001[Music] Yeah, we were in this. This is No, your board meetings were true. Our board were in there. Although the other took place here, but your board table was on that side facing this way. The candidates out here in the somewhere in the No, it was over there off to the side in the seat. If I had a wish, I'd have something up there. Sounds like this meeting of the board of education is now 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. Thank you. Welcome. Thanks for coming to the meeting. Um, we're going to start today by approving our
002agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda as presented? Well, I have two um want these added at the end of the action items is number six and number seven. And the first is to add a resolution and recognition and appreciation of distinguished service by Mark Beang. And the second is execution of an employment agreement with our incoming superintendent, Johnny Edwards. Are there any objections to those changes? That's good. Uh, is there a motion, please? Sure, Mr. President. I move that the board of education approve the agenda as amended. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. The motion passes. The agenda is approved and we'll start by uh beginning our public hearing on the budget. The 2025 bud proposed budget will be reviewed and there will be
003an opportunity for questions from audience and the board. Paula and Sammy are here to help us. Good evening, Board of Education and Superintendent Belang. Paulum and myself are here tonight to pres present to you the 2526 preliminary budget. Um we went over a little bit of this with you two weeks ago at the second amendment uh presentation that we did, but we do have a small update. Well, I don't know. We've got a little bit more progress potentially happening at the state level. um on your slides or up here you can see the three recommendations that we've received at the state level all ranging around that tile hitting around that $10,000 mark. Um the house was off the week of June 16th for Junth. Um and there is rumor that very little will happen in
004Lancing during the month of July due to the beautiful weather that we are having in Michigan. Might be a little hot but it's still enjoyable. Um, Governor Whitmer, Majority Leader Brinks, and Speaker Hall have met, but the outcome was very clear. Um, what we do know is that they are set to rejourn tomorrow. Um, but it's very unlikely that we will see a budget. They could surprise us, but I don't think we are expecting one to come out tomorrow. Um, both the House and the Senate have days added to their calendar for the month of July. Um, but they're worried about attendance again because of the summer. And we also know that speaker or majority leader Brinks has asked speaker hall to present all of the house budgets instead of just the K12 budget before
005continuing on with that discussion to kind of see where the house's the rest of the house's budgets um sit and that's very custom at the state level. Um there is one thing that I'd like to bring to your guys' attention and that is rumor of the myipster's UAL rate reduction um that was put into place last year being repealed. So, that's something that we'll be watching coming down the pipeline. Um, that was interesting to read the other day. This next one is just a visual of our blended FTE history. Uh, you can see here that we've had a slight decline over the past few years, but we are expecting um just a small decline of 44 students uh for 2526. Um, we will receive enrollment numbers in early to mid November after the October 1st
006count date. this year. So, as we mentioned two weeks ago when we shared with you our assumptions for the preliminary budget for 2526, we still held with the $392 increase per pupil. So, we're budgeting at that $10,000 mark. Really not knowing what the state's going to do for us. um is really at a disadvantage because this current year's received no increase in this current year's foundation allowance for 2425. So technically to make us hold the state really needs to give us a double increase because we're losing that categorical that we had on our state aid status report. So um that's why the preliminary budget looks the way that it does right now. Uh, as Sammy mentioned, we're budgeting down um a little over 44 students. That's a 90% blend from the fall count and a
00710% blend from our this year's February count. We are a Headley rollback district. The good news is we didn't roll back any further for the 2526 school year. That calculation is conducted by Kalamazoo County and um it doesn't allows us the disadvantage that we cannot levy the full 18 mills on the L4029 form. Um, so that's about $446,000 in tax revenue that we are not collecting as a district. Also included in revenue is is our Kesa special ed millillage at approximately $7.9 million. Our countywide enhancement mill at approximately 4.2 million. And as we touched on two weeks ago, we've kept federal funding pretty much stagnant the same. Um, we do know that title one is safe for next year and that's usually around $740,000, but we kept title 2, three, and four still in the
008preliminary budget for next year um in hopes that that's what we'll still get through Washington, so we'll still have those grants in next school year. But it's just uh it's everyone's best guess right now. Sammy had also touched on two weeks ago that there's rumor has it that we might be looking at possible block grant structuring for some of the federal funds. So, it could get really interesting. And we did keep Medicaid outreach um about the same. This next slide just shows you a visual display of our different types of revenue that we do receive as a school district. Our local sources is approximately 20% of our revenue. That's our property taxes, gate receipts from our athletic events, our facility rentals, our special education mill, and our uh county enhancement mill. State sources is the
009largest section of the pie. That's our state aid and all the different categoricals that we do receive through the state. Federal sources is the smallest portion of our budget and um it's not even 1%. Incoming transfers consists of the indirect costs that we can charge off to our food service fund and anytime that we do sell any school district property. Moving on to expenses for the general fund. Um, as I had mentioned two weeks ago, we did take a new approach on budgeting for retirement this round. Um, we actually looked at every employee, well the majority of employees and their retirement plans and budgeted based off of their actual retirement plan cost. Um, it was a very interesting analysis, I will admit that. Um, uh, others were budgeted at the highest rate, which is 44.93%.
010Um, that there's a really small percentage of the district that was budgeted at that 44.93%. Um, and a lot of those were stipens or coaches where there's it's hard to say like who and if it's going to be the exact same as this year. Um, federal funding is down and a lot of that's due well it is due to the COVID funding ending that ended in September of this past year. Um, to give you guys kind of an idea in 2324 we had $4.3 million in federal funding um, expenses. Um, and this year for 2526, we're estimated to be like right around 1.2 million. So that's uh half of what we had spent last year. So there's that cliff that we were talking about and expecting as a district as well. Um, we've built in
011capital outlay projects. Uh, two of the main projects are office and hallway monitors for entryways at some of the schools along with surveillance c cameras at Central and North Middle School. You will notice on one of your sheets that the CTE program expenses are up and that's because that program is no longer hosted by Kesa. That is now hosted by us because they aren't they won't be having it at the new CTE center. We'll be bringing it inhouse here at Portage. Um though that is the accounting and marketing programs at Northern and Central High and then the woodworking program at Northern. Um we will be receiving some revenue to help offset that increase. uh we're just not sure what exactly it looks like because it's been a while since we've had something like that in
012district and it's also been a topic of negotiation under the house proposal as well. Um and then as we had mentioned two weeks ago we have two unsettled contracts uh well one unsettled contract and then a financial reopener. That unsettled contract is with custodial maintenance and then a financial opener with the PEA. This is your visual of page three of your preliminary packet. Uh we are expecting salaries and benefits to be up about $2.9 million. Um a lot of that is because we did build in an increase for the majority of the groups and an increase in insurance. There was a slight increase uh in retirement for those for some of those plans as well. um debt services is up and actually has a decent sized budget this year and that is because we are
013entering a new uh printer lease for the district and that uh Gazsby 87 requires us to have that as an expense along with a revenue. Um you'll also if you look at the amendment in the preliminary you'll notice that supplies and materials and capital outlay are down about 2.3 million. Um again a lot of that is because of that federal funding that we're no longer have. So, the ESRE funding um we're also seeing large projects like the entryway upgrades at the numerous schools along with the clocks, bells, and paging system upgrades. Um those are starting to close out for the year. So, we're seeing those which is that decrease in expenses. This next one is visual of page one um of your monthly financial report or of the preliminary packet that we provide you. Uh
014looking at the amendment to this preliminary budget, um there is an increase in instructional expenses, uh pupil supports, operations and maintenance, transportation and debt services. Again, that's primarily because of that printer lease. Um instructional staff and then school and admin about stayed the same. And then uh we saw a slight decrease in the business services, central services, athletics, and community services. This next one is um your fund balance assumption that we were presenting to you tonight. Um as I had mentioned two weeks ago, we were going to provide you guys with an updated amendment and I have those are sitting with you now. Um we brought to you $125 million in revenue, uh 126 million in expenses. There's a slight increase in the expenses of about 3,000, probably a little bit more than that. Um
015or 300. There's a decent size increase there. Um, and we had presented an $84,000 deficit. That deficit now is appearing to be $889,000. Um, and then we also saw with that larger deficit, we're seeing a small decrease in the fund balance from 27.1 million uh to 26.2 million. The unassigned then also dropped from 17.0 to 17.03 03 instead of the 17.11% that we had presented two weeks ago. Also on your third on the very far right is the 2526 preliminary with theund about $123 million in revenue, $126 million in expenses, creating a $3.1 million deficit, bringing the fund balance down to $23.1 million. Um assigned fund balance is 4.1. That's a lot of that is those committed those two committed fundings that we uh brought to you in 23 24 and then 2425. Um and
016that'll bring our uh unassigned fund balance down to 19 million which is 15.08% uh still above that 7% that is required from the board policy. And as we've stated before, these are just estimates. We won't know actuals until we get through the summer closing the books for amendment two on the general fund for 2425. Yep. And so this is just your graph of showing you just kind of how it's going. Um we were expecting that dip of that 15.08. Like Paula said, we won't be able to confirm that 17.03 or that 15.08 8 until this November for 1703 when we present the audit and then next Novemberish when we present the 2526 audit. So as you guys know I we update these slides as we present them to you. Leaving the general fund which is
017the largest budget and moving on to the building site and syncing fund. You will notice on your packet that you had two different resolutions for the building site and syncing fund. One of them is the previous 2019 building site and syncing fund that was approved by the voters. This particular fund will no longer receive tax revenue in the 2526 school year, but we still have fund balance left in that building site and syncing fund. So that fund will still be continued to be used for approved projects that fit the ballot language for that syncing fund. Back in August of 2024, um the community approved our building site and syncing fund to expand the opportunity of how we can spend those funds to include technology, some limited transportation costs, and some limited security related costs. So
018now this year, the levy for the building site and syncing fund is going to be 4980 mills, which is down just slightly from last year because it's experiencing a headly roll back as well. And because the fund's just starting up to collect revenue starting July 1, we didn't put a lot of projects in it yet until we can see how much money is actually coming in. So, we're going to plan to buy some Chromebooks um with with the proceeds from the levy and then also um some additional transportation bands that are needed. And we'll continue to update both of these building site and syncing funds as the year progresses and bring the board back to approve. Something I just want to mention about those Chromebooks is uh for the past probably four or five years
019we've been able to purchase those out of ESR or COVID funding. So being able to move it to the building and site syncing was very beneficial for the general fund just because we knew this federal funding cliff was going to happen. So that's something that we were able to kind of move from A to B. Moving on to some of the other funds that were included in your board packet, the food service fund. Um you if you recall expenditures exceeded revenues and this is a planned um budget this way. We have an excess fund balance. We've been just pre recently approved from MDE for our second spendown plan. So Susan has planned some great um updates throughout the district such as the central high and northern high serving serving area refresh. uh installing a generator
020at West Middle School. So, the walk-in cooler, the next time we lose power, Susan won't lose all of the food that's in that cooler. Um she's also planning to purchase uh the serving equipment for Central L and Haver Hill with these excess funds. That will help relieve some of the pressure on the bond funds. Um we have taken the assumption that breakfast and lunch will be free for all students next year. uh two out of three of the budget proposals have that included. So for me that was greater odds that we'll have it then we won't but you never know what the state's going to do at the last minute. Um we will continue to monitor that over the summer and bring anything necessary to the board that we need to have approved over the
021summer in case meals are not free for next year. Something we haven't had to do for a little while. Um but we just sit back and patiently wait for the state to come up with their budget. Also included in that um school services is the school activities fund and the bookstore fund. And these are pretty volatile funds. They're kind of dynamic and you can't really get a good handle on what happens in these funds until we get more so into the year. So it is a true best guess to come up with a budget for them for next year until you actually see what goes on in those funds as far as activity. But those were included in your packet. And then finally, um, our debt retirement fund. Um, this fund also had planned expenditures
022over revenues. Um, you can only hold a certain amount in your debt retirement fund. Um, based on how much you have in debt service payments. So, we are still levying 6.85 mills for next year. Um, we're spending down the fund balance a little bit in that debt retirement fund. And this uh budget includes the most recent bond issue that we had for 2025 as a payment. That's the highlights of the 2526 budget as it was included in your board packet. Does anybody have any additional questions that we may be able to answer for you tonight? Oh, um I mean not a question but a comment but I think the fund balance coming back down to 15 is appropriate. I mean our policy has a floor. It doesn't have a ceiling but we're not in the
023business of accumulating a ton of money there. So right. So that's a balance. So that seems right. I mean, I'm not um I mean, those funds become available for helping kids or, you know, paying our people and um they become available when the state doesn't make us whole for a year. Yeah. Yeah. And you had you had warned us I think last year a broken record. Yeah. You you said there there will be forces that will will pull that back down. And so, um good that that feels right. our our categorical revenue for that um for this year was almost $3.2 million and our budget deficit is $3.1 million. So had we had that revenue in there, we would almost be balanced. Yeah. I I guess I was um pleasantly surprised that the three state
024level budget estimates uh right for for pupil funding are all very close. There is one recommendation that is at the house um and it's for an additional amount um for the like it's a per pupil funding um but there is requirements that come with that that would bump us up to it's almost 12 grand I believe um but it's an application process and then those requirements so it could be a hit and miss on how that happens if that were to go through but that that funding isn't guaranteed like it would cover us for one year just like that 3.1 million that Paula had just mentioned. But this one is, you know, it's that volatile situation that we're in. Yeah. Without those budgets done in Lancing, it's it's always a little bit of a We're
025here by law to bring you a budget to pass tonight and here is this budget. But a lot of it will probably change over the summer on the revenue side and even on the expense side. Well, the Meps rumor thing is kind of weird. It is. I did. It could be just a big lightning bolt or it could just be stuff that just disappears because it's just so extreme. It just sounds like it's it would it would potentially blow a hole in things. So, yeah, it sounds like it's it didn't go over well. Um but it's hard to say. I mean, who who knows? Yeah, who knows what's going to happen. I mean, look at what we looked at last year. Like, we had no idea that that was going to come and then all
026of a sudden we wake up the next morning and here's your budget, but there's no there's no funding increase except for this 3.1 million if it was that. So, it didn't get added to the base. So once again, we'd like to thank you for putting this budget together, all the work that went into it, in particular, not knowing what your revenue is. So there I mean, that's really good work. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Okay. Uh we're now going to resume our regular meeting and go to the superintendent report, please. Thank you, Randy. Uh the two items on this report is uh the first is our bond project update and uh Edward will be giving his last report as assistant superintendent or we're going to hold this one and two. Oh you're
027okay. You're okay. Uh good evening. Thank you superintendent Belang as well as members of the Portage Public Schools Board of Education. Um, I want to give an update related to our bond project work. Starting at Central Elementary School, our demolition uh is progressing on schedule. If you've driven past the site, uh you will see that the building has physically gone. There are still some material uh on site that are being cleaned out. The plan is to have the demolition portion completed by Thursday of this week. There may be a need on Monday to do some minor touch-up items. As of today, all the landfill material uh has been hauled off site. Uh hauling of the recycled materials like concrete and steel is ongoing and some areas of the site have been turned over to our
028parking lot vendor who's going to who's responsible for uh for installing the parking lot on the inside of the building of the new school. The contractors are working on their punch list items. They're working on the fire alarm, elevator, doors and hardware, carpeting the gathering store, uh, stairs, I'm sorry, case work in the libraries, art room, polishing floors. On the exterior, they're working on the grading and sight work, top soil, as well as exterior doors. Moving over to Haver Hill. Um the contractors are on their punch list items similar. Uh but they're working on touching up the paint doors and hardware. Uh sound panels are still being installed, drywall, and they're finishing the vestibule entrance. Uh and then now they're painting the gym floor. On the exterior, they're working on the uh the concrete site
029work as well as the playground. Then the last area is just moving over to Woodland. Woodland site has the construction fence uh all around its its area. All of the abatement in the building that's above ground has been completed. Uh demolition equipment will be mobilized starting on Wednesday of this week and demolition is scheduled to begin on Monday of next week. So that concludes my portion of the uh the bond update and I'll be happy to answer any questions for the board. Glad to hear everything's moving along and on schedule. That's great. Moving along pieces. Thank you. Thanks, Johnny. And our second report Dr. Pasco is going to handle and that's uh match law report as required by law. Good evening, superintendent uh trustees. This is the time of year where we present on the
030bullying data uh for 2425 school year and take a look back how it compares to the previous year in 2324. Um in your packet you've got um more than what's being presented tonight. They have a bunch of definitions um some of our strategies that we use in terms of anti-bullying. Um but our definition we look at the repetitive nature of things um the intent to hurt a person or a group by another person or group person or group where the relationship involves like an imbalance imbalance of power. Um so it can be physical, verbal, psychological. We see it in person or we see it online which you know as cyber. So that's how we look at it um in our schools. All this data uh within the report that's extracted from our administrative teams and
031Janet Johnstone in our office. So the last page of your report you'll find that comparison chart that I have up here comparing 24 25 23 24 um you'll notice right away the numbers the same. So it's just the way it shook out. It was 151 and 151. I asked Janet to go back and double check it two or three times. she did. It's just the way the numbers were reported. So you see some similarities on the left, but you'll see some differences in terms of how it fell by grade level. So at the top of the table, you see what was reported at each level. You look at the disposition that the schools took and the total number of referrals on that far right. So we see the number of 150 referrals as the same
032as last school year. There was an increase of 12 referrals at elementary, but we saw a little bit of a dip and reduction at both middle school and high school. Um, we typically see males engage in this behavior a little more than females as usual and most frequency this time around is between that grades 6th through 10th and similar to 23 24. Um, our largest increases were at third and seventh grade grade, but we also saw some pretty solid decreases at 8th and 9th grade. um of the 106 or we see that theund 100 106 of the 151 offenses resulted in some type of suspension. So whether that would be in school or out of school, we saw a lower number of out of school which is good uh versus in school 48 versus 58.
033And then lastly uh the 151 referrals that was committed by 123 students collectively. So we do have repeat offenders throughout the school year as we have in the past. So those are the numbers. Um more importantly, what are we doing or what do we continue to do about it? Um our anti-bullying strategies. So we continue to strengthen our PBIS models. Okay, reinforce expectations. Our principles are going into classrooms and the grade levels. They're talking about the acts of misconduct. they're talking about some of the inappropriate language that's being used, whether it's, you know, something that's from Tik Tok or social media that kids may not know how impactful it is or hurtful to another student. So, they're specifically addressing those and they're also talking about the aligned consequences uh particularly at our middle school. That's
034happening happening a lot and it does happen at our high schools. Um, you know, our continuous improvement goals is improving tier one instruction, but also a big focus on improving the culture and climate of each of our school communities. Um, our multi- uh systems of support addresses both academics and behavior. We're engaging more in restorative practices and you see that um through folks like Daryl who came to the board meeting at North Middle. So, we have our behavior interventionists at the secondary level. Our ES's also help with this. So they are they have the time to commit to um meeting one-on-one with students but also doing some restorative circle. So having kids take ownership of their actions, some accountability and kind of acknowledge the impact that their actions have on others. So that's what they're
035doing in in those roles on a day-to-day and that's making a difference. As you know, we have therapists connected to each of our school buildings for students to go to if they need to have a conversation with someone. We have partnered with Griffin Place uh and continue to partner with them. We've even done a restorative practice or two with some adults in our families. So, they've been helpful in some of those situations when we just can't find some common ground internally. ESI does some cognitive behavior therapy, particularly at the high school. That's kind of like helping manage mental health conditions, how we cope with things. And so, I've been able to watch one or two of those live over the years. So, I know Ann and her team continue to do that. At the high
036school level, trauma informed is really just understanding what our kids may be coming through uh with every single day. Uh understanding some dynamics that may be on the home fronts and some of the environments in which kids are coming from. So, we continue to do that. Over the last couple years, uh you've probably heard of erase training. So, the antibbias, anti-racism training. We did that as we were looking at some of the new ELA curriculum. We also just offered that during our professional learning opportunities throughout this past year. Um, you've heard about CASAG in my safety presentation in close session. Um, that's also being able to identify things early uh that may lead to that progression or that continuous uh or repetitive nature of things that may lead to bullying. So, that's been helpful. Uh,
037on evenings and weekends, we continue to get calls from okay to say. We follow up with our SRO's and our principles and our families to check on our students when those come through. the implementation of new ELA curriculum. Obviously, the textual resources and some of the lessons are kind of broader broadening our scope in terms of um kind of the uh more mindfulness around cultures and where our students may be coming from uh different backgrounds and appreciation around that. So, that's been very helpful. And then this year we implemented light speeded alerts which is a kind of flagging our internal suites um whether kids are messaging one another whether it's about harmful behavior or things that may lead to you know um some type of threat or any bullying nature. Um it's been very helpful
038to look into those and connect with families just so that they can increase some awareness as to what may be going on with their child. So all those things and and and more that's in the packet. Those are all things we feel are making an impact. We'll continue to have those in motion and implement th those in the upcoming years. Um, and hopefully we'll be able to see the numbers kind of go down maybe in the next little bit of time. So, that's just a quick update as to where we fell in terms of Matt's law. Be happy to take any questions or hear any comments that you may have. I just have a a question on the the chart. Um, it says detention, ISS, OSS, and other What's other? So other may just be
039maybe a conversation or a restorative circle um with admin, with counselors, with our behavior specialist. So maybe something that doesn't lead to something that would be accounted for in terms of like a disciplinary consequence. Maybe then that's probably determined by or predicated on the level of you know the situation. Does the student go back to the classroom following that kind of a conversation if they I guess it depends. I think the schools have a good enough expertise to determine when it's appropriate and when they're ready to reenter. Michael, um you've got the two-year trend in here, but I forget going back to right post pandemic. Um do you find that there was a lot more the kids came back in person? I'm just I'm trying to remember. I'm a little embarrassed. I can't recall the
040number, but like what what like a fiveyear or four or five year? Yeah, I I can't recall either honestly off the top of my head. I'd have to look back and um maybe in some of the future reports we can we can go back a little bit or I'll just make a note as to how we've been maybe over the last three to five years versus the last two. Um, we know we had challenges coming back from the pandemic in terms of kids struggling with some mental health and just re-entering into the day-to-day uh, in-person teaching and learning. So, um, I wouldn't be surprised if we look back and there was maybe a little bit of spike when we returned. Yeah, I'm not sure if it was this data, but some of some of that
041data that you presented to us over the years, yeah, there was a Yeah, it may not have been directly related to bullying, but there was more aggressive behavior and and uh more disruptive behavior, a few more fights, just students not knowing how to engage with one another. Yeah, I'm sure maybe if we looked at the due process numbers, um we might might have had a tick up maybe for those first couple years. So, We appreciate the report and all the data you provide us with and we're all very pleased that you stay on top of this with the latest developments in the bullying world. I mean, that's great for our district and our families. Thanks for your report. Thank you. That's it on the reports. We'll move to our comments and communication section. Is there
042anyone who wishes to address the board this evening? Any comments from board trustees? Well, okay then. Oh, you got Are we going to wait on certain platitudes until later in the meeting? Yes. There's a there's a sheet of paper at your desk. I don't know if you've seen this. You got to find that one. Yeah. That's that'll be the platitude. Yeah. Okay, then if no one has any comments, we'll move to the consent agenda. We have uh six items on that. Number one is approve the minutes from the June 16, 2025 committee of the whole work session and close session. Number two is to approve the purchase of eight video surveillance servers from Dell Technologies and an amount not to exceed $175,000, the funds for which will come from the 2023 bond fund. Number three,
043approve the purchase of purchase of uninterruptible power supplies from Vector Tech Group in an amount not to exceed 57,150. The funds for which will come from the 2023 bond fund. Number four, to approve the purchase of musical instruments for band, orchestra, choir, and elementary music classrooms as presented for a total of $369,576. the funds for which will come from the 2019 unallocated contingency bond fund. Number five, approve the purchase of equipment for the technical and applied science classrooms at Central, North, and West Middle Schools as presented for a total cost of $30,315, the funds for which will come from the 2019 unallocated contingency bond fund. And then finally to approve the revision to bylaws 0131.1 and 0166.1. Did you mention that one number four? I did. Oh, I missed it. Sorry. Not trying to do
044your job. We can do it again. No, no, no. I must have drew a blank during that focus on a meeting. [Music] uh policy 1.0 executive limitations 2.10 and sheet G of the superintendent's annual evaluation instrument as presented. Now all of these items were uh discussed at our last meeting and uh at several um retreats. Are there any exceptions to uh the consent agenda as presented? Hearing none, the consent agenda is approved. And now we have to go all the way to page 37. We have a required action item to approve the amended budget appropriations resolutions for 2425. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the resolutions for the general fund, debt retirement fund, building and sightseeing fund, and school service funds budgets for the 2024 through 2025 year as presented. Thank
045you, Kimberly. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed. Uh, the amended budget resolutions for 2425 are approved. Our second required action item is to approve the 2526 budget resolutions on page 54. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the resolutions for the general fund, retirement fund, building and site syncing fund and school services funds budget for 202526 as presented. Thank you, Mark. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh the 2526 budget resolutions are approved. Thank you. And now we need to go to page 69. Another required action item to uh approve the 2025 tax rates. Is there a motion, please? Mr. President, I move that the board of
046education approve the resolution to set 2025 tax rates for summer and winter taxes as presented. Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mark. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving the tax rates, please say I. I. opposed. Uh the motion is passed and the 20 2025 tax rates are set. Our next uh action item is to approve the resolution to submit bond proposal. And uh there's a motion on page 72. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the resolution to submit school improvement bond proposition for the November 4, 2025 election as presented. Thank you. B. Is there a second? A second. Thank you. And we do have some discussion this evening. There you go. I'm going to do a a shortened or abbreviated version of a presentation that
047I did for the board on May 19th. We've talked about the KPS construction history. We talked about um phase three progress, what has changed as a proposed next steps. Just moving forward. U want to remind the board and our community what's underway. Uh Central Elementary School is under construction at this moment. Plans for the school to open this fall in a couple of months. Should start a countdown calendar or clock now because it is rapidly approaching. Also, Habver Hill Elementary School will also open all of 2025. This summer, Woodman Elementary construction begins. As I mentioned, the demo process will start as early as next week. Uh, it's approximately two years to build a new school of this size. This will also open in the fall of 2027. So, two years or two summers from now,
048we should be uh looking into completion. Our remaining projects is Angland Road Elementary School, Amberly Elementary School, Morris Bridge is a renovation, not a new build. And then we also must address solutions for CEC which houses our curious kids or early childhood education and it also on the other side houses community high school. So what has changed? Um the board heard a presentation from Lindseay French about the movement to early childhood education and that that shift that's happening statewide. Also the um the state's push for pre kindergarten for all as well as collaboration with GSRP. Also with the PCEC building, it building is approximately 74 years of age. It's beyond it's expected useful life cycle and we've done a number of repairs. This summer we have begun work as a new putting in a new
049boiler and a roof repair and that's to buy us at least six to seven more years at most. Here's a a a quick slide that shows the construction costs increase over the past uh five and a half years or five years and a quarter. U that includes March of 2020, the onset of the pandemic and you'll see K12 construction has risen to nearly 30%. At the same time, uh, I just wanted to look at buses, what the 77 passenger bus cost in 2018 and what it cost today from 83,000 to 137,000. And then in the third or fourth column, a lift bus was 100,000 2018. Now it's 160. And what I did in that 3% inflation column, I said if a normal 3% in inflation occurred over the past seven years, we would anticipate that
050a 77 passenger bus today should cost us approximately $13,000. But its actual is 137. and the lift bus approximate C cost today if we had a normal 3% rate of inflation of 124 or 25,000 we're now paying 160,000 close to 161,000. And this is a chart that shows that uh projection of of the 3% race rate at in the dotted lines versus the actual uh rate in the solid lines for both the 77 passenger uh in orange and the lift bus in blue. So over the past seven years, our costs have gone up for a 77 passenger bus at 64% and the lift buses have have gone up 59% over the last seven years. That being said, as the uh resolution that this board is looking at tonight, um the recommendation is to proceed with
051a 132.4 million bond. uh that is not an increase to our taxes at all. This would allow us to complete our remaining projects uh combined with our remaining 2021 bond funds. In addition to the buildings that I talked about with Angling Road replacement, Amberly's replacement, those schools on site, a renovation to Morris Bridge, we also need to address solutions for the PCEC building, and in some fashion or form, we need to address early childhood education, community high, potentially the admin building. In addition to those things, uh, buses and technology, and we've seen how the cost of construction and the cost of buses have gone up. So, this is a projected timeline. We've engaged the staff at Amberly, England, and Morris Bridge with the help of our partners, Tower, Pink, and Fielding International. Those engagement sessions
052were held uh in the spring of 2025. The presentation that I've uh I've done now is an abbreviated version of the same presentation, May 19th. Um the board resolution would either occur in June or July, and we're here today for June 30th. The bond vote would be November 4th, and then that would allow us to proceed with our project. So again, this is a highle version of a presentation that uh I did a couple of months ago or last month, I'm sorry. And just wanted to remind the board and the public of that presentation. And I'll be happy to answer any questions to help you with your discussion. Do we have any plans for public education about this or are those in the works or what what's the thought process there? Those will be in
053the work. We're going to work with our planning for promotional, marketing, and community awareness. Uh tonight, the after if the board approves, we would like to send out a press release to the news outlets, which is one of our primary sources of information. And also that press release will go out to our staff as well. Uh it's a little quiet over the summer, so we've we've started to work with Rick Chambers, who's done some consulting work with our branding in the past. Uh we're working on taglines and supplemental work that would go along with that would mirror some of the strategies we've used in the past. One of our primary advantages I would say we have this time around is we will have physically two new buildings uh available for our public to see and
054visit. And I believe as we talk about our open houses and ribbon cutings in the fall, those will be other opportunities for people to come on site, see the great work. And while Woodland's construction is undergoing, we have those great visuals for people to see those. Uh but the marketing plan is not finalized, we've just talked conceptually about some of our ideas. We want to hit the ground running uh August, September for public awareness. Great. Sounds like you're on the right track. Good. The uh the timing of the communications sneak up on us um because absentee ballots go up 40 days before the election. So that's uh the last week of September. So it, you know, it's like uh the school year starts, then all of a sudden, bam, it was right there. And I
055think the message here is it's really solid. It's compelling. I mean, and you made a great point. I mean, the other issue now that we're two buildings in is it's equity. Um, and and let's get the whole district up to this standard and let's get the kids and and the staffs in in these buildings. let's get them in AC and you know and with all all the other benefits that the new buildings bring but um so um you know looking forward to that and then I mean and just underscoring that uh the millage rate stays the same so um we're in a good position with that absolutely I think two things stand out to me um first of all this is the community's decision and sending a question to the community is in my mind
056always a good thing. Uh but I also look at community high and um mini kids with PCEC and that is beyond well needed. Uh and I look at the amazing things that are done to provide supports for students who don't learn in a traditional way. and to see all that they're doing without the facilities that they deserve. Um, excites me to see what they might be able to do with the fs with the better facilities and with the better um, opportunities to really encourage those students and really do the amazing work even more recently. And same for our early childhood education, furious kids program. They offer great programs as Lindsay spoke about. And when we get feedback from our families, they all say, "I love the program and I can't wait till we're able to
057address uh that building in some some way." So, um it's definitely a major need and we're thankful to the board. We're thankful for our community for the building and sight scing fund as well. The patchwork on the roof is definitely needed. Typically, when there's hard rain, I can almost anticipate there's going to be a need for uh buckets in the hallway and to replace ceiling time. Yeah, I would just say as a trustee, it's really easy to support this because I think the community would be is really on board with this. So, yeah. Yeah, the committee was real clear. They wanted no elementary schools and that was our intention to do that. And it's unfortunate we got hit with the inflation that we did and we're unable to do it with with funds from the
0582021 bond. But now to be able to keep our promise and not have to raise taxes, I think that's a good thing and I think the committee will appreciate it. So, thank you. It's a very solid proposal. Any other comments? Okay. Then um all those in favor of approving the resolution to submit the bond proposal, please say I. I opposed. Uh the motion passes and the resolution to submit the bond proposal is approved. Our next action item is administrative contract extensions. Mark, so this is an action that the board customarily takes at uh this time of the year uh as we enter into the next fiscal year. So you have the uh uh these contracts are due to expire a year from now. Um and with your approval, these will be extended for another year
059for the 31 administrators listed there. Um you had already approved two that are not listed uh and Gordon and Lindseay French uh previously. So um we recommend that uh that group be extended. And right now we're we're asking for uh step increases for those that are eligible to step it to increase uh steps. And uh I'm sure once the other contracts get settled that there may be adjustment uh being requested at that time. But uh right now it's it just uh asking for step increases in that in the aggregate. Happy to answer any questions if you have them. Something we do every year. Thank you. Thank you. Any comments, questions? Very good. Is there a motion, please, on page 78? Mr. President, I move that the board of education authorize the superintendent to issue administrator
060contract extensions as presented, not to exceed beyond June 30th, 2027, and with additional compensation in aggregate as approved by the board as part of the initial 2025 2026 budget. Thank you, Mary Lou. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor of approving the administrative contract extensions, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh the administrative contract extensions are approved. We move now to our third action item, which is the agreement between Portage Public Schools and West Portage Little League. Mark. Yes. So, um, we thought we had this agreement in place, uh, back when we first developed it in, uh, in 2014, but we could not find any record of it ever being executed by the two parties. So, um, things have gone very well. I mean, we have a very good relation with Westport's
061Little League. Um, Marty Phelps and I have met with the, uh, the current director of Westport's Little League. We used the existing uh what we thought was the existing agreement and made some slight modifications uh to address some of the the concerns that have been raised over the years and uh and so what you have before you is the agreement that we came up with. Um both parties feel that it's a fair agreement and you should be getting some annual reports uh at least through the administration should be getting some reports on the usage of those fields. uh uh any uh upgrades that have been done during the previous year and maybe what plans are for the subsequent year. So that's some built-in reporting that should have been happening that that wasn't, but uh hopefully
062this fall we'll start uh a new gathering of information, reporting out to the board if you want to hear how they're doing. So I think everyone was in agreement. Uh Ben Kirby is the uh director there and he worked with us hand in hand in and making sure we got this right. So happy to present it to you for your approval. Yeah, this goes back a long ways. It goes back to uh trustee Joanne Wilson really wanted this put together and it did. I remember that. Yeah. And I think she'd be surprised to know it never never was approved. So yeah, she was a big proponent of this. So that's great. It's getting cleaned up. Super. Any comments? Okay, then there's a motion on page 81. Mr. President, I move that the board of education
063approve the agreement between Portage Public Schools and Westportage Little League as presented. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor of approving the agreement between Portage Public Schools and Westportage Little League, please say I. I. I. Opposed. The motion passes. The agreement is approved. Our next action item is to approve the superintendent contract and that's on page 87. Um there is a revised contract at your place where a change was made early today to uh uh se paragraph 12 section 12 regarding medical benefit plans. Uh after further checking it uh it appeared that um what was in the original uh contract from TRUN uh would have uh taken away some benefits that we currently offer like funding the HSA, approving a phone stipen and the big thing is keeping the
064benefits consistent with u other administrators. So that was a change in the contract today. It's a live document. You never know. Um, there is a motion on page 87 to approve the contract. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the superintendent contract of employment with Johnny Edwards for a three-year period July 1st, 2025 and ending on June 30th, 2028 as presented. Thank you, Mark. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Emily. Any discussion? Glad glad to be here with us. Yes. Glad to be at this point. That's for sure. All those in favor of approving the superintendent's contract, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh the motion passes. The contract is approved. Um our next action, is that right? Our next action item, yes, is uh number five, the retiree proclamation. There is
065a motion on page 98. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the 202425 retirey proclamation as presented. Second. Thank you, Terry. Uh, would someone like to read the proclamation? Sure. proclamation recognition and accommodation for retiring employees. Whereas the following certified and classified employees have announced their intention to retire from Portage Public Schools, namely Mark Beang, Janine Matson Gearhart, and Chris Riker. Whereas they have faithfully served and supported the students and staff of this community. And whereas they supported great teaching and great learning in classrooms. And whereas they took phone calls or answered email at all hours of the day. And whereas appropriate recognition of their dedicated and devoted service shall come to the attention of the entire community. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education of the Portage Public
066Schools takes great pleasure in recognizing the contributions of these administrators and expresses its sincere gratitude for their contributions to Portage Public Schools and further wishes them a healthy, happy, and rewarding retirement. Proclaimed this 30th day of June, 2025, Portage Public Schools Board of Education. Thank you, Terry. Any comments? Well, I'd just like to make one about Dr. Janine Matson Ghart. She kept her retirement a secret for quite a while. Nobody was supposed to know. And uh I can remember a number of us were on the board in 2015 when she was promoted to her position. And I just wanted to highlight that the department has evolved a lot since she uh uh took over that department. It was the special ed department. And it's now the department of educational supports and intervention and includes a
067lot of things that it did not before. Uh school and health initiatives, mental health initiatives, academic supports, and she was a big part of building that and putting that all together. And I just uh wanted to recognize her. Any other comments? Well, I'll make a comment about Chris Riker because I'm probably the only person, maybe Mark had Chris as a coach, soccer coach. His first year here was my senior year. So, um, we had him go as a soccer coach as well. Um, did not have him as a classroom teacher, but no, he spent a number of years as a classroom teacher before becoming the athletic director. Um, I think he's done a remarkable job leading athletics at Portage Northern. Uh, especially the addition of all the new fields and all of those things, but
068also um just some introductions of new sports, um, budgeting, all kinds of things. And he was very visible even at minor sports. We saw him there in person. And I know that means a lot to the kids on those teams that don't always necessarily get a lot of recognition. So thanks to Chris. Thank you Terry. Anyone else? Just to echo thanks and appreciation to these three individuals. Mark two. All those in favor of approving the retiree proclamation, please say I. I. I. Opposed. The retiree proclamation passes. And we're now moving to item six on our agenda which was added which is the resolution and recognition and appreciation of distinguished service by Mark Beang. You find a copy at your place a marked up copy and uh I thought it'd be unfair if one person read
069this document. So we thought we'd uh we would share uh share the responsibilities and I'll begin. Whereas Mark Beang began his service to Portage Public Schools as superintendent in 2013 and has served in that role with distinction. Whereas Mark repaired the governance of the district by practicing policy governance with fidelity and adopting district-wide policies to uphold the highest standards of teaching and learning while fostering a safe and effective school environment. Whereas Mark engaged with the community and facilitated the two largest bond proposals in district history. The first in 2015, 145 million, constructed two new middle schools, netitoriiums at the two high school campuses, and new stadiums and athletic facilities at each high school. The second in 2021, 175 million, began the replacement of the five oldest elementary schools and other aging facilities. Whereas Mark led
070the district through the uncertainties of the pandemic in by making instructional alternatives available to meet the needs of students and families and returning to in-person learning as soon as law permitted. Whereas Mark facilitated the district values team and developed strategic commitments in the commitment to equity as the foundation for future growth. Whereas Mark was awarded the prestigious WMU Golden Apple Award in 2021 for his accompl accomplishments as a school leader and most recently he was awarded the differencemaker award by the Hiron Consulting Group for his steady leadership and commitment to continuous improvement. His national educational presence has brought recognition to the district. Whereas Mark has approached his work with the heart of a leader as he worked tirelessly to make Portage public schools the best place for students to learn, teachers to teach, staff to
071work, and for parents to send their children receive a high quality education. From his early days as a leader, he has listened to students to better understand their needs and has helped PPS to serve every student, every future. Now therefore, it be resolved that the Portage Public Schools Board of Education acknowledge and sends its gratitude to Mark Beline for his distinguished service and contributions to the district, staff, students, community, and to the board of education. And even though Mr. Beine enjoys public comment, he will never be subjected to it again. Really say that or did you just add that? Be it further resolved that this resolution is saved in the permanent minutes of the Portage Public Schools Board of Education and a copy is given to Mark Beang, adopted on this 30th day of June,
0722025 by Portage Schools Board of Education. Is there a motion, please, to approve this resolution? I move, Mr. President, that we approve this resolution. Thank you, Mary Little. Second. Thank you, Terry. All those in favor of approving the resolution, uh, please say I. I. Opposed. Unanimous. That's good. That's good. Thank you, Mark, for everything. Thank you for that. Yes. And, uh, you Yes, we should. We have gifts to present to you. Oh, no. Yeah. Gifts. The cards on the gift. And the cards on the gift. Okay. Do I have to open this now or can I wait till later? You can wait till later. I can wait till later. I like the box. Yeah. Yeah. Where did you go over the cubs thing? That's uh I have lots of resources. Well, I consulted with someone
073before I wrapped it in that to make sure that it was okay. It's fine. It's fine. U Well, thank you, if I may. Just uh I don't have any prepared comments or anything. I was totally unexpected. So, thank you very much. You know, just it seems like not that long ago that we sat in this room and not all of you, but couple of you sat in this room and were part of the interview process for in 2013 when when I came on board. And uh so I still have some eerie feelings about this room. Um, yeah, it's, you know, you come into these roles, you just never know what to expect or how, uh, you know, how long you're going to last, um, how long you're going to want to last. Um, but, you
074know, it turned out it was just really a great fit for, you know, for the board and for myself. And we were able to during that time, you know, assemble teams of individuals that really got the job done, you know, especially, I think, around the uh the bond issues that we were able to pass and getting the right resources here in the district to to make that happen to facilitate the important discussions that that happened at that time. Um, you know, I think was was was a key thing. Um, you know, I remember the board giving me time to uh to do an entry plan. I had a 90-day entry plan as well and and and report it out to the board. And I think the at that time the three things that were were
075really out there were, you know, looking at um maintaining that the high rigor that exists in the district around student success. Uh there were some culture issues that we needed to uh to work on. uh and then you know the uh kind of my experience with policy governance that that was brought into the district and then very quickly after that was it was obvious that we needed the facilities. So that became you know an additional kind of a fourth uh area and in one way or another all those things came to uh became part of our uh strategic commitments the four pillars that we have there and uh um you know I I think one of those pillars around culture that allows us to continue our our work with curriculum and and addressing the needs
076of our students is the partnership that we had with Stutter Education. I mean, that was really um in my mind, you know, a a partnership that really took us to the next level with um using getting uh some tools and strategies that our administrators can use out in the district to bring people together. uh student surveys, staff surveys, community surveys that that give us some some data on what we can do to improve what we do in the district uh in our building by building. So, I I I think we're, you know, those were some key things uh that I think really helped us out. Um, I also remember Randy coming to me saying at one point saying, you know, we really would like you to stick around or at least he's speaking maybe for
077himself, you know, until we celebrate our centennial. And at that when he first came to me, it was like, oh my god, that's so far away. And so it's like, all right, let's see what happens. I'm not making any promises. And then CO hits and it was like I was not going to get defeated by CO. I mean, I know we as a as a board and as a community went through some tough times during COVID. Remember some of those board meetings that we had at uh at Portage Northern and the auditorium, but uh you know, I'm convinced we did the right things for kids uh trying to find a balance that worked for this community and uh and we got through it and we celebrated our centennial and and had a nice logo that
078we created for using for that and and now we're transitioning into the next step. So, uh, it's been a great ride. I really appreciate the support that I've gotten from the community, from the, uh, from the board, uh, the executive team, and and all the and all the all the staff members, no matter what role they hold in the district, there's everyone has a key part in making things right for kids. And, uh, it's not one person doing it. It's a collective effort on the part of many. So, um, thank you for support, your support in all of that. and and I know Johnny's going to transition into this role without missing a beat. I hope you give him the same uh patience and and consideration as he implements his plan for for entry. I
079know he's already started with a lot of one-on-one interviews and discussions. Uh um and I think he'll find like I did that this is just a great place to be and for me a great place to finish career. So, thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mark. All right. All right. Um, our next action item is to execute the superintendent's contract, and we're going to do that over at the podium. Yeah, they're right here. So, we have two copies of the agreement. An original for Johnny and the original for the district. And Johnny is going to sign first. You have time to read it. You want to keep our midnight hour, right? By the way, still very Okay. The wood makes it a little difficult to sign. So, we got to get that sanded, you know. Yes.
080Yes. We have a program for that, too. And Terry, you can attest to the signatures. Hey Congratulations, Johnny. Thank you. [Applause] Is that yours? Seems like we should have a gamble or something. Okay, Mark, we still got you to 11:59 p.m. Let's hope it's not in this room. Okay, Mark, we'll let you present one more discussion. Okay. All right. So, so you've got two um policies that um are being revised. They're not being changed in intent, but we wanted to get um some language cleaned up to reflect what our current practices are and to uh reduce some redundancies and the language. So these two policies, one is on the around uh suspension, expulsion of students and the other is around due process. Um, the way they were worded before was just a little clunky and
081there there were a little bit of uh uh discrepancy between what it said in one policy and what it said in the other. So, we're not changing anything we're doing. We're just cleaning up the language in this. And uh so if if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. If not, I'd appreciate if you move it to action items so that we can get this off the plate so that Johnny doesn't have to deal with it moving forward. Well, and to your credit, you've over the last couple months, you've been doing a lot of work like this, cleaning things up. Well, yeah. Yeah. Straightening things out. Not necessarily. We're just tying up loose ends up clean. Yeah. We're just It's like when I reorganize my closet all the time. Everything in there is
082clean, but it just gets reorganized. Gotcha. All right. Good for you for doing that. Uh any uh discussion? It's pretty cut and dried and it's the what we do now. So it just cleans up the language, which is a good thing. So there's a motion on page 100 to move this item to action. Please. Mr. President, I move that we move this discussion item, revisions to operational policies 5610 and 5611 to action. Second. Thank you. Very good. All those in favor of moving this item to action, please say I. I. I. Opposed. Um the motion is is uh to approve it now. Mr. President, I move that we approve the revisions as presented to operational policy 5610, emergency removal, suspension, and expulsion of students in operational policy 5611, due process rights. Thank you, Kimberly. Is
083there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor of approving revisions to operational policies 5610 and 5611, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh, the motion passes. You still got it, Mark. Got her done. Got her done. And uh with that we are ajourned. Thank you. Still got four hours for any followup work here. I gave my keys away. Oh, I think probably my excess has been denied.