Richmond Community Schools Board of Education Meeting on October 10, 2022

001[Music] 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 and indivisible with liberty and justice for all right Sherry if you could read our mission statement please at Richmond Community Schools we provide a quality education that empowers students to be successful in a global Community thank you and you do our broker please Candace here Sandy here Dad here Angela here Danielle here Margaret here and I am here with a forum thank you I'm looking for a motion to approve the agenda salute do I have support any discussions all those in favor aye opposed motion carries we're looking for a motion

002for the approval of our consent agenda Saloon wait a second important and you are any discussion Mr Walmsley are you sure in your backup we have some um schedule B uh and positioning reservations of Mr Davao designed for a scheduling basketball coach Thomas Lacroix Elementary social studies advisor uh he's a mannequin Associates and science unlimited advisor at the elementary school and this is thriveke four-year-old preschool teacher new hires we have Jessica Dunn bus driver uh I don't believe she is here Sarah Ogden he is our new community of powers Brian pack assistant cook and Karen um Peters uh for a lunch supervisor and I don't think they are here appointments these are already previously hired by the board of Kyle Bartel for National hunters society co-advisor of High School record Deca advisor Helena Constance March

003is reading month and Pfizer Shelly DeLeon of the FTC approach Rebecca hercula National iron Society co-advisor of high school and kaylios the Elementary Middle School choir and music directors there were no mirrors brought to my attention regarding the 26th board meeting minutes and there were no questions regarding the claims that it comes anyone have any further questions from Mr Olympia yeah um the National Honor Society so it just this High School both High School correct so it used to be one person now now they're splitting it up thank you [Music] any other questions all those in favor aye opposed motion carries this time we will be doing our presentations starting off with our league of absence request [Music] for the Rea contract of any League of absence not to find for the board to Grant

004leads for other reasons that are stated as a contract uh This falls under that request so I'll turn it over to um for those of you who don't know me I'm from middle school social worker this was an escape I'm here tonight as I was informed that I need to present a request for a leave of absence to you as the board I have been given the opportunity to travel outside of the country for a brief period of time I would like to request permission to either use my time off or be unpaid for the dates of November 14th through the 22nd would be seven school days I understand that this is something that may not be traditionally occurring however I am asking for you to please consider this rare opportunity that I've been given

005and Grant me the seven days of leave I appreciate your time and your consideration with my request [Music] do I have any questions for her [Music] as you said your time off or unpaid research are you asking for unpaid leave or whichever is fitting for the opportunity bye okay because if I thought in a request uh she said she would take either one day or using what group time that she had typically when we could have a lot of leave regardless of the bargain unit they use their accrue time first and when that's exhausted then it goes unpaid so there is an option as a more you can consider either one my recommendation would be number one I'm recommending to approve the lead but also the follow-up practices in the district of using approved time

006first and then if she gets exhaust off and then go to unpaid when did we start the practice of using unpaid or on a crew of time when did that start because then our my practice I have a question but I'm not sure if it's through um do have somebody that's going to be taking her place for those days while she's gone or we would we would either use existing social workers to cover if there's a need in other buildings substitute I think I would obviously make sure that my documentation and things that are necessary for why I'm gone is completed so that that does not fall on anybody else achieve it if it's unpaid doesn't there doesn't something have to do with you don't get your health insurance either during isn't there some kind

007of thing in the contract [Music] I don't recall there being there there's a because it's a short period if someone took a leave of absence for a year but we've never implemented if it's a short term not paying health insurance because then the teacher's kind of regardless of whether the teacher worked in one day or 20 days because it might be pregnant but it's already been paid [Music] any other questions uh accrue time is that safe time personal time I'm not sure exactly I know they get the same time I'm not sure whatever kind of time we would start with personal time and we go to Six [Music] five five you know three person over a year [Music] foreign [Music] or because it was requesting on paid but then said she would use approved time

008this is we've never had a length of time um but this is another contract it references the board involved we have to approve this type of lead because he's allocated um it doesn't fall in their contract and deteriorated it defines leaves as like military personnel sect if something doesn't fall within one of those that already defined then the way it's written is it comes to the board the board May Grant leaves for reasons other than previously stated or anything that we shall be based on written application the one two sentences statement in their contract so if so then she gets three days that's why she's coming to court because she wants himself great detention well if you I mean you could take personal days but it's not supposed to be for um [Music] that kind

009of does allow me to accrue leads that may extend something a day or two here but it's not we've never had this situation where this belongs in the reaction since you've been here but we've had another other questions so yes so how many how many days do you have right yeah I have all of my personal things which is 20. so she won't be decking into the unpaid portion no so in the contract you can take very personal and then four or six because it doesn't Define you know so if you wanted to say use the sick days and leave the person please you somebody else thank you for coming up we appreciate it thank you Julian I'll let you know okay our next item on our presentation is overnight trip request for baseball program

010and I know Mr Evans is out there I saw him [Music] um how's everybody yes wow um just here to uh we several years ago we for the new board members we go down to Florida um each family is responsible for getting their own child to Florida they're staying with them uh our baseball organization rents a field and we have practices the only caveat that's different is now the mhsa is allowing you to scrimmage other Michigan teams that are down there so our plan is to practice and to scrimmage other teams using umpires in the facility our area luckily was not hit by the hurricane so it is undamaged still our Fields still available um so wait for the board approval it's no cost to the school there's no insurance for the school the field

011requires an insurance waiver that RBI is picking up it's a hundred dollars to just to cover the field kids at the facilities we're actually playing at the New York Yankee spring training facility back in the 50s so that's our that's the same place we went to before we're in the St Petersburg area again parents are responsible because it's parents always get their kids down there and they stay with them uh It Is by no way mandatory for the kids to have to attend if they become down that's great if they don't want to that has no effect there will be coaches that are staying back here that they compete we're in a unique situation in the bee whack because of where our spring trip spring break Falls um the counties of Saint Clair County has

012their break the week before so when they come back they have a week to prepare for their first League game our first League game starts the day we get back from our break so it's pretty important in my opinion for us to go play some kids do some kids don't it's totally up to them we take as many kids in the program that make the team that want to go we had a meeting with the parents we have uh we have a number of we have enough kids to go we might even have the two teams going so just asking approval from the board for the to Grant the same trip we did two years ago in the St Pete's area anybody have any questions from Mr Evans yes um the parents are responsible all

013of them but when they're at the site review scrimmaging or playing who's responsible for them that would be me okay so then that's why we have to have insurance so so we have a district is responsible I'm not sure that's the number of questions you guys asked us before who's reading that was never asked before we get insurance just because they ask us to have insurance for the to run the field so the place that you run the field from tells you you have to have insurance right in your baseball club right okay um I'm I'm guessing you're asking if a kid gets injured at practice yes then I would assume that just like any other practice that we have here but maybe not I don't know that's especially the student insurance was covered at

014first if there's a new collector willful neglect on the coaching staff and it's parent chooses to sue the district then as if or approves his truck like they've done others then we would be covered and defended there but if a student just gets injured it's their insurance first we've gotten the insurance policy that you're speaking to in the facility we've had other groups that have gone away for a summer camp that required that and we have done that through our insurance set so we can do that did we do that the last when you went the last time not but we did it when um [Music] we did deliver something you're right I believe it was the Olivet I think it was the Russian Museum yes so we can just extend it again the student

015gets hurt their own personal insurance that is covered first um if it's an neglect or found that our staff didn't do what they should have done then their liabilities were different but and then your performs the parents to fill up are they are School District forms for the Emergency cards or whatever my check once assuming the ones that we have here okay I thought that's what they're asking there's something new on the document that I didn't know for sure but I assumed as a head coach I get a copy of those forms every season so I'm assuming that's wrong I don't know that's what I'm asking yeah all right thank you somebody else have any other questions how many school days yes over a break our last game is Wednesday we're using Thursday Friday or

016Saturday as a travel day and uh they want to get there then again it's not whenever they get there that we're actually Monday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday then we're off again how many how many kids do you think you're taking after your meeting uh well it's changing 16 to 25. the [Music] hurricane has changed other kids views that they've been coming from because they have to change their senior trip was kind of changing so some of the seniors are now thinking about they want to come to spend a couple days okay so that's why it's cheap sorry and I'll have all that information to Preston before we go our address on the field who's going you know oh 24 our spring break moves systematic state of their counties the last year but being the

017first week that will help on immensely I think a lot of people have it but the county line decision right any other questions from Australians thank you for coming thank you okay our next item is a presentation on instructional spotlight start yeah um [Music] yes please foreign about this protected so thank you everybody and I'm really excited to be here tonight to discuss the 2122 data presentation and we are going to be talking about uh pretty much giving you an overview of capturing where we currently are in our last year's high stakes scores celebrating our successes and of course looking for opportunities for improvement to begin this is our six-year data trend for our m-step in ela this captures third through seventh grade I would like to point out that we had two grade levels

018that showed increases from 2019 to 2021. with significant gains and of course grade three I think it's important for us to look when you look at the data Trend obviously you get to see the direct impact of the pandemic and learning losses students did experience I think it's important to still recognize how we fall according to State and County averages you can see here we are in blue and we are above state county averages and four of the five categories in the ELA to the m-step so congratulations here is our InStep for math once again it's grades three through seven showing significant gains in grade three showing growth also in grade seven and once again showing our how we compare State and County averages we are still above State and County averages and three of

019the five grade levels here is our m-step social studies which shows 5th 8th and 11th grade foreign this is definitely us recognizing an opportunity for improvement in this area this is science once again it captures fifth grade 8th grade and 11th grade with increases in all three grade levels and of course how we compare with State and County averages once again we are above State and County averages and all three of the benchmark grades for science this dark uh PSAT grade eight nine you can see that we had increases from last year to this year with slight increases over time for the last three years or three data points I should say because we didn't have the testing in 2020. our SAT for a map and sat and erw in obviously we have a opportunity

020for improvement in this area I would like to introduce Don maycar our director of student Support Services to give us a deeper dive into our subpopulation scores for this thing I will provide a district level view of our special education at risk and English learner students you'll see on my data that I was protecting their privacy I combined subgroup data across multiple grade levels that's why it's not broken down by specific grades uh I'm especially proud of our Title 1 and 3118 this year from launching targeted intervention that is research-based it's a brand new program that we started this year one of our talented special education teachers wrote Richmond's very first assistive technology plan we also have an assistive technology team for the first time this year assistive technology can be things as simple as

021the pencil grip two is complex as something like an immersive reader to help a child read out loud or hear things out loud we also have language line which you heard about our English learner presentation a couple weeks ago our English our English learner State consultant was especially impressed in June we showed her that we had this tour in place for quite a while now because we're ahead um most of our academic areas for our subgroups actually perform better than the state averages to address our tips though our special education department is meeting monthly looking at math data and working on our curriculum we're re-examining our essential standards and trying to have curriculum that's that's more purposeful for our students we also have newly formed English learner team which would be surprised of three teachers

022myself and Renee that English learner team will be working as a we'll be meeting throughout the year looking at our science strategies which I think we explained to you before on their research-based strategies using the classroom we're going to be looking at data together and ways to help our English Learners perform better um another thing that we're working on too that we just put in place is a universal screener for our K-5 population for Title One staff and it will be used to monitor interventions over time throughout the year do you have any questions at all right next we're going to take a deeper dive into the data with our high school principal Andrea Zaba yes go ahead please thank you so much for having me here tonight I'm excited to talk about not only

023the data of the high school but also we where we are planning on going next um so a couple of the things you're going to see I have my slides broken down into four different groups our four four areas and there's going to be one common theme throughout all of them is that I'm excited to announce that this upcoming Wednesday we are offering the PSAT nmsqt test to all of our 11th grade students for the first time um previous last year we only had 22 of our 11th grade students take this test because we required them to pay for it but um in discussion with Renee we're really excited because this data not only is going to allow us to gather information about where our students are but it's also going to get our teachers

024data about our students before the end of the year and so they will now have time to prepare and help support our 11th grade students before they take the SAT in the spring and so that's one of the great things that I'm to speak about tonight and hopefully something that I think will improve our data so starting with the SAT English language arts you can see that over 50 percent of our students did meet The Benchmark last year so these are our current 12th grade students but last year's 11th grade students like I mentioned all of our teachers are going to have access to that PSAT data and then also we are going to start curriculum discussions I've met with each teacher already this school year and one of the things that they're really looking

025for is that collaboration time and so our teachers are going to have the opportunity to start that collaboration time this year by identifying their Department power standards and also essential curriculum that is being covered one of the things that is most important is that collaboration and that communication and with doing that they really need time to talk and talk about those standards with one another because a lot of times they think oh I believe that in 10th Grade they're covering the standard but in one but when you actually look and deep dive into it they might not be covering that so one of the things we really want to do is make sure that everyone knows who is teaching what to make sure all of those standards are covered when looking at our mwea growth

026from our English Department in regards to language use and reading one of the things that was most exciting for me to see is that in the language use all four of our grade levels showed growth greater than what was projected and so looking at these figures the gold diamonds are according to the nwea program the amount of growth our students should have shown in one school year what we're able to see with the language use is that all of our grade levels showed growth that far exceeded where they were supposed to grow and so that's really showing that our teachers are providing that language instruction in our classrooms to all of our students looking at the reading we see that one of our grades which is the 10th grade are actually two and twelfth grade

027two of them are grades again exceeded that growth of where the students should be but we do have a 9th and 11th grade that projected growth that observed growth was less than the projected growth what I think that that should tell us or what I think is a great conversation is going back to that curriculum work and looking at okay our 10th grade really is focusing on that language use because we can see that that projection was Far exceeded but then looking at the 10th grade not as much Focus was focused on that reading and so I think having all of that data and having that opportunity for collaboration will help us bring that over into the SAT looking at our math as of right now we had five percent of the students last year

028Meet the math benchmark um with that being said we've already implemented some next steps um the first is chalk talk chalk chalk is an SAT prep course that is being built into the schedule so one of our new teachers Mr Nash is teaching that course for our students we also are going to offer two six week after school sessions this program I sat in the introductory professional development and it really did a great job because it not only moves with the student in terms of visibility level but it allows them to practice in Concepts that they need support with so the hope is is that when we get that PSAT data specifically for our 11th grade we really will be able to Target the students to participate in that six week after school group in

029hopes of being able to provide some more individual instruction we also have an MISD consultant coming in to work with our Math teachers I've worked with her before she does a great job implementing or helping the teachers Implement something that's called number talks basically number talks is the opportunity for students to start talking about math and so what you can do is you can put a picture you can put a number on the overhead and say the number 50. think of how many ways you can come up with a solution of 50 and it allows the students to talk with one another and really start using those math skills that they've learned but to do so through the communication and so that's something that we're going to be implementing and then as I mentioned the

030PSAT question analysis here you can see our nwea scores so once again all four of our grade levels had growth that was observed greater than the projected growth and so again giving teachers the opportunity and the time to look at how the students were able to outperform on NWA and then take that information and apply it to sat to me this shows that the students have the skills and the ability to do that and so now working with them on developing those sometimes just simple test taking skills will be our next step and I will note that oftentimes we see that 11th and 12th graders don't necessarily take nwea very seriously but I will say they had the highest amount of growth in the building last year which I think is important to note looking

031at our social studies data we are at 27 or about one fourth or one quarter of our students are at or above proficient one of the most important things I think to note is that over 55 some of our students are at the partially proficient level and what that says is that there are just one or two questions away um for making it to that proficient level and so again the teachers actually approached me um I would say within the first week of school and said can we get together and can we work on our summative assessments they really want to make sure that what they're testing the students on is what the power standards and the essential standards are showing and so I obviously am going to provide them with that time I think

032having those discussions are extremely important and hopefully if all of the social studies teachers can get on the same page with those courses we can see that that uh that large number of students that are partially proficient can bump into that proficient level and last but not least our science group I'm happy to say there was a 24 increase in science um which is um throughout the county not something that you often see um science is uh traditionally one of the most difficult subjects for students to be successful on in the m-step and so the fact that our science department was able to keep up with those results is something to be commended for um again the district or the district or the department has asked to work together and collaborate we have a new

033Inspire science resource that really takes them through establishing a driving question an inquiry-based project scaffolding the content with small formative checkpoints along the way and I think with that in conjunction with um starting to do some warm-ups with past State assessment questions is going to really help that group as well so thank you for the opportunity to share about the high school and up next week I have a question 11th grade and the scores that weren't that good because they're what are we doing in ninth grade when they're testing that they're coming from eighth grade so I might assume that we're working with a middle school into high school with these ninth grade kids yes so those so those are this year's current those will be this year's current 10th graders yes that growth shows

034growth from the fall to the spring so that is showing the growth that would happen within this building we've had conversations Anthony and myself um about the importance of and even the teachers have asked for can we have that time to collaborate with those 8th grade teachers so when the students are coming up especially for the past couple of years it's been difficult with you know knowing what did and did not get covered because of the pandemic but I definitely look at having a seamless transition moving forward with those 8th through ninth graders but then also looking specifically uh we just got our fall data for nwea the session that just ended this past Friday and and now working with the teachers on okay what is that data showing and seeing if our current 10th

035grade data is showing the same as last year's ninth grade data and what we need to be more clearly focused on moving forward the school year okay and then when you were talking about the teacher collaboration time how does that work is that days for for professional development is it staff meetings where are they getting time how are we doing that so because there currently is no built-in we have the full days of professional development but nothing that is on a continuous base basis like an early release what we've worked out is some half days so I know we already have some established Math and Science half days the English and social studies Department have also asked for that so there's a couple throughout the year where they'll be able to sit down and sometimes

036they need a couple of hours just in a room together to have those conversations and so as of now that's how it's built long term I would like to say that something that's built in um more on a more regular basis but as of right now we're kind of working with within the parameters that we have thank you anybody else have any questions yeah um so I'm just looking at the social studies um numbers like throughout it looks like from fifth grade uh our low across the board so I'm I'm curious and maybe you said six there's kind of a lot of information I apologize but what so what are what if anything are we doing to combat that I guess so specifically at the high school um one of the things that one of

037the things that we had planned and what the teachers had asked for again is that time um I think when you're looking at data a lot of times people just also don't even know how to read data or when they get the data they're thankful for it but then they don't know what to do with it and so I think that now we have this data and we're able to break it down by specific category you can break it down by content content standard any of those things once you have that then talking about is It Something That We're lacking is it something that we've just uh that we've missed as the tests continue to be given um the the test kind of sometimes steers what the what standards they're assessing and so I think

038that having that constant reflection on what is the data showing us would be important and so my plan is during those half days is not only to look at that data but to also plan forward and make sure that um you know as a teacher as an educator we all had our favorite subject we all had our favorite unit and so to make sure that we're teaching all of the standards and not necessarily maybe just the the units or the topics that are our favorite and so I think that starting and kind of doing that data analysis and that Gathering of information is the first step and that will help kind of steer um steer the ship and figure out where we're going to go next with it but to do kind of a ground

039level data day would be our first step Middle School so I'm gonna feel like a little bit of a broken record up here because much of what uh Missing will have shared is the same things that we're doing at the middle school as we're working here um I do want to celebrate that we were in the top five and fourth grade as we look at our msat uh pla scores um so there are celebrations that that we can look at here but we're not satisfied as a teaching staff at the middle school we know that we can do better A lot of what we're going to be doing will be again breaking down that data that is provided in the test during departmental meetings we will be setting up those same half day structures by

040November 8pd we'll be driven towards uh data dies within uh not only last year's NWA and m-step but also our fall NWA data that we've already needed so that we know where our students are and how we can move them forward we we've been working hard as a building working and developing that standard Space Trading model and talking about breaking out download standards and what those standards mean so now that we have the data in front of us as we're going through these different tasks we had a couple years under our belt it's going to be making sure that our rubrics in those data in in is aligned to what we're seeing in the test so that what we're expecting students to do is where they're going to end up with the actual test so

041that we can start seeing that translate in our test scores and as for uh Ela specifically all teachers have writing goals that we have included in their evaluation responses this year so we did already do a breakdown of our analysis we saw that writing was one of the areas that we can improve so with we're expecting our teachers to include open-ended responses on their summative the exam so that students get that practice right in what they're actually doing we also we have had sustained science in the SSR for a very long time at the middle school we're increasing some of that accountability this year that the ELA department has taken on and is actually doing interviews with with students as to the folks they're reading so they're holding them accountability same with math math has

042been an area obviously that we've we've seen with meat growth we were number two in the county in seventh grade we want to be number one in the county Everywhere We Want to Go piano and be a leading example of that we are working with the Staples at the moment to break down our standards and create overcome the critical standards so that we can match those critical standards the standards that are most important that we are guaranteeing every student has by the end not that we won't cover all standards but these are the ones we're going to spend the most time on and those also align to the areas that we're seeing lawsuits laughing practice at science we were number two in eighth grade that was actually a mistake I'm sorry I when I sorted

043this data I uh hit the wrong column and all my numbers moved and I got all a little excited so on sites were actually so in science we're actually fit and unfortunately I I let the stable snow too late so she was not able to send me um we were actually facing the county there are areas that we're we're looking for improvement they have the new science curriculum we're we're really looking at driving that those essential questions um and science made a shift to the next generation of science standards and this year we're going to be making sure that all of our teachers are trained in the ngsx teaching protocol which is that inquiry-based science which is what we shouldn't be doing social studies so I had number one direct Richmond was at the top

044of my list but we were actually number six in social studies again um we one of the things that we are proud of is we're top ten and all of our stores are never below 10 Hotel that's not where we want to be obviously we're looking for that number one so we're going to keep that there because hopefully next year we can come back and that will be number one for you we have new social studies curriculum um we are breaking down that with it with the um with the m-step with our team um we will have that phase just as we've already discussed for them to be able to view the information that's provided it's not great information but it does give you some some areas that we can concentrate on and we can

045relate into those standards as we're going through and then doing that we will make sure that our rubrics are aligned so that we can see that increase so and then math again I had Richmond up top but the number six in the LA is correct in math we were in the top 10 in math this is that same departmental work that we are working on the PSAT is that pulmonation test that we were leaning towards for College and Career Readiness um so we want to see a better score in our math area we want to see if our score in our dla or that is the area that we're concentrating on and that will all start by working with those standards as we break down that information uh NWA so as it was already described

046this is an area that November 8th when we are working with if our teachers at our next street um our next PE day this is an area we're going to be getting pretty tired those diamonds as we said that's where we're expecting that grade level growth to be all of our students are making growth but we're not making the amount of growth in one year that we're expecting so that is where we're going to concentrate where is our disconnect with the growth that we're making how can we increase that bill to make sure that our students are are doing the best they can on this exam so we're going to start with last year's data and then translate into the students at the end of them with our fall NWA rules that we have right

047now so you'll see us accounting yeah all students are making growth and as you can see through the diamonds you're you're not expected to make as much growth as you get older and older um that NWA rate level gets smaller and smaller and harder to make that growth um so we're really going to concentrate at those lower levels to make sure we're getting that road pushed up but we want that growth minimally to be in that diamond area across the board uh same with our last set which should be language usage so we are proud here that our eighth grade and our language usage area did exceed that growth that they're supposed to in one year we want to see that all the way across before too late yes I have a question um do

048you know what currently the level is for staying number one in Macomb for math do you know what you're saying what what is it your goal you're saying our goal is to be number one in Macomb County what does that mean what level of proficiency would we be asking our students uh so that varies by grade level I do have it all broken down I don't have that in front of me well here it says about 37 percentage 37 percent that we were at least out of our students our grade love or proficient in math in grade eight and grade eight is that correct so that means that you the county would be higher than 37 or it's 37 as well proficient it could be the greatest am I understanding that question I would have

049to look back at the county debt I don't have that right in front of me the county data I believe we were above the county average but we were not number one okay I guess what I'm trying to get another question is is um I wouldn't it be better for us to go for our own personal goal of maybe 70 of our student proficient at grade level rather than absolutely that's counting number one absolutely and that's why I shared with our goal is to look the out of the county we we want to be number one in the state we want to get there we want to be The Shining Star across the state for map I I 100 agree with you that that accounting goal um is is not our high bar but when

050you're delivering to us here it makes it sound like we're number five in the county that that would be a good thing where instead you should be safe only 37 percent of our students are proficient at grade one which is the information we as parents and community members need to know if that is correct yes thank you [Music] anyone else have any other questions the math um doesn't surprise me at all in the middle school as well but has there been any studies on certain grades that were kind of more affected by the covid the two years of the Common Core right those the studies are showing that math showed way more of a decrease because of the pandemic than any other subject they're projecting around two or more years of academic loss because of

051the Hands-On and I think that also contributes for a science courses right and and I'm not aware of a specific grade level I started angry um I believe that's already levels I will share with you that what we're looking at is year over year data too if you were to look at cohort data all of our students are showing all of our cohorts are showing growth so from the time they took it as a third grade to a fourth grade they shall be wrong from the time they show up to taken from the fifth to six the shock Club the state does not show the forward data to show individual classes so we are making movements with our students they are all growing over time we want to get them even higher and that cohort

052data should contains a very different picture than the individuals are you asking for any more pair of posts for those classes to help so we're looking at our Title One program as this maker said and we've really rolled out a whole bunch of new supports and that Universal screener the students that were targeting um in how we're actually going to be teaching those yeah so we do have new supports in place that we're starting this year we started targeting that we'd like to see how that goes we'll always take more more help in the classroom but we're looking at what we have available to us right now and how we can make those programs better in the past um I think that we have if I recall correctly we used to offer some kind of

053um program where the parents can come in um to kind of get an idea of like how to help help with their help with their students at home with math is that anything that we do now like that or enough works I'm doing so that that is something that that we can look at with our teachers that has not happened in the last few years with Kobe receiver but that would be something that I'm happy to do with the staff and working with teachers now all right so I I just Angela are you are you looking do you want some kind of follow-up I do like you know today what were our numbers freak over in the middle school and maybe K through 12 because I often feel covet as an excuse these numbers have

054been this before [Music] [Applause] we want to hide behind growth numbers where growth is is great we need to be proficient so I would just like to know I I think that's um Miss uh board member tuna offered as far as uh helping parents I think that's one great suggestion just some ideas and really I want to know an overall level of the whole entire Middle School where I feel like the high school gave us that the elementary gave us that I want a you know what is it four through eight where are we at first that's where we were the 2019 overall the whole school not just for a grade like I feel like our numbers I want comparison I agreeable yes I kind of like we have there's over here so this was

055very helpful for the high school presentation thank you I have a question um and this may be one for you um we have Title One at the elementary and the middle school now can you tell me how many students we have at each building that are targeting foreign okay and our funding brain is it still where it's been so we don't I mean are you anymore I don't want to reduce that we've actually moved more of the positions that were funded by title one now we're being burned by 31 for their state AdWords went up but our federal title one went down is that because of the three reduced torture will that you see that coming up in years to come um I would not expect the federal level to have any increases in the

056state yeah so we've done something like that we moved positions that were normally funded entitled now we're finding that very way so um I just want to say that it has been apparent for the Middle School needs a lot of work and work my review did not read the building but unfortunately you're the one standing here having to cover the message so um I I agree in what your statements but I I think let's be very cognizant of Mr Burke Meyer standing here giving us the information so Middle School needs a lot of work I think we all realize that so for that I just want to accomplish that somebody else okay I'd like to introduce all right thank you I'm also going to be presenting on some data we have our eggs kind of

057all in one basket if you will so this will be a little bit shorter um I'm going to be presenting on third grade M sub data because that's the only grade level that um that takes it in our building I do want to say though um that I don't want a discount um the rest of the grade levels because truly we all know that third graders can't show up and do what they did with this about a proficiency if K2 teachers aren't taking full ownership of this so I just want to commend all of the teachers um specials teachers included we did a PD last year where specials teachers were diving into vocabulary that they can be doing in their rooms that's going to support some of this testing in their academic level so I

058just want to say that the whole building has really taken a charge at what I'm going to be presenting here tonight um so if we take a look third grade ELA our M staff we have 66 of our students are proficient in ela this is almost unheard of um but again it doesn't mean we don't have anywhere to grow we do we have 34 more students that we need to see up on that board um next year when I come up here so that is the goal um for third grade m-step we have 6 65.4 Proficiency in our math um so it's good to see there isn't a huge discrepancy in our academic subjects and that would lead us to having a goal that we need to have 34.6 percent more of our students version

059and I do want to add and I know there was a little star up there and you may have seen it we are number one in the county um so that's something to celebrate there [Applause] um this uh as Mr burkemar talked about this is not cold hard data that you have in front of you so it is two different sets of kids um but I do just want to acknowledge that um the most important thing is that we're moving up in that we're showing growth in that kids are becoming more and more proficient as they come through our doors so last year we had 44.9 percent um Proficiency in ela and this year our students are 66 per percent proficient I did a little comparative um data to look at Lee the state and

060then the ISD or Macomb County so Macomb County has 42.2 proficiency the state is at 41.6 and um Lee Elementary is at 66 proficient same thing I'm looking at math very similar data really um the state's at 41 proficiency again in math the ISD is 42.9 and then Lee is 65.4 permission so a kind of our next steps and this is where we where we start so we're on um a new cycle of looking at our NWA data so twice a year for our um PD days our dppd days sorry that's a mouthful we sit down and we take our data protocol and we just dig and we dig in and see what students need um I would say third grade had probably 120 sticky notes in each of those sticky notes um represented a

061child and a skill that they needed and with that they build groups and intervention groups for 45 minutes a day based on what that student needs so it's it's never at least that a student is low in math it's a student may need help in Geometry or may need help in algebraic thinking and that's how we're starting to group our kids with our intervention time instead of looking at the big picture we're really diving deep title one is a huge support to that so we get all hands on deck and we're having great results because of that practice that we're doing um so next steps so some of the things that we're going to do to continue to have great results and also continue to have even better is using that data protocol to drive

062instruction to see where students need to be specifically um we are doing as Miss maker also mentioned we're doing a school-wide aims web screener so that's another piece of data to really be the surgeon on some of the skill levels and we are doing grade level interventions so like I said we're looking at what each student needs and we're basing our classrooms based on that so there's five classrooms and all the students get up and they go in a different classroom based on what that particular skill level is and then we have to go ahead after that they've met proficiency kind of started all over again so that's something that really seems to be working and then we're looking at high yielding best practices um and we have Hagerty and Kagan and bridges that we've

063adopted that are also research-based curriculum that teachers are implementing in small doses that are showing great results did anybody have any questions just that aims webs when you're hanging as you mentioned it I think it'll change what is explain a little bit more of what that is it's brand new and she knows much more than I do it's a it's an online uh uh tool so the kids take just a brief little uh task there's a reading portion and a math portion and the kids go through a series of questions and it kind of gauges where they're at skill wise and then we can Target we can take that information pick a specific intervention if needed if the child is well with an area that suits that particular skill at your house so we're doing

064that in the special ed area yeah we're doing that that's with our at-risk students yes okay it also provides us our progress monitoring that um so that we can actually see if the interventions we are providing are being successful and if not we can change it right away in real time rather than waiting for these benchmark assessments to come out where we've kind of miss the we missed the window it depends on the level of student if they are in um tier three then they would have a weekly progress monitoring screen uh bi-weekly for tier two and monthly if they are on the watch list if they fall below the 55 percentile for their overall Benchmark score [Music] thank you good thank you anybody else thank you very much I think that ends that presentation

065just want to thank our administrators for being here this evening okay next item on our agenda there's a presentation of section 31a 97 917 [Music] . um these are four grants that the local districts can apply for so I'm going to go with uh both of them with the board there are some of these grants that require Community conversations and input which we will be hosting prior to um that's a receipt of dollars to see how we're going to allocate those dollars so I'm going to start with 31a and mental health and support to apply for all of these grants we're basically committing to agree that we're if I allocated the funds that we would use the funds in one of these types of categories so for 31 AAA mental health support it's they're facing

066four areas that um that the district can use those funds we can hire a contract support staff for mental Services which includes but not limited to school psychologists social workers counselors and School nurses so we can add additional support to staff in that fashion you can purchase as a district we could purchase and Implement mental health screening tools we can provide research-based mental health personnel that with access to consultation with behavioral needs of our students to respond to their their mental health needs and then it's a very broad last category any other mental health service provider or products necessary to improve and maintain the mental health of students and staff this particular Grant requires that the district hosts explain how it's going to use use Community input to guide its expenditure so that would be

067foreign the funding for this Branch for Richmond Community Schools is an additional 109 dollars per pupil or replaced to about another 157 000 for the district section 97 is called school safety this grant is 115 dollars per people or equates to about 176 thousand dollars again this one requires that the um the district does an infrastructure needs assessment as well as gather Community input on the with allocation of these funds so what can the funds do you use for well it's have used in any of the allowable expenditures coordination of law enforcement determine what types of items that need to be put in place training for school staff on threat assessments as a county we offend each Pitbull District each School within the county has sent staff to behavioral front assessment training as a county

068that's what we've already gone to we can expand that it's training for school staff and students on threat responses it could be trained for school staff on crisis communication it can also be for safety infrastructures but not include not limited we could add additional Doors door blocks hardening vestibules window screening technology is necessary to operate above your system a lot of this we already have in place so there are some areas that we do have we have identified that we'd like to put additional cameras for for security um um this grant also allows for the including a firearm detection software that integrates into existing security camera systems to detect an alert School personnel and First Responders again we would need the community input regarding how this grant is allocated and that our allocation is based

069on receiving the symptoms it also can be used for age-appropriate training for students and families unresponsible gun ownership provides professional development to school resource officers that include training on best practices and serving in the school setting and other school safety services and products necessary to improve the security of the building just reminded for these are written for all 500 plus districts in the state so there are districts that are all over the board in terms of what they have and what they don't have the third Grant is section 97c which is a safety assessment um this is approximately two thousand dollars per building and it's a maximum of about six thousand dollars for Richmond Community Schools to receive this the district can use the fund a contract with a vendor to complete a comprehensive Safety

070and Security assessment in their schools and there's a series of requirements of that vendor and what their capability of we recently did this several years ago right before the pre-coped where we had the Macomb Emergency Management offices come on charge building provided fraud assessment of our building and we've made changes based on that threat assessment this would be doing another assessment which is always a good thing especially with the number of construction projects that have happened in our district the last Grant 97d is critical incident mapping this is approximately anywhere from two thousand to twenty five hundred dollars per building so for us it would be about 7 500 Max for building uh to receive this uh we'd have to contract with an individual or company to do critical incident mapping as described in the

071section and talks about it which basically allows the um First Responders to have access to our buildings to a in the emergency of a crisis the chief of police does have access to the video cameras if we are in a crisis situation that would help the to resolve it so you can see all of these um grants and the fundings that goes that go with it and the criteria that goes with it they are broad enough in my opinion that we would be able to find based on input from an owner of stakeholders but also um you know the board I would encourage you to provide your input but we'd be able to apply for these funds and use the funds should we be awarded um the application is very simple it's just basically as

072you're going into one document and you're marking that you are agreeing to the terms that are listed here in the backup the application is due October 17th 2022 I have no other information in terms of when notification would be on receiving the Grant and I have no other information on whether the grant would be retroactive to July 1st so there's still a lot of unanswered questions but part of the whole um presentation of the grant is that the board has an opportunity to see what we're submitted and that's the purpose of this this presentation is for and understand the requirements so are we planning a community meeting or something at this time because you said due October 17th the community and staff input is not forth you don't have to have it done prior to

073the grant it's just that you're agreeing that you will have it the ones we've submitted it we will set that form up and like I said it'll either be in person or we can use the district Zoom account to allow very much feedback in but as possible many districts are providing also a surveys to allow parents to do and stakeholders to type in what they would like to see in the screen so if we did a um survey or a community input session or a few of them could we do them simultaneously for the the ones that require it yeah you could do one survey and break it into understanding you can break it into the categories to make sure that the requirements of that particular Grant are being addressed with the survey you have

074an opportunity for for all programs yeah my intent would be to conclude even though section 31a mental health uh excuse me uh sorry uh the critical incident mapping and the savings are not required that you do committee my tattoo is to add into there to see from a parent perspective so it would be if we did a survey it would be almost yes all four of the granted ones earlier uh Brian do you know if um is it a limited pot of money so if it's a FaceTime criteria who gets it who doesn't a first come first serve is what's that communicates me is the dollar values are that every school district in the state of Michigan applies the dollars are there to support these four grants there is also dollars that are more competitive

075um so these are these particular ones are as long as you you complete the initial application you should get the dollars and then how it how you expend the dollars in the time frame all that is still unclear and not not published yet so whose responsibility is to complete the application yours between myself and chance okay do we have any more information on the 31a in regards to you know the data that's collected off of these mental health test screenings where does this data go well that's the important to do that we don't have to do it we can put the dollars into again based on the input of in the community might say let's put you know halters or social workers for supporters we may call over dollars there there are some conversations about

076because you have to spend them by a certain dollar value or not to a date there's often times finding these additional people to the channel um so there's ways that the ISD I'm just funding-wise how we can maintain those dollars the general fund but um that's if we choose to and part of that's going to be is I'd like to now in the grant you'll see nothing is a requirement here that I send that information anywhere if you based on what this criteria is for the use in the district in that sense so that would be the position I would be taking it is for our staff and that said there's no database that we're putting it into we're not sending anything anywhere for this report and if something were to happen where you the

077community did choose to go that route out option for our child fortnite yeah I I I I would foresee that if you this is what let's assume this is what one of the items that we want to invest in dollars in um there's a conversation between the building and Personnel apparently Regarding why we see that um and if they need any difference and then um so if we're if we're granted this to Dollars and everything for that um at that point when it comes to the board for us to decide where we want to put those dollars or do you just do a recommendation and lead or accept it or not it could be a recommendation it could be if the board wants to do any good discussion would you do it that way okay

078within the criteria um [Music] now we're going to work on our next presentation is the physical 2023 budget update discussion so we have been uh discussing the um the budget for the last couple weeks regarding um from when the the board approved the budget back in June to when the legislators and the governor signed off on it in July our FTE allocation if you recall um [Music] if you recall we budgeted this year in the FY 23 budget I'd have the 11 students more we received which is not what we typically have done in the past but we utilize it for more students we budgeted getting 300 per pupil increase um we've already um the actual budget is 450 so when you take the difference over the Ft that we've budgeted for students and you

079times by 150 that's approximately 230 dollars of additional Revenue in the budget it was signed by the governor there is a special ed reimbursement Revenue that was put in there um it doesn't cover our specialized cost but it covers more of those specialized costs so for us um we're going to use the example of if especially at cost was X and the the specialized reimbursement was a portion of that one they're just covering more of the cost and the other dollars were coming out of general fund again they're all general fund dollars but that equates to about 250 000 in additional Revenue over the course of the conversation we've had two teacher ft's increase over the August and September conversations and we had a flagpole increase of 16 000 for multiple around so when you

080look at the net we're looking approximately three hundred and four thousand dollars of additional Revenue [Music] count day with this past Wednesday at this point we are above the 11 FPS but at this point we're going through the audit numbers and reviewing you know those that were wrapped in our Count Day depending on what type of absence of the third year a 10-day or 30-day rule we have to look back or a suspension for 45 days so we don't have a final audit number yet so I'm anticipating our our overall bottom line is going to be better than this one for final company numbers come in but if we look at I want the Ford the budget the board approved in June but the 11 increase students and the additional FTE per pupil allocation from

081the state and especially reimbursement you have at this point roughly three hundred thousand dollars of additional Revenue over expenses so in the past couple weeks we've talked about board members ideas and suggestions and so um board member Michelle asked me to put this together regarding Just Thoughts From board members on where they would like to see that allocation so okay so I had asked you to take the last part of being united is to take a look at where we've been talking about it where are your needs so Mr Wilson is going to kind of fill in our chart just share where you would like what your first priority is where you'd like us to see or spend this extra money I don't know if anybody wants to start but I can start if it

082helps okay I think we need to put some money into savings some portion of that we talked about making sure that we could cover our teacher all our contracts so just in case or something happens so that's one of my things that I think we need to do anybody else want to put out or does anybody agree with that at this point I agree with that everything maybe there's three I see two heads didn't we already put money into savings I don't know that we did sure we did for that point brand in our budget already put money in in boards final budget that was approved in June we put as many dollars into capital projects that were part of it with the stuff that didn't happen last year this year we put money a

083size or um for computer replacement [Music] um you have ninety seven thousand dollars approximately where when the budget was approved in June a revenue exceeded expenses okay so we didn't put anything aside though for funding our our contracts out like we talked about you know I think the conversation was one of the options was about looking at contracts opening and doing something different with that conversation was if you do that you've got to make sure that each year you've got that my sustain it so it would be that if we're going to provide we talked about providing our staff with an additional bonus or additional something that we make sure we have that money but no the additional bonus was just that whatever this extra money it had nothing to do with going down the

084road for the for the bonus personalities one time so we that money and savings has nothing to do with giving the bonus so I'm going to go back and ask you partner do we have money in savings to cover our contracts with money in in our contracts is if we got no increase from the state we would have we would be using fund balance to cover contract in future years when does the contract when will the contract be up though it varies the largest group which is your teacher group is the 20 23 24 [Music] 25. but again this whole conversation has to do with the abstra if you will the extra money with our budget what what can we do with it has nothing to do with her kindness the contracts that we signed

085and put together when we agreed to those and then we put our budget together looking all of that that is in place you don't approve contracts that you don't think you've got the money for going out forward that's already what we've done I thought this conversation was what what are we doing with the extra money now if you want to take the extra money and you want to say take however much money and put it aside that's one argument but not saying to do it for the contracts well I don't think that's a strong time let's redo this says Michelle's here I would like to see us across the board give our teaching staff some kind of our teaching everybody custodial whatever some kind of a one-time payment okay foreign [Music] meeting but the one

086prior the total was like 490 000 now it's 300 so I missed where the rest of that the last meeting the last video we had another t-shirts and then in that um I completely had the um um I think that was previously approved in Florida Credit holes that were part of the bond project that we're not part of this I agree with the one time I would also agree with the one time um bonus or payment um stuff but I also um I also would be on board for doing um as somebody came up and mentioned I don't know I it doesn't have I mean a particular dollar amount for like classroom expenses um I don't even I don't know what they mentioned 100 we don't have to do 100 like I don't know what

087I mean that's the age one kind of something you know to help with collecting expenses and also be um on board with doing that we put that kind of reject around if we did that are we looking at maybe across the board like all of our robotics um our specials or no or you're just same classroom another thing uh does that affect bands request came on to give teachers whatever whatever the Dow would be if it was a hundred dollars whatever it was that's what that's what the request was right so that's what you want to do that that to me that's completely different okay okay the the bonus part I I agree I agree with that but my question is we had two two options to pick from and one was one percent per

088employee or a hundred dollars per employee we had what those dollar Figures were correct one percent was a hundred and four thousand six forty ninety sixty a hundred dollars per employee was twenty four thousand six fifty one eighty five so I I too agree with something like that but I'm somewhere in the in in the middle of I wanted to see more than a hundred dollars when I first brought it up that's something I wasn't talking a hundred dollars per employee I think so that's just I agree I would agree with you that I'd like to make that statement but I would like to increase that amount more than 100. you know a hundred dollars isn't a joke I mean I don't know it's a hundred dollars as a teacher how to go first off

089we're talking every employee yeah and it's not a joke but I hold on let me finish what they think if you're looking at if that's what the board is looking wants to do that as opposed to a one percent excuse me um if our community could please be quiet so we can hear we're not we're having a hard time hearing from each other please thank you if we're if we want to do opponents let's let's get a better number I don't think it's a joke but let's get a better number but then if we're looking if you want to go more than one percent then what what's that I just let's just figure out which one I think we all agree we want to do that but let's figure out how we want to do

090it and if that's our number one priority then you put that at number one and you figure out what that dollar figure is and then you can figure out because I put mine in order are we just then talking about our number one priority no give what you have what I did three when I did mine uh my top three because I have top three also okay so can I just ask the clarification on the one percent is that one percent of their salary that you're giving them or so would that be something that would be added to their salary for every year after or is that just a ones to send phones it would be an all scheduled payment from what we encountered had conversations for those that are hourly workers we took what

091their regular schedule would have been home for the year and figured out they're total they should make these X due to one percent of that number and that's a bonus or it's you added it will be all together so we can pick a date November 25th is Payday on that day everybody in the organization would get 20 percent so one time he does yeah it's it's still a one-time bonus though it doesn't really matter so that number that Brian gave us that number was on that paperwork that we had that's every single employee one percent of the salary that they're making that's what that hundred four thousand dollar figures right that's what you said yes how would that work for hours in place you take their salary over the previous quote we have an employee

092that works eight hours a day and they work uh 209 days a month like that by their holidays okay so let's go back Sandy would you like to share your three um sure so my um number one was also doing the one-time bonus for staff um my other um other things important to me is the counselor that I spoke about um to spend time with each child to talk about future Beyond High School whether it be the workforce and getting some kind of certificate through a CTE program or the Armed Forces or the trades or college but I think it's important that we have we don't have any I don't want to say anything I don't I mean um we don't have any one person that's dedicated that has that much time dedicated to each

093student in high school every year to talk about what they want to do what Their interests are and how to get there that's my top three um or one of my top three and then um any other one was the flex room well I mean um I guess if we're talking about upping that amount then I might change that to be honest with you um and go for uh the subclined uniforms okay Danielle I was waiting for himself here to catch up to us whether you gotta I didn't know if you have the opportunity to look at what you did you know I looked at a little bit but I remember from the previous impact like Sherry was saying good um so what's your top one I like the um the teacher bonus and also

094the expense like a one-time payment per classroom to use for whatever supplies that teacher deems necessary um and then my third one was Sports because we put a big emphasis on it when you looked at the sports it was broken up into two sections either we do the whole piece or we do equipment and uniforms so which one are you thinking about but I would say at the bare minimum I would say so put Sports down we'll just put Sports down and we can always have a conversation okay um Angela um yes I would also like the one time payment for staff maybe 250 her first half remember 251 time payment is what I was thinking um if we did do the hundred dollars per person I also could be with board member for tuna

095as far as doing the classroom for each teacher to have a classroom Supply and then my third one would be I think it was the fifty four thousand dollars to get Sports brought up to date is that what we wanted I would like to do that and then also put money into the music and art program so that we are putting money back to the students [Music] and now I know this is a little off topic but we did talk about the mental health Grant do you know if any things such as art or music or activities in that way will be will be able to allocate money towards those to help with our Red Cloud piece in the school in the foregrands that I would yes it would be for all all students regardless

096of the content here you know with the Brady student in that school and how we allocate those dollars now Candace um for the teachers as well teachers yeah that'll be my number one number two is I'm still sticking to meet another bus route um it's if it doesn't get picked I don't think they keep bringing it up every meeting is for sure an issue um and then my number three I kind of echo um one number Fortuna about the high school like counselor somebody that will guide them through um three years I'm actually really shocked we don't have that I I don't even know what would happen if I didn't have that growing up and we had collab but we worked and we got credit and all these things we need you know learn from

097our jobs you know I'm really shocked so if that doesn't make it I would like to see us find someone in the high school somewhere too I like to be students under a career and people learn about a little bit we do have we do I don't know if we're still doing Career Cruising or if that has changed okay so we do have some going on I think the discussion was we had can we we have one counselor in the high school here they if we devoted what was it five minutes per child 30 minutes per child 30 minutes per child for the everyone in the building that worked out to a full-time character yes a full-time job and I thought that's where we were kind of you know that someone they could come to

098not only just for Career Cruising or just issues or problems or guidance because we do we have co-op opportunities we have CTE opportunities and those are being talked about now um we're just like giving those kids 30 minutes you know during the year it's just it's impossible to do with one customer anyway I just wondered and I don't know if that's something that could possibly be implemented with some of those grants that we talked about um you know I don't you know I mean I don't know and that I would love to do something else is one of the things okay if we could find one right right thank you okay Margaret um yeah mine's four okay um my number one was the art music um request from the teachers I think that it's incredibly

099sad that that was kind of that information came to us I think it's incredibly sad that that's not happening so that would be my number one with Baxter at having in terms of of all the things that they want to do to upgrade um the bonus and I live I just keep saying it's not just for teachers it's every staff every person that works for Richmond schools deserves this bonus and I again I want it to be more than a hundred and I wanted to be more than one percent so I I guess my thing would be once we get into November whenever we get the well we know what money we're coming in then I would like to have a conversation about whether it's more than 100 and that but that's my second um

100the the third for me is the Athletics part the 55 000 amount since I've been talking about it for years and next would be the counselor um because I agree that I agree we need it and if we can do it in part of this grant like Brian said like Sandy I agree because that just opens up more money for art music more money for bonus that kind of thing thank you sure um my top would be the one percent off schedule um per employee it's a huge Topic in life and then the other one would be the the bonus of like 100 100 but but by flaming for the classroom for the classroom okay sorry and my third would be um art music inquiry um especially like competitions for our we'll just go back

101and know so going back up to mine so mine is obviously the one-time um one-time payment to all of the staff industry um my second choice is I actually have four two and then I think about it but my second is a consular I think that is huge in the what our students are experiencing right now I really think it's important piece my third choice is band and the Arts to make sure that we are obviously funding them I do agree with Margaret it's pretty sad that I know we fund them to a certain extent but we don't fund them totally and those are in all of our buildings those are academic class our kids earn Credit in those classes I think we should be funding them my fourth one if we ever get to

102the fourth one is I would like to do that 54 000 the athletic piece and if we need to take a look at that I agree there's another area to me predominantly I know at least at the high school they they fund they get a chunk of money but quite frankly once we do the helmets there's not much left of it to use that and any other team in our program and we should be supporting that okay um when I talked with Mr Walmsley today we were going to go back and just kind of obviously there's some agreements here you know take a look at our our top ones and see where did we were going to talk money tonight or no we were going to wait I think it was never moving away right

103someday it brings us okay okay [Music] in any direction as far as do we want to look at 100 do we want to look at 250 do we want to look at 500 I don't like the idea of a percentage okay um personally but could you bring us I don't know a few options um I don't know I'm interested more than the one percent but I mean there's others here that aren't so maybe bring us options for like do anything fun a couple options maybe but do we do we want the options we don't want the options until we know what money we're dealing with so is the next thing to when because Brian would it be like the middle of November end of November when the count Day stuff gets certified I think that

104I would want the options just to know uh in the night of view of something out that we're looking at before we you know what I mean like exactly at that point we can say like okay we can only do the one and a half percent or whatever this this dollar value is not including any students above the budget right yes those are just something I'm looking for a couple of different estimate amounts I'm not looking for an exact conversion perfect thank you anybody else have any other questions or anything you want to add to this discussion good job you guys take your homework okay we're going to move on to band update with Mr walsley I think it's uh very short um we have um this Thursday we are having the construction meeting regarding

105the plan for the 2023 Basin project um that in your backup you'll see there's basically two phases that we're looking at roughly with school gets out through the middle of July we'll be addressing the gymnasium parking lot the board parking lot and the new varsity baseball parking lot which is off of the lead across from the elementary school parking lot um I only call it that because it's the closest to that field it can also be used for soccer and football if that gate is open there and then the second phase of the mid mid July through the beginning uh mid-august which should be basically the road that runs along the library on the west side of the campus and the road that runs in front of the middle school and attractive Circle those are

106preliminary or last Bond projects that we'd be looking at part of that conversation is to address the summer programs food service programs athletic camps and practices and how we work around about from here any questions this is the parking lot that I've been talking about forever that is a small parking lot it has um I believe when you look at the width of that it is not a curb parking lot because if you did then we have to get into um it's it's approximately 12 to 15 parking spots it's a Fortune of those yeah with a large majority of them being handicapped thank you any other questions okay our next item on our agenda is public comments I will start off with Excuse me a minute I accidentally took the sheet sorry okay um since

107the last board meeting I've received one email from the public regarding the release of Mr Bartels and another two emails from a parent sharing their concerns for making all students comfortable in the bathroom all three of those reported on to Mr Walmsley I received another email regarding a discipline situation at the middle school this email was referred to Mr Walmsley and Mr Burke Meyer I was also cc'd on an email requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act I received two other emails regarding the conduct of our board members at this time any member of the public May address the board please sign in there's a sign-in sheet up there and State near me you will have three minutes to address the board I am asking that we there are a lot of people here

108and I know everybody wants to talk that we please listen that we please do not talk while they're talking and give everybody you know listen and open mind so that you know I don't want any interruptions is there a microphone as well [Music] we'll we'll figure something out here [Music] okay don't please don't come up and sign up it's first come first month so we're just a microphone so we can just walk up and talk right now no we're not ready to start yet but give me a minute and yes you can we're getting a mic [Music] foreign [Music] is that right there we go is this again yes all right my name is Jim Searle can anybody hear me my uh uh I am a parent of two two School uh age children in

109the grade school and Keith Bartels who is uh principal at the middle school is by Robert law uh Keith Bartels served 24 years in the district as a teacher and also as an administrator so for those of you who missed the party I'd like a big round of applause [Applause] I say that facetiously because there was no party there was scheduled to be a party on September 30th which was to be Keith's last day Keith by the way has he proves the school his kids go here his daughter's a fourth grader he's got a daughter who's a senior and a son who's a sophomore we share our mother-in-law who's got a 30-year history here Carrie Glasford who is a beloved teacher but Keith decided to take another opportunity it wasn't his his true decision his

110love was his school he wanted to stay here I'll leave it at that he was scheduled to leave September 30th which was a Friday on September 29th he was called down to Mr Watson's office and superintendent for a meeting he had no idea why he was able he happened to see officer Davenport who was also sitting in front of Mr Ramsey's office she had no idea why she was here Keith Bartels a man who gave 24 years to this school district found out that he was going to be escorted out by a police officer before that they began he asked if he could have a chance to say goodbye to his staff Mr Williamson told him no officer Davenport who was enraged and terribly upset that she had been put in this position because she's

111friends with Keith uh and she's from a lot of the features here there's relationships in this community as everyone knows and she was embarrassed that she had to ask for him now imagine that father would give him 24 years of his life to serve in the school and his kids had to find out through the rumor of fourth grader a sophomore and a senior Mr wimsley sent a letter out on October 30 a third to clarify the false statements on social media and in the community and the first one was that the false statement was supposed to be that that he had been police had been called to escort Mr cartels off campus nor was he taken out of handcuffs nobody said it was taken on The Piano Guys kind of stuff in a minute

112please I'm sure you need to be you're addressing the board we're not addressing nobody said he was taken out he hits three more seconds thank you 24 seconds nobody said he was taking out the handcuffs but he was taken out by by Officer Davenport teachers principals who retire deserve to be cheered they deserve to have a standing ovation and say walk down the hallway they deserve to say goodbye they deserve the crime and let go of the people they love and that's what this community would applying that's what I would want thank you thank you hello my name is Jason Burrs and I have two boys in the Richmond School District I'm here to speak about the bathroom situation and given the graphs it appears that the board likes facts right it appears we need

113to focus more on educating our children than educating them on what bathroom they need to use because it appears we are behind in our academics why do we care about being the best when we can just identify as being the best [Applause] okay and it's a very simple concept and it appears 100 of you guys understand it because I see you stand at the flag and say one nation under God and if you've been to church in five minutes five seconds yours did God created Adam and Eve and you know how that whole thing works right so do we need to dive into that anymore no I'll go to the next thing let me tell you a little story oh wait before sorry a little heated okay I want to save money everybody get a

114boat I want to vote everybody get some vote I want Talent neutral Foods okay we can say we can have one food the kid eats the food and they identify as whatever they want it could be chicken nuggets it could be Pizza that thing we only need one thing on the menu that's it one thing on the menu palette neutral Foods now let me tell you a little story and this is 100 true story my niece fell woke victim to woke ideology we were eating breakfast one day and she looked at me and she goes to a school in the Utica Community Schools and she looked at me and she said Uncle Jason can you please hand me the orange juice and I handed her the milk and she says that's not orange juice and

115I said yes it identifies as orange juice and I said so drink it and she says well that's you're an idiot that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard I said exactly you said it best when you identified things as being what they're not you're an idiot because it's not orange juice it's apple juice and we can melt a million cows and never get a drop of orange juice and we can squeeze a million oranges and never get a drop of milk it's as simple as that and I don't know why we're not focusing more on the facts because it appears you guys like them very simple [Applause] good evening can you hear me yes okay good evening my name is Cheryl Starr 26 years ago I accepted the opportunity of a lifetime to come home

116to Richmond and teach at Richmond Middle School for most of those 26 years working at RMS has been a joy it has provided me with a second family made up of co-workers and students alike for 14 of those years Keith Bartels was my building principal and immediate supervisor and I can tell you we did not always get along or agree but we always treated each other with respect the one thing that Mr Bartels stressed more than anything from day one was we need to build relationships with our kids and our community and family if we want to achieve anything and that is exactly what we've done and I heard somebody else earlier talk about the relationships in this community even as I said when we disagreed Mr Bartels treated his staff with professionalism and dignity

117I know personally that it was extremely difficult for him to make the decision to leave Richmond when he informed his staff it was a kick in the gut it was so disheartened we were all sad the next day there was this Paul over the building but we wanted to make keys last week with us a good one so if he could maintain his professionalism which he did then so could we and we even though we knew it was tearing him up planned our small goodbyes for him on Friday we were robbed with the opportunity to have those goodbyes both as staff members and our students after giving 24 years of his heart and soul to this District he was treated as an outcast Unworthy of even a proper goodbye and then I was present at

118the board meeting where his resignation was announced during the Personnel report and every night at a board meeting the board members also have opportunities for your final thoughts when Mr wampley announces that Mr Bartels had left for another district and later in the night when the board members had your opportunities not one person even acknowledged that he was leaving or his years of service I've heard more words spoken about new hires when they're presented the day after Keith left our staff under the leadership a good example of Anthony birkmeyer maintained professional professionalism and dignity throughout that day we allowed our students to participate in a peaceful and safe walkout so they could express their frustration over a situation that they had no control of we did not encourage or discourage their participation we let them

119make their own decisions as we are trying to teach them to do afterwards we continued our day only to be told that we were losing another member of our staff family our secretary Miss Melissa Mayo and through no fault of their own the elementary school was handed a similar loss with the transfer of secretary Denise simski both of whom were transferred just three days before count date a critical needs to both offices naturally people in the middle school and other parts of the district are concerned about further changes that are coming to accomplish some goal well once I was given a book titled change is good you go first I think we've seen enough change in our school buildings enough are people I hope this board recognizes this also excuse me I'm sorry oh my

120final thought is that I would ask foreign I hope that this board recognizes that we need to stop this upheavals and I ask you to maintain some stability and cohesion in our building our building has a staff that works together and collaborates together we have the respect Meyer as we had the respect from Mr Bartels and in turn we respect him he has been part of our building family for the last five years or this is his fifth year he knows the ins and outs of our building I myself had my doubts when he came to our buildings he had been in the elementary and middle school is not Elementary he handled the aftermath of the departure of Mr Bartels with professionalism with dignity and Grace he kept the safety of our students at the

121Forefront he spoke to a staff emailed us said we're going to figure this out made the arrangement so that they could walk to the gym where they could be safe feel that they had a voice and then continue their day and even in the talk that he gave the students before the walkout he encouraged the students to make their choices but he pointed out that Mr Bartels would want them to be getting an education I hope that you will consider hiring him permanently as our principal as we are finally getting our school back to normalcy after the pandemic and God knows what else will happen so thank you [Applause] foreign Cheryl McCluskey Sherry zooby Connie Malott Mary McGowan Sherry westerhoff Charlene play Jones Sam Honaker Wendy Wendy and the central office Shelly of the central

122office Rochelle Thompson Vicky of the central office Kimberly Elms Michelle Newsome Lauren lazowski Dave Myler John Bordeaux Jim Benoit Paula dauper Dave mandoon Colleen baumgarten Gene dream Melanie Cochran Sandy Franco Cindy painter Marlene coosdale Kim staleki Mary Jane kuna Dale Kelly Katie Bernal Krista Brown Tom Brown Kayla Deanna Lisa McDonald Amy lafour Shannon Coons Janet mix here's there Natalie stressione Jessica Kappa Karen Boston Mike Murphy Kelly fume Michelle shelmer Aaron Lashbrook Christy Lashbrook Anthony Beloit Ken carledge Jessica mapowski Yvonne worth Christine Graham Patty Vose Chris Nolan Brian jarsbach Bobby Hamlin Bridget shubois Sarah Horan Adam Hastings Theresa Ranger John schlieder Glenn thus Suzanne Rickard Dave Cochran Andy Castle Chris Reinhardt Keith Bartels which will got this District Krista McLeod Deb Michonne previously addressed the board telling them that the issue is serious accusing Walmsley of

123mistreatment of employees also quoted as saying something's not right and hope the board would finally seriously investigate the concerns brought forward about this man Harold swanger Heath Christmas Monica nicolopoulos Deb Dobbs Jen Cleland Tracy Turner Kara racosa Lindsay McCoy Amanda gutardo Jackie Davidson Craig West Melissa wolf D Finley Amy St John Pam Probst Carrie blissette Joe ogleby Megan Roland Emma flapp James Wagner Terry tomato Shirley matazewski Jill gabridge Taylor Jones Emily Leach Ann O'Connor Veronica Bell Jacqueline Underwood Lance Whitney Trish till Karen Van ham Jill Taylor Amanda Martin Marie Christine Karen Pam Daly Robin Ducharme Janelle Mueller Linda Corby Pastor whites Ashley Everett Emma Patterson Andrea Kania Laura Wilson Courtney lavish Jenny Ferguson Katie Bellini Judy Rose John Rhodes Amanda Ladd Nicole spratke Anna English Kim Weber Haley Tyson Cheyenne Bastian Connie Brown Colleen lanu

124Karen kukar Mary holness Becca Christensen Kate genther Tony Coons Rob Monahan these people are our most precious resource and we are hemorrhaging them at the hands of this man do something now make this man foreign [Music] take it off okay is that better yeah good evening I'm here to highlight the issues with the males using female restrooms the board can I have your name oh Miranda I'm sorry thank you um the board has made their positioning clear that they are more afraid of legal challenging being called a bigot or other slanderous terms than keeping our kids safe last meeting we warned the board of violence that would ensue if our warnings weren't taken seriously less than 24 hours later a female student whose father spoke up about the issue was verbally assaulted with threats of

125violence and sexually harassed the school's initial lack of appropriate action against this young male student forced the parents of this young female student to file the police report this situation is unacceptable I am sure that the roles were reversed the female student would have unexpelled the school administration acted in this instance to protect the young male student who assaulted the female by fabricating a false story of accountability in them passing it off as fast to her parents the behavior of the vice principal to protect the assailant in this matter is appalling she should be suspended upon Italian because I need a basket [Music] hello okay this unfortunately is not an isolated incident in this country and resembles the actions taken in Loudoun County Virginia where a school instilled the same policy of the school board

126only to have a female student raped by a young male student who said he was a girl basketball proof [Music] make it loud thank you foreign [Music] policy based on case law they were no longer valid the case of plastic versus Clayton County has been successfully reversed in legal challenge in the case of Texas versus EEOC a federal judge ruled that the protection afford is entitled 997 apply to employment discrimination but not necessarily all correlated conduct including vacuum and program use it was determined that these protections went too far and they were therefore unlawful This legal precedent gives the board an authority to act appropriately regarding the safety of our children and disregard the conflicting case law we employ to employ you to ignore the outside groups trying to influence your policy decisions they will

127try to fully and intimidate you funding their cause with slanderous and baseless allegations without regard for our children they are political activists who do not have children in our schools and they're not members of our community these do not represent these people do not represent the values of our community either their intimidation tactics should fall on deaf years as they are desperate attempts that one takes when they have lost an argument you can no longer produce legitimate defense of that position their point of view while enthusiastic is irrelevant most of this community wants this current policy reversed for the safety of everyone the board now has the authority to act in the best interest of this community and we demand that each member go on record so that the voters that are informed as to

128their position on this very serious issue thank you [Applause] foreign ER I was the junior president for nine years I recently retired during those nine years as the union president I represented the teachers of Richmond my allegiance still continues for these hard-working professional Richmond teachers with that being said I was asked to read some Anonymous teacher statements here tonight statement number one the leader was has created a culture of fear we fear bullying harassment and being written up if we disagree I would love to speak freely and openly and give specific examples about the bullying and harassment that I see but I fear it would become a victim of retaliation since he has joined Richmond Community Schools we have had numerous staff members from all buildings including Central Olympics meet or retired before they truly

129wanted to statement number two in my time as an employee at Richmond I worked under and witnessed the umbrella of fear and abuse of power in my opinion the primary focus is on how is how he is perceived by the public and the Board of Education I have witnessed him focus on minutia like why a staff member didn't respond to a hello or why a member of the public made a comment on Facebook I have heard him have too many verbal outbursts to mention all of this on staff members after staff member leave because of the way they've been mistreated there have been grievances files surveys ignored and the good people of Richmond deserve better than that statement number three nobody employed by Richmond Community Schools will ever file a formal complaint the fear is

130that they will be the next Avatar of another event for impeding the progress of the lead teachers administrators and other staff members are viewed as Expendable pieces not as Educators the district culture is toxic and staff members are exiting because of it as a former employee I'm not giving specific examples because I fear he would recognize me and contact my current employer the ultimate loss is with the students and the families of this committee statement number four I'm sorry statement number five I have witnessed aggressive unnecessary and inappropriate exchanges between him and the administrators teachers and staff members statement number six telling me I have to do a non-teaching related thing such as putting down my blinds at the end of the day if they're knocked down I'll be in trouble statement number seven it

131was not an easy decision for me to leave Richmond Community Schools but one that has been weighing heavily on my heart and mind for some time I believe staff can attest to the kind of inconsiderate and unprofessional treatment and attitude that is bestowed upon many employees in the school system I believe that very reason amongst others is the main cause of the Endless turnover at this District I'm not quite sure what would be the actual icing on the cake in my situation it was eventually added and I could not still make the taste of it I had to get it statement number eight what is it that when people leave he says the opportunity of a lifetime presented itself why aren't we the opportunity of a lifetime people used to take less pay because of

132the positive small town family atmosphere since 2014 that has changed and now we have people leaving left and right we've heard it over and over the board wants to know yet if you truly want to know why you should perform exit in interviews and then believe what people say okay thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Shannon krinzig my husband and I are both on that list along with some of our closest friends unfortunately it's going to be a lot more of our close friends which is really sad it's a list that is just really sad um my husband had graduated seven students from Richmond Community Schools and we have one left uh those of whom who have been fortunate enough to have had many of the staff that were on that list which

133they've not recovered from still these teachers weren't just teachers they were kids they were students their their teachers at our kids games they were welcomed guests in our home they were even guests at all of our kids graduation parties um we're a pretty diverse family we've had basketball volleyball tennis football Courtyard sheer volume volleyball twice track sad and Honor Society so we've been around for a while I'm here to carry on what Mrs Rangers began with true teacher statements written by them teacher one staff always feels threatened with write-ups if we don't say hello to him if we have something on a heater dress code when we have to have time off and so much more he lets his administration take the heat for the problems he creates or doesn't address if we don't respond

134to him within a certain amount of time we're in trouble but he rarely gets back to us promptly if at all some may say that if we don't speak up as a staff but we can't we need our jobs if we speak up in the district we are targeted unless you're related to someone on the school board teacher number two our school board has changed more with his tenure than any other District in Macomb County before his arrival only elections changed it does anyone ask the board members why they left ask the seven who have resigned they'll tell you it's harassment and bullying teacher number three he had used Facebook in a way to attempt to gain information on teachers and then harass them all while doing so under false pretenses stating he had gotten

135it elsewhere when clarification is ever needed on something he will simply not respond to the emails he uses his power to intimidate staff and has even threatened docking pay in situations where it's extremely inappropriate to even suggest there will be a severe stamping shortage next year if he is still here teacher number four retaliation and fear is real when he got to Richmond he bragged that he was a Warren as a teacher on the negotiating team and he got into regarding teacher contractual time he studied waited all year and at the end of the year the teacher he argued with left the school within the school contractual window go figure he didn't forget the disagreement and then wrote that person up I've witnessed this vindictive nature with those who dared to ask questions teacher number

136five he has created a culture of fear I'm no longer willing to tolerate I will not stick around to wait until it's my turn to be targeted and will actively be seeking out a job in the in a new District this year I saw how he yelled and be rated Terry tomato on her last day and I do not respect that kind of administration uh I know that I've been around for a while but my my words for you new parents is you want to teach your kids not to be a bully so look who's the bully um one more from my daughter who just graduated 2022 graduate this is getting to the point where I'm almost sad to say I graduated from Richmond many teachers and staff members were amazing and I looked up

137to them but he is a disgrace to the community he is forced to love his staff members to leave staff that I loved after they inspired countless students to strive to be their best Mr Bartels being one of them it's so sad I'm sorry she didn't have my time I only have one more question [Music] well if you finish it you can have my time let's start again 2022 graduate this is getting to the point where I'm almost sad to say that I graduated from Richmond many teachers and staff members were amazing and I looked up to them but he's a disgrace to this community he is forced beloved staff members to leave and after even after they've inspired common law students to strive to be their best in their future including me Mr Bartels

138being one of them it's so sad to see a school that I have loved so much love for continue to fall apart due to this leader all right um yeah she was she's a pretty cool girl she just graduated she's a four-time state champ and uh she's she's taught apart she's watching all of her teachers leave um it's really hard it's really hard for a little brother to want to go to Richmond he's at St Peter's now because we won't let him go to Richmond while he's here and uh it's just sad it's very very sad there's people who choose this school for school of choice and um they're realizing what they're choosing because it's it's just awful it's just awful but again back to the bullying thing I'm a big advocate for bullying and

139uh I want you guys to know that he's nothing but a bully [Applause] take notice thank you no one person okay my name is Lisa Taylor since 2014 we have lost over 125 staff members 125 and a few more soon on their way out a small handful of scents retired after feeling as though they had no choice due to harassment bullying these Educators have tried for years to bring light to the multiple situations that have Arisen to no avail these teachers are the backbone of our district we stand strong behind them as more information comes to light it is very apparent that there is in fact a huge problem the morale amongst the staff it is at an all-time low back in October 2021 there was a staff climate survey put together and presented to

140the board and the results were never discussed until a few board members felt as if it was okay to go into the Teachers Lounge and try to discuss their concerns with the teachers who were on break and commented anonymously again another intimidation tactic like the board meeting attack a few weeks ago not the role model I expect to see on a school board for our children it has to stop the bullying the micromanagement the intimidation our teachers matter to us to this town and this town stands behind them it's too bad the superintendent is not as the board you work for the people when will you do something to protect our teachers [Applause] hi good evening everyone my name is Zach Forster I have two daughters in the district one that's in high school one

141that's in Middle School and I don't know many people in the city so I'm a transplant been here for a few years though and I just wanted to take a different angle at this topic some things that have been concerning for me for my daughters have actually kind of resonated within our household lately um kind of makes me shake just thinking about it but anyways I have a daughter in the high school who has six classes and full-time two of those classes are unattended by a full-time teacher Okay so amongst me traveling internationally every week I come home and I have to teach geometry every week okay this is a problem I have a background in secondary education and Mathematics but that's not my job right I have two full-time jobs now um I'd just

142like to say that it's unacceptable to have no Educators placed into key key areas of Education [Applause] foreign our high school had by your statistics at five percent math met Benchmark for the SAT okay so please make a note we need to fill our open positions there's another example I have but I won't go into the specifics of the teacher but where I'm going with this I'm kind of taking a pragmatic approach and we need to retain teachers right so I've heard a lot of similar messaging but retention is a little scary within this District so do you guys can you put together some type of analysis of what our attrition rate is comparatively speaking to the other schools within Macomb County can that be published so that the the parents within the room the

143people that you want to go to for Bond approval or whatever maybe all your approvals we can actually understand how does our teaching staff get retained comparatively speaking um that would be an ask and secondly I think um to Danielle to your point it's hard as a teacher to think that it's efficient to receive a hundred dollars as a one-time payout or one percent which I think you said was 114 that might be off but um I think there needs to be something in perpetuity okay I'm not saying it has to be depressive but if we have such a high retention issue we need to look at perpetuity options if one percent equals a hundred and some odd thousand dollars a year your fiscal budget for expenditures is three hundred and four thousand dollars before

144you to your own word you add in extra expected student Revenue we should be able to get something in perpetuity our teachers are the primary focus here our children are educated by our teachers and the rest of the staff to your point I know Margaret you had mentioned that but can we look at something in perpetuity it shouldn't be that hard when we pass the millage as a as a district over 30 million dollars to afford one percent as a perpet two of these initiative so just please consider that I'm having a hard time with my daughters they're having a hard time in the school I want to take pride in the school there's a lot of parents that do as well just just consider the whole umbrella here instead of us all just talking

145about the problems let's actually find Solutions because that's what these weaving miracles [Applause] [Music] thank you hello first I would like to thank everyone who could be here tonight I'm including both sides our kids are so blessed to have that kind of passion fighting for them for those who don't know me I'm Amy steyer an active member in the Richmond community and school system in my house I can guarantee things like love equality and inclusion everyone deserves respect and to feel safe in their surroundings including School the moral standard this basic human right to all children all children should have the right to feel comfortable in a bathroom at school now these are the some of the things I don't understand the argument is that certain children have the right to feel comfortable in the

146bathroom they identify us regardless of anatomy and the argument is that should be accepted and tolerated if not the words intolerance bigot homophobe hate discrimination are then used now if a child who does not feel comfortable in a bathroom with someone that has the opposite in adding is them they don't feel comfortable the words hate bigot homophobe discrimination and intolerance is used so why is one allowed to feel comfortable and the other is not and why is it always come back to intolerance hate homophobe being a bigot and discrimination why can't it be one wants to be comfortable in a bathroom they identify and the other ones be comfortable in a bathroom affiliated with their boring sex I don't care what you identify as and I don't think most students do either what we want

147is students comfortable why is that so hard to ask without the words hate discrimination intolerance and bigot used why is that the one screaming hate intolerant words like bigot and discrimination are the ones spreading hate and tolerance and not an understanding for all children why does it just have to be just this way I'm over the me me mentally I'm tired of the divide and so quick to assume something because it doesn't fit your narrative we have come to a time in our society where if you stomp your feet scream and yell and use words like hate bigot racist discrimination you get exactly what you want that is the definition of intolerance why is it we have to tiptoe around other feelings but they can dance all over ours I would give an example of

148tolerance and equality from the opposing side I found this directly from the page of the rise UCC Facebook we need your strong presence in support of the Richmond lgbtqia students is they face false bigoted recorded record from so-called parent right groups they're this the guy right there just explains what I just stated and I assure you I am no part of a bigoted so-called parents group and I have one more question does my body my choice apply to abortion or does it also apply to a girl feeling uncomfortable on her period in a bathroom with a penis foreign and I have three daughters in the Richmond schools we chose Richmond schools as School of Choice I actually live on the border of Richmond and Armada and you know I think as everybody knows that are

149Madea is a very good school it had they have great scores I mean comparing what I saw today um and so you know looking at the fact that my children wanted to come to Richmond schools they are the ones that advocated to be in this school and we supported them on that choice to be in Richmond schools we spent a good portion of our time in Richmond community and so as the time has gone on the last three years that my daughters have been in this District Two in the high school one in the Middle School we've had some wonderful teachers some wonderful principals um I think over the last couple years my husband and I both said on numerous occasions this was a really good choice this was a good choice for them for

150our family it was a great school I couldn't have had any more good things to say about the teachers in this school I mean it's just been phenomenal and in a sand token here we are now in this beginning of the school year and I've lost you know our principal to our native schools which that was fabulous um we lost our ad who was phenomenal um we just lost the Middle School principal my daughter's being asked to share bathrooms with boys and when situations have come up where my daughter has felt threatened and I brought it to the the school um I was told basically to deal with it that it it's about the fact that the other individual is uncomfortable not that my daughter isn't uncomfortable using a restroom with a biological male um

151it's the fact that that person needs to be comfortable we aren't looking at what everybody thinks and feels we're only looking at one select group a very small portion of our school and so when I asked the question of what bathroom are they supposed to use and it's supposed to be I guess the unisex bathroom for my daughter if she's not comfortable and got that that pattern wasn't even in working order which if you're going to use that as an option I would suggest it be working now those are up and functioning so that's great um however we only have what two one or two of them and they get five minutes in between classes at that to go to their lockers so when they want to go to that one single bathroom that is

152in use if they're late to their classes then five minutes late to their classes they then get marked as absent not tardy but absent and so now my daughters who are uncomfortable using the the main restroom which was intended for biological females is now holding it because they're not comfortable going to the bathrooms they're holding all day long till they get home and then they're in pain they're uncomfortable they're coming home finally using the restroom because they don't feel safe or comfortable to use the bathroom in the schools and that is absolutely unacceptable I don't I don't understand my husband doesn't understand I think numerous parents don't understand why this wasn't thought out differently in the front end we all agree that we want everyone to feel comfortable I want everybody to feel safe including

153children that identify as a different gender but it needs to be set up in a way and it should have been thought out differently to have maybe invested the money on the front end to do whatever needed to be done to ensure everybody was in a safe environment that they were in a private environment that they felt comfortable there was plenty of restroom spaces to do that and instead we rolled this out real quick and had just didn't even notify any parents it was just boys are in the bathroom now and so when girls are going to the bathroom and looking and seeing a boy stand using the restroom it is very uncomfortable feeling and I think that needs to be taken into account everybody should be comfortable including our biological females they should not

154be allowed to feel like they have to hold it all day long get bladder infections or urinary tract infections because I don't know if you have the funds to pay for all of our um bills for taking them to the doctors and you know as parents I think that you know we all want to be supportive of all of children we want everybody to get a great education we're tired of losing good teachers and principals and now the idea of having to share a restroom with a biological boy is it is intolerant for us to know to feel that my daughter has to be uncomfortable in that environment [Applause] foreign I'm a new parent to this District but I'm definitely no stranger to this format I don't know any of you I don't know any

155of the parents or teachers in this District I transferred my children here to your district from Port Huron schools because with multiple issues that we encountered there over the past few years I did my research I researched a ton of schools after we withdrew from Port Huron and we decided that this District seemed like the best fit for our family what does that mean we utilize School of Choice I drive my children to and from school every day from Port Huron not only School athletics I have soccer players cheerleaders wrestlers tracks They Run Track I have kids that Honor Society my kids are across the board in every activity you could ask them to be in I transferred five kids to your District because we felt it was safer here than at home imagine my

156surprise when one of my girls came home and told me about the problems in the bathrooms she is afraid to use the bathroom at school upon further discussion she disclosed to me that there is a male student using the women's bathroom that does not even close the stalled door all the time and makes her uncomfortable she will walk to the locker room to use the restroom because she is not comfortable using the traditional bathrooms in this building I know she's not the only student that is uncomfortable I've heard from several of her new friends tell us how it is okay to make an entire student body uncomfortable to make one student comfortable foreign [Applause] ER um I wanted to come up here today and stand in solidarity with some of the members that I see

157supporting the LGBT community I am gender non-performing and with the group in this room I ask that you open your ears and just listen to me with an open mind an open heart a few of the parents that have come up here have suggested creating a bathroom space that will make all students feel safe a lot of the parents that come up here tonight to me sounded like they were willing to compromise in this to create a safe space for people like me and a safe space for their children who don't want to be using the bathroom with someone who has different Anatomy than them I understand this is a really sensitive topic in schools when we're talking about kids right so I want to share my own story um I once worked for an

158employer and at that point in my transition I looked very masculine um my employer demanded that we use the bathrooms that were assigned by our biological sex so one day I was washing my hands and after I finished um and a CIS female who appeared to be a CIS female walked into the bathroom and saw me from behind I was just washing my hands and when I turned around the look in her eyes like she was so terrified to be in that space with me and I was hurt by that I was hurt that I had to be standing in her space when I wanted to be in the other room but I wasn't allowed to be and that she was hurt because she felt that I was in her space and the only thing

159that I wanted right in that moment was that with private space where I didn't have to worry about running into someone else and so I think there's a place where we can compromise here because if you if you Google the rates of a transgender person who is sexually assaulted or aggressively assaulted another person in the bathroom there are zero reported cases of that happening however transgender people are four times more likely to be assaulted in bathrooms and private spaces so myself when I choose to use the bathroom I want to be alone because I don't know who I'm going to end up in in that stall with in that bathroom way right I want a single stalled closed door with a lock and I'm here to advocate for the students of the Richmond Community Schools

160but they also have the opportunity to have a single stall closed door bathroom to use because it can be really uncomfortable for those trans students as well and that they have an ample amount of time between classes to get to whatever bathroom that is as allocated to be a single stall open gender bathroom thank you [Applause] hello my name is Donna Kolinski and I have three granddaughters in the Richmond School District I'm going to take a different avenue here off of the topic that's been discussed all evening I'd like to bring up the parking situation at the elementary school the reason I bring this up is because occasionally I do pick up my three grandchildren and parking and traffic over there is a big safety issue um again this gentleman over here says we have

161a problem we look for Solutions maybe the solution to this is to handle one way maybe a loop um you know take a look at your parking lot and the situation at hand in trying to try to find a solution to that um I don't know if any children have been injured in this there could be but this is why I'm bringing it to the table tonight okay thank you [Music] hello my name is I'm from the class of 2015. back when I was here at Richmond uh I was in the band the choir I was a co-captain of the cross country team co-captaining the distance track team NHS I'm the third generation of you know to come to Richmond schools and graduate from them and I'm the fifth generation to be in the general

162Richmond area so we have family in armida Memphis Irvine et cetera um and in 20 13 or so I started coming out as gay to some of my friends select friends and then about five years five to six years later I was able to fully officially come up uh and I wanted to just put all that out there today for two reasons uh first it's to say uh to prove that uh trains that transgender people that non-binary people that queer people are not some foreign group of people coming into infiltrated schools we invented it here for decades whether we were out in Richmond Community Schools or not you're here right now and we always will be uh and I also uh wanted to talk about my personal experience uh just to show that we were

163talking about human beings here not people who are less than human not non-existent threats people who are walking through our school right now and people who will be walking through our school in the future the decisions that we make around transgender students and one of the guests by the attitudes in the room potentially non-binary and queer students uh now and in the future are going to be felt by the teachers who have to see those students potentially struggle mentally emotionally maybe even physically from bullying uh through uh self-doubt uh we our students are going to have to see those students suffer they may become friends with those students before they come out and then have a similarly change the attitude toward them and do and then we as parents are going to have to have

164to like see those kids uh as they come out and as they graduate through a school system so this is all to say that these are real live people that we were talking about here and they're people who are never going to go away no matter what policy we make uh to borrow that from happening thank you [Applause] [Music] good evening my name is John pepper I'm a recent edition of the Richmond Community I have two children who go to school one in middle school one at the elementary school here my wife and I when we were getting reassigned out here fell in love with the Richmond area the city itself is beautiful the schools are very nice overall from what we could see from the outside looking in uh over the last week my

165wife brought it to my attention that there were some parents coming together to express their concerns it's issues that I had heard about and I am not one to individually speak on however when it comes to the transgender populace here in Richmond as we do look towards crafting Solutions and I do not envy the position any of you on the school board are in right now I ask that we please consider the needs of these individual transgender students uh my sister came out as trans a couple of years ago and it was very hard for her because even though we grew up in a fairly Progressive area up in New England I couldn't tell by the Hat um she she endured a lot of hateful comments death threats um it was very painful for me

166as a brother to watch her go through this and I wouldn't wish that on anybody else um because as much there are people who say that um it's not about hate um it is I ask that we look towards educating our our children and ourselves um so that we can better support other individuals our fellow human beings um simply because as the previous speaker alluded to they're not going to go away they've been members of our community they're going to continue being members of our community and we need to support them just we need to support our own children thank you [Applause] hi everybody my name is Haley cortuna I'm a proud alumni of Richmond Community Schools I attended your K-12 graduated in 2018 and it wasn't long ago that I was student rep on

167this school board so it's nice to see you all again unfortunately I wish it was under better circumstances I have heard a lot of hate and disrespect spewed this evening hate is what it is so hate is what I'm gonna call it and I believe it's derived from lack of education and a fear of what is not understood so I'm going to start with this because this is what's most important if you're an lgbtq Plus student here at Richmond Community Schools I need you to know that I'm a resident here an alumni here and a voter here and I support you I love you I see you and I hear you and you deserve to be respected and you deserve to be safe so since that's you know the most important part to me but

168since some people in our community seem to be confused I will share some of this information um I'm a law student currently at Wayne State so Granby blob tester County School Board I encourage everyone to go home and read this opinion yourself the fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that's a Federal Court ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm a transgender man who sued his Virginia High School for barring him from using the boys restroom the U.S Circuit Judge Henry Floyd wrote in his majority opinion quote at the heart of this appeal is whether the equal protection and Title IX can protect transgender students from school bathroom policies that prohibit them from affirming their gender We join a growing consensus of Courts including that the answer is resoundingly yes additionally it's transgender students who are statistically unsafe

169in public bathrooms a Harvard study found that 36 percent of transgender or gender non-binary students with restricted bathroom or locker room access reported being sexually assaulted I encourage the school board to protect and support transgender students and all students of the members of all students who are members of the lgbtq plus Community all students in general and I encourage everyone here tonight to think about how your words may impact others in your community because whether you like it or not we're a part of this community too and finally I encourage everyone myself included to go home and continue to educate yourself on how to be a better Community member and how to better support people that are part of the lgbtq plus Community as well as anyone else who doesn't look like you think like

170you or fall into this heteronormative cisgender narrative that you would like to pay thank you [Applause] [Music] good evening my name is Stephanie Lang and I'm a social worker I'm in Macomb County I am a sex education trainer and consultant with the Macomb County Intermediate School District I am also a clinical administrator at MaComb County Community Mental Health and I have been at Dakota high school as a social worker for 24 years with my main job there being a 31a which by the way we have to talk about 31 and money because you can get a therapist to come in and see some of those kids and help your counselor but um to work with at-risk youth in the public schools for 24 years and in the last 10 years I would say most of

171my efforts have been spent trying to keep lgbtq students alive because some of them would rather die than here are some of the things that people say about them trying to live a normal high school life especially in Macomb County it's a little bit rough here for some of them and and I want to say thank you so much to the school board I also do not envy you for your difficult job here of trying to work through some potential Growing Pains here for folks who aren't sure what to make of some of these new things that are being brought to their attention there's a lot of emotion in this room tonight and there's a lot of really complex issues facing your community and for that I am sorry but I do applaud you sticking

172up for these students and helping them and working together with whatever solution you're going to come to uh because it does protect kids it saves lives in the long run prevents suicide and it also prevents drug use so I just want to say keep working keep talking the ISD has supports for you if you need it and um kids you know we're counting they're watching us and the lgbtq people in your community are watching you and all the other adults to see if they're going to be welcome here or not and I hope the answer is yes we'll figure it out all together so thank you so much for your hard work [Applause] right here I know but if it's the youngest time it's a lot no it's not you learned about nothing when you

173were up here you cannot come back up you can have mic guys yeah a lot you got to say he's following our open meetings we are required under the open meetings act We are following those guidelines [Music] foreign good evening my name is Katie McFarland I have two kids that attend choice schools but I'm here tonight to support all the concerned parents in Richmond District I'm very concerned about the policy that the Richmond School Board has implemented allowing boys who identify as girls to use the girls bathroom this violates the dignity privacy and safety of all the girls in the Richmond schools who have every right to feel uncomfortable and the same applies if a girl was trying to use the boy's bathroom as our boys need that dignity and safety as well parents also

174need to trust that their children will not be put In Harm's Way I understand that there was an incident where a boy who identifies as a girl harassed the daughter of a parent in the district I truly hope that somebody is also getting disappointed the help he needs as the most abusive thing that any adult can do is affirm a child who says that they believe that they are in the wrong body how can we do that to those children either when a child approaches a parent and says Mom Dad I want to be a girl or I want to be a boy the very first question that that parent should ask is where where are you getting this information you should be happy and proud of the way that God created you where gender

175dysphoria is a real thing it is a mental illness it is a small percentage of the population more and more children today are starting to identify as transgender why why because they're going on social media like tick tock they're trying to find a community there they're getting gender pronoun surveys thrown at them sexualized content in schools I've seen this at Troy schools my son the second day of school had gender pronoun surveys thrown at him stop confusing and harming these kids children's brains are not fully developed until about 25 even at 25 we're still a little bit wet behind the ears I know how I was at 25. stop harming kids stop the abuse of children this is harmful I do I had plenty of gay friends growing up I believe in anti-bullying this has

176nothing to do with going against the lgbtq community this has everything to do with stopping the abuse of all kids our girls need to feel safe our boys need to feel safe and if a kid is feeling confused there is obviously a reason for that and that kid needs help the worst pinkies adults can do and these gender transition surgeries are you kidding me all these hospitals that are performing gender transition surgeries on minors these people should be locked up for having kids and I am done with it this has to stop now thank you [Applause] yeah did they steal it [Music] figured I'd come up here and give another different approach um last week two weeks ago when I attended this meeting this Me Shine at the very end of it after a few

177parents spoke on the issue you told the small group that was here to correct me the number 5106 student policy number yes that was the most transparent that this board ever was in that issue on I believe it was November the 5th and then the following Tuesday November the 22nd it was voted on and passed by this board Ms Sutton Miss Toto Miss Dube Miss Miss mishan voted and passed that and it was the term transgender was never even stated in that board meeting I would love to know how that's possible because we wanted this board has works for us this community and to not be transparent on an issue as that as you can tell with the room full behind is a hot button issue it's not rocket science it is you were born

178a man you use a man's bathroom you were born a woman you use a female's bathroom I do not wish any real will on any student however young or old we want them to feel comfortable everyone can I believe taxpayer dollars are used to create two unisex bathrooms in this High School to make such individuals comfortable to not use it for activist groups to come into the community and preach that we are bad people everyone here is looking out for the better best for their child in the school district my wife and I pulled our children from this district with an opportunity to homeschool and it saddens me to see us this room this fall over an issue such as stupid as this you were born a man you used them in the bathroom you

179were born a woman you use the woman's bathroom end of discussion I'm sorry I'm sorry [Applause] about the gym I'm Cali you're on the way here please please okay so first of all I'm going to start by saying we are not hateful I don't know where this keeps coming from we are not hateful we are not bigots we are not homophobes or Foams of any type of thing or whatever I want every single student to be comfortable coming to school comfortable going to their classrooms comfortable doing whatever they have to do in the bathrooms and that's all I say about that so I decided on my own um to put a parent survey together I wasn't really sure how it was going to go over I had 68 parents actually reach out to me and

180request the survey for their high school students specifically high school students only as of 5 pm today I had 72 surveys returned and this only went out on Friday um I'm gonna just give a real quick overview of what the survey was um the first question was it asked if they were aware of the situation that occurred 97 of the students said they were I asked if they were personally if they had been personally affected by it 29 of the students that responded again 72 students responded 29 said that they were personally affected by this so then I asked how would you feel or how you how have you felt if a student of the opposite birth gender was in your bathroom 71 said they would feel uncomfortable 17 said they would feel unsafe less

181than one percent said they were unsure and less than one percent said there was no problems my fourth question was do you think the school board should allow students of opposite birth genders to use any bathroom they wish um 10 said yes they believe that students can use whichever bathroom with which they identify 82 percent said no less than one percent said unsure less than one percent said they don't care [Music] um and then I further that question with what about the locker room um I think I gave a little bit of different answers here 89 answered to my not cool um less than one percent said I'm sure one percent said don't care um just for statistics statistical purposes only I asked them what their gender was 64 of the students that took the

182survey were female and then at the very end I asked if they had any personal um encounters or spots that they wanted to share so I'm going to go ahead and and share some of these thoughts with you I did this through SurveyMonkey um it was completely Anonymous I have no idea who sent these these things to me um I am a female who has a period I feel very uncomfortable and violated way I'm in a stall putting a tampon in while I can see this transformed girl through the cracks of the stuff standing in front of me remember these are students these aren't adults with you know adult language and skills I'm just reading what they sent me the second one I have a friend who was in the girls bathroom while the trans

183student or a trans student was in there and the exact test I got from her was help he's in here I as a friend am not comfortable with the guy making my friends so uncomfortable that she texted me asking for help the unisex bathroom should be for kids that don't identify with their birth gender the next one don't like this at all each student born gender each student's born gender should be the restroom they use I feel a transgender should use the unisex bathroom because I don't feel safe I have them use the unisex bathroom so no one is feeling uncomfortable um this person says concerned about the risk of exposure and possibility of getting in trouble for an accusation that did not occur as as have incurred in other schools so this would actually

184be the flip side of it a female in the boys bathroom um another student said you can only go into the bathroom as what private parts you have then a single bathroom should be assigned for students who are transgender which we have in unisex um this is very disturbing oh this was obviously a parent who did this um it was supposed to be for students not every parent can follow directions this is a very this is very disturbing as a parent I'm so uncomfortable to sending my daughter to school if they allow this to a park one student just commented clean Four Corners I don't know what that means I'm not in school um I was in the bathroom and a guy was in the hallway claiming he was gay and he also wanted to

185go into the girl's bathroom they should have a separate bathroom for these students so they are safe and other and also other students in the main bathroom feel comfortable uh it needs to stop not okay it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable when he looks at me in the girl's bathroom a single bathroom should be assigned for students who are transgender bathrooms are designed for anatomy they gave the words I'm not going to their children in here um use the bathroom for the body part you have not the bar not the part you want um my daughter said it's not obviously another parent my daughter said it's not an issue the unisex bathrooms are always full of kids vaping so there's another issue we can talk about in another board okay thank you one more time

186Kelly no I'm really good thank you [Applause] [Music] same bus I've been here multiple times I just want to call out the reporter Nicole Tuttle who like leaving her um article about me in the voice uh you know I was everything but a normal parent um so I will correct her so that she can record today and go ahead and write about me for tomorrow that'll be great I'd love a great publication so I have a son that goes to school here for correction I'm worried about my son I am part of the lgbtq community I have a daughter over there who is a lesbian proud right not a bigot um not a homophobe uh my fear is literally creating more sexual assault victims my fear is you guys not protecting these children if a

187teacher knows and was in the care plan that Mr wansley had talked about a medical so maybe you don't call it a care plan that's what I call it so teacher a is in there knows about the care plan knows about said boy transitioning into a female goes into a female bathroom but teacher B wasn't in there and teacher BC is a house teacher be supposed to know so now we have a teacher that has no idea that this kid's supposed to use the bathroom but scared to say anything because oh my God it's against the law which is not case law is not law so how are you going to distinguish which kids can use that bathroom on your care plan on your case how does all of the teachers know this and again

188case law is not the federal law you guys it's time that the parents stand up thank you [Applause] okay my name is Ethan Michelle Fox Phillips from Metropolitan Community Church of Detroit I am a person of faith I've heard a lot tonight one thing I will debunk someone mentioned in Virginia than a boy identifying is being trans rate the girl in the Washington Blade the mother of the accused says no her son is straight so this is a false narrative I also want to bring up the fact is gender dysphoria has been ruled by a judge as being part of the Ada to American Disabilities Act so this would apply to the school board and to the school I also agree you know if you're gonna use single stall bathrooms make more than one available

189and make it for all all students not just the trans because if you just make it for Trans you're outing that student and that is not right and you're putting that student in danger something else let me bring this up 52 percent this is Miracle in Forbes last year in 2021. 52 of all trans and non-binary young people in the United States seriously contemplating suicide this is unacceptable gender most people know what their gender is not by Tick Tock or Not by YouTube They Know by the age of three or four on how they identify they may not be able to express it at that age but when they get 10 11 12 and you're entering puberty that's when they were probably identify as being trans myself I knew at three something wasn't right but

190when I was 11 or 12 I started to identify as being a female so gender is not defined by sexual organs there are many different genders other than the binary of male and female you have individuals that are intersexed what about them what about the students that present as you fit as male but then go into the woman's bathroom and then they get harassed even though they are cisgendered female so you got to look at all aspects of gender not just a male binary um just the binary of male and female there is more than one gender and you have to respect and you have to care about each and every student that goes to your schools whether it be junior high Elementary or high school thank you [Applause] I just basically said foreign and

191I am a parent in this district and we are obviously not here tonight to debate public mental health or what is right in the eyes of God um after all we are talking about our public school system and he was taken out of this equation a long time ago but I am here to talk about rights and to advocate for the rights of the hundreds of biological females in our district who also deserve a voice and a safe space to take care of their most fundamental needs being a biological and identifying female myself I want to remind you why our bathrooms were separated in the first place from the physiological standpoint potential safety issues aside there are things that go on in a girl's bathroom that a biological male will never understand regardless of any

192hormone replacement or surgery performed the part of the menstrual cycle in which blood comprising uterine lining wheeze the body cannot be experienced by people who do not have ovaries in the uterus and I am confident that every biological female in this room has at some point in her life found herself in an embarrassing situation where the first thought on that girl's mind was inevitably focused toward a safe and private space to go clean up and that space has always been the girls bathroom so I want to know what Richmond schools is going to do to ensure a safe space for that young woman to also feel safe and comfortable and it seems in all of this there's only one way to ensure equality and fairness for all of our students and unfortunately that means taking

193taxpayer money from our people and programs which we obviously need to build equal gender neutral private personal stalls and lack of room changing areas so I'm asking you the board to please make it a budget priority to transform all male and female bathrooms into safe unisex restrooms with single user cubicles containing all the necessary safety features and fixtures for private grooming as well as communal wash basins that will need to be an open and highly visible spaces that can be easily monitored to ensure a safe and comfortable environment for all of our students that said in the meantime it sounds like it would be in the best interest of the board and of our students to passively hire some full-time bathroom attendants to ensure a safe environment while we wait for the situation to be

194rectified I want to stay for the young people who are caught in the middle of this while I am not for a biological male sharing the restroom with my daughter I am for you and I believe that there is a God and he is for you too and he designed you perfect as you are and for a purpose and I am praying you receive this message deep in your soul and that if you need a truly safe space know that this mama is here for you thank you foreign [Applause] but I wanted to know there's a parent in the school district who is very grateful that you passed the trans policy I have two three kids that graduated from Richmond I have a senior at the high school my two oldest children are part of

195the queer Community my daughter is dating a non-binary trans person and I just know how hard it is for people to come out for people to be who they are and people say it's Outsiders coming in I'm going to reiterate what my son said because that was in the sun I'm very proud of him and he's an awesome young man as an all my kids are um that I graduated from here my sisters my mom my my grandpa was on the school board my dad went to Saint A's until senior year when they closed the high school and then went to Armada so this is not Outsiders coming in these are real people who are dealing with real things and this really really sad that there's not more parents up here standing up for these

196kids and I want them all to know that my house has a big rainbow flag and my husband and I coach Brockett we are there for you if you need anybody and I know I just want to say thank you thank you for doing it and I hope you did it for the right reason not because you had to because you truly care about these kids that's all I have to say thank you [Applause] foreign I still haven't moved here my car just keeps coming this way I appreciate what you all are going through um I I you know I just appreciate you um this time that can we get your name please I apologize Cynthia Thornton thank you um I don't probably feel surprised when people by saying I have great empathy for these

197parents so I'm going to speak to the parents through the board if that's okay I think many of you forget what school is for school is to prepare students for the world if they're going to stay in a community that wants to be monolithic that does not invite diversity that chooses not to understand um that simply is dug in okay I don't know that that's the reputation Richmond wants but okay the reality is that your children are going to go out into the broader world and in that world there'll be people like me of A different race of an entirely different background who happens to be LGBT but here's what we all have in common all of us we all have a gender identity but when your gender identity conforms to what Society has taught

198you you have absolutely no reason to think about it it simply is and you expect everybody else to be the same because nobody has told you that there can be a difference and that in that difference it is still a human being that we're talking about I can tell you as someone who has lived the experience people don't wake up one day and say I think I do I don't hate me today I want people to talk about me bad I want my life to be threatened well why don't I try that I got nothing else to do why am I try that identifying Who You Are when you don't see yourself to say it's one of the hardest experiences in the world doesn't even begin when I was growing up trance was not even

199a thing it wasn't the transgender people didn't exist it just wasn't part of the Lexicon conversation he had a whole bunch of other words inappropriate and derogatory and by the way it is so incredibly disrespectful and hurtful so for all the parents who have talked of love and inclusion and all these other things when you intentionally misgender somebody that is my love that is not diversity that is not inclusion so when you ask why people are using words like hate and bigot that's kind of why if somebody tells you who they are it's not let's vote on that and see if we agree somebody is sharing with you their truth and it's up to you to respect that if you choose not to then the adjectives that are being attributed to you are probably proper

200ask you nothing and remember we're talking about children not infants but young people it costs you nothing to respect their Humanity so sorry thank you very much for your time Peace Love [Applause] thank you foreign Community I have a letter here on behalf of Mrs Manny so I am using my three minutes fourth to read this I have known Keith Bartels for over 15 years this is a man that gave himself to the students his staff and the district he bled blue as they like to say Keith brings his children to watch his former students my son Gino mini play hockey for the Port Huron Powers Keith is a wonderful administrator educator friend and human the actions taken by Mr Walmsley against Keith Urban Mr Wamsley your attempts to cover up your core Behavior by

201sending a preemptive letter to parents who's laughable Mr Bartels would never have voluntarily left this district there is a reason for his resignation and hopefully that will be revealed shortly lastly High turnover impedes student performance and diverts resources away from efforts to improve schools it places large numbers of inexperienced less effective teachers in classrooms resulting in increased recruiting hiring and training budgets this Board needs to take action and stop the bleed I suggest you allocate some of the money you allocated earlier to buy Mr Walmsley out of his contract and stabilize this stabilize this district for the betterment of our students um I actually um Richmond Community Schools has a policy a handbook in the and you guys are big on policy I've seen policy 5207 is bullying I think I've seen enough and heard

202enough tonight to know there's a lot of bullying that's going on around here not just for Mr wampsley possibly from other board members Miss Michonne as president of the school board could you please look into the policy of bullying and take it upon your own people what you would do for students in this District bullying is not accepted period I don't understand help me understand why it's being allowed here so have a good evening [Applause] hi my name is Sheila and I am not from Richmond I'm actually from Southern Macomb I homeschool my son and I'm not going to reiterate a lot of what was talked about what I am going to talk about is how the parents keep getting ignored by the school boards in this state guys cannot make decisions without including the

203parents especially about something as difficult as sexuality having a boy that has a penis walked into a woman's restroom is a recipe for disaster that doesn't mean I'm a bigot it doesn't mean I'm hateful it means I was raped by a man okay so I have experienced behind this I would never want my child no matter what no matter how they identified to be uncomfortable I think you've heard from many of the people here that you need to start having a dialogue with the parents the academics that we've seen in the slide show us your district is not doing well and I wonder why you haven't taken it upon yourself because you as a board to hire the superintendent while you haven't brought up a resolution to fire your superintendent [Music] for you and I

204suggest that you really look at it because the elections are coming up and they have consequences there's people that are going to be voting based on what they've seen tonight and I can tell you the board's going to change the word means I just want to make sure that I have everything that I have in here [Music] foreign is you need to be talking to the parents you need to open the dialogue with them about this transgender bathroom and any other future topic that's going to involve sexuality this is not a topic that just needs to be voted on underneath the guise of coven it needs to be talked about sent home letters topics discussions meetings even if you have to form committees to talk about what needs to happen you heard a lot of

205great suggestions here tonight from everyone from the transgender side and from the parents that are concerned take those back with you to your meetings that you have and really start to think about what you need to do for the parents of this District to bring them back into the district because if you don't you're not going to have a district thank you [Applause] any better presidents and board members I'm Jeff Garrick I'm the state representative that covers the 33rd house district which includes much of the Richmond Community Schools you know I I just a few tidbits I like to stop into the school board meetings from time to time I will tell you that uh you know but in a number of the comments that were made uh there's some things that may be more

206uncomfortable because 17 years on the city council and six years in the legislature I've always encouraged people to debate the issue and not the person and I give city council a lot of credit that while I was on there and under with mayor Riggs and the rest of the council members have always followed that view I would say that this idea that we are attacking people because say that just because they have a different idea than you and say well they must hate me I heard very respectful discussions of I'm a girl dad apparently that's the title of that my two little girls at home apparently that's my title girl dad very proud of you girl Dan um and I heard a number of parents and girls share their you know their feelings about that

207I didn't hear any comments of hate and it's disturbing to me that I think that it really is as a state representative I am involved in many dialogue from the left view to the right View so I encourage people to move away from this well if you don't agree with me you must hate me people shared their honest feelings about what their daughters feel and as a man who's been married for 12 years I recognize that I don't understand everything my wife feels nor will I ever and we should respect that and I don't make fun of my wife man I'm saying that I will never understand what a woman goes through respect the fact that I will never understand and be under and be understanding of my not understanding uh so I want to

208bring that back one little tidbit is that a condom was made about the fourth circuit I am an attorney so I will share with you that the Ford we are now in the fourth circuit we are in the sixth circuit and fourth circuit decisions are binding on the sixth and that they're only persuasive so if you're going to wield the sword of the fourth keep in mind we don't live in the fourth um [Applause] she was brought and I know there's other case laws available so I just wanted to share with you if you're going to cite the fourth keep in mind stop binding uh we're talking the issue was brought to me an argument that there was not equal funding uh during my entire time as a State Rep I've advocated for additional school

209funding I am the Holton School father I get zero for people funding um my wife and our negotiations right now for a raise I'm offering a love increase um we'll see how that negotiation goes but I will say that every year of that day I'm still advocated for additional per pupil funding and when I look down this list are made of Lance Crews Chippewa New Haven all of them got nine thousand one hundred fifty dollars all of them there is equal funding at least from A legislature now some things vary at risk and so forth and that very depends on your population but we have done that additionally we have put 500 million for infrastructure you've already heard some of the grants that your superintendents brought up 933 900 193 million for school safety 52

210million for lost learning 1.4 billion to pay down teachers the pension debt because you know when the schools get their people funding me and then have to pay back the pension but by us putting more money into the pension from the general fund that actually will ultimately reduce your obligation to pay into the pension system which opens freeze on money for school kids so I wanted to share with you additionally want to share that some people brought up the covet dollars uh Detroit got uh twenty four thousand dollars per pupil the city of Rich by Richmond Community Schools got 2 000 Powers per pupil that was not a Michigan legislature decision if you're disappointed or frustrated why a child in Detroit is 24 000 and a child in Richmond gets two thousand I encourage you

211to reach out to your federal legislators and ask why it's not equal but as far as mission legislature we have provided that equality I'm sorry your time thank you very much for your time I appreciate it how many minutes actually just another minute the one thing I did want to wrap up with uh thank you very much for sharing yeah uh is that uh I appreciate that the superintendent came to a parent's meeting with discussing these issues and I was I stopped in to listen to the concerns the superintendent brought up various thoughts of how we can resolve this regarding the bathrooms there is modern day patients that could maybe tonight was discussed because you had budgeted on the people funding which ended up being a lot more because the legislature came through for a

212much larger political funding than the initial but you didn't budget not you do have additional funds I've listed you know we see all the grant funding the petromoney uh so I would say that I believe that we have made those money now this money is not specific to change creating bathroom issues but I would say that yes you ever did received additional funds and as you were discussing various priorities is that I believe in local control but at least from a lot of the comments I've heard from my constituents I think they would like some of these uh adaptive changing the bathrooms in some way that it accommodates everyone's feelings um equally so just wanted to raise our support to know since the Monday question did come up during that committee that during that meeting

213of parents that there is additional funds that have flown to the district and the district again today was discussing what they were going to do with them so I think maybe this may be a priority that should be consider thank you very much I'd like to thank Mr Rose for coming tonight again [Applause] Madam president thank you for giving everybody the extra time a lot of people went over three minutes and we really appreciate that you didn't cut people up this board has a lot of decisions to make you can tell this is a pretty heated discussion but I do want to say first and foremost there's no hater there's no hate we don't hate any kids we want all these kids to feel safe in their own skin to feel safe in whatever they

214identify as that's fine it's not comfortable as a student to be scared to use a restroom on either side so I just asked the board this is not going to be fixed this week we understand this I asked the board if they would consider putting attendance in the restrooms that would at least make all the kids feel a little better and that's it it's very simple maybe it's not so simple to me it sounds simple I'm sure there's budget issues there's things that have to happen I understand that but at least that would give the kids and the parents something to go on and feel a little bit better about using a restaurant thank you [Applause] hello Sarah my voice is going to shake my teacher voices gone I do have my name is Ashley

215Mayo I have a girl and I have a preschooler oh sorry a kindergartner and I just got a job as a birthday last year and it saddens me to see that none of us teachers can come up here to speak because we're scared um I was welcomed into this community a lot of amazing people and what I am hearing is that those teachers are out there looking for other jobs I I came to a wonderful community and I don't want to watch Chrome play I don't know exactly what needs to be done but it needs to be something taking over being more than an acting principal and we all appreciate it just hope we kind of resolution [Applause] information good evening my name is Amy Rhodey I'm a business agent with Teamsters Local 214. I

216represent three of your labor units in this District but the one I'm here to speak to and represent tonight are your principles I also want to share with you that for 30 years I worked in public administration and for eight years I served on a school board and I completely feel the pain and the agony that you're going through you have some serious issues in front of you and I sincerely appreciate the work you're doing here tonight but I'm here to talk about Keith Bartels and I waited until the end because I wanted to bring it back and I didn't want you to lose focus on the commitment that that man made to your school district for 24 years you've heard the comments made tonight and I'm not going to reiterate them but I am

217going to add the rest of the story because you may have forgotten or you may not know why Keith had to leave this District in 2019 nine administrators filed a harassment claim against your superintendent oh six of those nine administrators no longer work here they no longer work here because they can't they left the district Heath is one of those six you have three remaining administrators here how are you going to protect them from losing their jobs or being aligned and their reputation incriminated by a superintendent who doesn't have the confidence in himself to do the right thing there is absolutely no excuse for this to continue on and on you have a job to do yeah I am on Lee hey excuse me we are not doing that here we've asked everybody to be

218considerate of everybody please good evening um for those that don't know me uh my name is Richard good uh I have two children in the school district a 10th grader and a seventh grader this is also my 10th year as a substitute teacher strictly in the Richmond School District my third year as the coving building substitute assigned to the elementary school uh I'm gonna reiterate a few things that have already been talked about but I have a lack of questions at the last board meeting it was stated that a new science teacher would be starting at the high school last Tuesday um I'm wondering if that actually occurred because my daughter who's a sophomore still doesn't have a science teacher um I'm grateful to the substitute that's in there right now that came forward however

219it's my understanding that she's certified in social studies and it's a chemistry request there's been discussion in that classroom about her being somewhat Limited in what she can do and when it comes to Labs because of not having a certification but again it's chemistry so it should be a lot of flaps it was also stated the last board meeting that Mr wamsu was not ready to move teachers from one position to another based on their certifications just to fill openings as he wanted to leave them where they were most passionate and most successful that same week we got the message about two secretaries being swapped out of the schools and there were new postings for both an English teacher at the high school and a physical education teacher at the high school and now all

220of a sudden my middle schooler has a substitute in 7th and eighth grade physical education that was previously taught by coach misco with no notification from the school of the switch I happen to notice when I went into PowerSchool to schedule conferences sticking with the topic of teacher shortages is a district still conducting exit interviews I know this was asked earlier uh and by accident interviews not a survey via email maybe a phone call or a face-to-face and is the board aware of reasons for the employees deciding to leave the district if several employees list the same reasons for leaving whether it be pay student behaviors Administration Etc how are the problems being addressed to avoid more staff turnover in the future when a long-term employee just up and quits with no notice like at

221the elementary school last week I can't help but wonder why finally in the past when there's been administrative turnover stakeholders like myself were invited to be part of the finer interview final interview again after the poll without the disaster I was invited to and Zach on the panel when David Van goghing was hired is this still being done and if not why not if it is being done have there been persons included as part of the process outside of the administrative team and or teachers thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Steven Stevens Solutions have been asked I think I heard that the board is receiving a parking spot or a parking area if that's true those funds could be reallocated to bathrooms freeing up space for children to be in spaces where they

222are comfortable where they could be in spaces where they felt they were safe that's what this is about educators are here to keep students safe we as parents can trust our children to you to keep our students safe if I did not hear correctly about a board parking area forgive me but I think I heard that you asked about is there going to be plenty of handicap that's important but we also need bathrooms we need bathrooms that are secure for individuals to use those facilities and not feel threatened because the opposite sex is standing beside them or kneeling beside them women you need to feel comfortable men you need to be comfortable thank you [Applause] are there any other public comments no other public comments we've been bond with our agenda our next item on

223our agenda is superintendent and legislative update [Music] all right I'll start with the legislative update there were uh final bills that were approved by the legislator on Wednesday of September 28th uh the legislative passed Senate Bill 844 which basically was a billion dollar general fund supplemental budget the largest portion was 850 million which is delegated to strategic Outreach and attraction Reserve fund with brain Economic Development to the state this was signed into law in October 4th with that bill that went to the governor's office was Senate Bill 8842 since this bill included 12 million dollars for our literacy Turing program and 200 000 for robotics competition it also establishes the post-secondary scholarship fund with 250 million dollars to begin funding the Michigan achievement scholarship um it was presented to the governor on October 5th posted

224a constitutional tax pass in both Chambers on Wednesday the senate pass House Bill 5703 which would require certain sections of the Constitution and school code pertaining to parental rights in administration's boardrooms and offices of public schools in debate the Senate uh in the Senate bill the bill was expanded to include policy and distribution to staff admissions Department of Education in the State Board of Education it passed the bill assigned by the government going to affect January 1st it's on the government for consideration the legislator is not expecting to back a session until mid October but more than likely may not be back until November it depends on what comes up at the county level of the September 10th board meeting the board I provided the Board of Education listening audience um information regarding Macomb Intermediate

225School District will be asking voters in Macomb County with a special education bond proposal just a reminder the purpose of this special ed Bond control is to construct renovate and update facilities for Macomb County Special Education students go to receive specialized Support Services over the years many Richmond students have attended these programs for all or part of their day so our special needs population would directly benefit the passenger response for more information there I encourage everybody to go to the district website where a link has been added to go right to the misd's page where you can read more about this fund at the last board meeting on September 26th Jeff White chief of the Rich and Lennox EMS counselor presented information on the smart military renewal that will also appear on the November ballot

226uh it's very important that the uh the voters receive more information about this so they know exactly what they are of the reports District updates uh this week Fair Adventure conference will begin on Wednesday October 12th from 12 to 3 and from five to eight and then Thursday October 13th from 12th Juliet again from five to eight parents again will have the option of doing in-person or virtual conferences through Microsoft teams uh information at Willow Lee Elementary School is provided by Mrs mangooney their world's finest chocolate fundraisers in full swing uh the funds who are in support many of the initiatives that impact the students at the elementary school as you walk around Lee Elementary School teachers are focusing on displaying student artwork particularly senior conferences and they will be attaching the standards that they've

227been working on with the students on that artwork uh trees played a great time through their trip was a great time on the field I think the Western Orchards um and the weather was great which is a plus uh from the Middle School Mr birchmeier reports uh blue and white days are on Fridays fourth and fifth grade teachers spend time with his Staples reviewing the critical math standards as we talked about some of the presentations today the bill is ready for conferences in our staff excited for parents to be attending conferences book fair supplies to the arrived so they'll be set setting up from the book fair and they have also completed their NWA testing Mrs Abel at the high school reports that this Wednesday the PSAT and the nmsqt is the answer for the

228national marriage Scholarship qualifying test will be administrators for administering for all 11th graders this coming Wednesday adjusted presentation to the class of 23 regarding casting gowns and the class of 2025 class rings with his upcoming or was last week they'll be returning on the seventh which is last Friday to collect in-person orders and we'll continue to accept orders online uh CT teachers met last Wednesday to establish procedures and prayers are procedures for the upcoming year teachers brainstorms that are in the planning stage that a lot of great Hands-On and engaging activities that will help grow the CTE program teacher Cadet students were trained and certified in CPR this week they also received Vector training in the areas of FERPA and bloodborne passages as they complete their first unit on safety 20 students participate in McCombs

229manufacturing day last week at l l products in Romeo students visited six stations in the manufacturing plant and we're uh it was extremely engaging for them through their experience grade 11 this is Jake's students took a walking field trip to the library where they registered they made sure they got library cards from literacy picture retake is tomorrow in the media center at the high school for any students how do you do retake your pictures tomorrow October 11th the Richard High School Market band will be performing at the msboa marching festivals in East China Stadium beginning at 7 15. tickets are three dollars three dollars for students we wish the students and Mrs Shack wants to walk as they compete firm congratulations to coach Kelly Mathis who will be inducted into coach chair coaches association of

230Michigan of the CCC am coaches Hall of Fame on October 29th at 5 pm at the Crowne Plaza in East Lansing coach Kelly's dedication of student athletes the program in Richmond schools and this honor is well deserved so congratulations to coach Mathis um I talked with a board member Cunningham regarding some questions regarding PowerSchool so I just want to clarify uh to the board with the city audience a PowerSchool is a student data information system that's utilized by the district and all the Macomb County Schools thousands of districts across the United States use powerschools and the questions regarding was who has access to that student data so part of it I want to help understand we chose PowerSchool many many years ago as part of the district our county-wide Consortium in which all 21 districts

231chose to operate and how is their student information such as demographics grades attendance Etc um the benefits of doing a Consortium is the price savings of the district rather than buying it individually 21 districts are seeking it we have a lot more if you will buy and power because you're providing a service for 166 67 000 students in the county they also provide I.T support and professional development for those that are using the PowerSchool the ISD has a county-wide many years ago installed their own county-wide fiber optic system that links all 21 districts together has many filter systems at the accounting level as well as our own end and multiple firewalls the Personnel that have access to this information and student information it starting with the district is only Personnel that is pertinent to their

232position in the district or the MISD the MISD has access to Richmond's PowerSchool data under the following reason one troubleshoot system errors with our district Personnel to provide professional development for Richmond staff on using PowerSchool it sends mailings such as the International Academy of calm IAM information at current 8th graders or the Early College of Macomb information to 10th graders but in order for them to access our student data and superintendo has to Grant permission to the ISD to be able to pull that information on behalf of the district uh another reason the ISD has access would be for pubal accounting audience audits excuse me um although snapshots of documents and reports are often taken and submitted to the audit audit reviewers the data that's stored in PowerSchool is that centers the state to comply

233with the audits is downloaded from PowerSchool and then uploaded to the state's secure website so the state doesn't have um with PowerSchool a direct connection the vendor that produces PowerSchool would only have access to student data if a session was set up that allowed them to see our student data which we agreed to it bomgaar is a remote solution that allows the technician to remotely log into computer again that's only used if we allow them to so in in essence the the PowerSchool data is very secure we're not allowing third-party vendors to use and access our student information finally I asked this is Staples to talk about some of the upcoming or the things that have happened in the instructional Department uh this past week or so so I'm like obviously I'm very nerdy instruction

234um but last week we began our half day professional development with our fifth grade fourth grade third grade second grade teams and a lot of them are there so thank you guys for all the great discourse and wonderful work we're unwrapping our standards we're identifying our critical standards because we know not all standards are you know treated equally having those wonderful conversations and just trying to improve our math Improvement our math scores and it's just really exciting stuff and it was one or two of the best days I've had in this District it was just so wonderful so thank you guys anything we'd like to um well all right moving forward after tonight I would like to meet here with some sort of a plan and how we are going to communicate and discuss all

235that happened whether we need to create sorry some form of a Workshop um our sort obviously we have multiple things going on so we would have to separate the two or three um but I do think that just letting the next two weeks go until we come back here is not it should not be an option I know we had already talked about having a um having some sort of a workshop in regards to the restroom issue after um he had that meeting on Tuesday was that just with the board or well it's open to the public no matter correct it has to be open right and to make time we meet with seven yeah um to discuss for sure that topic um and I would prefer sooner than later what is the time frame

236that we have to give the public if we set that up foreign [Applause] I'm not sure if everybody knows but we're technically not allowed to meet all together to discuss anything unless it is considered an open meeting so these types of things have we have to create a situation uh we have to create a meeting yeah like a real Workshop which would include everybody if they wanted to come to the public as well yes so you just put that out of an email mail we put it out on our website it's on our doors it's posted but there's not a certain amount of time yeah minimum to 24 hours a quick question I'm sorry if you just come see me after we're talking to it for you I think it pertains to everybody it's really

237quick and just wouldn't when there's questions asked if you do not answer questions back and forth we're trying not to I know how do we get answers to what we've asked is what I'm asking what will happen is at the next board meeting go out prior to that if it's something addressed to the board I will answer it if it's something for Mr Wellesley he'll get a hold of you and then we will restate it at the board meeting okay thank you you're welcome Okay sandy I'm sorry um no I mean so we're gonna set that up then or I'll have to check and see okay okay um every board member may want to do that why don't we tell everybody yeah let's everybody's shares okay and then we'll step back to it that I

238had um in terms of the um Mr walsley and Mr bartel's situation is could we maybe do like a survey to the teachers some sort of a questionnaire to them that would give them also direct link um a form of communication with them specifically this they would not be judged they would not be married so I'd have to go back and take a look at did Daniel you did yeah Danielle so we can we can have that discussions about a year ago I would like to have access to anything Danielle can you give that information too yeah okay thank you not right now but no yeah yeah because it was about a year ago okay good sure okay uh same following me I'm sorry oh yeah yeah um we so some of us board members

239went to the um Macomb County School boards association dinner um where the Republican and Democratic candidates were asked bunch of questions and so we have these we need some copies because we went to it for each of the State Board candidates that you guys will be voting on so we brought these backwards all four of the candidates there's one anyone wants to grab one please just before you vote yeah um I did kind of type something up a little bit um in regards to the meeting all those um comments from last meeting [Music] um I'm sorry that's really loud um I just wanted to say um I was I personally listened to all parties concerns at the last meeting I wanted to let um everybody know I understand how hard it is to come up

240here and to speak in front of everyone I'm certainly not very good at it either and uh I appreciate everybody who did speak who did share I also watched the zoom meeting that was held at City Hall regarding the concerns because it is important to me to need to hear from everybody um one thing that I did hear uh parents suggest was that if uh this is a federal government that's a law that's responsible for the beginning that students can use whatever bathrooms that they identify with and they should put their money where their mouth is and provide funding for public schools to make the proper building changes that would make everyone feel comfortable as I know um there may be additional funding it's not necessarily allocated for certain things I know that as a

241community as a school we're going through um a lot of a lot of changes here other surrounding schools and communities have already gone through these things I understand that change is hard for people but we all need to be just a little more understanding to everyone to work towards solutions that make all students feel comfortable I believe that we can maybe learn from some of these other students and districts that have already had some similar issues come up are her parents asked about bathroom monitors I'm under the impression that there already are bathroom monitors and bathrooms during the time between classes um and that there have been since well before this issue came up um I also believe that there are two unisex bathrooms that are available for all students to use additionally and under

242the impression that um possible solutions are as I watch the meeting and whatnot in regards to the bathrooms were to be making all the bathrooms just one single stall bathrooms um and or making stalls where the walls and the doors go from the ceiling to the floor so that everybody feels safe using the restroom here at the school uh so I just wanted to let you guys all know that I do hear all of you um as I think that safety for all students is certainly my top priority um I just don't know that asking the board to go against a law is quite the answer um it doesn't matter what each of our personal beliefs are um I mean if it's the law the bottom line is that we can change even if we

243did change the policy law is always going to overrule our policy okay um hold on here I got some notes in regards to our board packet I know that we have recently uh well since I've been back on board you've gotten them on Fridays and I'm wondering if you can get them earlier like if at all possible Wednesday so we can go through all of the material before the weekend and yeah what is it that's all I got thank you Danielle um so I just wanted to say thank you for everybody who is really well made comments tonight and I appreciate everybody's um opinion and I'm of the same stance in this Fortuna that we need to make sure everybody's comfortable um not just one or the other and we can't segregate the girls for

244feeling uncomfortable and doing that type of thing so hopefully we can come to some type of resolution in the meantime um and also as a parent of a nugget who's little in the in kindergarten and also Special Ed I want to thank Renee and Miss Macker from special ed for all the work that they're doing to help improve the scores and you know Finding different ways to reach our students and all of the work that you've been doing over the last couple of years especially since you've been urinate it's just amazing and I appreciate it so I wanted to say thank you for that so I look forward to Jackson getting up there and being one of the proficient ones so your stuff has been amazing thanks also yep thank you Angela um yes I

245would I too would like to thank our community members for getting up and speaking tonight while those three minutes goes by very brief there's a lot that we have heard up here and I appreciate everyone I do want to Echo what board member Cunningham said I think I too would be in favor of a workshop or possibly some kind of committee that we could make we could proceed with the committee without it being an open meeting however I would prefer if we did go with Community Committee to maybe uh see if we could get some community members or parents as well from both sides so that we can make an effort to be sure that everyone feels safe thank you sir um I also want to thank everyone for coming out and speaking um about

246the issue everyone needs to be heard and respected and I feel that wholeheartedly so I and I know how hard it is to get up there and speak um so thank you for coming out and speaking out for and voicing your thoughts um also I wasn't at the board meeting last week when the um Personnel report was given um but I would like to say I want to thank Keith Bartels for his 24 years here I met him when he started as a middle school principal I was PTA secretary at the time so I worked closely with him we were cage really at the PTA then he was also principal in the building when two of my kids were there it was nothing but positive interactions and I just wanted to wish him well fun

247awesome thank you yeah I um I'm gonna step out of the normal line I just want to point out the parking spots are not for board members when I said that parking that I've been talking about I've been talking about for years at the baseball field for grandparents and those to park closer to the field in the handicapped spots that's him those are that's a part of the stock of a baseball field not for board members um Candice and Angeline Mr Walmsley and I did attend the candidates for Michigan State Board of Education um and I think it's the Macomb County School Board Association and the ISD do this every time that there is an election and I I always go because I find it fascinating I love this kind of debates and um I

248just think everyone needs to really pay a lot of attention when you're voting for the Michigan Department of Education Board of Education there are four candidates and maybe not all of them are public school proponents [Music] um I'll give you the quote of the one candidate Tammy carlone when they were asked the question about third grade retention whether she was in favor of the third grade retention because of the reading and her response was and I quote well quite frankly teaching reading is not practice sentence very insulting to anyone who is a public educator so just just keep that in mind and like him says we have those information oh she's a lot more than that yes um and going to the um the people talking tonight about our transgender policy it is very difficult

249to come up here and talk no matter what side of the aisle you're on because no matter what you say somebody finds something wrong with what you say and and whatnot but our the transgender policy is not a transgender bathroom policy it is a policy regarding transgender students identifying them what we do as a district when they when they come to us and how the plan we work with them talks about their privacy it talks about training staff and restrooms is is section F but I just want to make it clear it's not a bathroom policy it is a policy about respecting all kinds of students and as a board and I'm I wouldn't have to go back and look at our our board meeting but we voted on November 22nd 2021 and two weeks

250prior we talked about the policy um I would find it strange that at some point Mrs Michonne didn't ask us for a motion on 5106 transgender students and when we talked about it two weeks before but at that time I made the motion Danielle Sutton suckered in the motion and the vote was six to one and when we vote everyone has a chance when it comes for that vote to discuss before you vote only one of our board members at the time made it very clear to all of us at the table that this was a policy he could not support in any way shape or form and whether you disagree with him or agree with him he had that right to make that statement and devoted the rest of us with the exception of

251Candace and Sandy were not on the board at the time but we all voted in support and we did have discussion and this was done to take care of all of our kids and I do agree when we talk about hate and all of that but after our last meeting and I don't know if she left or not but Katie McFarland moms for Liberty of Oakland County put out on social media please come show your patriotism and support parents of Richmond schools whose Sons and Daughters need to be protected from a gender identity policy that has been in place for bathrooms not factual Richmond Community Schools voted to allow boys that identify as girls to go into the girls bathroom at the last board meeting absolutely not factual on October 10th I want to encourage

252all Patriots to attend their school board meeting and let them know we need to protect our daughters from this ridiculous policy this is confirmed and you can watch the meeting here and she had the little YouTube thing that's none of that happened yet that's put out into the atmosphere then this is what's happening at Richmond schools and I looked up the definition of the word Patriot and a patriot is a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors that's really unfortunate for me that someone wants to represent a certain side because every side has the right to speak every every site is right every side is wrong in my in my opinion there's two sides to everything so to say that we need Patriots to defend against

253enemies or detractors you are labeling our children in this school district as enemies are detractors I struggle with that um and I this board I sat on the board of education for many years and I have sat with people I have vehemently disagreed with I have sat with people who I agreed with everything they said but I always have to believe that when we sit at this table we're doing what's best and what's right for every single student this policy is not banned and we have to come to terms to understand that it's not bad it's different the world is different we have to accept it here in Richmond that there there are all kinds of different people that live in this community and we have to love and accept them and to go with

254what Candace is saying we don't need a workshop we don't need a committee we need to put together as a board and I believe just about all of us I think have had conversations with Brian we need a forum we need to come together and we need to educate everyone both sides of what's happening and talk about how we how we how we conduct things how we get to the point of identifying transgender students and getting to the point where we can at least understand and accept you might not agree with it it might not be in your mindset but these are human beings and we've got to recognize that and it's not just transgender LBGTQ there is a racial issue in this community as well and I charge this board to talk about that

255as well let's get people together and let's come together [Applause] right um excuse me for some pretty good people in here I do have my common timing um first time I do want to I mean everybody on here has kind of said my feelings I'd like to reiterate the fact first to thank all the people I've talked I know it's hard to stand up I have stood up to that Podium and have addressed this forward um it's important that we listen to everybody and their and and what's going on and we need to listen to our kids um you'd be amazed at what they'll tell you and I know that from experience from being a principal in this building for 18 years um I when we voted on this policy and Margaret's right about the

256policy and what she stated those issues are not correct there is if you go read the policy it says that we will work with the bathroom situation that policy in that that we passed we started uh Mr Walmsley and I six years seven years ago when we first had students in this building and that policy is still in place and it was working do we have some different things going on now absolutely um and we do need to talk and we do need to figure this out but that policy has been in place and we have been doing it and I spoke um someone questioned that they never heard it we talked about it at that first November meeting and I said if we don't approve the policy that we have to give Mr Walmsley

257our administrator some direction because those kids are in our buildings and we cannot ignore them and um so I just want to let you know there is history there we've been working on this this is not just something I've heard people say oh it just started it's not been started it's been going on we have been dealing with it and we will continue to deal with it um I want you to know the board is hearing you we have had I I have talked to almost every board member um since our last meeting one way or another about this topic so it is not going through one year and out the next um we know that we have to revisit it and we have to do something about it um we are some of you

258may think we're not but there are things that go on behind the scenes that we don't share or we don't tell you because of specific reasons um but we are aware we are working on this so again I just want to thank everybody and I have one quick statement for the board are we doing the trunk or treat this year if you are seeing me after the meeting thank you [Applause] okay our next items on our agenda is we have two action items get organized here okay I'm looking for the approval of an Rea leave of absence request foreign documentation furthermore we will do the option one we choose personal and sick days yes I agree with that somebody real Mrs wisnoski shall utilize available personal leave days and then available six days to cover

259her absence during the approved leaves I'm sorry to interrupt but I thought that we had said earlier that she could use all sick days if that's what she chose to do rather than and this is word as if she I was going to bring it up on this question so yeah no but you're sorry I guess I should have waited I apologize okay so Angela did you finish the motion yes I did okay I have a set do I have a second support thank you okay now do we discuss I apologize no that's okay so earlier uh when given the presentation when I spoke about her being able to use her just her sick time if she so chose to do so in the way this is worded it says that she has to use

260her um personal time absolutely yeah personal time and then her sick time what does the contract say does it say they have to use personal time before safe times there's nothing else it's just the practice so is anybody against her using personal time and then save time I would like her to be able to use whichever time she prefers I would agree I feel like I would personally choose to use all sick days but then it would really be her proper I feel like it should be left up to her whether she wants to do personal then sick or all sick I mean she's rightfully accrued 28 28 86 days you know I guess if there's no policy then right you got a motion that's asking for her to use her personal leave days first

261and then her sick days so you right isn't that what you just said yeah correct so that's use the personal leave days first and then available sick days to cover her absence during the approval leave that's what the motion was okay I'm in the backup documentation date is September 29th uh she writes if possible I would like to use my personal and sick days for the time off request it doesn't say or which one person but she's done so I'm just throwing that out there do you want me to maybe change it no you just we can't use we have to go back to the motion vote on it it's either going to pay a certain snap yeah any other discussion before I we vote on that though we can make a motion a separate

262motion you need to vote on this and then we can do it we can make a motion where she can withdraw her motions are we all in agreement I can withdraw the motion and we follow the motion so we're going to withdraw that motion withdrawn thank you okay what is the wording on our New Motion how do we want it to read she shall utilize her well wait wait a moment oh we need to make the most I'm sorry I thought we're going to discuss it first now to make a motion before you can discuss it so Cindy you're the one that was looking for something different give us some option all right so um but all right I'm making motion to um approve the leave of absence requested by uh Julie I was careless

263and I'm sorry a social worker um and uh so miss was in these shall utilize available uh sick leave or personal personal absence uh however she deems necessary during the approved period there we go and so all we're doing is changing the wording you know it's the same motion no because she just said the big exact same support no I don't know think about it this one says correct okay every degree on that I could say Lord okay so I have emotion support and I have supports do I have discussion can you just so we're just reset it so no so we're saying we want to give her the lead and she can use personal or sick days at her discretion okay correct any other discussion all those in favor aye opposed motion carries okay

264I'm looking for emotion to censor a board member [Music] so that we can discuss it like last time and move to Center board member something for violation of board policies as outlining the attached documentation wait a second so by suck at the motion then we do discussion am I able to take back a second no you can no but intersect it's still there but you can vote however all right what if nobody's second you know correct then then the motion failed so if I have a second vote right now I suck it okay any discussion okay I just wanted to be able to discuss it just like last time because you can't discuss it okay Deb I'm just asking you this is this is the same issue that we had a month ago correct okay

265and at that time when we did that motion we went through it yes it was my motion I was Drew it correct and as a board we went down the table and said we can't have this kind of thing happen Danielle admitted that she did it all of that because the motion at that time was to do an investigation so a month later we're coming back for the exact same thing actually we did not censor all we did was discuss it they needed to do it so this is actually a sense it goes it's just on record and at least even though it was on record that we all said we can't have it we can't have what she did can't have per the board attorney no I'm not asking the board to turn well

266and anybody else speak up if I'm the only one asking this question if we we said what she did was wrong and we said we went down the table because everybody agreed we don't want it to happen again correct is that what we all said yeah okay and at no time did we have conversation about censure then correct okay and so we brought this we brought this tonight because that happened we know what happened we know it was wrong and your your motion your uh or formalizing it formalizing that's what we are doing we are formalizing it okay that was my question too so there's no reason to I guess rehash your states on the record like it's in the middle right it's already on the record correct you're looking for an official censure correct

267it just formalizes it we did discuss it this formalizes it so it states the three policies correct um yeah on that um [Music] but are you what are you not agreements do you do you agree that what she did if you worked there that night were you no I understand that one um and I'm a little uh iffy on the other one I mean we already had the discussion she you know had a talking to so that officially I I believe it's an all or nothing if I don't believe in the two I'm not gonna vote if it's not all three I'm not voting which is your choice [Music] hi I I believe she didn't make the statement a month ago but I just wish we had done the censure that night maybe I personally

268should not draw my motion and then made the motion to Center them because I think a month later is maybe not the time I think we all made it clear and um my hope is that it doesn't happen again and Danielle made the statement that she wasn't going to do that um so to Sherry's Point too when we talked about this a month ago um we discussed the fact that okay yes I called Center Line and I identify myself as a board member um but I believe we came to the conclusion that the other two weren't relevant and that it was only one so now you have in this motion with attached documentation all three so as Sherry said can you vote Yes on us no because we didn't even discuss the other two and

269we decided the other two were irrelevant so we only had one in the end and that was the only one that she took accountability for so that she's not taking accountability for the other two did we not have to do an investigation before we did this well no we don't need to we even we don't we don't have to approve uh well there were a violations if you looked at the last paragraph on your emotions it states how they all fall in place and how they that how Danielle violated um if you agree or not agree I mean it's up to you we can vote on it and you know if it doesn't pass it doesn't pass but um that explains the whole piece of how it all found in place now I know we

270talked about communicating and we talked about you know talking because we talked about using the phone or meeting in person and that did not happen um but I would have to agree that I think I think we talked about all three of those and you may have said they weren't Roman but I believe the conversation was that they were um but but I'm just but for because the only way to talk about this is I had to make the motion just like I did last time correct so I'm gonna I'm gonna say what I said last time um I'm going to withdraw the motion because I think that um a month later I wish we had done it last time but the fact the matter still comes we can't do what Danielle did before and

271we if we all agree in that then we're moving forward stay on here because it's a formal process this is what you guys you know what she has the right to to do what she did I do she absolutely has the right to do what she did and I doesn't mean that we have to agree with that that's the process and the only way to talk about it is because I made the motion so we could have the conversation and we would have had this sooner but Danielle was gone for a week so we were not our the last portion so we were not enabled we weren't able to have it it doesn't matter because you still have the Quorum it doesn't but I wanted to have you present so if you had a say

272you would have something opportunity to speak okay we're withdrawing it right being known for their business we will be adjourning at 11 26. foreign [Music]