001We leaders to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. All right, please. Heather Roberts here. a couple presentations. >> Uh first tonight uh we have Kenny from Bless and um Kenny has been uh last few years has been uh out here presenting to us and spent a couple days with us and um always as always appreciate the communication. Appreciate you making it out here tonight. There's a little coming out to present to the group. So I'll turn it over to you. >> Yeah, thank you. Uh again, I'm Kenny Rapun. I'm a manager of Louis and off and like you said, I've been coming down I been many years of coming down here. This is always one of my favorite schools
002to come down to audit. Love to work with Dorothy team, working with Al. It's it it is a it is a very good time in a professional life. Um for the board, I've handed out all I've handed out today is the uh the presentation, the slideshows. I believe Dorothy's given you the articles I've presented previously. Um, read through those as you feel needed. Uh, I will not go word for word through that. That would take maybe a couple two minutes more than we have tonight. Um, so if we flip open the presentation, that first slide, the auditor's opinion. So these first two slides that we'll look at and discuss, really, if there's anything to take away from tonight, it's these two slides. These are really the meat potatoes of this of this entree. um district
003received a clean unmodified opinion which is the highest level of assurance the district can receive. What this means is that after performing our audit procedures we came to the opinion and we're able to put the conclusion on that the financial statements are free of any material misstatement. Um material misstatement meaning there could be an error here or there. So we but nothing would be ever significant to the point that it would change a user's opinion one way or another. So essentially what we're saying is we cannot give you we cannot promise an A+ 100% but we can get you a nice solid A. So that's essentially what we can do within our auditing standards. Um we did note here that we have no controls issues reported. We do not give an opinion that the internal
004controls are working properly but we do perform procedures and walkthroughs and talk through with the staff to verify that the controls are in fact taking place and operating as intended. Uh one other note here uh in 2025 we adopted a new standard Gazby 101 which is a standard on our compensated absences for the district. So this is the the uh the acrew sick time sick and leave time. Essentially the state came in or the government came in and changed the way that that liability is calculated and in a nutshell they took what was a wheel and they turned it into a square. So this new formula was a lot it was very intensive very a lot of assumptions a lot of statistics put into place. So I know I can speak to Dorothy here that
005it was not an easy change to make. Um what it did do is inherently inflate this liability that is shown on the financials. Now this is only reported in the governmentwide statements. It's not on the fund level. So it's not really a bill due tomorrow from the district. Um in theory it's something that would be would be paid out over time as those staff leave or retire and likely not at the amount that is calculated in that in that number. So this next slide on the otter's opinion, this is from the single audit. So they'll look at our federal awards and I will preface this or preface this. Technically this single letter report has not been filed yet with the federal government. That is because we are not able to as we don't have a
006compliance supplement which is the government's the office of I cannot remember what OM stands for. One of their offices they submit this compliance supplement. It's basically the guide the auditing guide of every federal grant in the in the country. And unfortunately, they don't have the new one released yet. And until they do, we cannot issue the single audit report. But the state has come in and given us uh workarounds and and has helped just mitigate the whole situation. So there's no issues at any district level. So if anyone was concerned looking up in the clearing house to see where our audit is, it will not be there and it will be there as soon as this compliance summit's released and we can get the info out. Um, with that said, it's not filed yet, but
007it is done. And we note here, uh, no opinions, no finding or clean opinion, no findings. Um, we looked at the nutrition cluster, so the food service program for the district, which was about half the total federal revenues. And after those procedures, everything here, fairly stated, all compliance is followed. So, another job well done. This this one we can give an A+. So these remaining slides are going more over statistics and some items. Um if you have at any point questions, please please let me know. Just shut up shut up the question. I like open form versus me just talking. I start I will ramble and you will never get out of here. Um so this first slide we're looking at change in fund balance. Uh really we look at the general fund here. Uh
008which we did have a little bit of a deficit or usage of that fund balance. However, we came in at about 31% of our general fund expenditures, but when we take out the assigned portion of that amount, we come down to 22.7. So, our next slide, we look at we're looking at the general fund revenues. So, of the total about $19.8 million, we see majority about 62% came in from our state sources. So, that would be the state aid, your foundation allowance. And then the next big chunk being our local revenues. Uh local our property taxes. Um, not much more to say there. The general fund expenditures on the next slide. So again, about 1920 million a year. Pretty level with the revenue side as we saw with the slate usage. Um, this one's broken
009down by function code, which there's a couple different ways that the state categorizes expenditures for school districts. Function is one one level of that. And the two big pieces here are instruction and support. So the overall instruction to students that's going to be your main teachers and the support being all the other support staff and aids um comes out to that is a total of 96%. So another way I like to put it is 96 cents on every dollar goes directly to the support or instruction of the kids. And typically when that 4% grows it's usually oneoff items like a like a unusual event. I can't speak to the 4% here and I wish I didn't bring this up already. Um the 4% is 4% but it's usually uh one officer. No no no issues
010with this restaurant with this ratio of expenditures. Told you I'll keep rambling. >> Hey Kenny, before you get away too far from the uh the fund balance. So, knowing that we spent in a little bit this year and we kind of had anticipated that, you know, with the revenues coming in and and what we had um already settled in contracts going out, we kind of anticipated that we would. Are you seeing that across across districts? I mean, is that pretty common right now? I mean, it's the first time we've gone in in a while, and I'm just kind of curious. Are you seeing that? >> We definitely saw it a lot more this year. um a lot a lot of the previous years all the err funding and grants that came in was really a
011huge injection into every every district's uh fund balance. So prior years we saw a lot of increase increase increase. Well now all that's leveled off. We're back to more what was a traditional precoid type of uh budgeting I would say and yes many districts did have a usage. Many districts saw a very small increase. Um so you're you're right along with basically a lot of districts we see. So it's I would not say that's anything to be concerned about. So with that same uh group of general fund expenditures, this next slide is showing you by object code. Um again just another category in there. Uh the main two here are going to be our salaries and benefits which that's our two biggest pieces, the 44 and 32%. So that comes out to quick math 76%
012which is right on average with what we say is usually the the spread for a school district. Um, typically historically we've had anywhere from 75 to 85%. Uh, but that's shrunk down as more contracted services have been used. Um, those become more available over the last couple years. Districts are utilizing them more and inherently the more you spend on your contracted services, the less you're going to do salaries and benefits. So, um, again, the ratios are very in line with other districts here. So in speaking back to that budget uh every year we are required to review the budget, review the final uh financials and compare where we landed and how accurate our budgeting was. Um so we see here our revenues for the and this is only for the general function if I didn't
013say that already. Um for our revenues we came in about $150,000 under budget which was a 1% variance. And then our expenditures we came in about 1.4 4 million under budget, which is more of a 7% variance. So, this one was the the expenditures with the variance in theory in the district's favor. Uh, and what was budgeted to be a $1.4 million use of fund balance only ended up being 120,000. So, this next slide, we're just breaking down the long-term debt for the district. Uh, the the 10.6 million, that's our general bonds, that's our capital projects and debt uh we we've issued the past years. And then the 335,000 for other employee obligations. That is the amount for the compensated absences. And again, that number is only shown at the governmentwide. It does not hit
014the fund level. Doesn't affect our general fund. This next slide are mixtures, pension, and OPAD. So, speaking of items that don't affect the general fund, I think at this point, I'd assume we're getting more familiar with this as a concept. The state of Michigan requires districts to show their portion of the unfunded liability on their on the front page of their financials. Uh that total unfunded liability this year for the pension liability is about $27 billion I believe. So showing the 19 million is it's it's Alganex portion of that unfunded and then the OPE so the other post-employment benefits that is actually flipped into an asset or properly funded uh of about $4 billion this year. So that's gone in the other direction. Um and these are numbers that we don't come up with. uh
015actuaries come up with these, provide them to us, and we every district or every auditing firm just takes the actuary numbers, pulls them in. That's the process of how they they want it to work. Um so we're not the ones calculating these. I would love to give you a lower liability. Um but again, this does not affect the general fund. It's not a bill due tomorrow. It's it's a glorified number on the on the financial statements. So, with that, that is the end of everything I had planned to talk about. Um, as always, I just want to say Dorothy, thank you. You and your team, always great coming down here. Always treated well. Great great snacks and desserts. And with that, does we have any other questions? >> I just >> Was there something in
016the state budget though that had something to do with? >> Yeah, that'll be for the for the >> last year, right? Wasn't that changed for 25 26? >> Not tire. >> I know. That's what I was saying. So, next year this page is going to look different. >> Okay. >> Thanks, Kenny. I appreciate it. Dorothy, again, thank you and Mary with the hard work you guys did. Jane and Crystal for helping out as well. Um it it really for me it's it's makes life easy when uh you know I talk to Kenny for about 45 minutes and that's about it and that's my consent. The rest of it's all them. So uh really do appreciate it and appreciate the hard work. >> Yeah, absolutely. And like I said this I I don't I this genuinely
017is one of my favorite districts to come to and it's just the overall treatment how clean the books are is a great factor. Um and to the board thanks thank you as always for keeping us around. We we'd love to keep coming back. >> Love having you. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh next up, uh we've been talking a little bit. Um Melissa and her updates has talked a little bit about some of the science curriculums that we need to update. Um we kind of, you know, been going piece by piece and getting back in that cycle of doing some things. Well, this year, um with uh Mr. Frank coming in the last couple years. We've been looking to update his materials, give him some things for both chemistry and physics. So, tonight Melissa will present
018some of the information and show you a little bit about that. So, Melissa, whenever you're ready. >> Okay. So, to kind of take you back a little bit, Mr. Frank came in and at the time, Mr. Sims had been here for quite a long time teaching our chemistry and physics and he had created his whole thing from scratch. So when he left there wasn't anything here for Mr. Frank. So the board approved us to get him some materials in. We went with the recommendation of our science consultant and we piloted the um the open sad that she recommended and put him through some training. So um through that process of doing all of that and going through the open sad we monitored we collected the data but most importantly we talked to our families including
019our kids. And so when we talked to the kids at the end of the year last year, they said, you know, it stayed on the topic way too long and we didn't feel that we got the basics of what we needed to get in some of those chemistry and physics um things. Um we wanted to do more hands-on things. We wanted to do this. We we needed to Mr. Frank listened. He tried to spice it up, but in the end we decided, okay, this may not be the best fit for us. So we took a look, dive back in. what else could we try? So this year we piloted experience chemistry and experience physics. So you know we're looking for a program that one is going to teach those basic foundations of chemistry and physics
020to get those kids ready if they're going to go on into a STEM field but also um that exploration that hands-on that inquiry um how the STEM fields are all changing day to day. I mean year to year they are just advancing. So how can we bring that all in and get those kids ready? So this is our next goround at chemistry and physics and I just kind of talked about this already. We've worked with our science consultant. We did a pilot with open sed. We've sent Mr. Franks to quite a few professional developments just on nextgen science standards trying to get him into the group of things as he's coming back to teaching from a second from a um health career. So our second pilot this year was sadis experience chemistry and experienced physics.
021Um and it went much better much much better. So here I'm here tonight to kind of just talk about this experience science experienced chemistry and experience physics are both through status is the parent company. They just came out so they have been really revamping their whole curriculum to meet those those core principles. So they both and I I shared a few you should have these and I put those in there just to kind of show how they mirror each other. You can see they they both are in a triangle paradigm where they have the story line which is the phenomenon. That's what all science is based on. You take a phenomenon and you kind of work through it with experiments, investigations, and just good hands-on learning there. So they have they share a lot of
022similarities. I'm going to show just a quick two and a half minute video of experience chemistry to see the background and kind of the whole philosophy behind it. Um, and it's the same thing for experience physics as well. >> That's not going to be easy, is it? >> There is a tremendous need to rethink how we teach chemistry in today's classroom. These are the kinds of things we kept hearing every time we talked to high school chemistry teachers. >> The last PD training I went to gave us excellent examples of phenomena for biology. They didn't mention chemistry once. >> I spent hours and hours of my personal time every week rewriting old chemistry labs to make them more open-ended. My chemistry textbooks sit unused on a bookcase in the back of the classroom and we
023want to change that. >> We want your students to experience chemistry. So, how does experience chemistry work? We start each story line with an anchoring phenomenon. This is your big picture topic and it will tie upcoming content together and generate the multiple student questions that drive your lessons forward. If you're studying chemical reactions, ask your class, "How do we design chemicals to keep food from spoiling?" That's a lot more interesting than just talking about how chemical reactions are processes by which one or more substances are changed into a new substance. Now, when they study chemical quantities, stoometry, and thermmochemistry, they can relate these principles to the foods that they eat. This will transform your classroom from a rope memorization of hundreds of years old details to a living relevant laboratory of discovery. >> But how
024do your students answer these questions? That's the heart of the program. The experiences, >> experience chemistry consists of a series of hands-on and digital student experiences where students do the chemistry and not just learn about it. Take our labs. We partnered with Flynn Scientific, the leading chemical supplier to science educators across the country. Every learning experience includes a Flynn lab, but not just one. They develop four versions of every single lab so you don't have to modify them yourself. Each lab has an open end, a guideline, a shortened, and advanced version. Think about how much time that will save you. Other ways that students experience chemistry through our partnership with Flynn Scientific are videos and virtual reality simulations. We are really excited to work with them and you will be too. >> Of course, labs
025aren't the only student experience in our program. We have problem based learning projects, authentic readings, engineering tasks, virtual labs, and more to make sure every student has an authentic learning experience in your classroom. Experience Chemistry is a brand new program designed to excite your students as they investigate realworld chemistry and do the full range of the practices of science. It is not just an old book with a new cover. It's the science of doom. So there's a physics one too. you get the the gist of it. Um they all have similar things. The one thing that's been really nice in this program, especially in the physics portion, they have builtin um math support for kids that actually is like math tutoring for that specific math that they're using in that physics lab or application, which
026is really nice because they may not have gotten that far in their math classes yet. They may not understand. So, it's like that hands-on tutoring that goes with exactly what they're doing. I haven't seen that in other science programs like this. So, that was a nice feature. Um, again, I you have this in your packet, but just highlighting um all the different things that they have. The thing nice for somebody like Mr. Frank who's teaching one section of chemistry and one section of physics and physical like all these these lab kits come so it's all right there for him. He's not digging around. He's not constantly trying. he can see the different variations of labs to know, okay, I have this much time or I have more time so I can offer kids that need
027more like advanced they can go farther or or kids that if I just want to model something there for those teachers. Um the performance assessments are at every after every investigation and then they follow that claim evidence reasoning writing which is really big for thatformational writing um that we see. So the cost right now this is a six-year proposal. We have one section of chemistry 35 kids every year and we have one section of physics currently every year. So this is for six years. Those are the digital licenses. the we do have hard cover textbooks that they can have in class for a reference, but the book is digital of course for the kids. Um all the virtual simulations, everything like that. And the classroom kits, um that's for the original consumable and non-consumable classroom
028kit for a year. Now, each year there's going to be some consumable stuff you run out of that we will have to order. So, I did put a caveat at the end there that we will have to order some stuff as he runs out. That cost is going to vary year to year depending on what instillables are used and how much. Um the total for six years for those two are 11,718. Um they are they will work with us. We can pay it all up front or we can bill it yearly to them too. So we can work out some things Dorothy and I when that comes. Uh today this is just brought to you forformational overview tonight. So in case you want to take a look and ask some questions, I'll bring it forward
029in December for an actual action item and we're hoping to get it then purchased after that so we can start full implementation by second semester. >> So this is what you're doing right they're doing >> currently right now. >> So do they have like the experiment stuff now? >> They do. So we purchased the pilot kit at the beginning of the year which did come with a full day training. Mr. Mr. Melrose, myself, Mr. Frank, and Miss Meldram, or I'm sorry, Miss Landram, M. Landram, Curtis, even though she's not, she's his mentor. So, the four of us were in the training with the presenter. It was a really good training. Um, she walked them through everything. And then we've had ongoing support from them. Eric and I checked in with the Salis Lee who's taught
030this program. Like, she's in there. You can tell she's recently out of the classroom, right? So, um, she's been great to check in with. We have monthly meetings with her. So, it's been very positive. Every question she has, in fact, what he said to me is, "Melissa, the pilot kit's running out of experiment stuff. Like, I need to get this stuff in. We have experiments we want to do." And I go, "Well, we can't yet. Hold on. We got to dig into the board." So, it was it was nice to see him so excited about it. He says, um, you know, overall he's moving through materials quicker. Kids feel more confident with it. When I spoke with some of the kids this year, I mean, they obviously didn't have the experience from last year. So,
031>> no, they were like, >> my kid had the experience last year. She >> it was didn't understand. She was like, I don't even know what we did. >> Yeah. And and and when I talked to Ma like the open sad one is for kids that have a really deep understanding of physical science, right? So they go in there and so then he had to spend so much time back teaching which made the units go so long and then they were not excited about it. They were not so it it wasn't the right fit for us after talking to the kids. It definitely wasn't the right fit. Um >> sounds like sounds like I mean the just the engagement piece here >> the engagement's a lot. Like I said it's moving much quicker. It's going
032much better this year. I did reach out to them because we haven't updated our physical science class in a long time, but there's not anything out there yet that's really powerful. So, they are going to be working on something through this, but they haven't done it yet. So, that's the other thing we're keeping an eye on is what physical science strong curriculums are coming out, what resources are coming out because we're still using a book that we've had for a while. So, we definitely need to look at that in the future as well. But this is a good fit for our kids right now. >> Don't let those upper classmen talk those young younger ones into not taking it cuz it's like the kind of thing that has been going around like and I know
033a lot of the current sophomores ended up taking physiology and anatomy this year because they were kind of >> because a lot of the current juniors feel like they completely missed out on a year >> of class. Yeah. >> Is there anything that can be done to help those kids because they're not prepared now >> as if they had taken chemistry? >> I don't know. That's >> Is there anything we can do to help them? >> I can check to see if there's anything like that we can have them do or maybe build it in a little bit like >> maybe enrichment off of this for >> Yeah, that's what I'm Yeah, because there are a lot of kids that feel like they gave you nothing. There's also there's also components in Khan Academy for
034all these as well that that actually offer a lot of support. >> So we'll have to take a look at what enrichment that we >> and I know that you don't know until you try something. >> Well, like I said, we had no material. >> Well, we do have but unfortunately two of us do have a child that was part of the first pancake that just >> Well, like I said, we had nothing to give him. >> No. Yeah. No, I >> we went off the recommendation of our science consultant. And you don't know until you try. >> No, I I get it cuz I was just like, "What are you learning?" >> Yeah. Like iceberg weird. >> Iceberg's still like >> I took chemistry a lot. Like I took a bunch of levels. I'm
035like, I don't even >> like what are you doing? >> Yeah. >> So, like I said, we we went with the best recommendation we had at the time. >> This is better. >> We got a lot of training and we listened to our kids and they said, >> "I don't think this is hidden." You know, they they were very honest in a respectful way because I would say, "Tell me why. Tell me why." I mean, maybe not to mom at home, but to me, when I asked those questions of them, they were able to give me real reasons why they didn't think it was a good fit. Which >> we listened. You said, "Right." Well, and I do appreciate that. I just >> I get it as a mom. My kid though, right? >> Yeah.
036cuz in and well like not just my kid but the other you know >> however many that were in there >> they only have to take three years of science. How do you know which ones they're supposed to pick? Like is there does it matter like if they do biology and then do physiology, anatomy and physical science? Like is it do they have to take any type of test that tests like a physics and a chemistry? They don't take that in high school. >> Not to my knowledge. >> No. So I mean they take the so they take the science >> MSTEP but that but the state really doesn't count that toward accreditation and the and the SAT there's nothing really the science is ingrained in some of the math questions or some of the
037reading questions but it's not a and even if you look at those questions you really don't need to know the content if you just can figure out from the reading what what they're asking for >> right >> in pursuing past right I it's that foundation those STEM careers, right? If you want to enter into >> and once you take and and if you're attempting to take a class in college, >> if you're assuming that you already have the knowledge that you should have had, >> I just didn't chemistry science you took, >> but you know, just whatever you want to get. >> So, we're trying. >> Oh, I know. I thought so. So anyways, this is for your information, but please reach out to myself or Mr. Frank if you have more questions. And um
038and I'm glad it's going well because a lot of time it it can be dry, it can be boring if something doesn't happen to catch their attention. So I am glad that they're you know you listen and that that there is a change, >> right? So >> and you don't know until you try. >> No. And like I said, we had at the time we didn't have any materials. He he got a lot of great learning and unfortunately it just wasn't the best fit. >> Thank you. >> All right. Want to make a motion? Move that the board of education approves all consent agenda items including agenda, minutes, personnel items, treasures report and bills as listed items A through C. >> All in favor say I. >> I opposed. >> It's okay over here, I
039guess. and uh we decide on this is the this is the place to stand. Um first of all uh we uh was finally decided or they finally voted the athletic directors and principles at the MAC that they'll be applied. They've accepted us. So uh we're officially in the MAC as of NE of next year. Uh Mitch has already gone to their first meeting. They're already starting to kind of slot us into different sports of where we're going to fall. And again, the the the reason we did this is a transportation is going to be a lot easier for parents and students uh going forward and b also just competitiveness that the the max big enough that they can slide you around to for all the sports to kind of make us more competitive across the
040board which is going to be a good thing. So that's a good thing going forward. Uh on November 4th we had another successful NHS blood drive. On November 8th, uh Henry's Club sponsored a 5K fun walk and uh run uh for the art program. And my understanding is they raised $4,000 for it. So that was that was really nice. On November November 13th, we had our middle school muscles trip to the rink. Kids enjoyed that. And then on Friday, Care Bag finished their fall drive just for the for needs for for kids. Um and Mr. Vag's class won with the most things brought in. So they get donuts and cider tomorrow. Uh when we come back from break here December 1st, um our performing arts 2 concert, it will be at Elanquin and that'll be
041at 7:00 p.m. again on December 1st. And then our performing arts one group will have their uh Pirates Christmas. That'll be on December 12th uh 700 p.m. at Elgen. And then December 18th will be our holiday band concert in the main gym. Uh this is you should have a group of notes in front of you. Uh pushed through the first part of the day. Came in uh after not feeling so good Friday, not feeling so good all weekend. Came in this morning and called about noon and said I'd cashing in. I can't be here. So, I just uh she sent her stuff along to Jay and I told her I would pass it along to you and um hopefully she goes home got home and got some sleep. She was sounding pretty rough this morning.
042So, >> so looking back near the start of the month, we had our first artifact hunt um where members of our ELA committee were able to visit each classroom during our designated small group time. We were working to identify celebrations and gather data to kind of guide our next step in our building literacy journey. Um the committee members shared the data and the celebrations with our staff along with the survey to kind of get some insight on some of our wonder rooms that we noticed as we were going through. But in every room there was something meaningful and positive to notice. Staff really enjoyed having that opportunity to to take ideas from their colleagues as well as things that they could use in their home. Um, we also had the Chick-fil-A leaders come back again
043and they stopped in to read with our students and shared books with them. So, thank you to Mrs. Wood and Mr. Thomas for organizing that. Way back at the end of October, we had our costume parade which was a huge success. We were able to go outside and parade around the whole entire elementary campus. U, Mr. Kavinsky and the marching band did a great job escorting us around and our school resource officer, Pelleteer, along with the Lake Township Police were extremely helpful as well. um middle of the month, our students had the opportunity to try some pumpkin squares during Discovery Kitchen. They really, really enjoyed them and they're hoping to see them come back as a menu item. One of our first grade parents, Mr. Wilson, he is a member of, I believe it's the
044Warren Astronomical Society. He has a big interest in astronomy. So he just recently came in and shared his knowledge and a great presentation with all of our first grade students as kind of a culmination to their knowledge unit that was based on astronomy in the amplified. Um in our early childhood programs we had some exciting things go on too. Mrs. Brody and Mrs. Osborne hosted a family engagement night with our GSRP families and that was focused on the importance and um development of our fine motor skills. And then Mrs. Hughes also welcomed families in for a resource day that was centered around gross and fine motor skills and the connection to sensory. So coming up in the next couple of weeks here we have a couple of PTO events including cookies with Santa and the
045Santa shop and probably lots more fun coming those coming weeks as we get into the holidays. That's it. >> Our preschool teachers are just finishing up our parent teacher conferences and now starting to prepare for the busy month of December. Um, tomorrow we have a very busy day for all with Thanksgiving celebrations in the classrooms. We have adopted one of our school families this year for Christmas. Um, everyone seems to be very excited to help out a local family in need. And we also have made a space for a food pantry for our families for the time being. We've had great participation with them. >> She's back. So, um, switching gears to English language arts, we've been doing the think circa pilot in grades four through 8. Um, we met again, we met twice in
046the last month, um, this month to really review. This program does a really great job of taking data and all the things that we've been doing. So, we spent some time today reviewing that, looking at our goals, um, going into some more details of that. So there'll be more information coming to the board for information in the next month or two on that, but um seen some really great things there. So um countywide AI leadership team, I attended that this past month as well. The county really is focused to continue on supporting districts at building capacity, ensuring safe use, and identifying high impact instructional applications with AI and what that might look like here. So, just wanted to let you know that that is on the county forefront. There's a leadership team on that. I
047attended the statewide MKIP conference, which is our continuing school improvement last week. Lots of great strategies there. Um, sessions to support our work, our strategic planning, and then even got an update on some of the title one documentations and things like that that need to be. So, overall a really great day. We already talked about chemistry and physics, uh, elementary literacy and math interventions. Currently, all K5 classrooms have access to Boost Reading through Amplify. Um, they're all hooked up. Their kids are in. Um, so we're looking at that and how that's being utilized in each of those classrooms. And grades five and six have officially put on their success maker math intervention as well. K4, if you remember, they're doing a fluency block every day for math fluency intervention. fifth and sixth, they're going a
048little bit deeper during their 30 minute intervention time for some actual math support. Um we're using success maker and then the teachers are pulling some small groups too. So some great big hope great things come out of that some focus and we just received word um that the district received their 27H mentoring grant funding in the amount of $50,000 5,500. Sorry, I had to walk myself back there for a minute to support our teacher mentoring program with our regular teachers and our new incoming teachers. So, really excited about that. Uh board reports. Um I did have to add this to our agenda. um that we all got something planned on the board of directors that they are taking um uh candidates right now. Um but we can only have one per district. So I just
049want to put out there if anybody's interested or plan on running, you can let the rest of the board know so we don't not everybody's ready to to do that because we only have one. So, if that's something you're interested in, just let us know so that >> I just Oh, I just wanted to say um as far as the Halloween uh parade, I heard from people that lived near the school, how cool it was to hear the band and see the kids. And I just growing up, I went to Albanac Al and Dr. Straight always walked us around. we went past um along place, you know, so that the the retirees that were there could see us. And that was always an exciting thing. And I just think it's really a cool addition to
050have the band and have the kids are >> the kids that uh that came over from Dana's in the high school. So we had all the kids out in the hallway, every they all brought candy. So these kids would come down one hallway with four to go and they were ready. Their bags were just overflowing already and then you know they're about two hallways is about they're about done. Anyway, it was just funny because they kids that were down on this end of the building had all these big bags of candy and there was no you couldn't find another place in their bags. >> One kid had a Home Depot bucket though bucket. But yeah, it was pretty >> Yep. >> Um, just a few things for you this evening and and most of these
051you've kind of been kept up to date all. Um, Ryan had mentioned the MAC approval. I will put something out to the community from the district kind of explaining that we've officially been accepted. >> Do you want to explain how the school works? It's different. >> Yes, it it is. Um actually with us right now >> middle school we will still be competing almost kind of like in what was the old scale sort of somewhat um East China um Mary'sville or here on schools. Um so a lot more of that like we kind of always had competed before. Um so it's it is a separate league and we do that a lot because um one there's a lot of middle There's a lot of seventh, eighth, and ninth grade schools still down in Mcome. So,
052that's one of the reasons, but also just the proximity playing East China schools and Maryville. I mean, everybody's pretty close by. So, um that that'll be pretty cool, I think, for us, too. >> Um, >> no. Will it still be uh four seasons or will it be three? >> Yeah. Are you talking middle school with those two? No, it'll be um they do I believe they do current what we're currently doing right now. where they do the split with the uh first winner, second winner. >> Yeah, >> I think that's exactly what they got. >> I think it might be I think their basketball girls and boys were opposite of ours. >> You might want to check that for the girls played in like the later winger when I went to Washington one time and
053then the boys played in the game. It was weird, but I don't know if they switched now because some of the schools didn't have wrestling and now they >> Okay. Because that wrestling team >> because we always did basketball wrestling opposite. >> Yep. >> But they might have switched that now that more of the school wrestling. >> Um so the 31A lawsuits um and we had discussed uh the importance of that kind of what's going on. Th's been like moving like crazy last week. So, um the lawsuit got filed last week. Um we obviously were part of that lawsuit and basically the whole idea behind that is um on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. They asked districts and ask individuals to give up their uh attorney client privileges especially in order to obtain funding.
054Um, it's something that we feel, you know, pretty obviously pretty strongly about. You know, for us to put our district and and our employees in that position is scary and it's something that I I I really would have struggled to um commit to that money knowing that that could be then resolved to that. So, lawsuit was filed. We got quick response. it it's kind of uh a little compact anyway because they really wanted money awarded by the end of December and it was supposed to come on the December state payment. So as we went um it it kind of was all within the matter of a day or two. We started with um the federal lawsuit. They've said that they would make a judgment on that by they would hear the briefs and then make
055a judgment by December 9th. Same with the state. And so what they did was remember this at one point was a November 20th deadline got pushed back to December 1st. So it's now December 4th. What they've told us at this point to opt in, which before they said don't opt in until we know what's going on. So, we've um been instructed to opt into the money with the idea that if the lawsuit doesn't finish favorable by December 19th, we have until December 31st to reset. >> So, we'll be able to back out of it if that's the case. Now, um our attorneys and I had a a Zoom call on Friday morning. Um they've been talking with a little bit with and not only with the judge it's going to be the case but also
056with the other side a little bit. Um feel fairly good like and usually they're not like kind they don't want to get over optimistic but they felt very good about the conversations that they were having. It's a, you know, the idea that I think when this um legislation was presented, I don't think everybody that was presented or that, you know, voted for this had a full idea of what it all entailed and now that's starting to come to the forefront. So, um, since then, uh, MASA, MASB, I think you guys have seen above kind of jump on board a little bit too and have been impressive. So, I I feel good about the direction that it's going in and most importantly, we're in a position now where worst case scenario, we would back out of
057that money probably. But I I do feel pretty good about um I think it's there'll be some changes made to that and I think it'll be something that we can. So, I'll keep you posted. >> How many schools ended up participating? >> Um I don't know the answer to that. I I know they were still at the at the last day cuz we had till they gave us a deadline of Tuesday to uh jump in on the lawsuit. And so I think I mean it was quite a few and then True came back up with something that with the idea that you can be I think what they called an interested party in the lawsuit. So you're not necessarily on there, but you're listed as you're not named in the lawsuit. You're kind of listed
058as a go. Okay. So we got a big group doing that, too. Yeah. So for So um no, I I feel pretty good about the direction that's going. >> Um I did I had been talking to you about uh putting together a student advisory. So, uh had our first meeting um last week and it was uh interesting. Uh it really great like walked out just kind of like with my jaw dropping a little bit about like you know the willingness to talk and and converse was really refreshing. And I, you know, it was like the first about five or 10 minutes, I think they were kind of waiting to see what the, you know, what the guy that was running this thing was going to say and like how he was going to take things.
059And, you know, I I I cracked a couple oneliners and everyone kind of start and then once the conversation started flowing, I mean, I had we had probably I think after an hour we got the draft of our agenda. Um, but they had there there's just there's good insight and you know they asked if we could meet again before Christmas which you I'm real comfortable with and kind of told them my vision for it was I I really do. Um, as I you know I told him I said this is my 34th year. I said I'm kidding myself if I think I know everything that you guys want as students. I said I want to know but I said I don't know it all and I and I I want to hear from you. and
060they felt good about uh they were the right people to be representing me and they said that you know I asked if there were some people that should be at the table that and so we got a couple more names so I think we're going to add a few more to the to the groups and um yeah just was uh it was good conversation and um what the gist of the first meeting though and I'll share this weekend we talked about we'll be kind of confidential with some of the stuff that we talked about in there just so they can feel comfortable with that way. Um, most of our kids feel real good about and safe about coming here every day and and that made me feel good cuz they, you know, almost got person
061when we started having those conversations. And I had a couple in there that were interesting, came from bigger districts and, you know, they said never once have they walked in here and worried about some of the things that you see on TV. and um felt real good about the adults in the in the building that they could go to if they needed to. So, it was just good feedback and you know, they also I you know, I asked the question, okay, where are we screwing up? Where are we missing the mark? And they had some good good things to share with that, too. So, I'll work on fixing those. So, >> you got a good mix of kids. >> Yeah, I was going to say >> Yeah, we do. And and I and I did
062try to so um I I brought in a couple seniors and I only did that because I kind of felt like, you know, they would have nostalg Yeah, we did it uh we did it fifth hour and what I I was um trying to work around. Couple of them had tech and so I had to the afternoon was going to work best and we were going to do it on a seminar thing but it it just worked out better where we had an hour and they seem to think fifth hour was an hour that they could get past I guess or or at least um you know not fall too far behind. So, um, so anyway, we're going to do one more time before Christmas and then we'll, you know, I I told him we
063could meet monthly. We could meet if we don't need to meet that much or if we need to meet on something, maybe something comes up, you guys think that it's uh something that we need to talk about as a group, we'll do that. So, it was fun. >> Can you invite him here like at the end of the school year? >> What's that? >> Can you invite him here at the end of the school year so we can thank him for that? >> Yeah, absolutely. for sure. >> And are you do you plan on getting a new group every year? >> I think so. >> I I mean I would think I I think I'd always, you know, I was thinking about that too. Maybe at least >> recycle a couple members just so they
064kind of, you know, keep the flow of it going, but yeah, bring in some different people. I think that would be good to hear some different voices. Um, good news with the uh with the teen health clinic. So, um I've been in pretty steady contact with Mike Bernowski. Um we will be the the goal is to be up and running um for the next quarter which starts in January. Um you know that the the nice part is is that the equipment and the tables and the everything that we not we but that was purchased with that grant through the health department there. they said we're going to leave there. And so really it's kind of almost turnkey for somebody coming in right now. Um might kick a few things what they look to do their
065technology and you know whatever whatever they're using over at uh community first but at the same point it's it's pretty good to go. Um they had already hired a nurse practitioner. um they are still in negotiations with counseling social worker uh person. So uh but he felt pretty confident that that was going to get done too. And um so yeah, I'm excited about being able to provide that service for our kids again. And um >> so much of a cost to us or >> it's great. >> Yeah, it's pretty good. You know, Mike had said before we were ever uh given that grant the first time around, Mike said that community first had been looking to kind of get involved in schoolbased kind of stuff anyway. And he just always thought it would serve the
066community pretty well and then when we got that other grant, they kind of backed off of it a little bit, but then you know they heard about the trouble that they were having jump back in. So that should be good. And then very last, uh I I don't know if you're looking been keeping up with the papers at all. Last week they did um pass the new state standards for sex education. Um and so you know when we look at our curriculum going forward and you know how that'll affect they they are standards that were passed and adopted. They're not requirements. They're not um basically they are suggestions and and how you want to handle or if you want to handle you know we've always had the opt out policy but also um in Algen
067where it we've always done it we see these new standards we know that it's going to be controversial no matter what happens it's just the world we live in right now and so um our very first step is going to be meet with our sexed advisory board Ryan plans on getting and group together I think in January here um and start to talk about just some of those types of things. Um we've been in we've talked with um you know health health instructors here just to kind of make sure hey we we don't know what what we're going to do yet. We need to talk about all these things and how we want to roll that out. Um you know if we want to make changes to the curriculum and obviously as you as a
068board when we make changes to curriculum and things like that that's um you know your input will come in on it. So uh we got a lot of way to go with it. So if you get I guess my message to you is if people are approaching you because I'm getting approached on it with emails and phone calls and and if people approach you I think it's just simply letting them know that these are these are standards that have been adopted. They are not rules that are not requirements. Um and we've got a lot of steps to go through before we adopt anything. Who on the board here is on that? >> Anyway, that's that's about um I think that's all I hear. >> When would those new standards start? Like next school year, 2026
069probably. Yeah, I I I would assume it's kind of they're just I mean I guess you could probably if you technically want to probably implement them immediately, but um you know I for us we're if we were going to make any adoptions or changes I think we could look >> at Mr. Johnson. >> Yes. Welcome. >> Good evening everyone. I first of all want to apologize for misinterpreting the agenda. I seen um the board of the mission board of board of directors on there. So I interpreted that I had a window on there since one of my employees that I worked with for the last 25 years Kenny Boom. I've been an employee at the director at Wilson for the last 25 years. everybody both of us here today and I said well he's on
070the agenda I should be as well but since I'm not thank you for the time that I have today I just want to introduce myself my name is James Johnson and I must be honest when she asked if any of you want to run for the position please let me know I am the current chair of the board of directors and the immediate past president and I was like please no please say no stay quiet everyone and I just really want to introduce myself I'm the immediate past president of the Michigan Association of School Boards and it was my goal to meet each district that I represented. If I couldn't go to each district, I would at least go to the CASMAS and St. Clair County is one St. Clair is one of my favorite
071places. I do a lot of fishing, so I fish up along the river. And so I said, well, I heard about Alvin Act and I I also knew Jennifer. Um she we sat on a couple of committees. So I said, "Let me come down here and introduce myself because in January you will you will see um candidates coming out looking to run and you may see a black and white me. This is what I look like in color." So and I just wanted to give you a little bit about myself. Like I say, I I represent the um Jennese Hiron Satellac Pier Tuscola and St. Clair County. I'm I've been at the board of director for six years and with that I had a lot of experience. There's a lot of things I do on
072a local level. There's a lot of things I do on a state level and there's a lot of things I do on a national level as well. I sat on a couple of national committees. Actually got just got back from a national conference in New England. So, we're doing some things there. And I was going to actually talk to you today. One of the things about the 31A and he covered covered it well. So, I said, "Well, he got one thing off my list." But one of the things I also want to talk to you about is the MASB has partnered together with um the National the National School Board Association and they have what's called a NACON connection. And those of you that were at the annual leadership conference, you kind of heard Matthew
073Shaw Walter talk about it. And it's a it's a MASB and an NSBA connection that allows you to receive information and what's happening at the national level and not just from the school board perspective but also from a legal perspective as well. Lawsuits that may be going on and what you'll receive with that you'll receiving you'll receive in the U American school board journal. It's a handwritten it's a hand printed copy. You also receive the netcon daily which is emails that provide you updates and changes like right now 31A is a hot topic. So you'll receive a whole lot of information on that. Then there's the center for public education the CBE magazine that's also another hard copy. And then there's legal clips things say what's going on from a legislative perspective. Uh what that's
074how and how it's going to affect you as a local school board. And with that being said the thing right now is a pilot program. That's what makes it good about it. But the window is a short window and hopefully we had a meeting just last Friday. Hopefully within the next two weeks you will you will receive an email for each and every school board member to in the state of Michigan to opt in on that. There's a trial. There's a 90-day trial. And with this trial, you'll receive what if it benefits you at the district. But the good thing about it, if the whole district decide to opt in, everyone will receive the communications. Not just the school board members, but also your teachers, you know, your lunch staff, everyone in your whole district
075will, superintendent, everyone in the whole district will be able to receive um the email and correspondent just to see what's going on in from a national level because you'll a lot of things are changing >> and so at least you'll be front and center and you'll also get a perspective of what the NSBA is looking to do. But once again, that's on a national level. And each national school board has representatives from the state that's speaking up for representing the state. And so, I just want to share that with you. And if I may, can I'm not sure who I should hand this to. Is it Mr. President? I'm not sure. But, um, there's some information in here that you may want to share with the board. On top of there is my cards. So,
076if you have any questions for me, feel free to call. But, I just want to one main thing today. just really want to introduce myself to each and every one of you. Like I said, some of you I see at the conference we may speak and 30 minutes later I say, "What was that name again?" So, I'm apologizing now. But I'm hoping that you know things will continue to go forward and please take take advantage if you just want to try when that email comes out. Please take a few minutes and just sample it. Like I said, it's it's a 90-day and the pricing list per district is based per student and it has dropped dramatically. It really has because of the partnership that the Michigan Association School Boards has with the National School Board
077Association. So there and Matt Show, I'm not sure how many of you know him, but he's really working to help make that accessible to every single district. and you will I do believe that you will find a benefit of it. Once again, my name is James Johnson. I come here through Kerman Aimworth District by way of the Michigan Associate School Board. Thank you for the time and thank you for listening. >> And also your commitment to public education. >> Thank you. >> We'll move on to our action items. First one up is our audit 2425 audit. I make a motion that the board for education accept the term 24 2025 audit report as presented and submitted by the auditing company support vote. Yes. All right, we'll move on to the room board policy update. I'll
078make a motion that the board of education approve the updated policy and the true board policy update October 13, 2025 as present. any discussion kind of went over the >> Yeah, it was there's really not much in this one. It was just a couple changes to some forms and some wording. So, nothing nothing that's going to make a big difference for you guys. >> Yes. Yes. Motion carried. Last one is a resolution for summer tax collection. I'll make a motion to move to approve the annual summer tax resolution as presented calling for 100% summer collection of school property tax in 2026 with a copy of the resolution be provided to local governing bodies prior to January 1st, 2026. A complete copy of the resolution shall be attached to the original amendment. It's part of any
079discussion. >> Do we have to go out for the property next year 2026? >> Yeah. No. Um, yes. We we need to start talking having those conversations. Uh, our tank is empty summer of 27. >> Okay. But if we do it in 26 then we can do it as a renewal. We can do it as a renewal at 26. So when >> we get to talk and we we can run it out twice. >> So you do would we be doing it in May? >> We I would go November and then May is the fall. >> May of seven. >> So 26. >> Even though November is like an election year, but not like just a governor. >> I mean, here's the thing. >> I don't I was on John remember that >> it's not
080always I I I mean th those are those are probably the most likely to get denied but if you want to have a couple you know couple cracks on it and uh just in case or um >> so but we could do in August >> we could do in August but here here's the other part about that and I kind of go back and forth with it when you run those out if we we could do in August >> because they have a primary for the governor >> that's true too because that's that is a primary this time I get beat up. You get the people that are coming out just for that. >> Not everybody comes to a prank. >> No, that's true. I get beat up when I just That's the only thing
081on the terms that we're paying to run a special election. But um yeah, no, that's something we could definitely talk about. And honestly, when we started looking back and I I was talking with Evan actually, we were just talking about the list the ongoing list of things that we've done with this 10 years worth of funding. >> Yeah. Hard to believe it's been almost 10 years, but it really has. Um I I can't you you couldn't be a taxpayer in this committee and go they dropped the ball on that. I mean the things that we fix and the dollars we stretch with that getting all the roofs in this district completely redone. Uh the upgrades that we have made. Um you know now the nice part about this is this next time around I mean
082this is where we can really start. This is where you touch the inside of every classroom and you start doing, you know, these are the ones that people are really going to see. Oh, you know, when I walk in my kids science room, it looks entirely different than it used to. Or I walk into an elementary classroom and it's modern and different. Our locker rooms are red. There's some real uh real and those tennis courts. That's my >> locker room. Tennis court. Our locker room our our locker rooms are some pretty desperate need of our game, but our tennis courts are getting almost unplayable and we need to fix that. And my thought is if I do a side by side with some pickle ball courts, I think that could drum up some folks from
083our community. >> Just the pickle. >> Anyway, but yes. >> So then we could do August. >> You can play on the tennis court, but you can't play tennis on a pickle ball. >> That's true. Just so you guys know, >> that is very true. >> But I'd almost like to keep them separate because different sizes than that. >> So if you if you have it in August, you can't have it in November, right? Because of the filing. I think >> you you can do you can run it back out there at the end of November. It's just >> But you would do August and then May or November and May. >> I would do either do August and May or November and May. >> Okay. and in the May I'm I'm hoping and and
084again it it'll be a renewal for us. Um our mill rate now because in 10 years we haven't touched it is very low in the county if you look at our chart compared to every district. We're probably we're either the lowest or the second most >> and so if we can keep it at that rate which is renewal I think it'll be a I think it's a reasonable ask. So, >> but we'll have to amp up the, you know, the get out there and hit the streets again like we did last time. And >> are you going to have like a committee that we did that? >> I Yeah, I think we'll do that. And I'll block out about every meeting in the six month span and then go visit every single township meeting and
085club and everything else. But I think it's uh it'll be good because like I said that the impact of this one, you know, people know that we got our roofs fixed, but that's not very exciting, >> right, >> for anybody, but when we can start doing things inside the buildings, >> that's pretty exciting and people look good, right? >> That was a huge deal. I I hated those. >> Yeah. Now they're just safe. >> Safe and good. They look great. >> Amber. >> Yes. Right. Now, um, uh, I move that the board of education go to close session at 8:09 p.m. for the purpose of this. >> All in favor? >> I All right. >> Oh, yeah. We have to roll call. Sorry. Do it again. Roll call. Yes. Yes. All right. Now the motion.
086>> All right. So close session.