001I'd like to call over the board of education meeting for Monday, May 19th, 700 p.m. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance and moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to theublic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Amber bracket here, Jennifer Baker here. Heather here. William Brady here. John here. Okay, before we get started, I just wanted to um do something a little bit not really different, but uh we're going to start doing roll call votes on anything that's financial, anything that is uh like contracts and whenever we go into close session. So, that's a little different than what we've done in the past, but um I think that's what we should be doing. So, just to put that out
002there before we get started. All right. First, we have a couple recognitions. Yep. Uh tonight we have Brenda Tenniswood from St. Clair Resa that's come to join us and this has become an annual thing uh with Brenda and and certainly uh Rea Soups in the past. Um for those of you that don't know, uh St. Claire Resa does uh have a lot of partnerships with them and support a lot of programs that we do at the school and then also uh house our tech program and um some really Woodlands uh special ed center and and so there's a bunch that they do for us. Um tonight Brenda is here to talk a little bit about the tech programs and the tech program in general and then also share the recent budget. So Brenda, thanks for
003joining us. I appreciate that. I know you're a busy person at this time of year, so thanks for coming out. Thank you so much for having me. Yes, tonight this is the third of three board meetings in a row. So hopefully I'm still here at this point in time. Um, most importantly, thank you to Al um and the Elgen board for the great partnership. The work that we do at RISA certainly aligns with the work that you do here at Alan. And we don't work in a vacuum. It's through the collaboration and the cooperation together that we're able to make the impact on students. So, and that certainly wouldn't be possible without your awesome superintendent and team. So, thank you very much. Um, I do want to give kind of a highlevel budget overview and
004then do a quick deep dive into just a couple snippets from each of our three funds. So, budget overview, I would love to be able to see say that everything is tied up with a bow. we know exactly what 2526 is going to forend. Uh unfortunately, we do not. So, I think we're grappling with many of the same unknowns that you are as you're looking toward your budget next year. Obviously, we've seen a couple of glimmers of hope with the per pupil proposed increase. I hope that comes to fruition. Kind of lurking out there though is still the unfunded liability and what that's really going to look like. Um and then from RIA's perspective, we're also monitoring Medicaid funding really closely. Um, you may or may not be aware that uh, Reer receives around $1.8
005million in Medicaid. We flow the bulk all but about $200,000 of that out on an annual basis. So any cuts to Medicaid could be pretty significant in terms of impacting students and programs. So keeping a close eye on that. So all that to say, if you pulled up, and I'm sure Dorothy has, our current budget to next year, you would know they're pretty flat. We budgeted really conservatively. thing that we're doing is as as positions open up typically through a attrition or retirement, we're really doing an internal investigation about is this a position we need? Can we assume responsibilities? Is there a different way essentially to accomplish the same work? But obviously, we're going to continue to keep a close eye on budget and also advocate on behalf of local districts moving forward. So, having
006said that, you might recall that at RESA, we have three different buckets of money that form our budget. Can't transfer between those two. So we treat each as essentially as a separate budget. General fund is the I think the the budget or bucket that's the most largely funded through grants. Um if you looked at the variability, you'd see a lot of money coming in, a lot of money flowing out. That includes things like our 31N um some of the literacy grants and early childhood. But want to do a deep dive just on a couple things. First of uh which is professional development. We know that student achievement, students thriving in a classroom is really predicated on a highly trained, engaging, well-versed teacher. And so to that end, we offer a whole continuum of professional development
007opportunities. And and one of the things I like is it's not a one-sizefits-all model. So we work in close collaboration with the local districts to say, how can I support you? Where are your needs? Whether that's offering a literacy coach in the classroom, offering pull out um sessions. Last year in the 23 24 school year, we had about 1,700 different professionals that came out and participated in professional development with us. That does not include any of our pushin PD offerings that we had. One of the newest ones this year was something called second shift shifting instructional practices. Um, this was really targeted at our secondary teachers to engage them in exactly the types of learning you all expect to see in classrooms for kids in terms of being highly engaging, lots of data analysis. So,
008we had high school and middle school teachers nature center working with the nature center and friends of St. Clair River teachers were gathering critters out of the creek looking at trends doing data analysis. So, solving real world problems and I have to say the surveys that the teachers uh completed after the professional development some of the ratings I've seen at REA. Teachers really felt both engaged, that their voices were heard, and that there were pieces that they could take back and deploy in their classrooms. So, really excited about that. Early childhood, I'm sure you are well aware of the incredible expansion of early childhood over the last five years. Um, everything from increased offerings for parents, but also prek for all. So, across the county, it's both a challenge and I would say an opportunity.
009Uh we know as as the state of Michigan is really trying to offer universal prek, great opportunity, also some challenges because where are we going to put all the four-year-olds, right? And so to that end, most of our districts in the county um have started by first making sure that their GSRP classrooms had the most children that they could have in the classroom. So that was kind of the the first step. Step two, then are people each district is kind of saying, are there additional spaces or are there additional classrooms where we can have another GSRP? And quite frankly, what's the need in our community? Uh some communities in the county have a lot of need, others not so much. And it's really trying to work through what does that look like? Also on early
010childhood um land this year, we also started a new program related to ages and stages. Okay, I'm going to date myself. When I took my children to the pediatrician, they handed me a cookbook with was always on paper. I don't know why. It was an ages and stages questionnaire. You wrote your name and then you circled through all the benchmarks, right? Well, great for a tool except pediatricians didn't have a tool to to collate that data. And from a like a data perspective across the county, there wasn't a mechanism to say are there needs that we could address collaboratively um in terms of you know are there parent education? Are there students that need earlier referral to supports and services? So we've instituted in collaboration with many local pediatricians and electronic ages and stages. So
011it enables the pediatricians to do a better data review of their own practices and then the data is stripped so that we can identify needs across the county. So we're really excited about just the promise of that. Jenna special education. So this fund is um significantly funded through IDA funds as well as through the county village. So, um, superintendents have been a strong advocate for the past several years about meeting the needs of all children, including children who are highly disregulated. We saw this before CO. We, you know, we knew we had some children that were really high needs. CO happened and then you know the rest of the story. Lots of trauma, um, lots of highly, highly disregulated children. Our local districts were doing an amazing job. Classroom teachers using every tool in their
012toolbox, but we had a small number of children that needed an additional level of support. So to that end, we opened Creek Side Learning Center in the fall with the intent of having two classrooms. Um right now we have very low class sizes, but that's intentional as we're working through creating this wraparound system. So we have a CH case worker on the building. We have a full continuum of staff and more importantly, I think we've really been trying to plan intentionally for when students are ready to transition back to their local districts. What does that look like? what's the communication, what's the planning, and our districts have been amazing at being at the table, continuing to plan collaboratively. So, when the students are ready to transition back to their home schools and districts, there's a
013really good plan in place and lots of service and support for the receiving district. Um, that's kind of the cliff notes of special ed CTE. Um, CTE, career technical education, really covers the gamut. Um, first of all, I need to stop and pause. You had some students that did a really great job at Skills USA. I know you had some bronze and silver winners. So, congratulations to And if I slaughtered the names, I apologize. Alexandria Brooks, Adriana Gable, and Alejandro Rios. Uh he was in our welding fabrication program. So, great representation of Elvin Community Schools. Obviously, career technical education is an amazing program for students half day their their junior and senior year in 14 different programs. I think the challenge and opportunity in CTE is How do we continue to add programs? What does
014that look like? Um so to that end, we are I'm proud to say we are starting two programs in the fall. One of which is a heavy equipment um program in conjunction or collaboration with AIS. We had it before, but it was a really small, it was less than class size. Now we have an AM and PM session uh that is on site at AIS in Richmond. So that program is full. I will also say if any of you were at the tech openhouse, that table was mobbed. Like I kept giving those guys eight bottles of water because non-stop interest. Additionally, we were able to open a public safety program that is going to be housed at Windor Wilson in Fort Hon in the wing of the building. They're not used in very close proximity
015like right across the parking lot. There's a brand new fire station. So really excited about the collaboration there. Um, so the program is set up, obviously fall will be year one, but really it's intended to be a survey, if you will, of law concepts. So everything from 911 dispatch operator, which we know is a huge need in our county to kind of an overview of careers in law enforcement and then legal concepts as well for students who might be interested in pursuing a law degree. Year two, then there'll be opportunities for students to acquire FIRE one and fire two certifications. With those certifications, they can be employed then in uh local fire departments. Uh students have to be 18 in order to take those those certifications and exams, which is why that's year to the
016program. As you might imagine, high degree of interest and enthusiasm from our local law enforcement um departments and our local public safety departments. So, that's been really great to see the collaboration. We've also obviously worked really closely with our local districts. One of the things I'm always concerned about with our CTE programs is equity as it come as it relates to transportation. I don't want any student not to be able to participate because of transportation issue. So to that end, we are going to be running a shuttle bus if you will from our tech campus to the Windro Wilson site. So students who want to participate will be able to that program and is also full. So we know that's starting to address the need. It's not a complete answer. So, we are also looking
017at doing some renovations to our uh physical site on Range Road to see if there's a way that we can add another program area in High. And then probably the fourth kind of leg is looking at um the opportunities to uh increase workbased learning sites. We have I think close to 300 students this year in their second year programs um placed in a variety of work sites across the county and that has also provided a great opportunity for students to get CT experience. So with that being said again I just like to say thank you to his team for all the great collaboration. It really is an honor to work with your administrators on behalf of the students in St. Cl. Any questions? I just have a quick question. With MSU cancelling their college advisor
018program, does Rhysa have any ideas on how we will be able to fill that working? Which is not a standard. I'm very concerned about that. Jennifer, I was lobbying. I called every legislator personally to try to say, "Hey, is there any way to to stop this?" And unfortunately, that train had locked. So Rha had in the past offset half that bill's cost. I don't know. We can't fund the same level, but we're trying to brainstorm between existing personnel, is there any way that we could do something in the community because we know that role has played such a pivotal role in helping support our juniors and seniors in our high school. So, we're working on it. Okay. Thank you. Bren is pretty near and dear to that because Yeah, I knew she had here. So,
019yeah. Well, Brenda, I I I do appreciate again you coming down and everything you do with Rhysa. Um, you know, it's real important knowing the, you know, having been here 33 years. I've seen how Rhysa operates quite closely and um, Brenda's always remembered that Alganac exists in St. Clair County and she's gone out of her way to make sure we're included in programming and um we got every bit of biggest voice at the table is poured here on in East China and you know I I truly do appreciate that and appreciate the partnership and you guys doing a good job up there. Thanks for Thank you. Thank you. I think just pull them since I assume they're not all here to be part of my fan club. Might have to wait just a minute. We're
020just waiting for our next recognition is on his way in the door. So sit tight for another moment or two. I wanted to say too, Brenda, that both of my daughters went through tech. It was a really great experience for both of them. So, I appreciate um Lisa allowing the opportunity for students to get that CTE and those tech skills. You know, it's a great opportunity for both of them. It made a huge difference. I have to say it is part of my favorite, you know, part favorite part of my job is to be able to walk over, talk to the students because they give you such great feedback. They will definitely tell you what they like, what needs to be changed. No question about it. And I appreciate you staying on top of, you
021know, like the labor market and understanding when you need to shift programs or add new ones. I mean, that's so vital to our community that you guys are staying on top of the skills. Yeah, we have the advisory committees at tech. So, twice a year each program with an advisory committee comprised of people that are currently in the careers doing the job and they give us a lot of really helpful feedback. It's all right. I think we're ready to move on. I think we're ready to move on. All right. You probably should go home, Brad. You've had quite a night. So, take care and thanks again for coming. Enjoy your night. Um, next on our agenda is recognition for us. Is this you? No, you just Well, Dave, come on up here and be seen.
022Do you need to stand on the chair? Uh, just wanted to uh take the opportunity on behalf of uh Algan Schools and uh certainly the board of education uh thank you for the hard work, the partnership throughout. amazing that when we say that this is seven years at the end of this year and it's just incredible because it just doesn't feel like that. But um it's a lot of work you've done here in seven years and touched a lot of people's lives for sure and just um you know your service to the kids and to the community in general. So did great things for us. So we really appreciate that. You could see by the support here tonight you've made a difference for sure. I also wanted on behalf of the board, we were um
023we wanted to got a little something for you to thank you for all your service and for to thank you for all that you've brought to the district and everything that you've done for us. So really appreciative of it. I just want to thank you. Thank you guys. Like I said, it's been an honor for me to be a part of the school and the school district. Obviously, these young ladies back here have been a big part of me and the faculty, the admin team. Everybody here made me welcome from day one. And it wasn't an easy decision stepping away and taking a new position, but it was one obviously I did more for this little guy and as a sister. Um, won't change anything. I'll still be around and still be here for everybody,
024just in a different role. So, thank you guys for giving me the opportunity seven years ago to be a part of this community. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. candy. He's not supposed All right, we're gonna uh we'll get moving on with our agenda. Um you guys are all welcome to stay if you want for the rest of the meeting. Yes, Dave. Hold on. They want pictures. All right. Next hour on our agenda is consent agendas. Anybody want to make a motion? Anybody? All right. Um, I move that the board of education approves all consent agenda items including agenda, minutes, personnel items, treasurers report as listed, and bills as listed, items A through C. Supported. Um, any discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? That passes. So, let's see. information items. So, start
025with uh Mr. Mro. Well, obviously here we're at the end of the year, so we got a lot going on. Um last Friday, we had the uh the middle school and the high school performing arts in Matilda and Elangquin and it was fantastic. The the kids just did a fantastic job and uh a lot of support from the community. It was packed. So, it was nice to see. So, it's just nice to see that program just keep on building and and Aaron Mahal is doing a great job with it. So again, that was fantastic. You can see here we had the the art auction that started last week. Uh Miss Goozie started and I said she left it out and it's continuing through the middle of this week. Again, you can see just some of
026the great work that our our students have. And then this Wednesday coming up, we have our band concert for the spring. Uh that'll be in the in the gym. So looking forward to that. Uh this week is our last week for the seniors. So they have their final exam this week and they're out the door on Friday. Also this week, our eighth graders go to they're take their field trip to SC4 to check that out. Uh that is on Wednesday. Uh this Friday, we have our sixth grade orientation. So again, all the sixth graders come over and kind of spend a little bit of the day, have lunch here, uh send them back, and then uh Friday night, we actually have a sixth and seventh grade dance here. We're going to have the auxil kids,
027which is again kind of their intro kind of to to the high school, which is always fun. Uh then uh Friday, May 30th, uh we have the eighth grade semic formal dance. So the first time we're kind of doing this a little bit differently. They're kind of doing a they're going to have all guard catering and it's going to kind of be more of a comedy feel to the eighth grade. So they have that. Uh Saturday, we have a senior all night party. Monday, June 2nd, we have prom um at Alexander and Mary'sville. Uh Wednesday, uh June 4th, we have our seventh eighth grade uh trip to Metro Beach. uh that following Thursday, we have eighth grade trip to Cedar Point. Uh Friday is senior awards in the morning and and graduation at night. And
028then the following Monday, June 9th, we have eighth grade honors. Um and again, it's kind of nice to see it come back is that we had a bunch of our alternative grads who wanted to have a ceremony, which they've not asked for for a few years. So, it's nice to to have that back. So, we're going to do that before the June board meeting uh in the in the lecture hall. So, it be nice. I think we have four or five that are going to participate with that. So, that'll nice be nice to have. Uh we just completed a MSTEP and PSAT and SAT testing. Uh kids are right now into the NWA and we're just into the home stretch here. That's a lot. Um this is Dave. So, we're already starting to look toward
029next year, but um in this past month, our sixth graders enjoyed a trip to Chicago. They had a ton of fun. There was some learning and some fun stuff going on. They went to museums, the Federal Reserve. Um they enjoyed some food at Edic. So, that was kind of their highlight of the trip. But everybody had a really great time. So, I just want to thank Mrs. Sproul for planning it and also Mr. Lair and Mrs. Adamson for going and chaperoning. Um, also our biob blitz was really cool this year. It was kind of on a smaller scale since it wasn't the grand opening. We had perfect weather for it last Friday. Sue Roel um came and was in the outdoor classroom. Brought Native American artifacts, hands-on, passing it around, talking to them about like
030how to cook with these items. And then they also brought some food for the kids to sample. So that was cool. In addition to um you know the kids of course love putting on the waiters and getting all their samples and also the nature scavenger hunt. And the high school kids were really awesome again this year with helping out all the different groups and and getting kids everywhere they needed to be. Um Ryan talked about Matilda. Sixth graders did great. It's always interesting to see because they do the same play as the high school. So, I get to view like the sixth graders and then I can see how much progress they made. Not that the sixth graders aren't doing a great job, they are, but it's just a vast difference just how much more
031experience they get. So, that was really fun to see. Um, Aaron does a great job as always. And now we're kind of turning the corner after MSTEP testing is done and looking forward to next year. Last week we hosted second grade um special ed transitions. We welcomed their families and the students in. Um had a quick meeting. They got to meet some of the staff and then toured the building. So that was their first of many visits over. Our sixth graders are coming over here and then they get to enjoy their first dance next Friday night. Um last Muskrat Allstar trip will be next Wednesday. They'll be going to the Tigers game. Our sixth grade transition I will be at the end of next week. They'll be coming over here with their families and all
032the other field trips are planned. Thank you to PTO for paying for all the busing and keeping those uh field trip costs low so everybody can participate. Sixth grade recognition is on June 6th at 100 p.m. And field day. We're just looking forward to field day and hosting one last buy one get one free book or scholastic book fair before the summer starts. Um, so I have a long list to I feel like we go from not a lot to a whole lot at the end. I know. I did want to take a minute and just thank the board, our PTO, our families, and our community members who all helped us kick off the month celebrating our staff for appreciation week. Um, I think we were able to do a lot of activities and we
033greatly appreciate that support to help them be recognized like they deserve. Um, that same week we also had the opportunity to welcome our new and returning families to our building for kindergarten roundup. Um, so staff from the Muskrat Health Clinic were available to provide immunization updates and also bring awareness to that service to families who might not know that it's available. We also had additional staff from the health department there so they could administer that hearing and vision screening. Um, and we were able to provide resources from the library and coordinate our spring book fair during that time as well. This past week, our students and staff enjoyed engaging in exercise together with all of our second through sixth grade students for Mr. Licer's ACES event. All children exercising simultaneously. The second goound, the weather
034held up for us so we could get everybody out there. Um, we were also thankful for the opportunity to see another fantastic production put on by Mrs. Mahala and her performing arts students. Mrs. Grove was super helpful in organizing our annual um toy drive for the bottomless toy chest and that's in memory of our milside student Dylan Carter. That also wraps up this week. So we're kind of in the home stretch for collecting donations there. Um our kindergarten classes have started their alphabet countdown. So each day is a different letter of the alphabet with a corresponding activity. So tomorrow's Ice Cream Day in case you want to stop. Um, in addition to wrapping up our final cycle of NWA testing and celebrating our students growth, we have a long list of events coming up these
035next couple weeks, too. This Thursday is our barbecue lunch. On Friday, Mrs. Wood's class is hosting a veterans recognition. That's at 2 p.m. in our gym. Um, on May 29th, our first graders are going to head to Upland Hills for their field trip. That same day, we're going to welcome our GSRP students over to Millside as kind of like their field trip to kindergarten. Uh, let's see here. On the 30th, we will recognize our most improved leaders. And then on June 2nd and 3rd, our kindergarten classes are going to take turns visiting Pine River Nature Center. And then on the 11th, TK, kindergarten, and first grade will all be hosting their classroom celebrations to top that off with field day on the 12th. So feel free to join us for all the fun we have.
036Say one way to get the board members there is to give them ice cream. So good idea. So May 29th, our preschool classrooms have their end of the year celebration. They will be together outside participating in games, activities, and eating lunch. Um we are currently hatching baby chicks. They're all learning about the life cycle. The kids are enjoying keeping an eye on the eggs in the incubator and also watching the hatched baby chicks grow. Uh we have been preparing for our summer program still getting everything ready and scheduled. It's going to be a busy summer with a lot of different things going on and our college employees have all returned for extra summer help. So, we are really excited about that. They're always really good to have around. Thank you. All right. So, the district
037will be providing teacher mentor training in the upcoming school year. So, we surveyed the staff to see which veteran teachers would be willing to go through that training and then mentor our incoming teachers. We had 28 of our teachers respond. And I just want to give a plug for our teachers. That's a huge portion of our staff that's willing um to go through some training and then be a mentor teacher to our young teachers coming in. Um so a timeline for training and expectations will be rolled out soon for that. Um this Thursday, 6th through 8th grade ELA teachers will meet um to finalize some options for pilots for the upcoming school year. So that work continues. We had a district improvement meeting on May 13th. Um, we looked through data and had discussions on
038current initiatives and where we should continue to grow in the future. Some good discussion was had there that night. Uh, secondary math staff met after school recently to begin discussions on our math curriculum and what's currently working. What are some areas that still need to be addressed? Conversations were productive. They were in the beginning stages and we'll continue with another meeting being scheduled this school year before summer and then hopefully have a timeline working forward on them. But all of the secondary math teachers were willing to stay after school and participate in those discussions. So great and elementary summer school planning has started. Tiffany Dawson will be heading summer school at the elementary level this year. So we're talking about materials and um what needs to be evaluated and discussed to be purchased for our
039elementary summer school levels. Do you have any board reports? I just wanted to let you guys know uh on May 7, Amber and I went to behind the scenes at the capital in Lancing. Um we learned some things and so it was like a happy sad. Um so the Senate came back with their budget is pretty close to what the governor had proposed in her budget and now we wait for the house. Um MESB is saying um be very conservative because they don't think that we will get it by July 1st. So just be very conservative. Um do you have anything else you want to add? No, not it was It was very entertaining, but yeah, it was kind of rough. Yeah, I I I can piggy back a little bit of off of that.
040We had our K12 Alliance um spring symposium. And interestingly enough, the first three speakers are all governing c uh governor candidates. Uh Mike Doug and Joselyn Benson and uh Chris Swanson from the Flint area. And um you know it a lot lot of good ideas but um you know when you start talking budget everybody kind of backs down a little bit and it's it's just going to be that kind of a year. You know I've talked to you guys about this and um you know with the federal money still being very much up in the air. Um and then couple that with you know even some still uncertainty at the state level. Um I think Jen's probably spot on. And I I don't anticipate having a budget in July. Um I with that said, if
041if the House comes with some numbers, we can get a pretty good idea of where I think we'll at least sit. But um you know, we're trying to look at things from a you know, kind of overall sense of where we stand financially and and kind of what how that meets the needs of our kids. But um you know, it's not a great budget. That's we've talked about that. I think it's about what we expected though. So, I don't think we're caught off guard. We sit in a pretty decent spot, but um doesn't mean we're, you know, we're going to have to tighten the belt up. We know that. um some of the things that we've been able to do in the past. uh you know just some of the I I wouldn't say fluff
042because I don't think there's ever that in education but we've had some you know we've been maybe even some areas a little over staffed and we're just it's just stuff we're going to have to really take a look at and you know at some point sit down and prioritize what programming we you know hopefully you don't lose any of that but just going to have to be I think pretty conservative going forward so um I'll share a little more about that when we're negotiations. So, um I I have a copy. I told you the calendar would be coming to you. This is final final. Um it's very similar to what I gave you. I think the only difference might be um parent teacher conferences have switched around. But outside of that, um start dates, end
043dates, everything's pretty close to the same on there. Um we will uh giving you this today. We do take action on this. We'll take action in June just to uh kind of finalize that. But this one I I feel if I was 99.5% before um I'm probably 100% on this. I don't think we're crystal printed it. So it's got to be 100%. We're not changing. Yeah. Um, same thing in in our office just uh end of the year stuff looking at staffing. Met with elementary uh principles today and we talked about numbers and looking at class sizes and class sections and um you know can we reduce do we need to add in certain areas. So, uh, some good conversation about that and obviously it's a bit of a guessing game because again, we don't
044know the budget, but at the same point, um, the numbers are pretty there there's not a whole lot of guests working on their numbers are pretty kind of admitted, I guess, enough to where we feel pretty good about what we're doing with staffing. Um, do you have a lot of kindergarters coming in or is it kind of equal like what's going out going in? They're lower. I mean, it's lower with uh with our TK group that's going to be in there 82ish three-ish total currently and that goes up a little bit, you know, obviously, but um you know, right now it's a looks to be a little bit of a lower class. So, keep an eye on that as well. Um you know, a lot of the summer projects of getting the bleacher project done
045out there, we've we've kind of expended most of our money for the year. We're still going to do the parking lots again this year. That's over at El Gangquin. That will be the um you know, we did two years ago. We'll go back over again. They've asked that we keep those alive for a couple more years. And so we'll work on that. But outside of that, uh a lot of it'll just be inhouse stuff, little things. Will they be continuing the cement, redoing the cement in front of the building out by the field where the the bathrooms and locker rooms are over here? Yes. Or are they finished? No, I think they didn't redo that. The black top area over there. Is that what you're asking about? No, the actual like cement pad that's by
046the stadium. Yeah, I think by the ble they were working on it by the ramp and like up Yeah, they they added part of it closer to the bleachers, but the cement pad that was already there. Is that are they taking that out and redoing or is that finished? I assume they're taking if I I'd have to see what you're talking about, but yeah, I assume they're going to clean that up. And I know there's an area over there that we're going to play grass to. Okay. Um that's kind of in that same corner. just past the uh concession stand there. Yeah. Okay. Because in front like directly in front of the concession stand where the uh big drains are that needs to be Yeah. Get that too looked over. Yep. Um talking about budget.
047Uh kind of excited. We have um kind of behind the scenes a little bit but uh not so much with this group. Um T I mentioned to you quite a while back that we were looking at a way of increasing communication to um the community and to our parents and and faster ways to do it because right now we have so many people use so many different methods and and some people that are Facebookers and some people that are Twitter and some people email and some people just like text. And so um when you want to put a message out quick to get it to all those mediums sometimes you know a little bit cumbersome but um we started looking at a product uh through a company called Aptigy and of course comes with an
048app by the name itself but also gives us a great way it it will also be um kind of the houser of our web page but the nice part about it also is it has features to where in a click just couple little ding ding dings once you put a message out there you could select where you want that to go and there's a phone icon there's a Twitter icon there's a Facebook icon um you know how we send out through the caller so basically with just a few clicks that message will blast up to including updating our Facebook and our web page um it's been Joe and I have Joe Olivia. I asked him, Joe's pretty techy and able to uh do a lot of that kind of work. And so he's sat in
049on what I think's been about eight meetings now and a lot of it's transferring our current data so you don't have to start all over. It transfers from where we're at right now over to the new site. Um and then we need to on top of that there's a a feature called app digi rooms which would be very similar to like seessaw which is the messages our uh teachers use and we're going to try to get that set up all the way where we're using one product. So if you're parent of a third grader and a parent of a 10th grader we're all talking the same language. We're using the same product. So we're excited about that. The roll out on that will be when we start school next year in August. Um, but we
050need some training need to do a lot of training with our in-house people right now. Um, but once that's up and running and we're getting real close to that, then we'll start setting up some training dates so we can get the staff trained in that. So, we're pretty excited about that as well. And like I said, also have an app. So I I don't think with this system that you can walk around and say you don't know what's happening in Alanag schools because any way that you get your information we will have you covered. Great. Um and then uh in had a meeting this morning um one one of our board members is actually graduated in 1975 if you could believe that. And so, uh, there there's a It's amazing, isn't it? But anyway, um
051that was 50 years ago and I'm not going to name names, but anyway, um and John has told the story and maybe you've heard it, maybe you haven't, but 1975 they were doing graduation at the Lions Field and storm came through and as they waited inside the Lions Club for uh it to clear so they could go walk across the stage, well, that that never happened that night. And so basically they threw the diplomas on the table said go ahead and get yours and that was it. So 50 years later um they are at the point where they they're having a gathering on the Saturday of graduation. And so John had an idea that he had brought to me a while back of really would be nice to get these people to walk across the
052stage. So John's kind of organized a group of right now in the 20 around 20 range and uh so at our graduation on the 6th uh they will come out and we'll have a little area for them and John will kind of walk everybody through what took place and they'll get their chance to walk across the stage. So it's a pretty cool thing I think and you know neat for them to be able to do that. So it's uh pretty exciting and John will be the master of ceremonies for that I'm sure. So, it's good stuff. Um, and thank you for Yeah. No, it's exciting. I think it'll be fun. And, uh, that's it. I next month I will, uh, before next month, I will provide you with updates on my goals that we had
053talked about and then we can talk about them uh, at the June meeting. So, that's all I got. Okay. Do we have any requests? Okay, on to our action items. Does anyone want to make a motion for the resolution setting public hearing on the budget? I'll make a motion um that the board of education approve the resolution as presented setting the date and time for the public hearing on the proposed 2025 2026 budget for Monday, June 23rd, 2025 at 6:15 p.m. in the Elanet Junior Senior High School Library with notice of the public hearing to be published as required by law. A complete copy of this resolution shall be attached to the original of these minutes. support moved and supported. Um, this is one of the things we're going to do roll call vote for.
054So, could you sure Heather Roberts say I Yes. Okay. Jennifer Baker I Amber Brackett I John High Street I motion passes. Um, so we move on to our recent budget and tech programs. Motion. I'll make a motion that the board of education, having received and reviewed the proposed St. Clair County Resa budget for the 2025 2026 school year, adopts the resolution as presented, expressing its support of the proposed budget. A complete copy of this resolution shall be attached to the original of these minutes. roll. Oh, okay. Amber Bracket support. Is that right? Nicole Emry, yes. Jennifer Baker, yes. John High Street, Nicole Emry, I mean, I'm sorry, Heather Roberts. I that pass. Okay, pass. Um, or do we have any discussion? I suppose I should ask that before we went down to roll call vote.
055Sorry, the the vote's new. It's throwing me off a little bit. Uh, okay. So, the next um agenda item is our food service management and company contract. Oh, see. All right. The resolution for the resual election. So, this is to designate someone as our district representative to serve an electoral. Does anybody want to volunteer just to go to the vote? Is that it or uh it sounds like it to serve on the electoral body uh responsible for electing the members to the St. Clair County Board. Basically go up there and hear the voter. Yeah. So you'll take who we say and you'll go there and vote on our behalf. Do you have a date for that? Jana, do you know the date of that? I think it's in June. June 2nd at 4:30. Um, we
056we also need to vote on who we're going to select. Okay. So, there's two things. There are the list of candidates and we need to pick one and then we need to have someone one go there and represent us by voting for that person. So, there was candidate information. There are two, I think, and there's two spots. Yeah, there's two spots. Oh, that makes it I won't tip you off, but those two are probably Yeah. So, there's um there's two candidates for two slots. Um, so I guess I would suggest that we would want both of those candidates to be Yeah. our representatives. Um, and if anybody would want to I think as we fill this in, their names were uh Yeah. Jessica, Taty, and Michael McCarten. Yep. Um, so we would need somebody to
057go and second to the res meeting and so I clay foundation meeting at 5 that day. So 4:30. I will do it if anyone else wants to. I will be the no one else. Yeah, I think I think it's just Yeah, they're not here. Okay. So, I am going to make a motion. Hold on. I got to get it all prepped here so I say the right words. Uh, so I make a motion. Uh, I move that the board of education approves a resolution. No. Yeah. As pres um as presented designating Jennifer Baker as the district representative with Amber Bracket as the alternative um to serve the 2025 electoral body responsible for electing members of St. County Board of Education with I already said the ultimate uh the board candidate the board supports candidates Michael
058McCarten and Jessica Taty for a ser of six years copy the resolution shall be attached to the original any discussion since we already discussed it. All right. And that one you can just um so all in favor say I. I passes. Okay. So now we're on to the food service management contract. Um I move to table the motion on food service contract until next month. I support Amber and I had some questions. We came in and talked to Al and I think they need some further digging and we just did not have enough information to I felt comfortable doing that. Okay. So, um we'll do a vote. If you guys want to discuss it a little more, then we'll do a vote to postpone it. If that fails, then we'll vote on the motion that
059um is listed. So I guess the question is does anybody have any problems or want to move forward with postponing? Just you know one of the things and I talked to uh Amber and Jen came over today and had some concerns and some questions and um my only ask and like I asked these ladies today and certainly anybody else as always but if there's any specific things or questions that I can seek answers for, please send them to me and I will certainly do that. Work with Sharp Wells for a long time and I know that they'll provide the information that I need or whatever it is that we might need. So, um, again, I I have uh, you know, have no issues looking into whatever questions you want me to do the research, whatever
060the case is for that. So, discussion. Okay. So, first we'll move forward with a vote on whether or not to postpone it until next month. So, we'll do a roll. So, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you found or what it is, right? I mean, that's that's what Do you guys want to give any more information to postpone? Um, I would like to find out more um about with some of the other uh providers, their bids, their bids. Um numbers on the sheet are great. It would be nice to know um a little bit more about their services um how their other how other schools feel about them. There have been complaints and concerns um with some of the services here and so just be nice to see how things
061compare. So that's what you guys are going to be providing is more information on some of the other biders. Also more of a breakdown of the bits uh because things are fairly general. Can I answer the breakth and they have to fill that template in and if you look at it it's the same template that has to be filled in by each I just wanted to say that oh yeah no we understand that we got that okay I have certain concerns as to why, you know, some companies are bidding and uh spending significantly less on the kids meals and yet quite significantly more on um on management and yet not very much on um their hourly employees there. I just would like more information as to what makes the difference with some of them if
062that makes sense. I can give you every component that they sent in. Yeah. And I just would like more of a chance to things over. It's not it's not anything. Yes. It's hard to tell from from this. We have it till the end of June. So, it's not like we're pushing the envelope. You guys have any more questions or we want to move forward with the motion to postpone again for for what you want. You'll know I guess of the like in St. Clair County, I mean, how many different food services or you know, which one's more prominent or Yeah. I mean, in the ch I mean, they're you know, it's a that's a pretty statewide and even beyond. It's a nation. It's a national company. Okay. It's I mean, in in their parent company,
063they're worldwide in hospitality and like in our area like St. Clair County, is it the dominant one? Is it not the dominant one? What's he's trying to use? Um they don't know crossexis. All right. The motion in front of us is to postpone it until next month. So you roll out Okay. So, whatever information you get for them, then you'll share with us. Absolutely. Well, I I I think it's I think it's the important part of it, too. If we're going to do I mean, you guys probably I will share the entire what we're looking for, what we're looking into, and then or what you find or whatever. It just wasn't enough time in a couple hours before a wedding. It wasn't didn't feel comfortable, you know, five year contract. So, okay. Yes. To postpone.
064Okay. So, you're voting to postpone. Okay. Amber Bracket. I Baker. I hear Nicole Emory. I'm okay with waiting till next month. John High Street. I don't think I can vote. Oh, that's right. I think you can vote on this because we're not voting on the contract. We're just voting for postpone it. So no. Okay. any so like I said and and just for all of you if there's things that you're interested in knowing beyond or or questions about even the budget um through all those bids I I think that all those groups and again I could speak on Chartwell's behalf with this I think they're all very transparent in terms of clearing up some of those things. So, if you guys have questions, um I don't think I have problems getting this answer. So, again,
065feel free to send me what you want, answers, whatever I can do for you on that. Like you're saying, I think that it should be I can change and say I agree. We need to look at more what you doing. No worries. So, you're looking to change. It doesn't matter. Okay. But I just want to get it right there. Well, and it's not and it's not a it's not a dig on any particular bid. I just there's it would just be nice to see and I further information. I have no problem at all. There's a few things that besides this that I wish would have dug into a little deeper, but I'm not talking about the right to last meeting. Yeah. you know that we didn't some didn't we really I wasn't satisfied with the
066answers that we got just well yeah and I and I get that it's a it's a you know standard thing but yeah no no you're right yeah agree yeah okay so um moved and passed to postpone um the motion for the food service management company contract until next month provided we get more information. Um, so that moves us over to the Chromebook and smart charge cart purchase. Does anyone make a motion for that? I'll make a motion that board of education approve the purchase of Chromebooks and smart charge cards from how you say that computer products in the amount of $86,978.34 so far. Okay. Any discussion? And just so you know, these are these are um so we have some of them, the ones over at El Gangquin. Um for years we've gone with the
067desktop, the labs um expensive and we where we get more years out of them generally the technology kind of catches up by the time uh we're ready to replace those. It's quite an expense. So after some discussion and you know we've been using Chromebook carts for quite some time and people are comfortable with them we're finding that the things that we need to get done on them we're able to do so that uh the 72 those will be replacing um Brooks Labs and Brooks turning it into like a gymnasium or something um and just So, you know, too, I mean, we we bought, remember, back when uh CO hit and we made some pretty significant Chromebook purchases. Five years down the road, those are starting to cycle through and they're they're at the end of
068their rope. So, fortunately, we purchased them in waves. So, we're not going to get hit by that one where we got to do a thousand Chromebooks, but we will be getting, you know, a few each year. These will show up on here. And that was my question was last time did we do this? probably two years. Yeah, we start the first year we we had a big cycle through and those have been replaced already. So I think now it's just going to be in chunks. John, of course, like I said, this was a little bit different too because we replaced we're not going to do the U desktops and then Elan. Any more discussion? Okay. Nicole Emry. Yes. Yes. Amber Beckett. Yes. Heather Roberts. Hi. John Hy. Okay. Um, now we need to uh move
069that the board of education go into close session at 8:02 p.m. for the purpose of discussing negotiations. Support and roll. Look at what you started. Yes. Thank you all. Hey, we're just doing it right. Just