001ation is now in session. 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 all for being here tonight. And I have to report that Trustee Stevenson sent his regrets and will not be here. So, we'll get started with approving our agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda as presented? Nothing for me. Okay, then there's a motion then on page two, please. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the agenda as printed. Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Emily. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. The motion passes. We'll go where we
002always go to the superintendent report. Mark. All right. The only thing on our report agenda today is a bond project update from Johnny Edwards. Thank you, Superintendent Beang, as well as members of the Portage Public Schools Board of Education um about two weeks ago, June 2nd. We held a groundbreaking for Woodland Elementary School. That was a well attended event by the community within Woodland uh and as well as some of our guests as well. uh our students were able to participate and be a part of that event and we also had some nice music uh from the choir as well. Uh later that day we held our community final walk through that was another event will attended. I'm guesstimating that it was north of 300 plus people who came through that evening. Uh the big
003hit that night was looking at their former school picture records uh that were made available to them. There were also some free swag that uh the principal left available for uh the community members. And then they also had an opportunity to see the posters of what the new school will look like. So I'm proud to say that those were two great events held a couple of weeks ago. Uh since that event, we have been moving literally Uh all three schools impacted by uh the construction, Central, Haver Hill, and Woodland all um had their staff work and box up all of the materials that they needed to go from point A to point B. So Central would obviously move from their old school to their new as well as Haver Hill and then Woodland staff their
004boxes to move to the current Haver Hill. Uh we had a a contractor Moulders who did a phenomenal job with having uh enough staff on hand to be able to assist us with that. Unofficially, someone told me that uh it took 27 loads to go from the old Woodland to Haver Hill. I don't know if it's true, but that's the number that was given to me. Uh, I want to give a special thank you to the staff for their work and their commitment, but also to the three principles who had to negate a lot of logistical pieces between central office and the building level. They were there to assist teachers with each each questions that they had behind the scenes. Many of our team and central administrations had question and answering documents ready to go
005for teachers. Lastly, related to the move, I want to give a special shout out uh to my assistant, Marty Phelps. Uh Marty um did a great job helping to shepherd our students, our teachers through these this transitional process. Uh I spoke with her literally uh on that Saturday after school was over as well as that Sunday. specifically she shared with me. She said, "Johnny, I log 25,000 m 25,000 steps a day for five consecutive days." Oh, wow. Um, and that is a testament to her work ethics as well as her commitment and pride to this community. So, I wanted to just pause and give her a special shout out. Marty will probably be mad at me when she here that I mentioned her name personally, but I do want to uh recognize her for a
006job well done. Moving over to Central L, the new Central Elementary School. Uh the abatement process is underway. I drove past today and saw that all the windows were out of the building. We were able to start that process uh last Tuesday. Uh now that the baitment process is nearing end, we're working with our local consumers to get the uh meter taken off and the gas shut off. Uh the old parking lot is currently being um uh demoed as well. Uh once uh the demolition of the building occurs and the parking lot portion will come through for Central L. There's a lot of site work that's underway. Playground structures have arrived started to be installed as well as the concrete along the exterior of the building. Inside the building, contractors are working on the elevator.
007Other contractors are doing some drywall painting as well as window installation. Uh within the learning studios, the doors have been installed uh and the glass will be installed next. Furniture continues to arrive and it is being arranged in their designated areas. Then lastly, just over to Habra Hill, um the the new Habra Hill um many of the same type of projects are underway. The playgrounds have not yet started, but they have started to do a lot of the site work of the concrete pavement around the exterior of the building. Also on the inside, similar to Central L, contractors are working on drywall painting and win window installation as well. So, the buildings are really coming together in a nice nice fashion and uh it's great to see the progress that's going to occur over the
008next six to eight weeks. So, that's the end of my presentation. I'll be happy to answer any questions. All good. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move to our comments and communication section. I don't believe we have anyone signed up uh to address the board this evening. Are there any comments from board trustees? All right. Yeah, this is the right and we're powering down. School's out. Yeah. Calmer. Well, in the spirit of it's a beautiful evening, we'll move to the consent agenda. And we have some minutes on there. So, uh, the consent agenda, uh, approval of minutes. May 19th, 2025 policy governance retreat and regular business meeting, the May 28, 2025 special meeting, and the June 9, 2025 special meeting in close session. And finally, uh, uh, approving a two-year extension of the custodial services contract
009with Grand Rapids Building Services in the amount of $2,334,900 per year for the 2526 and 2627 school year. Uh, are there any uh, exceptions to the consent agenda as presented? Hearing none, the consent agenda is approved. And now we move to page 18, assurance of district performance. We have two monitoring reports, Mark. So the the first monitoring report is uh kind of global ends policy 1.0 and uh typically there's no new information in here. It's more of an index of the different reports that were presented on the various ends. Um this is just a kind of a reminder also that we've just finished our 11th year of uh operating under policy governance uh in the traditional format here with monitoring reports. Um so this just so ends 1.0 is shows roughly the 60 or so
010data points that were used in the five different ends and again no new information here. Any questions? It we just get a lot of data in the course of a year. Well, and and this this report if you you know try to compare it to previous years won't look the same because we changed uh well the board changed ends one which required us to go in a different direction with um with similar schools versus comparator schools or comparator districts and uh and then we added schools within K resa. So there's so it's it's different especially under point uh 1.1. The remaining ones are very uh similar in what you're getting. Well, that's great that we get all that data and thank you for providing it. It was interesting. I just counted up the data points
011and we have 60 and 20 of those are related to 1.1 and we have you know four other ends. So anyway, uh any other comments about um monitoring port 1.0? I would I would add uh add one other piece here and um you know, we've had discussions since January and kind of where as a board we're setting the standard for 1.1 and we're right trying to trying to move the standard up. Um and but what I want to underscore is there were a couple of data points where we really uh perform exceptionally where we're compared to our peers um and that's how we want to do it apples to apples and that was uh I calling high school graduation um important uh very important indicators and when you compare us to our peers we are
012up right up at the top. Um so anyway just want to want to give credit where credit is due. I really appreciated all the work that went into presenting the new data because it gave us areas that we shine and it gave us areas that we grow and both of us are so important to our district to be proud of what we're doing while still knowing where we want to put additional effort in. So, thank you very much. Any other comments about 1.0? There's a motion on page 18. We could approve this. Mr. President, I make a motion that the board of education accept monitoring report 1.0 ends as a reasonable interpretation and evidence of compliance with policy. Thanks, Mar. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Terry. All those in favor of approving monitoring
013report 1.0, please say I. I. I. Opposed? The motion passes. We'll move to page 25. Another monitoring report 2.0 0 global executive constraints. Sure. Uh let me just make the comment on on uh MR 1.0 and all the data that's there. I have to give a lot of thanks to our curriculum and structural office for uh for doing the yman's efforts in that in that work. There's a lot of data here um that we're we're trying to we have some rocket scientists, put it that way, working in there that really understand data, what we can do with it, what we can't do with it, and what's meaningful. So, a shout out to that department for uh for all the work they do on that. Okay, transitioning over to 2.0. That again is a summitative report.
014There's a couple of other uh pieces in the glo in that in the global statement on uh on the global executive constraint that uh um speaks to uh the interpretation of unlawful, unsafe or imprudent. Um and and primarily means that we will have policies in place and those policies will be shared with uh uh with those in the district who need to have them and understand them. And then secondly, the other part of that is that based on those policies and your executive limitations, we'll provide monitoring reports for your uh for your approval. So those have been provided. Uh I also make comment there about um the monthly reports that are required through uh executive limitation 2.0. We requires a monthly financial summary. Um, also your an annual report on safety which you'll be getting
015later on this evening in in close session. Um, and uh and then I also point out that we are still under the uh obligations of the agreement that we entered into in the uh coffin versus PPS case and um we've been adhering to that. We've been really looking at the implications of that agreement and working through some of the challenges that that provides as well. But uh um I think our our building leaders and PTO's have been very uh understanding and in scheduling of activities and and I I think we've got we've got pretty well figured out. So you've approved all of the uh um monitoring reports that were presented. Uh we've provided staff with all of the updates on the Neola updates and uh and then finally the audit that we have done uh
016completed for our finances. Uh there were no findings of any uh impropriety there or any concerns raised. So that kind of wraps what's in 2.0 for you. Happy to answer questions if there are any. No, it just reflects what a great system this is. We don't have any worries. You know, it's a good thing. There's a motion on page 25 to approve this monitoring report. Mr. President, uh I move that the board of education accept monitoring report 2.0 global executive constraint as a reasonable interpretation and evidence. Thank you, B. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor of approving monitoring report 2.0, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh the motion passes. The monetary report is approved and our uh we have a required action item on page 30 and that's to approve our
017association membership with the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Um this is this is something we do every year. Is there anything new here to Nothing new highlight? No, there there really is nothing new. Just uh uh basically commits us to following the rules and uh yeah, this is an annual resolution that the board takes. Great. Great. There's a motion on page 30, please. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the 202526 Michigan High School Athletic Association membership resolution as presented. Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh the motion passes. Next item is administrator appointments. Brad. Good evening, superintendent. It's good to be with you again and pleased to bring before the board uh two individuals for appointment to administrative
018positions. So, I'm going to go in alphabetical order by last name. We will uh so Lindseay French, who I know all of you met back in February talking about our early childhood program. As that program evolves and becomes less of a child care and more of a preschool true preschool program, it made sense for us to elevate that position from being part of our technical and administrative support group into an administrative position. Uh Lindsay over the last year since taking over the program has done incredible work not only keeping the program running in in a really welloiled machine this year and I hope she writes a book someday about her first year experiences but she's had some experiences this year. Um it's not often you can shock the HR director. Lindsay has done it a
019couple of times this year. So credit to you Lindsay for that and not running away screaming. Um but we did feel like it was necessary at this time to elevate that position to a true administrator role within the district. So we were recommending Lindsay for that position. Uh and know she will do a fabulous job moving forward. Uh my second administrator recommendation is a current administrator in district but promoting her. So uh Dr. Ian Gordon uh currently a supervisor of uh employment supports and intervention uh to become director of special education and ESI for not only here in Portage but also the southern service area. So she'll also have supervisory responsibilities with Vixsburg and Schoolcraft as well. Uh she of course is replacing Janine Matson Ghart who has retired from the Portage public schools. So
020very thrilled for her. So um Dr. Gordon brings many years experience not only here in the district but also previous experience in G Lake as well as some time in the Chicago area as well where she grew up. So asking the board for approval for these two fine people to join our administrative team. Great. Thank you Brad. Would any of you like to say anything? Anyone wants to say you just stay right where you are. Um, yes, it's been quite a year. I appreciate all your support every time I have a new ounce that's happened in a new program this year. Um, but I'm really excited for the way that we are turning with our vision and our programming. Um, we are full. All of our four-year-old GSRP slots are full and ready to go
021and almost all of our staff is hired and I'm really excited for an early childhood preschool campus with Portage Public Schools this fall. Um, I've been in Portage now for 15 years, so I'm looking forward to new challenges and supporting school craft in Vixsburg um, as I go into the 16th year here in this community. So, thank you. Well, congratulations to you both. Ann's husband, Doug, is here as well. So, thanks for having me. We're excited to appoint you to these positions. Is there a motion, please? On page 34, Mr. President, I'll make the motion uh that the board of education Oops. Page what? I'm still on page 36. 34. Thank you. Let's start over. I would like to make a motion that the board of education approve the appointment of the following administrators for
022Portage Public Schools effective with the 202526 school year and Gordon as director of special education ESI for Portage Public Schools and the Southern Service Area of Kesa and Lindseay French as the director of early childhood programs for Portage Public Schools. Thank you, Mary Lou. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? I just like to say I'm really happy for both of you. Yes. So, I remember Ann from back when I was at Northern and I've been really impressed with Lindsay and my little tours over there. So, thanks. Very good. Then all um all in favor of approving the administrator appointments, please say I. I opposed. Uh the motion passes. The administrator appointments are approved. Congratulations. [Applause] and we'll have the remaining uh recommendations at the next meeting with our annual approvals. Very good.
023Our next action item is to set the budget hearing. You know, this is a routine thing that we do every year. It's at our final meeting of the school year on June 30th. There's a motion on page 36, please. The president um moved that the board of education set the budget hearing for June 30th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the board's June 30th, 2025 regular business meeting agenda. Thank you, Emily. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Kimberly. All in favor of setting the budget hearing, please say I. Opposed. The budget hearing is set for June 30. And now we move to our discussion items. And uh we got Paula and Sammy to help us with uh the finances. Good evening, Board of Ed and Superintendent Being. Tonight, myself and Sammy Stevens will
024be presenting to you the second amendment for the general fund for 2425. and the first time that we're amending the debt retirement fund, the building site and syncing fund and the school services fund for the 2425 year. Then once we present all that to you, we will touch on the 2526 preliminary budget highlights. At this time, I will start out with some of the smaller funds that are in your resolution in your board packet. uh the debt retirement fund. Uh we're projected to end this 2022 school year with an increase um in the fund balance of approximately $2.4 million. This gives us an approximate overall fund balance of 9.7 million. This fund pays our required principal and interest payments related to our bond issues. So when we sell our bond issues, we're required to make
025payments back on those. Um and we levied 6.85 mills last year or 2425 this current year. Um, moving ahead to the building site and syncing fund, uh, we're projected, uh, to increase our fund balance slightly at the end of this school year by $349,000 with an overall $6.8 million fund balance. We levied 4983 mills for the 2425 school year. We are in the fifth year of our Headley roll back and you will see how that rate changes when we talk about 2526. Um this is our last year of collecting um tax levy for this particular building site and syncing fund. Um when we went to the voters the last time we actually uh changed the type of building site and syncing fund that we have to include some other uh items besides just maintenance related
026stuff and Sammy will touch on that that will start levying July 1. Um so going forward you will see something a little bit different in regards to how the building site and safety fund resolution should look. Moving on to the school services fund. Uh this is comprised of three separate funds. Um the first one being our food service fund and we are projecting to end the year with a decrease in fund balance of approximately $27,000. This is a completely planned um decrease in fund balance because we have an excess fund balance for the food service fund currently at this time and Michigan Department of Ed requires you to spend that too. Um, so that's all part in of the plan of the budget. Uh, the bookstore fund, there's a bookstore that's housed at both Central
027High and Northern High. In the past, fund balance has not been carried in this fund. Um, we are going to see a small fund balance carried forward for Central High going into next school year. and the school activities fund. This is probably the fund that's uh the hardest for me to um budget because it's comprised of a lot of different moving parts. Um the student clubs, the building fundraising, the sport clubs, etc. Um and analyzing revenue and expenditures, I think the overall fund balance could be up by about $50,000. So, moving on to the general fund. Um first, we'll touch about our revenues. Um, for our state categoricals, we did there were quite a few updates uh regarding the state categorical. Something that I'm going to touch a lot on tonight is this 147G MP's
028healthcare refund. Um, so I might just start referring to it as 147G uh just because that's quite the mouthful, but that was added into uh the revenue side of our budget for the amendment. Um, we also saw an increase in 147 A2 and that's a MYIPERS categorical that uh receives a quarterly adjustment based off of the prior quarter's uh payroll. Um, so Paula did some math on that and we are going to see an increase on that. Uh, for federal funding um we did see a small decrease and compared to previous years. A lot of that's because that ESSER funding has sunseted. Um, so all of that money is gone. um we were able to spend that money in full by September 30th um and file reporting and everything uh for that. Um for federal
029also we did see a small increase in our Medicaid funding um and just to preface and we'll talk about this later that is one uh funding that we are a little worried about uh regarding the federal funding for next year and we'll go into more detail on that later on. This is just a visual of your revenues. Um, and this is going to be the first page I believe of your amendment packet. Um, local sources are up from the first amendment. Uh, that is primarily due to an increase with the enhancement college that we received from Kesa along with an increase in investments. Um, state sources are up as well. We did add that addition uh or we had that addition of 147G and that was just over a million dollars. Um to be completely
030transparent with the board, we did know about this at the amendment. However, guidance from the state was very slim at that time. So, we just felt like we couldn't properly present it to you at that time. So, we did build it in for this amendment. Um something that I had forgotten to mention, we will see expenses for that on the expense side. Um so what that payment is is basically there are a number of employees about of them that are um having 3% withheld from their paycheck. We have to turn around and we have to repay that um amount. So we are doing that in three different swoops. One went out in March, one will go out in July and the last one will go out in November once we fully know what's happening at
031the state level. Um just because there's some still some uncertainty with that categorical. Um, we also had an adjustment of numerous state categoricals that includes 31A at risk, the 31A which is mental health and safety and security uh 147 A2 as I had previously mentioned in section 41. The federal sources is up uh for the second amendment that's due to Medicaid. Um, and the incoming transfers and other revenue uh that's up as well and that includes the sale of the school property on campus that was that happened just a few months ago. Moving on to expenses. Uh Paula and I spend a tremendous amount of time on these amendments um analyzing things and working with others and other department and departments. Um we set meetings with each department head and those that have a good
032impact on the budget um and talk through you know what's happening what what are they predicting for these last six weeks. That's typically about the time that we start meeting is within six weeks at the end of the year. So we spend a decent amount of time with those people. very thankful that they're willing to spend that time with us as well. Um, we also forecasted out the remaining payroll and benefits through June 30. Um, due to this budget amendment being so much later in the year, um, I was able to include the June 6th payroll. um to kind of give us a really good idea of where salaries and benefits are possibly going to land for June 30 with only really having to budget out for a lot of people just one that is
033very very variable um payroll. Um we analyzed all the contracted district sub accounts and we adjusted those uh following trend for the fiscal year. Um added that 147G Mipers healthcare refund. Um, unfortunately the district did have to take the cost of the FICA, the small small costs of retirement, and we didn't claim work comp on it because technically those wages have already had work comp claimed on it. Um, we added moving expenses for Central L, Haverh Hill, and Woodland. Um, those are expenses that cannot come out of the bond, so we had to put those into the general fund. Uh, and then we also analyzed all the grants and updated them as well. This next one is a graph. are is a visual of page two of your monthly board or financial report that you
034receive along with page three of your amendment report. Um salaries are up. Uh that primary increase is that 147G. Uh it was very apparent across the budget where those increases I was seeing was 147g. Um so that it might not seem like a lot but it had a really big impact on the different spaces in our budget. Um, we made uh adjustments to supply budgets, um, purchase services, capital outlay, just kind of bringing those really down to a truer truer, um, costing for the district. The next one is a visual of page one of your board monthly financial packet. Um, and the amendment packet. Um, it's broken down by apartment or department that it belongs to. um more so than like exactly what it does like the other page. Um so that instructional services part
035the 58.8% of the budget is actually uh 74 into money terms it's $74.1 million and that's all the expenses that it cost that's what it costs us to run the schools. So anything that's building related um teacher salaries, benefits, parapros, our building techs, everybody lands in that area. Uh pupil support is up from the amendment. Um and the majority of that was actually the addition of tutoring from our extended learning committed funds that we committed this time last year. Um we were able to provide some pretty good tutoring opportunities to our students for that. Uh operations and maintenance is down from the amendment and a lot of that's due to a decrease in contracted services specifically snowplowing and salt. when we adopt that amendment in June or adopt that budget in June and amend it
036in February, we still don't know what this lovely Michigan weather is going to do. Um, but come this amendment where we're able to turn it down just not keep it down a little bit and still keep a little bit just in case of emergency because, you know, it's Michigan, who knows? Um, no, but we're able to make it more of a truer expense. Um, it also includes trash uh services as well. So this next slide has a lot of numbers on it. Um get very lost in the numbers. Just to go over it um on a high level view, the far left column shows how we actually ended the 2324 school year reflective of our audit that was finished for that school year. And we ended um the year ahead of what I had projected.
037Um and the unassigned fund balance was 17.39% for 2324. The February budget amendment that we brought to the board for the general fund showed expenditures exceeding revenues by approximately 2.9 million, almost three million in that middle column. Now that we've progressed further into the year, the second time that we amend the budget, we try to dial everything down to as tight as we can um within comfort levels. Um we are showing that expenditures um will exceed revenues by approximately $800,000 um with a projected unassigned fund balance of 17.11%. Um this is this still does exceed the board policy required percentage of 7% and this is just a best guess scenario. We'll have a final accurate number once we do book everything related to the school year for the auditors. I'd also like to take this
038time to let you guys know that come your June 30th board packet, the expenses for the general fund will change. Um, we had some expenses come across our desks over the last 48 hours um that we felt are substantial enough to amend the amendment. Um, so those expenses will change just so you guys are aware in your June 30th board packet. So that completes everything related to 2425. Now we'd like to change gears and talk about that for questions. Yeah. So instructional support or whatever it is the big number the 58.8%. That's usually around 60 isn't it? Is there any concern that it's dipped below 60 or No, it's so so that Yeah. So that area is those building expenses. Um and we did see that this dip. Uh so we do have some changes
039in some of our grant funding and so that might be where that dip is at. Um just because well ESSER a lot of ESSER funding fell into that area too. Um so that might be part of it. Some of our 31N6 which is our mental health counselors fall into that area. So that might be part of it as well. Um there's summer school that live that lives in this area. They did scale back summer school a little bit this way this year. And also high school doesn't fall into that. Um it actually falls into another uh category this year just because of the way the state requires us to code um the services that our high schoolers are receiving. That's good. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, shifting gears to 2526. So, we'll start 2526 off
040with our building insight syncing fund. Um, so this, as we had mentioned previously, this is the last year of uh this certain one that you're seeing in your board packet. Um, and we're going to call it fund 41, building site syncing, and then we're going to have fund 42. um at the state we're required to have different funds and so that just is how we can differentiate it and also keep it differentiated for you guys as well. Um so fund 42 will be new for 2526. Something to note is that you will have two resolutions for building and site syncing in 2526. You'll have a fund 41 and a fund 42. We'll clearly note those in your uh board packet when you guys get that next week. Um the levy was reduced from 4.4983 to
0414980. That's due to the Headley roll back. Um but with this new building and sight syncing fund, it can still be used for districtwide projects which will still be using fund 41 for that, but we'll also start bringing into effect fund 42. And that fund 42 building and sightseeing actually brings up or opens uh more project possibilities for the district. Um and those include safety and security improvements, uh transportation, uh vans and buses primarily. We'll be um and we're looking at adding uh budget for vans. Uh that'll be in your resolution for June 30. Uh technology, which will be primarily Chromebooks. Um and then your typical items, your district mechanical items, window replacements, fences, uh roof repairs, and parking lot improvements. Timmy, who does the calculation on the uh uh the levy reduction? The county.
042Okay, that's so that's all done for us. We have no control or input into that. It's communicated to us around the middle of May. Okay. Thank you. Um moving forward now to food service. Um that's part of the school services fund. I do want to touch to the board and let them let you guys be aware that we are planning to adopt that breakfast and lunch offerings will still be free that portions supplemented from the state of Michigan. The governor and the senate's version of the budget had that included in it. The house's version that just came out last week did not include that. Um we built our budget already on the free and reduced component. We are going to um not exact free reduce, excuse me, um breakfast and lunch offerings for free from
043the state. We will keep that in at this time. Um we could still be bringing you um pricing recommendations just so we could be prepared and ready in case something um sways last minute at the state because I think it's going to be a while before we see a budget. Um, we also, um, just got approved for our addition, our second excess fund balance, um, spendown plan and Susan has, you know, some some great ideas planned of where to spend that excess fund balance to refresh the serving areas at Central High and Northern High. Um, a generator at West Middle School so that the next time we lose power, she won't lose food that's in her freezers. and also um planning to purchase serving equipment for the new elementarymentaries for Central L and Haber Hill.
044So that's pretty major. So um each year I I come to the board and I and I mention these items when I do the financial updates like who is presented what uh what plan yet for the budget and the governor back in February released her budget with an increase of $392 per pupil which puts us at a $10,000 funding level. Um the House just came out last week with their version. It's pretty radical. Um they take they do away with a lot of the categoricals and they create a 22F I believe was the number and we would lose certain fundings and included in that was the um the breakfast and lunch um state component. Um but they had recommended that per pupil foundation allowance be set at 10,025 per pupil. And then the state came
045out with or the senate, excuse me, where is my the senate came out with their proposal um after the governor did and they said, "Okay, we we're saying a $400 increase, so $10,08 per pupil." So um based on that, I have to pick a number where where I'm going to build the preliminary budget on. And I I listened to the consensus revenue estimating conference in May. Um the big takeaway from the consensus revenue estimating conference was economic uncertainty on the horizon. Um so keeping all of that in mind, uh the state is also considering having an extra consensus revenue estimating conference in August. Um the last time they did that was during COVID and that was also during a time of economic uncertainty. So, it'll be interesting to to um watch and wait and see
046how that all folds out over the summer. I very very unlikely. Usually hours before my budget hearing, the they'll go they'll finalize the budget at the state level and say what what our funding is going to be. I don't think it's going to be like that this year. I think we're not going to find out what our funding is going to be until sometime into the summer or late summer at the rate that things are going in Lancing. Um, but we're still required that we have to pass a budget, approve a budget by law by June 30th. So, here go the assumptions. Speaking of assumptions, uh, so the assumptions will be taken for 2526. Uh we're going to take that assumption of the $392 per pupil foundation increase to $10,000 per pupil. Um we're projecting
047enrollment to be at 88,541.37 students. That's that 9010 blend that we're required to take 10% from the spring uh 90% from the from the previous spring next fall. Um and that would be down 38.38 FTE from the 2425 school year. also would like to thank Janet and um we also use Stanford for um enrollment projections to help us uh try and nail that number down. Uh for the retirement rate, we're going to take a little bit of a different approach for 2526. Uh with the new Skyward, we're fortunate enough to be able to know exactly what everybody's uh retirement plan is. So for those groups that I we are confident of what the retirement plans are going to be, we're going to actually start budgeting um employees at their actual retirement plan. Um it's a
048big undertaking, but uh I'm looking forward to the challenge as is Paula. So um the majority of our plan of our groups will be budgeted at their entire exact retirement rate. Um we will also be uh budgeting for an increase in insurance rates for January through June. We already know that July through the December rate, but come January, we won't know that until probably mid October, early November. So, we'll be increas uh planning a decent size increase for insurance. So, please don't be alarmed if you notice that insurance or benefits have gone up drastically. Um we do have two unsettled contracts. I guess the pea technically isn't an unsettled contract. We have a financial reopener with them for the year. Um and then custodial maintenance is an unsettled contract as well right now. Uh on
049the general fund side, we levy our operating taxes on the L4029 which Terry will will see as part of the budget hearing paperwork. Um we did not roll back any further. I'm happy to report we will be lev levying the 17.5695 mills that is also calculated by the county each year. Um, I do want to point out to the board that for the 24-25 school year, we received a categorical as our equivalent of our increase of the 147 A4, which was a reduction in the UAL rate that is going away for next year. And so we are only receiving a foundational recommended foundation allowance at this time of just what equates to approximately a one-year increase. So we're behind a year going into 2526. Um so that that is that's just the way that it's
050looking that it's going to end up. Um federal funding for 2526 as we had previously mentioned is very unknown right now just because of what's going on with the federal government. Uh we have had confirmation that title one is going to be okay. Our title or our federal government our federal funding is primarily our title um grants. So, but title 2, three, and four, we could see a slight decline if not a complete um like it to be completely absent from our budget. Um usually we have our consolidated app or our title budgets by now or at least our amounts and we don't have anything. So, um it's a little little rocky on the federal funding side. So, um there has been talks of this thing called block grants and it's basically where the feds
051give the states a chunk of money and the state has to uh send it out from there. So, uh who knows what could be happening with federal funding, but that's something that we are definitely keeping track of um going forward. And then we also have our be our budget hearing set for June 30th at 6:30. And then finally, this is just a chart showing our unassigned fund balance in the history. All numbers reflected here are actual except for the number on the far right, what we're estimating um the 2425 school year to end with unassigned fund balance which we will carry forward. Any other questions right now? I really appreciate the tremendous amount of work that you all put into this and you can see that the work you're putting into it and it we
052you we feel you love the gueststimates and I I you you come in pretty well. So, thank you. I always admire your guesstimates because you do this year, but we'll see. You're more accurate than most would ever be even with the uncertainty going in and I am amazed at how accurate you tend to be in general. The um the quick question or observation about unbalance and um some of us on the board remember the years when you know by policy we're set at shalt not go below seven and some years where that was a concern. I mean, I mean, we were skipping along the top and we're we're, you know, we're getting up there now and and the question is, you know, what's what's the right amount? Um, and so that that might be the
053question to see next next month kind of where you are in next year's budget and just a discussion over that. But then, you know, with the financial uncertainty we're facing, probably better to have, you know, some someies here. But this question of um we put a floor on this but at some point is is something too high and it might be a policy decision or a policy discussion for us at some point just to reflect on that. One thing that I the this um that last slide of the fund balance will become very interesting because I try to keep between five and six years. So, usually I'll drop off a year um with the next one um and then it'll start really to creep up. So, I was actually working on this earlier today and
054I was like, "Well, this is going to be a very interesting graph in the next couple of years of it's going to we're going to see that eb and flow again." Um almost something that I wouldn't mind looking at deeper for previous years. Just kind of see that true eb and flow. And I can't remember what you've said in past years, but I you've talked about some kind of structural change and it's like we shouldn't always expect it to be at at this level. Um, and some things might might be at play. Yeah, a lot of it that's caused this highness is because we have had that federal funding. I mean, that was almost what was it 11.5 million that was taking a lot of stress off of the general fund fortunately because of how
055we were able to use it. Thank you for the work you have already done and thank you for all the work you still have to do in the next two weeks. Appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you. And there just for your records, there was a corrected page at your station uh in case you go back through here and start doing some uh some calculations. Okay, we'll move on with our discussion items and uh the next three. You're welcome. All right. Evening for Superintendent Belang. What we affectionately call in the the tech world with the network side of thing is blinky lights. So, we're going to talk about the blinky lights tonight. And so, we'll have these three starting with uh video surveillance servers. So, I recommend that the board of ed education approve
056the purchase of eight video surveillance servers from Dell Technologies and the amount not to exceed $175,000. The funds for these servers will come from the 2023 bond fund. So, the video surveillance servers do what you can imagine. Uh they run security cameras and things like that. They process all of the video footage that comes in over the years. The file size of images including video just continues to increase. Servers their life is roughly five years. All of our servers, those six that currently we have uh were installed between 2018 and 2019. So they are at their end of their life. And so given that and the fact that we've had an incre increased demand on the number of security cameras that have been installed, the two new elementary schools definitely have an impact on that.
057We now need eight to run what our our system requires. So in that we know then also that five to six years from now whenever we decide to get all this that we have to plan for that that replacement in the future as well. So we're looking at how do we phase and plan that so we don't have to do all of them at once. So maybe it's something where we do four at the end of the fourth year, another four at the end of the fifth year to to try to balance that out a little bit. Just as we're seeing, you know, the budget and the impact on general fund and depending on the dollars and where they're coming from, we need to plan proactively and strategically for that. Dell is a a partner
058with state of Michigan on the my deal program and so this did not need to go through the formal bidding process. Uh I did attach an itemized quote for you. If you have any questions on this, be happy to show you. All right. So my uh slides are definitely not as technical as what we just observed, but we talk about servers and switches and yeses and all those kinds of things and never really know what they look like. So you know, servers are basically giant computers that process lots of things. You'll you'll see the theme here in a minute. Any questions about servers? All right. Next is uninterruptible power supplies. So, UPS's. I recommend that the board of education approve the purchase of interrupt uninterruptible power supplies from Vector Tech Group and the amount not
059to exceed $57,150. The funds for the UPS's will come from the 2023 bonded fund. So UPS's next slide for you. They are basically battery backups and they're uninterruptible. And I had to you have to practice that a lot because we we quickly say UPS all the time and it's not the brown trucks obviously, but battery backup. So even in our buildings where they may have a generator, there is that little gap of time between when a power might fail and a generator kicks on that's really critical to keep all the the equipment safe. And so that's really the the purpose that they serve. We have roughly 64 in the district that need to be replaced on on that cycle. I put a chart on the recommendation because the original project cost is 114,000 350. We
060were able to use the -ate uh federal program for this project specifically which is a program in the United States that helps schools and libraries with network related equipment. If it qualifies, if it's a qualifying purchase, you can get a reimbursement for that equipment. Our reimbursement rate is 50%. Which is which is very nice. And so we are moving forward. We already have our approval for the -ate uh the the funding for that. And we will move forward with purchasing the UPS's from Vector Tech Group. As a part of the -ate program, you do have to go through a formal bidding process that's actually pretty stringent compared to what even just a normal RFP is. and they have a very strict waiting category as far as how do you figure out who the winning bidder
061is. All of that has to be documented. I've included all of that information including the uh how the how they wait and rate the um different biders. Vector Tech Group was the highest rated bidder. They were the second uh lowest bidder. They were not the lowest bidder, but for all of the other factors in the criteria, they they did get to the top for the highest and and winning bid. Be happy to answer any questions about UPS's. You're presenting this at a level that we understand. I'm just It's not just for you. Let Let me Let me tell you, not just for you. Who does the service and installation? That's all included. Yep. And so and then a lot of this work because we have a great department a lot of this work for the
062example the next one the network gear that we'll have at the new elementary schools our team handles that so same with the UPS's so we'll be able to do that same with the servers actually there is a little bit of service related to the UPS's that Vector is a part of but overall all of the labor is is our team and the first two slides the servers and the UPS's UPS's are spread out through the district. The servers live in the data center, the admin building control for the most part and control the whole the district. And then what we'll talk about next, the switches really are in each of those little network closets scattered throughout the throughout the district. Any other questions on UPS's? There's just good reuse and bond funds for this. That's
063great. That's right. Next, we have uh the network switches for the new buildings. And so, I recommend that the board of education approve the purchase of Ruckus network switches and license licensing again from Vector Tech Group for the new Central and Haver Hill Elementary Schools and the amount of $163,525. The funds for the network equipment will also come from the 2023 bond fund. give you a little breakdown of the difference of prices between the two schools. Uh the network equipment runs our internet, our phones, all of the network related services, copy machines, print, email, all those things. And so the Ruckus infrastructure is what we have in place throughout many of our buildings already. This matches that and is compatible with all everything that we have in our data center. Uh this purchase is also
064we I should note that as we were moving and doing all the things out of the schools we have harvested not only network equipment but anything that actually was viable anything that's that's too old as you know servers four or five years old things like that if it was not able to be harvested it was it was not it was left to go but if we could use it or replace uh and use as a backup even for a failed switch or something like that we have quite a bit of that on hand now. And so, uh, Vector Tech Group is a REMC contract as well. And so, there no RFP was required for this. Tonight, I we are asking if it's if you're comfortable with that, the approval of this purchase for the switch
065is for the new elementary schools. The next one of the next steps that that Johnny may or may not cover in the future is to get the other systems online like the lighting system, HVAC system, all of which require network capability. And so we have to have some gear ready to go for those contractors to be able to keep moving through their processes and their punch list and so that they can finish. Oh, I forgot to change the last one in case you wondered what switch was. Right. I mean, the bottom one is a switch. It's not what I'm talking. Any questions on any of these? Are the first two more timesensitive as well, or can they hold um not as timesensitive? Is the board okay with uh doing this ruckus thing that he's asking
066us to do? There's a couple of motions on page 71. Mr. President, I move that the board of education move the purchase of switches discussion item to action. Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor of moving the switches to action, please say I. I. Opposed. The motion passes. And now we're ready to take action. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the purchase of Ruckus network switches and licensing from Fector Tech Group for the new Central and Haverh Hill elementary schools in the amount of $163,525. The funds for which will come from the 2023 bond fund. Thank you, Kim. Seconded. Thank you both. Any discussion? All those in favor of purchasing switches for Central and Haver Hill, please say I. I opposed. The motion passes. That is done. Thank you, sir.
067Thanks, Ryan. Our next discussion item is a curriculum purchase. Dr. Sheen is here to lead us on this one. Yes. Good evening. Um, Superintendent Beling and board of trustees. Tonight, we are here to recommend that the board approve the purchase of the curriculum materials for the 2526 school year. This would include just as we bring to you each year, replacement texts, um specific course materials, intervention materials, consumable texts for young fives through 12th grade. And we are coming with this total cost not to exceed 347,000. And this funding will come from the general fund budget, but also um 35J, which you've heard us talk about, the literacy grant, as well as 35A5, which is another early literacy grant. So um there is a breakdown on your sheets of the different categories that we typically bring
068to you just to show you the breakdown of um not only the consumable text, but intervention materials and then the the regular course materials separately. So, we've been working with this business with the business office to make sure that we've gone through the process correctly to um utilize our savings cooperatives and ensure that we're getting the best prices quoted for these materials. And um really we're coming to you to see if you have any questions and also to ask if we could um have you move this if you're comfortable to an action item so that we're able to go ahead and move forward and get these materials before the start of this school year. There any questions for McKenzie? Very good. There's a couple of motions on page 92. The first is to move this
069discussion item to action. Mr. President, I move that the board of education move the curriculum purchase discussion item to action. Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? Thank you, Mary Lou. All those in favor of moving the discussion item to action, please say I. I opposed. Motion passes. And now we have the motion to uh take this uh purchase to action. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the purchase of curriculum materials for the 202526 school year, including replacement texts, renewal of specific course materials, intervention materials, and consumable texts for grades young fives through 12th grade for a total cost not to exceed $347,000. The funding for which will come from the 202526 general fund budget, 35J literacy grant, and 3585 early literacy grant. Thank you, Bo. Is there a second? Second.
070Thank you, Terry. Any discussion? All those in favor of approving the curriculum purchase, please say I. I. Opposed. Um hearing nothing. The motion passes. The curriculum purchase is approved. And our next item is the Lake Center lighting project. And we've already received information from Johnny on this, but here he is again. Thank Thank you again. Um at the last board meeting I mentioned a little bit about Lake Center lighting project. At that time we were going out to bid and we had not awarded the contract. Since then uh we have uh gone out to bid received our request back. Um happy to announce that Parkway Electric and Communication is the vendor that had the lowest qualified bid for this particular project which came in at $780,000. Parkway is also one of our uh contractors that
071are that's working on site at our new elementary schools. The purpose of this project is to uh bring our lighting control system and lights up to speed, no pun intended, uh related to uh our latest changes with lighting. U this would allow the entire building to have the LED lights which would which would be much um less to operate in terms of a cost perspective. Uh, also with the lighting fixtures and structures at Lake Center, uh, given that the building is roughly 15 or so years old, we're not able to control the lighting on a day-to-day basis like we would have to with a project like this. Uh, we can capture it over the course of the summer starting with our classrooms and then also there may be some work we need to do during
072second shift after school uh, for this particular project. Great thing about this particular project is it will allow uh the classrooms to have dimmers. Uh oftentimes you may see some of our teachers have some kind covering over their lights uh to kind of take some of the intensity down. So now we'll have the ability for teachers to control that. the entire system that we're putting in place at Lake Center will replicate what's going into the new Central L and the new Habra Hill, which gives us u great confidence. At the same time, just to give a 365day view, we would want to come back to this project next year for 12th Street, but you know, both schools are roughly the same age and built under the same material and lighting infrastructure. OEK would manage this
073project for us. So that's extremely helpful and the funds would come from the building and sight syncing fund. So while the majority of the fee goes to Parkway uh for their contract, there are some additional fees around general construction CM fees as well as a 10% contingency. Uh I sent the uh proposal to the uh to the board a little earlier just to give you an opportunity to review it. It would be my desire that if the board felt comfortable to move this to an action item tonight, I'll be happy to answer any questions for you as well. Will the high schools eventually get this taken care of, too? That's a that's a really good question. So, we're tackling Lake Center and 12th Street. Our goal is to tackle them over the next two summers.
074Great. Uh we'll have to probably do a little bit more investigation uh around our ability to do the high schools. Obviously, a lot more lights are here and it may take us a little longer. So, we're going to investigate the possibility of of the high schools probably over the next year or so. So, I don't want to commit to it tonight, but but we will explore it. I'm just curious because I've seen the light coverings at these buildings that are in my estimation still new. So, it seems like they should have up-to-date systems, but I guess the time factor was just probably right in the area where it was changing over and didn't happen. Absolutely. Any other questions or comments? Well, and it it's good to know I think um we're going to we're going
075to save on utilities right in this building with the LED switch and and we can control we can control this because right now they're many lights are on. You don't want them on. Correct. So, we'll save money. Yeah. Well, thanks for all the information you provided us with, John. I appreciate it. I think uh we'd like to move this to action. If I'm reading the board correctly, there's a motion on page 94 to do that. Mr. President, I move that the board of education move the Lakes Center lighting project discussion item to action. Second. Thank you. Thank you. All those in favor of moving the Lake Center lighting project to action, please say I. I opposed. The motion passes. And now we're ready to take action. Uh Mr. President, uh I move that the board
076of education authorize Owen Ames Kimble Company to issue a notice of pending award in the amount indicated for the Lake Center lighting project to Parkway Electric and Communications pending confirmation that all requirements of the contract documents have been met. And furthermore, upon receipt by Owens Ames Kimble Company of the appropriate documentation, a contract to be awarded to Parkway Electric and Communications by Portage Public Schools in the amount of $760,450 with a sum total of all fees not to exceed $893,222. The funds for which will will come from the building and sight scing fund. Thank you, B. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All those in favor of approving the Lake Center lighting project, please say I. I opposed. Motion passes and the lighting project is approved. Our next discussion item is the freshman of
077birds. Thank you again. Um so we've been working with our curriculum team as well as our music department teachers for the last couple of years about um addressing our instrument repairs. Uh so over time essentially what happens is um they they've moved beyond the t the cycle in which they can be repaired and they need to be replaced. It's been several years since we last made a uh a music instrument purchase of this size. Uh the total for this particular project would be 369,576. In our facilities committee meeting a couple of months ago, we actually had some of the uh instruments on display so that some of the board committee members could take a look at it. Uh it is our desire to use some of our unallocated contingency from the 2019 bond, not from
078our 2021 bond, but from our 2019 bond. uh there is a desire from our auditors to help us spend down those those funds and this would be one of a good way one of the good ways to spend down funds and to be able to get it at the classroom level. So, it would be our desire that this uh purchase or recommendation over the next two board meetings would be approved so that the uh instruments can start being ordered post July one. And I'll be happy to answer any questions. It's good we have the funds to do it. That's great. Yeah. Any questions for Jenny? Okay, then we'll move to our next discussion item. Again, Johnny's going to help us with this one. The purchase of upgrades to the STEM labs. At our middle schools,
079we have STEM labs in place. And since that time, we have not purchased any additional equipment for those areas as those schools came online several years ago. In addition to that, many of the um supplies that they were using came from the old middle schools. Now, this recommendation is below the board's threshold for approval, but because this is coming from the 2019, my recommendation is to use our 2019 unallocated contingency bond fund. We wanted to bring it to the board for permission as the board um has um obviously ultimate say control over our unallocated contingency. Again, another way for us to spend down some of the balance of our $209 and get that as close to the classroom as possible. This purchase is $30,15 and the items selected would be would go to u all
080three of the middle schools as they have identified their particular needs. And I'll be happy to answer any questions about this recommendation. Any questions for J? I think we're all good. Thank you. Our next discussion item number nine um is the elementary schools and districtwide improvements. Mark, so Johnny and I are going to tag team it. Um we've been talking with the board about um you know, well, first of all, let me back up. There's a replacement page uh at your desk. Um, and it's that for that red line version, we noticed a an error in that that uh what was provided in the board packet. So, if you'd uh replace that, so you have that. Um, but we've been uh we've been sharing with the board over time the conditions that have changed uh
081since the passage of the bond that was in uh passed in 2021, which was based on cost estimates that were created beginning as early as 2018. Uh, and we were to go to voters earlier than what we did, but because of COVID, uh, we waited until 2021. So that's just a little background information and you know what's happened to pricing since co um you know we and you know we've roughly experienced the 30% increase in costs of the work that we're doing and uh we made a decision to proceed that we would take that money as as far as we could and then uh reassess where we are right now. So um we've had the spike in cost of that. Johnny also provided information about cost of buses that's that continues to go up and
082of course we're we're always in need of replacing technology. Um as you've heard on some of the uh things that you discussed tonight. Um what we want to do is we want to be able to complete the projects that we promised uh our community. The ones that that still remain now are Amberly, the replacement of Amberly, the replacement of Angling, the renovations at Morrisbridge, which would include uh the air conditioning piece there. Uh we have a better sense for where we need to go with community high school and of course early childhood uh direction. Uh we also want to continue with our bus replacement and technology upgrades. So what we what we provided you in the redline version is in talking with bond council, we said we want to keep this language as close as
083possible to what we had when we went to voters in 2021. And so you'll you'll see the the language that's been changed and added there. And then on page 107 of your agenda is a clean copy of that language with all of the uh the the edits removed. So um that this uh $132,400,000 will allow us to finish the projects that we mentioned. Um it'll keep our current debt levy at the same rate of 6.85 85 uh mills and uh you know these bonds would be structured in such a way that uh we would be issuing bonds as the money was needed to complete the projects and when combined with the remaining funds that we have from the 2019 bond or 2021 bond. Um so we're in a real good position to do that. Uh
084this has to be passed by the board prior to uh I can't remember the exact date in July in order to be on a November ballot which is what uh what we're shooting for. Uh it's a uh it the timing of that seems to be right for us to do it in in November and keep our projects moving and finish the obligations that we had uh had made to these projects. uh and it gives us the flexibility we need to to complete this. We've got more information about some of our site assessments um and some of the costs associated with that. So, we're in a in a in a much better position than we were a couple years ago in identifying our needs. So, I thank Johnny and his staff for uh really doing that.
085And I don't know if there's anything you wanted to add at this point or ask questions. I just I just wanted to add u the element around u ECE that's our oldest building and uh the board has approved some uh temporary fixes related to the roof as well as the boiler and uh given that two programs are housed in PCE we would need to find a new location for them and these bond bond fund bond fund dollars in addition to what we've already committed to for our elementary projects would allow us to help wrap up and address those two programs that are housed in those buildings. Thank you. So, the questions uh we're here to answer. It seems like we've been talking about this for years. Um and that's that's a good thing and and
086just waiting until things kind of came into focus more. And I think um this will be very welcomed and it will lower the anxiety of our communities that are served by Amberly and Angling Road and Morsbridge to get that that upgrade and then expanding that to community high and early childhood. So um and and then you know we're fortunate that the district has borrowing capacity under that current millillage. So um we won't have to increase that. And so we've been working with bond counsel in addition to our financial advisors and and and structuring this in a way that uh as well as our construction management firm so that money's continue to flow so we can keep our projects going in a way that doesn't um delay any longer than we have to and and and
087therefore increase our cost to construct. Very good. We appreciate all the work that's been done on this. Thank you very much. And we look forward to taking action and hopefully we can do that at our next meeting. Very good. We'll plan on putting it on the agenda. Very good. Our next discussion item is the Michigan Association of School Board Membership Renewal. Well, this is all yours, but this is, you know, the I I don't know how many years the board has been a member of MASB, but uh well before I arrived on scene and uh there is a a a letter there that you have from MASB that uh explains the costs and uh access to the legal trust fund. And I think that isn't that the one that you're uh the board of that
088that you've been asked to serve on. Yeah. So, [Music] But anyway, this is a again one of those what is a routine usually a routine action and uh uh you know the costs are offset by some of the savings that you get in uh in the cost of insurance and MASB is our lobbying arm. They provide us with continuing education, gives us access to sets and uh legal counsel there is uh only a phone call away and very helpful. So yeah, it's definitely something we'd like to do and uh yeah, probably a good idea to move it to action. Any questions, observations, comments? No. Okay, there's a motion on page 109 to move it to action. Uh Mr. President, I move that the board of education move the MASB membership renewal discussion item to action.
089Thank you, Bo. Second. Thank you, Terry. All those in favor of moving the MASB membership renewal action, please say I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. We're ready now for action. Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve membership renewal to the Michigan Association of School Boards for 2025 26 for a renewal total of $10,469.89. Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. All in favor of approving the membership renewal for MASB, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh the motion passes. The renewal is approved. Our last item is uh policy revisions and u these are all board policies that we reviewed uh at our last retreat. But just to uh make sure everybody um is aware of everything going on here. Uh the first bylaw that we're asked to renew is uh 031.1
090which is the bylaws and policy bylaw. And the significant change there is it allows the superintendent to make technical corrections to policies without board approval. But he has the superintendent has to let us know any changes that were made. Um the rest of the policy work here represents uh months of work by the board and the first bylaw is uh 0 166.1 the consent agenda and revisions to this policy limit discussion to brief clarifying comments or questions during the consent agenda part of the meeting and allow the presiding officer to determine whether the item should be discussed as a non-action item or defer for further study. Now, the vision for the district, uh, this is being revised to eliminate confusion between the board vision and the preamble to the strategic commitments that were developed by
091the district values team. So where in the past our vision was um an exceptional continuously improving learning culture with high expectations committed to all. We agreed that we would change that that we are inspired to be an exceptional community grounded in fostering strengths, growth, and lifelong learning. And that includes the new tagline for the district, every student, every future. Um, we also revised the preamble to our end statements and our end statements are our long-term goals. Um we wanted to um make it clear that our goals were aspirational and visionary that they reflect community values which was confirmed by a high percentage of our community. Uh in the 2024 community survey that uh believed our um ends our long-term goals for students were were right where they should be. It reflects the board commitment to
092continuous improvement and high expectations. reinforces results over time and favorable comparisons to similar schools and state averages. So, um the new uh preamble to the end statement would read, "The following end statements establish long range aspirational and visionary outcomes for the district that reflect community values and support the vision for the district. All of the end statements contribute to a successful graduate of Portage Public Schools and reinforce the commitment of the board to continuous improvement in high expectations for all students. Success is based on improvement of results over time and favorable comparisons to similar similar schools and the state of Michigan averages. And then finally or next there was a revision to ENS policy 1.1 student success. Uh the old policy indicated that students demonstrate progress toward mastery in English language arts and math with
093evidence of annual academic growth and proficiency. The new statement is students demonstrate progress toward mastery of core curriculum standards evidenced by annual academic growth within grade level cohorts growth of low achieving students and by achieving academic proficiency there. So it really what it did was expand um uh the core c courttocore curriculum as opposed to just being restricted to ELA and math because in fact the board is interested in in everything and uh we focused on growth of grade level cohorts low achieving students not any particular socioeconomic group and uh finally proficiency. Then uh we revised uh executive limitations policy 2.0 and that would require the superintendent to provide niche rankings annually for schools within Kazoo County. And finally uh the changes in uh 1.1 academic success are reflected in a revision to policy 3.12
094superintendent evaluation. Um those are all the policy revisions summarized. Any comments about any of this, questions about any of Great work. Just Yeah, it took us months and months. No, I can tell it was really well done. Thanks for the summary, Randy. Yes. Um, the only thing uh I would change is there's quotation remarks around state of Michigan averages. I don't think we need that. I believe one of our policies allows the superintendent to clean that up and let us know. Whoa, you're so good. Technical. We could change that before we bring it back to the board. Technical changes. Or we could approve as amended. Reckoning. Good point, Bo. Yeah. Okay. If there's no comments or questions about that, um, the only thing we need now is a motion to go into close session, and
095that is on page 120. Mr. President, I move that the board of education move into close session to discuss collective bargaining strategy and security planning as allowed under the Open Meetings Act 15.2668 section 8C and 8K respectively. Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. And this is a roll call vote, please. Mrs. Roar, yes. Mrs. Crawford, yes. Mrs. Navaria, yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Snder, yes. Merson, yes. Uh the motion to go into close session is approved. And are we going to stay right here? Is that the plan? Yes. Okay. Okay. Very good. And uh just so everybody knows, we'll not be going back into open session to take any action. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. I uh I didn't want to live with removing those quotes. I mean, you could strip