001good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the board of education for May 1st 2023. um Mrs benefit would you take the role please Mrs Acosta here [Music] therapist is a is it here President Johnson here we do have a quorum thank you that takes us to item one or item two our Pledge of Allegiance and Mrs Acosta would you lose this evening yeah yeah I pledge allegiance to be 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 good evening and welcome again to all those in attendance and those who may be watching from home uh anybody who wants to follow along with our agenda tonight you can find the agendas on the door
002to the left and if you turn to the right you'll see not only the agendas but blue slips for anybody who wants to address the board during audience communication for those at home who want to follow along with our agenda you can go to our website which is livonepublicschools.org you can highlight over the board Tab and you'll see a board a drop down for board meeting information and you can follow along there with our agenda for this evening one of the things that we hold very very high is our community with character and one of those attributes is respect and you will see see then amongst the board members we don't always agree on things that become that come before the board but we always respect each other in each other's opinions we think that's
003the best way that we can show our community and especially our young children how to act and be good citizens so we pledge that we will respect anyone who comes before the board particularly this evening and all we ask in return is that they respect us as well the other thing that you might notice is that there isn't a lot of discussion on the items that come before the board for in our voting meeting which we call a regular meeting that's because the items that become come before the board have generally been discussed at least twice possibly three times before they ever get to the board for a vote so if you really want to watch the nitty-gritty and the questions that are asked I would uh ask you to go to our committee of
004the whole meetings you can see them on our website they're they're all there to be viewed and you can see the discussion that we had at that meeting before it ever gets to here to this board table so that's why you might not hear a lot of questions or discussions about items coming before the board with that we're going to our next item which is our item three communications and three a is is a sympathy resolution Joshua Redding may I have a motion please president Burton Mrs Acosta move that the Board of Education who is an eighth grade student at Holmes Middle School support we have a motion by Mrs Acosta supported by Mrs Frank and Mr E2 thank you President Johnson Board of Education member superintendent Holquist I certainly stand here this evening with
005a heavy heart in the untimely passing of our student and friend Josh I do want to take a moment and express my sincerious condolences to the family there really are no words to describe the sadness Josh's family friends and Community felt and will continue to feel although I did not have the privilege of knowing Josh personally the stories about Josh that were shared with me certainly wore my heart knowing so many cared for and were drawn to Josh and is larger than life smile there's such a comfort in knowing the homes community and staff have wrapped their arms around the reading and flowers families especially Josh's younger siblings including his brother who's a seventh grade student at Holmes and with that the sympathy resolution for Joshua Redding reads as follows whereas the Board of Education
006was deeply saddened to hear of the untimely death of a special member of our school school Community Joshua Redding on March 26 2023 and whereas Joshua Redding cherished son of Brianna and Michael flowers was an eighth grader at Holmes Middle School where he enjoyed learning track and field and spending time with his friends and was admired by staff and students and whereas Joshua will be remembered with great fondness by his family friends and many others who knew him and whereas Joshua epitomized true strength determination in an indomitable Spirit throughout his short life and whereas Joshua enjoyed playing video games going to the movies and face timing with family and friends he was known to have a passion for clothes shoes and foreign cars as well as a smile that could light up any room now
007therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education the Livonia Public Schools School District offers its Health heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of Joshua Redding for the great loss of their beloved Son brother and friend thank you thank you Mr E2 before we vote on this matter I'd like to ask for a moment of silence for Josh Redding thank you all is there any input from the board Mrs Oakhurst thank you President Johnson I'll just uh briefly add to Mr e2's sentiments that um I I can't imagine a more tragic thing a more horrific thing for a parent and a family to have to go through than the loss of their child and both as a mom and as an educator I feel so deeply deeply saddened for Josh's family for his many
008friends for the people who were beside him each and every day and so we send our love and we continue to keep you in our prayers thank you Mrs Holquist we have a motion by Mrs Acosta second by Mrs Frank to adopt the sympathy resolution for Joshua's Redding Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs Acosta [Music] Mrs Frank Franz Burton yes Mrs bonerfield says yes President Johnson yes that motion carries thank you all that takes us now to item 3B at points of Pride School library month recognition and we have Mrs Jenkins good evening good evening president Burton president I knew I was going to do that President Johnson I've been so good up until now old habits are hard to break exactly also good evening to the board and to superintendent Oak
009West the state of Michigan is designated April as school library month and although we are officially into the month of May as as of today we couldn't pass up the opportunity to highlight our amazing library media centers as well as our media Specialists who run these spaces at all 23 of our schools as you know our lmcs are Central to our to our school learning environments they are the Hub of the school for collaboration research and much more I still remember visiting Cooper Elementary used to be just Cooper Elementary back in the day the library there when I was young it was a magical place for me as a child our school librarian Mrs Goodwin would encourage creativity and she would even publish the books that we had written I still have those little story
010books that I wrote and Illustrated Bound by cardboard and contact paper and closed with those little gold clip tacks for me the library fostered my love for creative writing researching and reading books just for fun we are so proud that LPS has maintained these spaces for our students throughout the decades and joining us here tonight we have Mr Paul Casada if you'd like to join me Paul he will offer a few words about the amazing things that continue to happen in our school libraries thank you so yes as we said this was declared the School library month and um and so we're really excited to take this opportunity to recognize what we do as a district and and really hold up our program as a point of Pride because we are one of the few
011districts that still maintains a true program with a certified teacher in every school working in our media centers and that truly is something that we should be proud of and and be proud that we hold that distinction um so but to say that the district just maintains this program is truly an understatement as you're aware of things that support of our community each of our media center spaces and our schools has been or will be renovated and if you have had a chance to visit any of the five schools renovated this past summer I'm confident that you let out an involuntary wow as you cross the threshold as I did each renovation marks another example of the district support of our school library program and making our media centers The Learning Hub of each School
012of course we cannot speak about our remarkable School library program without acknowledging the backbone of our programs which is our media specialists I am now completing my second year in this newly created role as a District's media and Technology coordinator in this time I've had the opportunity to watch our district media Specialists work collaboratively to update and redesign their current curriculums to create a K-12 guaranteed and viable curriculum that aligns with and supports the student learning going on in classrooms our meeting Specialists are experts in creating engaging and Innovative experience for our students at Johnson Ms Acker transformed her Media Center into an escape room where students work in collaborative groups to solve puzzles while also learning about how to navigate their media center and find information for a school project but also find that
013next book they will fall in love with at homes Ms Sutherland Works alongside teachers who support our ell students in order to expand the library's collection of books written in different languages as well as high low books to engage struggling readers Miss Hillary at Rosedale teaches her students about primary resources by asking Mrs Kohler the principal to bring in artifacts and primary resources from her childhood the students then use these resources to try and figure out who they are learning about just an important side note to this that project it's not just about what they're learning but now they're also establishing a relationship with their principal and you know create and building those relationships is so important for administration Cleveland Ms Ford at Buchanan use various online resources such as Michigan's e-library or Mel PebbleGo
014Britannica School and World Book kids to teach students about how to find safe and reliable information and how to cite sources Miss McGuire at Emerson loves to do book talks with students to introduce them to new literature she finds that book talks are extremely successful in helping students who do not see themselves as readers find that just right book for them Mr rapson at Churchill has been a vital team member in creating the charger connection program which acclimates freshmen to their new school through large group meetings with upper class mentors these meetings are held in the media center and Mr rapson thrives on forging connections with students and developing a love for libraries mizar at Randolph works with her first grade students to develop a love of reading and Technology by studying award-winning picture books
015and then having the students recreate pictures from the books using Google Slides she sent me a few examples they're very cute Mr pint at Roosevelt uses Minecraft to support and reinforce various learning modules for example his fourth grade students build ramps with rails and a mine cart while the students are learning about potential and kinetic energy in their classroom second grade students use Minecraft to build a house for the third little pig using the different materials available in the Minecraft world at Riley Ms o'harris is currently teaching sixth grade students about copyright what images videos and sounds can be used in presentations and projects for free in what to do when you have media that is copyrighted they are demonstrating their learning by creating book trailers using an online video editing program called Animoto at
016Kennedy Miss boshwadi pairs her teaching with the K4 Ela modules to as she put it allows what we learn and do in the library to move outside the library walls some examples include creating apps that explain how to survive a natural disaster or coding robots to tour locations in Michigan she's also known to help coordinate a pretty wild glow party for the students when they reach their schools marches reading month goals I could go on and on but in addition to teaching our media Specialists are also working alongside District leadership in the process of Designing our new modern media center spaces while they also serve their buildings in a number of different capacities giving a whole new meeting to other duties as assigned in addition to all that they've also circulated over 200 000 books
017in our libraries this year I know a few of our media Specialists have joined us tonight and so I would like to ask them to stand at this time to be recognized for their efforts thank you again for allowing me this opportunity to lift up our school program it's a true point of Pride for Livonia Public Schools and thank you for all your support you have given to keep this important program available to our students and families thank you thank you Mr Casada do you have any questions or comments this is Burton um as a parent early on in the district the library was the very first place where I was welcomed in as a parent to volunteer and quickly had a love for that um Mr shinivar who's here with us this evening was
018one of the media Specialists who allowed me to come into that space once a week and not only that but to bring my littler's one at home who was not yet in elementary school she became so comfortable there that she knew the library was her her space where she got to come to school every day even before she was a kindergartner uh but it's it's exciting to be a parent um it's a fabulous place uh to to volunteer in our schools um I'm certain that those parent volunteer hands are still welcome um if you are a parent a grandparent another caregiver who's looking for an opportunity to uh to give back to the school district and to uh to be part of your child's life but while you're also being a fly on the wall
019it's a fabulous place um you get to watch your child interact while you're kind of across the room doing something else that's legitimately helpful and needed in the building but it's it's wonderful and again coming from the perspective of a parent I would like to thank all of our media Specialists for allowing us to come in uh to that space and and help out and really be a part of our child's education in a meaningful way thank you for what you do for our kids uh to instill such a love of reading um especially the the elementary age there's just such a smart Park they but our littlest Learners are so excited about everything still um and the media Specialists and the the LMC experience is just a really exciting way that that our kids
020can become so engaged and it's it's a it's a blast to to be a parent and watch that take off but we have as Mr Casada said we have our media Specialists to thank for that because a room full of materials is just a room full of materials until somebody makes it all come alive uh so thank you very much to uh to the media Specialists that I've had the privilege of of volunteering with um Mr shinifar being one of several but thank you to all of you for all the opportunities that you give us as as parents as well as as our kiddos obviously thank you thank you Mrs Burton Mrs uh Bradford thank you president Burton Lord I'll just leave I echoed the sentiment of Mrs Burton President Johnson thank you I just
021wanted to say thank you so much to our media Specialists who worked tirelessly and I love just the the creativity of all the different activities and the all the different things that you do with our students and I too have spent a lot of times uh in in the past with my children in the library and the importance of having a library and a working library and getting books into the hands of our children is one of the most most important things that we can do for our students and and nurturing a love of reading and I know there's so much technology out there but just the value of holding a book in your hands and getting these the job that you have is to you know develop a love to nurture these kids with
022these books is is is really the most important thing that we can do and I'm so happy that we are able to have media specialists in our library that know and have the knowledge of what they're doing it's great to have parent volunteers but we need media Specialists we need you and it's such an important role and I will always support that and I'm so glad to see that we have um reimagined our media centers because it has changed and there's so many different uh Avenues and activities that we now do with our students and I just applaud you for all your efforts and thank you very much and it's definitely definitely a point of Pride for our district so thank you for all you do thank you president Brett I mean Mrs Bradford oh
023my goodness thank you I'm so glad that you shared with us Mr Casada and I'm so glad to have so many of our media Specialists here with us this evening that we could recognize I will say as a principal I always thought of our of the media specialist that I had an opportunity to work with as really a thought partner night an idea partner they were always the people that were involved in school-wide activities and school-wide events they're one of the people that knew all of our children and so many of our families because you have them year after year after year and so the the relationships that you are able to form with our kids and with our families goes off and beyond that of a teacher that may only have a child for
024one year and so I I just always thought that was such a such a great opportunity to again just serve as a thought partner and be a brainstormer and I have to say it was often the media specialist with whom my work that would say we could do that we'll figure away and I think beyond that the opportunity to extend and I think you gave this example of really extending the curriculum Beyond both the walls of the classroom and the walls of the library because when we see that work best is when we see the really our libraries as an extension of what is available to our children and to have those resources I will Echo Mrs Jenkins it was one of my very favorite places as an elementary student and I would often find
025any reason I could to go down there on days when it wasn't our library day and I also just want to say a quick shout out and a thank you I don't know if who exactly was involved but I know many of our media Specialists and you were involved Mr Casada recently and updating our policies with regard to our board policies and so I believe we're back on for a first reading tonight but we've I know that's been in the works for for several months and really being able to share really rich information about our processes of book selection and how that process goes and our media Specialists play the most vital role in that so thank you for your time and helping us work on that policy as well so a great opportunity and
026certainly a point of pride thank you Mrs Holquist other comments uh Mrs Acosta um I know that if you've had my kids um I'm looking at Mrs o'hare's that there have been times where you've had to kick them out of them I appreciate um that those spaces have been just such a joy for them thank you thank you thank you Mrs Acosta are there any others I just want to say um Mr Cassandra When you mention going into the the new lmcs and it's like wow and we've had the opportunity to to do that and you're absolutely right we walked in and it was wow uh it's it's just amazing what's happened and I appreciate you sort of describing uh what the media Specialists and the principals are doing that's always enjoyable for us to
027hear that so thank you for uh for bringing that to our attention we we love to hear that and thank you all for being here tonight okay that will take us now to item oh we need to vote on it um I had the wrong note you're a bad influencing me tonight yeah you better behave uh that will take us to item 3C which is recognition of board members receiving masb Awards and Mrs Jenkins thank you president Johnson it's my pleasure to once again recognize the achievements of our Board of Education through its continuous dedication to learning and growing through the Michigan Association of school boards for several several consecutive years our Board of Education earned the distinction of being an honor board which indicated at that time that every board member is certified through
028the masb for the past three years however our board of education has stepped it up a notch and is now a um was by being named a standard of Excellence board this means that all board members have not only become masb certified but they have also each achieved a minimum designation of Award of Merit each level of certification requires hours and hours of coursework in a comprehensive professional development program for all seven board members to receive the award of Merit is a feat that is not all too common throughout our state for your dedication to continuous Improvement we applaud you we have a special certificate to Mark the occasion you can add this to your vest collection of certificates and the certificate reads Livonia Public Schools certificate of recognition Livonia Public Schools Board of Education
029this one is for president Mark Johnson for your dedication and for your commitment and dedication in achieving with your board colleague colleagues the masb standard of Excellence whole board status for the third consecutive year dated May 1st 2023 signed by superintendent olquist and if I may present these and then I'll be right back at the microphone to elaborate on a few masb Awards thank you very nice very very nice all right thank you thank you okay so in addition we have three board members who have advanced their individual levels through the masb coursework our board members continue to advance their education by moving through the levels of certification and this year we are proud to recognize three who have achieved those advancements first we would like to recognize trustee Madeleine Acosta for achieving an masb
030award of Distinction the award of Distinction represents the successful completion of level 1 and level 2 coursework Mrs Acosta continues to impress us with her dedication to quickly excelling through the various levels of certification congratulations and this achievement is also reflected on your certificate we could give Mrs Acosta a round of applause next we'd like to recognize board vice president Karen Karen Bradford for earning Master board member award this means that Karen has successfully completed levels one two and three in masb coursework congratulations to Mrs Bradford and this is also reflected on your certificate thank you and unfortunately trustee Liz Jarvis is not with us this evening but we would also like to congratulate Liz on achieving the data skills specialty award now I had not heard of this one before this means that Mrs
031Jarvis completed the requirements for level one as well as additional coursework including data strategic planning and goal setting these are a couple of different course names just to give you an idea data foundations and additional courses that focus on you guessed it data she does love that data so congratulations Mrs Jarvis I'm in her certificate also reflects her award and at this time I'd like to turn it over to superintendent oquist thank you so much much Mrs Jenkins so um we certainly don't ever want to take for granted the fact that we have a board of education who is not only so committed to our children to our staff and to our schools but they are also committed to their own continued professional growth to have a board who now for several years in a
032row has been named an honor board in the state of Michigan one of only very few and then to have moved on to the next level in the standard of Excellence and while we have three new board members who have been awarded either Awards of Merit or distinction each year we have additional board members who have earned earned that status and most recently they were recognized at a special Awards event in Wayne County but I really want to say beyond that I'd like to just speak for a moment to the individuals and the human beings that they are because they are they exemplify leadership and integrity and collaboration every single one of them are here to serve to serve others and to do so unselfishly not one of them come in with the mindset of
033any individual agenda they are truly here to be deep thinkers to care about our community and to really focus in on whatever it is we're bringing to them if you if you listen to any one of our study sessions or our committee of the whole meetings you will hear thoughtful questions questions not only about fiscal responsibility but student achievement and academic performance the climate and culture within our schools and their ability to while not working in this day to day they all have other other jobs and other many busy parts of their lives they are able to delve deeply into each of these Topics in a way that shows their care and their commitment um to our school district I will tell you they're unique this a board like this does not exist in very
034many places I believe we all know how fortunate we are our cabinet team talks about it often and we are truly grateful for each and every one of you thank you thank you [Applause] I just like to say that while it's nice to get an award like this that's not what we do it for we do it for the students for our teachers our staff we continually do it as a matter of fact Mrs Frank and I are taking classes again in two weeks so it's an ongoing process it never stops and as I said we don't do it for the recognition we do it for the learning we don't although we've been on the board Mrs Burton and I have been on here almost 13 years and most of us multiple years you don't
035know it all we are just sponges um to the knowledge that other people have and we want to get there someday it's not today we don't know when that will be and that's why we continually take these classes go to conferences and I think it reflects in in the work that we do and although we as a board we get the recognition our cabinet doesn't just an outstanding job they make our job look easy so we thank you for helping us we we appreciate it very very much okay we'll move on to item 3D our district update from the superintendent and I'll turn it back over to Mrs Holquist thank you President Johnson as always I appreciate the opportunity to share some highlights from across the district so we will put those up on the
036screen and uh and share some highlights with you as you know we are always learning and growing and so we have some of our students here from the Livonia Career Technical Center the criminal justice class and we were really pleased to have the Farmington Hills Police Department come out and really share some some tools that they use and also re be able to talk about opportunities that our students can have to learn more about the field of Criminal Justice either now or upon graduation next you'll see some really amazing fourth graders at Hayes Elementary yes they are writing five paragraph essays if anyone tells you that a lower elementary student cannot let us show you how that takes a lot of work and I will say that our teachers build year after year after year
037and grow their reading stamina grow their writing stamina and their ability to effectively communicate this really is a point of pride in something that we look for as as an exit for each of our fourth graders across the district so we love to celebrate the learning that they're doing you'll see next we have some of Mrs Mitchell's kindergartners they were using balance scales and they were practicing their teamwork she's always got some amazing things going on across her classroom a busy and a happy place next you'll see our some of our fourth graders who took a visit to the Capitol so this happens in for many schools across the district and we were very grateful that representative colozar was able to be there so sometimes our reps are there and they're in session other times
038they're not but it's always always feel like it's a lucky day when one of our representatives are there and they can take our students onto the floor and be able to talk a little bit about the work that they do and so we know that our students were excited to be there and we were happy to have Repco as are there with them we recently had um Earth Day and so I always loved to see the ways our schools celebrate Earth Day and think about taking care of our planet I think I always when I see the the commitment of our children whether it's in our Green Schools or their efforts for recycling or the work that they do in Earth Day it always makes me so hopeful for the future and the work that
039they want to do to help take care of our planet or as many of our schools say to take care of this place of course it's always good to take a break this was a moment of time where there was a yellow orb in the sky the Sun that we haven't seen for quite a while but we always love to see our our kiddos out there and we're hoping that that Sunshine comes back but um enjoying some of our new playground equipment and that's always great to see um we are full-fledged into spring Sports again we've been interrupted on many many uh Times by the weather but our our kiddos have really stuck through so we've seen um our teams really going non-stop during the Spring season and doing lots of double headers and both
040in softball and in baseball Franklin held a great event on Friday night the Friday Night Lights and they made it through temps in the 40s and rain here and there but our our track and field athletes did a did an awesome job so kudos to them and to their coaches and the work that they do this time of year we also have our students from each of our three upper elementary schools enjoying sixth grade Camp always a really special time so you see um the team members from Riley here and a lot of our kiddos who are headed to Camp last week and so this is really that time of year when each of our upper elementaries go to camp and always a time to remember I I still remember that from back in the
041day and that was a while ago we were really really really happy to see some of our students from nijiro were able to perform at the Cherry Blossom Festival Festival in Washington DC and you see their beautiful smiling faces here and we're happy to celebrate them and that they could be part of that special festivity last week we had Arbor Day celebration as you know the city has been celebrating Arbor Day for about 25 years in Livonia and they have been Livonia for many years has been named Tree City Tree City USA and each year they ask an elementary school to host the Arbor Day celebration and Coolidge did an amazing job last year and Cleveland did a wonderful job this year we had to move the event inside which we normally are outside for
042this event and they actually then move right on to planting the tree but there were some Hardy fourth graders that were there ready with their raincoats and their shovels so they did go outside and but we also heard some wonderful songs from our K1 students some pretty funny jokes about trees from our second grade students and our third and third grade students read some some poems about nature and about trees so we were pleased to have mayor Brosnan there and pleased to have members of the Livonia tree commission you see Mr Green and Mr Weatherspoon there as well so it was it was a great celebration even though we had we held that indoors so thank you to Cleveland for being hosts this year and we wanted to share some thanks from across the district
043so um as you know how much we value our amazing Administrative Professionals throughout the district um the one sitting in my right uh to my right while we don't have favorites there really is no finer and um I know how grateful I am to be able to partner with Mrs Wozniak each day and I know all of our departments in schools feel that same way so we had a chance here to celebrate and I know many of the schools did the very same so we just want to acknowledge all that they do to keep our schools our programs not only running but really thriving and being welcoming places for our students and our families and here is our awesome PTSA Council you'll see that they were wearing their Livonia pride shirts when they represented at
044the state PTSA convention so we have such a great group I have the privilege of meeting with them each month and the lptsa council represents um folks from across our district that have been involved in PTSA usually for years and the work that they continue to do in the models that they are for the other individual ptas in our district really cannot be overstated so thanks to those those wonderful ladies and we had an opportunity to have the Churchill High School interact Club um who sponsors the Touch-A-Truck event and we know that Mrs bonifield is she is cheering on as we see as we see here um so this event in partnership with the Livonia rotary am Club of which Mrs bonifield is President interact recently presented an over nine thousand dollar donation to The
045Livonia fire department VT Sava shelter box International and Rotary International earthquake fund for Syria and turkey so we are so proud of the work that the Churchill High School interact Club does and you see some of those proud members here and we would like to congratulate some of our student athletes so we are part of the klaa that is our athletic in activities uh membership division uh Association thank you um the Kensington Lakes Athletic Association so they had a Leadership Summit um recently and we had students from each of our high schools there um to be represented it's a great opportunity for them not only to serve in that leadership role and to learn themselves but they have an opportunity to meet with other student leaders from other schools within the klaa and so we
046recently had that opportunity and always a great growth for them and a wonderful way for them to represent LPS um we recently shared and uh with our staff um some information about the DIA who is a great partner for our schools they will provide not only field trips but busing for classes from any of the Tri-County schools but in addition to that they are going to be hosting a special Wayne County High School Arts exhibition so they are they take really the top pieces and works of art from across Wayne County and we have seven students seven that were selected to be represented so that is going to take place from the end of June till the end of July there's a special exhibit at the DIA it's free for anyone to to go to
047the DIA if you live within those Three Counties so I just want to share a few of the pieces um that we that we see here I mean these literally look like professional paintings beautifully done we'll share a couple more um so I'm sorry these are the only ones from the DIA but then we also have our amazing artists um represented right now at the library for the Fine Arts Festival they may just be starting to take down because they have been there throughout the month of April as you know every year we love that the library partners with us our art teachers work their magic and then after they've worked their magic they have to somehow narrow that down to just uh just a few dozen pieces from each school but we have the
048opportunity to see beautiful pieces of ceramic paintings drawings etchings jewelry it's it really uh and I we love that the library allows us to display that both on both levels of the library and for the entire Community to see so congratulations to both our staff and our students who put that together we recently had the Wizard of Oz I know many folks in this room had a chance um to see the Stevenson's drama Department's recent um wonderful production and they were certainly uh wowed by um this this fan favorite so beautiful set design great um you know great characters that just came to life and again we love to see those in our performing art centers and to see our students and their talents come to life not only on stage but I also always
049want to acknowledge all of the students it takes to be behind the scenes literally behind the scenes helping to to bring these um these wonderful creative Productions alive next you'll see Kappa perform law school Lost Girl they had uh show sold out shows um this was held in the black box so I know some of you have been to the black box that's the the smaller uh theater that they have within Churchill um but uh certainly a still a big performance that came from Kappa and congratulations to them and then we also had a great performance last week Captain Louis was performed um by the students in our Center and ASD programs they did an absolutely amazing job and we were just they had a they had a wrapped audience and we had students from
050Johnson from frost as well as many proud parents and grandparents and I just want to give a special shout out to Ann Fisher and Sue Tatro who were the two teachers primarily responsible for bringing this together and also give a shout out to our peer connections mentors who were there also to um support our students in this in this wonderful production so the robotics team has been busy as you know they recently went to um the world championship um they traveled to Houston once again for the competition um and they placed 46 and while they weren't selected for playoffs they did receive the industrial design award for the Johnson Field by GM so we really do have a tremendous robot and so I'm thrilled that they were recognized for that and you'll see another special
051recognition on the next slide that our very own Mrs Carlini who has really been our stalwart our coach and the mentor in our Livonia Warriors and helping all of our robotics teams throughout the district she was named a woody flowers award finalist and she was honored with this award it celebrates effective communication in the Art and Science of engineering and design and it was founded in 1996 to recognize mentors within the first robotics competition who lead Inspire and Empower so congratulations and many thanks because we know Mrs Carlini puts in so so many hours in her work with the robotics students in the robotics teams so we are very grateful for the work that she does um Frost Middle School recently received the support music merit award one of 78 schools in the nation awarded
052this distinction and they named Livonia Livonia Public Schools among the best music communities in the U.S so congratulations and Mr Michael Rays was the one who shared this with us and is a big part of supporting those musical Endeavors at Frost Middle School we recently had the youth making a difference speaking of our our great lptsa I had a family wedding so I was not able to be there but Mr Green was able to share some words of welcome and congratulations to all of our students we had a great crowd that night and the all of the project displays were there in the cafeteria for people to see and then of course the students were treated to a magic show they always are excited to see the magician and really be celebrated for their opportunity
053to give back to their community just a few last notes to mark your calendars we do still have one more Kappa performance uh Kappa volkl will present their Jazz performance and their Spring Showcase on May 10th um it's 7 p.m and so we will look forward to seeing you there we then have we've mentioned this a couple of times but our LPS Education Foundation is having their very first golf outing and they're getting a great response so if you're interested be sure to get your information into Mrs ulastic and then if you can believe it High School graduations are starting one month from today one month so Franklin is on Thursday this year um they are all USA Hockey Arena Stevenson on Friday in Churchill on Sunday at noon so that time frame is a
054little bit different but we are so excited for that and we can hardly believe that that is literally one month away so thank you so much President Johnson for letting us share some highlights and uh and celebrate our wonderful students and staff from across the district thank you Mrs oakquist are there any comments seeing none we will move on to item 3E written Communications I do not have any written communication Remy um yes we should that's a good suggestion we will take about a five to ten minute recess and we will be back thank you thank you and we are now back and we will continue continue with our agenda uh as I said we and 3E we did not have any written communication so that'll take us to 3F response to Prior audience communication
055I don't believe there is any this evening which will take us to 3G audience communication this is the point of our meeting where we hear from community members it's a time for the board to listen to concerns it is not a time for a question and answer or colloquy with the with the board it should also be remembered that the board has three roles typically we set the policy for the district we hire and evaluate the superintendent and we align the funding priorities to the district goals so if anyone was speaking before the board tonight and you have a question or want a response to any issue that you have if it comes within those three areas then you can expect a response from the board if it involves anything else which we call our
056day-to-day operations then you would get a response for from our superintendent and most likely Mrs oquist also our hearing is limited to three minutes per speaker we do have a timer Mrs Bradford will take care of that once you hit three minutes you will hear a tone of some kind that will be an indication to wrap it up I do ask that when you hear that you wrap it up as quickly as possible and with that I have three blue slips the first one is from Brian galdis Mr gals good evening there's just there you go you're green thank you I appreciate this opportunity to um to meet with the board tonight my name is Brian gallis I'm a former superintendent of South Redford schools I currently now work with growth works and I am
057the suicide prevention coordinator and I'm here representing a coalition of school districts which Livonia is one of them Livonia Public Schools the other districts are South Radford Redford Union Northville Wayne Westland Plymouth Canton and Garden City we also also in the Coalition is Trinity Health former St Mary's Hospital as well as corewell health which is the former Beaumont hospital system and um uh we uh we have one Mission and our mission is to battle adolescent oppression and suicide and the stigma that um that revolves around that and you know statistics the statistics around suicide are not going in the right direction and you may know some of these but the CDC just put out a um some most recent survey I'm sorry Study last December that stated since 2015 prior to covid um the the
058the number of visits for students in crisis to hospital ERS has gone up by eight percent every year since then and revisits is up considerably um suicide is now the second leading cause of death for adolescents in the United States it was the third it is now the second so again not going in the right direction and approximately nine percent of students across the United States and Wayne County holds true to this statistic also about nine percent of our students our high school students have attempted a suicide I think this may be the most stunning piece of information that that I wrestle with every single day even though I'm exposed to it and so if if if um Livonia I believe has about 4 500 high school students somewhere in that neighborhood if you extrapolated
059that percentage across Livonia you would have in your schools around 400 students who have attempted a suicide and if that really that that statistic there really brings it home to everybody um in in the community kind of puts a face on on those numbers so um so so our Coalition and and our mission uh is to work together um to just to to attack this and to work together as seven school districts and two hospitals and we've we've have accomplished some things and and I worked so far in the last 12 months we've provided some very um Quality professional development for our social workers and the counselors um within those those seven communities and I mean we've been doing that through St Mary's and we've been bringing them together and we do some mini conferences
060there but we also put on in November each year Wayne County has a professional development day for all School Employees or all School professional staff and so we bring together all the counselors and social workers that want to want to join and um and again many of the Livonia counselors have been there um and so we provide a full day conference for them we also put together some some mini conferences again typically held at the house at St Mary's Hospital um and and we focus on the work that they do um and and so um we also provide them with networking because of the work that they do and unfortunately the um the small number of of mental health professionals we have in our schools they don't get to network with each other like they
061should be able to and we are going in the right direction as far as schools and in terms of numbers of mental health professionals in the schools but we are doing that and we are also um providing mental health awareness for staff and we have trained 4 500 adults in mental health I'm sorry suicide awareness in those seven communities and so that that's more work that we've been doing and so and the last thing is we we have been advocating in Lansing for more resources and most recently we had Senator Kavanaugh toured the the um the um the mental health space that you have in your high schools at Churchill High School and was very impressed with with what you're doing she was also able to to meet with the staff and and Jennifer Terio
062was was great was good enough to put together a nice um presentation for her I am going to leave you with with this um information this kind of sums up the work that we do if you have any questions at all my phone number is on the back of it please feel free to call thank you thank you our next speaker is Yolanda Brown spedel good evening just tap it just be green there it goes we are good evening to you all my name is Yolanda Brown spidel I am an LPS parent of two alumni class of 2019 in class of 2022 I have a rising class of 2023 graduate and I have a class of 2024 graduate so I am a permanent part of the LPS Community I am also a certificated K-12 administrator
063a certified trauma trainer a PTSA parent I'm a Dei consultant a sociology professor at six uh higher ed institutions in Michigan and throughout this country and I and I'm also a minister so I Rise to First say thank you because I'm glad that I was here to see the board acknowledge Joshua Redding his family was they were my neighbors I had an opportunity to minister to his grandmother at my church and so I Rise um to ask the board to move Beyond tears thoughts and prayers to action I am aware that currently we have a Dei opening since the removal says Lisa left to go on to Greater and wonderful things um but I also want to acknowledge that I have had this conversation with our superintendent and I want to thank her for her
064availability her honesty and her openness and her Candor during this time but I wanted to address the board with my concerns my experience with some of the members of the LPS Administration has been very disappointing and I feel has been racialized as I've was labeled as intimidating unable to collaborate in the work in my previous role with the LPS e and e committee my boisterous and the urgency of my sharing narratives of how students are being harmed in LPS specifically emotionally harmed and I think it's just wonderful to hear the work that you are doing I'm a former alternative air teacher in referee Union as a matter of fact that this concern is based on my concern as sometimes anxiety as a parent and as a black parent around protecting the mental health specifically of
065black students and LPS given that we are all aware of how rampant rampant suicidal ideolations and completed suicides are in our country and specifically in our district hence Joshua um I've had my own experiences where my son who is a an alumni um I know that LPS hears the concerns of their parents because my son was a student in Ragtime Mr E2 that they were going to use the n-word against and I was never called to ask as a sociologist I could have given a context so I was really hurt that our school Churchill did not do that performance I also want to share with the board that I have students who did not take an AP English class because the n-word was used in the classroom in my and without a context again so
066that my son did not want to be subjected to being in a space where that word was used without context I hear the Bell so let me wrap this up it is my hope that LPS Administration and the board recognizes the necessity of having someone in this Dei position who understands the urgency of this work and has the emotional intelligence to do this work that makes people feel safe seen and supported because I in this work did not feel safe I did not feel seen I did not feel supported as a black parent in LPS it is also my professional opinion given the history of our city Livonia Being A Sundown town that we recognize that this work has a lot and that we have a lot of work to do in this area to
067not only come from Ground Zero but for many of our spaces we're actually in the basement thank you thank you our third speaker is Colleen vajero good evening it's already on there you go okay hi hi hello I'm Colleen badrow um I'm an LPS graduate myself and mother of a second grader and soon to be kindergartner in the district I'm a speech language pathologist but I've chosen to put my career on the back burner and devote myself to advocating for diversity equity and inclusion for children within LPS for the past two years I've served as the Dei chairperson for the Coolidge PTA while also serving to organize and support other Dei chairpeople from PTA units throughout the district in addition I volunteered to serve on the district-wide engagement in equity or e e committee as
068part of the parent Community connections subcommittee originally under the leadership of Lisa Kaiser who served as the Dei facilitator for the district from 2021 until this past November at which time I stepped into a leadership role for the subcommittee at the request of District administrators who attempted to keep the midi intact and moving forward while we waited for the Dei facilitator vacancy to be filled I just share this all with you to illuminate that I've been intricately involved in this work and on so that you understand my perspectives come informed by many hours of dedicated service on multiple levels um I believe wholeheartedly that actively engaging in diversity equity and inclusion education and initiatives is the path toward creating the culture shift our kids desperately need to survive and thrive in these divisive and challenging
069times like many of us I'm deeply concerned when I see the data about the profound Mental Health crisis our kids are facing despite political and media agendas attempting to mislead people to distrust and misrepresent the goals of Dei work I witnessed and experienced the value Dei brings to the lives of children by helping them to recognize understand and respect individual differences seek and provide supports to meet their unique needs and develop a greater sense of belonging and safety in school and at home and that is what Dei is about I'm encouraged by the growth of Dei perspectives I've seen from ptas throughout the district from creating calming areas for kids with complex censoring sensory needs to ensuring their allergy friendly foods and drink options available to supporting media Specialists to fill the libraries with materials
070that represent a diverse range of stories and characters so that children can see themselves and others I could offer a lot more examples but I just hope that other families who see the value in growingness work will consider joining the Dei committee at their school's PTA shifting Focus to the district engagement and Equity committee I can share that it has suffered greatly from a lack of informed and empowered leadership as evidenced by dwindling engagement and a lack of tangible progress since November and if I'm honest long before that looking forward and practicing the same growth mindset that LPS instills in its students I'm confident that we can do much much better as a district I'm also confident that we need to make up for lost time and credibility in this committee by investing in and
071expanding the role of the Dei facilitator position in the upcoming school year given that the budgeted salary for the previously part-time position has not been paid throughout the school year at least since November I strongly encourage the board and the superintendent to reinvest those funds and make the position full-time and to open it to candidates outside of the LPS staff to broaden the pool and find the most highly qualified person for the job one last sentence finally having someone equipped with these funds of knowledge at the decision-making table would add immense value an important perspective to the LPS cabinet the whole team keeping in mind that you don't know what you don't know even as distinguished District Leaders with years of experience in education there are blind spots that can seriously impact children in the
072Greater Community that a Dei specialist could help to bring folk into Focus for the benefit of all involved thank you thank you those are all the blue slips that I have is there anyone else that wants to address the board this evening seeing none and then we will move on with our agenda and that brings us to item four our consent agenda are there any items on the consent agenda that any board member would like to have removed seeing none may have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Burton a move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools School following minutes of the regular meeting of March 20th 2023 5B minutes of the special meeting of April 24 2023. support we have a motion by Mrs Burton supported by Mrs Bradford Mrs Battlefield
073would you take the role please Mrs Burton yes Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs Frank yes Mrs bonerfield says yes President Johnson yes that motion carries thank you that takes us to item six are business matters item a is purchase of LPS merchandise may have motion queries please President Johnson Mrs Bradford move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools school school district approve the purchase of Livonia Public Schools merchandise from MBS incorporated South Lyon Michigan for an amount not to exceed one hundred thousand dollars support motion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs Burton and Mrs Smith thank you President Johnson I'm happy to bring this recommendation to the board and I appreciate the board's time to discuss this purchase both at the study session and the committee meeting we've had the
074ability to partner with MBS for the last couple years for an LPS merchandise purchase this company really is a full service company that takes care of this purchase for us they put on a website for us that we then send the link out to our staff they can go on and pick a name brand piece of apparel that then gets uh personalized with our LPS logo the company then takes care of you know answering any questions from the staff and taking care of any maybe issues that arise during the ordering they then embroider it and deliver it to 27 locations across the district so they've been a wonderful company to partner with and I'm happy to bring this recommendation to you tonight thank you Mr Smith any questions from the board Mrs Burton um I
075think I think important to recognize our staff but if we can do this in a way that is Meaningful it is a lovely gift for each staff member they get to choose which item they want that would suit them well but it's also a great um it's it's a terrific morale boost I think in our buildings not only for our staff but for other folks who are visiting to see that much LPS we're go uh in our buildings sometimes I know the whole staffs choose choose full staff choose to wear it on the same day um inevitably there are folks in buildings on any given day with with that and it just lends another area of professionalism to our teaching staff and our uh our folks in our buildings so I think it's a fabulous
076win-win all the way around and I I like to thank those who came up with the idea and I'm glad that we continue to do it for the last few years thank you thank you Mr Burton other question sir comments I likewise I've been out in the the community and staff is very appreciative it's nothing but thank yous for the recognition and I think they really enjoy it so we appreciate it as well thank you all right we have a motion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs Burton to approve the purchase of LPS merchandise Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Burton yes Mrs Frank yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs bonnerfield says yes President Johnson yes the motion carries thank you that takes us to item 6B ratify the sale
077of second series 2021 bonds may I have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Battlefield sorry okay a move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools school school district approved the attached resolution to ratify the sale of the second series of the 2021 voter approved bonds support we have a motion by Mrs bonifield supported by Mrs Frank and again Mrs Smith thank you President Johnson and again thank you to the board for the opportunity to discuss the second sale of bonds both at our study session and the committee of the whole meeting this would be a resolution to ratify the sale that's set to take place this Thursday this would be for 70 million dollars and it's part of our overall bond that was approved by the voters in 2021 and again I'd
078like to take a minute to thank our community that supported our bonds we got to hear about some of the work just this evening that we're able to do with these dollars that have been entrusted to us some of the main highlights from our bond are the updating of our library of media centers we're also doing renovations of uh of our kitchens that are original to our buildings another major one is the air conditioning that's going into all of our classrooms we were able to do half of the locations last summer and the other half were taking place this summer so we're very excited for that and of course our our new Early Childhood Center that's set to be open next fall as well as the new edition of the robotics that's set to be
079open this fall over at the lctc product location so again a huge thank you to our community for allowing us to use these funds to enhance our facilities and continue to make them places that we can be proud to belong to and send our kids to thank you Mr Smith questions or comments Mrs Burton um yes um Mrs Smith can you share uh with the folks this evening we discussed at the study session and the committee of the whole uh the upgrade upgraded rating and the therefore savings to our taxpayers I would be happy to so um before we sell bonds uh we work with our financial advisors uh to partner with a ratings agency we work with standards and poor and this past rating agency call we spent you know over an hour with
080them kind of highlighting different things uh happening in our district you know going over our financial statements and our financial practices and I am very happy to report as the board knows that we've been upgraded in our bond reading so we are now at an A plus with a stable Outlook which is huge and it's significant to have gotten this rating increase um they they uh the rating agencies you know is looking at the growth of our fund balance that shows the stability they're also tout that the district is you know making wise financial decisions and you know and feel very that we are very stable investment our financial advisors estimate that this has saved us about a tenth of a percent which doesn't sound like a lot but when it's 186 million dollar bond
081this is going to save us uh nine hundred thousand dollars in interest costs which goes right back to our taxpayer that's less that we have to collect from the taxpayers to borrow these dollars to make these uh building improvements so we're very excited for that news and to share that with our community wonderful thank you any others seeing none we have a motion by Mrs Butterfield supported by Mrs Frank to ratify the sale of second series bonds Mrs Bonfield would you take the role please Mrs bonerfield says yes Mrs Frank yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Burton yes President Johnson yes that motion carries thank you very much that takes us to item 6C Early Childhood Center Roofing rebid may I have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Frank the move that the
082Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools School District approved the recommendation of the owner's representative plant Marine cressa to award the contract for roofing at the Early Childhood Center to a win Roofing LLC Milan Michigan for a total approved project amount of 1 million 667 819 and authorize the superintendent or her designee to negotiate an exit execute final contracts support we have a motion by Mrs Frank supported by Mrs bonifield and we'll hear from Mr Francis good evening good evening Mr President do that so I don't make a mistake out of it um we've spoke with the board on this on multiple occasions the most recent was last week at the committee of the whole and this was a rebid on the roofing the new roofing project at the um robotics Edition that's occurring
083as Mrs Smith just mentioned at the lctc property this is just something that at the time of the full bid we had uh we did not have any bidders and it was not due to a lack of Interest it just was some timing concerns Etc so I'm sorry I said uh I said lctc Early Childhood apologies as soon as I saw somebody shaking their hand like I felt like I already knew at the Early Childhood Center my apologies so we did have good coverage um this is a port a part of the the new build of the Early Childhood Center at the current uh former Dickinson Junior High location on Newburg Road the one million six hundred sixty six hundred and one million 667 819 is both for hard construction contingency and fees are all
084included into that I do want to make note that this is something that is uh the Early Childhood Center is a 2021 Bond initiative as Mrs Smith just mentioned however for this specific item to this specific contractor to construct the new roof on that building rather than using bond funds directly for the payment we are going to use the capital projects fund and what we're doing here is twofold one we know that throughout this Bond thus far the market has dictated some some higher costs here and there the Early Childhood Center itself has gone a little beyond the the original budget that we had laid out before all the work had started and so as a bond team and as a district we are looking for ways to of course try to supplement some items
085to make sure that we carry through the dollars that we'll have through the bond throughout all phases So to that end Mrs Smith our Chief Financial Officer and I had a conversation and she had recommended we use the capital projects into back that the story up just a little bit we do have funds that came from the child care stabilization Grant from the state of Michigan both in fiscal year 22 and the current fiscal year of 23 and we received nine hundred thousand dollars each year from the state for that it must be spent directly on and only for early childhood and so therefore it makes quite a bit of sense to supplement this project of building the Early Childhood Center with these dollars so Mrs Smith will transfer that money from the grant into
086the district's capital projects fund also known as the Q fund and we will use those dollars to pay specifically this vendor for this part of the project because it is a very simple way to say these dollars are going directly to early childhood education thank you Mr Francis for that explanation questions or comments from the board other than getting the location wrong I was pretty good on that one yeah that work it wasn't bad thank you all right we have a motion by Mrs Frank supported by Mrs Battlefield to approve the contract for the Early Childhood Center Roofing rebid and Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs Frank yes Mrs bonifield says yes Burton yes Mrs Acosta Bradford yes uh President Johnson yes that motion carries thank you that takes us to item
0876D asbestos abatement at Frost 2021 Bond may have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Burton move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools School District approve the recommendation of art Environmental Group Incorporated to award the contract for asbestos abatement at Frost Middle School to environmental maintenance Engineers Incorporated Inkster Michigan for a total approved project amount of 51 200 and offer and authorize the superintendent or her designee to negotiate and execute final contracts support we have a motion by Mrs Burton supported by Mrs Bradford and once again Mr Francis thank you President Johnson this is a 2021 Bond renovation project it will be funded through the 2021 bond this um abatement project will be occurring specifically at Frost Middle School and even more specifically in portions of their library media center and their
088kitchen those are two areas that were taking over early in the building to Begin work they'll be isolated away from staff and students and the work in those areas we've done through the 2013 Bond a vast the vast majority of abatement throughout the district when we did those Renovations but as we know we did not do in the 13 Bond neither the kitchens nor the LMC so we do have some work at Frost for this and the 51 200 is both for the the work itself as well as contingency thank you Mr Francis are there any questions or comments from the board seeing none we have a motion by Mrs Burton supported by Mrs Bradford to approve the asbestos abatement at Frost 2021 Bond Mrs Bountiful would you take the role please Mrs Burton yes
089Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Frank yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs Brownfield says yes President Johnson yes the motion carries that takes us to item 6E Rico copier contract Amendment 2021 Bond may I have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Acosta move that the Board of Education approve the purchase of 22 Ricoh copy machines from Rico USA Incorporated Exton Pennsylvania in the amount not to exceed 263 764.20 support we have a motion by Mrs Acosta supported by Mrs bonifield and once again Mr Francis thank you sir just uh to start off a quick clarification we did have a title change on this agenda item it is not a contract uh it shouldn't matter because the the what you read as the resolution was exactly the same it's just simply not going to be a contract extension it
090is a a separate purchase so just to clarify that for folks and uh this is out of the 2021 Bond we did have a plans and a budget in the I.T budget portion of the bond for the multi-function printers and copiers to to be replaced we're going to do that in stages and this is the first stage so this Bond uh purchase and the pricing coming through the my deal contract which satisfies the board's requirement to bid will be done with new purchase of 22 machines so our highest used machines with more than 2 million copies prints on them will be replaced with the with the 22 MF ceps in this purchase and then as a side note as discussed in more detail at the committee of the whole who will then in some areas
091and locations swap out more lighter used for the medium used areas in a building to try to extend the life of those machines as well so this these specific dollars will be going towards 22 new machines thank you Mr Francis sir comments Mrs Acosta on behalf of all staff frustrated with GM copiers we thank you any other questions or comments Mr Francis thank you we had a greater discussion on this at the committee of the whole and it was a more complex issue than you've made it sound relatively simple tonight but at the committee of the whole meeting there were some in-depth discussion and it was a little as I say a little more complex so thank you for that discussion and the explanation we appreciate it you're welcome thank you all right we have
092a motion by Mrs Acosta supported by Mrs bonifield to accept the purchase of Ricoh copiers Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs Acosta yes Mrs Butterfield says yes Mrs Burton yes Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Brink yes President Johnson yes that motion carries thank you that takes us to item 6f purchase of Chromebooks may have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Bradford move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools School District approve the purchase of up to 1 500 Chromebooks from Presidio networked Solutions Group LLC Ferndale Michigan in an amount not to exceed 500 and 2 950 support we have a motion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs Burton and once again Mr Francis thank you President Johnson this purchase from Presidio which is a company that I'm sure the board
093the name is familiar because we do purchase different it devices from them is the pricing comes from REMC purchasing Consortium which again satisfies the board's requirement to bid these 15 up to 1500 Chromebooks will be going towards replacing the 2017-2018 Chromebooks ever purchased that will no longer be supported by Google we had much deeper discussion in the committee of the whole of um where other machines will be coming from but as far as this specific purchase we have a not to exceed amount and that would get us up to 1500 to top off to replace 5500 as a total thank you Mr Francis questions or comments Mrs bonifield I just want to say um this project and then The copier project as well there was a lot of really creative thinking that went into stretching
094every dollar that we can out of our equipment while still maintaining the functionality and the appropriate level of um software and engine the so that we can we make sure that everybody's got what they need and it's at the appropriate uh time in its life but that we've been able to extend some of this on these two projects and really very creative thinking and and really thinking out a side of the box to make sure that everybody gets what they need but we can extend the life on some of those things that we might be able to get a little more use out of thank you I'll pass that along there because there were many many minds and many other people on on the teams that that were coming up with these ideas and and
095really tweaking them and and getting it finalized for what the board has seen in the past couple of meetings thank you Mr Francis any other questions comments seeing none we have Emotion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs Burton to approve the purchase of Chromebooks Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs Bradford first Mrs Burton yes Mrs Frank yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs bonerfield says yes President Johnson yes motion carries thank you that takes us to item 6G boiler projects at Cass Kennedy and Nietzsche Euro may have a motion please this is Frank move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools School District approve engineered Comfort Systems Taylor Michigan and system Corporation Rochester Hills Michigan for summer 2023 boiler projects at Cass Elementary niji iro Elementary and Kennedy Elementary schools for
096a total project amount of 625 dollars support we have a motion by Mrs Frank supported by Mrs Bradford and once again Mr hope Mrs Burton yes as I stated in the committee of the film because my family's company bid to a company that appears in these documents they forgot about that thank you for reminding me you're welcome uh now Mr Francis thank you again um this is a plan project we've been doing our boilers for for several years now and this is actually the Final Phase of that project via our sinking fund as the as the budgetary source and our 10-year facilities uh plan so we do have uh two locations here with regard to new boilers and that would be a nigero and Cass Elementary Cass of course is no longer running traditional Elementary
097programs we do have LPS programming in it along with a a portion of it which is rented to to child care through a leasing program so those dollars the 524 000 625 is in total both for the cast project and the niji Aero project and also at Kennedy and explained in more detail but I'll just say briefly that we did have um failure of a boiler there and the main manufacturers are completely replacing those even though the warranty did not require it they are replacing those units and the amount here that syst temp will be doing is labor only so at those three buildings we will have boiler projects and the amount that we are requesting the board to approve is for materials labor and contingency thank you Mr Francis uh questions or comments from
098the board seeing none we have a motion by Mrs Frank supported by Mrs Bradford to approve the purchase or the Byler project at Cass Kennedy and Nichi iro Mrs boniford would you take the role please I will Mrs Frank yes Ms Bradford yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs bonifield says yes and President Johnson yes okay the motion carries thank you that takes us to item six H purchase of microphones for Franklin Pac may have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Battlefield move the move the Board of Education Public School school district approved the purchase of a wireless microphone system for the Franklin High School Performing Arts Center from B and H Photo New York New York in an amount of forty one thousand eight hundred and fifty eight dollars and ninety eight cents support we have
099motioned by Mrs Battlefield supported by Mrs Acosta and once again Mr Francis thank you yes I am so this is a purchase to be placed to fully replace the microphone system the stage microphone system at the Franklin High School Performing Arts Center that that system was uh failing for two reasons part of it was due to a burst pipe that that broke down some of the systems but as luck would have it they borrowed some of the microphones from The Churchill Pac and the issue of intermittent interferences at the Franklin Pac with their system was solved with the brand that Churchill in the system that Churchill had so we are replacing the system at Franklin with what the board has seen in in our quotes the new system will be fully replacing what is currently
100at Franklin's Pac it has a two-year manufacturer's warranty and it is a system that the PAC manager at Franklin has tested out and proved the concept that they do work at Franklin and is his recommendation and therefore my recommendation to the board to purchase that system for the Performing Arts Center at Franklin High School thank you Mr Francis questions or comments from the board seeing none we have a motion by Mrs Butterfield supported by Mrs Acosta to approve the purchase of microphones for Franklin Pac Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs bonifield says yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs Burton yes Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Frank yes President Johnson yes that motion carries thank you for your work on that Mr Francis I know that's been a long-standing problem so all right that takes
101us to item seven our instruction matters and item a recommend expulsion of two secondary students may have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Burton move spell two secondary students for violations of the Livonia Public Schools Board of Education policies support we have motion by Mrs Burton supported by Mrs Bradford Mrs bonifield would you take the role please Mrs Bradford I'm sorry Mrs Burton yes my apologies Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Frank yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs bonifield says yes President Johnson yes that motion carries that takes us to item eight Personnel matters and item 8A is teachers for approval may I have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Bert uh Bradford move that the rural District accept the recommendation of the superintendent and offer employment for the 2022-23 school year to the teacher listed on the
102attached document support we have a motion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs acoso for teachers for approval and I think we're going to hear from Mr Abate that is correct good evening everybody good evening uh just one stat mode to present to you this evening uh this person has been selected to fill a need in occupational therapy she's very well qualified to fill this position and has been fully vetted through our interview process we're confidential perform at a high level and represent Livonia Public Schools in a manner that is consistent with our shared vision and Collective commitments the position has also been included in our 2022-2023 budget pleased to be recommending this talented professional to join our LPS family and with your approval we're excited to have her working with our students thank you Mr
103Abate are there any questions or comments welcome aboard thank you we have a motion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs Acosta to approve our teachers for approval Mrs bonifield would you take the role please uh Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs Burton yes Mrs Brink yes Mrs bannerfield says yes President Johnson yes that motion carries thank you that takes us now to item item 8B leaves of absence may have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Acosta move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools School District accept the recommendation of the superintendent and approve the request for a leave of absence is listed below Chelsea English effective 2023-24 school year Emily Newton effective 2023-24 school year and Laura Stevens effective 2023-24 school year support we have a motion by Mrs Acosta supported
104by Mrs Frank and once again Mr abate uh yes as you noted the staff members listed in your documentation are requesting leaves in accordance with their collective bargaining agreement and we ask that you please approve the leaves as presented thank you Mr Abate any questions or comments from the board seeing none we have a motion by Mrs Acosta supported by Mrs Frank to approve the leave of absence and Mrs bonifield would you take the role please Mrs Acosta yeah yeah Mrs Frank yes Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Burton yes Mrs bonnerfield says yes President Johnson yes that motion carries thank you very much that takes us to item six I'm sorry eight C resignations this does not require a motion is for board information which now takes us to item 8D retirements in May I have
105a motion please Mrs Frank move that the Board of Education of Livonia Public Schools School District adopt the attached resolution attached resolution of appreciation for services rendered by Tracy Altman Julie Clark Reed Fredericks Angela Jenkins Kimberly cozen Darcy litka Gerald Lucas Valerie maldu Daniel don't done thank you Colleen Knott uh Lori Johnson Kim Quint Eric Erica Ruby Pamela rogulski Kimberly Ross Elizabeth Satori Michelle schnerstein Susan Stromberg Emily tartiglia Steve Stephen Taylor Carol wheeler Claudia Zimmer and Patricia zakowski support we have a motion that was a mouthful way of emotion by Mrs Frank supported by Mrs Burton to approve the resolutions for those retiring and we're going to hear from Mrs Keats yes you are good evening good evening tonight we honor and congratulate 24 members of our LPS family who are retiring from their positions
106with Livonia Public Schools at the conclusion of this school year as these staff members leave the district they take with them a combined total of 568 years of experience on behalf of the administration I would like to thank our retirees for the dedicated years of service they have provided to the students of LPS and we asked the board to please adopt the attached resolution of appreciation thank you Mrs Keats are there questions or comments from the board Mrs Burke uh I'm sorry Nissan this is Bradford first of course oh I just want to say uh thank you to all of the retirees as I was looking through the resolutions most of them had about 25 years plus of service to our district and I just thought that was so impressive and it really told a
107story of how they they led by example through the district and served so many years and and that's really impressive so there's a few on that list that I want to say no to I always say that every time but um I know we're going to have to let them go but I just really am thankful for all their years of service so thanks to all those retiring and best wishes Mrs Frank um I also want to thank all of these teachers there is just um so many years of experience and so many lives that have been touched through these through these individuals and so um this year Carson has Mrs schnerstein and he has um in math you've taught those AP kids at Churchill and the MSC kids and you've done a fantastic job
108for all these years so thank you for your years of service thank you for your dedication to our kids and our students into the Churchill Community um and and when you have a list like this there's just so many with with such wonderful um history and and Rich expertise that they have in the area and I just cannot let the state go also without um acknowledging Mrs Stromberg I just want to say personally she was one of the first people I met in this District when I came in and one of the first teachers that I observed in the district weekly in her classroom and she is a magician with students and to see her art and watch it in on a week by week basis take these little kindergartners and turn them into at
109the end of the school year independent little student Little Learners it is amazing to see and this district will be she will be greatly missed um in the district and I just wanted to say thank you to Mrs Stromberg for her leadership in the district for all that she does to all the kindergarten teachers in our district and how much she has meant to our family personally and each one of my kids that had her and um and to our district and to Mr Stromberg who is still with us at Stevenson and to her daughter who is teaching in the district so hopefully that Legacy will continue but I just wanted to say thank you personally to her thank you Mrs Frank Mrs Burton yes um piggybacking along what my colleagues have already said there
110are so many folks on this list that we know personally Beyond professionally but not exclusively but there are teachers there are paraprofessionals there are secretaries there are administrators uh exactly and and other roles that these folks serve we're so grateful to our classroom teachers but also to the entire team of our staff about half our classroom teachers and in the other half are all the folks who wrap around that uh that 8 30 to 3 o'clock room where our kids spend so much of their time but again such a wealth of of knowledge and a wealth when I looked on this list of the folks that I know personally such a wealth of care for the well-being of our littlest Learners all the way up through our 26 year olds and it's I it's always
111Bittersweet to to vote on on retirements we have said every time if we vote no will you stay but it's it doesn't work that way we do wish you a wonderful wonderful Rich retirement uh and we thank you so very much for your years of service for those who are here with us this evening and for the many who on this list who are not but who hold a very special place in our hearts thank you Mrs Burton and Mrs Oak West thank you Mr Johnson um because we are just we are thrilled to have one of our staff members um and part of our LPS family here tonight I'd like to invite Mrs Michelle schnerstein to stand up and be recognized because you are one of the very deserving retirees that we are honoring
112this evening I just love that you're here this evening and um and so grateful for for your service and that of so many of your colleagues that were recognizing um tonight and as as all of my board team colleagues have have mentioned these are folks who represent each and every corner of our school district and I too have looked through this list and thought there is I we we just are are losing so much expertise so much heart so much dedication um and I think we're I think we are starting to see just a shift in the societal workplace about how long folks stay in any one given profession or certainly with one employer and the longevity and again whether you've been part of our staff family for a year or 40 years um you
113mean the world to us but I just want to recognize the longevity that exists within this group and what what comes with that is not only a tremendous amount of experience but a commitment to this community a commitment to the children that we serve together to their colleagues and I don't know that you know 5 10 15 years from now we'll we'll continue to see this level of longevity so I just want to recognize it while it's here and just congratulate each and every one of these people it's a tough decision to get to this point and so I know for those that are we certainly want to celebrate and recognize you but thank you for being here with us tonight Michelle thank you Mrs oquist any other questions or comments great we have a
114motion by Mrs Frank it's supported by Mrs Burton to approve the resolutions for employees who are retiring and Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs Frank Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs bonifield says yes President Johnson yes that motion carries and again thank you and congratulations to all the retirees that now takes us to item nine hearing from board members and 9A is the first reading of board policy IDF inter Scholastic Athletics here and uh play musical chairs are we we are um I will turn it over at this point to Mr E2 thank you very much President Johnson this is uh for IDF and idfa we are looking to remove idfa in looking to do a first read for IDF instructional program interscholastic activities I do want to make one note
115that we do need to add the words and Athletics to the title we left that off accidentally but we'll be sure to have it on for our second reading it is referenced a couple times in the first paragraph but I will go ahead and do the first reading for IDF instructional program interscholastic activities and Athletics the Board of Education recognizes the need for extracurricular and intersclassic activities and Athletics and encourages student participation the board further recognizes that participating in these activities and Athletics carries with it the responsibility of good behavior in and out of school in being in good academic standing failure on the part of any student to meet this responsibility is cause for suspension or removal from participation a program of inters classic Athletics she'll be encouraged as an integral part of the
116total program of physical education the interscholastic Athletics program is designed for those students who have a particular interest ability and a desire to invest the time and energy required to participate in a Livonia Public Schools Athletic program the board shall review and approve by resolution the school district's participation and membership in the Michigan High School Athletic Association mhsaa in conjunction with this review the board delegates to the superintendent or designee the responsibility for adherence to mhsaas Constitution and bylaws as well as the supervision of mhsa related activities in accordance with the code of conduct in the school's student handbook all inner Scholastic athletic activities she'll be conducted in accordance with law thank you Mr Ito I know you spent a lot of time on this particular policy and there was a lot of discussion both
117uh in our study session in the committee of the whole so thank you for all the work that of course you put in on this thank you now that we've heard that are there any comments changes to this particular policy Mrs Burton just a quick comment those of us who have all this in front of us can see it but for those who are listening from home we are eliminating the other policy because we're incorporating it into this one that's correct thank you thank you thank you for that Mrs Burton other questions or comments so we're all good that we can put this on for our next regular meeting in June or actually something right it's me for a second reading okay very good thank you Mr E2 again that now takes us to item
1189B first reading a board policy IFD library media centers in classroom classroom libraries and I think we're hearing from Mrs O'Brien good evening good evening um I am bringing forth a change to board policy IFD we are adding some um language about classroom libraries following the same procedure as our media Centers do when it comes to book selection so uh with your permission I will read this policy so the title has been changed instructional program library media centers and classroom libraries the Livonia Public School School District establishes library media centers to provide and promote the intellectual cultural social and ethical development of students and to provide resources which extend and deepen the experiences encompassed in the curriculum library media center materials are determined through a process based on the American libraries Association ala guidance for
119selection of books and other materials of learning which contribute to the growth of individual students selection for classroom libraries follows the same guidance criteria thank you Mrs O'Brien and once again I know we had some uh significant discussion on this policy and for those who who uh may not be really familiar this is one of the things that the board does uh whether it's one of our main roles so uh we work in in conjunction with uh our cabinet and a lot of hours go into these so we we appreciate that um so now that we've heard the policy are there any questions additions deletions are we good with this okay so we will put this on for a second reading as well at our next regular meeting uh May 22nd right thank you and
120that takes us now to item nine Let's see we are at 9C which is second reading of the board policy or I'm sorry Bart bylaw PHA code of ethics may I have a motion please President Johnson Mrs Bradford move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools School District accept the recommendation of the policy committee and adopt board policy language for the attached document for board by law BHA code of ethics support we have a motion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs Battlefield and once again this is the second reading this came up for a first reading and our last meeting um everybody is satisfied with this language as well all right so we have motion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs bonifield to adopt and accept the recommendation board policy BHA code
121of ethics and another thing I'd say is this particular one is very important to the board because this is the one that guides our conduct and it's important that the community be able to see this as well and what we generally do and I expect we will do at this time as well if this is approved do we have a copy to sign tonight by any chance okay prove first before we did we did that okay thank you Mrs Wallace here but what we will do is we will all sign that code of ethics and we have a copy of our old one against the wall in the back the new one will replace that and we will move forward so thank you again for all all our work on this we went through this
122item by item and one of our study sessions and we always do that we always review because things are always changing and evolving and it it's good to do once a year and we sort of got away from that with during covid but now that we're fully in person this is one of the things that we will continue to do on an annual basis so we have a motion by Mrs Bradford supported by Mrs bonifield to adopt our code of ethics and Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs Bradford yes Mrs bannerfield says yes Mrs Burton yes Mrs Frank yes Mrs Acosta yes President Johnson yes that motion carries that takes us now to item nine D second reading of board policy i h f b High School graduation ceremonies May I have
123a motion please President Johnson Mrs Battlefield sorry uh okay move to the board of education of the Livonia Public School school district accept the recommendation of the policy committee and adopt board policy language per the attached document for Ford policy IHF B High School graduation ceremonies support we have motion by Mrs bonifield supported by Mrs Bradford once again this is a policy that was brought before the board for first reading at our last regular meeting again a lot of work went into this policy as well and if are there any comments questions on this policy seeing none we have a motion by Mrs bonifield supported by Mrs Bradford to accept this policy and Mrs Battlefield would you take the role please Mrs bannerfield says yes Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs Frank yes Mrs
124Burton yes Mr Jones uh President Johnson yes you can call me whatever you need yes all right that motion carries thank you that takes us now to item nine e approval for board members to take masb classes and we have a motion please President Johnson Mrs uh Mrs Burton move that the Board of Education of the Livonia Public Schools School District approve that board trustees Madeleine Acosta Colleen Burton Crystal Frank and Mark Johnson take masb classes for a total cost of approximately 594 dollars we have a motion by Mrs Burton supported by Mrs Frank and as I indicated earlier when Mrs Jenkins was presenting us with these Awards this is just an example of the ongoing work that we do um I don't think there's been a a presentation of masb classes that one of
125us probably multiple of us have taken and I really appreciate it because I think it makes this board a top board in the state of Michigan and I think everybody recognizes that and we we certainly appreciate it so we have a motion by Mrs Burton supported by Mrs Frank to approve board members to take masb classes Mrs bonifield would you take the role please Mrs Burton yes yes Mrs Bradford yes Mrs Acosta yes Mrs bonerfield says yes President Johnson yes that motion carries that takes us now to item 9 F I'm sorry 9g hearing from board members and as has become customary I will open it up to the board for the comments at this time Mrs Frank thank you President Johnson I just wanted to say as we head into may as uh there's
126just so much going on in our schools and I want to appreciate all of the teachers all of the um ptsas that are doing all this work to make May so special for our kids there's so many concerts there's so many celebrations there's honors nights and just so many things that we saw earlier that has happened in April and it is just going to be ramped up in May and so as we enter into staff appreciation month I just wanted to say thank you to our staff and also to all the ptsas that work so hard and diligently to honor them and celebrate them we have so many great Volunteers in the district and so I just wanted to say um congratulations to them and thank you for all that you do and even heading
127into this big month that we're doing lots of celebrations it takes lots of people to make celebrations um effective and fun for all the kids and students so I just want to say thank you thank you Mrs Fred other questions or comments is always I I want to thank uh take the time to thank again our cabinet our staff our administrators and all employees in the district for everything they do not only for the students uh for the committee at large it's just amazing what they do on a daily basis and we thank you if there is nothing else we are now at the end of our agenda and we will adjourn and thank you