001on to the one moment. Hey, good afternoon. Welcome everyone to the Taylor School District reg regularly scheduled board meeting of September 3rd, 2025 where our mission statement is to educate with purpose, engage with passion, empower the future. And our vision statement is that we will create a welcoming and innovative learning environment that nurtures the whole child, empowering every student to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. Going to call the meeting at 6:00. Uh, Miss Shualt >> here. >> Mr. West, >> Miss Block, Miss Fields >> here, >> Miss Moore is excused, Mr. Murdi, and Mr. Morris is here. If everyone could join me in the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America item three, revisions approval of agenda Uh oh, I'm sorry. I'm hopping right over you. M >> continue.
002>> I I I will handle this. Uh revisions approval of agenda policy 0166. Um is there any revisions to the agenda? >> Yes. >> Like to make a motion to add the emergency uh bid for read it now. What's it for, Jack? for the HVAC. Okay. Yeah, thank you. >> Can we have that clarified, please? >> Yeah, it's for the HVAC controllers for Taylor High School. >> Yeah, the controllers. I forgot. I I couldn't find it. >> Is there any support for the uh revision? >> Support. >> Okay. Uh motion by Miss Fields, supported by Miss Shufelt, uh Mr. Westfall, >> yes. Miss Block, >> Miss Fields, >> yes. >> Miss Moore is excused. Miss Morarski, Mr. Morris is yes. Miss Shufelt, >> yes. >> That carries uh 6. I also have an additional. >>
003So I would say just for clarification for discussion items, that'd be number nine and then we'd put a 10 for action just for following along. >> Okay, let me make a note of that real quick. Nine. Hback. Okay. I also have another revision I would like to introduce. Uh, Representative Thompson reached out to the school district and would like to do a legislative update on the budget that's happening in Lancing. Um, and I would like to have that put in right after the superintendent report. Um, is there any support for my motion? Support by Mr. Mardski. We're just go through the same list as before. Uh, Mr. Westfall. Uh, Miss Block. >> Miss Fields. >> No. >> Uh, M. Moore is excused. Mr. Mardski. >> Uh, Mr. Morris is a yes. Miss Shufeld. >> Yes.
004>> Okay. That, uh, wins or Yay win at 51. Okay. And that will be immediately after the superintendent report. Roman numeral nine. Roman numeral. Yep. Okay. Uh, committee updates. >> Um, we didn't have a finance committee meeting. Well, it's all Dr. Hill's fault, but she's in the middle of an audit right now, so we decided not to schedule a meeting for her until sometime this month, probably late this month. So um we did on August 21st we had facilities grounds improvements and transportation committee and with facilities some of this some of these items may already be complete. So Jacket they are or Patrick just let us know. The uh roofs are done at Holland Meyers who Hoover and West at Holland there were six classrooms uh that were tiled. Randall was abaded and retiled. Kinyan
005had a flooding issue which was repaired. Those floors had to be retiled. The west spoilers have been installed and are up and running. Uh, and Johnson had the installation of the new drinking fountains and that's been completed. And I think when I talked to Jack the other day, you said there's the other fountains are getting started now. >> All right. Um, the grounds report um that we will be in grading Kennedy due to the large pieces of cement that were left. Um, and this is a funny discussion, but it's still worth thinking about. We had a discussion there's a large plot of land that has to be taken care of over by wearing and the subject of goats came up. There's a gentleman who brings in his flock of goats and minimal amount and they
006clear all of them. And I believe he said they fertilize for nothing. So it would be something I think that could be looked at. I don't know what kind of permit we would have to get or anything like that, but for that amount of land to clear that amount of land, Jack, what did you say it was? >> How much? >> 60,000 to clear this area of land. And how much would the goats cost? under a thousand. >> How big is the land? How many acres are we looking at? >> It's behind the So that's kind of the neighborhood behind the old handy Andies, right? >> I think like champagne is bored. >> Yeah. >> Guys, if you're going to continue this conversation, could Jack come up to the podium just to make sure everyone
007can hear. >> Sorry, I didn't mean to. >> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> We're like, you said yes, but you didn't move. It's okay. >> Yeah. >> There's about 20 homes there that you walk through the backyard and it needs to be cleared out. >> So, it would it was just something that >> it was one of our guys there I saw YouTube film. So, we actually do. >> That's a neat idea. Thank you. I just want everyone to know where We was. I I I remember, but a lot of people >> Yep. So, they're not responsible for that. >> That's >> a Oh, okay. So, they have to cut their grass. >> We actually need to >> as part of the lease. >> As part of the >> Okay. But they're paying for it
008then. Okay. Think about >> the career center landscaping that's in the process of of it's an ongoing project and the painting of the building. The CTE building has been completed. Um the improvements report and discussion we will be getting a presentation from Bart Malo. So that'll take care of that part of it. Um and transportation. Four of our full-size buses are in the prep line. We are hopeful to receive them the second week of September. One handicap bus is scheduled to be built in December of this year. And um if you you probably saw it in your packets, but it was mentioned at our meeting. um the awarded tire contract that the board had approved last time the company the company closed its doors in Michigan. So um Jack's bringing forward this the second bidder
009um tonight for our approval so that we don't have to worry about the buses not getting tires. Um, the revenue paid to the district for transportation services during the Little League World Series was approximately $21,000. Don't know what Dr. Hill did with it, but it's there somewhere. And we adjourned at 10. So, that was it. >> I love the idea of bringing the goats out here for this field across the parking lot here as well. Uh cuz I know that's got to be difficult to get out there with mowers for for sure. So >> yeah, >> thank you very much. Uh moving on to discussion items starting with the collaborative athletic update. So, I'm gonna just kind of give a little preface as I know Rich is going to come up and be able to
010take any questions that you guys have. Um, I know I had provided the board an update about the athletic complex upgrades at Taylor High School and that we had some issues in getting the straightened out who was the responsible party for permitting for the storm water drainage. Um, and as I shared with the board, at this point, uh, it has become clear that we need to go through Wayne County, which is a longer process than with the city. So, at that point, um, it pushes back the start date of when we can actually break ground and get things going. We can still get out there and put up signage. We can still get out there and put up the temporary fencing, things like that we discussed at our last meeting, but it does push back
011the start uh, piece. What was very encouraging though as we talked with our partners with uh collaborative and saxi and Martino is the nice thing is it does not push back the end date. We would still be on time for providing our students the the same item. It just pushes back when we can break that ground. And I know I provided you a lot of background information but Richard was kind enough to say he would be here tonight to answer specific questions you may have uh regarding that. So what actually um what actually happened Mike to create this waiting period for the groundbreaking? >> Sorry, you're getting in like specifics on the permitting piece. Um, I know Rich can give in more detail, but I a kind of high overview that I can give you
012is that when we started into this process way back in February, March, and we were finishing up the design part, uh, we have engineers from the pea group and those representatives had been working with the city. They'd been having meetings with them about how this was going to go, how it would get approved through them. And then uh we hit a period where we were all having difficulty getting an answer, getting a response. And the response we got said that at one point we got an email that said we needed to go back and talk to the county about this. Well, we knew as soon as we talked to the county, the answer is going to be that's the avenue we have to go. And so that's kind of what kind of led there. I
013don't know if that answers what you were looking for or starts at least where Rich can pick up and fill in any holes that I may have given you. I did I did I did and and I don't want to bore everybody with what bores but I did talk a little bit with Rich prior to the meeting. >> Yeah. And the way I understood it was that um there was a lack of correspondence uh on the city side and the city ghosted us >> and uh which put our companies that that we've hired put them on the back burner. >> Correct. >> Um >> first and I can only speak for myself. This is my opinion only. Um, it doesn't surprise me that this is happening. And first, I want to apologize to the community
014that something else is now set back. I also want to apologize to our companies um because they're ready to they're they're ready to go. They're ready to start the process. Uh, I apologize that you have to deal with certain city officials who choose not to work with the district and move forward with this project. And I believe it's continued retaliation against the school district for our public stance on how important protecting our students and staff is to us. So, that being said, now I won't put you on the spot, sir. >> No, that's fine. I appreciate the lead and let let me know any questions along the way. You know, we've been working through this process for the last little bit here, so I can answer anything I can for you. Um to give you
015a little bit of a background, some dates on it. You know, when we had started this process of designing the athletics complex last year, we have correspondence leading back to November of uh 2024 last year where we started talking to the city, trying to do our due diligence, making sure that understanding this process, the design need to be completed in February in order to make the necessary bidding dates and avoid arbitrage that we had talked about into the end of 24 and leading into 25. So in November, we tried to get ahead of it talking to the city and working through the designs. The city had told us that, you know, they've adopted all the Wayne County standards minus a few certain things that they said we could do different from those, but understanding that
016we could go through the city for that review. Now, in saying all that, what I can tell you is all the correspondence and writing I have leading back for the city from November is stating that they've adopted the Wayne County standards allowing for other items. So not having to detain much as much water by only detaining the areas affected opposed to the entire site. Couple items like that as well as shrinking some of the pipe sizing for flow rates that we were designing to. So fast forward to February drawings were completed and in March in March of 25 the drawings were sent into the city for review. Now since March there's been little little context there. There was a point um in May where we found out that the city they we had sent them
017the drawings but they asked us to resend them. So we sent the drawings again. We had answered a couple of questions as part of the review process and then started to not hear anything back. So about two months ago we started pushing back of you know where's the drawings? You know where's the approval? do we need to can you give us clarity that we don't need to be going through the county because we don't want to be doing the wrong thing as far as approval for you all in the district. Um and at that point we really weren't hearing anything. So my civil engineer as well as myself I know Mike's called a number of times trying to get clarity on where this review process needs to go. But what I can tell you, the
018only email I have in writing from the city is from the assistant engineer for the city saying that we need to go to Wayne County for review and then we need to come back to the city for review. So at that point, we started to look at we need to rectify how this process is going to take place. So we've continued to try to call. We haven't gotten any responses back. The only responses we will get are from the uh city engineer and our engineer at PA or civil engineer for that. I know I haven't gotten any responses back to my calls or emails and I don't believe Mike wear has either. You have >> I have not ma'am. No, I have not. So, I put multiple calls in as well as multi multiple emails
019and we got to the point a couple weeks ago where we had called Wayne County. They agreed to have a meeting with us to talk about the issue. So, we sat down with their lead engineer plans examiner to review what was going on, review the plans, and they said, you know, we need to go through the county for review of the site items. the only item the city would have jurisdiction on is the pipe outlet into the city system at that point. So since then, we've redesigned the drawings to take into account the Wayne County capacities, getting rid of any of the um leeway that was provided by the city previously to make sure that we're meeting those county requirements completely. Those drawings have been completed. They've been put into our um our engineering partner,
020Saxi Construction, to put out as an addendum to the bidding. So that way that upsizing of the pond and anything that happens with that will be included in your bid prices and not be a change order later on. So that is in process now. We also have the drawings into the county for review and have correspondence with the county engineers trying to help push that process along as quickly as possible. Um since then there has been correspondence between our engineer and the city engineer stating that he still feels we don't need to go to the county for review but won't put anything in writing to that. And so in our minds, we feel this is, you know, the safest route we can take for you all the district. We are continuing to try to get
021a meeting set up, get some kind of correspondence to acknowledge that once we get this Wayne County review, we go to the city for review and won't be required to make any other changes that may conflict with the requirements that have been set forth from the county. So there's that part piece of the puzzle we're actively working on to get clarity on. We have verbal clarity through our engineer, the city engineer, but nothing in writing and nothing to myself or Mike or anyone else reaching out. >> Did you ask for it in writing? >> I did. Yes. Yes, ma'am. >> Even if you got it in writing at this point, would you feel like you still should go through the county just to cover all avenues? I think that if we got something in the
022city in writing contradicting what the county said, I think there could be a chance that we could avoid the county review, but I also know that we'd probably lose a number of months in trying to figure that out in the process. So to keep things on target, we, you know, we of course wanted to start this fall with baseball and softball and then work into football, the concessions and hardscape in the spring. Um and so now to keep on this current path, we are we have it into the county thinking that if that process takes, you know, up to six months for a review, we could start, you know, still starting quarter one of 26. We're hoping it won't. The county is notoriously slow in their reviews, so we're hoping with you our contacts and
023understanding the issue, we can help push that along. But I I can't tell you there's not a chance that we wouldn't have to, but I could tell you we're probably going to lose a lot of time if we try to fight it. Is there a chance that this would increase the cost of operations if this goes on for months? >> So, right now, in my opinion, and I'm I'm not the CM on this. This actually is the CM. They'd have to be the ones to tell you, but in my opinion, if we were to start construction as planned, you would pay mobilization fees for construction to start in the fall. You'd pay for temporary fencing, and then you'd have to demobilize for the winter months and then pay to remobilize in the spring to keep
024going. So, in my opinion, we would avoid uh initial mobilization, temporary fencing for a long period of time, that remobilization fees, which should save cost by being able to do all the work at one time in spring of 26 opposed to fall of 25 and then restarting in spring of 26. Now, if things continue to progress out, bids are due on Thursday of next week for the project understanding this schedule and these logistics, say we can't get a, you know, approval from the county or t, you know, the city comes back and pushes on the design and it pushes that construction start date, it absolutely could affect cost at that point because now those dates that everyone's bidding on or beheld to with those bids are now changing and they could affect what you pay
025in the long term. So, right now I think you'd probably save some money with the scenario, but there is potential if we don't get answers that it could, you know, hurt costwise as well. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> Does anyone else have any questions on the board? >> Okay. >> Said no. >> Well, thank you very much. >> No, thank you. >> I'm sure there might be questions. We open to discussion. >> I'll be >> okay. Moving on to uh Barton Mallow bond update. Thank you everybody. I have a U presentation. I don't know if we can share the presentation or not. There it is. Good to see you all again. Um, in case there's a few of you who I haven't met in the past, my name is Larry Bicowski, uh, director of
026planning with Bart Malow, uh, work in our K12 group. I've been with Bart Malow 11 years. Um, all I do is is plan, uh, bond programs for for school districts like yourself. So, um, that's what we were tasked with here. And, uh, I just wanted to update you all per our original timeline that we presented on a few months ago. uh with sort of a status update and let you know where we stand in the process. Just uh briefly some introductions as I mentioned Larry Bakowski uh with me as well as Brian Jesse. He leads our uh tech design and implement implementation team. He walked the sites with me as well. Uh also have Kelsey Burkemeer here with Bonic Bonik and Cassidy. uh as many of you may recall, she is our uh PR and
027uh campaign support uh person who's going to be uh taking some of the ideas that that come out of this effort to to the community for some focus panels. She'll talk on that process later. Again, we're not we're not the only ones involved. Um Rich with the collaborative uh is part of the team as well. We all serve Taylor schools. uh Barton Mallo, we're sort of acting as I guess the quarterback of this planning effort, but also involved uh obviously Kelsey right behind me uh and Baker Tilly for those of you who don't know the the district's financial advisor. They have been very helpful as well in in our financial uh analysis as well. Quick agenda just to outline um what what we're going to be talk about tonight. just a quick overview of of
028our approach, how we kind of attack this uh facilities assessment. And again, this isn't this isn't the plan. This isn't a recommendation that you do all of these things. This is just us walking the district with with your facility staff, taking notes, writing down work lists, assigning costs to those items, and presenting all it's your list really. It's not it's not our list. it's not, you know, things that, uh, we came up with. It's, it was a collaborative effort. Uh, so I just want to talk about that approach. Um, then we'll kind of review some of the infrastructure needs. Uh, some of the other findings we we saw while we were there, get into some of the cost info, which I believe all of you have in front of you. Uh, I'll I'll kind of
029speak to some of that. Uh, some of the financial issu uh, info. So, how much money is there? how big is the bucket for things uh to be to be paid for out of also talk about some of the next steps and the community outreach and and wrap it up with some Q&A. Okay, so just to overview what we've done to this point in July, we walked all the buildings. We walked them all with Jack and Pat. Um so we we don't like to walk these buildings alone. We like to uh walk with the district when at all possible because we don't see these build when we walk the buildings are empty. They're not being used. The lights aren't even on half the time. So we we might miss half of the things that bother
030uh guys like Pat and Jack. Uh so we like to walk with them so they can point things out that they stress about on a daily basis. So in July and August, we met uh multiple times with your facilities and tech teams. Um, we compiled those preliminary work lists, started putting costs towards them. And the costs that you see in front of you, those are from actual bid, you know, local bid data from other districts we work with. Um, and then we did we also met with Edwina and her team and, uh, Baker Tilly to kind of review some of the financial components to see, you know, what what dollars were left, what are remaining, what what is this what is the lay of the land financially? Um, as just I know I kind of
031touched on some of this already, but we only walked the open buildings. We didn't we didn't go into any of the the closed facilities. We we only looked at the operational buildings. Um, already mentioned we walked with your staff. We didn't do any of this alone in a vacuum. Uh, we reviewed some of your historical documentation. So, some of the the previous bond applications, some of the uh previous facilities assessments, uh Jack and Pat were very helpful in providing all that information. Another thing I wanted to mention, the numbers that you have in front of you are all in so that they include all the contingencies, any professional fees, um escalation, that's an important thing to factor because this stuff isn't all going to happen this year. This is going to happen over the course
032of, you know, three to five years, whatever the time frame is. So we have to factor in some level of cost escalation in these prices as well. Uh they include general conditions. So that's all the things that you know go into construction like portage johns and temp fences and dumpsters things like that. And I already mentioned professional fees. We also ranked each each line item has a priority one through three. So one meaning it's probably something you should that needs to be addressed in the next one to three years. Priority two, four to six years. Priority three, seven to 10 years. So, this is a this is a 10-year outlook. This isn't a this isn't necessarily an immediate outlook. As we walk these buildings, kind of notice common themes. Uh, I guess the nice thing
033about your buildings is they're they're pretty uniform in what they need. They're there's they're they're all constructed pretty similarly. Uh so you could make blanket decisions across the whole district on certain items for the most part. Um with with the exception of the high school, that's kind of an outlier in how it was built. It was built a little differently, but for the most part, you could across the board say um you know, your classrooms like lack air conditioning. Um except at the at the high school. uh ceilings and lights, those also pretty much across the board. Classroom furniture, uh you know, in our meetings that came up. Um roofing, probably over half your buildings are still in dire need of a roof. Boilers, kind of the same same thing. Uh I I lumped other
034HVAC equipment outside of boilers because I figured, you know, boilers are always a hot button issue. Uh controls was another kind of dire uh thing that you know Jack and Pat were mentioning as we walked the buildings. We'll talk about that. Um parking and sight, doors and windows, fire alarm, uh technology in the classrooms, uh safety and security and then and just general interior upgrades. So I tried to as I saw these common themes start to develop I wanted to organize the data in those buckets just to make it you know more digestible if that makes sense. All right. So, starting with infrastructure needs. Um, basically this uh first first group here is uh site work. So, that consists of your parking lots, athletic fields, fencing. Um, another thing I didn't mention, this is we
035looked at this as a one forone replacement. We didn't, you know, we didn't hear, oh, you want a new swimming pool here or there, or you want a new auxiliary gym here. This was not a programming exercise. This was a facilities. Let's look at what you have and what would it cost to bring those things up to speed. So on the left we have, you know, you can see some of the driveways, some of the parking lots that that are in rough rough shape. So we accounted for all that. We noticed a lot of fencing being installed throughout the district um as part of a recent uh bid pack. So, you know, a lot of that work is being taken care of, but there's still some some items that you may want to consider in
036the near future. roofing. There was a lot of evidence of uh pretty significant roof leaks. You can see that picture on the top left. Um ceiling. I forget which school that was at, but that was, you know, pretty pretty significant. What's that? >> It looks like who burnt. >> Yeah. Yeah. You're right. You're right. Yeah, you're right. Um I knew it was one of the middle schools. Uh but you know that that's the result of um you know a pretty pretty old roof that's got some pretty significant uh failures in it. We did on the on the bright side though several buildings we we visited did have crews replacing the roofs. So um a number of your buildings are getting uh new roofs currently which is which is good. So, just real quick, these um
037these things would change because there are some things that are already taking place into your recommendations >> if if there's something that has since taken place that you know we didn't observe. Yes, those could come off the list for sure. Yep. >> We tried to account for everything that you know was yet to come, but there that doesn't mean there might be something on there that has already occurred. Okay. Um, building finishes for the most part, didn't see anything too catastrophic. I mean, you can see the ceilings uh at West, those were pretty rough. Um, a lot of the flooring, painting, a lot of the ceilings were were okay. There was nothing really that that was going to uh cause school to not be open tomorrow, but, you know, is dated, but other than that,
038it's functional. Um you see a few uh chipping of the floors at the at the transitions at the high school. Um case work. Again, aside from being just maybe dated, a lot of it appeared to be functional. Same with the doors, interior doors. A lot of them were scraped and scratched, but they still work. Um we did we did account for those to be replaced when we saw them, but at a lower priority. Mechanical. This is a this is a big one for the district. So, uh on the left, those green boxes, those are those are your boilers. And some of the boilers in the district are new, but I think I counted the average age of the boilers in the district is is approaching 30 years old. And that that's the average lifespan of
039a boiler. So, uh these these pieces of equipment and some are older than that. Uh that's just the average. Um and when these things go, they go. So, um, a lot of boilers throughout the district were accounted for at a pretty high priority to be replaced. Um, controls, this is a big one. Uh, that's the middle picture. That's a control panel. I'm not sure which school, but they're they're all pretty much the same. Um, you're running off of a I don't know 30 year old system and it's it's pneumatic air. Uh, breaks down a lot. Parts are hard to come by. The newer systems are are digital. Um, and they would allow your facilities team to sort of see everything remotely. You could see every building, control temperatures from every building from a desktop or
040a phone or a mobile device. Um, that was something that seemed to be a pretty high priority for the facilities team. The final picture on the right is called a unit ventilator. You'll see that on your lists that there's one of those in pretty much every classroom. That's what provides heating and air to the classrooms. Those are currently those are pretty much across the board heating only. They don't provide air conditioning. Um they can but that requires you know power upgrades, a lot of architectural work around the the new unit. So um we did we did throw that on the list um as well pretty much across the board. Some other items, uh, arts and athletics. The, um, the tennis courts at the high school look to be almost unusable. Uh, so we did we
041did figure full replacement of those. Um, your pools for the most part looked in okay shape with the exception of some of the equipment, the dehumidification equipment and mechanical equipment. um could use some TLC. The uh little theater in the in the high school, which is kind of neat, by the way. I've never seen I mentioned to Mike that was a pretty unique space. I I like that. Um those those were really the big arts and athletics pieces that that we observed. The high school doesn't that I saw doesn't have a a baseball or softball home field. >> No. >> Yeah. They've been not playing on site for the last at least year or two if not Oh, >> so that's an example. >> I can only speak to the last two years since >>
042this would be Yeah. This this current year would be going on five. >> Yeah. >> So that that's an example of something we didn't we didn't assume you wanted that. We just we looked at what you had and we we so that's that's more of a programming thing if you wanted to build something new there. Um I just wanted to mention that one item slide. Uh for safety and security, I'll bring Brian up. >> Hi there. So for safety and security, the district actually is in, you know, this would be I think a bright spot of the district as far as uh there's been some effort and energy put into having the buildings be safe and secure. So the verata access control or verata access control and video surveillance systems that you have are um
043relatively new, probably installed in the last five to six years. And generally those those systems particularly like the vicata stuff because it is a um so that is a like a cloud-based system they record to the cloud and then uh you buy the license with the camera it gets packaged together. So they have uh they sell that license at a maximum duration of 10 years and you guys have the 10-year license. Some of the cameras were installed in 2019 but a lot of them have been installed in the last three years. But something to consider would just be, you know, in the next 3 to 5 years, you're going to start to have that rollover where those cameras age out and you'll need to replace them. So, at some point, it might make sense to
044overhaul that system, but it's not like a dire need today. Um, the picture on the bottom is actually of of one of the current uh setups at the main entrance where you have the exterior video intercom, which is also Vicata, part of that whole ecosystem. And uh and that's where everybody budges in to come into the buildings. Um, and so that's that's a good security feature. Um, the picture you can't really see that well to the right of the camera is of a paging speaker actually. So, uh, John and the technology team have also spent some effort in in replacing and upgrading paging systems throughout the district. They haven't been to all the buildings. Um, and some of those buildings would would uh it would be appropriate to try to fund that replacement out of
045the bond funds. the systems that they have been able to replace and do have been through alternative funding sources and not had to come out of the bond. So, um that's like your rates or your 31A funds or your title funds. Um so, so that's kind of uh the safety and security bit. The one thing I would I would highlight I guess as something to consider um in the future is you have a few buildings with secure entrances, meaning like you come into the building and then you're forced into the office before you go out into the rest of the building. But the majority do not have that. And there's, I think, a lot of different architectural barriers around like limitations, I guess, to the way the buildings are built and where the office is
046located relative to the main entrance. Um, so it would take, you know, a lot of dollars to do that, but that's something that it's it's been extremely common in the last 10 to 15 years that people are are putting those in. >> We did talk about that. Um other things that we just noted in the walkthrough, we did the same type of walk that Larry did with the facilities team with John and Matthew and the technology team. Um it's just that there while I mentioned before they've done a great job with uh improving and putting energy into and and dollars toward replacement of uh of the technology pieces. There's some things that are uh lingering out there like legacy devices. So, you'll see the one picture kind of in the upper upper left there is
047of there's there's an old Smartboard on the wall and the old projector on the wall and then a uh and then a a cart rolled kind of in front of it that has the the more updated technology there. So, um and then the picture on the right in the upper right shows there's like a right by Larry's finger is a CRT TV which is like those are still proliferating like they're everywhere in the district, right? So, uh, removing some of those legacy systems and the backbone and all everything that that used to feed those televisions and those systems in the future like that legacy cabling and everything still exists for the district as well. Um, the bottom left uh picture is a uh a computer lab. Uh, you know, the refreshment cycle for a computer
048lab should be somewhere between, you know, five to seven years. Seven years is on the the longer end of that. Um so again through the title funds and 31A funds and the general fund they've uh been able to uh to keep those and maintain those uh up to date but in the next you know three to five years those things are all going to come up for replacement again. Uh the last picture on the bottom right is just of some cabling things. So, as we're walking through the district, while there's been uh improvement in all of the devices and things, like I mentioned before, the legacy cabling and the legacy stuff that's that remains, um as we go into these buildings to do other uh improvements, uh this will have to be likely brought to
049code. So there would need to be some dollars allocated to remove old cabling, maybe uh properly support existing cabling, maybe some cabling replacement that would have to happen. Um, you know, similar to the the last thing I'll mention is similar to the the cameras and the access control and such. Uh, the network infrastructure and the wireless network infrastructure. Again, it's all been replaced, I believe, in the last three years. and and that's a that's an area again where you guys are kind of on the current version of technology. Um and so you've got you know that for the learning environment and the learning improvement of of the students and being able to use their devices to their full capacity. Uh, you guys are in good good shape. Good shape right there. >> Uh, as far
050as furniture goes, you know, again, it was it was summer when we walked. A lot of the furniture was out of the classroom, so there weren't there weren't many classrooms that were set up for for teaching and learning. But everything that that we observed was the furniture it looked as it looked like it was in good shape. It was just it was again just the old style furniture. We did we did put a budget in there in case that's something the district wanted to entertain as far as replacement for you know uh more flexible furniture to meet any new curriculum. Um, by no means is it a top priority uh as far as functionality, but we we put the budget in there uh just as a as a discussion point there. Uh did not account
051for any buses um or food service equipment in this in this effort either. I just wanted to point that out. So, uh cost info. Sorry, some of the formatting got got funny there, but just keeping in those buckets I mentioned. Um, I I wanted to kind of keep all the the the components together in those in those buckets as much as I could. So, that's that's how I organized uh the the document in front of you. Um, again, districtwide, if you wanted to to put AC in those classrooms, that's, you know, $28 million. That includes upgraded power, a lot of architectural work. It's a big investment. Um, but just wanted to lift that to the surface. Ceilings and lights, very similar effort. That's um it's it would take quite a bit to to do that.
052Um classroom furniture, roofing, the remaining roofs, we we valued that at about 16.5 million. Um boilers nine and a half. the rest of the HBAC about 30 million controls eight and a half parking in sight uh about 50 million in that because a lot of those parking lots if they're completely deteriorated that the only way to do that right is a full replacement full depth you know the the subbase and all that um doors and windows 7 million fire alarm uh just over five the tech items that Brian mentioned 18 and a half safety and security 6 and a half and then just those general interior upgrades about just over 19 for a total again of a 10-year time frame $235 million. >> I was going to say this is a wish list, right? >>
053It is. Yeah. And again, by no means is this is this saying these are you have to do this stuff? This is this is just the things we observed and um the the budgets that that we put together based on costs that we've observed in your neighboring districts. Another way of looking at the same data, the 1 to threeyear kind of critical needs of those items comes to about 111 million. Near-term four to sixyear needs 108 million. Long-term needs 15 a.5. So those are those are the things we identified. Now, how much money is left? That's what we worked with Edwina on. We spent a number of hours working with her. Um she was able to provide very organized was able to provide us um good history of what's been done to date. Um Baker
054Tilly provided us with that top number 19 or sorry 98,145,000. That's the remaining par value of the bond. That's what you can bond for uh moving forward. Out of that, from what we could tell from the documentation the district provided us, there's about $93,000 remaining to pay out of this upcoming series on the athletics uh budget or the athletics project and as well as the contingency. Um the controls project which is before you today I believe the the recommendation of that project comes to 339,563. Uh there's a project I believe coming up for Holland, some some window replacements. We estimated that not knowing the full scope, but we we estimated that at about 125,000. Same thing at Meyers. Not knowing the full uh scope of the sound panels, we put a placeholder budget of 150,000,
055which leaves us with a remaining budget of 96.6 million. >> What about sound panels? So when the uh remodeling took place at Meyers and at McDall since those are pretty much sister kind of schools in design, they had put in the steam rooms that were in that design process. When the design process went out, one building wanted to have acoustic paneling in that room to cut down on the noise. The other team at the other school chose not to. And now we are seeing what difference that makes and why that should have been something that was probably in that process to begin with. >> My concern, >> yeah, >> is this community was premised a high school. >> Yeah, I understand. >> We're struggling to do a complete renovation. >> Yeah. >> This to me
056is a no-brainer. >> Yeah. Anyway, >> the this athletic budget that's not >> No, but it's it's the correct it's the other stuff is in the other pot of money that was already sold in series. >> That total project was somewhere around 11 million I believe. >> Okay. >> 10 point whatever million of that was spent under the previous series. But our work we had to do was, you know, again, we have all these needs, but how big is how big is the bucket to pay for those needs? Uh, and that's that's what this effort was. Um, >> now some of that 93,000 is contingency. So, in theory, hopefully, you won't spend all of that, but for a for a budgeting exercise, you kind of have to assume you're going to spend the entire contingency.
057Just >> We're an old district. We've got a ton of needs. >> Yes. But in my mind, it's what we've promised to get the bond. >> Sure. >> And what we have to fulfill, >> right? >> And it's a matter of priority in my mind. >> Right. You teed up my next point. I thank you. Right. >> We rehearsed this. No, we um so the next steps now that we've now that we've uh walked all the buildings, identified everything that you know we really think needs, you know, the district needs, the next step is figuring out what is the most important $96 million worth of stuff out of that $235 million list. Um, so we we our plan is this this is our plan this month to to develop some hypothetical scenarios. Again, working with
058the district. This isn't this isn't our effort. This is something that, you know, we we want to hear from the district, hear what those priorities are, put some of those scenarios in front of you in October and if uh if approved, it was approved to prioritize the high school. >> The majority of the money is to the high school. Once the high school is completed, >> remaining money goes to the rest of the district. >> So that's a priority prioritize like you put the high school, their needs, everything is to the high school and then >> that and then we go from there. That's that's what the board approves. Unless Stephanie wins the $1 billion. >> Oh, I don't even play the lottery, so sorry. >> And those are the exact type of discussions we
059plan to have this this month. >> And you know, become come prepared to discuss that in October. Um, and then moving forward from that, taking that plan to, you know, whatever focus panels for, uh, community survey type things. Um, uh, Kelsey will will talk about that moving forward. The plan is to have this finalized in November and take it to submit it to Treasury. It's not a it's not a typical Treasury meeting, pre-qualification meeting. It's more of a submission to them just for record of of what the new plan is. Um, and then Treasury will will receive that sometime in that November, December time frame. And we we begin designing and bidding the work from that point on. >> That easy. >> Piece of cake. >> Nothing to it. >> Yeah, I I agree with
060my colleagues on this that the math here isn't really working because, you know, we're supposed to spend all this money for a high school and you're spending money for things that is not a high school. So, I mean, good luck working this all up and I don't imagine much of it passing. So, I'm just sounds like we're wasting a lot of time on this. I mean, we need to we need to move forward with the high school. >> Yeah. >> And getting that finalized, seeing what that cost is going to be >> and then, you know, then bring us okay, you have x amount of dollars left and these are the needs. >> Sure. >> Of the remain remaining buildings and things in the district. Um, so I think like personally, um, for me the
061next step would be presenting me what the new high school is moving forward with. Like what does that look like? >> What is the next step of prepping, preparing, designing all of those things, >> Right. Because the issue with the new high school is we wish we had more money for the new high school. >> Yeah. >> And and now you're spending money that we don't even have. You're spending negative money. This is just a wish list. >> I know it's a wish list. I don't want to spend necessarily too much time and spend money on focus groups and stuff if we can't fund it. >> And I want to say some of those items that we were hoping to take out of the bond are so critical that we know we have to take
062it out of general fund if we don't. Like so it we hope that that's the avenue we can take it, but we know we got to like the controllers for Taylor High School. It is such a desperate situation. We know that if we can't pay for out of bond, it's got to come out of general fund because it has to happen at this point. >> This one, >> correct? >> What is already done? Like there's been furniture, there's been >> correct >> um sidewalks, there's been roofs, there's been, you know, and that was probably all done after your walk through. >> And some of the roofs we did paid out of general fund as well, knowing that they had to happen. >> And what is our fund balance for general fund now? >> Do we
063have that exact number? million, but >> okay, >> having an audit and then after the audit, we'll know what the next fund balance is, but it's currently about 39 million. >> That's a decent amount. Thank you. >> Yeah, >> that's good. >> Does anyone else have any questions? >> Well, I I want to also bring up because uh last year the state of Michigan did a infrastructure report in schools all over the state. Um what we are seeing is not unique to us. I I want to just emphasize that when they did that study, there are several other districts that are in this same boat who have this aging infrastructure and probably are having that same assessment of what the needs are. So, um it's something that I have stressed with lawmakers that I've talked
064with. It's something that I know the county is stressing with lawmakers and that that there is a dire need for infrastructure investment period throughout the state of Michigan when it comes to schools. So, uh, do know that this is not a unique, uh, situation in Denver. >> I've never I've never personally worked with a district who has fewer needs than than resources to to to do them. So, uh, Mr. Wickers, absolutely right. >> Okay. Anybody else? Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Okay. Moving on to the MTSS and resilience updates. Thank you. Okay, good evening. Um, my name is Marlene Scott. I'm here to talk to you about some of the updates in terms of what I've been working on since I started July 1 here, um, and how they align to the strategic
065plan. So, here are the strategic goal areas that were approved um June 4th, 2025. And um so these are the five categories that all of the goals fall into. And so I'm going to talk to you tonight about a couple of specific goals and how they align to the work that I'm doing. So the two major areas that some of this work falls into is the academics and programs and the learning environment and culture. So those are the top two boxes. Um one of the goals in the academics and programs is to very simply implement a comprehensive MTSS structure. So um we'll talk about that. And then another one of the specific goals was to screen students for mental health needs and use data to guide decisions and align resources. So I'm going to talk
066specifically about those couple of goals. First in the academics and programs, this is our MTSS entire structure. And so just if you're not aware, kind of some of the background of this is um there was a program purchased a couple of years ago on a three-year contract called Branching Minds. Are you familiar >> with that at all? Okay. So the Branching Minds program was purchased for three years, the first two of which have already passed and now we're in our third year with this program. And so one of my main goals was to really try to utilize it as much as possible knowing that it had already been purchased and budgeted for and it was something that we really were not using quite frankly at all um districtwide. And so these were the goals that
067Miss Graham shared with me and the timelines that were associated with them for um this specific goal implementing the MTSS structure. And so they were broken down by quarter and this is throughout this entire 2526 school year. So um I'm going to kind of before you switch slides um all of these goals are you know quite lofty and I mean they're wonderful goals and I love them and we're working towards them. Um the MTSS handbook is something that our district MTSS team started working on in previous years. So, this was a project that I was already on the MTSS team and we were working towards. And then, um, I'm going to go through all of these goals here. So, if you can switch to the next slide. So, the Q1 goal, um, our district team
068met a number of times throughout last school year to very specifically and deliberately start working on this handbook. Um there was a handbook that the district previously had that um some of the school improvement um coordinators had worked on and it was a great structure and start but there was no collaboration districtwide. There wasn't input from anyone in the buildings really um because they were trying to comply with having an actual MTSS handbook. And so we worked really hard on overhauling the entire handbook. Our district team met on August 11th to finalize all of the edits to the original handbook that we had and we worked with a consultant from Branching Minds on that. That was already part of our pre-purchased professional development. So um we really again I didn't want any of that pre-purchase
069stuff to go to waste. So, we were utilizing their services, their consultation. She guided us through this process. Um, and so I took everyone's edits and I've been, you know, uh, revising them and embedding them into the draft that we had. So, they decided on all of the edits and gave them to me and I'm about halfway through finishing all of those. Um, so it should be done soon. Um, but quite frankly, it's extremely long. It's maybe 30 40 pages and I'm only half done. So my plan is once the entire handbook is done to condense it down to a page or two of very important highlights that I I think is a little more digestible for everyone to start with while sharing the entire handbook of course but um I I plan to you
070know make a Cliff's version Cliff's notes version for everyone. Can I just ask um the branching's mind thing because you said it was not being used districtwide. Was it being used at all and was it being better used at like the elementary level versus the high school level or like what does that look like because why wasn't it being used? So the I guess there's two parts to that question. So, one, it was being used at a couple of elementary buildings, but really it was being used by people who were on the district MTSS team who knew about it and understood it. So, it was a very small population of people that really knew what it was and and kind of got it. Okay. >> And those were the schools that used it. And I
071guess the reason it wasn't really used districtwide is because there was not someone coordinating a largecale effort and like concentrated plan to use it. >> Okay. >> Um Okay. So the 2526 focus for MTSS is really tier one still. So these are procedures districtwide um with an emphasis on data walks to track the progress of the strategies determined at each building. So last year the building started choosing um tier one strategies are strategies that apply to all students in different areas um academic um behavioral and then using data walks to um track how um how much each staff was using those things. And so each staff individually met with their administrator or their coaches and they decided what they wanted to focus on as a building. So the staff would collaborate on those things and
072then hold each other accountable for if they met the goal or they didn't and then they would go from there. So that process started the second half of last year and we plan to continue that. Um the training component on MTSS as a whole is in process for administrators first. Um I started working with them in June before I officially started this position and then I'm working with them again in September. I have a day um and then the November PD day I am planning a MTSS focus for the entire staff. So using the branching minds early warning system helps us to address the Q2 goal. Um and so this year and I'm going to show you a screenshot of it next. Um it helps us to identify students who might be at risk academically,
073behaviorally or due to attendance. And I plan to work with all of these support staff and I have been working with them already um with some of our back- tochool professional development. And the nice thing about what branching minds does is that it gathers information from multiple sources that we currently use and puts it in one place for us. So if you can go to the next slide. So this is a screenshot example of just some third grade students. And the early warning system has A, B, and C at the top. So the A is for academics which is their grades obviously. The B is for behavior which pulls from our um discipline reports in myar. So discipline incidents that are reported. Um and then oh actually the C is coursework, A is attendance. Sorry
074I had them backwards. So A is attendance, B is behavior and then C is coursework. So, all of these were an L when I pulled this screenshot, school hadn't started yet. So, nothing pulled for anyone, but as the year goes on, and it was um grabbing their I Ready data um from the spring. So, that's where you can see the reading and math. That's where that comes from. And then we're going to talk about that um SEAL section in a little bit. Um but this early warning system I hope to work with the counselors, social workers, the resilience coaches on now what can we do with this? The goal is to be preventative. What kind of programs can we work on in our buildings? Knowing some of the things that our students are struggling with.
075And so just having the data in one place like this helps us to make an informed decision on what programs do we need, what should we focus on, what, you know, who would benefit from things. Um, and so it's a great tool that I'm looking forward to working with them on. Um, okay. So any questions on that part so far? I had a couple of sections, so I didn't want you to have to save all of your questions for the end. I think we're good to continue. >> Okay. >> Um Okay. So, the next goal is learn was in the learning environment and culture section of the strategic plan. And this was very specific um to screen students for mental health needs, use data to guide decisions and align resources and staff to ensure timely
076and targeted support. So, really not a lot of ambiguity in that goal. Very specific. Um, and knowing that we have branching minds um, for at least this next school year, in my mind, I was viewing this school year as a pilot year for really trying to dig deep into it. Um, so as I go through, you'll see that I'm a little bit ahead of these timelines. Um, and that's because I just did not want to keep waiting on this. So I look forward to your feedback um and answering your question, but we are ahead on some of these goals. So the first quarter July to September identifying the screener and I'm utilizing what's embedded into branching minds platform already. Um second quarter says to pilot the screener and develop communication, launch a plan for families
077and staff. And so this will occur around this time. I included in your packet a family letter um as well. And so, you know, I hope to continue to communicate clearly and work with staff on that November PD day to make sure that they understand all of this. Um and then administering the screening, collecting data, data review. Again, this might come a little bit earlier than that and then the fourth quarter um could come sooner. Matching students with appropriate supports. Um again, one of the nice things about having branching minds is that it does a lot of the data analysis for us. And so we don't have to wait, right? if it's there already and it's gathering all of this information, I'm not, you know, to me, why why would we wait to do something
078about that and help kids? >> Um, okay. So, there's two aspects to this. So, if you can go to the next slide. Um, this Q1, Q2, Q3 goal about the SEO screener. Um the DESA mini is identified as a very low stakes eight question screener that is teacherf facing. So that means students are never presented with it. This is not something that students fill out. It is a teacher tool. Teachers would complete this the week before parent teacher conferences on every student and students do not see it at any point. So for K5 the classroom teacher obviously would complete that about their students and then in 612 they would do their focus or Griffin hour. So every teacher every student gets a teacher having eyes on them in this very specific way. And I'm going
079to show you why it's identified as very low stakes. So if you go to the next one. So this is um for K8. The screener asks the teacher in the last during the last four weeks, how often did the student and then it asks these eight questions and for each question they answer never, rarely, occasionally, often or very often. And the questions are about accepting responsibility, doing something nice for someone else, speaking positively, paying attention, contributing to group efforts, performing the steps of a task in order, showing care on a project, and following the advice of a trusted adult. So again, the students don't see this, but the teachers are going to be asked to complete it about every one of their classroom students in an elementary classroom. I see this as a parent teacher
080conference tool. Um, I'm going to ask them to complete it right before parent teacher conferences so that they could go over it with the parent at that time. So, it's a good reflective tool for the teacher and then something that they could go over individually with every parent as well as a good talking point. And then the 912 screener is similar but adjusts for age appropriateness. You want to click the next slide? So, um it's the same domains. They just changed the wording to be more appropriate for their age. Show showing awareness of their strengths, staying focused, respecting other people's opinions, showing concern, working fearfully on projects, and following the example of a positive role model, trying their best, and saying good things about their classmates. So again, uh, high school teachers would complete this
081about their students um prior to parent teacher conferences. The next slide. Okay. So then what? So once the teachers complete this, it's a great item for them to review with parents personally at parent teacher conferences. Um they can go over it explicitly with them. You know, how they answered all the questions, why um you know, I would hope this brings about some positive conversations, some great things that their students are doing as well as areas where there might be concern. Um when the data is put into branching minds, it goes on that um dashboard that you saw. And so this is where school social workers, counselors, resilience coaches would do that next step of determining if there was a programming need based off of that data. And I don't know the outcome of that yet,
082but I plan to work with them on that next step um once we have that information. and I'm happy to update you after that. Yeah. Questions, Stephanie? >> I do. >> Okay. So, I love that. Um I think it's great. The only thing that worries me is at the high school level using that Griffin hour >> because I know that kids tend to skip that hour. It's not necessarily used for what it's intended for. And so I would suggest maybe doing a class that a student is actually going to be attending. Um because I know even for my own child, he didn't go to his actual Griffin Hour teacher. So >> that wouldn't really work. Um and then I know other students, his friends that just never even went to their Griffin Hour. So >>
083yeah, >> that would be my only concern with using that at the high school level is being a little bit more um strategic about what class you actually um have the teacher utilize those questions. And I know I share your concern. Um, but I do know that really the intention of Griffin hour is this right at the heart of this. And so, >> um, I do agree with you, but I I hope that Griffin hour is this place. >> Yeah. >> That these relationships are built there because that quite frankly is the whole point. um supporting students in small groups and having every teacher have a small group of students that they support. But I certainly I mean we're always open you know to if it doesn't work out or you know if we have
084to adjust but this is literally the point of Griffin hour. >> Yeah. >> Which I totally agree with. I just know that it's not >> Yeah. I see what you're saying and my >> we just won't get accurate information at the high school level. >> Hoping that this becomes makes that more intentional what the use is that this is helps drive that piece and and that clarifies that part. But I hear exactly what you're saying. >> That would be my only concern at all. >> My years of being a you know high school assistant principal and a high school principal. I do view that some of this then becomes uh the English department usually is the one who gets loaded with these things because that's the only class that they have required all four years
085and then it takes away from that English curriculum and then you run into another another issue. So I but I hear what you're saying >> and I agree with Mike too that um so I gave this to the principles. We I talked about this with the principles and you know we discussed that giving this to teachers now giving these eight questions to the teachers now allows them this next four five weeks to like intentionally look for these things. >> Yeah. And so we're trying to build up the capacity of Griffin Hour and make it what we really want it to be >> through, you know, some of these projects. >> So at Griffin Hour, what is the uh, you know, average student to staff ratio then? >> Say it's between 15 and 20. Okay, that
086sounds about right. I think that's um, >> any other questions from the board? No. >> Okay, great. Okay, so I have one more. Um, so the second part um that branching minds offer is a studentf facing um seal survey for students. So the district did not renew the past survey which was used in previous years and so this is um their recommendation is is students in grades 5 through 12. I'm proposing we use this in middle school and high school. So these students would take a 40 question survey. Um and it's really follows the same domains. Um and it allows the students to have a voice in how they feel about some of these things. Do they have a trusted adult? Do they feel like they're good at things? Um and all of those. So,
087I did provide you with the full survey in the packet and it will be posted on the district website as well. Um, and then that parent communication letter also gives resources where parents can learn more about it. They can go to the um website of the developers and and read more information about it. They can also reach out to me. Um but this survey again is not a diagnostic tool but again supports low stakes decision making and trend monitoring. So if you go to the next slide um these are the domain areas again it's very closely u mimics the dessa. So, self-awareness of their strengths and weaknesses, self-awareness of their own emotions, self-management of their own emotions, self-management of their goals, self-management of school work, relationship skills, social awareness, and responsible decision-making. And um these
088are not linked in here, but I did provide you with these the parent letter communication that would go out 612 and also the full 40 question survey as a PDF. Both could would be posted on our website um and available to parents and you know I'm happy to take any questions related to that. As we're working through this, one of the things that we are dedicated to is we've talked all along about all of this needs to be out there on the website for parents to see so that they can review this. And that is our intent that now that we've had this presentation tonight um later this week. I can't guarantee tomorrow exactly, but by the end of the week to to have these items posted so that people can review them. >> And
089then I think one more. Okay. So again, then what? Right? We're asking teachers to complete this information. We're asking students to complete this information. So again, I'm going to be working with our resilience coaches, middle and high school social workers, and counselors to develop programming decisions around this. If we know what our students need, we should be able to develop programs that support that, and that's the whole point. Um, so that includes continued parent communication. Um, if pro if groups are created, obviously parents would have to consent to their students being in those groups. Um, and I don't know how all this is going to flush out until I continue to work with those groups. So, I'll be back to update you further after I've had a chance to do that. Any more questions? And
090say this provides us an opportunity as well because in the past with uh secondary students we have also in addition not just the past but we did the uh my student voice perception survey and uh Marlene and I talked about in the future her and I sitting down to kind of evaluate how close and how similar they are to again go if we're really asking it all the same questions and one why would we do it twice why would we do that piece? So, uh, again, this may be an opportunity to simplify some of those items and give us the same feedback we're looking at from a variety of avenues. >> Okay, >> thank you very much. >> Okay, moving on to resolution for student transportation. Come on up, Jack. >> Hello again. Um about
091a couple weeks ago, a bid was put out for transportation for the homeless and special education students. Um there were two bids received. One for Everdriven Technology and one from Hop Skip and Drive. Um I believe all the the um prices are attached. You should have gotten in your packet. Um, and Bridget and Erica have they recommend going with um, everdriven technology for that game. >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> And well, it's actually my question. >> Yes. >> Why are you doing this? It's always come out of homeless and special ed. >> Uh, I I was asked >> nothing to do with the transportation department. >> I was just asked to do the bring it forward. What is the number of homeless students we have then? >> Bridget. >> Yeah. >> Bridget's
092here. Yeah. >> So either way, she's gonna talk, right? >> She can't win. >> I think um Mrs. Fields, just to answer your question, it was because Jack is the director of transportation. So we were just trying to keep everyone, you know, since he's actually in charge of all >> of in school transportation part, >> the cabs and all of that stuff comes. >> That's the way it's always been. It just kind of through. >> Absolutely. We did I did all the work with Erica. We put the RFP out and um >> So he's just reading what you broke. >> He's really just here. He's like he's window dressing. That's what he's here for. But >> you got a secretary, Bridget. I well whatever it takes you guys. Um so currently um just because we're
093at the beginning of the school year and I'm sorry I was in the back of the room so I don't know who asked what our amount was. >> My me. Yeah me. >> Um I don't have a number for you right now just because we're at the very beginning of school. I think we're sitting around between 35 and 40 students now. >> Should have been last year's number. I mean just give me last year's number. It'll be good. Um, last year's number was approximately 84 students, which is down from 187 the year before because we went to online enrollment. So, I expect our number to be right up about 185 again this year. Right around there. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. So, I just put the pressure off. >> Okay. So, we put
094it out to those companies. We've used Hap Skip Drive and Everdriven before. They both service our students um with respect and safety and have a lot of things built in that make sure that our kids get from home to school and school to home in a very safe and effective way for uh them for their parents and for our schools. So that's why we went with them. >> Yeah. And I do want to clarify that typically we always try to exhaust our own resources, our own uh transportation department when we can. >> Anything new Mark? >> No, I know that. I just always used to have our own >> uh >> we used to transport them. We had station wagons >> and then it just it became to it just was it just threw me
095to see dad because it was always done through special and and the homeless facilitator. So >> yeah, >> that's all that was just questioning. >> Okay. >> And just a quick question um is this out of the general fund or is this a grant funded project? Special >> title fund and special education funds are reserved for students that are displaced and homeless. >> See created more questions, didn't it? >> Thank you. Any other questions from the board? Thank you so much. >> Thank you both. >> Okay. Uh >> Jack again. >> Yeah. >> Talking about Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. >> Okay. This is something I know a little bit about. Um So, a couple weeks ago, we brought forward a bid, um, Everdriven, and we recommended them to, uh, supply our tires and our
096tire support for the upcoming school year. Um, two weeks before school started, they came to us and said, "We are shutting down our Michigan locations." So, um, their closest location now is Columbus, Ohio. My concern is if we have an emergency, you know, we we won't get the the services we need right away to get the buses back on the road. So, we are coming back to you to recommend or request maybe accepting a bid from the Goodyear tire and rubber company um for $118,336.84. >> We've done before >> we have u we have used uh Goodyear over the past last year we did and um it's it's probably been four three or four years we've used uh Goodyear. Um Ever Driven is local. Um, you know, but >> was >> well, they were local.
097You're correct. And, you know, they um, you know, they they they did they would provide everything we needed, but they did not know that their their uh, buildings would be closing in a state of Michigan. >> So, where's the nearest good you're located then? >> Uh, Belleville, Michigan. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, if if we do have an emergency, we know that we can get the tires in a timely fashion. >> All right. Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay. Moving on to catastrophic student accident insurance with Dr. Hill. >> Okay. Thank you very much. I am coming to the board this evening um to ask for permission to um obtain student accident insurance for our students uh while they're um participating in various activities. Uh the total is uh $35,145.70 and
098it's through um Gallagher and the Hartford and they offer a lot of insurance to students and they've been in this business for a long time and we're just trying to make sure that our students have some type of coverage while they're participating in sports and other activities the district offers. Is this like an addition to or for those students only that don't have like their own private insurance? >> No. Um, it's for all students and we don't currently have anything to cover our students. >> Yeah. >> So, it's like an addition to >> like if my child got hurt, would we use this insurance or our private insurance? >> You would. You would do both. You know, sometimes um a family may approach the district and say, "Well, you know, do you all have coverage?"
099Because maybe they don't. >> And I know some insuranceances will go after the school. >> Yes. >> For anything they paid off. So, it would be something like whatever. And then they pay the difference >> first and then the district would pick up. >> No, the district they would go they would pay it and then come back for the district for what they paid. >> Oh. And then they would only cover what the district doesn't cover. Something like that. >> We needed it for a long time. >> Yeah. Yeah. Because >> I just assume that we already had something because we have to check that box on like the emergency board. >> Yep. We don't have anything. Gosh. >> Well, I'm glad we're correct. >> Yeah. >> Potentially. Yeah. >> Any other questions from the
100board? Thank you very much. Uh moving on to vision to learn. All right. Thank you. Uh I wanted to kind of bring the whole board up to speed on uh the vision tolearn uh partnership we had last year and what that looks like going forward into this year coming up. Um first of all I wanted to kind of give you a little background on to what exactly is vision to learn like who they are. So uh vision to learn is a nonprofit. It was founded in 2012 to ensure that every child in America has the glasses they need to succeed in school and in life. And they're currently operating nationwide in 124 school districts throughout the country. 325 cities have programs uh with vision to learn and they are in 13 states uh throughout the
101United States. It is the largest school-based program of its kind and to date they have provided uh screenings for over two million students throughout the country. They've provided eye exams to an additional 420,000 of those 2 million and then they have provided glasses to over 340,000 students at this point. So why does vision learn exist? Why did they get into this kind of field? And if you don't mind going to the next slide here. Um what the data shows is one in five students throughout public schools lacks the glasses they need to see the board, read a book, or participate in class and that in low-income communities, this is a situation that becomes a little more drastic where 95% of students who need glasses do not have them. Uh and what we've seen, and this
102isn't just from vision to learn, this is data uh that's been compiled, is that students who have uncorrected vision problems often avoid reading, suffer headaches, and they struggle to focus in their classes. And I'm going to speak just very personally about this. Uh probably in my own personal life, in my own personal uh academic career, about seventh grade, I started to go off the rails a little bit. started getting sent to the assistant principal's office, started to not focus in class, do those things, and come to find a lot of it is I couldn't see the board and my family didn't have the coverage, the insurance to take care of that. Thankfully, I had grandparents who had that ability and took me to get an eye exam, took me to get that covered and it
103made all the difference uh in the world. So like I say, I can speak personally that this is very real. This is what happens uh when we have students who struggle to to be able to participate because they simply cannot see what's going on in the classroom. So the statistic that's been compiled is as well that up to the age of 12, 80% of what we learn is visual in nature. So having that ability to see properly is going to make a major difference in the success of our students. All right, we can go to the next one. So how visionarn operates uh they enter into partnerships with school districts and municipalities to provide vision screenings to students. They then send a mobile clinic uh to that school or community organization where one of our
104one of their this is from their website. One of their optometrists provides eye exams to students who had uh failed the vision screenings that they were given. Uh the students who need glasses from there would pick a pair of frames from the selection that they have in their mobile clinic and in about two weeks they would receive those glasses uh free of charge. Vision Alarn came to Michigan specifically in 2016. Uh in Michigan alone, they have provided 23,600 eye exams and 20,000 pairs of eyeglasses to Michigan students. Uh their estimates from visional learn themselves are that out of you know the roughly one and a half million uh Michigan students that there are 125,000 who would need eye exams and then therefore need uh eyeglasses. about a 100,000 from there. How this came to be
105something that we partnered with here in Taylor is that in 2425, Visional Learn began a partnership with the Wayne County Health Department. And VisionLearn became the provider for the required vision screenings that are required uh through the Wayne County Health Department. And they what they did is they were going to pilot they were going to be the provider for a particular set of school districts to pilot this program with the eventual goal being that visionarn would provide the vision required vision screenings throughout all of Wayne County uh and not just the initial pilot districts. Uh Taylor was chosen as one of those initial pilot districts and that was how we came to that partnership with them last year. Um, we did take it a step further and entered into an agreement that we wanted to
106go beyond just the re what the required county vision screenings are and move this to be something that we provided to all of our students. Uh, and that was done kind of how it rolled out last year. >> So, in terms of coming to Taylor, uh, as I said, we were one of the pilot districts for the 2425 school year. We did, and I know these numbers are slightly off because I think one school hadn't uh gone through the process uh at the time that we got these numbers from Visional Learn, but at the time we had done 3,600 screenings in the district. There was over 1,200 eye exams administered and over 1,000 glasses uh that were issued at that point. Uh I will say we did learn some things during this pilot program and
107as is usual of where's areas that we could improve and do this differently for year two. Uh particularly regarding communication would be the the biggest piece that that we needed to improve upon. So I want the last thing I want to go through um it's kind of what we've we're committing to to improve this process to make sure uh that we are doing this much better and we are providing this necessary uh opportunity for our students. So one of the things that I'm committing to is that the district will begin communicating regarding this program specifically uh during the month of September. That basically by October 1st of every year we're going to have this communication. Hence why I'm talking about it at this board of education meeting tonight. Uh we are also going to not
108only put this stuff out in communication to parents through parent square, but we are also going to post this all on the district website by October 1st as well. So again, accessible, transparent for everybody to to see as the actual program approaches because they don't really get started off in September and October. This is more on the back end of the school year. Um, individual schools will then communicate information regarding the program to their parents through our new parent square uh, process. Now, parent square, what I love about it is it's going to send that communication through email. It's going to send it through text. So, it won't just be to an email that somebody might not check. And the texts are very they come up very often from parent square if you've ever uh,
109experienced it as a parent at this point. The other beauty of it is it does allow us on the back end to check to see who has opened and read the message. So we can run a report and know that uh if x number of parents hadn't read it, well we need to go and reach out to those particular parents to make sure that they are exactly aware of what is taking place. Uh we are also committed to sending home a printed letter as well with students, but I know how that is. uh years of handing those out in a middle school, they usually ended up on my classroom floor uh at the end of the day. So that's why these other avenues and we're committed to sending it multiple ways to make sure that
110that parents received it. Part of that communication is going to include an opt out form for parents so that they can elect if they don't want their students to participate in the program. One of the things again that I really like is that we're able to check and make sure whether somebody's read it. If they haven't, we can reach out to them and say, "Hey, we wanted to make sure you saw this and if you were intending to opt your child out of the service, please make sure that you're taking the time to fill out the form and follow the process or opting out of the service." Like I said, just helps us really clean up that communication piece that uh really needed some attention last year. So, for the grade levels, uh, and this
111is something I got from the Wayne County Health Department, for the grade levels that are screened by the county for their requirements, um, additional information will be sent by Wayne County as well, and they will send the opt- out form for those particular grades uh, that are the required ones. And as I already kind of said, we're going to commit that schools will run a report through Parent Square to check who had not opened their messages and then reach out individually to those who may not have read it at this point. Our other commitments that we just want to reassure people with um that anytime that our Taylor School District student is in transit because as I said, they bring in the mobile clinic, but that's not like it comes into the actual physical building.
112So, if a student is in transit from our school facility out to where they have the mobile clinic located, we will make sure that we have one of our staff members, one of our employees will be monitoring those students. Um, they obviously for many legal reasons can't go into the eye exam itself. Um, but they will be making sure that they are monitored safely from point A to point B for that uh eye exam or that screening. and vision learn when I've talked to them they are certifying uh as is required and they know this because they're working in so many states have various degrees of background checks and that they certify that their personnel have been properly background checked and meet all the the required criteria under Michigan law to provide these services to
113our students. And as I said, uh we are going to be committed that any information regarding this will begin going up on the uh Taylor school district website. In fact, Becky and I were just talking about this today and making sure that this uh presentation we're doing today uh goes up onto that website uh by the end of the week was our goal as well. So just all those efforts to make sure we have communicated and that we are being uh transparent about what takes place within our schools. I just have a quick question. Um, who will be responsible once they see that the the parent had or the student has not opened the email for reaching out to the parents to make sure that they've gotten that followup? >> So, that will be done
114at the building level. I know we kind of piloted this a little bit. Uh, Weston Hoover did a version of this at the end of the year when we were uh this new program parent square just went up. It wasn't in regards to the vision to learn. was in regards I believe to the uh sex education piece that is required at the middle school level and they did a followup directly calling uh parents who hadn't opened the the material. So that gave us an insight of like oh this can be done it's something that that isn't unreasonable and we'll make sure that we are providing better communication. >> Okay thank you. >> Yep. >> Any other questions or comments from the board? Okay. Uh moving to student reinstatements. Uh Mr. Mr. Gribble. >> Good evening
115and thank you, Vice President Morris. Uh in your packet, you will see the multiple hearings that we've had over the last two weeks, you'll see you have I believe total of seven students in there. Uh, Secretary Shufeld, I just want to make sure for the notes and for the for the board as well, if you look at student number three and student number four, it was the panel's decision to deny. So, when we read read the action items for the board's vote that we make point to say that the board is denying those versus conditional reinstate, it's not a conditional reinstatement. >> You said those are three and four, right? >> Yes. Yeah. I was gonna ask I was going to ask you that because I thought >> what it says >> recommend reinstatement but
116then it says on here no >> okay >> so that would be action item number five and action item number six >> for those two particular students >> I have changed those >> Mr. Mr. Morris, you have a question. >> Just thinking um >> Okay. >> So, do you agree with the assessment of the the board as a whole and all these students? >> Pardon? >> Do you agree with the assessment of the the group uh with all the uh the students that you guys uh discussed with? >> Yes. >> Okay. That's all I need to hear. Any other comments from the board? >> Okay. Moving on to item nine dealing with the master control uh for the high school's HVAC. I think that's a Jack. No, we have a representative from Martin Mallow who's
117gonna be coming up and uh presenting on this. >> Excuse me. >> I know Jack can present about why we desperately need this. I think there's some other people in this audience who can uh testify as to why we desperately need this. So, >> welcome back. >> Uh yes, thank you. Um this past week, our team took bids on an emergency uh controls upgrade the high school. We received three bids. We interviewed all the biders uh along with the design team. Uh the engineer I believe um the collaborative was uh was on that as well. U but the low bid is being recommended to you uh in front of you. He had a complete scope um and we are are bringing that contractor forward to you for uh recommendation at this time. And can you
118uh just clarify in layman's terms what this will do for our high school if we purchase this and go through with the the building of it >> implementation, excuse me. >> It'll allow you to uh currently maintain temperature control on equipment that you currently can't. >> Thank you very much. Any other questions from the >> Yeah. No. And I don't know if I'm stepping out of line for Jack here and he can correct me if I'm wrong, but the uh essentially for many years it's had to been physically controlled by people running around the building and opening certain vents, closing certain ones, and it's just hit a point that one that's just not feasible and it's getting to the point that uh even that's not going to work if we continue on this path. So,
119>> um I have a question and I know I've asked Rich this question before. So, um, with this, how does this affect the renovations that are going to be coming? Is this going to work with the new things? Is this going like how does that look? Because we want it to all go together, kind of work proactively, not essentially waste 300, >> right? Uh, well, that scope still being determined at this point. Um but having just installed this work, we'll be cognizant of that when we when we plan for the future work. >> That much money you make it work. >> I'm sorry. >> How does that much money and you make it work? >> Right. Right. Well, and there's some of the issues that we're going to run into with, and this is where
120the old the the grander renovations are going to help because uh as the people who know that building can attest better than I can, you have situations where the venting, the actual ducting doesn't actually enter into some of the classrooms because of where temporary, well, not temporary, but where when we stopped it from being an open floor plan building and we created all these walls that we put throughout it, it didn't account for every room to make sure that it had the proper access to the HVAC system as it could. Right. >> So, that is what causes the problem in some. And we also know the age of the actual units themselves. It's it's time for us to address that as well. But that's that comes with that. >> Yeah. Like I am all for
121it. Don't get me wrong. Um, I just want to make sure that whatever we're putting in there is going to >> work with >> when we renovate and that we're just not >> doing like a temporary fix, spending this money and then taking it all out like >> does that make sense? >> Absolutely. >> Is this coming out of bond money or general fund? >> Oh, so that is one of those things. Um it would be right now I we'd be looking at general fund because that's what we have available to us at the moment and uh again as I said this is one of those situations general fund bond money it has to happen it's just at that point >> it's just a maintenance update situation >> well because that was raised I know
122by the city council is that they want to make sure that we're not using bond money on things that should be general fund money >> and that could that could trigger issues, you know, the difference between capital improvement versus maintenance versus other things. I mean, want to make sure we're >> I see what you're saying. I guess, you know, I I know Jim Crowley is not here to answer that question, but the from the many times I've asked him these questions. Uh what he has always advised is uh that that building always had money dedicated to it in the PQ application of the original bond because it was intended to become the middle school. And as part of that, they had put about $9 million in the original PQ application to address needs in that
123building for when it was supposed to convert to the middle school. So legally, it is covered um by the fact that we had already put money into it for renovation purposes under the original uh bond program and application. >> And what's the service life of this equipment? How long does it last? Usually on controls we expect a 10 to 15 year lifespan before it needs a at least a um software upgrade of some degree. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you very much. >> Like you guys can work together though on to make sure that that >> Okay. >> So the good thing is controls new head >> to the microphone please. Sorry. >> It's a new headend and new digital controls for your current system. So, not everything can be
124reused after the renovation, but 75% of it can be reused. So, it is upgrades that will be reused during like after a renovation, but things like the cable routing are going to have to go away and get routed to new locations for various separate controllers from the main air handlers. >> A majority of it is going to be reused. So, the controllers that are getting put in on the head end and onto the individual units themselves would then get repurposed onto the new equipment. And so it's making sure that you're working with a control system that can be a long-term solution for you. >> Perfect. >> Yep. >> And uh does anyone have the information on how cold the classrooms were potentially getting last year during the winter? >> Just for you know putting this
125in proper perspective. >> I say uh when it's usually >> I was going to say thankfully it's been in the 70s this week because this would have been a brutal uh start for lots of people. It has been in the years past. So, >> yeah. Thank you guys very much. >> Yeah, I think we're good. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, moving on to public comment on the discussion items. Thank you all. Thanks. Thank you to all of you who can be with us to tonight. We understand the importance of continuing to keep you informed and providing an opportunity for you to be heard. Public comment will begin with those in person and then move to our online audience. For those in person, please step up to the microphone and state your name
126and address for the record. After an in after the in-person comment, our online audience will need to raise their hand symbol for our moderator to recognize and unmute you. Please take into consideration common courtesy, refrain from any personal attacks, and keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. We will provide an and assist with timekeeping. So each guest will be able to monitor their own time and know when to conclude. So all who wish to speak will have an equal opportunity to do so. As a reminder, if any questions arise during this meeting or through or through other avenues, the superintendent or his designate will work to provide answers in a timely manner. Please note that the views and opinions expressed by individual board members are their own and do not necessarily represent the official
127position or consensus of the board of education. Also note this portion of the meeting is reserved for comments regarding business discussed on this agenda only. There will be another opportunity for comments later in the meeting for general comments. Is there anyone in person that would like to address any of the discussion items? Please come on up. Hello, >> Jennifer Ferguson, Behringer 23636 I serving. Um, as far as the stuff that's on the agenda tonight, um, the Sorry, I've got a list of couple different things that are on here. Um, as far as the what the talk with the the bond money and the presentation that was done on like the building upgrades and everything, my understanding when the bond was passed is that could only be used for the things that were in the bond.
128So like the athletic field stuff that that we put together, um, all of the stuff that already happened with like the playgrounds, the security and stuff. And I thought everything else had to be used only for new construction without either going back to the voters or permission for the state or something because I know that was something we had asked about initially when the bond was passed like what can we do because there was stuff that wasn't in there that should have been like when we talked about the auditorium and some of those things. I I'd like to know what how this stuff factors into it because nothing that I heard that was discussed falls into new construction. >> So anything that was discussed today was just an assessment of needs. So nothing on there
129is of things that were coming forward yet. Um but that is a great question. uh essentially uh you are absolutely correct about it having to go back to the state treasury department and that's why this process that uh we've been working with Barton Mallo and the collaborative and Baker Tilly and all of our partners is to basically have hit a pause on what was originally done bring in a new set of eyes reassess and then submit uh essentially a revised PQ application. So uh we've had meetings with the Treasury Department already. had one just uh within the last couple months and they are open to uh what our needs are uh based on what they've seen and what we've presented to them. So, but yes, it absolutely is going to require that piece. So, essentially
130once this process finishes, the board here is going to have to vote on a uh submitting a revised PQ application to the Treasury Department and then that allows the other things to proceed. >> Okay. >> Yep. Um, as far as what Miss Scott was talking about and like presenting that during Griffin hour, um, one of my concerns with that is first of all, your career center kids that have career center first and second hour don't have Griffin hour. So those kids aren't going to be included in that piece. So something to keep in mind, they're going to get missed with that. Um, the other thing with Griffin Hour is, and I don't know if it's changed, but there isn't a whole lot of consistency there with it, and I can get into this during the
131second half and stuff, but just something just to to keep in mind, each teacher does it differently. So, if you're going to do something like that, I think you need to make sure you standardize that curriculum for Griffin Hour. Um, my other question was as far as the athletic field updates and I got off work late so I didn't catch all of that but my understanding is there's something going on with the permits where it was supposed to go through the city first and that didn't happen or isn't happening the way it's supposed to. So now it's going to the county and there's like a delay and everything. What's happening and what do we need to do to fix that and speed it back up to where it was? >> So we worked really really
132hard on this. >> Oh, I know. I'll say this. There's not a whole lot we can do because we're going to be at the mercy of the process with the county at this point. The good news is that we had just had met last week. Um, sorry, probably a week before that. Actually, I'm off by a week. Um, but when we met with our construction management firm, Saxi, they confirmed that none of the finished timelines change. It's just going to change that that starting piece. So instead of us basically doing the demolition work for the uh base baseball and softball because that was originally what we were scheduling for fall that would start in March when once the conditions are good enough to do that but that won't set anything back whatsoever. The >> it
133won't impact the kids being the fields or anything like that where we had it stagn Yeah. no different than what we had already planned because we were already planning uh that well as we know that those particular fields haven't been used for our athletic teams in quite a while. Um and we had already planned that we were going to have to relocate uh soccer and track for the spring to make this all work anyway. So everything is exactly the same. It's just the starting is not uh now it it gets pushed to March. >> Okay. And if the city were to come through, would that move things back up or >> Well, I don't think at this point now that we've talked to the county, we have to kind of proceed with uh that because
134they're aware of what we'd have going forward at this point. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Y and actually I I you missed part of it. Uh it was discussed that that could actually save some money on what the cost was because you're not mobilizing construction equipment twice. >> All right. Thank you. >> Y thank you. Are there any other questions or comments from the audience about the discussion items? Are there any Oh, please come up. Sorry. My apologies. >> All right. A little bit. >> I'm Shannon. >> Thank you. >> Hello. I'm Shannon. Thank you, board. Um, I have a question comment for >> Could I get your address, please? >> Uh, no. I don't think my address. We we ask all speakers to give their their name and address. >> I gave my name,
135Shannon. >> Okay. Thank you, Shannon. >> Thank you. All right. So, number three, the MTSS resilience. I was listening to the presentation and I just want to make aware of the parents rights in this. Um, I get a lot of questions regarding surveys across the county. Many parents are afraid to fill these surveys out because they don't know where the information's going. So, if you want to have parents pres, you know, participation, there needs to be transparency. Um, data mining and psychologically profiling children is very frowned upon nowadays. There's, um, many laws that are protecting children right now. I just want you to take that in consideration. And we want to know who has access to the personal children's personal information. They're collecting financial status, their sexuality, how they feel, their emotions. As a parent,
136most of us send our kids to school to learn reading, math. We look at their classes. I don't know if parents be happy knowing that their children are being questioned personal information. So, they really need to let the parents know what questions are on, what questions are asked, what are the interventions that are going to be given to those questions. So, you're asking these questions, then what are going to be the interventions from those questions, right? So those are very important I wanted to get across and definitely needs parent consent on this. Okay, there's many parents that may not know about this and they need to be aware. So I hope that you have some more um education on that and uh that's all I have to say about that for now. But I would
137like to have more of a discussion with this because there a lot more topics than I can get three minutes in for concerns. So thank you so much. Yeah, and I'd like to clarify like as I already stated, we are putting this on the website for all parents to see by the end of the week what the questions are and there are no questions about uh the sexual orientation of students. Those things are not in there. This truly what's in what we have. >> It's a building block. It's a building block of how you get to that next level. And I can that is the thing that you're just starting this. So it's a building block. So, um, you're just trying to get that base and that acceptance for the the and that's maybe the
138next step. So, maybe this survey is not asking those questions, but they lead into other questions. >> Well, when we post it, you'll see exactly what's in there and you'll be able to make an informed decision. >> Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions? Please come on up. Uh Courtney Prout 9846 Gatherron. Um I was just questioning um and I know I already talked to Mr. Wagger about it before, but I don't know if you have an answer or not. Um currently at the elementary level, we don't have full-time resiliency coaches in there. They are split between multiple buildings. Um so my question is if we this is implemented um as said earlier um the counselors resiliency coaches and um people at the high school would be the ones in
139control of these surveys in control looking at this data making sure that our students are grouped correctly who is doing at the elementary level if there's only a part-time person. Well, that's part of the process like as we're developing this out and we're working through the strategic plan. Once we kind of have that idea of the need, then we'll know how we have to properly staff or if we have to change things or if we got to look at what other options are available. But I I don't think it's it's kind of hard to say that right now and we don't have the data yet to >> Okay. And then the second question was it looked as though you guys were going to start implementing this more towards the end of the school year. So
140towards like June or you said April through June June on there the like once you get the results from the surveys look through the the MTSS process and then it looked like on the document that was shown earlier that you're going to start >> what's going to happen is we're going to start to see kind of what the needs are and I know Miss Scott is planning coming back before the board in November to talk about next steps and that. So we'll have some of those items then. >> Okay. So just just question >> I think you're talking about I know what you're talking about now. Yes. The the quarterly >> train. So it said that the students would start seeing like those groups and things happening in the school towards the end like April
141to June. So when we return the following school year, are those students going to be because I know MTSS, I know the process. I'm an educator. So are they going to continue to stay in those groups until reconvening again next year or is something that's going to be start the year over again is a fresh start for all kids. >> So when I look at it from an MTSS lens, um >> people don't always live in tier 2 or tier three. So the fact is that we would make adjustments based on what we see and what changes and how the data comes back. So not necessarily that you would be in this group for permanently. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you. >> Y thank you. Anyone else like to have any questions or comments?
142>> Anyone online? No. Okay. Okay. You're unmuted. >> Hi, thank you. Uh Melissa Scopchinsky, 32103 Gro Boulevard, Brownstown, Michigan. Um I just wanted to touch on a couple things. Number one, um the importance of redoing the HVAC system at the high school. Um I've struggled many years as a building leader um trying to explain um our kids suffering through heat and through cold. Um it is much much needed. So I hope you really consider approving this. Um today I had a teacher reach out. Her room was 82 degrees. Um I walked in there, fans are going, kids are struggling. Um so it's really important to me that that passes. Um I'd also like to speak um about the MTSS and the Griffin Hour. Um as far as the surveys go, um we are frontloading this
143with our staff. Um I know there was some concerns um especially from Mrs. Behinger about those students that are at the career center first and second hour. Um, Miss Bernard is really good um when we have to give surveys or things like that. Um, she works with her staff to make sure that those are carried out diligently um with Fidelity to make sure that we those students even though they don't officially have a Griffin hour are getting those types of things that um are mandate mandated and needed. So like Zello, those kinds of things. So I just wanted to make that as a point of clarification for everybody and I appreciate your time. >> I think you just heard from my designate on answering that concern. So >> thank you. Are there any other comments
144online? Okay, moving on to >> moving on to the action items. >> Yes, thank you. Action item number one, the resolution for student transportation policy number 511.01. It is recommend recommended that the board of education approve the bid for Everdrive Technologies LLC for the transportation of McKinley Vento and Special Education students as outlined above. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Morris. Is there a second? report by Miss Fields. >> Miss Block, >> yes. >> Miss Fields, >> yes. >> Miss Morris, absent. Mr. Madarkski, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Miss Shufeld, yes. Mr. Wesall, >> yes. >> That passes 6. >> Can I just hop in? I just for the audience want to remind like some of the stuff we talked about in tonight, you'll notice there's not an action item.
145We are trying to structure this as the first meeting of the month being a lot of discussion pieces. So, some of the actual actions on those won't come until the next meeting. So, um the ones we know have to get done and we have to move, that's what you're seeing tonight. So, I just wanted to clarify that. >> Thank you. >> Number two, the tires and tire support policy number 6320. It is recommended the board of education adopt the resolution accepting and authorizing the award of contract for tires and support for the Taylor School District in the amount of $118,336.84 to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Miss Fields. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. Westfall. Miss Fields. >> Yes. >> Miss Moore is absent. Mr.
146Madarski. >> Yes. Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Miss Shufeld is a yes. Mr. Wesall, >> yes. >> Miss Black, >> yes. >> That passes. 6. Number three, student re reinstatement. Student reinstatement number 01 0903205. Policy number 5610.03. The review committee is recommending the board of education approve the conditional reinstatement of student number 01 09032025. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Morris. Is there a second? >> Report by Miss Fields. Miss Morris absent. Mr. Madarski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. Miss Shufeld is a yes. Mr. Westfall, >> yes. >> Miss Block, >> yes. >> Miss Fields, >> yes. >> That passes. 6. >> Student reinstatement number four. Student reinstatement number 0209032025. Policy number 5610.03. The review committee is recommending the board of education approve the conditional reinstatement of student number 0209 032025.
147Is there a motion? >> Motion by Miss Fields. Is there a second? >> Support by Mr. Morris. Mr. Madarsski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt is a yes. Mr. Westfall. >> Yes. >> Miss Black? Miss Fields, >> yes. >> Miss Moors, absent. That passes 6. Number five, student reinstatement number 03 09032025, policy number 5610.03. The review committee is recommending the board of education approve the denial of reinstatement for student number 03 09032025. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Miss Fields. Is there a second? >> Support, >> Mr. Morris. >> Yep. >> Support by Mr. Morris. >> So, does a yes vote reinstate or deny? >> Yes. Vote is going to be the denial. >> Yes. Denies. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Y. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt
148is a yes. Mr. Westfall? >> Yes. >> Miss Black? >> Yes. Miss Fields. >> Yes. >> Miss Morris absent. Mr. Madarski. >> Yes. >> That passes 6. Number six, student reinstatement number 04903205, policy number 5610.03. The review committee is recommending the board of education approve the denial of reinstatement of student number 04 09032025. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Miss Fields. Is there support? >> Second. >> Support by Mr. Madarsski. Miss Shufelts is a yes. Mr. Wessel. >> Yes. >> Miss Block. >> Yes. >> Miss Fields. >> Yes. >> Miss Morris absent. Mr. Madarkski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> That passes 6. Number seven, student reinstatement number 050903205, policy number 5610.03. The review committee is recommending the board of education approve the conditional reinstatement of student number 050903205. Is there a
149motion? >> Mot. Motion by Miss Block. Is there a support? >> Support >> by Mr. Morris. >> Mr. Westfall? >> Yes. >> Miss Block? >> Yes. >> Miss Fields? >> Yes. >> Miss Morris? Absent. Mr. Madarski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Miss Shu Phelps is a yes. That passes 6. Number eight, student reinstatement number 069032025. Policy number 5610.03. The review committee is recommending the board of education approve the conditional reinstatement of student number 0609 032025. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Morris. Is there support? >> Support by Miss Fields. Miss Block. >> Yes. >> Miss Fields. >> Yes. >> Miss Morris Evan. Mr. Madarski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt. Yes. Mr. Westfall. Yes. That passes 6. Number nine is the student reinstatement policy number 5610.03.
150The review committee is recommending the board of education approve the conditional reinstatement of student number 07093205. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Mr. Morris. Is there support? Support >> support by Mr. Madarsski. Miss Fields. >> Yes. >> Miss Morris absent. Mr. Madarkski. >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris. >> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt is a yes. Mr. Wesall. >> Yes. >> Miss Block. >> Yes. >> That passes 6. >> And then we have our >> number 10 is the approval. really don't know how >> approval of HVAC master control. >> The board of education requests your approval for the resolution accepting the bid and authorizing the award of contract for what is it? believe it's KN&S is the vendor. >> KS Ventures Incorporated >> PHS HVAC controls >> KN&S HVAC controls in the amount of $339,563.
151>> You got it. >> Okay. >> Motion. >> Is there a motion? >> Motion by >> I think everybody is >> motion by all. I'll give that to >> Is there support? >> Support >> by Mr. Morris. >> Miss Morris, absent. Mr. Madarkski, >> yes. >> Mr. Morris, >> yes. >> Miss Shufelt is a yes. Mr. Westall, >> yes. >> Miss Block, >> yes. >> Miss Fields, >> yes. >> That passes 6. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Uh, moving on to the superintendence report. >> Yeah. So, uh, first of all, um, I am very happy that you took that vote. I'm very happy that we amended the agenda to get that on there. It is so desperately needed to address the the heating and cooling issues at Taylor High School. I know this is
152just step one. I know this is just to to get that control piece um because more would come with future renovation, but this is an essential piece that we're going to need to to provide to our students and our staff at this point. Uh, in fact, on the opening day when I gave my kind of updates on what's going on with the district and I gave my speech to, uh, all of our staff throughout the school district, um, I think that immediately got applause. Uh, when I said that, so that we were going to be pursuing this. So, I thank you very much for for getting that done tonight and in such a short notice. I know the school board has expressed the want for things in advance and time to review and we've really
153been diligent about doing that, but this one desperately had to get through. So, I I appreciate that. >> Excuse me. You've been what? >> What's that? >> You've been diligent doing it. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Miss trying, you know. We'll put it there. So, so, uh, with that said, I do want to offer some thoughts. Um, I've been in education now for close to 25 years, uh, as teacher, assistant principal, principal, and now superintendent. And, uh, I have never felt such a positive feeling going into the school year as I've experienced uh, this year. I want to say it started when we had our welcome back for just our administrative team, our our building principles, and they spent a day working with uh Jimmy Casses who also spoke to all of our staff that day,
154but he spent it that first day working with them. And I just felt like for all those opening uh principal retreats I've sat in in my career, this one felt different. It it felt really good. And so you kind of ride that out and then you get to the next week and the um you have the staff come back and we have that big opening and it was the most positive I have felt walking out of one of those. Well, the amount of staff members who and this is not just teaching staff but this is our uh food service staff. this is our operations and facilities who talked to us about that was probably the best speaker and the best message that that we have given uh to our staff to start a year. So
155I I cannot thank Jimmy Casses enough who came in and gave that message and it really is a message of how are we going to build a positive culture throughout our school district. How are we going to stop being a district of individual schools who are doing these things in pockets and we are going to start doing things together with that same mindset and that same approach? And man, I walked out of there uh feeling the best. And so now this week we get to students back and I spent uh my day Tuesday most of my day at uh Taylor High School. And I have to say my my big worry walking to Taylor High School is we just unveiled a new uh communications device policy. And I was like, "Okay, how is this going
156to go?" And you walk around and you see that most of the students were very respectful when they were asked to put away headphones, when they were asked to put away a phone. Um because we're not in strict enforcement yet because you you want people to get adjusted and get used to it. They were polite. They were listening when they were asked to for the most part. I know there's always exceptions, but again, it felt good. So, what I've tasked our our leadership teams and all that is let's keep this moving forward. Like this this has been one of the best starts I have seen so far. So, we want to we want to keep that positive part going. Uh I did want to just do that reminder for our high school students and our
157high school families. Remember, we do have that new communication device policy. Um it will start to be strictly enforced next week. This week has really been about learning and following through with uh what we're going to be asking next week. So, just remember it does go into full force, full effect uh as we get into next week. Next piece I wanted to touch on tonight was the strategic plan. I know I've been periodically giving updates. I think Marlene did a lot of my update uh for me today. So, that that makes me very very happy that that kind of saves me on that part. uh because you saw those particular goals and kind of the work that's been being done there. The other one I wanted to to bring forward to the board so that
158they're aware is um today it should have went out uh a message from me to all of our parents asking for their input and what they would like to see when it comes to communications. So we know we have struggled with communications in the past. We know we have needed to upgrade what our avenues are for communicating and the tools that we use. But not just that, but what are the things they want updates about? So, I'm encouraging everybody when you get that uh email, when you get that text message uh about that request, and I'm also going to ask the buildings to follow up and send it individually as well. Please take the time to give us that feedback. It's helping us drive and be better at what we're doing, especially when communications. And
159I'll say this, when we did the strategic plan process, and I'd say most any district I've ever been in, any building I've ever been in, the very first thing that everybody says needs to be improved is communications. So, please give us that that feedback so that we can start doing that that vital work. Um, I've also been putting out the periodic updates on the website of where we're at in the strategic plan and what we've completed, what we're in progress in that. Uh, I started working on that this afternoon. I'm hoping to have an update on the website for everyone to see probably tomorrow. Uh but again, it's going to depend how busy my day becomes and how quickly I can get that in there. But do expect one of those in the coming days.
160Uh the last thing I want to talk about uh is something that's come up as a hot button issue uh to start the school year. It's not something unique to us. This is something that has been uh something that's come up in lots of school districts uh recently uh in the past, but it's something that that has come up. And this regards quasi political symbols. And what I mean by a quasi political symbol is something that is not political overtly political symbol. It's not like you're putting up a donkey for a political party or an elephant for a political party or or a specific campaign sign for a candidate. This involves things that through the discourse that has happened in our society. These are symbols that have now become part of that political discussion when
161the intent of the symbols was not there. That was not the original point of it. But at this point they fall into this what we call quasi political speech. So these are things that could be, you know, when you're talking about Black Lives Matter items, blue lives matter items, these are things that could involve uh pride flags. These could things that could involve um even the don't tread on me flag. like these are things that have become very politicized uh symbols on either side of what you may believe personally or uh what you feel very strongly about. Um I have to say because those that know me know that I have some very strong beliefs and I have some very strong opinions. But I also know that in this role that I've been hired to
162do as the uh superintendent of a school district is there are times I have to put aside what my personal beliefs, what my personal opinions are and do what is best for uh the school district as an entity. So I want to say that what we have come to a decision after consulting with our legal advice, our legal teams with consulting with other school districts and uh going through that process is that we are going to be uh making sure that our classrooms, our buildings are neutral spaces when it comes to those viewpoints and those things are are going to the quasi political items will not be able to be displayed within our site. sites. I will say there are some caveats to that because there are times that they are defensible in what the
163curriculum provides. I spent many years as a social studies teacher. I know that some of these issues come up when you are covering the civil rights movement or you covering these things as part of your required curriculum. That would be something that is different. It is something that exists within that classroom space and within that that learning space. um these are things that may come up in terms of certain student activities and clubs that they would have that ability to use those because it ties with um what's been allowable there so long as we are open to other clubs and those kind of pieces as well. So that is kind of the stance that we will be taking uh going forward and trust me it took me lots of conversations with lots of people to
164kind of arrive uh at where we're at now. Do I expect that this is something that happens overnight? No. This is something that we need to give people time to adjust, people time to to do those things and for us to have those conversations with with individuals as we go forward. So, but I did want to put that out there uh tonight um because I know it is something that has been uh a topic within the community uh at this point. So, on that I am going to close for today. >> Okay. Uh now we will actually uh give the floor. Uh State Representative Thompson, are you still with us? Please raise your hand if you are ready to give us the budget update uh from the Michigan House or just Lancing in general. Oh,
165>> we might have went on longer or maybe they went back in session in Lancing. I'm not sure. >> Is she >> Oh, her hand just >> Okay. >> Oh, she has raised her hand. >> Okay. >> Good evening, Miss uh Representative Thompson. Um, thank you for joining us and we are uh eager to hear your budget update from Lancing. Thank you for joining us today. >> Thank you so much. And I apologize. I was I'm like I'm here. I'm here. I'm just trying to uncclick the button so I can raise my hand. Um, thank you guys so much and I I thoroughly enjoyed sitting and listening to um the things that you're working on and how you're working for our kids and all the conversations. Um, so I did take some notes. Um, I'll
166go really briefly and again, thank you for filling me getting me in and adding me to the agenda. Uh, your guys' board meetings are on session nights and we are in Lancing. Um, and I want you to know that I do care. I mean, I don't think I would sit two hours on a Zoom call at the hotel if I didn't care and wanted to make sure that you guys know that I that I care about the kids in Taylor and I care about you guys. Um, one of the things that I know we got off on the wrong foot and I'm just going to be frank and honest. I know that last time I was on we kind of got off on the wrong foot. Um, I want to build a relationship with the
167board members and Taylor. I've had great discussions with Superintendent Wagger. Um, I think he knows that I'm very responsive. If any of you ever have any questions or concerns, he is free to give you my cell phone. Um, I recently had something change in my life that I wanted to share with you. Um, so, and this will tell you why I care so much about our public school budget. So, when I when my daughter passed away in 2021 and I became the guardian of my three grandchildren, they were 3, five, and seven. And because they lost their mom and we were just coming out of COVID and our whole family was so upset, I did put them in prochial school. Um, I felt like that was a safe place for them to to to start
168their morning journey. Um, smaller classroom sizes, they understood what was happening in our family and because of the cost of living and because representatives aren't millionaires, I can no longer afford to send them to prochial school and they are now enrolled in public schools. So, I very much have a stake in in the public education that our kids are receiving. Not all of the representatives in Lancing have children of school age. So, I really do understand the dynamics our family are going through. My grandchildren are seven, nine, and 11, and my husband and I are raising them without their parents. Um, so I want to tell you that, um, I have some good news that we are moving very close to coming to an agreement on the school budget. That's what I'm going to focus
169on. Um, and then I wanted to make sure that you had some truths to some false statements that may have been made. And I can tell you firsthand that I have seen this in Lancing as a now as a second term rep. What the Republicans say are not always true. What the Democrats say are not always true. The truth lays somewhere in the middle and it's something that's extremely frustrated me because I very much believe in telling people the truth and letting them form their own conclusions, but it has to be on the truth. Um, so something a false statement that's been going around is that we are cutting things in our house budget. Um, we're cutting nothing. Um, actually, the city of Taylor, your school would receive nearly $8 million more than it did
170last year. And that means if you added up your total, all of your categories, all of your costs, whatever your number was last year, you're going to get $8 million more in our budget. So, that's a a 20% increase in the per pupil ch per child pupil aotment. um something and we did not cut special education. Um I'm very proud to say that I've saw the numbers in black and white. My oldest son um was a special education kid. He went through his whole elementary and middle school years. I know how important special education and resources are to schools and families. I would never allow that to get cut. Um this fully funds more money than you've ever seen for special education. you'll have the money to provide breakfast and lunch if that's something you
171choose. It'll fully fund our mental health, um, school safety, special education. The only thing that I think is really confusing and concerning to people is that you've worked so many years in a category system and I can understand that's new to people and it's it's probably a little scary because you're looking at it like well what if what if I go over or what if we don't lose the m or what if we lose the money or what if we lose the the amount of children that go to the school. But it's really something we know that that we really got to get our kids reading scores back up. We got to get their math scores back up. And I know that Taylor has dealt with so many challenges that you guys are diligently working
172through. And I see that. I see that in the parents that are reaching out to my office. The only difference is is if you have, and I'm going to throw out a number, $1,000 in your transportation budget. And if you don't spend that full $1,000 and there's $200 sitting left, you don't get to spend that. Well, this just means you're getting the full amount per child and then you spend it on what you need. I heard you talked about you got a lot of infrastructure that's outdated that you need to um take care of your HVAC. I know you got a lot of stuff going on with HVAC. I mean I I couldn't imagine kids having to sit in school in the scorching heat. It's not like it was when we were younger and we
173were sort of just trained to deal with it. I think we've become accustomed to air conditioning and it's very hard to learn and function in that heat and stuff. Um something else that I heard was that we were cutting mental health and safety. We are very passion. I am personally very passionate about mental health and the safety of our students. In fact, we fought very hard in 2023 when all the superintendents reached out to me and said, "Please don't cut 92% of our safety and mental health in our schools. Um that we'll we'll lose nurses. We'll lose so much for our kids. We need this right now. They're still rebuilding after, you know, CO." And I voted no on that. and we are fighting to make sure that that 92% gets put back in and
174it is in our budget. I've heard that there's not enough money to do what we want to do. I can tell you I've seen the numbers black and white. We have enough money. There was a lot of I I hate to use the word pork projects because I didn't realize that those were in a school budget, but some representatives and some senators in some districts got special pro programs and projects um very lobbyist driven and I don't really think that's fair that maybe Royal Oak got a special program and it was funded through the school budget, but Taylor didn't get that or Wood Haven Brownstown didn't get that. So, we took all of those completely out of the board and everything is based on the your numbers of kids. Um, I heard you guys talk
175a lot about the infrastructure and safety and I know that's a big concern for you guys and it's a big concern for me as a parent um due to the recent things that have happened. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the school safety package that was um they put together a task force actually after the 2021 incident that happened at Oxford. And um the task force it was bipartisan both Republican and Democrat. They talked to parents. They talked to law enforcement. They talked to the mental health professionals. They talked to the schools. And they they put together a plan with legislative priorities on how we were going to ensure that that did not happen again in a Michigan school. And that report came out in 2022. We voted on that in the
176House. And that would help implement and make sure that you had a safety coordinator in every school in Michigan, every school district, a mental health coordinator in every school district in Michigan. Clear communication, standardized terminology so that there was not miscommunication between different cities because all these cities are going to come should a tragedy happen. Um, we passed that with bipartisan support in the House and it still sits in the Senate. So, we hear your needs and your concerns about making sure the kids are safety with with the infrastructure and everything. And I also I want to let you know that it really does not matter to me what your political leanings are. I I got into this position because I care about our kids and our families. And I know Mr. Morris, Corey, I
177know you work for Representative Wilson. Rep. Wilson and I have a great relationship. We speak often on the floor. Um, I will work with whoever wants to work with me. I'm not just saying that. Um, it shows in the work that I do and the conversations that I have in the city. Something else that I heard tonight that I want to be able to help you guys with. If you ever have a program where you run into trouble with the county or there's a delay or you're not getting the responses in the time frame that you need, please reach out to me and tell me. I will contact personally the county. I've been be beginning to build really strong relationships with Warren Evans and Assad turf and um figuring out the dynamics of how Wayne
178County works and we all know we live in Wayne County and we're we're our own beast. things move very slowly, but just maybe an extra call from a representative and I will, you know, team up with any senator or anyone else that, you know, wants to kind of push them along and let them know that this is really important for the schools and um could they put a put a rush on it or have a conversation about maybe some information that they're lacking and they need to just be that go-between for you guys. Um, so that's that's kind of that's kind of it. If anyone has any questions for me, um, I'm open to answering them or if you want to have a personal meeting with me, you are absolutely, it would be my pleasure
179to sit down and talk with you and see how I can help you and help the school. >> Well, so thank you. >> I do have one question for you. Um, because obviously this is a process that involves more than just the House of Representatives. Obviously involves the governor's office and the Senate. Um, how does it look realistically at getting that compromised deal done? because we know what gets passed by the house isn't specifically what comes out in the end. So, how's that process looking right now? >> I honestly was told today by the speaker that they are making great progress on the budget and they believe that they are going to have a budget very soon >> and I think you heard it loud and clear infrastructure infrastructure infrastructure and that's not Russ Taylor
180that's statewide. So I >> it is it really is. I know that there was and I there's some legislation that I I worked on a little bit >> my first term and I intend to pick it up again. I don't know if any of you on the board are familiar or were around when um a child lost her life at a school in Dearborn Heights. Um her name was Liliana Kier and she was um a table was faulty and should have been removed from a cafeteria and it fell on her and crushed her and she was three years old. Um her mother has never recovered from the loss of her daughter. It's been about 10 years. There's some other stories I've heard about infrastructure and the safety really for our kids. Uh so that's some
181legislation that um I know people might be a little bit afraid of. I'd love to have that conversation with you. I heard the doctor speak about, you know, insurance does something happen to kids at school. It's very real. Whether a child goes into shock or has an allergic reaction or unfortunately may it never happen overdoses in a bathroom or anything that happens to our kids when they're on the school properties. Um, making sure that the the surrounding infrastructure is safe for them for them to to be safe in that school. And I think parents, it's very important to parents and I'm sure that you guys would agree with me on that. So, it's something that I'm probably going to be starting to work on again next year. Um, didn't get a lot of traction because
182we want didn't want to do an unfunded mandate for the superintendent or the schools to um have to do these extra inspections. Um, but if we can get an appropriation ask done that that we would be able to fund that in the schools so that inspections on the infrastructure could be done and not just the boiler and the sprinkler system. Um there has been many kids across the state that have lost their lives to infrastructure and I wouldn't want to see that happen to our down river cities. >> Yeah. Well, thank you representative for your update and as she said if any constituents or anyone else has any questions for her, please feel free to reach out to her. >> Thank you so much. Have a good night, guys. >> You too. Okay, moving on
183to >> to the consent agenda. Policy number 0166.1, policy number 6470, policy number 8640, and policy number 2304. Minutes from the regular board meeting of August 20th, 2025, consolidated items, payments of current bill, certified, non-certified, and administrative reports, outofstate overnight field trips, outofstate overnight grant funded conferences. Is there a motion? Motion by Miss Black. Is there support? >> Support >> by Mr. Morris. Mr. Madarski? >> Yes. >> Mr. Morris? >> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt is a yes. Mr. Westfall? >> Yes. >> Miss Block? >> Yes. >> Miss Fields? >> Yes. >> Miss Morris? Absent. That passes. X0 uh items scheduled for next agenda, Wednesday, September 17, 2025. Uh good news. Okay, now we're moving on to our general public comment uh portion policy 0167.3. Um, as mentioned earlier in the meeting, we will now open
184the floor for general comment, general public comment. The same guidelines previously outlined will remain in effect and any questions at this meeting, the superintendent or his designate will work on getting those answers in a timely manner. We will begin with those in person and then move to our online audience. Is there anyone here that would like to generally uh ask any questions or comments or concerns about the district? Any praises? We like those two. >> I'm back. >> Welcome back. >> I know you said you had more and you're going which which one do they go on? So >> um Jennifer Ferguson Bearinger. So actually it ties into what Mr. Wager talked about as far as communication and um trying to do things together as a district. So I'm glad you said that because >>
185two issues that I have. So one, we moved from Remind to parent square this year. We are having so you know I've run some of the social media sites and stuff. Absolutely. We're having a lot of problems where pay parents aren't getting access to parent square so they're not getting those communications. So I've been doing my best to like copy and paste them onto Facebook where they're at least in the Facebook groups and stuff but I don't there's something I've heard from some parents where like only like whoever the main contact is is getting the access but like you've got mom and dad and one's got it one doesn't. um or maybe they've got like the primary phone number as being maybe someone's work number instead of the cell phone number. There there's definite problems.
186So, whatever we can do to resolve that as quick as possible. >> So, parent square pulls directly from my star. So, most likely it's cleaning up how their contacts and things look like that and making sure that it's pulling probably couple contacts and not just the one. Yeah. >> Yeah. Like if it could pull like all numbers, you know, like for like at least mom and dad work, cell, you know, home. Um but yeah, there's there's definitely an issue there with parent square with that communication going through. Yeah. The other problem we're having with parent square access is so banned. We have a band member and we this has been an ongoing thing where they are actually a charter school student but they're part of our Taylor High marching band. >> Yeah. >> So they're
187it's a credit class. It's not a club or anything. They are actually a student in our district for that one class. My parent is not getting her communications because >> Yeah. That's in there. >> Yes. So, how do we fix that? Because we need to know. We need to get that because we're, you know, there's we've got a new band director. He's sending out all of the communications through the Parent Square app and that parent's not getting anything and she's trying to figure out how to fix it. >> Y. >> So, if you can let me know what to do with that. the other thing. So, tying back into your doing things together as a district, can we please, please, please put together a district calendar of all of the events going on at all
188of our schools where it's one-stop shop, everybody can look in there and see what's happening. Because what ends up happening is when we've got concerts, competitions, whatever, it ends up being on the same night where like someone's um competition is the same night as prom or their concerts the same, you know, their concert at West is the same night as the one at Hoover and at the high school. >> Last year it was the like eighth grade graduation versus honors night or something. That's a very serious thing. >> And you've got parents that have kids at the elementary, the middle school, and the high school level. and they want to be there for their kids. So, how do you choose which one you get to go to? Absolutely. Which one you don't? >> So, if
189we could please try to put that out there where everyone can see and that way as the schools are scheduling stuff, you know, they're nobody's doing it maliciously, but you know, they're all in silos. They don't know what the other schools are doing. So, >> yeah. And I had begun doing that for what goes into my monthly newsletter. However, that only tells you what's up the next 30 days. This is something that would be grander and tell you further out like that's Yeah, I will. out the senior calendar so we know when everything's happening for our seniors for this year. So, let's get that out there so as all of the other schools are doing stuff, it's not impacting something where you need to be there for, you know, for your student for those events.
190So, >> y No, I appreciate that. That helps drive our communication goals. So, it's very good. >> I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Please come on up. Good evening. My name is Philip Peters. I work for the Michigan House of Representatives. I'm a regional adviser for Representatives Thompson and Dana. And it came to our um attention that some constituents in the area are aware of a sex education advisory board that will be um that will be brought up again. You guys will be choosing members sometime soon. >> Yeah. uh just want to touch upon some of the concerns that they have uh that um maybe not all demographics will be represented. So, as far as pulling together as a district um and following the Michigan Compiled Law, I'm reading
191from 38 3805 07 that half of the members of the sex um at advisory board shall be parents uh of children attending the school district and majority of these parents uh shall not be employed at the school and that it should be of pupils of the school district, educators, local clergy uh and community health professionals as well. So again, just reiterate some of the concerns from constituents just were that uh not um enough demographics would be um present on this advisory board. Um I guess the purpose of the sex advisory board is to empower the parents too to give them the ability to choose uh which programs and curriculum they feel is right for their family members. Um and it's issues like this of local control and parental control that the uh state house they
192passed a a a budget recently that um stated in there that the school districts or the ISDs should provide waiverss uh that are all optin and the parents have uh seven days parents or legal guardians have seven days uh to complete this and if not then it would be an automatic opt out. So, this is just to give parents more control over what programs and what their kids are are exposed to. >> No, I appreciate that. That is one of the things we've been keeping in mind as we've been reestablishing that committee work is uh we are Yes. very versed in what the MCL uh requirements are. So, I appreciate you bringing that to us. >> Yeah, thank you very much. Um and we weren't sure why the the board wasn't um is no longer
193in in service. Was it was working before and then it was it stopped? So this is that's a much more complicated question um because that goes back to our predecessors before this current administration of the school district. >> Correct. And so we've been trying to make sure that we are doing what is required by the compiled laws and bringing that back up to speed and um there've been some bumps and some things but we're in the process of correcting that. But that those are things that existed before before the current >> that's understandable. Yeah. as long as you pulling together as a district and working together, just getting sure everyone's heard. Um, if there's anything the reps can do to help, um, please feel free to reach out. >> You got it. >> Thank you
194very much. Anyone else? Come on down. Courtney Pr 9846 Katherine. So, I wanted to address a serious concern regarding ethics, professionalism, and the role of political messaging in the classroom. Recently, it was discovered on Facebook that a parent had um posted a picture of propaganda that was displayed in the classroom. I know Mr. Wagger had already spoke on that and kind of shut that down a little bit, but as a parent and a member of this community, I commented on that post to seek clarity and accountability. And in response, I was mocked, called names, and belittled by educators connected to that classroom teacher and others in the district. What concerns me even more is that during this very meeting at this at this time, the teacher whose classroom displayed those materials was laughing and continuing
195to comment on posts. Um I believe the policy about when we're addressing particular staff members that wouldn't be the proper forum. >> I didn't use the name >> the issue is the issue is coming directly from that staff member though. So that's that's part of the concern here. >> Um so on the tailor disclosure board docs there's a clear ethics policy that's stated on your board docs for your teachers and it says that they must refrain from using their position or public property for partisan political or religious purposes. Teachers are interested with creating safe neutral spaces where all students and families feel respected. Yet in this situation, the teacher has not only displayed banners and flags reflecting personal political views, but has faced has faced no repercussions for this. So my issue is even more
196concerning is that you guys removed a student from that classroom. Um so instead of having this teacher take responsibility for the actions, we just removed a student from her room. So a 14-year-old child walked to that classroom that day and was told to go to the office. is no longer in this room over a parent concern on Facebook. That is not acceptable and it's very unethical as a school district for us to do that to a student, a 14-year-old child with her first year in school, high school. So, some might think that simply removing the flag is enough to resolve this issue, but it's not. The situation goes far beyond the political ideology. Like, there is there's ethics, there's accountability, there's a principle that parents voices matter, even when they're expressed on Facebook. And just
197because this parent expressed it on Facebook and didn't come directly to somebody at this level doesn't make that any less of a of a concern from a parent. And for that parent to be mocked and for me to be mocked as well on that post is unacceptable. Students follow rules and face consequences when they students who don't follow rules at school face consequences. So I'm not sure why the teachers in the school are allowed to not follow rules and there's no consequences, especially when there is an ethics policy. So I look at that ethics policy as same thing as a code of conduct. So, if you want to have our students uphold their rules and follow rights and rules at school, then our teachers should be doing the exact same thing. This shouldn't be something
198that we just look the other way on because it's it fits that time frame. Um, I urge the board to hold this teacher accountable, hold the code of cond or the code of ethics accountable so that we use have our students be held accountable. Um so I was I just want to know like as a board what message are you sending our students if we are allowing this to happen in the schools especially when that parent has another concern um that she is now afraid to come forward and speak about of her daughter being removed from this classroom and she's afraid of more retaliation on her child when she comes forward to step and ask about that. So I just think that as a as a board we really need to look at that and
199see if that's something that we are okay with and showing our students that there is no repercussions for adults but for students there is. Thank you. >> Would anyone else like to address the board? >> Is there anyone online that would like to address the board? Okay. Where was I? Uh over here. Okay. Uh moving on to >> we are um moving on to the next um agenda item is adjournment to close session policy number 0137.2 two pursuant to the Michigan's Open Meeting Act public being public act 267 of 1976 and as amended I move the board convene in close session pursuant to materials exempt pursuant to section 81H of the open meeting act. Is there a motion? >> Motion by Miss Fields. Is there a second? >> Second by Mr. the West Mall. >>
200Is this for contract negotiations? What's this for? >> It is for a appeal on a reinstatement decision. >> Oh, okay. I wish I had to just read because that was confusing because it was >> Mr. Morris. >> Uh, yes. >> Miss Shufelt, yes. Mr. Westfall, >> yes. >> Miss Black, >> yes. >> Miss Fields, >> yes. >> Miss Morris, absent. Mr. Madarski, >> yes. >> That passes 6. We will go into close session at 8:45 p.m. We are returned from close session at 9:24 p.m. >> Okay. >> And our action items after close session is that we have a motion to approve the conditional reinstatement for student number 080903205. Is there a motion? Motion by Miss Field. Is there a second? >> Yes. >> Miss Block. Mr. Morris. >> Uh, yes. >> Mr. Madarski. >>
201Yes. >> Miss Block. >> Yes. >> Miss Shufelt is a yes. Miss Morris absent. Miss Fields. >> Yes. >> Mr. Westfall. >> Yes. >> That passes 6. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Moving on to board member comments. Does any board member like would like would would any board member like to address the empty room? >> No thanks. >> Uh good luck at school this year everybody. It's going to go by and they'll be gone before you know it, but study hard. And that is my comments and please keep advocating for uh stool school funding uh from our legislators like Representative Thompson. Uh your voice matters. Okay. Other than that, uh, looking for a motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Looking for support. >> Okay. Seconded by Mr. Mardski. Uh, Mr. Westfall. >> Yes. >>
202Miss Block. Miss Fields. >> Miss Moore is excused. Mr. Mardski. >> Yes. >> I am a yes. Miss Shufelt. >> Yes. >> That carries 6. with the board of education committee of the whole meeting for September 3rd, 2025 is adjourned at 9:26 p.m. Woo!