Board of Education Meeting - July 28, 2025

001Good evening. It is now 7 pm and I am calling the Wayne Wesleian um board of education schoolboard meeting to order. I am asking that everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance and Mr. Ambrose will lead us. Ambrose will lead us. I pledge algiance 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. >> Thank you so much. Next, we have item 10126. Roll call. Mrs. Hines, please. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> present. >> Miss Abney Mitchell, >> present. >> Dr. Weaver >> present. >> Miss Hines present. Mr. Cox >> present. >> Mr. Rashad >> present. >> President May >> present. >> We have everyone here. >> Awesome. >> Thank you. Good evening to all of our

002guests um that are joining us. We are moving into item 102.26A recognitions and presentations. Our first presentation will be with um HYA Hazard Young AIA Associates in regards to a superintendent search presentation. And at this time, I will turn it over to you, Officer Richie. >> Well, thank you so much. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes. >> So, first of all, thank you for having us tonight and just listening to the conversation, this seems like a fun group. >> So, um so kudos to you. So any my name is Mike Richie and uh I'm one of the two vice presidents for HYA and we're a national uh superintendent search firm. But just very quickly my background uh 26 years as as a school superintendent. I'm retired. Uh prior to being a superintendent uh I

003was an elementary principal for a number of years and I started my career as a fifth grade classroom teacher. So my whole career has been in education and my spare time I umpire high school baseball. So that's that's me and Pamela's gonna introduce herself and then we'll talk about Connie here in a second as well. >> I'm Pam Hornberger. I am um a former school board member. So I've been where you guys are hiring superintendent. Um I served on a school board in Mcome County for um six years. Um I served in the state legislature. I am a former teacher. I taught art um K through 12 actually um uh kindergarten through fifth grade for 20 years. and then I taught high school, middle school for three and a half years before I joined the

004legislature. Um I'm passionate about education and helping you guys find um a long-term wonderful leader that will help um educate students in your district. >> And then the third member of our team who could not be here tonight is uh Connie Collins. Uh Connie again is a lifetime uh educator. Uh spent a number of years actually in Michigan. uh she was the former superintendent in Grand Rapids and also spent a number of years as a principal and uh pupil services director in uh the Kentwood school district as well. Uh a number of years in Illinois as a superintendent. So uh she is the third member of our of our team. So the first question um you know you know as we get into our presentation and we're going to talk a lot about you know

005what we can do for the district and and why uh we're going to recruit a very uh highly talented superintendent. Um but the question is why why would someone want to come um to Wayne Westland? Why would they want to be the superintendent here? Just a couple of quick things. You've got a size is perfect. You're under 10,000. You have a great community. Uh it it's a destination. great location and um it it's just it's going to draw some pretty darn good applicants >> and I think we've seen that. Um also the education that you guys offer and and looking to when um I was reading through a letter that you had posted on your um um on your board page just looking at education excellence and you know in the state of Michigan right

006now we're kind of in a little bit of a flux hiring a state superintendent. It's a wonderful time to be on that edge of education looking for education leaders that are going to come in to your district and education leader that's going to come into your district and really drive um excellence in education and I met one of your new um principles that's coming in when you're hiring good people and you want good people um leading them. So we're here to help you find a good leader um for Wayne Westland. And as we do our presentation, we're going to talk about the right fit, how we develop the right fit for your district, what we do to build that profile. Um, but we can assure you that we do a lot of recruiting, headhunting. We

007don't just post a position. Uh, we're actively recruiting uh, superintendent. So, what you get with this team is uh, first of all, um, myself and Connie, we've looked at a number of different Michigan searches. I think they were in the proposal. But just recently, uh, we I just did the, uh, the Midland, Michigan, Oxford, Michigan, Ann Arbor. I know Connie just finished up Benton Harbor. Uh, Connie and I are on the team. I'm co-leading the State Department of Michigan, that state superintendent search as well. That's ongoing right now. That deadline closes to apply on August 5th. And again, we're getting some great applicants, uh, for that position. And then um I already mentioned Connie has nine years experience as a Michigan administrator and then with Pam's uh experience across Michigan as a state rep and

008then a schoolboard member and a teacher. I think we just blend well together. We've actually put together a really strong team for you. We're going to talk a lot about transparency. Uh your stakeholders are definitely involved. Uh we pride oursel on our community engagement and again as I go through the presentation we'll talk about what we do for that community engagement piece. We're going to customize your search and then we're going to stay with you until you are happy. Uh we're not if it if it extends if it if it if it we have to repost, we're going to be with you every step of the way. There's no extra cost. Uh we are with you until you are very satisfied uh with the final candidate. And then we have a two-year guarantee where the

009superintendent if whatever reason that person leaves within two years, we will do your next search uh for free at no cost. And there are reasons people do leave after a year or two, but we right now I've done I think this is I think I've done 63 searches so far for HYA and not one has left within two years. So the track record is is is really good. Um so as we talk about um the regional experience, let's talk about regional first. And so we're going to really focus on the Midwest. Um because we want someone with the the Michigan values, the the work ethic. And so the Midwest is the place to focus that we are going to get applicants from the East Coast, West Coast, and we can get good applicants from outside

010the Midwest, but we're going to really hone in on the Midwest. And you can kind of see uh what we have done. Um HYA has done nearly 2,000 searches since they've been in existence. And you can kind of see uh the different the breakdown here across the Midwest with the number of searches we did. We also listed the um m the Michigan searches um that we've currently have completed as well. And then when you look at the national presence, we're a national search firm. When you compare HYA to other national uh search firms, you can see we are definitely the leader uh in the in the industry. Uh we do the most searches and uh we're proud of that record as well. We already mentioned that we are currently doing the State Department of Michigan

011uh search at this time. This just gives you a little idea or a breakdown of what you could expect. And so we specifically used two Michigan searches here, Ann Arbor and Oxford. And so you can see that we had uh 25 applicants for Ann Arbor. We had 20 applicants uh for Oxford. And then you can kind tier one. So, as we get again into the presentation, we're going to tier the applicants. And so, tier one is the strongest of of the applicants. So, there's going to be a tier one, tier two, and tier three. So, you can see the breakdown from the different states where they were from. And then we did I did put in Littleton, Colorado as well um with 24 applicants. And then, um they had a very strong pool. They had

01211 uh applicants in tier one. And then the board's job with us facilitating is you don't want to you you're not going to interview 11 people. And so what we want to try to do is we want to try to interview six, seven or eight people. So we're going to work with you uh when we present the slate to try to narrow that down to see which six people or seven people you would like to interview. Uh the other thing that HYA I believe has going for them is our strong commitment and partnerships across the country. So we um we have uh great contacts with these organizations. We partner with these organizations. These are all national organizations. It's part of our network. We use that as a recruiting tool as well. We attend national conferences.

013We attend state conferences. We participate in job fairs. I'm actually an executive uh uh member. I'm on the executive committee of the National Association for School Superintendent. And as an example, our national conference is in September for for NAS. It's in Chicago. And so if we were lucky enough to get this job, we would use that platform to recruit one of your for your superintendency um during that conference as well. So that's one of the things that we do. We travel the country and we recruit applicants. So how does our search work? It's really broken down into three different phases. You've got the engage phase, the recruit phase, and the select phase. Uh the transition comes in at the end. So let's let's focus on the engage phase because that's really important to you as

014a district. We realize that and it's important to us as HYA. So how we would start things is we would conduct the board planning meeting. Um that's done in open session. We go through the entire search process. We go through all the dates, the timelines. We get everything in your calendar from day one because it's this is this is a about a four-month process. We want all the dates in your calendar so we're all on the same page. And so we start with that planning meeting. Um then we're going to interview the board members individually. Uh we're going to at the planning meeting we're going to talk about what other people should we interview mayor, chief of police, higher education, uh clergy, uh different groups, um civic groups. And so we'll come up with that

015list. We'll conduct a number of focus groups um ac across your district. We'll do community forums and then we'll create a survey uh that would be district specific to you. So we take all of that information and we build your leadership profile report and that report becomes a great roadmap or tool for the new superintendent and any of the candidates because they're going to research the district. They're going to see what this district's all about and um so they're going to as much as we research them, they're they're going to research you as well. So that report becomes a great tool to be able to use and that's we talk about the right fit. We use that report to to create the interview questions to make sure we have the right fit uh for your

016candidate. Um as we're going through um our focus groups uh we're going to do face to face, we're going to do Zoom, we're going to go to any location you want us to go to across your district. We'll allow them to email us feedback as well. We're going to be really flexible. So, we have to have times when people are going to show up. So, whether it's if it's a weekend, if it's early in the morning, it's noon for businesses at noon work really well. Sunday evening, Zoom works great for parents, 7:00 Sunday evening because usually they're around. There's no uh baseball games or any activities going on at that time. So, we try to find those times where it's really convenient. We want to get a good diverse group of of individuals across your

017district. And then again, at that planning meeting, we're going to talk about what groups you would like us to conduct focus groups with. Um, and you can see a list of, you know, booster clubs, PTO, civic group, administrators, certified staff, support staff, parents. Uh, we do insist on interviewing high school students. So, we want your students involved. We will go into your high schools. We will, uh, meet with, uh, different high school students. And uh it's one of my favorite groups to lead is the high school student group. And usually they're spot-on. Um they really the in the report it's broken down by section and students get their own section. So you can see um what your students think of your district um as we go through and conduct our focus groups. The other thing

018as far as community feedback that's important. So once we get down to our three finalists, we just completed the Milwaukee uh search. I love that one. And there are the three finalists for Milwaukee right there. And that's all this is all public information. It's been um plastered all over their website. And so what we do once we get down to your three finalists, they will each spend a full day in your district. And they'll really get to know your district. They're going to meet with a number of different stakeholder groups and um from staff to students to parents to business leaders. Again, it's it's a it's a long day. They're going to tour some of your schools. And in the evening, we have what we call a a meet and greet for the community or

019for parents. And again, throughout the day, all these different groups, they're going to get a chance to weigh in and give board feedback. That's that's really important. So you can see the QR code there. And so in all of these different groups, what happens is once you click on that code, there's two questions. And so the questions are, if this person were hired, what strengths do you feel he or she would bring to the district? If this person were hired, what would concern you uh about this person leading your district? That feedback goes right to the board members and to your board portal. And so again, we'll talk about the board portal, but you're going to see real- time feedback as that day goes on. Um, and that that information becomes really important for the

020board. We purposely do not have these groups rank the top three. It's the board's hire. Okay, this is your hire, but you want their feedback and you can you can get really good information uh from the feedback from your community um throughout this process. So the board portal I talked about this is something again that I think separates us. We will create a board portal. Think about it. Think about the portal as the board's personal website just designated to this search. It'll be password protected. So we're not going to send you a thousand emails. Everything we do goes into the portal. So you're going to see everything from the focus group meeting to weekly updates. We're going to send you weekly updates on how the search is going. You're going to see if you want

021to go back and look at our presentation, our proposal, it's all in there. The survey is in there. Uh all the the feedback you're going to get, I'm not going to read through all this, but you can see the the entire search is in that board portal. The one the really nice thing about the portal is it's broken down to six different tabs. So, you got home, propose, engage, recruit, select, transition. So, under the select, under the recruit tab, that's where all your applicants are going to be. And what we do, they apply through I'm going to use front line. And so, we're going to ask for a number of different things. And their application could be 20 to 30 pages. We're going to take those 20 to 30 pages, create one document. So, let's

022say you have 25 applicants. You one click, you're going to have one continuous document. So, you're going to see the entire application process for each person with one click and you're going to have 247 access. As soon as we get that uh application, it's going to go into the portal and you will be able to see it. So, I mentioned earlier about the tier. So, as we screen these people, as we vet these people, we're we know their letters of reference are going to be glowing. We know the people that give us the names, they're going to give us a great recommendation. We're going to dig a lot deeper than that. We're going to do all of our Google searches. We're going to call people they don't list. We're going to talk to people that

023that might know these people that someone else might know someone that knows someone, but we're going to really do a good job vetting these people, not just rely on their references or or their letters. And so, as as we do that, as we go through this whole process, again, this document is going to be in your portal, the tier document. So, the the people that we feel are the best fit for this district will be in tier one. Tier two can be pretty darn good, but they might have one little thing that we found that we want you to be aware of that we're going to tell you about it, but that's why they're in tier two. Many boards interview people from tier two. Okay? The people you want to stay away from of tier

024three. Um we'll tell you point blank, don't don't interview anyone. Don't take anyone from tier three. They're in tier three for a reason. And we'll share that with you um um when we talk about the candidates. But again, this is your search and you select the people that you would like to see interviewed. We just help you kind of categorize them to make it easier to be able to to decipher if you have 20 or 30 applicants to be able to go through them. So, um the board portal again is something that um the boards really really like to have because it's just a convenient way to keep your search organized. Uh timeline. This is a tenative timeline. This is just based on the start of the school year. And in that planning meeting is

025when we're going to go through the timeline. We're going to want to make sure obviously we're not going to schedule a focus group when there's no school or a teacher in service or maybe there's a a big concert or a play uh in the evening. So, we want to make sure that we've got this calendar. Again, you talk about transparency. We want this posted on your website. We want everyone, your whole community to know the schedule for the search and once this calendar is set. Yes, we can change it. Things do come up, but we try to keep, you know, keep this timeline uh in intact. And you'll see that if everything goes well, you should be able to announce your superintendent uh prior to the end of December. Um, and the nice thing about

026that is there's a lot of transition time. And then most likely the person is going to be under contract till June 30th, but there's going to be some transition time that they're going to be able to uh work with your current administration and current board uh as well. So the timeline becomes really important. So some testimonials. Um, I'm not going to read these to you, but um, the one thing I tell all boards as you do your due diligence, as you look in vet, uh, search firms, so you can certainly call someone to say how they do, it's really important that you do, if I'm the lead on this search, you want to call someone where searches I led or that we, the three of us were involved. You don't want to do a reference

027check for HYA if none of us were involved in that search, good or bad. We could you could get a glowing recommendation, but we had nothing to do with that search. So, in your proposal, I I think I listed a number of different um districts you can certainly contact where I actually led those searches to be able to again uh get you a true recommendation of how we how we did as as a HYA team. We pride oursel on communication. We pride oursel in getting back to you immediately. You're going to have our cell numbers. You're going to have our emails. You can call us, text us, you can call us during the week, weekends, nights, early morning. We all get up very early. Uh we work hard. Um but don't ever be afraid to

028call us on the weekend. Um because this again, this is a this is one of the most important things this board is going to do is hire that superintendent. So the I think one of the last things I want to talk about, we also offer a dashboard. Um this comes at the end of the search if you would like to do this. This is a really nice way for your new superintendent to be able to we have an exit meeting to be able to have some benchmarks in place and just some goals that the board and the new superintendent are going to set and then you can track it. Again, if you want transparency, a lot of districts put this right on their website and you can measure the superintendent's goals as that first year

029um you know is is being completed. So, it's really important to have that vision uh to know where everyone's going to go and to make sure that you're all on that same page. Now, I went really fast. This normally takes about 45 minutes, but I don't think you want to sit through a 45m minute presentation because the most important thing we can do tonight is you ask us questions about the search, the process, uh what we missed, if we missed anything, um what's on your mind regarding uh a national search. >> Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you so much. Um Mrs. Hines, >> thank you for your presentation. I just had a quick question. Um, with the national search now, could employees internally in the Wayne West School District apply as well? >> Absolutely. Um,

030and we treat any internal candidate like any other candidate. So, in other words, they have to go through the process and we have that we have that um we call it we present the slate. So once that the position closes, we get all the applications. We meet with the board and then we go through which ones we're going to interview. Again, it's the board's call if you would like to interview any of your internal people as well. But yes, um internals are more than welcome and encouraged to apply. Can I just add one more thing too because one time we did do a national search and we had a applicant from California and with the Wayne West community being so close-knit it was like a big issue because she was out of state. You know

031what I'm saying? So that was an issue within the community when we had somebody from out of state. >> You will get people from out of state but as I mentioned in the presentation we're going to really hone in on the Midwest. We're going to hone in on the Midwest because I'm from Wisconsin. She's from Michigan. Uh Connie is from Illinois. Don't hold that against Connie, please. Um um the Bears will never beat the Lions, so you have nothing to worry about. But but um but Connie spent a lot of time in Michigan. So we have when you look at the educational arena in the Midwest, it's very similar in in a lot of these states. When you start when you're talking about New York, California, New Jersey, it's a whole different ballgame. And so

032typically any applicant from the Midwest is that that we slate is if we put them in tier one and they're from the Midwest, they're going to be really good. And if they're not good, they're going to be in tier two or tier three. >> One more question about the cost. Now, is it 34,000 like estimate cost for this? >> Uh 245, I believe. >> 24. Okay. But then there's that doesn't include travel and those other pieces that are additional, right? >> Correct. So 245 is the base fee and then uh travel is not to exceed $5,000. So we put it between 2500 and 5,000. Um and then there like it depends at the board planning meeting we'll talk about advertising uh how much you want to advertise. I can tell you you don't need to

033spend uh thousands of dollars on national advertising because if you in the proposal a lot of within that base fee you get national advertising with HYA. You get our website, you get all of our social media and I think in our proposal we talked about there's over 20,000 hits a month on our website. If you go to our website right now, the one thing that we do, I would highly encourage you to go to the HY website. We not only post all of our positions, but we post our competitors positions as well. And we do that because it draws candidates. We're the only firm that does that. And it draws people to the website looking for a job because they can see right now I think we have 13 of our positions posted and we

034have over 40 other positions posted. So people are going to go there. And when you look and I'm I'm not going to name our competitors here, but if you look at some of our competitors, you go to their website, you're going to see one, two, five jobs posted. Okay? So that tells you the volume of what we do and that recruitment is again, it's just it's very powerful. >> Thank you. Are there any other questions from other board members? >> Mr. Cox, >> Mr. Richie, and Mer, I'd like to thank you for being here tonight. I'm not I don't have a lot of questions about your presentation because I thought your presentation was was very concise. Uh and I thought that the things that you covered tonight were things that were that we need to

035have covered. I think the community needs to have access to a say in what we're doing and you provide that. Uh nationally, do you do exactly the same thing everywhere or is this particular approach gerine just to this region? I know over the years you've probably learned a lot of things that you should have done >> and things that didn't work like you thought and it's kind of been honed at this point. >> No, that's a great question. So, this we like to say we customize each search. So, if we're missing something, we want the board to tell us in that planning meeting what you want and that we'll make sure we cover that. Um, but this is typically how we run all of our searches. But the difference is some boards might want 20

036focus groups. In Milwaukee, for example, we did 63. Okay, that's a lot of focus groups. Their report, if you want to see a a very lengthy, detailed report, and I think it might still be on the Milwaukee website, it's it's over 50 pages long. And and and I'll never forget when we presented that report, Milwaukee is a tough district, okay? They have very low achieving. Um they need what's happening right now in Milwaukee is what needed to happen. Everyone replacing lots of administrators um just overhauling everything. But the board we we presented the report and the board members said to us that was painful to hear but it was spoton. And you have to recognize before you can improve and go up. you have to recognize what is not working and what we can do

037different to to improve those academic achievement scores. >> So, we appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Mrs. Abney Mitchell. >> I also would like to say thank you for your presentation and it was head on. It brought a whole lot of answers that I was looking for, but I'm confused. It says your past Hya Michigan searches. It has Wayne and Weslin on there. Is that you do other searches besides superintendent or you did >> We do other superintendent searches. Um we do other administrative cabinet searches, principal searches as well. And this could have been again this could have been 15 years ago. Um I'm not sure if if we but but if it's listed, we did something in your district. We worked with your district. >> Okay. Okay. And I have one

038more question, but I think uh um But thank you so much for your presentation. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. Are there any other questions from board members? >> I just have one question. >> Sure, Mr. >> So, I see Dr. Council, I know he used to work with Wayne Westland some years ago and I seen his picture. So, is he applying for stuff? Is that like a search you guys are doing currently with Dr. Townsel? >> Can you repeat the question? >> So, Dr. Townsel used to work for Wayne Wesley in the district. He was like an assistant superintendent and I see I follow him on Facebook and stuff like that. So is he like um applying for the Wayne Weston or that's just an example of a school district that he's working? >>

039It's example. He was a finalist in Milwaukee. >> Oh, okay. >> Yep. He did not get the Milwaukee job, but he basically finished second in Milwaukee. Great great um tough process. Um Milwaukee hired uh the former superintendent from Boston and the former commissioner of education in Minnesota uh Brenda Casselius is who got the Milwaukee job. >> Thank you. >> And after that search in Milwaukee and it was very successful. They hired us to do seven of the cabinet searches. So she's completely rebuilding her team. >> Thank you. No other questions from board members. Um, I do not have questions. I had some, but they were answered through the presentation, which was extremely thorough. So, thank you so much for that. Um, we do appreciate you being here this evening. Um, and then we will follow

040up with you. So, thank you for this information. >> As far as the timeline, can you give us an idea what the timeline might look like? >> So, we are hoping to make a decision if not this evening at our this is July August board meeting. >> Okay, great. All right. >> Thank you. the opposing. >> No, I won't take any more of your time. I think they're waiting for their >> Okay, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Next on our agenda, our citizens comments, agenda items. Mrs. Hines, do we have any? >> Oh, yes, we have a Amy Parker. It looks like it's both. Just a comment. >> Good evening, Mrs. Parker. >> I'm Amy Parker. I'm the local for president. I also work for food service and I'm the assistant lead

041at John Glenn. And I just wanted to thank you in advance for approving our contract. And I also wanted to make a comment um about you saying that you're going to spend more money and get better quality of food to serve our kids. We've been trying to get you to do that for years because the food is terrible and we're restricted. The state restricts us on whole whole wheat everything, whole grain everything, zero sugar, 200 calories per serving. So, it's really hard unless you're eating a salad. And the kids love those. We can't make enough of them or wraps. Everything else is tasteless unless we we try to doctor everything up that we can, but we're limited. Um, John Glenn use some new equipment. Ours looks like it's from the 60s. It's falling apart. Um

042we had where you slide your trays down the line. Those are all coming apart. You can see underneath the counters. Um one suggestion I would like to give you is uh like a cold food prep for the line if not on both sides on one. And we can do sandwiches that are made as the kids are coming by and saying, "I want this, this, and this." Right now, we don't have room for that at all. I mean, one of the favorite things that the kids have are the tacos and nachos. Those that line is huge. They love them. And the kids that go there, they eat that every day for the whole year. I'm one of those kids. I ate that every day last year. But I really hope you guys do spend more money

043and see if we can work around some of those restrictions because you can. You just have to file paperwork with the state and um get approvals. We've done it before. So, they just have to take the time and the energy to do it. And us ladies, we're willing to do whatever we can to please the kids. And I I am one. If the kids come by and they want to know if something tastes good, I I'll say move on. Pick something else because we I taste everything before we serve it. And if it's >> and I'm very picky. So if it's not good, I will steer kids far far away from it. Um, but you do you get kids they have the same thing every day and we can offer them White Castle or Taco

044Bell and they're still going to take the same thing every day, but we just need to improve on that. And I wish you would look at John Glenn's Kitchen and our ser it's really our serving lines. They're outdated. Uh, the taco line is outdated. you know, they enclose that under the stairs and we got no new equipment and that stuff's been beat up and it looks terrible. Um, that would help and that would get us to offer some other options besides hot food because the kids do like the cold food. So, I was really pleased to hear you say that. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Yes. Do we have any other >> Can I ask something? >> Sure. >> I'm sorry, Mrs. Parker, I believe Miss Hines has a

045question for you. >> Yes. Yes. So, thank you so much for your um comments. I know we met um with the Michigan Association School Board. This is actually um a Chris Vincent from I think it's T A H E R and they do like food. So, maybe we can have them come in. We tasted it was like really good. So, maybe we can entertain that thought maybe because they were really good professional. We taste their food. So, thank you for bringing that up because I didn't know that was an issue. Ask the women that are in the kitchen what's what's good, what's not, what's not working. We love Brian, but if you really want to know what's going on, ask us. >> Maybe we'll do a taste test. >> Thank you. >> She's the assistant

046lead. >> I mean, seriously, come in our kitchen. We have no problem. >> Thank you so much, Mrs. Parker. I was trying >> I'd like to make some comments about that, but I won't interrupt the citizens comments. will talk clear. >> Okay, thank you so much for that. Um, so next on our agenda, we are at 104.26, our consent agenda. >> Move approval. >> Support. >> Thank you. Mrs. Hines, will you please call roll and Mr. Cox? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rashawn, >> yes. >> Miss Hines, yes. Dr. Weaver, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> yes. Miss Abby Mitchell, >> yes. >> President May, >> yes. >> Motion carry 70. >> Thank you so much. Next, we are at 102.26A, recognitions and presentations. Next, we have a presentation from Michigan Leadership Institute. We got a

047superintendent search. Good evening. Thank you so much for being here. >> Mr. John S. >> Thank you. >> I was going to let him introduce himself, >> but thank you. What's this? >> Because sometimes there's money. Not this time. >> Well, good evening folks. >> Good evening. >> Thank you for having me here on behalf of the Michigan Leadership Institute. We appreciate the invitation and the opportunity to uh present our services to you. Um, always a pleasure to be in Wayne Westland. I I have been here many many times over the course of the last 10 years and it's always a pleasure. So grateful to be back again one more time. I know several of you, but several I don't. So, for those who don't, I'm a longtime educator. I have been just about everything

048you could think of in a school district. Teacher, counselor, principal, central administrator, superintendent in a relatively small district, 2,700 students in Mary'sville. Large district, uh, Waterford Schools in Oakland County, which was 11,000 students and about exactly 20 buildings, uh, when I first started there. Um, I've been doing this work with the Michigan Leadership Institute for the last 10 years and have done a variety of things over the course of that time, some here, but throughout uh, Southeast Michigan with various school districts. So, uh, again, it's always a pleasure and it's a pleasure to be here this evening. So, I'll talk a little bit about our organization just briefly. Been in business since 1998. Our focus is on superintendent development and searches in particular. Uh we have conducted over 500 successful superintendent searches since our establishment.

049We have over 800 graduates of our soups academy. I'll talk about that in just a little bit. Give you more information about what that is. And we've been part of the gen Jese intermediate school district since July 1st of 2018. The nice thing about that is we've now have the support of the intermediate school district and their extensive resources. So that's been a real benefit to us as well. I won't go into all of these. I talked about us providing a variety of services. We're best known for the superintendent services that we provide, but we provide a variety of services. Just about anything a school district may need support for. We have people in our organization who have expertise and experience in those areas and who can provide that level of support and assistance to

050districts. Uh we our logo really is not just kind of a tagline. It it embodies what we do. Developing, deploying, and supporting outstanding leaders. That's what we do without fail. So our mission is to make Michigan communities better places to learn and live by developing, deploying, and supporting outstanding and inspirational local public leadership. Let me talk a little bit about each of those three things in terms of development. So our superintendent preparation academy which we is known better as our soups academy. Uh we have prepared over 800 Michigan educational leaders over the course of many years. Currently nearly 25% of superintendents in Michigan are grads of our soups academy. And it really is for this is for aspiring superintendents. anybody who has an interest in the superintendency thinks that's something that they may want to

051pursue can sign up and take part in that. In some cases, it leads people to realize that the superintendency may not be for them, which is great. Um, they still learn some leadership skills. For others, it provides encouragement and some direction and some guidance in terms of how they go about applying for a superintendency and and uh if they do uh what might be the best fit for them, which is really important, too. um very diverse pool of participants from all across the state and every walk of life. Um we do provide executive coaching at all levels as well. Personally, I have coached superintendent, building principles, central administrators, any type of leader in a school district who may need support, we can provide that as well. In terms of deployment, we recruit and we consult

052prospective candidates, which we would do for you. We work with boards and their communities to search for the best fit for their superintendent. There are many people out there who have the requisite skills and abilities and experiences to be successful as superintendants. Doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be highly successful here. So fit is extremely important. We'll lead you through the posting, screening, interview, visitation, and selection processes. So from the very beginning, from the ground up, all the way through to the end, we're right here supporting you every single step of the way. And we do have proprietary documents and procedures which have been developed again over the course of many many years uh to ensure the selection and appointment is successful. We guarantee a successful search, which I'll come back to and talk

053a little bit more about that. We do provide mentoring for the new superintendent for one year. That's all part of the service agreement that we signed with you. So for the fee that you see in our proposal, part of that deal is then for the first year after the new superintendent takes the position, we provide mentoring for the new superintendent to whatever extent he or she may want that. Uh it comes to varying degrees. Sometimes folks who assume the positions have people that they trust and and more naturally turn to. I make it crystal clear and I would be the person who would be assigned to your new superintendent as the mentor that I'm accessible and available through email, phone calls, texts, you name it. In some cases, I've set up just regular routine, uh,

054meetings once a month, uh, for example. Um, quarterly perhaps. So, I'll make myself as available as the new leader may want and, uh, be as supportive and provide that type of assistance to help them get off to a great start. Um we also offer executive coaching beyond the first year. So even past the first year, we're available to come back and continue providing that level of support. We are very active in MASA and other professional leadership organizations which keeps us very well connected with leaders throughout the state. And again, I won't go into all of these. We touched on some of these earlier slide did too. But we support boards in a variety of ways including with governance. So in terms of our expertise, we have extensive and highly successful experience and conduct ongoing research

055on the art and science of public leadership. So we don't rest on our laurels. It's a constant effort to update ourselves and continue to learn ourselves. uh we develop deliver leadership and governancemies to help develop leaders and prospective superintendent. Importantly, we know the requirements of FOYA and the Michigan Open Meetings Act. And so, we're going to help keep you out of trouble and help you walk the straight and narrow. Um I'm not shy. I would do it nicely, but if you start to kind of veer into trouble, I will kindly correct you and get you back in a place where you're going to go through a search and uh do it the right way. So, our entire MLI team collaborates on every search to identify and recruit candidates who meet your district's profile. That's really

056important. I would be the point person. I would be the person working directly with you and taking the lead on the search. But I consult with all of my colleagues and we have regional presidents throughout the state. I cover southeast Michigan. We have others that cover other areas. We have numerous other consultants though in the organization who will help us out in a variety of ways. All of whom are former superintendent and highly successful superintendent. in a brochure you have in your the folder that I just gave you within that there's a list that you'll see that gives many of the names of our consultants. Um I'll mention in a couple slides down the road we've got a couple of new people to the organization too. That's worth noting as well. Our collective experience of

057highly successful services as superintendent has given us the opportunity to build relationships and contacts all across the state which for a superintendent search is critical and really supports candidate recruitment in a huge way. So in terms of our guarantee the search will continue until you have an acceptable candidate. I'll give you a practical example. A few searches ago for me, I assisted a school district. They went through the search process. One of the things I always emphasize with the board is that one choice you always have is to say we haven't found the right person yet, even though you've gone through an entire search. This is not something that you can settle on, right? So, it's not a matter of let's interview the candidates we have. We're going to look at those those who applied,

058pick those we'd like to interview, and now we feel like we must pick one of those people that we've interviewed. More often than not, it's going to work out that way, and you will, but I really emphasize that it does not have to be that way, and you cannot afford to settle. Recent search that I did, they had three finalists, ultimately got to the end. None of the three had the support of the board. They made that determination that they really need to continue to look. My first order of business was to help them find an interim superintendent. I did that. Um my plan was to go back, our plan, and to help them restart the search at some point, but I'm happy to say that they loved the interim superintendent so much that uh

059they put her under a long-term contract. And so they're in great shape. If the appointed superintendent chooses to leave the district within one year of appointment within that first year for any other reasons than their own health or health of an immediate family member, I would come back and assist you with another search on an expensesonly basis. So for the same fee we charged initially. If you contract with us for quarterly governance workshops during the first year that your new superintendent's in place, that guarantee then would be extended to two years. So sample search timeline uh you can see that from beginning to end it's about 12 to 14 weeks. Sorry that that font is a little bit small to see even in the handout that you have. I think it is but we'll do

060our best. So right away the very first thing that we do is I'm going to meet with you. We'll have a planning meeting where I would come with a sample timeline and we would talk about this the search from beginning to end. And it's at that time that you would be able to um ask questions, make suggestions, and we were able to kind of tailor that search to make sure that we give you exactly what you need and most importantly agree on that timeline too so that you can all get that in your calendars and we can be sure that all seven of you are going to be able to be fully participating. In weeks two to three, um I would meet with designated stakeholder groups andor obtain an online survey. Almost always districts opt

061for both which is great, right? So we would do an online survey. The the most important thing that we gain from that is to um get some feedback on the characteristics that your stakeholders feel are most important for a new superintendent to possess. But then I would make myself available for face-to-face meetings too with a wide variety of stakeholder groups that quite often will include um parents, staff members, high school students. I'll usually separate out administrators because I ask administrators not to be at the meetings with the others just in case their presence could be intimidating. We want people to speak freely. I ask board members not to come to those meetings for the same reason. You might be very nice people but you're in powerful positions and so we don't want to have a

062chilling effect for those folks. So in a facetoface way it enables us to have a little bit more dialogue and interaction. And with those folks too, I'll review the search process and encourage their continued participation. So again, typically we'll do both. And so we'll take the feedback we get from the online survey and from the face-to-face meetings and it helps us create that candidate profile, which is a snapshot of what the ideal candidate for Wayne Westland schools is going to look like. So that will come directly from you. I'll get that feedback from you, but all of your stakeholders as well. We'll simply look for the most common threads and pull that all together and you get the final say on that. That then becomes part of the position announcement that we developed. That includes

063qualifications, all other details, even some things, highlights about the district just so people have an idea of if they don't know Wayne Westland, what it's about. And part of the deal there is we're looking to obviously recruit and entice people and uh hopefully get them to go ahead and and uh put an application in. So, that's part of the um the goal there. And again, with this before that is published, I'll be sharing that with you and making sure that you have final say and final feedback on that just to make sure that everything within that is 100% accurate and that it really um encompasses everything that you think it's important to. Weeks four to eight um is the application period. So, we post this throughout the state of Michigan. Um, and it's blanketed across

064the state of Michigan. Anybody in Michigan who's looking for a superintendency will absolutely find this posting. There's no doubt whatsoever about it. Um, nationally, we do have candidates who, if they're interested in coming to Michigan, know where to look and will find these postings as well. But if it's important to you to have a even a greater national reach, I believe the number is 1,400. there's an additional $1,400 fee that you could pay, which for us only covers the cost of um advertising in national publications. So, we would do that, too. If you had interest in making sure that there are people out there u nationally who saw it and applied here, that would be an option for you. Having said that, I will tell you though that if you pay any attention, I pay

065close attention to superintendent searches, whether we're the search firm or not, the vast majority of applicants to superintendencies in the state of Michigan are from the state of Michigan. And so, uh, regardless of that national reach, you may get some national interest, but typically it's fairly minimal. And if you look at what happens and look at the candidate pools who boards choose to interview, almost always is predominantly or exclusively Michigan applicants. Uh fewer and farther between are the national candidates who make it to the final round, even less so who are selected by districts. And even in that case, it can be a big adjustment for national folks. So your best bet honestly is going to be to find somebody from the state of Michigan. But again, if you want that option to make sure

066that word is out there nationally and attract some interest, we can advertise nationally for you as well. We accept applications until 4:00 on the agreed upon date. Typically, it's a fiveweek posting period, which we found from experience works. It's long enough, but not too long. Um, and during that time, it's quiet for the board, but it's active for me. I'm watching applications as they come in. I'm reaching out to candidates and having dialogue. If there are questions within the applications, things I'm not clear on, I'll ask them those questions. I'll try to get a little bit better of an idea of why they're interested and just get a sense of uh who they are and what they're about so that when I meet with you and share the applications, I'm better positioned to share information

067with you and provide you with the kind of guidance that you may need. So, I'm not doing formal reference checks. Then, candidates 99.9% of the time request confident confidentiality with their application. So, I'm not calling references yet, but I'm doing everything including basic internet searches and networking is extremely heavy there. Our extensive network throughout the state enables us to learn about just about anybody from the state who may be applying. And frankly, some of the folks who are going to be applying, I'm going to know I will have had experience with them whether they've been part of another superintendent search or in some other way. Um, and that certainly helps tremendously as well. So after that period we come back together weeks 9 through 11 um I would meet with you and we would go

068into close session which is the one and only time in a superintendent search that you can do anything behind closed doors per the open meetings act if candidates request confidentiality you can review their applications confidentiality in close session but you can't deliberate in close session and I'm again I'll keep you honest with that I'll share information on the candidates I'll come with a spreadsheet that will every single person who's applied. We don't pick the people who we think you should interview. We show you everybody. So, the spreadsheet includes everybody. It's going to show their entire work history, the degrees that they hold. I put them in three different categories for you. And it's the only time in the search that I really in any way, shape, or form may a little bit uh put my

069thumb on the scale, but it's three different tiers. The top tier are those candidates who are obviously fully qualified and have the most relevant experience for the job that they're applying to. The second tier, all highly qualified, maybe not quite the experience of those in the first tier, but still folks that you may well have interest in. Third tier are people who either don't have the qualifications that you're looking for or where there may be some significant red flags that are going to cause you very likely not to have interest. But even having said all of that, I don't tell you who to pick. I I do that to make it helpful for you because that's a lot of information to take in and a big decision to make with all that information. So that's

070designed just to help expedite that process for you. But I really emphasize that it's up to you to pick anybody from any of the applicants that you would like to interview. That is 100% your call. I actually had one district who picked a a candidate from group C. The reason she was in group C is that they were so um there were so many candidates in that case. They wanted somebody preferred somebody with central office experience. Groups A and B had a lot of candidates who had that. So anybody else I placed into group C. There was a principal there, a high school principal who the board was intrigued by. They decided they wanted to interview that candidate and she is I believe she's about to start her sixth year as their superintendent. And I

071say that just to illustrate the point that we mean what we say. You pick the folks that you would like to interview and it's going to be 100% your call. Um we for the first and I do begin to do reference checks by the way once you select those folks. Um which you'll do in open session by the way. Again close session is just reviewing information. Open session by letter designation. So the list that you have the spreadsheet it'll have candidate A, B, C, D. You'll see the names and everything. But in public when you're talking about who you want to interview, you'll do so by letter designation. Soon as you successfully have a motion to pick those folks that you want to interview publicly, then we will publicly announce who those people are too

072and their confidentiality at that point no longer applies. Um, so for first round almost always it's four to six people that are selected to interview, but I don't tell you that it has to be at least four or that it can't be any more than six. You can pick as few or as many as you feel like you need to. Um but again having done this for many many years many many times it's a little bit uncanny how it almost always falls in that four to six range. So that first interview schedule we'll set up is going to accommodate up to six interviews and if it ends up being more we just adjust the schedule. Second interviews once you select finalist the ideal number I think is two but sometimes that is three. If you're

073really wrestling with uh three candidates and you're having a hard time differentiating, you need to hear more about all three of them, we can go that on rare occasions, but it's happened. Boards have said there's only one that we really still have interest in. So, we're going to focus on that one candidate and continue the process with that one. That has happened. I've never had it happen where after a first round of board has said we don't have any interest in anybody. Right? So, minimally, it's been one. At the most, it's been three. We conduct a final round of interviews. Part of the final round of interviews too is we really try to engage your community in this. So when the finalists come back for that second round, we have opportunities for stakeholder groups to

074meet with the candidates, have interaction, ask questions, and provide feedback to the board that you can use to help you make your decision. We also get feedback from your stakeholders who are watching the interviews and have an opportunity for them to provide feedback to you so that you know how your constituents are reacting to the candidates and what they see and hear about them. And it won't even be just what they see and hear from the interviews. Trust me when I tell you that they're going to dig deep and they're going to find out. I I mean I'll be doing that too. But um if any of your um community members, staff members happen to know of somebody in one of your candidates home districts or you know anything like that, have had any experience

075with them, they're going to share whatever they may know about these folks with you. Um and that can be helpful. The one thing I ask is that if they share something that's troubling, a rumor that they've heard or something that they believe to be true, I ask boards to share that with me to let me vet that. The example I'll give there is I had one board who um as they were finishing the first round of interviews, board president told me that um he had heard from someone that one of the candidates was involved in a um tampering with with standardized test scores in a previous position and that the district had let that person go. They kept it quiet out of the public eye but had let that person go. Um so I said,

076"Well, let me check that out." I happen to know, which is again where our connections come in, the person who was the superintendent at the time, that this individual was employed there and supposedly was involved. When I called her um her first response was to um heartily laugh um at the when she heard what I was reporting to her and told me in no uncertain terms, no such thing was true. Nothing like that had ever happened. Totally false. So, I was able to convey that to the board and they knew that it was not something they needed to be troubled by. Honestly, conversely, had I found out that there was something to it, that would have been helpful to that board, too, right? So, it's beneficial for you to give me that opportunity to check

077those things out for you. Um, so weeks 12 to 14, you're going to have some options. You can do a site visit, which means a subcommittee of the board goes to the work sites of the finalists. you have an opportunity to interact with individuals within that district and ask them about the candidates. You can ask any questions that you'd like to. It's kind of is is what we see what we're really going to get is is what we believe to be true about this candidate, what you see in here and experience. So, that's one option. Another option would be to have the candidates come and do a tour of the district. Um, so you can kind of have them have some facetime with your students, teachers, etc., and kind of watch how they interact and

078see how people react to them. And we would also do a meet and greet where we bring the finalists together in one large room and provide an opportunity for anybody who has interest to come in, interact with those folks, ask questions, have dialogue, and again provide yet more feedback to the board to help you make that final decision. So, lots of opportunities for people to let you know what they think. And even though it's your decision um and you're not defaulting to them, it's important for you to know what your folks think. So ultimately that's going to lead to you hopefully feeling great about one of these candidates making your final selection. Um you won't have hired the new superintendent yet. That's the selection. You then need to negotiate a contract, have the person um

079ultimately approved by the board and approve that contract and you will have hired your new superintendent. So again, this can be modified and would be when we meet together and I have that draft timeline if you would want to try to tighten it up a little bit. Couldn't do it too much to be honest with you and I'd push back if you wanted to. Um if you needed to extend it, we certainly could do that. So $12,200 is the fee that we charge for this. Um, we can if you wanted to modify the services that we provide, we could talk about that and modify that as well if need be. That's going to cover the basic fees associated with the search. There's an additional up to $1,000 that would include transportation um and potentially some

080other um copying needs, but typically, frankly, it doesn't hit that. But that's just kind of an in case. Um there are no other hidden fees other than again if you had interest in doing those national advertisements. Our guarantee again if we endorse that candidate and they leave in that first year for the reasons that I cited you'll see me back here and we'll go at it again. I mentioned our team pretty highowered team. I I'll just cite a few people. In fact, let me first the couple that you don't see in the flyer that you have. Dr. Wanda Cook Robinson, who's the former superintendent of Oakland schools, um is now part of our team. Dr. Robert Liveroise, who's the former superintendent of Leavonia schools, is now a part of our team as well. Um gosh,

081Teresa Weatherall Neil, former Grand Rapids superintendent. Randy Leapa, former Wayne Reese superintendent. Um these are not lightweights in the field. These are all people who were exceptional at what they did, exceptional leaders, great experience in the superintendency and in school leadership, extremely well-connected throughout the state and in some cases even beyond. And I'll go back to when we're doing these searches, I'm reaching out to these folks saying, "Here's what I'm looking for. Who do you know who might be appropriate for this particular position who I might be able to reach out to or who perhaps you'd like to reach out to on our behalf?" So, it's quite a team effort and it's quite a strong team. So, why us? You know, you're talking to more than one search firm and we can all do this

082for you. Every search firm is going to be able to come in and help you get through a search, right? So, why pick us? Um, part of it is is the experience and competency of every single member of our team. Our extensive network of outstanding leaders and extensive may be an understatement. It's it is every bit of that. This is feedback we get all the time. We make the search easy for you. Um but the decision difficult. The decision is typically difficult because of the quality of the candidates. The process is easy because we walk you right through it. I kind of hold your hand every step of the way. We facilitated nearly 500 successful searches during our time. We're committed to success for children. And one of our strengths, I think, is that we

083don't ever lose sight of that. We know why we're doing this work. It's why we are why we were in the field, why we were educators, why we were superintendent. That's why we do this work, too. You've got, is it over 9,000 students, I believe, in your district, right, who need strong leadership. And fundamentally, that's what this is about. Customer service and commitment. You're not going to find anybody else who matches what we provide to you. Um, we are readily accessible, available. Everything we do is on site. I know in some cases folks want to do some things virtually in part, frankly, because it's a little bit more convenient for them. We don't do that. You're going to see might get tired of me seeing me here, but you'll see me here every step of

084the way. I will be here with you um always. So, uh, that customer service and anything that you need, any questions that you have, whatever, you will be able to reach me very readily and you'll find me to be very responsive. We're a service organization that's dedicated to improving leadership. We don't lose sight of that either. This is about service. None of us get rich off of doing this. There's compensation, but it's relatively modest. We do this because it's our opportunity after years in the business to continue to give back. That support that I mentioned before for the new superintendent for the first year can be huge. We're knowledgeable about legal and policy requirements which can really help you through this process. Fundamentally, leadership is our business. That's what we do. That's what we're about.

085We're a leadership organization. The superintendency is our specialty. No, no other organization knows about the superintendency like we do. No other organization has the experience that we do with the superintendency. um but also includes boards of education. We have extensive experience as superintendents and beyond also working with boards of education throughout the state. I love this last line because it's accurate. We strive for perfection and settle for excellence in our searches. Hard to get everything perfect. Uh that rarely happens, but uh we strive for it. And the feedback that we get from the people that we work with is typically um pretty affusive with praise. I would even encourage you, you got in our proposal a list of the districts that we've worked with. Some of the more recent ones I can tell you when

086I say recent, very recent, Dexter Schools, Manchester, Springport, those were in the last couple of months that I wrapped those up. Reach out and call folks there and I'm very confident in what they'll say. I would tell you too that people within Wayne Westland Schools that I've been able to work with had the privilege and pleasure of over the course of these many years. Reach out to them and ask them too. And I'm very confident that they're going to tell you that what I'm the type of service that I'm telling you you're going to get is the type of service that we will deliver for you because we've done it before. So, questions, concerns, reservations, don't hold back. Thank you first of all for your presentation. You're welcome. >> Um I'm going to ask if

087any of the um board members have any questions and I'll reserve mine. >> Mr. Hines. >> Yes. Thank you for your presentation. Sure. >> Um I'd like to say I was super impressed over the years of our superintendent searches, our leadership, um events that you guys have put together and even in the future with our bond um and even with our strategic plannings. I know you guys helped us with that and even our curriculum instructional support. I think that'd be super important as well. So, I just like to give you guys a kudos. You guys have been super professional. Just like the the the elements of just really just like classy, you know what I'm saying? Everything was done right. um even when it came to the searches and then like you said with the

088staff that you guys have just like above and beyond and the price is extremely reasonable and even the fact if somebody leaves we do have that little wiggle room and then even having that mentorship as well. So I'd like to thank you for your presentation and as a board member being on here 11 years and working with you guys in the past you guys have done a phenomenal job. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Any questions? Yes. I'd just like to say, John, it's nice to see you in this room again and I had a little gest when you first got here because we did work together in the past and you did every single thing you just said you would do and we had a successful program. But I

089do have a couple questions. Uh, one of the things you mentioned was stakeholder groups. Like Melanie, I've been here a long time and one of the things I realize is that no matter how talented the superintendent we find is if that person cannot work effectively with our educating staff, right, >> those orders never get to the field and that work doesn't get done. And as you know, because you know, I'm looking at at uh it's very important that whomever is helping us with this project understands this school district. And I know you do understand this school district and I know Dr. Randy Leap's name is up there. He used to work in this school district. He was the superintendent for Leavonia and then Wayne Maresa. And in the past when we've had challenges, Dr. Leipa

090is one of the first people that we would call to ask for help. So certainly you know what I'm saying and you know that there's a lot of validity to it. Um, I' I'd be looking for a plan for how we can I I don't just want to address concerns. I want them to be stakeholders. I want them to have a say. It's our decision, but we want to do this together as a community school district. All of us, not seven people saying do this. Can you address that a little bit? And can you also add at the end, you've had 500 searches. How many of those have been outside of Michigan? our our searches have been uh exclusively in the state of Michigan, right? We've had candidates from out of state as part of

091those Michigan searches, but predominantly our work, we're a Michigan firm and we support Michigan school districts. As far as stakeholder engagement, I'll tell you what we do, but understand that again when we have that first meeting and talk about this, if there are modifications that we needed to make, if you need us to do something a little bit more or different, of course, we could do that. But the things that are always a part of our process is at the very beginning again we're getting we have that online survey and those face-to-face meetings and we don't limit those groups. The only group that's limited are students um just because you can imagine with the number of students you have we can't have an open meeting and say any student who wants to come can do

092so. Plus kids just don't respond that way right. So, we'll typically have our high school principles work to help us identify a a variety of students that are kind of representative of the student body that come in and give us some feedback. But beyond that, when I say we meet with parents and and community members, for example, that invitation goes out to anybody who would like to participate. When I say staff members, that invitation goes out to any staff member who would like to participate. Quite often with staff members, we'll break it down and I would meet for example because of different dismissal times. It's we want to make it as convenient for staff members as possible. So we usually build that stakeholder schedule around the staff members around the teaching staff, but we invite

093other staff members too. So we'll have a st a meeting for staff members for secondary staff members after secondary dismissal shortly after. And then we'll have a meeting for um elementary staff members shortly after elementary dismissal and people who don't fit either of those categories. It's just an open invitation to attend either of those meetings. And then we build a schedule around that later. Typically, we'll do something then for parents and community members. earlier in the day, we'll have administrators come in as a separate group, high school students, and then to whatever extent you folks may know of other constituent groups that you want to specifically reach out to, the parents and community is very broad and covers just about anybody, right? But if as an example, you were to say, "We want to reach

094out to our civic leaders. We want to reach out specifically to those folks in Wayne and Westland um and invite them specifically to a meeting that's just for them to get their feedback. We could do that. And it's just an example of how we can tailor it to to meet your needs specifically. So, right up front, those people are giving us feedback on what type of person do you need to have uh take the helm of your district. And again, we don't favor one group over another. we're looking at at most common responses when you talk to that wide variety of people. And so what bubbles to the top typically are those things that really are important uh that they're representative of what your new superintendent brings to the table. So at the very start

095they're very engaged. When we have the interviews we encourage folks to be here obviously and anybody who's here we provide an opportunity for them to provide feedback. Typically that asks what were you impressed by? what might give you apprehension and are there questions that you may still have and we can tailor that however it works best for you too. We do old fashioned we have copies we can just put out and people can fill out we collect them and make copies for each board member if we do it that way. More recently, districts have uh created QR codes which allows them to collect those responses electronically and then quickly kind of shoot it back out to board members. That can work too. And again, we'll work with you to do whatever is going to best

096meet your needs. So throughout the interview process, they'll be giving feedback, too. And then again, when you get to the finalist stage, those same stakeholder groups I mentioned before, we'll set up a schedule. We separate out the finalist interviews. You do that, you don't do two, if you have two, let's say, you wouldn't do those two interviews on the same day. We'd have those finalists come in on separate days. You're coming in that night then and you're just conducting a second interview which is going to by the way include a presentation in addition to just standard interview questions. You're going to pick the topic of the presentation something that's of great interest to you. But then during the course of the day, they're coming in the the finalists and they have an opportunity again to

097meet with those same groups of people again not limited other than the high school students who can then interact, ask questions and again we say we need your feedback to give to the board to help inform your decision. Then again, going to that last step, I talked about a couple of options where one would be that you can have the candidates do a district tour where you've got them going in and out of your buildings, walking the halls, maybe popping into classrooms with somebody, of course, there with them leading them along. Um, you can get an idea as to how they're going to be interacting with the folks who they're going to be working closely with. And then that community meet and greet where it's literally wide open for anybody who wants to come. um

098and they're simply there over an extended period, maybe a couple of hours period of time where anybody who would like to come in and get a chance to meet with them and interact with them and again give you additional feedback on what they think they're going to have that opportunity. So those are all the things that we just routinely do. If there are other things that you have interest in when we were to meet we can talk about that and I can see how it can be helpful. >> Well, thank you for being here tonight, John. >> Sure. >> Thank you for your presentation. >> Sure. >> Thank you, Mrs. Abney Mitchell. I also want to say thank you for your presentation and I appreciate the fact that the district has worked with you in

099the past. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate that. >> So I do have two questions for you. Um the first question is just around the interview questions. Do you work with us to prepare those questions or do you give us a standard set of questions that are asked for? >> Great question. So I'll I'll uh do it's really kind of both, right? So for the first round, I'll give you a bank of questions and that you'll choose from. And typically in the first round, we kind of stick to those. Those are the first round is somewhat of a screener. So um those are questions that are kind of tried and true and will help, but you still have a choice there, too. We give you more than you need and collectively you're going to work with

100me and we'll do that publicly. I'd give you the questions in advance, give you a chance to take a look. When we meet, we're going to pick from a variety of categories and we'll do that together. >> Okay. For the second round, we've got another very large bank of questions that you can choose from. Um, what I ask is that each board member submit typically four to questions that they might like to see us ask. Remember, this is after you will have already interviewed these candidates. So, you'll know something about them and you're going to have some idea as to what it is you're still wondering about when it comes to these folks. So you can either pick from the questions we give you, you can make up your own questions just based on things

101that you have interest in. Sometimes I advise the board, don't forget about your candidate profile. Go back and look at your candidate profile if there's something within that that you still are unclear on when it comes to your finalists. Let's create a question surrounding that, too. Um, when I mention getting feedback from your constituents, and one of the things we ask is, do you still have questions about these folks? Sometimes some of the best questions that you ask in round two come from your stakeholders. So that's another opportunity too. Or if there's something specific to Wayne Westland, which of course is not going to be in a bank of questions that I give you, right? But um you can ask those questions too. And then even in addition to that, what I invite the invite

102the board to do is if you have specific questions for the different finalists, you can do that. All I ask is that they're balanced. So if you're asking one question specific to one of the finalists, you're going to do the same for the other and then all of the rest will be the same. If you have two for one of the finalists, you'll have two for the other. All the rest will be the same. So you're going to have a lot of latitude uh when it comes to that. I can help you word submit the questions so you don't have to worry too much about wording them precisely. And what I'll end up doing then is picking from all of those questions that you submit, I'd say three to five. Um I'll pick two of

103those. uh making sure they're kind of balanced, making sure there's not redundancy. Sometimes I'm able even to combine some of your questions. And each of you then will ask two of the questions that you submitted to me. It might be a slightly modified version, but that's what will happen. >> Great. Thank you. Sure. So, I said had two questions, but I really have three. So, the second question is around the national search. So, I understand that it's the $1,400. I I understood the explanation. So let's say we post Michigan only and then decide later if we wanted could we do that decide after we post Michigan to say like oh well maybe we should post national or does this have to all be done at the same time? >> Oh that's a great question. I

104don't think anybody's ever asked me that one before. So I want to think about that one. >> That's fair. Um, so presumably you would look at the candidates who have applied and then you would think maybe we want to broaden the search. >> So you can do it, but bear in mind the unintended message that you will have just sent to all of the applicants that you already have >> is that we're not terribly impressed and um you may lose those folks. >> Okay? So your your better bet probably is going to be to go ahead and select from that group, start the interview process. What I would suggest is that if even after the first round, you really don't believe you have the right people in the room yet and in the process yet,

105that would be the time to tap the brakes and say, "All right, we need to keep looking." And then we would talk about how to go ahead and go about that, including advertising nationally if that would be beneficial. >> And it was just a question, so not saying that that would be the case, just curious. And then the last question I have is just can you talk a little bit about how your firm handles internal candidates? Is it the same process? Is there anything different with internal candidates? >> It's exactly the same. >> Okay. >> Um and and again really important part of what we do is we want it to be totally equitable and give have an even playing field for everybody who's applying. The one thing I will always ask boards initially is

106if you have strong internal candidates and you're inclined to believe that one of those strong internal candidates is likely to emerge and likely to become your next superintendent. Another option for you is to start there first and to give the opportunity for internal and we don't limit who internally would apply. I'll give you the example. I just last week finished exactly that in Dexter schools. That's exactly what they did. They had three internal applicants. They interviewed all three internal applicants. They then selected two. This the process mirrored what I just explained to you. >> They selected two of those to advance. They interviewed those folks and ended up picking one of those to be their next superintendent. Um I think they're still negotiating that contract. That's such a a fresh result, right? So, um, so

107that would be something for you at least to ponder, but that's not typical. I will tell you more often than not, uh, the the application is open to internal candidates. They can apply like everybody else. They go through the process like everybody else. The benefit can be that even if you have some folks who you think highly of and think could well be the right person to be your next superintendent for your confidence level and that of your stakeholders, you're going to be able to stack them up against anybody else who chooses to apply. And if they still go through this extensive process and emerge as your best choice, they may be in a better position to have that much more confidence kind of behind them. um because people will have been able to see

108even when they're stacked up against all these other folks, they really are the best person to leave this district. >> Thank you so much. Are there any other questions? >> All right. Well, thank you so much for being here this evening. >> You do have a question. >> No, mine was answered about when you talked about the internal candidates. >> Okay. So, with that, we thank you for coming out this evening. It's great seeing you again. And um our timeline is we'll have some discussion today. If we don't vote today, if we need more time, we'll vote in our um August meeting. But either way, you'll hear from us. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thanks for the opportunity. >> Absolutely. And with that being said, I have a

109motion for a fivem minute recess. And right? >> Sorry about your >> All right. It is It is 8:27. Calling our meeting back to order. Do I have a motion to go back into session? >> So moved. >> Support. All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. At this time, um I would like to leave space um as we've had two presentations this evening around the um superintendent search. And so I would like to leave space if there's anyone that would like to open the floor for a discussion or make a motion for a discussion. >> Is this is this nowhere on the uh >> It is nowhere on the agenda. Can I do that? Uh, >> and if I can't tell, >> I'd like to make a motion that we engage Michigan Leadership Institute.

110And if there is a second, >> um, I'd like to speak on it. >> Second. >> Well, I wasn't really prepared to talk now. >> Was there? Actually, if I may, >> I am prepared to talk now because uh we went through this all before several years ago and it wasn't the only time that we have dealt with the Michigan Leadership Institute. But there were several specific things that happened several years ago that and we're right back there now. And one is if everyone will remember, we had a fractured board back then. Uh we had people on the board of education who had gotten very emotional about issues that they felt uh important about and frankly we weren't working as a team. But John did a very good job and to the credit of I

111think Miss Melanie Hines and Dr. Fred Weaver, we put the board back together and we did the job we needed to do and he guided us through that. And then COVID hit and we're still in the process of doing it and yet he guided us through it very well. But overwhelmingly the reason that I support Michigan Leadership Institute is because I know that the people associated with that firm know every single person that's going to apply for this job. All the people they've worked with, all the people they've worked for. There's no guesswork with that. And I know this other firm is a quality firm. Everybody heard the same thing I heard. They would do an excellent job and there's no question in my mind about it, but all their work hasn't been in Michigan.

112And I know they were talking about Wisconsin and Illinois being Midwest. Wisconsin and Illinois is not Michigan either. And it certainly isn't the Wayne Westland district. So I feel as though that choice, we're already at the front door. We don't have to introduce the firm uh to the school district and what our needs are. and they I think he has a pretty good understanding right now and uh that's why I support it. But having said that, I'm not pushing anybody. Whatever the board wants to do is fine with me. I think they both offer highly professional services. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else like to say anything? >> Yes, Mrs. >> And I'd like to say also with the price, we'll be saving a ton of money. it's like cut in half and

113we're getting more services with the mentorship uh portion and even too like the guarantee if we do lose a person other than health they'll be able to help us and replace it and again we can use them for other services especially when we're talking about the curriculum instruction I think that'd be super awesome and with the bond so it's very helpful and then too we had our strategic plan I don't remember we did another one this year but you know they were super helpful with helping us get that all set so I really would like the Michigan Leadership Institute even if we can use it from other things >> anyone So for me um I can definitely get behind Michigan Leadership Institute um presentations while different but very similar and so looking at what could

114be offered and looking at the um cost factor and then also taking into account that they do have the relationships throughout Michigan. Michigan Leadership Institute does um and HYA does not and so I think that is an important piece. Um, I also like the fact that while they have a um, outline of how things will look, we can engage in that process and we can adjust that timeline and while our price can be adjusted, it didn't sound as though our price could be adjusted necessarily for more, right? But that they would work with us. And so that and then the piece of the mentorship and having that mentorship here in Michigan and not someone that's not based in Michigan, I think is a huge piece when you talk about mentorship. So um if there's no

115other discussion yes I'm sorry I misjud >> I understand you know with um Michigan um leadership institute they have a lot of relationship they know a whole lot of people in our Pacific area and they have did work with our district before and I like that but when I think about the two pres presations. I like the presentation from HYA basically because I feel like it's more um stakeholders and board friendly especially with the board proto um portal that we can look at 24 hours a day because we have Yes, we have our veterans um board members on here. You know who y'all are? ancient >> the dinosaurs, but we also have new board members that has never been through this search and also so we do have the experience and we have the nonexperience

116and having that portal available, you know, um where we can check it at our leisure, you know, when we not working and we have time to do it. I think that they offer more opportunities for us to be in tune and for our stakeholders to be in tune. Um, and they may be a little flexible. I don't know. But it really helps when you know the community and the people. Like you said, like um President um Trusty Cox said, whoever we interview or whoever we hire, they most definitely somebody that's affiliated with their company most definitely going to know that person and know that person's background. So, I agree with that. But I'm just thinking that, you know, one of the reasons that we decided on doing a search is to get the new members

117of the board also involved with this. So, help me out. Um, Dr. leader. >> As as a board member that sat on this board during no less than four superintendent searches, I don't have a problem with um John Sari and Michigan leadership institute. The only question that I may have and as a part of the discussion is that maybe there is someone great in Ohio that would fit us. Um I think we're limiting ourselves before we should limit ourselves. Thank you. >> Thank you. Dr. Rever, may I ask a followup question to what you're saying? So, are you saying that like if we were to go with Michigan Leadership Institute, we would like to go out the gate with the additional with the national search? >> Yes, >> I'd like to say that my motion

118uh I'd like to amend my motion. I didn't specifically say that, but there's no way I would embark on it without >> what Dr. Weaver just said. Absolutely. >> I think that's very important. >> Um, so then a follow-up question to Mrs. Abby me Mitchell just to keep our conversation um because this is really a discussion the portal is that like the sticking point for you with them or that's just because you just and and I'm asking a question because what I want to understand is >> if we go with if we vote on Mr. Cox's motion today and let's say we go with Michigan Leadership Institute. I think we have that option to talk to them about how we have access to the information as he said that they would customize if that's the

119only sticking point and I'm just asking for clarity and it may not be I may not even be asking it the right way. >> It is not just that. >> Okay. But even in his presentation, what you heard him say is that I will be the one going over the interviewees and then sending them out to you guys telling y'all that I think this one is this one with um HYA if I'm not mistaken. We have more input. We have more input in that. >> If I can comment on that, >> the process was the same. If I can comment on that. >> Go ahead. >> Uh, yes. As a matter of fact, the last second or third to the last sentence, he said some districts use a symbol. You what's that thing called? >>

120Ei. >> Yes. And uh just for that purpose, but I will tell you having gone through it and perhaps Dr. Weaver would comment on it. Having gone through it, you get more than enough information. You get oodles and oodles of information. And it's very easy to access. And this is these are just the way it's done these days with these QR codes. I don't think it offers anything that one offers anything that the other doesn't offer. As he said, they all do it the same way. You know, they know how this is done because the candidates all expect it to be done a certain way. They expect to see that. >> But I I'd like to make one more comment because I think what you said, Lana, was was very valuable. We've got some board

121members who've never gone through this before and it is incumbent upon us at the beginning of our professional relationship with whichever firm we select to explain to them how we want this to go. Okay. So, they're offering this is their system, but there's going to be certain like we said we wanted to have a lengthy conversation about just exactly what we were looking for. not just who's available out there and pick the best of that, but rather we have to know what we want so we can tell him what we're looking for because he knows these people, >> right? >> Like we saw people tonight and Melanie asked about one of the uh profile pictures. That person worked in this school district just a couple of years ago. >> All right. >> Now, I'm not

122going to say what I was going to say. Sometimes you dodge a bullet when you're on the board of education and u knowing who is applying for these jobs I would say is the most important aspect of it. >> Absolutely. >> Because they do not want to give us someone who's going to fail and uh like I said I've got some experience that did a very good job but uh we will definitely in my opinion do it that way. Everybody needs to have a say and and people need to be brought up. This is how the process works and I think you'll find they do it all the same, you know, in the final analysis. It's just the way it's done professionally these days. >> Dr. >> I would just ask um I would ask

123that you know it seems that we have to have a first read and a second read on everything we do. I would ask um if >> we could not vote tonight so that we can take time. >> We have to make a motion to table because I've got an active motion. >> All right. I'd like to make a motion to table support. >> So, do we have to close out the first motion first? >> Well, this this >> this motion proceed. >> Yeah, we got a vote on the table motion. >> Okay. I I would like some time to to review uh both both proposals. Um I think both did did great did some good good presentations. Um I I want to read, you know, what each really has to offer. They they they kind

124of just did a quick summary of what they were willing to do and I want to read in detail what they and then come up with my decision. So with that, I'm sorry, Mrs. H. >> Well, there's got to be a support to this. >> It was >> Oh, >> yeah. So, the it was um Dr. Weaver and then Mrs. Mr. I'm sorry, Mr. Ambers um supported >> and then Miss T. >> I just had one quick question. just kind of looking at the um organization the hya like just some of the schools like with the Oxford and Ann Arbor just kind of made me feel a little uneasy because of the situation you know legally what happened you know so just I don't know that just kind of struck me when I was kind

125of going over the the report just me probably so >> interesting I thought the same thing >> because the sewage it just popped out I don't know just like the even though it might not be But just a negative connotation with what happened with Oxford, you know what I'm saying? And people might see like, whoa, then Arbor schools also that was happening and all the controversy, you know, so it just made my stomach a little, you know, >> but but speaking of the motion to table, this is not a decision that needs to be made tonight. Everybody >> So I was going to say that we need more time to look at something and we have it. We should take it, I think. So I will support that. >> Absolutely. So just um before we

126vote, I'm sorry, Mr. Sean, did you have your Did you want to say something? >> Um, I I wanted to say that we should um just spend a little bit more time. We don't have to vote tonight. I know that wasn't on the table that we had to vote tonight. Just want to spend a little bit more time with both proposals. Um even though personally I'm sort of leaning towards one than the other, but I would like >> So that is never that's not a problem. Um, one of the reasons why I just wanted us to have the opportunity because we had two presentations and in order to have a discussion about it, we needed to have a motion, right? So, it wasn't to have a motion to necessarily say we had to make a

127decision tonight, but just to allow us to have conversation um at this table around the two proposals. And then just to follow up, I want to make sure that not only does everyone have a presentation, but did you also receive the proposals in your board packets from each one? Okay. So, you have those to also um review. And then at this point, um, I'm going to ask Miss Hines to call RO with the understanding that this will be on the agenda in August for a vote. Okay. >> So, this is the table. >> Yes. >> Dr. Weaver, >> yes. >> Mr. Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> yes. >> Mr. Roshan, >> yes. >> Miss Abby Mitchell, >> yes. >> Miss Hines, yes. President May, >> yes. >> Motion carries 70. >> Thank you.

128And then your motion is dropped off, right? Yeah. >> Because we moved on. Okay. Awesome. So, we are now at um 105.26 board of education committee reports. Starting with Mr. Roshan with the student achievement committee report. >> Yes. Um moment. Okay. Um good evening. Um our student achievement committee met on July 8th. Uh we discussed increasing parent and community engagement including starting a new district parent a new district-wide parent group and student advisory group. The goal is to empower families and students uh rotating meetings locations and providing um refreshments to make uh participation easier. on student support. We reviewed current mental health services and suicide prevention data. Our team uses technology like light light speed to flag safety concerns and as symbols on um mental health are held in assemblies on mental health are held

129in secondary schools. More in-depth discussions on this will continue in September with invited speakers. Regarding curriculum, we are requested updates on changes previously discussed. Uh curriculum cycle update will be shared soon and some pilot programs are underway. On professional development and teacher recruitment, we are aligning training with new curriculum rollouts. While teacher retention is not currently an issue, we will revise this topic when all committee members are present. For student voice, we're exploring creative ways to hear directly from students through surveys, QR codes, classroom visits, and video posts on our websites and social media. I've I've comm committed I've committed to volunteer my time personally to help engage students directly. Lastly, we heard from community members about their uh a potential biking program which will continue we'll continue exploring as funding allows. There will be

130no August meeting. We will look forward to building a momentum in September. That's all. >> Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Roshan? >> Thank you. Next, we will have Mr. Ambrose with the finance and facility committee report, please. >> So, our finance committee meeting met uh on July 10th uh when we talked about uh quite a few items that are being brought up tonight for the board's approval. Uh the first thing we discussed um was the NWA renewal. Uh Mr. Orban uh spoke to us about about this. Um he shared that we received a a quote um for uh renewing our NWA um program which is what is used for uh how we report our our testing data. Um in the past we have done this on a yearly basis. Um, but he

131was given a quote for a three-year renewal of $333,987.50. Um, that would be an upfront cost. Um, that is a savings of over uh $43,000 if we were to um do it on an annual basis. Um in the past uh the state has reimbursed us for for a large portion of uh of these uh renewals. Um and we are expecting the state to do so this year also. Um but we are waiting for the state to pass the uh the school aid budget for the year. Uh we then heard from uh Miss Claire. Uh she was speaking on behalf of Miss Plevich um for a quote to uh for an open science pilot program uh to purchase the uh the consumables. Um we uh used uh this program was used uh partially last year and

132it we need to in some classes and it's also being expanded. So, it's not just uh some consumables, but it's also some additional equipment for uh for all the for the classes. And that comes up to a total of $100,000758 uh and 56. Uh and then Miss Claire talked to us uh about filling in for Dr. Oily for Humanex. Um that is our HR program. uh the the amount would be $31,000 and it would become paid from our general fund and then we talked about our tenative agreement with the local four uh bargaining unit. Um the key highlights in this agreement is it's a three-year contract um with pay raises AC for every three for each year. Um, and then we also talked about our Wakoa tenative agreement. Um, again, uh, it's a three-year contract,

133uh, with salary increases across the three years. Uh, then we got into talking about our bonds. Um we're going to re shared uh Miss Claire shared that she will be requesting board approval to reallocate some of the bond coverage costs to the scing funds. Um this is in regards to any overages from the three outstanding uh bid packs uh that have that were not submitted at that at the time of the meeting. Um and they would go the funds to pay this would come from our syncing fund. Uh then she talked about the resolution certifying the replacement of the scing fund millillage proposal. Uh she will be asking the board for approval tonight via resolution to certify the replacement of our scing fund millillage. This would be a a no extension to the time, no

134cost increase, but it would be able to be utilized uh for buses. The current bond has no buses uh replacements in it. And we would begin marketing uh this bond proposal in or the renewal of this fund in August. And then uh the resolution for the certifying of our school improvement bond. Miss Claire shared the resolution to certify the school improvement bond uh will be brought before us tonight will be requested to approve the ballot language ballot language. There will be no increases to taxes. Um and Miss Hines shared that she will go to the city council's to share the information as well. Uh in the state aid report, Miss Claire shared that the July state aid uh in June that we received uh 917,000 from the healthy school grant which is helping us with

135our uh drinking fountains with the the water water bottles uh filling on it. Um, it'll help cover some of the labor costs versus us having to cover uh the scing funds. Our architect was uh drawing up the plans and hopefully uh tonight we will get an update for the board. And then we went over the check register and the investment report. >> Thank you so much. Are there any questions for Mr. Ambrose? All right. Dr. Weaver, please share the policy and procedure committee report. >> Madame President, I'll do that in just a moment. Um, I would ask I'll I'll let someone else do the work on this, but we have two new hires tonight that have young children and I wonder if we could move them up in the agenda, please. >> Can we get

136through your report? Yes, we can. Close that out and then move. >> All right. First of all, I'd like to thank the policy committee for their hard work. Um, this has been um hard work trying to get our policy uh just right. Uh, usually a policy is something that you can drive a truck through. And um so some of this will have to be handled by um our superintendent and her administrators. I'm going to read the policy entitled personal electronic devices. The school district reserves the right to prohibit the possession or use of personal electronic devices on school district property or its school district related functions. For the purpose of this policy, personal electronic device means a privatelyowned device that is used for audio, video or text communications, including any ancillary or connected technology such

137as headphones, smart watches, smart glasses, or other similarly similar can't even speak enabled devices. The personal electronic devices may not be used or visible during class time unless permission is granted by the school administrator. Such devices may be used invisible during passing time and lunch. Students may not use personal electronic devices to broadcast or record audio images or video of any student, staff member or another person in the school while attending a school related activity. unless the student has received permission from the person or persons to be broadcasted or recorded. This prohibition does not apply to curricular or extracurricular activities for which personal recording is generally permitted. The superintendent may develop regulations to further control student possession and use of personal electronic devices. I draw the board's attention to the survey that we put out.

138>> I'm sorry, Dr. Weaver. Is this your policy? This the report from the policy committee meeting or are you moving to us having a first read of this policy? >> Well, I wanted to give it all to you. So, you would consider it a first read unless you want everyone to do that at home and that's up to you. >> No, no, no, no, no. Because we were just at the point of your committee report. We're not at the agenda item where we're talking about this as a first read. But that's what I'm asking. I wasn't understanding. Were you doing that as a part of the committee report? >> Yeah. Oh, I can save it for later. Okay. We met, we discussed it, we wrote something up, the lawyer changed it, and here we are.

139>> Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Cliff. >> Thank you. Dr. Weaver also asked, and I don't know if we need a motion to move up the Okay, there we go. >> All right. All in favor? >> I >> All right. So, we're now going to jump down to 108.26, review and approval of human resources, and we're going to go to the recommendation for the hire of the Walker Winter Elementary School principal. And I'm not sure who's doing that. All right, Mr. To. >> Hi. I'm happy tonight to uh recommend to the board two individuals. First individual is Bradley Smith um for the position of the principal at Walker Winter Elementary. Uh Brad's educational background includes um an associates degree from Henry Ford uh un University of Michigan uh Dearborn degree uh bachelor of

140arts Eastern Michigan University masters in educational leadership. His work experience uh he started in Detroit at Allen Academy. He was at University Prep Academy. Um also, uh in Taylor at Blair Moody Elementary and Bradley, uh has worked in the district as a fourth grade teacher, an assistant principal, and a principal in Wayne Westland district. Um most recently, he was in Calhoun area Career Center in Battle Creek and his most uh current job is a Plymouth Christian Academy principal. So I'm recommending Bradley Smith be our new principal at Walker Winter Elementary School. So move >> support. Any discussion? >> Mrs. Hines, will you please call? >> Mr. Ombres, >> yes. >> Miss Abney Mitchell, >> yes. >> Dr. Weaver, >> yes. >> Miss Hines, yes. Mr. Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Rashan, >> yes. >> President

141May, >> yes. >> 70. Motion carries. >> Awesome. [Applause] Too bad we couldn't wait till everybody wasn't out of the room. >> Yeah, that little guy gets restless. Um, thank you so much. Um, I praise God. It's truly a blessing to come back home uh to Wayne Westland. Um, as Mr. Toko explained, I' I've been in the district. Um, I graduated from the district. Um, I've served as a teacher in the district, as a assistant principal, and a principal, and I get to come back home and continue to serve as a principal. So, I'm truly blessed. I praise God every day for this opportunity, and I can't wait to take uh Walker Winter to new heights. So, thank you all so very much. >> Welcome back, Mr. Smith. And we're glad that you wanted to

142come back. So, and to know that you metriculated through our school system is an awesome um just tribute to our school system and the work that happens and your dedication. So, thank you so much. >> Next, Mr. Cha. >> Our next tell his wife that we hired him. >> He got the job. He got the job. >> Thank you. Sorry for the interruption. >> Bye. Thank you guys for waiting. >> This is what this is about. >> Absolutely. It's your ice cream. I'm with him. >> I want to go with him. >> Yes. >> Our next individual that I'd like to recommend and happy to recommend is Mr. Matthew Seal uh for the position of principal at Adams Middle School. Um Mr. Seal's educational background. Um he has uh University of Michigan Ann Arbor, a

143bachelor's degree in elementary education and Concordia University, a masters in ed leadership. Um his employment experience is Selen Area Schools where he was a teacher. Um Chelsea School District where he's an assistant principal and his current position or his position that most recent position was Chelsea district as the principal of a middle school. >> Thank you. So >> support discussion. >> Mr. T, please call >> before he changes his mind. >> The baby want to go to bed. >> He's sitting up here doing >> Mr. Cox. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rashan. >> Yes. >> Miss Hines. Yes. Dr. Weaver. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ambrose. >> Yes. Miss >> Abby Mitchell. >> Yes. >> President May. >> Yes. >> 70. Motion carries. [Applause] Uh, thank you. I'll start that way. I I've spent my entire career

144in a middle school and I love middle schoolers dearly. And if you haven't worked in a middle school, it's okay. You don't know. But they are the best kids and I am just thrilled to continue my leadership journey here in Wayne Westland. I have connections to this community and all they talk about is the support and the um the love that the educators here have for the children and the love that the children have for the people that care about them. So, I am so thrilled to be joining this team and and thank you so much for this opportunity. >> We're lucky to have you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> And thank you to my wife and my daughter for supporting me through all this as well. >> And your daughter who's going to bed

145now. Thank you for being your dad tonight. >> Yes. Thank you. Welcome. Right back anytime. They usually not this long. >> Have a good evening. >> We are at 106.26. Moving backwards to review and approval of business service and finance. Um Mrs. Claire with the pre- audit communication. Um the pre- audit communication was sent to board members via I'm sorry. The pre- audit communication was sent to the board members via email on June 18th and uh is included in your board packet and uh it is justformational for the board to um get the scope of the work that plantar is doing with us. >> Thank you. Do we need to vote on that or that's just there for >> justformational. >> Got it. Thank you. And then next we have the recommendation to approve high

146school open sad purchase. Mr. Tokco. >> Yes. As presented at the July finance committee per the recommendation of Kim Paul Kevich who is our executive director of high school curriculum instruction. I'm requesting approval for purchase for the purchase of kit of kits to correspond with our high school implementation of open sed. Uh, I recommend that the board of education approve the purchase of the science kits in the amount of $100,75856 which will be charged to the general fund. >> Thank you. Do we have a motion? >> So, support. >> Thank you. Discussion. >> Mrs. Hines, would you please call ro? >> Miss Abney Mitchell. >> Yes. >> Mr. Yes, >> Miss Times. Yes, Mr. Roshan. >> Yes, >> Mr. Cox. >> Yes, >> Dr. Weaver. >> Yes, >> President May. >> Yes. >> Motion carries

14770. >> Thank you. Next, we have the recommendation to approve the purchase of NWA renewal. >> Thank you. As uh Mr. Joe Orbin presented at the July finance committee meeting, NWA provides benchmark testing for all kindergarten through 12th grade students. Math, reading, and reading benchmark testing is required by the state. NWA provides Wayne Westland with one common testing platform. I recommend the board of education approve a three-year re renewal of the NWA license at a cost to not exceed $352,36025 which also includes components for grades 6 through8. Uh which includes a savings to the district of 40,000 or $43,375 if you purchase it in a three-year um package. These costs would be covered by the general fund and grant funding as available. >> So move >> support. Does anyone >> support >> discussion? I have

148a quick question just in regards to the state reimbursement. Does it matter if we do a three-year contract? Because I know there was some language around not purchasing licenses like that. So but I that was with other grants. So, I don't know if that matters for this. >> I'm looking at Mr. Orbin. He says no, it doesn't. >> Okay. >> Were you like or can I just answer? >> Are you allowed? No. Go to the mic. Okay. >> Former. Okay. Very >> um Yeah. No, it does. You have to apply each year for the grant. So, it's dependent upon. We'll apply this year for that much for one year worth. >> Got it. And then we'll apply next year. Although we've already Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> But the savings is still going to be

149if we buy it. Okay. >> Yeah. Over the basically to be honest there's a bit of an increase but that it takes away the increase which aligns with what the state gives us for each one. Okay. We're >> balanced. Perfect. >> Did you have a question Mrs. Abby? >> No I don't. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Anyone else for discussion? Thank you for working to get us getting us a savings. Thank you for that. U Mrs. Hi. Will you please call? >> Dr. Weaver. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cox. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ambrose. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rashan. >> Yes. >> Miss Avenue Mitchell. >> Yes. >> Miss Hans. Yes. President May. >> Yes. >> Motion carry 70. >> Thank you. We next have um Mrs. Clear for the recommendation to purchase Humanex.

150The renewal of Human. >> Yep. I'm requesting approval of the renewal of our contract with Human X Ventures which uh is the software that the HR um uses um to in hiring our personnel and through a structured non-biased process. It's the annual cost is 31,000 be um purchased paid for with general fund. >> Thank you. Do we have a motion? >> So moved. >> Support. Thank you. Discussion. >> Mrs. Hines, will you please call RO? >> Miss Abney Mitchell? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ambrose? >> Yes. >> Miss Hines? Yes. Uh, Mr. Rashan? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cox? >> Yes. >> Dr. Weaver? >> Yes. >> President May? >> Yes. >> 70. Motion carries. >> Thank you. Next, we have the recommendation to approve the reallocation of bond project funding. Mrs. Clear. trying to find that.

151I'm requesting the board approve um uh to reallocate certain expenses um as clo closing out the bond fund. Um when I find out how much the arbitrage fees are, then I'll know how much uh needs to be moved to the syncing fund. Um I need to get uh the board's approval to move those expenses as needed and it'll be within these um bid packs um 8 10 and 14 some of the cost um that's it. >> May I move approval >> support or discussion? >> One discussion. >> Yes. Um, I was wondering, I know with the um syncing fund and the bond, were we going to put them all together or separate them or >> um after the finance committee, they had a bond um meeting and they just discussed um being nervous of putting

152them both on the um the ballot at the same time. And so we are just going to go forward with the bond and do the scing fund later. >> Okay. Thank you. >> That was right. >> Anything else? Mrs. Hines, will you please call? >> Yes. Mr. Rashawn, >> yes. >> Miss Hines, yes. Miss Abby Mitchell, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambra, >> yes. >> Dr. Weaver, >> yes. >> Mr. Cox, >> yes. >> Miss May, >> yes. >> 70. Motion carries. >> Thank you. And then next we have the recommendation to approve the certifying school improvement bond proposition. Mrs. Claire sheet trying to find >> I'm sorry. Oh, it's just the resolution. >> Um, I'm asking for um the b the board to approve the um bond uh bonds to go on the um November

153uh 4th um docket. That's the wording that will is going to be used. um it's already gone to the state and I'm just asking your permission um to put that on the um November 4th uh >> ballot. >> Discussion. >> Mrs. Hines, will you please call roll? >> Miss Hines, yes. Mr. Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> yes. Uh, Miss Abby Mitchell, >> yes. >> Mr. Rashan, >> yes. >> Uh, Dr. Weaver, >> yes. >> And President May, >> yes. >> 70. Motion, please. >> Thank you. We are now at item 107.26, review and approval of policy and administrative regulations. Um, the first one is first and only is the recommendation to approve resolution to adopt cell phone policy. First read. Dr. Weaver, all yours. >> Thank you. Um, I'm not sure I need

154to read the whole policy again, >> but just so that everyone knows, there are a lot of things involved in this. Earbuds, uh, smart watches, smart u glasses, the phones, um, are all involved in this. In our survey, 77% said they they were for a limited uh cell phone policy or electronics policy. 23% said that they were for a total ban policy. So taking into consideration um what our community has said to us and by the way there were 1936 uh responses what 100% agreed on was this and this what I think helps us tremendously is that students parents parents, guardians, um instructors, everyone that voted uh was in favor of not having any of these devices out during class time. So, I think that's very important uh to note. Um now it has been

155written out of our policy uh per the attorney uh what consequences may be but there will need to be at some point some consequences. Not sure it would rise to the um to the scope of suspension but several things could uh clear off of that. For example, if a student was told to put his cell phone away, he refuses to do it. He argues with his teacher. Now that is morphed into something else. That's that the cell phone was the impetus but arguing disrespect to their teacher is what they would come to um come to um where they would come to a problem. Um there is a resolution that I'd like to read very quickly. Whereas the Wayne Westland Board of Education has considered the student usage of cell phones within our district boundaries and

156whereas the state of Michigan has moved toward a non-selfphone policy within our state and whereas the board of education considers cell phone usage in class an academic distraction for our students abilities to focus on learning. And whereas studies show that excessive cell phone use, particularly social media, can contribute to anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Whereas cell phones are directly related to cyber bullying and online harassment. And whereas cell phones represent safety concerns such as recording fights and sharing inappropriate um content and whereas cell phones cause increased social isolation to the well-being of students. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Wayne Westland Board of Education and the administration of our district do hereby resolve to enforce a limited cell phone policy usage. And with that, we submit it to the board for your

157first read and consideration with the hope that we can vote on this next month to prepare for the new school year. Are there any questions? >> No. Okay. >> So, yes, Mrs. Abney, >> can we make a comment now? >> Any questions? >> Okay. So, my question comment I have questions and comments. So number one is I know that we sent out this sum um survey in the midst of the summer. So you said 100% of the people, you talking about 1,900 people in a district with more than 9,000 students, 17,000 or more than 17,000 staff plus the parents in the community. That's not 100% of the people. That's 100% of the people that seen the survey and took the survey >> that cared enough to take the survey. But I I do I want

158to disagree with that and and we can we can agree to disagree. >> Could I interrupt for just a moment? >> Wait a minute. Cuz I'm a I'm a I'm a parent of the district also. I have students in the district and doing my summer vacation. I'm not going to look for nothing on the district website. Not before August the 20th. So you saying that care people wasn't informed? >> I wasn't >> I believe people wasn't informed. >> I wasn't saying 100% of our whole district. I was saying 100% of respondents >> of people that cared, >> right? People that >> I cared. >> Did you respond? I did, but I know parents that care that wasn't able to respond because they didn't see it. >> Well, I I can't argue with you about that

159because it was sent out to all parents, all guardians, all staff, and into our community. So, those things, that survey survey went out to a lot of people. I just think that I also believe that it's critical that we get a a device policy in the district, but I also believe that it's critical that we get the opinion of many people. We we have six different cities that we serve. That's our district for those people plus school of choice. That's a lot of people and for this to be a very serious issue. You know, I also sit at discipline with hearings with you and I see what happens with the cell phone use, how it cause people to get in trouble. And um also as a board member, I would like to know what's the

160consequences. Like you said, the attorney said that we couldn't use those, we couldn't do this, and we couldn't that. As a board member, I would like to know that also. What was the policy committee came up with? But the policy committee, I'm sorry if I may interrupt. The policy committee would not um establish how the policy is administered. That comes through the superintendent and the superintendent um staff based at the administrative guide. >> So I I really don't I really don't know how to respond to you. We did everything we could do in an amount of time to get as many people notified as we could. And I'm not sure how many people that is, but it has to be in the thousands. Um, people are either not going to respond or they don't care

161that much or they agree with what's already happened. If you open this up even more, number one, you're going to miss the beginning of school and starting a new policy when kids are already used to doing something else is going to be terrible. >> Terrible. Um so um I would I would ask the honorable member to consider uh what I'm saying in concern in as concerning pushing this out even further. I think we're going to um get more than we bargain for if we do. But if also I agree with you but so if this our first read the next read will be at board meeting which is around August 18th 19th whatever those dates is school starts what on the 25th or 26th so the policy still won't be in effect because how would

162it be in effect if the in superintendent and the people that make the policy >> the administration and make the policy consequences is not in effect. >> I will um refer that to Dr. Cost. We talked in terms of as a district what we would do. >> Okay. First thing we agreed on was that it wouldn't start off as um a suspendable item. But moving in terms of being sent to the main office, number one. Number two, to to force the parent to come to the school to pick up the cell phone. Now, I'm not sure about anyone else's kids but my own, but if my kid lost the cell phone at school and I had to go up and get it, that'd be the last time they had it out in class. But some

163people take longer to learn. So, the parent would have to retrieve it. That is as far as the committee got. And also again, um, different policies spin off of this. So if a student is rude to his or her instructor and I'm not going to do this and I'm not going to comply, now we have a whole different issue. >> So >> I'm just saying I mean Okay. >> So does anyone else have any other questions or comments? >> So >> I do, but I didn't want to the to dominate. First, the first thing I'd like to say is uh you know, thank you to the policy committee for their willingness to get in on this subject and to the chairman because there's no time as you said >> right >> and trying to put

164something together that's meaningful. Uh having said that, I also think that uh you know the the the committees the committee structure of how we do things in the school district is we have a uh three members of the board that meet and they get into the nitty-gritty of an issue and ask some questions as a result and then bring a report back to the full board that knows that they did get into the nitty-gritty and dealt with this issue. So often what comes through policy is legal changes and we get these uh things from our attorneys and what have you, but this this doesn't strike me as a policy committee level thing. This is a very very big thing. I'm going to go back to taking away people's personal property. That's a that's a big

165thing for me. I just I just don't like the idea of it. I don't like the idea of create of having to build all the new prisons it's going to take to house the kids that are going to be on their cell phone anyway. >> And if we're trying to make sure that classrooms don't get disrupted, who's going to be the police that take the kids down to the office and deal with this issue? And I'm not saying that the policy committee didn't deal with all of that. It hasn't thought about all of that. Knows it's all problematic and it's very problematic. I don't think that's even the direction we should be going in. I I favor a direction like getting that magnet from Breaking Bad and when class starts turning that thing up so

166everybody's Wi-Fi signal just goes all it all it has is the Wayne Westland Community School District logo on it and that's all you can get until class is over and the whole world comes back. That way we don't mess with anybody's personal property. I'm sure the electronic infrastructure exists to do that. You know, we when you walk in or get in the aura of our buildings, that's it. That's school business now. It's not personal business. In any event, I don't think we're and I'm one of the first people that said I will vote in favor of controlling this. This does need we do need to do something about this, but I don't think this answers really any problems. I think it just creates a lot of potential problems for a superintendent. >> May I speak?

167>> Sure. >> This board has talked a lot about raising our test scores, about um moving in a positive direction. Um, how much a child decides to be benefited from putting their cell phone away is going to be up to them. I'm simply saying to you that if my child I see her putting a bobby pin in a um in a light socket, I'm going to stop her. um because she's going to hurt herself. By the same reason, if our kids are not fully engaged, and quite frankly, a lot of them are not, how how do we if if we don't accept a policy, first of all, we can't move on it. So, I would argue that this is for the benefit of our kids. They may not see it that way. Nobody's taking their

168cell phone until they do something wrong. So if they come in, they put their cell phone away, their other devices away, they're golden. Just like in talking about prisons and things like that, this is a reason people go to prison because they won't listen and abide by the rules. So that that's what I would say to that. >> Anyone else? >> So for me, I have some struggles. Um, one of the things, well, let me start with thank you. Thank you for the work that went into this. Thank you for um facilitating a community engagement meeting, especially with such a quick turnaround. Um, and it was very nicely done. So, thank you for that work. Thank you again to the committee for the work and to the um staff that are members of the policy

169committee and engaging in this work and to Jenny Johnson for her work with getting the survey out just everyone that kind of hit the ground running to get this done. Um some of the concerns that I have is as I look at the resolution and we talk about um studies I I I guess I'm just like we haven't presented any of those studies. we haven't discussed those studies to to for me to sign off on a resolution that says these are the things that happen with excessive use. I'm not saying that that's not true. I'm not saying that I haven't read it before, but I think that as a board before we vote on something like that, we should probably talk about it, right? And if that means that we bring a child psychologist, psychiatrist

170to the table to just have a conversation with us around the damage that they've seen or what they've studied. But when we if I sign off on something that says the the research, I need to be a part of what that is. That's just for me. Um the other piece is I have a question around like an item like Google glasses. So people tend to have Google glasses because they have their prescription in them. So then who's policing? Are they deactivated? How do you deactivate them? Who's responsible for that? We're not taking the kids glasses. So just the implementation pieces I I want to be clear on. Um, I don't ever want to be in a position as a board where we put policy in place that sets kids up to be penalized. So, when

171we talk about the importance of kids being engaged, kids being in class, I don't want us to pass a policy that that does the opposite of that. So, now we're pulling kids out of class because we're you didn't put your cell phone away. Now, I deem that as disrespectful, whatever, whatever, whatever, whatever. because the things go on and on and on and on trying to determine who has who's supposed to have their phone for medical reasons, who's not supposed to have their phone for medical reasons. That's going to potentially increase the number of 504s. Are we ready for that? Do we have the staff for that? So, there are so many pieces to me that's like a domino effect that we just I want to hear about. I want to make sure we're covered on

172those bases that we don't pass something and then we look back in hindsight and say, "Oh, we should have done x, y, and z first." Does that make sense? So those are those are just the questions that I have understanding that this is a first read and that's why we do a first read so that we can have those ask these questions have that discussion those. So yeah, that's where >> if this is going to be the um for lack of a better word, the um attitude of the board, um I would strongly recommend that uh we move this to next year because if a policy is a policy >> and it has to be um has to be enforced and uh without a policy you're hanging your teachers out to dry. >> So, I

173hear you, but I also feel like there has to be support for how the policy is implemented. So, if we're just saying this is the policy implemented in September, but we haven't had any training, we haven't talked about what the um administrative guidelines are, what the expectations are. Are staff members expected to follow this policy as well? Is it only for children? Like there are so many questions that I have that parents may have. We haven't heard from all the parents. I understand what you're saying about the survey, but I also understand that it's also summertime and sometimes people don't even realize what's going on to now their kid is involved in it. So now when we have all these questions, are the people coming to the board meeting because they're upset? Do we have

174answers for those questions? And I and I'm just giving the big picture is not that I'm pushing back and saying I'm not in support of it. I want to be clear and that we are making decisions with all of the information and taking all the poss possibilities into account if that makes sense. So that's that's just where I stand with it. >> Is there any other discussion? >> I just have one thing. Um, one thing I did like about the community event, we had a lot of the young people and they taught us a lot of things that we didn't know was going on. So that way we can have some future, you know, like some of the things they were doing with the computers and so it was kind of helpful to get that

175um information from some of the students how they felt. We learned a lot of things that we didn't know was going on. So it's pretty helpful. The only other quick thing I will say because the time is is late is that this board doesn't enforce anything. That's up to the administrators to build how they're going to take care of this. So, it's our job to approve policy. It's their job to see how the uh uh consequences will work. And I, >> Madam President, yes, I may make one more comment. And I think it's incumbent upon us to recognize that if we did adopt a policy that required enforcement, we'd be asking for an interim superintendent to begin the enforcement process amidst trying to hire a new superintendent where I I just know this is going

176to be the room is full and we got to go down to John Glenn to have a meeting because this is the kind of thing that once it goes into effect, that's when everybody comes out of the woodwork with all the problems. And we haven't even explored, you know, I mentioned two or three times, is there an electronic jamming answer to this problem? You go up to Radio Shack and buy something that you turn on and the problem goes away during class. And if that's the case, then we don't have a problem. So look, I would like to look at other opportunities before we start taking people's property. >> And just to close it out, I feel like I just hear a lot of negative language around it. We're talking about consequences. I haven't heard

177anything about teaching kids responsibly how to use the phones. Just those pieces to me that go into place and not just an automatic, you know, slap on the hand because you have your phone out. You're not doing what you're supposed to do. We're an institution of teaching and I think that that's an important piece of it. I'm not asking for the teachers to teach them. I think that if we're talking about doing something like this, this is where when we talk about those community meetings, when we talk about having people come out and speak to our families and our kids around the effects of cell phone usage, what is a good way to use your cell phone? We heard kids at the community meeting share ways, positive ways in which they use their cell phones.

178And I don't want to negate that and and automatically jump to the negative pieces. >> So if there's no other discussion, then we'll move to the next agenda item. >> So for clarity sake, will we have a second reading next month then? >> Because this was the first read. So most definitely. >> What what would the purpose be if we need to hear professionals and why would we read it a second time? Well, I thought we just had a discussion that would allow the policy committee to go back and have some discussion around what was shared here and what would potentially be some next steps before we come to August. But if that's something that as the chair of policy that you do not want to do, then we don't have to have a second

179read. I will leave that up to you. >> I'll get back to you on that. >> Thank you. >> So, we have Nope. We're still at 108.26 26 review and approval of human resources local for contract agreement. Mrs. Clear >> at as presented at the July 10th 2025 finance committee meeting the district is requesting the board to approve the local four contract for the next three years. um that we're trying to provide competitive and equitable contract to attract and retain local four members and we think we have successfully accomplished this. Um the local four is our food service transportation and custodians. The cost over the three-year period would be 691991 the first year 1 124 486 the second in the third um >> move approval >> support >> excuse me discussion Mrs. Hines will you

180please call ro Mr. Rashan, >> yes. >> Miss Hines, yes. Miss Abby Mitchell, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> yes. >> Dr. Weaver, >> yes. >> Mr. Cox, >> yes. >> President May, >> yes. >> Seven, your motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you for what you do. >> Happy to do. >> Absolutely. Appreciate it. >> Next, we have the um WWCA Wakoa contract for approval. >> Yep. is presented at the July 10th, 2025 finance committee meeting. The district is requesting the board's approval of the Wakoa contract for the next three years. Our goal was to provide a competitive and equitable contract which we feel we have successfully done. The Wakoa uh group is our um administrators uh at the the central office administrators. Um the cost of the three years will

181be in year 1 371,660. Year two $481,70 and year 3586149. >> Thank you. Looking for a motion. >> So move to >> discussion. Mrs. Hines, will you please um call roll? >> Miss Hines, yes. Mr. Cox, >> yes. >> Mr. Ambrose, >> yes. >> Dr. Weaver. >> Yes. >> Miss Arby Mitchell, >> yes. >> Mr. Rashawn, >> yes. >> President Ray, >> yes. >> Motion carries 70. >> Thank you. We are now at um item 109.26, citizens comments. Um non-aggenda items besides this one. Do we have any comments? Uh this is actually about an agenda item, but after hearing the discussion, I feel like I needed to say something. Um as an educator in the district, uh cell phones are a problem. And I do agree that if you don't have an implementation at the

182beginning of the school year, then you can't do it until second semester. >> So it's not something that we can just do willy-nilly. I was at the community meeting that of in the morning when there was only a couple of us. Um Mr. Martin who has spoken here in front of you before did talk about those pouches that you can put the cell phones in and then we as the educators wouldn't have to police it. um jamming the Wi-Fi signal would stop the Chromebooks from working and so we can't jam the Wi-Fi because then we have $300 paper weights just sitting on a desk. Um so cell phones are an issue. Um and all of the things that you brought up here we brought up at the morning meeting and we talked about ways to

183work around them. Um, so it is just important to like if if it's not enacted in in August for us to roll out on August 26, then it can't happen until January 20th or it can't happen until next August because then that's going to be a bigger fight. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> That's it. Comments. All right. We now move to item 11026 and from superintendent's comments. Dr. C. >> Thank you. I know uh we've been here a while so I'm going to make I'm going to make this shorter than I had intended. Um but I just want to say thank you to each and every board member. Um I've enjoyed getting to know you, your passion, why you do this job, and um your dedication to this role, and that has been

184a breath of fresh air. Um, I've also met community members and families at various events and Wayne Westland parents, teachers love their schools. That is just so evident. Um, I've also this month met with leaders of each department and learned about upcoming initiatives, processes, and the budget. All the pieces are in place to create great learning environments and experiences for our students. And that starts with um Miss Claire getting the budget done uh you know ahead of time. Transportation is already staffed at 100%. And that was a big concern as of last year. Uh we have so many qualified applicants for all of our open positions and I strongly think that's because of all the contract ratifications that have happened. So, as I learn more and more, um, the bond language that was approved tonight

185with a 0% increase for taxpayers, all these pieces are ready be ready to be pulled into place for the start of school and and as your interim superintendent, it is just super exciting. So, thank you very much for your leadership and making all of that happen. >> Thank you. We are now at 111.26 review and recommendations board of education. Um we'll start here with Mrs. Abne Mitchell. >> I have nothing tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you Mrs. Hines. >> Yes. I'd like to congratulate our two new principles. They seem pretty excited to be a part of this district. Um I'd like to um congratulate Dr. Cost. You've been doing a good job so far getting around in the community. So, whatever you need for help, definitely I can help you out with that. Um, so

186I just got this uh with the Wayne Rotary. They're having the Wayne concerts on Wednesday night, starting this Wednesday over at Gouty Park. So, it's nice little event for the family. Totally free. Um, Westland has their concerts in the park uh Thursday with Alexander Janik on Thursday nights after the farmers market. So, just nice little free family events. I know the city of West have been doing movie nights, you know, with the families, free hot dogs, food, and stuff like that. So those are really good events before the kiddos get back to school. Um so I work for the Wayne Chamber of Commerce. They just um converted over to the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce. So we have a block outing coming up. So um the nice thing is like I've been working with a

187lot of the different universities like Schoolcraft College, Madonna, uh Wayne County Community College. I just met with the CEO of DTE the other night and I want to bring them to our district. I want to bring them over to our career technical center because we offer a lot and a lot of people don't know what we do. So, I'll probably see if I get with you guys, maybe the principal and set like a community day like to have like some of the dignitaries to come and do a tour and see like what we offer in White West because there's a lot of good things. And that's it. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Ambrose. I want to congratulate our uh the contract uh bargaining committees on both the district side and also the the local

188bargaining units. These people are the really the unsung heroes in our district. They're the ones that do the unglamorous jobs. My grandfather uh was a building engineer in Detroit public schools and the hard work that these people put in. So our students can have safe buildings, can get to school, have lunches, and do all the the work to keep the district running on a day-to-day basis so our teachers can can focus on educating. I'm glad we were able to come up with a with with a contract that that they're happy with. >> So, congratulations. >> Thank you, Mr. Rashan. >> Um, I want to thank um the firms that came out to present. I think they did a great job. um HYA and um the Michigan Leadership Institution uh institute for thoughtful presentation commitment to

189helping us find the right fit um for our uh uh potential new superintendent. Um while listening um to the meeting today and a few meetings back and thinking about this process coming up, I wanted to see if we can look into possibly live streaming our meetings. Um I've had community members and parents and staff and even students that said that, you know, they don't um they're not always able to attend the meeting, but they want to be a part of this process. So maybe we can look into uh possibly live streaming where they can be able to log on in real time and even comment in real time um while our meetings are going on. Just wanted to present that to the board. Um but with all that being said, I just want to um

190also thank the food service um staff that was here today uh to hear their input. Um, one thing that I want to do, um, as a board member is just come and and taste the food, uh, of our students, uh, sit with our kids in the lunchrooms and, uh, get their just perspective on food and the service and just their dayto-day in our buildings. Um, so I look forward to doing that and, um, that'll be all. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Dr. Weaver. >> Yeah. Um, I think that it's important for this board to hear all points of views. Um, I I I appreciate everything that has been said tonight, but I am left to wonder since we've been working on this for months, and I'm talking about the policy committee, why the

191chairman of that committee didn't get one phone call, didn't get one text expressing that a board member had questions or had comments. Uh, none of that happened. So, um, yeah, it concerns me a little bit because I feel like the policy committee coming back at the last minute and clipping the policy committee at its knees um because maybe all your questions are not answered. Um, it's all right to ask the questions and I understand that, but there is an appropriate time too and that would be when you know the policy committee is considering it. Thank you, >> Mr. Cox. >> Thank you. Um, I really appreciate that Mrs. Parker came up and talked to us tonight about food service because, as you know, I had asked Mr. uh before Dr. Cost joined us if if

192he would look into that. Uh and if they're looking at the kids would like a sandwich station, Allah Subway sandwich where they can I'm absolutely all for that. I don't see any reason why we couldn't put that together because I'm really not talking from my perspective about just, you know, putting some icing on something. I'm talking about the the students getting nutritional food that they want to eat that that tastes good and by their own admission, a lot of it stays on the tray when it goes into the uh to the bin and uh they stick to one or two things on the menu because that's the only thing that's good. I I really want to improve that if we can. We're already spending a lot of money doing it and we're getting a lot

193of money from the government for it. So, I'd like to make substantial gains in that. That That's what I personally would like to see. Um, okay. Wi-Fi jamming. Maybe that's not the answer. Maybe if you said, uh, well, you can't do that because the Chromebooks would go out, Elon Musk would start laughing and say, "All you got to do is put this thing on and hit that." And there may be an answer here that the people in this room don't really have. And because we haven't had the opportunity to talk or think about it, uh I think this process is going along just as it's supposed to go along. It's supposed to have a beginning and an end. And I'm just saying it's not at the end yet. And if we were trying to meet

194some deadline for August, I would say cell phones have existed for several years now. I mean, we could start this at at the semester break. We shouldn't make a decision until everybody's satisfied it's the right decision. That's that's what I think. I think that Mr. Smith and Mr. uh Seo have great assignments at Walker Winter and Adams. Those are two great schools. They're going to have great success, I think. Um let's see what else I had here. Well, let's see. Such better food. Congratulations. Okay, that's all I have. And thank you and once again to the policy committee, all the members that work very hard. I appreciate it. We wouldn't be here without the work. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I'd like to first again congratulate Mr. Smith and Mr. Co. Um, just

195very excited to have them coming aboard. Um, the other piece is again to Mrs. Parker for sharing um her concerns and and just sharing with the board what's happening in food services and what's needed and allowing us to um have more information and having an opportunity to then look further into the request. Um as a person that that likes to eat and I like to eat good food, I know it's important for kids to have the same. Um didn't really enjoy the school lunches. I always brought my own lunch. So, I I I understand that that need for us to not just provide food, but to provide good food to our students. Um, I do appreciate um both of our presentations this evening in regards to looking for a superintendent search firm firm. I also

196appreciated the conversation that we were able to engage in as a board around what the firms offered and what we would like to see from the firms. Um, again, as I stated earlier, I truly appreciate the work of the policy committee as well as the chair of the policy committee. Um, I just want to be clear that when I speak from this seat, I'm speaking as a board member, as a person that has one vote. I recognize that I'm the president, but I don't look at that as what I say is what it is. I I I was truly expressing my thoughts and my concerns around the policy for a um around the cell phone policy. Not asking that it be tabled, not asking that the work not be done, but just engaging in thoughtful

197discourse is what as that is what should happen at this table. Um, we may not always agree, but we get to a point of consensus. And I understand that when we do vote, wherever that vote lands, that's what the vote is. And I support what that vote is. That I am able to engage in conversation to ask questions. Um, and my role as a board member, period, is to advocate for students. So, I'm going to always do that. I'm going to ask those questions that are in the best interest of students. It may make some people uncomfortable. It may not make them happy, but it isn't to say no. It's asking questions. It's seeking information. And I do appreciate that we had some conversation here tonight about the cell phone policy. Um, I think this

198is the start of us getting to a cell phone policy. Not saying that we won't get there, but we have to have conversation. We can't just come to the table and say this is the vote. Um, and with that being said, I appreciate everyone that came out tonight. I am looking forward to moving us forward in the process of looking for a superintendent. Um I am so hopeful that our community engages in that process with us because it is not a decision that we make alone and it's not a decision that we take lightly. Um this is a very important decision that needs to be made and we have to do it collectively. And before I close, I just would like to say thank you to Dr. Cross. You have jumped right in. um you

199came in running and I appreciate that. Um I don't know that you've stopped running yet but welcome. So we we do you are truly appreciated. Um and with that I'll move us to 111 sorry 112.27 followup to board or 11 point I'm sorry 26 follow up to any board questions. I don't think we have any. Okay. And now we're at 113.26 adjournment. Looking for a motion. support. All in favor? >> Have a good evening.