001All right, I'd like to call the meeting to order. We will start with the pledge of allegiance. We'll have the students start us, please. >> I pledge algiance 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. >> Roll call, please. Kristen Cambenzi >> here. >> Jennifer Ray >> here. >> Jason Zadunic >> here. >> Jennifer Cliff >> here. [snorts] >> Cheryl Maddox Smith >> here. >> Cassidy Thomas. Eric Smith. >> Okay. And I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda. >> Make a motion to approve the agenda. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion made by Mr. Zadnik, support by Mrs. Clip. All those in favor? I >> I >> uh moving on to the superintendent report,
002Mr. Sledwick. >> Thank you, President Cam Benzy. I think I'm going to jump up to the podium and introduce our guest. All right, make sure the mic works for you here. So, good evening everyone. Over the past several months, Marquette Area Public Schools has been engaging our community in conversations about the future of our facilities. As you know, our building's average age is 60 years old. And a recent state and district study have identified over $100 million of facility needs from ADA accessibility improvements to infrastructure, HVAC, and classroom renovations. to help us better understand our community's priorities and the level of support for a potential bond to address our facility needs. And in conjunction with our work with Myron Construction as a construction manager for this project, we partnered with School Perceptions, an independent research
003film film firm that specializes in education and community engagement surveys. School Perceptions has conducted more than 1,300 community surveys nationwide over the past 20 years with a 90% accuracy rate in predicting election outcomes. Partnering with a third party firm like School Perceptions helps ensure that our process remains objective, credible, and transparent. This survey, the survey we used was customized for the district, then mailed to households across the community, and designed so that each response can only be used once. This ensures that the data we receive is both representative and reliable. The survey asked community members to weigh in on several key topics, including the condition of our current facilities and which needs should be prioritized, support for various project scopes, ranging from a $60 million base plan to expanded options up to 1002.5 million and
004the community's understanding of the potential tax impact. The feedback we've received will guide the board's next steps as we consider how best to maintain safe, efficient, and future ready schools while continuing to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. Tonight, we're pleased to welcome Rob Demuse from School Perceptions, who has worked closely with us throughout this process. Rob will share an overview of the survey results, key takeaways from our community's feedback, and what these insights might mean as we continue to plan for the future of Market Area Public Schools. Please join me in welcoming Rob from School Perceptions. It's all yours. >> I did promise Zach I would use the laser pointer responsibly. I don't usually get to use one of these, but I worked my best. Um, so as you heard, I am Rob from
005School Perceptions. I'm the vice president of research at School Perceptions. Um, we do all kinds of surveys, be it staff, uh, student, parent surveys, uh, community surveys, more the planning and satisfaction surveys, but as you know, the the pre-bond surveys that I'll go through with you tonight. As we go through, um, on the right hand side, you won't see it yet, but on the right hand side of each of these slides, there's going to be a different color. I'm going to spend the least amount of time on blue. That is exactly what was in your survey itself. So, we've taken screenshots. We've reproduced everything mostly [clears throat] to make this a one-stop shop for you so that you don't have to try to dig up a survey that was mailed to you a couple of
006weeks ago or find a draft laying around. Everything that was in the survey itself is also in this report. The yellow slides, we're going to begin with those in just a moment. Um that's largely demographics. Who took your survey? How old are they? Where do they live? So on spend by far most uh time on green, the results and analysis. Um, I do have a couple of slides at the end for wrap-up and questions, but please, um, interrupt me along the way. I used to teach high school social studies. That is not foreign to me to be interrupted. So, here we go. Um, as Zach said, we at School Perceptions, we've been in business since 2002, and our mission has never once changed. We want to help educational leaders such as yourselves do three things.
007Gather, organize, and use data to make strategic decisions. So, we've conducted over three million staff, parent, student, and community surveys, all in the name of school improvement and probably a slide that needs updating. Um, we're quickly approaching 1500 uh community surveys that we've done either in the planning or referendum world. So, let's get straight into you. Your survey deadline uh was about a week and a half ago, April 3rd. um you ended up with a little over 1,900 respondents um which is far beyond almost 6x what you would need for statistical significance. So kind of minimum I look for is 376. Obviously you blew that out of the water about five or five or six times as many as what you would needed to be confident in the data and a pretty normal response rate
008for a community your size that also has a college nearby. So 13% response rate for a margin of error that comes to 2 point let's say 2.3% for the sake of remembering cuz I am going to revisit that number in about 10 or so slides. So kind of no news is good news here which is a good place to begin. But again um I will come back to that 2.3. So if you are taking notes maybe just jot that number down for now. age. First place my eyes go is 65 plus. When we analyze some of your US census data via the American community survey, um which is actually done annually. It's not just done in the uh dicial um 10-year census. It's done every year. We analyze that data to make sure we're getting
009good representation of your community. When I look at 65 plus, not just for the city of Marquette itself, but for the boundaries of your school district, 17.7% of your community is 65 plus, but 42% of your survey takers are. That's a good place to be because your 65 plus are also going to be over represented on election day, much like they are in your survey. So, it's okay to be over represented there again because that's going to be skewed in your electorate as well. Obviously, not all of these age groups vote in the same way. You're going to get your lowest turnout from 18 to 24. You also got your lowest survey turnout from 18 to 24. But I always look to that top bar first to make sure we're getting good senior citizen representation.
010And by all means, you are here. We then asked, is your primary residence in the district? Now, a good question here is why would you send this to someone who doesn't live here? Which is a valid question. Um, as a staff member, I could certainly live elsewhere and commute. Um, if I open roll into the district, if I own property, but I don't live here, but I have a PO box or or a fire number on hand, I'm going to get the survey. That said, we are going to filter out anybody who said no or not sure because they cannot control an election within your district's boundaries. So again, we want to hear from them, but if they can't vote here and can control a bond proposal, then we need to filter them out of
011the data analysis coming up. In which municipality do you live? About six and 10 were in the city of Marquette itself, but you did have representation from all municipalities that pay taxes to Marquette area public schools, including 5% representation from SANS. two questions that are going to get us to three key subgroups that we're going to spend a lot of time on in just a couple of minutes. So, in isolation in just a couple of moments, we're going to focus on how staff feel. [clears throat] We're going to focus on how parents feel, but then we're also going to look at the no, the non-parents, non- staff, because by far they are the biggest chunk of your community. I'm going to talk more about that in a second, but again, these two questions are what
012are going to get us to those three groups. two of which you'll actually see here in purple, which is the upper part of each dual bar. Those are your non-parents, non-staff. Your parents are in blue. So, this was the final demographic question. How would you like to receive information from us? Note the wording of the question. This is a preference question. So, it's not how do you communicate with me, it's how I want to be communicated with. So, you could be doing X and I I don't want to learn about you that way. I really want to learn about your Y method. What I see here, sorted from top to bottom by non-parents, non- staff, about half of your non-parents, non-staff want a newsletter. That's the primary way they want to learn about what's going
013on in your schools. About onethird are looking at the website, followed closely by the mining journal. Then we take a little bit of a step off. About one in five of your non-parents, non- staff, if possible, are looking for an email. Your parents are a bit more balanced. Uh, by far, when your parents want to know something, they want to learn about it via email. They are also valuing your newsletters and your website um and then Facebook down there. So you do have some strong parent social media presence as well. About a quarter of your parents primarily want to learn about you um through social media. So not only this will this be important as you move forward and communicate, but remember you can slice and dice this um all kinds of ways. So if
014you wanted to say show me x age group and x municipality who is also a non-parent non- staff, Zach can absolutely do that. So, if you do want to cater your communications a bit, you certainly can. Um, but I always stop here um and make the point that um with access to the data, you can slice and dice unless or until you get to a pool of people that is five or fewer. If you get any further than that, myself included, even as a school perceptions employee, our system's going to throw up some roadblocks and say, "I don't know about that. You might find find out who they are." We promise confidentiality. We promise privacy. So, our system will stop you if you disagregate too far. But if you do want to investigate a little
015bit about different age groups and how they want to learn about you, this is how you would do that. Couple of blue slides. So again, this is where I'm going to spend the least amount of time. This is exactly what was in your survey itself. So that comparison, that sense of relativity from your mill comparisons to some of your regional neighbors with the um most up-to-date data we had at the time of print. You are down there obviously in the lower right with the red and then some introductory question or introductory points rather. So as a survey respondent before I know whether I'm willing to solve a problem I have to know what that problem is. So, here were some of the features that you learned about in a facility audit. So, whether it's your
016elevators, whether it's the age of the buildings, whether it's the gym floors, um the structures that are that are beyond repair, whatever the case may be, we listed out some of those main um problems that you were looking to solve with the help of your voters. And here's your first green question. Would you support Marquette Area Public Schools exploring a bond proposal at this time? This is our permission slip question. There's no numbers attached to this yet and that's intentional. All we want to know from this question is does the community give you permission to continue talking about this to continue exploring. There are times where we get to this slide and a community doesn't even want to know about it. They don't want to talk about it and that's kind of a that's kind
017of a DOA proposal then for that district here. that is not you. You have that permission slip signed from all of these key subgroups. I'll talk about this more in just a moment, but my takeaway from this slide is your community is giving you permission to put something on a ballot. As we go on tonight, we're going to talk about what that thing could or should be. But this slide's takeaway right here is your community is giving you permission to continue this bond proposal exploration process. About nine and 10 of your staff, so far left hand side are giving you permission to continue. About 7 and 10 of your parents and a slight majority of your non-parents non-staff at 51% are giving you permission to continue to explore. Obviously then comparing 89 69 and 51
018all of those three beat what you see there in the middle with no in terms of no non-parents non-staff that 34% that's kind of in the middle of your screen there I think I'd probably call that not much home not not much to write home about in any given community doesn't matter who you are doesn't matter where you are doesn't matter what state you're in typically about a quarter to a third of nonparents non- staff will say, "No, I don't even want you to explore, study, pursue, whatever verb, whatever verb we put in there, they're going to say no." So, that is not uncommon. What I'm seeing here in that 34%. So, as you get this permission slip signed, as you move forward, now you got to know that, all right, so then what do
019we put on the ballot? Where is that sweet spot? What projects are we going to move forward with? Back to a blue slide here. We talked a little bit about what some of those priority one projects are. much of them mirrored what I had up in a previous blue slide. And then certainly maybe the most important point of the entire survey. A big number on a ballot or whatever size of the number it is doesn't matter. I need to know how much is that going to cost me. I can't say yes or no until I know how much that costs me as a taxpayer in your community. And that's where we disclose that here. So let's revisit these same subgroups. Would you support a $60 million bond proposal to fund the priority 1 projects staff
020and only those staff who can vote here? So once again, we've filtered out anybody moving forward now that cannot control a vote within your district boundaries. The data stayed very steady compared to the question I just had up. About 85% of your staff who are residents are supportive of this bond proposal. parents, 69% said yes to the $60 million bond proposal. And our purple group, 50% of your non-parents, non-staff said yes to the $60 million bond proposal. So, let me back up just a little bit. So, this is the slide I just had up about 30 seconds ago. I just back up here just to remind folks that there's a different number of people that are making up each of these slides. So, your staff are incredibly influential. They are the number one ambassadors of
021your district. They are the ones that are going to get stopped at the post office, the grocery store, and say, "I got the survey. Tell me what's going on." So, really big ambassadors. Numbers-wise though, on election day, they make up about 1% of your electorate. Parents in any given community are about 20 to 25%. Which means most of the folks in your community, most of the folks that will be there on election day are in this slide right here. Non-parents, non- staff. So, we're going to have a slide up that looks like this quite a few times tonight. This is the same data, same numbers, but what we did then is weight the support based on how big each of those groups are. So if parents are about 20% of the community on election day
022and they're 69% supportive of the $60 million bond, your non-parents non- staff came in at 50% support, but they make up about 80% of voters on election day. What this is telling me is if you as a board decided to put this on a ballot today, 53.8% of your community would support it at that $60 million threshold. We're going to move on to some other numbers here. Actually, before I do that, um that margin of error 2.3 plus or minus. It does have that pesky pesky plus or minus. You are outside of that though. So even if you took the subtraction out of that what I get for doing math live what do we have 21.5 or 51.5 rather sorry 51.5. So even with the margin of error going down again it could go up
023as well but you are north of 50%. But again the takeaway from this slide or so far rather you have permission from your community to support to uh uh explore a bond proposal and you have support of approximately 54% of your voters if the election were held today. I'm going to carry this logic through with the 20 and the 80% a few more times as we move on. Any questions though about the logic of the data so far before I show you some more numbers then we built. So here we talked about some of the additional infrastructure major building systems projects you could do. still saying at this at that $60 million base plan, but potentially moving up to 90 million for additional $30 million of priority 2 projects. Once again, the most important numbers
024here, that's all well and good, but how much is that going to cost me depending on how much property value I have? Only then can I tell you whether I like it or not. Here we put all those numbers together. So, first the question, what bond proposal amount would you support? Assuming the projects included were acceptable to you. Go all the way up to the top left, non-parents, non-staff. It looks kind of black. It's actually a dark green, but put your eyes in the 23% there for just a moment. What that's telling us here is if the board decided to put a $90 million bond proposal on the ballot, approximately 23% of your non-parents, non- staff would support that on election day. Once again, that that's the biggest chunk of your community. But if I'm
025willing to support 90 million, then the logic is I'm willing to support something that goes cheaper. So then we just do fairly simple math. So if I take 23 and I add 7, I'm at 30. plus another nine. I'm at 39. Plus another 11. Right at 50% again for your non-parents non-staff. So your data is staying very very very steady as we go through. You just heard a couple of slides back approximately 50% of your non-parents non-staff um would support a $60 million bond. You got the exact same data here on a question a few on a few pages later. For your parents, they're a bit more supportive. They come in at 44 and 11 is 55%. um when you cross $70 million and your staff are in at 90 million. So once again, we
026have to do the same kind of logic here. Basically, the logic is how low do you need to go until you cross 50% threshold? And that's what these numbers say here. So what this is saying is if the board decided to put a $90 million referendum on the ballot, approximately 26% of the community would support it on election day. about onethird of your electorate would support an $80 million bond proposal. 42% at 70 million and then once again your data staying very steady appro we're in that kind of 53 to 54% range for a $60 million bond proposal. Once again that does remain outside of your margin of error. Priority three included the indoor multi-purpose facility. A little description of what it was once again. How much is this going to cost me? And we'll
027do the same logic. Staff residents a little under 6 and 10 are supportive of 97.5 million including that indoor facility. Parents are split 50%. Your non-parents non-staff for priority 3 came in at 28% support for that level. When you put that together, approximately a little under onethird of your electorate electorate would support priority three if that election were held today. And then finally, priority four was everything we've already talked about, but adding in that early childhood center, that second to last row here at $5 million on the nose, coming in at $102.5 million total. Once again disclosing that tax impact 60% of your staff are supportive here 40% of parents and that all-in number 28% again from your non-parents non-staff. So when we do that waiting again appropriately waiting that support depending on how big
028those groups are. If the board were to put a $102.5 million bond proposal on the ballot, we would expect approximately 30 to 31% of your electorate to support that on election day. So finally then, I won't tell you how long this took me to make an Excel. I'll just try to impress you with what I did here. Um, priority one on the far left hand side that we have with our with our green signal at 53.8%. So, nothing new on this slide here. We just took all those weighted numbers of support and put them all up here on one slide. So, once again, this is saying at $60 million approximately 54% of your electorate would support that. Not to sound like a broken record, but again, that is outside the margin of error. Even if
029you subtract it, you remain north of 50%. But then you can see that support decline in general as um the cost increases down to about 25 26% support at 90 million. You do see a little bit of uptick there. Um I think some of that is is hold outs for projects people really want whether that's an early childhood center or for some of those indoor facilities. Those are kind of folks that are saying swing for the fence or I won't support anything kind of folks. Um either way you still remain about a third there. So, what I wanted to note here is that $60 million, that's where we put on that that green um that green stoplight. Um it does look like that's kind of the sweet spot for what your community is telling you
030to do. I think this is actually it is. So, let me maybe leave this slide up since this is kind of the entire capsulation of the report in one in one go ahead here. But, let me pause for feedback. Whether it's for me or some of the partners that you have, I'm all willing to take questions and if I don't have it live in front of me, I'll write it down and get Zach the answer ASAP. You [clears throat] had mentioned uh a couple of times where you had an emphasis that if the election were held today y >> right so we know where that number is today the [clears throat] potential election on this would be give or take 6 months or so down the road. >> Yeah. >> What's your experience with where
031that data goes from today to when it's actually placed in front of the voters and let's say six months? >> Matches as you heard Zach say matches about nine and 10 times. So the data that you hear today and what ultimately happens on election day matches 90% of the time. So in other words, if you put a $60 million bond proposal on the ballot and it passes in is it April, May, May. Um if that happens, then we chalk that up as a win in our world. If you were to go to 102.5 million, it doesn't look like the community would support that. But if that's what you took to ballot and it failed, that's a win in our world because that is an accurate prediction. That is us accurately predicting what your taxpayers are
032saying. Now that said, 6 months is a long time. Um, we have no idea what interest rates are going to do. There's a lot of factors politically and economically that can happen. It's a long time. But what I will point out here is that I don't know if this is good, bad, or otherwise. Not a lot of undecideds. So, let's see. I'm on let me move ahead. Let me move ahead to this slide. So, this is would you support a $60 million bond proposal? So that base plan of non-parents non- staff 11% of the largest chunk of your community is undecided. Had that have been 20% I would have not have batted an eye that it would not have been uncommon. So there are fewer folks to move here one way or the other. Um
033if you asked me what happens to the undecideds 5 years ago my answer is different than what it is right now. So 5 years ago we would have expected about 1/3 of your undecided to move towards yes about 2/3 have moved towards no that has flipped substantially or I guess even gotten more ends of the polls substantially is a better way to say that since 2020. Now in any given community about 1 in 10 of your undecided to move towards yes about nine in 10 of your undecided to move towards no. So, I'm giving you a lot of words for a short question, but a long time away. I am always thinking about interest rates and I'm also thinking about what will happen with those undecideds. There's not none. It's a lot less than normal,
034I would say. But that's not bad because that makes our data much clearer. I've given reports where 40% of people are undecided and the board's like, I don't know what to do with that. What do we do? Fortunately, that's not new. You're getting pretty clear data on where your community's threatened weight spot is. So the undecideds for the 60 million or was it was that across the board that the there's the undecided percentage? >> Uh 11% of your non-parents non-staff that's where I focused. Um so what is that about an extra percent from them? So even if you did the normal onetenth voting you're looking at about 55% weighted then just quick back of the envelope math if you take over the normal undecided proportion. M >> I have a question and I [clears throat]
035I'm tired so I'm hope hoping I can make this clear and succinct. Do you have any data that can speak to um any movement based on a a dedicated messaging? So my my question is two parts. >> That's the first part and then I will get to my second part. But do you have any data that speaks to, you know, sort of a a messaging campaign and how much that can move numbers? >> Let me give you a really unsatisfying political answer. >> Great. >> Um, >> the short answer is, can it happen? Yes. That's where I draw my line in the sand though and say I can't give you the directions to do that. Otherwise, immediately tomorrow we would be accused of being a not unbiased firm. >> Sure, I understand that. >> And
036so, can I give you what the messages are? >> No, because I truly don't know. cuz at that point I don't want to pay attention anymore cuz I don't want to be accused of not being unbiased. But I will say that in general sometimes what will happen when we get kind of this close to 50/50 range, a community will get cold feet and say, "Well, maybe if we just don't talk about it at all, people will forget and then they'll just vote yes on election day." And I've never once seen that happen. You get the support that you get because people know about it, not because they've forgotten about it. So, I would say that just by nature of doing a survey, >> I would say you're probably going to end up with higher support
037because people know where the money is going. They know how much it's going to cost them. Now, with some of your partners coming in, that's where they step in. I I like to give my work to Bridget at this point. >> That's where they step in, though, and that's where they follow up with all kinds of postcards or newsletters to say, "Hey, we heard you. This is the number the board decided on. These are those projects that the board has decided to fund in partnership with the admin team, and this is how much it's going to cost." So, I've never s seen support not increase by nature of just doing some kind of messaging unless you set aside some of the weird times in 2020 and 2021. Typically, that support only holds if and only
038if a messaging campaign continues. >> Okay. So, you know, I don't know when the another time to kind of out uh speak out loud some of the observations and concerns and um and victories that I'm I'm seeing here. I spent a lot of time with um this uh file over the weekend trying to piece it out and I often times make jokes at my own expense about [snorts] being a poor math student, but data and stats for whatever reason I get. Um I'm super grateful that we got uh you know 6x uh statistical significance. Um I would love to talk to you separately about you know the same folks who are are voting with such fidelity are probably the same folks who also fill out surveys with such fidelity and I also think of my
039own household of course I ran to fill that out and I've got a husband who I had to drive to fill it out right because we're busy people raising children and doing a lot of things so it gets a little wonky as opposed to 65 us. >> Uh with that said, I am super grateful to the community. Um this board has had a history of a little bit of trickiness with surveys and how it can all bear out at the voting booth. um historically in the last six years. Um a couple of concerns uh quickly the 60 again being grateful that we have a community that is so supportive um of pursuing a bond. But the 60 is going to uh get us and our buildings, our existing infrastructure at baseline, but it is not
040going to provide a 21st century learning experience for the kids in this community. Uh at least that is my concern. And we know what's happening down if we follow that 41 corridor to the west. I don't know when the last time anybody's driven through Nagani and I have to do it all the time because of some um construction in Ishbaming, but that community kudos to them and I am happy for them is having, you know, what the kids would call a major glow up or they would have at least 2 years ago. [snorts] Um, and so we know that we're competing with our neighbors down that 41 corridor. Uh, and we also have some things beyond our control, namely the cost of home prices here in our area, uh, in in Marquette, in the township,
041and in Harvey. I it used to be sort of the general um wisdom was that you never held a mortgage more than one and a half maybe two times uh your family's income. And so if we do the, you know, basic math on that, it's not unheard of right now for families who are generating 150,000 to be priced out of our market because we just don't have $300,000 homes available uh without having to put an additional hundred in. But we do have those available in the gone, certainly in Ishmaming and Ishming Township. And those communities are investing right now and are passing large bonds uh including all three of them, you can correct me if I'm wrong, are now providing early childhood which can offset some some mortgage costs. Um so there's there's a little
042bit here that I'm thinking through. um both for the you know I don't have any personal my child's going to be graduated by the time any anything is realized to the the completion of a project but I am concerned that that 60 certainly going to support whatever the community supports and if that is clearly the direction then that's where we need to go but I would be really remiss if I didn't state on the record the concerns that 60 is going to provide for for this district respectfully. Thanks. >> Quick note, I did move to a different part of the presentation based on Miss Clip's comments showing the comparison of number of mills levied by different districts in our area. Please note that the state average is about 4.5. State average is about 4.5. That
043doesn't show on the line, but the neighboring districts do. And I think this graph says a lot to to Miss Clip's points. >> Um, you say it's a win for you if it doesn't go at that. It makes you accurate if it doesn't go. That's not a win for me. It's a win if we pass the full amount. Um, so I just wanted to correct that, but I don't think that that's necessarily the correct verbiage of a win. Um, >> For him. Exactly. verses for our community. >> Exactly. >> Where where is the representatives? >> Right. So, you know, um I do think this is a metric um and I know that it's weighted and your expertise is invaluable and I've been part of all of the conversations throughout this um whole process and um
044I don't, you know, I want to hear loud and clearly what the community has to say, but I'm so glad you have this up here because I've done my math, my basic math here. But at 60 million, we go to 2.86. At 70 million, we go to 3.11. State average is 4.5. We're still way below that. And this isn't really for you. This is just my observation and what I kind of am taking away from this. At 80 million, we go to 3.36 ms. At 90 million, we go to 3.66. At what point do we, you know, H Hotton's at 9.6, Ishma, Ishbaming's at 8.2, average is 4.5. 3.66 isn't even average. And that's where I go is like, at what point do we value our kids in this community like the surrounding communities do?
045And you know, can we move this needle? Your statistics tell us we can't. And I'm listening to that loud and clearly, but I'm having a real hard time processing the fact of this slide right here. That's just some thought processes I've been having through this. Thank you. Well, I think, you know, a big thing is that we have to figure out what we think the community is going to support because it would be detrimental if we went for a bond and didn't get it. >> Um, we can look at other neighbors who have been going through similar things and how detrimental that is to the entire community when a bond fails. Um, you know, while I wish that the data was more favorable for 100 million that we know we need, you know, not only
046did we in our internal audit figure out that we have $100 million of critical needs, but the state also said we have $100 million in critical needs. And while I wish that, you know, the state would provide for infrastructure money to get stuff done instead of us trying to figure out how we're going to stretch a $1.3 million syncing fund, which we are ever grateful to our community for supporting, but we can't put band-aids on every year at $1.3 million and think that we're going to have quality infrastructure for our students, our staff, our community. Um so yes it is disappointing that you know the the data doesn't support us going for what we actually need to make our community our buildings state-of-the-art. Um it is clear that the community is supportive of at least
047$60 million that it should be successful hopefully. And I think that, you know, if we do decide to go for the minimum 60 million, that at least we're getting some stuff done for our students, our staff, our community, and then we can show that, you know, we are continuing to be good stewards of of our our funds and our district. And, you know, maybe we'll have to go back in 10 years and ask for more. But you know I think that the the data is fairly clear that you know while we wish it was for more that it was supportive there is support there for the 60 mills. So that's mine. Anyone have any other comments? Any further questions for you for him? I guess I will just say that in one of our meetings
048I asked our attorneys whether we needed to take any formal action the board that is on a specific dollar amount and as much as the board has every right to take that action. The attorney did not indicate that that was necessary. He did advise that the board try to reach some form of in his words or his word consensus on at least some parameters for moving forward much like President Camzy is alluding to in her comments she just made. But I just wanted to float that with the board as we're having this open dialogue so that ultimately I can direct or you can direct our team to move forward in their planning which uh is important since we do have a treasury date on December 1st and that treasury date is because we are going
049for a qualified bond which some other folks know more about than I do but essentially gets us a better interest rate going through the Michigan Treasury. So, >> so just to clarify what I hear you saying is the consensus would be that we are going to move forward to uh put a a bond proposal on uh a ballot in May, but we don't have to and and it will very likely be that you know unless I don't know there's divine intervention from some higher force that we're going to be you know very likely looking at 60 million but we don't have to concretize a 60 million uh price tag at this particular meeting. Is that what I'm understanding correctly? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> I think we're looking for like a scope to give
050to our partners to work start working on a list so that they can have stuff ready to go for a December 1st meeting. >> Mr. Carmony from IDI, former superintendent who's worked through a lot of referendums. I know Miss Joyce from Myin. I'm sure a variety of folks have been through referendums, but I think about Craig in particular. Does that uh does does that align with your thinking as far as what we're articulating here? Finding a consensus or as Miss Cambenzi said a a scope if you will some some parameters would help us move forward. >> Yeah. I I really believe that uh you know having the direction of you know we we've got a a dollar amount because when you go to Treasury with that uh application for Treasury everything has to be spelled
051out. So, you know, all of your items in that list as well as the estimates and Treasury looks at the items and the estimates to verify that uh you know that they meet within that threshold of what they would typically see with uh with similar projects throughout the state. So, we really have to have all of that, you know, all of that information completely accurate before we go to Treasury. So with the treasury date of December 1st, you back up and that application has to be to treasury one week before that treasury meeting and then really two weeks before that the it takes about 2 weeks to put that application together between the estimates putting those items in. Uh there's some other information that the district has to provide. Uh the ballot language still has
052to be prepared. The financial schedules by PFM still has to be prepared. So, you're really looking at, you know, about November 7th to 15th to have all of that done uh in order for that application to be in. >> And our next and only meeting before that December 1st date is November 17th. >> So, Mr. Harmony, can we can we say, you know, for the purpose of this meeting, uh, since this has been so well thought out and so well, uh, for lack of a better word, itemized, can we just refer to it as our priority? One, >> I I think you'd be fine by doing that because that really gives that gives, uh, your partners enough information to be able to then continue to work with your team. And you're still as a as
053a school board, you're ultimately going to be approving this. >> That's right. >> Uh approving the scope, approving the PQA. Uh all of the formal action will still be with the board of education. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. I asked superintendent um uh Subwick just to put up that priority one up there for the folks in the audience so they could see what that what that bundle looks like if you haven't been paying dogged attention to the issue like the rest of us have >> 31 is the 60 million correct >> correct >> okay it's up on the screen now >> I don't do a very good uh what's that movie where they rotate the head I can I'll just we talk a lot about ADA standards, elevators, restrooms, talked about even some of
054our interior doors, HVAC systems. I'm sure you're aware of mechanical systems, a lot of the electrical systems that are associated with HVAC um electrical panels, technology infrastructure is a key a key item for our uh for our teachers and I see some here today. I think they would probably attest the importance of technology infrastructure. Asbestous removal. We heard from Mr. Hagaso about asbesus removal with some of our older buildings. Furniture and finishings throughout all of our buildings, all of our classrooms. That's comprehensive uh across the district. Interior finishings, everything from the floor to the ceiling. We've talked about locker rooms, uh our classrooms that are outdated with inefficient layouts. Some of our buildings and classrooms even have dividers still in operation or cubicles, if you will. I think about the high school pod and both
055as examples. Career and tech ed, Kaufman auditorium, music, art spaces all need updating. Gym floors, locker rooms at the middle and high school and then multiple structures such as the press box or beyond repair. So that is the the basic uh list uh or the priority one list, the basic synopsis of that priority one list. So, would it kind of be safe to say that what this would be is um for lack of a better word, with the exception of maybe the floors and the new furniture, which I'm as a teacher, I would be really excited about. We would be doing the really important but nonsexy stuff. Sorry for the sexy word at meeting. >> I think Mr. Hongesto, if you want to chime in, could speak a little bit more to that. >> Even
056with the >> Can we have you come to the microphone too? Sorry, >> Zach. I'm just going to leave this. >> Yeah. Thanks, Rob. Yep. >> Yes. I think even as we were going through that though, we understood that the non sexy stuff is that's not going to solely sell a bond. So knowing that like hitting the CTE programs and hitting some of the with the kind of hitting across the board with arts, music, uh the locker rooms and those parts and pieces, there are um it's not just the >> basic needs and nuts and bolts. Yes. So that does get hit. And then looking too, I think from a a dollar standpoint, from a consensus is really be able to look at some things that came in from staff and uh teacher comments as
057well to be able to see what we can work in within that ballpark of the 60. So, >> and a sizable investment in both wall even with the $60 million plan about a third of that investment would go towards Bothwell, which we hear a lot about. So, I guess um we're looking for a consensus. >> Is that a vote? >> Well, no. I mean, I'm I'm While I wish it was more, I'm fine with 60 million. >> I No, I mean I am too. I mean, it gives us the foundation that we need. Um I think uh you know we will be continuing to have to invest in our buildings and so it's doesn't stop there but I do think that that is a great starting point. Um and I'm super excited for us to
058be investing in our infrastructure. Um yes I wish it was the whole kitten kaboodleoodle and I would be supporting that 110% um and then some. But I'll be here to uh kind of continue to do fundraising for our um schools beyond this. I think 60 million is a great starting point. >> I guess my question was does a consensus require a formalized vote? I don't know what the definition of that is. >> No, >> it does not. >> Okay. >> It's just >> just if we're if we're all good with 60, then we say, "All right, guys. Have at her." >> Yeah. [laughter] So, we haven't heard from you guys. >> Well, based on the survey data, I mean, I think it's pretty clear that I mean, 60 million is, as is going to be
059a nailbiter, let alone going for anything north of of that. So, um I think that's the best case scenario that we've seen based on the only objective piece of information that we have available in this particular issue. So, um I trust that and I think that's going to be the best way to go. >> True. Um I I have to agree with Miss Ray. I would like to um you know definitely have a uh you know top tier school. But I see this as a good a good starting point and I completely support it with the timelines um that they were suggesting the time that they need to make this list. I don't know if we need to make a motion but definitely I think we should move forward. >> Okay. Yeah, we got consensus
060[laughter] >> officially. >> All right. Well, just my last notice. Thank you again to Rob uh the whole team. But there's a lot of meetings that went into this presentation and Rob spent an enormous amount of time putting the information together. It's very nice to have a third party objective party giving us this analysis. So, thank you again. But that's all I have for the superintendent report. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. All right. Um, let's see. Moving on to approving the consent agenda. So, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda, which includes the minutes of the regular board meeting of September 15th, 2025, the minutes of the special board meeting of September 30th, 2025, the personnel report dated October 2025, and the financial reports of September 2025. >> Take a
061motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion made by Mr. Zunix, support by Mrs. Cliff. >> Um, all those in favor? I >> I >> uh moving on to the student school board representatives report. >> All right, so for athletics at MSHS, we're wrapping up a lot of our fall sports seasons. Um the boys and girls cross country teams both won GNC champs last week and on Saturday they're going to be competing in Nunising for UP finals. The girls tennis team also won the GNC title and they unfortunately lost at UP finals, but they had an amazing run this season. Um, the boys soccer team is beginning their district tournament tomorrow night and they are entering the second round because they had a buy in the first round. Um, the
062girls volleyball team won second in the gold bracket at their home tournament that they hosted this weekend. And the boys will be heading the football boys will be heading to um downstate to play Cadillac on Saturday. And to add to the facilities um planning report, there wasn't any um area for the students because we don't really have to do with any of the money stuff. But um in my opinion, a lot of the students are very passionate about what we're doing. And um in our advisory programs at the high school, we had like a little section about beautifification of the school. So each class was tasked with walking around the school and like looking at what we think could be improved and um the student council is taking those results from that survey and we're
063going to work with the admin to come up with some ideas of what like we would want to use that money for. Yeah. >> Um to touch on what she just mentioned about kind of the money stuff. um the beautifification stuff that we are doing as student council and as like a student body would be stuff that we can handle with student council not the millillage money. So we're working on things like in the courtyard and different things we could do like weeding outside and different stuff but um we have gotten a lot of kind of questions and interest about the millillage and like what what is going on. So this was good for us to find out about. Um, also on that topic, I was just thinking during that discussion, um, would it be
064possible to use like student feedback or support in your like potential campaigning to kind of get that over the 50% range? Like is that something that would be done? >> Okay. Um, yeah, that was just one of my thoughts. And then some things we've been working on with student council. Um, we have an annual Halloween costume competition on the half day for the first 30 minutes in the little theater. Um, we had our second ever familyfriendly football tailgate last Friday, which was a success. Again, we've made a lot of upgrades. We bought a popup tent and um, a portable uh, I guess battery to supply power to our speakers. Um, the last one we have is Friday, October 24th when the boys play Kingsford. And then we've also been working to coordinate our football student
065section with the marching band and cheer team which has been fun. And then um additionally Eleanor and I went to the city commission meeting on last Thursday the 9th and we um spoke on behalf of the high school and presented some data that the two of us had collected in partnership with the advisory program on the ebike situation in Marquette and kind of potential solutions we could see fit to the community. And um I do have about six copies of our student report that we organized the data and presented to them. So if you guys would like to take a look at that, that would be cool. Um okay, we kind of didn't come to a consensus. It was a smaller group than the full committee. But um the uh school resource officer leazison um
066officer King >> the off Yes. Um he was great. He was there and he spoke on his perspective from being in the schools and we kind of came to an idea that would be in partnership with the school board about having to register your ebike if it is on school property whether that be at the elementary or high school or middle school level. Um that could be something that could help prevent theft because right now that's one of his biggest issues he's seeing with the ebikes on campus and um it would allow them to confiscate bikes if there is illegal or misuse of the bike. And once um legislation is passed for ebikes um we were looking to partner with him and student council um to go to the younger schools and even our own
067school here at the high school to present the new laws and um just kind of promote safe ebike usage. So I just that was our little update. Um and then I have one more thing to add about the facilities planning. Students at our school are very very very passionate about air conditioning in this school. So I just wanted to add for your list >> the basics, right? Yeah, >> thank you so much for that. Um that that is a very good point that a lot of the data was focused at our voters which you know not many of our students are registered voters yet. Um, but that is that is a really good point that you know we we do need more student input as to you know what you want in your schools. So,
068thank you so much for all of that. >> Thanks. >> All right. Um, comments from the public. Uh, Jenna Smith. Hi everyone. Great discussion. Um, my name is Jenna Smith. I live in the city of Marquette. I am the mother of two students at MAPS. I have a fourth grader and a kindergartener. And, um, if you do the math, I will still be a parent in this district until 2038. So, I am going to be in it for the long haul here. Um, I was also a MAPS K12 student in the district for 13 years myself. Um, and I worked for MAPS for um, seven years um, a few years back. Um, I also was a city commissioner in the city of Marquette and the mayor of Marquette for a time. And all of that
069is just to say that I'm deeply invested in this community and in the future of our students. Um, and I really do fully support this bond um, initiative and whatever um, you all need to help get it passed, I'm happy to do that. So, um, look forward to seeing what you all decide and what comes out of this, but, um, I'm a cheerleader for it. I know that we need, um, facilities upgrades for our students and for the staff. Um, I the 60 million, uh, is great. I wish we could do more, but I would say I would also support continuing to go down this road in the future and see if we can get another one. And I think someone said 10 years or whatever those timelines are. So, you've got my support, whatever
070you need. Um, as an example, just for kind of like a visual last, so my daughter's in fourth grade. Um, so we've been at Sandy Nol for 5 years now, and last year there were several buckets all over collecting rain water and snow water because the roof was leaking. Now they have a new roof and it's great. But these things um I think we kind of gloss over and we just say school is great and it is, but our students really deserve to have um basic facilities that are working well. Um, also I know we're not going to be able to make as many upgrades with maybe the $60 million package, but I think about my 5-year-old and what careers are going to be around in 2038 or maybe when she's done with college in
0712042, and they're very different than they are today. Um, we need modern classrooms for modern careers, which is what I do for a living. Um, I do workforce development and staffing, and um, we don't know right now what the careers of the future are going to be. So, we need more flexible classrooms. So, whatever we can do to keep that rolling now and in the future. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Travis Smith. >> Unrelated. >> Oh, right. >> Okay. Hey. Uh, I am Travis Smith, Marquette Township resident. I'm here as a public educator, a taxpayer, and a father of three MAP students. And my commentary is is less directed at the board of education, but more for the general public who is either here in person or uh watching uh this board meeting. So,
072as a public educator, I served MAPS for 12 years. First as a middle school teacher at Bathwell and then uh most recently uh eight years as the Cherry Creek uh elementary principal. In my current professional role, I have the opportunity to work with educators from across the state of Michigan in rural, suburban, and urban capacities alike. You know, what I've come to recognize over this time is that educational quality must not be dictated by zip code. Okay? Students at the upper peninsula deserve the same modern, well equipped, welle equipped learning environments as those students below the bridge. And the bond represents a necessary investment in those learning environments. And it's not a luxury. It's what they need. I encourage every community member to tour a school, check it out, talk with a principal, and see
073firsthand the opportunities and limitations our current facilities provide. So, as a taxpayer, I recognize the reality of uh economic uncertainty and the tax burden that is experienced by families in our community. And that's why I want to thank the board very specifically for your prudent financial management over the years. Thank you so much. You have done a fantastic job. And as noted by board member Ry, our average miller rate is 1.3 mills compared to that state average of 4.5. That is a remarkable difference given our size and the 750,000 square ft that make up the facilities within our district. That is our responsibility to maintain. So the bond, it's not an expense, it is truly an investment in our students lives. And lastly, as a parent, research consistently shows that a healthy school system is
074one of the best indicators of a healthy community. Strong schools attract and retain families, driving economic growth. It's always interesting for me to listen to families who travel down state. Uh may it be for um athletics or may it be for something uh regarded the performing arts and they always come back and they're always commenting on the modern flexible learning spaces that those communities have created for their students or the incredible athletics and performing arts spaces that their students get to learn in every single day. And our students in MAPS, they deserve better. And again, our zip code should not determine the quality of an educational ed or students educational experience. So in conclusion, as one of our American leaders famously said, a rising tide raises all ships. And investing in our school truly lifts
075the entire community. And as a taxpayer, a parent, and an educator, I see this as um our responsibility. and this is a necessary investment in our students and quite frankly the long-term vitality of Marquette. Uh thank you for your support board. I'm excited about the journey that's in front of us and thank you for your time and I yield any remaining time back to President Kempsey. Thank you. >> Thank you. [snorts] >> Um moving on to new business. Um approve the purchase of two school buses as recommended. Um, Mr. Glampman. >> Uh, yes. Good evening. Um, so we do have, uh, uh, our, uh, auxiliary services director here this evening. Uh, and he can speak to his recommendation for, uh, a purchase of two school buses, which we do have budgeted for in our 2526
076budget. Um, would you like to take the podium, sir? >> Good evening. As Mr. Lman spoke to, uh, we I'm recommending that we purchase two school buses um against uh the budget, which will be I would recommend um two international school buses. One's a a lift bus and one would be a um a standard issue bus if you will, which is going to be um a 77 passenger bus. Both buses would be the same length. And then uh they kind of come in as the same overall size and dimensions. We've had better luck lately with our internationals. And I know the folks who've been here and I've been here recommending buses in the last year or so. um we've gone with internationals on the used side and they have been even those used buses have
077been a better quality bus. So that's why we're going with that. And we we're going outside of the um consortium if you will. Uh so the UP consortium had Zeremba which has not worked fantastic for us in the past which there's some history that some of you may or may not know. But um on the other side of that, I got an international quote inside of Michigan, which keeps it so we don't have to uh we don't have to experience a 5% difference, if you will. So Michigan mte is who we've been purchasing our used buses from on the international side. So against that they they gave us a quote for new buses and we also have the quotes for the um from the consortium and mte came in below on all of those. But
078we feel that the international bus is a is a more quality bus than the bluebird. Uh we recently received a bluebird and as they drove it up it came in with a warranty issue. So that's a problem for us because that warranty issue is, you know, down to Holland, Michigan if we want to like actually have them do it. Otherwise, it's a problem for a mechanic, which if you'll look if you look year-over-year, last year we had 22 buses was what I was stating on our um on our our list of essentially this is the number of buses we have. This year we're at 20, right? So we're we're slimmer on buses, but we're higher quality on buses. I would say we're we're newer on buses. So we're getting better on that side. So any
079given day, I would say we probably have we have five buses we can use. And that's across, you know, we're going to use buses if we're doing a sports trip afternoon. Our priority is getting students home, right? But we can use anywhere from two to three buses for a um for an afternoon to get to get folks to to their sports trips. So against those kind of kind of thoughts and then okay, we got a windshield chip, we got something on some other bus, right? So rapidly you get to first day of school, we ran out of buses essentially. if we had one more out, we were going to be significantly delayed. But we did not significantly delay anyone because we had good quality buses. And that's that's kind of where I'm at. So that's
080what I'm proposing and I hope you accept. I see the number is approximately slightly over $300,000 for two buses. One as a lift bus, one as a standard issue bus. And that's what I'm recommending and asking for. Any questions? >> What are these are for uh the one is for a 77 passenger bus is the regular bus. What is that? The average seat size. >> That's the largest bus you can get essentially. So that's if you look over yonder, almost all of those are going to be a 77 passenger bus, right? And then we have two I think that we purchased to use before I was here, but they're wonderful. Great. And they're 71 passenger. That means they're minus one row of seats. You can't visually see the difference from the outside. >> Okay. Any
081further questions for it? >> Okay. With the warranty on these buses, do they do these have to get hauled down to I mean if our mechanic can't work on it, >> we have some options locally like we have um out in Harvey and then over at the Crossroads there's two different purveyors that will work do some warranty like beyond what we can do internally. But a lot of times we end up doing it and then billing them back. And I generally tell them to build them. Bill build bill them like they bill us. >> Bill the warranty or the >> bill bill like Bluebird or bill build the purveyor of Bluebird or the purveyor of international like they would bill us as far as like hours. >> Has there been any issues with that as
082far as getting warranty item items covered or warranty? >> It can take a while but they're ultimately go good for it. >> They ultimately usually Yes. All right. If if I could add one more thing, while we did have two buses estimated in our 2526 budget, um if you accept the low bid, uh it will require a budget amendment to uh the tune of about $18,500. When I started with the district a little over four years ago, buses at that time were about 90,000 for a new purchase. And just in that short time, they've they've increased significantly. We had estimated about 140,000 for new bus purchase. And the low bits here came in higher than um we had anticipated. So the the prices for buses just seem to keep going up. Not sure where the
083top is going to be yet, but hopefully we're we're nearing the the top of a cost of a new bus. But I just want to just point that out that this will require a uh a budget amendment. >> Okay. Any further comments or questions? Um then I would entertain a motion to approve the purchase of two new school buses as recommended. >> I'll make a motion to approve the purchase of two school buses as recommended. >> Second. >> Okay. Uh motion made by Mrs. Clip, support by Mrs. Maddx Smith. Any further comments or questions? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Um, consider overnight and extended trips for MSHs for 2025 2026. I believe that is in our packet and it is something that we do every year around this time.
084Does anyone have any questions about the extended trips? >> There's a few of these three that are covered by the students or families. Is there the opportunity for everyone to attend if they want if they're not able to cover those obligations? >> We always find ways to support students with any kind of financial hardship. Yes. Um, if there's no further comments or questions, um, I would entertain a motion to approve the overnight and extended trips for MSHs for 2025 2026. >> I'll make a motion to approve the overnight and extended trips for MSHs for the 2025 2026 school year as presented. >> Support. Okay. Motion made by Mrs. Clip, support by Mrs. Maddox Smith. Any further comments or questions? All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Um, consider 2025 2026 MAP
085substitute rates effective 1020 of 2025. I do have our HR director, Regina Rollstone, here, Regina Pawan. She recently got married here in case you have any questions. But the memo essentially sums up the 3% increase that we're proposing for our positions, our substitute positions, and then also our daily and hourly rates. So, when I started, we were really hurting for substitute teachers and some other positions. How are things? >> Things are um they're definitely um getting better as far as um our open positions are being filled and with that being said, our need for uh substitutes is a little less. Um, however, we still want to maintain with our local area school districts. We want to maintain that balance to ensure that we still get the qualified substitutes that we need. >> How do we
086how do our rates compare with the neighboring are we schools? Are we competitive? >> We are competitive. Yes, we are. And this this continues that trend. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, does anyone else have any questions? All right. Then I would entertain a motion to consider uh approving the 2025 2026 map substitute rates as presented effective 1020 2025. Make a motion to approve the map substitute rates effective 10 2025 >> support. Okay. Motion made by Mr. Zadenick. Support by Ms. Ray. All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Um and then consider the 2025 2026 MAPS hourly and daily services rate effective 1020 2025. Does anyone have any questions regarding that? >> No good. Yep. Um that I would entertain a motion to approve the 2025 2026 MAPS hourly and daily services
087rates um effective 1020 2025. >> Make a motion to approve the hourly and daily service effect rates effective 10 2022 for maps. >> Second. >> Okay. [clears throat] Motion made by Mr. Zunick, support by Ms. Clip. Um any further comments or questions? All those in favor? I >> I >> any opposed? Motion passes. Uh moving on to uh gifts and bequests, a donation of school supplies to maps by the local Walmart store. Thank you very much for that. Uh moving on to board member comments. Uh we'll start with uh Mrs. Maddox Smith. I want to thank everybody for um being here for coming up and talking supporting um maps. We have such a great community. Um, particularly I loved um the student report. Um, I love the stuff that you guys are doing. Just the
088stuff about the ebikes. I definitely want to read um that. Um, and I love the input um that we hadn't really thought about since you guys aren't really voting age, but you really it impacts you. That's why we're here. And um, you know, your voice matters. So, thank you for reminding us of that. Um, I absolutely um am excited to see maps moving forward, continuing to move forward and I completely agree that, you know, the jobs aren't even created yet that um that we're trying to prepare these these kids for. So, um I'm just looking forward to uh to getting our school up to that zip code really doesn't matter. Oh, and thank you Walmart for your gifts, >> Mrs. Clip. Thank you, Mr. Vanderff, for working us through two buses. I don't know anything
089about buses, so we appreciate you um making the recommendations. Uh specifically, thank you to the two speakers who Mr. and Mrs. Smith unrelated who came and uh spoke. Um I think it was Mr. Smith, unrelated, who um said it really is incumbent on this community to take care of the schools and the notion that these are separate entities. We all sort of live in these silos is just uh not accurate. Uh coming from downstate, schools and school districts drove home prices which drove personal equity. Um these are we are all connected. As much as um the media would have us believe that we are polarized, the reality is in communities regardless of their size, we need and depend on each other. And one of the heartbeats of that body is the schools. So, uh thank
090you to all of the folks who did respond to the survey. And I just would encourage anybody who is here to continue to speak to have conversations at church and uh over coffee and drinks or or whatever with community members about the importance of really engaging in what you want the vision for our school to be. uh regardless of whether you have children or not because um it does impact um you personally um regardless of whether you're a parent or a staff member. So, thank you to our two student reps down there. You guys are fun and we really appreciate your insight. I hope everybody has a great Halloween. >> Mr. Zedic, >> no additional comments. Thank you, >> Miss Ray. Uh yes, best part was uh your input this evening. Both of you definitely
091um beyond the just letting us know what's going on. Very engaged and I'm quite impressed. You went to the city commission and all that you're doing. It's important because you all do have a voice in this community and that's why we're all here is because of you. Um I just want to say that I'm super excited about this bond. Um when I came on the board, I was quite impressed with how fiscally responsible this um school district was and how kind of sound our budget was um particularly in relation to previous years. And I think uh the board has continued to be fiscally responsible on this um throughout the time I have been here um almost five years and I've been quite impressed with that and what we've been able to achieve with our sinking
092fund um and staying on top of kind of maintenance when you have 750,000 square ft. Um it's a little daunting um cuz there's always something to be fixed. Uh, I do believe, you know, I'm a business owner. I'm a parent. Um, I'm a community member. And there's nothing more important than this. And investing in our schools, yes, is what our community is really, really should be kind of grounded on is our school system. And that is I've always told people that our schools are amazing and our teachers and our administration are incredible. Um, but I do encourage people to come and walk through our schools cuz as incredible as our school systems are, they are dilapidated and they need a lot of attention. So, I am super excited about um us moving forward. I know
093a bond issue is always a big hurdle in a community. Um but I go back to these numbers of where we are at and 1.31 millillage is close to none and really um I look forward to not only starting with this 60 million but um as I retire from the board um in a year I you know will stay involved in trying to continue to fund raise for our um schools to take them into the 21st century and to really make it viable for our kids and um as well as for our entire community cuz that's really what it is. Um so I'm excited and uh I will be here for any questions um at any point if someone's got questions on how we manage our budget or um currently as well as what this
094bond issue means, please call me, come knock on my door. This is a conversation we all need to be talking about and be excited about because um it's going to be very very cool to see our um schools change physically. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um board president comments. Um I so happy to meet you guys. I I missed the the first meeting when you guys were introduced. Um thank you so much for your valuable input. I mean, this is why we're here is for the students. Um, so we definitely love hearing your voices and the things that you have to say. So, thank you so much for that. Um, you know, I graduated from here 30 years ago and not much has changed. There's a lot of stuff that has been here since forever.
095Um, so I think it's definitely time to put some effort into making some improvements for our future students and for our staff and our community. Um, so I'm hopeful that the the data that was presented holds true and that we can continue to do stuff for our students, our staff, and our community. Um, moving on to announcements and other meetings. October 22nd, MSHs and Bothwell Middle School bands holiday spooktacular concert at Kaufman Auditorium at 6:30. October 31st, Halloween, uh PD day with half day for students. November 7th, uh end of the first quarter. November 12th and 13th, K through 12 parent teacher conferences. November 12th, K through 5 half day. November 13th and 14th K through 12 half day. November 13th through 15th MSHs musical performances at Kaufman Auditorium. And November 17th, 2025, board meeting
096at Grave Cafeteria at 5:30. I would entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> Make a motion to adjurnn. >> Oh, second. [laughter] >> Jeez. All right. We have a motion by Mr. Zendo, next support by Miss Ray. All those in favor? Bye.