001Welcome everyone to the Taylor School District regularly scheduled board meeting of November 15th, 2023 where our mission statement is to educate, engage, and empower those we serve. And our vision statement is that we will be the innovative destination destination district where all succeed. This meeting is called to order at 6:00. Miss Block >> here. >> Mr. Heath >> here. >> Mr. Myers >> here. >> Mr. Thomas here. Mrs. Thomas >> here. >> Miss Shufo >> here. >> Mr. Wright is here. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, >> first up on our agenda is our student representatives. Before we have them come
002up, I just want to kind of take a little time to talk about uh why we have student representatives come to the board. So, as you all may know, we don't get to go to the buildings all the time while you all are there. So this is the opportunity that we get to bring you here to present to us the board um what's going on in your elementary to see all the cool things and to hear all the cool things that you all are doing. So first I want to say thank you and the board has a goal set throughout the whole year to have every single elementary come and present to the board and speak. And so it's a great opportunity for us to engage with you. And so I just wanted to say
003first off thank you for being here. Um, and tonight we have the honor of celebrating Kenyan Elementary and we have the student council and the student council advisor, Miss Swain and >> All right, Miss Damron, is that >> Cameron? Um, they'll be here. So, Miss Swain, go ahead. >> Thank you for having us. Good evening. My name is Savannah Swain and I am a fourth grade teacher at Kenyon Elementary. Along with my colleagues Ashley Cameron who teaches third, Miranda Barry who teaches fourth, who is not here today, and Stacy Burns who teaches fifth, who is also not here. Um, we oversee the student council. As former students who were involved in student council throughout our years in school, we had similar visions in how we wanted to run and maintain a successful program. So starting
004off, in order to be a part of student council, we had an application process where third through fifth grade students filled out an application and they included information such as why they wanted to be in student council and how they would help the school. Um we then went to teachers to ask for recommendations. We received over 50 applications. So um choosing our representatives were very very hard. Um this year we accepted 24 awesome students as leaders. One vision we had with the student council was to ensure that they were representing our school in positive and kind ways. In order to ensure that this was happening, we created a student, parent, teacher leader contract. So we were all involved in that. This contract included expectations that all students should be following in order to stay in
005the program. Together we believe that student council members should maintain high expectations. Those expectations include being safe, being respectful, being responsible, and of course being kind. We believe that our members should demon demonstrate these expectations at all times during the school day. Our contract highlights these expectations. This contract has helped students bring back the excitement and sense of privilege it is to be a part of the student council. Along with the contract, we believe that building relationships and teaching good teamwork skills is essential to our success. We started off our first student council meetings by building relationships and establishing a community. We wanted our students to have a positive relationship with us as well as each other. We have continued to establish and foster these important values within each of our student council activities. Each
006of our meetings start with a community circle and include a team building activity. Each activity relates to something we are working on as a student council such as fundraisers. We will continue to build on this with them throughout the school year as we complete certain projects and tasks. Our student council is self-supporting. We raise all of our own funds to support our service projects. We raise funds in multiple different ways. One of our first fundraisers was selling boograms. These were Halloween themed treats that students could send to one another at school or take them home for their families. We sold over 700 boograms. The profits from these boograms will be going towards blessings in a bag. These are bags that will be donated to a homeless shelter through our music teacher, Mrs. Brady. Currently, we
007are working on a fundraiser with Bubbas and Taylor where students have the opportunity to sell gift cards. A portion of these proceeds will come back to the student council funds. This will help us in completing other projects. After that, we will be selling holiday grams. Holiday grams will include hot chocolate and candy canes to create peppermint hot chocolate. Some of our future fundraisers include smelles and Valentine's grams. Some of our future projects include cereal drive, which with donations going to the Taylor School District Family Resource Center and the Taylor Animal Shelter pet food drive. Some of our funds will also be going towards purchase purchasing things for Kenyon like walkietalkies and replacements for the recess cart. Along with all of these wonderful projects and fundraisers, we will be taking student input on other opportunities to
008better our school and community. The one thing we do know for certain is that this is a wonderful group of kids. They are a true example that you are never too young to make a difference. Miss Barry, Miss Burns, Miss Swain, and I are extremely proud of their dedication and how they demonstrate responsibility and greatness every day. We would like to recognize all of our student council members today. All right, I'll call you up one by one. Ready? Our student council members are Daniel Sadler, >> Yahir Ramos, Abby Bell, Maddie Mcbaden, Ian Hajazi, Jacob Hun, Jacob Vaner, Zach Meyers, Addie Mcbaten, Delilah Avon Davis and then I'd also like to recognize our students who couldn't be here but they are on student council so I'll read their names as well. We have Luke Laacada, Isabella
009Spano, Gabrielle Parker, Vivana Concincaid, Stevie Campbell, Abigail Laken, James Porter, Ansley Shoemake, Riker Flannry, Molina Cornenko, Levi Damron, Santino Barnett, Delasia Almanza, and Elena Garner. Can we get a photo of the kids with the advisors and face your parents because I know your parents want photos too. So, can you >> Thank you. I have a span of >> there are >> how many we have enough to give her for the Thank you. >> Thank you for having us. >> Yes. Well, I just want to say thank you student leaders for being here tonight. Thank you for telling us about all of the awesome activities that you do throughout the year. And just know that your leading doesn't stop at Kenyon. I hope you all take the step to continue on in student council and any
010other leadership position as you move up to middle school and then into high school. But keep making change and positive change at Kenyon, too. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for making that school an amazing place. So, thank you. And then we are going to go through our good news and then after that we can dismiss. I know it's a school night and I know everyone wants to get home. It's dinner time. So once we get through our good news then we'll have a time for everyone to dismiss who wants to leave and if you want to stay please feel free to. So um first up on our good news uh we wanted to bring up our student count. Um, so for the first time in I believe it's over, >> it's
011been quite some time. >> Yeah, it's been quite time. Our student count in the district is up and that's an amazing feat. It's the work of a lot of dedicated individuals in this district from our staff to our support staff to the administration. Um, and so we just want to recognize that it's with hard work that people want to come to Taylor and be here in Taylor. So we just thank them. um and to say we're we are up 125 students. So those who are wondering, so just thank you. Thank you to the staff for your hard work. It's amazing. Um second, we have the Taylor Masonic Lodge. Um so each year the Masonic Golden Ark 5 95 on Gddard Road, uh they find us Taylor Parks. They dedicate coats and boots to the elementary.
012So, I just wanted to give them a shout out and thank them for their donation of uh coats and boots to the students there at Taylor Parks. You can see they're photoed right there. Um, and then third, as you can see as you were walking in the building, it probably looks a little different in here. Little under construction. Um, so this will be our last board meeting here at the board of education here. After this meeting, we will be having our first board meeting at the new location, which is an older building, but it is the former Break Middle School, former sixth grade academy, probably many more names, now the board of education. So, um, that's where our board will be moving over to after this meeting. So, we just wanted to pay tribute to
013this building and the many years of service it's given our district. So, all right, at that this point, you're free to head out if you want. feel free to stay too. So, thank you all. Thank you for being here. Do you want me to >> donuts? >> I wish. Right. We will move on to item number five on on our agenda. Revision/approval of the agenda, Miss Block. >> Okay. Revisions. Approval of the agenda for policy 166. Are there any revisions to the agenda? >> Yes. We will be adding item number 10 to the discussion items and that is the overnight conference request to Traverse City, Michigan and Mr. Gribble will be talking about that. Um and then also on action items, we will add action item number 11 which is the conference request to Trevor
014City. >> Okay. Are there any other revisions to the agenda? Hearing none. Is there a motion to accept by agenda? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Heath. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufeld? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Missy? Yes. This passes seven days. No. >> All right. Moving on to item number six, our scheduled reports. We have the Taylor Public Schools Foundation for Education Excellence, Armando and Linda. >> First, thank you for your time on the agenda this evening. My name's Armando Sardinop, the current president of the Taylor Found Education Foundation. Just want to bring you up to date on a few things that we've been doing and
015are going to be doing. Uh first I want to say uh we've been taking advantage of the fact that the staff meetings are now on a weekly basis. It's giving us an opportunity to go and visit the schools and making presentations to them. It gives us a chance to promote things we're doing. But the other thing too is last year we started for the first time and a significant number of the staff didn't know who we were, what we were doing. Now a significant number of the staff knows who we are and what we're doing and it is working out really good really good for us so far. Um, a couple of activities we have going on. December 13th is a breakfast that's going to take place at the U CV cafe. It's a breakfast
016that's thanking all the donors uh scholarship donors and other donors that have helped us out during the course of the year. That's on the 13th of uh December. Uh the other thing that we have going on, I put flyers out. We have a fundraiser going this uh Saturday. It's a dueling pianos fundraiser. We've done it before uh I think about four or five years ago. We we uh did it two years in a row. Uh fortunately, we have over 200 people already that are attending. Uh it's been it's hopefully we can handle it. It's really we're expecting a lot of people actually at the door from what we've we've heard. So, we're expecting a pretty large crowd and expect it's going to be a good time because the gentleman that does it, Mike Dave Caruso,
017I got to say Michael because he's got a brother, Michael. Dave Caruso does a fantastic job doing it. He was the one that did it the last time when we were in they were here at Taylor. Uh the other thing that we've done, we last year we joined the uh Michigan Education Foundation. It gives us an opportunity to network with other uh groups in in the state of Michigan. And one thing we've been able to take advantage of um we've invited the executive director of the Dearbornne uh foundation to a couple of our meetings. Dearbornne raises hundreds of thousands of dollars. Uh and one of the things we wanted to try to do with our contact with the uh Michigan Education Foundation is to learn how we can raise more money. So again, we invited
018her to a couple of meetings. She gave us a couple of ideas and we're starting to take advantage of those ideas. And actually, we're doing a couple of those ideas for the fundraiser this coming uh this coming weekend. And getting back to fundraisers, if anybody's interested to tickets, I've got tickets to uh the fundraiser if you're interested in buying additional tickets uh for the weekend. And uh that's really my part of the story. And uh Linda, she's had she's a vice president, also chaired the u grant approval process. you going to tell you about? >> Okay. Thanks for having us. I'm Linda Nuome. I'm the vice president. We had a very very successful uh grant program this year. We had more than we've ever had before. We had $10,000. Our limit most years has been
0195,000. And with this fundraiser, we hope that we can increase it even more because we had more demand than we had funds. We actually gave out within a few cents the uh entire $10,000. We gave to eight different schools and 14 different teachers. It big success. So I hope all of you will be at the fundraiser buying those raffle tickets because that's free money for us. So thanks for having us. come and enjoy the the dueling pianos on Saturday night. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate the time. Thank you. >> And get a hold of you two if we're looking for tickets, right? That's what we should tell the public. Get a hold of you two to get tickets. >> All right. Moving on to item number seven on our agenda. We have our
020discussion items. First up, we have our outofstate field trip request, Sanduski, Ohio. We have Mr. Burgler on Zoom, I believe. >> Hello. >> Yep, we can hear you. >> Okay. Good evening, everyone. Uh, my name is Jim Burchler. For those of you who don't know me, I'm the band director at Hoover Middle School. Sorry that I cannot be there tonight in person. I have another meeting to attend uh in Ann Arbor tonight. So, for the past 30 years, I've been taking our Hoover band students to Cedar Point. Mrs. Kriner, who is our new choir director at Hoover, and I have the privilege of teaching some of the hardest working, most dedicated and talented students at Hoover. Our groups collectively perform over 15 concerts each school year. So the purpose really of the field trip uh
021to Cedar Point is to reward these band and choir students for all their hard work and dedication throughout the school year. We also use it as a recruiting tool to get other students in interested in joining our music programs. Uh for many of our students, this trip is the first time that they will be on a trip without their families. are. Of course, the students enjoy the rides and entertainment at the park, but they also learn valuable life skills such as time management, learning to read a park map, asking for help, working through relational challenges with their partner, budgeting their money throughout the day, learning how to order their own food, overcoming the fear of riding rides, following directions, and the biggest um lesson learned is don't eat a double cheeseburger. burger, fries, and a
022milkshake before going on the biggest and fastest roller coaster at the park. Um, so anyway, our field trip will take place on Friday, May 31st. We charter three buses and we'll have a district approved chaperone for every 8 to 10 students. Mrs. Kryer and myself will have a meeting with the chaperones before we leave in order to ensure the safety of our students at all times throughout the day. and just wanted to open it up to any questions that you all might have for me. >> Is there any discussion >> other than thank you for planning this? We appreciate that. >> Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you. >> Moving on to item number two, overnight conference requests, Lancing, Michigan. Miss Delto, >> well, thank you. Um, I'm asking the board to approve a conference for
023me to attend the MASPA conference. MASPA is the Michigan Association of School Administrators. Uh the conference will be held December 6th through the 8th and it is in Lancing. And um during the conference you there's a lot of breakout sessions and um the sessions will touch on teacher certifications and permits, audits, grievances, arbitration, educator shortage. So that's going to be a real interesting one because we're experiencing that ourselves. Uh uh legal updates in education and other topics. It also gives me an opportunity to network with other HR professionals and um once you start building that network process, you uh you know come across something kind of odd or something that you haven't experienced, then you can give people a call and say, "Hey, have you ever had this in your district?" So, it's it's a
024nice opportunity to um to definitely build a network. >> That's it. >> Is this being paid through title two? This >> I don't think so. >> No. What is >> I mean if it can be I would that'd be great. >> Do we know what the conference being through? >> I think typically this would be >> that's what it's always been in the past. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Any discussion? Moving on to item number three, our Corewell Health consent and care policy. Miss Donahghue. I wanted to make sure I got that right. Did I? Okay. >> Thank you. Okay. So, um we have an inter agency agreement with Taylor school district for our school wellness program over at Taylor High School. And we had to change um a minor spot in our consent for care
025policy. And I can hand these out. Do you all want a consent for care policy >> so you can see or do you have a copy? >> Yeah, I was gonna say. Okay. So on page three of four at the very top it says one it says the SWP consent for treatment form will be utilized at each S SWP and then A it says all S all services are outlined in the consent form. So that's the minor change that we made to the consent policy and for inter agency agreement we need board's approval for the consent for care policy. So that's why I'm here today. >> Any discussion? >> All right. Thank you. Appreciate your time. >> Thank you. >> Moving on to item number four, our 2022 2023 Morgan and or Taylor and Morgan
026annual audit report. >> Mr. McKenzie. >> Yes. >> All right. My name is Mike McKenzie. I am a partner with Taylor and Morgan. Been performing your school district audit for 10 years at this point. Um, I see a lot of new faces. If anyone doesn't recognize me, been around. If anyone ever wants to talk to me, please reach out. Love to help you if you don't understand something. Presentation up and you're going to click through it for me. We're actually going to circle back to a lot of the things you guys just talked about. Uh, the most important thing is the auditor's opinion. So, we issued an unmodified opinion, which is you can't not get that at this point. Basically, we're saying that everything is materially accurate. You did what you were supposed to do.
027We did what we were supposed to do. You passed. Pay job. Uh, your audits conducted under generally accepted auditing standards and governmental auditing standards because you guys are a government entity. Slide. So, you guys talked about adding 100 kids to your student count. One of the things we track very closely is student counts because student counts derive the vast majority of your uh so for I mean I'm sure we could look the data is in there but for many years you guys have been kind of bleeding off kids. Adding 100 kids is amazing news. Congratulations. Like super great because next slide the vast majority of your money comes from the state of Michigan and it's on head headcount basis. They've ever so slowly been increasing this amount of money that you get per kids. You
028can see it kind of it was fairly flat for quite a long time because the state of Michigan has primarily been giving you more money to pay back the pension liabilities that exist in the Miper system, which we're going to talk about a little bit later. But having headcounts go up is very important because adding a 100 kids at $9,000 a pop and I think it went up maybe another $400 or $500 this year for in the foundation like >> 95600 9 to650. You know, it's simple math. 100 times 9600 is a lot of money to add to just general fund. No restrictions, right? And a lot of the other stuff you do is also based on headcounts, too. So, all good news. Next one. Uh, so kind of where did the money come from
029in 2022? The the vast majority of your money comes from the state foundation grant. Um, for the last three four years since COVID, uh, your piece of the federal pie has gotten a lot bigger. you guys got a lot of ESRE money. Uh you still have a significant chunk of ESRE money that you're going to spend through this year and then once we get to the other side of that ESSER money, that number is going to drop off substantially. I would not expect a lot more new federal money to come down the pipeline. It sounds like based on other board presentations I've sat through in the last month or so, there's a lot of very targeted grants coming out now, like very specific state of Michigan grants targeting very narrow things that are in the
030hundreds of thousands of dollars instead of the tens of millions of dollars range. Um, you guys did a really good job over the last three years of not spending out of control just because all this extra money came through. So, I'm not incredibly concerned uh based on last year. I haven't seen any of this year's numbers. I don't know what it looks like, but just based on what I know from past, I think it's been handled well. Next one. Um where you spend your money, very consistent with every other school in general. You are in the business of employing teachers to educate kids. 83% of your money goes to salaries and benefits. that piece of that pie has gotten bigger and bigger and bigger over the years because of the retirement expenditures related to this.
031And we're actually going to follow back up on this later, but most of the money you spend is on payroll and headcounts, salaries and benefits, stuff like that. Next one. Uh mostly what people care about in these discussions, especially war members, is how the general fund do, where's our fund balance. You guys have been adding to fund balance pretty consistently over the years. A lot of that is because of the federal monies. They gave you the ability through the last few years of supplanting, which is normally a really big no no. Like you were never allowed to take something you were already spending money on and just cover it with federal money until no one could figure out how to spend all this ESR money and so they let you do it. You guys have
032done a really good job of not committing to spending money that won't exist in future years as far as I can tell. So very happy with that result and it has you know you've outpaced it. The next slide is fund balance over time. You can see we've just been adding to it. Some of this is uh you know surely we will claw back down at some point but I think you guys are in a pretty good place at this point for for where we are. The next one I I love this slide as like kind of a metric of where we at compared to everyone else. So we can only look at a year ago's stuff for the everyone else because that information doesn't come out soon. Uh so fund balance over expenditures you guys
033had I think it's 26% which was you know 56% over the average you had enough fund balance to pay for 50 days 47 days of school activities which given the size of your district is a lot of money. Uh and I I love the note at the bottom. How do you equate this to real life? That amount of fund balance is like someone who makes 50 grand having 13 grand in their savings account, which is an absurd amount of money for someone who makes $50,000 for the most part. Next slide. Uh the biggest thing we t tend to draw attention to on your general fund balance sheet is the due from other governments. So you end the year in June and you are still owed a significant amount of money over the next two months.
034Anything that you receive in July and August is available to the school and we recognize it. So you have two more state aid payments and then there's always kind of the the wash and reconciliation of the federal monies through the end of the year because you can't ask for federal money until you spend federal money. So this number kind of creeps up. You can see yours peaked very highly. Pretty much everyone did because of all the co money. Uh it's starting to come back down. I would expect maybe one more year of a big number and then it'll kind of plateau. Uh, food service is always the thing that we keep an eye on just because you can get in trouble for not spending enough food service money. You guys are safely within that one.
035You spent about exactly what you brought in. It's great. Um, I know there's a lot of big projects and stuff going on around here these days. So, you know, you guys are doing a good job managing it. I'm not concerned. You're not going to get a nasty letter from the state. That's pretty much what we worry about with food service. Next one. Uh, the center program pretty consistent year-over-year. your special ed is funded into its own function. Um, it pays back a little bit of money to the indirect cost of the general fund, but in general, it kind of runs itself. Big picture stuff. Kick on to the next one. So, the reason things have become so expensive with payroll is the retirement rate. So, you pay the better part of I think the average
036is like 30% now after you net out all the other money they give you. So for every dollar of payroll you pay 30 cents of it goes to mipers on on top of the dollar that you pay the person. That rate as you can see has gone up and up and up. It will continue to go up and up and up because next slide the number of people working gone really far below the number of people retired. And I believe you said a minute ago that everyone's having trouble finding teachers. Like not being able to fill this gap of people paying into the system just perpetuates the problem. And what it creates is this giant liability the state of Michigan has for the Mipers fund. Next one which is $ 37 billion. Now, your portion
037of it is half a less than half a percent. But you on your on the statement in that position, the very front financial statements that are kind of like if Taylor was a business, what would it look like? You recognize that $173 million liability that you owe for your teachers, for your part of the payroll. That's what Taylor would have to pay to make the the Mipers fund whole. Clearly, you're not going to do it. And it it goes wildly in different directions. Like I think this is up $30 million from what it was the year before because changes in the market. You know, two years ago the market was great. Last year the market's down. This year it's fairly flat. But this number just kind of gyates all over the place. It there's nothing
038you can do about it. You're just required to recognize it as part of your financials because it is part of your payroll. Next one. Um, the only big thing that happened this year that wouldn't be there last year is recognizing the long-term liabilities and benefits of subscriptionbased information technology arrangements. So, if you if you sign a contract for a long-term software package, we have to recognize that you owe money in the future, possibly a material amount of money, millions of dollars, and you have a thing, access to the software that you get to use. This is not anything that anyone really ever cares about. We talked about this last year with leases. If you lease a building, you have a long-term obligation. You have the right to use the building. We have to put it
039on the financial statements. It doesn't really change anything for anyone. It's kind of a governmentwide adjustment that Gazby requires us to do. Doesn't really impact us. The good news is, as far as we know, there's nothing really exciting coming down the pipeline in terms of new gazes. We for many years we had you know adding that pension obligation and then adding the health insurance pension obligation and then doing the leases and doing software. It's been like five or six years of like very heavy things in the like high-end accounting world. Don't think we have as much to worry about at least for the next few years until they come up with something new. Who knows? I guess we'll find out. Um that's just about everything I have to talk about. If anyone has any questions,
040happy to answer them. you guys want to reach out to me at a later time, your business office has to get a hold of me. >> So, I do have one question. Yeah. When going through the report, um when I was going through the findings, it stated that there was a finding talking about the district exceeded its budget that was the final amendment that was approved by $2 million. Uh, yes, there was a I don't have a report in front of me, but um there was a a budget line that exceeded its approvals >> because I talked about how it talked about how it went to the amended and then went to the final budget amendment was approved but the expenditure budget was higher than what the final approval was. >> Right. So that was
041one of the findings of the last. So in general you the you are required you you approve budgets say how you spend the money. >> If the business office or the district spends money in excess of what you've approved state of Michigan generally doesn't like it. >> Yeah. >> Um so it it is not necessarily a required finding for us to do it. >> Okay. >> Uh I mean findings in general are not you know it's not necessarily like a problematic thing like you're not going to the state's not going to come after you for anything. We just use them to draw out attention for things like there are some single audit findings like if you um spend money in a f or ask for money in a federal program that you literally should not
042have spent money that is a significant single audit finding. It's a question cost. You will hear from probably the Fed, probably the state. Uh financial statement findings are more of big picturey things like uh internal control things like hey you when you do your final budget you should kind of know what you're spending and then spend that uh things happen probably every school that we did had a finding except for like very small charters who don't really have that thing it's not really the end of the world for us it's just a matter of like hey as of you know June 29th when you had to pass that budget you thought you were going to spend this much. By the time we got to October when we did it, you know, we either picked up
043some cost or had to shuffle things around such that you might have thought the spending was going to be in, you know, this function and it ended up in that function. So, it's not so much that overall you budgeted to spend or you you didn't budget to spend this money. It's that maybe you didn't budget to spend it inside the function. Does that make sense? Right. >> And I think there was there another finding for material audit adjustment. >> Something was coded wrong. >> No, we had a miscode. >> Yeah, miscode. Yep. Yeah. The if if I have to make an adjustment that changes the face of the financials. Like something was miscoded. You spent what you said you were going to spend, how you were going to spend it. It just went to the
044wrong place. And it was just a it like I said uh a financial statement finding really relates to internal controls. like it should have been caught sometime in the process of these things and we didn't even see it until I went to start doing literally the paper financials and said wait a minute this doesn't make any sense that number shouldn't really be here and when we dug into it was like hey it shouldn't it should be over here >> so the other thing I wanted to ask was when reading about the internal control over financial reporting it stated in there that we do not express an opinion on the effectiveness of Taylor school district's internal control. >> Correct. >> So, can you give background and reasoning why that >> that's auditing standards? Okay. So, th
045those letters are required that we assess your internal controls. We just don't provide an opinion of it. We we assess internal controls to determine >> the level of audit work that we have to do and because if you if we test internal controls like accounts payable, we sample 40 checks. You guys probably write 10,000 checks a year. whatever it is. We sampled 40 checks and the right people signed off on them and the vendor invoice is there and it's stamped and the business manager signed off on it and the grants person signed off on it and it has the five digit or four-digit code for the grant code. I feel and all of them look like that. I can feel fairly comfortable that most of the things go in the right place, >> but we
046just we can't express an opinion on it because we can't possibly assess to the level of materiality what the internal control is really on. >> Okay. >> Excellent questions though. Always appreciate questions. >> Any other discussion? >> All right. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Appreciate it. >> Moving on to item number five, new hire, director of state and federal programs, Mr. Wager. >> Right. So, I am excited tonight to bring before the board uh our recommended player of Stacy Best Peremy for our director of state and federal programs. Uh she comes to us as a community member who's got a vast amount of experience in working with state and federal programs uh in other school districts and she is somebody much like some other people sitting at this table who is making that return of
047the Taylor School District as she was a teacher here for several years in her career as well. Um, and this position as we are kind of putting it out now is going to be somebody who oversees our school improvement team and they're going to oversee uh the much of what we just talked about in the audit when it comes to our state and federal grants and funding that we get through that act. >> And this position is title funded, correct? Because it oversees >> um no we cannot pay well >> partially. partial certain >> yeah it's not 31 money because we can't pay it from there but >> it's like a certain >> any other discussion >> sorry you were done >> oh yeah >> all right moving on to item number six staffing service
048agreements miss Delator Well, tonight there's three contracts on the agenda for approval. Um, the district currently uses companies to supply ancillary staff when we can't secure our own direct hires. Um, the three companies that are on the agenda tonight, we have been using for a number of years. Um, there are career staff unlimited, global psychological, and sleek. Um, I'm asking that uh the board approve these addendums so we can continue to offer services to our students. Um, and one thing that we need to note is that when we fill union positions with contract staff, it's on a temporary basis. We keep the vacant positions posted and at all times we're looking to hire individuals to BTSD employees. Um, I also would like to thank uh both TFT and 26M uh TSSA for allowing us to
049work with contract companies when we can't directly fill positions that is recognized that's a recognized union position. Um, and and there again these are different ancillary staff positions. It could be nurses, it could be parapros, psychologists, um, etc. and sometimes we just can't get them, but we have a need for IEPs or whatever the case is and we don't want um we we definitely want to fulfill the IEP requirements and but we also and mainly want to make sure that the students get the services that they need. >> So we already have current contract them or just renewing them. >> These are the addendums. Usually the addendum is for the uh wages. Yes, but we do have current contracts as for the wages. Okay. >> And do we just pay the companies and then they
050pay their employees? They're like third parties. >> Yes. Okay. Yeah. And the contracts that we've had, Mr. Cava has looked at every line by line and everything. So these are and it's good to always have the addendums anyway because it just makes us realize like the what is the cost outside and then if we can bring them inhouse, you know, the positions. So were discussions had with the union leaders that these positions were in? Were they good with continuing on in that service or is this a continuation of service or is this >> Yes, this is continuation, right? You know, because there again, um, we would love to fill all of our paraple positions, you know, in-house. Um, but sometimes, you know, we have a student, we can't say, "Oh, we can't service your student
051because we don't have a PAR." So, but we always keep it posted. We always, you know, make sure if we get a lead on somebody to reach out to them, see if they want the position, if they have their credentials and >> but those those agreements with the unions are still in place, >> I would say. So, is that okay? >> Make sure any other discussion. Thank you. >> Moving on to item number seven, policy revisions, the first reading. So, we have a polish policy revision um policy 0115 the address. So, because of the move of the board of education, uh we just have to change the address to the new board of education address in our policies. Um and then policy 3000, which will not be on this. So, we'll be talking about that
052later in close session. So, we can go ahead and remove that. Um, is there an actual policy that's I don't have to actually read it, right? I can just state that we're changing it. Okay, moving on to item number eight, the board of education meeting calendar revisions. So, just because the board has to approve the calendar, we are removing the policy workshop from December 6th because of our celebration ceremony that's going to be happening at the new board of education which is happening at 5:00. We are moving that policy workshop to the 20th at 5:00 p.m. Um, and then also on the agenda, we also have to change the address of the board meetings as well. So, those are just the revisions. Moving on to item number nine, sports blocks event contract. Mr. Wager, right.
053So, we have been in the process of beginning to plan some of our events that are going to be coming up later in the year. One of those would be uh doing our Special Olympics event and uh we would be using Sports Plex again. So, we do have that contract before the board. Um the contract is for the use of the entire Sports Plex and it was at $1,500. um from my discussions with uh our individuals who are working on doing the planning in that fundraising and other sources are going to pay for most of it. But seeing as this was a higher contract amount than it was past years, uh we are asking the board to supplement by $600 that cost. Um I have talked to them too that pretty much every else every
054other ticket that comes from uh organizing the event does need to come from those other sources or fundraising or those means. So essentially all we're asking the board is to to put forward $600 to help offset the cost of the sports. >> Any discussion? Moving on to item number 10, the overnight conference request. Traverse City, Mr. Gribble. >> And thank you. Um I'm also asking a request for me to attend the 2023 MEPA annual conference. been a member of MEMS club, which is the Michigan elementary and middle school principles association for the last 13 years. I sat on their board for eight years. So, I'm looking forward to have an opportunity to go up there and represent Taylor Public School District at this board meeting and actually that seat is twofold. I am on there
055as well as the McCall representative which is a miss association of computer users and learning as representative of both M groups. So it's an opportunity for me to go up there but also in my new role representing do the great things share the great things we're doing here. Um the nice thing about it is the the cost of conference is covered by me being on the board. They cover half the room cost. So, it's just half of the room and the transportation that go up there and I'm also co-presenting on two different topics at that conference as well. So, that is first of December up in Traverson. >> You have a busy day or conference? >> I'll be busy. >> Yeah. >> Any discussion? >> All right. Thank you. Moving on to item number eight,
056action items. First up. Oh, Miss you. I got some green. Okay. All right. Action items. Out of state first. Number one, out of state field trip request Sanduski, Ohio policies 2340 and policies 8640. It is recommended the board of education approve the following out of state field trip request Hoover Middle School, Cedar Point, Sandusty, Ohio, May 31st, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Miss Thomas. Going to fight about this. Which one? >> There's him. Okay, >> Mr. Thomas. >> Okay, Mr. Myers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Ms. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shoot. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. >> Missy, yes. Mr. Pete, >> yes. >> 70. Number two, conference request. Nancy, Michigan House 6550. It is recommended the board
057of education approve the overnight conference request for Patricia Delatori to attend the Michigan Association of School Personnel Conference in Lancing, Michigan, December 6th through the 8th, 2023. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Key. Mr. Thomas? Yes, >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Shuell. >> Yes, >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes, >> Miss Black. Yes, Mr. Heath. >> Yes, >> Mr. M. >> Yes, 70. Number three, Corwell Health consent for care policy policy 6320. It is recommended the board of education approve the following actions to the Bowont school wellness program consent for care policy. Number one, the SWP consent for treatment form will be utilized at each SWP. A all services are outlined in the consent form. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr.
058Meyers. Is there a second? Second. >> That goes to M. Mrs. Shufeld, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. >> M. Yes. Mr. Heat. >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. 70. Number four. 2022 2023 Taylor and Morgan annual audit report. It is recommended the board of education approve the 2023 Taylor and Morgan audit report. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Thomas. Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shua. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes. >> M. Black is a yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. I guess it's seven. Number five, request to hire director of state and federal programs policy 3120. It is recommended the
059board of education approve the hiring of states for the position director of state and federal programs. Salary for the position will be $100,72. CD10 co-rated. Miz best preeie start date will be as soon as practical. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Keith. Mr. Wright. >> Yes. >> Miss Black is a yes. >> Mr. E. >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? Yes, >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Shufeld. >> Yes, >> guesses 70. >> Number six, career staff unlimited agreement addendum policy 3120. It is recommended the board of education approve the career staff unlimited agreement addendum between the Taylor school district and career staff unlimited in order to provide education and consulting services. Is there a motion? >> Motion by
060Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mrs. Thomas. Yes. Mr. He >> Mr. Myers. >> Yes. Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Shel, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. >> Passes 0. >> Okay. Number seven, global psychology services agreement addendum, EPS policy 3120. It is recommended the board of education approve the global psychological services GPS agreement addendum between the Taylor school district and global psychological services in order to provide education and consulting services. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Keith. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers? Yes, >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Shupel. >> Yes, >> Mr. Rice. >> Yes, >> Miss Black. Yes, that is 7 Z.
061>> Number eight, Santin agreement addendum policy 3120. It is recommended the board of education approve the Salanton agreement addendum between Taylor school district and Salantin in order to provide education and consulting services. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mrs. Shel. >> Mr. Myers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. Yes, >> Mrs. Town. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Shoefeld. >> Yes, >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes, >> Miss Black. Yes, Mr. He >> is seven. Number nine, 2020 2023 2024 Board of Education meeting schedule revisions policy 154. It is recommended the board of education approve the following changes to the 2023 2024 board of education meeting schedule. Remove Wednesday, December 6th, 2023 policy workshop at 5:00 p.m. Add Wednesday, December 20th, policy workshop at 5:00 p.m. Change location of
062the board meetings from North Line Road to 15300 >> Pine Street. It's through five. I'm sorry. >> What? >> 135. 13500. >> You're just reversed. >> You had to throw tricks in there. >> Change the location of the board meetings from 233 North Plane Road to 13500 Pine Street. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Thomas. Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> M. Mrs. Shu. >> Yes. >> Mr. Right. >> Yes. >> Black. Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyer. >> Yes. 7 Z. Number 10. Taylor Sports event contract. Policy 6320. It is recommended the board of education approve payment of $600 towards the sports plex agreement for the 2024 Special Olympics. The remaining 900 will be paid for through fundraising
063and or donations. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sho, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright, >> yes. >> Miss Black, yes. Mr. Heath, >> yes. >> Mr. Myers, >> yes. >> Mr. T, >> yes. >> 70 pin number 11 prompted to request Traverse City, Michigan, policy 65 ft. It is recommended the board of education approve the overnight conference request for Jason Gribble to attend the 2023 MISPA annual conference in Traverse City, Michigan December 6th through the 8th, 2023. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Keith. Black. Yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Meyers. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shu. >>
064Yes. >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes. Is 7 Z. >> Moving on to item number nine, superintendent report. Mr. Wagert. >> All right. So, uh, first off, I know we, uh, got to see a little bit of, uh, Kenyan's, uh, great things going on, but I did want to start off that I wanted to thank the, uh, food service, uh, department this week because they did ask for, you know, uh, many of us to go out and help them serve their turkey dinners for Thanksgiving coming up. And I did have the pleasure of going to Kenyan and, uh, serving food there. And it was great to see so many of the the things that they have going on. And I really applaud our food service workers. They do a fantastic job of every day going out
065there and meeting the needs of our students and it was great to be part of that process and I'm looking forward to it when again when they ask for our support to do that. Uh they said that will be coming in the spring. There'll be another ask for it but uh it was a great opportunity to go and uh do that work that day. Uh the next thing I did want to put on uh for my report is we did have our first superintendent student advisory meeting uh recently and it was a pleasure to have those students from the high school and the two middle schools uh from TVLA and from career center as well and they really gave a lot of feedback and had a great discussion on the challenges they see that we
066have as a school district. And through that process, we did as a group, the students narrowed down essentially what they considered the four areas that they would like to address and kind of take on uh some initiatives from their standpoint as student leadership. And the great thing about it is all four of the things they chose, I thought tied very nicely with the goals that the board of education has uh laid out at this point. Essentially the four things that they said were the concerns they see from a student level were safety and security um mental health uh addressing mental health needs of students uh communication that there are places we could do better in communication and uh addressing equity issues and making sure that we are meeting the needs of all students that we
067have in our school district. So, I thought it was amazing that those were the four things that everything that we had talked about boiled down to. And when I look at the the the goals that the board has passed, it tied in very nicely. And I'm I'm excited to see what they can help to to push forward what the goals of the board are. Um the other piece that I was excited to get out this week uh was I did put out the first newsletter from the superintendent's office. It went out last Friday. uh we pushed it out to 13,000 people in the community. Uh and this also aligns with I know one of the goals in with the board was communication and it was that we needed to start having uh regular newsletters from
068the central office uh spot. So that's a start into that direction. We're going to continue it monthly. Um but it was very nice to be able to get that first one out and continue that work going forward. So, that's also to help in the communication pieces that that we see where we need to have some fixes and do a better job of those. And the last thing I wanted to throw in today, um, I know we said it's the last meeting here at the board of education office. will be uh excited to go to our new location. But it's been especially bittersweet as I keep driving through this parking lot being that you know I taught two years at Kennedy High School and I was an assistant principal there for two years as well. So
069you on one hand are like excited because we're making progress. You know we're going to have this new school. We're going to have these new opportunities for students. But at the same time I think we do have to recognize that you know it is sad to see that change happening. So, um, it's just been that bittersweet reflection on especially it hit home when they started making their way around to the front of the building today and the pool area got knocked down. So, it's much more visible than it's been so far. Um, but just recognizing that there were lots of great things that happened at Kennedy High School. Um, there'll be lots of great things that happen on the spot again when we have the new high school here. But, uh, I think back to
070even the the time I as a staff member was turned into a ice cream sundae in that cafeteria. uh as part of spirit week or many of the other great things we did there and it's okay to have that sadness but do know that it is progress and we are moving forward. >> Awesome. Thank you. Moving on to item number 10, consent agenda, Miss Block. Consent agenda, policy 166.1 and policy 6470. Number one, minutes from October 18th, 2023 regular board meeting. Number two, minutes from the October 23rd, 2023 special board meeting. Number three, consolidated items, payment of current bills, certified, non-certified, administrative reports, and curriculum requests to hire. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Meyers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. P. >> Mrs. Shufel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. >>
071Yes. >> Miss Black. Yes. Mr. P. >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers. Yes, >> Mr. Tim. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes, >> that passes 7. >> Item number 11, item scheduled for next agenda, Wednesday, December 6, 2023. We have good news. Moving on to item number 12, public comment. Thank you to all those who could be with us tonight. We understand the importance of continuing to keep you informed and providing an opportunity for you to be heard. Public comment will begin with those in person and then move to our online audience. For those in person, please step up to the microphone and state your name and address for the record. After the in-person comment, our online audience will need to find the raise hand symbol for our moderator to recognize and unmute you. Please
072take into consideration common courtesy, refrain from any personal tax, and keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. We will provide and assist with timekeeping so each guest will be able to monitor their own time and know when to conclude so all who wish to speak will have an equal opportunity to do so. As a reminder, if there are any questions at this meeting or by some other avenue, interim superintendent Michael Wager or his design will work on getting those answers in a timely manner. Do we have any in person? Huh? My name is Mary Suz. I live at 26640 Beverly Road. Um, I have some questions. I'm kind of new at coming to these meetings, so I don't know exactly how y'all do everything. Um, one is why are there no dollar amounts for
073the field trips and conferences within your minutes is one of my questions. Um, another one is how do I find out how much the how much of the bond money has been spent on each spent on each item so far and where the projected um monies will be spent. Another one is I saw on the web page for the bond that the concrete sidewalks and curbs were repaired in 500,000 square feet of parking lot drives at the high school grounds were done. Does that not come out of normal operating expenses? Do you guys not expense for that? >> We expense for repairs, but not for the massive. I mean, we redid every single inch of sidewalk there. So, that came out of dollars. >> Okay. Because it said on the website repairs. So, that's where
074I was. >> No, it was a complete redo. They took it all out. So, it was probably We can change the wording on that. It wasn't a repair. It was complete redo. >> Okay. because that does make a difference. >> Okay, thank you. Um, funny I came to the last board meeting and I was disappointed that there wasn't an actual meeting. You guys were having a workshop >> and I wondered why you hold a workshop doing during a public school board meeting. >> Open meetings act. If there's more than four, if there's four or more board members, it has to be held in a public meeting. So, for us to do a workshop, we have to do it in a public meeting. So, >> really? >> Yeah. >> Huh. Okay. Well, see, something I learned.
075You're >> good. Um, one other thing. Um, on the motion that you made for the Taylor Sports Ple event contract, I believe the superintendent stated that they needed $600 as a supplement. >> That wasn't in your motion. So, did you give them $600? >> Yeah, the motion was to approve a payment of $600 towards the sports flex agreement. >> I didn't hear $600 when she read it off. >> Yeah, that was our that was the action item. So, >> but was it in the motion? >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. Yeah. >> How did I miss that? Okay. Sorry. >> Um, and what was this the special school board meeting on the 23rd about? Oh, my brain is ah, it was hiring him. >> Is that you? Okay. Okay. Awesome. All right. Thank you. >> No
076problem. Thank you. Any other in person? Is there any online? All right. Moving on to item number 13. This block again. German to close session policy 137.2 to you. Pursuant to Michigan's Open Meetings Act being public act 267 of and as amended, I move the board convene in close session pursuant to 8A evaluation of employee and ah material exempt from disclosure by state or federal statute. >> Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Myers. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Thomas. >> Mr. Wright? >> Yes. >> Miss Black? >> Yes. Mr. Heat? >> Yes. >> Mr. Myers? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sheel? >> Yes. 70. That is a close session at 708.