September 24, 2025 - Regular Board Meeting

001All right. I've got uh 7 p.m. So, I'm excuse me to call the regular board of education meeting of September 24th, 2025 to order. And I would request that you stand for the pledge of allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands. >> Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. So, I'll I'll begin tonight with a bit of a a somber moment. Most of you know that uh Ankor Bay lost one of its own uh in the past couple of weeks. Uh it's been uh a difficult time for uh the family and friends of of Logan Bowen as well as difficulty for my teachers uh and my staff that that worked with this young man. So, uh, at this time I would

002request a moment of silence, uh, on behalf of Logan. >> Thank you. Uh to kind of add to that again as we're talking about the somber moments, there's you know also some young people who have lost their lives in this immediate area in in the past month. It's actually an alarming rate um four, five, six kids um you know as far I guess west as you know Arma east to uh Alganac and then uh we lost some lives as well of young people up in Port Hiron recently. So, um, keep those, uh, families in your thoughts and prayers as well as Logan's family. Uh, and with that, sir, if you could call the role. >> Mr. Sunnyberger >> here, >> Mr. Powers >> here, >> Miss Burkemeer, >> Mr. Venitelli >> here, >> Richards is

003here, Miss Knox >> here, >> and Mr. Green >> here. We have a quorum. So with that at this time I would entertain an approval of the agenda as it has been presented. >> I'll make the motion. >> A second. >> Motion by Miss Knox, supported by Mr. Sunnyburgger. If you call the role, sir. >> Sure. >> Miss Knox. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sunnyberger. >> Yes. >> Mr. Powers. >> Yes. >> Miss Burkemeer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Venitilli? >> Yes. >> Richard is Yes. Mr. Green. Yes. All right. So, we have an agenda set. We've got a couple of uh presentations that our assistant superintendent, Mr. Wrathbund, will be giving us. There were some concerns expressed at our last meet last meeting surrounding SAC um transportation. Uh and then, uh as we've all been made

004aware of, there is certainly a budget concern uh and that kind of spills over into our food service. So, uh with that, I will turn it over to you, Todd. if you uh you go ahead. Make sure mic is on, please. >> Yep. Good evening, Board of Education. Um yep. Uh Pat did a good job of summarizing or President Green, I should say, did a good job of summarizing uh what we'll be presenting tonight. I want to start with a disclaimer. Uh right now things are changing so fast and there is so much um ambiguity as to what happens if and when the state and the federal government shutdown occurs. So um all of the information we're going to be presenting here tonight is based on at this point in time what we know. Um

005it is subject to change and could change as quickly as tomorrow. Uh we believe the MDE will come out with further guidance further guidance for districts about um possible shutdown implications and how we should handle certain things. So um as much as I want to share all the information with you tonight, it it could change tomorrow. So I just want to keep that in mind as we move forward. Um our sack numbers, you can see here uh I I'll kind of go through and explain what we've got here. So, um, we've got the six different sites that you see there. Um, we've got each site is licensed for the number of students that it could accommodate based on space, based on bathrooms. Um, so that's what that first column is. It so at Ashley based

006on the space that we have in the bathrooms there, we can accommodate roughly 90 students per day. You can see our current enrollment at Ashley is 107. And that's really because not every kid shows up every single day. So you might have some kids that are coming Monday, Wednesday, th Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. You might have some that are just coming on Monday and Tuesday. Uh others coming on Wednesday and Friday. So it it it will really vary and it allows us to go a little bit over that license because that's the per day. So as long as we have um slots available that day, we have students enrolled. Uh the next column over is the 2425 enrollment. Um you can see the numbers there. Then uh the next column is the weight list. That is

007our current weight list that we have today as of today. I talked with Carol earlier and we have roughly 35 students that are on the weight list. Um that number is actually a little bit better than it may appear. Um the eight that you see on North that are on the wait list, all of those students are sixth graders who we traditionally have not provided service in the in the term uh you know student care for sixth graders. So, um, if you take eight off of that, it's it's really, you know, like 27 students that are K through five that are not eligible are are still waiting or hoping to get in. The good news is, you know, with a couple more hires, we should be able to accommodate that that group. Um, we are

008waiting on for one additional hire. And I'll cover some of this on the next slide, but for one more hire, we're waiting on just getting the fingerprints from SAC licensing. So, we do a fingerprint here, but SAC also does their own fingerprinting. So, we're waiting on that second set of fingerprints, and as soon as we do that, we'll add another staff member that'll allow us to bring um at least 18 to 20 more students on. Um in 2024, we had a weight list of about 70. Um our staff is a little bit bigger, only about one, and we've added one person at North. Uh otherwise, the staffing has stayed the same. Um and we'll touch on that in just a little bit. Tim, if I can have you advance. So this just gives you a

009little bit of information um about each of the sites. So like I said, we have six sack sites. The sites are licensed for a combined 579 children per day. The currently Ashley, Great Oaks, and Nulrit are full. And you if we uh if you were looking at that you might say well there's some still some slots available but there's an 18 to1 ratio that we have to have one caregiver for every 18 students. So if there's even if a site would allow 90 kids to come into that site if you've only got two caregivers you could only have 36 kids at a time. uh Lighthouse Lahi and Middle School North do have additional slots available. Um and so we're continue to encourage people to sign up for that. Um the ratio right now, as I

010said, is 18 to1. Other limiting factors can be the bathroom, the size of the space. So all of those things kind of go into how many kids we can have in our sack program. Um like I said, Ankor Bay has hired three staff, additional staff this year. two or those are replacement. One is a new person and then we have the new candidate that we're hoping to bring on uh maybe as quickly as next week. The biggest barrier in hiring um in talking with Carol is just the shift. So, at an elementary school, um, our sack sites are operating from about 6:00 in the morning till the start of school, 9:00, and then they shut down during the school day, and then they would open back up around 4:00 and be open till, I believe,

0116:00 or 6:30 at night. So, um, obviously that's an odd work day for most people to get up that early and come into work for three hours, then go back home for the rest of the day and then have to report back at 4:00 in the afternoon to your sack site. Um, so that seems to be the biggest barrier. Um, Carol did indicate that, you know, if we're able to raise compensation levels for staff, that would be helpful. Um, you may remember at one of our previous board meetings, we actually did exactly that. But we raised our sack price or our sack uh compensation levels. Tim next. And then this is we just wanted to include this uh slide as well to kind of show you um kind of what Phil was alluding to at

012the last board meeting that um SAC is relatively self- sustaining. You can see in uh 24 23 24 uh we did dip a little bit into the general fund there. Um if you look at the very bottom you can see that's a negative indicating that we had to dip into um into the general fund for less than $5,000. And then you can see in we had a profit on our sack. So, um, like I said, we've we've talked about a lot of different solutions, um, to try and get other employees in the district to come and work at SAC. So, if you're uh, for example, if you're a three-hour lunch parah and you would like to come and work in the afternoon at Sack, we've encouraged our staff to do that and indicated to them,

013you know, that they would be able to do that. Um, even in situations where it may throw us into overtime, we have said to staff, "Go ahead. We'll we'll cover the overtime. We need the bodies." So, we continue to work at uh trying to staff that. I'm hopeful that with a couple more staff members, we can shrink that waiting list to zero. Um, are there any questions on sack before we move on to food service? >> I have a question. Go ahead. >> Um, so and in terms of getting other staff members like who are already employed by us, um, I understood that I think we had like other food service members. Are there certain members you don't allow to pick up extra hours because I was told that there's food service employees who off

014who tried to and they were told they can't double dip. Um, and I know that's been a thing about other positions as well in terms of maybe I'm guessing be it sounds like it's because they're not full-time employees. So, the idea of like if it would push them into benefits or it being too hard to track or something. >> So, there's a couple things going on. Um, we have to be very careful because SAC is a collectively bargained group represented by a union. We also have ASME representing another union which would be our food service bus driver folks. So oftentimes you can get into a bit of a conflict between the unions because one union is performing the work that is currently assigned to another union. So that can be a complicating factor sometimes. Uh

015you know in terms of um not allowing certain people from the district to work in SAC that has not been the direction we've given. You know like I just said if if you're a food service worker and you want to go and work at sack after school and even if you're getting some overtime pay for that we're we've said we'll do that for now. will pay the overtime to allow our our students to be here. So, um I'm at a loss, Lisa, to try and address what you're asking because I don't know of anything like that going on. If if there is, I I would encourage people to get a hold of me and we will solve that very quickly. I've made it as clear as I can to our staff um at the management

016level that we we would love to have staff come in and do that. So, um I'm not sure quite what the obstacle is, but I would like to solve that obstacle. Um if if I could if I get the information to do so, >> I believe it's if they pushes them into where they would have to qualify, they would go over eight hours. So then therefore they would qualify for full insurance. >> Yeah, they would. I mean, in most cases, these are hourly employees. So we do a measure of those folks. So, if you're working three hours a day and now you you do the sack and and you're above the eight hours, um we we would continue under ACA to measure you for a period of time before you would earn that eligibility for

017those benefits. So, it's it's not an immediate as soon as I work eight hours, I get the benefits that day. There's a measuring period that goes on to to that. And then if over the course of a year, which is our measurement period here at Ankor Bay, um that person averages more than six hours, then yes, we would offer them uh some health insurance as required under the Affordable Care Act. I'm curious to know a little bit more about the shift schedule for caregivers. So, what time do they start and how long does that morning shift go to? And then at what time does the afternoon start and when do they end? >> So it depends a little bit on the building. Um I'll speak to the elementary because we have five elementary sites and

018only one middle school site. Um but the middle school would be very similar. So it starts at 6 in the morning for our elementary school. Our elementary schools >> um begin at 9 in the morning. So sack would wrap up just very shortly. 5 minutes or so before that. So it's really from 6:00 to 9 in the morning is kind of the hours and then at night I believe it's from as soon as school's out, four or five minutes after school's out sack begins. Um and then it runs through I believe 6:30 in the evening. >> 6:30. Okay. So, if we had someone who, let's say, worked at SACK starting 6:00 a.m. sharp and they had certain tasks that we gave them in between that period, so they're not going home for 3 hours to

019come back to work that same day, that would essentially be about a little bit more than 12-hour day. And if we did that with them, they would probably work 3 days a week and then we'd have to alternate based on who provides care to that classroom every week or so often. Is there an opportunity to do something like that so we make the schedule shift a little more accommodating so someone can work one direct block three days a week and maybe that might incentivize more people to apply for that role? >> Yeah, I think the answer is yes. I mean, I I think that um we would, you know, I don't know how many folks want to work that 12-h hour day, but even if it was work in the morning or work in the

020evening tacked on or paired with their regular daily schedule, we're we would be open to that. And even if it were only for two days a week, we would still be open for that because, as I discussed earlier, sometimes we have students that are just showing up on Tuesdays. And so if we could have somebody there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when those students are we could get three or four more students potentially into that site. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> So we would we would allow for that. >> Thank you. >> Todd, can we take a look at the tracking by school that you had your first or second slide? >> Yeah, if you could go back, Tim. Thank you. >> I have a question on that too, Pat. Um, >> go ahead. Even if

021we add another staff member at North is our maximum license per day still 54. So if we add a second staff member that >> currently yes because we 54 is the maximum. It doesn't matter. >> Well it based on the size of the room. >> Gotcha. >> So you could have >> board field and you could only have 54 kids in there. Okay. >> So it's it's based on the you know there's a limit for the number of kids in a in a given space. So in this case, although our commons could accommodate well more than 54 kids and does every day for lunch, uh we cannot have more than 54 kids under there in there for purposes of sack. The licensing does not allow it >> and and restroom factors into it. >> Even

022it's I mean I was thinking the same thing when it comes to 18 kids to one adult, but our average classroom has >> Yeah. 20. >> No. And and it's weird too because like it's 20 per bathroom within the proximity of so many feet where it's 18 kids in a class. >> So even that doesn't necessarily line up. And then and even at North because they've only approved licensing for the commons but not the gym yet. So we're still waiting on that. So that would give us another space that could potentially work. >> All right. Thank you. >> Would there be any financial advantage to hiring another person at North? And not that I want to uh burden our transportation people anymore, but shuffling the 17 kids that are currently at Ashley's weight list over

023to North, segregating them kind of from the sixth and seventh, fifth and sixth graders that are there knowing that they're, you know, prek through fifth graders, fourth graders. Yeah. >> So, is is there an opportunity to do that? Could we do that? And I know our transportation is is maxed. I know we're going to talk about that shortly. >> Yeah. And now I'm adding, you know, essentially another route for our shuttles. >> Well, Pat, to your point though, we could do the same at Lighthouse. You know, we Lighthouse is the same grade level. We've got adequate space at Lighthouse. It's a staffing thing. If we could add another >> another staffer, then there would be an opportunity to have some of those folks from Ashley potentially go over to >> and you know, there certainly

024would be a house, >> a permission from the parents to to do that. >> Yep. But it seems like, you know, we're we're breaking even pretty close on our this year we're actually projecting to make a little bit of money that maybe it'd be worth and as certainly the bus rides about 45 seconds. Um, not that I want to stick any more kids on a bus because it would actually just be easier for them to drop them off, take pick them up right at school, drop them off at lighthouse as they begin their route, one of the drivers that's going that way. >> Yes. >> It wouldn't it wouldn't increase a route time more than, you know, >> a minute or couple minutes in the cons. There's no sack at Mccons right now currently. >>

025Uh, no, there hasn't been and there hasn't been Dennis for quite some time. Um, it's it's something that I think we'll we'll try and address into the future. Um, because it it makes sense probably just to have them there because those are the folks that are also coming over to Ashley being bus over to Ashley which is increment. >> So, we are busing interd district. We are moving. Okay. All right. That was going to be kind of my next question was um you know I don't as as long as I remember I don't think as I've been around I don't know that we've had sack at Mac and it used to be staffing trouble but you know if we're more flexible with who we allow to fill you know that might become a better option

026too. I'm guessing that's why Ashley's, you know, has more of a wait list than everyone else as >> I would agree with you. Right. We have Do we have a license current license at MCON? >> We do. I don't believe we do because we have not had a sack site there for since I've been here. >> Gotcha. The last seven years. >> Would this building have any? We Is it a separate SER for sack versus like GSRP and things? >> It is. It is separate licensing. Yep. Maybe we should look at both McDonald's and you know just >> and I I know we're getting way into the weeds but maybe we could consider sending Mac over to >> Lighthouse. >> I don't know your numbers. That's your gig. But >> you know if we could

027pick up those 17 students obviously they're either Ashley students or probably Mac students or both. Um and find them a home. They certainly would fit at Lighthouse. We could do some shuffling. >> Right. >> Um any any more questions? I know we're getting really really deep into your operations now. So >> I just have a quick one. We look at today relative to where we were a month ago when we brought this up like how much of the pro how much of the problem have we solved? 50% of it 75% say significant. I I think we were upwards of about 150 folks that were trying to >> Okay. So we're we've made a lot of >> I would argue we're down to under 30. So I pretty significant. >> Okay. And and a lot of

028it is just getting once it settles in and people have a rotation of okay my kids are going this day or I have coverage that day and getting into the routine because we're still north has been the challenge now of we have all these people paying and they're reserving spots but so far I mean there's been a couple days where only one student has shown up but they've been reserving the times for it and so it but that typically settles in after a few weeks >> and if you reserve serve, but you know show you don't pay. >> No, you pay. They're >> still paying not. >> Yeah. And so that's why you you don't know if they're going to show up and then they don't show up, but then you got to save the

029slot either way. >> Yeah. >> So it works on the balance sheet, but then it leaves people who could have been there without without having access to the program. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Back to you, sir. >> Okay. Food service. Next slide, please. So, I thought I'd start with a history. I'm not going to go too far back. Uh, but in 2021 and prior, Ankor Bay followed the traditional federal meal reimbursement program that's been in place for uh what since the 70s. And uh basically it is you you fill out a free and reduced application. You either qualify for that free or reduced. And if you don't, then you're required to pay for your school your school lunch. Um, in 2122 during COVID, the federal government passed uh some

030legislation, an act to essentially cover all meals for students. So, that was the first time uh that Ankor Bay had ever had all of their students eat for free. In 2223 once COVID was done that legislation or that act was rescended and we all returned back to that traditional federal reimbursement program um that I had just described in the bullet above in 2324 and then again last year in 24-25 all meals were free to students based on a combination of the traditional federal funding and the state having a grant that would make up the difference for reduced and paid students. So, uh, free students obviously are free reduced students. They probably have their, uh, meal reduced by about 90% and then the other 10% they would typically have to pay for. The state paid for

031that remaining 10% or so. And then all the paid kids, we actually do get a a very small reimbursement of less than 20 cents for all of our paid kids um, that that the federal government reimbures us. But the remainder of that meal was made up by the state. And so we, uh, Tim, I'll have you flip to the next. So, um, there's some uncertainty right now as to whether the Michigan will continue to do that funding, uh, as they have in the last two years. Um, there obviously this will have a significant impact on the district if if the state does not choose to continue that funding. Um, as of right now, September 30th, 2025 will be the last day that the state will allow uh free meals to be submitted for reimbursement through

032the state grant. Um, the impact, I'm jumping a little bit around here, but the impact is roughly about $200,000 a month for breakfast and lunch that the state is paying for. not the federal piece, but just the state piece that we're concerned might go away is about $200,000 a month. Um, Ankor Bay is what we call C district. That stands for community eligible program. Um, it's what it allows is for districts that have some level of poverty. don't doesn't have to be the poorest of districts, but some level of poverty um will qualify for this C option. Um and then what it does is it allows for the federal government to reimburse a little bit more money um on and so the state has been very encouraging to districts to enter into that C option.

033Um the good news for us into as as as we understand it today again we're hoping for clarification tomorrow but um by the fact that we are a C district um we would be eligible to use some of our excess funds from the food service fund to pay for the piece that the state will not may not cover. So, um, Phil said it earlier, there's a pretty substantial chance that we're going to have a shutdown. The concern is, um, you know, come October 1, what are we going to do for our students? Um, or, and I'm jumping around a little bit here, but we could then use monies out of our food service fund to pay for those students if that was the um, preference of the board. In districts where they don't where they

034are not a C, they will have to pay out of the general fund. They will have to pull funds out of general fund to pay for these uh meals. So um in 2425 also to give you a little bit of context about in total what we're talking about. So you can see there it's about $460,000 that we received in reimbursement for breakfast and a reimbursement of a little over $1.2 million for lunches that we got. So um just under 1.8 in total uh is what we received from the state last year for reimbursement and that's the piece that we are concerned may go away unless the state acts with a new budget um 30 days. The reason we're kind of talking about October and continuing to fund through October is also that C districts must

035provide MDE with a minimum of 30 day school days notice. We also want to provide obviously our parents with notice so that they can prepare if we were to return to that traditional uh federal reimbursement model of of charging for students that do not qualify for free and reduced. uh eligible districts uh may not ask. This is this is something that's a little bit of a catch 22 here. So although we're a C district and that's great, we can uh get a little bit more reimbursement from the feds and we can use some of the money we've gotten from the state to uh cover folks into October. Uh the bad news is right now as it reads, we cannot ask our students during October to sign up for free and reduced lunch because if you

036are a C district, um they are not supposed to fill out the free and reduced applications. So, you know, we're in a bit of a catch 22 there where we'd have to use general fund money. If we opt out today, could do that, but um that would allow us to have students start filling out the applications. But if we go with the C and and take the money out of food service, technically we're supposed to not fill out the free and reduced meals until November 1st, which is problematic because kids are going to be getting meals on at the very beginning of November before those applications are accepted. So, uh, we've put a call in and we're we're trying to get some clarity hopefully tomorrow from, uh, MDE. Uh, I was I had a conversation

037with a a person at the nutrition today and they I said, "Well, if we're providing notice to you that we're going to stop being a C district as of the end of October, would that be sufficient for us to then go out to our students and ask them to fill out free and reduced applications in case the funding isn't there?" Um, and she said that seems reasonable, but I need to check on that. And so we're hoping to hear back on that soon. Tim, next. Um, so really what our recommendation is is that and and we we shared this with the finance committee and I think I won't speak for them, but I I believe the uh recommendation was uh they agreed with this recommendation that we would continue to fund meals um through October

03831st, 2025. Uh although that will cost the district roughly, you know, $200 to $220,000 um out of our food service fund, we think it makes a lot of sense to keep that continuity going. There is a chance that the uh state budget will get solved before October 31st and uh we will have that funding in place. And if that's the case, then we've basically avoided any interruption to any of our students lunches and breakfastes. Um, and having them fill out extra paperwork or having them pay and then reimbursing them. uh allowing this also, like I said, allows parents an opportunity to um get on board and understand that starting November 1st, we're we could be returning to the uh previous federal charging model. And then finally, um it will also uh give us some time

039potentially to fill out those free and reduced applications if that's what it comes to. So, we're hoping that during October, we'll get the go-ahad that we can go ahead and have them fill out those applications and get ready for November 1st if we indeed move forward to um initiate that that charging for non-qualified students. Um so, there's a in your action items, I'll just wrap up real quick and then take questions. In your action items, there is a possible resolution at the the pleasure of the board to move forward as we've talked about this evening. Um there's a resolution for you to vote on later. Um obviously that resolution could be amended if that's also the pleasure of the board. Be happy to take questions. >> Mr. Rathben, what traditionally do we use the excess

040funds in the food service for? Traditionally, we use those uh and they have to really be used by law for program improvement. So, it would be purchasing new ovens, purchasing higher quality food. Um you can get kind of the low-grade chicken nuggets or you can get the really nice chicken tenders, right? So, um there's we can use those funds to increase our food quality. uh we can use those funds to um you know increase our advertising and you know our if we wanted to add a salad bar the the uh cost of adding that salad bar the the actual equipment that could be paid for out of those funds. >> Okay. >> We we can't use it for wages though. Correct. >> Cannot use it for wages. And well I I take that back. I

041guess you could use it for wages potentially if you were having more offerings and therefore you needed more staff. Maybe you could make that argument. Uh, specifically, what you can't use it for is construction. So, like if you're like, we want to blow out a wall and add a a new part of the cafeteria, we would not be able to use it for that. >> Okay. Would there be any um deficiency that we would have to cover from another another fund if we were to do this? >> No. Uh, the currently the food service fund has about 1.6 61 $1.7 million in it. Um it's improved a lot over the last several years as everybody's been eating. So um I think we could adequately cover um the 30 days that I'm proposing could cover beyond

042that if you wanted to go further than that and and go further out. That would be a possibility. I would not recommend, you know, running that 1.7 down to zero, but um, you know, if if it was the pleasure of the board to run it through November 30, we could afford to do that. >> Thank you, >> Brian. Todd, um, is there uncertainty whether or not when they eventually pass a budget, it's going to be included in there, or is it just a matter of when they pass the budget? Like, are we expecting it to be in there? It's just a matter of when the budget passes or are we uncertain whether or not it's even going to be there. >> Great question. So, um I'll just I'll try and speak to each. So, uh

043in the Senate proposal, they are proposing that we will continue on as as we have for the last two years and that there would be funding for those. Uh the House has taken a little bit different tact. They're saying we're going to do away with that categorical. we're going to give you a higher foundation allowance. They talk about a foundational allowance of a little over $12,000. And then what they said is if you want to use that extra money that we're giving you for food service, you can pay for it out of general fund and subsidize it that way. If if that's what you want, we're going to give you more wide control. >> And actually, yeah, it wouldn't be the full foundation allowance. 10,000 right now. The House proposed budget is $10,025 per student

044for um your actual foundation allowance, but they would create this >> cate it is a categorical. >> It's a super categorical for one year $1,975 per student that they're basically they're they're trying to take all of the categorical funds from the transportation, from the mental health, from the security funds, all that, put it in the one and say, "Here you go. We'll get you to $12,000 for one year." you decide what you want to do with those categoricals. So then you could decide the the challenge with that is they're also bringing up every single rainy day fund in order to get it to the $12,000. So it would truly be onetime funding. The on the other half there's more politics that come with the food service because food service when it originally started was not

045necessarily to handle rein's lunch. It's because there's subsidies for farms. So they were buying all this food and all that. So you have this. So then put it into place because now there's place for it to go. So there is I think a a strong likelihood it will continue because of the they still want to do the the subsidies on the other side. >> If we give a 30-day notice to opt out of C and then the budget comes and it it's business as usual, can we walk that back? >> We can we can resend it. Absolutely. Good question. All right. >> And then I guess my final question would be if if this all goes away and we go back to pre2021, call it, was that program meeting the needs of the community in

046terms of the people who needed the free and reduced lunch had access to it? Did we have large portions of the community who were kind of stuck in no man's land where they didn't qualify but they didn't have the resources to to adequately feed their kids? Was it was the program working? Uh I would say for the most part yes. Okay. But I would say there were certainly individuals who kind of you know were on the low end that it was a burdensome to their their family budget >> to pay for meals but they didn't quite qualify for free or reduced. >> Okay. >> So those there were instances certainly of that and >> they were few and far between. Uh >> I don't know if I'd say that but not you know m maybe

047less than 3 or 4% something like that. and oftentimes uh you know we are able to use other funds to kind of subsidize that. >> So my question was to be clear um all of the funding issues and when we're talking about free lunch for everybody being discontinued we are also including free breakfast. That also means free breakfast. It does as well. >> Okay. Correct. So free breakfast will only go free breakfast will only go to those with the free and reduced program >> if we were to return. Correct. Yes. >> Um and then my other question is just is there any sort of requirement or like or even maybe any talk of because I don't know if it's legally required about there. So there won't let's say we go into a shutdown for a

048period um we can't or won't ever potentially get any back pay for what we do or is are they not is the state not allowed to back pay us or would they have to choose to do that or how does that look like >> they would have to choose. So basically what um what we were told this is and this again this changes >> could change tomorrow >> hour by hour on what they're doing. So the plan right now is they know it's going to probably go late into the night. Okay, whenever they do this. So they will pass a budget and then they will come right back because they know there's going to be errors in that budget and so they plan to then come back and do a supplemental budget. It's almost guaranteed.

049this is what they've done every time they've gotten close to it because they do the budget and most people don't even get to read it. So they do it, they put it out there, they it's it's really when it comes down to it, like we were told that there's about four to six people in the room, they go through it and it comes out to be like five six00 pages, they set the budget and then they know that there's errors in there. It's not until several weeks later when it goes through the the fact like the the actual checking for errors all stuff and it goes through all their staffs then they get it and then they plan to do a supplemental and because it's the same thing if you are some districts are taking

050loans out from private lenders because if they didn't take the the state aid note then they have to go to private lenders and so there's some talk about doing something so you can offset that interest because if you incur that just taking it out, you're going to incur costs. And will they do something to offset that? But they have to do something in order to do that. It's it just won't be it will not be in the initial budget. >> Yeah. If they just passed the legislation, the legislation will be effective as of that date. They would have to intentionally say, >> has there been any talk about that? >> Go back to >> They haven't even been talking on the budget really. So, yeah, >> just a couple of notes. Um, we're fortunate that

051we have that money sitting in our fund. There are a lot of districts that don't have that money sitting in their fund. Uh, there are a lot of districts discussing how they're going to get through the next 60 days if they don't receive that payment. And there are a lot of districts that don't have the option of paying for their student meals. They have to return to uh, you know, to free and reduced only. Um we do have a little bit of a luxury there that I I don't have our exact numbers but during COVID our uh food service fund increased substantially just because of usage. And you know, you guys that work in business know that, you know, the incremental staff addition to put out another 100 meals is usually pretty nominal that you

052need the the staff in the building to to perform a task and then if you add another 100 meals on there, that staff can traditionally still handle that task. So, food service has been, you know, we we banked a lot of money. But like I said, if you look at a lot of other surrounding districts, they've got $200,000 in there. they've got kitchens that are falling apart. Not that our kitchens don't need some help. Um they can always buy new new equipment. Um but a lot of districts don't have the luxury to even have this discussion that we're that we're trying to undertake today. So, >> and if I can tag on to that, um we're talking about food service, but really this is a potentially a general fund issue, too, because if you don't

053get paid in October, we don't get paid in September. You're basically going from August 20th to November 20th, 60 days without getting any income. There's, I believe during that period, six uh payrolls that occur. For us, a payroll is uh what about two and a half $3 million. So, you know, that's about $20 million. And so, fortunately, we have a fund balance in our general fund as well. Otherwise, like Phil said, there's a lot of districts who are scrambling. Some districts have even taken the hard line of we're going to end up shutting down until they pass the bill. So, um you know, we are in a fortunate position right now having a fund balance both in food service and our general fund. >> Any further questions before we move on? >> Do we use

054the reduced the free and reduced applications to determine any other type of aid? >> Yeah. So >> separate from food. >> Yeah. So that is the basis on which they award title funding, title one funding I should say in particular. Um so uh they look at the prior year and whatever uh percentage of students you have that qualify for that free and reduced lunch that they use that as a basis for the title one funding >> like even sports fees and other types of fees or >> No. Well, we do we do for our free and reduced students. If if there is fee in some cases, we will wave that fee um if we think it's going to be um detrimental or >> too impactful to the student. >> Then why can't everybody be a

055football player and fill out the form? >> I will encourage everybody to fill out the form. >> And that the challenge that we're having across the state is that with the free and universal free and reduce is what it's called. everybody gets it. People have stopped filling out the forms because why do I want to deal with this form? Possibly embarrass my student or whatever their holdback is. So, the percentage of of truly free and reduced people has dropped statewide because no one's doing the applications. There's no reason to. I I know we're going to, you know, they're going to feed my kid anyway. >> So, the other concern that we had when we talked at finance was >> trying to figure out how we could give enough notice. so that kids didn't show up

056at school on, you know, November 1st and we tell them we don't have your documents. You need to get these documents filled out. Of course, we're not going to turn anybody away. We're going to we're going to feed kids that, you know, we're not we're not built that way. But if we can't, you know, the the concern is that people aren't going to fill the forms out. They're not going to take it seriously. So, we're trying to find a way that we can get through this by meeting the state's rules and regulations and that we're not going to hurt our students. So finance talked about this at length just trying to figure out the solution of you know how how we can help our students without you know spending $1.5 million to do it and

057there's just a lot of unanswered questions about getting reimbured to you know when do we see the money when are they going to reimburse us if we continue >> um you know C has its event its advantages it also has drawbacks >> so uh at length we talked about it >> yeah the there's really two silver linings if you can call it that through this process is one the federal funding lag eggs a year or so because it's based off the previous year. So the federal funds that were frozen, unfrozen, frozen again, and unfrozen. So that will be good for this year. It's next year that we're worried about. And then that's part of the federal shutdown. The other part is if I really think that if whatever they decide, if they continue the lunches,

058if they continue GSRP is the other one that we're looking at, that will be it going forward. that will so if they stop it, it's it's going to stop. If they continue it, it will continue going forward. And you'll expect to see that in the budget, which we just haven't had that clarity because we've been bouncing back and forth. And so I think hopefully before October 1st, they have it set and then if it's in there, we just know that's we can plan for the future. Todd, are we able to put this uh if it does go back where parents have to fill out the form? Can we do it like an online application or is it has to be a >> Yeah, it it is in the form of an online application. >> Yep.

059>> Is do we already have that tool existing or is that we should Okay. >> Yep. >> That's good. >> Yeah. >> Um speaking of general fund balance, if we stop getting funding from the state, what's the drop dead? How long could we run the school district without money coming in? Uh last time I calculated it was about 53 days uh school days. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And that includes continuing universal free and reduced meals. Correct. That's all all encompass. >> No, it se No, because we >> you can't use that for general fund. >> Well, okay. >> Yeah. you I no we we did it separately because we said um we could continue the food service you know utilizing food service funds and the general fund would be utilized for operational purposes I

060think Phil saying you can't use food service funds to move you can't move that into the general >> right you can't move >> basically on the survey that they we were asked December 1st would be a drop dead date roughly >> for anchor bay >> yeah for anchor bay >> um The 53 days, does that include building maintenance for the rest of the year? Okay. So, that is basically 53 school days of having staff on site. Then at that 53 day mark, they'd all have to go home. We wouldn't be able to pay them anymore. And then going forward, we'd have enough money in the funds to cover the building maintenance expense cost for the rest of the year. >> Uh, not necessarily. No. I in that 53day calculation would take all of our reserves

061that we currently have to cover operations for 53 days and then we would have uh nearly a zero fund balance. So no reserves and and if there's no budget, no income to uh continue that maintenance into the future >> and and you can do extraordinary measures and all that like the like the the feds that call it or we could look at borrowing if we if it came down to that. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So that's obviously that's what I'm looking at is, you know, I don't want to get us into a position. I'm saying hypothetically speaking, if it gets to be this bad, I think it's prudent of us not to get to the point that we evaporate our general fund balance and then eliminate the possibility of us to maintain our buildings than

062incurring a higher cost because we've putting ourselves in a bad posit. So obviously there have to be due diligence there. >> I could not concur. >> Thank you. So if our students are at home watching hoping for a break between Thanksgiving and Christmas, this board is going to make sure that doesn't happen. So, yeah, >> just lost a few votes, but that's okay. We're not shutting down. That's the goal. So, >> all right. Anything else on um this? >> Yeah, just a a suggestion is, you know, if if you reach the point of the the food service changing with the free and reduced is can you make the um free and reduced application like a block to the login of the Meal Magic account to put your money on the account? like you would have

063to fill it out. >> I would have Yeah, I would have to find that out. I I don't know the answer to that. >> Everybody would have to fill it out to move forward and then you have your >> to you're saying is this this step one in order to be able to put money in your account? >> Yeah, I we can >> I'm going to guarantee the state's got that block. >> I don't know. I don't know if Neil Magic has that ability, but we can. >> That's a great thought though. For sure. No, it is. Yeah, it's a good idea. I haven't used it. Yeah. >> For a while, right? There's no reason to. Yep. Okay, if that's it, let's move on to transportation. >> Some busing. >> Yep. >> Tim, next slide,

064please. Okay, so I thought I'd just kind of give you some general information about how our middle school busing is doing. Um, so I I had our transportation director, Steve, uh, pull the routes today so I could get an a kind of some information for you about that. Currently, our longest AM route is about 56 minutes. Um, and that would include going all the way to middle school south. Middle school north, that same route, um, they get dropped at 41 minutes and then about 15 minutes later, they get dropped at South. So, that's our longest morning route. Um the shortest morning route is about 31 minutes with kids getting dropped in about 21 minutes to uh to north. The average morning route is about 43 minutes. Um one thing I'll say is that um you

065know this isn't vastly different from what we've had in the past. Uh we've had um you know because of the way we were busing students, a lot of our students in the northernmost part of our district were being bus all the way down to middle school south. And so that was a fairly long bus ride of, you know, sometimes over an hour. Um so this is redist redistributing a little bit of that um those longer bus runs. So you can see at night after school we've got our longest one is about a 60-minute bus ride. Um the shortest one is about 41 minutes and the average is about 48 minutes. Um what we do is we reverse the route. Um if if in the morning you are the first one on the bus, you're going

066to have the longest ride to your school. So we try and flip that on the on the going home. you'll be the first one off the bus. So, you have a shorter bus ride at night so that we don't have somebody who's on the bus six minutes in the or you know 53 minutes and 50 six minutes in the morning and 60 minutes at night. So, we try and flip-flop those uh to try and um make it a little bit more uh feasible for each student and and nobody's getting stuck on there for the longest period of time both ways. uh busing routes seem to be going pretty efficient at this point. It's taken us a little bit of time to adjust. Uh it's a lot more buses servicing each of those uh middle schools.

067Uh in the past, I think we had maybe 12 to 14 buses and now we have as many as 24 buses that run to middle school north and then to middle school south. Um construction that we've had here in New Baltimore has been a little bit of a challenge. Uh we expect our routes will shorten a little bit uh due to lack once the construction goes away. Uh we also expect that um the bus routes will continue to shorten as we as the ridership starts to shake out. So uh we'll we'll start to discover well this person, you know, they haven't ridden the bus even though they signed up for it. Um it's been about a month and a half they haven't ridden the bus. So we're going to knock that stop off of our

068route. and you know that could cut several minutes off a route. Um we also have five buses I believe coming um here in October. Uh we continue to hire hire drivers. And so one of the things that we'll do um once those buses arrive and we have additional drivers, we're going to look at some of our longer routes, the 60minute route I just talked about, the 56 minute, and we're going to see if we can uh make two longer routes into three shorter routes um by adding a bus. So, um, that's once we have those additional buses, that's our our plan to kind of continue to knock, uh, that average amount of time that kids spend on a bus down. Next slide. Thank you, Tim. Uh, so wanted to talk about, uh, this was kind

069of a request from the last board meeting. So if we were to try and do the transportation for middle school north and middle school south simultaneously so that you didn't have kids that were getting picked up by bus one they go to both middle school north and middle school south we would segregate and middle school north would just pick up all of its students. It would have to go around the entire district and pick up all the fifth and sixth graders. And simultaneously for South, we had had the buses circulating and picking up seventh and eighth graders, but keeping them separate on separate buses. So, in order to do that, uh what we kind of looked at is we would almost need to double that fleet because they're going to be covering the same uh

070geographical area to pick those kids up. Um it's not like all of our north kids live on the north end and all of our south kids, seventh and eighth graders live on the south end. Um there are plenty of seventh and eighth graders that live on the north end. So those buses are really going to have to kind of cover same ground. So we said probably an additional 24 gened buses, one specialed bus. Uh we talked about uh and then you can see there is about $4.2 million to to purchase those buses. Um there would also be obviously a lag on that. Uh it's it's about 12 months right now to get a school bus. Um additionally, we'd have to add drivers because all of our drivers would be driving or the vast majority of

071them would be driving for um the middle school north and then we'd need additional drivers to drive for middle school south. But we would only really need those drivers for a couple hours in the morning to do the middle school south run and then the afternoon to do the middle school north drop off because the rest of the time we've got adequate bus drivers for the high school, we've got adequate bus drivers for our elementarymentaries. So it' really be adding those folks for two hours. I think I have up there from 7 to 9 in the morning and then from about 3 to 4, 3:00 to 5 in the afternoon, something like that. So, um, you know, very similar to sack. Hard to get bus drivers to come in to work for two hours in

072the morning, sit around all day, and then come back in the afternoon and work for two hours. We have a two-hour. The reason I'm using two hours is um their route might be a little bit less, but if they report, we have a min minimum payment of two hours for our bus drivers whenever they report. Additionally, we'd have to add a mechanic. Um the annual cost of that would be about $90,000 with benefits and everything. Additional radios and cameras for our buses. Additional parking lot space. Right now, if you've been in our busing yard, we would not have the space to accommodate another 20 bus 25 buses. So, we would have to pave some additional part of the parking lot um where we currently have our fencing. There's some green space between the fencing and

073our um in our current bus yard. So, I just kind of inquired from Barton Melo what that might cost and they gave me a ballpark figure of about $500,000 to to pave that. I think that might be a little bit light, but that's what they told me. Additional dispatcher. Um, if you've got twice as many buses running around, you're going to need an additional bus uh dispatcher. And finally, fuel and maintenance for those buses. About $280,000, Tim. So, I just tried to put together real briefly a summary of kind of those costs. You can see um in the summary of transportation expenses um you know we've got about $1.2 million of annual expense which would include things like um the drivers themselves uh mechanic the dispatcher and the um maintenance and and fuel. And then

074we had uh just under $5 million 4.8 there of costs associated with one kind of one-time costs if you will just to purchase the bus, the cameras, and uh those kind of capital items. So, that was kind of the cost involved with that. So, uh that was kind of the end of my presentation for um transportation. I'd be happy to take any questions. >> So, Todd, do I can we go back to the previous slide? Yep. >> So, I understand if we were to run 25 buses to north, 25 buses to south, that we would take our essentially our middle school transportation cost to $6 million. If I add those two numbers together, >> yes, in year in year one, >> in year one, yes. In year two, you'd probably be just picking up the

075one point >> million dollar the annual kind of >> the wages and the >> Yeah. And that would go up just because every year, you know, we would have wage increases and and costs and so forth. But but in year one, yes, that would be accurate what what you're stating. >> How long do those buses last for? >> 12 years. 12 years is the recommended time of service. >> Yeah, that's a good way to say it. 12 years is recommended. >> I'm going to guess that we have some that might be a little bit over 12 years. >> Uh we're getting >> or did we get rid of most of those? >> We're we're in pretty good shape, but um when I first got here, yeah, we had some some oldies, >> but we've done

076a pretty good job. We're getting pretty close to that recommended 12 years. I would say to try and really answer your question, I I I see a lot where people stretch them to 15 >> into 15. Okay. So, I I did the numbers. Uh 40 4.2 million divide by 12 is about $350,000 per year if you annualize that cost. Assuming at the end of uh 12 to 15 years, you're probably have to buy another round of additional buses as well. So, that would be an additional, you know, would take that up to like a million addition to all those other probably about $2 million I think um per year if you take that initial cost and sort of spread it out. >> Yeah. Yeah. And that's kind of Dominic what we've done really to be

077honest with you is we've tried to bake that into as as we've had better budgets. We've baked that cost in so that we're not waiting 12 to 15 years and then going out and spending $6 million. We're kind of trying to do that as we go where we spend three or four or $500,000 each year and start renewing the fleet. Because the other problem with waiting 12 to 15 years is what if in 12 to 15 years you don't get a bond passed or something where you can get your hands on $6 million to go out and buy 25 new buses then you're in trouble because you know where if you're buying them consistently I only have to worry about coming up with three or four buses. you know, I can I can probably squeeze

078that out of my operations versus trying to fund it all through a bond or something like that. >> And as typical with everything else related to CO buses were about 100 grand. Oh. >> When we enter COVID and they're about 175 now. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> In four or five years. So, who knows what the hell's going to happen in 12. >> Yeah. It's incredible how much they've gone up, how fast. >> No. And there is another option that we kind of talked about is you could do a four tier busing but then you'd have to change the times because when we talk tiers like elementary, middle school, high school. So we do three tiers right now. You could do a four tier. You just have to shift the times to have that that gap.

079And then there is extra cost in that. You could have your bus drivers would be driving longer and wear and tear and mileage and all stuff because you don't need as many buses. But it's it's just now it's shifting just time for buildings. The high school would start earlier >> and potentially >> you could do or go later earlier elementary later. >> I think high school might get mad at you if you >> Yeah. Yeah. You 6 a.m. start time wouldn't go well. >> Yeah. >> Out at one >> or you do half an hour half >> or on the backside. I think it would be you know if you had your elementary teachers there till 5:00 in the evening they might not be too happy about that. >> So it is it's it's a

080balance. You may remember at one point we did have a four tier just for our elementarymentaries. We had I think three or four of them running at 8:30 and then the others running at 9:00. How are the buses doing um getting from like in that mix from north to south like in that drop off period? Like are they getting there on time or I've heard I know like my kids say that sometimes their bus is too early and so they have to sit or but then they'll say like we always go and I know you mentioned like the buses are maybe taking different routes so that not everybody's on the same spot, right? Um but like making a it sounds like maybe the path their bus takes having to make a certain turn takes forever

081um to be able to do it and then they end. So even though they're they're getting to north too early it sounds like but then they are actually getting to south like more on the late end. >> Um how are we doing on like >> you know >> I think I think we're starting to get it down pretty pretty good. uh what was happening, most of the buses were arriving at North in plenty of time. Um because uh the high school routes are typically done and they're they're getting there in time. There's a couple stragglers, but the first couple weeks because of the sheer volume of buses at Middle School North, there were 24 buses. students were having a hard time, you know, these are fifth graders really, you know, um trying to find where

082their bus is and where where do I get on and and so forth. So, first couple weeks were a challenge. Now, I think that u middle school north is able to, you know, uh usually load up and move out in about 10 minutes, which is phenomenal. Um and then I feel like more and more buses are starting to get to south earlier. Our preference would be to have the buses arrive just before students are let out. We don't want we'd prefer to have the buses all parked and have their parking brake on so that you know there's no chance of anything happening uh with students. Um and so that would be our preference for the most part. I would say 80 to 90% that's happening. Uh we always have a few straggler buses at the

083end who are running a little bit behind at South. Um but again they are South is doing an even better job than North is and I think we're getting those kids out in seven or eight minutes. So they once they get out and get on the bus now if you're the first kid out the door. Um yeah, you're probably going to sit on that bus for four, five, six, seven minutes maybe um waiting for the rest of your classmates to get packed up and get out there. There's always a couple stragglers that, you know, I see one kid walking with his backpack or I forgot my phone, so I'm running back to get my phone and and that can hold things up. But, um, I think the kids are really doing a really good job

084and especially this week of being able to get on the get loaded up on the bus safely and timely and therefore our routes are kind of But there was definitely some challenges the first couple weeks. ly. So, you are spot on with that. >> Um, and I know at last meeting I had brought up um the sitting three to a seat. Um, and so I I promised one of my children I would talk about this today. Um, so, um, I I had him look this up and I learned myself because I discovered, you know, why there's no seat belts on the bus and then that it's actually that the backing of the bus seats are padded to be like >> correct >> basically black. Um, and so I was looking because they're saying they've got

085some kids three seat and they've kind of at least I don't know if all the buses do it the same, but they've got assigned seats. Um, so and this is for the middle school, but they some of them are assigned three to a seat and sitting like that regularly and saying how there's not like enough room and truly like you know if I imagine if there's three grown adults trying to share a bus seat for a half hour that wouldn't be very fun. Um, >> so I was looking up and you know I I there are no laws you know against that. It's generally recommended like that. There's three. You could sit three to a seat with like smaller younger like your elementary kids. And it says it doesn't really specify like middle versus high

086school, right? So it's just >> right. So yes, >> ideally three would be the maximum that you could ever fit in there. Obviously, you're exactly right. As the kids get older and get bigger, it makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to get three high school students in a seat. >> Right. And I feel like so I feel like middle school is probably I mean I don't know if we're if we ever have that situation at the high school level but middle school's that in between maybe and then with this new busing situation we have but that's I guess something as I was reading about this and just realizing you know for you to be safe on the bus you need to be have your legs >> not in the aisle right so that could

087be unlikely >> when you're three to a seat at the middle school age Um, so that's just something I would like us to maybe consider in how we fill our buses moving forward. I know, you know, it's sounds like just like sack and trying to guess and estimate who's actually going to show up even daytoday is difficult. Um, but like if we are adding routes or something, if we could look at something like that. >> That's a great point. So in addition to just the length of time and oftentimes the length of time is equal to you know heavier routes more people on that route. Not always but it can sometimes indicate that. Um but we will definitely look at that as well. um not only the longest routes, but the the maybe the buses

088with the most students that are on those buses to try and again when we get those new buses kind of eliminate the crowding and also um speed up the delivery time and the drop off time. >> So, a couple things there, Todd. Maybe we could take a look at uh specific routes and figure out what the capacity what the scheduled riders are of that bus. Yep. >> And I'm assuming you guys are probably still doing census counts. Is are your are your bus drivers counting when people are getting on a bus? >> Uh they are. I don't know if it's every single day, but certainly during count week, um you know, we'll do another count uh which is coming up here in October. They're required to count every single day. So I know initially like

089the first couple weeks we were really having them count and keep track and maybe the last couple weeks not as much um because it's kind of settled down. Uh, but we'll continue, you know, in that first week of October as we're required to do. >> And the last thing, I don't know if you want to run it through policy or it's just something you want to discuss with with Steve is 10 days is more than enough time to establish whether a student is going to ride or get on a stop. And I know in our rural areas are very similar to other districts like Rochester Romeo where we're pulling up to a student's house. Yep. >> To pick them up. Um, if we haven't seen a student at a stop or an individual stop in

09010 days, we shouldn't even be stopping on on that 11th day. Um, you know, 10 days is more than enough time. And then again, if a student is sick, um, they can call transportation and hey, you know, Johnny's going to be back on Monday. I know he's been gone for two weeks, but we need to figure out some type of standard to where it's okay for we're authorizing our bus drivers to continue on. You haven't picked up a student in x amount of days. >> Yeah. we need to continue on rather than losing 40 50 seconds stopping waiting in the street. Yeah. >> Um for someone who hasn't come out in 10, 15 days. >> And I don't know if we have a written policy on that, but I I can tell you that certainly

091um there are conversations that are held with the drivers. The drivers supply the notes for the first couple weeks, right, >> to the transportation director, Steve Tucker. um he goes through all of those notes and those notes would include things like this person hasn't gotten on my bus for all these days and if that's the case then they they make those adjustments. >> The only thing I'll add for the board is I stopped I guess it's probably been about two weeks ago now into middle school south. Um so Mr. Wrathbun was outside with his clipboard running up and down the sidewalk. So was Mr. Tucker our transportation director up and down the sidewalk. Mr. Latona was out there. Uh he actually that particular day had our Chesterville SRO was out directing traffic as well as

092our Foris school safety officer was was kind of at the entrance making sure that the flow of kids out was okay and nobody was coming in. So uh it certainly got a lot of attention and I appreciate that. It looks like we're getting to the point where uh the noise is stopping and and we're we're getting a little more consistent with our service. So I appreciate that. >> Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. How are we uh staffingwise since we're on the topic transportation? Are we fully staffed? >> We are currently fully staffed. Um but I think I mentioned earlier we have five new buses coming. So I've encouraged Steve to keep hiring. You know, let's find three or four or five more bus drivers to that we can put out there and address overcrowding if you know

093if that is the case. Um and then uh same with the length of the route if we can shorten that. Thank you. >> And construction. We just need construction. >> Yeah. Constru if construction went away, that would help. >> Well, I'm pretty sure it's going to get worse today or tomorrow, right down Green Street before it gets better. >> Like a total closure. >> Yeah. >> Um I'd have to look at the press release, but if there's one direction or the other, you won't be able to go. So, >> some of our longest routes are actually the ones closest to north because they have to drive through. >> They can't get around. >> Yeah. >> Anyone else? in the morning. Are we still opening bus doors before teacher contract times or building opening times? >>

094You know, that that was a topic that just came up earlier this week. Um I met with Heidi Stevenson, the elementary director. Um we're working on that. Uh I I there's a maybe some fundamental disagreement between myself and Heidi on that particular topic. Um, I feel like they should be opening those doors about 10 minutes before school starts, allowing those kids to come in and get some lunch and they would like us to wait until 5 minutes before the start or I'm sorry, breakfast in the morning. So, um, we are working on that particular topic. It's interesting you bring that up because uh, that was a conversation we had earlier this week and uh, I'm hoping that we will come to some resolution on that. Um, for now we are having bus drivers, you know,

095kind of hold the kids for three or four minutes until the doors open at five minutes to nine, but I would like to see that practice changed. >> So, we have buses getting to buildings before they can get into the building. So, they're spend 41 minutes getting to school and then six. What we what we tried to accomplish through all of our work this summer and there's a lot of it was we're our goal was to get buses there 10 minutes before the start of school. We understand if if buses are arriving 30 minutes before the start of school or 25 minutes that's that's a problem because the they don't have the staff necessary to deal with that and and we fully understand that. But um all summer we our the way we moved forward

096and worked at it was we'll get those buses there 10 minutes before the start of school and then you know so that the kids can get off get into the building, get their breakfast and get to class. >> All right, last call. Not quite 2 am, but it's last call for questions on this topic. I couldn't under I couldn't hear your question very well um Jamie but so the buses are at this is an elementary issue >> primarily yes >> they're there 10 minutes before school's scheduled to start or 10 minutes before the doors have been typically >> 10 minutes before the start so school starts at the elementary staff to supervise if we let them in is that what we're saying >> that's what I'm being told >> okay >> um Again, we're working

097on that. Uh my feeling is that 10 minutes before is a reasonable amount of time for students to be dropped off. >> I do think the teacher contract is like very close to >> I think the teacher contract is that, but we have >> a number of other, you know, supporting staff >> that are there early. Um, you know, we have options in our schedule B to allow teachers to earn extra pay if they wanted to do some bus duty. Um, so there are options available to us. Um, I know at Middle School South, for example, um, Filatona and I worked out a problem where, uh, the pair pro is getting there at a certain time. We needed them to get there about 15 minutes earlier so they could assist the student getting off the

098bus and into the school. Um, and so we made that change. We added 15 minutes to that person's day. They were happy to do it and it all worked out. So, um, there will be a little bit of, uh, work on our part to, uh, navigate this with the elementarymentaries, but I'm confident that we'll do that. >> Okay. Now, it's final final last call for questions. All right. Uh, moving on. Item G, superintendent's update. >> Okay. Tim is going to pull up presentation. So, even though we just kind of finished um a lot of construction, we are already turning around to the next phase, which is our largest phase of the entire bond. Um I want to pull this up. So, this will be Ashley, this will be Naulder, this will be um South. And

099so this will be the the additions onto Ashley and we'll we'll walk through each building really quick just to kind of give you an idea. So the first thing is this is the timeline. So we have a couple revisions. Our goal is we seem to get the best bids if we can do it between the 1st of October and really November 15th because hunting season. So it's hard to get bids between after hunting season starts from vendors or contractors. So, we're still on target for that. Our goal is we've been meeting with teachers and and and building administrators in order to kind of set all of that up. So, you can kind of see our goal now is by the 29th. Again, part of this is because of the state and we're hoping we know

100if if there's any shutdown that there's going to be this big like people will be working on stuff to get it in. Then you have to wait for licensing. And as we've seen, it's just it's taking longer and longer and longer because they keep adding more regulations on that um on plan review. So that's another part of the reason that we're trying to get this by the end of this month. So right now we have our final page turn, then it'll go out to bid. it it'll be out there for several weeks and then the goal is to get the bids back um in November and then present it to the board for um December and then work to begin in in the spring with some pull ahead projects if we can kind of like

101what we did with North what we did with the high school and so on. So next slide is just basically our uh this is just we're this is meeting with the elementary teachers the the art teachers the special teachers what do they want in the rooms meeting with the architects and um the administration and our um Barton mal representatives because we're talking through like how do we do this what do you want we don't design specifically for a teacher it's more like okay how many sinks do you want do you want two sinks three sinks whatever okay Let's standardize that across and they have to agree. Next slide. So this is um Ashley. So and then we have to break it into basically phases of what we're doing. Part of this is based off of

102how intensive is the construction. So you can see the yellow area that would be addition. So the yellow area at the top middle that is a new media center that would be added on. Part of that is also we would take the dark red portion there. Um the small yellow portion to the right, it's actually more, but that's just our kind of placeholder. That's where the additional classrooms would be added kind of going to the south. And then the kind of like light red or pink there at on the left hand side, that is the current older classrooms that we are going to do the same thing we did with north. So, we'll take those classrooms um totally refurbish those, make them larger classrooms. And then the most of the um the blue area is

103those would be now that we're adding in a media center. The media center will become a math not math, a science and a STEM area that once we vacate that. So, this is kind of the process that we go through with each building to kind of break it up. Part of it is it's just logistics of where we can move people. So talking to principles to get input on that. The basic gist of it is build a new space, be able to move people into it, vacate the old space, work on the old space. But there's always things here and there that you have to kind of adjust for because if we want it's part of it is the vendors. What do we have the contractors? Are they doing the same thing? So if they

104could work on the same thing and because we want to the reason all of this is we want pe more bids and they can bid across different buildings and hopefully drive down those costs. So that kind of gives you an idea of how we phase it. So this is Ashley. We don't really have dates yet. We're still in the phase of just chopping it up and and looking at potential like concepts and all that. Next slide. And then part of it is it's also interior but also exterior. So, we know that part of it when it's all said and done with the construction that we'll extend the parking lot um off of Ashley and then we'll we need to redo the parking lot behind the building. The big challenge that we're working on now is

105just working with the engineering and and the transportation people to figure out how do we how do we get the buses and how do we kind of situate those and and make them fit in the parking lots. So, but that would be towards the end of the project. It would we would do it in the summer once all the rest of the construction is basically the the heavy work and heavy machinery is gone. Next slide. This is a concept. So if you look at that dark red portion with the yellow. So this is roughly kind of the concept that we're working with for the media center and there's some other areas. Um this kind of shows you're going to see some um basic concepts of what it would look like and that's what we're getting

106feedback on. No. Um, one of the the things that everybody talked about is they wanted they like this leaf motif. Um, we're looking at is one is Ashley's the Allstars. Nld's the star. So, do we do stars instead? Next slide. This kind of gives you this is what the media center would look like. Um, at Ashley um there's you can see the those things on the wall, the leaves there. It's sound deadening material. Instead of doing a rectangle, we do something that. So, that's what we're looking at. Same thing with the the clouds in the ceiling. That's been a whole discussion. This is just another angle of it. This is so looking out from the other thing other angle. So it's from inside the school out. Next slide. And then this is just another angle

107of kind of where everything. So one area would be kind of what we've been doing books in one area kind of at all of the media centers and then you'd have these like collaboration areas and and places where they could bring students down. And you can notice this just has a different this is now circles instead of leaves and so on. Next slide. And talking about furniture and things like that, we don't necessarily have to do the furniture right now, but we need to kind of have a concept. It's all the fixed things. So everything that gets bid now is what's fixed, what's going to be there because we don't want to change orders later. Furniture will come at a later date. But if we're going to go like this is a reading nook that

108we've been discussing to give kids opportunities to kind of fit that within the book areas. And so that those are some of the discussions that are going on now. Next slide. Then this is Naul. Um NDRT is probably going to be the the larger challenge of the two. we um it's just the the whole goal has been to take those public areas and push them more towards the front. Um you can see so the yellow area up at the top that would be a media center and a new office because the office is kind of buried. That would bring that out and then again we'll add an addition off the back there. Um, so those are the added areas and then again where you can see the red and the blue is there was already

109an addition of larger classrooms. So we would make those the red area would be taking smaller classrooms making them into larger classrooms. But everything would get kind of what we did at Lighthouse, new flooring, new lighting and upgrades on ceilings and the whole nine yards. Um, in order to do that again next slide. So, same thing. The null has been a challenge just because the parking lot is just not large enough as it is now and it's off that blank curve. So, we feel this one we actually the park the exterior we're actually better on this one right now working through within Ashley because you can kind of see the two overlapping green areas. So the top one that kind of goes into the the the diamond area there, that would be now parent pickup

110and drop off and all that. And so we'd have it separated from the um where the buses would go. The the bus loop in the front that's typically those are our special needs buses have been going there. The rest of the buses would go into the main parking lot as they do now. And then you can see kind of like a darker green between that. that would be kind of a sidewalk that would separate the two because your goal is to try and separate parent pickup and drop off from buses as much as possible. Um we are already talking about this was brought up by um somebody from the public last month. So see that sidewalk that cuts through the back um that actually we actually own the lot that goes into the subdivision. We

111have walkers we will already are working on having because that's where the addition will go a con a construction fence scope that's more than your temporary construction fence and just so that that will also be in place and then once it's all said and done then we can have like a permanent permanent fence there. Next slide. So again you can see it's kind of the this is just a concept. So this is just the library portion of it. Um, and next slide you can kind of see what the rendering would look like. Um, there were several ones that had different like color combinations, all that, but I figured one would be enough. Again, area for books looking at it um, from the other um, point of view. So, you would have that there would be

112a little classroom, computer lab, things like that off to the side. So, that's it. It follows along the same things and we kind of stick with what we've done in in other buildings. Next slide. This would be this is a rendering of the current what's current library but would become these are ideas for if we turn when we turn those into science and STEM rooms. How would they do that? The challenge is especially in the areas that are kind of like buried inside the school. There's not windows there. And so how can we make it kind of look like that? So part of that is lighting ideas. There's also concern with how the echo because we we'd like to keep the volume that they have there for the the the ceiling, but then there's just

113challenges with that in in echoes and things like that. So, these are again just concepts. Next slide. And another concept we're looking at is if we can't put a window in and we're not putting skylights in, do we do something that kind of gives that idea of it's open, there's you're seeing the sky. And so you can see kind of the same thing. Do a higher ceiling and then these clouds kind of below that. Next slide. South. This is this has been one that we we focus on the elementaryaries. We've been working on this. This is I can tell you just as of our last meeting this is not where it's going to be just because we're we have different options. So part of it the red area was our initial focus. We were like,

114"Okay, can we kind of do that?" The challenge is and and this is just because of the the people that we had come in, the enrollment that we've had come in the south, is can we take all of those classrooms offline because South ended up having about 70 68 kids more than we anticipated. So there's more classroom usage. So now we're kind of how can we divide that up? The other thing is South is not does not have a sprinkler system. So then it's we're weighing out do you sprinkle the whole building? What's the cost of that versus there's other um new requirements that you have where you see it like here where there's the fire doors that break up the hallways. We may have to um trying to get clarification on that because there's

115just the the new laws you have to break up smoke zones and things like that. So if kids are coming from one classroom and it was you have to have two doors if it's more than thousand square feet and then but then they have to go in two separate smoke zones. So if there's a fire at one end they all go through the other door and you can't have smoke travel down. So we're working on all of that. um and and working on phasing, but that's kind of the where we're at with south. Um we've the science area we kind of that's the kind of brownish area at the bottom or orange if you want to call it that kind of have a good plan on that. That's when we were meeting with the science

116teachers. Um we have a good idea. We met with the engineering teachers and so on to kind of that's the where the band room in the lower right hand corner the white section that is where the band room is is working on almost being complete and then we have what um a storage area and then what will be the um small engine repair and then it goes into our to the left those green areas engineering and then there's the maker space. So we have a good idea with that one as well. And then it's just now how do we kind of parse that out and make it fit what's going on with the elementarymentaries as well. But again, when it's all said and done, we're basically going to touch almost the entire every square footage

117in the building of some sort. And it's just how do we chop that up in that building? Um, and what can we pull ahead? What can we do? um and fit all of the code things like and and it comes down to just a lot of it it's like sports. It's a game of inches like we know with the bathrooms going to redo the bathrooms and it all came down to how far can because you have to have a certain amount you have to fit um ADA requirements. So how many inches can you get out from the wall and all of that and so we can do a one for one we're pretty sure of that. So then we otherwise we'd be losing bathroom space and then if you lose number of bathrooms versus number

118of students in the building and it's more of an issue in the elementary because then it affects sack and so it's just going through all these ripple effects of how far do they have to go for a restroom and how does it affect the other licensing. So, just to give you an idea of where we're at, but we'll do our final plan and have that off um next week and then we'll hope that the state can look at it and approve it before we get it. Same thing. Here's kind of the plan for the exterior. This one's a little bit easier because with South being originally a high school and the students don't drive, it's not as as large of a thing, but we know we need quite a bit of work on the parking

119lots. So, the red zone is out by where the old shoreliner is and so there's that's not used that much. So, we'll be able to close that. We'll be able to do that. That would be a pull ahead area. And then we'd move into trying to do the main lot in front and then we'd move we'd finally pick up in the back um with the green area and then because of we need staging areas for everything that'll be last because you'll have heavy equipment driving on it and we don't um we don't anticipate that the condition that it's in now that it'll hold up well in the long run with all of that. So that's why we that'll be the last portion. Questions on this. >> Is it safe to say that the uh punch

120list for the high school and lighthouse are complete? >> No, they should be done. It's 60 days typically. So they got it. So basically it'll be about third week of October. They should be done. >> Is South um planned to add air conditioning for the gym? Is that part of anything? >> Currently that's not in this phase. The the hope is every building we're kind of going back to a second time. So and and if we depending on how you know bids come in and all that that would be part of the if wish list that we could do at the end. Same thing. So, is it is it it's part of for like a a wish list or is it part >> it's it's part of if all of these all of these first

121phases go well and we have the money left over then that would be we'd come back to or if we can fit it into the energy bond if that works as well because that would also be able to fit. >> Anyone else? >> Are we accepting non-bond questions? >> Yeah. Um, several of our properties went into a hold earlier. I think it's earlier this week, and I'm wondering why we don't have an onsite one-click solution to lock all of our exterior doors and not have the key cards work because from my understanding, at least at South, we went into a hold, but then some people were out of the building and when they returned, their key cards worked and they were able to get back into the building. We do. We actually installed the panic

122buttons that will go and put everything into a lockdown. But if we don't on a hold, it's you still operate everything as normal, >> right? >> But you you still don't want the opportunity for anybody to tailgate somebody else inside the building. >> Yeah. >> But the the buttons that they have that are one button, it does everything. It locks it down. And it also contacts authorities and and the whole nine yards. >> I think to Jaime's point, can we not go into our card access system and lock down a school? >> Yeah, we yeah, we could do that. The it will be on as part of the phone system when that's going. So that's what we're working on now. So we have four buildings that they'll have that because they'll have buttons that basically

123you'll have and so you'll have a lock down, you'll have a secure, you'll have a hold and all that. And then when that's done and programmed, then you can you'll be able to choose between those otherwise they have to go in and yeah and do it kind of um manually. >> So I want to make sure I understand right now you don't have the capability to lock down a building electronically. >> Not in >> with key cards. We do, but not in one foul swoop unless you hit the the the buttons that we added, which kind of is the >> Are we going Are we going to add that that you can isolate a building and turn off the car? >> That's part of the whole emergency alert >> without hitting a button, though. Without

124having the police show up, I can lock down a building. >> Yeah. So, you'll see on our new phone system that's going in, they'll basically they they will have buttons that they could hit depending on if it's because they're also colorcoded because that's the new state law. We'll line that up. So, one button will be locked down. It does everything. Same as that panic button on the wall. >> One button will be just a hold, >> one will be secure depending on what they have. And then there will be an accompanying message that goes across on the system or on the phones or anything um that will also say that along with a color um if it's for some reason code green is not like release. It's one of the things. So like it'll be

125green if it's that. If it's locked down, it's I think it's blue and so on. Yes. So, that is going in as it as it goes. Now, >> anyone else? >> I I'll just say since since we brought up I wasn't going to even bring this up, but since we're talking about it in the f I think there's a lot of I think a lot of people in the public just hold and lock down are are the same thing and they're very different. >> And so, in the future when we do go into hold, maybe when we release our statement, add in as a reminder, a hold is not a lockdown. here's what a hold is. Just so people are not posting on social media and calling board members or calling administration and saying why

126are we in a lockdown when we're not. >> No. And and I think we actually did that. Nobody's just allowed in or out of the building on the thing. But it and yes and then we'll it as we train that once we get guidance more from the state on all that. >> Um >> because there's on how to use language, what language they're going to do because the law just said everybody has to use the same language. they haven't decided which protocol that they're doing. We are guessing that they're going to use what most districts are using. So once we have that, then we'll we'll use the same terminology and everything from that. All right, let's move on to uh hearing of the public. I actually don't have any um requests to address the board.

127So seeing none, we will move on uh to the consent agenda. At this time, I would entertain a motion to uh approve the consent agenda as it has been presented. >> Can we >> I'll make the motion. >> Hang on a minute. Sounds like >> Yeah, Dennis had something. >> Yeah. Can we remove the personnel report from the consent agenda? I just have some questions around the uh personnel report. >> All right. So I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented and separate out the personnel report for a separate discussion and actually approval. >> I will make that motion. >> Motion by Miss Knox. Do I have a support? >> Second. >> Supported by Mr. Powers. Call the role if you would, sir. >> Miss Knox, >> yes. >> Mr. Powers.

128>> Yes. >> Mr. Sunnyberger. Yes, >> Miss Burke. >> Mr. Venatilli. >> Yes, >> Richards is yes. And Mr. Green. >> Yes. >> All right. So, the motion carries. I will turn it back over to you. Uh, Mr. Richards, >> I just have some questions around the personnel report. Um, and the first part is just mainly for my self-education, I guess. But is this personnel report where we're changing like uh sixth hour for some of the teachers um like the the uh percent of the hour is that just for the one-time pay cycle or is that a permanent change for the entire year? >> It really depends on the teacher and whether they're if it's just for one trimester, if it's for the entire year. >> Okay. So, the group on this one with the

129the full-time employee change for the group of teachers, there's like 10 teachers like for the sixth hour. Is that for the semester or the or the >> Well, yeah. Really? All of them are at least trimester one. Some could be. >> Yeah. >> And I I got a couple of emails and phone calls in regards to this calculation versus what some of the staff members are coming up with for the calculation. Can you just walk me through how we come to this calculation um and how staff members are getting >> Yeah. So the calculation is based off of the rate and it's and it's because each trimester it's broken down by day. So because they're not equal things. So we break it down by the number of days because there's not the same number of

130days in the pay period as in in each trimester. >> Okay. So it's based off the number of paydays during >> Yeah. and and Todd actually is part of that, so he can give you some he can help if you have other questions. >> All right. So, I'll I'll kind of jump in on that. So, we've got it as a 1.056 full-time equivalent. That's obviously So, we're moving them from a one for this trimester >> to a 1.056. How do we arrive at that 056? Because if they're truly normally a five period employee and they're picking up a sixth period, shouldn't we be moving them to a 1.66 like repeating scenario? >> Yeah. So, the way we do it is we basically um take one sixth, right? Because they get six hours a day and

131they receive are supposed to receive one prep hour for and five hours of instruction. So if they add a sixth hour of instruction and don't have a prep, then what we would do is we would take one six and that if you divide one by six, you come up with 167 and then roughly Phil said it it's a little bit different because each trimester is a little bit different but roughly speaking a trimester is a third of that number. So if you take 1.167 and divide that well I'm sorry take the.167 divide that by three and you will likely come very close to that >> 056 whatever it is. Yeah. >> So is this a change that we that automatically rescends after the trimester? >> No. >> Do we So it stays in place until

132we make a payroll change. Well, there yes. I mean, yes is the answer. >> So, if these 10 teachers didn't keep the sixth hour for next trimester, you'd be bringing them on a payroll report back to us. >> Going back. Yeah. >> No. >> Well, if they go back to one, we don't. Yeah. >> I I think what >> So, it takes a a board a board vote to move them to a 1.056, but not a board move to move them back to one. >> They won't move back. So if if you're only teaching one trimester, you would get your full FTE plus the other .056 FTE for that first trimester. >> Correct? >> If you're teaching all three trimesters, then we would present to the board 1.167 FTE and that's for the entire year.

133So, um, we would never come back to you and ask you to change that unless potentially somebody was committed to teach a sixth hour in the third trimester and they decided not to and so we had to change that FTE. >> So, you're still going to have to come back for the second trimester for these employees at a 1.056 >> only if they choose to only if they're required. I don't think it's a choice. Well, it's a kind of a choice on their part if they want to do it, but um only if they're required to add a second or third trimester that we're currently not planning on. >> Okay. >> So, basically, if if I'm only planning on teaching the first trimester of the year, I'm going to get I'm going to have something

134that comes to the personnel report that says I'm going to work for 1.056 FTE and then we're going to pay them out for the remainder of the year for that FTE. Okay. >> And then the only time we would come back for that person is if for some reason they stopped teaching that six-hour um or or initially they were we told you that they were going to teach all three trimesters and they're only teaching one, then we would have to come back to the board. >> I guess I still don't understand the math. Um go ahead. >> No, I I'm thinking I think I'm right where you are, but I might be able to explain it. >> Okay. So you're taking the 16 and you're dividing it by three. But that means you're assuming they're

135only in this trimester and now you're spreading one trimester of extra hour pay over the over three. But if they come if they're say they're doing it all year, they're teaching the sixth hour all year. So come second trimester, are you doubling what they're getting extra? And that then you're shorting them. >> No. So if if you're teaching sixth hour, you're taking that sixth hour and dividing it into three and you're only giving them one of the third. Now >> if you're shorting them 2/3, >> we are not doing that. So if somebody's teaching and and there may be, you know, I'm not sure because we did have some errors initially that we fixed who you're referencing, but um it the way it should be presented is that if you were working all three trimesters,

136you should have an FTE of 1.167 and you are getting paid for that amount. So we would take your salary times 1.167 so you know roughly a sixth more um and add that on to your salary and you would be paid that for the entire year. We are not what we're not doing. We're not stacking trimesters if that's what you're thinking. Like, hey, in the first trimester, we're going to pay >> six though. Like I And I >> that's for the whole year because you're only teaching one trimester. >> But if I teach three trimesters, >> then you would get 1.167. It's a It's three times as much >> listed on this report as 1.056. >> Well, then maybe the report is inaccurate. >> Because I don't think every single person is. >> Okay. So,

137I guess that's where we're getting to. >> If you just if you give me a name that you're talking about, I can probably >> I don't I don't know cuz I don't know who is doing what, but I'm just saying like all the sixth hour people are listed as 1.056. >> The first person on my list is is Emily Burke or Emily Berkkey >> teacher 6th hour 1.056 FTE. So, I get that we're making this change for one trimester, >> but if you just continue to keep it at 1.056 056 for the rest of the year. I see. No, >> it's because the next one should be 1 point oh gosh, you know, one2 or something. >> They should be getting a 0056 every try. >> No, it should be 1.6. If they're doing it

138all year, it's 1.167 or whatever it is. And then, >> but if it's only one trimester, then it's a third of that. Yeah. >> Right. >> Yeah. >> So, we generally know at the start of the school year what somebody's going to work. Are they going to work a trimester or sixth hour for the entire year? And if that's the case, they should be on there at 1.167. If we believe they're only going to work one trimester, we would give them the 1.056. >> Okay. So, I got I understand that for this trimester. Maybe I'm just >> just that needs not understanding reflect. >> It does. So you have to come back on a different personnel report and and modify that. >> If it's wrong on the report, we need to modify it. But generally

139speaking, we would never come back to you and ask for a modification because we know that person's only teaching one trimester and therefore we're asking for 1.056. And if the person if we know that person's going to teach three trimesters, I'm going to say it's 1.167. It's the whole anchelada. We're not coming back. It just needs to reflect that on the report. >> It does. >> Yeah. >> But have paychecks gone out at one point the 1.0? >> Well, people are Yeah, there are people saying that they were shorted on a paycheck, but I don't >> There were about eight individuals that were incorrectly calculated. >> Okay. >> We have since identified those folks. Uh I sent out a communication to them on Monday stating that we will fix that on the first pay in

140October, October 3rd, and we will catch them up. Now, some some some of the issue will happen on a six-hour every year. It it's a little more complicated now with a trimester. The first time we're doing it, it was there was some issues and and we've had a little bit of turnover in our HR department, so that didn't help. there was some miscommunication and so forth. But um what I would say is even in a normal year with semesters because sometimes we don't know if somebody's going to teach a sixth hour till literally the day before school starts. Um sometimes we do miss for certain folks that first pay period uh of the school year and then we catch them up for the rest of the year. In this case, what we're going to do

141is anybody who didn't get paid, we're going to get them completely caught up as of October 3rd and then going forward, they will be correct in their pay. >> So, Dennis, you specifically asked, are you understanding? Are you comfortable with where we're at? >> Why are you confused? I I don't feel like I am, but I feel like if anybody on this list was going to be teaching, we knew now they would be at the 1.16. Yeah. >> Which you're talking that's 16.7% of someone >> salary. So, >> which is fixed. >> Nothing to sneeze at though. >> Yeah. >> You know, if you have $100,000 teacher, that's $16,000 their money. >> Correct. >> So, I mean, that's substantial. And there's eight people on that list that you guys are talking about. >> There's 17.

142>> 17. Okay. >> 17 on the list. >> Well, 17 teachers that are listed here. >> I believe it was 17. >> I mean, with the >> with the change >> 1056, >> correct? >> Yep. >> I would recommend that we amend that personnel report. >> I don't know, you know, I don't know if that's something you want to do on the fly right now. No, but you certainly have an approval sitting on our >> back. If you chose to as a board tonight to table that a corrected report there 17. >> Yeah, but if if we table that, you technically can't change their pay rates, >> which means you can't fix the problem on October 8. >> Misses a payroll cycle, right? >> You're going to miss payroll cycle. I >> I don't think

143we technically need your >> No, because we start Yeah. Okay. >> So So now we're getting to the nitty-gritty. Yeah. Tell us how you really feel. >> No, we've always it's you guys have tacitly approved it when you approve the budget. >> Right. >> So, >> it hasn't been specifically uh >> because we run into this always with the August meeting because we start like let's just take example we have a new principal at Nulra. >> Yeah. Or so if we hire somebody >> they start getting paid and then we have a board meeting. I got it. you know, if we hire somebody at step five. >> You guys would be really be so if we didn't approve it. >> Yeah. >> But I guess you're saying that we don't have that ability anyway. So,

144>> all right. Anyone else? Any >> I have a non-math question about the personnel report. >> Is it typical for us to hire a new hire administrator assistant in at step 11 or is that specific to that position? It yeah it depends on the experience that they have and it depends on the the candidate pool that we have. >> It depends on what was the last part? I'm sorry. >> Depends on the candidate pool that we have and >> mechanical what? >> Candidate pool. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. >> Yeah. >> Not if they're a mechanical engineer. That's a candidate pool. >> Yeah. >> All right. So this what this is a reflection of of not having a lot of candidates supply and demand. >> Yeah. Yeah. typically that that's the case or their experience that they

145have. If you get somebody who's more experienced, it's the same thing with we do with teachers as well. If you have somebody who's been I mean there was a time where you didn't give any steps, but now you you give steps if they have them and people move based off of those. Okay. >> All right. Anybody else? Um on the I notice we have the instructional is it instructional coach? Um Mr. Lombardo had left. >> Mhm. >> Um was that reintered for? >> Yes. >> Anything else, ma'am? Anybody else? >> All right. Well, then I think we can just move on in the agenda because apparently it doesn't matter if we approve this report or not. So, >> we will have it amended for you for next month. >> All right. Moving on then. Uh

146let's get into new business. Let's talk about a policy first reading you all have in front of you. Uh this is the employee salary schedules. Um you'll also find that uh these are recommendations that came from Miller Johnson, our school policy and law firm. Uh and technically this is a first reading. Uh so there is no board action necessary. However, I did want some clarity on to whether we are choosing option one or option two. >> We are choosing option one, which is what we currently do already because if you remember last month, we brought the new salary scales for all of the positions. actually the last two board meetings um we did non-affffiliated last month and before that it was the for all of the affiliated or or bargaining series um this this pertains

147this is long story short there this is the first wave of what you're going to see from the Batista case that's at the state and it's really affects non-affiliated people or anybody who's in a position less than three positions or if you have less than three people in that position um that's not in a um bargaining unit. And so basically just says that the board has to approve what's considered a normal salary schedule for those employees because otherwise that may not be counted towards their pension as they go forward because otherwise they can't move it going forward. >> Any questions on this first reading? Hearing none, we will move on to uh item number two, food service state budget resolution. Um you have before you tonight a resolution. Uh and I would entertain a motion

148to approve that resolution. Uh I don't think I need to read the entire resolution. Um but uh so the recommended action is that the board of education approve the food food service resolution as presented. Uh so for the purposes of discussion, hopefully we'll get a uh motion in a second and we can move forward. >> I'll make a motion that we implement meal charges for students who do not automatically qualify for free meals effective November 1st unless the state of Michigan passes a budget that includes specific funding for the Michigan School Meals Program. >> I will second that. >> All right, I've got a motion and a second. Uh let's open the discussion. Um, Mr. Powers, you made the motion. Any comments at this point? >> No, I mean, we talked about it during uh

149his report out. I think this makes sense and I think it's probably likely that it'll end up being much do about nothing anyways, but um let's hope >> we have to we have to start a plan B and this is what that does. So, >> any comments or questions or anything else you want to add, Mr. Chancowski? I think we've circled this wagon on this. No, that's and our goal would be to send out a communication this week so we can give them as much opportunity that should it come to that and then we'll just keep them updated. We'll keep people updated as we know from the state >> for um anyone that's maybe watching at home that tuned in later or whatever. Can you give a quick synopsis of what this means for our

150students? So basically this is that the board will continue we will provide notice that as of November 1st essentially we will stop providing should the state not fund the universal meal program going forward we will stop providing the universal meals and so then students and families would have to um qualify for the free or reduced program as of November 1st but if they fund that then we will be fine going forward. Thank you. >> So, just to just to reiterate, I know we talked about it, but again, anyone else who may have just joined or it's important enough to me anyway, and obviously Miss Burkmire too, she's we're trying to put some caveats in. You immediately need to fill out the the form if you need help. Correct. >> I know I did not add

151up there, but let's clarify that >> it so it depends on which form that we go with. So we would go with that. This is again Todd will probably kind of he can kind as he explained. So if we stay in the the C program, okay, >> then they can't use the other form. We're just telling the state that should we >> should they not fund it, we are going to pull out of that and then we have to use the other form and we're hoping to get clarification that. But that is how it stands as of right now. >> But that still leaves us in the 30-day notice period. Yes. >> And possibly with an inability to do anything during that period, right? >> Potentially. >> Yeah. So, when you're under the C, you

152fill out a form that is very similar in nature uh called educational meals form or something like that. I don't recall the exact name of it. Um, but if you get out of the C program and start charging again um for those schools, then you need to fill out the free and reduced application. Even though they're very similar, >> one cannot substitute for the other. It's unfortunate. >> I'm just going to recap one more time. So, if you're at home and the budget does not pass and reduced or um universal lunch isn't approved, Ankor Bay is going to cover the cost for the month of October. But beginning November 1st, the if you require free or reduced lunch, you will have to complete some form. So, basically, follow Ankor Bay if you need these services

153and they will update you on what you need to do. >> Yeah. My my advice would be as of October 6th, October 3rd is the Friday, I cannot imagine them not having a budget done before then. So then October 6th, we will put something out on whether or not they need to do that at that. So just hold tight until we give recommendations. Yes. >> The um I have a couple questions, too. Um, if my child's meal balance, you know, goes in the negative, >> we do not refuse lunches to those students. >> No, we don't. >> Are we still uh offering those students the peanut butter and jelly? Nothing against peanut butter and jelly, but are we still offering them peanut butter and jelly? Are we going to offer them the full >> It's

154been a while since I've looked at the uh meals policy uh because the last two years we haven't had to. But my recollection is we allow at different levels we allow them to go into the negative >> like >> as soon as they enter the negative um we start sending emails home uh to let alerting them to the negative balance and uh typically I would say in 99% of the cases it's resolved uh we don't have to worry about that but in those cases where the balance continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger um you know often Sometimes it's a oneoff kind of decision as to how we're going to handle that. >> Okay. >> So, the peanut butter and jelly would be the resource. >> Very rarely do we use peanut butter and

155jelly. >> But if somebody's running and then you if they really run in deficit, typically it's >> hundreds of dollars or thousands. >> Well, and and what what's the situation? Can we get other help? Can we get like feed the bay? Things like that involved. >> Correct. >> That's why there's not a standard approach. It's it it's often times varied depending on the situation. Are we concerned that by, you know, if this goes on prolonged and we're removing ourselves from the C program and then now we're doing just the tradition and there's two different forms that we're going to have a I mean, yes, people will need to fill out like a new form even if they already had a form. And I guess my concern is that >> people are going to think they

156already filled out a form. Absolutely. You know, and so >> that will be a struggle. It will be a challenge. You're exactly right. >> That's why our communication will not be they don't have to do anything yet until but if it goes past the third then all bets are off and then we'll have to then that'll give us basically three weeks almost four weeks. Well, yeah. No, it's after the third and 28 days. So, it'll give us four weeks to to really kind of get that out there. >> So, as a footnote to that, if you're listening at home or if you're sitting up here, you need to be calling your elected people in Lancing and tell them that we need this done, not just for the the food service part, but we're we sit

157in the finance committee and we we might as just put a roulette wheel or a dart board in there to guess at what exactly is going to happen. We've already had a description of of two possible scenarios and there's a third one out there is the governor's budget usually ends up in the middle between the two of them. >> But um it's it's really hard to not know what you have coming in and what's going to happen and what tomorrow's going to bring uh and whatever is going on in Lancing. They've put squarely us and children in the middle >> and we're doing the best we can to you know figure out those numbers. So, finance committee meetings have gotten a little more challenging when we don't have we don't have numbers and like I

158said, it could be a dart board. So, anybody anything else before we vote on Mr. P's motion hearing? None. Mr. Secretary, could you call the role? >> Mr. Powers, >> yes. >> Miss Knox, >> yes. >> Mr. Sunnyberger, >> yes. >> Miss Bergmeer, >> yes. >> Mr. Vinatilli, >> yes. Richards. Yes. Mr. Green. >> Yes. Motion carries. Item three under new business is award recommendations. Uh the bond team has reviewed the furniture recommendation provided by NBS Commercial Interiors. NBS Commercial Interiors has applied cooperative pricing. Cost includes furniture for areas in the engineering pathway staff workroom. Uh and again this is at the high school. It is the recommendation to award the furniture as listed to NBS commercial interiors in the amount of 17,132.72. That includes providing the furniture and installing. So at this time I

159would entertain a motion to that effect. >> I'll make the motion. >> I'll second. >> Motion by Miss Knox, supported by Mr. Venitelli. You have in front of you the um should be part of your packet a layout of the room as well as the um the recommendation. Uh any comments, questions or concerns? Hearing none, sir, if you'd be so kind. It is only 17,000, but let's do a roll call anyway. >> Miss Knox, >> yes. >> Mr. Venitelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Sunnyberger, >> yes. Mr. Powers, >> yes. >> Miss Burk Meer. >> Mr. Richards is a yes. Mr. Green, >> yes. Motion carries. Item number four on our new business agenda is a volunteer appeal. As part of our recent policy update, we instituted an appeal process for those parents who wish to

160volunteer or accompany students on field trips. Current practice is to hold parents to the same restrictions the state places on district employees. Excuse me. The appeal process will allow each parent to speak about their appeal for 5 minutes and then the board will vote on the appeal. Tonight we have one appeal, parent A. Uh so if parent A, if you're here in attendance, if you'd like to approach the podium there. >> Good evening. Uh I'm here to appeal the decision my daughter Apparently [Music] about 25 years ago served in the military not as my record has shown nothing happened in the past 25 years. Um so just trying to be engaged my daughter arrives where she wants me to be there. So requesting this. >> So the um charges were shared with you guys. Uh

161the record was shared with you guys in your packet. Uh I will turn it over to the board if you have any questions for parent A. Hearing none, I would open the floor up for any board member that is so inclined to make a motion. Um, I would like to make a motion that we approve the appeal for parent A. >> I have a motion on the floor. >> I'll support >> and a support from Miss Burke. Any further discussion? >> All right. Hearing none. Uh, Mr. Secretary, would we call the role? >> Sure. >> Miss Knox? >> Yes. >> Miss Burke? Yes, >> Mr. Sunnyberger. >> Yes, >> Mr. Powers. >> No, >> Mr. Vinatelli. No, >> Richards is a yes. Mr. Green, >> no. >> What does that tally? I believe 43. >>

16243. >> So, the motion carries. Congratulations. Your uh appeal has been approved. >> All right, let's move on to points of pride. Um, let's start with uh Mr. Sunnyburgger. >> Good evening, sir. >> Good evening. How are you? >> I'm well. >> I don't I don't think I It's been a long day. I don't think I have anything. >> Mr. Powers, >> I just wanted to publicly thank our uh our building staff and administrators for the way that they've implemented the uh the new cell phone policy so far this year. you know, as if there wasn't enough change going on. We threw that at them. Uh we got some some pretty detailed numbers in our policy committee meeting a few weeks ago and it's I think we were all surprised at how well it's gone

163so far. Um and and you know that can't be done without implementing the policy with with good leadership and and good um good follow through at the building level. So everybody seems to be doing well with it and uh I just I really appreciate that. as a board member, we can we can set policy all day long, but if it doesn't get implemented well at the building level, it doesn't matter. And they seem to be doing a really good job with that. Um, I think we all got that email from a teacher who said she's she's seeing things in students that she hasn't seen in 10 years in terms of um, you know, their their social interactions and and their connections with their fellow students and staff members. Um, I think one of our building

164principles when they held a parent meeting at the start of the year and just announced the cell phone policy got met with applause from the parents. So, you know, I think most of the parents seem to be on board with it. And um, I think we're even starting to hear stories about students saying that it's kind of refreshing to be able to interact with uh their friends and and fellow students without the the technology interruption. So, it's going well so far and um it couldn't go well without uh our building staff um making it go well. So, I wanted to thank them for that. >> Thank you, sir. Mr. Venitelli, >> I do have comments today. Thank you. I normally I' I'd kind of pass this by. Yeah, usually it's the end of the day

165and it's kind of like who's really watching at this point in time, but I do want to talk about something that's very important. Um, and that's with uh based on a very popular game program uh which up to a couple of weeks ago. And by the way, these words are written, but it it is from me. It's from stuff that I kind of put up ahead of time because I know I get nervous and I might fumble it. So, it's all here just so I can keep my words straightened out. Um, but anyway, um, I and likely many others had no idea of it of its existence. And the program is called Roblox uh which can be accessed via phone, tablet, computer and which is likely which is apparently extremely popular with kids today. And

166uh this is to the tune of about 100 million daily active users. The program itself is designed to be harmless. Uh it's basically just you play as like a Lego character and you're you know you play games with other kids and sort of a way for them to interact and sort of engage with people their age. Uh but unfortunately we live in a world of bad actors and so individuals with bad intent have used this platform uh to take advantage of unsuspecting and unprepared kids to groom and obtain certain types of uh sexually related pictures from them as well as stage meetups with these victims to engage in I'll call it explicit activities. Uh the process for occurring uh for for this occurring is fairly simple. uh a user logs onto Roblox platform like anyone

167else joins a game with kids then engages with him questions like hey how old are you and obviously this is following like they probably get to meet him and make small talk before that but that's essentially where it leads to uh if the kin continues to engage the conversation may lead to other platforms like Discord or Snapchat whereby explicit pictures are taken in exchange for in-game currency also known as Robux um it's like Roblox but with bucks at the end um in Some cases, the predator will continue on at that point, accusing the victim of doing something wrong, saying, "You shouldn't have done that. You're in big trouble. I'm telling your parents." And then they then use that leverage to blackmail the victim into sending additional uh explicit pictures and engaging in other actions that

168I will just stop there and call it uh utterly unspeakable. It gets um you get in the world of this, it gets pretty dark uh very quickly. As you might be wondering, as I have how uh something like this has been allowed to propagate itself in a seemingly harmless platform. Um that that's obviously not what the designers had intended for their platform, but that's what it's sort of devolved into. Um they don't they have moderators, don't they have methods to catch back bad actors? The answer is yes. Uh but it's only to the tune about 3,200 human moderators assisted with AI systems. Uh so utilizing a few thousand moderators to scope through what is actually 6.1 billion chat messages per day. 6.1 billion chat messages per day and hundreds of millions of hours of voice

169chat uh per day which is evidently infeasible for that moderation amount to actually accomp accomplish. So to get around this all someone has to do is ask some questions like what's your DC? That's sort of like code word for what's your Discord. Uh want to get on Snap as like Snapchat. So like is the you know algorithm code going to ban the word snap? It's it's very difficult to go around these things unless you're actually a human looking at context directly. So other methods to get around moderation include uh using emojis or Icelandic text uh because that's it's harder to get through a filter if you use something looks more like a symbol that someone could interpret as a letter. Um so as discussed in Roblox Tech Talks episode 28, uh they put these videos

170on YouTube. Uh they discussed certain safety measures that they're in the process of implementing to combat sexual predation online features such as authentic conversations whereby facial recognition estimates the age of users to screen out users under the age of 13. So they're excluded from certain types of content as well as not allowing images or videos being shared on Roblox platform. To their credit, these images are not shared on their platform. They're shared on a different site but they're engaged on Roblox and that's how that the whole process starts. Uh they also have a trusted flagger program whereby their internal safety team approves individual users to flag or report certain types of risky abusive content with streamlined communication. Streamlined communication is the important aspect. So so obviously I mean I'm I'm biased. I don't have a

171very good opinion over Roblox. Um the first thing that comes to mind is why do you need to be part of a trusted flagger program to get a streamlined communication? If you're reporting abusive content in their platform, no matter who you are, that should be streamlined and ultimately, you know, heightened right from the get-go. No matter who's reporting that, if it's abusive content, that should be the first thing that's addressed before any other tech glitches. Uh, further, there have been many individuals who will take it upon themselves to decoy themselves as kids to catch predators on this platform, very similar to Chris Hansen's to catch a predator from the early 2000s, if you guys recall. um which Roblox has referred to as vigilantes and has has actually banned them from participation unfortunately. Uh so there's

172a lot more I want to mention about this. I believe it's sufficient to say at this point is my strong opinion uh that if you're allowing your kids on the Roblox platform, you are putting them at serious risk and this is a very very popular program. A lot of kids even our district likely are using this program. Um, but if you want information on this, um, feel free to look up, uh, Roblox and I'll I'll see this because I know a lot of people might want like go back to this point in the video on the YouTube channel and and listen this. I I'll speak clearly for this. Uh, it's called Roblox Tech Talks episode 28, update on our safety initiatives. And that's a YouTube video. On the other side, there's another YouTube channel called

173uh Schlepp that's spelled sh uh s c h le p and that is a titled video called Roblox take a seat featuring Chris Hansen. Um then there's also independent research that's been done by by the hidenberg research group. Um it's a it's titled Roblox uh in inflated key metrics for Wall Street and a pedophile hellscape for kids. Uh, and the response to that, Roblox's response is titled Roblox refutes misleading claims in Heidenberg report. Um, if you're curious to learn more about in terms of legal action, there's a couple of lawsuits, about a dozen actually, that are going against Roblox right now. Uh, one of those is the state of Louisiana by Attorney General Liz Mural alleging Roblox created a dangerous environment that facilitates sexual predators and fails to protect children. Uh there's another one from

174West De Moines, Iowa, a civil suit alleging grooming, kidnapping, interstate trafficking, and sexual abuse after meeting a predator on Roblox for a 13-year-old. And uh another one from Galveston, Texas, a federal lawsuit alleging a predator groomed and sexually assaulted a girl after contact began on began on Roblox. So that's just three. Like I said, there's about a dozen, maybe more at this point. And I urge extreme caution for parents. Um ask your kids, have a conversation with them. The internet is a very uh unfortunately a very dark place and there's threats everywhere and obviously if you have a platform with like I said hundreds of millions of kids 100 million kids on there per day. Um it is just a a very easy opportunity for a predator if they want to engage with kids that's

175that's a very easy place for them to go to do that. And if there's not proper protections in place, which based on what I'm seeing and what I've researched, it there isn't, um, it it provides a very bad opportunity for your kids to be exposed and taken advantage of on these platforms. That's all I have. So, I'll dovetail on top of that, Superintendent Jen Kaioski. The it's R O L is Roblox. And just a quick Google search with concerns reveals substantial amounts of lawsuits and stuff like that. So, if we could talk to our tech team and see what we can do about making sure that that's not accessible through our Wi-Fi, that would be great. >> No, I mean, those are block, but we're we've talked about making it elementary parents especially aware of

176just the harms that they could have and so that um when they're at home that parents are just not leaving them to their own devices. >> Yeah. So, thanks for bringing that to our attention, Miss Knox. Um just congratulations to parents and students, teachers, administration, staff um on your first month back to school. And also I appreciate the work our administration and the board has done over the past few years so that we are in a position to offer school lunches and we're not scrambling. We're not going to shut down um nothing like that. That's not something you do overnight. So it's it's I'm happy that we're in that position. Miss Burkwire. >> Um I just wanted to also take a moment. I know um like the president said, we had um some student losses

177in the area. Uh we also had um a member of our community pass away recently. Um William Boyd. And I wanted to recognize him um because if if you've been around Ankor Bay um you've probably been impacted by him in some some shape or form. Um he was very involved um with this family uh owned restaurant. He you know assisted with countless fundraisers and donations um to our schools, our PTOs, all sorts of things. um he was very involved in the school and the community, sports community as well. So, it's a tremendous loss for all of us. Um and somehow he always seemed to have all of the news before anybody else. So, um I will definitely miss his calls being um told what I was going to learn about next because he always knew

178everything before I did. Um but definitely want to keep um him and his family in our prayers as well. Um because I I think um we you know definitely have a tremendous loss in um in his passing. Um also want to thank um I've heard I went over to the high school one day uh took a walk around and um was stopped by a lot of staff. It was it was very near to the start of the school year, but um stopped by a lot of staff that were on their prep hour and things as I was walking the hallways and um very happy with the the cell phone band roll out and um and and thank you to our students as well because you know the vast vast majority have been extremely uh cooperative

179and um dare I say possibly enjoying um and realizing um how much they used their phones in the with this change, but thank you to our students as well for participating and being respectful. Um, also uh received a lot of comments um about the wonderful work that Ann Arms is doing there um as the instructional coach and that she's been so helpful um with technology that's come into the building, but also to some of our new staff and um and veteran staff um providing a lot of assistance. So um thank you to her. And then on a personal note, I also want to thank um Miss Kib, the bus driver of bus 54, because um my children, who are both at middle school south, are choosing to ride the bus this year because even though

180their morning route is their longer route, they still ride the bus because it is very fun and they enjoy the trivia that she provides on the bus. And so I therefore don't have to drive them. So, I want to extend um a huge thank you to her personally because I don't have to drive. So, um thank you to all our bus drivers for all these changes. Um but they're doing a great job and making a long bus drive apparently very fun. >> Have you considered the possibility that they don't like your driving? >> You know what? I'll take my wins where I can get them. Okay, sir. Thank you. Uh, the 2025 band alumni date is October 10th. Please save the date. The Anchor Bay College night is October 23rd from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.

181at the high school commons. The Comfort Closet is looking for new or gently used clothing for teens. The Career Pathway Skilled Trades and Morefare is January 29th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Anker Bay High School. The Anker Bay Varsity Dance Team Clinic is Saturday, October 4th, and Sunday, October 5th. The Anker Bay Junior Hoops for 4th through 6th grade starts September 29th with events on October 3rd, 12th, 19th, 26th, and November 2nd. I'd like to thank the school bus drivers for attending the Big Rig event. Great turnout. The ribbon cutting for the Shoreliner restaurant is October 17th at the high school at uh from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. The Anchor Bay High School graduation party and vendor night, I believe this is something new, is Saturday, November 15th. The Anker Bay Power Puff

182game is Saturday, October 4th at 7 p.m. I'd like to thank the Anker Bay High School band for going over to MCON to putting on a great performance for the students. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Logan Bowen. Thanks Patrick from having the moment of silence of the meeting earlier. Miss Burke already mentioned it. I would also like to extend my thoughts and prayers to William Boyd uh his family and the and the staff at Trinies. The community's lost a great person. Uh when I was running, he called me up and had no fear saying who are you and what do you plan on doing? >> Right. Uh my points pride this month uh is the cell phone away for the day continues to be a success. Um, I'd like to

183thank the students and staff for continuing to, uh, follow the policy. That's all I have for tonight. >> Thank you. Uh, I also will touch briefly on the cell phone policy. I live immediately adjacent to Middle School North and not only has there been a change this year where there kids actually out on the playground. There's a lot of kids out there and they're having a good time. Um, I can I have a direct line of vision to the playground and there's nobody sitting on a phone, you know, hanging out, sitting away from the crowd. Um, lots of kids, lots of engagement, lots of screaming, lots of everybody having a good time. Um, it kind of signals to me that that they're not on their cell phones. Uh, and if we didn't have a policy

184like this, like quite honestly, fifth, sixth grade, that's about the time they get that first cell phone usually. Uh, I have no doubt that they'd be sitting in different segregated groups. uh on their phones. Uh so I I appreciate the cell phone policy and I appreciate to Mr. P's comments, you know, we can sit up here and we can write policy, but if administration all the way down to our teachers doesn't support it, it doesn't get much traction. One of my commitments to all of you last uh month was to do some research concerning surveys and reaching out to MASB. There's definitely some some challenges that are out there in terms of how they're used, what's who's questioned, you know, to the point where if there's something on a survey that deals with a teacher,

185um that has to be now included in the superintendent um performance review. So, I I I'm going to kind of turn it back to the board. Uh, you know, MAS MASB didn't seem to really have any samples, you know, surveys they could send us. Um, and so I'll turn it kind of back over to the board. Is this something that we want to put into policy committee to to talk about? Do, you know, is is there still an appetite to, you know, to pursue this? And I'll have Sher share the results of her findings uh in consulting with the MASB legal folks so you can all see what I'm discussing. uh and you know maybe you want to take a look at what's being provided by MASB in terms of feedback and then we could

186talk about it again at the next meeting but I committed to have some information for you at this meeting. So I guess I'll turn it back over, you know, to you guys at this point. Is there anything that you want to do between now and that next meeting or would you like Sher to share the details of what she found through MASB legal counsel and then maybe we circle the wagons again back in October to figure out if there's anything different we want to do. >> Yeah. >> Any thoughts? I'm good with having Sherry send us that information and coming back in October. >> Everybody else good with that? >> When's our next policy meeting? >> Well, I would assume that you guys would probably want to meet um between now and then once you've

187received Sherry's information and perhaps get together and have a discussion uh and just to figure out the legalities of it and you know there's MCL's cited in the email. So, I mean, it's there we're governed a little bit in what we can do, but I think that's the appropriate step is to get it get this information to you guys, get this to policy and have you guys sit down and take a look at it. And then certainly, if we're going to make it part of the superintendent, you know, it's got to go to executive where we're going to sit down with the superintendent. And I just want everyone to understand, you know, what the ramifications of of doing surveys and what we specifically can ask and not ask. And >> we're talking staff surveys, correct?

188>> Yes. >> Okay. So, you know, once once we involve, you know, the teachers, I know we're not specifically looking at their performance. I know we're not specifically looking at the superintendent's performance, but I I want to make sure that we've got a collective plan of how we want to move this forward if we want to move it forward. So, uh I will ask Sher to share the information with you guys. Uh and then if the uh committee is so moved, I think policy is a great place to start it and maybe even policy meets and then we reconvene at our next board meeting to talk about it. But if it's going to have anything to do with his evaluation, certainly we need to meet with with him because we're kind of we potentially could

189be changing uh you know the statemanded uh review process and we certainly can't do that. So >> So what are we trying to have a survey answer? >> I'm sorry. >> What are we trying to have a survey answer? >> Survey answer. >> What are we trying to have? What are we surveying? What question are we trying to answer with a survey? And that's why I'm kicking it back to policy. What direction do we want to go? Who do we want to survey? How often? And what are we going to ask? And then ultimately probably circle back sometime between then and hopefully maybe our next meeting if you guys get together soon enough and have a discussion with MASB legal council. You know, hey, here's what we're thinking. Here's what my policy group came up

190with. Thoughts? Even to the point where if if policy wants to get together and pull the uh Brad from MASB into the conversation into the fold, I don't have an issue with that. >> We don't report to the MASB. Like they have no authority over us. Correct. I understand their role, but like >> Correct. >> We don't we don't >> Correct. But the only the only reason I'm referencing them is because uh their legal counsel is specifically citing MCL's, you know, commercial. There's laws that protect the way the superintendent's evaluated, the way teachers are. >> Yeah, I I think we're going down a road that >> but we can still do a survey if it's not. This is going yeah this is >> my I think my thought was that if we are doing a

191survey and we start you know let's let's say that the survey results went to all of the board members and let's if somebody feels like they're starting to see a pattern or something I mean then that's something that either the board discusses in committee or you know I feel like the first step would then be to make a goal not necess like if you're talking about how it affects the superintendent you you know then the first step would be to pick a goal you know and not necessarily use it as immediate like punitive something >> that where did that even come from >> so the only the only thing I'm saying is when we get into surveys we have to make sure that we're not using them to evaluate teachers we're not using them to

192evaluate the superintendent or we're going down we're we're in slippery slope of of where we're going so my only thought was that we move it act to to policy to have a discussion about what we want to survey, who we're going to survey, and reach out to MSB just to make sure that here's the questions that the policy wants to ask. And again, and inviting him on to join us would actually be a great idea for policy. Hey, look, here's where we think we're going. Maybe have two policy meetings, but I wanted to to get this out there just so we could have a discussion about what direction you guys want to go with this. No one specifically said we were going to use it for for Mr. Janowsky's evaluation or a teacher evaluation. I

193certainly had the feeling from discussions was we're just looking for where we have some concerns between um staff, parents, students, and it's not necessarily going to be used for evaluation. But I think the only way to get this started is to move it back to policy. Unless you guys want to handle a different way. >> I'm fine discussing it in policy. I just I just don't know where this concern is coming from when it's never been something that we've brought up as the end goal of doing the surveys. It was more about us being in touch with the morale with, you know, the concerns, the things that are going well. >> Yeah. I thinkformationally it's >> it's on the ground type of a thing. So, we never once indicated that, >> you know, hey Phil,

194look at this survey. You're out of here. like we never even like >> No, no, I'm not and I'm certainly not saying that. Um, but that's where your attorney is going to go to say, "Hey, look, there's some laws that depending on what you want to do with the survey." >> Yeah. >> So, I think the honestly, I'll say it again is the best way is to kick this two >> I'm fine policy and let you guys starting in the end. I >> I don't >> if there's something else you prefer, >> we can do that, but I'm not sure how we the rubber meets. >> I'm fine with it. I I'm I'm surprised some people would want us to start in policy, but I'm I'm happy to do it. Right. I agree. >> Well,

195is there somewhere you think it should? >> No, I'm I'm there. No, I'm I'm good with it. I'll I'll we'll take it on. Bring it. Yeah. Yeah. >> Done. Perfect. So, I want to share that with you guys. And again, I'll have I'll get you the information that we got from MSB. You're right. We don't report to them. We're part of their association, but they are great great resource um for poking around, which is what I would call what we're doing, trying to figure out what we want to do. Um, that's all I have. Um, legislative update. I think you probably already gave it to us. >> Yeah, we kind of >> Anything changed in the last hour? >> There's nothing that has changed and again, this has been the least productive legislature that we've

196ever had. They've only passed seven bills in almost 10 months. And and we're hoping that they're going to pass about I think what there's 20 different bills that have to go as part of the the different budgets and all that stuff. So we shall see. >> Um committee updates. I think we touched on a little bit about what finance primarily met about. Policy has a new assignment. >> Nothing going on policy and excited to take on. >> Yeah. >> Is there any other uh uh committee updates from anyone else? >> All right. Hearing none, I will entertain a motion for adjournment. >> Some moved. >> Second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. All those opposed. Motion carries. Meeting ends 9:35.