001I don't like [Music] you on 6 all right the Board of Education meeting is called to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation God ivisible liy and justice for [Applause] all all right the approval of the agenda unless there are objections the agenda will be approved as printed are we good all right oh where's oh roll call we totally forgot about roll call Roll Call Secretary I'm all off but this is not my normal seat so I want to move here as all members are present all right now the approval of the agenda no objections are we good all right we will now move on to celebrations of learning starting with assistant superintendent Ali hello good
002evening uh I am very excited to introduce to you Miss lontine and her group of students that they're going to share a little bit about what they've been learning hi there my name is Adrien lantin I teach fifth grade at kolie elementary um tonight we come to you to share some of our learnings that we have been working on in science and Ela um I'm going to start out with a quick fact did you know that the Waterford School District serves breakfast and lunch every single day on styrofoam trays might not seem like a big deal but it actually is a big deal the styrofoam trays are not recyclable they can be bad for your health and there are many other options out there available the fifth graders at kulie have been very passionate about
003this topic they have been working really hard they have um done lots of research they have found evidence to support their thinking they have written essays they have created posters to educate others about this topic and today he I have with me today some fifth graders that are going to share some of their research that they have done hello I am Juliana Torres I'm a fifth grader in Miss Lane's class at kie Elementary a couple of months ago we had a lady come talk to us about how important it is to recycle we asked her about our lunch trays and if they could be recycled she said said no they cannot be recycled we were surprised that our breakfast and lunch trays were not recyclable all of the fifth graders at kly elementary started researching
004the topic and learning more about it we even did an essay on it what we found was shocking what we discovered in our research was not only that our breakfast and lunch trays are not recyclable but we also learned that once they go to the landfill it takes more than 500 years for them to break out break down yeah you heard me right more than 500 years and that's just to break down then there are these things called micr Plastics that are left over in the environment and those never break down in fact they stay in our Earth forever hello my name is Ola tamua oeding B and I'm a fifth grader from kie Elementary in Miss doin's class in addition to star from trays being bad for the for the environment I'm going to
005talk about how it's bad for the human body sty fir trays can increase your chances of having health problems styrofoam has an extremely toxic chemical in it called polystyrene it can lead to many health concerns be careful because styrofoam is toxic when you are drinking when you are drinking or eating something hot off of it the heat from your food causes the chemicals to spread out into your food that means you are eating chemicals exposure to polystyrene can lead to Vision hearing and memory loss it can also cause problems in your central nervous system also according to uclahealth.org Studies have linked exposure to styrene to genetic damage to white blood cells and to certain blood cancers this information proves exactly how horic styrofoam trays are we could get cancer we are being exposed to this
006highly toxic chemical every single day breakfast and lunch that's absurd Waterford school board members don't you think the school students of Waterford School District deserve better hello my name is Charlie Gower I'm a fifth grader from kolie Elementary in missan Tee's class I'm going to tell you some alternative choices we can use instead of pyrophone even though pyrophone trays are cheap they are there are many choices we can use instead of thyrone first we can go back when you were little and use reusable plastic trays these trays uh these trays can be washed and used again so we don't have to throw away any trays another another idea that we can use cardboard or paper tray if you don't want to hire anyone to wash the plastic tray according to greenpaper products.com it states we
007make strong and durable School trays made from sustainable sugar cane bigest R straw and bamboo fiber this shows that there are other options available other than styrofoam trays in addition these trays are made out of natural ingredients therefore they can break down and grow into the environment into the soil with no damage another choice is that students can bring their own cherries from home this means that the school does not have to spend money on trays and instead they can spend it on more exciting stuff like a new soccer field as you can see there are many environmentally friendly Alternatives we can use instead of Styrofoam and conclusion as you can see styrofoam trays are a terrible option for our students in the Waterford School District they are terrible for the environment they are actually
008bad for your health our health and there are so many alternative div options available to choose from we plan on staying in the district all the way until we graduate high school from we still have seven more years of schooling please don't continue to use these terrible trays please use something that is better for our health and better for our planet thank you for having us and listening well we should like to thank you for coming and sharing all that information with us that was so well presented and the facts were just just amazing you all did a wonderful job and I see that you have some other friends here with you too so you did a great job thank you it's definitely a lot to think about and I so what besides the woman
009coming to talk what else kind of what what other research besides I you said ucla. org if you don't mind coming back up that'd be great girls well we we did research When Miss ltin we she asked us like what do you think we should do about this we she thought that we should do essays or posters so we did we all like worked hard on essays we researched different top topics like I found out that fire foam trays even though like it's toxic a a really like horrible fact is that it depletes the ozone layer a terrible fact is that it's on it's in the air and it's even on your skin when you use it because when your food is hot it's going to produce chemicals back and you're eating chemicals very interesting
010I'm sure there's other members here that also have more questions for you anyone more questions make a statement um so I really appreciate that you guys um presented a problem and you propose the solution um because that's something that we don't always see that people um they they bring forth the problem and the problem and the problem but there are no Solutions or there are no compromise so for you guys to take the time to do the research and to present a solution to the problem you know is really an admirable thing to do a really awesome thing that you did um and I think that um you know the fact at the beginning that Miss lontine had had stated that did you know that um we have uh you know the breakfast and and
011and lunch in the school and I think yeah we are then you said but on cyberoam trays I didn't know that until this problem was posed and and I began to hear about it so and I think that's that's a really good thing um because AS school board uh members and trustees you know were tasked with doing different things and making decisions and we do have uh um power and authority to make decisions in direction of the school district but we don't know um what's happening unless people speak up in the community and tell us so thank you you're welcome member puchia uh you spoke wonderfully I I get nervous in front of people you all did such a wonderful job I just I'm jealous again it's something obviously we're going to look into but
012they make stof trays for a reason they're using them all over the world what is the good the bad that the things will be looked into because again no one puts out something that's going to hurt somebody are there better options what is the cost does it cost this so we can have half the schools with phas half none there there's all kinds of things to consider but it is something I can guarantee you that we will be looking at so thank you member McGregor I just wanted to say I am so proud of all of you because this is really important to learn as you grow up it's important to research things but also to speak out about the things that you care about and that's important to keep doing that so thank you
013mtit i' just like to say as a a writing Professor who spends a lot of time grading essays and presentations um A+ yes your passion definitely came through that was you did such an amazing job you should all be very proud of yourselves and and proud of yourselves for sticking up for your school Community as well so not just doing it because it was an assignment and it was this was amazing you did a wonderful job thank you lots to think about absolutely in fact we would love if you if there's any way we could get their presentation that would be great to have if you could send it to us so we have it thank you thank you very much you guys are great our I want to mention our next presentation is the
014middle school so you guys are fifth graders so you might want to stick around for that cuz it's going to be your school next year and thank you to all the parents who brought the kids I know I know some of them so thank you very much that was important thank you for helping support them as well all right so next up we do have our Middle School we have Middle School highlights and updates from assistant superintendent wolf all right well that was an adorable and very tough tough act to follow gentlemen um but we have our Middle School team here and I'm excited to give them a chance to share just a few highlights and updates with you um besides uh Kyle Schultz principal at Pierce and Steph Henning principal at Mason uh behind
015me we have our other two team members and we have been a team this year we got Cliff snicking assistant principal at Mason and sh sski assistant principal at Pierce all right all right thanks guys I really appreciate you guys having us I'm happy to be here um I just want to say before we start that you know I've been in the district for 20 years I I love working in Waterford and never have felt more supported and part of a team than um working with Mr walf and his leadership and Mr Hol and all the work that he's done and and Steph has been a great addition um you know I think that us being on the same page has made a huge difference um in the leadership in the middle school so I
016want to highlight a couple things um that we've been doing the Middle School a couple of initiatives a little bit on opposite sides of the spectrum um mine's going to be more about teaching the whole child uh we know now more than ever that our students need more than just academics um they need the social emotional behavioral um we need to reach the students in in all ways um and we've been doing that for a long time um but we could better and so what we are are piloting this year is something that we call the pirate hour and and at peerce we call the they call it the Mariner day um very similar uh it is a dedicated time where all students are learning the same thing um whether it be PBIS lesson uh
017whether it be anal lesson it's things that we've done in the past but not as uniformly and consistently as we're doing it now um and it's made a huge difference so PBIS is a inter intervention support system where we not only have um consistent and and uh schoolwide expectations for students but we reward students for that positive behavior so for example when students are doing the right thing they get uh these little golden tickets in at Pierce um and we do a drawing every week and they get on the announcements and they get to come pick up a prize and and we get to recognize the students doing that what's right um and you'll see students you know asking for the golden tickets and and trying to do better because of those things and and
018to be honest with you the the recognition on the announcements is probably enough but the um you know my assistant principal shelle snowski does a great job of putting together um uh baskets and and things like that you wouldn't be surprised if you know Shelly that what she's putting together and the kids love that stuff um and so it's just those little things but also the consistent message from every staff member at the same time um it's really helped us utilize that that teaming concept where everybody's part of a team um our support staff our counselors our social workers Shelley and myself we're all part of a team um where we support that that team um during that that pirate hour and I know that that Mason's doing the same thing um the other part
019of this is is social emotional learning um and this focuses more on on these Castle five core competencies um Castle core competencies are the self-awareness self management social awareness relationship skills and responsible decision- making and I know that all of us who have had middle school students or middle schoolers ourselves um know that those kids really need um help in those areas so it's it's about teaching those students about themselves essentially Middle School is such a important developmental year um for them to figure out who they are and so for us to be able to help them with that and know that they're not doing it alone um has made a huge difference you know we were using the Second Step um of curriculum which is all uh I look right here it is a
020um uses the castle 5 um core competencies and we were using it in social studies in our in at Pierce and to be honest with you I don't think it was um consistently rolled out and not everybody had had a stake in it um now every teacher uh every staff member is is delivering the lessons now they're different per grade level but delivering those lessons at the same time on the same day and it's it's made a huge difference and honestly what we're seeing is much better behavior from the students more empathy for each other more caring we've we've seen a huge reduction in our our Behavior our discipline um which means more students in the classroom less disruptions to the learning environment and we really believe and know that it's going to show up
021in our academic um achievement as well all right I'm going to pass it over to Mr Henning who was going to talk about the less exciting maybe but more still important still important curriculum important all right so I'm going to talk about just tier one progress monitoring and what we're doing with hmh and our math uh curriculum with savus but just in any education in order to close the achievement grab in order to provide the best instructional setting for our students your tier one instruction in that curriculum has to be top tier and this curriculum uh with hmh and savus does that so one one thing that I would like to just highlight is and just give acknowledgement even though they're not here is our literacy and math Consultants Devon mcke and Lauren wisman they
022have created this pacing guide and with this pacing guide not only admin but every teacher has it and it's just great for me because when I walk into a classroom I roughly know where they should be at with their pacing with their curriculum and when they're not there it's not like I got your moment it's what are the roadblocks how can I help how can I assist and that just opens up more dialogue and more conversations of how we can be better um another thing that is really useful about the pacing guide is just the C the different reports with these curriculums such as the usage reports for monitoring implementation and the common assessments which I will dive into and here in more slides but just having these common assessments having a a pacing for
023when these uh assessments should be implemented opens up more dialogue of how we are doing colle itively which you'll see a bit more in a second so here this is one of my favorite is this progress monitoring more at the tier 2 level with dream boox and Lexia and both Pierce and Mason we're doing this we send this out every Monday um and it and it shows so I recently not recently but I met with our reps from DreamBox and Lexia to just understand the Intervention Program and understanding what should I strive for at Mason for example our Lexia and that is our Lexia is more of our reading intervention I wanted to know what is a practical usage percentage at Mason so I came up that we working with the rep from Lexia we're
024at about 55% usage rate and for dream box we came up with with talking with the rep about 70% of students should complete at least five or more lessons uh per week so having that to strive for my teachers know not only are they encouraging their kids but when we send this out so we send out a diagram this is I believe uh pierces but ours is identical and we send it out to all teachers we make it public and if a if a grade level is low or a teaching partnership is low it's not like once again I gotta it's more just to in order for us to be better our learning has to be visible but our expectations for each other has to be visible so it just opens up uh collaboration and
025we we make it cool we make it exciting like at both schools we for us we borrowed a huge championship trophy from Jeff Jason we took off the the basketball logo and we put the dream box logo on it and whoever has the highest percentage that week they are the champions of the week and that is posted outside in their hallway so it just creates competition but also it it creates you know Pride for students and pride for those teachers with these intervention programs and lastly our PLC action plans and data protocols this I would say with the with the leadership in and from Mr Wolf has been a game changer many times with these you know we can say we're pcing professional learning communities but it could be just a gripe session for teachers
026right so we everything that we do in our plc's is focused on data data drives instruction data drives our next step so having these protoc calls that we have here whether Johnny has had a rough week or not that's not the focus it's more so what questions did Johnny get wrong on this assessment is that the majority is that a trend and what do we need to do to make sure all students are grasping these Concepts so having that Focus not only in our plc's it also helps in all aspects of when we're looking at curriculum and let me see if I have another note here about it it's just being done the right way uh with plc's and I would lastly just say the alignment like uh Mr SCH here talked about with our
027PBIS in Seal what we're doing this same alignment helps even more if we're aligned with how we want to grow our students with our SEO but also having that same alignment of how we want to teach and implement this curriculum is only going to make the Middle School stronger that's all I got all right questions does anyone have any questions member restitch yeah um Mr Schultz but you know Mr Schultz uhi have both of my sons over a Pierce and uh you know every day the wildest thing is they love to go to school they just love it they are up every day out at the bus stop they come home I get a full recap I don't have to pull teeth I don't have to beg I get a full day's Rec recap every
028single day and I just think it speaks to all the amazing work that you and uh the staff are doing over there PE it's um Middle School is a tough time and um I just I watch my sons and they are they are just thriving so um cheers cheers to both of you and your teams we appreciate that and we have a great staff that that's a huge part of that member Taurus um so I'm looking at the uh the slide on the tier 2 progress monitoring so you have them all listed then and then you have their their meeting usage percentages right and then so that they can this is public to all of the teachers so that they can kind of see in a competition amongst each other of ways which I really
029like I like that idea you know cuz you need to have the the data in order to know the results and the results in order to hit the marks of where you're at and I think you know fostering all in the idea of that my class is up your class is down what are you doing that I can do to get where you're at right cuz ideally we'd want to see everybody kind of coupled around in the same percentage percentage areas so but I mean I I like that um and and it's shared amongst I'm assuming building uh teachers and then admin correct and then you guys can look and compare and contrast yep and there and even the uh I don't know we can't click on that link but the tier one tier one
030and the the PLC data protocol Mason and Pierce are both on there and so like our common assessments things like that so our tier one common assessments they're both there so they can see each other's progress It's really helped with our pacing they can compare like you know what's Mason doing well because they're they're getting this this standard um and we can we can have those conversations that we were never able to have before and I can say before at Mason they weren't doing this they weren't making it public so in my first year I'm like am I going to rock the boat by my teachers in staff meetings or them just seeing who I am it's it's we're in this together and we need to make each other better so what came out of
031it like at my sixth grade group in DreamBox they're just rock stars and they are the reigning tramps 15 weeks in a row but it lended itself for Mr fav to talk about yeah my numbers are there but behind the scenes I send out a weekly message to all parents every week no matter if we're doing well or not and that consistent message of this is important at home so that blends itself to other teachers like yeah I haven't sent out a message about about dream box in a month or so so just having though it just we wouldn't have been able to have that those conversations together if we didn't make it public of what we're doing and do you guys compare between the two schools too as well between so you have it
032at Pierce then you have it at Mason you guys I I I reach out to uh Shelly she sends it out for on the Pierce's end so we connect and we look at numbers together so that is something but I think that is something that I would like to grow to to to just making it public across both schools thank you member Patricia I just want to say thank you it's again it's above me so but you guys seem to understand it it sounds good so thank you member mcregor um I just had a quick question and I know this is kind of difficult to do so I don't know if this is actually happening or not is there any way I know you said you have like Pate hour for example and this is
033when you do the social emotional learning does any of that cross tie with the curriculum that you're teaching at the moment um in other parts of the classroom um I would say this like so because every teacher is speaking the same language now so every teacher knows what second step is has been trained in Second Step knows the the curriculum knows what was taught that week in Second Step so they have those opportunities to refer back if it's part of the curriculum then they can refer back to that and everybody speaking that same language so yes when those opportunities are there teachers can definitely do that cuz they all you know social cilities math language even our elective teachers are part of one of those teams so they can all speak the same language and
034I I would say too with when it comes to that when we do our Mariner Mariner Way day once a month every staff member is involved even we even have some custodial pop in but cliff and I we're in a classroom our front office secretaries we leave one secretary in the office but ancillary staff every person is in a classroom being involved in these lessons so and we do it for us by the Cadence of our building so if we're seeing something around gossip and rumors that's the focus next week we have our Mariner Way day and it's going to be more around like test prep and what you need to do in order to get ready for testing with NWA testing coming up so once again everybody knows the language and kind of knows
035the expectations so they can refer back to it at any moment thank you well I would like to say thank you as a former Pierce pirate mom who had my kids always I always appreciate Mr Schultz and Mrs sski a great fabulous team but at the same time I have lots of families that are at Mason that I know personally and you are knocking it out of the park it has been nothing but positive about both of you what's going on over there it's like a it's so amazing to hear this Buzz of like positivity and good things things and I love that we are aligning because that's how we should have always been and to know that you two are working together that your teams are working together that this is a group effort
036to bring all of our kids up and be on the same page it's it's amazing so we are we are incredibly grateful to to all of you and and to both schools and your teams thank you all right and would you like to have a picture I see all of you sitting here we didn't we didn't we forgot to do a picture of the elementary group and we'd love to get a picture with the Middle School group if you want to head up over here maybe with your teacher and then we could maybe with the middle schoolers get a picture with you two if you're good with that oh they all elementary Oh I thought okay sorry you two are off the hook you you two are completely off the hook now I'm with you
037I hate pictures Sarah knows that all right thank you both thank you very much yeah one two three stay so they can get great job guys you are rock stars thank you so much for coming tonight and thank you parents for bringing them and and staying we appreciate you very much all right we are now moving on to public comments on action items does anyone I don't have any green cards is anyone here that would like to speak on action items all right I'm going to take that as a note I think we need the papers our consent agenda agenda I cannot talk today unless there are objections the consent agenda is approved as presented are there any objections all right we will approve the consent agenda we're going to move on to information items
038with the ten agreement with WEA and welcome to Mrs file good evening board members I am um happy to present to you this evening uh the tenative agreement for the Waterford Education Association um last fall we had um several mediated negotiations um regarding um our tentative agreement that you have a copy of before you yes yes okay and um this was put forth before the membership it was um it was not passed at that time however um the um WEA came back to us and said that they would like to try again and so um the leadership put forth the vote again and had an over uh overwhelming amount of positive votes as well as percentage of Voters and so I present to you this evening that was ratified by um the membership that it
039includes um several pieces the first being um each member that was step eligible got a step and that occurred last August automatically um and for those um members who were already on the top step um they received an off uh schedule payment of $1,200 for the year um in addition um we worked very hard together to put forth um the special education stiens which we know the shortage of special education Educators um and how vital they are to our district and um the details are there um before you and um lastly the last two items we had um we worked very hard on um updating our schedule B which it's called and schedule a is the schedule of um um salary routine contract salary schedule B is known as everything else such as Athletics um
040additional curriculum work that our teachers engage in and that was updated um FTE was placed to that um it was renewed um big collaboration across the district um with administrators and uh as well as our um Union Representatives and um lastly we have our agreement on our teacher evaluation you probably know that that was one of the pieces um that was formerly was a prohibited subject came back into a um negotiated um piece we worked hard on that um last spring and that also is in um place and we have been putting that into the the evaluation process as it stands um we've been working through that all through the year all right are there any questions thank you so much to your team to our to our Waterford Education Association to our Union it's
041wonderful when we see uh these things work out and come together and very appreciative of your of the hard work that you and your team did to get this to pass you just jump into for a minute thank you oh yes go oh it again it's all Beyond me I'm just saying thank you I'm okay I was like go ahead Rob we didn't have a a copy of of it in here but I we had it on the electronic I thought right I was I remember reading it so one no I I was good with it I was just trying to reference back I'm just looking on here on my phone so but I saw we did have an electronic copy and it was signed and the union was in agreement and they signed off
042on it as well so we looked all good to me so I just was trying to reference it certainly it was signed in January January 7th um and um we put it forth before you tonight here in February and payments will begin in March thank you upon approval thank you all right we're moving on to the sale of the 2020 bond series 3 with assistant superintendant hilderbrandt good evening trustees I'm here with Steven Burke our financial adviser as a backdrop back on in August of 2020 our community graciously approved a $150 million bond issue which was a multi-year issue we previously have issued series 1 and Series two series one was for $35 million back in August of 2020 Series 2 was issued February of 2023 for $70 million and now we're coming forth in
043with information to request support for issuing the final Series in the amount of 45 million as background to this we're looking to have this come out now so that we have the proceeds available we know of several municipalities that are going to have um Bonds on the May election we'd like our paper to hit ahead of that time to take advantage of the market in addition at this point in time we had originally anticipated that we would be about 50% completed with our projects we were able to move up some projects we're actually over 80% completed so we really do need these proceeds so I would entertain any questions and Stephen is here to help support all right any questions and if I could just say one sure absolutely um this is uh well over
044six years in the making that that we've worked on this this final series here in this this entire 2020 election um I know a few weeks ago I uh got a chance to kind of come around the corner I'm not over in this area of town very often we live uh in Livingston County and um stefansky was right there and I was just it was awesome to see my kids were in the car it's always fun to go hey this is what dad does it work um what a beautiful beautiful building and a and a beautiful set of projects and um very proud to have been a tiny part of this over the years and uh I know that some some new faces and then some uh some older I know last time I think
045I was in front of you I think we were on Zoom so it's great to be back uh in person obviously and uh you know we're very proud to be a part of it um I know that your your staff and your professionals have worked very very diligently on this uh over the years so it's a a proud moment to complete this uh final authorization and uh be able to complete all of these projects for the district we definitely appreciate you being part of it member witit so by getting out ahead of the um bonds that might be on May ballots that will Advantage us just by there will be fewer on the market to sell correct correct at the end of the day all of the bonds are state of Michigan's credit um so
046given that there's potentially 30 plus uh Bond issues that are on the May ballot and several of those would like to go right away is our understanding um we don't want to be in a position where the district needs money and we're coming at the same time as 15 or 20 others in the middle of the summer kind of an odd time for for school bonds to come so um I think it's a prudent decision the Market's Market's doing well we had two two Bond issues in the market yesterday for Oakland County and uh one got seven bids and one got 10 and they were both well over subscribed everything was great so um certain uh not as low as some of these Bond issues have been uh in in 2021 and 2023 but uh
047it's certainly um you know the the market is still You' expect somewhere around 3 and a half% uh for these and you know your staff's done a great job of uh continuing to um try to lower the amount of years lower the duration of these lower your interest costs over the time and be real good fiduciaries of your taxpayers funds thank you yes thank you we definitely appreciate that you're looking out for us and doing this early so that we will benefit from it in the long run so thank you very much are there any other questions or comments are there any questions we should be asking you you know these things I mean is there like well we this year butt no I you know I think that the the challenge is if you
048had a crystal ball you could you could always time the market perfectly right but if we had one we would be all out trading interest rates and not sitting here and it wouldn't be here freezing you know the so there's always you can always second guess and you know sometimes you look back and you go oh gosh I wish we would have time differently or oh gosh we did an awesome job but at the time it seemed like it was you know going to be challenging so um don't know the future of interest rates but again borrowing at three and a half% I think anytime you can borrow at 3 and a half% that's that's a pretty good rate and um as long as uh you know your tax exempt bonds um taxes and bonds
049are under threat currently at the federal level um that's one thing that uh Congress has discussed in ways and means is removing the tax exemption from municipal bonds so if you have any contact with your federal representation now would be a good time to say hey this is what municipal bonds and tax exempt bonds have been able to do for no Waterford school district and um it's a if you were to take this away it's literally just a a direct pass through to your property owner so instead of 3 and a half% the bonds would be 5% and your property owners would be paying that much extra so um it is a deao tax increase if that happens so if you have any contact with Congress folks here in the district that would be a
050good time to mention you know please support the continuation of taxes and financing for uh local governments thank you and thank you for that for sure that's that's great information to get out to our our public that might not be aware that that is one of the consequences of some of the things that might be changing so thank you very much right and thanks for coming thank you I'm going to stay in the hot seat yes don't move CU we're moving right on to his besto abatement at Pierce Middle School so also as part of the August 4th 2020 Bond there's some work that's being planned for the Pierce gym and during the review and uh planning for that it was discovered that under the mastic of the gym there is ASB bestus that needs
051to be evaded Nova Environmental Group went out to bid put the bids out in your package you have their recommendation letter as well as the bid tab they're recommending that we award this to trust thermal abatement which was the lowest bidder according to what was submitted and we'll be seeking approval for this at the March meeting okay do you know if we have worked with this company before and any of our other buildings to do any of our other abatement I did not look to see if trust thermal had done a bement with Waterford I'm familiar with them from Bloomfield Hills okay without any issues okay I'm very familiar with Nova environmental from Bloomfield without any issues okay thank you you're welcome so they have done other school districts they have done a lot so
052this kind of project these kinds of buildings any other questions all right well thank you very much thank you and now we are moving on to new business treasur Johnny H superintendent's recommendation 45- 24-25 tenative agreement Waterford Education Association it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the tenative agreement with the Waterford Education Association as approved by its membership for the 2425 school year is so move support all right all those in favor please signify by raising your hand oh sorry comments and questions I'm just trying to move us along out of here I think I feel like we um I will be abstaining from this vote um because my wife is a member I actually just have a question um something that was mentioned um and sorry I should have asked this ahead
053of the meeting but I didn't really think about it enough in advance um with the teacher evaluations being brought in how is that changing things this year with this agreement so the we are using the same um platform um which is the Charlotte Danielson platform that we've used traditionally before so that didn't change we are still using Frontline as our management tool so that didn't change right um really what the the Great Piece about our collaboration was is what's best for administrators and teachers together to best support um our Educators in teaching and learning right one of the I think one of the Hallmarks I saw that came straight out of the the legislation was the requirement of the midyear progress report and that helps um we're finding that was just due in in um
054earlier this month that really helps um the teachers as well as the administrators to identify very clearly in writing what's going well what needs work what um what steps they need to take to improve as well as the the specific professional development pieces that they can um take advantage of to improve so it really put um um a great consistency across um I would say the entire platform of evaluations we also went from a um this for the States's mandate from a four level highly effective effective that type to three and um our teachers and our administrators are doing seemingly really well this is our first year and we knew that um in that first year we're going to come back together as we start negotiations this spring here from teachers hear from administrators what's
055working well what's not what tweaks do we need to make thank you m all right are we ready for the vote all those in favor please signify by raising your hand all right 60 Treasurer johnah hu superintendent's recommendation 46-24 d25 Bond authorizing resolution it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the attached resolution for the issuance of school district bonds series 2025 2020 bond series 3 not to exceed 45 million 228,000 right all those in favor please signify by raising your hand motion carries 70 and you're still up Treasurer johu right superintendent's recommendation 47- 24-25 revised School Code Section 1352 resolution it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the attached resolution enable in the Waterford School District to comply with the provisions of section 1352 of the revised school code with respect
056to Contracting for legal representation by a law firm for the school district's issuance of its School District bond dickon Dickinson Wright is Waterford School District's legal councel for this Bond issuance and works in conjunction with the district's Capital Bond adviser Steven Burke of mfci I so move support all right are there any comments or questions all right all those in favor please signify by raising your hand motion carries [Music] 70 and we are now moving on to secretary restit for the policy the Student Records it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the proposed revision to policy 8330 student records and ISO move second any comments and questions question member Taurus um so what was the spirit behind this was it just the one change I know we got to collect information on student
057on students and saw that it was just the the one section in there um on place of birth is that is that it that's all we're changing okay and that's just more for privacy issue or what correct okay and that was the only revision we're making correct thank you is m p is it mandated by law or is it it is not okay we're just kind of a preemptive type we were providing more than than was necessary okay we were giving up too much stuff so will the police officer answer something you say yes or no don't say too much don't member McGregor and it is my understanding looking through this that anybody could request from the school district for a form and that they could request that any of the directory information not be
058shared that's correct that's correct thank you all right all those in favor please signify by raising your hand motion carries 70 and we are back to Treasurer Donahue for the consideration of certain purchases I don't have to read this oh motion on please hold sorry okay sorry superintendent's recommendation 49- 24-25 Elementary playgrounds improvements site work and Equipment it is recommended that the board approve the award to Michigan recreational Construction Incorporated in the amount of $356,400 for playground equipment installation and Jacqueline Contracting LLC in the amount of 449,000 for site work for a total of $85,500 for BP 25-3a Elementary playgrounds kolie and havlin elementary schools it is further recommended that the board approved the award to Michigan recreational Construction Incorporated in the amount of [Music] $495,000 for site work for a total of 1,446 for
059BP 25- 03b Elementary playgrounds Schoolcraft Riverside and canes and elementary schools it is further recommended that the board approve the purchase of playground equipment through game time in the amount of 1, 15282 funding is the 2020 Bond ISO move support are there any comments and questions or questions member Patricia I I have some concerns with it uh we haven't done a building utilization study in years it's something that we've talked about um I'm trying to think I'm I'm losing names right now um two superintendents ago ke when Keith was here he was talking about you know some things that we might have to look at and then when Scott got here goes I know you guys were you know talking about this a little bit uh but he didn't want to come in and and
060just start changing things up it's just not a good thing to pisses people off and I'm not suggesting that we should be closing buildings because I don't want to do that either but without a site UTI utilization of our facilities to find out what we have what we don't have uh I did a quick I had some numers given to me um in our elementaries alone we have almost 800 empty chair and again they're every every chair is a different shape we can't just put x's and o's it it has to fit there's there's so much more to it and that's what the utilization study would help me with uh both of my high schools I didn't realize are both less than a thousand students uh when I went there in the 70s I believe
061King was close to two M or you know mat was I think a little bigger and he also had Township uh but my middle schools are at a a very low number uh Pierce a little over 700 um these are we have openings somewhere I'm not suggesting we go we just just rearrange everything but without having a study to tell me what we should or shouldn't be doing we're talking about millions of dollars here going into a building that might not be there in a few years a few years ago we' put a bunch of money into Waterford Village then closed it and I remember that part and I'm a little behind on catching up on the playground we did just put some in and it isn't just the equipment the equipment is actually cheaper
062than the land prep so it isn't like you can just move the swing set because again it's it's prepping for all these things to put them in um and after what we spent on the kitchens at some of the elementary schools that we closed we were just spending money and we always need roofs I can use this money somewhere else or there we may do a study and saying well we can't do anything with any of the building is because the locations we have to keep them I don't know but without that I need information I can't support putting excuse me putting more money into buildings that might not be here in a few years and I understand well we're putting it off kids need it now they want it now we had the same
063thing when we had Co when we had uh the recession we were five or six years behind on building some of the buildings because we didn't have the tax Mone so again these things happened they're they're they're tragedies but I think it' be more of a tragedy if we spend money without knowing what our plan is before I got on the board I followed School District or school boards because I had family in the business and I would question them on it and one of the things that happened School District that were failing tended to hang under their their buildings too long I don't want to close it and I understand that I'm not suggesting that we do but without having that knowledge that I don't possess I just I can't support putting money into
064these things so other any other comments or questions member Tes a couple uh comments questions um so as far as our student enrollment Trends are are we still trending down I know we kind of stabilized I mean when I first came out of the board in 2014 we were at like 500 almost 600 loss of students but we stabilized that over the years we were getting better than Co hit and people were going to private schools and all those kinds of things and Charters and then we kind of got back in place and stabilized but we're still on the downtick aren't we for student for losing students or are we on a down tick um I'll answer that because pretty much every school district in Michigan is the birth rates continue to go down um
065we have seen a in our kindergarten numbers which you know as as that kind of moves through our system we have higher kindergarteners you know they are if it's higher than the the graduating seniors then we start to build some momentum there but you know last year we were above budgeted projection but we were still down some students not many but we were still down and and the overall goal is we're trying to get on the uptick of students and you know hence having the spans childhood CER yeah or stabilize but eventually get on the up cuz I know when we brought in stansky the idea was is that we're going to bring students in get them attached to the school district and they'll stay here instead of going to one of the other districts
066or we can bring them in through school uh choice in as we do through kindergarten in first grade um so uh now um are we in a position where we can do a a a facility study I remember there was talk about it and going back to when wonderlick was here when he was getting to the end of his tenure he was talking about the idea of maybe we need to consolidate schools maybe there may be a building and then then he left and then that conversation I remember there was kind of a warm handoff on that topic but then Scott came in and says you know I'm in my first year let me figure things out Co hit then that was kind of out the window um and the thought is that we don't
067want to we're talking about $250,000 for a school to put uh playground equipment which is awesome the kids love it you know my fifth grader right there I mean they they look forward to that playground time and it's just much as a part of of school and the experience in the curriculum is the academics really because they need that time to get out there um but uh so are we in a position where we could do a facility study or or is it something that that you know you or Lisa could comment on is that something you think we need to wait for our our eventual new superintendent that comes in I do you want me to speak on that Lisa or do you want I'm happy to answer I mean it's certain always a
068possibility to do a facilities utilization study um there are a number of ways to do that a lot of districts hire outside company to do come in and do that because that's a non-biased um third party and but that does cost money um the last time we did that for the school closings that you were referencing John Paul um the district did it internally um it does take a period of time it's not something you it takes months yes because you literally walk through every building and and talk about what the spaces are utilized for and things like that so it's Personnel heavy or it's a financial um commitment to hire an outside company but at the board's discretion we can do whatever you choose to have us do you and I was going to
069say I think that is something that we as a board because we as a board collectively have not put that on as something that we had our had Scott work on for the last few years it was not on our priority list at the time because there was a number of things going on so I think that's something that we would need to add to uh a cow meeting to talk about a billing utilization because it has to be something that we as a board agree on so I do think that that is something that we have um said that that should be a discussion item I think there was some thoughts around the fact that we might want to wait until we do have the new superintendent come in starting as July 1st um
070but that is something we can we should be looking at adding to um a cow meeting so that we can discuss it as a board and be able to give our administrators um the direction that they need um I also would just like to remind everybody that this was in our bond in 2020 it was in our bond language that we would be doing this for our elementary schools and our playgrounds um my understanding is I know that there would be site work but that the equipment could be moved and so we wouldn't be completely losing out on that money um also there are a couple things that we should keep in mind that are in play we have Universal preschool that hopefully will become law sooner than later we're working on that as a
071state and in 2025 2026 kindergarten will no longer be compulsory it will be law so so that will also increase um our student enrollment because we will see kindergarteners by law will have to be in school so that could play um that could definitely impact some of our buildings and how they're structured um definitely everyone hopes to see an uptick in student population um but you know we need to pressure our community for a birth rate population to go up so not making light of that but definitely just keep in mind that this was in our bond Ling that our community passed in 2020 and we are upholding what we said we would do with that Bond money and I just that needs to be factored in as well member witit what what can prizes
072the site work are we putting walking paths in at these um I know so there there are walking paths around each one of the playgrounds that's included the site part of the site work is preparing the site as well as helping with the installation of playground equipment correct so there The Slight Work we're doing we actually have to cut out all of the playground areas we putting some drain tiles some under you know drainage underneath removing all the PE gravel they are demoing the playground equipment putting in the past um installing something Carla could you we we were having a I'm so sorry sorry it's okay welcome Carla Ramirez we all I'm sorry thank you okay yeah so the site contractor they're going to be you know laying out it's all getting redesigned so they
073have to lay out the area they're going to be removing all the pea gravel they're going to be putting in some drain tiles and some other drain items that are going to be needed um they're also going to be demoing the playground equipment as required um seating temporary fencing uh I believe that's most that's mostly what they're doing and then the playground installers they're actually the equipment that's getting relocated they're responsible for that part um they're also rein inspecting after they relocate the equipment they're installing the playground equipment they are also installing the engineered wood fiber so does that all fall under the heading of site no that was just playground yeah the site work was what I the first portion I was identifying yeah oh member taures so uh the when would this project
074be done it be done the summer it will be done before start of school before start of next year school year and that's the reason we have two separate bid packages we had to had to be a very aggressive schedule cuz last year was very tight with the four schools in one summer yeah for me it's It's tricky because you know the I think the facility study is a very good point and Rob and I have been on this board for a while now and it this was talked about for those years where that um you know we got to look at you know shrinking student size and and where we're at what what are we at like for number wise we're we're less than half of what we used to be probably in the
075early 2000s right 10,000 less yeah so we've we've sh significantly but it doesn't mean we can't come back right and there's there's um there's opportunity um as was mentioned you know uh through sansky and um early uh you know kygar Universal kindergarten um so I would really love a a facility study and I hope we can look at that as a board um sooner than later and maybe even start the conversation with it at maybe our next cow meeting then on the other end I think of though you know you got to keep up with the other school districts or you're going to lose out you know um other school districts are doing things and Innovative and where we're located people can go to West blomfield they can go to Clarkston they can go to
076here on Valley they can go to these other school districts uh so it's and on the other hand you also don't want to be in a position where you're putting all this money into a building that we then could close at some point um because then we've just poured that money into it so it definitely is a is is is tough um but I think it's a very valid point on on the facility study um for me I I would like to see the facility study but um I'm inclined to support it because I I do think that we're in a position where we have all these other school districts and they're doing renovations they're doing things and you know sometimes this this is a bit of a gamble trying to be prudent with the
077money and um I would like to see a facility study though sooner than later yeah I think we we can add that on to we can look at the agendas for the count meetings and see where we can add that in it's definitely been top of mind and it's something that you know I it does need to be done but it won't be done in time I mean that is not something that the administration whether it's a firm that we hire or we have our our administrators do it that would be done it would take quite a few months to have that complete um when they're doing that is there I'm sorry um Can can they give us like updates like on like where is this headed you know kind of thing you don't you're
078not going to get the end result I understand it take a few months you know could take four or five months but when we get into it could it tell us kind of where we're headed with this is how is this is looking I would think Lisa could speak to that more than I could I think it depends on whether or not you're hiring an outside firm or not right because if we are doing it internally which I'm not saying we should be but if we were of course we're going to update you whenever you want to be updated a firm would have their own process that they use and they would choose to do that for a reason and when you hire a firm that would be part of the interviewing is to ask
079them those types of questions so I think it's just dependent on on who does it member Sant crant I agree with what everybody's saying about a building utilization but the fact that I know it would cost money to move in equipment but if the equipment could be moved but looking at our community there's so many schools when they do close they don't sell them right away and the equipment is for the kids in the community as well and I see a lot of kids using the school playgrounds in the summer and on breaks and such and because it is in the bond I tend to agree that I would be supporting it are there any other comments and questions M member Patricia sorry turned the left to the right uh and again I I would
080stress that we do the utilization study as quick as possible we don't need a a new superintendent I would prefer to go outside and again they they would have nothing to do with that and that would keep them clean they don't didn't have any skin in the game if we have that and a suggestion to be made by an outside contractor when they come in they could act on it and I could feel much more comfortable about spending money because right now I can't spend money in my schools uh again is you're talking about how they you you put the playground in you have to put in the drain tile and everything else that costs more than the equipment does uh it just and again we have put in playgrounds our bond proposal uh says
081we constructing equipment developing and improving sites including athletic fields and Facilities playgrounds we've already done all that we have met our bond obligation we are not saying we're not going to do this but I can't do it without direction of hey this we're just pissing away money again because I've done that way too many times up here and I I I I can't do it anymore that's where I'm at okay all right anyone else member McGregor so I actually have a question as a new board member um so it is my understanding Bond money is completely separate from all of our other monies it cannot only be used for Capital expenses for something like a site utilization study my understanding is that could not come from bond funds is my understanding on that correct a
082billing utilization study would be separate from our our bond series it would not be part of our bond dollars no it would be a separate it would be a separate entity so that's what we would have to decide as a board and we will add it to our one of our cow agendas how we would like to do the billing utilization study whether we would want to hire an outside firm or whether or not we would want to have it inhouse so but either way it would take a significant amount of time to to get the study done done yeah no thank you you're welcome no problem all right any other comments or questions oh member istitch m um Carla how much um are the walking PA we did not ask for a PR to
083break out on the walking pass it was all part of the site site category so yes and all the schools you know they have different paths some yeah some may have more some may have less you know depending on what's in place right now so can you say that again I'm sorry so yeah the walking paths they're all it's for the Slate contractor we did not get the pricing separated from the slite contractor um all the paths are a little bit different they all go around but in different formations some some schools had some areas that had already walk paths in place so we might be going off of them you know it might not be as extensive as at a different school that didn't have walk pass in place so but walking the paths
084are included in yes they yes they all will have walk paths and that yes all right any other comments or questions all right are are we comfortable to vote on this yeah I guess that would be the question is everyone comfortable to vote do we me uh member Danone said member Pat Uh in the spirit of honoring the community that voted for the bond these are this has passed this information was already in the bond and this is expected by our constituents this is expected by the community that voted for the bond back in 2020 um it it really shouldn't be a question of voting for it at this point in time uh and and we need to get this done um obviously there there might be in in a facility study at some point
085in time down the road um the recommendation for a closure of a building may come across to us that we have to take a vote on um that is a very long process of um involving all the unions involving everybody of the displac of staff and everything else so this isn't something that if we were looking at let's hold off to do um the the playgrounds until we do this uh this study um it's not it's not right um it's it's it's we need to do this now we need to vote for these things now um and then once this study is done and and if the board truly has the spine um to to close the school um because I can guarantee you this place will be filled with community members and kids not
086wanting their school closed um then um at that point in time moving the playground equipment will be a very insignificant vote that we have to take compared to all the rest of the votes we're going to be taking and displacing staff and and everything else so um I'm ready to vote for this and uh in favor of it and I and I totally understand everybody's opinion on the board 100% I get it and I I want a facility study done I love Rob's idea um let's put it on our inim superintendent and um and then done before that yeah yeah and uh but but Julie I mean on the fact that that way when a new superintendent does step in the um if it's not complete by that point in time it will be completed
087soon after and then we are giving that direction and that directive to whoever the new superintendent is and um but I'm ready to vote for for this and and I do think there's absolute consensus on the fact that we do need to have a billing utilization study done sooner versus later and it's something we need to add to a a recent or a soon to be agenda so that we can as a board decide how we want to move forward with that and how we want to have that handled if if we didn't vote on it tonight then it moves it out to either our next cow or or our next board meeting but then that puts the timeline back then correct so making it so that we may not finish the project on time
088so it's it's we're at a point where we have to plan you know and vote now really right right that's correct it's mostly playground equipment has a long lead yeah so and and yeah it's um you know my my reasoning is I look at it by the ideas is that our goal is to get more students um and to keep up with other districts around that are um doing these kinds of things in these Renovations I liked you know uh member sr's point about the fact that you know kids do use these even when the school's closed and I've certainly have taken my kids over the years to uh the different schools um and if you know we end up in a situation hopefully we never do but we've been through that in this District
089before where we've had to close schools and it wasn't pretty and I remember when my oldest was in uh second grade and they closed leot uh and I remember being at that board meeting and speaking in public comment and there were little kids there and Rob was up there I remember you know and yeah and you know and and then and then again in the 2000s you know when we went through uh some of the other school closures I think um was it uh the elementary Tre over there I can't Samberg Samberg uh and a few of the others and it's it's never a pretty site because in it's quary you know we closed prair my nephew was in sixth grade there and he was really upset um so it's never a good thing but
090ultimately as board members we're tasked with making difficult decisions um and then we have to you know you're a trustee so you're usted to utilize your background your knowledge your conscience about your conscience so I think that's what we'll do thank you and and I do think it's important for our listing public for them to also understand building utilization studies do not mean School closure so I think that's important piece so I don't want to give the wrong impression that that we think that that's what this will do um it's also to see how efficient your buildings are running and we we have other property and and other facilities so it's kind of a a study of how your district is functioning with what you have so I don't want to none of us here
091obviously would you know are looking to do anything that is drastic or heartbreaking to any of our families our community so I want to make sure that that we have that takeway that that is not always the end result of of what a study would do it's just for us to see are we operating in a way that is efficient and and good for our community and for our student and staff all right well let's uh member McGregor did you have another comment I just had a quick one I just wanted to kind of reiterate what you're saying that a site study is not just about closing schools it's about knowing where you are so that you can go get where you're trying to go right because you can't do one without the other um
092and slight utilization studies aren't just about closing schools they could be reorganizing for instance like Universal pre it could be moving different schools like I think when my mom was in the district they had a different split with Mason it didn't have the same grade levels in the schools that we have now um but I also wanted to say that I do appreciate what um board member Patricia is bringing up because it is hard to bring those things up and I remember when my mom was on the board and I remember the difficult decisions that they had to make so I appreciate that that you are saying that um but yeah I just wanted to say that thank you all right all those in favor please signify by raising your hand motion carried 61 all
093right moving on to treasur Donahue for PA systems oh I oh sorry all those against I apologize thank you I heard your name okay you know I I it's my first like full business meeting as president like getting all the bugs out all right treasur Donahue superintendent's recommendation 50- 24-25 t5p systems it is recommended that the board approve the award to amcom for the atlas IED system in the amount of 2,548 [Music] 19927 at the following school buildings both Donaldson Hills Grayson havlin hotton canuteson Riverside Schoolcraft elementary schools Mason Middle School Pierce Middle School Durant high school kering high school M high school and Kingsley Montgomery school funding is through the 2020 Bond ISO move support all right the motion has been moved and supported are there any comments or questions member Patricia uh to
094save time uh the argument I use for the playround [Laughter] equipment M Tes um the same thing that uh you know when I was looking at both of them they they kind of connected as far as you know the the facility utilization study that we'll do or that we hope to do um with these schools these systems weren't they they were the other schools weren't included right cuz they already had what they needed was that correct all the schools are included oh all the every school is included okay that was it okay CU which we would look at after and if legislation changes we could add or look at a different system for but this one incles all our okay and it was the pansy was okay would you like to come to the table
095Miss I was trying not to interrupt all you're answering then that way we can make sure that people can hear your answer no that's my fault no it's okay sorry guys um it includes all buildings except stansky so it's all of our K12 buildings since stansky just had a system installed and is working perfectly fine we don't want to disrupt that but we know if legislation changes where zo the um strobes and everything and the color changes have to be added we would look at stansky and bring that forward and this is a little bit preemptive because legislation is being proposed to change so we would have to do this regardless correct Y and like we shared during information at the last meeting knowing that knowing that we needed to go to a new PA
096system we saw this as a perfect timing to do both as the same project okay does anyone else have any comments or questions member McGregor and I just this is more for people listening this is a really big deal for anybody that might have um hearing difficulties they'll actually be able to see if there is an emergency kind of like what you would have in a hotel room where you have the flashing lights that is so important that all of our students can be safe in an emergency um and it's that's not the only functionality that helps with safety and I think that's really important for people to know thank you any other comments or questions member Patricia uh an amcom is the contractor manufacturer there's three different ones and we've picked Atlas IED yes
097so were the other two were a little less so the we had our committee come together and then we also provided um video of that to other stakeholders who wanted to have input um Atlas IED has all of the I don't want to call bells and whistles but all has all the features that we wanted um khawk was a little more of a system that didn't have as smooth of a Glide as people thought it would and velcom was one people just didn't not like the look of it was a little hard to the eyes it was more of a digital signage so the lights were very bright um it was trickier to see um Atlas was the one stand out um that everyone on the committee wanted and then those other stakeholders 70% came
098in and identified that the product we wanted to go with um as far as amcom goes as a contractor we've worked with multiple projects um so we're very happy to say I'm bring them on board again um and see that they had three products for us to work with there's also a a seven-year licensing for our old PA system just worked it's worked for 50 60 years in our building it cracks up doesn't always work no lights no Bells nothing fancy yeah uh but I didn't have to buy a license for it this is a license and it's electronic so that means it's going to either fail completely or it's going to be obsolete in seven years yeah and and that's the reality of the systems now um since everything's going technology wise or IP
099based and I know we talked about this at the last meeting there's no guarantee right um systematically the speakers and everything that we're building in this will go 10 to 15 maybe 20 plus years but yeah what technology looks like five six years from now I don't know the answer to that understand I'm just throwing that out there because $25 million for something in buildings that may or may not be here for with this use right I just without that building utilization study I'm spending money without oh I know a direction I don't I like to have Direction yeah and that's one thing why we really looked at we knew our PA systems needed to be replaced looking at what we could also bring on as a security standpoint so again marrying those two together
100into one project but yeah I hear what you're saying thank you yep just a quick thing on that so um my understanding is that they'll probably like obviously we don't know the future right but a lot of these things that are going to be updated there's a significant difference between what it was in the past versus what it is now and most of those Technologies are um more similar as we're moving forward typically correct correct so we wouldn't necessarily have to rewire the entire school for example exactly no that is exactly the nice piece of this so this is the full package right so five six years down the line if there's a change in technology then it might be we need to up we need to have a small purchase and update the software
101or it's a matter of this one needs to be replaced we also have a warranty built within this bed um just thinking through that this is the whole thing building the whole infrastructure we that time would be replacing and kind of to answer the other question is all of these pieces except for the wiring would be movable so if a facilties is us I could speak study showed that something need to be tweaked or changed we can move all of those except for the wiring all right any other comments or questions all those in favor please signify by raising your hand all those opposed all right motion carry 61 and now it's onto me President's recommendation recommendation 54-2 24-25 relative to masb board of directors El board of directors election 2025 the masb board of
102directors is comprised of elected representatives of active member school boards the board shall oversee masb activities establish operating policies for masb speak for member member boards between meetings of the delegate assembly and appoint an executive director who shall administer the Affairs of masb The Waterford School Board of Education is asked to cast a vote for one candidate seeking a three-year term for Region 8 candidate information has been provided to the board for review member taus has expressed support for Paul Colin from Bloomfield Hills are there any other candidates to be considered is there anyone else that anyone would like to be considered or all right I can speak to Mr Colin real quick so you guys are aware I'd send CHR in an email and Megan um when I saw these and I know a
103few of them sent us emails and and stuff but uh Mr Colin he's been a Bloomfield Hills School Board member for several years worked with them extensively on the legislative committee through Oakland County um now known as the government Relations Committee uh we've been to Lancing several times to advocate for school funding over the years he's been to Washington DC to push for increased idea funding um he's got two kids that went up came up through the Bloomfield Hills School District one of them I think is at Duke and the other one's at Michigan State University um and just all around you know the people in Bloomfield really do love him the students I should say really do love him um but he's always just been somebody who you can see trly has a passion
104and advocacy and is in the school board position and Embraces that that um that role of being an advocate for kids and students so um for that um I really you know I'm in support of Mr Colin and it's always good to have someone from our own County representing us for Region 8 so that's always it's important to have somebody that is close to home that understands our challenges and what's happening in our own County comments or questions member donu yeah I I second what John Paul has stated trustee Tor of stated um I've I've had conversations with the masb um a couple times now over the last few years in regards to this because our region is uh Oakland mome and Wayne County the three largest counties in the in the uh in the
105state and most populated and we have one representative uh for that and um it's not set up correctly for it but uh yeah Paul Colin is is I second that 100% we need someone from Oakland County and for the reasons that John Paul is all right well seeing no further nominations all those in support of Paul Colin please signify by raising your hand motion carries 70 all right we are moving on to public comment on non-action items we will take public comment now I don't have any green cards Miss crate would you like to head to the podium I will do our little Spiel I know you're very familiar with it please be reminded that comments are limited to 3 minutes andur members of the public are invited to share comments however this is not
106intended 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 directive abusive or obscene welcome Miss crate hi um thank you for allowing me to talk when I woke up Tuesday Morning um getting ready for work I thought how lucky I was to work in Waterford because on Tuesday morning it was 39 years years ago Tuesday morning that I walked into my very first classroom in the Waterford School District it was Mason jior High scared to death at 2 22 and a half years old oh my God I'm teaching seventh eth and ninth graders what am I going to do right um and I've had an amazing career I don't plan on going anywhere um and as
107somebody who now has a job who absolutely loves data I Darren knows um when we left hope in June we had about 244 kids and the joke was oh my God we can't lose any more kids we can't you know I want to stay here I want to keep working here and how many kids are we going to have and then we got word we were getting JK so we knew okay that's going to be about 20 more so if we don't lose any kids that should give us about hopefully 250 260 as of yesterday hton Elementary School hit 300 kids and somebody who tracks all the data for every kid in the building it's amazing you just keep bringing them it's okay I said I'll stand out in the front we have all the
108new subdivisions hoping to keep turning that around but um it's amazing to have 300 kids now at hoton um mainly why I came up here is I wanted to take time to welcome Lisa back um as somebody who's worked very hard along with Lisa for many years um this is my eighth year as the union president I was thrilled to have Lisa coming back with our entire contract being open I feel like we have The Best of Both Worlds having Lisa and Susan here to work together with us um I'm really hopeful and I just wanted to take time to welcome Lisa back so thank you all right thank you Mrs crate are there any other community members that would like to do public [Music] comment all right we are going to move on to
109board reports are there any board reports this evening oh member srit um I went to the youth assistants meeting last night I'm so excited I'm back where I was in the '90s late 8s but um they um I just wanted to touch on three things they were talking about um and I don't expect anything to be done on them tonight but um one of the things they were talking about is they don't have a new place yet and the place that they have now they're having a problem um because it closes at 4: and the person that does the interviewing and works with the kids needs it to six so they're they're looking for a place so maybe that's something that we can talk about they want to come in and actually um get on
110our agenda and I didn't know how to do that um they want to do a presentation about what youth assistance does because there's so many new teachers and administrators in the district that may not know what a wonderful program it is so um if they can get that opportunity I know that they will love it the other two things were the Betty ferino award is um the applications are out and we're hoping that students will um apply as of right now there are no applicants so let's get this information out to the students and also youth recognition um they've gone into churches and all kinds of places around the community but when I was doing it we used to have 90 to 100 students that we'd recognize and now they're down to 30 um I
111think there's a lot more good in the community and we really need to get these kids up and honored for what they're doing so that's what I want to do all right thank you are there any other board reports member Taurus I was able to uh attend the government relations uh committee meeting which was yesterday as well and member McGregor was there also um so we were both there to represent Waterford School District um learned uh about some new initiatives continued initiatives through Oakland County one of the things that they spoke about Dave Woodward actually came to speak with us about the the aorn uh Oak program which provides many grants for children 8 to 18 years of age uh uh in Oakland County so those are our students um and it's for business entrepreneurship
112uh initiative so they come up with an idea and they can translate that into an actual minig grant for to start up on their business um and then in additionally I didn't realize they also afford monies for educational programs and for extracurricular programs up to uh $11,000 so those are usually like add-on type things in the summer um uh you know opportunities a lot of the high school kids you know my daughter used to do that go to the colleges during the summer and do a early college program so it's really helpful to those parents that you know they might not have the money or it might be uh difficult for them to to have the money to provide that for their their youth and um Oakland County can step in they have to write
113a mini Grant and then that goes before a committee and then the committee you know um can grant it or deny it or tell them what they need to tweak or change so I thought that was awesome uh then they talked also about we talked about um the uh Governor's upcoming budget there'll be a 4.1% increase um is is what is the proposal uh which should be up to approximately $10,000 per student um there's going to be an increase in the literacy fund um $258 million in ongoing mental health and safety um there'll be $61 million uh expanded to the pilot prek for three-year-olds um is um and then they're continuing the free uh School Meal programs but the caveat to that is what's happening at the federal level and um any new restrictions that
114could be placed on that so it not be open to all families and um then they talked about that several uh of the board members from Oakland County 25 of them uh went to the uh Washington DC for the education ad advocacy conference um and they went and spoke with the legislators and talked to them primarily about Federal funding uh and idea funding for our students um and and uh some of the new executive orders that have come out so um so anybody who hasn't had an opportunity um encourage you to do that I I've had an opportunity to do it and going to to DC and being able to speak in Capitol Hill is is something that that actually really does have an impact so um but we had good representation from Oakland County
11525 board members went that's it all right any other reports mtit real quick one um I shout out to our peer Middle School orchestra tonight they were supposed to have had their practice for um Festival coming up in March unfortunately it was cancelled so um but big shout out to them because they're an amazing group and I know that Miss house is working hard to try to get that practice in sometime next week um big shout out to uh our ketering captains who I believe are rescheduled P punch for tomorrow so uh go get them captains that's a that's amazing and um bu I think uh I'm bummed out again you going to work tomorrow uh I had a chance to go to the state of the township and um that was that was amazing
116and and Mr Holly did an amazing job presenting all of the wonderful things that we're up to here in the Waterford School District um so Daren thank you and uh finally welcome all right any other reports member McGregor um I just wanted to give a shout out uh Trinity Murray uh sing the national anthem at the fire Works in flannel event and she did an amazing job it was great representation for our district and we had a number of elementary students come out to do the 1K which was amazing so thanks good job everyone all right and I had the opportunity to attend the Head Start um meeting two Fridays ago and Rob was right they do have snacks do they they still have snacks miss it was wonderful to be part of that I
117was honored to be able to be part of that committee and to learn a little bit more about what's going on with our Head Start programs um and gsrp within stansky and it's very amazing engaged parents so it was a really really cool opportunity um I'd also like to congratulate The Waterford ketering dance team they were at Nationals this past weekend and they ended up earning 15th in hipop for the nation so that was amazing um so good job captains I'd also like to send a big good luck out to our Matt corsers who will be competing this weekend our dance team at Brandon High School in the Starshine competition so if you have nothing going on on Saturday around 1:40 and you want to come check out the mat dance team I will be
118there so um come come cheer our girls on um and there was one other thing I can't remember what it was but as always there's always amazing things going on so good job Captain so and hopefully the corsers will come home with a big trophy as well all right we are now going to go into close session by roll call vote um the board will recess the close session in accordance with Section 8 of the open meetings act secretary restit please take the roll call vote member Patricia please is this going to take long no okay I'm yes M sran yes member Torres yes member Wagner yes I'm a yes member Donahue yes member McGregor yes 70 all right we will take a quick bathroom break and then we will head