebody would have on the street and they get lost from their loved ones. They can't get reunited. They can't tell us their name. They can't tell us their address. Any of these features
076that uh most kids can. So to have this opportunity of having the fingerprints um in the database is going to be a gamecher to reunite those those uh uh persons with their loved ones as quickly as possible. Again, to reduce that anxiety in that person. When the anxiety goes up, therefore the violence tendency is going to go up. We don't want that, right? So, we don't want to get into a situation where we're going to be hands-on with that person only because they're so scared. All right. Now, with the program itself, there is one thing that's certain with this program. The fingerprints do not change. Addresses change. Um, you know, your pictures change, people grow up, things like that. But the fingerprints never change. So to have those fingerprints on database for any place in
077the state of Michigan controlled by the state Michigan state police not by us is a complete gamecher and I think that it's great that uh Mr. Mottz wanted to bring it to uh the city of Dearbornne as the first uh city within Wayne County to have this program. So I believe that this is a definitely a good thing for the community. Thank you. Good evening. Uh my name is Chief Tim Mountz with uh Wayne County Public Health Preparedness and Response and it is indeed a pleasure to uh be able to bring this program uh to you and uh we have uh enjoyed a strong partnership with uh the first response agencies uh in Dearbornne and we would like to extend that outreach uh and uh be able to work with the school district uh to
078uh to reach those uh community members who would benefit the most uh from this. And uh as Miss Mona mentioned, uh uh there was a a local school district that uh brought in the state police and was able to do that during uh uh uh during the educational hours. So it didn't require uh an additional uh appointment or anything like that. And uh the kids of course were in a familiar uh environment with uh with familiar people uh which is uh very calming and beneficial. Uh so the uh the equipment that we have it's portable. It's it's a laptop computer with uh a small box that uh we're able to uh do the fingerprint uh electronically uh and uh we're able to uh take that anywhere uh and then we have a uh a secure
079connection to uh the state police database so we can upload uh those uh those enrollments right away. And uh we also take it a step further where we will actually uh uh scan and submit the uh the paperwork for the caregiver, the parent, guardian. Uh so they don't even have to worry about that. So we we try to uh make it a one-stop uh one-stop uh shop for them and they can leave knowing that uh their loved one is protected. uh we are available to answer any questions that you may have uh about the process or the program. Uh but again, we uh we look forward to to partnering and serving with you. >> First and foremost, I want to say thank you to Miss Halawi, uh Chief Moes, Captain Rogers, and Corporal King. um
080they take time out of their day volunteer to make sure this program gets out to the community uh to make sure we're protecting our vulnerable populations. Um and they just do this because it's a good program and it's good for the community and I want to commend you all for doing that. So, thank you very much for that. Um I know you had mentioned you had done this at some other schools. If if you came in and did a program or an event like how many kids could you register, how long those events last? Uh we're flexible with the timing. The the uh community events that we've done uh to this point have been about three hour three. >> Yeah. 3 hours. Uh and uh we did those by uh by appointment. Uh so we
081knew u you know how many uh how many uh slots that we had and we were able to uh process uh process uh people through that way. And this is an opt-in program. So I would assume like information would go out to parents. There would be some sort offormational session. They would have to opt in with the documents and then >> only parents that choose to opt in would be able to on on an event day have their child participate. >> Correct. It is it is uh you know 100% voluntary uh to participate in this. They would opt in. uh they would fill out uh the enrollment form uh which does not uh ask for any u sensitive information. No, we're we're not looking for >> uh not looking for diagnosis and things like that.
082Uh it's it's asking for name, address, and then the caregiver contact information. And it's it's actually nothing that I couldn't find out about any of you doing a simple Google search, but I know your name, so I can do that search. The problem that we have with with the the vulnerable impaired persons is we don't know who they are, so we can't do a search to find out where they may live and who may be caring for them. And this is not just for students with uh with autism or developmental. It's it's for any age uh and for any condition that may render someone non-verbal or just cognitively impaired where they wouldn't be able to uh accurately share name, address, uh caregiver information. It could be a stroke, traumatic brain injury, what have you. Trust
083>> just so um there's clarity for the community members who may be viewing this >> who would actually have access to this information if you were is only the police department. >> That is correct. So that you you know if you find somebody in your neighborhood you would have to contact the police and make sure that the police would be this wouldn't be and the school secretary can >> correct >> can check because people would always be cautious about who who can you know access their confidential information >> certainly and that is that is a very valid concern. This information would only be accessible uh by Michigan law enforcement agencies. Uh as corporal mentioned, it would be uh a police officer who would run the person's fingerprint or identify them through uh through the uh
084uh photograph. >> Okay. Trust president, >> go ahead. >> Uh well, I wanted to commend all of you for the work that you do as well. And when trusty Bazzy brought forward the the idea of the presentation, it was definitely something that I uh in the in the event of the passing of um m Mr. Naim um it is very evident that we have this presentation uh so we can address this very important matter um especially for our uh VIP people. Uh my question is I I know you you gave us a good rundown of the program, but I was wondering if there is a web page on the state website as well as if it's available in Arabic and um other languages. Uh the information is available uh on the state website. We we
085uh haven't gotten our web page uh updated at the at the county health department website yet. Uh so it's michigan GV uh forward slash uh uh VIP. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Or I'm sorry, MSP-VIP. >> Okay. >> Uh and I believe it is just in English. I don't >> But we should we >> can work with the district to get it to >> Yeah. >> Arabic and Spanish. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> So, it's also on the uh city of Dearborn web page, dearborn.org or gov rather, sorry. Um, go down to the fire department page, click on emergency management and it's uh the link is right there so you can register. Also on the back of the pamphlet, I think all of you got it QR code that can be passed out
086to the family members so they can register that way as well. Yeah, the QR code uh that is on the uh that is on the brochure takes you to uh the the appointment setting uh uh page at Wayne County uh so that uh they could enroll uh directly with us or um uh if we were doing a a partnership event uh community enrollment event uh they would not enroll this way. uh they would follow the the specific instructions for the event. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> I do have a question. Um you mentioned fing fingerprints and photo. Uh are you doing both or is it just either or a combin? >> We do both >> for all for everyone. Okay. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Anybody else? >> Um first I just want to
087thank Trusty Dorio. I know back in November he brought this to to our attention um and you know sat through a presentation that they had and some of those programs um and we've been talking about that um since and then I appreciate now getting the details out there to the community and if this is something that I think we can agree we can work with the special populations department to to work on making that available educating parents and getting children registered that are uh that are in our district. I appreciate I appreciate all your hard work and thank you very much. >> We also have an event coming up February 7, the Discover and Play event. I'll send information your way. It's a free event. It's held at Hype Dearborn Heights and it's a three-hour
088event on a Saturday. I'll send you information to see if that's an appropriate venue for you to come and maybe have a table there as well just to kind of head start and kickstart all of this. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. No other questions. We appreciate it. We really think this is a great idea and thank you Trusty Dumbraio for bringing this up. Uh it's something that we need especially, you know, given that we had recent events. It would be nice to know um I know you mentioned even for adults uh somebody with dementia or um I think it's great. So thank you so much. >> Thank you. Appreciate Next item. >> Uh the next item is citizen participation, but we don't have any blue cards. Uh President J. >> Um trustee Roio
089had to exit just so that it's not. >> Oh, okay. >> Okay. >> So, we don't have any blue cards under citizen participation. Uh President Alji. Next, move on to action items. Um, special I'm looking for special consideration of an action item. So, are there any agenda items on this agenda which board members or the interim superintendent wish to discuss and vote on separately? If there are, we'll exclude these from the motion below. So, now I'm looking for a single motion to approve all of the action items on this agenda with the exception of any items that are excluded by the from this motion by board member request. So moved >> support. Okay. >> Moved by trusty mazup, supported by trusty petov. >> I do have a question on number three before we vote. Uh
090just a question. Uh so it says here that this would go into uh this has been approved before and that we're just approving it again because of the rate guidelines and it says that we get 70% or 80% recouped or recoup at least 70 to 80% in the incurred expenses. Uh where do we get the reimbursement from? I didn't see Bob coming up earlier, so I decided to jump in. So, but the federal government, if you look at your actual telephone bills, there's a charge that goes to the federal government for e- rate purchases. >> And as part of that program, schools and libraries get a discount based upon our free and reduced lunch process. So the law requires us to go for the funding to go out for this every year to request the
091bidding process which is very regulated on times and modes and eventually when it's approved we get reimbursement on that funding. So that's why you see this every year for this type of purchase and you want to add that's that sums it up right there. We just got to uh make sure it gets uh submitted in the right deadline like that and a lot of the e-ray things just to make sure that we're compliant with everything following the bidding process and uh windows for uh filing it. >> Okay, thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay, since there's no other questions, um Roll call for the >> roll call. >> Yeah. >> So, just to be clear, trusty, you're not removing it from the motion. >> No, no, no. Okay. So, this is a motion to
092approve all of the uh action items on the agenda. Roll call. Uh Trustee Bezi. >> Yes. >> Trusty. Uh Trusty Pichchkov. >> Uh >> you still have to call. >> Oh, sorry. And say absent. >> Trusty Drosio. >> Absent. Absent. Trusty Pitchkov. Yes. >> Trusty Suba. >> Yes. Trusty Zaher. Yes. Trustee Mos. >> Yes. >> President Aljah. >> Trusty Bzi. >> No, I did. >> No, you did. Okay. >> Okay. Now, let me read them, please. Okay. Okay. So, the summary of the agenda action items we just passed was number one, approval of warrants per board report 25-82. Number two, approval to ratify contract to Stafford Smith Incorporated. Number three, approval of an award to Amcom Incorporated. Number four, approval of an award to Redell. Number five, approval of an award to DBA Jill Choco
093Consulting LLC. Numbers 6 through nine, approval of non-instructional and instructional personnel items for P12. Number 10, approval of a fin approval of financial statement. And number 11, approval of donations. >> Next item. >> The next item is a discussion with policy update policy number 1700 title N with uh superintendent Sor, Mr. Mr. David Matson and Miss Mesa Ali Bezi. >> Good evening trustees. Uh per our protocol and our procedures, we uh had a policy meeting where we discussed this this policy. Um it is now brought here as a discussion item and then uh pending any comments or commentary from the board or changes by the board, we will bring it to you next month for approval. If you have any specific questions, Miss Alibabazi is here to answer those. >> There any associated federal deadlines?
094>> I didn't hear that. >> Any associated federal deadlines for this policy or is it just changed? >> Oh, no deadlines. >> No. >> All right. So, it will come next board meeting for approval. >> Any other questions? All right. Next, next item. >> Next item is board of education business starting with acknowledgement of correspondence. >> So, I could say that I I've responded to the emails that we we received over the break and uh now Trusty Alji will be responding to emails on behalf of the board. >> Thank you for taking care of that. Uh next item, >> next item is board member committee and organization reports. I don't think we have any. It doesn't sound like it. So, next item. Next item is board member or interim superintendent commentary. >> Um any Go
095ahead. >> Well, I just want to uh say thank you. Some people um well, the news got around Dearborn. I a couple two weeks ago I was in uh occupied Palestine and I some people might have heard that uh uh I was arrested by Israeli police after doing a show there. And I don't want to get into any of that. I just want to say thanks to everybody here on the board who reached out to check on me and to superintendent who reached out to check on me and for the board for uh their support and just to the community in general. Um, I wasn't surprised at the uh amazing outpouring of support and concern, but uh it was very uh heartwarming. I I'm never surprised by two things. By how much our community comes
096together whenever um there is a reason to come together. And I'm never surprised by like how quickly word gets out. I mean, it's like unbelievable how quickly everybody learns everything in this town. But uh I not not surprised by that either. So I just wanted to say thank you to all the board members who reached out to me um and everyone in the community who reached out to me. It was a interesting uh experience. I won't get into that much here, but if anyone has any questions about it, I'm happy to answer them private. >> Thank you. >> We're glad you're here. >> I'm sorry. >> We're glad you're back and safe. >> Thank you. >> Uh any other comments, Trusty uh Bazzy? Um again I would like to thank the group that came and
097presented about the VIP program. I think it's it's uh you know important that we talk about that and and we utilize resources that we have available to protect our vulnerable population. Just like to talk a little bit about uh Ysef Naim. You know Ysef was a 30-year-old man with autism. Um he was moved by everybody he met. He found ways to save up and give back to things that he believed in by recycling bottle cans and donating to his mosque and buying things he loved like Hot Wheels. Um he would go on he would help around the house taking care of his mother and grandmother and he did all this with a heart full of purpose. Last Wednesday Yousef left his home unexpectedly and after 30 hours of searching he was found. Unfortunately he had
098passed. I will say as a father, as a father of a son with special needs, this is every parent's worst nightmare. And I appreciate programs like this to reunite to reunite a child or vulnerable person with their family. Over the weekend, I've been having discussions with um Representative Alabas Farhad about a couple bills that are in the Michigan State Legislature, House Bill 4517 and 4518 together known as the Rowan Act. The Rowan Act was named after a six-year-old boy, Rowan my passed. Uh, this act would update the Amber Alert system that would allow our first responders and law enforcement to issue an Amber Alert, not just in the situation of a suspected abduction, but in the situation of when a child is in danger, when a child with special needs is in danger up to
099age 26. And there's another bill, Senate Bill 456, that would expand that notification to people for any person regardless of age that is in danger and that is vulnerable. I urge the legislature to pass these bills and make these law and allow our agencies, our first responders, our police, police agencies to utilize these tools and protect these kids and protect these vulnerable adults. And I thank you for allowing again for allowing me to speak about the VIP program and we remember you na. Thank you. >> Thank you Trusty Maz. >> Yes. Um yeah, condolences to the Naim family and this very unfortunate passing of Yousef and uh we wish them so during this difficult time. Uh, I just wanted to uh mention the bus patrol press conference that was held in our transportation center on
100on Maple and on December 15th and um thank everybody who came through. Uh I believe the press conference went very well with the mayor uh as as well as the police chief and um the program is live. Um I we'll have to check in how many violations were issued. Um was it was said that for the month of January it will be just warnings and then enforcement will start in the in the beginning of February. Uh so I I'd like if possible if we can get also the the police and bus patrol to do some kind of presentation for us as kind of in uhformational for residents to know that our buses right now are equipped with cameras and if you um if you make a violation you will be automatically ticketed without even a
101police officer. uh there there is so much information beyond uh what I just mentioned and that's why I'm hoping for some kind of presentation. Uh the other thing is I since we're all of all of us with the exception now of trusted demio but we we need a new date for the uh study session on superintendent search. know it was slated for this Thursday but unfortunately two trustees cannot make it. So I would hope that I was hoping that all of the seven of us would pick a day today. Mr. Salvi said he's available Saturday the 17th, Saturday the 24th and he's also open the 27th and 28th which is Tuesday. I want to double check. Um, >> Tuesday and Wednesday. >> Tuesday and and Wednesdays. >> So, Tuesday and Wednesday, the 20th and the
10221st. >> 27th and Oh, the >> 27th and 28th or the next two Saturdays. I know Trusty Petushkoff is already out for the 24th. So, that's kind of >> out for now. So, either the 17th, which >> I'm not I'm not >> You're not available. Okay. Then we have the 27th and 28th which is a Wednesday, a Tuesday or a Wednesday. >> Did he give specific time frames? >> It's usually in the evenings. So 5:30 to uh it's 3 hours. >> So he there I know you and I had discussed the 21st or 22nd. >> Yeah. He said he's not available on those days. Yeah. >> I can do 27th or 28. >> I can do both days. >> I can do 27th or 28th. Same here. 27th 28th. So, who is able to make
103the 27th? >> Are you going to be here or >> uh Yeah, I should be here. >> Okay, then we'll have just to get Trusted Ambrosio's availability on one of those dates and we'll schedule. >> Yeah, if you could check. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Um >> uh the last thing that I want to say is obviously this is a new year. Um, so committee assignments will have to be changed by the president. So usually what we do is we send the president uh correspondence email or text telling them know which uh committees that you interested in in serving in your top three. >> Yeah, I recall the last time there was a kind of um a survey to say >> we did have that last time. Yes. and it made it easier >>
104and if we can do the same thing and with the help of uh trustees so we'll pick the committee >> if we could send a survey I think you were looking to you mentioned earlier if we maybe do it here but maybe a survey would work best for everyone >> yeah yeah that's yeah that's for you to make >> so let's do the survey and um then we'll work through it >> okay >> sounds good >> that's all I have uh trustes Go ahead. >> Yeah. I just have one more thing cuz didn't get to do it in the beginning of the meeting, but just one more uh shout out to to uh Trusty Mos for this last year. You know, for th for those people who might not know, four things happened last year
105that happened like once every seven or eight years, which is we had two resignations uh of board members and then we had both of our executive positions open up like anyway crazy and so um you know I just want to say thanks again Adel and that it's not easy to navigate all that those things and I think we were lucky that um we had someone with your temperament, I would have pulled all my hair out. >> So, uh I'm happy that we had someone with your temperament dealing um with all these things as they were happening and communicating with all of us. So, I just wanted to say thank you for your time. >> With pleasure. >> Um any other board comments or none. So, next item. >> Next item is request for information and
106or future agenda items. I already made the request on bus patrol, but that was it. >> Okay. >> I do have a couple things. If nobody has anything, um, one of them, um, let me just look for my notes. Um, it's it's regarding something that I brought up, uh, last meeting, and I'm not going to say the the organization by name. I I don't want to give them any advertisement, but this is um virtual schools that are competing with our district and they are um providing really inferior products to our district. You know, my goal and my objective and all of our objective is for the students to be a part of our schools, not to be a part of another schools. and the district um the department of education really can't do much and
107I just want to make it clear it's not the department of education or our district that are not doing uh much. It's a really at the legislative level and I would love for our district to leverage our lobbyist to work on that. I've talked to Alabas Farhat and he's you know um he's doing a couple things. One of them is extreme and trying to contact Senator Santana and um I sent her a text. I'm still waiting to hear back, but um so I I want to make it clear that our teachers, our staff are doing a great job and the objective is to have our students come to our schools and the only way to do that is by the legislative point of law that put more um accountability on these organization. a kid graduating
108in three months, six months is is not um doesn't make sense. And we don't want our kids going to college at 14 and 15 where they're not mature enough and they don't have the skills to be able to take classes and my fear is they would end up quitting school. So, it's it's it's one of those. So, in the last meeting, I mentioned it, but I just want to clarify. I have the utmost respect for our staff, our district, and and that's why I'm pushing hard because I want the kids to come to our district to our school. Um, the second item that I was going to ask, I know we had a lot of accomplishments over the year. Um, these accomplishments need to be celebrated. um you know for example and I would love
109for them to be shared possibly in the next board meeting for example the sips and I think everybody under the leadership of Miss Federer doing a great job the network assessment that Mr. Addie has done. Um there's other things the help desk system for the buildings. Uh we we talk about a lot of things during the year but we move on and I really wanted to be mentioned in the next board meeting. These are the accomplishment that the board requested that we did um highlight but it's accomplishment. >> So that's my uh two cents. Thank you. All right. Anybody else have any asks? Um if not, um next item. >> Next item is our future meeting dates. Wednesday, January 14th, 2026, city relations committee meeting, 4 p.m. at the Dearborn Administrative Center in the City
110Council Chambers. 4:15. What did I say? Sorry. 4:15 p.m. at the Dearboard Administrative Center in the City Council Chambers. Tuesday, January 20th, 2026, HFC policy meeting, 6 p.m. at the Administrative Services and Conference Center in the Cabinet Conference Room. And Tuesday, January 20th, 2026, HFC board of trustees meeting, 7 p.m. at the Administrative Services and Conference Center in the Rosenall boardroom. >> Um, so adjourn the meeting. >> You can just adjourn the meeting. >> first adjourned. Okay. Good. It means a joy.