001We and we will be calling the Wayne Westland Board of Education meeting for Monday, March the 16th to order. We have um students from um Taff um I just >> Galloway. >> Taff Galloway. Um Isaiah Morgan and um Joy Reed leading us in the pledge today. >> Joy Red. I know you guys are nervous. We're going to turn around. Okay, you're going to hold this for you and >> I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, and throne. >> Good job, guys. Stay right there and put it down. >> Um, Mr. Cox, would you like to introduce >> both Isaiah and Joy? >> This is Isaiah Morgan. He's in the fifth grade. And this is Joy Red. She's
002in the fifth grade. And at this time, do I read what they wrote? All right. So, ladies and gentlemen, we wrote this together. So, I'm going to read this on behalf of our students. I'm going to start with Isaiah. Good evening to the board of education and the audience. My name is Isaiah Morgan from the world's greatest elementary school, home of the Taft Tigers. This year I'm in fifth grade and my teacher is Mrs. Commerson. I think that she is the best teacher because she helps me get ready for sixth grade and helps me get ready to become a middle schooler. My favorite things about going to Taft are learning from my teachers and playing with my friends at recess. I love basketball and I got to play for Taft and it was really fun.
003I am super thankful for my coach, Mrs. Tori, in my free time, I like to play games and do puzzles. When I when I grow up, I would like to be a doctor or a police officer because my mom is a police officer and my mom wanted me to become a doctor. I would like to thank my dad, my grandmother, and my mom for raising me, helping me, and teaching me how to become a responsible person. Let's give it up for Isaiah Morgan. All right. and I'm going to read on behalf of Joy. Good evening to the board of education and the audience. My name is Joy Red from the world's greatest elementary school, home of the Taft Tigers. This year I am in fifth grade and I'm in Mrs. G is my teacher. I
004think she is a really good teacher. In my free time, I like to call my best friend Payton and talk on the phone. I also like to play games and watch TV. The reason why I like being a Taft Tiger is because this school is awesome. I would never know what to do without Taft. Our teachers teach us so much and I have learned so much. This year I was on the girls basketball team and cheer team and I absolutely love being part of both. When I grow up I would like to be a teacher or a nurse or both. I would like to thank my mom, my dad, my sister, my grandma, my great-g grandandmother, my cousins, Taff staff, and my friends. Can we please give it up for Miss Joy Red? Mr. Cox,
005did you have anything to do with the first part of those readings about Taft being the greatest school in the world? >> Well, I'll talk about that during my presentation. >> Absolutely. Um, but I I'll just ask these two a question in front of you guys. Who are we? >> Tap Tigers. >> There it is. Turn your certificates around. Perfect. Going ahead and getting started. >> We're going to do roll call first. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Then you're on. >> I just want to say to the families, thank you for coming and you are free to leave. Know you had a long day and everything, so you don't have to stay for the whole meeting. Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Next on the agenda is roll call. Mrs. Hines, >> Mr. Ambrose, >>
006present. >> Miss AMD Mitchell, >> present. >> Dr. Weaver, >> present. >> Miss Hines, present. Mr. Cox, >> present. >> Uh, Roshan, >> not here. >> Absolute. and President May, >> she is on her way. >> Okay. Sorry. One, two, three, four, five. We have a quorum. So, five, two. Next on the agenda is recognitions and presentations. We did that already. So, now we can have building updates. >> No, what? >> They have to do the presentation. >> Oh, that's the present. Oh, well, I'm thinking of, you know, recognition. I was thinking of the certificates. I'm sorry. So, welcome, Mr. Cox. >> Good evening, everybody. >> We're excited to have you here. >> My name is Brandon Cox. I'm the proud principal of the world's greatest elementary school, home of the Tap Tigers. And I,
007before I get started, I want to say two things. One, I was told that I needed to limit this to eight slides. Um, I do not have eight slides, but then they said, Brandon, you have to be under 10 minutes. So, I got you there. All right, here we are. Um, I'm going to talk about why we're the world's greatest elementary school. First and foremost, on April 12th, it will be my 8-year anniversary at Taft. When I came into Taft, um, I came from a community called River Rouge. Um, I was a building principal there for 10 years. I walked into Taft and I saw absolute chaos. This is before I decided to even take the position. I was like, you know what? I'm sold. But then I thought to myself, what does this building,
008what does this community need? And I thought that they needed something to buy into. So what would they buy into? So I named us the world's greatest elementary school. Immediately I came up with the Taft Tiger logo with the with the world and then created world's greatest elementary school. And one of the first things that I did was make sure that every single student understood our expectations, understood what we were trying to do, all the parents to understand, and I made sure that every student got a t-shirt for free so they would buy in to being part of the world's greatest elementary school. So, I'm going to talk about some things. Um, our school demographics, the total number of our students in Taft are 422, but this number changes frequently because we are the only
009elementary school inside of Wayne Westland that houses um students from the shelters such as Samaritas and First Steps. We have 18 general education classrooms. We have two ASD resource classes. We have 72 students who are receiving special education services whether they're in the ASD program or they're in the resource room program. And in the resource room program is where they are either pulled out and work on their individualized skills through their IEP or sometimes the teachers are able to push in and work with those students. We have 89 students at TAP that are receiving speech. We have eight students that are multilingual serviced. The rest were moved to Walker Winter a few years ago. Um, but we still have eight that are housed at Taft. We are a very diverse community at Taft. We have
01042.4% African-American, 42.9% Caucasian, 6.2% Hispanic, 0.2 Middle Eastern, 6.6% multithnic, and 1.7% Native American. Next, our attendance. Our average daily attendance rate for the 422 students is at 83.44%. This is something that we are constantly working on. We have a very um transient population in the area that we service. We are constantly trying to make sure that we reach these kiddos so they understand that they need to be in school. We tell their parents that they need to be in school. um they have an 86.77% SIS rate. The difference between the two numbers are how many stay for a full day and how many may be late for school or leave for leave from school early. We do unfortunately have a 22% chronic absenteeism rate, but that is a 3.5% decrease from last year. One
011of the things that we're also really working on is tardiness. We have an average weekly tardies of 14.36. Our attendance goals and way to increase overall attendance. We have PBIS assemblies. We have attendance assemblies. And we love to celebrate at TAFF. We turn every one of our assemblies into a celebration. We celebrate the kids that are there. We celebrate the ones that try to be there. We try to give them um just like our students that were up there getting their awards. We celebrate those kids. Not only do we take those pictures of the kids that are there and get good attendance, we post them on a board right outside. So, everybody that walks on their way to the cafe every day gets to see a picture of those students who are making the effort
012to get there. So, we also want them to look and say, "Oh, wow. Well, Brandon Cox is on there. Mom, you know, why am I not at school?" So, it gives them incentive as to why they would want to be there. But also, we do things such as home visits. I don't know that we're even allowed to, but we do it. We will knock on their door. Um I will show up into the trailer park or into um one of their um apartment units and say, "Hey, what's going on?" I send my attendance coordinator, who is also my parent coordinator, to knock on doors. We make phone calls on a regular basis. I send out newsletters and dojo messages all the time. Um it's wonderful to have our attendance coordinator and I think that is
013super uh important and that is something that I've been fighting for district-wide for the eight years that I've been here. Um our overall attendance goal is the school will improve overall student attendance by strengthening social emotional learning supports with a focus on building student belonging, self-management, and engagement by June of 2026. What do I want to say about that? I want our students to understand that we want them there and I want them to go home to their parents and they want to be there. So they fight with their parents. I'm sorry, mom, dad. I if I'm sorry that you didn't get enough sleep. I need to be in school. It is important for me to be in school. So that's part of our goal to instill it in the children so they can bring
014it to their parents and then not only are they hearing it from us and in the newsletters and things like that, but to really push mom and dad, hey, get us to school. It's important um for student well-being. Our school supports the whole child through the strong focus on social emotional learning. Um mental health, physical health and positive school climate initiatives. Um my life skills teacher teaches a wonderful curriculum is called Trails Life Skills where it teaches character education through social emotional learning lessons. And those students are taught explicit character traits and are recognized for de demonstrating those positive character traits and positive character behaviors. Um and that contributes to our overall improved behavior and emotional well-being at our school. Um mental health supports are provided by our school psychologist, our social worker, our parent
015coordinator and care solace. Um we have eight students who are currently receiving mental health services and 10 students have been assisted so far this year. However, Carousales has had 236 communications with Taff families um with the following as the top mental health supports. Number one, anxiety, then trauma, disruptive, ADHD, and then autism. Um, physical health needs are supported through access to free breakfast and lunch as well as healthy snack options. But we take that a step further. I'll talk about some of our experiences because to me that's the most important thing at TAP before academics, before attendance is the experiences that these kids get to have. And I'll talk about how that ties into all of this. Um, but we want to make sure that they have physical and mental health. So we provide them
016with every single opportunity we get. We go go out and get people to donate for our clothing closet, for our food closet, for our pantry to make sure that these kids know that Taff Galloway are going to wrap our arms around these kiddos with everything we got to make them feel like they are a part of the world's greatest elementary school. We also do um schoolwide initiatives such as PBIS, which is positive behavior intervention and support. And then we do a tiger ticket program where we hand out positive tickets for students who are caught doing the right thing. Then they have the opportunity to come and um trade their ticket in for prizes on a cart and they are celebrated in our lunchroom in front of everybody every single Wednesday. And they celebrate by everyone
017is wiggling their fingers so everyone's not shouting the entire time. Student achievement. Um this is our NWA math growth data. It shows a three-year um set of data. What does NWA do? It is a projected growth of where they should be on a national norm level level. Well, most of our kids have come with deficits and we are playing the catch-up game and I think that our staff does an outstanding job of providing the students with the tools necessary to grow and get where they need to be. So, this is the longitudinal data over three years. Um, I would like to see it be a little bit better, but I think every building principal would always want to see their data be a little bit better. And if you notice in math, it has been
018around the same year after year. Um, slightly going up or down yearbyear. Um, but we are now implementing an I Ready math program and I believe in it. Um, not a lot of administrators can say, you know, like I just believe in a program, but I walk the walk. I go into classrooms every single day. They're probably like, why is this man in my classroom again? Because I want to see that what they're doing is working. So we have checks that we have to do checks and balances from um people in the CIA department. So I have a responsibility in making sure that we are doing our checks for I ready math or uh really great reading and things like that. And I want to make sure that they are hitting the targets that they're
019supposed to hit. Are they turning in talking? Are they having the math talks? Are they having the discussion? And they're not just learning from their teacher, they're learning from the peers. And I think that that is awesome. Um, another one for our student achievement NWA reading growth. Um, if you notice, this is a three-year longitudinal data as well. Um, well, actually, well, if you look at it this way, it's latitudinal, but longitudinal for the time being. Anyways, um, you, if you notice, we took a dip in 2425 in our growth. So, we hit it hard this year. We knew that we took a dip and we went from 47% to 58% of people meeting their goal. We're constantly looking at our data. Our data is extremely important to us. But Brandon Cox and Taff Galloway
020doesn't just focus on things such as NWA. What I would like to really focus on is the next set of data. We have had really great reading that has been brought into our district and every building all 10 of our elementaryaries have been doing this and this is called the Taft oral fluency growth from cycle one to cycle two. What this means is this is the ability to read accurately at a proper speed and expression to bridge the gap between decoding and comprehension. So, not only are our students seeing the words, now they're starting to really understand what the words mean. And I think that that has been a downfall in math in the past because a lot of times the kids can't read the story problems. So, if they can't read the story problems
021and they don't know what they're being asked of, then they're not going to be able to accomplish what their goal is. But now that we've been doing really great reading, I really see growth. And looking at these bars, you're going to be like, "Well, what is that?" I'm going to explain it to you. The RED requires intensive supports. Okay, that means you have to have an MTSS coordinator. You have to have interventionists. You have to have pair of professionals working with individual kids to in order to master those skills. Um, yellow means they mean some support and green means they need little to no support. So in the grand scheme of these things, second grade from the beginning to the middle, they have went from 38% of the students to 48% in one cycle having
022the ability to read fluently. Um, and in third grade we went from 27% to 48%. In fourth grade, we went from 51% to 80%. And in fifth grade, we went from 63% to 78%. Now, I'm going to continue to talk about um some of our RGR, which was really great reading, and talk about closed syllable growth from cycle 2 to cycle two from last year to this year. And what does that mean? So, I I'll make it I'll I'll make it really simple for you. We're talking about cow or consonant vowel consonant words, right? Um, and if you looking at this, it's not easy to pay attention to or look at, but in second grade 75, they went from 75% to 87% mastery in one academic year. In third grade, they went from 84% to
02389%. In fourth grade, they went from 91 to 97%. In fifth grade, we did have a slight dip, but we had a large influx of students that came from another district. Um, so we have identified the students that need those additional supports and they are going to be in our MTSS program and those are the ones that are going to get those supports so they can get to where they need to be. Here's where it gets fun for me. I think that Taft creates experiences for our kids that are beyond monumental. I think the things that we do at Taft, our kids will never forget them as long as they live. I'm going to talk about two or three because I know I'm on a time limit. I know you guys have to go into
024um interviews and things of that nature, but I just want to give you an example. Trunk or treat. We have 422 students, right? I already told you guys that we had over 2,000 people show up to our trunk or treat. Former students from everywhere come over to Taft. Students from Franklin ask and beg, can they be a part of it? Can they help distribute candy? Can they dress up? We have students that come from Wayne Memorial that are all a part of it. So to have a trunk or treat that is so big and so massive is just unbelievable. But that's not the good one. Here's the good one. We create a turkey trot and a Thanksgiving feast where every student runs or walks a mile in the morning and then we have a fully
025100% donated Thanksgiving dinner. I'm talking full turkey, mashed potato, stuffing, gravy, you name it. Yams, dessert, water, and we sit down and have family style Thanksgiving. Why? Because not every kid might have it at home, but they will have it at Taff Galloway. Um, our our staff is so incredible. They really take things beyond experiences. Um, we talk about holidays around the world. We were able to celebrate holiday traditions all around the world. How do we do that? We created something called Taff Takes Off. We created this experience where these kids got a passport, they got a boarding pass. We created a TSA experience where we hired our students to wand them and make sure that they could get through security to make sure that their boarding pass was stamped to know that they were
026going to go in and be a part of this wonderful experience and know that they were going to go fly around the world. One thing that I would have really have liked was to be able to create it on a green screen. That didn't quite work out. But we als but we had this gentleman came in and he create he sung all of these traditional songs from all over the world whether it be Africa, China, places in Europe, I mean very specific countries. And then they would talk about the traditions and why it was important. And then he would ask the students, well why was it important to you? So on and so forth. Those were three that I wanted to showcase, but I I have to name them all. We were creating science, technology,
027engineering, and mathematics snowman activities. We had Santa come and read to every single class. Um, when we talk about embracing the whole child and making sure that they're healthy and they have everything that they need, we had the Christmas fitness challenge where students learned about the important of fitness through Christmas themed events. Here's the big one. Pistons fundraiser. Ladies and gentlemen, we raised enough money. My staff raised enough money to send every basketball player, boys basketball team, girls basketball teams, and cheerleaders to the Pistons game. Not only did we provide them with the tickets by the donations that we got, we provided their families the opportunity to go with them for free as well. Not only did our staff do that for them, initially we had 15 kids that were going to be on the
028floor with the Pistons during the national anthem. We just got a call this morning because we had Hooper, the Detroit Pistons mascot, in our school kicking off March's reading month this morning. I got the call immediately after, Mr. Cox. Not only can you have your 15 kids with the Pistons, you can have 15 more kids with the New Orleans Pelicans as well during the national anthem. And it will be celebrated and it'll say on all the billboards in all of Little Caesar's arena, Taff Galloway, world's greatest elementary school with over 200 families there. >> Wow. >> We also have Jim Basketball Jones. will be there celebrating. We have the uh credit union come in to teach our students uh about managing money and checkbooks and understanding finance. We had DTE come in and teach students
029about electricity and gases as well as electrical and gas safety. Our kiddos are so cool that they're able in kindergarten to program Dash robots and that's led by Mr. McGawan in media. Um, and then we have a new program that's coming up and this is going to be um throughout our entire district is going to be fifth grade Olympics. And I see Taff coming home with gold. And even if they don't, I don't care. But I'm going to make them think that they're going to come home with gold. >> I love >> um points of pride. I'm a proud principal. I'm proud of every single person in my building that gives their all every day to our kids. I'm proud of every kid that shows up every day and tries. Um some of the things
030they ask us to list it. So community involvement and partnerships such as Wayne Rotary and First Congressional Church in Wayne, Bright Futures and Champions and Lanterns Church of Wayne. Uh I didn't even think that I was going to talk about this. Last year, Lanterns bought every single student. They asked me, "Mr. Cox, we have $8,000. We want to donate to TAF. What do you want to do with it?" I said, "Buy every kid $20 or $25 worth of books." um at our um Scholastic book fair. No problem. Here you go. So, they couldn't do that this year. They didn't raise that much money. I was able to write it into our title one funds and every one of our kids got to get $25 worth of books at our book fair last week. Um I'm
031proud to have a student council. I'm proud that we have uh student produced daily video announcements. I'm proud that we have partnerships with flag football and elementary cheerleading basketball and soccer. I don't think people realize how monumental it is to give kids experiences at a young age and to be celebrated by their parents and everybody else that they play for the Taft Tiger team and that they are the world's greatest elementary school and people are cheering for them. Um, I'm proud that we have safeties and service squad and we pride ourselves on giving students the unique experience that were listed on the previous slide. So, I just want to show you guys. I didn't want to do all kinds of pictures, but if you look closely, look at these kids' faces. This is our Thanksgiving
032feast. Just how happy and wonderful. And I'll tell you what, our kids were perfect, ladies and gentlemen. Please and thank you. We're so appreciative. They hugged everybody. And um the STEM center Karen, what was her last name? Karen Dicklman, if you look in the upper right hand corner, she heard about what we were doing and she made us this wonderful piece of wood art about Taft Galloway and being a Taft family. So now that's on our podium at Taft. And then the next one is just if you look really closely in the bottom right, you can see that there's a TSA and everyone's lining up to go to the gym. In the upper right, there's a passport and a boarding pass. And you can see that my teacher sat there and cut out every single
033student's picture and wrote in all of their bio information to make sure that they had that experience. And then they decorated the walls like we're at gate TA1. All of the staff members had a specialized TAF t-shirt. They bought me that captain's hat that I had to wear all day. Um, and then not only did they do that, they bought them for the students. And you can tell in the bottom right that it is studentled. So when I ask who are we? We are the world's greatest elementary school. And if you look right here, we had this mural painted a little over a year ago. That's the same design that I designed. But I took it a step further. We went and took every single kid's hand in our school and we dipped it in
034paint and we put it on the wall and then we painted it and sealed it to make sure that it stays forever to show the diversity of our community and to show that they were once part of the world's greatest elementary school. If you have any questions, I'm here. >> Yeah, I just had a couple of comments. Oh my gosh, you're doing such an amazing job out there. >> Well, it's not me, it's our team. >> The team. So, I'm super excited. Um, there's a couple of resources I would love to connect you guys with with the homeless children and the first step. There's an organization called Haven Homes of Detroit and they help women in trafficking and domestic violence. What they do is they buy houses for them and they live there for free
035for 24 to 48 months. And there's another place called Sanctum House and they did a presentation and they help people in that area. And I actually would like to partner with you. So, I'm the president of the Wayne Wesson Kowanas Club and we give out free books. We go to this warehouse downtown and they give us out 100 free books. So, I'll give you a panther with that and then maybe you guys because Wayne Wesson's already a part of it, but just to come out to your school and get those free books, we would definitely do that for you. >> Please do. I welcome every single one of you. We have open door policy. I would love to see your faces. The kids would love to see your faces. >> Yeah, because we have 50
036kids at John Glenn High School and they have ser service projects through the Kuanas. So maybe I get you guys connected with the kids and do projects with the kids at the um elementary. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um >> wonderful presentation. Uh I've been to TAB uh earlier last year, beginning of the school year. Had a wonderful time at TAB. Um when they start going outside, because I told the uh the boys and the uh fifth grade boys, >> they're going to hold you to it. >> That I'll be there. I'll be back because they were like, "Are you coming on the playground with us to play football?" And >> well, I had to ban football from them because they get to tackle in and two hand touch is too rough. >> If they have
037a board member leading and he's the official quarterback, >> I'll be happy to be on the other team. >> We can work something out. We can work something out. But I definitely want to uh come out. So, when you guys start having um recess again, please uh let me know so I can come out and uh fulfill my obligations as the uh >> I'll shoot you >> quarterback. >> All right. >> Um uh but great a lot of school spirit there. When I came to visit, saw the school spirit. I I was really impressed with the safeties, how they assisted other uh students in the lunchroom. Um great job. I I had a couple questions about the uh the slide. I know you said um you have two ASD uh classroom. >> We do. >>
038Are we going to continue with those classrooms? I heard that we may be letting those classrooms go. >> Um I will >> transitioning those classrooms into other things. >> I will I will leave that to um the special ed department and human resources to answer that for you, sir. >> Okay. Okay. No problem. >> Well, I can answer that. >> Yeah. >> You want to go or I can go? I I don't think that that's >> Yeah, I can um >> I I don't want to speak out of term, but I don't think that >> Yeah, I can refer to um HR. We can I can talk >> I was just a parent trying to voice my opinion because I don't like that they closed the special education department because my daughter go and she
039been going there since I'm sorry this is not the time for that. You can get on the agenda and voice your opinion. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Um, any more comments or? >> Uh, last comment is just you're doing a great job. I look forward to being back over there and uh and uh playing outside with the kids during lunch time. >> Thank you. Again, it's not me, it's my team. I I it wouldn't be Taff without the team for sure. >> Mr. G, >> I remember when you were hired and you were high energy that night. >> Yes, sir. >> You're every bit high energy right now. >> I don't know how cuz I'm old, man. >> No, you're not. I know you think you are cuz you're just the oldest you've been. But trust
040me, it's going to get worse. So, thank you for all your effort. Much appreciated. And thank you for your efforts towards tardy and uh and no shows. Uh that's really important for those kids and I know you know that and I appreciate it very much. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. Um, any more comments or >> um I would just like to say I enjoyed the presentation. Um, I have met you several times personally and I think that you do a good job and thank you to your staff and you know the our students that make it great and I have to agree with you the world greatest elementary school. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Next on the agenda, we have citizens comments on agenda items only.
041>> Any comments on agenda items? We have any. Miss Hines, no. >> No. >> Well, we'll move on to consent agenda. Miss Hines, you want to do roll call? >> We need a motion first. We need a motion for a consent agenda. >> So move support. >> Roll call. Miss Hines, please. >> Mr. Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Roshan, >> yes. >> Miss Hines, >> yes. Dr. Weaver, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> yes. >> Miss Abney Mitchell, >> yes. >> And Miss May, she'll be here absent. So it'll be six. >> Zero. >> Okay. So we moving. Okay. Next on the agenda we have. Do we do business and finance? >> Is next. >> Business and finance. >> The fac finance and facility committee meeting was called to order on Thursday, March 5th at
0425:30 uh p.m. with the following attendance. Mr. Ambrose, Mr. Cox, Dr. Mr. Jefferson, uh, Miss Marky, and, uh, community member Miss Grace, uh, Miss Abney Mitchell was excused. We heard from Dr. Jefferson regarding a new professional development program for the district called Capturing Kids Hearts. The cost of this program will not exceed $642,300 and would be charged to both the title 2 and 31 doubleA grant funds. Uh the district has been given approval from the Michigan Department of Education to utilize these specific grants for funding. Uh Dr. Jefferson will go into a little bit more detail about this tonight, but if approved, uh, training would start this summer and will include at some point training not just for district employees, but also for board members. >> Okay. >> We go ahead. >> We then uh
043heard from Miss Marky who was filling in for Miss Claire where we reviewed the state aid uh report, the check register and investment accounts. It was reported that the district had a successful bond sale. There was more interest than anticipated, so the interest rate we would pay will be less. Also, um, of of significance, our bond rating increased to an A minus. We then had brief comments from Mr. Cox and myself. And the meeting was adjourned at 6:15 p.m. A supplemental finance and facility committee meeting was held on Wednesday, March 11th, uh with the following in in attendance. Mr. Ambress, Mr. Cox, Miss Abney Mitchell, Dr. CS, Mr. BBE, Miss Clare, and Miss Marky. The first item brought up uh was the purchase of Chromebooks. Uh Mr. BB is requesting that the district purchase 939
044Chromebooks for elementary and middle schools with the funds coming from Title One grants. Additionally, he would like to purchase an additional $2 million in Chromebooks using our latest bond. The devices will be used to support classroom instruction, digital learning platforms, online assessments, and equitable access to instructional resources for all students in the district. The second request uh was for the purchase of a new IT security system from Prescidio Adaptive Security. This is an AIdriven cyber solution including advanced protection, network firewalls, layer defense strategies and interactive testing. The cost for the first year uh is going to be $27,999 and the total cost over three years would be $83,997 all coming from the general fund. We then heard a few comments from Dr. Cost and no comments from either the public or or board members and
045the meeting was adjourned at 5:31. >> Thank you very much. So we make a motion for you. >> No, that's it. >> That's it. >> Okay. Okay, next on the agenda will be if I get back to it. We will hear from um Dr. Jefferson. Thank you. As presented at the March Finance and Facilities Committee meeting, I'm requesting the board approve the purchase of Capturing Kids Hearts. It's a professional development training. Um, it's researchbased program and it's designed to improve school culture, reduce behavior issues, boost academic performance. It focuses on emotional connection and belonging, which we all know is kind of the cornerstone um of kind of the u emphasizing what what students need before they can learn. It emphasizes building positive relationship. It uses a um research-based Excel training model and implemented student led
046to social contracts. It creates a self-managing, respectful, and safe classroom. Um trainings will begin with the district staff if approved um this June and um August. And the proposal is for a very all-encompassing training um bus drivers, secretaries, um teachers, pair of professionals. It's really uh board of education administrators something that uh the district can hold on to as a complete training and it's very um applicable to people even that work outside the classroom but have contact with students. So I'm super excited about this opportunity. The total cost of the training will not exceed $642,300. Um it is not at any charge to the general fund. This is completely covered by title 2 funds, 31A grant funds, and those have been pre-approved by the Michigan Department of Education as capturing kids hearts is well recognized
047by that organization. >> Any comments? >> Recommend approval. Make I make a motion approve. >> Support. >> Comments. >> So, >> thank you. I uh you know, we talked about this at the meeting and uh I actually did reach out to a school district I graduated from that was listed in the Department of Education letter to you. Um and they love it. Um one of my friends who I graduated with is a teacher in Lincoln Park and uh they haven't been doing it for long, but it he goes it's it's made a made it easier to connect with kids. And so I'm I'm for this. >> Can we get um any more comments? >> I guess I just like to say that, you know, like other board members, I've been in this the school buildings
048over the years and this is how we treat our children right now. when when I was listening in the meeting of uh what it offers what it offers for Wayne Westland personnel I think is a refresher a refresher because uh I think it's wonderful the way that we treat students in the hallway in the classroom and in the school district and I'm I'm glad that we're making a commitment for this but it's nothing new for us I don't think >> and how long would the training take >> it's a um two day training and its uh inception, but there is followup and they build teams within to support long term. Um and it would be something we would look to scale when new staff comes on board um as part of their new teacher onboarding
049or new staff on boarding as well. >> Okay. So the staff that we have present now, what's the timetable if this is approved for them getting training? >> The teaching staff and um paraprofessional staff would do August 20th and 21st. Those are two full PD days and um administrative staff um bus drivers would start earlier in June. Um we're using two funding cycles to to get that all in and also looking at people's contracts when they need to be at work. Um like the administrators are still here in June. Uh whereas teachers they'll be done and so we'll get them in August. And it's most applicable right before the school year starts because it kind of kicks off your school year. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. >> Can we get a roll call vote? >>
050Can I? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, I just wanted to add really quick. I'm kind of piggybacking piggybacking off of what Mr. Cox said. While this is how we treat children every day in our schools, I know we've heard a lot of conversations just around how the needs of kids have changed, how different needs have increased. And so with that being said, I think this is good and important to help keep us a breast of those needs, to keep help keep our staff ab breast of the needs of children and the ways to respond, right? Because we've all talked so much about how um just through the pandemic, so many things have changed, right? And the needs of kids have changed, the needs of our families have changed. And so being able to be um
051better equipped to deal with some of those challenges, I think is awesome. So, thank you for this >> and the consistency to have something that when you have such a large school district, something that every building can be grounded in and every department and transportation, you having that be systemic is really important. Um, as kids move through the system, they're hearing that same message. The consistency behind it is very powerful in my experience from other districts. >> Yes. Thank you. And we hear so much how kids has changed. These kids ain't the same like the other ones as where we they changed but we haven't changed. So we still the same person adults with our beliefs and things and they the one that's still growing and learning new things. So it's us and the training
052would be excellent. That's all I have. We can do a roll call vote. >> Miss Hines. >> Okay. Um Mr. Cox. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Rashan, >> yes. >> Miss Hines, yes. Dr. Weaver, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> yes. >> Miss Abney Mitchell, >> yes. >> President May, >> yes. >> 70. Motion passes. >> Thank you. Turn it back over to me. >> Go ahead. >> You were doing a great job. We are now at the recommendation to approve the purchase of Chromebooks. I see Dr. Philly listed. >> Miss Claire is going to step in tonight. >> Thank you for a little bit. As Daryl Be presented at the mini finance committee meeting on March 11th, the district is seeking approval to purchase Chromebooks to ensure students and staff have access to reliable
053and modern technology that supports teaching, learning, and innovation. Approval of this purchase will allow the district to secure devices at the current market prices, helping protect its purchasing power and maximize the number of devices that can be acquired before anticipated price increases. >> I recommend the board of ed approve the purchase of Chromebooks with 2 million funded through bond funds, our new bond, and 260,21568 funded through title one. Thank you for your consideration. >> Thank you. Looking for a motion. >> So move. >> Thank you. Discussion. >> Discussion. >> Yes, Mr. >> Yeah. So, thank you so much for jumping on that ahead of time because with the things going on now and the prices to be drastic increase. I think it's really good for us to go ahead and take care of that now.
054And two, it saves us money and paper too. We have a lot of things electronic. We're not using a lot of paper and and things of that nature. Saves the district money as well. So yeah, I think that'll be something we need to jump on. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Mrs. Hines, please call ro. >> Dr. Weaver, >> no. >> Mr. Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> yes. >> Mr. Rashan, >> yes. >> Miss Abney Mitchell, >> yes. >> Miss Hines, yes. President May, >> yes. >> Motion passes 61. >> Thank you. Next, we're at the recommendation to approve the purchase of adaptive security elite enhancement technology and safety systems. Clear? >> As Daryl BB presented at the mini finance committee meeting on March 11th, the district seeking approval for a one-year agreement for
055services with Presidio Adaptive Security. Um, it's actually a a three-year agreement, isn't it? >> Yes. Approval of this investment will provide AIdriven cyber security solutions, including advanced protection, network firewalls, layered defense strategies, and interactive testing to strengthen the district's security posture. I recommend the board of ed approve the purchase. The first year payment is 27999 with a total investment of 83,997,000 dollars to be funded through the general fund. >> Thank you for your consideration. >> Move approval >> support. >> Thank you. Discussion >> discussion. >> I just get Mrs. Hines and then Mrs. Abney Mitchell. >> Yes. Yes, I think this is a really good idea to invest in this because with the cyber security and that problem we had not too long ago trying to get everything back online, we definitely want to make
056sure we have top-notch security when it comes to our systems. We don't really want to play around with that because that can cost us a lot of money in the long run if we don't invest in it. >> Thank you, Mrs. Abby Mitchell. And I just want to say in our u we talked more about this in our finance committee meeting but security is very important to the district and I'm agreeing in this because even as it was explained to us they could take a picture of Mr. Bey and send it to us saying and giving us orders when it wouldn't even be him. It would be AI. So, I am very appreciative of this and I'm very appreciative of him explaining to us um how it works and everything. So, thank you very much.
057>> Thank you, Mrs. Hines. Will you please call roll? >> Miss Abney Mitchell? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ambrose? >> Yes. >> Miss Hines? Yes. Mr. Rashawn? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cox? >> Yes. >> Dr. Weaver? >> Yes. President May. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 70. >> Thank you. >> We are now at the um interim superintendent goal update. So this is um where we received a goal update from Dr. C two times a year. And so we did that early on I believe in November and then December we had midyear progress update. And now we're at our um update for March. So with that I'll turn it over to Dr. thoughts. >> Thank you. Um, for those of you in the audience, it is a requirement that every administrator be evaluated and the superintendent position
058is no different. So, we are going through the MASB um superintendent evaluation process and I am um pleased to just give you a little snapshot. I know you have a long evening, so I'm going to keep my comments rather short. Um, but just reflect on the work that's been done since December when we met last. So, um, it's exciting to know that work on the bond has begun. We've been having some furniture meetings. We've been, uh, walking sites for the new marquees. And so, we're wanting to get that, uh, those things into students hands and into the community as soon as we can. And that's that's very very exciting. Um uh our bonds have sold. We had an increase bond rating and that helped us get a higher price for them which in turn yielded
059more money for us. So that was good news. Uh winter sports are winding down. Spring sports are trying to start. At least there's no snow on the ground here. That's good. Um we've called four snow days. I'm hoping that's the last of them. and um it's been a it's been a good good um continuation after our mid- winter break. So in September the board and I set two goals. Um and then in December we added a third one and I'm just going to give you some brief bullet points on the progress towards those. So uh the first goal was to develop common assessments in K5 math and ELA 6th through 12th grade and core subjects. um by June of 2026. And I want to just tell you why that is so important. Um it's important
060because we want a similar experience from one school to another school. We want a similar experience for our students from one classroom to another one. Um the data that we get from these common assessments informs how teachers move from day-to-day instruction. Um last of all, it's a way to compare how our students are measuring to state standards and state um benchmarks. So there has been a lot of work done at the elementary, the middle school and the high school level. Uh the board received um dashboards for all three of these levels. I am proud because we are following a researchbased process where we identify the standards, we unpack them, we see if there's a a balance of questions, a blueprint, and we are on track at all three of those levels to be uh done
061and complete with the work by June of 2026. So, that has been exciting to see it unfold. There are more dates that the work will be completed uh but it is on track. Goal number two was to develop a proactive marketing campaign for the community that focuses on the programs we offer. And this was sort of a how do we tell our story there? There are so many fascinating opportunities for students here in Wayne Westland, but how do we let the whole county know, the whole state know? Um, so I am very appreciative of our communications team who has helped me launch a series called Did You Know. Um, we've been highlighting different aspects of Wayne Westland throughout each month. Um, for example, February was kindergarten roundup. Um, March I'm excited to introduce Madden, uh,
062which I think he's going to get more likes than per potentially any other one I've done. Um, but we're going to tell the world about our dual enrollment program, our upwardbound STEM CTC, so that families can be aware and ask questions and enroll students if that sounds appealing. Um, there have been uh columns written in learn, know, and grow, the connections newsletter, which goes out to all of our community. Uh, we're messaging uh to students prior to them registering for classes. that is underway right now. Um I also had the opportunity to to tour tour Kalamazoo's CTE building which is really well known um and have some ideas for what we can continue here in terms of promotion and attracting students. Um in December we added a third goal which is to create a campaign
063to increase enrollment and uh a big part of that was analyzing the mobility report. That's a fancy word to know where our students are going to and where they're coming from. And we found some trends which will allow us to target those families to either bring them back to Wayne Westland schools or to invite new students to come and explore all the wonderful things we have to offer. Um I'm I'm proud to say that uh through this marketing campaign which uh we started two weeks ago uh the key difference is that if a family says they are interested in Wayne Westland within 24 hours they are contacted and they're asked if you would like more information do you want a tour? What can we answer in terms of questions? So, we have had 65 families
064that have been contacted and answered questions, set up tours, and we are on our way. Um, we had kindergarten roundup last week. We don't have those final numbers in yet. Uh, but I know the preschool program had um 94 registrations on the spot last Friday and they are almost full. So, I I think there are good things down the road. We're certainly have a good grasp of it in the weeks to come. Uh we have fifth and eighth grade transition days. We have tours to WEIA CTC and um we are promoting our free athletics. So I am I am excited about the progress and there's more good news to come. >> Awesome. Thank you. Are there any questions from board members for Dr. Hos at this point? No, I just have one followup question. I
065know we did kindergarten round up um >> Friday. Did we do a evening one also? >> That has not happened yet. Okay. So, there are I think four other dates to to be um had for parents evening and during the day. >> Okay. Awesome. >> Thank you. >> One thing you want to say? >> Yes. I'm sorry, Miss >> Yes. I like the way you guys marketed with those yard signs like we did with the bond like the both of the colors at the schools and let everybody know is really helps you know in getting that information out. So I actually kept mine I like those in my car but that's a really good way to promote and marketing because even like with the election technically we weren't like solicit but not really but just
066having that support with the yard size on one side and other people know like hey be aware it's um open enrollment for the school. So that was really good branding for that. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. And I do agree that Brandon has been great and I I would love to see us make sure we get out um those evening ones as well so that the community knows. >> Thank you. >> So people don't think that, you know, that was the only day >> that they could do their registration. >> Anyone else? >> All right. Thank you so much, Dr. cause for all that you have been doing um to keep to keep our district moving forward and to move us forward in ways that um we weren't necessarily moving originally. So, thank
067you. Um next on our agenda would be citizens comments on non non-aggenda items. Do we have anything besides? >> I don't see any up here. Was a lady earlier. I don't know if you're still here. Okay. Say something. >> Can you bring it the list? Thank you. Um, it looks like we have one non-aggenda, Miss Dorothy. >> Hi, I'm Mrs. Grace. My name is Dorothy C. Hegler. I've been a guest teacher through Edgust Staff for the past 16 years. I see classrooms throughout Wayne Westland Community School District daily. My second assignment in 2010 was in the special education classroom at Taff Galloway Elementary School. I have a unique opportunity to see the progress that these students make throughout elementary, middle, high school, upper elementary. But I was flabbergasted and devastated to hear that the district
068has notified the ASD rooms that it intends to relocate these students and staff. I have seen the struggles that other elementary schools that have not had the consistency of the teachers and paraprofessionals working with and um I think that's a support team um support team uh working with these special education students. Please reconsider. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That is those classrooms at Taft are some of the best thriving uh special education rooms. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. >> Thank you so much. And we have a Miss Natalie Mort. Is it Morton? >> Morton. non-aggenda question. >> Hello. So, I'm here to speak about the Taft Galloway ASD resource room closings. Um, I don't believe there's any sense in the closing two completely full classrooms. Um, other than to be vindictive
069and to have a power trip. Um, saying this move is for consolidation purposes is just not enough. um especially when there are other options that are much more feasible. But because are not doing their jobs correctly, we had to contact our unions. After we did that, said student was moved to the EI program at Hamilton Elementary. A few weeks later, that is when we learned that our two full classrooms are being shut down and displaced. the K uh kindergarten through second grade ASD classroom is moving to Schwitzer and the third through fifth grade ASD classroom is moving to Hamilton. The real reason this classroom shutdown is purely because do not like how our team advocate and care for our students especially when we disagree with them and they want to show that they have the
070power and they can do what they want. Unfortunately, many of these students and their families are going to be struggling with this transition to new schools and having new faces. I strongly suggest that an investigation be carried out. I as well as many others do not have the confidence in their ability to make decisions based on the students best interest. I strongly speculate that there is a lot of misconduct with and abuse of power within the special education department. Thank you. >> I have another one. Miss Casey, is it Dunford? >> Yes, Cassie. >> Cassie, I'm sorry. Cassie Dun, not agenda item. >> Hi. Yes. Um, I am a parent to two autistic children at Taft Galloway. I got the news two weeks ago through a phone call, totally blindsided, that my kids classrooms would
071be closing. This has been absolutely devastating news. As you know, autistic kids rely on routine consistency and familiarity. And it is not okay with me or my children for this abrupt decision with nothing to back it up other than consolidation. If we want what's best for these students, it is being at their home school with the staff and support that they are familiar with. I cannot imagine the hard adjustment that my two children will go through being uprooted from their schools. Not to mention I have one child in the lower ASD room and one in the upper ASD room which causes conflicts of two different schools in which I would have to choose from. Sorry. And then also during this phone call, I get told that my daughter, who also has a one-on-one parah in
072the ASD room, could lose her as well. So, not only are you trying to uproot my children from everything they know, you're trying to take her only form of security through her parapro as well. My daughter had an adjustment period. She was at Wildwood and moved to Taft for the resource room as I was told that would be the best environment for her and it has. That adjustment alone took a little over a year for her to fully get used to everything. So, the thought of her having to go through that again just absolutely breaks my heart. And I hope that we can reconsider the closing of these rooms and actually do what is best for these children to be with the people that they love and care for them and that they are familiar
073with day in and day out. Thank you. >> Thank you. And I have a Candy. Is it Halton? Candy Halton. >> Non-aggenda item. >> Good evening. Good evening. Um, my name is Candy Halton and I'm the mother of Jasmine Hopson. I'm just going to read um few notes that I've been taking here because um I've been trying to reach out for some support for quite some time. So, I'm going just uh make it brief. My daughter had some things to say, but I'm going to have her keep that to herself until we can actually have a formal meeting. So, I want to begin by saying I did not come here for conflict. I came here because every parent expects their child to feel safe, supported, respected at school. Unfortunately, that has not been my experience
074at Wayne Memorial. Jasmine has always been a strong, confident young lady, and she can be extremely bold in the best ways. When I first enrolled Jasmine, when I'm sorry, when I first enrolled my children into Wayne Westland schools, Jasmine attended preschool at Stoddermire. Um, almost immediately after beginning at school, she came home crying one day and she asked, "Mom, why don't I see beautiful brown people that look like me?" Meaning, she noticed lack of representation. As a parent, I was shocked that she noticed that at such a young age. At that time, I took the opportunity to educate her about why I chose this district and how important diversity in school is, how important diversity is on employment, and how important diversity is in life in general. I wanted her to understand that diversity helps
075us all grow, learn, and respect one another in our communities. Today, Jasmine is still that same strong and confident young person who knows who she is. She is active outside of school and carries herself with leadership and awareness about how she should be treated by others. However, over the past several months, I have reported multiple concerns regarding the treatment my daughter have received. Um, um, specifically, I reached out seeking help, solutions, and protection for my child. And hopefully I'm able to address these these incidents at a later time as I've emailed the entire board about this matter. Instead of receiving meaningful support, I have felt that my concerns were being dismissed and not properly addressed. As a result, my daughter has experienced significant emotional distress. She has come home crying, been suspended, feeling unsupported, unheard,
076need therapy. She's trying to cope at home and she has been experienced at this all at school. No child should feel this way at school. As a parent, it's heartbreaking to watch your child suffer while feeling like her voice is not being heard by administrators who are responsible for protecting every student. I'm here today because when issues affect a student's well-being, I'm sorry. I'm here today because when issues affecting a student's well-being cannot be resolved at a school level, the board of education becomes a place where accountability and oversight must happen. I respectfully ask the I'm sorry. I respectfully ask the board to review this situation at a later time when we can discuss or whoever you can maybe assign me to. Someone that can be very responsive, someone that um will have accountability and
077want to be, you know, open to both parties. Um let me finish. I'm trying to hurry up here. I want to ensure my daughter and every student can attend school and environment where they feel safe and reported. Um thank you for your time this for this matter. I have three questions before I go sit down because these are some of the things that I just don't understand. When an incident report is submitted by a student, what's the process after that? When a student or a parent report that their child have been sexually harassed on campus, what are the steps that happens after it's reported and an incident report is submitted? I reached out to mo I reached out to multiple I'm sorry I reached out on multiple occa occasions to request a meeting and yet
078have met with any school officials about any of these matters. I'm just wanting to know how we're going to protect every student the way I just sat in here and learned today. I heard about a um a principal talk about how great his school was and I'm going go ahead and take a seat. Go ahead. Thank you babe. Thank you. >> But what we will ask you had three questions. I heard you list two. Would you put the third question on your um slip so that we have all your questions? >> Yeah. >> So someone can follow up with you. Thank you. >> Are there any other comments? >> Is there any other comments? I know some more people entered the room. Any other comments? Not agenda items. >> All right. Looks like that's it.
079>> All right. Thank you. >> Next on our agenda, we have uh comments from our interim superintendent, Dr. off. >> Um, I know the board has some important work to do this evening, so I have no further comments. >> Thank you. Review and recommendations from the board of education. I will start with Dr. Weaver. >> Thank you, Madame President. Um, just one thing. Earlier, I voted no on the uh purchase of $2 million worth of Chromebooks. I realize that Chromebooks are important to our students. However, I would like to see more accountability as to how many of these are being broken, how how many of these are out of service and why and um and what uh what we actually have in the district that's working. Um, I think that is a legitimate request because
080it seems like four or five times a year we're purchasing Chromebooks and uh, so where are they going? Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Weaver. Mr. Oshan, >> no comments. >> Thank you, Mr. Ambrose. >> Just one quick comment. I want to congratulate our uh Adams and John Glenn and Wayey Memorial uh instrumental music programs for successful weekend um at our band and orchestra festival held at way memorial this weekend. >> Thank you, Mr. Davney Mitchell. Um no comments tonight. Thank you, Mrs. Hind. >> Yes. I'd like to congratulate the students that did the pledge of allegiance. Um the excellent presentation from Tav Galloway. Um just want to make a quick announcement. So, uh, March is reading month, so definitely get our kids some library books and, uh, read our children. Um, I am the
081president of the Wayne Westland Kanas Club. And we meet on the first Tuesday and the third Tuesday every month at the Westland library at 5:30. Um, definitely support us. We have over 50 kids at John Glenn High School signed up and I'm working to get them into like the elementary and the middle schools because we give out free books and our goal is to help end literacy. So, definitely, you know, anybody can come out. Wayne West has a membership so anybody in the district can come out and just definitely like to support our kids with their reading month. And I'd like to congratulate the music department and our basketball teams and our other teams that have been doing a really good job. And um that's it. >> Thank you, Mr. Cox. >> Nothing tonight. Thank
082you. >> Thank you. And for me, I'd just like to say um piggybacking on what Mr. Ambrose and Mrs. kind said in regards to congratulations to both our um musical departments as well as our sports teams and I am looking forward to the our next phase of work which is in selecting the superintendent and I'm grateful for all the faces that I see out this evening and with that I move to our next agenda item around followup to board of education questions. Are there any that you have um Dr. >> I do not. All right. And with that, I would >> Madam President, the questions that I asked during my recommendations, I'd like to get answers to. >> Okay. So, the way the followup to board of education questions are, this she will follow up
083to those questions at the next meeting. >> Okay. All right. Um, and with that, we are now at an adjournment. I will looking for a motion to adjourn to the board. >> All in favor? I. >> Thank you all.