Richmond Community Schools Board of Education Meeting on November 10, 2025

001[music] Good evening. The regular meeting of the Richmond Board of Education will come to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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, please read our mission and vision statement. The mission statement 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, character, ensuring that all students are prepared for a success in an ever changing world. And roll call. Board member Cunningham >> here. >> Board member Michon here. >> Board member Telto >> here. >> Board member Styer >> here. >>

002Board member Gillis >> here. board member 429. Here we have a forum. Um and our student representatives, uh Elizabeth Schaefer is going to be late with notice and then Kelsey McNamera is also um late with notice, but she may not be able to make it, I guess. So, thank you. At this time, I'm looking for a motion to approve our agenda. So, move support. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor? I >> I >> motion carries. I'm looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda. So >> support >> that was pretty equal. We'll do season. [laughter] >> Um any discussion, Mr. Wley? >> Okay. Uh in the personnel report, we have a couple new hires for some basketball coach positions. Uh Ricky Holick Jr. for the freshman boys basketball and Gabriel Shelonarger for

003the JB boys I think it's JV on the first one freshman boys excuse me and this the second one for J boys we have a couple resignations and appointments you're going to kind of see uh Stephanie Cabrero is resigning as the secretary at the middle school but she wants to be the media center so she's been appointed as the media center uh Ashley Gibson is resigning as the assistant Lego advisor is now going to be the Lego advisor which is going to be shift title. Um Kelly uh Schlam is resigning as a PM coordinate but she wants to be AM and PM child [clears throat] care. Um it's better to discuss. So um with the other appointments uh Tim Langmeister for the uh district school improvement chair. There were no questions regarding the uh minutes

004or the headcount report or the October claims and accounts. Anyone have any questions for Mr. Wley? >> No. But I just want to comment that it was nice to see Stephanie out there um doing her um safety sign stuff, smiling and everything out there was beautiful to see today. [snorts] >> Thank you. Um being no other questions. Uh all in favor? >> I opposed. opposed. Motion carries. Next item on our agenda is our proposed overnight extended trip request. Mrs. Core, so as Mrs. Core and Mr. Knight are coming up. Um, you'll notice that this is also on as an action item and there's a timing issue that we have in order to be allowed this student and this floor to go. So, I'll turn it over. Um, they do have your proposal that you submitted.

005So, >> thanks. Um, my name is Stacy Clark and I'm the director of the Middle School of Fires. Um I'm asking for an overnight trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday, January 22nd. Um one of our eighth grade students, Face Yakpool, um um decided to um audition for our state honors choir. Um and an honors choir is for like all of the students in the state of Michigan are able to um audition. And she was accepted to our state honors choir as an eighth grader, which is awesome. um this one of our first honors choir student, one of our first choir students that have been accepted in over 12 years. So, it's a really big um it's a really big privilege for FA. Um and so we're asking for um an overnight trip to Grand

006Rapids Thursday evening. Her rehearsal is from 12 to 6:00 p.m. and then their performance is 6:00 p.m. It's probably about a 2-hour performance with all of the honor squares. Um, and so we're asking for her to um, be able to stay overnight with her family and then drive back safely in the morning. Um, this is also in conjunction with our state uh, Michigan music conference. So all the state educators are there um, from the state of Michigan and they all come for like a whole from Thursday to Saturday for a conference. And so it's a great privilege for them to perform on stage in front of all of those music educators. Um, and so I'm also asking for not only the overnight stay, but then also I'll be there in conjunction with with the family.

007>> So from a finance, if you recall in the budget process, there's a line item that we put in the elementary or excuse me, in the middle school and high school for Scholastic State. This is where that would be charged that account. >> That is very exciting. >> Yes, that's great for her. and she's um she's practicing with people from over the state of Michigan. So last Saturday she traveled to Holland, Michigan with her family and so she was in rehearsal all day. Um in two weeks she'll be at Mary'sville High School because they're doing a practice there. Um and then she travels somewhere in Lancing in early January and then the final is that big performance there. So >> how do they determine how the conductor is? >> Um they vote on it. the

008Michigan's um the state um coral directors vote the year before and so they have an entire year to decide what programming they're going to do, what songs they're going to do. They're singing I think five songs. Two of them are in different languages. So they got Latin piece and they're singing Spanish and then they have three other songs too. So anyone have any questions? >> Okay. We will be voting on it later tonight. >> Thank you. Next item on our agenda is our fiscal year 2025 audit. Good evening everybody. [clears throat] Excuse me. Think I'm losing my voice, but not from sickness from hockey. I think I'm the yummy. The season has started back up. Um, tonight I am here to go over your audit. A few housekeeping items. Things are a little weird this

009year. Um, in front of you, you have your PowerPoint presentation that we're going to go over this evening. You also have your actual final audit report. Normally, you also get a smaller report, which is your single audit over your federal award. This year, because [clears throat] of the federal government has not I don't think it's only because of the shutdown. It was before that it was late, too, but we need what we call a compliance supplement from them to issue your single audit. We cannot issue it without it. And that's the same for all Michigan schools. Everyone in the United States that gets to see the law. It's not just you guys. So, we're waiting for that piece. The state of Michigan did make some changes to the law. Typically, our audits due by November

0101st this year, November 3rd with the weekend. Um, and they changed it that it will be your regular audit was due and filed timely. Um but the single audit will be due 30 days after we receive that compliance supplement which will be done whenever we get that. So that's why we don't have it. Um it's completed. We just can't date it until we get that. So as we go through, if you guys have questions, please let me know. Also, I'd love to take questions at the end or even if you find questions later or throughout the year, you can always contact me um at any time. So the first slide we're going to go over is the district responsibilities. Um this [clears throat] is also a snippet right from your actual audit report. The report

011we give on the financials. So the district is responsible for maintaining in general it says like day-to-day operations. So how your controls are designed, implemented, and making sure that your financial statements are fairly representative. The next slide goes over the auditor's responsibility. In general, it's to give you an opinion on those financial statements and be able to say that they're free from any material in misstatement. The next slide is your overall audit results. You did receive a unmodified clean opinion, which is what you want. That's the best opinion that we can give. Um, and in general that is what it states is that your financial statements are for your material in the statement and we did enough procedures to be able to state that. Again, the next slide goes on with your audit results with

012a little bit more detail. So, the top is kind of over your financial statement piece as a whole. Middle is over your federal dollars. Um, so in general, you had no bindings. So, good news. you had no material weaknesses and no significant deficiencies noted. Um and then with your single audit piece, you did complete all the testing for that anyways. Um and you received also no findings. So no material weaknesses um no non-compliance noted in the single audit and we tested the child nutrition program. The next slide is a little piece of what we do during an audit kind of from start to finish. Looking at your internal control structure, kind of how a dollar comes in, how it gets into the financials, dollar goes out, the process, the monitoring, the review process, all of

013that. And then we do um we do a lot of planning the risk assessment to see what the risks are of the district and districts in general in the state of Michigan and do those tests. And then we also we always do a different test every year which we call unpredictability. But I always say like Tammy and her team know pretty much everything we're going to ask cuz we come and ask the same things every year. So we always do a different test. It could be vendor testing, ghost employee testing, something um just to add something different um once a year. And then tons of compliance testing. I always say school test tons of compliance requirements. They have federal compliance requirements, audit requirements. And then also the MDE has their own requirements and I sit

014on that committee at MDE that audit manual committee and they set those and we go through all of those as well to make sure that you guys are in compliance with everything. [snorts] The next slide is a snippet from your governance letter and that too cannot be dated until we get that single audit but there was no issues um that came up in that letter. We do have two what we call management comments. Um, and those are not considered findings. They're just considered things either that are not to the level of a finding or just something we noted that could be improved upon. The first is net cash resources food service fund. Basically, what that means is there's excess fund balance in your food service fund. There is a limit that the USDA requires for

015the food service fund. It cannot be more than three months of expenditures and it's been an issue with districts really since co um probably well over half probably 75% of my districts have this right now. Um it's not considered material non-compliance or anything like that because it's going on everywhere. The state's very aware of it. they work with you on a spend down plan and as long as you're using those funds appropriately um you won't you're not in fear of getting it taken back or any issues coming from them. Um we just have to notify the state and you as well and I think >> we've had that happen before we spend down one of the items that's on your action tonight is part of that spend down you bought equipment. Yes. >> yeah it's

016very common right now. Um and then the bank reconciliations, our recommendation was more for a formal review process. Now with technology, things are done kind of over email and Excel spreadsheets and us auditors, we like things dated, timestamps and things like that. So we went over that with Tammy and our team to do more of a um formal review process where you can see the date and time that it was prepared. The next few slides are over actual snippets of your financial statements and these are your fund level statements. The first three columns are your major funds this year. So we have general funds, debt service funds and capital project funds as major. And then all your other funds combined um are in that second column from the right. So total assets and this is

017as of June 30th 2025 is 10.9 million. And I always mention this is acred back. So things like July and August day are acrewed back um at that like one point in time at that June 30th date. The next slide is your liabilities and overall fund balances for those same funds. Overall liabilities and deferred and flows of resources are 3.2 million. And again specific that one specific date and time of June 30th. Do you have accounts payable and approved expenditures being acroved back? Things like summer pay and the benefits for summer pay for the teachers. Things like that are included in those numbers. And then overall fund balance for all the funds together is 7.6 million. 3.8 million makes up the general fund. And that fund balances kind of broke out into different levels and

018they changed those um determinations a few years ago, but it kind of goes from most restricted to least. So the only fund that has any unassigned portion is your general fund. All the other funds are restricted for a specific purpose or assigned committed. They have to be used for whatever that fund's purpose is. >> What's the uh the under the fund balance for general fund? It's got the 12,748. It says non-spendable. Non-spendable. What does that mean? >> Yeah. So, that is either prepaid items or inventory items and those are considered to be non-spendable cuz they really the money's already been spent. >> Okay. Kind of like a pending invoice. >> Um well, yeah, it's already been spent, but it's really for next year. So, we kind of separate that out of the overall ending fund

019balance. And then the assigned portion is um any excess expenditures that was budgeted for 2526. And that's kind of just a rule of thumb for schools in the state of Michigan that if that budget next year's budget is that those amounts are assigned. So kind of the unassigned is everything that doesn't already have kind of a bucket assigned to it right now. >> Okay. So the assigned is just kind of um you know projected for next year to be taken out of that budget, >> right? >> The the assigned is when you when you guys approved the June 30th budget for this year, we said we were going to use 234,000 out of fund balance. You recall there was a lot unknown. So that's what we had. um that may not be there, but because

020we said we were going to use it, that's why we've got to assign it and at least account for those dollars. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. >> The next few slides are over the general fund only. So only looking at that general fund dollars. Um the first one is budget to actual. You have original budget, final budget, and then actual. You can see your differences. you're right on for your budget to actual extremely um great variances there. Also, your expenditures, you have to be under budget to be in compliance. You are not allowed to be over budget or you would end up with a finding. So, you want to see that being under. And then also your federal dollars. There's always some difference with federal dollars because they budget based on their year end

021which is 930. So, you'll always see some undergrads usually there. But overall, your net budget is actually almost just over 1% off of your current operating expenditures if you're using that as kind of your overall denominator. So extremely close and you did end up about 277,000 um to the good fund balance um compared to final budget. The next two slides are pie charts based again just on general funds. First one revenue. The next one's expenditures. And overall, just shows the buckets of where your dollars are coming from for general fund. And overall, if you take local and state together, that's 92% of your overall general fund. Local is your property tax revenue. That's really a portion of your state aid. Um, and then your state also has your restricted state dollars, but really that's your

022overall per people FTE bucket is that 92%. The next slide is your expenditures. Um again, general fund and overall salaries and benefits is about 81% your light blue and orange there. 81% of your overall um expenditures for the fund. Also, um sometimes I put it different ways, but if you look at it or a dollar for every salary or they spend on salaries, 68 cents is also being spent on benefits. So you can kind of see it a little more clear when you look at the pie chart. Of course we all know that the cost of teaching is people a lot of people cost. On the next few slides are some trends for the last 10 years. So first you have enrollment trend ending in 2025 with 1,554 student count. That's up 82 students um

023from 2016 to 2025. And then the next slide is your overall foundation allowance. Same 10 years um ending at the 9,68 and I think for 2026 it's up to 10,500. And then again 10ear trend analysis. Next slide for general fund balance ending this year up slightly at the 3.8 8 million. And the green line, and you can see it's pretty close all throughout the last 10 years, but the green line is overall fund balance and the blue line is the unassigned portion. And then the last slide um is your overall kind of ratios that are looked at. The first one is the financial distress ratio that the state uses and the second one is the more common um ratio that's used by mostly by boards and has been for for as long as I can

024remember. But fund balance is a percent of current operating expenditures is 17.34% for this year and it's down just slightly from last year at 17.45%. And that is all I have. But overall, good clean audit. Um, we got it filed on time and no findings. So, good news there. And I'm happy to take any questions. Can you just explain to me back when you were talking about the bank reconciliations? Just clear that to me exactly what you meant when you were saying that. So because a lot of them are done like they'll be done by somebody being sent through email for review. There's no actual paper sign off of oh I've approved it reviewed it and dated it. So we want a more formal process even if it's through email or online some way still

025dating that Excel spreadsheet or kind of timestamping it. Okay. >> Cuz we don't have the paper versions [laughter] anymore. >> Right. Right. Okay. Sorry, I just No, that's >> it just didn't wasn't clear. Okay, thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Okay, >> thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Next item on our agenda is our new middle school courses. Get started and I'll invite our teachers up. So, um you might recall last year we started um kind of a new timeline and process for new courses. Um so teachers have two options now of how they can propose a new course. Um both of those options are going to start in February or kind of mid to end of the school year. Um one option would be to come to URL this time of the

026year and propose [clears throat] a new course and we're from from these on three different courses. Um and it it would be though for like the following school year. The other option like like a year out. Um the other option is for them to come just to a curriculum team and has to pilot a course for one year. That seems to be kind of a more popular option right now. So again, the um three courses that we're going to hear about um this evening have been piloted so far this year and everything is going really well. And so the hope is that the form will approve those to be actually in the course catalog for next school year. Um again, somebody could choose to do um a little bit more leg work up front and

027ask to have the course approved without running the pilot. Um but again, these three courses that we're going to hear about today have run through that pilot process and are in the middle of that right now. Um also, um these are all pre-elective courses and so again might recall that last year we spent a lot of time with our electives courses. um doing some curriculum auditing and kind of redesign and resources, right, and all those things that we brought with everyone last year. So, a lot of what was found as far as the need for these classes, I think, came out of a lot of those conversations. Um especially Miss Gallinger's creative tech class that she'll speak about. Um again, we kind of realized that a few of our technology classes offered in the middle

028school were kind of overlapping in some ways and by consolidating it will give us the opportunity to offer more classes ultimately in the long run. Um, so I will start with the scaler. Like I said, one class that, um, is being piloted is the creative tech. Um, and so it's a full year course that kind of combines pieces of all the different technology classes that a student might take. So they get kind of a little taste of everything throughout the course of that year. Um, and then she's also going to share just a little bit about her um, steam and steam agriculture class. Um, so again, I know everyone's very well aware of the greenhouse and all the work that's kind of going into that this year that she's gotten a lot of outside of

029the district grant support on. So, um, if again it makes very good sense to us that it would that would hopefully be an approved course to continue with that work. So, I will turn it over to Ann. Okay. All right. Um, I want to take a moment to um, thank you for your continued support of technology and STEM programs, especially for allowing us to pilot the two new courses, creative tech for grades 6 through 8 and STEM and agriculture for grades 7 and three. These courses represent an important step forward in keeping our curriculum current and relevant. Creative Tech helps students build essential skills and emerging technologies, creativity, and problem solving, preparing them for a world that is increasingly digital and innovationdriven. At the same time, STEM and agriculture connect science, technology, engineering, and mapped

030real world applications that impact our community and our future food systems. By integrating agriculture into our STEM program, we're showing students how technology and sustainability work hand in hand. [clears throat] I um developed the the creative tech course because I saw to update our technology curriculum to reflect the tools and skills students will use in the future. Things like coding, digital design, AR, VR, and multimedia creation. It gives students a chance to be innovators, not just consumers of technology. STEM and agriculture came from the idea that agriculture today is high-tech and datadriven. By connecting STEM principles to agriculture, students see real world applications of science and engineering, drones, robotics, sustainability, and they understand how these fields affect their everyday lives and future careers. Um, so I'm deeply grateful for your vision and support providing opportunities

031that inspire our students to think critically, create boldly, and connect learning to life beyond the classroom. Thank you for considering this. And I just like to share a couple cool things that we're doing in class. Um the um agriculture class right now at the STEM um we just finished a biotechnology project where they um they learned about um delayed ripening um virus resistant plants um insect resistant plants um about how studies have taken um different proteins and DNA of these plants to make them better so that they can resist the certain insects and viruses and things like one of my students they had to build a prototype and one of his things was just really incredible to listen talk about it but he built this machine with that the you bring your um it's going

032to be a virus detector kind of called virus sensor. So the animal locks itself up the injector gets injected with this um and you can read it this little sharp thing goes in there hopefully doesn't hurt and then um it will find the virus and extract it. It's not a cure but it will extract the virus and then um scientists could study the virus more and try to find a cure for it. That's just one of the things. These are really cool conversations that we're having. I just get amazed by them every day. Um, and then some of the things, um, like I guess our greenhouse is going well. We've got Peter up and running. So, um, we are going to be running January and February because no one wants to walk out. Um, so

033we'll pick back up in March once we get done with that. Um, for the creative tech class, um, when I first came over here, I taught web design was a class by itself and then, um, multimedia was a class by itself, computer programmer class by itself. And um they were kind of um was really drawn out. It was like it wasn't as fun and engaging as I thought it could be. And some kids were missing out if they took a web design and then they didn't learn anything about programming or if they took they didn't learn anything about multimedia. So that's why I came up with the idea to take all of those classes and make them as units into one creative talk class. So this year the creative talk um that has sixth and

034seventh graders by one hour and then I have seventh graders next. But next year I'll revamp and make it a credit check too so that anyone who took it we'll do it for more advanced different things. >> That's what I was going to ask you for one after you know. >> Good question about my classes. >> So how many students did you have this year? >> Um well the the seventh and eighth grade um 10 students um but the next semester I have um 16. So it's it's this will be a matter of growing it once it gets word of mouth what we're doing and make that class grow. creative tech always is those are always good classes I've got 28 and 29 in those classes those classes are pretty cool and it'll be great

035too once it's in the course guide that helps it to become more public too so during the pilot it wasn't officially in there yet it was like you said we kind of word of mouth got kids that are once it >> and what what are the grants >> oh um oh I just I well I just recently received um another big grant from um LNL products so part of the check is I ordered I got some Hummingbird robots that I'm going to have that the students will be able to um build them and program them. We're going to kind of incorporate it. I'd like to use them both through that class and into the um STEM class. It'll be really like create a robot that would help farmer. So, I'm excited for that. Another like

036it was almost $1,000 grant I got from So, um lots of exciting things. So, shout out to Alan has >> Yeah. in the past probably um >> I probably got close to over $30,000 probably from from them they give back their wonderful um their education donation is really wonderful so um they're big help >> so with the funding for the other courses that was doing before is this going to need more money to I understand you're getting grants >> right well the um the top class is really everything that's already that's already had there all the classes that we already have. So really the only added thing was the robots that I added that's different for that course. Um and that'll just be the maintenance of those um you know as they they robots um

037are usually like we're in about five or six years they start to get really where you might need to start to replace them. Um so down the road it might be if it turns out that those are a good fit for our program. And as far as um uh the greenhouse and the supplies for that um there's a commitment budget to rely on some of the materials that looks really fun. Um in terms of the high school cuz I think high school also started something to do with the greenhouse and all that. Does this kind of run with that? I mean or you know it sounds like pretty advanced. Will they be will that be not as advanced? I mean that is a proper program that the um >> well yeah so but definitely I

038mean we you know building this we recognize that this is something that you could take to higher levels so that something that's you know being discussed >> so from the bigger picture if you look at our career pathway agriculture is not one that we have in the district so as we're feeding in the elementary middle school and we're getting that interest if it continues in high school that would be then the next uh evolution if you looking at that career pathways for agriculture >> and that is another one big piece of the best too and we did um we study different um careers in agriculture and a lot of students were surprised that some things are related to agriculture aren't necessarily ones you also have to go to college for. There's also um trades delivery

039drivers and um greenhouse managers. There's there's all sorts of things that are um that are out there for opening their eyes to see um something they do they just study some people one of their favorite make a poster for it and describe what it pays what the sever would be what would the training be that you need for it. So it's kind of introducing me to all those possibilities too. >> That's awesome. >> So it sounds like uh there's they're related but not necessarily. So it's it's not like in the middle school it's like a skill level one two class and then once they get to high school then it's like a three level. >> I mean so that's not what is in place right now. No no the high school class that [clears throat]

040does greenhouse is miss class. So that's our um cross categorical RCI classroom that's doing that work. Um so different than what's there now but like you said if if the interest continued and we had a group of students that really wanted to continue this pathway it would continue to build on the skills. Definitely would look at a vertical alignment. Absolutely. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. [snorts] Questions. Thank you very much. >> Hey, you want to miss on this floor is going to talk about our theater 2 class. Um so our theater juke class kind of um was born from our semester theater class. So, um, the last, I don't know, 10 plus years, we've had, um, a semester of theater class, which is kind of an introductory kind of getting to know what

041acting is and how to use your body and how to speak and all of the things that acting is. Um, this this past year, I was able to begin teaching it again after a long time. And I there's always been great interest with these students um, to always want to continue after the semester. Um and these students um had asked me well after first semester well why can't we continue on into second semester last year and so they were really excited about wanting to continue to perform and to continue to learn and that's kind of what really introduced the whole pilot thing to be able to start for this for this year. Um and so I had many students that really wanted to do the full year. um so many that we were able to

042kind of develop this pilot class for a full year of um for our seventh and eighth grade students. And so um we started it this year. I have over 20 I have 25 students for an entire year, which is a really large class. Um but they're doing a really great job of learning how to develop those skills. Um and then the ultimate goal is is they are they're kind of like not all of them are high-f flyers, but a lot of them are. Um and they're just like more more. So they wanted to be have like a middle school drama club and they want to do all of these ex these extra things and they just love to perform and so the ultimate goal and kind of like with Billy and I talked with uh

043Caitlyn Sids the high school director is maybe making some sort of collaboration with the high school theater program and so instead of maybe having our own drama club but maybe at the high school level to be able to do that in conjunction maybe possibly with um the musical in the spring um and so all of the students which has never happened and theater fest. They all want to sing. So they all want to do like say a musical theater unit and things like that. And so um so we're kind of bringing music into that um theater space as well. Um and they're really excited to want to work with the high schoolers. A lot of them are eighth grades. So the idea is that we're going to continue to build the theater program as well.

044Um so most of them are musicians as well. They're also in band. They're also in choir. And so it's kind of like the trifecta. So um it's really it's really going great. So if we did if if if there was a whole year program, would there be like a middle school production then or no? >> Um I think it could be a possibility in in the future, but everything that they've done has been in class. Um this particular group of students last year um went to myself and Miss Garella because they wrote their own play and we ended up um performing it for third and fourth graders because that's what they wanted to do. Um and so their final project um at the end of the semester instead of you know a small project was

045they've literally made a play from start to finish rolled in the props, >> the costumes, everything, the makeup, the everything from head to toe. And so these are the type of students that we're working with, which is really great. >> Um uh and so I'm really excited to to work with these students that really want to be there and really want to do it. So it could be a possibility. Yeah. I mean, I because I know you mentioned like maybe working in conjunction with like the high school theater program, but I just uh and I don't know, you would know better than me, I guess, but I just worry about like those middle school kids being a little more intimidated to do that than they would in their own space, I guess. >> Yeah. And

046maybe we start with this class, it would be seventh and eighth grade. So, maybe it is that it's maybe it's just eighth grade that has the opportunity and the parents sign off on it to make that an opportunity for them to perform with the high schoolers. I mean hopefully they're confident they don't have that issue. >> Yeah. >> I'm very interested. They're they are very specific and they they're so interested that they are the type of people that want us to like record them when they perform. And that's something that my student in all these years I've never had students that have ever wanted them to and and even the simplest of examples and things that we do in class they want to be recorded and they want to watch their recording. So they're very

047very performance-based and so it'd be really neat to maybe have them be part of the ensemble um in the spring cast, you know, I know Caitlyn's program is growing exponentially, but um she's very open to it because again the pipeline pipeline to that. So maybe they're not there every day for every rehearsal in the spring. Maybe it's once a week or however that Caitlyn sets that up. But I think it's um I think it' be a really excellent opportunity for them. For sure. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Anyone else have any other questions? >> Thank you very much. >> But I just have a question. So, how does the process then go for anyone who's looking to pilot for something next year? How does that >> So, I think I have five on my desk right

048now. So there's so the pilot paperwork, the pilot process is a little bit more of an abbreviated than if they were just going to come to us and the class would never run. You know, we're asking for a little bit more a full scope and sequence. Um, you know, a little bit more in detail on the resources. So if right now somebody was coming to us and saying, I haven't piloted this class, but I would like to run it next year. I want it in the course catalog. We just have a lot more information from them than I ask of the pilot group. So if someone is coming um to us and asking a pilot um we don't necessarily bring that to the board yet because it's not official. We're just going to give it

049a shot. So there's um the administrators from the building, the counselor if it's you know secondary myself involved Brian in the conversation. Um we kind of talk through the logistics again. Is it going to cost money? Can we get by with it? Is it going to what's it going to do? What's the domino effect on the schedule if we sneak it in here for this year and give it a try? So that team gets together after we see their like said a little bit more abbreviated um paperwork on an explanation and smaller scale scope and sequence of what the class would look like. Um and if we feel like it makes sense and it could fit and there's we don't see a negative in giving it a pilot then um that curriculum committee approves it

050for the year. Um so like I said I think I have four or five on my desk right now. >> So bottom line you kept your promise from last year that a process would happen and we're doing it. >> We are. Yeah. So, and the things that are coming through, I think you guys are going to be excited to see. I don't see why, you know, again, new classes. The tricky thing is there's always that give and take, right? I mean, there's only so many classes we can offer, but again, like Ann was explaining, you know, we were being very intentional about that. Okay, we have these three classes that don't make sense to be a year long. Let's combine that. Oh, that just opened the door for two more classes. So, um, you know,

051those are the conversations that we're having, but it's going really well. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next item on our agenda is our November 4th, 2025 mill update. Mr. So the the point of this presentation is to go over the unofficial results from the uh November 4th election um that um we had and then talk about the next steps in the future and have some conversation about about that aspect. So, as I'm showing the results, the things that we've been talking about as a team and and often some of the board members individually have talked to me kind of trying to figure out why the millillage did not pass. Um, one of the things that um I said kind of throughout the process and it was echoed by other people was given the what our

052world we live in today, some factors may be very personal to people based on their individual situation. So when they went to either cast or absentee ballot or their ballot in the box, their personal situation was going on might have guided their their um their goals. Not that they're anti or against the school system, but they might have some other thing. Other factors as I go through, you're going to see that voter turnout was low. It was um well over 200 vote 200 less voters showed up for this election than our last election. Um there were some inaccurate information that was posted on social media and we tried to get as best we could get that corrected or or find out about it. Um we're also dealing with a population in our in our um

053boundaries that have no students in our district. So their memory of school is from when their kids were. And we are a very different district than we were 4 to 10 years ago. Um, and what's surprising, and I never thought about this, but the more I'm talking to social workers and principles and just teachers, I am amazed how many of our, and again, I didn't realize this, our families were affected by the government shutdown or as SNAP benefits were, they were uh, again, I wouldn't say that is the reason, but uh, it's surprising the number of our families that were affected and their budgets are get were tight during this process. So as you look at these results and uh this is circled in red for a reason because when they compare the official results

054they take Casper and Columbus out of St. Clair and compare it or combine them into one for this year's election. You can see uh the different votes here 131 to 221 in Casco 170 to 2 uh 312 in Columbus. This is what the difference is from 19. We had 105 less yes votes and 103 more no votes in St. Clair. At the bottom you'll see is Lennox Township. Um again this is compared to 19. Uh we had 187 to 210 25 less yes votes and 23 more no votes. When we look at Richmond Township, um Richmond also had something on the ballot. It was an increase of millage, I believe it was a mill uh for roads, ditches, and so forth. So, um there were less guest votes and more no votes cast compared to

05519. And when you look at the city of Richmond, uh combining those two precincts, uh we had 229 less yes votes and 18 uh less no votes. That was on when you combine the two compared to 19. So when you look at the overall um we were basically a 41 to 59% uh in ballots cast in the overall um Richard is not known to have B ball ballot initiative overwhelmingly pass. Generally when you look at the elections from 2007 on they're generally about a 52 to 48 margin. This was a little larger than what we had. Um, so as you remember, we this is the this is what we were asking voters to do to continue the no increase. Uh, extend the debt out to 2025, which was a 20 year of this new millillage

056which would have been extended out. Um and that area which is the shaded in um green over here was the 51.2 51.8 million. So when we look at what that made up there was really two pots. It was made up of two categories. One is immediate needs and I'm going to call that the middle. We are physically out of space in the middle school. There are no classroom spaces that are not being utilized in the middle school. And number two, future needs. Elementary is growing. I think I said there was twoish classrooms that are one-ish classroom that is not being utilized. A high school has a few more, but as those kids articulate to the high school and we begin looking at some of these other programs, they're going to take up space. Um, and

057so that's what this slide was meant to show is when you look at the this green part approximately 1.3 mills was for immediate needs. And again, when you look at the total budget of the bond, the good chunk of the money went to the middle school. That's and about 04 were futures. It was additions on classes to accommodate for the enrollment growth, etc. any questions or comments at this point? So, our natural question that a lot of people are asking is what's next? What what's the next steps? Uh next steps or what are our options? Um what the at this point I say we have three options. One, we could do nothing. Um we could say it didn't pass and we're going to figure out how. The downside of the do nothing is there [clears

058throat] is there's a couple things as enrollment increase even if it's three four five kids we're not talking significant larger class sizes are going to happen because we don't have the ability easily to start another section another class because there's no space or as class sizes increase at some point we're going to have a conversation particularly like in fourth and fifth grade where they're self-contained classrooms and we're going to say we're going to add a sixth fourth grade or a sixth fifth grade. Well, to do that, I have to take a teacher that's teaching multiple classes and have them teach on the prep hours in other classes, which means they're a teacher on a card is often what it's referred to. Not ideal because that teacher doesn't the stuff in the room doesn't isn't creative.

059It's not theirs for the kids to own. All the cues that they use for teaching, they're they're a teacher on a cart. Um, another option we have is minimize the courses that run with low enrollment because when you run a course or a section with low enrollment, you're taking up physical space for another class. So, you want to maximize um the number of kids in the classroom to minimize having teachers on cardboard and so forth. Um, the other option is at some point having a conversation of all high school credit classes are run at the high school. So if we have a seventh or eighth grader who's taking high school algebra 1, their first hour might be at the high school and then they come back to the middle school second hour. Again, not ideal.

060And I'm not saying nor do I want the media to public this, but we're not doing that. But these are all the options given we have no space. There's not enough room at the elementary school to move fourth grade back to create the space. And there's not enough room in the high school to move eighth grade to the high school. So, we're kind of in a conduct not here. The second option is we could try again. Uh, as we've talked about when we discussed this in the board approved the ballot, um, May 5th, um, the legislators and their their kindness to schools limit when we can go for elections. And so we have one more time to claim that it is a no increase over current debt rate before it becomes an increase um like

061we did in 19 and ask for that increase. So again we could go ask for the 51 same package and I'm going to talk about a timeline in just a minute. The third option is we could try again but a slightly different twist. Um, we could do a no increase with a 0.4 decrease. What this is is taking, if you remember that slide that I took that that 1.7, we said this is immediate and this is future. We're just focusing on the immediate and so we could reduce the millage rate if it was approved in May um by 0.4 uh this would generate um 32.6 6 million. Basically, what that is is the middle school projects. I'm going to go into a little bit what that would cover if we're doing the immediate uh needs.

062You can see here this is uh I have met since the election. Uh I have met with um uh which does the costing out of the projects. I have met with PFM who does all the financial uh numbers and looks at everything and does all the budgeting for them. I have met with our bond attorney um to talk about what type of ballot language and so forth to be able to bring you options to the board tonight. Um, so this is one option if if the conversation in the community, again, I've been spending a lot of time, what's a good chunk of time, trying to read comments and make heads or tails out of it. I think our biggest um thing that worked against us was voter turnout. And once the election is certified, we

063can get those voter roles and see how many of our um, you know, citizens who voted in the last three elections voted in this one. Or we can look at how many of our employees that lived. Not that I can know whether they voted yes or no. That's that's obviously private. But you can try to figure out why didn't people come to the polls. Again, not having things on the ballot, not being a midyear, not being a presidential doesn't draw people out to the election as as many of you sitting at the table. What this slide is to kind of show you the option three. This top slide is if we went for a reduced rate in May, reducing it by 04. The bottom slide is what we've been putting out for the November 4th

064election. That's right from our website. The difference between the two in option three is one is we have a point4 millage drop beginning July 1 if it's approved um in May. So in other words, we're not asking people to pay more. Your millage would actually drop 04, but we would focus on the immediate needs. The other aspect is it reduces the debt spread from 20 years down to 16 years. Again, those are some comments that we saw posted. You're prolonging for another 20 years debt. Again, I don't want to take one comment as being the reason, but these are things that that that were said. um this bond and and the 20 that reduce one we do it in one series rather than spread out over two. So if you recall we were doing the

065middle school and then two years later we're going to start the elementary and high school. It's all one project. Once the project starts we have a certain time frame to complete it. If we're doing a smaller bond project it makes sense to do that from the perspective economies of scales. instead of bidding out a bunch of little jobs, you're more likely to have someone bid on it who's going to get the whole package, if you will, of electron. And then in this this option, you'll notice this yellow arrow in 2029. It is not shown on this graphic, but we have the option of re uh refinancing our 2022 bonds, which would cause they were 5-year bonds from the 22 issue. So around 2728 is when we're we would look at refinancing. And generally that refinance

066would allow us to create a drop in our military. you could at that point in 2029 go for a no increase and that no increase could help fund the future additions. Again, there's a lot of moving parts here. You know, two years if interest rates are skyhigh and so forth. Um but these are all options that we have as a um as an organization. So when we sat down and looked at okay what is it critically that we need and we focus on the middle school this is where the budgets fall. So what is that what does that look like? At le school it's about 26 million almost 27 million. High school is 22 and garage is about 30,000. The garage is a lift. Our lift needs to be replaced. It is um it's we've

067repaired repaired it. It's time getting to a point where repairs are becoming more costly than than the purchase. But what would this look like? And I just did a 30,000 foot. I didn't go into any details on all this, but basically at the elementary school, there'd be three bays at Target. The kitchen expansion to be able to serve a school that has well over 600 students. Uh the renovations of restrooms that and I'm talking the common in the hallway where it's a boys and girls restroom. Um and then technology improvements. Some of that technology is our phone system. Our phone system is very old. It is nearing the end if not at the end. So keeping some of that technology in there at the middle. It it doesn't include classroom addition. It doesn't include parking

068lot expansion and it does not include the prek playground that we talked about. All of that was part of the addition and shifting them with the where the addition was going at the middle school. It's everything that was basically on the ballot with the exception of the cafeteria. Um and part of that is just playing with the numbers. Um if we actually needed to have another space, the gymnasium/store room could be used as a satellite serving area for fourth and fifth grade for the future based on enrollment. So from a critical needs by the addition you would create a basically a second cafe. It wouldn't be a serving line. It would be warming trays that the the foods in wheeled down there and then they're put out to serve in in some of a serving

069um container. Uh again it does it does include the instructional non-instructional technology improvement which um were part of the the original bond. Um but it does again it doesn't include the expansion of the existing cafeteria. If you recall that was taking out the stage and all that area and just making one a larger cafeteria for the aroma room at the high school. It's basically three. It is the restroom renovations and if you've been in our high school restroom, many of them are the original. Um we are having lots of plumbing issues and we're spending a lot on repairs. We've had some restrooms that we've had to shut down until repairs are done. Um so that's critical. Uh the auxiliary gym rooftop is the the one of it's not the original but it's an older if

070you recall that did not get picked up in the 19 bond. I don't have any reason for it other than it got missed but that is the repairs are starting to creep up. Um so that would be beneficial to bring that up to the other like the other one. It does not include classroom addition. It does not include the parking lot expansion behind the auditorium. It does not include the office expansion to put a clinic with a bathroom in the office like the other two building. So it is strictly just basically those three three topics if you will. So, what I want to share next is the um any questions at this point because it because a direction if we're going to go for a May election um there's a timeline that we're we're getting

071tight on. And so, I just want to go over that timeline with you. Um if we're going to go for a repeat or go for a reduction. I don't mean that in a negative way, but just that's option option two or three I guess it would be. Any questions at this point? Brian, have you thought about sending out surveys whether it be to the staff, students, the community just or even really just the community, the the voters >> in regard? What are you looking for? what part of the areas that they why they go there. >> Um I I can tell you from the November 4th to today that has been a conversation uh that has been on mine as far as do you hold a survey, do you hold forums to try to get

072input? The challenge we have is this timeline. So if I if I could just go over this and then I think that might follow up with that. Um, and I tried to build this so that it mimicked or gave you clues to what um the November 4th, right? So, here we are right on November 10th. What what we have done tentatively and again the board has a different direction and doesn't want to go for it. It's simply a call and say take off the agenda. The earliest we could get a Treasury meeting because we got to go through that same process again that we did for the the November is December 17th. That is the earliest available. So basically what that would mean between now and December really it's the 12th. The document has to

073be put together. If you remember what we have online, the maps and the enrollment projection, we have to have another enrollment projection done because the one we have is more than a year old, which we've started the ball rolling, skinning the stuff back. Um, because we're on a tight time frame here. Uh, but we have a a a hearing with the Treasury to go over the application on the 17th. Once Treasury have it, they have 30 days to tell you it's been approved. Okay, let me back up. Once treasured that meeting, then at that meeting they're going to say you're good to go or they're going to say can you tweak this or fix this part of the application. But at some point when they say you're good to go, we have a board meeting

074that you guys have to approve a resolution to send the application to Treasury for their official review and approval. Kind of like a premeating to get it all done. >> Just like we did with this one. >> Yeah. >> Pardon? just like we did with with the last year. >> Um, so we did that on May 20th last year. In order to meet all the deadline, we would have to host a special meeting either on the 18th, 19th, 22nd or 23rd. You could do because once they have the application, they have 30 days to to to review it before they actually have to let you know. So when you back out 30 days from the 23rd, you're now into January 23rd. The next board meeting, assuming you have the same board schedule, is January 26th.

075At that board meeting, you would approve the resolution to put the put the ballot or put the uh module on the ballot. You could do February 9th unless you had a special meeting, but you could do it on February 9th. The challenge with February 9th is the ballot language has to be in the clerk's office by February 10th. 4 p.m. If it's not there, it's not on them. And so if you're leaving oursel one day, um anything can happen. You guys did it in June. We had till August 4th last time. We didn't have July meeting. Um so we had more time. So the question that is um that that really I just I need direction if we're going to do a ballot in May is do we want to do a repeat basically go

076back again or do we want to do a downsize reduce the miller drink and just focus on um the critical needs which is primarily the small >> so the people that I've spoken to are you looking for direction >> any yeah comments and I mean, the people that I've spoken to and the people that have told me that they had voted no, I honestly they didn't know or have information. And I I'm not saying that that's our fault because we of course held a ton of town halls and nobody showed. I get it. You know what I mean? I'm not saying that's anything that we did. I think because they don't uh every single one of these individuals, which isn't a ton, they'll say a handful. Um, you know, which I know isn't everything, but

077none of them had children in the district. Um, and obviously nobody showed up. Now, I I can understand, first of all, I do think that we should try again in May. Now, how we do it, I guess that's up for discussion here, but I'm not sure about changing anything, reducing it because then it's like we have to get new information out to the people that already do have [clears throat] the information. Do you know what I'm saying? like that's reset. Like I'm pretty well versed on what we have going on and then I have to learn new information, you know, which I mean I'm not saying I wouldn't, but you know, um I just I feel like when you look at the numbers, nobody showed up. I mean, nobody showed up to vote. >> Why

078would they show up in May? >> Yeah, that's I guess what would be the difference. >> True. Well, here's here's the thing. Um, going to what you said about the the survey, it it it makes me chuckle in my head because my survey question would be, "Why didn't you come out and vote?" You know, "Why didn't you come?" Parents, why didn't you come out and vote? I would love to ask that survey question. Um, but I think if you if you decide you want to do it again, and anyone that was in that room with me the night of the election knows what I said that night, and I'm just going to say that my rage has come down just a little bit. And I'm meaning a little different. But, um, if you're if you're

079going to go for it again, you don't go for something different. Because if you go for something different, why did we ask for what we asked for it in the first place? Because the reality is we asked for it because you need it. You need this, but you're looking down the road. And if if I'm if I if I take part of it away and just ask for this and then a few years down the road, I come back and ask for it again. Then you have people saying, "Why didn't you ask? Why didn't you repair?" All of all of that stuff. and and to answer those people that said they didn't know cuz I had some people that said that to me too and I'm like do you look in your mail and stuff

080I am getting you you get that information of who voted and you have you have the information of who the registered voters are and you find out the people that didn't vote and the parents that didn't vote and you focus on those people. Why didn't you vote? And is it because you were lazy and you just didn't? Or you thought it's a no-brainer? Who's not going to vote for a no increase? You know what I'm saying? And so you just stayed home. Well, now you saw. And people people that voted no. know, Brian, I appreciate the stuff, the examples that you gave in that, but I really believe that there were people out there that voted no um from different things that have been said and things posted on social media media. False information was

081put out there, crap was put out there, just wrong stuff. And so if you read that, therefore it must be true, right? So then you go and you vote no. And so try even even when you try to correct and the Columbus Township super supervisor prime example of the crap he put out on social media and we tried to correct it refused to correct the lies that he put out. So any of those 200 votes that we were different in the thing if those people believed that the illegal stuff that he claimed that we were doing if they believed it they're they're voting no. So somehow you we have to also get those people to understand that person is ignorant and what he's saying is wrong. You you've got people out there, guys, who have

082said that we um people people voted didn't vote for it because because um why is it our fault that the board board can't manage their money and their budget and so now they got to ask us for this? Okay, you don't even understand [cough] what what this is. What do you mean? We can't just say they obviously don't understand. >> Just look at what our audit said, look what our fund balance is, all the work that we do. So to me, if if if you want to go for it again, I think you go for it the exact same way and you go after the people that didn't vote and you get to them and you get them to vote. and whether it's I don't know, you know, our our teachers union did a great

083job of joining with us this time this time around. So, we sit down with them and we figure out h how do we get to these parents to vote and how do we get out to these people that believed this false crap that was put out there. It's not true. A no voter is going to vote out there. There are those people that vote no >> no matter what. I mean, it's notorious in Richmond. We all know it that we've been around. They're going to vote no, going to vote no. So, that's just a given. >> But, we got to get to those people who just didn't even come out and vote. It's shameful. No, I agree. I also think that, you know, people's finances are very tight right now and that's problematic. Um, the

084only thing I the only thing I could say in regards to if we went with this plan where we just go with our direct like most immediate needs as you explained uh not that they're not all needed cuz they are otherwise we wouldn't ask for them but you know our most immediate needs is I mean I guess you are in a way sending a message like okay >> we have heard you >> we you know have come up with another plan But Margaret does make a great point to be honest with you that we're going to okay but we're going to come back and ask for more in a few years because this is then going to be an immediate issue later on. So I don't see any who do we hear from less people

085voted. Brian showed you the numbers but less people. So who do we hear from if if this had been a vote? We heard from those who did vote. >> But hold on a second. [laughter] Had this had this been the same amount of people or even more people that voted the last time, I I might lean towards we heard from you. I don't believe we did it. I see. And that's that's where I'm coming from. >> I feel like the biggest difference between the 19 bond and this one though is that the 19 bond people were excited. That room this room was packed. Remember when we were deciding what was going to go in the bond? This room was packed. And I remember sitting in my orientation at the beginning of the year and Dev

086and Wright told me about the bond. And what did I say to you guys? It's not fun. And I know that that sucks to hear, but additions, it's like putting a new water heater in your house. Nobody wants to spend the money on it. It's not fun. You have to do it. It's the adult thing to do, but it doesn't get people excited to come out and vote. Everybody wanted to come out and vote for 19 because of the turf. Let's just be honest. the turf in the weight room. There were some fun things and we packed this room because they were they wanted to know. They were advocating for the athletics and I know there's a lot of people that don't want the athletics, but those are the same people that voted no this

087time. Let's be honest, the people that are like, oh, too much money into athletics are the same people that came out to vote no this time. And I remember saying, you know, are we going to add anything kind of fun? And you guys were like, no, these are the needs. And I get that, but now it didn't pass. We can try again, but we have to get people excited about classrooms at that point. >> Well, I'll tell you >> and they're just not. But but but you know the argument to that, you know, it's not fun. >> What's not fun is not running out of space. >> Possibly having to go back to the days where we had not fun. So the the people >> I like it. >> I Well, okay. But I'm saying

088if if [snorts] people don't understand that, >> but maybe we didn't emphasize that this is what we have to get people excited about classrooms and bathrooms. You guys, if we're going to go back to the same We're going to go back to the same people with the same material and the same bond. It's not going to pass with the same message. That's that doesn't even make sense. The biggest thing is getting people out to vote. I don't I mean I obviously went out and voted. Yes. But if I didn't have any kids in the district and I saw it, I might be like, well, I'm not going to go out and vote because it's there's nothing exciting for me. But if it passes, it passes. I guarantee there were so many parents of kids in

089this district that just didn't go vote because they weren't excited about it. So, they probably didn't care either way. God, if that's the case, we are magically busy that day. No. Then you know what? I go back to what I said that night of the election. >> I wasn't there for that. But I was like because that is a scary statement. I really we have in this district absolutely [clears throat] I don't get a feel this time. So I I I'm not voting. >> I don't know if we stress enough. >> Okay. But we can get we but we Yes. But I think we we have to do a better job at getting them excited about what is happening. So, okay, our teachers aren't going to have overcrowded classrooms because that's a huge thing. I

090think people would I I think we have to say that more like I think that those things maybe weren't >> stressed as much stress or I don't know. I don't know when we there's no room. We got to make it more clear. Okay. Yeah. I think I do so right in several different ways cuz it didn't clear when we say we're running out of room. We got it was clear to me not everybody is I mean I write up what we need to say and I'll shout it from the rooftops. You bet. >> We have an updated student count enrollment count now that is more. Yeah, we've been talking student enrollment. You and I talked about it last week where you had people in and you and say about our enrollment and we've been talking

091enrollment every meeting. >> But how many people Okay, but how many people >> I wish there's like I'm watching my mother-in-law who's not in the district. [laughter] >> So where are they getting that message? want to hear that. >> Well, why aren't we saying it asking us a question about our number of kids? Why aren't we saying it as board members? >> Well, I am. >> I do. >> Why? Well, you >> Well, I didn't share that personal thing because I didn't know if it was >> because Yes, but it's not personal. >> It wasn't on the site yet. I looked to see and it hadn't been updated. the CTE count >> the count >> the whole sheet I didn't know how what to share what not to so I was verbally saying I don't

092think that that still doesn't hit for people it's not exciting to say oh our FTE counts up people don't really care and I hate to say that but they don't >> when they hear that it's a entire class size >> when they when you if I if someone came to me as a parent as we went out on the board and they said, "All right, so the bond didn't pass or if this bond doesn't pass, your child is going to be going out to a portable." I might be like, "Holy crap, I need to get out and go." >> But we didn't say that. All we said was rats. >> We did say we did, but we didn't. >> But we didn't clearly. >> Yeah, we didn't I don't think we spent We didn't spend

093enough time on the consequences of it. >> We didn't spend enough time on the consequence. >> I think I don't know. I don't know. I'm trying to think of a better way. Well, let's spend a lot of time on the contract. >> I think we should. >> All I'm saying is if we could find a way to replicate the excitement we had in 19, wasn't that like one of the only bonds that passed the first time around? >> We got the community excited the only time. It's because the community was excited about it. >> We have to find a way to invoke that excitement again if we want this to pass. >> So, and I don't have the answer. >> The excitement is what the fear is to them of what is going to happen.

094>> Well, if we're not going to have something fun, I'm with you >> then. Yeah, I would say get classrooms. I can't wait. >> Are fun. Yeah, >> I know. Classrooms are not fun for anyone but the teacher. >> What on our kids? >> You just said that out loud that classrooms are only fun for teachers. >> Do you think the average person I don't even know what my kids look like? >> Kids aren't having fun in their classroom. >> I don't even know what my kids don't care if they're in I went to like the oldest elementary school in the world, Clinton Valley. And I, trust me, it was like falling apart. And I was a kid. I was like, "Look, I love every classroom is great." Kids don't overly care. I don't think

095especially like at the younger level. They just go to a class, they have a teacher, they care about if their teachers nice. >> Maybe they don't. And the parents should because there's a lot there. They're talking about a lot more materials. They're talking about being more >> using trailers in the parking lot. >> Yeah. >> It was before the last portables left >> just before you came. I just going to say >> they weren't here when I started in 14. >> So it was long enough ago that they don't >> they don't remember that or see >> I don't know what that looked like. >> Yeah. I don't know. >> Terrible. >> Do you ever see those construction? [laughter] Because Candace, despite what some of these people out say, we don't know how to manage

096our money and our budget, we've done such a great job in the last 15 years of a great school district with things going on that yes, they have no idea. So yeah, maybe we need to paint that picture, show pictures of what it used to look like. >> And we're not targeting those people. In my opinion, that's the wrong attorney. Not those people. Cuz you're never going to convince that person. No, you're right. >> You're never going to convince the the naysayers that are literally putting false information out there. They probably believe it themselves. Let's be honest. And it makes them feel better about voting no. >> They don't want to feel like a crappy person. So, they convince themselves that, oh, this is just they can't manage their money. They find reasons to vote

097no. Cuz if they didn't, they would feel some type of way about not voting yes for it. So they have themselves convinced, no, this is what I have to do. Vote no because it's just all, you know, nonsense. We're not targeting those people. We're targeting the parents of kids in this district and getting them excited about what's >> chose not to vote. >> Correct. Because clearly not everybody voted. Not all parents in this district voted. So that is our question. And if I'm looking at just that behavior, that's why they weren't excited. Margaret, I agree with you and I remember and I believe it was the 19 one where we literally went we had a list I w I walked house to house of those who didn't vote to to spread information of why we

098were doing that. I think that is a valid point of besides this message which I agree also with but I think we would need to look at those voter roles and let's look to see who didn't vote. Maybe we can do that if we choose to do that route. Have our surveys >> and asking the questions there. I I would leave in a survey. I I do I wish we had time. [clears throat] I don't know that we do a survey. >> I don't know that we have time as many people question. >> So at this point um >> and who knows if they're being honest too. Like who knows if they're going to be honest. Like if you say did you vote and they they might all check guess cuz again >> they don't

099want to be known as the no or the non. >> Yeah. Right. >> So >> Mr. Wley so you're looking for a direction from the board as far as >> do you want >> option one two or three? >> Option one mean we don't do anything. We figure out the solution. Option two we >> go right back at same thing 51.8 million repackage it. But basically the the the only thing that would have to change in our application to the treasury is we have to have updated enrollment projection number. Basically everything's done. >> Um or option three >> which was the red >> which is a reduced one. Um we'd have to have um cuz the or friends and associates does the drawings for the application. They would have to re revise those. [clears throat]

100We'd have to get the um enrollment projections. We've already got kind of the what what's the critical need from a so some pieces already done but >> I'm a fan for reducing and here's why I personally don't think we should only focus on those that didn't vote but the ones that did vote that voted no it was in every district it was yeah >> but we don't know >> but I think they voted no but I think because of the uncertainty that's out there right know all around and I think that would be a compromise showing them that [cough] we would [clears throat] be willing to figure out something else for some things or buy them time during this uncertainty time. Um, and then we could >> redo it again, you know, whatever. I The

101only way >> they're going to say no again. The Well, yeah. But the only way that I could even follow that logic or that thought is the fact that if by voting by voting no, the the the rate going down doesn't happen for a year. So it's not like by voting no their their um their taxes went down because there were people online that were wondering why their you know when does their stuff go down. So it doesn't happen for for a year and July. >> Okay. And so if you if if you if you go and you say, "Okay, we're going to change this." Like I said, that the the problem that we're having that we're full, it's going to those kids are going to move to the high school and in a few

102years you're going to turn around and we're going to have a problem high school. By doing this now, we're getting ourselves ready. So you can go years down that we're not going to have to ask for this stuff. the different refinancing down the the road with different uh with the bond rates and that kind of that kind of stuff can happen in the middle of this the 2000 what the 2019 or 16 where we where we did refinance taxpayers got money back >> right >> reduce it and drop it. So we dropped the military 22 23 24 >> We didn't hear anything about it. Nobody said anything. >> We said we did. >> We did, but they didn't. Nobody really recognized that it went. >> I would hope when >> your house if your house

103value goes up, you don't see it until you look at that number and and >> right >> probably say the average person doesn't understand that number still be there down the road. And as a board, all you're doing is kicking the can down the road, leaving it for but they're the taxpayers. So they're I'm the taxpayer, too. They're the ones that get to make the decision. If you make it seem as if we are working with them, I I I just wish we could have more time for a survey. >> Listen, I'm saying I'm not I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying. I'm saying that we're all taxpayers, too. And we're we're going to pull this away from you now, but four or five years, we're going to come back and ask you for it,

104and we're we might act to ask you for it more. And it's not going to be a no increase. It could be an even bigger increase for 40 now and we can take care of it all now. That's that's that's where I'm coming from, right? That's that's >> if I can chime in here. Um, lot of lot of stuff to talk about. Uh, so my my opinion is of that potentially the third option of asking for a reduced rate. Um, and and here's kind of where I'm at. I and I do like Sarah's thought about like the rebranding of of how we're asking this. I I I absolutely agree with that. Um for sure. But so the voting difference between the yeses and the nos were approximately 11 11%. Um now we're only going based

105off of, you know, we got less people that went out voted, but the overall effect was 11%. That's that's a pretty big margin in my eyes. Um it's and so what is the reason for that? You know, Brian went over some of the projected reasons of, you know, why we we think that it came out. I think and the economic status was was a big factor. You know, we got the government shutdown. And I I really do think that was a big factor is uncertainty. You know, if we have the opportunity to lower our taxes, why wouldn't we? Because right now, for any foreseeable future, you know, they could be getting less to take care of their families. and whether they have kids in the district or not, you know, who wouldn't want to lower

106their taxes? Um, but I I think if we go with the third option, it's it's it's kind of a look, um, this is our our compromise, if you will, while still trying to get some things done. And even if you know we're we're absolutely going to have to revisit in the future and ask for a warm up, you know, based off of, you know, what we're looking at, what we're trying to do, it will happen. It won't be as much if we can get this much of it passed right now. And and I I think I think we would have better luck doing that than, you know, asking for the full money again because we were so far apart between the yeses and the nos regardless of whoever went out and voted. I think that

107was a big margin. So I I would be in favor with with kind of rebranding it, getting it out there again. Um, you know, and obviously some some of the stuff that was put on social media, you know, all we can do is is try to educate people the best we could. I thought throughout the process, uh, the board as a whole and went out there and tried to get into the community and get the information out there. Um and and so I don't I don't have the answer to how to do that better because you know with with all the attendance or going to the different township meetings um you know Brian I know worked his butt off doing that. Uh and and some of the other board members that also was able to

108go out and and do that advocate for the bond. Um I I just I don't know a better way to do that than than what was done. But I think that that it just it and and people that that you know going to know some of the the things that I was hearing from people it was you know I I didn't really see anything glaring that we we overlooked and we tried to put the the information out there but I just I just think the asking for less rebranding it and kind of showing the community hey compromise but we but seriously we really do need x amount to move forward. >> The the the downside of rebranding, I wanted to make sure put out the think of a time frame. If this passed in May

109of 26, you're talking at least a year for drawings, state certainty [cough] approval. So, you're not breaking ground until summer, fall of 27. It's at least a year, maybe a year and a half before you have occupancy. So 27, 28, the 28, 29 school year. And then that following November and 29, you potentially have the opportunity to go back and say no increase. And they're just really seeing the project finish. Now, you could say, you know, now we have a better enrollment number. You might not need to go back as an improvement and you have better enrollment. But if the enrollment numbers there now, you sell that as okay, these kids from when you pass this to this time, we've got more kids. So, we just got to get we're we're a year behind now

110because [snorts] of they would have started this January and it would have started probably next fall with construction. But, um, again, I'm just getting two options out there. um trying to understand what people were looking for in this election and um and splitting it between critical because we're out of room versus we're going to be out of room. I mean again elementary >> so it'll be critical in a couple years. I don't you know because I I was thinking about the two as well because I had the same initial thought like okay well if we did do a reduced thing like you know we we are maybe sending a message but after really looking at like the numbers of who showed up to vote um or or who didn't I guess um I feel like

111and just the information that I got mostly was like they didn't have the information and I I do feel like we do a a little bit I guess if we're going to call it rebranding. You know, I agree that we have to get it out there in different ways so that people really truly understand what it means. If it doesn't pass, but I I I'm actually for trying it again. Um >> opposite. Yep. I I truly am until I see like more numbers at the polls. >> But it's an off it's an off time to vote. I mean, what else? What else is there? It's an even year, so it's probably >> I know there's elections next year for sure. >> Not May, >> but not in May. >> So, what would be on the

112ballot in May? Normal any anything >> that would draw? >> No, it was just getting like But we're we're going to be sending out the same message only, you know, and with additional I think ways and it so reach more people and you know, it gives us more time to send this message to figure that out. who didn't vote. >> Yeah. No, for sure. >> Yes. >> But that's not the difference between who voted in 19 and who voted is not the difference that we needed. >> That's not I'm I'm not talking about that. >> I'm talking about the registered voters parents in this district who did not vote. I'm not I'm not just talking about from the 19 to this. I'm talking about right now what parents did not come up and vote. Those

113those are the people that we that that you got to get to. >> We don't have to draw up all these new plan. Sorry, Margaret. Sorry. We don't have to draw up all these new plans and all of that as well. Like I just I feel like I I feel like we just need one more opportunity to get it out there. >> Well, I >> I think no showing to the pools is giving a sign is giving us a sign. >> That wasn't enough to get them to the polls. That that is them saying no. or someone didn't know or they thought no people no show up to vote people sometimes don't >> right or they thought >> it's a no-brainer it's whatever the reason but if if rebranding if and I'm not sure rebranding

114really was the word [laughter] because I'm not sure I I like the word rebranding but if it's going if it's going after showing hey people here's what's going to happen >> yes >> if we if we don't get this and we didn't do that. I don't know why we needed to do that, but maybe we do need to do it this time to get people to understand this is what is going to happen if we can't get this. So, parents here's here's what and maybe we find pictures of what our portables what that looked like. >> Well, some of these parents went to school went to classes in those husband. >> I think we're just I think he did focusing on parents, then maybe we could draw some sort of an email type survey >>

115if that is really what we're >> focusing on. But I think on on the people that voted no versus the people that didn't go out to vote. >> Yeah, I disagree. >> There going to be no votes. >> They're going to be no votes or no votes. What we did in 19 is we looked at the voter roles for those that went showed up to vote the last three elections >> and we targeted those household because the odds of them >> they're going to show up to vote. >> Yes. >> This one again what's coming to vote there could have been other things on the ballot that >> they had more choices or more but they felt more safe. But >> yes, >> May it's us. >> So we got to get that up. Worry

116worries me in May is it's spring season. It's spring. >> It's spring period. >> Dairy Queen. >> I'm just all the stuff that you do a nice if it's a nice night. You're going to get people who are who are on the fence. That's all I'm saying. >> Well, but rebranding it would be based on what do they want? What? Not what do they want, but what areas, you know, if we've offered all the areas, the bathrooms, the this and that, you know, just to be heard, maybe they just want to change it anyways. >> I think if they have to do, >> it's too bad they don't have. I think it's a timing thing. I do, even though I I think, you know, going doing the same thing again, if we're not changing anything,

117I don't think that's smart. So if we are going to just present it differently, I would be supportive of going allin with the full millage because if you're trying to get people excited about something to vote, you don't want to only impact the middle school families. If I'm a high school parent and you're doing nothing for my kid at the high school, I'm less likely to care and come out and vote. So at least this way you're target, you can target parents of all three schools. You get some people excited about something for their kid in particular. People don't really care as much, but it doesn't impact their family. So, I would say we keep it the same. >> I agree. I I would like to keep it the same. >> You guys, please go

118Danielle. >> I found Sandy over here. I'm like, I'm just not going to inter. >> Um, no. I think I was initially when we had talked on election night, I was Brian had thrown the idea up there just in passing about going forward and that made sense, but hearing the conversation today, I think it makes sense too. But to go off of kind of what Sarah said, like the uh portables and things and what are the consequences of it? Like that's I think that's a great strategy because me thinking back so when I was in elementary school, literally the next year when my sister was still there, they were putting three portables in the back of the playground. So you're looking at parents who are probably in their mid to late 30s who can relate

119to portables and literally some I was in Udica schools but had portables at their schools and it's a little more relatable to them of you know throwing that out there. Hey, if we don't have this, you're, you know, we're going to end up having portables. And they can picture that because like you said, throw the pictures out there. But they, some of them have literally been in it, been in a portable. Um, and then with my other piece list, there's too much timing. [laughter] Um, oh yes, thank you. Um, I know Margaret had mentioned that one of the comments was talking about, you know, oh, they're not being fiscally responsible. Well, that's a marketing strategy, too. If we're doing it now and we're asking for the full amount now, we are being responsible because in

12029 when we have to come back prices increase and we're looking out yes we need or we're even conveying yes we need this right now and yes it's 1.3 or mills whatever but this point4 mills we don't need it right now but we're being financially responsible and taking advantage of doing it now because otherwise if we go to do it 29 we're going to be paying a hell of a lot more in just inflation in general. So you want us to be fiscally responsible. This is us being fiscally responsible with that. 4 mills otherwise that point4 mills could turn into 1.5 or 1.7 in 2029. Um so but I think having the portable relation and fiscally responsible that's the feedback we're getting. Then how about it just makes sense. How about I'm just going to

121add one more. How about class sizes, too? >> I know. That's what I want. >> We have worked so hard to get them class sizes. How about that? Throwing that out there, too. That class sizes become larger. Well, >> 35 kids in a classroom and take a picture and put that out there. >> I mentioned it in that one post that I did on Facebook. Like, if you vote no, a no vote is bigger class sizes because where else do you want me to put them? you know, but then the next person who complains that the class sizes got bigger, well, what did you vote? Where did you vote? Where did you vote in this case because the numbers were so low? But I mean, absolutely. I mean, you want to keep a classroom of

12228 to 25. Well, this is what needs to happen. When I first started teaching, I had classes of 38. But like, that's insane, you know? So, like it's amazing to have those, but we can't have those forever, they're not going to give us the space. >> Yeah. >> I just wanted to follow up with what Daniel said just to make sure if you go the whole 51.2, it's two series because if you put it all in one, you're going to have to levy more and it'll be an increase. And it's a cash flow. As we get the dollars and the project's finished, at some point you hit a low cash point, you sell the next series, which then reduces the amount of interest you're paying because it's just not sitting in the bank. I think

123she meant allin-one. But but the thing that I you need to I want to first recognize is the budget that's in the two series. >> We have accounted for escalation cost with based on >> if it's going to be done in 28. What's the average escalation for steel? We've accounted for that in >> do it right now for 1.7 mills. Whereas if we extrapolated that out to 2029, it might have really cost 2.4. Yeah. >> The other thing that um Daniel that you did the night we were watching the numbers come in, you had given a figure of well this works out to $1 a day or $110.7 >> to124 >> per you know depending on it. Maybe that's another piece of that >> for just a dollar. >> Yeah, we're going to be adding

124a classroom or something like that. I'm just thinking that rebranding thing again. >> And we did that in a former district. There was 34 cents that we put on literally three dimes and four pennies and every a little placer on everybody's desk on your mark your badges which is 34 cents get you it was a passage of the bond. So it's a way of getting that message out if it's not again same concept >> and I think if we are gonna educate about what it could look like if it doesn't I just want to say I think it we have to be very careful how we do it because >> you we can't have it come across looking like so I think it is going to be but I'm thinking like maybe teacher testimonials of

125what it was like teaching in portables and what it's like with higher class sizes because I'm sure you know a lot of the people in this district families They really respect their teachers. I mean, you two actually, but a lot of our families really look to the teachers and respect what they say. If if there were some things that went out of like little testimonials, what they feel when the class size is higher or what portable like I think or even community members that were taught in >> a portable cuz there's still so many of them here um that live here. maybe what it was like to have to walk and I don't know maybe that could maybe invoke more emotional kind of response and get them like >> but I think yeah we can't

126have it come across as well but >> even even the advantages of being able to teach in classrooms of smaller sizes and that kind of stuff and the benefits of that pulling it look around in surrounding districts where it doesn't have that's that's a good promotional thing >> I think we do it that way I think there's a right way to do it and I think we can do it that Okay. So, even if that is our rebrand, it's just coming at it from a different angle. >> I think that could be helpful. >> So, what I'm hearing pretty much from everybody on the board is that we're giving you the direction to go for it again. >> 51.8 >> whole thing. Okay. And we want to address we want to I hate the word

127re. And we want to go at it from a different angle. >> Yeah. >> Well, we already have all that information out there. So, let's get some new information perspective. Yeah. >> Rebranding it be marketing differently. >> There you go. I like the new perspective. >> Exactly. [laughter] >> Okay. Everyone said that. Okay. We're going to move on to our next agenda item. I'm looking for a motion to go into close session. Pursuant to MCL154.268 section 8H of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, I move that the board of education go into close session for the purpose of considering material exempt from discussion for disclosure by state or federal statute. Do I have support? >> Support. >> Any discussion? This will be a roll call vote. Margaret >> I. >> Candace. >> Hi. >> Sandy. >>

128I. >> Raymond. >> Hi. >> Sarah. >> Hi. Danielle, >> I I vote I. Motion carries. Um for our people in the audience, we will be finishing up our meeting when we return from close session. Okay. Go back into open session at 9:16. Okay. Next item on our agenda is our blue devil race. Uh Margaret. Okay. Bear with me. I've got a few. Okay. um went to uh Raith about trunk or treat. Um that it was really fun at Lee and just shout out to Deb and Sandy and Candace and Kelsey uh who did our board trunk or treat. We had so much fun that night. Um and Brian and his wife Tanya and Tanya's dad, they did a trunk or treat uh with their vehicle. And to our Elizabeth who was a tattoo artist

129for the kids. So that was fun. Um want to [cough and clears throat] shout out um our boys soccer team um did really well this year and want to give a shout out to our soccer coach Brian Williams uh one of our teachers here in the district and uh this is his third year and um when he took over the team they had only won two games. Last year they won four. This year they won 10 games and they lost in the district semifinals. And I've only got to one soccer game this year, but I'm hearing nothing but raves about um Mr. Williams and his positive influence on the team. So I just want to shout him out. Um shout out to our varsity football team. Um had a 9-2 season. It ended on Friday

130against Franken Muth. Um, Greg Muth was a very formidable opponent, but uh, shout out to Coach Msco and his staff. What they did with that boys team this year was great. Um, a shout out to Miss Zavo, Miss Borwick, and Mr. Trend. Uh, at the game Friday night, there was just a couple of things that happened. uh some things in the stands, behind the stands, and I mentioned to Brian, um they did a really great job of getting things under control, uh the three administrators, and uh I was proud of them and uh them working together. Um the food service department um did a food contest last week that I attended and Cam and Dell will probably talk about it too. But um each building did um it was Mexican food and they had something

131that we could try to eat and then we had to vote um on which one was going to be the winner. and the middle school one um their chicken and cheese queso. >> Um but the food was great and they they played Mexican music and they they decorated and they dressed up and everything and it's food that um they presented so that they're looking to u make that for the kids, you know. So they were having us try it out to see, you know, which one would win. So the kids will be eating that food. So that was really fun. Um, and I just want to with respect to the bond, um, our teachers union, um, Cheryl Jar and Christy Crarampton and and the rest of our our teachers, um, I've been around a really

132long time and we've had many bond issues, but this was the first time that, um, our teachers union came to us and wanted to help. They got the signs. They they were the ones that came to Brian um to get the signs. They paid for the signs, got the signs passed out, and just uh kudos to them um for all the effort that they did to get those signs out there, see those really big signs that they put out around the district. And um it was just really a really really great thing um to have that support from the teachers union. And then last, um, the Ron Clark Academy that, um, a lot of us know that we have had teachers and administrators be able to, uh, attend the school down in Atlanta. Brian has

133gone this summer. Danielle and I were able to go and Lee school has, um, started uh, full steam ahead with a full imp implementation of the house system. So, um I had been talking to Mrs. Money and so just wanted to give a little shout out to them on what's been going on. Um they uh they've got the full house system going on and and what it is, you know, it's the the four different houses and each student um at the beginning of the school year had the ability to get sorted into a house. It was a um what's the word I'm looking for? >> A random selection. >> Random selection. Yes, I'm I'm talking too fast for my reading. Random randomly selected into the houses at the beginning of the school year. Uh it

134was a very fun day. Uh teachers also have been chosen to be in houses. They did that before school started. And everybody has a t-shirt to represent the house that they're in. uh houses are in colors. Um so all the students in the building wear and staff wear their shirts every Thursday to uh represent their houses. Um and each house the students are in, they have the ability to earn points for their individual houses and you get points based on great behavior, kindness, treating others with respect and overall being a true blue student. Uh the students love earning these points and data is showing a decrease in behaviors since the implementation. Uh they are going to have prizes and some um reward ceremonies. They're getting prizes for attendance and all that. But it's just a

135really um a really cool thing that is happening at the elementary and I know that the middle school is [clears throat] talking about getting something started for houses for them as well. And there's the teachers at the high school that attended the Ron Clark Academy, they're doing things in their classrooms. And uh one of the things at Ron Clark, their teachers teach on what they call stages. It's like an elevated platform. And um the idea is when you're when you're talking and teaching, you're above the kids so the kids could see you. They could see everything you're doing. And um our teachers were excited about that and I had talked with Brian and uh so I sent out an email. Um we had had a meeting when we came back this summer. Um and there

136were teachers that were interested. There were nine teachers that were interested in they wanted stages for their classrooms. So I was able to find somebody who's going to make the stages for the teachers and that person is Mark Miscoco. And Mark is the dad and father-in-law to teachers uh Sean Miscoco and Cory Miscoco. He lives here in Richmond. So he is building the stages um for them. I'm hoping they're going to get them if not this week, next week. So they're real excited. Um each build there's someone in each one of our three buildings teachers that are going to be able to have these stages and they're going to decorate them and do whatever they want in their classrooms. But really excited about that. So hopefully um once we get those in the groups, we

137can take some pictures and we can put them on the website. But it's just it's just really exciting the stuff and I know there's a group that is down in Detroit doing some round stuff tonight, right Brian? >> Y >> um but it's exciting and um I'm very into it and Danielle Danielle is too where we we both just love being there. So, I'm going to try to keep keep raving about it and get information what's happening in all three buildings first. It's really cool. Thank you, Sandy. So, I'm going to be much quicker than that, but um [laughter] just real quickly though, just wanted to uh re reiterate a couple things. I also did the trunk or treat. I thought it was great. Deon uh Candace did the decorating and all that and got

138us all situated. So, I appreciate that. Thank you very much. All I had to do is show up. Um and um but that was a great turnout. It was a fun time. I like to do that. Um and then also wanted just to say, you know, thank you to the teachers union, to Brian, to all of the staff, the board that worked on the bond initiative. Uh you know, we did um a lot of work went into that and um and so I just appreciate everybody that that did do uh work for that. Sarah, >> I don't want to be a broken record. So, um I think I'm good. Everything I was going to say is good. >> Can I record? [laughter] So, same thing. Just thank you to everybody who volunteered um and helped

139towards the bond. It was disappointing outcome, but um we're resilient and um I think we all come together and um come up with something and I don't think we should skip a beat on that. I'm I'm very proud to have seen how everybody collaborated and worked together, especially with the teachers union. Um, and also, um, thank you Kathy Inn for, um, inviting us for the Mexican fiesta lunch. I left full and I even had a take home box. So, um, and congratulations to the middle school. I I think the kids are going to be very excited about um, the winning option at the room. Yeah. And, um, congratulations to the varsity football players. I did also want to, um, just put a shout out throughout this entire football season. um being a part of the

140band boosters now. Um, just having that I know you've been exposed Margaret to the football and all that and it's just amazing to have seen all the collaboration between the parents, the cheerleader parents, the um marching band parents, all of us just all season coming together and um I think it showed in the stands with the spirit and the pride and um I just think that um it was a great season to be a part of. Um, so thank you to all that collaborated with that to the athletic boosters as well. Um, just everything. It was a it was a great great season. Raymond, just to echo some of the other comments, but just a a real shout out and thanks to all the people involved at all levels. too many names to mention um

141in support of the bond and unfortunately we didn't get the result we were hoping for um but you know perhaps we can make some changes and uh that better this next next time >> thank you Danielle um well Margaret stole some mine but I don't love RCA I would go there in a heartbeat again if I could um but I wanted to say thank you I believe Brian I'm not from maybe I'm wrong, but I had heard that PTO who had been who is who paid for the >> PTO paid for the shirts for all the kids. >> Yeah. So, thank you to the Flee PTO for paying for those shirts. Um, one because it's amazing to it was so cool to see them pass out and two, I'm so glad I'm done here. When

142am I going to get my shirt? But literally every single day since the house chose him. Um, so I think like Margaret had mentioned, I know there was a concern in the community of, you know, it wasn't truly random. And even Jackson came home and when I went down to RCA, I picked green and I picked his biddy. And I told him he better put home green and is bindy. He's like, "Mom, the house does I don't get to choose a house. The house chooses me every single time." And I and I was like, "Well, just don't be this color. Don't be that color." and he's like, "Nope, the house chooses me. I don't get to choose the house." So, they were 100% gung-ho with that. Um, he's even gone as far as he came

143up with a shirt and asked me if he could add blue things to his Christmas list so that he could have more blue to where he's got blue pajamas and blue shirts and blue everything on his Christmas list. Now, he's telling all the aunts and uncles about it. So that's really cool too to see it passed down to cuz our families across the state and even out of state. So traveling that message, you know, um over the miles, I guess. Um but also to mention about the stages. I know Margaret mentioned like the students being able to see the teachers, but one that thing was really nice and they mentioned there is that the teachers can also see the students and that took away a lot of discipline issues because the students in the back

144of their mind knew at some point that they the teacher can see my desk now or see what I'm doing in my lap or see what I'm doing here. And so it minimized those um those classroom disruptions too in the long run because the teacher was hired and kind of could overarch you know see from a better perspective of those students but um and they also mentioned keeping your hands above your waist and now even though I'm virtual I try to make a point to keep my hands in the view of my camera when I'm teaching on a daily basis now because they had mentioned keeping your hands above your waist is students are more apt to pay attention because they can see your hands and there's movement and things going on. Um, and so

145they have that rule at the school there. You can't have your hand in the school in your waist while you're teaching. Um, so I make a point of doing that in class, too. But, um, it's definitely an amazing thing and Margaret and I have been talking about some ideas and throwing around some ideas for future feed teachers and things. So, I'm excited about that. >> Thank you. Um, I think you guys have all hit everything on my list but two things. Um, I had the football varsity team again, same thing. The trunk or treat, the cafeteria, the food service lunch. That was a lot of fun and it was very good. Um, so the two pieces that I'm going to add to our list here is I'd like to congratulate uh Tracy Thornberg. uh she

146received her pupil accounting specialist certification. So, uh we now have her certified on our staff. And then the other piece that I want to uh shout out to is Preston and the staff that works our fields. Um I've been not only attending our high school games, but I have a grandson that plays in the whatever the little league. And it it really goes really well here. everything's handled, taken care of. Um it was just really good to see that, you know, here's our community teams coming in, the little kids using our fields and it everything went smooth. There were no issues. Um so I just want to shout out to I know Preston's part of that. I'm not sure who else but uh for working with our local community level with our younger kids. Okay.

147Okay. Okay, next item on our agenda is our student uh Whoops. Yep. Our student awarded at that. So, Elizabeth um at the high school they have a CTE advisory board dinner and meeting on Wednesday evening at 5:00 p.m. They will be running a program they will be running all program meetings and on the same night with the dinner overview. Um they look forward to having business partners in the building with them. Um, the play I think it's called just Dracula is um November 21st at 22nd at 7 p.m. or November 23rd at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 or $10 for students and seniors. There have been multiple field trips that have been taking place with the Michigan Career Quest being the next one. Students love the opportunity to explore careers in four areas including health

148sciences, manufacturing, construction, and technology. I went to that when we was very um the middle school um had a great district provided P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P PD day, sorry. Um they had PLC's during the morning and the afternoon session they talked about the 1% they discussed the R Clark Academy and 55 essentials. They're putting committee together for implementing the house system beginning the next school year. Um which when I'm in my classroom, the house system is is very cool. Um like even today like my students are like putting stuff um I think they were like cleaning up something or whatever and like they um got like a house clean because they were cleaning up and it just it gets

149them so excited to like just do like really small things like that. So it's it really is awesome. Um wrestling and girls basketball started last week and they're very proud of their team. Sportsmanship and dedication were evident in their efforts. Um, honors art class visited one of the art classes at the elementary school and created a project with younger students. Um, look for the movie display at the district art show on December 3rd. Um, on Tuesday, November 11, 2025, they are holding their annual Veterans Day assembly at 8:45 a.m. Um, they're looking forward to this very awesome event. Um, at the elementary school, they are inviting their preschool families to Thanksgiving feast on Wednesday, November 12th. Families will enjoy some Thanksgiving treats and snacks as they celebrate. During the event, students will hear Thanksgiving story

150read by Mr. Gibson and participate in a discussion about our PBIS topic for the month, thankfulness. Each child will also take home their very own book to celebrate the season. It is going to be a great evening for the food school families. For athletics, varsity football wrapped up their season with a big win over our MA in the first round of playoffs. It is the first time in school history we have prevented the Tigers in the playoffs in twice in one season. They traveled to Frankenwood last Friday and lost to a very talented team. A big thank you to the athletic department to all the fans that made that trip up to support. Varsity volleyball wrapped up their season with a hard fought loss to Alnack in the district quarterfinals at Maryville. Congratulations to sophomore

151Mason Peterowski for qualifying for the NHSA cross country state finals for the second straight year. His time at the finals was just shy of his personal best. Winter sports began at RMS ages. That's all I have for today. Thank you very much. Have any questions for Elizabeth? The the art show that's December 3rd. Is there time for that? >> It's it's generally during the concerts. December there's an elementary concert that's 3rd through 4th and 5th. They're doing evening and then um the middle school have theirs in the high school the bando. >> So it's on display on display. >> All right. Thanks. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, our next item is our superintendent legislative update, Mr. Croy. >> Just add to the RCA. Um, the other day I was asked to come to the elementary

152school because there was a student who would made a Halloween bag for me and every time I was there or he was there with um uh he was not there. I he was there and I wasn't there. So, they asked me, "Can you come over get this Halloween bag?" So, I was there and I was walking through the hallway and there was a um kindergartener and third graders were walking in the hallway and they do the the zero voices in the hallway so that they don't. So, I don't know if it's a new thing or what they did but the two kids did their zeros but kind of fist bumped each other because they and I asked them, "Is that your friend?" He goes, "That's my house buddy." But they were two different grades that

153probably in this system they would never have really interacted with. So I think that's the that is the part of the power of the house is building something beyond what they are thinking about community. Um I will start with the um federal legislation. Uh it looks like the federal government shutdown appears to be ending soon. So stay tuned what's going to come when they open back up. At the state legislation, the House Education Work Committee convened several bills last week and they were reported favorable to the House floor for consideration. Of these bills are House Bill 4813, which modifies the Interstate Compact to allow for educational opportunities for military children. Basically, it's making their enrollment in schools easier and more uh streamlined. Uh, House Bill 4895 um allows continuing education credits to be used for

154the online um, you [clears throat] know, certification requirements. It allows more of that to be done for your professional license. Um, given a lot of professional development online, so that House Bill 4922 eliminates the licensing required for school libraries. So, um, served by teacher. House Bill 5049 to House Bill um is all about the EpiPens. I think I talked about this a couple meetings ago. Um just waves kind of how the devices can be used to administrator administer in a child care setting expands it. Um again it's going further. um further discussion and review. Um this the committee took testimony on House Bill 5044 which is about the new requirements for behavioral health services in school. Uh there were representatives from the Michigan Association of School Administrators of Special Ed who testified in opposition. Um

155there were people from the Autism Legal Resource Center that were testifying in support. Basically what I can make of this one, it allows outside agencies to provide their services during the school day and charge Medicare which is copied some of that. We we document submitted here which could create a conflict because you can't have two bills at the same time and so forth. So there's a lot of opposition we're saying where this is going. I don't have a whole lot of details on it. This is one that we're watching because it could affect our um our Medicare reimbursement. I say that broadly because it's part of the whole ISD and the the funds was not necessarily Richmond, but um there is a piece of the applicant. So, we are watching that. Uh district update, you

156heard about the trunk or treat. Uh there was a lot of kids, a lot of kids and uh started to be a cold, rainy um but it kind of cleared up so it was a great night. Um I do want to thank Mrs. of church. Um, uh, Mrs. Riley and her husband, formerly Mrs. Ball and Mrs. Fields. Uh, they represented the district at the city of Richmond's or trick treats, not tricks event on October 31st. Um, they gave us Fields for getting ours to be the front front display so kids saw us first. Um, the cutouts that we had for the trunk retreat as well as the city went over with a lot of families. I'm told they took pictures with them. So good positive event for us. Um echoing on November 4th, the three

157kitchens competed with the dazzling dish. The middle school gets to proudly display display their trophy in their kitchen. Uh look on the December menu will be the Mexican meals that were in the cook off. So um they're trying to incorporate all three of them, but they definitely want to make sure the middle school gets in first as that was winner. The next one will be in um January at the um they'll do another cook off either on another menu item or possibly a breakfast item. Um they their decide. Um echoing we have another group of 15 staff members who attended tonight's Ignite the Classroom including um Mr. May um and um so I'm looking forward to hopefully they got the message that you get a trip and you get a trip and you get a

158trip to Ron Clark this summer. So, we will work towards that. >> Did Did you say 1515? >> 1515. >> Um, I do want to echo what you guys talked about with just a heartful thankful to everybody who participated in the bond. It did a lot of um work in trying to get information out there. Again, wasn't the the the vote we wanted, but um [cough and clears throat] um we still remain uh to our mission about providing the best education for kids. Um and then we continue and we move on. And finally, I have uh one last uh thing which um may be a surprise to you guys. Um I am uh retiring uh effective December 31st of this year. It's not been an easy decision. So, this my my letter of retirement from

159the district. Um, serving the students and staff of this community has been an honor and a my career. I'm deeply grateful for the trust this board has given me and placed in me. Um, as you can see, this was this has not been an easy decision. Um, together we built something very special in this district. [clears throat] Excuse me. A strong, stable district. We have a first class staff. We have programmings and modern facilities and a shared commitment to put students first. From new career pathways to championship extracurriculars heard tonight to improve communication and financial stability everything we've achieved through the teamwork, dedication and belief in our mission. I've tried to lead with compassion, optimism, and a belief that people grow when someone believes in them. And not every decision has been easy or popular.

160Um, but everyone was made with the best interest of our students at heart. As I step aside, I do so with gratitude for our students, our staff, this board and community. The relationships and memories and the lessons that I've learned over the last um, three decades in education are what I carry with me long after I got my office. Finally need to express it that my deepest sympathy work to facilitate deepest thankfulness. Thank deepest thanks to my family. My wife was here tonight. My children have sacrificed over the years. They've given up weekends, evenings, and countless family moments so that I could be present for this position and my my previous positions. They supported me in good times and bad. They stood up for me in difficult ones. They loved and understand patience and made

161it possible for me to give so much of myself to this work and I couldn't have done it without them. It's truly been a privilege to serve as superintendent of Richmond Community Schools and I thank you for your trust, your support, and the partnership making Richmond a place where students and staff can thrive. Thank you. Okay. Um, next item on our agenda is our items of interest. Um, I'm going to go first this time only because of the news that Mr. Waltley shared. Um, I'm sure we're all going to have some questions. How do how do we proceed? Where do we go from here? Um, I ask that you give me till next Monday. Uh we do have to have a meeting next Monday uh for his uh goals um so that I can get

162a hold of the district attorney. I'll talk about what our next steps are and what we will need to do and I will have some answers for you hopefully on Monday. If there are questions [snorts] as you progress through the week, um, please email them to me so that I can hopefully get some answers and we can have a direction on where we will go. Okay. Uh, Sarah, anything? >> Uh, well, I'm sorry. Did you monitor? >> No, no. I just was ahead. Um, that is a lot of news. Um, Brian, you're gonna be missed significantly. I know working for se having seven bosses is got to be just a personal help. I mean, I can only imagine how terrible that is. Um, I feel like you have navigated it well. I over the years,

163I mean, I've only been on for almost a year this time, but I was on four just over four years last time. And I I've seen a lot. You've been through a lot and the district's been through a lot. You've always, and I've always said this, you've always had the the district's best interest at heart. Um, you've done an amazing job in so many different areas financially. Um, we're in a great place just bringing things from new talent to the district. You you've done an amazing job. So, I do feel like there's going to be a whole um and whoever takes over is going to have some shoes to fill. always appreciated just your forward thinking and the conservative mindset that you take because I feel like that's how I am also. So I think

164I've always aligned with you on that. Um so you will be missed very much. My other thought is I wish I would have known that before saying let's go for the bonded lay because now that brings up a whole lot of questions for me about who's going to be taking on that responsibility. If we're appointing somebody to be like an interim superintendent, are they going to be able to acclimate to the job and appropriately kind of repackage this bond the way that we want? Are they going to have the knowledge, the experience, um, and the time to commit to it the way that we want. So, I don't know if we have time to kind of regroup on that at the next meeting. >> We can talk about that, >> but I feel like that's

165something like a whole different conversation to have. >> Thank you. Can I help? You need to think beyond person. You got to think at the district level. Is there things that you can put in place that will get this bond for you? >> Well, and maybe if you could help us become be a part of that conversation cuz in my mind I'm like, "Oh, yes. That feels like this is not a long time for you to do like get everything ready for us to kind of have it ready to go." But maybe you could hope like instill hope in me that it will be okay cuz right now I'm a little concerned about going for a May bond if you're not a part of it. That's my thought. That's um yeah I I had um

166worked on um the summarizing the courses that I took. I postpone on that um really nice meeting. Brian, I I I hope that this is for good reasons and you get to go enjoy your life and um and do good things outside of the district and um thank you for all that you've done. I um I'm ask I do agree with Sarah. Um I would hate to have to pick a new superintendent based on your bond experience. Um well they're not going to be hired right I mean and have that be like you know so yes >> I'll have more information next Monday we can make sure that that's part of that discussion >> okay [snorts] >> Danielle good Sandy Um, well, I am shocked >> and uh so I am actually going to I

167also thank you so much for your service, Brian. I think that you've done um great things for this district. I appreciate you and everything that you've done and and um I know all of the you're always here so your family too. Um, and I wish I had been able to prepare something a little better, but um, just I I uh, you are going to be very missed. Thank you. >> Yeah, one of them. >> Wasn't expecting that one. Um, I I I shared the sentiment uh, you know, that that Sarah and Candace was was putting out there. um some some concerns move forward, but yeah, Ryan, uh that's a long time and and I do think, you know, that you did a a great job over the years and especially since I've been on the

168board here that I paid attention more about the financial responsibility and and just how you managed that. I thought you did an excellent job uh when it came to that and I do recognize all the the sacrifice that your family made and I I haven't met them so I want to say publicly thanks to them as well because I know what it's like to have to give up the time from your family to have that that higher mission right the job and and what you put in the community and all those days that you put in and how hard you worked for the bond to get that through and all the additional meetings and things that people didn't see. Um, and thanks for that, you know, and um, yeah, I guess being short of words

169because I wasn't expecting it, but uh, good luck uh, moving forward with the future for you. I wish you the best. Thank you. [snorts] >> 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. If you wish to follow up, please provide contact information on the public comment signin sheet. Well, I'm like, wow, that come up. I would say a whole lot more, but I just want you to know that I'm going to cry, too. I'm done. But, um, that you offered opportunities for me that I probably

170wouldn't have. And, um, you're it's going to be hard to tell. That's all I'm going to say. been here 32 years and um you've done more work for this school and and superintendent you ever had and I know that you have basic we all do like we do it happens it happens but um you just you've done so much I just hope you know that I I wish you best of luck both of you just know you are valuable Any other public comments? Okay, no other public comments. We'll move on to our action items. Um, I'm looking for a motion for the approval of a contract with Steel Speech Services LLC. I move to accept the recommendation of the superintendent to approve the contract for Steel Speech Services LLC to provide in-person speech and language

171therapy services to students until such time that a certified speech language pathologist is hired as an employee of Richmond Community Schools as outlined in the attachment agreement. Furthermore, the board authorizes the superintendent to execute and implement the set agreement. Thank you. I heard Sarah first. Any discussion? [snorts] >> What is uh in there? It said something about a cost difference is minimal, but what are what are we looking at from the cost difference on that? >> So, the virtual had a set um kind of contract rate for for the whole duration of the contract for the whole school year, you know, would not exceed that amount. Whereas, this company does bill hourly. Um, but we're basing it on the same amount of hours that we planned for that virtual. So, it is possible that, you

172know, if she needs to go over slightly or under slightly, it could happen because her, again, her billing system is is an hourly billing versus that straight agreement plan that we had kind of with the other contract. But, um, you know, looking at numbers, it should be relatively the same. You know, we're planning on the same amount of hours, so it should work out to be the same in the end. >> The b the benefit is it's in person. It's a physical body working with kids rather than putting them in front of the screen with a pair of pro getting their [clears throat] listen. Again, we're still trying to find a body. >> A good body. >> Any other questions? Okay, this will be a roll call vote. Barbara, >> I Sarah, >> hi. >>

173Danielle, >> hi. >> Raymond, >> hi. >> Sandy, >> I Candace, >> hi. I vote I. Motion carries. Looking for a motion for the approval of the Richmond High School cafeteria cabinet refinish. We move to accept the recommendation of the superintendent and approve the Richmond High School cafeteria cabinet refurbishing by Elbur's family cabinets for a total not to exceed 20,195 plus 10% for unknown site conditions for which funds from the [clears throat] food service funds authorized and outlined in the attached documentation support. Any discussion? This is primarily the big register desk and so forth. It's actually cheap to have it refernished and to buy the new equipment to replace it. And they haven't found something they like. So they really like the unit. So they refinished it, brought back up. It was put in in

1741996. So it's had a lot of wear and tear. Okay. This will be a roll call vote. Margaret >> I. Candace. >> Hi. >> Sandy. >> Hi. >> Raymond. >> Hi. >> Sarah. >> Hi. >> Danielle I. >> I vote I. Motion carries. I'm looking for a motion for the approval of the overnight extended trip request to Grand Rapids, Michigan. A motion to accept the recommendation approve the overnight extended student trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan as outlined in the attachment support. >> Where do we get? >> Okay, we'll get right. Okay, any discussion? Okay, this will be a roll call vote. Sarah. Oh, I'm sorry, Raven. >> Sorry. Okay, hang on. I'm sorry, guys. Let me get my Okay, Sandy. >> Hi, >> Raymond. >> Hi, >> Candace. >> Hi, >> Margaret. >> Hi, >>

175Sarah. >> Hi, >> Danielle. I >> I vote I. Motion carries. Uh, being no further business, the board will adjourn at 9:57. Thank you very much. >> [music]