001We 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. Dana Winston present Lori Hicks Anthony Johnson present Misha Early present Cheryl Flusher present Amanda Flusher present Shirley Taleper present next item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda I do have a correction to the agenda on item 14 we will discuss and consider the board self evaluation tool Thank you, Madam President. Well, good evening. Thank you all for being here tonight. I have several communications this evening, first of which is each board member has a pamphlet from Wayne County RESA that summarizes all the resources that Wayne County RESA either has or provides. to the local school districts throughout Wayne County. And so
002I know for some of you this is second nature and some of you are very familiar, but it's really a nice visual, especially for those that are newer, to see what Wayne County RESA provides or offers for supports such as districts like ourselves. Additionally, I would like to recognize our diversity, equity, and inclusion and relationships coach, Ms. Elizabeth Duparin, who successfully facilitated another diversity, equity, and inclusion night last week over at the SOAR space. She did a phenomenal job of... facilitating our time together and the wonderful rich conversation and dialogue that we had when we think about diversity equity and inclusion continuing to advance throughout the district and I'd also like to thank our very own chef Tony who is here this evening as well as our thirsting culinary students that are here tonight as
003well they were kind enough to provide us with dinner for those that attended last week's event And they did a phenomenal job and we had quite the spread and it was much appreciated. Additionally, I would like to recognize our fifth grade teacher from Vandenberg Elementary School, Ms. Sarah McGuire. Some of you may have heard, she was recognized by WNIC radio station as being teacher of the week last week. And myself, as well as Amy Davidson, we had an opportunity to be there when the radio station was there. There was an interview that WNIC did with Sarah McGuire. Vandenberg hosted an incredible assembly and just recognized the... contributions that Sarah McGuire brings to our fifth graders at Vandenberg Elementary School day in day out and to be recognized by WNIC and have that assembly at Vandenberg
004and they also presented her with the gift card as well and to see the enthusiasm from our students and the great work that she does as an educator here in South Redford deserves to be celebrated. Additionally, I would like to recognize Mr. Tim Shainer who is here this evening, as well as Patty Denton and Emily Chapman and some of our students that are here tonight that were a part of Little Shop of Horrors that took place on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the Spring Musical and just the outstanding job that our students as well as our staff did. The performance was simply phenomenal. and we appreciate their contributions to the community and to our school district and just the incredible job that they did in each of the performances that we had in the William
005F. Weber Auditorium on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Lastly, I would like to recognize media productions teacher Adam Walentovich. and the Thurston High School students that resumed a project that Kara Clayton, who retired, started in first semester. And they recently completed a project in collaboration with KQED Public Media, which is based out of the San Francisco Bay Area. and the Michigan Learning Channel, WTVS in PBS Detroit, and our Thurston High School students have produced a 20-minute program that will actually live stream tonight at 8 p.m. And that will occur on both Facebook live stream as well as YouTube live stream. And then there's a separate website for those that might not be able to catch it tonight, but separately. And it's a call for change. And it's part of the Youth Media Challenge. And Thurston High
006School students were the only students in the entire state of Michigan that participated in this project. So to know that our very own Thurston High School students are going to be featured tonight when we think about the Youth Media Challenge and a call for change and hearing our students' voices right here from the South Redford School District resonating throughout the country is nothing short of outstanding. So, Madam President. That concludes my communications team meeting. Thank you Mr. Bauer. Next item on the agenda is board communications. Do I have any? I'd like to remind everybody again this Thursday is MASB award ceremony at Fortson High School at what time? Six o'clock. And like I said before, we have two board members that will be getting their level one certification and level two, and that's Danny Winston
007and Amanda Flesher. Next item on the agenda is comments from the audience. Next item on the agenda is consent agenda. Do I have a board member for consent? I'm cutting board. On this number seven? Yes, ma'am. I did comments from the audience and they were okay. Okay. Do I have a board member willing to adopt the resolution? To the chair? Yes. I'd like to move the adoption of the following resolution please. Do I have the support? Support. It's been adopted by Mrs. Cheryl Flusher and supported by Mr. Winston. All in favor? Aye. We have seven ayes, zero nays, resolution adopted. Next item on the agenda is the SREA, SROPA, SRF reports. Who's gonna be first? This item is gonna be first. I was just asking, okay, I'm just gonna call you right now. I'm super
008fine. Okay, so the report that we have from the SROPA, the clerical unit, is at Pierce they're gearing up for the end of year events. The students are excited about the seventh and eighth grade Washington, D.C. trip that's scheduled for May 15th to May 19th. They're focusing on the eighth grade promotion ceremony that they're going to do on June 7th. This is big for us because they only usually do an honors ceremony, and this year they're excited. And all the kids, that all of the kids will be celebrated and the parents and families are elated. Purchase orders are rolling in for the 23 to 24 school year and they're focusing on what needs to be added to the title and budget. And it's a very busy season for the clerical workers. And also M-step testing
009for the eighth graders started last week and it's gone very well so far. Seventh graders will start testing this week and then the following week will begin for sixth graders. The fifth graders were able to come to the middle school orientation on April 14th. Students were able to see the school, meet teachers, participate in activities and much more and had a really great time. It's hard to believe that it's our time to start preparing for the end of the school year. At Vandenberg, they're reaching the end of the year, which means the office is a very busy place. They just completed the first of five field trips that are scheduled between now and the end of the year. 100 students and 54 chaperones attended the Detroit Tigers game Wednesday the 19th of April. And now
010students will be visiting the Ann Arbor Hand-On Museum, Henry Ford Museum, the Science Center, and the State Capitol. For the field trip to the Tigers game, 35 volunteer registration forms were processed. 93 school payments were made, 20 driver's licenses were emailed, and way too many phone calls to count were received. They'll do it again on May 3rd when they go on their next trip. In Student Services, the end of the school year is very quickly approaching, and she's working on collecting final orders to spend out the ASC program budget. She is continuing to follow up on enrollments for the early on and projected ECSC, which is early childhood special education for the 23-24 school year. Working with Jenny Colvis and Dana Beck on incoming ECSC students and working with the elementary secretaries to determine students
011who will be half a day preschool or half a day ECSC students next year. Here at Thurston, we are finishing our SAT work case test makeups this week and the science and social studies steps will begin next week. It's coming up on what many people consider the most exciting theme about high school, the senior awards night, prom, honors dinner, and graduation. Invites have already gone out to all of the students with a 3.5 cumulative GPA. And our seniors are counting down and only have 22 days of school. Any questions? Sorry. Thank you. Thank you. You're stuck. Next item on the agenda is considered FES. Fisher Elementary School addition and renovation project part three. Mr. Baxter. Thank you, Madam President. At the board meeting on April 10, 2023, the board discussed the Fisher Elementary School addition
012and renovation project part three. Bids were solicited and received for the work. The companies that are recommended for the work required are Glass and Glazing, Daniels Glass Incorporated for $867,547. painting and sealed concrete, RNG painting home improvement LLC for $175,000. For the acoustical ceilings, Pontiac ceiling and partition LLC for $508,400. With the acceptance of alternative work, as well as combined bid pricing received during the bid opening, the low bidders for bid categories 9, 8, glass and glazing. and 910 acoustical ceilings were found to be the second lowest bidders. These bidders are being recommended for the work of these bid categories. A 10% contingency, total expenses not to exceed $1,706,402 is requested to cover any unforeseen costs associated with the project. The bid award will be paid for out of the 2021 bond, the 2012 sinking
013fund, the 2022 sinking fund, and ESSER funds. Madam President, a resolution is attached for board consideration. Madam President, I move the adopt the following resolution. Do I have a support? Support. Adapted by Mrs. Henry and supported by Mr. Winston. All in favor? Aye. Okay. We're still going to do it. Next item on the agenda is presentation of Thurston High School. Thank you, Madam President. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Rudy as well as the Thurston staff for tonight's presentation from Thurston High School. We're going to start tonight the way we started. Okay. This is our morning office group. It's usually five of us, I think. There's five. Five of us, which we already see. Good morning y'all. This is your daily morning office crew. I'll do your comms. And I'll
014be leaving you on the plate. Please stand. Now we're in Savannah with sports. So we have a home soccer game against Crestwood and a home match against tennis tomorrow. Tennis will be at 4 and soccer will be at 5. Now to Jaden with teacher updates. Tonight we'd like to remind you to tune in to watch our KQED livestream. Check the email for the link for Mr. W. And then just a quick reminder for seniors that this Wednesday prime tickets go on sale for $90. Guest forms in the front office and you will need your ID and cash to purchase tickets. And now we're going to go to India for our daily quote. Okay, first is the dad joke, which is, I didn't think living in a boss house would be expensive. It's a little inflation.
015And my quote is, tough times never last, but tough people do. Robert H. Short. And remember to sign up for seminar. And today is a 135 day. Have a great day, Thursday. Thank you. Thank you. So that's a little taste of morning announcements. We haven't done morning announcements as a systemic thing in the building. ever that I have knowledge of. So Mr. Price was really adamant that come back. That's something that is driven by students and not having us kind of drum on every morning, but having different voices every day. Highlighting students' experiences, highlighting the athletic competitions and things that they're doing, and having their voices be the ones that are out there. So we wanted you to hear a little bit of what that's like. And if you've never liked to hear it, you
016know, knock. the repeat version, which they did a good job of replicating. You're welcome to join us any time, probably about 7.51 a.m. So with that being said, we're going to progress on through, and throughout the night tonight, we're going to highlight some programs. Some are going to be very intentional that we're going to call up and show. Other things you've already been experiencing. You saw Mr. Anderson, who is piloting a robotics course as you were kind of coming in, playing with robots that were built by students. We hope to be able to bring that to you for full consideration for adoption in the, probably next year, sometime. But that's been really successful. Our robotics team, which is a little bit of a class that's been operating at the school for quite some time, found
017probably the greatest success this year under Mr. Anderson's leadership with a second place finish. So we were super excited about having to do robotics that way. Other things you'll see highlighted today, again, that aren't necessarily... come up and talk about it, but certainly on our break you're going to have some wonderful treats from Chef Tony's culinary crew who continue to impress in ways that I really don't know quite how they put all that together, but it's magnificent. As well as the gift that was provided with our leather making club that you have there in Kern. Mr. Marcio, who's our English department head, English teacher, and English language teacher, also in his spare hours, when everything can't time him, moonlights as a leather worker. And he's brought that to a lot of our students through seminar,
018which is not only a great multi-tiered system of support strategy that we have across our building students are struggling academically, but seminar offers us a lot of opportunities to run clubs during the day, one of which is leather making. And the letter for that was donated graciously by my wife's cousin who shifted from Wisconsin. He runs a business doing that and the kids have been making cool cheap keychains out of it. So there's lots of things going on here. We're going to highlight a few of them for you tonight and look forward to kind of just sharing that with you. This feels to me more than anything kind of like inviting people over to your house for dinner. And so we're going to show you off some of the remodels we've done. So relax, sit
019back, ask questions, have fun, and thanks for being here. So with that being said, we welcome our drama club up to share a little number and a little information about Little Shop of Horrors. It takes guts to come through this. All right, thank you. They're my friends. Hi, my name is David. I play Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors. My name is Dennis. And we're going to be singing Silly Seymour. Audrey, don't make small men worry about that creep. There's a lot of guys that'll do anything to go out with you. Nice guys. I don't deserve a nice guy, Sam. Audrey, don't. Who am I happy with? I've led a terrible life. I deserve a creep like Orange Cabela. B.U.S. You know where I met him? In the gutter. The gutter? The gutter. It's a
020night spa. I went there on my nights off to meet where I made the most money. I'd put on teeth and take this off because I'm not nice to my face. Oh, and that's the apparel that I... Audrey, you don't have anything to be ashamed of. You're a very nice girl. I always knew you were. Underneath the bruises and the handcuffs, you know what I saw? A girl I respected. I still do. Move up your head. Wash off your mascara. Here, take my Kleenex. Wipe that lipstick away. Show me your face, clean as the morning I know things were bad, but now they're okay Suddenly see more, standing beside you You don't need no makeup, have to pretend Is here to provide, understand, was your friend on display, not just the drama club, but I
021think you're seeing some of the vocal work that's happened throughout the years through Mr. Shainer's choral programs on full display there. So thank you, Mr. Shainer. Thank you, students. That was amazing. Amazing. to be able to have that back, you know, just musical student performances where we don't have to think about things from the past. So next, another new addition at Thurston High School. So some things are old coming back and some things are brand new for the first time. And one of those is a brand new athletic competition that our students have engaged in in really high numbers. thanks to coach Muzzin and coach Madigan is our first in bowling so let's talk a little bit about that I'd love for them to come up miss Muzzin and a few of our bowling team
022members who you might recognize from the suspension morning announcement and if you don't you need to wake up Good evening. Thank you for having me. I just want to talk to you this evening. I have three of our senior bowlers actually. All three of them bowl varsity this year and that's Jada Mackey, India Crimes, and Savannah Barba. Bowling was something that both Josh, Maddie, and I had known that there were students interested in. We just didn't know how many were interested. And we ended up having 38 team members come out. We did it as a no-cut court because we weren't sure what we were going to get. So we fielded two varsity teams, a varsity girls team, a varsity boys team, and then a JV reserve team. We fundraised everything that we needed to do
023in order to have this happen. We raised about $6,000 this year in fundraising to cover the costs of uniforms and travel expenses and snacks and tournament entries and match fees, et cetera, et cetera. So these are just a few of the pictures from the season. Some highlights where we... In one of our first tournaments we had a pair of our gentlemen bowlers, Jamin Davis and Javon Waters. Jamin is a sophomore and Javon is a senior who finished second overall in the tournament. We placed seventh for the boys in regionals out of 61 teams. We placed eighth or ninth for girls. We had Javon Waters who actually finished fourth overall in the entire region and went to states. And we had eight of our varsity boys out of nine in the under finish in the top
02425. And our girls, four of them finished in the top 50. So that's out of like 132 for each division. So it's a wide entry form, but they're competing against a lot of students. We provided each and every single bowler that we had with a ball. If they did not already have their own, some more than one. We did that through donations within the staff and the community. So there's a lot of teachers who are bowlers or have family and friends that are bowlers who we had. donate used equipment so that we can get them plugged and drilled for our students so that they have equipment to use. So we're hoping that this becomes a fully funded sport in the future. With coaches, like, the coaches and, you know, we can do a little less
025fundraising and focus more on developing the sport. So overall it was a really successful season and I'm pretty sure that they had a really good time doing it. You can ask them. Is there any questions about the program? Thank you very much. Thanks, y'all. I know they're super excited about it. It's really fun to go see. I think I went up there a couple of times. There were times that I was like, I don't know. Well let's say it's more exciting sometimes than coming to a board meeting. No offense. A lot of our faculty have a good time and I commented on several of them. It's kind of neat to be able to participate in a sport where you might actually earn a letter at some point and you can eat chicken fingers while you
026do it. It's a very unique thing about Bowler. It's super tough. It's a lot of fun. And a lot of students that were engaged in athletic competition that quite frankly otherwise never would have been. So it's been a tremendous addition to our class program. Another highlight from this year, which is actually wrapping up tonight, if you go sneaking around and see our classroom on the 800 Hall, you'll find the end of this project's work happening. But connected to our bond work has been a prioritization, which I'm sure you all voted on to say yes to spending money, so I'm kind of teaching the choir a little bit. But we've got new technology that's common in all of our classrooms. And so what you see here are kind of just examples of what it is and
027it's not real fancy to look at, but I think our staff can tell you it's having a really nice systemic impact on instructional efficiency. So every classroom has a short-term projector now in it, so it resides just above the board and if you want on the break you can walk across the hall before I kind of see if it looks like an action. Every classroom has a newly repainted teaching wall, so they're all the same color, just nice blue. I'm sure it has a fancy name that somebody who gets paid money to pick out paint color names named it. That's my job in retirement is to name nail polish and paint colors. All new whiteboards in all of our classrooms. So the whole front wall, we've got about three on every one, depending on the
028classroom. There's also audio systems inside all of our classrooms. which are connected to four overhead speakers so that teachers don't hopefully have to use their teacher voice quite as much. There's both a lanyard-style microphone that teachers can hang around their neck to project, as well as one that's handheld that oftentimes is handed around for students. And I've heard it's quite an engaging tool in some classrooms. And it's amazing how some students want to use that but don't ever want to speak at all in class. And then every classroom also has a doc cam that connects to all of this. As well as an air tame, which is a fancy word for something that allows you to throw whatever is on your computer or tablet onto the projector without having to be wirelessly connected to it.
029So the technology and the application interface for our staff to be able to deliver high quality instruction to our kids has really just jumped head first into the 21st century. So we couldn't be more excited about that. And as I said, they're wrapping up the install in some of the last classrooms in the back of the room, in the back of the building tonight. So we have a walk-in meeting with them tomorrow to make sure that's all. I'll tighten that as it should be. So that's been a really nice addition across the board this year, that's really helping out staff and students. Questions about new technology, or what that looks like right now, Dershowitz? I know it's different in every building. Some places have the, yes? I don't really have a question about the technology,
030because they know, well, I hear a lot of it. I don't understand a lot of it. Fair enough, I don't either. Okay. I wanted to go back to the bowling. Oh good, please go back to bowling. Where do you guys practice at? We are out of Mayflower on the lanes on Plymouth Road in between Mr. and Mrs. Bailey. I know exactly where it's at. When do you practice? Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. And they had donated all of our practice time. They just charged us for our matches, which is why we're bowling. I might stop by one time. I used to bowl at my younger group. Well, we would love to see you there. Okay. Sorry. Okay. Don't be. Are there questions about bowling? Let's go back to bowling. This is what it's like when you
031have a conversation with people at your house. You don't put up a slide and say, like, hey, let's talk about bowling. What do you want to talk about? Any technology? Bowling technology. Things that have popped up about a little shop before you. You can go back to that. Announcements. I want to ask you about the projector. Yes. That looks like that's fantastic. Is it, it's easy, you said they, you had them in each classroom? Every classroom has a short hair projector. Short throw just means that it doesn't have to, so this thing back here is a, I guess it's a long throw, I don't know, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of worried, I don't know exactly. But it's, it's projecting it from a distance, right? The short throw's projected, as you see, they're like right up
032here. But, so I think what's kind of neat about that is, forever we've always had in our classroom. wires all over the floor, okay, first of all. And then there's this thing that happens when you're teaching. You're walking along and now I'm a part of the scenery. Like a Muppet show or something. Alright, so that doesn't happen anymore. So because the projector comes from right up here and throws it down, teachers can be here at the board and there's no shadow going on. So there's one set up right behind us. If you look through the window and meet us in the lab, that has one. So again, if you want to walk through there, you can kind of experience or be disappointed with the ability to be a shadow puppet. But yeah, it is fantastic.
033It helps, I think, the instructional reality in front of the room. As well as, like I said, it's all integrated with the computers. So it's really sound and my question is more immersive experience. I guess I'm gonna if I'm right I'm seeing some kind of gentle head nods from Miss Roby and some of the staff so like it's good. Yes I didn't tell you so this is my classroom right here. So I I wear the lanyard and then I have either a student or the paraprofessional in the classroom. She walks around with a microphone and they get answers moving through the mobile. they use the microphone you have speakers with surround sound almost and so that is what i do so i and then i can actually sit in the back of my room while
034they're working and i can from my Chromebook also show whatever's on my screen i'll get for that and they actually love they don't they love when even the screen is on and they walk in and it's like different scenery so it's for them they love it it's it's new it's exciting and it's been really um kind of finds internet. So yeah, new technology. Other thoughts or questions about new technology? Because the thing is right above it, does it give the picture whatever you're showing much more clarity? It does. So another thing that I think kind of highlights it and it'll take us from kind of some of what we've done throughout the year into our data presentation is talking a little bit about the SAT. This year we really kind of returned back to what
035I would call our normal operating procedures around focusing and prioritizing the SAT and STA standardized testing. I don't need to tell you how the last few years changed all of that reality. We don't need to relive that. But the truth is we've recognized in our data that we're going to talk about here in a minute that some things need to change. And so they didn't need to wait until next year after we talked about board change. They need to happen now. So we've been trying to do some of those things. throughout the course of this year by trying to create context for our staff and students around kind of where we are and how we go forward. We've offered a lot of prep sessions after school this year, focused instructional practice connected to the SAT
036via incorporating vocabulary, how we do warm-ups, sample test questions, etc., and a lot of targeted instruction. And also trying to, again, going back, contextualize it for students so that they understand their opportunity to be successful because I think a lot of times... students experience this test as a daunting task that seems larger than life and the implications have so much gravity on the trajectory of their life. It's important to say things in real terms for students and one of those real terms is kind of captured in this picture which I know it says a bunch of numbers and stuff but the truth is this. You can score an average that'll get you into almost any school you need to to go to. and certainly be successful and show growth and achievement above what our average
037is as a building right now by getting 50% of the questions right. And saying that out loud sometimes to students kind of takes it to a place of, oh. I could bet. It seems accessible. It seems attainable. So doing some work that way to really talk about it. Whereas in the last few years, the SAT wasn't required. We didn't know what was going to happen to it. We didn't even know if state testing was going to be required by university. So we really kind of try to return back to what we know works and that is making it approachable accessible and achievable for our students. So we spend a lot of time working on that here the last few weeks. Of course we just completed the SAT earlier this month. So that's another big focus
038of what we've highlighted this year. So with that being said, let's talk a little bit about what the data was and so that in the future when we look ahead we can see what these things that we're talking about having an impact back going forward um as you all know um the big three rocks that we focus on from the district or relationships and responsiveness excuse me Safety and curriculum instruction assessment, that supports our core work. Teaching and learning, how those connect to our district improvement strategies. There's lots of things going on there as well across our building as we work to meet the guaranteed viable curriculum and high quality instruction with both identifying what our look-fors are individually in our curriculum, department by department. A lot of that work's going on right now with
039our secondary curriculum coordinator and individual teams of teachers. Our intervention team has just reconvened. That's a group of educators made up of teachers, counselors, social workers, administrators that are again coming together for the first time since we've returned back to reality to look at systems of support that we can implement across our building to really tackle big problems. Big problems that change every day even though sometimes we think of school as being very static organizations because we have 9, 10, 11, 12. The bells ring the same way. A lot of things happen the same way every day. But the truth is, the variables that we mold, shape, and hope to grow every day, they change. Even students who are on your roster for all four years, guess what? They're not the same kids Monday as
040they are Friday. And certainly not from ninth grade to 12th grade. So that team, the intervention team, the I-team we call it, is going to come together to kind of look at that safe and nurturing environment and how that connects to supporting them to be successful both. social, emotionally, as well as academically. Really focusing on the whole child. So that being said, let's look at it. Our 21, 22 evidence-based reading and writing scores, well, they're lower than the state and county means, 25%. Our math data is also not where we would like it to be. It's lower than the state and county means, 8% of the score of 410. Science M-STEP is a little better, much closer to what the county proficient rate would align with. And we're happy to continue to focus on growing
041that work and aligning our curriculum towards NGSS science standards. And that's proven to be successful, although we hope it continues to grow in ways that it did prior to pandemic. Social studies, of course, is also lower than we would expect than state and county percent proficients at 17. in the 21-22 school year. M-STEP is about to start here in the next few weeks and that test is not quite like the SAT and the work visa. It occurs in smaller numbers and it's spread out across a number of different weeks. So that's going to be ongoing here for the next few weeks. I'd be remiss if I didn't say thank you to our test coordinators, Ms. Ferris, Laura Doty, and our accommodated testing coordinator, Ms. Badham. for all their hard work in organizing test administration. It
042is quite an undertaking as well. So what does that mean? Again, I think some of it is data that you have seen and are not unfamiliar with, but we went through the years, what the science proficiency is close to county proficiency. Our SAT, evidence-based reading and writing and math are both below Sadie County mean scores and our social studies are proficient below both in Sadie County. And those are the facts. That's what they are, that's where we are. So what does that mean? As I mentioned, science is using an A3 based model focusing on AGSS standards, which is having some positive results. Our tenets have been a struggle. That is part of the reality that we're dealing with both last year and continuing on. statement for the return to school as we were starting now
043to begin to roll into the last seven weeks I think we're shifting seven weeks of the school year is the first time any student in our building will have actually completed a full year in attendance of 180 days because we had that big break in the middle last year. So stamina has been an issue. And I think, as I said, the seriousness of it. I don't think anybody really knew the landscape of what was going to be the reality concerning testing and what that meant. Do I need to take this seriously? Is this important to me as an individual as well as to the whole? So now what do we do? Those are just the realities of where we are. If that doesn't mean that's where we're going to stay. As I said, I think
044we're getting very clear about targeted look-fors in our curriculum. We're doing that level by level, subject by subject, with individual teachers and our curriculum coordinators to really dive into what does it look like to earn a T, exactly what am I looking for in my curriculum, and what do I expect students to be able to say no or do to be able to earn the marks that they are earning with standards that are aligned to the same standards. We spent a lot of time working on that this year and that will continue. Again, we use priority seminar in our building. Seminar is a time that we have structured into our day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for 48 minutes. And although we've had that for a long time, let's see, some of you may know
045it's called Flex. It's been called... advisory, we've had travel time before. What we haven't had is a system to actually hold us accountable. When I say us, I mean everybody, everybody in our community. So when students are struggling, we have a system that we're using called Flex Time Manager that allows teachers to, for instance, if Mr. Robert Rebetsky is struggling with math and I just missed my class for the last few days. I can assign him to have to travel with me and he doesn't have options to go to the Leather Making Club or to go see Chef Tony for a culinary extension. He's going to have to come make up his stats. He's going to have to come make up what he's missing, the two-step equations, etc. We've put those priority days, which are
046scheduled, in for core areas so that teachers know that they've got time to grab kids that they need to pull them in for actual help. We've been doing that throughout this year. It's been successful. There's certainly a lot of room to grow in it, but we're excited that we actually have a system to be able to do that that holds us accountable and holds kids accountable. They have to meet those expectations. We talked about focused SAT seminars. You heard me talk a little bit about after-school SAT prep sessions and practice tests. And to be honest with you, bringing back the use of data, really intentionally dialing into what an achievement score would look like. What are our percent proficients looking like? How are students doing on formative and summative assessments in the classrooms? And as
047I said, prior to this year, not being able to do school the way we used to. But the end, it makes it seem difficult. And I think day by day we're getting better at returning to what we're about, and that's focusing on teaching and learning as core business and making sure our students are successful. So, do you have questions about the data? And I lay out a lot of different systems and groups there, you know what I'm saying? So, welcome. Sorry, it's not really a question as I'm looking at the data. I can't say how disappointed I was, but I'm glad to hear that you got a plan in place too. Yeah. And I guess that's the most important. Thank you. I feel like we do. I expect nothing short of marked improvement on our
048state testing results this year. I'm fully confident and I have no doubt that that's going to be the case. I was just wondering how that's working out for you guys. I think it's working well. You know, we're still running the same stages that we were doing last year. We're on Monday today, so you're going to see all six of their classes. We have no seminar on Monday, so they don't have that additional travel support time to get up to lecture classes or clubs. And then the balance of the week is all blocked. Tuesdays and Thursdays are odd days, 1, 3, 5. And Wednesday and Friday is 2, 4, 6. I think it's having positive effects. We're still working on it, if I'm being honest with you. Our last PD day, Mrs. Harris actually went to
049revisit a great deal about that in terms of walking through how to reduce block. And it wasn't necessarily kind of what I'm doing here. So I apologize about that. Standing to deliver and just talk at you. Mrs. Harris, do you want to say a little bit about how you structured that block PD and why? You're good on your feet. Sure. Well, one of the things that we wanted to get back to with PD was learning together and modeling good teaching and best practices for teachers. So it was really fun for me because I don't get to do that very often anymore. And so I got to get back in my classroom and work with... all of our teachers and just kind of went through different ways that the block can be chunked. Getting different ideas,
050modeling, just different questioning techniques, proximity, jigsawing activities, doing some reading, and just kind of mixing it up a little bit. So I hope that the teachers got a lot out of it. They seemed to enjoy the afternoon. learn and several said that they were going to take some things that we had done back to their classrooms and as far as their their kind of attitude about block I'm guessing like most people that we've talked to they love the block and are actually like, I hate Monday because I don't have enough time on Monday now. So we've had a lot of positive feedback about it and most of the kids like it now that they're used to it. It kind of reduces their stress level. They focus on three classes a day instead of six classes
051a day. And the teachers can get more in depth and do a lot more with like conferencing one-on-one with kids. Also gave the teachers a lot of opportunity to share what they're doing in the block that's working for them. So that was great too because they all kind of learned from each other and they posted different things that they had done and then we did a gallery walk and walked around and looked and they could ask questions or make comments. So it was good. It was good, I think. And it's something that we're going to keep focused on so that throughout next year, our PD, our staff, many times and things like that, we'll be focused on the things that we're doing and improving them and making them better. Thank you. I would say what
052we're doing with the block is a good example of what we're doing with a lot of different things, whether it's focusing on test prep or... how we're using seminar to support students who are struggling or to lift up students who aren't struggling and give them an opportunity to do an extension of this to something cool. The truth is none of that work ever ends. You know, stuff about curriculum is not going to stop. Things about what can we learn from the block isn't ever going to stop. Because the truth is, we can only ever look at it through the lens of the present, right? So whatever we're doing now doesn't mean that we did something bad before or we won't do something better in the future. But we're always going to be learning from those
053past experiences and bringing those to bear, asking the question of how we can improve. And that's just how we're singularly in. I think I'm entirely committed to the success and improvement of our school and for our students. That has to happen. If it doesn't happen, then I don't really know why we're here. That's why we're here. Man, I'm gonna ask an uncomfortable question, which I know you're fine with. We're gonna start with the baseline of COVID affected everybody. We know it's a fact. We know that every school had poor attendance during COVID and still are struggling with it. Looking at the data, I'm disappointed in the state. The state has different resources as far as where you live and things like that. I guess my question is in the county aspect of things, what- Should
054we had done better looking at test scores because we have Detroit to one side. We got no we got the bone. We got Dearborn Why are we lacking in your opinion test score wise compared to the counties, I mean the cities that are right next to us? Because I'm trying to understand that. I mean, Birmingham and other districts, they have more risk, whatever that may look like. But I'm trying to understand that because everybody had COVID, everybody had poor attendance. That's just the baseline for everybody. What's your thoughts on that? Well, thanks for that intro. It's a tough question. It is a tough question. And I'm going to be real honest with you and tell you, I know that I have a great answer. I can speculate a lot. I know that as a district,
055we took a really hard-line conservative approach. When I say conservative approach, we put safety first in a lot of ways. Looking back, was that the right decision? I don't know. It was the right decision at the time, and it was. It is what it is, and it was what it was. Could we have done that differently? I think so. I don't have a good answer for you, Mr. West, and I really don't. I wish I did. I wish I could tell you that, well, you know, we did this one thing, and we all, you know, wore our masks on our noses, but we would have had better tests for it. I should have done a better job continuing to prioritize. I can tell you that. I should have done a better job of that. And
056we're going to. That's my answer. I don't have a good one beyond that. I can't tell you magically, but it hit our community hard, and it hit our academic achievement hard. Although I don't know that it impacted what our students learned, I think it impacted how they did on the test. And I think the ability for us to not practice that in really sound ways hurt us. Would anybody? Cuz I look at the solution, I'm a solution-based person. I know that things happen. And it's just like when I see these numbers, just like, come on. I'm a sports guy, so I'm always looking like, man, we could always- In our lives. Yeah, we could do better in our county. Yeah. What could we have did better? Yeah. And trying to get down to the, like
057I said, everybody had COVID, everybody had poor attendance. What can we do better to make up the county numbers? I know we're chasing the state and I get that but what can we do to not be so much lower for local county? Yeah, I think it comes down to item analysis things. That's what we've already been talking about with our partners. Things we did prior that didn't happen. When I say item analysis, we get reports that break down like where our kids go to that, where they're not good at. How did our students do on this? How did we do on that? We didn't look at those last year. We're looking at those soon. We didn't do test prep. We didn't incorporate it the same way. We didn't do item analysis and practice testing. We
058didn't do those things. We know that those things are successful and help our students do a good job. And that didn't happen. And it should happen. And that's going to make things better. I appreciate the question. I'd rather just say it. If it's the other room, let's talk about it. I have a question. You said something about 180 days for the attendance. Is it better or is it still lacking? I would say attendance is still lacking. Attendance is still not great. We desperately need support in how to do that more effectively. It's a massive opportunity to track student attendance. So do we have any solutions as to what we're going to do to... I know the conversations are already happening between buildings and cabinet level and I feel confident that they're going to be able
059to provide support to the students. And with stamina, is it getting better? I think stamina is getting better. Yeah, I think stamina is definitely getting better. I mean, last year, I mean, it was bad. I mean, people have been sitting on the computer for a long time. and the ability to come in and I'm not talking about just students, okay? I hope everybody understands that. I'm not blaming students for this. We are all responsible for these numbers. This is not a reflection of what our students are capable of in any way, shape, or form. I think it is a culmination of a lot of factors that have not... put us in a position to be where we want to be on paper. But I have never been more confident in the people that are here
060that are working tirelessly for students than I am today. Because I see how hard they're working and struggling through really tough things that we're asking them to do. They're doing it, and they need a challenge. Our staff are here to do that every day. And I know our students, what I've always said about our students, and this remains the same today, tomorrow, and maybe in the future. and it's the same before the COVID and the year. They'll meet you at whatever bar you set. And that's where, if I'm just being honest, the bar kind of slipped. And there's a number to prove it. So I'm not going to pretend like it's not true. It is. But I also know where the bar is being placed right now and what we've been working on. And I
061know that our students will meet it because they always do. To the chair. Yes. One follow-up question. Since the kids came back, Where's our graduation rate? We've done a good job of maintaining that in the mid to high 90s due in large part to our fantastic work. the credit covered by summer school um you know last year was an interesting year for that um required kind of almost maybe a return to some of the numbers that we would have seen you know in in mid and early 2000s just for the number of kids who didn't have credit because of pandemic related things um but but that is maintained i can't quote the number i'll just say something too that it was interesting to look at um like our MERS report because during COVID kids literally
062like disappeared, like we don't know where they went. And so we, those kids hit our graduation record, even though we've made the phone calls, we try to figure out where they are and they just take off. So if they don't ever register somewhere else, that's something that kind of. you know, dings us and last year was interesting because there were people on that report I had never heard of. You know, usually you can go through and say, yeah, that kid, that kid, that kid, but I'm the one that makes all those phone calls to parents about like your kid's not going to graduate and I think there were maybe six last year, maybe, and of those six, five of them ended up graduating in summer school. So... It's still doing really well, but that the
063COVID did do something where it's like kids like with low stamina and the poor attendance like they just they just disappeared off the face of the earth, but we were the last school they touched so yeah we're responsible. And that's not a unique, that's not a unique disaster. No. It's a national problem. It's state and national. We're not, it's a reality of what technology is doing to education. Well, I was just very curious because I knew we were having some very good numbers for graduation. And I give credit because you guys are starting to watch it now in ninth grade rather than waiting to have the semesters gone in twelfth grade. And I just wondered how COVID and all of that affected our graduation rate. It may be harder, but we've got to marry him.
064That's what I want to hear. Any questions? Mr. Rudy. All right, yeah. If you have others that pop up about Bowling, I'm happy. We'll find those. Thanks, everybody. We're going to take a 15-minute break. 7.33. The promise meeting, back to order at 7.50. Chef Tony. You just like to get some more chicken on, though. Chef Tom, you would like to address the board. So, thank you. I've never really addressed a board before, so thank you for this opportunity. I just wanted to say very quickly, some of you know that I only had one career all my life at Wayne Westland Schools. I started there as a pastry chef and graduated to be the teacher in charge of that program. Took it in different directions. But, coming here, Luckily for Miss Harris, she called me at
065the right time. I've had an opportunity to come here and share some of my experiences with the South Rapid School District. It's been working out just fabulous. I mean, I can't, I was very nervous to be honest with you being at 25 years at one facility and starting somewhere new, especially a high school, because I've always worked at a C3E center. So, I can't, the things that I'm doing with these students, I'm blending a little bit of the culinary arts and blending in some of the light skills, but I can't say that this transition was something that happened so fabulous and being happy and having a great time without some of the people here that made it happen. Definitely. Mr. Rudy and his guidance of getting here and being with in a high school and
066learning that. Of course, Ms. Harris, sometimes I kind of use her ear more than sometimes I should, you know, I hear a lot of stuff. Definitely, I know April is sitting here. I think you're going to speak a little bit later, but I want to say that my program or what I'm doing with the students wouldn't have been what we are doing without the Eagles Helping Hands, I believe it is, in April of supplying us with so many different options of food. Some days it's like I go back there and the whole curriculum changed because, you know, We have a lot of bananas, so we're going to make a banana muffin, a banana bread, and we're making all these things with bananas. So it's giving our students the opportunity to just get in there. It
067just it just use up product that we're getting from April and it's just it's working out and the students are having I think you're welcome to talk to some of my students here. They're having a wonderful time doing that. The other person I need to thank is she's not here but I think you know her Karen Cummings from the cafeteria. She's letting me use some of her equipment. She's letting me use some of the dishwashing. We use sheet trays, we use all these things that we just can't physically wash by hand. And it's been a great transition of kind of partnering with her. And she's been fabulous with helping me along the way also. But I just wanted to tell the board that I've had, you know. great great year it's been super fast so
068I'm looking forward to the new building I'm looking forward to more of what I'm used to doing in the CTE direction but thank you for thank you miss Harris for coming over and talking with us when I was still working at Wayne Westland. It made me think that I was at the wrong place for 25 years right? but thank you again and thank you for all the help that i've had along the way um mr root you know you you you uh don't know if you know but you've been inspiring me with some of the things that we talk about so um keeping me keeping me straight and answering the questions i need so thank you thank you oh i'm sorry ma'am you did a wonderful spread out there When you come to our class,
069some people joined me today early. You were in there, you saw them heads down, and they were getting it going. So I'm all about that. I'm all about the students. I'm always about the students, no matter what we do. They need to get in there. They need to, you know, just try it and just work with different tools and different situations. and Makaya was working with his little fryer. We only can fry three or four pieces at one time, so it's great. And they get an opportunity to use different medias and that's why we like doing things like this, so we can share the knowledge. So thank you. Next item on the agenda is consider naming a district facility automobile. Thank you, Madam President. At the board meeting on April 10, 2023, the board discussed
070the renaming of the Thurston High School Automotive Lab as the Dunning Auto Shop. The board established a policy for commemorating and naming the school facilities. From time to time, the Board of Education may wish to commemorate a school or a district facility by means of a plaque naming the facility after a person or some other honor. Should the board choose to do so, Thurston High School Automotive Lab would be renamed the Dunning Auto Shop to recognize the Margaret Dunning Foundation contribution of $190,000 to the South Redford School District Automotive Program. Madam President, a resolution is attached for board consideration. Do I have a board member willing to adopt the resolution? The chair. Yes. I will be adopting the following resolution. Do I have a support? support it's been moved by mrs perotti and supported by
071mr winston matter secretary would you uh have a roll call vote please to the chair are we gonna have a discussion before we vote All right. For me, I will be voting against this because it goes against any of our prerequisite, any way we've named before. I would prefer to see us put up a recognition plaque honoring Bev Harris for all of her hard work and honoring the Margaret Dunning Foundation for their large contribution with a plaque put up, but not to name it. So I will be voting against it. because I think it opens up a precedence that anybody coming in, if they write a large enough check, can say I want my name on this facility or that facility, so I'm against us naming it after the foundation. We have always reserved naming
072facilities such as William Webb Auditorium after people that have been in this district for many years go on. their new paths for the deceased and they have contributed largely. I am in agreement with Mrs. Flusher that just writing a large check is not a reason to name a facility. However, I would like the plaque to recognize their contribution. Put in the honor. I see the perspective of Ms. Fletcher and I get that from the platform. My thing is change never has to happen and I think that there has to be a precedence for change at some point or we stay where we have always been. I think that as a board we're voting on this because it's our responsibility. And we can easily say no or yes if someone comes in and says, it's $5
073million. We can always say no to any dollar amount. So it's really up to us to decide if we feel like this specific situation fits. And I don't see it as a dollar amount thing. I think that if, for instance, Quicken Loans gave us $5 million. We don't have to name anything after them. We vote. We're literally voting on it. You can always just say no. Quicken Loans, thank you for the money, but no, you're not going to get the naming right. So I think that that's just not what we have to do. We're making the choice to vote one way or another, but I don't look at it as a dollar amount thing. I look at it as an opportunity to celebrate what the foundation did to help us get. But we have to
074change it some. I get how we used to do things and that's fine, but until change happens, things stay the same. So I get both of you ladies pointing, but I think we're changing things in a different direction. So that's just my thoughts on that. agreement I saw was not it was asked for consideration it did not specify that we had to make it correct that's all I can say so it's optional yeah I agree so the chair yes I would like to add the fact that All of the hard work was done by Beth Harris and doing the actual grant stuff. All the foundation really had to do was approve her submission and then give the money. So to me, that's not really comparable to an employee who's worked here for 20 years and
075retired or passed away, like Dr. Hofer, who we named that beautiful section of the building after. And to just name it after a foundation who has done nothing more than contribute money makes me kind of feel bad because we gave such a great ceremony to Dr. Hofer for that, and she actually earned that. And then also I want to point out that the Dunning Foundation has been around for a long time. They contributed millions of dollars to the Plymouth Historical Commission and they still did not name their building after her. So that's all I have to say. That's my point, I guess. Thank you. That's my point. You don't have to vote for anyone to get named on anything. It's a decision that we're making as a board one way or another. So I don't
076have an issue with anyone. But I think that stands to my point with all of this. They gave millions and still don't have a... a spot named after them. So it's not for me about the $195, but the million dollars. We're making the decision as a board. We can all vote no, we can all vote yes. But to me, it's not about a dollar amount. It's about, you know, we're voting your conviction as a board member. So yes or no, it is what it is. It's been moved by Mrs. Earle and supported by Mr. Winston. The other one's down. Yes. Lori Hicks? No. Nay. Johnson? Yes. Leisha Early? Yes. Cheryl Flesher? Nay. Amanda Flesher? Nay. Yes. Three days, resolution adopted. On the agenda, discuss board policy updates. Policy Committee met, went over all the suggested
077changes from NEOLA plus three other policies we looked at, made our suggestions. The board received an electronic copy during the week to review if they had any questions. I received no questions or concerns from anybody, so I would assume that we're going to move forward and bring it back for consideration at our next board meeting. The board met and had a workshop and Dr. Weber along with Chris's support came up with a new document for us. We discussed it as a board, went through everything. We just had a little bit of questions about it. It's number 13 and just clarified that. We brought it back to committee and there was just a couple of minor changes. It was cleaning up 13. And then it was also adding that the evaluation could be used as a
078tool as we establish our goal. And it's here for the board's approval. To the chair? Yes. I'd like to move the adoption of the following resolution, please. Support. I'm here in support of Mary Mrs. Hicks. All in favor? I'm sorry. I would like to be a little, a little. Go ahead. Daniel Winston. Yes. Lori Hicks. Yes. Anthony Johnson. Yes. Misha Ridley. Yes. Cheryl Flesher. Yes. Amanda Flesher. Yes. Shirley Talbert. Yes. Seven yeses, zero nays. Resolution adopted. The agenda is comments from the audience. Topics not related to the agenda. We have one. Christina Canaro. Canaro? So my name is Christina Canaro. I'm here representing Eagles Helping Hands. And I would first and foremost like to thank the school, Mr. Rudy, the school board, for allowing us the use of the building in the back. You all
079know where we are. And also the use of the garbage. We are a food rescue. We rescue any type of food from that stores do not, cannot necessarily sell. It could be boxes are broken, dates are getting close to expiration. So they call us, we go, we pick it up, we distribute that food to the community, anybody who is welcome to come through and pick up food when we are open. We partner with Cleaners, Target, Costco, Whole Foods, and most recently, we are extremely proud of this, Amazon. The things that we get from these places are what we actually are able to pass out to the community. And part of that is what we are, as I will touch base on later, going to be, we have given to the schools. We do help the
080police department, the fire department, our community on top of other communities surrounding us, and of course, record schools. We have donated items to the drama club, the sports team, the band, Chef Tony, which he mentioned to you, prom, emergency baskets that were made here at Erson. We have also provided pencils for testing when your pencils did not come in on time. We also have provided feminine products and so many more items that I do not have listed, but because of the other, the partnering companies that we partner with, that is how we were able to get these items to the schools. We have estimated so far, starting from September, well actually the end of August through now that we have donated and estimated and I say estimated because April sometimes will bring things over here
081without letting us know what she brought so I don't have every single thing that has come in but a total of $81,000 worth of stuff of items food whether it be food again the feminine products pencils school supplies any of those things to Redford School District. So that's who we are. Our mission as a company is that we are here to eliminate food waste, but it has also become to support our community and our schools. Thank you. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is plus delta plan for inclusion. Mrs. Davis. Madam President, what processes have helped the board's work this evening? Yes, Mrs. Steele. For me, it's getting questions in before we hit the boardroom sometimes. Kind of get an understanding of what is that like. Okay, Madam President. I'd like to thank Mr.
082Mooney and his team for the... Great presentation. And I'd also like to thank Chef Tony and all of our students for the great work that they're doing. Opportunities for improvement or processes could help the board's work in the future. My only doubt would be the fact that the first time we discussed the naming of the facility, we didn't have all the accurate information. And then now that we've discussed it again, not everybody participated in the discussion. And the will of the board is upheld by the majority, but it would have been nice to hear it from everybody and their reasons for why they voted the way that they did. That would help me anyway. Other opportunities for improvement? Processes? Suggestions? We have any more? Okay, then the president will take the call. There's nothing further
083that comes before this board. I adjourn this meeting at 8.13.