APS March 2026 Board Workshop with a Special Meeting to follow at 7:30pm

001Those microphones were sitting there so that you guys >> Oh, are they alive? >> Oh, okay. Gota >> need some power. >> Laptop's good. >> Got him. Yep. >> Good evening. Uh I will call our meeting uh this evening to order and uh let's all rise for the pledge. >> I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Um, we do have a just before we get to the next item, we do have a brief statement from uh I believe Monica is going to uh say something followed up by uh Dr. Rabido. >> Yep. >> Yeah. Um I just wanted to say that I recently received an anonymous letter demanding my resignation and

002threatening consequences if I did not comply. Law enforcement has been notified and there is an active investigation. So I'm not able to share details at this time. However, the community should know that the lies, harassment, and intimidation did not begin with this letter. It has been ongoing since the first day I took office. I have faced repeated false accusations about my employment, fraudulent complaints filed with the state of Michigan against my professional license, attacks directed at my family, and coordinated efforts to undermine my role on this board. Other board members have experienced similar treatment, including false letters being sent about their children to their schools, items mailed to their homes, and other incidents that continue to occur. This pattern of behavior is deliberate, and it's unacceptable. Disagreement and civil discourse is expected with elected positions,

003but this kind of behavior is not. Sustained harassment and the spreading of falsehoods are a disservice to this community and to our schools. I was elected to serve the district and that is exactly what I'm going to continue to do. [applause] >> So, in just a few minutes, sheriff's deputy will be here. Um, that's on my direction. Um, and I guess I would just kind of go back and say to the Monica and the other board members that have faced this kind of behavior, it's despicable. We have differences. There is absolutely no doubt we have differences. but to resort to some of the things she hasn't shared um which are just vulgar that the people sitting around me at this table that came to support our students the things they've been subjected to are despicable.

004The comments on Facebook on every side of the issue are despicable. But again, crossing that line into threatening people, that is not part of their job as public servants. It's not part of my job as a public employee, and it's not part of a job of any of our employees. And it shouldn't even be a part of our thought process dealing with our neighbors. They are your neighbors. They are your family. That goes for the board. That goes for the teaching staff, the administrators, myself, and so I'm speaking to the broader audience that's going to watch this on YouTube and is sitting there now. There is no better word in my opinion to describe the fact that sitting board members are receiving threatening letters other than despicable. And it needs to stop. And so when

005that deputy walks in the door, it's not because we're shutting down First Amendment rights, it's because of despicable behavior. And so everyone in this room has a role in bringing the temperature down because as I look out, I see people on that that are commenting on Facebook and fueling that fire. you have a responsibility to bring this temperature down. We don't know who said the the multiple things, but that crossed the line. So, I ask you to do your part. Stay off Facebook. That would be a huge first step in bringing this community together. And then if you're the type of person that thinks you're going to put pen to paper or type or cut out numbers and letters and send a ransom note, you have some serious reflection to do on who you are

006as a person. So again, the deputies are walking in now. The reason is because I asked them to be here because we have people in this room that have been subjected to threats. Please help us. Please do your part to help. >> I think I'm done. >> Thank you very much. Um, and I'm I think on behalf of all the board members, we appreciate uh your concern for our our safety and well-being. Uh, I certainly concur with this decision and uh you know, as the president of this body um and uh together with Dr. Rabbido, it is our job to ensure the safety of everyone who is here and again going back to uh my previous conduct uh in this chair. Again, that is all I have ever tried to do is try to uh

007create a civil environment where everyone is respectful and uh I certainly uh hope that uh this will be just a a short little interlude uh in the life of our school board and community and we'll get back to uh being more civil and respectful to each other very soon. So, thank you all so much and again thank you for coming. Uh so, now uh having uh accomplished that, let us uh go on to the approval of the agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the March 9th, 2026 monthly workshop agenda as presented. >> Support. >> Okay, we have a motion in support to to approve the agenda. Any discussion? Hearing none. Show of hands in favor of approving the agenda. Any opposed? Same sign. All right. Motion carried. We have an agenda. Uh that brings

008us to our discussion items and uh some exciting uh curriculum and instructed instruction related items beginning with the standard assessment update about which we uh heard a lot during uh strategic planning and such. So uh let's uh jump in with the elementary and WA data update >> and just a technical is it distorting? It sounds very distorted. >> Really? >> Oh, all right. So apparently back off a little bit. [laughter] All right. So, uh, with that, I will invite Scott Henwood, our principal at Lincoln, and Josh Feldposh, our principal at Besser, to come up and, uh, and give us, uh, it's >> like, I haven't even said anything yet. Come on now. >> Give us a presentation on elementary NWEA data. Do I have to drag it over? It's not going on. Let me give

009me slide it over here. There we go. >> You got to ask Matt for help. It's actually got your back. [laughter] >> Uh good evening. Thank you very much for uh for letting us share. Um, so again, Josh Felposh, principal over at Basser Elementary. Um, I'm going to do the first half and then I'll hand it over um to Scott. Um, but the main goal here is um to show some of the collaboration work um that uh the administrative team has already been doing, some of the data we've been collecting um that's directly related to the strategic plan and we want to share that out. Um here's a little outline. We're going to talk about a little bit of the strategic plan. um NWA some vocabulary um and then share some bright spots and then

010I'm gonna hand it over to Scott and he'll share some of the areas of improvement um and the summary and the next steps. Um and this work um the way we've done it starts out at the campus level. Um so all the administrators are collecting uh data. We come together at our ad staff meetings, put the data together and have discussions on um some patterns that we're seeing. Um again the the grows and the glows and uh so this work um is all combined from the elementary principles and the work that we've done. Here's a foundation for continuous improvement. Um and this uh information we're sharing directly has to falls under the academic um the academics and programs pillar. All right. Some uh vocabulary. Uh so the data that we use you'll be uh familiar

011with a RIT score. It measures student achievement uh over time. Uh and that uh is like between about 100 and uh 350 up in that range. Um and it shows a student um all the way from you know elementary age all the way up. It follows them all the way up and it shows their growth. So, no matter what grade they're in, they they get that number and it shows where they're where they're at and it gives us the information we need um to know where we need to provide that uh support or extension. Uh the CGP um conditional growth percentile ranking compares a student's score uh to a national sample. Um so, where do they fall uh from one to 99? where do they fall on that with 50 um being the average uh

012shows right there the normal growth is 50% is considered normal growth for a school year. Um accelerated growth is 70% or above and it's typically defined uh as such. So that's what we're going to be looking at is the um that CGP um that that uh CGP ranking for and we're putting all the elementary schools together. So we're not showing individual data. We're saying, "Hey, here's where we're all at. Here's where our averages are and what we're trying to do together as a team." Um, the district bright spots uh math uh for second and third grade um is at or above the 70th percentile. So, we're seeing that um that those two grade levels across the district um are doing very very well um and are like like it shows up above that 70th. Um

013so, those are some areas we're also looking at. Hey, what are we doing in those areas that's bringing about that growth? Uh, and how we can continue continue that work. Um, the ELA proficiency for all grades um is at or above the 50th percentile. Um, so still uh an area to celebrate. Um, but again, we're we're we're seeing where we're at. we're at that that average uh area that 50% or above and we're of course we're trying to trying to push that higher but that's where we're at with our ELA and that's for all grades. It's pretty consistent across all grades. Um second grade reading um is definitely a a bright spot. So you see second grade math and second grade reading are both doing excellent on most campuses. And so again, we're looking at

014that uh celebrating, but also continuing to dive into the data to uh to see how to continue that that work forward. And then uh fourth and fifth grade reading as well. Um the 74th percentile and the 66th percentile respectfully. Um so those are uh the four bright spots that our team compiled the data and saw um that that emerge. So we're going to go ahead. Any questions about the bright spots before we move on to the areas >> districtwide? >> Yep. So, this is all the all six elementary schools combining their data. Yep. >> Okay. Why don't you move on, Scott? All right. Um, you know, just like Michigan's basketball team, even though they're 29 and two, um, and they've beaten [snorts] Michigan State twice this year in the basketball, uh, there's still areas of

015improvement. So, uh, we're having success here in the district at our elementary and math and reading, but you know, we want to continue to get better. Um, and if you look on here, what we have is, you know, looking at our fourth and fifth grade in math, uh, their, you know, CGP again, their conditional growth, the percentile is, you know, fourth grade 49th% and fifth grade 59%. And again, that's that's normal growth for over the year. when we have around 50% we're saying through the whole year they're growing at a normal rate when compared to the national average but we want to continue to improve. So we look at that and say we want to continue to get them up to where that second and third grade was at where we're getting them even up

016to 70% so that they're accelerating their growth and continuing to get better. Uh the same with our third and fifth grade again 57th 66 percentile um norm even that 66 is pushing toward that 70% like we want to see in in reading and we want to continue to get better. How are we doing that? Um, as you've probably heard in many presentations, uh, we're implementing a new math into math curriculum, uh, which we have a lot of, uh, hope. We're, you know, we're here at Lincoln Elementary, we've been putting that in this year and we're, you know, we're seeing a lot of good things there. It's a, it's a good challenging curriculum and we want to continue to hopefully as we implement that, uh, we'll help our students to even keep pushing them in the

017world of math. uh implementation also with math is we have Waggle uh which with NWA and the math curriculum helps the students to adapt you know the areas that they want to grow in um to create individual plans so those students can really work on the areas that have been indicated they need to get better at in their math. So it creates an individual adaptive program for students implementation of our reading programs. Again, we we're putting in new things like uh benchmark assessment and UFly uh to help support our students and continue to help them uh to get better with their reading. So, we're we're doing lots of things to continue to help these numbers to go in a positive direction. Next steps, as you will probably be hearing more soon, is that uh as

018April comes around, it's testing season. uh to be be exact MSTEP and PSATs, the SAT and all them start at the beginning. The window opens up April 6th, goes to uh May 15th, and that's when all the schools will be doing uh different uh state testing uh for us at the elementary level. It's grades 3 through five. Um and then obviously they continue that with with middle school and high school. Uh so that's coming up and then our last round of NWA testing starts in May. Uh from that last window is May May 4th through May 21st. Uh we are continuing to implement as part of our our pillars of strategic plan uh teacher clarity. It's really important part of helping our students to grow uh not only in math and reading but in all

019subject areas. The more that students know what they're learning, uh, why it's relevant to learn that and how they are going to know that they're successful, that's what teacher clarity is all about and that will help support them in all content areas. The same with PBIS. We want to help stu support students to heading in a positive direction and when we see them doing positive behavior, reinforce that so we can get repeated behavior over and over again, which is pillar two in the strategic plan. Also, as I mentioned earlier, we're continuing to implement our IN2 math, our new curriculum benchmark UFI, and along with that, we have our tier 2 math and reading interventions to help support our students that just need a little more extra support so that they can be successful uh throughout

020the school year and improve. With that said, as always, we thank you, the board, uh, you know, for allowing us to present this data to you. Uh, we thank you as always for all your support to our students and to our staff. Um, and we continue will continue uh to uh do everything we can to um help you know that we're taking care of business in the classrooms for you and uh we will continue to give you progress on how we're doing at the elementary level in the future. >> Yeah. Thank you. If you have any questions, >> questions, >> he's thinking hard over there. No questions. You use yours already. >> Oh, okay. >> Uh the 50% where did that figure come from? That that is growth >> 50 percentile. So what uh when

021you get your different scores um in in the uh NWA they start to compare your scores with the national average for that for that grade level. And then so like a a normal growth is 50 percentile. So if you have if say I I scored within a 50th percentile that means that throughout the school year I'm staying on track in my grade. So, if I'm a third grader and I'm scoring in the 50 percentile means I'm I'm staying on on uh track as a third grader. Okay. >> If I score get where I'm starting to score 60 70 percentile, then my numbers might go up and it, you know, might even be showing numbers that like I'm getting I'm really getting ready for that next level of of fourth grade. So, that's what that >>

022Okay. >> I just have more of a request. Um, I know weekly we get the Besser updates from Josh and I really enjoy reading through those and seeing what's going on weekly at the schools. Um, could we maybe have the other schools start sending that to the board? I'd really like to, >> you know, be part of that. >> Good job, John. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Love you. >> Yeah, without a doubt. Oh, and I'll send a message to my team as well. >> Keep up going. >> Oh, yes. I should have wor tonight. [laughter] >> And [clears throat] just a little further clarification on the percentile. So, um, NWA is reluctant to say, you know, tie it to a grade level, but what it does is it says that a student that is this

023age, this grade level, taking the test at this time, that 50th percentile is kind it's not it predicts um, you know, that kind of growth. So you could be at the 50th percentile and technically be below third grade. And that the concern that we're working through with our processes are if that's the case where you're um below grade level, even though they don't use that term, and you maintain the 50th percentile, you will end third grade below fourth grade. You know, you'll stay you'll maintain that status quo, that gap between where you should be at this time. That's why when we get into the 60th and 70th percentile, that student is breaking free of that group and getting in front of it and accelerating their growth. So, we really um for a student that is

024on track um and is at the appropriate RIT level, the 50th percentile might be the appropriate goal. But for a student that is significantly below or behind or however you want to describe it, um the 50th percentile is just going to continue to maintain them being below. So, we really need to push it to that 70th percentile. And we did have an NWA U professional development last spring or was it this fall? >> This fall where NWA came up and basically looked at our numbers and said really our target does need to be the 70th overall. Um, you know, versus the 50th because again, you know, we're we're you look at our proficiency levels, we're not where we need to be with proficiency. That translates to our RIT scores are lower than where they would

025be. So the CGP again takes all that into consideration and says these students performed as expected which would be the 50th percentile or these students accelerated which would be 51 and up or they fell behind which would be 49 and down. >> I had a quick question about um the waggle is that kind of like what I think it was imagine math. I'm trying to remember what my daughter used to slave over uh all the time. And uh does it replace Imagine Math and is it augmented? Um is it serve the same function in the new curriculum? >> Kind of along those lines. I mean I you know I've [clears throat] worked with other programs like it in the past. And what's nice about it is when you it's tied to the NWA and when

026those students take that that uh test and the new score comes in, it immediately kind of updates that information and based off how they did will create their path uh that you know kind of is it's a that's where the adaptive part comes in and creates a path for them to really work on the areas where it showed that their thinking at that time needs to be get stronger. So, it's a uh it's a really nice program to continue to help those students uh get some individualized practice. >> Oh, thank you. Interesting. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. >> Thank you, gentlemen. >> Sorry. And uh before these fine gentlemen get started, uh I don't know if I'm V and Romeo told me I was supposed to give him a shout out tonight. So

027um he is he is home recovering. He has a long recovery road um ahead of him. Uh but he is doing well. And so Mike and uh Eric are here uh filling in not only at this presentation but also on the dayto-day uh at the high school um which could be a blessing. [laughter] He brings he brings a certain energy to to our building and it's definitely needed. Uh that being said, I think when he heard we were going to be doing this presentation on data, I think that's when he planned to have the surgery. >> [laughter] >> worked out in his favor, I guess. But, um, glad you guys got to hear about NWA and, uh, as a high school group, we like to do things differently. If Romeo hasn't modeled that, we will

028tonight. Um, for the last 5 years I have been part of the team and we talk about school data and really have struggled to figure out what can we do to use data that means something to increase rigor, increase expectations and really bring the next crop of of leaders uh to a place of success. And um NWA is a wonderful tool uh one that we at one point in time did use at the high school, but unfortunately it the standards and components that it's designed around are limited to a K8 uh lens. And so understanding that we wanted to look for something that would really tie back to the Michigan standards specifically in math and in reading. And a few years ago, I had the chance to go to a testing conference and Renaissance Star

029was there and they showed again, hey, look at the things that we do. We can give you some actionable data. We can be used for benchmarking, progress monitoring, and really kind of give you more of a compass for navigating the SAT data. That is what we are going to be criticized over in the spring. And unfortunately, the SAT is not something that is tied to any Michigan standards that we know of. And so, it's really kind of hard to figure out how do we go from where we are to the SAT uh proficiency ranges, right? And so, knowing that, we look we look deeper at this. Um, one of the things that is really neat about this tool is that not only can we use it for benchmarking just to see, you know, that temperature

030check of where students are performing academically, but it is also a tool that can be used to predict where students will end up on the SAT. So, um, while we are going to be following the benchmarking schedule that the elementary has of the fall and the winter and spring, uh, we we already do enough testing in the spring with our MME that we are not going to be doing the the spring benchmark, but really using our fall and our winter to try and identify that trend. So, we know when we go into spring, we have a pretty good idea of where we're going to land on the SAT. Um this was a a pretty fast start for us. We got trained on how to use this as a teacher the first week of inservice this

031year. Uh and so it was a very rushed um start for us and then immediately jumped into uh assessment for that. And so um it was it was quite a journey but I'll let uh Eric take the next part here. >> Sure. Um, so what we're trying to do obviously with this is establish a baseline. So we want to define success, right? Before we can maximize state proficiency, we have to establish a true reliable baseline. That's what we were able to do this fall for the first time is establish a baseline across all four grades. Uh we also are trying to build an assessment culture at Alpena High School. So the primary goal this year is fostering a school environment where students understand the why behind taking a test rather than just taking the test.

032And the other major thing that we're getting from STAR is actionable starting point. So we are going to know essentially where we are going. So it says this baseline year ensures that our future target setting um and intervention planning are built on accurate reflections of student capability, not just test fatigue. So what this does, it breaks this down into three really easy for us to understand metrics. So the first one, the scaled score is essentially your own scale. So the star assessment shows you where you start in your baseline and then shows you your actual growth. The next thing it does just like NWA, it gives us a percentile ranking. So it shows us where we rank nationally or each student ranks nationally and it also gives us a grade equivalent uh for the state

033of Michigan. So based on how we score, it shows us where we rank for each grade. >> Yep. So, one of the really neat things too about this is that it does not just provide admin a a snapshot of their students, but also there's a lot of different uh reports that teachers can run individually. Uh some of you at home or in the building here uh may have received some uh reports from your English teachers this fall and this winter because we did have teachers that sent these home that really kind of expressed where your student was at, steps you can take that kind of tie into those standard scores you were talking about there. Now, um we're going to switch gears here and talk about SGP, the student growth percentile. So, this is really

034like uh one of the things that we feel pretty strongly about here at the high school because we know in the fall our first baseline uh benchmark there was not where we wanted to be. Um because we had students who again are like STAR, what is what is this assessment? What does that mean? Not necessarily making the connection to NWA. Um but as we go down into this cycle of continuous improvement uh we got into the second benchmark and students learned that when it came to this assessment tool we were using it uh for placement and in different classes different interventions. We have a wonderful reading intervention course that we were able to use student scores from this and do some additional testing with students. Uh some students were like, "Holy cow, you know, I

035didn't take the fall very seriously and so really I shouldn't be tested for this because I'm a great reader. Uh really good with comprehension and I will try harder on the winter benchmark." So, uh that kind of speaks to the culture of doing your best regardless of what time of assessment you're taking. Um but that is that that's just something we want to work on as we go forward. So with the growth percentile, this is where we're talking about the difference from where students started in the fall to that winter. If we had just done one fall benchmark so far, we wouldn't have an SGP or a growth percentile because there would be no growth to really talk about that we would have uh collected. Um, one of the things that's really exciting here is

036that that dark green that you're looking at, that's um that's that high growth that's beyond 65 uh the 65th percentile. So when you think about it, it means that out of a 100 kids, you did as well or better as 65. Um, which is pretty awesome, especially when you start talking about students performing in that darker green. One of the things that I think should be noted too is that our goal uh this year with our benchmark assessment was really focusing on core English classes and math classes. And that was in 9, 10, and 11. So, I know that what you're looking at also references 12th grade. Uh those are select students that uh for whatever reason were in an 11th grade class. Uh maybe for the first time because of what they took their

037freshman year or maybe for a second time because they're uh needing a second round at that grade level. So I would ask that when you're looking at this data, you know, put a little bit of an asterisk next to 12th grade knowing that uh those are fourth year students that uh are really just kind of a special case. So but again, you kind of see here that in reading and math that our students have made some great gains. In the parentheses, you see the number of students that are in each of those ranges. Um, and we're just really excited that as we went through the year, um, that students were starting to take it more seriously and we saw some big gains in in every level. Um, but again, it goes back to the the

038ninth grade really having a good year and 10th grade uh, as well having 51% in math. Um, I I think we can look at our SAT scores. We know that math is an area that we're working on in our district. Um that's one of the reasons why you know at the high school we're using Savas and um that is a new curriculum in the last year that is um got some different components to it that are tightly aligned to SAT style questions and uh the nice thing about STAR again is that there are resources that are connected to SAS. So a math teacher could use this uh assessment tool and then would be prompted based on the scores that they're getting in their classes to utilize different SOAS lessons to reinforce or retach different uh

039skills. So, uh, English continues to be a strength of ours in the district as you can see that, um, you know, even I know that I said that the 12th graders are a special, uh, band there, but, you know, when you talk about 54% of those, uh, 12th graders are are making high growth as well as 45% of those 11th graders achieving high growth, that's pretty exciting for us. So, it shows that um, we are we are chipping away at deficits and improving skills as we go forward. So this right here, what? Okay. So this one um I think is just you see a lot of red right away, but that's because this is about a test for 9th, 10th, and uh 11th grade that is based on how they would do on the SAT,

040which they take their 11th grade year. So, predictably, a freshman should not do well on the SAT, which is why you see um when you're looking at the the left side of the screen, especially in math, you see that big red box. Um but as you you progress through those students, you see 10th grade, that red box gets a little smaller and then it gets much smaller in 11th grade. So you can see that our students as they have progressed throughout their time at AHS, their math skills have increased. Uh this is exciting for us just because in the past beyond a teacher's grade book, we really didn't have a way of showing this. And so this is really neat because this is something that is standardized. It's normed just like NWA. One of the

041exciting things about uh STAR is that it's continually normed. So it's not just normed every 3 years or 5 years. Every time students are taking this assessment, it's normed. So, it is live collecting data and uh really reflective of how our students are doing uh across the state and across the nation. Um and again, you can see over on the right side that our our reading [snorts] data continues to be something that mirrors the math in terms of growth from 9th to 11th grade, but we see much more in the blue range, which is that proficiency range that we're excited to to live in. And uh obviously we're always shooting for that that green uh above average uh area. Any questions at this point in time? >> Can you explain 12th grade then? Why it

042kind of I can see your pattern that you're talking about per grade, but why in 12th that goes back up? >> Yes. So 12th grade would likely be a student who's in a fundamentals of algebra 2 or algebra 2 class that has struggled with math throughout their their scholastic career. Could be the second time they've taken that math class. Um there's all kinds of reasons. So but that would that would be the reason why that 12th grade because that would be a group of students that in math may not be the strongest student >> because that goes back then to what you said before. It's really just the ninth, 10th, and 11th graders that are taking this, but it's just the >> Right. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> Any other questions? >> Can you remind

043me when was the um winter testing window? When did they do this? I remember. >> Great question. It was right after we came back. It was like the first week we came back from winter break. Um because we um while the window for the winter benchmark is a good three weeks, the third week was when we're in the the midst of our our finals. And so we didn't want to have a lot of time spent doing this when students should be reviewing and getting ready for their finals. So I think the other great part about this test is it really gives us an opportunity to do something with the data that we collect. So some of the things that we've done so far like Mike was uh saying earlier, we do have a class called

044Lit Lab where we were able to identify students that were really struggling with certain parts of English. Uh we've run uh the fundamentals of algebra and algebra 2 before for the same thing. Students that are really struggling in English or in algebra that they can get into. Uh we're also bringing back home room to help target some of these supports for students. Um and and again it utilizes uh or it's utilized to immediately place students into appropriate classes. So we don't have to wait a year. We don't have to wait a semester. We can see right away where students are at and get them the support they need so they can continue making growth. And like all data, right, is never done. Data is never just collected. It's systematically reviewed to guide action. So what

045we're able to do, like we said, with two testing windows, um, is collect data, use this data, and once again, really target the supports that each individual student needs rather than kind of make blanket assumptions that everyone who's struggling in English needs the same exact supports. There's a lot of reasons somebody might have a 58% in English. It's not always the same exact reason. And same same goes for math. >> That's it. >> Well, I know that Rome did make a request that if you'd like to go over this data with him, just feel free to reach out to him. [laughter] He loves data and uh we'd love to take that that conversation. >> Yeah. So with that, thank you guys for your time. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> [clears throat

046and cough] >> and is uh if I may as the junior high team is getting set up too. >> Um you know foundation of our strategic plan is standard assessments, standard grading which we'll hear about here. Um, you know, we want to The nice thing about NWA is they and STAR is they are reliable, proven assessments. Are they the be all end all? Absolutely not. Um, what we really want to get to is districtwide we have this standard grading so that our our grades are truly highly informative and accurate in predicting, you know, future success on the standards and assessments and all that. So standard assessments are one piece of that and right now it's it's easy to utilize them because they are trusted uh tools for giving us gauges. There is a whole whole

047world of grading and local assessment, you know, teacher tests and things like that um that we haven't really spent a whole lot of time talking about. Um so, you know, then blends right nicely into this grading conversation, the work that's been going on. Uh the junior high has been leading the way um for what five years or more at this point. Um high school is following and then the elementaryaries are we're working on aligning all of that work um so that when you know well I don't want to steal all the the thunder there but um so that we build this this robust system of all these different components where we can get information in a timely and and valuable way uh for our students. So, it worked out perfectly that there was a lot

048of good conversation at the strategic plan summit about grading and what we do. Uh, and so that's why we have Katie and her team here to give us an update on our grading. Thank you, Dave, and thanks for the opportunity to speak about grading. Um, I am super proud of our team at Thunder Bay Junior High. They have been working, like Dave said, for um, five years uh, perfecting the craft of grading. And so we're just going to walk you through that process and what it looks like. So back in the 2021 2022 school year, um we had a committee at the Thunder Bay Junior High called making middle school count. And this committee was really investigating what can we do to hold students accountable at the middle school level. In high school, you have

049credits that you earn and those credits dictate whether you're a freshman, sophomore, etc. At the middle school, that's not the case. students do not earn credits to move to the next grade. And so this team was tasked with what does it look like? How can we ensure that our students are prepared to move to that next level when they get to the high school? And so from this conversation, this committee came to the conclusion that when a student fails a course in the middle school, how do we know that they don't know the information in that course? How do we ensure that the grade that they're given is an accurate reflection of their knowledge? And so that question at the time was one that was posed is what's in a grade? And so that was

050something that that team looked at and realized with what we are currently doing at the middle school, we had a lot of consistency and um things to take a look at in order to ensure that our grades were aligned. So the first thing is defining the purpose of a grade. So the team got together and made a statement and this is what a purpose of a grade is at Thunder Bay Junior High. The purpose of a grade is to communicate fairly, consistently, and accurately the academic prog progress and achievement of each student at Thunder Bay Junior High. So, we had a deliberate evolution in this process and the work continues to evolve and grow because again um what's in a grade with with all of the new things that continue to come out um with

051um student work and curriculum work, we continue to ensure that we are doing the best work and ensuring that our grades are an accurate reflection. And so this was a process. And so the first phase was foundation and reflection. Phase two looked at standardization and consistency and phase three is that that paradigm shift. So for this work we had to build a strong foundation and it requires professional learning not only for um our administrative team but also our teacher team and so this work is rooted in teacher clarity which you've heard a lot about through our strategic plan and it is the work that we have been involved in for a number of years here al at Alpino public schools. We also have um really investigated and done professional learning around Ken Oconor's work which

052is a repair kit for broken grades. Um 15 fixes is what he calls it and then also Robert Marzano and his work with classroom assessments and grading. So looking at our baseline back in 2021 2022 we had to really take a look at what was our baseline and where we were at. So professional learning took place at our teacher collaborations focusing on the question, what is in a grade? We holistically as a staff reflected on our current grading practices and we evaluated similarities and differences in grading practices between all of the departments and grade levels. That was the foundation work within that work. The essential question is how confident are we that our grades are consistent, accurate, learning focused, and meaningful. And at the end of the day, that's what we need our grades to

053be so we can make decisions about students whether they have mastered content and they're ready to move on or not. So looking at standardization and consistency, we have standardized our gradebook codes, which that's really important with communicating with families so it's consistent across the grade levels and departments. We've established schoolwide grading expectations and that is something that I share out with parents at the beginning of the school year so it's clear and evident um what all of our practices and policies are around grading and teachers also include that information in their course syllabus at the beginning of the year. We ensured consistency within our departments and grade levels. We spend a lot of time um in our staff collaborations and professional learning ensuring that our grade levels and departments are on the same page. You've

054also heard team time mentioned a number of times and at the strategic plan summit they talked about it. That's another place where our teachers have the opportunity to collaborate to ensure that everyone is on the same page with what they're doing at the grade levels and within the department. Another thing that we looked at was strengthening our support systems for our students because that's critical. We need to ensure that we're accurately or we're correctly supporting our students and providing them with additional support if they need it through interventions. And also our advisory is very important and we looked at bringing consistency to that as a place that really allowed teachers to help communicate with families and also um our students had that advisory teacher for three years. So that teacher really has the opportunity to

055develop a strong relationship with that student and can see their three-year trajectory on how they're doing in all their classes within phase three. Phase three, it's the paradigm shift and that's where we began to weight our grades consistently within departments and grade levels. And we had an emphasis on mastery tasks, which those are assessments. And when you think assessment, many times you think a test or a quiz, but it goes beyond that. It could be a demonstration. It could be a project. There's so many different ways that our teachers can assess student learning. It could be through a discussion. And so those are things that we continue to work on through professional learning to help our teachers have different types of opportunities for students to demonstrate the mastery of a topic. Students are given the

056opportunity to reassess um when if they need to be able to demonstrate mastery and there's no point deductions for non-compliance. So our grades are a reflection of demonstrated mastery of the state standards. So with the course waiting, looking at it a little bit more um in depth, our mastery tasks carry the highest weight. Many of our departments are a 60/40 with 60% being the mastery tasks, 40% being um the assignments, but also there are some that are 7030, 8020. And so that's consistent among the departments and grade levels for what those weighted percentages are. And that's again important for that consistency that we're looking for buildingwide. When we're looking at grading for mastery, we want that grade to reflect the students knowledge. We want it to be based on our state standards and we want

057it to be assessed in multiple ways. What we don't want for grading is point deductions for non-compliance. Um the the behavior students not doing something or not turning in work work on time is addressed through interventions, not in the gradebook, through alternate ways. and we're going to talk about that in a moment. So, when it comes to reassessment, our students have the opportunity to reassess their knowledge on mastery tasks. That is determined by department. So, all of our departments have a practice on how students might be afforded the opportunity to retake an assessment. Um, it could be if a student doesn't do well in assessment, they may need to um work on another study guide to help um re and or relearn the material. have a conversation with a teacher. They may study at home

058with a parent. There's different things that each department has a student do before they reassess to ensure that they're taking the opportunity to relook at that material and not just retesting to retest. So again, redoing those assessments promotes the mastery of class content. Just like when you were 16 and you took that driver's test, if you did not pass, you had the opportunity to redo it after going through some more courses and practicing. And so, it's very similar to what we're looking at with assessments with our students. We want them to be able to master that content. We want them to learn that content because that's the foundation of what they're going to need when they move on to the next course or the next unit or the next chapter. Another thing that we did

059in our grading practices was eliminate extra credit. And why is that? Probably most all of you, as myself grew up, we would ask, "What can I do for extra credit?" from the teacher. However, when you're looking at consistency in grading, extra credit inflates grades. So, it doesn't give an accurate depiction of what the student knows. So, if a student's doing a crossword puzzle and that's going to count as extra credit, that cross word puzzle is not demonstrating student mastery. And so that is inflating the grade. So what we're looking at instead is opportunities for students to redo things in order to demonstrate that mastery and that's really important that they have the opportunity to do that. So how do we handle late work? Late work is handled um each department has a policy that they

060are very clear with with their students. Late work is accepted without penalty for a very specific time as outlined by each department. And so the reason for that is because we want that grade again to demonstrate the cont content mastery. And so poor work habits, students that are not turning things on in on time are addressed through other ways such as interventions, classroom consequences, parent communication is super important and not through that grade reduction. Going back to what I said earlier about those unified classroom or the unified codes within student view, whenever a student turns in an assignment late, it's designated as LA. So that gives parents an opportunity when they're looking at their students grade, they can see right off the bat, my child has turned in three late assignments, while they might have

061finished them, there's a conversation then around you're doing a great job, but we need to get this work in on time. And that's something that we're looking at within the building level, too. But also, it's a great way to communicate with parents using that uniform system in the grade book. We have our advisory classes. They are super important because like I said that teacher has that student for three years. And so within our advisories we're doing weekly grade checks. So our teachers are constantly monitoring student progress. We have progress reports and those are critical because they each quarter [snorts] they're distributed three times. It's a paper copy because we even though our parents have access to Synergy 247 that's going to be their most up-to-date grades. It's important that our parents receive that paper copy

062because not all parents may be using that um online portal. And so they receive that paper copy and they get that three times per quarter and the parents are signing that and they're returning it to the advisory teacher when it gets return or the next day. And so that's something that we have consistently done across the building. Um they are distributed on a specific day. We let all families know that progress reports were passed out. they're due the following day. We do a robocall or text um or email to let families know that they're due. So that way that helps bring consistency across the building. We have our advisory grade book and again it's consistent schoolwide. Parents can see very easily if their student is utilizing that advisory time to complete assignments and do work.

063They can also see if their students are turning in progress reports on time. targeted interventions and failing grades procedure. So supporting students who need more than just the classroom instruction. We have a failing grades procedure that is done in our advisory class that is um that starts the second progress report of the quarter. Students that are failing two or more classes are um have a process that they work through with a with their teacher and that includes parent communication as well. And what they're doing with a teacher is writing a plan of what do they need to do to bring those grades up and also involving the parents in that communication. And then what do we do from there? We have multiple avenues for um interventions for students. We have lunchtime interventions and that's where

064students have the opportunity to work on missing work and executive functioning activities. We have afterchool interventions. Those are typically we do those at the start of the school year and that's with students who struggle. Um, we try to set them up, maybe they struggled the year before. We try to set them up for success at the start of the school year by doing activities with a small group and looking at again at that executive functioning, how to be organized, how do I use a planner, and things that will help set them up for success throughout the school year. And we also have a problem solving team. And this team looks at um individual students and what struggles they're having and then makes recommendations as to what next steps might be in place. So, with all

065of that grading, um, we also want to recognize our students and it's so important to recognize their hard work and effort. So, how do we do that? We have our honor roll, which recognizes students with a 3.0 GPA or higher, and our pack is amazing. We have a small but mighty pack at Thunder Bay Junior High, and we do ice cream socials to celebrate those students. We have at the end of 8th grade a 4.0 cumulative award for students that have a 4.0 0 for all three years. We have a presidential award and that's for eighth graders that have a 3.5 or higher cumitive GPA in their um winter semester of their eighth grade year. And it also looks at NWA scores. They must be um at or above the 80th percentile in those on

066those spring tests. And then we have classroom honors. All of our teachers give awards to students based in academic excellent, academic improvement, and citizenship. And so there is no limit to the amount of awards that a teacher can give. And so we highly encourage our teachers to celebrate their students and the hard work that they're putting in in their academics. So what's next? We continue to strengthen our processes with grading. The work continues because as you heard at the strategic plan summit, we talked about standard assessments. That work has been going on in the junior high for the past about two years and we continue to work on that to ensure that we have standard assessments across our grade levels and departments. That will give us localized data similar to what NWA does for at

067a national level. We can look at that. But this will bring it down more locally so we can really target where are areas of concerns and we can make immediate changes to our instruction in order to help our students progress and move forward. And then also additional interventions. We're always looking at how what else can we do to support our students and so we would love to have additional interventions during our school day and so that's one of the things that we talked about at the strategic plan summit too. What can we do looking at potentially adding those into the school day and what do we need for that? We need an additional teacher in order to provide that additional reading and math focus for students that are struggling because while we have lunchtime and

068after school interventions that sometimes is not enough. And so how can we add in more throughout the school day for students? And that is something that we're investigating. And so that's all I have. Do you have any questions? >> Anybody have any questions? >> I I would just uh something you said joged my memory. Did Didn't we have a discussion at one point of quite a few years ago about our uh I think it was in our student handbook that we were uh penalizing students for absences in terms of their grades. And I seem to remember pointing out that our policy said that we couldn't do that. And I actually caught some flak for that. In fact, to quote one teacher uh uh this uh individual said to me that uh I had basically destroyed

069by pointing that out. I had destroyed our attendance policy. Um and I remember thinking, boy, that's a bit harsh. But it turns out that perhaps that's, you know, maybe that wasn't such a bad move cuz it kind of sounds like that's that's where our new focus is there to really test what they know, not just whether they're coming to class. >> Yeah, that um policy was at the high school. Um so they had an attendance policy for grades. That's not something that the junior high had, but you're exactly right. Um not having attendance play into those grades is is critical. >> I'm feeling slightly less evil today than I felt yesterday. So >> what happens to those like assignments that just never get turned in. I do they at some point end up reflect being

070reflected in their grade right like >> so right not every system is perfect and so at some point outside of picking up a student's hand and helping them write. There are some students that just refuse to pick up a pencil and write and so what do we do? We continue to work with those families um have meetings and try to continue to intervene what can we do to get those assignments in. So there is a point where that assignment does become a zero at some point. So yes, is it a perfect system in that regard? At some point you have to move on. And so there are instances where students do receive a zero if they are not within that late work time frame. >> Other comments or questions >> during the day the interventions

071that you are talking about, how would that work? Is that just like a class that kids who are struggling would go to every day or >> the current the current way we're doing it or what we're hoping to do? >> What you're hoping to do? So what we're hoping to do, yes, it would be a class that students would attend during the school day. So it would be part of their schedule and it would be solely based on data and parents would be part of that conversation. So we're looking at students that would be um struggling in math or reading and that's where we would be able to add an extra course into their day. So it would replace an elective um but they need that extra support in math or reading. And that is

072a critical way to do it because currently at lunch um our dean spends quite a bit of time on intervention days grabbing students because they want to spend time at lunch with their friends but also academics is very important as well and so we get them to their intervention group to help them. Um so building that into the school day would be an awesome thing to help more kids. >> Well that's all very exciting. We want to thank you for Thunder Bay's leadership on this question. And it's going to be exciting to see it develop. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Back up. [laughter] >> Yeah, there you go. Thanks. [clears throat] >> Okay. Okay. So, that brings us then to property related items and school bus bids. And uh >> Simon, are you coming up

073to talk about that or would you like to >> Mary's coming up for bus? Mary's going to talk about that. >> Simon will come up for Besser. >> I don't know anything about the bus. >> Okay. Very good. Come on up, Mary. >> [clears throat] >> So, we have a a few buses this year that are not going to pass inspection for next school year. Um, so we decided to put a bid out for new, used, or leased buses. Um, we only had one bus company respond which was Holland Bus Company and um they have some 2024 models that are used and what they are is lease turnins from actually Elona School District that they'll be turning in at the end of the school year. Um, they quoted in the bid $82,832 for each bus.

074Keep in mind a brand new bus cost 125 or more. So, um, I've known Ken Haverate, their sales rep, for years, and I told Lacy, I said, "Call him back since he was the only bid. Call him back and tell him it's too expensive." So, she did and he came down um $2,832 on each bus. So, we're looking at purchasing three, which is $240,000. Um those funds are mostly set aside in the um long range maintenance and we can move a few around because we set aside a big chunk in that account or in that fund at the end of the school year last year. So, I would like to get three of them. Ken has them set aside for us. How many miles do we usually get on a bus before it won't meet

075inspection? Mary? >> Oh, it really depends on the bus. They try to rotate like the country ones back into the city so they're not being beat up all the time on the country roads a lot. Um, total mileage on the buses. I'm not sure. Are they probably I I I'm I'm not We can get that by >> because we do. Huh? >> We can get that information. >> Yeah, we can get that. Yeah. >> I I was just wondering if the if the 40,000 miles that are on the buses offset the deduction in price, >> especially considering they're gas versus diesel. Yeah, that was where my question was headed, Mary, was >> did did that make sense today? >> Do I think the 2024 buses with 40,000 miles on them is worth $80,000 a piece?

076Y, I do believe so. Yes. >> Okay. But just whether those those miles were >> I think >> they're coming from Elona school district. So we I mean their roads are kind of like ours out in the country. Their district is not as big as ours. Um, okay. So, >> how many >> I think AJ's questions an interesting question. You can get us that information. You know, what's the life expectancy on the gas bus and the life expectancy on the diesel bus uh for comparison? Um, you know, 55,000 mi isn't a lot, you know, if you're getting a couple hundred,000, but how does that compare? So, it'll just be interesting information to obtain before making a decision. So the 2024s, the mileage range is going to be somewhere between 36,000 and 40,000. The 2021s that

077they still have available are the ones that are in the mileage range of 47 to 55,000. So just recently in the last three, four years is when we bought our first gas buses. Um, we went to gas because the diesel with the duff fluid and the way those parts, >> they wear out and it causes repairs and stuff. So, the gas buses are more reliable as far as not needing as much upkeep on them as what the diesels do. >> Yeah, it's it's a numbers game. the diesels uh with the dev systems uh and there's a lot of repairs associated with those and of course the diesel is actually more than the gas right now. So it does you you got to pencil it out. I'm I'm not against gas at all at this point.

078I'm just curious for the longevity how that compares our bus >> you really wouldn't have longevity though cuz we only started buying gas buses just a couple three years ago three four years ago when we bought our first gas buses. >> So we don't have any of those with high mileage at this point. I can check the mileage on them, but I mean, we're not going to have we're not going to know how long they last, you know what I mean? The life of them because we haven't retired any of them yet is I guess is what I'm saying. >> I'm assuming we're not the only one in the state of Michigan that's used a gas bus though, are we? >> No, but I wouldn't know who did. >> Okay. So, um I can I

079mean I can give you what we have of course, but I don't for our district and and every district's longevity on their bus is going to be different because they run different roads and they run different routes and everything. So, but I'm happy to give you copies of the reports for the busing. Mary, I just maybe I'm looking at the numbers a little backwards, but kind of looks like the 21s are actually the better deal per >> for the for the miles. We dropped 23,000 per bus and we only pick up 15,000 miles. >> Well, there was a reason why they're sitting there for those were released out of their lease. What? They've been sitting on the lot for a couple years or a year and a half or whatever now. So, >> so that

080that's why the M but I'm saying that if >> if we wanted to pick up a a better deal that those ones look like the better deal. >> The 21s are less expensive with more mileage on them. I'm not sure if they were I mean I can find out for Ken why he was saying go with the newer ones. He's not gonna I've known him for years, you know. He's not gonna I don't think he's gonna lead me astray. >> Tell him 50 52 on them on them and we'll take four. [laughter] >> There's only three available. >> And that goes into the previous question and to AJ's point. The 21s have 10 to 15,000 uh miles more, but they're $20,000 less. If the longevity is such that you're going to get several hundred,000 miles,

081then it is a better purchase price to get the 21s. And so that's why that all kind of plays into the conversation. And I don't think it's unreasonable to ask those questions. >> And both the 21 and 24 are both from Alona schools. Then >> the 21s, I don't know where they're from. >> Can we find out that the 24s are from Alona? >> The wear and tear from the 21s if they were, you know, back roads or highway or what they were used for. Is the concern, Mary, that the 21 since they've been sitting around, they're going to need uh more maintenance, you know, belts and hoses that have, you know, decayed while they were sitting there or what what's the >> I would think so. There's a reason why. I mean, they say

082and the mechanics were pushing for the 24s. They're newer. They got more of a warranty period left on them. Um, you know, the 21 is less expensive. I don't know if Ken would come down on the price like he did on the 24s, but and I like I said, I've known Ken for years and he's not I mean, he's somebody I developed a relationship with him when I worked in the other school districts and he's never led me wrong before. So, but I can ask him where they came from and I can find out um I can find out a little bit more on the 21s. What do you want? More than three buses or is three all that we can afford? >> I was just looking for three as >> Okay. That'll keep the

083fleet in circulation. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> And just curious, um I understand they're 140,000 for new. Of course, there's zero miles and we're in a remote district. How does that compare on a lease for us if you were to balance that out or to to weigh it against each other? I worked with leases when I was a business manager in Agre and um it's okay but you don't have the buses have so much more to them than just those couple years that you're under lease. So you're constantly like paying for for new instead of you know >> Yeah. No 100%. But there does come a point at which the the maintenance then comes up. So sometimes lease is better with fleet options. So I was just curious if we've reviewed that and looked at

084it on a because we would be Well, never mind. >> So do you have a clear idea what further information the board would like for next week? >> Yes. >> Oh, super. Thank you. Any any further questions for Mary on that? >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. [snorts] So, what I have is uh we have a Besser sidewalk replacement bid uh to replace the sidewalk on the north end of Besser uh along the playground. Uh and then add a small piece on the south end uh from the what entrance exit is that on the south end. >> South entrance back to the parent uh parent drop off pickup loop. So these are couple things I think just got missed uh in bond some of the bond work. So we probably should have did them

085when we were there but so we received uh three bid or four bids. Um three were very competitive [clears throat] and D Roer Masonry was the low bid at uh total cost $47,990. and the other two bids were within $2,000 of that. So, >> Mary, you were going to This would be charged to the bond potentially. Okay. Sorry. >> Great point. Thank you. And we would for sure be going with the uh with the options which they all bid on >> or >> Yeah. with the option one to add that little piece of sidewalk. Yeah. From the south end. Yes. Okay. I would >> And it does say the uh past performance was part of the decision as well. They've done work for us before. Jimmy D Roger has been okay very good to the

086district uh >> with past work and donations and things like that. So no no concerns there with with his performance or his past work. So I also want to work on the drainage. Hope the hope is to get work on the drainage along the playground over there a little bit. address that issue. So >> questions, anybody? >> Okay, >> straightforward. >> Thank you, Simon. >> Yeah, I would have did terrible on the buses. I >> Oh, yeah. [laughter] I'm going to chalk that one up to continuing chemobrain. >> More questions. >> Yes. Thank you. >> All right. All right. Well, that brings us then to our policy uh discussion and you have all your policies there and um I have uh I had something that u uh Summer had shared with me from Niola, but

087I think Dave you said you had an even more succinct uh >> uh statement to make about um about the various policies and why they look like they look. So just for some u uh perspective and uh uh what's the word I'm looking for? Context. >> Yep. Um, so I just want to make sure I'm connecting the right ones. So while there are I don't know how many policies on here, what's happening with many of them is they're taking three existing policies and condensing them into one policy. So you'll see this in the 100 300 uh and I think 400 series or thousand series. Um, so that's why you see a lot of rescending and then replacement. So PL1422 um point.2 um I think that's our first one and uh oh sorry so that yes

088from my other sheet here. So taking nine policies turning them into three. So in the long run as we go forward anytime we update the non-discrimination policies we'll be dealing with three policies instead of nine. Um, and so that came from Phil Mcowsky, our Neola rep. Um, just the explanation of it. And so, uh, 1422, it's in our, that's our non-discrimination policy. Um, and that would be will be the new policy for the, uh, 10,00 series. Then we'd resend the other, uh, two or three policies depending on the series. Do the exact same thing with 3,000 and again with the 4,000. And so just on your agenda you see replacement that becomes the new policy. rescend rescend on the next two. Uh those are being rescended and you've got copies of those and we are

089open to discussing digital versions of this versus printing all especially when they're rescending an entire policy. But we just felt we would print it up. Just checking on those that are revisions. Um, so for example, uh, 2210. Um, we'll get to that in a minute. >> Oh, you're going to get you're getting to that. Okay, great. >> Yeah. So, I'm speaking of the the non-h harassments that are in 14 then skip 210 2010. >> Um, >> uh, second page then has the 3000 and 4,000 series. So, everyone clear on that? And this is the first reading. So, you know, we'd move it to a regular meeting and if there's any questions or we can again just keep it on the agenda until we uh take action on them. So, if you're ready, the the 20

090um on the first page 2210 um curriculum development. If you flip to I think it's the last sentence on that one and that was uh changed due to a change in the pupil accounting manual. Um and so you'll see it on the back of that policy. um just add in those lines of um documentation related to the calculation of instructional time for each approved course. And so that's I think technically it might be just a technical update because it's updating with the law, but that's what that one is. And if you're ready, the next one 2266 um that one is changed the um definition of so again it was initiated by a change in the reporting system at the federal Um so they uh changed the definition of fondling. So just for those in the

091audience this is a uh non-discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities and that one was changed. The term officially is criminal sexual conduct and the term sexual orient uh sorry um and so they've put in the explanation of to include fondling which uh matches the national incidentbased reporting systems definition of f fondling and that is I must have missed it. Yeah. On the second page, you'll see um so it said fondling and then they call it criminal sexual conduct and in contact. Thank you. And include the uh the new definition. And [snorts] I think that's the only place. Try to keep some order. Uh, okay. If you're ready, the next one on the first page, 2412, homebound instruction, that was revised because of a change in the pupil accounting manual. And

092those changes are primarily on the front page. And so it's a physician, psychiatrist or hospital uh or licensed treatment facility must certify the student as homebound or home hospitalized. Um again coming from changes in the pupil accounting manual. I near died when I opened up the agenda. >> Oh yeah. Yeah. >> Yep. >> Couldn't we out a little bit? >> Yeah. So, uh on the second page of your board agenda, the next two uh three, four uh all fall into um condensing those non-discrimination policies. >> [snorts] >> And then the next one would be uh 4162 controlled substance and alcohol policy for commercial motor vehicle drivers or other employees who perform safety sensitive functions and that is uh being revised to reflect statutory and regular regulatory changes. is to the return to duty process as

093required by the Federal Motor Carry Safety Administration and including evaluation by a qualified substance abuse professional education or treatment and follow-up evaluation. And you'll see that at the back of that policy on our go. >> Yeah, >> that goes Yeah, that goes with the 142. Yeah, I saw I didn't get a chance to It looks like 1422 is crossed out and then it looks like it's 3122. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> we got a 3362 3362. >> It's all cross >> the >> harassment. So, I'm assuming it would go with the 1422 the very first one would replace it. >> So 1422 is the replacement one. >> Yeah. >> And so yes it's replacing Yeah. 3122. >> Yeah. It's that same same process of merging and rescending. Um >> yeah. Um, and so that's the

094one we just did >> the >> Yeah, the motor and then after that 4162. So 4362 non-discrimination is rescended and then 5517 uh bullying it's got some updated uh information there. So that one uh 50 5517 was revised to include definitions and additional components included in the l latest version of the Michigan State Board of Education's model anti-bullying policy adding language. >> Yeah. Yeah. And uh just sort of an opening statement um the board of education recognizes that it's physically emotionally safe, secure for all students and staff. Um be able to better promote good citizenship. Um board expects students and staff to conduct themselves in manner that promotes positive relationships with school climate and with proper regard for the rights and welfare of other students, school staff, volunteers, and contractors. Then um later on just

095uh clarifying the um training uh requirements and some updates in the language and then definitely adding computer wireless. Uh but also bullying is conduct that meets all of the following criteria. And so it then lists out um you know and updating too for their definition of harassment. It includes all of those following areas. And I think with that last paragraph, um I just use this to make a public service announcement. Um our scope uh is limited to our property, our network, our facilities. Um many of the cyber bullying uh you know complaints that we do field are taking place on social media after hours personal devices at home not at school process um not at school functions um using our network and things like that and I've been in touch for several years with our

096local law enforcement who say that is exactly where they step in and they encourage families that if you are experienc experiencing cyber bullying that is taking place beyond the schools, you know, facilities and and scope. Um, call the police, call the sheriff, call, you know, and let them know. Um, you know, it's it's uh sometimes difficult and sometimes easy to pin those sort things down, but certainly they have access to far more resources than we do to track things down. But again, our authority extends only to our devices network during school time and and those pieces. So the public service announcement is if you are experiencing it and it is occurring outside of that, please contact law enforcement and let them know um because it's real and it it's a serious issue. Oops, I lost

097my agenda. So much for order. Thank you. Okay. Um, that's bullying revisions reflect the US Department of Judge Justice final rule provisions under title two of the American with Americans with Disability Act requiring state and local government entities including public schools to make web content and mobile application accessible to individuals with disabilities. 7541. uh rescending this policy and that's the provisions of this policy have been included in policy 8300 which is later on this list. Continuity of organizational operations. Um and so like the other harassment policies they're just going through and reducing redundancy or duplicity. And then the next policy is uh 8,300 which then wraps S in 7541 into that policy. And the final one uh is 8305 and it's been revised to information security has been revised to include additional language and options

098regarding cyber security safeguards. and there were some crossing off of language in that one as well. So first reading on these um options have been marked. Um and I'm trying to remember do we have conversation about bringing without the green and red for the board at when they approve it? Does that make it easier to see them? without the revision status on it or >> I like I like to see. >> Okay. >> So, we won't print this back up again. Um [clears throat] >> Okay. All right. >> Yeah. Yes. And we can always see what it looks like when we go view it in the uh updated policies. >> Yes. >> So, yes. >> Very good. >> All right. I think that's it. >> Question. >> Yeah. Um the 4162 the motor vehicle policy

099just I didn't get through it all or if it's even in this portion but [clears throat] say we have somebody that does test positive. Is that not grounds for immediate termination? Uh I always hesitate at blanket statements just because there could be some uh you know mitigating circumstances but I comfortable with saying yes that in general that if they are >> okay I just I you know >> there may be any >> I mean there is some language in there in Second page four from the bottom. No staff member who has tested positive for alcohol or controlled substance may be returned to a safety sensitive position without having been evaluated by a qualified substance abuse professional. >> Yeah. >> Doesn't say much, but yeah. >> Well, that one kind of that means they have the

100potential if they follow the proper training program to be cleared. >> Mhm. Mhm. >> I didn't think we really wanted to go down that road. >> And I >> of taking the chance of this person has already >> Yeah. >> And we're going to give them another chance. >> I was going to say there's our experience and I can tell you since I've been here, uh, absolutely. It has been a Thank you very much. We're parting ways. Um, I just hesitate to say that yes, going forward in every possible situation, um, there's one answer to it. So, there's a process in place. Um, and is that fair to say? [snorts] Yeah. >> I don't think you can have a control substance. CDL. >> Yeah, you can keep your DOT license. If you have a if

101you have a letter from the prescribing physician, they are able to pass their DOT. >> No, no, no. I'm not that mon if you >> if you get a citation. I thought you lost your CDL. If you get more than two citations maybe of a controlled substance, I don't know. It doesn't matter as long as there's your hat. So they get pulled over by police and they possible that if they're picked up in drug testing which our driver staff could rotate through drug testing positive refus Mary would you mind repeating that at the microphone I think that's interesting. And um >> sorry. >> Did it work? >> Oh, it did work. >> Dang. [laughter] So, if they're on the road and they get pulled over by a police officer and they're issued a citation, then

102it goes through the regular channels with the courts and things like that. if they're picked up in a random drug testing, which all of our drivers, we rotate rotate through all of our CDL drivers and random polls and they're sent to be drug tested. If they test positive then or if they refuse to go, then there's other steps taken with HR and reviewing things. In recent memory, I know of one driver that was accused of driving and smelled of alcohol and different accusations like that and we requested a test and that [clears throat] person would not go and that person resigned. So, does that kind of >> That's right. >> Okay. >> Any further questions or discussion on that? Well, chew on it. And if you have anything you'd like to add next week, >>

103that'd be the time. >> All right. That concludes policy, I believe. >> I think so. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yep. >> Then that brings us to charitable gifts, which uh Sarah you can read uh at the next meeting. Um, but uh if you're curious, there they are. And uh that brings us to public comment. And uh again, I think everybody knows the drill. Uh looks like a nice healthy crowd. So come on up. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. I'm Yvonne Johnson, a proud Alpena High graduate and a township resident. I had no plan to speak tonight, but here we are. As you know, I'm the sponsor of the recall of board members Lawson, Costain, and Dazinski. I initiated the recall to put the job performance of these board members on the November ballot.

104My goal is to allow voters to decide if we want you to continue to represent us. I agree with Dr. Rabbido that any personal attacks on board members is completely despicable, disgusting. It's absolutely unacceptable. And I'm sorry you've experienced that, Miss Dinski. It sounds frightening. Honestly, in all my comments here, online and in the community, I have focused on the board members conduct in office. I've given praise and shown gratitude when I thought it was warranted. I've also taken action through the appropriate democratic channels when I thought that that was warranted. I'll continue to do so. As a private individual, I've also been targeted and bullied online. There have been outright lies based on my participation here as a community member. Other community members have too. I echo Dr. Rabido's call to turn down the

105temperature and would point out that it requires civility and restraint from both sides. For example, it was just three weeks ago when members Hansen, Dazinski, and Lawson cracked jokes and made snide remarks about the recall in this room at the February 16th workshop. Two weeks ago, I was the target of board president Lawson's comments at the February 23rd regular meeting at the high school. He didn't name me, but he specifically referred to comments that I made at the October 20th meeting. In those comments, I encourage the board to act to improve student achievement and outcomes rather than simply saying the words. Dr. Lawson used his position on the board to misrepresent my comments and the board's actions in that meeting, suggesting that listening to Dr. Rabido's presentation about the strategic plan was actually taking action.

106So again, I'll encourage you to act, not simply say the words. I'll do my part. I've stuck to the facts. I have been civil and respectful here. Will you do yours? >> Thank you. >> My name is Dennis Schultz. I live at 700 State and I'm here to thank you. Um, I haven't been here in a few years and when I was here a few years ago, I think maybe I complained a lot. I apologize for that. But, uh, I want to make I want to thank you first. Uh, Sarah and Anna and Eric, AJ, Sarah, Monica, Eric. What I listen to tonight till now is a lot of work. I've been on boards. I was on the hospital board for many years. The board meeting is just the tip of the iceberg. If you

107do your homework, you got another three times as much preparing for this nonsense. When you say nonsense, [gasps] it all seems good, but we've gotten so complex. And I'm going to caution you. I'm in business. I have an aeronautical engineering degree and I went to a one room school in this community. My teacher had three months at County Normal. You're familiar with Omni Metalcraft. Ron and I were in class together for seven years. We had a little library in a corner where the teacher made us go when we misbehave and read. It doesn't have to be this complicated. I'm not suggesting you go to one room schoolh houses, but you need to really simplify this. The future is going to take it away from you, from us if we don't. This is way too complex,

108too much. I'm going to call it nonsense. I work with your graduates. 50 of PL 50 families work in our businesses and it's a struggle for many of them. And I appreciate for you too. Your students aren't the norm anymore. Their families aren't the same and I respect that. But mostly I want to thank you for taking doing the hard work. This is tough. And I think over the next decade, half a decade, we have to make some big changes. We can't be having $60 million repairs to buildings when we aren't the we're overlooking the kids. I had seven grandkids and they went through the system. They're all doing fine. I would say most of them were bored, but they made through it. They did it in college. Some some aren't. But there's so much

109here. And there was all this measurement of kids and how they're doing. And it's really doesn't matter if you're doing the basics. Let the kids that fly fly and just get the basics down really what your work is. And it's not easy. And I thank you. >> Thank you. I'm Chris Sanders and I live in Lasheen. And Dr. lost and I I I stand here tonight as a as a member of this community who cares deeply about the health of our public institutions, the tone of our civic life, as you do, as you've stated and and the kind of example that we set for the young people watching all of this unfold. And what concerns me about the recall effort being um put upon the members of some of the members of this board and

110on the people of this community is not just the the politics of it. It's this precedent it sets the the petitions themselves list some votes that some people disagreed with. They're they're not illegal actions. They're not violations of policies, not corruption. They're just they're votes with the exception of of an attendance grievance. Votes about a a rain garden project, votes about legal council choices, uh votes about a paving contract. Reasonable people can disagree about decisions. I mean, that's the entire point of in the elected board. Board members are chosen precisely so they can weigh information, exercise judgment, and and make decisions on behalf of the community. If every vote that someone disagreed with becomes grounds for a recall, then what we're really saying is that representatives are not allowed to represent. They're only allowed to

111comply. This is not accountability. That's intimidation. Dr. Lawson, the the recall process is an important safeguard in a democracy. I agree with it. But safeguards work best when they're reserved for serious situations such as illegal conduct, corruption, and major ethical violations. When recalls are used simply because someone disagrees with a policy vote, the process begins to lose its integrity and becomes a tool for political pressure rather than public accountability. What many people in this community have witnessed over this past year is very troubling to me. Board members who are trying to serve their community have been repeatedly targeted, their motives questions, publicly ripped to shreds, their words repeatedly twisted, and their professional reputations dragged through the mud over governance decisions. And the the twisting of the words needs to go away no matter which side

112is doing it. If we want good people to step forward and serve in public roles, then our community must commit to something better. Civility, fair treatment, and the understanding that every board member deserves to be evaluated on the full record of their service, not reduced to a handful of votes that some people disliked. >> Thank you. My name is Tammy Hinkle live in Alpena County. I just come because I wanted to thank each one of you board members for what you have given to this community and what you and how you've made a difference. I know that each one of you have sacrificed something to be a member of this board, some more than others. Thank you, Monica, for not giving up or quitting. We can't quit if we get bullied. Be strong. Be courageous.

113I thank you for supporting the people who voted for you. Well, one example is by seeking out different opinions regarding issues of school policy, not just settling for the council that we have always taken in the past. This allowed more people's viewpoints to be represented in the decision-making process as it has been often stated that the board has the responsibility to resem represent all of the students and families in the school district. I've attended many school board meetings and I enjoy listening to the plans that you have for our school and in the future to improve academics and to connect with the people and get their input. I appreciate that opposition comes not from those that want equality but from those that want you to see everything from their from their viewing point. We were

114elected, you were elected, excuse me, to be school board members for who you are and for what you can bring to our community. Please continue to make your decisions accordingly. Follow your heart, your faith, and your common sense. Remember why you were chose or why you chose to run for this position in the first place, and the people that support you. Keep up the good work. Don't get discouraged. There are many people that believe in you. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, looks like we're done. Uh, thank you all very much for your comments. Uh, let us, uh, proceed then. Uh, we have, uh, information and questions, uh, from board members. Okay. Uh, no board discussion topics at this time then, huh? Okay. Uh then uh that brings us uh to uh our advanced planning.

115You can see we have a meeting next week uh here the 23rd our annual board workshop the 24th. Very exciting. Uh at the Wildcat Den, our uh community forum and I do believe King Scott will be there. Yep. >> Uh to present and uh take questions. Uh and then we uh have some activities in April as well. So uh we hope you'll join us for all of those. And with that um before before we uh just so everyone knows this evenings we will have two closed sessions following this one. >> After the first close session there will be no action taken. After the second close session there might be action taken. So and we will be fortunately it's nice outside. We will be having people wait outside uh during these sessions. Very good. Okay. Uh

116well then with that I will adjourn this meeting and we will uh uh get our other one started. So thank you very much. Yep. >> Yeah, we got nine minutes till the posted start time. that door up. >> I can Just look out the window. >> Yeah, you have a few people talking. Do you want me to ask >> if they want to come in for the pledge? want to be here for the >> pledge. We're back. All righty then. Uh we will bring uh this uh second meeting uh uh of the uh APS board of education to order and let's rise for the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice

117for all. I move we go to a law. >> Um I'll make a motion to approve the March 9th, 2026 agenda as presented. >> Very good. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh we have a motion uh and support to uh uh approve the agenda. Any further discussion? Seeing no discussion on that item, uh raise your hand in favor. Any opposed? All right. Uh motion carries. We have an approved agenda. Uh then next we would be uh looking for a motion to move to close session. >> I'll make a motion to move to close session uh for exempt material MCL5.268H. >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion to move into close session uh and support. Any discussion of this motion? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion, raise your hand. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously.

118Thank you. Uh, all right. So, we are now in closed session. >> Did we check the Do we check the feed? >> Nobody. Okay. >> Um, are we back online? >> Okay. Uh, we are back in open session. To correct an oversight. I apologize. I did not catch this going in. Um, for this exempt material MCL15.268H, uh, we do need a, uh, roll call, I think, uh, an oversight in our in our agenda. and uh uh led us to uh uh go into open or close session uh without that roll call. So, we're going to do so now. Uh and so I would entertain a motion to go into closed session again. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by AJ, second by Monica. Uh [snorts] any further discussion? >> Again, my apologies. I

119did not catch this going in, but uh once I discovered it, I decided we better act on it. So, uh, we have a, uh, a motion, uh, to go into close session and a second. Uh, let us do a roll call. >> Member Fritz, >> I. >> Member Minhart, >> I. >> Member Costane, >> I. >> Member H. Hansen, >> I. >> Member Dazinski, >> I. >> Member MacArthur, >> I. >> Member Lawson, >> I. All right. Uh, roll call is unanimous. Uh, we will go back into close session now. Thank you. We're here so late. >> That's all right. >> Okay. U Summer, are we live? Okay, so we are back uh in open session uh from our last uh this next uh close session. This is uh this is exempt from a roll

120call vote. Um so um I would at this point entertain a motion to move into close session for non-renewal MCL15.268A. >> I would offer >> Eric Hansen offered that motion and I will support his motion. All right, we have a motion and a second. Uh any discussion? Uh hearing none. A show of hands uh in favor of the motion. Okay. Any opposed? All right. That passes unanimously. We are now back in close session and offline. Okay, our recess is complete. Uh, we would need a motion to go back into closed session to continue our work. >> Support. >> Okay, we have a motion and support to go back into close session. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of the motion, show of hands. Both same sign. Motion carries. All right. Uh we are back

121in closed session. >> Okay. >> Oh my trash. >> Should be good. >> All right. Um we are coming out of of closed session back into open session. Um and uh we uh I believe we'll have a motion to consider. >> Sure. I [clears throat] will make a motion for the nonrenewal uh referring to the teacher from the closed sessions contract for the 2627 school year for the remainder of the 2627 school year and place on paid administrative leave for the remainder of the 2526 school year. I screwed that up. Um, can I go ahead modify? >> Make a mo I'll make a motion for the non-renewal regarding the teacher from the closed sessions contract for the 2627 school year and place on paid administrative leave for the remainder of the 2526 school year. >>

122Second. >> Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Uh, hearing none, we'll have a roll call. Member MacArthur. >> Nay. >> Member Fritz. >> I. >> Member Minehart. >> I. >> Member Dazinski. >> I. >> Member Hansen. >> I. >> Member Costane. >> I. >> Member Loss. >> I. Motion carries. All right. Uh so it is uh there is now an opportunity uh for uh >> for uh for public >> for public comment >> um >> well we we are in open session. We have public comment on the agenda. Is there any public comment? >> Nobody's going to crawl out of the woodwork. All right, seeing no public comment, uh I will refer you to our advanced planning uh which I went over before. And with that, I will adjourn our

123meeting. Thank you all very much.