Wayne- Westland Board of Education Meeting - April 13, 2026

001It is now 7:00 p.m. and I would like to invite you to the Wayne Westland April 13th, 2026 Board of Education meeting. We're going to start off with our pledge and we will have Dr. um Jennifer Page start us off with the pledge. Just so you know, there's a couple false starts. As we watched the videos today, it's hard to navigate all of our little friends here. So, they videotaped it, but there's a little bit of false starts. They start the pledge multiple times before we get to the Very well. to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I watched it and did it again. >> [laughter] >> Just for good measure. So, while we're

002waiting for the video to conclude, um the students that you saw helping us with the pledge tonight include Lucas Chamberlain, Carl Gerhard, Ben Mullins, [clears throat] Chris Williams, Isabella Rino, and Akim Coates. And >> [applause] [applause] >> we have certificates for them to take home and put on the refrigerator. And uh Dr. Page will let them know how proud we are of of what they just accomplished. Thank you. Those are friends from our SXI classroom. Andrea Sachs is the teacher. And if we would have watched the whole video, they use a modality of communication. So, some use head tilts, some use head buttons, some use regular switches, and some were using their AAC devices. So, very inclusive. >> Can we see it? I think we did the false start. Oh, okay. Um do we? [laughter]

003We would like to do building updates. Um actually, I think we need a roll call. Oh, roll call. Could we do that? Yes, we can. Okay. Hines Mr. Ambros Present. Um Mr. Cox Here. Mr. Roshan Here. Uh Ms. Hines, present. Dr. Weaver >> Present. Ms. Mayes, absent excused. And President Abney-Mitchell, present. So, we have six and one out. We're ready for you. Ready? Yes. All right. My name is Jennifer Page and I'm the principal of Stadlemyer Early Childhood Center. I've been the principal at Stadlemyer since February 2024. Um when I applied, I thought I was applying to be the principal of the 2024-2025 school year, but when I interviewed, they let me know that it was starting right away. So, I I started mid to end of the year, but it was great to get

004to know the staff and build relationships and then jump right in. So, here's the little snapshot about Stadlemyer. So, we're small but mighty. We have a total of around 331 students, but that changes daily and I'll explain why in a minute. Um we have 300 students and 20 classrooms with an additional 31 students who attend a language speech and language classroom. We have 13 GSRP programs. GSRP just means four four-day week preschool programs for four-year-olds. So, that's your traditional preschool when you're thinking about preschool. Those are full-day programs. We have five ECP classrooms, which are special education classrooms. Those are morning and afternoon programs. And then we have two SXI classrooms, one of which you saw in the video. SXI are students who attend Monday through Friday. They have a 200-day school year because they

005have um multiple impairments and needs that require additional schooling. Half of our building is special education um because we do have so many special education programs. Students funnel in as soon as they can turn 2 years 6 months from our early intervention services. So, we do have rolling in continual rolling of enrollment all year. Some students will start up until the last few days of school um if their families choose. Within those 13 GSRP programs, we've offered three classrooms that have inclusion. So, those are co-taught with a GSRP teacher as well as a special ed teacher and I'll talk more about that. Um in addition to our classrooms, we've started a language group. So, we have full full-time ECP teachers in addition to four speech pathologists that help serve 30 drop-in speech students in a

006classroom setting. We're really focused on that least restrictive continuum. So, SXI would be our most restrictive center-based classroom with our drop-in speech program being our least restrictive along with our gen ed classrooms. Um we are a multilingual school, so 13% of our students um are identified as multilingual learners. Um that is relatively higher than some elementaries. Um that is because prior to becoming pre-K for all this coming school year, um one of the qualifying factors for GSRP was to be a multilingual family, you automatically got in. We saw that need, so this year Sally Nalu trained one of our teachers to be a SIOP trained teacher um so she could provide additional multilingual supports to those kiddos. And then next year we will actually have two SIOP trained, so we'll be able to support more

007families. We're a diverse school, 42.6% Caucasian students, 37.4% African American students, around 7% identifying as multi-ethnic, 6% Hispanic, and around 3% identifying as other ethnicities. We've jumped on the attendance train with the rest of the district. Um it's important even though attendance isn't required at the preschool level, we have a strong responsibility at uh Stadlemyer to set the tone because we know our kids go to kindergarten and we want to help families be normed and ready for elementary school. So, we really believe in all the district initiatives are something that we have to carry um and be really strong in to support our families. So, right now we're looking at an average daily attendance rate around 84%. Um we're revising and strengthening our attendance processes. So, this year we've tried um to incorporate reviewing attendance

008weekly. Um my secretary pulls reports. Um and then we use letters and Dojo messaging to support families and we try to get those out twice a month. Um we've also started to incorporate family success meetings to address absenteeism. Um this is a huge undertaking, so when I say we've started it, we're not launching it fully, but we will be looking at the data at the end of the month and developing more systems to help support this. Um at those family success meetings, we ask the family or I sit down with a family and ask them what their barriers are for attending and then we develop a plan. One of the biggest things we found is that transportation for our GSRP families is a big need. We don't transport, we don't offer busing for our GSRP

009families, only our special education families. So, finding those barriers and in helping support them, we've been able to partner with 211 and a couple um agencies within Wayne County that supports uh fixing cars at an affordable rate. So, we've have referred some families to that out of our success meetings. We know that kiddos after COVID look a lot different than kiddos before COVID. So, we've really um tried to have some strong initiatives in place for student well-being and particular social emotional health and behaviors. Uh we just reviewed our beginning or our our first set of perception data for this school year and yeah, behaviors are big on there. So, we really know that we need to support kids where they're at as well as support parents so that they know how to help their kiddos

010when they have big feelings. Our GSRP teachers were able to um partner with Pedals, which is out of Southeastern Detroit, and that is positive emotional development and learning skills. And what that does is Pedals brings a coach in for new teachers and they get 2 years of coaching under the Second Step program, which is a curriculum that addresses emotional regulation. And so, they get coached for 2 years and then they can run with this program. So, our GSRP teachers have access to Second Step and have been trained in that. Unfortunately, Pedals isn't able to coach uh our special ed teachers, but through coaching with our own instructional coach as well as our teachers, we've been able to build capacity through our Second Step programming. It's one of the only evidence-based social emotional curriculums that Castle

011approves as well. Mental health support. Unfortunately, this year we went from 2.0 school social workers to 1.4, but that's okay. We have great social workers. We have a school psych. Um we also partner with Wayne RESA because we are a GSRP GSRP program, we do get social emotional coaching um as well as uh county coaching from our ASD consultant. So, these people push in and help build capacity with our staff on how to meet students' behaviors and help them regulate. We do we utilize Care Solace, so this year we've uh pushed out seven Care Solace referrals, 258 Care Solace family communications. We also have partnerships with Corewell Health, Michigan um State Extension, and Higuera Health. We understand that families need support. We're just trying to figure out the best way to give them that. We

012incorporated family engagement Fridays. So, those were sessions on different topics such as positive parenting and healthy eating habits. Didn't have great attendance, but we're going to keep trying. Um, MSU Extension's offering some hybrid and some virtual trainings that we've offered our families. And next month we'll end the year with our potty training series training for parents. So, really just trying to build skills with our parents because they're a large part of our school. In addition, we were lucky this year to have a family resource room. So, we have a room where we can meet with families. It's also stocked with personal hygiene, food, and clothing. We were able to give out 207 packets of food for families, 57 packets of personal hygiene, and we referred 27 families to Family Resource Center. Again, if we can

013help parents be supported, then they know how to go on to elementary school and beyond and feel supported and advocate. Student achievement is something that we've really focused on. So, when I started in 2024, we weren't uh, we didn't really have a strong literacy initiative and we weren't doing a lot as far as um, academic academic focused in aligning with young fives and kindergarten. When I came on in 2024, they also brought on Amy Peters, our instructional coach, and she's been instrumental in um, moving us into more alignment with elementary. So, this is this year's data. Prior to 2024, we didn't do the letters assessment that the district does, nor did we do the Z pass assessment. We also didn't use any of the resources like Launchpad from really great reading or um, the Haggerty

014phonemic awareness resource. Amy brought all of those in and our data shows it. Um, this past December, 62% of our students met the end of the year benchmark for letter identification set by the Michigan standards. So, at the end of preschool, a preschooler is expected to know 18 uppercase letters. And right now, well, probably more since this is old data, we have over 62% of our kids that are doing that. What is more exciting is we started this last year. This year, our our our preschoolers are now kindergarteners and the feedback we heard from kindergarten was amazing. Kids knew and were ready for Launchpad and really great reading. And I'm excited to see as we track these students just how much of this early intervention is impacting them with years to come. Our points of

015pride, I could talk all night about our points of pride. I feel like a proud mom every time I talk about our school. So, prior to 2024, [clears throat] we were a very divided building. If you remember from that first slide of demographics, we're about half general ed special ed and then half special ed and that was felt in our building. Special ed staff and general education staff did not intermix. They didn't collaborate. Kids didn't have the opportunity to get engaged with each other's classrooms. So, the district paired us up with Wildwood's special team. So, on Monday, uh, media comes out. So, Cheryl Cobain. On Tuesday, Jen Ferris from Life Skills comes out. We have different special teachers that come out each day of the week. And we combined and took a GSRP classroom and

016a special ed classroom, combined them to be buddy classrooms, and set them up in specials. That's all we had to do. Teachers started talking to each other. Kids started playing with each other. And then there was a huge push for inclusion. That's what led us to decide that we needed to do inclusion in our GSRP programs. So, this was the first year and like I said, we had three classrooms that were co-taught with one special ed teacher and three GSRP teachers. Next year we'll expand that to nine. And I believe that we are the only GSRP program that had will have that many inclusion classrooms. Um, and then we are one of the only GSRP programs in the county that are doing drop-in speech classrooms um, to really break up the LRE and ensure we're

017not uh, putting kids in a more restrictive environment than they need. As a side note, we're also the third largest GSRP program in Wayne County. Detroit public is first, Livonia public is second, and we are third with the third most amount of slots. We have strong partnerships with Career Tech and STEM. Um, last year you may recall our Career Tech and STEM programming took a Power Wheels cars and reprogrammed them so they were adapted for our SXI students. So, they made more adaptive seating and then they could start with push buttons and switches so the kids were able to drive them. This year, uh, STEM as as well as I believe the cybersecurity Career Tech class have adapted our switches. So, you saw the kids use these big push buttons to communicate. They also use

018push push buttons and switches to use uh, learning materials and toys in the classroom. So, to get an adapter and to create a toy to be switch able, it's pretty expensive. So, Karen Dickelman saw that as a problem and took it to the CTE students and said, "How can you help us fix this?" They're making prototypes right now where they're 3D printing the actual boxes and switches and this is way over my head, but somehow they're reprogramming them too so you can plug the device in it at a fraction of the cost of what it would be to actually purchase them. Um, so we're really excited about Career Tech. We lean in on them a lot and they've done a lot for our school. In addition to the STEM program, Karen Dickelman's wrote written a

019few grants so that we can start to bring outdoor learning to our classrooms and have outdoor learning spaces. We found that not enough kiddos get outside. So, she's really partnered with us to launch that. Um, we don't have elementary sports, but we always want to do what the elementary does. We're like the the little the little sibling. So, this year we became a Special Olympic Unified School. So, what that means is we're able to provide unified programming to our kiddos. Last year we started our T-ball program when we had over 100 families show up, 100 kids. In addition, they had to have an adult. So, there was like 200 people on the fields. And we had our inaugural inaugural T-ball game at John Glenn softball and baseball fields. We had so much success and everyone

020had so much fun that we started soccer this year. And again, we had over 100 kids register um, and play soccer. And then we will launch T-ball again in the spring. Um, in addition to our sports, we also have unified dances. So, we have dances that celebrate rare disease awareness. We've held two this year and they're just a time for the whole school to engage with each other. Again, um, one of the biggest points of pride is how to better engage our parents. It felt like after COVID, parents kind of weren't allowed in the building or didn't feel welcomed in the building. So, we're always brainstorming how we can support parents and get them in through our partnerships. And finally, our biggest point of pride is just the alignment that we're doing with young fives

021and kindergarten. Again, we know if we we have this big responsibility to sell our district. We're the face of the district. We're the first step. We're the first opportunity for families to engage in Wayne-Westland and we take that very seriously. I feel like it's a big weight that I put on my own shoulders and the more we can continue to align with elementary and help our parents understand how to advocate and how to support [clears throat] and how to be part of our school community, the more they will. So, I think those I again, but I could tell you a billion different things. I'm so proud of our Week of the Young Child parade and the initiatives that we push on our teachers. And I guess one point of pride that I should let you

022know is that our teachers have experienced seven different admin in 10 years. That's a lot of turnover and change. >> Yes, indeed. And that's hard on them. But if you look at we have teachers that have been there for 30 plus years. They show up every day because of kids. They've gone through a million different processes. They rise to the occasion every time we ask them to do something outside the box or something that's harder than they've ever done. They've set high expectations for themselves which in turn has led to high expectations for our students. There's two more slides because we also have the cutest kids in the district. >> [laughter] >> So, in this picture you'll see some of our literacy work. You'll see collaborative play. You'll see a picture of a unified dance.

023You'll see cross collaboration between a special ed class and a gen ed class. You'll see a dad enjoying soccer with his kiddo. You'll see visitors. You might even see one of our board members up there reading. Um, we have parents engaged. Again, more cross collaboration and a lot of literacy work. Thank you so much for sharing. >> There's one more thing. Oh, you can't. They're saying thank you. Oh. Oh, you can't hear it, but they're also sharing their most favorite things about being at school. So, we thank the board for all your support. >> And we thank you for all your hard work. >> I can answer? >> [applause] >> You are doing an amazing job over there at Stout Elementary. Don't you guys have an event coming up sometime like this week with the

024students over at Stout Elementary? Um, well, April is the month of the young child. So, last Thursday we held a parade and we had many people from the district as well as a lot of parents come out and we just paraded around the school. Until the 16th, we are all offering people from the district to come out and just play. So, our our kiddos learn best through play. So, anyone in the district or anyone that's I chat welcome to come out between 9:30 and 11:00 and just play. It's the best. They'll make you a Play-Doh pizza. they'll do your hair and house cleaning. >> [laughter] >> They'll do anything for you. Okay. Thank you so much. Any other questions? I just have one more question. Go here, honey. >> So, I saw on the news

025they on channel 7 they were talking about how the GSRP program is starting to extend and I know we were having some issues with the transportation. Um is there a way that they can do like a line item in the grant to get the transportation to get the kids to GSRP cuz I know that was an issue. Um many of the community or some of the community-based programs um through GSRP are able to provide transportation. Um it's we could definitely ask Wayne-Westland, but the amount of money that they give us does not cover all of the costs to run our program. We compensate our staff um uh very generously compared to some of the smaller districts, which is why we're able to retract retain and attract good staff in our building. Um transportation is expensive,

026but we can always ask and look for outside grants. Thank you. >> Mhm. I just wanted to thank you and your staff for all that you do. Um that [clears throat] was the first time that we had a video pledge and it was absolutely wonderful. And thank you. Thank you. And thank you to your staff who came tonight, too. It's nice to see all of you. >> [applause] >> Don't forget we have certificates for the kiddos. And when you take give it to them, can you please take a picture for us? Thank you. Moving to our next agenda item. >> [clears throat] >> It will be the um city of Detroit Mayor Byron Nolen. Inkster. Did I say Detroit? Oh my hey. I get I get accused of Inkster so much. It's like Yeah, y'all

027didn't make me nervous. So, >> Madam Chair, thank you for the promotion. >> [laughter] >> May- Mayor Nolen, could I just um address the to the people here? We do have an overflow room and there's live cameras and sound. So, if you would rather sit in a cooler area, please feel free. Our staff can direct you right out the hallway. And it's also some seats down here. Well, good evening uh board members, administrators. My name is Byron Nolen. I'm mayor of the city of Inkster. Uh this meeting's been a long time coming. Um as you all know, Inkster Public Schools was was dissolved in 2013. And Rick Snyder decided when he dissolved Inkster's Public Schools, he uh divided the city up in fours. And he sent our kids four different directions. As you all know,

028Wayne-Westland was already getting Inkster kids. I am a graduate of Wayne Memorial High School myself and I grew up in Inkster. Um but you got more kids when they split up the district into fours. For whatever reason, they also took the buildings and the land and they gave each district in the buildings that were in their district that they cut in fours. So, Wayne-Westland got two parcels. Romulus received one and Taylor received two. Um I was the first elected mayor in 2015. That was first thing one of the first things on my agenda was try to address the land that was taken from the city of Inkster and given to the public school districts. Wayne-Westland did not pay any money for the schools, nor did they ask for them. They were given this. They didn't

029have a choice. Um and they also were given uh kids, you know, which made up a quarter of our city. So, we went to Romulus first, talked to the superintendent, talked to the board. They voted unanimously to give us back our land that was Inkster High School, which is 26 acres. They gave it back to us at no cost because it didn't cost them anything and they frankly didn't want to maintain it and they had no plans to do anything with it in the city of Inkster. In addition to that, they thought it was wrong the way Inkster Public Schools and Inkster residents, just as importantly, got treated. Uh it's one thing to dissolve the school district, it's another thing to take the land and give it to somebody else. Um the city of Inkster

030residents, you know, bought that land, developed the land, maintained the land for decades. And they took it. We had one building they did not destroy. Uh it's a rather new elementary school, which is open now. It's Bergers. Uh it's given to Garden City Public Schools through RESA and now it's Berger School for special needs kids. And we do have kids in our city that go to school there as well as kids in this whole area. Wayne-Westland has kids there. Uh a lot of surrounding communities, Romulus, everybody. And you know, of course, we support that school because our kids need somewhere to go to school. The old Berger special needs school in Garden City, the building was crumbling. So, they took that building. Meanwhile, the residents of Inkster still paid the bond notes for years, from

0312013 until they just wiped the deck clear in 2023. So, for a decade, we continued to pay the mortgage on the building. They took the building and we we had to get permission to walk in it. So, that is the how we got here today. I've been trying to get in front of you for years. I did come and speak maybe 2018 to the board at that time and presented our case to them. They did not vote on anything. A vote was never taken. I started talking to back in 2024 to get in front of you today. It's taken me two years to get in front of you to make this presentation and this request. Um I just met with uh interim Superintendent Curry a couple times. I met with Assistant Superintendent Toko at least

032two I think two times, maybe more. Um and we've met with >> [clears throat] >> the current superintendent as well as the finance committee. When I presented to the finance committee, I gave them we talked about two different options. And I want to apologize now. Last week, my office sent you an option that we're not asking you to execute, which was you just deed us back our land. Um that was for one option. The second option was a joint partnership agreement and that's what I'm presenting to you today. I sent the revised presentation to you um on Friday and hopefully you had a chance to receive it and look at it. And I'm going to go through it now. It's only eight slides, so I won't be up here very long. What we're proposing is

033a partnership proposal for former Inkster school parcels, which one is on Parkwood Street um between Middlebelt and Henry Ruff. It's roughly 5 acres. And another one's on Henry Ruff between Parkwood and Spring Arbor, which is approximately 15 acres. That's where Blanchett Middle School used to be and the first one used to be Parkwood Elementary. I got I forgot to say when the buildings were destroyed, but Parkwood building was already torn down before Wayne-Westland got the property. Blanchett was torn down after you were given the property, but the state of Michigan paid for all the demolition costs, which is very expensive cuz there was asbestos in the buildings, some other things. Okay. Um we're asking for joint ownership and shared decision-making. Guess I should get to the slide, huh? Where do I point? Okay, we got

034it now. We're asking for joint ownership and shared decision-making for the Parkwood and Blanchett parcels. The city of Inkster seeks a collaborative framework that respects Wayne-Westland's stewardship while ensuring Inkster has a formal role in the future development of the land fully located within the city. Why does Why this matters now? Wayne-Westland is marketing the land for sale. So, a collaborative framework should be established before future disposition decisions are made. The city is no longer asking for sole ownership. It's asking for joint ownership along with Wayne-Westland and for us to make the decisions together. I think we are in similar situations. The school district needs money to run the school district. The The school district has our children. We already have one of your school buildings in our city, which is Sixth Elementary. Um the city

035needs revenue and we would all benefit from a housing either a multi-family housing development or a single-family housing development where Wayne-Westland would get the children and the tax revenue from the development and Inkster would get tax revenue from the homes or the multi-family development. We're willing Inkster is willing to review document and maintenance costs and reimburse any amount reasonably spent above state-provided support. Meaning, if the Wayne-Westland has spent money over the last 13 years, you should get your money back first. That's how we look at it. Um if we're going into a partnership and we're going to split the proceeds of the sale of the land or development, then maybe you should get half of your money back, whatever you spent. I've been asking for years for an itemized list, which include what, grass cutting,

036insurance. You got to insure property if you own it. I've never received that, so I can't put a number to it. But what I'm saying to you is that we realize that you have to be made whole and we're willing to do that. Joint ownership. Establish joint ownership or another mutually agreed upon structure so both the district and the city will have a formal stake in the parcels. Meaning, if you keep your name on the parcel and add our name, we can't do anything without your permission and you can't do anything without our permission. Understand that since the the land is in the city of Inkster, anybody you sold it to would have to come to the city of Inkster anyway to get permission to do whatever they wanted to do. So, if someone wanted

037to build homes and you think the land is valued at half a million dollars, the land is probably worthless unless the city of Inkster Planning Commission and City Council wants to have homes built there and approve that. So, that's why we're presenting this joint partnership agreement because it makes the most sense for both of us. If we work together, we'll get the right development that benefits both parties. Any future sale, lease, redevelopment, or reuse reuse of the land should move forward only through mutual decisions and shared decision-making, which is what I just said. Good faith cost review. Review documented maintenance expenses and determine whether any reimbursement is appropriate for costs that exceeded the state support. As you may know, the state set aside $5 million to tear down the buildings, which was double the debt

038of Inkster Public Schools. So, they could have just paid the debt off and we still have the school district. But, it was a different different governor and a different motive at that time. They wanted to destroy the buildings to make sure that the district could not come back. The I already talked about the parcels at issue. Oh, we got There we go. So, you guys you can look at it if you don't know where it is, you haven't been there. Um both residential areas, so it makes sense for I think housing, unless there's some other development that makes sense for both the school district and the city of Inkster. Why is a partnership approach justified? All right. Both parcels are fully within the city of Inkster and their future use will directly shape Inkster neighborhoods

039and residents. The Inkster tax base supported these properties for decades before the dissolution of Inkster Public Schools. The land was absorbed through legislative restructuring, not acquired through a traditional market transaction from Wayne-Westland. Meaning, it's not like you bought the land, it was given to you. Other successor districts have already transferred parcels back or taken formal steps towards doing so, demonstrating the cooperative solutions are possible. A joint ownership model recognizes the district's current position while acknowledging the city's long-term stake in how the land is developed. For a city that has too often experienced disinvestment, keeping Inkster at the table on future developments is a matter of fairness and responsible governance. Why board action is needed now. Nearly 9 years of outreach trying to get in front of you for you to make a decision one way

040or the other. Um and I'm not sure I don't see it on the agenda tonight, so I suspect there'll be no vote tonight. Um but I would if it's not a vote tonight, I would like for you to let us know so we can come back and, you know, attend when you decide to vote. The city has raised this issue with board members, committees, and district leaderships over an extended period of time. Um I think I've been through four permanent superintendents. I can't tell you how many interim superintendents trying to get in front of you just to state this case. The request has remained unresolved through at least four different superintendents despite continued engagement. Although the issue has been discussed repeatedly, it has not been brought forward for a formal public vote of the board.

041Because disposition activity is underway since you put it up for sale, we were obviously trying to get in here before it was sold or something happened to at least uh be be addressed or address you and tell you what we would like to do. Um I like I said, that last meeting I think uh no, not at all. Last meeting. We met last spring, close to the end of the school year. Um we were going to come back around as the summer was coming up. We were going to get back uh with uh the administrators to try to get on the agenda and then we saw the for sale sign go up. So, we reached back out. This was several months later. We reached back out. We met again. Then we met with the finance

042committee. And now we are finally in front of you. Okay. A constructive path forward. Oh, okay. Okay. A cons- It is I'm sorry, we are on the agenda tonight. I guess there's a motion up to deny um the uh partnership path forward. So, I am mistaken. So, plea- A constructive path forward. We're asking to place the joint ownership proposal on the former board agenda, which is on tonight, or it's it's at least on to be denied tonight. Authorize the city district discussions to define joint ownership and a shared governance structure. Review maintenance records and reconcile any documented costs that exceed exceeded state support. And adopt joint development principles so future sale, lease, or reuse decisions require mutual agreement. Um I did not know there was a recommendation recommendation to deny. Obviously, that's within your purview,

043but I am asking for you to do the right thing tonight. Um you already have our children. We already are working together with one building in our district. And I think us doing it together will benefit both parties um and not just create a windfall for Wayne-Westland. I want to thank you. >> [applause] >> I appreciate your time and listening. Uh if you have any questions, I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Mr. Cox. Thank you. Oh, Mayor Nolan, thank you for coming here tonight. It's nice to see you. Um can you tell me at what point did the city of Inkster own the property? City of Inkster's never owned the Well, I'm not going to say that. City of Inkster Public Schools owned the property. Okay. So, the city never owned the

044property. >> No. Okay. I thought you said that the city the city of Inkster had been uh had been supporting that property. No, the residents, taxpayers. Okay. The school district had. Can you tell me uh if that property one of the things I see in your uh Let me let me get back to your presentation here, which I was looking at. Thank you for that, by the way. Uh one of the things you say here is that you're seeking a collaborative framework that respects Wayne-Westland's stewardship while ensuring Inkster has a formal role in the future development of the land. Certainly, you have a role in the future development of the land as the domicile city. Sure. And uh the seller of a property, once the sale has been consummated, no longer has any influence, nor

045should they respect to have ex- expect to have any influence in how the property is is used, right? Well, no, the seller has influence before they sell the property. So, if a developer comes to you and say I want to do a 50-house the best single-family house development, you can decide whether to sell them that land or not. So, you have a direct say in the >> So, you So, you think that the board can decide that they're not going to sell property based upon the use? I mean, you understand that there'd be a lawsuit like 10 minutes later on that. >> Well, no, the board you as the board can decide who you sell the property to. You want to maximize what the board is going to get. You want kids so you can

046get What is it? $12,000 a kid now? And you also want to get tax revenue. So, you're not [clears throat] going to sell to somebody who wants to create a zip lining company because you're not going to get the revenue you'll get if you put 50 families on that property and when [clears throat] they have their kids come to your school as well as the tax revenue from the homes, which will be very expensive. I understand what you're saying, Mayor Nolan, and I understand having a wish list like that. And you'd want the property to be used in such a way that it's the best use of the property to produce the most I understand that. Um Okay. Thank you. Question. Go ahead. Mayor Nolan, thank you for coming tonight. I have a quick statement

047and then I'd like to ask you a question. >> Sure. The statement here is that this school district had nothing to do with what happened. Correct. We weren't trying to get your property. >> Right. Uh school Excuse me, this the schools of Inkster's property. And uh we're pretty much sitting here minding our own business. And um this comes to us. Now, but first of all, um I think your numbers are off concerning how much it cost to tear down Blanchett and where all the money came from. I didn't tell you any numbers how much it cost to tear down Blanchett. Okay. Because this I thought you said $5 million. >> The state set aside five million total. They tore down Inkster High School. They tore down Blanchett. I don't even know if they spent the

048whole five million. But, that's what they set aside for the demolition. Well, we had certainly had skin in the game for the tearing down of Blanchett. What What Did you Are you saying you spent money? Yes. Okay. What did you spend on the tearing down of >> I don't have that before me tonight. But, here's my question. We have properties in the city of Wayne, Canton, Westland, um and our property does not belong to the city. So, I'm confused as to why the citizens of Inkster feel like that they're being treated differently than any other municipality. Because the difference from what you're talking about, the properties that Wayne-Westland Schools owned, they owned them. Wayne-Westland Schools did not buy these two properties. The residents of City of Inkster have financially supported these for decades, like I

049said in my presentation. They were taken from them. Gangster style. It's mine. I'm taking it and I'm giving it to somebody else. Now, we're standing before you asking you do a moral thing, the right thing, and give us our properties back. Not to Not so you lose anything. >> [cough] >> You will still gain. We're trying to do it in partnership with you. So, you got something for free and you didn't put any money in. I'm telling you that now cuz I have the receipts from the state. The state put up $5 million to destroy the properties because the superintendents at the time was like, "Look, we didn't ask for this." Just like what you said, "Why should we be on the hook financially?" And the state came up with $5 million. For Romulus and

050Wayne Westland and Taylor. They were 1 2 1 2 3 buildings were torn down from three different three different districts and none of the districts spent a dime on tearing down the building. And I do I was mayor at the time when it happened, so I'm aware of it. So, I know Wayne Westland didn't even spend any money. In addition, I've asked for any expenses Wayne Westland has spent for the last 13 years. I have not received an email, a piece of paper, not one number. So, if we're standing here today and you're telling me we owe you some money or you spent some money, I would love to see it. And like I said in my presentation, we're going to make you whole. We don't expect you to take a loss. But we also

051don't expect you to we we hope that you would do the right thing. Other districts have done the right thing. They didn't ask for anything. They didn't ask for money back to cutting the grass. They didn't ask for nothing. So, we're here 13 years later after I've been banging on the door for 9 years to get in front of you. Now, if you think that's okay and that's too bad for Inkster and I if that's your feeling, that's your feeling. I'm here presenting this as a proposal asking you to do this. It's up to you whether you do it. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions? Andrew. Mr. Mayor, I want to thank you for for coming and also coming to our committee meeting. Mhm. I promised you or our committee promised you a chance

052to to come before this board Mhm. and to present your proposal. Mhm. But I'm a little confused. Okay. You just presented a wonderful proposal up here. But yet on your own city Facebook page, it's quite a different story and that is still posted. It was posted April 8th. Okay. Asking Wayne Westland schools to give us our land back from the dissolutionment of Inkster public schools. Nothing in there about a joint ownership. And here is the picture Mhm. from the page. Okay. So, so I'm asking, which one is it? Which Which mean which one is it? You only have one proposal in front of you. So, that's the only proposal you have. Your your own city Facebook page with your name Byron Nolan and Councilman Mayor Pro Tem Steven Chisholm is attached to it also. >>

053Okay. Well, let me let me I I don't I did not create the flyer. The flyer was created and posted on the city's page to try to get people to come out. As you can tell by the crowd here, this is 13 years later. And this is a this is a serious serious issue in our community. I I understand that, but I can tell you with the Wayne Westland Community School District Facebook page, none of us on the board can post anything. It has to come through our communications department. Your city government Facebook page posted this. Okay. They're trying to get people to come to the meeting. I I I get it, but it is the That is not the proposal you presented tonight and you presented a different one to your residents on your

054Facebook page. >> presented anything to my residents. The only proposal is being presented is this one. I met with you at the finance committee meeting. I threw out two proposals. You looked at me and were very honest. I could tell from your body language that the first proposal was not going to be considered. I went back and said, "You know what? Let's eliminate that. Let's just do it together." And that's what I'm here asking you to do. The flyer was created just to people get people to come to the meeting 13 years after they lost their school district and their property. So, it's not a proposal. I haven't presented anything at city council. We're going there to take over the building. We haven't said any of that stuff. No one's yelling and screaming acting crazy

055here tonight. We're here asking you to consider our proposal. And it's only one proposal. There's not two different proposals. All right. Any other questions, Melody? Hi, Ms. Hines. I'm sorry. Thank you for coming here tonight. I just had a couple of questions cuz I like to think things out. So, um along with the proposal, how long would the agreement last? And then a lot of times when you have changes in administration, how would we know where we'll go further? You know what I'm saying? So, how long would the partnership like That's a great question. Um if if you put our name on the deed, the partnership is forever as long as we own the property. So, the goal would be to get the property developed. I don't think anybody wants the property to sit there

056and do anything because that does not help either one of us. Um so, we would market market it continue to market it. I guess you're already marketing continue to market the property to developers. We would exercise the contacts we have with our local developers and see who'd be interested in building on the property so both of both of us would benefit from it. And so the the agreement will go on until we sold the property. And then how much is the fair market value on that property? I haven't put it on the market, so you probably have to ask your administrators that. I don't know if anybody's made an offer. I don't know. I'm kind of in the dark on that because I'm not in control of the the realtor, the broker and accepting any

057offers Wayne Westland may have received already. And one more question cuz I'm just curious. I just like to, you know, talk things through and figure things out. And like how would the split be cuz you know, with the the teaming up together, how much would it be per side? Like how would that work out? >> when I said partnership I in my brain, we're making up numbers. I'm saying 50/50 because there's no way for me to quantify or to create a different I haven't like I said, I haven't received any expenses. If you told me you spent $400,000 on the property, then that would affect how we split it and or I want to give you credit for at least half of that if we're splitting it 50/50. Um but I don't know that to

058be true, so I have to wait until you give me some numbers before I can say, "Hey, this is fair or equitable for both of us." But I'm I'm proposing 50/50 split to the if we sold the property. And one more question. I got a lot of questions to read over. Now, how would the procurement work with that? Cuz I know a lot of times municipalities and school districts have a procurement process. How would that work with that? Well, I mean when it comes to government stuff, you know, we put it out, um market it. If it If someone makes an offer, we bring it to the city council. And you would have to bring it to your school board. And then we would both have to vote to approve whatever the sale of the

059property. So, that's how the procurement would work. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Any other questions? I guess I'm the last one. So, Mr. Mayor, I would like to um say President Mr. President Oh. No, I go last. I'm sorry. I didn't see you. I I don't have a question. I actually want to make a statement. Um why did it take so long for us to get here? We should have been had a meeting concerning this property these properties. Um with that being said, as a as a board member, I take my fiduciary responsibility very seriously. I remain committed to make making the best financial decisions for this district. At the same time, we must ensure community voice as a part of the process. Our decisions should reflect the people that we serve. With that being

060said, I support at a minimum a sit-down with the city of Inkster to do a partnership because we are one community. Wayne Westland is not just Wayne and Westland, but it's Inkster, it's Plymouth, it's Dearborn Heights. It's a whole community, so we should all sit down to make that decision. No one city, one side should make the decision. I believe at minimum we should make the decision to come together and make that decision together. >> [applause] >> What What are we doing? >> [applause] >> What are we doing? Mr. Rashad, are you making a motion for both? There's no motion. We We have to go through the process. Okay, cuz I know Okay. Cuz I know Okay. That's all you got? Yes, it's discussion. And I would just like to say thank you. I am

061also on the finance committee and for you to take that stand and realize not all let's have a partnership. I commend you for that because me being a Inkster resident and on the board knowing the frustrations and how I go to pay money out your pocket and don't for somebody else to have the property, for somebody else to have the building. So, I know how it is, but I commend you for making that adjustment for 50/50 as opposed to give me all. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> Being an elected official, I understand your duty to the Wayne Westland kids and the school board. That's why I said, "Hey, let's do it together, not just give me give me give me." You have You owe your kids a responsibility to do what you can to

062maximize the revenue from that property also. But I think we can both do that together because we're both going to benefit from the same type of development. And we can't do it apart. I can't make you sell to the person I want you to sell it to and you can't make us approve whatever they want to build. So, it just makes sense for us to do it together. And I hope you make that decision. Okay. Thank you all for your time tonight. Thank you. >> [applause] >> At this time, we come to citizens' comments to agenda items. Is there any comments? We don't have none. Oh, I'm sorry. Hold on. Sorry. Dr. Paige, if you and your staff would like to be excused, we we recognize you have an early day tomorrow. Yes, thank you

063so much for coming. Um I do have a Pastor Velma Overman for agenda item. You can go right up there. Good evening everyone. I am Pastor Jane Overman. I am also the first vice president of the NAACP Western Wayne County and I think the mayor was very elegant in what he said. I just wanted to make sure that we were here to voice our support and the partnership and the efforts that the city of Inkster are making. We cover 24 municipalities, 720,000 residents are under the Western Wayne County NAACP. I am here to make sure that our voice is heard. I do appreciate what he said and look forward to the support. >> [applause] >> And then it looks like there's one a Miss Gwen for the smart boards smart boards. I'm sorry. Hello. Um

064I have two things. Well, [clears throat] three things. I am also a resident of the city of Inkster and have been for over 30 years. Um so I'm kind of at odds with this because I don't think all of the voices of the city of Inkster have been recognized. So I'm just going to say that. Um also I am not enjoying the new board book information. This is less information than we've ever had. We talk about transparency and we talk about making sure everybody knows everything. This is less information. Because if I had more information, my next question wouldn't have been at I won't be asking it. But >> [cough] [clears throat] >> on here I see something about smart boards being bought or purchased for um Hicks I think it was. Yes. I was

065on the um committee for when we bought the new smart boards couple years ago, the new technology thing. So my wonderment is did Hicks not get their smart boards? Is Hicks using their title one money for these new smart boards? So that's just kind of like my question and if I had the more information, I'd been able to read the finance report and I wouldn't have to ask that question. So um So I think that's everything. We will make sure that you get those answers. Thank you. Next [snorts] on the agenda is do we have any more comments Miss Hines? Um that looks that that is all for that particular segment. We might just ask if there's anybody in the overflow room who would like to come and make a comment and give them a

066minute. Okay. For agenda items only. If there is anyone in the overflow room that has comments for agenda items only, please come to the main room. Can those in this room turn their phone in after they speak? Cuz some of us are trying to understand the process. I'm sorry I'm disrupting the process by asking my process question. Yes, we have done that in the past. Okay, thank you. There are some friends here that would like to Okay. And it looks like we have another agenda item. Um I don't want to mispronounce your name. Is it Dana Dane? Dane. Dane. Thank you. Hi. I am Dr. Dana Dane, a member of parent advisory committee to the board and a mother of multiple children in this district including a special needs child. I will be a Wayne-Westland

067parent for the next 16 years. As someone whose family is from Inkster, I wrestle with the hesitation to even talk about returning property to them. At minimum, there has to be talk of a partnership with Inkster. This handling appears to fit a pattern of disregard, failing to engage the community and side-stepping meaningful meaningful collaboration. Another example is the superintendent situation in this district which has been chaotic for years. We were told parents, staff, community members would have a voice in the superintendent selection. Many of us attended meet and greets, meetings, interviews. Um we filled out surveys. Got emails to calls. Told our voice was crucial. We sacrificed being present during dinner time, bath time and bed time multiple times to ensure we were involved in this process. Excuse me, can I stop you for a

068minute? The superintendent search is not on the agenda. We are addressing agenda items only at this time. Well, I thought Please go you can come back and make that comment at the end when we take public comment. >> Is better for two separate comments? Well, we we are discussing agenda items only and the agenda item right now is the things that's on the agenda and it's not superintendent on the agenda. It was um part of me talking about Inkster first. Okay, it's not the time for that. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Um we have a uh see Is this an agenda item OC? Okay. All right. So we have a OC Lee Carswell. No, that's not me. I I wanted to ask a question in regards Yeah, we'll call you after you fill out a form,

069ma'am. Yes. Okay, let's see. How you doing? I'm OC Carswell and I'll be running for mayor after Mr. Nolan leave office. Um Okay. I want to go over some things with the school that you said about the partnership. You know, um I live in Inkster and Gertrude and Middlebelt. Every day I see uh Garden City uh public schools in Inkster, Westland cops in Inkster. Uh it almost looked like Inkster need help from Westland, Garden City, Dearborn Heights. It's like they policing us. Um I heard Mr. Nolan say I think we get like 13,000 a kid. I don't know if that's virtual. But um I think Inkster can do a virtual schooling and uh I think we got like back in '13 it's like 950 students at uh $10,000 or I think it's like yeah, $10,000

070at per student. Well, that's a lot of money. It's like $10 million, you know, and that's with virtual, too. That money can sustain Inkster and the public schools. I think Inkster needs their own school district, their own uh school board. We used to have that and we still can to this day. That's it. Thank you. And we have a Miss Shirley Hankerson. Good evening board and family members as well as the citizens of Inkster and Westland. Um I'm just here because we need our land back. All right? And and trust and believe I have nieces, nephews, my own children graduated from Wayne-Westland School District. All right? Excellent job, but we still need our school district back for unity in our city. Okay? We don't need to have our kids going to different districts like this

071because what it does it divides them. All right? They can be neighbors and they go they're both going to different schools so they have different ideas and that's not fair. It's just not. You you wouldn't want it for your children here in your in your city. So why should we be subject to that? All right? It's bad enough that half of them had to go to Wayne-Westland as it was because of the boarding line. All right? And not that they didn't get a good education, they did. But it's still they still need connections to the members and and and people in our city. Okay? And that's about it. Thank you. Um I have a Miss Jennifer Nolan. Good evening. Um I I can tell that there's people on the board that are really upset when

072you're hearing this and so I I just I don't understand um I I do understand that the the land was taken from Inkster. Inkster district when it um was dissolved. What I don't understand is your rationale. So if you could please explain your rationale for why you should be able to keep the land if it wasn't purchased by you. We can't ask you, but we we will send you a answer to that question. >> Okay. So I All right. Thank you. Okay. Um I have a Miss Regina is it Lewis R? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you to our Mayor Nolan of Inkster and board members of Wayne-Westland schools where my children went to. I want that my the question the question that's on that sheet is just about RESA. Do you um

073members know RESA about how RESA got involved in taking our schools? I'm sorry, we don't have an answer for that to give you. You They over all the schools in Wayne County. Yeah, but what part did they have in determining how to liquidate uh Inkster High School? We can only hear your comment um for the agenda item. We can't answer your question. >> Oh, that's true that. Um well, how long will it take you to make a decision from um our Mayor bo- um about um the salv- um solving our situation on determining the 50/50 partnership? Like I said, we don't have an answer for that question at this time. Okay, thank you for all you do. >> Thank you. You're welcome. Have a great evening. >> You, too. Thank you. Can we please have

074a Miss Sandra Wadley? Good evening, board. I have a question. None of you had heard Mayor Nolan's proposal before tonight, correct? Mm. Oh, you did Okay. I'm saying he said this was the first time he presented it. But your um your agenda says you're recommending denial. So before you even heard it, you were prepared to deny. And there is no there was no justification for that if you hadn't heard the proposal first unless you were intent on not being cooperative from the beginning. So my question is how do we continue to send our children to your school district and you don't even have enough courtesy or decorum to listen to us before you make a decision about us? And since everybody's sitting there looking like dime store Indians, I guess that's the end of my

075thing because I expect a response. Just like he expected a response, that's what Inkster's here for, a response. Thank you. >> [applause] >> And thank you so much. Can we please have quiet in the audience so we can get through the questions? >> [applause] >> the meeting to order, please? I I just did. Thank you. Can I please have a Dr. Is it Katrine I'm sorry. Katrine Katrina Childs? Good evening, everyone. Um yes, this is Dr. Katrina Childs. I want to thank you all first because I understand how contentious this topic is. My dissertation was on the dissolution of Inkster Public Schools District. So I want to begin by saying that I am an expert on this area, but I want to specifically call out and please forgive me if I pronounce your last name,

076Trustee Rashad. Um his suggestion to sit down with the City of Inkster and the Board of Wayne-Westland Community Schools to have a conversation because honestly, this is a highly emotional topic as you can see. And there is nothing in my opinion that can be settled tonight without an honest conversation, hearing the sides of everyone involved, and the key members that will be making decisions about the land of Inkster Public Schools as well as the future of the students of Wayne-Westland Community School District. I completely understand how frustrating it may be sitting in your seats trying to do the right thing for your district, but also trying to understand what we're throwing right now. We have not had a school district for 13 years. We have seen our families been being pushed to different districts. And

077what Mayor Nolan proposed tonight was to honestly put those hard feelings that we have experienced for over a decade aside to have partnership. We are not seizing anything from you all because we're not in the position to. What we are asking is partnership. We are asking for someone to sit with us and have a conversation because for 10 years that's what sounds like he's been trying to do. For 13 years we've been trying to be heard, which is why every time we have these forums, it becomes this because we don't have information on how the district was dissolved, because we don't have information on what happens next because honestly from what I learned during my studies, the state didn't even know. They were doing it all as they were writing this law. So what I'm

078asking as the the school board of Wayne-Westland Community Schools is that you please heed the advice of Trustee Rashad and please have a sit-down conversation. Thank you so much. Thank you, Katrina. >> [applause] [applause] >> Do we have any other comments from the audience or from the overflow room before we close the session? Yes, all the comments that we have, so we will move on. The next thing on the agenda is the consent agenda gen- agenda. The consent agenda. >> [clears throat] >> Miss Hines, can we have roll call, please? Motion. Make a motion. Motion to approve. Thank you. Support. Miss Hines, roll call, please. Mr. Rashad. This is a motion for the consent agenda. >> agenda. Yes. Mr. Ambrose. Yes. Miss Hines. Yes. Dr. Weaver. Yes. Mr. Cobb. Yes. Miss Ebony Mitchell. Yes. Motion

079passes 6-0. So we're on the consent agenda. The minutes, right? We're on the turn the page. Item seven. Item seven. Thank y'all. I appreciate y'all. Item six Item six, I should say. No Board of Education Committee reports? Yep. Yes, they We our Board of Education Committee reports. So we will start with Mr. um Rashad for Student Achievement Committee. >> hear you, I'm sorry. You need to control the room here. We are now on item number six, Board of Education Committee reports. We will start with Mr. Rashad for Student Achievement Committee report. Thank you. We had a student achievement committee on April 8th. Uh it began early due to limited attendance. The primary focus was on developing student the student advisory committee. Key updates includes plans to launch the student um application uh from April 22nd

080to May 6th, expand outreach through schools and the emails, and include students input meeting start start date. Uh the committee also agreed to hold monthly meetings starting with the first Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. with six student members selected initially. I emphasize a student-led structure with staff and board members serving as support. All applicants will be invited to the first meeting to review the selection process. Um minor community uh ques- uh minor community questions were addressed and no additional comments were made by the district leadership. The meeting concluded at 4:22 p.m. Thank you so very much for your report. >> [cough] >> Next [clears throat] we have reporting the finance facility committee report by Mr. Andrews. The Finance and Facility Committee meeting was called to order on March 26th, 2026 at 5:30 p.m. with the following

081in attendance: Mr. Ambrose, Miss Ebony Mitchell, Dr. Cost, Miss Brohl, Mr. Bebe, Miss Claire, Miss Markey, and Miss Grace. Uh Mr. Cox was excused. The first item of business presented before the committee was for the board's consideration tonight was the purchase of LEGO kits. These kits um these LEGO kits will focus on steam stem coding and incorporating AI. Uh The total cost for these kits would be $42,239.95 and would be charged to the title for grant funds. Uh, Ms. Brohl also extended an invitation to all board members to visit our elementary school media centers to watch our students learn how to code. The second item of business uh being brought before us tonight for approval was a quote from VSC to install at the W at the Wayne Memorial High School Annex uh with audio

082enhancement and safety systems. Uh for the board's information, the Annex was not included in the previous bond and what they're what will be proposed is this system is a uh has a microphone and speakers that allows uh the teacher to project uh to the class so all the students can hear. There is a uh some buttons on it um that will also alert the office at the building if there are any incidents in the in the uh within the classroom. Um the Annex was was was not a part of the bond proposal and it would cost us uh $35,206 coming from the sinking fund. The third item of of business for approval is the purchase of five new smart boards for Hicks Elementary at a cost of $32,596.30 to be charged to the title one

083grant fund. We had a brief discussion regar- regarding this purchase and the life expectancy of the smart boards. They expect the life expectation is five to seven years with many being uh replaced in the district uh using you over the course of the next few years using the the current bond proposal. The committee then had follow-up discussions regarding the Inkster properties. There have been questions on how much the district has spent on these properties since Wayne RESA transferred the ownership of the properties following the dissolution of Inkster Public Schools. The district has spent on maintenance, upkeep, and insurance uh since assuming ownership of around $35,000. RESA refunded the district demolition costs of the Blanchette Middle School. The committee also discussed the board training conference and travel expenses. It was brought up in previous board meetings

084that our board training budget has grown over the past couple of years. Some of this is due to new board members needing training. Uh some is due to members traveling to conferences. Um and we are looking at developing a uh budget item uh for next budget where each member of the the board uh will have a have a set amount to use uh for training per fiscal year. Uh this will not include any uh board slash uh board central office training where where we would meet um in a workshop setting uh like we did for uh superintendent evaluation training or So, um we then reviewed an opinion letter from our attorneys at Miller Johnson regarding the proposal for the Inkster properties. Um Mr. Toko will will speak on this a little bit later, but our

085attorneys are recommending not following through on the proposal with the city of Inkster. Ms. Claire then reviewed the resolution on the sinking fund that will be will need the board's approval. Originally, this proposal was going to be brought before the voters last year, but with the bond being on on the ballot, it was decided to place on this year's August ballot. The ballot proposal is a language change so the district can purchase buses using the sinking fund and not use the general fund for said purchases. The ballot proposal will not increase taxes and it will not extend the time of the sinking fund. We are only asking for a change in the language to fill us to facilitate purchasing bus- buses. With this being said, the bus purchases can only be used with funds following

086the voter approval of the language change. Any funds in the sinking fund before approval cannot be used. We then reviewed the state aid report where there was only one new or only one new item was on there and that was section 41 bilingual uh funding which was expected. Uh it talked about um the budget uh discussions uh in Lansing um where there is a possible increase in the student foundation allowance. We reviewed the uh check register but not the investment report. Um that was because the meeting was held in March uh before we went on break and and uh the investment report was not available uh for the month of March. But both the March and April investment reports will be reviewed during May's committee meeting. We then heard from Ms. Grace uh who asked

087about which grants the districts receive. Uh Dr. Cox, Ms. Abney Mitchell, and myself made brief comments in the meeting was adjourned at 6:42. Thank you. Now we have policy and uh procedure committee report, Dr. Weaver. Yes, thank you. I will defer to Dr. Ofeely. I'll present that with my proxy. Okay. So now we are down to number seven, review and approval of business service and finance. So number one, recommendation to approve purchase of Legos. We have um Dr. Jefferson. Thank you so much. Um as uh Mr. Ambrose presented or already spoke about, um Ms. Kate Brohl was um at finance and as the executive director of elementary curriculum presented at the April finance committee meeting, um we are requesting board approval to purchase Lego computer science and AI bundles for all elementary media classes to

088support STEM learning for all of our kindergarten through fifth grade students. This purchase will be charged to our title four grant and I recommend that the Board of Education approve the purchase of the Lego kits at a cost not to exceed $48,239.95 and a sole source letter has been uh provided at that time. Thank you for your consideration. Move approval. Second, Ms. Hines. Roll call vote, Ms. Discussion. Discussion. No. I have a question. How long will these kits last? Cuz you know with Legos and kids and things of that nature when they're being, you know, thrown about, spending I would have to have to ask Kate. I can get that answer for you, but typically Legos are actually extremely durable. If you've ever um it is a very durable product. Um so I have a

089lot of confidence in that, but for the exact answer, I could get back to the board on that from um I don't know if Kate ex- talked if that was asked at finance. She couldn't give us a a long-term answer. Um she did say at times that we would probably have to replace just from use. Just parts of it. >> Yeah. I can look more into it if you'd like. Thank you. >> You're welcome. I just wondered uh through the did these Legos hurt if you step on them? >> [laughter] >> Yes, very bad. Someone's I'm thinking of. Uh any other discussion? Roll call vote, Ms. Hines. Mr. Rashawn? Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Ms. Hines, yes. Mr. Cox? Yes. And President Abney Mitchell? Yes. Motion passes. Next on the agenda we have

090>> [sighs] >> audio enhancement >> Yes, it's so it's so small. at Wayne Memorial High School. Yes, Dr. Ofeely. Thank you. As presented by Daryl Bebe, Executive Director of Technology and Innovation at the March 26, 2026 Finance Committee meeting, the district is requesting board approval to use VSC REMC safe consortium vendor to outfit the Wayne Memorial High School Annex classrooms. This will equip staff with the same audio enhancement materials used in buildings across the district and ensure [snorts] direct connection to the Wayne Memorial building in the event of an emergency. I recommend that the Board of Education approve the purchase and installation of the system not to exceed $35,206 funded by the sinking fund. Thank you for your consideration. Move approval. Support, Ms. Hines. Questions. I do have a question, Mr. Ofeely Mr. Bebe, can

091you please stand up and tell us about this item? Sure. Cuz I have it one right here. Uh you do let me see it. Okay. So, good evening to the board and thank you all so much for this opportunity. So, um so, the uh this is just one of the devices that we're talking about. This system will also uh you know, basically um outfit the building in regards to drills and with fire, tornado, lockdown, active shooter, and those kind of things as well. And as we talked about, the system will also connect them to Wayne Memorial because right now, if something happened at Wayne Memorial, they wouldn't hear what was going on. So, I think it's very important from that standpoint. But, this is a basic audio enhancement microphone uh for for in most of

092our buildings, we have this this device and it allows our teachers to speak and then the system will uh basically send their voices throughout the room. It also has a feature for safety as well. So, if there's an incident that's occurring in a certain room or any location in the building, the teacher can uh hit both sides of this device and then it will signal to the main office where that incident is taking place. So, it's a very powerful system and I think it would be extremely beneficial uh if it passes on tonight. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Any questions, Dr. Ofield? Yes, I have a question. Um aren't all if most are most of our teachers equipped with microphones already? Yes, but this building does not have it over uh at

093the uh EIS uh building. For whatever reason, it didn't get covered uh during the bond. Okay, thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. Roll call vote. Ms. Hines? Yes. Mr. Ambrose? >> Yes. Mr. Roshan? Yes. Dr. Weaver? >> Yes. Mr. Cox? >> Yes. President Abney-Mitchell? Yes. Motion passes. Recommendation to approve smart boards, Dr. Ofield. As presented by Daryl Beebe, Executive Director of Technology and Innovation at the March 26, 2026 Finance Committee meeting, the district is requesting board approval to purchase five smart boards and accessories. The purchase will enhance digital learning tools at Hicks Elementary School and ensure students have the resources needed to succeed in a technic- technology-driven learning environment. I recommend that the Board of Education approve the purchase at a total cost of $32,596.30 funded by Title 1 funds with no impact to the

094general fund. Thank you for your consideration. Move approval. Support. Comments. Roll call vote. Ms. Hines? Dr. Weaver? Yes. Mr. Cox? >> Yes. Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Mr. Roshan? Yes. Ms. Hines? Yes. President Abney-Mitchell? Yes. >> Motion passes. Our next thing on the agenda is recommend to approve sinking fund replacement resolution. Ms. Clara? Okay. Good evening, board. I'm asking um you to approve a resolution to allow Wayne-Westland schools to go to the taxpayers on August 4th to reapprove our sinking fund. The ability to purchase buses applies to sinking funds authorized after the new law, Senate Bill 63, took effect in August of 2023, making our 2022 authorization invalid for buses. But, a renewed current proposal would allow this. I'm ask- This will not increase the taxes. It will not extend the sinking fund. It only updates the

095date so that it is after Senate Bill 63 was approved and the sinking fund can be used for buses. Can we get a motion to approve? Motion to approve. So moved. Can we get support? I motion he support. Oh, okay. Discussion? >> I got to ask a quick question. So, I know like on average the buses are like over 100,000 a piece and purchasing new buses um with the high uh you know, the situation going on with the war in Iran and the high gas and diesel prices, um and then I heard that electric might go high as well. What would be the best balance with that with Are we thinking about getting any electric buses or what's the plan? Um most districts that have gotten electric buses have had problems with them and uh

096so, we are sticking with the the diesel. And um that's what we're probably going to replace uh we are going to replace them with. Uh the purchase will probably be uh in another well, in about another year in all cuz we have to get the taxes from after we turn this into the ability to get you know, funds for the buses. I can't use the money that we already gotten. So, it will take about a year to get enough. It'll probably be about $2 million to to replace. Thank you. And we any other roll call vote? Ms. Hines? Yes. Mr. Cox? Yes. Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Mr. Roshan? Yes. And Dr. Mr. Ambrose? Yes. >> Okay. And President Abney-Mitchell? Um yes. Motion passes. Review number um we are now on number nine item

097nine. Review and approve administration services and operation. Recommend to recommendation Huh? That's where we at, ain't we? Item eight. Am I skipping one? >> Yes. Review and approve administration services and operations. Right? Correct. Correct. That's where we Item eight. Recommendation to deny joint ownership of Inkster properties. Taco. Good evening, board. As presented at the April Finance and Facility Committee meeting, as well um as the recommendation and opinion letter from our legal team, which you board members all have, I am requesting the Board of Education to deny the joint ownership or the change of ownership of the properties located in the city of Inkster. Thank you for your consideration. >> Recommend we approve denial. If I get a second, I'd like to speak to it. Second. You know, the uh the the question that was asked

098to the Board of Education tonight is not unlike questions that have been asked of us by other communities. Most recently, the city of Wayne came to the school district because there was a piece of property that our school district owned that was adjacent to a piece of Wayne property that if they were combined, Wayne could then proceed forward and develop [clears throat] that property, which they successfully have done. And in return for that, recognizing that as stewards of the school district, we have a responsibility for every apple and every pencil on every desk. We just simply don't have the ability to give the money away because I'm talking now. Excuse me. We do not possess the authority to give school district property away like that. Even even the attorney recommendation told us that we don't.

099This is the kind of a decision uh frankly that leads to school districts failing. People come into the boardroom and they present a very uh solid certainly your community has been uh uh hurt by the fact that the school district failed. And as was mentioned earlier, it's not the fault of any of the school districts that have absorbed the responsibilities of the Inkster School District. And that the reason that the property was given to these different districts was because they recognized that this was a surprise to each of the districts involved. We did not know none of them knew that they were going to have this influx, that this tearing asunder would occur. It created a tremendous amount of expense. And the numbers that have been floated here tonight as to what foundation allowance is

100per child is, every single one of them's been wrong, way higher than it actually is. But, that's not even the point. The point is, as the mayor said, we are stewards of the property and resources of the Wayne-Westland Community School District. These properties, all of it, belongs to the kids that go to school here. They don't belong to us so that we can arbitrarily share them. Now, as one of the board members said tonight, he's interested in there being a partnership. I am, too. I would love to see a partnership. But, honestly, I don't think that's what's being asked. I think what's being asked is half the money. That's it. Because when you sell a piece of property, you no longer own the property. You don't have any authority to do anything. But, because the

101property is domiciled within the city of Inkster, the citizens of Inkster through their representatives will always have a say in how that property is developed. And as the owner of a piece of property, the last thing that I would want to do is to encumber it further by adding more interested parties to it, thereby making it impossible for us to sell it. Because as we've seen in this district, and several people have come up, we've had our own challenges over the years. We've had our challenges with with superintendents not staying, with superintendents not being favored, we've had financial problems. All of these things we have to deal with here. We don't go to the city of Wayne or Westland or asking for help. This is our responsibility to handle it. And we have to maintain

102the resources to do that. The children that live in the city of Inkster, they depend on us having a solvent school district so that we can provide them what they need. As you saw tonight when we bought things for Hex. Frankly, it just isn't our money to give away. Any other comments? Before we make our vote on this, I know there's a motion on the table, but I have a comment. Because on October 23rd, 2023, I said right here on this same area, same pulpit, with some of these same board members, and we gave let land away. It may not be the same size to Wayne-Westland for their dog park. So, there's no way that we cannot consider this. At that board meeting, we voted to give them a land the land. It wasn't this

103much. It wasn't related to no school district, but it was a partnership with Wayne-West, the city of Wayne-Westland, and the dog park. I'm sorry to disagree with you. >> of this process, I asked everybody, the board members, everybody that I talked to, let's just be fair. Let's research. Have we ever did this before? What it look like? That's all I was asking is to be fair. Comment. Yes. The dog park was a 5-ft strip. It don't matter. It was land. It was land. Okay. You don't You don't have to pound the table and act like that. It's okay. We If that would have been the whole piece of property, it never would have happened. We don't know that. Land is land. Whether whether whether it's 12 ft or 100 ft. Just a point, Madam Chairman.

104>> But there's a motion on the table. There's a There's a motion on the table. Just a point of clarification on the issue with the the dog park. The dog park was constructed and then it was discovered that it was partially on our property. And rather than have a legal battle with the city of Westland, we decided to deed it. But that honestly doesn't doesn't equate to this. And with respect to This is And with respect to your comment about consideration, this is the consideration that we're talking about it right now. So, we have a vote on the table. Comment. So, when this was first brought up in in finance, was brought to my attention. Uh I was on vacation visiting my son. I had a long discussion with with President May. And she she

105explained a lot of the history about how Mayor Nolan has been trying to get before the board and make this presentation. Now, I feel for for the people of Inkster, they lost something they really valued in their community. You lost your school district. And we know a community's identity is based around their schools. They've had And I don't know how a community survives without that identity. And somehow you have made it work. But that being said, we as a school district are not in a financial position even to be able to give the property away. When we started this year, we started with a fund balance of over 23%. We are projected at right now at 16.3. Our board policy tells us we have to maintain a 15%. And with the February count, Ms. Claire

106hasn't put the numbers officially yet together, but I am expecting us to be close to the 15, if not maybe a little below that. So, there is in good conscience, I I can't And then with the legal opinion, if we were to give this away, we have citizens in Can we have order, please? >> If we're going to give this away or do a partnership without us receiving fair market value, it opens this district up to a lawsuit from other members within our community. And so, I we have to keep that in consideration also. I'm all in favor of working with Mayor Nolan to come to an equitable solution to this. And and in terms of developing, but I I right now cannot vote in favor of the proposal as it has been given tonight.

107Um Mr. Roshan. Uh the proposal at hand is that we move in a partnership. There was no proposal presented that we give the property away. No, but there was a proposal for joint ownership. So, I believe that we need to have a partnership with the city of Inkster. And that we should come together and figure this thing out instead of just denying anything. They've been waiting too long to sit to come before the board. Over 9 years. That's That's too long. So, I'm I believe that we should go into a partnership with the city of Inkster. We can sit down and figure this this partnership out, the details of it. >> [applause] >> Yes, Dr. Weaver. I'll I'll sue us. I'll sue the board. I would just say to all the board members tonight that

108you are sitting here to do what is best for our district. That's right. So, I would ask you all to remember that when you vote tonight. Thank you. Mr. Cox, you had a comment? Well, the motion is on the um We have a motion on the table, correct? Yeah. Yeah. >> Made a motion, it was supported to follow the recommendation of the administration and deny the proposal. Roll call vote. >> And and and we should call It's not partnership. It's you want to have the money. That's what it is. There's no partnership. They just want to have the money. Well, right now we on the recommendations of what Mr. Toko just read, and then we'll move on from there. Right. So, can we get a roll call vote, please? Ms. Hines. All right. We have

109Mr. Ambrose. On the proposal to deny joint ownership, I yes, to deny. Um Mr. Roshan. >> I'm not sure I understood that. You meant the no or yes? On the recommendation to deny joint ownership as written in the agenda. Yeah. So, if you say yes, you're denying Yeah. Yeah. Who's next? Um I have Mr. Roshan. No. Mr. Cox. Yes. Um let me see. Dr. Weaver. Yes. 2 3 4 And then I would have to actually recuse myself. My attorney told me when I had the lawsuit with the city of Inkster during the same time. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. This is a cop out. You have everybody to vote. So, you need to vote and not cop out. Well, I have to say one thing because at the time when I had the

110lawsuit with the city of Inkster and that email came out, my attorneys and it was with the FBI, they said I cannot be with that because it was a conflict of interest. I'm I'm just telling you legally. So, I'm not getting myself caught up, and I was advised by my attorneys. I had attorneys when I had the So, keep going. Keep going. Finish your Okay, Miss Abby Mitchell. I would have to make a motion for us to table this if Miss Hines cannot vote and I live in the city of Inkster. I know doggone well I can't vote. So with that we don't have a quorum. Luana, you you there's a motion on the table that you have to vote. You have to vote on the motion. I have to vote on the motion. Yes.

111I mean the point is I vote for us not to. No, my name answer is no. So the motion the motion for us not to vote. My vote >> This this is how you lose a school district, folks. The motion passes as it's read three to two. The motion passes. No, the motion doesn't pass. The motion does not pass cuz you did not vote. Can't hear. Six people up there need four votes to pass. Correct. This don't make no sense. So we should move we should move to the next agenda item. What the hell's going on? So the question is is a three two one abstention >> The motion fails. Motion lack >> Motion fails. Can we go on to the next agenda? >> That's right. I I would like to make a motion. I

112would like to make a motion that we enter a partnership with Inkster school district that our attorneys and their attorneys sit down at the table to come together to make a partnership. I want to make that motion right now. >> [applause] >> Do we have any support? I support. Yes. Discussion? I am very disappointed. Excuse me. This is my time. So please I am very disappointed. First of all that our president decided not to show up tonight for whatever reason. And I'm very disappointed Miss Hines in you for duck and cover. And I think that you should have voted yes or no. Now So what are where are we even at? There's been so much confusion. >> a motion on the table by Mr. Rashad. He and I and I second it. So we waiting

113on the roll call vote. All right, I would I would ask I would [snorts] ask that we not enter into that partnership at this time. We have we have no reason to The property is ours. And are you going to conduct the meeting or >> conducting the meeting now I'm listening to you talk. >> Well, I'm listening to all of them. >> hear them. I don't hear them. Yeah, okay. I don't hear that. Whoever called me a son of a I can meet you after the meeting if you want to. Now look. Look. Is is is are you finished with discussion? No. Okay, continue, please. Can we please get some order so he can have his discussion? >> board has a fiduciary responsibility to keep our properties. We take care of them. We work with

114them. And [clears throat] I am not in favor of this motion at all. As a matter of fact, I don't even know whether your board members of Wayne-Westland Community Schools or your board members of the council of the city of Inkster. Any other comments? I just had a comment. Okay, go ahead. Please, please can we get through this meeting? So I'm going to explain what happened, okay? I don't want to talk about it but I had a lawsuit against the city of Inkster, whistleblower lawsuit. At that time in April I did receive an email during my settlement >> Okay, Melody, this is not what we are discussing. No, this is not. No. No. No. No. No. This is not the Melody hour. We are not talking about that. I am telling you why I had

115to recuse myself, okay? Okay, you recused yourself. Thank you. No. No. No. No. Miss Hines, no. Miss Hines, please. We If there is no other comments, we are moving on with the roll call vote, please, Miss Hines. Miss Hines, please, roll call vote. So what are we voting on? Mr. Rashad, would you please put your motion back up there? And and I second that emotion but now I would like to make a another I would like to meet you on your motion and also add to it. I would just like to enter into a partnership. Roll call, Melody, please, Hines. Okay, so could we repeat the motion one more time so we were clear? For for our attorneys. >> our attorneys and the city of West Wayne from the city of Inkster attorneys and all

116parties involved to have a sit down to discuss how we can move forward in a partner joint partnership for the properties. Okay, and who seconded it? I seconded it. I would just say if uh if you want to amend your motion to include that the city of Inkster will pay all attorney costs for our attorneys to sit down and talk. How can you amend his I just asked I just Wait a minute. My statement is I will support if Shannon amends his motion to include if if the city of Inkster feels that they would benefit from a conversation with our legal representative to see if they can put together something that would will we can't give away our property but we're also talking about our neighbors. So if if there's any way that we can

117that we can oblige our neighbors, be a good neighbor, I'd like to do that without giving away our property. But we've already asked and received a three-page attorney opinion which is like two major car payments right there. I'm not interested in spending any more money on something that might possibly could happen. But that doesn't mean that I want to stop talking. I mean after all, we're all going to be still here after this is over. So so if you want to amend the motion to say well, we can have a conversation if the city of Inkster pays the attorneys. That's reasonable, I think. But I was just asking him to amend his emotion and they told me that no, we had to go to a vote. No, well he could he could amend the motion

118if he wants to. >> I was going to say if he amend his emotion and and let Inkster and Wayne-Westland have full partnership. I can support that. Partnership between the Wayne-Westland and this property in Inkster with no lawyers attached because we already have lawyers attached in It's time to put this to rest. People didn't died and and people didn't got gray hair, people didn't died, people didn't live with anxiety. It just for your school district to be gone. And you still paying for it. Mr. Rashad, what would you like your motion to be? For it to stand out what I said I said what I said. I support it. What are we doing? Let's keep it moving. Roll call. Okay, we got Mr. Rashad. Yes. Miss Abby Mitchell. Yes. Mr. Ambrose? No. Mr. Weaver? Dr.

119Kelly? >> No. Uh Mr. Cox? No. And And you? Okay, I got to think. Partnership is different from Uh I think we should talk about We have three to three votes. Why don't you say that? Yes. I say we should talk and sit down and talk about it. >> Madam Chair, I am I am making a motion now to table this discussion until next month. We already voted. It's three to three. The motion failed. Right. >> Correct. So, is there a second to Dr. Weaver's motion? Dr. Weaver, are you asking to table this till next month? Till next month. Okay, go on. We move on to the agenda. Okay, do we table it? No? There's no second. There's There's no second to do that. I I second that cuz I don't want this to be

120swept under the rug. I We need to have this conversation. So, we'll we'll be back. Everyone be back next month so we can iron this out. I I Any discussion? Cuz my discussion is >> [snorts] >> I would like to say why wait till next month? Let's do it this month and have it special board meeting in 2 weeks from tonight. Motion's already on the table, seconded. We have to vote? Y'all want to vote? It doesn't matter if we want to. We're supposed to vote at this point. Ms. Hines, roll call vote. Uh can you I'm I'm so confused. What are we voting on now? Your motion to table. >> Your motion to table what? >> My motion to table. Yes, your motion. You won. Yeah. You won this one. That's disrespectful and it should

121be taken back. It will I I apologize if I disrespected you, Mr. Dr. Weaver. Okay, let's have a roll call. Roll call vote, please. So, we're doing a roll call to table the motion. Nope. We doing a roll call vote. Mr. Ambrose? Motion to table. Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Mr. Cox? No. Mr. Rashawn? Yes. Ms. Hines? Yes. Ms. Abney-Mitchell? No. Okay. Yeah, table it. Yes. We move on to the next thing that's on the agenda. Review Review and approval of human resource items. Recommendation and approval of policy to updates. Dr. O'Fielly. Thank you. As presented at the March and April policy and procedure committee meeting, I'm requesting board approval to accept the updates to the district's policy manual and administrative regulations. These updates have been provided to us by our legal team at Miller Johnson.

122I respectfully request your approval of these updates. Thank you for your consideration. So moved. Support. Roll call vote, please. Discussion Discussion Roll call vote. Mr. Cox? Yes. Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. >> [snorts] >> Ms. Hines, yes. Mr. Rashawn? Yes. Ms. Abney-Mitchell? Yes. Motion carried. Next thing on the item is um citizen comments. Do we have any comments from our citizens? You can speak and then fill out the sheet. All right, thank you very much. Good evening, Wayne-Westland Community School Board District. My name is Stephen Chisholm and I am the mayor pro tem for the city of Inkster. I'd like to thank you for one taking up the matters this evening um and and taking the time to go through multiple votes to try to figure out some type of common ground to come

123on per the proposal that Mayor Nolan presented this evening. I have been at different meetings in the room with different superintendents and members uh with Mayor Nolan about these conversations and I was hopeful that both parties would be made whole this evening. However, we landed where we landed. Um I'd like to publicly state that I was very disappointed in the denial that was on the agenda because it feels like it was a waste of time for our citizens, some of our elected officials come out, and a waste of your time to even take the matters up if you're going to deny it. What's the purpose of putting it on the record to deny it for? Just to sit here vote and we could have been had these preliminary discussions in full before we got to

124this particular point about deny. We deal with attorneys all the time. Um you deal with yours and we could have been engaged them in this process if that's what they said when we met with the finance committee and other committees that they recommended denial. We we didn't even have to get to this point. However, um the rationale is disrespectful. I believe it was considered with ill intent and this evening about the flyer that was posted, I'm not sure where uh the trustee was trying to go with that. Um if he would like, you can contact me directly and let me know how you felt about that flyer. I did not create it. I was tagged in it as you see on Facebook. So, when you named me, I was quite shocked because whether I shared

125it or not, it was something about our community that was posted and it was to rally the residents to come out here in support of [snorts] this political, if you will, um uh situation that we're trying to handle. So, I'm glad that you did get to a point of saying we do want this discussion, we want to move forward. I would like for you all to inwardly digest it, dream about it, think about it, talk to your residents in Wayne-Westland community. Do a survey. We do uni- uni-live ver- universalization tests all the time in corporate America and politics and all this stuff to find out what the will of the people are. You say you represent the Wayne-Westland Community School Board District, their students, the parents, and everything. I work in the school district myself,

126so I already know how this goes. I sit in school board meetings sometimes and you could throw a rock and hit and miss everybody in the room. You could throw a ton of bricks. So, I say this to say, please take this into strong consideration. Any of you, just like myself, my information is public. If you have any questions, concerns, whatever the case may be, feel free to reach out to myself, anybody on the city council, anybody on the planning commission, any board of commission or resident in the city of Inkster that you feel you need to get input from. We would be more than glad to have any conversations with you, morning, noon, dinner, whatever the case may be. I just want to say yet again, and feel free to reach out to me

127directly. I look forward to an in-depth conversation with each and every one of you should you deem it necessary. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And you're back up. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Are we still in um I have a Angela McAlister. If you want to fill out another sheet, you can finish your comments. You can. Good evening, board. My name is Angela McAlister-Green. My son is he is a seventh grader at Stevenson Middle School. I have been a parent of Wayne-Westland District for 29 years. I'm here to discuss a severe bullying at a a bullying incident where my three students instructed my child to self-harm, which has significantly impacted his safety and ability to learn. On Saturday, April 4th, we had a discussion, he got angry. He uh told

128us that boys were uh texting him and telling him different things. When I got his text messages, they told him to kill himself over 100 times. They told him to shoot himself. They told him to jump off a bridge. He is autistic, high-functioning, but he does not understand that this behavior is not supposed to be done. His social cues, he does not understand what what they're doing is beyond belief. He came to us and said that he wanted to end his life. Um so as soon as Monday came, I went to Stevenson and talked to Mr. James. I gave him all the screenshots. He uh one child. Now all these students that did this were his were his friends. One just had stayed the night 3 days before. Um Mr. James, I said one of

129the students was in his class, the other two are in his lunch room. I asked for them to be moved out. Mr. James agreed and said that he would be able to do that. Then I went to Wayne West or Wayne police station and made a police report and I'm pressing charges. After that, I had gone to the Board of Education and asked for the bullying policy in black and white. It took them 40 minutes to give it to me and she printed out the whole handbook. Now, I should go in there and have not have to wait 40 minutes. If I was someone that didn't know how to use the website or didn't have that those instruments to do, I shouldn't have waited 40 minutes to get that information. Mr. Bessac was out on

130a family um thing. So, um after I left the Board of Education, Mr. James reached out to me and said that he would not be able to move these children. That he would be able the easy thing would be to move my child. That is not happening. I'm sorry, ma'am. Your time is up. >> Can someone else Can someone else give me my minutes? >> Yes. I'm sorry. I think He said that that was not able to happen that he could not move these children. Wednesday came, one of the mothers gave moved his child out of the classroom. The other two are in his lunch room. Um So, Mr. Bessac had called me and said, you know, I asked if I could get the parents in a room to discuss how how this is how

131severe this is. This isn't what This was not just calling names. My son now wants to kill My son now wants to kill himself. He does not want to live. He doesn't understand what these children did are wrong. He mentally has to carry this for the rest of his life. He went to um a counselor today and said it out loud. She said that um she asked if the kids he seen still seen them. I said, "Yes." She said that is not healthy for him. I again went to um Well, let me back up. I'm sorry. Um when I talked to Mr. Bessac, I asked for a sit-down with the parents. Um the police officer said that was a good idea. But the police officer said that he wasn't able to be there because they're

132short-handed at Wayne. Um he asked said that a resource the officer could be able to facilitate that. Mr. Bessac also asked told me that he would talk to the superintendent. Dr. Cost, were you told about this situation? Were you asked if we could have a sit-down in the school? I was. And your answer is? I'm I I I will respond to you tomorrow. >> will give you a response. >> [clears throat] >> So, I spoke um So, I spoke to Mr. James today because of the therapist and asked him again if he can move the children out of the lunch. He said the easy solution would be to move my son. That is not an easy solution for someone that is autistic. They cannot He does not do well with change. That would turn his

133life upside down and he's the victim. He's not the one that did this to him. He should not be the one that is moved. Um He also missed So, Mr. James told me that he would talk to Mr. Bessac again and then he left me a voicemail and said unfortunately he cannot moved move the other kids schedules that he apologized. And I also showed him a text message today from another boy that was not in the situation that sent my son a nasty email or a nasty text message while he was in school. So, Mr. James took that information. So, the easiest way is not to uproot the victim to make their mental health worse. My son cannot focus, is scared and this makes it a school problem even if it happened offsite. There needs

134to be more that happens with the bullies, mandatory therapy for children and parents to solve this issue where we are having with bullying. There should be a third-party social worker, parents parents involved, not just the easiest way that settles it and puts a bullying and suicide poster slapped on the wall and calling it a day. As you as a a you as the school board should look into the traveling museum of children that have ended their lives and have it come to the district to show them how immensely sad this is that children are losing their lives because kids are telling them to kill themselves. My family has been disrupted. >> Thank you. We we are not able to do that. I I was able to let her do it because she had something cuz

135she can be up here all night. She can have your time then somebody else's time. So, because of the seriousness of what she was talking, I allowed her to do it, but it's not our policy to do that. Thank you anyway for wanting to do that. We have a Griffin Watson. >> [snorts] >> Hello everyone. I'm the software engineering and 3D visualization teacher at William D. Ford. I'm here to ask for the return of Principal Bigelow. It has been over 10 weeks and we're starting to feel the impact. Things are becoming more difficult in our school and there's a lot of certainty around everything. Principal Bigelow has created real opportunities for students and staff. Because of her, I'm now head chairperson of Michigan Skills Skills USA animation competition. She helped bring in an animation class,

136supported plans and development of a new drone program I may be running, and even created a grow your own program to help our CTE teachers earn their degrees. Since she's been gone, that progress has stalled. And we're left with questions. We're not just asking for a principal, we're asking for a leader who supported our students and helped us succeed. And Principal Bigelow is what we need. I ask please help. Thank you. Thank you. And it looks like that is it. Is there any other? We have one more. Okay. She going to fill out the sleep when she get through. I'll fill out another one yes ma'am. >> Um I'm going to just start over with my comment because if I'm actually heard, you'll see how I was speaking to a pattern and both parts of

137my statement needs to be heard together. I am Dr. Dana Dane, a member of the parent advisory committee to the school board, mother of multiple children in this district including a special needs child. I will be a Wayne-Westland parent for the next 16 years. As someone whose family is from Inkster, I wrestled with the hesitation to even talk about returning their property to them. At minimum, there needs to be talk of a partnership with Inkster. This handling appears to fit a pattern of disregard, failing to engage the community and sidestepping meaningful collaboration. Another example is the superintendent situation in this district which has been chaotic for years. We were told parents, staff, and community members would have a voice in the superintendent selection. Many of us attended meet and greets, meetings, interviews, read emails, took

138calls, filled out surveys, told our voice was crucial. We sacrificed being present during dinner time, bath time, and bed time multiple times to ensure we were involved in this process. All for the vote to be moved up before our voices could be considered. When input didn't seem to trend towards a particular political agenda, certain board members bypassed us. If we disagree with how our board members vote, it is our responsibility to vote differently the next election cycle. The issue isn't the board's decision. It's that the board promised the people a voice and decided not to listen to it. They immediately motioned to reshuffle board leadership after the superintendent vote which directly followed recess after comments, an obvious political move. To suggest otherwise would be disrespectful to the intelligence of the people of Wayne-Westland. If decisions

139about the superintendent are so clearly self-motivated, how do we trust other decisions are made for the children and not personal gain? I heard two candidates with plans and compassion for children with IEPs. Another just repeated enjoyment seeing my autistic preschooler playing at gym. What happens when it's not time to play, but time to learn? Time to strategize, time to be accountable. This board makes life-altering decisions for our children's future. The decisions they make cannot be made based on greed or how to get a new seat at the table. Thank you. >> Thank you. And we have a Ms. Sue Robertson. I would just like to um continue on with the bullying statement. Um she just had just one page to go. Um her family has been disrupted and will never be the same. John will

140always mentally have to deal with why he needed to end his life because three boys decided that they wanted to pick on him. This behavior needs more help to stop it. Our schools need to be safe and need and we need to do more. The impact is this directive to self-harm is not merely a dispute. It is an endangerment of a minor. Since this incident, my son has feared going to school, shows signs of anxiety and depression, and is going to therapy. The school has not provided a safe, inclusive environment with the two boys still in my son's lunch. According to the state law, Michigan's anti-bullying policy 380.131b, schools must act as as if a student is at risk, regardless of where the incident occurred, if it dis- dis- rupts their education. By ignoring this,

141the district is failing its duty to protect him. I am requesting an immediate, independent investigation into this incident, the implementation of a safety plan for my son, disciplinary action against the responsible party, and the school has done a suicidal assessment. Um Mr. Fraley talked to him on Wednesday to help him understand what friends are and when people are not your friends. And that is it. So, please look into this matter. Thank you. Thank you. June. >> [applause] >> Is that Miss Ice? We finished? Please sit. I think she just filled this out. Okay. I think that will be it. Well, we will move on to what's next on the agenda. Who? Did someone not get called? Who's? Nicole Holland. Thank you. But she spoke. Isn't it the same one as who She has not spoken.

142Hi, I was here a couple weeks ago for the >> hiring of Dr. Cross. Congratulations. Well deserved. Dr. Affeldt, where is our principal? It's been 12 weeks. I had to meet with Risa. Financing is We're going to have issues. We're not compliant, so you can answer to the state. I did Friday. Um we're without a teacher, a principal, no support, no answers that I was promised to get within a week. Nothing. But move aside from that, because we're adaptable, right, guys? We all adapt. The teachers over there are adapting. Our EMT teacher over there is adapting, helping with firefighter issues. We're all adapting. When we shouldn't. Now, next thing. The the board, you guys are hilarious. The fact that you can't get it together. One's not voting. Mitchell, don't even get me started on the

143video I seen of you being racist. And let me tell you, I have two biracial children. I have diversity in our schools like no other, and I'm a phenomenal teacher. And the fact that you stood there and said, because I don't look like the kids in my classrooms, makes me a less teacher? You're a joke. You couldn't even vote right on the last thing. You voted against these people from Inkster that you were trying to stick up for. This is a joke. We are teaching children here. We are running schools, Ophelia. What are you guys doing to support us? We are sick of sitting here adapting while you guys do nothing. And then sit up there and fight. And then Mitchell, the that's discrimination at its best, cuz I am a phenomenal instructor. Phenomenal, no

144matter what color my skin is. I have been taught by Asian people, African-American people, you name it, Arabic. I went to Arabic schools. It doesn't matter what color my skin is. It matters on who is instructing me. My kids love me. I have classes, ask these teachers over here. Every one of these classes and their students come to me for assistance, no matter what I look like. Yeah, at 1 hour and 8 seconds on part two of this uh what was it called? Someone rephrase that. When we were looking for a superintendent, the workshop, November 8 workshop, part two. Weaver asked you not to be discriminative. May stuck up for you. And it's there. It's recorded. You said it. I've talked to people in my building of all races and said, "Should I bring this

145up?" cuz I was offended. Of all races in my building. And they said, "You know what? If it went the other way, we'd be we'd be mad at you." So, get it together. Get it together. Okay? Cox, you've been doing great. Weaver, you've been trying. I don't I can't ever say your last name right. Mr. Ray, you're doing okay. Shannon, you stay quiet over there unless it's something you really care about. When it's somebody else, you just nah. The other two, they they have their own agendas over here. Cost, good luck. This is your board. Kind, I I give it to you. You're there. You're listening. Just start speaking. Thank you. >> [applause] [sighs] [clears throat] >> And I think that's all. Who is that? I can't get it together here. Would you like me

146to give my >> other um comments we have, Melody? That's it? That's all. Um yes, we are now at interim I mean, superintendent comments. Interim, take interim off. Thank you, Vice President. Um I think I'd like to focus our attention back on why we're all here. And um Jennifer Page's students at Stallmeyer were outstanding. It'll be exciting to give them their awards. Um For the benefit of the community, we are starting our middle school flag football program. That starts Friday. And then on Saturday, we kick off our T-ball and elementary soccer. And that's truly where our focus needs to be. Okay. Thank you. Um What education comments? We going to start with Dr. Ruby tonight. Thank you. Um Madam Chairperson, I would like to say that at the last meeting, 42.86% of this board voted

147to remove the president and vice president. You would think that after that discussion and vote, that if I were the president or vice president, I think I'd be giving somebody a call to say, "Hey, can we resolve this?" No calls, no texts, nothing. Because she, and I'm saying for both of them, believe they're always right and everybody else is wrong. Second thing I'd like to say is And and I would I'm pau- pausing a little bit tonight because our president saw fit not to be here. By the way, this is the third meeting that she's not been here, and you can't do that and be president of the board. Tonight's meeting was ample proof of that. I have um been on this board 22 years. I could go tomorrow. It's no problem. Have no problem.

148But I would like to stay because I like to keep doing what's best for the district. I am very much concerned about this proposal that was brought before us tonight when one of our own cities, Westland, their council members routinely get up and talk negatively about this board and about this district. I'm not giving them anything. And it is in the interest of this district to keep our properties. They were given to us. It doesn't matter the reason why they were given to us. So, we have properties, as I've already said, in um in uh um Wayne-Westland, um Canton, we're not giving away school buildings because they're in another district from Wayne-Westland. So, this should be no different. I'm sorry that the city of Inkster lost their um their charter for their uh school district.

149I'm really sorry about that. I hate it for them, the city of Inkster. I don't know what the process is for the city of Inkster to reapply to have a school district or if that could even happen. But, certainly hasn't been done to this point as far as I know. So, if you can't defend this board and defend our district, then why are you here? Thank you. Um Mr. Ross, now Um I would like to say um first of all, um thank uh Dr. Page and Stidhamire students for showing up. Um I want to echo what Dr. Cox said. This is about our students, and we want to make sure we keep our students first in all that we do. Uh with that being said, I also want to say and encourage everyone to just

150don't show up here when your issue is at hand. But, I want this place to be packed continuously, every every meeting. Um we had a superintendent search. Certain people came, certain people didn't. We have a meeting here, certain people come, certain people didn't. We want to see everyone We want to hear the the community's voice because I'm not here to make a decision off of what I just believe. But, I want to I want to make the decision hearing from what you guys have to say. So, I just want to say to everyone that's here, tell your friends, tell your family to show up to the next board meeting and make your voice be heard. Let your voice be heard. That's all. Ms. Abney-Mitchell >> [clears throat] >> I want to thank Dr. Page. Um

151Stidhamire's probably one of my favorite buildings. Uh I really enjoyed my time a few months ago reading, um and I need to make another trip back. Uh my job doesn't always allow me the chance to to get into to the schools uh like I would like. It's the drawback of of being in engineering and working in an automotive plant. Uh but this discussion that we had tonight in regards to the Inkster properties, it's going to be a hard topic for for everyone involved. Um and I'm just going to ask for for some some patience from from everyone involved. I understand you guys have the city of Inkster has been at this position for years. I am this this is my second year on the board, my second year as treasurer. And as a committee, the

152only thing that Ms. Abney-Mitchell, who a member of the committee has asked, is that we treat city of Inkster like another any other community within our district. And I'm trying to do that. And just because we may have voted down a a proposal or it failed, doesn't mean that discussion ends between the board and the city of Inkster. And so, where there's common ground, I think we can come together. And where there's differences, we need to have those lines of communication open. And I'm sorry that it may have seemed at times that those lines of communications have been been closed. But, as Ms. Abney-Mitchell can attest to, I've been trying to keep those lines of communication open. And and trying to because we need to come to a to a bringing bring this issue to

153a close. And so, the board I believe members of the board are willing to work uh towards that end. It it's just going to It's just going to take some time. Because there's there's more than just the city of Inkster we have to consider. We have to consider the other communities also that that we service and what their feelings are because they're impacted by the decisions that we as a board make. Uh so, thank you. Mr. Cox I'm just sitting here thinking about when my oldest son was in third grade at Kettering, he went through a glass door wall. And the injuries to that little face were just horrific. And his mother, who typically is just a rock of strength, just she just disappeared in the corner, and her eyes I couldn't even see her

154in there. She was just done. She couldn't deal with it. Someone had to go in there and tell that little boy what was going to happen next and hold him down so it could happen. And uh so, him and I went through it together. And I'm reminded of that because he certainly wasn't happy with his dad, I'm sure, but his dad did exactly what needed to be done. And what you saw here tonight was people not doing what needed to be done. It's very very difficult when you have a bunch of your neighbors asking for something, and you want desperately to do it for them. But, that's not your role. I'll tell you how school districts fail. School districts fail when three or four of the members of the board decide that they need to

155go to Texas at the expense of the school district and spend th Through the chair, Ms. Clark, could you tell me how much money this board has spent on travel and education and all that? >> to ask questions. >> No, no. This is I certainly can ask questions. What are you talking about? >> the time for her to answer that question. >> It's time for me to talk. Yes, it is. >> Okay, it's time for you to talk. >> to shut me up. >> I'm not going to try to shut you up. >> have Can you Can you arrive at that number? I hope it was a reading class, by the way. And maybe it was, maybe it was not. Um I increased the budget to 24,800, and it's going to go over that. So,

156it'll be another probably >> originally is $10,000 for board travel. Yes. So, we spent $24,000, and now you're going to have to add to it. Yes. >> Now, those people taking advantage of that, that's taking pencils and apples right off of kids' desks just the same as giving half the money to Inkster. It's not any different. And you notice you could go on that trip and come back, and nobody says anything. But, be advised. People know. People in this school district know that this board is traveling unnecessarily. There are many, many things that you can learn right here at home. You've got Zoom. You don't have to go to Texas. The only reason you're going to Texas is because you think this is the Wayne-Westland Travel Agency, in my opinion. That's how you lose a

157school district. People hear about that. And they hear right next to it how you don't have the money to do something. And they say, "Geez, you had the money last year to go to Texas." And they're absolutely right. And the other reason The other way that you lose a school district is when you start talking about things like they don't match my skin color. For the record, this is a content of your character organization. We don't do skin color here. We tried that like 80 years ago and figured it out. If you don't believe me, go to any one of our schools and watch all the kids playing with one another like a bunch of M&M's in a bowl. They get along just fine. These kind of things affect the way people view this district.

158Tonight, people from the great city of Inkster came up and said all kinds of negative things to members of the board while we're sitting here like, I don't know what. Before you want half of the money for a piece of property that by the way, city of Inkster never owned. It was owned by the school district. And the reason it was given to the school district that absorbed the kids from the Inkster is because there was recognition that there was going to be additional costs. And because no organization existed to oversee the property. If you've got 17 acres of property, it needs to be maintained. Somebody needs to be responsible if someone is killed on that property. There's going to be liability. The state knew that. The state knew someone with financial wherewithal has to

159be in control of this property. And in recognition of the fact that you're going to have your expenses incurred, you're going to have to make many changes. Like for instance, just bus service. It changed many things over the years. And as Dr. Weaver said, we we didn't ask for that. We were asked to help and we jumped in and we helped. Failure to recognize that we need to be stewards of the money. Failure to vote when it's your turn to vote. These are things that hurt us greatly. When 2 weeks after the best contract that the teachers in this community ever received, they're in front of Elliott Edison Elementary School picketing with Channel 4 and Channel 7. That doesn't help us. We we we moved a teacher from one school to the next and you

160would thought that the earth stopped spinning on its axis. Folks, this is our school district. And it doesn't matter if you live in the city of Inkster or not, the children are coming here. This is your school district. We cannot give its resources away. Even if the city of Inkster really needs the money. I'm I'm I'm frankly [clears throat] flabbergasted. We have a we have an I'm going to address one more thing that was said. I made a motion at the end of the last meeting to change leadership on this board and it's not because I don't like the leaders. I happen to like both of them and I've had conversations with both of them, in-depth conversations. But the truth is, neither one of them supported the superintendent. And the superintendent has to have a

161liaison to communicate with from the board. And that person should not start their job in a hostile work environment with people that don't want them there. They need to be dealing with people who support them and want them to be successful. Think of the situation when you have somebody even if they're doing a good job as chairperson that doesn't approve of this of the superintendent. At the very first opportunity for there to be conflict between the two, whose fault is it now? Is it the person that was going to be predetermined to not be agreeable? Removing that chairman. And that's all I was doing. I wasn't removing anybody from the board, just removing the chairman. Removing the the two people that regularly talk to the superintendent in order to give the superintendent the best opportunity

162at success. That was the reason for my motion. It wasn't against Ms. May and it wasn't against Ms. Evney Mitchell. I tried to be helpful to both board members. And with respect to the issue that we talked about tonight, you know, from time to time we're going to disagree vehemently as I do tonight with some people here. That doesn't change our mission. And the great city of Inkster can stand on its own. Folks, we represent the Wayne-Westland Community School District. Thank you, Ms. Hines. Yes, I'd like to say congratulations to Sotomayor. It was a really good presentation. I'm going to have a couple of good things coming up. Um So, Mayor Kevin Coleman and Councilwoman Melissa Safford, they're having since um this month is autism awareness this month, they're having a acceptance walk and event

163Saturday, April 25th, 2026, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Tattan Park. Um it's community resources, sensory fun, food trucks, tables. I went last year, it was a really good event, totally free. Uh we also have the Wayne County um women's resource fair. You don't have to be a woman, but it's totally free. It's on the Wayne County's Women's Commission. And we're going to have resources for how housing, health care, career, jobs, everything. Last year we had over 80 uh vendors and we had about 400 people show up. So, anybody in need, it's going to be April the 30th, um 2026 from 9:30 to 3:00 p.m. at Wayne County Community College, who's one of our huge sponsors, um at 8200 Outer Drive, West Detroit, Michigan, 48219. And I'm not going to stop. We have the GSRP.

164A lot of these people are um enrolling kids into the Great Start Readiness Program. Uh they just had a special on the news before I left about a lot of smaller daycares are taking that program. The nice thing about that is um it's not income driven. Four-year-olds, uh they're certain centers they um are open from like 8:00 to like 4:00 Monday through Thursday. So, that'll be additional help free to the families cuz when I had my son, we had to pay for preschool and it was only half a day. Um also um with literacy issues, I am the president of the Kiwanis Club, so we do meet on the first and the third Tuesday of every month at the Westland Library. So, we're looking to do that. There's a lot of needs in literacy. Um

165we went to a Wayne County uh recent meeting not too long ago and they were saying that's a big topic. And so, I would like to talk about something. I didn't want to talk about it, but I have every right if something comes up. Um it's something very personal, it's very touching, but um 2024, I did have a whistleblower lawsuit with the city of Inkster in which at the time there was an email sent from the previous superintendent, a board member, and a councilman and I was in the middle of a $300,000 settlement. And at that time, that email came across about giving the land from the city of Inkster when I had that settlement. So, at the time that information was forwarded over to the FBI for investigation during that settlement situation. So, I'm

166not trying to be a jerk or anything like that, but certain things like that being an elected official, I have to be careful, you know, with things like that with I'm in the settlement and giving away property and being on the property committee was a conflict of interest. So, it's not like I was trying to not vote to be a jerk, but if the FBI is investigating certain things and I'm involved and my attorney tells me that I should recuse myself because of that financial situation of giving away land and I'm a board member, that's not good. Even if the feds said that wasn't cool. So, I'm just putting it out there. I'm not trying to be a jerk. I feel I grew up in Inkster, you know, um bygones are bygones. Everything is done

167in the past, you know what I'm saying? Like whatever's under the rug, but at that time I was getting death threats, I had to go into hiding. And the two people got charged, previous administration. So, I went through a lot, okay? So, to be like, oh, would you just No, I went through a lot. I lost everything. I couldn't get jobs. I was blacklisted due to being an FBI informant during that time. So, I'm just saying the reason why I did not vote at this particular situation because at that time there was an email at the same time in April 2024 when I was doing my settlement that to give the land over and it was inappropriate. So, I'm just putting that on the record. And um that's all I have to say. I mean,

168you as an elected official you have to be really careful. The feds, they're watching all of us. They're watching us. And I'm not about to get caught up in something and it's like anything. So, I'm just putting it out there and that's why I had to recuse myself because at that time I was informant and there was a settlement deal going on and then that email came about giving the land away when I was in the middle of a settlement and the feds even said that was inappropriate. And I'm done with that. Thank you, Ms. Hines. And I want to say thank you to Sotomayor. If y'all if the board members, I don't know if y'all looked at it, but these are thank you cards on here. That is so awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

169So, I want to address a few things that was said. First and foremost, I am not a racist. Um we had um superintendent workshop on November the 8th. These was taken out of context because I was trying to pronounce the word and I couldn't and it was basically I Democrats has changed. It was cold in the room. I took my arms like this and rubbed. Everybody remember it was cold. I was looking for some gloves. So, this is what made me racist. I was signing for black. That is not true. No, it came out of your mouth twice. Words. That No. I I am not racist at all. And and that was the biggest thing that people was worried about. And as far as our superintendent, I can only speak for myself. I have always

170supported her. As interim superintendent, we have had many of meetings. And it didn't change when she was made superintendent. I was following the rules. Do not make the decision tonight. Make the decision on April 8th. Give the community time to make comments. That's all I was doing. And as far as the Ink City of Inkster, Lord have mercy. I'm I'm resident in the city of Inkster. I love where I live at. I love my community. Don't nobody bother me. I don't bother nobody. I'm able to sit in my on my porch. I'm able to walk We still live in a diverse neighborhood that's walkable. We walk in there. We have different races in our community and I like it. But as far as the partnership with the Wayne-Westland School District, we begin our partnership with

171the Wayne-Westland School District decades ago when the people in my neighborhood, on the side of Inkster that I live on, for more than two decades from my understanding, this was their school district. Cherry Hill and John Daly, Beach Daly, this was their school district. That's when the partnership started. Now that the city of Westland has more than 40% of Inkster children attending their schools and maybe even that more than that that is rooted in the city of Inkster, we are asking for more partnership. We Our Our numbers are decreasing in our district. People are tired of hearing this story, that story, Wayne-Westland don't want us there, so we go to another school, this, that, that. But if we have clear Every since I've been on this board, I ran on the board. If I give

172you my my election stuff, it says the build communicate build communities. Communicate build community build community Wait a minute. I ran on the Wayne-Westland community building relationships with communities. It says Inkster, it says Canton, it says Romulus, it says Westland, it says Wayne, it says Dearborn Heights. That's what the purpose of me being here on this board was to build community to build relationships. Hey, my grandson go there. Let's have a relationship. I see you at football game. I want to How you doing? What's going on in Canton? What's going on in Romulus? All I want to do is build relationships. I go to Westland all the time. I think See Westland out there? I go to Westland all the time. I don't live in Westland to build relationships, and that's all I'm asking the

173board is to be open and building relationships. I'm not asking them to consider giving nothing away. Just like they read what the attorney recommended, I did, too. Just like I they read what Inkster recommended, I did, too. But I was able to believe in what Inkster was saying because I'm there. I experience it. I hear the stories. I hear the stories at the bus stop. I encourage parents come to come come to school board meeting, put it on the record. If I can get this many people Inkster come to our school board meetings, I would be a happy camper. I would dance and sing for y'all after the after the meetings. But I I run into people all the time. Come and put it on the record cuz if I say it, it's made up.

174So we tabled the decision. We going to keep on working on it, and it's going to be what it is going to be. But in one thing that we agreed on in our finance committee that did need to be settled, as the mayor had in his um proposal for superintendent. He didn't add the three interim superintendent that he had talked to. So this has been as [snorts] old as I am, and that's >> [laughter] >> And that's what? Historical, as my grandkids would say, I'm a old maid. This has been a long time. And And And one of our um board members, Dr. Weaver, said at one time it had the can has been kicked down the road and kicked down the road. So I'd like to see it to come to an end, and

175thank you all for coming out tonight. I'd like to make a motion. So moved. For a junk