Board of Education Meeting, May 18, 2026

0015:00 and we will start our board meeting for May the 18th. Um Dr. Weaver, would you lead us in the pledge, please? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which [clears throat] it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'll go ahead and call roll if you want. Thank you. I appreciate that. Mr. Ambers? Present. Ms. Ebony Mitchell? Present. >> Dr. Weaver? Present. >> Ms. Hines? Cox, present. Roshan? Ms. May? She's present. Present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Next on the agenda is election of offices for the board. >> Madam President, I'd like to offer a motion at this time to move item three to the first item after the closed session. Support. You want to discussion? You want

002to move item three to the to after closed session. What would be the reason when we have a quorum? May I ask? So that people not here can be here. Well, because when we go into closed session, we will be talking about the superintendent contract and we need a president for that. No, we don't. We need a chairperson and you're the chairperson. >> that. So, roll call vote. Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Cox, yes. Roshan, Hines, Dr. Weaver. Yes. Mr. Ambers? Yes. Ms. Abby Mitchell? No. Ms. May? No. Motion passed. >> [clears throat] >> Well, it was three to two. No, it's got to have four. >> It has to have four even though we don't what you call it? Yeah, you have to have four. So, do we have a nomination for a president?

003So, I nominate Ms. Melody Hines as president. I am going to go further at this time and also nominate Dr. Fred Weaver as vice president and Mr. David Cox as secretary. Support. Roll call vote? Mr. Ambers? Yes. Ms. Abby Mitchell? No. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Ms. Hines? Mr. Cox? Yes. Mr. Roshan? Ms. May? No. And now you know why we wanted to put it at the end of the meeting. Right. So. Okay. The motion fails. >> [clears throat] >> So, do y'all want to adjourn to close session? So moved. Support. Are you going to vote? Yes, roll call vote, please. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Cox? Yes. Mr. Ambers? Yes. Ms. Abby Mitchell? Yes. Ms. May? Yes. And I vote yes. She'll be here soon. We would like to bring our May 18th meeting back to order. And

004we will start with Mrs. Swanson with Early Middle College. Thank you so very much. >> You're so welcome. I am I am Chris Swanson. I'm the administrator for virtual programming and Early Middle College. And I am extremely pleased and excited to be able to announce that this is our this year we have four [snorts] 13th year EMC graduates. All four of our individuals will, by August, be graduating with full associate's degrees from Madonna University. >> [applause] >> This is our fourth year with Early Middle College at in Wayne-Westland. And these individuals started in either the 10th or 11th grade. They take two classes each semester during the school year, during their fifth and sixth hours. We have representatives in our EMC program from all three high schools, Glenn, Wayne, and Weea. And this year's uh

00513th year graduates, so they go through their 12th grade year coming to Weea Monday through Thursday. And then during that 13th year, they complete their associate's degree by being on campus at Madonna University and taking courses through the year. So this year our four EMC graduates are Aster Amazi. She has completed her Associate's of Arts in general studies. She's currently undecided where she's going to attend next, but probably something in neuroscience and pre-med. >> Okay. Um also, our second one who wasn't able to be with us was Joel Disbro. He also received his associate's, and Mr. Booker and I were able to attend the Madonna graduation last Thursday. It was a wonderful experience. We uh Joel is going to be attending Wayne State to study neuroscience and pre-med. Our third is Marleen Perez Santiago. She's

006in the fall is going to continue her studies at Eastern Michigan studying international business. And then uh able to join us today is Kaya Hodgkin's. She is completing her last couple of classes at Madonna this summer to finish up her associate's. And then she's looking at going into early childhood development. University is still to be determined. So, each of our um each of our EMC graduates will receive a plaque indicating that they have earned their Memca certificate, meaning that they have participated in our early college program. They will be able to take all of their 60-plus credits anywhere in the state of Michigan. All of those through the Michigan transfer agreement do transfer to any college or university in the state, and so they can walk in at the age of 19 as almost a

007junior. So, please join me in a hearty round of applause for all of OUR EMC GRADUATES. >> [applause] [applause] >> YEAH. THANKS. >> AND NOW WE WILL GO TO THE HIGH SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS, MR. CHOCO. You ready, Mr. Choco? It's on you. Okay. So, uh tonight is uh one of my favorite board meetings. Um tonight we'll be recognizing um all of our uh athletes and coaches um from our comprehensive high schools, uh John Glenn and Wayne Memorial. Um both of our ADs will come up and introduce um themselves and then we're going to go through um quickly with all of our teams um and all their accolades. So, the individual accolades and team accolades. And you can see we have quite a few people here tonight, student athletes. And uh I just want to tell you

008guys you did a great job and should be uh definitely proud of yourself and the parents that are here proud of what has happened in the last uh past year. And some of these athletes are from the fall, winter, and also uh just currently the spring sports. Uh Mr. Malloy, the John Glenn athletic director, will start us off. Good evening, everybody. Good evening. Um thank you to the Board of Education, Dr. Coz, uh the cabinet. We are so excited to be here tonight to celebrate not only John Glenn but Wayne Memorial. Let's give everybody A HAND, PLEASE. [applause] AS AS MUCH AS WE COMPETE AGAINST EACH OTHER, we are a lot of coaches know each other and work hard together and we want to see our kids do the best and be great student athletes.

009Um first, I'd like to celebrate um our track and field team who is not here today. Um but we had a relay team and two individuals that are going to the state uh meet this uh next week. So, let's give them a round of applause for Coach Cook. >> [applause] >> That's being led by Coach Cook and Coach McCallie who are not here today. I'd like to um bring up next um our bowling team who had a another great season with coach Mays. He will be able to come up and talk about the individual success that we had. He also was able to coach the both boys and girls team and have success on both sides of the bowling alley. So let's give coach Mays a round of applause. >> [applause] >> And I will

010go watch his twins while he's over here. I want to first thank the time out to honor our terrific student athletes throughout all three of our buildings this year and their accomplishments they have. I know all of our students work very hard on the field, in the gym, and also in the classroom. Our bowling program this year almost gave 50 students the opportunity to compete for their school, learn the game of bowling, aspects of being a good teammate, and also more importantly being a good human. None of the program's success could ever occur without recognizing all the parents that are involved in our program, all the coaches that worked out worked with us like Jason Turner, Emma Dietrich, and Lindsay McLoud that helped all the way. I can list [clears throat] all their athletic accomplishments,

011winning this tournament, being the top qualifier, being the best game, having the best series each year, but all that pales in comparison to all the good things that they did individually. Our team in the classroom for the girls team, our students have our seven student athletes that qualified has a GPA of 3.27. That includes four students That includes students some of whom are taking up to four advanced placement classes. Some of them being in career tech and also in early middle college as you just heard from. He is one of the students that next fall or next school year should be able to complete his associate's degree because of her middle college. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. The girls seem alone made the states again, which seems like a broken record. Don't do not want

012to this diminish that. The team members Willow Guthrie, Violet Walker, Jenna Futcherelli, Jordan Holtz, Giselle Borthwick, and Aliyah McCloud bonded, worked together, and battled adversity to qualify for states as a team. And all of that those six members, four of them also qualified individually to make it to the state tournament. Jenna, Willow, Giselle, and Jordan. We also had our boy we had we had a male qualifier this year, Evan Cox, who worked diligently through all of last off-season. If you don't know, there's couple ways to bowl. A lot of people bowl one-handed, and Evan was a one-handed bowler until about May last year where he decided to switch to a two-handed release and throw, which is a tremendous change if you know anything about the techniques of bowling, okay? He made it to state tournament

013this year, which is his long goal he worked on. Overall, all of the while being a constant leader. Overall, I'm proud of all our athletes. They changed they learned that in bowling, just like life, your ball will come back and you get a second chance to knock down all the pins. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Coach Mayes, for all the hard work that you do. And like you said, it it is becoming a broken record I think for a lot of these programs that are in here that you look around that they continue to have the success uh not just in the classroom, but on the playing field. Next up, I would like to represent our wrestling program and our coaches. Um first, I'm going to bring up Coach Polk. Let's give him

014a round of applause. >> [applause] >> As we continue to win district titles >> Could I just interrupt for a second? I don't know if any of the bowlers are here, but we'd love to take pictures out in the lobby if with your coach. I will check with him and I will grab him as soon as I get done with him. So, if there are any bowlers that are here, please come out front. Okay. Thank you. We'll take a picture with his twins. All right. >> [laughter] >> We'll do it out front. Yeah. Um with coach Polk, I'd just like to give him some credit, too. Um you know, this year he reached another milestone, but um coach Polk right now is at 607 wins as a coach in the state of Michigan and is

015currently 20th >> [applause] >> in the STATE OF MICHIGAN. WE WE HAVE SOME COACHES THAT HAVE BEEN COACHING for a long time, but coach Polk has been doing a phenomenal job in building a program from the from the rocket the bottle rockets all the way through. And so, I'm going to give him my opportunity to talk about his program and individuals. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Jason. Good evening, everyone. Uh congratulations to all of our athletes celebrating our student athletes this evening. Um just to kind of highlight some of my team's accomplishments this year. Uh we have several of boys here with us. Uh we carry about 50 to 60 athletes on our team every year, both boys and girls. Um this year's team with 31 and four in dual meets this year. Um they

016were returning Wayne County champions for the 10th year in a row for Wayne County. Uh we won the KLA division title for roughly 15 years in a row. Uh we were district champs for roughly amount about the same time. This year's group won six out of eight tournaments on Saturdays over the winter season. We had three wrestlers go over 100 career victories this year. Tommy Buckaloo with 118, Logan O'Connors with 173, and Nikayla Dawson with 184. So, a lot of individual success. Eight individuals to the state tournament. Freshman Landon O'Connors, senior Nikayla Dawson, sophomore Kyren Dawson, sophomore Trace Neilson, junior Khalil Lanier, senior Logan O'Connors, junior Blessing Bongbay, and sophomore Maddox Myers. So, several of these young athletes are coming back to our team next year. Super exciting. Four of those individuals went on to

017place. A freshman and two sophomores with Landon, Maddox, and Kyren all taking top five in the state. And our senior Nikayla Dawson wound up being a four-time undefeated girl state champion. WOW. WOW. >> [applause] [applause] >> TWO MORE ACCOMPLISHMENTS THAT I THINK stand out more than any of the other accomplishment that I may have mentioned this evening, Nikayla Dawson received a full ride to Indian Hills in Iowa to wrestle next year and be a student at Indian Indian Hills Community College. And Logan O'Connors signed with Alma College to receive over $50,000 a year in scholarships to wrestle for them next year. >> [applause] [applause] >> I know I mentioned a few of them. The last award, which is the most special to me is our overall team GPA was academic all-state with a 3.64 GPA

018with over 50 kids ON OUR TEAM. >> [applause] >> SO AGAIN, CONGRATULATIONS TO MY YOUNG men and young ladies. Um they accomplished a lot and we look forward to the future and again congratulations to all our other Wayne-Westland um sports and activities and student athletes this evening. Thank you. >> [applause] >> IF OUR WRESTLERS CAN GO OUT FRONT, IF YOU GUYS CAN go out front, I think they want to take a picture. Thank you, Coach Polk. As we get ready to conclude for John Glenn this this year, um we had a lot of student athletes who signed to go play at the next level for various sports from fall, winter, and the spring. Um but it concluded with this year's coach of the year. Um we had a coach of the year this year and

019that is Coach Britney Fader. Let's give her a hand. >> [applause] >> She is our competitive cheer coach and sideline coach and I have some notes down here, but I'm not going to read them cuz I've been knowing her for a long time and just I want to give her kudos cuz not only does she coach two sports, but she's also our athletic secretary and does a phenomenal job um in our athletic department, but I have seen the development and the growth of coach and what she does not just for the program, but just for our student athletes. She embodies everything that we want at John Glenn. She cares for students. Um she's just like their mother. Um she wants them to be great in the classroom. Um they look to her for everything. She

020spends numerous hours in the building not just with her students, but with the comments and that's how any coach knows that is in here. It doesn't start when they get to the high school, it starts when they're young. And she spent that time, those hours, and that's why she's starting to see the fruit of her labor. And so, I personally want to say I've I've watched her grow and develop into a master coach. And she is there for our other coaches. Our coaches come in and they come talk to her as well to find out different things and how to strategize and to help our student athletes to be as great as they can be. But, I am overly joyed to announce the coach of the year for competitive cheer, Coach Brittany Ford. >> [applause]

021[applause] >> BRING THIS DOWN A LITTLE BIT. UM THANK YOU guys for tonight for recognizing myself and our athletes. Uh I'm incredibly honored and humbled to be recognized as a CAM District Coach of the Year. While my name may be attached to the award, it truly reflects the collective effort, commitment, and support of so many people who make my program what it is. First and foremost, I would like to send a thank you to my coaching staff. Um their dedication, passion, and belief in what we are building together make all the difference. I'm incredibly fortunate to work alongside people who care so deeply about our athletes, our program, and the vision we have for these kids. I also want to thank our athletes and their families. The trust that they place in us, the sacrifices

022that they make, and the unwavering support that they give my program never go unnoticed. Our athletes are the heart of everything we do, and it is a privilege to coach such hardworking, resilient, and passionate young people every single day. Um to my family, especially my husband who's here with me, thank you for your constant love, patience, and support through the long days, the late nights, the challenges, and the celebrations. I would not be standing here without you beside me. I also want to express my sincere gratitude to our administration and leadership for continued support um for all all our programs from the Board of Education to Central Office to our building administration. A special thank you to our athletic director, Jason Malloy, for his continued encouragement, belief in our vision, and commitment to help helping

023our program grow and succeed. I truly love this sport, but even more than that, I love this community. John Glenn is an incredibly special place filled with extraordinary people, and I am so proud to serve this community and work with its students and families. Being able to positive positively impact kids through athletics is something I will never take for granted. This recognition means more to me than I can put into words, but it represents the relationships, culture, and community we continue to build together. I'm proud of what we have accomplished and even more excited for all that is still ahead. Thank you for this incredible honor. >> [applause] >> Again, I'd like to say thank you very much to our board, our superintendent, the cabinet, and Mr. Toko for continuing to support athletics. Um as

024somebody who is from this area, um grew up close to this area in Inkster, uh I know how important sports is. It sometimes is the only thing that saves certain students. And so, the impact that coaches can make, the impact that we can make in administration, is very special, and your support is very much needed. So, thank you and have a great evening. >> [applause] >> Mr. Woodson, um and the athletic director at uh Wayne Memorial will now introduce uh his teams and coaches. Okay. First of all, I would like to just say thank you to the board, Dr. Caudill, all the administrators here at Central Office for realizing and supporting the athletic programs at both of our schools at Wayne Memorial and John Glenn, and for all of you realizing the importance of athletics,

025that is part of the educational system for our young people. The things that they are learning here in athletics, they will carry with them the rest of their lives. They It's going to It's making them a better person, helping them prepare to be a hopeful positive person in life and contribute to society one day. I just like to thank you all for supporting us and making this happen that we can continue to do this athletic program for our young people. Also, I'd like to thank most important to us here, our principal here, Mr. Gildersleeve. He just just is with all of his support that he does for us, me, our coaches, it's unbelievable. I would just like to say thank you, Mr. Gildersleeve, for having our back and supporting us and for you realizing, you

026being a former student athlete, that what athletics mean to our young people. And most of all, I here I would like to thank my coaches. You know, you coaches, you put so much time into our young people. Some of you coaches even put more time away from your own home, from your own kids, that you giving back to our young people and our student athletes realizing the importance that them you helping them to become a better person, maybe one day become a mother, a father, more importantly contribute [clears throat] to society and life. But I would like to thank you you coaches. You mean so much at both schools that you do for our young people. And I tell people what you do is not about the money. As we said one time, if you

027figured out we're like 60 some cent an hour that if you add it up for all the hours that they put into. And not only during the season, a lot of our coaches here work during the off season. They don't get paid doing the off season, but it's that commitment that they they give to our kids and just giving them all the resources and helping them to be a better person. And uh and again, I like to thank you coaches. Thank you all for making this happen. I'm going to get through this real quick cuz we got a quite a few people here. I do first of all want to start off by our uh our head football coach. He's here now. Coach Eric Petway, he was named this year by the Detroit Lions uh

028the football coach of the week by them. He had a chance to uh they brought him down him and his family down to a Ford Field and he just might want to say a word or two about that honor that he accomplished this year. OKAY. >> [applause] >> COACH PETWAY IS ALSO OUR WRESTLING coach and Coach Mosco is here, too. She's like with our girls uh wrestling coach, too. So, Coach Petway is going to do all of them together, talk about the wrestling uh program cuz we did have two state qualifiers this year in the wrestling program. We had one female and we had one male, but again, I'm going to let Coach Petway talk about the male that we did have. And by the way, he's uh also a two-sport athlete. He's a baseball

029player and we had a game over there tonight. Unfortunately, they did get a couple innings in, but they are doing senior night over there with all the parents, so unable he's unable to be here tonight. Uh but he can talk a little bit about that young man and his accomplishment. Then I'm going to bring Coach Mosco up to talk about the uh women's program. Um I just wanted to say um first of all, if you would have told me 5 years ago I'd be coaching wrestling, I would have I just would have had a stunned look on my face and thought, "You really need help." Um it was kind of a fluke how it all came about and all I wanted to say is that I'm incredibly grateful that I've had this chance to do

030this for 4 years. Um it has been the most rewarding thing uh I've ever been involved in. And um I'm just very grateful for the opportunity. Uh something I'd like to say about um Miss Mariah Simpson here, this was her third year with us, and it was the third time that she qualified for states. >> [applause] >> She came to us like many of our uh female wrestlers never having done anything like that before, and I just I'm so uh in awe of their bravery to do something like that. And it's been an absolute delight getting to know these young ladies. It really has been wonderful. Um watching Mariah just sort of seemingly effortlessly win over and over again has really been something else. So, we're looking forward to next year um and seeing uh

031how things uh progress for her. Uh lots of scholarships open for wrestlers uh in colleges more and more every year, so keep that in mind. See y'all. >> [laughter] [applause] >> THANK YOU. GOOD AFTERNOON. WELL, GOOD EVENING, ACTUALLY. UM definitely wanted to thank the school board and my administration that's here tonight for just giving me the opportunity to be a part of the Wayne Westland School District and the Wayne Memorial culture. Um it's been a great thing since I've been here. Every day has been just uh almost a vacation. That's even though it's work. Um every day has been great. Um definitely football season didn't go the way as planned, but I got to meet a bunch of great young men that came out, worked hard, gave everything that they had. Um and just keep

032they kept grinding, kept building. Um and we're already in the weight room preparing for next year and preparing for next season. Wrestling, Daniel Harris was actually one of the kids that came out for football and I had him for both seasons, wrestling and football. Uh he just did a phenomenal job as far as working hard, showing up every day, doing everything that we asked of him. He actually have earned himself the opportunity to go to Lead Prep next year to continue his education and continue to earn a scholarship at a Division II or Division III school, um and just continue to continuously moving forward. Um just wanted to thank everybody for this opportunity. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> Thank you, coaches, both of your coaches. And also, we would like to say about

033Coach Pathway, this was his first year coaching football and he's doing a phenomenal job. Uh I think the last year before you got here, I think we wind up finishing the season about 18 kids. And now we have to like 60 or 65 kids on that uh football program. So, he's doing a great job and I know we're going to get there. >> [applause] >> All right, starting off with the winter sports, uh I'd like to bring up the head coach, Jarvis Mitchell. He going to do some of his girls and he going to introduce his coaching staff and they were district champions this year. >> [applause] >> I do just want to say about uh Jarvis Mitchell, he is one of the top girls basketball coaches in the state of Michigan. He does a

034awesome job. Uh he didn't what, been in the district what, probably the last 8 years or so in there at the one 11. >> [laughter] >> Who's counting? But he does a awesome job with our girls program, but come on up, Coach Jarvis. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Um I like to first introduce my assistant coaches who definitely, without them, uh my program our program wouldn't be as strong as it is. Coach Jeffrey McKinney. >> [applause] >> My wife, COACH JILL MITCHELL. >> [screaming] [applause] >> UM SO, UH REAL QUICK, um we had an amazing season. We finished uh 23 and 3 this year. Uh we won the district for the 10th time in a row, I believe, or I think we missed a year. We won like eight in a row and then won

035like two or something like that. Um one of the more important things though that I want to highlight about our program is that every senior on my team has a scholarship to PLAY COLLEGE BASKETBALL. >> [applause] >> A LOT OF TIMES THAT GETS overshadowed when you come to, you know, meetings like this cuz it's about the wins. You know, congratulations to everybody here that's when One of the one of the things that we try to emphasize mostly important is about our kids getting to the next level and preparing and preparing them to get to the next level. So, um I'd like to highlight uh two of my kids that are committed to go to uh higher level and that's um Mariah Cross. She's um >> [applause] >> She's a senior point guard that'll be playing

036at Temple University next year. >> [applause] >> And and then Miss Kaylee King. >> [applause] >> Now now she'll be she'll be taking her talents to Akron University next year. >> [applause] >> Just had I had had a lot of fun with this group. Uh the 26ers, it seems like they've been with me for 10 years. Just, you know, day in and day out, they committed themselves and they came in and worked their butts off and they left a huge impression for the girls that are following them for years to come. Um I can say I can go on and go on about my team. Anybody know, you can just ask me one question and I'd give you 90 answers just talking about them, but one of the more things I'm proud about is that

037we averaged a 3.3 grade point average this year AS A TEAM. >> [applause] >> SO, ALONGSIDE OF THAT, I JUST AGAIN I WANT TO SAY thank you um to our administration. Absolutely, thank you guys the board. We really appreciate you guys supporting us and coming out. We saw a lot of familiar faces at our games that supported us. We really appreciate that and I just want to say thank you again and congratulations to all the teams that are here. >> [applause] >> All right. Thank you Coach Jarvis. Next, I would like to bring up basketball coaches. Coach Steve Brook, he was unable to be here. He's out of town this week, but filling in for him is his son. He's the assistant head coach, Ryan Brooks. They won the districts this year. They won regionals

038and also they were won the conference in the KLA this year with the men's basketball team and coach Ryan, but we all call him Coach Pops. He's going to come up and talk a little bit about his boys basketball program and some of the accolades that they achieved this year. >> [applause] >> Will all the guys stand up there if they don't mind? Or you can stand back here if you don't mind. You can stand back here. >> All right, uh first of all I want to thank everybody for inviting us and all. Congratulations to all the winter sports and spring sports. Um want to give a special thanks to these guys for dealing with us all the time. You know, cuz we're we're pretty hard to deal with. You know, we have uh You

039can clap. You Yeah. Uh but all jokes aside, these guys work all year round. Um summer time 90° weather um 5 mi running to McDonald's, all that kind of stuff. All that fun stuff. You know, but the main thing is we just try to prepare these guys for college. Um we had a pretty solid year. We finished 23 and 3. Um won the conference overall for the first year. That was a good accomplishment. UM >> [applause] >> WE GOT A YOUNG MAN WALKING IN LATE. HE'S A SENIOR, so he'll be He has some consequences tomorrow for being late. Yeah. But uh we won the overall conference, won the district. Um and we went to the regional championship and won that and lost to uh Brother Rice in the Elite Eight. Um but most of all,

040these guys, they were humble kids, do a lot of uh community service work. Uh we take the guys to church to the first con- congregational church um to do service with them. Um the Rotary Club, they donated money to the program. The guys went over and spoke about the program. Um You know, a lot of a lot of community service work, which you know, brings the community like together. [clears throat] That's what we preach most, you know, because these guys got to showcase more than just their basketball talent. That's right. You know, they got to people got to understand that these guys are great citizens. They got good They got good grades. Um they all mannerable. We go to restaurants, we get compliments from the cooks and whatever how mannerable these guys are. And that's

041the that's our overall joy with these guys. Um we did have a few How many seniors we got here? Which hand? Yeah. We got six or seven seniors and Mr. Chase as well. I'm sorry. >> [laughter] >> I'm sorry. Say six. Um We had uh we got seven seniors here. Uh all these young men are going to college somewhere. Um Cyrus Goings going to Grand Valley I mean Saginaw Valley University. Uh full ride scholarship. Um >> [applause] >> Brandon Quick got a offer from Kellogg, but he's still kind of indecisive of where he's going, but he's going somewhere. Uh James Reese he's going to Oakland University uh for academics. >> [applause] >> Roy Johnson and Amari uh Reese uh these young men well Amari's from Belize. Um so he he wasn't he wasn't able to

042play this year due to um the curriculum. But most coaches would have just shipped him back to Belize. But we we brought upon ourselves to keep him around. And um he's a great kid. He's a great kid. But him and Roy uh committed to Adrian uh college last Wednesday. >> [applause] >> Last not least uh this young man can step forward. But he uh Jaylen Allen the Wayne Westland Wayne High School all-time leading scorer. Um he finished with 1,919 points. Um uh four-year varsity starter. Um, all-state, dream team, um, every athlete, all-conference four years. Um, helped take us to the Breslin last year to the the state championship game. You know, just overall, uh, great kid, high academic kid. All these kids are high academic. Um, but he just he's been around us since he

043was born. Okay. You know, so he's he's he's heard it all. You know, but we're very proud of this young man and we we glad that he was able to represent this high school real well and he's [clears throat] going to have a tremendous career at Toledo University. I ALSO WANT, >> [applause] >> UH, LASTLY, I WANT, UH, CYRUS GOINS TO [clears throat] TALK about his experience at Wayne then we're done cuz he's a he's a, um, transfer from Flat Rock. Um, 4.0 student, >> Okay. honors classes, you know, he's he's a exceptional kid, but at first he was kind of nervous about attending the Wayne-Westland school district. So, I want him to, um, tell tell you guys about his experience and that's it. Awesome. >> [applause] >> All right, I got a question for

044All right, so, uh, I'm Cyrus. Uh, I just transferred here this year for my senior year to Wayne and, uh, for me it's been a great experience. You know, uh, going into like a whole new school for your last year of school it's like it's really like you can't really like mess up, you know what I'm saying? Like it's your last year. It's it's got to make it count and, uh, I thought it was going to be hard transition. Uh, didn't really wasn't 100% confident in the move, but, uh, like just being around the guys and like Coach Brooks and Pops, uh, this made me like like we really a family and they helped me helped me transition here and just helped me be a way better player and like be way more confident and

045like carry myself like like how I am. Like I'm just, you know what I'm saying? No, I'm for real, you know what I'm saying? Like So, like, uh, yeah, I mean Speak the truth. I don't know what's wrong with you know my experience at Wayne's been great. I love the workouts. I love all that. You know they they going whatever whine about it whatever but you know what I'm saying? I just embraced it. Coach Brooks and Pops took me in for real. They really changed my life extending my basketball career going to college cuz coming here I didn't have no looks or nothing. I wasn't known or nothing and then they really just like gave me the opportunity to keep moving forward and I mean yeah I don't I really know what else to say

046you know WHAT I'M SAYING? >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT FOR THE RETURNING GUYS WE HOW MANY returning guys we got here present? >> [clears throat] >> Well pray for these guys this summer because we got to we got a lot of work to do. All right. GO ZIPS. >> [applause] >> CAN Y'ALL STEP OUT IN THE LOBBY FOR pictures please? But again I just would like to say thank you Coach Pops and to your father Coach Brooks they do a awesome awesome job with these young men and help you know preparing them to go to the next level but more importantly helping them to become a better person and become a young man you know to go out and to society one day. Next I would like to bring up boys and girls head bowling

047coach. She does a awesome job in running those programs. She not only does both of those but she also runs the JV program for the boys and girls so she does it all. Uh, Day a couple years ago she won a state championship in in uh, with the men's bowling team. So, come on up coach and uh, you got a couple Wait, I know you you have one young lady here you want to talk about. Come on up. >> [applause] >> Good evening. Um, so yep, my name's Christine Day. I've been doing the bowling program over at Way Memorial for 11 years now. Um, I took over the boys and the girls program eight years ago, something like that. It's been a while. Um, one of the gentlemen on our boys team, uh, he actually

048he was the Division 1 winner last year. Um, but he's unavailable to be here today. Um, but he was also a state finalist, so um, he was going to come, however, he wasn't able to, so I apologize. But, I do also have Isabella Gillen. She's a senior, um, and she was a state finalist this year. So, please give her a round of >> [applause] >> I don't really have much to say other than I'm just so proud of her. Um, I've seen her grow. I've watched her from freshman year to senior year. I've seen her improve in so many ways. Um, it's always really tough when you lose, right? Um, you all, I'm sure every athlete understands that. We've never won all of our matches, every coach, we understand that the losses can be the

049hardest things. Um, and not to bring us down with that, but I really want to point out just how extremely proud I was of Bella the day of states, she missed cut after her first six games of qualifying, which is an exhausting day trying to throw six games all at once. Um, she missed the cut by 14 pins. That's it. And I have never seen somebody take it so well, be so proud of herself, be so composed, um and so thankful to the people who came to watch her and support her. And I just really wanted to point that out that even when we lose, that you can still be an amazing athlete. And you that's what you should be most proud of is how you handle the losses. So, as far as I'm concerned,

050she is an absolute winner in my book. Um and also, I don't know if she's aware of this yet, um but she was also nominated as a finalist for the Detroit Free Press Detroit High School Sports Association Awards. >> [applause] >> Which she didn't know, so I'm so glad I got to surprise her with that. >> [laughter] >> Hey coach, what was the boy's name? Can I mention it? Lyman Derrick the third. Yep. >> [applause] >> Thank you, coach. No. >> [laughter] >> All right, uh thank you, coach Day. Appreciate and uh everything you do for our young men and our young ladies in running that bowling program. Keep up the great work. All right, the next person I'd like to bring on for our winner sports, uh he ran both programs. It's a joint

051co-op program with Wayne Memorial and John Glenn. He did a phenomenal job with those kids and he also won the conference championship uh this year. I want to introduce coach Lyman and his assistant coach Dave Dagnue. Y'all guys come on up. I think they have a couple of their players. [applause] I think he got a couple of their players here with them in that co-op unified basketball program, but I mean, if you ever had a chance to come out and watch them play, and they also, too, had a chance to go down to uh Little Caesars Arena this year. They played down there, uh and they won They won that game, and they actually beat Birmingham Seaholm, correct? Yeah, so they did an awesome job. The kids went down there, took pictures down on the

052court, got a chance to play down there, and they just had a great time. And those are one of those experiences uh they they will remember for the rest of their lives having that opportunity to go down to Little Caesars Arena and play a basketball game down there. Coach Lyman. Yep. Hey. Um this is the fourth, well, actually the third year we've had a unified basketball team. Um and I've been the coach uh all those years. Um I will say one thing. I said this the first time I ever came up here the first year. Um we didn't lose to Belleville. >> [laughter] >> And we've still never lost to Belleville. They absolutely [applause] I There's a a teacher at at Wayne Memorial, Mike Harding, whose son, grown son, is now teaching at Belleville. And

053so, the morning after the day after we beat Belleville once again this year on our home court, um he came up to me, and he said, "Oh, yeah, you know, they think you cheat. They think you're all this stuff." You know, it's just called beating them. That's all. >> [laughter] >> Um so, this year was exciting. Dave and I This year was exciting. This is the second year Dave and I have worked together. Um This year was exciting [cough] cuz we went 7-0 7 and 0 in league play, and we're uh the KLA champions. And then we did have the opportunity, of course, pay for it, but you had the opportunity to go out and play at Little Caesars, and um we won down there, but interesting what Dave actually was out of town that

054uh but you'll notice that he's still in the picture. >> [laughter] >> Like an angelic glow. >> And he looks like a divine light is coming down on her because the the Photoshop was a little cleaner. Um but we were on the bus and so one of my partners, I don't know if you everybody knows how unified works, but you have three special needs students on the court and then two gen ed partners we call them. And so we had an incredible group of we had uh seven partners this year. Uh six from Wayne Memorial, one from uh John Glenn. And um so one of our partners, one of our more personality intensive partners uh got up behind me on the bus and sat down. He said, "Coach, I just got to say one thing.

055So we were so proud of going seven and oh and winning the the league and everything else and we love working with all these kids and we you know, really feel like we're a team. We don't plan on losing." So So if you think we're just going to like go down there, there's a fine line between just having fun and winning games. And so they definitely wanted to win and and in fact they did. Uh I have two of my players Jordan Maywell, stand up, come on. Uh Jordan's never seen a three-point shot he hasn't taken. And Tommy Henley, who's been with us the whole time. Tommy used to be a three-point shooter, but we convinced her this year So we we we discovered that the the best way to to score in that league

056was fast break. So you get a you get a rebound and just fire it down the court. And Tommy became our outlet person and she made a lot of layups, so still MADE SOME SHOTS. >> [applause] >> SO, IT WAS IT WAS A GREAT IT WAS A GREAT TIME. The biggest challenge for Unified, as Dave can tell you, is that there are three schools, which is us, John Glenn, and Innovative Academy. And so, the organization is is pretty intense and the communication every time something changes, a date changes, a time changes, you have to I have to get a hold of all the teachers of all the different schools with memos and flyers, could you please make a copy of this and hand it out to the players. So, we had a great group of

057parents this year. >> [clears throat] >> And a lot of cooperation from all the um And Jason, I'm sorry. I don't know if Jason's still here. We usually play >> [clears throat] >> one of our home games at John Glenn. And we we got new uniforms this year through Special Olympics and they're reversible. They had the red side, you know, Glenn colors. And uh who was it? Northville? They didn't want to play us, so they canceled. >> [laughter] >> They just didn't want to play us, so we canceled. Um Anyway, I I appreciate all the help everybody gives us and all the support. Uh Corey's great. Our whole administration's great. Mark is is phenomenal. I mean, he was very supportive, very helpful cuz we had to iron out practice times and I mean, you know,

058we have two other pretty, you know, pretty good basketball teams at Wayne Memorial. So, there's a lot of lot of lot of things going on. So, I'm retiring. Thank god. Dave will be taking over as the head coach next year and uh with one of the other staff members, Glenn Miller, who couldn't be here tonight uh as his assistant. So, hopefully the program will go on and be a successful. It really is Next year, if you haven't been to a unified game, >> [snorts] >> you just got to go because they're just I mean they're just fun. They're Oh, we also had a for the second time a special guest appearance by Daryl Beebe playing the national anthem on a sax. So, that's all a kind of special treat, too. So, thank you. UM THANKS

059A LOT. [applause] YOU GOOD? AND AGAIN, UH COACH LYMAN AND UH Coach Dagno, I'll just say thank you. I appreciate all what you all have done this year for our young people. And like I said, if you've never had a chance to see a unified basketball program, a game, it's unbelievable because with those kids, it's just about having fun. You know, winning losing really don't make a difference to some of those guys, but just seeing their faces light up, having fun, their parents down there. I mean, it's it's a great it's a great uh game to go watch and see those young kids perform. All right, next I want to move into our spring sports. We had a lot of success this past weekend. I want to bring up our boys uh head uh track

060coach, Aaron Bryant. He's also a staff member here in the Wayne-Westland School District. He had uh some young men who qualified this weekend in the regionals. They will be going to the state finals here in a couple weeks. They won the first place, I believe in what? The 4 by 1 relay? Yeah. Yep. Come on up, Coach Bryant, and you want to introduce [applause] MAYBE YOUR STAFF? OKAY. FIRST OF ALL, I WANT TO THANK ADMIN. Kind of support. Couldn't ask for better. All right. Second of all, I want to bring up the girls track coach. Uh this is my partner in crime right here. Usually, if you see one, you see the other one. We always bouncing ideas off each other. Uh Track athletes, can y'all come up here? Ladies too. All right. I had

061to look this up. So, last weekend, we had 18 all-region athletes, 10 state qualifiers, four regional winners. Uh 4 by 1 team actually broke the record for the 4 by 1. >> [applause] >> 42.7? No. 42.10. Something Some ridiculous. Yeah. I'm They're still trying to convince me they ran that fast. All right. Uh coach, you got it? Oh, you get to go. Hello. Uh I'd like to thank Edman and the board for for giving us this platform. Um the girls' track season this year, we finished actually 4 and 1, second in the division. And yes, we do have four state qualifiers here. But we also have six other ones down here. Could the track girls [applause] that ran this just stand up? >> [applause] >> As we are at Wayne, thanks to other coaches and

062Coach Pearson and everyone and we are a family. We are a family there. We work together. Um my assistant coach, Coach Collins, Coach Coleman, that's our brain trust. They help get things done. Um this year for state qualifiers, we had Kindall Lilly who is also a scholar athlete, by the way. Stepped up big for us and FILLED THE HOLE. >> [applause] >> WE HAVE LAYLA BROWN. >> [cheering] [applause] >> LAYLA ALREADY HAS TWO TRACK offers for next year, so we'll see how that go. Um we also have We have senior AMBER WARRICK. >> [cheering] [applause] >> SHE WILL BE ATTENDING CLEARY University to run track. So our streak continues of getting folks in school. So that's that's good thing. And we HAVE CARLIA CRYER. >> [applause] >> CARLIA BROKE TWO SCHOOL records this year that

063was up there for a long time. The 300-meter hurdle record and the 400-meter record. >> [applause] >> Just this past weekend, she decided to break the 400 record again. >> [applause] >> After her graduation, she's probably number two all-time underneath Aniyah Battle. So let's see what the future holds. All right. And that's my pick. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU, COACHES. AND I DO WANT TO SAY ABOUT Coach McGee, too. Some of you might not recognize. He was the coach here when Aniyah Aniyah Battle was here. We did put her in the Hall of Fame, as you know. She's one of our top student athletes all-time in track and field here. She participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. But he coached her right here at Wayne Memorial. And she told me she wanted that

064gold medal. She wanted that uh that track named after her. and I said I'll let y'all know. That's what Aviana told me. So, we going to be pulling for in these next Olympics 2028 if she can get a gold medal. And then like I say, I'm going to come back to y'all. She want that uh track. She told me name after her. But coach, appreciate all what y'all do. Coach Collins, Coach Coleman, what y'all do for our kids. Man, y'all put a lot of time in it and again like I say, it's not about the money. It's about giving back to our young people and and seeing them become young people and and being successful in life and moving on and having families. But again, thank you coaches. Appreciate y'all. Thank you. >> [applause] >>

065AND LAST BUT LEAST, I WANT TO BRING UP THIS one coach here. Uh You know, uh Yeah, y'all want to go ahead and you want to take some pictures or Uh yeah. But as I mentioned, I want to bring up our last coach here. It's uh He was willing. He's one of our assistant uh football coaches for the boys football team. And uh they came out with a new sport this year. They came out with the uh girls flag football team. Uh I know Mr. Toko had gave me and uh Mr. Maloya call. He said, "Hey, what do y'all think? You know, this is a growing sport. You know, you think we can get it going here? You think we got coaches who would be interested in coaching that program? What do you think about

066our young ladies? You think they would want to participate in that flag football?" And I told him, "Well, let me check around. Let me see if I have any of my coaches who might be interested in." And I asked a couple coaches and the first one I asked was uh Coach uh Reggie Pearson and uh he was all in. >> [applause] [cheering] >> He was all in. He said, "I'm ready to go." So, I called Mr. Toko back and told him, hey, I got my man. He's ready to go. And then like I said, this is our first year in this program and we just finished this weekend. Uh we beat Belleville and we went four and oh this season for winning the league title. >> [applause] >> In his first year of coaching the

067girls flag football team. And uh I'm going to let him talk a little bit more. I don't want to give it away, but he want to tell y'all something very special uh that he has accomplished this year and I'm going to let him go ahead and tell y'all that. Come on UP COACH PEARSON. >> [cheering and applause] >> OKAY, UH FIRST I WANT TO THANK THANK you Dr. Causse. This is a prestigious board that I'm in front of today. I want to thank Mr. Gildersleeve, our principal for allowing us to be here. And then of course, you know, our athletic director coach Woodson. Thank you guys for allowing me to be here to actually put in the sport and and coach these young ladies this year. Um this was a challenge and it's still is

068a challenge. Uh for me especially after coaching boys football for 31 years. It's it's it's it's new and but I was I started the program over at River Rouge, the flag football program over there last year and they they did pretty well this year. Um but this was this was different. This was more um I think me and the girls are it's it's more chemistry here with the girls that we have this year. Um we had some some we got a lot of I think out of the 25 girls we have, we had 15 girls that are multi-sport uh uh athletes here. And um it's just been a real treasure. If I you know, to be with these young ladies and to get them around. And so we are we are Uh, making leaps and

069bounds in in a matter of weeks. Like these ladies didn't know anything about a football 6 to 7 weeks ago. And now they can come up and tell you a route tree, what's a cover two, what's cover three, you know, what are the soft spots in cover two, you know, and I know I might be speaking foreign language to some, but for all my football junkies, you know what I'm talking about. Um, they know how to T step, they know how to do a lot of things on the football field. And we're not done, right? So, we only have six seniors this year out of 25 girls, and so everybody else returns next year. But out of those six seniors right now, I got two of them, well, one right now, she currently has an

070offer from from Eureka College down in Eureka, which is insane because the sport is only 6 weeks old, and for us to have college offers for these young ladies is is tremendous. And then she's also has an uh, she's working on an offer right now from Davenport University. And so, and there's a few other ladies that are speaking to uh, some colleges right now. I think I know Miss Jackson over there, she was just I actually made her get on the phone with the college coach while we were waiting on the board meeting to start. And she she had a conversation with those those coaches, but their ultimate goal is is to get these uh, it doesn't matter if it's D1 or if it's D2 or if it's D3, we're looking for D-free. That's what

071we want for these girls TO GET. >> [applause] >> WE WANT WE WANT WE WANT THESE LADIES TO GET FREE EDUCATION, and you know, so they don't have those those student loans like some of us sitting in this room here that we trying to get rid of. And so, that's my that's my main focus, but one of the bigger things is I want them to have fun at doing this. If there's if there's no fun, there's no there's no purpose in it. Right? And so, they'll play harder for us if it if it's a lot a lot more fun. And so, um, we uh, of course, we beat Belleville, which that was great, you know. Um, that was great, especially you know, after you know, after taking it over the head with the boys football

072earlier this year. It was gratifying to beat them at their field. We did have colleges at the field looking at some of our student athletes too while we were there. And so with that winning that game that puts us four and 0. We are the conference champions, the Great Iron Heroes champions. And now that gives us a automatic bid to Ford Field. AND SO >> [applause] >> AND SO WE'LL WE'LL GO DOWN TO FORD FIELD AND play into a 15 team tournament one game elimination. Our first game is Sunday May 30th at 8:00 a.m. Saturday, I'm sorry. Saturday at 8:00 a.m. May 30th. The kicker about that is I got six seniors and that's the day of graduation. And graduation starts at you know, at 9:00 a.m. And that's fine. We we're just going to

073coach these girls up and give it a good shot at it which I know we got a good shot at it cuz I'm confident in the girls. I tell them every day I believe in them, you know, no matter what the circumstances is. And so we'll have a good shot at that and if we of course if we move on if we win, we'll play another other three games on Sunday. We'll compete for the state championship. And that's our that's the ultimate goal that we're trying to get in this next couple of weeks. And then of course our ultimate goal is getting that free money from the college and everything. And so we're more than willing to keep everybody posted in the and updated on the the progressiveness of the program, how the girls are

074doing, you know, some of the girls were working on some GPAs cuz you can't I can't sell you the schools if your GPA ain't all right. And and that's I think that's the good thing about this program that we put in with this flag football cuz some of the girls don't play sports but they needed something an outlet uh to help them push them with the academic piece of it all. And so, I've seen some girls have poor academics, but their academics are climbing every week as we we have progress reports every week that they have to turn in. And so, if they have any bad remarks, bad grades in their progress report, they don't play that game. They have to sit down until they fix it. Um and so, uh we're doing a great

075job on that. But, for the most part, I just want to, you know, thank the ladies for allowing me to be your coach, you know, um I want to thank again uh coach for uh choosing me to do this job. Um I I'm I'm just I'm having the time of my life uh doing this. It's bringing back old memories of like really being involved like, you know, um with something good. Um but, these ladies are phenomenal. They work hard. I coach them hard. I'm not going to lie. They know that. I I coach them hard. But, it's for the better for them, right? Because if they can deal with me, they'll be able to deal with any other coach, anybody else, you know, that they'll come across. And so, um I just appreciate them being

076patient with me, um taking the hard coaching, taking the long practice, uh doing the gashes that we How many of y'all like gashes? You don't know no gashes? No gashes? No gashes? Okay. All right. We won't do no gashes. I might take some off this week. All right. But, um no, I just want to thank you guys for giving us this opportunity and allowing these young ladies to show that they can play this game, too. They can play this sport, too. They can be champions in this thing. They can win. You know, that's the biggest thing is they can. They can. You get so many times people telling them that they cannot do this as women and whatever. But, they're doing it. And just a fun fact, I'm going to get you I'm going to

077get you going cuz I can get long-winded here. Um we we actually got we had a What was that? We got something down with the boys not too long ago and everything, and it didn't look good for the boys. I'll just say that. So, it was it it went well for the girls. But, um I just again just want to thank everybody for this opportunity. Um and uh yeah, let's let's let's go see. LET'S WIN THIS THING. >> [applause] >> AGAIN, COACH, I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY, AMEN. I thank you. I appreciate you. Keep up the great work. I mean, you're doing a phenomenal job. Uh not only working with these young people uh in in flag football, but also he's one of our persons that we have in the school there Wayne Memorial,

078and he does an excellent job in helping us keep that thing where we need to be in the in to move forward. But, keep up the good work, and I appreciate you, coach Pearson. >> [applause] >> And before I close out, I do have one I do have I see one of my coaches is down there. I just want to give her a shout-out. Mrs. Fredenburg, she's our girls uh tennis coach. She does an awesome job. [applause] We had our numbers up down in tennis. How many you have out there? At least about 15 20? She had 22 this year, and if you had a chance, just go down there. Those girls just having fun, and like I say, coach is doing a great job, her and her assistant, Kelly Ramona. But, thank you, coach.

079Appreciate it. And last >> [applause] >> Last and not least, I just like to say again to you board members, Dr. Caudill and central office people, without your support, none of this would have been happening here today. None of these kids would have been in these seats and chairs and having the opportunity to play at the next level, to get a scholarship, to further education, if we didn't have athletics and sports here, you know, in Wayne-Westland School District. But, again, thank you all for making that happen, for having these kids here, you know, to go to the next level and just get education more, just getting them ready for life. Cuz like I say again, without you all, this wouldn't have happened here, you know, today or at Wayne-Westland. But, thank you all, and I

080appreciate it. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next, we have on the agenda is citizens comment. >> Point of order. Madam Vice President, I made a motion that we suspend item three until we came back from closed session. And I believe that Mr. Ambers uh had a motion on the table and that we should uh uh work with the two motions at this point. That motion failed, so you want to start over? It didn't uh fail. We didn't uh >> pass. >> Okay. So it failed, right? Mr. Ambers, would you like to make the motion? I move that we make Ms. Melody Hines president of the Wayne Westland School Board, Dr. Frederick Weaver as vice president, and Mr. David Cox as secretary. Support. Um Mr. Ambers, can you show me the policy cuz I'm the vice

081president and you moving to have me removed, correct? Correct. Can you share with the policy so it can be on record what the policy says about that? Um I believe in the t- December 23rd board meeting, that was never shared when Mr. Cox was removed and I was in the audience for that. >> was cuz I had I made the motion. >> And I had the um and I had to read the um Point of order, Madam Chairman, a motion has been made and seconded. So there needs to be either discussion on the motion and a vote. Well, we having discussion. And the discussion is I want him to read out loud the policy. Uh point of order, he has no responsibility to read out loud the policy to you. >> He made the motion.

082>> There's been a motion, it's been supported. That's it. Um >> There's a motion on the table. It's been supported. It needs to be acted on. There has been a motion to remove a officer. We have a policy for that. >> there's been a motion to install officers. Yeah. >> that that there's currently officers is a secondary issue. Okay. >> The the the motion is to install officers. Okay. Which is which should have been handled, but you wouldn't allow it. Okay? You wouldn't allow it till uh you wouldn't wait until Ms. Hines was here. Knowing that she was coming. So, there's been a motion and it's been supported, and I demand a vote. Okay, you can get the vote, and I demand that he reads the policy before I move my seat. That is not

083necessary. >> Okay, it's it's not necessary, but we do have a policy, and I just want to read it. >> Yes, we do. I I move we call the question. Yes. You're violating Robert's Rules right now, Madam Chair. >> No, I'm not. So, what is your motion, Andrew? Ms. Belady Hines is president, Dr. Frederick Weaver is vice president, and Mr. David Cox is secretary. Okay. And y'all want to do roll call vote? Any any any conversation on it? Anybody have anything to say? Roll call. Uh Dr. Weaver? Yes. Mr. Cox? Yes. Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Ms. Ebony Mitchell? No. Ms. Hines? Yes. And Ms. May? No. Motion passes. Congratulations. Thank you. Uh call the to call a recess. 5 minutes? 10 minutes? 5 minutes. Um Everybody should get Are we moving seats? Are we moving seats?

084Yes. After the recess. >> Yeah, after the No, I'm asking the president for Yeah, we'll be moving. Thank you. Do you know where we're moving to? Yeah. She don't Yes, they got to get out. All right. We'll be starting the meeting. So, right now we are at Um, let's see. The citizens comments. Agenda items. And we have one, two This is non-agenda. Oh. Don't screw it up. Uh, we have Gwen Bruntonboro. Wayne Memorial High School. Which part of my year is current? This is agenda non-agenda. Um, again, I'm just going to ask. It is agenda adjacent because it's about BoardDocs. We still don't have information. We are still not as transparent as we used to be prior to the board adopting BoardDocs. Um during your time I could have read all the committee reports um,

085and all these other things that are going to go up for approval, but we do not have that information. So, we have less information still than we did with the other way the agenda was written out. Maybe it could be posted online. I'm not asking for paper copies, but I'm just asking to have the information. And I think a lot of us especially those that can't come to the meetings would like the information. Cuz even sitting here, I once you talk about it, I still don't have the information. So, um and it's always talked about transparency. So, thank you. No other? No other ones. So, that will be with the consent agenda. And let's see. And we have the minutes. Excuse me, Miss President Heights. I passed a paper down there for a um citizen

086comments. Where is it? Andrew, did I give it to you? Yeah, I passed it down. I I'm who? That's non-agenda items. >> items. Oh, she's is that a non-agenda items? It Is it on the agenda? It says land sale. They Inkster land sale. Is that an agenda item? Yes. But considering what I just witnessed, um that's you. Oh, okay. Okay. I'm sorry. Certainly. Yes, go up there, ma'am. Sandra Waitley. Waitley. Waitley. >> [snorts] >> Is Is this Miss Waitley, is this your email address at city of Inkster? Yes. Okay. Is that what's written down there? Yeah, I just couldn't under- I just couldn't see it. Yeah, uh-huh. Of course you couldn't. All right. In regards to the Inkster land sale, that's why we're here again tonight. And I just want to reiterate that there are

087two kinds of relationships, reciprocal and exploitative. And uh we seem to have the latter with Wayne Local >> [cough] >> Schools. Uh the problem I would see is that hypothetically speaking, is the money you're going to get from this land worth the problems that it's going to occur down the line. Just Just saying hypothetically speaking. Have you considered the financial deficit that would result from the absence of our children at some crucial juncture in the school year? I mean, if this is all about money the last I heard we had almost 1,300 kids going to this school. And the annual loss of revenue for that many kids would it be worth it to you to keep our land? Is my question. And before you go on the dark side all I'm asking is that we

088reach some sort of mutually beneficial arrangement. Because this is not something as you freely admitted before that you earned or garnered under any greatness of your own. So, returning it to us I would think would be something that would show your ability to be reciprocal as we have been with you all. So that's all I have to say about it. Thank you, Ms. Whitley. Any more people who have any agenda items would like to go to the stage? Any No. Okay. So, we will move forward to consent agenda. I have one more. Oh, you got to fill out a sheet. I'm sorry. Is there a sheet for me to fill out? >> Yes. It's at the door. I think Steve went to go get it. Okay. Thank you. Uh shall I wait to fill out

089the form? You can fill out afterwards. Go ahead. >> Mhm. Okay. Uh good afternoon. I am um Geraldine Richardson. I am a member of the city council. I've been here for 12 years. I have served on the school board for Inkster for 4 years. I've been a commissioner, CBA. I've done everything I could for my city. But I'm speaking to you today as an alumni. I am a Inkster High School graduate. And I just want to say that when I was coming up we always learned the history our heritage of our land. My parents came from the south. They couldn't live everywhere. They settled in Inkster. We didn't have schools. But Mr. Henry Ford decided that he would make sure that we were educated. Then he built schools. And as we built the elementary school

090I had relatives that once they got to the eighth grade there were no high schools for two or 10. So, Mr. Henry Ford himself went to Dearborn. And he had four of my relatives he accepted at Dearborn High School. And as the kids grew and others came along, they got to a limit of six. No more coloreds in there. So, it was it was necessary for us to have our own schools because we weren't allowed to live everywhere and we were not allowed to be educated everywhere. That's unfortunately our heritage. But as we went on, I saw my parents vote for bonds. I saw us raise money. I started alumni foundation. We did scholarship for our kids that I was really honored to see the children and the sports that you had because we were

091there. We had a student that got a bronze medal at the Olympics. We've had the Marvelettes. We've had Don Barton. We've had some of everyone to come through Inkster schools, but I just want to say this. There were about 55 school districts at the time that they destroyed and I'm saying destroyed Inkster schools because at that time they took a ball and we watched them tear down the walls. The trophies that your kids were earned here here and I am kind of emotional, so excuse me because it really upsets me because we had to go in the trash to get our trophies. to get our class composites, our yearbooks. But, the thing about the land, I think I heard some of you say at the last meeting that it's all about the money. It's not

092about the money. >> the time is running out, ma'am. >> Okay. It's our heritage. It is. All of Anson had didn't pay the debt. We paid the debt. 2.2 square miles. And I think we're entitled to have the land. Thank you. Thank you. That's right. All right, so we are moving to the consent agenda. Move to approve. Support. >> [clears throat] >> Roll call vote. Commissioner Mitchell. Yes. Mr. Ambers. Yes. Dr. Weaver. Yes. Ms. May. Yes. Cox is yes. Thank you. Motion Motion Yes. Motion passes. All right, so next we will go to um the minutes. And we have the meeting minutes for Let's see. Those were part of the consent agenda, I believe. >> right here. Okay, so we're in the committee reports. Thank you. So, let's see. Wait one second. All right, so

093um I know Mr. Rashad is not here for the uh education committee. Um does anybody have any minutes what they like to read from that committee? I have the minutes. I can share those minutes as a member of the committee. Thank you. >> Um we met on gosh, Wednesday, May 6th at 5:00 p.m. During that meeting, we discussed an update on the parent advisory committee meeting. Um and at that time, we just talked about what the committee parent committee should look like or could look like moving forward um with the parents actually being the ones that run the committee run the committee and that the district supports that. Um we also talked about the student advisory committee. We reviewed the student application and discussed when the application would be going out and it is my

094understanding that it has been shared out already and that they will be due the week of Memorial Day. Um we did not have any citizens comments. Dr. Costin thanked everyone for the great dialogue. Um both myself and Mr. Roshan who were the two board members that were present thanked everyone as well and the meeting adjourned at 5:31 p.m. Thank you. Next we have the finance report, Mr. Ambrose. The finance committee uh and facility uh committee met on Thursday, May 7th at 5:30 um with uh myself, Mr. Cox, Ms. Ebony Mitchell, Dr. Cost Ms. Clear, Mr. Montaigne uh Ms. Dorothy Grace from the community and Ms. Markey um we heard from Mr. Montaigne for proposal for replacing uh some of the uh heating and cooling control system control boards. Uh they use a JCI system. Um

095these boards were that we are replacing were were not included with our last uh bond back in 2018 uh because the cost went up and he is asking that the board approve $98,200 uh to the sinking fund to cover this expense. The project is part will be uh sourced through uh the Amuna Partners consort consortium um we asked some questions about it. Uh these boards he's having a hard time finding parts to re- for replacement. They're at the end of their useful life and so, if we're going to keep our the remaining buildings going with a with a heating and cooling, we we need to make a make this purchase. Uh we heard from Ms. Claire. Um she responded to some questions from April meeting about the uh the bus rotation schedule um in terms

096of replacements and the number of homeless students and their grade levels within the district. We then went over the Wayne RESA 2026-2027 preliminary budget uh that'll be brought before us tonight for approval. Um and then we went over our food service management renewal with Aramark Educational Services. Uh there will be an estimated increase to the district uh with this contract of $45,000 uh $947 uh and this is fully funded through the revenue that we generate through our district's food service program. Um Dr. Coss also shared that our new food service director has been very innovative with options for our students as she's been taking time to listen to them for their ideas. Uh Ms. Claire then shared with us our state aid financial reports um for the month of April. We reviewed the investment reports

097for uh both March and April and the check registers for March and April because the previous finance committee meeting was held at the end of March before the books closed for that month. And we had some brief citizen comments. Um where we were asked um about the possibility of closing down certain portions of the buildings to save costs for heating, cooling, and electricity. Um it was shared that that's not necessarily cost-effective um as even though we're not using uh that part of the building, it's still connected. And then uh we heard from Dr. Cost and the board members and we were dismissed uh at 5:47. Thank you. Now we have the Policy and Procedure Committee. Dr. Weaver. In attendance, Fred Weaver, Melendy Hines, Shannon Roshan was virtual, Catherine Cost, Dorothy Grace, community member, and Kim

098Markey, note taker. We came to order at 3:30 p.m. There was [cough and clears throat] a clarification made that names may not be used for personal attacks during public comment. Also, the work of the committee uh the board operating procedures um reminded all of us that we all have to pitch in and do the work uh that is required to move our board operating procedures forward. We also have a uh thought process that is working uh toward how we can work together with our schools to enforce the cell phone policy that is put forth by the board. Um and we're still working on that. Um, and we want to comply with state law. And um, by sending the policy to each building administrator, uh, we want to make sure the principals have the autonomy to

099enforce this policy. Uh, board travel and conference was discussed. Um, we talked about uh, board travel being curtailed. Uh, committee members shared their thoughts and uh, agreed to having a set amount per board member that would be fair and equitable. And um, so if they do not attend a conference, their money would not be rolled over into the next year. It would be a loss to them. Policy updates remen- uh, recommended by Miller Johnson. Uh, we did not discuss those as I remember. Dr. Ophelia was uh, um, almost said confused. He was excused from um, from this meeting. Citizens comments. Uh, Dorothy Grace shared that along with the board conference budget, it should be mandated that board members bring back and share with the district what they have learned. Interim superintendent's comments. Uh, she appreciates

100everyone for making an effort to be at the meeting. Mr. Roshan said he's happy with the conversation today and he is looking forward to reviewing the draft that Dr. Weaver will share. Ms. Hines also agrees with the $3,000 cap for conferences and this will make it fair for all board members. Dr. Weaver shared his comments and we were adjourned at 4:02 p.m. Thank you for that report. Next review and approval of business service and finance and that looks like we have Mr. Scaturo. Yes, thank you. Tonight I'll be recommending the recommendation to purchase the network engine upgrade. As Gino Monte and executive director of maintenance and operations presented at the May finance and facility committee meeting I am requesting your approval for the new JCI and engine replacement project as proposed. This project will replace

10114 outdated engines at various district sites. Johnson Controls has submitted a proposal totaling $98,200 for the new system through the Omnia Partners Consortium. I am requesting the board approval for this which will be charged to the sinking fund. So moved. Support. Thank you. Roll call vote? Discussion. Oh, sorry. Discussion. Discussion. No. No discussion? All right. Roll call vote. Ms. Evie Mitchell? Yes. Mr. Ambus? Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Ms. May? Yes. Cox is yes. Ms. Hines? Yes. Motion passes. Next is the recommendation to approve the Wayne County RESA 2026-27 preliminary budget resolution and we have Ms. Claire. Um As proposed at the May 7th uh finance committee meeting on [clears throat] May 7th, it is the Wayne County districts to vote on the Wayne RESA budget annually. I have looked over their budget for reasonableness for

1022026-27 and recommend approval of their budget. Motion to approve. So moved. Any second? Support. Discussion. Roll call vote. Mr. Ambers. Yes. Dr. Weaver. Yes. Ms. Evangeline Mitchell. >> Yes. Ms. May. Yes. President Hines. Yes. Cox is yes. Motion passes. Next unfinished business. We have the Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see that. Bear with me. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Okay, I'm sorry. Yep, recommended recommendation to approve food service management renewal. Ms. Claire. As discussed at the May 7th, 2026 finance committee meeting, um as required by the Michigan Department of Education, I'm requesting approval to renew the contract with Aramark Education Services for the fiscal year beginning 7/1/2026 through June 30th, 2027. This renewal has already received MDE approval. Under the terms of the original contract, the general administrative and management fees charged on a per

103meal basis are subject to inflationary adjustments. So, for the 2026-27 fiscal year, these fees are proposed to increase by 4%. This represents an increase of .0021 per meal for general administrative fees and .025 per meal for management fees. Based on the 1,695,486 meals served in 2025, it is estimated that the fee increase will be 45,947.67. These fees are fully funded through the revenue generated by the district's food service program. I'm asking the board to approve this um contract. Motion to approve? Motion to approve? I made the motion. Second. Second. Discussion? Yes. Um by and large, are our students happy with Aramark? Um in in terms of um meeting their uh meeting the requirements of uh nutrition and also the taste? Yeah, I can answer it. That's a good question. How much food is wasted? How

104many kids don't eat? We still have I'm and uh and I'm speaking um from previous conversations that I've had with our um previous director, um our current director who started um I believe uh second semester of this year. Uh we've they've changed up the menu um with some new items um they're working on on getting input from our students. They have they've done surveys with our students and I've seen those surveys. We still have kids that that aren't happy. I don't know if you're ever going to please every student with that um with the food uh choices. Uh we're we're doing better than we were um and it really was prompted by some of the conversations we had from the board um that prompted those conversations with individuals who at Aramark. So, are we where

105we want to be? Probably not, but are we moving in that direction? I believe so. Can we get everything perfect in that space? I don't think you're ever going to get every kid just from my experience in other districts that you're going to using other companies outside of Aramark. Um I think we can do a better job and that's me speaking personally. I think that that some of the things that they've got in place right now with surveying our kids, talking to our principals. I think they're doing their their their due diligence at this point. I still think we can get better and I've told our food service director that our new food service director. I've kind of had multiple conversations with her where we're at so I can give you guys updates as we

106move forward. But do I ever think that you're going to get every kid that's going to want to eat their lunch? I don't think that's ever going to happen. Can I But can we do a better job? Yes, we can. Um we talk about food food cost too. Our food costs have increased and Joel can speak to that over the years. Whenever you give a new item or you give kids options and you you give options and I I'm a big believer that our kids a lot of our kids in our district like myself when I was in school that was one of the places I ate that I got three meals. So, I'm going to advocate for that just because of my personal experience. So, I think we can do a better job at

107that and I think I I mean me overseeing that that program, I can keep you updated on where we're at. But do I ever think we're going to get to the point where we satisfy every kid? No, I don't, but I think we can do better. I don't know if that answers what what you need. Um Well, I I From an audit standpoint, the state has audited us the last two audits as far as nutrition, as far as running the program correctly by law, we have passed with flying col- colors on uh the last two audits. So. In regards to that, most districts do. I I know what you're looking for as a board cuz I've heard it enough that you want to make our kids happy, and so do we. I mean, so it's

108not something that is uh just uh focused on you guys wanting that to happen. We do too. Every day, we'd love to see every one of our kids walk out of there and eat three meals a day. Uh we've done a better job. Our high schools and our middle schools offer programs where they eat after school, which you're not going to see too many school districts that offer that. So, are we doing more than most districts? We are. Can we We can always get better in that space, just like we can academically. I think we can get better in that space, too. So, I can keep you guys updated as we move forward on what they're doing um in that space to make it uh where you guys would like it to be, and myself

109personally. Mr. Mr. Chair, if I may. You're talking about you're doing surveys. I think the board would like to see those surveys. At the very least, I'd like to see what is served that seems to have the be least popular, and what is served that seems to be the most popular. I can give you guys that cuz she did present me with that, so and you can see what we can see what's working and what hasn't been working. And when a when a product isn't working, they take it off the menu cuz they know it's not working. Um there's certain things that stay in the menu, and you guys probably would know even when you were in school, Bosco sticks are still very big. Uh anytime you offer pizza, we got a lot of our

110students that are interested in salads now, and so we're making more salads every day, which is a good thing. Um but there are some products that uh that do a lot better than others. Uh but I can give you guys that data to look at it. Some of the Some of the food choices are going to be familiar cuz you probably had a lot of some of them when you were in school cuz I know some were on on the menu that still when I was in school that are still popular with kids. And Bosco sticks is being one of them. Anyone else for discussion? Yes. I'm not saying that we don't approve the contract this year, but I would certainly like to see what other companies uh will say to us this year as

111far as quality food uh before we come to that June 30th. Is it June 30th? When we have to renew. June 30th date, maybe we can have further discussion about what the different companies are offering. We've and I know this is a a while away, but we can what I've done in other districts is I've brought them in and had the board actually make the what they would be serving our kids. Um so that's a possibility and I know there's even at conferences some of the competitor the the companies that are competing with Aramark. And I would say this to Aramark that you know, every year they're under the gun to get better. Um when you're working as a third party in a district. So I think that can be something that we can talk

112about as we move forward. Um if that's what we want to look at, maybe different companies that are going to come in and show you guys, even provide you guys with a taste test. Cuz that they've I've done that before, too. So if that's something that we all are are looking forward to doing, we could probably do that sometime. I'm thinking in April of next year before so we have some time to make decisions. But we'll see how I'm not going to close the door on Aramark cuz I Aramark has been with us for a while. Um and I think they can get better. And I think they're working at that right now. So and I can give you you updates As I said as I oversee, I I don't This discussion has to happen

113because it's important as as important as any discussion we have about curriculum or anything else in the district. Anyone [snorts] else for discussion? All right. Recommended motion is the result that the board approves business service and finance item X as presented. Roll call vote? Has there been a motion that I might have Okay. Roll call vote. Roll call vote. Yes. Ms. Ebony Mitchell. Yes. Mr. Ambrose. Yes. Dr. Weaver. Yes. Cox is yes. President Hines. Yes. Motion passes. Next, we have unfinished business. And that would be Inkster property discussion that was tabled at the April meeting. I'll make a motion to untable. Support. Discussion? With all due respect, neither one of you approved the tabling, so you can't will pull it off the table. You have to have voted in the affirmative in order to pull

114it off the table. You can make a motion, but you can't pull it off the table if you weren't someone who put it on the table. It was I thought it was put on the table because it did not have the votes. Well, it doesn't matter. So, who put it on the table, Mr. Cox? The board. You just voted no. The The There was It received four votes to be tabled. Okay. If you want to pull it off the table, you have to be one of the people that voted in the affirmative to put it on the table. I made a motion to pull it off the table. So, now the board need to vote whether we going to take it off the table or not, correct? Correct? That's what we doing. >> No, it's

115not correct. What's What's not correct? >> You You can make a motion if you like, but you can't pull it off the table because you were not one of the affirmative votes to put it on the table. Robert's Rules. I make a >> If you want now Wait a minute. to vote on something. >> we need a I'm going to make a vote that we Point of order, ma'am. I make a motion that we untable and have discussion on the Inkster property. And if she second it, then we do a roll call vote, right? Is that correct? No. With all due respect, ma'am, Ms. Abney-Mitchell, I've answered your question. Okay? That's just the way it is. Robert's Rules. Madam Chair, what do we do? So, um I'm going back to the Robert's Rules. So, to

116go backwards, so they made a motion to table it, right? At the last meeting that was the meeting of Let's see. That was May 4th. Yep, May 4th, right there. And then they tabled it. At the 13th? April 13th. April 13th. April 13th. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Oh, yeah. Now, since it's on the agenda to discuss, I'm perfectly happy discussing having a discussion about it. Yeah, cuz it is on the agenda for discussion. >> uh I mean, if you'll recognize me for I recognize Mr. Cox. Uh after after the meeting that representatives of the city, including the mayor of Inkster, came here and talked with us, I received a lot of phone calls. Um and one of the phone calls I received was uh it brought to the attention First of all, let me say

117there's no way that I can even legally give away the school district's money without a reason. I have to get value for it, legally. The attorney even rendered an opinion like that. But one of the people that spoke tonight, and I think uh the original meeting, they talked about um you know, the heritage of the school district. >> Excuse me. I am so sorry. I was making a motion. I asked the question of the chair. He's talking. >> Well, has he talked >> interrupt him. So, you got to let him do You didn't answer my question. >> You're interrupting. He has the right to talk. So, until he's finished, then you can go afterwards. We're in the middle of a discussion. I started the conversation. He's talking. So, you know, over the years, the the

118people in the Inkster Public School District has won all kinds of state awards and I mean, they had a tremendous trophy case full of everything. And I don't know where those trophies are. I don't know where they where they are so that children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren can see them. And and frankly, I would like them to be able to see them. And when we were talking, Mr. Toko, I don't know if you were part of the conversation, but I think you might have been, regarding the last bond issue at Wayne Memorial, one of the conversations that I had with the superintendent at the time was, can we create a trophy case at Wayne Memorial? So, that we can bring those those awards so that these kids can see their grandfathers or grandmothers, you know,

119so that they would be out there. So, I'm I'm just going to say how I feel. I don't know if anybody else feels this way, but if we are able to sell that property and if we do receive any proceeds from that sale, I would be willing to take a portion of that money and perhaps build a trophy case at the Inkster Community Center and and and some way put those things back in the public eye so that the people can see all the trophies. And I think that that would be an expenditure that the school district under the circumstances would be justified in making. And that's I don't know if I would get support for that when the time comes, but I think they should be out there. These kids need to see that.

120And just like the kids here, that they need to see that. It needs to not be in a garage somewhere or in a community but it needs to be where they can go and actually see it. And I don't know how much it would cost but I think that would be a reasonable use of some of the proceeds. Ms. Abney Mitchell. Yes, Madam Chair. You wanted to speak, I'm allowing you to speak. So, are we having discussion right now about the Inkster property or do we need to vote on it or what do we need to do? >> a discussion right now. We having a discussion right now? >> Yes. So, what happened to my motion that I made to open up for discussion? That's what we're doing right now. We're discussing the Inkster property.

121We're on that section right now. So, we have to have the discussion so everybody can get the information out, Ms. May. Thank you. So, Mr. Cox, based on what you're saying, I know that there was a motion previously um at the April 13th meeting that I wasn't present for but I did watch to have a conversation or sit down and have a discussion around what a partnership would look like between Inkster and Wayne Westland and is that something that you're suggesting that's a that's that could be a part of that or that's a piece of it or a recommendation for that partnership? Now, through the chair to Ms. May. Uh Yeah, every time I hear the word partnership, I can feel my wallet coming out of my back pocket. Cuz that's really all all we're

122talking about. Uh tonight it was brought up about heritage. Well, it If if they really want the property out of heritage, they can buy it. I mean, anyone can buy it. It's not sold yet. Uh with respect to the money, there's nothing to speak about in my view. There wasn't before we got an attorney's opinion because I recognize as a fiduciary, which we all are, we are simply not able to spend these monies any way we want. We have to spend it according to the law. So, I'm not going to be open to giving the money away to the city of Inkster or city of Wayne or Westland or whomever. It belongs to the kids. But, with respect to the heritage, I don't want that lost. I I want that to be there so everybody

123can see that. And and I think that I could explain to the citizens of the Wayne-Westland School District what we're doing. After all, as one of the uh I think the councilwoman said, you know, there's a lot of people that come to our school districts and their heritage is in Inkster and I don't want that lost to time. And I know that something like this can be extremely expensive to do. Uh and you know, I'm not I'm I wouldn't be willing to spend uh more than is reasonable, but I think it should exist. I think those trophies should be out of the dust uh out of the closet and out where people can see them. And I would be willing, if I got support, to support something like that. Other than that, I wouldn't. >>

124Miss May, thank you. So, I want to clarify. When I ask about partnerships, I didn't speak on a monetary value because I don't know what a partnership would look like. My question was just in regards to where you saying we were willing you were willing to sit down and have a conversation with Inkster. So, thank you for clarifying. >> [snorts] >> Mr. Uh Dr. Reever? Uh yes, as the maker of the motion, again, I am willing to have discussion, but I am unwilling to take the motion off the table. For tabling. Any other discussion? Okay. So, uh Let's see. So, do we I'm just going to act like we close this? It's tabled. Okay, so the motion is was tabled. It's not tabled. I made a motion to take it off the table. You can't.

125You are voting in affirmative. You can't do that. You voted no. Oh, so only people that voted yes can take it off the table. >> Get off the table. >> change their mind. >> Then that makes sense. Okay. So, you don't change your mind, Dr. Weaver? No. Mr. Cox? Through the chair, ma'am. You change your mind? What about the table? Yeah. Where were you? I just had a conversation about this. I wasn't listening. Hm. Okay, so we're going to go to the next uh issue. We will go to interim superintendent report and comments. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. >> got uh Citizens comments. There you go. Sorry. And we have uh Jamie Woolweaver uh that would like to speak. Talking about a partnership with the schools. Yes, hello. My name is Jamie Woolweaver. I am with

126the Foster Grandparent Program at MCHS. Um what we do is we place senior volunteers 55 and older into schools to mentor children that need one-on-one support. So, in elementary schools, if someone's struggling with reading, guess what? Grandma or Grandpa can be sitting with them while the teacher is able to move forward with the rest of the class. Um we don't know everything going on with children these days, and you know what? Sometimes they just need love, and that's where our grandparents come in and give them that love. Um our volunteers do get a stipend because we are grant funded, so it helps our lower-income seniors. It gives them a reason to give back to the community and it really helps these children. Um, if you guys are interested, I would love to have grandparents in

127the Wayne-Westland schools. We have zero right now, but we have a lot that are interested. So, if this is something you're interested in, I would love to partner with Wayne-Westland. So, thank you guys for your time and have a wonderful evening. Thank you. Any more citizens comments for non-agenda items? None. Okay, we're going to close that out. Next is the interim superintendent report and comments, Dr. Cost. Um, I would like to extend congratulations to all of our seniors at our three high schools. Uh, this is their last week and we have graduation coming up on the 30th of this month to celebrate all of their accomplishments as well as honors nights and uh, I could not be more proud of all of the work they've done. Thank you. Next we have the review and recommendation

128of the Board of Education, um, Ms. May. Sure, thank you. I'd like to first say congratulations to our, um, early middle college graduates, as well as to all of our student athletes. I'd also like to extend congratulations to Britney Barnes for her, um, achievement as coach of the year. And a huge thank you to Mr. Malloy, Mr. Woodson, and all of our coaches. It was, um, such a pleasure pleasure to hear about our students' experiences, the student athletes, what they experience as student athletes. I really enjoyed having an opportunity to even hear from the students, and I love the piece around the ultimate goal being debt free and fun. The, um, other piece that I'd like to do is just say thank you to the policy chair for bringing forth, uh, our on the policy

129changes for board travel, which was initially brought forth October 8th to Dr. Cause. So, thank you so much for moving forward with that. Um I have a couple of questions. We have a um district summit um school improvement coming up. And thank you to Dr. Jefferson for sharing that the culture and climate survey results will be shared there, so we can hear as Dr. I'm sorry, as Mr. Cox referenced about hearing from our students, right? So, through the culture and climate surveys, we'll be able to hear how the students are experiencing school. The other piece that I'd like to ask about is we talked initially um at our last meeting about the district having an enrollment task force. And so, I would like to know the next steps for that, if that information will be

130coming back to us, because I know there were some ideas that were thrown out there. And I know that would be a part of our budget building, so I would love to hear the findings from that enrollment task force. And then, the final question that I have is Dr. Cause, you shared that there were over 200 families contacted through our plum marketing. And I'm wondering, did we invite those families to attend the district school improvement summit? Cuz I think that would be a great opportunity for them to learn more about the schools that are in our district. And that is all that I have this evening. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. May. Ms. Abney Mitchell? Yes. Yes, I would like to say congratulations to our student athletes. Just to see them not only hear about

131them achieving on the field, the court, but achieving in school. To see the to hear them get those scholarships, we know every year at graduation, Wayne Memorial come with 100 100 million dollars worth of scholarships that their students receive. So, that is just the honor to see class 2026 get scholarships cuz we paying for our student to go to college ourselves right now. So, I understand how important the college ship is. And of course, I'd like to thank Ms. Winston and her early college and all that she do. She does our virtual learning. Um she's responsible for my grandson graduating this year. So, I just say thank you and um And um May 4th, I believe it was May 4th through the 13th, I know I didn't hear across the board anything that honored our

132teachers. It was Teachers Week. And and I just want to say congratulations and thank you to the teachers that you are greatly appreciated for everything that you do. We know that you do it out of love and not for the money. And I just want you to know that you are appreciated. And um I just thank you for the city of Eastover coming out trying to build a partnership. Um keep trying, never give up working for our kids. I don't know me and Steve is neighbors. I don't know if you know this, but as we driving through the neighborhood now, don't you see the signs that say 2026 that's graduating on the 30th from um Wayne Westland Community Schools? They graduating from where? They all got the green and blue signs like Devonte got. Um

133it's just an honor to drive through my neighborhood knowing and see the signs that the kids are graduating from our district, knowing that they leave our district each and every day to go to school in another community and and it's more sad that they go to the same school and they don't even know each other. They neighbors. Cuz they don't come outside and play. My grandson seen the boy down on the corner. We've been living down the street. They've been down here 17 years. So, they've been our neighbors for 17 years. He said, "Oh, I thought I seen your grandson at school. He go to my school." Neighbors for 17 years. They 17 years old now. So, they was one. And they always went to the same school, but went different routes. They didn't know

134each other. I remember riding our bikes to school and knowing our neighbors. So, that that that's the kind of stuff that makes me happy. To to see the graduation rates. We have 11 grandchildren. All of them um nine eight have already graduated. So, it [snorts] just makes me feel good to see kids graduating and moving on to college. And and I'm and I'm thankful for the Wayne-Westland district for that. And I'm thankful for the community that I live in. And community partners are important. And wouldn't nothing make me happier than to have a community partner in the district. It's Inkster and and Wayne-Westland and Inkster. You know, something we can do to establish What we need to do is establish something that meets our mission to educate our children and get them ready for global

135to be global citizens. I'm paraphrasing that. I didn't mean But if we can do that here and do that in Inkster, that that would be a great partnership. And y'all know I'm emotional, so that's all I have. All right, Mr. Cox. Uh You know, Mr. Toko, uh four years ago we had a conversation about what can we do to get kids more involved in their local school? What Because we know that when they're at school, when they're involved in activities at the school, even if it's after school hours, they do better. And tonight we had a whole room of some of the brightest stars. And not only are they were they all great athletes, but they all have GPAs 3.2, 3.3. It's that It's that synergy of of sports. And anyone who's played sports remembers.

136They know. But it didn't come by accident and didn't fall out of the sky. We went and got those coaches. I remember when I had my unceremonial uh kick out of the chair, I was criticized because some of these coaches are actually earning money doing this. But we knew it was important for the kids to have the mentorship, to have the leadership. And as far as I'm concerned, look at tonight was the manifestation of 4 years of hard work by dedicated people. And look at the And look at what's been built from it. And I was thinking about what What if we hadn't done that? Where would those kids be tonight? They were here as winners because we had the I think because we had the right people coaching them. And I'm I'm It's so

137gratifying to see uh it it turn out that way. I'd like to say that uh anybody who has served as an officer in the Board of Education knows it can be a very tough job. It can be very emotional. You can be at times you can be head-to-head with each other, but it's not about us up here. It's about the kids. And And I, as I did before, I'm going to pledge I'm going to work equally and in a spirit of friendship and cooperation with everybody on the board. Uh I think it's important for the school district that frankly we put all of this behind us and now move forward. You know, Dr. Cost, excuse me for talking about you like you're not here, Dr. Cost, but she's been here for a year. But she's

138been here for a year as the substitute teacher. And I know there were things that happened during the school district that I'm sure she would have said something about, but when we first started this relationship, she asked what her role was to be and she was told and she kept that role. She didn't come down on people when they went out of town spending money they shouldn't have spent. Uh that she didn't come down on people when they were taking the resources of the school district for private campaigns. She just kind of sat there because her job was to keep the ball rolling here. But now she is the undisputed boss. And I believe, from our conversations, she's going to be totally centered and focused on student performance and building the district. And that's going

139to involve changes. And I want you to know you have my support as you're doing that. And finally, I'd like to say that uh like Ms. Abney Mitchell, uh I have a granddaughter that's graduating. I've got to travel out of town to attend the graduation. And uh it'll be, let's see, probably 17 years before the next graduation, so I don't know if I'll make it, but I will not be able to be at graduation this year as a consequence of traveling. So, thank you. That's all I have. Mr. Umbras? I I to say congratulations to also our early middle college grads, our uh impressive student athletes, um one of the joys I had before I joined the school board was actually working at I won't say I worked at Wayne cuz I never got paid

140for it, but working the sideline at the football games. And and seeing the athletes there. Um my wife still does it. She and uh hearing the stories that she told me about the uh our girls uh flag football team from Wayne and the hard work that they put in. Um having the chance to work with uh Coach Malloy um when he was at Wayne. Uh we have some great people in our athletic program who help push our kids and then to us to strive to do more and to be more. Probably one of the most important roles that uh people in their lives are their coaches. And and to see the high quality individuals that we have with these kids, and then I look at our teachers and I'm sorry it got overlooked about teacher

141appreciation week during the last board meeting. But I I see some of those dedicated individuals in here tonight, too. Unfortunately, my uh one of my daughter's favorite teachers was sitting right back there and and she walked out. Um I think it was the meeting was running a little bit too long for um but she really helped my my daughter with her creative side in terms of of design. And the role also that a good teacher plays in the life of a student. They're not only a teacher, but in some cases a parent. That that parent that the student doesn't always have that person they can go to and talk to. So, thank you. And as we go forward to graduation, we have an important holiday this this upcoming weekend. Um Memorial Day. Winston Churchill was

142once quoted as saying, "Never have so many been given so much by so few." Now, he was talking about the fighter pilots that fought over the over Britain keeping [clears throat] the the Luftwaffe from from raining terror over the British towns, but he easily could have been talking about the American soldiers that helped save the world from from tyranny. But also, when we look back in our history, the those men and women who who gave their lives to for us to be able to enjoy our rights and our freedoms. And so this weekend, take a moment and and remember those who have have given their last full measure of devotion. Thank you, Dr. Weaver. Thank you, Madam President. Um Again, I want to say just a quick word about the student athletes. I appreciate them

143all very much. Appreciate the effort that has gone in to having our student athletes. But, the most important thing I heard tonight was their accumulated GPAs. Um I love that. That um that we are inclusive in that in our sports. And um the GPAs were quite high. And um and I am uh thankful for that. I just want to say that I agree with Mr. Cox on the heritage of the Inkster community. And to say to the city of Inkster that I have met no disrespect to [snorts] them. Madam President, uh we have been talking in the policy and procedure committee uh concerning um buckets of monies that a board member may use for education. Now, this is a part of our board operating procedures that a board member [clears throat] has the right and

144with the ability to get education um to help do this job better. Um however, I want to uh make a motion tonight, and if I get a second, I'd like to speak to it. I'd like to make a motion that all out-of-state travel for board members be suspended for a period of 3 years unless a board member has not been to a national conference in the past 5 years. If I could get a second, I'd like to speak to it. Support. Right now with a close to $9 million loss to our district this year. Um through no fault of our own. Um we simply should not as board members uh spend out of state travel monies. It's expensive to go out of state. And um and so um not only does the district uh not

145have the money to do that at this time, but also I have to say and I have I'm being totally transparent. I have been to out of state conferences in the past and I can honestly say that I have not received any more training uh from an out of state conference than I did from MASB. So with that uh motion, um I give it to the chair. All right. Any other additional discussion? Well, I just like to say that uh we always had a policy of that. You know, in the case of Dr. Weaver, he has already taken and passed every course that the Michigan Association of School Boards has. He's got the What What What is it called? President's Award. >> [clears throat] >> And and so as as chair, were I the chair

146knowing that, and uh if you wanted to go to a uh out of state conference, that that would be something that would have to think about, you know, I would have to say maybe he's earned that. But when you have people that have been haven't even done the basic available at MASB, but yet they go to Georgia and then they go to was it Texas or you know, that's that's just going out on someone else's dime as far as I'm concerned. I've also been at been at these uh conferences. I've never gone out of state. I I think I told this story before. I remember one time the people who build school buses down in Tennessee took three board members from the Wayne-Westland Board of Education in down to see how they build school buses.

147I'm still waiting to find out why a board member needs to see how they build school buses, but they had some really nice dinners, I understand. That just sends the wrong message. You know, it it it just can't be about going on trips and spending money and and what have you. And it's not just the money that's spent, but you know, when you have people away from the district on district business, there's liabilities associated with that. If anybody gets in an accident, well, that's part of the school district now. Anybody creates a liability situation, that's the school district now. That's not them as individuals. So, I do think if if we're not going to control it through the chair as it's always been, I think [snorts] that putting it in policy is the right place

148for it. Okay, a roll call vote on that? Mr. Ambers? Yes. Ms. May? Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Cox is yes. President Hines? Yes. Motion passes. All right, so it comes down to me. I'd like to thank the board for allowing me to be as the president. Um I've been on the board 12 years. I've done a lot in the community. Um I worked with Mr. Toko um doing those bonds. I was able to get a $150 million bond passed in 2018, 25 25 million 2025 in Westwood. And just being an alumni of the school district is just an honor. This district has so much to offer our students and it's just a privilege to sit up here on this dais. One thing I really love about being on the school board is helping our children,

149giving them opportunities. I have a lot of networks in the community business wise, partnerships, and I'm really big on making sure that we you know give opportunities for our children. I like to say we had a really good time at the band concert. I actually got to play since I was an alumni for they had the final spring concert and supporting the kids when they had the play they just had not too long ago. And it's just really good to be able to come back to the schools, go to pep rallies, really support our children. And last year Wayne Memorial did over $17.5 million in scholarships. That is just amazing. And we had over 5 million over at John Glenn. So with graduation coming up I'm really excited to give our kids the diplomas because

150they've worked so hard. And with the sports that we're doing I really want Wayne Westland to be on the top so I'm really excited about being in this position. Everybody knows that I give my heart and soul to Wayne Westland. I've always been a big supporter. The teachers know, students, and the business community. And next we will go to follow up to the Board of Education questions. I don't think we have any. All right. And adjournment. So moved. Support. All right. All in all in favor say I. All right, we're closed out.