001Welcome everyone to the Taylor School District regularly scheduled board meeting of September 18th, 2024 where our mission statement is to educate, engage, and empower those we serve and our vision statement is to is that we will be the innovative destination district where all succeed. Mrs. Shupeel, >> Call to order at 601. Mrs. Shupel >> here. >> Mr. Wright >> here. >> Blackus here. Mr. Heath >> here. >> Mr. Morris >> here. >> Mr. Thomas >> here. >> Mrs. Thomas >> here. >> Everyone please stand and raise the flag to the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance 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. >> Hey, Mr. Right. >> All right. Item number three,
002we have the revision/approval of the agenda policy 0166. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. >> Is there support? Support >> support by Mr. Morris. Mr. Wright, is he? Yes. Mr. Block? >> Yes. >> Mr. Heat? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Miss Shuko? >> Yes. >> Carry 70. >> Okay. Our first item number four on the agenda, discussion items. And on Zoom we have Carly Bernard. Number one is CTE cooperative agreements. >> Um hello. Can you guys hear me? >> Okay. So yeah. Um so I'm just um coming back with our out of district contracts for our um students that come from other schools. Um, so we had the lawyer um, put together and help us
003with those um, agreements and the other schools have all had their um, superintendents and their schoolboard presidents um, sign. So now we're bringing them over to you guys um, today so that our district can sign and then we'll have those agreements in place for the for the current year. >> The program's roots connect. >> You have any comments or questions? >> All right, hearing none. Thank you, Carly. Okay, thanks. >> Number two, overnight conference request, MEMPSA, thoughtful leadership series, Stacy Vasy. >> Is it out? >> No. >> Matt's coming to the rescue. I think it's >> Yeah, you got the mic. >> Okay, here we go. Can't reach. Okay, I am here on behalf of some of our leaders here in the district that aren't able to join us tonight. This would be for Laura
004Ratage from Hoover, Matt Hall from Hoover, Stacy Hall from Meyers, Michelle Hernandez from Moody, Corey Corey Doyle from West, and we had a late ad, Cynthia Mazaros. Um, she actually filled out a paper form and it went missing, so it kind of proved our fact of our electronic forms, but she was able to get it to in today very quickly. So, the thoughtful leader series is a fantastic opportunity to connect with other like-minded leaders and engage in meaningful learning experiences that will empower principles and assistant principles in their leadership journey. The series promises to be a transformative experience offering a platform for networking, sharing insights, working together with fellow leaders who share our passion for education, researching best practices for our schools, and fostering personal and professional growth. This four-part series is held on Friday
005evenings and Saturdays until 3 p.m. in October, November, February, and March at locations around Michigan. In addition to connecting with other schools, districts, and teacher leaders, this is an excellent opportunity for our administrators to bring a team to connect and work collaborative collaboratively to make a greater difference in our schools. Okay. Okay. Are there any questions or comments? >> The the thing says there's five sessions. Is it five or four? This is showing October, November, the last weekend in January going into February, and one in March. >> This says, >> I will double check. This is >> okay. Maybe there. >> Okay. And all of this is covered out of what funding source? >> Title two. >> Yep. >> Okay. Everybody's okay? >> Yep. >> All right. Number three, overnight conference request, the way forward
006conference, St. >> So, this is in partnership uh with our agreement with MDE as our comprehensive um plan in coordination with them. So, we've been a PLC district for many years. This is just an opportunity to kind of reinvigorate that work. So teams will learn the history of the PLC at work movement and the evolution of the public school promise. They will work together to assess our current reality against the essential tight elements of the PLC at work process using specially designed rubrics and surveys. And they will also conduct a gap analysis of our current practices compared to the practices of PLC at work and design an action plan for improvement upon their return. So this is a team going. There's a nine people including the assistant superintendent, Mr. Gribble, Miss Scope, the principal at
007Taylor High, along with our two instructional coaches from there, Amanda Wood and Jamie Crossen, Marlene Scott, the principal of TVLA, Stacy Hall, the principal of Meyers. And those are the two schools that we're working with MDE on currently. Miss Mazaros, principal at Randall, our school improvement coordinator, Sarah Stton, instructional coach from Randall, Jessica Hatfield. And again, this is all funded through our partnership agreement. Any questions, comments? Hearing none, we'll go on to number four, overnight conference requests, special population conference, Stacy Bestman. And this one I I am actually presenting on my behalf along with Bridget Jarvis who is our homeless liaison and this will be funded out of title two. The intent and purpose of the special POPS conference is to provide technical assistance in agency to agency sharing around the following topics of program
008administration, data reporting, instructional and support practices, evaluation and unique program activities for each of the special population groups including homeless, foster care, English language learners and at risk. The conference seeks to support capacity building and program refinement to improve systems, support teachers and administrators, and ultimately have a positive impact on outcomes for students. >> Any comments or questions? >> What's the funding source? >> That one's title two as well. >> Any others? A little grant finance 101. If you see the account begins with 01, that is grant funded. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Number five, Chromebook purchases. Stacy Vaspreamy. So, the state recaptured some of the ESSER funds and across the district and reallocated those and they need to be expensed by September 30th in lines with the ESSER guidelines. So, working with John Ross,
009we're looking to replenish our Chromebook supply um in the amount of 19,929.65. And again, these are all through the 11BB gear grant funds. >> Is this replacing our whole district? >> No, this was about I think on the purchase it was 390. So, essentially the freshman class at the high school. So those new Chromebooks would be allocated to the high school. >> Yes. >> Any other questions or comments? >> And this is like using up the entire grant >> with funds or no >> that we know of. Uh there is something out there. The state's taking public comment on possibly uh extending the September 30th deadline. So if they recapture anything else unused, they might reallocate it. >> Okay. And this is all the unused ESR dollars from school districts. >> Yes. >> One of
010the many versions of it. Yes. >> And we're buying more Chromebooks because we don't have enough. >> Oh, no. We typically replenish them every like every class. So, this would help to offset the cost for next year, the freshman year. >> Do we refurbish the ones that are being put out to date or or out of date or are most of them in such bad shape? >> No. I think that that we pretty much give the freshman new ones and then um by senior year there there's enough that are out of date that they're not reused. >> Okay. >> Plus I Matt I don't know if you know they usually have like a a shelf life of five years. So by the time we get new freshmen it's ready to get new devices. >> Do
011we keep the old ones or do we just like pitch them or >> recycle? Some of them get lost other ways, too. They're damaged or >> Some make great umbrellas. >> Yeah, they just don't get returned. >> Yeah, >> you lose a few that way. Okay, any other comments or question? Okay, thank you very much, Stacy. Number six, fresh food and vegetable grant. Jennifer Trenett is on Zoom. >> Hello everyone. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> So this year the food service department is receiving the fresh fruit and vegetable grant in the amount of $122,000. This grant provides elementary students with an additional snack during the day. The goal is to create long um lifelong lessons of healthy eating. This is the seventh time we've received this grant. Over this past year, we've always
012used Gordon's Food Service to source our fresh fruit and vegetables. This past year, we saw a lot of issues with product substitutions and the overall quality, which made us um put out an RFP. So, we requested RFPs from multiple vendors. Uh we had bids back from La Piccolo, Lagraso, Mercer and Suns and Frog Holler. All these companies came back with the roughly the same pricing. However, uh when we chose the food product, we didn't want to just base it on price. We wanted to make it we wanted to make sure that we were getting good products in. We chose Frog Holler to be our vendor. um they had more variety um more individually wrapped items that was easier for kids to open and the product was fresher. They're also able to deliver multiple times throughout
013the week. They have easy ordering systems and they also help with marketing and the biggest sell for us is it was all Michigan made products so they provide the marketing so that we can show kids where the product is from in Michigan. Um I am asking to spend up to 115,000 or not to exceed 115,000 on produce uh from frog holler. This is all grant funded through fresh fruit and vegetable. Um and then the rest of the grant gets spent on salaries. Um again this is all reimburseable. So we spend the money upfront and then MDE reimbures us later. There any questions, comments, clarification? You want to ask? >> Yeah. You said the last $5,000 was going to be spent on what? >> So, the grant is this year it's $122,000. So, we um 115
014we try to allocate towards all the product, the fruit and vegetables. And then the last part of it all pays for the employee salary. Valerie. >> Yeah. So they um all the cooks that run this program at the elementary schools get an extra half hour to run this program. They have to put it in bins and take it to classrooms. So we pay their salaries out of this grant. >> Okay. For the instructional part. >> Yep. >> Are there any other questions, comments? Okay. Thank you, Jen. >> Thanks. >> Okay, take it away. >> All right, moving on to item number five of the agenda, action items. First, we have the career and technical education cooperative agreement policy 2421. It is recommended the board of education approve the career technical education cooperative agreements for the
015following schools and allow students to enroll in the Taylor School District CTE courses. Allen Park Public Schools, Lincoln Park Public Schools, Summit Academy, and Trillium Academy. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Heath. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Moore. Miss Block, >> yes. >> Mr. Heath, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. >> Miss Shuko, >> yes. >> Mr. Ray is a yes. That carries 70. Action item number two, overnight conference request, MEMSPA, MEMPSA, thoughtful leadership series policy 6550. It is recommended the board of education approve the overnight conference request for Michelle Hernandez, Matt Hall, Corey Doyle, Stacy Hall, and Laura Bray, and Cindy Mazurus to attend the Mespa MEM PSA thoughtful leadership series conference in multiple locations throughout Michigan on October
0164th and 5th, 2024, November 8th and 9th, 2024, January 31st in February 1st, 2025, January 31st, 2024. Wait, no, that's 2025. And March 7th and 8th, 2025. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Heath. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Miss Shufeld? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ra? Yes. Miss Block? >> Yes. That carries 720. Action item number three, overnight conference request, the way forward, maximizing your PLC at work process policy 6550. It is recommended the board of education approve the overnight conference request for Melissa Scopchinsky, Cindy Mazurus, Jameson Cross >> Crossson. Okay. Jason Gribble, Jessica Hatfield, Marlene Scott, Sarah Staten, Amanda Wood, and Stacy Hall to attend the Way Forward Maximizing
017Your PLC at work process conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan on October 23rd and 24th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Heath. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. Mr. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. >> Miss Shufeld, >> yes. >> Mr. Wright is a yes. Miss Block, >> yes. >> Mr. Heat, >> yes. >> That carries 720. Action item number four, overnight conference requests, special populations conference policy 6550. It is recommended the board of education approve the overnight conference request for Stacy Vespie and Bridget Jarvis to attend the special populations conference in Lancing, Michigan, October 14th through the 16th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas?
018>> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ray? Yes. Miss Block? >> Yes. Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> That carries. 720. >> Action item number five, Chromebook purchase. It is recommended the board of education approve the CDW-G quote for the purchase of Chromebooks in the amount of $19,92965. purchase or funding for the purchase will be 11B grer grant funds. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Heath. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Miss Shufeld. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ritzy. Yes. Miss Block. >> Yes. >> Mr. G. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. That carries 70. Final one. Action item number six, fresh fruit and vegetable grant. It is recommended the board of education approve frog
019holler in order to purchase local fresh fruit and vegetables for the fresh fruit and vegetable grant for our elementary schools not to exceed 115,000. Frog Holler is a local company and the majority of products come from local farms. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mufo. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. >> Mufo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ray. Yes. Miss Block. >> Yes. >> Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> That carries 70. Okay, next on the agenda number six, the superintendent report. Mr. Wagger is at a conference. However, we have a video presentation that he is going to present. What? Don't have anything yet this board of education meeting. Even though I am unfortunately not able to be present,
020uh I am currently in Traverse City presenting at the MASA conference. I know last week we dropped a pretty big uh uh news on the community regarding what we were going to be doing with the high school as we moved forward. And I felt it was a a good idea to go ahead and provide some more information to kind of walk through the kind of history and some of the facts of what had led up to this uh situation that we are in currently. So first screen here we have what was in the original uh bond campaign that the planning began in 2020. TMP architects were hired to design and run the campaign to pass the bond proposal. There were several options that were considered at that time, but ultimately an option to build a
021new high school with smaller amounts of money towards middle and elementary schools was what was opted for rather than going after a bond proposal that would have been $300 million and would have addressed needs at all the schools in the district. The total that was settled on at that point was a bond of $130 million. The bond proposal was approved by the Michigan Department of the Treasury and that vote took place in November of 2021. The proposal passed at that time 55% to 45%. The decision was made at that point as well to sell those bonds in three separate bond sales. This slide here shows what the official ballot language was when we did go out and ask for that bond. It clearly states that it's not to exceed $130 million. The bullet points uh
022clearly state as well that we were to erect a new high school building and career center building which will include athletic fields and parking lots. Erect additions to and remodeling of the current high school facility to convert it to a middle school. It allowed as well for remodeling, equipping, re-equipping, furnishing, refernishing school buildings, athletic and playfields, and other facilities to create a modern learning environment for students for safety and security and other purposes. And this would apply to other buildings in the school district. It also approved acquiring and installing instructional technology, infrastructure and equipment in school buildings and other facilities and for preparing, developing, improving sites at school buildings, athletic and playfields and other facilities. The bond sales themselves uh would take place in three phases. Sale one took place in April of 2022 and
023was for a total of amount of $31 million. Sale 2 was scheduled for spring of 2024 for a total of $70 million. That sale has not taken place based on concerns that we could not deliver what was promised as more thoroughly discussed in this presentation or I should say as will be more thoroughly discussed in this presentation. Sale 3 was scheduled for spring of 2026 and that would be the final amount of money which would be roughly $30 million. Currently, the plan is to not sell this series based on the concerns that we could not deliver again on what was promised. So, at this point, the only sale that ever took place of bonds was the first one, and that was roughly over $30 million. We are in the process currently of reconciling how much
024money has been spent out of that money and how much is already committed to other projects and how much ultimately will remain to spend. Current estimates that we have when with our partners at Plant Moran Real Point are that we have committed roughly $12 million of that 30 and that there will be roughly about $18 million more that we will have to spend. Uh we will need to commit that remaining money from the first bond sale by April of 2025 and that is in order to avoid uh federal tax rules that exist regarding bonds. So the initial planning and the design phase uh began in 2022. It became apparent pretty quickly that there would not be enough money to deliver the high school that was promised when the bond campaign went out there. Options were
025reviewed to supplement the project, including providing $20 million from the general fund to make up the difference in what would be needed to pro to produce the high school. Uh it also became clear that $20 million from general fund was not going to be enough to make up that difference either. The design team at that point cut back in its scope of the project as they reviewed. Some of the items that were initially cut were the auditorium, the swimming pool, and the auxiliary gymnasium. In August of 2023, an interim superintendent was brought in to replace the former superintendent. By October of 2023, the district had new people in the positions of superintendent, assistant superintendent of elementary curriculum, assistant superintendent of secondary curriculum, and in the role of chief financial officer. Design on the high school
026continued to get scaled back, this time on CTE space and the number of classrooms that would ultimately be in the final building. In October of 2023, the chief financial officer ran budget projections for the district that demonstrated the district would be fiscally irresponsible to spend $20 million out of general fund to offset the bond costs. This concern was brought to the design meetings and it became apparent that the design would now have to cut classrooms so that not all teachers would have their own classrooms. There would be no CTE programs in the new building and the blackbox theater would be cut as well. And at this point, the decision was made to halt the design and to begin looking at alternatives. From December of 23 all the way through to June of 24, we did
027spend our time looking at lots of different alternatives that we could propose to the community. So once it was apparent that the original high school design had now run to an estimated overage of $40 million to $60 million, this was when we had to look at other options. The first one that was looked at was repurposing Break Middle School. This would include remodeling break for classroom spaces that would ultimately be part of a new high school. You could use the current cafeteria and current gym at break middle school to use as an auditorium and as an auxiliary gym. Then you would add on to the east side of the building with more classrooms, cafeteria, and a competition gym. Considered as an idea because remodeling half of the square footage would lower the costs. However, this
028still ran to into many issues with overrunning the budget by 20 to million to roughly $40 million. Then the next alternate that was considered was purchasing and remodeling the former Masco headquarters. The pros to this concept were that it would lower the cost to renovate because it was an existing structure and it is cheaper to renovate than to build brand new. There'd be plenty of square footage to cover most needs. The building was large enough uh so large that you can incorporate other district entities into the design such as moving the central office, the utility and the PRC into that structure and then those current facilities could have been closed. There was also an opportunity to continue to rent the former Kmart site as that was included in the overall land purchase uh because currently
029Ford Motor Company still uses it and it was an option on the table to add more revenue by continuing to rent to Ford Motor Company. The cons of this project would have been that it would still run over by 15 million to 20 million and that doesn't even include the purchase of the land. we would then have to go out and take out a loan to purchase the real estate involved. Due to the design of the that particular structure, we could not incorporate a competition-siz gym into the design of the building. You could fit an auxiliary gym that could be used for PE classes, but you would not have a competition gym on site. One of the other drawbacks when it comes to athletics is that not all of the outdoor athletic facilities could fit
030onto the site either, leaving us still using some facilities at the current Taylor High School site. And the final con to this decision or to this alternate was that this location of the high school would not be central to how our school district lays out. It instead would be all the way at the north end of our school district. The next alternate that we had considered was redesigning the current Taylor High School site. So, designs were created to entirely gut and redesign the layout of Taylor High School. Classrooms would be moved to the outer walls and windows added to bring in natural light. Cafeterias would be demolished and a new cafeteria would be created in the center of the building with an outdoor courtyard at the center again to allow more natural light into the
031current structure. Redesign of the staff parent staff/parent and the student entrances would be done and make them more inviting and more recognizable as the central entrances to the building. The redesign would create a new blackbox theater. It also designated that there would be space for future expansion in case we wanted to add an auditorium or an auxiliary gym, but that was still not possible to add at this time due to the amount of money that those structures cost. Depending on the choices made during the full design process, it was seen that this option would still run over by four million to roughly $10 million. A funding request was submitted by the superintendent to Senator Cameli uh to ask for money from the state school aid budget to cover what that overage would be. and uh
032ultimately in the state school aid budget, $4 million was given to the Taylor School District. This option would also require an amendment to the PQ application that is currently on file with the Treasury Department uh that was filed with the passage of the bond. The Treasury Department was consulted and they would allow the Taylor School District to amend that PQ application. Again, I said a moment ago that the state school aid budget was passed with a $4 million aotment for the Taylor School District. Ultimately though, this option again fell short on the promises that were made during the bond campaign and would ultimately lead to other logistical issues on how this redesign would take place. This redesign would uh absolutely have to take place in stages because of the amount of movement that would have
033to be required within the building as you moved the classrooms to the outer walls and built the new cafeteria. The next alternate that we had considered and we'd looked into was passing another bond that would bring in more money to be able to deliver on that original promise. So, in May of 2024, the school district hired a firm to conduct polling on whether the community would support this proposal, and this again would be to fully deliver what was promised for the current Taylor High School facility. The polling also asked questions about whether the public felt that we should renovate what was currently in place as well. The poll results were very clear. At the very start of the survey, there was 39% of the community that was pulled who supported passing a bond. There was
03440% who were opposed. So, it was a very close margin. Yet, there were 20% undecided. As more questions were asked and at the close of the survey, they closed with the same question they started with. And this time, 41% supported a bond. So there was a 2% increase in those that supported but the opposition figure jumped from 40% to 54% and 5% remained undecided. So it was very clear that this would be something that would not be supported in the end and that the undecided voters would become ones who were opposed to passing another bond. In the questioning, one of the things that was asked was to rate on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being very important how they felt about a series of different options and opportunities that were there. Of
035those that were surveyed, the question when it asked how you felt about a new high school facility, it was only rated a 5.6 on a scale of 1 to 10. So again, very clear the community would not support going out for another bond. Now, this survey was of registered voters. So that does mean that it's not necessarily people who had students in the school district, but ultimately when you go out for a bond, it is the voters that are making that decision and not just people who have students in the school district. And that was why it needed to be of the full uh constituents of the Taylor School District. Some other important details to keep in mind as this decision was made and as we went through this work. We have to remember that
036only $30 million has been received by the district from that first bond sale. Essentially, that other $und00 million does not currently exist since no bond sales for that $und00 million have taken place. The district will have to spend the roughly $18 million that remains from that first bond sale by April of 2025 to avoid uh federal regulations that would take place if we do not commit that money to be spent. That money will have to be spent within what was defined in the original ballot language which we showed earlier and within how the money was allocated in the original PQ application with the state treasury department. It is clear that the amount of money that we were asking for in the original bond proposal was going to fall short on what was promised. In addition
037to being short on what was needed right from the beginning on that initial ask, we did experience extremely high inflation in the wake of the co pandemic. I mean, we've all seen it when you go into the grocery store, you've done any shopping, how much prices have risen on goods. This was an even bigger issue in the construction field and that was making it more difficult to deliver on what was promised. In a few moments, you will see a slide uh put together by Plant Moran Realpoint that shows exactly how much that inflation made a difference in the construction market. At all points in the process, we have worked closely with our attorneys from Miller Canfield who uh cover our bond related materials and at Collins and Blaha who cover our other legal materials for
038the district. We have also run all of these uh issues and these proposals through our representatives from plant manor man realpoint and from Clark construction. information on the following slide. Again, this is going to refer to uh the inflation that has been seen in the construction market was created by plant morrenal point and this was put together in October of 20123 and you can see here essentially the construction market conditions changed by 40 to 60% that essentially there was an inflation rate of 40 to 60% in construction costs since March of 2020 to when this was put together in October of 2023. And now you begin to see that that kind of increased cost starts to make what was already a shortfall from the beginning an even bigger shortfall as we started going into the
039design phase for this high school project. So, in the end, and this goes back to kind of what we had said last week, what we had put out there, what we put out in our communication to the community, that currently there will be no more bond sales taking place. That essentially, we've put out the bond sale for $30 million, but the other two bond sales that equate to $100 million will not be taking place. So, that money does not exist. It is not something that we have here in the school district because it wouldn't exist until you sell the actual bonds. With that said, a new high school will not be built at this time. Obviously, it was coming up short and without selling those remaining bonds, there is not any way that we would
040be able to deliver uh any sort of new high school at that point. in terms of tax rates for our community, they are going to decline over the next uh series of time because those bond sales will not take place. So, there will be that tax relief that comes in as the bond sales from the first bond from the first sale go through, but those other two will not affect going forward. In the future though, and these are some huge points that we have to keep in place. When we reached out to our attorneys and we asked, "Is this something that you can do? Can you stop and not sell bonds that were approved uh by the community and you were given that authority to sell?" The legal opinion that we received says that the
041authority to sell those bonds that have been approved can never be rescended. So essentially the current board of education uh and the current administration is making a decision to not sell those bonds. But that does not mean a future board of education could change their mind and actually go forward and sell those $und00 million of bonds that remained when So with that in mind, one of the things that I propose as superintendent is that I am proposing that within the next year starting in January, we redevelop a five-year strategic plan for the Taylor School District. This is something that we have not done uh in a few years. It's something that we need to update so that we have a clear vision of what we would like to achieve as a district. I am proposing
042that when we do that process, when we enter into that five-year strategic planning that we make this a topic of discussion at that time of what we should do with these remaining bonds that are we have the authority to sell and we should discuss whether we should be considering uh future sales and we should be discussing what we would then do with that money if we did have that. The reason I am suggesting this is because this gives the perfect opportunity for the community to be fully vested and involved in the process of that discussion. When a five-year strategic plan gets developed, it does get developed with stakeholders who are surveyed, who are given the opportunity to show at meetings to give input and even community stakeholders are part of the process of the actual
043development of that plan. So that gives plenty of opportunity for anyone in the community to speak and give their their thoughts on what we should do going forward. So, in the event that the district does sell those bonds in the future, we do want to be clear, we would then see that increase in the property taxes at that time. So, as of right now, we would not see any increases because we are deciding not to sell for the time being, but if they did go in in the future, there would be an increase to property taxes. So I know that's a lot of information in a short time and I know that there is going to be lots of questions, lots of things that come forward and I again do apologize that I am not
044there but I will be following up when I do return into the district and I will make sure that any questions that do get asked tonight in the public comment that we are reaching out and that we are going to address uh the concerns and comments that do come forward. And again, I really thank you for your time. >> Moving on to item number seven, consent agenda policy 0166.1 and policy 6470. First, we have minutes from the regular board meeting of August 21st, 2024. Item number two, minutes from the regular board meeting of September 4th, 2024. And item number three, consolidated items, payment of current bills, certified non-certified administrative reports, and grant an >> Auxiliary hires. Is it is it ancillary hires? >> Ancillary. Ancillary hires. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Heath.
045Is there support? >> Support by Mr. >> Mr. Wright say yes. Mr. Block. >> Yes. >> Mr. Heat. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Miss. Shel. >> Yes. >> That carries 720. Our next is item scheduled for our next agenda, Wednesday, October 2nd, 2024. We have good news on the agenda. All right. Number nine, public comment. And before we start that, thank you for 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
046like to address the board, please step up to the microphone and state your name and address for the record. After all those in person have had the opportunity to speak, that opportunity will 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 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. Hi, Mary Souza 26640 Beverly Road. I can't say how disapp how
047how disappointed I am that we're not going to get the school. I'm also disappointed in the fact that you sold the first bond to begin with. You knew that you did not have enough money when you passed this and now $30 million is gone. I don't understand why you spent it. I don't understand why you even began when you knew you didn't have enough money to build that school. I realize that playground equipment and all that needed to be taken care of, but the school needed to be built first as far as I'm concerned. And I know there are I've been in other schools and I know they're old and need renovation, but the school is what we pass the bond for. And the school should have been taken care of first and then you
048do the equipment, you do renovations to to the schools, you do the parking lot, you do the curb and gutter, you know, all the little candy things that are there. But the school should have been done first. And that's that's extremely disappointing. And I a question I have is is Plant Moran still being paid? We're not going to do anymore. Are the architects and Plant Moran still being paid their their fee? Let's see. And when you're when you were talking about the different things, different variables that you were trying to figure out how to get a new school, how much did the redesign for the Taylor High School cost? I mean, was that a cost from the bond issue to try to figure all this other stuff out? Um, let's see. Okay, I think that's
049probably all I really had, but I'm just very and I know there's so many people that are so disappointed that the school isn't going through, but like I said, you all knew in 2021 that this wasn't enough. I was at there used to be an oversight committee which was taken away, which I think was wrong. I was on it and it was said then that there wasn't enough money, but y'all just kept pushing forward like you had blinders on. So, it's disappointing. Thank you. >> Are there any other in person? >> Good evening. I'm Brenda Henny at 8232 Elm Street. I have an issue. Uh I've tried to get it worked out through West Middle School. This new payment uh plan that you can add your payments, you know, for, you know, lunch and everything
050else. I'm trying to get my grandson's uh $25 fee paid for his protection on his Chromebook. Okay. But yet nobody can answer me. Okay. So yesterday I called this uh assistant superintendence. I talked to a secretary. I think her name was Jolene. And if I'm I'm not for sure if I'm right on the name. Please apolog I please I apologize if it's wrong. She's going to look into it. The problem I have with this app that the school is using, you have to link your banking information or your credit card to this. Okay? I'm not doing it. Okay? I cannot see how the school, whether it's the school that did this, the board did it. Really, I don't care who did it. Okay? They don't have the right to make us put our information out
051online. So, it's either I pay cash or he I guess he doesn't get the protection. So, if his Chromebook gets broke, then the school or the board can pay for it because I tried paying for it and I got no I got nothing. And that's again that's what I'm have we're all having a problem with is transparency. I know this is something new that was implemented this year. Okay. Instead of doing it through my payments plus which is done through Horizon. Okay. Why can't you have it done through the school? Okay. instead of this. Now, my next thing is I was at the board Tuesday, yesterday, and there were two staff people in the hallway, and they were discussing other people's kids, saying the kids at Kennedy were much nicer than versus the kids at
052uh the new Taylor High School. That's wrong. Okay? If you're going to talk and have conversations like that, don't do it in the lobby because I wasn't the only parent that was there. There were three other three other parents or whatever. Okay? And no matter what you uh the schools, they are adults. If they're having issues, these are kids, okay? They already have a hard enough problem as it is. Okay? And then and then to disrespect these kids if you don't like dealing with kids. Some kids do have some issues. Okay. So what? Learn to deal with it or go find another job. That's disrespectful. I don't care if it's board people. I don't care if it's staff people. You do not stand in a hallway and trash other people's kids. Yes, no names were
053used, but they paid no attention that I was sitting right there and that their other people were sitting there and I was sitting there and I was looking straight at them when all this conversation was going on. Then they brought up a little bit of an issue about the bond. Okay? If you're going to talk about the bond, you better get in your office. That's what you got offices for. Shut the door. The public don't need to hear it. Okay? which, you know, we could, you know, we'd love to hear it, but whatever. And I look at it this way. If some people have more of a tendency to love the kids from from uh Kennedy versus going to be the new high school, then I guess Kennedy shouldn't have got torn down. Okay. Yes.
054>> What building? This building. >> Uh, yes. Yesterday. Yesterday morning. Okay. I can describe them, but I'm not going to do it. I will do it privately, but uh no, I find that I find that very appalling. Now, I personally have a grandson that lives with me. Do I need to shut up? >> Yeah, I'm sorry. >> That's fine. But you get the gest of it. >> Thank you. >> Are there any more in person? Good evening. Um, in the interest of brevity, I wanted to make a quick suggestion to the board related to only the second and fifth bullet point. Superintendent Wager, I hope I pronounced his name correctly, raised in his September 4th letter regarding the >> Yes, you must state your name and your address. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Daniel Sabo, and
055I live at the Oakview sub in Taylor, city of Taylor. Been in Taylor for almost 30 years now. Um, and I wanted to uh uh address some uh points that he noted in the September 4th letter regarding the 2021 bond initiative for the new high school. Uh, if a primary reason for not continuing the original plan of the 2021 bond initiative was accurately noted in the superintendent's letter was due to the COVID epidemic, including higher costs due to inflation, cost overruns or mistakes the previous superintendent may have made, and so on. I think the vast majority of residents would understand that and I truly believe that most residents would not hold it against anyone on the board or senior staff if the plan was scaled back and a smaller high school building was instead constructed.
056Uh so I have a suggestion. Um I'm sure that there are at least some on the board or senior staff that are familiar with Plymouth K community schools. I attended Canton High School class of 1978. At the time I attended, we had two high schools on one campus plus a separate athletic building. And I believe the campus now has three high schools. I received a wonderful education there. As raised in bullet point five of the superintendent's letter that under the present circumstances, the most fiscally responsible thing the board believes should be done is in the future to instead upgrade and remodel Taylor High School instead of building a new one. If however the board is truly concerned about being fair to students and voters, the idea of not building a new high school and using
057the funds for something other than what was promised such would likely cause breaches of trust among voters. In that case, I believe any further askings of additional funds for for the district for anything the district might need in the future would unlikely be approved in any new initiative. And if it is true the board has gleaned that there is support from voters for this idea of remodeling instead of building new, keep in mind that bonds are approved by elections, not by polls which are tenuous at best. So, what I am suggesting is instead of the all or nothing or black and white policy of not building a new high school because the board can't have everything they want to instead build a half-size high school on this property. And then a future board, if they
058so choose, can come back to voters with a second bond initiative asking for funds to build either a second smaller high school on the same campus or remodel the existing building. uh it's better than doing nothing because I cannot imagine that voters in Taylor would be willing to approve any future bond initiative for anything let alone a high school uh if the board does not deliver a new high school as promised. Uh and besides high schools these days in the country are getting way too large and pose security risks. the more they are more difficult to make safe for students. Ultimately, building two smaller buildings on this campus or building one new smaller building and remodeling the existing building in the future makes more sense and would regain the or maintain the trust of voters
059and make it safer for students. I however believe ultimately that the district would be much better off if there were two smaller high school buildings on one campus which would eliminate the need for maintaining the second property on Wick. Uh if the idea of remodeling the existing school is what the district intends to do at some point where the district to build a smaller scale new high school building, you'll have place to spend to send some students to from the existing high school to the new building while remodeling uh and construction is going on on the old building. And the fact that the district has now demolished two high schools, only has one left, and wishes to remodel seems like not a plausible one because where does the board intend to put all the students
060while remodeling goes on? And here we are four years later and as of today, the community has only one high school and there is still no legitimate plan for a new one, even though the district is sitting on top of a $100 million approved initiative for a new building. So, I hope this board will consider that idea and go back to the drawing board and reconsider the options instead of passing the buck again. And if it's not too late for if it's too late for this board to reconsider, I would hope that any future board would consider this idea. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Are there any other in person? Okay, hearing none, uh, we'll go online. Matt, do you have anybody online? >> Good evening. Can you hear me? Okay.
061>> Hello. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Kathy Fields, 22670 Wood Creek. Uh, I have a few questions on actually some of the things that have been done uh since the McDall debacle. when the construction company that was hired by Plant Moran Presa or whatever name they're going by this week um when the work was approved to start knowing the asbestous abatement and the result hadn't been completed yet. um they were allowed to still the construction company was given the go-ahad to go ahead and start which resulted in disturbing the asbestous in the building. I know that cost I don't know the exact amount but I know it was well over $200,000 to clean up. Uh and also it was a delay in opening McDonald. Uh then there was the other issue that I understand
062was going on with missing um cleaning supplies, destroyed uh equipment for this uh food service program for the maintenance department. I know of destruction of three floor machines and I know they're six or $7,000 a piece. Um, so my questions are, wouldn't Plant Moran, being our owner or owner's representative, which I refer to as our site managers, be held responsible for the Mcdal asbestous cleanup as well as all the damages. They were the ones that bid the project. They hired the construction company. I have no idea who hired the cleaning company. But I wouldn't think the district would be uh the responsible party in this mess. And in my opinion, since this isn't the first time, it probably is for all of you because you're way younger than I am, but this isn't the first
063time we've had issues with that company. And in my opinion, whenever this district or if they decide to resume to resume building that involves bond funds or anything else, I would hope that the board would reconsider ever rehiring plant Moran and I'll wait for a response from the administration. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mrs. Fields. Anybody else? Matt. Okay. Thank you everybody for their public comments. Mr. Wright. Moving on to item number 10, adjournment to close session policy 0137.2 two pursuant to Michigan Open Meetings Act being public act 267 of 1976 and as amended I move the board convene in close session pursuant to a age material exempt from disclosure by state or federal statute is there a motion >> motion by Miss Shupo is there support >> support >> report by Mr. Morris >>
064Miss Block >> yes >> Mr. >> Yes >> Mr. Morris >> yes >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Miss Shel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. Yes. That carries 70. We will go into close session at 702.