Portage Public Schools Board of Education Organizational Meeting - January 12, 2026

001This one three elementaryaries are going to be. >> Yes. >> And each two grades is going to have a principal. >> Hi Mark. >> This meeting of the board of education is called to order. Please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Welcome everybody. Happy new year. This is our first meeting of the new year. And to get our meeting underway, the first thing we need to do is approve our agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda as presented? Hearing none. Is there a motion placed on page two? >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the

002agenda as printed. >> Thank you, Kimberly. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. The motion passes. We'll proceed with our agenda as planned. And this is our organizational meeting. So our first order of business, the election of officers. I'll just read from this quickly. The board's past president will officiate during the election of the president. Following election of the board president, that person will conduct the election of the vice president and secretary. The person conducting the election of each position will ask three times for nominations for each position. The nominations will then be closed. The person conducting the election or his her designate will compile the votes and announce those candidates receiving two or more votes and how each board member voted.

003Election of officers shall be by a majority of the full board. If only one person is nominated for an office, the person conducting the election may declare that person elected by acclamation. A nominee is elected to each position by a majority of support from the board. And Barb, you'll help us out, right? Sure. >> Excellent. Thank you. Uh are is there a nomination for the office of president? >> Uh Mr. President, if you are willing, I nominate Randy Banan Police for Service President. >> Thank you. Um is there another nomination for the office of president? Is there another nomination for the office of president? Uh hearing none, then uh Mr. Vanettp is elected by acclamation. Is there a nomination for vice president? >> Mr. President, I present the name of Bose Snider for vice president.

004>> Is there another nomination for the office of vice president? Is there another nomination for the office of vice president? Therefore, being there are no other nominations, B. Schneider is elected by vice president by acclamation. Congratulations, Bo. Is there a nomination for secretary? >> Mr. President, I nominate Terry Navia for the position of secretary. >> Thank you. Is there another nomination for the office of secretary? Is there another nomination for the office of secretary? Hearing none, then by acclamation, uh, Terry Novaria is selected as secretary by acclamation. Congratulations, Terry. Okay, thank you. Uh, moving on. Uh we have the superintendent report and our first update tonight is a bond project update. >> Thank you, President Vanenter. But um members of the Portage Public Schools Board of Education, happy new year. Uh glad to see everyone

005and want to wish everyone a happy new year. Uh first we'll have a brief bond presentation by update by assistant superintendent of operation Russ Gerber and then uh following that Michelle Carpensky will come with a uh a video of appreciation for our board. >> Good evening Superintendent Edwards Board of Education. I'll give you a quick overview of how the bond project is going starting the new year. Um looking going to start first at uh Woodland Elementary right here. As you're seeing, this is uh unit A of the building. It's also the administration area of the building. Uh the gap you're seeing between the two walls is going to be the curved part of the front entryway. So that's the curved office area. And then the taller wall there is the gymnasium. So that is coming

006along really nicely. Unit A is almost done. They got to finish the curved wall. And then they have six more courses of the gymnasium to put up. Uh the the winds have been a little delaying that a little last couple days, but they've have been able to move on to unit C to keep the brick lane going. So they're not losing time, just they're not able to completely check off unit A quite yet. Uh but unit A is looking nicely. Here's another view of that from the side. You can start seeing how tall some of the walls are becoming over there. So it's uh it's looking pretty good. Excited to get the unit A done so they can start laying steel and the roof on A. So that's that's exciting for them to move on

007to that. This is uh kind of the the inside of the gym area. Uh you're looking through the the back doors there. Just took this picture up so you can see the uh the conditions when it freezes and thaws freezes and thaws. It gets a little soupy out there in areas. Um it's actually a pretty good This is probably the worst of it. Um most of the site's actually pretty nice. It's a good sand stuff's just going right through. So that's good. Uh we do have a couple areas getting a little soupy out there for the workers. Um here you can see the steel and the structure coming together. Um this you're looking at uh behind me is unit uh unit C and then in front of me you can see the side of unit

008A on the back right and then on the left is uh unit C or unit B where they have the decking up on the deck and everything already. So uh with the decking up there uh that's the precast concrete you can see with the little holes on top. Uh they're going to start laying brick on the second floor here so you'll be able to see the second floor start to come up in unit B. Um, and when they're done with that, you'll see the overall height of the building and everything back there. Uh, but there uh that's another wind kind of factor on that platform. Uh, it's uh it can get windy and they have to be careful because when you're build building a wall that doesn't have all the sides on it, it can

009kind of be a little floppy. So, there's wind restrictions and everything. If the wind gets above like 20 miles an hour, they they can't be laying brick there. So, they they just move around and where lay where they can. So, they have plenty of spots to keep them busy right now. And hopefully the wind dies down uh as we get further through winter and into spring where they're able to get all the unit the second floor of unit B done. Here's just another angle of unit B as well. Here's what it looks like up on top of unit B. Here's the pre preformed uh concrete on the top and then they fill it with concrete. And what they'll do here from here is once they get the second floor brick uh cement cinder blocks laid

010up, they'll actually pour 4 in of concrete over that still be nice and smooth. So if you're up there right now, there's like inch g like inch variations in height with how things come together and then they just concrete it off. So it's nice smooth surface for that second floor concrete to rest or carpet to rest on. Uh here's some of the electrical work that they've done so far. A lot of conduit. You can see there's ton of conduit. This is going to be the main electrical room and all these conduits run to sub panels throughout the building. Uh so the electrical guys there lots of trenches and putting lots of pipe in the ground and there'll be just as many conduits in the ceiling and everything. This is just to get the electrical from

011the main electrical room through all the cloth throughout the building and they do it underground because it's the best place to do it out of the way. Um this is our storm water management system. Uh these are um actually cylinders that they put in the ground and they'll put them all together and it'll just hold the water down there instead of having a retention pond that you see out front. It's all held underwater before it heads out to the public sewer system here. Uh but that hole that excavator is a giant excavator. Uh it doesn't filter doesn't do it justice, but it's very deep right there. Uh good thing is that soil is very sandy like very good sand. So we have really good absorption there as well. So that's a it's a positive. And

012then uh we also started off our our engagements at Angling Road Elementary School this past week. Uh for you guys that saw our Facebook post, we had an engagement session for our students. Uh so we brought every single student from Angling Road to the engagement session and really heard what they wanted to see in their new building. Uh they had some great ideas, a two-story gym with an indoor track. Um it was it was just the enthusiasm, but they also came with some great like they want soft seating so they can learn where the how they're comfortable. They talked about quiet spaces in spaces that are really loud so they can focus. Um, they really, you know, you could tell that they took the the uh the exercise to heart because some of them came

013up with some great suggestions, stuff that we've already done in all of our other buildings so far. So, they're going to be happy when they see it carry through to this building. But, it was a lot of fun just hearing the kids, the enthusiasm and bring all those kids through. It was quite the uh quite the ordeal. It was a lot of fun for the building. A little disruptive for the day. Um, but it was a lot of fun. The kids had a good time with it. And the fun part is after the student engagement, we brought these staff engagement right after school with the staff and the energy the kids brought through the day. The teachers brought to that staff engagement and they're engaged talking through all the prompts and everything that Fielding International

014and tower pings to put them through and they were fully engaged for that hour and a half and a lot of great work got done. So that was a that was a ton of fun with angling for the entire day over there working with the kiddos and working with the adults in the evening. Uh a lot of great work got done. So that was the first engagement with the staff like the whole staff and then the first engagement with the students. So it went really well. That's uh my quick presentation today. You guys got any questions? >> Has any of the angling staff been been through the new elementarymentaries? >> Yep. So we did ask that question. A good chunk of them. I'd say 70% of the staff have gone through the new buildings. Uh

015the DAT team, which is the design team for the building, uh actually went and we started off, our first DAT meeting was at Haver Hill to make sure they got an understanding of what we're doing for new buildings. >> Okay, great. >> Yes. >> How many students are we looking at for Angling Road for construction? I mean, like >> the capacity of the building, we're shooting for 450 capacity of the building. >> That's just a it's a three-section building as we go. It's just exciting to see things move through the winter. >> Yes. >> And it seems like there's been no big hold up in the winter. It's all been manageable. >> Yeah. I mean, it's been December was a a December for the books. I mean, it was cold, but they worked through it.

016They found ways to get the keep laying the block um by building that enclosure we talked about last time. So, they're doing what they need to to keep the job moving forward. And we're all looking forward to spring. Well, thank you very much. You guys >> has a nice something for >> evening. Trustee Superintendent Edwards. So, in case you weren't aware, uh, January is school board appreciation month. So, we thought it would be fun this year to go out and see what the students were thinking about. Now, G given the nuances of policy governance, their answers weren't 100% accurate, but for the most part, they were pretty good. So, without further ado, now this will hopefully be unless you guys like totally poo poo it after this. We want to make this a real and

017put it out on social media and have a little fun with it. So, uh without it's very short. So, without further ado, >> my name is Caleb Ferwin and I'm a senior at Porters Northern High School. The school board helps pass budgets and approve curriculum and also gets our new superintendents. We have the great uh Mr. Edwards now. And so they're just um really important to making sure that PPS has a good vision going forward and that our education continues to improve on a consistent basis. What I know is that they um decide what's happening at the schools and they keep the superintendent in check, which keeps the principal in check. >> It's schoolboard appreciation month, which I think is so important because the school board oversees so many of the things that most people

018don't realize. They hire the superintendent, they hire staff, they make curriculums. >> One thing I know about the board is that they keep principles in check in all of the school district of PPS. I think the school board is important because they like pass budgets and design curriculums and like approve of stuff that the superintendent does and they also like vote on a superintendent. >> They're like the boss of everything. I want to thank the board of education for funding our field trips, helping with teachers and our Chromebooks and technology. Like to say thank you to the board of PPS just for doing all this work and they should be most appreciated this month. >> Thank you. >> That's great. Thank you. of everything. I like that. >> If you follow our socials, you'll be

019seeing that running throughout the month. So, >> we're the boss of everything. Remember that. >> The boss of everything. >> Check. >> Thank you. Thank you, Michelle, for you and your team. >> Okay, we'll move on to presentation of monitoring report 1.1 elementary. >> All right. Uh tonight, our director of elementary education, Dr. Kelly Jensenius will report on the elementary version of monitoring report 11. Uh at our last board meeting in December, Dr. Michael presented on the secondary and so now here is our report. >> Thank you. Uh good evening, Superintendent Edwards and trustees. Tonight, I'm here to interpret MR11 by looking at each Portage Public School elementary school's top 10 similar schools across the state. And this is in an effort to determine where our buildings fall within their own comparison group. Um, all

020information you will see this evening is pulled from my school data with criteria based on total enrollment, economically disadvantaged percentage, and demographics. uh with that cap of 125% of our highest schools totaled per pupil expenditures at each level. Total building per pupil expenditures for the sake of MR11 is pulled directly from my stream data as well. Um this approach does help to eliminate groupings of all schools into one average and provide each school with a true comparison to alike schools that have similar makeup just as Dr. uh Pasco talked about last time. So looking at elementary, some of this looks very familiar. Uh we're reporting on the same three areas with true comparators in the state for the proficiency measurements. Uh percent proficient is simply looking at one testing cycle from of data from the

021spring of 2025. Uh percent proficient improvement is where we look at current scores compared to the previous three-year average to see if we're improving over the past essentially is what we're trying to do there. And then we'll look at growth which is determined by the percent of Portage public school students with SGP of at least 30. My school data defines average growth as SGPS from 30 to 69. Um that range and then above average growth as SGPS from 70 to 99. So we kind of have that filled out for you. U this looks familiar. We talk about this each time. Um so you know that the criteria is based on recommendations from some of our portage schools uh as they were preparing for district data reviews and they were noting that schools in their comparator

022districts were just very different from them demographically and so those weren't very helpful at the building level. Um and so you can see on the slide the breakdown of this criteria in weights. Um and then you can see the previous comparator or district criteria that we used um in your figures 28 and 29. Um that's where we have the similar schools for each elementary school listed as well as the total per pupil expenditure. So you have that data with you. Um we're going to start off with our percent proficient in ELA and math. Then we'll move on to percent proficient improvement in ELA math. That takes us into growth. So we'll start there. All right. So, this should look familiar. You should have this uh graphic here. Um and if we go through here, we

023have three categories at the top of the table. So, you start to see the rank colorings. Um above expectations in the blue ranges from third, I'm sorry, first to third, meaning they were above most of those comparators in their similar schools. Add expectations. They were right in the middle, like fourth through the sixth. and below expectations they were seventh through 10th. So below most so you should be looking at figure 19 that should be similar to this one. Uh we start with the ELA percent proficient and see that Lake Center and Woodland were at that expectations again compared to their individual similar schools and then the others that were ranked um are ranked below expectation again against their similar schools not each other. um multiple demographic group data will still be looked at during our

024data reviews um in each of the eight elementaryaries which is currently happening right now. So each elementary is looking and digging into their data information and making decisions based off of that. Um you have a complete list of similar schools that determine where each elementary school landed within that group um in figure 20. So you can start to see ELA figure 20 you see where they are with their own individual summer or similar schools. We can also look at figure 19 in your packet. If you look down below you see the math percent proficient here again same ranking. Um Angling Road Central L Haverh Hill and 12th Street are act at expectations compared to their individual similar schools. And then the other four were at below expectations. You can start to see and pull that

025apart. Um and again this would be in figure 21 with the math data to confir similar schools and how that came to be. So this next one when we move on from percent proficient we look at prof percent proficient improvement within their similar schools. And this should be figure 22 in your packet. And if we compare um what we're doing is comparing over three year three prior years specifically looking at percent proficient which serves as our trend data. So all similar schools are listed in figure 23 for your reference. So we're looking at figure 22 but all if you dig down deeper you see them in figure 23. So 2022 2023 and 2024 make up that three-year average. And that weighted average is based on the number of students who took the tests each spring,

026which is how we do this in past reports where we get that weighted average from. So if you're looking at figure 22, which is up here on the screen as well, comparing 2025 data to previous three-year averages in ELA percent proficient, you can see that Amberly and Central L are above expectations compared to their individual school rankings. That's not above expect. So, we know that we're comparing them against others still. Um, I always have to do that when I do this report. Um, Haver Hill, Lake Center, and Woodland are at expectations while Angling, North Bridge, and 12th Street are below. And these the expectations are about their rankings and not the percent improvement. So, that's how this graphic is looking here. Um, just want to make that clear. We do the same thing for math.

027Um, figure 22, Amber Lake, Central L, and 12 Street are above expectations compared to their individual similar schools. Haver Hill, Lake Center, and Woodland are at expectations compared to their individual similar schools. And then Angling Road and Morsbridge are that below expectations. So when we look at the prof percent proficient improvement across all eight elementary Portage elementary schools, we are starting to see six of the eight elementary schools show positive percent proficient improvement. That is not one you say often uh compared to the la past three years. So we're seeing some good things come out of that, right? Um and again all similar schools are listed in figure 24 for you. So that was percent proficient improvement. All right. Speaking now at student growth, we'll get all that tongue twisted. Uh the previous data in

028this report focus on school level proficiency and school level improvement and proficiency. This section is around our student growth. And the improvement in proficiency is based on how the 2025 fifth graders perform compared to the average of three previous classes of fifth graders. When we start to look at growth, remember we always switch over now to growth. This is based on individual students performing. Okay, in the fifth grade compared to their peers with similar prior test scores. So if I performed here, similar per students performed here, how now the next year did I grow compared to these similar kids? So now we're looking at kids. So what you might see is a school may show low improvement in proficiency but they still show high growth since the improvement in proficiency is more of a school

029measure and growth is more of an individual measure. Okay. So good things to remember now before we move into this is that average growth com by Michigan school data defines that as an SGP an average is 30 to 69 and that above average growth for SGPS is from 70 to 99. So we want to see where those are landing. Okay. And then for academic growth the statistical norm for the percent of students with average growth or above average growth is 70%. So therefore, any portage school with at least 70% of these of students in these ranges is considered to be at expectations. There's a lot of words going on here. Um, any Portage school with less than 70% of students in these ranges ranges is considered to be below expectations. So you start to see

030where those are coming from. All right. So we move into ELA. This should be figure 25. And this shows um the 20 25% of students with average or above average growth for each school. So in ELA we start to see that Amberly, Central L, Haverh Hill and Lake Center are at expectations, meaning they hit that 70 or above. And then Angling Road and Morris Bridge are below, but they are within that 2 to 3% of meeting that goal of 70. Um, and so we wanted to make sure you were able to see that that we're moving there. And if we look at math on figure 26, we see that Central L, Lake Center, Morris Bridge, and 12th Street are at expectations. And with 12th Street having 80% of students with average or above average growth.

031Um, then we have our Angling, Amberly, Haver Hill, and Woodland, they would be considered below that expectation that we would like to hit. This next graph that we're going to take a look at is a new graph. Um, and this is we've been asked about our students who are considered to have low achieving scores. And so we did not have this in our middle school or high school presentation. However, we want you to know in our final report that we'll be including for middle school and high school for you. So we needed to define um low achieving. And so for this report, low achieving students are interpreted by Portage Public Schools as those whose performance on prior MSTEP assessments indicate they are below the proficiency level. Well, proficiency serves as just one data point. Uh

032it does not always directly reflect that students daytoday classroom performance. So we need to remember that uh which is often measured through multiple indic indicators including but not limited to student grades. So we just want to make sure that we're clear on that that if we may through the definition of this for non-proficient uh this is based on this test. Okay. So to look at student growth average for low students who are low achieving look at figure 27 which is you see up here. Um here we extracted data from students who performance was considered non-proficient to examine the student growth from fourth to fifth grade. Evidence of annual academic growth is interpreted by the percent of portage students who have a student growth percentile that SGP in the average growth as we talked about earlier

033range from 30th to 69th percentile or above average growth range 70th to 99th percentile. So in ELA in all eight elementary students students who performance is considered non-proficient. So these are students that were considered non-proficient on this graph demonstrated average growth ranging from the 36th to the 50th percentile. So you can see them in I'm going to say what blue was that one? I think oh I'm sorry it is the first column there. And then in math you'll see them in the second column by school. In all eight elementary schools, students whose performance is considered non-proficient demonstrated average growth as well, ranging from the 36th to the 49th percentile. So our stu basically this graph is showing us that our students who are considered non-performing at that fourth grade when they took the MSTEP, they

034had average amount of growth. They demonstrated average amounts of growth and you can see where they landed on there as a whole. Okay. So, all that to say, a lot of numbers and data, which is why you have that big packet. Um, while tonight's report isn't the final report, we know we come back in two weeks. I did want to take a moment just to talk about some of our next steps and areas of focus in elementary just as Dr. Pasco did with secondary. Um I think it's important to remember all our work is grounded in continuous improvement and that through our M multi-tered system of support MTSS uh that provides that structure for aligning our K12 professional learning our curriculum implementation the data that we use and the instructional supports that we use to

035ensure that all students receive the right level of instruction and intervention. When we go into professional development that is intentionally aligned K12 so that learning can build over time and strengthen classroom practices. Our teams use the MTSS process to review the data, address instruction and monitor impact, which is what I talked about earlier with those data reviews that are happening currently. And then through curriculum review cycles, CRC, we hear that acronym a lot lately. Now m uh mathematics is entering into phase three which has a continued focus on strengthening our mathematical practices. Our ELA is in phase four at elementary which is emphasizing full uh implementation across the classrooms and teachers are supported through coaching PLC's grade level collaboration as part of that strong tier one in um instruction. Currently, principles are engaging on ongoing

036improvement cycles by analyzing data to guide instructional decisions, monitor fidelity, and determine their next steps in their continuous improvement process as well as preparing for MTEP. And that's embedded into the work that we do uh through data informed planning, curriculum, fidelity, coaching, and that family piece too of communication as we get into that. So coaching and PLC's are key MTSS structures uh that support effective instruction, student engagement, and that datadriven decision- making. And together all of this is that continuous improvement uh multi-tered systems of support that we work together to ensure that we have consistent implementation, targeted support, and improved student outcomes districtwide. And so, as I mentioned earlier, we'll go deeper into our next steps at um the final MR11. presentation, but I just wanted to give you a little bit of what we've

037been doing. So, what questions might you have for me tonight? >> Kelly, for example, in the chart with average growth for non-proficient students, could you just take one of the schools and explain? >> Yeah, I can do that. Yep. So, if you look at that, Sure. Right. Oops. Right here. So, let's just take Amberly right there. The first one, the first column. If you look at the bottom, you see an EEL and an MA. The E is the English language arts. And if you go up, that 42 right there would say that's the range. So they were in that 42 percentile, right? Their right percent of average growth. So that's the ELA piece. And then their math was at that 36. So they're within that range of that 30 to the um 70. So they're

038in that average range of growth. And then you would just do that for every school you could see. >> Thank you. That's what I thought. Just wanted to make sure. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Are you are you defining the low proficiency under 30%. >> Yes. Yes. Yep. And my school data would define that as under about 30%. Yep. >> Can we can we clarify your question? Um are you are you asking that um we're defining this nonproficient or lower achieving students or students who did not score proficiency on MSTEP? >> Yeah. The group of students. Yeah. >> Yeah. So when we pull out that group of students, whatever number that is, and we measure their growth, these these are how they their their numbers shake up. >> Yeah. I just want to make

039sure we >> Yeah, that's good. if we we correctly uh answer the question. >> I just a question because um just back on similar schools criteria and weights um the total PPE capped at 125% of our highest schools PPE at each level. Can you explain what that means? >> Oh, say which one is it again? >> It's the asterisk to the right of the table. >> Oh, okay. So, that is the total PP capped at 125%. that whole harmless school piece. I am not very good at that. The financial part of that. >> I don't know if Mr. Edwards can take us. >> Not all schools are are funded equally. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And so there are some schools or school districts that are considered out of formula. >> We give roughly 10,000ish students

040dollars per student. >> Right. >> So we would take a cap of 125% of that. So, if someone is out of formula and their expenditure, let's just say 13 or 14,000. >> Yeah. >> Um, we wouldn't consider that to be a similar criteria because they're spending more dollars per kid than what we are. >> Okay. >> So, that's essentially what that means. So, >> so it's 125% of what ours is. >> What ours is >> because I was thinking it was 125% of what the highest one was. I said, "Well, that doesn't." >> Yeah. So, that's that's kind of that's kind of what what we look at for for that. So there are some districts across the state are considered out of formula and their per pupil foundation allowance is greater than portage public schools.

041>> Okay. >> So thank you. >> That one always gets >> I have a curiosity question that I don't know that you'd be able to answer in detail right now but maybe if you are able to give a rough maybe so or would be awesome. Um, with ELA, I noticed some of the growths were not hitting proficient compared to comparator schools as much as we would like to see, >> right? >> Um, it doesn't mean necessarily that our teachers are doing poorly or something. It's just that we're not hitting that higher expectation that has been set. Uh we recently had the newer ELA curriculum and it was kind of controversial when it was adopted. Um one of the considerations was that it had not been um used prevalently. We adopted it pretty new when it

042was pretty new as a curriculum. Are we seeing improved growth with that curriculum or has the growth decreased? So what I would say is we have to look at where we're at in the implementation cycle right now and I think we can dig into that more with you at the next meeting and show that. But when we look at implementation of anything, you'll see an implementation dip often, right? So, you know, first you get a curriculum and everybody's learning and everybody's excited and then we, you know, we got to figure it out. So then we dip in our knowledge base and we're redoing our practices. And so you'll start to see things go down and it usually takes three to five years to see things just come up to where they need to be. It

043is a very hard time for anybody, right? And oftentimes in education, we go, "Ah, abandon ship, try something different." When what we really should do is stay true to what we're doing and support and grow with the teachers and and work through those barriers and the tough parts to get stronger at it. So, I think that's where we're at right now and we can talk more about that, like I said, at the next one. And >> do you have a sense that we are seeing those improvements going at this? >> We are seeing some really neat stuff coming out of like I was just at uh one of the schools the other day and I took some pictures of some of the writing that they had up on the wall. And what we're seeing in

044this program is a focus and an emphasis on what are we reading, how do we write about it, how do we analyze it, what are we doing with it. and there's some really powerful things uh that the kids have written and so yes, we're starting to see things happen there. Um >> thank you. >> Yeah, I'm excited for it. So, >> thank you. >> Um yeah, Kelly, um I I'm not going to ask any detailed questions because I'm hoping at our retreat on the 26 we have more time for for that kind of um discussion. Um I mean uh the the big takeaway for me is that some of this is really good. it's, you know, celebratory and some of it's more humbling and and I think, you know, as a trustee, it's good for

045us. So, I applaud this is that we see it all. So, um, so I I applaud, you know, what we're being shown and and as a trustee, um, you know, I think it's important for us to set expectations so we're so we're always stretching, right? There's always some place we can stretch to. And um and one thing we should talk about at the retreat is uh we spent a lot of time last winter at retreats kind of redefining our expectations and how to word that in policy and it's in there and it's not quite the way that's in here now. We kind of changed a little bit um on these reports. So but it's tricky because we embedded it in a different paragraph where you might not have seen it. Um, so, so anyway, we

046can we can we can pick all that up to all get on the same page. Um, and I think, you know, where we're where we're trying to come from in that is having a good apples to apples comparison. So, comparing us against other districts or other school buildings that serve communities that look like ours. Um, and then are we are we toward the better side of that? not necessarily the top performer, but are we and kind of the number we we landed on is kind of are we up there around 75th percentile, but kind of better than the median of those that um that we compared to. And and you can state that in 60 seconds, but it took us, you know, eight hours of retreat, you know, last year to just wrestle with that

047and try to come up with it. So, but this is the first cycle with that language. So, I think when we come out of the retreat and we come out of of of approving 1.1 here in a meeting or so, um, is that we're kind of all we all kind of understand and we're kind of all, um, on the same wavelength with that. So, and I said it before, I'll say it again. This stuff, these are the best meetings of the year. >> This is where it's at. >> May I Yes. hand to what you said. Um, I agree that I appreciate the openness and the transparency of saying this is where we need to grow because ultimately that will only benefit our students all of them and that is a fantastic thing and I

048appreciate how everyone is working towards that with that goal in mind. Thank you. And I just want to add that I appreciate this graph of the average growth for our students that are struggling to be provisioned. So that's that's helpful to see that that's >> it was great for us to be pushed on that to figure that piece out to have that piece of data. So I'm enjoy working with you all and figuring out what comes next. >> What we focus on with data is where growth happens and that's a good thing. And I'm just going to admit at the retreat you're going to have to work with me more on that that craft. So I fully So I fully understand it. >> We will work together. >> Thank you. Thank you for the report.

049>> Okay. We'll move to our comments and communication section on page 29 of the board packet. I don't believe we have anybody uh who wishes to make comment tonight. So uh we'll open it up to comments from board trustees. Happy new year. >> Hey, um Randy, if I can say something here. >> Sure. >> Um we go through the the um the officer election really fast. And I mean, first thing is is thank you all for your for your support of me, but I want to make a few comments about Randy. >> Um >> you shouldn't do that in public. in >> and you want him to >> well >> you do >> you've you you've done the the job of president for a number of years and I just want to pause so that

050we don't take that for granted. Um people do not understand all that you do and how you do much more than a typical school board president does and people see the public facing. People see board meetings and might think, you know, well, he manages a nice meeting, which you do. Um, but then, you know, um, the longer you're a school board trustee, the better you get at it, and you make sure that that happens for us. And you do so much work behind the scenes about good governance and about how we're doing as a board and collecting feedback from trustees and feeding that in and making sure it comes back to retreats. so we have a chance to just process it where the clock is running slower and the heat is not on and we

051can all kind of get on the same page and that's that's hugely important. Uh you've you've pressed us with opportunities for more education and to put that into play here. Um and then you know I would add you're just a well-liked guy and and and you work at that. It's natural but you also do work. Um, so anyway, it's people don't see that and if you know if it's just there's just one opportunity a year at this meeting to just say thank you, we'll just acknowledge that. So anyway, we it I think we all appreciate you and I hope you do. >> Well, Bo, thank you very much. Thank you for your kind comments. And if I could add to that, as someone who's just finishing the first year, Ry's really good for new people,

052you know, answering texts, answering email, telling me what I don't need to worry about and what I need to like put my face at. So, yeah. So, thank you. Appreciate. >> Oh, thank you. Thank you all very much. >> I'll just add that your base of knowledge too is huge in terms of your own personal background. uh figuring out who who goes with who and what MASB is doing and the county schools and all of those things. You have your hands in so many uh parts of this and you spend a lot of time preparing for not just these meetings but committee meetings. Um there are several committees that meet and you're typically there or with us to to help with some of that work too. So, it's a big job and I know what

053time you spend on it and we all appreciate it. >> Well, thank you very much. Appreciate all your kind comments. I enjoy serving with all of you and I think we can all be uh pretty pleased with our last year 2026. >> We did a great superintendent search got a great superintendent and uh we passed the bond so we can complete our elementary project. So, um, you know, the district is doing well and, uh, that's in large part to this board and having us stay in our own lane and doing the things we're supposed to do. So, thank you for your kind comments. Thank you. >> Any other comments about me? >> Well, fine. >> You're trusting. >> Any other comments about anyone? Okay then. Very good. Thank you. Uh we'll move to our consent

054agenda and uh we have Mark Beang to thank for this consent agenda because each of these items used to require a separate motion. So we should be able to go to these organizational items fairly quickly. Uh the first one a is to designate depositories for school funds and that would be the following depositories. Comp 1, Flagstar Bank, First National Bank, Horizon Bank, Huntington Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Makatawa Bank, Merkantile Bank, PFM Investment Management, and Southern Michigan Bank and Trust. Our second thing to approve is our uh board meeting schedules for 2526, 26, and 27. Uh the schedules are in your packet. Uh the third thing is to designate persons authorized to use the safe deposit box and that's superintendent Johnny Edwards, assistant superintendent of operations Russ Gerbers, director of finance Paula Johnson and the board

055secretary. Um the next item is to designate the electronic transfer officer as Paula Johnson, director of finance. The next item is to appoint the board recording secretary as Barb Atkinson. The next is to approve TRUN law firm PC as the boards and district's primary legal council. And finally to preapprove the 2026 board member attendance at board related classes, conferences, workshops, etc. and approve reimbursement for actual and necessary expenses incurred to attend set events as per bylaw 0175.1. Uh, next is our monthly consent agenda item. That's to approve the minutes from the December 8th, 2025 regular business meeting in close session. And our last item is the approval of Neiola policy revisions. Policies 1422 1422.02 1662 2210 2266 2412 3122 3122.02 3362 4122 4122.02 2 4162 4362 5120 5460 7540.02 8300 and 8305 as presented. >>

056Anybody have any issues with any of those new >> one correction in the >> How do we get it? >> Randy me as present and I wasn't. >> Oh, >> I think we have one more bank that was missed on there for Paula. How many banks does she need? >> My class Michigan like MI class. >> MI what? >> MI class is another bank which I'm sorry I missed in there. >> It's new to the district. It's not new, but it's new to the district and I wanted to make sure it got approved. It was on my memo, but it must have missed the >> Well, I missed it on the note page, so my apologies for missing that. >> Okay. Well, we'll add that MI class as another depository for our school funds. Thank

057you. Any exceptions to the consent agenda as present hearing? None. The consent agenda is >> Oh, you got that right. >> Yes. >> From Emily. >> The uh correction >> with the correction. >> Oh, no. I'm sorry. I didn't. >> I was not present at the closed meeting. >> Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. >> Thank you for letting me know that. >> Thank you, Emily. Okay. Then um is there any are there any exceptions to the consent agenda as presented? Hearing none, the consent agenda is approved. And we now move to page 48, assurance of district performance, monitoring report 2.5, financial condition and activities. >> Great, great, great. So this is our monitoring report 25 which talks about our contributions and activities. This is the internal report. Um there um a lot of similarities

058to the past, but I do want to acknowledge one portion of this memo that's a little more detailed. Um as relate to our internal structure, uh we currently have a projected uh unassigned fund balance of 20.4% of our expenditures. Uh the board policy says that we should not have a fund balance that goes below 7%. And obviously at 5% then you're in trouble with the state and there's a lot of additional reporting. So we do have a fund balance of 20.4%. And I know anytime people uh see a number then they start to thinking are we um hoarding or something like that. Should we be doing some things differently beyond that? So, I just want to just take a second just to talk a little bit about some shifts that's occurring at the state level

059financially just so the board is aware. Uh for first, uh our projected fund balance for the end of this school year is expected to be about 15%. Okay. And I still view that as good financial terms and that's more than twice uh the floor that the board has set. But the state funding mechanism is shifting and it it has shifted pretty radically uh in this last funding cycle. First want to acknowledge that the uh state budget was at least three months late which meant that we had to adopt a budget uh you as a board with our recommendation had to adopt a budget prior to July one by law. Uh but unfortunately the legislators did not come to an agreement on the financials. So, we rolled into October with a state budget. With that being

060said, the school aid fund ideally is in a healthy position, but the rules around the school aid fund is shifted. And I'll give you a couple examples. One, uh, $850 million from the school aid fund is going to support community colleges and port and public universities. Uh since 2011, that total uh fund has been used, some people use the term rated or redirected. 11 billion from the school aid fund has been directed to fund community colleges and public universities. This year there was a shift in the retirement cost. Um you know, there's a term called categorical out there. So, uh, the average district is picking up approximately, uh, I'm sorry, throughout the state, um, it's about hund00 million, um, that is not available that's being used to offset our retirement costs. That equates to roughly

061$195 per pupil in terms of what districts are paying towards retirement cost, more than what they've paid in the past. A big huge change has also occurred with the gasoline tax and uh the school aid fund is being used or reduced by $750 million being shifted to roads with no particular guarantee of how they will reimburse or refund the school a fund. With that being said, what I want the board to be apprised of is not to be alarmed by the fund balance. uh because people look at the fund balances thinking uh we should be using it differently. I think we will have to use it differently. I think we will have to use it differently to stay competitive in the labor market. I don't perceive that future funding increases at the state level will

062be as healthy as they have been uh in recent years. So, uh, while we are in a good position financially, uh, and our fund balance is not in jeopardy, I also don't want a narrative out there that, um, our fund balance is technically too high. I think we will we will chip away at our fund balance over the next several years as the state gets their act together about funding K12 schools. Okay? So that's a little different than probably what you've seen in the monitoring report in the past because the monitoring report is to make sure there are asurances that we don't go too low and I want to show assure you that yes we will not go low but also with the number being out there of fund balance understanding there are some shifts

063in in school funding and um ironically they just uh finished this uh this year's funding um budget cycle back on October and now we're going to be starting all over again now thinking about next school year. So just wanted to just share a little bit about that because that has not been into our monitoring report and in essence from our internal perspectives I think we have great internal controls with our director of finance as well as our business office. Uh throughout this report, you'll see that we pay all of our bills on time. Uh and that's there uh within the uh within the monitoring report. We have met all of our payroll obligations uh for all employee groups. All employee groups have been paid as we have negotiated. And then there's also uh in policy

064language 2.57 a piece around uh contractual commitments that's above $100,000 and uh all of our contractual obligations that are north of $100,000 come to the board for approval. Some examples of that would be Woodlands Elementary Construction, uh various technology purchases, uh some curricular purchases, our construct custodial third-party contract, our food service contract. We purchased buses, we purchased vans, and we have SRO's as well as nursing servicing contracts. That's not necessarily an exhaustive list. That's just an example of the types of contracts and services that the board has approved uh in advance. And then 2.58 talks about real estate. We sold one parcel in the last 12 months and that was a parcel by Portage Northern High School uh in the amount of $35,000 which the board approved. And then the board also heard a little

065bit about our leasing agreement with West Middle School. I'm sorry, not West Middle School, West Portage, uh, Little League. Uh, so that concludes uh, my report for our internal controls 25. I'll be happy to go into greater deal of any section of this as you choose. I think there are 11 sections total, but I want just to give an overview of some of the highlights. I'll be happy to answer questions about internal report. Just a short comment. Um, with the you mentioned the delay in getting budget approved in getting funds flowing to us as a school and it has always comforted me when I hear about schools that are having to borrow in order to make payroll that we are not one of those schools. Correct. And that is because we do have um the

066planning ahead the exactly what you described the foresight to say hey something is coming up on the horizon we need to be prepared for that as a possibility and that has been very comforting and I'd say just a general relief and something to be proud of as a district that we are choosing seem to be financially responsible in that way. >> Absolutely. >> To pay for those who do the amazing things in our school that make our schools happen. >> Well, we're fortunate because um depending on the size of the district and how many millions of dollars they have to borrow to meet payroll, they're paying that back with interest, right? So, uh, not only is that a savings on the entrance, that's also a credit to our staffing, which means if we were paying

067interest on a loan, that would cut into our FTEEs of what we're able to do in terms of education of our students. So, that's a huge savings uh that has been around for some time here in Portage. And our our business office does an outstanding job of keeping us able to make payroll uh in the gaps of school funding. And that's another element in which your fund balance comes into play that you're able to meet payroll, pay bills until that state aid payment kicks in. >> I think um the monitoring report fully compliant has my yes. Um you know on the issue of fund balance, I mean I'm usually the one who's asking questions about fund balance and um I get a little uncomfortable when it gets too high. So, um it's it's good to

068hear that, you know, the projection is there going to be some forces that are going to push it down. Um you know, I mean, a trip wire for me is when we get to the end of the year, um our budgeted fund balance is 15%. If the past is prologue, we'll end the year better than that. Mhm. >> And I I think we've gotten in the I mean, if I recall correctly, we've gotten in this position of high fund balance because we always finish a little better than budget. >> So, we kind of creep we kind of have been creeping up every year. So, um I'm going to suggest that we spend some time, some retreat time, just kind of slowly going through this. Um I think I mean one thing that might work for

069me is that um if we have a threshold that we exceed it triggers a report. It it triggers you know something like what you gave tonight kind of walking walking us through that. Um but I just I I just feel a need to have us talk about this more. Any other questions that I can answer? >> Thank you for the additional detail too. >> Yeah, for sure. >> Well, I just want to say John, it's an excellent report and I appreciate you going into some depth on the fund balance and what your comments all illustrate is the unpredictability of state funding. >> That's correct. >> I mean, this last year was unbelievable. you can add 31A to that and uh you know apparently six people in the legislature decided what the school aid fund budget

070was going to be and then everybody else voted on it at 1 in the morning and a lot of errors were made that they have to correct this next year. So um that's what happened last year and then what's scary to me is MASB's last legislative update they indicated that um the house is going to do a major overhaul of school funding this next year. So, I mean, it could be scary. So, anyway, uh we appreciate the the prudent management of our funds, and it's a good feeling knowing we have a cushion if we're going to need it. And uh appreciate the report. Thank you. Um any other comments? Uh there's a motion on page 48, please. Mr. President, I move that the board of education accept monitoring report 2.5 financial condition and activities internal

071as a reasonable interpretation and evidence of compliance with policy. >> Thank you, Mark. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor of approving monitoring report 2.5 financial condition activities, please say I. >> I opposed. Uh the motion passes and the monitoring report is approved. Uh our next uh assurance of district performance is module 2.9 emergency superintendent succession. >> Well, it's uh it's kind of uh funny to be a new superintendent and have to be this monitoring report as an emergency. Uh but with that being said, um uh very similar to what's has occurred in the past, both our assistant superintendent uh uh serve in my absence uh when I'm away uh for conference or out, you know, uh they they serve and able to handle the day-to-day pieces if I'm

072away from the district uh or not available. In addition to that, um Dr. Incinius plays a good role uh as well as monitoring particularly our elementary schools in the event there's a need for some help. Um we're going to be doing some u some work with policy governance uh in the spring uh for my professional development uh in May and Ann Arbor and I informed the board. And then also having a great administrative assistant in Barb Ason. Uh she helps with uh many of our policies and operational issues kind of behind the scenes that she could also al also step in and help. Uh what's included in the monitoring report is our uh org chart. um what I shared uh to our team and I may not have shared publicly to the board that I

073didn't view uh in my first year that we needed to change or modify our organizational chart. So while we obviously have different employees in these various roles, the structure that you see in place would remain in place uh in its entirety for this first year. Uh over time, we'll study it. If there's an opportunity for to for us to improve it, we'll look at that. Uh but starting out as a as a new superintendent, I didn't think it was uh wise of me to start moving things around. I wanted to actually study it and see how we how we do. And that has, you know, obviously uh made our our team members know, hey, Johnny's not interested in in moving things around in the future. If there exists an opportunity to improve it, we'll look

074at that. But for all intents and purposes, this uh orbit remains intact. I'll be happy to answer any questions you have about uh super emergency superintendent secession. >> Good report, Jenny. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> There's a motion on page 59, please. >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education accept as presented the monitoring report on 2.9 emergency superintendent succession as a reasonable interpretation and evidence of compliance with policy. >> Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor of approving monitoring report 2.9, please say I. I. >> I. Opposed. Uh. The motion passes and the emergency superintendent succession monitoring report is approved. We have an action item this evening and that's the to accept the single audit act compliance report. >> Frank Sammy Stevens, our business manager, will uh walk us through

075this uh report. >> Good evening board of ed and superintendent Belang or Edwards. I kept saying like I did it cuz it's so natural. >> I'm going to scrape this and send this to right die hard. >> Um tonight in your board report you'll find the single audit. Uh typically this audit is also presented uh with the normal audit that we present in November of each year uh when Kim comes and visits. However, this year this single audit was um held out further just because of the federal government shutdown and uh we didn't have final guidance for that um audit just yet. So, I'm here tonight to present that to you. Um the district is required to have a single audit done and that's just because we receive more than $750,000 in federal funding. A

076lot of that comes from the lunch fund. Um but we still get quite a bit uh for the general fund. Um that amount does change. I believe it is this year and it goes up to uh I think it's a million dollars. Um the new test programs just like they test uh different things throughout the general fund. Uh the programs tested this year were title one and then the remaining ESSER funding. Um and I'm happy to report that there were no findings and we received an unmodified opinion this year. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have. This does wrap up um monitoring report 2.51 just like with a nice or 2.5 with a nice little bow for you guys as well. So >> unmodified made it good. As I usually say,

077both you and Paula, when my I may have majored in physics undergrad, but when I see all those numbers on a page, my eyes kind of go and it takes a bit to figure it out. And I am extraordinarily thankful for the two of you with your skills and abilities that keep track of it in a way that just amazes me. Thank you. Thank you, Sammy. I appreciate it. >> Absolutely. >> Do we have We have a motion, right? >> Yes. On page 64, please. >> President Vaner, I move that the board of education accept the 2024 25 Single Audit Act compliance report as presented. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor of approving the single audit act compliance report, please say I. >> I opposed.

078>> Uh the motion passes. And uh the single audit act compliance is approved. And now we'll move to our discussion items. And I believe Ryan is going to be up for a couple of them with Steve. >> Brian Encast. >> Evening Superintendent Edwards. that out of the way. So, tonight we have two uh -ate projects to talk about. If you remember, -ate is for schools and libraries to secure internet. So, what I plan to do is going to read uh both of the recommendations first and then we have a short slide deck. Steve's here to help with the historical and super extra technical stuff. So, we get started on that. So tonight uh recommend the board of education approve the awarded contract with Veritah Telecommunications Corporation for the purpose of replacing and burying the fiber

079opt optic cabling that connects all PPS buildings. The total cost for this part of the project will be $433,65452 and the funds will come from 2025 bond fund. The second recommendation also a fiber project. I recommend that the board of education approve the awarded contract fiber link incorporated for the purpose of installing supplemental fiber optic cabling at both the central high school and northern high school outdoor athletics facilities. Total cost for this project will be 26,574 that's $54786 and the funds will also come from the 2020 fund 2025. So the slide deck will help explain these projects in more detail. also the funding because with -ate we our reimbursement rate if you remember projects that qualify for either category 1 or category 2 this is what -ate program there are different categories of things that

080they will cover they reimburse a certain percentage of the project our reimbursement rate happens to be 50%. But for fiber optic projects, this last round of -ate also gave you an additional 20% discount. So for 70% uh discount rate. So for an overall 30% cost of the project, you can get the project done. So we can go right into that. >> Great. Thank you. I never thought in my old age I would be the district historian, but uh here I am tonight. Just had a birthday. >> Yeah, I No, I just had a birthday so I feel great about that now. So um obviously with the cost of this project um and overall I just wanted to give some background on why are we approaching this project and you know why now on this. So

081uh you know fiber optics is our way that we um handle our high-speed data across long distance reliably. Um this district was very fortunate to be forward thinking with that and did that uh project back in the late 90s. Um all of our district buildings in Portage public schools are connected what we call multiple strands of fibers. So that means that in one cable there are multiple smaller cables in there or really it's just glass that we use light um to for communications and that comes back to our administration uh building here or over there. um that allows us to provide internet access to all of our buildings. All that internet is actually sourced in the administration building, not at our individual buildings. Um and then allows for the Wi-Fi connection to work reliably, telephones,

082security camera, access controls, our HVAC scheduling controls, and so much more to correctly. So fiber is very important for the life of our district so that we don't interrupt instructional time uh with any kind of unplanned outages. Um so here today this is our ex existing fiber infrastructure as it exists today. Um you see we have a lot of spurs you know basically we have a a pattern coming from the administration building. Uh this was all run back in the late 90s um with a lot of other school districts in the area and with Kesa to uh build out a futurep proof network of uh to basically allow us internet access at the time for you know how young it was. Um but also to interconnect everything to is or from ISDs to local school

083districts. service uh life of fiber optic cable uh is approximately 25 to 30 years. If you do the math, we're coming up very closely to that. Um all the most of the fiber optic cable that was run in this was actually done in the air. It was not buried. So there's additional concern over time of UV light uh degrading that fiber over time. Um so that does reduce that um lifespan by not a ton but a little bit in its concern but also we see that we um aerial fiber optic is vulnerable to weather vehicle strikes. We do see utility work uh breaking fiber optic uh connections. Mostly we see it in tree damage. We'll have trees uh come up, you know, branches come off and break it in storms. Uh rodents and critters love

084to chew the stuff for some reason. don't quite understand why, but we do see that a lot. And I was uh talking to Randy beforehand. I think the most memorable fiber optic outage that we had was actually a garage sale sign that was nailed through many years ago. So, um if it's out in the open, it can be damaged very easily. Uh the other consideration here is that the actually our dis school district does not fully control our existing fiber infrastructure. Meaning that through many different acquisitions in the way that this fiber was procured, we do not own the entire cable of fiber. We actually own individual strands within that fiber. meaning that when there is damage it becomes very difficult to coordinate that work because we might be sharing uh fiber infrastructure for with

085you know say striker or fizer or other corporations in the area that have different service level agreements. So if there is a break that only affects us there might have to be a two-eek notice for the other companies so that they can manage and uh you know control that downtime that may happen. So that becomes an additional challenge when we are coordinating that order out there. Um and from my notes here, we've actually seen three to four different acquisitions of fiber companies that have owned that fiber optic um cable over time. So uh that does present a issue with that. for this project to become -ray eligible we have to uh put out an RFP obviously but we have to ask for fiber and uh four different ways. So the one way is we can

086say we can have standalone internet service at each of our buildings which means that we would have an internet circuit come in and it would be our responsibility to provide hardware to link our buildings together. There are advantages and disadvantages to that, but we were currently not positioned to do that uh with that uh kind of uh activity and that build out. There's two other ways. There's lease dark fiber, which means that we would actually lease fiber from another entity and that lease cost would actually take care of any of the maintenance over time and we would pay that on a monthly and annual cost there. We would be responsible for all the connections there. that's most similar to what we have now only we own the fiber in there. There's also lease lit fiber

087which is very similar to that but the entity that we are leasing from would provide those connections and then finally we have a self-provision network which where we commission the building of the network and we handle that uh which is very much much similar to what we have today. Uh so with that we have uh the comparison of those which is in your packet there. We received different responses back there. So you'll see different numbers there. Uh each dark fiber was quoted by two of the vendors and as we looked at those numbers and extrapolated that out over 20 years, those costs would be well over $2 million to the district. We also had a vendor uh reply with a least lit uh fiber option and that cost was approximately 1.3 million after 20 years.

088And then we had self-provisioned fiber vendors come back and uh with varied costs from 1.4 to$ 1.6 million. And to be clear that this is the district option, not the athletics that we were talking about before. The chosen pro uh proposal here is very similar to the map that I showed before, but uh with some slight changes to where the fiber optics run. It's avoiding the Westnich corridor um instead going down the center uh center street corridor. Uh each one would uh allow us 12 strands of fiber to each school site, which gives us ample opportunity to expand in the future. Um, and the big pro is that it would have be 100% buried infrastructure, meaning that then that mitigation of tree damage, weather damage goes greatly down. And really our only worry then is,

089you know, people digging and uh misdig marking things quite correctly, which does happen. Um but that does mitigate that to um a much more acceptable level at that point. The uh approximate bit build time for that is about 12 6 months or so. Um and that lifespan of that fiber would be easily over 30 years because of it being buried in the ground. Uh then I'll give it to Ryan here for how this funding works. So yeah, this gives a little bit little a little bit uh information about what I was mentioning before, how this round of -ate has our normal reimbursement rate plus an additional 10% discount from the federal government and a a one-time uh state matching matching grant from Michigan Department of Ed. You may see the letter in your packet actually

090does have the superintendent belang. So I almost made the same mistake earlier or not a mistake but you know like happy accident. Uh but that letter was because when we applied for this in that reate cycle last year, that's when that letter came through. And so I I do want to add that there was one proposal that had the fiber uh terminating at Chick-fil-A that was really difficult to put turn down, but decided that we probably should air on the side of the cost. Before I move off of this, you have any questions on how that funding works? Great opportunity for us. Wow. >> The 70% discount plus having a supportive community that passes the bonds. This makes a a a great time, the ideal time to to do a project of this scale. So,

091kind of continuing with that, obviously a project on a much smaller scale, but still significant is supplemental fiber at the athletics complex comp complexes. And we call it supplemental because there's already fiber there going to both football stadiums, uh, both team locker rooms, the doghouse and the stable. So those ancillary, you know, auxiliary buildings, those gyms already have it as well, uh, and the main concession buildings, but there were pockets of both uh, complexes that that don't have it. And so, for example, just whatever other fields or press boxes and additional concession facilities will get it as well. So, here's a look. The shading's a little difficult on the screen. That is a lot better actually than the TV up there. So, you can see this is ported to Northern. And so, all the other

092areas that I was talking about already have it, but you can see uh the doghouse. I don't know if the laser guy works. It does. So, this is a dog house. Sorry, Russ, if I get you. Right above there is a baseball field. So, we'll have a connection there. And then we'll be going out to the soccer field uh to make sure both sides are covered. and then down to the softball field as well. And that will cover all of the the facilities out there on Northern's complex at Portage Central. Got a couple different locations. So, just to kind of orient you, uh football stadium here, the home stands over here, if you can imagine that soccer field right behind, and then we'll be running down here to the additional soccer concession stand and then

093over to baseball. And then similar on the other side of the field, this is the team locker room. So on the and then we'll go right out to softball as well. So what does this do for us there? It gets the infrastructure in place uh for those all of the facilities now at both complexes. And what we're seeing is is increased demand and all kinds of things from uh cameras that are, you know, live streaming the games or the cam cameras that are being used for uh recruiting purposes. Uh the concessions obviously the point of sale uh devices that are used out there, you know, ideal to have Wi-Fi. The team locker rooms, they sometimes want to review footage from their game right during halftime or whatever. So there's a lot of uses and a

094lot more demand that we're seeing over time. Exterior Wi-Fi is a is an increasing demand. There's all kinds of things that are there. We can't really do any of that without the infrastructure in the ground. So similar to the cost breakdown for the district fiber, overall the project would cost us close to $89,000. The out of pocket really ends up being 26,54786. So this time any questions that you might have or thoughts or anything you want to share? >> Yes. >> Um the the data center for everything is at the ad building right now. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> And how will this impact the capacity that we have here? >> So it'll it'll keep it the same. We actually will have more strands of fiber buried in the ground than what we currently

095have access to now. So room to expand. uh it won't impact as far as the capacity goes uh what what we have in the data center currently and we also have a disaster recovery site within the district as well. So we always uh so say something happens you know to the fiber connection to the admin building we have backup uh in case that that that were to happen. Anything you want to add to the capacity? >> No. Yeah. So yeah capacity does not really have a net change at the very end. Um, you know, it the the fiber is really just the lifeblood of getting data from one point to another. Um, we you know, we've seen technology where speeds have increased. Uh so we can push much more data over one strand of fiber.

096But there's also technologies out there too um that we've used to help mitigate some capacity issues where we can use one uh length of fiber uh and one strand to have multiple data links on that by really for a lack of better terms of shooting uh different colors of light down the fiber. Um, so we've used that when we've had uh creative way or creative needs there to help with cost. So we didn't have to procure that at that time. Um, but we did upsize how much is going to Northern High. And then if you looked at our first map there, you kind of saw that there was like a circle going up out to Kesa as well. We did upsize over to Zyleman because that that loop would still be in existence from uh

097because that was procured later uh in uh close to 2009 uh right around there. >> Thanks. >> When would this work begin? >> Well, uh pending board approval at the end of the month, we would kick off a meeting with both vendors to determine the the timing of everything. But apparently as as soon as the ground can thaw and that the construction teams are available that we could start. So pie in the sky ideal would love to have it done for the fall. Don't know if that's realistic or not, but we can keep you posted on that. >> Um for the sorry for the districtwide project, there's a lot of permitting that needs to go into that as well. So that permitting would start uh and then once the ground would thaw, they would start

098uh commence work on that. But uh uh the the district-wide fiber vendor has said that that would be a six-month lead time uh from basically the word go to the buildout being complete. Uh the other uh the athletics ones it's a little bit more cut and dry. Um and that would be done probably my guess is um about a month or so. We'll have to avoid the spring sports schedule, you know, and work around that because they'll be on site with the boring machine to be able to bury the the fiber, those cables and everything like that. So, we'll have to work around some complicated schedules probably to get that done. Uh, just one last thing, -ate happens in fiveyear cycles. So, this was a part of the last 5-year cycle. The new next 5year

099cycle has begun. We've already put out another RFP specifically for fiber maintenance. So, what happens if the, you know, overexuberant homeowner, you know, is putting a new picket fence out by the road and and cuts through the fiber, something like that, the the maintenance contract that we would have is also -ate eligible and that would be the the agreement that we have, the contract that it would come to respond to any fiber bridges. So, that will be included in the next cycle that we'll have coverage for. Oh, thanks. Great work. Thanks. You're >> welcome. Thank you. >> Our last discussion item tonight is uh to approve the program of studies. >> So, uh coming up tonight, uh we have both Tracy and McKenzie um within our CIA department. Uh Tracy is our director of systems

100and our 912 curriculum. And then McKenzie works with the youngers. So young five for kindergarten through 8th grade along with professional art. >> Good evening, superintendent of words and board of trustees. Um we are excited just to be up here tonight and be able to update you with any changes and additions to the program studies um for your approval. So we'll start with elementary. There were our typical updates um changing names, roles that may have changed locations, just very basic stuff and making sure the table of contents matched the new page numbers. So, no major um updates to elementary. As for middle school, we made those same small adjustments that always happen, but then we did add the description to the introduction to world language course that we started offering and we removed the water

101sports course which has actually been embedded embedded in just the typical um PE class. So, they don't have a separate course for that anymore and haven't for a number of years. And then the last thing in middle school was we changed the math plus in 8th grade to fit the actual course which is algebra 1. And so those are our middle school and elementary updates. >> And at the high school level similar formatting and updates to table of context contents and names. Um some courses were added as well. Um so uh at CIC there was a presentation for statistics in our community, robotics and mathletics. Those three courses all passed in a vote and were added to the program of studies. We also added some level three courses in business. Those formally ran but as

102an independent study and so there were enough students in those classes to just build a course with that name. And then we're piloting um an IB English SL class starting next year. So we added that course to the program of study and a description. We also removed a few courses that for several years did not run at our high schools. And so we've listed those there for you to see. Some of those like dance fitness sound really fun, but apparently it just wasn't getting students signed up. So, we remove those from the program of studies for the upcoming school year. Those are our updates for the program of studies. What questions might you have for us? >> I will just say I was at the uh CIC meeting and saw the presentations on both the

103math classes and the robotics and all of it was really very impressive. Um, if I'm remembering right, the math classes were designed for students who didn't really have a math class to take as a senior and they may not be collegebound students, but we need to still keep them engaged in the math world to be career ready going forward. So, there were some pretty neat stuff there. And the robotics class sounded amazing. So, so I'll put the plug in for that. I would like to ask just about a couple of the things that were um deleted. So um is IB theater still a class but it's we just don't have an SL class. Is that right? Or we don't have it at all? >> It hasn't run in a few years. >> Okay. Y >>

104I thought it was being offered here and students came here. >> No. Uh it has been offered here. It just hasn't run for a few years. So it is my understanding that there's there's very few students who select that. So they haven't had enough interest to have a course run every year. >> Okay. And then the IB biology is just an SL. You still have HL. >> We were just running the HL, not the SL anymore. >> Great. And then can you tell me about engineering principles? Whatever was that class? >> Um I don't know, Terry, the history of that class to be very honest. Um, but I do know that there are some other classes like computer science principles that have generated a lot more interest. And so I can't I don't know if

105you know the history of engineering principles. Um, I just know that it hasn't run in years. >> Well, and some of us were thinking maybe the robotics kind of filled that >> fill that need. >> And then my final one is about Latin. So what's happened there? because we had such a thriving Latin program and I'm just curious. >> I think uh this year, if I'm not mistaken, I'd have to go back and look, we have less than 15 students enrolled in one Latin course. Um I'd have to go and confirm those numbers. So, uh it's been a program that we have kind of phased out over time because of lack of interest. So this >> those 15 students are kids that I understand were >> started and were given an opport Yeah. So they're

106in Latin three I believe the um so we let them finish their sequence of study um but we're going to wrap that up this >> interesting because it seems like that would be a class that would have a lot of traction. So, >> you know, at our next CIC, we will show you the results of the middle school elective survey. And I think that you'll find it very interesting. Um, not only about language, but what electives students in general would like to see us expand on. In middle school, we had over a thousand student responses. So I had a lot of fun over December break reading that their responses which we're excited to share with you at the next CIC >> and then a couple hundred parent and >> staff as well be part of

107that. >> So that will give kind of an overview I think of just the general direction we're starting to see that want come out and so it'll be interesting. >> Okay great thanks. Can you do you mind? Um I know different board members have different level of understanding of SL versus HL. That would be >> I didn't think about that. >> No, you're good. Can you just uh give us a short snippet on on SL versus HL? >> I need to work on my um elevator speech on SLHL. SL stands for standard level. It is generally considered to be one year of study of a subject. HL is called higher level and that is generally considered to be two years of study of the same subject. So when Terry asked about biology HL, students are

108enrolled in that course as a junior and again as a senior and they're continuing their learning over the two-year period of time. >> Thank you. So, as a student of Latin who was a member of the Latin club here at Porter Central and many years of Latin here at the time, I'm kind of sad to see that go. Um, I however was in a discussion this weekend with a family of students who have recently or a little less recently graduated. um wondering why we did not provide a robotics class um knowing that other local schools not only offered those but sometimes had arenas set up etc that were quite impressive and so I'm very glad to see that um the timing of that comment versus this meeting was oddly coincidental and kind of fun to

109be able to respond if you for um someone wanted to take like one year of IB biology, can you still do that at the HL level and then not take the second year or is it a two-year program? >> It's a two-year commitment. Yeah. So, if you're working on your IB diploma, right, you would take three SL subjects and three HL subjects, and you would map that out with our IB coordinator what your strengths would be. So if your student is maybe not the best math or science person, they might say, "I want to I want to ch study an SL in these areas, right?" And they would coordinate that with their their IB coordinator in their buildings determined. So some students uh we've got people in this audience who um love English and love

110the HL English class and who don't love that class, right? are more math science people and would prefer to take those challenging courses. >> Um I I do appreciate a lot a lot of the changes you made and like cleaning things out and offering new ones, but I do have to say I'm sorry to see Latin go. Um and also for the science reason. My husband is a medical professional, retired, and he, you know, relied on his Latin, you know, all the time and still does, you know. So, I I would hope at some point it would be reintroduced to our students and maybe we can get some of our science teachers behind that to encourage kids and see how it's used >> outside of the language realm. Um, and that keeps us as one

111of those schools that is offering some exceptional programming that others are not. So, and I think that's important. >> We had a vibrant German program at one time, too, and we haven't had German for about 10 years. So, you know, basically it's French and Spanish, and I know French has even been kind of on the edge at times, too. So, uh, like Mary Lou said, if we're going to call ourselves an exemplary district, we need to offer exemplary opportunities for our kids. And that needs to be stuff that isn't just IB. >> And remembering that Latin has so many um, advantages beyond, you know, the the Latin that is often used in the scientific and medical fields. and so on. The number of times my first year of teaching that everybody else in the school

112in this small school brought their the English teachers were bringing me their vocabulary list and saying how do you pronounce this and what does it mean? >> And I went why am I the one knowing except I answered it correctly. Um but a lot of that was it due in part to the Latin where I had not realized it at the time how much benefit it had on the SAT and ACT. how much it had in just general vocabulary uh and so on and so forth and understanding these words that they had never heard before and why don't you know that word it was I'm sure in due large part due to the Latin classes that I had taken and so I would encourage that to be looked into how it can be encouraged in

113the future um understanding the reasoning behind it having been removed now but saying how can we consider that or something similar to really improve those languages. >> Yeah, I think we both um see a need to continue just the language conversation in general. Um I graduated from the German um program that was here long ago, >> but um it definitely is something that could be a marker for Portage Public Schools, but at this time just offering the two. We're we're building that program and that's one of the goals of some of these shifts we've had. But it is going to be a constant conversation moving forward just on what does what do we want this to look like for Portage public schools >> along it or not my son took Latin for fun. >> He

114took it as a second language. So took two languages but had a teacher for Spanish who also happened to be the Latin teacher and he loved her so much that he took Latin as well. So um yeah, it's it's it's not the dredgy boring thing that people think it really is. There's so much culture and history embedded in that too that then when you go to Greece, you know what's going on. I would be curious is if we're seeing some of that impact with how we've made some changes at our English program and middle school level and then how we are um if with the change that we've made in our um languages if that intro course doesn't even cover Latin um as an option for for them to have that that knowledge and insight

115if that's a possibility of a course they could pursue. >> That's definitely something we haven't considered or thought about. So, thank you for bringing that up. >> Thanks. >> Thank you for bringing all of this to our attention. Thank you for your report. Um, the one I looked at in depth was middle school and, uh, I requested it and I think Leslie had it to me within five minutes. So, u, I took a look at that and I just want to say I'm real happy that math plus is now algebra 1 because that's what it is. >> That's what it is, right? We want to be very clear. >> Thank you. Okay, we've reached the end of our agenda. I just need board self assessments and mod report evaluations on 2.5 and 2.9. And with

116that, we are ajourned. Thank you. >> The session >> close session minutes. >> Oh, the session. I thought we did. spot. >> Yeah, same.