001Good evening. I'll call the April 14th Cedar Springs Public School Board meeting to order. It's now 6:15. And if you would rise with me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. Thank you. And call please. Secretary. Yes. Trustee Bowser here. Trustee Patton here. Trustee Lond here. Treasurer Gilmore here. Secretary Slagger here. Vice President Shner here. President Reed here. Thank you. And we've established a quorum for tonight's meeting. That brings us to the adoption of the agenda. And I would entertain for a motion to adopt the agenda. So support. Any discussion? Having none. Vice President Shan, yes. Secretary Sleer, yes. Treasure Gilmore, yes. Trusty Lond, yes. Trusty Patton,
002yes. Trusty Bowser, yes. President Reed, yes. The agenda is adopted. That brings us to gratits for sharing. I'm I'm grateful. Uh trying so much electric restored up north and thank you for helping that part of the state. Thank you. Super power. I'm grateful that uh students and staff were back on campus today and uh everyone was safe. Grateful that we did not have any additional uh days of closure as far as April April 14. who knows what the fifth will bring, but we received notification from the state that we did not have to make up those extra two days that we had uh closed for the water situation and so that's a positive. Um just grateful for the continued progress on all of our projects around campus. The contractors are doing an outstanding outstanding job.
003Uh we did lose some bricks off the east face of uh of Hilltop today uh over the weekend, but I'm grateful that uh the fascia brick was the only thing that came down. The rest of the building is still apparently intact, but we have some engineers that are going to come and verify that. Grateful for the rest that we had during spring break. Yes, we are back. That's awesome. But just to pause and recognize, you know, at least for my kids family, uh it was a very nice just restful time. They needed it. So just shows that uh there's a lot of hardworking people out there and yeah. Great. Okay, we'll move forward. Do we have any high school representatives with us? No, they're coming back from spring break, so we'll see them next meeting.
004Moves us to consent agenda, and I would entertain a motion for as presented. So, support. Vice President Shner, yes. Secretary Sligger, yes. Treasure Gilmore, yes. Trusty Lond, yes. Trusty Patton, yes. Trusty Bowser, yes. President Reed, yes. Motion carries. That brings us to the close session portion of our meeting and I move that the board convene in close session for the following reason. Pursuant to section 8H of the Open Meeting Act MCL 15.268H, the board can meet in close session to consider material exempt from open discussion or disclosure by state or federal statute and under MCL 15.243 243 1G information or records subject to attorney client privilege are confidential and exempt from public disclosure. Accordingly, I move that the board convene in post session to review a legal written legal opinion council Clark Hill which PLC
005which written legal opinion is exempt from disclosure as privilege in confidential documents pursuant to the attorney client privilege. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? All the vote. Vice President Scher. Yes. Yes. Secretary Slagger. Yes. Treasure Gilmore. Yes. Trusty Lond. Yes. Trusty Patton. Yes. Trusty Bowser. Yes. President Reed. Yes. We will move into close session. Let the record show it is 6:20. Okay. Let the record show it is 700 p.m. And entertain a motion to go back into open session. So move. Support. Any discussion? Vice President Shner. Yes. Secretary Sleer. Yes. Treasure Gilmore. Yes. Trusty Lond. Yes. Trusty Patton. Yes. Trusty Bowser. Yes. President Reed. Yes. Motion carries. We will commence with discussion items. And first up we have 2526 handbook revision proposals for another reading. Yeah. So the only question that was still
006remaining out there regarding the handbook proposals as presented uh in March was the question about the price of the parking stickers uh for the high school students. They the price the actual cost for the district is $160 per sticker when they're purchased in bulk and those dollars go into the student activity account which in turn pay for various activities that the students do throughout the year. So whether it be dances, whether it be um like senior uh events, the events for the seniors at the end of the year. So it's those dollars just go back into sports program. Thank you. We don't have that on time for action tonight, but it will be coming up in the coming weeks. Are there any additional questions? Okay. Thank you. All right. Moving on to discussion item B.
007High School public address PA system replacement with Colin and Austin and N. How's it going? Welcome back to spring break everyone. So we're going to discuss today the replacement of the high school PA system and the block system as mentioned. So, just to go over some of the current things that we're seeing with this system here, uh there's just been consistent issues with both the clock in the building and the PA intercoms um in the building that have frequent repairs andor adjustments um from both the operations um team here and some outside vendors. Uh we've had repeated outages over the last few years um in the building itself. There's also multiple locations uh in the building that just don't have adequate coverage. We'll speak on those a little bit later. The bathrooms are one space
008in particular. Uh and then currently the PA system that's in the building doesn't have the ability to zone. And what zoning means is let's say we have so this week is a perfect week for example we have testing throughout the building uh with MSAP and PSAT. So, if we do zones, if the 400 hallway is testing and the other three are not, we could turn off the announcements in that area, then we can still have them go throughout the other zones. Um, so the current system doesn't have that ability. So, that's one of the things in the so we put on the RFP and that was one of the things in our RFP in particular. Um, so what that covered was the replacement of those clocks and the PA system um throughout the building, classrooms,
009offices, hallways, large group spaces like the gym. Uh, and then the exterior of the building. Also, the ability to display visual notifications and emergency messages. Uh, again, K will cover a little bit of that on what those look like and what we mean by that on one of the further slides. uh integration into our current phone emergency uh response and our door systems. So, some of the systems we've talked to all of you about um in the past few meetings with our door access and stuff like that. This would tie in in case of emergency events and then removal of the existing hardware and the paper. So, respondents to the RFP um we had four different vendors respond to our RFP. We've had AMC Incorporated uh and the their response was $387,98525. We had Moss
010which was 372,87968 and we had Electric Media Inc. which was 354,37 and then finally we had Parkway and they came in at $266,463. So reviewing all those um of the responses we got to the RFP, the main goal is to make sure it does everything our existing system does. So it integrates into our blueprint system. It integrates into the door system, all of our various systems that the current bogan can do. So it can replace and fully take over everything that we have today. But we also kind of wanted to see what we can advance. Obviously safety and security has changed quite a bit since this system was installed about 25 years ago. what new standards can we implement and just how do those look and what's realistic for us. And one of the biggest
011um just coverage things that we didn't include in the RFP, but after looking at the responses, we noticed is the bathrooms have never had coverage in this building. Same thing with the stairwells in some small offices. So outside of the RFP, after we've read through the responses, we do want to add those as well. Um, in some of those areas like the hallway or in the bathrooms and the stairwells, you will hear some announcements from the hallway. But just to make sure that in emergency situation, if doors get closed for fire for any event, there's good solid coverage. You can hear all announcements in every space in the building. So, after reviewing all of the responses, we are recommending Parkway. They are implementing a CareHawk solution. They are the cheapest of all of the responses.
012The big difference between Parkway and all the other ones and why they are so much cheaper is they are going with a modern plot PA combo in all common areas or all like classrooms, offices and stuff like that, but they are using standard speakers in the hallway. So instead of having um IP based or networkbased speakers in the hallway, we're just going with standard amplifiers and speaker wire for the hallway which makes sense um after we reviewed it and we are going to make some tweaks to kind of adjust as I'll talk about shortly. Um but it also there are a few other benefits. We noticed most of the other systems had reoccurring fees. So every single year we'll have to pay a $5,000 subscription. Not ideal if we have a system that we need
013running 247 365 or any circumstance. We don't want to potentially just someone forgot to renew a subscription. It was on a card that got declined or just there's no need to have regular meetings on such a critical piece of infrastructure. Um I guess talking a little bit about the actual devices. So here we have kind of a sample of the various things we'll see. Your standard classroom will have this blue intercom. It's about a 10-in screen with a built-in speaker and these strobe lights at the top. So any of your key announcements will go over that. We can display messages dynamically over that screen. And when that messages aren't going, it will just be a standard clock interface. So that's really messy. You can also replace all our clock systems throughout the building, which is
014original currently to um the building when it was constructed. Up in the top corner, the larger just pure screen. That's going to be for your bigger areas, your gym. They will be behind protective barriers, but it's a 22-in screen doesn't have a speaker built into it because in those areas you need a little bit more powerful speakers. So, they will be external systems, but it gives you a 22-in screen to display those messages in the clock. And then for hallways, you'll have a similar um to this top right one. The clock ones in the hallways will have the arm on the side just so it sticks out and kind of matches our current style, but it'll be similar idea as the flashes get your attention or if the hallways are loud during passing time, it
015will grab your attention and then clock any messages and then they will display standard time when messages are present. So with recommending parkway and some of the adjustments we want to make. So taking Parkway's base bid of 266,000 making the adjustments to fit the additional speakers for the bathrooms and um stairwells and then doing some additional finetuning because they aren't doing IP based or networkbased screens in the hallways. We wanted to kind of split up a little bit differently so we can still zone the halls appropriately that had a little bit of extra cost to it as well. Which brings us to a plan total that we got from them $21,150 on top of their base to get our total project cost that we are looking for. Are there any questions we can answer? Yeah.
016Where's this funding come from? So I believe uh so it's uh section 31A from the state. So, it's for school safety and mental health. So, mental health and school safety. Well, all of it being Yes. Okay. Yep. We originally projected uh this being about $300,000 project. So, of the 340,000 that we have been awarded, we've earmarked 300,000. So, this is a little bit less than what we originally projected. How much is that? Uh balance. So, we'll be holding uh various trainings over the summer. Just thinking about the system. Uh I'm I'm guessing that the the conductor is not either wired in a way where you can reuse it or speakers aren't adequate. Like looks like total replacement and removal of the old system. That's because the existing hardware is not Yeah. Yeah. So, I did
017Yeah, I should have covered that a little bit better with the modification in that um additional planned adjustments when we went back to Parkway and kind of re-evaluated to add the additional things we did, including the RFP. Originally, they were talking about replacing every speaker in the hallway. After we reviewed it a little bit more, we are going to reuse those speakers. Um but in most other cap uh situations in order to get that digital messaging for emergencies in the classroom it will be in a complete replacement in most areas outside of hallway which will be willing to existing speakers but they will run completely new wiring is a large part of the current issue we have with the PA system is the wiring isn't sufficient. It's been passed on to too many times as
018building constructed and just leave. Yeah, there'll be a few office spaces done with existing speakers wouldn't be from a classroom, but so reusing where it's appropriate, but the majority of it is a clean new system. Thank you. Any other questions we can ask? If if we approve this tonight, when are you looking at installation? Installation would be this summer if you can get it approved tonight. Any questions or wonders? You have it on right action. Thanks for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on to discussion item C. Each elementary school classroom furniture purchase round two month. As Heidi just mentioned, this is the 2025 uh round for the Beach Elementary uh furniture purchase. Um, so just to kind of refresh you, last April, we the board approved um the purchase of classroom desks, chairs,
019and teacher workstations. Uh, the reason we brought this out into two two rounds of purchases is the first round we used dollars uh to fund those purchases. And we had until September 30th of 2024 to expend those dollars. So, we purchased those, placed them in the existing classrooms over the summer. Uh, and then with the but we did not want to purchase everything because that would be even more, right? We have to move from existing classrooms into the the new space. So, we held off on purchasing the classroom uh bookshelves and some of the uh kind of resource room and auxiliary spaces. Uh so for this round, uh Diane and Big worked very closely with Jen Cook, uh the principal for Beach Elementary, as well as various staff members throughout uh the building to kind
020of gauge, uh what they were looking board. Um, we also worked with Alyssa Da from GMBB who is GMBB's interior interior designer and has assisted the district in the past purchases of various furniture packages. Obviously, working with Jen and the staff, we took their feedback into account as we uh made the selections for these furniture purchases. Um so as I mentioned some we are looking for some inclusive seating. Uh this will primarily go into some of our special education areas resource room uh as well as speech and path speech path rooms and ASD as well. Uh a large part of the purchase is for the art room as well as the media center. So new chairs and tables for the media center as well as bookcases. Um, and we don't have a ton of office
021furniture that we have to purchase because the uh if you walk into the the new principal's office, you'll see it's the desks are built in similar to uh what we have at uh here at the high school um at the middle school as well as at Red Hawk. Uh but there they do need some filing cabinets, a new nurse nursing uh bed and a small group teachers desks. So here's a list of the kind of overall items that we're looking to purchase. Uh so that we are purchasing based off of contract pricing. So the bidding process has already been completed for us. Um so the majority of the items are being purchased through custard. Um and then we have uh four other vendors that we'll be looking to utilize. Uh the total purchase price that
022we're proposing is $176,364.81. Uh we originally a year ago we had projected uh our round two uh budget to be $230,000457. So we are coming in about $54,000 uh less than what we projected last year. Uh a large part of that is the what we're spending in the media center and the office space is quite a bit less than uh what we projected last April as well as installation and shipping costs are significantly less. Any questions or wonders about that? Under the notes on the page up, you have say uh under budget 115,000. Are you adding extra tables? Is that why you said 50,000? Uh when we started the for we budgeted 600,000 for rounds one and two and then we modified our round two down to 230,000. So that 115 is our total projected
023expenditure compared to that 600,000. Thank you. else moving forward your trails playground proposal this and money. So the next item on the agenda is um really the extension of the work that we've already done uh in terms of proposing new features for Cedar Views playground as well as enhancing and supporting new features at CE at Beach's playground. The difference if you recall from our meeting back in March was that um we were going to take a a different look at Cedar Trails. Currently they have two playground sections. So you can see in your document in board book and as well on the screen the spaces to the right and to the left of that star in the middle. Uh that's where we currently have features established for students. They're two separate spaces in two different
024parts of the green space. And our wonder was what could we do to enhance the experience for our students by creating one playground space that would be shared by all students uniformly. Um and so really it was about location and how can we get creative and use the entirety of space out there to to provide a better uh more robust experience for our students. Um, and so, uh, what we worked, Diane and Vic and the team at Trails, uh, teachers as well as input from students, um, put together, uh, a proposal, uh, working with the same team that we use for the beach playground and the Cedar View playground, uh, to create this new collection of features that includes, uh, some features that are new as well as some features that are existing uh, on
025the Seir Trails playground that we uh are planning to uh reuse and incorporate into the new space. So on tile three, it's a color view of this same feature. These are just kind of ballpark ideas in terms of location for things. So, we may move some things around based on how everything fits together with the the with the existing uh features, but this is kind of the ballpark of how you can see how the playground will be uh extended out from that east end or the uh south east facing wing of the building um and providing equal access from both of the larger classroom wings. So the next slide is uh kind of an overhead view uh showing uh how that space will look. Obviously uh in the next slide my please number five. Um
026we don't have the the trees in the background but again it just kind of gives you a visual uh as to how the space will lay out. One thing you'll notice in between the two um spaces is a green uh area, a green zone. And on each end of that, we have some canopy features that would provide shade for students during the day. So, we thought that that would be a a good thing to incorporate as well into the design. If you go to slide six, now you're getting more of a focused view on uh some of the new features that we'll be adding. Uh so this is a feature with multiple slide or multiple slides. You'll see that there uh is a swing set in the background uh that would be incorporated in. We
027also hope to uh reuse some of the swing sets that we currently have at RAIL just to provide students with more access to those uh types of items. you jump to feature or slide seven. Again, some of those uh climbing um structures, those balance structures that help students at that age develop more uh mobile dexterity and balance and strength. Those features can also be used in a classroom setting if teachers wanted to bring their students out for reading activity. that would be a gathering place uh for classrooms to come when the playgrounds aren't being used for recreation. In title eight or slide eight, you'll see um a feature that actually was a part of the original plan that we had that I had shared back in March from Cedar Trails. That's an inclusive feature. So,
028you'll see there's a ramp that uh goes up to the uh swinging mechanism. Uh that ramp provides access for students. um who have a area of a wheelchair. Uh so it gives those students an opportunity to engage on features as well. You'll see the the flowers the features down in front. Those are again more um accessible features that can be used for creating sound and creating some other types of experiences for students. Um if you jump to slide nine uh again you'll see um a different viewpoint. You'll see the swings in the back. You'll see a climbing uh feature with a space for students to use as kind of a fort in the foreground. Another area for students to use for balance and dexterity, but also a space that can be used by classroom teachers
029if they wanted to bring students outside. Beside this uh move to slide 10. That's uh one of the features that's currently in place at Cedar Trails. Uh but it's a it's still in good shape. And so uh our plan is to uh repurpose this structure into the new uh playground area. Um the same thing goes for slide 11. Again, all of those slide is solid, all the platforms are solid. That's still a very usable uh structure. And so we'll incorporate that in. Uh slide 12 is the Gaga pit that uh we installed a year or two years ago. we would incorporate that into the new structure or the new layout. We would just move it to another location. Um the next slide 13 is another larger feature, a climbing feature that is on the playground.
030There's the structure in the foreground, but also uh kind of behind that welcome sign in the in the distance. You can see another climbing structure. So, we see that as really being a nice addition to the overall uh playground experience for our students. Um, that's what slide 14 is. It just focuses on that kind of climbing structure. So, you see a lot of the climbing features are different now than they were 25 years ago or 30 years ago. It's no longer just metal bars in a dome that kids are climbing around on. And so, it's it's providing them with some different almost like a climbing wall type of experience. Uh, that's a little bit safer for them. So the overall projected cost of this program is $299,000 or $299$92960. That's in the in the slide
031deck that you have. And then there's a breakdown of individual pricing uh as the secondary attachment uh under this same agenda item. Uh and so it just shows um you know what the overall plan is from uh game time. All of these prices are considered under the my deal program and so they don't require additional bids. Uh uh game time is already I've done the bidding process and earned a statewide bid and so that way their equipment is covered under that program. So we would not have to give additional pricing. Uh if we can approve, if if there are no questions from the board table, you feel comfortable with the plan. Uh if approved this evening, uh we will be able to uh commit to game time and get this playground installed uh during the
032summer at the same time that the beach playground in the Cedar View playground is uh being installed. If there's some questions from before table we need to push, um we may still be able to do it in May. uh but if not we can we can do our best to make it happen. So ultimately it's about making sure that your questions are answered in the process. Again thanks to the team at at Trails. They did a visit on a very cold and snowy day over to Sparta uh to take a look at their one of their playgrounds at one of their elementary schools. They had two playgrounds like we have and they merged it into one. And so our teachers Vic uh Diane Scott Carpenter went over and just talked to their team about what's
033it look like and how does having one larger space uh flow with the day and our team felt good about um what they heard from the team of Sparta. And so that helped them feel a lot more confident that this would be a good good space for our students moving forward. Um, and it is kind of neat. You know, this is uh this isn't equipment that you buy and then you buy new equipment in five years. You know, this is a 25 year space. Um, which is is pretty exciting. So, questions on the playground, the features, the budget. I like the location piece because it where it was before all those classrooms if they weren't at lunch or recess they were they could see all that activity. So then people's mind so by moving it
034where we're moving it kind of moves it out of that vision. So I appreciate that. So we're taking the old equipment and moving it to the centralized location. That's the plan for uh those old existing spaces. Um Vic and the team have a great space green spaces uh with lines for soccer fields, football fields, kickball. It, you know, it'll really it will actually be able to work the grade so that the drainage can actually water can actually flow off those areas because right now anytime it rains it becomes very sloppy out in that area. So by re uh redoing the slope, redoing the grade a little bit, it will actually make the entire area more functional. Uh but we really want to create um some spaces for again students to play large group games, for
035viz, for classes to be able to come out and uh enjoy the outside occasion, take a little breaks during the day. So definitely we'll be utilizing those spaces to maximize to maximize the experience. And I'm not sure if you could answer this question or not, but I'm just kind of curious if there was a vision for how that green space in the middle would be used. I'll pitch that to Diane and Vic. Thoughts on the green spa green space initially? So the the middle green space will give it a place for the curve probe to be able to visually control both sides and then you know they'll be able to control kids that don't want to be out there. They can be in the green space with them in between the playground. Um and right
036now uh where you've seen the old playground on the uh north the north part of the playground the it's pretty flat 23% grade but it it just it's just a mud pit all the time. So there's drains out there but the water can't get to it. So it would it would give them a great opportunity for kickball soccer or football just to run around. Same way with the middle, you know, they can they can do a little in the middle off the green face, they can play soccer, they can play a little football, play tag, you know, without losing focus of where they're at. It was the largest request they had for us when we took them the original plans from the teachers who bought us, how if I'm a kindergarter, do I look out
037and understand where I'm supposed to be? So, the goal was how do we give them that visualization as they're walking out the end of the building, that's my spot. Um, and we'll also have some seating features and tables in that area for students to do art or students to draw or students to right. Um, so again trying to really maximize that outdoor space warranty on equipment. Yes, there is. It depends. So if we I can't answer with the number because it depends on exactly what we choose if that makes sense. So they have a limited warranty on everything they offer but different pieces have different. So once we get the final choice we can provide this be included in the bond funding. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to the board of education operating procedures
038update proposal and that's Scott and I. And so what you have in board book um Heidi and I sat down before spring break and just walked through that document. We walked through some of the documents that Frank used um during our uh orientation workshop that we did back in January. Uh we also incorporated some other documents that we had uh either from MASB or documents that we were currently using. Uh again, what we're trying to do is create almost like a staff handbook, but for the board of education to use as a reference that helps to guide our work, uh but also then ties it back into board policy. So, um what this draft does is uh incorporate some of the questions and suggestions that we had from uh when we last talked about this
039in February. I incorporated some of those things in. It's not on for action. It's a beefy document. It's 17 pages and so it is something that's important that we kind of chew on a little bit and think through. Um and it's it'll be a work in progress. You know, similar to our student handbooks, um you know, we do an annual review process of those documents. This also would be one of those documents that we would just continue to take a a look at, you know, as we do our work and and we'll, you know, encounter new situations and new things, new information. We may find that we want to incorporate some of those things into our our handbook or our procedures manual. Um, but again, just again a work in progress. Um if you'll scroll
040down um noting on page three uh in the previous version that you looked at uh all of those items were numbered and there was some question about well does the number represent something that's more important than another item on the list. What I did was I made all of the lists alphabetical and I did a bullet point instead of making them numeric. So that way if all all of these items are important to us, one doesn't have any greater standing over any other. So I thought that would be just a simple approach. Uh and I carried that through in all of the lists of items. So you'll see that throughout the document. Um scrolling down, um Jason had made the suggestion regarding accountability. There was a larger explanation of accountability in our previous document. um
041in the original graph that you'd looked at that was shortened. One of the things we were trying to do is have fewer words, but the suggestion was made under that section that maybe the addition the original language would be helpful for clarification. So, we included that in the entirety of the accountability piece in there. Um again, down on page five, you'll see another bulleted list uh versus a numbered list. Um on page six you'll see duties and responsibilities. That was a document that came from MASB. So just kind of helps clarify what are the duties and responsibilities of the trustees on the board of education. What are the duties and responsibilities of the superintendent? So just trying to help provide clarity around those uh items. And again that's a fluid process. um on um moving
042down uh the other changes uh come into play. Um, on page 11, um, I incorporated language from our, um, current, uh, board superintendent communication document and just provided a list of, you know, these are the expectations that the board of education can expect from the superintendent. These are expectations that the superintendent can expect from the board of education. Again, just trying to provide clarity uh for that work. Um the other thing that we included that we thought might be helpful. Um on page 12 is, you know, many times parents, people will, you know, approach you at Meyer or uh at noon nos when you're picking up pizza and ask a question. um this is just a guideline in terms of if a parent approaches you about this subject then you've got an easy uh line
043of okay let me get back with you on that. That's a that's always a classic line. And then when you do get back to them on that, it just helps to provide a a protocol for where you direct them next because it's just not possible for the seven of you to be the gobetween for the parents of 3,000 students. um you know a normal situation is fine but that could easily become uh a very overwhelming task if everyone just expect you to provide all of those answers to all the questions that they have. Um then uh the bulk of the remaining portion of the document or they're just things that we incorporated in from the previous view. Those were the new things that we incorporated into this track. So again, we'll revisit this in May
044um and uh follow up on any questions that you may have. If there are any questions that you have tonight, I can make notes of them and then we can address them either tonight or address them in our board meeting at this time. All right. maybe a little bit of one-stop shopping, but then then it starts feel overwhelming, but we'll get there. All right, we'll move forward then with the summer 2025 bond construction projects. So, we had um a bid opening two weeks ago. Um, Triangle Construction was on site and helped uh do a public uh bid opening and a bid review pro bid review process. Um after they reviewed all the bids, um then Steve Databa and the team at Triangle actually set up interviews with the contractors um who had submitted the bids
045to make sure that they understood the full scope of the work um and also had the capacity in their schedule to conduct the work and finish on time uh for us for the start of the 2526 school year. The work was very much like the work that we've done in the past uh with Triangle where they put all the bids out. They do the work of reviewing the bids and then they do the in in uh investigation and the interviews for the bids. Uh and then they put together a proposal for us to consider or for you to consider. Um, prior to that they had done u projected budget for the scope of all of the work in their initial uh projected budget compared to where the bids actually came in. The bids actually came
046in um $452,000 under their projected budget. And that's again a reflection of um the positive relationship that we have with vendors in the community uh and just the outstanding commitment that local uh trades people, local excavation companies, local uh companies uh have with the district. their willingness to really um put a reasonable number on the table uh so that we can maximize our projects relative to the bond dollars that we have available to us. So the collective body of work that we're we're looking at for tonight um really two primary locations for this work. Uh one is Cedar View Elementary School. Um, in a cedar view, you'll see an expansion at the bottom of the diagram, an expansion of parking behind the building, and that will serve both the staff at Cedar View, but as
047well as uh it will serve um our baseball softball complex for activities and events after school. That was one of the things that we have acknowledged that there's really limited parking back there for events. And so, uh, we see this being a benefit. And then also for cross country in the fall, um parents and spectators will be able to park in that area for events that we have after school and on weekends at Cedar View. Um, we're also looking to add one additional row in the front of Cedar View um uh on the far north end of of the in the diagram and also just improve traffic flow around the building uh and around for the drop off and pickup uh space. um increasing access out to um the main uh road as well by
048adding another drive to the north and to the east on that site. So instead of having one drive in which also is the drive out at Cedar View, uh we'll have one drive coming in that's in and out and then we'll have a second drive coming in that's also an in and out just to help provide better flow of traffic around that building. Um and then the other collection of projects is at the high school. Uh and that one includes uh the tennis courts uh which as you can see um in the diagram just just above the number uh box uh and then oh sorry that's tennis court structure. Um and then uh the other uh the other document uh the other image is of the parking. Um the big thing with this is uh
049moving some of the parking that we are currently have along the east edge of the parking lot and along the north edge of the parking lot. Uh we we would move that over into a new lot which is basically would be out where the hill is right now. Um the idea for that is it gets students closer to the building uh number one which enhances safety. Uh, one of the things if you listen to uh, law enforcement uh, officers, you know, they don't like the elevation. Uh, if there was an intruder, uh, someone could sit up there and it would be a significant strategic advantage if someone had ill intent on our students. That's higher ground. Um uh the other thing that it would do is it would enable us to create a burm at
050the north end of the parking lot that would provide some privacy uh and some separation uh sound deadening as well as visual uh for our families that live along 17 mile that their back property line borders our northern property line. So you see benefit to that as well as moving uh there would be no parking u right adjacent to the fences at the tennis court. Um right now you can parallel park uh right up to the or excuse me perpendicular park right up against the the fences at the tennis court. So we see a safety enhancement there as well by providing another zone of separation between vehicular traffic and where our students might be uh spending time or students and spectators might be enjoying the contests after school. Um am I missing anything? Tennis courts
051expanded a little bit as well. That was another reason for that. Thank you. So, um, the tennis courts, if you jump to slide three, the tennis courts currently are all there are four courts all together on the north side, four courts all together on the south side. You'll see in this uh in this visual, we break those courts up into four quadrants with spectator viewing um both uh in a north south uh line uh with uh seating available for spectators as well as an east west line that would provide space for coaches and athletes to be. We wouldn't see spectators lining up on the end lines there. Um, but that would be a space during matches for coaches and athletes to gather. Uh, this proposal also looks and creates two kind of shade structures or
052sun structures. One is in the middle of all four courts. Um, and then one is on the south end. You'll see uh another box uh in the center kind of around that pavilion area. There will be some seating and some hightop tables uh for teams and families to be able to gather after events um you know beyond the beyond the actual court perimeter. So we really see that as being a both a user an athlete friendly zone but also a spectator friendly zone. Uh these tension or these courts would be designed uh with post tension construction so it's a more uh lively court. Um and definitely a a better construction process uh more will long lasting for tennis courts um in terms of current trends when you're installing those. Um anything else we're missing or
053any questions that you have? So in addition to the v uh visuals um there is a report from triangle uh in their recommendation for uh the awarding of bids. Again you'll see that the total scope the the budget projection was uh $3.69 million. The actual cost of the project came in at uh $3.24 million. So that was uh under budget uh by four $450,000. Um, and then if you uh jump down to the next page of that, it actually looks at individual bids and the contractors that we're recommending uh to receive the bid. Um, so for concrete, masonary, general trades, electrical, the site and building earthwork, the asphalt and paving, uh, and then the actual tennis court surfacing. I think of all of the the bids, uh, we had several, uh, individuals submitting bids, the
054only number that we only had one vendor for was the surfacing of the tennis courts, and that's the racket sports group, and that's all we do is surface tennis courts. Yeah. So, questions, wonders, busy summer, it is going to be a busy summer. Um but they'll actually if approved this evening um they're actually going to start moving the contractor that is being recommended for earthwork and utilities um which is Dean's excavating um if they can start moving some of the dirt off the hill now. Um it'll actually they'll actually cut $70,000 off their proposal because they can use it on another location. It's amazing how much dirt how much value dirt has in the world of construction. Um, but it's just again little things like that that because of the local because of the relationships
055that are established in the strength within this community between contractors in the district is really working to our favor. Any questions? Okay, thank you. Moving on to discussion of item G, finance update with Monica. Um, so we have have our standard documents uploaded. Does anybody have any questions on what was uploaded? Um, one thing I do kind of want to point out, um, we're kind of in the thick of budgeting season for, uh, the state school aid fund. Next month will be what is called the consensus revenue estimating conference. We like to call it the CREC. Um, essentially it is a a national and state economist from U of M. They present to uh the state's budget office um and they use economic forecasts to project what the state revenues where they think they will
056land for this fiscal year and then projecting out into next year. Then the state the legislators governor's office use those projections to uh create the upcoming fiscal year budget. So, I believe that the next CRE it's in May. I believe it will the date hasn't been announced yet, but I believe it will be after our May board meeting. So, I will give you an update. Um, but just kind of put it put it on your your radar. um for the January Cre the the economists they they felt that um any potential tariffs that were put in place would not really have any uh significant impact in their forecast. They they felt that it would take a while to implement those tariffs. So they were not projecting any impact um for the upcoming budget cycle. Um
057it sounds like that they will likely be adjusting their forecast. Um, and so I will report back in either May or June, uh, once we have that information. Um, and then the final thing to point out, you know, a lot of people assume that the school aid funds, the revenues that go into the school a fund are primarily based off of property taxes. um that property taxes is a a significant part of the the revenue that is used to fund schools. Uh but the primary um revenues actually come from sales tax, income tax, and use tax. Those three components comprise about 70% of the revenues that the state then takes and puts into the school a fund. um those three items are pretty um subject to recession. So obviously probably heard that you know the
058talks of recession are starting to uh make the news. So we're monitoring that closely. Uh usually for schools there's a one to twoyear lag after recession hits that will hit the school's budgets one to two years after the recession has started. So um if there were to be a recession we're looking more at the uh 26 27 27 28 school years that could potentially impact our budgets. Uh, Cedar Springs is fortunate that we do have a very healthy fund balance. So, we will be able to um kind of navigate those waters if it does come to that. Um, but I wanted to put on your radar now. So, just something to consider as we move forward. It's interesting that school budgets lag behind um both the dips in the economy, but they also lag behind
059the high high points of the economy. So um we have a little bit of a buffer. It helps us on the lead end. It hurts us on the tail end because when the economy starts thriving, oftentimes we're not feeling that in uh in districts yet. Um but it's just part of the cycle. Yeah. And these funds are specific to the general fund. So our general operations uh is doesn't impact our bond projects or uh the funds that we have remain in our syncing fund. It is specific to general fund general operations. I have a question about going back sorry to the bond proposal on your spreadsheet here. What bond is that coming out of? Is that series one or series two? Uh we're in series two. Okay. We finished series one. Um that included the
060addition uh to the high school, the work at the middle school, the work at Red Hawk. um some of the paving, but those were the big projects that came out of series one. Series two includes the new addition on this on the east end of the high school. Um the work at Beach Elementary School, then this project um to that project what three million something. Is that spread out between the high school and me? that how you're doing. I'm just trying to understand. Sorry. No, no, no. You're good. Uh so, so it's a separate project coming up. Okay. Because it says remaining in the high school is 1.8. So would that be that to steal from another school? No, they um the budgeting process is a little bit fluid in bond work in order to
061maximize the efficiency and the greatest getting the greatest use of uh projects. When we originally went to the voters for approval in May, August of 2020, it was not on our radar to replace the tennis courts. But the deterioration of those surfaces over the last four years, we realized, well, we can't not replace those surfaces and still have our athletes playing on a safe space. And so savings from other projects have enabled us to shift those monies over uh to the to the tennis court to fund the tennis court project. So we'll be under budget on the project at beach. Um you know we've been under budget on this addition. Uh this the high school work actually also created this space uh created the cafeteria. that there was a lot of work done here during
062the summer of uh was it just during the summer of 2021 and in 2022? Yeah. Um so, you know, that was a big part of that series one budget. Um we did close all those funds out though. So, series one is essentially closed out. Now, we're uh really living in series two. And then, you know, going back to the beach furniture, when the bond project started, we had budgeted 600,000. Um, but we really will only be charging of that 600 that was initially allocated for beach furniture. it'll only be at 176,000 because uh obviously the budgets were the budgets were put together prior to co and then as dollars were released uh we use some dollars to provide flexible classroom furniture. So some of those dollars were used to purchase the classroom furniture for beach
063that originally was budgeted in time. Right. Thank you. It's a lot like our budget, your budgets at home. You know, you may have $250 budgeted per month for groceries. Um, but some might, some months you might spend 300. Some months you some months you might spend 200. It's just important. You can't go over the budget. You can't spend more than what you have budgeted. And just to clarify the uh three projects are included in that pretty low cost. Three projects being parking here test courts against parking. Yeah. Yeah. And then that would leave us with one final body of work that would be completed next summer. And that would be the final repaving of the roads uh and surfaces throughout campus uh as well as a reconfiguration at Cedar Trails for their handoff and pickup
064line. The we were running into some hiccups. Um, we initially had that on the docket for completion this summer. Um, but then there were some questions about infringement on a wet wetland and we just didn't want to take the risk of being delayed because we didn't have eagle permissions and so uh we couldn't afford to not have that ready. So we decided to push pause on that body of work. We knew we were going to do the roads next summer anyway because then all the heavy equipment is off campus and so we just thought let's bundle that together. We'll actually be going to bid with those projects in October, September or October of this fall so we can get primary positioning for our excavation and our site work and paving for next summer. So it
065just really helps us be in a good strategic position to bring those projects home next year. There's a lot of pieces of the puzzle on the board. And that's why it's great, you know, to work. We meet weekly with Triangle and GMBB and just are constantly pushing on each other, pushing on thinking to to maximize the return on the investment for our community on this set of projects. Appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, we will move forward. Discussion item H, Kent Intermediate Association of Boards, ASD. So, as a member of Cedar Springs Public Schools Board of Education, you're also a member of the Kent Intermediate Association of School Boards. The Kent Intermediate Association of School Boards has three annual meetings. Um they do one in the fall, one in February, and then they
066do one in the spring. They're usually held at the Kent ISD. Students from the culinary arts program uh provide the meal. They have speakers that come in. So, it's it's really a neat night to celebrate both student achievement, but also celebrate the work of Board of Education members uh such as yourselves throughout the county. Those meetings uh don't uh just happen on their own. They have an executive board who uh meets five times a year to help plan those uh three then association meetings uh for um for the for the entire county over the the course of the year. So uh currently the association executive board has two open seats. uh Andrea Hayel from the who's a board member of the board of education from the ISTD. Uh her seat is open and then uh
067Beth Milinowski who was a board member for East Grand Rapids. That seat is open. U Beth is no longer on the board at East Grand Rapids. Therefore, she cannot run again for her seat on the uh executive board. But Andrea is still a member of the Kentd board and she is interested in continuing to serve the overall association as a member of the executive board moving forward. So, tonight you're being asked to vote um for uh there's there's a ballot included. Uh we have to submit the ballot uh by April 30. So if we feel good about uh choice tonight uh you can act on the motion. Um if we need to pause um then we can either have a special meeting or we can not include our vote or our voice uh in the
068process this year. Um so the the uh ballot itself is the second attachment uh under this provision. Um, it simply says uh to choose one of the following candidates for the Kent ISD or excuse me the Kent Intermediate Association of School Boards and you have one choice and that's Andrea who's the only individual running for reelection on the on the position. Um, so that's that permission or that's that position. And if any of you are interested in uh developing relationships with other members of uh other board of educations throughout the county, this is a great opportunity for you to engage in that work. And the Kent Intermediate Association of School Boards also helps to pay for um they also sponsor individuals uh to attend the national conference in Washington. So that's how April was they
069supported her tuition to attend that conference. So it really is a neat be a neat way to get involved. So that would be the request for this evening that we take action and submit a name for vote for April 30 or by April 30. Question. If there's two open seats and only one person running, how's that second seat filled? They have they'll have an appointment. They will. Yeah, it would be just like if we had a vacancy um on the board then the other board members would appoint um they would seek first individuals who were interested and then um and out of that group individuals who responded um they would select interview and then select someone from that process and they can also run with one person short. Uh, I don't know specifically what their
070bylaws are, but they would have a set of bylaws that they would follow just like we do. So, there's still time for you to get your name on the list if you're if that's what your question if that's what you're asking. All right, we'll see on for action. We'll see where that goes. The last discussion item is the Kent Intermediate School District bianial workshop. So this is uh something that we see every two years. Um this is actually the uh for a seat on the board of education with the Kent ISD. Um really what uh we need to do with this piece of of work is twofold. one, um, we need to identify a a primary representative from the Cedar Springs Public School Board of Education to actually cast the vote um, on behalf of
071the Cedar Springs Public School Board of Education in June. So, you'd have to attend a meeting and cast a vote. Um, and then we also have to identify an alternate for that work. I know that I've served as that member who attended the meeting and cast the vote. Matt has done it in the past. Um, and so one of the things that you'll be asked to do in May at our May meeting is identify a member of our team who is willing to go down to the Kent ISD for a meeting in June and actually cast the vote on behalf of the board. Um, the other thing that you'll be asked to do in May is actually, you know, identify from a group of individuals who have expressed interest in serving on the Kent Intermediate
072School Board. um to actually identify individuals from that list of interested parties and and support them in a vote. So, it's a little bit of a a wonky situation. You have to present the uh candidates after May 5. Um but then you also have to have the election or the the ballot cast um by the end of May. um you have got to take action as a board and so it puts us in a little bit of a pickle because we only have one meeting in May. So in the past what we've done is had a special meeting um either the third week in May or the fourth week in May just to complete that process. Um, I met I was in a meeting today with Ron Gorman who's the superintendent from the Kent and
073one of the other superintendents asked him if there was any leniency that they could give us so that we didn't have to pull our boards together for a special meeting in May because several districts only have one meeting in May. And so he was going to look into that and then get back to us. So perhaps we can, you know, see the candidates in May, identify who we're going to have cast the vote, and then uh have a our second opportunity to review candidates in June, and then actually take take action at that June meeting. But I'll keep you up to date on it. So if you're thinking you want to go to a meeting at the Kentd uh in June to cast a ballot, maybe you can raise your hand. One of my meets
074in May. to talk about that I think it's I think it's at 6 p.m. and you have to drive by some pretty good restaurants to get to the KD. So turn it into a dream date with your special person if you're interested. All right, we will see that again. See how that turns out. That concludes our discussion items for this evening. That brings us to the portion of our meeting where we have public comment where the board would hear from the public. If anyone has registered to speak, we could listen for three minutes. We won't be following up today at the meeting. Mr. Smith will be following up. So discussed, do we have anyone registered for public comment? No, we do not. Having no public comment speakers come forth, we will close public comment and
075move on to our action items for this evening. We have first up for action the high school public address PA system. I would entertain a motion. I would move to recommendation of Parkway for $287,000. 287 613,000 second discussion. Um during our discussion portion we were kind of talking about that particular area section 31A. So, while we were meeting, I looked up a memorandum of interpretation from the state of Michigan Department of Education and um under that section, it does talk about special education and talks about safety and one of those items under safety is safety infrastructure. So, it squarely fits in there, not to second guess, but just as a validation as a result of our earlier discussion. Thank you for that. I do think we know we probably heard stories from things happen throughout
076the day that the system does go down and takes a long time to fix if some and they're fearing that it might not fix but it's at the end of its useful life. Yeah. Vice President Shner. Yes. Secretary Sleer. Yes. Treasure Gilmore. Yes. Trusty L. No. Trusty Patton. Yes. Trusty Bowser. Yes. President Reed. Yes. Motion carries. Action item B, Beach Elementary School classroom furniture purchase round two. I would entertain a motion. Someone. So, I'm going to clarify um I'm going to clarify the I didn't say as presented. I'm clarify for custard furniture. Watch me on the amounts here. 763 $36481 as multiple measures. Sorry Barb. No, I have them all listed so it'll be in the minutes as presented. Yes. And you support? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any discussion? Uh just to further clarify the
077total dollar amount multiple vendors the 176,364.8. Vice President Scher. Yes. Secretary Sleer. Yes. Yes. Treasury Gilmore. Yes. Trusty L. Yes. Trusty Patton. Yes. Trusty Balter. Yes. President Reed, yes. Motion carries. Action item C, the Cedar Trails Playground proposal. I would entertain a motion for as presented. I would love to make that motion for 299,92960 for game time. Thank you. Second. for writing. Any discussion? They've needed this for a while. I'm very excited as a call. Vice President Shner, yes. Secretary Sleer, yes. Treasure Gilmore, yes. Trusty Lond, yes. Trusty Patton, yes. Trusty Bowser, yes. President Reed, yes. Motion carries. Action item D, the summer 2025 bond construction project proposals. I would entertain a motion for as presented. So moved, support any discussion. Again, very excited to have these three different projects. I think the Cedar View
078one is it's been much hated for years. Uh excited that the cross country will have some parking. Um yeah, looking forward to it. Great. Now call for vote. Vice President Shner, yes. Secretary Slger, yes. Treasure Gilmore, yes. Trusty Blond, yes. Trusty Patton, yes. Trusty Bowser, yes. President Ree, yes. Motion carries. The last action item for this evening is Intermediate Association of School Boards Board of Directors ballot. And I would entertain a motion for as presented the ballot with Andrea Haydel wanting to continue that work. Any discussion? None. Vice President Shner, yes. Secretary Slagger, yes. Treasure Gilmore, yes. Trusty L. No. Trusty Patton. Yes. Trusty Bowser. Yes. President Reed, yes. Motion carries. That brings us to the communication portion of our meeting. And for the board of education, I would just remind everybody that Mecca Island
079is going to be the place for MASB meetings in May. Um I have attended there before. It's nice um how that host. So if anybody's interested, it's it's good trip. That's all I have. All the other communications that I have add on to that as well. Uh so that one's at point I believe. So, it's awesome place. Yep. Uh I don't know if they still have rooms, but uh there's other places that And we do right now it's the 75th year for me. So, I think they're still providing $750 scholarship kind of whatever you want to call it. uh for board members and I think that falls under this. I like I'm still looking for a special education update. Um don't know if we can put that on the agenda sometime May, June. We can
080I um just need clarification as to what you want in that update or what I guess it's we want to make sure that it's the first the full member of that's fine. I've talked to other board members and they stated that we used to get it gradually annually. So yeah, if it's something that we've gotten in All right. Um, I had sent an email to the board today uh uh self-reporting and emission of consideration for policy 4110, which is the uh conflict of interest policy. We had um in response to a parent communication uh regarding the experience that they were having when they would go to Cedar Trails um to pick up their child after school or during the day. uh she just indicated it wasn't a very welcoming space to uh sit in that
081front lobby and I went over there and I said, "Wow, you're right. It's really dark in here and it's not a very welcoming place for parents or for students." And so um working with the facilities team and working in the office at uh Cedar Trails, the idea was to just give it a fresh a freshening. Um replacing the lights, painting the brick just to brighten the space. uh clearing out some of the old furnishings and some of the old structures in that uh opening area and providing some other places for students and and and families, parents to sit. Um the work of the electrical we did uh on our own. Our team replaced the lighting um structures both in the vestibule but also in the other entryway area trails. Um we have done some other
082things inside the the building actually uh to help brighten that space as well to enhance the student experience. Um we did not do the painting uh internal. We sought out an external vendor to do that work. Um we had three vendors submit pricing um for that project. Um, of the three vendors, we went with the lowest price uh, proposal, which actually was the first proposal. So, the first one that came in was lower than the other two that came in the couple of days. Um, our thinking was in in the the the contractor that we went with was Draen with Painting, who uh is a spouse of one of our employees. Um, Marty and I didn't see it as a conflict of interest because they were the lowest uh the lowest vendor and so we
083really didn't think beyond we looked at policy uh 6320 around purchasing. So we wanted to make sure that we followed the guidelines there. Um we knew the number was such that it didn't require board approval. Um but also from past recommendations um from our auditors, we still sought out three competitive bids or three competitor free competitive quotes from vendors just so we knew we were in the ballpark. Um but we didn't think we didn't we didn't push our thinking to a conflict of interest because the low bidder got the bid. It wasn't like we went with the middle bidder or the highest bidder. Uh but then in review today, we kind of chewed on it over over uh over spring break and then we were connecting today and actually as we read through the conflict
084of interest policy language, we realized that you know policy 4110 is super clear. Um and we missed we we I didn't consider that. Um and so self-disclosing my recommendation is that we take a look at our um language around purchasing and actually incorporate that conflict of interest language into that p purchasing language. So that way people in the seats long after we're gone um have all that information right on one page as they're considering um the awarding of contracts or proposals or partnering with vendors. So I just want to make sure that honor any questions that may come from the board table. I appreciate the question that brought this to the table in the first place. Um, it's never easy to admit a mistake, but we all strive to get better each and every day
085and this is a great opportunity for us to be better. Just a question that that spouse was not involved in the decision making process of Correct. Correct. Yeah. And and then the other question was, you know, how many employees does the school employ? uh it each payroll is slightly different but roughly 400. So, I think going with the load, I don't personally I don't know that that I would see that. I know you guys reviewed the policy, but when you talk about 400 employees and somebody's spouse or somebody's child that you may or may not know owns a business becomes pretty difficult. In this case, you do, I guess, or we're aware of it. So, so I appreciate you bringing it forward, but only with I don't see a concern. M had some good ideas
086that for some different things that we could maybe incorporate into that policy revision. um if you want to share those. Yeah, I think for the conflict of interest policy. So, so the policy is currently anything over $250. It is a very low threshold. I think the policy should specifically state the superintendent and the finance director are strictly prohibited from having any financial interest with any vendors. you know, just make that flat out prohibited. Um, but potentially uh have it under the board under the state threshold the board grants the superintendent or design with who are excluded prohibited but they can approve uh those conflicts of interests. Um if the spouse is no disclos discloses it it's all upfront that you can because conflict of interest can you know as long as it's addressed upfront it's
087allowable and that individual takes a step back they're not involved in the decision making process um you know it but it it does need to be addressed up front. So, we did do that. The part that we ered on was presenting it to the board for approval. And there's language in 4110 that um gives room for exclusions, but I couldn't in good conscious say that there were any there was any rationale to exclude that work. You should have we should have presented it to you and you should have voted on it for people to be in perfect alignment with the course. Thank you. Thank you for the transp and the parent concern was addressed. So that was another good thing in the whole process. All right. So planning our next meeting is May 12th right
088here. Same time, same place and having no more business before the board. We will stand matured at age 21.