001Okay, good evening everyone. This meeting is a meeting of the board of education and public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and it's not to be considered a public community meeting. The agenda reserves two periods for public participation and those wishing to receive a personal response from the board or superintendent should complete a public comment form available at the meeting entrance and on our website. Upon request to the superintendent, the district shall make reasonable accommodation for a person with disabilities to be able to participate in this meeting. Can you please call the role? >> Mr. Albury >> here. >> Mr. Arnold, >> Mrs. Berley >> here, >> Mrs. Bolas >> here. Riser >> Here, Miss Bento >> here. >> Mr. Branch >> here. Okay, we have meeting minutes from our August 25th
002uh meeting included in our packet. I move that the board of education approve the attached meeting minutes from August 25th, 2025 as present. Second, >> we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving the minutes from August 25th as presented say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? We have an agenda. Their policy provides that the superintendent of schools shall prepare an agenda for all board meetings as directed by the president of the board of education. >> I move that the board of education approve the agenda as presented. Second. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving the agenda as presented, please say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, starting with our school presentations. Um, first up is our opening day video.
003Uh so this summer we had an opportunity to work with several Dexter students and we put together a video to show staff at opening day and we thought it'd be really fun to celebrate that and show it to you all today. Uh the students were asked questions that range from how do you know your teachers care about you? What do you like about student? What are you passionate interested about? Uh so you'll have a chance to hear their answers. Very fun. a quiz showing all the teacher staff on our first day. At the end of the video, you'll also get to see all of our new to Dexter teachers. Many we since hired a few more that are not represented video, but uh about 9 minutes long, but we thought you enjoy. So, we're going
004to show you the welcome back video. >> Welcome back teachers. Teachers, welcome back teachers. Welcome back teachers. Hi teachers. Welcome back. Welcome back teachers. >> Well, welcome back teachers. I'm just as excited as you guys are. Um, we're here painting our spots. This is like a great start for our school spirit. I'm very excited. I like [Music] my teachers always know what I need help with and I help them [Music] teachers is how they are to support us. They're not just always there for our academics. They're always there to make the person. I like teachers because they're always fun and inclusive and they never like leave anybody out and make any problems and they're always too my care about they don't forget our opinion a lot. They're all [Music] >> definitely getting my opinion now
005when they're like, "You know what? I know you have." I like that because I like my opinion. very kind. He's very kind. He's very nice. >> When I ask for help, they help me. Um, and they just support me. I know my teachers care about me because they're always there if something happens or something being me or if I just need help. My teaching shows that she knows who I am. I just ask him. So how learn about it? Something really good at doing something on that. >> I'm good at being like I feel like I'm really support There's something I'm really good at is um art and a lot of interns love to help me with art and be athletes. I also really love to uh do math and I love that. >> I'm
006really interested in performing arts. Um my teachers and teachers are always asking me about our open studies and um Miss Palmer's always always there for my >> footballers are really helpful. Um, I'm really passionate about going to medical school and continuing my fencing career. And my teachers probably know about the answer in our class. Oh my learning fun is always stuff that teachers incorporate in the especially on the first couple days and all the little activities that my class learning was really fun because a teacher so glasses so very much like that because then They help us learn. They help us adjust to their world. people. I didn't even like I think it all to some good suspension because Maybe one day I will do this. >> I think teachers are important because they're what
007makes up your life. You want to have it and uh just like set you up for life. They're like there probably teachers are important because they're really tell they do a lot of stuff for us and they let us creative. >> I think they're important because they're kind of helping you get to your major goal and teachers are like literally sounds like [Music] happy. get ready, but we would really like just thank you for all being accomplished and thank you so much for helping us everything and we are so kind. We are so grateful to have you as >> congratulations on another amazing year class of 2026. I know you guys love us and we love you. My name is Alison Bradley. >> Hi, my name is Scott at the new elementary. I'm Rachel at
008Hi, I'm Kayla. Hi, my name is I will be teaching art at this year and I'm so happy to be here. >> Hello, my name is Logan. Hi, I'm Megan and I'm super excited to be teaching English high schools. studies at the high school for 83. >> All right. So, we all have fun making that video. We all have fun celebrating and showing you staff members. knowing every learner by name, by strength, by interest, and by we wanted to show our teachers what it looks like when you do that with our kids. And just hearing the way that our students speak about their teachers, you can see that that's absolutely evident. We also thought it was a fun way to introduce our new staff. In previous years, we either had administrators introduce their new staff
009or or worse have people stand up in all their peer introduce. We thought video was a little safer way to introduce them to the whole district. They're transitioning CT. >> Yeah. Yep. So, next thing is the ISD voted to put a millage on the November ballot for career teched. Currently, we're one of the only district or counties in the state that does not have any form of career teched mill. Um the vote is in November. They've done a ton of work with business and business and industry. Um M did a their policy center did a giant study. um they've done a lot of the really some great groundwork. We have historically funded career tech ed out of our general fund and by working with districts and uh collaboration. So we're part of the consortium, the
010Southwest Washington consortium which allows us to get a couple seats in a bunch of different classes. We offer a few courses but we do it out of general fund and we have to do it with we chase grants etc. As a county, our students don't have the same access that other counties have. What's happened historically is back when the Michigan Merit Curriculum passed and went into law back in the early 2000s, most of Washington County eliminated almost everything other than math, English, social studies, science, etc. We turned into more of a college profit academy. What the sad part is, you have kids that robotics, you can see them down the hall. They work at night with volunteers. We have um building trades. We've we're just adding building trades in locally, but we had one building
011trades program for all the kids in six districts and then Ann Arbor had a program and that for the number of kids, high school kids in the county, there was very little access. kids that want to be engineers. We have so many kids that want to go into engineering who have never made anything ever. And it's really hard to design what you're making or build things if you haven't never made anything just as a kid. >> So the millillage is one of the only ways for a county for our local voters to actually help fund our schools. Um it's on the November ballot. They have promotional andformational activ sat in one of those seats right there as a school board rep. He was on the board when they hired me and now he owns his
012own business. It's kind of >> so they shared a video with us. It's a really good video. We like that. >> I think it seems technical education is important part of society and is building back America. It truly is and my expertise is in the construction industry and CT plays a very important role in that. It provides the infrastructure expertise and we're in dire need of or CT students coming in and more support the CT program. 41% of our workforce be retired by 2031. If I get contractors local contractors into the classrooms, they hire those students. Those students know the area. They live in the area. They want to stay in the area. And that is a key aspect of the growth within Washington was to capture those students to keep them here to employ
013them here. I was a product of the southwest CD program. I was in the field learning the trigonometry, the geometry, the technical writing piece of it, which is important. I came back to county. I'm raised my family in county about 10 miles from where I grew up and and I love this county and what it has to offer. career technical education is that foundation and and from there there's bless because you met hands on you've done the work and when you come into a company or into the big world I guess you'd say that's where again fine tuning it but you already have basics you already have the foot which is so important what they're learning is you're really building society by investing in CT It was a nice video. It's nice to see one
014of our own and school former school board. CT has changed drastically uh for two years. One misconception that folks ought to have is CT is an opportunity for individuals that do not want to go to college or not plan to go to college and Washington County does not 86% of students that participate in CT class do end up going to a 4-year university or a college program. Uh so we have a lot of support that it definitely was a viable tact will be communicating some other CTE information out for the community in the weeks to come. So we'll be sharing that more as we get uh each year we get our MEP data. Tonight we are going to have an opportunity to look at Dexter's 2024 2025 MEP data. Uh, digital fall. This is our
015big assessment that students in third through 11th grade take in the springtime. Most every class or grade level is taking math and ELA or reading. Uh, and then a few different grade levels with science, social studies option. When we get up to 8th grade and and high school varies a little bit with some of the other testing that they take. Uh, we get access to data in the fall. It's embargoed and now it's been released. So, we have the opportunity to share it celebrated with you all today. uh we do have individual student data that will be growing moment in the a little closer to conference time well as we wrap up that fall ending WPA different assessment different metric but we going to provide both those data sets uh as I previously outlined uh
016we were not able to access comparable district data for this presentation I know that's something that you all like to see as that becomes available I will make that available to you all as well uh but I just wanted to celebrate some of Dex data trend. I hope you notice in each one of the assessments we are seeing. So there are three specific data points where we did not see growth. The decrease that we saw was very it represents one to three kids in the whole scheme of things. Uh this current trend that you are seeing is our overall I think every single student at every single grade level at every test our overall growth uh which is showing a positive trajectory a nice bounce back in COVID. You see a break in the graph
017because there were some years that there was reorganization of the science social science test was taken in every given year. You'll also see years where the data dipped and bounced back uh there was a restructure of the MSTEP like tested MSTEP. We did see the data represent that as well. But not going to go side by side. I just again want to show you some general trends. So left to right here starting all the way back in 2014 all the way up through this spring. Uh third grade math. Uh I apologize the tool we just use these graphs isn't consistent with the color. So blue will not always be math. People have to take a peek at the legend and I know hopes of those for you as well. uh third grade reading is definitely
018one that we are interested in particularly some of the literacy changes that we has made. Again, we continue to see uh growth if not a steady uh we're not seeing the two weeks. Well, I should say uh and I am looking forward to shing you all some of our cadence as well as our NVA data later this fall when we fall testing cycle. That will hopefully give you another data point for which you can look at start put together picture. uh after each grade level in your packet you'll see a graph that looks like this that will represent full test and the four tested. So a stack graph here that red represent students that was not proficient yellow partially proficient and green and blue are going to be our proficient in advance or passing of
019partially proficient a lot of times two or three questions they're particularly proficient >> and the state's tightened up on the was when it's now are not the same but Chris is absolutely right if you dig into that data set right there for kids that are missing green it's just by a couple questions So pretty good replication there. Fourth grade math. Fourth grade reading that breakdown for you. >> Um >> yeah, >> the reading program. What year is it now? The third one. >> We're going to year three of our literacy program. Uh so we will have some interesting data in third and fourth grade this spring withstep. You'll have students that have had three consecutive years with the literacy program. The data I'm also really interested is looking at next year's third grade data. That
020will be our kindergarten cohort that will had K one, two, three consecutive years with our new literacy. >> Okay. But the fourth graders now have had >> the fourth graders had one year. The fourth graders had had a few years of our previous program. They had uh they will have had three years this spring of our new program. Remember we have two programs. One K2. >> Yeah. >> Uh fifth grade number for math. Uh one thing I want to just note and you'll see this when you see the comparative this is a trend we see in veggie fifth and sixth grade. Uh so test force we are noticing a little bit of a dip on the index but across the state count sixth grade. Uh with that being said we did see an increase this
021last year. So that's to be another increase in fifth grade reading. Then we start to introduce our science and social studies. Uh science and social studies scores in county and in the state are historically really challenged. Uh the unfortunate reality is the amount of times that the amount of time that buildings have to allocate for science social studies in elementary is not what we would desire it to be. I think they're often the first two things to get cut when things get busy and and I think that unfortunately our test data represents that we see an increase as we go later in the years because it starts to become a little bit more departmentalized and that they have time in the day for science and for social studies and we see the growth that follows
022that. We're continuing to work with staff to find great science and social studies opportunities in our elementaryaries. Uh but I do want to highlight that is not a desirable data point. It's something we're continuing to and statewide the test is only given at a couple different grade levels not bad to back. So the curriculum doesn't always line up with what is tested at that time because as a state they don't tell us what should be K2 what should be four etc. social studies sort of >> but we still the state board I don't think has ever finally approved any social studies curriculum they've gotten closer then they fight over it when you see our eighth grade social studies you'll see a huge jump we've really focused in and more clearly articulated what we're doing uh
023previous in the year we've talked a little bit about this idea of coherence or making sure that we're aligned vertically horizontally the hope is as we continue to get better aligned that will only help to improve test scores across the organization uh fifth grade science again We introduced the test in 2019 2020. So we don't have the full longitudal data. Uh but you'll see a continued increase here in DEX. And then you have each one of the four tests broken down to represent a little bit. Sixth grade MT points that we did see a slight dip. Uh nothing too concerning but it is something just sixth grade literacy increase. >> I am curious if um if you take the data and compare cohorts over the years. >> I was just curious if if they're similar
024or do they show the same sort of I will send you that graphic. >> Okay, >> we have that for different grade level. You will see grade levels that >> uh and we can speculate for sure different reasons, but you'll see different cohorts testing higher or lower on a given test. Uh but yes, we have co >> Thank you. >> Seventh grade down math. Yes, I'll explain. We have a lot to get through today. Reading. Then eighth grade we get back to taking uh so students are taking PSAT so we don't have the ELA and math here but you'll get the social social studies and science that huge jump in social studies score and that only continues to go up. So our state social score is some of the highest in the state. It's quite
025over science again another really high metric one of if not the leading in Washington county and the state as well. This one always really impresses me when you look at the quadrants looking at the sheer number of kids that are advanced in prohibition. This looks a little different than some of our previous tests. So thinking about the young 5 through 12 experience we're continuing to build. for continuing to do something right. If our end goal is to graduate 12th graders that have these skills, have this knowledge, the summit we are being well 11th grade science. Again, this is one of these test scores that across the state historically low and again social science one. One thing we are seeing well one thing about the MSTEP scores is we give it a spring on one and
026done and then we'll wait till pretty much two weeks ago to get scores. Um we do use internal assessments a little more to actually help us in our teaching. This just gives us a gauge. So the school students what we are seeing over the years is more student apathy and parent aathy towards sanitizing. Uh it's been growing every year high school that the SAT radio series >> but Chris we do have other assessments that we administer throughout the year. Uh it was requested that for tonight I added a couple slides after I sent this out. We got a few requests for some end of year data. So I wanted to show you our end of year from 2425. This is our spring of bath data. I broke it down by building. NWA is a nationally
027normed assessment and they are presenting the data not in they use quentiles. So you're five different determinations of student here. Green and blue being our high average and high. Yellow average is also a passing metric. So you'll notice anything yellow, green or blue is passing above. One thing we always like to look at is how many total students are at that average or above. And for most all of our assessments, we're doing white, which is quite interesting. Again, I apologize. The tool that we use to organize didn't organize them. I'm going to work with the developer to make sure it's promogical. You know, Mil Creek on the far left, then it goes to WY, then deck, and then goes to Creek Side. I'm not sure how they pull that, but we'll get that sorted out.
028Uh, this is all in the split. our teachers, our administrators, they all have access to this. We're currently also working to build out parentf facing or guardianf facing dashboard. So families going to have the opportunity to review their own students data over time. Uh we know we send home flyers, we send home all this information annually, but I imagine like many of you will resolve, but it would be nice to be able to go back and see historical records. So we're going to be able to do that for >> but what is relation for average here like will average get you into a colo will average get you into a volt tech school will average get you um electrical you know electric job at electrician or diploma >> you get those skills I know it's
029hard >> especially because you're looking at the deck >> average on yeah but average on an NWA is national average >> where statewide they're not really built Yeah, reduced it to passing or not. >> So you're to your question, it's there's no it's not a college acceptance test. However, it's an assessment of where they are in terms of their skill set and the subject for example math. >> But the college acceptance component when you look our average student here is one of the better students at a lot of high schools or a little mistake in the country. In college acceptance, you have your 25 to 50 schools that are highly selective and then you have the rest, >> right? >> And if you look like what we see is published acceptance rate versus the actuals
030like I want to say Eastern Michigan accepted 98% of their applicants a couple years ago. >> State was I think it was 90% actually. >> Um so you're seeing you're seeing more of a resource dependence going on with kids. But what we want to make sure is that the kids have the academic abilities, but they have their other skills. So if you look at our test scores in these charts, you'll see we had a point where we were going like this. And we kind of hit a wall and we're stressing about hitting. Um that's when we moved out, you know, starting to work on more broad transferable competencies that they needed to be successful. I don't know those of you that were in town were doing the book studies on adolescent mental health. because we
031were stressing our kids out over academics and we've made the shift to keep working on other skills along with the academics to get trying to hit a sweet spot. So the NWA scoring does inform our actual teaching especially at the younger grades and you can see when you look at as kids get the middle grade three very few kids at the low level. >> Yeah. we we start to really pick it up. Historically, our third grade have been okay. They're not the highest, but our middle school reading scores are some of the highest in their major. So, we give kids time to to write them at least to grow. Um, and it's a trade-off. We have to decide how hard we want to push them. We did the iteration what we were pushing and we
032consciously at the time decided okay we need to go with more broad space because we're just stressing kids out they can you imagine they're going to seen our teachers do less of that I think it's a positive there was a time in education when many of us were teaching to the test so we would shut it down we would do two to three weeks of MSTEP prep and kids test scores would reflect that but they're knowledge and their competencies wouldn't, right? So, it wasn't transferable for three weeks there. Yeah, that kid understood what they need to do to take the third grade reading test. But ultimately, when we saw them in the classroom with a fourth grader, they didn't have the skills they need to be successful. Now, I guess I think across the board,
033Dexter's done a really good job of deemphasizing that part of it. We still assist with testing because that is a skill that students need to know, but we're not shutting down teaching and learning to test to a specific test. And I think when we start to triangulate our data investing tools that we use more regularly, we're seeing these higher efficiency numbers in all. It shows us that our kids are well around. They can perform all and what we know about kids. They're not numbers. They're more well-rounded people. The numbers represent components of what their strengths are, but there's we have to make sure we help them develop their academic skills, but also in context that they can transfer those skills to school of thought. >> What do you do to filter them? Are you number?
034>> No, seriously, you been through all those tests. You've been here for a long time. You've kind of seen changes. I mean, I think like for the early test, the NWA, the MSTEP, I agree that like having the test cut and things like those, like the stuff on that test is not stuff that I'm seeing in a class classroom or that I'm seeing in real life, like it's not helping me write an essay or analyze something. Those are very like straightforward questions. And I think spending time trying to get the test scores that we want isn't creating students and future citizens, I think. >> Yeah. I also think like just learning every day to get ready. I remember walking into school last year with a one day noted. Well, this feels like an extra. It
035was my fault, but like with a one day notice of the PSAT happening and I went there and I like got my best standardized test for people. But like I don't think it's I think it's a good point to say that you don't really need to be teaching for a test. That is at the end of the day I guess just a number. I mean I've never walked out of the Mstead or the NWA like wow I really smart. It's just the thing I have to do. So I sat down to next to a young lady last week. I go to high school. She was in geometry class and she was working you know to this class and uh she was working on s cosine triangles and I tried to help her best of my
036ability but I could really quickly tell this student if if we were assessing her the understanding of s cosine she maybe wouldn't have gotten the question correct but what I was really impressed with was her perseverance and her critical thinking experience because she started to use her resources to figure out how am I going to solve this problem right and I think about it the big picture here's she had the word wrong. This kid didn't make it. She could be fine. She understands how to do these things. Um, she was able to get to the correct answer. I I still need to circle back and have her teach me what it was. But I I think that these are the things that like we are trying to impress on our students that are going just
037absolutely that are full of all these skills. This is what we're looking at. >> I will I would I mean I was kind of curious. Yeah. you should be able to go in and make bet whatever these end steps any day of the week. It's going to fluctuate but still do the same test doesn't >> equally flash up the spring reading which again reflects the similar pattern that you're seeing in the map. Uh Mil Creek in the middle there being the oldest rate of students that are tested for NWA. So looking at that orange and red definitely a positive that will continue to decrease the number of red students. Uh definitely a little positive that we're increasing those greens. Uh one thing that we're continue to think about is how can we keep the blues
038blue? That's important as well. So we don't want the blue students, you know, as high advanced. We want to make sure we're providing them with opportunities to stay high as well. Uh so we're working with staff to think about how are we differentiating for all of our uh later this fall when we wrap up our Acadians and NVA, I'd be happy to come back and show you some of that more specific reading data. again as we get to stage bar data I will make sure to get you that. Thank you all. Appreciate it very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we've come to our first opportunity for public participation. Um we have two opportunities. Is there anyone who would like to address the board? Okay, seeing no one, we will move on to our administrative
039and updates starting with superintendent. We got to turn the scoreboard on and full emotion on Friday and learn how to use it better. Getting better every week. Um, high school's rolling, events are rolling, homecoming stuff. We had all the signs out this week. We didn't put enough out. They disappeared faster than usual. So, we got to figure out how to get more out there. If anybody wants to put them together, we'll be gone. Um, we're smooth start to the year overall. Very smooth. Sent out on uh Tuesday of last week administrative changes that are coming. So Melanie Noak moving into my Brutus formal position renamed title but Christie is no that position is no longer the executive director of finance. >> Yeah it's CFO. So the industry generally refers to your chief academic person. So
040we changed to chief academic officer same term. Um Abby Holland has volunteerly stepped in as the interim high school principal at the minimum uh while we post the position and then um Molly Sh is coming out of retirement briefly to be the high school assistant principal. Molly was the assistant principal for a long time. school. Oh, then we post positions for the anticipated timeline is to in November by our high school princip. >> All right. Thank you. Um board update. I wanted to let everyone know that we have scheduled board chats for the first um board meeting of the month in October, November, and December. Um we'll be spreading the information on social media and we will send out the um you know the little image to all of you. So if you feel like
041sharing it around yourself, you can. And I will be sending an email asking if anyone wants to join us. We will have two to three um board members as a maximum at each um meeting. and members of the public community can come in and talk to whomever is here about whatever is on their minds. Um, also there was a legislative breakfast this morning and I were there. Um, the vast majority of of the discussion was around the state budget and I will wait um until we talk about that later. Um, and the other bit was making sure that our legislators were um, aware of the CTE millillage and why that was good for our communities here to make sure they had the information they needed. Okay, moving on to our student representatives. Um, last week
042at the high school, Wednesday was club day, so all the new freshmen got to sign up clubs and a lot of new leagues are happening. So, it's fun to see everyone getting involved. Um we also had our first senior meeting and got our past photo taken. They talked mostly about um common apps and different college paths, but the um counselors did mention obviously if you're not maybe looking towards college that you can talk to them and get that guidance as well. For student council, the set um advisors are going to be Mrs. Ford and Miss Cricut. We have had a meeting and we're getting the homecoming stuff rolling. Hopefully, we're hoping to make some changes to the dance, have more decorations. We're just trying to figure out how to balance um budget, what the students
043want, all that. But we're hoping to change it up a little this year and hopefully more people come and will introduce themselves more. Um the drama club is starting their production of McBTH. Um on Instagram, if you want to see the crew list or the cast list, they actually post those for every show. And then tomorrow there's a full volleyball game. So, go to the volleyball game, have some fun. Um it's a pretty good team. So >> yes, um like actually was said, everything is in full swing. We have band rehearsals. Um NHS had a meeting last week. Speaking of NHS, we have our new adviser, Mr. Lumpy's, which is great. We are working out some growing pains, but it's great. Um speaking of NHS, if you want volunteers for signs, shoot me an email
044and that can be done tomorrow. >> They're in the lobby. Send them talk. >> Don't do them all. keep us four boxes for homecoming. >> Football we are two and 0. We play at Seline. Isn't the volleyball game against? >> Yeah. Um Cam and Yeti is our student section leader. He calls it the stew. It's great. Student section is probably the best organized it's ever been. Uh yeah, kind of on a sidetrack of a student issue that I have been noticing is at the high school the phone policy is coming into question. My a lot of teachers, every teacher has a different look on it. Um you know, there's always that like chill teacher that you love that just doesn't care enough like they have so much stuff going on. Why does a kid that
045does well in their class, does well on tests or whatever, why did their character go on their phone and know the time? I'm not like going to share statistics on why phones are bad. We all know what phones are bad for our brains and addiction and all that. I mean, it's become at least maybe this is just a my lunch table, but it's like a lunch table conversation. It's like, wow, I don't have a phone in Mr. Lancaster's class and all of a sudden I'm talking to this person I've never talked to before and they are so cool and all that. It's like a teacher who couldn't make it today really wanted me to talk about this at the meeting because they just he doesn't have the energy to take away phones but cannot stand
046them at I mean maybe it's just a personal problem. He's probably gonna watch this. But um it's like I do think there's something to be said about maybe considering like just a no tolerance policy on phones because as much as I love my phone, how much I'm on it every single day. I mean, I know I would do better in all of my classes. I mean, I consider myself a pretty smart kid, but sometimes I just don't want to do something if my phone's right there. I mean, why not just do that right in my pocket if I don't have the ability to be on my phone? I mean, think about how much work I have to do. But, I mean, I'm confident I can hold myself accountable. There are kids like me who can't
047like it if cell phones are full on addiction that I mean, flat out is a problem at if my age just an addiction. It's not something you can just throw in a phone caddy and just be fine. in my eyes at least if we just get rid of the entire idea of having them I don't have any statistics back me up but I >> will those statistics show >> yeah I guarantee we'll see test scores go higher I mean >> I'm less worried about the test score because then again numbers and all that that talk we just had I mean kids are going to meet new people and like start having friends again people are going to bullies are too scared to do it face to face nowadays they only do it online. At least
048in I want to say my experience of bullying but like if we cut the cell phones in schools you can't take pictures of something that's happening at school and post it on Instagram account then school follows you know often and I mean if it's something that you can have your phone at lunch whatever I mean stuff happens or high schoolers we like seeing our phones but absolute like not even in your backpack in class a lot of teachers like Now, the phone caddy that you put it in at the start of class and I I'm even I'm a very social person. I love talking to everybody, but even I like classes where I have the ability to go on my phone and teacher just does not care at all. I mean, I'm going to I
049mean, maybe I'm not out the entire time like some tears of mine, but it's a I mean, it is just in my eyes just probably the biggest problem that we have. I mean, >> thanks for sharing this with us. Yeah, I like >> if the board can do something to make phones just not be an issue anymore. Like we have such a big no tolerance policy on substances and all that, but you're such such horrible addictions where cell phones are right up there with it that like >> I think nobody really realizes that. There's short studies out there showing that from a mental health perspective schools across the country have some are students have banned themselves mental health small data set still I mean for about year but mental health is improving and um I
050think Chelsea just um this year they're banning their cell phones >> our policies that are supposed to have an advice it's enforcement it's got to be across the policy. >> There's districts that ban them completely. And there there was a presentation at the uh annual leadership convention last year that there were Trevor City, Nova, and I can't remember the third uh three superintendents were talking about the fact they've done and the changes that were pointing out were those border. We're getting a little bit laid off of our agenda. So, I appreciate you bringing it up, but I think we need to stick with our agenda and I think it this is probably a good discussion topic to maybe add to the future. So, thank you for bringing it up and letting us know. And it
051is a highly contentious issue as well, most a lot of it. So, it's certainly something to think about. >> Oh, cool. Um, we will move on to our consent items. They have new hires um and a budget report. >> I'll move that the board of education approve the consent items in bulk. >> I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving the consent items involved, please say I. I. I. Any opposed? >> All right. Um, moving on to our action items. Uh, the first one is our policy renumbering and renaming. This evening's packet includes a memo summarizing the remaining steps of the board's changeover to Truman Law as our policy provider. Some old policies primarily authored by Dexter Community Schools are being brought forward which requires renumbering
052and renaming. The packet also includes a list of the reumbered and renamed policies. I move that the board of education approve the reing and renaming of the policies listed in attachment A of this evening's packet. Second that motion. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> Are we about done? >> Well, getting there. >> We're getting there. Yeah. So, this is the first step. We we broke it up and as you can see in the memorandum, there was a reason why we did it. Like we want to get this cleaned up. Once we get that cleaned up, then we'll we have on October 6, we're going to get rid of all the duplicatives duplicatives and obsolete the ones. So, we we did a we had a twohour plus meeting to just
053kind of clean it all up, but we are almost there. Just grinding. Yes. So, almost there. Hopefully this was clear the way we did it too because it it we weren't sure exactly how to present it so it was not confusing and over cumbersome for everybody. >> All right. Any other questions? Um let's do all votes. >> Mr. Alreley. >> Hi. >> Mr. Sola. >> Hi. >> Mangas. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Riser. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Herrera. >> Hi. Okay. Um, the packet contains one policy that adds language from old policies to the trun policy 256. Attachment B indicates the updated policy and where the language came from and there is no new content. I move that the board of education approve the edits to policy 25506 as shown in attachment B of this evening's
054packet for first and final reading. I second that motion. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? when we're consolidating policies here. We're hoping to bring you a really great policy manual at the end of this. >> Um, let's do a roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Bley, >> I. >> Mr. Solo, >> hi. >> Angus. >> Hi. >> Mrs. >> Hi. >> Mr. >> Hi. >> Mr. Albury. >> Hi. >> Okay. Surveying services. Our packet includes a bid tabulation and recommendation for awarding the RFP3 surveying services contract to Arbor Land Consultants. I'll move that the board of education award the 2025 bond RFP3 surveying services project to Arborland Consultants for a total amount not to exceed $117,240 and assign the contract to Gringanger for management. >> I'll second that >> motion and a
055second. Any discussion? >> We bid this out. Greg's here. This is one of the first ones for board approval. We bid out. This is to survey all spots that we need to work on so we can move into the design phase. Ranger handled it out. Everything was good. First line was low. They were the ones that did the 2017 as well. >> Any other questions? All right. Roll call vote, please. >> Mr. Sapola. >> I siser. >> Hi. >> Mr. Za. >> I. >> Mr. Alre. >> Hi. Mr. >> Hi. >> Next up is our MASB delegate. The MASB annual leadership conference will be taking place October 23rd to 26th at the Grand Traverse Resort. Uh the delegate assembly will begin on Thursday, October 23rd at 7 p.m. Based on our district size, Dexter is
056entitled to up to three voting delegates and alternates. It would be appropriate to name board members who plan to attend the conference as voting delegates for alternates. I believe Daniel, are you going to be there on Thursday night? Yeah. >> Okay. Is there anyone else who has signed up for the conference? >> Okay. Well, then I move that Dan Oliver be certified to represent committee schools, districts, board of education at the 2025 MASB delegate assembly. >> I would second that motion. >> When you're the only man standing, you can go ahead. >> We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Uh, let's do a roll call vote. >> Miss, Mrs. Riser. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Aera. >> Hi, >> Mr. Albre. >> Hi, >> Mr. Ruby. >> I >> Hi. >> All right. Next
057up is our fund balance designation. Our packet includes financial information from CFO Christy VP, including ending reserves designations, assigned and unassigned fund balances for the year ending June 30th, 2025. fund balance designations uh were reviewed by the finance committee just a short while ago today. I'll move that the board of education approve the 20252 fund designation for the general fund as included in the attached recommendation from the finance committee. >> I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> I could start. Christie, if you want to jump in, let me know. Um, every year we as part of the process to wrap up the previous years, we need to approve fund balance designations so that when the auditors wrap up the audit, they can make sure we have and we're a little
058unique with this that as a board they're the fund balance as designated areas. For example, our retirement severance payouts. Um portion for that money set aside for technology equipment, u facility maintenance equipment, um pools and turf replacement if needed and athletic spaces, park spaces, textbooks, instructional materials, etc. So this is part of the annual process went over in detail finance committee before this. Um and we were we'll get to the annual the year end results but this includes a year end results. >> Any other questions? Okay. Let's do a roll call. Mrs. Riser I >> Mr. Oliver, >> hi. >> Mr. Sola, >> I hi. >> All right. Um, the last action item is IB French textbooks. Our packet includes an executive summary from assistant superintendent Ryan Greer as well as a request for resources
059from Dexter High School. I'll move that the board of education approve the purchase of Okay. the Mong in Fran. You should have taken it course >> with digital access from Amazon for a total cost not to exceed $1,650. >> I'll second that motion. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? >> It seems very straightforward to follow what she said. Okay. Um, let's do a roll call vote, please. >> Mrs. Sera, >> I. >> Mr. Oliver, >> Mrs. Berley, >> I miss. >> All right, moving on to our discussion items. We have first our year end financial results which are included in our packet and I will turn it over to you person to packet for you guys. I think we just kind of want to take a look at you right.
060Um these are probably the most useful for right now. So we present to you the budget data what the board passed in June 24 June 25. Those were the three budgets for the fiscal year 25. Um and then we share the actual results are 2425 and we compare our data um to provide you a variance. So just a reminder that these are unuded results right while we're far in the year our audit is not complete. Therefore, um if there something needs to change, obviously you understand that uh this is un audited at this time. But um we provide a page two which gives a little bit more detail. So this page is basically an opportunity for you to see how our estimates um how we did, right? We have some really great estimates in our
061budget such as the OS rate. blends the rate of health care. Uh we budget uh for healthare but we got a lot of things that impact that such as leave of leaves of absences. Um we talk about fight savings you know all the time in all of our narratives. So we present that data to you always talk about the teaching supplies. So um this is just kind of a reconciliation of our really big estimates so you can see how well >> so looking at this page it looks like this. We were >> number 51. >> We were last year as we wrapped up the year we were positive by $372,118. Um $156,9 supply carryover that we allow buildings to carry over so we don't buy our bands to spend any money. Um so operationally we
062were positive 216,000. Contractually, we always split that with our group question. We take 18,000 or so and then negotiate an off schedule for all of our employee groups. That'll continue from the end. On the next side is where all those areas were positive from. So, just as a perspective on a 50 almost 56 million budget, we were within 200,000 operation. So we're pretty um so on the next side is where Christie was referring to as the areas. So we work for retirement rate. The state sets rates. There's 27 different concoctions or something like that. >> So we create a blended aggregate and this year we used 40 or last year we used a 43.71% in the end by and we don't know what we're paying on different members people until we hire them. So, we're
063guessing, but Christie was pretty good. We paid 43.5%. That's really close. So, it was a $64,000 positive swing, but on $60 million for the budget, so it was a fraction of a percent. Health benefits, we had some positive swings there. We had some negatives. We had u uh one of the negatives, we had to pay $400, $500 more for phone. >> And then uh utilities for electric, we were positive. gas were positive, fuel were positive. So that was really nice. Then we have >> big estimates, right? We only know how to estimate based off of what we paid last year. So that's why I like this year. >> So overall, I want to commend Christie and her team. Great job managing the budget, preparing everything for the audit. The audit is scheduled for October the
06420th. We were I mean we're really close to what we planned. >> It's amazing. Yeah. We spent almost every dollar we had kids in our operations. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else have questions? >> Oh, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, next up is our sex advisory board update. >> So, we have uh I don't know if Ryan wants to talk or just me. Um, we are going to hold a couple public information dates. We'll send those out. We've set up dates. We had to order for the materials and the videos. Um, this is the only thing I really need Ryan for talking about the rest, but you ordered the videos on DVD that we have some issues with not sure if any of you tried to access the demo concept they gave us
065just wasn't working as intended. So, I reached out to the vendor. He sent us two physical DVD copies. Now we have a new challenge. We're trying to find a DVD player, but we'll make sure it's all set up. Then we'll have two opportunities. We'll create a space and a feedback tool for individuals. I may preview any materials, watch any videos that they would like, then provide any feedback. Yeah. And we're going to have to do those in person because we have to make sure kids don't see videos if someone needs to see the materials and video. So, we set dates in the middle of October. So the 14th and the 22nd we'll send out the 14th is going to be in the evening, the 22nd during the day so we can and they're not on
066the same day of the meeting so we can try to help families. We'll get it all sent out. Um and then from there we will need to hold public hearings at a board meeting. So this is just the first step these two dates and we may need more. We'll have to see how the first few go and we'll work through process and at probably Novemberish to the board if everybody's closely scheduled come to the board for public hearings and then yes >> the video are they going to be showing like by grade level or just kind of overall everything. So if I have a kid in third grade, not in ninth grade, I I want to go with third grade one or >> Yeah, great question. One thing we really tried to do in the
067proposal, so the CI work collectively to organize the proposed curriculum in a way that hopefully best communicates based family what their child will be interacting and experiencing. So we've separated by grade level and we've tried to link each lesson and each video to the best of our ability. while that video is linked. And so most of our videos that we have action signals, the two DVDs I'm referencing are fifth and sixth grade. The other videos in that proposal are working as intended. So when the visual curiosity, what does it look like in seventh grade classroom, they could go in and they could watch the seventh grade videos without any issue. We were just having difficulties with the fifth sixth grade. Uh so those are through Marsh Media. They sent us those. But to your question,
068yes, family should very clearly be able to see what their child in any given grade level will be considered assessment. >> And now Daniel, >> you know, you answer the question, but now I got >> for the sessions, we're going to be K12, >> right? But but but but as a parent, I go online right now, access the video. No. >> Okay. That's right. Right. Because you don't want students. Okay. Right. The risk we run by doing that is families don't want their kids and this is going to whatever we end up doing beyond what we do now is going to be a huge improvement because the materials now are a lot of them are Xerox copies and to view you have to come in and view actual paper documents etc. We need to this
069will help organize lessons cleaner so parents can opt out of lessons when they want to opt out more clearly and see exactly what their kids are doing. So, it'll be an improvement, but we're still working through the process. So, we'll do the two public meetings coming up in October and then update from there on what the next steps are to get to. So, before anything's adopted, it has it has to go to public board hearings, public viewing. a video of it first. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. All right. Finally, um the state of Michigan budget. I know all of you received the FSB um updates last week and requested that we put this into a discussion. So, I'm gonna turn to Chris first to provide whatever updates you might want to or just
070sort of an overview for anyone who might be watching and are maybe later. >> So, in 2007 and 2009, we didn't have budgets passed on by the September 30th deadline because there wasn't any money. Um, we're in the middle of a recession, etc. This year, it is a lot of political gainsmanship going on that is causing all of this. There's plenty. The money's there. The budgets were proposed long ago from the governor. The house passed two different budgets. The Senate passed the budget, but they're not talking to each other. So, what we're facing now is by law budget, the school aids budget was supposed to be passed by June 30th. So, our own legislators who passed the laws are breaking the laws that some of them voted on to pass. And they I'm just going
071to be candid. We have both parties are not behaving like they should and neither of them are really acting. I've spent an entire career listening to people in Lancing talk about how much they care about kids and then I watch them do this stuff over and over and over. It's all about who can stay in power. So in the end we have to make sure we can protect kids and serve our kids. We have enough fund balance that if something doesn't get passed on time, we can maintain through October and into November all operations without any loans, etc. Um, what we'll see happen is right now the I if I'm a betting man, we'll see a school a budget passed at the last minute before the end of this month because shutting schools down negatively
072impacts families and communities all in the state and there's lots of districts that would shut the doors right away. they won't be able to make payroll. We don't get paid through our state aid payments from starting in July, August, September, and then we get our next we don't get one in those months. So, we get one in October, October 20th. So, if I'm a betting man, what I think will happen and what I'm hearing is going to happen is we'll get a school a budget sometime in the next week and a half and then we probably will see a statewide shutdown. guess them other budgets and they need to make that and by October 10th or Treasury can't pay the schools related budget. So, but we're also looking at maybe a federal shutdown. I don't
073know. We got a lot of politics going on. I wish the adults that were have to deal with figuratively. In the end, we're gonna just teach our kids and we we're good for a month or so. I have faith I'll get something passed for William. >> Well, I guess one of the things that I was thinking about when you know all this keeps looming is should we as a board do anything to you know write a letter to the legislators or something like that. That's that was one of the thoughts I we could each do it individually but it may be stronger from all of us. Um so that's part of the reason I kind of threw this up at >> and I would make sure it's written to those in charge of the budget.
074So you have in the house, you have leaders in the house. It's not our local. It's there's about four people controlling the whole process. >> Yeah. I will say there was so this was the most widely attended uh legislative breakfast this morning that I've been at. There were multiple representatives from every district and almost every um uh guess area within our our uh county had their representatives and uh senators there this morning. So there was sort of acknowledgement that everyone was worried about this and there was a lot of discussion about the timeline when things needed to be passed um to make sure those checks could go out um on October or October 20th. Um there was also uh I think it was well communicated to the legislators that there are um districts within our
075ISD that won't be able that aren't in the position that we are with our October payments to staff. So I think there is an understanding that it is important. I don't know that our wider community knows. The the sort of the information that I'm seeing in newspapers lately has been um about school districts that you know maybe haven't finished their contracts and people aren't understanding why that is. And so I also sort of wonder if we should be making sure that we're putting something out, making sure our community knows what's going on so that people could feel free to contact their representatives if they want to also. So I don't know if that's something we want like a dual purpose like a letter to our legislators and then kind of have a like kind of
076a bridge to the >> Yeah. community and you know I shared with the Sun Times or >> I mean I don't know whether that one letter will matter at all but I do think it's important that our parents and community members know that one we're paying attention two there's a problem and three that the people there are electing need to be communicating with them. Well, even if it doesn't just affect our kids in Dexter, if it affects the neighboring kids in other districts, that has a rippling effect. >> So, we shouldn't >> and it will impact our kids because when you do something like a creative crisis, we have to solve it. >> It'll be a poorly designed budget. >> Right. Right. I mean, we have examples that um of supposed savings that were was
077supposed to happen, but the you know, the retirement plans, the payments, that's all not clear. It's very difficult to budget. Um we don't have a budget right now. We're required to submit a budget, but they can't tell us whether it makes sense at all. Um, so I think it's I think it is the fact that we could have a shutdown is one part of it, but the fact that it's so dysfunctional that we don't know what our budget is for the year by now is is really um it's irresponsible. So I don't know if there's a way to I think we should I I I like the idea. >> Is there anyone who wants to take a pass on either a letter to the representatives or like a letter to the editor group or newspapers?
078I was thinking you're so diplomatic. You should >> I mean there's information from MASB we can pull together, but >> I can work. >> Okay. >> Some I would I would give it two days before you send it. >> Okay. >> Just got a feeling. >> I'm guessing you're going to have 48 hours just to draft it anyway. >> I'm not thinking to go out tonight do that, right? >> Well, you know, >> I'm hopeful the next two days. Well, then maybe maybe our goal is to get something out by the week's end if we don't see something otherwise. >> Hope you don't get something by Wednesday, Catherine. Not >> Okay. Well, that's a good goal. Is that reasonable? >> Sure. Yep. As in like Wednesday tomorrow. >> Uh Tuesday or Tuesday. >> If we
079don't if the state we don't hear that they have some kind of budget census by Wednesday, then everybody knows. >> I'm not feeling that hopeful based on what I heard this morning. So, you know, we might start working on that regardless. And >> the sad part is what's actually happening up there is it's like two to four people that are controlling everything in the caucus that you just don't vote. >> Am I allowed to Sure. But >> what I will say is this is absolutely a student issue. I mean, obviously student issue, but like kids my age who don't know about politics are talking about this because I went to this youth and government camp. I don't know if you guys are aware of the YMCA, the Isra government. It's a program we have at
080Dexter and all across the state. And I went to this delegation leader retreat up north and they talk about like if this budget doesn't get passed something like it's $150 to go this 4 day conference in Lancing, you're sitting in real seats representatives, it's great. It' be like $510 something like that and then clubs can afford that and all that. So there's that side of that where effect that you're saying >> clubs at Dexter High School like I'm not sure if it >> being >> well yeah but like that would affect certain clubs and also if kids at Dexter High School don't get free lunch not even kids who just like rely on it there I like not even like somewhat joking but also not that much joking there might be a walk out like
081kids do look forward to lunch every single day like I can go there I can get a meal and I can talk with my friends. If you know lunch is when people go and get a second lunch, they realize, oh, it's this much money. It's not like kids are going to be bad and they're not a lot of them just aren't very informed on the whole thing. And they're going to like come here and say, "Well, why don't I have a free lunch anymore? They can't help." >> You're going to put that in a letter. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Examples like that or if you talk to your friends or something like ways that the budget affects you as a student, that would be really helpful. >> Oh, yeah. I school lunch is the big
082one, but clubs like do you think government I'm sure if I >> Yeah, just think about it and then get the give it to the be that'd be great >> because it's true. This is this is what's it's going to have an impact on you guys real time and you know we can think outside the box as parents and maybe live it. I mean, you're going to see kids who couldn't care about politics any less and notice that they can't get a slice of pizza ignoring them upset about it. Like, not even in a joking way. It's like kids thrive off school. >> We better be calm. Okay. That's a calm response. >> Thank you. >> But I think that's all very So, okay. Well, I guess the goal is is to try to get
083something drafted in 47 hours in the season and 48 hours into the Sunday. All right. This is our second opportunity for public participation. Is there anyone who would like to address the board today? >> I think that's one good thing to say. I didn't I can't think back of what said earlier. Christie does say something about all scheduled payments surplus. >> I think we should hold on that surplus, not schedule any scheduled payments until we find out what budgets do. You gota we gota hold on to a pen because like like we all sit there and say you put me in big trouble and I'd rather pay a teacher salary for them all scheduled keep our kids. That's it. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um any any word comments tonight? Seventh graders went to
084camp and it was amazing. It was excellent. They had a great week of weather. Her daughter dropped off on time. So, she had a really good time and uh I know how much Maryanne puts into that. She just did a great job and all of the volunteers and teachers. So, I think it's success. >> Great opportunity for kids. It's fun to see them all back. You can see all the things that are going on and go back to it and then on the phones there >> you guys haven't gone by the uh senior participants Saturday or after hours checking off awesome. >> Did we get like a drone picture? >> Yeah. Yeah. We have to approve drones. You have a policy saying >> we do. Oh, >> it was approved before you >> think I
085approved drones to get a picture in. >> I just don't have a picture. >> There's a real Facebook show. >> Oh, no. >> Anybody else? >> Thank you. >> All right. In our information items, you will see policy committee minutes from August 18th and a CTE millillage information sheet. Um, now we we do have a closed session tonight. So, can I get a motion? >> I move that the board of education move into close session for the purpose of conducting a superintendent's publicly evaluation following a fivem minute break. >> Second motion and second. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please. Mr. Albury, five. Thank you very much everyone.