GRPS Board Meeting June 9, 2025

001We welcome and appreciate your presence at this meeting of the Grand Rapids Public Schools Board of Education. We respectfully request that you turn off your cell phones and refrain from clapping, cheering, or making audible comments. We invite you to make formal public comment during the designated times on either agenda items, non-aggenda items, or both. If you wish to do so, please fill out the comment cards. They're located by the both entrances and submit them to our board assistant Julie. I'm not She's probably coming over from the committee meeting. Um or public safety officer. Comments are limited to three minutes. Um I now call this board meeting on June 9th to order and we will start with roll call. Thank you. Uh, Trusty Davis, present. Trusty Kilpatrick, present. Trusty Melton, present. Trusty Moreno, present. Trusty Rodriguez

002is here. Trustee Williams is excused. Trusty Williamson, present. VP Wade, present. President Davis, here. We have a quorum. Okay, before we um go into the approval of the agenda, I'm going to do part of my president comment now because um somebody is here that might not be here at the end of the meeting. So, as a board, we put together a gift for Trustee Rodriguez because he recently got married and I wanted Lexi to be here. So, um this is a gift from your board colleagues. Oh, thank you so much. And it's for both of you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Um, my wife, my now wife, Lexi, is right there. She doesn't like being put in center of attention, so y'all can just look at me cuz she don't want she

003don't want the This is how the wedding was, too. This is how the wedding was, too. I just talked the whole time and she didn't want to talk at all. So, thank you everyone. I appreciate it so much. Yeah. Two weeks. She just changed her name today, her last name. So, it's pretty cool. Alexis Rodriguez. Um, I love it. Thank you. [Applause] Also, before we um I ask for a motion to approve the agenda, I'd like to um just share that there was something on the agenda that got removed um just a few hours ago. Uh that item had to do with contract renewals and they were added to the agenda late. They were added over the weekend. So, not all board members were able to really gather the questions that they had or receive

004clarification on all the details. So, there the renewals do need to be um approved. Is it by the end of June? Dr. Ruby? Yes. Um, so we do have a little bit of time and I wanted to allow for board members to get some clarification um, gather their questions and we will move that to we have actually have two work sessions coming up before the end of June. So we will move it to one of those meetings. Um, so quick clarifying question then for those that put I wish to speak regarding an agenda item that has that item on there. Are they still able to speak in the first be a non-aggenda item then? because we are not talking about it tonight. So that's moved to this one. Okay. So for anyone that filled out

005the I wish to speak regarding an agenda item on the contract renewals, you will be moved to the second uh public comment portion unless you fill out another comment card. Thank you. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? Motion. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Moving on to celebrations. Good evening, everyone. We are um celebrating the African-American Male Achievement Conference Scholarship. This has been a conference that has taken place for the last 10 years, and we always want to celebrate our young men um in our community and take an opportunity to lift them up. And so, I will ask Mr. Eric Brown, uh Mr. Asanti Kaine and Mr. Ashanti Bryant to come forward to do the introductions and explain what the African Male Achievement Conference

006is about. Oh, good evening Dr. Roby, President Williams, excuse me, Davis, and uh Vice President Wade, and the rest of the trustees. We want to thank you um for allowing this opportunity to publicly recognize some of our dynamic young men who recently graduated from Grand Rapids public schools and and will receive a scholarship tonight. My name is Eric Brown. I'm a father, a concerned community member, and I do happen to be the ha CEO of the Urban League of West Michigan and a proud polar bear alum of Crestston High School. Notice the um representation. Uh the African-American male achievement conference is a unique and dynamic annual event which began in 2014 and developed out of an initiative called grade school to grad school. It includes representation from Grand Valley State University, GRCC, Grand Rapids Public

007Schools, Urban League of West Michigan, and the city of Grand Rapids. I would be remiss if I did me did not mention that the shoulders we stand on doing this work that began decades ago by African-American men in this community called Tawasi. Can I ask for anybody know about Tawasi get a shout out or is that inappropriate? Okay, I guess I know Rodney Brown knows about Tawasi. I know uh Victor William knows about Tuasi as well as Dave Selman and the rest of them. So we stand on those shoulders. AAC is dedicated to empowering, educating and uplifting African-American men and boys as well as partnering with caretakers and guardians of our young men or as we as we refer to them our young kings. Our conference brings together community leaders, educators, professionals, and youth to

008address the unique challenges, choices, and changes facing facing black males in society today through a pro through powerful keynote speakers, interactive workshops, and engaging panel discussions. The conference explores critical topics such as education, mental health, workforce development, leadership, financial literacy, social justice, and just plain not becoming a statistic. It serves as a platform for mentorship, networking, and community building, promoting strategies that foster resilience and personal growth and learn long-term success. So, I'll turn over to Mr. Asante Kane to tell you a little bit more about our impact. Thank you uh President Brown. Uh my name is Asanti Kaine. I am an assistant to the city manager. Uh Mark Washington uh sends his regards to the uh the board and the staff. Thank you for having us here this evening. Uh I started working with the

009African Male Achievement Conference in the ninth year when I was working for the uh uh city of Grand Rapids also but uh as a librarian. And so I'm glad to uh have been able to continue that work and this relationship uh with the committee. Uh so what we're doing here uh at the uh at the conferences we're helping young people navigate challenges, embracing change, and shaping how they move through the world to define their own path forward. This conference teaches young black boys that excellence isn't something to chase. It's something they already carry. It isn't just a moment. It's a mirror and a megaphone reflecting who they are while amplifying who they can become. When black boys are seen, heard, and celebrated, the ripple effect reaches families, classrooms, and our entire communities. So, I want

010to thank Grand Rapids public schools because they're first year kids probably than than us. So, I I I I really appreciate the access to be able to um to uh help them. But um I want to thank the public schools, the African-American men who have led by example, and the men and community supporters who have helped make this journey possible. And I also want to thank the thousands of students, we can say thousands of students that have been part of this powerful decade of achievement. Good evening everyone. Ashanti Bryant. I am a Grand Rapids father, a former educator, uh a community advocate, and I also serve at the WK Kellogg Foundation. Uh I'm honored to have served on this committee, uh investing in African-American young men, uh Dr. Roby and Grandpas Public Schools Board of

011Education leaders. Tonight, we have eight GRPS scholars who we are honoring tonight. And just in continuing with what Eric and Asante share, this conference highlights the achievements of African-American males while providing them tools and resources to inspire the next generation of leaders. We root this conference in cultural pride and collective progress. and it's a catalyst for positive change and systemic impact. 10 years of existence, nearly 10,000 young black men impacted by this conference from Grand Rapids throughout the West Michigan region. And tonight we symbolically pass the torch to these young kings, investing in their scholarship and positioning them for their next step, whatever that may be uh beyond graduation. So, I'm going to ask the committee members to make your way up front, please. And then we're going to we're going to present to the

012eight GRPS scholars. I think we might have one who's not here, but we're going to call his name tonight, their scholarship in honor of our 10-year celebration of the African-American Male Achievement Conference. [Applause] Should I stay speaking from this mic or can I go over to this one back here? Is that one on? I want to feel like I'm commanding the slides. You want to move the slides around. All right. And I need a committee member to go and get those checks over there. And young men, when we call your name, you're going to stand up and you're going to get the check. Okay? And tonight, these young men are actually going to receive their donation or their scholarship this evening. Okay. All right. So, the first Grand Rapids public school scholar, young man King,

013to receive the scholarship, Denim Warden. He is a graduate of the CA Frost Environmental Science High School. Show them the check. Show them the check, Den. Show them the check. They don't know what to do. They don't know what to do yet. We'll figure it out. It's good. It's all good. It's all good. The next GRPS scholar, young man, King Marquy Manning, graduate of Innovation Central High School. Our next GRPS scholar, young man and king Cameron Jones, graduate of Grand Rapids University Preparatory Academy. Our next GRPS scholar, young man and king, Armani Luis Maldonado, graduate, Union High School. Our next GRPS scholar, young man and king, Anthony Darnell Cox, graduate of Ottawa Hills High School. That's good. That's good. Let's do that. All right. Our next GRPS scholar, young man and king, Keith Griffin, graduate

014of CA Frost Environmental Science High School. Our next Grand Rapids public school scholar, young man and king, Payton Emanuel, graduate, Grand Rapids University Preparatory Academy. And last but not least, not in the room tonight, I believe, but we want to acknowledge him. Our last GRPS scholar, young man and king, Charles Bishop Dwight Curtis, graduate of Ottawa Hills High School. Come on, y'all. Show him some love. [Applause] Thank you for standing. Thank you for standing. Keep that ovation going, please. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Roby. Thank you, Grand Rapids Public Schools Board of Education leaders for allowing us the time to present. Thank you so much. [Applause] Mhm. And thank you for allowing us to share that moment with you. Congratulations, gentlemen. All right. Our next celebration includes the spring

015sports recognition and achievements. I will ask Mr. um Johnson to come down as well as the athletic directors. Uh good evening, President Davis, Dr. Roby, other distinguished uh board of trustees. Uh tonight we have uh Marcus Harris from Ottawa Hills, the athletic director at Ottawa Hills, as well as Justin Walker, the uh athletic director from Union High School, who will be presenting on the accomplishments of our scholars uh during the spring sports season. That was a very grueling and uh exciting season for many of our our athletes and uh they're here to share some of the highlights and accomplishments of some of the scholars uh from this spring. Good evening uh Superintendent Roby, President Davis, and board members. Uh thank you first and foremost for allowing me and Mr. Harris to come share some of

016the achievements of our scholar athletes. This spring, Union High School had 10 allconerence athletes as well as three honorable mention athletes. Along with all conference athletes, we had the Union boys 4x1 100 meter relay team uh our conference champions for the OK gold this year. And then we also had our varsity girls uh team acade uh excuse me tennis team were academic all state for uh division one of all of MHSA. So I think there's over 250 schools in division one. our tennis team uh was second in the state for academic on all state which is another great achievement for that program. Along with uh the academic achievements of those uh scholar athletes for the tennis program this this year Union High School we have had seven scholar athletes commit to a college or university

017this year to continue their education as well as their athletic careers with some sort with some form of uh monetary scholarship for their future. So this year we had the opportunity to have our young men and young women achieve great things and we're able to do so through the support of our board as well as our community. So on behalf of the student athletes, excuse me, scholar athletes at Union High School, thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening, Superintendent Roby, President Davis, distinguished board members. Thank you for having me here today to discuss Ottawa Hills spring sports highlights. Uh Ottawa Hills, we had 11 allconerence athletes and two honorable mention. Our track and field team had another successful season which eight of those were from the track and field boys and girls teams. Uh we

018had conference champion in the discus. Uh also our four our uh 4x 100 relay girls team and also the 300 meter hurdles uh girls was the conference champion in the OK White. Uh we also had state qualifiers which also consisted of the 4x100 girls team uh 100 meter in girls and also the discus in boys. Uh finishing off we had at the state meet that which was held at Kentwood our 4x100 relay team finished 13th. Uh then our 100 meter person finished uh 20th and then uh Raan Rogers in the discus finished 30th. Uh we had a school record holder this year that broke the record, Ella Coaster in the pole vault, jumping nine uh 9 ft for the pole vault. Uh then some of our other highlights, 100 meter dash conference runner up for

019the boys, 110 meter and 300 meter hurdle conference champion in the OK White for the boys as well. And then also runner up in the OK White uh for the conference was our 4x100 meter, 4x200 meter, and 4x400 400 meter uh relay teams for the boys. Our girls team also was successful in the conference as well. Conference champion in the 300 meter hurdles and also the 4x100 meter relay and then conference runnerup in the 100 meter hurdles, 4x200 and 4x400 relay team. Also, we sent uh eight scholar athletes that committed and signed to play at colleges and universities here, ranging from girls basketball, uh football, boys basketball, cross country, track, and also volleyball. In fact, a young man who was just with us, uh Cameron Jones, who was one of the students just represented, uh

020he's going to be attending Kalamazoo College for football. So, appreciate you guys having us and uh look forward to being back here in the fall season to discuss the fall season. Our athletes are hard at work already for the summer conditioning program. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. And that that will conclude the report. Just one one thing to note is that over the last few summers, uh our gyms have been closed to our athletes on Fridays, just our Friday schedule. Uh this summer uh we've realized that we lose almost two weeks, two and a half weeks of skills, drills, and conditioning. And so we're going to ensure that our gyms for our high school, middle school athletes are open. Uh these athletic directors are committed to that. Our coaches are committed to that to

021continue to grow our athletic programs uh here in Grand Rapids. So you will see athletic the our athletes involved in uh summer conditioning on Fridays and not just Monday through Thursday. So that's a that's uh something that we're doing different this year. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we are at our public first public comment section of the agenda for board agenda items only. Trustee Rodriguez will read us into that. So during public comment, individuals will will be invited one at a time to the podium to address the board. Before beginning your comment, please state your full name. At that time, we'll start the timer, allowing each individual three minutes to make their comment. Um, you will need to complete your comment time upon being notified that three minutes have passed over

022here at that timer. Uh, board members do not respond to public comment. Concerns will be brought to the attention of the appropriate staff. We value your input and thank you for sharing with us today. Okay. Um, first up I have Jane Neeman, followed by Mara Kieran. Good evening. My name is Jay Neman. I am the vice president of the Grand Rapids Educational Association and a teacher at Union High School. Um, I am here to speak to the board tonight about a couple of issues on the agenda. Number one, the budget amendments. Um I saw that there was a nice increase a little bit to the uh revenue and uh that was good to see. As you know we are currently negotiating um uh a contract for our bargaining unit and as in the past we

023have always seen the sky falling sky falling with the the budget and I don't remember a time when we've had a fund balance as high as what has been projected at the end of this month. So with that being said, I hope that the board is looking forward to our salary proposals which will be given this Thursday at our next bargaining session and that you will commit to the promise to increase teacher compensation. Uh specifically, we have asked for raises every year as opposed to waiting three years for uh increased compensation and something that is competitive with the other districts in the county. The other item that I would like to address is the teacher non-renewals. I know there are not very many this year and I appreciate that. But I would like to state

024just briefly remind the board that probationary teachers are under some strict requirements. They have to be rated effective in their last three years of their evaluations. However, if they have been rated effective their first two years and then suddenly are related uh um excuse me rated developing, it begs the question why? And I invite you as you go into close session to discuss teacher renewal. Um was there a change in administration building leadership an evaluator? Was there a circumstance that may have provoked that change in evaluation? I do know that student data was dis uh reduced from 40% to 20% but other things increased as well uh on the size of the evaluation such as attendance and professional development and things like that. Um, and I wanted the board to be aware that though while

025those are strict rules, we are also in a teacher um a teacher crisis where we are having trouble finding new teachers and young teachers. And therefore it begs the question, do we really want to let go someone who has made the efforts to improve their practice or do we want to see if perhaps more supports and more supportive leadership need to be put in place? Thank you. I appreciate that. Mara Kieran followed by Marta Johnson. Okay, good evening. My name is Mara Kieran and I've been an educator for the last 10 years, three of which have been at GRPS. Prior to that, I taught in China for three years and Colombia for four years. I was in Caesar Chavez for a year and then since then, the last two years, I've been at Southwest Elementary

026Academy Bilingu. I think you know me. Um, and tonight I come here to give a comment because after a decade, I am here to say I'm no longer going to be a teacher. Therefore, I am one of the teachers on your list of personnel transactions. You might recognize that last month Southwest had another teacher who made a splash by resigning publicly, Senorita Mallalerie Salamango. She was an excellent resource teacher and she was going to be a huge loss to GRPS. I want to make sure it's known that we both loved Southwest deeply. It has amazing students, lovely families, a wonderful school comm community, and some of the best teachers I have ever worked with. However, I strongly believe that GRPS will continue to lose talent time and time again unless you start to act swiftly

027and boldly to fix problems. While I may be resigning, it doesn't mean that I don't want things to get better when I know there are so many people who choose to stay and keep fighting the good fight. I always tell my students to be solutionsoriented. So, I'm going to try to be concise and tell you the main reasons why I'm leaving. And then I want to give some ideas of solutions. GRPS teachers need better pay. Bottom line, you will not get many truly talented teachers to come here with the pay that GRPS is offering. Teachers are inherently dogooders, but you can only do so much good when you're barely surviving with your salary. I am legitimately embarrassed to tell people how much I make as a salary despite having 10 years of experience and a

028master's degree. It is honestly pitiful, especially when you look at what districts right next door are paying. GRPS teachers need more planning time. Work life balance is imperative, but it is also pretty much non-existent when you are a teacher. I have to take my work home, and it's virtually impossible to do even a fraction of it with the time that we're allotted with our specials. We need to find a way to get more planning time, but in order to do that, we need to attract more specials teachers. Hence, problem number one, please offer teachers better pay. GRPS needs to move after-hour meetings into normal hours. Things like PLC meetings, afterchool conferences and other school meetings need to be done during regular hours as much as possible. I have been to many PLC meetings and I

029can promise you nothing positive comes out of those meetings because everyone is so exhausted. When I worked in Colombia, the students went home early on Wednesdays and our PLC's and team meetings during normal hours were amazing. We had so much creativity. the best things came out of it and we m came to do really really amazing things. I've heard before that it's so inconvenient for parents if we were to dismiss early but after just finishing another three consecutive half days. Are we really claiming we're worried about what is inconvenient for parents? I had several students that didn't attend my last days of school because nobody could pick them up. Um conferences are probably the most exhausting days of the whole year. I know that that's time. Okay. Thank you. Well, thank you. Thank you. Marta

030Johnson, followed by D. Jones. Hi, my name is Marta Johnson. I have two children at Grand Rapids Monastery. Um, before I was in our ad hoc facilities committee uh hearing uh sharing concerns about the plans that we aren't hearing about that of the little that we have learned are concerning. Um, and I was struck by how in that very same room in 2022, there were board members that were concerned that we weren't having enough engagement in our strategic masters plan. Um, I had gone there to talk about air quality. A lot of you OG's right might remember that I am into air quality. Um, and I happened to stay around to hear about what words were being used, what the um, work that was being done, what plans were happening. And I was really impressed

031with how what a commitment there was to say we got to get this right. we need to get a contract going to redo this to make sure we're getting that input. Uh the contract group uh that was brought to the table was the Eureka group. Um we all know the report uh about reimagining our schools. There were uh clear themes that were delivered to to um give the board and the uh the district leadership a course of action. There were six recommendations that were given. This report was delivered with a alarm saying your house is on fire and since then we've heard people say it's not our job to look at the fire. That's fine. Uh board members have been saying that uh it is your job to look at the fire. It is your

032job to make sure the district is making financial responsible decisions, that the organizational culture reflects the strategy and vision that will center our students and make sure that their present and future experience at GRPS is excellent. They have been neglected and you are seeing this in the form of poor fail poor pay of teachers and teachers leaving this district. You are seeing this in um in how in the the various health uh indicators of our district. uh the purchasing agreement that is before you should not be voted on. We need an actual budget with a plan. The fact that executive contracts were put on there willy-nilly maybe and then taken off because maybe there was another time. This is the way the district has always worked. They push these big contracts. They push the same

033leadership that gives us the same results and we sit here allowing this for our children. We've got to do better. We want to partner with you. We want to reimagine with you. We are being shut out. Your village is being shut out. Please, please turn this around. Do not approve budget a amendments right now. Do not approve any business as usual. We need you to stand up and say, "We need a plan to pay our teachers. We need a plan to center students. We need a plan that makes sure that neighborhood studio school schools aren't left behind while we push forward on more and more theme schools. Get it together, please. We want to be with you." I'm sorry. I'm really emotional. I'm just so sick of us clapping for kids and not doing the

034work to make sure that all kids have the opportunity in GRPS. Thank you. Please refrain from clapping and cheering during public comment. D Jones and following D Jones will be Kim Baron. y'all doing? I'm D. Jones, passionate advocate. So, I'm speaking on the spring recognition and achievements. Uh, recently I've just partnered with you guys uh with the safe pitch task force funds that I got. We partner and we did a esports activation at the Ottawa Hills Esports Lab. Uh, I gave I got you guys a handout. I'm not too sure if you guys got the handout yet, but this handout I was just on uh uh channel 8 news and actually this this was on Friday. This was just this last Friday and uh this is actually made it to Yahoo Sports. So, it made

035it to a global platform here from our local community. This is for the summer initiative. Uh but this is actually the attention that we got. I'm here right here with the Ottawa Hills High School student. A bunch of those students on the Hotwood Hills High School students actually got a a college scholarship to Davenport University, which the second page on the handout that I gave you shows the student being highlighted in Yahoo Sports for getting a scholarship for being a part of the spring activation from the funds that I got with the Safe Pitch Task Force, also in partnership with GRPS. So, this initiative where we had $32 billion company Epic Games uh gave out 2,000 in cash. I also used some of the funding to buy some Xboxes. But then I gave those nextgen

036Xboxes to two of the students. So very nice person. D Jones gave students Xboxes also so they can get better at the gaming and gave out 2,000 in cash and had one of the best gaming companies on the planet which the new Fortnite season is fire right now. They got Superman on it. It's crazy. But I'm I'm enjoying it. And then we have some cool synergies going on cuz besides that and getting those kids some scholarships this last handout uh uh this actually it's not the last thing but uh there's an organization called party P A R T I actually I was speaking to the COO he handled a trillion dollar investment portfolio. You see on one side this is a conversation in the other side you actually see people on the pitch deck of

037some people work for Nvidia one of the best companies on the globe trillion3 trillion dollar company and then we also have the COO which was the Ivy League student went to Yale and actually handled a trillion dollar investment portfolio and we'll be partnering to educate the students in the spring initiative and further on if you guys would like to continue that synergy where we'll be educating all of these students across Kent County across GRPS they also will give you 90 to 99% of the equity. It's a free speech platform and they give you instant payouts. So once those students are gaining fans and we're cheering them on and there's esports competitions, they get a lot of equity. Then I also have a another initiative, but I'll speak about that on the last when I get

038my second public comment. Just know that beautiful things have happened with this funds that I got from the city of GR safe pitch task force in partnership with you guys. These students are highlighted on a global platform from one of our worst underperforming schools that will be one of the best on the planet one day. Thank you. Thank you de Kim Baron followed by Lucas Lret. Hi, my name is Kim Baron. Uh, I'm a GRPS parent, community member, and former GRPS employee. Tonight, the board will be asked to approve a budget, and it was going to be contract renewals for exempt employees. If you do not have the information that you need to make the right decision, I'm begging you to vote no and obtain the details that you need to make the right decisions

039for GRPS students. There's so much talk in the district about making right decisions for kids and I want so badly to believe that that's true. But the facts do not support the claim that everyone in GRPS is making every decision with the kids in mind. There will be later this month two exempt employees who are up for contract renewal tonight later this month who have been investigated by outside counsel had allegations substantiated and yet have returned to work in their same capacity on executive cabinet and drawing nearly $200,000 salaries with very gen generous retirement uh annuity contributions and auto expenses. Please do what is right for kids and do not renew contracts for anyone with substantiated allegations of bullying, harassment, creating toxic work environments, and using intimidation and manipulation to hold on to power. Also,

040before approving budgets and final and finalizing negotiations with the GRE, please take a close look at the amount of money that we pay Dr. Roby. She currently receives approximately $300,000, which is from 2024, so likely higher than that now. She also receives nearly $90,000 in retirement benefits, 25,000 in attack sheltered annuity and 6,000 for her vehicle. She receives annually a 6% raise, which appears to have been maybe hidden from the board and the public until I asked for the addendum to her contract to be made public this last week. Also, the minutes from the work session where the board approved that 6% raise were missing some details that it made it appear as though she was still receiving the 3% raise. So, please do what's right and look into this situation to determine if that

041was an intentional cover up. I'm surprised that Dr. Roby receives this enormous salary and benefit package with a 6% annual increase while the district refuses to negotiate a fair compensation for our teachers. This is unfair compensate. Uh this unfair compensation has a direct impact on our students because we struggle to recruit and retain high-quality teachers. So, please do what's right for kids. Renegotiate her contract. end her contract with GRPS uh and pay our teachers a living wage. GRPS has so much potential to provide an amazing experience for our students. And yet, our current leadership has settled for mediocrity at best in so many areas. Please do not approve the current budget until you have assurance that the right leaders are in place, that the budget will be used to create an excellent experience for our

042students. We want a school culture that celebrates great ideas, that encourages all staff to use their skills and to do great things. We want reliable transportation, delicious food, clean facilities, excellent ath athletics and extracurriculars, safe, secure, trauma-informed schools. And these aren't extravagant requests. That's just what's right for kids. Thanks, Lucas Leit. Followed by Ismalis Nunes. Good evening, Lucas Lever. I'm here to address the dumpster fire of your finance agenda this evening. Let's talk about the agenda itself. Every item you've proposed to act on tonight was contentious in the finance committee and the recommended action on them is a lie. The clear result of the discussion in finance was not motion to approve. And it's this kind of purposefully misleading garbage that's put us in such a bad place as a school system. Your agenda tonight

043is also backward. You're taking action on items that were discussed in the committee before the minutes and report from that committee have been heard. Further, the way your committees work is ludicrous. A tie in a body that has an even number of members is act is automatically moved to the whole board. That is just dumb. Set an odd number or require a majority for it to leave committee. All this is part of a corrupt construct of GRPS. Things move through a timeline deliberately built as a bum rush. ramming things through and pressuring new leadership is not acceptable and it will not be tolerated by us, the people who are actually the ones in charge of our schools, like it or not, while we still have whatever passes for the tattered remains of a democratic republic.

044Miss Williams scolded the committee for trying to unpack what the superintendent needs and accused the dulyeleed representatives of these people of micromanaging. But the convenience of that kind of opaque garbage is exactly how our systems gotten so far into the miserable failure that it is today. The era of butt out governance is ending. Get used to it. Remember, just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid. The worst part of all this is when somebody who's supposed to be an agent of change misses the chance to disrupt. Sarah, you had the chance to hold the line as the firewall, and you failed. You cannot break this wheel till you take a stand to break it. You could have stopped all this crap, but you fell for the pressure of the

045bamboozle from one of the biggest champions of the existing status quo corruption as she danced around in circles and wallowed in double talk. The reality is that asking to spend money before a budget is presented is laughable. Blanket POS are ridiculous, especially without guardrails to expose more details by right. Out here in the normal working world, we don't get to have those kinds of blank checks, especially not without balances and oversight. This has to change. And you've got a very well- paid CFO who can do more, do better, and prioritize transparency. If she can't, she can leave. The line items in this open-ended PO system are suspect. Nine grand for somebody's home internet. Are you kidding me? The the days of this administrative playground blowing money and slush funds for crony contractors are a thing

046of the past. And we're counting on you to force the reality upon the leadership that this system is broken. It's failing. Hell or high water, you've got to do it. Isalis Nunes. I wish I was that tall. Um, good evening board members. My name is Ismalis Nunes. Uh, and I'm speaking on behalf of over 300, 337 to be exact, students, families, staff, and community members who have signed a petition calling for urgent action in Grand Rapids public schools. Our students deserve a school system that listens, responds, and invests in their success. But right now, that's not what we're seeing. We're tired of the excuses, especially the repeated claim that it's not the board's responsibility to even see the fires in this district. That doing so would be micromanaging. Let me remind you, your fiduciary responsibility

047is not to just approve budgets, but to provide oversight to ensure that funds are being used ethically, effectively, and in the best interest of our students and staff. You may not feel the fire from when you're where you're sitting, but let me be clear. Your house is on fire. We see the impact every day in classrooms without permanent educators, support staff stretched to the limits, buildings with unsafe air and crumbling infrastructure, leadership decisions being made behind closed doors. It's evident budgets that don't reflect the priorities of students, families, or the people doing the work. And despite the clear findings in the Eureka report in 2023, a report that laid out both the problems and potential solutions, this board collectively has failed to hold district leadership accountable for action. Instead, we've seen budget after budget rubber

048stamp to maintain a broken status quo. We're calling for no more voting yes on budgets until there's clear, transparent, and communityinformed plan to address the crisis. Many of you were elected because you promised to fight for fair pay, for equity, for a better district. This is the moment to live up to those promises. This is also your fire to respond to. And we collectively are counting on you to be bold, to be courageous, and to help put it out. The time is now. Thank you. Okay, that concludes our board agenda item, public comment. So, we will move on to the secretar's report. All right. Uh, so just a reminder to um everyone out there, ad hoc facilities is scheduled to meet uh July 14th. Um, did not have the times yet. Uh what time? 5:00

049here. Room 112 112 in the library building. And then finance committee is scheduled on July 28th um 4:30 here in the auditorium. Thank you. Okay. Superintendent report. All right. Um good evening again. Good evening again. So for our board as well as our audience, um just a couple things that we want to make sure that people are aware of as we are looking at um 2526 for budget reductions. Can people hear me? Can you Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um with rising costs and the conclusion of our ESSER funding, GRPS must reduce spending to ensure the long-term financial stability. Our priority is to protect our classroom experiences while making it possible to increase compensation for our staff. District leadership is committed to making reductions in areas that will have the least direct impact on our GRPS

050scholars. And so what I'll walk you through are some of the things that we have um in plans and then also with the understanding that there are other things that we have been working on to kind of make some adjustments related to budget. um reducing department budgets to operate more efficient efficiently. Excuse me. All GRPS departments are working towards a 10% reduction. Salaries for all district leadership roles will be frozen for the upcoming um immediate future. Reducing um non-eing positions with the retirements of the executive director of athletics and dual enrollment, the executive director of professional learning and development. Both roles will be eliminated and not refilled. Additional administrative reductions at the Franklin campus includes elimination of the multi-tered um systems of support or MTSS administrator and the reimagining GRPS um project manager roles. Other

051positions that have been eliminated eliminated excuse me to security guards to custodial supervisors and a part-time architect through the school realignment. Some princip principal positions are being consolidated. For example, one principal at um the Kenosha and Sherwood Park. There's there were two principles and because of the merger of those two schools, we're moving to one principal. Um the business office is also being restructured um with two upcoming retirements with positions at reduced compensation. Um eliminating out of school, outofstate travel for conferences effective immediately. All GS departments will pause out of state conferences unless it's fully covered by external funding and so there's often um scholar um trips and things that are related to grants and things. So we're um still will allow for those to take place. Ender ending vendor contracts. The contract with Elevate

052K12, a temporary solution to address teacher vacancies, has been discontinued as of um this end of our school year. some strategic funding shifts. We're reviewing current positions to identify opportunities for reclassification, which would make them eligible for grant funding and help alleviate pressure from the general fund. And what that means is that um looking at board dollar funded positions and moving them into other grant-f funded positions because there still will be needs, but just to remove them out of the general fund budget. Um eliminating nonGRPS programs. This year, we have ended our sharetime programs and meal services to nonGRPS schools. Those have been eliminated as the state no longer covered the full cost and continuing them would force the district to fund programs that don't directly um benefit GRPS scholars. And then also finally leveraging

053vacated properties. Some of the things that we've talked about as a board and will be coming forward in future conversation is in partnership with our new owners representative as well as the city of Grand Rapids exploring those strategic opportunities to generate revenue from select vacant properties. And so those are some of the things that are in the hopper. There are other things that we are still working through and I just wanted to make sure that people had that information. Thank you. I would invite um Stephanie Seismus up for the legislative update. Hi. Match those wheels. We could have had a good show tonight and fix that. All right. Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for having me. Um my update tonight is pretty short and sweet. Um I know I'm usually a little long-winded,

054but we're going to just celebrate good news tonight and our recent Lancing Advocacy Day. Um while also touching on our Senate budget, um we still do not have a House budget, but we will go through kind of what we think our timeline might look like for that House budget. Um, it is pretty consistent with what we've been saying all along of looking like we're going to see, you know, a government shutdown in the fall. Um, I wish I had better news for you. Um, and, uh, maybe maybe I will be wrong. I have been wrong before. Um, but it's looking like the speaker is really going to hold out until October. Um, so with that, um, thank you to the board members that attended our Lancing day and our admin, Dr. Roi and Luxure and

055um our three lovely scholars who uh really impressed every single representative and senator that they met with. They did a phenomenal job and uh made my day incredibly easy for the uh my work incredibly easy for the day. So it was a a truthfully joyful and inspiring day. Um they did such a great job talking about three key issues that we'll go into in just a second. Um and I should say I haven't been in front of all of you. Um, we also had another event where we did a breakout session with legislators and many of you came to that. So, thank you. Um, I think it was very effective to have legislators come meet us where we are and then we went and met them where they are. And it's just a a double

056uh whammy kind of to, you know, go to Lancing and show face and in just a second we'll go into not only did we meet with our GRPS delegation folks. We met with the committee education chairs and vice chairs and leadership and that's just so important as we often reminded them. Um, you know, a lot of those folks just because of districtricting and the size of the state, a lot of members are from the east side and we have a select few on the west side. We're growing due to districts and size, but a lot of those education chairs are from the other side of the state. So to put a face to a name to GRPS is really influential and very effective when they're making decisions and when our name comes up. So, a

057couple of key topics that our legislators talked about both at the breakout sessions um here that we did in district and then in Lancing. And I won't go through all the bullet points, but just so you have it in front of you. Um in addition to the key headers, we touched on just the continued foundation increase and support for our students to adequately support our teachers and students at the state level, especially while um we are, you know, we still do not know, but we are looking at severe cuts from the federal level as Dr. Roby already touched on some of those. Um so with those being um looming the state support and foundation increase is more important than ever. Um we did including with our Republican House members and chairs um we stressed on

058the importance of a timely budget and what that allows schools to do um to best prepare and to um have the best school year that we can for everyone. Um, I hope that that was received, but we'll we'll see. And with that, the three main issues that our students really touched on that were important to them and they um again just did such a phenomenal job, but the continued um importance of the Michigan Meals program that's kind of on the line, I think, as Republican House members are looking at potential budget cuts. So again, it was um I think persuasive and influential to hear from students firsthand and how that's making a difference for them and their colleagues in Lancing. That's often um you know not an opportunity that every community chair gets to have

059when they're making decisions or looking at numbers on a paper and then to have a student sit in front of them and really explain how that makes a difference in their day and to their fellow um students. It it you could see the impact on that throughout our day. The second was mental health care access which is directly tied to funding that we have seen be cut before in Michigan and we advocated for the continued increase in support of 31A and 31A. Um, a couple of talking points here that our scholars really leaned in on, but um, you know, they touched on and additional funding to have more resources, to have more counselors as they know they are, you know, going to their teachers and if the state can help provide GRPS the opportunity to

060do that, I know we're ready and excited to do that. The third one, which is the hot topic, which everybody is talking about, I'm sure, is uh, cell phones and schools. There are two different bills right now put forward. There's one in the Senate and one in the House. So, our visit was actually perfectly timed because they literally moved the House Education cell phone bill out of committee when we were there that day. So, students shared their potential pros and cons of what they felt like um they would like to see or not see in a cell phone bill. I think both in our breakout sessions and with our scholars in Lancing, I was pleasantly surprised. Um, I'm not close to a lot of high schoolers right now in my personal life. So, having a

061personal conversation, they really were excited and encouraged and wanting to see some cell phone reforms and regulations. Um, again, a select group of students. They shared a few concerns, but they um they were on board with some of the things that our our legislators were putting forward, but also shared some of the things that they might like to see differently. And with that, as I mentioned, we had some key advocacy meetings. So, we did meet with the entire GRPS delegation, which was amazing, including our senators, which included the Senate majority leader. Um, she was really gracious and lovely with her time. She came up to the gallery and spent quite a bit of time with our scholars and some of our admin. We broke out. we had a double meeting so I was not personally

062there but I have heard and maybe uh some other members that were there can speak to that in a second but she shared some history of the capital and what she does and took questions and um in addition to that we'll touch on just a second but the house and the senate did a special floor recognition so our scholars were able to stand in the gallery along with admin and be greeted by our representatives and senators in the capital which is pretty special and then again broadening in our horizons as GRPS, you know, going outside of just our delegation, we were able to meet with the chairs and vice chairs of both the education policy and appropriations committee. So policy just deals with legislation, policy initiatives, and appropriations is all budget and funding. And we

063were able to also do that on the Senate side as well. So we really covered our basis. We had a couple of groups. We had a great legislative lunch with some other members that attended. So, um, a full day in Lancing. I think everyone slept very well that night. As our scholars said, walking in at 4:30, they were going home and going to bed. So, and just a couple of pictures from our House and Senate floor recognitions. You can see the House delegation down on the floor. Um, our scholars and admin up in the gallery, and then the Senate majority leader spending some time with our students up in the gallery. So, budget updates. Um as I had mentioned the house has still not presented a budget um an education budget or any budget for

064that matter. However um they are uh not having session today or tomorrow and they are gathering as a caucus and they are working on their supplemental budgets is what we have heard. That's I guess the the political uh gossip that we're leaning in on a little bit. And with that we're hoping that subcommittee budgets either would um be presented at the end of the week or early next week. But we are hearing there's a chance of a little um untraditional budget process in the house whereas usually budgets are worked on in subcommittee. So you have you know education or public health and all of our different sections of life and those subcommittees then vote on their budgets internally and then they go to the floor. Um, we are hearing that they are not going to

065go to subcommittee votes and that the speaker is just going to pull them from committee work and onto the floor and straight to a vote, which really limits not only his own caucus members abilities, but certainly anyone in the minority to get any kind of a read on what is in a budget before they have the chance to vote on it. And uh, with that on the other side of life, um, someone passed a budget and that's the Senate the Senate side so far. Um, and not only did they pass their Senate education budget, they passed a whole listic budget with all their subcommittees included. Um, a little bit of budget good news, which we can celebrate these days with federal and state that's coming our way. Um, due to some continued advocacy, I'm very

066excited to share that in the Senate budget and supplemental that was put forward, the Michigan Meals reimbursement that we've been talking about for some time, and that was included for the full amount. that obviously has to be included at the end of the day when the House and the Senate come together for conference and that's the final vote that everyone, you know, put puts together on the final budget. But for right now, that's a huge step in the right direction to have our Michigan Meals reimbursement included for the full amount. So, with that, a couple of just uh highle takeaways here for the Michigan Senate Dumm budget. I'm sure many of you have already reviewed it, but the Michigan Senate Dems have put forward more than a billion funding increase for the state public schools

067with an emphasis on lowering elementary class sizes. They are raising the suggesting and again these are all suggestions, right? They have to come together for the final budget. But what they would like to see is the raising the per people pupil funding by 4,000 from 9 400 excuse me from 9,68 to 10,0008 with districts required to use 50% of that increase to boost teacher pay. Plan would increase the school aid fund by 5% from nearly 20.8 billion in fiscal year 2025 which ended which ends on September 30th to just over 21.8 8 billion for the FY26 budget proposed 25% increase in the opportunity index which would direct in which would direct an additional 250 million to schools serving students with the greatest needs includes 2.5 billion in investments for student mental health critical upgrades to

068school infrastructure specifically 350 million of that putting aside for school safety and mental health and then including in that um holistic uh amount is including clean and function HVAC systems and a continued commitment to free breakfast and lunch for every Michigan public student, which I thought was very important as they know that is on the chopping block on the House and the Senate. Um, through all of their statements, through the chair statements has been a key emphasis and making sure that our Michigan meals are included. So, with that, any questions or concerns? All right. So, thank you for that that presentation. Um, I know some of us from the uh city board liaison committee also went to to meet with lawmakers. I think what the week prior to to your uh to your trip. So,

069um I'm sad I got to I had to miss out on that one. Couldn't take two days off that much. But um I so I know that one of the concerns that we had as as board members was the requirement to use that 50% of that increase to boost teacher pay um because it's not guaranteed, right? And and I just want to remind my board colleagues and and the public as well that, you know, the the state house that has not put out a budget proposal yet did try to pass a 25% reduction in the educational uh funding for the state of Michigan. Um and so I just want to remind us of that and and I love all of these takeaways. I love all of the, you know, possibilities. Um, and I just want

070us to maybe take that as a reminder to call our uh representatives and say, "Hey, you know, we see the the state senate's proposals and we hope that you can, you know, even match half of this because um there's I think we're at two very different sides of this. One is, hey, let's put in more money and one is, hey, let's reduce the the budget by 25%." So, I just need all of us to use our voices and our collective power to advocate for for this hopefully more of this budget proposal. Absolutely. Um, one, come join me next year. You were missed. But, um, and congratulations by the way. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so just to echo that a little bit. Absolutely. Right. And I again just to echo these are all Senate recommendations

071and if they like had their perfect world, this is what would be passed tomorrow. Um to your point, we have a long ways to go before we even see anything close to perfect. Um and when the House and Senate come together for that conference, um it's going to look a lot different by the time it's done, right? Because we have a House that we have to u meet in the middle with if there's a middle um and and find that budget. So, um and I will echo what you said. I think it's really important to reach out to House members. I I think I would just make one suggestion. know that our our G GRPS House um delegation they are fighting um Vice Chair Rep Glennville and I are having daily conversations at this point

072about you know what she's hoping to see in the budget what we can do to carry a lot of this over um but with unfortunately the political reality is our GRPS um dumb house delegation are in the minority and are not part of a lot of the leadership conversations or advocacy to see these in the budget. So, you know, even expand that outreach a little bit. Reach out to education committee chairs, vice chairs, even if they're not in your district. Um, on the appropriation policy side, the folks that are overseeing this budget, the more outreach they get, the better. So, I just to echo that, but maybe to even just expand that horizon a little bit would be a great outlook. So, what I'm hearing Oh, go ahead. No, I was going to say so

073what I'm hearing is everyone call your family across the state and tell them to talk to their representatives as well. And also we can reach out to them too. We and you can reach out to them because they're an education committee. You don't have to be a representative. They're in charge of the education budget. It's important to you. You can reach out. Am I sharing who all the committee is? Yeah, absolutely. So um I mean you don't have to do it right here. No, it's right here. Um so right in this order actually um the first two are your policy chairs. Um the second two are your appropriation chairs. So those four representatives are the house education leadership. and you should hopefully have your the PowerPoint, but I if not, we can follow up with

074that. Feel free to take a photo. I'll we can get an email and I'll send the contact info so you can reach out to that. Absolutely. This isn't really a question, but I'll just add having been at the advocacy day. Um I just really appreciated Well, Stephanie, I appreciate all the work you do to organize that so we're able to advocate for the district and our students and staff. Um but on top of that, uh and you said this already, the majority leader is very gracious with her students. She was very gracious with, you know, board members and and and staff. Um, and also just being a great champion for us along with the house delegation. Um, being a champion for whether it's that meals uh reimbursement, which we really need. And I'm very appreciative

075of your work and also the work of our folks in Lancing to make that happen, but also just across the board to make sure we're able to get what we need so we can do what we need to do for kids. Absolutely. Thank you. And that actually reminded me of something that I should include. Um so even though the house budget hasn't come forward yet, there was a new house process that was put forward. So any new any um one time item onetime line item request had to go through a application process. It's all public. You had to have a public sponsor and co-sponsors. So on the house side, even though he's not our given representative, um due to partnerships that we have that his old district was influenced um EGR as well, um Representative

076Posimus, who is the majority floor leader right now, had to think for a second. Um he put the official proposal in. So he's the sponsor for the House request and then Rep. Glandville as well as Rep. Wooden joined as co-sponsors for that request. So even though it's not out on the house, thank you for that reminder. We do have some champions on the house side that are advocating for Michigan meals, too. Yep. Thank you. Thank you. Um I would just throw out there that if you go if you could go back to the slide that has just the bullet points like when we were at the um school board associations day the week prior um one thing that I kept hearing and it is a concern for myself is if there not that one the

077one the budget. Yes. Thank you. Hold on. There we go. Like all of these things sound great, but one thing that we just want to I want to push for and I heard it from multiple districts that were represented there is when we have like the 1 billion funding increase for with an emphasis on lowering elementary school class sizes. That's great, but how are we going to sustain that? Because if we lower class sizes and we get used to something awesome and then that money disappears, it's really hard for districts. I mean, we see that just with like the er funding like that money was so beneficial, but when it goes away, we're back to square one. So, just advocating for continuation of Yeah. those fun those funds is important. Yeah. No, thank you, President

078Davis. I think um some of the House GRPS colleagues uh that I've chatted with, they have that concern, right? I think especially Rep. Glennville, who's a former teacher and admin, like she always looks for that continued change, like if we change one thing once, what's that is it going to cost us more in the long run to change it back, right? Um so I definitely hear that um and and echo that. I think um you know the the not fair and unfortunate answer is it depends on who's in both chambers to make that keep going right to shift that focus. Um but hopefully through some negotiation with boilerplate there's something that we can do there but I'll keep an eye on it. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you. All right, I will ask uh Mr.

079Johnson to come down. This is the public safety annual report and information related to summer safety as we are on the cusp of summer. Good afternoon again, President Davis. We and other distinguished board members. This is an an update of our of our um year end school security uh updates and what we've accomplished uh this uh this school year. Uh again everything that we're doing it's uh we we keeping in mind the uh the scholarity the priority scholar outcomes as related to the strategic themes and uh meeting the hol holistic needs of our student needs and also the creating a culture of trust collaboration and stewardship. Having said that, uh we wanted to ensure that we were doing everything that was best practice and aligning our work around the five five phases of emergency management

080being prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. And then making sure that all of our our professional development with our with our staff and with uh and with staff in the district is is hitting those tenants to make sure that we are providing a safe environment for our scholars, staff, and parents. Our framework again uh and you've seen this before is around physical safety and security. What we can do around the physical uh plant uh the operational emergency management making sure that our staff has the tools uh to respond uh training preparedness. You can never train enough and we spend uh quite a bit of time uh training our staff and trying to provide uh broader training training to um to community and parents when when available. Uh we're looking at our culture, climate, and community

081engagement. Uh mental and behavioral health and working with our uh this has been a year that we've really embraced and did some more work with our our mental health uh clinicians and our therapists. And that's been exciting work uh to get our our staff connected to them. It was absolutely a missing piece and and so we're connecting those pieces. We look at health and wellness and then making sure that everything we do uh is around leadership uh law and legal and uh that it meets the board's policy. Uh we we're up to about 1,800 gun locks that we've uh that we've distributed uh since last July, since this last June actually, and we'll continue to distribute gun locks. Uh we re just received some updated information from one of the uh the partners as it

082relates to safe gun storage and we're hoping to push that out into our community and continue to push it not in the community but really connecting with our churches as well so that information is distributed uh in various forms so that our scholars can get that information. We continue to put more literature out uh continue to uh attend more PTA and PTO meetings than ever before. Uh and continue to schedule our team officers uh that could uh talk about uh uh gun safety programs being the uh being the uh the tenement or the focal point. Uh we also received uh picked up additional gun locks from uh Michigan State Police at no charge to our district and ensuring that uh that we have ample gun locks uh to distribute at various programs within the uh

083within the within our school. And those gun locks are provided at no cost to the district. And uh and we just want to put those out into the hands of many parents that uh that are gun gun owners. and and in the in the event that a uh a home is broken into or uh that weapon doesn't end up into the hands of a youth in our community. And we think that's very important. Uh we talk about physical security uh a camera project and uh the last time we came to you, we were at about 66% of our buildings uh had cameras. The date we're happy to report we're about at 81% of our buildings. So, we did a quite quite a bit of work uh since last October uh as it relates to installing

084uh cameras in our in our buildings and our elementary buildings has been the focal point because that's the buildings that uh did not have cameras and then upgrading systems in our middle and high schools that uh that have reached their their life. uh our card access although we have a 100% card access program uh we are in the process of uh of engaging with a new system because we've come to the end of life of a 35-y year uh program called PCSC. It just cannot do what we needed to do as it relates to card access. So uh we are we are looking at and have looked at a program called Genitech which we are moving into and we've started this with a with a with a program at Kin Hills and that Kin Hills

085Elementary installed the Genitech system there uh with a Genitech camera system so we can get a good uh beta run on that uh on that program before we fully invest in it. Uh we want to see how it uh how it can is different than what we're using right now and uh does it do the things that uh that our MIS folks wanted to do as it relates to tracking buildings. Uh again with our critical mapping system uh with at our last report here was at 67% we at 93% uh with uh no plans to uh do the other buildings because those are buildings that are not occupied and so that critical mapping system has been uploaded into our system uh shared with law enforcement. So in the event they have to make a uh

086a run into our building, they can pull up these digital maps uh from their cruisers to get uh lifetime uh maps of our buildings. uh the uh our secured entryway work. Uh again, there's not a huge increase here, but uh we're moving forward and uh making sure that those buildings that are occupied with scholars uh we're at 81% now uh of our buildings uh are secured uh have a secured entryway and the reason we're not higher buildings such as uh this building here uh library building uh the 4 building and some of our vacants uh we have not ventured into those buildings as of yet. And so our focus was on those buildings that have scholars and parents uh uh coming in and out of those uh facilities. Our raptor visitor management system and we

087went from 61% to 78% uh adding on our middle our high schools was the add-on and uh our usage rate here is not where we would like it to be. So we have a lot of training and some more information to get out to our staff in terms of using the systems. We understand the resistance of parents not wanting to use the system uh by putting information into that raptor system. So it's a learning curve for our parents, learning curve for our community and it's a trust factor to make sure that that data is not being shared with anyone and we hear that loud and clear uh from our community. We hear it loud and clear at our PTO meetings. Uh we hear it loud and clear when parents contact us in our two radios

088and we we've distributed just every radio iss off the shelf and in buildings and we'll continue to do that. We put an emergency radio in every one of our buildings that has direct contact with uh with the Grand Rapids Police Department or the Kent County Sheriff uh by hitting a button. They can go direct to their dispatch if they were having an active issue inside of their building. And that's a not only a huge improvement, but it was a requirement by the law that we have some type of panic button inside of our schools uh to alert law enforcement if there was an an active issue inside of the buildings. Uh our role to update of a crisis manual. This board asked us to update the crisis manual is a huge undertaking and we did

089a to we're doing a total rewrite of the book and the initial review was done in June uh 20 uh 2024. Uh we had an initial design come out uh we began to work with uh with our internal committees and and getting input from various departments uh in terms of how the book impacts their individual department. Uh our draft uh we had a first draft come out in February 2025. Uh we are reviewing that uh draft what we call a page turn this week where we will be uh we're going to be doing our page turns to the month of June in hopes of getting a final product off off to print uh so that we can have books back in our hand in July but not only books but there's an app electronic app

090that will be coming along with this uh very comprehensive book for operations folks uh and uh key people in the district and a teacher manual a principal's manual uh and then the one thing that we've never done we've done one page procedures for our our staff and this time we're going to a full flip chart to give our staff or teachers an opportunity to have all of the response uh responses that we have. We're hoping to uh train and begin distributing that in August and we'll can do that uh as as convenient and as easy it is for our staff uh hoping that they do not have to come out on a Saturday or uh come back after hours. We want to be able to integrate the training into the uh into the day uh

091so they can receive that information and then it'll be ongoing training and distribution of that book. Uh just talking about some of the uh the achievements uh as of today of June 4th our guys covered about 297 events outside of the school day. These are afterhour events uh that they provided security for uh and and and those does not include the athletic events. there was about 1500 athletic events uh when you look at all levels of athletics that that our team uh was covering. Uh we're proud to say that as as our data starts rolling in uh we have a 28% uh decrease in an overall incident in our district this year and that's the first time we've had that in about five years. So our our team is pretty proud uh of that and

092and the work that they're doing inside of the building. Our summer success security plans uh again we're going to be staffing seven sites. Uh our mobile patrols will be available districtwide. Again, uh we we're putting our security officers, every one of them on June 16th and 17th and two different sessions will be going through behavior threat assessment management training. Uh some have already gone through and others will be following. Uh we're working with our with our ether therapist and our mental health department to make sure that they are they are going through as well uh because of a law that requires all buildings to have a team by October 26. And so we want to get a jump on it and not wait till August to try to send our teams through, but we're going

093to pull those that are working this summer and get them into the uh training. We'll continue our working and uh to support the city of Grand Rapids and Urban League with open gym activities this summer. Uh they have a program at Burton Middle uh which is an esports program and then the Urban League will be running a program out of Geral 4 and this is on Friday and Saturday nights. It's a safe safe summer. Uh we uh did this last summer. huge success at Alger Middle School. Uh but this year uh to get uh more kids who will not need transportation out uh to uh south of town uh the the majority of the kids appear to be coming from the core city. So we wanted to make sure that we put it there. We've

094talked to Grand Rapids uh the city of Grand Rapids about expanding it in other locations around the uh around the community and offering up the schools for that and it's a slow growth for them. again working with D. Jones, city of Grand Rapids on these summer programs and we continue to uh working on our back to school uh 25 26 school security plans and training to ensure that all of our staff um are will be ready to hit the ground running uh on the first on the first day of school. Uh as as of uh today uh we have no we have only one individual saying they're not coming back. So we'll be coming back with a team that's uh that's ready to roll. uh they'll continue to receive some training this summer uh updated

095training. We'll look at best practice, look at where we need to adjust, uh look at the areas where we need to improve and the area the areas of growth that we may need and we'll continue to do that. And we just want to continue to celebrate scholar success and the work that our scholars do because our scholars are are the key to this. Our staff is key to this. We have I think we have a a fantastic staff uh who who really follow uh the the leadership in terms of their building leadership around uh safe schools and safe school environment and staff do a good job and our students do a good job. We just want uh if you have the opportunity to begin to pop in some of those uh some of those trainings

096as well just to see exactly uh what we're trying to trying to teach our staff. We try to identify uh the leading experts locally that can bring us uh a different lens at times uh around school safety and security. So we're not bringing people in from around the country and we we just don't do that. We try to stay right here free resources and not expend uh money uh for things that we can get for free. So So that's what uh what what is going on in school safety and security. It's uh it's it's been exciting. Today our our team celebrated their their awards had their awards banquet uh uh a great turnout and uh it was good to celebrate them uh for for hard job that they've done uh this school year. We was

097we was concerned about uh the number of events that they were working and how much time it was taking uh away uh their evenings but uh to have safe secured events and no have no major incidents uh is a huge accomplishment for them. So, my hats off to him and I have the privilege of working with a a well-trained, well-versed team uh who's uh who's committed uh to this work. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any questions? I have a few questions actually. Well, first of all, I want to uplift our security team. Thank you. I I do try to connect with them after every board meeting that goes considerably long knowing that they've already had a very long day in our buildings. So, thank you. And I see Mr. Garcia over here right now.

098So, thank you. I know there are a few more in the building. So, um I have a couple questions around the prevention phase of emergency management and I'm encouraged with the safe storage um information that you've shared tonight, uh the gun locks that are going out and some of the information that we've included in newsletters so far. We do have a state mandate coming up though in October where we need to disseminate information per the governor's law. And I'm curious about what your readiness is for when that comes about and what that timeline looks like and how we'll be sharing that information. One of the one of the uh one of the things that the the legislators are asking us to share is uh data on school safety data and and we're working with the

099state to try to find out what mechanism uh can we utilize to pull that data where it is consistent data and that and that it rep truly represents. There's a danger when school districts begin to uh put out that type of data that's not uh not cleaned up and correct. But we're going to continue to work with the office of school safety to find out what is the best me mechanism and what are they recommending and we'll continue to uh attend their meetings and get the guidance from them in terms of what they want us to do to meet their requirements. Is that around the safe storage laws? No, that's around just overall school safety. The safe the safe Okay. Sorry, my question was specific around the specifically around safe storage laws. We we're just

100we are we'll continue to uh receive information from the uh from Michigan State Police and the Office of School Safety. Uh and uh our our team officers are attending a refresher training to get the most updated information as it relates to safe gun storage that we can take to our scholars. Now the the other piece of that is uh taking information not only to our scholars but to the family members as well and how do we push that into the family as well. But we will have an updated uh program uh from the uh the teaching education and mentoring program uh to take into the classrooms. Okay. Maybe nothing internally yet with communications though at least we have not had any internal communications. No. Okay. Um that's question number one. Question number two. Uh the

101critical incident mapping. Yes. So I have two parts to this question. I think I want to go to the mapping piece first. So you mentioned that that is specific for law enforcement. So when law enforcement is contacted about an incident, they receive like a map of understanding for where they're entering what where the incident was. They they literally have a map of our building. That is correct. Is that what Okay, that is correct. I guess. And so I'm going to open a can here. um how are we making sure that that stays internal and with law enforcement and not with ICE? Well, thank you. That's a great a great question. Uh but this has to do with emergency response and uh it's shared in their CAD system. Uh and just every school is is doing

102this. It's putting it in the CAD system. Uh it is our hope and with our agreements with Grand Rapids Police Department that information that we provide to them is not shared to to anyone at all. And even if ICE came to our building, our internal processes will still kick in. Uh what the critical incident mapping does, it gives an an officer or a emergency responder the exact location of the emergency and give them directions on how to get to that emergency to save time to provide aid and or other uh prevention measures if we were to have an active individual inside the school. Okay, that was also my question and wonder if we can put like a policy or rule in place in that relationship. Uh I heard you say uh aspirationally because of our

103other policies that that is like a layer of protection, but I wonder in our real relationship um with the police department, couldn't we put in a policy or process? I think anou would be appropriate. Uh and we've been working on theou with the Grand Rapids Police Department. Uh uh just outlining uh their duties, responsibilities, our duties and responsibilities, and how much access we will give them. and and we've really shut down a lot of the access that we uh that we give Grand Rapids Police Department. Yes. Interested in seeing that about you. Yeah. Two more. Okay. Thank you. Um so you were mentioning that you're offering trainings and that we're invited and I would love to know when those are happening. Uh when we when we come out with our new schedule this year, we

104will we'll make sure that Dr. Wby gets that schedule and she can share it with the board. Okay. Great. And then I'm going to go back to one of the slide. It looks like it's slide number six. And you'll have to forgive me. I got distracted in this moment. But you were talking about the framework for comprehensive school safety. And included within that is our mental and behavioral health and health and wellness. Those are two really big pieces that I find personally important. Um what were you elaborating on there? We have not we had not done a very good job connecting with our mental health teams in the past. We have more E3 therapists and we we needed to build our internal processes with them uh build trust with them. Many of them are new

105and getting to understand their processes and when we can bring them in uh to work on behavioral threat assess assessments and see how we can support them and how they can support us. Uh that team is uh that team is uh very very well equipped. uh we're learning a lot from them uh as it relates to uh mental health and uh working with our teams to kind of bring them up to speed when we can uh we can engage our students. How many are on that team? There's uh Northern Atkins is here. I think there's 21 on his team on the behavior threat not behavior threat assessment on his E3 therapist team. I think there's 20 18 or 20 of them. Okay. Uh but when we talk about a behavior threat assessment team uh it's

106our goal to have a team in every building and that's the state law to have a team in every building. And you've met with how many in the We've met with their leader. We've met with their leadership team. Uh their leadership team has been trained and now we we've trained our security leadership team and now we're rolling out and getting additional working with the Kin ISD and other statewide instructors to instruct and bring more training uh from behavior threat assessment which we will open up to anyone in the district that wants to participate. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I I think that ends my questions for now. Thank you very much. Thank you, member. Anyone else? I was wondering how many um you the how many security staff are do you have on staff? 38. So

10738 people did. How many after school? Uh 247 uh afterchool events, non-athletic 1500 athletic events. It's almost for just one. And many of these events are double double staffed and triple staffed depending on the number of individuals and depending on the type of event. Y thank you. And they're always very pleasant. Every time I'm at an event, they are just you have a wonderful staff. Thank you. I'll pass that on to thorough. Y are thorough. And I, you know, and I before I go to the back, I I just want to say that they were delighted uh to celebrate with our scholars and their families around graduation. And I shared with uh Dr. Roby this afternoon that uh some of our neighboring districts that participated in in large-scale graduations uh from the time the graduation

108ended to the time they got off the property and back on the road was over an hour. The average time uh that we uh cleared our event from the time uh our families left their seats, got in their cars and got back on the main traveled road was about 5 to seven minutes. So that just show you how how how well they can they can move traffic through our community. And that was a that was a great highlight for them. So So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes the superintendent's reports for the evening. Okay, we will move into our action items. First up is the Michigan High School Athletic Association membership resolution. Do I have a motion to approve the resolution? Motion. Seconded. All in favor say I. I.

109Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Moving on to the enhancement mill renewal resolution. Do I have a motion to approve this? Um, could we just kind of give an overview of what this enhancement millage means for us for GRPS? Would that be something we could do before we vote on that? Is there someone here that would be able to Sure. I Or if Dr. Roby could I'm going to Thank you for putting Oh, I'm so sorry. Um I I can give an overview and then I will ask um Miss Cribs to come up just in case I do not speak um correctly. So, our district has an enhancement village um through the ISD and what this looks like it is and I don't remember the exact amount but it allows us to give specifically raises for

110um staff and the enhancement millage is about 10 or 12 years in length. It the original request was for 10 years. So, we are in I believe year eight and this summer. Yes. So we are in year eight and so what happens with the enhancement village it's not just for GRPS it's with all um schools school districts within Kent County and so there are 20 of them and what this resolution is is that the board would have to approve um to go forward with this millillage and the ISD would continue to do the work as well as the other 19 districts to have that monies come into their district and it's um approximately 4 million dollars for GRPS. I say currently it's a little over $4 million with the restore and renew um because the

111law has changed since the original um passage. It now will include charter schools. So there will be more schools that will be included. So our our the pot of money even though it's continued to grow, our share of it will be less. So I believe it was about 3.7 or 3.8 is what they're anticipating that the collection would be. So little less than we're currently getting but still very vital to our budget overall. And with this each district is asked to individually support the millillage. Um we do begin with the three largest districts in our county um including GRPS and then the other two districts because they have to have the districts based on the millillage goes forward based on majority of students that represent districts and so that's why they do start with um

112GRPS and other districts but the goal is to get the support from all 19 all 20 districts excuse me I don't know if they go to charters I'm assuming so they yeah they do they did They do. And so it's approximately a little under $4 million that would be um added to our district and that could be um specifically used for um salaries. Correct. And we can use it things. Currently, we're using it to support some of our theme school allocations as well as teacher compensation. And if it doesn't pass, we're just out $4 million. Yes. Yeah. Um annually. Yes. But it it is not an increase. It's a restore and renew. So the original um passage was I believe at a point 9 mills and then because of the Hudley roll back. So if

113in property tax values increase faster than inflation, there's a Hudley roll back on what you can lobby for property taxes. So over the years that's occurred and so now it's down I want to say around 8.5 or 0.85 mills. So they want to bring it back up to the original 0.9. So you can't say it's just a a renew. It's a renew and restore. My first question was going to be what can be the money be used for? But I think I'll rephrase it. Is there any restrictions on how we could use these funds? It's pretty much Yeah. Okay. And this will be something that voters are asked to vote on this coming November. Correct. I also want to just point out that the it doesn't cost the district for the election. The ISD is

114paying for the election, which is a significant amount. So, do I have a motion? Some moved. Seconded. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? All right. Motion carries. Thank you, Ron. You can stay up here. I was gonna say, okay, moving on to the purchasing agenda. Um, so I'm going to open this up for comments and questions. Rhonda, if you have anything you want to share at any point, feel free to do so. I know that this was like a tie vote at committee. Um, and I I know there's a lot of comments and questions out there, so feel free board members. Well, and just to clarify, so the minutes are wrong. I think the public might have a slightly different idea about what happened in the committee. We voted to bring it

115forward to the whole board in the context of the budget. So that would not be till the 23rd. Now, I know that a committee's recommendation is simply recommendation. So, we can still have it legally on our agenda. But just to clarify what we voted for and against, it was to bring it forward to the entire board in the context of when the budget would be presented, which would be June 23rd. Having ser serving on the committee, I'll just explain for my colleagues my rationale because I was one of the uh members who voted against it. For me, I want to make sure many of the things on this and we can get into some detail here, but many of the things on this contemplate the 2526 budget year. And speaking for myself, I want to

116see the budget for 2526 before we move to approve these expenditures. Mhm. Just because I'd like to have the full context of of how we're spending this money and how it fits into that budget. So that's just my explanation for my colleagues on the board to understand my vote in committee, why I voted no. I also voted similar to Richard and uh stand stand with that. Brenda, do you feel like there's certain things on the purchasing agenda that if we don't vote prior to being presented with the full budget, there's going to be like um consequences that will affect our students. Um there are summer school supplies on there. So, summer school starts, I believe, in two weeks. Not quite sure. And and and the date for summer school. So, that would be when it

117would get delayed. Um also there are a number of items for bond projects. So those would would be delayed as well. Um there are things on there many of them have July 1 renewal dates. So if we're not able to to pass that we will not be able to pay bills in a timely manner after June 30th. So, and there are many of them that are on there either on the on the regular purchasing agenda or on the blanket purchase orders as well. So, just a yeah, do what you need to do as far as that goes, but it will start to impact the business of the district. So, um I'm sorry, just for clarification, like a a renewal for instance, I don't I'll just pick one. So, renewal of mobile data management platform. If

118we hold off on this for a month, are you saying that we will have to pay a bill? That's I was going to say if you if we don't because they will be due July 1st. So, typically when bills are due July 1st, we like to get them out before they're past due. Mhm. Um so, you know, if you don't pass it until July 23rd, I mean, we could still get payments out before July 1st. Um if it doesn't get passed until your July 14th meeting or later, then we will be holding any bills that come in and will be passed due for I think so. Yes, timing is a concern. I think between now and the end of the month, we have 22 days, which I think are, you know, I'm not going to

119ask everybody to work on Saturdays and Sundays necessarily on this, but like we have the hours to work towards a budget. So, I like I just want to acknowledge I understand like the clock's ticking, but we have enough time to work towards a budget and get it approved. I think in my head, I'm just trying to um wrap my head around like with a renewal, like if we don't renew it and we lo do we lose those services for like potentially. Yeah. Depending on the vendor, some vendors, um we've got a couple that are pretty aggressive about if you're late, you know. And is there any sort of fee or anything from any of those vendors for like discontinuing and then re not that I know of but I'm not aware of every single one

120of these and what potentials would be for late payments. The other consideration, and I've been asking for this, is that I think when we were presented with the prospect of when we were presented with a prospect of potentially facing a deficit in the district and having to make these hard choices, I'm not necessarily opposed to some of these purchases. For me, what it really is is again, I need the context of the budget to fit those into it. and what is what are we prioritizing if we're gonna have to make some hard financial decisions. And I don't want to start making those decisions before we see the whole context of the budget. So, which is June 23rd, correct? Not July because we referenced July, but I just want to make sure. So, June 23rd is

121when we're talking about seeing the entire budget like you're saying. Yeah, I think she just misspoke and said July. Well, I was you've got your work session next Monday night. You've got the one on the 23rd. So, you know, we can have a conversation at that point about, okay, if we have to make hard choices, how did these in particular purchases fit into that at this point? And maybe this is more to my colleagues than anything, but just at this point, I I think it's hard to to wrap this into the whole budget without having seen the budget. So, I mean, that's just what I'll say. like we're going to have to make a lot of hard choices cuz we've been presented with this fiscal situation and we want to prioritize spending in the classroom

122and we want to make sure that we're able to continue on in the the direction we need to take the district for the welfare of everyone in it. Mhm. So that's just Yeah, I mean that that's all I'll say, but that's my And also like I've talked to you about this like approving a budget in general is difficult when we don't have the state budget. Yeah, I'm just going to walk um our board, excuse me, I'm just so people know um the 16th is a work session and the 23rd, which is what Mr. Cripps was just referring to, there is a public hearing um a half hour before the board work session. So, I just want to make sure So, there's Yeah. Okay. That will be the budget, right? Yes. So the so we will

123get the budget before that the 23rd and do so we would have an opportunity to possibly uh vote on this um purchasing agenda on the 23rd after seeing and hearing more about the the budget the full budget. and we should be prepared to possibly vote on that because we won't meet again until after some of these things have but um I'll wait for a motion. There are a couple of items that I just want to point out too um with respect to that because we do have summer school right you want to talk about so there's and I think that's anam a good example of we have the business of the district will need to continue and to make sure that we have the appropriate um materials so that we can of the district I

124did want to ask a clarifying point on the and I'd already asked about this um earlier but I for uh little more clarification and benefit to my colleagues. So with the national academyy's foundation, so this is under special funds A number one, could we get a just clarify again what that is, the history of that partnership, um how it's being paid for, what the financial burden on the district is. So I what is it? I was gonna say our work with NAF and I'm sorry I'm the fine accounting person, not the program person. So, you're going to get an accounting flavor to it. It was about a year ago, I believe, we started working with um related to the music academy at Ottawa Hills. Um that partnership worked out well. Um the state of Michigan

125does offer a year of planning grant and it costs $12,000 and the planning grant available through MDE is there as well. So, that work went well. Um, so we also did apply for a grant for groupa for hospitality. Um, I believe they're working through one for union and the future agricultural component there. The one that recently came through finance is related to innovation central and all five of theiries and bringing that forward. Um, the annual renewal cost to continue that work with NAF is $2,000. So, and that as far as I'm aware is not a grant. It would have to come out of board funds to continue that program. And Richard, if I can just also add where that fits into um kind of our strategic theme of optimizing all school options um to make

126sure that we have programmatic components at all all different schools. Okay. And with that, I wouldn't have any like again that's it's grant funded. I think it's a continuing thing. I'd be interested to hear from my colleagues like that along with again summer school and the bond items because that money is already that's in the pot that's accounted for. Summer schools in the 2425 budget. Yes, exactly. To that end, right? Like I'm my my thing is like I want to see before we contemplate future spending. Those items I just listed I like personally I'm okay if we we move forward with those. I would suggest Yeah. What do we need to parse out now so that we so that summer school survives? So, so go ahead, Jose. I was going to say, um, just real

127quick something that President Davis said, um, just about us not knowing. So, potentially we could not know what the state is offering us in school aid for months, right? So, I'm not sure that it makes a difference if we get presented a proposed budget in June or in May. And and again, I I don't know everything that goes into a budget, so thank you for doing that work. Um I would like to see and of course you know this year is is almost said and done but in the future I would like to see us move that timeline back and again a proposed budget is a proposed budget and we can make changes accordingly but I think uh a lot of my colleagues the community has asked to have more time to kind of um

128you know parse through the budget because I think we have pushed it really close to the to to when it needs to just get passed. Right. um uh to the 11th hour. And so I think just kind of thinking for the future is maybe we could have a proposed budget. I don't know how possible that is to have something in May, you know, mid May, end of May. Um and again, not looking for anything concrete, but but an idea of what we're looking to spend in the next fiscal year. You don't have to answer that. I I mean, that's an idea. Yeah, that is not the board saying that. That's just an idea to throw out. I can claim that idea is Yeah. Jose Rodriguez's idea. We can talk about that. Yeah. Yeah. No, I

129just I mean Well, I I guess I I am asking if that is like you are our CFO. I'm wondering what the the real possibility is of that if if I'm you know way out of line with my thinking around how a budget is made. I'm not sure. I was going to say so in years past and it's been several years we used to bring budget amendment two and the next year budget to May finance so it could come to the full board in early June um as state continued to do it but that was also um sorry but that was usually in normal years where the governor would put out his or her budget in February house and senate would come out with their budgets in March March, they would all discuss it and

130come up with a plan. So by May, we really kind of had some idea of what was going on. As state funds have been a little bit more unstable. Um there's been more politics involved in deciding of what to do and how to do things. They typically have been waiting till that May revenue consensus to come up with their plans and put forward what that looks like. So then we started deferring to okay if May revenue consensus isn't until the middle of May but it gives us a better picture and if our budget's really tight we want every dime we can find. So we'll wait and get their best picture of what that looks like. Usually at that point it was late May early June. So we could still kind of get this middle of

131June and get it before the board for approval at that point. Um, this year I think it's back to a lot of unknowns and unstabil instability of what that looks like. So, it's going to be even more unknown of probably into September before we know what state is. So, yes, we'll need to look at it. Um, but we're also coming off the assert cliff. So, it it has been more challenging this year to work on the expense side of the budget as well. So, it's it's still a work in progress. As Dr. Roby mentioned earlier in her comments, we're still working through what that looks like, right? Um to make some of these difficult decisions of what it looks like. So, that's a little history lesson of we used to do it. We'd like to

132get back to it if we can. Um, I mean, the state has their own law that says they'll approve state aid by June 30th, but it's a guideline to them. So, they can choose to follow it or not. And and it's not a guideline for us. Correct. For us, it's a law. It's a law. We have to approve a budget by June 30th. So, I'd like to make a motion. Is that an order? Um, are you discussing? Are you guys done discussing? Yeah. I mean, I make a motion in order. Are we done discussing? No, I'm saying. Are you all done? Are you make a motion? That's all I'm just Does anyone else want to Okay, I I do have one more question. I'm so sorry. Um I need to stop apologizing, but um so

133uh a question I had is so for the because I know where you're going with this. Um for the summer school, we start summer school next week in two weeks. Two weeks on the 19th, right? 19th. um is are 16th 16th 16th. Perfect. Next Monday then. Next Monday. Okay. Um so I I do see in our in our purchasing agenda we have uh summer school expenditures. Um are those already have those already been accounted for? We're just like Oh, have you already spent those? Have we already spent money? We have not spent the money. We're waiting for board approval to spend the money. Okay. But um it is for with grant funds to fund it for Yeah. And that's in the 24th. It's the 24th like we you got we are you guys approved that

134last year. So what kind maybe this is too much in the weeds and maybe it doesn't matter as what what does that cover if we are starting summer school next year uh or my guess next week. Um what is like what would we have expenditures for still staffing? No these are supplies. supplies McGraill. Yeah. Okay. So, we don't have supplies. Okay. Again, maybe not pertinent. So, go ahead. I'd like to make a motion. That's in order. Um I move to divide the question to vote separately on general fund as one item. General fund items A 1- 15 and B 1 through uh 10. And then separate from that uh special fund items A 1 through two and building and sites C 1 through 7. So that'd be two. I can reclarify. I would like you

135to say it. Okay. So basically voting separately all the general fund items. Voting that separate from special fund items and building in sites. Oh, wouldn't it be project possible to say to pull out the 2025 expenditures or is just dividing the question like we divide it and then we vote on one and then we vote on the other. Will we have to the other if we just pull? That's what I was kind of thinking. Can we just amend it to take off the things that are in the 256? I'll do that. I move to remove general fund items. Yes, from 2526 and we're certain that all those everything general fund A 1 through 15 and B 1 through 10. I support. So for clarification, the motion is to amend the purchasing agenda to remove A

1361 through 15. Yes. And Yep. B 1 through 10. Yes. All under general fund. Just the items under general fund. And you you were support. All in favor? I guess I'm just looking through one more time because I want to be certain that those 15 items are all No, nothing there is related to summer school. No, they're all 25 26. But you can take your time. Thank you. So before we I'm just confirming. Thank you. On once a motion is made the discussion from what I understand it like yeah is done. And so I just want to make sure that when before we actually move to we can vote on this and then if there's I've had enough time. I'm good. Okay. I want to make sure the clarification of the motion is certain though

137removing general fund A 1 through 15 and B 1 through 10. Okay. So we are approving everything else with this vote. So we are my intention. We are amending the agenda and then we are voting on the agenda. Just removing this. Correct. Yes. We are voting to amend it right now. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Okay. So now can I get a motion to approve the amended purchasing agenda? So moved. Support. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Slen board, are we asking to be presented with the rest of um the original purchasing agenda at our as part of the full budget? As part of Yeah, my position remains the same as in committee. No, yours in committee is different. Yours was that it wouldn't leave the committee and and mine was

138to bring it here and make it amongst the whole board. Well, my position is I'm not ready to vote on this without the budget. True. So if we Yeah. So we continue with the context of the budget in order to vote on the budget items. I'm wondering if the purchasing agenda can be separate from the budget. Does that make sense? That's what I was going to say. They will still be separate items, but we can bring bring it forward. A revised purchasing agenda with these items that were just pulled and that will be one purchasing agenda, right? And then we'll have our budget documents that we'll need to do as well. So yeah. Okay. Thank you, Rhonda. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving forward. Um, the blanket purchase orders for 2526. Stay where you are.

139Comments and questions. I mean, to save the time, my position is the same on this. Like, I don't want to move forward on plan purchases without the budget and being able to review that and see how this fits in and if it aligns with our priorities. I'm in agreement with that, Richard. I have a I have a specific question though about a couple of the items. Okay. Actually, three of the items. So, this is just the con. Never mind. This uh natural landscapes, three oaks, ground cover, and twin lakes. We're paying all three vendors for snow plowing at more than $100,000 each vendor. How how are we why there was an RFP that was put out and different companies are handling different ones of our locations. It's too much for our internal staff to do

140and so that's where I certain but I think they try to do it by quadrants to say you know this company will handle the Northwest and this one. So to get coverage and to get parking lots cleared before school would start in the morning, we do have more than one company. So it did go through the RFP process for those. Do you know when those RFPs were sent requested? How long we've had these vendors? I don't recall off the top of my head. I'm sure that's that's deep in the bank. Yeah. Okay. I just feel like that's a lot. Maybe and we had to cancel one program I know this winter because of not being able to clear snow. Was that are these the same organizations as we used for that? I'm not sure. Okay.

141Maybe it's something we can figure out between now and third. Thank you Rhonda. Not trying to grill you up. Just need clarity. Okay. I'm not I'm not ready to vote. I know that our colleagues want to uh hold off on, you know, even even voting on this. Um I do have one question on uh school mint. Um I've heard that before and um student retention and recruitment services. Is that akin to like student data services like are like synergy or is that something completely different? Am I off the mark? Isn't school net the enrollment um strategy student retention? Oh, it's remember we voted no on that, but it was um to do marketing for schools. Remember it was $85,000 for several like two or three schools to have marketing. Yes. Okay. You voted no on

142it. Well, I mean it was still approved, but that was the conversation we had a couple months ago. Individuals voted. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, that might be something to get an update on. I I feel like we're asking questions to Rhonda that she does not know the answer. And I'm wondering if it would be better if we compiled our questions about these line items and sent them to Dr. Roby so that we can get accurate more accurate information. Absolutely. Because this isn't fair to her, right? Yeah. Oh, and I I I do not expect you to know all of this. you were not in community and student affairs and I just wanted to kind of you know we have an expert in the room two experts in the room sorry Dr. Over you were an

143expert um so I just was wondering but but I think that's a good idea to compile those questions I like I can get some full answers yeah absolutely because I have some that I just know Any other questions? Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the blanket purchase orders for 2526 school year? Okay. Seeing that there or hearing that there is no motion to approve. Motion does not carry. There is no motion. So we will move on to the adoption of budget amendment two. General fund. Do I have a motion to approve general fund budget amendment two? Please to clarify. Let me make sure I'm on the So we're talking now about past budget and there's the triple line where it talks about the budget amendments that have been made. Okay. questions, comments. Is

144there a motion? Motion. Seconded. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. Um adoption of budget amendment to special revenue fund. Do I have a motion to approve that amendment? So moved. Support. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Adoption of budget amendment to debt retirement fund. Do I have a motion to approve this amendment? So moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed. Okay. Um we are now moving into um resolutions for Thank you, Rhonda. Thank you. Resolutions for non-renewal um which is a closed session and I believe y you have the motion. Yep. So, um, I move that the board go into close session to consider the dismissal, suspension, or discipline of or to hear complaints or charges brought against an employee at the request

145of that employee as permitted by Open Meetings Act section 81A. I'm sorry. We will probably move to the basement. So, you don't have to leave. Although you can. That's it. Um, and I will need a roll call vote for correct. I'll need a roll call vote. Uh, Trusty Davis. Yes. Trusty Kilpatrick. Yeah. Yes. Trusty Melton, yes. Trusty Moreno, yes. Trusty Rodriguez, yes. Trusty Williams is excused. Trusty Williamson, yes. VP Wade, yes. President Davis, yes. All right. Motion appro is passes. Our other close section session at the end of our meeting. Just so everybody's clear. We did. Oh, we did. Okay. So, um, the next thing we need to do, and I'll just talk slowly. Maybe she'll get back is we need a motion. Yep. Um, do I have a motion to approve the resolution for

146nonrenewal teacher? We will not state any names, but do I have a motion for that? Some moved. Sorry. Is there support? Support. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Okay, motion carries. Um, moving on to our consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So, second. All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Um, moving down to board president announcements. Um, I don't have any big announcements tonight. I did, you know, want to recognize um, Jose, but we did that earlier. Thank you. And I also just want to remind you to um, be reading our book for our um, retreat later this month. And then also just encourage you, I know it went out who has taken the um classes for for for school board association.

147Um and just ask that you try to fit those into your schedule so that we can all be on the same page. I know I'm guilty of having a couple to accomplish too. So um yeah, that's all I have. Um, so we will move on to our non-aggenda item, public comment. So during our second public comment portion, individuals will be invited one at a time to the podium to address the board. Before beginning your comment, please state your full name at the time. will start the timer allowing each individual 3 minutes to make their comment. Uh you will need to complete your comment time upon being notified that the three minutes have passed. Again, please refer to the timer. Uh board members do not not respond to public comment. Concerns will be brought to the

148attention of the appropriate staff. We value your input and thank you for sharing with us. And because of the amount of public comment, I think I'm going to um reduce the time to two minutes. if they're not here. Sale Tron followed by Jackie Spritzer Spritzer. So we can have three minutes. Sorry. You want me going with only two minutes? Yep. Um, Saleon, Grand Rapids Monatory High School. Um, there were just a couple things that I heard tonight that I'd like to comment with. Um, one, there was um a like review of security. And one, I want to give my appreciation to my security guards at my school. They're amazing. They're great. um they work as a team and they work hard and they make sure our school is secure um and safe and I truly

149appreciate that. Um one thing about having secure entrances though was mentioned that um that percentage mo like it didn't say it did not include schools but that it was really more of the buildings that don't have scholars in it. And I just want to remind the board and everybody else that Grand Rapids Monatory Academy still does not have a secure entrance. Um, and that does have scholars in it. We do have a second secretary, but um, I have heard zero plans of actually updating that. And maybe that's because we're supposed to move, but as of the facilities meeting tonight, that looks like that's going to get pushed again. So, um, a fix needs to be there other than just a second secretary. You can't claim that our school has a secure entrance with that double

150door when it doesn't. Um, that is the academy, the fountain school building. Um, the fact that summer school supplies were put up for a budget approval today for this summer's summer school starting in one week is extremely frustrating to hear as a teacher. Um, I know this school year, this past school year, a lot of our teachers did not get supplies they needed until after the school year started. So, knowing that summer school supplies are now just being approved to be bought for in a week um is really disheartening and another reason why teachers are frustrated and um leaving because they don't have what the supplies they need. That's time. Okay. Thank you. Um, following Jackie Spritzer will be Frederica Brown. Um, I will only I will not be changing it from three minutes. One

151minute is the is the end for two minutes. Thank you so much everyone. Um, and Seth, you will be following her. President Davis, Dr. Roby, just a couple questions I would like to bring up to your attention as a board. Um, I know we have a policy about absences. Some of the kids I taught this year, they have 50 to 60 or more absences, and they are going to be promoted into the next grade. Those kids are lacking skills. When they get to that next grade, it's going to be harder and harder for that kid to keep up. the particular kid I'm thinking about 10 years from now, I would love to have him getting a scholarship, but I don't know if that's going to be possible. I know it's the parents responsibility to get

152them to school. Can we come up with a plan to help so we have kids not getting promoted? I mean, missing a third of the school year, but we just promote them. Something to think about. safety. Just just a question. My classroom glass right by the windows. If there was an active shooter, that glass I don't think would stop anything. The windows on my second floor, there's nothing, not a screen. It opens right out. Could a kid fall out the window? Third floor, same way. There's no bars, anything. I hope it never happens. I take care of the windows, but right now I'm not going to be in that classroom, not sure. And there's other schools without bars bars on the window. Um, just a question. I love that field on Fuller Avenue, GRPS University.

153What are we doing with that school building? It's such a beautiful field. tennis courts. There's a baseball field. Can we do something for our kids at that or our our parents? Thank you very much. Thank you. Following Seth Moore will be D. Jones. I know. I just saw him. He just looked. Maybe he's just using the mist. Good evening. uh Sethmore, parent and community advocate. I want to speak plainly tonight. It's been nearly a year since this board was served the results of the Eureka report, and the findings still stand true today, unchanged. Your house is on fire. We are standing in the middle of a crisis, and for far too long, this board has responded as if it were just a flickering candle. But this is not a slow burn. It's a full-blown five

154alarm fire. And we are losing educators, families, and faith in this system every single day that you refuse to act with urgency. We've seen the signs. Classrooms without permanent teachers, buildings with unsafe conditions, support staff stretched beyond their limits, teachers leaving the district to be paid more elsewhere, and families leaving for other districts where their concerns are heard and their children are prioritized. And while all of this happens, as the flames grow higher, we continue to see the same rubber stamped leadership contracts, the same budgets that protect structure over people, and the same decisions made behind closed doors. We have already told you what we need. We've submitted the reports. We've shown up at meetings. We've filled out the surveys. The community is not asking for miracles. We're asking you to listen and to act.

155We are the village, and the village is tired of begging for water while the fire spreads. We need investment in the people who are doing the work. Teachers, educators, parapros, custodians, counselors, not more insulation for executive leadership. We need transparency, not spin. We need partnership, not partner plays. Power plays. And most of all, we need courage. Courage to stop maintaining what's broken and start rebuilding something better. If we wait another year, we won't have to worry about families leaving. They'll already be gone. Your house is on fire. Please, for the sake of the students you serve, stop watching it burn. Thank you. D. Jones, you're up. And then following D. Jones is Lisa Lee. How y'all doing? I'm D. Jones again. Uh, just very thankful to give back to y'all. For y'all to see the

156vision, to y'all to actually me to come here. I've been coming to the school board and speaking about esports and advocating since 2018. Seven long years. I've done lost cars, all type of stuff. I made a lot of sacrifices just to be sure that I seen this through every day because I didn't know uh I sometimes y'all don't speak directly to me, but I know that conversations was happening. And I remember being uh here at the school board a couple when uh last year and Jen Shaki announced that you guys actually approved the funding to actually build the esports labs and then October I'll work with Ottawa Hills High School through the entire process of getting them to set up the lab to them getting to uh into Michigan High School esports federation's lead to

157the students actually competing to us actually doing the spring initiative to those students actually getting college scholarships. It's been a long process, but I wouldn't change a step because I know the love, energy, and passion and genuine authentic love that I put into being able to create these opportunities. So, I don't regret anything or any of the cars or anything that I lost to be able to get here because now I know that thousands of kids eventually in the future as I'm a old man. Hopefully, I do live to be a old man because how I advocate about the civics and the wrongdoings of the police shooters, I could potentially be killed. never know about this society. But hopefully I live to be that old man, but once again, we got the Yahoo article. And

158then we got Josiah Dunning, Ottawa Hills High School, Caucasian student. I'm a black person, but I'm breaking barriers and changing things for students of all ethnicities around our school district. And then speaking to my good friend who overseen a trillion dollar portfolio, I know I could be a trillionaire one day. I say that a lot publicly. And I got a lot of self-confidence. very unshaken. And then this last initiative, because not only with the summer initiative, we're going to be educating these kids and showing them how to stream and shout casting and game design and I got Ottawa Hills, I mean Ohio State University and Michigan State. Oh, my bad. I forgot it was two minutes. Yeah. Y'all have a good night though. Thank you. You too. Lisa Lee and then Jane Neman. I'm short.

159Sorry. Um, good evening. My name is Lisa Lee and I teach uh ECSE early childhood special ed at Buchanan Elementary. This is my 25th year in education and 23rd in the classroom. I hold four certifications to teach 612 psychology, 612 English language arts, um K12 reading specialist and interventionist and zero to age 8 general in early childhood special education. I hold two master's degrees, uh masters in the art of teaching with an emphasis on secondary education and a master's in um early childhood education. Um I have taught um in instructional and in administration positions. Um I joke that I can certify to teach people diapers to diapers, womb to tomb. I am a catch and GRPS is literally my choice. I stand here before you reconsidering that choice. when I drive 35 minutes to work

160every day through seven districts. All that would pay me more. when I can choose when I chose Buchinan Elementary specifically for the community of the people I teach and I could stop a half a mile more and make $20,000 more a year instantly when GRPS cannot follow basic safety rules and Mars rules for special education to provide adequate supervision in the classroom so that we are not hurt and students are not hurt. Um, when my o overloaded classroom has aggressive students. So much so that I have a permanent scar on my leg for him biting me through my jeans. When the only retention stat strategy I heard for teachers was to do another survey. That's it. I choose GRPS because I am the best and my kids deserve the best. They deserve me. I am

161reconsidering that decision. What are you going to do to get people like me to stay? Jane, and then Lucas Le is after Jane. Hello again, Jane Neeman, JAVP. Um, first of all, I want to say, uh, Superintendent Roby, thank you for what you mentioned about some of the budget cuts. That was good news that we heard um that the district is making some changes and I hope to hear more positive um things like that moving forward as you move to present the budget for the next uh school year. Um I also want to shout out our security staff as well. Um they do an excellent job. Um I want to speak tonight briefly about leadership in buildings specifically building principles. Um, as the grievance chair at GREA this year, I have had a lot of

162members reach out to me in certain schools, mostly the middle schools, but also some elementarymentaries about some toxic environments being created by people that were hired this year or promoted this year in different buildings. And I am concerned that as we see some principles leaving Sibli Elementary, CA Frost Middle High and elementary um as we see some vacancies in building positions, my concern is who we are hiring or promoting into those positions. Um, I would strongly uh recommend that building staff be consulted to some extent if an AP is being promoted just to get a feel for, you know, who they feel is going to do a good job, who has been in place, who knows the routines, who knows the kids and the families. Also, I would hope that in the future, we will

163not be hiring principles who have been fired from their previous positions for creating toxic environments. So much so that it has made news articles. And now we have staff traumatized. I was in a building recently this month where it felt like I was walking into a battered women's shelter because the staff has been so harassed and so traumatized by their building principal. Told to keep things in the vault. told first day at the first staff meeting that they have control issues and if it's not their way, it's the highway. Um, and other inappropriate messages. So, thank you for this time and um, I hope that you will take my comments into consideration when choosing leadership. Thank you, Lucas Le followed by Aaron Ignat Ignati. Lucas again, it's nice to hear Larry tonight talk about finally

164catching up to 1998 and taking credit for gun locks which were offered by groups like West Grand Neighborhood Organization for the last several years and rebuked. Anyway, we're all glad to see you remove the topic of your $14 million to top heavy and redundant executives off the agenda tonight. When you do take this topic up, you could approve some executives, but remove Larry Johnson and Brady Love Lady Mitchell. It's long overdue. Larry's lengthy collection of verbal abuses, physical intimidation, documented threats, and incompetence is well aware to the community, and Bry's discussing conduct that landed her in suspension is reason enough. Also, 2027 is too much time for far too much more damage. Consider a one-year term if you must put these people back and put them on notice and maybe they'll leave on their own.

165When you do consider, this is also a great time to lose the inflated. Oh, actually, no. When you do consider these contracts, note that the population really hasn't changed. The number of top brass has only been reduced by one. They've simply been moved around on the plate like a child with peas and carrots. This is also a great time to lose the inflated pretense of cabinet. Dr. Roby, you're not the pus. You don't need a cabinet anymore than you need a chief of staff. I noticed that there's a new list of executives uh and is finally free of Kurt Johnson, even though it's not like he's been here anyway. But I ask you now, what is Larry going to continue to cover and keep hurting arts and sports? Or will you have these programs report

166directly to the superintendent like they should to give our kids the winning and successful programs they deserve? Speaking of band, I will close with very disappointing news. Our band director at City High quit. Not just the system, but teaching entirely. Congrats. You burned her all the way out. And now, after begging for years for an assistant director, the school is finally getting co-directors, a dubious concept, as it were. Another sad example of the rot that would be so easily fixed by trimming the fat in that 14 million at the top. Aaron Ignat Ignatoski and F the final person will be Ben Irwin. Hi, my name is Aaron Ignatauski. I graduated from Union High School 25 years ago. I've been a CA Frost Environmental Science Academy parent and volunteer since 2015. Through these years, I have

167also had the opportunities to parent a zooie, a big Frosty, a City Pegasai, and a Musa. The principles of CA Frost Elementary and Bford School and CA Frost Middle and Zoo are both leaving. Our community is asking for the focus on our environmental theme to be strongly considered and strengthened by our incoming principles through the next steps of this process. Nearly 100 parents and staff members addressed a letter to the interim executive director making this request. Our ELAB teachers, PTA board, and several parent volunteers have expressed their willingness to lend their voice to this process. We have chosen to send our kids to theme schools within GRPS and our wish is to see that theme growing from each incoming student to the administration in charge and everywhere we can strengthen in between. We request our

168voices be heard in that process. That's my main point tonight. I'm also here in support of many other speakers that have already joined our voices. Thank you for your time. and Ben Irwin. My name is Ben Irwin. I am the parent of five children enrolled in GRPS. I had come here tonight to speak out about the proposed contract renewal. So, it's nice and not at all shady that they were removed from the agenda at the last minute. So, thanks for that. I'm speaking tonight anyway to call on the board to vote no on the contract renewal for Larry Johnson. Larry has a long track record of abusing, threatening, and harassing GRPS staff and at least one parent. Yet, the only so-called accountability he's faced, even despite more than one investigation corroborating the accusations, was a

169few weeks of paid leave. Come on. Johnson is as vindictive as he is incompetent. I I'm gonna interrupt you. I I almost did this before. On the back of our public comment card, the third bullet point says or the second bullet point, excuse me, the purpose of public comment is to discuss the business of the school board and the district and not to discuss individual personalities. This is not a personality issue. This is a performance issue. This is multiple security violations that have happened on his watch. I would like Keep digging that first amendment hole, lady. Keep digging. I would like us to just be a little more civil about presenting sometimes it's a tell that to Larry when he's actively threatening parents in this community and you're doing nothing to stop it to address

170it here. Tough You don't need to swear either. Larry started it. Tell that to Larry as well. You got any more? Move on. It is unfathomable to me that the district retains people like this while driving out people of integrity like Leon Hendricks and the many GRPS staff who have come forward with accusations of abuse that they have experienced. Keeping people like this, and this is the reason why it matters, keeping people like this on staff sends a message, including to our children, that bullying at GRPS is okay. And that our leaders are not interested in making our schools safe for students, teachers, or parents. Some of you were just recently elected to this board on a promise to bring accountability and change to GRPS. This is a test of that promise. And as parents

171of as GRPS parents, we are watching I urge you and the whole board to show that you are serious about delivering change ch and that starts at the top with the leadership of GRPS. Thank you. Okay, that completes public comment. Um moving into superintendent's comments. Um due to the hour I'm going to withhold comments. Okay. So, we are now at our close session and we do have two reasons to move into close session. So, we need to make sure we state that when we Yep. Uh so, uh I'm making two motions. Um I move that the board go into close session to consider the dismissal, suspension, or discipline of or to hear complaints or charges brought against an employee at the request of that employee as permitted by the Open Meetings Act section 81A. Um,

172and I also move that the board go into close session for the purpose of a strategy and negotiation session connected with the negotiations of various collective bargaining groups at the request of the superintendent as permitted by open meetings act section 81C. Um, and I will need a second for that. And we do have to do name. Yeah. Okay. My apologies. Okay. So, sorry. A second. Was Trusty Moreno? Trusty Kilpatrick. Okay. Um, Trustee Davis. Yes. Trusty Kilpatrick. Yes. Trusty Meltton. Yes. Trusty Moreno. Yes. Trusty Rodriguez, yes. Trusty Williams, absent. Trusty Williamson, yes. VP Wade, yes. President Davis, yes. That motion passes. Okay, we will