001Every time there's green on the inside. Hey, this meeting of the board of education is called to order. Please stand and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you all for coming. Welcome on this Cinco de Mayo. And we'll get started by approving our agenda for the meeting. There's a motion, please, on page two. Are there any changes? Mr. President, I move that the board of education approve the agenda printed. Thank you, sir. Second. Thank you, Terry. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed. The motion passes and we'll move forward with our agenda. And the first stop is the superintendent's report.
002Mark, thank you, Randy. Uh, first thing up on the docket is our bond project update and a change order summary. And, uh, Johnny Edwards will take the lead on that. Johnny, thank you, Superintendent Big as well as board of education. Um, I just really want to share our good news about our tours today. And there is another tour on Thursday. Uh so today just for this meeting we take the staff at Central Elementary School along with some of the departments were also able to make it to see the new facility and while the construction is still underway. There's still more work to be done but more importantly the excitement on our staff face. We were able just to see where the classrooms are coming together. The furniture partially has arrived. They were able to just
003kind of get a good feel for what the future's going to look like and it's only a couple of months away. Overwhelmingly, lots of smiles and thumbs up. The teachers also had a homework assignment with their principal to kind of identify spaces that they'll be working within. So, along with it's somewhat guided toward the staff kind of just roam like little kids in a new space, which is really exciting to see. And I I just want to commend the board for entrusting us to make some uh key decisions along the way, many of which are coming to fruition. And now staff are able to kind of see it in person. And so overwhelmingly a positive response. And I anticipate for Thursday, uh at the same time, 4:30, we will also do a tour for Haver
004Hill and their staff. And we anticipate a great bit of excitement. Uh, as you may have noticed at Central Elementary School, the playgrounds are starting to come into play. Uh, there's a lot of concrete being poured around the exterior of the building. We still have to work through elevators. Uh, more furniture will come into play within the next couple of weeks. Well, if you get a opportunity to see Habra Hill, there'll be some areas at Haver Hill that are more finished than what's at at at Central Elementary School, but that's intentional, just all based on the the layout of the school and the order in which they're doing the the construction schedule. But overwhelmingly, I just want to share a positive thumbs up from our our staff at today's visit. So, that concludes my portion.
005Before I turn it over to Anastasia for the change order report report, I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thanks, Jenny. Anastasia is our uh project manager for OAK. She will walk you through change orders seven and eight. Good evening, everyone. Um we'll get started on change order 7 for your cover sheet. So, as you guys can tell here, it looks a little bit different. The one of the last times I saw you guys, we approved Woodland Elementary. So change order 7 is our bond change order to add this one to um our construction process here. So moving forward as we start having any changes from the architect, from the owner side, from the contractors, you'll see again the cost moving below from contingency up to construction. So with change order 7, there's no C
006costs across the board there. You'll see those are all zero. And again, that's just because the change order seven was bringing Woodland into play here. On to change order eight. Again, looking very similar, but now we've got some cost changes that we have moved from um contingency up to construction for both Central and Haver Hill. On Centrals, we had a cost change for change order 8 of $17,292 that we moved up to construction. And on Haver Hill, the cost was $87,012. Moving on to the third page here, just some of the details that you guys have. I want to touch base on a couple of the higherend items. Um, if you guys have any questions on the ones I don't touch base on or anything that I do, please feel free to stop me along
007the way and ask those. So, on central, we had added some new raw cold water piping. Originally, that was connected to the softened uh water throughout the building. Typically, th those are non-softened. So, we ran new piping to the exterior hoses uh for that for a cost of 35,218. and that had one contractor affected on central still bulletin 13. We had some mechanical updates which shifted water pipes avoiding some structural uh peers. So that was noticed during during the construction once the once the pier was built. We were looking at where those piping where that um water piping was supposed to go in the wall. Realized can't go right there. We've got a bunch of rebar and concrete in the wall. So, just the cost of shifting that over to an appropriate spot. Um, that
008had a cost of 13,628 and that one affected six contractors. Um, another one I wanted to touch base on for central was bulletin 14. We added some waste piping for sinks on the second floor, some door revisions and updates to the passageway return air grill. Um the majority of this one involves pipings piping updates that were included during bidding. However, they didn't make that change didn't make its way to contractors as we have to give them appropriate time to review the documents and be able to include it in their bid. So, while the architect had made that change, it just didn't get to the contractors until after and then it made it into a bulletin down the road. So that's that's this one for a cost of 14,684 and that one had four contractors. A
009couple more that you guys will see here. We've talked about these a little bit last time. I've got a couple allowance items on here where we we knew we were going to need money for something along these lines. So we hold an allowance ahead of time to be able to account for those. So, we've got a couple of these which are the um adding some solid surface tops and vanities in uh some specified areas for $26,825. Originally, these were not assigned to anybody during bidding or accounted for. We just knew that they kind of fell in a gray area with whose countertop or whose casework they were on top of. Um, another one is the allowance for the remaining balance of the pro the project fencing for 44,978. So when we went out to bid
010originally, Lounsberry had picked up the majority of the site fencing as well as a little bit of the playground fencing. Once we went further along design and determined really what fencing you guys wanted and also the overall package, it made sense to award that to Lounberry as they had some bits and pieces so it all had a nice cohesive look. Um, so again, Central's change order 8 had a total of 107,292. Any questions on these before I move on to Haverh Hill? Okay, on to Haverh Hill. Um, bulletin 10, we had some roofing detail clarifications, added sheathing at the exterior roof. We had an added detail to show the concrete concrete cap detail for underground electrical services. So, um, the majority of this one really had to do with that concrete cap detail. So, when
011we went out to bid, if you guys remember, consumers was going to do the power originally. So that detail for the concrete cap with that would have been included from consumers. When that came back to us, we had to add that detail in and give that work to our contractor. So the majority of that piece was for um encasing the that in the concrete for an ad of $24,853 and that affected three contractors. Um another one was adding the backflow pre domestic water. This was required by the building inspectoring co code. So that was just another one that came up during construction while we have those inspectors out for an ad of $7,37 and that affected one contractor. Uh the last one I'll touch touch on here is the playground equipment changes. That one was
012an ad of $28,000. So, initially when we had awarded the playground equipment uh contract, this was based on a voluntary alternate bid. During the shop drawing review, it was determined that there was some changes that both the owner and the architect, we had multiple meetings on um what what they were proposing and what really we wanted the the design to be that design intent. So, this cost was bringing that original or those items up to the original design intent. Overall, Haver Hills change order 8 was an ad of uh $87,12 up to construction. Any questions on Haver Hill or overall? Anastasia, is are the the number of change orders that you're seeing on these projects, you know, kind of in the ballpark where you for other projects about this size? Yeah. Yeah, actually. And so,
013you'll notice a little bit as we get to the end. We we had a little bit of a lull as we went down. Um as we start to wrap up at the end, there will be a couple more that you guys will see probably in the next quarter as we're just buttoning up little loose ends. There could be something from the owner side that we're deciding to add or change. Um so there will be a little bit more as as we wrap up the project, but this is typical for where we're at right now. And and just to point out two numbers on the document here. It's it's we're still close to $2 million uh in contingency left for Central and for Habra Hill. So there's Yeah, we're still a lot of contingency. Couple months
014to go and don't jinx it. Yeah, right. I know. Please. Okay. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you. Uh, next on our report are some uh current advisory committee awards. Janine or [Applause] while she's walking up, I just want to remind board members that our next KCSOA meeting is on a uh that date was changed from what was originally scheduled and it'll be at the new CTE center on the uh the day prior to the grand opening. So, uh, so your meeting will be on the 21st and I think the grand opening is the following day at, uh, on the 22nd beginning at 4:00 for opening to the community. So hopefully you'll you'll get a sneak peek at the center if you're able to make that Wednesday night event. All set. All set. It's all
015yours. Okay. Thank you. Well, in honor of teacher appreciation week, it is my honor once again to um introduce you to our parent advisory committee um teachers or support staff or parent volunteer or any um administrator. And so we do have some celebrities in the building today that I'd like to introduce you to. Um I'll have um Caitlyn Deja come up first. Okay. Caitlyn is an educational support and intervention teacher at Central High. Here I'm going to read a little bit about how um how wonderful Caitlyn is. She's an amazing pillar of support for my students four-year career. She's always been easy to reach and provided supports with any issues that arose for our students, whether it was at Central High, KBCC, or the Career and Technical Education Center. Kaitton Caitlyn goes above and beyond
016our expectations. She has been instrumental in my daughter's successes during high school. And that was nominated, you were nominated by a parent, Steven Rock. So, um, you don't want to say anything. That's okay. That's that's all right. Um, we do have this beautiful plaque and in honor of all the work that you have done over the years, you've been here quite a long time, right? Yeah. So, that is for you. Thank you. Thank you. And we have some flowers as well. And um you want to just Yeah. Okay. All right. I'll just keep her up here a little bit longer. She's used to being in front of people as a teacher. Thank you, Katie. No problem. U Marcy Nunes is another person that we have um are going to honor today. He works at Central
017High as well. I'm seeing a pattern here. Uh, Mr. Nunees is a great human being who is always available to listen to the students. He also forms insanely good relationships with students. Um, and you're also a great wrestling coach, which I did not know until today. So, um, and you were nominated by Eric and Brady Cooper. Yeah. Eric Baxter and Brady Cooper. Yeah. So, congratulations to you. Thank you. Um, I'm going to give you your And those are the letters for you. So you can do that. Yeah. I'll take that. Yeah, I'll take that. And I'm going to give you those, too. Those are beautiful. Oh, yeah. Beautiful. Thank you, Mercy. We also have two other people who um were nominated and we want to acknowledge them. Uh, Miss Caitlyn Walsh up here. And Caitlyn
018is an educational supports intervention teacher at Amberly Elementary. Tell you a little bit about Miss Walsh. Miss Walsh is consistent and calm, which supports my students school experience. She is such a cheerleader and roots for my son's success. Ms. Walsh also volunteers for an afterchool dance club open to the school and that was You were nominated by a parent named Tori. Oh, yeah. So congratulations on that. All righty. So that one is just got your certificate. Thank you. Thank you. Um we have one other uh person who is not here but I do want to acknowledge your Yingloo. We had um a parent volunteer for the very first time was nominated and so I thought that was pretty cool. Um, so I definitely want to put a shout out to Central Middle School for doing
019uh an awesome job at hiring folks who are going to help children and um even be nominated for an award. So on behalf of um the ESI department and Portage Public Schools, I want to thank you very much for all the work that you've done. Um I'm sure flowers don't cover it, but I really I really think that they we have a great team or um here. So thank you very much. Sure. Sure. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. Congratulations. Oh my god. Good work, sir. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. you. Congratulations. Thanks for all you do. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Thank you. Of course. Thank you. Thanks for all you do. [Music] Um, no, I think that does it for me. I don't have anything prepared beyond that. Uh, longterm
020plans you want to share? No, I don't have anything. Okay. No, just I I just encourage board members if you can make it to either one of those uh events uh at the end of May to see that new facility, you'll be wowed. It's uh it's absolutely fantastic. So, okay, very good. We'll move to board education. Absolutely. We're having an ELA update tonight. Uh Dr. Sheen is here to give you a an update about some of the work that uh that has happened in regards to our ELA curriculum. and you have you were provided in your board packet a a rather detailed uh compilation of uh results of survey results and and input that has been received and uh Kenzie is here to to kind of give you an overview of of the her findings
021and uh with the work in ELA. So well thank you good evening Brenton Ling and board of trustees. So, I'll start and give give you that overview of just the packet that you received and then we'll have Dr. Speaker Gersheimer come up and give you an update on where high school's at. And so, um, we're excited once again to um, just be here to kind of present the data that we've gathered for the first semester of school around ELA and the implementation both from the students view, from the parents view, and from the teachers view. and then any next steps we have um planned or that we've already been doing with that information. Um so you will find in your board packet but I wanted to make sure we put it up here just the
022number of responses we received received from each party. So during at the conclusion of this first semester, we um sent out surveys through uh teacher teams and made sure that students were able to access that survey in class and that parents had um numerous times that they were um reminded to take the survey within a couple week. And so we were happy with a lot of the results that we got. Um, we did make some plans that I'll talk about later to increase the number of surveys in a couple categories, but um, in general, we took all of those results and we put together kind of a a broad sweep tonight, but you have the detailed information in front of you. If you would like to read all 28 pages, I would love it. Um
023but our first category that we took a look at is um just the students and how they're reacting at home to what they're learning in ELA. We want to know are they talking about it? Are they having those home conversations or is it something that maybe isn't coming up and that would give us a gauge on um even the parent feedback that was coming our way because we know if the kids are talking about it then the parent feedback is going to be extremely meaningful because they're hearing all about it. So, we were really interested to see when you look at just K through really sixth grade, um there was only between 1 and 11 families that hadn't heard anything about ELA. So, we we felt pretty good about that. But for the most part,
024we saw that significant dip once they get to middle school that they're not hearing as much from their student, which we we all could have, you know, guessed that ahead of time, but we were really excited to see that even in middle school, they are still talking about what they're reading and what they're writing about um at home. And you can see I've included little quotes and snippets from students as we go through. Um and so this one is from a second grader in particular. and the topics have been of high interest to her son and he's noticed she's noticed that he's very engaged and excited at what he's learning and doing. Now, when it came to middle school, we had um a number of families fill out some open response uh questions and those
025weren't required. So, we had between 29 and 18 families respond at different grade levels just within middle school. And so, these are just a few of kind of the key ones we wanted to pull out so that people could hear some of the responses we got. One says, "I really enjoyed that my student gained perspective on a story about a family very different than our own, but allowed us to discuss the dynamics of families and similarities and differences all together." That was from a sixth grade family. Another one was understanding what it's like from another person's lived experiences. I felt it was important for students to read about others who are not like them and think outside of their comfort zone. That was seventh grade. And the last one we have up there is from
026eighth grade. And the last unit really challenged my student to read multiple texts and find how to pull components of each to explore a broader topic. It was tough. It was a tough session work-wise, but I do think it made him a stronger writer. Loved bringing this genre up at Halloween time. What a fun way to keep them engaged. And you can tell that that's referring to that first unit of eighth grade twisting expectations. But so, in general, what we saw from middle school families is we saw um a couple pockets of of different critiques and suggestions that we'll talk about when we get to our action steps. But for the most part, we were extremely excited to see a lot of really positive responses around improvement in writing, improvement in connecting texts and being
027able to talk about literary literary devices and other complex topics. But we did see like for instance three families in seventh grade commented on not liking the topic of that unit. But so for the critique critiques that we had, it was very small pockets between three and five people and it was really hard to identify a trend. So and that information too is in your packet. If we move on to looking at elementary, I won't read all of these because you do have it in front of you, but instead we we saw a very large amount of elementary families comment on they believe that their students were growing in writing and reading more than they had seen before. So, that was extremely exciting for us to see that type of response from parents in particular.
028Um, I do want to point out there was a couple um about four different family comments that address their um own home culture being brought up within some of the books. And one of the quotes from a first grade family said um talked about the Nigerian folktales that were brought up in first grade um on an a Nanzi the spider and just that that sparked conversation back at home where they actually want to learn more about it. We saw another one that was talking about how um a student has refused to want to learn their home or their parents' home language of Spanish, but then when introduced to some of the books, started asking more questions and now they're starting to practice Spanish at home again. So, there was different pockets that we've seen that
029has have been very exciting where we're hearing from um our community just on how their family life is being affected in little ways. So, those were a lot of fun to um just read and to get to know families in our community a little bit more. So, when we looked at family responses, one of the questions that we specifically asked was if they found the materials for the unit um appropriate for their students age and maturity level. So, we asked this both at um the parent well actually we asked it at all three levels, the parent, the student, and the teacher. So in general um you can look at the fifth grade and the elementary side. So third, fourth and fifth was asked this question but they did we did a different scale. So I
030wanted to clarify that ahead of time. We had a three category scale and for middle school we had a four um which is something that we would change in the future so that we can compare the data better. Um but in general we saw um when focusing on fifth grade that 88% of the 132 families thought that the content was com mostly or completely appropriate for that age group. And then looking at middle school, we saw 94% of the families thought that there was it was somewhat to completely appropriate and which leaves only about 6% of the families that reported that they felt like the content was inappropriate. So, and the students really confirmed a lot of that for us. Um, they definitely fall right in line. And we we did notice one thing that
031you'll see come up in the next slide as well. that seventh grade there was something going on. And we we hadn't totally pegged it yet, but um that group in particular of students felt like that um they said it wasn't appropriate for their age and maturity level which was really interesting and parents it was reflected in their survey data too. So as we go on keep an eye on seventh grade and you'll see where we go. So when we looked at did they find it interesting um we saw a variety of responses and we also saw that most students and even in earlier grades were were very interested in the units that they had. Once again we saw in seventh grade there was something going on and this is something that we were watching for
032ahead of time. We had gotten feedback from teachers um and even looking at student writing had noticed something different. And so when we started analyzing it, a lot of did you find this interesting or later when we asked the teacher something similar, we start asking a lot more questions about seventh grade. But even with that lower score of finding it not as interesting as some of the other units, we still had a a very large amount of great feedback from students around they felt like they were growing in writing. They felt like they they were gaining skills in general. Um, and those are on pages 21 through 23 of your packet. And then we summarize them into themes so that it was a little easier to get the essence of what students were saying. So
033here are just a few of those quotes from those uh themes that we saw. So we saw students talk about how it helped them see other people uniquely and differently. We saw them really reflect on their writing and on finding evidence throughout texts and um like I said the literary devices and very specific things that we were like yes they understood because that's what was taught in that unit. So those are just a few of the hundreds of quotes we have. So then when we looked at teachers, we asked them a series of questions as well. And one of them was, "How would you rate your overall experience with the ELA units?" We know that this question was very broad. And so it helped us drill down with our coaches to start asking um more
034strategic questions if we noticed something. So we knew that there was going to be factors like well if if it didn't if it was on that liyker scale of one to five one being poor and five being excellent and was towards the lower end was it because of how the students responded or was it because the materials themselves maybe weren't as easy to follow or were they um hard to access or was it the teachers desire to teach that topic? And so those are some of the other questions that we're still following up on and gaining some more insight too. But you'll notice again in seventh grade we had um you know three teachers take it. And so that's one of the things that we are working on with our middle school principles is ensuring
035that we have every single teacher complete it. And so that's something that we've already discussed and planned for as we finish off the year and take another look at surveys. Um, and then in third grade, that's one thing that they've our reading specialists have been starting to dig into is what is it about that unit or those units because there's multiple those units that we can support teachers better or help them um work through that so that it is a very positive excellent five out of five experience for them. So, some of the things that we heard from teachers, um, you'll see a few of the quotes up there, but we asked them different questions around what materials could be improved or changed to support learning, what feedback did they receive from families, did they
036have suggestions for pacing changes, and um, also gave them an open-ended response to share any additional feedback that they wanted to. So, we have a few of those quotes up there. there's more in your packets, but in general, we heard a lot of positive information around the unit launches. And so that is a dedicated time before the unit where we do some prep with them, go through the materials, talk about what we think the students are going to need additional support in and look at the text complexity of it. But, uh, that's something that we'll continue to do and it's evolving over time of what that initial launch looks like. But that was one thing we heard over and over that it was helpful. There were also a few like handful of comments around how
037some some people did not feel it was helpful. So starting to investigate like what else can we do to make sure that that's a good use of time for everyone. So in all of the data we identified a few strengths that we want to make sure and highlight and really that's around the growth both that we heard from students from parents and from teachers around just the improvements that they're seeing mostly we saw a lot of comments in writing that was probably the the number one but really in reading fluency writing vocabulary and that critical ical thinking of connecting multiple pieces of literature. And then another strength was that we saw from both um students and families is that feedback around the diverse literature that they felt like it was meaningful and that gave students
038um experiences that they could that they could connect to the real world. And then also we saw that engagement. We had great scores in students feeling engaged and in parents saying that their students were engaging in ELA. And last but not least, like I mentioned, the teachers appreciated the unit launches, pacing guides, slide decks that um our teams have worked so hard on making sure that we have set and accessible to all teachers. So with all strengths, we also have areas that need to be worked on. And so some of those areas that we have is our communication going home. We saw a number of comments around not feeling like they had enough communication or maybe not knowing about the family letters because we asked specifically about those. We also know that we had a
039lot of parents ask for additional ideas on what they could do at home. Even though we do have that on the family letter, we think that we well, I won't get to action stuff yet, but there could be some things we could do there. And then the pacing issues that came up specifically in seventh grade um was around it feeling too slow. And so that's one of the areas that we identified. Um the classroom environment, we did have a number of families talk about the disruptive behaviors impacting learning. Now when I say that there was some that could be as little as four or as many as eight. So that's but that was a trend out of all of them that did stand out in seventh and eighth grade. and then coaching and instructional support.
040Teachers specifically talked around the development that they would want around Socratic seminars which is part of our ending of a unit and um access to audiobook resources for students that may need it that support. So here are action steps moving forward in order to make sure we strengthen those homeschool connections. Um, we are going to make sure that principles help support um, our curricular team with reminding teachers before they get to a unit that they should be sending that ELA family letter home with enough time for parents to see it before we start the unit. But we're also going to take time during this summer curriculum work to really beef those up, whether it's extra vocabulary or extra questions and connections that they can make at home or additional books that they could be reading.
041And then in the fall when we do that, we're going to launch kind of with this idea of a family partnership with ELA. What does that look like? Um and ensuring access to learning materials. We are going to make sure that we um provide our teachers with a kind of a one-pager of how to use Destiny, which is like our checkout system for books. how to make sure they know how to check those books out to students because because we bought such nice um bound of books, which you'll hear about a little bit later. Um we want to make sure that students are able to go to and from school with those. And I think some some of our pockets and of teachers may still be uh protecting those as class sets versus letting them
042go back and forth from school to home. So, we're going to push out um that one pager so that they know that yes, go ahead, check it out, let them take it home, and hopefully um hopefully bring it back the next day. If not, we have extras. Um then adjusting pacing and units based on the feedback and that's really from the teachers. We do have some parent and student feedback we're using for that. this summer curriculum work. We will be working really hard as a team to make sure we get all those changes made, just the little tweaks and adjust to the calendar so that we have extra days for certain things that we know took longer for students and that we have that flexibility though for teachers um depending on the class that they
043have and the students in front of them that they can make those adjustments. And really the biggest part the biggest lift is going to be that unit one of seventh grade. So, um, we've been in communication with our curricular resource partner, letting them know the feedback that we have. They've been getting that same feedback from some other schools. So, they are revising it and, um, it looks really exciting and good. Still following kind of the same vein of what we've had, but we will be looking at that as a team this summer and making any changes that we need to for there. And then in fall, implementing all the updated pacing and recommendations with the teachers before the start of the year. And then last but not least, our additional coaching and modeling. We're going
044to um develop a short series of videos from our own teachers here modeling what those Socratic seminars can look like so that we can use those with new teachers or teachers that need additional support um or just curious to see what other classrooms look like doing it. So we'll be doing that along with um making sure that we look at the buildingwide expectations for behavior within ELA. So because we have different structures in there, we think that in our middle school program especially kind of helping develop some of those um guidelines around what does what does it look like when we're doing like a uh stand up and defend protocol with students and making sure that they know kind of what their voice is supposed to be like, what their task is and going through
045that. So talking about that as a team and really helping kind of guide that conversation so it's very similar between all the buildings. And last we'll um make sure that we're continually surveying teachers for the effectiveness of coaching and any professional development changes. So, in next year in particular, we'll be concentrating on writing and um really helping the teachers kind of beef up their knowledge around the writing process and how we can make sure and connect that vertically from grade to grade and starting to collect those writing samples and talk about talking about them during PLC's. So, with all that said, before I hand it over to Tracy, are there any questions? If not, she can come right on up. I have a couple questions. But I'm sure you know you're addressing them. I I
046was impressed with the quantity of data that you gave us. So, thank you for that. Um, it looks like you're you're you guys are taking some really good action steps to address, you know, some of those specific issues. Um and and one of the things I noticed as you brought up was the seventh grade and um I think that's you're going to have some work there I'm sure over the summer to figure out what's getting affected because I know there are so many variables that can affect kids respond and and talk at home and all that. So thank you for that. Um, but just one little quick question. Um, and now I'm trying to remember as you were talking about the book and that the publisher is going to adjust the curriculum for seventh grade
047in response to some of these um, challenges that we had. Will the seventh grade textbooks that we have still usable with those adjustments or will that change? That's a great question. And so that um that unit in particular was a combination of short stories and articles. And so we never purchased a text for it. It was just those paper copies of and that is the plan um that they have created one that that is matching to that where it is it is a compilation of short stories, poems and articles. And that's pretty typical for each one of our grade levels that it has some unit that is composed of that. Um but we got lucky and that but um it's it's definitely one that we we even when we went through the pilot it was
048probably the least favorite of our early adopters. Um so it wasn't a surprise when the second year it didn't seem like it was jing with the students and the teachers and the parents. So that's a great question. Thanks. So, I don't know if this will be addressed in part two or not. Um, and so please let me know if it is and I'll move on. Um, first of all, I really appreciated the exposure to multiple cultures because that is so important um that we here in Portage do not get that exposure very easily automatically and so having that is a good thing. Um, I did notice with the graphs that you lumped together the somewhat concerns to mostly approve as opposed to lumping together. I have concerns and then I have some concerns and it
049changes the perspective if you group things differently. Mhm. Um because there's always good to be found in something, but it may not be something that you appreciate. And so parents might have chosen that when they had maybe more concerns or stronger concerns by saying there's still a lot of good here. Um so my question is more what are you doing to address those concerns? And I did notice you mentioned strengthening communication, um, sending books home. I think that'll be a big difference. And I noticed, uh, you mentioned family partnership. Is there anything else you're doing to address concerns that families might have? Um, so I'm glad you brought that up because that was the change too when you saw the three categories versus the four. So us realizing like we want to make sure and
050get a clear picture of what we're asking. And so um making that adjustment did help in the clarity of what we saw in middle school versus grades three through five who were asked that specifically as for the number um that it's it's really interesting like we have to really look at and analyze like out of the you know hundreds of families that took it we may have a group of 10 that didn't feel like it was appropriate and so so thinking about okay if we have a group of 10 like how do we support and respond to that? And for the most part, like that that is a lot of the calls and emails that we feel and that we do meet with those families. But I think in general, like when we're looking at
051all those categories, that strengthening of communication is going to be the key because some of those families we know haven't been able to pick up the book on their own because it hasn't been accessible to them or that they haven't been able to go to the library and check it out. So, um, we have done our due diligence of making sure that the Portage Public Library has all of our books available to parents that we've, um, we've tried to push the family letters and now we're going to try a new way. But, um, but our door is always open and that's and same with our principles. they are very willing to sit and talk and meet with parents to hear those concerns and when we do hear specific ones that kind of helps open open
052our eyes to like how we could support in various ways but except for those strategies um there hasn't been anything so in the future if you have any suggestions we are open to it I was actually going to be along the same lines which is kind of humorous um what I was ask what I ask is that if you had looked at it with the bottom you know, everything that's not completely appropriate. Was there an option? I know we said there was a place for parents to make comments or things, but was there a place after if you're not saying it's completely appropriate, a box triggering if you didn't find this, what did you not find appropriate? We just left the open comments as that place for it. So, and because I know when we
053do our survey for the school, there's a detractor, we wanted we were trying to capture that information with that question. Maybe next time that might help. We could trigger it so that it does do that. That's a good idea. Thank you. I know. Can I say something? Oh, do we not see anything based off of that? Like, but yeah, I'll I'll tell you after. I just had a quick thing with um the data was great, a lot of information, and it was well put together. Um some of the comments with pacing. somewhere that they were too slow. Some families found it and then some found it too too fast and I didn't know within that if you guys have had conversations or were going to with like with math you've got the core and the
054plus would this be the chance to keep the you know to accommodate students um that would be regular wanting it a little faster or the kids that do need a little bit slower if that would help at all or That's a great great question and I think that's something that um I mean that might be a whole another presentation But within within our resource and how we're developing ELA in general, like there is a way to differentiate within a classroom so that you are able to maybe not push kids along in the curriculum where you think that they would move on faster than their peers, but instead deepen what they're doing and their understanding and the expectations around that. And at the same time, make sure we're supporting and remediating and accelerating those that need
055it. And so that's something that's written into the enhanced lesson plans, which actually I didn't even touch on, but we saw and you can see in your packets, there's a number of teachers that weren't using the enhanced lesson plans. So that's something that we've been pushing really hard since we got that data in. That was probably our biggest concern. And um that's something that's honestly it's this is a different way and a different expectation than we've had in in really utilizing the detailed lesson plan especially as teachers are learning it because once they go through it once and they see all the supports that are available for both um both ends of the spectrum then it gives them kind of this this cheat sheet in in a sense to say okay where's the student at
056and what can I do or what can I have my support teacher doing And so that's that's something we've never had in ELA is that really detailed plan to be able to support on both ends in a way that is still connected to what they're learning. So for instance, at West Middle School, I think some of you may have uh attended the watershed down presentation. It was an extension activity that they were able to choose to do or not to do. And it was some really deep research, but it was connected to the unit that they were currently doing. And so we're adding we're getting good now that we're in the second year of this of starting to add the layers of extensions and then also learning what that acceleration looks like for those individual
057students where we're still um we're still learning how to do that. But it's definitely um we talk to our ELA teachers especially, they're like, I've never seen this type of writing from a lot of these kids. like I've never seen even the way that I can push all of them now in the way that we can even extend further for some. It's really cool and it's and these are teachers who are experts in this and I'm just kind of floored that they that they're seeing the progress in all students. Um so it's definitely something that we're monitoring and you know we're also talking with parents as those you know few concerns and I say few and I mean few few concerns still come up around that ELA plus regular but um so no because there's
058not a benefit like we see in math where they have a choice to take a high school course at middle school that that differentiation can happen in the classroom with that core text and those extens ions and acceleration built in. So Mackenzie, I my question might be building on marks. Um and we got to go back a year, so my I'm a little fuzzy, but so a year about a year ago, you came here and talked about the changes that were made to the um middle school ELA like like two almost two full years ago. And you were very frank and you said, um here's some very positive feedback we've gotten on that and here's some more critical feedback you've gotten on that. and it and it's a process. Um, can you help us understand
059kind of the maturity now in the second year? And I I mean and I just assume there's a learning curve, right, with all this stuff. And I mean and I'm not I'm not sure if you presented data with us like to this level of detail last year. And so I my question was kind of like a compare the feedback last year to this year. And I think in Mark's answering Mark's question, you said there's we've still got a ways to go on the on the learning curve of doing this kind of a new way. Yeah. Um, we definitely see a level of confidence in our teachers as they as they go into the second year of teaching it and just feeling like they are owning it. They're they know it. They've seen the kids and
060how they're going to respond to it. And really last year that was the biggest fear is like well what if what if they say something about this? What if the side the conversation goes sideways? What if and not knowing what that would look like yet? And so after going through it and using those unit launches to both gather feedback and launch the next unit, we've seen um teachers come out of units that they were really worried about and saying, "Oh my gosh, the kids loved it." like they, you know, they had these great conversations or they connected things this way. So, we've definitely got a lot of feedback from teachers who seem to be our most hesitant um last year going into it that they feel much more confident now. Um, as for parents, it's
061been a lot of conversation and a lot of um, even them asking questions that sometimes were fear-based, sometimes we're just based on not knowing and maybe not having enough information. And I think we're we're hitting that point, that critical point where like there might be enough and we might need to add a little more, but we're finding that balance. And that was pretty obvious in the comments that were coming back. there were very few that were um extremely upset or negative like very few like less than one handful like in each grade level. And so I think we're we're seeing we're seeing where our growing spots are, growth edges are, but we're definitely feeling a lot more confident in um both the parent response and the teacher response. So thank you. Hey, and if if
062I could make an observation in looking at the data that you gave, it just points out um what a diverse school district um we are and the diversity of the families we serve. And you know, this hits home. Some families are sitting down at dinner tonight and they're talking with their fourth grader about ELA and some families, they're not. And we've got to serve all of them and we've got to meet all of those needs. So, thank you by the way for such excellent data. I love data and it was wonderful to see. Thank you. Okay. Well, in a year from now, you will have a very long report from me on our high school implementation, but tonight it will be a very brief uh update because we're at the very beginning part of this
063process in ninth grade. So, uh, we have a high school curriculum review, uh, council group, and what they did this year was identify four potential units to try out in our classrooms. We've got two teachers in each high school who have agreed to be what we call early adopters in grade nine. And so those two teachers uh worked collaboratively uh to uh adopt those four units. After each unit, the teachers surveyed only their students and collected very what I would call informal data about how students felt about the unit um and the pacing. And we have made notes about that feedback and made some minor adjustments to unit one and unit two. Unit three and four, we will need to do that same process and edit those units as well. We're in the middle of
064unit four right now. Uh so we have some we have to finish teaching that unit before we can collect the data and take a look at it. um you got in your packet a a more detailed overview of each of the units that shared what the texts were and the readings and and the assessment piece. So you saw there was a lot of emphasis on Socratic seminar and of course writing because we're very much trying to align our goals to get students to write to be ready for an IB course as a junior. And so uh a lot of emphasis on practicing your writing skills and your speaking skills which you know are essential components of how they're assessed in IB later on. So next year when we uh implement the units uh full spectrum
065to nth grade students, we will be collecting data like we did this year for uh middle school students. Uh we will do that for high school students and we'll have a much more detailed report from families and teachers and students themselves. I anticipate we will have probably less families fill out the survey for high school. It's just kind of the nature of what happens, but I always enjoy reading the student feedback on our materials. questions about units or where we are in the process that I can help you with. I see you're here you're saying English nine. Does that cover both honors English and regular English? Are they using the same materials just differentiating a bit as to you was said before how deep they go into it. I know of mice and men I
066think my son read that as a junior in IB English. So I'm looking at this thinking this is pretty meaty stuff. Yeah, that's a wonderful question, Terry. So, um, with our honors classes, we've had those honors teachers on a voluntary basis test one of the units and then provided feedback on whether it was rigorous enough. So, we view the honors pathway as getting students ready for the IB lit pathway at the end of the road, so to speak. And so uh so far when we've experimented those teachers have said we need to add more extensions here or they may they were able to move through the material uh much more quickly than we were in the regular uh course. Uh the students in honors maybe would be able to read the the book much faster,
067right? And so they had time at the end where they felt like, okay, I needed to add more extensions to this unit. So we're still working on those pieces. Our process this year was let's test out the units and see. So we've tested a couple in 9th and we've tested one in 10th grade uh at the start of this semester as well. Fahrenheit 451 was tested in both honors and regular English to see if it could be used in both places. A good question. Well, and then how do you remediate students? I I I've been thinking about this a lot lately. We know that we have kids that are not reading at grade level. Maybe they're not even reading at sixth grade level in high school. So, what kind of remediation are we doing with
068those kids to make an effort to get them up to speed or at least read at grade level? Yeah. Well, there are lots of structural supports in high school. We do have a reading skills course in each high school that specifically addresses some of those skill deficits. But within the core English class, if if I were to provide you like the Lexile level of each of those reading uh readings or texts, you would see that they're really quite varied. So, some are quite challenging, maybe in the 1100 range, and some like of Men actually has a much lower Lexile level, but the content of that book makes it qualitatively more difficult. So by having a range of different experiences within the course, it's more accessible for all readers. And then teachers themselves built within the
069uh curriculum, there are lots of differentiation strategies to get students engaged. So we might be uh watching a short clip of an important scene uh from a movie version of the book, right? And then using that to dive into the material. we might dive into the material through a little discussion with partners first. And so all of those are ways to sort of get kids who might not um have all of the skills to get on board and access the material, right? And you know, the more they they try, the better they get, right? So the first battle is engaging the students with something material that's highly engaging. I noticed you mentioned earlier that was mentioned that student teachers had requested audiobook versions and in today's age of audible and Libby from the library etc.
070that definitely provides a way for a student to listen to it while they're reading along in order to help improve much of the fluency and comprehension while they're reading it. And some are so much more uh interesting. Uh I I'm thinking of one book in particular where the audible version is read by the author himself that we have in our ninth grade curriculum and I'm currently listening to that again and um it just brings that piece alive, right? The humor of that author himself reading his own text really makes it lively for me. So and is a great tool for students as well. Thank you very much for your presentation. Good job. Thank you very much. Yep. Okay, we're now at our comments and communications section. Does anybody wish to address the board this evening?
071Frank, welcome. I want to start off by saying happy staff and teacher appreciation week to our colleagues across the district. Your passion, hard work, and commitment to shaping the future do not go unnoticed by any of us in this room. We are grateful for the incredible impact you make every day in our schools and communities. and I'm going to share a few snippets with you again of the amazing things our educators are doing. 17 talented art students from Central High under the guidance of art teachers Joe King and Liz Honeyet had their work selected to be part of the high school area show at the KIA. The diverse range of artwork from pen and ink drawings to sculptures, watercolors, and even jewelry reflect the depth of creativity and skill nurtured by our teachers. Many students
072received well-deserved awards for their outstanding work. And the opening reception on Friday, April 25th was wonderful. Um, that exhibit, I believe, is open until May 24th at the KIA. Um, celebrating Matteline Woods, who is named regional diving coach of the year by the Michigan Coaches Association. Under her leadership, several divers competed at the state level with one student earning an impressive eighth place finish in the state. This accomplishment speaks volumes about Meline's dedication, expertise, and the positive impact she has on her athletes. Congratulations to Meline and all of her divers. Melissa Holo has worked tirelessly to secure funding for music education across all district buildings with particular emphasis on capital outlay for music programs. Through her hard work and persistence, she has helped organize and update inventory systems, ensuring that the music department can support
073essential instrument purchases without needing to rely on a bond. Melissa's efforts are critical in strengthening our district's music program, and her department wanted me to give her a shout out for that. Amy Greley and her students in Fourth Hour recently took on a creative and impactful project. They designed and painted seven chairs saved from the old north middle school building which were then transformed into a sculpture and bookshelf with the help of fellow teacher Dave Mandrich. This project was entered into the portage recycled art contest where it earned the title of most sustainable entry. The sculpture was on display at Portage City Hall recently. Congratulations to Amy, Dave, and our students. And I believe there were some pictures of that up on the Facebook page as well. Uh, in light of the upcoming move at
074Woodland Elementary, the school librarian, Kelly Bammy, has partnered with the Portage District Library to ensure that students continue to have access to books. As part of this collaboration, the Portage District Library created a community outreach library and purchased new books for our students. These resources will benefit not only Woodland students, but also students at Haver Hill and Central Elementary, expanding learning opportunities across our community. Um, both high schools celebrate their IB students and educators of distinction this month. I attended PC ceremony and it was awesome to see the genuine appreciation of the students for their teachers, coaches, and mentors. Thanks to Jason Frank for organizing such a meaningful event. And lastly, I want to wish you all good luck as you sort through all of the superintendent applications coming up. I hope we have lots
075of excellent candidates who show care and commitment to every student and every future. Thank you very much, Cat. We appreciate you coming and updating us on what our teachers are doing. Thank you very much. Our next speaker tonight is Mike Quinn. Well, good evening uh President Van Andorp and Vice President Snider and the rest of the trustees of board. I appreciate the opportunity to address here this evening. My name is Michael Quinn. I live at 7025 Rockford Street in Portage. Um, I am completing a third semester of math tutoring through Americanore and the Michigan Education Corps at Central Middle School. Um, both my daughters attended and graduated from Portage Schools and my granddaughter is attending Central High School now. I have a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics and a master's in statistics and I've worked
076for a number of years um have a number of years of experience in those fields. Um, having been here, I have some concerns about our math education system, and I believe there are some serious opportunities here for um improvement to the system. Um, I've observed that a significant amount of resources, both personnel, students, and teachers, and time are spent attempting to remediate the outcomes of the regular curriculum for quite a number of students, possibly more than for any other area of study, uh, maybe even greater than ELA. Um, and if I were to use a an industrial metaphor, um, I'd say your system of math education, production, and inspection as testing scores is resulting in a significant number of outcomes that are not meeting your expectations requiring rework. Um, I've enjoyed the opportunity to observe
077class sessions in Port Central Middle School and I have a lot of admiration for the skill and the enthusiasms of your math teachers. I've also watched my own girls progress through their courses and have tutored a few dozen middle school students here. Overall, I I find the students are bright and usually successful in their other courses besides math. Um, I'd like to mention three air uh areas that you might want to investigate that are features of our our math curriculum here. First is a failure to teach uh the multiplication tables that give automaticity and fluency and arithmetic facts. Um I'm finding too many kids who can't multiply. They do finger math. It takes them 15 seconds sometimes to get 7* 8. Um and and um not having the automaticity and having to do these manual
078computations um burns up uh cognitive energy, brain energy that you need students have to have to comprehend the problems and form the solution strategies for them. Um the second area is that uh the student loads for the math teachers seem staggeringly high. I'm hearing that uh they they can see up to 30 students per hour for six hours a day or school day. And I mean 180 students per teacher per day that how how can they do that, you know? And the third area is that I see so much of the math homework and the math practice is done on Chromebooks. Um, this automat automation makes grading the problems and tabulating the results sort of doable given the insane teacher student case loads. But just moving a cursor and tapping a couple couple of keys
079is in my opinion an impoverished learning experience compared to writing and solving problems on paper. Um the old-fashioned way that I learned from maybe you as well. You used hand eye high hand coordination. You gained muscle memory. you had a better look at the solution processes. Uh and for both student and teacher, uh you get a a better view of the solution processes that the students are attempting or using. And I mean, if you've ever done a eighth grade or higher program, you get in one problem, you've got about 15 opportunities to make a mistake. You forget a negative sign or something like that. And the multiple choice on the Chromebook will throw you out and you might not know why, you know. So, um I that's about it. Um my wife here ran a
080monastery preschool for 38 years and a prime tenant of the monastery method is that an awful lot of learning is done when the hands are involved even for abstract tasks. Um, I think I've used this word system several times this evening on purpose. Um, and as I threatened, uh, Mr. Snyder, the late Dr. Deming taught us that the overwhelming majority of what people can accomplish is determined by the system in which they're working. Um, I cannot believe that the outcomes that we're observing are due to laziness or incompetence by either the teachers or the students. And I would exhort you um in your stated dedication in your vision statement to continual improvement to focus on features of your math education system that might be root causes. Um, I've come here tonight to address this board
081since, as Dr. Deming taught, improvements to the system are the high duty and responsibility of top management and you are the top management here. Um, I want to thank you for your attention and I sincerely thank you for the work you've been doing in our community. Thank you, Mike, for your comments. Mike, do we have a copy? I I Yes. Very good. Very good. Well, thank you very much and thank you also for your tutoring and helping our students. We appreciate it a lot. Thank you, sir. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Wonderful experience for me. Good. Good. Just Okay. Do we have any comments by board trustees this evening? I wanted to say thank you again to the Port Central Superstars. Um they again have been planning events with uh students who uh has
082higher support needs at Woods Edge Learning Center and have done so with compassion um respect and servant leadership. And I wanted to highlight what they are doing and what they are continuing to do. Thank you, Kimberly. Anyone else? Okay, I'll go next. Um, well, a couple of things. Um, Cat, thank you for your comments and glad you mentioned the IB recognition ceremony yesterday. Um, what you did not mention was that I believe you were recognized by three students as an outstanding educator. And, um, yeah, a great Yeah. [Applause] So, I mean, one of the most fun parts of that ceremony is getting to see these um these great educators um honored uh by students. So, and um yes, Central's was yesterday and um Northern's is next week. So, we'll look for that. And then Mr.
083Quinn, Mike, um really appreciate your comments. Uh Mike and I know each other a bit and uh we had I don't know breakfast or lunch here a year or so ago and it and we stumbled into the fact that we were both followers of Dr. Deming and you can't get nerdier than that. It's a good thing. It's a good thing and so thank you. Thank you for those comments. Um and then uh as part of staff appreciation week um I I think the retired members of the board who have more time during the day will be involved in distributing cookies right to buildings on Wednesday as part of that. So um look forward to that and um many thanks to the great team here at public school. Thank you both. Anyone else? Well, if as
084we continue discussing the IB ceremony at Portage Central, there's a a brochure from that uh event at your places and uh you can see we had 47 IB diploma candidates at Portage Central, which is a very high number and pretty remarkable. Um, one of the things that I came away with is when uh the students were talking about their significant educator, I mean most most people didn't really talk about the academic piece. They talked about the life skills and confidence that they had learned from their significant educator. And uh I thought it was very interesting, you know, that uh we do more here than uh just give grades. you know, we're trying to provide uh uh you know, a broad experience level for our students and uh that was really evident in their comments yesterday.
085Um also at your place there's the program from the K Resa Outstanding Achievement Awards. There were 74 scholarships awarded to seniors totaling $76,000 and that included 14 Portage Public Schools seniors. So, congratulations to them and uh you'll enjoy uh reading the program from that event as well. Yes, I missed one thing. Um and this is a big one. Um McKenzie and and McKenzie and Tracy, that presentation was dynamite. That was that was really time well spent for us. So, thank you. Any other trustee comments? Okay, we'll move to our consent agenda. On page 37, we have three items. approval of the regular business meeting and close session minutes from April 14th, 2025 and also that the board authorized the superintendent or his designate to enter into a three-year agreement with the option to extend the
086agreement up to two additional years with Adams Remco located in Kazoo, Michigan for the lease of copy print equipment along with associated maintenance and service agreements as presented with the term of this agreement to begin on July 1st, 2025 and end no later than June 30th. 3030 and required payments for this agreement to come from the general fund budgets covering the term of this agreement. And finally, that the board of education authorized Owens AM Kimble Company to issue a notice of pending award in the amount indicated for the PCEC roof repair to Apex Industrial Roofing LLC pending confirmation that all requirements of the contract documents have been met. And furthermore, upon receipt of Owens Ames Kimble Company of the appropriate documentation, a contract will be awarded to Apex Industrial Roofing LLC by Portage Public Schools
087in the amount of $371,47 with a sum total of all fees not to exceed $442,780, the funds for which will come from the building and site syncing fund. Any exceptions to the consent agenda as presented? Uh hearing none, the consent agenda is approved. And now we got to skip over 20 pages all the way over to page 57, which is our assurance of district performance monitoring report 1.4. Mark, well, thank you. Uh this is going to be a two-part uh report, and I'll be brief with the with the first part. Barb is going to pull something up on the screen here for us that we can look at. All the information is is in your report. Um, but I wanted to uh bring your attention to just a few pieces of information that that we
088look at on an annual basis that I want to highlight. So, Barb, this is the uh uh this is the actual end statement of 1.4. uh one of five end statements the board has that the uh students have knowledge and skills necessary to succeed at post-secondary institutions without remediation and have the employability skills necessary to obtain meaningful employment. So pretty much self-explanatory um we look at you know uh a number of pieces of data uh that I'll go through here very quickly. Uh the first one is this whole idea of uh of taking uh college classes without any kind of remediation. So this is the data that we've received for the last three years. Um the percentages that are shown there are the number of students that are enrolled in any remedial class as a
089percentage of students enrolled in college. So um just the and you see that the number is trending downwards which is which is good news for us. Uh the other thing that's that's important to know is that the state categorizes certain uh in particular community college classes as remedial classes even though they're required. So our students may not have to take those classes because they're not ready, but community colleges require them taking classes. So I think that contributes to the numbers that we're seeing here. Um but we're trending in the in the right direction there with fewer and fewer. Go ahead Barb. The next one shows that one data that we track is our five-year cohort graduation rate. And you can see there there that we continue to be in the high 90s. And the reason
090the five-year rate is important is because it recognizes the fact that some of our students are in a five-year program like early middle college. And so, um, I I think as we see that number, uh, and that program be taken advantage of, uh, more and more frequently, uh, this will be a good number to continue to watch. And so if you go to the next one, uh that shows our four-year uh cohort, we're still uh at the 97 plus percentile, uh which is uh as compared to the state average there, we're well above the state average in our four-year cohort graduation rate. And so this is, you know, basically when you look at the difference between four and five year, you see that the vast majority of our students are are graduating uh in five
091in four years. Uh and this is again five-year data that we're showing. And um not much change there, you know, although we're at our highest point this this past year in 23 24 with that number. And then this one is it's a it's a rather busy chart, but on the left hand side there, this is the uh you know, we have our similar schools that we've been using and and and we're not we're showing you which schools they are, but we're not showing you which school is is is uh where they're at. We're just showing all of the schools. And on the left side is uh Community High School. The middle column is uh Northern High School. Uh and you'll see there's only there's one school there that's above us and uh in that similar
092comparison group and on the right hand side is where our two schools combined uh compared to Kazoo County schools or in our area and you've got a listing there of the schools that we've included in that and kind of taken a a leap forward and and uh I know that the board has had some discussion about including Madawan in the group because that's an adjoining district. So they're listed as part of that group of uh Kusa area schools. So you can see we're we're doing very favorably there uh in particular when you compare it to the uh state average. So these are just some interesting data points. Oh, can I jump in? Go right ahead. Well, and it and it's I agree and I would add to that. And so we've talked a lot about,
093you know, setting the standard as as a board. We want to see apples to apples comparisons when we can of us against schools that serve communities that look like ours and we want to see us, you know, consistently kind of better than three out of four. Um, not in the middle of the road, um, but better than three out of four. And this is an instance where we're bringing it home. I mean, we're when we compare apples to apples, we are among the top. And I just I wanted to pause and give credit give credit to you and the whole team, Mark. Thank you. Even though we haven't identified what you know in this particular end statement monitoring report we haven't you know set that standard of where we want to be you know this
094is this gives us certainly that opportunity to do so. And then the last one um this is the uh this graph shows the uh percentage of 11th and 12th graders taking at least one CTE class. And so you'll see that 4.1% of our students are enrolled in at least one of the 14 programs which lead to lensure and certification. And then 6.8% are enrolled uh 11th and 12th graders who are performing work in an industry setting. And even though we're not really trying to, you know, uh, move anything on this, I think this will be an important, uh, this information will be important as we look at the growth of the CTE center to see if we are getting greater participation with the programming that's there. Um, our efforts to bring more attention to CTE
095programming. And so, you know, while there's no really conclusions to be drawn here, it'll be interesting to see what happens to the numbers over time as uh classes and programs develop at the center. So, that's my portion. And I, you know, one of the things I thought we'd do is is to let you hear from a few of our graduates. We have four students who are Portage graduates who are well beyond high school. Well, not well beyond, but beyond high school. Um, we haven't rehearsed this. I have no idea what they're going to say. They want to talk a little bit about how prepared they were after they left school. Uh, so I think we have four, you'll see we have four individuals who um come from different programming, different experiences. And I'm not sure,
096Kelly, do you have an idea how we want to do this? Uh, what's the best way? You all just want to stand up there together, have each other support members. Does that sound good? That's good. All right. So, why don't we do this? Why don't we once you go up there is uh one at a time come up um introduce yourself uh where you um have to go behind the silly podium. Super casual here. Yeah. Just informal. Try to you know where uh your name uh where you went to school and and then whatever you story you wanted to share about your experiences and maybe what you're doing right now included in that mix. So Devin, are you gonna go first? All right. So, hi, my name is Devin Porter. I'm 21. I went to
097Porter Central High School. Um, through Porter Public Schools, all of elementary way throughout high school and um, absolutely loved it. Had great experiences and I have people, adults that I cherish in each and every single one of my buildings. Um, coming over here today is from some of the adults that I cherish so much and took great care of me as a kid. Um, I'll speak to high school mainly. Uh peerto-peer was something that I got into and it was my thing. It's been my calling my whole life. Uh as a freshman in high school, I had kind of worked with the kids with special needs and wasn't in a peer-to-peer program, but some of the adults had noticed that that was what I was doing. So, um oh my goodness, why am I black's
098name? One of the gentlemen that work in the office. I don't know why I can't think right now, but he came and he told me I actually was doing kind of rough in school my freshman year. and he told me, he said, "Listen, I want you to be able to do what you want to do, and I want to help sure make sure you're doing well in school as well." And we kind of made a plan. And then I actually came back to school that following year on a 504 plan. And that's just another instance of like I was taken care of by some great people. Uh Mr. Peek, Mr. Baker, they always kind of make sure Miss Deja, love her. She took care of me. Um, and even just going into high school, like
099I was granted the Walker Mule Award and that scholarship and like that was something I was very grateful for. And um, coming out of high school, not necessarily knowing my plan. Mr. Albertis was a great help in any way, shape, or form that I needed. He always let me know that he had well I had him in my corner and that this place right here was somewhere I could always come back to if I ever needed anything um if I ever needed somebody to talk to just resources in general and it speaks to it now. I now work as a parapro at Porter Central Middle School and so this is my second year there. Uh last year I worked as a hall monitor but kind of did the parapro stuff. I made connections with the
100kids really really quick. So, kind of got took away from home monitor and kind of started to play uh Johnny on the spot. Whatever I needed to be called to is where I was going and trying to handle it. And so, uh they're taking great care of me over there. Uh people at the admin building have been taking great care of me. I've been offered so many different opportunities. I actually help coach football at the high school, the freshman and varsity level. And then I also coach long jump for the track team. and the opportunities have been endless, ever so giving without any kind of worry, and it's just always been so giving. So, I'm very very thankful for Porch Public Schools and the uh the path that I've been given because it's not necessarily
101the correct one because it's not college. But I mean, even after college, still just really taking care of me and even when I was in college, still reaching out to some people in the building when I needed help with some things or like even reaching out to I was at Davenport and just trying to get a hold of higherups and they helped me out with stuff like that. So O just has been very giving and I wanted to be able to express that to you guys as a young African-American student that came through your guys' program in your school and was really taken care of and I really appreciate a lot of what's happened through here. So thank you so much and thank you for your guys' time. Thank you. I'm not an off-the cuff
102speaker. I don't know how I could follow this up. It's on executive letter head though. I promise it's brief. Um, uh, Mr. Superintendent, President, and Vice President. Uh, ladies and gentlemen of the board, thank you so much for the opportunity to address the board this evening about the impact of my education at Porters Public Schools on post-secary education and career. Uh, I was uh, proud to attend Porters public schools from young fives all the way through senior year of high school, Amberly, West Middle School, Port Northern. I had the opportunity to be educated by some of the most professional, compassionate and diligent teachers one could ask for. Uh during my career at Porters Northern, I took advantage of the IB diploma. The fact that uh Porter public schools offers this program sets them apart from
103many other institutions and this program gave me an enormous leg up with my college aspirations. Uh I was happy to be awarded the Ivy diploma and to use those experiences to excel during my bachelor's degree at Michigan State. Uh I studied political theory and a minor in Spanish. I was able to complete my bachelor's degree in only three years, graduating in 2021. This was due in large part to performance uh on IB exams and the um skills that I had learned through that program. Uh I went on then to earn my masters uh from Texas A&M's Bush School of Government Public Service in public administration focusing specifically on state and local government policy and management. Uh overall, I think Forest Public Schools success with educating students and sending them out into the world to be
104wellprepared can be attributed to culture, programmatic offerings, and an emphasis on individual responsibility. Uh many of my colleagues in undergraduate and graduate school did not seem to come in with the same preparation in many of these areas that I did. Uh and I'm incredibly grateful that I had that preparation. Uh my teachers were always clear to articulate that the next step in my educational journey would require personal accountability, studiousness, and a desire to learn. And I kind of took all of those into the different levels um of education. Uh and um so I took everything that I learned here, everything that I learned uh undergraduate, graduate, and now I'm doing um political consulting and political fundraising. Thank you. [Applause] Hi, my name is Kayn White. Um, I stayed in Porch Public Schools all throughout my
105schooling. I know my principal, Mrs. Jensenius, from Lake Center Elementary, and then I went through Central for both middle school and high school. Um, I was a big person of the arts. I did theater in middle school. I did marching band and band throughout all of this and just was a very artistic person and I just really appreciate your guys's appreciation for these fields and the funding and everything you guys given to it. I mean just the connections that I built through those programs and just the times that I had. I mean specifically marching band was just amazing here at PC. I was color guard. So, it was just amazing to see so many people appreciate that. Um, I also went through the early middle college program. So, I actually just graduated this year from
106KBCC with an associates in biological sciences. Um, and that is just an opportunity that I am incredibly grateful that I was given to me through the Porter public school system because now I am committed to Michigan State for prevet in the fall and I will be able to if I can within a semester, I mean within a year apply to vet schools just because of this program that was given to me and a free associates degree which is just amazing. And I mean the connections built with professors and everything like that. I know that going off to Michigan State in the fall, I will feel prepared and well-rounded as a person just due to the people and the connections of the teachers and just everyone here. I just I'm very grateful for it and so
107I thank you guys. Is it okay if I go to the podium? Oh yeah. Is that okay? I've been waiting for this moment in my hand and I feel bad that I'm laughing you guys. I also am like, "Hi, how are you?" We knew each other in high school, but um I wrote a speech but also cuz I'm a forensicator and forensicators write speeches and also I want to apologize for being late. I was actually hosting the Portage Northern Forensics banquet. So Dr. Pasco convinced me to move it back earlier and I thought I was going to make it on time, but I mean I was 20 minutes late, but it was a great celebration. Great. Hi everyone. My name is Hannah Thomas Perez and I'm a proud Porch Public Schools graduate and now a
108first grade teacher at Amberly Elementary. And let me just say I love my job. I could say it a million times and I could start crying because I'm a first year teacher and I don't even want to think about my kids going to second grade. I went to Woodland Elementary, which is still basically my backyard as I live on Marfield, West Middle School, and then Porch Northern High School. It's surreal standing here today on this side of things, sharing my story when for so long I was the one sitting in the crowd listening to stories like this. When Dr. Pasco first walked into my classroom, I'll be honest, I panicked. My brain instantly flipped through the thousand of things I'd done in the past week, trying to think, what is he doing here? Hi. Well,
109it's during my planning and I'm like shuffing Doritos into my face. It was a great conversation, but when he asked me if I'd be willing to speak about how Porch public schools impacted me and immediately I felt this wave of appreciation and a deep sense of, wow, I have truly come for full circle and I'm an adult, which is still weird. Dr. Pasco said I could just speak from some bullet points, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that bullet points couldn't begin to capture what Porter Public Schools means to me. I've been incredibly privileged in life. I grew up with a sister and two parents who, yes, once pulled a sled of school to pick me up at Woodland Elementary and walk me home in the snow. And if there's
110one thing that's influenced me the most in Portugal schools, it's the people. I'll never forget Mrs. Hoy, the reason I became a teacher. She saw something in me, and while most people might have called it bossy, she called it leadership skills. It was her last year before retiring, and she gifted me with whiteboards and books with a simple note for your classroom one day that I still have in my house. Crazy. So crazy. Um, I still have these books and they remind me every day of the kind of impact one teacher can have. And she gave us chips a hoy on her last day of school. Chips. Hoy. Hoy. Then there's Mrs. Canels and her dogs offering unconditional love and fur every day. At Forge Northern, I had the most incredible teachers who lifted me
111up during one of the hardest times of my life. I say I lost my sister, not because she passed away, but because she left my family in a way that shook me so much as a young 14-year-old girl. I leaned on my teachers when I no longer had her as a role model. They showed up when I needed them most. I juggled the IB diploma, which in all honesty made college a breeze, a job, friends, and grief. And yet, my teacher still checked in. Even when I lost my graduation, well, drive-thru graduation, prom, senior year award ceremony, scholarships, extended essay presentations, and my last couple of months in high school due to COVID. As a 2020 graduate, teachers all reached out to me, even with Mrs. Pollson coming to my house to take pictures of
112me in my prom dress for free. I'm now 23 years old and so many of my teachers still reach out to me every few months just to ask how I'm doing. This kind of care does not end at graduation and it's the type of care I hope to have for my students. Senor Hill, who moved to California and is the best Spanish teacher ever, sends me updates of his son, Matteo, who I used to babysit for. Mr. Searing is always there when I need to vent about life. Dr. Dr. Thorp went above and beyond to help me writing a college essay, sitting with me word by word. Dr. Houston, who is someone I will forever look up to, a substitute teacher at Portage Northern, wrote a reference letter that reflected a version of myself I
113had never even realized. Because of them, I received a full ride scholarship to Hol College. I never would have received this without these people. At Hull College, I earned degrees in special education and elementary education. My teachers back in Portage still supported me through every doubtfilled email and late night text. They remind me of who I was and where I came from. When I returned to Portage, didn't mean to. I wanted to go to Chicago, but I got the opportunity to work as a pair professional at Amberly and I fell in love with the students, the co-workers, and when you find a good administration, teachers here know, you cannot give that up. I was eventually then hired as a first grade teacher, working alongside my dear friend Caitlyn Walsh, who actually was here. She um
114was nominated for our award, and she's now become my best friend. And let me tell you, when I get me messages from former teachers buying items off of my classroom wish list and saying they want to transfer their kids to Amberly Elementary, it is the weirdest thing. Then one day, I get a message from my old forensics coach, CC Weeks, calling me and saying, "Hey, can you please be the coach for Porch Northern forensics team?" Terrifying, but I said yes because I want to impact not just the little ones in my classroom, but also high schoolers learning to use their voices. This is another example of teachers seeing something in me that I did not see myself. This past weekend, our te team placed fifth in the state and porch central placed first. Whoop! I
115actually just came from our friends forensics, which is why I was running late. I've realized that doing this program as head coach is amazing, but also exhausting. First graders and high schools are very different people. I'm not getting hugs from them. And if anything, I'm getting husted at. And it's the oddest thing. And I don't know what I am doing, but I have people by me who are supporting me through it. Andy Fear, 12th Street's principal, Daryl, and my amazing support of Northern Teachers have helped me step by step. Portage gave me something that I never want to leave. A community, one that raised me, believed in me, and continues to walk with me. As a young Hispanic woman, I feel so included to know Portidge is trying to make all young girls who look
116like me or don't feel like they belong, such as the fish tank curriculum, which is amazing, by the way. Portage gave me the confidence to be who I am and to help all students become lifelong learners because every student in every future matters. I'm now working on my masters in administration and leadership at Western Michigan University. One day I hope to become a principal. Yes, in public schools and who knows, maybe even superintendent sitting right there, Mr. Beings. Thank you for allowing me to share my story and I appreciate you all so much. [Applause] Thank you very much. Uh well, former students, uh graduates and now professionals. Um you know, I I think just to build on what what Randy had alluded to earlier on what you know what students say about teachers during the
117IB program when they identify their significant educators. you know, what what we do here goes far beyond, you know, what's in the books. And uh and I think that really is exemplified by how the board has crafted your your five end statements. I mean, we really are speaking to how do you develop well-rounded individuals? And each one of those plays an important part. Um, and I think what you've what you've heard today is, you know, that you've seen some of the successes that we have and and the meaningful uh work that that our teachers do, that our staff members do, uh, you know, some of the names that were dropped are, you know, our folks that are in support positions that have had an influence on on the students uh, as they work through our
118system. So, thank you for coming. I I I I want to give board members an opportunity to ask a question or two at the risk of uh prolonging the meeting and I know you have things that you want to do this evening, but are there any obvious questions that uh that they might be able to answer for you? I mean, we could have a conversation that lasts all night long. I know. Sure. Um, I just really noticed the diversity among you all in terms of what your interests are, what you did, what you're doing now. So, it just speaks to the fact that our people can relate to you no matter what your interest is and motivate you along and encourage you and and it's just really great. Really great. I wanted to highlight the
119variety of pathways that you've taken. We have IB, we have Early Mill College, which I agree, amazing program. More people should be involved. Um we have alternate ways to find employment and pathways to employment that um provide you a way to really grow and find your true potential. And I think that's a strength of Portage that we can really grasp on to and claim that not every student is a traditional student. And yet if we have multiple programs that they can succeed in that you have succeeded in um we can meet the needs of so many more and making those programs available is enormous. I don't have a question, but I was having a really good day and you guys made it better. So cool. So glad you're here. It's perfect that your pre your
120uh presentation was during teacher and staff appreciation week. It is a perfect time for it and we appreciate you taking time out of your evening to come and speak with us and we wish you continued success. Thank you very very much for coming here tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, I'm gonna grab you off for pictures. Thank you all. Thanks for being here with us this evening. You guys have a great night. All right. You see everybody? We have a motion on page 57 to approve monitoring report 1.4. Is there a motion, please? President Mantor, I move that the board of education accept the monitoring report 1.4 ends as a reasonable interpretation and evidence of compliance with policy. Thank you, Terry. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? All in
121favor, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh hearing nothing. The motion passes. Excellent monitor report, Mark. And now we're going to do another one on executive limitations policy 2.11 long-term asset planning. There's a motion, please, on page 72. Mr. President, I move that the board of education accept monitoring 2.11 long-term asset planning as a reasonable interpretation and evidence of compliance with policy. Thank you, Mark. Is there a second? Second. Thank you very much, Mark. I'm not going to read this to you. I you know hopefully you've had a chance to read it but this really um is intended to capture what we've been doing relative to our bond work for the past 12 months. Um it also gives a little bit of history and perspective for uh that it's captured in a monitoring report so that
122the work we're doing in phase three is put in perspective with the work that's been done in phase one and two and also um you know it pretty much captures the reports that Johnny's been providing during the course of the year and uh where we're headed in the future with the completion of the bond and how we're connecting with the school board relative to the uh change orders as they come through and you heard that report this evening. So if there's any questions I'm happy to answer them other than that this is just an updated report on bond and the building site syncing fund. There are there is a list of the work that we've completed through both of those uh there for uh just to keep you up to speed with things that we're
123working on through bond funds and building and sightseeing fun. Any questions for Mark? I'll just point out that this falls in a list of these few a few monitoring reports that are boring but super important. So appreciate it, Mark. Well, I don't find it boring, but no, I know it's it does it's not one that requires a lot of creative writing. It's capturing what's happened in the past year and uh um yeah, I don't know how else to make that. It's easy to approve and it it was helpful to have all the historical stuff in one place. Yes. So it's not perfect. I hope it flowed that way for you too. So thank you. So thank you. It it reduces anxiety that of trustees. Well, a lot of good work contained in these few pages
124that's happened over the years and uh it's an excellent monitoring report, sir. Thank you very much. All those in favor of approving monitoring report 2.11, please say I. I. Opposed. Uh, the monitoring report is approved. And now we'll move to our required action item, which is to authorize the signer on the sale of documents. Is there a motion, please? It's a long one. Mr. President, I move um Oh, heavens, how is this worded? A little awkward, but it works. I'm going to read it. I move that uh the board of education approve the sale of a parcel. All right, I'm just going to read this. At its board meeting on February 24, 2025, the board of education at Porters Public Schools approved the sale of a parcel on the campus of Porters Northern to Mark
125and Beth Koenig Koig Real Estate LLC in the amount of $35,000. The board hereby authorizes Johnny Edwards to sign all documentation related to the sale on behalf of the board and corporates public. Thank you, B. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion here that it's pretty self-explanatory? Anything? No. Oh, no. It is it's just it's a required um it's a required um handoff from the board to administration to sign the paperwork and uh the real estate people like to have this. Well, a very we can complete the sale to the kynics. So, that's good. Now that's boring. And a very tricky worded motion. Yes. Intentionally. All those in favor of approving the authorization of the signer on the sale of documents. That's what it says. Please say I. I. Opposed. The motion passes.
126Now we move to our first discussion item which is the old Kesa banial election resolution number two. Well, you've got a uh in the memo there, this is one of the required steps that the board has to take. And you know, last time you acknowledge the fact that there would be a this time and this time has come to pass this resolution for next time. So, next time you'll have a little more detail about um who you' be voting for and who is going to be casting that ballot. Uh but this is that next step in the process. So you're the pro on the K rea board. So maybe you can do a better job of explaining than I just did. No, that's excellent. Just everybody be thinking where would they like to be on
127June 2nd at 5:00 or 5:30 and uh be thinking about the opportunity to cast a vote. Any questions, comments on this one? Okay, let's move to our next discussion item which is the K Rea 202526 general fund budget. Sammy, good evening. Superintendent Being and Board of Education. Um, in your packet this evening is a formality. Um, is the K resa budget. I we bring it to you every May. Um, and it has to pass through the ELEAS before it goes on to K Resa. Um, just to note that we don't have much part of building this budget. Um, it was presented to us uh just a couple weeks ago um at a business managers or business officers meeting that we have each month at Kesa. Um, and there's nothing out of the ordinary with this
128budget. It's pretty status quo as usual. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions or standing? You said the magic words. There's nothing out of the ordinance for this. Excellent. Thank you. We'll move to our next discussion item. Chartwell contract renewal. Sammy's gonna do this one as well. Um, so every five years, to give you guys a little background, every five years we are required as a district to go out to bid for a food service company. Um, and so this was year five. The last time was in 2020. Um, so we are hitting our five-year mark. Um, the bidding process is closely maintain or closely um, watched through the state. Um, I worked a lot with someone at the state through this bidding process. Um, we requested food or bids from 16 different companies. Um,
129and they span throughout the nation. Um, and we received three, and this is in your board or in your recommendation, we did receive three um, proposals back and that was from Witson's, Quest, and Chartwells. Um, we will be continuing our partnership with Chartwells. Um, I know their meal cost was two cents higher than our lowest bid, but um, when you've worked with someone for 17 years, you it's really hard to part ways. So, we will be continuing with Chartwells. Um, and so note that uh, $3.7 of meal uh, cost is an estimated cost. Um, right now meals are free throughout the state. So, if we were to ever go back to charging for meals, um, that obviously would could fluctuate and you guys would play a part in that meal cost. Um, and that's all
130that I have. I'd be happy to answer any questions. And those other vendors don't have a Susan Livingston, do they? They do not. No. No. Not at all. No. Way more than two cents. Good. 100% is. Any questions on this? Great. We'll go to our next discussion item, which is the purchase of ELA text. Well, good evening once again. Um, I'm here to ask the board of education to approve the purchase of durable bound classroom sets for ELA elementary adopter classrooms from bound to staybound not to exceed a total of $94,725.30 30 cents. And this would come from um a grant that we received 35J which is there to help provide professional development curriculum and supports for literacy. So we've been in a process of purchasing our new ELA curriculum materials. And if you remember
131when we first started this process, we had elementary early adopters. So back in um phase one which was July 2023, we purchased those books which were surprise I have things over here normal binding. So just a typical book and then um as we move forward we purchased K5 teachers their set so that they could have them during professional development. The following phase we purchased all teachers not the early adopters but all the other teachers with books. But by that time we had realized that the binding on these was not holding up. So I came to you last year and talked about books with um a special durable binding and we went out to bed then with a lot of different companies, tested them out. I put a couple copies out there if you wanted to
132remember what they feel like. But we had those and then we had lots of other samples from other companies. So we went ahead and got everyone except for the early adopters the durable bound books. Now we're well and at that time we actually got the middle schools. We replaced their normal bound ones with durable binding because we knew that middle schoolers were a little bit harder on these than some of our elementary class sets. So we knew we had to prioritize that. But we also knew it was going to take us time to replace the early adopters sets. And so we just started budgeting for that. Once we got this grant, we were like, "This is this is the moment, right? This is the moment where we need to go ahead and replace the early
133adopter sets with the durable binding so that they have those." So it will just be the class tech sets. So the ones that the kids, everyone has one in their hand um that we'll be replacing. And we did go out to bid. We got five bids back. Um bound to stay bound because of the durability, because of the guarantee. If something does rip or fall apart, they'll replace it for free. We just have to send it in. They also put our barcoding on the back. Um, so it works right with our systems that we were talking about before for free. They they won they have won our hearts and we are so happy with the service. We've already sent um a couple that had a little error in it back and got new ones right
134back. So when we looked at the bids that came back, we we knew we had to go forward with with this product just because of the durability compared to the other ones as well as all those. So I'm here to answer any questions you may have. Well, I will tell you that my mother was an elementary school librarian in Illinois and uh the little sticker in this book says bound to staybound. Jacksonville, Illinois, in business since 1920. And I remember her talking about buying books for her library that were bound to stay bound. And my mom retired in 1990. She started working at the in the district in 1966. So, we're going back some six years. Yeah. So, you made a good choice. It was great. They they definitely showed up and told us about
135their company, showed us everything, let us dance on the books. I had coaches trying to rip the books like, you know, they're they stand behind their product and we appreciate that. Well, congratulations on the grant, too, to fund this. Super. We're very excited to have it so that we can do things that we really need done very quickly with it. I believe I said this last year, but someone who has worn through multiple paperback books and had them fall apart into sections simply by rereading them too many times. Um, having a hard coverver book version of a otherwise what would have been a paperback book, which is what this is, is spectacular. Thank you. And now we move to our last discussion item. Some interesting policy revisions. Well, there's there's three policy revisions that uh
136we bring to you. One is on immunizations, one on EpiPen uh basically EpiPens and the other on student health and well-being. And this is one of those set of policies that Neola has responded to at the request of their of their clients to add some language, make some revisions that that seem to make more sense. We have reviewed all of these policies and uh and support making the changes that are outlined there. I also note there's one policy and and these come across every once in a while where we make um scribners uh error corrections or uh technical corrections and there's one policy that Miola comes through every once I think they get new people on staff that review all the policies and uh there's the change to one on graduation requirements but it's simply
137changing online as a hyphenated word to online so those don't really require board approval. But uh I bring that to your intention in case you're scrutinizing the policies that closely. You know we do. I know. I know. So the politics of hyphenation. Yeah. Makes for interesting work. Any questions or discussion on this last discussion item? I hope the answer is no. Very good. We've reached the end of our agenda. Thank you very much. We are ajourned. We decide to or are we still meeting Wednesday? We're meeting Wednesday. It wasn't this week. We don't know yet. We're going to figure it out Wednesday night. Make sure he got