001Turn the car on. Everything else should be all set. Welcome to the area school special um meeting budget hearing Monday, June 23rd, 2025. Julie Lo here. Tim Tar here. Doug Buuner here. Matt Monarch here. Luca Kusky here. Travis Neville here. Richard Pila here. Heather Lee here. Stand for the I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. [Applause] to see if she's right here. Oh, I can't see her. There she is. All right. So, the only thing on this agenda is a presentation of the 202526 proposed budgets. Um so we should have 2526 proposed budget um for general fund food service fund capital project syncing fund capital projects 2024 bond fund special revenue which are
002the student activity accounts and the debt fund which is basically information only because what we get in we have to back out to the box. Um, go to the third page here. This is just the general fund. Um, proposed expenditures and revenues. And we're looking at a deficiency deficiency. cheese in your room of $668,766 which we're going to talk about at the next meeting. This is a lot better than where we're ending up this year. However, um the state does not have their school fund budget, school aid fund out yet. So, it's pretty hard to determine where it's going to fall because um the House came back with a whole different proposal than the Senate and the governor. Um they the House wants to eliminate section 29 declining enrollment funding. um they all up their
003foundation amounts and with this budget I used um $1,000 per pupil increase whereas last year we didn't see any and I also did not I left enrollment stable. I didn't decrease it or increase it. Um there's also um $600 million in section 147 funding funding is diverted away from lips costs and spent elsewhere. Um namely they sent they they're giving more the house wants to give more to the universities which is part of the school a fund. Um, and the House is looking at increase MIPERS, which is retirement expenditures for districts by rolling back a recently agreed to 5.75% UAL rate and they're going to put it back to 20.96%. If this passes though, so nothing's passed. So, it's just kind of I don't I don't think the governor is going to go for some
004of these ideas, but who am I to say? Um the house the house is spending down um their reserves in the school aid fund. Right now, there's 1.9 billion in the house school in the school aid fund for Michigan. the House proposal um will spend will take away at least 1 billion of that and put it into 2526. So the certain people depending who you talk to the houses um proposal is gloo but nothing's been decided yet. I mean, basically when we do the amendment in January, we'll know a lot more and have a lot more accurate projection. Um, other than that, I mean, it's we're still looking at a fund balance of 30.88%. Which is very good compared to the good old days, although we were hoping to get 15%. So the Esser money
005is still helping us out and we got a not a lot of big projects done with that ESSER money like the windows, doors, ropes. So we won't have to worry about spending it on out of this fund. Um so if you continue on in the packet that it breaks it breaks everything all the projections down to um breaks it down by local sources, state sources. It gets pretty indepth. Um basically I'd say if you guys want to look at that, if you have any questions for me, you can email me um or call or whatnot. Um then you'll have a food service fund and the sinking fund um which is includes the covered walkway at the intermediate school sidewalk at the intermediate school the playground at east and the high school gym floor cuz those
006I don't believe we've paid anything on the gym floor yet. So that will be pushed all the way into 25 26. [Applause] So that's about it. Short and sweet. Anything you want to add, Spencer? Sure. Um, I just want to reiterate what uh Laura has mentioned. The most difficult thing, and if you've been paying attention to uh any of the education news that's been released in the last two to four weeks, um, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to uh project a budget at this time. We do the best we can with historical data, but there's still a lot of unanswered questions out there. So, uh, like Laura said, really, it's not until we get um the final information from the state can we start to make adjustments to what they what we think is
007going to happen um in the near future. Um, but until it becomes real, it's just really a guess, right? That's what a budget is. Um, so once we get uh more solid information from the state, the the budget will become more concrete. And I think really the next thing that we want to take a look at is January. When we by the time we get to January, we we will have gotten our real numbers from the state. We will also hopefully see some of some of our costsaving um measures that we implemented this past uh few months. Uh I think most of you are aware, but we really all the building principles and myself um really did a a good job of analyzing the personnel review. We we have a a very veteran staff uh
008in Shabboan. And as some of our teachers that have been around for 30, 35 years start to retire and obviously hiring younger folks uh with less experience is going to have a significant cost savings for the district. And I believe do we speculated I think Marty about 700,000 is what should actually come to fruition once once the numbers start to become real this year. So it's a it's a it's a significant guessing game right now. But um we feel pretty good about the budget. Um it uh hopefully is headed head headed in the right direction, but I still think we have to keep an eye on especially um as we continue to move forward with personnel. We were looking at our meeting this morning and we have how many was it 25 30 vet staff
009that have 30 years or more? Was it 20? I think it was 20 or something like that, wasn't it? So 20 20 um staff members that have over 30 years that are going to be retiring in the next 5 years. So that is huge when you have uh such a veteran staff and it's an opportunity for cost savings as you uh replace them and or uh maybe sometimes they don't need to be replaced. Sometimes it's just a shifting of personnel from one building to another, but the building principles have done a really good job this year and making sure that um we allocated all of our resources as appropriate as we possibly could. Did do any of you have any questions about the proposed budget? I have one question. Yeah. You said you're leaving you
010left the numbers flat as far as students, so that doesn't account for any of the preschool kids there. Okay. because the I mean techn the kindergarten numbers are still up in the air because some of these parents don't get enrollment on that until Yeah, the the kindergarten pre the prek program should add um 32 students. Right now we already have 20 about 25 students signed up for 32 spots. I don't think that's going to be a problem. Uh that'll be for next year, the year thereafter depending on um how much student demand is needed. uh we we are looking at the capacity to add another 32 students. So that would be 64 students and if you take 64 and multiply it by the uh amount that we get uh per pupil which is approximately $10,000
011that would be $640,000 additional funds. Now a lot of those funds are going to go towards the cost of the teacher and the aid but there will be a little bit of of of revenue left over to go to surplus. But also, you need to remember our EMC program is in its second year next year. Uh we had 25 juniors and I believe we've recruited 20 something like that, 25ish. So, uh next year we'll have 25 juniors, 25 seniors. The following year when those 25 students go to their fifth year, then again, we'll get 25,000 times 10,000 or another $250,000 to to help subsidize that program and or any money that's left over would go to surplus. So, but the other thing is too, sorry, you got me going now, did you? Uh, the other
012thing that we need to keep an eye on, I I harp about this with our building principles. They they already know what I'm going to say, but um you know, for 15 years in a row, our enrollments went down. So, I I think we've kind of flattened out. It's only it's it's only going down a little. I think like maybe 10 students 15 students a year, but um it's going down. It hasn't gone up in 15 years. So every time we lose just a little, that little adds every year, every year. And I think, you know, talking with our administrators, that needs to be something that we're trying to intentionally address, right? You can put your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening or you can do something about it. But I think
013some of the things that we're doing is by, you know, improving our facilities and and increasing our programs, prek and EMC, what we want to do is make sure when people are moving up here, when they're looking to move up north, that they take Shabboan, take a good look at Shabboan as a place to want to raise a family and put their put their uh kids in our schools. In your experience, have you actually uh ran a program to increase enrollment successfully? Well, I mean, you're always hopeful, but I mean, there was some intentionality be behind prek and EMC. I mean, there's there's opportunities that we added that weren't here two years ago, um, that are going to add enrollment. Um, ideally, what I what I think we have a couple of opportunities, I think,
014to take advantage of increased enrollment. The the one of the biggest opportunities is online learning. I've talked with Chris. Is Chris here? There she is. Uh Chris and I have had a lot of discussions online. I mean unfortunately CO kicked the door down for online. So we have approximately I know Chris looked up the numbers last year about 40 or 50 students in our area that are using a different online platform than ours. Now if we could get a hold of those kids and entice them to come to our online school that 40 or 50 kids times $10,000 could be a significant increase in revenue. So there's one. Um the other one I think is just continue to do what we're doing. Right now, we're going into our second year of our strategic plan. And
015um you know, you're going to hear some great academic data from Jamie here later about some of our math scores that are just ridiculous. Uh we like to assume and correlate it with our new math curriculum, but those are those are I mean, if you're if you're a parent and you're looking to send your kid to some schools that have some really good academic performing data, James going to show you some. And then next we're addressing uh English language arts. And we hope the same thing by addressing that by addressing those um um power standards and aligning our curriculum. Just tweaking it. It's not like it's not aligned, but every 3 to 5 years you need to tweak it, realign it, make sure that you're teaching the power standards so that you're you're doing well
016on the uh in particular what we're measured by. But the Michigan State test. So, um, doing those things right there, I think it's I mean, I don't know if there's any other things we can do, but if anybody has any ideas, I'm all ears. Are there any other questions for Laura or the final? No, that's perfect. All right. Any questions? Any questions? Okay, I need a motion to adjourn. Oh, public comment. I'm sorry. It's okay. Thank uh uh is there any public that would like to speak on our budget issues? Seeing none, now I'll ask for a motion to make a motion to adjourn. Seconded. Motion made by Tim, second by Travis. Show hands. Show hands. Do we need a We don't need a minute. No. No. Okay. So, we will move right into our
017regular meeting. So, welcome to the Chagen Area School Board of Education regular monthly meeting, Monday, June 23rd, 2025. And it is 6:31. Roll call. Julie Lo here. Tim here. Deborah Buunner here. Lucy here. Travis Neville here. Richard Pon here. Matt Marchek here. Heather Lee 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. Um before we get started, I'd like a motion to amend the agenda to add uh the safety update at 24A on our agenda. I'll second that. Motion made by Tim and second by Could you say what's the motion again? Amen. Motion to amend the agenda to add the safety update. Safety committee updates. Yes.
018Okay. Tim Tar. Yes. Doug Buuner. Yes. Luke Kusky. Yep. Travis Neville. Yes. Richard Elon. Yes. Matt Manarek. Yes. Julie Loila. Yes. Okay. So, the next thing on the agenda is the approval of minutes. I need a motion to approve the minutes of May 19th, 2025 regular meeting as well as May 20th and May 27th, 2025 special meetings as presented. I'll make that motion. Support. Motion made by Deborah, supported by Travis. Any questions about the minutes? Matt Lar. Yes. Richard Pon, yes. Travis Neville, yes. Luke Kakusky, yep. Deb Buunner, yes. Tim Tarot, yes. Julie Loila, yes. Uh, the next thing on the agenda is the board president's report. And I just have a reminder that um when voting you can only abstain if you have personal conflict with it. So that's just a reminder on that.
019And also reminder for meetings um uh I looked but I'll look harder for the list of everyone's phone number to send out to everyone again because we we need to make sure that if you if you are going to be at a meeting that you u contact the alternative and then also um remember we only have three board members at meetings otherwise we have four that's all we Okay, I'm up. All right. Um, but anyways, I can do I can do it from here. Um, I just wanted to give a quick update. Uh we had the pleasure uh Julie myself uh Indiana Duftton had um the pleasure of presenting to the uh Rotary Club on what was it last uh June 11th Wednesday. So I just want to run you through what we shared with
020the Rotary Club. Uh we got a lot of positive feedback at the end of the Rotary Club. Um I know some of you looking out here are members of the Rotary Club including myself. So, um, we got a lot of positive feedback when we were done, and I'd just like to share that with you real quickly. And I know we have a lot on our agenda, so I'll try to make this quick, right? Um, so what we talked about with the Rotary Club was kind of I was giving them a kind of a state of the union address in regards to the district. We talked a little bit about which I will share with you in just a moment. Uh, what are we doing this summer? talked a little bit and I was going to
021talk a little bit more about prek and talk a little bit more about the elementary building since the majority of our uh bond that was passed recently in November. Um the $22.5 million the lion share of that is going to uh East Elementary. So I don't want people to forget about that because that is going to be next year when we get back into school is going to be kind of a whirlwind and going right into next spring. Um, we're going to see a lot of work being done around the elementary school, which as a matter of fact, I don't know if you guys know this, but the road in front of the elementary school is going to be closed starting is it today or tomorrow? Soon. So, they're they're they're redoing the entire road
022in front and that has nothing to do with us. That's the city. But the one thing I did talk to Dan Sablowski, the city manager, and he was explaining to me, and I hopefully this comes to fruition. Uh they are going to um add some parking lot. They're going to extend the side of the road to where those people pull over anyways, but it's dirt. Uh they're going to supposedly uh asphalt that as well. So that'll be kind of nice to extend our parking opportunities a little bit for East Elementary. some things I've already talked about. Um, and I told them I'd be happy to come back and talk with them more. Um, and as you guys know, we've talked a little bit about EMC. We went through a strategic planning refresher a couple weeks
023ago, which was great. Um, and I just talked about how all the building principles and myself, went through that personnel review, and we're going to be fully staffed um, at the end of the night tonight. So, I I believe we have uh three new teachers that we're going to be and we're very excited about introducing them to you here tonight, but we have three new teachers that we're going to add to our staff. And I know there's a lot of school districts out there right now that are struggling filling their staff. There's a teacher shortage, obviously. We all know that. So, we're very fortunate to be here in June and filling our staff for next school year, not getting too anxious about looking for somebody in July or August. So, uh, I'm going to go
024through these real quickly. Um, I want to make sure we have a lot of, uh, we don't have as many summer camps as we did last summer because last summer we had esser money. This year we had no eser money. So, we had did some little camps here and there, especially at the middle school. There was a a cooking camp and I don't know what else did you have, Ben? What did you have last year? Cooking, painting, finger painting or something. We had a couple different The cooking one was a hit for sure. Yeah. Drama. Yeah. So, we weren't able to fund those because that was ESSER money and that's Christmas money that has now gone away. But we still there's still a lot of opportunities for kids uh in particular. Um and this isn't
025necessarily through us, it's through the region, it's through the COPD, but the MYEP program that's held down inway has got some wonderfulies and some great opportunities for middle school and high school kids. Matter of fact, my son Brock has started this first day today in the welding academy and they have I think two or threemmies. Today's the first day. They last six weeks and they pay the students $300 a week to go. So that's not a bad deal. So, but he's got to give me half the money. That's part. So, um, and then in August, um, we do have some money, and Jamie might talk about this a little bit when she gets up here, but we do have some money to run a a summer jump start academy, which will be through K through
026or excuse me, I think that's first through six. I think that's a mistake. First through six, we're going to we have enough money to get some uh some students an opportunity. We're going to target those that are struggling in math and English, and we're going to get some of our teachers who want to u make a little extra money in the summer, come and work with those kids. And then we always do the kindergarten camp. So those are those are kindergarten kids that are coming into kindergarten. This will be their first opportunity. And we're talking about Indiana. This is where they're actually trying to learn how to do school, right? So they're going to spend a week with uh some of our teachers in Indiana and hopefully that will prepare them a little bit better
027for day one. Curriculum. Um I I'm assuming some of you guys know this, but uh school got out a couple weeks ago. Uh, but we had a three-day teacher curriculum camp the week thereafter and I was very excited to see the number of teachers that took time out of their summer and came and worked on either math curriculum or English language arts curriculum. Um, and they did get paid for that. We had some some monies that we needed to use, but um that was I thought um some of the feedback that we got from that was excellent as well. and talking with Jamie, that's something that we're going to want to continue to do uh potentially in future summers and may even have a little bit of money where we can do like kind of
028a a kickstart curriculum camp for teachers before they have to come back in August just to get them back in the flow. And I always say that curriculum's for the summer, right? When we're doing a lot of this curriculum work during the school year, it's like uh flying a plane and building it in the air as you're flying it, right? But if we can take if if if we can allocate money in the summer to get teachers here, pay them so they don't have that distraction of, oh man, I got to go teach a class with 30 kids in it in 15 minutes. I think it's it's really powerful when we have our teachers come up in the summer and we can pay them. We put money aside for them. They get a lot more
029work done efficiently and effectively. So that was good. Um I think you guys know we got a lot of stuff going on facilities. Steve's on vacation today. Otherwise, I I'd let Steve tell you a little bit about it. But that's the gym floor. Um, that's the dead spot, I guess, is what they're telling me. So, we had to replace some boards. Um, and then we sanded it all the way down. And I think, Marty, right now, it's currently being painted, right? Layers down. Stained. Yeah. Okay. Excellent. Uh, but I also don't want to forget about the things that we've done most recently. Um, this is the end of my second year, but last year it it's hard to believe, but last winter, 2425 winter, we, you know, put the fitness center in. You know, we
030also replaced the bleachers last summer. We also replaced the high school science labs last summer. We did a lot of parking lots and roof work last summer. So, let's not forget about that old bomb because we did a lot of work uh last summer, but we're continuing to do that work this summer as well. The other big project that's on the horizon, you've heard us talk about it quite a bit, is the track. Um, right now we're looking to go out to bid for the track soon and hopefully it will be we'll be able to start it and finish it in the fall. Unfortunately, that's going to mean that we're going to have to um relocate our soccer team. Uh, but they've already worked on that. What field we going to use? Gordon. There we
031go. So, hopefully that will get done this fall. That's what the new basketball court's going to look like. if you haven't seen the drawing yet, but um go with a little bit of a different color uh gray and black. It kind of pops out and uh I guess that's what the kids want nowadays. Pickle ball. We're also have in our bond we have um part of our scope and sequence. We went to the state of Michigan and said this is what we're going to spend our $22.5 million on. Part of that money was allocated to fix up the tennis courts. If you've seen the tennis courts or driven body tennis courts, you see you know that they need a little bit of work. So, right now I was working with Steve and we're looking at
032um not just replacing the tennis courts, but I think a lot of you know that pickle ball is very popular as well. So, we're going to have a couple of courts that can be we're not quite sure if they're going to be pickle ball courts or they can be converted into pickle ball courts, but we want to make sure that we can offer both in that location. The old fence is going to get taken down, the new fence taken up, and hopefully we'll be able to get some middle school kids out there playing some pickle ball and or uh high school kids during PE classes out there in the in the spring and the fall when um the weather's nice enough to get out there, enjoy some sunshine. We're also looking at uh we've talked
033about this quite a bit with a second grade going over to the intermediate building doing a covered walkway during that long um that long walk from where the parent pickup uh area is to the front door of the intermediate school. Um we've gotten several kind of estimates. We feel that it's going to be far less expensive than originally thought. Um so we're looking into that and hopefully we can get those plans finalized soon. We're currently in the drawing phase of that. So, the drawings are almost done. Once the drawings are done, they'll be taken to the finance committee and then we'll decide um if we want to go to bid or not. If if we don't have enough going on, Thunder Bay decided to do something, too. We have nothing to do with this, but
034Thunder Bay went went behind their back and got a construction grant, which is fine, which is great. and they are kicking their uh footprint out of the intermediate building towards the parking lot. And this is going to my understanding working with the folks over there, this is going to allow us to add another nurse practitioner, which we which we desperately need. Right now, if you guys know, it's not just our kids that they service in that building, but they service a lot of community members, too. So, there's a big demand for their help, and by adding this space, hopefully we can improve our services to not only our own students, but also to our community. PreK. If you haven't signed up for preK yet, I just want to make note that it's don't call Deanna
035because Deanna is not in charge of registration. Actually, this is a GSRP program, which means it goes through the state and that we have to jump through all the hoops that the state provides to us. One of the things because it is GSRP, it's going to be governed and run through the COPD. So, if you know of people out there who are still interested and there are a few seats still open, they need to go to the coopd there there's the application page. Um, I think we got about 25. Last talking with Deanna this morning, we had about 25 students signed up and we have 32 seats. So, they're going fast. Now, if if ours fills up, there's still Head Start is still available in Shabboan, we're sure Head Start will fill up as well.
036So, if there's not room in our program and there is some um you know, some compliance issues in regards to uh financially, are you going to be if you have if you have need, you may you can either go to Heads, it's up to you, Head Start or ours, but both of them are available. and they're both available online through COP ESD website. So, uh, we got 32. We're going to easily fill 32 this year. And up there, you'll see we're hoping to fill 64 seats in the 2627 school year. Talking about the $10.5 million that's allocated to the uh, elementary school. This is one of the latest uh top designs of the elementary school and $10.5 million doesn't go as far as it used to, but it's going to allow us to since we
037have the littlest kids of now, right? We're sending second grade over the intermediate building, but we are um bringing kindergarten students in, we need to have more individualized bathrooms. So, you can see that all of these different areas are going to be adding individualized bathrooms. We're we're removing asbests and lowering the um the room here so it'll be ADA compliant. We're doing roof work. We're doing heating, cooling, air quality, which you can't see on this design, but that costs a lot of money, too, right? And then really the big structural design that's going to change, that's probably people are going to notice the most as you drive by the school is going to be the front. The front is where the office is going to be, where you would think the office should be, but
038you're no longer going to have to come around to the back and come down that back alley there. You'll be right in front and uh be able to access um the school from the front there. And I think you guys may have seen this, but there is a a little video that's going to show you what that looks like. The front anyways, if I can get it to work. Last time we couldn't get it to work, could we Julie? So, we'll see. So, this is going to be a big difference when you're driving by the front of the school. This is going to be popping out from the school. You'll be able to see it as you drive by. And it's just a short video, but it gives you an idea if you were to
039walk through it, what that the majority of that new construction will look like in the front of the elementary building. We have a secured vestibule right there at the uh right when you walk in the first door, you're in a fish tank. Then you go to the main office. And then we have some large learning areas. Uh so if kids want to get out of their classroom and teachers want to give them some a different type of environment in which to learn in, some of these spaces you'll see right here would be for that purpose. So teachers would sign up for that. Hey, I'm going to go in there. We're going to do a project. I'm going to break them into small groups. And this is the space that they would use. Any questions about
040East Elementary? Now, the majority of the work is not going to start till the next spring, a year from now, but once it starts, I know it's going to last at least a year and a half, probably more like two years. That's going to be something that we're going to have to get ready for as well. Um, just making sure that we don't disrupt the educational environment. I mean, I was a teacher in a school district that was doing construction while still in school and there was jackhammering going outside my classroom window. So, you know, it's hard enough to be a teacher when you don't have jackhammering outside the window. So, we want to make sure that uh we we do this in phases. I also want to thank all the building principles. Okay, you
041guys can wave. This is their last week, right? On Friday, you guys get the month of July off. You guys going anywhere special? Somebody's talking about going to Aruba. Oops. Is that Is that you, Marty? No. No. Just North Carolina. Oh, North Carolina. So, this is our last week together. Then, um I'll be here if you're looking for somebody to talk to. And Marlene and Chris, we're really excited about spending July here. But, um, June 25th, tomorrow, we we're meeting with the, uh, Nuckm president to, um, renew our contract with them for dual credit. I think all of you know that, uh, John, uh, how do you pronounce it? Gallup. Um, he has resigned and he's taken a a food service director position um, at Gaylord, right? Gaylord. So, we have two really good candidates
042uh, through Chartwells that we're going to be interviewing. We're going to put together a small interview team for Wednesday and hopefully we'll be able to replace him soon. We have a site logic Zoom meeting talking about the elementary school. Uh on Thursday as as as I said on June 27th uh it's the building principal's last day and some of the administrators such as Jamie and directors like Liz. So enjoy your July. Um our Friday afternoon we're going to have our meeting at Mulligans if anybody wants to join us and um sure it's going to be very productive and then when we're done there you guys are done for the 2425 school year. Any questions? All right. Thank you. See no questions for Spencer. We will move on to committee update. Uh on June the 17th,
043we had a committee meeting. We first talked about the compass program update. Uh Megan Finland and Judge Viznau gave a presentation and uh it is one of it is like the one of the best programs that are in Michigan at this point. He presented a detailed overview of the program credit recovery and re-entry initiative in partnership with the court system and showing area schools included on some of the services we offer them are on-site laundry, meals, clothing and field trips, student support programs, individual family counseling, career military visitors, college trade school visits, student engagement, student of the week, new new student mentors, and I said But I mean compass. This is not not at the school system. This is what uh Judge Fedlin and Fedland uh Megan Fedland who is a um probation officer who
044is stationed right here in the school. Uh it's funded through child care fund. Records are cleared upon successful completion. gaining statewide recognition that will present at the and and um Spencer will present at the upcoming superintendent conference. The next any questions about that program. So the next thing on our agenda was um a data review which um so amazing. I felt that Jamie should do that here in front of everybody. not yet, but so I'm going to just skip over that. Uh uh then we we had a curriculum update and talked about curriculum camp. There are 44 teachers who participated in curriculum camp contributing over 98 hours of work right after school was out and uh strong feedback including positive um IEP early initute of educational excellence. Yep. Testimonials. Okay. The next thing that uh
045we did was an EL ELA uh curriculum resource. They're um proposing um to purchase and that will be up for approval by the board. They have some information in their packet about um the program, but we'll talk to that about a little bit more when we get to that on the agenda. Also, uh there was a curriculum work that was done through uh steam projects, grades 2 through six development project funding being explored and some grants were talked about, elementary science kits and myar subscriptions. We talked about those myar training scheduled for six um oh today. Yes, for today. Okay. Uh the next thing we talked about was the power hour intervention time that's going to be put in place next year to meet one of our strategic plan goals of MTSS within all buildings.
046Intermediate school power hour intervent inter intervention will be built into the master schedule using a win model. What I need with bi-weekly evaluations east elementary is plan is underway with two options. teachers meet before school with additional pay or use of substitutes coverage during power hours. Scheduling challenges are still being addressed. Uh then also there's some schedule changes with um Ben Schly and Ashley Naples coming over to the middle school as the assistant principal. We then talked about the preschool and kindergarten update. Spencer really all with that already with 23 students enrolled. The new playground has been installed. Uh we adjusted the calendar starts a week later. Then um everybody else to accommodate home visits and staff training is being developed. Kindergarten talk about kindergarten uh next. There's 47 kids registered next year, but that
047normally happens this time of year. We don't get them till later in August. Uh since young are uh curriculum needs. Kindergarten is looking for some um resources for their curriculum. Uh storage story storage tamps, sound trays, math, flashcards, etc. Things like that. First grade is looking for um a UI portal program manipulatives 3D and 2D sheep sets based 10 blocks which they were able to identify the need for those through um writing of the math curriculum really um has been very successful. Jamie's looking into grants to get the UI. Uh, next we talked about uh the teacher of record mu with Chris Juel. She proposed a $300 stipen formally covered by schedule B duties would um enter grades two they would they would be in the grades two times a year provided by the office.
048No instructional responsibility. uh they are looking for people. The stipen is going to it's coming back to me now. The stipen is going to be used to hire two teachers to um meet the needs of the middle school or the or the internet academy so that they can uh do online school and get the grades put in and still have enough staff to cover everything they need to cover. So it's not this position won't be tied to teacher evaluation. Um expectation is three to five teachers for next year's online courses. So that is something that they are in progress of working on. It's proposed. It's not been fun anywhere except for proposal. Uh we then went on to hiring. Uh we're hiring a high school woods teacher, an art teacher, and a middle school special
049education teacher. Tonight, a third grade teacher has resigned. So, we fill that position. We posted it. It just Yeah, it just became we just received resignation a few days ago. So, we do have to fill that in and upcoming posting elementary second. There was no public comment. Any questions about that? Um, we did change one more thing. Take that back. We we are we just listed the curriculum um committee meetings and in July and August we will be holding them on July 22nd at 8:30 in the morning and on August 19th at 8:30 in the morning and then after that they will go back to a regular time of 3:45 starting in September. questions. So the next thing on our agenda is the um curriculum that have good. So can you can explain a little
050bit about the curriculum that needs to be purchased for the um ELA for ELA and it is just this is just a first reading. We are not approving it tonight. So this would give you an opportunity to um talk to Jamie if you're not quite sure what the program is as a resource to help with their um with their curriculum that they're going to build into their curriculum as that. Um and so this is the first reading. This gives you opportunity to check that out in more depth until next month will be on the agenda for people. Does everybody have access to the curriculum and committee agenda? Um, yes, I will make sure that that is so you can log on and look at anything you want on there. Okay. So, we have completed our
051first cycle of curriculum development. And by the way, I have lots to share. So, I'm going to go really fast. If you need clarification or anything, let me know. Um, so this is our first cycle of math curriculum. We broke down the standards. We assigned how much time we were going to devote to each one. Teachers worked really hard at mapping out the whole entire year. We put into a list so that way they had a a plan and then we met every single month and we were constantly calibrating our maps and responding to the data. Um, this year or at the end of this at the curriculum camp, they worked on really refining their common assessments. So the idea here is that they're teaching a skill, they're assessing it, and then it's in that
052MTSS triangle. What that means is if 80% of your class is not proficient, then you need to retach the the standard or the what you were teaching skill. Um, if you are at an 8020, which means 80% of the kids are proficient, 20% aren't, then you create a plan how to address that 20%. You still need support. So that might be title one interventions. Um that might be pulling in a small group. Whatever that might look like. It looks a lot of different ways. Um here's our curriculum camp. We had um a lot of fun, a lot of work was done and they were happy. So that was nice. Uh but I really want to get to this picture which is coming up right about So these are all the standards that go into just
053one grade level. And so you know in the past a big learning for me and I'm going to be vulnerable for a quick second um was we were recording out of a cadence data and sometimes it wasn't always amazing. That's one of these posters. So this gives you an idea of how much more really goes into a grade level than just you know and and with data we have to be careful. It's just one data point and so we really have to think about the whole picture. So here's what our process looks like for ELA. Notice this is very different. ELA has all these different I fix those. Okay. Um ELA has all these different layers in the curriculum. So teachers are teaching anywhere from three to four things at a time. they might be
054teaching a lit a lesson on literature, also hitting foundational skills and involving writing and maybe even listening and speaking. And so, um, our maps were a lot more complex than they were. Um, and I don't know if you can see it or not, but multiple colors and multiple things are happening on each thing. And then I forgot to show you this for math. at the end of both of them. This one's very blank, but um we post what we're doing as we're doing it because um it's a unique process where everybody's kind of in a different place. And so this gives me a way to kind of keep an eye on where we're at and what support they might need. Oh, and here's the curriculum committee agenda where you can get to um that ELA
055resource was just talking about. What questions do you have for me around curriculum development? Okay. Okay. So with assessments, it's this idea that we have a benchmark assessment that everybody's taking and then we also have screeners which gives gives us a closer um very small you remember how all those posters were all out very small um picture on what students know and are able to do. And then this is where we spent a lot of time in math at the end of our cycle was really making sure our formative assessments were um aligned with the state standards and that they were useful for being able to respond to students needs. And then that gets us ready for state testing and our ultimate goal is to get students college and career ready. So here's our math
056data. What you're looking at here, here's all the grade levels in the fall. This is the norm. So this is the national norm. It's a 2015 national norm. So this is like the average of how a group does in the entire country. And this is where we are. If we're green, that means we're above the norm. If we're yellow, that means we're within a point of the norm. And if we don't have any color, that means we're more than a point underneath the norm. So here's how we came in in the fall. Here's how we came in in the winter. You see some improvements. Some yellow or one yellow change to green and we had a few whites change to green as well. high school did not test in the winter. So that's why you
057see that and then in the spring and I was very happy with the fact that we finished um above the norm at every single grade level and one we were super super super close so it still counts. Um but our increases were pretty great as well. What questions do you have about this data? So the norm was data 2015. Yeah, it is a norm. They're redoing it in 2025, so we should be seeing new norms come up soon. But this is preandemic numbers. This is how we're doing compared to prepandemic norms, which is even more mind-blowing if you think about it because we did the whole nation kind of went back after it should be coming soon. Well, it's a huge study, so it takes a very long time. Um, here's how our ELA did.
058So, how we came in in the fall, how we came in in the winter and spring, and what our increase was. If we're above the norm in our increase or at or below, um, one thing I do want to mention that I didn't mention before is in math, we had a new resource, K12. In ELA, we have a new resource K2. They were using Amplify and three through six is using um funders, an updated version of funders. So there is also a new resource. And then that drives my point home on why we need a really high quality resource for high school. So the new curriculum or the new resources that you're proposing are grade levels what again? Um 7 through 12. Okay. Everybody else has new new resources. Correct. Yes, sir. Correct. Okay. Um
059these you can click on later. It just gives you um a picture of what we just talked about, but I do want to show you some um data that I have never seen in my career. Um I have 17 years in the district. I also was a data coach. I'm a math coach that looked at data for the last I don't know how many years. Quite a while. But in math Here's some of our growth. So when we look at growth, it's when we make so this number if it says 50th percentile, that means we made a year's growth. As a district, we make 71st percentile of growth, which is phenomenal. And then this was our achievement in the fall and our achievement in the winter, which you want to stay above 50%. Uh, kindergarten
060we see is at 73rd percentile. That's extremely high. I've seen that happen in a class. I haven't seen it happen for an entire grade level. Um, the first grade still good, above 50%, second grade is looking good. Um, I've never seen this before. 91st percentile and 86 percentile growth as a grade level. Not just one classroom, not just one kid. We're talking they are in sync. They're working together. They're responding to the data constantly. Again, still some really great growth here. 64th percentile, 72nd percentile, 70th percentile for sixth grade, um 70 or 52nd percentile, still above that norm, still making a year's growth, 8th grade. Um here we fall off, but uh I contact and green have not gotten an answer yet. If you notice, this isn't our whole cohort of students, so don't panic.
061Hopefully, it's I'm sure it's still good. But I just want to point that out. And these reports are in here. One of them talks about growth and one of them talks about our percentile. And that that golden number is 50. We want to be at the 50th or above. That's all I have for you tonight. What questions do you have? You're speechless. Yeah, that was excellent. Yeah. No. Um I would just like to um I mean that the growth that Jamie just shared with you, I hope that you understand that that is um highly unusual, right? The growth that we've experienced uh especially in math. If you if you reflect back on that data that Jamie showed you and we're making some assumptions here, but um the assumption is that we're coming to the conclusion
062of our second year of math curriculum work, right? So we're hoping that the there's a correlation between what all the teachers have been doing their hard work is paying off an increased academic scores in math in particular and next we hope uh English language arts will follow. Correct. Yeah. And I think we have enough data to show that obviously a solid resource is really important, but resources are are made to sell to multiple um not countries, multiple states around the country, right? So there's stuff in Texas in there, there's stuff in New York or yeah, New York in there. Like there's a whole bunch of stuff. So what our teachers have been doing through curriculum work is not just following the resource page by page. they're getting really intentional about what Michigan outcomes they need
063to be focused on and and I think the intentionality is what speaks the best. And I would also like to add I think when you taking a look at some of those test scores, you know, um a lot of it has to do with the the teacher buying it, right? If the teachers in those particular grade cohorts are implementing this work with fidelity, I mean that's can be very powerful stuff. So there should be a lot of credit going to teachers and we have a couple of good consultants that come in and uh lead us, right? Yeah. So I think that's another thing I want to you keep talking like you're coming more stuck. We've never implemented a a model that supports teachers and and teaching is so dynamic. It's probably one of the most
064dynamic professions out there. And so by meeting monthly and constantly responding to the data and supporting them is so important and it shows. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. It was mentioned that I'm looking at the agenda and number eight is approval of the ELA. We're not because we have to have a first reading so that everyone has a chance to get familiar with it. It's uh and then the That's just the rules. Then the next month will be due we will um approval. Well, then the question I got for Jamie is if we don't approve this till the end of July for the ELA resource which you presented at the finance committee. Yeah. I is that going to be enough time to get all the books? I emailed the rep tonight to find
065that answer. Um saying if we order on July 29th, do we have enough time to get it here? And I'm hoping we do. If not, one idea I had is like find out what everybody wants to use turfs and get that first unit sent up. I don't know. The other thing the other thing that we could do is if you find out you can't get it in time, we could call a special board meeting 10 minutes and then we could just we could just do that for uh like two week after two weeks. She presented it at the finance meeting and at the I know but this is the rules. Okay. I just I don't want to say, "Oh, it's not my rules. It's the way it is." Well, one of the things that we're
066going to check out is a lot of times when we deal with vendors in the summer and they know that you're just waiting on board approval, if they can start getting the packaging uh put together and and ready to send out the door as soon as they get the from us, we should be able to receive it in time. That's what I'm trying to arrange. Also, do we need to address the three-year versus the fiveyear? Uh we you if you Yeah, go ahead. I mean, we're going with the fiveyear, correct? because finance committee we talked about the three year but we end up going with the 5year because the novels don't come with a threeyear and so it's such a savings to get all those novels that it makes more sense yeah okay six year
067that was one of the options three five and six I send it out to like not 140 but 115 okay any other questions Okay. So, the next thing we have on our agenda is approval of a resation. Have a resation by third grade teacher, Holly Looter, and um a letter that's in the in the um packet that we can look at. I need a motion to approve the reser of for the 256 school year. I'll make that motion support made by Matt, supported by Travis. Any questions? Tim Tar, yes. Deborah Buunner, yes. Luke Kusky, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Pon, yes. Matt Lar, yes. Julie Loila, yes. Next thing on the agenda is the approval of new hires. Um would uh Marty and um Liz like to give a little Yeah, Marty, Ben, and Liz
068can also help out. When do you want to step up and introduce one of your recommendations? I'll go first. Do you want him to stand up? Yeah. Come on up here so we can see you. We want to get you in the get you on video. Yeah. Have Tim come on up too. Let's have a party. So this is uh Jimire. Recommending him for our special education position at CIS. Um Tim is finishing up with a major in psychology from University of Michigan Flint. He's also enrolled in the teacher for for tomorrow program uh to to have a 612 math certification but also special education. Um but with all that being said, the reason why I'm excited to recommend Tim is uh he already has experience working with our most at risk kids. Um I
069believe you say pre-adjudication officer. Uh he's working out here at Compass right now. So he currently is working with um again our most at risk kids um meeting with them having conversations with them and the other thing that he has done too is he actually volunteered and came and worked we had a fitness program after school and so he was coming over the last two years and just working with kids uh teaching them how to to work out just being building relationships with them and so that's what you know one of the main reasons I I I'm excited to recommend them for our building is the the opportunity to bring somebody into our building that's uh passionate about building relationship with So, this is Tim Blliner. I'd like just add I think Tim will be
070a wonderful fit. Um, and as you know, Liz is dying to say something, but hold on, Liz. Uh, we we've been we've been looking for a sped teacher for over a year for those of you who've been a part of our curriculum committee meetings and um this is an opportunity for us to grow one of our own and uh I think Tim's going to do a wonderful job and be a great fit um at the intermediate school. But Liz, you want to talk any more about how hard it is to find good people? Yes, it is impossible. We have uh Spencer's heard this a many times for me, but um the last time I checked, which was about a month ago, there was maybe three weeks ago, there was 89 special ed teacher vacancies in
071the state of Michigan. So, doing a lot of the teachers for tomorrow when he started showing interest, we were very excited. He'll be an amazing fit for us. All right. Our gentleman that we'd like to introduce next is Mr. Glascowski. Mr. Glasowski, he's definitely familiar face schools. Um spent a number of his years here prior to going to college. Uh went away got an engineering degree. Uh has decided to make his way back to um started out uh thinking that it was going to be specifically math, but he's math and CTE oriented now. He will be our new shop teacher. Uh probably one of the coolest things that I can say about bringing him on though is when we start talking about extracurriculars and whatnot, there's really not much he doesn't do. Whether it be
072in the weight room with the kids doing weight training, whether it's on the football field, football team, wrestling with the wrestlers, it's baseball for the baseball. But most notably, he's an outstanding father. And when you gain a great father figure for our kids, we're in good hands. So exceptionally, exceptionally happy to have him coming into our school district. So we do have one more. He's unable to make it tonight. His uh flight got delayed. I know. I know. I know. He's actually not bad. Yeah. He's in California right now. So, he's going to be really much further away from from us as we speak. But Kurt Zimmerly is his name. Uh very highly reputable um art uh background with what he's doing. He's actually um at an art expo, if you will, right now. And
073that's what he's doing out in the California uh area as we speak. Um he's got big shoes to fill. Obviously, we're a little little heart heart struck to see Mr. McNeel go, but um we're going to be in great hands. He does have a few years of experience in his background uh teaching in Northern Michigan. So, the demographic student he's definitely um astute to, but uh he brings a very very uh unique background into art that'll be coming to our high school as well. So, we're excited to see Kurt if uh you see a very um eccentric uh eccentrically dressed man. He is a um he's dressed like the Monopoly man every time you see him. and uh he's got the curly uh mustache, but he is very uh very much into antique cars and
074whatnot. He's got actually a collection of antique cars. So, you'll see those in our parking lot on a day-to-day base. That's his normal ride. So, we're excited to have Kurt as well, but three amazing men come to our building. So, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Okay. So, I need a motion to approve the hiring of the following staff at Wester [Music] but and Zimmer. I'll make that motion. Motion made by support by Tim. Any questions, discussion? Tim. Yes. Deborah Buuner, yes. Luca Kusky, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Keelon, yes. Matt Minar, yes. Julie Loila, yes. Okay, so the next thing on our agenda is is the school of choice resolution. Um, we have to build this out every year, correct? Yeah. Okay. So, every has to be um completed. So, I need a
075motion to approve the school choice resolution. Support. Motion made by Rich supported by Mattie Travis rather and any discussion questions. Tima, yes. Deborah Buuner, yes. Matt Monarchek, yes. Lucy, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Peont, yes. Julie Lohila, yes. Okay. Next on our agenda is approval of the MHSA resolution, which also has to be uh filled out every single year. I think it's due like very soon. And uh so I need a motion to approve the Michigan High School Athletic Association resolution. I'll make that motion to support the resolution. Motion made by Tim. Supported by Deb. Discussion or questions. Tim Tarf. Yes. Deborah Buuner. Yes. Luca Kusky. Yep. Travis Neville. Yes. Richard Keon. Yes. Matt Larch. Yes. Julie Loila. Yes. Okay. Next we have um approval of probation and tenure recommendations. Uh we have you have
076a list in front of you. A lot of people so I would like I should go through all of them. Okay. So for 10 tenure these person these people would be tenure would be um Colleen Allen Christine Bryant Jenny Hayden Jill Mcnit and Kayla and then four year probation um Kevini Tiffany Fry Christina Gan Melinda Hall Joel Moore Macy Moros Morse Morse Patricia Jordan three-year probation, Caitlyn Brown, Jenny Osavil, Rebecca Wallace, and Zack Bright. Second year probation Valerie Basham Steven Enboy Fre Erica Gilner Bren King Michaelis Kangas Madison McQueen Abigail Mullis Bill Nesbana Garrett Romero Valerie Carolyn Sa I consider that when we hired her thank you and Abigail Spears. So I need a motion to approve the probation of the teachers as presented. I'll make that motion made by Travis. Support by Tim. Any
077questions or discussion? Tima, yes. Deborah Buuner, yes. Luke Kakuski, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Keon, yes. Matt Larch, yes. Julie Lo, yes. Can I just add to that? I mean, I think everybody's aware, but just in case if you're not, but the teachers that are earning tenure this year, that listed, the first group that you read are are that's a that's a milestone for them, obviously. um getting to that is extremely important. Typically we what do we do for them? We send them a congratulatory letter official from the board. They'll be getting a letter from us. Okay. Right. Okay. So the next thing we have is an early graduation. Um we have a letter here by Chase Swanson. He'd like to graduate early like August like August 1. Y and he has his plan all
078set up and he is going into the National Guard. National Guard and he is all set to go. So um I need a motion to approve the early graduation of Chase Swanson. I'll make that motion. Support motion made by Travis and supported by Matt. discussion. Can you still play football? [Laughter] Maybe we should not. Okay. Um Tima, yes. Deborah Buuner, yes. Luke Kakovsky, yes. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Pon, yes. Matt Larch, yes. Julie Loila, yes. Congratulations. You can still come to seven on seven. All right. The next thing on our um agenda is a finance and building and grounds committee update by Matt. Okay. Uh I'll go through it pretty fast. We covered quite a few things already in previous comments made at the meeting. Uh we'll have a motion here for additional work on
079the gym floor um to approve tonight. There was a the kind of I don't know the the trim I guess alongside the walls there they had to rip off and then the um I think they're putting the piece the transition pieces to uh replaced that was not part of the original. So those are the two items. Um Steve, I think rescheduled his or we rescheduled the Bloomberg EV bus um meeting. I don't think we had that, but Steve anyway has been kind of looking into um EV buses. They provide a grant. I think you're supposed to build provide you a grant for a charging station. He's just kind of looking into it to get more information about it. Um I think so there'll be still more to come as Steve finds out about that. Um
080all the air air quality over at east stuff um everything seems to be at the reasonable levels since all the new air stuff has been installed. Um let's see. uh track replacement. We talked about that already here. That should be going up to bid I think in July they said. Um so hopefully we'll we'll get some bids on that. The Thunder Bay renovation is going we talked about the tennis court area. Um so I think Steve will be coming up with some plans pretty soon to present on that. uh the covered walkway. Just waiting to get more information on um the they already they were going to do some painting over at the high school in the courtyard area where the old polka dots out there that for the pre old preschool kids that were
081there. So Marty wanted to get that painted out so they can have some uh and then I think put some table picnic tables out there so they can do some outdoor learnings when weather permits. Um and then just the the personnel changes that we've or that we did tonight and we talked about kind of the budget basically presented tonight as well. So um that's pretty much it. Questions for Matt? [Applause] Okay. So I have um I need a motion to acknowledge the payment of the regular and bond invoices of 778,324 to acknowledge by support support by Rich questions. Tim Tardiff, yes. Deborah Buuner, yes. Luke Kakoski, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Pon, yes. Matt Lenard, yes. Julie Loila, yes. Okay. So I also need a motion to approve the 202526 proposed bud budget that we
082um talked about in the prior meeting. Any questions about the budget proposal? So I need a motion to approve the 2025 26 proposed budget. I'll make the motion to approve the 2526 proposed budget. Motion made by Tim support by Rich. Any discussion questions? Tim, yes. Deborah Buuner, yes. Luke Kakutsky, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Pon, yes. Matt Larch, yes. Julie Loila, yes. Hey, now we have a final budget uh for this year we need approval on talk to us about that other packet. The only um budgets on the to be amended were the general fund food service fund and the capital projects 2024 bond fund. And similar to your other packet on page three, if you look at the far column to the right, it shows um expenditures over revenues by 958,212. So we did
083go over, however, remember the 2526 budget, we're only projecting like 612,000. So I hope that next year will be better. Is there anything you want in our fund balance? Um, it'll still be at 32% 32.75%. Right. And if the board recalls, I think it was last year that the board said kind of a arbitrary uh measurement of 25% as being a point in which it would raise awareness. So, we're even though we had a deficit budget this year, uh we're still at 32%. So, we're 7% over uh our 25% kind of warning level. And even to be quite honest with you, 25%'s kind of high. Most school districts are happy if they have 15 to 20. So, for us to still have 32% uh fund balance is nice to have, but we want to we
084want to keep it that way, too. So, you basically didn't get an increase. I mean, it was weird. You know, there wasn't increase in per pupil and our student count went down. So it was basically that no increase in per people coming really. So is there any risk of having like well last year we're a deficit this year we're expecting deficit the next year's another deficit. Does that suddenly set off an alarm saying three years in a row of deficit spending? Does that suddenly flags if your fund balance I think it goes below 10%. Start watching it. 15 or 10 might be 10. Well, I I think you know we've been we've been talking about this quite a bit that um you know deficit spending isn't doesn't isn't necessarily a great thing. I I think
085what kind of um puts us at ease right now is that our fund balance is still at 32%. So I I and to be quite honest with you, I believe that the governor last year did not increase uh per pupil funding because everybody got fat on er money. Uh inflation rates went through the roof. They're still significantly high. And the only way to decrease inflation from a macroeconomic standpoint is by decreasing the money supply. So what what what has happened this last year, if you think about it, er money last uh fall was over, right? The extra money was over in the fall. And in the fall, coincidentally, we were not giving any additional funding per pupil because the state knew that everybody got fat on money like we did. We have an inflated surplus.
086What they're essentially and inherently encouraging us to do is spend down the surplus. So, that's what they want us to do. I mean when you start getting up over 30% surplus um a lot of times what will happen is is community members will start to say well you're not a bank right so why are you acrewing so much surplus which thankfully we've been able to earn interest on and interest rates have been high too but that's not going to be here forever I do believe inflation rates are going to go down hopefully sooner than later but um I do think as Rich pointed out you still don't want to spend more than you bring again. But I do think um we are going to get a per pupil increase this year. So that's a good
087thing. Um I do believe uh we've decreased our expenses through um attrition personnel and um all we got to keep an eye on that. But I I do think that makes sense that if your if if your boat has a leak in it, which mine does unfortunately. Uh sorry I didn't pun intended there. Um, but if you if you just keep leaking, right? I mean, ultimately I don't want to I don't think any of us as a board or as a superintendent want to say, "Well, okay, you know, we're deficit spending, but it's okay because, you know, you can see that that mountain eventually, right, that you're going to crash into." And we don't want to leave the covered bare for the next whomever it might be in seven or eight years and and and
088and get to a point where you're at 10% or less than 10%. And now you got the state contacting you and saying, "Well, what are you going to do about it?" So, I think we're making good moves, uh, smart moves. I think we still need to be very cognizant of our revenue and our expenditures. I think Matt as the financial chair, he has a significant financial, uh, background, is very helpful at our finance committee meetings. But, yeah, I I do agree with Rich. It's it should bring a trigger to go off after three years of deficit spending. Someone said, "Oh, that's three years in a row. You better go look, right? I know. We've had, you know, two years in a row. I just don't want to have truth. Yep. I don't know, Matt. What
089do you have anything from a financial perspective with Rich that we don't want to keep, right? I mean, I think we want to trend in the right direction is get back to, you know, more of a neutral or slight surplus. I think one thing to consider too is a lot of one-time expenses that we may make that go into whether it's a deficit or a surplus. So, I mean, you'd have to pull those items out to kind of look at them. And, you know, the more of the thing is the reoccurring, right? The reoccurring expenses versus the reoccurring revenue because we can control a lot of those one-time things, whether it's a project we want to do or a purchase. But when it's, you know, and the biggest reoccurring, right, is the salaries for everybody.
090I mean, that's kind of the main what is that 80% of our at least more of our expenses. So those are really the things to I think we want to try to balance over this next year or two to get back right where we're a lot closer to even. But of course like you said budget should always be our goal, right? You said a lot too though the enrollment you know that's a big that makes a big difference. You know we lose 20 kids that means we lose $200,000 like we lost last year that we didn't expect to lose. So, it's really that enrollment is really Yeah, I think enrollment is something that we should probably be a little bit more intentional about keeping a close eye on. I think sometimes enrollment um doesn't justifiably
091get its due. Um but, you know, again, if you have if you have your enrollment, even if they're going down 105 every year over time, I mean, that's significant over time. Questions? discussion. Okay. So, I need a motion to approve the amended budget. Make a motion to approve the 24 amended budget. Motion made by Tim. Thank you, Laura. Support by Rich. Last chance for questions. Tim Tarot. Yes. Era. Yes. Luke Kakuski. Yep. Travis Neville. Yes. Richard Pon. Yes. M Lar. Yes. Julie Loila. Yes. Okay. So, the next thing on the agenda is the approval of the food service renewal agreement. I need a motion to approve the 2025 2026 Tartwells food service renewal as required by the Michigan Department of Education. I like that motion. Motion made by Matt. Discussion. Motion made by Matt. Uh,
092support by Tim. Questions? Tim Tarot. Yes. Deborah Buer. Yes. Luke Kakusky. Yep. Travis Neville. Yes, Richard Pan. Yes, Matt Lar. Yes, Julie Loila. Yes. Okay, so um the next thing on the agenda is uh the approval of the L 4029 tax forum for 202526 and you have a copy of that in your packet also. Any questions about that? No rate change current rate. Laura, is there any rate change? We get a report from the city or from the county and then you just plug the numbers in. Simple as that. And our financial advisors helped us with the bond. PFM gives me the rate for the bond. So it's basically just plugging out numbers that were sent to me and it just it tells the townships in the city of Chicago how much millage to collect
093on the properties. Then we have to do this every June correct. Yes. I just wondered if it's a change this is what we have been collecting. questions. So I need a motion a motion to approve the L429 tax form 426. I'll make that motion support by Travis questions. Tim Tarta, yes. Deborah Buunner, yes. Luke Kakovski, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Keon, yes. Matt Lin, yes. Ghila, yes. Okay. The next thing is approval of uh approval of additional cost of the high school gym floor. My understanding is that um the trim and the holes where the nets were cost wound up costing more money to fix those areas. It came to $4,140. So, um, more than what the bid was. So, I need a motion to approve the additional cost of $4,140 to the high school
094gym or repairs. I'll make that motion. Second. Motion made by Travis, support by Luke. Questions? Tim Kjack, yes. Buuner, yes. Luke Kusky, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Pon, yes. Matt Larac, yes. Julie Loila, yes. Okay. So, um, next thing on our agenda is the approval of the administrator's contract. have that in front of you. Have a chance to look it over. Uh they had several negotiation teams or times that we went through this. Um and I need a motion to approve the administrative contract. Any questions? Any more discussion? I I just like to thank the administrators. We have nine administrators. Uh this is the last of 11 contracts that we needed to um update. Um a good thing is too that they've agreed to a three-year contract as the teachers did last time on some
095of several of the other bargaining units. So, uh historically it was every two years. So three years I think buys us a little bit more time to take a breath in between negotiation cycles which is which is needed. But um Marlene did you have anything else? No, I'd like to thank them too. It was a relatively quick process. So annuity to tuition trade tuition expenses for continuing education. for a degree. That was that the uh not sketches. That's sketches. Yeah. Yeah. Just want to clarify one of the um parts of the uh the administrators um receive an annuity every year um they asked that could that money instead of being invested in in an annuity be used to pay for college courses, college course work. And we agreed to that. Um but we also asked
096them, I think, to uh get a B. Yeah. So go a prefer a we prefer an A. But do they get taxed on that? I don't know. That's a good question. I mean when I used to get tuition reimbursement through my company that was considered income, right? They do it as a reimbursement. Yeah, they give to us after the fact. Any other questions? So it's recommended by the committee. Yes, it's been it's recommended by the negotiation committee. So I need a motion to approve the administrator's contract. I'll make that motion. Support motion made by Travis, support by Matt. Discussion questions. Tima, yes. Timber Buuner, yes. Luke Kakusky, y Travis Neville, yes. Richard Pon, yes. Matt Lar, yes. Julie Lohila, yes. I would also like to thank the administrators for such an uh easy negotiation and
097uh also and also uh what awesome job y'all are doing. Y'all are All right. Next on uh we have uh strong comm. Next is Tim with the safety committee that we added onto the agenda. Okay. Uh last Thursday we all met at the at the high school. We met at the driftin at 10:00. We were there from 10 to 11. And our uh tour guides were uh Marty and uh Ben. and they took the entire committee around the entire campus and pointed out deficiencies. It was a really great uh event because all the committee members there got to see the issues firsthand, what was going on. We had some really good discussions about it. So, we went through and covered started in the drift in and talked about the the the bathroom problem there with
098the the the traffic the public traffic uh needing to use a bathroom. uh that's going to be a challenge and also the uh entrances having uh ADA compliant uh access to the to the restaurant. Um we then move to the uh the uh shops where we have the large rollup doors where it's uh when they're open it's a problem for uh you know uh being unsecured for someone coming into the building. So, we uh talked uh discussed a possible uh gate uh across the door or possibly fencing in the entire area. Uh as we moved around the building, we looked at uh other uh entrances. Um we talked a lot about parking uh moving the students to the front and side of the building outside of the uh the auditorium there and then moving the
099staff to the back of the building. Main reason there is visibility to be able to keep an eye on the on the students uh and some of the things that are undesirable to take place behind the building. um talk some about uh drop off and pickup because of the the change in the clientele coming to the high school, the seventh graders. And we also have the the the change in uh intermediate school. Um talked about bus uh and CT drop off. I want to say thank you to Chris too, by the way, for taking these minutes. Thank you very much. Um, we talked about some uh facility and security upgrades, uh, cameras. We went and, uh, checked out uh, uh, uh, Ron Fenland's um, monitors that he has there and the enhancements there to allow
100him to keep an eye on uh, virtually all the uh, all the access points to all of the schools. um uh zero hour student entry uh uh limited to the auditorium entrance. Uh the doors going to be able knock for 10 minutes starting at 6 6:50 a.m. Um bathroom security uh the doors are going to have to be removed to be able to uh mainly to hear what's going on in the bathrooms as I understand it. Um uh and the uh SRO's and the aids will monitor the parking lots. Um uh Jordan is going to be looking at uh some sort of auto alerts to uh to notify the admins of doors that are propped open uh which can allow allow an authorized entry. Um the new radio system is working well. Um and um
101see what else? Uh upgraded camera and intercom system requiring two-stage access. The best of view in the office. I think we were talking about uh maybe the front entrance there where you have now have the the uh the uh intercom system. Um and we we took the concluded the entire tour and came back reconvened at the uh the drift in to discuss everything that we saw there and um basically decided it was such a good uh activity that we're going to ask principal and Ashley to to uh host the next uh um the next uh committee meeting at for the intermediate school and then after that I think we'll be looking at the following month of working on east and uh you know work our way through the campuses. So um that's everything we have
102for the moment. Any questions? That that is great that that is going on with the safety committee that you're going through building and going through with administrators and looking at the building that might come up to need to be done. It's very very good pictures worth a thousand words. Yeah, that's it. Questions? Okay, so the next thing on our agenda is the acceptance of a retirement Uh we have Tom Pomps who has been custodian for 23 years. Um he wants to retire I guess. So we need a motion to accept with regrets the retirement of custodian Tom Hops after 23 23 years to our district. I'll make that motion made by Tim. Support support by Tim Tim Tar. Yes. Deborah Buunner. Yes. Luke Kusky. Yep. Travis Neville. Yes. Richard Pon. Yes. Matt Lar. Yes. Julie
103Loila. Yes. Okay. So, the next thing is the athletic committee update by Travis. It's a pretty short meeting this month. um athletic director was not present so we didn't get an update that way. Uh one of the big things covered old business then we went into uh academic standards state requirement to be athletically eligible was passing four or six classes if I'm not mistaken and uh that's a pretty low bar. So we're looking at maybe getting it to where we can get you got to be passing everything. That's just what we're kicking around. We haven't run it by anybody really yet. But uh also in the vein of accountability talked about maybe instead of using the online tool having students go every morning every Friday morning go from teacher to teacher and actually have a
104face to face meeting. Hey what am I missing or where where do I stand is that conversation then we think will breed some success. So academic standards we talked about that uh for quite a while. what we can do about it. Uh, one was the track renovations, which you guys have heard thousand times. Everybody knows what's going on there. Uh, issue that we think we might be able to address with this excellent uh, weight room facility that we have. We have what's called a zero hour. Most of you are familiar with that. And there's no limit on student participation in zero hour. What's that? It means that you're coming in basically before school and having a session in the athletic facility, which is awesome. I love that. Everybody does. But if there's no limit on
105participation, what that means is more kids who want to do it are doing it in the beginning of of the day and then they're not spread out. Long story short, we lose sections of FAP. We'd like to be able to have more sections open during the day so that more kids can have an opportunity to take it. You know, especially younger kids, they're not going to be able to drive to school, get there early, things like that. So, again, something we're kicking around. If we can open more sections of FAP, it'll make it more accessible to more kids. um which could be great. So we talked about maybe limiting zero hour to 32 standard classroom size limit. Uh we talked more about equipment purchasing. We've had some after two meetings ago we had had coaches
106come in and talk about different things that they might need. Since then several coaches have presented actual um proposals for us, things that they need, what it's going to cost. They already talked to vendors, things like that. And uh some of them we're probably going to do pretty quickly. Uh we separated them in two categories. Wants versus needs. Needs would be something like the wrestling team. They they can't wrestle without a man, right? So if we're going to that's that's a need. That's something we would cover. Wants are things uh that are extra above and beyond. Like the golf team's looking for golf simulators. Those would be wants. You don't need that to run a golf team, but it certainly would help. So, we were talking about different ways we can break that up and
107how maybe booster club can kick in versus the school district uh covering those things. Um, but we got some good things that we think that we're going to be able to help uh help athletics. Uh, and that was basically it. We didn't have didn't cover much more. Like I said, uh, didn't have an athletic director present, so we get the update on that. So, that's athletics. Okay. Thank you. The next thing on our agenda is approval for cross country overnight team camp, which I think is an amazing thing. I have right here um the the um cross country permission slip, but I do not have their paperwork. Did someone get that? Where are they going? They they are going to um I think they came in a separate email maybe Jul we we we got
108it right there. Okay. All right. So we're looking for um where are they going? Trevor. That's awesome. So I need a motion to approve. What's it says $50 for the athletes? So, no cost to the district. Um, wait, how they're taking a bus? One of our buses. Um, I just got the request today. Does it say Marty? Do you know what the expenses are for? It says they're using says they're using their tax account and parents are funding. Great idea. I think we have a couple programs doing overnight camps. Football. Football. What is first three days of the season? Oh, okay. Okay. So, number 26. So, yes. Approval of So approval of the cross country overnight team. So I need a motion to approve the cross country overnight camp. I'll make that motion. Motion made
109by Travis. Support by Tim. Any questions? And that is August 20 through the 22nd and there's a time questions discussion. Tim Tarf, yes. Deborah Buuner, yes. Lucy, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Pon, yes. Matt Mill, yes. Julie Loa, yes. Okay. So, approval of boys um a soccer coach. Uh Ryan Davis is who they are recommending. recommended by Jason Friday and um has quite an extensive uh resume here also other coaching jobs that he's done in the past. Um so I'm looking to for a motion to approve the hiring of Brian Davis as the boys varsity soccer coach. Marty, do you have any I know Jason's not here, but do you have any information on the coach? Sure. Yeah. uh he's uh one of our state troopers actually that uh has been a part of the
110coaching staff for a couple years now with the boys as an assistant and uh was eager to put in when they came available. So it's been a long-standing thing in their their family. The girls are quite successful on the girls side and uh he's very very eager to take over the boys program and interviewed very well. Very very well. Yeah, he has a very expensive Okay. So, um I need a motion to approve the hiring of Brian Davis as a boys varsity soccer coach. I'll make that motion. Made by Travis by Tim. Discussion questions. Tim Tar. Yes. Sra Buuner. Yes. Lucy, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Pon, yes. Lar, yes. Julie Lo, yes. Okay. So, the next thing on the agenda is approval of an amended uh calendar for next year. Uh the calendar had
111to be amended uh in two ways. First they beginning they just swapped what was happening on the days August 26th and 27th for teachers and then also on November 3rd uh there is a uh PD for teachers on that day. It's no school for students. It used to be November 5th but we have to follow the COP um schedule and they have it on the 3rd. So we have to change to the third in in the on the calendar. So any questions about that? Okay. So I need a motion to approve the changes to the 202526 district calendar moving the professional development half day from November 5th to November 3rd, 2025 and switching the welcome back and professional development days from August 26th and 27 respectively. I'll make that motion by support by Rich. Any
112questions? Kim Tariff, yes. Deborah Buunner, yes. Lou Kusky, yep. Travis Neville, yes. Richard Keon, yes. Matt Lar, yes. Julie Lo, yes. At this time, if there is any public who would like to speak, you are welcome to do so now to fill out and um we have anyone. So I need a motion to adjourn. Make that motion support. Motion made by Tim, support by Travis. And all in favor? Hi everybody. [Applause] Congratulations [Applause] Tim. Congratulations about you joining the team. Good. Good. especially if I get another Thank you so much. Congrats. Welcome to He's excited. I'm excited. Yeah, I saw Yeah, exactly. [Music] I know. It's like every month, every week. We can do it. We'll do it. Yeah. like going into crossing my fingers and continue to not [Applause]