001Good evening. I would like to begin this meeting. Today is Monday, December 8, 2025. We welcome you and greatly appreciate your presence at this meeting. We respectfully ask that you please put your phones on silent, refrain from applauding, and avoid making audible comments during the meeting. If you would like to speak to the board formally, please fill out one of the comment cards at the entrance and place the card in the basket. I'm going to ask that we hand in all the cards tonight before the end of the celebrations. I will determine how much time we have for comments. It seems that so far it will be 3 minutes per person. I can ask Mr. Rodriguez to please take attendance. Commissioner Moreno, Commissioner Rodriguez here, Commissioner Williams here, Mr. Williamson present. Commissioner Patrick, Vice President
002Wade, President Pullck, we are all here. Can I have a motion to approve the agenda? We have a motion, we have support. If you are in favor, please say yes. Does anyone object? The motion continues. The first thing we have is our legislative presentation. We're going to ask the representative to come to the podium, please. Good. Good. Good. Do I have to push the button or not? Good evening everyone. Let's see what we have here. Thank you so much for having me here again tonight . I am Carolin Clinfeld. for the people in the audience who do n't know me yet, and we also have people at home. Okay, I asked to speak to you tonight so we can review what this year's budget looks like. My staff is also here in case we are
003unable to answer any of the questions. What we're going to be looking at tonight is a bit of a general review, some of the changes we have in the funds, some of the reductions, and what we're going to be eliminating as well . Again, as I was saying, this is a document of hundreds of pages and I try to find the most important topics for you. First of all, review and changes to the funds. The budget for the school at this time is for 537 local districts, 285 schools or academies and 56 middle schools for a total of 24.1. What we saw this year, something that excited many of those present, was the increase, an increase of $3.5 million, which puts us at about $442 per student. This is something we have already reviewed because
004you have spent a lot of time in contract negotiations. Let's talk a little more about what the basis of this is on paper. What we are seeing is where we came from, to where we are at this moment in terms of students. We also went to the schools that had not received this same amount in the past. We have increased, and we had a fairly significant increase. We want to see what's coming in this part. Now we have reduced the amount to 593.5 million. This way it will tell us how much it would be per school or per student. Another super important part is transportation. The way this works, to explain it simply for school, is that it's $414 million less. Uh, the general funds have 458 million less and transportation was moved up to
005the transportation package at 1,183. billions. For people at home who are not used to this amount of numbers, this is significant, but at the same time we note that 1.2 billion is not the amount we need. We are still a couple of billion short of what we need to be able to give this the proper funding. Some increases and new investments that we have seen include an estimated $7.3 million increase in funding for GRPS. 203,446 for special education, 684 for bilingual education and 59 for mental health. This is how it is specifically separated. Additional funds are coming into our schools in general. We have universal meals or the feeding program. We all know the importance of nutrition for our students in order to learn, how they behave, and all those good things. That also helps
006with the absence situation. We highly value school meals and we have expanded this to non-public schools as well. I wanted to point out that the non-public schools or that portion doesn't come from here specifically because those dollars can only be used in, uh, public school funds. For mental health, about 321 million, and this can be used towards mental health or towards some safety resources depending on what the school deems necessary. We have several schools that have been invited to participate in this program and they have to meet all the requirements we have set for this. We are also continuing with the consolidation of the infrastructure. They will be adequate subsidies. If I ask the board to help us to be able to work with you as a legislative XPO. All the senators we have in
007the area want to make sure that GRPS receives what it needs, and we can also give the superintendent what she needs to consolidate all these funds. I know that's your priority right now . Additionally, we have some money set aside for the CTI program, the your own educators program, and some other incentives we've had in urban areas. Under the reductions and eliminations program, we have the Mempsers reductions. We also had a deficit of $652 million. It's lower from year 21 to 15. And we're doing a bit more regulatory work around this. We are removing some one-time funds that you had previously received. Again, for those of you watching, we have certain categories within the state budget that have to be allocated to different areas, and there's a large group of funds that goes into something
008we know as Section 99. It's almost always things like different programs that come up and that we get licenses for at the state level. This way the school can buy them and participate. Many of these are not done by stating the name of the individual program because, as you know, we do not have a category of money to be used for that purpose. So it's not something that happens automatically; the money will be available to be put into the necessary category. These are discussions we can have so that you can understand it better, and research can be done to see how this benefits GRPS. What was that called? Just for a moment. It's section 99. Well, section 99 and most of it— there are other areas where we've received funding—but mostly section 99 is what
009details all those independent programs. Some of them are through vendors, others through state non-profit organizations, so we can have or refer to them as or point it out and set it aside. Those were the ones that were eliminated. There were other, in my opinion, valuable programs that were removed from the budget, and we'll get into that in a moment. And here they are. So the recovery program for people in school 1.8, the Mc also the MISEM program was totally eliminated 7.6 million, which is very difficult because that money was being doubled in other readers in the loss of the education fund. Local produce programs were also cut by 4.5 million, which was difficult, uh, looking for healthier food for our children and also uh, how it impacts agriculture and the partnerships we had with different
010agricultural fields, and so that partnership for the moment no longer exists. West Michigan teacher collaboration and also education, the educational corporation that many people on the west side of the state and also the GRPS urban area are losing access to that, uh, to that supply of teachers and people who are training in those specific areas. So it's difficult to recover all this in the next cycle. Uh, what we call border pr in English, uh, the requirements, uh, I lost a device, a slide, so I'm going to explain it. A few things I wanted to cover and I'll be going back to 31W. Section 164K is something we need to pay attention to regarding funding, for the city, because MD will withhold 5% of state benefits for recipients who do not comply with some of the
011following requirements. These are federal requirements regarding food that comes from the federal system. If you are not participating, then you cannot receive those funds. requirement that everyone fill out the application for food reduction. I don't know if that's been a problem here in Grand Rapids, but there are some people who don't want to fill that out or have difficulty filling it out for personal reasons, so it's something I'm telling you to pay attention to. There is a ban on incentives for school count days . Uh, and I know that many schools have done it this way, a requirement that all surveys must be public and that the district not use MDE evidence-based curriculum. There's nothing like an MDE resume to prove it, so we're in agreement on this. You can return to the requirements regarding
012federal applications. your point. I know that has been a problem, and also with the things that are happening across our nation and the person providing information and suggestions. Um, what does this mean for schools if they don't have requirements? 5%, 10%. What does that look like? As I understand it, that's a 100% requirement. There are a few districts that have problems with that. As you mentioned, there is always a group of parents who are uncomfortable sharing their information with the government for whatever reason. The nation's climate doesn't matter. We've seen this increase recently, and there are parents who say, "I don't need it, I don't have to fill this out, the government doesn't need my information." So there have been a lot of problems with that. To my knowledge, there is no specific litigation. Uh,
013I don't know if the laws were written through MDE. So it's something I can follow up on. Thank you. And as a reminder, we completed this budget in the last few months. Many of these pieces are still being released, but you have questions and I can answer them with more information for all of you. And how can you handle that? Well, the new compensation or compensatory education requirements must provide the intent—I'm not exactly sure what that means— that they must make a permanent increase for educators' compensation in any year in which they are allowed to raise salaries. And I know that you were recently negotiating your contracts, and I know that in a year like this, the budget dollars appear to have increased substantially, but when you look at it more closely, you realize that
014this is not the case because there are expenses that are tied to that. So it was like $50 for students, right? 400. and how it can increase by $50 per student, particularly when they have more expenses they are trying to cover. So again this is an area that we're going to need clarified, and in 164L it's the new way to request all these funds. So there's something in that category of 99 that I mentioned that GRPS had counted on, and we need to start working on those requirements so we can get this done by spring and submit it on time. And I think it's 45 days before the budget deadline. That would be April or early into May, so making sure that everything is there, nothing is guaranteed, but we need to have everything aligned
015and have the documentation. And the last one, and I added that, uh, I wanted to talk about the 31st a little bit, so let me move on to that. That's what happens when you do your homework at the last minute. Just a moment. I'm going to make sure to send this to Stephanie. The 31st is school safety dollars. It's a new category this year, so currently that's under litigation and the most recent decision was that schools will have until December 4th, they extended the deadline to December 4th, which was last week. My understanding is that all schools are opting for this and that the courts will make a decision by December 19th. If you wish, you can resubmit this after the final decision on the 19th. And to make sure everyone understands, the concerns here
016are about the language used for ballplay by December 31st. Every school must eliminate any privilege to provide information in the event of a mass disaster, and what they need is information about incidents like school shootings. school, a similar event, but since there is no current definition of a catastrophic event, this can be any serious incident. And there's a sporting event where the platform collapses, which has never happened here, but what if there's a bus accident or something similar? And it also affects the compliance that schools must follow regarding open meetings because they have to provide information that is generally protected. In addition to that, the minutes of open meetings, anything that needs to be done in closed session, if they are responding to an emergency event, you may not want to share the details with
017the general public until you have all the details and you may not be able to do this. Yes, there are specific concerns from the SDI, the school leaders, and they are currently working through the court system to align all of this, but it may result in a very difficult decision for you as board members, because if the school is not favored in the final decision. So, they're going to have to decide whether to abandon the privacy act or lose millions of dollars, tens of millions of dollars for mental health, school safety. That is the situation today. Um, hopefully before the Christmas break we'll have a resolution on this and the states can clarify all of this. This is a summary of what we have, and I can answer any questions you may have if you
018need me to provide anything . I am the deputy minister of the MDE and also on the conference committee as part of the appropriation committee, so I was part of the team that was on the floor looking for the votes. So if you have any questions, you can ask them. I do n't know if it's a question, but we've talked about clarity before. Regarding what the survey represents for this segment, I believe it's at 164K. Yes, we can go and get that. How do we define those student surveys? Very good question. I greatly appreciate the surveys we conduct here, especially those related to mental health for our students. I think that helps us to be very successful. Thank you very much for this presentation. It's always good to be able to see a little more
019of the budget to see where we stand. You checked and you're below a few million dollars. The education system in Michigan also agrees with us that we are under budget by $4.5 million. When we talk about this, it's either that we're prioritizing the wrong thing, or that Michigan doesn't have enough in its budget, or it's both. You have to understand that for us as legislators we are responsible for all things. We are responsible for making sure we have the right infrastructure, the right schools, the right health care, environmental protections for veterans, for farmers, for the police, for everyone. When we talk about priorities, we have to see them from the point of view that all of them are a priority. For us, it's the job we were elected to do. Now, what we need to
020figure out is how to do it right. I don't want to use the word priority, however, what the group is willing to do as a unit is this. I am, I give my unconditional support to education and I know that everything we spend on education is right. There's nothing like overspending on education, but that's not what I want. It's a collective decision. We know that if there's a will, there's a way; if we wanted to put funds into the school, we could do it, but that would mean that I might have to call other places. It is not only our willingness, but also that of the people in the state of Michigan. That's where the difficulty comes in. We need to get 10 million people to make the decision together with us. I am truly
021grateful for the work you do, for the way you defend all of this. I love that people can come and communicate with you, whether you agree or disagree with what is being done. They always come and help us make good decisions. If they disagree, at least they understand why certain decisions were made, and in the 4.5 we are below what we should receive as an organization. If you haven't seen it yet, perhaps this is a good place to start looking at the different shortcomings we have. Maybe we can move some money around and maybe make a positive impact. Inflation has had a huge impact on the dollars we use in schools. Thank you. Any other questions? I just want to say, thank you very much, representative. We know this has its challenges, but I thank
022you very much for coming and presenting with us, and I greatly appreciate diplomacy. One thing, I do n't know if you know that there have been some conversations, we know that some changes are being considered, but this may involve some extra investments. I don't know if we have extra money or not, but we have to see what's coming from the federal level and we have to protect our faithful because we don't know if money is coming in or not. We need to save all the money we have right now , because we don't know what the future holds. What I need to be is that there are many opportunities for us to clean up the language here, not just in education, but in general. I hope we can do that, but I don't know if
023it's going to happen or not. I believe it's important that we clarify some of these things and that you can have these conversations beyond your officials and state officials, but to see what we as a board are willing to do and see what other options we can consider. I really appreciate your time tonight. I know it's not easy being in this position. Thank you very much for your service. Okay , let's move on to the negotiations update then. I request that we go to a closed session for negotiation strategy connected with the negotiations of the groups requested by the superintendent and is permitted based on the law of open meetings. Miss Melton Moreno, yes. Mr. Rodriguez, yes. Williams, we need a motion. Yes, we have the motion. I second that. Commissioner Williamson. Patrick, vice president.
024Very good. I was so excited to get into these conversations that I forgot everything else. Very well, thank you very much. We're going to a closed session. Okay, so let's move on to the celebrations part. We would like to remind you that all public comment cards need to be handed in by the end of this portion of the agenda. If I can have Kelly Green and Dave come here, please. Good evening, Dr. Roby, President Bullcheck, board members. I am Kelly Green, I am the leader of the northeast zone, as well as in the Department of Health and Education. I am here to introduce you to the director of Fine Arts. We are here to show you what the electronic Christmas card will look like . Hello, Dr. Roby, President PH, and other board members. It
025is my pleasure to present the card to you. This year we had 21 different schools who gave us their options to present in the competition. The Oro Hills choir is the one who made the music this time. The communications department and Event Lenner, who is the district's communications ninja, helped us get all this in order. We also have a communications team who will post it on our social media channels after our meeting, and we will make public any opportunities to present it to you. Let's see. M. December [music] [music] my love to keep me [music] with I [music] with my [music] when to me and the better me [music] because I got my to keep me take this you can have I love the spring time [music] even the fall but I guess I like
026the winter Happy holidays. [laughs] Thank you so much for your continued support of our traditions. We appreciate you very much. That was really fun. Thank you. Our next celebrations are related to sports. If I can have Mr. Larry Johnson here, please, and the director of the Athletic program for Union Hills. and having to say their names, Mr. Justin Walker and Mr. Marquez Harris. Good evening, President Roby, Superintendent and Council members, ladies and gentlemen, Marcus Harris of Arill, Justin Walker, Athletic Director at Union High School. who are here tonight to give you an overview of all the sports and achievements of our school athletes. Good evening, superintendent, super roso. Thank you, it is an honor to be here to present a review that not only mentions achievements in the competitive field, but also shows how they
027were able to build classrooms in their community. This fall we had 10 conference athletes in football, we had five in school districts and for the first team, all district. We also had an honorable mission in volleyball . In tennis we had two conference students and also students from all over the region on the team. The tennis team was also named for MHA. They came in second place out of 317 teams. There are two of us academically in the state of Michigan, so it's a great achievement. Cross country also received an honorable mention in football. We had two all-conference athletes and an honorable mention in swimming and diving. One nine conference finalists and one who was the Red Hawk in diving. Also, a record 25 best in the competition. Lately before handing it over to Mr.
028Harris, this year, this year, sorry, 400 hours of community service, a great achievement for the work they are doing both in competition in their community and in the classrooms. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening, Superintendent, Dr. Roby, President Buch, members of the Council. Thank you for having me here tonight to talk about, uh, the fall season at Ata Hills. We're in the white conference, we had 13 all- conference selections and two honorable mentions. Cross Country, coach Igan. another successful season. We also had a state qualifier, Madelin, for the finals. She ran her personal best and finished higher than she was ranked. This was Madelin's second trip to the state finals and marks the 11th consecutive year that the Cross Country team has competed in the state finals. They have done a tremendous job in Bolivol.
029We had an honorable mention as well as coach Meleina Cocher, who is in her fifth year with the volleyball team for third, fourth, and fifth grade, as well as the intermediate team. This year we had 75 girls who came out of the volleyball program, so we competed in the OK White, a pretty strong conference. The ladies competed very well this year. As for women's swimming, we had four conference students and sent nine swimmers to the state finals this year and they competed very, very well. We also have a soccer player, a tennis player, and two football players who made the conference honorable mention, and Katy C broke two school records in the 50 and 100 freestyle, and the Atua team finished 20th in Division One of the state finals, impacting records in our history. Thank
030you for having us here tonight, and now we're off with the basketball games and winter sports, and we want to see you all there. Thank you. Some questions. Do you want to talk about the Union Hills game on December 23rd at Banando la Arenina? The Reunion Red Hawks and now they are going to compete in the arena against each other. This is the first time they've played against each other in the arena, so we urge all family members and staff during the Christmas break to come and watch and support them. Eh eh Vcery male first and then female. A great opportunity to showcase all the... Where do we buy tickets? You can buy them there at the Banandol arena or you can go online and buy them. Yes, they can abandon, but we are also
031working with our communications office which will have a list of where they can obtain the equipment. They're not going to accept any of our passes, so they're going to be $. Very good, Congratulations to all the players for their success. These are questions I want to ask today, but I'm interested in the athletic aspects, but it's something that can bring or attract people to our districts. When I go to the games, one of the things I think about is, which schools are represented here? So it's something that interests me as a member of the board. Which schools are playing? Where? And how are they choosing the school, which school to play for? Whether I go to this side of the city or that side. And I would also like to hear about success outside of
032the field or the pitch. Hey, what are you doing? It's fundraising. Uh, thanks to Bookware, a group of people did a huge fundraiser for the girls' basketball team and hearing about community support and how the community can be more or offer more support for the school and also fundraising initiative . If it's an email, something I'd like to hear. I'm not sure about everyone, but I'm interested because it's a way we can support and learn more about what's happening in athletics. Yes, I think tonight they're ready to talk about the celebrations and we can give them a comprehensive list of activities and some of the things they'll be involved in in the future. And I would also like to hear about community service. Yes, I love hearing about the elementary school volleyball program and the
033support we receive through it. And I agree with my law. Some celebrations are not just about taking notes or who attends the entire conference. I see that the program is growing in different ways through the participation of my children, over the years, and I am very proud of the volleyball program in elementary school. I think it involves a lot of kids and it looks like the secondary team is growing. So, those are big celebrations in my mind. If you want to add, the band is also coming to the game; it's going to be a huge hit. Come on, the band is playing. I think that adds something really good to the game of football, so congratulations on that because more people are coming to the football games. Very good work. What I want to add
034is that this is adjacent to the sport. When I say related to sports, we had G Montessori last Thursday, the primary school, the choir sang the national anthem for GR Go and they were super happy to be on the floor in the band and see the beginning of the warm-up for practice and as we are seeing different things that are related to athletics, but do not have a direct correlation with it. Thank you. Thank you. Our final celebration is about travel and allowing our staff to experience other cultures and communities. So I'm going to bring Dr. Lu Rel here. Good evening. Good evening, Dr. Roby, President Buche. Distinguished members of the Council, I have the distinction and honor of amplifying the Nelli H Stevens. It is awarded once a year in partnership with the Grand
035Rapid Community Foundation, where we encourage travel throughout the summers to expose students to the vast, wide, and expansive world. What's even sweeter is that I have a 29-year-old teacher sitting next to me, all at the Gran Rapy school. That deserves applause. 29 years old. I am not 29 years old. We did n't know. 29 years of teaching. Uh, a native of Kent county, to clarify, teaches the youngest students. Her grandmother was prophetic in saying, "You must go into education." She was right. 29 years later we have Miss Cristi Raymond in front of us and she is going to give birth to another new generation of education, at least her daughter. So without further ado, I'm going to ask her to talk a little bit about the things she's thinking about bringing the trips back, share
036where she went, and the prize— if it wasn't clear, it was $1,500 reimbursement for the trip she took this summer. So go ahead. Yes, I work at Southwest, a bilingual academy, and my husband and I traveled this summer on a cruise and left from Venice, Italy and went to Athens, Greece and Santorini. We went to Croatia too. I work with very young children, but they love to learn about the world, faraway places, and maps. One of our children was learning about American history, American flights, and because we are a language school and can bring them things about the languages of those countries, the different cultures, the different foods that my husband and I enjoyed on the cruise. One of the things that was really fun was that we learned about different traditions and cultures. I
037'm starting a photo book, I'm almost finished. I've been to about three cities because we took so many photos that it takes time, but I plan to bring it here for the children to see, a video to take with me on a trip, because I can't take it with me in person, but that photo book will definitely show them the life we lived. So we do these annually, although I can't say exactly how long this has been going on. I've seen some things and we want to do it again. We want to see how we can make sure we can do this more often. I don't have a question, but I think you didn't have my children at Southwest, but one of my children really wanted to be in your class. I don't remember what
038grade I was in, but I really wanted to be in his class. You must be an excellent teacher. Thank you so much. Again . I believe that the fact that I have been in education for 29 years is a wonderful thing. I want to give him a round of applause for so many years of dedication, and with that we conclude our celebrations. Very good. The report from our representatives. Is there anything here you'd like to share? No, all I have here is what we had talked about regarding the Food Baskets program. Very well, let's go then to the secretary's report. Okay. As for the city council, that's me. Some things from our meeting. A couple of weeks ago, Alex Smart gave us an update on the work we're doing with JL, and we also shared
039that with the city representatives, who were there as well. Right now the staff is reviewing all the interesting parts and has also given their opinion, a valued opinion on these different places. She also shared the progress being made with the community outreach process . January is coming soon, and we will have community meetings for each of the categories. I think Stackin' will be done in Stackin, but Alexander will be done in MLK or Franklin Campus, maybe. I do n't remember exactly where it will be, but I'm going to check everything. that this building is not perfect for community meetings. that the omissions will be made at the beginning of April and we are also having a lot of success with the turkey race and all these other things we 've been doing. The city has
040given some details about its strategic plan efforts and also about the new community plan regarding the equity lens we are adopting, as well as land use in collaboration with schools and the strength of communication and outreach to the community. There have been some discussions, especially within the immigrant community and regarding the immigration situation. We don't want to create unnecessary alarm, but we want to be able to access the information with enough time to coordinate the necessary responses. We also have the report on the children in the community, and this is also part of the Grow 1000 program. There are many more details in the minutes if anyone is interested. Okay, we have an update on the finance committee, Miss Williams or Mrs. Williams. Very good. For the finance committee, we have a couple of points
041that will be brought before the board today. One is the purchase agenda and the resolution as well. from our discussions for our finance committee. We have also discussed donations again from different entities that I believe will come before us later on the agenda. And we didn't have many other points to discuss, but we also want to talk about October 2025 and the financial information we were discussing. We also have the month of October; this has been added to our tables to make them easier to read. Basically, it's the work we're doing in our finance committee. That's all I have for today. Thank you. I know you just had that meeting. At that meeting we had a presentation, and in this master plan we also received updates on the use of those dollars and some activities
042that have been completed, as well as others that have not yet been finished. There was also a presentation where they talked about the different buildings and what the function of each one is . The property can't really change much, so it's part of our reduction. We also talked about the different ways in which we can use this process through which we are working to eliminate those problems. We do n't know exactly what this process will look like, or how we'll be able to bring more of these things to you, but we've also talked about updating the rent for some of these buildings. We know that some of them are currently occupied, and the conversations we've had about how we would use that property in the future, in a way that if we needed to move
043faster with those properties, we could do so. We have also received some thoughts as to how we are going to proceed, and there is a proposal, but there are also communication gaps when we are trying to see what they mean or what the families are most interested in regarding the Montessori program. In that way, we might be considering keeping the elementary school separate, but we want to get input from the community and no decision will be made on that yet. You'll be seeing some letters soon where we 'll be talking about this situation and how we can provide families with a separate space that will allow them to grow and also allow Innovation Central to grow. Thank you. Here I also have an opportunity to share some of the things we have learned about this.
044I have a lot of notes, but I want to keep it as brief as possible. I found this to be truly alarming in terms of the classes. This was the first time I had ever attended a conference of this type. There were many classes that existed at that time. This is a conference for colleagues who have a background in education. Those who are in these classes with board members from all over the state and that they all have different things that I know have been shared about it. This conference has provided us with access to both individual and district information. All these topics talk, for example, about how we operate and also understanding what some of our priorities are, such as team development and knowledge in different areas. This was also a great opportunity for
045us to continue learning about personal relationships and what the best practices are. We also learned about conflict resolution, as well as community relations. We had some proposals that failed, but all of those proposals were based on equity and access to marginalized communities. They failed. There was a lot of discussion. from different people, but in the end they decided that they were going to continue with the laws as they were written at that time. These are very good tools for public education. I wanted to be able to add something too. Based on the contact from these conferences, everything was quite positive. There were different individual components, but overall all the different sessions, there were very very important sessions there. And I know that when we were there, this is still our vision; we want to achieve
046all these things within our student system. When we talk about the idea of improving ourselves or improving the children, it's a reality; how we got there together is the way to take all those aspects and put them in a different direction. Another thing that I found interesting is that this is actually a way of reminding us that this is the reason why we are doing some of these things, and it is for the improvement of the students and for them to have a better future life. It is very interesting to be able to learn what is happening at both the state and local levels. Very good. The superintendent's report. We have no reports. Okay. Public comments. No, we need to read the public comments for a moment. Hello everyone. Today we only have one session
047for public comments. Here are the points on the agenda and not on the agenda. They're going to have 3 minutes, but today it's going to be 3 minutes. We ask that you please refrain from making any disrespectful comments to the members, and if you have a specific complaint about any of them, please use the appropriate channels. You will be asked to speak to us one at a time. Before you begin your comment, please state your full name. We will monitor your time. We ask that you finish your comments on time. We cannot respond to public comments. We greatly value what you have to say and thank you for sharing this evening with us. Okay, first of all we have Brown, then Federico Brown. I would like to talk about our park. That? Is anyone going
048to help him? Just a moment, just a moment. Someone is going to help you a little bit, very loudly so we can hear you. I am in third grade and my brother is in fourth grade. We have to play in the gym. These aren't very fun, and we 're asking the school district to help our school get a better place to play. We would really like to have an area to play soccer. We would like to have a place where we can play a little more football. We would also like to have a team by this time, to have a club, and we can see how we can change our environment. My brother and I would like to help our school become a better place. Camir, can you give me the grade? If you can
049give it to Miss Anderson, she'll point it out. I want to make sure we have everything you said we would. Alright? She's right here. Thank you, Federica Brown, followed by Yolanda How. Good evening, Madam Secretary, Superintendent, Council Member. My name is Federica Brown. I want to speak to you tonight as a father of Shaman Hill and C Frost organizers and a mother who knows what anti-black culture is. I want to describe my experience and concerns as a mother in Charm. As you know, the hiring process has caused many of our educators and principals to leave our district. Our principal was one of those who left and left us without a principal for the beginning of the school year. They gave us two replacements who didn't last more than a month and a half after this.
050Then we were assigned an interim principal who is not at our school. Currently, the parents had nothing to say about this. When this is done and parents do not have a voice, this will lead to a practice where it is exercised only by administrators or an interim director. In October, the acting home director implemented a policy that requires children to be taken care of if they are late. And I gave my opinion on the implementation of this new policy and these are some of the things I agreed with, not just to implement security and I didn't argue about this issue, but it was when this policy was implemented, when it came into effect, that I understood why they had to include the voices of the parents. On the first day of this new policy, the
051principal opened my car door and said I had to take my child, walk him there because I was a minute late. He had the audacity to open my car door and make me walk to school in pajamas, pajama pants that were embarrassingly shameful for me. This is the policy of our school board. Uh, our rights require that caregivers and staff have an equal voice when directors and CEOs make these decisions. And I want to speak as organizers , a lot of the information is not available to us. It would be good to receive a robotic call. to come here to the conferences and councils. Thank you, Yolanda. How to follow Eliza Moodi. Hello, I am Joana Joana How, mother of two GRPS students. To Dr. Roby and the board members, thank you for bringing us
052closer to a new contract and a salary increase. GPS announced this as a major investment, but according to the salary chart, they will still be paid less. Dr. Roby said this agreement will help us retain and attract new talent to our district. I do not share that opinion. How are we going to retain and recruit new teachers when Norvell and all the other districts are offering higher salaries? We need to ask ourselves how we fell so far behind in covering all this where our teachers aren't going to get any . This has been commented on by everyone and was included in the URCA report. Yes, we are spending so much money on executive and administrative positions; perhaps that is the missing key for us to have better sharing, to better distribute salaries for teachers. I
053urge you to evaluate the staff to see if this is being handled at the local level. And I'm going to point out some examples. Our schools have administrative teams. Why do we need CEOs? This was noted in the URECA report. Similarly, in the community situations resolved by the directors, there are some core rules such as supporting English language students, access to transportation where students do not have stable housing, but it is unacceptable that we are below in terms of teacher salary. and at the very top in terms of executives. That's a problem we need to solve. The council is responsible for evaluating and making the necessary cuts. Please make it your priority this year and in the years to come to identify and eliminate those executive and administrative positions so that salaries and salary increases
054can continue without having to rely on other funds. I don't take this lightly, but I do see teachers telling you that not only are they not being paid well, but they do n't have the resources to support the students, our children, to get ahead. You must determine which roles are essential and which ones we need to eliminate in order to invest in our schools. A mud. Hello, my name is Ilisa. I'm here because I have a concern about the athletic department staff and specifically Coach Shan and how he tackled my son. I work very hard to ensure my son is respectful and listens to the teachers, and gets good grades. Va City High Metal. Coach Shan, I feel like he's not leading our kids for the simple reason that instead of lifting them up and
055doing what coaches do, strengthening their skills, he's breaking them down, he 's dismantling them, and that's contradictory to what I 'm teaching my son. He's a young , dark-skinned man who comes to a school to play sports, and a man is telling him he's not that good, humiliating him when he hasn't done anything disrespectful. He hasn't said anything to that man . So that was my biggest concern. I don't know, this is my first time here, but I wanted to let you know that I don't feel that Coach Shan should be leading our children if he doesn't know how to do it properly. When I asked him about this, he told me that the reason he yelled at my son was because my son asked him a question twice. I asked him, I asked him
056to apologize and he said that he didn't need to apologize because that's what coaches do. And I told him, "That's not what coaches do. I've dealt with many coaches, and I've never heard any of them tell a kid he wasn't good enough. Where he was weak in some skill, the coach helped him get stronger and play that position better. So I don't feel like he's not a good person to lead those kids because if he did it for my son, I imagine he's done it for other kids as well. And that's it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Well, that concludes our public comment for tonight. We're going to follow up with the action items. First up is the acceptance of the Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). I know we received emails throughout the week, and
057I wanted to point out that we as a board did receive quite detailed information, a presentation during a closed session that was held in closed session because of the sensitive nature of the EOP. There are details there that we don't want the public to know about, in order to keep our staff and students safe and healthy. If this is accepted by the board tonight, I know the district is going to..." Moving forward, we're looking for information regarding what's called the Emergency Management Plan and also the EOP. It's designated for people and includes everything across our district, excuse me, the heating systems and all that. And that's not information the average person needs, and we keep this very close with our police, local police, and so on, so if something happens, they know where and what
058routes can be used in an emergency. The EOP is at the infrastructure level, the buildings, specifically each building and the access they have for personnel, and a manual for them to reference in case an emergency occurs, what to do if someone gets hurt, if someone has a cardiac event. We have a reference guide for all of this at different levels. So tonight we're going to vote on the acceptance of the EOP, which will begin to be used for training, management , and also for planning. I have to have some discussion first, questions, just clarity regarding the mandate for everyone. I think that was one of the things we added, I do n't know. Hello, Dr. Rob, you know, a mandate to ensure that the different levels of responsibility are in place. From the directors, that
059their staff know how to use the flipchart in English, which is a manual or guide with fire drills, emergency procedures, shelter in place, their professional learning after the opportunity of after school, and try to expand all of this based on the interest of our level and leaders. Everyone has to go through this training. I would be interested for my colleagues to know what it will take to get everyone to that level. I think everyone can access it as we have made that investment. I haven't read it, but I really appreciate the presentation that was done, so it's open to people who can opt in, and what that will also require is that, based on our C-B, as a contract, we can say that we have a certain number of training if we can do it.
060If we were going to do it, we would also be giving other types of training; we can even require it. Anything else? We have a motion then to accept the EOP. If you are in favor, say yes. Suppose someone. Continue the motion. Purchasing agenda. Do we have any questions? Any comments there? As I am a member of the Kens County Services team, I will not be present during this process. We have a motion to accept the purchase agenda. We have a motion, we have support. Anyone object? The motion continues. The purchase agenda and its addendum. Do we approve it? Very good. If you are in favor, say "I." Anyone object? The motion continues. Resolution reaffirming 31 aa. To clarify again, we have decided in our working session that we are opting for this with the
061detail that when this returns to the legal department, we will have the opportunity to withdraw it or reevaluate it based on the guidance we will receive from the court. We would have to resubmit it. Are you in favor? Say "I." Anyone object? The motion continues. Okay. Do we have any other questions? We have one point of question. I need to clarify something. This is the second reading. This is solely about receiving a better rate of interest on money. Do we have a Motion to try it? Yes. If we're in favor, say I. Anyone object? Continue. Do we have any questions on the resolution regarding the property taxes? Do we have a motion to approve it? We have a motion, we have support. If you're in favor, say I. Anyone object? Continue the motion. Any questions,
062comments? We have a motion to approve the annual bank resolution. If we're in favor, please say I. Anyone object? Continue the motion. This concludes the action items. Let's move on to the consensus agenda. We have a motion to approve it. We have a motion and support. Those in favor, say I. Anyone object? Continue the motion. Tonight, I want to say that there have been some conversations between board members and individuals regarding board members' executive positions. I'm going to tell you to continue having these kinds of conversations. We need to send all the recommendations to Julie in the next few weeks. If you want to make a motion to have someone in some of These positions, please, let's talk with Juli. If you have any questions about that, please let me know. We can answer any
063of those questions, and I've had a couple of board members ask us to put this on the agenda for our meeting next Monday. It's a general review of what each of these positions entails and what it covers. We need to be clear on the rules for president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary so we can have them pretty clear for our meeting on Monday. Please feel free to send me any specific questions you have, or you can bring them to the meeting so we can discuss them. I've also put our policy review on the back burner because I believe I only have information from Trustee Commissioner Moreno. I apologize if someone else has sent it to me. If you're thinking about it, please send it to me. What are your hopes or what are you aiming
064for? Let's make sure we continue working on this. So we don't have to rush to resolve this at the end of the year. Superintendent's comments. Good evening again. Regarding the positions, I'm asking that everything be submitted by the 19th after the 15th, because I remind you that we will be absent during the winter break. Secondly, regarding the various policies and the different asterisks on this document, we have some recommendations to perhaps reduce the board's workload. What might this look like? It might involve addressing different aspects of our policy. And we want to remind you that we have limited hours during the winter break. We want to ensure that we send all the correct information to families regarding food assistance and other support, as we recognize that this season is a time of celebration for many
065families, and we want to ensure they are connected to the right resources in the community. Thank you. Board members' comments. I'll start with Mr. Melton. Mrs. Melton. Okay. I'm so grateful to see we're having this conversation again, and in a variety of ways. How about the space? Maybe we could make the microphone a little more accessible so students could have greater access. That would be better for us too, in terms of reviewing the different policies. Oh, and I'd love to get some feedback from the people who are actually using it. We have different parties, like staff parties, and we represent something. I want us to keep that in mind. Okay. Vice President Wer and I want to invite everyone to come play in the Veno so we can all have a good time, and I
066also wanted to share the different discussions we've had. We're looking forward to hearing more from you in the next session. Mr. Rodriguez, no comment. Justy Wade, Vice President W. I'm embarrassed to say that I went to my first turkey race, and I thought it was going to be a lot easier. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I said, "Whoa, I should have come "I was a little better prepared for this." It was quite fun and exciting, and honestly, it touched me to see so many people out there running for our kids. They could have been doing any kind of thing that day. This is maybe what they usually do, but it was for our kids, for the track team, and it was so exciting to see them decide to do something
067like this. And as for the game, uh, Leonor already mentioned it, that's all I have. Jos Williams, I just wanted to congratulate Jen on this wonderful support. We are so proud of you. Please continue with this wonderful work and all the things you are doing in the community. We look forward to seeing how you will impact Grand Rapids when you become a fully grown adult wherever you live after you graduate from Grand Rapids Public Schools . We are immensely proud of you. Thank you so much for mentioning that. Jersey Willingson. I wanted to thank the people who came to our coffee meeting with the board. Thank you so much to those who came, who really brought wonderful conversations. Two people had asked me, they told me, "We have public comments. When can we hear from
068you? This is the opportunity. I've also been reflecting a lot on the work we've done, and I hope that, like us, you feel proud of what we've been able to accomplish. It's super exciting. And here we have the rest of the work we'll be doing regarding the budget. I've been reflecting a lot on this, and although we've accomplished several things, we still have a lot of work to do. Thank you so much. Josi David. Yes. No, I definitely wanted to mention that. I also wanted to mention how much I appreciate you taking the time to be here with us today. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. Trusticle Patrick, I also wanted to talk about the coffee with the board. Thank you so much to those who came, thank you so much to the people who had
069these wonderful ideas and questions. I've forwarded them, so I hope the responses start coming in very soon. We're lifting up all our students, raising their names, the different projects. So I also want to mention this mother who came for the first time and had to share something about her experience in public schools, as well as the different things. It's been A wonderful example for your son, and for all of us as a mother. Perhaps you don't have all the steps in front of you regarding what to say, and perhaps that's our fault. Perhaps we need to make this process much easier so that people know what to say or how to communicate. Thank you very much to the mother who came, and perhaps we can continue to communicate. Very well, with that we conclude our
070comments and this meeting. Good night.