JPS Board Meeting - 05/17/22

001Okay, it is 545, so I will call the meeting to order and welcome you to our May board meeting. With that, Mrs. Oxley, could you please do the roll call? Ms. Hamilton? Present. Mrs. Brown? Here. Mr. White? Here. Ms. Hunt? Here. Mrs. Simonetti? Here. Mrs. Fitzgerald? Here. And Mrs. Mitchell? Here. Number three is approval of the agenda. So at this time, I would entertain a motion for approval of the agenda. So moved. Thank you, Erin. Thank you, Pam. Any deliberation? Yes, I'd like to make a motion that we pull 21-22-122, the higher cap resolution. I have some questions about that. And also 21-22-126, the resolution and approval of the JCISD proposed budget. I have some questions about that. Do you have a second? Second. So all those in favor having those two pulled? Aye. Okay,

002any opposed? Okay, motion carries for those two to be pulled. Okay, number four is the superintendent's report. Mr. Beal. Thank you very much, and welcome to the May meeting. It's awesome to see so many wonderful Vikings in the house tonight. So, MJ, Mary Jo Raskowski-Shannon, principal for Hunt Elementary School, our balanced calendar school, you want to lead us off here? And I think your group is doing the Pledge of Allegiance. Could everybody please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Hunt pledge. Today I will listen to all adults in their directions. I will respect my classmates and the right to learn. I will practice being

003kind, patient, and respectful to myself and everyone. I am proud to be a home Viking. I am proud to be me. Mission. We will bring our community together to create a culture of academic excellence and work for readiness. Vision. We envision our community where all students become lifelong learners. And if you can be anything. And. And that is how we start off every morning at Hunt Elementary. Good evening, school board members and cabinet, Mr. Beal, Mrs. Oxley. It's an honor to be here tonight. We're very excited. I decided that your board meetings are long enough, so you don't need me to stand up here and keep talking. And so instead of me... During that, the students are going to do the board report, and when they're done with the board report, they will do a

004song, and that will conclude our presentation for the night. And they put a little twist to it, so it was part theirs, and so I'm pretty sure you'll figure out which part was theirs. And at this time, we are going to do the hunt happenings. H. H is for Highfields. The Highfields After School Program is four days a week for 32 weeks and two and a half hours a day. And homecoming. Homecoming 2021, we walked in the Jackson High Parade with our Oscars dressed as movie stars. U. U is for unbelievable, unbelievable students and parents. Of course, me being one of them. Our unbelievable parents came and read a book in every class during March's reading month. And understanding, understanding and caring staff. N. N is for 90. 94% of our parents came to conferences

005and no, no more mask. Yes. T. T is for trainings. The staff at Hunt attended many trainings this year. DEI, Michigan Virtual, and inspect and testing. We work hard every day to improve our testing skills, but our testing is killing us. E. E is for excellent. We are an excellent elementary. And ELA is our main focus throughout the day. And everyone, I mean everyone, will participate in field day at Jackson High right here, one of our favorite days of the year. L. L is for Lockins. Lockins are back. Yes! And... Lexia. Lexia is one of our daily reading programs. We are Lexia Reading Superstars. E. E is for expert. We have an expert social worker coming to my class. Oops! I'm in all the classes every month teaching us social skills. And egg. The girl

006and egg award goes to the cleanest cafeteria table. M. M is for Melissa. Melissa, that's me. And media. Each class is assigned one day a week to post on Facebook. Four posts a day. And music. Our spring concert is in two days and all of you are invited. E. E is for every day. Every day we do math programs like IXL, Prodigy, and Go Math. And evening. An evening of family fun will be held in June. And, and it's for new. We have a new media center library that the fifth graders in the after school program, that would be us, along with Mrs. Carly, organized and shelved every book as we learn the Dewey Decimal System along the way. T. T is for terrific. We have terrific teachers and tutors. Jackson High students and retired

007teachers tutor the first and second graders every day. A. A is for Aslan. As nuts me, I meant A is for art. This is the first time that we have had an art class and I've been a hunt for seven years. We love art and attendance. Attendance gifts are given to every student every month for perfect attendance. R. R is for read. Read like a champion was a theme for March. We read hundreds of books. And rules. Rules that we did not follow. For the first time ever, Mrs. Rass has allowed us to bring whatever we wanted for our Valentine's party. Pretty sure we wiped out all the cupcakes from Meyer, Kroger, and Saps, since we know she won't let it happen again. Why? Why is 4 Young? Our Young 5's class has been at

008capacity all year. And, yay! This concludes our school report. And at this time, I'd like to introduce the lovely Tanisha Bradshaw, our music teacher at Hunt Elementary. And at this time, I'd like to introduce the wonderful children from Hunt Elementary. Keziah, Chikori, Kylie, Tyson, Cadence. Chasity, Angel, Melissa, Araya, Peyton, Dariana, Aslyn, Oteria, and Rakan. Does anybody have any questions? There is a lot going on at Hunt Elementary School. And if I can, very quickly, can I acknowledge, I know there's a ton of staff from Hunt who took a couple minutes to come and spend some time with us today. If we could just acknowledge, if you were one of our staff out at Hunt, would you stand just so we could recognize you? Thank you so very much for all that you do. And for

009our parents, thank you very much for sharing your children with us. They were awesome tonight, and we love having them here with us. Up next is Dr. Patterson. He's going to give us a quick update on the secondary. Okay, thank you. How do you follow that up? I mean, that was just amazing. We should have had Julie go next. I need somebody in between us. Well, thank you. A few things from the high school. Just want to recognize Chuck Cunningham and the 2021-22 DECA chapter, which produced 21 state qualifiers, six state finalists, three medalists, and one international qualifier and state champion. Congrats to all the members from Jackson High this year, which includes Katie Mulhern, who represented Jackson High School at the ICDC in Atlanta last week and brought back with her the state championship

010trophy for her fashion merchandising project. So great job, Vikings. That's an outstanding accomplishment by Chuck Cunningham and the DECA chapter. Just want to welcome, if you have not heard, Crystal Brinker, who is Jackson High and the district's new strength and conditioning coach. She has already joined the Jackson High team and the district setting up parent meetings, meeting with students and coaches to establish her upcoming schedule. So that's going to be awesome for the district. I'm so excited about that. And I was able to meet her one day coming into the central office, and she's going to do great things. And then just again, May 27th is graduation. Looking forward to over 230 seniors graduating this year from Jackson High. So always an exciting time for graduates. At Jackson Pathways, on track to graduate the most

011ever from Jackson Pathways. Over 36 graduates coming out of Jackson Pathways. That's outstanding. And of course, Jackson Pathways works with the top program and had 47 students complete the teen outreach program at Jackson Pathways. In another bright spot, we had over 18% of the senior class completing a college course at Jackson Pathways this year, which is, that number keeps going up year after year, and again, a good decision to have Jackson Pathways students right here at Jackson High School to take advantage of some of those college opportunities as well. At middle school at Parkside, Ann Baird, math teacher, was nominated as a Teacher of the Month for May and has been teaching for 34 years, including alternative education, Frost Elementary, and now math at Parkside. She was awarded $500 via donation from ExxonMobil to purchase

012school supplies for her students and classroom. So congratulations, Ann Baird. Keep up the great work. And then the very popular Pop Goes the Eagle concert took place on the evening of April 28th, if you were able to see that at any time. It's always a great concert. It takes place every year since 1963 until COVID gave us a two-year pause. It was great to see the band back on stage performing one of the favorite concerts of the school year. The band was also able to tour JPS Elementary schools the following day to put on an entertaining performance for the students and staff members. And then we are pleased to invite over 400 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to Honors Night on Wednesday, May 25th. Parkside will be recognizing students that have earned a cumulative

013GPA of 3.0 or higher for the 2021-22 school year. Cookies and refreshments will be available immediately following the program to families and an opportunity to celebrate with Parkside staff. At 4th Street Learning Center, the 7th grade Junior Achievement Reality Career Fair will be returning on May 25th. We look forward to the students having an opportunity to learn about different career paths pathways budgeting decision-making and other important lifelong skills and then Just, again, a bright spot for SCMV on track to graduate 48 seniors. And they are, Mr. Leon and Mr. Parker, continue to look for additional space out to the Jackson Crossing, so you should have more of that information to come when that's solidified. So lots of great stuff happening at the secondary level. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

014Thank you, Dr. Patterson. Up next, Julie Baker with an update on our elementary programs. Good evening, everyone. One of the things that I think most of us are most happy about, a major May highlight, is that on the 20th, all M-STEP testing is done. We're really relieved to have that over with. So looking at each of our buildings, the highlights this month, there's been some really cool things that either have already happened or are getting ready to happen. Lots of teacher appreciation just finished up in every school. Looking at Cascades, they're looking forward to the Jackson High School graduates. They walk through every elementary school in their cap and gown, and it's just really cool. All the kids go out into the hallway, and so that's something that all of the schools are looking forward

015to. True Community Credit Union, I'll tell a little bit more about them, but they did pizza parties and fun wrap-up-the-year activities for their student workers. And at Cascades, they also did a fifth grade life in the city simulation. At Dibble, they had a student that participated in academic games. Actually, I think there were several. I think there were three. And Brooklyn Dunklin in fifth grade finished in the top 50 sweepstakes for her age level. Parkside Band and Orchestra performances took place there. They had a fun lock-in activity at Parkside, which if you've never been to one of those, those are awesome. It's like being at a carnival without your parents. You can go anywhere you want to go and do anything you want to do, and it's just a fun night. Mom and Dad can

016have a date night, and it's a lot of fun. And then a luncheon for their retired teachers. So that was I got to attend that that was really nice At hunt they are really excited. This was a highlight for them Getting ready to do this board presentation. They're very excited about it Also, they had Parkside band come through and show their students what's available at Parkside once they get there They still have their Jackson high school cross-age tutors coming in and then the after the high fields after-school program And then also, you'll notice the beautiful gifts that she left on your table. She sent things like this home with every child, similar type of things for Mother's Day. She has a really great relationship with one of the businesses in town and has lots of

017great things that she can give to students to allow them to treat their parents. At Montessori, they earned the highest certification possible for green school, so they were awarded that this month. They also held or will be holding a family dance, and it is the most wonderful thing. It's not a mother-daughter dance or a mother-father dance. I can't even say it. Father-daughter or mother-son dance. It's a family dance, and everybody gets dressed up, and they have... I think they'll have a DJ this time. In the past, they've had a bubble machine and everything else, and it's just a chance to celebrate together and have fun. International night, also a really cool thing where kids bring in foods that represent their own culture in their family, and they do a flag walk and parade around the

018school. It's just a really neat activity and a lot of research on different countries of the world. And then they're also looking forward to that grad walkthrough. At Northeast, they are doing a zoo field trip. We have a lot of field trips happening across our schools right now. Lots of teacher appreciation gifts. And a fifth grade Spanish field trip to Mexicantown in Detroit. So some really cool things happening there. At Sharp Park, the After School German Club, they are purchasing a book vending machine. And if you want to see what one of those looks like, you could see one that's already installed at Northeast. Lisa Rando led the charge on that one for Bennett. And then it wound up at Northeast, so she's doing the same at Sharp Park. So they're excited about that. And

019they also had a skateboard demonstration for kids highlighting energy forces in motion. A fifth grade wax museum. A trip to Mackinac Island. Instead of doing the overnights that we've done in the past, they moved to a model where they just go for the day. And it's a long day, but they still get the really cool experience. So M-STEP is complete. That's something everybody, again, is just really excited about. and then a spring music performance for young fifth fives through second grade. And then at Lewis, field trips. They had the book fair. They had an egg drop challenge family steam night. So that's a big piece of it was they had an egg drop, and they had to see if they could do that without breaking it. A state capital field trip and the Ann Arbor

020Historical Museum. And then across the district, some things that are happening. I don't know if you've ever been in a building when we're having our student-run credit unions, but True Credit Union puts our kids through an experience where they get a chance to interview for positions, be selected for those positions, get trained for them, and then hold those positions throughout the year. And it's usually the upper elementary, fourth and fifth grade kids. And they are responsible for walking their younger peers down to make deposits on a weekly basis. They advertise and everything else. And so they wrapped up some of what they were doing, and they celebrated their year this year with a lot of pizza parties and buildings. So that's something that our kids really benefit from. They love doing it. Great experience for

021them. And then academic games. are something that is back for our district. So Keith Richards is finishing out the year training some new students to third, fourth, and fifth grade students how to play some of the games for the academic games tournament. So he's getting them started now so that they'll be eligible and interested in participating in academic games in the fall. So we are busing students that are interested. out to Parkside after school two days a week through the end of the school year just to get them trained so they'll know how to play those games. And also he would love to have some teacher volunteers too, people that might want to take those coach positions next year because he won't be here. And then field day. We actually have dates now, and we're

022really, really excited. This is something that we haven't done since COVID, and this is something that happens where all of our K-5, young 5-5, 5th grade students get to actually go out and be a Viking on Withington Field. So they travel between June 1st and June 7th every... one of our elementary schools will be coming to the stadium here. They'll have water and slushies, and they'll travel through different stations, and they'll do things like the potato sack race and the egg drop and other things like that. Probably way more exciting than what I just described. They have better games than I can imagine. And then they also have inflatables, and it's just really cool. They play music the whole time. It's just a fantastic experience for kids. So that's coming back this year. And that's

023it for the elementary report. Tell me if you have any questions. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. Chris? Good evening, everybody. Well, we've got a lot of cool things going on at the schools that you guys have been talking about. I do want to remind everybody about tomorrow. It is the decision day at Jackson High Jackson Pathways. In the auditorium from noon into 1.15, this is a really neat event where we get to see where our kids are going, and we partner with all of the post-secondary and certification programs that come out and honor our kids and see where they're going next. So it's really exciting if you get a chance to take your lunch hour tomorrow. It's a very, very cool thing to come see. I did want to mention too that I will be

024attending the race training in Royal Oak from the 25th to 21st and that JPS has joined by invitation from Zoe Lyons, the anti-racism team. So we are looking forward to the work that we will learn there and I'm very much looking forward to that conference and workshop. Also, you'll notice we are in the midst of celebrating Asian and American and Pacific Island Heritage Month. So check those out on our Facebook and you'll see some of those on our signs as well. We also did add a DEI resource page to the front page of the website. So we have added a lot of the resources that we talked about at our community forum and just wanted to make sure everybody was aware of that. Lastly, too, you'll see a lot of our promotion going out. We

025have billboards going up for Hunt, SCMV, Jackson Public, Montessori, and then a lot of our digital and other ads that we do regularly in both regular media on TV and, of course, online all over the place. So it is our push for enrollment time. So if you know people who want to join our school, make sure that they get over here as soon as possible. And then just finally, we are on track for our end of the year celebration. It is on June 9th for our entire staff. So keep in mind that encompasses about 800 people. It will start at noon. It's at Parkside. Not quite on me. Mehal Field, but right next door. We'll be doing some food trucks. We have giveaways like you wouldn't believe. The community keeps pouring in just prizes like

026crazy. So we're pretty excited about what we're going to be able to give away this year. And then, of course, everybody's going to take home something fun. And we will be doing a lot of different food trucks that we're pretty excited about that I've been watching over the last year. So that's what I have. Thank you, Chris. And then real quick, just a very quick bond update and where we're at with some of our construction. So work continues here at Jackson High. The rework of the tile in the pool is nearing completion, and we should be ready to fill the pool again with water by the end of May. And then about 25 days later, we'll get that pool recertified. And the YMCA has been working with us to provide lifeguards, and they'll be opening

027the pool up. to the public a couple days a week. So look for community swim opportunities, help with our partners from the YMCA. The Al Glick Athletic Center is underway. You can see the construction taking shape down there. Right. It was set to open in August and yet May, but we're experiencing a delay in receiving our field turf. We were just made notice of that last week. And so that procurement challenge continues to move onward. I hear also that, Mr. Patterson, your field turf over in Lakeview has also been delayed. It's a statewide issue. So we're watching that carefully. And then we are set to break ground on the Sharp Park Academy, which is the last construction project within the bond. And that is set to break ground the middle of June. So a lot

028of work coming up with the various construction projects going on around the district. And so we're continuing to kind of manage that. The last thing I would do, and I know it's further down the list, but please, I'd remind everybody that commencement is a week from Friday, holy smokes, and it's my favorite time of year. If you really want to see the culmination of the work we do, if you want to see the students and really help celebrate what has been a 13-year journey for these students, and it's really what we're very proud of. all of our work, and as we watch them take the next steps into their future, I hope that you'll join us for commencement here at Withington Stadium next Friday. And that concludes the superintendent's report for the month of May.

029Okay, thank you. Lots of great stuff. We are on number five, the consent agenda, so at this time I would entertain a motion for approval of the consent agenda as amended. Thank you, Libby. Thanks Cheryl any deliberation. Okay all those in favor say aye opposed okay motion carries Number six is citizens requesting to address the board Just a few reminders. I'll call you up one at a time and you can sit right there and use the mic you have five minutes And when you hear the buzzer if you could wrap it up, please and there's there's just no back and forth But we certainly appreciate your input So the first one up is Susan Maxon. I'm Susan Maxon. I'm a teacher and a resident of Jackson Public Schools. One second. I don't think your mic

030sounds... You want to grab the mic? But you can't hear it on the recording if it's not... Can you hear me now? We got you. No, I'm good. Are you? Yeah. All right. Okay. You are the Board of Education elected by the citizens of the Jackson Public School District to help guide the... district in educating our youth. So what is education? Education should show the importance of hard work and help us grow and develop. It should produce contributing members of our society with the ability to think for themselves and reflect on various points of view with empathy, logic, and facts. Therefore, we are able to shape a better society to live in and by knowing and respecting the rights, laws, and regulations. This board has had issues with the ability to reflect on various points

031of view with empathy, logic, and facts. It has struggled with knowing and respecting rights, laws, and regulations. When an attorney has to state during an investigation that his comments communicated to the board in public by a board member was a gross misinterpretation, that makes me think about what is being said and if I can believe it. I'm probably not alone. When people are making comments, sharing ideas and concerns at board meetings, and board members are looking at their phones, generally disengaged or rolling their eyes, that is hurtful and arrogant and helps no one. When members of this board are contacted via email or phone with concerns and only a few respond or no one responds, it forces me to ponder your level of commitment to our community. Communication in all of its forms, verbal, written,

032social media, and body language, has to be open, honest, and respectful. You need to set that example for the students and the community you serve. It is time to put all of our students first in the actions of this board. It is time to move on and serve all of the children of our district with an open mind. empathy, logic, and facts as you were elected to do so. Next up is Amy Gish. Can you hear me? Okay. I'd like to start with a quote from Representative Liz Cheney. The House GOP leadership has enabled white nationalism, white supremacy, and anti-Semitism. History has taught us that what begins with words ends in far worse. At GOP, leaders must renounce and reject these views and those who hold them. Again, that was a quote from Representative Liz

033Cheney. It has been described and discussed, now it will be named. The elected officials on the Jackson School Board who choose to operate as a self-described, quote, united front, do not allow for constituents to influence the vote of those who buy into their no dissent behavior. Instead, they vote according to the desires of the superintendent only. This takes away a practice in democracy and replaces it with a practice called autocracy. They do not exercise any checks and balances on the superintendent's leadership, nor do they question his decisions. The group thinkers praise him for everything good and follow his finger pointing for everything bad. In 2015, a Jackson High art teacher suffered an injury from a student assault. An assistant superintendent asked, how do we know you didn't go home and hit yourself with a hammer?

034True story, I was there. The Michigan Supreme Court justices recently read that and immediately knew our administrators were in the wrong. Why? Because that student pled guilty to assault. What an absolute embarrassment to the school district. The judicial system caught your lies, Beal. Yet you continue to maintain that you're the bearer of the truth. You're not. Narcissistic, pathological liars do what you do. What about the board five? What do they think? Several of you weren't even on the board when the assault occurred back in 2015 and during the years that the teacher suffered from constant retaliation. Have you been briefed by Attorney Mullins? Have you read any of the court documents that are public or accessible to you? The Michigan Supreme Court acknowledges that on October 13, 2015, JPS administrators immediately, immediately began to retaliate

035against art teacher Penny Davis. I witnessed this. The board was notified early on and did nothing. Nothing. The retaliation was ruthless and lasted for years, even after Davis won her whistleblower retaliation case in circuit court. The two administrators still employed by JPS, who were horrible to Penny, treated her like trash, are Jeff Beal and Jeremy Patterson. but they both have been taken very good care of all along. High evaluation ratings, pay raises, all kinds of attaboys. Good job, fellas. You've ruined that teacher's career. Her life will never be the same. That'll teach her. See what happens when you stand up for what's right in this district, Penny Davis. See what happens when you follow the rules. School Board Policy 1230 states that the superintendent should use role model behavior when he's at work and when

036he's not at work. The school board gave the superintendent a highly effective every year until 2021. In lieu of his behavior, I think that's absolutely disgusting. That's sick in the head behavior, screwed up thinking. Like I said before, decent human beings don't fit in at Jackson Public Schools. We don't accept our dehumanizing tasks as normal. We'd rather maintain our high moral standards and get tortured for it versus following orders to destroy others. their careers, their relationships, their health and well-being. Penny Davis almost died because of the actions of administrators and the inaction of the board. People who follow such orders in order to save themselves are cowards. You're just as brainwashed as the 18-year-old who recently drove for hours to gun down unsuspecting black men and women who were going about their day. Brainwashed. Premeditated

037evil. Jeff Beal and Jeremy Patterson are caught breaking the law, getting others to take part in the torture of Penny Davis, and are found guilty in a court of law. They keep their jobs, continue to get pay raises, continue to get contract extensions, continue to increase their retirement pay, continue to work with colleagues and friends, continue to live their lives as if nothing has happened. Because remember, checks and balances do not exist in an autocracy. This community should be outraged that five board members have hijacked this community's educational system and handed it over to one person who has managed to run it into the ground. So many of our Jackson Public School District students attend a district other than JPS, and these people could care less. All they want to do is have all of

038this, quote, drama go away so they can get back to business. I wish you five would just go away. Thank you, Amy. Next up is Joanna Perkin. I'm Joanna Perkin, retired teacher, English chair, building committee chair of 23 years. I'd like to preface by saying that those young people did an outstanding job, positive and poignant. At the last two meetings here, I addressed the board with a litany of concerns. and regarding 14 professional high standing victims including myself who have been abused, harassed, retaliated against by Superintendent Beal which have continued to go unaddressed, unresolved legally, contractually and morally. You board have iterated commentary regarding being positive and moving on and suggesting that you're tired of hearing the same thing. You are tired, tired of countless victims coming forward. It is us who are tired, tired

039of bringing you the same concerns that continue to fall on deaf, complacent, and morally inept ears. But I digress momentarily to come to the most recent concern. The morning after the last board meeting, Superintendent Beal and Principal Jeremy Patterson were found guilty of retaliation against former art teacher Penny Davis in a court of law at the Supreme Court level to the tune of nearly $500,000. Yet even with after penny won her case at the circuit level seven out of seven jury members in agreement it wasn't a Concern ever discussed among you the board it wasn't presented during the superintendent during superintendent Beals evaluation or at all in fact quite the antithesis you board five went on to allow the to empower Superintendent Beal to hire himself as HR director and FOIA coordinator at a 60k

040raise and when it was professionally questioned regarding the fiscal responsibility of such a thing, you sat there and allowed Superintendent Beal to abuse and harass board member Keisha Hamilton for daring to make such an inquiry. Now that Superintendent Beal and Jerry Patterson have been found guilty at the Supreme Court level of retaliation and feverishly tormenting Penny Davis, these two continue to be employed. How is this possible? Are we in the Twilight Zone? Are we being punked? Are the hidden cameras going to come out? It seems this superintendent could be the head of a sex trafficking ring and you board five would feign being oblivious. I mean, really, what is going on here? In fact, the corruption, the good old boy system, and nepotism go so deep that in the district we have Sheila Patterson, former

041board member, who is the sister of the assistant superintendent, William Patterson, and Jeremy Patterson, who is also first cousins with current board member Aaron White. who is good friends with Superintendent Beal, who is also close first cousins to Assistant Superintendent William Patterson, who is also the brother of Principal Jeremy Patterson, the individual just found guilty of retaliation of a teacher in the Supreme Court. who was also allowed to maintain his employ during a no tolerance policy with a drunk driving on his record, while the former athletic director was fired for the same and whom was promoted to a principalship without meeting the criteria of a master's and 10 years of teaching, neither of which he possessed. Then we have Principal Jeremy Patterson's brother. Assistant Superintendent William Patterson, who was elevated from a principalship after having

042a failing priority school in which the state requires one to be fired. Instead, the district rehired him in a higher position with a healthy pay raise. Fast forward several years and Assistant Superintendent William Patterson. has allegations of illicit affair with a subordinate, a whistleblower filed indicating he was working on an expired certificate, loses the district 450K in at-risk funds, yet somehow wakes up in the morning with a job. How is this possible? The nepotism, unfortunately, does not stop there. Superintendent Beal, who is somehow also HR director and FOIA coordinator. has hired his wife and two daughters while he simultaneously protects other individuals abusing his position. Then we have Jamie White, who does not work for the district, but who is also the brother of current board member Aaron White, who has abused his prominent position

043as a well-known attorney to make threatening, caustic, inflammatory, and defaming public commentary to me once I began professionally exposing the truth about the illegal and immoral activities taking place at the hands of Superintendent Beal and permitted under his reign. I have a copy of that document in front of me with me here. As of late, Jamie White's brother, also brother of current board member Aaron White, has also threatened, brazenly threatened, and in writing, current board member Keisha Hamilton's significant other, respected advocate Hakeem Hampton. You as a board have cultivated this unacceptable climate of fear, downright abuse, gross negligence, and an environment replete with wildly severe nepotism and immorality. Again, I inquire, how does Superintendent Beale with a long line of professional high-standing victims... Stephanie, uh, Cizik, you're up. Cizik, sorry. Superintendent Beal, members of the

044school board, I'm Stephanie Cizek, a retired teacher of 33 years, Spanish teacher with Jackson Public Schools, mainly Spanish throughout that time. Many of us are concerned, as you've already heard, about Superintendent Beal's habit of crushing anyone who has the audacity to stand up to him. and you, majority of the JPS board members, backing this behavior so that it's escalated to the extreme harm of many students and staff. Gina Ciambella, known to be a credible and respectable staff member, reported that she was being sexually harassed by teacher John Hastings. What if administration and the school board had done something about it then? Instead of sweeping it under the carpet and treating her like a, quote, crazy troublemaker, unquote, further sexual abuse of a multitude of innocent female students, which he was in fact convicted of in

045a court of law, resulted. All this could have been avoided if administration and the board had taken action in diligence. Or what about when Principal Kelly Pennington was harassing and mistreating staff? If those reports had been honored by Superintendent Beal, she would not have been empowered to go on to embezzle $100,000 from the district. for which, as you know, she was convicted in a court of law. Or, perhaps if this board had done their due diligence regarding the multiple harassment claims and whistleblowers concerning Superintendent Beal's behavior, he wouldn't have gone on to harass, abuse, retaliate. against so many others, including excellent art teacher. She was the best, Penny Davis. She taught down the hall from me. Students were, she was creative, and she was, and I quote, feverishly tormented, unquote, and who also, as of

046later, won her retaliation case, as of lately, against Superintendent Beal, as was previously mentioned, all the way to the Supreme Court. Again, back to my original point. These things were all preventable. If the school board, as Amy called this, Board 5, That's whom I'm addressing right now. If you were doing your diligence, doing your job, many human beings continue to be severely damaged. This isn't just in the past. Right now, as stated in the last board meeting, we're told, quote, move on and just be nice. Can't we just all be nice, unquote. Well, we can't do that until something changes. You, Board 5, don't seem to get it. Innocent people are being destroyed as we speak by your choices. Food for thought. What if you got out of the good old boy network and did

047what's right for all students? and all staff. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Jeff Lowe's. Let me apologize ahead of time for the rapidity I'm about to use. I know I only have five minutes. My name is Jeff Lowe's. I am the current president of the Jackson Education Association. I'm here to speak on behalf of the current teachers of Jackson Public Schools that I have the privilege to represent. We have all watched with concern as the last several board meetings have been chaotic and derisive. We have watched as the district we work so hard to improve every day has been maligned in a public forum. We have watched as a failure of communication and basic civility have tarnished the district. We come into our classrooms day in and day out and do our best

048to educate and provide excellent opportunities for our students to learn. This past school year, we have worked harder than ever before to get our students and ourselves through an unprecedented year of challenges in teaching and learning. It's been hard. However, I'm not here to hash out the past. As a current teacher that is already planning for next year and as the president of the JEA, I am concerned about one thing, and that is how do we all move forward to do what's best for our students and teachers. The teachers need you to ask yourselves if providing the best education for our students is the first priority and only concern in your service to this board. I believe the answer is yes, but we must do better. The only way to do this is for each

049and every one of us to make the effort required to show that our schools and students are the priority. In a recent JEA survey, teachers were asked to describe their interaction with school board. 47% said they had not seen one board member in their building this year, and almost 70% said they had not talked to a board member about teaching. If the mission is the improvement of education in Jackson Public Schools, we cannot justify that level of response. We cannot congratulate or criticize or question or improve our schools if we haven't talked to the people that are working there every day. So on behalf of the teachers of Jackson Public Schools, I am asking and telling that we have no time for agendas or apathy or complacency or grandstanding. We just need you to show

050us that you want to know what we need and what our students need. Chatting with your children's teachers is not enough. Talking to the same people you already know is not enough. You need to talk to as many people as possible. You need to get in the buildings. We need to see you. That is the only way we can make policy that will have a positive effect. I must take a moment to acknowledge Trustee Shalonda Hunt. Almost two months ago, Trustee Hunt reached out to me, and as a result, we chatted for well over an hour about teaching and learning. I very much enjoyed the conversation, and I hope that she can say she did as well. This is what each and every other board member has to do. It doesn't have to be with

051me, but if you want to begin there, by all means. Please feel free to reach out. I would be happy to speak with any of you at any time. If you start with me, though, you cannot end there. And if you don't want to start with me, you have to start somewhere. Ms. Hunt, again, I thank you. It was a great beginning, and I hope that your willingness to be open and have a dialogue serves as an example to all of your colleagues and that we can all build on that together. I hope that all of you accept this invitation and commit yourself to that necessity of moving forward. The teachers have heard the invitation. Please show them that you heard it, too. Thank you. Thank you. Next up is Tom McMillan Oakley. Good evening.

052Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tom McMillan Oakley, and I am the new education advocate for Jackson County for the Student Advocacy Center of Michigan. My 30 years of working in K-12 and higher ed have prepared me for this work, as well as helping navigate my son, who has special needs. Mr. Beal, thank you for helping out that one time. His education here in JPS, and now he is at the ISD. It's not easy, and that's why we contacted Student Advocacy Center, and they helped out, and it ultimately landed me this job. So I'd like to give a quick brief history of the Student Advocacy Center here in Jackson. Our office opened up more than 11 years ago. Our office is at Calvary United Methodist Church on Bacchus Street, and of course

053virtual as needed. JPS has historically referred chronically truant students to SAC when it took over the county's truancy program. which was called Early Truancy Intervention. This is before my time, sorry, I have to read this. It then became Bridges to School. It is now part of our advocacy and support work in the county. We are the chosen provider for special education advocacy through the Michigan Alliance for Families, our state's federally funded parent training and information center. The mission of the Student Advocacy Center is simple. Work collaboratively with underserved students and their families to stay in school, realize their rights to a quality public education, grow, and experience success. This has been going on since the organization was founded in 1975. The mission of JPS is similar. I'm not going to be as cute as those

054kids who read it earlier, so bear with me, okay? I can't follow that. We'll bring our community together to create a culture of academic excellence and workforce readiness. By working together with families and educational teams throughout the district, my role as an advocate is to ensure that all students are able to fully participate in the mission of JPS. When I met the founder of SAC, Ruth Zweifler, at a recent fundraiser, I mentioned that I was a retired educator. She remarked, good, we need more teachers as advocates. We are not the enemy. It is my hope that together we can work to keep our students in school and learning and living up to the mission of this district. I am open to discussing ways to streamline the process. of getting the students in JPS the help

055they need in a thoughtful and collaborative manner. If I can bring in my former employer, JCC, into the loop here, together we, SAC and JPS, can inspire and transform lives. You can learn more about our organization at www.studentadvocacycenter.org, where you can also find my contact information there as well. Thank you for your time this evening and for allowing me to present. Thank you. Next up is Maisha Jones. Maisha Jones, sorry. Good evening everyone. It's Myesha Jones. So I always run out of time so I wrote some notes so I could try to hurry up and get through it. So first of all, good evening everyone. I didn't have taekwondo tonight which is why my hair still looks okay. I want to first start off by thanking truly all of our teachers. I think for the

056last couple board meetings I've had a lot to say. And I don't always do the justice that they deserve. Our teachers are amazing at JPS, and I really appreciate them. I really want to give a special shout out to everyone who has helped make our T.O.P. program successful. The T.O.P. program stands for Teen Outreach Program. We taught this program through the Jackson County Health Department for quite a few years now. And as we're ending up the year, and I'm teaching a current program at Pathways, which is ending. I want to give special recognition to Mr. Willie Lewis, who is the principal at Pathways, Ms. Angela Napolsky, which is a teacher, and Ms. Rosie Talmadge, which works as an aide in the... reception area. They have all been amazing to make sure that our program is

057successful. Top, the Teenage Program is a development program for our youth that really focuses on emotional, giving back, emotional learning, relationships, building, giving back to the community. It's a really amazing program. So I just want to thank everyone who's helped to make that successful. And I also want to thank a board member, Ms. Keisha Hamilton, which kind of feels weird because we are friends, but There's been one time I've taught this program for probably five years in this district and one time a board member and the superintendent showed up and Keisha and I are friends but she didn't even know I was teaching at Pathways and she was like, hey, what are you doing here? I was like, oh, this is my program. And so I actually saw a board member in the schools walking

058the hallways with Mr. Buell, and that was the first time, and I thought that was really amazing. So I do know that I think some board members are, you know, making phone calls and more than that, being visible in our schools, like going to the schools and reading to the kids and popping up in my program. Like, how ironic. But anywho. I want to kind of wrap this up. You know, I know we've spent, and I want to talk specifically to my community. We spent months sitting in front of this board and pouring our hearts out, and we are continuously being traumatized. We've been angry. We've been sad. We've been resistant. We've been just so many different things. We even saw a board member get harassed and get away with it. But I want to

059empower my community tonight because I think we forget where the power lies. You see, just like Mr. Buell has people that hire him this board, we hire the board. They work for us. And so when they're not working for us, instead of us just getting up here yelling at them, we can just stop voting for them and kick them out. There are two seats that are going to be available coming up. Let's be proactive. Let's find the right representation. Also, just because someone's term isn't up doesn't mean that we have to wait for their term to be up. There's ways that we can get rid of the people who are not serving this board well, who are not doing their jobs. Whether you've been here for eight years, whether you've been here for a year,

060we all know that it's time for some people to go because they're not doing their jobs. So I want to empower all of you. We're going to start that process now. So my heart, my emotions are no longer in the space of communicating with this board because they're not listening to us. But action speaks louder than words. So it's time for us all to move. And there's proper steps that we can take that I encourage and empower you to join me in taking so that we can really get the representation we need because it's not here, unfortunately. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that concludes public comment. So are we going to go back to the two that were pulled? We'll get to that in action. Okay. So we will do number seven here, bond items.

061Marcus, I hope you're ready for all of this. The first one is 21-22-127, TMP additional services fees, and this is an action item. All right, good evening everyone so over the course of the bond for the last few years our architects TMP have conducted additional services at a number of our locations that have gone above and beyond the scope of the original bond bid for the architect services. The cost of these services totals $126,126 for fees incurred by both TMP and the consultants that they've hired to help do this work. Again, we've brought this to the facilities committee as well as this board last month to discuss. So this time we recommend approval of the additional fees as presented. Okay, thank you. So this time I would entertain a motion for approval of the additional

062fees as presented. Thank you Pam support. Thanks Aaron any deliberation Okay hearing none all those in favor say aye opposed Okay motion carries Next we are on number eight discussion items. The first one is 21-22-128 Jackson High School AV Media Center auditorium technology Marcus As we work through the renovation project here at the high school, one part of that is upgrading the AV components for both the space and the media center, as well as the auditorium here in this building. We have solicited bids for that project that are currently out right now. We're in that process. We held a pre-bid meeting yesterday with contractors, and bids will be back next week, and we'll be discussing them and recommending an approval at our special meeting on June 1st. Okay, thank you. Next discussion item is 21-22-129,

0632022-23 preliminary budget. Marcus? So again, as we work on our budget proposal for next year, I brought this to the Facilities Committee as I do each year last month, and really this is just an update as far as some basic assumptions that we're using in preparing our budget at this time. There's no action at this time. We're going to come back next month with our budget hearing, public budget hearing, and we'll have a full proposal for approval at that meeting. So again, this is just for information at this time. Can you, Marcus, can you very quickly just talk about the basic assumptions that you're going to use? Sure. Just a couple of basic assumptions right now. As we know, the state is working through the state budget process, so we don't have a state budget

064at this time. There's proposals out there by both the governor, the Senate, and the House. So on the revenue side for our state aid foundation allowance, we're assuming right now a $200 increase for FTE for state aid. Again, at this time, we don't know where the state budget is going to land, so we're going to be conservative in that amount as we go towards developing our budget. And then we've built in some of the knowns that we do have, including payouts for the hiring bonus that we instituted last year and, again, we'll be doing again this year. Again, assumptions for health insurance increases and negotiated wage increases for the groups that are under collective bargaining agreements. So the way to look at this is we start with where we're currently projecting our increase or decrease

065in fund balance. We plug in those assumptions that are on the sheet. And then if all those assumptions were to hold true on the bottom is where you would get an idea of at this time where we would hope to land for a fund balance at the end of next year. So again, these are just preliminary assumptions and they will change and become more solid as we work through our process. Thank you. Now we are on number nine action items. Can I ask them some questions? Oh, sure. Thanks. The TMP additional services fees, I see the amounts for each of the schools. Just could you give me an example of what are some of the things that came up that wasn't already included that caused us to have an increase in cost? There's a bunch,

066but I'll give you one off the top of my hat early on in the project. We needed to, the parking lot over here by Reynolds Hall is a project that needed to be done and was not in the original bond, so we went ahead and did that project. Again, we needed the architecture and engineering services from our TMP at that time to complete that project, so that would be one example. Now, generally speaking, where would the funds for a project like that come from? What would happen? Why wasn't it already included? Did we need to do it because there was some wiring that was connected to it? What was the? So the parking lot that Marcus is referring to is the student lot that's off of Steward. And what happened is as we began construction

067on the aquatic center, that reduced the number of parking spaces on the west side of the lot, and we saw an exacerbated need for additional parking, so that shifted over there. But remember that there is $3 million worth of interest in extra projects that were attached to this. And TMP's rate was 4.55%, which would be just under $150,000 worth of fees associated with that additional work. To say that we're at 128,000 Marcus I think we did a little bit better than the than the their standard fee rate But we added scope is the short answer to your question miss Hamilton so some of the projects that we had they were bond projects they simply Were bond projects built out of additional resources generated by interest within the bond nope So just so you understand, I

068just wanted to understand why we had extra fees and things that weren't included already. I'm not opposed to us fixing lots. That makes sense that we have them fixed. What's another example? Do you have one more example of where these fees, what else might have been? The chimney here at the high school. Yep, and going through the bond projects, came across the chimney here at the high school. Disrepair will put it and we needed to lower it. There's bricks literally falling off of it So we needed to make that safe for our students and staff on the property. Thank you. I appreciate that Okay, thank you Marcus. We are on number nine action items So first we'll do the two that were pulled. So the first one is 21-22-1 22 the 22 2022 23 hard

069cap resolution Marcus So Public Act 152, which relates to how employers, local government employers, are allowed to pay for employee health insurance, requires us each year to elect how we're going to, I guess, calculate that or the employees pay that, and there's different options. A lot of districts in the state, if not most of them, follow the hard cap, which is put out by the state of Michigan each year, which basically gives an amount that employers are allowed to pay up to a certain amount for a single, two-person, full family. And this is for the medical portion only of our health insurance. Ancillary services like vision and dental are covered at 100% by the employer. And each year this will change. So the memo this year that came out from the state with new rates

070for our hard cap limits for 2023, that will go into effect with our renewal plan year that starts January 1st, 2023. We won't have those renewal rates until later this fall. The hard cap limits did go up 1.3% over last year. So at this time, we are recommending adoption of the resolution allowing us to... Use utilize the hard cap option for the district. What did we use last year? The hard cap is what we've typically used We generally use that all the time And it depends so we've got multiple plans, you know, it's it's an ease of use and also You know for the employees benefit as well. No, when we when we review these do we review these each year? Yeah, we can do the motion and then we'll, so at this time I

071would entertain a motion to adopt the attached hard cap resolution for the following medical benefit plan coverage year. Thank you, Pam. Thanks, Cheryl. Okay, now deliberation. I'm sorry, what was that question again? Do we do these every year? Do we review this every year and make this decision every year? Do we do this every year? Yes, it is required for us to go through this every spring for the following year. Thank you. Now, do we also include teachers in this? Do we have a discussion with them about if this is working for them or not? I know we have these options, so it looks like we can choose between them regardless of what the state is recommending. Do we ever include teachers in that process? So we do. Health insurance is a bargained item. within

072our contract. But what this does is it takes us out of the health insurance business. So the district doesn't arm wrestle our staff, our teaching staff, which all have predominantly said they want Mesa insurance, Mesa Blue Cross Blue Shield. And this district and many others across the state have gone through several different options in the past and gone back to Mesa for quality of service. This caps our exposure every year, so it caps the district's exposure to that hard cap number. As Marcus said, it's going to go up 1.3%. We know that health insurance will go up more than that this coming year, so there will be additional health insurance costs associated with that. But rather than having an 80-20 plan, and the idea behind the 80-20 plan, which is the other portion, is that

073the district pays 80%. of the costs and the employee pays 20 percent, that doesn't limit the district's exposure. So what that does is it forces us then to bargain every year what health insurance we provide our staff because that's the only limiting factor is to bargain, if you will, reduced benefits. The reason that we adopt hard cap is because it limits the district's exposure and takes the health insurance conversation out of the district's hands and puts it into the teacher's hands. So if the teachers decide they want less insurance or they want less cost, they get to actually tell us that they want to. We've negotiated like this probably for... Well, for eight years now or more, and I can tell you that taking the contention out of health insurance, the minute we start to

074bargain health insurance, as Ms. Brown would tell you, is it amps up the energy in the room and makes it simply that much more contentious. So the hard cap, if you will, makes it a very measurable, a very known quantity. A couple more questions for you on that. So we're not negotiating who we're doing business with as far as which insurance company, correct? So Mesa is not really the, who is not really the issue. Is that correct? Because we're not, we're just negotiating how we do it. Is that correct or no? We don't actually, so. We negotiate health insurance and we can negotiate providers. But when we sit down to the table, what we say is, look, the district has no interest in removing Mesa as a choice as long as that's what the teachers

075want. So that's how we've moved forward with that. That makes sense. Thank you, Jeff. I think I might not be very clear. Right now what we're getting ready to sign or vote on is which option we're going to choose but not which. which insurance company, is that correct? That's correct. Okay, so with that in mind, with the hard caps, the 80-20, the exemption, it sounds like, if I'm hearing you correctly, that teachers do have input in which of the hows we choose. Is that correct? That's not correct. They don't have, okay. That's not part of the law. That's a board obligation to determine whether we go forward with an 80-20 plan or a hard cap plan. We can change that year to year. One more question for you. You said the bargaining table is with

076the insurance. Now, when you go to the bargaining table for insurance, is that the who we're using or is that the how? What's done at the bargaining table? Well, it's both, candidly. So when we sit down at the bargaining table, it's both. Thank you. And that's done with JEA? It's done with all of our units, yes. Okay. Now, with JEA, do we know how many teachers participate in JEA, roughly? It varies from year to year, but ballpark 300. So about 300 of our 800 staff, is that correct? 300 of our teachers. So the JEA is teachers only. What's that percentage? It was 300 of our teachers. Do we have only 300 teachers? I just don't know. So the JEA encompasses 100% of our teachers. How many teachers do we have? Ballpark 300. Okay, thank you.

077Thank you. Okay, any other deliberation? Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. The next action pulled item was 21-22-126, resolution in approval of the 2022-23 JCISD proposed budget. Marcus. No. First get a motion. Oh, Marcus is going to explain it. Explain it. Yep. And then we'll do the motion. The revised school code requires each district to review the ISD proposed budget and either approve or disapprove by June 1st each year. The ISD budget was presented to the county superintendents on April 22nd. We also reviewed this with the Finance and Facility Committee on April 29th. So at this time, we'd recommend adopting the resolution and approval of the JCISD proposed budget for next year as presented. Okay, so at this time I would entertain a motion for adoption of the resolution

078in approval of the JCISD proposed budget for the 2022-23 as presented. I've got a comment to make before we do that. What Libby? I couldn't hear you. Okay, so Libby, Pam, okay. Deliberation, Libby. Okay. Usually we have the ISD come and present the budget to us. I remember in past years that we had the ISD come, Kevin Oxley would come and present it to us so that we would know. Yeah. That was a pre-COVID situation, so they haven't done that in a number of years, but they have sent over the entire budget and sent it to facilities and finance, so I think you probably had this back at the end of April. So, but, you know, I'm happy to have them come back out at any time to talk with the board about the budget.

079So only facilities and finance got the budget, or I don't remember seeing their budget. If I looked in the agenda, I didn't see it. I didn't even see a link on there. I'll check. It was also on the finance committee meeting minutes and agenda from last month that everybody, I mean, I know Libby, Aaron, and Cheryl are on the finance committee, so they've seen it. It was part of the minutes from last meeting. It's in the folder for today, but the budget itself is kind of a PowerPoint presentation. Did you see that in the folder? I didn't. I was looking through it, too. Okay. Yeah, it's linked. It wasn't. The link for that piece was added later. Yeah. But it's in the shared drive. So the basic reason why he didn't come over and discuss

080it is because of COVID. We stopped doing it, and then he just decided not to come. That's been their practice for. about three years now. I'd have to go back and look at when the last year they came out, but they've sent it over in the presentation format, but that's why. And no, they haven't done it, and they haven't done it for anybody else either. Can you give us the, or give me just an overview of what, you know, why we're voting on their, you know, their budget and what's significant to us, what matters to us, and what our decisions were in that matter or that, you know, decision? Yep. I'll do what I can for you. So two things. First, why are we voting on it? Because we are required by law to take

081a look at their budget and, again, either vote to approve or disapprove their. budget it doesn't actually change our disapproval if you will doesn't change their budget process which is kind of this cart before the horse conversation i guess but there are some pieces in here that are very specific to us obviously they provide special education programming for our highest risk our highest need students with disabilities And they collect a special education millage from the county, and those county dollars then fund those programs and flow back into the district and fund our local special education reimbursement. So we are able to, and Marcus can speak to this, we are able to collect all of our special education costs. And we get a reimbursement, I want to call it 65%, Marcus, that we're able to get

082reimbursed through that fund, through that ISD millage. So we do see that come back to the district. That's probably the biggest portion of their budget, if you will, that comes back to us. Additionally, they fund CTE programs out at the career center. And as well as general education funds and then they also provide technology services through the technology consortium to every school district in the ISD so every school district in Jackson County and so this budget incorporates the the folks that work in our district and we've got a really strong team that goes out and and Manages the day-to-day operations in our building. So For us, there's two special education directors. There's a handful of IT techs, not counting the engineers and the apps folks and the help desk that work on the technology side,

083sometimes to our chagrin and other times to great effect. So if I'm understanding you correctly, our... What matters to us is that reimbursement? Is that what matters to us? Well, that's a big chunk of it. I wouldn't say that that's the only thing that matters. No, I would say that probably the greater pieces of us come about in the services that they provide. Like I said, when we, so when we're, I'm just trying to understand, you know, so when we're, because I mean, our approval or disapproval, it seems like it has to matter because we're voting on it. You know what I mean? We have to, we have this requirement. So there's, there is some. you know there's there is something of our voices being heard that they want to hear and there's obviously some

084type of impact from you know we sent over a disapproval seemed like there might be some conversation as to why did you disapprove you know there's something else we could so it seems like there is a reason why we're doing this and i just want to understand that reason so if um It's our reimbursement or the what was the other one you just said that was more important the one you just said those more important than reimbursement the greatest services JPS services 40% of the special So do we have some type of say in that is that what you know? So they when they're right there their budget up they say hey look we're gonna do 40% We're looking at over the budget and we say yeah that so we don't have any saying that

085either. Okay, that's correct So what do we have? I mean, so I understand that we don't really have a say in there, but they're gonna do it regardless That's correct. But So why are we voting then? Because it's law. Okay. Because this law was created back in 1964 ballpark, and I don't want to say it wrong, but it kind of predates our current funding system. So just so you know, Jeff, when they do this again, you know, one, maybe just point out where it's at because I looked through everything and couldn't find it. But then I would love to have them come and do a presentation so we can better understand, you know, everything about the whole process. I'd just like to know stuff. Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Any other deliberation? Okay, all those in

086favor say aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Next action item is 21-22-130, bus camera system. Marcus? So our current bus camera system is quite outdated as I've brought up before I brought this last month to the board as well So the Finance Committee So we went and solicited bids for new bus camera systems for the district fleet we received three quotes and We are recommending to go with provision which was also the low bidder at one hundred ninety three thousand two hundred twelve dollars You know, these cameras are a lot more state-of-the-art, up-to-date. They're in color, high definition. We were able to view still images from a neighboring district that uses the same system, and the quality is very good. It's also cloud-based, so we'll be able to download videos when we need to a lot

087quicker for whatever we need to look at the videos for. So at this time, we'll recommend approval of the ProVision bid in the amount of $193,212. Okay, thank you. So at this time, I would entertain a motion for approval of the provision bid in the amount of $193,212 as presented. Support. Okay, thank you. Any deliberation? Okay, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Next line item is 21-22-131, elementary summer school meals. Marcus? Materials. Materials. So the district is planning to purchase reading and math intervention kits, take-home guided practice books, and book room materials to help supplement our elementary summer school program. The materials will be purchased out of Section 31A funds, which is an allowable expense for summer school, in the amount of $40,697. We did review this information along with

088some examples at our facilities meeting last month on April 29th. So we would recommend approval of the materials as outlined in the amount of $40,697. Okay. Thank you, Marcus. So at this time, I would entertain a motion for approval of the materials as outlined in the amount of $40,697 as presented. So moved. Thank you, Erin. Thank you, Libby. Any deliberation? I have a few questions. Yeah. Can you explain what will be in the kits and... So I'm trying to envision this as the parents are receiving these kits for their children. What's the responsibility of the parents? What will the follow-up look like? I'm just thinking of summer. When we say it's a supplemental, it's to supplement the elementary school program, so we're not having that. opportunity for the kids to go to a location and

089to participate so now we're putting them back in that virtual learning environment well there's actually a couple of different types of materials so one is for the students that are not attending summer school to have a kit that goes home with a really nice card for the parents to understand what the lessons are and support for that. Those are students that don't qualify for summer school. We have a lot of kids that, you know, we've got a specific number of spaces to make sure that teachers have a chance to really do targeted interventions with kids. And so there are kids that might still be below grade level a bit and still need to prepare for the next grade. So they're nice because they are... There's about nine weeks of materials there, and they're very easy

090for students and for parents to understand. So there's those, and some of the buildings chose to purchase those for some of the kids that were in their after-school programs, but also were either unable to attend summer school because of their parents' schedules or something else, or they just didn't qualify for it. And then the other that we are purchasing is called Focus Reading Intervention Kits. And those kits are things that we will have for years to come. So we've got the teacher's guidebooks. There's a pre- and post-test that we'll use. And we are doing face-to-face summer school. We'll have three of each grade level at the new Cascades. So we'll have air conditioning for the first time for summer school. And in those, we'll have the... the teacher's guide, and we're doing it for reading

091and for math. The students will have their own workbooks. It will be minimum prep time for teachers because we've got to give them some break to their summer. So this is really, it's ready to go. We'll just have to repurchase the workbooks every year because we'll send those home with kids. And there are digital and, oh. There's digital games and print games that they'll be able to use with students. It's just something that's fresh and different from what we use with them throughout the school year. So and it's also easy for the teachers to use. So those are two things and we also part of that is guided reading books for them to use because we kind of go through the same sets of books during the school year. So again something that's fresh and

092new for them that we'll use with each of our summer schools going forward. So that's what we're using those materials for. Thank you. One last question. You said students that don't qualify for summer school. What's the criteria? For our K-3 students, it is students that have an IRIP. They have an individual reading intervention plan or instructional plan. So those are students that are behind in their reading. Those are the students that qualify this year. And then for fourth and fifth grade students, we looked at students that were more than a year below in reading. And so those students were invited. They don't all attend, but last year we had a bumper crop of students in summer school. We were splitting at the seams, so we added an extra teacher per grade level. And we think

093with the air conditioning, that's really going to... We'll have quite a few more, too. Thank you. Okay, any other deliberation? Okay, thanks, Julie. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Next line item is 21-22-132, Shakespeare Room Furnishings. Marcus. All right. So we solicited quotes to kind of update the furniture in the Shakespeare Room upstairs here at the high school, just to bring it up to date like we've done with furniture throughout the rest of the district. But we want to keep that. characteristic and look of that room since it is a little different than the typical classroom setup so we worked with the principal teacher here TMP our architect and interior designers and They have presented us with a quote to NBS Commercial Interiors in the amount of $91,995 to update

094the furniture in that room. They've had samples delivered so we were able to see and touch the chairs and make sure it's something that we wanted and matches the look of the room to keep with that tradition up there. So we'll recommend awarding the bid to NBS at this time. Okay, thank you. So at this time I would entertain a motion awarding the bid to NBS Commercial Interiors in the amount of $91,995 as presented. Thank you, Pam. Thanks, Cheryl. Any deliberation? Okay, hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Next line item is 21-22-133, Resolution Calling Public Hearing on Proposed Budget. Marcus. Each year we're required to have a public hearing on our proposed budget prior to the board adopting it. One of the things that will be discussed will be

095the millage rate that we'll be proposing to levy to support the budget. That will be discussed at the hearing as well. So at this time we're recommending adoption of the resolution that's attached calling for the public hearing on the budget proposal for next year on Tuesday, June 21st at Piddleschool Parkside. Okay, thank you. This time I would entertain a motion for adoption of the attached resolution calling a public hearing on the proposed 2022-23 budget to be held on Tuesday, June 21, 2022 at 545 p.m. at Middle School at Parkside. So moved. Thank you, Erin. Thank you, Libby. Any deliberation? Yes, I have a question. How soon will this budget be released to the public for them to review it before the meeting? How soon do we release it? It would typically just be a few

096days, a week or less before that budget hearing, just because there's a lot that goes into it. So we need all the time to really develop it and get it where we're comfortable. When we release it, what type of marketing do we put out there so the public can know that it's out there and that the meeting is coming up so they can have some input in it? It's advertising the newspaper. It's posted on the building just like we would do for the meetings or we would advertise in the papers just like we do for bids for projects and things like that. This meeting is right before our regular meeting. Am I correct in thinking that? Correct. The budget hearing typically is the first part of the June meeting and then we'll go into the

097regular meeting following that. So this is not for you, but, I mean, you can, you know. We might want to consider releasing this a little sooner. We release this in full. It sounds like a board packet on a Friday. And, you know, with the weekend that comes up, then you have Monday people are working. Tuesday people are still working, and the meeting comes up on that Tuesday. In order for it to have actual, you know, input from the community, we might consider releasing this sooner so they can actually have some input in this. And then, too, so we can, as board members, review this as well. But that was my question for this. Thank you, Marcus. Okay, any other deliberation? Okay, all those in favor say aye opposed Okay motion carries next line item 21-22-134

098Certificate of the tax levy Marcus So in order for any school tax to be levied on taxable property the Board of Education must certified our intended tax levy millage rates for the following year For the July 1st, 2022 tax bills, we are not subject to the Headlee rollback for operations, and we anticipate levying the full 18 mills that were authorized to levy per state law. 0.4977 mils for our recreation program and 6.2 mils for debt service for the three bond debt services that are out there. So we've summarized the tax levy as follows, which will also be included in the 22-23 budget proposal next month. So this is a big chunk of the revenue piece of that budget proposal. And this is required in order to be in compliance with the truth in taxation law

099and levies for our full authorized millage. So at this time, we'll recommend adopting the L4029 form that certifies our 2022 tax levy. And we do this this time of year so we can get it to the local municipalities in time so they can send out the tax bills to be collected by July 1st. Okay, thank you. At this time, I would entertain a motion for adoption of the L4029 form certifying the 2022 tax levy as presented. Thank you, Libby. Thank you, Shalonda. Any deliberation? Okay, hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Next action item is 21-22-135, Solar Proposal, CLS Sustainable Inc., Marcus. All right, so last year we worked with a company, Harvest Solar, a local company, on a potential solar project proposal. which we started to move forward

100with. Since that time, we've been speaking with other companies out there, and after vetting different offers and pricing, we've worked with a company, CLS Sustainable and GCE, Guaranteed Clean Energy, that provide the same service, along with additional savings to JPS. and you have the proposal for CLS in front of you, the biggest takeaways are the savings that we'll receive. In terms of the amount we're paying per kilowatt hour for energy over the 20-year period of which the CLS company would own and maintain all of the equipment, so there's no cost or liability to the district. There's also a lot of grant opportunities that CLS is proposing to underwrite and search for, one of those being the USDA REAP program, which is a rural education across... America program. I think I'm saying that right. They feel

101very confident that we would qualify for this grant, which they estimate to be in the neighborhood of about $200,000, which we could see in terms back of either a hard check, physical cash to the district, or credits on our energy payments to that company. So we would, in effect, potentially not pay anything for our solar energy which we would be saving from our current consumers energy that we pay for even. So there's a lot of other opportunities but just that's one as an example. And this is really a first step in some other future energy efficiency projects that we're looking at in the district. So at this time, we recommend that the district move forward with this solar project. As far as a timeline, this project has investors lined up to fund it. They're looking

102to source at least 75% of the labor from the local community, including Harvest Solar, which does a lot of solar installations. would potentially be interested in doing the installation, their local company. And I think that's it for now. Okay, thank you. At this time, I would entertain a motion that the district move forward with the solar project as presented and authorize the superintendent to execute any necessary paperwork. So moved. Thank you, Erin. Thank you, Libby. Any deliberation? Okay, hearing none. Oh, sorry. I just had one question. So this is basically the same plan, though, the same buildings that we were looking at before? Yes, we brought this plan to the facility meeting last month. So this would be at John R. Lewis, at Hunt, and at Dibble, which is where we would see the most

103amount of savings, which is why we came up with those buildings. Some of them would be ground mount units. Some of them would be on roofs, depending on the location and sunlight and things like that, obviously. Do we know where CLS is located and Harvest? Do we know where each of them? Are they in-state? Harvest Solar is a local Jackson company. CLS, I believe, I want to say is based out of Texas. Am I understanding that we're going with CLS rather than Harvest, or are you saying they're components that they're each covering? I believe there's a potential partnership between the two where Harvest Solar would do the engineering and installation of the actual solar field. So the materials and labor would be local Jackson sourced. But this is on a solar proposal? I'm just trying

104to understand. We have two of them in there. The solar proposal is who we're voting on right now. They're getting the job? Is that correct? I was trying to understand. No, no. So we actually never executed the contract with Harvest because of the long-term rates that we saw didn't yield the return on investment that we were looking for. So we pushed Marcus to continue to explore that option. CLS Sustainable gave us a much better rate. per kilowatt hour, so for our return, and it generates more savings for the district. So in short, the harvest deal, the company that harvests solar will likely be doing much of the work for the physical materials, but won't hold the kilowatt per hour contract that will be CLS. So yes, they're both still in play, but no, we did

105not sign a contract with Harvest Solar. because of their kilowatt hour escalation, and that would be a fair statement. Mr. Leon? Yes, so in essence, it's yes to both. So potentially Harvest Solar would do the installation and do that work on the job. Our monthly energy payments would go to CLS because they would hold that paper, that contract, if that makes better sense. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Marcus. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Okay, that is all of our action items. Did we miss the ESSER grant? Did we get an update or something? Because I have an ESSER grant for 134. It looks like it's not that, though. Did we do that already? What happened with that? So that was a resolution to call for a public hearing for

106input on our ESSER III funding. We did pull that item from the agenda today just because we're waiting on clarification from MDE on the wording and how we hold that meeting just because this grant is very large and we want to make sure we're doing everything with diligence. I expect to put that resolution as the second and only other item on that special meeting. So it would just be adopting the resolution to have a hearing just like the budget hearing The hearing is scheduled Immediately following in my correct on this the budget hearing in June so that June 21st date We're gonna have the hearing but Marcus has to get the right wording for the resolution to call it and that's what we're waiting for from MD correct Correct. Okay, so I didn't understand that

107correctly. So what we're doing in June, we're going to have a budget hearing on just our regular budget, correct? And in this ESSER budget, we're also going to have a hearing on that as well? So it's not the ESSER budget. We're going to have a stakeholder meeting where I'm going to... present, you know, talk about the ESSER III grant and the survey and we'll have community input and then budget development, things like that. So that is separate from the regular budget hearing, which is our annual budget hearing, correct? Okay, so I did notice that we were having the budget hearing and then we were going to have an ESSER hearing. But now what are we saying? So we still are having that, but we're not talking about it tonight because you don't have the right

108wording. Our plan is to still have that hearing on the 21st. Tonight was only to adopt a resolution to have that hearing. But we didn't vote on that tonight. Correct. We'll do that on June 1st. I anticipate getting that correct language in time for that so we can have the resolution on the 1st for the 21st. Okay. I thought I was hearing you correctly. We're going to have our budget hearing as far as actually the input from the community at that time, and then we'll vote to have an ESSER hearing later. We'll vote on that at that time, and we'll have the ESSER hearing later. No, we're gonna Okay, help me out So on June 1st, we're at our special meeting. We're just going to have I'm gonna ask for recommend an approval to have

109the resolution to hold the hearing for ESSER on June 21st. That's what I'm missing. June 1st is when we're having that. June 1st is when we'll have the resolution approved so we can have the hearing on the 21st. Okay, that's helpful. Because that will be my next question when we have it at that time. And maybe you all can kind of answer that question at that time. How are we going to make sure that we have meaningful stakeholder input for the ESSER fund? And that's the wording I'm waiting for from MDE. Perfect, thank you. And then also in that as well, when we have that conversation, it would be good to know. So the community can know, however we have that conversation, what can these funds be used for so they can know what they

110can be recommending when we do that resolution, when we have that conversation. Did that make sense? It'll be part of the actual hearing. On the first... So we won't be telling the community what the money can be used for prior to that? We're only voting on a resolution to authorize a hearing. Yep, I understand that. So at the hearing, we'll have the community input on the 21st. I understand that, but will we be able to let the community know what type of input they should even be bringing to us? So we're saying, hey, we got a budget out here, we got this money, how did the community know what they're going to... I'll have another presentation attachment. prior to the 21st meeting, which it'll be part of that, just like the budget proposal. Will that

111go to the community? I'm just wondering how we're going to have meaningful, maybe this is for you, I don't know. I'm wondering how we're going to have meaningful stakeholder input in the ESSA grant funds if they don't know what they're using for. It would be the same thing as how we advertise the budget hearing. We're letting the community know that we're holding a hearing on how to spend our ESSA 3 funds, inviting the community to come in to do that. Okay. It would be nice if we could have some meaningful. you know information going out to the community so they can know how they can participate in this so remember that we we've already surveyed our community um back in november december with regards to esser 3 so we're using those basic assumptions and and

112marcus will walk through the assumptions this is only detailing out And there's big basket items for how the ESSER III grant, but Marcus will walk through those assumptions. He'll walk through the ESSER III grant. He'll walk through the feedback we got from our community in those community surveys, and then that will be folded into our preliminary budget that will be adopted that June 21st. Now, please remember that when we adopt a budget, and we have to adopt the budget, no ifs, ands, or buts, again, by law. no later than July 1. So we don't really have any time in this, which is why we make budget assumptions or we make preliminary budgets. And then we amend the budget throughout the year. So you'll see a budget amendment come before the board in November, December, once

113we fleshed out more of those particulars. And then you'll see a budget amendment come before the board in March, which will kind of detail out where we're at with our expenses. So the answer is... Yes, they're going to be able to participate in that budget hearing, but the information goes out to the public roughly 72 hours beforehand, just like it does for the general budget. And we'll mostly be using what we surveyed them on as far as how to create that budget. That's what we're saying? Yes. Okay, thank you. We are on number 10, board comments. So I will start with Keisha. Can you come back to me? Sure. Thank you. Libby? I absolutely love when the kids come in here and do presentations. It just brightens up your day just to see those little

114faces and hear what they have to say. So I hope that we continue doing that. I agree. This was my sixth time watching Mary Jo and the team from Hunt, and they have never disappointed. I don't understand how she gets it so on point. meticulous but those kids were like I was blown away for the first minute or two even while they sat on the floor while we all uncomfortably waited for the meeting to start for those three or four minutes so Mary Jo if you're listening and the rest of her team kudos Parkside with the the formal that you all had I had you know I was you know privileged to be able to watch that and the kids just forming those memories of being on the red carpet and some of those activities

115and the way that we engaged them was just was a sight to see so so thank you no comment tonight I thought it was a really good meeting. Erin stole the words out of my mouth because I was going to say Mary Jo never disappoints, and that certainly was pretty awesome. And I'm happy to see if we look at our combined graduates, we're over 300 this year. I have it as 314 graduates, so I think that's awesome. But it was an overall good meeting. Thank you. First time I've turned this on tonight. To go along with everybody else, Mary Jo is just phenomenal. She used to be my oldest daughter's cheerleading coach, and she ran the squad just like she does the school. She's no-nonsense, and she's very specific. They look like cheerleaders. They look

116like cheerleaders, yeah. The kids are great. She's great. It's a wonderful experience. I do want to say one thing, though, and we don't do the back-and-forth when we have speakers because we're not supposed to. We just say nothing. Sometimes our attorneys might ask us not to respond. individually to communications we get from the public because there shouldn't be a whole bunch of opinions running out there. The board should be able to make a decision or have a... general comment on something after taking in all things that are considered but I really don't think that some of our people know what the board does and and how we do it and the fact that all of us work full-time and we've all been in schools have I been in every school I haven't been hunt this

117year But we're there. And remember, we don't get paid. We do this all on our own. And we use our combined education experiences and our knowledge of the community to make certain decisions. And that while we have people here making all sorts of statements and negative things, and we can't argue back, that really irritates me because I want to argue back. Please find out what the truth is, find out what people really do, and make your decisions based on that. And I just want someone to come up here and say this, but what we really do. And that is not an autocracy, and there are checks and balances, but the board slamming I think really needs to be curtailed by simply finding out the other side. Thank you. Okay, and I too wanted to thank

118Hunt for the presentation. That was fabulous. With May being Teacher Appreciation Month, I just wanted to thank all the teachers in every building across the district. Fabulous, fabulous teachers here. So thank you for all of your hard work. And then also I wanted to say it was a great band concert last week at Parkside, so that was great. A lot of great things going on, and I love at the end of the year all these fun things that the kids get to do. field day and things like that that was put on hold because of COVID. So that's very exciting. Thanks. So I wanted to mention a couple of things that have occurred in this past month that I think the board should take note of. One, I don't want to not honor and... Give

119space to the occurrence that happened in Buffalo, New York and the impact that that's having on our black and brown community I myself had to take the day off today, you know because it's really It's very difficult existing in a space where you just unsafe anywhere you go where these things are kind of allowed to occur. So I do want to just take space to acknowledge the mental space that many black and brown individuals are existing in in this moment and just the difficulty that they're having. And I'm hopeful that you're able to get some help, some support, take that time that you need to address that concern that's there. This is just for later. I'd like an update on the Valedictorian Review Team. I know we were creating a team. I'd like to know

120who's on that team. But on Saturday, the NAACP also had a community forum, which was attended at the Jackson Library. We had about, I think, about 20 people. I think it was about 20 people in attendance. But they live casted it, live streamed it through Facebook. And by the time the meeting was over, there were over 380 views. And then right now it's up to 750 views, which just speaks to the continued interest in what's occurring at JPS. I think Alicia, the president, said that she was going to try to send that video. I think her intention was to send that to the board. One of the things that was really that different people spoke about while there was that the neutral environment and the ability to have dialogue really made them feel open to

121be able to kind of express themselves. I know when Dr. Marks was here at the DEI meeting we had. that back and forth was really beneficial. So I'm really hopeful that this board will consider having a community forum of that sort. And then also make sure you pay attention or look at that video that the NAACP did. I also attended the spring conference with MASB on, I forget, the end of April sometime. And they had a few different sessions that I went to that I think are just really important that we might want to consider. One of them is called Creating Trust, a Key Ingredient in School Improvement and Student Achievement. There's a quote that says that they gave us strong bonds of trust among members of the school community are essential for districts interested

122in improving. Research shows that schools reporting strong trust links across the organization were three times more likely to report improvements in math and reading scores. They had a lot of different ideas about ways that we could continue to create trust. And I would like for us to consider some of those different ways. You know, I do have a PowerPoint. It's some paper that they sent us that I'd like to get to you all so we can consider just some of those things that they suggested in there. I also attended one that says creating high-performing schools. This was, that says building blocks of high-performing schools was the idea of this one. So they said that research shows that high student performance is not the result of any one single action taken by schools. but rather high-performing

123schools tend to have the following characteristics. Because we can always improve, I'm just going to list a couple of them. Because, you know, as education, you know, we should always be looking to improve our methods of engagement. So some of the different things that they said relate to high-performing schools will be clear and shared focus, high standards and expectations for each student. We oftentimes say all students, and while we were there, it was noted that saying each student kind of, because all can kind of get lost in there, but each student, we want to have high standards and expectations for effective school leadership. high levels of collaboration and communication, curriculum, instruction, and assessments aligned with standards, which, you know, all these testing, I imagine it probably is, frequent monitoring, teachers and learning, focused professional development,

124supportive learning environments, and high levels of parent and community involvement were some other ones. They had a 21st century skills. Now, when I went to these things, I was just like, oh, my God, this is such great information. 21st century skills to succeed in a global society. I know we do something back here. I think with Monica, she does that. That one room back there for the media or something like that. But just in the interest of being aware of the global society that our students are going into, it would behoove us to make sure that as board members, we are also keeping track of what curriculums are out there, what other things we should be offering our students. Sometimes we don't know what those things are if we're only at the local or even

125the state level. Sometimes we need to get out a little bit so we can see what are people doing in these different spaces so that we can be able to offer these things. And I'm hoping that our admins and even our teachers, some of those who work in these spaces, the leadership teams or whatever, that they're also able to go into some of these other areas, some of these state-level, national-level spaces, so that they can also bring back these ideas to continue to improve. you know, what we're offering here. And then I recognize as well, Jeff and I had a conversation about the board going to state levels. And currently we don't budget for the board to get professional development at the national level. I'm hopeful that when we do our budget that we include.

126funding so board members can get professional development at the national level. We have a lot of money coming in, so that shouldn't be a problem. They have board self-evaluations. I didn't know that boards could self-evaluate themselves. We as a board could actually evaluate ourselves in order to be improved. MASB offers that, and I think that's something we should consider doing. We should be evaluating ourselves to see, you know, I mean, we can see a lot. But anyways, we still should evaluate ourselves so we can just improve. You know, I think that most of us, all of us here, you know, each of us here, I like each of us better, is here because we actually want quality education. Part of that is making sure that we are doing our part as a board to ensure

127that and we need to evaluate ourselves at times. Board policies. I found out in the spring conference. that there are other spaces that hold policies. I didn't know that. I didn't know that NEOLA was not the only one. So, and I'm a hope that, you know, that we already, some of you guys knew that. But anyways, Miller-Johnson and Clark Hill are two other different places that hold our, that could hold our board policies. I've heard that some of them are much less cumbersome than NEOLA. NEOLA is vast and confusing to me. And I'm college educated and incredibly intelligent. I've heard that Miller Johnson and Clark Hill are less cumbersome and much easier for parents and staff and myself as well to read. I would like us to consider someone else. Also, NEOLA does not have,

128unless, now we might have gotten this and hopefully we do, but NEOLA, and the only reason why this came up is because some other board member there mentioned he said, you know, NEOLA does not have a sexual harassment policy should the superintendent be accused of that. He was like, so just so you know, don't do NEOLA. Anyways, though. I don't know if ours has it or not, but that is something else that we want to be aware of. That Neola may not have a policy like that, as Neola does not have a harassment policy regarding when a superintendent harasses a board member. We don't have a policy like that. We need to consider not only choosing someone else for those two reasons, but also because they're less cumbersome and easier for parents to read. The

129last thing that I'll say is that in last month, we talked about the data related to students being swept up and for being tardy. And it's really, you know, just on my heart because we're just creating a school-to-prison pipeline with different things that we do. And, you know, and it's just bothersome to me because they're, again, black and brown boys and I'm a black woman. But as of 4-22-22, so April 22nd. This data that I'm about to share with you is as of that date. I did request more recent data. Jeff said he's unable to compile any until the end of the school year. So the latest data that I have is from April 22nd. And at the time, the tardy trans were 71% of the students who were being swept up were black students,

1308.1% were Hispanic students, and 3.2% were other non-white students. So to make it plain, 82.3% of the students who had been sent to detention were black and other students of color. What's interesting about that is that JPS is not a largely black and brown school, so we don't have a large representation of black and brown students. There are 45.1% white students here. So what the 82.3% of these black and brown students show is that they are disproportionately being punished. I'm not against... Figuring out ways to help students do better and to perform better and to, you know, be on time in class. But if whatever we're doing is feeding into a system of. the school-to-prison pipeline and it's disproportionately targeting because it just ends up being that way, a certain group of our demographics of

131our students, then we seriously as a board need to consider why that is. We need to be asking students these questions. I did have some conversations with at least one of our principals and mentioned that, you know, why aren't students getting to class on time? What is it that's not allowing them to feel like they need to be at class on time? And we have to remember that we're dealing with students. We're not dealing with adults. with 35-year-old brains who still sometimes are late for work. We're dealing with babies whose brains are not fully developed, who don't always know how to articulate why they don't get to class on time with this teacher, why they are maybe being bullied that they can't get out there and so they don't want to go to this class

132or whatever. We need to be asking more questions because, again, the data is showing that we are disproportionately punishing our black and brown students of color. Thank you. That is it for tonight. Okay, number 11 is new business, and there is no new business. Number 12 is the calendar. There is a ton going on. So lots of great things this month and June to wrap up the year. Please just note our summer meetings will be at Parkside rather than here. Due to the construction. Okay, and number 13, adjournment. I will entertain a motion for adjournment. Thanks, ma'am. Thanks, Libby. Deliberation? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Thank you. Have a great night.