2024-11-20 | Regular Board Meeting

001Welcome everyone to the Taylor School District regularly scheduled board meeting of November 20th, 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 for all 16. We're called to order at 6:02 p.m. Mrs. Thomas here. Mrs. Shefelt >> here. >> Mr. Wright >> here. >> Miss Black is here. Mr. Heath >> here. >> Mr. Morris >> here. >> Mr. Thomas >> here. >> Okay. Seven in attendance. Please stand everyone for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge 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. >> Okay, we will start with good news and that will be Lori Ruth

002Roth, can hand food for the Rotary. Hi, Lori. >> Hi. Thanks, Superintendent Wagger and the board for having me here tonight. I really appreciate the time to kind of boast a little bit about our community at Taylor Parks. And I'm kind of going through my day today and wondering, okay, how's this all going to come to play in the conversation? My first thought is community. What's community? Community is a group of people living and supporting each other. And I feel like this is exactly what's happened at Taylor Parks throughout our um venture on this food drive. So, it all started um with the vice president, Armando, from the foundation that had reached out to me to see if Taylor Parks would want to partake in their food drive, which actually their food drive was to

003support another local place, the Fish and Loaves Community Pantry. So, all of their collection was going over to another place so that we could support our community. and the love and devotion that had come from our Taylor Parks P family to support our kids and bringing in the cans really. We had a 10day food drive and we brought in 79 cans. So, which was just absolutely amazing because if you know we only have 350 students at our school. So, everybody brought at least two cans. Um but we did put on our little um competition throughout the building as we often do and so we had our student council was going room to room picking up the cans every time they were collected and it seemed to be quite a lot from one room. Um over

004here we have our student council is there on the left hand side and the classroom that was the winning classroom was a sweet little kindergarten class, Mrs. Ramy's class. So absolutely adorable. their class raised 166 cans and of course, you know, they weren't carrying those all by themselves. Um, and then Mrs. Thompson's class, the fourth grade class, tried to compete, but they only brought in 126 cans. So, but the winning team, they actually got their ice cream celebration. It was actually today. So, this is Mrs. Ramy's class getting their reward for bringing in all of the cans to support our community. But I just we're blessed to have such a great community and how we're all so supportive of each other. One hand is holding the next hand and just kind of carrying down the

005road. So I thought this was a great way to start your meeting tonight and see the smiling faces of those little kids. So thank you for having me. >> Thank you for doing that. Thank you for showing your kids that uh community is important, that feeding feeding people is important. >> One of the things that's near and dear to my heart for sure. All right. Number four, Mr. Wright. >> Uh we have revision approval of the agenda policy 0166. There is a revision. It's crossing off item number 12, action after close session because we do not have close session tonight. Is there a motion to approve the agenda with the revisions? >> Motion by Thomas. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. M. Shu. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. Yes. Miss Block. >> Yes. >>

006Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. Mrs. >> Yes. >> Carry 70. >> Okay. Our schedule reports for tonight. Um, we have suicide prevention coalition, Mr. Brian Galdis. Gald. >> Good evening. Thank you for having me tonight. Um, my name is Brian Galdis and um I am um an employee of Growth Works. Um and um I am the suicide prevention coordinator for Growth Works and I work with uh the Western Wayne uh suicide prevention coalition. I I kind of facilitate that group and um I am a former superintendent of schools with South Redford um retired and and now doing this work. So, um the suicide prevention coalition is a group of nine school districts and two hospital systems. And so the um uh the school systems are Taylor

007of course you um Wayne Westland, Northville, Redford Union, Leavonia, Plymouth, Canton, South Redford, Garden City, and Clarenceville. And um we are a group of um school districts, hospitals, and service agencies dedicated to battling adolescent depression and suicide. And um so that that's our work and you have in front of you a um an annual report and that kind of highlights it goes into a little bit more detail about the things I'm going to talk about tonight. So um so you can you know kind of look through that a little bit more later. I do have some statistics. I don't get too deep in the statistics because you can kind of get lost in them. But there are a couple I think that are really important for us to know um as a coalition and why

008we do our work. And one of those is that suicide is the le second leading cause of death for um our adolescence. Second leading cause of death. It used to be the third leading cause, but it's now the second leading cause because it's going up and it's suicide is the only cause of death in the United States and the top 10 cause of death that's actually increasing. Every other one of the top 10 causes of death has been decreasing. And so so the the problem is not getting better, it's getting worse. And um and we really have got to to stop and and um take a good look at it, talk about the stigma surrounding mental health, and really make a difference. There is a a statistic that I'm going to go into right now

009that that that makes me do the work that I'm doing now. It's a reason I got back into um into education and doing the work that I'm doing. But if if you could uh go ahead and hit the next slide. So this slide up here I'm going to explain a little bit. This this is information that comes out of the center for disease control and it it's it also matches perfectly with a a state assessment that we do here called the MIFI. Some I don't know if Taylor does the MIFI but but it's it's an assessment done across the state. The numbers are almost exactly the same that I'm going to present tonight. But if you look at um if you look at the the the the top row it says national. So that these

010are the statistics from a national perspective and then next to it is the state. Now I'm going to go through and talk about um what that would mean for Taylor. Now when I when I talk about the number of students I'm um extrapolating um the numbers. So and I'll explain that in a second. But if you look at that research, 42% of our students across the country in these statistics, it's important to remember they cross gender, they cross race, they cross religion, they cross social economic standards. This is everybody's problem. This is not their problem. It's not well it doesn't look like our kids. This is everybody. And um so when you look at the state of Michigan, 40 40% of our students in the last 12 months have felt significantly hopeless for a significant

011amount of time. And that's an important factor because when you look at someone who who makes a choice to take their life, one of the main causes is that they feel hopeless for some reason. So So that's why it's measured. So if you took that number and you extrapolated it to Taylor's numbers, Taylor has approximately 1,400 high schoolers, that would mean 565 of your students have felt significantly hopeless, your high school students in the last 12 months. 22% of students across the state have considered suicide. So if you look at that and extrapolate that across Taylor, 311 Taylor students have contemplated taking their life. They felt in a place like that. 17% have made a plan. So that means 246 Taylor students have made a plan to take their life. And this is the number

012that just I I talk about it. I've researched it. I still it still hits me so hard like an anvil, you know, right on the head. 9% of our students have attempted not made a plan, not thought about, they've actually attempted a suicide. 9% across the country and um across the state. It's actually 10% across the country. That means 126 Taylor students could have attempted a suicide. And I say could have again this is not a number. It's not an actual number where you know that 126 of your students have done it. It's an extrapolated number. I I want to make sure that's very clear. Um it's not acceptable. It's just absolutely not acceptable. And this isn't a Taylor problem. This isn't a Plymouth Can. It's not a Redford problem. It's not an Eskanava problem,

013right? This is this is a Michigan problem. I I met uh yesterday with the um um the representative, the head of the um mental health group for the U Department of Education for Michigan and um and we had uh you know this conversation and they they they they understand this too and they're working they're going to start doing some things. I think we're going to work with them um to to make a difference. But but that number is number we should be it's not number we should be proud of but we should be ringing a bell about it because it's it's real. It's real and and the stigma gets in our way of of really having conversations about it. Uh another statistic this is this is some research out of the University of Michigan. Um,

014there's 40,000 students or teens, I should say, 40,000 teens who have a diagnosis of mental health, some type of a mental health diagnosis that are not being treated. There's plenty more that have a diagnosis, but there's 40,000 that haven't that aren't under treatment. And there's three main reasons. The number one reason is stigma is is families wanting to deal with it or or those kinds of things. The second one is access. there's not enough social workers. Even if you wanted to get into um some service, it's it's hard to get the service. That's being addressed, I think. Um there's there's pressures to to make that to make that um to change that, but we're still a long way from getting there. And then affordability. Check your insurance. Mental health is not weighed the same as

015physical health with insurance. You know, if you have cancer, you know, they don't cut you off at six visits for chemo, right? with mental health, you might only get six visits with a psych psychologist or a counselor or something and then you're off on your own. There's a huge difference between um how your your insurance companies work. Um and that that needs to be addressed also. So um so we we looked at all of this and in working with uh Trinity Health um the former St. Mary's of Leavonia and um the the former Bulma now Corwell Health. They're also on our our coalition, we decided we needed to make a difference. We needed to do something. And so last year, these are some of the work that we did last year. Um and and I

016and um I will tell you that Taylor didn't start out in our coalition um but because of your administration um you know wanting to be part of our um and reaching out to us um that you know they've come on with us and so they haven't been with us from the beginning. So so there's some things that have happened that Taylor hasn't quite done yet but but are certainly on board to do things as we move forward. um we agreed upon a screener, but every student in our coalition as well as the two hospitals when they come in for a mental health uh evaluation, they all go through the same screener. And that might not seem like a big deal, but think about a student in crisis. A student in crisis is a family in

017crisis. And every time we put them through that that um that process is just another hurdle that they have to get through. If we're all talking the same language, it makes that transition so much better. Um we've trained over 6,500 now um professionals in the um school. So bus drivers, uh cooks, um principles, teachers, social workers, we've trained them in QPR, which is a way to identify if someone's in crisis and then if they are in crisis, it gives them it gives you some tools to um to be able to help that person go through it. So about 6,500 people in that coalition adults. We're working on data. Data is always a difficult thing to uh to collect. But that is something that we're working on so that we know if we're making a difference

018or not. And then we do a lot of research and recommendations for what's what our best practice is. Um and there's a lot of mutual support. So in the schools, a lot of mental health professionals work in isolation. There may be one, and this has changed over the last couple of years for the better, but there may be one person in the whole district responsible for mental health, for student mental health. There may be four, but that becomes very isolating when you're talking about a whole school district. And so, there's been a lot of networking going on and there's a lot of crossmutual support. One, when there's a a significant issue in a district, um there are people, they don't even have to pick up the phone anymore. When they hear about it, they're they're

019they're calling each other. How can we help? How can we help? Those kinds of things. Um and um so that so that's going on. We also do a lot of professional development. Um unfortunately school districts and I was a superintendent and I'm guilty of this but a lot of times we focus on the core four and we don't always think about mental health and particularly with professional development. And so we we we do address this too. We have a um a conference that we put on every year um in Wayne County. every single school district has to do professional development on election day. So, we just had 400 mental health professionals at Thirsten High School for an outstanding conference and um it we really was geared toward school-based mental health professionals and um and they

020appreciated that. We also run miniseries with uh Trinity Health um throughout the school year for mental health professionals and so they keep that networking going and and also they're learning. So work work that we're going to be doing this year 24 and 25 um we've identified the need for peer um peer support doesn't mean that we're training peers to be counselors or social workers but kids know when their friends are in crisis long before the adults do. And so what it does is it it allows peers to to do two things. One create a system in schools that support others that support kids. So it it it it helps build that. And two, if you know, if I'm if I'm uh having a crisis and I'm talking to one of my friends, so my friend

021might pick up on something, might give them some some real clues to that this might be a problem. And then what do you do? Obviously, finding an adult doing those kinds of things. Getting th that person the help that they need as opposed to really kind of stressing out about what do I do? What do I do with my friend? Do I do I really not say anything? you know, you know, that's uh to get through those struggles. Uh student voice, excuse me, we are not going to move the needle on that 10%. Until we get student voice in in the room. And so we're we're we're starting um a um a student coalition or student steering committee where every high school that is um in the coalition, there's 17 of them, Taylor being one

022of them, will have three representatives that will meet monthly and those students will go through the same things that our adult um steering committee goes through, same things. and there'll be crossover, so there'll be communication between the groups so that the students will have a real voice um in the work that we're doing moving forward. And so I'm really excited about that. And we, you know, we're all real smart people, but it's been a while since I've been a kid. It's been a long time since I've been a student in a high school, right? and things have changed dramatically, you know, and so um so getting their voice, getting their experience, getting their lived experience um to work with our um our mechanisms is going to be a great help and that's something that we're

023we're excited about. Um and um so and we're also going to be working with the hospital systems in terms of coming up with a common um common and an effective way for students who who are in crisis in the schools. So let's say at Taylor High School I'm having a a really bad day and I go into crisis, right? My family's in crisis because it's just been an ongoing thing. So then maybe I need to go to Trinity Health. Maybe I need to go to Stone Crest for inpatient therapy for two weeks. Um it's there there's there's a real wall between the schools and and all those facilities. We want to break that wall down to the best we can. I know there's some some privacy laws and that but we need to get around

024those things so that we can have real a real soft handoff that way. And then how do we support that student? if if I'm a student who is in in um all honors classes and I have to be away from school for two weeks, that's not helping my mental health, you know. So, how do we support that student and and maybe someone who's not in honors classes, but but how do we support those students when they're not in school? And then how do we support them transitioning back into school? So, we're going to tackle that beginning this year and come up with some common practices for all the schools and then all the service agencies um to be able to work together Um, we do a lot of legislative things. I'm not going to go

025through them all, but we have a lot of um legislative contacts and and are doing some work with um with area legislators also. So, um so that is um kind of a really quick brief um uh run through of the work that we're doing and and like I said, Taylor is involved in this work. Um and um we I I didn't we do have a steering team committee. I didn't talk about that. And that's an important piece of this. When we started this work, we knew we needed people who are boots on the ground, people that work with the students every single day. So, every school district has two representatives at the table of our steering committee. One is a person who works with kids every single day. And the other person is a cabinet

026level administrator. And the reason being is we need that we need that we need that person who works with kids every day, but they're not necessarily the people who can go back to a district and help steer the ship a little bit. So that's why we have to have the um the the cabinet level person because they're talking to the superintendent, you know, hopefully daily and and they're they're they're communicating the work that we need to get done and can actually make change. So I think that's really working out well for us. So having those two and um so that yeah that is um that is our suicide prevention committee that Taylor's part of questions. Is there a region of the country that has a lower suicide rate, teen slow suicide rate? >> Um, there

027isn't. It It's remarkably consistent across the country. There there might be some some places that that where there spikes. Um, but but c certainly not lower, but it is it is pretty consistent. And um, so I've gone into some some of the more affluent communities and I thought I was going to get some push back in terms of not in our community meeting, not our kids. We don't want to talk about that. and and that hasn't been my has not been my um my experience. Um every community, every school board, every mayor, every um um every township supervisor I've talked to has said, "Yeah, we got to do something our community." Yes. So, but no, there isn't. There really isn't. None that stand out. I can in the research that I've looked at. I'll tell

028you something else, and this is um coming from someone who's spent his whole career in schools. Um when you look at the research in terms of attempted suicides by adolescence and also completed suicides by adolescence, they spike in the more um stressful times of the school year and they spike down in vacation. So that screams loudly at me. Schools aren't necessarily helping, you know, they're hurting. And um so so part of the coalition's mission is to look, we're not going to change GPA. We're not going to, you know, the importance of a GPA. We're not going to change exam schedules, those kinds of things. Uh we're not going to be able to change social media or bullying and those things that happen in schools. But what we can hopefully change is creating supports across the

029coalition that support kids when they're in that environment. And I'm again, look, I know I know schools are doing the best they can. I I can tell you that firsthand. Um really this is a societal problem. you know, if I could do anything, I would unplug the the social internet in a heartbeat. It's great for some things, but it's it's negatives, I think, outweigh the the the positives, but um so I don't have a question. I guess just a statement. Um I personally work with Brian um at Growth Works and their team does phenomenal work. I mean, they pour themselves into helping school districts ac across Wayne County um and beyond. I mean, if there's someone reaching out and they're asking for help, they're there. They're there to provide resources. And the thing that really

030sets them apart is they focus not just in the classroom. They focus on every aspect of that child's journey throughout their educational experience. From the moment they get on the bus to that bus driver being trained to the cook that's when the child's going through the lunch line to every single person that that child touches throughout the day. Their goal is to train all of the people. Make sure that everyone has that opportunity because a child might not be close with the teacher but close with that janitor, might be close with that line cook, might be close with the bus driver. And so I just it's more or less a statement. Thank you for the work you all do. Thank you for the continuous work that you're trying to do to change these stat statistics

031and actually see a decrease in suicide. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. >> Brian, I have a quick question. >> Yes, sir. >> Um, so I believe you had mentioned that there were some steps that the school district the school district currently hasn't taken yet since we were joining the program later. Um, do you would you know those off the top of your head or things that we could like try to address moving forward? Yeah. So, we're um we're not fully implemented in everything we do because again, we're moving s nine school districts. So, so things this is definitely a marathon, not a sprint. So, I'll give you some examples. We're um we're working to um to um have students trained in QPR um across the coalition. And so, that's something that all the districts

032are starting to do. some of the districts started last year um because they were you know they were with us last year and so so that's an example we have um I I mentioned earlier about the peer-to-peer programs um working on developing that that that that program um for to help peers who are working with other peers um or other kids. And so we selected three different programs that you could bring into your schools. And what part of being the coalition means that you you are going to do some things that you agree to. And one of them is every school district has to begin a peer-to-peer program with one of those three. And then there's there's cost to it. Um but we were able to come up with enough money to fund that those

033programs um for three years. Um, so it's not going to cost the districts money to bring those programs in. But, um, so, so that's a program I think that, um, that Taylor will be, you know, working on on bringing in, but again, there are some districts that are just starting that now, too, even though they've been with us since the beginning. Um, because it takes a while. Yeah. >> You know, to implement. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Could I just add a little bit of context, too? So, the representatives that attended your last meeting um did not share that we are in the process of bringing on Hope Squad. >> Oh, awesome. >> So, it through Hope Squad, which will be presented to the board um in the upcoming weeks. It's completely

034grant funded, but it will teach all of those peers the QPR strategy. Um and just another caveat to add for the Growth Works piece. Growth Works truly is phenomenal. Um, and we've used lots of your mental health professionals to come together. We're currently looking at our crisis response and we're using lots of things that they're helping um, including suicide screeners and it's just it's incredible work. It's in it's needed work. We're excited about this partnership and and we actually through a field trip opportunity that you presented to our team are sending some G some of our uh students to one of the peer conferences that is happening. I think it's the first weekend in December um where they will start all of that networking in the down river area. Um, and so we're we're really

035excited about that and and also I love the opportunities that you provide for Plymouth Canton and Plymouth Canton has a really um a deep connection um to the coalition and they provide a lot of professional development opportunities that we want to take advantage of too. So it's it's it's a great partnership. >> Can you keep a secret? >> The uh I know I'm talking to a board. is kind of a joke, but the um so we've had a lot of down river districts um approach us um even even recently. I know that there's there's been a couple of um trades just recently, but um but we really wanted to start small so that we could make this successful. We are trying to make it um repeatable so other communities can can do what we're doing,

036other um other coalitions can start. Um, but we said no because we really need to get up and running before we can expand. But we we did bring Taylor in because of the relationship with Broks and you know I know we have social workers here and whatnot and so um so there are so I know you're kind of farther away from the Western way group but you're special because you're already connected to to to grow and and also um Redford Union and Southford are also going to use Home Squad. So connecting with them might be helpful. Record Union is really off and running to the races doing a really great job at home. You might have seen that on channel 4. They had a a special on that. >> Anybody else? Thank you very much.

037>> Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> Okay. Our discussion items for tonight. Number one, out of state field trip request, imagination station, and that is Miss Banks. Hi. Um, I'm Cynthia Banks, Anderjack. I'm esteemed teacher at Holland Elementary and I'm here to ask permission if I could take all of my students at Holland Elementary to the Imagination Station. The plan is to take kindergarten through 2 grade on December 4th and third through fifth grade on December 11th. And um I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Imagination Station, but it is a a really really cool um hands-on science museum. Um I've already taken last year I took my students all of them to the Michigan Science Center and the um Ann Arbor hands-on science center. So it's only seems next in line.

038Um but it is super cool. Um, it'll give the kids a chance to be able to do some more hands-on activities, not just inside of my classroom and in their science classes, but also there where we can connect them to the things that we're doing in class and of course, you know, connect them to the world. So, um, yes, I was able to get a grant that that's paying for all of the admission costs, but unfortunately, we had to do a little extra with the buses because we had a hard time trying to get buses to take our students over there. So, the kids still have to pay $10 to be able to go, but um I still think it's a wonderful opportunity and I'm hoping that you guys would approve us for us to

039go. >> Are there any questions? >> Uh I just have a quick question. >> Sure. >> The form just has the December 11th, but you're taking two sets of kids two separate days. We're Yes, we're doing it because when we had gone to the Michigan Science Center last year, we had had a grant and we took the whole entire school on the same day and it was a little intense. Yeah. So, we're kind of we're just breaking it up so that we don't have like a huge because we have like 320 students. So, that's doing at least 150 for per day. Yeah. >> So, yeah. Very tactful. Thanks. >> Are there any other questions? >> Do we need to approve both days or is it just the one that covers both? >> I believe it's

040written that the one covers both. >> Did I do it right? >> I am requesting for both to be approved, please. >> Okay. Actually, it says the 11th But you said December 4th. >> December 4th is for kindergarten through 2 grade. And I had completed I believe two Sigma bothers but maybe not. I could have sworn but >> and then the second is December 11. >> Uh yes please. >> Anybody else? Thank you very much. >> Thank you. The second discussion item tonight, overnight conference request, Lancing, Michigan. Mrs. Delator, >> good evening. I'm asking the board this evening to approve a conference for me to attend um the Michigan Association of School Personnel Administrators in Lancing. It's December 4th through the 6th. And um it in these at the conferences that we go to, you

041have a lot of breakout sessions and there's so many things that's kind of happening and moving and shaking in the school industry that um you can't really keep track of it all. You know, it's very difficult. So these u breakout sessions give you an opportunity to kind of give you an overview and then you can also look at it and say, what does that apply to what I'm doing and what we need to do here in the district and maybe we need to get more information or we're set on it. But um some of the highlights that I was that I'm very interested in attending as tele work for ADA. Um I know we've had some um requests for that and right now it's not feasible for us but down the road what is the

042legalities of that of that being a possibility. The other um things that I'm looking at is the MD certifications. I know as time has gone over the course of my years and and HR and personnel um the certification issues have changed and they're always changing and so I would like to give that opportunity and then also title nine and then just a general overview with the legislative update. So it's it's compact but it does give you a lot of information. So I would appreciate your consideration. >> Okay. Are there any questions for Pat? >> What's the funding source? You know, >> it's just it's uh it would be general fund. >> Okay. >> And it's out of my budget. Thank >> any others. Okay. Hearing none. Number three, cyber security. John Ross. >> Good afternoon.

043John Ross, IT director. Um so I'm here to talk about some cyber security and grants that have been procured uh and awarded to us for that purpose. Uh these grants were awarded for the specific purpose of EDR solutions. Uh you can kind of think of that as an advanced anti virus solution and um so I'm going to start with just some basics about the grants that we've received over the past couple years. Uh it was definitely a marathon and and it took a long time to get to where we're at right now, but I'm happy that we're in the place that we are right now. Um so I want to start with talking about cyber security as a layered approach here first. Um think of it as an onion. There are many different layers of

044cyber security just like physical security. Think of it as you might have locks on your door, but you might also have alarms on your house as well, right? And so there's different places that you go through the house and and you find uh maybe you have a booby trap or something like that, but the whole point is that you want to thwart everybody at each individual layer that they get to. And so this is just the biggest layer. So if you take a paro approach, then you're essentially just taking the biggest gap of need and you're closing that. And then once you uh cross that out and you do your next assessment, you find that next biggest gap and you start to close those out as well. So, uh, what we're talking about today is

045that biggest gap that we have and we're about to close it until the next one. So, uh, two years ago, we applied for SLCGP grant and that's for the year 2022. Like I said, it was a marathon. Uh, it took two years to get to the point that we're at right now and then all of a sudden we took off and everything was due yesterday. So, um, it I'm happy it happened, but it was a little rough towards the end there. um it is worth the wait. Uh and then the main goal of this grant is just to increase cyber security tools. Uh this the tool set that we have including awareness and there are different things that you could have applied for. Uh we were granted it just for the purposes of EDR. Again,

046that's endpoint detection and response. Uh that's basically just coverage again like an advanced anti virus solution for your servers and your endpoints that your users use like their desktops and laptops. So slide two here uh talks about another grant that we received about a year ago. Uh and this is through my secure. It's the 97g grant and what this was is for the state of Michigan is it gave us funds to cover our uh critical infrastructure. So for that purpose, it allowed us to get Crowd Strike EDR solution on our servers. So all of our servers in our data center are covered by this right now. Uh CrowdStrike was chosen through a bid process that was administered by the Ingam County ISD. Uh they did a fantastic job and there was a lot of players

047that came to the table. Uh a lot of solutions were looked at. In the end, Crown Strike prevailed. Uh the pricing was phenomenal. We couldn't go wrong with it. We didn't see any pricing uh until the very end because that was wrapped up pretty well due to the fact that again it was the whole state of Michigan. So basically it was critical infrastructure covered for any districts and ISDs that wanted to use it. Uh of course we opted in. Uh there was nothing out of our pockets and and we didn't have to even apply for anything because again it was all administered through Ingam County. Uh now before we go on a little bit, I'll talk a little bit about CrowdStrike. I'm going to talk a little bit more about it later, but I want

048to say that after we received that initial grant and we put this software on our servers, we did have a cyber security incident. Um and there's two different terms I'm going to use during the course of this presentation. One's incident, one's an attack. Uh an incident is something that in our um in our world here an incident was uh an infection was found. The software blocked it on the server and completely shut it down. The only people that had access to it at that point were Crowd Strike uh systems administrators. That would be the Sock. So security operations center for uh for them uh themselves. So what happened there is they were able to get all the logs, get all the details and then let us know where that point of origin was. So we

049were looking for that end point of origin. Uh we were able to find it with that software. Could have found it a little bit easier if we had CrowdStrike installed districtwide. That wasn't the case, but we still found what that endpoint was. We were able to manually isolate it and pull it out of production quickly. But had we had the software installed on that, it would have been stopped even before it hit the server. Uh, as you can probably imagine, it was a pretty stressful couple weeks for me during that time while we were working with uh, RSA and my secure and other government agencies to collect the data, look at the logs, and find out what actually happened and and where it actually occurred. Um, but in the end, if it weren't for that

050software, the the the incident could have been a full-blown attack. And we're going to talk about some statistics here next. So, I'm going to rather than talk about all industries and ransomware and numbers that have no basis in our world, I'm just going to talk about K12 facts here. Um, so my first statement about this, my first bullet is that school districts are datari and cyber poor. Bad actors know this. They know that we don't have all the resources in the world to protect our infrastructure and our IT assets. We are under attack because of that. So because of that, you'll see that some of these statistics are fairly alarming. So, for example, the first one where school districts have the highest rate of attack of any industry in 2023. That's a huge that that

051that's why grants like this are starting to pop up. That's why the realization of our needs is actually coming to fruition. And you'll see how we're continuing that in the last slide, but 63% of districts reported an incident in 2024. Unfortunately, you can count us as one of them, but that's a high number. Now thankfully that 63% is a little bit lower than the previous couple of years. We saw that these numbers really spiked over COVID. People were clicking any email that they received that had anything to do with CO because it was the big story and and people were just trusting anything. And so we saw huge spikes. It has tapered down. I don't know if that's going to be a regular occurrence, but I I hope to see less of that. It could

052also be because of tools like this that we're talking about right now. So that's another thing I want you to consider is that just a few years ago, these tools were not nearly as advanced as they are today. The average ransom in 2004 cost $2.73 million. Again, we're talking about K12 institutions here. If we if we talked about other industries like insurance, we talked about uh banking institutions, their rate is much much higher than that. uh tens of millions of dollars in some cases. The cases of ransomware rose 74% between 22 and 23. Like I said, we tapered off a little bit in the last year, but it's still very very high and it's not a number that that we want to be part of. Uh 52% of computers during those intact uh those attacks

053were impacted by ransomware. Okay, so that means over half your organization is impacted during one of these attacks and you can imagine and you've heard the stories about districts shutting down for multiple days. Uh this is just one of those ways of preventing that from happening so that we don't have to stop the classroom time. Uh and then in 2024 over 90% of ransomware attacks were for three different reasons and I'll explain how that the biggest reason of all is something that we're plugging This is the gap that I was talking about earlier. So 90% included vulnerabilities, compromised credentials, malicious emails, uh malicious emails, we all know, you know what that means. Uh don't click on stuff you don't recognize, right? Compromised credentials, don't share your accounts, don't uh don't have bad uh uh easy

054to guess passwords. But the vulnerabilities, how do we all control that? Well, you might have updates that are available for your computer and if you don't do those regularly, if you don't reboot often, if you don't apply those updates, you could have vulnerabilities. So, how do we use that data? How do we use the knowledge in order to close those gaps? Again, that the vulnerabilities, that's the biggest gap. With a staff of five, I can't possibly know all the vulnerabilities in our district until now. So before we get to the until now, my next slide are areas that I want to brag about a little bit and so I can share where we've been and where we're going. Um so over the last year, year and a half here, we've completed a lot of cyber

055security improvements. Uh one is email filtering. So we do have a uh Google Workspace for Education Plus account. Uh and that's our licensing that allows us to have some advanced email security features as well. It's not the best on the market. It's just what Google offers and we're now taking advantage of that as much as possible. Uh and you can thank Mr. Medu for that actually. Uh we have secured print and fax services now. So you can't just print public information or private information on a student or their parents and leave it on a printer or it won't or or a CA60 won't come through a fax machine and just be sitting there for well until the wrong person comes and grabs it. Um, that's now all secured be behind a a specific user's password.

056Um, we've done cyber security. Oh, I'm sorry, I missed the uh server endpoint detection and response. There's that ERP solution that we were able to get as a result of the 97g grant. Uh, then we have a few things that are currently in process. Uh, we have additional Wi-Fi security coverage. Um, essentially what we're doing is we're segregating our Wi-Fi networks even more than we did before and that way it doesn't allow uh for the curious student to get to the wrong level of security or into the wrong place. Uh, so over the winter break that will complete itself and we'll be able to wash wash our hands of that and put that in that top column. um user endpoint detection that is adding crowd strike over on our uh server or not our servers

057we already have that but our user workstations and laptops your laptops um for that additional protection. Now we were able to trial crowd strike on all of our district assets because when we had that incident crowd strike said hey why don't you go ahead and install that endpoint everywhere okay let's just see make sure it didn't get anywhere else on your network and just call it a day. So, uh since then, uh they've been nice enough to let us keep that on our all of our computers. So, we have been using it. Um full disclosure, and it's been eyeopening what it can show us. So, we'll talk about those vulnerabilities next uh because that's exactly where we're going to be going here. Uh and then some physical security upgrades. We're going to be doing some

058more with locking down our server rooms and our network closets to prevent access from the wrong person. Uh we're talking about doing card access so that if somebody were to access the room, we would know who access that room and when. Uh because just it's like clicking on the wrong email, but you're letting the wrong person in there to plug whatever they want into a switch, plug a USB into a server, and then where where we at? we're in the same place as we were if that person clicked on the wrong thing in their email. So on the next slide I'm going to talk a little bit more about the why why Crowd Strike u why not a different solution. So even though Ingam County did uh go out to bid on this and they

059did a complete bid that qualifies for this grant, we still decided to look at some products on our own as well. Uh the prevailing two products were both backed by Crowd Strike and the uh the only other reason we didn't choose the the more robust of the two tools is because of uh budget reasons. Um the grant that we're receiving fully covers the crowd crowd strike solution and it interfaces with whatever is on our server already. So rather than having two separate systems, even though they're both cross, rather than having two separate systems, we're going to have one that talks constantly between our servers, laptops, desktops, uh you name it. Uh and so I think we already we already covered how CrowdStrike was able to help us uh contain that ransomware attack. Um, so I

060won't I won't go into too much more detail on that unless you have some questions there, but they're top in the industry. Again, it's more of an advanced antivirus solution with a more robust tool set. And going into that, how do we catch that big gap? How do we get those vulnerabilities? How do we know with a staff of five that we have a thousand PCs that need updates right now? But I can run a report really quick that tells me where our most vulnerable machines are at. And what they do is they score it on a on a scale. So it's just like a red, yellow, um, green type of thing. So we've got our high level, our midle, and low level. So we focus on the high level because they grade it based

061on not just how many vulnerabilities there might be on an older computer, but it also can tell us that those vulnerabilities are actually being taken advantage of in the wild. Those are the ones that bad actors know is is something that they can exploit and so they're going to go for that before they go for anything else. uh and they're trusted by organizations worldwide including governments, Fortune 500 companies, and of course school districts. Um now the the thing that really sets them apart, I think more than any other solution is the fact that they scan for known threats. That's kind of what you expect from an antivirus solution, right? They go a little bit above and beyond that and they're using advanced tools like AI and machine learning. That's really important because how do you

062catch those zero day threats and those vulnerabilities that that were just announced perhaps minutes ago or perhaps they weren't announced at all and you have a vulnerability but you have something going on on a workstation or server and the system is smart enough to say that just doesn't look right. That's not normal for your environment. It's able to to to notice that and it's going to take caution. It's going to shut that down. We also have their sock, their security operations center. So when that incident happened, I immediately had a phone call. I immediately had an email and they were ruthless about getting a hold of me. It was a fantastic exercise that I wish never happened, but I'm glad that I can stand up here and vouch for the product with a real life

063situation. So going to my last slide here, it's basically just the the award details um and uh you know the dollar signs. So we were awarded $92,400. Again, it's strictly for EDR solutions. Uh it's under the 2022 SLCGP grant that uh we applied for two years ago. uh we have to use it from the dates of 121 of this year through 11:30 of 2026. So it's it covers a two-year period for this solution. The grant that we received is going to cover it because as you can see under cost, uh it's just under $76,000. Um we were able to actually get real better pricing than we were on the original 97g grant for some reason. And it's it's basically ready to go. uh with a PO, I can do that. Now, the reason why I'm

064asking for the advanced funds right now is because it's something that we uh we're we're getting that back. It's not a grant that we receive and we pay with the grant. Instead, we pay with general funds and then we get reimbursed on that. Um so, as we start doing this, uh I as as payments are made, I need to go ahead and submit that to the state and then they reimburse us on those. Uh it's a lot like e-ate for example. Um so I'm not happy enough just saying we got two years of coverage because what do we do after two years? So some next steps is SLCGP 2023 is underway right now. So I'm applying for that. Uh that looks like it's just going to be cover a one-year grant which I'm hoping to

065get one more year of coverage uh and and be able to have this solution for a third year. with the 97g grant that was a three-year. So that would really put those two uh really close in in terms of ex expiration date. What do I do after three years? Well, currently there's an AT - cyber security pilot going on. uh we are joining that with a consortium of other school districts and uh more specifically my uh my so we're doing it as a consortium because there's a belief that they're not just going to give it to random districts and and allow us to participate in that pilot. We think that the government just wants to get the most bang for their buck. And who are they where are they going to get that? But to

066go with a very very large district and so we think by going with the consortium we can look larger and they'll get better data out of that and and they'll really see how far those dollars can go in a pilot. um you know, a district our size, we may be we may not be big enough for them to think that it's um a good enough program to show a lot of data, you know, whereas if they went to Udica or something like that, they would have a bigger sample size. So, um we're looking into doing that. That's going to be a three-year pilot, which would start in the following cycle. So, that would be something that would help us to continue to pay for these services as well. The nice thing about that pilot is

067that if that continues after three years, then we're right in that sweet spot where we'll get some additional funding after our original three years of this. The pilot is also very broad. It's not just one thing. Like an EDR solution is great, but we don't just have an EDR gap. We have gaps in email filtering. We have gaps in how we um lock down certain things. Uh so there's other gaps that we need to look into as well. It's never ending and there's always new things to look at. And so the pilot is really broad in that we could have those gaps met, those needs met, uh even cyber security training for staff as well, which is hugely important. And then the last thing that we have to do in regards to this grant in

068general is that we have to do these uh CISA annual audits. uh what they want is that we conform to audits and what that what that does is that essentially just says here's our gaps. We do internal audits with CISA and then uh we determine at the end of that audit where our gaps currently lie and where we need to go from there and that just gives them data knowing that whatever we're doing is filling the current gaps and that we're not asking for the wrong thing. Right? So we didn't have EDR before. if we have it. Now, I think what they're trying to do is say, did we fill the right gap for your organization? And and if not, where do we go from there? Um, and then that would help them to judge

069who gets the SLCGP 2023 funds. So, um, I think that's all I have. Yeah. So, my last slide is just questions. U, does anybody have any questions or comments on how any of this works? >> I have a couple questions and if those are answer why I stepped out, I apologize. Um, so were you able to get quotes from competing cyber security companies and what did that what did those actually look like if you could share that? >> Uh, so we had uh we we prior we used to work with Sofos and they came in at so this this quote came in around like 76,000 like we talked about. Uh, Sofos is they're not known as being that quite that tier of crowd strike. Uh, they actually came in well above that. So, they were

070at $111,000. Uh, another tool that we a couple didn't even quote us at all. I think they knew what what was going on and that most people were just going to go with CrowdStrike anyway because they were aware of the 90C 97g grant. Um, I think we were going into it a little bit more open-minded because I like to see what's out there. But, um, we did look at Defendify. They also offered us a quote. Uh, their quote was at 140,000. uh their suite, their back end actually runs on CrowdStrike, which we were really impressed on, and they have a front end that's fantastic that actually has a whole slew of other cyber security tools. So, in the perfect world, I I'd like to have something like that. So, it's all built on CrowdStrike. However,

071they have other tools, um vulnerability assessments, um all kinds of stuff that's built into their front end as well. So, it kind of all works and compasses with within one platform, which is nice. you don't really see that kind of thing very very often. Usually in IT we're working out of like four or five platforms on any given day and it's annoying. So it's nice to see that. Uh however, you know, with the cost we wanted we didn't want to offset and ask for more than what we were given in the grant. So we're going to spend below the grant which is fine. Um we were expecting it to be higher than it was. Like I said the quote for Crowd Strike actually came in a lot lower than we expected. Uh we were happy

072about that. Um, so we'll leave it at CrowdStrike. Plus, the the other side of things is if we did go with Defendify, even though it is a CrowdStrike backend platform, our servers then are on crowd a pure Crowd Strike, whereas all of our other endpoints would be on Defendify. The problem being is that now they don't talk back and forth. And so again, you're you have two segregated platforms even though they run on one. It's kind of odd, but I hope that answers your question. >> It does. Thank you. Um and just a couple others. Um so Crowdstrike was the cyber security software that um you know was in the news half half year ago shutting down airports. >> I was stuck at an airport. I know. Yeah. >> Um and so would that put

073our school district at the mercy of >> potentially large scale cyber attacks? >> It does not. uh because so tongue and cheek if you were in that situation on a crowdstrike platform there weren't going to be any attacks because you were shut down anyway. So you were protected just by having your servers down. Now, with that being said, we were very satisfied with CrowdStrike's response to that. >> And what they did was they they said, "Listen, for most everyone that's on this platform, we don't recommend updating your uh your endpoints on the minute an update comes out. All right. So now instead of just updating immediately, there's a new solution that they've input where and this is what we've chosen to do is that we wait it it it takes between 4 to 8 hours

074for our updates to actually come down and start installing. >> Now for any huge corporation in the world, they're going to do immediate um endpoint um updates, right? Uh they they need that. They require that. So they're going to be our test bed. They're the our guinea pigs for those first four hours and I'll take those four hours and let them do the work and then I'll wait that four to eight hours and and feel a little bit better that we're not going to be the next person to happen to uh or for the that whole system lock up right um now about 15 16 years ago I went through that same scenario with uh Semantic and and it was a disaster and and so I was stuck in an airport. I'm like, "Oh my

075gosh, at least I'm not the one dealing with it this time." But uh but I I know how that goes. I've been through it and it's a disaster. But uh but their response has been excellent. >> Okay. Thank you. And so this is basically a guaranteed rebate once we process the actual payments and all that with the state. >> It is as long as I send in the paperwork by um November 30th, 2026. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. Anyone else? Thank you, John, for your excellent job. >> Number four, the lockout company, Michelle Marshall and uh Stacy Vaspini. >> All right. Um we um rece we have extra money. Thank you, Stacy. And so we had to spend it on some type of security thing. So what we did was of all the new

076construction and all the new rooms that are were in some of the high the high school had added new rooms in the last year and a half were not on the system. So what we did was have the the lockout boot company come out and give us a quote to be able to put those rooms in the boot system. And also, it's not just like put the boot in the system, but they had to be wired for the to be able to um hear the alarms go off in the lighting. And plus, we had to update the building maps on the three schools that had construction. And I I can talk about building maps a little bit. However, our building maps are really important because not only do we have the building maps, but they

077go to the police department and the fire department and they're put into their computer systems. So, with the new schools that got new construction, those maps had to all be changed. So, that those were updated. And then a couple rooms at the high school and a couple of rooms at the career center. And those were still new rooms that were also added. So, that is where you get the quote. And then the funding would come from 31A money >> 31. >> Oh, okay. There you go. And I do want to clarify like too this included as well. We were looking at some of the places that before were not allowable like the cafeterias and other common areas. Correct. >> Correct. When we first did the lockout boot system, there was a law in place that

078you couldn't and I didn't understand this, but you couldn't boot rooms that held over 50 people. So none of the cafeterias, none of the gyms, none of those rooms were booted, which personally didn't make sense to me because I would think those rooms would be the first rooms booted, not not the last rooms booted. However, that law has changed. And so because there was extra money, we went through all the schools and the cafeterias and the gyms will also be booted. Do you So on the quote it shows like the sitewide room lockdown protocol templates. Is this like what the room gets in terms of like they go in and they identify the safe area for them to go in? >> The all of that. Yes. >> Okay. And then uh I see like the

079ballistic shields are on here too. Do you know are they quoting to put those ballistic shields on the new doors at like >> correct? So, because I know we spent extra to get the bullet resistant glass on all those doors and so I didn't know if >> Okay. >> I don't know if we're doing >> bullet resistance glass when I question that. >> Yeah. >> Is is bullet resistant I hate to talk about this out in the open, but is bullet resistant more so maybe for handguns? And I don't know that it would be for rifles and shotguns. >> Oh, that's good. So, >> so the goal is to like have all the new doors, everything with >> but not not the new doors, the outside doors. >> That's what I'm talking about. >> The

080room doors. Yes. >> Yes. But not the outside doors. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Which if we get more money, I'm going to be back. >> Yeah. >> Anybody else have any questions? Do you have anything to add, CeCe? 31. >> This is why it was a big deal too to also get 31A secured going forward uh in the supplemental budget by the Michigan State Legislature as well. So, >> correct. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Number five, student activity accounts that went on. >> Okay, thank you. According to student activity fund policy PO6610, it basically states each activity covered by this policy must be recognized by the board of education before monies can be collected or dispersed. So in order for the finance department to set up these activity accounts, I must

081come before the board and ask for ask permission. And um so I am here to ask permission on behalf of Randall uh for a general student activity account for schoolwide initiatives. Randall student council. The student council is made up of grade level student representatives who will work to make positive change to benefit the students school and community. Randall is also asking for a service and safety account to support the needs of service and safety squads. Randall is also asking for a 100mile club to promote physical activity and healthy habits. They're asking for a beta club. The Junior Beta Club is a group of students that supports community outreach. The group also helps students develop character, leadership, achievement, and service skills. They are also asking for a new cheer account to fund raise and purchase items

082for the cheerleading team. for Holland. They are also asking for uh a new cheerle cheerleading account along with Kenyon McDial Meyers and Taylor Parks in order to fund raise and purchase items for the cheer team. And then for TVLA they are requesting permission to open up an account for graduate collegebound activities for graduates and collegebound students uh for decision day and other events. So 12 new accounts we are asking permission to open. >> I'm just curious um some of these things have already been going on for years. They've never had an account or do they have to have a new account opened every single year? >> Oh, no. They don't have a they don't currently have an account at all. >> I have a question. It says each activity covered by this policy uh must

083be recognized by the board of education before monies can be collected or dispersed. So, does that mean they have to come to us before they take money out of their account? They have to come to you before they set up before we can set up the account. We have to ask permission from the board because we have to make sure that it is in compliance with the board's >> ideology >> money. They don't have to come to us before they buy something. Correct. Or because that's what says or dispersed. >> You know what? because that'll put us that'll put a timeline on some of the things and that >> sometimes you need the things right now. You can't wait for our next board meeting. So I don't >> I agree with you and we're just

084complying with this policy. uh they don't currently have these accounts and so I have to come to the board to ask permission for us to open up these accounts on their behalf so that >> like there are already student activity accounts for several other activities and we don't bring those forward I think this is mainly just for opening and establishing because it's basically saying you can't collect anything or pay something out without coming here and making sure the account exists to to begin with is the way I interpret it >> exactly >> you for example, >> how but like for the Randall 100 Mile Club, like I know that they've been a club for a while. >> What have they been doing in the past that they're just now opening up the account? >> Um,

085actually, I'm sorry, but that would be out of order at this point. You can comment during public comment. you were probably acting out of the general fund previously. >> So, >> I will say this, um, we don't currently have these accounts set up on our books, >> right? >> So, you know, um, we would need approval to set up an account for them. Now, that that does not mean that they didn't put the money somewhere else or whatever they did in the past, they didn't put the money in another account. But for us to set up an account for these uh particular purposes, we need approval from the board just to support this policy. >> Who's going to oversee it? Yeah. Who monitors it? >> So, um with student activity funds, there is always a

086person that signs up as the f fiduciary at the building level, you know, and then of course we monitor it at the district level. So, you know, we have a a whole set of of um things that they have to sign off on, you know, and they get training in terms of, you know, um how to deposit funds and the timelines and things of that nature and they sign it every year and they have to make timely deposits and things of that nature. So, we have a whole uh set of um things that they have to comply with. But the first step is to open these accounts. >> And I'll say and to clarify like because I I think I do know the what's been kind of taking place particularly because if you notice there

087was lots on there from Randall in particular. I believe in the past they were using a general student activity account that covered multiple different uh activities that took place within the building. And this is just making it much more cleaner, much more defined that this is the money for this particular club. Like if the 100 mile club did this fundraiser, it's in their own personal line instead of a general fund that uh I think was used in the past. >> Exactly. >> In the past, people just been doing it on their own >> because even when I was coaching basketball at Holland, >> it was nobody wanted to take care of the money, so I had to do it. So there was nobody over these at all. >> Yeah. >> Even like at the high

088school level, there was nobody over the account. >> They didn't exist. That was the problem. >> You went open your own account. It's the way it was. >> Correct. I mean, there's nobody. I don't know if even anybody's looking over the counts now at the high school. >> Well, that's that's what the problem has been. >> That's what Yeah. And then money comes out missing and then everybody wants to know where it's at. >> That's why going to overlook >> presume it's >> missing. Um Okay. So, at Winnow, you're just trying to follow um policy, correct? >> Absolutely. And I will add this, you know, before we allow them to spend money out of those accounts, someone at the building level has to take responsibility and say that they, you know, are the fiduciary for

089the year. And then we have them sign the form and they have to comply, you know, with all of the steps. So, we have that in place and we are, you know, cleaning up this process and making sure that they comply with it. That's what we're trying to do. So, you may not have had someone come before you to ask for accounts to be set up, but that's what we should be doing. So, that's why we're doing it. >> Do you know when someone applies to open a new account, does like the finance department look to make sure that we're not making duplicates? >> Of course, we look. And then do you know is there any policy or procedure in the finance department that like at the close of the year are there audits of

090these accounts individual? >> Yes, absolutely. That's that's part of the process. Okay. >> You know, uh we we open them up at the beginning of the year. They have to sign our compliance form and then we close it sometime in May at the end of the year. That's part of our audit process because you know >> like rand cheer like they've had >> cheer for years. It's usually the same coach. >> Uh they have to open and close it every single year. >> No, this is to establish their cheer account so that they have a dedicated cheer account. Now, what they did in the past, you know, I really can't speak to, >> but the proper way is for them to have a a cheer account just like um Mike said so that we can

091track it cleanly in this particular account. >> Okay. Okay. Are there other accounts that still exist that cover these things? >> No. >> Or people think they cover these things? >> No. We did an audit and these need to be open. Okay. They need to be open right now. >> Yes. >> Because I think we should have some >> discussion with the community before we do maybe this. >> I know this is policy, >> but um if something else has been going on, we like to know and um clean it up all at once and maybe vote on it next time. Does everybody believe that that is something that they could live with? >> I'm asking you guys, board members. >> Yeah. >> Um I think everybody should have their own account. It should have

092been done a long time ago. I just don't feel that and I don't maybe I just read it wrong that before they use monies out of there they would have to come to us for approval. I don't think that has to happen. I think there's somebody in charge of that account. That's who would be going in and out of the account. >> And I think some of those things have happened over time. I don't think it's been a consistent practice. Like I can think back to being a middle school track coach and we opened up an account that was within our title of just being for our our what we needed at West at the time and it was overseeing like building administration watched over what we spent and made approvals on those things without

093it coming to the board. But there was clearly a an individual account for for that. But I just don't think it's everybody else. Correct. Yeah. Because that's going on. I mean some of these I guess but like these cheer accounts I used to be a cheer coach at one of our elementary school and to create the team get the uniforms and be ready for games is like nip snap. We there's no time to create this account wait two weeks then we vote on it then two weeks later they got to wait. I mean these volunteers that are coming to coach these teams, they need answers right now because I'm sure they're trying to order their uniforms is why this is becoming an issue right now >> because these triyouts just happened and now these coaches

094need to figure out how do we collect this money because we have to turn around immediately and order these uniforms. >> Yes. So, I understand where you're coming from, Ann, but they don't have two weeks for us to table, especially the cheerleading program. They don't have two weeks to wait. >> Is the policy stating that it needs board approval or is the policy just stating that it needs to just be recognized by the board and then once it's recognized, they operate on their own? I like your interpretation. >> Well, the interpretation that I get is that the CFO oversees it, the principal, the financial secretary, which would probably be the manager or the coach, and then the sponsor advisor, that would be a coach. >> Well, they still have to follow the PO process. >>

095Yes. >> They still have to submit a PO. They still have to get it approved by the finance department and everything. Correct. >> Yes. And what this >> that's the issue I think we're saying is like that process takes a while. >> Yes. >> And you know what we want approval for is just so that I can open up the accounts so that they can begin to collect money and >> just so you can have line items. >> Yes. other the policy that we're talking about otherwise that's another policy or procedure within the finance department >> right >> about the time it takes for POS to be processed and approved >> exactly >> so this policy doesn't relate to that this policy is just for them to create the for you to create the accounts

096>> items yeah the other policy is about the actual process of people getting approvals which needs to be addressed probably >> right >> especially when we're looking at timelines of Right. Exactly. And see um it allows me to set up accounts so that they can begin to use the accounts and the re I understand the reason why we have to come before the board because what if the club that they're trying to set up is something that is not in line with the school district. So that's the reason why it comes before the board because you know you want to make sure that it supports the initiatives of the school district and it's not outside of that. So all I'm asking is permission to set up these accounts so that it they can operate. You

097know we're I know that there were practices in the past but like I said, you know, um we want to follow the policy and honor the policy. I just want to be able to set up these accounts so that they can use them to, you know, support their clubs and uh collect money and spend money out of this account. >> Can I ask if the board if we're going to look at like the procedures of the finance department? >> I know this is related to this. Yes, it's on the other >> for future reference to look at that process to look at how we can make it more efficient. >> Yeah. But um so you just want line items? >> Yes. >> Okay. Is everybody >> I'm fine >> fine with that? >> Yep. >>

098Okay. Because there have been many many many different avenues how this has happened and it's gotten people into trouble. >> Okay. >> Probably people that didn't need to be in trouble. Maybe some people that uh asked for trouble. >> But um this is just asking for line items. >> That's all. >> Okay. Is there any other question? All right. Um I went you could just go right into the frontline time and attendance. >> Okay. So the district has been using frontline for many years. We use it for our teachers and our salaried staff to track our uh attendance time and attendance. you know, uh, when a teacher is out, we have to be able to get a sub and we have to know that they're out and it makes the different district efficient and the

099classrooms covered. And so, um, we currently have 400 plus hourly employees that we would also like to ex expand our frontline usage to bring them on as well to make the payroll process more efficient because um, right now our finance team has to process payroll for 400 plus hourly employees and it's very inefficient. And in order to make this process more efficient just like any other companies, we are expanding the use of frontline to do that. So Frontline is able to um handle split shifts, multiple shifts, varied breaks that employees may have and may have to clock in and clock out for. So when I first looked at this system, I was thinking that, you know, we would set up computers and it would be on like a cloud system, but they have the capability

100to do it using a mobile, using your phone, but time clocks are also required. So, in order for employees to punch in at a certain location, we need about 20 time clocks. And the cost is uh $69,000. And this is a soul source situation because the time clocks are needed to interface with Frontline and it's a soul source uh situation due to the patent technologies of the frontline system. So you said about the the mobile devices they would be able to check like clock in and clock out with their mobile device. >> You know what the what we would like is you know you you come on um on location one of the locations and you clock in. But for people that have to drive buses or they have to be between different buildings, that

101would then be when you would use your mobile device to clock in or clock out for breaks and things of that nature. But the initial clock in would be at the building just like any other business. you know, they have a swipe system and then if you forget your um your badge, there's a pin number that you can type into the the clock and be able to, you know, log in or swipe in for that day. And it's a efficiency issue, >> you know, >> I love the clock in and clock out idea. I'm just not keen on the mobile device. I just feel like there can still be some inefficiencies to that unless you know I know some companies you can use your mobile phone but you have to be within a certain range

102of um that clock and then it can recognize that you're on site and you might you know clock out or break or something like that. >> Yes. Um, >> and they have the capability to lock that up that way. >> Okay. >> Um, because it's all about accountability and improving efficiency because we have 400 plus employees that we have to produce payroll for every two weeks. And so we need to automate that process just like any other other business as much as possible. and being able to clock in and then that information feeds into that time management system and we have payroll captured right there. We have overtime captured right there. >> Okay. >> Is general fund? >> Yes, this is general funded. Has this been like dis I mean because I know the implementation

103of it is going to change procedures and processes across the entire 26mm union. Has that been discussed? Has that been worked out? Because I know then it also comes into does it change do job description or responsibilities for like the payroll department like those types of things. Does it has that all been like discussed ironed out with the union? I'm saying with the union. >> Yeah. >> Has it been discussed? >> We've talked about this. Um but some of the specifics that you are talking about, I don't think we've discussed all that part. Like when you're talking about how does that affect um a payroll secretary and what they're rendering, I think that's fair to say that that's a discussion we we need to have yet. So >> I'm in just saying that it's like

104the logistics of rolling something out like that. Like it's one thing to get it, but then the logistics of actually implementing it. So what is your timeline for that? >> Oh, as far as I'm concerned, we we can take our time and make sure we have everything correct. Like I that's not a >> If we purchase because if we purchase a system out of general funds. >> Yeah, I hear. Yeah. >> When do you expect that to like take effect? >> There's a few factors we'd have to say before I can answer that because we'd have to figure out training for people. We'd have to find out the best way to roll it out. This is just the initial like purchasing parts that we need to do with that. So, as far as I'm concerned,

105if it's like you would like us to go and make sure we flush out some more of those things, I don't have a problem. >> It was more or less just like the logistics question, but >> absolutely. and we thought about everything that you said and um we have our pilot group that we have been working with frontline with you know um we they took us through the steps and you know the interfacing and things of that nature. Um and I heard some really good feedback from the payroll secretaries that were part of that implementation phase. And it's going to automate the process and make it better and it's going to make it more efficient >> like for a trial. >> Yes, we use we've been using the district has been using front line for

106many years and that's the reason why we just wanted to expand frontline because we already use it for our salaried employees. we just have to bring on our hourly employees and if you use a if we were to use a different system then it would complicate things in terms of payroll and other reporting requirements that we have to do. So that's the reason why we wanted to just expla expand front line to automate the process, make it easier, make it more efficient um so that we can really capture everything better and yes we are currently working through all those things with the frontline team right now and we are also having different groups at the table depending on what it is so that we don't miss anything and everybody gets their proper training and we

107are working on all that right now. But it is a we want to implement this year. Yes, we want to implement this year and we're working on the implementation right now and the recommendation from frontline was to have the clocks in place so that we can test it. There can be tests you know, um, we may have a a smaller pilot group test, you know, by swiping and see how the system handles the data and then do tweaks before we expand that group because we want to make sure that the interfacing goes through properly. >> So, you do know who you're going to go on with next? >> Yes. >> Okay. And how approximately how many employees is that going to be? The recommendation is, you know, we can do it one or two ways.

108We don't want to put it out to all hourly employees from the get. We want to use a smaller pilot just to make sure that the data is being handled properly. So, you know, we're going to use um you know, if we have 400 employees, maybe we'll just use 20 to test and then we'll phase in the rest. >> Okay. But we have different units. So, who is going to You don't know who's going >> Yeah, but there's a few if you're thinking about it from that. If you were looking for a smaller segment, there are certain units that do have uh lower amounts of staff. Like that could be the part you start as a pilot the way I would see it. >> Yeah. >> And you have to do um >> that's true

109too. And I want to say and correct me if I'm wrong, uh, Edwin, but when we went through the auditing process, um, one of the things, it wasn't anything that was listed as a, you know, a sighting, a finding, anything like that, but one of the things that did come up in the auditing process is that, uh, of the districts they work with, we are the only one that is still doing a paper pencil process for this. >> Exactly. >> This is clocks. This is what we had discussed in the past. implementing time clocks for our employees. That's all this is. >> Yes, >> we discussed that in >> but it's a roll out. >> It's a roll out. >> It's just for 26. Nobody else does time >> the our hourly employees. We want

110to automate them. >> Okay, everybody >> do the secretary in a computer and it's all generated into finance. >> Okay. I'm I'm sorry, Mrs. Fields, but if I won't can't let anybody else speak, I can't let you speak as well. Um, I think that we should maybe table this. >> What >> I I will say just >> just for the roll out, it just doesn't seem like it's there's a a roll out in order. >> We do have a roll out in order. and you know our frontline staff you know you you set up the clogs you set up the hardware and then we're also setting up the system and the two have to be set up together so that we can uh then test the implementation and so it has to be done that

111way and it's been recommended that we do it that way like I said we're going to start out with a smaller pilot but you know if we table things, it's just going to put push back our implementation. And you know, our auditor, he recommended that this process be automated because we had it's not like we only have 12 employees. We have 400 plus employees. You're dealing with a lot of overtime and things like that that needs to be tracked accurately. >> It just doesn't seem like the roll out here is >> Yeah. is >> well my but I was just say just from a point of order standpoint um if the will of the board is to do a tableabling of this >> my one concern is that technically under tableabling would mean we have

112to bring it up at the next meeting for a vote that really only gives six working days between now and the next meeting that would be concerning to me so if we were tableabling it I don't know if it's possible to to define a date that would make more sense sense and give a little more time to to be able to provide the board with the information that they they would want. >> I just have a problem with putting out that much money >> and not getting the implementation the way that it should be. >> Is it that you want a schedule? I can provide an implementation schedule if you feel more comfortable with that. >> I just want a smooth roll out. This is a new thing that has gone in with the contract.

113And um it shouldn't be all over the place. >> And it's not all over the place. That's why we're we're trying to get the clocks at the same time that we are configuring the system to accept the data from the clocks. If we push the clocks back, then we can't test the clocks uh the system taking the information from the clocks. You see what I mean? We won't have that piece. Are they live being paid this way? >> H >> they'll be live being paid this way. >> Yes. It will impact their >> for the first group that goes through. >> Yeah. For the first group, you know, our small pilot that goes through, we have to have the clocks so that we can make sure that the system talks and interfaces properly. >> Well,

114I understand that part. I just want it to be as smooth as possible for these employees. If you want, >> it is going to be smooth. They're starting with maybe five people and then once they know all the kinks are out, then they would just roll it out with everyone. >> Yes, exactly. But we have >> because you said 20 before you >> Yeah. I would say realistically, if you're thinking contractually, it would make sense to do a division and it would be finding the division that makes the the most sense to fit those kind of numbers. So it may be more than 20. It would be based on you know what that would make sense. >> Exactly. >> So that's the reason why we want to be able to get the clocks because we

115have to be able to test the interfacing. If you push the clocks back then we have to put the whole project on hold because we don't have all the hardware that we need to make it work. And so we would have to wait and it just it's just going to push back our implementation. And we're trying to roll out this year so that we can automate this process because it it it really should be automated with all these employees, 400 plus employees every two weeks and there's a lot of changes and a lot of shift changes and you know a lot of different things and it's a lot. So if I could add too half of the cabinet are people that provide professional learning and professional development opportunities for a living. So if it is

116if there is a concern of the board of the roll out being done properly, I will work very closely with Edwena as will Jason to make sure that this is done in a way that we know is re researchbased and makes everybody feel okay about that. Um, part of the idea with the small roll out is that we can surface any issues before we roll it out to a a larger group. Um, that is best practice. We'll make sure that we're gathering information and feedback from each of the groups and that everybody is thoroughly trained with that. We know that there will still be people that have missteps and questions. We circle back with that. It's all part of the continuous improvement process. We know with anything new there are going to be mistakes, but

117starting with a small group. We'll be able to surface those. And I mean that is she has a team at her disposal that trains people. We're doing a a training with a portion of the 26M um on Monday afternoon. So we know how to pull these groups in to make sure everybody's adequately trained if that is a concern of the board. >> Thank you, Emily. Thank you, Emily. >> Real quick question. If we're going to do that small roll out, does it make sense to buy all of them now or does it because of like the divisions or does it make sense to buy like a few, try it out, see if there's kinks and then if the system works well? >> It probably more to have them come back out to install them all

118as opposed to just all installing them all at one time. >> And the system has been vetted by multiple school districts who have used this over years. It would be the learning curve would be for Taylor >> for the district. Yes. >> Yeah. So we would purchase the whole thing in anticipation that we would roll it out to everybody but just small start small so that we can problem solve as we're training. >> Okay. Because there is a discount to buy the at once. >> Yeah. >> Dr. Hill, I just had one. >> I just want everybody to get paid. I don't want anybody I just had to take a pay cut. I don't think anybody else should have to right before Christmas, >> right? And see, that's why we're going to use the small

119group, >> you know, to make sure that we don't have the kinks and we can produce that payroll. >> Okay, Lori, you had >> Oh, yes. Uh, Dr. Hill, I just had a couple quick questions. >> Uh, we we haven't made that decision yet. >> So, >> we haven't made that decision of what division we're going to use. Dr. Hill, I just add a couple quick questions. One, um, do we know the life expectancy of these smart clocks? Like, are we going to be replacing them every 5 years, 10 years? >> They're supposed to be very durable. >> Okay. >> Uh, they're supposed to be very durable. Uh, those are the only time clocks that interface with the frontline system and they're supposed to do everything that we need them to do. >> Okay. And

120are we getting like a warranty? Yes, we have a white glove service. >> I saw it for two years, but after that we're kind of on our own though. >> You know what? Um I lock down two years, but you know that is offered to us as many years as we need it. >> Okay. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> And that white glove service, they will uh fix any clocks that we need fixed and things of that nature. They will replace them out if if need be. >> Okay. Thank you. clarification from me. The training that does is on Monday is for bus drivers and bus driver protocols. >> It is not anything connected to this. I'm sorry if I misspoke. That's a totally separate thing. I was just that we know how to groups

121of people to do trainings. That's part of what school districts do is run. >> Yes. We haven't selected a group or anything. Yeah. And before we do that, like Mr. Wagger set we will properly notify that group or that division. >> Okay. Are there any other questions about this this? >> Okay. Number seven, Mr. Wager transportation. >> Yep. Thank you very much. Um so earlier in the year we came before the board and we did ask for aou to exist between uh 26M and the school district regarding when we have shortage of bus drivers. Um we had originally put that in as to be a stop gap until we had approved and ratified the uh latest contract with 26M. and uh we're coming back before the board because we saw a need that this probably

122needs to be extended from there. I will say I think it's something that is less needed than it was before, but it's still uh very good for us to have in place and for us to be able to properly compensate people who are covering uh bus driving runs in an emergency situation when we do have a shortage. Uh I will say that initially when we started the school year prior to when you have uh people who uh call off because they are sick or something is taking place, we had nine vacancies in our driving positions prior to when you would have those take place. Uh since we had uh just recently had a job bid and we had made you know rebid the positions after the contract was approved and ratified, we have cut those

123vacancies to four. And my understanding is that uh as we have some other people returning from leave, the kind of open positions are really going to be down to two uh coming up soon. So, it's still good though to have something in place because there's lots of things going on on around us right now, whether it be lots of people who've been getting walking pneumonia, whether it's COVID, whether it's all these different things that could take place where we may end up having lots of calloffs. we really need to have something to properly compensate and allow people to to fill that uh void as we need it. So, as I said, we're we're bringing this forward again to extend it through to the end of the school year. Um, but in terms of just long-term

124vacancies, uh we've been able to get quite a few of those covered. >> What's the difference between this one and the previous one? >> Uh the one we brought forward earlier in there, it's exactly identical. It's just the change on the date. Oh, >> okay. >> Is this >> uh this one we brought forward um that it is additional pay, but it's not fully at overtime. >> Okay. Was there one that existed where they had their salary from their pre like wherever their position was? >> That was uh something that expired at the end of last school year. Yes. But this this is exactly what was negotiated and agreed to and brought forward uh earlier in the school year. >> Just extending it for the rest of the year. >> Are there any questions? >>

125Hearing none. Number eight, policy update revision second reading. Mr. Wagger. >> So we've brought forward um at the policy committee and now at uh the last board meeting for the first reading updates to our policies regarding Title 9. Uh upon the recommendation of Collins and Blaha uh our district's attorneys, they had recommended that we replace what's currently in there with a very flexible uh one paragraph that basically states that we are going to comply with any federal law and federal federal regulations that come down regarding Title 9. The reason that they they had made this recommendation was because there's a lot of things changing in the world of title 9 currently. Uh in fact, there is some lawsuits out there that exist where an injunction was put in place and if a school is named

126in that lawsuit or if they are named in the injunction, then they have to follow the original Title 9 procedures before prior to 2024. yet the rest of the school district would proceed to the new procedures. So, this put changing this to this one uh paragraph that does state that no matter what, we're going to follow whatever legal advice and whatever legal uh decisions are made gives us that flexibility. And this is important to us because Taylor High School is on that injunction list uh from one of the federal lawsuits. So, Taylor High has to remain on the old regulations while the rest of our district would be on the 2024 uh regulations. Further complications uh that and another reason why it's really good to be flexible right now is there uh as we have

127had elections recently and we know that there's going to be changes in the administration of the US Department of Education. we can be expect that there probably are going to be a new interpretation from the department of education on what these title n standards are as well. So just having the flexibility and updating our policies uh to reflect that we are going to work with that flexibility is really important right now and it's probably the best way to cover every scenario that uh could possibly come out of this at this moment. Number nine, utilization plan. Mr. Wager. >> Yep. All right. Uh, last year in December and then into January, we went through the process of approving a utilization plan for reconfiguring uh how we were going to use particularly our middle schools and high

128school or excuse me, middle schools and elementary school facilities. And when we started to get in the process of costing out and working with architect firms and going through the committee processes of what would have to go into these buildings, we began to run into some of the same issues that we've talked about when we've made the decision to um not build the high school that was approved in the bond. We were starting to get to a point that uh these changes as they were would go on and possibly potentially hit our general fund from anywhere from 8 million to uh roughly $12 million that we would be spending out of general fund. So, I'm coming tonight uh with the recommendation that we uh stop what was put in place at this point. Um because

129for the same exact reasons that it would not necessarily be fiscally responsible to go and spend that kind of money out of our our general fund as it stands right now. What I am asking is that as we do this and we vote tonight to to put this on uh stop for the time being, we reassess this going forward. We know that there's going to be some tough decisions that we have to make. We know that there we have to do some better ways of utilizing our facilities, but we really need to to take a moment and reassess and make sure that everything we're doing is what is prudent uh fiscally and what is prudent uh for what is best for our community as well. So my thought process on this is we just agreed

130recently that we are going to be bringing in MASB to uh start strategic planning with the school district. And as part of that strategic planning process, this would be part of that discussion. So then therefore, we'd have community input. We'd have a variety of surveys that go out and this is something where we would actually have the a prime opportunity to get as many voices in the room uh to express their thoughts on uh what may be best for going forward. So, the biggest action we need tonight though is just that the board uh takes a vote to to stop what has uh previously been voted upon to put forward. Uh essentially, kind of to break that down so everybody is clear on what that means. Um at the end of this year, we were

131due to start moving programs around to so that we would eventually close uh Randall Elementary School and Taylor Parks Elementary School. All of those moves, those programming moves and those closures of the buildings would not be taking place uh with this vote tonight and we would be remaining uh where we are at the at the current point. Do want to clarify that the first part of this plan was with closing Eureka Heights. Obviously, that will stay in as is because the program has already closed. The building's already been uh you know readjusted and students have been moved to other other buildings. But uh all the other pieces would stop uh with this vote tonight. >> Are there any questions? >> Um I know I had a discussion with Miss Block and she said this point

132would be the appropriate point to make that. I just wanted to make a suggested change instead of saying pausing the plan just terminate the remainder because I think that it causes confusion if we're pausing rather than just >> correct >> the district's proposal. >> Oh, absolutely. the plan, correct? Propose a new one. >> And so rather than saying pause, just terminate it. >> Yeah, I think >> just people understand it. People aren't like it's paused. Is it going to unpause? I know we do have to make a decision to close a building in the future. Yes. But I know that's going to be coming with a different plan after community stakeholder meetings. And I'm hoping the district puts on town halls to allow the public to be able to come in. I know you said

133it's going to happen during the uh strategic plan, but that is it. Just a change of text just so it's clear. >> No, I think that 100% makes sense and I because you're absolutely right. It really isn't a pause. It's stopping what's going forward. >> Yeah, it's kind of how I was wording it and what I was saying. So, yeah, makes sense. >> So, Kyle, when you read the motion, you will read it with >> Does the board have to agree that >> the board will vote on the motion as read? >> Okay. Okay. >> Are there any other questions? >> Okay. >> Now or >> I would like at this point to adjust the agenda. I would like to step away from my role right here and I would like to move public comment

134to to now. I make a motion that we move public comment now. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Heath. >> Please. Um Mr. Morris. Uh, yes, >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes, >> Miss Shoefeld. >> Yes, >> Mr. Ray. Yes, Miss Block. >> Yes, >> Mr. He. >> Yes, >> that passes. Public comment is now item number seven. >> Okay, so thank you all for who are who are able to be here with us in person and online tonight. We understand the importance of continuing to keep you all informed and provide a 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

135the 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 and 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. Please state your name and your address. >> Kathy Fields, 22670 Wood Creek. And just

136a point of interest, I just spoke with the president of 26M. Time clocks were never put in the contract. Um, I saw the frontline time and attendance program on the agenda and I recall, excuse me, uh, Dr. Hill making a presentation during a budget meeting regarding it and stated that this was for um hourly employees only and it was definitely going to happen. Um I'm all for I I think it's great have Frontline take over all of the the payroll stuff. However, then everybody should be doing these time clocks, not picking out one group. It was like deja vu from 15 years ago. 26M was then referred to as the bottom of the food chain. There was one set of rules for 26M and another set for all the other district personnel. All the bargaining

137unit leadership worked together and achieved a unity and the food chain stigma ceased and it ceased to exist. And the district then had a united front with all of their employees and together all the students continued to be provided with the best education and educational services. I know Mr. Wagger, you've been involved in two different unions when you first came to Taylor, the teachers union and then the principal union. So, I'm sure I'm sure you followed the contract language regarding the implementation of this program because all of your agreements, your union agreements have a sentence in there that says the board of education reserves the sole right to administer the operation of the school system subject to the collective bargaining agreement. I'm sure you contacted 26M leadership to meet and discuss the effects this program

138would have on 26M positions. I'm also sure that in this meeting you would have been informed of the complexity of the different divisions within the bargaining unit and how implementing this process could create employee mass job bids andor grievances. I also believe that this meeting was held prior to making the decision to spend and I think at the time of the presentation it was stated 70 or 80,000 but Dr. Hill had said now it's less than that thousands of dollars when the district is facing a deficit. What kind of message is it for your hourly workers when they're being singled out to comply with a rule or process that is different from every other single employee in this district? If the program saves money, that's great. Then implement it across the entire district and save

139even more. I would even think well you everybody would be on the same attendance program is what she said. I believe this action will move your management 26M employee relationship backward not forward. The message I see is the district doesn't trust the hourly staff but trust all the other employees. So don't expect continued loyalty from the people you are not being loyal to. And I'm sad to see the work of all those union leaders to unify going down the drain. And now I understand the term lame duck. Uh Caroline Pat 6860 Jackson. Madame President, thank you for doing this. I think it's this is how it should be. I was going to started writing down to say this at open um you know talking here about how you know like the city council they have

140each individual item that if there's something when you say do you have any questions that also goes for the audience. So this makes a lot of sense. I do have some pictures. First item is um one of the uh one is that the heat in the renovated libraries. Now the libraries that were renovated Myers McDall and uh Holland are beautiful libraries. I'm at Meyers and I'm there every day. Um and so the heat in the libraries the I believe is a company that came in and put them in. It wasn't our people, right? Um and when they brought them in, we have the unit but they don't work. There's no parts to it or something on every time I ask about it then. while they're waiting on parts. Waiting on parts. So, at Meyers, the

141temperature goes as low as 50° in that library pretty much every day. So, I wear a sweater, coat, jacket. Um, and the kids can't come into the library. They haven't been in the library all year. Excuse me. Um, so I just like to know where we are at that, you know, can they push it up to get our libraries heat in there? Um, that's number one. Number two is on the pictures that you have there. Um, the new furniture came in, which is really awesome. Finally, I finally got all the furniture in the seats and everything. They have these blue cushion seats that are kind of like the ones you sit down when you're playing video games. They're like bean bags and they're really comfortable. But I came in one day when those came in.

142All of a sudden, I look over at these and I'm like, this I think Myer is the only building that has it. I don't I talked to the lady, the librarian at McDow, and she I didn't get those. But if you notice me standing there with my arm like this, this is how big I consider them a large pillow and they are hard. But that's just something that the kids can jump on when they come in the library. First thing in their mind is not reading. It's going to be, "Oh, look at this cool thing. I can jump on it, you know, or sit on it." Um and today in the library was um a medical person was in there doing some uh Zoom meeting and we were just talking about because they were standing

143behind her and she says, "Whoa, that is like oh, you know, you got this not coming out and everything on there because it's a really nice plush cloth. Who's going to clean those? Who's going to unzip those and take care of those things?" Not me. I'm not doing it. And I don't think maintenance will come in and unzip it and clean them, you know, periodically. So, it's like, why were they even in there originally? I got the pictures from you, um, Emily, and it had all the different furniture in there, from the cart to the seats to the tables to the desk to everything. Those were not in those pictures. So, I'm like, where did these come from? So, is there any way, and this is just me in my opinion, that we can get

144them out of the library because, you know, there's and there's no place in the building to put them right now. So, I don't know where they could go or why they were even there, who ordered them, the designer. I don't I have no idea. Do you think it's possible to just offer it to the staff? >> I was thinking about calling for her. >> Yeah, that's what >> one of those pictures was Emily so that you see what I don't know if you even saw what they look like. So, did you get a picture? >> Yeah. Okay. So, I'm sorry that the the furniture was all selected by the committees on each building. So, that was selected by the Meyers group. >> So, that was they do have a sensory space at Meyers. That might

145be a good place for this. So if somebody can take care of that, I would really appreciate it because I really don't need them in the library. There's no space for them to put them down anyways to begin with. So um and that's all. But again, thank you for having this communication going now. >> Um Tom Mitchell, president 26M Taylor or support staff. Uh, give me a minute while I look through my jotted down notes here. Um, I'd like to follow up on what Miss Fields was saying. For the record, 26M leadership was not approached by administration on how this affects our bargaining unit. We were asked if we would consider talking and we agreed, but the statement then was, "Everybody in the district clocks in and out, not just us." And I was told,

146"Oh, that's a fair statement. That's fair." Appears it's not. Um 26M is being singled out. Different set of rules for us. Not teachers, not cabinet, not superintendent, just the hourly employees. I don't see directors clocking in and out. Cabinet doesn't clock in and out. A lot of us would like to know what happens during their day. I know they're in meetings off campus. Great. So am I. Um, I would like to hope that administration would at least reach out before implementation of this so we can discuss how this is going to affect my bargaining unit. We don't run straight eight hour shifts, not at all. Secretaries, yes. Maintenance, drivers, no. We're all over the place. We get people that come in at 6:00 in the morning and leave at 5:00 at night. They get paid

147for eight hours. How is clocking in and out every move they make going to fix this? I think it's going to be a payroll disaster, but that's on Miss Hill. Um, $69,000 to test a roll out to find out that it may not work in a district that's struggling for money seems a little absurd at this point without even talking about this first. Um, if we did do that and we went with Frontline, are our drivers going to call an ASOP secretary every morning if they call off? By the time transportation got that information, we'd be canceling runs. We start our day, Jack, sometimes 10, 11, 12 people short. So, how many runs you want to cancel and what schools do you want to cancel them from? Because by the time transportation found out, it'd

148be too late. The method that we have now works fine. This method probably not so much. There was discuss or a comment was made about time clocks in our contract. I sure hope you guys were talking about a purchase contract because it's certainly not in our new contract or our old contract or any 26 on contract. So, I don't know where that information came from, but it would be inaccurate. Dr. Hill mentioned a group training on Monday for a small group. First off, 26M was never asked about a small group to participate. She's saying 20. Emily saying that wasn't it. Who's right? I would think Dr. Hill, the one that's rolling this out, would have the correct information, but if she does, that's great. But again, we were never even discussed with this. So, you're

149going to tell me that you're going to use a fraction of my bargaining unit without even discussing it with us first? Oh, let's see. I've got more notes somewhere, but they're all kind of all over the place. No, I think that about sums it up. Thanks. >> Are there any other in person? 9731 Sharon Street Taylor teacher. Um, want to speak real quick just on the um the accounts that we have, the activity accounts. Almost everybody at the career center has an activity account. The idea is that if I'm raising money through Skills USA or whatever we're selling, it goes into my account and we sign a sheet at the beginning of the year that's forwarded to Edwina. Uh the care caretaker of that is both Amy, our secretary, and Carly. We don't do a

150purchase order for certain things. For example, I buy pizza for the kids at Skills USA. I give the receipt to our secretary. Secretary gives it to Carly. Carly approves it. it's done. It's a quicker, easier way than trying to put all the money into one account. If I raised money and gave it to the school secretary and other people wanted something, you might be actually borrowing against the money that I raised for my group. So, it makes 100% sense of what you guys did tonight. Everybody should have that in every school. All right. Um, second thing was this. As I went through the uh transparency uh budget information that's posted on the website, it shows that we have a fund balance of $33 million. So, I might be wrong, but I thought that was money

151that we have to have in reserve for emergency type situations. We can't go less than 5% as a district. We get ourselves into trouble, etc., etc. So, I'm not sure how the 33 million equates to the percentage of our budget, but to me, that's a lot of money that can be spent on a lot of things that are issues. Two meetings ago, I sat here and I heard things about complaints about the lawn not getting cut, no heat, we got kids passing out, we got teachers passing out. Those are things that I think we we got to rectify. And if there is some money, you know, uh we need to take care of them. And I'm not sure if we always have to consult with every agency out there to come in and tell us

152what we need. If you ask the teachers, you have teachers showing up, you have students showing up, we can tell you what we need in our buildings. Um, the other thing is, I've mentioned this before. I've never gotten a reply from anybody in regards to it. Um, I went to the cross country state championships. Not that I'm a big cross country, but I coach hockey. Two of my kids run cross country. I went out to MIS and there's probably 150 teams there. They have tents, canopies, blah blah blah. I tried to find their school and walking up and down what I passed 30, 40 vans. I probably passed 50 buses on a cross country team and here for sure whether it be swimming, golf, etc., etc. We have some small teams. We already have a

153problem finding people to drive buses. It's I would think it's probably maybe more difficult in the evening. I'm not sure, but I'm sure they're probably maybe getting overtime, which is they deserve. Why don't we do like other districts and have a passenger van? Alen Park delivers kids to us in a Allen Park van. It's a chauffeur license. You can't drive any more than 15. I have a chauffeur license. I struggle now with my program that I have kids coming from different districts and I because again we're constricted on bus drivers. I can only get my kids at certain days or certain times because they have runs and I understand that they got the high school first then the middle school. So we got to kind of fit times in. That's an easy fix for everybody.

154You don't need you don't need a full 37 or 50 passenger van to take six kids to cross country or to swimming or whatever it is. I've asked about it before. I think it would solve some of my problems. Might solve some of their problems. Coach can do it. Other school districts do it. Other coaches do it. Other school districts, they take their team to an event or competition. Um, my last one is when you walk in here, it's like a haunted house. There's no lights at all anywhere. It's dangerous. It, you know, there's got to be some lights put up outside. That's That's all I got. >> Are there any more in person? >> Hi, I'm Tiffany Schumer. Um 4296 23rd Street in Windat. I'm a special education here teacher here in Taylor. Um

155two things. One is now that you've paused or are no longer going with anything with the utilization plan, is there anything that you plan on doing to the current buildings? Because I know with um McDow, you made changes like you did at Meyers. I am literally in a storage closet. That is where I service my students. Um I have yelling kids on each side and teachers. I can't um do testing. I can't hold IEP meetings in my current space. Um, my kids ask me on a daily basis, "How do you work in here? It is so loud. They can't even concentrate. They don't want to come to my space." So, I don't know if there's a way to like soundproof it or do something to where it's not so loud that you can hear literally

156every single word that every single teacher or student is saying. Um, and then the second thing is about the student accounts. I can only comment on what I know and that is a lot of the coaches have not been doing it for years. Um, last year was my first year and I was asked to help and the young lady that asked me to help her had no idea how to run it. I basically had to do everything, figure everything out and nobody could seem to understand what happened to the money that I gave to the secretary to deposit it into account. They're still trying to find my money, the money that the girls paid. My uniforms did not get paid for until the end of August when we put the order in uh December. Um

157again, they will not those uniforms take five weeks for us to get when we order them. So again, the processes of how it is done where we put the money in. We have to request appeal. Then it takes 3 weeks from there. Then we have to like that's like they were saying it's turn around like we need to get things now and get it going. So I don't know if you can change how we get that money due to the fact that the girls are paying the money putting it in there whether it's fundraising, parents are paying for it, whatnot to be able to get those things more efficiently. That would be something great if you could look at another way of doing those policies. I know in other schools that I've worked in, they

158have like a coach and a principal on the account. Money comes out by however with those two approvals and that way there's more there's always two people accountable. Um just some things to think about going forward. Thank you. >> There any more in person? Are there any online, Sean? Okay. All right. To number eight, right? >> Yes, sure. Right. >> Item number eight, action items. First up, we have outofstate field trip request. Imagination Station policy 2340, policy 8640. It is recommended the board of education approve the following outofstate field trip request. Holland Elementary School, Imagination Station, Toledo, Ohio, December 4th, 2024 and December 11th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there >> support? Support by Mr. Morris. >> Missel? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright? Yes. Miss Block? >> Mr. Heed?

159>> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. That carries 70. Item number two, overnight conference request, Michigan Association of School Personnel Administrators, MASPA, conference policy 6550. It is recommended the board of education approve the overnight conference request for Patricia Delator to attend the MASPA conference in Lancing, Michigan, December 4th through the 6th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Miss Block. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. Miss Block. >> Yes. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Miss Shufo? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright is a no. That carries 6 to one. Item number three, cyber security policy 6320. It is recommended the board of education approve the proposal for

160crowd strike MDR for cyber security not to exceed 75,89452. 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. Ritzy? Yes. Miss Block? >> Yes. That carries. 70. Item number four, the lockout company policy 6320. It is recommended the board of education approved the lockout company proposal for additional boot materials throughout the district not to exceed $95,863.89 being paid out of 31A. Correct. >> Yes. >> Is there a motion? Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Mr. Morris. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Miss Shufo. >> Yes. >> Mr.

161Wright. Yes. Miss Bach. >> Yes. >> Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> That carries seven to zero. Item number five, student activity accounts policy 6610. It is recommended the board of education approve the student activity accounts as discussed. Is there a motion? Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Miss Shuel. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. Yes. Miss Block. >> Yes. >> Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> That carries seven to zero. Item number six, frontline time and attendance policy 6320. It is recommended the board of education approve the quote from touch point which includes management clocks and a two-year white glove support and service not to exceed $69,356. Is there a motion? >> motion by Miss Shufeld.

162Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. Miss Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright and no. Miss Block. >> No. >> Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> No. >> That carries four to three. Item number seven, 26M Taylor School Support Staff Association, TSSA, Memorandum of Understanding, Transportation. It is recommended the board of education approve theou between the Taylor School District and the Taylor Schools Support Staff Association TSSA in regards to transportation. Is there a motion? Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. Mr. Wright is yes. Miss Block. >> Yes. >> Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. Miss Shufo, >> yes. >> That carries seven

163to zero. Item number eight, policy updates, title nine. It is recommended the board of education approve and adopt the following policy revisions. Policy 2264, new title 9, non-discrimination of the basis of sex and education programs or activities. Clearing house agreements. New >> arrangements. >> Oh, arrangements. Um new policy 2266 title 9 non-discrimination on the base of sex in education programs or activities is there a motion >> motion is there support oh motion by Mr. Morris is there support >> support by Mrs. Thomas block >> yes >> Mr. Heath >> yes >> Mr. Morris >> yes >> Mr. Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Miss Eufo. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright is a yes. That carries seven to zero. Item number nine, utilization plan. It is recommended the board of education approve

164the termination of the remainder of the utilization plan as discussed. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Heath. Mr. Heath? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Miss Shu? Yes, >> Mr. Ritzy. Yes, Miss Block. >> Yes. >> That carries seven to zero. Item number 10, employee termination. It is recommended the board of education approved the resolution to terminate the employment of Lorie Harvard effective November 20th, 2024. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. He Mr. Morris. I don't remember discussing this at all, but uh yes, >> Mr. Thomas, >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes, >> Miss Shufelt. >> Yes, >> Mr. Wright and no, Miss Block.

165>> Yes, >> Mr. Heath. >> Yes, >> that carries six to one. All right. >> Okay. Next on the agenda number nine, superintendent superintendence report. Mr. Wagger, >> thank you. Um, I just wanted to uh kind of give update on two items in particular. Um, we had last week our second student advisory committee meeting of the year. And I know that I said at the last board meeting, we are going to be working our student advisory into kind of coming here, having representatives present uh on what takes place and where we're kind of moving with giving the students voice and the ability to give their feedback and how we operate the school district. So, uh I am happy to know to say that we do have two high school students who serve on the advisory

166and they have signed up and they will be presenting uh to you guys at the next board meeting. One of the things I realized when I put out the uh sign up to my students, I totally was just oblivious to the fact that I was having them sign up for every single board meeting and I'm like not meeting every two weeks. So, it really should be they're only coming here every other board meeting. So, we're going to get them on the schedule. I already got two uh coming for next week and they will kind of update where the conversation uh that we had with representatives from the ADL and what they kind of brought to the table for our students uh at the last meeting. The other thing I wanted to bring up is this

167morning I touched base with uh Julie from the Michigan Association of School Boards to talk about where we're at with getting going with the strategic planning process. And as you can tell from a lot of the things that we've brought up for discussion, a lot of the votes that we're going to be taking place, there are a lot of things that we will need community input on. And I want to encourage as we start to get the communication out about this process. And we're hoping to have those communications start going out either right before the holiday break or after the holiday break, but right around when we uh break in December. The goal is to have those communications out. And I want to encourage everybody to come out, be involved. They also send out surveys

168to uh all the stakeholders in the community to the community itself. And again, that's another way to give that input. And we just like I said, we want every voice in the room because we do have a lot of very important things that we are going to be discussing and facing and some tough decisions to make in the future. And it's just best that when we have everybody come and contribute and uh help with that process. So, uh, watch for those communications to come out. Uh, I'm really excited to get this going. It's been a while. Uh, it's been long overdue for us to set a strategic plan of what we look for over the course of the next three to five years. And again, please come on out when you see those communications come

169forward. >> Real quick question. Yeah. >> Or I guess can you just put the communication out probably after the holidays because I feel like a lot of people are just >> Yeah, that's totally before. So that way it's just fresh in the mind. >> I'm totally fine with that. >> And then how long does the strategic plan take like total the whole process before the board has to approve it? >> Roughly I'm going to say three to four months because they're going to start compiling uh data. Essentially, the ask they had for me today was to start providing them with um what are comparable districts that we want to pull data from so that we can compare ourselves to what other districts do and what other districts have in place. And then once they pull

170that data, that's when they're going to start the input meetings, the surveys. So that should be Januaryish. Then they need time to put that all together into a nice package and that's when we would have a Saturday retreat of um certain stakeholders from the community to start the defining of what those goals are. So >> like three to four months once we get going. >> Okay. >> At the conference that I went to, there were some different districts and they had different timelines. There was one district that did in two did it in two weeks and I was like, "Wow." >> Yeah. Okay. Whatever. >> Yeah. >> And then other districts that it took months. >> Yeah. >> Months and months. So, >> all right. Consent agenda. Mr. Wright. >> Um, item number I don't

171even know where we're at right now, but >> 10. Okay. Consent agenda. Policy 0166.1 and policy 6470. First, we have minutes from the regular board meeting of November 6, 2024. Second is consolidated items, payment of current bills, certified non-certified administrative reports. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there support? >> Support by Mr. Morris. Mr. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Miss Shufell? >> Mr. Wright? Is a yes. Miss Block? >> Yes. >> Mr. Heaton? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yep. >> That carries 720. Okay. I would have just Okay. Um number 11 item is scheduled for next agenda, Wednesday, December the 4th, 2024. We have good news. We also have our student representatives that Mr. Wayer just talked about and um he's going to have the whole

172student advisory representatives. >> Yeah, two of those. Um but then we also have student representatives from a school building be on there. >> Okay. We already did public comments. So number 11 would be uh Oh, we took that off. >> Um we are now down to number 11 is board member comments. I just have one. I just want to thank uh Lyn Borg for everything that she's done in the school district. I know she's moving on to Southgate and I wish her the best. I really truly hope that she does really well there. Um it's a big loss for us, but I think that just her being able to go and move on and pursue what she wants is huge. And so I just want to say congratulations to her on that new endeavor, but

173I wish her best to big loss for >> Okay. Um, it's all right. >> It's all good. Don't worry about it. >> Okay. Okay. Are there any other board member comments? >> Everybody have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. >> Thank you, Mr. Thomas. I was going to say thank you, Mr. Wright. Um, did anybody I did not get a chance to go to dueling pian. Did anybody get to go to dueling? Would you >> Great time. Excellent. Uh, the foundation as always did an amazing job. Uh, I don't think I've gotten a report on how much they've raised yet from it, but um, they said that it was probably I think Sean and I talked about this, they was on par to be like one of their best events in terms of raising money that

174they've had yet. Um, which was impressive because I believe the the number of tickets they sold was down. So, that must mean the people who were there were giving very freely of their money. Uh, I know when I got up and they wanted to have me dance uh for, you know, raising more money, I I paid extra to not do it and found somebody else to do it for me. So, uh, >> I was willing to throw a little more in the pot just to to avoid having to grab some maracas and dance around for everybody. Yes. not able to attend, but I did go to the fundraiser and eat my weight in riblets at whatever that place is called. Famous staves. Thank you. >> Okay, >> there is one more. I just want to

175I know Lori had to leave, but just the Masonic um they did a post. I know Bill's here. Uh he was part of it, but they do their coat and boot drive. Um, I'd love for them to come to the next meeting, but uh, they donate every year to Taylor Parks and then they added Johnson. And from the post I saw, it's been 17 years that they've been donating boots and coats to Taylor Parks. And this is now the fourth year that they've donated Boots and Coats to Johnson Early Childhood Center. And so, who >> Oh, JC Penn. Yeah. So, I just want to say thank you all. >> Yeah. So that's the Masons. >> Yeah. So I just want to say thank you all. >> Um >> I would like to uh say just

176one thing and earlier we talked about suicide prevention. It does touch everybody. Um, unfortunately, couple of years ago, uh, we had a young man who graduated from Taylor High, and he would have been the last person you would have thought would have committed suicide, but he did it. Um, there is a fundraiser, there is a scholarship that is given away in this, uh, district in his honor. And um there's a fundraiser the Friday after Christmas at Score Lanes. So if you have nothing to do and you want to go eat pizza or Yes. And you can uh uh you can bowl if you want. Um anyway, it does hit everyone. Um, and you'll be supporting a scholarship. Um, I think that was given away to three kids last year. They were able to raise enough

177money to do that. So, okay, somebody say something happy. >> Hello. Um, the district is doing um a Christmas drive. Uh, we have a wishing tree in the board office. Uh there's ornaments with white tags on them. There's wishes for some of our children within our district. Um and we're going to host a family shopping day. So those parents that have submitted their children's wishes will get to come in and shop for those gifts. Um the tree is right out in the lobby. Just take the ornament, buy the gifts, and then bring it back to the board office. Um, we're asking, um, that you have those gifts into us by December 5th. And if you have any questions, um, you can ask Bridget or myself. >> That's happy. Thank you, Stephanie. Anybody else? Luke, you

178have nothing happy to say? >> Happy Thanksgiving. >> Okay. What about you, Corey? >> Uh, good right now. >> Okay. All right. I will entertain a motion for adjournment. >> motion by Mr. Thomas. Is there a second? >> By Mr. Morris. Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Shufelm. >> Yes. >> Mr. Wright. >> Yes. >> Miss Black is Yes. Mr. Heath. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Thomas. >> Yes. >> That passes 70. The board of education regular board meeting of November 20th, 2024 is adjourned at 8:31. Thank you all for attending.