001Mr. Sellers? Here. Mr. Lipstead? Will not be attending. Prove the agenda for the September 27th to 2021 regular board meeting. So moved. Motion by Mr. Sellers with support by Sharon. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Hearing of school district patron. The agenda asks for all the maintenance crew, staff, and students. When worn by all, masks have been proven to decrease the chance of getting COVID-19 and the risk of spreading the virus to others. They are non-invasive and they are safe to wear all day. There's no denying the data and no disputing the facts. Wearing a mask will ultimately save lives. The health department reported that K-12 schools were the source of the largest number of COVID outbreaks statewide last week. Its data showed higher transmission in schools where masks were not required. I know from
00216 years of teaching that there is a shortage of substitute teachers and the pandemic has only made it worse. If classroom teachers are forced to quarantine, chances are there won't be sufficient coverage and that has a negative impact on student learning. Whenever a child has to stay home to quarantine, it has a negative impact on their learning. It can also affect their parents' ability to work. Plenty of other school districts have figured this out. They understand that the selfish argument of personal choice is invalid during a global pandemic. They understand the importance of looking out for each other. They understand facts matter, so they make decisions based on evidence, not opinions. In that regard, compared to some other districts, your reporting system is lacking. We have to wait several days for updates and as of
003this morning, not every Lance Cruz building even had its own accurate information updated. That's not to say Lance Cruz is incapable of providing immediate notification. Recently, the district swiftly requested parents help to address the latest TikTok challenge. Yet the district is unable to enact a mask policy. The clear message is you are more concerned about a social media trend than a global pandemic. Whatever your individual reasons are for refusing to require masks, one thing is clear to your community. Individuals on the board and in administration are failing to adequately protect our children. Gary Neumer. My name is Gary Neumer, and I live in Macomb Township. My two children graduated from Lance Cruz, and now I have three grandchildren in the district. You're responsible for the safety well-being and education of students and you should be
004doing everything in your power to keep my grandchildren safe and in school learning In order to protect everyone. I urge you to do the right thing and mandate masks for students and staff Alexis priest Hello, I'm Alexis priest. My son is a junior at Lance Cruz High School North I am here tonight to draw attention to the crucial and long undetected oversight and accommodations offered to special needs students during crisis or disciplinary events in mainstream school settings. My son's journey is a long and extensive one starting at 18 months and he's been through the Macomb Infant Preschool Program, early childhood developmental delay, severe emotional impairment program and eventually into Maple Lane. We tried to mainstream him for a time and it was catastrophic at a residing school district, so I decided to bring him home
005and homeschool him. But when it came time to bring him back into the school district, we hired a student advocate and her, along with Mrs. Suspanich's help, had successfully formed an IEP to bring him back into the mainstream school district again because Lance Cruz... I don't know if you guys know, has an exceptional reputation for students with emotional impairments to be inside of your school district. And so far we've had an overwhelmingly good experience with you guys. What I have noticed, though, is the difference between the services and the ISD in comparison to when they jump into the mainstream school, and there's a drastic one. In fact, it drops right off a cliff. Inside the ISD they have consulting psychiatrists, community mental health therapists, occupational therapists, school psychologists, school nurses and such. And they also
006have therapies inside the day group and singular therapies. The classroom environment has 10 teachers to one student and two aides. And I have noticed inside of the mainstream environment inside of the district that the school does offer some proactive behavioral methods relating to peer-to-peer social interactions and common coping strategies in response to academic stress. But what does concern me is when there is a disciplinary event that involves a special needs student, the person that's in charge of taking care of that does not have any certifications or qualifications in special education to be handling that scenario from beginning to end to implement even disciplinary measure on top of that. Right now at the high school north, the dean of students has no previous. Certification or a degree in special education outside of nine hours of special
007education administrative courses as of 2017 And he states that there is an application of positive behavioral reinforcement programs Which I have not seen evidence of in written or verbal form and I've only seen in-house or at-home Suspensions applied as far as I can tell through my research. There's no protocol that exists that distinguishes interaction with a typical student comparison to a special needs student during a crisis or disciplinary event. So this leads me to ask how is it possible for a person without a special education degree or certification to successfully deescalate a crisis or disciplinary event involving a special needs student? So what have I done so far? I've initiated a protocol and listed inside the Disability Rights of Michigan DRM. for students with disabilities and advocates guide. I wrote an email on the 25th
008of August to the director of secondary education, Kim Rowski, superintendent Eric Edolph, superintendent of special education, Nancy Sapanich, and principal of high school north, Meredith Beard, outlining my concerns with the schools and ability to implement any effective corrective measures during a disciplinary dispute involving a special education student that results in a proactive outcome. So I know Ms. Beard had to cancel twice on me for a meeting, but I will be meeting with her tomorrow morning. I am excited about this. This isn't an attack to the district or anything. I definitely want to work this thing out. So what is my possible solution? Could there possibly be a room for these kids inside of Maple Lane? They actually have a sensory room. And I'm not saying something that extensive either, but a sensory room where they
009could retreat to. Before they feel like they're gonna have a meltdown a crisis event before they feel like they're gonna get into an altercation with another student that's possibly staffed with with a school psychologist or I know that mrs. Sapanich and mr. Dixon had gone and of the school board with a proposal to acquire 10 new social workers What if they were stationed inside that room? What like one person or someone that was constantly available because a lot of these caseworkers are dual loads They are teachers along with caseworkers. So they aren't as available as they need to be for these students So I'll be emailing my notes from tonight along with any progress made tomorrow with Miss beard to everyone on the board I thank you so much for keeping it parents' choice for
010no masks, and thank you for everything that you've done for keeping our schools open during this time. I thank you so much. Thank you. Amy Strauss. Hi, my name is Amy Strauss. I'm in Macomb Township, and I have a daughter in kindergarten at Atwood. I would like to just start with a comment regarding the video recording discussion that took place last week at the board meeting. As a parent and community member, I do think it's important for transparency and community involvement to have both meetings, at the very least, video recorded. At the last meeting, one board member said, regarding the parents, if they really wanted to know about the meetings, they can come to the meetings. We should have this room packed. They should be out there packed. If parents really were concerned, they would
011come to the meetings. They don't. I'd like to bet that most parents of this district are working parents, many of us with small children. It's not that easy for parents to come for an hour and a half meeting on a school night to be involved. I think video recording is essential for transparency. The parents of this district and the public need to clearly and all times know who is speaking during these meetings, and I don't believe that's happening with audio recording. Your elected officials... The constituents of Lance Cruz deserve to clearly know the views of each board member so they can vote with purpose during our local elections What that said given the cost difference between the live stream and video recording I think video recording both would be a fair compromise I also like
012to make a few general comments regarding last week's meeting during your discussion of the video recording one of the board members Essentially said the project was self-serving to quote one of the board members What Shane is asking now is not good. It's not good enough to be informed. I want them to be informed my way. We then fast forward to the closing statements. Another board member said regarding mask mandate, I have shared my opinions and my feelings and where I stand in regarding in regards to masks. Again, in all due respect, I feel there's a lot of I and my when it comes to masking. Hypocritical of the board as a whole. Board members, if you do not want this board to be self-serving, then why are we making mask mandate decisions based on your
013feelings and opinions and not in this matter based on the recommendations of experts? Again, the CDC, WHO, MDHHS, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the National Education Association, I could go on, all recommend universal masking K-12. Are you going to do what is best for our students and follow medical recommendations during this global pandemic? Or are we going to be self-serving and follow your own feelings and opinions? Another quote from a board member. What I am is someone who will not force anything on anyone. That is what I represent and what I do. You have every right to raise your children the way you choose to do so. Dress codes. food restrictions based on allergies following certain protocols during school pickup and drop-off Following certain rules regarding language and
014behavior in our schools These are all things that are forced on our students and parents because they are for the greater good of the school in the community Not sure why we can force parents and students to follow certain rules But why it's not okay to implement rules to help mitigate the spread of kovat 19 in our schools during a global pandemic Thank you, Renee Wilson My name is Renee Wilson. I'm at McComb, live in McComb, and my daughter goes to Lance Cruz North. The one thing I wanted to say to you guys is thank you for allowing parents the option to mask their children or not. There has been many, many studies showing that masks have no function. They do not work. So I'm just glad that we're able to send our kids to
015school with or without one. And it's not a selfish act on anybody's part, but the kids don't like them, and they suffer in many different ways. There have been, I know groups are pushing for it, and I know teachers unions and other parents want their kids to be masked, and I don't see. Send your kid to school and a mask, but please allow us to do if we decide we want to send them to school with a mask That's our choice and that remains our choice and I don't feel the board has any rights to Dictate to what I'm gonna do with my kid Because I would like to see the actual studies that the CDC and the WHO and all the other government three letters I'd like to see their study. I'd like to
016see it repeatable. They have yet to produce one. That is an argument that can be won in court because there's no evidence. And to mask a child with a 99.99% chance of survival rate just doesn't make sense. And as far as being a global pandemic. I want to say back in June, our own senators have said this is no longer a pandemic, but since we have a nightmare of a mainstream media, they will never report it. And I know Norway is one country that has removed all mandates of all kinds, and they have pushed this down to a cold. And by December, PCR tests will no longer be available, and we will see that these numbers are just going to fall off the charts. Oakland County, Macomb County, Oakland County has their mask mandates, Macomb
017County doesn't, and the numbers, they don't match. Macomb is better. So that's just my opinion, and I'm very thankful that you guys are still staying strong with no mask mandates. On a different note... I did want to let you know that my daughter's teacher made a couple of comments that I thought were inappropriate in regards to politics in his own personal view. And I actually looked at it as a green light for kids who shared his views to attack the other kids. So just so you know, I did send him an email, let the principal know, and if it happens again, you guys will be notified. But thank you. No, Dr. Bilsey. I would like to begin by saying that at the end of last week's Committee of the Whole, I felt that the Board
018President made a deliberate effort to be argumentative. She looked directly at the public section where the masked attendees were and said, I can tell you to take off your masks. When we said, no, you can't, she replied, yes, I can. I can tell you to take off your masks, but I can't make you. After the Vice President asked me to take off my mask, the first time I spoke, I'm noticing a theme. You don't like masks. Your attitude is a common one for school boards in Macomb County. Instead of making decisions based on reputable scientific evidence, you choose to discuss and validate each other's thoughts and positions on masking. Where's your research, your reputable research, leading to your decision? You can't answer because you don't have any. You listen to the faction that talks the
019loudest, threatens the most. It's not your job to make parents happy. It's your job to protect our children. Thus protecting their parents and the community at large. So far you're failing in my opinion miserably. It's your job to consider all of the recommendations of the health department, the CDC, and other institutions charged with our nation's wellness. Not cherry pick the ones that fit your narrative. Your COVID dashboard is labor intensive to read. Instead of a spreadsheet like other districts, yours forces the user to click on each school and building individually. Would imagine that this is so the user gets agitated and gives up. There's no way to compare cases by school without endless back-and-forth Parents want to see a total for the district without having to compile it themselves Other districts in Macomb County do
020this. Why can't you? Your school districts covert reporting is only as accuracy as the transparency as accurate as the transparency of your parents If parents aren't calling it in schools can't report it if you think numbers are inaccurately underreported because of schools take a look at the number of parents posting how to cheat the system online how to get out of quarantine etc if you don't want to get a vaccine fine you don't want to wear a mask whatever you reach a whole new level of irresponsibility though when you send your child to school sick or refuse to report your child's covid case It blows my mind that during a pandemic, this country is the only one where large populations are refusing and refuting its existence and the consequences of not using every single mitigation
021effort. On September 25th, the CDC issued a study noting that pediatric COVID-19 cases rose faster in countries without school mask requirements. In an analysis of 250 U.S. counties, the CDC found that pediatric cases rose more sharply in places without school mask requirements. In two popular counties, the agent found that schools without mask requirements were three and a half times more likely to experience an outbreak than schools with them. Though polls and research shows that majority of parents support mask requirements, and despite recommendations from the pediatricians and the CDC, there's a bitter division about implementing them. Opponents of mask mandates say parents should get to decide whether their children wear them. Personally, I'm sick of hearing I'm a free American. According to the CDC, the pediatric case data for about 17% of U.S. counties found that
022on an average, pediatric cases rose after schools reopened. Counties without mask requirements saw larger increases. The CDC analysis are the first to look at COVID in schools during the Delta variant, which has proved to be more contagious than its predecessors and driven pediatric infections to record highs. It is also the first to compare schools with mask mandates to schools without them. Most research has focused on the former. If you're waiting to convince those who protest masks that masks are an important part of mitigating the spread of COVID, especially the Delta variant, it's not going to happen. You're using our children, our community, and your faculty and staff as guinea pigs in your science experiment. Your politics over our loved ones' welfare is not a fair tradeoff. When you choose to answer an email from a
023parent or community member, and don't quote your source, Because you say if I did you wouldn't believe them. It's not an excuse for having an excuse do your job Michelle Palmer My name is Michelle Palmer and I live at three zero five nine one Cassie Lane in Chesterfield I'm not here to talk about the mask issue because I think that was well covered so far. I did just want to point out that masks actually do work. All I had to do was look up simply the COVID cases from last year versus this year. And last year in Macomb County, we had 72 cases per average, seven-day average as of today. And this year, the seven-day average today is 254. So that... It's pretty clear to me. But like I said, I'm not here to discuss
024the mask issue today. And this issue was also touched on by someone else, but I'm going to go ahead and read my comments anyways. The main reason I'm here tonight is to discuss the openness and communication of this board and this district. Last week at the meeting, there was the discussion about live streaming the meetings or videotaping the meetings and the various things related to that. At the minimum, I believe that the board should choose option one of the options that were presented last week. I believe that it's very important that everyone in the district has video access to know exactly what's said by who at every meeting. It would be better if it was live, but I can concede that it doesn't necessarily have to be live. I think in the times of COVID
025and with technology, Everybody live streams their meetings now. Other school districts, community groups. My daughter Zooms with her friends from home multiple times a week just for fun. I think the technology is there and we should use it. There was a comment made that the cost was comparable to the cost of a parapro in a classroom. And my question to that is, is there a classroom in the district that was asking for a parapro and wasn't able to have it because of budget restrictions? because I think it's my turn to talk right now, but thank you. I would actually like to know more about that then as to which class that was and to the specifics, because especially with the state aid and the COVID aid and all the other money floating around out there,
026I feel like this could be, money could be found for this. And it's not self-serving for the board. If anything, I guess it's maybe self-serving for us parents, and I'll claim that because I would love to be able to sit at home and watch the board meeting in my pajamas. That would be way more convenient for me. Thankfully, I have the ability to get here. There are others in the district that don't, and others in the district, again, we are in a pandemic still, that might not want to come in here with a bunch of other people, masks or not. So I think streaming the meetings is important. It's important for us constituents for us families and patrons of the district and I hope that you vote for it You you work for us and
027you use the Information should be out there. That's all. Thank you. I'm tribal Singh. Hey, Troublesome We've undue this and Clinton Township. It's cool after attending the last board meeting This board has some adverse reactions that trigger words or phrases like peer-reviewed, CDC, science, journal, mask, vaccines, and several others. Clearly, when it comes to medicine, epidemiology, scientific research, morbidity statistics, and health in general, many of the people sitting at this table seem to believe they know better. There is one person seated at this table with the credentials to offer a sound medical opinion on masking. has made her stance known. This stance is not backed by advice from a friend who was a funeral director, a rally she attended, or a video she saw on YouTube. This stance is backed by collegiate level medical degrees
028and years of experience. It's clear the goal of those of you at this table is re-election and self-preservation. It's evident no one at this table except for one believe the health and wellness of all children is important. So let's discuss something I'm hopeful everyone in this room can agree upon. The more children who are COVID possible, the more children who are quarantined, the more children who are out of school, the more children who suffer learning loss. Hopefully we can all agree a loss of learning, regardless of the cause, is detrimental to every single student in this district. Let's address the obvious. Data from Lance Cruz COVID-19 dashboard. I think it's important to note Lance Cruz is one of very few schools in the county who does not maintain a comprehensive data sheet district-wide. As such,
029it does not allow viewers of the COVID-19 dashboard to have a complete visual view of cases district-wide. Additionally, Lance Cruz is also one of few districts in Macomb County not including the number of students quarantined in the district for each subsequently positive COVID case. Thus far, Lanz Cruz has logged 59 total COVID cases in 19 days, which I really find difficult to be accurate. None the less if we divide 59 by 19 that's approximately three cases per day Let's just say each month at 30 days if we continue to have cases at this pace and it can be estimated they will as Lance Cruz has very few mitigation efforts in place including no mask requirement No enforcement of the federal mandate of masks on buses and only social distancing when practicable We can estimate 90
030cases per month. Students are in school for a minimum of 180 days. At three cases per day for 180 days, that's 550 COVID cases, 540. According to the statistics, which I know is a trigger word, this means only two students in Lounge Cruise Publix may die. Do you want it to be your child? I don't want it to be anyone I know. So overall we're looking at 540 cases this year minimally that many students will suffer a learning loss because Lons Cruz does not provide the amount of students are subsequently considered close contacts and quarantined as other districts do. It's difficult to estimate the number of students who will consequently suffer learning losses as a result of being a close contact. For the safe of playing it safe and not inflating numbers, let's say, although
031unlikely, only one close contact is assumed per each case. With that, we're looking at 1,080 students who will suffer a learning loss. The new guidelines from the state, also adopted by the county, states that students exposed in an indoor school setting, while both the case and the close contact were masked and sitting at least three feet apart, the close contact does not have to quarantine. If what we truly want is a continuity of face-to-face learning to keep children in schools, a mask requirement is clearly the solution. Whether you agree to mask work or not, the health department has stated those who are masked in our close context do not have to quarantine. You cannot militantly demand face-to-face schooling and be willing to contribute absolutely nothing to ensure that happens. I want you to know that
032the quiet majority is done. We will not be quiet any longer. Stop playing politics. Stop playing with the lives of your staff and your students. Continuing school without a mask mandate is reckless, dangerous, and selfish, despite what your friend who owns a funeral home said. And I would like to discuss a conversation held by two last week when the president said, what health department and Mass State aren't we following? Commend for honesty not knowing that not knowing that the county was recommending masking for all students and one other thing in Norway they just did a mask mandate for kids in sixth grade and under. Thank you. All right we've got one left so we're going to do Jody Luzinski. Good evening. My name is Jody Lesinski. I live at 30211 Fairfield in Chesterfield. I have
033two school-aged children. Last week, I voiced a concern that is shared by many in the Lance Cruz community. I'd like to thank Superintendent Edoff for addressing my concerns, but the answer I received, it really only scratched the surface. The answer to my question on if questionable theories, namely CRT or critical race theory, is being used in the classroom, either in name or in practice under another name, was that the Lance Cruz teachers teach to the state curriculum. Fantastic. I think we can all agree that's a good thing. That's great in theory and hopefully in practice, which brings me back to my concern. How do we... And you specifically know that there aren't any extras being taught in the classroom. We all know and appreciate the fluidity and difficulty of the teaching position, but what assurances
034do we have that our kids are being taught with a down-the-middle approach? I would suspect that most, if not all of us here, want our children to be taught with facts, even if they're uncomfortable. Rather than opinions of the teachers what I mean by that is how are you? Specifically making sure that personal opinions from either side are not being misrepresent misrepresented as facts in our schools Thank you and to item D consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? Support I have a motion by mrs. Hilton was support by mr. Sellers roll call please or any I'm sorry any discussion Hearing none roll call please Mrs.. Hilton Mr.. Sellers yes Dr.. Spencer yes This is Dube yes, this is Ross. Yes, mr.. Servio. Yes, six someone. Thank you I would
035just like to note that dr. Spencer arrived at the meeting at 633 so she's Part of the counts, huh? What time do you walk in 633? Okay, I mean it sometimes it looks like wait a minute. They weren't there So how can I have a count so just well, you know, she's here. Perfect. Obviously you can see that Superintendent's report district update. Sure. Thank you. I did update last week us similar Things going on still this week. Not a lot of major changes in the district, but I will say that Again, I think that things are, you know, we are obviously trained to be public educators. We're obviously trying to focus on that as much as possible, but we are not. A lot of other things aren't going on, and there isn't a demand placed
036on all of our staff, all of our families, all of our students every day that is continuing. And we will do things well. and we're going to make mistakes. And we respect and appreciate the community's support and understanding that things are not perfect and not everyone agrees. And we're trying to, although certainly not ignoring, we're trying to focus on spending our time on what we're good at and then receiving help from things that we're not. And it's difficult to do, and I think we all realize that, but I want to thank staff for all that they have been doing because it is challenging work in good times and more challenging work in challenging times. And I think that they are doing it. very professionally and with great effort every day. I want to thank families
037for their support of our district. There's obviously a lot of divisiveness over certain issues in the district, but I think it is definitely true that everyone is advocating for school. Everyone is advocating for their teachers. Everyone's advocating for their kids to learn and be in school as much as possible. There's no doubt about that. So if we start from what we agree on, we build from there and we'll continue to look for that. consensus whenever we can and we will modify when we have to. We are not afraid to do things in different ways. I think we've demonstrated that over a period of time and we have and will do continue to do that. We all hope there's a day when we get to only talk about things that we used to spend all of
038our time on but we are not so foolish as to understand that that day is not upon us yet. So I appreciate support. and feedback is important to me. It's taken to heart and continuing to work with everyone in order to strive for the best education for all kids in the district. And as I said, we will continue to look at the situation. with curriculum, with COVID, with teaching and learning, with everything that we do. And we're trying to make improvements when needed and appreciate feedback on all of those things. So I think that was my update for this evening. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, I have a couple questions. Okay. Okay, so first of all, what is it that we're doing to keep our staff safe specifically? Staff, let's just start there. What are
039we doing to keep our staff safe? What do we have in place? What do we have in place? Yes. We have, they have, well, first of all, if they have some leave time built in, if they can't be at work due to illness that was. been agreed upon we have masks available high quality masks available for staff that are interested in wearing them we are maintaining and can 95 sorry how many more do we still have I don't know the exact count but we have we have many available there is many there's no shortage of them at this point We are maintaining work with administrators and with staff to maintain adult social distancing protocols separate from classrooms so that adults don't create close contacts with themselves and with others. That's an extension of what was
040done last year. So all meetings are virtual? No, not all meetings are virtual, but if they're in person, we create distancing in those rooms. So, and people have, are asked to create that spacing. Those things are, those are going on. We are offering employee testing to employees who are interested in employee testing. Some schools were running that last year. Others have started that again this year. That's available to all schools and for individuals that don't work at a building where that's currently running. Then they can participate in other schools or in other buildings. We've done that in the past as well. We don't have it in all buildings? We do not have it in all buildings. No, it's based on staff interest. But it's available for all buildings to be run. All we have to
041do is drop tests off at the buildings, right? That's correct. So, okay. We don't have it in all buildings. Go ahead. I guess offhand, those are the main responses I would have to that. So, I think what people are not aware of is masks are federally mandated on all of our buses. How are we ensuring that? We were working on that some more today. It's not an easy situation, but we provide masks on all buses. We have assured that our transportation personnel are wearing them. Students are asked to put on a mask and provided a mask when they enter the bus. Principals are working with buses specifically where there are issues. They are working, and we have a protocol that's just been more recently developed to work with families for making a decision on riding
042the bus based on masking. More work to be done, but... We've been working on that over the last couple of days diligently. Well, let me go ahead and tell you a little bit of what I know then. We've had whole athletic teams get on buses with coaches with no masks. And we're not allowed to not take a child who doesn't wear a mask, correct? We have the drivers don't I don't want to put the drivers in making that decision right administrators make that decision not the drivers our drivers being told that if Students get on their bus without a mask on we don't want them to engage I totally agree with that But why are they not stepping off the bus? Because they don't need to drive a bus when kids are not willing to
043comply or their parents aren't willing to do that for them our drivers Step off the bus. If your kids won't wear masks, step off the bus. You don't have to drive that bus because the federal mandate says if they're going to be transported on our buses, they're going to wear masks. And do we or do we not have at least two staff members who have contracted COVID now? At least two staff members in this district have COVID. I would say that yes, at least two staff members have had COVID. I don't get the connection to the bus, though. It sounds like what's happening is we're not being effective so far. At least two. That's the two I know about today. Okay. I'm hesitant, certainly, to ask if there's more because my concern is that there
044are. And if there's not, there's more coming. And I know because we've had so many exposures now. We've had multiple, multiple teachers told that they've been exposed already. So we need to do more to keep our staff safe. If this board refuses to mask our students, then for God's sakes, we should really be doing our best to keep our staff safe. Whether this board likes it or not, actually those decisions about what we do with our staff, we have entrusted to our superintendent, and we should be allowing him to do that work. Sharon? Yeah, my understanding is there's still an issue with the masking mandate on buses because buses are supposed to be local control part of a district even the Michigan State Department of Education has a Resolution at the end of August that
045includes buses being under district local control the federal government right now Even last year when they they did the mandate for mass on federal transportation. They didn't include school buses for a reason Because it's not their purview. That's something, Sharon, that I think you can argue with a U.S. attorney, but for right now, the law is the law. Actually, it's not alone. That's why it's still in contention in the state and with the County Health Department So you're suggesting that all of our school bus drivers should be put at risk because you disagree with the law Do you know what I've had enough of putting words in my mouth that weren't there. So let's just start with that I never said that what I said was I was making a clarification on what the federal
046government is doing right now versus what their legal Position should be last year. Nothing was different. They didn't touch school buses This is the state no reason to raise your voice with me. Mrs. Hilton sit back Last year the state health department was doing the mandates and then the local health departments were following what they said But before school started this year, it was supposed to be the same thing local school boards Make the decision on your school buses We can all have a big a big argument about this As we all know that there were all on different sides of this for different reasons But the fact that someone doesn't have the same position as someone else doesn't make them ignorant and doesn't mean they don't want to keep our kids safe. See, in
047every argument we have, there's two sides here. We have a huge number of parents and staff who agree with what's going on, and we have numbers who don't agree with what's going on. So I'm just clarifying the bus mandate right now. And if I get passionate about something and I want to raise my voice, I'm going to do that. let's make sure we're sticking to the district update and questions to our superintendent that is the portion of the agenda that we are on mr edoff maybe you can clarify then for mrs ross what we're supposed to be doing on buses any other questions for the superintendent all right moving one more question then so what are we doing for our staff then when they do get covered here how are we taking care of them
048then and what do we do god forbid should something say a little more permanent happened to them? I mean, I think I have a response to the first one is that we have leave time that does not apply to their personal leave if they contracted it from an exposure at work. I guess that's my first response to this. How does staff access that if they need it? Pardon me, Mary? How does staff access that if they need it? Because I think we're putting them at tremendous risk and I say that not only as a board member but as a health care professional but If we are going to expose our staff repeatedly and like I said I can't tell you the number of our staff that have been called this week with exposures We are
049continually exposing them and we need to be able to give them that information for when they do get sick It's not an if we're gonna have more staff sick, too I mean, kids are definitely sick, and somebody's right. The survival rate for kids is very high. It's not 100%. I pray to God it's not my child because that would kill me, I'm sure of it. And I've seen enough people die of this that I have tremendous concern for our staff that we're not protecting right now. I'm sorry, you don't get to address the board table. So I will go ahead and address vaccination of teachers. I believe we're on the honor system. Is that correct for whether or not they've been vaccinated? Yes, that's correct. And teachers should know that actually the federal government did
050just approve. Pfizer boosters for those that are fully vaccinated with Pfizer for teachers and people in high risk employment areas, teachers, grocery store workers, people that work with the public for the most part. If you work in a hotel, if you work in a restaurant, places like that. However, if you have the. The studies right now show that the Moderna vaccine and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines are still very effective without the booster, but you can also mix boosters. Any other questions for the superintendent? Business departments business office acknowledgement of depositories and investment banking institutions Yes, thank you on an annual basis We bring forward the banks and investment banking institutions that we'd like to continue to do business with they are outlined in f1 and at this time I'm looking for acknowledgement of Those
051institutions listed so I have a motion Do I have support support I have a motion by mrs. Hilton was support by mrs. Servio all those in favor aye any opposed motion carries thank you and the second item we have tonight is the renewal of our Consortium agreement with Macomb Oakland fuel consortium in August of 2020 we approved a new vendor General Oil to Do our delivery for our fuel for the buses? that expired at the end of June we now have a Proposal in front of us, which is in essence keeping the same price from July 1st 2021 through June 30th of 2023 So that's a two-year extension at the price of point zero zero two five per gallon for deliveries over ten thousand gallons Have a motion by mrs. Hilton with support by I'm
052gonna give it to dr. Spencer this time All those in favor aye any opposed motion carries Thank You business department. Thank you under human resources Good evening tonight the human resources department would like to share a recommendation to fill the vacancy at Lons Cruz High School North in regards to their associate principal We've identified a passionate leader who has gained a wealth of knowledge to diverse leadership experience including being a student council advisor an athletic varsity coach a college and career readiness teacher a link crew facilitator and a class sponsor They have started their professional career in 2003 with Lanz Cruz Public Schools and have spent their entire professional career within the district after graduating from the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in education and from Saginaw State University with a master's degree
053in educational leadership. What really pushed this candidate to the forefront is that she has served as an interim associate principal on two occasions for the district, both over prolonged periods of time, and so is with extreme enthusiasm. that we recommend Melissa L. Chase as the Lawrence-Cruz High School North Associate Principal. Support. I have a motion by Mrs. Hilton with support by Mr. Sellers. I'm going to ask for a roll call, please. I have a discussion. Oh, discussion. I'm sorry. She's amazing. We're lucky to have her. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Hilton? Yes. Mr. Sellers? Yes. This is to Bay. Yes, dr. Spencer Yes Mrs. Ross. Yes. Mrs. Surveyor. Yes. All six. Thank you other matters board meeting video recording The so there's a discussion about this last week I believe we captured an
054additional option that came through the conversation that's highlighted in yellow. So I just wanted to bring the documents the same as it was discussed last week, but the yellow was added based on conversation that occurred. Any discussion? This was, I guess, we had talked about this last week. I guess I'll ask the board is this something this is well and Eric this is without the live stream correct this is just video yellow option is yes it's recorded and posted as stated there okay and that both of and this is all because it says committee of the whole and regular is this all meetings this isn't this is or is it just those two if we were to have a special meeting what would it be at I mean it's not clearly stated but I would
055assume that if it was available for the same method used for CEO for committee Would be the same for a special in this situation any other discussion Sharon I Wasn't here last week, so I couldn't add to this discussion, but I I just want to make a couple points This board and prior boards had talked about videotaping meetings in the past for transparency and some other things I Think I would like to explore Maybe looking into better microphones first as far as as far as Seeing who's speaking When we when we do this right we raise our hand we're acknowledged by the board president the board president calls our name and we Make our comment so our name is already there the only time that falls apart is if we start talking and we haven't
056been Recognized that we're talking over each other, but just just like the minutes that I take I'm not taking verbatim what everybody says What I have to do is what we did So it's kind of the same thing. I appreciate that some people want to see the faces of people that are speaking, but I don't personally know that I think that that's the most vital thing here. I appreciate, even as a parent whose kids had graduated from here, it's not easy to get to these meetings. And even if you could, you're not going to make them all. It's just too hard. But I did, and I've done this in the past too, when I have not been here for meetings, which is infrequent, but when I wasn't here last week. I did review the committee
057of the home meeting and I think I made the 48th person who was watching the video 48 people the only time this this room ever gets filled or blows out capacity is if we have really big contentious stuff and that's okay I mean I get it you can't always be here but I think if the whole purpose of this is because someone has contacted a board member and said hey I don't know who's speaking I don't know that it's worth spending this kind of money on it, to be honest with you. And I'm not trying to hide anything from anybody. I just, I don't know. I think that what we should look at perhaps is the microphones first and see how that helps. You've seen a number of times I sometimes can't hear who's speaking
058down there, but I appreciate that might be hard for some of us. But if we're doing this just because someone can't tell who's talking, I'm not sure that's good enough. a good enough reason here. I'm all about transparency. That's fine. That's great. But when the majority of the room, every time we have meetings as staff, that's kind of a big ask. And as far as all these different options that we've had, yes, there's different costs, there's different options, there's different this, there's different that. I would just say there was another point brought up at the last meeting, which is only germane to the point I'm making. So we wanted a point person for all the issues with COVID. Same thing with this. We used to have a PR department who handled all this stuff. These
059used to be non-issues because we had someone whose job it was to do this. But this board decided to do away with that, so now we're looking at some different things. And the cost here, I remind everybody, the cost isn't just the equipment here. The cost is every employee who has to now add more to what they're already doing, which is a significant amount they've been doing for quite some time. And I'm pretty sure we've all worked in positions or jobs where you are doing a job of three, four, maybe even five full-time people. There comes a point where it's not just a financial cost. There's a cost to the rest of the stuff that those employees aren't doing anymore to make this happen. So, you know, quite honestly, yes, we do a lot of
060discussion at Committee of the Whole. I can see the argument for people wanting to do something different. But on the other hand, I don't think that that's just the only option we have here. So that's my two cents Terry Okay, I just wanted to thank Eric and the administration for adding that yellow one that came out of our discussion last time considering that there's no additional cost considering that it would be videotaped and it would accomplish people being able to see who's speaking and and it's no different than what we do currently for our regular meetings it works well and I think it accomplishes everybody's concern so I would I would support the yellow traditional board recording procedures with the COTW and regular meetings being video recorded. Any other discussion? There we go. The one
061thing about the yellow is we talk about traditional recording procedures pre-pandemic. I want to say pre-pandemic that we did not record the Committee of the Whole, that those were audio recorded even before the pandemic. they were only audio. So I mean this would, I'm just saying this would be, this would be, we would, they would both be video recorded. That's all. I just want, I know that traditionally that was, we had not recorded committee. So you just wanted to make sure that that's what that yellow one was? Yeah, I want to make sure when we say, when we're calling it that, what we are saying is that committee of the whole and regular are both video recorded. Okay. It's the one thing says one thing and then the other one says traditional which is I
062know we did not and then Committee and regular being recorded. I just want to know what what is being stated here Yeah, the yellow box that says traditional board recording procedures with the committee of the whole and regular meetings being video recorded I'll clarify what I believe to be the difference. The top option or the top choice, which is not labeled as an option, is what we did prior to COVID. So the pre-pandemic board recording process involved videotaping and posting of the regular meeting and involved an audio recording that was posted. For the other meetings so other meetings That was likely often the special meetings and workshops as well What was came out what I thought came out of conversation last week in the yellow the difference between the top two choices is that? We
063would still go to a posting method But we would go to a single wide shot on the committee of the whole and other meetings as a video format still to be posted after the meeting Okay Is there any other I'm ready to make a motion. Yeah, that's what I was just going to say. Okay. Is it okay if I call this yellow option or would we like it red? Sharon, what do you? I would call it the additional option traditional board recording procedures pre-pandemic with the CEO. Just as it's printed. And regular meetings being video recorded. Bold sentence at the beginning. I will go slow. Make a motion to approve the additional option presented by administration with traditional board recording procedures preach pandemic trend Pandemic with the Committee of the Whole and regular meetings both
064being video recorded I second we have a motion by mr. Sellers Support by dr. Spencer any discussion on the motion you need to Know that's okay Any other discussion Hearing none roll call please do we have a second on that dr. Spencer? Sorry, I didn't hear you. That's okay motion by mr. Sellers second by dr. Spencer What he said mr. Sellers. Yes Dr. Spencer yes Mrs. Servio no mr. Lipski still not here mrs. Hilton This is to be no mrs ross this is ross's no order two motion fails two to four i'm sorry two to four motion fails same numbers switched order hearing of school district patrons follow-up sheila cohen thank you yep thank you secretary thank you good evening board sheila cohen in clinton township um i was listening in at home i wasn't
065going to come tonight I couldn't help myself, right? So I can sympathize with everybody, right? But we really do need a freedom of choice for every individual person in this world. This is not a one-size-fits-all pandemic. I've said it before. It really isn't. My son has special needs. I have issues with a mask. There are people out there that can tolerate masks. There's people out there that cannot tolerate it. But everybody talks about the science, the numbers, the facts. I printed the facts before I came here. And I've been watching them all week. Because I'm a numbers person. And I've been watching this pandemic from the beginning. Okay? I've been talking to my friends from the beginning. My neighbor. Works at a bakery. Masked. Gloved. people in her bakery got covered all dressed all clothed
066my sister works in a hospital last got covered so i just want to tell you what the numbers are right now and what they continually have been for the last week and a half even though i was on vacation i was monitoring the numbers in mcclellan county um the 26th this is the 26th new cases zero 7-day average, 254. Macomb County is a non-mask mandated county, right? Okay. Wayne County and Oakland County both have mask mandates. Do you think their numbers are lower or higher? New cases, same date, 0. 7-day average, 315. Wayne County, new cases, 0s of the 26. 7-day average, 355. I'm sorry. The numbers are here for anybody that wants them. They're on the CDC website. They're on the COVID numbers for Michigan. All you have to do is Google it. If
067the masks worked, wouldn't the numbers in McComb County be higher? Or wouldn't the numbers in Oakland County and Wayne County be lower? This is not a one-size-fits-all pandemic. And I applaud you, even though my son doesn't come here. I applaud you for the other families in the district that get the choice whether they want a mask or not. Thank you. Thank you. Any others? No. Board member comment. Any board members with comment? I have Amy and then Sharon. For the person who made the comment about only one medical professional, I'm going to correct him. I have 45 years as a nurse, and I just recently retired. And secondly, less than 1% of our student body is affected by COVID. Less than 1%. I think we've done a very good job without masks. Thank you. Sharon
068I Wasn't here last week. I was out of town, but I watched the Committee the whole meeting and its entirety which is one of the reasons why I know how many people had watched it I'd like to address some comments that were made during hearing of district patrons because It was pretty irritating to me to find the comments that were made because the letter that was being held and referred to wasn't sent to the people who were making the comments. So that means the district patron parent who contacted me and who I was conversing with in an email either gave that letter to the people that were up talking or gave it to someone else who gave it to them or shared it on social media and they picked it up. That's an irritant. I'm
069always about trying to find a solution. So if someone has a problem with something I've said, done, what I stand behind, what I believe in, please come talk to me. So I'm going to address a couple of these points here. The gentleman took exception with my count about I validate everyone's thoughts and positions. I would have thought that would have been a good thing because I listen to both sides. I watch and sleuth out data from both sides. These are not personal opinions. That's insulting to my intelligence. Please don't. I validate everybody's position. As a matter of fact, there's a family member that you know well who had also contacted me, and we had almost exactly the same conversation. And in the end, we were both adults and said, we're going to have to agree
070to disagree and let it go, and we did. So the validation, I don't know why you would take exception with that word. I think it's a good thing to know that someone's paying attention and saying, I may not agree with you. But I believe in your right to believe the way you do. I believe in your right to pick the subject matter that you're looking for for background validation information. That's fabulous. I don't know why we can't do that. There was also an issue with my belief in natural immunity for the life of me. I can understand why anybody doesn't believe in natural immunity. And if we want to go there, if we didn't have natural immunity, We would all be extinct. Okay, so it's a valid point. The fact that many in the past
07118 years in medical professions, doctors, nurses, virologists, microbiologists, whatever, so many of these people, I'm astounded how many people took the Hippocratic Oath and yet have stood there and said, I actually just read of a doctor the other day and he said, natural immunity doesn't count. I'm not sure where he got his medical degree. I really didn't mind about going to take the time to do it because that is so incredibly ignorant. And so for everyone to say you have to do this, you have to do that, and we're not paying attention to natural immunity, I don't know why we're continuing to have the same arguments we are here. So yes, I used the phrase free America, and I understand last week that was offensive, and that comment was made again this week. I don't
072really care. I'm a free American. My husband's family signed the Declaration of Independence. I'm very proud of that. I'm a free American, and I'm going to say what I want to say as often as I want and as loud as I want. Disagree with me all you want. Dislike me. I don't care. I have the right to say it, and I'm going to say it again. I've had people contact me through my district email being very vile, calling me horrible names, vile names, calling me ignorant, stupid, delusional, unintelligent. I remember a time when adults... who used to disagree with each other would simply disagree with each other. We didn't call each other names. We didn't say your resources are worse or better than mine. I've had people say, please, show me your resources. I said,
073you know what, it isn't going to make any difference. We all have confirmation bias. We're going to seek out what supports our position. And even if I show you this stuff, and some of it's actually from the CDC because they keep changing what they're talking about, they keep changing their numbers, and they keep changing everything. I mean, right now the current director of the CDC has just disregarded what her own panel said about booster shots and has overridden her own panel. It doesn't cause inflammation. It causes little inflammation. It's rare. It's killing people. I mean, come on. Anyway, so yeah, I'm going to say free America as much as I want. If it's offensive, I don't know why it would be. Comment was also made last week and again tonight about a funeral director. So
074I don't know how much of this paper you had, multiple sheets, maybe you only had pieces of it. But the reason why that was done was because the person who wrote to me signed their name, said concerned parent, and felt the need to let me know they were a licensed funeral director. So to me, that opened the door for me to say to you, I have a friend who's a funeral director too. and his position is the same as mine. So are we going to fight over which funeral director is correct? No, not at all. And that funeral director isn't retired, and that funeral director doesn't work in a small town. Those were comments that were made too. It's irrelevant. Their experience in a big city is their experience. It may be different from somebody
075else's. Mary's worked in hospitals where there's been a lot of people who have died. Ours have worked in hospitals that haven't been having that experience. It doesn't mean one of us is right and one of us is wrong. It just means that's our experience. Those were the few points I wanted to touch on, but I do want to say this again. I find it disgusting that that was done. I would like to solve problems. If you have an issue with me, come talk to me, email me, whatever. Let's try and find resolution. But from here on out, for all the people who've been coming up at every board meeting, during Zoom meetings two, three, four times during meetings and making their comments and stuff, let's just stop killing each other over the fact that we're
076never going to agree, okay? You have your sources, I have mine. I'm not making personal decisions and not paying attention to the science, because in fact I do. But the point here is... don't contact me anymore if we've already discussed this because i'm not engaging anymore thank you uh mr sellers thank you two things one i want to thank administration and the human resources department for filling the high school north principal vacancy I think we found a good, qualified candidate for that building to be able to go back to three principals. We know they're rock stars over there, and they, I'm sure, handled it very well. To be able to be fully functioning in that office is good to see. Secondly, about the vote about recording meetings. I'd just like to state that I'm going
077to continue to advocate for transparency based off our constituents' concerns. It's something that I've heard and will continue to advocate for. And we'll find other solutions to get to that point. I thought... The yellow what was on here was a good compromise based on conversation from last week that's why we have the Committee of the Whole to be able to Discuss and hear where other board members sit It was not my first choice. I would have liked live stream meetings for all but I was willing to accept a compromise based off the conversation that we had last week and It maybe I misinterpreted I don't believe I did But I thought this is a good compromise to be able to have all of our meetings recorded While also being able to get enough votes for
078it to pass so I just want to want to share those and it was a good first month of school and Looking forward to October Thank you. I do have a couple of comments first for the mom who spoke about special education That was my fight for many, many years, and it was very, I don't want to say refreshing, but I heard a lot of programs that my child was also a part of. I did also experience that transition from the ISD to the school district. It is very different. Every not only is every student unique and every student different every special education student just adds that extra notch Sometimes it's a good notch. Sometimes it's a challenging match, but it's just an extra notch either way you cut it And going from the ISD
079to Lance Cruz services really helped my child because it was more personalized I just thought that his home district I don't want to say cared more about him than being at the ISD. That's just kind of, there was more of an investment. So I asked for a little bit of patience as you transition from the ISD into your home district to see how that kind of pans out. I know being a parent of a special needs child, patience isn't necessarily our strong suit. Sometimes we like for things to happen a lot quicker because it works better for our children, but sometimes patience is what's needed. Also, I would like to look into and touch base with the special education department. I know in the past that there were TC rooms at both high schools. and
080that the TC rooms were able to be utilized by students with IEPs where they could go and kind of decompress. They could go and kind of catch their breath, go through their IEPs, their plans, their positive behavior support plans, all of those things in those TC rooms. So I'd really like to kind of go back and revisit that with the special education department and see where that is and how that has... either been developed or has been maybe not paid attention to as much. Just kind of look at where that is. I know that that was something in the past. So thank you as always for shining light on something that we can discuss to improve Lance Crews. That's a great kind of way to lead into parapros. I'm sure that the special education department
081would take as many parapros as we could give them. As far as the budget is concerned and where money is spent, whether it's on videotaping meetings or parapros, I could probably provide you a list of no less than 10 classrooms where a parapro would be needed. But unfortunately, because of budgeting and because of the district, That is something that's difficult. If that's something that you truly are interested in and you want to know that information, I would strongly encourage you to come to all of our budget meetings. We have meetings in regards to workshops for our budget where we go over every aspect of that. Each department talks about their budget and how we allocate funds, and you get to hear from the board. You talk about wanting to know what the board is about
082and who represents what. You can really hear. How we advocate for different things in the budget how we work together how we compromise to come together for a budget that runs Not in the red That represents our taxpayers that's fiscally responsible and that does what's best for our kids So if that's something you're interested in I would strongly encourage you to come to learn a little bit more about our budgeting process Finally, I'm very very happy proud. I've always said this of our board of the many different Facets that we have we do have more than one medical degree on this board. We do have so many different higher learning and learning from different aspects of the world on this board that makes us unique, that makes us who we are and how we operate.
083And yes, we've had a couple bumps along the way, but I always continue to strive that every person's voice gets heard and every person is respectful to the other. Now it's a challenge. It doesn't always happen, but that's our goal and that's what we strive for. And then finally, I just want to clarify, it was kind of difficult to hear a couple of people today, but I just want to clarify, Macomb County is not recommending masks. They just state that the CDC is recommending them. So I'd just like to be clear on exactly what that is. And I wasn't sure, it is sometimes difficult to hear when people are speaking at the podium. So that is all of my board member comments. Anyone else? Do I have a motion to adjourn? All right, go ahead.
084Right. Do you want to go into closed session right now, Mary? Okay. So you would like a closed session on the next agenda to discuss a personnel issue. Okay. Any other board member comment? Hearing none, motion to adjourn. So moved. I have a motion by Mr. Sellers, support by Dr. Spencer. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are adjourned at 7.50.