001The board of education meeting is called to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. In the absence of Secretary Rristitch, member Sanrant will serve as our secretary this evening. Will you please take roll call? >> We are missing Trustee McGregor and Rristage. And I just saw John Paul walking in. >> All right. Great. >> All right. We're going to move on to the approval of the agenda. Unless there are objections, the agenda will be approved as printed. Are we good? All right. And now we are going to move on to our celebration of learning with Assistant Superintendent Wolf. All
002right. Good evening, trustees. I am uh really excited to give uh Mesa Middle School's administration an opportunity today uh to share a little bit about the positive buzz that's been going around the community in regards to the building and some improvements. And I want to invite up principal uh Steph Henning and assistant principal Cliff Snicken so that they can share some of the specifics behind their efforts and all the great things going on at Mesa Middle School. >> Good evening board. Uh Stephan Henning. >> Good evening. I'm Cliff Nitkin. >> These are >> I know [laughter] these are the type of school board meetings I like get to brag a little bit about my building. So I I want to lead off with just a quote that kind of encompasses what we're doing. Um and
003it says a positive school climate is associated with improved attendance, heightened engagement, reduced disciplinary incidences, elevated student achievement, and in short, culture matters a lot. And when I uh became the principal at Mason Middle School, that was one of the things that I'm a culture guy. I played high school sports, collegiate sports, and my college coach always said, "The team, the team, the team." And that is the approach I brought to me in my in my role last year as a first year building administrator is nobody's more important than the team. and that has built the culture of what we're doing around Mason from our entire community and stakeholders. A big shift that has allowed uh the transformational change at Mason Middle School, which I know the board is aware of, is advisory. And I
004just want to hit on our four key components of advisory. So advisory, for those that don't know in the audience, advisory is almost like a dead hour in in our school day. So students at Mason Middle School and at Pierce, they have a sixth period class day, but on Tuesdays and Fridays, they have advisory before their sixth hour start. So it's 35 minutes in length, and it's a time where uh students can connect with their teachers. And at Mason, we did it a little bit differently. um instead of having those students with their grade level teachers, we had them with a teacher from a different grade level in hopes in years two and three that will build further community at our school and teachers and students knowing more um people within our building. So the
005those four components are trails. So that is the curriculum that is taught the curriculum that is taught in uh advisory web is our peer-to-peer uh mentorship with eighth graders intentionally connecting with sixth graders. Uh they have their own advisory and then on some of those advisory days those eighth grade students go into sixth grade classroom and teach lessons. EDP, which is our our really career driver. Um, teaching students those developmental skills, but also helping them choose and opening them up and showing them different career paths that they can be a part of. And then the heart and soul of our school is just our PBIS, which we'll get into much more here in our 3Bs that we live by, but it is a part of our behavioral matrix of our 3Bs of being responsible, being
006safe, and being respectful. want to go from here. >> Sure. Absolutely. >> Thank you, Mr. Henning. Um, so you can see here we've got a uh advisory calendar uh that we worked collaboratively with uh the other middle school administrative team as well as some of our counselors and a couple teachers to create what we felt was a balanced approach to incorporating all of those elements that you saw from the previous slide. So, um, as we said, students are meeting every Tuesday and every Thursday for about 35 minutes. Um, and we spaced things out intentionally to make sure we hit things um and and place things where they needed to be placed first. So, for example, the first few weeks of the year was a lot of PBIS. So, we made sure we were teaching what
007our building level expectations are for students, what their behavior should look like in the classroom all the way through to the bus. And we'll detail those in just a few moments. Um we've moved into more heavy social emotional learning at this point in the year where students are experiencing those trails lessons with their um teachers and our sixth grade students are getting unique uh web experiences where eighth grade leaders are pushing into classrooms and actually help delivering uh those lessons alongside the teachers as well. So we're making a lot of bonds and a lot of relationships which we know are key. Um we truly feel that we get the building level behavior that we accept. So what we've decided to do this year is teach the behaviors we expect to see and then reinforce those.
008And we have seen, as you'll see shortly here as we get closer to some of the data, a huge return, a huge return in those results. So we'll move forward here to show you a little bit about the PBIS initiatives. Um, and we're going to kind of go back and forth, like we say, double dutch on these. So uh, would you like to talk about the 3Bs, Mr. Henning? >> Yeah, I'll lead off, but I also want to say just about our advisory. Um, we wanted to make sure that it wasn't just another thing for teachers to do. We wanted them to see the value in it and we know they have a heavy load and a heavy plate already from an instructional standpoint. So, and what I also like about advisory is it's flexible.
009So, recently we are a big thing is for me in our building is making the main thing the main thing. So, instead of focusing on discipline, these kids are being removed this or that, let's highlight academics. And if we want academics to be the focus, what can we do? So we have pivoted every Friday. Teachers get a post report which is a print out of the students in their class their grade and missing homework. And on the back of that sheet, they also get a goal setting sheet. So teachers pass that out at the beginning of every Friday advisory every Friday and try to go to each student and create a plan for the weekend. But if even if they can't reach every student, our community knows every Friday their child is coming home with
010a worksheet that shows their missing work, their low grades, and a talking point around the dinner table to hopefully get those grades up. So, just want to add that you can start with 3B. >> Okay. Yeah. So, the foundation of our PBIS system is our 3Bs. This was actually something that um I started at Mason about four years ago. Um it had kind of fallen by the wayside. It was it was something that they had used many years ago and we kind of dusted it off and brought it back and made it the core foundation of our PBIS system. And our 3Bs is kind of like our mantra. We repeat it over and over again to our students. Students can repeat it back to us. Uh if we have issues with students, for example, I
011stopped a few today who were running in the hallways and I pulled them aside and I said, "Okay, guys, remind me what are our three Bs?" And they can say, "Be safe, be responsible, be respectful." And I said to them, "Well, were you being safe by running through the hallways?" And they said, "No." I said, "Okay, well, show me three Bs. Lock in three Bs. Live into three Bs. These are these are the things we say on a consistent basis." And it's paying off because having those touch points, having those um uh that that that motto, if you will, is something that we all have gotten behind. And it is a consistent message that every single member of our community knows and understands. So, the next the next one is how do we live into
012the 3Bs or how are students acknowledged for the 3Bs? So, we give out golden tickets and these are tickets that students could get at any point. Teachers have them, custodians have them, uh, our noon aids, our hall monitors. If they see somebody exemplifying and showing our 3Bs, they get these tickets that then they can enter for a prize on Fridays and get their names called over the announcements. Um, another thing, one more thing that we do, uh, well, as I continue, but that's not up there that Cliff and I created, tardies were issue at our building. So, instead of having these beautiful bright purple vests that we use only for safety drills, we've laminated some tags and we now dubbed it the the tardy patrol. So when the teachers when the students see us during
013passing time with our very bright purple vest on with tardy patrol, they know if everyone is at their class, if we stand outside that classroom and everyone is there on time, the entire class gets a 3B golden ticket and you it it just models kids getting to class on time being that change. Another one is uh being mariner of the month. So this is something that we implemented last year of just students and teachers highlighting or nominating a student of the month. But we don't just take it there. I always thought uh a child during their educational experience should get a standing ovation. One child dur I mean each child at some point K through 12 should have a standing ovation. So what we do when a student is nominated for mayor of the month,
014we get them a goodie bag. We do it in a lunchroom like our kids know when that student is nominated. We do a drum roll in the lunchroom. When that kid is nominated or their name is said, the the lunchroom goes wild. That teacher meets them there and then I send a really heartfelt uh uh email to their parents along with the picture that you see there to their parents so they can be a part of the experience. So, uh, m and then it's it's broadcasted in our newsletter and it's just a really good field to highlight students with a a complete narrative of why that child was, uh, nominated for marin of the month. Another one that we implemented this year was our honor roll celebration. Once again, Cliff and I just kept brainstorming
015of how can we highlight the change that we want to see and and it often those kiddos that are modeling the threebs every single time they are coming to school doing the right things on honor roll all A's or all A's and B's and they kind of they are the ones that go through the cracks. They never get their acknowledgement. So at the end of every marking period start marking period ending with this first marking period, we do a ice cream social and a device hour with a ton of prizes there. And we wanted to make this party like I intentionally wanted to make kids jealous that they were not invited to this party and they were. We had at our first uh honor roll celebration we had 192 students that made all A's or
016all A's and B's. They got ice cream. They were able to be on their cell phone. Students that got all A's in advisory, they got a VIP green wristband. All A's and B's got a green wristband just to make them feel special. When they were announced over to PA to come down, we had a red carpet ready for them. We were high-fiving them. We had music playing and it was a party in there, but it was a party with the kids that are modeling the behaviors that they show consistently. And I told them at the end of the market per I mean at the end of the party, go back and tell your friends first go back and say how exciting and fun it was, but also encourage your friends to invite them cuz we
017want more um at the second marking period. So that was a really cool experience that we started this year. >> And finally, another piece um as I'm sure you're all aware, we're fighting the constant battle of why can't we have our phones in school? Um, so to kind of incentivize that, we came up with a device day Friday challenge uh to help reinforce our positive behavior expectations in the cafeteria specifically. Um, so when students uh start the week, they're given points. Um, and they have it up on our board and we keep track of the points and points are deducted when things don't live up to our expectations in the cafeteria. So, for example, if a student's uh table leaves a mess, they lose some points. Uh, we're fortunate at Mason to be divided into
018three rows. So, we have a top team, a middle team, and a lower team. And so, we've kind of incorporated some competition to it. Um, and we've seen great success. Our cafeterias uh run very smoothly. Um, we invite you all to come in and take a listen because it doesn't sound like the typical cafeteria. We've actually had a lot of guest teachers who who've told us that it's uh almost sounds just like a normal restaurant. So, we're really proud of that and a lot of that goes again to the consistent PBIS messaging we've delivered and then these little fun incentive challenges that the students really gravitate toward. So, all in all, we have a really robust PBIS system that we're really, really proud of and we're seeing great results, which we're going to be very
019excited to share with you here shortly. Uh, another key component to the PBIS support um or system that we put in place is making sure that we have clear and consistent guidelines for what behaviors and expectations should be displayed here at school. Um, so it's it's kind of hard to see the size of the font is a little small, but on the lefth hand side there is our behavioral matrix. Uh and this really details um specifically what students should be doing in various parts of our building. So everything from the classroom all the way down to buses and we also included digital citizenship, what students how students should behave when using devices not only provided to them by the school district but also just in general of what to be doing when you're online and
020how you're communicating online. Um so again, this was a collaborative effort. We built this uh ma behavior matrix with the admin team over at Pierce. Um and so we are in total and complete alignment with our expectations. So if a student is plucked out of Mason for some reason and dropped into Pierce or vice versa, their expectations are exactly the same. Um and the same is true with our behavior intervention flowchart. So when students inevitably uh have issues or there are problems that need to be addressed, we have a clear and consistent model. We've worked very hard with this the staff to define what we consider to be major and minor behaviors. Things that we are expecting our staff to address would be on the left hand side of that column. Uh as well as
021the key steps they need to take in order to try to address it effectively. Um and we'll show you in the data this is working very very well. students and teachers are connecting and forming deeper relationships as a result of not only the PBIS but unfortunately when they have to have a a critical conversation as we say they're having it in a very structured way that's actually forming a deeper bond and resulting in less behavioral issues in the classroom. So we'll we'll get into the data shortly. Um ah the next piece that I'm very excited to share is our ketchup cafe. Um, so we've talked about building expectations, we've talked about reward systems, we've talked about how to manage uh student behavior, and now we're going to talk about another main point which Steph mentioned
022before is the academic piece. Um, we wanted to make academics the main thing. And so we're seeing in a lot of our classrooms, a lot of students are still struggling with homework completion. So, in order to support them, we created this tier 2 intervention system called the Ketchup Cafe, which we um brazenly stole from another district we saw at a PBIS meeting. It was a high school that was running this program. And my counselor and I at the time looked at each other and said, "We're going to do that at Mason. This is it. This is this is what we've been missing." So, uh we start by first of all um identifying students who are currently uh failing three or more of their classes. So, of their six classes, three of them are a failing
023grade. Uh we identify that by running a pulse report bi-weekly. Uh my admin or excuse me, my counseling team has begun pulling those students. We try to keep it to about 10 to 12. Uh they're issued a pass. They come down during their lunch and they're met with myself, our uh student responsibility center coordinator, our uh one of our counselors, and we immediately begin with a a quick triage, we like to call it, where we sit down with a student, we talk about, okay, what's going on? What what classes are giving you a problem? We kind of diagnose them, so to speak, with what it is that they might be lacking. Is this a soft skill? Is this an organizational skill? Are you having a hard time understanding um the notes or is it a
024another situation we don't know about? So, we get to know what's going on with the student and then we're able to make some adjustments. Um but students have that time. They're dedicated there to work. They've got assistance from myself, a counselor, like I said, or the SRC coordinator. um and we work together to make sure that they feel supported and ultimately too they understand that they're here because we've identified they need some time to get work done but if they don't want to be here they need to find ways to solve that problem for themselves and a lot of them have said I'm really glad you guys did this I don't I don't want to be here but I'm glad I'm here and we've seen some come in on day one uh we don't see
025them again so we know that it's starting to work uh because it's a positive supportive atmosphere it is not a punishment if students don't come down. We're not chasing them down. We're not calling them home. We're not chastising. We are really focused on letting them see that this is a place that you need to come to cuz you need this additional support. Um, so how do we get out of there? Well, the students finish their work um and then they complete a checkout form with the teacher. So the teacher verifies, yes, these assignments have been turned in and yes, we believe the student is now on track so they can go back to enjoying lunch with their friends in the cafeteria. So, so far it's it's very much in its infancy, but it is really
026starting to yield some pretty positive results. So, we're excited to uh continue this as we move forward. And now, the big payoff, >> yeah, >> the data. Um so, as you can see, the first one in the top left is just our uh percent at or above norm for math and reading in the NWA. And if you just look from fall of this year to uh fall of last year to fall of this year, all grade levels in each area are up. And specifically, if I can just point out reading from fall of last year and 8th grade to fall of this year, they're up by 20 what what is it that uh 21 points. It's just it is showing it is showing from the changes that we had in math and lit lab. It
027is showing by making the main thing with our academics. And when we look at the data, hardcore data, it shows that what we are doing works even to the right uh from our initial implementation of PBIS uh before I was there with Mr. Snick when he started in 2022 to now 36% reduction in out of school suspensions and 29% of reduction in in in school suspensions. And even with our suspensions, even that number tells a story. Many of that many of those suspensions comes with just not fights or something violent of that nature, but constant disruptions where a behavior plan is in place or we've met with the parent ahead of time and we're at a place of holding students accountable with their actions. So even with our those numbers there with a reduction in
028suspensions even those tell a story and we even can tell just as admin partners here of what we're seeing and the type of discipline that we are seeing. we can catch our breath and say like, "Yes, this 12-year-old boy has been down here repeatedly, but these are middle school behaviors. These are impulsive behaviors that we should be dealing with in middle school, and we have different um different options to help address it as well." And then finally, the the the bottom two uh graphics uh the pie charts. The the the one on the far left represents data that I collected from last year for uh student uh disciplinary matters. Um as you can see, it's it's again kind of hard to see and you might be able to read it a little bit better in
029your in your handout there, but the yellow portion of that pie chart represents all action that was referred directly to the office. So staff have I have a a system where the staff is putting in the information about what's going on in the building and in their classrooms and how they feel it should be handled. So last year uh about of of our 2,000 or so or 3,000 or so uh incidents that were reported to me almost 60% of them were immediately directed to the office. So we were we were definitely hopping so to speak. We were very busy. But with this year when we've created this flowchart, we've created very specific action and interventions that we want the staff to try to engage the student to continue to foster that relationship with students who
030need it the most, those who are having difficulty in the classroom. We're seeing a much greater uh a greater reduction in the amount of office referrals so far this year. So the graph on the right represents the different interactions and the different interventions that we are asking teachers to try and right now 53% of issues are managed in the classroom with teacher interventions and strategies. From there we've also incorporated our wellness referral. So teachers now have the ability to directly refer a student they may believe is dealing with some emotional struggles to one of our um counseling staff or social workers or maybe even a special education staff member. And these are all automated systems. So when the teacher puts these requests in, emails are sent out to multiple people throughout the building, myself and
031stuff included, and then someone picks that up and works with that student. So we're getting quicker results, we're getting quicker feedback, and we're getting the immediate attention that these students need. So I'm very excited by all of this data. Uh especially the reduction in out of school suspensions has been tremendous uh this year especially. So overall, we're very pleased and we're very excited at this point now to answer any questions that you may have. >> All right. Do we have any questions? >> Member Donahghue. >> Nice job, gentlemen. >> As a fellow middle school principal, I I I understand it. I get it. It's a It's tough corral. It's It's hurting cats. We know that. Um at that level, it's uh with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. One question that I did have is the
032um on the uh the ketchup cafe. How specifically does that is that an ongoing thing? Is that once a week? Is how does that work? >> Yes, thank you. Yeah, so we're as of right now with our unique timing, we've got it to just Mondays and Wednesdays, but we're hoping to expand. Um I will say too, the other overwhelmingly positive response we got from parents in the community, um they wanted their child to go to Ketchup Cafe. They didn't even read the why, you know, they just like, well, can my student go? And we want to build it. We want to build that capacity. Um, we also need the physical space if we're going to open it up to the entire school. So, we would love to do that. And we hope that maybe down
033the road we could expand not only the number of days, but open it up to more of a kind of like a general study hall for anybody who might feel like they need either a quiet place to work and do their and eat their lunch or get some additional support from staff. >> Thank you. Any other questions? >> I'm just amazed. I >> Good job. >> Thank you. >> And and yes, I would like to say thank you. This as as a parent in the district, this is amazing. And just seeing the two of you and and you can see the pride in both of you and you can see the excitement and that to me that I know the students see that and that's that's amazing. And this is amazing. I I love the
034party, the red carpet. I think that's awesome. And what a great way to engage our kids and have them know this is where they can be safe, that this is meant to help them, not hurt them, and that their academics, like you said, should be the focus, but in that you're able to kind of help with with some of the other things that are going on to make sure they're successful. So, this is this is great. Thank you so much. This is our favorite part of the meetings, too. So, we enjoy when you come and share um great things. So, we appreciate it. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. All right, we are now going to move on to public comments on action items only. I don't believe any of the cards I have
035are on action items. Let me just double check. Nope. It looks like no no green cards on action items. We will get to these later on in the meeting. We're going to move on to the consent agenda. Unless there are objections, the consent agenda will be approved as presented. Are we good? All right, moving on. So, we are now going to hand it over to Assistant Superintendent Wolf for our student travel. >> All right, good evening again. um we have a unique opportunity that we wanted to to share with the board of ed and so I want to invite up um you know Meg Gross Nichols. She was our 2425 Waterford School District teacher of the year and she is a language arts teacher as you know uh at Waterford Kettering. She is a teacher
036leader uh and she helps lead our student link crew amongst many other things. So, I will pass it over to Meg and she's going to share a unique travel opportunity. >> Hello. Um, thank you so much for having me tonight. Um, so Ketarine was approached with a unique travel opportunity presented by the Michigan Creativity Association, which is a nonprofit that nonprofit organization that oversees the destination imagination program in Michigan. um through their international work, they were approached by the affiliate of Turkey and invited a Michigan affiliate to represent Team USA at an international tournament um that will be held in Turkey this March. The Michigan Creativity Association also has a strong partnership with Oakland schools. And so in conjunction with Oakland schools, they reached out to me to see if I would be willing to
037foster a team of link crew students who would engage in the service learning challenge. And um through that process, they would develop a service learning project. They would do a presentation component that meets several requirements. Then they will be competing at a local tournament as well as traveling to the international tournament um visiting both Istanbul and Antalya uh Turkey. So it's an international tournament that will have um 8 to 10 different countries. Michigan has four different teams that are going to represent team USA. Um it is kind of a quick turnaround, but in our partnership with Oakland schools, we were waiting to hear about financing and they have recently um come through. I'm working with Kiara Kirkland who is a science consultant at Oakland schools and has she's been working with Steven Sneed and they
038believe that they can secure funding to pay for everything except for the cost of the flights for students. So students would only be required to pay for the ground transportation to the airport and then for their flights and everything else doortodoor would be covered. All food, lodging, cultural experiences, the cost of the tournament, um everything would be included in that. Um, so I am coming to you tonight to uh and I know the proposal in more detail was shared, but I'm coming to just um bring this up and to see what questions I can help answer about this experience. >> How many students do you plan on attending the conf well in Istanbul doing the travel but also in the tournament here on this site? >> So teams are four to seven students. So it's
039a relatively small number. Um and we would be looking specifically at link crew students. We did do this um same program before. So about eight years ago I led a team that was link crew students. Did the service learning challenge, put together a presentation and we went to Poland. Um so that was again about eight years ago. So we'd be looking at four to seven students and getting that process rolling with like a parent info meeting um and then working through a student interest form and application process should there be more than seven students interested. >> All right, great. Thank you. Are there any other questions? All right. Well, thank Oh, member Patricia. >> Turkey. Is it spelled? It's uh T U R K I Y E. >> So, that is the country's preferred spelling.
040Yes. >> Okay. Because I see it that way and I'm seeing it over here with the just ke I'm thinking. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Because I've never seen it the with the Y in it. >> Yeah. >> On Thanksgiving especially, but I was just kind of wondering because me here. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Well, thank you so much for bringing such a unique and amazing opportunity for our students. I think this is truly exciting. So, thank you. We we always love all the different things that, you know, our schools do for our kids and this is this is pretty cool. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. We are now going to move on to our strategic plan information item with Superintendent Martin. >> Thank you, President Wagner. Uh, as some of
041you know, Waterford School District is in the last year of our strategic plan. Uh, because of that, the board and district administration administration, sorry, is seeking help through your input to create our next 5-year strategic plan. Uh, we're working with Greg Janiki from the Michigan Association of School Boards, who's going to help facilitate the development of our mission, vision, and goals for the future through that process. An integral part of that is getting feedback from all of our district stakeholders. I would like to formally invite all of our stakeholders to participate in providing feedback in two ways. The first is through our community survey which is live and running right now. The 10-minute survey is on our website and can be done anytime before January 9th uh when it closes. The second is through our
042stakeholder in-person input sessions. There are two uh staff input sessions will be on December 2nd at 2:45 p.m. and on January 6th at 4:30 p.m. Community input sessions will be on December 2nd at 1:00 p.m. and again on January 6 at 6 p.m. Both of those sessions will be in room 103 at the Creary Administration building. I'd like to encourage everyone to join us in taking the survey and or attending the input sessions. Uh we need to hear your voice and we greatly greatly value your feedback as you help us create our vision for the future. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. We are now going to move on to our school of choice resolution. >> Is that you? Is that that's Kim? >> Me? All right. I guess it's me. I was hoping
043it was Kim. I told her she wouldn't have to read a lot tonight. All right. Our school of choice resolution 26-27. The board of education is in receipt of the proposed 2026 2027 school of choice resolution for the consideration. This resolution follows our previous designation as school of choice for JK kindergarten only and up to 20 students entering grades 9 through 12 and accepted in the Waterford STEM Academy through the application process. A recommendation for approval will be presented on December 4th. If members have questions, please feel free to contact Superintendent Martin prior to our next meeting. All right. Now we're going to move on to our tenative agreements with Mrs. Susan File. >> Good evening board members. Thank you for this opportunity. I bring to you tonight um two of our tenative agreements for
044our um two of our MEA units. Um, I'm going to start first with giving you an overview of the tenative agreement for the teachers WA. You have a physical copy, I believe, of the TA. So, I just wanted to um lift up some highlights um from this. Um, this TA represents a complete contract overhaul. Articles were renumbered and reorganized. New sections were created to address legal changes. Language was improved to provide more clarity. The contracts from surrounding districts were reviewed in the benchmarking process that helped us guide our work. The administrative team including Karen Hildebrandt, Darren Holly, Steve Wolf, Alex Vez, and Kyle Schultz along with the associations team, Lori Tunic, Mary Crate, Joe Humphrey, Sue Karco, Katie Muik, Vanessa Marx, and Laura Hornbacher work collaboratively in many, many sessions um to bring forth a
045contract that truly recognizes and supports the great work of our WA staff. and their critical role in educating our future uh future generations. So, um I'm just going to lift up some of the some of the many in here. Um um this year, um Assistant Superintendent Wolf um really led the charge and um passion to bring forth the um math labs and the reading labs. And um as we have already heard what great work that's um that's already bringing to fruition. Um we discussed this and um the teachers really wanted a reduction in the class size um the number of students participated in them in those classes. We heard them, we recognize and um that was an example of a a reduction in the class size that we made for those. Um we started longevity
046pay starting at year 10 in Waterford. That was an addition. Um we um improved payment in several categories. Class overages, emergency substitute coverages, and if teachers were prepping for more than three classes, we improved the pay for the um those three categories. Um a new thing brought to um our teachers this year and um is um it's a called a donation of sick days. It's a sick bank and um this is when um a fellow WUA colleague can donate sick days to um a fellow member that um is personally going through a critical illness. And um there's parameters of course around it which you'll see in the TA um but it allows um um those fellow those fellow CL WA members to help out their colleague. Um we improved sick days for them. They previously
047were given nine. We benchmarked that and we moved increased that to 11. We also included bereavement days back in the con contract for schedule B. We continue to tweak and improve. We added field hockey, color guard, and a stipen for the student activities and leadership coach, staying current with the times, right? We updated the new parent leave language. The language was just antiquated. It didn't include adoption. It didn't include um a genderneutral, meaning it was all mother, mother, mother. It didn't recognize the role of the father in this. And so that was increased or improved. Um we also um we heard our teachers and um the need for time. they need time. And um we made a reduction in um the school time required by staff after after hours by reducing um two of the
048in-person staff meetings and improving the professional development schedule for them to laser focus more on exactly what they needed and when they needed it. And lastly, the formerly prohibited subjects of bargaining um that were returned to the table in 24 um were all successfully negotiated and are included in this tenative agreement. So that's some of the highlights that I bring forth to you. Um, as we've discussed before, we know that all um of the teachers as of July 1 were given a step um if they were STEP eligible and as it states um those that were at the top step last year are being given a retention bonus for this year. >> All right. Well, thank you. Do we have any questions? >> Right. I know. I know that this was long and painstaking this
049year and unfortunately with our legislature kind of holding us up would probably be the nicest way to say it. Um, but I know that we had faith in in in the bargaining team both with with our union and with our administration and we appreciate all the hard work, the advocacy and everything that went into getting to this agreement signed. So, thank you. >> Absolutely. Um, moving on to MESPA 2. Um, MESPA 2 represents our instructional aids that work at Kingsley Montgomery as well as our library texts. Um, and this too this year was a complete contract overhaul. We had a lot of work to do. Um, the contract um was reorganized with sections and titles that helped in clarity and um, compliance with new labor laws. Um the administrative team included um Karen Hildebrandt, Elizabeth
050Kutchy, John Gregory and myself along with the associations team Lori Tunic, Renee Tanaglia, Jennifer Bishop and um Leverne Williams. And we again worked collaboratively over since since April May to bring forth a contract that recognizes and supports the work of these instructional aids and our library texts. A few of the highlights here. Um again, step increase for all eligible employees um that were um at the top step as well as retention bonuses for all employees in the group. Um the probation period was shortened to assist new employees moving more quickly to um complete their probationary pe period so that they could start on their health benefits, start receiving their sick time, start receiving their vacation time. Um that was frankly too long and um it was a hindrance for employees and they needed their benefits,
051right? Um the longevity um pay was increased for all three of the levels by $100 each and they receive longevity pay every single year. Um we expanded the insurance coverage for the 10 and 12 month employees to receive full family health care benefits. Previously these employees were only receiving single um healthc care coverage. And so you have a single parent perhaps with three children and um they were not afforded um um uh healthc care coverage for those children in the past and that was a huge expansion for us for those and we're hoping that's going to help in our um attraction to um employees in the future. We improved three categories. We improve sick days. We improve vacation days, personal days, as well as a paid an additional paid floating holiday for these employees. Um,
052fringe benefits are a huge factor for um the employees and um we were really um proud and and and happy to see that we were specifically providing equity between all three of the MESPO one, two, and three units. Um, we identified transfer language if they had to transfer and we added more professional development hours for them to continue their professional growth. And um, we also extended our library tech hours to the full seven hours. They were on a less than seven hour day and so um, that helps not only um, the building, but it also puts more money in their pocket. >> All right, great. Do we have any questions on this tenative agreement? All right. And again, thank you. Thank you to all the teams that help negotiate this as well. Um, I know
053that these are again can be very painstaking and and take, you know, a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of effort, but we always want to work to get to the right thing to do the right thing for our staff. So, it is very appreciated. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. We are now going to move on to wireless infrastructure project with Mrs. Kochie. Yay. It sounds fancy. >> It does sound fancy. It >> does. Thank you for having me this evening. So, we are currently at the beginning phase of part of our wireless infrastructure reaching end of life. So, it may not seem like that long ago, but six years ago, we started implementing our wireless, which is what all of our laptops, our Chromebooks, a lot
054of our devices run on for the daily use. So, we really strategically look at what [clears throat] we need to replace in order to keep the system reliable and what's reaching end of life. So, when these type of devices reach end of life, it's not like your laptop that or your iPad that you can keep working. um these reach end of life and they no longer receive any updates which can be a security issue. So we want to really make sure that we look at this timeline throughout the years and how we can change and upgrade devices in segments and not all at once. So looking at the cost as well. One unique piece to this is that the access points, controllers, and UPS's are all -ate category 2 eligible, which means we can use
055our -ate dollars provided by the FCC and USAC in order to fund this project. So, we just actually probably about right an hour before walking in here received our category 2 aotment um for the next five-year cycle. So, at -ate does a 5-year cycle and then you have that set number to spend for that. We're looking at approximately 1 point a little over 1.4 million that we'll have to use in category 2. Um, this year they upgraded the five-year funding. Previously it was $1667 per student. They've increased that to $2157 per student. So having that increase will help us. Um what this will do is these would be implemented in the 2627 school year. So over this summer we would look at um adding these and pulling down those devices that are end of life.
056Um you'll see you have the bid tab sheet. We are looking and will be proposing at the next board meeting to go with contractor Moss. Moss is the company who put in our current in wireless infrastructure and we have a very good working relationship with them. Um the other caveat to this is obviously knowing who the contractor is because they would have access to our stuff from a cyber security side. So we want to make sure it's someone we have a really good relationship with and we do. um looking at actually and if you look at the bid tabs we were um quite thrilled they are the second to lowest the first there is one lower than them um one reason we are not choosing to go with them is that bid did not include
057any warranty so we really need a warranty on these especially as things change with tech so we have a 5-year warranty that most of the companies built in and Moss was one of them so in December we'll bring forward the hope to award the bid to them. Any questions? Any questions? Okay. Are you sure? >> No. >> Okay. All right. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. >> We're now going to move on to new business with Treasurer Donahghue. >> All right. New business. Superintendent's recommendation 15-25-26. Resolution for adoption by the board of education of Waterford School District revised budget number one 2025-2026. Resolve that this resolution shall be the the general appropriations Waterford School District for fiscal year 2025-2026. a resolution to make appropriations and to provide for the expenditure of the appropriations and
058to provide for the disposition of all income received by Waterford School District. The property tax rate will be 17.6749 mills on nonhomestead property. The proceeds will be used to pay general fund operating expenses. Be it further resolved that 123,113 Let's start over again on that one. What? That is right. Right. >> Yeah. Okay. There. There you go. I'm like $123,13,043 is hereby appropriated in the general fund. The appropriation details of this information item are available to the public upon request. I so move >> support. >> All right, the motion has been moved and supported. Are there any questions or comments? >> All right, all those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. Motion carries 5. We are going to stay with Treasurer Donahghue. Superintendent's recommendation 16-25-26 tenative agreement with the MEESPA2 MESPA 2. It
059is recommended that the board of education approve the attached tenative agreement with the Michigan Education Support Personnel Association MESPA 2 as ratified by its membership. I so move >> support. >> All right, the motion has been moved and supported. Are there any comments or questions? All right. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. Motion carries. 5-0. And I am going to ask that member Torres read the next one because member Donahue and member Rristitch have to abstain from the next one. So, just so everyone out there knows, that's the reason why we're moving it over for someone else to read the motion. >> Yes. I've got family in the unit. Yes. >> Is that the one I was supposed to >> um >> Yes. >> Okay. Actually, I'll have member Sana Grant
060cuz she has it. >> Oh, it doesn't matter. >> Yeah, you can read it. >> You can read it. >> Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it. Superintendent's recommendation 17-25-26 tenative agreement WA. It's recommended that the board of education approve the attached tenative agreement with the Waterford Education Association as ratified by its membership. I so move. >> Support. All right. The motion has been moved and supported. Are there any comments or questions? All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. And the motion carries 4 Z with member Donahghue um abstaining. All right, great. We are going to continue and move on to our public comments. Wow, I feel like we got to that fast tonight. We I do have three green cards. So, I will remind everyone before I call you up that please
061be reminded that comments are limited to three minutes in duration and members of the public are invited to share comments. However, this is not intended to be a time for questions and answers. Lastly, participants may speak only once on the same topic and are asked to avoid statements that are personally directed, abusive, or obscene. And Mr. Boyd, would you would you like to come? I didn't know if it was a good time or if you wanted to be last. [laughter] Um, my brother-in-law's parents moved to a subdivision on the Waterford Clarkston border. When the sub was created, Waterford had better schools. Waterford. They decided Waterford schools for the sub. During their time there, parents came asking for support, petitioning Clarkston schools to allow their parent for their children to go there, buses and all. My
062sister and brother-in-law move when they moved to Waterford. They felt that it was on a comeback. After 16 years of marriage and fertility issues, they have a miracle baby girl. She will not be going to school in the community they love. My coworker's son lives in Waterford. He has five children that they drive to Lake Gorian schools daily. My younger sister lives in Waterford. They have a gifted son that has an incredible memory. He can recite more spelling words than my kindergarten daughter. They feel West Bloomfield schools have more um have more resources to feed his gift. Kathleen says, "I have five kids. Three of them are now enrolled in Clarkston. She supported Waterford School District as a parent and employee for over 10 years and she genuinely believed that her kids were not safe
063in their building due to lack of trained staff. I'm asking you as you go through work through the teachers contract to prioritize the resource of smaller class sizes for the teachers of Waterford. So the parents feel safe giving our miracle children to teachers who are not overwhelmed by the size of their class. so and can take time to help them achieve their full potential. Please give our children the size, the class size that leads to better outcomes. Our schools are not just losing students to surrounding schools. You are losing involved parents that are willing to drive hours a day for smaller class sizes and better outcomes. I was told at this point it could be too disruptive to add a teacher to Coolie's kindergarten. I think one teacher with 28 students is too disruptive. Waterford
064schools have a higher studenttoteer ratio than the surrounding districts and the neighboring schools. I believe this plays a big part in the lower test scores that Waterford has compared to our surrounding districts. Please give our children a better learning experience with smaller class sizes. >> Thank you. All right, we're going to move on to Miss Mary Crate. Good evening. I don't think I really need an introduction, but my name is Mary Crate. Um, I am the WEA president. Um, I am so honored to have the team that I do. Joe and, um, Katie are here tonight. Sue, Vanessa, they and Laura, they have spent countless hours on their summer vacation. We have spent the last eight months with the district team, probably longer in my tenure as the president, which is now ninth year than
065ever. Um, we spent eight months doing this and this contract is for seven months. So, while we love you, Susan, while we love spending time, Steve, Karen, the whole thing, like we're going to be back at this again. And my fear is we're going to be doing the same thing over again. We waited all this time. the community, you all of you, the administration, the staff for a calendar because it's one thing you have to negotiate. That's that's how it works. So, we spent all this time going monthtomonth with a calendar. My fear is look, I know they're not doing their job right in Lancing and I've emailed every one of them. I've called them. I've had conversations with any of them that will talk to me. We have to do better. I've been on
066the news talking about how you don't take food away from our kids, but you can't take money away from the teachers or the employees. So, what I'm here tonight to ask you is as you do the strategic plan and as um Mr. Martin asked if we would be there, I will be there. I will be there on Saturday. I will spend my I will spend the rest of this school year at every strategic plan meeting. Mr. Martin, thank you for being willing to move the elementary one to a little later time so that 4:15 is kind of hard to get done with bus duty and get there. I will be at every meeting. Many of my people have said they will. They'll answer the survey. But we have to do better to make the staff
067a priority. We can't just sit back and say, "Oh, well, there's only off schedule money because Congress didn't do their job." Look, if we're waiting on the feds to do their job, you're going to be waiting until I retire in another 20 years, and they probably still won't be done. So, we have to figure out how do we make this part of our strategic plan so that we are not every single year back at the negotiating table spending five, six, eight months trying to negotiate a contract, trying to retain staff. We did that. We did that me several years ago where in two years time we had a 50% turnover in the teaching staff and I will tell you that is not what's best for Waterford kids. We have some amazing staff here. We need
068to be able to retain them, keep them going for our kids. So we have to become the priority in your strategic plan. So we're willing to help you. We're willing to work together, but please make us a priority. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, we are going to move on to Mr. Joe Humphrey. >> Sorry, I I might get worked up a little bit. I apologize already. Um I'm I come here tonight not about the bargaining, everything else. We we have that we are thrilled that is finally done. Um the concern I come today is regarding our uh reduction in staff and lack of safety in our my building specifically. I work at Kings and McGomery School. Um just as a little background since last year our building has lost two vital positions and
069had one other position uh displaced into another school. This has led to multiple staff members, myself included, to not only fill the roles and responsibilities of my own job, but the responsibilities of these other person positions. This has brought undue stress to on our entire staff. As a result, another te uh another teacher and I are constantly being p pulled from our classroom to deal with student crisis behaviors. This in turn leads to my students daily on the regular begging me not to leave the classroom, but I have to. This is not what's best for kids. From a security perspective, many of my staff have felt unsafe. They'd come to me constantly time and said, "Please go to Mary. Go to everyone. We need help." Since we have lost our safety and security leaison, our
070teacher consultant as well as our displacement of our program coordinator, which requires our staff members to insert themselves in more student crisis and put themselves into further harm. Due to these high-risisk situations, many of the staff members that talked to me said they are looking for other jobs because of the worries of their safety on top of the added job responsibilities. In closing, I wanted to verbalize my concerns about the safety of being more of a worry now for myself than the 12 years at Children's Village that I spent where I taught students who committed crimes as serious as armed robbery and murder. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. All right, that was it for our green cards. So, we are going to move on to our board of education reports. Does anyone
071have a report this evening? member Patricia had [clears throat] a parks and wreck meeting uh this past month and they're usually complaining about legged because they feel it was dumped on them. It was the the senior center all this and that. Um but they're they're working very well with it. It's it's they're working out the thing. Anything you get that's new that you're given like hey here's your new job [clears throat] no one likes. Uh but the they they talk about all the volunteers over there that were the the seniors and how wonderful they are. Just that truly makes it because they had the Parks and Rec Senior Center and then our senior center. Now they're together and it's kind of like a two high schools merging and they're they're getting along. It's it's working
072out very well. So it was good to hear a positive on that. So I was enjoying that. Um last month was Halloween. I went over to Riverside and watched the Little Takes parade around and Halloween. It was one of my favorite ones at uh my kids elementary. Uh it wasn't allowed at that time. The principal didn't like it, so they banned it. They tried to ban it in the district, but that didn't work. Uh but I'd seen an old employee over there, Craig Bloom was. And what a a true joy to have someone as special as him back in my district. It gives me chills. I just I love Craig and uh seeing him back in in a building. I was just very very excited about that. That's all for this month. >> All right.
073Do we have any other board reports? Member Donahghue? >> Yeah. On Tuesday night, I was at the uh Drayton Plains Nature Center meeting and they had a couple of different things. One was the uh the closure of the Waterford Recreation Center. Uh effective December 18th is the last day for the public. uh to go into the Waterford Recreation Center and then starting in the new year it will be uh everything will be over at the Leed campus there on Pontiac Lake Road. Uh but the big thing is this uh Saturday uh November 22nd from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. over at the town hall right there right here um 5200 Civic Center Drive is the holiday hoopla and the tree lighting event. And um uh there's they've got visits with Santa, crafts, and more. They've got
074the reindeer visits, cookie de decorating, and games. And they're also accepting donations for the Waterford Goodfellows. So again, that is this coming up Saturday from 3:00 to 6:00 right here out in our parking lot. And uh hope that you guys can make it. >> All right, members. Uh we had our Waterford Youth Assistance meeting last night and they reported that as of last night. We were helping 31 families for the holidays, which was 185 people total, I think, and there's still more coming in. So that's exciting. So besides doing case work, they're also doing community work. Um really exciting time. >> That is awesome. Member Torres, do you have any reports? Yes, I was able last night I attended an orchestra concert u the two middle schools um did and uh we had the high
075school students from MD as well presented um at the beginning of of the orchestra they posted it online as well was really awesome. Uh but just to see the immense talent here in our school district. It's like being at a a symphony or something, you know. Uh so it was it was really nice to see and just uh um see the the you know the the talent of the kids and especially the high school kids. They kind of give you a little sample of the high school at the beginning because you can see what the kids can become you know and then the middle school kids are are already you know really killing it and doing an awesome job. Uh then I I really enjoyed I didn't go but it was was it the water?
076It was the cultural fest, wasn't it? >> Yes. >> That was that looked so amazing. Uh we did a really good job of posting the photos and the videos from it. I just thought it was really a cool thing that we did. I tried to get to it, but I had a conflicting meeting, but um yeah, we should do that again. That was just amazing seeing the videos and uh how the families and the kids got into it. So, thank you. >> All right. Member Ritch kindly stepped in for me um at the Head Start um committee meeting this past Friday. So I don't have a report from that, but I do want to give a little report from our tour, which am I stealing yours for you to Okay, because I wasn't sure if
077you were going to talk about it. So last Thursday um members of the board of education, members of the township, members of Barton Malow, Carlo was with us, we had French and Associates, we also had members from the parks and recreation department and members from the Waterford Foundation of Education. And we were able to take a tour to see the playground over at Kulie. We were able to see um the improvements that have happened over at Pierce with the gym, the auxiliary gym and the field. And we also got a chance to tour Mason and see all the improvements over there with the athletic um inside with the gyms and the auxiliary gym. And it was really a great opportunity and we've been able to do this in the past to not just for us
078to see it but to highlight for other members in our community and our cabinet also joined us as well to see where their bond dollars are going. And I think that's incredibly important because oftent times our community doesn't actually get a chance to really see. So we were able to highlight, brag a little bit um and kind of share with them the things that have been going on and for them to be able to be inside our buildings to actually see the improvement, see where those bond dollars are going. So, it it was a great collaboration um for us to be able to be with other members in other parts of our community and also like I said, brag a little bit over all the good things because it's not just the facilities, but it
079also gave us an opportunity to talk about things that are happening in the buildings, things that are happening at our PAC's, talk about our athletics, talk about our academic programs. So, you know, it's really important for us. We tend to sometimes live in a bubble and we don't realize it. We have to get our story out there and the best way to do that is to continually share it and share the good because we are the good and this district is good and we have amazing staff members and we have amazing families and we have amazing children and so that is the story is really really important to share and and any chance that we get we take that opportunity. So, it was a great great night for all of us and it was greatly
080appreciated. Um, I think that's it though for board reports other than I'm sure Superintendent Martin will say this. I hope you all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving and enjoy having some time off next week. So, we're going to move over to Superintendent Martin for his report. >> Thank you, President Wagner. Uh, last night was the 4th annual student and adult spelling bee. I want to congratulate all the students and adults who courageously got up there and spelled. We have a few of them in here. I'm not going to point them out or ask them what words they got out on. Uh but it was incredible. And a special thanks to the student and family engagement team who buzzed over 360 words uh on the adult side. They actually exhausted their list and had to
081um grab some other list there. So I do want to recognize the adult champions. Uh, first place Taran Aceo from our IT department. The winning word was unctuous. Anyone who want anybody want to take a stab at that? Untuous. Uh, second place was Don Stewart, uh, community member. In third place, Amy McNeel from Durant, the student champion, uh, Isaac Koba, a fifth grader from Kuten. The winning word there was audience. Uh, second place, Stella Denton, a fifth grader from H Hotton. And third place was Emily Voit, a fifth grader from Kudson. So, big shout out to the safe team uh and all the students and adults that participated. Uh great job there. Also, today or this evening, uh our high school United uh esports team is closing things down. We have our Waterford Kettering Junior
082Logan Carpinelli who qualified for the first round. He's playing Madden 26. It's a football game. Uh we wish him the best of luck. Also to coach Cal Yap for taking the lead on this. It's a great way for students to engage with other students across our district and and beyond. Um I also want to echo um our sentiments about happy Thanksgiving. It's a well-deserved break for everybody. Uh hope everybody enjoys their time off. Uh and as a sports fan here, hope the Lions bless us with a a win on Thursday. Um and then my Wolverines on Saturday and the Spartans as well. Um and last, we have some sad news to report. Uh we experienced a deep loss with the passing of uh Gary Kish. Uh Gary was a member of our transportation team serving
083as a transportation aid since uh 2015. Gary's wife Patty is also a member of our transportation family. On behalf of the Waterford School District, I just want to extend my heartfelt condolences to Patty, the Kish family, the transportation team, and all the students and community that is impacted. All right, we are now going to move to close session. We're going to recess to close session by roll call vote. The board will move to close session in accordance with section 8A of the open meetings act for the evaluation of the superintendent. The regular meeting will be deemed adjourned at the conclusion of the closed session. Secretary Sonicrant, our acting secretary, could you please take roll call vote? >> Member Donahghue. >> Yes. >> Member Wagner. >> Yes. >> Member Torres. >> Yes. I'm a yes. Member
084Patricia, >> I would love to. >> All right, great. We're going to move into close session.