001[Music] this meeting of the board of education is now in session please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all welcome everyone to our meeting this evening and we'll start by approving our agenda as amended uh we will not be uh taking item number seven Assurance of District performance tonight so with that is there a motion to approve the agenda as amended Mr President I move that we approve the agenda as amended thank you is there a second second thank you all in favor please say I I oppos uh the motion passes and we'll proceed with our agenda as amended and go right
002to the superintendent's report Mark well thank you sir we have uh five items on here to report on and we're going to start with um kind of what we started with last time uh at our other meeting was uh recognition of board members right at that time you received some I'm going to come over here by the way to do this um you received some uh some notes from a couple classrooms and I got these back I know Randy took them home and and read them and and sent some appreciation on your behalf but if there's anyone that didn't get a chance to look at these and still wants to I'll leave them here but uh January is Schoolboard member recognition month in the state of Michigan and now that our newest board members have
003one meeting under their belt actually two because we did have a retreat earlier today so uh leading up to this meeting but it's it's an opportunity for us as a staff and as a community to uh to thank you for your service on the board um I know that you know for those people that are watching maybe on television uh see that you know this meeting but there's so much more that goes into your board work than just attending the regular meetings and our work sessions uh you know you all serve on at least one committee uh you all spend a great deal of time prior to board meetings reviewing the materials uh getting yourself familiar with what's in the agenda packet understanding the policies that are work behind this um you know the passion
004that comes through for wanting to our students to be successful uh definitely comes through it came through this evening at The Retreat and you know how you want us to be the best school district possible um so that that really takes a commitment on your part uh it takes a commitment to stick your your heads out and serve in a public capacity like this because I know that there are times where uh you're probably out and about in the community where you can't step away from your your board leadership role so for all the work and preparation that goes into this for your commitment to our students to this community uh we thank you we have a little token of appreciation for you for uh uh for that and I'm going to start with our
005two newest board members mark thank you thank you appreciate you for you there's a certificate here uh certificate appreciation thank you thank you very much so these two uh these two folks were most recently uh elected uh last fall and since 2022 we have Timberly on board thank you I have the right thank you very much we're going kind of in re reverse order yes how how long the teeth are yeah Terry Terry's been on the board since 2014 or somewhere there 11 years that's thank very much thank you and then the longest and tooth are [Laughter] uh ry's is that right do you guys have to flip a coin or is all right so Bo yeah thank you since 20 oh 2009 uh both Bo and Randy have been on the board Randy thank
006you sir thank You So Randy has been uh president since I've been here well except for the first few months when Bo was uh still president of the board uh in 2013 and and that next organizational meeting I think Randy took over so a lot of continuity here a lot of good thinking a lot of interaction a lot of debate um a lot of comments about what's best for our kids and how that translated into board policy so can you join me in thanking them for their service [Applause] all right so we'll move into uh a district rebranding you know we've been working on this for quite some time yet it was spawned by a Communications audit that we did a few years ago and brought to the board and this is some of the
007the work that we've been doing and to bring you up to speed uh Michelle you going to introduce yeah sure so last time we were before you we talked a little bit about the uh the tagline and so you kind of gave us a nod on that one so now we have taken that kind of to the next level and we're getting into the really fun stuff which is the graphics so I will turn it over to Rick who you are all familiar with and let him show you what we've been um working on thank you thank you very much um and before I start just let me also express my appreciation to each of you board members um as a long time resident of Portage my kids are graduates of Portage public schools and
008uh I appreciate um all your work and uh and all the benefit that it is for our community so thank um so yeah reimagining the brand and I'm glad to be back uh with you again today kind of bring you an update on the process and let's make sure that uh yeah I got the right button here so thank you Barb for the uh for the tech talk there um just a reminder and I covered some of this last time we were together this was about a decision by the leadership to do a strategic uh assessment of portage's current branding and where we might want to consider um you know updating that in terms of our identity and and brand uh internally and externally and so uh I was uh pleased to say I was
009asked to be part of that and uh We've also partnered with Green Street marketing and design which is a cazu based um marketing firm that has a lot of of experience in developing visual uh identity and brand so um I won't go through this all list but you may remember that this is some of the material we were able to start with and do a deep dive which really got us off um quickly uh in this process of doing this reassessment uh audits focus groups surveys uh some opportunity to look at existing materials uh spending some time even in some some focus groups and uh this really helped us move along to these conclusions which again I also shared last time is that the theme the overriding theme is Student Success that in all whether
010it's in those exact words or in the spirit of it and it's quite often in those exact words is that's what people care about across all stakeholder groups and that every student in every future which is a tagline uh conversation we had last time um really effectively summarizes that whole issue each of those words has meaning and each of those words feeds into this idea of Student Success that everything that goes on in this district is all about helping students succeed and that was really a result of Leaning into a vision statement that actually uses those words every student every future and best reflects the brand brand and priorities of the district so now we get to the fun stuff after having that conversation back in November now we started the process of working on
011um uh the visual identity and so we looked at this is where we talk about logos right um and uh here we talked about um we wanted something that reflected uh the district's brand and identity something that really Illustrated the many components that go into the porage public schools ecosystem all the the elements all the components all the internal and external audiences that drive the work that you do as a school district and also making sure that we reflect the community at large and the value that the district brings uh to the city of Portage and uh we also wanted to we looked at things like art and color and fonts that are inviting that are accessible that are Timeless and uplifting and also probably most important of all easy to use and uh we
012did a bunch of looking at different kinds of of of artwork and logos and so forth we developed a number of different ones but we tried really hard to avoid any imagery that was sort of cliche right that you see in other school districts um things that were inflexible or stuffy or stayed and so forth so we didn't want to do like an apple or a school bell or something like that maybe good for some settings but we were really looking at something that was a little a little bit more unique and more reflective of what the district stands for so as you know this is the uh visual brand that we have today including um reflecting on the Centennial that we recently completed celebrating and so from there understanding all that uh we've talked
013about so far this is what we are proposing as the new visual identity reportage Public Schools I'll let you look at that for just a moment and then I'll take you through some of the elements of it the tagline we talked about before that it's simple it's focused it's personal and it's inclusive it's very powerful each of the words has a meaning you know every can can be the individual or the or the group uh the student the fact that we're referencing students is humanizing it it's making about people about real people and not institutions and that future kind of the word future encompasses the whole the promise the dreams of these students that uh we are helping or you are helping to um to achieve that uh that success then we talked about the
014fonts what I really like about this is we're using complimentary fonts so they work very well together um in fact in the font that we have there for uh every student in every future is a ADA Compliant so that means that we work really well with um like uh devices that for those that are hard of hearing or hard of seeing it and have um are using it like the websites and so forth there are uh software programs and so forth to help um interpret that font and not get confused um and I like really the unique mix of modern and there's a subtle hint of the past in that and yet there's a flow that works with it all as well and I I would argue I was thinking this afternoon what word comes
015out in my mind when I look at that that is strong okay it's a very strong and complimentary set of fonts that go along with that visual identity now the waves what's that all about well again we talked about at the beginning of this is how do we reflect all the different components in the district's ecosystem faculty um staff leadership board students parents Community um outside partners and so forth how do we how does that all come together and we really wanted something that showed unity and unifying and yet reflected and honored the fact that all those components come together and that's when we came up with this idea of of a wave and individual currents that flow through and make that move forward so the top wave is supposed to reflect the students right
016that's where the Student Success comes in but that wave won't move without the other currents that come in and intermingle and drive it forward if you don't have that happening which you have is still water Flat Water it's not moving it's becoming stagnant in this case we're talking about Student Success we're talking about all these different components all these different people coming together and moving that flow and um and there's also a little bit of a nod to the community as a whole and reflecting one of the great uh U resources that we have in the city of Portage of course which is water so that is the thinking behind that and then just very briefly I'll show you a couple of different orientations the logo to accommodate different uses how it might be used
017in social media and um then you know also might how it might be used in marketing and so forth on the color palette one of the things that we were um very uh concerned about was making sure we tried to use something that was both a color that people um will find inviting and blue tends to be very popular color but we also wanted to be careful that we weren't getting too close to colors of the individual School so of course we know there is blue uh to be found in some of our individual schools but we made sure that that is a blue that is um significantly different from uh what you will see like for Portage Central and so forth because we want it to be unique and we also want the individual
018schools to continue to have their unique sort of identity as well this is again um a branding effort for the district how the district presents itself so those are our final uh thoughts we're not looking to replace any any the identity of the individual individual schools so por Central still the Mustangs Porter Northern still the huskys they still have their colors in that they can use but this is how again the district presents itself internally and externally um we do have a set of branding guidelines that are in process they're not quite done yet but that will give a lot of the guidance and parameters on how to use the logo effectively how to apply the tagline and the brand that wraps around that uh effectively and we're hoping fingers crossed if uh everything goes
019well and the uh appropriate approvals come in that we could begin to roll that out even at this current school year so with that um I will say thank you and uh if there are any questions that I can answer Michelle can help answer as well so thank you on the vertical and the horizontal depiction is is there anything earmarked for either one of those where they would be used or well I mean that's really going to be kind of dependent on the the use so you always want to have you know those options right because you don't want to if it's a particular document where a vertical might be more appropriate think maybe the district xer maybe it's over the top so you just want to have that that element and that's something we
020currently have um sometimes you tend to use more one than the other one might be more appropriate for letterhead one might be more appropriate for a a brochure or something so it's just an option within and that branding guide will spell all of those out including you know the specific hex codes for the colors so you you everybody's using the exact same color and not guessing because of course we know monitors and even individual eyes to see color differently so there's actually a set of codes um that you end up using so that you're making sure you're using the exact right color so and then the the other one would be the icon which I I call the icon which is the that little round symbol that would go on you know your social media
021sites and you know maybe slides or or something like that so it kind of gives us a full range of abilities without having to cram something in that or mush it or make it look you know not appropriate so I'm professional other questions yeah I'm I'm the last person you want to weigh in on something so let me just say thank you I know this is a ton of work right and and and and it's all boiled down and the outcome here is simple and right and clean and nice and so it it it looks good and the work yeah and just just as an add-on there there's you know um there's other ways kind of looking at the waves as well in terms of like some of our um strategic commitments as well with
022the four wave so so there's multiple kind of like things that intertwine which um you know we would then you know undergo a process of kind of redesigning all that stuff to fit with a new logo and and you know that'll be that'll be a lot of work which is why we talked about still trying to do that start that process this year with kind of our internal documents and then over the summer be able to transition to a big splash which would be nice because we'll be doing a lot of things coming up soon in terms of opening things and closing things and moving things and um you know so yeah I was pleased with all the research you did and and the fact that what came out of that to you someone who
023doesn't work here is that component of Student Success that that was obvious because that's why we're all here so for that had to come out is really good thing you and and Rick started with more than just one idea weed ideas with many groups across the school district to uh to end up where we ended up and all the suggestions were good I mean we tweaked once we even got down to kind of the preferred one I'll call it there were still some tweaks we made based on suggestions and stuff so it was it was a I thought it was a really great Prof obviously this is the first time we've seen this and my initial impress impression is wow um I really like what I'm seeing um I initially wondered about the water and
024then as soon as you mentioned the connection to Portage and canoeing with it being with water and so on I like that I really do so I I thought that was the balance between between reflecting that and not doing the I mean we could steal it from the city anyway the canoe right like but avoiding those cliches and so we did look at a number of of them uh of potential logos that did have those cliches in because you just kind of have to go through that process right and uh yeah so uh this one was by far with all the groups that we presented to um the universal you know preferred and I think for a lot of good reasons so so we I I'm not sure what the final step in this whole
025process is because one of your executive limitation policies is that we not alter the identity of the district uh including you know the use of this so I think uh earlier we we kind of got the go-ahead without formal approval of the tagline every student every future and we bring now the the next component of that so um I guess our next step would be to bring that back to the board for an official action so that we capture that and uh we're also working on another piece one of the other recommendations was that we uh um we combine a couple of statements and have just one vision statement right now we have a vision statement and an aspirational statement that we created during the Centennial Celebration and a recommendation has been to merge those
026two together which were in the process of doing and almost have that part finished but as Gary reminded us today that vision and Mission outside of the ends and uh and that work but we still would like to bring that and have that included as part of our work so good good be looking for that thank you thank you both Mr Edwards Bond project update I'll do my update and then also Anastasia we just join me as well for the uh budget element of it um just a brief update for uh the board um installation of carpet centr in our Studios is about to begin uh we also have painting going on that are now painting the ceing and the uh our water place or fireplace has been framed in at Central L and should
027be installed any the day now and then the electrical work continues throughout the building U moving over to ha Hill the staff walkth through has been rescheduled for a third time there was a snow day um on the first two scheduled visits the new walkthrough date is Monday February the 3 uh also at H Hill the case work for the learning Studios uh has arrived uh the light fixtures in the heart of the school uh have been installed and they're operational so you can really see how that uh will look in the future also within our classroom the ceiling grids are being installed uh along with the lights uh in the first floor learning Studios uh the flooring is being installed in the restroom areas and also electrical water continues uh throughout the building uh
028before I turn over to the bond summary I'll be happy to answer any questions the board might have on the construction side of things the walkthrough is at what time uh it will start officially at 4:30 430 um and um staff will be there and we send out an email to the board for those who are able to join us you're more than welcome to join us if not there are no other questions on over the Anastasia okay thanks Johnny um I know we have a couple new board members here so I wanted to kind of run through the documents that you have in front of you um just kind of what they are and their purpose uh on your cover sheet here this is the overall uh cough summary and then the next page
029is your detail of all of the change orders within the scope of the projects that we've used contingency and allowance dollars for uh a little background when we set up these project there's projects there's a couple different buckets that we place money into you have your main one which is the subcontractors committed cost that's what you saw for Woodland the last time I was up here um so you'll see those amounts increase or decrease based on the change orders from these reports that you'll see roughly quarterly then you have allowances which are things that we know are going to happen or that we know uh we need the money for but we just don't know that exact dollar amount then you have contingency really what this whole report is on so uh this is the
030most common and it's a regular occurrence throughout the construction process it is money set aside specifically for unknown changes um the contingency dollar amount is shared between you guys the owner the architect and the subcontractors uh this allows you guys as the owner to make changes adding scope um if you want to remove something an example of that is on uh hah Hill item 7 we were directed by Portage to add additional conduit for a future fiber run um this will eliminate the added cost down the road when we demo the building so that's one of those items contingency again is shared by the architect so this includes clarifications to the drawings additional details or updates to comply with uh the any Revised Code or state regulations one of the examples in our uh change
031order summary today is for on Central item to for the chiller condenser units we had to make some changes there to comply with refrigerant update so we were issuing change order to the mechanical contractor for that lastly it's also shared with the subcontractors uh any RFI responses that come up or discusss during the construction process responses to bulletins or there can even be any scope Gap from the Oak Side uh that wasn't originally assigned to anyone so one of those examples is on the central portion item eight uh cocking the relief joint it was difficult to really determine what that was uh in the original construction documents so it wasn't picked up by anybody officially or assigned to anybody so that cost is now being captured once we have the pricing from the contractors as
032a team we review contingency and spend time comparing where we are financially to percentage complete uh as well as where we are physically compared to the project schedule um so typic Ally we have a a pretty in-depth process for approving these change orders that you see here uh once the architect issues the bulletin or any change direction to the contractors they'll send in the pricing to Oak we review that pricing if we have any concerns we'll have the discussion with the contractors uh once we are okay with it we then send it to the architect to review they do their due diligence they go through look at the pricing as well after they are okay with the pricing then goes to plant Maran to have uh their review before the final approval for from Johnny
033and Mark um overall on the contingencies here your cover sheet Central's contingency currently is at 2 mil 37,1 or roughly have 71% remaining um ha Hills at 1,956 214 or roughly 80% remaining there overall I'm I'm really comfortable with where we're at in the process and the contingency dollars spent so far typically you'll see an increase or more money spent at the beginning of the construction process just with unsuitable soils structural changes are a bit big one and then you typically kind of level off there's still still contingency dollars being spent but it's not as large of increase um and then at the end of the project you'll see an increase again this is typically anything that the inspectors might want changed or their interpretation of a code so you'll see a little bit more
034spent there and then just kind of tidying up BL sens so overall um I'm really comfortable with where where we're at with the overall contingency and uh for Central and ha Hill but if you guys have any questions or any items you'd like to dig into please let me know I just have one question on the um page under where's says Central L the First Column the previous change a construction cost was 7311 194 yes and then the contingency cost was 871 so I wonder that looks like that yeah that looks like that was a typo on by end I'm sorry so um it should be the 871 188 up above for the construction oh okay great wait actually no that that is that was the owner's rep when you're ready no that's correct that
035happened in change order one um and we're on six you're correct so there was some money that had been moved around from below our line item call so we uh made a feed towards our owners rep which is plant Moran so early in the process as we started the budget there were dollars allocated for the owner's rep fees that were below what was expected so while it wasn't officially a change order there was some version of a change CU we had to adjust the fee structure and that only occurred for the central L okay and I know our newest board members received a uh uh a memo that was that came to the board earlier that talked about what what things what dollar amounts who is responsible for so there's certain decisions can to be
036made in the field there's some decisions that involve uh Johnny there's some that have to come to me and then there's a a break point at which it comes to the full board but in that whole process we inform the board of all the change orders that take place during the CL or during the construction project any other questions thank you thank you for that yeah Paula with the uh financial report for this month good evening board L and superintendent beling included in your packet uh for your board uh meeting was a financial report reflective of six months to our fiscal year so December 31st 2024 6 months has already passed um for the new board members the report shows the first page without geeking out too much on accounting stuff by function code for
037the state of Michigan purposes that's what page one of your financial report shows the second page is by object code your uh resolutions that you'll see in the future for example for the general budget amendment that we're bringing to the board in February you'll see a very similar report to this so This follows those same standards so just touch on a few of the highlights I want to apologize in advance if I start to cough because I was sick last week so I'm hoping I get through this without a coughing fit um the this report Compares this fiscal year to last fiscal year at the same time so the the columns on the far right are what was brought to the board a year ago at this time so this report Compares December 2024 to
038December 2023 looking at Revenue uh local payments uh are up uh due to property tax collections but keep in mind uh property tax collections are netted against our per people found Foundation allowance so that just means the state of Michigan sends us fewer on our state aid status report on a monthly basis State revenues are up compared to last year due to uh some carryover money that we had in the 31aa categorical I've reported to this to the board previously it's the same reason um we're using this for um safety security and mental health purposes I'll touch on that again a little bit further in the report federal revenue is down compared to last year it's down because of a couple of C Revenue Federal items that we are not receiving this year such as
03998c e rate and S or two funds that we had in last fiscal year local payments from other districts there's a timing issue of what happened between this year and last year um so revenue is appearing higher in the month of December where because we received our uh close out payment for special education costs from kesa we received that the beginning of December whereas a year ago at this time we received it in November so there's just a variance in timing moving down to expenditures I want to take you down below um supporting services and just touch on a few of these items um operations and maintenance costs are up but they're up because of the secure entryway projects that we are doing at several of the buildings throughout the district transport ation costs are
040up due to salary costs and corresponding French benefit uh French benefits that align with those salary costs Central Support Services is up due to tech software subscriptions along with the use of the 31aa mental health um expense compared to last year other support services are down and this is because Athletic Supply costs are actually down this year compared to a year ago at this time Community Services is also down and it's the same reason that I reported to you last time uh due to uh Staffing we had an employment leave of a person in that category and so costs are tracking less than it was a year ago just to highlight um briefly on the second page of the object code everything's tracking pretty much the same the only thing that sticks out where it's
041a little bit higher is that capital outlay area and that's that secure entry secure entryway projects also showing up under the object code category uh just also another General update the consensus Revenue estimating Conference was held on um January 10th and this is gives the state the opportunity to check in to see how they're targeting compared to their budgeted uh revenues for the state school aid fund and the general fund and the good news is is that they had to adjust their uh revenues higher so that's promising um this starts our process now where the governor will will release her budget first in February then the House and Senate will work to release their budgets for the next for the 25 26 year then they'll go into caucus and they'll come up with a final
042decision but there'll be one more consensus Revenue estimating conference that will be held in May that they'll use to finally dial in those numbers before they actually release final budgets for us so looking forward to hopefully a favorable um process out of laning any questions and next month we begin Amendment discussions for this year's budget that is correct we are working on that right now as always I am so appreci to your eyes detail any other questions thank you thanks Paul that's it on the reports okay very good um we'll move to our comments and Communications section does anyone wish to address the board this evening welcome K we don't even need to bring this up there thank you Cat Frank for G presid president um before I share some of the exciting things that
043our staff have been doing I'd like to thank former trustees Hamilton and CW for their time on the board and welcome our newest board members excited to get to know you and work alongside you serving our students and staff also congratulations to superintendent beang on his upcoming Northern High and North Middle just opened Descendants the musical this past weekend I think I read that there are close to 100 students between cast and crew uh big thanks to CC weeks Chelsea White Oak Emily zemlick Lindsay Wangler Harry Phillips and Bo hardle Road for providing such an amazing opportunity for so so many of our kids the show runs this coming weekend too so get your tickets speaking of shows Central High will be opening Harry Potter and the cursed child on February 7th when I first
044heard that the school was staging this production I reached out to director Ashley Bowen and asked if she could use any wooden wands for the show uh she gave me a very enthusiastic yes so I brought the idea back to the West Michigan wood Turners which is the wood turning club that I'm a part of and we ended up making and donating around 60 wands for the show three of which are mine it was a wonderful demonstration of community support and I'm truly grateful to the club for coming together to help out our students the physical education Central challenges has replaced the Presidential Fitness awards for Elementary School students while participation is optional this marks the third year that fourth and fifth graders at angling Road will take part in the program according to L
045over at angling her students truly enjoy the experience she said each year the number of bronze silver and gold medal recipients has increased since she started so thanks to Lori for motivating her students to have fun set goals and stay Physically Active Darcy bannett at Central High founded the youth in Medical Careers club and is leading a group of interested students on a visit to Striker next week the students are eager to explore potential career Pathways in the medical field and gain firsthand exposure to the industry this experience will inspire and inform their future career choices thanks to Darcy for her dedication and facilitating this experience Chow club which is short for culinary and Heritage Organization for welfare combined forces with NHS National Honor Society and made 70 care packages with snacks and toiletries for
046the unhoused in our community which they distributed to the Gospel Mission this past week we are so proud of our students for coming together to help out our community thanks to Carolyn Moore and Kent Baker for sponsoring these clubs and finally students in Adam schwanzo history class are gaining valuable firsthand historical Insight this week Mr schanel has invited his grandfather to speak about the Japanese internment camps during World War II one of which was located in his hometown this promises to be a memorable experience for Adam his grandfather and all of the students and fun fact there will be three schwanzo on campus at the same time because Adam's mom also works at Port Central thanks thanks cat thanks for taking the time to come and uh give us all that news thank you are
047there any comments by board trustees well I will say that I did go to Descendants on Friday night and it was a fun performance and uh it's great to see middle schoolers and high schools working together to pull this off and they did a great job of it so I would encourage people to go and enjoy that and then your comments about Harry Potter you know that I also know a person that's involved in the Woodworkers and this gentleman was so excited about the prospect of getting people to make these wands and uh he's planning on attending the show too so that's very cool and then third thing the physical fitness Awards I'm glad to see this back when my kids were in school at angling Road this was a big deal so I'm glad
048to see that something similar is there in encouraging kids to compete and set goals and be physically fit so thanks for telling us about that anyone else I I'll go ready cat thanks for continuing to come and being a part of our meetings uh for my my colleagues thanks for the extra time today and some some good spirited um uh discussion and then I had one other note oh yes um is Michelle where's yeah Michelle karpinsky um I wanted to acknowledge Michelle and thank her for doing something on behalf of the board which is putting together our board briefs so we can do a better job of commun of communicating with the community as to the uh the action items that we address at each board meeting so um appreciate the first one of the
049last meeting and appreciate them uh from now on so thank you Michelle thank you anyone else okay we'll move to uh our consent agenda on page nine we have three items this evening the first is the approval of the January 13 202 organizational meeting and Committee of the whole work session the second item is that the Board of Education authorized Owen Ames Kimble company to issue notices of pending award in the amounts indicated for wooden elementary school to contractors and suppliers listed on the bid summary sheets pending confirmation that all requirements of the contract documents have been met furthermore upon receipt by Owens ases Kimble company of the appropriate documentation contracts will be awarded to these contractors and suppliers by Portage public schools in the amount of$ 24,740 44 the funds for which will come
050from the 2021 Bond and as you recall re we reviewed all 39 bid tabs at our last meeting and finally the third thing is that the Board of Education approved changes to the administrator handbook as presented and that was also reviewed at our last meeting are there any exceptions to the consent agenda as presented I hearing none the consent agenda is approved and our next item is a required action item on page 23 and that's the Central Elementary Public easements and bill of sale is there a motion please on page 23 Mr President I move that the board of education grant a water main easement and bill of sale at the Portage Central elementary site to the city of Portage as presented thank you Terry's our second second thank you Johnny thank you again um
051this is a continuation of a discussion from last board meeting which Jeff Paulson from Stewart um who's our civil engineer um partner through Tower pinkster and explain how all of this work at ha Hill so now we're at Central Elementary School schol uh sub subsequently in a couple years we'll do the same for Woodland Elementary School the only difference between the two sites is uh at H we had to move some sewer work that was built within the easement in this case we did not have to do that uh all of the elements that you're looking at have been shared with our owner rep Chris manowski I'm not certain if you've met but he's from plant meman real point he's on our owner's rep team you've met Jeff Paulson from hurle and Stewart uh We've
052connected with our attorney through TR we've coordinated this work through the city of cordage uh so it would be our desire to uh finalize this information so we can proceed with turning over the documentation to the city of I'll be happy to answer any questions any questions for covered them last time yeah okay all those in favor of approving Central Elementary Public easements and bill of sale please say I I I opposed uh the motion passes Johnny and now we have uh our next discussion item which is the projector purchase for the new Central and new neighborh Hill elementaries evening trustees so the uh common areas or the the larger areas in the new elementary schools require just a little bit different technology to be able to use those spaces uh for presentations or you
053know classroom Gatherings staff Gatherings that's what this recommendation is for so three large laser projectors for each Elementary School and because they're part of the remsey bid save project we don't need to go to out to bid for those and so we agreed to furnish those as the owner of the project so that's what this recommendation is for questions you have any questions for Ryan and I'm assuming this $43,000 expenditure hit the state threshold and that's why it's coming to us yes yeah so even though we don't have to go out to bid over that amount we want sure you're aware and if you look at the quotes if you got any questions on that I can help you with that but basically those large projectors are similar in size to that and they require
054certain lenses to be able to to show off in the gym or the heart area that kind of thing whereas this one wouldn't require a special technology like that yeah our threshold is somewhere around 30 30,000 just over it keeps creeping up every year inflation right yeah it's tied to inflation but so anything that's over that amount by by law by policy we have to bring that to the board would the board be amable to approving this tonight we just approved 24 million this is only 43,000 I'm open to it it sounds like a good idea got to do it is there a motion please to bring this item to action Mr President I move that we bring the projector purchase for new Central Elementary and hah Hill action thank you Terry is there a
055second second thank you all those in favor of moving the projector purchase the action please say I I I opposed the motion passes and now we need a motion to approve the projector purchase Mr President I move the purchase for new Central Elementary and hah Hill laser projectors in the amount of $ 43,6 63 thank you Terry is there a second second very good all those in favor of approving the projector purchase please say I I I opposed the projector purchase is approved our final discussion item is the human growth and development curricular change on page uh 37 yes good evening um I am here to recommend some changes to our human growth and development uh curriculum um there is a procedure which we must follow that is fairly detailed before making any changes so
056I want to review that with you because it's important um any changes we make to the human growth and development curriculum begin first with our teachers we have uh human growth and development teacher leaders two of which are in attendance andin and Emily Anthony uh they then form a subcommittee that proposes those changes to our curriculum and instruction Council for approval that is the equivalent of the sex education Advisory board that you see described in the law we we call it something a little different here um on that committee we have parents um students clergy Educators and a health professional as well and those folks are communicate are recruited through District Communications and uh I want to say too that these ladies have presented these changes twice so they presented them to cic last year
057and and were approved and then there was no one in my position so think just sort of sat still for a little moment and then they presented them again in the fall and they were approved so from there we went forward by law we have to hold two public hearings we held three one was face Toof face and two were virtual um at each of those hearings we collected feedback from those in attendance and we did make some adjust adjustments to the proposed curricular changes finally last step is your approval of those changes on the back of the memo are the two proposed changes um and Emily and Ann can elaborate on these if you have questions the first one is just updating some of our instructional materials in grade six uh with relationship to
058our HIV and AIDS unit which we are required to teach by law about communic communicable diseases um the second one is changes to the impact of pornography lesson which was something that we did at a different grade level that we would like to move to a sixth grade uh level you have a copy of the slideshow in your packet so you can see um that it has been adjusted to be age appropriate for sixth graders and that lesson is really focused on you know healthy relationships distinguishing social media uh from reality um and giving students some strategies for how to handle when they see inappropriate materials because we know students have greater access to technology today and it is likely that they may encounter inappropriate materials that is a brief overview of the curricular changes
059that we're proposing tonight are there any questions that I can address yeah it didn't seem to be anything major here I don't think so I noticed between I attended one of the parent meetings because I do have children in the school um and I noticed that there have been some changes made to this um from what was presented at that time and I know that that is in part due to parent feedback and I really appreciate your respect and uh in talking to parents and uh listening to feedback and the way that you were're willing to answer what can sometimes be emotionally charged questions and thank you for how you were respectful truly you you did that and you were very thoughtful in how you did so thank you well thank you I couldn't have
060done it without my team however they are the the content experts with this material thank you for the careful and thoughtful work yes thank you thank you thanks TR okay we've reached the end of our agenda um need board self assessments for each of our two meetings today and then if board members can stick around for a few minutes so we can thank you very much