001Okay, Liz. >> All right, I'd like to call the meeting to order. >> We will start with the pledge of allegiance. I'll have our students lead us, please. >> Aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible. >> Roll call, please. Kristen Campenzi >> here. >> Jennifer Ray >> here. >> Jason Zadun >> here. >> Jennifer Cliff >> here. >> Cheryl Maddox Smith >> here. >> Cassidy Thomas >> here. >> Eric Smith >> here. >> All right. I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> Make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion made by Mr. Zudnick. Support by Mrs. Clip. All those in favor? I >> I >> uh moving on to approving the consent
002agenda which includes the minutes of the regular meeting of December 8th, 2025, the personnel report dated January 2026, the financial reports of December 2025. >> I'll make a motion to present the the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion made by Mrs. Clip, support by Mrs. Maddox Smith. Um, all those in favor I >> uh moving on to elect officers for the period of January 12th, 2026 to January 2027. >> All right, I got to look at my little script here. Um, I would entertain nominations for board president for 2026. >> I'll make a motion. We're not motioning. We're just making recommendations. >> A nomination. I would like to nominate uh Kristen Campbenzi for president >> support. Okay. Are there any other nominations? Okay. Uh hearing none. Uh and having a motion and
003support. Um all those in favor? >> I >> Any opposed? Thank you. Thank you. Um moving on to Uh, moving on to vice president. I would entertain a nomination for the office of school board vice president for 2026. >> I'd like to nominate Jennifer Ray for school board vice president for 2026. >> Support. >> Do we have any further nominations? Okay. hearing none. Uh we have motion and support. All those in favor >> I congratulations. Um I now Oh, I suppose >> I don't know if I had to do the right. Moving on to secretary treasurer. I would entertain nominations for the office of school board secretary treasurer for 2026. I'd like to nominate trustee Jason Sadundic for school board secretary and treasurer for 2026 support. >> Okay. Are there any other nominations? Uh we
004have motion and support. All those in favor? >> I. >> Motion passes. Thank you. It's very much for being willing to serve as board officers. Uh, moving on to the superintendence report. Thank you, Mrs. Campbenzi. Congratulations to our officers here to talk about school board appreciation month. Marquette Area Public Schools is joining 537 local and 56 intermediate school districts across Michigan to celebrate January as school board recognition month. The key to a brighter future for Michigan's children is a strong public education system. Every day, students count on public schools to help prepare them for a successful future. Schoolboard members help keep our schools running smoothly. Their job is to establish a vision for the education program, design a structure to achieve that vision, ensure schools are accountable to the community, and strongly advocate for continuous
005improvement in student learning. The job of a school board member is tough. The hours long and the thanks few and far between. Too often, we're quick to criticize school board members without really understanding the complex nature of their decisions. We have to remember to take time to thank them for their untiring efforts. The individuals serving MAPS and their years of service are Kristen Cambenzi, president, serving since 2015. Jennifer Ray, vice president, serving serving since 2021. Jason Zadunic, secretary treasurer, serving since 2023. Jennifer Clinton, trustee, serving since 2021. Cheryl Maddox Smith serving since 2023. Cassidy Thomas serving since 2025 and Eric Smith trustee serving since 2025. Even though we are making a special effort during January to show appreciation for our school board members, we recognize their contributions reflect a year-round effort on their part. No
006matter what challenges lie ahead for our district in 2026, our school board members will continue to govern to improve student achievement and provide exceptional education for all our community's children. On behalf of the students and staff and community market area public schools, thank you all for your service. How about a little round of applause? Thank you. I'm actually going to turn it over to Mr. Lampman's, assistant superintendent Latman for the next part of the superintendent report. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Sedwick. Good evening. So, a couple of items I'm going to discuss this evening. Um, I've been asked to keep it as brief as possible because we do have a longer agenda. So, I will try uh but feel free to stop me along the way if you have questions and as you
007know I can often be a little long-winded so I'll be cognizant of that. So, let's start off with some old business. Everybody should have a copy a bound copy of the uh uh single audit report from Anderson Hackman and Company. Uh as you may recall uh Mr. Mike Grrenz from Anderson Tacman had done a presentation previous at a previous meeting presenting uh the district's audit report for fiscal year ended 2025. Uh at that time um he was not able to present the single audit portion of the audit uh because the federal compliance supplement was issued late this year which is the guidelines that the auditors follow in order to audit the federal awards but we have since uh received our single audit of our federal awards. Uh it was due to the state uh Christmas
008day and we met that deadline. Uh but I did promise the board I would bring it to the board for uh approval when we had it. So let's start off on page nine of the report. So page nine begins the schedule of expenditures of federal awards. And what this does is it lays out all the federal uh awards that the district received and expended in the prior year and the current year. And I I refer to the current year as the 2425 year. Um that was the year under audit. So, flipping through page 11, you'll see the total federal awards that we had were uh at the bottom of the page 1,441,141. That is the amount of federal awards that we received and expended uh for 2425. The threshold for auditing having a separate single
009audit on federal awards is $750,000. So we we exceeded that u for the 2425 school year and just to note that threshold does rise next year to a million dollars. Uh but at our current level we'll still exceed the minimum threshold for audit having a separate compliance audit our federal awards. So if we look at page 14, page 14 is the schedule of findings and question costs and it's broken down into uh three components. The financial statement audit, the federal awards, and then the specific major programs that were tested. So as Mr. Grants uh mentioned when he was here at a previous meeting, as far as the financial statement audit goes, there were no findings. We received an unmmonified opinion which is the highest you can receive under GAAP uh reporting. Looking at federal awards
010uh for the 2425 year there were no uh findings um no internal control issues or other findings. And also on our federal award audit we had an unmodified opinion. And the programs that were tested were the uh was the child nutrition cluster which included the school breakfast program, the national school lunch program, and the summer food service program. Um which are uh when you add up that cluster for the food service, that's our largest federal award program. So that was selected for audit this year. Um and on page 15 um again just a summary that we had no findings for our financial statement uh audit no findings for our um federal awards as well. So again just uh just cleaning up a little old business here with that. Any questions on the uh federal awards
011audit? Okay, hearing none, I will move on to the budget amendment. And this is where I know I promised to uh um keep this quick, but I'm going to step on my soap box really quick before I start and I'm going to remind the board. Um, as you know, uh, we had a a very late adoption of the state budget this year. Uh, in addition to the state budget, we also, um, were not timely informed of our federal allocations either due to uh, program reviews that happened at the federal level. So, our our our normal timelines are kind of skewed a little bit this year. So, we're still kind of working through the budget process. It kind of pushed everything back. So, having said that, um this this budget amendment focuses mostly on the revenue
012side. We're still working on our grant allocation plan. So, we'll bring um the the uh the salary and benefit update to you in a future amendment, which which is our largest expenditures, our salaries and benefits. But we did look at some of the expenses, but largely this is going to focus on the revenue side. All right. And again, feel free to stop me along the way. So we'll start with the general fund which is comprised of several smaller funds. Our general operations, our grants, Kaufman Planetarium, Father Marquette, and athletics, uh various other funds as well. So some of the components of our general fund revenue um interest currently our yield is 3.76%. Uh it was over 4% last year. Um we had budgeted in some reductions uh in anticipated uh interest income due to uh
013uh anticipated rate cuts by the Fed uh which have occurred already this year. So right now uh we're not proposing any adjustments to interest at this time. The significant uh increase in local revenue is our property taxes and some other local revenue items. When we budget for the next year, we try to be a little conservative. We generally only target about a 1% increase. Um, but based off the uh taxable values that were updated by uh the county treasurer last in July of 2025, um we're looking at uh uh you know an increase to our u property taxes to the tune of about 800,000. Um uh and that also includes some other local revenue, but the large portion is is property taxes. No changes right now to our interd district revenue for Maresa. Looking at
014our state aid. So, we had anticipated a $200 per pupil increase to our state aid. Um, our state aid actually came in higher than anticipated. Uh, it came in at 10,50 per pupil. So that's a $242 increase over the estimate that we had used uh when adopting the uh developing the 24 uh 2425 2526 budget. Um conversely though uh we saw a decline in our state aid membership FTE count. So last year we were at 3,214 FTEES. Currently, we're down to 3,148 FTEES. It's at about a 2% decline. 51 FTEES. Now, that is um significant but partially explainable. So, um we've been our our FTE been holding pretty steady, beating our projections until this year. We had estimated 3,200 FTE for the uh 2526 budget. Um but again it's it's about 51 lower than what
015we had anticipated. 30 of those FTEES um wound up being counted by Maurice under the GSRP program. So um we're working with Marica this year on a great start readiness program. Um, and under that under the guidelines for that program, they get to count the FTE for those students, but we get to claim um, GSRP revenue uh, in excess of the FTE that we would have captured. So, we're going to get more back. Um, that's not reflected here. We haven't yet received our allocation from MARSA. We're still working through that with Marissa, the GSRP program. So over half our FTE drop was just due to a partnership with with Marica. Um some other uh challenges that we've had with with budgeting uh are centered around MIPERS. Um there continue to be ret um changes to
016the retirement categorical. So we've seen some swings there. Um, our 22 uh A prop a funding uh decreased 827,000. That's to be expected because under the state aid formula, if we see an increase in local property taxes, we also see a decrease in our state aid through the 22A. So, it tries to balance each other out and then whatever the difference is gets netted through the 22B discretionary funding. Uh so we saw an increase to our discretionary funding for at 85,000. So looking at it overall um [clears throat] in in this amendment uh our total revenue in the general fund was 49,512,000 as originally adopted but proposing an increase of $278,994 which would bring our general fund revenue to 49,791,000. And then this just kind of gives you a breakdown in a a bar graph
017showing that the uh the money that we receive from the state is our most significant funding source. Looking at the expenditure side of the general fund, we're looking at an overall increase to expenses of under 1%. We're at about.9% increase with this budget amendment. Again, we didn't really look at the most significant portion of the budget yet, which is our salaries and benefits. So, I'll bring that to you in a future amendment soon as we have our grant plan finalized. We did do a slight increase to salaries, 41,000. That was for some hourly staff that um that uh we just needed to make some um small adjustments for. Um and largely the other areas are just operations and maintenance where um uh we had some increases to to adjust for. So overall our general fund
018we were at 49,921,000 in the original budget for our expenditures. Uh we're proposing adding $489,884 which would bring us to general fund expenditures of 50,411,000 $348. Again, here's a bar graph that shows the most significant portion of our budget is salaries and benefits. Uh followed by purchase, services, supplies, capital outlay. Um but really the you know the the largest share is the uh salaries and benefits. So how's this look in total? We started the year with um a fund balance in the general fund of 19,550,000. Uh we're looking at uh a net loss currently of 619,000. Again, that's going to that's going to swing a little bit during the course of the year as um as some of our other funding comes into focus. Uh how that breaks down um we uh we have some
019money set aside for contingency. Uh we have some money assigned for MTSS and other purposes. And then um unassigned we'd have 11,746,000 with an ending overall fund balance of 18,930,000. So still in a good financial position. Looking at the food service and there isn't a whole lot of significant changes here with the food service. One second to get caught up to my notes. So, food service. Um, we're proposing a change to the state revenue. Uh, so, as you may recall, the uh state uh continued the universal free meal program, extended it to the 2526 school year. Uh, we weren't sure they were going to do that as as uh as we were going through the the budget process. Um, so local revenues right now seem to be on track as well as the federal re
020federal revenues, but we've seen a lot of uh uh utilization with the universal free meal program and based on where we are midy year, we felt it was appropriate to um increase our state revenue uh just a little bit in that program. So we were at 1.7 million. We're proposing 1.9 million in revenues in the school lunch fund overall. Looking at the expenditures again, we really really didn't tweak much uh mid year at this point with uh the school lunch fund. We're proposing an increase of 6,513 in expenditures to the school lunch fund. Brings us from 1,996,000 in expenses to just over 2 million overall. We started the beginning of the year with a fund balance of $510,5 in the school lunch fund. Um, we're projecting a net loss of 95,000 resulting in an ending
021fund balance of $414,428. Um, and what I will say is we had been working on a planned spendown of the fund balance in the school lunch fund. Um, we're not allowed to have uh more than a a threemonth average of our expenses in fund balance because it's a nonprofit fund. And um so so we had found ourselves us like many districts in in the state, we at one point had exceeded fund uh our fund balance allowance, but we've now corrected that. We are now in compliance and um so we've been working on spending that fund balance down by reinvesting in the program. We've purchased some new equipment that the board has approved. We've been buying more fresh fruits and vegetables as well. looking at the debt retirement um fund. So debt retirement, it's money in
022money out um to pay the 2016 bond. So based off the increases that we saw with our taxable values from July 2025, uh we're updating our tax revenue. So we're adding $35,861 to the uh to the the debt retirement fund. no changes on the expenditure side. So, we started with a fund balance of 140,661. We're adding 44,965. We're projecting an ending fund balance this year of $185,626. Capital projects fund. Right now, there's no funding source for the capital projects. It's just money that we allocate internally. Um right now we're not re recommending any changes to our allocation of capital projects fund. Um slight tweak on the expenditure side dropping at $11,553 for um uh some projects that we had our final numbers for this year. So we started the year with 5.9 million in capital
023projects. Um we spent uh down 481,279 so far this year. So we're projecting an ending fund balance of 5,472,000. Syncing fund um again syncing fund is is funded through property tax revenue uh based on uh a millillage that was approved by the voters. So um we're adjusting our tax revenue again based off the changes in property tax values from the county treasur. So, we're looking to add uh $58,127 to the revenue in the syncing fund. No changes at this time to the expenditure side. We'll bring those to you in a future amendment when we decide what we what we're going to spend prior to year end that May June period where we start ramping up our summer construction. Um so, beginning fund balance in the scing fund was $612,399. Uh we're looking at a net
024income of1,266,741 and an ending fund balance of $1,879,000. And again, we really didn't do any any large scing fund projects last year. We kind of were trying to let the fund build up so that we could do something significant in the next uh with the this upcoming construction season. So that was planned to grow our fund balance and then no changes to our private purpose trust fund at this time. Any questions? >> Thank you, Jim. Um, couple of questions for the MTSS that was mentioned is do you happen to recall when that program runs through that we've budgeted for? We had originally set aside $1.3 million for um funding MTSS and we did not touch that money for a couple of years because uh we were able to fund uh that program largely through the
025um the ESSER COVID funding that we were receiving. Um, so last year I believe 2425 is the first year that we dipped into uh that MTSS funding and I don't have my apologies. I don't have my audit report in front of me. Um, but uh we had uh I want to say about a little over 1.2 2 million left in MTSS reserves um that we're going to, you know, continue to rely on to fund the MTSS initiative as we move forward. I don't know if Mr. Sedick wants to add anything to >> Yeah, the 1.2 2 million was essentially two years of paying for instructional coaches which was very much part of our MTSS initiative and postco trying to make up for the achievement gap and because of grants we were able to pay for
026those instructional coaches out of grant money which allowed us to leave that money in MTSS but it still I guess theoretically could be two years worth of instructional coaches once the grants have run dry which they haven't run dry but we've gone back to traditional levels so the surplus we were using to pay for those coaches is no longer there. So, it buys us two years essentially. >> And and that is a good point. We are still allocating some of our instructional coaches uh in the MTSS program to another grant source. So, uh we're going to try to utilize grant funding as as long as possible to maintain that program before we really dip into uh the reserve that we have for FTSS. >> Okay. Thank you. So the reserve essentially is going to be
027able to push that program forward and fund that for this year and the following year and then potentially we would need to look at what that would look like subsequent to that. Is that about right for about two years? >> We we might be able to stretch that even further depending depending on um the uh how stable our other grant sources are. So it it's >> we've dipped into it, but I think we can stretch it out as long as our other grants maintain the level that they're at. So because we are allocating some of our instructional coaches to another grant. >> Thank you. And [clears throat] that's seven staff. >> Uh there were six instructional coaches. Six and a half. >> 6.5. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah, we'll split the difference. Um two additional
028questions. Um, and I know we have a long meeting, so I apologize, but um, just wanted to get a couple things out there. So, can can you provide a bit of additional explanation for the staff and I I uh, forget the acronym and I apologize. Uh, but it's the child care staff. Um, >> the GSRP, >> thank you. GSRP staff. Can you just break that down and what that look how many staff are involved in that program? And then if you could provide the breakdown just briefly about how they're getting counted for Marica currently and not through maps. >> I can probably handle that. So there's four GSRP teachers, but they are also our GAK teachers. So they weren't additional hires or new hires. The new hire was a an aid and I think they
029use the term teacher assistant in those classrooms. As part of the grant, the GSRP grant, we were required to have a second adult trained adult. So, we hired um pair professional for each of those four classrooms. There is additional money. So, the the foundation allowance per pupil funding of 10,000 roughly is still coming to us. It's just flowing through MARSA. There's also additional money they give us for transportation and some miscellaneous costs associated with GSRP. So, we're actually going to get get more than the foundation allowance for the roughly 30 kids that Jim mentioned. I don't have the exact number in front of us, but 30 kids times over $10,000 you can ballpark. The money just hadn't hit our books yet, but it's just flow it has to flow through Marica because they're the ones
030that oversee the GSRP program. And uh in the end it's we're going to come out a little bit ahead ahead of where were we to just keep those 30 FTE and not call them GSRP. Those kids to traditionally would have been JK students. We call them JK or junior kindergarten. The GSRP is just a different name for a certain age group that is associated with the grant funding. And there was additional startup funding for each of the buildings associated with this grant. $40,000 per building, I believe, that we used to purchase equipment and materials. They provided curriculum and training. So, there was some definite positives to the GSRP program. It's just a little lag on receiving the revenue from Marica who was receiving it from the state. >> Okay. So, the state provides that. So,
031we're still going to be receiving that. It's just they're the inter intermediary. They get sent the funds and then eventually they'll >> Yeah. Marica works in that fiduciary capacity also with special education. It's a similar type role. Mr. Lman, correct me, correct me if I'm wrong, but we those dollars flow through Marissa uh before they hit our books and and dust the flag. >> Yeah, you are correct. Some of our special education funding does flow through Marica. Um and and I have been in contact with with Marica, those in charge of the GSRP program, and it isn't it is a startup program. So they've kind of been working the kinks out. Um and uh so we anticipate we haven't received payment yet, but we do anticipate receiving uh payment prior to year end for as
032Mr. Sedwick said um a larger allocation that than we would have uh received had we uh counted those 30 students as our own. >> Okay. >> So thank you. And just real can you just provide a real quick cliff's notes version for the budget being in the red about 600,000 and just briefly put together the local revenue is up about 900 grand that state revenue it looks like it's down about 500,000 um and reconcile kind of where that comes together. >> Yeah. So we we saw an uptick in our local revenue. Um but overall our state revenue is is down and that is through a couple of factors. One um we had uh fewer FTEES claimed um for our our per pupil. Uh as I mentioned we're down 51. Eventually that's going to correct when
033we get our payment from Maurice under the GSRP program. Um so that'll correct for about 30 of those students from that we had counted in our original budget but since >> 30 being 300k correct correct so so those were counted in our original budget since that time we learned they had to be coined by Maresa and then it'll be allocated back to us via different funding mechanism it'll it'll flow through Marica um and then we also had changes in our our MIPERS which we've seen some pretty significant changes um in our retirement category goals. So, so the state funds um the state fund the state reimburses us for a portion of the uh employee reimbursement or the employee retirement costs. Um and we've seen some some pretty significant fluctuations in our mixtures funding through the
034state. Now, last year we saw a reduction midyear and then it ticked back up in in later state aid payments that we received. So, I'm hoping that we'll see some some increase yet in in the allocations coming from MIPERS, but that's still all being worked out at the state level as well. So, we've just seen some we've just seen some some um we're we're still waiting there's still a lot of things we're waiting for for for guidance from MDE on um just because the budget got adopted so late this year and uh MIPERS is one of those areas that we're just we're just seeing some um uh we have some unknowns. We're waiting for some guidance from the state and uh and it's it's just been some some pretty big swings in that in that
035area. So, okay. Thank you. And so in theory that balance proposed that 600ish,000 that would be in the red would be reduced pretty significantly once the GSRP funds are reconciled. >> Uh I think that's fair. I think that's a fair statement. So once that happens it would be is 300,000 right moving forward depending on what that final nipers >> yeah and and then you know and I can't I can't say in a future amendment that we want to also see some increases on our expense side um that you know usually there is uh we tend to budget a little bit conservatively as I've said before and coming into year end I always try to I like to be you know like 1 to 2% within our final actual expenditures So, um, but we tend to
036be a little conservative when we budget, too. So, >> Okay. Thank you. >> But the goal is to be in that 1 to 2% mark at year end. >> All right. Thank you. I know we have a long meeting. Sorry. >> Yeah. No, no, great questions. >> Are the 31A funds that we won't be eligible for reflected in this amendment? >> Uh, no. I believe we took the 31A funds out of the uh out of the budget. So would the plan still be to tackle some of those projects using other funds? >> So um that's a great segue into my next section for our facilities planning. We do it we're actually targeting some of those projects through a potential bond proposal or through the bond proposal that we'll be discussing here shortly. And there's still
037some money that we're using to capital projects and syncing fund dollars that we're using to address safety related but not necessarily the 31A targeted projects. Those are going to be captured most notably the PA systems at both and also at Grey Barrett are going to be targeted through this bond proposal. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> That was a great segue, Mr. Smith. >> So, big night, important night for our facility planning process. Just a quick recap on a couple of the most recent events. On December 1st, we had a miss a meeting with the Michigan uh Department of Treasury to discuss our pre-qualification uh application for a bond potential bond projects project. On December 8th, the MAPS board of education approved that application and on January 9th, the Michigan Department of Treasury sent
038us confirmation that our application was approved. So the application contained a lot of information. It actually contained the entire bond proposal which would show up on the ballot and that ballot uh we're planning or is set now the election date is set for May 5th of 2026. As part of the process that we've laid out to the board in previous presentations, tonight is important uh in large part because this is the evening when the board is going to consider a resolution to call a special election. So there's there's three items in a fairly lengthyformational packet. Uh in your board packet is this entire resolution and supporting documentation. There is, like I said, the balance question contains the specific wording that will appear before v voters outlining the 59.995 million dollar bond amount and the specific
039purposes. You've heard me talk about safety agent infrastructure and programming. For example, I mentioned the election date. The resolution would formally designate Tuesday, May 5th, 2026 as the date for this special election. And the resolution also addresses a filing requirement. Once adopted, our board secretary is going to be filing this resolution to our local election coordinator and uh within 12 weeks uh prior to the election date, we're going to ensure that they have the necessary information to move forward. fiscal uh responsibility scope. Uh we asked and we listened. I guess is a line I've been using with our community during presentations talking about our survey. We're really looking at this as a communitydriven solution. We asked the community for feedback and took that feedback to design this scope. Most notably is Bothel Middle School with
04040% of the roughly $60 million proposal. That's going to address a number of items including an addition full renovation of the second floor, career teched and art. The high school, Marquette Senior High School specifically is next as far as prioritization. We're about 29% addressing all spaces, academic, arts, and athletics. and then continue on with critical infrastructure in all of our buildings as well. The millage impact is going to be estimated at 1.55 mills. You've heard me talk about our mill rates, how much we levy compared to neighboring districts districts and the state average. We currently levy about 1.3 mills. That's from a bond small bond 38 bond from 2016 that Mr. Lampman alluded to and also the syncing fund at about 0.95. So 1.3 currently with that 1.55 increase that's about 2.85 or 2.86 still
041keeping us well below the state average of 4.5. And you've heard or seen me present comparisons other districts still below many of our neighbors. By working through the Michigan Treasury and the school bond qualification process, we are going to carry the state of Michigan's credit rating, which typically results in a lower interest rate and reduce costs for taxpayers trying to be fiscally responsible. We're also phasing the borrowing over 28 years instead of 30. Also saving interest, two phases, each about 14 years in that uh in that uh project. So tonight again, the board is going to be considering a resolution calling for a special election on May 5th, 2026. You have that entire resolution in your packet. It is quite lengthy. I just provided a synopsis. I do have one other item under the superintendent
042report, but if you have any questions, I wanted to pause. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Hearing none. One of the items that uh is another item that is under the superintendent report. Also an action item tonight is elevator modernization. You've heard me talk about elevators in the past. We have some experience with elevators and we need to move forward with modernizing the rest of our elevators. This is one of the projects that Mr. Lampman was alluding to as far as a targeted project for syncing fund dollars, building up that sinking fund revenue so that we have enough to cover the costs of expensive projects. And this is going to be one for sure. So, we have three elevators being considered tonight. And by the way, Mr. Roberts from GEI or owners rep is here if we
043have any questions on the elevator modernization. He took the lead on managing this project and wrote the bid recommendation that you have in your packet. So we have three elevators, two at the high school and one at both. Uh these are all all three of these are critical elevators. These units are significantly past their useful life and require complete replacement of controllers, power units, door operators, and ADA compliant cab interiors to stay current with Michigan, state of Michigan and market county building codes. This project that's being proposed that the board is considering tonight is a turnkey responsibility for the general contractor and that's key that they are going to operate as a general contractor to address some of the concerns that came from the last project. We had a public bid opening on December 3rd.
044There were two biders. At that public opening, Otis Elevator was the low bidder. and you have that bid recommendation letter so you can see the costs in your packet. In our bid specs, we did address a number of past concerns coming from Gravette and those concerns were all addressed in the bid and the bid provided by Otis is significantly lower than the preliminary costs uh that they provided in their capital management plan and also lower than the other bidder. So again to summarize this contract will include uh all the or address all the concerns from our last project. It is a unified warranty covering all aspects of a turnkey installation or modernization for three elevators ensuring long-term protection for the district's investment. Again two at the high school and one at Bwell. Any questions? When
045are these expected to begin and conclude? Is that in in here >> in the packet? If you want to come up, Isaac, it is a two-year plan. So, this coming summer, we would target one of the high school elevators in the Bothwell elevator and next summer the other high school elevator. But Mr. Roberts can speak more to that. >> Yeah. So, two of the elevators are there's a high probability that the cylinders will need to be redrilled. So, the it'll be phased out so that only one of those is being done in the first year so that if there are any delays, you don't have a whole school down with elevators. So, it's more of a strategic approach. >> Mr. Drivers, can you summarize the cost because the drilling is accounted for? Just a quick
046synopsis. [clears throat] >> Yes. So, in the RFP, we wanted them to provide upfront cost for any redrilling that could or could not happen. So, um Otis came in at $50,000 per elevator for redrill. So, that'll be that'll be allocated, but only used if that needs to be taken into account. Uh, Metro came in at 115 and 116,500. So, there was a significant difference between the red drilling prices between the two companies and that was a a big import or big recommendation to go with Otis because there is a high probability that the cylinders will need to be redrilled. That contract language, excuse me, excuse me. That contract language, as I understand it, ensures uh authority for us to hold them accountable were they to drill and come in with higher costs. >> Yes. Yep.
047>> That was one of my upfront questions to them. So, that's that's in your packet, their responses. >> Did we receive two bids last time we did this? >> No. >> Is this the first time we've ever received a bid from Metro Elevator? >> Correct. Yes. >> Okay. And the difference between the original proposed cost and the and the quoted cost in the bid is quite significant. >> Yeah. I'm just that's curious. I think they're just moving into the area and or trying to >> competition. No. So >> I mean it's good to have competition but I'm surprised that they're higher. So >> as they're significantly higher. >> Oh >> the new the new people anyway. >> Okay. Um the base bids were pretty pretty close in price. I mean they were >> 10% difference.
048>> Yeah. >> Almost >> 60 60,000. >> Yeah. 60,000 roughly difference. Otis being lower by 60,000 then with the potential redrilling Otis was >> uh just short of 200,000 short less. >> Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Roberts. If there's no further questions from the board on elevators or facilities for me, Mr. Roberts also is a great help for us in our facility planning process in case you have any questions in that regard. Otherwise, that concludes my superintendent report. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Uh, moving on to student school board representatives reports. Okay, up first we have a report on the arts. Um, our pet band, which is a new thing this winter basketball season, they've become super involved by playing at all of our girls and boys basketball games. And they also got to
049go to all four elementary schools last Thursday with our varsity basketball teams to introduce themselves and promote winter homecoming, which now has been rescheduled for February 6th. Um, and then some things that student council has been focusing on and we are looking forward to. Uh, we recently planned winter homecoming and a spirit week with dressup days and an assembly, but due to the snow day last Friday, winter homecoming events will now take place, like I said, on Friday, February 6th. And then in partnership with our MSHs guidance department, student council members will be having a new student coffee tomorrow in our very own coffee shop here at the high school. And finally, um, Mr. Travis Smith will be joining interested student council members on this Wednesday, January 14th, to inform them about the bond proposal
050and the impact it'll have on our schools in our school district. And then finally, I would just like to say happy schoolboard appreciation month and thank you guys for everything you do here at the meetings and behind the scenes. And I would also like to give a shout out to our superintendent for speaking at the um, ART economics club meeting. That was great and it was really informative for the community. >> Okay, for academics, we have semester exam review this week and then exams are going to be Tuesday through Friday next week and a new academic club, business professionals of America, will have around 10 students competing in regionals in Esanaba on Friday with their adviser, Mrs. Kim Carr. For athletics, the boys and girls varsity basketball teams both lost against Monomony this past Friday,
051but they will be going down state this weekend for two games. Alpine skiing has had a great start to their season with three races and three wins for both boys and girls. Hockey will also have two or hockey won two games down state last weekend. The swim team will compete in Broodyard tomorrow and wrestling will compete in Kingsford on Thursday. and L said what I was going to say, but I just want to say thank you guys for all you do. And you guys have to make a lot of hard decisions and you probably get a lot of backlash from that, but thank you guys [laughter] for listening. >> Sometimes sometimes just depends. >> Thank you very much for that. Uh moving on to comments from the public. Uh we have one, Mr. Alba. Good
052evening. I'm John Aba. Thank you for allowing me to just taking the opportunity here. >> Someone muted it. >> I believe that light needs to be shed on a very important issue that continues to be hidden. In order for the public to understand what I'm about to say, they need some background information. Pretty much everyone knows students around the middle school age already that go to Bothwell. How terrible Mr. Rico and Mr. Van Welzinger act towards certain students in that school. As we already know, it's always the struggling disabled students that these two target. Nothing changes. No one does anything about it. And the school goes on like nothing's happening. Here's what you need to know if you don't know it already. My son was previously expelled from Bwell and in fact technically expelled from
053every public school in Michigan because Mr. Rico and Mr. Van Welzinger and the board he was not expelled for any legitimate reason. He was expelled for buying a toy online. Then our friend's mom found this toy, brought it to Mr. Rico and what follows is a ridiculous circus of the school covering up for their actions against my son. I'm the first to tell you that my son made a mistake. He purchased a plastic item. The item was designed to look like brass knuckles. What I cannot stress enough is that there were literally these small plastic things that were no real cause for concern and that he never actually even had them in his possession or he's never even seen them. My son may even have faced some discipline for buying something made to look like
054knuckles. But it should have been reasonable and proportionate. It was not. Instead, it was far away from being reasonable. That actually what happened Mr. Rico and Mr. Vanueler orchestrated for the police to come detain my son failed to properly notify me and violated my son's fourth amendment right. After perpetrating these constitutional violations against my son, they seized the alleged evidence used to get Rowdy expelled and mysteriously failed to keep the evidence, they destroyed it so that no one had had to answer for their actions. My son not only never brought the alleged weapon to school, he literally never even had it in his hands. Mr. Rico and Mr. Van Ozener lied to the board to get my son expelled, telling the board he brought a weapon to school. Lie after lie was spun by the
055school administrators, teachers, and staff to the board to get my son expelled. This intentional misrepresentation was calculated and intentional by Mr. Rico and Mr. Van Wner. You see, they do this at Bathville because the school and the staff feel that students at home are behavioral or waste of time. Mr. Rico and Mr. Vanzer have literally told my son to his face that he's a waste of their time. How many of you can say that thing about your students? Have you asked them about these two? I know from personally speaking with several parents that they already know how terrible BWA is for some students. They know how many people are aware of how awfully these two these two treat their students. I also know that the board has known for a long time that this is
056a problem. and they refuse to do anything about it. These two individuals target special needs and disabilities to get them out of the school, out of their hair, because they consider them a problem and a waste of time. Why haven't you done anything? Why didn't you do anything when I brought you proof that my son's safety plan and IEP was [clears throat] being ignored? Why didn't you do anything when you were informed by the Department of Education that Mr. Rico, Mr. Van Welzinger and Both who were found guilty of violating my son's IEPs and safety plan. Why do you need to do anything? Why do you continue to let special needs and special education students be neglected in your schools? When a student file like my sons finally gets to your desk and you're reading
057a request to permanently expel him, it's no wonder he acts out. He's been ignored and mistreated and intentionally set up to fail because the school refuses to give him what he needs for his education plan. When we complained about this issue, why didn't you do anything about it? How do you justify your public that you hired a supposed investigator who literally their paychecks signed by this board? It's no wonder your investigator told you that you didn't do anything wrong. You pretended pretended to care and you pretended to look into the issue with an office that you already knew would come back and tell you that you didn't do anything wrong. You don't care about the students and you don't care about what's going on in your school district. >> You care about keeping it easy
058and quiet time and again, >> sir. >> Yes. >> You've reached your >> Can I just finish this last paragraph? You've reached your time. >> Okay, >> it's really important this last part. >> Unfortunately, due to the weather, my attorney is unable to be with us in person today. Therefore, if there are any questions to this notice of intent to file a lawsuit that was already provided to this board, I'm asking you to contact my attorney and not ask me any questions about it. She is informing that she's willing to answer your questions, but to please either call a special session board meeting for a date and time that she's available to submit them in writing. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right, moving on to new business. Um, organizational meeting issues. We can
059do this all in >> um we can have a motion to approve the organizational meeting issues items 1 through 7 as presented. >> Okay. So I would entertain a motion to adopt the organizational meeting issues as presented 1 through 7. >> I'll make a motion to adopt the organizational meeting issues 1 through 7 as presented. support. Okay. Motion made by Mrs. Clip, support by Mrs. Maddox Smith. Um any comments or questions? This is um pretty pretty basic that we do every year. Um any questions? Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. um set board meeting dates for 2026. Um those are in your packets. So I'd entertain a motion to approve those dates as presented. >> I move that we uh accept the dates as presented for the uh board
060meetings for 2026. >> Support. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Smith, support by Ms. Ray. Um any comments about the dates? No. All those in favor? >> I >> um consider adoption of amendment to 2025 2026 budget. >> I'll make a motion to adopt the amendment to the 2025 2026 budget. >> Support. Okay. Motion made by Ms. Ray. Support by Mrs. Matic Smith. Uh, any comments or questions regarding that? >> Um, with that, will we be able to get an update or just add that to an update from the superintendent's report to let us know when the GSRP changes um, when those funds have come in. >> Well, we'll have another budget amendment when that happens. >> Correct. Yes. Um, we would include that in a future budget implement. >> So, we have uh >> we
061could do that. Yes. Yes. We can we I'm sorry. I >> uh we can we can inform the board when we do receive those funds ESRP as well. That's not an issue. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we have motion and support. Any further questions? All those in favor? I >> I >> um accept federal award single audit for the year ended June 30th, 2025 by Anderson Tacman and Company PL. >> I'll make a motion to accept the federal award single audit for the year ended at June 30th, 2025 by Anderson, Tacman, and >> support. Okay. Motion made by Ms. Ray support by Mr. Smith. Any comments or questions? All those in favor? >> I I >> um consider awarding the elevator modernization project to Otis Elevator Company as recommended. >> Make a motion to award
062the elevator contract to elev elevator modernization project. All right. Uh to Otis elevator company as recommended. >> Okay. Uh motion made by Mr. Zedonic support by Ms. Ray. Uh any further comments or questions regarding this? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Um, approve resolution regarding bond proposal and ballot proposition. >> I move that we approve the resolution as presented for the special election on May 8, 2026 for the bond proposal for market area public schools. >> Support. >> It's May 5th. >> May 5th. >> Uh, motion made by Mr. Smith support by Mrs. Maddox Smith. Um, any comments or questions? >> Just wanted to make a comment that I do understand that you know this when we did have the survey that was extended. If you'll look at this issue,
063um the respondents did show that the majority of the community do support the um resolution. Um you know, again, it not being a significant landslide, but again, that support being shown by that survey. um you know I I don't take looking at a bond proposal um lightly but again that that community does did show support for the uh bond and you know with that I um I do support the resolution um especially looking at difficult decisions like this um understanding that you know costs are significant for everyone um so again that that consideration isn't taken lightly. Um, but again, when looking at trying to find what that support is or that support level, um, know I do really rely on the input or, uh, that we've received from those surveys. So, I just want to
064mention that I do appreciate the input that was received by the community um, on that uh, on the bond issue. >> Good for that. Uh, any further comments? Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Uh, moving on to board member comments. Um, we'll start with Mr. Smith. >> Um, we've reached a milestone this evening with this bond proposal. And I I you know in in previous board meetings we've talked a lot about the benefits to the district and the things that have gone into bringing the project to this point. At this level or at at this juncture, I would just encourage the community to um seek out the information that's available and learn more about all of the benefits that will occur to this district at what is turning out
065to be a reasonable cost. U Mr. Zudnik's comments notwithstanding this is a lot of money that we're talking about and um I think we all recognize that um in order to have a quality education system we need to have the facilities and the staff and the administration that uh make up uh all of the components of uh public education. So, I would just hope that our community will rally around this and take the time to learn more about some really exciting things that are about to happen. >> Thank you, Ms. Thomas. >> As always, thank you to our speakers. Thank you to our student school board representatives. Um, yeah, the the bond proposal is not something that any of us have taken lightly and we've been talking about it for quite some time and I'm
066very excited to hopefully um have our community rally around our schools. You know, your community is only as good as your public schools are. So, I hope that the next few months bring lots of good questions, plenty of answers, and hopefully make that we have some money to spruce up our schools. Thank you, Mrs. Maddox. >> Sorry, my turn already. Um, I just want to say thanks to each and every one of our board members. Um, it is a lot, you know, as as you guys hear tonight, like going through the u financial issues and the budget and getting it broke down and understanding all of it. We we put a lot of time behind the scenes into it. And the fact that our executive committee just seamlessly steps up and um volunteers to do
067this is is a really big deal, but I don't think everybody understands. It's a lot of hard work and um I really appreciate our executive committee. Thank you people for for stepping forward and and taking on these roles. Um I think um the bond proposal um I agree with Jason. It it's a big deal and it's not anything that any of us have taken lightly. We did listen to the public with the survey. Um what the public wanted um some of the fun things that you know innovative technologies that we would have liked um were just kind of beyond the scope of what the public was interested in doing at that time. So, we did really take the time and listen and I'm really looking forward to um to the listening sessions um because we
068know investing in our kids' education and their future is paramount. Healthy schools, healthy community. Um thanks to our student reps. Thank you very much for um for recognizing us for what we do. And I'm also really excited to hear that um as far as the bond proposal that you guys are getting an update on it, too. because really it's about you. So that's really awesome. Thank you everyone. Mrs. Clip, uh just to echo what everybody else has said, I um money is tight for uh everyone I think right now. regardless of your income, you're aware of hits that maybe were not around uh four or five years ago in terms of everyday expenses. And so to go to the community and ask for an increase uh in a monthly bill or a you know a
069bundled uh six-month uh bill, it's real and um it is not taken lightly. I think one of the things that is most interesting to me is a lot of times the public if they are in other areas schools they're in their gyms or they're in their football fields and um I have a a little different perspective um being an educator in a neighboring district and particularly our neighbors uh as they cluster the west end um I don't think the public has the opportunity to be in other in other buildings and other libraries. I'm looking at our media center. I mean, we're looking around right now. We've been in the little gem and I've had the opportunity for no other reason other than professionally to be in uh our neighboring district's buildings and um I know
070that this community wants a school environment that's on par with our neighbors and um I know our kids deserve that. We know, we teach our kids uh or we try to teach our kids to keep their rooms clean and their backpacks organized because we know environment matters and environment leads to learning. It leads to better mental health. All of the metrics are there and they've been well proven. So I think when um when we see what this large expense, reasonable but large expense is going to do for our students and when we have any kind of um scope beyond the minute-by-minute world that we live in, we don't want to be left behind and we really don't want to be left behind. uh with the competitive spirit that this uh community has, we don't want
071to be left behind, particularly in context of our uh cluster of neighbors to the left. Um I should say to the to the west of us. I'm thinking about how I turn onto the highway, which is funny. I'm tired. Uh really amazing things are happening in those buildings and unless you're in them, you don't know. Our kids deserve it. I'm proud of how fiscally responsible and uh thoughtful and intentional the decisions have been made. And that leads me to the executive board um Superintendent uh Sedwick uh Mr. Lampman, our partners at GEI and all of those folks. While this board has as a whole has shown up and asked questions and I I feel like we do a very good job of communicating um the executive board over the last year has taken a heavy
072lift and it it's not lost on me. So I really want to say thank you uh to you guys because you really have been at the front lines of this. Thank you to our speakers as always. Thank you to our students. You guys are great and we really do we rely we rely on you um to to let us know what's going on. I hope everybody has a wonderful wonderful start to 2026. Fingers crossed. Thank you, >> Mr. Zone. >> Not sure who we have to thank for the schoolboard appreciation items, but thank you um for those. No additional comments. Thank you, >> Miss Ray. um not ever having been on a board at all um previously, it's um been a real privilege. uh going into my last year on this board, I've learned a
073lot and have experienced a lot and you know board appreciation needs is is real and needs to be acknowledged um because it is a lot of work and a lot of big decisions that aren't always um you're not going to please everybody. But I I have been really proud to be part of this group and grateful for each person at this table including the students um and the administration who each person brings something in a different perspective and I learn from each and every one of you and so thank you for being a part of all of this. It's been a real privilege. Um, that being said, I yes am very excited about this bond proposal and definitely have put in a lot of hours over the last eight months and a lot of meetings
074um and learned a lot. It's obvious when you walk through these hallways and these school rooms and I hope um the community does that. Come check out our schools. come see what it is that we want to and what needs to be done inside them. Um it's an exciting time to be able to do it although a difficult time as I do know that um you know costs are always an issue um individually as well as a community but this needs to be addressed and the exciting part of it is that I think the community um sees that and knows it as well and we are just going to be so much better and richer for it as a community and our students are just going to benefit tremend tremendously. So, I'm super excited about
075this. Um, and I do encourage people to come and ask the questions and come see the schools, see what what is currently the situation and what we hope it to be um down the road. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. Um, board president comments. Um, just really echoing what everyone else has said. Um, I'm looking forward to another year with this board. Um, and I'm looking forward to doing big great things this year. Uh, moving on to announcements and other meetings. Uh, January 19th, 2026, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, no school. Uh, January 20 through 23, uh, 9 through 12, first semester exams. Uh, January 21st through 23rd, 9th through 12 early release. January 23rd, end of the first semester. January 28th, uh, 8th grade, parent orientation, 6 p.m. in the little theater. February 2nd,
0762026, committee of the whole/ special meeting at Cherry Creek in the library at 5:30. Um, and I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Make a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion made by admin Thomas, support by Mr. Stunick. All those in favor? I >> I