001Welcome to the Shboen Area Schools Board of Education monthly meeting. Actually, our organiz organizational meeting. It is Monday, January 26, 2026. >> Luke Kusky >> here. >> Tim Chara >> here. Travis Neville >> here. >> Richard Pon >> here. >> Julie Lila >> here. >> Matt Malar >> and Deborah Buuner >> here. >> Heather Lake here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> 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. At this time, we need to elect a chairperson to take over the meeting for our organizational cont. So, I need a motion to nominate Spencer, superintendent, to serve as temporary chairperson. >> I'll make that motion. Support motion made by
002Travis. Support by Debski. >> Yep. >> Tim, >> yes. >> Travis Neville, >> yes. >> Richard Pon, >> yes. >> Julie, >> yes. >> And Matt and sorry, Debbuner. >> Yes. >> Okay. This is where I take over. Right. Julie, >> I'm in charge. >> Um, my job, my responsibility is to uh look for a motion. uh for to nominate uh someone here to be the next president of the board of education for the year uh 2026. Looking for nominations. >> Nominate Julie. >> Second. >> Motion by second by Travis. >> Luke Kusky. >> Yep. >> Tim Tariff. >> Yes. >> Travis Naval. >> Yes. >> Richard Peon. >> Yes. Julie, I can't call on you. >> And Deborah Buer. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Welcome back. That was quick. >> Okay. At this point,
003[cough] I'm going to takes the meeting to pack over and I am looking for um a motion. I'm looking for a motion to nominate someone for vice president. for the board for the board of education for 2026. >> Nominate Tim and second that for Tim. [clears throat] >> Motion was Rich. Second was Luke. >> Motion made by Rich. [clears throat] >> Luke. >> Yep. >> Travis Neville. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Rich Pean. [cough] Yes. >> And Deborah. >> Yes. >> The next thing on the agenda is a motion to nominate the secretary for board of education for 2026. >> I nominate Deb. Support. >> Travis. Motion made by Travis. Support by [clears throat] >> Deb. Is that right? >> Tim. Sorry. >> Hey, Luke. Picusky. >> Yep. Tim Charger, >> yes. >> Travis Neville,
004>> yes. >> Richard Kean, >> yes. >> Julie Laa, >> yes. >> Okay. I need a motion to nominate someone for the treasurer for the board of education for 2026. >> I nominate Matt Malaric. Support. >> Motion made by Travis. Support by Tim. >> Luke Kakuski. >> Yep. Tim Tar, >> yes. >> Travis Neville, >> yes. >> Richard Pean, >> yes. >> Julie Loila, >> yes. >> And Deborah Buunner, >> yes. >> Okay. The next thing on the agenda is organizational matters. We um have to designate authorized signers. It is recommended that the board of education authorizing the following signatures for the funds general fund, payroll, food service fund, syncing fund, bond fund contracts. The superintendent is who is recommended. Authorized depositories. It is recommended that the following banks be named as depositories for the
005district funds. Citizens National um bank my plus first community bank. Signatorries for board minutes. It is recommended that the authorized signatures for the board minutes be board president and board secretary. Legal counsel is recommended that Thurin Long law firm be retained as legal cons council for 2026. Bonding is recommended that the following positions be included in our bond insurance policy as they deal with cash in the normal workday. business manager, assistant business manager, athletic director, building secretaries, administrative assistant, human [clears throat] resource manager, and any other school employees designated by the superintendent. [clears throat] Board meeting dates and times. It is recommended that the regular board meeting convene at 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Monday of each month as follows. February 23rd, March 23rd, April 27th, May 18th, June 2 well, June 22nd, July 27th,
006August 24th, September 28th, October 26, November 23rd, December 14th, and January 25th, 2027. with a note that it is not the fourth week on in the months of March and Christmas due due to breaks in our school year. So I would like to have uh to adopt the recommendations of the the agendas items 9A [clears throat] through 9F as one consent motion as presented. So I need a motion to do that. I'll make the motion to adopt the recommendations for agenda items 9A through 9F as one consent motion. >> Support motion made by Tim. Support by Deb. >> Lucowski, >> yes. >> Tim Tar, >> yes. >> Travis Neville, >> yes. >> Richard Pean, >> yes. >> Julie Loila, >> yes. >> And Deborah, >> yes. Okay. So, the next thing on our agenda is
007the best part of the evening [clears throat] and that is student recognition. So, um Mrs. Capazolei is going to come right up to our podium and call those up for us. So, good evening. I just want to say real quick, thank you for all you do for us. I have from seventh grade through 12th grade. Um, and when I was looking down the list, other than seventh grade, I have had every one of these students in my class. So, that's um the very first one, [cough] can I call her up here first? Okay, that would be Annabelle Brock and uh Kevin Ballard, Mr. Ballor nominated her. I want you to know what Mr. Bell had to say about you. I can't think of a better young lady to be honored with student of the month
008for the month of December than Annabelle Brock. She is one of the kindest young ladies in Chbboan area schools that you will ever find. And there's no text too big or small for this young lady to conquer. She also happens to be one of the top students academically in her class. Congratulations about you deserve this honor. [applause] Now, this young man was nominated by Mrs. Dolly and uh I also have him. He's an eighth grader. Isaac, come on up. Isaac Alvin, come on up. >> Isaac in first hour, your student of the month. And this is what Mrs. Dolly had to say about you. Isaac deserves this recognition because of his hard work and the friendliness he brings to the classroom. He cares about doing well and is curious about the Spanish language. Not only
009that, but he has a good sense of humor and makes our classroom a more enjoyable place to be. I hope he continues to challenge himself and share his positive attitude with those around him. I second that. [applause] My bad. All right, Davis. All right. And ninth grade, U. Mrs. Morris nominated you. And here's your certificate. Reagan is not only a fantastic student, but a kind soul. She works hard, thinks analytically, and is ex an exceptional classmate. Students often look to her for help on assignments, and she is always willing to answer their questions with patience and genuine care for their success. She does all this while managing for extracurriculars like volleyball and soccer. I look forward to watching Megan's journey unfold throughout her time at CHS and beyond. Congratulations, [applause] Chaz Andrews. >> Nope, I
010did not. He was nominated by our new art teacher, Mr. Z. And I'll make sure he gets a certificate. But what Mr. Z has to say about him is, I would like to recognize Chaz Andrews as being an outstanding help in my class. I've relied on his support and he has consistently stepped up to tackle any task I give him. He is a powerhouse to have in class and his contributions have made a meaningful different difference in my classroom. So Jazz, we're here. [applause] Oh goodness. Greg Sharon, good to see you. All right. Not [ __ ] tall. [laughter] Still got a great spot. All right. So, Mr. Wright nominated you. We're gonna have to talk to him about his part or getting my arms longer. All right. So, Grant Charban is a student athlete, a great
011student, and an active member of the student body. Grant plays football for the Chiefs and is a leader on and off field. Grant also makes good grades and is courteous and respectful in class. Grant has a bright future ahead of him and I'm happy to nominated for student of the class. [applause] And that leaves the young lady that I uh I nominated and that's Maline Cool. Um who is could not be here tonight. And uh I was amazed to see that Maline Koul had reached her senior year [snorts] without ever being awarded student of the month. She is a hardworking, reliable and she leads by example. She is in I've just met her in this year. She is in our yearbook class and her experience natural creativity were evident in her theme presentation uh small
012town big dreams which is our book and her ability as a writer is extraordinary. Maddie has a quiet leadership style. She clearly identifies objectives and aligns tasks to meet those goals on time. She listens to advice, revises plans and achieves goals. She has captured the spirit within our 712 building in this yearbook and shown that from small town big dreams can be achieved. She's just a powerhouse and I will make sure she gets this because she's working. So those are my STUDENTS [applause] would come up and do spotlight. >> Hello Mr. Kangas, social studies teacher. Uh here at Mines Academy, uh we do two student spotlights. Uh one for our in person and one for our virtual uh kids. Our inperson uh is here today and that's Jacob Fran. Come on up. [applause] Uh Jacob's
013been uh with us at Academy uh for uh a couple of years now and two three years. Couple something like that. Um he will be graduating this uh year. Uh he's finished up all his course load. So that's a a big win for him. uh and we decided to choose him not only just because he was able to uh finish um you know his work and he's going to be graduating but also uh because uh we've all gotten to really know Jacob the past couple years and he's a really nice uh kid and we all enjoy having him in class and we thought hey you know what let's give him a little little spot to shine. So congratulations J [applause] Uh and for our virtual students uh we have uh selected Jillian McKinley uh who
014came to us uh this year uh from the high school. A couple of uh quick things about Jillian McKinley. Um she uh wants to uh be a nurse. Um and she could actually have finished her courses, but she's elected to actually take some more anatomy courses. uh that way, you know, she's um you know, properly ready to uh go out there and uh start uh you know, going towards becoming a nurse. Um so we're we're very proud of her and sort of tenacity in that aspect. I also have a little blurb here uh from our English teacher, Mr. Evo. He says, "Julie was on my virtual case. She pleaded every course early with all A's uh submitting work that was consistently excellent. She was courteous in every email exchange, and I greatly appreciate that all
015of her messages were written in standard English with perfect punctuation. She is a bright, hardworking young woman who has what it takes to succeed in whatever she chooses. All right. Thank you. [applause] >> I need a photographer. >> We're going to do our tomorrow. We can get >> Okay. Okay. So at this point if people who are here who are supporting um their student their student it takes a village to raise a child. We know that your input was um a huge part of success. So, would you like to stand and I'll honor you. [applause] >> Also, at this time, if you would like to stay, you're more than welcome to enjoy our meeting or you may also take this opportunity to >> Thank you very much. He was when she came. >> She was
016just a baby. What? >> Okay. The next thing on our agenda is approval of minutes. Absolutely. God bless >> the minutes of December 15th, 2025. >> You too. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Tim, >> yes. >> Travis N. >> Yes. >> Richard, >> Julie Loila. Yes. >> And Deborah Buuner. >> Yes. >> Okay. The next thing on our agenda is the superintendent report. >> Okay. Thank you. I have a quick uh PowerPoint presentation um I'd like to share with you guys. Uh Luke, I already heard your gasp. I'll try to get it done as quickly as possible. >> I know what you're already thinking. Right. >> Uh what I want to do is just lift some things up. We have a lot of meetings and they're kind of all going a little bit of different
017directions. appreciate all the board members and their capacity to work with different committees and teams, but ultimately and eventually it all comes to the ahead here at the board meeting. So, I'm going to lift a couple of things up that I've picked up on uh the last 30 days since our last board meeting that you should be aware of. Here's one. First semester is over. Second semester starts today. Is that correct, Barney? >> So, we're halfway through. One thing that that I just want to put that up there is because uh right around this time um we'll be doing continuing our testing with our our map data. Uh so all the all the schools, building principles, teachers, we'll be using our map data to uh for a second round of testing here in the winter.
018And then between uh the second test and the third test, Jessica Yearling will be presenting on some of those findings. If you recall last year, Jamie McClintic did a report to the board with all the map data and all the charts and stuff. Jessica Yearling will be doing that for us this year. And maybe February might be ambitious. At least February or March, we should have the data crunch it. If you remember from last year though, we had some really great gains. Uh if you recall our math gains were out of sight. I think I recall Jamie saying something like she's never seen any type of growth like that in the 20 years that she had worked here. Now, we did make a lot of assumptions with that data that that data was impacted by
019our math curriculum work. And if indeed it was, those numbers should continue to go up this year as well. So hopefully we were right. All the work that we put in that first year, second year, and still continue to do with our math curriculum is paying dividends. We're we're slowly shifting the boat to English language arts uh for those departments and grade levels that are ready. and hopefully um we'll start seeing some some gains for English language arts scores as well. So, we got state testing coming up too and we'll when we get all that stuff done, we'll be reporting back to you uh the results of the testing. Um real quick, I just want to um give you guys a reminder. What did I do with that? Maybe I won't. >> That's um just
020want to Oh, there they are. Um we went over this today in our cabinet meeting, but I like what I saw and it was just an informal kind of look at this uh information. Could you take one and pass it down? Most of you, some of you are on more than one of these committees or pillars uh that we we created back two and a half years ago as part of our strategic plan. So these are the big these are the big rocks, the big ideas. But one of the things that we changed at the beginning of this year, a lot of it with your help as board members was to um really add some specific goals under each each under each pillar. So these are the pillars, communities, teams, whatever. But then we really
021wrote we wanted to be as specific as we possibly could almost to the point of action steps. And today in our cabinet meeting, we kind of reviewed that a little bit. But what I'd like to do, I don't want to go through all these with you now, right? Take it home, Luke. It's great reading. You're going to enjoy it. Uh but but what I'd like you to do is what I've done is [clears throat] I'm starting to go through I know we're only we're just but I'm checking off stuff that we already have done, right? And if you take if you go through these lists, what I'm hoping you're going to see as well is that we made a lot of progress. So, but there are still a lot of things that need to yet
022be done. Um, so if that's one of those things still in progress, but these this is a good checks and balances. We're at the first day of second semester. Uh, where we at? Where are we at with the goals that we started the school year with? And I'm I'm very pleased. And some of these I will tell you too, some of these what I found was that you know what, we're we're probably not going to get that done this year. This is probably going to be a goal that's going to have to go roll over to next year, which is fine. We just need to recognize that. But also what I've challenged our building principles to do is as as now we're checking a lot of this stuff off, we're getting this work done, what
023else do we need to do? Right? So now that we got this step done, are we ready for the next step? And what does that look like? So I I'm already challenging these guys to start thinking outside the box in January, what does next school year look like? What are going to be some new things, some new challenges that we're going to face? And let's get them in writing because that it's easier to track that way, right? So, good good news on the goals. Um, also we have four half-day PDs left. We have one coming up next Wednesday. It's a half day for students in the afternoon. We're going to This is something new we're trying. This is something that we thought we would uh stretch a little bit, see if this works. Are we
024ready to do some of this stuff? But what we're going to do on February 4th is going to be curriculum based, but it's also going to be building based. So Jessica Yearling has been working with each of our building principles and they're created their own agenda and it's tailor made to their grade levels and it's specific for where they are and what they need to do under the guise of curriculum. Right. So each building principal over here is in charge of their afternoon. What do we have three hours that to fill in the afternoon? >> Yes. >> So I know they all got a good plan. We'll see how it goes and if it works out well. This might be a model that we want to continue to use in the future. We do have
025three more uh half PD days [clears throat] after that. And March is our MTSS day. I'm working with Ben and Jessica on creating an agenda for that. We have a lot of good ideas almost too many good ideas to fit into three hours, but we're going to do that um together. And then I've already reached out to Jeremy Runstrom, who is our uh the emergency coordinator for our county. He came and visited our BP meeting a couple weeks ago and he's already working on a plan for April 6. April 6th will be our safety PD day. So, he's coming up with some some ideas of what we should do next. If you recall, last year we did active shooter training. We're not going to do that again. What I challenged uh um Mr. for officer
026Runstrom with is okay after the active shooter training right let's say let's say we actually have an active shooter situation what do we do next you've heard a lot of talk about a reunification plan there is one in place that they've used in the past and what um uh Mr. Runstrom wants to do is review that plan, kind of have a table talk with some of our building principles and some of our teachers and just talk about the reunification plan. And then um once we feel we got a good rough draft, next year we're going to actually practice it. So that's kind of the idea, the rough draft idea for April 8th. And then lastly, May 6th, um Jessica Yearling asked if we could use that day for curriculum because that is at the end
027of the year, but we want to talk about summer work and we want to get uh teachers prepared. If they want to do summer curriculum work, let's get a plan out there. And um to me, that's when that's when we get the best curriculum work done is in the summer, right? It's hard, very hard to do it during half days or when subs come in and and you have to step away from your classroom that, you know, to me that's like trying to build a plane in the in the uh in the sky when you're flying. So, summer work when the kids are gone, meaningful, impactful work can get done. If you remember last year, we did this a little bit. Last year, we did two days, I think it was at the beginning of
028the summer and then two days at right before school started. So teachers got paid pretty well whatever the contractual rate outside the day was and we had [laughter] a pretty good uh teacher participation rate too. I think it was somewhere 85 90% majority of the teachers participated. So we're going to want to plan that May 6. So those are our remaining half PD days with next Wednesday February 4th uh curriculum. I do want to mention this. I hope all of you have heard this by now. I'm just going to briefly talk about it. It's really not going to come your way until um next month. By next month, Heather and I will have an agreed upon for you guys to consider and for you guys to approve. There's still a lot of uh negotiating going
029on. Uh these are just ideas, but if you haven't heard of the 27L uh monies yet, you're going to hear it now. The state has granted every school district a lump sum of money. What are the 27L funds? State funded employee compensation and it's not recurring. It's a one-time giving us uh giving each school district money to redistribute to all of their defined educators and that defining educators has become quite interesting actually. So our purpose uh of the funding from the state perspective is this is uh for recruitment and retention uh also to ideally I'm not sure if this is how this is going to be real helpful but you know uh staffing shortages recognizing increased demands on school employees and so forth. So, we're still at the beginning stages of this, but by February,
030working backwards from February's board meeting, I hope to have anou between the teachers union and actually all of our collective unions, we also have to negotiate with any bargaining unit that is associated with the union, which is includes the steel workers, which are custodians, right? And then MEA also picked up bus drivers last year. So, I'll be meeting with those three reps. I think we set a date yet? No. I'm going to be meeting with them uh later this week or early next week. But ultimately the endgame is let's have an agreement that the board can uh approve. We can bring it to uh the finance committee to review first and then after the finance committee gets all their questions answered uh we can get it to the board in February and hopefully get it
031approved. Just a couple bit other things just so that you have a basic knowledge of what 27L monies are. Um they're not guaranteed so this isn't happening every year. right, just this year. Um, it needs board of education approval as I mentioned. Uh, we're working with the attorneys and with the bargaining units to get a an approved to you guys in February. But the bottom line is funds represent a temporary state investment in our employees, allowing districts to support staff while maintaining long-term financial responsibility. So, that's the why and the who and the what, and you guys can expect it in February. I'll give you, we don't know exactly what the monies are going to be yet, but I can tell you, we've talked a little bit. Um, some things we're trying to determine what
032an educator is. Um, some of the things that we've talked about with the union is part-time versus full-time. talking about third party, who gets a stipen, who doesn't, but the money itself, we we get a bigger chunk of the change than most of the other school districts in our in our region because we're a bigger school district. We're getting $213,000. So, if you were right now, we we don't know what the stipen will be until we answer all those questions about who's going to get it, who's the educator, who's going to be the recipient. But uh if you just take the general numbers, we have about roughly 200 employees in our school district. And if you got $213,000 divided by 200, it'd be a little over $1,000 per person if it was if that was
033exact. It's not. It's approximate. And this income is also reportable, which means let's say everybody gets $1,000 in your paycheck. Congratulations. You guys are going to approve this in February board meeting. the next uh hopefully uh we'll see how quickly Marlene can turn this around, but as quickly as possible once it's approved by the board, then everybody will get that additional $1,000 in their paycheck to have indeed to be an educator. But it's also reportable, meaning that they're going to take taxes out of it. So just because you're getting $1,000 doesn't mean you're going to get $1,000, right? Might be 700, 750 depending on your tax situation and whatever. So roughly, I've been telling people we can expect somewhere around $1,000, but that is reportable. So we're going to be working on that for the
034next couple weeks. Hopefully you'll see it on the board meeting in February. We'll get it approved. Any questions about lot of lot of discussions about this in the last two, three weeks. I don't know how many of you've been a part of, but we're finally get to the bottom of it. What else we got? Uh compass camera agreement. I had a meeting with the safety team. They requested that we have anou just like we created anou for dispatch. Um so I'm working with their attorneys right now. They have a draftou that we're going to if you recall last board meeting we approved them access but Tim made a good point the other day when we were meeting that you know even even though that the board granted access we should have it in writing right
035so I'm working on getting that in writing so that there's no ambiguity in the future but also what I would suggest is that this written oversight be a part of the annual agreement at the beginning of each year some of you probably don't know this but the county the compass program. They pay for stuff over here, right? They rent some of this stuff. They pay for some of our teachers, our workers. They rent our room. So, at the beginning of the year, we have an agreement. It's a one pager. There's not a lot of stuff there. But in the future, I suggest we add this uh this section that we're going to add this year on the basis of an MLOU. It just become a uh permanent part of the contract in the future moving
036forward. >> Any questions on that, Tim? Right. Did I get that right? Yep. So, we're working on it. What's that? >> It's all good. >> All good. Okay. And then also, I just got a request to bargain from the teachers union. Um Marlene has been out on FMLA all last week. So, she'll be back tomorrow. And when she gets back, Marlene and I are going to look at our dates and we'll reach out to the uh the teachers uh negotiation team, and we'll try to nail down those dates so that we can start meeting uh with the teachers union to discuss uh their the end of their three-year contract uh is coming to a close. um the end of June. So, we need to start preparing for the future um and see what that that's
037going to look like. We got a lot of first readings today. I just want to get that out there. I don't know why this is kind of an unusual thing, but we have an artificial intelligence guide book first reading. Emergency operations plan, Jessica Yearling needs it updated so that we can submit it to MDE, right? And that's just more of semantic, but we did make a couple changes and that's still up for review. Student handbook. We're trying to align the building principles and Chris have been working hard at aligning our student handbook with TRUN. Um because TR is our attorney. So why wouldn't our student handbook align with Tron? So that's up for a first reading as well. And the curriculum guide. The curriculum guide first reading. But the high school needs the curriculum guide
038soon for what? Scheduling. >> Scheduling. So once you guys approve the curriculum guide, take a look at it for the next 30 days. It gets approved. Uh the counselors can start scheduling kids. Hopefully we get those schedules completed before uh late spring and before summer comes. We want to be able to give teachers a a rough draft schedule what their schedule will look like for next year. But it all starts here. We got to get the curriculum guide approved by the board first. Then the counselors can start meeting with kids. Then we can start creating schedules and then we know what our teacher demand is for the different classes that the kids have signed up for. And the tonight I think we actually uh I think it's up for approval, isn't it? The board of
039uh education operating procedures. This is I think the third month we've read it. >> Yes. Yes. >> Okay. So unless if there's more questions, we may go for a fourth reading, but if not, uh, we'll try to get that approved tonight. Any questions? So the these here, I don't want you to get too worried. I mean, other than the operating procedures that were approving tonight, you're going to have 30 days to take a look at this other stuff. And if you have questions, you can reach out to the the chair or to myself or to Julie or building principal on any of those documents that we're going to send you home with tonight to take a look at. lot of first readings facilities. I got Steve here. You want to tell us a little bit
040about the middle school bleachers? >> So, I received the drawings today. So, um we're going to uh put that out the bid uh ASAP and uh with a tenative date to have them done by start of school next year. >> Yep. So, I know Ben Schly has mentioned this quite a bit and I think you if you guys haven't heard this story, >> middle school bleachers bad. >> Is that pretty much how the headline goes? Never heard that. >> Yeah, >> that's brand new. >> Yeah. So, I I know there's been a lot of discussion about that since I've been here. I think it's time. I mean, we we we Ben's been waiting for a couple years now, but there there there's some safety issues with the bleachers besides being old and needing to be
041replaced, but there's some safety issues. So, Steve is already looking into that. Every committee that I've talked with about this particular project is in full support. Uh we will use syncing fund money for this. Correct. >> Correct. So, we want to get it done this summer. >> And we got Seaman coming to take the scrap. >> Yeah. Yeah. James Seaman, who's a coach for the district and also a bus driver, um he removed the high school bleachers with no cost. He just used the money for scrap. >> Otherwise, we'd have to pay to have someone come. >> He would have to pay the contractor. So, it's going to save the district some some money on. >> Awesome. So, he did he did the high school. Yes. >> He's also going to do the middle. Correct.
042That's great. Fencing it. The middle school's been approved, right? >> Correct. >> We're going to fence in the basketball area in the back where the recess area is. Hopefully keep Ben Schlly's kids uh from running out to the parking lot. So, >> also the athletic uh elevator has come full circle back to being outside of the gym. >> Yes. >> Right. Um which I think is probably going to be the best uh the best option that's been presented so far. Talked about it quite a bit. Um, but I think we're landing with uh keeping it to keep it essentially as originally planned. Right. And then site logic's going to be here tomorrow and Wednesday. Uh, they're coming in tomorrow to meet with Steve and I. Uh, we're going to have uh what's it called? A
043poll um poll meeting. So, we're going to have a most the majority of the contractors that will be working on East Elementary here tomorrow to go over a pretty much a a plan of attack for the summer construction. So, we'll have we'll have schedules, we'll have phases, and we should know we should know a lot more after Wednesday when we're done. >> Correct. Yeah. >> Good. Good. The hope is to have break ground in the spring and then um you know, the goal is to try to This is funny for Deanna. Um is is when you're having with all this construction going on, the difficult part is how do you dis how do you not disrupt the educational environment, right? So, that's what tomorrow's about. It's not just I mean some things we may have
044to put off just because it's not possible to do it when students are in school which sucks. It's going to make this project go from I mean if we if we had just a if we had a place where we were building something brand new no students were available we could probably get all this done in a year or less but trying to work around school is going to push this out a little bit further unfortunately. Right. >> And then lastly uh the dishwashers don't work in any of our buildings. didn't know that uh John Hman brought that to my attention and he would like to there is some additional funds in the um uh food service um fund. Uh we have a little bit more than typical. So we're looking at uh repairing or
045he's getting some estimates for us now repairing and placing all of our dishwashers. He would like to go back to the hard trays because right now we use styrofoam and for the little kids in particular, they often can't make it to the table within without spilling stuff. Is that right? Then would you say with the with the cafeteria? The hard trays would be better for your little guys. >> Yeah, the hard trays would be better for us also. We're not It's a lot less waste. >> Yes. just a lot of styrofoam going into place where they can clean. >> So, there's some things I just want to lift up from our facilities meeting. Uh, athletics, just to give you a heads up, um, really excited about cheer. We started cheer this winter. They got new
046uniforms. I think they're doing well. Jason said they're doing well. Uh, Mariah, right? >> Yes. >> Mariah is our coach. Uh the interesting thing that I learned today from Crystal is that she is also the coach of Shock, right? And they just won something this last weekend, right? >> Yeah, we took first place. The Explosion and the Extreme team took first place in competition Lancing. >> So, the future is bright for the little kids. Now, if we can get the if we can get it going back and going at the high school, that'd be wonderful. They got the new uniforms. They're out there supporting the boys and girls home basketball games. Um, looks like Mariah is also interested in fall. So, she's we hopefully we'll get back our sideline uh cheerleaders for fall, >> right?
047>> And then maybe someday when these little these little tights start to get up there, maybe, heaven forbid, we talk about competition cheer. >> Exactly. >> Uh, we're we're we're far from competition cheer, but we got plenty of little kids right now that are doing well. Um, so hopefully we can continue to keep this rolling. Still looking for some coaches. JB softball, girls head track, girls assistant track. Um, next year Jason um, Friday's retired. So, we're going to be posting head boys basketball coach soon. Girls varsity soccer is going to be posted because we're going to be accepting Tom Markham's retirement paperwork tonight. And then, uh, fall sideline. Hopefully, we're going to have a coach for that as well. The AP AAD U job description has been posted. We've been collecting applications. Not too many
048yet. Hopefully, we'll get more. Soon as we get enough, we'll start uh reviewing those and reporting back to the board as as to what we have found. Any questions about athletics? We got a couple more retirees that are you're going to um approve this evening. Tom Markham and Lori Herren. Um any building principles? Would you like to say anything about Tom Markham or Lori Hair? I'd >> say about Tom 30 years to this same building his entire career spent in that's pretty impressive in his own sense. He's a dang good teacher too. So I think this community has been very lucky to have him. >> Yes. And Lori Har's been here for 40 years, hasn't it been? >> Lor's been here for 40 years mostly in title one. Um, and she has she's just an
049amazing person. She works well with all of our kids and her staff. >> Yep. >> She's my first grade teacher. >> She's what? >> She was my first grade teacher, too. >> That explains everything. [laughter] >> So, the one one thing I I I talked about this. I looked at the numbers a little bit. Um, I got them if you if you need them, but we have a lot of veteran teachers on [cough and clears throat] our camps. We have approximately 100 teachers in our entire district and just looking at the numbers we have well I mean not counting these people here we already have five u and they're taking advantage of the early incentive retirement um if they let us know before March 15th they get a a financial incentive um so they're they're
050early we still have time for some of these other teachers I've heard rumors that other teachers may be retiring that but we have 15 to 16 veteran teachers with um over 30 years, a couple of them with 40 years, Lori here being one of them. So, I'm I'm expecting this is going to be a trend for a couple years, right? Don't be surprised if you get as we get closer to March 15, we don't get a couple more people retiring. Um and then maybe next year, the year after that, too. We're got a lot of veteran teachers. Also, this month is school board recognition month. So, what I would like to do first of all is thank you guys for your service. Um, and I don't know if anybody else has anything they'd like to
051say, but definitely being a board member sometimes is not the most rewarding job, right? Sometimes feels thankless. So, we we want to make sure and I know on behalf of the administrators that we want to uh tell you all how much we appreciate you volunteering, right, to be a part of the future of our school district. And a small token of uh our appreciation, we got you a little plaque. Be careful with these uh frames. Fine china. You drop it. I don't know. I'm not going to be responsible for that. >> So, Luke, there you go. Thank you, sir. Travis, thank you, sir. >> Not how I thought tonight was going to go. >> Richard Matt's not here, >> Deborah. >> Thank you. Tim, thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Appreciate all the work. And >>
052last but not least, >> All right. So, how about a round of applause for [applause] OUR BOARD MEMBERS? I DON'T KNOW IF YOU GUYS ARE INTERESTED, but I was talking with our new food food service director this morning and and he was talking about how he'd like to give uh prepare you guys a recognition dinner. Um maybe for February we can meet if you guys want to we can meet before our next board meeting and have a a nice little recognition dinner as well. So >> beans and rice he said probably >> I heard prime rib. >> Prime rib. That's what I was hoping for. New York strip. >> I was hoping for New York strip. >> You always educators. >> I also uh as while we are congratulating uh folks, I don't know if
053you guys know this, but we're in the presence of excellence here. Uh Chris Juel uh educator of the year award this past year. [applause] Congratulations, Chris. Well done. Welld deserved. welld deserved. And then also, I think you heard Ron Fenley got citizen of the year award as well. So, [applause] a couple people nice representation on behalf of the district at uh the chamber event on Saturday night. So, great stuff. And then lastly, I just want to give you guys an update. Uh if you recall, we we purchased some coins, right? Um the the chief coin and chief stands for anybody want to take a guess. Anybody >> can't have an early friend. >> Yeah. [laughter] So the the coin if you recall this is something what is the challenge coin? Uh Steve you're familiar with
054the process right? >> Yeah it's a military tradition using it started with the US Navy. So they awarded it for excellence. Um, so like for instance, when I was in the Coast Guard, uh, we did like a 6,000lb drug seizure. So as soon as I got off the small boat and the CEO was waiting for me and shook my hand, shook the crew's hand, >> right? >> Um, so and then it's a so it's a tradition with the Navy. Uh, and then if the tradition when it first started is that you had to have it in your pocket at all times. If not, you're at a bar, you don't have your challenge coin, you got to buy your way around. So Right. >> So that's my favorite. Keep it with you. Keep it with you
055at all times. >> That's my favorite part. So, we've only given away four of these and just want to let you know who got him so far. But Rob Duffy allowed me to ride on his bus. He was my first victim. So, uh, just for him to allow me to experience that. Uh, and Rob, as you know, Rob is also the representative for the bus driver union. He does an excellent job. So, he was the first recipient of of one of our coins. And then Judge Viznaugh um he obviously works with Chris in the Compass program, but uh if you recall in the fall he went out of his way and attended the MAS conference with me and we presented on the Compass program and the place was packed and he did a really great
056job of presenting and shining a bright light on one of the programs that we're very proud of here in our school district. Julie O'Hilly got one at the Christmas party, I believe, right? Yeah. and she has been doing a great job as the board of president and has just been reelected for another year or two. And then Marlene Alexander has been uh I you know if there's one person that if I have to ask where all the if there's any any bodies buried anywhere, Marlene knows where all the bones and and and the weapons are hidden. So, uh, without Marlene Alexander, I would have been, um, more than I already am. Um, very, she's been very helpful. Very helpful. But also, I want to I want to take this time uh to recognize Steve. If
057you'd stand up, Steve, I'd like Steve to be our next. [applause] >> Thank you, appreciate it. Thanks a lot. I'll make sure I have it in my pocket all the time. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah. He'll never take it out of his pocket. But um I just want to make mention I Steve again, much like Marlene, there's a couple of people where I can just uh count on them. They do a wonderful job both in transportation and in charge of our our custodians. Steve works tirelessly. You really see it here in the winter when he gets up at 3:00 to check the roads and he gets up with a couple of his other custodians to make sure that that the parking lots are cleared and the walkways are salted. We were talk, we talk all
058the time, unfortunately, maybe more than we probably like, but I mean like yesterday afternoon, do we need to salt tonight or do we need to plow tonight? So, he's 24/7. He's available. He's a a dedicated employee to our school district and um I don't know what I'd do without him. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. [applause] >> I'm done. Any questions for me? >> That was short and sweet. Less than five minutes, right, Luke? 31 under 31. >> Who was that? Who kept >> Did I go over >> 31? >> I went over 30. 30 >> 31. >> Do we know when the next count day is >> October? What is the next count day? October >> excuse me. February. >> Do we do we know for sure yet? >> Yeah, it changes a
059little bit depending on the >> Oh, yeah. It's not. >> Thank you, Spencer. >> Thank you for >> I appreciate your updates each month. Also, it does keep us in the home board informed on things that are going on in the district and it helps >> to keep things on track and knowing what's going on. We appreciate that. >> Yeah, I think the more informed you guys can be, the better decisions you can make. >> Thank you. We appreciate that. Okay. So, the next thing I would like to do is something I should have done already, but I would like to make an amendment to the agenda. I would like to um have a motion to add Larry Larry. See Lori Hair for retirement. >> I'll make that motion. >> Support. >> Motion made by
060Deb. >> Supported by Travis Chris. >> Luke Kusky. >> Yep. >> Tim Tarot. >> Yes. >> Travis Neville. >> Yes. >> Richard Pa. >> Yes. >> Julie Loila. >> Yes. >> And Deborah Beer. >> Yep. Okay. So, the next thing on our agenda is the curriculum committee update. >> Okay. So, we had our meeting last Tuesday. And uh the first thing we talked about was the MTSS update. We're using it in multiple um related processes right now. Savers chief to chief and others. Uh Ben will meet one-on-one with each building principal to determine how he can best support MT how he can best support the MTSS or implementation and that has been July East already has MTSS policies and procedures in place but is continuing to build systems in his building. Referrals are being utilized
061to start MTSS process and ensure the intervention of students for student success. Attendance issues and homework concerns are starting points for MTSS. Next step, Ben would like to establish a district MTSS team for the March PD day. Um, next thing on our agenda was the curriculum guide and scheduling. Um we are looking at that as a first read this evening. There are no changes. It is exactly as it was last year. Um it is in our packet to go through and so that in February we can approve it. Uh the next thing on there was special education. uh for keeping a close eye on things without our uh without a director. Uh there's no additional immediate needs identified by the COP at this point. Our point of contact is Crystal Palon. She is now the
062single point of contact on IEPs to the COP. Monitoring compliance updates and reminders are received by Jessica from Easy IEP. Um Jessica is working on the assessment coordinators on uh accommodations for upcoming state testing for all students with IEPs. Um COPD's audit is underway. Uh there's a deadline forms due January 28th and teachers have been notified. Uh the final um then we talked about the final updates and reminders. Um Molly and Copeka will be on site soon, next week. this >> [cough] >> this week with visits to all buildings. Um, EMC update NCMC has increased its cost and Alpena now requires a specific laptop and the semester subscription and that was the end of our meeting. Any questions about any of that? >> I know Jessica, do you have any as the curriculum director? Did
063we forget anything? I don't think so. >> You think we have it covered? >> I think >> they can just >> There's There's a lot. >> There's a lot. >> But >> All right. Um Okay. So, any questions, discussion? Next thing on the agenda is the um the curriculum guide. First reading is attached. We need to look at that throughout the month and come back next month for an approval. There are absolutely no changes to it. Um the student handbook um it is a first reading. It is the handbook uh developed by uh Theren Law Firm. >> Trin >> Truan. Sorry, what did I say? [laughter] >> She looks like >> um uh so it's it's quite lengthy. It is quite lengthy which is like anyway so it's quite lengthy. So read through it. Um
064the next thing is the emergency operation pre procedures is also in there. First reading on that. Um >> Julie, >> I might suggest that that go to policy committee, >> the emergency operating procedures manual. that really needs some attention >> in my opinion and I would I it's just a suggestion but I think that would be a good thing for us to tackle. >> Okay. No, that's >> and my understanding is it doesn't have to be adopted until June. Am I correct? >> Jessica, when does the uh um our emergency plan need to be submitted to Michigan Department of Education? >> Well, the asurances that we had to go in and say yes, we've done this thing are already testing. So, at this point, as long as we have it done by June, that would
065be great. Right. >> Um, it was one of the first emails that I got. So, >> okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I think that's a good idea. Policy can take some time to look at it a little bit closer. there hasn't been really uh other than just semantics, changing of names and dates and it's been it's been our standard emergency operating plan for a long time. >> So So this could this would still be our our first reading and then it could go to policy committee and it could really be dissected there and some of those changes could be brought for discussion at the board meeting. Does that sound and that could still be approved at the second meeting or we could table it and at that point if there was more that had
066to go with it. >> Okay, that sounds good to me. Good. Good. Okay. Um, the AI guide is in there for first reading. And That's it for what we have to do. Any questions on any of that? What they any concerns right now that someone would like to alert board members to look towards or? Okay. So, the next thing on our agenda is the acceptance of retirement. We have Tom Markin Mark retiring with 30 years of experience. um in the English class and several years as coaching girls soccer. So I need a motion to accept with regrets the retirement of Thomas Markin, English teacher at Shboen High School at the end of the 202526 school year. >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion made by Travis. Second >> by Chris >> Luke Kakowski. >> Yep.
067>> Tim Tarot. >> Yes. >> Travis Neville. >> Yes. >> Richard Pon. >> Yes. >> Julie Lohila. >> Okay. So Julie Lohila. >> Oh yes. >> Thought you meant get on with it. [laughter] [cough and clears throat] >> All right. Next thing on the agenda [laughter] is to accept with regrets retirement of Lori Hair. Title one. >> I'll make that motion support. >> Motion made by support by Rich >> Luke Kakowski. >> Yep. >> Tim Tarot. >> Yes. >> Travis Neville. >> Yes. >> Richard Pon. >> Yes. >> Julie Loila. >> Yes. >> And Deborah Buunner. >> Yes. and 40 years for glory hair mostly in title. So these both Tom and Glory will be missed in our district. They have lots of experience they brought to our district. They will be a big miss.
068Okay. Next thing on our agenda is stable finances. So we have finance and building grounds update by which? >> Yep. We are meeting on Tuesday, January 20th. Uh probably the biggest discussion part with we've got uh site logic here. Well, says next week, but site logic here tomorrow, Wednesday. Uh board members are welcome, I guess. But we should have a master schedule towards the end of the day on Wednesday. HBAC units have been purchased already. They went through the East Elementary furniture uh interface, I think, was recommended to be to buy the stuff. The high school redesigns, we still had some other questions on the redesigns for the high school restrooms, but they're getting closer. And then the external elevator at a 1400 lb capacity, we think will suffice. Uh congratulations to the middle school
069there for a greenhouse grant. looking forward to that. That'll be kind of cool. So, that's going to be out near the old football field, but I think that'd be a great great addition for the kids. Uh 2026 East projects we reviewed with Steve swing replacement. Not cheap, but I guess that one at the East Elementary is uh kind of old, maybe 30 years old, 35 years old, somewhere in there. Uh the bus garage door. Uh I guess you know as most people know garage door openers that the garage door is coming down. You walk between the sensors it stops. Well I guess there's some garage doors that don't stop at the bus. >> That's how old that's how old they are. >> That's 30 years old minimum. >> Yeah. So from a safety standpoint, we
070really should get that replaced. >> Uh the Vandrew carpet replacement. We already talked about the bleacher replacement at the intermediate school. tower replacement in a high school room. And we also had a talk about replacing the uh F-150 truck with a more vehicle suitable to have a plow on it like a 3/4 ton or one ton truck. Maybe something with a crew cab so that when Steve travels with some of the bus drivers, they don't have to take two vehicles. So, I guess we're going to start pursuing that. Uh building use form. Boy, that's a big topic of discussion. uh outside organizations that aren't part of our school district really need to have proof of liability insurance before they could use our building. So, we really need to uh make sure that teams that are
071not school sponsored or not covered by us that they need that proof of insurance. I think that's important. And then uh we got some other bond funding coming uh and the items will come to the board for approval. Uh, site logic, we talked about that. High school bathrooms. Oh, change. One of the things with site logic, we talked about uh change order forms and who approves those. I think that's going to be an important thing. Uh, they have a new project manager, by the way. That's a good thing. And we talked about the dishwashers. I think that's about it. Two new buses were ordered and they should be here in the summer. And then that was it. And there is no public comment at the end of the meeting. >> Okay. Uh seeing none, we
072can move on to payment of bills. I motion to acknowledge the payment of the current regular and bond invoices in the amount of 573,62424. >> I'll make that motion. Second. >> Motion made by Rich. Second by Travis Chris Luke Kakoski. >> Yes. >> Tim Tarja. >> Yes. >> Travis Neville. >> Yes. >> Richard Keon. Yes. >> Julie Lohila. >> Yes. >> And Deborah Buuna. >> Yes. >> Next we move to strong communications. We have a policy committee update by Deb. >> Um we met also on the 20th. A lot of this we've already talked about tonight. Um John the food service director brought some samples. every three years. Um, our wellness policy for the district also needs to be reviewed and revised. He's going to um take some suggestions from a couple other schools around
073us and uh bring those additions and subtractions to us next month um for us to take a look at for our wellness policy. Um we talked about 27 L2 which Spencer just covered so we don't really have much to say there. Um, we did take a look at the student handbook. Um, Chris did a super nice job putting together the AI policy for us, which we reviewed briefly. Um, we did spend quite a bit of time on policy 5206E, which is in regards to the teachers right to snap suspend a student. Um, and that is a protection provided under Michigan law. So that needs to stay as is. Um we spend a lot of time on the building use form as well. Um got to make sure that principles are asking for those insurance policies
074for outside groups. Um and Crystal's done a really nice job of updating that form to include that new information that we need to u make sure that we're gathering. Also, there was an ask I think from Chris um because she's doing the volunteer form needs to be redone to as she asks for permission to add a line for um gathering of some ID and driver's license number on that document. And that's pretty much it. Questions for Deb? Okay. Um the next thing on our agenda is the approval of policy 3304 and the update. The update is um to really just changes a word from from may be required to provide insurance to will be required to provide insurance. So there's just that one change in the policy and so I need a motion to approve
075the change in wording in the board um policy 3304 regarding groups using district facilities to is is required to provide proof of insurance. >> Make that motion. >> Motion motion made by Rich. Support by Luke Kakuski. >> Yep. Tim Tarta, >> yes. >> Travis Neville, >> yes. >> Richard Pan, >> yes. >> Julie Lohila, >> yes. >> Deborah Mut, >> yes. >> Okay. Um, the next thing on the agenda is the approval of the board operating procedures. Um, everybody has had a look at that um the last two months. Um, we need a motion to approve the updated board operating procedures. I'll make that motion. >> Motion made by Deb. >> Support by Tim. >> Chris Husky. >> Yep. >> Kim Tarta. >> Yes. >> Travis Neville. >> Yes. >> Richard Pon. >> Yes. >>
076Julie Loila. >> Yes. >> Deborah Peter. >> Yes. >> Okay. Committee um update is next. >> We didn't have much new business. So, um, we talked about gyms being used by outside groups and settled on a sort of operating procedure. Obviously, the, um, building principal needs to be contacted regardless. Um, and the rest of stuff Rich kind of already covered about, uh, if they're an outside group, they've got to have that insurance there. It's just a whole lot easier if you just avoiding people, which is what we've been doing with the athletics so far. Spencer found a a crack in the track that was caused by the concrete company. I guess they're going to repair that in the spring, which is good. And the last item that we talked about that was new business was
077uh last week uh we had the 2005 state semifinal girls basketball team honored at uh the basketball game, which is really cool. Had a lot of former players and coaches and another great celebration for Span athletics and conference. That's probably going to be one of the groups that ends up in the Hall of Fame. Just a guess. We finally get to that. But that was it. It was a very brief athletic committee meeting. >> Questions for so now we are to public comment. See public comment. No forms have been turned in. >> So I need a motion to adjourn. >> I'll make that made by Travis. >> Support. supported by Rich. All in favor? >> I meeting adjourned at 7:40. >> What time is