CSPS Board of Education Meeting 2.24.25

001good evening I'll call the February 24th C public school board meeting to order it is now 6:15 um welcome to the the meeting in the public not with the public but we're most glad to have everybody here so if we could all rise together for the States America yes Bower here trusty Patton here trusty L here treasur Gilmore here secretary slager here vice president shner here president Reed here thank you and we miss establish a full form for this evening's meeting that brings us to the adoption of the agenda and I will entertain a motion for as presented some mov support any discussion I'd like to make a motion to add to the agenda I'd like to make a motion that for providing snacks by the teachers in elementary school up for discussion and I'd

002also like to re request an investigation under the violation of board policy p1230 K and then n addition i' like to add that the discussion have second for that am for agenda support support adding yes all items the SN provided by the teachers for the elementary school from the request for investigation for the violation from the superintendent by the superintendent under board policy po1 1230 item K and that motion have discussion are you asking discussion on what these requesting so we're gonna if you do second then uh we'll have IDE State discussion and we can talk about those pieces uh if it does pass then those get put on the agenda for request yes did you open up for discussion adding two items to the do agenda and I would caution on one of them

003it could be a point of order for the tractional issues so I would open the word up for the session so question if both of those items are one of them be taken into Clos session or would they all be discussed in open S because of the potential two very different issues right so the other the first item about the add next things that's on an action item that's already on the [Music] agenda but it's not AC asked if we could add that to the agenda I can not get response back what are you asking discussion for us to look into these two items the second item again regarding to that he violated board policy p1230 item [Music] kmn so that's the discussion for us so does anyone have any other um so I would

004call then that the agenda items need add well before you do that under discussion you said the snack was already which I I miss that that was my okay I think [Music] I would call for vote if it passes on there not call for a vote so I'm going to call for a vote for adding those agenda items as requested by no Dr sler No treasure Gilmore Noy yes truste Patton Noy Bowser no pres re no so we'll move on to um a motion to adopt the agenda as presented I do think we kind mess that up a little bit because we had already motion on table this was Amendment the amendment was knocked down and because of that our original motion still stands so we have additional discussion on it now we give time

005for it any other discussion for the motion for the adoption as preved I guess i' like to I think there's a reasonable let I move to add the conversation around snacks and do so I move that we do that we second so that's we're going to treat that as another un so I'll call for that vote and then go back to F all right president shner yes de sler yes treas Gilmore yes JY L yes Patton yes JY Bowser yes pres read yes so we're going to add snaps to ufg item number H got that now we're back to the agenda as presented with an agenda H vice president shner yes drer yes yes J L yes J Pon yes yes president yes motion carries okay with our agenda all right we have open at

006the table I my gratitude would be our sports girls basketball cheerleading I mean absolutely phenomenal so that was exciting to see all Middle School wrestling also took thirst and I'd like to give a shout out to just all the volunteers uh they come alongside and a lot of them are parents but uh just it takes a community and we are doing that I'm very grateful so all the volunteers thank you I'm grateful for the members of the administrative team who are here tonight to share the middle of the Year data update with the board um so you'll see what progress that made made they'll highlight some of those points of progress but also identifying things that they're going to continue to work on in the classroom in the buildings uh over the next few months

007as we work towards the end uh of the school year I'm also grateful for Tha continued progress on our construction projects which will help us stay on track and be ready to open beach for the fall of 2025 thank you and thank you all the administrators or the data that's Tak this apprciate that all right moving on to our consent items the general business for the board I would entertain a motion for as presented support or so moved vice president schner yes SEC slider yes treasury bmore yes trusty L yes trusty Patton yes trusty Bowser yes president re yes carries that brings us to the work session portion of our meting with the mid year data review with Scott and yeah so thank you um so tonight we're going to break the data up into

008two groups um the first group will be our elementary data and then the second data set conversation that we'll have will SE focus on secondary data so if I could have Kristen Alberts um The District's uh Grant and continuous Improvement specialist come up to the podium as well as our elementary team they can come up to the podium as well and Kristen will give you an overview of the difference assessments that you're looking at then she'll transition in and give you an overview of the data yearly data points that we're getting from our early childhood preschool classrooms which are predominantly our gsrp classrooms U and then we'll transition in Scott Carpenter will share uh Insight over uh the trails Jen Cook here to share Beach and then Sam beor is here to give an overview

009of the data coming out and Seed view Clarence McCoy is also here um they'll be open to any questions that you have regarding the information that's in hello sorry hello oh it is thank you thank you um I'm Kristen Albert I am the grants and continuous Improvement specialist um and we are going to present on the elementary school data the data points for elementary are a little different than secondary um just because there are some early literacy components and early math components we track as well as that um bigger I ready assessment um that puts all of those skills combined as we move through the year so um in elementary or starting preschool we have in aadience as well as in K5 we also track with aadience um which is a early literacy screener we

010have I ready reading we have a universal screener for number sents for math as well as the I math assessment so that's the overview of Elementary as a whole um for the P assessment I'm guessing that you have it open on your I was expecting to see it on the screen I know what it looks like but um I'm gu oh that's okay I wasn't sure if you guys had access to it I didn't want to move ahead all right the P the first score there is the composite score the composite combines all the four at the bottom into one score in a summary so that's that overall view of of the students combined the one after the composite is the language index the language index includes the oral language score as well as comprehens

011mention combined so those two are those overview assessments to track students with those combined scores the scores at the bottom are the oral language um comprehension phonological awareness and alphabetical knowledge those are those early literacy assessments that we can track um individually so we can Target those skills in the classroom and then they also do the early math inventory um we're turning in the right direction with all of those indicators it's really um the teachers have cognizantly put ever into phological awareness and the alphabetic knowledge those are those letters and sound knowledge um the vocabulary and oral language and comprehension they also intentionally align activities to make it a a language Rich environment which is our early literacy skill um and we will continue to do that as we move forward throughout the year in

012our preschool classrooms thank you any questions definely looks like uh we're going in the right [Music] direction wonderful all right s Becker from Cedar viiew I don't know if I need the microphone we kind of in our continual um like we're trying to continuously be aligned K5 so we kind of took it how we've done previous ones where I'm going to focus on behavior for all three buildings then Jen's GNA talk math and Scott's gon to talk reading um so this is really the focus one the office managed referrals um per day last time we were here it was all up in here and we're trying to explain that away um but we've made progress everybody's trending down but we've all three buildings done it different ways um at Trails they really had more focused

013support of their interventionist to work kind of with the teachers um and have teacher like build ownership and relationships with those students so they're working together to help I call fight the spike which you see those spikes up there um at beach they looked during those fall months um look back identified their High Behavior Flyers um they updated and adjusted those Behavior plans and then with kind of what I call those fence ERS who are they don't know what they want to be um they really um focus on some checkin check out for them and then at Cedar View we noticed our data for especially October November with classroom disruptions so we wanted to focus on lessening classroom disruption so we pushed into classrooms more with our PBIS intervention team um and myself as opposed

014to being reactive so that's kind of the three different um very similar in terms of the data how it's trending down but different ways and how we utilize our Behavior teams any questions hi okay I'm gonna focus on math um for kindergarten through fifth grade um when you're looking through all the slides there's lots of different information there um some of the things that we want to celebrate um is there was the universal number screener there was in a decrease of students who were in The R um from beginning of the year to middle of the year um we also saw a decrease of our red students in I ready for math as well um we saw an increase of our students who were in The Green in I ready um so we were super

015excited about that um one of the things that we noticed from the slide that has the 2023 24 to 2425 Universal number screener that one um are well below and are below low basic are those numbers so that red and orange are decreasing thank you B um also if you look from first grade through fifth grade on the middle of the year I ready um 60% where it shows how many were proficient nope NOP keep going keep going one more nope um the slide that looks like that there you go um so on that slide our first through fifth grade students um for the middle of the year I ready 60% or above of students were on track to make the progress of growth for the year so we were really excited about that some

016of the things that we have had um discussions about K5 is looking at the middle of the Year number screen there are some things that um come into play with that because sometimes you'll see it decreased and so we really wanted to analyze why why is it decreasing and some of the things that we've noticed as we were going through the screener and looking at each item across the grade levels that the the time of year that was given some instruction hadn't happened yet so some of those students were tested on things that they had been not instructed on yet so we are being mindful moving forward that we are looking at that and making sure we're hitting those points in the future um we also in the middle of the Year there is a

017big change at the beginning of the year it's all verbal so it's asking them a question like start at 65 and count up and they're doing that just oneon-one with someone the middle of the year they're adding a written component to it and it's multi-step story problems which is really hard for students to adjust to that so we're being more mindful of making sure we're practicing those more often before the end of the year so the kids feel more comfortable moving forward okay there's our math good evening everybody you so I I am looking at the reading K5 and one of the things as a reminder that I read looks at is a predictor of M step um so when our eyes look at this graph we are at actually decided to look at the

018back end of the graph for each of the beginning to the midyear K5 our Reds decreased in all grade levels so those kids are moving Sam that's thank you sir thank number seven still moving number seven I didn't even look at the title I just want to right CU I knew what I was supposed to talk about there we go so look at at read see it that's a good skill to look at the tit so beginning of year to mid year we are dropping consistently on the back end of that for I ready okay so that's very exciting we see a lot of green third grade mid year uh 60% at or above grade level um for beach so there are some wonderful celebrations kindergarten jumping from 24 to 64% um from beginning to

019mid year so wonderful celebrations to um draw attention to and if we look at the reading growth on cadians time I'll make sure I'm looking at the right one I'm not this is the one I'm listening yep reading grow so again this these graphs show us who has maintained at or above Benchmark so we look at a K5 Continuum we are 83 to 87% of our students were maintaining that at or above Benchmark which really speaks to the work that our um teachers are doing in the classrooms uh during their win time which is our intervention time so they are being intentional and strategic um with the activities and the programs that the kids are working on to help maintain that growth that's been a big Focus this year um K5 and then if we

020look at the um K3 so we're going to look at the acadians go it's a team so as we look at we're also looking at the back end as well and we see that um K3 50% of our students are at or above and have continued to maintain um one of the points of emphasis that our teachers in our interventionists are working on is these are not just percentages but those are those are students those are our students those are faces in our classroom our teachers interventionist take that to heart they really really have been working hard on collaborating they're working hard on being intentional in their um win times and the interventionists with the assistance of Kristen have been working um extremely hard on focused intervention tools to um really Target those students in

021that tier two um intervention so we have a lot of celebrations to talk about that doesn't mean that we're ignoring U the work that has to be done that we will continue to to work um with our staff for the rest of the year but our teachers are working super hard interventionists have have been just a wonderful addition uh to our day and the collaboration that they have between them um has been very very inspiring so a lot of celebrations a lot of work to do and we will continue to continue that work again tomorrow any questions on any of the reading I have a question yes sir how the intervention is the resources for students still okay or you stretch thin or yes we're using 95% group as an intervention tool as well and

022they are uh they have those kits that they need to to get the work done amount of kids per Staffing wise oh Staffing wise so at Trails we have six interventionists or academic interventionists and that's been a that has been a blessing it's been a great addition to the building and we have the same we have six and we have four but it's a consistent four which last year was like one took another jobs we were down to three so I think it's been consistent across the board which has really been very helpful I do have one question to if you go up one slide just want to make sure I'm looking at it correctly um you got some percentages that are over 100% is that just a mistake of the data is that percentage

023of kids that are at grow it looks like we're or do we have maybe some kids transfer out or do those count some of the kids that come in from out of District or no a kid can be part of both of these um so a kid can be part of improving placement and progress towards annual growth yeah if you look at fourth and fifth we've got two col over 100% by themselves that means theyve made above the annual growth okay so instead of a Year's worth of growth they've gone above and beyond that any other question thank you you to share uh not really but uh in the interest of time I would just concur with Sam that those Behavior data trend lines are uh indicating that they're trending in a positive decision but

024that does not mean that we're out of the woods we have to continue to strengthen those interventions continue to strengthen those parent teacher relationships and expound on those uh that's where the rubber meets the road uh to continue to Advocate that young people uh have decisions made Based on data that they graduate from these interventions that they not get stuck in an intervention continue to look at what's best for them to help them continue to grow and to be able to align through buildings uh processes where we're defining Behavior not just in general terms but in objective measurable terms so we can know whether interventions are effective and how we continue to improve and get better and activate those data routines to improve our decision making for the best outcomes for our young people question

025I know we talk about this this is really good news to watch watch them come down just a question so we see month over month it's dropping if we compared this time of the year to this time of the year you know in previous years I think we talked at one of the previous work sessions that we're trending down really since the 2019 or 2020 when we were kind of maybe at the P have we continued to exper those year-over-year improvements I think we are I think as teams get better we get better at affecting these interventions earlier and the good news is that now that the elementary schools are working together more efficiently I am very optimistic that I think it's logical that most of our efforts not all but most of our efforts

026are put at Trails because I think that's where we get the most bang for the buck when we invest in those young people and have consistent routines uh it's less anxiet they're able to transition from school to school to school uh and I think as we get better at CPI managing you know those really extremely difficult young people as we get better at co-parenting uh which is really challenging meaning we all speak with the same voice myself principls teachers and parents those young people have a more consistent message and uh they fall into the system and I think that's a great observation and we're really hopeful about that thank you very yeah good such a good news when we talked about last time since we're continuing to see throughout month month I assume we continuing

027to see you I thought very exciting and I will say too when we come back here you'll see spikes again because they're gonna it ramps up we're seeing it but it'll fight this fight again so yeah and I would also just add in regards to that is that that's what this data helps us do that it activates those processes we can start to proactively manage student Behavior we know spring is common so we can address those things thank you very much yeah hi good evening coming to you from the Middle School uh I think we're starting out with math as the first end of our slides right dep when we get there 14 there we are all right so you will see uh our math data is also trending in the right direction however our

028growth moves are a little smaller than what you might have seen in the K5 world I will say it excites us because to hear the goodness in the K5 world coming to us means they're fewer gaps coming our way so um one of the challenges at the middle level is uh we see students come in and they've decided or they start to decide in sixth seventh e8th grade I'm a math person or I'm not and we're battling that because we're all math people it's just a matter of where your strengths lie and so we battle that mindset a little bit but you can see that our uh at or above grade levels they they have increased we've seen growth we' see the red uh decrease and um something to just share that we're focusing on

029moving into next year that we're all pretty geeked about I think is uh we're looking at sixth seventh and eighth grade we're going to offer one uh math class for our students that will hopefully close the gap so our general EDS students who need um some serious direct instruction with their support and their buyin and their parent buyin that will be a specific class with them they will be working through sixth grade math instruction seventh and eth the actual curriculum we're not modifying that by any means but it will just work at the pace and fill some direct gaps that they need so we're excited about that um also this year something that we've put into play has been um in sixth grade we have something called student Focus which is kind of a career

030or future Focus minded uh class that all of our students do and now we have teachers also building ANL which is like a curricular supplement that even if you're not the math teacher you're able to support or supplement some of that in kind of a home room kind of mentality so that's a great opportunity in seventh grade we have um one teacher has two hours backtack of co-taught instruction with two certified teachers in the room and then our other seventh grade teacher is now teaching five classes co-taught with an interventionist there so we're we're excited for that and then eth grade we also run two learning lab classes where it's more targeted to their needs so instead of just speaking to the numbers I want to just address we see there are gaps and we

031know it and those are the things we're trying to put into play to minimize those gaps a little bit so what questions do you have thanks okay I'm going to talk about our reading data good so I was very excited about our reading data that we have at the middle school midy year our teachers have been working really hard collectively as a whole to read and write across all subject areas and to use common methods and routines in order to do that so as a group they've really owned the data not just in our language arts classes but in our science classes social studies and even math using vocab and reading strategies um we have an MTS SS literacy team and we made a goal when this data breaks down it's in five different categories

032one of the categories is comprehension of informational text and that often is the most important for our middle schoolers and so we set some goals around that specifically and you can't see it on this graph but in the graph where the data is broken down we have already met that goal mid year you want to go to that next slide shell so um this is just very exciting to me typically mid we would expect to see 50% progress to annual growth um the fact that we're already at 100% and sixth seventh and eighth grade shows me that our students are working really really hard on these reading skills and so are our teachers we've also taken a lot of time in our professional development to look at our I ready data at the beginning of

033the year when we first got the results and we looked at the students M stop data from the year before those have a lot of the same patterns and so we were able to use even more data to address some of our student needs that we're seeing in the classroom any questions about reading data all right well we also fight the fik sometimes with behaviors um for us we find that some of our uh toughest months or weeks or as we're headed into break or um any sort of a change in the regular pattern is coming um multiple snow days things like that impact our Middle School world and Minds um November was uh higher there you'll see um at the middle school but um we saw that drop off pretty decently in December and

034I think if we were to PLL January and February we're probably pretty conf able to that um again these are referrals only on the majors like the major things that kind of hit um not necessarily every little disruption or every um scuffle in you know a force play or something in the hallway if we reported all of those um you know we'd be here a bit right they're kids and can get a little squirrely in our six seventh and eighth grade times but um we've seen that taper off and it feels good um we've also spent a lot of time recently with our staff uh discussing the consistency of our protocols there and how we need to consistently across the board be logging those things to show where we're at and how we're growing so

035and then a far as far as attendance it's just kind of overview we currently have 81% of our students at the 90% or more Mark which means in a school year we're looking looking for uh ideally students to miss less than 10% so we have about 180 182 days a year in a year 10% would be 18 days that's a lot I mean nearly a month really of school becomes your 18 to 20 day Mark so right now we have 81% of our students that are 90% or above attendance so that is something we are keying in on we are focusing on uh but we also recognize that some of our students show up late to school and it's not always their fault right a sixth seventh eth grader isn't responsible for driving themselves and

036sometimes they could be stubborn in that roll over bed I've lived with four teenage girls and that happens right but um we try to be mindful of that with our students to not man what' you do you were up late again no like instead hey we're glad you're here good morning it's 8:02 from first hour let's go you know that's been a focus for us any questions thank you thank you guys it can be very fun say so thank you for your efforts thank you yeah we're excited lot opportunity for growth right thank you guys before I dig in into the high school data um Mr H McCoy said his wisdom that there's a lot of co-parenting happening at the elementary levels among building leaders um I think we have the same thing happening with

037our middle school and high school and all that credit goes to really to Mrs Mack she's been holding me accountable on that as we've been getting together more often to uh just talk about our data and our next steps and our vision for our building so here on this screen this is our attendance data um for the high school and for New Beginnings I mean it speaks to itself Mrs Alvarez Miss Mack talked about you know sometimes it's not those middle schoolers faults if they don't get to class or get to school on time for our high schoolers there's left of that excuse or that alibi and 82% just isn't good enough and I'm going to talk a little bit as we get into this deeper how we're trying to address that but 82% is

038just not going to cut it for us and even lower for our new beginnings kids so oh man okay uh same data plot you saw from my middle school teammates um saying say this almost a Verbatim to what Mrs a and Mrs Mack talked about just starting to Trend down um these are the majors um you know we've seen some improvements there I'm going to explain why in a little bit this is the same attendance data you saw before I'm going to drill down into this if you look this is hard to see uh but we have seen at least Trend wise uh over the last few years we have seen a decrease in average referrals per day and I'll explain to you shortly why we feel like that's happening um this is uh what

039I consider to be the best behavioral threat Assessment program in the state in fact if you didn't know I'll say it Mrs vosc gets asked to go to Major conferences last year she presented to a group of about 700 principles on our threat assessment protocol coming from a high performing District we didn't which I came from we didn't have anything that even could touch what we do in terms of threat assessment here at Cedar Springs schools and it's a real credit to her and her team for what they do for us um in our building you can see how many stats we've had we're actually on Pace to have more than um what we've had in Prior years but one thing that Mrs V always talks about is you really have no idea or way

040of quantifying uh the violence that you prevented right we really don't know how many in inces we could have faed all we know is we're following a research-based vetted protocol to ensure that we are doing everything within our power uh to keep our kids safe and it's a real lengthy arduous process it's multidisiplinary if you don't know this it involves outside psychologists behavioral specialists and all as police officers it involves social workers and it it's all for the purpose of making sure that uh if something is a viable threat it is addressed and then the screenings um you know our building is here to the right as you can see um trending up for us this year um which is you know always tough to take especially after uh what we've experienced here this fall

041so okay now I'll just talk to you a little bit about why we believe that things are trending up in terms of or lessening behavioral uh issues our data has improved and just things that we are trying to attack every day here there's three pillars to our professional development and I would call them three initiatives that we try to engage in on a daily weekly monthly and for this year basis first of all um and I think I've talked to this grp group before our every student know initiative it's something that we're doing at the middle level as well our goal is to have all 1100 of our kids have an authentic relationship with at least one professional in this building and it does not have to be a classroom educator you know what I

042mean I've said it before it could be grandar Renee in the kitchen it could be Miss Sam uh taking care of the hallways during the day it can be you know Miss Fisk in the bus crash it just has to be at least one we need that one trusted adult that all 11 00 can go to in times of crisis in times of adversity we feel like that can be a way to prevent the next threat assessment we feel like that can be the way to insulate the next suicide screening we feel like that can be the reason a kid doesn't act out in class and you can see how it ties directly into some of the day it could be the reason why that child comes to school because they've got that relationship with

043the Mr fleminger coach Russ though they've got that relationship with Mrs Willcox so you can see how that directly infiltrates the data now it's just not some pie in the sky initiative we're feeding it with Dave Stewart's moments to genuine connection and we're not just saying we hope you do it we're asking our Educators to bring with or bring to us their data that shows that they're having these moments of genuine connection with every single child on their roster they have to bring their clipboard they're sprad spreadsheet whatever that shows like I pulled that kid and I've made that child feel valued seen or heard as Dave Stewart has written about uh the second initiative or pillar of our PD is we're really trying to grow pedagogically we're trying to become masters of our vocation

044and the way that we're feeding into being better teachers so that teaching is for in fact learning um is two ways we're doing it through teacher shadows in other words getting Educators in other Educators rooms because often times the best PD is right down the hallway and secondly we're doing it through our our PD sessions where we do street fairs of pedagogy in other words in other words we show off the great Educators we have in this building by letting them show their teammates and their colleagues the things that they're doing in their room but rather in a street fair type setting kind of like your every day um or every Saturday uh what do they call those things on Saturdays where they get vegetables fruits hummus thank you farmers markets and then finally we're

045really trying to build a Champions culture here and in order for that to happen we've really tried to Institute more restorative practices we know um we know that suspension just out of school suspension the data shows the research shows it doesn't work so we're trying to do Innovative things to to keep kids in school more but where learning is still occurring from their behavioral choice places and I think that feeds into some of the data you've seen here um is that the referrals are going down because maybe it's like hey I know coach Duffy is going to work with me on this he's not just going to boot me he's going to have me you know cleaning up the parking lot after school or he's going to have me do some sort of service in

046the community or he's going to have me write a reflection on things I could do better to change my best next time just those reflective and restorative actions that instead of booting them and there are cases where we have to I'm I mean I was jamming out with Mrs Vos Friday night trying to figure out a way to keep a young lady in school um sometimes it's just not possible because you have to think about all all 1100 not just one but in those cases where we can we want to keep them here and more more than anything we want them to learn from their errors and we feel like that feeds into that day so um yeah our intent is is is really to make you know this the number one holistic school in

047the state of Michigan that is our intent and in order for that to happen we've got to keep working on the aformentioned initiatives we' we we have to we have to uh and the way you let me say this you may say well how do you quantify that we've got to get our grad rate up our grad rate's not 100% so it's not there yet you know we're not even getting 83% of our kids to school 90% of the time how are we going to get them across the stage if they're not here learning we've got to get our kids ready to launch when some tall bald guy gives them a handshake and a piece of paper on a Thursday night in late May the next day they've got to know where they're headed or

048have a pretty darn good idea right and then finally we've got to get them life ready if they're not going out into the community ready to contribute then we haven't done the job so those are the ways we're kind of quantifying how we're going to be the number one school holistic school in the state for all 1100 of our kids so thanks for letting us share tonight really appreciate it any questions from the table regarding any of the information or any of the content that's been shared I have a question about behavior of assessment it's going down it says but I've heard that the school with very high bowling issues in a lot of public is that something that would be in this chart a behavioral threat assessment is not necessarily per okay threat assessment

049is when a student makes a statement or verbalizes some type of threat whether it be writing or verbally then the team assesses that okay thank you you're welcome Jason I'll just add bullying would be in those major behaviors that they talked about okay thank you sir questions administrators have you on to our discussion items first up we have a general fund budget amendment one with is on gration okay so I'm not going to go over the full 30 slide presentation again that we did U Back and earlier this month um there have been no changes to budget amendment one uh but one thing we need to discuss and potentially take action on tonight would be uh you know we've been discussing uh potential of creating a capital projects uh Improvement fund to start planning for

050future Capital needs down the road um [Music] so know really we we have several options that we can do um you know June 30 2022 was the last fiscal year that we uh levied a syncing fund millage um we currently do have u a little over 1.9 9 million remaining in the S syncing fund um it is acing earning interest right now in Independent Bank but we are not leving any additional uh property tax uh revenue on the sinking fund so we do have as mentioned several known capital projects likely coming down the road within the next four to five years um so there's multiple ways we can uh address these uh you know obviously we can utilize that remaining $1.9 million in the syncing fund as long as long as it's an allowable syncing

051fund expense because uh the state does mandate what specific types of expenditures you can use syncing fund money on um we can pay as you go so we'll just use the general fund um if we have an large expense that year we charge it to the general fund um but one thing note is that you know if it's a a if it's the the turf for the uh Red Hawk stadium that might be a $900 million hit to the general fund and that could likely put us into a deficit for that year um we can also just do a commit funds within the general fund so uh and I'll show you kind of what that looks like on the the financial statements uh that would be VI a board resolution and then there's two options

052related to creating uh a new Improvement funds uh one is a capital Improvement fund where the funds are committed by the board and then there's a public Improvement fund where those funds are restricted so the kind of the the first option related that would require a board resolution would be committing the funds within the general fund so right now you can see we have uh $3.3 million of unassigned fund balance in the general fund and that's the lowest classification least restricted classification for uh fund balance the board could do a a board resolution to commit a certain dollar amount at the end of the year and that would be moving funds from unassigned up to committed um and that's really just the board saying within the general fund we intend we want to recognize that

053we have $400,000 of future expenditures that we want to start recognizing now so this is kind of that all would stay within the general fund column then we have the capital Improvement fund or a public Improvement fund um the major distinction between those two is a capital Improvement fund is your the board is via board resolution is committing those funds to a capital Improvement fund for the public Improvement fund the board is restricting those funds once those funds are moved into the public Improvement fund they can never be moved out they have to be used for the intended purpose of that public Improvement fund so the major difference is capital Improvement it's moved into a new fund but if the board we're down the road we're just choose or down the road just determine that

054hey we need these funds for a different purpose you can move them back to the general fund via another a new board resolution public Improvement is one way once that mo money is moved it is there forever it has to be used for the intended purpose so again here is just showing it money would move from unassigned general fund up to the committed in the a non major governmental fund and then for the public Improvement it moveed from unassigned in the general fund to restricted a non- mejor general fund any questions on those kind of three options well really four but as you go do a commitment within the general fund um capital Improvement or public Improvement fund what happens to the fs that are sitting in seing F if they don't um they'll just

055continue to earn interest so are we earning more interest on that account compared to the general fund uh is the same interest rates so what would you recommend my recommendation would be the capital Improvement fund that is we you're starting to plan that kind of Smooths out the expenditure the hits on the general fund so it's not one big hit in that FAL year that we incur those expenses we're starting to plan and save for it now and then it kind of Smooths out the impact on the general fund but let's say 10 years down the road situations change board can then do a resolution say hey you know what we we have a million dollars here we we really need we don't need a million we need really to use for the general fund

056you could transfer the entire million back or half a million um but you do have that flexibility but it again it is a formal board resolution that the board would have to take action on to transfer back public Improvement that's not an option it's it's staying there so really for budget amendment one I did include a $400,000 uh transfer from general fund to a capital Improvement fund but we can't adopt that budget until we kind of decide what action what what direction the board like to go with uh these four options I think Capital approv makes sense to you explain why we do that so you get some flexibility what's the advantage to doing a a public Improvement if you're locking those funds in you no longer can remove them even if a dire need

057in the district what's the advantage to locking those in why is that even an that is you know it is locked in it cannot be you know nobody can say hey I want I want that money for something else it's no the board at this time has determined that we need to we want to transfer 400,000 to our future expense so it is locked in yeah there no there's no prer Financial treatment for that or any additional uh opportunities for income due to increase interest or anything it's just a just different treatment of B your to be use that correct and it would be in an interest bearing account same as the other one yes add to April's question about the syncing fund we'll likely be spending down the majority of the syncing fund as

058we bring home the completion of the current projects that are so one of the things that we did not anticipate when we went to our voters in August of 2020 was a replacement of the T course of and that project alone is you know 1.5 roughly we're anticipating that project is somewhere you know between 1.4 and $1.6 million um we're paying for that project with savings that we've incurred over other projects but there may also be a requirement to utilize some of the SN fund dollars to finish that project we're going to have some Paving that will need to be completed in the summer of 2026 and I'll talk about that a little bit tonight in another another agenda item but it'll likely be the case that we need to utilize those single fund dollars

059which originally were marked full PID projects on campus amongst our so we like utilizing the entirety of that sing fund account as we WRA everything right now the books um and so in B book I have attached a board resolu a draft resolution for the public Improvement fund a draft resolution for the capital Improvement fund and then if if it was the direction the board wants to take that you just commit funds within the the general fund uh that would be something the board can take action on uh in June it just has to be done before the end of the fiscal year but just clarify on that you did say w as F sub yeah so technically if you would like to discuss it further discuss it um at the March meeting you know

060there's nothing that is uh there's no deadline for adopting a budget amendment um so if the board would like to discuss it further you do not have to take action on budget amendment one and if it's determined you know we would like to uh keep it uh as is for now I can adjust budget amendment one remove that and present it to the board with out that transfer presented uh March 10 reason I'm asking action I guess would make sense to me we're accepting or we P off yeah I think the thinking there was rather then Rush the board into a decision the budget amendment one is just an amendment we can always make another amendment and if if the board decides not to set aside dollars then M can rework when he go the

061final budget in June you can rework those dolls back General so this one just kind of set aside I appreciate the difference being shared you know spent for and I think we look at one of them lock and can't respond to emeres District Mak s pursue flexibility I would back up even one St on that and say that yes we need Improvement fund you know it's it's been lacking in the district for years it's physically responsible us to have that so I appreciate you bringing op to us what was the dollar am change about 400,000 is what's included in there yes how much that the capital Improvement like the turf that would not cover the full amount of the project cost of the turf so it' be you kind of fund it annually and then

062until you kind of hit that Target number or you can put a little bit more um so instead of spending a million dollars in one fiscal year it' be all right let's transfer 400 this fiscal year let's do 300 next 300 the following and then you have that money uh in that capital improvment fund for the year four or five when you know you'll be replacing the the field Turf funds General right correct or we don't do the question we're talking refreshing from what we talk about if you have a large project coming at us and we know it's coming at us this would be a savings uh course to save up year over year knowing we've got to take a head on redoing and I don't want to say you know football F we

063you know hav done Investments there but when you're talking about something you know as a a life span coming at you can save so it doesn't become an emergency with the district it's basically just a a savings best to plan to replace something years forward right that's what for correct it it Smooths out you're you're saving for a future is really no different than I know in five years I need to replace my roof I'm GNA start saving now so I might put it into a you know a different bank account so instead of paying $20,000 in five years I'm putting $4,000 doar away each year um and then your your budget doesn't kind of have a spike your expenditures that one fiscal year the other thing districts can do if they don't have the

064dollars in a syncing fund they don't have an improvement fund set aside if their general fund is very tight they don't have a fund balance you could go to the bank and borrow money if it's an emergency project youd rather not do that because then you're paying interest on those dollars that you borrow just like as M said if you're Roofing replacement you don't have those dollars in savings then you can get a home after for you know something like that as far as a loan from the bank you pay interest sign that you can complet who classifies these projects as far as Capital Improvements who makes the decision they classify as a Improvement uh so generally it's board policy and then in the business manual it says uh so anything over um $5,000 with

065a useful life of one year would be considered like a capital project because at that point we would capitalize it and it would show up as a fixed asset in the financial statements and and the intent of this would not be you know uh to cover big uh kind of Maintenance regular maintenance expenses that would all be included in the annual general fund budget actually a really good question I was assuming work life I brought with our definition of capital versus maintenances so I didn't realize it was $5,000 a useful life in one year classifies it capital uh if it's over one year we capitalize it the individual unit cost or the the cost of the plus install okay all right moving on to title two relinquish El with when I'm sitting over there I

066realized I had a typ I should say title three um but so this is I believe this is new this year I've never seen this before but uh the state is now asking um if you are not going to um apply for all the funds that are available they want you the board to take action to relinquish it um so I believe this would be our third year that we have not applied for title three funds um generally speaking it's about $3,000 annually um the title title three English Learners so we don't Cedar Springs doesn't have a huge a large uh student body that actually qualifies for the services These funds are restricted for um and there's significant amount of uh compliance and reporting that goes along with it so um those two factors the

067the you know only having a very small if not any students that qualify for using these funds as well as the restrictions and Reporting requirements that go along with it for this year it is $3,615 uh We've determined not to apply for them uh new this year they're asking the boards to uh take action um so uh this is not on action for T night this would be the first read um any any questions what classif I would have to get back to the specifics related tole yes weer test assume all of the other box be all the ones we qualify for or qualify yeah we do title one two and four one that again moving on to Elementary playground proposal and update with Scott in mind so the next uh collection of artifacts you

068have in board book is really the not the end of the process in terms of enhancing our Elementary programs Elementary playgrounds um but it is um a recommendation for the playground at Beach and the playground at Cedar view um included in board book the initial side just shows you the picture of Cedar trails you'll see that there are two um playground areas shaded in tan on the southeast end of the building so uh the one playground is oriented toward first grade the other playground is oriented toward kindergarten so the initial body of work that um our facilities team was doing with the team at Trails was looking to replace pieces of equipment at both playgrounds um what we've uh kind of a revelation that came to the table uh in the last week and a

069half was the next slide down um is there life in US combining those two playgrounds to have a better experience for our students uh and do so at a reduced cost in terms of the bond budget and so what we're looking at right now and what the operations and Facilities team is doing working with the team at Trails um and the team at Trails includes administrators teachers uh special ed staff is trying to determine a kind of a collection of um features that we would include in a playground that would be more centrally located uh on the playground that trails and then what we'll do is we'll weigh out we'll compare the options uh between doing two separate spaces versus doing one space and then we'll bring forward a proposal to you that has the

070best return on investment in terms of fund for our students um but rather than looking at two separate spaces we're wondering is there some benefit in looking at one combined space at Trails so that's that's the piece of trails uh the next slide down then we talk about Beach so that's the overview high level architectural drawing of the Beach proposal uh then the next series of slides are more detailed photos images that were provided to us from Sinclair which is the agency that we're working with the company that we're working with um to design the playgrounds and then also to secure the equipment so uh Trails over excuse me beaches overview is there followed up by the overview for Cedar view in each playround project um the facilities team the S CL rep has worked

071very closely with staff um to create features to provide features for our students that are inclusive of all students and all abilities uh but also to provide some meet spaces um for students to uh really maximize that experience when they're out there on their playr um the last sheet in the packet is the uh cost breakdown the what we're requesting you to consider for approval tonight um the playground project at Beach uh comes in at [Music] $261,600 in 27 cents we anticipate the number for Cedar View excuse me Cedar Trails uh coming in somewhere uh in that ballpark between 230,000 and 260,000 hous as far as the revamp at that space as well um you know the equipment is at at each of these buildings is tip um the the team the our facilities team

072was doing some major welding and major repair to a structure at beach um over winter break um you know so the challenge is that you know the structures are 20 plus years old we're not able to get the repair parts for those structure the the we need anymore the um the equipment at Trails a lot of the protective rubber coating same goes that beach lot that protective rubber coating is is worn off it's worn down it's seen a good life use and so you know aside from stripping that those pieces off taking them out getting them clean prepped and recoded um you know we really don't have any options as far as making those structures uh safe as we could be for our students moving forward so the idea is to you know do our

073best to carry forward as many pieces as we can uh that are reasonable that are safe for our kids moving forward but a lot of this um a lot of the features really have exceeded their useful life and therefore you know they really just don't have value uh putting those onto one of the nuclear grounds any our three buildings and we are hoping for action this evening on the proposal for beach and the proposal for view we saw these numbers and the proposal back in early January um the reason for getting these proposals approved tonight before the trails proposal is the sooner that we get the proposals approved the sooner we get on the list on installation and that's critical for us if we want to deliver and be open and ready to go when

074school question so is this the final proposal there noing anything on this uh we're open the recommendation is for this per those laws any it is that are set kind of far off to the side running numbers on that that was just logs and rocks 18,000 is that something of this budget to save us some money since it's about to The Far Side when may kids aren go play into that area just something to look at and then the other thing that I personally heard from one of my was uh the swing sets the you player swings and I guess they fight over play swings quite a bit are we thinking about any swing sets as well there so there are swings included at each okay if you look in slide eight I'm talking VI

075sorry swings I've been doesn't have any swing sets they just have five pair swings there's a whole set of swing sets that we're not removing that are out there it's hooked right down the of that off this pl Play ground you have a big uh concrete area where there's basketball hoops and on the edge of that is the swing set of okay you know eight to 12 swings you know that are set up that are really good shape still we've been we can replace chains and and seats um and and continue with what we have Okay the reason that classroom is offset that all those like logs and mushrooms is it's actually an outdoor classroom so the vision the principal had was it wasn't on top of the playground in case someone was teaching over

076here somebody is actually actively playing over here okay the other question I have is I don't know what you call this it's like a little ramp our view here um that thing right there I remember in January you said that in Rockford they don't play with that very often you were talking about removing that that would that was 13,000 just that that was actually I missed both there was a different piece of equipment that that was concerned with safety um but that was not the equipment the piece of equipment that um I had concern with that proper install is not included in and the feature that's that's seen in the photo or the image is one of those inclusive features so it's a feature that a wide variety of students could enjoy um with varying

077levels of just just I think we talked about last mon to but just for everybody um these are my deal pricings right that's why these are not competitively BS they through the state of Michigan gives us competive that we'll see where we next all right moving on to the 2526 so we typically take multiple months to review handbooks I recommended improvements or in changes from year to year this collection Amy McCarthy worked with our building level teams to get this project up and running so that way we're not uh considering handbook changes in June and July and some cases August um and so because it's such a robust collection of artifacts we we want to make sure that people have enough time to process through couple questions did come through um from the board table

078uh one was around the handbook at the Early Childhood Center and the question was around um the the component was stricken that the Early Childhood Center does not call students down to the office to celebrate birthdays uh anymore what they do is they celebrate those birthdays just in the classroom with students there was a follow-up question around do the students still get pencils and an eraser for their birthday I don't have Clarity on that speciic point but that's something that I'll have for you an answer for you in our next meeting the other set of question the other question that came from the board table was around parking and I did respond uh to the entire board as far as the why behind the parking fee at the high school um I also included Eddie

079John's shared with us um a spreadsheet that just Compares our proposed uh parking fee to other parking fees in uh surrounding districts and um you'll see that our um parking fees are very reasonable the ones that are being requested are very reasonable relative to enabling districts and what they charge there is a component of you know we do have some cost in printing the or providing the stickers or the Hang tags for students and so that helps offset some of the costs of the excuse me that helps offset some of the cost of the the parking fee but also just additional um Manpower uh human resources to help monitor the parking you know that there's a little bit of an oet on that definitely doesn't pay for that in the entirety but you know it's

080the team that the high school shared it's it's they feel it's reasonable to have our students have some skin in the game to to drive and Par their and Eddie also said that they made the change they actually made the change last year but it did not get caught in the so this is really a [Music] correction any other first glance questions where does the fund go for the extra parking the extra parking fund go to the general fund likely go those funds go to the school activity fund that the high school can use for different student activ throughout the year okay so it doesn't go to actually staff monitor also offsets the cost of the actual sticker that needs to go in the window how much how much is the sticker itself cost yeah

081per student you know I out that part for three years no but I'll find out I question on campus kids in the handbook um on page four under program it just says before after school services at the ages the four to 12 year olds was cross off and I just wanty I didn't see it somewhere else I may have missed it but I didn't see anywhere else the age requirements or limitations for particip so I one more I looking at the hand I think I was in the right place it looks like we've got some in English and some translated a new when a new um handbook is approved by the board is those Provisions make to those translated cop do we have something to be out my understanding is that when Amy updates a

082handbook she updates all of the handbooks I couldn't validate it because I [Music] right okay just just so wondering I was I was fairly rision make that but I didn't know how translation process so I no whether that was something I need to ask so appreciate you're very welcome we actually use um some AI to help us with translation but then we also use staff um our world langage staff help us our El staff helps us thank you for those thoughts we'll move forward next we have the K people count Trends update all so I mentioned this in our last meeting in February uh I did include the side deck that Kevin Phillips could put together for us it's just a point for you for knowledge um just you can kind of take a look

083at where we are compared to other districts the Kevin slide deck really covered both um fund balance but also covered um pupil pupil accy that we so just a point for you for information in case you have any [Music] questions summer 2025 B uction of project up thank you um so this group of artifacts really is showcasing the uh handful of projects that we are focused on um for this summer the um sorry up as well so uh the first artifact gives you an overview of Cedar View um and it just showcases uh some pretty substantial work being done on the south side of the building the side of the building facing our um baseball softball complex so you'll see that uh a number of parking spaces are being added back there to help accommodate

084the needs um that we have both during school for staff but then after school for events uh so it does provide us with some improved parking improved access to our baseball softball complex um for events you'll also note that there is an addition of some uh parking spaces on the north side of the building or on the um the front side of the building so currently uh there are four rows of parking the new proposal we would extend the asphalt just a little bit um to the North and then add a fifth R of parking where for um you know families to use during events also just some some reconfiguration of of some of the drives uh just to help improve flow traffic flow uh in and around Cedar Trails so Cedar View for both

085before and after school for drop off M so Cedar View is a pretty straightforward collection of projects um the next uh slide depicts the recommendation that we have that we're looking at for the high school parking lot um the addition of the parking currently where the hill is I know that Trent asked last week you know is where decreasing enrollment um you know is this a parking needed um part of the challenge that we face is uh in reconstructing the tennis cours we're going to lose and reconstructing the tennis courts and creating that verm along the the north edge of the parking lot we're going to lose roughly 86 parking spaces um we need to recapture that and so the idea was to uh create that new space to the uh to this to the

086west of the current maen lot really it it does provide us with a couple of other things um there are enhancements to safety uh because we're bringing the student parking closer to the building um and also we're spreading the student traffic out over a larger square footage so it alleviates some of the pressure um of a lot of vehicles in a in a tighter location and then we also um you know we we know that there we have events on campus in the evenings and on the weekends where this extra parking will definitely help us so the actual add of parking spaces I think if you look at the wrong numbers it's roughly 50 spaces that we adding from the current uh collection of space that we have but then those other enhancements creating the

087burn to help us be better neighbors with our families who live along 17 Mile and then just giving us that extra room to do the enhancements that we need to make at the tennis courts just makes that proposal come no thank you we that really helps to see it thank you yeah I mean we we just we've heard enough feedback from those residents that live along uh 7 mile on the North End of the play the parking lot or playground um that uh you know they're they would appreciate having some barrier both visually as well as sound from the in in the high school dep so that's really more of a measure just trying to do trying to do that and I hope alleviate some of the stress on our families in the community um

088the next slide is just a slide detailing the tennis court uh the recommendation for our tennis courts you know as you'll see it's you really four collections of of two courts broken down each one of those boxes would be fenced in um there are some Center Pathways between the courts um for individuals to be able to um you know walk down the the center the the the north south vertical line maybe M if you can showcase that uh by increasing the size of the drawing um but that Center Line um of course that will actually uh have bleachers in it so so that people can watch the cours both to the East and to the west of that Center Line um there'll be a a small Pavilion in the center just for some shame uh

089in the center of of all four Court uh areas as well as a similar matching Pavilion on the south end of the complex not fancy just something that can get people in out of the shade or get people in out of the weather uh in the event that uh that is raining out there during EV EV so um it would all be post tension cours uh so giving us the maximum strength of the concrete it's it's really what it's it's what most em courts are a made of as of today and so um you know again the the project gives us a little bit more room the overall layout of the courts has shifted a little bit to the West uh but it gives us an opportunity to create those center lines uh for for

090visitors uh both on the far East Side there'll be a six foot walkway along the far east side of the uh courts as well as that large space in the center um providing Vis uh viewing access to all all e cours we um did a page turn on the projects there was much there were far fewer things to talk about when you're just talking about parking lots and Tennis Courts uh compared to when you're talking about a classroom um but we did do the page turn last Thursday U making sure that we will all set with expectations the team from gmbb is in the process of finalizing the bid documents and triangle will P them and we're hoping to have a Target bid of March 6 to get that information out to the community and

091our contractors and then really get a move on on biding process close that out towards mon of March so that we can get started on these projects sooner versus later questions for to discussione 2025 26 scho of chice resol on yes so this the second reading again real quick this is there's three resolutions included in this the first one is resolution out out of section 105c the State School of Choice program uh reason for that is the second resolution is a resolution to participate in the 10 ISD collaborative School of Choice programs so and then the final resolution is opting into section 105c which that relates to school of choice for um students coming from neighboring ISD so coming from Mom from newago County outside of the Kent County ISD district uh again this uh

092this is something the board has been doing annually it really is kind of all the schools with and knowing the setting the playing field for how all all the districts are operating in regards to SCH Choice thank you questions okay moving on to add discuss item AG about so I did reach out to the elementary principls on this matter um I got feedback from Scott Carpenter at trails from Jen Cook at Beach uh and from Sam Becker at ciew um as far as snacks go they all reported basically the same thing um that that really the all um so um some student or some uh most of the teachers or for most of our students they bring their own snacks to school um some some teachers have snacks donated and or they use a snack

093calendar um so Scott any Gap in snacks at Cedar Trails yet as far as Beach goes um again Beach teacher does it differently students are asked to bring something from home for a snack um some students keep something from their school breakfast uh for a snack time uh and teachers also welcome classroom donations um Jen did say that um it's not that uh not always that students don't have a snack but they don't necessarily want to eat the snack that they they have to eat um some if Jen did say that some teachers if they do Supply snacks they might need some pretzels or animal crackers um at beach Jen also said that teachers have $300 to spend on classroom supplies which is an extra $50 more um than last year uh due to saf

094so um you're not aware of any teachers Orit as snack those uh and then at sear view um Sam again as with most most buildings most teachers have a bin where left breakfast items go and many teachers get parent donations for students without snacks uh they had two teachers reported that were using their own money to buy snacks but then they stopped that practice because they found that students began to take free snacks instead of eting the snacks that so um we can check with Holly um to see if there's anything that we can do with um Food Service money um but we have plenty of resources we get donations there an abundance of opportunities for us to provide students with SS so um the building principles were confident and comfortable that they can reinforce

095that message uh with their teachers so this really shouldn't be something that the Board needs to so the $300 that they're allocated to allow the purchase Supply wouldn't it would be better for them to spend about stuff needed for learning rather than snacks for the kids and we don't tell the teachers how to spend those $300 they spend those as to how they best see the needs of their classroom but what I shared at the end was we have other other funding sources that we could utilize whether it be PTO funds or uh donations from you know from local vendors so we we should be able to provide snacks for our students that [Music] need so do we have a free breakfast do we have free lunch okay and we're talking about s i don't

096get me wrong it yes I realize that kids when they're hungry it's hard to work but if we offer free services I mean yeah it just why are we talking about Statics you know I know it was brought up that public comment but yeah I just thought was my mind I'm confident that we can come up with a plan where can test without well I I always donated snacks and when I was a substitute that every teacher just had a cap um because parents donate just like Kleenex just like sanitizer and and SNS there's so much in their cabinets Mrs Burns Mrs Fisher um I know who else I said before but anyways so a lot of parents donate so I I just don't think that we need to take I don't think many teachers

097are taking from the $300 which is a lot more than what it was two or three years ago um I'm s that was one comment one public comment I think what what she was really focusing on is that these kiddos on the weekends don't have food and that they are need they are getting those sack lunches and bringing them home um so I just I think just a reminder of some of those resources at the building level was helpful and I appreciate follow up on public comment too and and I'm glad we added it just we could have the conversation and have some insurances that there's not you did not identify a gap talking to principes so that gives me some there's not a gap but the parent reported what they saw yeah and so

098therefore you know me better which is good so if there's a gapi you way to close that but I'll have a report from the board and our next all right moving on to our close session agenda item and I move that the board conven into close session for the following reason pursuant to Section 8 a of the open seing Act mcl1 5.26 AA board can meet in close session to consider the dismissal suspension or disciplining of or to hear complaints or charges bought against or to consider a periodic Personnel evaluation of a public officer employees staff member or individual agent if the name individual requests a close hearing accordingly I move that the board Canen in close session to consider a complaint brought against an employee who is who has requested pay session I would

099entertain a second okay question V pres CH yes sler yes yes L yes B Patton yes B Bowser yes read yes show will be post session at 7:58 that we have R back that brings us to portion of our meeting for public comment time where we hear from the public um for 3 minutes you're solving anything here but more than happy to L so do didn't have any [Music] requests hi Dwayne grer K County uh it's been a few minutes since we saw the last slides here but what brought my attention was and I've seen a lot of these slides now I go to a lot of different Schoolboard meetings Watford had a very good display of uh where their kids were at uh there's not a school around that I know of that's boasting

100a 60% or 65% children reading at reading level or their grade level uh Cedar Spring seems to be even worse than brockford um and everybody seems to be happy about it so I just think the parents need to be well aware of that for whatever reason your children are reading at very low levels and the schools will compare themselves to other schools in the area and say we're doing as good as they are or very close to them or whatever and try to make a look but my goly when you look at the uh when you look at the tables I said I've seen a lot of them nobody's boasting even near 70% in my book that's between a c and a d that's how we graded ourselves when we all went to school those

101of us that are 50 or above that's not passing not at all and so that it really makes me wonder what's going on with all of the schools but yours like I say yours even more so than rodford I was thinking Rockford was not doing well at all and I came here tonight to see your stuff and it's like it's very puzzling so I I just asked the board members take a real good look and go back over those tables and ask yourselves what you heard tonight and what the you know fancy stuff was that they used to say oh we're doing better here or better there take a look at where we're really at I think it's sad uh the enrollment here has been failing for five or six years we're going down 15%

102over five years is is is enormous enormous we're talking about building new tennis courts we're talking about making new parking lots and spending money here I think that money needs to be directed elsewhere the board making these approvals on spending money other than AC academics and reading and getting these kids up to grade level and bringing them back to school what do you got you don't even show 90% there's not even kids coming here 100% of the Year where are these kids that used to get 100% you know awards for attending school every day we don't even look for those anymore we're happy if you're attending 90% that's crazy and the board here is sitting here and giving this fella here another threeyear extension you know what we did in rodford when our superintendent was

103gone and we didn't have a superintendent we put in an interum until we could find someone that could replace him instead you guys get this guy an additional three years with a with a declining enrollment and the grade level that these kids are doing in in their reading and yet we award somebody with a three-year contract where in business can a person have a 15% decline over the last five years and get a raise all I want to say thank you for sharing you're very you're very welcome it's not opinion it's facts you can go get the chart yourself oh have someone else Tim Ben Wagner you know Tim Ben Wagner um this one's uh about the enrollments budget and Matt you talked about it budget committee committee was that we had it in the

104fall we had the budget meeting but we talked about the potential growth of our enrollments if the Goan plant was successful in big RS that was in your budget plan I'm here to tell you it's dead in the water so don't plan on any growth coming from a plant in big RS here that you don't remember that budget meeting in the fall I don't think that was that was not us yeah it was you it was we were in the other hiltop building when we did it we talked about potential growth coming from Big graph battery plant potion any I just want know batter plant's dead having no more public commenters before us we will both public comment and move on to our action items for this evening and first up we have the Elementary

105playground proposal and I would entertain a motion just to clarify we are looking to propose Beach at uh 261,000 6258 and View at 199,999 27 oh thank you all right have clarification any discussion that's to keep the swing sets for Trails correct correct VI yeah sorry the Pres yes SL yes yes yes yes B yes pres yes then we have on action on budet Amendment one ENT motion when talk about I would move that we accept budget amendment number one as presented including the 400,000 backs I guess that me to be separate resolution so I am just to approve the budget am number one as present support nce yes secary sler yes yes no yes B yes yes that brings us to the 2025 26 schools of choice resolution and I would entertain a motion

106for as present any discussion none vice president shner yes SEC sler yes Tre Gilmore yes yes pres Patton yes Bowser yes president yes Mo car Last Action for this evening back plan regarding potential staff discipline make a motion that we engage law fir of Clarkville to perform a back fining due diligent review regarding potential staff Discipline Do I have a second second discussion keep in Minds session vice president CH yes second yes Gilmore yesy l no Patton yes trusty Boward yes president Reed yes motion carries that brings us to the communication portion of our meeting tonight for the Board of Education I have no outstanding communication to turn I did have some feedback in regard to the public comment from last week on the books the side of things so um at Trails uh they

107are working to inove the number of take home books that they do have available for students um TRS is the one building that has a common Library we actually one of their specials rotations is a reading Focus uh and so they new focus on books that in that during that time um but we are um again continuing to try and enhance the take home book bags and things at Trails uh we do also provide some just take home printed materials that are aligned with CK CK curriculum so that maybe a student's not taking home a book but they're taking home materials that practice they um the same thing goes uh with the team at beach so um their curriculum has changed with Ela and so um in the past take home books were sent home

108on a regular basis U but with CA um they specifically send home reading passages for the students to practice so that way they're not just reading um you know books but they're actually practicing the skills that they're learning uh in the classroom uh but that is uh something that you know each classroom has its own library and as far as Jen knew when students asked or when parents asked about being able to bring home books um to read on the weekends or in the evenings that teachers are happy to let them do so um so that's um Beach also has a program called Raz kids plus which was purchased to help support reading at home which is an online reading resource with a wide variety of books and reading materials that are available for our

109students so Beach is taking it in a little different direction by providing some online resources in addition to access to take home books and access to content from CK um as far as the protocol goes at C view sorry yeah Cedar view um they do allow students to bring home books uh that they're reading however they don't send the specific CK texts textbooks students can take books home from clom librar so again the takeaway is the perspective of the parent was that some students are not being able to access books um and I'm guessing that that was based on some things that that parent observed so the principles are going to really enforce with teachers hey we want to make sure that we've got students have access to things that they want to read sometimes

110that means um things that aren't necessarily A CK passage but maybe it's a fun book with a neat picture of a bigger crane on a cup or something like that so just reinforcing to teachers that you know we want to make sure everyone is Unified in that knowledge the more students are practicing they reading the better they'll do and they have to be reading things interest that's what I found next time reading and sex and I'll be following up with a parent um tomorrow on Friday Just sh and I'm planning we have the KD legislative Awards March 19th so that's an annual event um it's a neat neat opportunity to um engage either as a team for us but also then to um hear from some of the local Representatives that we have elected officials

111and um you know the the dinner is a neat opportunity to showcase the incredible talents of the students in the at is culinary arts program it is unb um the work that they do to put into putting this event together um from designing the menu to designing table decorations it's it's really a neat opportunity for those students in the culinary arts program to Showcase their talents um you know we have some students who showcase their talents on the basketball court or on the stage on the volleyball court um these students have an opportunity to showcase their talents and they love serving members of the [Music] commission you make it just let me know we theud at 8