Richmond Community Schools Board of Education Meeting on February 9, 2026

001[music] Okay. Good evening. The regular meeting of the Richmond Board of Education will come to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. 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. Sandy, if you could please read our mission statement and vision statement and take hold. Sure. Mission statement at Richmond Community Schools is at Richmond Community Schools, we provide a quality education that empowers students to be successful in the global community. And our vision statement is to foster a culture of academic excellence, creativity, and character, ensuring that all students are prepared for success in an ever changing world. Uh, board member here, >> board member here, board member Telto here, board member Gillis

002here, board member Sket notice, board member SA notice, I board member 429 here. We have a quorum. We also um have our representative Kelsey McNamera and then Elizabeth Schaer will be joining us a little bit later on. She can very much looking for a motion to approve the agenda. I'm going to make a motion to approve the agenda with some amendments to the agenda. Um, as we had talked at our workshop, um, I'd like to make uh, take the student board of education representative report, move it up to number eight immediately after the presentations, and then add numbers 9 and 10 um, to continue on um, in our agendas. Number nine being superintendent search update, number 10 being bond update and then making blue devil raves become 11 and then the then the numbers going

003on from there. >> So this is just for tonight the blue devil raves moving down. >> No, we talked remember we talked about the student education rep. We wanted to be right after the presentation. So, I'm moving that up. And then we talked about wanting to have a superintendent search update and bond update on our agenda until they are those items are finished. So, you know, the bond through May and the superintendent search till we hire someone. So, we're basically going to have them at every meeting from here on until we finish up. >> Any questions? Somebody needs it. Thank you. Um, any questions? Okay, since Ray's on here, we can do this as a um, all those in favor. >> I oppose. Motion carries. Okay, I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent

004agenda. So, move forward. Let's wait. Let's wait till it's supported and when we go to discuss, we can do it. Support. Okay. So, we have Was that Margaret? No, >> I haven't made the motions there. >> That's what I'm trying to do. Thank you very much. Okay. Um, go on. >> One uh change potentially for the minutes of the last meeting, the last regular meeting. Upon submitting the certificate of the ballot uh proposal language to our district council at Trum Law, the attorney recommended a uh small revision to item 3A, which uh in the original proposal read uh the use uh the authorizes the use of MON daily, a newspaper published in or of general circulation within the district for publication notices in accordance with election law requirements. Um but our conversation was that given

005the closure of the voice newspaper which previously served the St. their county portion of our district. Uh TR advised that we did add an additional publication that might cover that area. Um and so we are asking to include the Times Herald report here on as an appropriate newspaper in general circulation serving that area. Um they did indicate that this change does not require resending or resubmitting the ballot proposal at all. Um however, if the board is in agreement, then we would um go ahead with that of the second paper. So there doesn't have to be any kind of vote or anything. We just say that sounds good. Yeah, they said that that changed it just but just in the for transparency so that we know that it will be in the second newspaper in addition

006to cover all of our whole district. Yeah, that makes sense since the tax is secular county newspaper if you will. Okay, any other discussion? All those in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. Okay. Our first uh presentation for this evening is our career and technical education. Mrs. Thank you for having me this evening. Um if you are not aware, February is uh CTE month here in the state of Michigan. Um and starting on February 1st and throughout the end of the month, we will be celebrating all three career and technical education. And so, um, on behalf of the students and the staff here at the high school, I wanted to share some updates about the program, as well as some exciting things that recently have happened. Um, I added the Michigan's CTE vision to the

007first slide here because I think it's really important that it talks about not only equitable, highquality secondary programs, but also postsecary CTE programs. Because one of the things that I think sometimes we forget about is that this CTE is not only in high school and um I do have some exciting um announcements about some post-secary CTE opportunities that our students are going to be having um here in Mcome County next year as well. So to start off um in front of you you do have a draft of a publication or just an infographic that I'm working on. Um I'm really looking at ways that we can kind of give that one pager to our families or to visitors. Um, and so what I did was gathered some data as well as some pictures and started

008off by sharing I think. Okay, I just want to make sure that was the first one. Um, one of the first graphics I have on there is the 10-year duplicated enrollment. And what that means is duplicated enrollment means is that if a student is enrolled in two programs, um, we count the number of programs they were enrolled in, not just the student as one. And so when you look at this, we did reach a high point in the 23 24 school year. And people might be worried like, well, why is enrollment decreasing? I wouldn't necessarily say enrollment is decreasing. What I would say is that we're doing a better job here at the high school of making sure students are enrolled in the courses that are most tied to their post-secary plans. And so, in

009doing so, we might have some students that aren't taking as many CTE programs, but what we've been able to do is really hone in on what they want to do when they get older. Um, and so we kind of have, I would say, right-sized our CTE programs to make sure that a lot of the students that are enrolled in them, while it might be something that they're interested in doing um, when they get older, we're not just necessarily placing them to place them in a CTE class. So, our enrollment is definitely still over 300 students. Um, when we're looking at that non-duplicated enrollment, which in a building of under 500 definitely, I think is still something to be excited about. Another one of the pieces of data that's on that infographic is something that's new

010over the past couple of years. A lot of our programs or most of our programs right now have switched to Perkins 5 requirements. And what that requires is that all students in the class take a test or they take some sort of credential um test or have the opportunity to take a credential test. Um what I've shown here is the credential successes that our students have earned over the past two years. um everything in culinary arts they take a serve safe exam. Um our marketing, accounting and business management classes are taking Microsoft certifications. Our computer programming class is taking um HTML or Python. Our EMT is taking the national registry exam. And I will say that um for 2024 2025, we do have one student that also um earned that credential. Um they did it

011during the summer. So it was after I had reported these numbers to the state. Um but as you can see in just one year's uh period of time the growth that we're seeing in all of our programs the number of students who have earned that credential is growing. Um we also have programs our teacher cadet class um is working on their credential and then our TV broadcasting is also um they will be implementing their credential next year. So our classes are all giving the necessary test that they are required to. Um the teachers get to choose which of the credentials the students are going to test for. So as um the CTE director, I give the teachers the autonomy to choose which test, not only one they think would be best for our students, but

012also based on our advisory board meetings, what our industry professionals are saying our students should have um as they leave high school. And so that's something that's really exciting. Um, another current data snapshot. Um, there's kind of two pieces of data, so I'll start with the one on the left. Um, every year we are required to touch base with 80% of our graduates within the six months of them leaving high school. I will say it is really hard to get a hold of 80% of students that have left the building. However, what we do is we a we ask them questions about whether they're employed, part-time, full-time. Um we ask questions about are they currently in school? Are they doing something related to their CTE class? And so the data is a is a year

013out. We just collected the data for our 2025 graduates. Um but if you look at our data for the 2024, this is of the 80% of the students that took a CTE class, um 93.3% were enrolled or they were employed part-time or full-time. And then over 70% of those students were seeking education within 6 months of graduating high school. And so again, we gathered that data and my hope is is that every year I'll be able to now start updating this infographic and really tracking um what's happening to our graduates within 6 months of them graduating. Um another piece of data that I know has been a talking point since I came um on board is that all of our students to take one CTE class before they leave high school. And this is honestly

014the first year that I'm like, okay, I have to pull that data. And of the projected 112 students that will be graduated in the class of 2026, 111 of them have taken at least one CTE class um during their time here in high school. And so I think we are literally like one student away um from reaching that goal. And so again um the hope is that I'll pull that data for 2020 2027 and continue to track that over time. >> Miss Sable, >> yes. Did you say that you you're required to get that information within six months of the Yes. Okay. What happens if you don't? >> So, if you don't um you will be um put on a list. I don't know what the official name is, but you will be required the

015state will flag the district and then you will be required to go to a training and to learn how to better reach out to the students. Um so, it is it is tied to your funding. Um, and it is something that we are required to do and we will get a notice. I've never been on that list, so I don't know what it looks like, but the districts that I do know of who haven't reached that 80% threshold, um, there is like a required training that they go to and um, the CPI, which is the Mcome County oversight of all the CTE programs, there'll be trainings and things like that. and you'll have to come up with a plan of moving forward how you are going to reach that 80%. >> Bottom line is if

016you continue that's fascinating like Andrea said you you will lose part of your Perkins. >> Yes. Because it is it is tied to the Perkins funding. So >> I just find that fascinating that kids don't call you back. [laughter] >> Yeah. So we have done I would say um we have done a lot in terms of um really working towards in the past we had the parent contact information and so prior to graduation what we've really worked on is getting the personal emails and the cell phone numbers of the students um and then really trying to target them directly letting them know hey we're going to be reaching out to you this is why and then not only that but also asking how they want to be communicate it. So, we did letters because everything

017is um individually tagged per student. So, even though we send a QR code out, they have to type in a 16digit code that then matches to them. Um so, it's not as simple as like, "Hey, scan the QR code." But, um we've done mailings, we did text messages, we did personal emails, we did phone calls. Um and then also of the 80% only a certain number you are allowed to um reach out to their parents about. So um but this year we reached 80% that we had to did not have to contact one parent. We did it all directly with the students. So I think we have a good system that's underway right now. Thanks. >> You're welcome. So um again data that I'm hoping that we can continue to track over time. The next

018thing I'm going to talk about, and this isn't all on your sheet, but there are four components to CTE education. And I think as I go through these, just to kind of um give everyone the overview of what the whole program looks like, it's not necessarily just teachers in our classroom, even though they really are the foundation obviously of our CTE programs, but that classroom instruction really is career focused. And I included this picture of Mr. Pets um up here. Um, I said he was dressed as Indiana Jones and someone's like, "No, that's not what Indiana Jones looks like." But I He dressed the part and came into class and basically did an escape room with his students where they ultimately had to code their way to different challenges throughout the room. And so, like

019when I say he fit the part, he dressed up and it was the classroom of doom and they had to code their way work together. You can see they're all huddled in little teams um outside, you know, different computers and each of them was working on something different. But the key here is that even though that classroom instruction is the students coding, it really was career focused cuz he really talked about how you have to work together. There's very few careers that you're going to be working in a silo. And so this was a prime example of him taking that academic content making it engaging but then also taking that instruction and making it career focused as well. The second part is the laboratory learning. And while a lot of times we think of laboratories

020we think about a science laboratory for a lot of our courses culinary obviously is the kitchen but this is a great example of our TV production class. They were working on their videography videography skills and they were just in the hallway and they were talking about this is our lab right now because they were forming they were doing skits and just learning different camera angles. And I think the big thing with the laboratory learning, whether it's in a culinary kitchen, in the EMT classroom, um, or in just a quote unquote regular classroom, is that it really is project-based learning. And it's having the students work on their skills and develop their skills through projects. And I think that is what makes CTE really engaging for our students is situations like this. The third component of

021uh CTE programs is work-based learning. And I'm going to talk about this briefly um towards the end of the presentation. But work-based learning is something that is required for all of our students to participate in. It is something that at the end of the year I report to the state and I have to report how many experiences each individual student has had throughout their time in the class. And so with our work-based learning, it's everything from career awareness. So that could just be a speaker coming in and sharing information about the field. It could be students going out into the field. It could be students running the cafe. All of those are varying degrees of our work-based learning that happens um in our classrooms. And again, it's a key component because part of it is

022that they want the students to have a deeper understanding of the careers. And what better way to do that than side by side with professionals. And so this is something that it's not optional. Um all of our students do it obviously to varying degrees, but it is um a third component of our CTE programs. >> So Andrea, how how many hours do they have to is it hours or is it >> Yeah, it's not hours, it's just experiences. So if they have one experience, then there's all different letters that each of the experiences stand for. And then so I report to this. So career awareness is um kind of like the foundation. So that would be a presentation. It might be going to a community college and learning how to get involved in the career,

023something like that, which is what most of our students at the foundational level at the bare minimum get would be the career awareness. But it's not um it's just experiences. There's not like a time frame for it. >> And there's not a no. >> No, the the minimum is just one. Obviously, we want our students to have as many of those experiences as possible. Um, and then again, depending on, you know, some of our field trips that our students go on that are optional, they will go. And so, we we keep track of all that. Some students will have seven, eight, nine of those letters next to their name. Some will just [clears throat] have the one or two experiences that the teachers bring into the classroom. You're welcome. And then the last component um

024is leadership. And this looks different depending on the program. Um I have a picture of our DECA students right there. Um DECA is through the marketing organization or really through any of our business classes. And that is an actual wellestablished uh program that almost all business classes in high schools participate in. But leadership can look different. Our culinary program is really working on the leadership of our secondyear students. Um they're actually working on a project that they're going to launch on Wednesday, which is their first catering job. They are catering lunch for all of Lee Elementary School staff. Um so they did everything from planning the menu to promoting it to take the orders. They are orchestrating with the uh maintenance department about getting transporting the food safely over there, the setup, the take down.

025So um in that in that role again those couple of students that are in that second year of the program that in itself would be a leadership opportunity and really the goal here is to just develop skills that they'll be able to use in the workforce sending an email reaching out to the building principal and asking for permission to do this. So all of those things really help develop their leadership skills whether it's through an official organization like DECA or it's just different things that the different teachers are doing within their classroom. So, a couple of upgrades. Obviously, every year we do receive funding from the state based on our previous year's enrollment. So, this year we have over $140,000 that we are able to spend to put back into our CTE programs. We are

026well on our way to spending that. Um, sometimes I have to remind the teachers, okay, I need your list. I need your list. What else do you want? because um there is just you know the opportunity for them to be really creative. So just a couple of the things that we've already purchased this year, we did purchase a 30 30 laptops and cart for that Perkins 5 credential testing. And so what ultimately the teachers will be able to do is that they'll be able to take the computers. A lot of the software that's needed for these tests through Surf Safe and through Certaport don't run on the district uh Chromebooks or lab laptops that the students have. And so we were able to purchase um nice high quality HP computers that the certification credential testing

027will be able to be done on. And so with that, our culinary programs, marketing, finance, and business management will all be able to test in the classroom this year. So, we're excited about that. And then radio and TV broadcast, they also they have their own set of computers for that. But ultimately, if the if the program grows and they need more, they obviously would be able to use that cart as well. One of the other things, the computer programming students um they purchase drones. And so as part of that uh escape room, what Mr. Pets had done was the final room that the kids had to coat themselves out of led them to the closet where the drones were. And so that was kind of the the you know golden golden ticket at the end

028of the you know the path that they went on. But through that process, they were able to um learn how to or get the drones and then they're also learning how to computer code them. Um which a lot of the students are excited to learn about our radio and TV broadcasting. Um I actually just sat at the advisory board for that last week and I we talked a lot about radio and how now even though the title is radio and TV broadcasting, a huge part of broadcasting is podcasts. And so we have purchased equipment to have two podcast booths that we are going to be um there's two there's an open office space off of one of the classrooms that's available that's right near that area. And so we're going to be putting the equipment

029in there and then hopefully getting like voice over and podcasting going with our students. So we bought equipment for two of those um to be um implemented. If you didn't notice when you walked in, uh, we have a nice new sign for the devil's den for promotional advertisements. One of the things, especially when we open for conferences and other, you know, homecoming, the signage outside. And so, we got an all- weather sign. Right now, it's obviously inside, but we're hoping that when we open for outside activities, we'll be able they'll be able to put promotions, 20% off, come in. This is what we're selling. So, that's exciting there. And then also as the culinary arts program develops um for next year, which I'll talk about in a second, one of the things they bought um

030KitchenAid mixers, but then also um sushi making equipment and tools. And so they're really looking to expand kind of the run-of-the-mill, not just soup and salad, but getting into some more, you know, different types of um culinary units that the students will be able to take part in learning about. disabled. >> Yes. >> The the podcast part of that is that does that all still fall under um Jason Robbins like it still is building? >> Yeah. So, it will all fall under there. The the competencies are really broad in a lot of or really in all of our programs. You know, they used to have a list of like 100 things that you had to cover and a lot of the programs now are going down to 12, 15, 20. So they're very broad which

031lends itself the ability to really be tailored to meet the needs of the students. Um radio and TV broadcasting is switching over to the new competencies next year. So the teachers are going to be meeting in March at at the county level and are really going to be looking at okay what where is this program going based on the state requirements. And I think what we're seeing now and definitely what a lot of our conversation was is that it's going into that digital age of very rarely are people going into radio, but even a lot of people that are going into radio are doing it from their homes or they're doing it from, you know, studios. They're a lot of people aren't going into a radio studio anymore. So, um, we're hopeful that that will

032add to kind of just the broadness of the program and what students interest might be. Thank you. You're welcome. So, what's next? Just a couple of things that we're working on um or have worked on. We are piloting the new advanced placement cyber security program next year. So, um advanced placement college board is uh debuting this course next year. I have completed the paperwork and have submitted for the CTE application for the course. And so the hope is is that not only will the course run as an advanced placement, but it will also run as a CTE course. And so that will be um Mr. Petz, who is kind of the one that spearheaded that. He brought it to me based on the students. So he took students in his computer programming class last year

033to a cyber security summit in Novi that was hosted and the kids were really enthralled in what the topic of cyber security was. And so we're taking this opportunity to offer this to our students. We think that we'll have a wide range of individuals that are interested. So we're excited to debut that next year. >> And what grades would that be after? >> That is I'm I would have to double check. I know it's 10 through 12, I believe. I don't think that it's 9th grade. I'm pretty sure it's 10th through 12. Um the next thing is culinary arts, too. So, we are working on a separate class for next year that specifically will be held in the middle of the day. So, culinary arts is really one of our only programs where there's not

034a second level. Um, we have it in TV broadcasting, we have it in marketing, and so the hope is is that the students that have already completed the Surf Safe exam, if we're able to bring them into a secondyear class, they already will have the skills and the certifications for us to open the Blue Devil Cafe earlier. Right now the kind of the hurdle we have is that our students aren't yet have not yet passed that certification credential. So they're testing in the end of February, beginning of March. And so that's what is delaying the opening of the cafe. And so the hope is is that by creating a separate um a separate section of our advanced students that they will be able to come in and get up get you know off the ground

035running and that we'll be able to we're looking at a fall opening because we'll have their certifications already at the start of the year. >> And I'm sorry really quick on that. So currently we only have the one year culinary arts. So they're meeting all the standards. Yes. So when you split it, are there going to be any standards off of there? Will they be completers where I'm wondering? >> They'll be everyone will still remain a completer after their first year. The second year students will become Z students, which is advanced work. And so ultimately what we will do is we'll we'll submit a separate syllabus that shows how they're taking the skills that they learned their first year and they're going above and beyond. That's what we're currently doing with like marketing 2. Our

036marketing one students complete the course, they're completers, and then we consider marketing two a Z student and that's where like the devil's den and all of the extra stuff that they do is really the implementation of what they learned. So >> and then in opening the devil's den is that an experience >> the blue devil. Yes. Yes. So that would be so if there was an industry individual that was there. Yes. That would be more of like a leadership opportunity. So which we also have to report on. I mean everything gets reported to the state. So the date that they do the leadership experience, what students did the leadership experience. So that would fall more so under that category. But that's not to say that if we didn't if we had a business professional come

037in and shadow or help, then that would be a a work-based learning opportunity. So, speaking of workplace learning, um, one of the, it's kind of weird how the state has it, but they have work-based learning that's different than the work-based learning I previously talked about. And this is where actually students who have completed a CTE program can go out into the workforce and earn high school credit. So, this is the old school what a lot of people might have known as co-op, but it's different because it's tied to a CTE program. So, as of right now, we have two students that are out in workbased or two classes that are out in work-based learning. Seven students um six in the education general program and then one in the heavy industrial equipment repair program. Um these

038work-based learning experiences for credit can be paid or unpaid. We have one student that's in a paid experience. We have one we have six students that are that are in an unpaid experience. Um, and this is allowed to take up to 0.5 or no more than 0.5 of their FTE. So, right now we have a couple of students that are doing it for two hours a day and then we have some students that are doing it for 3 hours a day. They're in high school credit. Um, they're overseen by a supervisor. They are graded. Um, they have job descriptions that they update every 45 days. Um, required to do a job site visit every 9 weeks. So the state has pages and pages. There's probably upwards of 30 pages of documentation for each student that

039we keep in these experiences. And so next year, the hope is is that we'll continue to find placements for students, especially when um we kind of don't have anything next to [clears throat] offer the students. So, for example, if we have a student that did marketing one, they did marketing two, and they really want to go into that, the goal would be to then hopefully find a placement for them to go and earn some additional high school credit, especially for our students that take classes early on in their high school career. We don't want them if, hey, I want to go into marketing, we don't want them to stop that, but we also want to make sure we have those experiences for our students. And then something that's not on here that um ultimately I

040was I just made aware of on Friday is that the county is uh creating some dual enrollment CTE programs for the first time ever through Mcome County partnership. So it's never happened before. It's been a joint effort between Mcome County and then Mcome Community College. Um they will be offering it in HBAC megatronics and welding. So that is something that our students will also be able to partake in. um it is going to be at the south campus of Mcome. So it is a little bit of a drive, but for our students that really are interested in those pathways, we also will now have an opportunity for them to be in a CTE dual enrollment class. And so that's where kind of full circle back to the beginning of my presentation. There's always great things

041going on at the high school level and now I'm excited that we're able to branch off into the postsecary level of CTE as well. And so the final thing Yep. Sorry, go back to so these um these opportunities like when you talk about the marketing students and where how do you find these or how do they find us to get our kids these opportunities? So the one that we have right now um that's outside the the six individuals that are working in education general are placed within the district um but they do have the opportunity to go elsewhere. They chose to stay within district. the one that is out. I actually was approached at one of the advisory board meetings by one of our industry professionals. They said, "Hey, we're looking for a summer intern."

042And I said, "Hey, I think I have a student for you." We orchestrated the interview right here on campus. So, they came, they were able to interview the student right here on campus. They did the summer intern job and then they asked for the individual to stay on. So, um, they've already reached out to me and said, "We're interested in another summer intern with hopefully kind of continuing on." Um, but >> is there is there something, you know, um, within CTE or the county or some, you know, somewhere you can go and look, oh, we have a kid with marketing. Are there places out there? I guess kind of what I'm asking to help the kids. There's some um there's over the years there's been software that the county has supported and I I don't

043want to speak the name has changed so many times where local employers could go on there and say they're looking for someone. Um, I feel like the name has switched so much it really has not gotten any traction where I currently find the most success or where I can even see I know for example having attended the marketing advisory board if I have a student that wants to do that I probably could go to that list and make four phone calls really quickly. So I think that's that next piece. it doesn't happen overnight and you obviously want to make sure that that partnership is close cuz we don't want to send anyone there and they don't want to take anyone unless we feel that they're super qualified. So in that regard that's where I kind

044of and I talked to the students and I said I hope you guys don't mind being the guinea pigs because could we have jumped in and had 30 kids interested in doing this right off the bat? Yes. But I also want to make sure that we don't grow too big and that we have the paperwork and everything in place. So that to me because this is very I would say a very niche for some of our advanced students who have kind of completed all of the pathway work that this would be something that we would we would orchestrate with a conversation between the teacher, their advisory board. Um, and then if we couldn't find someone, then I would start kind of tapping out to the community of does anyone know an accountant that might be

045interested in taking a student? And um, and we can stay inhouse. So there are like in our business department, there's the opportunity that if we have an accounting student that's interested, they could technically do that within district. So even in district positions, um, I think of culinary, it could go into food service. There are a lot of different things we could offer in house. And then that also would take away some barriers like transportation if that was an issue for any of our students. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Going back regarding the offsite to Mcome for the CTE is that a financial burden to the district or >> so it would be like other dual enrollment programs. So it would it would ultimately as of now our dual enrollment we pay MCOME tuition

046and so it would it would work what I would envision it would work the same way. So because their part of their FT is technically happening at Mcome. I'm assuming that similar to early college or SC4 that that it wouldn't be any different just because it's a CT program. The goal really is for when we looked at the survey, there was multiple courses on the survey, we really tried to identify as a county programs that were in high demand, but also programs that we a lot of smaller schools couldn't offer. So things like welding is something where there's a huge demand for welding. It's a high high demand career, high income career. But to open a welding program takes a lot. And so since they have the ability to do that, that's where we felt

047that's where the best needs of the students would be met is through something like that >> piece of that and we went on that tour. >> We went on that tour. >> We did get to see that. >> So that's so that in that new I think it's like the T building or something like that. That's where the class will be held. And so again, it would be it would be a drive for our students, but that would open up that possibility for them that we currently can't can't offer them. It's huge. >> Mhm. And it would be I think they said it would be they're looking for like it to be a two-year program. So it would be nine credits their junior year, nine credits their senior year, college credits. So they would technically

048leave with like 18 college credits in either well-being, HBAC, or the Megatron. So, so to round out our last celebrations for CTE month, um on Friday, uh myself and Billy had the opportunity to celebrate our CTE students of the year as well as our business partner of the year. So, the two students I identified, Liliana Davalier and Faith Fletcher. Both of those students are individuals that are in um the workbased learning right now. And so when I talk about, you know, the two that I really went to to say, "Hey, listen. I will try and get you what you guys want as a path to your career, but kind of weighed through all this with me." And so those two are the ones that have done it. Um Liliana is placed over at the elementary

049school and Faith is the one that's in the paid um work-based learning experience with our business partner of the year, Tony Miniscalo from Raw Horn Electric. He is a former educator. He was an administrator um in Chipoa Valley. He's now um in a new profession and so he really sees the value of working with students and really understands working with high school students. So I think that um when he approached me and I said, "Hey, listen. I will work with you if you can work with me." And that partnership has just really flourished. And so we wanted to honor the work him and his company did for faith. Um, and like I said, they've already reached out and he wants to get something set up for another one of our um, going to be seniors

050for next year. So, on Friday, we got to celebrate them. Um, part of the presentation is there's over 22,000 students in Mcome County enrolled in career and technical education and each school was able to honor two. And so if you think about about 21 high schools or so. So we were able to really be among the brightest and best of career and technical education on Friday. And so I just want to celebrate those students and our business partner and end CTE month with um thank you for all you do to support CTE and I'm excited to see uh what else can be done. >> Sorry that was way longer than I thought it was going to be. [laughter] >> Thank you. Any questions for the guys? >> No, I just wanted to say good job

051on your website putting out all I love seeing the you do it like every day now. >> Yes. So I Yeah, that's one of my I got kind of have them planned out. So I'm I'm good for at least the first couple of weeks. And I think that's an important part of celebrating the students, the programs, and really getting the information out there because I think too um some of the programs that we have students and parents in the community don't even know about. So, not only us sharing it, but then I love when it shows the shared button cuz it's like, okay, someone else shared that out there. And I think that's the power in CTE month, too, is just letting people know that it's something that not only our school has, but that

052we're celebrating um county and statewide right now. So, >> very nice. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Okay. Our next item on our agenda is our two-year calendar agreement. building. Turn it over to you. Okay. So, um board members, we do have the backup that has a number of documents um kind of all the nitty-gritty details on what the the remainder of this 2-year calendar would look like. So, as a reminder, um the RA we negotiated a three-year contract culminating in um 2028, but we did the one-year calendar last year and had to come back to the table to complete the two-year calendar, the remaining two years of the calendar. uh now uh so part of the reason that we or the reason that we delayed and um at the time decided to go

053with kind of a duplicate calendar this year as we would have had in past years or keep it very similar is that we had a vision uh kind of collectively and shared of moving towards a professional learning community um style of calendar. So essentially what that means is that rather than keeping the focus of um teacher collaboration and learning time only on those full professional development days when we have the students not in session at all and then the teachers are here doing their um learning and collaboration. Um we really spread that time out throughout the year. Uh there are with the new calendar you'll see there are still two days that are professional development days but those are the ones that would fall on what would we consider typically holidays. So like Martin Luther

054King Junior day, the students would be out and that would still be a teacher work day and President's Day like we have coming up this weekend. That would still be a day where the students would be off and teachers would be working. Um but so the concept behind moving to this type of calendar is really so that you teachers will have that ongoing continuity of collaboration and learning and training and when they do have an opportunity to learn something, you know, have a training on on whatever it might be, they're able to really kind of come back within a couple weeks and touch back on that. How's it going? You know, between this time and next time, let's pull together some data. Let's pull together some student samples to see if what we are implementing

055is really working which we often don't have time to fit into the day when we have you know a PD day in November and then maybe not another one until January. So much time has passed. Now certainly I don't want to say that teachers aren't collaborating at getting together in between. Um what we do try to do now um and we do kind of have a calendar for is currently the teachers are able to have some collaboration time during like common prep periods through the day. And so a couple times a month during their planning hour with the other teachers that they share that same planning hour with, they can get together. Um the nice thing about a PLC calendar is you have 90 minutes of kind of protected time. The students have gone for

056the day. It's still part of their normal workday. Um but it's, you know, it's quiet in the building. and they can really kind of put everything else aside and concentrate deeply with each other for that amount of time versus as you can imagine if it's you know third hour and then kids are coming through and there's all kinds of crazy things yourself didn't show up you know right any number of things happen during the day when we're here that's a very precious time to you know use the restroom um as they are humans have to do that so you know that 50inut span of time that is a prep period ends up being maybe a half an hour of of collaboration time a couple times a month which is hard have really right accomplished a

057lot and have a lot of um ground cover in that time. So that's kind of in a nutshell the concept of moving towards this idea of a professional learning um community calendar so that our teachers can have that time to really just continue to grow and enhance the um instruction that they're able to bring to our students. And um also we have our RUA membership here as well, our leadership here as well. Um, I'll go through a couple more, um, you know, kind of the details on what this might look like in general. Um, and then if if Christy or Cheryl want to share anything else that I haven't talked about, I'm happy to have them share in this with me because it was definitely a labor of love for all of us over the

058course of many, many meetings and our eyes going googly eye looking at spreadsheets. So again, as you can kind of see from the the backup that you have, they're pretty lengthy documents to really work on. Um, for one thing, ensuring that we have the right amount of student minutes and hours um throughout the year. So, we know that the state requires of the absolute minimum of uh 1,098 minutes of instruction throughout a school year. Um, this year, so for the 2526 school year, our students were in for 1,18 minutes. So, um, over that threshold. And with this adjustment in calendar, we actually were able to increase that by another 5 hours, almost a full day of instruction um to 1,13 hours just based on um and I'll kind of talk through it that adjustment and

059kind of shifting of how days are set up um really allowed us to have extra day or extra hours of time for students. So extra instructional time um with really a very very minimal additional. So the students have an extra 5 hours of instruction. the teachers are teaching about an extra hour compared to what they would be this year. Um, and again, that works out because of things that we can count as instruction. So, those professional development days that I was mentioning, um, even though the students aren't here in front of the teachers, the state allows you to count a certain number of those days throughout the year as instruction, but we're utilizing fewer of those. and actually you know move spreading that that collaboration time that professional development time over the year allowed us

060to capture five more hours of instruction for the [snorts] students. So the structure as far as what these days would look like these professional learning community days it would be an early release is kind of the common term for that. So we're used to kind of talking in terms of full day half day. Um this is definitely different than a half day. A half day usually ends somewhere around that 11 11:30 time frame. Um an early release day does go a bit longer. So, our early release dismissal would be about 1:00, 1:00 p.m. or to match up all of our minutes, it's officially 10:01. I know for people that like things to end on that dot, that's going to be an annoying one. Um, but again, to make sure that we captured the correct amount

061of minutes that the students had to be in session and allow teachers that um good at least a good 90 minutes of collaboration time. 101 was that sweet spot that we landed on. Still a 7:40 or 7:50 start time depending on the building. Um [clears throat] so what that allows us to do is still have a very um reasonable amount of class periods. So right now on a half day I think at 25 minutes I believe. Um it this this schedule will give each class each of those seven classes 37 minutes. That is reasonable to do an abbreviated lesson but certainly it gives a lot more time. I know it might sound like oh it's you know 10 12 minutes. That really does make a difference. And again you know Christy and Cheryl can kind

062of speak to that too if we have questions. Um but that's again you can really plan for something whereas you know not that I think we're you know letting things go but we know it sometimes cafes tend to be a little bit less of an instruction every day. It's just the nature of the visa especially in a secondary room where you're switching every 20 25 minutes. You just it's hard to get it going. So that was really important that these early release days would still allow a good amount of hour for hour class time while still allowing the students to have their 30-minute lunch. And uh I know in one of our previous kind of early on drafts, we had uh moved it to a 4-minute passing time on those earlier these days, but we

063were able to work the schedule and uh keep the 5minute passing times and keep our minutes where they needed to be. Um so the teachers would have uh 12 of these scheduled professional learning community um days throughout the school year. um and they're spread about two times a month roughly. You know, some months where we have a longer break like Christmas, um that kind of thing, there might only be one on those uh days. So, uh like I mentioned, that is really to provide that ongoing structure of collaboration and learning throughout the year and that consistency without having to start and stop what they were working on. Um there are additional days that would cover the early release that would also be on that early release schedule. Um those are days that we already like

064this year would would see as half days. So moving forward anytime the students aren't here all day it would be this new early release schedule so that we don't have three different schedules that families and students and parents and teachers are all trying to remember and keep track of. It's either a full day or PLC early release schedule day. much like now where we have the full day or half day. Half days essentially become this early release one o'clock release time. So uh I mentioned the 12 um that are for PLC's and those teacher meetings where the teachers would stay on. Um and then the other ones are again days that we normally would see as less than a full day. So exam days um rather than having six like we do currently, we're able

065to move it to four exam days over the course of the year. So two at the end of first semester, two at the end of second semester. um because that period of time is longer ending at 1 rather than 11 11:30 we're able to add one more exam in on that date. Um and so then much like now the students have three of them three of them and then or excuse me two and two and two uh as far as their exams and then the seventh exam um carries over on the previous day. Okay. So, we'll still have that concept of the 7th hour exam would be on a Wednesday, for example. Um, a slightly adjusted schedule, but still a full day schedule. And then exams 1 2 3, exams 4, 5, 6, the next

066two days. Um, the teachers would still have their couple of records days like they do now. So, those would be early release days. And then, of course, we would still have our parent teacher conference days. Again, those would be early release days rather than half days. So that's kind of where we're capturing some of that extra time for students is, you know, they're they're a little bit more on those days that used to be half days, but it's that continuity of two schedules, not three different schedules. I think that, you know, would have been a little difficult for us to have everyone understand what different schedule we might be on at that day. Um so with those even with those additional um days for professional learning community as far as an early release or not

067a full day of school um if and if you also look at the fact that we have two less days where the students are out during the school year for professional development. It is six additional non full days of school. Um, but I think if we really, you know, look at the benefit of what teachers are going to be able to get and then therefore what the students will gain from those teachers by having this ongoing collaboration, um, that addition of those early release days hopefully would be worth it. And again, even though there are more days that aren't a full day of school, like I said, we've still captured five additional hours of instruction over the course of the school year because of the way we set up this schedule. Uh, a couple other

068things that I would want to point out that are, you know, nice kind of benefits of this schedule is, uh, with the 1:00 release, we will still have lunch on those days. So, currently, if it's a half day of school, the students, you know, come in the morning, they leave before lunch would be served. Um, because we would carry on our day until 1:00, um, we will still run a lunch schedule on those early release days. So every single school day all year long, all of our students will rece be able to receive breakfast and lunch at school. Um, and that was something we really felt was important and a great benefit to uh our community. Um, and I will anything else Christy or Cheryl that you guys had kind of on your list of

069things that we've talked about over the last few months? >> Um, you really covered it well and this initiative And it actually started before Billy was here already the thought of having time to use the kids the half days to the early release that 25 minutes compared to 37 minutes. It really is huge. I think your students can tell you 25 minutes by the time everyone's in there, they're leaving that 37 minutes is a difference. Um, as teachers, one of our biggest professional gripes is how many how much instruction we lose because of we have testing, we have more testing, we have Zello, we have, you know, all these different things come throughout the year. And so we're able to say, look, we're adding time. I I have to get through so much curriculum before

070the testing season and having this added time is huge. Um I I'm really excited about it. I'm excited about the time to work with my colleagues. Um we mentioned the common prep meetings. One big problem with those is that only works at the high school and the elementary. the high school has done a fabulous job of scheduling the um prep period so that their departments are on the same hour and the elementary school does the same thing with grade levels in the middle school because of logistics fourth grade and fifth grade have common prep sixth seven and eighth not my PLC version of prep is with PLA teachers social studies teacher the it takes away the the validity of what we can actually accomplish. We're not actually working on these things. So, I'm I'm really

071excited about this. And I know that there's always questions. There's always change is never easy. Um there will be staff members, there will be parents, there will be kids that will say that no matter what you do when you change it, there's some conflict. We'll work through the bugs. Um we'll work together to figure it out. This year we changed just changing the semester. And when we first proposed that there were teachers who were horrified and after reaching out after we finished the first semester. They were grateful. We came back in January. Instead of trying to retach all of September to December in two weeks in time for exams first, I came back on se January 5th and started my new teaching, not reing retaching. Um, and maybe the students like, is that better for

072you to have your before Christmas. >> Yeah, it's hard to like learn all the stuff and then you have like two three break and then come back and you have to take an entire and then like you have two like well three full half days of just taking tests after like school for so long. So and then when you throw the snow that would have been a nightmare. So, but we made that change and people questioned it and it worked. Um, and I think we do this. We We may have to do some tweaking along the way. Other districts I've talked to, I talked to other districts frequently, my district, they like it. I said, "Yeah, the first year, second year, sometimes it's an adjustment, but we have that time on a regular basis to

073not go, oh, what were we talking about last month?" I hope you're strong. >> And one other thing I did forget to mention on my um kind of helpful key points is we we are working too on an uh a way that we'll be able to offer appropriate child care to for families that are already participating in child care after school. Um we are looking at you know offering uh that that chunk of time that would normally have been uh the rest of the school day. So from 1:00 to 2:40 or 250 um you know having that be something that would be the free or reduced rate for those families um that are already participating in child care that that rely on child care in that way. Um we talked kind of creatively about how

074our staff that are also parents in the district you know what that might look like. So, you know, definitely have, like just said, some little tweaks, but we have some ideas on how we will be able to um, you know, offer those pieces out and make sure that families have an easy, as easy as possible transition into this, which like you said, it is it is tough to have a new schedule, a different schedule than we maybe worked with before. Um, but again, we'll work very closely and and get that feedback from families so that we know what is working and, you know, kind of adjust there as need be. >> I think the a couple of years ago. So change was good. You go first. >> So let me know how many districts are

075doing this setup. >> It's I didn't I did not Yeah, I didn't pull the exact number and I know I did credit it for us. It's it's majority of the schools in um the central and southern part of the counties is pretty much standard. Um fewer of our direction map gap. I'm not really sure why that is. I can't answer that. just just because I do know and have worked closely with um a number of the districts. Um uh my previous district a couple month ago um we had transition so I was administrator of times who did extensive PLC training which is nice and helpful so I can bring that um and again just the knowledge I do have was from um at the I was working with several districts that were um you know

076there supporting them through their PLC. So I can say it's it's pretty much widespread central and southern part of the county, but I can pull that number for us so we have an exact one. >> Yeah, I know Mary does. I just um wonder how many this might be the standard and we're just kind of catching up. I was just curious. I'm curious what think too just from like a student perspective to have no half days. >> You have more ear, but I'm curious from their what they would think. >> No, no, me too. I just want to make sure they have that information before they comment. [laughter] >> I like the fact that we're uh we're talking about some kind of child care because that is actually >> go [laughter] ladies next year. >>

077I think that's the plan. >> Well, that's completely honest, right? I mean, you get to focus. >> My only thing was just like the exams, like having three exams in one day. Two is already enough for some students, but I mean, that was my only I mean, I don't see anything. >> Can I? >> Sure. So, part of our thought with the exams. >> Yeah. Um one one piece is that the current schedule for exams is an extreme amount of time for the majority of the exams that are given. >> So what are you doing? >> Um the other side of it is adjusting the and we will have to adjust the exams. Um, but as we've learned in the years, you don't necessarily have to have a community by students to know if somebody

078knows something. Um, so there would have to be some adjustments. We have math, but we really thought that three more reasonable exams in one day is >> Yeah. I that is a concern that we we did talk we didn't pre test and a lot of we we found to talk to the teachers a lot of them are doing more of a project based presentation type exam rather than a sit down pencil 100 questions. being able to have that time for presentations rather than a more interactive. >> That's a good point. >> I was worried about like the exams too, but during like the budget thing like I feel like a lot of students prefer projects the creative side a little more. So I think that's obviously good from a student okay from the teenager perspective.

079I think we'll have a lot of kids will be kind of upset like cuz we got out at like 11:4. >> Yeah. And now it's going to be 1:00. I definitely think some people be like, "Oh, this is ridiculous." From like a student perspective, I kind of like it cuz I feel like the 25 minutes I get in there, teachers have to take a 10 minutes sometimes like it's not working. They get 10 minutes off the class and like, "Okay, here's a worksheet. It's not sometimes it has to work." So then you know you're homework only half day which I don't really like cuz it's like it's supposed to be like an easy day but that's not homework. So I definitely I do like the thought of like 10 homes longer cuz when you put

080it like that like it's only like 10 minutes but in school they like 10 minutes could be productive time. So I do I do kind of like the early release compared to the half day. And even like in my third grade classroom, I think about like they don't get lunch and they're kind of just like stuck in the classroom all day. They don't get their specials either. >> Yeah. No. And like even like Halloween obviously like they have a party but like not not all half days are like that where you can just like do a little holiday party. But um I feel like that would be really beneficial especially I mean my teacher even talks about it like I think that would even give her more time in general just to like be more

081prepared and like even give me time to like to help her prepare too. So it' be very beneficial. I also think it could it interest how it works. It could affect our attendance on early release because on a death day >> parents don't especially start getting lunches day is a lot easier as a parent to say you're going to go spend the night at auntie Susie's house and I don't have to deal with it tomorrow. because this is a longer day a lot and they're reading lunch so it might help you stay you don't have to go to school any day and I've always thought that that's whenever one talks about nothing gets done free I've always felt that that's that's always been a problem for teachers when parents just don't send their kids because

082that's a half a day and they So, how how do you put out a lesson when parents don't send their kids when early release days are more of a real day, if you will, because it's only that hour, let's say, hour, however many minutes left. So, I that's why I appreciate the early release days um as opposed to half days cuz that's what parents do. And just my my feeling when you were tell telling us about this and Cheryl you're right how it's easier the high school and elementary with their schedules but the reality is all schedules the the bestlaid schedules anything can happen in a day a parent meeting anything like that where you they you can't be in your group. So doing this >> enables the teachers to be able to have that

083time to work together and do that. And to me, that's what's so beneficial about early release days of the whether it's we're getting more minutes in front of the students, but it's enabling the professional staff to get that professional staff stuff done that you can't because stuff happens throughout the day and you can't meet in your group, whether it is everybody's got a fifth hour off, something could happen, right? And somebody's missing from the group. So, >> well, and like Cheryl mentioned, you know, this it's been a long time coming. I think one of the reasons why now it makes more sense and as a go is because there has been sort of that gradual okay well we don't have time to after school or before school so we'll run we'll do our best we

084can to run these these um collaborative meetings during the day and so I think teachers are are seeing that benefit too you know those that have a strong group and they really are have gotten lucky and they haven't had as much interruption um you know they really see the benefit of of of those continuous ongoing meetings and really want that time, you know. So, I think that's the difference is now we've had a good amount of teachers that have seen it and understand how beneficial it really is. Um, and kind of changing that that practice >> and the potential for departmental vertical. >> Yes. So, K five >> math teachers can be working together. >> Yeah. 6 12 social studies teachers could actually meet. So, Billy, we were able to keep five minutes for the

085passing time. >> Yes. Our middle schooler counselor is apparently a wizard. Um, Miss May, I don't don't even I please don't ask me to try to do it. [laughter] >> We we adjusted some we adjusted some minutes around that lunch period. You know, that's kind of where you have that weird flex time because you have to have enough time built in for two 30 minute lunch lunches to go on um in each building at those times. So, we were able to kind of play with that transition time and minutes around the lunch hour to give us those full 5minute passing times the rest of the day until lunch is under 30. >> Yeah. >> So, we're at 30 right now. We're keeping them at 30 then. >> Yes. So, traditionally the teachers get a 30-minute

086lunch. So, we need to keep the students at that too. I mean, it is it's a little wild to see 9:46 to go to lunch, but um >> it is [clears throat] on those days, but it's it's actually I mean, again, at least they're getting a lunch and not, you know, not lunch that day, right? They're on the buses early, >> right? >> And they're getting out once and we we were looking and we were intentional too about I mean, at least for like the younger kids, the ones that we like to eat lunch, you know, they have their snack too in the day. So maybe it adjusts rather than a morning might turn into an afternoon snack. But we did kind of look at being intentional for those lower grade levels. Which ones were

087the early and which ones were later based on what their day looks like. So that was um there was design behind it to be as as least um of an issue as possible. So when so when we pass this maybe whatever [laughter] I think um I I believe the biggest issue will be how many days because parents are going to have to however I believe if we sell it with the positives that you've shared both of you have shared tonight that I think it it'll make a difference. We have to make sure we put those pieces out there. Absolutely. Any other discussion? >> Thank you. This vote on the next >> Yes, the next meeting we will vote on conferences. >> Yes. >> It's the Monday of >> Oh, if it's approved, we could put

088something out. >> We can work on what we want or something. >> Yeah. Well, for for conferences, you could have a you could have something all printed out. >> Yeah, that's what I think was leading to not just the calendar itself, but our sort of like you said, our don't just put it out there because >> Yeah. So, I have a couple of kids, too. We'll get we'll get our heads together, Cheryl. You do good work when we do that. >> Is it ninth grade [clears throat] orientation that week, too? Yeah, >> it's that's it's on the second night of of conferences. >> So, yes. >> So, we could really get that. >> Okay. Okay. Next item on our agenda is our Michigan Association of School Boards Award of Distinction Recoition. All right. MASB has

089sent a uh a release to share tonight. Uh so, I'm going to read that from them. Uh, one of Richmond committee school board members has earned an award from Michigan Association of School Boards for 2025 for their efforts to improve their leadership skills, demonstrating their commitment to student achievement and their own continuous improvement. Awards are earned for classes completed in MASB's leadership training program as well as for uh conference attendance, years of service, and leadership activities. All boards uh that achieve and maintain certifications are also recognized. The following uh one of our board members is being honored this year. Miss Candace Cunningham has received the level three award of distinction. And [applause] so MBSP's trainings and professional development offer to help uh our offerings help board members to keep pace with that fast moving and

090complex changes in public education. The hours devoted to this training are above and beyond time that the members spend at their local meetings, events, and reviewing policies and board packets. Last year, they had more than 1,800 school board members participate in the training and professional develop work development workshops. Um, I noted that the MASB distinction reflects board member Cunningham's deep investment in our students, staff, and community. And um we also had a comment from director Don Orua of MSB um stating that he's worked with school boards and public schools for more than 25 years and is always in awe of the commitment by so many of their members. And there um this will be posted on our um Facebook page [clears throat] and website the the immediate um excuse me the press release I should

091say and um it will also include the uh website where you can look at the other award uh information of awards and I know that the MCOME ISD typically does um do an awards night for this. So I'm sure we'll hear more about that soon. I haven't received that information yet. So congratulations. Thank you. Okay, next item on our agenda is our student board event report. Ladies, um for the high school, February is CTE month and we will be celebrating throughout the month and highlighting our programs with students on social media as you might have seen already in Facebook. Um eighth grade orientation is taking place on February 19th and we excited to have the students come over for a visit. High school students will be having scheduling meetings on February 18th. We have a

092lot of fun new information for the Lee Elementary School. So, Lee Elementary School winter formal will take place on Thursday this week and it should be full of smiles and laughter. Students will gather for a special story time with Mr. Gibson, then hit the dance floor to their favorite songs. There'll be plenty of laughter, fun, and even a face painting to add a little extra excitement to the celebration. To top it off, each student will head home with their very own book and some fun treats as we continue to build a love for reading in our early childhood programs. It's going to be an awesome celebration of winter, friendship, and early literacy. All staff were treated to an out of the blue event, and the staff lunch during lunch. Everything was decorated blue, and there

093are blue trees in abundance. Building a culture and celebrate staff is essential at le um we don't have anything for middle school today, but we do have athletics. Varsity cheer won their 22nd BYU championship last Wednesday at our meetup, and they're currently ranked first in state. um districts is February 21st at Arma in Houston. Um boys basketball will host Kingston tonight and they will host Arma. Jimmy Johns is doing some pregame and halftime giveaways for that game. Girls basketball also host Arita this week on Friday games or JB at 6:00 and varsity at 7:30. Wrestling will host the individual district on Saturday beginning in at 10:30 a.m. And then powerlifting will meet this Saturday the 14th at Cross. Yeah. Well done, Elizabeth and your cheerleaders. Good job. >> Thank you, ladies. >> Next item on

094our agenda is our bond update. No, >> no, it's not. It's a raise. >> Did we just flip them? I thought r number nine is super nerd up. 10 is bond. >> Okay. So, where did we move raves right now? Number eight. Okay. Sorry. We just looked at them. Okay, blue dough raves. Here we go. >> No superintendent. >> Nine is superintendent search. 10 is bond. 11 is rape. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't have that down that way. >> I don't have it down that way either, but >> Thank you. >> Okay, someone please correct me. Number nine is >> number nine is superintendent search update. Got it. >> Number 10 is bond. >> Okay. >> And then 11 is blueevil raves. And then >> Okay, I had that. >> What's that? >> I had

095it. I haven't flipped it. I had it flipped. So, my apologies. >> Nope, you're good. >> Okay. So, next item is superintendent search. So, I have an update on what has happened this past week. So, as of February 2nd, our link on the district website went live. Uh on the 4th, we sent out a calendar and an invite uh went out to the following groups. Our staff, our board, our community, five panels, which included the supervisor, clerk, treasurer, and trustee. uh the Richmond city uh same group along with the mayor and city manager, clergy in the community, uh the Richmond chief of police, Richmond fire chief, Richmond Rotary, Richmond Lions Club, Lennox EMS, and the Richmond Historical Societ Society. Uh we also the superintendent search was posted on our marquee with dates set. Um Cynthia

096told me that they will come down as things happen, so they'll automatically come down. So, we have states dates set to remove them. Uh, we also have a notice up on Facebook, our website, live feed, all the calendar, the invitation, and a link to everything. And it was all tested and working on that day. Um, on the 5th, we sent an invitation uh was updated for the central office and a sentence was added regarding the students meeting. We had a few questions about should we have that on there. So, we updated that uh calendar and invitation went out to some additional groups. We went out with our parents, the Richmond Education Foundation. Uh we were working with Margot at the Rex uh Richmond Parks and Rex to try to get our seniors. Um so, we've

097been we're trying to work on that group in our community. Uh we are still working on other uh maybe community centers and other groups in our community to at least if we don't get because our meetings are this week, we're we still have that survey out there so they can they can take it. Um let's see. On Thursday of last week, we added an additional 6:00 meeting on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. for the community. We had a discussion that we thought 5:00 might have been too early for our community. So, um, our the gentleman who's running our program is going to keep the five so that our our transportation people can make that or anybody else in the community and but he's going to run a second session at 6. So, we tomorrow that is

098tomorrow. Uh, all of that is all on the website so you can look it all up. You can see what times and dates and everything that we have. Uh we updated the marquee to make sure we have everything current and it's live and as of today uh they had um uh 15 12 15 students were involved in a student meeting here and three administrators. Um, and then tomorrow we have kind of an all day, well, starting around noon, an all day schedule for the staff, for our uh parents, for central office, for teachers. Um, that's all set. Again, that's all up on our website and that's the current report. Okay, Margaret, now [laughter] >> yes. Uh well, as everyone knows, uh we the board voted last month that we are going for um the bond

099again on May 5th and so we decided to form a bond committee um that was board generated idea and uh the committee was formed and met last week and there were board members, staff members and our interim superintendent in attendance at the meeting and uh things we talked about on what we need to do to um get people to get out and vote. We we believe um well, we know we had low voter turnout. Um we we lost by five 500 votes. So, we know we got to get people out to vote. Um we were able to get him the documentation um voter voter roles of who voted. Um and we were able to get the voter roles of who are our registered voters in our district. And um so we we know um preliminarily

100that we had 36 staff members who did not vote and one school board member who did not vote. So we've got to get that to change. We got to get our people to get out and vote. Um so we came up with some ideas. We're um going to create a video that we're going to get posted in different spots. Um we got uh the signs from the last time. Um we talked about staff, all staff and board members to get signs in their yard. Um so I I don't know if everybody on the board that had signs from last last time, if you don't have your sign, let me know and um I'll make sure that that you get another one. Um, and Cheryl, uh, Cheryl Jar has the signs and she's going to take

101care of the staff that need signs. Um, we're talking about, um, getting people volunteer to go to the different meetings that we did the the last time around. Uh, one of the big biggest things we're doing is, um, what I'm calling voter contacts. Uh we're asking our staff and members of the board if you would commit to um taking 25 to 30 voters off of the voter list. You be responsible to get those people to vote, you know. So you'd be responsible from whatever date that we get the list out until election day, you know, to get them to vote. Um that's that's really important. And um so we've asked people to do that and Lily's going to get that information out to staff. Um the list of who's registered to vote, the list of

102people that voted and we want to make sure even the people that voted, you can put them on your list too because we sure like them to get back out and vote as well. Um, one of the things we are focusing on, um, on this committee is, um, while we believe we did a really good job of getting the information out, um, we feel since the voter turnout was low, we feel maybe people thought, oh my goodness, of course it's going to pass. It's, um, it's not, um, increase on people's taxes and the needs there. So, our focus is going to be really proving what our need is. um with the video and and some public service announcements, if you will. Um Billy's going to talk a little bit about the state of the district.

103Um and the idea that's going to happen with that. Um so it was a a decent group of people. I have gotten emails from people that um are willing to get voter contact information. They've told me that they're they're going to do it when the information gets out. And I know you've gotten information from people too. >> Um so um that's my report so far, but um full steam ahead and um we're doing it. >> Quick question for you. >> I have my 30 people. I just need to send that list to you. We email Mhm. We email to I'm going to have the master list and just kind of keep track of, you know, who everybody has so we know um who we're who we're hitting and if we're missing anybody that we know

104we can get those people yet. But people are going to email me and I'm going to keep track. >> I just I have mine. That's how I spent my drive time this weekend. [laughter] >> And like Margaret said, I think that that personal touch was kind of what was missing, right? I mean, tons of information. There's no doubt and and the information the statistics the you know that the numbers behind um why this bond is so important are still there and that hasn't changed but I think it's that personal those personal stories right that's what maybe we didn't offer out before you know people can see oh okay size numbers right that doesn't a lot to some people um but when we really hear the impact that that you know whether students staff former students

105um have because of you know the need and our space that's running out We're pretty confident that that will be um be the difference and and again um you know we are looking at the voter roles um you know there were many in our in our school community that voted but we know there's a much larger community out there beyond just our those that are involved in the school on a day-to-day basis. Um and so again, we want to make sure that we're reaching out to them and that'll be um part of that um state of the district uh event will be not only the address and the speech piece, but inviting um those that attend to to go into the buildings and see where those lack of space um spaces exist and again have

106folks share their stories at that time and really show what it feels like um rather than just talk about numbers and space. So that's that's cool. Can we get a little more detail as to how much this is actually going to cost each household over that period of time? >> I do have that. I didn't bring it with me today, but I do have that. I can add that to the next update because I do have that >> and that would be a good piece >> and actually something that's something that you can put right on the on the website because there's a there's a Oh, I was going to ask do we have it back up? >> It's not live yet. It will be in the next day or two. I just have to

107have to help me and change a couple things because I know we've done it before. It's that I don't what's it called? It's that tax calculator thing that you didn't put in your figure out. >> But what this is, it's not costing anything. It's not changing. So really doing something that's >> that's really not needed. >> It's extending it a little bit longer, is it? >> No, it's actually how long it's shorter. Is or is it it would drop off and now right and now it's not >> but the amount it's not going to go up it's just making yeah so the amount would go I don't the number but >> but it's not costing you any more money it's going to it's going to go out for longer right >> I think that with

108the calculator the perception might be that it is going to cost that much extra I think that would be the concern right if you put the calculator people might give the impression like oh wait this thing is going to cost me instead of it's a no increase stay might confuse people. >> Yeah, that's the calculator that's used, right? When it's okay, if it's a whatever percent increase, then you you can figure out. But yes, when it's a no increase, >> I think you just focus on that. >> Yes. >> Okay. Any other comments or thoughts on that? >> I just want to say um I went to the committee meeting or whatever and um so it was brought to my attention. I didn't come up with this, but um somebody else said it and I

109think that it it it's a a good thing to say. Um cuz I did have a few parents that maybe said that were more in like the athletics and stuff like well it really doesn't include anything for the athletics or anything. And quite frankly that's that's not true. Um and I never really thought about it like this. It's a little bit outside the box. But if we don't have room for the students to come then most certainly that's going to affect your athletic programs because then you don't have the pool of kids. um that you would have if those students came. So, I mean, I just think that that's um um a good fact to put out there for the athletic people. Didn't we also discuss the fact that um at the middle school with

110the addition of putting a gym >> area over there, which in turn would allow our um we have athletes. Where do you guys practice at for cheer? Is it here? the oxygen, but the middle schoolers practice like in the same gym as us. >> So, they're not even practicing, you know, I mean that some of them are all over the district. So, this would give us another place for practices. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> For for our athletic teams. So, >> well, I think we talked about before it just there wasn't enough that was interesting to enough people. just promoting on space issues is not exciting for enough people to go out because exactly like what Sandy said and I know I feel like I broke the record. I've said it a few times now but

111that's the reality. It's it's not an exciting bond. It's a necessary bond. It's like putting a new water heater in your house. Nobody wants to do it. It's not exciting. I know Margaret said classrooms are exciting last time. I disagree. Um my kids go to class. I don't see it at this point. I saw it when they were in elementary school. I don't see it really anymore. Um, they're not interested in the blue devil night where we go into their classes. They're like, "Thanks, Mom. I got it." Uh, they don't want me to go to their classes. So, it it isn't that exciting. It's reality. So, we have to find a way, like Sandy said, to kind of spin it. I mean, new bathrooms. We should have those bathrooms here. I mean, you guys use

112this every day. Every time I have to go to that bathroom up there when I'm here, it's gross. They're not fun. That we could be voting. I mean that we could be promoting because they need to be updated. >> Yeah. And like the bathrooms, you know, all of that, right? For sure. And then um >> actually actually what I said about back beds here was not classrooms being exciting. What I said was what's exciting is being able to have a place to sit in a classroom and not having your children have to be taught in court. That's what I >> Well, I think you actually did say classrooms are exciting, but I 100% I did because because the the education that's going on that's what I was talking about >> and that's what we need

113to focus on is that trailers could be next right >> I don't want to scare people but it's not scaring it's reality promote the truth and even though these things aren't exciting what could happen if it doesn't pass you know >> and Sarah that well that's the whole point of this of when when I said we need committee and the focus of what we're doing, the whole point of it that people didn't come out and vote my body to me. So, we did an absolutely amazing job of explaining here's what everything is. It's not going to cost you all of that. >> Yeah. >> Apparently, that wasn't enough. So, now you put us 2 years behind and we're we're and we're busting at the seams. Okay. So, now let's show you >> what we have

114and let's show you what a portable looks like. So maybe that'll get you to come out and vote to see that your kid could be in a portal. That's where we're talking. That's the video that's >> and the video will show the bathroom. We talked about the um state of the district of having okay um Billy will do her thing about the state of the district and then spots where people want to walk run. Okay, they're they're at at the high school bathroom, the one that they have to take a look at a lot, >> okay, with the explanation of what happens there. The the the classroom at the um middle school that has to be conducted on a stage cuz there's not, you know, that kind of >> those are the things I think

115you need to see. >> I see these two sitting over here smirking. So, Margaret, please get them on our video because they're talking about when we said the bathroom, I went they both Yeah, please tell words. [laughter] >> They are correct. >> And maybe from the student standpoint too, getting all the students to go back and telling their parents like this like the class of 2026, we will have people that can vote. >> We're going to be able to vote by the time they >> we're going to target that group. I know Miss Zo's going to work in that. Well, I think that's the thing. That's a thing they have to do in the high school anyway. They do. They are required. >> We're required to offer an identification, but we're going to make sure

116they do. [laughter] >> And then hope you don't. >> Okay. Do we have anything else on the bottom? Thank you everyone. Okay. Next item is our blue double rays. Uh Sandy. So, yeah, just real quickly, um I want to read about the high school dance students. uh Mason and Claire for their first division rating um on their solos at the MSBOA district solo ensemble. And then also real quick the middle school students that also um had a division one rating at the solo ensemble and there's quite a few of them. So uh Leila, Mary, Tessa, Ron, Zoe, Gia, Aurora, Hayden, and Autumn. Great job, guys. >> Thank you. Canvas. Um, no. I'm just I'm I'm going to echo Sandy. >> She took >> No, it's all right, >> Margaret. >> Yeah. Uh, just want to

117um shout out to the staff that came to the bond committee meeting. Appreciated them being there. um want to give a rave to our Elizabeth and Kelsey who um put together and worked with getting the students to come to that meeting today. Well done, ladies. We appreciate you. Um want to raise uh Cheryl Jar as my very first staff person with her list of 30 people that she's going to take care of. She emailed it to me today, so I just wanted to shout out to thank her as the first one to do it. Um, and that's it for me today. >> Thank you, Sarah. >> Uh, just to say kind of echo what Elizabeth said about cheer. They're doing great. I've obviously been to them um watching Emily, but they're I mean the guys

118are doing so good. So, I'm really excited for districts. Um, if anybody can come out and watch it is in our beta, so it's nice and local. Um, we don't have a time yet, right, Elizabeth? >> I just got to say, it's 11 a.m. on like CC. But that could it could like change. Okay. So if everyone can find out the time to be there on it's not till the 21st so we have some time but I'm very excited >> sometime [cough and clears throat] it seems for sure >> thank you I don't have anything on my blue raised today okay intern superintendent and legislative update I'll start with a few district updates, a few fun things we had going on um in the last week or so. Um so we've talked before at meetings

119about the um stronger connections grant that we partner with MISD on. And so for the second time on January 30th, they sent out a food truck um for all of our students K12 um that had either outstanding attendance or improved attendance. each building had a threshold that the students had to meet. Um, and so we were able to um provide that those food truck food truck treats which was uh definitely a little more challenging this go around because I think we had at least two dates that turned into snow days. So I think he was like really ready to get here and get rid of whatever he had prepared for us. [laughter] Um, another uh great event um or um I guess situation that we had a staff member do. So on the 4th of

120February 4th, Miss Turpin, our middle school ARI intervention reading teacher, um she hosted what's called a learning lab. And so uh consultants from Mcome ISD and Oakland ISD came to observe how her classroom operates according to that curriculum. So she does um training yearly. She did an initial training and then she has to go annually to um have the updated training. It's a very um intensive um kind of very rigorous and specific intervention reading program. And so she's been doing it for several years and um I was really proud of her for offering to invite them in and um she said the students were rock stars and the feedback was really positive. So I thought that was a really great opportunity for her and for our students. Uh so we did hear a lot about

121CTE already today, but I have one additional announcement. So there's a a a new grant that has not existed before. Obviously we know CT does receive a lot of different funding. Um, but this new grant that the state is offering is called the 61B and it's um almost 70 million, $68.5 million that's set aside um to go out to schools um that apply. So, it is a competitive grant. Um and what they're focusing on for that one is expansion of current programs um or adding new programs. So they kind of look at they call it the CTE desert which is interesting because when you hear all the great and and you know practically every one of our students having a CTE uh exposure throughout high school there are so many CTE programs that even though

122we have so many we still fall within that threshold. You know again if you have a stu a school with thousands and thousands of students you can offer more and more programs and and they hit that threshold. You know we just we don't have that many students and we don't have that many places where we could offer them. So even though it seems absurd, we still fit that criteria of being a place where they see it as you could offer more. Um so the good thing about that is um there's a good chance that we could get um some of that um funding. So Miss Zo is currently working on um you know just writing up that grant. It came very very quickly. We just she first heard about it at uh CT director's meeting

123uh in late January and initially the deadline was February 13th to learn that this grant even existed and then turn turn around and have it submitted. They did extend that deadline to February 23rd um the programs. So we were looking at adding the agriculture piece. So we know we have agriculture um steam classes in our middle school. So we're looking at how we could expand that into the high school as well. So that's one of those expansion pieces that we could utilize this funding for. And then the other one is manufacturing engineering. So that would be an additional program that we could add. Um and that one the way that that particular one that they're approving the funding is for schools that are within a certain radius of they call it a mirror lab which

124is manufacturing engineering education reimagined for all is what mirror stands for. Um there is a mirror lab in uh the Grand Rapids area and they are they have just secured a site somewhere in Mcome County. We don't we haven't been told exactly where it is. Um but with it being within the county that would be our radius we would qualify for that. Um so that could give us an opportunity to again add to our offerings and add manufacturing engineering. Um I just only had I'm sure we'll share a lot more about it, but um as Andrea was sharing with me what you know what we could do with this manufacturing one and I know she was talking about welding earlier. They have virtual welding. So you see the kids that do like the VR headsets

125to do the video games. They have that in these classroom labs for welding. And so they wear the so because you it's difficult to set up a welding area and you know all the things that go with that. But they learn it virtually. And so they wear the headset and they have these you know things that they hold on to and this little screen and you know it looks like they're really doing the welding and they learn it virtually. Um but I guess that's that's the way they do it now with a lot of the teaching. So that's just one example. Um but again hopefully we will um hear in the near future that we've received the funding and then from there we can talk more deeply about um what we need to bring in

126and then how we could add that to our um to our curriculum. So exciting more to come. And then a quick update on 27L. Um that's that employee bonus funds essentially, if you will, that the state's offering. Um so the last time we talked, we were still kind of waiting for a bit more information from the state on, you know, how retirement was going to be, if it had to be pulled from it, how it would be utilized, would use the grant for it. So we have received, I think, all of those last lingering questions. Um we received the answers to those. Um and so we are looking to start the negotiation uh process because it is required to be negotiated with all of our bargaining uh groups. Um so we'll start that um late

127February, early March um with the potential to um bring that plan to the board um by sometime in March or early April. >> So it's a it's a merit bonus type grant. >> No, not merit. So >> that's what just bonus. Just a bonus. So you got to negotiate a bonus. >> You do. So the things that you would negotiate would be um so the the the language of the grant itself says that you do need to um offer it to bargaining units. Well, we know that we have some members of our staff that are not part of bargaining units. So every district that I've talked to so far and their stance is and in the union's stance as well is that it should be for everyone. There's nothing that that says you can't share

128it with other nonargaining unit group uh members or staff members or not put out. >> It's it's it's very vague. >> So it says you must include those bargaining members. You may include others. So we you know in our preliminary conversations it sounds like that would be what we would do. I can't speak definitively because we haven't negotiated yet. Um, and again, every I have not talked to anyone from any other district. I mean, this comes up at every superintendent meeting that's gone on in the last month. Um, everyone really is looking at it as this should be for everyone. Other things that the bargaining is, you know, conversations could come up around, well, is it a percentage of your salary or is it just a straight amount? Is it, you know, if you work

129halfime versus fulltime? Right. So, all of those. >> Yes. And so again, some districts are paying it, some are putting it on the employee, some are splitting it. Right? So those are the pieces of this that have to be negotiated. Um so and what was the whole point of doing this? >> Why the state decided to do this? >> What was the reason for it? >> They I think I mean I think >> Yeah. I don't know that makes them look great, right? >> No one knows. >> Here's an extra, you know, few hundred to >> So, is it >> when it says must in May so that the bargaining groups have to say that it's okay to give the money. >> It's an election year. [laughter] >> Who knows, right? So, >> yeah. I

130mean it's it's yeah there's a lot of uncertainty around this one but ultimately we are required to get this funding out to the teachers so or not the teachers but the staff >> who drafted that bill that grant who's who's the person would you be able to >> I can yeah it wasn't near here it wasn't somebody from our region but yeah do We're putting money to our teachers. >> It's a little bonus. >> A lot of strength. >> Oh, with a lot of strength. Of course. >> So, it has to run through say somebody's tax. They have to be tax and retirement. >> Yes. >> And retirement. doesn't really care about structure. [clears throat] >> So, do we we just have to go by the percentage of the retirement that we're currently >> which

131is around 40%. So if you get if we figure out everybody gets $500 if we >> then we would back the 40% out is typically what we again I have we would have to negotiate this but um >> I can't think of any grant off the top of my head that we don't build the the into it. I mean grant funds are are typically that's allowable and so that's what districts do you know you use that set aside chunk of it for that and again they are allowing that with this one. So that would be our typical sense. >> We figured it's about what we were thinking maybe $500 right before spring break. [laughter] >> Let's not let's not throw anything out there. It won't be >> that was just we have until September 30th

13227th. >> Oh so we there's time to do it. Oh, interesting. Not sure we want to wait that long. >> Similarly, >> are not waiting that long. So, >> yeah, most are looking at either end of this school year or as a start up at the beginning of next is what I've heard. I don't think I've heard of anything else besides that so far. >> Sarah was able to pull up some information on the state act in section 27 and it says it is not attributed to a single [clears throat] sponsor but is part of the April budgetary process. So, [laughter] no one's name is on her. >> No one wants their name on it because they don't want to own it. >> Thank you, Sarah. You're welcome. >> 27 L. You are correct. Uh,

133and so last Wednesday, the House uh Workforce and Education Committee continued testimony on House Bills 5310 through 5312. Um, so these are the bills that are related to school of choice and that kind of updated framework that they're looking at. Um, if passed, it would require all Michigan school districts to accept enrollment applications from non-resident students whenever seats are available. Um, the 5310 portion modifies the state school aid act to establish statewide open enrollment beginning July 1st. The bill would require districts to accept non-resident student applications, limit enrollment caps to avoid to two available seats only, uh prohibit tuition charges, and assign special education responsibility to the enrolling district. Uh the bill also includes continuity protections for currently enrolled students, uh annual capacity reporting requirements and appeals process um to the board. I'll kind of

134give I'll kind of jump through all three of the the pieces of the bill and then I can answer questions or summarize it as well. Um, House Bill 5311 amends the revised school code to address instances where a parent or guardian intentionally provides false enrollment information. The bill prohibits mid-year removal of a student and limits enrollment consequences uh to a future school year. and 5312 amends the revised school code to require school districts to admit non-resident pupils on or after July 1st of 2026 aligning statutory language with the proposed statewide open enrollment framework. Um so I I will say that MCOMD had representation um at the committee meeting to raise concerns about district capacity, local control and the potential impacts on local districts. So they they we did have representation there to oppose these new

135um restrictions that would be put on districts as far as how you can handle your school of choice. You know, currently there are certainly rules, but there are a lot of pieces that are up to local control. And this is um something that would change that and and limit our ability to kind of us to limit how we limit school of choice students coming into the district essentially. And if there was reason for them to, you know, not be renewed that those pieces would be limited. Um, of course, we don't charge tuition. That wouldn't change. When we take a student, we do provide them special education services. So many pieces are things that we already do. Um, but again, others are adding to that restriction. Hoping that one stays put. Uh, another one, uh, on

136January 30th, the Senate passed the funding package to keep the government functioning until the end of this fiscal year. So hopefully that's good news for us. And I mean, the reason that that's important for us, obviously, we all experienced when the government shut down. Um, you know, how how much we do all feel the strain of that that we might not even realize. Um but the the good sign is that hopefully if we'll keep them on track with those expected timelines if we would have closed now I'm sure that immediately would have started seeing you know those budgetary timelines all those pieces would have started getting pushed back. So luckily for right now we've avoided that I'd say you know when we see how how long it took us our budget last year as long

137as we can keep them on the job the better. So hopefully this continues. Uh and then our new superintendent of public instruction uh Dr. Glenn Leno um appeared before the house uh uh appropriation school is a department of ed subcommittees this week or this was last week. Um so that was his first committee hearing since taking the office. Um some of his points of emphasis were collaborating with lawmakers and local districts. Um he previewed the statewide listening tour that he'll be going on and he shared plans to update MDE's top 10 strategic education goals. Um couple of those highlights that he's looking at strengthening are um including um increased use of and changes to the letters program which is a very common um very popular early reading program which um again we have many teachers

138that are trained in it and also our early literacy coach will be trained in that. Um, further weighing schools funding to address equity, closing gaps affecting student experience, students experiencing homelessness or those involved in the juvenile justice system, expanding learning opportunities um with emphasis on summer programming. So, fingers crossed that more money comes our way for that. Um, piloting more balanced statewide assessment systems and developing uh guidance for the frameworks for AI in schools. um continued investment in the CTE programs and um improving aspects of the teacher credentiing system and it looks like and also hoping to codify the state's free school meals program. So has a pretty lofty list of things he's working on but um I did have a chance to meet him at our superintendent conference in January and he does seem

139like a very school student teacher-minded person which is a good thing. So I'm hoping that that carries through. >> What's this tour he's going on? a listening tour. So, where he would go and um and I haven't seen that schedule yet. I'm not sure where it's published. Um but where he would come in and basically we would be able to raise our concerns to him and he would listen to to our concerns. So, us getting to talk and listen and how did he how did he come up with this listening tour like where he's going? >> I'm not sure. >> Yeah, I can dig into that. Like I haven't seen the list of locations yet. I'm sure it's out there, but I haven't seen it. And then I know it's kind of the one that

140we keep hinting at and it is looking closer and closer to that cell phone bill um being official. Um it's sitting on Governor Whitmer's desk right now. So um if she puts that signature on it, it would pass. And then what we would be doing would be looking at um kind of an increased uh rigorous as rigor as far as our cell phone policy starting next school year is what I would anticipate. Um, which again, I mean, we do have a policy. I kind of briefed it last year. They they just uh enforced that you do have a policy. It should be no cell phone usage for that bell to bell instruction. Um, again, how you handle cell phone usage during emergency or non-instructional time. You just have to have that as a policy in

141place. So, um, you know, I think I envision us taking what we have in place already and then how do we take it, you know, a couple steps further to ensure we're meeting the letter of this bill if that is, um, what passes. So, more to come, but I imagine we'll probably be talking about as soon as an official change. And I think that it Thank you very much. >> Can I add something to the 27? >> Sure. Marcus's question is why are we getting it? And it says the purpose of the work project is to increase compensation for educators and offset normal cost associated with healthcare benefits. So everybody has a withholding at that 3% healthcare withholding. So this is some way to compensate and say yes, >> but it's only if you're not

142bargaining. Well, it's not it's all our union members has to be with them and main for everybody. It's it's >> and it's a onetime thing though, right? one time thing and it's >> just one time >> all of our union members and then they have a list a description or a definition of educator and it's and it lists just about everybody um custodians bus riders food service um does not list technologies not list central office but any bar member but then it says it's not it's not limited to so you could you know there could be >> so you can give it to our community members Thanks for checking for us. Okay, next item on our agenda is items of interest from the board. Margaret, >> I do not. >> Sarah, uh, just a quick

143question, I guess. So, somebody asked me is actually today about the snowmobiles that are like driving on our property and if it's like tearing up the grass cuz it looks like it's kind of kicking up and going beneath the snow. Do we know is that ball equipment? >> You know, I meant to ask Preston. I had a meeting with him this morning and we had a situation come up while we were in our meeting together and so we didn't get to finish but that was on my list to ask him what you know what he knows about that. So yes I do have that on my list and we'll have an answer for you tomorrow. Okay, Candace. Sandy. >> Yep. I just want to say um or inform everybody that I agreed to attend the

144legislative meetings uh at the county uh while Ray is away. And excuse me. And last month in January, something came up last minute for me. I was not able to I wasn't able to make that meeting. And then Candace told me today that um the meeting that's set for tomorrow has been cancelled. So so far I have nothing to report. [laughter] >> Why don't they cancel them all the time? Do does anybody know? Because don't they seem to cancel? >> They do. So here's the here's the email. We are cancelling our legislative committee meeting for tomorrow evening. There has been very little activity since we have last met at the governor's budget and the governor's budget will not be presented until Wednesday of this week. Before our March meeting, I will send you the budget

145documents from her presentation and any other relevant information. At our March meeting, we will discuss the recommendations. >> Shouldn't you be getting those emails? Not >> Yeah, but um I don't know that they know that. just doing it. >> I can I'll >> Did you could you just check with them again and make sure that >> today at 225 >> Joe Devol take care of it tomorrow. >> Thank Thank you. >> Okay. I don't have anything this section. Okay. Next item on our agenda is public comments. Since the last board meeting, the board has not received any emails and there were no public comments that needed addressing from the last board meeting. At this time, any member of the public will have three minutes to address the board. Please sign in and state your name.

146If you wish a followup, please provide contact information on the public comment signin sheet. Are there any public comments? Okay, being no public comments and having no further business, the board will adjourn at 8:55. Thank you everyone. How was that for time?