001school board meeting of December 18th, 2024, 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 district where all succeed. We're call to order at 6 o'clock. Mrs. Shufeld here. >> Mr. Wright is not here. Miss Black is here. Mr. Heath is not here. Mr. Morris >> here. >> Mr. Thomas >> here. >> Mrs. Thomas is not here. All right. Tonight we're going to do something a little bit different. Um, we're going to be led in the Pledge of Allegiance by Right. >> Okay, everybody stand please. Thank you very much, Taylor Parks. >> All right, next up on the agenda is our good news and first off is our Christmas drive, Mrs. Shouel. Um, so last week we held a
002Christmas drive for our families here in the district. We had some families that were allowed to come in um and do some shopping and it was a huge success and we just want to again thank everyone that helped and participated in making that happen. Um hopefully we have some very happy kiddos this year. >> Thank you very much and thank you to all that participated. Okay, next on our good news it is a thank you to Masonic Golden Ark 595. Mrs. Ruth Roth. >> Oh, there's some of the pictures. >> They came late. >> Those are some of the pictures from the Christmas drive. We had some of our NHS kids come um from the high school and help. And so that was a huge um help to us and the families kind of guiding
003through and um so thanks to them as well. >> Is that it? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you very much, Mrs. Ruth Roth. >> Good evening everyone. uh as uh the principal at Taylor Parks for the eighth year, I stand here with gratitude for the community group, the Masonic Golden Ark 595. This year, they shopped and donated 75 boots and 75 coats to our Taylor Parks children. This has been happening for about 10 to 12 years. I'd like to give you a little bit of history on how this all began. A teacher at Taylor Parks, Tris Burggeron, had her dad, Joe, volunteer in her classroom. He would come in every single Wednesday religiously to help the kids play math games. He was a positive role model and a staple in our students education. Joe saw
004the need to support our Taylor Parks community with boots and coats. The Masonic Lodge was hot on the trail to help support and they've been helping us at Taylor Parks ever since. They're great community support. Tonight, we want to thank them. Tonight, we know many of the lodge members are also veterans and we want to honor them with some patriotic songs tonight. I would also like to thank them with the Taylor Parks hat and honor them as honorary members of our Taylor Park staff. We appreciate and love them. Thank you, Mr. Pratt, if you don't mind. And if there's other members here, then we don't have to wait on board. >> That's right. The honorary remembers. Thank you. And we really appreciate everything that we do for our And since I've only been here for
005eight, they're saying it's 18 years they've been doing this for Taylor Parks. Thank you very much. That is wonderful. Thank you so much. All right, there's one more thing to good news. Tonight we are bidding a bon farewell to four three of our board members, I'm sorry. Uh and only one of them is here tonight, but um two of them were elected four years ago and they served out their full terms and we are honoring them tonight. We they have uh a plaque and also we had one that was appointed two years ago and he happens to be celebrating Christmas in London this year as one of his wife's uh wish list things so we had to let him go to London. But um and unfortunately our other board member, Mrs. Thomas, uh didn't feel
006up to coming tonight, but Mr. Thomas is here. So, we'd like to thank him for his four years of serving on this board. It's not an easy task. Right. Um, next on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Are there any revisions? Hearing none. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Morris. Mr. Wright is not >> in attendance. Miss Black is a yes. Mr. Heath is not in attendance. Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas is not in attendance. Mrs. Shufelt. >> Yes. >> Motion carries four. You're out. >> All right. I believe we are going to be dazzled and amazed again by Taylor Park. >> This is Taylor Parks fourth and fifth graders. That's
007what we in our fourth grade curriculum are working on patriotic songs and what it means to be a patriot. Okay. For them they're learning three songs. One is America the Beautiful. I like to do some slow and some fast. Um, and then, uh, you're a grand and then 50 United States. So, we're going to start with America the Beautiful. You ready? is your grand I know they're a little nervous because it's parent out there, but your parents love you. They're all here to support you. piece music really really good with it. We as we speak is already. Wow. Oh, heat. So, I appreciate all of our parents coming and supporting us today. The children have been working endlessly on their songs, but with more fun than anything. This is Miss Wilson's fourth event today with
008Taylor Parks. She went to the Metal Lodge with the student council and the first grade. Then she did a kindergarten concert for Christmas and a first grade concert for Christmas and our fabulous fourth and fifth graders here today. They've been swinging in our cafeteria for weeks because they love these songs so much. So, I appreciate Miss Wilson taking the time to teach them. And children, give yourselves a great big round of applause. Thank you, Taylor Parks. That was wonderful. Okay, everybody. We know it's still a school night. We will be going on with our meetings. So, if you don't want to stay, you don't have to. Although, somebody did drop a bracelet. Anybody lose a bracelet off their wrist? But then we go Most adults don't know all the states. You know, all the students
009have trained That's >> I'm impressed. Yeah, I know. I know >> you should have waited till tonight. >> The baby wants to sing for y'all. So, I hope you enjoy patriotic day. You sing, baby. Thank you. Thank you. Good job, baby. >> You too can be in the fire. Hey Emily, I don't know that you can top this, but um how about dazzling us with the MDE statewide conference report? Everybody if you could please exit and sh >> that is absolutely impossible to follow up but I will try. Um, so this is just a very short presentation to do a little bit of bragging about our district and how we were recognized by the Michigan Department of Ed. Um, so as you may remember um we participated in or in the fall of uh 2022,
010Taylor was identified as having two priority schools and we entered into a partnership agreement with RHA and MDE. Um, these two schools they focused on were Meyers and TVLA. Uh this included monthly meetings. We had district school improvement planning and schoolwide um improvement planning and we needed to monitor the building and district plans um through both uh through both lenses. And then we also needed to have somebody that would kind of oversee the coordination with district and building leaders. So jump into action, our Taylor School District school improvement team headed by Stacy Vasperi who's the grant director. We have Liz Bidd who's K5 school improvement. Kim Berkkey who's K5 school improvement. Um Sarah Stton who's 68 school improvement. And then Ricardia Lewis who's 912 school improvement in MTSS. Uh so these are our highly trained
011school improvement coordinators and they have been doing school improvement planning and monitoring and implementing for years and years. So they got right to work um in creating the Taylor School District data story and trying to figure out what we needed to do to get ourselves off of this list. So they started the work based on this the data story. They identified that there was an implementation problem with the MTSS frame uh framework. So they gathered the stakeholder groups and they started talking about which portions of the MTSS process were we lacking, where did we need to strengthen ourselves. Our MTSS group then divided into subcommittees for attendance, academics and behavior. And then we continued to study. We pulled district data on attendance. um because we started to see that this was not only a TVLA
012and a Meyers issue, but really it's something that we needed to look at our district-wide processes to be able to change and start rowing this boat in the right direction. Uh so our subcommittees were our attendance, our behavior, and our academics. Um step four of was our action planning and our gap analysis. We started to kind of look at the data and determine why are there gaps between certain subgroups? um and that can be um gender, socioeconomic status, um all sorts of things. Uh the subcommittees were refined after looking at the data and then we did a lot of talking. You'll see that where it says step five translating into action. The teams got together to kind of surface why we were in the issues that we were in. Um they identified common goals and
013started putting those goals into action. Step six shows now we where we are. We've created a system for sustainable change. That's our MTSS pro uh plan. Um we've got various people throughout the district that are um implementing the work and then we have our school improvement coordinators that are traveling around the district to make sure that this work is consistent throughout Taylor. Uh so then in September of 2024, Miss Shufelt was there. We had our structured conference, super riveting, exciting conference. Um, but what we kind of took away from that was that the representatives from the Michigan Department of Education and both Wayne and Wayne Resa, um, they really appreciated Taylor's candid feedback. um our teachers and um our staff, our school improvement coordinators are all very adept at identifying where our problems are and
014where there may be some issues with the way that Rhysa and MDE evaluates our programs and kind of some of the u barriers that we have that are really impossible to eliminate especially with TVLA. Um, after the structured conference, we got a lot of good feedback that said that our district was on the right direction. And then MDE reached out to the school improvement team to ask them to present at the MDE MyIP University road show. Um, which is where they train other school districts how to implement a school improvement plan. Um, and they asked us to present to be used as an exemplar for the other schools that were going forward in this process. Um, so if you are, you know, bored, if you've got extra time this Christmas season, um, you can, can
015you back it up one slide? You can look at the recent, uh, MDE, uh, newsletter that they put out that talked about in educational and continuous improvement, how Taylor public schools was part of the MYKIP university. And the quote in the publication states, "Taylor Pub P public school leaders shared their continuous improvement journey with participants, providing an authentic look at continuous improvement in action. It was great to see an exemplar of continuous improvement being done well with collaboration and intentionality. Kudos to Taylor Public Schools and this is of course published across the county. So, just some of our big takeaways as a team is, you know, we know that Taylor School District has some challenges, but we are really making some great strides for kids and putting some structures in place that will support the
016continued improvement for our our students. MDE and RHA recognize that we have structures and systems in place that will make real change. They recognize that to the point where they've asked our people to share with other statewide leaders. This was a statewide conference of how Taylor school district runs their continuous improvement process. And then um it was best summarized with Nikia who is our RHSA rep. She has been attending all of our monthly meetings and helping us with this process. And she sent a personal email to our team that said, "I'm so proud of the work that all of you are doing and looking forward to our continued partnership and even more success." Um, and just like our fearless leader Ann Black always shares, you know, she it recklessly advocates for Taylor students and I
017think it's really important that when we are recognized at the county or the state level that we share with everybody because we're really doing good work in Taylor. And with that, if you have any questions, you can direct them my way, Jason's way. Um, and thank you. >> Thank you very much, Emily. Are there any questions or comments? >> No, but that was pretty impressive. even following up with those cute little kiddos singing. >> Well, thank you. >> I didn't know if I'd have to dance or something. Make it really rhyetic. >> Yes, please. >> Well, it's nice to see that there was a problem and it was worked on and and uh we got recognition for solving it. So, >> starting to solve. >> Yes, I was very very proud of our team. They
018are indispensable leaders in the district. All right. Now we will go on to our discussion items. And tonight we have overnight field trip request the Amway. Um Kristen Luwendowski. You're on Zoom. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hi. Good evening. Uh so I am looking to attend the student uh state leadership conference. Uh we would leave uh February 24th and return the I'm sorry leave the 22nd and return the 24th uh by coach bus staying at the beautiful Amway Hotel in Grand Rapids. Uh we attended last year for the first well it was my first time. Um I took eight students and uh we had a fabulous time. I I received really good feedback last year from the students uh who attended and they said that we should definitely go again. Um, I'm
019looking to take more of 15 students this year. So, I would like to take Linda Kira, she's a teacher and NHS adviser at the high school, uh, with me. Um, they do a full day and a half of structured activities. Uh, we have three keynote speakers, a student celebrations, and we are with around 90 to 100 other schools from around Michigan. Um, it's a really good time, and I'm really looking forward to it. Do you guys have any questions about it? Anybody? Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. Our next discussion item is overnight conference request MASA mid winter conference. And that is that went up. Thank you. I am requesting approval from the board to attend the MESA 2025 midwinter conference. It's a leadership conference and also administrative certification maintenance for me for
020my administrative search. Um and what we'll learn at this conference is um ways to continue to build our leadership and supporting the school district as well as the latest instructional programs which you know you really need to know from a financial standpoint as well. So that you can probably build a budget that supports instructional programs and other hot topics happening at this time. So, um I'm just seeking approval. Uh the conference is in January. It's from the 15th through the 17th and it just continues to build my leadership capacity as well as my understanding of school programs. >> Okay. And this is coming out of general fund. >> Yes. Okay. Are there questions or comments? Okay, thank you. >> All right, intercom and door access update. Mr. Ross, good afternoon, John Ross. It uh so
021quickly over to slide two here. Uh I'm just going to co cover a couple security enhancements that we're considering and Those are some of the things I'm going to go through really quickly throughout this presentation. Um going to go over some updates, some of the things that you may have known that we were doing, but kind of give you some updates on those. Uh and talk about building access and intercom systems throughout the district. So, quickly about Verata. Uh they were funded or founded back in 2016. Uh they have a security portfolio that includes a whole bunch of products that you'll see on the next slide here. Uh and then one thing that we really like about them is their ease of use. Uh that it's a centralized product. So everything that they make, all
022their software, it's all under one umbrella. So if you know one part of their product, you know the others. Uh going to the next slide, you can see uh quite a few of their products. It's certainly not everything that they manufacture. Um but you can see along the bottom that they have all of those products available. Uh some of them we already have, you know, we already have their cameras throughout the district. Um that was something we did about a year and a half ago. Uh I've got plenty of great feedback from that system. Uh again, a lot about the ease of use. Uh but the other thing that's been really good is that uh we promised the ease of use and we also promised that it was going to be a system that was
023never going to be uh less than it was the day we bought it and they've stood up to that. So frequent software updates have just added functionality to that system. So going to the next slide, Nightw Watch is actually the uh the vendor who sells, maintains and also installs the equipment. Um over 30 years of experience in this area, but they also do other things. Uh access control and video surveillance are the things that that we've dealt with, but they can do building automation and HVAC controls and things like that as well. So, uh, if there was ever a need to have a smart school, they would be the ones to bring in and they could help us in that capacity. Um, so they can help save money in those areas as well. Uh, they're
024certified in all the major areas that we really care about. Um, they're certified installers among other security camera vendors. So, um, they were chosen for this project. Um they were also the original installers of our ricotta camera system about a year and a half ago as well. Uh so going to the next slide u the purpose of this conversation is to talk about door security. Um and then one of those things is the intercom systems. So with the intercom systems that verata sells or or manufacturers is it's agnostic. It doesn't require any specific type of device to access it to answer doors to have those two-way conversations with somebody that's at the door. Currently, our systems require a high-end computer for the secretaries that answer the doors, which is an overhead cost that we have
025to uh deal with. So, every every so often we have to replace hardware. Well, their hardware costs a lot more to replace because of that. We also have back-end servers. Uh those servers cost quite a bit of money as well. Uh the current system requires two different servers to run. Uh the Ricarda system is cloud-based. It will always be cloud-based and there will never have to be on premise servers. What that does is it helps keep the cost low so that every five or six years we don't have to do those hardware replacements either. Uh the other benefit is that it keeps our data center cool and that's very difficult with lots of servers and other technology running in the data center. Cooling can cost a lot of money and is very energy intensive. Uh
026the other thing that we like about them is that the new system will be more secure. The current card system we were told by another vendor that we didn't choose for this project. Uh they were really surprised we were using the card readers that we did. Uh he said they're very easy to hack, very easy to replicate the cards. So in the off chance that you were a teacher that had your keys on your table or administrator, uh somebody picks that up and for pretty almost nothing, you can go on Amazon and buy a copier and copy that card's data to another card and now you can impersonate that teacher or administrator and walk into a building. Uh so going on to the next slide here. Uh, I'm not even getting get into the second
027part which was the door access readers and I talked enough about that and you all know how those work. So, um, so some additional features, I'm not going to go too much into this either. So, I'm really just going to touch on the fact that, like I said, it's a unified platform. All these different things that we have under the Verata umbrella operate under one cloud-based platform. There's no back-end servers that we have to worry about. uh 100% uptime all the time. Uh you know, we you have a power outage at at the PRC for instance, which is our main hub, those cameras are still recording at the building. So even though that that data connection is broken and severed between the PRC and Myers Elementary, Myers Elementary is still recording. Um and that's the
028same for the cameras and that would be the same for this system. And the card readers uh they have controllers that are built into it. It's one of the hardware components. And what it does is it cache caches those uh those credentials. And so if I went into that building again, let's say the data connection between PRC and and Meyers is offline, I could still get into that building because my card would have been programmed prior to that data connection going down. And so I could still get into the building. So again, it's just more uptime. Um, you know, the only time that that this equipment would be down would be a power local power outage at that building. Um, another thing that I like is that Vicata has a 10-year hardware replacement warranty. So,
029it allows us to get more value out of that product in the long term. Um, I'm going to go over in the next slide uh the cost uh total cost of ownership. Um, but we've spent quite a bit in repairs on our current system. So, you'll you'll see some value there as well. Um, again, I talked about this being device agnostic earlier, but not only is it device agnostic from the standpoint that our secretary computers now no longer need to be glorified gaming workstations, but they could use it on their phone or a tablet. So, I think this is great when somebody's out in the office. Uh, I've seen secretaries that are out and there's no uh sub secretary, for example. principal could just pick up an iPad and walk around the building and still
030open the doors, uh, answer the intercoms. So, uh, it doesn't really matter where you're at. Uh, you could even I I could be at home, answer the PRC doorbell and have a conversation and ask that person why they're there ringing the doorbell at 9:00 at night. So, just additional security measures as well. Uh, and I already touched base on the updates. Again, this equipment is only going to become more capable over time with software updates. Matter of fact, they just upgraded uh their AI within their system. So now you can do uh clear text uh discussions with the system and write something in like I'm student with blue back wearing a gray hat and it's going to go and it's going to pick out those images over time and and kind of guide you towards
031that. Uh of course AI is not perfect, but it does help you and it really really lessens that time. So, if you're in a crunch to get some video for a certain situation that happened, certainly helps a lot. So, going to my last slide here, we're going to go into that total cost of ownership. Um, I kind of look at this as being a uh an investment of 8 to 10 years, right? So, even though they have a warranty of 10 years, uh you still might need to upgrade over time just because there's advancements. Uh we talked about card security, for instance. Uh this is just one of those things where there might be more secure measures seven, eight, nine years down the road. So even though there's warranty left, it might still not be
032the best option out there. However, um with that 10-year warranty, the nice thing about that is it's an advanced replacement of the latest and greatest model. So uh an intercom breaks, uh aside from vandalism, if that intercom were to break, then we call them. We go through our normal troubleshooting measures with them to make sure that it's not just something we can fix. Uh, and if it's not, they're going to send us an advanced replacement. Uh, they overnight it, so it gets there usually within 48 hours, and then we go ahead and we replace it, and then we're back up and running. Um, and then if they have a newer model that's come out since we bought that first model, they're just going to send the latest and greatest model out to us. Um, this
033project's going to be funded by 31 AAA grant dollars. So, there's no general fund dollars. Um, aside from the administrative buildings, which we're not touching in this goaround. Um, what we're going to do is collect any good parts left over from the current system that we have right now. And we're going to go ahead and and put those on the shelf. And then over time we'll just use those to repair the system that we have now until we can go ahead and use general fund dollars for administrative buildings. So right now we're not touching any general fund dollars um until we feel like we we really have to. It might be in the next year or two because we don't want to have to do that server refresh over the next year and a half,
034two years. So it, you know, it's coming. It's just not going to be probably within the next year. Um, now I told you about some of the total cost of ownership and and what it costs to keep our current system running. Uh, over the past few years, it's been around $22,000 that we've spent in parts and labor, service, things like that. So, it's been a pretty costly system to operate. Um, despite it, you know, parts of the system being fairly new. So, it's kind of been a hodgepodge of parts to be honest. Um, so that's the old system. What's the new system going to cost? Uh it's about $175,845. Uh again, it's all 31A funded. Um it's a security grant that we're trying to use up for things around the district. Um it was one
035of the original funds that we used for the camera systems, some of the boot components. Um and so we're just going to tack that onto there. Um the average cost of the devices uh like doors, um intercoms, and the access controllers, it comes to an average of about $2,500 a device, which is actually really low, uh compared to some of the other out there. It's actually very comparable to the current system if we were to have to upgrade that and repurchase with the exception of having to replace a server and and upgrade that over time. So just parts at the door, it's virtually the same cost as as other systems that we have. Um, so with that being said, I'll go to my favorite slide, which is the last one, and ask you if you
036have any questions, concerns, or anything else you want to talk about while I'm here. >> So this is a new system that we want to bring in. Right. >> Sort of. Now, if you remember, because you were here and you voted on the the bicata system before. So, what we did was part of that was triing more components of this system over at West. We used West as a demo system because they were kind of on a security island, if you will. They had a card access system that didn't wasn't compatible with the rest of the district. >> Okay. So with the Vicata system, we don't have we we could use the same cards as everybody else. So people like superintendent who gets access to every building didn't have to carry multiple cards. So it
037was a convenient excuse to use them as a demo building. So we did that. So we have a year and a half of exposure to that system. Uh and and I can happily say in a selfish way that even the administrative side of things is is much easier than administering our current system. So that's been a happy surprise. Um, we've recently done some other upgrades to it that have have made that system go even further as well. So it's it's a very easy system to use and yes, we have that relationship and we've used it. So we did do a trial and it's been, you know, been great experience over the last year and a half with it. >> All right. And my last question is um in the event when um like changes have
038to throughout the district. Um, what happens with like if we have to close a building, what happens to that equipment? Would that come to administrative building or we're just out the money from >> It's a slippery slope with the funding source. All right. So, what we I would have to do a little bit more research into that, but if we're talking about something that's uh -ate eligible or or title one, there's usually something in there that says after 3 years of use in an educational facility, you could move it to an administrative building. I'd have to see if that's still the case with this. Um, but most most funding sources that are allocated towards educational buildings kind of start within that 3 to 5 year period. Um, and it I know it doesn't really make
039a whole lot of sense, but sometimes you just got to take that equipment and put it on the shelf until it reaches that age. >> So other if it can't come here, you can still save it to replace other building like that might break or come down or something. >> Correct. So it would be spare parts or or if we wanted to do an additional door somewhere else, we could uh look into adding that door to the system as well. >> I just have a quick question. Um, are there other school districts that you're aware of that are currently using the system? >> Yes. Um, Udica, uh, Utica School Districts was using it, I believe. Um, I don't have that. I took that slide out. Um, I was told to keep it short. Uh, so,
040uh, >> but there are other districts that do use it. >> Yeah. Who's the recent one that just signed? Matt, do you remember? Oh my gosh, it was a huge district over It was fairly close to us. I I apologize, but >> uh I want to say it was Leavonia and then there was another one that was a really large district like west of us that was using it as well, but no, they have a they have a large footprint even just within Michigan. Um and and if you're interested, I can certainly pull that information. if you want to email that to me. Appreciate. >> That's all I Thank >> Are there any other comments or questions? >> Well, I was going to say that um a lot of the Vicata products have been uh
041very good. I know I see Matt out here and he shared with us recently the environmental sensors uh the data that shows how much it has uh cut incidents of student vaping. um literally like it was every month it's come down by half every single month which has been uh a great result. So uh their products seem to be working. They seem to communicate with each other and they're they do the work we're asking them to do. >> So for instance uh Dexter Community Schools, Henry Ford Community College, Elgenac Community Schools, uh the Sanac ISD is using it. Um the city of Alen Park uh and the Trenton Police Department, they're using it. Uh the Hawkins are all about this and and um so he's um uh he's not Lieutenant Hawkins anymore. He just moved
042up to uh what over in Trenton. Um uh whatever he is over in Trenton though, he's head honcho and he's really trying to push it over in the Trenton schools as well. Uh I mean huge corporations use them like Citrix, uh Salv Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Sal Salvation Army is using them. Um airport community schools right around the uh corner from us is using them. uh Koma Community Schools, they were actually pretty big in in kind of helping us and nudging us towards this because what they did was um they kind of made the same point that I made earlier where they've got a huge server rack full of servers putting off tons of heat and they said we just can't
043keep replacing that and replicating that over and over again, right? And so pulling that out really helped uh even lower costs in their data center for not having to cool the the thing all the time. Um and and you've got other municipalities like the city of Flat Rock and Jackson County are even using it as well. So um I'm not going to go over anymore, but I got a whole other list of people that are using it too. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Um what are like the optional like it says like Randall and then it says Randall optional. What what is that? >> I'm glad you asked that because I forgot to mention that in my second from last slide. So that 175 and some change that's really a worst case
044scenario. What we did was we put in some options because we weren't really sure about certain doors because at one point they had card readers. Uh when we did any any kind of project like this where you have to walk every single building, there's always going to be a final walkthrough after approval from you. For instance, um if if I was a betting man, I'd probably say that this project's going to cost 10 to $15,000 less than what I told you. But we were unsure about some of these doors that used to have that coverage and we weren't sure if it was just not there because of vandalism in the past or if it was a prior system that it just we didn't feel like the need to replace it at that time because that
045was before my time here. So we just kind of went overboard and made sure that we covered all of our bases in those areas too. >> Okay. >> And then last question, is this the same kind of system that feeds right into the police department? It doesn't, but the police department has access to it. So, what we did was uh we created a a login. Um so, our um our person over at the high school, they he uses it all the time. >> Okay. >> Uh the police department also has loginins. We've also given them cards so they have access to all of our buildings with the system as well. So, I guess to your point, what we're doing is we're just creating more doors that they can enter with this system because each one
046of their patrol cars has a card access and so they can get in. So, in a way, yes. >> Anyone else? >> Thank you, John. >> All right. Thank you. Number four, TFT Memorandum of Understanding. Mr. Wagger, >> thank you. Uh, I want to give a little background before I get into the actual uh,ou that we are bringing forward tonight. Um, for the past year and a half to two years, we have struggled to make sure that we were properly and fully staffing our ASD program uh, in our elementary schools. We have been for essentially a year and a half now one position short of fully staffing. Uh where that causes us to start having issues is that we are still obviously under special education law uh obligated to provide and may make sure that
047we are meeting the needs of those students IEPs. And what that cost us in the end is then we have to offer compensatory services to students and the parents to cover the fact that we have not been able to fully staff this uh position. So, we've been working diligently. I know um Erica Smith has been working hard at filling these positions, trying to find people to go there. But the problem is we have still had a struggle and we've still been a person short uh in that field. So, uh, at this point, we then decided that we would approach the Taylor Federation of Teachers to talk to them if there was something we could come to an agreement to incentivize to to see if there'd be somebody internally within the district if we uh made
048added some more compensation for the position and that they would consider to fill this vital need that we have. Um so that is when we started to enter into talks over a memorandum of understanding to pay for this uh extra cost of this compensation. Uh the good thing is that our ASD program is an act 18 program with the county which means we do pull students from other school districts into those classrooms. And so because of that we get funding from the county for that program as well. So any additional compensation that we are adding for these particular classrooms, these three particular classrooms would be pulled from act 18 funding and not from our general fund, not from our idea money, but from our act 18 uh programming that we get from from the county.
049So, uh, with that said, one of the things that we asked for in addition to the ability to, uh, compensate above and beyond for these positions was also that we would want to have, uh, whoever takes the position that they would be able to stay in that position not just for this school year, but into next school year as well. Uh, we see this is a vital need that we're making an investment in, and that we would like to be able to retain and keep people in that role. So when it comes time contractually for special education teachers to have that right to um bid on other positions and move to those other positions, we would block these off and these particular people if they take this role would be locked in for next school
050year to remain in that role. Uh, with that said, if one of these teachers decided to they'd rather seek and try a different position, well, they would have the right to exit the position, but nobody could bump them out of the position is how we we have that structure. Uh, obviously, if they move to a different position, then they would no longer get the extra compensation that goes along with taking this because this is particularly for this program and the money that's there, like I said, it does come from act 18 money from the county. Okay. Does anybody have any questions about that? All right, we'll do action items now. Number one, overnight field trip request, the Amway policy 2340 and 6640. It is recommended the board of education approve the following overnight field trip
051request. Taylor High School, the Amway, Grand Rapids, Michigan, February 22 through 24, 2025. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there a second? >> By Mr. Morris. Miss Black is a yes. Mr. Heath is not here. Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas is not here. Mrs. Shufeld, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright is not here. That carries 4 Z. Second overnight request. Overnight conference requests. MASA 2025 midwinter conference policy 6550. It is recommended the board of education approve the overnight conference request for Lena Hill to attend the MASA 2025 midwinter conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, January 15th through the 17th, 2025. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Morris. Mr. Heath is not here. Mr. Warren. >>
052Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas is not here. Mrs. Shufeld, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright is not here. Miss Block is a yes. That passes 4 Z. Number three, intercom and door access update policy 6320. It is recommended the board of education approve the proposal from nightw watch for intercom and door access updates not to exceed $175,845 and12. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there a second >> by Mr. Morris? >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. Mrs. Thomas is not here. Mrs. Shufeld, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright is not here. Miss Black is a yes. Mr. Heath is not here. That passes four to zero. Number four, Taylor Federation of Teachers, TFT, Memorandum of Understanding, ASD Teachers. It is recommended the board of education
053approve theou between the Taylor School District and the Taylor Federation of Teachers TFT in regards to ASD teachers. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Morris. Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas is not here. Mrs. Shupel, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright is not here. Miss Black is Yes. Mr. Heath is not here. Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> That carries four to zero. >> Number nine on the agenda is our superintendent report. Mr. Wagger. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Um I have a few things I want to kind of go over. Lots more. I I know it's been a night of lots of good news and I hoping to just kind of add some more out there for everybody. So, first thing I'd like
054to do is I would like to congratulate Taylor High School teacher Becky Anel. Um, she this week was recognized as an exceptional educator for her dedication and commitment to the students of Taylor High School. Um, she was awarded a $1,000 grant from the Jurro Papas Trial Attorney's Law Law Firm uh for that recognition. So, congratulations, Becky. Second, more congratulations out there. Um, we have two teachers in the district. Uh, Brienne Brienne Canfield from Meyers and Quinn Worminger from Taylor High School. And they have been recognized by Touchdown for Teachers, uh, also as outstanding educators. Um, them and many other educators from around the area are going to be recognized at the field on the field I should say, at the Game Above Sports Bowl, which will be taking place at Ford Field on 1226 24.
055So the day after Christmas at the bull game in Detroit, uh they will be recognized for being outstanding educators. So again, congratulations to Miss Canfield and Mr. Worminger on a great achievement. Another proud thing that I'd like to bring forward is that in our short partnership with Graduation Alliance, uh we are already seeing those opportunities rise that we provided to former students who had previously given up on education. And we are proud to say tonight that we have our first graduate uh from that program. So we have had somebody come back to us after giving up on school and now they have earned that diploma and they are have successfully completed all the requirements. So that is great news and I'm hoping to keep those coming and hear more graduates. We're getting through our our
056grad alliance program. Uh, I'd like to take the time tonight as well to thank uh Daryl Thomas, Jody Thomas, and Lou Keith uh for their time that they have served on the Taylor School District Board of Education. Serving your community is not an easy task. Uh, it is filled with many difficult decisions and I appreciate the time that you have taken to serve the Taylor School District community and I'm going to send my well wishes to whatever it is you choose to do with the extra time you have going forward. So, thanks. Thank you very much for your time. >> Craig gets to sleep. >> Yes. >> Goes to work. >> That's right. >> And the last thing, um, I I really, it's hard for me not to go back to this story every single
057year at at this time of year, and I know I talked about it last year at the same time in my superintendent's report. And the reason I want to come back to it again is we see much uncertainty in this world. be it's the news you see from around the world where there's warfare and things happening to uh in the Middle East or whether it's you know people's results from when we've recently had our election and we're starting to see that we're very much as a society becoming ever more polarized that people just cannot find that common ground with each other and that is why I always fall back on the story and it is just so fitting and that is of the uh Christmas truce during World War I in 1914 and this was
058a moment where it was decision was made that they were going to stop fighting in the trenches along the western front and they were going to celebrate Christmas and what they found is that the soldiers on both sides German soldiers and the French soldiers they came out of their trenches they went into the no man's land between them and they celebrated Christmas together and they put up Christmas trees they sang songs They uh had some beverages with each other and they they truly got to know that we are all human. We all hold this common ground, this common bond. And they they got to see the humanity that existed in the people that they were being told to fight and they were forced to fight. And so needless to say, a couple days later when
059the the ceasefire came to an end, nobody wanted to fight because you had to look them in the eye and you had to get to know that person. And now you're being told to go and shoot the other person. And it was a very difficult situation at that point. Why? It's never really happened again because it's one of those when you get to see the humanity in others, it changes your outlook. And so as we've become more polarized, as we've become more where, you know, it's hard to find that common ground, I encourage people to think of that and think of how difficult a situation that is where, you know, you're being asked to shoot and kill someone else in war and they still found a way to find that humanity and see that in
060others. So I just want to encourage people to think of that at this holiday season and I wish everybody happy holidays as we go forward. >> Thank you, Mike. Every so often they do a release a something that says how many days of actual peace there have been in the world >> and it's a shockingly low number of actual peace. >> So peace on earth. All right. Um how many months has that actually been around Jason? How many months? >> Graduation alliance. Yes. >> See exact when did we take the vote? >> I don't think we're do a year yet. I want to say it was March or April that we got it approved when it came into the presentation. >> So that's that's pretty good. >> And we currently have I I checked out
061today because I had my my monthly meeting with them and currently have 51 students >> and one that graduated. That's one more high school graduate in the world. >> That is awesome. >> Good. That's a good thing for Christmas. >> Absolutely. So, we have 50 more to go. >> Well, that's good. All right. Number 10 on the agenda. Our consent agenda per policy 166.1 and policy 6470. are minutes from the regular board meeting of December 4th, 2024. And number two, consolidated items, payment of current bills, certified, non-certified, and administrative reports. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Morris. >> Miss Thomas is not here. Mrs. Shufelt, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright is not here. Miss Black, yes. Mr. Mr. Keith is not here. Mr. Morris,
062>> yes. >> And Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Passes for here. Okay. Items on our next agenda will be our organizational meeting for Wednesday, January 8th, 2025. Will be oath of office for our new board members and also selection of board officers. Okay, that now brings us to public comment. Is there anybody in the audience? Okay. Thank you to all who are able to be with us in person and online tonight. We understand the importance of continuing to keep you all informed and provide an opportunity for you to be heard. Tonight's audience participation will be for all who wish to speak, whether it be in person or online. We will begin with those in person. If you would like to address the board, please step up to the microphone and state your name and address
063for the record. After all those in person have had the opportunity to speak. That opportunity will be be given to those online. Please take into consideration common courtesy and keep your comments to three minutes or less. We will provide an assist with timekeeping so that each speaker 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. If there are any questions at this meeting or by any questions at this meeting or by some other avenue, Superintendent Michael Wagger or his designate will work on getting those answers in a timely manner. We will start with those in person. >> Thank you. Uh, Matthew Hall, 27101 Beverly Road, Taylor, Michigan 48180. On behalf of the Taylor Principles Association, I'm speaking
064tonight to express our strong support for continuing the memorandum of understanding to maintain the Dena students position for another academic year, specifically the 2025 2026 school year. Although I understand that the newly appointed board members will start in January, I want to start the conversation tonight to advocate for this valuable position. I also want to thank the current and past board members for seeing the importance of the dean of dean of students position. The dean of students position at the two middle schools and at Taylor High School has proven to be an invaluable asset to our schools at the secondary level, contributing significantly to the well-being and academic success of students as well as the overall school climate. This role has provided dedicated student support by ensuring that individual student needs are addressed with consistency
065and care, behavioral and disciplinary oversight by offering um proactive inter interventions and maintaining a safe and positive school environment and relief for faculty and administration by allowing teachers and school leaders to focus on instruction and broader school priorities. Continuing thisou will ensure un uninterrupted support for our students and staff during a time when stability is paramount. It would also reinforce the district's commitment to fostering an environment where every student has the opportunity to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. I would also add that this position has provided stability to our district with the abrupt change in current administration this year. I don't say that lightly because the TPA acted immediately to work with the district leadership to make sure that all of our buildings had administrators to cover those vacancies. We respectfully urge the future board
066to prioritize the extension of this agreement recognizing the proven value and impact this position brings to our schools. As always, we remain available to collaborate and discuss how we can work together to ensure the ongoing success of this initiative. Thank you to the current board for all the work that you do to make Taylor schools the best in down river. And I don't say that lightly either. For those board members that are leaving us, not going to get too emotional, but those board members that are leaving us, your leadership and commitment have been instrumental in shaping the policies and initiatives that have enhanced the educational opportunities for all. Throughout your tenure, you've consistently demonstrated a passion for simply putting kids first. As union members and educational leaders, we have appreciated your collaborative spirit, your thoughtful
067decision-making, and unwavering support for our mission to provide a high quality education. The impact of your work will be felt for years to come. The Taylor's Principal Association looks forward to working with the board in the future, and thank you for listening to me tonight. On a side note, I want to thank also the TFT and Mike and the cabinet for working together on theou that was passed tonight for our ASD rooms. I actually had a conversation with Mike the other day saying that this was a big concern and he had already had a plan and little did I know uh a plan that involved the TFT working with them and I think that's a great start moving forward. So, thank you for that. Also, just on a side note, uh, boots on the ground,
068the ficata system is the best, hands down. Um, and the AI technology that that brings, I I was a little skeptical until John came over and cut my time in half because you can literally put in little things like a student with a white shirt leaving a bathroom and it'll give me immediately an access to that person. So, it is impressive. the VRATA system. They stand behind their products and they're always striving to make them better. And it is cloud-based. So, that's a really cool feature, too, as well. I have it on my phone, so I can actually see it when I'm at home. So, if I get a call from a neighbor on my Google Voice saying, "Hey, something's going on up at Hoover." I can look right on my phone and I can
069see it right then and there. So, that has been invaluable. Thank you for listening to me now. Take care. Happy holidays. >> Happy holidays to you, too. Are there any more in person? No, there's only two people, by the way. We had about I don't know >> a lot 150 people here to begin with and now we have two. So, um, is there anyone online? Okay. All right. Board comments. I'd just like to thank everybody for my time here. Um, it's been a pleasure working with everybody. Um, good luck to the new board and good luck to everybody in the future. >> Happy holidays to everybody. >> Thanks, Darl. Um, I would like to say happy holidays no matter what you celebrate. I hope that uh it's happy, healthy, and um you don't eat any
070uh bad cookies. Um, also, uh, I did get a chance to go to the Taylor High and Hoover concert. Yeah, I went and um, I'd like to thank uh, Ms. Moore and Mr. Green for all the work that they put in with that. I was not able to go to the band concert or um, Oh. Uh, 26M's Christmas party. Where did you go to 26? It's >> the first year I missed it. >> Did you? >> No. My son had a college tour. >> Okay. I had a um previous engagement and it took more time than I thought it was going to take. So, I didn't get to go either. But, um, do you want to talk about it? No. Okay. >> It It was nice. Okay. I don't doubt that it was nice, but
071>> you just won't talk, will you? >> I did plan on coming and I let Tom know that I couldn't because I had to take my son on that kind of state tour. >> I'm sorry. That's funny. There's always one that everybody remembers from an event like that. So, anybody else? I just want to say also to the um board members, thank you for your time. It's been a pleasure and we'll see you around and good luck. >> Thank you. And also happy holidays and congratulations to all the teachers and um those are huge accomplishments. So congratulations to to you all. Okay guys, it is 7:13 and I will entertain a motion for adjournment. >> Mr. Thomas's last motion. >> Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Morris. Okay. Mrs. Shufeld. >> Yes. >>
072Mr. Wright is not here. Miss Black is a yes. Mr. G is not here. Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Hey, Mrs. Thomas is not here. We had to have your yes or it couldn't be official. All right. We are adjourned at 7:14 p.m. Happy holidays.