001Good evening everyone. This meeting is a meeting of the board of education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public meeting. There's time for public participation during the meeting as indicated on the agenda and upon request of the superintendent the district shall make reasonable accommodation for a person with disabilities to be able to participate in the meeting. Arnold here we have meeting minutes that were included in our in our docket for two different meetings that the board of education approve the attached for February 24th, 2025 and March 11th, as we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving the meeting minutes as presented say I. I. Any opposed? Um, and we have an agenda that I'll move that
002the board of education approve the agenda as presented. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Um, all those in favor of approving the agenda as presented, say I. I. Any opposed? Moving on to our school presentations. We have Dr. Ryan Ro here from Washington ISD talk about career tech across the county. We're going to find a reason. Good evening. Thank you very much for allowing me a few minutes with you this evening to update you on career technical education and the works that we're doing countywide and at Dexter to expand access to these uh type of opportunities for students. Um first, when we talk about a world-class education, I know we talk about a lot of different avenues that students can take. Certainly I'm here tonight to talk about career technical education
003but we can also talk about advanced placement international balorate dual enrollment first robotics which is pretty timely tonight saw the students that were practicing for first robotics and then project lead the way curriculum and more when we look at these opportunities we look at these opportunities from a K12 perspective often we'll think about career technical education as a an 11th through 12th grade opportunity for our students um we kind of have to we have to shift mindsets there to talk about when we want to talk about drones or and aviation or robotics and engineering, entrepreneurship, business, marketing. A lot of those aspects can take place much earlier in a child's life than waiting till their 11th or 12th grade. We'll talk about that this evening. Um, we have to engage the community. So over the
004last few years uh we have engaged our business uh industry partners um University of Michigan health and Toyota and solar and lear and others um our post-secary institutions so WCC EMU University of Michigan uh certainly our legislators to increase funding for career technical education and then certainly our K12 entities as well. Um if we do anything about county it needs to be research driven data driven. We'll talk about how we've come to the conclusion that we have tonight on expanded access launching new programs. So, we'll talk about that um in our programs that currently exist in the county and what we're looking to expand those programs and then whatever we do, we'd like it to be world class here in Washington County. Um the system as it is or or was um we have a
005decentralized system. So, majority of our 70 plus CT programs are housed within traditional high schools. You may know of uh locations throughout the state of Michigan that have a career technical education center. Um often those uh counties that have a center often will have location. Um we don't have a center, we don't have a millillage. We'll talk about how our structure is unique than um more than most. Sure you've heard about this, but throughout the state, throughout the country, we have a very uh tough transportation system. Busting is an issue and continues to be. So we have an inefficient and complicated transportation system. Um, often when you have a CTE center or a vocational village throughout the state of Michigan, it will come with teachers that happen to work for the ISD in this county
006in Washington County because a majority of our programs are housed within a traditional high school. It's that district's employees that teach our career tech education programs. Um, enrollment is below demand. So, we cannot keep up with the level of demand that we have for our CT programs today. We will talk about those enrollment trends both in Washington County as a whole and at Dexter. Um we lack a countywide system of career awareness and exploration. Again, I don't think any of us would argue that we need to start having students um their selfactualization. Uh exploring those career interests, not choosing a career, but understanding that they may like to be around engineers. They may like to build or work with their hands or work with computers. Um and a majority of our programming currently is funded
007through general funds. So, I'll talk about a little bit of the finance and how we fund our CT programs. Um, we are in Washington County, an economic hub of the state. So, we are in a community that has energy and excitement uh around applied experiential learning. That could be first robotics or CTE, AP or IB. As we build this system, as we explore how to expand access, we are working, as I said, with our K12 institutions, our business leaders, our post-secondary institutions, and community organizations like Michigan Works Southeast, um, United Way, and others, uh, including nonprofits, state superintendent Dr. Michael Rice and the state board of education has recognized that um not only does CTE need increased funding. It costs more to educate students through career technical education opportunities, but also there are CTE deserts
008that are located throughout the state. You would not think about Washington County as any sort of desert, but we are for a couple reasons. One, we have a a system in which where you reside is where you can attend CT programs. I'll show you a map of this. and we cannot keep up with the demand. So for instance, I'll give you one example. Um the Southwest Washington Consortium that Dexter is part of has the health science program and before I went to the ISD, I was the director of the Southwest Washington Consortium. We had 80 students apply for the health science program. Most of those students are going on to nursing careers. We're in desperate need of healthcare workers, including nurses. Well, we had 80 applicants for 40 slots. So there's 40 individuals that would
009not have an opportunity to affirm what they want to do before they graduate, perhaps what they don't want to do before they graduate. And so I reacted quickly and we responded and we launched exercise science and sports medicine program. So a lot of those students didn't like the sight of blood. They didn't want to smell urine. They wanted to be athletic tra trainers and physical therapists. So that offset the demand for that program for a time. So now exercise science and sports medicine is full and we're back to 87 applicants for 40 positions in health science. So what could we do to mitigate that? We have to expand access so that students can enter some of these CTE programs that they'd like. Um as I said earlier, Chris and I were both superintendents in Lenway
010County uh and districts right next to each other. They had 2.9 mills. Chris, if you want to point that out. Uh right there. Um just a little historical value that for those that have over one mill in a vocational millillage those were passed prior to 1994 prop a you could pass it for as much as you wanted for as long as you wanted. So that in Lenoi County was for 99 years and it is for 2.9 mills that generates about $14 million a year. 41% of the ISDs have a vocational millillage. we have not in county. Um we rely on federal Perkins grant funding that all uh locations in Michigan um have as well as added cost state funding. So um those are the areas that are are without support for their K12 career related
011career focused education. Um just to put that in perspective so 2.9 mills in Lenway County generates $14 million in Washington County. one mill would generate $20 million simply because of a larger tax base. Um, so how do how do we fund our our CT programs? Well, we have about $585,000 in federal Perkins funding. We received about $850,000 in state added cost funding. So about $1.4 million we receive. The rest is through general funds. So you can see what the districts are contributing at this point in time. uh about $10.35 million countywide. There are 15 ISTDs with no vocational millage. You can see county uh the one of the more progressive economic hubs of of Michigan, Livingston, uh Wayne, um Mcome, probably the others, a lot of rural districts on that uh list. Um a lot
012of people will ask me what could those what could those funds be used for? Uh certainly they could offset the cost of your vocationally certified teachers. Um it also paid for transportation costs. So your bus that goes to and from your Southwest Washington consortium uh programs, curriculum and assessment cost, maintenance, repair equipment, career readiness activities certainly would free up general fund dollars um and also instructoral cost with um high demand occupations like health science. So offset the cost of an additional program. Uh not all funding is equal. So like I said, between the state uh school aid with added cost funding in Perkins, we receive about $679 per CTE student. It cost on average about $2,400 uh per student for each CTE program. When you have a cyber security student, and I know there's Dexter
013students that go to Chelsea for cyber security, and they fulfill that year, every CT program requires at least one state approved credential, license, or certification. And if you're in cyber security or IT, many of those assessments at the end of the year cost $200 to $300 a piece to take. They're worth that walking away as that student goes off to college. um but it doesn't leave a lot of money for the the remainder of the cost to run that program. So if we were to have a braided funding model, by braided I mean legislative funds working with our postsecondary partners WCC, EMU and U of M and they're all at the table. If we were to uh leverage some business partnerships like Toyota and Lee Bear and Solar and U ofM Health and potentially look
014at a vocational millillage, we could decrease the CT deserts, increase student graduation um from high school with a purpose, increase students exploring career paths that interest them, increase students earning that recognized credential. So that could be an automotive certificate, it could be a cosmetology license, it could be cyber security or a CNA as a student goes on to a nursing career um and increased student engagement at a much earlier age. So what have we done so far? Well, we've increased program quality and quantity, the number of programs that exist, uh to try to offset the demand that's that's currently at our at our doorstep. And then certainly we could allocate resources differently than you currently are. If you look at the left hand side, all of the circled programs that are proposed have been initiated.
015So we've gone from about 53 55 programs to well over 70. Uh basically trying to respond to the demand for our career technical education programs. So what has that done? Well, by expanding programs, even though the Washington County 9th through 12th grade population overall has decreased over the last four years, you can see that the CTE enrollment has gone from 1,866 to well over 3,100 in a matter of four years. Um, in Dexter, uh, that same year 2122, there were 64 students enrolled in CT programming. uh went to 86 and now for the last two years has been 117 students. Um so I just told you we're at limited funds and we're expanding programming. So how have we done that with limited funds? So, the legislators uh came to the table and said, "For those
016of you that do not have a millage fund, a vocational mill, we will grant you uh CT equipment grant funds to one improve the quality of your programs with equipment and to expand access to your students. So, in 2122, we received just over a half million dollars and we basically went into programs, evaluated them, and said, "What equipment needs to be replaced?" So if you had a mannequin or a simulator in health science program that was outdated, we came in and we replaced those. Next year with 576,000, we start to expand programs. Last year we received 1.153 million expanded more programs. This year zero. So we've reached a tipping point. The premise of that grant fund was to say to the community, if we can do this with that amount of money, imagine what we
017could do with a more robust funding model. Um, and that so that's where we're at today. So, the superintendent um the nine superintendents at the local districts and the ISTD superintendent, Superintendent Norman came together. Uh, we applied for a consolidation and infrastructure fund to study the consolidation of CTE services in county. When we think about consolidation, six of the nine districts operate in the southwest watch consortion. Whitmore Lake is on their own, Ann Arbor is on their own, and Ipsilante is on their own. So if you're inpanni and you have access to six or seven CTE programs, if you're in Ann Arbor, you have access to the Ann Arbor programs in Whitmore Lake. There's not one of those programs that all from students from online districts can access. Not any one of the 70 programs.
018Where you reside is where you can attend. So if you are a student at Dexter, you want to go to a closure repair program, we have one of those in the county. It's not the consortium. If you're an Ann Arbor student and you want to access the only welding program in the county, it's at Seline. So the consortium. So Lee Bear is at the table saying, "We don't care where the welders come from or welding engineers come from. We want to expand access and we will help you do that. and there's things we can help you with, equipment, curriculum, and other things. We can't help with the vocation certified teachers. Um, so we need you to come to the table with that. So, we received a quarter million dollars. We worked with the MM Youth
019Policy Lab, and they did a study on the access to CT programs, paid for my uh role at the ISD, so that was not at any expense to the local districts. And then based on the findings and recommendations out of that U of MU's policy lab report, we applied for $5 million to institute and implement the findings and recommendations regarding that report. Like I said, at the same time, the board of education recognizes that there's more need. I took four students up from. We presented to the state board of education. A month later, uh they are recognizing the need to expand resources for our CT programs. It also aligns with Michigan's top 10 strategic plan. Uh this is recognized and frankly the state is watching what we do in Washington County to address the inequities
020to access uh CT programs to expand that access um to address some of the five that they've they've put forth. So this wasn't just the last year wasn't just the last two years. We've worked with the U of M youth policy lab to really study CTE since 2019. uh we studied um basically accessing CTE in 2019. In 2020, the state commissioned the U ofM policy lab right here in Ann Arbor uh to study the career access throughout the state of Michigan. This was pre-COVID. Half million dollar or a half million skilled trades careers will be available through 2026. Frankly, CO accentuated an already existing problem. We had 65 to 70 year olds that were retiring pre-COVID. Now we have 50 to 55 year olds and as you know everything from education to manufacturing to healthcare
021to engineering there is a talent crisis and so that's being recognized. Um as you work your way through you can see that we went back to it in 2021 to access um find out if there was equal access across all districts for demand. There is 2022 the statement back to UFM youth policy lab report. And then last our last report that was paid out of the out of the grant really recognized and you could see the last bullet. There are many opportunities in front of us that can increase access for students including exploring other funding models and that's what we've done over the past year. What who can we bring to the table to have that conversation? Um return on investment. So you can see that for every dollar that's put in, $5 return to
022the state economy. Obviously, our business partners in Washington County are are willing to come to the table and have that conversation. The 127 rule. So for any organization um in general, there's a 127 rule. Out of every 10 employees, one requires a master's degree or more, two require a bachelor's degree, and seven require an associates degree, certificate, or credential. 77% of our students that come out of our CT programs go on to a 4-year university. So, we need physicians, we need doctors. But at the U of M Health Center, they will tell me in addition those doctors and physicians, we need stenographers, we need sterile processors, we need X-ray techs, we need BSNs, we need RNs, um we need CNAs. And we can't afford to have one student approach the stage of graduation from high
023school saying, "I'm really good at math, but I don't know what I want to do with it." So, we're working toward that end. Um, so what are we doing with the $5 million? Well, first we're increasing capacity. When I arrived at the ISD a year and a half ago, I arrived as the only individual ISTD employee solely focused on career technical education. So, we're building capacity. We're hiring a CT. We've hired a CT coordinator, a workbased learning coordinator to work with the businesses, uh, the schools, the families, and the students to connect their learning to, uh, business industries, internships, job shadows, field trips, a special populations coordinator, a data reporting specialist, and a CT grant management coordinator. That was all being done at least four different ways with the four different consortions at CNR, Whitmer
024Lake in the Southwest Washington Consortium. So, bringing that house just was fiscally responsible. um countywide pathways. So, I'd like to spend a minute on this. Um we are launching a a drone aviation program. It aligns with a lot of the middle school drone programs that are exploratory. This would be a year-long CTE program that students would earn their FAA drone pilots license. Um they could go with that and become an entrepreneur. They could go into uh Michigan Tech and be a surveyor. They're using drones. It could be public safety. Uh it could be video. Um but it basically captures the attention of the students on their way to becoming engineers or coders or whatever they'd like to become. Uh engineering construction trades. So as you know here uh we've explored and have the opportunity for
025construction trades in Dexter. Two school districts in Washington County do not have access to construction trades programs. Whitmore Lake and Epsying. What if we had a westside hub at Dexter state approved CTE program and brought Whitmore Lake into that consortium? What if we had an eastside location at my own state certified teacher, vocationally certified teacher that could serve the east side of the county and then Ann Arbor has their we have a three-legged school to serve the construction needs of all students. Um, Community College has a construction management program and they're relaunching their construction technology program because of our efforts here in Washington County. And last, we have a business, entrepreneurship, sports, and tourism leadership program. Any student, any of our 3,000 students that come out of our CT programs as an 11th grader that
026has an entrepreneurial spirit has the opportunity to take entrepreneurship 101 in the fall, one day a week at Washna, 102 in the spring and 103 the summer after their senior year along with a a work-based learning opportunity. So, they can come out of culinary or advanced manufacturing or building trades or nursing at no cost to them or their family and walk away with a management certificate on their way to college. as a value added piece. So we're launching that this fall. Why do we choose those three? The best leadership program is really a capstone experience after CTE. Engure and construction trades we believe could be a regional hub throughout county. And the aviation aerospace program really is to capture the excitement of students who could go on to a variety of different careers based in
027engineering. And then we've done a lot of research. So, you may have been part of this, but Handover did the research, surveyed over 4,000 individuals in Washington County. We conducted focus groups with business industry, parents, students. Forth Advising is doing a report to the community based on that data. And then we're doing countywide marketing and branding programs um that we've never done before to really let parents know what this has to offer to them and their family. This design process really started with um a think tank last May. It led to the superintendence retreat with business industry partners in August of 2024. And now we are now at the uh community commitment and investment phase. I'm talking to all the board of education. Tomorrow we have a CTE summit at Wash Community College and then
028um after that we'll have the report to the community potentially do some polling to find out where the community is at and then based on that come back to the superintendent with that research to find out how we would proceed potentially with expanded access of the system and a financial model that we could recommend community for November 2021. Be happy to entertain any questions that you may have regarding the presentation. um Dexter or the countywide work. So you mentioned the private sector. How much are they actually funding in this? Because they're short always being short engineers, short nursing, etc. Is there a funding program for private sector that give uh kids a pipeline? They complete the program scholarship wise funding into a job that they fund and they go work as it or forward I
029don't know same thing with right nobody wants to fun the program so I'll give you an example with Zolar manufacturing in Ann Arbor so Zoler has uh their own internship program it's not registered to the state or or the feds really is their own so a student can come there either as part of their engineering CAD program architecture CAD program their senior year as a paid intern the summer after their senior year and then depending if they go off to a lot of students are Michigan Tech, U of M or Michigan State can come back for summer paid internships or if they go to they could serve as an employee at that time as well. Uh Toyota is another one that's at the table that really is dedicated uh funds to the fame program Federation
030of Advanced Manufacturing Education. So that is a earn and learn program. student graduates from high school. They take classes Tuesday, Thursday at Washington Monday, Wednesday, Friday, they're making 20 to 22 bucks an hour. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, working for a variety of different companies um across the region, not just in Washington County. At the end of two years, they've earned an advanced manufacturing technology associates degree um and really have paid for that out of the employment that they've had over that two-year span. U of M health is now at the table and we're looking at ways that we can have students that one are working as part of their senior schedule if they go to WCC or if they are a CNA and they go off to U of M for nursing how could they too
031be at the table through scholarships the latest conversation what's the percentage you're looking to grab a percentage of mean it's it's a question but you're asking for money I mean again asking Yeah, I I don't know if I could spit all the percentage, but I will go back and get that for you and send it to Chris. You can send it your way. Yeah, why is it part of the WD budget? Why don't we make it part of that budget versus a separate goal? The ISD budget really is mostly special general services. most of the things that they do for so they don't have the funding to do this would be if they did go for a million would be okay. Yeah. So vocational education would be a whole separate fund from general fund or
032special Yes. So, is that the goal then? A county by Well, that I I think that's what we're studying at this point. So, tomorrow's the summit. We're bringing those uh the private public sectors together to have that conversation. Um they have not seen this presentation outside the we're really in front of the board of education at this point. tomorrow will be the public and then after that really the press will be out on reports to the community and then if we were to move forward with any type of locationational knowledge it would have to be after polling takes place to find out where the community feels weak land and so the one that you referenced like the 2.9 miles down yeah we'll do in one way it's really high but a lot of the Kazoo
033just passed as a county. Yeah, you can only go up to a one mill anymore after 1994. You can't go higher than one. That's Yeah, you you cannot do that. So that's why when I gave that example of one mil, that's all you can do now and you have to go back to the voters for renewal as I believe you should if anything were to pass. So yeah, you're either prior to 1994 it was for as much as you want for as long or you are with us now which is you could only go up to one and if it passes you have to go back to the voters anymore. How I think it's it's uh seven or eight years. Yeah. is the most. And then would the ultimate goal be to sort of have
034like a center like you're saying like a technical center where all the to offer all the classes there? I think you could have a blended approach here in I'll tell you why. Um currently there are three state-of-the-art worldclass automotive programs. One man, one NFC, and one in swing south consortium. So the only students that do not have an access to that program is Whitmore Lake. So if we could pull Whitmore Lake that'd be only eating fruit, if you look to something like aviation, I look at that as potentially having a neutral site location like at Ann Arbor airport where all students could come together. Um there's others like the building trades program example that I used could be regional so students wouldn't have to be on a bus as long and it could be housed
035within our local district. So I I don't know if it's necessarily a center. I think it's a blended exposure based on what exists and what we could expand. So basically where we're at right now with our WBCTE programs, the expenses to the nine districts and the ISD is approximately $10.35 million a year. And so that would be again approximation of a half mil would maintain what we currently have. Anything above that would expand. But that's at that's at where you explaining that it's less than the the demand for students. Correct. So if you were is that 50% I mean you were just saying that Yeah. So that's that's more like 20 million or 25 million. Yep. And that's correct. And that's really where the polling comes in is we could do this for this amount.
036Let's say it's 7, we could do this for 08, which would be we can maintain our current programs and expand by this. So it really would be if we do this, then we could do that. Um, and that's what would be posed to the community for consideration. One of the things and amongst the southwest Washington consortium is mely offer the CTE classes to the 12th graders. If depending on if we had other funding, we could expand exploration in you're talking about the mental health village that we already have and a new possible village. Well, that's what they're exploring. Yeah, there's exploration today. And again, we would we can't move forward without having the public polling tell us where they would be. And if we go out and we pull, we find out that it's just
037not going to happen. Then we come back to you and Chris and say this is where we like we that data that we'll get from polling we'll have to present to you. Sure. She pretty much ask questions. Would this then replace the general fund contribution that students put in or augmented or is that still PBG? So yeah, I think it's TB because if it happens to have to pass a half mill and really would just maintain our status quo. Um, one more thing I want to add and Chris just mentioned about the exploration is um, when we think about that best leadership program around entrepreneurship as a capstone experience, we really want to drill that down much younger. And so Brian Brutder and myself been meeting with, you know, could we have the current curriculum
038aligned with some entrepreneurial units that really explore the possibility of business approach at fifth and sixth and seventh, eighth grade um leading to intro level classes. And last question. Yeah. So um How long has this been in? How long does this seem to be around? Uh since the early 80s. It's been around for about Southwest Consortium was I think uh four decades. So a long time. I guess. So do you have the data on the success of the students who have participated? I'm sure you speak to all that. That would be interesting. I mean, how much u you know somebody who doesn't have a certificate versus how you know who went through the program, how many people actually pursued the the career in that field and then what their earned potential was. Thank you. And
039I Yep. So, we're we're mandated by the state to do follow-up surveys with our students that complete a CT program every year. Um, it's still done by phone, uh, which is a challenge in itself, but we do have that data. If you don't mind, I will gather that data and I'll get it to Chris. I just be happy to do that. December of 1968, there was one mill operation vocational school village countywide that failed five mills to build a book center. Then there was 1968 and then went again the county went again at 70 and got a little closer. It failed by 1,200 votes. Um and then went again I don't think it's been done in 30 years. I looked it up. Went again in 74. Way worse. It's kind of hot time. Yeah. And
040I think there was one more countywide. It's unique because we're late. Uh Willow Run and Ipsellani used to run one of the largest career technical education centers in the state of Michigan. But Willow Run and Ipsani was just that was the place to be. So the Southwest Washington consortium responded to that at that point. Seline, Chelsea, Dexter, Manchester, Maryland were very they were relatively small schools and the the mission of that consortium was we cannot do alone what we can do best together. And so those five districts came together to form the consortium and then Lincoln joined in 2009. And so those six districts have basically been been operating together for a long portion of time even at the old Selen High School moving to new Selen High School and then expanded to Chelsea Dexter
041and other areas as those programs evolve. Thank you so much. I will follow up one more. Yeah. Is there a reason that the village hasn't been for 50 years or are there benefits to funds coming like they're coming now versus invitation would provide? Yeah, I think well when you see the enrollment in the CT programs, I think especially coming out of COVID that students and families recognize now that there are more than one way to uh proceed with post-secary plans and some of those are in partnership with like that BAM program with our advanced manufacturers and engineering entities. Um, and so I just think there's a different mindset now that students can um, one, before they graduate high school at no cost to them, affirm what they want to do, or more importantly, what they
042don't want to do before they graduate. Um, and two, there's just so many different on-ramps and off-ramps for our students to do whatever they want to be and do. And, uh, we desperately need them. So, those training units are are really in place regardless of which direction you head. And to to kind of answer the question, we look at the history of what's happened in the schools in Michigan. So um back 60s and 70s a lot of vocational programs 80s this area in the 80s and 90s had huge tax supposedly passed 94. So districts were at 25 30 mills to operate. So passing anything at that time was challenging. So you did everything locally but teacher searchs were more flexible. So you could find teachers and teach all kinds of career tech classes. And then
043late 90s, early 2000s is when the whole country made the big shift to basically turn every high school to a college prep school. Yes. And they eliminated shop classes, auto classes, everything. And put in what we live with now with graduation requirements that you need four years of math, four years of English, four years of social studies, etc. took all the time out of the day to take any of those classes and it made certification so hard back remember the highly qualified etc. It made it really hard to get people certified for courses. And then meanwhile when that shift happened, all the universities then cut all their preparation program for CT programs for CTE certified teachers. So even when you try to add it back, there's nowhere to get a graduate. So now they're loosening
044up because the need is really there. But it's we're just a reflection of what's going on in history. Thank you very much. appreciate it. Thank you. Great. Thanks for what you do. I think it's really important as board or as all boards in our county to understand what is available to us and what the potential options are. All right. At this point, we are at our time for public participation. Each speaker is allotted a maximum of five minutes for a total of approximately 30 minutes unless otherwise notified. At this point in the meeting, those interested in making a public comment will be asked to raise their hands, so the time may be divided equally. Each speaker will be asked to announce their name and district of residents and indicate if they represent any organization or
045agency. No person may speak more than once on the same subject during a single meeting or yield their time to another speaker. Please note that the board does not respond to comment during the meeting and those wishing to receive a personal response from the board or superintendent must complete a public comment form which is available at the meeting entrance and on our website. If you have a single form tonight and Mr. Roberts, good evening members of the board of education. My name is Eric John Roberts. I'm a former school board member. I served six years on the Kenow Hills public schools board of education outside of Grand Rapids before moving to the Ann Arbor area to attend law school, attend my graduate studies. I'm here tonight because I'm a candidate for ISD school board uh
046this year. This is an election that all nine school districts boards of educations weigh in on uh during the month of May. And then in the first Monday in June, uh representative from each of the nine boards will get together at the ISD and cast the the ballots based on what you've talked about and decided in your May meeting. Um why am I running for the board of education? Um I have a passion for students. uh for the past four years throughout my undergrad um and while I work between undergrad and graduate and now in graduate school I've been a substitute teacher and I did that because uh in my law program I'm going into disability and education law as well as public defense and I knew that I wanted to have a better understanding
047of one what it is that teachers do on the daily while I was a school board members when I started substitute teaching and two, what do accommodations look like? How do they operate in a classroom? Uh, and and what goes into those uh IEP meetings. And so I've got some great experience um substitute teaching here in county um and at the ISD. Um, and I and I wanted to do that to to better understand more of the operations of a school district and and best advocate for students um, as a board member and as a an advocate for public education. During my time on the Kennall Hill School Board, I put in more than 2,000 hours of uh, training in how to become the best advocate for students I could. I've earned the MASB President's
048Award of Recognition. Um, I believe in record time perhaps. Um, especially around when the the the COVID era began, I spent a lot of time um on buses, you know, feeding the kids in my community. Um, we took our elementary bus routes and turned that into uh really a food route because a lot of parents were losing um their source of income and our primary response was making sure that we connected with students every day. So, one of the things that I talk about um bringing to the ISD a little and and continuing to ask this question and it's one of the reasons I chose to live here in Wasnutak County is because this county will be the first county in the state to connect every home to to the fibers that allow highspeed internet
049access to occur. um if we can reach every student, we know that this is a vital need for all of our young people and and this would be a monumental um um so there's a lot of work that's already gone into that and I'd like to keep talking about that especially at the ISD table, you know, monitoring um implementation of the county's plans uh to expand broadband access. Um, I presented at two MASB conferences myself. Um, so I'm well verssed and and really the the benefits of attending any kind of training is getting to meet schoolboard members to talk with you all about what's going on in your districts. Um, I've seen Dr. Rose's presentation now, I think, four or five times. We're kind of on the same rotation, I guess. Um, but I'm getting
050to all nine districts to um see what it is that you're working on here that you're passionate about, to share information about myself. I provided the board chair of eight copies of uh some more information about me. And on the front here is a calendarly link that's got my availability from now till u miday when this election takes place. Um, if any of you would like to sit down and talk to me um, individually or perhaps at at 21on or email me any questions, I'm happy to get back to you to share my thoughts about um, what the ISD uh, can do to improve on and collaborate more with local districts. And I really thought it necessary to get out and meet everybody. Um, so this is number seven for me. I've got two left.
051Um, I'll be at the CTE summit that's happening tomorrow to also, you know, see how the community feels about this and I hope to see some of you there as well. Thanks. Thank you so much for being here. I do have materials for Is there anyone else who would like to address the board? Moving on to our administrative and board updates. We'll start with superintendent. Um, dread. Red Bots finished third over the weekend and are now ranked fourth in the state. So they're a good trajectory to make the states and then world be great. Spring break is next week. Um we have a final four on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. Well center had some people show up for the last chip away. Sports are in full swing. I don't want to take anything. Um, I
052just have two uh quick updates. Um, the Washington Association of School Boards met last week and they did nominate a new slate of officers for the next year. I am going to be the Legislative Relations Network chair next year. So, um, please feel free to join me in breakfast. Congratulations. Congratulations. Um, it means I'm ultimately responsible for bringing together the concerns of the districts to make sure they're on the agenda in front of our legislators. I I actually think it it is in my opinion one of the most valuable parts of the WSB is being able to come together and uh as a group of districts make sure people know what we are worried about paying attention. Um and then the second thing is just I want to highlight what Mr. uh Roberts mentioned which
053is that there are WISD elections this year. And for those who are new to this I will just remind people um and let everyone know that the Washington or that the yeah the ISD board is elected by its member districts. So our board come together to say who we are voting for and we will choose a delegate from amongst us to go in person to vote and that is how the IS but lucky Thank you for being my practice then at 5:30 so I will be here. Um but that also means that most like all the winter sports are done. Um states for swim um has finally finished up and ended open this weekend around four but there were a lot that made state and they happy ending. Um but again spring courts has started
054up. Um for some of them it's been two for a couple week three. Some of them are even really getting into it already. Waterfall has a lot of games, a lot of scrimmages already. Um has had some scrimmages, soccer, everything's kind of getting things. Um tennis we have a match Wednesday I guess. Um I would say pull up and watch but don't watch me if you watch me. Um but hopefully it'll be our first one of the season. So um last Monday was the career fair. I thought it was really helpful. There was a mixed opinion that really depended on what people were looking for in it and if they had a career they were looking forward to see um unfortunately a lot of the not a lot but a handful of people had to
055cancel last minute. So a couple students were left be careers they weren't exactly interested in. So again for some others and I think to touch on what we've already heard in this meeting getting started with mistakes a lot earlier I think really is because even though I have a sense of direction since again I'm getting so close to college like my other students it's very stressful to kind of reach out. It's almost like you want to force yourself into liking something that's kind of feel pressured to you. But when you're in younger grades, you don't have any of that pressure and the ability to explore is just a lot easier for you and you don't feel stressed about, oh, maybe I'll talk to her later day and then chef the next day versus now maybe
056I just need to pick something. Um, so I think this whole idea of trying to expand the options no matter what way we do it, but having those options and exploration, starting a bit younger so kids really aren't as stressed into it um when they're older is really and then spring break testing post spring break is not going to be very relaxing, but hopefully that week will get us prepared for all the testing. Would you like us to order t-shirts that say I survived test pass 2025? Well, that we'll see if I survive. That's great. Thank you for the update. Thank you for the commentary on Okay, I didn't interrupt you, right? You're wrong. Okay. Um, we are moving on to our consens. I'll move that. Second. Have a motion and a second. All those
057in favor say I. Any opposed. All right. Moving on to action items for this evening. Um first we are looking at um policies and we have a second reading. These actually were on our agenda two meetings ago. Um this evening's packet contains several policies. 3213 electronic funds and automating clearing house arrangements. 3303 opposition real property. 3309 bus inspections. 6604 required designated reserve funds. And these policies were approved for first reading on February 24th for second reading and final. I'll move that the board of education approve attach policies 3313 3302 3309 and final second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion that this is an act? Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Okay. Um, we also have two policies that are up to be resended. I move the board of education resend policy 6680 and 5106
058of order 14168 and 1419. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Can we do a roll call, please? Mr. Arnold, I Moving on to the auditor extension. This evening's packet includes a proposal from Freeman for extending the district's contract. This was considered and recommended by the finance committee at the February 10th meeting. The packet also includes a memo from CFO Christy regarding a proposed extension of the distress quantity contract. I'll move 2526. I'm sorry. 2425. Thank you. Motion and a second discussion may services several years ago and in that process we came back in that contract. We agreed that we would consider extensions at the end of the contract. And if we remain I would add that the um it's discussion about the length of of working with the same auditor and
059um Christie rightly pointed out that every year there's a different quality control there's different whole set of series of different monitors on this project we rotate. So it's not like we have the same So that that helps me will there be opportunity to reset again and extend it again or is it all out? So we don't have any board approval to continue to pass this two year. Okay. Um, so I would expect that we found this keeps our cost pretty close when we read it. So we're locked in significantly yeah I mean this was my first year here obviously going presentation the most important is not just the audit it's the support throughout the year as we're navigating situations like theuh most recent We had to do a refund. The state gave us money to
060refund the 3% healthare contributions of some of and helping navigate. Okay, how do we do this? How do we make it so it's clean so that the audit we're not redoing? So, and all of that is and they're responsive. There's also there's always a pre audit meeting. So, when audit is kicked off um it will come and meet the finance committ. So if any board members has concern or any community member back they reach out to us and we could discuss that during the pre audit. He's very very responsive. I moving on into our discussion items. Um we tonight are discussing the remaining 2017 bond projects and uh Dexter Community Schools successfully all major objectives outlined in the 2017 bond application. Our packet includes a memo out outlining some of the projects with remaining funds
061and recommend and a recommendation of the board of education the use of some remaining bond funds from these projects to support allowable bond funded projects for any currently owned school district property and this item is presented for the section. Um, so there's a memo. We worked with our attorneys on the right process for this. We have, and this is actually a really timely way to do this because we have a this your first bot that we have on the on this is what happens at the end of So in the original plans, we had budgeted outside creek side to change that driveway that we just put up barricades at. Um, we were originally going to put a giant driveway with two houses and there was a trash and we had budgeted a plan and was
062going to do this uh homeless loop around and we're going to change the then city township and the road commission we all got together and worked on the roundabout which meant that we no longer had to do the flow. Actually that flow we planned at the time doesn't work well right there. It will mess up the flow of the ground. So we no longer need those funds that we set aside for that project at Bates. We budget and replace the drinking fountain projects. We're still okay. Um cornerstone we budgeted for a rain shelter for the bus hub. We ended up doing solar water. Um for buses, we received 300,000 $34,000 in Volkswagen settlement grant buses. So we don't need that 300,000 for five months. Um site acquisition, we budgeted $100,000 for purchasing property. It was
063really thinking through when we did a new construction, we needed an easement or if we needed a little strip of land somewhere, etc. based on the projects we have left. We know the buy operation and then Copeland we had about 800,000 budgeted in Copeland originally for upgrades. So what what action would do on this is allowing the bond funds that were unspent these projects and they're not all unspent portions left um to be used on any property we own any new property in case we had so we had a go on a new property we could actually carry over um we have to expend we have to appropriate But it gives us the ability that if we had to do an emergency, yeah, we could. And if we had something that made sense when we
064had the final component, then we could, but we'd always go through the facilities that process. It just is the formality to be able to be really transparent. Here's things we chose not to do and why. And now it opens up to in 2016 when this proposal was put together on boards like that. Now we're in 2025 and we got money. We chose not to do these projects but we have a different campus. So it just allows that place a sense of the dollar. Um we're we got a spreadsheet. It's like a million something. Yeah, but that not all some of it things. So, we're still we had some interest in we have some things like Craig's wrapping up a couple of the big projects that were the u giant like the uh rooftop units and
065things like that. So, we have some money there. Um I think I want to say it's like a million million and a half. It's in that range. We're wrapping up all it's not building. like a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit there, but it adds up. And just to reiterate what you said, anything that is paid for out of bond funds always comes back or the big ones that are shown to be made up if it's over the threshold. But there's sometimes we set up threshold and we have to bring there's like small Yeah, I I guess I just for the community members who are asking the larger projects that are done out of bond funds will continue to come in front of us even if it's from these funds that
066we are going to technically approve to not be the original. Um we are now at our time for our second public participation section. Is there anyone like moving on to board comments about I did attend a career last week as a presenter just was a good perspective and some were some were pretty engaging. some of the speakers had interesting jobs. So, I thought it was a good really good first first shot at it. I'm sure we'll learn as we go, but I was surprised at the number of members. It was over. Yeah. um willing to sit at a table and present multiple time the same number of people or the same people. I thought it was great. I presented so I was one of the career presenters and we had three sessions of students and
067uh some students were more interested and more engaging than others, but I think it's just good for them to learn and hear from people in different professions. Um I'm happy to report that we have a student that already reached out and wants to come and shadow job shadow over spring break. So my um the attorney in my unit is I said find a good docket like find something very exciting for her to come and watch and um but it's just you know they can come and watch and see what it's like to to be in court and and that is something. So I really enjoyed it and I I thought it was great. Some students like thought they wanted to do that. Maybe some were signed up for something that they didn't want, but I
068thought it was great and I hope that they continue to do it. I definitely did hear about students after it was done, which is good. So they don't almost like to see they pick two that they like and maybe they just got thrown in one, you know, just random. They almost did they were we had we had more speakers. They were canceling it. week or two before we had over. I thought it was great. And my other comment is um and maybe this the drinking fountain some of that extra money got giant grant. So we just got awarded. Yes, I have a filter first RFP ready to go for about $400,000. We just got our grant award letter to the state of Michigan yesterday. So I we were waiting until we had money in hand
069so that RFP will go out that will replace all. So what should I tell the students? It would be it will be there in the fall. We have to put on our we have to put out our people. I would like to say yes by Paul, but it all depend on come in within what we can afford and and the fact that every school in the state of Michigan has the awards and grants to do it. So it could be that's why I was ready to go since we got the award to get it on the street so we could be ready to go. Is that good news? I think I we a bunch of them over the years. The kids are tough on They really are. It's like the shot. Anybody else with a
070comment or All right. Um our packet includes information items. We have uh minutes from the finance committee. We have nice job notes from January. And we have SDA minutes. Um, and we do have a close session tonight. So, can I get a motion to close session board of education to discuss a motion and a second? Hi thank you very much everybody. Thank you for coming out. Yeah, I forgot my cheaters. I can't see. Can I just quit? I don't have my cheaters on right now. There are red in