April 23, 2025 - Regular Meeting

001We're going to call to uh order the regular board of education meeting of April 25th, 2025. And we'll begin as we usually do with the pledge of allegiance. Pleased. Mr. Secretary, if you would call the role attendance, please. Thank you, Mr. Green. Uh, Mr. Green, here. Miss Knox, here. Richards is here. Mr. Venitilli here. Miss Burkmeer here. Mr. Powers here. Mr. Sunnyberger here. All right, we have a quorum. Um, before I ask for an approval of the agenda, I want to make sure we've, you know, we've got a few people in the audience tonight. Um, if you see Tim over there up at my technology desk, he's got some bluish greenish sheets. Um, if you intended to speak tonight, you'll need to fill out one of those. Um, otherwise, you won't be recognized by the

002chair and you won't be able to speak during the meeting. All right. this at this time I would entertain uh a motion for the approval of the agenda as presented. So I would actually like to amend the agenda to have the personnel report removed from the consent agenda and be a standalone item that we discussed and vote on separately. All right. Well, that does not require uh a vote of the board. Uh any board member at any time can request something out of that consent agenda to be pulled out and voted on separately. So, we will pull that out and vote on that uh after the consent agenda as an individual item. Is that what you would like, Mr. Power? It is. All right. I will then entertain an approval of the agenda as amended.

003I'll make the motion. I'll second. Motion by Mr. Venitelli, supported by Miss Knox. Any further discussion? Hearing none, let's do a roll call vote for that, sir. Mr. Vinatelli, yes. Miss Knox, yes. Mr. Sunnyberger, yes. Mr. Powers, yes. Miss Burkemeer, yes. Richard says, "Yes." Mr. Green, yes. Motion carries. Let's move on with the agenda then. Our first uh item up here, item D, is our student congress update from Mr. Welldressed Farley. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Um, I have a few building updates to share with you guys today. At the high school, prom is on May 17th at Daros. Tickets can be purchased via Go Fan. NHS induction is May 14th at 7:00 p.m. at the high school. Drama is performing a Mamma Mia play this Thursday through Saturday at the high school. Key Club

004is hosting a bake sale next week, Wednesday and Friday. Student council is doing teacher appreciation week activities the first week of May. BPA is hosting a dinner at Texas Roadhouse. 20% of bills go to fundraising for BPA. And then HOSA went to states last week as well as all spring sports that kicked off. At an or at middle school south, April 11th, they had a glow volleyball in place of a glow dance. Students could pay for tickets and sign up either as an individual or as a team. On April 24th, take your take your child to workday activities are being hosted around the school at on April 17th, NJHS induction ceremonies and happened with more than 30 new inductees. And then on May 1st through May 3rd, the eighth graders are taking a trip to

005DC. At North, the grade reward trips are happening. Sixth grade is taking a trip to the park. Seventh grade is taking a trip to Dave Busters. and eighth grade is taking a trip to Cedar Point. Registrations for the leadership camp at Albian College opened. Camp will be held July 15th through 18th and is highly recommended by students that have attended in the past and it's not just for student council and NJHS. Open to all students. NJHS is hosting cancer awareness month activities raising money for leukemia and lymphoma society with candygrams and bucket booths. They're there. North is also hosting the district literacy night on May 21st. All elementary, fourth, and fifth graders took a visit to middle school north. All buildings are doing MSTEP testing. All elementary schools are holding a fundraiser at Buffalo Wild

006Wings tonight to fund starbased trips. At Nulit, they are having an ice cream social on May 14th. At Ashley, Muffins with Mrs. on May 7th. They're having an ice cream social on May 20th at M or and they're they're having kindergarten transition night on May 1st. At Mccons, all grades are having different field trip at Lahi. Second grader second grade water conservation presentation happened on April 17th. This week is a green team Earth Day sale, selling stickers five for 25 cents, helping raise money to plant new trees. And April on April 22nd, second and third graders did an Earth Day cleanup around the school. And at Lighthouse, they had an April quarter wars which raised $1,400. A combined team of early fives and kindergarteners won with a special treat to be determined. They had they

007had an exotic animal assembly on March 18th. They're having donuts with dad on May 30th. And then the end of the year field trip for the fourth and fifth graders is to the roller ring. Thank you. That's a lot going on. Where is the roller rink? I was not given a location. I just said roller ring. Thank you. You mentioned the the leadership trip. I will second that. It's it went light. My daughter went uh years ago. She went four years in a row and I think she ended up being a counselor one year after that and I will absolutely echo your sentiment of it did it did wonders for her wonders for her. Brought her out of her shell and taught her some leadership skills and presentation stuff. So pretty cool. As someone that

008went through middle school with dealing with the pandemic and didn't have those opportunities weren't open, definitely would have liked to have those. this opportunity to come like these help you especially in middle school before you go into high school. They're a lot. It's exciting to hear. We're doing a lot of fun stuff to finish the year as well. We have you one more meeting yet or are we are we done? I think we're done. All right. Okay. So, you'll have to come back one more time. Remind me again when's graduation? May 28th or 9th. Okay. I don't have my calendar up so All right, let's move on to uh Thank you for that by the way. Um moving on to the superintendent update with Mr. Janowski. Hey, Tim is pulling up the presentation. Going to

009quickly run you through the the bond updates. So Tim, if you can move to the first next slide, I should say. Hey, this is you can see we are now in the nearing the end phases of this is phase one of the high school. So this is actually the welding um classroom. You can see now they are the welding booths have been installed for a while now. It's the actual tables and equipment that goes in there. So this is in the main portion of the classroom. We are still waiting on it's a plasma table that will go in and the accompanying equipment with that but that is coming along nicely. Next slide, Tim. This is the auto shop. So, all of the lifts have been installed. Now, they are also installing the rest of the

010equipment. And you can see the workbenches for the students are going in as well. So, again, that's on track. We're actually the all of this these areas from phase one are we're going to be opened in August, but we believe that we are ahead enough that we might have them like earlier in the summer in order to be able to make the transition sooner. Next slide, Tim. And this is just the kitchen area. They are now waiting on final approval to start everything up, test it, and then have that inspected. Next slide. This is the student success area in the what was the counseling office. Now the counselors have been moved to the different wings and so all of that is in there. The ceiling that was the last thing is in there. You can

011they there was a temporary wall behind that um white and red wall and that furniture is just there to block it off because technically we don't have access yet even though they took the wall down. So once there's final inspection and we get approval we will have access to that as well. Next slide. This is now the engineering wing. So this would be down um across from the band. This used to be the graphic design class. So this is where it is now because over spring break they took down the masonary wall that was there. Opened it up and it has the same kind of structure as you'll see in the other wings. And there's a temporary wall. Next slide is on the inside looking out. So you can see that's temporary wall. Again, this

012is a a much larger area because of the classroom structure that was there, but that is coming along as well. It still needs the ceiling tiles, but it is again well on its way to being complete. Um, and we hope to access it earlier in the summer rather than later. Next slide. This is the athletic office areas. And so this was at one time it was a small kind of classroom that was used and they'd use it kind of for film and and it was kind of separated away from the weight rooms and the wrestling room and everything. So what we did was kind of adjust that. So now the athletic area is closer to the entrance and exit because they do have quite a few people that come in. That is again moving on

013schedule. This is part of actually the phase three projects, but they've been again ahead of schedule on these. Next slide. And this is the other part of phase three. This is the weight room. So on you can see that barrier wall. It's kind of hanging out halfway on this side of it closer to where the camera was taking the picture used to be the old JROTC. that will now be a um just a larger weight room with cardio equipment. And then the weight, what was the wrestling room is on the other is that portion that will now have the weight equipment. And then on the other side of that wall will be the the new wrestling room, which was the old weight room. So now we'll have one large enough for all students in the

014class to be able to access it at the same time. Next slide. The other thing is the roof. We were able to get started on that. Mainly they they began over the parts that are under construction which is the athletic wing, over the wrestling room, over the weight room. So that is 20% complete right now and we'll have later on the agenda some solar projects that we can integrate with the roof that we'll talk about if we choose to go that direction. Then we're moving on to middle school south. So the summer basically most of middle school south that's once we move the old auto shop equipment to the high school that auto shop will then become a new band room as we talked last meeting and then a small engine repair but that will

015start in the summer and it this one will likely finish towards the end of September. Next slide. Then the last portions of high school facely will all be conducted over the summer. So the the largest one is the middle the media center because that's going to start closer to the end of the year and then they will begin doing demolition. The goal is to have demolition done before school so they can start putting it together because summer is it's a compressed timeline and all of the other construction projects from all other districts are going on. So the the goal is to get out ahead of all of those so we can make sure everything's set on time. Um the athletic wing, so all of the finishes you a lot of those are there, but now

016it'll be finishing the flooring and everything in the weight room in the wrestling room. Then completing the tiein to um the engineering wing. All of that is tied in, but then the temporary wall will come down. Um, so then it's there's there's a barrier right now that's a fire barrier that'll be removed. Student success will be finished and then the furniture will come in and then we'll complete the rest of the high school bathrooms that are in progress. So right now two sets have been completed. Two more are remaining. Next slide. Then lighthouse. So, we've already started some of the demolition in the oldest wing of the building and that's been ceiling, plumbing, fixtures, flooring, temporary lighting's in the we're installing again a new fire alarm system there. So, all of the wire is in

017progress being run. Site work is underway. You might have seen there's there'll be a picture here too of the what will be the playground ultimately for ECSC. And then we'll have additional abatement um as of asbestous that'll go on. That'll start right after school lets out. And part of it is in the one wing we have to kind of do what we did with McDonald because there's some roof drain issues where we see some flooding. So they'll have to break up the floor and then manually kind of reconnect that. But this is one of classrooms. This will actually end up being divided into offices for auxiliary um staff for the area. But you can see it's kind of everything's kind of cleared out of it. Now they'll they'll begin the reconstruction process. Next slide. This

018is the playground area that I spoke of. So ultimately in two more years this will lighthouse will be the early childhood center and this will be a designated um playground that'll be age appropriate for our ECSC students. Middle school north work continues interior masonary work that you'll see um concrete work is all set. New walls are up um and then we're matching the trazo and everything. So, next slide. You can see the work on the playground now has begun. Uh, we presented that. I believe it was six or seven meetings ago and we have things going there that were um we did a survey of the elementary students what they wanted to see. So, all of that will be going in a walking path. There's a field for them to play in. Um, Gaga ball

019pit um basketball court swings and so on. Next slide. And again, this is just the same thing. you're just seeing they're they're beginning. This will be part of the actual walkway that you're seeing. Next slide. This is the interior. So, what basically what we did is we took the smaller classrooms that most of the classrooms in this area were about 650 670 square ft, which for middle school students is not very large. So now they'll be just shy of 1,000 square ft. And so we're taking basically four classrooms, turning them into three classrooms that are about 1 th00and square feet. And next slide. And again, this is just placement. Now we have to move like heaters and things like that. So that's that's what they're working on there. Next slide. This is the life skills

020classroom. So all of that was kind of demoed. We're really basically doing a one for one replacement on this. But we opened everything up. We replaced all of the um gas piping um a lot of the plumbing just because it was from the original building and some of it had deteriorated. So we wanted to make sure everything was good and set. So that is coming together and that will start again once school and that'll start being put back together. Next slide. And then you can see this is the classroom area. So what you because we had to move the entrances. You can see it's kind of inset. So restructured the entrances to the classrooms and that's so those are going in. That's all that structures there again. That will be you know drywall will start

021going in and we'll start putting everything back together again once school lets out. Next slide. And then just because I know we've been getting rumors on the aquatic center. There's no intent to close the aquatic center. We do close it every year in June for two weeks because that's our annual maintenance. Um we are looking because of the realignment we have more kids that are looking for swim. So as we add those swim classes basically we're going to schedule those starting at the end of the day working back towards the the earlier hours. So it may it may intrude on some of the public available swim times. So the pool will always be open to the public before school 6:00 to 8, but based off of staffing and based off of like the available hours

022that typically it's open 6:00 to 10, 6:00 to 11:00 depending on the day that might eat into that. But there will always be publicly available times. Question. Okay. Thank you. We have to have a guard on a lifeguard on anytime we have the public in there. Correct. Yes. And then and same thing we're looking for our our current swim teacher is retiring so we are looking for a new swim teacher. All right. Very good. And um New Baltimore still running programs out of the Yes, they are. Are they still running programs, Mr. Jowski, out of our our gyms? You know, I know they leased some space from us in the aquatic center and I think part of that lease deal was the ability to use some of our gyms. Yeah, they still rent our other

023gyms and and Corey can probably give you more details on it if you have any direct questions. Yes, they're still using them. All right, any other questions? Hearing none, I will move on to uh item F, hearing of the public. Those who wish to address the board on the agenda items may complete a brief request stating their name, address, and the subject of their comments. Remarks about specific employees should be directed to them personally and not included in a public forum. Administration will follow up with concerns within 48 hours of the board meeting. Per board policy, please keep your comments to three minutes. Uh, additionally, you will not be able to yield your time to another person to speak at the podium. So, you'll have your three minutes and then they'll have theirs. Uh, and

024you can't give them your three so that they would have six. Um, with that said, we've got quite a few people to speak tonight. So, um, we do have a timer running on the the three minutes. When you do hear the timer, please try to wrap up your thoughts um because I don't want to cut you off in the middle of a sentence. But we in the past we've had folks that the timer goes off after three minutes. They hear the timer, they hesitate, and then they speak for another eight or 10. And we won't be allowing that tonight. We will be here all night. All right. With that said, I I organized um them based on what I thought the topic was as indicated on the form. So, why don't we start with uh

025Miss Petron first? I assume you'll introduce yourself. Yes, I'm Jamie Petron. I'm the Auror Bay Education Association president. I've been experiencing today for 24 years. I have served in the capacity of ABA president for nearly 10 years. Under previous administration, I stood at this podium more times than I can count, advocating for fair and amicable working conditions that did not exist in this district. With the election of our current school board and hiring of our new superintendent, there has been notable and positive change, and I can confidently say it's been a new day in the bay for the past few years. Staff no longer has to live with fear of retaliation. And as someone who was a personal recipient of this in the past, it's refreshing to come to work and not have a target

026on my back for simply sticking up for my membership and what is ultimately just trying to do the right thing. Unfortunately, what brings me back here today is to share publicly how extremely disappointed the ABA is in the hiring process for the varsity football coaching position and to clear up some misconceptions about the posting of the schedule B activities. The AVA and district both understood and agreed that all schedule B positions, both athletic and non-athletic, are year-to-year positions and not privy to placement language in the contract. With the realignment of the middle schools, both parties agreed to post all schedule B jobs in order to make it fair across district. I told my membership this is a formality and except in cases that we may have two people holding a position at different schools, staff

027should simply complete the internal application and zoom all as well. in regards to athletic coaches should be evaluated at the end of their season and if there is a need to go in another direction they would be told that prior to a posting going up. While this year was cumbersome with all the postings and a bit out of sorts with the timeline moving forward the process would be more streamlined. The district had ample time after the conclusion of the football season well before the decision to post all of the schedule B positions was made to decide which direction they wanted to go with the Anchor Bay football program. Again, that is well within management's rights, and there is no language in our collective bargaining agreement stating otherwise. And while there may not be rules about

028how this has to be done, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Furthermore, it was horrible for administration to simply communicate via email about their decision without the courtesy of a face-to-face conversation after putting someone through the interview process for a job he was never told that did anything wrong at, and he assumed he still held. Regardless of your feelings about an individual, common decency and professionalism should still apply in any situation. An email at 5:00 on a Friday with no phone call, no meaning. That's just not okay. In conclusion, it was wrong to stepside accountability, blame decisions on others, and treat someone in such an arbitrary and capriccious manner. We've been there in the past, and we are better than that. The ABA fought way too hard to be treated with

029respect as professionals. As president, I refuse to go back to that culture. like the old saying goes, treat people like you would like to be treated. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Petron. Uh, next we will move on to um Cynthia Williams Sandival. Hopefully I said that right. Hi, my name is Cynthia William Sandaval. I am a mother of a 2022 graduate Justin Melo recipient and now a Spartan and also a sixth grader at North. I'd like to take a moment to highlight the importance of reconsidering a full your implementation of a full ban on cell phone use at Anchor Bay schools, especially during non-instructional times like lunch. While concerns around misuse are understandable, a total ban is impractical. It undermines student safety, access, equity, and opportunities for real world learning. No longer do we use

030paper maps since GPS. Handwritten planners have become digital calendars. Polaroids have become smartphone cameras. And we no longer ride horses to work because the automobile revolutionized transportation. Cell phones have become an essential part of how we live, communicate, learn, and now here comes AI. They have transformed how we function in modern world. We allow 14-year-olds to begin driving because we recognize the value in teaching responsibility early. Instead of banning cell phones completely, let's teach the students how to use them wisely for communication, creativity, organization, and real learning. Because when they leave us for college, careers, and adulthood, their phones will still be with them and likely remain with them for the rest of their lives. A full band does not solve any problems. It just delays opportunities to teach students how to use this powerful

031tool responsibly. Phones are not just for texting. They're tools for organization, for research, time management, creativity, and learning. Students use them to connect with families during lunch. They are a deescalation tool for emotionally difficult moments in school and they can contribute to teacher-led classroom activities. These are not disruptions. These are opportunities for growth and support. Furthermore, school is not a prison. While we absolutely need clear expectations and structure, students are still individuals with rights, emotions, and lives outside of our walls. Taking away cell phones access during one of the few unstructured times of the day sends a message of mistrust. We should be modeling balance, not control. Trusting students fosters strong relationships, better behavior, and a healthier school climate. I also need to acknowledge the issues of equity. A banned blanket, a blanketed BL band

032may unintentionally create disproportionate consequences and harm for marginalized students who are more likely to be disciplined over subjective phone related impactions. Students with disability or mental health needs often rely on phones for accessibility tools like timers, calming apps, and more, and family communication needs, particularly for multilingual households, immigrant families, and single parents who rely on midday check-ins for reassurance and connection. We must also reflect on one other optic. All day, staff and teachers are allowed to have phones on hand and use them as needed. If we don't offer students a chance to develop those same skills with guidance and trust, we're missing an opportunity and sending missed messages. When our students graduate, leave for college, careers, and adult life, their phones will be with them, and they won't be riding horses to work. Our job

033isn't to shield them from technology. It's to prepare them to thrive with it, to use it. Let's make sure they're not just carrying phones, but using them with intention, responsibility, and confidence. And now at home, in school, and in their very bright futures. And one last comment. Today, President Trump signed an executive or order incorporating AI into all classrooms to ensure we properly train the for workforce of the future. How does Anchor Bay schools plan to accommodate AI instruction and learning without being onetoone and with your cell phone band? Thank you. All right. Uh, next. Um, badge at at wall. I meant to say maj. How you do, sir? Because you're a business owner in town. Good evening. My name is Maj Al. Um, I'd like to address I know the mother said it before,

034schools don't are not prisons, but um, my kids go to Lighthouse and it sure feels like it's prison. My kids don't even like going in the morning. They're late because the staff there make them feel like they're walking into prison. They're rude. They're um I feel like they're not sensitive enough to the little kids. I mean, these kids are 8 n 10 years old. And um my kids every morning that I have to take them in, they get scared. They don't want to go. So staff there is I mean I I personally don't care for them, but they're very rude. And um I don't know if it's something personal with my wife, but same thing with her. They treat her real bad. She calls in ahead of time to get our kids down for a

035dentist appointment or whatever. And um when she gets there, they make her wait 15, 20 minutes in the lobby. He already called ahead of time. Why is she waiting? They have a dentist appointment. They have a doctor's appointment. So they make her wait. And then when I take my daughter in, the girl stands in front of the door and shields the door so I don't walk in with my daughter. Well, my daughter doesn't want to walk in with her. She wants me to walk her in. So why does it feel like it's prison? So I mean, that's all I have to say. And I'm sure other parents feel the same way. The school does feel like a prison. Kids are just missing orange jumpsuit. So I know you guys don't probably don't believe it, but

036if you ask other parents, they they'll tell you the same thing. Staff there is I don't know. It's unprofessional and uh I think they can do better. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Uh Stephanie Callahan. Good evening. My name is Stephanie Callahan. I'm an Anker Bay alumni, a child um that has recently graduated in the district and I have three currently in the district ranging from fifth grade through 10th grade. Throughout the last 18 months to two years, the district has disgusted me from the lack of full support from the staff regarding the ROC program in the high school all the way down to the elementary level on how things have been handled and just swept under the rug. I currently work at Lighthouse Elementary as a literacy tutor. Prior to taking on the position

037as literacy tutor, I took on a long-term position in the kindergarten class at Lighthouse while the teacher was on maternity leave. During that time, I put my heart and soul into that class. Countless hours, sorry, on lesson plans and figuring out what needed to be taught and lessons plans that I received for the classroom were extremely vague. I received one visit from the principal two minutes before we were headed out for a Halloween parade. From there, he never stopped in to see how the class was going, where the students were academically, if I needed help with report cards, absolutely nothing. Now being a literary tutor, I've experienced being pulled numerous times to cover lunches while three people sit in the office. Them pulling us to cover lunches takes away from us being the students who

038actually need our support. Whenever this matter has been addressed, we receive a response back all hands on deck. again. What about the three office staff that is sitting in there answering phones? Lighthouse I sorry I have been around lighthouse for quite some years. When the previous principal was there it people did not like the change but no one liked the change but that previous principal she put in her time. She led that building like a true leader and made Lighthouse a school that people wanted to come to. She cared about each and every employee, student, and staff member. The problem Lighthouse has experienced this year is a lack of leadership. Leadership is a skill one is born with. One can be made stronger as a leader, but one cannot be taught to be a leader.

039The district has showed me recently how little they care about the students and the staff that make this district a district that families want to be a part of. I am not normally a person to get up and speak in front of a group of people. However, I feel strongly about the situation at Lighthouse and I can't sit back and watch what used to be such a soughtafter school be torn apart so quickly. Thank you. Cara Greenwell. Hi. Um, so you'll notice that it says that my location is Slair Shores. I travel to um the Anker Bay School District because I'm co-parenting with someone in the district and we found that this was a better spot for our son. Um, my son James is in kindergarten at Lighthouse Elementary. This is our second year in

040the district. We were in Young Fives last year with Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Kaiser. Last year was such a great experience at Lighthouse. I felt like my son was a shining star. Academically, he was excelling. I knew I made the right choice with the PTG and all of the moms who work there. The staff is incredible. People are greeting you. I have relations with people and that's important to me as a mom, especially single parent, just feeling like you have that community. We have Mrs. Gusky who was the pregnant um teacher during this last school year and she was great but she was a young mom who was pregnant. She's 25 I think. So you can just imagine the changes you're going through also having kindergarteners. It's a lot. We were blessed with Miss Stephanie

041Callahan to come come into our classroom. Um and she really did put her all into it. We knew there were going to be a couple gaps because it's hard to find staffing. She's not a kindergarten teacher, but she really pulled through and did well for our students, and I felt confident. When Mrs. Gusky returned, all was well, but then she had to make the choice for her family to take a step back. These things happen, deaths happen, you know, families, emergencies happen. But my concern is that we're struggling to find proper communication from up, specifically from the principal, and I'm not sure about the expected communication of the principal or superintendent. There's at least 10 moms in my son's kindergarten class that has put both the principal and the superintendent on emails and have not

042gotten responses. And I know that like life is so it's so much. I understand how much is on your guys' backs, but this is the first year our kids are in school. So when we're seeing regressions and then I think we're on teacher number six because we can't keep somebody, we're not even meeting the teachers that are taking care of our children. So, we're expected to drop them off at a door, wave to the teachers we know, but we don't know who's in the classroom with our children every day. Um, I I just want to say my son was doing way better in Young Fives than he is in kindergarten, and I do work with my child, but I know every family doesn't work with their child at home. So, not only are these children

043struggling academically, there is severe emotional damage going on. These kids are confused. They're not sure why they have a new teacher every week. are restarting over and over and over. And I just wonder, is there support from the top down? Why are people not staying in these positions? Why are people unhappy at work? Why does the principal not introduce herself when she hosted an open house last night to reassure us that we were all going to feel like all is well? Cuz she can't control what's happening. She didn't even say hello to us. you invited us into a room and then didn't say hello. There's there's problems there in my opinion. So, I just wanted to say I support the staff at Lighthouse. I hope that next year in first grade that we can have

044a comeback. I don't want to bully this new principal, but I think that communication and expectations need to be clear for all of us because we feel pretty much like we're I feel like the moms of Lighthouse, the PTG, you guys are running the school like that's where's everyone else, you know? So, that's all. I appreciate your guys' time. Thank thank you Tammy Menni. Uh good evening members of the board and thank you for this opportunity to speak. My name is Tammy Matheni and I'm a Lighthouse parent with kids in fourth and second grade. We came to Lighthouse in 2020 and have had nothing but love and admiration for the teachers and staff in the building. However, this school year has been a very different experience. If you look at social media for Lighthouse Elementary,

045there are multiple parents who have posted regarding excessive bullying in kindergarten that has gone ignored and the principal not being aware when substitutes are in the building. In addition to this, the front office used to be warm and welcoming. Any parent will tell you now. Currently, it is the exact opposite. Again, reference social media where parents report submitting volunteer forms only to be told nothing is on file when they check back. In an incident where office staff refused to call EMS for a student experiencing unexplained cardiac symptoms. With this said, several staff members have left Lighthouse altogether. How many more will follow as a result of the current leadership and management? As a parent, I'm frustrated, angry, because concerns as far back as October have fallen on deaf ears. Now, here we are approaching the

046end of the school year, and several families have verbalized consideration to not only pull their child from Lighthouse, but to pull them from the Anchor Bay School District. The teachers deserve better. The building staff deserves better, and our children deserve better. Thank you. Thank you. And Angela Pitrago. Hello. Um, my name is Angela. My son is a kindergarten student at Lighthouse Elementary, Miss Gusky's class. Same concern as Cara earlier. They've had a revolving doors of teachers. My son's second quarter report card, he was meeting more standards. This final report card, we're at the end of the year. He's now approaching standard concerning areas where I feel like I have to put him in summer school. She has to start over from scratch with a large group of kids. She told me yesterday starting over from

047scratch. We're at the last end of the year. What are we going to teach our kids in this month to get him a ready for first grade next year? Miss Stephanie did great when she was there. And like she said, the principal never introduced herself. My husband actually did not even know she was the principal. my hus my son is having issues since the last month since the start of Miss Gusky leaving again or if I've had to come to the school to bring a change of clothes. That's concerning cuz my son is six and hasn't had any issues and now all of a sudden we're having so many issues where I have to come to the school and I'm trying to discuss it. I feel like we need to resolve something. We have another

048month left, a month and a half, and I don't feel like my son is now ready for first grade, where I have to make a decision to put him back or to push him ahead and when he's not ready. And that's that's very discouraging. That's very frustrating. I heard excellent things about Inkerbate when we moved here. I was excited to put my son in the school, but now I'm considering changing school districts. So, I'm here to advocate for my son and all the rest of the kids in Miss Gusky's class. Thank you. So, I'll just mention that I we may look distracted up here. It's because we're taking notes. I I want to be able to recap with the superintendent um you know, the conversations and and the people that are coming forward. That's important

049to us as a board. Obviously, we don't want uh we don't want parents in the district. We can't make everybody happy, but it's it sounds like uh you know, it sounds like we're struggling a little bit in in that particular building. So, I can't say a whole lot about personnel and what we're doing and and anything that may be taking place, but what I can assure you is that the board is taking notes and and you know, there will be followup with with the superintendent who we expect to follow up with you in the next 48 hours. All right. So, we will move on to the consent agenda. Uh the consent agenda um has the uh couple of items in it. The approval of the meeting minutes from March 12th, 2025, the regular meeting and

050the March 1st, 2025 workshop, the financial report, and the bills payable for February, March of 2025. So, I will entertain a motion to approve that portion of the consent agenda. I make the motion. I'll second. Motion by Miss Knox, supported by Mr. Venitelli. Comments, questions, or concern? All right. Hearing none. Could you call the role for us, sir? Miss Knox? Yes. Mr. Venatilli? Yes. Mr. Mr. Sunnyberger? Yes. Mr. Powers? Yes. Miss Burker Richards is yes. Mr. Green, yes. Motion carries. Uh if you recall at the beginning of the meeting, uh there was a request to remove the personnel report from the consent agenda. So it is now up for a separate discussion. Um, why don't I entertain a motion to approve the personnel report as presented and that will allow us to have some discussion

051on where we want to go from here. All right. All right. Motion by Mr. Powers, supported by Miss Knox. Uh, I I'll turn it over to Mr. Powers as you were the one that requested this item be removed. Yeah. I I just felt given that um you know we we have a we're hiring a new football coach as everybody knows that's in the personnel report. That's not um that's not a typical line item in the personnel report. Frankly, I was expecting a room full of people to be here to to give us their feelings on on the matter. Uh so I'm a little surprised that we didn't have that. That was part of the reason why I wanted it removed because I thought it was appropriate to uh address it as an individual item. But

052I'm sure we've all received plenty of feedback outside the meeting uh regarding how people feel. So um I just for transparency sake I was a part of that um interview panel. I know there's been a lot of discussion out there about who was in the room and who wasn't in the room. Um myself and one other board member was there along with some members of administration um to interview the candidates and and for me I can't speak for other board members. they'll they can speak for themselves, but um I I was not interested in hiring a new football coach simply for the sake of hiring a new football coach. For me, it it it had to be um something where I felt we weren't downgrading by moving on. And I I don't feel that we

053are. Um I too am uh I don't love the way that we did this from a process standpoint. Um, I I don't feel like sending an email at five o'clock on a Friday was an accident. I think that was done on purpose. And uh I I don't I don't care how you feel about somebody that's just for somebody who's been there for 5 years to um send that email uh the way we sent it. Uh I don't think it's a good look for us. And uh I think it it leaves us open to a lot of criticism about how we handled this process. Um, I also think that this took way too long. Uh, you know, we're the calendar turns into May next week. We had a closed session back in January about this matter.

054And I'm not going to breach my um oath of confidentiality when it comes to close session, but nothing has changed. So there there's no reason why this had to take this long to where we're now four months away from the football season and we're now just getting around to to hiring a new football coach. Um, I know that I'm not the only one on this board who did not appreciate the way that that email was worded in terms of uh after thoughtful discussion and careful consideration, the board of education has decided to move in a new direction. That's a complete misrepresentation of how this has all played out. Um, and just, you know, let me be clear. I'm not I'm not trying to deflect and say, you know, don't be mad at the board, be

055mad at Bill, or be mad at Jeremy. you know, we're going to make a decision as a board and I'm I'm perfectly fine with people who don't agree with that decision uh being upset. That that's how this works. But, um the bottom line is if administration wanted Mike Geoni to be the football coach, he would be um period. The reality is um you know, the board and the administration I feel are pretty much on the same page when it comes to moving in a new direction. And so I I I can't understand why we felt the need to send that email the way it was sent. And um I know I'm not the only one up here who who doesn't appreciate the way that that was done. Whether or not I'll be the only one

056that says that or not remains to be seen. Um so I guess I'll just wrap up um with something I started with. For me, um, hiring a new football coach was contingent about on being able to look people in the eye and honestly tell them that I thought this was the best move for our football program and our district. Uh, I believe coach Brandon has the credentials and the qualifications to lead our football program and um, I'm excited for the future of Anchor Bay football. I truly believe that he's going to have success here. And I believe once people get to know him and give him a chance, they're going to see the same things that we saw in the interview that uh led him led us to want him to be uh our next

057football coach. So, I want to thank all the people that have reached out over the last month or so regarding this. Um I know a lot of people care about our football program and that's a good thing. Even even if they're upset about the decision that that we made, at least they care. So, I will be definitely supporting the personnel report and hiring the new football coach along with all the other uh items that are in the personnel report. Thank you. Um, anyone else? I'll echo what Mr. Bower said. Um, I I was not on the interview panel. Um, so I can't speak to that uh by any means. Um, nor do I have any credentials to judge a football coach regarding football. Um, but I too was um really shocked um to see how

058the letter came across um particularly because not long before that letter went out um I believe myself and Mr. Richards made comments about how things like that continue to happen. Uh I don't believe that's the first time. Um I believe there's another coach that was told something similar but in words. Um and it continues to be a fallback where people you know don't take ownership in decisions. Um certainly the board approves a personnel report and in that in that sense we have ownership of our our decisions publicly. Um and the board may guide the superintendent or may guide administration um on opinions and things like that. But um it continues to happen where the board um you know when it's it seems honestly it seems when it's convenient um the board is the one that

059is uh implicated and I'm I'm getting tired of it. Um I've said it before um and I'm I continue to say it but you know there's a lot of things that I continue to say that get ignored. So um I really can't say much more. Um Mr. Powers put it extremely well. Um, and I agree with him wholeheartedly across the board. Um, I agree with uh both Mr. Powers and Miss Burke Meyer. I had not seen the letter prior to someone else sending it to me and was very disappointed. We vote people to be hired as we are doing today. We do not vote. Um, any vote we have is is public. So, you guys know what we vote on. There's no vote. There's no the board of education did this. Um there are conversations.

060We don't all sit up there. No one member just because two of our board members were in the interview process. Um they don't they do not get to act alone. It only as a board we all function together. Not one of us has any power beyond what we're doing right now. Um, and so I was disappointed in that and disappointed that the public is giving a is being given a a a false narrative on that side because there are other false narratives um in other ways. And I I know it's frustrating to both us and the administration, but to see that be um reciprocated uh isn't the way we should be conducting business. Um, and I agree with the five o'clock Friday email that was also import. And I would like us to look into

061our our policies or what's what's normal regarding that and and how these letters come out and are they all the same and if they are then they need to be corrected. Um, that's all I have. Anyone anything else? Any other comments? I would like to also echo the disappointment the way the letter was written. I did sit in on the panel. Um I sat in with Mr. Powers. I I think for me I wanted to make sure that I was hiring the best candidate um you know for our football team. Uh the best candidate represented our school district. Um I had the privilege of sitting tonight for tennis and for basketball as well. It's an interesting process to say the least. Um one thing that is definitely standing out to me though is the amount

062of candidates that we're getting that want to come here to Anchor Bay to our school district to you know to coach in our district. Um, but one thing that, you know, one of the reasons why I want to sit in it the most, Mr. P's point, I want to make sure it was fair, was done correctly. Um, and at the end of the day, I want the best candidate to represent our district. Um, I did not really uh appreciate the way that the communication was sent out. Um, Miss Burke buyer's point, it's a second time it's happened, so hopefully we can make some corrections. Anyone else? Honey, Mr. Manelli. Um, the only thing I'll say about this, u I I tend to agree with the consensus on the board. Um, I think this was a

063necessary change, but the execution was uh could have been done a little bit better. Um, but I think that the board as a whole, I think we should take a little accountability for this and the way it was done as well. This is a known problem that we've had an issue with in the past. Why don't we take this to the policy committee and come up with a way that we typically dismiss coaches who have been coaches in the past, we're moving in a different direction with in the future. And so that would then give direct guidance to the administration as exactly what our ideals are for how this process is engaged. That's the only thing I'd like to add. Mr. Sunberger, anything? All right. I I won't beat the dead horse, but I agree

064with all of my colleagues points. I was disappointed in uh how the letter was handled, how how it was worded. It was a district decision because that panel, albeit had two board members on it. Miss Knox already referenced though, you know, and they've both said who they were. Um those two those two people on that panel didn't carry any more weight than the other people representing the district. So, um, it was a district decision. As Mr. Powers mentioned, uh, it's very likely that our personnel report is going to be is going to be passed tonight. Uh, but to Mr. Vanitali's point, um, we do own some we do own a part of it. All right. If there are no other questions, anybody else any followup before we move on this motion? So, um, Mr. Richards,

065who made my motion and who is my supporter? That was Mr. Powers supported by Miss Knox. All right. And that is to approve the personnel report as presented. You would call the role. I would appreciate it. Sure. Mr. Powers? Yes. Miss Knox? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Mr. Richards? Is a yes. Mr. Venatilli? Yes. Miss Burkmeer? Yes. Mr. Sunonnyburgger? Yes. All right, the motion carries. Personnel report um has been approved. Congratulations to those new hires that are on the list. Um and also and I'm sure there'll be some retirement parties coming. Uh I see some very familiar names, long-term employees on the list. So, it's always sad to see that uh they have elected to leave us, but we certainly under all understand uh the desire to move on uh in retirement. So, The next item

066on my list is the first reading for the personnel uh I'm sorry the personal electronic devices policy 2006. Uh everybody has that in front of them. Um this is just a reading. There will not be a vote of the board tonight. There will be a second reading of this uh policy at our next meeting. But I wanted to afford the board an opportunity to talk about the policy if they so desire. So if at this point, even though there isn't a motion on the floor, I I am permitted to open the floor for comments uh to you guys. So if there is someone that wishes to speak on this policy uh as it is written or what you're hearing from the community, that's what we're elected to do. So um yeah, I'll open up. I'd

067like to if please the board, I'd like to make the first comments on this. I know this has been a somewhat contentious issue. Um perhaps it will be in the future, but I think um this is the right decision to make. Ultimately, we are looking out for the best interest of our kids. And there are a wide body of research that shows that um consistent media use, cell phones, tablets, laptops, what have you, um is is not good. Uh it's really bad for kids especially with regards to their uh academic performance, sleep disturbances that leads to increased obesity, attention deficit, increased aggression, lower self-esteem. I'm reading from the study by the way um American College of Pediatrics. Um it leads to depression, increased rates of high high risk behaviors. Basically kids are on social media,

068all of them, LinkedIn, uh not LinkedIn, I'm sorry, whatever Instagram, Facebook, uh Twitter, whatever it is. um and they're trying to uh gauge likes as a means of self-affirmation. And so if you're trying to do that to, you know, get as many likes as possible, you're going to do attention-seeking behavior type activities. And when your self-esteem is based off how other people perceive you, it's not so much as what you can achieve as an individual, it's what other people think of you as an individual, as the person. So they then kind of define you which leads to all these different aspects that are negative for the for the uh natural normal development of an adolescent. So I think taking this out of the schools is a great first step. We you know I grew up

069in the '9s. We didn't have cell phones. We were just managed to get by and we have accommodations for students who may need cell phones in the future as one of those necessary precautions. If they have any sort of mental health issues, if they have medical emergencies and they need to communicate with their parent immediately, we can make accommodations for that. if there's no other alternative in place. And so because of those reasons, because of the data behind this, because of the trends of mental illness that have been continuing to incline over the past couple years, I am in full support of a cell phone ban while kids are in school. All right. Anyone else? I'll echo Mr. Vendetelli. I mean, I agree with everything he says, but you know, to take it a little

070bit further, um, we have had issues with cell phones in this district. Um, and you know, we have our own case study. Um actually we have middle school south where cell phones are basically not allowed almost like this ban already is doing and we have middle school north where uh students are allowed to have them at lunchtime. Um you know and and with that comes students trying to bring them into class at times and sometimes they do come into class for for situations the teacher allows things like that. Um, what I can tell people is that we've had a couple of Title N issues. And if you're not familiar, um, that what that is is it's generally a, um, issue regarding a protected class of somebody who's been, um, discriminated against um, because of gender

071or because of their protected class status, but which also does involve sexually. Um, so I can't get into the details of those things that we've had to deal with as a board um because of confidentiality and furpa, but um I think you would feel differently if you had to sit through what these board what us board members have had to sit through and imagine your own child being on one or the other end of those things. Um, and it's truly for me, you know, I have students, both of my children um are currently at Middle School North. next year they'll go to both of them go to middle school south. Um you know those situations are terrifying and not because um I don't have a plethora of rules for technology for my own kids. I

072don't let my kids take theirs to school um their phones unless there's a a classroom reason for it on occasion. But um when you stop and think, you know, how many times we're protecting these kids from themselves, especially at those younger ages as well, um it's unfortunate because when you sit and you listen to the situations and you realize that these kids are making instant decisions that are impacting themselves for gosh, the rest of a school year, potentially or even longer if they end up expelled. Um, I don't think that they meant that. I don't think that they all meant to do these things or that they they saw that long-term effect. I mean, these middle schoolers are what, 12, 13. They're not seeing that in the moment. Um, and it's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking on

073both ends. But on the flip side, how do you look at the parent of a of a student who, you know, was on the receiving end of a situation and say, "Well, they didn't really mean it." you can't, you know, and so we're protecting the victims, but we're protecting the kids from themselves at an age where they're unaware. And so that's one large part of it. Now, obviously at high school level, some of those things start to change, but the high school has its own issues. I mean, we've had an uptick. We've had fights at the high school. We have people planning to fight one another at our high school. They set times on their phones. I mean, this is it's getting out of hand. And how do you when it's a planned 30 second

074fight? I mean, our staff can't even respond fast enough to stop it before it's done. I mean, we can't even get a handle on these things. Interruptions to the day. Um, so until you sometimes see like the whole side of things, maybe it's harder to understand the band. And I can appreciate that. Um, but also, you know, as a parent, I also think and as someone who talks being on the board and as a parent talking uh to the staff a lot. My next question is and and while yes, there's absolutely a way and a time to teach your kids to use technology. It's definitely the way of the world. There's AI. There's all the things. How many things are we going to put on the teachers and put on the staff to have to

075do? When do we draw the line between parenting and education at school? Our staff already has so many standards and things to do and things to worry about and now they have to be worried about what your child is looking at on their phone when they can't even tell from across the room. I mean, it's just too much. And so that is why I have championed this idea from the get-go. I can't take credit for the idea, but I have wholeheartedly been for it and um I I stand with that. I understand that people um you know have concerns about safety issues and things like that, but again, we had a situation at our high school with a fire drill. And what I heard from staff was the chaos that ensued. I'm sorry, it wasn't

076even a drill. The fire alarm went off. the chaos that somewhat ensued because kids were deciding to leave school on their own and being on their phones and being disrespectful to staff and not following instructions in what was potentially an emergency. I mean, so the layers just keep going and going and I could honestly ramble on for a long time about it, but um I just wanted to echo, you know, I'm not afraid to share my opinion. I know not everybody is going to agree with it. Um, but those are a few of the reasons that I do um fully support it. And as far as going to allowing it at lunch, um, speaking to that, I would say the reason I would still say no about that is because, again, we're still talking about

077having the opportunity to take pictures of peers, doctor pictures of peers, share things that are inappropriate, schedule to have a 30-se secondond fight with one another. I mean, we're just giving the opportunity. And what we do know is that we have an increased number of students with anxiety. An increased number of students who can't speak with their peers and have conversations and do things that for generations that went through school without phones, you know, that was just the norm for us. Um, so maybe let's get back to some of that and talk to our friends at lunch and take our phones take our faces away from the screens. Um, so that's I do not support making a change to allow things to allow phones at lunchtime um for those reasons. Um, and so like I

078said, I'll continue to support the the policy as presented. Thank Mr. Richards, as long as I'm looking this way. Yes. Thank you. Uh, I'd like to echo that as well. I I I want, you know, the parents and staff to know that we've been talking about this for probably almost two years. I mean, it's not something that we've kind of threw together in a couple months. We, you know, we talked about it and talked about it and there currently is a cell phone ban, you know, within the school district as well. And I think they were just kind of doing some modifications to it, changing it slightly. Um, you know, today I even heard on my my ride in Grand Rapids um in Lancing, they were talking about the cell phone ban and emergency responders

079were talking about how it interrupts the uh the organization and all the training. the first responders are not trained to deal with students that are looking at their phone or calling parents that let them know that there's a fire drill going on and things like that. So, it's actually um affecting the emergency responders as well when they're trying to evacuate a school or have a fire drill and things like that. Um to Miss Burke's point, there's, you know, there's a lot of things that I um agree with her on at the I don't think that we should make any changes even at lunch. Um I think it's it's a great ban. We we've talked about different discipline processes. Um, you know, I think that we put a lot of thought into it. Um, we've talked

080about it for a long time. And, um, one thing that I'd like to also mention too is after it was kind of made more public, it was on the radio. You know, it was nice to have another school district kind of reach out to us. Um, and they kind of wanted to see um, how we were writing the policy. So, you know, I know a lot of parents have mentioned or students have mentioned, one of my son's friends mentioned uh, he wants to go to Lance Cruz now. And I mentioned to him, well, Lance Cruz is who called us. So, it's, you know, I I think that um, you know, Mr. Green mentioned it before, we used to be a district of followers and and, you know, followed what other districts did. So, it's kind

081of good for, you know, good feeling to see that we have other districts calling us now, kind of, you know, piggybacking our policy. Snack, um, I'm the cheese on this one. I respect all of our my board members. They're they're very intelligent and thoughtful individuals. Um and and they know that I don't agree with the cell phone ban and its current state. Um I believe that phones are a tool much like when we were all growing up, computers were a tool and we learned how to use those. Um I think we should definitely not have cell phones in the, you know, during class time. Um but I know teachers are using them for projects, for looking things up. Um and and then just the the safety issues. We did have our school safety director meet

082with us during our board workshop to give a presentation. Um where I I felt strongly that she was uh not wanting a cell phone ban for some safety reasons. Um I would rather see and and I hate to to say that I disagree without having a solution, but I I don't have a solution. I think there needs to be a way to teach them to use it how to to use it as a tool to be respectful and responsible with it. Um I don't think you know the the eight hours or nine hours that they're here uh not using it is is going to to change um some of our our title n things and that is very tough uh sitting in those those conversations. So, I definitely understand and appreciate where my fellow board

083members are coming from, but I personally would like to to see it some sort of change. What that is, I don't know. Um to where we can start using it as a tool as opposed to banning it all together. Mr. Powers, Mr. [Music] Sunnyburgger. I spent today subbing in a school district that does not limit cell phone use and half the kids were on their cell phones during class time and they were not doing classwork because they had laptop devices that they were not using. as a substitute teacher, if I were to try to get all of those kids off of their cell phones and onto their work, I I would need bail money, I think. So, it's it's a herculean task to get a teenager off of a cell phone when there's an opportunity

084to use it. Um, I've worked at South and I've worked under their guidelines and it's so much nicer to walk into a classroom and not have to worry about gathering attention away from whatever they're looking at. Um, it doesn't always necessarily mean that the kids are going to pay attention to you, but at least I have a fighting chance. And at lunchtime, I mean, we shouldn't be looking at our phones. We should be trying to trade that bologn sandwich for a Twinkie. I mean, those are the kinds of skills that we need to develop in our kids, not looking at Tik Tok or or seeing other kinds of social media. It works at South. There are no problems at lunch at South. It's nice to walk into that lunchroom and see the kids interacting. So,

085I'm all on board with the policy. Well, I'll throw in just a couple of more comments. Um, I agree largely with with what has been said. I know the lunch piece is is something that I've considered as well um and I'm probably still on the fence about to be quite honest with you. Uh there is a little later in our agenda there is a technology award that will put uh enough laptops in the high school that each classroom for each student will be able to have one. Somebody mentioned one to one night. When I when I hear one to one, that sounds like I hand you a laptop when you're a freshman and you take it home with you. I don't really support that. I see how my kids treated their laptops. I bought them

086even into college. Um I think though that our high school students having laptops, having access to laptops, and our teachers controlling the amount of time that they're being used in their classroom is is the way to go. Uh I also know that we have the ability to block certain sites with um with those laptops will be on our private network and we have the ability to block certain sites. So even though I hand those seniors a laptop, uh as quick as we find out about sites, you know, Tik Toks, the Facebooks, the Insta, and all those other things, um we're going to block them. It the laptops are for educational. Um, and to Miss Burk Meer's point, um, the 30-cond fights, if you haven't heard about them, let me tell you about them. Uh, social

087media, they'll post 15 minutes before they'll go into a bathroom and they'll have what's called a 30-cond fight. You got 30 seconds and it is all about recording the fight so you can post it on social media. Um, it's disruptive. We had a situation quite honestly at the high school where we kind of had administrators wandering from bathroom to bathroom trying to catch up to this 30 secondond fight that by the time we had our sec our school security uh and our school resource officer from Sinclair County respond the fight was over. It was gone. The bathroom we thought it was in, they weren't there anymore. Um, so again, I'm not necess I'm I'm I'm truly on the fence about the lunch policy, but as far as the rest of the policy and not allowing

088students to have them, I actually support it. Uh, if you walk through our high school halls, you see what Mr. Sunnyburgger described as a distraction where if you walk through middle school south, uh, you don't see those same distractions because those phones aren't out. So, uh, half of our students, uh, our middle school students will already be prepared for this type of policy to come down. Um, I quite frankly don't think that elementary students need cell phones, period. Um, but I'm a little bit old school that way. Um, I have a 25 and a 22-year-old, and I can tell you they didn't get phones until they were 12 or 13, which, um, yes. Yes, I'm I'm older. I appreciate that. Thank you. Appreciate the whistle. But anyway, that's my position on it. So, there is

089no other action to take tonight is the first reading. Um, but I wanted to afford everybody the opportunity to talk about it because it is out there on social media. We are posting it on our own social media so that um, you know, so it's no surprise when this takes effect next year that it's coming down the pipe. So, nobody has anything else there. We'll move on our agenda. Um, next up is a uh, bond series 2 resolution. Uh, we are at the point now where we need to start funding our second phase of our bond uh, expenses. So this resolution before the board is necessary to approve the issuance of the second series of capital improvement bonds in the amount not to see exceed $54,365,000. So the recommended action is that the board approve

090the bond series 2 resolution that you have in front of you. So move second. Got a motion by Mr. Vanelli supported by Miss Knox. conversation concerns. Uh, Phil, we're last time we talked, I think we were about roughly 11% of our our bond. Um, where are we at now with what we've already expended. So, we prior to this Yeah, prior to this, we're just crossing over like the 20 21 million out of the 17 out of 170ish. Okay. All right. So, again, another 54 million. So we can get and we actually pulled ahead some projects. I think the high school roof was one um because we came in ahead of our estimates and I think the high school roof was like $2 million um that we were able to do in phase one where we

091didn't think we'd be able to do it phase two. So, and I'm saying that because um Corey Wy is here. Um Todd Wrathman is here and and Phil are doing a great job in getting these costs, controlling these costs. And to, you know, to find that we have a a two plus million dollar surplus at the end of that's 10%. Um that we were able to save from the 21 million you said we've spent. So, and there's more than the 2 million. I know that. But the roof's an easy target and we're ahead of ahead of target. Anybody other comments, questions, concerns before we move? Mr. Richards, Mr. Vinatelli, yes. Miss Knox, yes. Mr. Green, yes. Mr. Richards, is a yes. Miss Burkemeer, yes. Mr. Powers, yes. Mr. Sunonnyberger, yes. Motion carries. Carry on. Let's

092spend some more money and get the district up to uh up to speed. Uh next item up is a resolution to establish a capital improvement fund. The resolution before the board seeks to establish a capital improvement fund utilizing funds that were raised through the levy of a millillage approved prior to February 13, 2024. Passage of the public act 10 of 2023 reinstating prevailing wages for state construction projects. The recommended action uh is that the board of education approve the capital improvement fund resolution as presented. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Mr. Powers, supported by Miss Knox. Comments, questions, or concerns? question is the the comment on the prevailing wage being a portion of this required by law. This is when they passed the initial when we passed the bond, we passed it

093before the prevailing wage and then the state when they reinstated the prevailing wage, they wrote it in a way that they assumed that they were going to not have it wouldn't apply the bonds that were passed before. They use the term millage. Okay, a bond is technically by the letter of the law not a millage. And so there's some con not confusion, I mean there's there's it's unclear on how that would basically play out. The state had some legislation drafted to fix that and that was caught up in all the lame duck. So it didn't pat in lame duck. So then they didn't fix that. However, because it says millillage, then you basically what this fund would do is it's a small fund that we would then if you allocate any money from a fund

094that's from an actual millillage versus a bond because a bond you're paying mills that's how they calculate it, but it's not technically a millage. And so then if you just put some the letter of the law is if you pay out of a millage then you're not subject to that. And that's since we bid the bond, we did everything before that. It's part of keeping us under the um threshold for the B. You okay with that, Mr.? Okay. Anyone else? All right. Hearing none. Mr. Richard, you'd be so kind. Sure. Mr. Powers. Yes. Miss Knox? Yes. Mr. Sunnyburgger? Yes. Miss Burkmeer, yes. Mr. Venitelli, yes. Richards, yes. And Mr. Green, yes. Motion carries. Next on the agenda is a sidewalk uh assessment settlement proposal. On April 4th, 2025, the city of New Baltimore City Council

095voted to accept an offer made to pay 50% of the bills that were assessed assessed. Should have brought my glasses. that were assessed to the school district for the repair of public sidewalks on the district's property. The district is not technically required to pay the assessment. However, because the district did receive value in having its sidewalks improved and in the interest of fostering a positive relationship with the city of New Baltimore, administration is asking that the board formally approve the offer to pay 50% of the amount build to the district in the amount of $15,736.15. The recommended action is that the board of education approve the sidewalk assessment proposal offer to pay 50% of the amount built to the district in the amount of $15,736.15. I have a motion to that effect. I'll make a

096motion um in hopes of getting a second for the sake of having a discussion and then having a vote. Um that's the only reason I'm making a vote. Okay. So, I have a a vote uh I'm sorry, a motion by Mr. Powers, supported by Mr. Richards. Uh I've asked our assistant superintendent of our finance uh to give us a short presentation um because there's been some information that has been disseminated uh out through the community that um may or may not be accurate. So, since uh Todd was involved from the beginning with the this process, I've asked him to give us a short presentation. Thank you, Mr. Green. Um, so if I could have you advance, uh, we started with the timeline and, uh, I apologize that's a little small there, but, uh, you can

097see back in June, uh, city of New Baltimore, uh, move forward with a resolution to start a 2024 U sidewalk project and, uh, that was advertised in the paper. Uh then on uh 10:25 of 2024 uh we received a bill uh three bills in fact totaling uh a little over $31,000 and uh but we didn't really receive any notice. There were notices that were sent out to other businesses as I understand it and at other residents but we did not receive any notification other than the bill. Um once we received the bill a few days later after printing we shared that with our uh legal counsel uh you can see in early November and uh we were concerned that we were not subject to that assessment and we wanted to seek legal counsel on that.

098We did do that. Uh legal counsel came back and confirmed that uh under Michigan codified law we are not subject to that. They also provided a little bit of uh case law that um was out there on this particular topic and uh came back to us. We discussed that here at uh the administrative offices and uh the determination was made that we're going to send this along to the city of so on 1118 November 18th of 2024 uh the attorney that we worked with at Tron Law crafted an email that expressed his opinion um and shared with them the MCL Michigan codified spa that he was specifically addressing as well as the gates spa and so that was sent over city. Next slide. This is the MCL that he referenced and it talks about if

099the pool property is not being utilized for primarily for public purposes then you would be subject. The alternative is true as well. you are not using it uh are if you are using it for a primary public purpose, you are not subject to assessment. And then you see at the bottom there it talks about in any event the board of education can always agree to enter into and pay those assessments enter into that's that that would be at the uh or you know at the board's discretion to whether they support Tim. Next slide. So uh this is Trun's legal opinion. And I pulled this right out of the uh out of the email that was sent to the city talks about uh that we are using the property for a public purpose and therefore our

100opin their opinion Trun's opinion our legal representation is that the three parcel should be exempt from the special. So that was shared with them in that uh November 18th. On 11:25 uh Trun followed up again. The attorney sent second uh email and that was sent city assessor's office as well as there was a special email address that set up for anybody who had concerns uh sidewalk at city of New Baltimore and could send direct to them. Both of those were included in that 118 as well as the 11:25 followup. uh didn't necessarily hear anything back. Uh but I had a phone conversation on a couple of different topics with uh Ron Trombbley in late November, could have been very beginning of December, but u we had a conversation and at that time Ron who is

101the assistant to the mayor acknowledged to me that he was aware of that communication and asked me if we would be interested in entering any sort of agreement to pay those assessments. uh I indicated to him at that time that uh I couldn't make that decision that that decision would have to go before typically our finance committee and then ultimately go before our board for a vote before we could uh enter into such a so um some time slipped by with uh the breaks and and other things and uh so February 12th uh we received Bill and I actually were copied on email from Mayor SM to uh one of the council members uh Councilman Dietrich and uh the question I guess Councilman Dietrich had raised the fact that this letter was out there and

102and had been received by the city but the council had not heard anything about that's my understanding I was not at but um so I quickly replied um shortly thereafter again on February 12th to say forwarding again the letter from Tron made sure that Moran within receipt of that letter and uh that there wasn't any confusion that still prevailing. Then on uh just an hour or so after I sent my email, I got a email back from Mayor Simont indicating that he was aware of the Trune email that was sent and that you know that he was aware of that he was hoping that we would engage in some conversation. It was just very confusing. So, I've actually, if you'll go to the next slide, I've kind of excerpt excerpted the email a little bit

103and I wish my but I highlighted happened at council and the second highlighted with the assessment department there have not moved toward school indic indicating that it's not for side block program and that was on February 12th. And if I can move to the next slide, this email that I sent then shortly thereafter about an hour later to Mayor on November 18th, we did send correspondence and then I attached the correspondence to those uh our attorney All of those email address sidewalk repair city of New Baltimore. So Tim, next slide. You know, this is the reply I got that say I am. So I I'm not really sure what's going on here. Um I think there may be some politics put uh but uh I don't know. So I wanted to just share that. So

104I think there's some back and forth confusion uh for like um next slide please. So this continues the timeline. Um on February 25th I sent an invitation to the mayor to attend our uh March 4th meeting that was scheduled for the finance committee. On March 4th, we convened our committee meeting and the city attended. They had two councilmen and an administrator uh Ron Trombbley came and in that meeting we were a little confused because we thought maybe the city was coming with some sort of offer uh to us and we were told during that that they were just there to observe our conversations. So we we had conversation about that. We talked a little bit about um the amount that we were being charged the three different invoices. We shared that with the committee. We

105talked with committee a little bit about you know we are getting value clearly for uh we do have new sidewalks that have gone in or new sidewalk pads that have gone in. So that we did get some value from the city for sure for doing that. Uh but you know there was some disappointment uh that we weren't contacted and allowed the opportunity to provide our own contractors provide that work and and do that work. Um and and that there was no communication other than an invoice after the fact. So uh those were the kind of couple things I'd look back also I took some time to go back about 10 12 years and see if there were any assessments that we had paid years past or if there's any sort of agreement in place with

106the city to pay these assessments. We were not able to find anything like that. I did talk with Ron a little bit about that to see if they had anything. He indicated he didn't know of anything like that. So, uh, so I reported that back to Phil, told him that, you know, we didn't have anything like that. And then on April 4th, uh I talked with Ron again and uh told him that, you know, after talking with Bill and and the committee, uh you know, we thought because we are getting partial value here for sure, uh we did get new sidewalks that have been in in uh put in place and you know, it behooves us to have a good working relationship with the city. uh the committee and and and fellow uh we talked

107about maybe doing a 50% off. So on April 4th, I shared that orally with Ron. He asked me to put that in writing. I sent an email April 8th to Ron putting uh the offer in writing. I was very explicit to say that this is a one-time offer. It's not up for negotiation. The take it or leave it type of offer. And then on April 10th, uh, unbeknownst to us, actually, um, we were made aware of this. I wasn't made aware, I wasn't aware, but on April 10th, it was taken to the city council, presented to them as an offer, and, uh, they accepted the offer. So, that's kind of the timeline of where we are right now. U, it's now come back to the board of education here for final uh, approval. if they

108would like to move forward with that. Tim, can you move forward? These are the the three um invoices. This is the third. Um I'm sorry, I'm going to ask you to move that video. Uh go back. Go back. Move the video. Nope. Forward. Sorry. Is there any way I can have you move that video box that is sitting right on top of the Yeah. Go back to two slides. So the first slide we have is for you you'll notice that's 51880 Washington. That's in front of Lighthouse. There is no sidewalk right on Washington. It's really the address sidewalk actually extends all the way up Willie. That's really where that sidewalk is. Next slide please. Uh you can see here uh was for Axley and you kind of work backwards. The previous slide it was 181

109uh pads. If you work backwards you can kind of figure it out because you can take square feet. They talk about cost $853 per square foot. So you can kind of work backwards and figure out you know how many pads or approximately how many pads were put in. So you've got about 45 pads there. U there were about 180 pads that we paid for. So we're up, you know, over 225. Next slide, please. And then another four pads that we had here. This would closure up by uh the middle school north. So uh we had about 200 roughly 230 pads that we paid for give or take. There could be a little bit of fudge in there because I'm not Exactly. How many of the pads were 4x4 or 6x6? I don't know. Next slide,

110please. So, we just did a little bit of work today. Go out and kind of take some pictures. You can clearly see the areas that were repaired. They're much lighter than the rest of sidewalks. Um, but you can also that, you know, they were just the individual pads that needed to repair. They did not repair the entire sidewalk which they weren't required to do. It was just those pads. Um so and again um thank you to Cory Wy. She got a nice day for it. But he went out and kind of walked and unofficially we counted 127 flat. So uh there may be a question out there. How much would 127 slabs cost? It's about $17,334. So, um, that's where we stand today. I guess it would be up to the board if they would

111like to, uh, follow through and, uh, approve an agreement to pay 50% of the assessment to the city of New Baltimore. I'm I'm open for any question. So, I'll bring it back to the board. Um, obviously we have Todd, we have Corey here as well that walked the properties, our facilities director. Is anybody here from the city of New Baltimore to address this board and answer questions we may have about how we got here and how this was done? Are they not here today? Is there anybody here representing the city of New Baltimore tonight? So, doesn't appear to They It sounds like they graciously accepted an offer that we haven't even made, right? Well, to be clear, I I did send um them an offer to pay I know you did. I know you did.

112I found that in their board packet, and I'm I'm not too pleased with how it was worded. Once again, I'm going to quote it. I have been authorized by the board to make a one-time non-negotiable offer to pay 50% of the total amount assessed. When did this board authorize anybody from this administration to do such a thing? When did that happen? What meeting did this happen at? Did Did any of you vote on that? Because I sure did. Mr. Prowers, I'll take the hit on that. It should have said board committee. It should have said board committee. So, I apologize for that. So, to answer your question, uh, Mr. Vanelli, myself, and Mr. Richards are uh, the three board members that sit on No, I I get it. It happened in finance. So, there was

113there was a discussion. We have lots of committees and committee we were throwing numbers around. Do we think you know it's appropriate for committees are are purposely set up so that they don't have decision-m authority. So there's only you know the I I I don't once again this is on the heels of the the Friday the Friday 5:00 email where we said the board got together and made a decision that they didn't make. Once again um here we are saying that the board did something that we didn't do and it it's it's inappropriate and it needs to stop. It needs to stop. I I don't think you know, if it happens once, okay, but this is like a, you know, I've only been here three months and this is the second big one. You've referenced

114more than that in the time you've been here. So, I'm I'm going to ask that that this stop that we stop speaking on behalf of the board for things that we didn't do. Um, so I'll start with that. Um, the city of New Baltimore, Patrick, you would know more than me, they do not broadcast their meetings, correct? you cannot watch their meetings either in real time or or after the fact, right? My understanding as a resident is that you cannot watch them live unless you attend in person and that if you desire to watch the to watch a meeting, it requires a foyer request. Okay. And you you were not at their meeting. We had nobody at their meeting representing Inkerbase School District. So, we have no idea what they said, how they presented this

115to their to their residents. I was not there. Okay. And in fairness, you had no idea they were even going to talk about this, correct? That's correct. Okay. Yeah. Um, so I I I feel you to answer your question. I was physically present at the meeting when this was presented to city. Okay. Is there anything we should know about how they presented this to their community and what was said? So, first of all, let me be clear that I didn't address the Baltimore City Council. And as Miss Knox already represented and stated, even though I'm the board president and I am at a meeting, I am unable to speak as a representative of the board unless that permission is exclusively given to me for that topic that day. So I didn't address the council. What

116I can tell you is that I didn't feel like the communication that was between the mayor and his com council accurately depicted what Todd has presented tonight. You're saying they told a different story. Yeah. Okay. That is my that is my feeling, my personal feeling as a resident. Okay. Going back through um these notices, they make several references to in the spring you received the notification as noted in the spring 2024 letter. I just want to make sure I'm clear. You're saying we never got any of these correspondences that they referenced in all of these notices. Right. We no did not receive them at all. Yeah. I believe at that meeting they a question that we even asked during they they admitted that they admitted that they never said Okay. Um the I believe the

117the point was made in the subcommittee meeting that they made a public notice and we should have been aware of the public notice even though it didn't apply to us. So I I guess the question the main question I have then is is what's changed because we've probably had four or five references to this issue in our our weekly board updates from administration over the last several months and we've been pretty indignant from the beginning that um you know as as he referenced we have no they had no legal right to charge us for this. We have no legal obligation to pay for them. Um they never notified us ahead of time. Uh, you know, if we wanted to do this, we could have used safe routes to school grants. Um, the district has not

118responding. Can you talk about that a little bit as well? Um, that's because Yeah, so we are we're working with the city right now to do the safe routes grant uh that you referenced. Um, that grant will not be issued and none of the work will be done until probably summer of 2027. But I'm I'm assuming a grant is not going to let you retroactively pay for work that you already did, right? You're correct. Yeah. But that's also uh So it it could not have been I just want to be very clear. It could not have been paid anyway. By Yeah. the sidewalk. Okay. But that's also something that you've been working on with the city of New Baltimore or whoever from Yeah. We've been working city of New Baltimore for about a year on

119that safe rout or longer. So that should be a grant that they should be well aware of of the of the grant. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. They're aware. Yeah. They in fact they made the application. They as a act 51 agency the city made the application. We we as a school can't that application. So are some of the council not aware that sidewalks that Anchor Bay owns as part of that grant? Maybe. Yeah. I know. I'm just throwing it out there. No, I mean we talked about certain areas where we may even add like house or in front of uh along Washington on both sides adding a sidewalk there. So there is some convers there's been some conversation. There were sidewalks falling apart. I know one someone made an accusation that we had sidewalks that were

120crumbling. I believe I can't remember the exact verbiage during the meeting, but we had crumbling sidewalk. Yeah. So that's that was why the city addressed those pads that they did. It was because they felt like those sidewalk had some disrepair. That grant is pretty large scale. Chesterfield's actually involved with it as well. And certainly if you want again, Miss Wley's here that could address any concerns of what she may have seen before. Right. Well, we're talking about things that we would like to do beforehand, which is how normal people approach such a big thing. Right. Okay. I just want to be clear. We're talking about things in the future, not things that we already took it upon ourselves to do the way that they did. Um, so who's we? We is in the city of

121New Baltimore, right? Correct. Yes. Sorry. So, look, I I understand that we want to have uh a good relationship with one of our municipal partners. we have nothing to gain by having an adversarial one. But um they they certainly didn't see enough value in the relationship to give us the courtesy of of notice ahead of time. They just kind of arrogantly sent us this $32,000 bill and assumed we'd pay for it. Um no one here from the city of New Baltimore to talk about how this happened and why things will be better in the future. Um, you know, I I certainly appreciate the fact that that somebody over at city hall probably has some explaining to do on on the $32,000 bill, but I I don't see how the onus is on us to make

122this right. If anything, we're the agrieved party in the in the dispute. So, uh, I'm going to be a no vote and, uh, I don't see why it's our our obligation to pay for this at all. All right. U, Todd, I do have a question, too. Um, I think during the meeting we also talked about a way to try and avoid this in the future. Um, can you talk about are we as a district going to have um, you know, facilities walk the sidewalks as well, you know, um, because what last thing I want to hear is um, crumbling sidewalks around a school building as well. So, can you maybe walk us through what we're doing as well to try and prevent, you know, to Mr. P's point a a Yeah. So, we've had some

123preliminary conversations. you know, we we'd like to work out some sort of process or procedure that document that, you know, in the future, we won't have this kind of process. Anytime they want to do something, you know, related school property, we have process. And I want to jump in real quick. um with the grant, the sidewalks grant, um there was a walk that was commenced at every building uh last fall, if I recall correctly. You're correct. And um these exact sidewalks were walked by uh the city engineer from New Baltimore, New Baltimore Fire Chief and a lieutenant from the New Baltimore Police Department as well as members of uh administration board um and and I I believe a parent and a principal um were kind of the rest of that group. So I I don't

124have the notes from that meeting. your contact at the state might um I would be interested, you know, if if those sidewalks were identified as as a serious trip hazard and something that may result in imminent injury. Um I don't remember hearing that, but certainly there was a lot going on with a lot of people walking a lot of different sidewalks. So I want to throw that out there as part of that grant that every sidewalk from every building was walked by, including Chesterfield by a team similar to that that involved city officials district officials and then the grants know if he was the administrator um for the state of Michigan who actually ran that particular meeting and then I interrupted you Mr. Benelli I apologize no that's okay it's a good context I just

125had a quick question kind of to Mr. P's point did Mr. Rathben I believe did we invite somebody from the city new Baltimore to attend this meeting knowing that telling that we would discuss this issue specifically we did we let them know that it would be on the Okay. And when you I assume you sent that to them by email. Yeah. Okay. Uh can I ask did you get a response from them? I did not. Okay. So possibly maybe they didn't get it, but um that's much more notice than any one of us uh got with regards to their April 10th meeting. Um my question is more just conjecture. I'm curious to know because it sounds like you've been in communication with uh Mr. Trombly about the legal notice that we've given them. That sounded

126like he had an understanding of our issue with regards to the way this issue was handled. Um, and it looked like there was some kind of disconnect between the assistant mayor, if I got his title correctly, and the mayor, I believe his name is Mr. Tom San. Uh, do you know if those two have in communication or is there any sort of inclination as to what they gave you as to why the communication broken down between the two of them? I I really can't speak to that. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't know. That's fair. It was just purely a point of curiosity to me. It just seemed kind of odd that you had given him I think it's if I remember the timeline correctly a a couple of emails uh that was forwarded to them

127uh from our lawyers basically stating why the way that this was done was incorrect and then why we're not subject to those fees. And it seemed like the mayor, Mr. Thomas San was confused or resistant to acknowledge those basic facts. Is that kind of I just trying to understand why that breakdown of communication happened? It it's not something that you need to answer. I guess for me it's just a point of uh sort of like bewilderment but ultimately curiosity as to how did something like that happen? Like don't those two should be working directly together. they're in the same office and yet it's been months and they just haven't had that conversation. So, uh more just a a point that I just want to make is that that was uh very surprising to me to

128see the table of events as you described it take place. That's all I got now. I see you're queued up. the whole situation from when we first got that letter um or the the the bill is is chaotic and I I think the reason there's a strange timeline and lack of communication on their part is done with purpose. Um my question is uh so we're wanting to do this out of goodwill and I'll have a two-part here. So, I want to hear from the finance committee, at least one of you, um why you think we should do this and other than Goodwill or is it just Goodwill? And have we done this for because we're in multiple municipalities. Have we done this for Chesterfield? Um and if we do do this, then it would only

129be right to to do it in, you know, in our other areas. So, Miss Docs, I don't know if I don't I'll I'll circle back so that you can maybe have one of the finance answer, but kind of piggybacking on what you just said. My thought upon reading this was, you know, recently we had the issue with Chesterfield uh billing us for the elections. And that was my thought. And I actually got here and asked, which required a few of us to ask around, but I said, you know, we got I want to say I don't even remember to be honest. $80,000. No, it's like 55. Okay. The $55,000 bill for the election in Chesterfield. That caught us quite off guard. Um but in that situation, you know, they are allowed to bill us reasonably.

130The reasonably was under question, right? um in this situation we have case law showing and you know judgment showing that we we don't owe and um so I kind of wanted to point that out to you in the sense of you know have we done this before now in the Chesterfield situation we did end up paying them less than what they requested 30,000 30,000 however like I said in that situation we were we did owe them something it was the amount that wasn't question, right? So, I just wanted to add that to your example of, you know, have we engaged with this with anyone else, but as as something, but I have more comments, but I'll let you circle back to your So, it sounded like you wanted you wanted to get some input from

131finance. Maybe Dennis, I put you on the spot. Are you the chair of that committee? Well, thank you, Mr. Green. My pleasure. Um, we did talk about it at length. Um uh it was an interesting meeting when the city showed up. Um but at the same time um we felt as though that if our sidewalks were in need of some type of repair um we had Corey pull some numbers um I believe and Todd I believe it was under the estimates that we kind of were figuring um what it would have cost us and to be uh to play nice in the sandbox we figured we would you know give them an offer. Um, granted, I don't think we were uh anticipating some of the um, uh, comments that they were having at their uh,

132council meeting. Um, but we figured we'd try to be a nice neighbor or at least put out an offer. Um, that's kind of how we came up with it. If I can expand on that just a little bit. In addition to New Baltimore, we did look and see if there was any assessment sidewalk like that. Chesterfield. I didn't find anything going back. Well, and Chesterfield ran a sidewalk program still ongoing. I think it's still it's active, right? It's a few years long and going in phases. Yeah. Kind of just continuing because they're significant. Yeah. Now, just to add to that with Chesterfield, I don't know if you recall, they had this is by Great Oaks. So, it would be the east sidewalk that goes in front of the subdivision. I guess back when Great Oaks

133was built, there was not a subdivision there. And so connected, they approved the district to put in a sidewalk and and it's asphalt. It's not cement. And they did come to us and said, "Well, you guys put this in. This is not up to like current code." And we're like, "Well, at that point, we were obligated to and you approved it, but it's not our property anymore. So that's on them." And they were like, "Nope, we understand. That's fine." And then but that is actually in I believe that is now in the the the safe routes yeah thing and when we negotiate typically the general thing is we go if it's financial like this we go to the finance committee they give us kind of parameters and that's how we kind of make our offer

134off of that same thing when we negotiate with the union and so on because we're negotiating on behalf of the board and then generally like when we did the partnership with the for the aquatic center for them to lease the aquatic We go with them, they they come back with some things, we kind of settle everything and then it's kind of all there and so it's it's kind of wrapped up in the bow at that point of where we're at. Well, before and then they they'll tell us we're taking it to our board. It it's always who's going first? Are you guys going to go first? Are we going to go first? And then we'll decide we're going to take it on this date. It's like with Chesterfield when we sold Sugarbush. We'll take it

135on this day. then they'll follow up on this date and that's all planned that we had no knowledge. They did not respond to us on Todd's initial conversation. All right. Think back to Mr. Burker. Yeah. Um so my question from it sounds like maybe in the finance committee is meeting is when this originated to offer New Baltimore some sort of deal. um who who originated that idea? Does anyone recall? So there was uh and I'll speak now for you. There were you know certainly the city was in at the beginning of the meeting and then they were excused and then the uh committee members as well as superintendent Janowski and Mr. Was there I don't think there's anybody else in there or was Robin still in there at that point? problem and what's not. So,

136it was just the five of us in the room. So, and I I can honestly tell you Dom, you can speak up too. I I there was a lot of conversation about how to handle this. Should we pay any portion? I don't specifically remember. Yeah. And if one of you guys remembers, please. No, no, correct. I I know that the question was conversation was there would be there would be a cost to it and so we kind of calculate what would the rough cost be. Okay. And Todd, can you can you also just for my sense too, um the third the original bill, was that the amount that was under what it would have cost us or is our offer under what it would have cost us to fix the sidewalk? It was actually very

137close. I think we I think we got um it was 853 for a square yard if 4x4 and more if it was 6x6. I think we paid around $9. So it was very comparable to what we paid in the past. I think that's how we kind of Lisa, you still at floor? Yeah. Um, I'm I'm not impressed by the disorganization that New Baltimore has shown in this whole process. You know, the back and forth, you know, to your guys' credit, trying on the finance committee and Todd and Phil, you know, trying to um, you know, come up with something that you feel is reasonable. Um, you know, I I have no appetite for this. um $15,000 in the in the scope of sidewalk work. While it may not be a ton of money, um I

138want to push back a little bit on the idea that, you know, our sidewalks could have used some work because if that was true, we would have done it in our bond. Um and we didn't. So, it obviously was not that crucial for us. Um I have things, you know, as a board member, there are a lot of things I can spend $15,000 on to benefit our students. our sidewalk I don't believe wasn't in need of anything because like I said it would have been in our bond um and it would have either been upcoming um over the next 10 years even and so that was apparently not of a concern to us. Um so I have a little bit of question on that end. Um, you know, the other thing, and you know, I

139hesitate to even say this because I don't um I I wish that the finance committee um how can I word it? Well, first I I would say that I I don't really like the process that happened here. Um, I think that the board should have been approached first to make this offer and go to New Baltimore. Um, granted, I know they took it to their board and they ran with it. Um, we can't control what they do. But I think that the board should have approved this offer, even the idea of an offer first as a whole because now we will have egg on our face to come back and say oops, you know, if if this turns around and we say actually the majority of our board didn't vote. I mean, I don't know.

140I only know how I feel myself. So, but that's a possibility, you know. So, that this really should not have been handled in this way. um we should have come to the board first, you know, if and and certainly I'm not trying to, you know, I think the finite sounds like you guys put a lot of work into it and the came up with a what you thought is a reasonable number. Um but that's what that's where the scope of the committee should have stopped. Um like Brian said, you know, we that should not have authorized somebody to make an offer. Um because now, you know, we're we're at risk. I mean, maybe it'll pass. I don't know. But maybe we're at risk of of kind of looking silly. Um, that said, I also do

141wish that somebody uh from the finance committee would have recused themselves from this process um because I think that there are, you know, some conflicting um interests going on. So, that's all I'm going to say to it, but I I wish that that would have happened. Um, and hopefully if this ever comes up in the future as necessary that that will happen. All right. Anyone else? Um, yes, but I just forgot. We'll come back to Mr. Sunnyberg. Did I hear there's a discrepancy between pads build and pads poured? I think there is. Um, how confident? What we did is we tried to kind of back into the number of pads based on the price per square foot and calculated how many square feet. Um we came up with the bill being about 220 to 230

142ads somewhere in that neighborhood. Um slide I think it's 127 what we counted today. I mean, it's just Cory kind of going around on her own trying to count them up. But how how confident are you with that number? Yeah, Pinky Swear. I think that's on the cost on just to be clear. So that I did calculate kind of again using their numbers to do 127 pads would have cost $17,334 and then half of that would be half of that. Yeah. Wouldn't we be? So, we're offering half. I'm No, we're offering half of the total bill. So, it'd be if if it's around, right, but I only want to I only want to offer half on the tabs that were actually poor. Oh, I could calculate that for you, but I would have I don't

143I'd have to get a calculator. Yeah. All right, Mr. Sunberger. Anything further? Miss Knox, have you uh I'm back. All right. Um, yes. So, we talked about the chaos and I see what Lisa is saying that we would never have put it in our bond because it's not a responsibility and then we somehow um by not having it come to us after finance and then they were able to control the narrative and we need to make sure that doesn't happen again. Um because yeah, now we we will look possibly ridiculous and embarrassed. Um it looks like we don't know what we're doing but we allowed someone else which right from the start there was chaos. Um, not on our part, but it was, I believe, intentional. Anybody? Anything else? Yeah, I just want to add

144based on some comment. Like, I I get it that we threw the offer out there and it may look bad that we don't approve it, but I I'd rather do the right thing and and not pay money that I don't think that we should be paying as opposed to being a victim of a process we don't like. So, I'm firmly a no. Still, one last quick question. Um, with True Law's uh opinion, if the vote was to go as a no tonight, there's no legal lawsuit or collections or anything that we could get brought into by the city of New Baltimore. I don't believe so. No. So again, generally with any negotiation, they would have before taking it to their board, they would have come back and said, "Hey, here's where we're at with that.

145This is kind of the agreement." And it would have gone from there. And then they would have said, "We're taking it to our board. We'll take it to the board fully." And then go at that point because then we'd have like like everything else. It's like like the lease for all that. We present it to everybody. There you go. Here's kind of where we're at. Then we we kind of know before it goes to the official thing. And that's not that didn't happen which we have worked with them and that's how it worked previously. So I don't know why they didn't do that this time. Yeah, that was like Phil said. I mean, when we were talking about renting the facilities to New Baltimore, you know, there's a lot of back and forth where that

146here's our leads, they looked at, they brought back here that committee, the committee looked at that, had any questions back. There was a lot of back and forth before we and it was kind of hammered out before it went the board, you know, and the board knew all about it and, you know, so it wasn't a surprise where this was truly a surprise that it was going city and Baltimore, but I I would have expect say we're willing to accept why don't you guys go first or we'll go first, right? But I I guess I would assume on the if I were on the receiving end and I received an offer that we're that you know the school district's willing to pay us this. Unless I went and investigated and watched the board meeting to

147see if they took it before the board, I would have assumed that that had been done. I mean, and and that didn't. So, I think us sending that offer gave the illusion that maybe, you know, or the illusion that like you said, the board looked at it already, said, "Yes, let's send an offer as we have done in the past." And then it it goes over, they may approve, and then it does come back to this board for final approval. But at that point, like you said, everybody's already in the know and it's really more a formality because everybody knows what's going on. Um, and that was not really the process and part of that part of that piece was on our end. And I that that needs in my opinion it shouldn't have happened

148that way. I will add because I was at the city council meeting that city of New Baltimore administration was advised by one of their council members during their public during their discussion that he reported the council person reported to the administration that this had not come in front of the full board yet. Uh stating that he watches the board meetings and watches the agendas and had not seen it on our agenda. Okay. Um, any further questions, comments, anything else from Todd? Bill, just one last question. Um, more clerical to vote yes in the affirmative is to vote yes to a uh city of Baltimore the 15,000 some odd. So the motion in support is for recommendation that the board of education approve the sidewalk assessment proposal offer to pay 50% of the amount build to

149the district in the amount of 15,000 736.15 and that motion was made by Mr. Powers and supported by Mr. Richard. Thank you. So if there's nothing else feel like we've talked it Mr. Mr. Richards, if you would call the role. Mr. Powers. No. Richards, no. Mr. Sunnyburgger. No. Uh, Miss Burke Meyer? No. Mr. Venatilli? Yes. Miss Knox? No. Mr. Green? I will abstain. So, the motion does not uh have the number of votes to to carry. Moving on to the agenda. Um, I'll ask real quick. I know we still probably have a little bit of time left. We've been here for about two hours. Does anybody need a quick break? Take 10 minutes, please, and we will reconvene. I will not say no to that. I thought 10 minute break would be perfect. We are

150so excited. All right. I like it. 10 minutes, please, and then we'll reconvene. All right, we're going to call this back to order. I appreciate everybody allowing me my 10 minutes. Um, we are going to move on in on the agenda. Um, however, we have two vendors that have been here for two and a half hours. Um, one is here to discuss uh our um our solar project item seven and then the other one is here for our technology award. Um, I'm going to ask uh that uh I would entertain a motion to move up items seven in the award recommendation A, the technology award to the next items on our agenda. So, uh, the solar project would become item five. And then I guess the technology award, we'll just call it item six to

151make things easy. And everything else will slide down one. So, I apologize for, you know, everyone's here for field trip discussions and stuff, but I've got two vendors that are looking pretty tired. So, I would entertain a motion to uh amend the agenda. I'll make the motion. I'll second. Appreciate it, guys. Motion uh by Miss Knox, support by Mr. Venatelli. Any comments, questions, or concerns? Can you please repeat that? You're serious? If you weren't talking, you would have recorded what I was saying. Go ahead. I'm listening. Uh item five is going to become the high school solar project. Item six is going to become the technology award from the award recommendations down below. And then after that, we will res with item seven. will be change order 13. Item eight will be field trips and

152I think that'll take us to close session. Correct. Oh, I'm sorry. We do have volunteer appeal and that will uh the volunteer appeal will follow up everything else. Do I have a motion? I have a support. Do we have any more discussion? Do we have anybody else here that is now going to have to wait longer? Well, yes. The volunteer appeal is our design parent a here for our volunteer appeal. Okay. So, um we'll slide that up, too. Uh sorry to sorry to my guys that are here for field trip approvals. We appreciate you guys coming out, but um you're going to be here a little bit longer. Okay. That No, that that's kind of my point. Like, why are we telling them that they have to wait longer, but the people who are getting

153money get out of here quickly? Like, I I just I don't know. Like, why did we set the agenda the way we set it? Like, are you cool waiting longer? Do you have a problem with that? Okay. So I I think I set the agenda with I'm just not comfortable telling one group of people like, "Oh, you're you're cool to wait longer, but you know." Okay. So I have a motion on the table. So I think we know how much power difficult tonight. But I just like I don't Can you call the role to amend the agenda? Mr. Difficulty. I did want to make one comment before we do that. Is is this is what happens when people have a vested interest in what goes on at our school. They show up to our meetings.

154Fair enough. Okay. Yes. So, the the motion was to move uh the solar project item five. Correct, technology award item six. And hell, let's Well, I didn't you guys didn't need to make that motion. I can't change the volunteer bill. So, I I can't I can't change it. So, to amend the agenda. Second. Motion. Second. Who's with the pen in the circles here? You know. Yeah. I told you. All right. Ready? Who made the motion, please? And then Miss Knox supported, correct? Sure. Okay. You're ready. I never should have given you guys the break. This is what happens after break. Okay. Mr. Vindili. Yes. Miss Knox. Yeah. Welcome to the movement. Mr. Sunnyburgger. Yes, Mr. Powers. Oh, Miss Burkemeer. Do I not care? I don't. No. Richards is a maybe with a yes. Mr. Green.

155No. All right. Motion fails. We are not amending the agenda. We will continue as presented. Item number five, change order number 13 and 14. And by the way, in the time we just spent on that, we actually could have caught these guys up so we could have got out of here. Um, why do I not have a change order recommendation? Can you slide that over, please? I may have shuffled things up here in my youth. Oh. All right. All right. This is change order number 13 and 14. We have Corey Wy at the podium. If there's questions, the rationale is attached. are two change orders that require board of education approval in adherence to the 2022 bond program change management policy. It's late. Um change order 13 for Ankor Bay High School phase one, the

156chiller bundle rework. This work was a change in the change in the scope and will be funded from the construction contingency. As you guys will recall, we have set aside a contingency fund for these types of things. Uh change order number 14, Anchor Bay Middle School, South S, a steel out building. Uh this work is additional scope to the project and will be funded from the bond construction budget. Recommended action is that the board of education approve change order number 13 and change order number 14 as presented. I will entertain a motion to that effect. Please I'll make the motion. I'll second. Motion by Miss Knox, supported by Mr. Sunnyberger. As I mentioned, we have uh Miss Wy at the podium. Questions, comments, or concerns? Do we have a dollar figure? I don't have it

157directly in front of me. Do you have it? They were both right around 70, right? 77. And then um the total was right around 150, I think, for both orders. For both. Yeah. Correct. How much was it? Bill, do you have the breakdown of the two? Again, I seem to have mishandled that paperwork. Let me read those back to you so I have them on the record. Uh, change order number one is $71,621.33 and change order number 14 is $74,378.92. Any more questions? Hearing none. We're spending some money. So, could you call the role there, Mr. Richards? I can do that. A motion by Miss Knox. Yes. Mr. Sunnyberger. Yes. Mr. Powers. Yes. Miss Burkemeer. Yes. Mr. Venatilli? Yes. Richards? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Motion carries. All right. Moving on to field trips. Um, if

158it pleases the board, can Bill, can I approve all these in one approval? So, I have a series of field trips. So, I will ask the board's um patience as I read through all of them. Um, five or six here. The first is DECA. Um, DECA International level of competition for members who advance from states will be traveling to Orlando, Florida April 24th, 2025 through April 30th, 2025. Seven students and two chaperones will be attending the field trip for the BPA National Leadership Conference. Business Professionals of America will be traveling to Orlando, Florida, May 7th through May 11th, 2025. They will have two students and two chaperones attending the trip. And as I'm reading through these, you guys should all have the paperwork behind all of these um with who's who's requesting. Anchorby High School

159volleyball camp will travel to Fris State University July 16th through 18th, 2025 for instruction and training camp. Acre Bay JV cheer will travel to Kalahari, Ohio July 25th through 27th, 2025 for cheer camp. They will have 27 students and two chaperones attending. The Ankor Bay band will travel to Cedar Point, Sanduski, Ohio, May 16, 2025. They will have 100 students and 20 chaperones. The Anchor Bay band will travel to Orlando, Florida March 13 through 17, 2026. They will have 100 students and 30 chaperones. This trip is aligned with per performance aspect of music curriculum. And there it is, out of order. Change order 13 and 14. All right. So, um, do I have a motion to approve the field trips as presented? I'll make a motion. Motion by Miss Burkmeer. Second ordered by Miss Knox.

160Let's talk about ratio. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Green. Can you please read those off? I think I missed the fair state cheerleading. Yeah. So, Shaka is 7-2. Um, BPA is 2 to2. The volleyball team camp is 14 students, two chaperones. The JB cheer camp is 27 students and two [Music] chaperones. The band trip to Cedar Point is 100 students and 20 chaperones. Band trip to Florida is 100 students and 30 chaperones. What's your pleasure? So, thank you. Uh so the only one that would be of any issue is well I think if I got this wrong JV cheer camp uh 27 students two chaprons that's the only one that has above like a 1 to8 ratio just trying to draw an arbitrary line I think 1:7 is probably fine um we we've talked about this

161before I know I'm probably the minority on the board I just have this belief that kids are uh put it mildly uh adventurous and I think unless you have someone who's able to keep enough eyes on them to make sure they don't get into enough shenanigans. Um that when um Cody put it, when the cats are away, the mice come out to play. And so I guess there's a little concern for that. Um I just wanted to I guess see what the board I mean you know what I think about this. Um, I wanted to see kind of what the board thought in addition because I know we've had conversations like this in the past and kind of what's the what's the take I guess perhaps from some administrators and how the organization works and

162if there is any concern on their side with regards to how this might play out supposedly specifically for that one field trip that has 27 to two chapters. I'm curious too if the chapro number includes the coach or coaches also because I believe there's one or two coaches for cheer. So I'm wondering if is there two coaches like going plus two chaperones. Yeah, this one I'll ask because Sherry is this the one? I believe they're looking for a third chaperone. They just don't have that yet because where it's at. So currently the two is including the the code then. Yes. Okay. So, is it the pleasure of the motion maker and the seconder to remove this JV cheer camp out of the list that I gave you and vote on it separately or do we

163want to move forward as is? What's the board's plan? Do we want to move forward give the approval with a stipulation? And also too, I I I believe DECA leaves tomorrow, correct? Oh, yeah. We're DECA. That's if we're going to pull it out, we're approving DECA tonight. We're approving. We would approve everything else but the JV chair camp. Okay. But that depends on the pleasure of the board. Bill, is there any concern administrative wise about a 27-2 ratio for a JV cheer camp? Is that normal? Is that something generally like we share with all of them and and Sherry talks to all of them and says we it's 10 to1 is basically what we're looking at especially for overnight trips and and they're aware of that. They just don't have that at this point and

164they want to get it approved because they need to start planning. Their hope is if it's approved with the I mean even if it's approved with the condition of that they have to have a third then now they can go out and say yes it's going we need a third. So we are allowed to conditionally approve a field trip and y and then what it's up to administration at that point to make sure that they comply comply with the conditions. Yeah. And then we'll Yep. We just tell them that. Yeah. So then would the motion maker and seconder be willing to approve the JV pierc field trip Kalahari July 25th through 27th 2025 if they added a third chaperone to go with the 27 student I don't remember who the motion maker was that was

165me okay with that miss is okay with that so that will be conditionally approved as long as there are three shops on come Everything else is okay with the board. Quick question for the band. Um, is any of your Cedar Point funds coming from the flower sale that is going on right at this time where the public can order flowers and support the band all at the same time? Okay. But that we could find out about the flower sale on our website. Okay. Thanks. I just have one. Sure. Not really flower related, but um commercial. Well, then what's the point? Yeah. No. Yeah. No commercial. Um transportation wise, um I I would imagine that most of it's uh by bus. No, no parent transportation like that. I don't think any of them are. Yeah, most

166of it says on there it's like obviously they're flying to Orlando. I think one of them said car, but I didn't. Yeah. So, a smaller one. I think it was one of the ones where there's only like two people going. Yeah. Wag BPA, I want to say. All right. Any other questions? So, we do have a motion on the floor to approve them with the conditions attached to the JB cheer camp. Would you feel comfortable calling the role? I can do that. All right. Miss Burkemeer? Yes. Miss Knox? Yes. Mr. Green? Yes. Richards, yes. Mr. Vinatelli, yes. Mr. Powers, yes. Mr. Sunnyburgger, yes. Thank you. All right, the motion carries. So, we have lots of people traveling. Hopefully, they'll have some safe travels and have some successes at their competitions. Uh, that brings us to

167high school solar projects. Wow, how they can clearly not be trusted with paperwork. this there's no motion this presentation. Okay. Thank you. Um we have Mr. uh Carter here with uh Mr. Rathbund to kind of fill in some blanks. Uh if you'll recall uh in the past few months uh we agreed to contract with Mr. Carter to kind of guide us through some of the energy projects that we have going on. Uh he is a consultant and specializes in this type of work. So I'm going to let you take it over, sir. Thank you. I'll try to keep it short for you to respect your time tonight. Um I'm not as tired as I look. So feel feel free to feel free to ask questions. I don't want to go too fast, but I don't

168want to drag it out either. So um that being said, we we have interviewed uh three companies to do a preliminary look at whether solar project would be feasible for the district for the high school. Uh we believe it is. Um, just wanted to touch a few highlights. Um, the goal tonight was just to bring it before you, let you know about what it would look like. Uh, we would then, if the board were to um, approve it, we'd go out and do the uh, the bidding to be able to come back, bring specifics to you. But we'd be looking at approximately a 950 KW system. To integrate that with the roof, you're already doing the white membrane and heavier decking uh be by facial system so that it's actually gathering uh power and sunlight

169from both the top and bottom of the uh of the array. um that the purpose is to capture the IRA rebates which are out there that are actually for the Brook and solar system because it's an integrated system. Um we would be looking for guaranteed production levels on that equipment. Um and the equipment uh generally nowadays has a 25 or 30 year lifespan if you look for those and the roof you're putting in you selected go to a 30-year roof so that solar project for it. Um we did the finances on it uh initial estimate on the cost of the system would be about $3.4 million. Um the financing again this would the actual financing financing recommendations financial advisor which we are not like finance but I wanted to at least get this up here.

170We have had some discussions through Todd and uh Baker Tilly. Um but it would we looking at probably an energy bond for the 15-year term. That's we ran we have cash flows for you on uh life the equipment again being 25 to 30 years guaranteed for the 25. Uh and then for the savings I broke it into two areas. uh the IRA rebates uh we did a range on those uh because there you can get from a 27 to a 40% rebate on those and so that'd be roughly 866,28 million. Uh the rebates on the roof again that depends on how uh a financial advisor tax specialist would be paid for that. Uh but as an initial discussion with them very conservatively from 48,000 up to max down to 458,000 on those rebates. So you're

171looking at about 9 a little over 900,000 1.7 million on rebates and then the net project benefit includes those from above those numbers above. So on the the bottom end of the 25 years for the solar, the net benefit would be $570,000 positive to $1.39 million. And you look at carrying those out. The project's already paid for itself. You're saving uh about another $1.3 million that extra five years goes up pretty dramatically. So you're looking at 1.8 for 9 million up to $2.7 million. I realize these are small, but I hope you have something printed in front of you. You can see it. Okay, good. Um, the blue area is the the cost of the project. We did throw in a uh $50,000 uh placeholder there to replace the inverters against your Those are not

172guaranteed for 25 years. Uh want to make sure we have that included. Uh we have your existing solar uh rate voted on which holds you at a flat level for 15 years. So that's included in there. It does grow by 3% a year after that. You still have those are the supply charges. You still have utility charges for delivering that existing power to you. You have demand charges built into that. And so those are grown throughout the the 25-y year period uh at percent placement as well. Uh then you have we ran two cash flows, one with lower end of the rebates, one with the higher. I did want to point out the shading to the right. You've got two columns. The last two right columns are your uh individual years cash flow, net cash

173flow, and then cumulative at the very right colum. So the purpose of shading those a little differently is to to highlight that the rebates coming in, you know, at the low end cover you for about 5 years as far as that negative cash flow. It starts to eat away at that fund. And then through the end of year 15, you have a negative cash individual year cash flow that's negative. And then at that point you notice that uh instead of uh a negative annual cash flow you have a very significant positive cash flow of 180,000 going up to about 230,000 only at 3%. So it's pretty dramatic. the other one. If you look to the next slide, um you'll see the higher end on the cash flow. It actually goes beyond the periods I stated

174a little bit, but uh you're actually covering about the first 10 years on the negative tax through the rebate and then you have about five years. have a a net investment back into the system through the same positive capital. So happy to answer questions on that. I'm not trying to go fast, but I'll just jump in real quick. You can see also here 25 very likely this that here actually 15,000 Before I open up the board, I'll throw in a couple things that we discussed at at finance. This did come in front of finance Monday this week. Uh we the roof that we're putting on the high school has a 30-year warranty. So the expectation is that our roof will Yeah, live but live as long as the solar panels will. We also discussed the

175visual appeal of the solar panels on the roof. And we believe that largely because of the the height of the outside wall on the roof that the panels will be mostly hidden from view that you won't be able. Was there anything else that we talked about before I open it up? No. Thank you. Uh we did talk about the amount of uh roof space, right? Was it 50% roughly 50% of the roof would be covered with the panel? Yeah, you would be able to see it from the street. And I'll just like to iterate one thing that uh Mr. Carter and Mr. Rland had mentioned that this project over the course of its entire longevity will pay for itself uh in addition to actually make the district more money on top of that. So, not

176only is it a re new roof with solar panels and all the things that would come along with that, but it also will, you know, in the end up actually generating money for the district loan. So, I think that's a big positive for me. All right. So, I'll open it up to the board. In the event the roof doesn't last as long as we hope it will, are are the panels can they be removed and put back on if we have to replace the roof sooner than we expected or once you remove the panels to replace the roof. Is is the project shot? However, it probably costs that come up on another district where vendor said, "Oh, they're modular. They can be removed. So, it's imperative that we get the expected life that we are

177anticipating out of our roof for for the numbers to work, right? Okay. Um Okay. And then the second thing I have is I don't remember what the I think it was like 1 something million of of rebates and incentives. Is any of that like politically tied either legislatively or through executive orders to where it would be at risk as political winds shift and people are more or less excited about solar and and alternative energy sources? Is that potentially at risk for political reasons or is that strictly rebates and incentives from utility companies and manufacturers and things like that? Another basic gather. back% which again got that data from what we wanted to do was to have a good discussion find out and get back and interest rate goes up. The cost go up tariff may

178not have Sorry. They already have materials. You said, "Okay." So, it's not going to be a thing where they they put the solar panels on and then send us a bill that we weren't expecting. Um, no. Brian, if I can jump in just um I do have a little bit of political when that. So exactly that's something that we're going to have to iron out and make sure of before we come back to you. I I have checked with colleagues. Uh there are uh school districts right now that are receiving re so it is happening currently but think the only other question I have uh an energy bond was referenced is that something that we would need to go and have approved at through the ballot or is that not not it's not it's a

179non-voted bond. Okay. Okay. Yep. Um, I had a question and if you don't um, know at this point, I would like to see it in the future. Is are there annual maintenance costs for the solar panels? I don't know anything about solar. So, um, but if there are annual maintenance costs and what those are, so we can factor that into our uh, potential profit and everything. They're not built into this but building our approach. Even though the minimal we That's all. When we met at finance, we decided we wanted to even though we just met this week, that we wanted to get them in front of the board. So, you can start thinking about where, you know, where we're at with this, but you know, there's no approval tonight. Um, more of an information sharing

180session. Certainly reach back out to Todd if you have follow-up questions or concerns. We're trying to move forward if we desire to move forward, but want to make sure there's an appetite and get your minds in the solar mindset. Any other questions? Yeah. So, I just So, it does come with sunglasses. That's where we're going. Sure. Um, but yeah, really what we're looking for is some direction from the board. If this was something that the board had no interest in, it would be nice to hear that tonight. um or the converse right that you are interested because there will be a significant amount of time and effort getting back. So finance thought enough of it that we brought it to you guys. So certainly if you feel one way strongly or the other u there's

181no action there's no official vote the conversation if this isn't something that we have an appetite for let's uh let's spend some I don't want to put anybody on the spot you know somebody wants to say you know speak their peace go ahead again the three of us thought it was worthy to you know to bring it to you so um I will you know I'll be honest I'm not particularly fond of uh solar but you I I do recognize the value that you're bringing. I'll be for me my largest concern is kind of what the question Mr. Powers had asked of, you know, we're we're somewhat contingent on our warranty of our roof, you know, and the life of our roof actually lasting 30 years. And I think we've had new and you know

182that's out of your hands and um I just feel like there's so many times that we as a district and I don't think it's just us but you know we purchase things and they don't tend to last what they're told. Um so that's my biggest concern you know is that you know will it last will our new roof last um long enough to make this okay? Um, that's that's truly my biggest worry at this point. And I don't know how I I just think it's such a long time to project out is my concern. You know, I don't know if the roof is going to last a year. I mean, we have a tornado run through, you know. So, I guess it's just it's just a very long time for me on this project. Um,

183not to say I'm against all the projects or anything. Um, but 25 What are you saying? You mean like where the dog goes to Aunt Milliey's farm? Is that what you're talking about? I mean that it might be that way. I'll be, you know, I definitely have an interest to hear more. Um the other question I had is would solar panels um in any way affect our warranty on the roof itself? Would you know the addition of solar panels affect that warranty? Yeah. Perfect. So, do we want more information? Is that kind of where we're at or do we want to fill this now? Like I said, there's no official vote, but you know, it sounds like there's some for, some against. So, I don't want to waste it. I don't I'm not against it.

184I I I'm fine getting more information. I just want to be transparent that, you know, I'm, you know, sometime I look at these things a little skeptically because, you know, it's always, you know, all the upfront is always on us and then the payback is very very long-term and gradual with the big bang that always coming at at the end with a lot of risk in between. So, I'm fine learning more and getting more information and seeing if it makes sense as long as everybody understands that when it comes time to crunch the numbers, I'm going to be very very, you know, I'm going to be looking at the payback very very carefully and, you know, probably looking at it more conservatively than it's than it's presented. I don't know. I'm interested, but I would

185want to pay off um like Lisa said, if our roof doesn't last 30 years, I mean, we are we going to be out good at like 15 because then it's worth it. But if it's the full 30 before we see something, then no. So, it it sounds like uh you know, continue to move forward and and regular check-ins with finance is probably a good stop and then obviously, you know, back to the full board. Thanks, guys. All right. Uh moving on to our next uh item is a volunteer appeal. As part of our recent policy update, we instituted an appeal process for those parents who wish to volunteer or accompany students on field trips. Current practice is to hold parents to the same restrictions the state places on district employees. The appeal process will allow

186each parent to speak about their appeal for five minutes and then the board will vote on the appeal. Tonight we have one appeal and that is parent A. So if parent A, if you want to step up to the podium um and uh we can uh we can hear from you. And Tim, just a reminder, we don't want to cut to the camera over there. Uh thank you for having me guys. Um so basically the thing I'm being blocked on uh for going on a field trip with my middle child. I have three children that go to an school, one at one in older an youngest just did a kindergart um the fence that I'm being held up on is uh 20 plus years ago and to be honest I can get detail about if

187you guys want to hear it but long story short the foolish boy I was in is not indicted and I am today u my job alone I'm celebrate 22 years at the same company uh we go to church you know I volunteer at church with my children and uh we really like and you guys do a great job and I just like feel. All right. Thank you. Appreciate you coming out tonight. Thank you. Appreciate your patience. Yeah. I got to get up in uh five hours for work. So, uh so at this time, I would entertain a motion from the board if they're so inclined. I'll make a motion. What is your motion, ma'am? To approve this appeal. So, parent A to approve the appeal for apparent A. Do I have a second? I'll support.

188All right, I have a a motion by Miss Knox, supported by Miss Burkmeer. Any further discussion, question or comments hearing? None. Uh, Mr. Richards, would you call the role on this motion? So, just to confirm, a vote yes is to allow the parent to attend. Correct. The motion is to approve the appeal. Okay. So, a yes would be an approval. Miss Knox, yes. Miss Burkmeer, yes. Mr. Sunonnyburgger, yes. Mr. Powers, no. Mr. Venitilli, no. Richards is yes. Mr. Green, no. Motion carries. I believe you're checking the box. I believe it's a four to three vote. Congratulations, sir. Your appeal has been approved. All right. Moving on to the award recommendation for technology. Uh the rationale here is to approve contracts with Peopledriven Technologies of Byron Center, Michigan in the amount of $23,737 for low voltage

189cabling and Moss of Grand Rapids, Michigan in the amount of 1,530,946.90, which is the base bid minus $40,788.54 for items not required nor requested. for UPS units, phone system, and a clock PA system to be paid for using funds from the 2022 bond proceeds. administration's recommended action is uh that the board of education approve contracts with Peopledriven Technologies of Byron Center, Michigan in the amount of 203,737 for low voltage cabling and Mos Moss of Grand Rapids, Michigan in the amount of 1,530,946.90 which is the base bid minus $40,788.54 for items not required nor requested for UPS units. phone system and clock PA system to be paid for using the 2002 bond proceed. Having said all that, I have a motion. I'll make the motion. I'll second that motion by Miss Knox, supported by Mr. Vendetti.

190Comments, questions, concerns? I believe we have a rep here um who again has been very patient and I appreciate that. Um if there are some questions. You said um when you read it you said the 2002 bond. You mean 2022? Yes. I meant to say 2022 bond and I'm just aging myself. There'll be no comment from you. You know it's late in the night that sundowner thing going on. I'm sorry. Okay, go ahead. Do we have any questions for for Todd or Phil? We take any questions that you have regarding the award tonight. Um, one thing I did want to bring up just very quickly, uh, we had that meeting earlier today. Um it was brought to our attention uh days ago that um one of the awards uh or I say one of the

191vendors that out of court is currently in uh chapter 11 bankruptcy share a little bit of information about that. They um we did some due diligence on that of course before bringing it to the board. Uh chapter 11 is a reorganization of debt. It is not a liquidation. If it's a chapter 7 or chapter 13, it would not have made it way board. It's a chapter 11 uh situation where they're reorganizing debt. And the long and short of it is uh my phones were we're looking at uh was a publicly traded organization. Um it was acquired by a private venture firm um that took it private and then uh they went out uh sold uh uh a lot of the purchased a lot of the stock and in order to purchase that stock they took

192out quite a bit of debt that stock back uh take it private. Um they got to a point where the amount of debt that they were servicing made uh especially with the increased interest rates that we've seen the last couple years just didn't make it feasible for them anymore and so there was a reorganization with creditors some banks that made that loan and the banks are going to now take that ownership interest and um that will be ultimately I imagine go public in a little bit. So um that's kind of what's going on right now. Uh my understanding is that this all worked out before bankruptcy filed and that's why it's moving so fast completely planned out and all of financing was worked out prior to filing. So we are very confident spent a lot

193of time with Justin Tim um and another person Carl from DBD as well was on the call. Uh we read a number of articles about it and uh feel very confident that uh Mel is still a very viable uh telephone provider. I'll have Justin speak to the size. They're one of the biggest two providers in the country and uh we're very confident about that. But didn't want any of you to get broadsided with a question about well I heard they uh filed for bankruptcy. So you kind of know now a little bit about the what's going on. Do we have some exposure in terms of so they're they're currently in bankruptcy? It's hasn't been resolved. It hasn't been settled. Uh they're currently still in bankruptcy, but it's like I said, it was kind of all

194worked out. out the deal was worked out, approved by the judge, and so they're just going through the motions right now of exercising and making sure all of those deals are done in terms of the transfer of debt, but we have some exposure if we send them money that it may we wouldn't send money until the project's complete. Okay? So, there's no deposit, there's no 50%, there's nothing. we would agree tonight and they would trust that we're going to pay them this money. Actually, probably use it in one of as one of the receivables when they go to court. But once the project is uh complete and up and working and everything, at that point we make payment. Okay. So, no funds change hands until it's complete. Correct. Does this offer have any continuing uh

195maintenance promises? Like for example, we get this uh material this these devices um is part of the agreement to have longstanding, you know, if anything breaks, we can call the company and have them come in and address the issue. Yeah, it it does. That's a good question. Um with within the RFP, we ask for the base bit to include five years. Um so that's what they've provided for us. Um beyond that, there there are some maintenance fees and licensing fees that uh kind of the system running, if you will, that um are right around $50,000 per five years, uh give or take. We could we could give you the the exact breakdown on on what that is, but um for those of you who don't know, my name's Justin. I I I work for Communications

196by Design. We are um your your technology consultants on the bond project. So, I don't represent Moss. I I don't represent Driven. Um I I represent you, the owner. We represent you guys. So, um, one of the the exercises that we did as part of this process, um, was to create a 10-year cost of ownership breakdown for the leadership team to review. And the, uh, the MOSS 10-year uh, ownership breakdown um, was uh, cheaper than the other major player in the market, which is the Cisco option, by about $200,000 over the course of two years. So that was uh one of one of the uh one of the things that kind of pushed the needle for the team as a whole. Um and on top of that, I think there were uh some functionality um

197items and and things that uh to go along with the system operationally that the ownership team here in Anchor Bay seemed to prefer. I hope that answered your question. It did. Yes. Uh that that's the the only concern. And the reason I'm bringing this up is if we have an agreement that we pay for at the time of delivery for these devices um and that price includes continuing uh management of these systems then that say for example that company goes bankrupt then the money that we're spending for that maintenance uh would then be going to collections if the company continues to be bankrupt. So that's the only thing I'd be worried about, but it sounds like from what I'm hearing that it's basically just for licensing and and stuff like that that we would have

198independent of that company being a float at the point of purchase. Correct. Okay. Yeah. More questions? Anybody? All right. Hearing none. I believe we have a motion. Uh Mr. Richters, if you would call the vote, please. Motion by Miss Knox. Yes, Mr. Venitilli. Yes, Mr. Sunnyberger. Yes, Mr. Powers. Yes, Miss Berkeler. Richards? Yes, Mr. Green. Yes. Motion carries. Up next on the agenda, uh, the board of education got my thought there. The board of education moves to a close session to review a written opinion from legal counsel pursuant to 81H of the Open Meetings Act, MCL15.2681H. I would entertain a motion to that effect. Seconded. Okay. So moved. Seconded. I miss Knoxish. Uh Mr. Vandelli. Any comments, questions, or concerns? Call the RO, sir. Miss Knox, yes. Mr. Venitelli, yes. Mr. Green, yes. Mr. Richards,

199is a yes. Miss Burkemeer. Thank you. Mr. Powers, yes. And Mr. Sunnyburgger, yes. All right. Motion carries. We will move into close session at 10:06 p.m. All right. At this time, I will entertain a motion to come back into open session if somebody is so inclined to do that. I will make the motion. I will second. Motion by Miss Knox, support of Mr. Venitelli. Questions, comments, concerns? Hearing none, please call the role. Miss Knox, yes. Mr. Venitelli, yes. Mr. Sunonny Ber, yes. Mr. Powers, yes. Miss Bergmire Richards, yes. and Mr. Green. Yes. Motion carries. We are back into open session at 10:25 p.m. I will pause for a moment if any of the board members wishes to make a motion. I understand that, but just want to make sure. All right. Hearing none, we will

200continue on our agenda. I will start with points of pride with Mr. Richards. Congratulations to middle school North students of the month. Sixth grade Chance Pavlinsky, Connor Short, seventh grade, Addison Reese, Addison Earl, eighth grade, Jordan Meyer Terson, and Ben Shorting. Congratulations to Miss Moore for outstanding elementary teacher of the year. Thank you for everything that you do. Um, Anchor Bay band students participated in MSBOA state solo and Sonoman Stony Creek High School. They received outstanding rewards. I'd like to thank the entire middle school north staff that welcomed next year's fourth and fifth graders to from all six elementary schools and gave students a tour of the building, met with staff and had a great inspirational message from Mr. Titi. Thank you. Congratulations to Anchor Bay North Capital of the Month, Alyssa Turner. Alyssa is

201an incredible teacher, has a special way of connecting with students and makes learning fun and engaging. Wednesday, April 30th is Districtwide Denim Day. All staff and students are encouraged to wear denim or teal to show their support and honor April as National Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Congratulations to Savannah Buchet, who was Middle School Salts 212 award winner. I'd like to thank middle school salt student council and national junior honor society members that held an Easter egg hunt for the preschool students at ECC. Anchor bay is looking for excuse me I do have feelings on this too. Anchor bay is looking for a culinary arts teacher. Come join a thriving program, brand new kitchen and restaurant in a food truck. Relay for Life is having Taco Thursday tomorrow at the VFW uh banquet hall on 23

202Mile. All proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. The Anchor Bay Literacy Fair is May 21st from 5:30 to 7:30 at Middle School North. Kindergarten transition nights are starting in May. You have Ashley uh and Eldrid and Great Oaks on May 1st, Lighthouse McCants on the 7th, and Lah on the 8th. Congratulations to Anchor Bay, jazz ensemble, red combo and white combos that performed at Eisenhower High School, the MSBA State Jazz Festival. All three earned first division ratings. Awesome job. We spoke about a little bit earlier tonight. I know there have been a lot of questions around interviews for coaching positions here at Ankor Bay. Having board members present for the interview process is nothing new. Mike Moses was involved in the process for six years. During the interview process, I was open-minded, listened, and

203asked questions just like any other interview I've been part of over my 30 years of my professional career. My goal is to hire the best coach for the position that they are applying for, the best coach that will represent our district in a professional manner, not only at sporting events, but also to be professional within our schools at all times with staff and students. We had three great candidates apply and I believe the right choice is made on the coach that will not only be able to mentor students within the football organization, but we also have hired a coach that will have an opportunity to teach and mentor students in a classroom setting outside athlet outside of athletics. Uh my points of pride tonight, I'd like to thank all the parents that came um to

204speak about different issues within the the uh school district. Um it's great to see that the parents are involved. It's great to see that they want to voice their opinions and I want to thank them for coming out tonight. Thank you, Mr. Purple. So, my comments, um, I just want to also touch on, uh, the people that spoke tonight. I know myself, I've heard from the Abea, um, support staff have reached out to me, parents have reached out to me. Um, and honestly that's been going on for a few months. And I think that's what's upsets me the most is I've begun sharing admittedly not all um of the things that were shared with me, but some of the things that were brought up today, some of the things that um I have shared since

205maybe even last December and we're still here. Um, so I appreciate those that are were willing to come forward and say some things today, um, and speak up. I know it's not easy, particularly when you're a staff member, um, of some sort. So, personally, I would like to maybe have the superintendent or the board um, consider some sort of immediate relief for Lighthouse. Um, and I know that that would probably come with some sort of cost, but I I personally feel like it's overdue. Um, on another note, uh, listening listening to the parents particularly talking about the kindergarten classroom, um, where we've maybe had up to six different instructors. And I'm not trying to denigrate anybody that has stepped in at this point. Um, you know, nor the nor the original teacher that, you know,

206has every right to be on a maternity leave and and all the things. Um, I certainly took my own leaves at times. So, um, not trying to to, you know, shame anybody for anything about that. However, you know, I think we need we can recognize that in coming with numerous transitions of different teachers going through one classroom, particularly kindergarten. I mean, you stop and think that this is this is some of these families first introduction to our district, and we have certainly not shown them our best. Um, and not that all of it was under our control by the least, but um, my request is that, uh, maybe we consider offering some sort of summertime kindergarten remediation for the students that were part of this class. um at our cost um for those that would

207like to participate or could I know it's not you know it it it doesn't probably make up for everything but I think given our situation um and like I said you know I think we know how important kindergarten is and the continuity of a teacher and the difficulties we've had for that classroom I would like to make it right as the best that we can And I think that would be one step in the right direction of good faith towards those families um to do something or consider our options of offering something for them uh this summer potentially at our own cost. Um so that's all I got for tonight. I just want to say that um I'm proud of all of the people in this community that really care about um our school system.

208We've touched on it a couple of times tonight and the only thing we know for sure in this current educational climate is that we absolutely know nothing about what's going to happen in this educational climate. And if you can hear my voice, I would suggest contacting your state and federal officials and really hammering home the need to have a positive outcome with these education budget cuts that are coming fast and furious. I'd hate to sit here next year and make really tough decisions because we didn't speak up. Mr. power. Um, like others, I said, I I appreciate um the people who came forward from Lighthouse, whether you were a parent or a staff member. I I know um that's probably not easy to put the spotlight on yourself, but I I think that should be

209a wakeup call to how how serious it is and we've kind of hit critical mass and it's time for some some aggressive action there to help them out. So, I I know we can't discuss, you know, personnel things in public at a board meeting, but I would expect um hopefully in the coming days to hear something in terms of where where we're going with that. Um so, so that we can assure the public that we're listening and that we're going to we're going to act on this. Um, other than that, uh, just, you know, welcome coach Brandon to Anchor Bay and and again, like I like I said earlier, I'm excited for the future of our football program and I I really believe that once our our football community gets to know him, they're going

210to they're going to see the thing the same things that we saw and um they're going to like him and I I believe he's going to be successful here. Thank you, Mr. Vendetti. Yes. Uh, thank you. So, I'd like to echo a lot of what the other board members are saying. Um, with regards to Lighthouse specifically, I I can can tell the frustration that a lot of community members are having. Um, I I I think that it it sounds to me that it's valid. Sounds to me that they have very legitimate concerns. Um, but also, not to be a cruncherian, I I can understand how it's it's fairly difficult to be a principal as well. It's not an easy job they're asking that person to be to do. And and so I'm I'm curious to

211kind of see from my own personal perspective, boots on the ground, what exactly is going on at Lighthouse. And so, Mr. Superintendent, if if we could schedule a time for me to come by, I'd like to just kind of see in person what's going on. maybe take some time to be able to interview some teachers and kind of get their take first person what sort of uh differences they may have noticed from different schools to what they're experiencing right now and see if this is something that can be fixed or if it's something that needs to be taken as what other members have described as more drastic action that I want to kind of get a firsthand take on that. Um past that I I just uh I'm very grateful for the way the things

212are panning out with regards to the district. I'm looking forward as Mr. power said to the new football coach and um we have a graduation coming up so that should be it's exciting. That's all I got. If not, um echoing everyone else, love when the parents come out. Um we definitely do need some aggressive action um even though it's the end of the school year. Uh quickly, uh my point of pride is to to say happy administrative professionals day to Sherry. She is she is here with late nights with us. She's sits by herself when we go into close session. Um she gives us all the things we need. Um fresh water when we sit down, all of that good stuff. So uh and then yeah, we have graduation. So, class of 2025, be safe

213and we'll see you there. So, I won't belabor a lot of the points that the rest of the board has made. I will say that Barry keeps me focused and moving forward and replies to my emails and texts and phone calls and and always has the answer that I'm looking for. So, I appreciate that. Um, and I'm Tim's not here to he's around the corner. I can't seem to speak up, but they can talk to each other. He's not completely here by myself. Tim is over there, too. Now, he might be face down on his computer, but he's over there. Out of sight, out of mind. Um, and I also appreciate all the parents coming out for the three or four different things that they spoke on. Um, I I would prefer, as much as

214I don't want to be here at 10:30 at night, I want to hear from, you know, from the people that put us in these chairs of what's happening in our district, what they want to see. Um, and I also appreciate that they each were respectful and, you know, got their points across without, you know, yelling or, you know, acting acting the fool up the podium. So, um, that's what I've got. Uh, how about a legislative update, Superintendent? There has not been much going on. There's probably the least amount of, um, legislative movement on any front in quite a while. However, the word on the street is the Senate will finally roll out their budget sometime next week and then the House is saying that they're going to wait until after the May consensus revenue estimating

215conference. The concern being that the unemployment rate in Michigan has gone up to I think it's 5.5%. So that's the the second highest in the country now. And the the impact of tariffs whether they're 10% or or not or whatever and they're waiting to see that. I know the general fund tax receipts are down. The school aid funds seem to still be in a decent um spot. So, the the only other movement they've had is on they did start moving some bills towards um the cell phone policy that they have that um the governor kind of put out in her state of the state. And so there are competing bills on on the level um in both chambers that had committee hearings and I believe were released from committee earlier this week. And then the

216other thing that is hanging out there is basically they are looking at what is the scope of the school aid fund. So traditionally the school aid fund was K12 education or preK12 education. And over the last I would say probably Since 2008, since the great recession, basically the state has been taking from the school aid fund in order to fund post K12 education. Okay? So, community colleges and universities now have been taking more out of there. There is some talk about going back and just limiting that. Um, but a lot of this is going to be tied up with whatever they do on the road funding bill because that right now my understanding is that's kind of on an offset because if they change for the road funding if they change the sales tax on

217gasoline that is going to take uh put a serious dent I think it's like 1.5 billion in the school aid fund and so then they would have to come up with that money elsewhere which may or may not be if they take the universities and colleges out of that. So that's the other main discussion going on. That is had some committee hearings. It has not moved out of committees yet. So we're hoping we'll have an idea from the Senate, but the big player is going to be the House because they're in the opposition party and once we have that, we'll know. But I do not expect that there will be a budget until September or maybe October. So typically we are behind because the budget doesn't go until July and we have to by law

218pass one by June 30th. We are probably going to be at guesstimating as best we can when we do the um next budget for next year because we won't know. We'll have no idea. We'll just know the competing things and what happens in the meantime might alter that radically and that's it. So, as always, you know, the board wants conservative estimates from you and Todd and Robin. So, I understand it's going to be a tough task and that, you know, we're probably going to be making some serious amendments uh because you're pretty much throwing darts here uh in the next 60 days to try to guess what may happen and then not have an idea until October. So, shake my head to that whole situation. Um board committee updates. I know we talked a lot

219about the committees and who's gotten together over the past month or six weeks. Did we miss anything? Is there anything anybody else wants to share from a committee meeting? Um, I did not, this is not a committee, but I had the distinct honor of attending the ISD uh budget hearing that you welcome. Yeah. So, I can give you some highlights if you're interested. What do you got? Um so actually as I stated last year the meeting ends up being as I took some notes on the back of my agenda. Um presentations about academics, special ed, uh they have a chief information officer because the ISD um houses lots of servers and IT um for parts of the county as well. and then uh finance and then they do some legislation. Um the meeting is mostly

220more of an update of everything that they're doing with their money as opposed to what their budget really looks like. So truly we did not get this during the budget meeting which I find very interesting. Um so a few things that just kind of stuck out to me. One of the things um you guys might we were we've used um like -ate for example um -ate is at risk. it currently is in court. Um, which would, you know, if goes away, what happens with the budget, um, as you can imagine, it's for the ISD. It's like a shell game. Some they get some direct funding, but there's more of a shell game where, you know, all the districts pay the ISD um maybe per pupil and things for different different services at times um or

221just flat fees. So like the ISD is able to garner like a $25 per pupil savings due to rate. So if that disappears, think of that across the county, you know, for an entity like them. Um just different things like if you heard of the in the news the power school breaches that had been occurring um the past a couple months ago I think um the ISD it and security is very tight um and no MCOME districts were affected because of their superb uh it um they are continuing to build they're building um at 14 and a half in Van Dyke. Um a new building looks pretty impressive. It's going to house like a lot of services and classrooms for kids. Um and it's so that's still underway. Um so are they moving from Garfield?

222Is that the plan? No. Um this is one of their schools is it's replacing. Yeah. Okay. Um, another thing that they mention, for example, is like how we do our uh Heedley overrides at times when we um are going to maybe lose revenue on um tax. You know, you have to consider that the ISD for them to be able to do that would be a huge undertaking to get basically the entire county to approve their override. So, they generally don't. Um but as a result of um property values increasing and stuff so much lately, like right now they have like $21 million that they're missing out for not doing an override, but the undertaking is so risky for them that they they haven't done it. [Music] Um other data that was kind of interesting to

223me, like they're continuing grow your own programs for teachers. I think Phil's talked about that before. They also have a program now for um because of the needs for special ed um that parapros can do um to go through and become special ed teachers. Um it's paid for. They go through Wayne State. I mean so those are great opportunities for people. Um what else? I think they're calling that a smart program. [Music] Um, and then in terms of the finance, it's only basically been, they can show you a whole graph of property tax values and income, and it's only about in the last year or so that the actual property tax income has finally returned to about 2010 levels. Um, so the ISD has been there was quite a decline and then they've kind of

224slowly been raising back up, but only now finally are they even at the 2010 level of funding that they're getting from all of that. Um but they did despite all of that uh avoid bill backs I guess in the 90s you know when things like that happened they basically ended up charging the districts you know to pay them back money to make up differences because otherwise they wouldn't survive. Um so this time when this had happened um since you know 200910 they've been able to adjust their budget and avoid doing that to the county um and by doing things like the Bovinshen building that they're now re building like they had a bond earlier to do it and they they let it go for when it hit because they weren't going to be able to

225afford to continue um at that time. That's why it's finally getting done now. Um, and then lastly, the one interesting piece um that I thought was just something for us to keep in mind too as a board coming forward. Um, and I know this has been somewhat of a political issue. I'll try not to keep this keep this out of like the scope of politics, but um they were showing a graph like on the with the rise in autism and the the number of autism diagnoses in the county and generally Mcome County is very 50th percentile across Michigan. Um you know there's counties that do financially and things way better than us and then there's many counties that uh do significantly worse. So we are very middle of the road and the state kind of

226looks to us for a lot of that education wise I guess but um there is a sharp increase in the number of 3 to six year olds that have an autism diagnosis and special needs um coming up and you consider that's kindergarten first grade um even to the point that when I compared it like my own kids are in sixth and seventh grade and you look at the rates it's Not it's probably 30 to 40% more than just like our current fifth and sixth grader or sixth and seventh graders. Um so that's kind of coming down the pipeline. I mean was like a factor of things that is there any reason given you know that and and that can maybe get into some of the politics right some of it and somebody did ask that

227and some of you know some of it is like you know improvements and how it's diagnosed and and factors of how it's classified um but you know otherwise not really you know I think they didn't want to get into that end of it either but um not necessarily So, and and generally like they said, they were just pointing to basically what you see in the news about the rate being about one in 32 stu one in 32 births ends up with a autism diagnosis at some point down the line. So, you know, I I guess that was kind of eye openening to me. I know I've heard it on the news, but then I never maybe put it into the context here um that you know we we could have increase in needs um for

228different services and more services and things coming into the district and not just us but the whole you know everybody. But something to keep in mind um that we need to maybe think about and plan for because that could just keep I don't know hopefully it doesn't go up but it could we don't know where it's going but other than that the operating budget did pass. Um so it's always it's an interesting uh meeting you get there's a lot of data that they put up on the screen so it's actually not so bad to attend. Bill, what's our capacity for ECS to Lisa's point about three to six year olds? Yeah. So ECSC right now what currently we're probably at we could we have three classrooms. We could add a fourth in in the current

229in but that's not 30 kids. That's you know like 18. No, that's like 18. Yeah. Okay. And and typically we try and go 15 or less. Right. Right. Um, part of the what the state is doing is they are changing the thresholds in order to allow more, which is not what we're um interested in. And when Lighthouse comes online, there'll be about four more additional classrooms. So, we'll be up to at least eight. And then we could do more if we wanted to, but that's kind of the the initial thing would be we're doubling our capacity. So, we can handle some of what Lisa describing is coming our way. Yes. Anybody else? Any committee Phil? Anything else to add? Anybody else? Everything was on the agenda pretty much. All right. I think that's it. I

230will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Seconded. Any further discussion? Good night, everybody. All those in favor of ending this meeting at 10:51 p.m. signify by saying I. I. I. All those opposed. Meeting adjourned.