001Good evening everyone. It is 6:30 p 6:30 p.m. We will call our meeting to order. We will start with the pledge of allegiance being led by Blake Farley here. Come on up. And Hannah Swingham and Nicholas Boone from Wildwood Elementary. I aliance 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 all so much. Um, Mrs. Kabak, is she coming up? Yes. Blake, Hannah, and Nicholas, come back up. Wait, wait, wait. Do you guys have your parents here or relatives, friends? Where are they? Yay. Hi. We have some things for you, I do believe. That's okay. Sorry. Okay. I'm gonna talk about my amazing Oh, I need that. Okay. Hi. I'm going to talk about
002my amazing uh fifth grade students. We did our legacy project or um project this year and we had it was a very very tough decision. And usually it's a boy and a girl, but because we had such amazing children, we went with three. So, I'm going to talk about Blake right over here first. Um she's a fifth grader and Mrs. Kimman's class at Wildwood. She's a dedicated student, competitive cheerleader, and a kind friend to all. Blake cheers for Wildwood's basketball team and football teams, and always brings a positive attitude for everything she does. She serves a class as a classroom safety for Mrs. Mosas and leads by example, being respectful, responsible, and always ready to help. Blake is a true role model at Wildwood. Okay. And then I'm gonna Yep. And I'm going to talk
003talk about Hannah right here is a creative and kind 10-year-old and who loves science, crafts, and cheerleading. She's a a Westland Meteor JV cheerleader, serves on Wildwood Student Council, and also helps with the student credit union in school announcements. Featured in the news for the WWCSD STEM center opening, Hannah dreams of becoming a neon natal nurse to help care for babies. Wow. Yeah. And lastly, we have Nick Boon or Nicholas Boon, also known as Nick, lives in Westland with his parents. Older brother Adam and three pets. Proud to be both American and Canadian. Nick plays soccer for the Plymouth Panthers and is a goalie for the Ann Arbor Bigby Bruins travel hockey team. He loves fishing with his dad, video games, and camping with his family. One day, Nick hopes to be an NHL goalie
004and a chef with a gluten-free restaurant to help people like his brother. Yeah, those are my amazing legacy winners. [Applause] Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you again to our students and to our principal, Mrs. Babia. And now we will move to 330.25. Roll call in attendance. Mrs. Hines, please. Mr. Ombro present. Miss Abby Mitchell is absent. Excused. Yes. Dr. Weaver present. Miss Hines present. Mr. Cox present. Mr. Rashawn present. President May present. 61. Thank you very much. Moving to item 331.25 and adjournment to close session. I will entertain a motion. So move. Thank you. Support. Support. Thank you. Uh Mr. Cman call. Mr. Cox. Yes, Mr. Rashan. Yes, Hines. Yes, Weaver. No, Mr. Ambrose. Yes, Miss May. Yes. Okay. Is it six children's absent? Motion passes. Thank you very much.
005We will return. We are now calling our meeting back to order at 7:12 p.m. Do we need to take a vote to come back into open session? I think we did. Did we do that? We need to take a vote to come back into open session. So move. Support. Support. Call and roll, please. Mr. Ambrose. Yes. Dr. Weaver. Yes. Miss Hines, yes. Mr. Cox. Yes. Mr. Roshan. Yes. Miss May. Yes. Motion carries 6. Thank you so very much. Next we move on to item 33 point 333.25 recognitions and presentations. Our first one is a building update with Wildwood Elementary School. Principal Janna Babiaak. Good evening. Um, I'm Jana Babia. I'm the principal at Wildwood Elementary School and I'm going to share a lot of fun things with you all about all the amazing things that
006take place at Wildwood. Um, our school demographics, we have 542 students, um, which is about 35 less than the lowest middle school. Uhhuh. And 22 classrooms. We have our young fives program and then we have a four five split um classroom that makes us stand out a little bit. Uh 91% or 91 special education students um with two full-time resource room teachers. We have the biggest ML population in the district. Um we have about 80 students in our ML program. And then there's our ethnic ethnicity and race. um our staff, what staff that are unique to Wildwood, we have two um title pair pros that I put in our title budget to help with our NTSS program. Um we have a behavior coordinator, um attendance monitor, 1 ML teacher, and 1 ML parapro. Um we
007have 9.5, that's nine and a half one-on-one parapros that are district that are within our district, um hired by the district. And then we have a total of 13 um one-on-one pair of pros with our contract. And then of course we have our young fives parah or program. Um student and family support. Of course the mental health is huge around our school. Um we have a our amazing social worker. Uh we do the National Kidney Foundation which is our peanut program. Uh she comes in weekly and she puts on lessons for the kids um about nutrition. lots of donations by uh churches and organizations around the um community, the giving tree, um backpacks, coats, winter apparel, uh food donations all the time. Um we of course care solace and the F FRC. One thing that
008um our about our student well-being is that we do have a sensory room inside our social worker's office where um several of our children get to take a break or go down to calm down to get a break out of the classroom or if we have um a certain student that or students that need some extra sensory things. There are fidgets. There are um there's a trampoline in there. There's a cubby that they can hide in. We have a sequence wall. Oops. a sequence wall and all of those amazing things um in our in our sensory room PB Wildwood PBIS. Um last year we our team got together and any student that receives over 80% or higher, we give them a little um charm that you can see in that right upand corner that they
009get that they put on their backpack. So every month they get a certain charm like for uh September they got an apple. Um in October they got a pumpkin. So, and the kids all literally every single kid rocks their backpack tags, they call it. Here's our student of the month pictures. Um, the climate and culture. So, this is where a lot of the fun begins. Um, at Wildwood we take very a lot of ownership in our climate and culture and we know that because of their elementary school students, we want them to be uh we want them to come to want them to come to school and surprise all those amazing things that we do. Um, so we did a staff um, and you'll see here in a little bit, but we do a lot
010um, as you can see. So I'm going to go over some of those things, but those are a bunch of the things that we do do. And you'll see here last year um each staff got a m a little alligator and they were to take pictures all over um as they traveled all over the summer in different locations. As you can see there's cruises, there's ones in Paris um with her husband there. So the staff really got into this taking pictures all over the um basically all over the country uh of their summer travels and this was something that was awesome that everybody joined in and they would even put it in our group me so everybody had to be Wildwood is very competitive. So everybody had to top each other. Um national dot day
011we celebrated um this year we adopted a cow out of the dairy foundation. Oreo is her name. Um and we were able to go on virtual field trips with her. Um and she she they would send us updates all the time and it was just really cool and the kids got really really into um Oreo. And there she is her monthly as she gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And um we did ad try to adopt another one for next year. Halloween at Wildwood is a big big f uh fiascoal. Um all the teachers dress up, all the staff dress up, we do a huge parade and they all go trick-or-treating and we have a big dance for the kids at Wildwood. So lots of fun. Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving. Um we line the hallways. We
012have two huge long hallways. We line it with paper. Um, the kids watch Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and then we go out together as a classroom and we have a feast in the hallway and we bring all of our children into the hallway so that they get that feeling of family and community and you can see that they absolutely love it. Um, holiday spirit weeks we dress up. Um, everybody dresses up. There's a theme. They're the staff's dressing up, the kids are dressing up. Everybody wants to know what's up next. Um, we did a staff Sears photo. The kids, the staff, the students really loved this where we posed as the Sears po pictures. Um, and we were able to put it on our carousel slideshow and those kids adored it. Um, we did holiday cards
013to the family. So, for my um my weekly newsletter, we got to send out the staff uh Christmas card there. And then my amazing special ed staff had this idea of Miss Babia, we want you to be the elf on the shelf this year. And I was like, "What? No." And then there they said, "All right, we'll help you." So I we started talking. We came up all these things. Um and we had the kids we had the teachers build up this thing. We sent a letter to the classrooms. The kids came in had to go and find all where the elf was. And so there I am. Um destroyed the art room one day and then fell asleep because I was exhausted. I was in a snow globe. Um she was on the top
014of the sign or uh marquee out front. And then the very last day was everybody's favorite. Um I was up on the roof throwing marshmallows at them as they went home for winter break. Naughty. Um and then my staff thinks it's really fun to prank me and the kids loved it. Um we they in the middle they all the um they hid a 100 pictures on the 100 day and all the kids had to come and find the pictures of Miss Babiaak throughout the building and put it on. Um, and then when I was being that naughty little elf, they my staff wrapped my entire office in wrapping paper and all the kids got to come through because they thought it was super cool. Spirit days of course all the time. Um, honoring the Lions,
015Tigers, anything that's going on. Um, we did a digital underground. Actually, Miss Brol joined us on that day. It was everything. And I wish I could get that video to play, but everything um but a cup day. And everybody had I think she drank out of her high heel. I had a fishbowl. So, it goes on and on and any kid that guessed what the staff was doing, they got a raffle ticket and then we pulled at the end of the week and they won prizes. Reading month this year was huge. Um, we incorporated a lot of our ML um program. We did a tour of the world at night. We had food come in from all over various restaurants, um, different ethnicity. Huge turnout. I would say there was probably 800 people that showed
016up that night and they got to go to different um countries around the school and they got a passport and it was just awesome. Reward for reading month. Um this year any student that finished up their reading logs, they were able to participate in the staff inflatable race. So staff got inflatables and they were able to participate. We went out and had a race and the kids absolutely loved it and they want to do it again next year. um MSTEP kickoff. So, we kn we know that by the end of the year, our kids are pretty much wanting school to be over. And so, this year, we um all the third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers got together and we decorated outside their classrooms. Um made it a big day for them with their balloons
017and all of that. And we actually invited parents to come in and write um words of encouragement to the students and posted it out in the hallway so that the kids could read it on their first day of MSTEP. and it w was a huge success. More MSTEP kickoff. Um just a lot of experience. Um field trips are the biggest one. Um tomorrow we actually have the animal kingdom guy coming um that the kids are all looking forward to. U diversity cir circus. We had uh basketball Jones in last week. Hands-on museum. All of those amazing things. And fifth grade camp. And it goes on and on. Our fourth grade's going to meet their pen pals next week. So that will be fun. And of course we have to have student achievement. And so this
018is some data that I think it's from cycle uh three or one to three. This is how much our children have improved um and mastered these skills. NWA incentive. So after MSTEP, our lovely third and fourth fifth graders get into NWA right after that. And um one of my teachers came up with a brilliant idea. let's get at let's tattoo the teacher. And I was like, what? So any t any time a student makes a one point of growth on any of their NWA data or testing, the teacher puts a tattoo on their arm, a temporary one. And so right now when I turn this in, um, as of May 12th, in reading alone in the entire school, we have 4,494 um, tattoos going on our teachers. And then in math it's 2,000. And um
019so but I I promise you those numbers probably have doubled because now our fifth grade's taking it and they're blowing it out of the water. So um my teachers are very excited. They're like oh my gosh. And I they just came to me and were like I have to wear 400 just for reading. And I'm like I better order more. So I can't wait to see what the end all be all data looks like. So that's exciting. Um points of pride garden club girl scouts organization by Miss Swanson. still um student art uh deployed are displayed throughout the school. The list goes on in our just as I shared with you prodigy champs. So in the state of Michigan um for from January to April we are Wildwood ended up um answering the most questions
020right in math in the state of Michigan. So we were able to win it in January, April or January through April. So, four months. We also got to go on to the national cup that ended today. And we were between 14th and 16th place. And if you if you got first place, the school got a 100 grand in technology grant. Unfortunately, we didn't even come in the top eight. But huge huge to our children that wanted to play. Yep. And so, and then we currently Okay. currently in 15th place in the nation last week, but we ended I think they said 18th today. So, but we ended up getting Domino um $1,000 in or 200 no $500 in gift cards to Dominoes. So, $2,000 in Domino's and then they sent um I think like $1,000
021in Amazon gift cards. So, we were able to spend it on snacks, of course. You know, what kid doesn't like a snack? So, we were able to get snacks for them. And then as you saw earlier, there's our legacy winners um honored tonight. Any questions? Yes. I'd like to say you're doing an amazing job. I was able to go to Wildwood when they had the DTE day and so awesome. And it was kind of funny because they had this like little like like mini neighborhood or something and they had these weird electrical things and they're like if the kite flies into the tank and it was like fire marshal baba and living color but it was so exciting. They they love that. That's one of the the best things that they do like is the
022circuit the DGE presentation. Yes. Anything else? Questions? Yes. Again, you're doing a great job. I was curious. Yeah. How are you guys? Um I see the the math and reading scores are improving. Um what are you guys doing in particular to to close that gap? Um well we have our intervention you know we do MTSS process small group instruction in the classroom. Um we with our ML program we have a lot of pull out with the ML kids that you know struggle with their language. So we do a lot of that. Um I did put two title paras in in the budget as well to help. And then of course we have our two building subs that like to pull small groups out in the hallway if they're not being utilized in the classroom. So
023we're doing a lot of those things to help close those gaps. Great. Great. And also tomorrow is the animal magic animal kingdom. I'll be there. And there's supposed to be there I'm because we're so big. We have three sessions going on. But he's supposed I guess there was a porcupine or something that he would bring that smells like popcorn. So I know. So, I'm excited to see it. Yeah, about that. Anything else? Just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for sharing all of the amazing things that are happening. Thank you to your staff because those activities take a lot of work, a lot of energy. So, thank you for that. And congratulations to the prodigy champs and the legacy winners and just all the things that are happening in the school with all the
024tattoos and just just sounds like a very fun place to be. Well, and that's what I I hats off to my staff every day for buying into this craziness that and they bring me craziness, so it makes it all the world go round. So, thank you. Thank you. Next on our agenda, we have the recognition of Franklin STEM students saw for tomorrow national competition and that is being brought to us by Mrs. Sherry Grove, the executive director of middle school curriculum and instruction. Good evening. It is my pleasure to introduce this outstanding teacher and two of her students who are with us this evening. Um, if anybody here had the the privilege to witness this incredible project with our uh staff and principal from Stoddle Meyer, with our SXI preschool, our CTC staff and um
025facilitator Stacy Barnard, and of course this amazing group of middle schoolers from Franklin Middle School. They did something that was just incredible um with the creating vehicles and sensory objects to assist our our SXI preschoolers. It was absolutely incredible to um share in that experience. But in addition to that, I've invited uh Miss Christie uh one of our outstanding science teachers and our STEM teacher at Franklin along with her students tonight to just talk a little about that experience. And just an extension of that which they'll tell you about and that's why I've really brought them here to recognize. Um, on a side note, while they were doing this incredible work and collaborating with our high schoolers and our preschoolers, they Miss Christie on a whim entered them into what was called the Samsung Reach
026for Tomorrow competition and as a result of their work and collaboration, they are state champions in that competition. So, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Christie. Um, I do want to just read the names of those students who were involved. Uh Jasmine Adams, Phoenix Barnett, Alexis Collins, Braden Cross, who's with us, and Carmelo Dawkins, Matt Gonzale, Max Gonzalez, Ethan Griffith, Clayton Harma, Donovan Hicks, Jalia Howard, Kenya Johnson, Cassidy Jones Squalls, Mckenzie Kelly, Janyla Mcclennen, sorry, Olivia Nichols, Amir Walker, who's also with us, and Trayvana Washington, and Gabrielle Williams. We do have certificates of recognition for those students, but I'm going to just let Miss Christie and our students here tell you just a little about that competition. Good evening. So, I am so proud of my students and the work that they have
027done. We brought some of the products that they have made, which we'll show momentarily. In the beginning, Karen Dicklman um asked, "Do you want to work with the SXI program at Satomy?" I'm like, "Oh, yes, we will. We'll do something. I don't know quite what yet." Um, we started with a field trip with my first semester kids and we're like, "Okay, we had brainstorming. We're going to do adapt these things for the students to use in their classroom." I didn't know really how we were going to do it yet. And at that time, I found on social media Samsung's contest. And I said, "You know what? Let's just try it. What's the worst we could do that?" They say, "Yes, go ahead. You can move into the next step." So, we um entered the Samsung
028Salt for Tomorrow contest with the idea of making two fidgets for the students and sensory fidgets, sensory mats. Um and the mats, some of them can go on their light pads. And we made um 3D we 3D printed some iPad stands for the students. This is one of the sensory mats that we made. And these are interchangeable with Velcro. This comes off also. They have another one that has different textiles on it. And we have one of the sensory mats that can go on their light pad so the kids can just play with it. And this also fits in the pocket here. So when they're sitting um building on their core strength, they can put this on the floor and they can step on it. Oh wow. So the the 3D printing the three they're
029both part of the 3D printing group. They researched what stands we would use. We did many iterations of stands to see which ones would work, which ones would not. And we handed them over to Miss Andrea set like, "I don't know which ones you would like. Please let us know. We'll go into mass production once we know which prototypes you like." Brandon was really good. He's like, "This is not going to work. It's not going to stay on this one." I'm like, "Are you sure?" He's like, "It's not going to work." And it failed. It was really good for my iPhone, but it failed the iPad stand. So, they um decided which ones um they wanted to print. would research. We even tried looking at the seed clips they used to hang toys but they
030kept breaking on us. Um so we found out we need a different filament that'll be for next year. Um then we started doing just trying different things and every time we went to Saddle for field trips we went once a month um new ideas popped up. On the last trip that we went, it was like they used pillows to put on either side of their wheelchairs for support. And I'm like, "Aha, we can do that, too." And there were sensory pillows, so they had um different textures on them. So, since Joann's was going out of business, I went there on searching and I found the exact same fabric. Oh, nice. So, we went on Mother's Day weekend, we sewed them together and presented them on Monday, last Monday when we had our big celebration with
031the high schoolers. So, this is what they've been working on. And I would have a schedule. So they would work on this and also do their STEM work also in class. And when it was their time, they would come and we would collaborate as a small group um at my table or a different table and make everything. So they did an excellent job. So like we said, we are state winners. We were trying to be a finalist state um a national finalist, but it did not work. That's okay. Um we won $12,000 worth of technology for my STEM classroom. So, we have five Galaxy books with five monitors and a soundboard to use in the classroom next year. So, more 3D printing and everything will be handling. Hopefully do some designing for the 3D printer
032instead of just finding everything for next year. Nice job. On behalf of the SXI preschoolers, we made a thank you card to our middle school buddies. And it might look like something simple, but the iPad stands help our students access their technology, their communication to make choices of colors they'd like to paint with, types of painting materials. So, just a way to say thank you and congratulations. A did you have any questions or any board members with questions? Mrs. H. Yes, this is Hello. Hello. So, thank you so much for your presentation. I had one quick question. Um, I know the Wayne Ro I think the Westland Rotary had an event at Jefferson Barnes and I was able to speak to the principal. She said you guys had some type of summer program for people
033going into kindergarten this year. Can you tell me what that is and the date and the time? That's not for me. Okay. Cuz I didn't have the flyer, but it was really interesting. They had like with the preschoolers, they're going to have something in the summer that get them ready for kindergarten, like a pre kindergarten day or something like that. Oh, this I'm having a few STEM camps that are for depending on which activity in the STEM center. Okay. I think that might be what it is. cuz I just I used to keep flyers but I didn't have that particular one but I thought it would be good for the people to know before the summertime you know that they have these programs available for the prechoolers to get ready for school. Anyone else? I
034would just like to say thank you. Thank you for coming this evening and presenting. It's just amazing the work that um you and the students were able to do and to have this opportunity your first time going for this type of grant and to place is awesome. So congratulations for that. And I just love the fact of teaching kids about building community, taking care of each other. So thank you again for this. Really nice. Thank you. It was a highlight. They kept asking me, "Are we going back again? Are we going back again?" Because that's all they they would just play and interact. And it and part of my this is my 29th year teaching and never thought I'd go into a competition like this. Um but earlier in a different district, I taught in
035a K8. I did collaboration all the time because it was really easy. So having this opportunity again It's awesome and I plan to continue it from here on out. Awesome. Thank you. Next, we have the Early Middle College student recognition from the Wayne Westland Innovative Academy. And we have Chris Swanson here tonight as the assistant principal presenting Thank you. I'm Chris Swanson. I am the administrator for virtual programming in Early Middle College and I am extremely excited to be able to introduce our first two EMC 13th year graduates. The early middle college program started three years ago um and where students who are entering 9th, 10th or 11th grade, they um fill out an application, we have an interview and then they have the opportunity to spend half their day at their home high school,
036John Glenn, Wayne Memorial or Innovative Academy, and then take two college classes each afternoon. One's Monday th Wednesday, the other Tuesday, Thursday. So, our first two individuals who started as juniors, took classes with us their junior and senior year, and then committed to a 13th year. So, ladies, you will finally receive your high school diplomas along with all those college credits. That's awesome. They had to wait. Um they had so they uh we our first partnership was with Wayne County Community College and our first two recipients, Miss Grace Bojamp and Miss and Miss Alyssa Fuller. If you ladies will come down to the front. They they are being greeted by Mr. Ted Booker who is our counselor for the early middle college and our driving force behind it. Um Grace will be headed off to
037Michigan State in the fall to study either psychology or social work. I'm going to try and talk her into school social work and coming back here in a few years. Yes. but she completed 56 college credits that she can take to Michigan State with her. That is awesome. And then Miss Alyssa Fuller is headed off to Oakland University to one to study elementary education and she's taking 50 college credits with her. Wow. and Alyssa. In three or four years, I want to see you back in this district and working in one of our elementary schools. Okay. Apparently, Statmire is already claiming you. We might have some elementaryaries that have to fight over you, but we'll see. So, so this year we had two that completed their 13th year. Next year we will continue to build
038on that. We have our fourth cohort that will be starting in the fall with a full 25 students. So by uh the beginning of next year, we will have about 78 students in the program. And our current partnership is through Madonna University, which we are looking to continue and foster and grow and hope to have dozens of young ladies and gentlemen just like Grace and Alyssa. Thank you. And on a personal note, I'm especially proud of Grace. I have known Gra. I was her elementary principal. So Grace is as wonderful as she is because she was once an Edison [Music] Eagle student while doing all these college credits. Wow. Extreme. This is awesome. You can take it out in the hallway. Okay. Congratulations, Mrs. Marky. Should their parents or family go with them on sofa
039pictures? Okay. Okay. All right. All Fuller and Boam cheering section. Yes. Congratulations, ladies. [Applause] All right. Next on our agenda are our and or is our employee retirement recognition with Dr. Alex Oily, the assistant superintendent of HR. Thank you, President May. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. As we approach the end of another successful school year, we're reminded that some of our Wayne Westland staff are in a time of transition. We want to express our deep gratitude for the many years of service, dedication, and hard work our retirees have given to Wayne Westland Community Schools. Their contributions, which have positively impacted our learning community, are much appreciated, and we are truly grateful for their service. This year's retirees represent many of our district's employee groups. At this time, I'd like to list all of the retiree
040employees and ask anyone in attendance to come to the front of the boardroom to be recognized. Our retirees this year include Laura Black, social worker. Susan Thompson, social worker. Anne Turner, EIS teacher. Mary Jenkins Williams, assistant principal. Deborah Hower, physical therapist. Cheryl Deer, early childhood teacher. Can I call your name? Come on up. Come on up. Take a picture. Katherine Lawson Rhodess, life skills teacher. Pamela Smith, early on service provider. Rachel Trucks, Ma math teacher. Katherine Break, fifth grade teacher. Amy Griffin, fourth grade teacher. Shauna Hockey Meyer, high school counselor. Meen Jones, occupational therapist. Holly Colts, high school counselor. Marine O'Neal, speech pathologist. Roberta Whitri, fourth grade teacher. Joseph Copan, custodian. Christina Barrett, tech repair leader. Susan Huntley, teacher assistant. Terry McDow, food service worker. Meen Grim, food service worker. Jeffrey Zabo, custodian. Joseph Fletcher,
041custodian. Marthur Robertson, peer professional. Diana Cole, paraprofessional. Diane Gordon, food service worker. Roger IRS, custodian. Deborah Bacto, paraprofessional. Tammy Wer, paraprofessional. Susan Fishaw, secretary. Scott Shaw, custodian. Barbara Zeloo, paraprofessional. Deborah Cray, custodian Deanna Beck, teacher assistant. Joe Nichols, paraprofessional Don KT, bus driver. Terresa Worthy, secretary. Diane Remington, secretary. Nancy Perry, secretary. Pam Pierce, secretary. Beverly Edmonds, administrative assistant. I would like to say congratulations to the 2025 Wayne Westland Community School Retirees. At this time, can we all please stand to give them applaud for their [Applause] contributions? If anyone was miss, please come on down. I want to make sure we're get a group of pictures. Come on down. Any retirees? I want to make sure I catch your name. What's your name? Diane Gordon. Diane Gordon. Let's also give her a round of applause, everyone.
042Okay, this time we're going to stand right here. We're going to get a picture. These are the ones you couldn't talk into staying. Yeah, we tried. We tried. Thank all round of applause again. Thank you. And for any of the retirees, I just would like to say congratulations and thank you so much for your years of service to children and to our district. And if you haven't done so already, feel free to grab go to the back of the boardroom to get a refreshment or some coffee. And we will make sure to get a picture to all of our retirees. Let's give them a round of applause again, guys. Thank you. Next on our agenda, we have a presentation on suicide um the suicide coalition. No, I'm sorry, I skipped one. Yep. We have the
0432025 bond presentation. Sorry about that, Mr. To. Good. Good evening, board and community. Tonight, we will be updating um you on the bond. Uh the bond will be go coming to the community in November for a vote. Uh, and tonight, uh, we will have, uh, Doug or Doug Underwood from, uh, McCarthy Smith and Bill Winri from TMP give us an update on where we're at right now with the bond. Um, as I said, the bond will be coming to the community in November. We will start the marketing campaign sometime in August. Um, so you'll start getting material. Um, some of the material you'll be getting will, uh, have some of this information on it. Um, so tonight basically we're going to give you an overview of what we're looking at. Good evening everyone. Um, yeah,
044as Scott said, we just wanted to come give a very brief and this thing keeps jumping ahead slides, so that'll be good. It'll be very brief. Um, anyway, we were here last February or in February uh to talk to you guys about the process we had gone through with the assessment and how that had started over a a year ago. And um so basically uh what we came up through the assessment report is a uh some remodeling projects. Those were the projects that were in the 2018 bond uh that due to the economy and COVID and all that uh there was not money to do. So that includes Walker Winter, uh the Dyer Center, and then also the transportation and buildings and grounds buildings to complete that work. Uh we also looked at the roofing
045replacements for roofs that were older than 15 years, parking lots that were older than 8 years, then also mechanical equipment throughout the district. Uh that's over 20 years. Um we also evaluated the the furnishings and uh so we have in this bond the replacement of all classroom uh furniture uh both the student uh desk and also the uh uh teacher desk as well. And then um as part of it uh there's a technology piece uh that involves um infrastructure upgrades uh things such as devices uh and those types of things. and then um also uh you know more districtwide type thing with servers and that. So as we went through the assessment, the overall assessment amount came to approximately $135 million. Um as was mentioned uh this bond is going to be a nonmillage increase
046bond uh that'll be put together in three series uh for 125 million. will not cost the community any additional tax dollars. Um, we do look at using money from the sinking fund over the next five or six years and in the amount of roughly of about $10 million to now I'm lost myself here. Um, to to cover the rest of the uh the work in the assessment. No, it won't move. There we go. So the pie chart is basically just showing a um kind of the the breakdown uh of of where the money there's about 33 million in remodeling uh 62 million in the assessment work um furnishings about 16 million and then about 24 million in technology. Good evening. So, the next piece is the bond, the schedule, talking about where we are at.
047Uh, currently, uh, we're here for the board update presentation. Uh, June 5th, we are currently working on the bond application, getting that ready to go to Treasury. Um, June 5th, uh, bond council will submit the application to Treasury and and we have a tenative meeting set up for June 11th for the Treasury meeting. uh at that meeting they just go through the bond application and make sure everything is in order for the district. Uh June 16th we'll come back to the board for board action uh resolution to approve the submission to Treasury. Um and then on the July 21st board action for a resolution to certify the bond proposal. Um then we'll be moving to a November 4th bond election. Um this next schedule you had seen the uh bond formation plan. This just outlined
048the bond from A to Z starting from uh the the very start. We are currently I highlighted the area. We're in that May uh June box which is really finishing and completing the bond and getting the bond approved through the uh district. And then the final phase will be the campaign. will be working in July and August to put together um uh campaign literature, you know, the the um how you want to present this to the community. And then coming up in the uh September October time frame, you'll be going after the whole bond campaign. And with that, it'll take us right into the November vote. With that, if we have any questions. So, I'd like to thank you for all the work that you're doing. I just have one quick question with the bond.
049Once we do pass it, and I'm concerned with the tariffs, with the different things with construction, um what would happen if we do the construction? There's tariffs. I mean, are we um able to get like Americanmade type supplies with things being so meticulous with building and construction? Yeah, we we push for Americanmade and uh Michigan made um as much as we can, but it's you go out and buy a car. It's an American car. It's a GMC, but there's parts from Mexico, there's part chips from China, there's a So, you know, tariffs are a deal. And as we sit here today, what's being tariffed? you know that everything's on 90day hold or it's been reduced. Um we we do build an escalation factor into um into the bond. Uh if you recall in February when
050I was here uh you know I said well at that point we were at about 116 or 117 million. You know now we're up to 125 and it really hasn't been added scope. we've been starting to kind of put a schedule together of when the projects are going to happen and and apply the appropriate escalation costs to that. So much as COVID was and the spike that we saw in the economy uh and what things were costing back then, we'll just kind of have to deal with the tariffs as they go, but we do have that escalation factor in there to help. And I just have one more comment I'd like to say. Um, when we did the 2018 bond, the 150 million, it was so successful. I like to say I like all the
051work that you guys have done in the schools. They're beautiful. I mean, you guys are high quality. Um, I was able to help the Westwood School District do their bond, 25 million, and they're doing construction. And it's an honor to be on the chair of the bond committee because we're going to get this rocket and rolling in the community. We're going to be knocking on doors. I have a lot of people that will help us with this bond and we're going to just be successful. So, you guys do an amazing job. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thanks, Bo. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I just have one one question. Um, thank you guys, but I'm curious, what um feedback have you guys gotten from the commu the community thus far? Um, have there
052been any concerns? And if there have um have you guys addressed any concerns? We personally have not gotten any. You know, Bill and I haven't gotten any um response from the community. Yeah, we've had uh surveys go out. We actually met with our staff in regards to the furniture. Um, and I'm going to be honest with you. I started out this a year ago talking about this is a more of a needs bond. And you heard uh today the gentleman talked about uh the projects you're talking about roofs, parking lots, um technology updates. I there I've been involved in bonds sometimes that have a lot of the wow factor and a lot of um input um because there's a lot of things that uh we're looking for to do outside the scope of the needs.
053Uh this is not that type of a bond. Uh this is something that the these projects are just like tonight why I want him to come out and speak on them. These are projects that the district needs to keep our kids warm, safe, and dry. And that's our motto in the whole bond right now. when you start seeing our marketing material, it's going to be to just keep our buildings warm, safe, and dry for our kids. Uh, and it's 125 million. Uh, that's not a small amount, but it's not a huge amount of money when it comes to uh districts in a district like us, uh, the size of our district, when it comes to projects like roofs, parking lots, HVAC systems, um, that we're working on right now. So, I'd like to say we
054would go out and do this huge campaign like I've done before. Uh but it's more of a needs district needs bond at this point. We did want to include some projects that included everyone and touched everyone in the district, the students, the teachers, the the um the staff, the whole building. And so that's why we look towards furniture. You'll hear more about it in the next in the coming months. Um, and I really want to thank these gentlemen because I'm not sure if you haven't done a bond or been through one, the work and the time that goes into it, the assessments of our buildings, um, between Gino, uh, Doug and Bill and their team, um, it's a lot of hours and a lot of time. Um, and I I don't know if if you
055haven't done it, you can appreciate the time that goes into making these decisions because it's not just like we're coming up with decisions um just because we want to do it to a certain building. These are all uh educated, wellthoughtout decisions um based on the needs of our district. Um and I want to make that very clear. I also want to make it very clear there is absolutely no increase to the taxpayers in November. And that is huge when you come into a bond and you're not going to ask the community for any increase. Uh and it's not going to hit their pocketbook. Uh and we we need the money. You've seen the projects that we uh we proposed today. Um these are needs. And thanks guys for coming out tonight to present. Thank you.
056Any other questions? Thank you all for being here this evening and thank you for your work. [Applause] Next on the agenda is the suicide coalition presentation by Mrs. Amanda Fannon, supervisor of seal McKini Ventel and foster care leaison. Good evening. Um this evening I have the pleasure of introducing Mr. Brian Galdis. He is from growth works and he is the lead of our hope empowerment coalition. Um used to be the Wayne County suicide prevention coalition which Wayne Wesland is a part of. So I'm going to give it over to him. Thank you Amanda. I appreciate coming back to the board and um giving you some updates on the work. As Amanda said, um Wayne Westland is part of the um we we we're now called the um Hope Empowerment Coalition. Um and um if you
057look at and our mission is to build adoles or to battle adolescent depression, suicide, and the stigma associated with mental health um across all of the western Wayne County school districts. We also have Corwell Health and Trinity Health involved as well. A lot of service agencies um like growth works like Hyera are also very involved in in this in this in this work. So you can see up on the board I won't go through them all but you can see the districts that are involved in this coalition um and all very active um in the work that we're doing as well as some of the service agencies. So, we have a a steering committee that works together to decide what kind of work we want to be doing in the schools. And um every school
058district has um representatives and your representative who you should be very proud of is Amanda Amanda uh um Fogn and um she not only is very active in the work that we do, but she's a leader amongst the amongst these leaders. And um so I'm really really appreciative of Amanda and all the work that she does. So I do I do want to go through some statistics but because I think it's important that we talk about these publicly. People I don't believe understand the um the issues that we're dealing with or that our students are dealing with at and the magnitude of it. But um when you look at some of the CDC CD um information, suicide is the second leading cause of death for students ages 10 through 14. It used to be the
059third leading cause of death. It's now the second leading up cause of death. In fact, it's the only when you look at the top 10 causes of death, it's the only one that's actually going up in the United States. So I mean that should tell you um that we're not going in the right direction at all. And um and one of the reasons that we brought the coalition together was because we know the need. We know that school districts are working so hard on on the issues. Um but it's really going to take a village to to make a difference. And so that's why we put this coalition together. So there are some numbers that um that that um really strike me hard and really keep me in this work. Um, I am a retired
060superintendent and I thought I was going to retire and sit on the beach for a while and uh um that kind of changed when when I came across some of this, but when you look at sad and hopelessness and this work, this is um results from the CDC study as well as a a Michigan study that we do every year. And the numbers are alarmingly similar, almost almost exact when you look at the two very separate um bodies of work. And so if you look at sad and hopelessness, 40% of the students across the country and all of these numbers cut across race, gender, um sio economic status, um these are very consistent. Um 40% of our our students um say that they have been um sad or hopeless for a significant amount of time
061in the last 12 months. And we look at that because when a student or any individual when they make the choice to to attempt to take their life, sadness and hopelessness is is part of that decision. And so that's why that's one of the things that we do measure. Now if you look at Wayne Westland, Wayne Wesland has about 30 3,000 high school students. And so when you look at um the number of students, 40% of those students would be about uh 1,212. I think that's the number. It's a little far for me to see. I'm sorry. Um but I think I got that right. Now those aren't those are not documented cases, but what I'm doing is I'm extrapolating that 40% to the 3,000 students you have. So again, not none of the none
062of the numbers I'm going to give you now are reported um issues. They're just extrapolations of of the numbers. So when you look at considered attempts of students, 22% across the country and locally um have reported they've that they've considered taking their life. And when you look at Wayne, if you look at Wayne Westland high school students, that would be boy 665. I think someone might have to help me out with that with those numbers. Um the um actually I think I have them up here. The the number that makes that really keeps me in this work and and really to me is absolutely jaw-dropping is those that actually made an attempt. I'm not talking about people who have thought about it or students who have thought about it or have made a plan. These
063are actually students who have taken some act or action to take their own life. And that's 9% of the students across the country and locally. And so if you look at Wayne Westland schools, 3,000 students, that would be about 270 students who have who have taken some act to end their life in the last 12 months. That's just not acceptable. And and that's that's what drives our coalition and um and um why we are we we we have to make a difference. We have to do something different. Another another look at research. Michigan did uh a um mental health um survey um not too long ago and they looked at how many teens are there in Michigan that are un that have a diagnosis of some type of mental mental um illness and but are
064not being treated. And there's about 40,000 teens who are not being treated for an actual diagnosis. And the three main reasons for that is stigma, which is something that we're battling. Access to care. It's uh access to care is difficult. Um if you have if you know anything about insurance, mental health insurance is not treated the same as as physical health. And that's a real problem in Michigan and across the country. And then affordability is is difficult. There's also not enough social workers and um psychiatrists in the state of Michigan to meet the needs of all of these students. So, here's some work that we've we've already done. Um we've we've come together and worked on a a common screener. So, if a student goes in crisis in any one of our districts, they're looking
065at the same screener. Um you have to remember a child in in crisis is a family in crisis. And so we want to make those transitions as as as um u friendly as possible, you know, friendly handshakes between the different organizations. The the health care systems also Trinity Health and uh Corwell Health um also has has decided to use the same screener through this coalition. We have um we've trained over now 6,500 QPR um individuals in QPR. So QPR is kind of CPR for mental health. It helps you um gives you some tools if you know somebody who's in crisis. And so it doesn't expect you to be a social worker, a counselor or anything or give you those skills, but it really kind of helps um someone who's in crisis. It's kind of like
066CPR if you have a heart attack. You know, no one expects you to fix the person or or be a heart surgeon, but it helps them get through the crisis. And so we've trained over 6,500 people in in the school districts, bus drivers, um PE principles, teachers, um administrators, central office people. Um we're also looking at data and trying to um come up with some common data to know if the work that we're doing is making a difference. Um we're doing a lot of research um to back up the recommendations we're making and um we're also um there's a lot of mutual support that's going on now. Again, if you know anything about schools and and the mental health professionals that are in schools, a lot of them work alone. Their schedules are so filled
067from from the minute they walk into a building to to when they leave. And um they're they're really working um in isolation. Now, everyone from our central office administrators to our to those that work in buildings are making connections with other schools and other school districts. And that is really making a difference particularly if there's a crisis in a school district. Sometimes we expect the same people who are closest to these kids um who are in crisis to be when when there is we've had a couple of um uh completed suicides um in the last two years and we were able to bring other districts in with social workers, counselors, administrators to help those in the district also work through it without having to um you know um work, right? They they also need help.
068So, so that's been uh very helpful. So, things that we're doing moving forward, um we provide a lot of professional development, a lot of quality professional professional development. We have about 470 school-based mental health professionals come to a conference on election day when we have everyone doing professional development. And that's um that's going over very well. And with Trinity Health, we've been doing we've been working with them on providing many conferences that have been very well attended and very well appreciated by again school-based mental health professionals. What are we doing moving forward? Um, a couple of big things we're doing. Every school district is looking at peer-to-peer programming and um um that we were able to get grant funded. So, we're through growth works, every single school district can have all of their high schools
069and middle schools um implement three years of peer-to-peer programming um without any cost because Growth Works is going to pick up the cost for the first three years. We're also looking at um looking at again students who are in transition. So, a student goes into crisis in a school building, right? or maybe even at home. And we're looking at at processes that will bring support to the schools and then help that school transition or help that student and family transition from the school to maybe the the emergency room to maybe a um a um another service agency, might be a residential treatment center, something along those lines. And then how do we transition that student back into school? There are so many issues. I I mean I I could talk probably two hours just on
070the issues and some of those transitions, but we're going to we're going to work through those and um and that'll be a big help for us moving forward. We also need student voice. There's no way we're going to move that number from 9% to zero, which is our goal, without student voice. So, we're creating a a student leadership team, and they'll work together with with the um the adult team that has administrators and and teachers on it. Um and and we'll have three representatives from every single high school in the coalition in in western um Wayne County. And they're going to they just started they've created a name. They they have a mission statement. They've they've got um core values. They they've developed all those things. Um the name of them is Students versus Stigma.
071And starting in September, they're going to be working together across the county um to implement programs, research programs, um and bring to us the student voice to what needs to be done to make a difference and and to bring to us also what's going on, what's what's the reality, um and um so I'm really excited about that work and that work is 100% grant funded also. So that won't cost the district's um anything in terms of moving forward. So, we've we've uh recognized we've we've had some statewide recognition for the work that we've done. I know I'm going through this kind of fast. You received a a um document that looks like this. It's our annual report from last year and that has a lot of this information in in a little bit more detail.
072We do a lot of legislative work. Um we we're very close to our our our local legislators in western county and and for the most part they're very supportive of the work we're doing of course um but but we do um we do spend some time in Lancing. We have them touring schools. We have them touring emergency rooms um and and hearing what is it that we need to do differently to help uh students. And um that's it for for my presentation. I'd be happy to answer questions, of course. Thank you. Are there any questions? Yes. Um, Mr. Sure. Thank you for your work. I can't imagine more important work. My question is, when you look at the Wayne Westland School District, is there anything that you see that we could do to help your
073mission? Anything that that we're deficient in, if you could just do this different or is there anything that you would uh bring to us that we might be able to change to help you? Yeah, that's that's a loaded question. the um first of all keep Amanda coming to our meeting. She she she is actually has probably 100% we know about her well 100% attendance but um you know something that I had to to um come to grips with myself was that this is definitely going to be a marathon not a sprint. It's very complicated work. Um and um you know you're working with with you know nine different communities and and um um and everyone's kind of in a different place. a lot of different school districts have different resources and so um so I
074think to answer your answer specifically is um just your commitment to being in the coalition is so important um it's not easy it's not easy to be part of a larger group like this and um but Wayne Wesland has always supported us and um I think that support is probably the the main thing you can do to help because we will make a difference we already are making a difference but it's going to take us some time so that ongoing support is the best Thank you, Mr. T. Yes, I'd like to thank you for all the work that you do. I just had a quick question because I'm on this prayer call in the morning and I've noticed it's been a lot of adults with the things happening in life with the suicide as well.
075You know, just a lot of people and I know that affects the children. Um, do you guys have programs to help the families as a whole if this situation is in the families? Because sometimes when it comes from the parents, it goes down to the kids with the depression. You know what I'm saying? So, do you guys have programs to help the the the parents as well that's dealing with the suicide on top of the children or just just the children? Uh, yeah, we don't. We focus just on just on our students. Okay. And um that's, you know, that's our mission. That's big enough. I I will tell you that when you look at um suicide rates across the country in all areas, they're everyone is up. So, you know, but we focus just on
076on students within western Wayne County. We do have a um one of our partners is Hope Network out of um Northville and they have been amazing working with school districts who have had um um completed suicides within their school district or even deaths and because we've had other types of deaths too w um whether they're staff or um student and they've been amazing. It's an amazing organization. They're absolutely free. they come in and they work with staff, they work with kids um and um so so we do have some resources in terms of um working with the adults and the families, but our focus is students. Thank you. Thank you. Any other questions, Mr. Ambrose? I want to I want to thank you as a uh a parent of two daughters who are actually one
077or more of those statistics that you posted. The struggles we had to be able to get them into to treatment and to to help them through because I didn't have the tools to help them. I'm grateful that we have a that we have this program in this in this district because there's nothing more heartbreaking than seeing your child struggle with depression or anxiety in in my cases and seeing the hopelessness that they that they that they have and so so thank you. You are welcome. And um you know you're the story that you you're you're sharing I hear over and over and over. And there's there's another piece of research I think is pretty interesting. Um when you look at the school calendar, suicide attempts and completed suicides actually go up. They spike up during
078the more um stressful times during a school year, beginning of school, um exam time, those kinds of things. And they go down during vacation times. I know as I'm a former superintendent and when and I was a superintendent during COVID and we all we were when we were deciding open schools, close schools, what we were going to do, one of the big topics was, well, we're going to see a spike in in mental health. We're going to see a spike in in suicides and attempts and all that. What we actually saw was a drop. And that really screamed at me um you know, we really need to be looking at how do we we're not going to change GPA, those kinds of things. I mean, I don't believe we're going to um college admissions, you
079know, the the internet. I mean, that's those are some big those are things are out of our scope. But I think but I believe what we can do and I believe what our mission is as a coalition is to provide supports within the schools so that when it is exam time or it is the beginning of the school year, how do we help how do we help students get into the school and and you know and I know that schools are doing a lot of that work now. That's why I'm so interested in the student voice because they're the ones who are going to tell us how what's going on during the year that's making these things happen and then they um and then they'll be able to act on it, right? As peers as
080opposed to adults telling them what to do. I do have a follow-up question outside of just saying thank you for your work. Thank you Amanda. I do I'm curious to know for the um peer-to-peer training that'll take place. You gave numbers around like I think it was ages 10 to 14. Where are we focusing that peerto-peer? Where does that focus? Is that at the high school level? Is it that age group or is it that full band? Yeah. Do you want to answer that? Yeah. So, we are starting with 9th through 12th. Okay. So, um starting there and then hopefully the middle school as well. And some of the programs that our high schools are looking at actually have one of them has a K through 12 component. Okay. Um so maybe even younger. Thank
081you. Across the coalition, most of the districts are looking at 912. There are two districts that are looking at K12, but again that's a that's an individual district decision, but our focus really is at high school and middle school right now. Mr. Rashan, I'm sorry. One more question. Um, you said student voice. It is imperative that we have student voice in everything we do. So, I'm glad to hear that. How are you guys going to um implement student voice? What is the process? Do you have a process in place already? What? We do. And um so what we we have a group of students and we're still building it right now. It just started two months ago, but we are building we're we're asking every high school to present or to provide us with three
082students who will meet monthly and they're going to work together to look at programs that they believe are going to work and and advise the adult group um on on their vision and what they see are issues and how do we best address and how do we best create supports within the schools um from their from their view. Right. It's been a long time since I've been a teenager, you know, in high school and um I think I know stuff, but if I don't know anything about being a teenager today, right, because of all the changes and so so that's that's what that's going to look like. They'll meet monthly. They are so charged up right now in terms of of um the work that they want to do. And again, we're building um you
083know, we're we're um uh you know, we're still looking for students to to engage. So um but I'm probably more excited about that work than anything we're doing. Thank you. So, Amanda, before you walk away, you have a special guest. Would you like to introduce? Sure. So, this is Madden. Madden is our new district facility dog. So, a facility dog is more similar in training to a service animal, but they are trained to help whatever specific task of the facility in which they work. So, he is going to be working with our district crisis team, but also at Hamilton Elementary School. Um, he is just turned seven months old, Golden Doodle. So, as you can see, his um demeanor is perfect fit um for this role. And you can pet him because I know that's
084the question. Um the other question I get um is who does he live with? So, he lives with both myself and a first grade teacher at Hamilton. are both host handlers and we train with him every week. Um he's been training from birth for this. So um his program is called Canines for Change. Um they're out near Lancing, Michigan. So that's where we got him. And um this would not have been possible um if it weren't for Priority Health um who sponsored the cost of Madden and all of his training um which was approximately $15,000. So he was quite the donation from them and we really appreciate that. So absolutely. Thank you for sharing that with us and welcome Madden. We should bring him down here so everyone on TV can see. Yes. Bring him
085down to the front so that everyone can see him. Does he know anything about treats? Yes. That was part of his training. worse. Interesting. Wow. Well, you're real hardcore, Amanda. Very sweet. Thank you for sharing. Come with us and thank you for being a host or co-host. Next on our agenda is item 334.25, citizens comments on agenda items. Mrs. Hines, do we have any? Um, let's see. Looks like everything so far looks like two more. It looks like everything is on non-aggendum items. Okay. Thank you so much. What is it? Let me see. Let me take a look. Jessica, why she looks for Mrs. West? I think it's one. It looks like it's half and half, right? Yep. Half and half. Okay. So, we have Miss Jessica. Is it West? Yes. Good evening, board. Um,
086most of you know me. I'm Jessica West. Um, parent now of three students in the district. One has graduated. Um, I have a few things I wanted to talk about regarding the agenda this evening. First, I want to thank Mr. Toko, who just walked out of the room, for providing clarification about the boys swim team collaboration that's happening. Um it was not clear on the agenda that it was the boys teams for the high schools. Um and so that caused a little bit of question um related to that. I understand now why those two teams are merging together in order to form one. But it might have caused momentary panic for the girls swim teams. So we just need to be a little bit more clear on our agendas. Um I want to um appreciate
087Miss Babiaak and the building update presentation that just happened. I have two students at Wildwood um who just absolutely adore Wildwood in so many ways. Um adore their teachers, adore all the activities. Um and so I just want to commend her for the work that you guys are doing there. Um I would like to talk about all of the wonderful things that we just heard in recognitions and presentations. Some phenomenal things have hap have been happening in this district. Um, I actually just had the opportunity to attend the district summit that happened prior to this as well. Um, I was really disappointed to not see our board members in attendance at that. I assume that you were all invited to it. There was one board member who did come in, but unfortunately I believe they
088may have missed the bulk of the material and information including wonderful presentations about all of the data and stats and information of all the improvements that have happened in this district in the last year. um as well as individual points of pride spoken directly from individuals at each of the school districts representing our school district that talks about some of the improvements that have been made in the past year and where we've come from. I know most of you have not heard from me for a while. I've had a lot of things going on myself. Um an example of that is today. My day started at 6:00 a.m. I came straight from work to this improvement summit and you still see me sitting here today. So, I dedicate quite a bit of time to this
089district. Most of you see me in inside the buildings on a regular basis. Um, so coming back to this and spending my time and effort here, uh, means that it's really important to me. And so, one of the items on your agenda also says, initiate a series of board community conversations to begin in September. And I looked at that and I thought, well, what are we going to talk about in September? because on Friday last week, I received an email from Miss Kimberly May stating that um we were thanking Miss Curry for her work and describing her leadership with integrity, collaboration, and professionalism throughout this time of transition. And it made me think, what did I miss? So, I went back and I have a point of order and question for you to consider because
090at the March 17th meeting, as you know, um there was a motion that was supported and um voted on unanimously by this board that put Miss Curry in the position of superintendent. I understand that there may have been subsequent conversations. However, the motion that happened at this board put her in the superintendent role. I'm not quite sure why we would put somebody in a superintendent role and then subsequently say we're also going to look for another superintendent at the same time and oh by the way maybe we're not going to put somebody in superintendent role unless we've received a letter of um disinterest from Miss Curry. Um we should assume that she is still in that superintendent role. Thank you Miss West. We also have Mrs. Michelle Sample. Not Oh, not agenda. Sorry. Is there
091anyone else with an agenda item? Thank you. We're moving to item 335.25, consent agenda. Do we have a motion? Move. Approval. Support. Support. Miss times, will you please call roll? Mr. Cox, yes. Mr. Rashan, yes. Miss Hines, yes. Dr. Weaver, yes. Mr. Ambrose, yes. President May, yes. Motion carry 6. Thank you. Next agenda item 336.25, 25 board of education committee reports up front. Uh up first we have finance and facilities committee report. Mr. Ambrose the the financial committee meeting um is called to order at 5:31 um on May 8th with the following in attendance. Uh Mr. Ambress, Miss uh Abney Mitchell, Miss Hines, Mr. Mr. Kundrick, Miss Paul Kevich, uh Miss Mead, uh Dr. Oily, Mr. Tokco, Miss Curry, and uh and Miss Marky. Mr. uh Tokco started the meeting out reporting on a meeting
092between the city of Inkster and the administration about the district-owned properties within the city. Uh Inksters's mayor noted that the other cities uh that the Inkster school district was split up to uh had returned the properties that they inherited back to the city of Inkster at no cost. And Mr. Toko expressed a concern about giving the properties back to the city uh because of the possibility of a charter school opening on those properties. Miss Hines mentioned that there's already a charter school operating within the boundaries of the city of Inkster and it already has approximately 300 students attending within our own district's boundaries. Miss Mitch, Abney Mitchell stated that both uh the city of Romulus and Taylor did return the properties that they inherited from the former Ingster school district um free of charge and
093just asked that we as a school board treat the city of Ingster with the same amount of respect that we have shown both the cities of Wayne and Westland. Uh Mr. Kundrick uh then talked about the need of purchasing 17 gas powered buses. Uh these would come from the sinking fund. These buses are mainly replacing the special need buses that we purchased back in 2016 and are nearing the end of their useful life at a cost of $2.75 million. Uh due to the nature of these units, um the the lift units um to help get students in, there is a significant lead time for delivery and so we would like to he would like to put the order in now because it would take a take a couple of years for us to take delivery
094on all vehicles. Um he also would like to create a 10-year uh replacement plan with re the retiring units being sold at auction. Uh this is up for our uh consideration tonight. Also for tonight, uh Miss Powitch proposed the purchase of updated math resources for all for uh all high school courses. This will be the first time in 15 years that the district has updated its math resources. Some of the highlights are new textbooks and digital content, uh replacement of consumables that are used in the classroom, and professional development for our teachers on the new material. The material would be purchased from the following: Bedford, Freeman, and Roth, Carnegie, Sigate, Sungage, and Pearson. The total cost would come from next year's general fund would be approximately $853,500. Miss Mallard uh also spoke about the need
095to update our sensory rooms for EIS at Wayne Memorial, the ASD and POI rooms at both Roosevelt and Graham elementaryaries, and the SCI and the SXI rooms at Roosevelt. The money would be coming from the act 18 funding which the district receives from Wayne Resa at a cost of just over $400,000. Uh also for tonight, Dr. Oily stated that the contract negotiations have been completed between the districts and the WWAP bargaining unit. um it is a competitive contract for for the members of uh of that bargaining unit and wants us to consider it for approval. Miss Claire is requesting um that she be able to make a change in funding uh for this year's bus purchases to be able to move funds between the bond and the syncing fund. This is to give the district
096flexibility as it owes the IRS uh some money due to making more interest on the bond than what was paid out. Uh she is working with McCarthy and Smith on the final costs which are still unclear. Uh this flexibility is to ensure that the general fund is not used to pay to pay these fees. Um she can go into more detail tonight during her report. Um, for the past year, the district has been receiving financial reports from Michigan Benchmark after discussion with with Miss Claire in which she stated she can provide she can produce similar reports. I have asked that she do so and to provide it to the board. Uh, with the contract coming up for renewal, I would like the board to compare her information that she provides to that for Michigan benchmark
097so we can make an informed decision if we want to continue this contract. Miss Claire then reviewed the Wayne Resa budget that is up for approval tonight and state aid report. The only new items uh were the benchmark assessments and that the state pulled back some funds from the student loan program that were unused by the district. We reviewed the check register and investment reports for the district. The district cash flow is down approximately $1 million in the general fund for uh the month of April. and she is anticipating as the school year winds down, district costs will go down and the state funds will continue to come in. And she is also transferring funds as needed into the myaf account for higher interest rates to maintain cash flow. Thank you. Are there any questions?
098Seeing none, we'll move to policy and procedure committee report. Dr. policy committee met on April 10th at a.m. Board members present, Miss Hines, Mr. Brashawn was joining by Zoom and also myself also joined by Miss Curry and Mr. Bessik. After the welcoming, we talked about discipline alignment and that is um our discipline in the district and how that works. Making sure that the wording agrees on all of our documents. We talked about the VPAA courses at WEIA um by Miss Paulvich. Uh we talked about uh graduation requirements. Uh the state requires 18 credits. We require as a district 22 credits to graduate. Uh we talked about uh a grading task force being initiated and then we talked about the cell phone usage uh policy. Most of you know the governor um and the legislature have
099before them a couple of policies concerning cell phones and um we're not sure what they are going to pass down yet. Most probably they'll turn it back to the constituent districts, but we do not know that yet. So we're going to revisit that in July. Also we talked about um our okay our discipline alignment our behavior um in our schools. Um we also talked about the final review of bylaws and policy changes which had been done for quite some time. Um and then final review of the board operating procedure changes. Uh Miss Curry commented, the board members commented and we were adjourned. Any questions? Thank you. U Mr. Roshan, the student achievement committee report, please. Yes. um student achievement committee um convened on Tuesday, May 13th uh at 5:00 pm. Uh during the student achievement
100committee meeting, I welcome attendees and presented a proposed agenda for feedback. Uh, Miss Groves updated us on middle school curriculum, discussing the roles of content leaders and department chair chairs in aligning uh, instructional practices as well as using common uh, assessments and supports for special uh, population students. We also explored strategies to increase parental involvement through a proposed district-wide parent committee and discuss upcoming professional development and recruitment efforts. I emphasized the importance of incorporating student voices in decision making and the meeting concluded with suggestions for enhancing accessibility in future meetings. Overall, the focus was on curriculum updates, community engagement, and improving students input in our educational practices. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Roshan? All right. Thank you. Moving on to item 337.25, review and approval of business service, finance, and facilities. The
101first item is a recommendation to approve bus replacement for 25 2025 2026. Mrs. Clear. Um, as stated previously, the buses would cost 2.7 five u million dollars. It would be funded by syncing fund. Um, we wouldn't receive these probably for a couple years. Um, but and they'll be purchased through the MSBO bus purchase program, which is a consortium. and um it supports our 10-year bus life cycle uh replacement. And I'm asking um the board to approve these so we can get the order going in out move approval support. Thank you. Mr. Science call please. Pardon me. I was asking I'm sorry discussion. I was asking signs to call row. Is there any discussion? Yes, Mr. Weaver. Dr. Weaver. Yeah. Um, I had mentioned this once before. I understand the need of replacing buses and getting
102newer buses. What I don't understand is the amount of buses we have. I counted I think 85 for 53 routes. Um, I don't if these buses are unusual, why aren't they going out for bid? Um, and what's happening with that? Because again, this second time I've talked about it and it's kind of glossed over. But we have a glut of buses right now. Um, Mr. Kendrick was at our finance committee and he gave uh a lot more detail as far as how many buses were for uh special ed and how many for gen ed and I can't um remember everything that he said and I'm not an expert at buses. I can speak just I I'm not going to be perfect in this, but I know that it's deceptive when you see 85 buses based
103on even when you see 53 routes, there's different runs that occur during the day um either out of the district. Um so I I understand where you look at and you see, hey, what are we doing? We got 80 85 buses, but we have 53 runs or routes throughout the day. Uh so that number can be deceptive if you don't understand the whole complexity of how they're scheduled. Um that's all I can say in that in that regards. I can't explain exactly how it goes, but I know just from providing oversight to that department before that it it is the deception and the complexities of uh the routes and the runs that that go throughout the day. And Scott, just to kind of piggy back off what you're saying, because it's a consortium bid, we've
104already got the lowest price, so we can't just go out from beyond beyond that. Yeah. Okay. I I understand complexity very well. Um is are you saying to this board that all of these buses are used on certain days? Are are there buses that are sitting there that are never used? He according to Chad when we because we've asked the question too. This wasn't just the first question that came up was that there the buses are being used. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. I noticed that um in the minutes from the finance um and facility committee meeting, I don't know if this is answering your question or not, Dr. Rever, but it says that the 17 gas powered buses from the sinking fund mainly to replace the 2016 special needs buses. And
105of the current 72 bus fleet, 40 are diesel. So, I don't know if that answers your question, but that was Chad. They're also will be selling those buses once we replace them. So, they'll be sold and they sell for a pretty good price. Okay. Thank you. Now, we're ready for Welcome, Dr. Weaver. Yes. Mr. Cox, yes. Mr. Ambrose, yes. Mr. Rashad, yes. Miss Hines, yes. President May, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have a recommendation to purchase secondary math curriculum. Mrs. Curry, thank you. As presented at the May finance committee, I am requesting approval to purchase math resources for all of our high school math courses. We need a full resource adoption to ensure continuity of learning between John Glenn High School, Wayne Memorial High School, and Wayne Westland Innovative Academy. Looking for a
106motion. Motion. Support. Support. Discussion. Just one thing. Yes, I like to um thank all the hard work of the staff for the curriculum and math. Um I went to Wayne Memorial and I was telling them like when I was in high school, we didn't have enough math books. We couldn't even take them home. So like that's really important to be able to have materials to study and then in the past we didn't really have a lot of money to even purchase curriculum. So you know being able to be financial stable and helping these kids out because math is important. Um I'm really big opponent of I'm not a opponent but I'm really uh I love skill trades and with skilled trades you got to have math and a lot of different um functions and math
107is very important even in science. So, um thank you guys for your hard work working together to get this curriculum together to help the students and that will help with the student achievement once we have a a steady um curriculum where they can just learn and just be able to and I like some of it too is some it's online some books back and forth and then that way um it helps the parents because when I my son went to school I had a really hard time with the common core like I didn't understand the math and it was frustrating as a parent the way this new math is. So this can be helpful with the family. So again, thank all the people that was involved in this curriculum to help us, you know, help
108our students. Thank you. Anyone else? Mrs. Hines, will you please call roll? Mr. Ombros, yes. Miss Hines, yes. Mr. Rashan, yes. Mr. Cox, yes. Mr. Weaver, yes. President May, yes. Motion carry 6. Thank you. Next, we have a recommendation to purchase furniture and sensory room enhancements from act 18. Mrs. Curry, thank you. As presented at the May finance committee, I am requesting approval to purchase furniture for early intervention services at Wayne Memorial Annex, as well as for the specialized programs at Wayne Memorial, Roosevelt McGreth Elementary, and Graham Elementary. These investments will enhance the learning environments and provide support for our students, families, and staff. Thank you. Looking for a motion. So move. Support. Bless you. Support. I support. Okay. Discussion. Mr. H. Will you please call? Dr. Weaver. Yes. Mr. Cox. Yes. Mr. Ambrose. Yes.
109Mr. Rashawn. Yes. Miss Hines. Yes. President May. Yes. Motion carries 6. Thank you. Next, we have a recommendation to approve the reallocation of school bus funding. Mrs. Claire, um in 2023, uh Mrs. Clees asked to purchase um buses for 2.99 million. Um some of them came in in 24 and past in 25 we had 1.6 five million of them come in in this current year. I'm asking to have some flexibility to change that and re I gave a new motion to say um slashs syncing slash bond because the bonds were coming to the end of the bonds. I'm going to be getting the last expenses from um McCarthy and Smith here at the end of the year and I have to pay arbitrage fees to the IRS because our interest because the interest rates were
110kind of good this past year for a while actually not just this past year for the past uh three years that we've had bond there's been times where we made more interest than what the bond that we're paying on our bonds and the IRS uh charges you arbitrage fees. So, I'd like to make sure that those arbitrage fees come out of the bond um and not general fund. So, that's why I want to move and I'm um having asking for some flexibility of there's several buses. So, when we get down to the um final expenses, I'll only move over what needs to be moved from the bonds to the syncing fund so that I can end that fund at pretty much zero and not have to touch the general fund at all. So, um I'm
111just this is just a journal entry. It's no it's no I'm not asking for any money. I'm just asking for the purchase to pay these fees and are any last fe expenses from McCarthy and Smith or any vendors uh to have it come out of sinking move approval. Thank you board discussion. Mrs. Hines, will you please call ro Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Miss Hines, yes. Mr. Mr. Shawn, yes. Mr. Cox, yes. Dr. Weaver, yes. President May, yes. Motion carries 6. Thank you. We are now at item 338.25, review and approval of administrative services. The recommendation to form and support a cooperative swimming and diving team. Mr. Toko. Yeah, I am recommending the board uh support the Wayne Memorial and John Glenn um to form a cooperative diving and swim team. And just to give you a
112little bit of a background, uh the Wayne um memorial uh swim team only had one person um this year and it didn't have any divers. So what we're we went to the league um and uh we proposed uh to do a cooperative which we I'm asking tonight u it'll be signed by the board president if it goes through. It'll give us an opportunity. We'll do it for two years and then we'll reassess it in two years. uh give us an opportunity to build that program so we can get uh enough swimmers out because the ultimate goal is to get have two teams um but to um to take care and not uh disregard the students who want to be involved in swimming at Wayne Memorial. And I think that they will you're going to get
113more students involved too when you find out that there is more than one person. Um, and uh, I think it's going to take a little bit of success for them to get more stu more students uh, athletes involved in swimming because I do believe that building has more than one student that wants to be involved in swimming. And uh, I said we're going to do this for two years. We'll reassess it in two years and see how it goes. But I think it's the right thing to do for our kids at this point. It's just boys. I want to make that very clear. It's just boys, not girls. Move we approve support support discussion times will please call ro Mr. Rashan yes miss Hines yes Mr. Ambrose yes Dr. Weaver yes Mr. Cox. Yes. President
114May. Yes. 6. Thank you. Next, we are at item 339.25, review and approval of policy and administrative regulations. And so we have the discipline alignment policy 20004 20006 behavior first read. Dr. Oily. Thank you, President Moon. You're receiving the first read of the policy changes in your packet as presented by Kevin Sutton, attorney from Miller Johnson. At the April 225 policy committee meeting, Mr. Sutton provided a recommended updates for policy 20006 around behavior. The recommended changes cover minor language changes in our policy involving the discipline review committee. Please review the attached document where the proposed changes are marked in red for new language and blue for deleted language. At the June board meeting, a recommendation for the approval of Miller and Johnson's proposed updates will be made. Mr. Sutton provided recommen recommended updates for policy
1158001 around artificial intelligence. The district has formed an AI task committee to review artificial intelligence tools and formulate a plan for using AI in Wayne Westland Community Schools. Please review the attached document. At the June board meeting, a recommendation for the approval of Miller Johnson's proposed updates will be made. Mr. Sutton also provided recommendations for our policy and administrative regulations to ensure we stay compliant with state and federal laws. Below each highlighted update is the summary for Mr. Sutton explaining the rationale for the updates. The recommended changes cover personal electronic devices, MDE Wayne Rea Perkins grant funding, behavior and threat assessment teams, Wayne Westland Community Schools providing information to families of safe storage of firearms, policy language around service animals, the front loading of employee sick time, updated language for how each school responds to
116school visitors, updates on sexual harassment under Title 9. Please review the document where the proposed changes are marked in red for new language, blue for deleted language, and yellow for titles that need to be inserted. At the June board meeting, a recommendation for the approval of Miller and Johnson's proposed updates will be made. At the June policy meeting, appropriate titles and positions will be filled in the recommended changes from Mr. Sud. Thank you. So, um, any questions for Mr. Dr. Oily? I have one question just under the policy 20006. Yes. Will the discipline review committee that's been added will that be spelled out or will that be spelled out under administrative guidelines? Yes. So the there were minor changes that were being made but yeah. I mean, I guess I'm just wondering like so people
117whoever is reading this know what positions comprise the Yes. And I will during the policy committee meeting any titles or positions I'll speak to all of that during the actual policy meeting. Okay. And that will be in the yellow. The red and the blue are just additions and deletions. But as far as titles and positions, that'll be discussed at the next meeting. Okay. So then we'll know that before we vote. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions? All right, that being said, thank you. We'll move to item 340.25, review and approval of human resources. Move approval. Dr. All right. As presented, I would like to recommend to the board of education that you approve our three-year WWAP uh contract, which is the Wayne Westland Association of Pair Professionals contract agreement for our pair professionals from
1182025 through 2028. Our goal as a district bargaining team at the beginning of contract negotiations was to provide a competitive and equitable contract that would attract and retain WWAP members for years to come. and we're pleased that we've successfully done that for our community. The contract provides wage increases for all members, an additional attendance bonus, an increase to their longevity payment, and improvement to working conditions. I want to thank the WWAP bargaining team, our district bargaining team, and the board of education for working as a team to benefit students and staff. My apologies, Mr. Dr. Oily. And I do u make a motion to that effect. support. Thank you. Discussion. I just have one question. Okay. Fine. With the contract, I just want to know I noticed in the um finance committee meetings it was
119listed that many of the positions are grant funded. And so I just wanted to make sure ask are we able to sustain that rate of pay from the general fund if something happens with the grants. just under all of the conversations that are happening right now around federal grants and if we will have them, if we will not have them. I just want to make sure we're we're able to sustain. I don't want to give people something that then we can't sustain and we have to take away. Sure. We cost that all out. We perfect. That's my only question. Any other discussion? Mr. Hines, will you please [Applause] Miss Hines? Yes. Mr. Cox? Yes, Mr. Ambrose. Yes, Dr. Weaver. Yes, Mr. Rashan. Yes, President May. Yes. Um, motion carries. Next, we are at item 341.25,
12025 review and approval of Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency. So Wayne Reese's budget resolution. Um looking for a motion to pass their budget. So move support. Support. There you go. Discussion. Mrs. Hines, will you please call roll? Mr. Rashan? Yes. Miss Hines? Yes. Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Dr. Weaver. Yes. Mr. Cox, yes. President May, yes. Motion carries. Awesome. Next, we have item 342.25, review and approval of Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency election representative resolution. So, we're looking for someone to represent us to make the um to drop off the to make the vote for us for the Resa election. Anyone interested? Anyone interested, Miss Hines? Why not? I would do it. Awesome. So, we have a You're the perfect person for it. Thanks. Nomination and support. You want to call ros on that for
121us? We need an alternate as well. Anyone interested in being the alternate? I want an alternate. Thank you so much, Mr. Roshan. All right. Roll call vote. Hines. Yes. Mr. Cox. Yes. Mr. Ombro. Yes. Dr. Weaver. Yes. Mr. Rashan. Yes. President May. Yes. Motion carry 6. Thank you. All right. So, next we're at motion review and approval of board of education items. Excuse me. You also have to vote on the I thought so but I didn't see it on here. My miss the resolution portion the two I gave you the two candidates names. There's two vacancies and there's two people that have been identified by Wayne County as completing their packet. So there's two vacancies and people. All right. So with that being said, this is the one that was a uh separate email if
122I remember right. Yep. It's right here. I'm trying to figure out which one to read. So, so there are two seats on the Wayne Reesa Board of Ed. Um, that election will be held on Monday, June 2nd, 6 PM at Wayne Resa. Both seats are for six-year terms beginning July 1st and ending June 30th of 2031. The Wayne County elections um confirm the filing of filing of the following candidates. They are James Barry and Linda Jackson. So, we have to determine um are we voting for both if we only wanted to vote for one. So, I'll start with James Barry first. Do we have a motion? So, move support. Support. Any discussion? Mrs. Hines, will you please call? Mr. Ambress? Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Miss Hines, yes. Mr. Cox, yes. Mr. Roshan, yes. And President
123May, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. The next candidate is Linda Jackson. Looking for a motion. I support her. She's amazing. Support. Support. Miss times, will you please call? Dr. Weaver. Yes. Mr. Cox. Yes. Mr. Ambrose. Yes. Mr. Roshan. Yes. Miss Hines. Yes. And President May. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Did I cover my mouth? No, you're good. Thank you for that. All right. So, now we're at a motion review and approval of board of education items. This one is in regards to initiating a series of board community conversations to begin in September. Looking for a recommendation. This was a conversation we had and we can pick it back up. Mr. Rashan. Yes. support. Yes. Thank you. Discussion. I'll have discussion. Um I wanted to um have those um board community conversations starting in September. But
124to prepare for those discussions, um I propose that we begin setting an agenda in June uh with the assistance of our uh attorney to ensure compliance. Uh these sessions will serve as an open forum for parents, teachers, community members to interact with the board, address important issues and share um ideas and improvement. Uh this initiative aims to promote transparency and ensure uh that the voices of the community members are being heard. Thank you. And are there questions for Mr. Oshad or further discussion? I just have a follow-up question. The topics, will they be set by the So, the agenda topics will be set by the board. Is that how you're envisioning this? Yes, with the with the help of uh the attorney making sure we're in compliance and Okay. Will we um receive stakeholder input
125for agenda item topics? Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you. Are there any other questions? All right. Mr. Science, will you please call ro Mr. Cox, yes. Mr. Rashan, yes. Miss Hines, yes. Dr. Weaver, yes. Mr. Ombros, yes. President May, yes. Motion carries 6. Thank you. We are now at item 343.25, student reinstatement. Mr. Tooff. Okay. The discipline uh review committee met on April 29th, 2025 to re review the petition for school reinstatement for student number 2425/B. Based on the commit committee's consideration, there was a unanimous recommendation to not reinstate the above student mentioned. I'm asking the board to um obviously vote on this. Thank you. Looking for a motion. So move. support. Looking for support. Support. Thank you. Discussion. Mrs. Hines, will you please call roll? Mr. Ombres? Yes. Miss Hines? Yes. Mr. Roshan? Yes. Mr.
126Cox? Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. President May? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Item 3442.25. Mr. Chco, yes. The discipline review committee met on April 29th, 2025 to review the petition for school reinstatement for student number 2425/C. Based on the committee's consideration, there was a unanimous unanimous recommendation to not reinstate the above student mentioned. Thank you. Looking for a motion. Move approval. Looking for support. Support. You got those discussion. Mr. Hines, will you please call roll? Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Dr. Weaver? Yes. Miss Hines? Yes. Mr. Cox? Yes. Mr. Rashan? Yes. President May? Yes. Motion carries 6. Thank you. Item 345.25, student reinstatement. Mr. The discipline review committee met on April 29th, 2025 to review the petition for school reinstatement for student number 2425/A. Based on the committee's consideration, there was a unanimous recommendation to not reinstate the
127above mentioned student. Thank you. Looking for a motion. Some move. Looking for support. Support. Discussion. Mrs. times. Will you please call roll? Dr. Weaver? Yes. Mr. Cox? Yes. Mr. Ambrose? Yes. Mr. Rashan? Yes. Miss Hans? Yes. President May? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. We are now at item 346.25, citizens comments. Just reminding everyone that we um allot three minutes for each comment. And Miss Pines, you can start calling them, please. All right. So, it looks like we have a Miss um Michelle sample uh non-aggenda items. She's still in the building. Oh, there she is. Hi. Sorry. Okay. Few things we're going to start off with. Um going to give a little history lesson. August 9th, 2024. August 13 special meeting August 13, 2024 and October 21st, 2024. These are in my records which is in
128everyone else's records are the times that I have spoken up and talked about to be the first one to bring up about the super a superintendent search because I've openly expressed my support of having interim Jen Curry be named and promoted to the superintendent at the special meeting which was on a August 13, 2024 at the board retreat talking about NA MASB superintendent evaluation instrument. I have all my papers. I don't get rid of them. Why didn't couldn't the board do two things at the same time? Granted, I'm talking about 2024. It's now 2025. We all know that they were fixing, researching all the finances, the problems that were going on, the firings, and everything. We understand that that and decide to open the superintendent search in August of 2024 or September or just promote
129interim superintendent. I am the community member. I'm still around been coming to these meetings since [Music] 20089. I am no longer a staff member in the community. I do not have a child in the district anymore. My children are older. However, I stand up here because it is important. I still have staff, fam, friends, and fellow co-workers that reach out to me, ask me questions. That's why I stand up here, but I don't I'm getting disregarded. Nobody calls me back. My questions go unanswered. Why hasn't there been a stakeholder survey been created for the topic of a superintendent? Again, we did this year couple years ago, asking staff, staring, students, parents, and community members what they may want in the superintendent. This was talked about. Haven't seen it yet. I'm here to publicly support the
130interim superintendent, Miss Curry, as superintendent. We should have this. I have not been here in a while. I'm still watching, still searching, still paying attention. Don't think I'm going to go away. Thank you very much. Thank you. We have am Dana Jones. Hi, I'm Dr. Dana Jones. I stand in this meeting um with my own background in educational leadership, sympathetic to the way administration can be pulled in so many directions at any given moment. Tonight, I'm not here as an educator or an administrator. I'm here as a parent. I am the mother of a fourth grader at TAF, preschooler at Stmomire, and a little one who hasn't even entered the school system yet. I will be a parent in this district for a long time. Everyone from students, parents, teachers, and administrators has an important
131role in our district. However, some decisions are made in rooms parents are not privy to or the logistics of balancing our children to attend meetings open to us can be unrealistic for our households. Perhaps one of the empty rooms here could be used for child care if parent participation is valued in our district. Concerning the vacant superintendent seat, parents rely on the superintendent to inform decisions for our children that could potentially impact the rest of their lives. The person filling the superintendent seat needs to have our confidence. There's a need for mutual respect and support between families and our superintendent. That's gained by them getting to know our needs, values, and priorities as a community and us getting to know their vision for our district. The appointment of a superintendent is such a critical decision
132that not only impacts our children at school, but also has rippling effects to our families at home. With that in mind, I urge the board to prioritize transparency during each step of the se search and selection process for a new superintendent. Thank you. Thank you. We have a Heather Martinez. Good evening. It's been a while, but I'm here yet again. My phone started ringing a few weeks ago, so here I am getting calls from people who are afraid again. afraid that they might see the days of being afraid to speak up, afraid of retaliation, afraid of being targeted. Because the truth is, there has been a climate here where speaking honestly has come with consequences. I'm afraid now that the board's actions are showing that you're choosing to go backwards instead of moving this district
133forward. Let me be very clear. Jen Curry deserves a three-year contract. She has dedicated her entire career to Wayne Westland. She has lived and breathed this district for decades. No candidate from a search will ever care more know more about our kids, our families, and our staff than Jen does. These wonderful things that you heard tonight from all these people that came and stood here, Jen has played a role. She has touched these people throughout the years. Since 2017, this district has been in turmoil. One leader after another, constant turnover, broken trust. And yet, in just one year, Jen Curry brought calm, stability, and vision. She helped create a new plan, mission, vision that reflects what this community stands for. She implemented programs academically. She finalized contracts. And she made it a point to show
134up hosting family nights, school events, and listening to people who matter most, the community. Meanwhile, what are we seeing from the board right now? No transparency, no mention of this issue on tonight's agenda. And now community events in September after this decision was made. Let me remind you, you were elected to serve this community, not here for your personal agenda, yourselves, or your ambitions. Your accountability is to the community at large. There are over 40 superintendent vacancies across the state of Michigan and beyond. Right now, you're planning to bring in someone who doesn't know this district to start fresh when you finally have momentum. You cannot afford another disruption. You cannot afford more chaos. You cannot afford to lose another committed leader to politics and poor decision-making. On a personal note, while Jen was never
135my direct supervisor, she provided support and guidance on a regular basis and empowered me to be the leader that I am today, as she has done for so many of us that came from Wayne Westland Schools. The choice is simple. Do what's right. Offer Jen Curry a three-year contract. Let her finish what she started and allow this district to move forward under the leadership it finally deserves. Next I have a Matthew Furka So tonight I come to you as the principal of Hicks Elementary located in Ingster. And it's funny that that so happens to be because I'm impassioned by a quote from Malcolm X that s says a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything. And I've been in this room several times for these same exact meetings and didn't stand for anything.
136And today I felt the need to. And this was prompted by the conversation with my elementary principal colleagues over the weekend. I don't speak for them tonight, but they do echo the sentiments that I have. I would be remiss if I didn't address the board that I have so much respect for and a matter that I find of the utmost importance, the continuation of Jen Curry as superintendent. I provide the strongest possible recommendation for Jen Curry to be reconsidered as our permanent superintendent. Her exceptional leadership during critical periods of challenge and transformation makes her uniquely qualified to continue guiding our district forward, not backward. Miss Curry has demonstrated extraordinary leadership by successfully navigating the district through multiple complex times. Her ability to pull our district back from the brink of significant difficulties, not just once,
137but twice, speaks volumes about her strategic thinking and resilience. Her approach to district management is characterized by transparency and transparency and decision-making, finding the root cause of problems, proactive policy and procedure improvements, major improvements. Miss Curry has cultivated remarkable relationships across all levels of the district. Principles respect her strategic vision and support. Teachers appreciate her supportive, relatable approach, and staff all over feels valued and heard. The most compelling aspect of Miss Curry's leadership is her unwavering commitment to a child first educational philosophy. Every decision she makes is fundamentally focused on student success and well-being. Our district is currently experiencing positive momentum for the first time in a long time. This is a great opportunity for our amazing district to continue to build upon the strong foundation Miss Curious has has established. Please, please reconsider because
138I endorse Jen Curry's confirmation as permanent stu superintendent. Her proven track record, comprehensive understanding of our district's needs, and student centered approach make her the ideal leader to continue our district's progress. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] We have a Miss Jennifer Owens. Good evening board. It's sad and beyond disappointing that we are here yet again with another superintendent issue in this district. In regards to the current superintendent position according to the March 25 board meeting, Miss Curry was unanimously voted in as our superintendent for the next two years. We all know that she is requesting a three-year contract and should not have to quote unquote interview for what she's already been doing for the past year and over 20 years as a dedicated member of this district. Multiple board members at that meeting have documented
139positive and congratulatory comments regarding her being voted in as our new superintendent. Congratulations, Miss Curry, by the way. Very welld deserved. Now, let's address the big elephant in the room. Why is Miss Curry, after over 20 years of dedicated service and success within our district, not being given the three-year contract that she has been been requested? The board has gave three-year contracts to prior superintendent with a less than savory track record than Miss Curry. Why is she not being shown the same courtesy? After all of her hard work and reading and hearing the sung praises by not only current board members, but and I say this with confidence, the vast majority of the employees, parents, and students of this district, why can she not have this three-year contract and end her career with this district?
140If it's been uh excuse me, repeated that she is and has been doing an excellent job, why start a search for a new superintendent? Sorry, my notes keep shaking on me. Why start a search for a new superintendent in order to replace her? As I as reported in the March meeting by Dr. Weaver. The cost to start a new search to this district would be anywhere between 155 15,000 to $25,000. We just got out of a financial mess and I see that as poor poor spending that is unnecessary. This situation is embarrassing for our district. We just went through an embarrassment with dignen and now you want to draw more negative attention to this district by trying to replace the one superintendent that has in the last six years not caused turmoil, financial strain, fear-mongering,
141and unnecessary chaos to our students, staff, and our parents. The poor decisions of this district lie here in this room. the decisions. Stop the for foolishness. I'm sorry. Stop the foolishness and do the right thing before you have another repeat of unwanted negative press, further community investigation as to why Miss Curry is being treated the way she is. And another uprising of frustrated and angry staff, parents, and students. Mrs. Owens, that's your time. Thank you. [Applause] We have Oops. Sorry. Amy, is it Gridly? Everybody wants to add an end to it. I'm sorry. It's not mine. I should put my glasses on. Good evening. Um, in March, we came to you and made a simple request to make Jen Jennifer Curry our permanent superintendent. you are unsure. If you were unsure at the time, let
142us offer you a clear perspective now. Mrs. Curry has brought muchneeded stability and leadership to a district that has weathered its share of storms. She has guided us through the turbulence of two failed nationwide superintendent searches. Searches that left the district in disarray. When the board placed Dr. Dignant on administrative leave, you handed Mrs. Curry the reigns. You asked her to fix this and she did. Despite inheriting a financial crisis created by under previous leadership, she has led with transparency, integrity, and calm. She managed the we have the money, we don't have the money chaos with composure, accountability, earning the trust of staff, student, and community members. We now face another nationwide search. According to the email that we got, another outsider may be brought in. Someone who doesn't yet understand the nuances of this
143district, its communities or its challenges. Someone who may try to reshape the district in their own image rather than honoring what makes it unique. This could mean another rocky transition, more uncertainty, and more time lost. Yes, the makeup of the board has changed, but already signs point to personal agendas taking priority over what is best for the district as a whole. Mrs. Curry has proven her commitment to her capability and her vision there. She's I just lost it. She's not here for politics. She is here for progress. We urge you to recognize what is in front of you. a proven leader who has earned the role. Do not put this district back on the roller coaster. Let's move forward with steady hands and clear purpose. Appoint Jennifer Curry as our per as our permanent superintendent
144and the requested three-year contract that was awarded to the two previously failed superintendent. Thank you. Thank you. I have a Mr. Scott Martin. Good evening, board. Scott Martin, teacher at Wayne Memorial High School. In November, I addressed some of you. In fact, I I used the verb implore to implore you to ban cell phones. Um, I know there's discussion happening. I know you're waiting to see what the state wants to do, but let's be honest, the state may craft a bill that is essentially toothless and useless. Um, anecdotally, I could tell you that students come into my room, doesn't matter what activity we're doing, the first thing they do is get on their phone and stay on their phone until I tell them to get off the phone. Even though I've said day after day,
145please don't come in with your phones. Please put your phones away when this bell rings and so on. uh I am continually continually ignored by students who seem let's say habituated to using their phone continuously. This it's not anything new to know that this is a mental health problem. We've talked about mental health issues tonight. Um I'm just asking you to craft something that in case the state decides to give uh some sort of empty gesture that we will have something in place that ensures that students um are learning rather than transfixed by social media uh planning fights whatever else they're doing on their phone pornography who knows right but uh I'm just again I implore you to come up with something to stop this problem, please. Thank you. Thank you. We have a Tanya
146[Applause] Carpinsky. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. I am disheartened to find myself speaking here again tonight on behalf of the MEA employee unions on a topic that we already expressed our dismay over when we asked for the district to support Jen Curry as our permanent and full-time superintendent with a contract and length that would be acceptable to her in a time when consistency, trust, and stability are critical to the success of our students, staff, and community. The leadership provided by Jen Curry this past year has offered just that. her proven ability to lead effectively during bargaining crisis, cyber attacks while fulfilling dual roles of assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction as well as the superintendent of the district shows not only her exceptional dedication but also a found a sound fiscal approach
147to this district. Transitioning now to another interim superintendent only to then begin yet another search for a permanent candidate and a third transition would create avoidable disruption and uncertainty. Further, the proposal to offer a long-term contract, most likely a three-year contract, as that is the industry standard, to a future unfamiliar candidate based solely on interviews and applications without demonstrated day-to-day engagement raises concerns about transparency and responsibility of this board. It is difficult to justify such a decision when Jen Curry has already shown strong, capable leadership and deep familiarity with the district's needs, culture, and challenges. This approach also places additional financial strain on the district by separating leadership roles through an additional transition, searching costs, and offering a not only interim superintendent position as well as a complete contract to an unknown candidate at this
148time as opposed to the stipened Miss Curry has been receiving for her dual roles for the benefit of the student, staff, and the district. We once again urge the district and this board to do what's right, to deal with the overall integrity of this district and to resend their decision in the 516 email that was sent to the Wayne Westland community and instead offer a three-year contract to Miss Jennifer Curry. Thank you. Um, we have a Jessica West. Good evening again. So, I didn't finish my series of thoughts, but you voted in support of community conversations in September. Um, I hope that you would also then consider that if a superintendent search needed to happen, considering that board members have already expressed and stated that there is no sense of urgency behind it, you would
149wait until those community conversations in September happen before making any final determinations. But again, I want to backtrack a little bit because I also fully support Jen Curry as superintendent. Um, I've been here through all of the turmoil over the past few years. Um, and so when Jen Curry's name got um, announced for interimm superintendent, I asked a lot of questions. I talked to a lot of people that might have been in this room, a lot of staff members, a lot of community members because I wanted to know who Jen Curry was. I spoke to Jen Curry directly a few different times as well. um because I was skeptical that we were going to take somebody internal given all of the turmoil and situations that we had and find a trusted candidate that was going
150to turn things around. And frankly, Miss Curry, you've done that and I appreciate that. Um it's been to the extent that I haven't had the concerns that I had then in many different aspects. You ask what the community wants, what the parents want from you. communication, respect, transparency, a code of ethics that we support and stability within this district along with financial security. You have that in your current superintendent. Yet, you are speaking saying, "Let's see what we have to offer from these other candidates that again there are dozens of open superintendent positions that exist out there." Um there has been concern um regarding the potential that there's some sort of candidate or candidates that may be recommended by one of the board members sitting in front of us today. I want to say with
151explicit clarity that we do not accept as a community member any friends and family discounts and any nefarious agreements. we only accept that you adopt a board if you're going to go for a superintendent search that is beyond this for whatever reason then I expect that there is a code of ethics attached to that so that no member of this board is able to vote or make any influence over any candidates that are recommended period um because we expect that it's no different than if you were to be in a human resources hiring position and you would uh not be able to manage a person um underneath of you, you shouldn't be able to recommend it from the board seat here. Um I also just want to reiterate that if you do not select Jen
152Curry, if you do not extend her that offer, which is a a negotiation conversation you need to have, you have not made a motion to remove her as superintendent. So unless you've received her formal resignation and taken it in front of this board and made it an action, she's still your superintendent. Thank you. Next we have a Eric Henzy. Good evening. Some of my colleagues and I have concerns and questions about equal interval grading that our district's grading task force is recommending. Is our district relying on one book to make a sweeping policy change? That book being grading for equity by Joe Feldman. Can someone provide a comprehensive list of the colleges and school districts both local and national that are using this policy successfully? How does this system work with our current honor point
153system for weighted AP classes? Can anyone explain how this does not artificially increase grades? What is the reason for the haste of implementation? The Novi district has been working on this and attempting to implement it for three years. Airport in Monroe is apparently doing away with it. The new scale allows a student with an overall 20% to pass. 20% in no way demonstrates understanding. What happened to expectations? Academic rigor. If we move forward with the proposed scale from the district where 20% equals passing, wouldn't colleges and other post-secary institutions question acceptance from all Wayne Westland students? I wonder if anyone has read Ed Frontline's Equal Interval Grading Malpractice by John Richard Shrock where he writes, "Professional teaching has rapidly eroded under pressure to increase graduation rates." He also writes, "Grading is a teacher's professional responsibility
154and varies among disciplines. Personally, I'm also concerned with the idea that this seems to infringe on a teacher's academic freedom for our Wayne Westland Education Association contract. I ask that the board questions the research and the necessity for a new grading policy. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] And last but not least, we have Steve Khan. Good evening everyone. I'm Steve Khan. I'm the president of the Wayne Wesland Education Association, the teachers union. I'm going to echo what a lot of people have already said here tonight. Uh but before I do that, I want to make something clear. I think that uh maybe I had misspoke last month and a board member took one of my comments out of uh out of my context. I want to make it clear this is the first time that
155the MEA has endorsed a candidate for superintendent, not first time that we've supported a superintendent. Okay? And I felt like I needed to make that clear. We have always stayed out of it. Let the board decide. Uh but after this last year, year and a half under the previous superintendent, the last superintendent you all hired, uh a lot of us had to clean up the pieces, administration and union. Um you know, if there was a survey that was sent out to the stakeholders in the community, it's kind of surprising one hasn't been sent out because we know what the results would be in favor of Jen Curry 100%. A two-year deal, that doesn't happen. There's no superintendent in Michigan has a two-year contract. It's three minimum. She's been on the job for a year, almost
156over a year. Where else you going to get a year on the job, you know, interview? You, this is something I just don't know how else to reiterate this that you have voices from the community. You have parents, every organized labor, every union group, administrators in here that have that support Jen Curry as our superintendent because we know what's happened when we go through the national search. We've seen it. If we do go that route, which is the privy of the board, I get it. I just want to let you know that some of us will still be here. The union will still be here. We will help clean up the mess again. We will try to stop the board from taking a $30 million loan that they didn't freaking need. We'll stop the uh
157outsourcing of employees, which the board tried to do. and we'll continue to work with those in administration, central office that had to keep their heads down and helped worked with us to get this district in the right spot. Okay? And I don't want to name their names, but uh it was a team effort. Okay? And as a product of Wayne Westland, proud Edison Eagle, Marshall Viking, and John Glenn Rocket. Uh this is dear to my heart, okay? And this is more than my union president role or this is huge. This is huge for our community. This is huge for our home property values. This is huge for those of us that love our community and have seen it change through the years, but we're still here and we love this. And I just want to
158let you guys know that Jen Curry has the full support of this community and all the all the MEA groups in Wayne West. Thank you. [Applause] That concludes the agenda item. Thank you. Is there anyone that we missed? All right. So, moving to our next agenda item, which is item 347.25, interim superintendent report and comments. Mrs. Curry, thank you. Uh, thank you to everyone who attended today's district improvement summit. Your dedication to academic growth, equity, and student well-being continues to make a meaningful impact across our schools. It was a really cool event and I know many of you were in here were there today. And as we look ahead to celebrating the class of 2025 and their many achievements, we also look forward to year- end events like awards ceremonies, field days, and clapouts. We
159wish everyone a strong finish to the end of the school year and a safe, relaxing summer. We are now at item 348.25, 25 review and recommendations board of education, Mrs. Hines. Well, I'd like to thank everyone who came in today. Um, again, we had an amazing board meeting about all the different programs that they have to help our students succeed. I definitely love our our ourrapy pad as well and he has an idea as an employee. I think that's pretty awesome. Um, one thing that is near and dear in my heart is when they had the growth works with the student the the statistics of the suicide within the children in the district is, you know, it's pretty sad and I know um I'm so glad that we have different resources. We have our resource
160center, we have care solist, we have like health, a lot of different agencies that help us in that area. Um because it is a lot, you know, going on in these these perilous times. Um, I'd like to kind of be like on a positive note really quick. So, um, we are working with the city of Westland and the Leavonia Westland Chamber of Commerce. I just got Schoolcraft College to help us out and a lot of community members. So, um, and I definitely would like to work with the resource center. U, we're hosting a charity event at city hall. We have a partnership with the city of Westland and it's going to be called the Great Discovery Playoff. is going to be Tuesday, June 24th, um from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. And we were able to
161secure the Wayne County Chair Alicia Bell. Um we have City Councilwoman U Melissa Sampi and we have an award-winning author and spoken word artist Lauren uh Saul. And the purpose is with so many things going on in the community, the money that's going to be raised for the charity event is going to help families in the community for food, clothing, formula, child care vouchers, uh wipes, and diapers. Um, I was working with a lot of nonprofit organizations and they were saying how a lot of children die from infections from not even having baby wipes. So, this is something we want to do as a huge community to kind of really put everything together even with our Wayne Westland school is having a very high rate of homelessness. So, um, I'll put the information I'll probably
162get it in the uh, Tea Tree whatever they have that local thing, but I think it's something important to like come together as a community. Um, and I'm always bringing events. So, um, they have the Relay for Life. Wayne Westland, um, has an event coming up and it's going to be I had it right. Let's see. Oh, here it is. So, um, the Wayne Weston Relay for Life. They're having an event Saturday, June the 7th, 2025 from 11:00 a.m. to midnight at the Westlands Farmers Market in Taten Park, uh, 1 1901 North Carlson Center or Westland. And this is really good to help the survivors of cancer and you know the families and support them as well. So it's a event they're having and um I also um and I'll try to get this out
163to the school district. So a lot of times I go down to Michigan Works is there's a lot of families that need jobs and over the Michigan Works over in Wayne on Michigan Avenue they have Phoenix service for hot jobs and there's jobs paying like $16 an hour for forklift operators quality control um like 16 to 18 some $20 an hour for safety managers. So, this to kind of help, you know, the community get this circulated for people that's looking for works and help families. And um now for the tough conversations, um I've been a member of the Wayne Westland community board school board for over 11 years. And when I first joined the board, Dr. Barie was leaving as superintendent. He was there over 17 years. You know, we had Dr. Harla and several
164other superintendent. um being a graduate of Wayne Westland schools and having my child graduate from Wayne Westland schools, a lot of my family members, a lot of my friends giving their kids diplomas because it's that time of year. It kind of saddens me as what's going on. Um, on Friday when I received the letter at 4:00, I almost threw up. Like I got physically sick and like my heart dropped because we have a person that has been in our district for over 22 years and has helped us through again the financial crisis with that $17 million. We would have been starting off negative 5% with the school year almost bankrupt if that wasn't taken care of. and hiring Miss Juul to help us with that. And that was a really good decision again with that
165$30 million loan that we had to take out, you know, uh dealing with um the unstability that we had with the prior superintendent, the outrage, you know, just the lack of trust from the community and then having somebody that helped us do two jobs helping us with the cyber attack. You know, it's like was one problem after the next. Then we had the contracts. And what I'm concerned about is not having a superintendent in these tough times. We still have more contracts going on and in the trust in the community. I am a very very active elected official. Just Saturday, the prior chair of the state representative, Joe Tate, invited me to an event at his table. So I'm sitting at the table with the governors, with the legislators, with the congresswoman. I actually sit
166on the executive board and people are coming to me concerned about, hey, what's going on in Wayne Westland? And it's very difficult for me to describe to the community if we voted at a live meeting, you know, 70 and then things are going on behind closed doors that I can't talk about. So, I'm going to an event with the Leavonia Westland Chamber, a superintendent panel like June the 12th. So, what do I look like as a board meeting, going to a community event, and we don't even have a superintendent? It's really embarrassing. Um, when this gets out to the press, why would somebody want to come to Wayne Weston if we had a superintendent did their job and we did not select her? Nobody's going to want to come here. When I went to um
167the Meno conference, they were saying how some of these superintendents had like some type of um with their retirement and a lot of people are retiring early. So, it's going to be even bigger shortage. And again, a lot of these superintendents out there, they're getting fired from districts. You know, you don't they're new and you don't know what you're going to get. And I've been through several superintendent like every two years we're going through superintendent. I've been on this board like almost like seven, eight, nine superintendent. So, we need some stability. And again, I think that it just I feel as a board member there was not transparency. Like we should have had all these meetings out in the open. We should have had community surveys and feedback before we have a letter sent to
168us Friday night at 4, right before the meeting. We're not even doing on an agenda to even discuss it. So, I'm just really disappointed. I am super disappointed. Like I said, physically sick because it's just embarrassing. And you know, I'm sorry. Like, as an employee who does this work, I would feel like totally just a slap in the face to just do all this work and just feel that you're not wanted by your board. And I'm just being honest. So, I support you. I I my soul, it really hurts because you've done a good job. So, I'm not trying to cry, but it makes it hard. like I want to serve this community, but I cannot be on this board if it's all this confusion. We're supposed to be here for the kids. That's what
169we're here for. That's what we promise. That's what we obligate ourselves for. And to see that your support, overwhelming support for this person. And I see the pain on your faces when y'all walked in. Y'all was angry, sad, and hurt. How many more teachers do we have to lose? We lost so many with the last superintendent. We lost some before that. So, I mean, I don't see what the problem is just not to just go ahead and extend the contract. It's not no legal rules where you have to do this and you have to do that. It's just causing more chaos to the district. So, I'm sorry to be like, but it hurts. And I have one more year left. Do I stay on the board or do I get off because I can't continue
170to serve in chaos? And that's my final statement. [Applause] Mr. Ambros Ambress. I don't know how to follow up with that. Honestly, the big elephant in the room happened because a motion was presented be to this board to extend a three-year contract to Miss Curry. There were me numerous members on this board that were not supportive of a three-year contract. I will go on record. I've already said this to a few people in this room. I was not even in favor of the two-year contract that we voted for. I was in favor of keeping the status quo as it was, keeping Miss Curry on as intern term while we held a discussion as a board with the community about what we want in a superintendent before we moved on to who we want as a
171superintendent. So, so now we're at this impass and I'm grateful for all of you coming out here and and showing your support. Miss Curry has a lot of fine qualities. I've seen it firsthand myself. she when she took me on a tour of this district, I was amazed at the students that would walk up and say hi to her and tell them how they're doing since she's now superintendent and years ago she was their principal and the teachers that were excited to see her. But honestly, if I am going to vote for a a superintendent for this district, I want someone who's willing to come before the board and to go publicly answer questions, not about what she's what has been done in the past, but I want to here a future vision how we
172are going to move forward and I don't think that was that's that's a that's a big ask to make she's been doing it for the past year I that is your opinion that's a lot of people but honestly if I'm going to put her over 9,000 students a thousand employees and a general fund of nine figures. I want her to go on record. I I want to hear it publicly and I honestly I don't think that's too much of an ask. It hasn't been requested. That's the issue. We haven't gotten to that. We never got to that point yet. Promised a year ago to have community meeting open communication and transparency. Those things are now being discussed to start in September, over a year later than when they were promised to us. And I know
173that you're new and I don't know if you know about the those discussions a year ago, but they took place. Us as the community, staff members, parents, we didn't get those open meetings with the board to discuss what we want and what we think is best for our children and these people's careers. Thank you. Were you finished with this? Unfinished. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Weaver. First of all, I want to apologize to Mrs. Curry if any of my comments tonight would embarrass her at all. I think she's done an amazing job. I think she has done much more than she has ever been given credit for and I apologize to her for the way she's being treated now. Over the last 20 years, I've won arguments and I've lost arguments on this board. Many times
174I had to go home and check myself because we all think we're right, don't we? We all think that we have a corner on what is right. But I had to many times console myself by thinking that maybe fellow board members knew more than I do. But this is not the case. I do not believe that it is true that anyone on this board knows as much as I do is serving vice president during her tenure to watch her commitment. The members of this board talk a lot about transparency. We need to learn its definition before we talk about it anymore. We voted tonight to get with our community and hear what our community has to say and yet people of our community are here and you're quite frankly you're talking to deaf ears. That's
175exactly what's happening. I'm calling it as it is. We're always saying that we need to have meetings open to the public so we can hear what the community has to say. Always chiming in about including our staff in what we do and bring them along in the process. Yet, when it comes as to who is going to lead our district, we don't include anyone. We need to stop using the word transparency until we learn its definition. Miss Curry, I I love and appreciate you. And more than that, I appreciate your attitude toward all of this. Each time we hired a superintendent, we all thought we made the right choice. We all thought we did a good job. We all thought that we did the investigation. Well, obviously the past two times we have failed tremendously
176and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to superintendent that no longer work for us. Superintendent with bad temperament toward employees. No collaboration with the staff. just pointing down from Mount Olympus saying this is what you will do and then creating nonsense jobs in central office so they can pull a principal and put somebody they know in their place. I am sick of it. I'm not going to leave the board because I still hope to make a difference. But I am I am sick of this and as Miss Hines said, I am absolutely sick to my stomach over this. I do not appreciate an email coming on Friday afternoon and going out to the community at 4:00 on Friday afternoon so that the community wouldn't have a chance to organize and be here tonight. The community
177wants Mrs. Curry. The [Music] staff wants Mrs. Curry. What hubris it is for board members to sit up here and deny our community and deny our constituent teachers and workers what they would like to have. Thank you. That concludes the conference. Thank you, Mr. Cox. Yes. I'd like to begin by saying that uh President Steve Khan sent me a very nice email. Uh I really appreciated it. I thought it was very well written and it was very kind. And uh he asked me if I wanted to have a communication with him. He gave me his phone number so I could call him, but I didn't call him. And the reason I didn't is because frankly I believe there's way too many conversations going on between our employees and our board about things that need to
178be talked about here so that everybody can hear it. I'm certainly willing and interested in talking to Steve anytime he wants to communicate, but uh not over the phone and not when we're not in public, especially now with all that's going on. Because all that's going on right now is the board is exercising its responsibility. We did not give Miss Curry a two-year contract. We voted in a meeting to offer her a two-year contract. She rejected the offer. The end. It doesn't mean I'm not talking talking to you. It doesn't mean that we don't love and respect her. Here she is sitting right here. We asked her to do this. Actually, I asked her to do it a long time ago. I know who she is. and to have these conversations like there's two sides
179of this thing where the employees want her to be the boss and the board of education wants someone else to be the boss. No, the board of education believes that they have a responsibility to the community. And I don't mean just the people that get paychecks and used to work here and aren't employees anymore. I'm talking about the 80,000 people in Westland and the 20,000 people out that we serve. you respond. We are their only voice here. They are the ones that elected us to make this decision and it does not preclude Mrs. Curry from being involved in the selection process. Not at all. And by the way, everybody who is interested. We want to hear from you. And we will have community meetings just like we said we would. But you don't have community
180meetings when it is your interest to offer a two-year job, which we did a year ago. So, I just want to say that I appreciate what what Mr. Khan did and and I appreciate the union's position. I kind of look at it a little bit like, you know, my little brother's 10 years younger than I am. And when I was 15 years old, my mother was looking for a babysitter for him. And I just knew that Jeannie Conrad was the best babysitter my mother was ever going to get. And I pleaded with her, although I might have had a different focus than my mother did. And my focus is not anybody in this room. It's the children. And the children that aren't even in our school district right now. Miss Hines, excuse me, has been
181talking since November about the changes that are going to come to our state as a consequence of the presidential election. Uh the disbanding of the Department of Education, what's going to h all of these uncertainties that we're going to have to deal with in public education is just, you know, goes with the territory. But one thing is for sure, folks. There is going to be a change in the way public education is being looked at. It's happening right now. Right now, I don't know if we're the highest paid teachers in Wayne County, but if we're not, we're awful close to it, but the student performance isn't with it. What does this have to do with I'm I'm talking and when you when I finish talking, you'll understand what it has to do with it. I
182believe that in time there's going to be accountability. I believe in time parents are going to have a golden ticket and they're going to be able to give it to whomever they want to give it to to educate their child. I and I've never been afraid of that. I've never been afraid of charter schools. I think we could compete with any charter school. I think if you put what we can offer students versus charter schools, there's not even a comparison. I'm willing to compete, but we're not going to be able to compete if we don't have a plan forward. If we don't have somebody who's excited and enthusiastic to lay out exactly what we need to do so that when our kids graduate, the kids that are going to graduate 10 years from now, they
183can jump into AI. They can jump into electronics. The whole world is changing and we're going to have to change, too. And it's my feeling that the board of education recognizes it has a responsibility to identify those people who are going to be the best leadership. And I hope that you all have input in it. And none of this precludes our love and respect and appreciation of Miss Curry. We offered something. She said no. That's it. That's all that happened. The next thing I would like to have because I don't really know what it's equal integral grading is. I could tell you it's it's been explained to me like it was World War II bread where they added a bunch of stuff to sawdust to make it taste like bread. I want to know exactly
184how it how it affects I I don't want fancy recordkeeping and I'd like to know what that's all about because I don't. And thank you, Mr. Henzy. I would like Mr. Scott Martin to know that he has an ally in me with respect to this cell phone issue. If the governor fails to do the courageous thing, and she's done the courageous thing before, but if she fails, we have to act because the kids are paying the price for it. They think that their their freedom has been taken away, but ultimate freedom is paying attention in class and not your telephone so that you have options in life. We've got to do something about this. Um the I wanted to say that uh one of the board members mentioned tonight at the mental health uh presentation
185that his own family I'll bet you every family in here has had and I know that if it weren't for school districts and our school districts, most parents wouldn't have any idea which direction to go in if they needed help. They they wouldn't have any allies at all. they just wouldn't know what to do. I'm in large part they're young people. They maybe never faced with these kind of issues before. They don't know where to go. I'm so grateful that we have the resources for them and anything we can do to improve the resources. There's just no mental health infrastructure out there. Uh you can't teach kids that are trying to kill themselves. So, thank you very much everyone. Thank you, Mr. Rasher. Um yes, I I want to start by um thanking the students,
186getting the focus back on the students first that were here this morning. Um they did uh from West from um Wildwood uh Blake Hannah Nicholas uh for being here, principal, all the great work they're doing there. Also, um all the staff, teachers, volunteers in the district, um the hard work they're doing. also the retirees of our district. Um their hard work and dedication to the our district. I want to thank them. Um uh what what I want to say about um our uh superintendent, I I want to express my strong support for Jen Curry as a great candidate for our superintendent. Um, I believe she would be an excellent fit for our district given her dedication and leadership and advoc and she advocate uh and also advocates for our I also advocate for our interviewing
187process that allows our teachers, parents, community members to hear her vision and plan for our schools. Engaging all stakeholders in this decision is essential for fostering transparency and collaboration, ensuring that we work together to build a brighter future for our students. Um, I believe that we should have an opportunity to hear from Miss Curry and her vision and her um how she want to move the district forward. Even though I started as a U board member in January, I've only had a few months with Miss Curry and it's been pleasant, but I would love to um allow parents and um students in our district to hear from her in an interviewing process. Thank you. Um so just echoing many at the table, I want to thank Blake, Hannah, and Nicholas for leading us in the
188pledge this evening. I also would like to congratulate Grace and Hannah for their early mil middle college graduations. Um really appreciated all the all of the district presentations tonight, hearing the things that are going on in the district, hearing about the opportunities that students have had, the Prodigy Champs, um making the um the Samsung grant. just all of those things are phenomenal, phenomenal things and I love when those things come before the board and we're able to extend our gratitude to our staff. I also would like to again congratulate our our retirees and thanking them again for their service to children and to the Wayne Westland Community Schools District. I am um grateful for all that have attended tonight's meeting, for hearing your concerns and your opinions. I am also grateful for the conversations that
189I've been able to engage in that have not necessarily been at the board table, but people who have seen me out at the school events or out shopping, whatever that case may be and the emails that we have received from various stakeholders. So, I do appreciate that. I am very excited to share that I was able to attend the elementary art show and um Wayne Memorial's jazz cafe. Both were phenomenal events showcasing the many talents of both our students and our staff. I also attended MASB spring um institute. There I had the opportunity to not only learn but to fellowship. I attended a session on AI and the board president's workshop. Some of the key takeaways for me from that event was to stay grounded in my why, stay consistent, understanding that board work is
190hard work and it's not in the weeds. compromise and respectful discourse is a must in regards to the elephant that's in the room. So, a lot of things have been said this evening and I've addressed those things with individuals, but clearly my conversation was disregarded and that's okay. I would like to put on record that I admire, respect, and appreciate all that Jen has done and will continue to do for the district. There is not a discourse between Mrs. Curry and myself. Yes, I took the information to her that the board voted on and she declined it. I took that to the board. We had a conversation. The majority of the board made a decision. I do not stand alone in this. It's one vote. I have one vote. The other piece that I want
191to share is that I have always believed that our strongest decisions arise from three foundational pillars. That's putting students first, fostering meaningful community engagement, and maintaining unwavering transparency. To appoint a superintendent without providing our community the opportunity for input will undermine these principles that have guided me throughout my entire time on the board. Such an approach will not only be inconsistent with our values, but would deprive us of the diverse perspectives that ultimately strengthen our educational vision. That may not be something that everyone agrees with and I can respect that. But for me, I have to stand in my principle and my principle is that we should do a search. I hope I've said this to Mrs. Curry multiple times that she would apply. I have literally begged her to do that. So, we've had
192that conversation. Again, you all may not agree with that and I can respect that, but the decision is that of the entire board and the majority of the board made a decision and the decision was made in the best interest of our district. I thank everyone for coming out this evening. Are there any um follow-up questions for item 349.25? Mrs. Curry, did you have any? I do not. I will, Mr. Cox, get you the grading recommendation um presentation. I'll get that over to you. Thank you. And when you bang the gabble, ma'am, please bang it softly because Madden's sleeping. Absolutely. We are at 350.25 adjournment. I will entertain a recommendation. So move. Support. Support.