Board of Education Meeting 10-16-25

001The board of education meeting is called to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, Secretary Restitch, can you please take roll call? >> Member, all members are present. There he is. >> All right, we are going to move over to the approval of the agenda. Unless there are objections, the agenda will be approved as printed. Any objections? All right, we are now going to move on to a very important and special recognition of achievement. I don't know if would you like to to stand up, Nick, and maybe move over to the podium and and member Secretary Rich is going to

002meet you over there while I read. I'll wait till you get there. >> All right, we will now move to the recognition of achievement and I would like to invite Nick to join which they have memberristage at the podium this evening. The board of education is proud to introduce and recognize Waterford Kettering Senior Nicholas McKinnon for his Eagle Scout contribution to the Waterford Initiative for Robotics Education and Development Program. Nick is a senior member of the Waterford High School Robotics Team 3098. Prior to joining the high school team, he was part of Wired from the very beginning. For his Eagle Scout project, Nick created a plan to build field tables for our wired program to be utilized throughout the season with our build space at Prairie. He submitted his design and proposal for review, determined

003a budget, secured funding, and recruited volunteers to help with the build. The new tables turned out amazing and will be utilized by the robotics team members for years to come. On behalf of this board, Superintendent Martin, and the entire Waterford School District community, we thank you for your contributions to the students of Waterford School District. [clears throat] [applause] >> [applause] >> And I have to say on a personal note, I've known Nick for many, many years and his family and I can attest to what an yes, I would never he was making sure Dave that I also acknowledged you. Um, we I've known Nick for many years. My my son went through the wired program and was also a member of team 3098 with him for four years. And this is an amazing amazing example

004of what great kids we have in this district. So, it's it's it's it's really cool to be able to honor someone that you've watched grow into such an amazing person. [applause] >> Member Torres, I feel the same way. I've seen you grow up since you were a little kid, your parents, you know, and your dad being involved and seeing you guys around the township and on Facebook and, you know, you and your brother. So, I was reading the packet. I was just so pleasantly surprised to see you on here getting this award. Um, you know, I I think that, you know, you're the embodiment of the pride of Waterford, you know, of of doing these things of service. And, you know, uh you know, I know this is not a uh easy achievement to do.

005So, um, and the involvement of your father and your brother and and your parents and Yeah. your mom. Yeah. She she she bess about you on Facebook all the time. So, it's a great thing because everybody gets to see the wonderful work you're doing. So, congratulations. >> Yes. [applause] Did you >> Is that little brother? Will you be up here soon enough, too? >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Okay. Good. Good. Let's go. All right. Well, congratulations again, Nick. And if you haven't seen the tables, check out the Facebook posts. They are amazing and definitely is something that I know our wired program will use and utilize and appreciate for for many, many years. All right, so now we are going to move on to taking public comment on action items that will be voted on this

006evening. I don't believe any of the cards I have up here are specific to Nope, they're not specific to our um action item. So, we are going to move on from that. All right, we're going to move to the consent agenda. Unless there are objections, the consent agenda will be approved as presented. Are there any objections? All right. And now we've moved on to our information items where we are going to welcome the Waterford Youth Assistants. We are going to welcome them to share information about their programs and service that they provide to Waterford students and families. >> Good evening everyone. My voice may carry so I'll leave the microphone to >> I'm Megan McCoy. I am the volunteer chair of the board of directors for the Waterford Youth Assistance Office. And with me, Baron,

007would you like to introduce yourself? >> Hello. I'm Selene Baron. I'm the case worker at Waterford Youth Assistance. It's nice to see everybody. >> Yes. So, we have some some familiar faces and friends and some new friends here tonight. And we just want to say welcome and thank you for allowing us to join you. We have just a few a few slides that we'll be sharing to update you on what we've been up to over the last year and talk about the programs and services that we do offer to our students and families here in Waterford. Um so again, thank you for allowing us this spot. We really appreciate it. So just to start with a brief intro, uh Waterford Youth Assistance is a prevention program that supports kids and families who may be struggling

008with obstacles like school issues, mental health concerns, family conflict or behavioral offenses. Uh we have a tri sponsorship with Oakland uh county uh circuit court family division, Waterford School District and the municipalities in Waterford uh with funding from the county board of commissioners. So we work with youth ages 5 to uh 17. Referrals can come from school, police, uh the court or even directly from the parents. Uh the goal is early interventions. We really want to get in and help support um before situations get worse or our court involvement is needed. So that's where we uh me. So, casework program services as well as our community programming which Megan will talk about a little bit uh after a family is referred to us. We usually work with them for about three to six months. We

009start with an assessment to check for any mental health concerns to get a picture of the youth's uh backgrounds and needs. From there, we create a treatment plan with clear goals and objectives. Our casework is hands-on and practical. It might include uh counseling, skill building, connecting families with resources for housing, food, job, transportation or mental health treatment, offering parent support and other diversion options like community service or just learning from our actions. Um that is just a I always say casework uh services. It's not a one-sizefititall program. Really, my uh goal is to help meet a family where they are with any obstacle. And usually I can find some type of resource um or way to help them navigate it. At the heart of it, our role is to guide families, connect them with support,

010and help kids build healthier, more positive paths forward. So now I'd like to share trends and outcomes from our past program year to the present. In starting June 2024 to about currently I would say um we've had 166 new referrals. More than half uh were for school truency. So specifically 70 new cases in addition to educational neglect. Educational neglect has to do with the younger kiddos. So ages uh 10 and under and parents not following through on educational responsibilities. Um other uh referrals that we would get would be school encourageability for general behavior. There was about six referrals and then substance use and vaping specifically were 11. [clears throat] We also got five referrals for reinstatement uh related um cases. Other referrals we will get is specifically for prevention um where we are focusing more

011on helping with family conflict, mental health concerns, life changes. Um and then the next ones are related to the police or court diversion. So assault and battery, home incorability, retail fraud, domestic violence, and then other court prosecutor police diversions um among others. So since June 2024, we will receive anywhere from 4 to 18 referrals um new referrals on average a month. Um usually on average it'll be closer to 1011. In June 2024 from September 2025, uh there was 151 closures. Uh 17% of those families children completed their goals uh completely. 43% made uh progress on their goals and then the rest were did not respond, declined, moved, received other services or their case went uh formal. So overall we have a 60 uh% successful closure rate which is really great. Um and then talking about

012the trends that I noticed in the last year. So middle school and high school age students are getting referred the most often to our program. most notably 14y olds. Um some of the areas that I noticed were higher needs and support uh specifically were uh parent support connecting them to resources, emergency needs assistance, creating behavior contracts, discussing parenting strategies, ideas, referring to parenting classes like parent project if anyone's familiar. Um we would have a a decent amount of diversion cases where we would be completing accountability assignments. One of them is um community service. So I'll assign a child anywhere from 15 to 30 hours um for them to give back to the community. Um that I noticed a lot of transportation obstacles with families uh having a hard time uh affording you know uh their

013uh transportation getting their families to uh to and far from places. even my appointments. I noticed um a lot of challenges with parent work schedule. Um needing a lot of financial uh resources. There's always a need for more coping skill education. Uh a consistent trend is substance use. So most notably uh vaping and nicotine and marijuana and helping uh refer children to drug treatment, drug testing um and therapy referrals. Uh, another big problem we noticed is inappropriate phone use. Uh, just boundaries, social media related challenges in general. Uh, something I was able to, uh, help a lot of families this year was advocating for them um, when it came to schools, which oftentimes led to IEP evaluations or 504 accommodations. Um, so that's the trends as far as casework services go. Um the slide that

014you'll see right here is so you'll see a 314 casework families in general were helped. So referrals I spoke to are 166 but the other I'm not going to do the math um in consultations that uh families will call into the office to uh ask questions just have a quick referral or other connections in the community. So I'm going to pass it to Megan to tell us about uh our program highlights this. >> Thank you Seline. So in the youth assistance office we do have kind of different years. We have our casework services and then we have our community engagement and involvement through comm volunteers. So our whole organization is made up of volunteers except have one staff member our administrative assistant that keeps the office open and run for everybody. What we've highlighted here

015are a couple of our programs. Some of you may be familiar with the bucket of love program that was started here in Waterford and I'm happy to say that other districts in Oakland County have now modeled programs ours and that's where we find an adult and a child that's been identified in the elementary schools that needed additional support and not just academic support. This could be to help them build confidence, to work on their communication skills, just to have some adult attention in a positive way. So, they commit to go once a week with their um mentee for the full school year. And we have 22 l bucket of love mentees >> and I can say that some of our adults are mentoring multiple kiddos. they believe that program and I believe our highest has

016currently matched with five students. So every day of the week going to a different school or a different classroom to work with the kiddos one-on-one. So that is a very prideful point of our office and youth assistance. And if anybody is interested in learning more about that, we'd love to have more volunteers or those that are interested in in pairing up with an elementary. We also help parents and our youth through scholarships. So, if you do um have a kiddo that's looking to do a skill building activity um through parks and wreck or another organization for sports, we can offer scholarships to help meet those um funds. We could also do camp scholarships overnight or summer camps. So, if you have anybody that may be interested, send them our way. We do have funds and

017not enough requests. So, we also help with our holiday assistance which is coming up. Um, we'll be looking for families that may be in need of some supplemental support for the holidays. And we're also looking for those that wish to sponsor and help our our program help the holidays. Youth recognition night. I can see some familiar faces here that have participated over the years. This is our really big, really great feel-good event where we get to honor all of our students who have been nominated by parents, by community members, by teachers, we want to celebrate more. So, if you know a kiddo in our district, any that is going above and beyond or supporting the community, supporting a family or has developed something wonderful in the community, let us know because we want to honor

018them. So keep an eye out. That'll be coming in the spring. Um we did start a new um book gifting program. So helping students in the elementary school who may not other book fair and have access to a new book. We have funds that we started that last school year. And this year I'm happy to say we're we're going to all nine elementary schools and we've raised more funds to provide more opportunities for the kids at each of the schools. And lastly, I want to highlight and you've attended, so if you want to share anything about our shoplifting prevention program where we partner with our officer, a school resource officer, um, officer Archer here in the township along with a former prevention specialist from Great Lakes Crossing Mall. Do you want to share a little

019bit about that? >> Yeah, it's a wonderful program. Um both of them will go into the fifth grade classrooms and they have a video that youth assistants uh taped and kind of walks through pretty much what a retail fraud, you know, stealing situation um would be and what to expect um if you were to be in trouble. And they talk about, you know, the importance of, you know, not doing that. Um and it's a really powerful um experience. The kids actually are very receptive. They have lots of questions and Officer Archer has been really working on expanding the from that topic and even talking to the fifth graders about what to expect next year in middle school like vaping, um social media, uh school threats, fighting. So, good choices, >> making good choices. So, it's

020great. >> All right, really quickly, that's a photo of last year's youth recognition night. We were able to honor almost 70 students last year. We want to increase that number. So, please send us the names of the kiddos that you would like us to recognize. And we just want to say thank you again for allowing us the opportunity to be here. We have a little photo there of our bucket of love events. And of course, the the district offered us in kind to use the auditorium for our events and we thank you so much for that. And then just a reminder, we do have scholarships available. So, please call the office, email us, or stop by. We're currently upstairs at the CI building right on um Airport Road, >> Williams Lake Road. Volunteers are also

021needed and welcomed. So, if you know anyone that's interested in getting involved, maybe not Bucket of Love, but maybe you're interested in another committee or supporting us, please let us know. And lastly, of course, we're looking for sponsors and even families to be identified who might need help this holiday season. That's it from us, but we're so happy [laughter] to be here to share all the good news. [applause] >> Um, member Torres, do you have comments or questions? >> Yes. Uh, so, um, I was my wife was texting me trying to find the link. So, I was like telling her to go to the web page, so I was texting her cuz I know she wanted to see you guys tonight. Um the uh one thing I enjoy is you guys are embedded in the

022community, right? You guys are here in the township building uh you know in in all the school districts all across and I know you get a large amount of referrals from the school district um and the work that you do with the kids and really, you know, helping them get on a a corrective path. You know, I work in criminal justice. I worked in juvenile justice for many years as well. And um my goal was always that you know I didn't want to in juvenile justice I didn't want to see the kids go into the adult system and the adult system now I don't want to see them go into prison right I want to keep them out of jail and I want to keep them out of prison but you guys get it before

023even that before when they're starting to head in a in a bad direction that you can correct them before they even get in the juveninal justice system because we do not want to um introduce them to that uh because statistically we see that those those levels of of what we call recidivism and crime and criminal activity go up. Uh but um question about the mentors plus program. Do do you still have that? >> Um it's been on pause since co and we're working on uh expanding uh employment at central office because it's a lot for one person to take on because that program would be all across Oakland County. So, it's still something that is unfortunately put to the side, but we would love to have come back. >> Pause that. >> Perfect. Thank you.

024>> All right. Any of my other colleagues. >> Well, I want to thank both you, Megan and Seline, for bringing this information to us. And oh, did you have Oh, I thought Sorry. Thank you. The work that you do is amazing and we greatly, greatly appreciate it. And we know what advocates you are for the kids in our district. And I also want to thank member Senica because she is our representative on on your your board as well. So >> board president >> Oh of of YA years ago. >> Yes, that's right. She was the former president of YA years ago. So >> and I was a mentor. That's how I started before I had kids. I mentored. >> That's amazing. >> I love the program. It's amazing. >> It is a great program and

025we are we are incredibly incredibly grateful to have you in our community. So thank you very very much. We appreciate it. Thank you. [applause] >> Okay, so unfortunately we have to backtrack a little bit. Nick, we forgot to picture with you. >> Sue could kindly again work your way over to the podium with member Rristitch, >> Superintendent Martin >> or Superintendent Martin. Oh, do you have your certificate? Or you can do it here if you prefer. Where would you? Okay. Or or right. >> Yeah, we can stand up. That'd be kind of cool. >> Yeah, >> I'm in the picture. >> I know. You're good. You're good. >> Yes. I I apologize for the backtrack, everybody, but this was too important to not do. >> Come in the front. >> You can come down. >>

026Okay, come down. Yeah. Yeah. I'll stand up. >> We're good. >> I can. >> And thank you everybody for letting All right, we are now going to move on to our teachers and training CTE with assistant superintendent Wolf who I see is already prepared and at his seat. >> All right, >> we're going to pass it over to you. >> Yeah, good evening trustees. Uh we are very very excited uh for the chance to highlight our early childhood education and leadership course and program at Ketarine High School uh aka teachers in training. And the two folks who are going to walk you through and highlight our students uh first would be Lauren Potterfield. She is a family and consumer science teacher at Waterford Kettering. She's been in the district for seven years and does a

027wonderful job with our students. Uh and next to her is Tony Miller. Tony is our CF, which is career focused ed and our career teched coordinator uh for the district. Um he has been here, a little fun fact, since third grade, I believe, in Waterford. Uh employed 20 years in the district. Um besides our CTE coordinator, he also teaches uh within the CTE department. This year he has marketing uh and runs a school store at Ketaring. I think this fella has about half a dozen certifications and has taught just [laughter] about everything. So, he's your uh stereotypical goes way above and beyond uh kind of guy and we're lucky to have him and Lauren. So, I'll pass it over. >> Thank you. Thank you for having us here tonight. Um I was here a little

028while ago, [music] a few months ago feels like and talked a little bit about CTE for a while, but today we're going to our eight CTE programs that we have here in Waterford. So CTE, career and teched is for their college. We have eight state approved CTE programs at the high schools and then we have three awesome feeder programs in the middle school to get those kids ready for those high school CTE programs. CTE program is education general. So Lauren's going to tell you all about education general, but I can tell you that it's an awesome program that our kids to um super program for and um just seeing the kids in this program is is awesome. And Lauren's going to probably talk for a couple hours here if you let her [laughter] see how

029that goes. Take it away, Lauren. As Tony said, we have a program. It runs out of ketering in our district and we call it early childhood education and leadership but the state calls it education general. It is the same program. This is I think the fifth year that we have run this version of the program at Ketaring. We take any interested 10th through 12th grade students. Um they we have a really diverse group. So, and I am looking for that because we are looking for educators that can um connect with the largest number of students. These kids though, they don't have to be, you know, high grade point average, but they are responsible. They are very committed. They are 100% really great kids. Um they are with me every day for two hours throughout the

030year. Right now we're still still in our but eventually we will start going to our sites. They can take this class for repeated credit and as and many of them do as they come back to me they will go deeper and deeper into the curriculum of whatever little pathway they are taking. These are the the curricula we follow. It's a lot. So they are working hard to meet all of these standards with all of these. Um we it is also workbased learning program. So our kids get hands-on real life learning experience. These are our two sites. Most of our kids are at Stansky and Missandia Bratton is here tonight. Great support of this program. These kids are working on a child development associate certification which is an industrybased nationally recognized certification. If they earn that,

031they can take that and work as a preschool teacher anywhere in the country. Um it's a first step towards that. And I also have Mr. Nick Gregory here tonight. Um he is principal at Kudson. the kids that are working there. Actually, this was new last year. So, this we piloted this last year. Uh we'll have some more kids this year. They are working on something called a my YDA, which lets them run after school programs if they earn that certification or certificate. So, I could not do this without their support. They're like an intrinsic part of this program. We are so grateful to them. Um, I'm also going to thank my own principal, uh, administration, staff, and faculty because they also program. We need everybody to make this a go. Um, our students, like I

032said, they're training right now. They get trainings in the things that our district teachers are trained in before they are allowed to set foot on site. We we do CPR. They get background tested. They get TB tested. They do a lot of training again that our teachers are doing. Bloodborne pathogens, health and safety, mandated reporter. So they have a lot of responsibility, make sure they're ready for it. In the classroom, we are also giving them professionalism skills. Skills that they can take anywhere, even if teaching is not the route they go, but professionalism, conflict resolution, [snorts] which actually they'll they'll use that on their own friends. It's really fun to watch. Um, active supervision, confidentiality. Uh, they are really learning a lot of heavy stuff in there. The objective of the class is to prepare

033future educators. Um, we teach them practice. These are some more things we do in the classroom. They will learn areas of development, the brain and how it works, how to write lesson plans, how to lessons, how to assess students at their sites. Um, they're all real nervous about Great job. So, it's really fun to watch. We also have fun. We make a This week we're doing sensory compounds and today was Play-Doh Day. They wait a long time for that. Uh art projects, we go outside. And what's really cool about the fun part is the kids will look at the learning objectives that we have and they will come up with um fun lessons. A lot of initiative taking there. I love scene. I also a personal goal I have for these kids is to make

034sure that they have a after high school. Um, I take them to colleges. We visit early childhood programs, OC. We've been to Wayne State. This year we're looking you, they have a new program there. Um, and if they don't into education, it is still an awesome experience for them because for many of them, they have never been on a college campus. Many kids don't think that college is for them until they come and they see and and they realize, "Yeah, it is for me." I take them to professional conferences. We've been to We've been to Educators Rising. We're going to attend that one again this year. That one's at Wayne State this year. They're going to compete though, so they're pretty excited about that. Huge impact in a lot of areas. it. The state really

035supports this program because of the high demand for teachers. We do actually earn money for one out of 10 in Oakland making,800. This is what we earned last year for the district to spend this of that um for the community. I know that our kids are a big value added at their sites. This is a feedback I get from teachers because I worry like their mentors do mentor them, but they are also teaching their classrooms. So, our kids need to come and add and make it easier for them and not draw them away from what they're doing. And they are doing that. They are the parents are seeing them in their uniforms and wanting to know who these kids are that um their kids are talking about. They're very visible even just you know they'll

036see their kids at a restaurant or something. They also started telling me this year that like I have a lot of kids that work after school in child care and one told me this year she says Mrs. Potterfield, you know, everywhere I go, all the workers in the child care are from your class. [laughter] They're they're like, "We're taking over." I said, "Yeah, that's what we need to be doing." So, they're having that positive impact as well. Businesses because they know they are well trained and they can and they're just so it helps there. In we have a great kids always want to know who what are these sweatshirts who is walking around but they actual role models and leaders in our school was a um electives fair one year a couple and they volunteered

037just to do it. I didn't ask them to do it. They said we want to come and represent. So they were seeing parents and incoming students and promoting them that way. I love that this is an option for kids who don't necessarily have maybe they are not the high achiever maybe they are not the sport they are not the artist I mean some of them are those things too but it's another place for them to find somewhere to p belong blossom and become all um they take become leaders they take these skills with them they are getting a lot of work skills that they are taking with them. I mean, I've had kids go into all kind of um careers and just do very well because they are prepared to be in the workforce. Um

038I like that gets them to school because they don't want to miss time with their kids. So, uh I'll have them come to school just for my class. Um but I'm glad that they're there because once they're there, you can get them to stay, right? Uh I they are creating plans for their future had no idea what they are building of them are going to college like I uh last these are just some of last year's award did have one outstanding youth mission award winner right there also do win summer scholarships to nextgen which is a teacher training at Wayne State. They have automatic ad admission into Wayne State. They get money touring. So that is fabulous. And I actually when the Michigan Golden Apple scholarship so um knows she has when she's done with

039college, she gets a lot of training. They help perfectly. So really, really proud of those. And I just had to add also that I actually had one save somebody's life because of the first aid training and the CPR training that he had done in our class years ago. So lots of awesome accomplishments. What I'm looking at for the future is to maintain that diversity of student every year going into education. somebody didn't see them in my program because our kids can earn credit um articulation agreement here. Uh we want to grade our certification earners, you know, get some more of those. And like I said, we're going to compete at Ed Rising this year, too. So, very, very excited about that. And I had to throw this in at the end because these are some

040of the comments that students gave me last year about the program. So I'm always surprised to see what they think because I would think different things, but I love it. So how to push tutoring hard, what I want to do with my life. Oh, this is probably my favorite. How important professionalism is. So lots of good good learning there. And that is our presentation for today. Thank you guys for having us. It really means a lot that we could be here and share this with you because we are super proud of what our kids are doing and um I'm so glad that you know we could tell you about it. Thank you. >> Well, we always appreciate having you and having Tony here to present these things to us. I know I have a few

041questions. I'm sure my colleagues will as well. Um, I guess my first question is, are we going to be expanding this program to Waterford Mott? You said it's been at Ketaring for 5 years, but it has not been offered at Waterford Mott, and I just don't want that to be a missed opportunity for students that are over there as well. >> Now, last year I did have a M student, >> okay, >> who was busing over. Um, I know that next year I have one that's interested, so we've been doing that. And yes, I do want to expand that. Okay, we have talked about potentially doing like another leg of it. Um, it's been five years, but it's still kind of a growing phase, so that is on the drawing board. >> Y and I

042I I do think um placement is the problem because I think this this program would be huge, but um I don't think Stansky can take 70 of our kids, right? Um, so luckily Nick has let some of the kids come into Kudson and we're hoping that maybe someday that'll be then Grayson and then Bowmont and then you know okay if things are working out well the more opportunities we can place kids then obviously the bigger the program can become. >> Okay, because I definitely would love to see it grow because as we all know we are in a shortage and I'm I'm sure Andrea and Nick could attest to you know if we can grow our own and that leads into my next question. If these students are going through this here and earning certification,

043given our grow your own program, would they then be eligible to apply for the Grow Your Own program if they were to be hired in our district through one of our buildings? Because what another great way to explain to them that there's other opportunities that could help pay for their secondary education for them to be able to get their certifications. >> Yeah. I mean, I I love the potential for that. That might be a Steve question, but I I don't know the answer. Are you rolling away, Steve? >> I'm uh I'm opening up my space and also inviting Susan File into the conversation. They would have to meet some requirements post high school. Okay. >> Um before that would be a consideration, but they would be in our pipeline for sure, so to speak. >>

044Okay. >> There there's also um a program called teach which they could use to help finance them their education. >> All right. Member Donahue. Uh I just wanted to say it it's uh my son was a part of the program. I'm not sure if it was the inception like year for year one of this or the precursor to it and um absolutely loved it. He had the chance to work at Stapansky and uh um of it and and uh it was great to see that side of him and and talking about it. As a matter of fact, this summer uh before he was going back to college, he found the shirt that he would wear from it. He's a lot more muscular now. He doesn't fit into it, but he still it was interesting. It

045was just like, "All right, well, we'll donate the shirt." And he was like, "No." And he still has that shirt sitting in his and uh because it's and so it was one of those things that as a as a father and as as his mom would say, it was very nice to see that he's going to end up being a good dad. And there is no doubt it was part of this of the experiences that he had. So, thank you very much. >> I I think I actually remember your son >> about five years ago, six years ago. >> All skinny red hat. Oh, yeah. [laughter] >> Yeah. That was a previous incarnation. But I love that you said about the parenting because I if kids are interested, I want them because somewhere they're going

046to apply this >> 100%. Remember Santa? >> Did this replace the careers with children class? >> Yeah. Both of my kids took that class. Yep. >> One of my sons became a teacher and I honestly w he went to Sagenov Valley and he teaches at Aendale now. He teaches fifth grade >> and um I wish he'd had something like this. Um it probably would have cut the student loan debt in half and the careers with children is actually what got him to become a teacher. So kudos to that program. Yeah, we so we ran that under family and consumer science for years. As long as I've been around, that was part of the family consumer science pathway, but Michigan recognized education as a high demand pathway that needed to be addressed. So, we were able

047to move this program into its own education pathway, which then brought in additional funding for CTE. So, it's it's a it was kind of running under family consumer science and then we rebuilt it under the education pathway that allows us to uh bring bring in some funding from the state to support it. >> Kudos. Thank you, >> member. >> Yeah, I just want to thank uh you two for for coming and bringing this to us and to Miss Bratton and Mr. Gregory for for helping shape this program too. I mean, when I think all of us up here when we think about the the the best version of education, um this is a probably a good example of that, right? where we have students who are coming away with some concrete skills, things they can

048point to to say, I learned this. Moments to reflect. I mean, uh I I just love this. Nothing is possible. Some things are just hard. I mean, what a what a great reminder. Um so, moments of reflection, the gift of responsibility. I mean, that's a place where you get to try out those things you've learned and practice and reflect and revise. Um there are rewards and then opportunity is the most important part and there seems to be no shortage of those. So, thank you to both of you for your work on this, bringing this to us and and to our partners as well. That's this is really incredible. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Any other questions? Okay. Unfortunately, this isn't a time for audience questions, but if you I'm

049sure that if you would like to reach out to Mr. Miller or you also they would be more than happy to answer those questions or send them to Superintendent Martin as well. All right. Thank you both. You are rock stars. Um we appreciate you so much. Thank you. [applause] All right, we are going to move on now to our external audit report with Assistant Superintendent Hildebrandt. >> Good evening trustees and audience. With us tonight is Jennifer Watkins from Yono to present the audit reports summary to everyone. They showed me how to do it. Okay. Good [clears throat] evening everybody. Um we have a short presentation kind of a summary of the overall audit and how things went. Um overall just a good clean report for you guys tonight. Um, I will start with you guys

050have paper copies of the audit with you. You're probably used to getting hardbound copies, but this year we are still waiting for the compliance supplement from the federal government. That kind of gives us the rules over your single audit, which is your um federal dollars, and we've been holding off, wishing that we'd get it. um we can't date that single audit technically until we receive it, but MDE came out with some guidance two weeks ago when our firm has decided to issue um the financial statements alone on the 20th kind of we've picked a date and so that will be submitted timely. They have to be to the state by typically November 1st. This year November 3rd and then um the state has allowed us 30 days once we get that compliance supplement to follow

051up and submit your single audit. So that's kind of the plan right now, but all of your items will be submitted timely and they're they're done and there'll be no changes to them besides dating them. So we will get started. Um just an audit overview kind of from top to bottom overall what the audit is in general. We're really hired to give you an independent opinion. The whole point of the audit is to give you that opinion, give you that assurance on your financial statements and be able to state are they free from material misstatement. Also, you have to follow the government auditing standards, other compliance requirements with Michigan Department of Education, with US ed, all of those things. And we're checking those as we go through your audit. In general, your audit opinion, you

052did receive an unmodified opinion, which is what you want. That's considered a clean opinion. That's the highest level of assurance that we can give. And in general, it means that we've um done enough procedures to be able to state that your financial statements are free from material misstatement. The next few slides goes right into snippets of your audit. So the first is your balance sheet and this is your governmental fund statement. So your general fund that we have two major funds this year um both 2020 capital project funds but series 2 and three and then all other funds are together in that non- major governmental um fund column. So things like food service, student activities, debt funds are all combined in that column. Um overall I always mention this is a snippet of time for

053the balance sheet. So it's as of June 30th and for schools we acrew things back um things like July and August state aid and pay benefits. So assets for the end of the June 30th fiscal year of 2025 you had 103 million. Um, and note that the due from other governmental units kind of midway through your assets, those are that July and August state aid and then any outstanding receivables for grants that you're want or waiting for. Um, just something a little different for those acred statements. Under liabilities, your total liabilities for the district is at 24.3 million. And again, things acrewed back to June 30th. I mentioned summer and um pay including benefits but also any AP like accounts payable for projects that are going on and the work was done prior to June

05430th. The next page is including your deferred inflows and also your fund balance. Total deferred inflows were 4 million. This was a new concept a few years ago. It came up um a new accounting standard but what it is is basically unavailable revenue. So the first is grants that were not received within 60 days. That's a special rule for governments. And then the leases, there's an offsetting asset for that exact amount. So that 3.3 million overall fund balance um for the district in total is 74.7 million. 16.9 of that makes up the general fund. And I like to mention as well that every other fund besides general is either assigned or restricted for a specific purpose. So capital projects, those are restricted. They have to be spent for that specific purpose. Food service, same thing.

055All of the other funds, the one amount in your general fund balance in that column to make up that 16.9 million, there's 14.7 that's unassigned. um 1.5 that is assigned. That's your amount that you've budgeted in your original budget. Excess expenditures of um revenue and then non-spendable which is things like inventory or prepaids revenues and expenses for those same funds. Total revenues for all funds 224 million expenditures 24 million net increase in total um for all funds of 19.8 million but that does include the new bond um for the series 3 that income coming in and we'll have some specific to general fund right here. So this slide represents original budget, final budget and actual. And this is just for general fund. You can see um overall especially for revenue you were spot on on

056the budget you were less than 1% of a variance there and for expenditures less than a 3% variance. Overall the final budget was a decrease of 2.7 million but you ended an increase of about 200 These charts um are for general fund only. So just kind of to go over the same items. So total revenue but looking at it a little bit differently broke out by um the type of revenue they are. I point out here which you guys are all aware that with local and state together because local is your property taxes which is offsetting that foundation allowance amount from the state is 87% of your overall kind of bucket of money that you have for the job that you're relying on the state for expenditures overall here type um 81% of course is

057your salaries and related ated benefits um which is typical obviously for a school district and that's you know your mixers your ret um health and all of those benefits FICA then we have a couple slides to show the past five years some history um first is the per pupil analysis of revenues and expenditures for from 2021 to 2025 and you can see the red line there is your revenues and the blue line is your expenditure this year. They're almost you almost broke even with a little small increase for 2025. The next slide is an enrollment trend analysis for the same year. So you have 2021 to 2025 ending in 2025 at that 6,776 pupils. The next slide um many I know boards use this percent for many things. So this is your percent of general

058fund balance as a percent of current operating expenditures. So same year's fiscal year 21 to 2025. The red portion is any assigned or other maybe unspendable portion of the general fund balance and then the blue is all the unassigned portion. Um I will note that the items at the top are a year off. Um because we don't get that state information. It's always delayed a year. So the current information we have is for last year. Um but last year you were just under 13% which we rounded up to 13 and this year you're just over 13% at that 13.31%. Now, the overall report card and how everything went. We had just overall great audit this year. Everything went really well. We had no material weaknesses, no significant deficiencies, no material non-compliance. So, overall, no findings

059on the financial statements. Um, very good and clean audit. The next few pages focus on the single audit piece of it. We did audit two programs this year both the child nutrition cluster and esser which is um ended now so we won't be auditing that in the future we also had no material weaknesses no significant deficiencies and no material non-compliance with any of the federal awards and those get audited quite a bit how we say you know as much as we audit everything else your federal dollars are audited um you know extra testing extra compliance science. There's a lot of extra work that goes into it on our side, but on your team as well, and we had no issues with any of the federal dollars that were spent in your audit packet, you also

060receive a governance letter as well as your financial statements, your single audit, and the governance letter. It has a lot of I say accounting lingo in there, but there's always a um some highlights. We go over any new standards. If there were issues, they would be noted in there. We had no issues. We had no material audit adjustments. So, it's overall clean letter. We do note um the new standards this year. We had Gazsby 101 um and Gatsby 102 both governmental accounting standards um pronouncements that we had to comply with. Compensated absences. This um was a new way of acrewing that number. It did cause a change to the financials for all districts, all school districts and all governments really. Um we had to do a prior period adjustment due to the change in accounting

061principle. But that is what happens when we have a change in accounting principle. We did that a few years ago if you remember when we brought in student activity funds into the um regular fund level statements. Same thing. Um nothing you did wrong. That's just an accounting. We make accounting rules. I think to make our lives difficult, but um your team was great. They handled great and got us the proper calculations and um and did it very we really appreciate that because it's something a lot of our districts have struggled with. So all good things and we had um no management comments as well in that letter. On prior year followup, there were a finding related to budget overages last year which was resolved this year. We also had a management re related to budgets

062um overages and that was also resolved this year. So, we checked that um when we come out to do the new audit and everything was fixed and we had no issues in the current year. And just in summary, I'm going to go over everything. I already stated it, but your financial statements, you had clean opinion. Um your general fund balance is sitting at just above 13%. Your single audit, you have two reports in that. Both were unmodified opinions in both areas. Single audit and financial statements, you had no findings and we will be submitting timely to the state. And overall, um, I'm happy to take any questions and I like to mention why I'm here. You have questions that come up after the fact or anytime really during the year, my information is right here,

063but of course your team has it as well. Um, but I'm always happy to take questions from the board. Thanks. >> All right, colleagues, do we have questions? >> Member McGregor. >> Okay, so no findings is always a good thing. >> Yeah. >> Um, so that's great. Good job. Um, one of the questions I had is about financial controls. Is that part of your audit? Um, how deep do you go into that? All of those things. So we start kind of at that point. We look at the kind of beginning to the end, how money is coming into the district, how it's leaving the district, who's reviewing things like something like a bank wreck, we're checking to make sure it's being done timely, being reviewed properly. So kind of all of that process we go

064through at the beginning. usually come out for a few days of preliminary work before field work where we're looking at those items and those would come up. Well, if they were egregious, they would be a finding or they would be a management comment if we found like a hole or a recommendation to improve on. But your team did really well. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Do we have any other questions? Member Donahghue. >> It's not a question. I just wanted to thank you for your work, but also for uh Karen and Amy and your department. Great job. Keep it up. It's uh it's nice to see the trend that we're that we have. [clears throat] >> Member Torres >> just had a question. Uh you had mentioned the what was the percentage of

065state funds that we receive. You said >> I believe >> thought you said 87. >> It was 87. >> How does that break down? >> So it's the local portion. >> Oh, we're taking that. Okay. because that's unless that there might be a little tiny bit of like contributions, but the majority of that is your property tax revenue and then your other state sources. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> And actually, I have a question just to clarify that. Um, the local is our non-h homestead, correct? The local revenue and then the state is actually the property taxes on our home, the one that distributes that funding to us. Correct. So you get a portion of your foundation allowance as actual property tax revenue which would be in that local bucket and then the rest

066of it come the rest of the foundation allowance comes from the state sources but that state sources also includes restricted items like at risk or the categoricals and everything else. I just wanted to make sure that for everyone that's listening that they understood the the two different buckets that create that 87%. And I have to say too, I want to echo my colleagues comments to our team. It is amazing to see that revenue and expenditure almost identical. So to know that what is coming in we are putting right back out to where it should be going. So we do appreciate the hard work and we appreciate you as well for the audit and nice job on on having a great audit. Right. Are there any other comments or questions? All right. Thank you so much.

067>> Thank you. >> And we are going to move along to our superintendent recommendation to new business. And it's superintendent recommendations recommendation 13-25-26 relative to special education substitute contracted services. >> Yeah. Yes. I was >> sure who you were looking. No, I I was like, okay, >> sorry, mic was in the way. [laughter] >> Uh, superintendent's recommendation 13-25-26 contracted substitute special education services. It is recommended that the board approve the award for RFPWSD26 substitutebased special education services to all fully responsive vendors listed in the bid tabulation. [clears throat] Contra contracts will be executed in order of pricing and specialty as needed to meet the district's operational and student service requirements. Funding sources general fund center program fund ISO move >> support. All right, the motion has been moved in support. Are there any comments or

068questions? Member Torres. Um the uh so I see that we're selecting uh all of those that gave an RFP or uh who actually responded the proposal. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> So um and it looks like uh establish a pool of qualified contracted professionals who can be deployed uh as needed on a needed basis. So um and then these positions then there is there is no union representation or connection to them. They're just contractual. Correct. >> This is for the short-term leave. This is not in place of a WA member. This is when we have a vacancy that we are unable to fill or we have a WA valued member that may need a short-term leave of absence. And it allows us the opportunity to meet the needs of the IEP of the students

069by having all the vendors. It gives us a menu of qualified contractors to go to. based on pricing and seeing if they have a qualified candidate that may meet that need, whether it be a two-week need or perhaps a 12week family medical leave act need. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments or questions? Member McGregor. >> Um, so just a followup to that. Um, so my understanding is, for example, if we had a position that we couldn't fill that we would still have that posting out there for WEA and this would be in place of that until we could fill that WA position. >> Correct. >> Is that right? >> That may be impacted. >> Right. Okay. And then my other part of that question too um with having what is the impact on continuity

070for students? We wouldn't keep moving them around. So if there's a placement that person is placed >> and then if another placement opened up, we would once again go to the call list doing pricing first and if there's a qualified candidate in the pool that we may take advantage of. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Welcome. All right. Are there any com? All right. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. All right. Motion carry 70. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see that your hand wasn't up. I'm sorry that was so you are na. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, sorry. 6 to one. And we are going to stay with Treasurer Danahill. >> Superintendent's recommendation 14-25-26, resolution to submit replacement operating millillage proposal. It is recommended that the board of education approve the

071attached resolution to submit replacement operating millage proposal for the May election date May 5th, 2026. I so move >> support. support. All right, the motion has been moved and supported. Are there any comments or questions? And we just want to make sure we did have a presentation on this um at our cow meeting recently. This is for our nonhomestead properties. This is not for those of you that live here in the community. This would impact our commercial properties. um the 18 mills that were approved when we did this renewal. Unfortunately, with the Headley amendment and the roll back, we are not actually getting the full 18 mills that we should be getting, but the state thinks we are. So, we are at a loss of $295,000 by not having the full 18 mills. So what

072this would allow us to do is renew it so that we could as it continues to roll back be able to still capture the full 18 mills so that we are able to capture the full per pupil foundation allowance. So this is not impacting residents. This is strictly on the commercial properties here in the community and this 295,000 if this millillage doesn't pass will double for next year. And that's a loss of money for our district and for our students and for our staff. So, I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that this is not on residential properties. It's strictly a commercial. All right. Going to move on. All those in favor, please signify by raising your hand. Okay. This time I counted correctly. 70. I did not see your hand was

073up last time. All right. We are going to move on. We are moving on now to public comments on non-action items. As you are recognized to speak, please move to the microphone at the podium to address the board and state your full name and address for the record. Please be reminded that comments are limited to 3 minutes in duration. Members of the public are invited to share comments. However, this is not intended to be a time for questions and answers. Oh, sir. I will definitely call when I have the green card. Oh, I wasn't sure if you were making your way over there. Um, so [clears throat] members of the public are invited to share comments. However, this is not intended for a time for questions and answers. Last may speak only once on the

074same topic and are asked to avoid statements that are personally directed, abusive, or obscene. >> Sir, do I have your green card? >> Oh, I don't have a green card. >> Okay. If you card, they're up at the podium. and then just you can bring it over to Megan and then she can give it to me and we'll make sure to add you in. Um, we are first going to bring Jamie Brown to the podium. Okay, I'm going to do a show and tell. So, just bear with me for one second. Okay, so in the beginning of the year, we set up our classrooms for three hours and we are to do inventory bullets and boards notes to families. Welcome slideshows, curriculum, my packets, to-do lists for students and parents. Set up platforms for Google

075Classroom, HMH, and math. Create computer cards and how to change passwords and to figure out the old passwords that were used in prior years. School information, district information. Organize numbers on lockers with teachers in the hall. Gather math, age, and age, note, and books, and count them and get them prepared for the school year. Gather um the first science kit and bring it down to the room. Gather get to know you activities for the first week. Plan for the first week. Curriculum map for the entire year. Prepare. Organize folders and notebooks. Figure out how kids are supposed to go home the first day, the first week. What a normal week is actually for the students. Connect to students and parents names, name tags. We do all that in three hours. We get paid for. Um

076this is that information. Okay. [sighs] This is plan for daily elementary teacher. We have to check emails. Teacher school email, morning messages, birthdays, eagle awards once a week, VIP tables, daily Alexa awards check-ins, target for for our content areas, attendance, morning meetings, trails, seal, scup, um going over the rules for the district and school, reading, reading lessons, lessons for stories, lessons for vocabulary, lessons for word, lessons for comprehension, lessons for writing, lessons for grammar. um figuring out lexia, figuring out mirror scores, making sure kids are keeping up with those things. We also have to do math, math lessons, problem based learning, visual learning, guided independent practice, assessing and differentiating lessons, reteing um especially the students on Dream Docks that are above grade level. Science, read and prepare, hands-on activities, clean up the activities, get kits,

077put kits away. Inventory the kits four times a year. Put new items that come back from the kits in the kits. Social studies, read and prepare because we really don't have we have a brand new social studies. We have no books. We have a whole bunch of websites to go to. So, this Oops. Yeah. Is reading. >> You have 30 seconds. >> Oh, Miss Brown, he was just giving you your 30 seconds. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Very good. This is math. You can grab it. This is science and social studies. This every single email from middle of August till now. The district expects us to read, apprehend, and understand. This is what we do for planning time. Three pages here that we're expected to do. This is our letters training which is an obscene amount

078of time on top of all this other time. [snorts] [applause] You can finish that last little sentence. I know that you kind of stopped midway. So we'll give you a little bit of extent just to finish your just your thought really quick. But okay. So, in our time to do all of the things outside of our work schedule, this is we are contract I'm sorry, we're contracted to be there from 8:35 until 4:05. We are in with the kids teaching them. This is above and beyond what every elementary teacher is expected to do. And we're not even compensating for it. It's an expectation every day. All right, we are going to allow um Miss Brown to Did you want to grab all of that stuff prior? Okay. All right, we're going to move. >> Okay,

079that would that would not be good. We don't want the binders to get broken. Um we did have some late people enter our auditorium prior to me being able to state public comment rules. So, I'd like to go over those again um just to make sure that those that entered were were aware of that. Um, as you're recognized to speak, please move to the microphone at the podium to address the board full name and address for the record. Please be reminded that comments are limited to 3 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. And lastly, participants may speak only once on the same topic and are asked to avoid statements that are personally directed, abusive, or

080obscene. I am going to invite Mary Crate to the podium. Good evening. Uh my name is Mary. I live at 3655 Mariner, Waterford, Michigan, where I have lived in Waterford for the over 50 years now. And I too am a product of Waterford Schools, a Waterford MK graduate. Um probably before a few school board members were even born. Um, so tonight I'm here um beginning my ninth year officially as the Waterford Education Association president and I'm very proud of the people I work with and if it's not a surprise to you, we're getting ready for financial negotiations. Thank you, the state of Michigan. Um, I had a very good conversation last week with our new superintendent talking about some amazing things that are happening and maybe some things that we could change. And one of

081the things that came to mind was the fact that as I'm going through our numbers, there are currently 92 Waterford WEA members who have more than 25 years with this district. 92. That's just shy of the 20% of my group of people. And I thought how interesting it would be to say these are the people that have between 30 and 34 years with the Waterford School District. Tara Frizzle, Craig Schloffman, Julie Rule, Gary Jackman, Sarah Cedarlin Johnson, Jeff Richards, Chris Browy, Merlin Beard, Melissa McIll, Kathleen Kelly, and Tony Giggalio. And then I went to I wonder how many people have more than 35 years. They're trying to catch me not letting it happen, but I came up with nine staff members that have 35 years with us. Think about 35 or more. Diane Elton, Katherine

082ShraMM, Jillers. They are kindergarten teachers with more than 35 years with this district. Jill Richards, Katie Mu, Rachel [snorts] Bryce, Margie Newberry, Chris Saporin, Lisa Parker, and myself. I think the work that all of these people have done deserves not only financial compensation, but the utmost respect from the community and all of us. And it's a real telling thing. We have lived through every difficult time in this district. Years and years with no steps, years and years with no payraises and we didn't leave. So you know how many of us really believe in the Waterford community and the Waterford kids. So I would like to take time to celebrate them. Thank you for all you do. >> Thank you. All right, we are going Mackenzie Octton. All right. Hello again. As many of the board

083members know, my name is Mackenzie Ogden and I'm a social study teacher at Mott High School. This is my fourth time addressing who go above and beyond in their jobs. I've talked about how dedicated class sponsors and other extracurricular sponsors work. Today I would like to get frank about money. No teacher will ever tell you that pay a teacher for the money. [snorts] And this has never been just a job for me, but the fact is that teaching is the thing that is supposed to pay my bills. And I tell you as a young single teacher in this district that I live paycheck to paycheck. I've had to have a second job on and off during my time here. I have done extra duties and picked up sponsor roles to help me make ends meet.

084I've had to ask my parents on more than one occasion for help to get me to the end of the month. I've pushed myself to exhaustion just to survive. And I'm not alone in this. And I know we said that it's across the county that teachers not getting paid enough, but the fact is that Waterford ranks 23rd out of 28 districts in Oakland County for teacher starting salary. And it's same for the top step as well. What's interesting, when I was looking at an old contract, the starting salary for a teacher in 2004 in Waterford was about $35,000. Now, we consider the rate of inflation, that would equal to about $61,000 today. The starting salary today in Waterford is $42,300. It's about $20,000 less than what our counterparts were getting 20 years ago. So while

085our salaries are not kept with inflation, all of our bills and expenses have continued to increase. A young team in Waterford cannot even Waterford. And so why I bring this up? It is so demoralizing to put my heart and my profession to countless hours of my free time to be the best teacher I can be to give up so much and give so much and not be able to even have a wage. It is so demoralizing to have to call my dad in tears and ask for some money so I can pay my rent. It is so demoralizing to think about what am I going to do if I can't make more money? Am I going to have to move back in with my parents again at almost 30 years old? That is not doable.

086It is so awful that we have our teachers who cannot afford to live their life. And I don't feel like we are asking for too much. We are asking for the worth that we have. We've seen here how hard our teachers work every day, how much time they have to give up and not get paid for. All we want is to live comfortably. I am not asking for too much. Thank you. >> Right. Thank you. We are going to move on to Mr. Joe Humphrey. [applause] I have uh a lot of my colleagues have already covered a lot of things that I was going to talk about personally, but I think some things to notice about this district that I've been here 20 years um we've had a lot of great colleagues and unfortunately they've

087had to leave. And the one thing when I talk to other districts with with all the stuff I do with the WA and MEA and things like that, the one thing we hear about is how great of teachers we bring from Waterford that they get and they are that fortunate to get where they don't even have to be trained by another district because they have the previous training and the knowledge that we have all given them. So, I just, you know, being in negotiations, like Mary said, um we just hope for a financial package that you guys give the permission for a financial package where we can accept it and have our contract done. That's all we're looking for. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] All right, we are going to move on now to

088Mr. Jason Brown. >> I lost my notes in the scurry. [laughter] Uh yeah, Jason Brown, 1992 Woodbridge Court, Highland, Michigan. I am the unofficial teacher assistant for the last 20 plus years to uh Jamie here. Um and hearing some of the other comments, I guess one thing that comes to mind is just summarizing, you know, um I guess I think of like the compound effect, right, of all these things that when you look at them discreetly just look little things. Um, but they're more than little things. So, um, yeah, it's hard not to get emotional, right? Because I'm her support system. I know few of these other teachers, um, totally agree with what they say. Uh, we feel it. I feel it. And I'm not even an employee of the district. So, you know, um,

089you know, cutting lamination, uh, helping build binders and things. Um, you know, I'm looking forward to the days where I don't have to do that. Um, but I would greatly appreciate the consideration, uh, the demonstration trying to show here that the hard work that these people put in. My wife is the most hardworking person that I know. If you know, I I lead a team of engineers. If I had her work ethic for my engineers, I'd have a superior working engineering team. um have an engineering degree. Um but nonetheless um yeah I guess you know what was said from the early education early education thing I think you mentioned right um I guess please resonate that when you guys consider the budget and how you compensate these hardworking individuals you know these are hard things

090and you have to do hard things for them please. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right, we are going to move on to Hasha Boy. >> Thanks for the financial report that put her to sleep. [laughter] Um, May of 2025, the Michigan Board of Education passed a resolution to limit class size, especially K through third grade, to 20 students or less. The resolution says, "Every available study shows smaller class sizes leads to better outcomes for children." My daughter goes to Kulie Elementary here in Waterford. Her class size for kindergarten is 28 students. one teacher. I couldn't handle 28 kids on my own. I could probably keep them from killing each other, but I couldn't give them actual learning when you're focused on 28 individual students that all require different things. My daughter and the other

091children deserve to have a class sized that leads to better outcome. Mrs. Johnson is doing an incredible job with her class. I'm very impressed with the order and effort she puts to create an engaging time for her class. But we need to do better for the children and for our teachers. It's no wonder that our [snorts] teacher burnout. I emailed our principal, Mrs. Cummings. She said, "I along with the district leadership are aware of the large number of students in kindergarten and I'm currently seeking to hire a PAR assistant who would assist both kindergarten classrooms and our two second grade classrooms. I feel we need to do more than a PAR assistant, especially a PAR assistant to divided between four classrooms. My daughter and the other children deserve to have a class sized that leads

092to better outcomes. When we walked through Kulie in the spring, they had three kindergarten classrooms. Now they are utilizing two of them with oversized classes. I checked the surrounding districts. They do not have as many children in their classrooms. my daughter and I want her to have a great school experience. This is very important to my wife and I. If the class size is a funding issue, I think it's worth trying a millillage or some other funding to to provide that for the students. We we're we're a blueco collar area. There's people that need extra help with their kids. There's a lot of single parents that are doing the best they can, and those kids deserve to have more one-on-one time with their kids, with the teacher. Um, if you want, I've got the this

093is the state Michigan State Board of Education legislator. Um, and this is talking about it, but the budget's not there till looks like 2030, which is too late for my daughter. All right. Thank you. [applause] All right. We are now going to move on to Mr. Pete OG. Hi, I'm Pete OG. I live at 1315 Shakaw in Waterford. And uh I want to come here to thank you guys. I work with Sierra Club and recently you leased out some property to Oakland County Parks and we want to thank you publicly for that. That that's a real big plus to save green space. Um, also all I've noticing tonight, all the education that really goes on here. Thank you for all your efforts on that. That's it's it's amazing to hear these different groups. Um, an

094update on the OC property. The community is developing a plan to save some of the property, the rest of the northern property as an education center. So OCC would either have a mini campus there or Oakland County Parks would run something out of there. We're just now starting to put it together to figure out what we can bring. So if you guys got any help for us, we're volunteers. for people who don't do it and we need all the help we can to show Oakland Community College's board of trustees that there's other options and what the other option is developers building property out there. So, we want to get ahead of that and have something to present when other people present the building property. Um, I'll email you with a little brief update so if

095you have any questions or comments, you can get back to it. The the main focus of this is to have a feeder system, to have outdoor education right there. Hopefully, you know, with school districts and doing these different programs we had tonight, uh, to save that for our use, the community use is what we want. um we're at a huge disadvantage because the developers have money and they can throw it into the presentations and kind of overwhelm the community. So, we're we have that frustration, too. Um November 20th is going to be a a public forum. OCC is having it. I believe it it is at the Highland Lakes campus. Just Heads up. Okay. Thanks for your time. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Mr. Greg, is it Barer? I didn't want to pronounce

096your last name incorrectly. >> Is it bar? >> Greg Bower. >> Bower. Thank you. >> Yeah. 6950 Hatchery Road. Uh, I am a trustee for Conservation Waterford Lands, better known as Cowell, and I'm here to thank the board. As the previous gentleman said, you've worked with Oakland County to secure those lands for the use of the public, and I think it's a great job. It's a win for for the school district, and it's a win for the town, and it's a win for the county. So, thank you again for all that you do. And as he said, we have buildings over there. There's possibility they might tear them down. They are outstanding classrooms in those buildings that could be utilized. And if you work with the township, I'm hoping that you can develop programs that

097you could take over to the OC buildings that will be vacant and fill them up with whatever skill trades, different things that the students expand their opportunities. So, thank you for your time and I apologize. It's my first school board meeting. So, >> Oh, that is totally okay. >> So, I wasn't aware of that. >> Yes. Yeah. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. >> All right. Have a great day. >> Thank you. All right. And our last green card is Miss Robin McGregor. Good evening. Rob McGregor, 2629 Caterham. I'm here to speak about the taste of Waterford. I am the chairperson for f fueling kids futures and this school district has over 300 kids that we feed every week. With that, it takes $40,000 to feed them. Nothing comes from the school district other than

098the fact that you let us use two rooms to store and we're very grateful for that and we have containers that we have and it's like a wello oiled machine and the students that we help. I don't get to see their faces, but I do get to see the teachers faces and how they appreciate a child being able to eat on the weekend and make a difference. We met with the superintendent. He was very grateful to us. He also helped us realize that empathy can be viewed in different ways. So when we are asking parents if they need help, it's on them to ask for it so that we're not pushing our values. It's a really good balance to help a child and their families when we do it. So that's why we're doing the

099Taste of Waterford. It's November um 10th at the um Thank God for the Oakland County Parks. They let us use the event center for free and we're going to do the way Heather Halls did back in the day when we were all together. Um, it's going to be 19 restaurants from this community. We only have one chain restaurant and that's Texas Roadhouse was giving us their biscuits. Everybody else is Waterford. We have raffle tickets and hopefully we can get our superheroes from the drain commission to help us with that and all our money can go back into the kits. But I would love to have some people from the board be there. I have a ticket for our superintendent. He said he would be there. We have Mr. Gregory who's going to speak on behalf

100of the kids. He's come to our meetings, talked about how important it is and how it makes a difference. So, I would love to see some of your smiling faces there. Um, this is the first time in a lot of time in a long time that we've had the taste. It's something that gives back to the community and I just want to make that difference. And, um, my second piece is on Cowell. Uh, we've been working with Oakland County Parks to secure the other piece of land. I know that there's two developers that are looking at that. um if they build that, they want multi-ousing, so more apartments. That doesn't mean we're going to get residents that will have kids. It's going to be more transit or high-end apartments. It's not going to be beneficial

101in working for the um gas company. I know the infrastructure for gas, electricity, and water cannot sustain that area. Nor can hospital or Kulie Lake. So, if you can help in any way, we appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Really quick, Robin, you said November 10th, but what's the time frame for the taste? >> From 6:00 to 8. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. We have no more green cards, so we are going to move on to our board reports. Do we have any board reports this evening? Member Donahghue. Uh, Superintendent Martin and I attended the O Superintendent Martin and I attended the the Oakland County School Board Association meeting last night to hear about the budget updates and um uh not only for this year, but uh some concerning budget future forecasts

102uh after this school year. And um and that that was uh that kind of ruined the meeting a little bit um to to hear that here this is the money we've got got. good luck in the future. Um, we also had the chance to hear from the Oakland ISD superintendent about all the things they supposedly do for us and um, uh, so that was um, that was a a fairy tale night. That was wonderful. Um, that's it for my word report. >> All right, member Wristitch. >> Yes, I just had I had the opportunity to go to uh, um, Haunting Harmonies uh, over at Waterford Ketering on Tuesday. Um, and it was just a great event. Uh, our performing arts are just just [clears throat] topnotch. And so, again, if if if you ever get

103a chance to go to a football game, a soccer game, go. But don't sleep on the performing arts. Um, we just it was amazing. That was a terrific way to spend a Tuesday night during spooky season. Um, and I just wanted to give a quick shout out here. Here's the program. Merlin Beard, Courtney Leairard, Laura Silhaver, and Hannah Schmidkkey um who was an amazing accompanist for the whole uh the whole performance. Um this feed our bands, our choirs, and our orchestra. So, hour 90 minutes of just top-notch music. Um the whole performing arts center was packed to the gill, standing room only nearly. Um so, just a just an amazing night. So, shout out to our performing arts um uh programs and staff. >> All right. member Torres. Um I had a chance to go

104to uh both homecomings. Um so I saw several of the board members there, the MAD homecoming uh and uh the Ketering. Um my daughter and I were able to along with Superintendent Martin to be uh float judges, which was really cool. My daughter just thought the world of it. She's a sixth grader, so she thought it was so cool. but interacting with the high school kids and the pride that they show. Um, just really the the way that they carry themselves is so impressive. You know, these kids on homecoming court, we got to meet them all and I just love that we do that and that it's it's something that happens cuz it really teaches these kids about, you know, the pride in their town and um how to carry themselves, how how how to

105just, you know, uh, bring everybody together. So, it was uh really a great experience. Um I uh saw Mr. Patricia, board member Patricia there as well, Miss Wagner, board member Wagner, and then obviously our superintendent at the homecomings and then uh parent teacher conferences just happened. So I guess speaking more as a parent, but I was impressed with how efficient they are now. It's like you get in there and uh she had all five of her all right there and it was like boom boom boom five minutes and they tell you you know a little snippet from each and then any questions you know and it's just moves really efficient. I really felt like I got a lot but a lot with the technological advances that we have now than versus when my older daughter

106was in sixth grade in 2009 completely different. I know what's happening with the grades. Thank you to the teachers and respect for this over here because I know you're putting that information in all the time. I'm always getting emails from the teachers. I always feel informed and I know what's happening. Um and uh being able to speak with all of your teachers and and get all that information in such an efficient and and good way. I think it really shows um what you're talking about here. Well, what you all do and um the work that you put in, how informed we are as parents. So, uh thank you for that. Thanks. >> All right. Well, I have a board report as well um to kind of follow up with the awesome concert that member Wristitch

107attended. Waterford M is also having their spooktacular concert and that will be on October 29th and the concert starts at 7:00. But before that is the 6th annual indoor trunk or treat that our Waterford M student council and leadership put on. and it it's an indoor trunk or treat. It is free to the community. So, highly recommend checking that out. Bring your kids there and stay for the concert because the concert is also fabulous. And typically, there is also a costume contest during the concert that the elementary and younger kids and even middle school kids are able to participate in. So, mark your calendars for October 29th. The trunk or treat indoor, actually, it's I know it says trunk or treat, but it's actually indoor. starts at 5:30 to 7 and then the concert is

108at 7 o'clock. Um, a little shout out to Stansky. I am our that represents um, us on the Head Start Council. So, we just started our meetings up for this school year. And it's always fun to be in the building. Love that building. dear to my heart, but it's also fun to be able to connect with our parents and the representatives of our Head Start community and our Stansky community because they are integral to making sure that they stay within our district and keep our district going. So, Stansky, if you have not checked it out yet and have not seen the new building because you haven't driven down Airport Road, I highly recommend you check it out. And there is a community playground that is available not during school hours for kids. Um I also

109would like to on a personal note give a huge shout out to our Waterford Ketering and our Waterford M girls volleyball teams. I wasn't able to attend but they do the dig pink every year in support of breast cancer. As someone who is a recent breast cancer survivor, I think it is an amazing event that our kids do every single year. And I don't think people realize how many families in our community and in our district are impacted by cancer and specifically breast cancer. But more importantly, it's such a great example of our students and their advocacy and their always their willingness to give back to their community. So big shout out to the girls. I know that the other teams are doing stuff too, but I definitely wanted to make sure to give a

110shout out to our volleyball teams for always handling or participating and hosting the dig pink. And that's it. All right, we're going to move on. Any other board reports? All right, we are going to move on now to our superintendent report. >> Thank you. Uh happy to report that on October 3rd, uh it's amazing what two weeks can do. But October 3rd, the House and Senate Senate uh finally passed the school aid budget. Uh governor signed that into law on October 8th, which means MDE should be good to go in terms of our payments u for October 20th. Just want to report out budget included a $442 increase in the per pupil uh raising the total per pupil to $10,50. That 4.6 Six increase extends to CTE, special education, uh as well as uh local

111district operations. Funding for at risk and English language learners was also increased by 25%. There was increased allocations for uh safety and mental health grants and the continuation of the free school breakfast and lunch. Unfortunately, an additional 400 million in funding for higher education was pushed into the school aid fund. Uh this brings the total amount of school a fund dollars that are being diverted away from K12 education to $1.34 billion. The bill also eliminates a h 100red million currently allocated to offset districts retirement or MEPs uh costs. While while being happy that we have an approved budget, we must continue to advocate for number one having an on-time budget. Being 95 days late is inexcusable. and number two, ensuring that they are continuing to fund our schools as was intended. I had this question

112uh last week at our district parent council uh and I wanted to bring it up. They asked about impact of uh the state lotan in education. So I went backwards. So 1.3 bill34 billion was diverted this year uh to other things. Last year our lotto contributed $1.2 2 billion into the school aid fund. So the idea that the lotto is going into education is absolutely false. Um it may be coming into the piggy bank, but they're pulling right out from the piggy bank the same amount. So uh for those watching at home and keeping track, I just want to include that. Please continue to advocate that our our dollars stay with our kids. Uh also, uh to Trustee Torres's point, um Mott and Ketaring celebrated their homecoming football games. They were fantastic games. Mott unfortunately

113lost in the last couple minutes. Ketaring uh was able to pull it out 22 seconds. Uh was able to pull it out 14-0, but both teams played with incredible competitive spirit. Uh would love to see as many people out there for the cross town rivalry game on October 25th at 1:00 at Ketaring. I especially want to thank all the staff, the parents, and the students for all of their work organizing the homecoming festivities. U Miss Ogden, I know you're you're uh involved in that. So, thank you so much. Uh it was really great seeing the students celebrate together, seeing the dance teams, the palm teams, the cheer teams, the marching band. We have incredible, incredibly talented kids uh who are dedicated uh for their schools and for community. So, it was great to see. Uh

114at Durant earlier this month, we had 39 of our students spend the day on campus at Wayne State. Uh mentors from the university gave the Vikings a tour of the campus. Uh they got to eat some food. Um I haven't been able to ask them. My guess is they liked it better than ours, but we'll see. Um they also got some gear. Uh but I wanted to thank Oakland 80 and the Oakland County Michigan Works for sponsoring the event this Tuesday, October 21st at Hess Hathaway from around 4:45 to 6:30. Uh we're looking forward to having our elementary runners who have participated in the run club out there. Uh we have almost 300 total runners and are looking forward to celebrating their participation and accomplishments. And then two last items. Uh my son told me

115two Fridays from tomorrow is Halloween and he says that's the best day of the week for Halloween to to happen. So I'm looking forward to all the different events at our buildings. Um and want to encourage everyone as they're out and about to please be safe. Please be safe in buildings um and enjoy themselves. And then the district was able to email to everyone uh the calendar to get us through the the 2025 calendar year through December. So, please make sure to check your emails for those. And outside of that, I'm done. >> All right. We are now going to recess to close session. By roll call vote, the board will move to close session in accordance with section 8 C and 8H of the Open Meetings Act. The regular meeting will be deemed adjourned

116at the conclusion of the close session. Secretary Rristitch, please take roll call vote. >> Member McGregor, >> yes. >> Member Donahghue, I'm a yes. Member Wagner, >> yes. >> Member Torres, >> yes. >> Member Sonran, >> yes. >> Member Patrusia, >> yes. >> All right, we are going to move over to close session and we will be back to adjourn the meeting.