001Heat. Heat. [music] postpone 20. >> If you postpone it, then it comes back on the next agenda. >> Postpone 20. >> And good evening everyone. Welcome to the school district of the city of Dearborn for the regular meeting Monday July 28th 2025. I call this meeting to order. [clears throat] >> Roll call, please. >> Trust Jamie >> here. >> Trusty Barry >> here. >> Trusty Dejio. >> Trusty Felishov >> here. >> Vice Chair Watts. >> Uh she she's she had to leave for um sickness. So, >> okay. >> Wish her well. Uh, trustee Zaher here. President Mos >> here. Thank you. Next item, please. >> Next item is the pledge of allegiance to the flag and the executive directors will lead the pledge of allegiance. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States
002of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> Next item, please. >> Next item is the superintendence update. >> Good evening, everyone. Uh, happy summer. I'm going to go down my agenda list. The first, we always start with the retirements. We have a couple this month. Uh, Jennifer Bergus, 28 years of service. Carolyn Bernett, over 10 years of service. if we can thank them and show our appreciation for the work over. [applause] And the next thing I have is um we're going to talk about student achievement with Miss Farage. I know we had a very good meeting with trustee Alami uh a couple weeks ago and we're going to continue with that discussion and we'll let uh Miss Farage
003come up and talk about you know efforts in the district for student achievement for strengths areas we need to improve and how we can uh continue to move forward and raise test scores as well and I know Miss Farage does a great job leading uh leading this process and we thank her. >> Thank you and good evening everyone. Good evening. >> I know I have a short uh presentation. It's not a presentation but a few slides with some notes. Uh but I wanted to to first thank Dr. Malleo for his openness and trust in allowing us to bring forward bold and researchbased strategies to improve proficiency. um his leadership creates the space for meaningful dialogue between district teams and the board. He actually always encourages us to have open communications. I have not witnessed Dr.
004Malo get defensive or uh refused to look further into questions or uh board requests for information or anything of that type. I really wanted to acknowledge that because he has an open mind and always seeking to improve. Uh it is exactly what's needed for our district and if we're serious about getting better results for all students, that's the approach we should all take and I I just wanted to acknowledge that. uh he in fact supported a team of us going to uh one of the best institutes I've ever been throughout my career last week and because of what he heard about the details about this specific institute he right away um approved an additional team uh who is currently attended as we speak today uh and that was a fast move on the side of
005the principal and the team and processing the paperwork and really uh going after the speaker multiple times to agree to let us in because she's booked two year ahead and there's no room for uh attendance. I wanted to bring this uh up. I also wanted to sincerely thank the board for their questions very thoughtful questions about student proficiency and growth and really you are asking the right questions which is really what we need a partnership between the board and the district team uh to improve student achievement. So thank you all for that. Uh we've been having uh more indepth conversations about proficiency which really uh something we like to hear and uh we have some comments about how we are moving forward with this specific work. Thank you for that. Specifically uh trustee Al Jahi
006he's been consistently in contact with the district team. uh also prior to that trustee uh Barry and Trustee Mos and really the entire board. Thank you for that. So how do we strengthen instruction? Uh adding accountability by raising expectations because we know that for us to improve we need to have expectations in place. What is our current reality? We understand we have acknowled to acknowledge where we are so we can move forward. We need to improve the number of students meeting grade level expectations or performing at grade level when we are looking at test results. Uh growth is happening u at an excellent level in the district especially when we compare with neighboring districts and uh the average growth nationwide. Uh however uh overall grade level proficiency gains need to improve. We all know that
007our district team is not in denial and we appreciate the board for moving pushing on this as well. There is ample evidence of high impact teaching and learning that can be scaled and amplified across the district. If you look across the classrooms, you will see that we have these great I don't want to call them pockets, but there's high evidence of what we need to see is what's happening. We need to amplify this and um making sure that it's implemented in a systemic way because when you have a system in place, you can pinpoint where failure is happening and correct it. uh what is the difference between growth and proficiency? As we all know that the national trend a growth is prioritized uh it's prioritized over proficiency especially when you look at accountability from ASSA
008which is federal every student succeeds act and the index system in Michigan the accountability system in Michigan they favor or not favor really but they prioritize growth over proficiency. Growth is weighted higher than proficiency. We all know that uh proficiency and growth targets in our proficiency and growth targets in Dearborn are in line with the index system. In fact, we do not have any of our schools identified for uh targeted support and intervention by the state. Something that we we always seek to grow. But how much growth is adequate growth? We must accelerate both growth and proficiency to achieve high levels of achievement. That's uh what we believe we should be doing. Um impact on achievement this uh institute that we just attended and the convers the reason we attended the institute is because this
009is exactly what we're focusing on. Uh what what is making a difference for students to to achieve high levels of proficiency. It was presented by Dr. Anita Archer. Uh and according to her, the two main factors that most significantly impact student achievement and that educators can control because we always say we're going to act based on what we control, what's within our boundaries to control. Curriculum, it's what we teach and instruction is how we teach it, right? Uh many times we hear uh blames uh we hear and this is in the field uh and we we make sure that when we talk about improving student achievement we avoid using uh what are what is impeding achievement. So we understand that these are the two factors or two major elements that we will be focusing on.
010I added systems here because we understand if you look at schools that are performing u high or most of the students are proficient you're going to find that they function in uh systemic ways. Systems thinking is where uh the principal, the staff, uh the families are all functioning within specific given systems that do not leave room for failure. Uh systems are essential for improving student outcomes. Uh they must be implemented uh with consistency meaning that everybody is engaged in the system. Uh I didn't use the word involved. engaged meaning that they're fully engaged. Uh fidelity uh and sustainability in instructional practices. Systems must monitor and adjust. We have to monitor what we expect. So again, if we were to implement systems that results in higher achievement, we must all be engaged in the system. We
011must all be on board. I'm talking within a given school within the district. Uh so our priorities that we have started the discussion on which is something that as we walk through as we analyze student data we see that improving tier one instruction which is the core uh we refer to the core as tier one is the foundation of long-term success. uh in tier one uh we have to look at a student engagement. How many students are answering questions? How many students are paying attention? How do we know that every student in the room gained uh the skills we intended for them to gain at the end of the lesson? This is what we uh we believe about student engagement. So this is one of the elements of instruction that we really need to focus
012on and improve. Ensure consistency in instructional design rooted in evidence-based best practices. We cannot just select a practice because it looks good or sound good. Uh the institute I just mentioned supports everything everything is everything they mentioned is grounded in both uh research and evidence. Um also we have uh instructional staff that go through different programs in the universities and in that specific institute we saw a couple universities sitting with us in the professional learning opportunity to learn how to prepare teachers. teachers receive different levels of preparation and we need to make sure that we close the uh skill gap that we see when teachers enter the district. Even with seasoned teachers who've been with us, we need to re-examine the practices. So to target professional learning and make sure it's aligned to instructional best
013practices, making sure we are delivering explicit best practices for students or instruction and strengthen instructional leadership to fully fully implement a robust multi-tered system of support. Up until today, we still hear educators referring to the multi-ter system of support is the last level of support where students need intervention. It's truly starting from the time the student enters the classrooms in the morning all the way to the end of the day. It is the core instruction. It's the next level of support which we call double dose. You've heard it before. And it's the intervention, the triple dose that the students need if do they do not succeed from the first and second opportunity. and uh protect and prioritize tier one instructional time to focus on essential grade level content. Uh one of the things we we
014push and I know that Mr. Asai and Dr. Malo presented at the Michigan Department of AD about co-eing and also um inclusion for students. Uh we try to push in so that we do not pull students out of that tier one instruction. We do not pull students out of for intervention and allow for tier one to be missed by these students. So, this is something we need to continue to work on and improve. All of what I've listed, I am not claiming that these are great. We're doing them in the district. Um, what I'm saying is these need to be strengthened and we will focus on that as we move forward. Uh, teach at instructional level plus grade level support. So students who need it do not only get the extra support, they need to
015first get the instructional level in the classroom, then we give them the double dose of support. I know this sounds uh uh cliche, but a lot of times uh we tell the principles and teachers, you have the right to say, I want the students to receive the first level and then you can pull the students out. We do not want to pull out of tier one. Uh again regarding tier one uh to improve instruction we have to raise the support not lower the expectations. If the material is very difficult for the student we're not going to go and seek easier material or easier text. We need to break down the text and make sure that we are increasing the sca. We call it scaffolding meaning break down the text, break down the strategies and and
016then give the students support when they finish that specific lesson. Uh offer strategic double dose opportunities. Uh and that if that doesn't happen in system, there's going to be there's going to be students who will miss these opportunities. So both for intervention and acceleration. A lot of people ask how about acceleration. We made it very clear that acceleration will not solve all the issues that we have with in terms of achievement. Acceleration is only one dose of instruction and the the primary instruction that will uh mostly impact student achievement is tier one instruction. What's happening for the five hours a day that the students are receiving instruction from five teachers and then the double dose is acceleration and the triple dose is when the specialists will uh support students with very specific foundational skills. Leverage
017time and resources at the district and buildings. And I say at the district because we need to support building principles and teachers in terms of aligning our professional learning with explicit instruction that we're talking about. So if the entire school district community and each school community focuses on explicit instruction by supporting teachers and students, then we are on the road to creating systems that will increase student achievement. also monitor and support professional learning communities which is a gift that we have in the district that teachers meet every Tuesday. These also have to be implemented in a systemic way so we make sure that we are making the most out of it. How are the teachers using that time? Are they talking about their lessons? Are they talking about which students need the support? And when
018we say that, are we truly putting them in a in support in a systemic way? So these are the things that we feel we want to tighten and we want to provide pro provide professional development on um beliefs. These are also we learned uh not new but also great reminders. Uh learning is not a spectator sport. Uh one of the things we're going to push is that we're going to engage every student every moment when the teacher asks a question. How many students are answering? So the belief is every student should be given the opportunity to answer and there are strategies for that. We have learned those strategies. Everyone does everything. Uh no up this is regarding students and also adults. Uh every student is expected to answer and there are specific skills as I
019mentioned and strategies that teachers can use to give students these opportunities. uh if you expect it, pre-correct it. Meaning that uh we need to always anticipate what errors are going to take place and teach ahead of time. Uh teach with passion. We talked about that. How do you engage students and uh this is teaching with passion is one of the highest effect size based on Harry's research. The teacher believing in students and believes students can learn and we say all means all meaning all students can learn. Students will feel it. They will feel that we want them to learn and this one students believing in themselves and teachers believing in students has the highest effect size on student achievement. Uh perfected practice makes permanent. We always hear the um that the statement um practice makes
020perfect. She put it in a different way. We have to be very intentional about the practice, perfect it with the students and then they will become automatic uh what they need to learn. So success comes from consistent modeling and correction. She really has a very explicit lesson design that um Adam Lameis and I spoke at many times and we hopefully will uh move on it and make it actionable this year. Um we have a district school improvement committee. Uh we've always analyzed data. We always identify root causes for the gaps. uh we know what the gaps are in terms of practice and also in terms of student achievement what standards they're related to but we need to move beyond that we need to move into action uh and uh implementation with fidelity is what what
021we call it uh plan professional learning as I mentioned before that's grounded in research learning uh science cognition is largely missing from teacher preparation tracks We we have teachers who have completed u university tracks that's one year or 6 months or 8 months and there are many of those that are uh more um common these days. We have tracks that are four years but they do not go over explicit instruction and teach teachers how to teach. So we need to pay attention to that. Ensure equity and instructional delivery. And when I say equity, meaning every student should have the opportunity to be engaged. That's a perfect example of equity. It's not truly like the the jargon equity what we hear about all the time. Equity in terms of instructional delivery and equity in terms of
022the opportunity to respond. Uh we want to make sure that also the demographics are not an excuse. Um they should be considered in instructional design in terms of planning uh instructing students explicitly but not as an explanation or excuse for low performance. Uh schools are expected to set and pursue rigorous targets based on their own baseline data. The state does put targets for us in place up to year 3031. uh they may not be rigorous enough, but we can always work on an internal accountability that's attainable uh coupled with uh targeted professional development and also with systemic thinking and creating systems that are uh that do not leave much room for failure. I want to thank you again for uh being our partners in this conversation and growth is not enough. We know that proficiency
023is essential for our students to be able to read and perform uh at grade level both in literacy and numeracy in math and ELA specifically. And I really want to invite the board if you would like to be part of the school improvement committee you're welcome to do that. We will schedule them at times when you are present and any community member who would like to be on that committee we will invite them as well. >> Great. Thank you. Questions. >> First uh trust J. [clears throat] >> First of all, I want to thank uh the leadership team, Glenn and his team and especially Miss Fes. um the collaboration and um the openness has by far exceeded my expectations. So, I thank you for your willingness to listen. Um when I first came into the
024board, you know, I was under the impression that nobody's going to listen and I'm so glad I'm wrong. In saying that, proficiencies is is really critical. Um there's a lot of school there's some schools at the 20 percentile of proficiencies which 70% of the kids are not proficient in ELLL or math and we need to put traction into the you know help and improve uh the proficiencies in order to do that you know in talking to Miss Fage um we really have to have some kind of traction which is the committee, the student achievement committee um leveraging board members here to join in that committee. But at the same time we would there would be goals for each school for the district as a whole but for for each individual schools goals and expectations. We
025we cannot continue to say and I'm not saying we're we're saying this but we cannot say do the best you can. Uh as leaders at our schools there has to be goals and expectation. There has to be monitoring throughout the year and there has to be accountability at the at the end of the day. It's accountability. Uh we have great principles but if we have some that are you know need help during the process then we help them. We're not going to throw them um to sink or swim, but at the same time, effort has to be made to bring our kids up to speed. Uh we cannot continue um to have kids going into college uh you know, having a hard time reading and writing. It really starts early. So, accountability at the school
026level is critical. And the this committee even though it existed but I think it's rep being repurposed will allow us to like I said earlier give traction and give visibility to proficiencies and give it the focus that's needed at the school level. You know we have good principles good leaders but they need to know what they what's expected from them. uh they need to know when they struggle to come to you know the executive team to come to the board you know preferably they they would you know they work well with the executive team and to seek the help needed or the resource needed um we we tend to have a lot of uh say EL students discipline um co were the cause of proficiencies we're past co and you know discipline really strong starts
027with strong leadership at the school level. I know there's some discipline issue, but it can't be the reason. Um, EL students, we have 9,000 EL students at the district, but in my opinion, 50% of them are not ELL students because my kids who were born here are ELL students. So, my point is we really need to set the goals and um work toward those goals. they're going to be realistic goals and I I do appreciate like I said the openness that the district is is given and is listening and working with Miss Father's been amazing. She's very talented individual as well as Lamese. So I I I hope we give this the traction and the focus that it needs. We cannot afford to have kids going into uh high school and very limited math and
028language art. And what that does when they get there, they end up leaving school because they struggle so much they feel like they're not competent enough to continue >> and because that infrastructure, not infrastructure, that foundation was not there for them. So they're probably smart kids, but because they don't have the foundation, obviously it's going to take away from their confidence. So, I ask the district and my colleagues to be supportive of this and join this uh committee if they could to help with the proficiency that's needed that's low in in our district, but also not to follow the state expectation, set our own expectation. The state expectation is 56% is proficient. You know, it it's scary if you go to another country and you say you need to be 56%. To be proficient, they
029would laugh at us. So, our expectation, we want to be our goal is we want to be the best. So, I ask for us to work together and make this happen. >> Thank you, >> Toshi. I've been on this board a long time and we've experimented with a whole heck of a lot of um devices to try to improve our students outcomes. And I mean, we've gone from every kind of curriculum style. We've um we've got the school improvement plan. We've got the e every season there seems to be a new flavor of the month, so to speak. that promises to see improvement and yet we still continue to struggle and it's not just our district, it's nationwide. >> Right. >> So, [clears throat] I'm going to put you on the spot. >> Yes. >>
030Do you see any specific greatest impediment to our being successful? We keep on trying. We keep on throwing different ways of um improving our instructional um styles and and our leadership in in the buildings and and yet we haven't found that magic bullet. Can we can we identify a couple of things that we should really be focusing on first before we start doing all this other >> I I truly believe that I I also have seen examples of that where if you focus on curriculum and instruction in a systemic way where the whole school community is engaged and for example if we give teachers professional learning opportunities we call it professional development they bring their textbook with them. You are removing a load off the teacher's plates and you're allowing them to look at their
031textbook while they learn the new content and then they go to the classroom feeling confident that they can teach the material, deliver instruction. That's why we say uh curriculum and instruction. uh delivering instruction. Every teacher, if you walk into 10 different classrooms, you will see 10 different lessons. If they collaborate on explicit lessons, then there's a higher chance or or guaranteed chance that the lesson will result in uh impactful learning for students. Um I want to also quote Anita Archer paraphrase again from last week. She says that schools students attend school six hours a day uh based on research and she really supported every statement she said in research studies that are highly um uh with with high confident uh confidence. uh she says that out of the six hours students attend four hours because
032of transition time and other times and out of the four hours 2 hours only are students are receiving academic instruction. This is United States and Canada and this is based on research. So what does that tell you about uh learning outcomes? She says what you teach is what they learn and what they learn is what you teach. So teaching and delivering instruction where the rubber meets the road in the classroom will make the highest impact. And I have been in schools that where I've seen systems that focus on instruction and push against interrupted instruction. uh we schedule many many things in our schools that are not necessarily academic during instructional time. That by itself is one move we can make where we can say no interruption to instructional time regardless of what the activity is
033or regardless of what we need to do. Protect instructional time from non-instructional activities. That's a one factor that will improve student achievement. give every student the opportunity to respond to what you're asking. That's another move that we can easily move to and we can provide the professional learning for that. The only one thing I say, it's not fair to expect uh these practices without giving teachers the opportunity to practice them uh principles to walk through and make sure that they're happening in classrooms. And if they're not, how do we support teachers to make sure that's how they're delivering instruction? Uh, I have experienced it. I've seen it. And I've read enough research to support these two factors. >> Trusty Zahar. >> Yeah. Uh, first, thank you for everything that you're doing. Thanks, Jama. And for
034everybody, um, some of you are sitting out there and I know we have a lot of people here tonight and maybe I I don't know how many people are watching. You might think like why are we spending 40 minutes talking about this thing in the beginning of a meeting? This is like the most important thing that we do as uh as school board and educators. Um and uh you know at the end of the day if we're not preparing our kids to read at a level that's going to make them functional society nothing else really matters. Um so can you explain for we use a lot of these catch words you know because we all have read the papers and a lot of so proficiency and growth proficiency is like if tell me if I'm
035saying it right proficiency is like the goal where we want them to be a status let's say a and growth is you know you can be way down here and grow a little bit and that's great but you might still be far away from proficiency right >> yes >> and and we're and we might say, hey, our growth is great, but we're not we're not reaching those levels of proficiency that one. Is is that the challenge that we're facing? >> Uh that's that's one of the challenges that we're facing. uh if we do not deliver explicit instruction that results in impactful learning then that's the challenge we face because if we don't grow enough to be proficient within 3 years or four years we're not making enough growth. If we instruct students at materials or
036lessons below the grade level they're in they're going to continue to drag below grade level. If we instruct them at grade level and then give them additional support outside of that core instruction, then you can catch up. It's called catchup growth. So it's called there's annual growth what every student makes on a yearly basis which measures to one year worth of growth. And catchup growth is annual plus catch up to grade level. So the increments of catch up will get them to grade level eventually within very few years. It should be three years or four years if you are given explicit instruction that's impactful. >> So what I want >> does that make sense? Yeah. And proficiency is functioning and passing the state test that's at grade level. >> Yeah. I mean what I want
037so what what I want to encourage all community members and parents to do is when you ask questions about this and somebody might say hey you know we're growing be like okay fine but are we proficient? Are we are we at the levels we need to be? And um that's the ch and like like trusty puzzles said it's this is not a specifically a dearborn problem. Um but >> it's a national uh >> yes national it's generational but it's a uniquely American problem and uh it's not it's not happening as much in other parts of the world. So I mean we need to make sure that we really grab this by the horns. But again thank you for everything you >> and you will see our principles also showing parents too how to read the
038reports and what grade level proficiency is and what students need to do to get there. And we know that students who are read to students who read every night uh the research shows that these students more of them are at a grade level than those who do not participate in these activities at home. So we encourage still use the library, still read at home and still get engaged in um text and uh print materials. >> Trusty Barry. >> Yes, thank you. Yes. Uh this was a great report. uh uh uh trustee Petraoff and Trusty Zar uh for the long for a long time sitting this seat and I keep hearing this is not just a dear one problem it's a statewide problem or national problem to me we're responsible for dearborn% >> that's where we're
039at trusty uh you no longer can claim that new you're new to the board it's almost a year now so but the question was what can get in the way of this work you answered that question to me what I heard heard listening to you was accountability, but let's take a step further. True accountability. I heard you say goals building by building, measurable goals and hold those administrators respond. We we have great administrators and I agree with you. But if you're not, you know, the best way you can do this is can't say we've tried different things that didn't work. Raise expectations. And once you do that and you hold people's feet to the fire, especially at the building level, guess what? Then it flows to the to the teachers, to the coaches in the
040buildings, and all of a sudden, hey, there's some great things going on in Dearborn. What's going on over there in Dearbornne? And you know, for the longest time, Dr. MO, you agree with me? Uh, or not. Uh, uh, I mean, every time there's a problem statewide, people look to Dearborn to see what are they doing. You know, I I would love to see our district become like the, you know, the goto, you know, what did they do in Dearborn? And with the work that the team's doing, I'm on board. I'm going to take up your challenge. I am going to serve on that. Get involved with that committee, school improvement committee, and support this work. So, >> appreciate it. >> And welcome to my world. That's all I can say. Thank you. >> Um, Mr.
041Farage, I have a question and Dr. from molecular common you're saying that schools that have functioning systems are the ones who are doing well on proficiency. So how do you track each individual school how well they're doing or they're sticking to their system or implementing those systems? Qualitatively classroom walkthroughs will give you indicators that more students are engaged than not >> and also uh growth and proficiency uh scores using multiple measures uh MSTEP and I already have multiple metrics growth and also stretch growth. Stretch growth meaning ambitious growth more than typical right. uh for evaluation purposes of educators we use typical growth though. So uh I wanted to make sure that we do not use many terms that get confusing but we can s and we do we set ambitious goals with uh every building
042in the district that's part of the law. The school improvement plans for each district are on file and building principles go over that with their leadership team. Uh but the state targets again are not are lacks and they're not as ambitious. Uh internal uh collaborative moves like this will push our district forward and we appreciate the collaboration. Another thing is we have been doing now PLC's for about two years or since we switched the whole um early release time for educators to get together and do these professional learning communities. Has that had a direct impact on student proficiency? >> There has been uh improvement in student proficiency. uh of course not as uh high as we want to. We did a survey in May >> in terms of the professional learning communities implementation specifically because
043we wanted to see the teachers and principal view on how it's been implemented. Uh it did uh come out positive. It came back positive. The teachers also asked for some clarifications in terms of how they use the time and they mentioned that there are some differences between building and building and they wanted also the protocol to be a little bit more simple simplified with jargonfree simple language and we did and we sent it back to principles who will be sharing that with teachers in August and again as part of this uh work we will make sure that it's receiving systemic IC implementation in the buildings. We'll be working with principles on that. >> I also heard about barriers and and you said, you know, no interruption to instruction time, but what are other barriers that
044we're seeing, especially in the last few years, you know, cell phone probably usage or among students? Is is that a major problem that you see that this board can enact and kind of >> Yeah. >> put these things away? any distractor to the educational process is a barrier. Uh in the institute last week she talked about uh discipline and behaviors and how you seamlessly embed those with your expectation as a teacher to avo to eliminate them. really if you expect it, fix it. That's what she called it. And she talked about uh cell phones. Absolutely. Like even us the 5 days every day until 4:30, we were not allowed to use the cell phone or even put it on the table face down and we were not allowed to use the computers because research found
045that these are barriers to learning and that there were great gains as a result of that. So cell phones definitely in secondary we need to tighten that and also distractions in classrooms even in early elementary. Uh this specific training will show teachers how to deliver instruction with high expectations and everybody must uh answer and everybody must be engaged. So all of these are barriers to uh instruction and learning. Sounds good, Dr. Malik. >> Yeah, I want to again thank [clears throat] you, Miss Farage, and thanks you for the board for the great questions and I do agree uh Trusty Barry and others that you know, Dearborn is and we pride ourselves on leading and being a model and I know that's what you're doing and we got a lot of work to do. This is
046on every cabinet agenda for discussion. It's linked in. We when we did our retreat for both the general administrators and the cabinet, these are big discussion items we're having. Uh it will be on all of my cabinet agendas. It'll also be linked a few things that we were successful. I know a tier 2 instruction and board members are supportive of getting the acceleration model implemented this year. So that's a great start as we look to move into the high school because we know we're doing things at the elementary level. I would also say the reinstitution of our school improvement process with the accountability that comes with that with the unannounced visits and things that we were able to undertake with looking at data meetings and tweaking those is another important uh area that will continue
047to move forward and help us with that accountability. So, we welcome it. We know we're up for it despite challenges. We know we can face it and we can do it for the benefit of our students. So, thank you to everyone for your support. >> Thank you. And if if the school improvement committee schedule can be shared with the entire board and then the board members can sign up whenever they're available. >> Sure. Thank you. >> Trust. >> Thanks, Dr. Mleco. Question just so we're all because you know these conversations happen in the community all the time. you know, when we were walking around talking about this is our core. >> You agree this is like one of our core I mean this is our core this like why we're here, right? >> Yes. >>
048Um just so that when we have conversations out when we're not reaching proficiency levels and I'm this is more rhetorical questions but I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. When we're not reaching proficiency levels, is it ever the kids's fault? >> It ever um Oh, it's our fault. It's our job to make sure that they're fault. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's our job. Now, we need to partner with parents, but it's our partner, right? >> We need to take responsibly. This is this is just so it's clear to everybody. >> This is our core job and um this is why we've now spent >> an hour talking which it's okay. We should five hours talking about this at every meeting. >> Well, I I would say though there are responsibilities on
049the part of the parents and students on route to proficient, but it is our responsibility. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Parish. Okay, I'll move along. Um, we just completed our 4,000 plus summer school program. Again, it was very successful. I was able to make visits there. Very positive. I know Miss Alibazzy, the entire staff, they did a great job. We were seeing a lot of positive. We don't think we have one of the largest again in the state. And that's another area where we give additional instruction for students. But they were excited because it also had enrichment, it had the arts, it had all sorts of things going to make it not only academic, but fun for our students. So appreciate everyone involved in that uh program.
050I also just want to mention that as far as staffing goes, I know there was a question last month, we are in good shape. You know, we're not anticipating any layoffs. Um I know that question came up, but we look really good. The HR did a nice job. Any of the reductions we had were through attrition. And I was in Washington a few weeks ago and I know the board's aware that we were advocating ASA, the National Superintendent Association. We went and we were a big lobbyist to try to get some of the title dollars released from the federal government. I will say that we had a delegate I part of the uh Michigan delegation and I serve on the governing board. Uh we also had delegations from every state. We spent nine hours in
051Capitol Hill uh meeting with legislative offices. Um and we were a success just this past Friday. And again, it wasn't just us, but I know ASA had a big push. The money was released. It's approximately $5 million just for Dear One schools. The entire education budget for the nation is 6 billion. So that money that was already appropriated for uh through Congress uh was released. We had I know our legislators here, local uh uh Congresswoman Talib's office, uh Congresswoman Dingle and other uh Democrats that signed on to the letter, but we also had uh support from Republicans in the Senate. there were 10 senators that that signed on to say no, this money needs to go to students and so we appreciate their support as well as both sides of the aisle worked together to
052get that funding released. So it was a successful effort. Um I do have one other announcement on the budget today. We know we have on there a resolution so we're uncertain um although it's you know positive news on the federal side so we'll take the wins for the sake of our students. Uh but we still don't have a state budget and there's a resolution for the board today. We're asking, you know, the state legislators and of course our locals are very supportive. I've talked to them um that represent us. Um but we're asking um for the state to pass a budget and we're asking that they not divert about a billion dollars out of the school aid fund for other things including roads or other areas. So um that is on the agenda for today.
053Um I'd also want to mention that a lot of people are here for the dedication um for um Mr. Bun and again uh you know the the legacy that he had in in the district. Uh we did have a meeting at building and site to look through logistics. There is not going to be any vote today. I think uh communications went out so there won't be any official vote but we're going through that process and the building and site committee would uh report out but I wanted to mention that cuz I know people are here right now might expect that there was going to be a vote today but that was just a procedural plan thing it it doesn't mean anything either way other than there's some things we need to work through with that
054as we look at those communications uh I also want to mention uh the potential bond um that uh we we continue to discuss we have Byron and Fisk that's starting with their community outreach and more to come as we come back in September where more people are not on uh vacation but there have been some focus groups occurring and our team continues to work and we did discuss that in [snorts] building and site as well. So thank you and I am glad that we spent a long time on instruction that's what we need to do um and tried to go through these other items that are also very very important to us. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions for the superintendent? >> Thank you Dr. Malto. The next item please. >> Next item is
055recognition and acknowledgements and acknowledgement of donations. >> Donations. >> All right. Good evening board members, superintendent, Miss Harris, those watching [snorts] ran into somebody in Northville who said they watched our board meetings. So I don't know why someone he said he's a former Dearborn person and he lives in Northville now and he still watches our board meeting. So >> So greetings to all those who are watching the dear board of education meeting. the following donations. Uh really, you know, we are very fortunate in our district that uh we have entities and folks that donate to all of our schools. However, tonight all of our donations are going to be headed toward uh Salina, but uh it really reflects the efforts of what has been going on over there at Salena with the green schools project
056and the uh that has been going on now for the last couple of years. and it really reflects how when folks come together and really work at a certain project, uh, the outcomes can be really beneficial. So, so for tonight's donations, we're going to start with a donation of 100 custard cups, spoons, and napkins have been offered to Salina Elementary School by the Custard Company to be used for students during the ribbon cutting and opening of the kindergarten natural playgate. And those were very good, by the way. I was there. A donation of $17,850 has been offered to Salina Elementary School by Michigan Recreational Construction Incorporated to be used for design services for green schoolyards and natural play elements for the kindergarten natural playscape. A donation of 30 trees has been offered to Salina Elementary
057School by Relief Michigan to be used to provide shade and a tree canopy to shield students from heat and emission. A donation of 10 trees has been offered to Saline Elementary School by the city of Dearborn through the DTE Foundation to be used to provide shade and a tree canopy to shield students from heat and emissions. A donation of 11 trees has been offered to Salena Elementary and Salena Intermediate Schools by Keep It Moving Inc. to be used to provide, you guessed it, heat shelter and expand green infrastructure on school grounds. A donation of a crew of volunteers and the use of a water truck has been offered to Salina Intermediate School by Edward C. Levy Company to be used to dig holes and help plant trees. The water truck will be used to water
058the trees through October of 2025. A donation of $8,000 has been offered to Salena Elementary School by Michigan Recreational Incorporated to be used to purchase play elements for the kindergarten natural playscape. A donation and of design services has been offered to Salina Elementary School by Michigan Recreational Incorporated to be used for concept drawings for the green schoolyards. And a donation of $800 has been offered to Salina Intermediate School by uh Mr. Khaled Abdullah and Oed Marwa to be used for PBIS student incentives and awards. Thank you all for your donations. It is a partnership that makes this district great and we appreciate all of those kind donations to our school district. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Money. [applause] Thank you to all of our donors and uh congratulations to S. Next item, please. >> Next
059item is approval of minutes. This is going to be the approval of minutes of the following. Dearborn Board of Education meeting policy committee meeting June 23rd, 2025, board report 25-01. Executive session close exempt material fura June 23rd, 2025, board report 25-02. And the regular P12 meeting, June 23rd, 2025, board report 25-03. I'm looking for somebody to make a motion to make any necessary corrections and move the approval of these minutes. >> So moved. support. >> Um motion moved by Trusty Barry, supported by Trusty Pepleskov. Any corrections to the minutes of the three meetings? I see uh no amendments. May I attach unanimous role to this motion for approval? >> Thank you. This motion has carried. Next item, please. Uh, Chair Mos, since there's none of these. >> Yeah, you don't have to read that. >>
060Read all this. But we don't have any union commentary as we have them on the agenda.