001You're alive, Randy. >> This meeting of the board is now called to order. Please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you and welcome. uh get started tonight by approving our agenda. There's a motion, please, on page two. Mr. >> President, I move that we approve the agenda as printed. >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. Opposed. The motion passes and we'll start where uh we always do with the superintendent report. Johnny. All right. Thank you uh Randy as well as the members of the board of education. I am super excited. This
002is my first official board meeting and as I shared with Bo moments ago, I think it's weird given the update from this position where standing at the podium. Uh but in relation to our Bahan project update, I'll start with Woodland Elementary School. Uh Woodland Elementary School has been demolished. They are cleaning up the site so that they can start with the uh construction. of the school is uh that building is gone now and we're getting the ball rolling from there. Moving over to Central Elementary School, uh the big work that you'll see outside is putting in the new parking lot. Uh we have our vendor on site working to put the new parking lot in place. On the inside of the building, we have a couple small things around cleaning and then we also have
003uh some minor work with uh just tighten up the loose ends. We're right now in what we call our punch list area and that's where our architects and our CM walk the building together, identify small areas that needs to be addressed if any. Same over at Haver Hill. We're doing a lot of work with the exterior and the parking lot as well. Uh one of the smaller differences is uh you know obviously Haver Hill is a smaller building and as you know we intentionally staggered uh roughly 45 days between those two schools. So that gap in terms of the complete finish is much smaller now. So Central Haverill is close to alignment where Central Elementary School is now. What we've done now is we fully enclosed the buildings. We've put the exterior doors on there.
004So now in addition to the um the perimeter being secure with our construction gates, now our exterior uh doors are in place now. Uh so we're really excited about that. Once the BU building is what we consider fully secure, uh our technology team will be putting in our our television panels in all of the classrooms and those are comparable to these 75 in and those will go inside the classrooms. But again, we have a nice cleaning crew in place that are currently cleaning up all the dust. And then our last big rock to move would be our furniture has all been delivered, but it has not been staged in the areas throughout the school. So staging will be occurring over the next couple of weeks. With that being said, uh our staff at Central and
005Haverill will return a little earlier than the rest of the school. And I'm saying this now because by the time we meet again in August, we would have surpassed that point. >> But essentially, uh, Haver Hill and central staff will come back on Tuesday, August 12th. They'll have a full day professional development with our CIA team and department and then they'll start unboxing their uh materials from their old school, start setting up their classrooms and we wanted to give them some additional days in advance of the rest of the district so that they can feel comfortable by the first day of school. So that concludes my report and I'll be happy to answer any questions. >> When is the first day for the other teachers? Uh, that's a that's a good one. Brad, first day
006for teachers are >> August 19th. >> Will Woodland now housed at Haver Hill be coming earlier to set up or are they pretty well? >> So, they also have additional days. Okay. >> U, their additional day uh starts after Central Haven Hill returns. So, Central Habriel returns on the 12th for the professional development and on the 13th when the unboxing occurs, the teachers at Woodland will be able to come to their site and start unboxing as well. >> Thank you, Johnny. Thank you. >> Or uh at our comments and communication section, there's no one who wishes to address the board this evening. Are there any comments by board trustees? >> Happy summer. >> Yes. Enjoy the summer. Tell the staff. It's going quickly. >> Randy, a quick shout out to the middle school summer experience
007folks and everybody who helped with that. They had their share fair last week and it was really cool. Fun seeing, you know, kids engaged in the summertime. >> Okay. Anything else? Okay. We'll move to our consent agenda. We only have one thing on there this evening and that's approval of the minutes of the June 30, 2025 regular business meeting. Are there any exceptions to the consent agenda as uh presented here? Hearing none, the consent agenda is approved. And we got to go all the way to page 29. Um read our first action item number one, affirmation of school calendar through 2025. And Johnny, are you going to present that or Brad? >> Take that forward. >> Brad will be up here for the next couple of agenda items. >> You stuck with me for a
008little bit. My apologies in advance. So, yeah. Uh, first item here, the affirmation of school calendar. Um, as as most of you know, our entire school calendar is negotiated with our with the PEA. So, we're still in the midst of negotiations. We've actually just started really with them with the financial uncertainty from the state. It's been kind of hard to have a financial opener when we're working through that. So, um so we're asking the board right now is just out of uh uh out of necessity to let our families know what the first part of school is going to look like. Just affirming the calendar through August and September. Uh we'll either bring the full calendar or if we're still negotiating at that point, we'll start doing month by month later on. But we have
009one meeting in August. So thought it's important just to get both August and September. I will point out that this calendar as it's reflected does reflect both bargaining positions. So we really don't have any disagreements on the calendar until well into the school year. So uh we are on the same page here with the August and September dates. >> Any questions for Brad? Um there's a motion please on page 29 to uh affirm the school calendar. >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education affirm that the district shall operate through September 2025 within the framework of the 25 202526 school calendar that reflects the board of education's current school calendar proposal as presented. >> Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor of approving the school calendar through
010September of 2025, please say I. I. Opposed. The motion passes. We'll move to our second action item which is a new administrator appointment. >> All right. Once again, I'm happy to be up here to introduce a new administrator. Um the person who in the future will be giving those bond project updates from this podium here. So happy to introduce to the board and recommend for his approval Mr. Russell Gerbers. It goes by Russ here. Um Mr. Gerbers is joining us from the Byron Center School District where he's currently the director of technology. So, um, really pleased to have him here. Prior to being at at Byron Center, he was in Kenoa Hills. Um, he actually talked during his interview, one of his favorite years was serving as both the technology director and athletic director for
011Kenowa Hills. So, he likes to be busy apparently is what we're taking away from that. And he started his career in education as a math teacher as well. So, really pleased to have Mr. Gerber joining us here. So graduated from the University of South Florida, Gold Bulls, and obtained his masters from Grand Valley State University. He's also had several certifications through MSBO, which is the Michigan School Business Officials Association. So he's bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience, and we're really pleased to have him joining us as our new assistant superintendent of operations. I just want to add to that. Um, in terms of our process, uh, we add a panel for those who are working within operations, those who, uh, report to the position and then the exec team also had a round of
012interviews as well. And we were pleased that Russ rose to the top in both cases. >> Excellent. >> Thank you, Johnny. Thank you, Brad. >> Well, welcome, Russ. >> Thank you. >> Would you like to say a few words? >> Sure. just uh the interview process was great. Brad did an amazing job uh during the my research of the district. Very pleased with the district, a very very accomplished district over the years. Very happy to be joining the team. The administration team seems very welcoming. So you guys have done a great job putting together a very fabulous district. I'm happy to be joining it. >> That's great. Welcome. We look forward to having you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Let's see if we can get you approved now. Okay. There's a motion on page
01331. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the following administrator appointment for Portage Public Schools. Mr. Russell Gerbers, assistant superintendent of operations. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Have a second. Okay, very good. All those in favor of uh our new administrator appointment, please say I. >> I opposed. >> The motion passes. Welcome, Russ. >> Thank you very much. Can we shake your hand? Nice to meet you Russ and Congratulations. >> Hi Terry. Nice to meet you. >> Welcome sir. Look forward to working with you. >> Thank you. >> Welcome and congratulations. Yeah. >> Congratulations here. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. And we'll now move to page 32 for our third action item and that's new teacher appointments. Brad once again you'd like to see
014me in July and August because I bring you new teachers to hire. So uh this will be the large list. So there will be a smaller list in August what I'm anticipating right now because we um once again were able to get ahead of a lot of the game and get teachers hired. In fact, I believe the first teacher on here we had actually hired in April uh the offer in April to get her on board. So really um compliments to our our leadership, our principles for really making a focus to get really good people on board. Um I will also say this year we're seeing a rebound in terms of our candidate numbers. So for a number of years we we were seeing a decline, but we have seen a rebound in in candidate
015numbers for this year. Just as one of the examples I pulled out at Angling Road, we had a second grade opening. I had 45 applicants for that position. So, a couple years ago, our numbers were hovering in the mid20s, which a lot of my counterparts in other districts are jealous at mid20s. So, now it'll be out that we were back in the mid-40s, so they can be more jealous of us in that way. Um, would like to point out just a couple of people on here. Um, a couple people who are taking advantage of our grow our own program that we're able to bring on board. So, um, and they've gotten some grant monies to get teaching certifications either going through their traditional education or getting reinstated. So, we have a couple of those folks
016on there. Um, Jason Milan, who'll be joining us here at Central High School as an ESI teacher. Um, is adding a an endorsement to his certification. There is one of them. And we have another one as well. His name I'm looking for on the list and I'm not finding it. But we do have a couple finally of our grow our own really starting to show and they will show on this teacher list and hopefully we'll have more in the years to come as well. >> Thank you Brad. Any questions for Brad? >> Uh is there a motion please to affirm the new teacher appointments? >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the appointment of the following teachers for Portage Public Schools. Courtney Balier, Central High ESI teacher. Katie Zur, Northern High
017ESI teacher. Megan Hall, Northern High media specialist. Graham Howard, Northern High Health PE teacher. Jason Milin, Central High ESI teacher. Samara Munoz, Lake Center Elementary third grade teacher. Kyra Reese, 12th Street Elementary 2 grade teacher. Suzanne Wolfford, Lake Center Elementary 2 grade teacher. Emma Chester, Northern High Spanish teacher. Emily Stewart, school social worker. Nicholas Stayw, Northern High School counselor. Blake Schustster, Angling Road Elementary PE teacher. James Rissy, Northern High biology teacher. Jaylen Bethkkey, Northern High math teacher. Julie Degraphth, West Middle School science teacher. David Peters, St. Augustine Catholic. Uh, whatever. music teacher, shared teacher. Uh, James Peruchi, music teacher for St. Augustine, Hackett and St. Michaels. Okay, there's your answer. Ashley Stack, Central High social studies teacher. Grace Whisner, West Middle, math teacher. Samantha Shatz, Northern High family and consumer science teacher. Jenny Msky, music
018teacher for Kazoo Country Day School and St. Michaels. Parker Bailey, North Middle social studies teacher. Angela Boon, Central High Social Studies teacher. Hannah Stewart, Angling Road Elementary, fifth grade teacher. Aaron Kissinger, Central Middle Media Specialist. Evan Jones, Angling Road Elementary teacher. Madison Mallister, Central High art teacher. Abigail Shambo, Angling Road Elementary fifth grade teacher. Shannon Howard, West Middle School Spanish teacher. Teresa Cooper, instructional consultant, ELA. and Hannah Stewart, Angling Road Elementary teacher. Is there a second, please? >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> I have a quick question. Um Brad, could you refresh us? There's some teachers on here that are assigned to schools other than Portage Public Schools, and I I forget the nuance there. Could you give us a quick background? >> Absolutely. So, Portage works with Kalamazoo Country Day and the
019um Kamazoo Arch Dasis School. So, St. Augustine, uh, St. Monica and Hackett as well as St. Michael's here in Portage and provide what's called shared time programming. So, um, classes that are not considered core classes. So, you'll see art, music, Spanish, those kind of classes, we are able to provide the support staff for that program. We get in turn, we can claim the FTE with the state for that program since they are not core classes. And so, that's why we hire the teachers directly. So they are portage teachers with us. Um and so they're getting credit toward their retirement system and those kind of things that you don't get if you are a teacher directly in those parochial or private type of schools. So that's what those are. >> Thank you. >> Anything else for
020Brad? All those in favor approving the new teacher appointments, please say I. I opposed. Uh the motion passes. The new teacher appointments are approved and we'll now move to our first discussion items which is staff Chromebook purchase. >> Evening Superintendent Edwards. Got to get that right. >> Board of Trustees. Evening. Tonight's recommendation I'm recommending to the board that you approve the purchase of, let me get the right page in front of me. 100 staff Chromebooks from CDWG in the amount of $44,347. Funds for those Chromebooks will come from the 2023 bond fund. This is a annual purchase. Every year we figure out exactly how many devices we need for incoming staff members, all the teachers that you just heard being hired plus devices that are aging out or they might break, they might go along
021the way. Our number this year is 100. We do have the licenses for those. So included in this purchase is just the devices. We don't have to include the licenses for that. Saves us a little money. We are going continuing with the HPG series of Chromebooks. And the teachers get a 14-in display. It's a bit bigger obviously than the than our student Chromebooks. So look has the look and the feel of of a laptop just a little bit bigger display. And so and they have better processing power, that kind of thing. All of these are available on the REMC bids save program. So we did not have to go out to quote for that. And because of the one board meeting in the month of July, if uh if you're comfortable with that, we would
022appreciate approval tonight, tonight's meeting. Any questions that you have? Happy to answer those. >> Board okay to approve this tonight? So, >> we have a motion to move this item to action. Please, >> Mr. President, I move that the board move the staff Chromebook purchase discussion action item. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor of moving the staff Chromebook purchase to action, please say I. >> I opposed. The motion passes. And now we need a motion to approve. Please. >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the purchase as presented of 100 staff Chromebooks from CDWG in the amount of $44,347, the funds for which will come from the 2023 bond fund. >> Thank you, Kimberly. Is there a second? >> Second. >>
023Thank you. All those in favor of approving the staff Chromebook purchase, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh the motion passes. The staff Chromebook purchase is approved. Our next discussion item is the interactive flat panels for the new elementary schools. >> Thank you. So the next recommendation is to approve the purchase of 12. That's fine. Smart RX uh interactive flat panels from Forte Incorporated in the amount of $67,314. The funds for the interactive flat panels, IFPS for short, uh will come from the 2023 bond fund. So as we discussed the appropriate device for the common areas in the new elementary schools, uh that conversation took many, you know, pathways and has been occurring all year and we came across just kind of coming up with we want something a little bit different than just a a
024TV on a cart and kind of the typical experience in a classroom. And then thinking through how would the teachers use that space, being able to maybe cast to it wirelessly, having some other options. And then we started to explore the idea of interactive flat panels. So those are just they they look like TVs, but you may have heard them called smartboards or interactive boards or Prometheian boards or all those kinds of other, you know, names or phrases that you might have been heard and tossed around. As we got thinking through that and discussing that, we landed on the fact that that is the ideal solution in those areas because it does it fosters and promotes collaboration. Uh it's it's accessible. The tools are designed specifically for any user be able to walk up to
025it. The carts that we're recommending tonight to put the the flat panels on uh have a a range of motion from 26 in. So it helps our smallest to tallest learners. So the even the young five kids, it will get low enough for them to be able to reach the panel. Maybe not the very tippy top, but they'll get most of the range as far as the panel goes. And so the ability to have those on the cards, to not be tethered to a wall, to have the the extra functionality, uh to be able to touch the screen, and to have multiple students using the panel, teacher using the panel with multiple students at the same time. that seemed like the route that we wanted to go. So, we had a presentation. It's no big
026deal. You have a printed copy of it. So, I'll just walk you through what most of that is just because I felt like this is a a vice purchase that we haven't done too much of. We have the Clever Touches about six or seven years ago. We did purchase some of those for Young Fives program. We're wanting to have one of these available in every single common area for all of the the grade groups. And so there's six common areas at each elementary school. That's that's where we arrived at the number from 12. So we didn't want to leave it as just this just only this group gets one. We wanted to see everyone take advantage of of these types of things. So we identified some big priorities for us and that was these have
027to be seamless as far as the integration with our current technology systems. Most of the panels that we reviewed all were uh that checked the box because they're all native. They have Google already installed. Obviously, we're a Google Suite, Google Marketplace for Education School District. So, the teachers Google account will work right with the the panels. They also have a native Microsoft technology built in as well. So, there's there's that as well if we want to use any kind of Microsoft software or apps that we use there. The other big thing was the ease of use, uh, adaptation and implementation. So, it's got to be easy to use. Got to be able to walk up to it and and without too much training and pre-nowledge of the panel, we want people to be able to
028use that fairly fast. And so, the last one was that it's got to be rugged. It's got to last. If it's going to be on a cart in those common spaces, that's where kids are putting their gear. They're moving through there constantly. They're going to get bumped, right? These devices are going to get bumped. They're going to get moved. They're going to accidentally run into something. It's just going to happen. And so, we had to have a device that was going to be. We ended up reviewing uh six different panels from five different manufacturers. We had them here on site in the admin building and then we moved a few of key ones as we kind of went through the evaluation process and decided on a couple of key ones. We moved those out to
029Michelle Bratz's classroom at Central Elementary for her to kind of take a look and and have others to look at it as well. So, I want to thank Michelle and Autumn Brasher and Jessica and Stanley, a lot of the the teacher, you know, voices that we got to really get in front of the the panel and use it. We then uh used a a scoring system where we had nine priority areas and we we focused we had about 34 different questions that were on a lyker based scale. So there's very much statements about the display, the brightness, the functionality, how easy is it to use, is it rugged, how's the price point, how do you just what's your general overall sense of it? How did how did you think it worked? That kind of thing.
030the in the end the two devices that came clearly to the top were the smart both the smart panels that we reviewed and the BenQ board as well. The smart panel came out just slightly ahead of that and when we stacked those two together uh the teacher feedback overwhelmingly led to the smart as far as like their anecdotal just their the way they talked about it they felt like that was much more easy to use to walk up to them. The great thing about them is they have an NFC reader. So, our teachers will be able to walk up and with their badge. Uh they just scan into the board, it logs them in to their Google account and they're off and running. The smart panel also comes with Lumio software which is a software
031where the teachers can do a lot of their work to create contact that content that get you gets used on the board. They can do that away from the board. So they can be in their teacher workspaces getting content and lessons ready that can be used on that and they don't have to be standing there to get it ready because who wants to stand there and get it ready when you've got the traffic and all the other things going on or you have to move the board somewhere where you can work on it quietly. They won't have to do that. They'll be able to do that from their desk. The other big piece is the professional development that comes along with it. Most of them offered that. All of the panels that we reviewed had
032some type of of PD. Smarts is superior in the different districts that we've talked to. They've they have been the leader in the industry for a long time and and probably for a reason. And their PD is very flexible. We can kind of design it to to do what we needed to do and when. And so we're strategically thinking about when to plan that professional development because those teachers moving into those new buildings, they've got thousand things to think through and to get ready for. They may not be have the space and capacity to worry about a Smartboard on that August 12th date or the August 20th date, whatever. So we're we're working with the the company to strategically design that obviously pending approval. So, these are also on the REMC bid save process list.
033Uh, so we did not have to to gain quotes for that. Um, like I said, we had all of those panels here. Some of them are still in our tech office waiting to be picked up from the different companies. And again, because of the the one board meeting this month, it'd be appreciated if we could take this forward for your consideration. Any questions? These are really cool. >> I, you know, I wanted to, they took the one that I wanted to have here tonight. They had to take it back because another district had to look at it, but otherwise, uh, yeah, it would be nice to have one here for you to see in preview. >> I would think other schools are going to want them, too. >> Many do. Yeah, many have some some
034versions. BenQ is g gaining in popularity. Some colleges now are including some type of preparation for interactive board displays in their teacher preparation classes. I know Hope College, my alma mater, does that a few other colleges as well. >> I'm thinking more of our schools. >> Well, yes, of course. >> I I like that the teachers can do the prep work in their office. Yeah, >> it just seems like it will increase the amount ability to use that you're not reserving time to prep on the device itself. Someone else could be using it during that time, >> right? >> Yeah, that was key. >> Any other questions for Ryan? Are we okay approving this tonight? Excellent. There's a motion to move to action on page 40. >> Mr. President, I move that the board Mr.
035President, I move that the board approve move to action. Sorry. The interactive flat panels discussion item to action. >> Thank you, Mark. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor of uh the motion to move to action, please say I. >> I. Opposed. >> Uh the motion passes. And now we need the motion to approve. >> Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the purchase as presented of 12 smart car center black panels from Forte Incorporated in the amount of $67,314 the funds for which will come from the 2023 bond fund. >> Thank you Mary Lou. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you chair. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving interactive flat panel purchase please say I. I opposed. The motion passes. Thank
036you. >> Thank you. Now we'll move to discussion item number three, the MASB annual leadership conference. Uh the big news is it's moving from Lancing to Traverse City this year. It's been a while. And uh there's a savings if you want to go if you register by August 29th. And to do that, you would want to let Barb know uh that you're going. Um the first day is Thursday, October 23rd. There's CBA classes that day as well as the U Michigan school attorney's fall conference. That's an all day presentation. And then of course there's the delegate assembly at night and I don't know who's going to want to do that this year, but there's always a fight over it. So, uh, on Friday, October October 24th, there's another general session and clinics and the featured
037speaker that day is George Curros and he's going to talk about embracing innovation to help every learner find their own way. And finally on Saturday, October 25th, um the general uh the general uh session speaker is Matt Larman and his top topic is leading through complexity, strengthening trust and decision making and that's also the day for clinics and also the legislative update by Jennifer Smith. So if you're interested in attending uh please let Barb know uh what days you would like to be there and she'll make sure you have accommodations. Any questions, comments on that? Okay. Our next uh item is to uh go into close session to to discuss collective bargaining strategy. Uh there's a motion on page 51. Mr. President, I move that the board of education move into close session to discuss
038collective bargaining strategy as allowed under the Open Meetings Act 15.268 section 8C. >> Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, sir. And this is a roll call vote, please. By >> Mrs. Roar, >> yes. >> Mrs. Crawford, >> yes. >> Mrs. Navario, >> yes. >> Mr. Vaner, >> yes. >> Mr. Snder, >> yes. >> Miss Larson, >> yes. >> Dr. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Thank you. The motion passes and uh we'll uh have our close session in this room. Is that the plan? And then we will be coming back into open session to take action. Thank you. [Music]