0017:00. It's so nice to see everybody. Uh we will call to order the meeting of the Clarkson Board of Education. If you could all please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mrs. Mlan, can you please call the role? >> Mr. Clark, >> here. >> Mr. Ne >> here. >> Mrs. Egan. >> Mr. here. >> Mrs. Love >> here. >> Mrs. McInness >> here. >> Mrs. Crane >> here. >> Representative P >> here. >> Representative Newton >> here. >> Mrs. Egan sends her regrets. She is with her family at a very special event tonight and so she will not be here. Item 1.3 is
002a reading of the public statement. This meeting is a meeting of the board of education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community hearing. There is time for public participation during the meeting as indicated in agenda items three and nine. Item two is approval of the consent agenda. May I have a motion, please? >> I move the board of edification approves the consent agenda >> as presented. support. >> Motion made supported. Are there any questions or discussion? >> All those in favor, please say I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Item three is citizens request to address the board. Item three is the first opportunity for citizens to address the board. You are given two opportunities to address the board. Under this item,
003item 3.1, you can request to address the board about any topic that is on tonight's agenda. Under item nine, you are welcome to address the board on any topic. When making comments, please state your name and address. Direct your comments here to the board president. Each person may speak for up to two minutes. For established procedures, the board will not respond to questions or interact with the speaker during public comment, although we may refer the matter to the appropriate person in the district for further followup. Miss Nag, would you mind checking? Thank you. She checked. I'm sorry. >> You did. It's not. Thank you. Uh, item four is the superintendent update. Dr. Sean Ryan. >> Thank you, Madam President. Lots of achievements by our students to recognize. And what a wonderful day to do it
004on. Looking at today feels kind of like the first unofficial day of spring in Michigan. So excited to see everyone outside getting a little bit of sunlight, especially even over this weekend. But reliable sources from one of our elementaryaries already reached out to let me know that watch Sunday night, Dr. Ryan, we're supposed to get four to six inches more snow. Just one more, please. So, I'm going to push the other way and say I'm ready for spring and hopefully you all are too. But as spring is sprung or springing, uh so much going on with our students. This past weekend, our team Rush won their tournament. We're the number one seed and high school team for the state of Michigan. They received the third highest auton score in the world. I need Mr. Hire
005to enlighten us all exactly what that entails and won the industrial design award. Student Sawyer Brandon, if you're out there listening, won the leadership award and now uh presents the states to see if he makes it uh to world. So our our team is on their way again. Such an incredibly successful program. We're really excited for them. uh our V varsity girls basketball team won on Friday and is uh won the district championship and plays in Davidson right now. I'm not sure if we have results for that game. Anybody in the audience have if we won that game yet. Hopefully by the end of our update this evening, we'll have a score for you. Um very excited for them at the ZLE for a regional championship uh this evening. And congratulations to our wrestlers. We
006had 10 athletes qualify for the states and six of those made it to the top eight in the entire state of Michigan. What an incredible achievement and program. We had one diver compete at regionals last week and we had several swimmers who have qualified for the states at on March 13th at Oakland University. Our girls figure skating team and yes, we do have an awesome figure skating team qualifying. We're be competing in the state finals on March 22nd. So cool after seeing the Olympics and how much excitement surrounding uh figure skating that we do it here in Clarkston. Uh tomorrow evening looking at our elementary program. We have Battle of the Books that'll be hosted at Independence Elementary at 6:00 p.m. Our students have been hard at work and excited to celebrate with their families.
007And it really is one of the big competitions. If you've not seen a Battle of the Books where they ask questions from a set of books that the students pre-eread, they have really clever names. They dress up in costume. It's like it's a whole night. It's a big night out in Clarkston. And finally, uh, we're excited to recognize two student authors from Bay Lake Elementary this evening, Rowan, uh, Panonito and, uh, Kellen Hartman. And we're also here from two of our CHS students, uh, Emma Redmond and Ava Ubala, who have been working on a special project, uh, to catalog veterans who are buried at Lakefield Cemetery. So, we got a little bit of everything tonight. Um, it's exciting information, and it's great to see all of our students engaged and kind of going so many
008different ways to show excellence here in Clarkston. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Ryan. Which brings us right to item five, our presentation items. Item 5.1 is the recognition of our Bailey Lake student authors. Uh, I've got Dr. Ryan and Miss Roco, I believe. >> Come on up, Miss Bethany Roco, Bailey Lake teacher extraordinaire. >> All right. Hello. All right. Um, I wanted to before I kind of talk to you guys a little bit about why we're here, I have student work um that I brought with me to show you guys. So, I thought I could just kind of pass it around while you guys can look at it while I share a couple things. >> Thank you. >> All right. So, good evening um board of education members, district leaders, and also community members.
009Um, I'm truly honored to be here tonight to celebrate um, two of my previous students, Rowan and Kellen. Last year, I had the privilege of being their fourth grade teacher, and I can say with complete confidence that this recognition is incredibly welldeserved. Um, through our literacy work, uh, students were challenged to research, to write, revise, and refine original pieces of writing. Rowan and Kellen didn't just complete the assignment, they embraced it. They each brought a unique voice, um, deep curiosity, and an impressive level of dedication to their work. They revised thoughtfully, paid attention to detail, and pushed themselves to produce writing that was not only informative, but engaging and polished. Their efforts resulted in their books being selected for purchase by the American Reading Company, an accomplishment that speaks volumes about the quality of their
010work. Each of them even received $150 of a check in recognition of their published writing, and this is something to be incredibly proud of. What makes this moment especially meaningful is that their success reflects the larger literacy journey that our district has been on. I've had the privilege of serving on our district literacy resource team from the very beginning. It has been a thoughtful looking at my team over here um collaborative and at times challenging process as we work to identify the best possible curriculum for our Clarkston Elementary students. Seeing students like Rowan and Kellen thrive as a result of that work is deeply affirming. These two students represent what Clarkson stands for. Students who rise to high expectations, take ownership of their learning, and lead with excellence. Their achievement tonight is not just about
011publication. It's about perseverance, growth, and the power of strong literacy instruction. I am incredibly proud of them still. It's very touching and I'm grateful to be part of both our district's literacy journey and these two students individual journeys as young authors. This is one of those this is why I teach moments. Thank you. Rowan Helen, you want to come up? Thank you. >> What am I going to do if I scan that QR code in front of your book? Is this for you or >> what was that? I didn't have my phone out so I couldn't Do you remember? >> I don't remember. >> Oh, yeah. It is. It's our It's >> Oh, >> that's awesome. >> It's awesome. And you are the terrifyingly creative. I thought that was the most amazing thing. Actually, he
012pointed that out and I think that's amazing. Congratulations. >> Great job. >> Keep on leading. Thank you, Mrs. Roco. Thank you to all of the the LA teachers who have helped shape them. I think that it was wonderful. I was so happy that they were able to be recognized. Does anybody have any comments or questions? >> Is there any way that we could buy a >> uh is there any way that we can buy a copy? I know that it was used for the literacy, but >> I don't know. I we'll have to look into that because I also think that would be a wonderful thing to have in our own libraries. Yes. >> It's on their website. >> And they said no. >> Really? Oh, bummer. Yeah, I can imagine. I mean, for sure.
013Uh, Representative Pants, you have a question. >> I had that question. >> Oh, wonderful. >> Like mine. Uh, does anybody else have any comments or questions? Uh, thank you very much for coming. I'm incredibly impressed and very happy to have seen you guys tonight. Um, presentation item 5.2 is recognition of our Clarkson High School students and the veterans database creation. Can I Chris Rogers, please come up to the podium. Chris has done an amazing job working with this project and so many projects that she supported as part of our academic service learning. She's been doing it for years as a labor of love and has invested so much incredible time, energy, and her own heart into these projects and into this community. So, Miss Rogers, take it away. >> Thank you, Dr. Ryan. Um, yeah,
014I can't miss an opportunity. I'm going to talk about three pretty amazing things going on in Clarkston, but we're going to start with Emma and Emma's project. Um Joet Coun who I work with on the America 250 committee uh reached out to me and said do you have some kids who can type in 1100 names and she literally gave me this type writer copy >> of00 um veterans buried at Lakeside Cemetery >> and she really was looking for kids to sit and type and I reached out to Emma and I was like can you can you do this better? Can we use technology? Can we make it easier? And Emma's gonna tell you how she and Ava Ubali, Miley Spond, who is playing basketball tonight, and Abigail Stevens took the 1100 names and turned it
015into a Google spreadsheet, which then was exported to Excel for the D and the S, the Sons of the Revolution. Um, so it's searchable now by name, by war, by burial place, by branch of service. Emma. >> Hi, my name is Emma. So, um, what we did was we got all those names and it was like I think it was 41 pages and so I was a little nervous talking about this because of like we used AI. So, I was a little like scared of talking about it cuz the stigma around it, but I think that that was like the best way of our like most efficient and effective way of our time to actually get these names in there fastly and to them. So, what we did is we took a photo of each
016individual page and then we kind of gave it gave it to like the AI and told it like the specific categories we're looking for and like like if to leave it blank if there wasn't an answer. So, it did give us all like the categories. So, we kind of copied and pasted that and put it into um a Google form. And obviously, it wasn't perfect cuz it was AI, but there was a few like mistakes which we just kind of went through ourselves and kind of picked them out. So I think that this was a good use of AI but it also shows that AI is very unconssistent. Yeah. Thank you. >> You guys have questions for >> Yeah. Does anyone have any questions or comments? >> Rep pants. >> So what measures did you
017take to verify that the AI's information was accurate? >> Um well we kind of just scrolled through them because you'll obviously tell if there's like a certain error or something like that. But we just looked at the paper itself and then looked at the actual Google form. Um, how did you like how long did it take to do that for 1100 names? >> Well, we did split it up between four people, so we kind of just divide it by that. I think I had the most work, but I just split it up between I think it was like four days. So, I just did like maybe two after school and then next day two after school. So, just depends on how much you want to get done at a time. >> All right. Thank you.
018>> Thank you. Does anyone else have anything, >> President? >> Yes. Um, as a person who does family genealogy, you just don't understand how vital that information is to be searchable. Um, especially be do you have date ranges or is it just the names and what kind of what are the fields that are in your in the results there? >> The categories are first, last name in the war, the branch of service, killed in action, block number, lot number, and grave number. >> Yeah. So, my great uncle is is a um a veteran that was lost at sea and for the longest time his records weren't found findable because they weren't yet scanned into the system and they showed that he's buried at he is buried at sea, but they also buried him in a
019monument. His name is on a monument, but it took them forever to get that taken care of. So it's just really really important for nowadays for families who are searching who they where they came from, who are they part of to have that kind of database here locally for our veterans is really important and I thank you for that very much. I uh I appreciate exactly how you used AI and how you told us about it because as a board here, we've at least for the last year attended many clinic sessions. Actually, there's at least three of us going to an uh Oakland County uh presentation on AI in a couple weeks because we all want to learn um appropriate, responsible ways to use it. And I don't know that I ever would have thought
020of exactly what you did. So I think that's just really wonderful. Um, so thank you for I know I understand too why you might have felt like nervous about it, but I'm so glad that you told us cuz I think it was wonderful. So thank you. We actually have a gift for you. We'd love to shake your hand and say thank you for all your work. Thank you, Mrs. Rogers. Thank you. So going with starting with Joet Coons um you can see behind in front of you um on your screens you can see that there is a community collaboration group um Independence Township and Clarkston that was really spearheaded by Joet Coun and Nancy Mahoney Nancy Distlath Ryan Pierce and I were invited to be on this committee and it just works out better with
021my ASL time in the afternoon that I represent Clarkston and we were able to really start developing for the township and the Clarkston area, a bunch of projects to get people first of all to know about American 250 and then to really celebrate it as July 4th, 2026, our 250th birthday comes closer. Um, by being there, I also was able to interact with Henry Wison who uh gave Clarkston Schools $2,000 from the David W. Elliot Memorial Foundation. It's hard to say quickly. and he said, "Chris, find some projects that really connect with America's birthday and connect with the schools." And you can see on this print out, um, which I used Gemini to create, um, some of the spelling is a little iffy, so don't look too closely, but it looks good. Um, and you
022can see that we have nine. When I printed this last week, we had nine, and we have at least two more that have come in front of me in the last couple of days. So, um, I'm going to hand out one of the projects that I did. I tied it to academic service learning in my class and 10th grade students, 10th grade RHS students, and then Chaz Klaus's AP Euro students, we created trading cards. Um, so we connected it with our Declaration of Independence when we hit the American Revolution section in world history. We connected it to the ideals of the revolution and then identified 10 local heroes that embodied those ideals and we made trading cards of them. They are out in the community now. You can get them at D, S, you can
023get them at the library. Um, a lot of places are featuring them, but I'm going to hand out a copy of them. So, that is one. Um, that would be the voices of independence up there. Every Sasha student through their pause time uh created stickers that we're going to hand out at Neman's, maybe Kroger, the library just to get people to see America 250 to celebrate it. The traveling trunks, it's a PBL ASL combination that is teaching fifth graders about the revolution in a cool way. And you can see some of the other ones that are being developed. We're planting liberty trees um on Clarkston school grounds. Um, the library has given us space. The senior center has given us space. So, there's just some really Oh, and number eight, it's so cool. It's the
024biology teacher. They're growing heirloom herbs that were around during the revolution to connect to their evolution unit about how things change over time. And then at the end of the school year, summer, we're going to donate those herbs to the senior uh senior center. they have like pots in front of their um building which then they'll use when they're cooking for some of their meals on wheels meals um things like that. Two more that have happened. I know Joet Coun is working with Independence Television to do a recitation of the Declaration of Independence. It's a meaty document if you've ever looked at it. And we're going to have different students at all the schools reading pieces of it. And then last but not least, uh, Chaz Klaus and his AP kids after the seniors leave
025in May, you have this this time, this three-week time before the end of the school year with your sophomores and your juniors, and they are stepping up to take over what Alex Cene really helped lead um with the township in the Memorial Day ceremony. They are going to work with the Sons of the American Revolution to kind of take that over. Um, so America 250, our celebration in Clarkson is alive and well. We're very grateful for the donation um from Mr. Wilson's foundation. And um it's pretty cool stuff. If you guys have any questions, you can ask. You're invited to all of these. Um is there a way that I can invite the board like put it on a calendar? >> Okay, we'll talk about that. >> Any questions about this before? >> Anybody have
026any questions or comments? Rep. >> Pants. If you end up inviting the board, will we also be invited? >> Everybody can come. >> Okay. >> And the Sons of the American Revolution are telling us they're coming in full dress. >> So, not only is that exciting as a history teacher, but the kids just get so excited about that, too. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Oh, and and President, >> yes. >> Can I can we also get th this copy of the trading cards? >> Uh, yes. After Mrs. McInness, she'll bring them down to you. I also have an entire bag of them if you'd like your own set. >> They're very, very cool, I have to say. >> Um, I really enjoyed looking through those. >> Does anyone else have any questions or comments? Uh, thank
027you, Mrs. Rogers. We're looking at their your the ASL projects that are going on right now, and I know >> uh I mean, when my kids were at Independence many, many years ago, I think we had a few >> and I just am so in awe of what this has turned into. I think it's amazing. >> Our record was 60 projects last year and as of this morning I hit 63. >> Wow. >> Um I have another about dozen sitting in the development or ready to approve thing. So well thank you for leading it. Thank you for all of our teachers who also take out of their time to build it into the curriculum to get the kids excited about it. Um I I think it's amazing. I love it. So does anybody else have
028anything? No. Okay. Thank you, Mrs. Rogers, we will take a 5m minute break. People are more than welcome to stay for the rest of our meeting and enjoy the business part of our meeting, but we will also take this break. If you would like to leave now, you may. So, five minutes, guys. ready to keep going. All right. Gonna punch you on camera. Thank you. All right. We are going to move on to our action items now. Action item 6.1 is approval of personnel changes. May I have a motion, please? >> I move the board of education approves personnel changes as listed on the attached sheets as presented. >> Support. >> Motion made and supported. Are there any questions or discussion? Is Mr. Leto is here to answer anything? Seeing none, all those in favor,
029please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 6.2 is approval of the course curriculum revision of the fourth grade health lesson. May I have a motion, please? >> I move that the boards of education approves the course curriculum revision for fourth grade health, including share materials for a total of $1,500 as presented. >> Support. >> Okay. Uh motion made and supported. I have Mrs. Mahoney here who's going to just say a few quick things about items 6.2 and 6.3. Thank you, Mrs. Mahoney. Thank you for having me. We're very excited about both of these proposals. Our first is a puberty lesson in grade four. Uh this is led by Sher and Sher does come in and lead a puberty lesson for grade five. So this is kind of a mini version. It is
030nowhere a repeat uh for grades four and then going into five. So there's three main areas of focus uh with these lessons. One is self-esteem. And so students engage in thinking about positive character not only in themselves but in others and how that influences their confidence um and ability to think about peer pressure and resisting in terms of a negative light. The second is choosing healthy relationships. um they focus in on how to be a good friend and choosing healthy relationships and identifying safe and unsafe people within those situations and leaning into um the adults around them in the school. And the third is this introduction to puberty. Uh very basic preparing for changes uh learning basic hygiene skills and then identifying trusted adults to talk about if there are questions or concerns that they
031may have. >> Okay. Thank you. And then while you're up there so I don't have to call you back, do you want to give a quick overview on item 6.3? >> I do. >> Thank you. >> I do want to highlight some profound leadership in the room. Um we have Megan Brazier who has led the charge for almost three years when it comes to elementary literacy. Um we have coaches um four outstanding leaders uh supporting this work. And then again, I want to lean into Bethany Roco who's been on this journey. Um, one of several teachers the entire way. So, this study lasted two and a half years. Uh, it wasn't the norm for us, but we learned a lot in engaging for this period of time. We did embrace four resources and there were
03247 staff members involved. Um, we know that some, you know, teachers uh change grades levels, that kind of thing. So, newbies um did come in within the arena, but that is a very large population to engage in this study. We started with bookworms. Um we then went into arc core. Um arc core did last a little spring and a fall length. From there, um MDE um came in with some guidelines and expectations and so that led us into two um strong resources as well. HMH and then E education. Those two resources were split within our teams. Um and it was a very very I think comprehensive um study with these four. Special education was always brought to the table. Literacy interventionists. How does these resources um work with ELD? We partnered with Oakland schools and
033many neighboring districts as well including West Bloomfield, Waterford, Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Rochester. many districts within Oakland County are in a study just like us now. So, um I think that especially Megan and our coaches enjoyed that collaboration and conversation. All of this is always aligned with best research. And so, uh, Megan took the charge of really making sure that, um, what we were engaging, um, with, not only with teachers, but our students were aligned with Ed reports, knowledge matters, campaign, uh, the reading league standards, as well as g, and all the state guidance that, um, they provided. On the right, you're going to see our non-negotiables. And this was brought um to the table when we started the study. And that is that our resource wanted to lift up a deep knowledge um building
034for our students, authentic texts that were rich and diverse and um just really um you know, really fun topics that our our kids could engage with and find interest. Those foundational skills, fluency, writing is permeated throughout the entire two blocks. um that you'll see uh this offering to support differentiation and how we pull small groups within the tier one process and then also again going back to state guidance with our literacy essentials e education rose to the top um this is our um recommendation to purchase uh this is K5 and it is built on the science of reading and learning and what you'll see is 2 hours within every single day that our kids will engage in literacy instruction. And so that first hour is about knowledge building. So it's a deep exploration of science
035and social studies with flexible learning paths um integrated throughout um with writing as well as assessments. And then K2 leans into this block for an hour. 35 would lean into the second block for an hour. So every student again is receiving two complete full hours of literacy. Some of those topics that our students have engaged with are animal defense mechanisms, building bridges, fossils, weather. Um and so they again that goes back to those authentic texts that are rich and um interesting for our kids. And then this is the investment analysis. And so we think about probably the most important decision um I think making when it comes to the foundation of literacy in our elementary. And so we hope to purchase um this 5-year estimate, but then there's a one-time cost for professional learning. So
036it is the 1,72,920 plus the 122500 for that professional learning. >> Wonderful. Thank you. All right. Uh back to item 6.2. We've uh it's been made and supported. Are there any questions or >> I have a question regarding 6.2. Actually have two questions. Um one is is there an op out opout opportunity >> for the puberty lesson? >> Yes. >> And so will we of course be communicating this to parents? >> 100%. Secondly, is this instruction a days classwork? An hour's work, 2 hours, several weeks. >> It's about a 30 minute to 45 minute um one-time lesson. >> Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Um does anybody else have any questions or comments? All right. For item 6.2, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> Opposed. Motion carries. Item 6.3. Can
037I have a motion for the approval of the course curriculum revision for the K5 elementary literacy curriculum, please? >> I move the board of education approves the course curriculum revision for K5 literacy, including textbooks, teacher support materials, and professional learning with a 5-year cost for all materials as $1,72,920.85 plus a onetime professional learning cost $122,500 for a grand total of $1.195 million as presented. support. >> Motion made and supported. Are there any questions or comments with Mrs. Mahoney still at the podium? >> Um, I would like to say that I've only ever been on the Clarkson Board of Education, but I've done a lot of talking to other people and I I don't know that everybody works so cohesively together, but I just wanted to thank the team for bringing us along every step of
038the way for these two and a half, three years. Um, I've never felt surprised. I appreciated every workshop we had. I appreciated every email, every update. Um, I do not feel in any way, shape, or form that this was taken lightly. I feel like you guys have done an amazing job of weighing out all the things that you needed to weigh out and that you are making this recommendation in the best interest of our Clarkston students and staff. Um, and I just appreciate that so very much. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Mahoney. Appreciate it. Um, any further questions, comments? All right. Motion has been made and supported. All those in favor, please say, "I." >> I. Any opposed? >> Motion carries. >> Well done. >> I just want
039to say on behalf of I think all our principles, every teacher in our literacy team, this is a big win for our kids. So, thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Items. YEAH. I AGREE. ITEM 6.4.1 is approval of the construction change order for the Clarkson Junior High School site work. May I have a motion, please? >> I move the board of education approves the construction change orders for Johnson and Suns Excavating in the amount $258,150 and for Metro Electric in the amount of $69,865 as presented. >> Support. >> Motion made and supported. Do we have any questions or comments about this? Okay, seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 6.4.2 is approval of the construction change order for the transportation building. May I
040have a motion, please? >> I move the board of education approves the construction change order for Albanelli cement contractors in the amount $59,686 as presented. >> Support. Motion made and supported. Are there any questions or discussions on this? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 6.5 is approval of the Chromebook purchase for Shared Time Partner School. May I have a motion, please? >> I move that the board of education approves the purchase of four 430 Chromebooks in the amount of $111,989.20 as part of our shared services agreement as presented. support. >> Motion made and supported. Do I have any questions or comments on this, >> Madame President? >> Yes. >> Might we ask um Mr. Ledceo to explain to the public why we're purchasing these 430
041Chromebooks, please? >> Absolutely. Mr. Lceto, can you speak to that for just a minute? >> Um, sure. So, our shared shared service partnerships um the money that is generated from the partnership can be spent on supplies to support the classrooms that those students are in or can be it can be expensed on the wages and benefits um for the employees working in the program. In this particular case, this school partnered with with our shared service leadership and this is how they're spending their portion of the partnership. >> Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Mrs. McInness. Are there any questions or comments further? All right, seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Item 6.6 is approval of the -ate project, network electronics, and UPS. May I
042have a motion, please? >> I move that the board approves the - project to Delta Networks in the amount of $742,976 based on the -ate approval. Uh the total district cost is $375,852. >> Support motion made and supported. Are there any questions or comments on this? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Item 6.7 is approval of fiber maintenance bid. May I have a motion, please? I move that the board of education approves the fiber maintenance bid with fiberlink as presented. >> Support. >> Motion made and supported. Are there any questions or comments on this? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 6.8 is approval of configure manager refresh project. May I
043have a motion, please? I move that the board approves the refresh project for the Microsoft configuration manager infrastructure to peopledriven in the amount of $44,760 as presented. >> Support motion made and supported. Are there any questions or comments about this? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. And item 6.9 is approval of the Chromebook purchase for the district. May I have a motion, please? I move that the board of education approves the purchase of 306 Chromebooks from Peopledriven Technology for a total of $79,694.64. >> Support. >> Motion made and supported. May or are there any questions or discussion on this? I would just say that this is a very thoughtful purchase made ahead of the um potential lag in availability of Chromebooks for next school year
044and I uh commend our staff for recognizing this uh potential deficiency in making sure that we have adequate Chromebooks for our students. >> Thank you, Mrs. McInness. I agree. Any further questions or comments? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item seven is our report items. We have two tonight. Our first report item will be our student board rep update. And this month, our update is being given by Representative Jay Pon. >> Thank you, Madam President. As Dr. Ryan correctly noted, a lot has happened in the Clarkson Community Schools community since our last meeting. And the first thing I'd like to draw attention to is that Clarkson High School put on their annual winter musical, Once Upon a Mattress. And in fact, the board attended that if
045I if I understand correctly, um, as the Clarkson High School Drama Club always does, they did an incredible job. Most of the actors that they had at last year's Hello Dolly performance had gra have graduated. And as a result, it was quite interesting to see an entire a nearly entirely new cast of characters here. Um, I also happen to I personally happen to be in many communities that overlap with the people in these productions. Um, so with the departure of the previous actors, I got I now got to see a lot of the people I already knew in a very different context. It was a bit uncanny. And on the topic of um seeing people that I know in different contexts, this coming Thursday, the a world the a world of difference and lead programs
046at Clarkston High School will be putting on their bi their bianual real talk. Um, so this is an event that happens at Clarkson Clarkston United Methodist Church every semester and people across the Clarkson community what from students, teachers and parents can attend um and they get to have fun in group activities and they enjoy free pizza and while doing all this they also can have meaningful and thoughtful conversations. Um, and I have actually and they offer this every semester as I mentioned. And I have attended this every semester that I've been able to, which means I've attended I have attended it five times. This will be my sixth time. And what I have to say is that I cannot no regardless of the number of times that I do it, it never gets old. So
047I highly recommend it. And to any of the if any of the students who were here earlier are still here. I don't think they are, but if they were, um, I I highly suggest that you attend at some point. Um, so now I'd like to quickly give some shout outs to Mr. Likenham, the who runs the lead program and Mrs. Bridgeman, who runs the AWAD program for organizing Real Talk. And Mrs. Bridgeman in particular is also actually organizing another notable event. in fact alongside myself. Um, this one is actually going to be tomorrow and we'll be doing an experiment in psychology club. I am not going to discuss the details because um that would compromise our ability to effectively conduct the experiment, but I assure you that it will be great. Finally, this is a
048nonclarken high school related point. at Independence Elementary. They had their I think it's annual. Um they had their carnival. So we had a number of quote unquote rides that these kids anywhere from first through fifth grade could choose from. We had a bouncy castle. We had a a cakewalk. And I'm saying we because I organized one of the games. That game was the it was a tire changing simulation. So, um, I along with a peer of mine for the National Honor Society helped run this. And I just wanted to take a brief moment to recognize we had, um, I think it was a actually no, he refused to tell us what grade he was in. I think he was a fifth grader. Um, he was able to change two tires within 1 minute and 36
049seconds. So, I'd like to take a moment to, um, recognize him for that. Um, so if if by some chance you are watching this, uh, you know who you are. Either if you're watching it today or if you're watching this maybe 12 years from now, uh, congratulations. So that overall, um, the the state of of Clarkson Community Schools is strong and we've accomplished a lot since our last meeting and we'll continue to do so in the coming months. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Rep. Pants. I appreciate that. As someone who has mentored Real Talk in the past, I agree with you. If any student can do it, I think they should. It's a wonderful experience. Does anyone else have any questions or comments? >> All right. On to >> Madam President. I would
050just say that I love >> the addition of our student representatives on the board and I want to thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. I appreciate that, Mrs. McInness. >> All right. Thank you. Uh item 7.2 two is our monthly finance report. Miss Nag, >> good evening. Uh this packet includes uh December and January's information and then going forward we'll we'll go a month at a time, but this gets us caught back up. So first page is monthly expense report. So overall expenses out of uh the general funds. So pay 11's payroll was 4.16 million. pay 12 was uh just shy of 4.1 million. Um we had mandatory 403b payouts of $250 edge of staff UAL um monthly bills and then a payments and bills payable all to total
05110,866 for the month of December. And then January pay13 was 3.86 million. Pay 14 again just shy of 4.1. Corebridge mandatory payments uh payouts of 31,252. January edgy staff uh January UAL and then a payments and bills payable all totaling 12,761 for the month of January. and then monthly investment report for the month of December. Um these are the cash balances as of December 31st in all cash and investment accounts for the district. So um overall I think the balance in all totals was $192 million. So that includes what we have set aside in all of the bond funds that are currently invested to cover projects over the next um several years. And then again, same information for January ending January 31st uh balances. So uh slight reduction of 189,964. And then this is the
052three-year fund equity graph updated with December and January's information. So, uh, slightly lower where we sat, uh, 25 26 January in comparison to 24 25 January, but, uh, not dramatically different. So, nothing that's causing me alarm at this point. And then the last pages are the check registers for the month of December uh, and the month of January. So, any questions on anything you guys saw there? No question, but I have a comment, please. Um, as a person who's worked in the county for 25 years, I love the detail of these reports. I love the transparency. I love the descriptions. There's no need to be asking you what was this check written for. I love the format and I can see it's coming directly from the computer system. There's no creating it over on another
053separate spreadsheet that leaves somebody to go, well, what don't I see? This is so much transparency. There is not a question to be asked here. And I want you to know how much I appreciate the transition to the computer systems reports rather than reports that are handmade and styled to specific other needs that didn't need to be done. And this is just fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. Um I think everybody knows this, but I would like to just also kind of uh on top of what Mrs. McInness said of all the meetings I've had with Miss Nag, she's really worked incredibly hard at wrapping her her arms around Clarkston's finances and culture and all of it. And I think you're doing an amazing job and you've been a wonderful addition. So, thank you very much.
054Um, I appreciate that. >> Thank you indeed. Okay. Uh, moving on to our discussion items. Our first one is the construction tech program for proposal. Mr. Goring with the jacket that I noticed as soon as you walked in. That's actually quite amazing. I kind of want one. Um, but it's Mr. Goring and Mr. Benning. Please come up and Yep. They're going to give us a little update here knowing that if you were uh watching just about two months ago, we had a presentation of kind of the advancement and the evolution of our construction tech and trades programs that we have here in Clarkston. And now we're we're looking to take it to new heights. And these gentlemen are going to kind of start the conversation out with a process that we'd like to do to
055secure a local home so that uh our students can rebuild it and uh make it fit and add to the overall uh amazing uh fabric of our community. And it's it's a great nexus between student work and uh really kind of a love for Clarkston. So, they're going to take us through some of those processes so we make sure that we get it right. We do it publicly. We have everything on the up and up and uh we want a process and a and a product that we can be proud of. Thank you guys. Well, thank you very much for having us. It's something that we're excited about as uh as a program and as a district. I think we've all seen some of the things that have been going on lately with our with
056our program. We've had a lot of success. We've had a lot of partnerships that have been formed over the years. years. In the last five years, we've had seven gold medalists, state champions in the construction competitions, and all of those seven went on to compete nationals. Taking all those different factors that we're dealing with and trying to put them together, we've got the in shop, we've got on-site programs that are going on within our community with projects at Depot Park, projects at Pineub Elementary, and working with these partners, but they're all in these separate categories. And what we're hoping to do is take all of those different factors and all those great assets of our program and of our district and put them together in the potential of an on-site home build. A lot of
057districts have done this in the past where you are able to procure a particular property and take those different resources that you have available with your students, with your staff, the community partnerships and put them all together for something that's long lasting in the community for potentially decades and centuries to come. Every student, every staff member, every facet of of the decision-m process goes by that potential home and says, "I was I was a part of that. I remember when that started." and it just creates that legacy and that foundation that we can really build on in the future. So, speaking specifically about what that process looks like, we were excited about that. We were thinking, okay, what can we do? How can we bring this together? We started looking around saying just what's available?
058Just searching to see what what houses are available in the Clarkson area. And the criteria that we're looking for are basically three-fold. One, is it good for students? Two, is it a good location? And three, is it good for the community? So, if it's good for students, that means that we're bringing those partners in. Are they getting good hands-on experiences with it? Is it bringing our partners in so they can see how those experiences are translating through our students? Are our students able to then work with those partners in order to gain experience, potential employment, further their careers, and take it from there? And then as we look into the location, transportation has always been a major factor in projects like this. It needs to be something close by, something that students can get to
059easily, easily accessible. And tied into that directly is the impact of the community. If it's not close, it's not in a downtown area, if it's way out, people aren't going to see it. We need to be able to advertise people to see what's going on, see what our students are doing, and have that right out in the open. So, as we're looking at this and seeing this on the horizon, if we get your support for it, those are the factors that we're looking as we move forward in the evaluation process for any potential homes that will be available. So, as we look at the uh possibility of vetting like what uh a home prospective home might look like, you know, we want to develop a committee uh for kind of like a it's like a
060two-tier process. So, we would be looking at like a site selection committee that would include obviously our uh construction tech instructors. Um, we would have myself as the Clarkson Junior High School principal. A local partner um that we we've got quite a few partners that we've worked with over the years, for example, could be someone like Alba Masonry um uh and um an A representative and pro possibly our executive director of facilities uh as a first line of you know looking at the the perspective homes. Um and then we would be looking at possibly like a second tier uh district review that would be including you know superintendent uh our assistant superintendent of administrative services and then also um or excuse me of business services and then the director of facilities as well. So we're
061we're kind of we want not just one group or set of eyes. We want uh a system to be put in place so that we can kind of follow through and have a like a clear eyes vision of what we want uh moving forward. So um and then the final approval obviously would be you know up to the board of education and Dr. Ryan if I'm missing anything questions that you had. Uh, no. So, we just wanted to have this public discussion since this is obviously the first time that we've done this. I know Dr. Ryan had talked about this a year ago and we got super excited about the idea and but we know that as we move forward and as we're actually really talking about doing it, we want to put policy in
062place and have it be living because we know it's going to change, right? as we work through it and you run into something or the committee runs into something and we're going to have to make sure that we don't do it next time or that we do do that next time. So, we wanted to get the boards because as you said, the board's going to have the final approval on the purchase and then eventually the sale or the purchase of the materials or what all of it along the way. So, we just want to have all of this partnership be above board and get everyone here's ideas and thoughts and all of that. So, if anybody else has any questions or comments, I would love to hear them. >> I think this is a great
063innovative concept that's sort of the right time and right place for us as a district and our students and our community. And I really appreciate kind of dotting some of the eyes and crossing the tees here, at least having a structure for this. Um, you know, we're I don't know, we're we're small enough that we can get some things done quickly and be nimble and we don't want to be so big that there's a lot of bureaucracy involved, but like we definitely want to do this the right way where we have some structure to sort of launch into this pilot project here and then as Mrs. Crane said, like we want to come back and, you know, formalize whatever our structure is and and I'm sure we're going to tweak it along the way and
064and I think that makes a lot of sense. So, I'm I'm excited to be able to do this. Um, I'm excited that uh, you know, we can identify a property and get some kids working on it right away. And and there's nothing better than the hands-on experience that comes with that. And I think the benefit to the program will keep this moving forward for years to come. And hopefully there'll be another one and another one, another one. So, I think the structure ensures that, you know, it outlasts any of us that are sitting here today >> and it'll continue to be a great benefit for uh for our students. >> Yeah, I appreciate that, >> Mr. Clark. >> Yeah, I'm I'm also very excited about this. that's right up my alley. And uh I I
065think that the kids are going to have an awesome sense of ownership of the house again and the responsibility that they're going to feel, the pride that they're going to see, you know, as they as they drive by just knowing what they've done that it's going to last and and that they got to have that experience. And I think that you again the shared experience too as well. Again, just the com camaraderie with it. But again, I think it's a great thing. I'm super excited for it and I definitely want to take a tour or help out in any way that I can. agreed saying for sure Mr. Boon or Mr. McNotton, sorry. >> Um, I really appreciate that this would connect students to the community. I think that it would both be a really
066good learning opportunity, but even more than that, it would help the community see what the construction program is doing and help the community see what students can do if they're given the chance to put their skills and knowledge to project. I think that's a great idea. I also agree that it emphasizes the partnership between our district and our community and makes it very evident. Yeah. Which I think Mr. Goring, you brought up what was it? Is it good for students than location and then is it good for the community? Is that it? Yep. >> I thought those were great post posts to shoot for. I think that's great. >> Um, does anyone else have any questions or comments? Mrs. McInness? Um, I would say too that this is nothing new in Clarkston. The houses that
067bridge the property to the I guess I'll call it the south of the junior high were once built by Clarkson High School students in the trades program back before my time. Um, so I love the fact that we're bringing it back because I think it's a very the people who live in those houses, they tell people in the community that the students built these houses. One of them used to be a board member, Ron Sullivan. Um, so I I love that we're bringing back something that was good for the kids then and still is good for the kids now. I do wonder is there any capacity within the program for a student who's not wanting to sling a hammer or use a chainsaw or a saw um to do business management and construction management. Um,
068so, you know, I just think that there's a lot of facets about construction and we we're doing it here in the district. Um, bidding out these bids and getting quotes and staying within a budget. That's all not simple stuff and it's all part of building these homes. It's not just putting the nails in there. So I think there's a lot of great opportunity for students whether there becomes a club where they volunteer and they are looking at the budget later and they're and it becomes maybe not so much a curricular thing for other students who want to participate who again might not want to sling the hammer. I just think that there's a lot of possibility and like you said it's good for the students it's good for our community. Thank you. >> You are
069there any further questions or comments? >> Dr. Dr. I wonder if we could create potentially a board leaison on the review committee part the the in district part as a way to kind of cover the details with the administrative team before it actually came to the board. So we absolutely don't have to go through that detail here. >> I'll take a volunteer. >> It would be great if it wasn't >> or >> I'll help you. you want to cl your I appreciate that as as as I just heard it is right up your alley. So >> I appreciate that. >> Thank you for volunte volunteering. >> Um >> I know we have logistics to work out uh you know in terms of buying a house doesn't happen in a vacuum and when it has to
070then come to the board for approval it's a weird time thing. So, I know we all we have to work that out and those are the kinds of things that I want to eventually memorialize in a policy so that we're not missing out on properties waiting for a board meeting or you know so we we need to work those details out and that's kind of what I wanted to make sure we all >> think about moving forward. Do we have a timeline we want to acknowledge to try to bring this together within? >> That's that's a great question and I think one of the sort of wrapup pieces tonight that Mrs. Crane and I as we've looked at this from a agenda planning standpoint and how we move forward with it. Um we this may
071require a special meeting >> um or it may tag on to a workshop meeting coming up where we actually approve um a purchase agreement cuz when we're when we're selling property we get to go into close session and then sort of negotiate. When we're buying a property, it's all public, which is kind of odd to say this is how much we're willing to spend versus obviously letting the buyer or the the seller know how much you're willing to spend as the buyer, like it's >> negotiating against yourself. And so rather than sort of give a range as the buyer in this case, um we may want to approve an amount that may require us to have another meeting to approve a counter offer or something like that. So it would be board action to acquire
072property. And so if the if the board is on board with moving forward in this, we will schedule and work on what that looks like from a um board action standpoint. Let me also suggest, I'm not saying I know the answer to this, but we may want to create a foundation to drive the money through and use it in a nonprofit way. That way, people can contribute to it. We we we we briefly discussed that and and uh that's something something that I think we'll I think want to look at at least right now like from a infrastructure standpoint like we have all of the financial accounting business insurance um you know academic components background checks like all of that exists within the district and so at least for this pilot I think it makes
073sense to carry forward board if we were delegating some of this um to a a nonprofit that opens up some um segregation there with some of those responsibilities. potentially looking at this as an enterprise fund or something might be um something we look at in the future where the construction tech you know program gets funded by its own >> right >> um resources >> and ultimately it allows a potential seller to sell to us at a price potentially below market for the tax deduction >> and other facets I would only say that let's be mindful of what the parameters for a foundation might entail so that moving forward without the foundation we don't have any missteps that cause us to be potentially ineligible for a year or two whatever the case might be I'm just
074saying we should know we should know all put all our cards on the table before we sign on the data line and know the impact of it working without a foundation and how might that impact the creation of a foundation moving forward? >> Thank you. I appreciate that input. That's a good thought. >> Is there anything else? >> Is Is everybody okay moving forward >> with a purchase as a next step? >> Is everybody as excited as we are? I feel like it's a big thing. I'm very excited about this. I know you are. >> Yes, I am. And I'm sure you guys it's going to be I'm very excited. I just for years seeing the crew work on the back lot of the junior high building, rebuilding, tearing down, rebuilding again, something that I
075might live in, what, you know, think how nice it is that we can actually take that, invest in something that somebody can use. And like you said, I think it was brought up the pride of the students, seeing what they built, adding to the community, and then having, you know, it's an investment by the school district, but it's not one and done, right? It's an investment that keeps coming back and then the value we get to keep enhancing for for further projects. So >> in perpetuity definitely at this stage in everything we've looked at between foundations and and looking internally to school district. This is more of like designated fund balance that we're investing and then the district will take 100% off of it. At some point when we become more of the model like
076the old school where we were literally buying plots of land to build structures, primary structures, that will come. We're not we're not quite there yet, but next five years plus then then I think this thing could really take off. >> Yeah, >> I'm I'm definitely excited about the the scale like especially as we get into the next item on the list of really having a flagship program that other folks around us don't have and attracting more students, you know, for that of, you know, how many of these could we have going? How many students could we have involved? Like that that's definitely exciting in the in the years to come. >> I agree. So the goal would be through this spring hopefully to secure a home that this fall that our students are enrolled in
077the program will begin working right when they start school. >> Yeah, I think this goes right up into Mrs. Love has often talked about how do we advertise to get people into our schools of choice, you know, our programs. This would be such a good way. I mean, like you said, like a location, something people drive by and they've got our sign there and they see their kids working on it. I'm very excited. All right, I've said it enough. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Benick, thank you so much for coming tonight. Thank you for your work on this >> item. YES. >> Discussion item 8.2 is Mr. Lto leading discussion on the limited open enrollment proposal. M >> good evening. >> So this is a breakdown of our current programs that we have. We have the
078the IB program, Clarkson virtual, career immersion, construction tech, CSM tech, our young five kindergarten employee non-resident uh projects search, and then prior employment, prior program participants. So for fall of 25, we had 492 students that were enrolled with Clarkson schools through school of choice. If you take out the employees, that's less than 5% of our total student body. 2025 school of choice. We had 109 new students come in for the fall of 25. I did share this information when we were doing our presentation in December, but I wanted to bring it up again. This is the attendance for our school of choice um students. Our school of choice students averaged 18.29 occurrences where the non school of choice it was it was lower behavior. Um, this is in the elementary because that's what this is
079studying. There is not a lot of behavior that's recorded in synergy because what's recorded in there is more suspensions, things like that. It's more of an accurate reflection if you're looking at secondary students. Um, so but I do we do have this data available. Um, in the future we're starting to record things differently in educ. It's a different software that we have and the data would be good. So, I have this here because this is the only data that we actually have on behaviors, but I I just I wanted to point that out that it's there's not a lot of data reported in there. Um, this is the academics. So, for for reading our for fastbridge, our school of choice um students actually scored higher than our resident Clarkston students. And then for math, it
080it was it was the reverse but very close. So, our Clarkston residents um scored higher in math than our school of choice. And then I wanted to put this back up there. This is this is the capture rate that we study. We had a study done by Plant Moran. And this is also what we do by looking at birth rates and predicting predicting what our enrollment would be. And if you go look at the bottom graph there, the Young Fives student Young Fives kindergarten student gain loss projections. That's what we're looking at for the fall. Plaran has us down 36. If you just looked at birth day three would be down seven and then the next year. Um the birth rate looks to have us up a little bit and then plateauing in 28. And
081planaran has us down just a little bit over those next next few years. Um so I wanted to bring up a couple of data points that we've looked at. So we've been doing this is in my I want the dialogue to primarily can be around the young fives kindergarten that we've had. So with the young fives kindergarten we've taken 322 students and we've done this since 2019. In the 1920 year we've we were taking 25. There was a few years that we took some extra students off the waiting list and then starting in 2425 we bumped that up to 75 students and it's been 70 was 75 last year. um and 2425 and it was 75 for this year. Okay. Um this this school year we were down with all of our extra programming we
082were down 51 students. It's roughly half a million dollars worth of revenue that we lost by the decrease in our enrollment. So um and another thing I wanted to point out is those secondary programs I want to go back a few slides. These programs, the IB, Clarkson virtual, current immersion, construction talk, CSM tech, um those programs are unlimited programs. That means we take students all the way up until um the right before school starts, the last week before school starts. That's what the cuto off is with that. The limited program that we've had has been young fives in kindergarten. And with that, with those programs, you have to set a 30-day window to take students and then you have to let the students know two weeks um once the once the 30-day window is within
083two weeks, they have to know if they're accepted or not. So, what we are proposing for for next school year is to continue with the programs that we have that are unlimited. We haven't gotten a ton of students over the years in those programs, but it still is generating students coming to Clarkston. We'd like to increase the elementary um in and go from running 75 up to 100. And then we wanted to offer 25 spots at our other locations, the middle school, the junior high, and the high school. We wanted to increase by 25 at those locations as well. That would give us an extra hundred students that would come into Clarkston schools. Last year we had about 115 that wanted to come here in the elementary. We only took 75. I think we ended
084up with 72 or 73. I'd have to go back to the slide. But I I feel that those that 100 students that we would be able to get them. I don't think it would cause our class sizes to go up because we have relatively small class sizes in the elementary. And then we wanted to add the 25 at the secondary buildings. Adding a 100 students through open enrollment will generate a million dollars worth of revenue as you'll learn about in future board meetings. We're currently looking at a 4.3 million structural deficit going into next school year. So we are been working diligently for probably the last two months on what that looks like, what reductions are we going to do and what enhancements we're going to be able to provide. And we have done a
085lot of good work trying to um find enhancements. I think we're up to close to 900,000 on efficiencies that we're going to be communicating with the board. But because of the timing of the open enrollment window, we can't bring this to you with those those other adjustments, the reductions and so forth. But, you know, in Clark, there's not a lot for us to cut. There's only so much money you can save on contracted services. When we start talking about cuts and reductions in in our in our organization, it usually ends up being positions. and you can only go with so many custodians. So, this ends up being teachers and it ends up being impacting class size and um you know the experience our students are getting as well as the the the working conditions of
086our teachers. So, this is something that we wanted to do. This is evaluated every year. It's approved by the board every year. So, this isn't something that we would need to do continuously. It's just we have a lot of capacity at our secondary buildings at those 25 students. um they they would be very helpful to fill up class size especially in our special programs where our enrollment is is is very very low. I think I said this last time I I was talking about enrollments with you. When I started working here in 20134 the junior high and the middle school had 1,300 students roughly. The high school was at 1,800. High school is now at 1,500 and both of those buildings are either just below a thousand or I think the the middle school might
087might have hit 1,000. That is a lot of students not not factoring into these these special programs that we have. So, we're not proposing even in future board meetings for this upcoming school year cutting necessarily programs, but it'll definitely be something we have to look at for 2728 cuz our deficit is um it is continuing and it's something we do need to address if we want to continue um the programs that we're having and the the financial position that the district's in at the moment. And just to emphasize, you know, Mr. Lito talks about the opportunities for kids and looking at the current state of southeast Michigan and Michigan. Um, our board president and myself attended a conference or a presentation from um, SEMCOG which does the collection of data on uh, demographics um, looking
088at population changes, degrees within the elements of population between youth, senior citizens etc. and they look at, you know, creating models over 30 plus years and looking at southeast Michigan and the birth rates. People are still obviously moving into Clarkston. They are building houses as we are trying to get into the game of building houses right within our program, but the general trend has been that individuals are having less children and that uh those individuals who move into our our community, many don't have children or don't plan to. And that's fine because that mirrors the rest of southeast Michigan. As Mr. Lito presented in the fall, Clarkston has and will has continued to to collect the same birth rate of the total number of babies in Oakland County. So nothing's changed in terms of what
089we're capturing, but the sheer number of of children there is in decline. And the response either needs to be you downsize your programming, which we have done somewhat over the years. Uh but it's it's not in a position where we ever want to present um degrading or or downsizing the number of offerings of programs and everything that we have here in Clarkston. And as you heard like our construction program, uh our band program, our theater programs, all the different things that we hold, you know, from CSM Tech to IB to AP to the DEP program at the high school, you know, we need students in seats to be able to keep all them going. There's interest in all of them. Um but we never want to be in a position where we don't offer a
090certain program because we just don't have the students to do it. And the way the future holds as the um conference we went is that there's going to be a certain amount of consolidation in Oakland County. And uh my plan for this district or my recommendation to our board and community is that we're going to stay vibrant and on top. We're not going to grow. That's not the goal here. It's we're going to stay consistent with what we offer. We're really happy with the offerings we have now. Will they change and evolve over the years like our construction program? Absolutely. Uh but again, if we can stay between that 6 and 7,000 student range, that's economy of scale that we can offer all the things that this community has desired and wanted over the years.
091Secondly, related to just how things have been postco with budget and how the state again the governor's offer is below inflation. I mean, it's it's a competitive environment. We will continue to be on our toes when it comes to creating opportunities with partnership schools and everything we can do to draw resources into Clarkston. Uh but we'll also have to look for efficiencies. As Mr. Lito pointed out, we're going to be able to present in the next month, you know, upwards of a million dollars of just changing the way we do things to improve efficiencies. But at the same time, with having the number of students for those programs, the dollars they bring to actually finance and run the school district keeps us vibrant and strong. And I think it's a year-by-year thing. We just need
092to look at our total enrollment. Look at the programs and the offerings we want to have. Look at our total budget and what we want to produce and then make u sound at least from the administration standpoint recommendations to the board and our community. So that's kind of where we're sitting this evening. This is kind of our best thinking. Obviously as as one more point that Mr. Ledto made, this is like part of a larger plan that will unfold in terms of recommendations over the spring, but this is important first step. I have one other piece of data I I miss. So out of the 322 students that we took, 32 of them have withdrawn. Okay. >> Over the years, 17 have become residents. So they the families have purchased homes here and are now
093no longer part of school choice school of choice. >> Okay. I know that is something we had asked because I was very curious how many we re we retained. >> Um Okay. Um uh Mrs. Love. >> Yeah. I just wanted to say publicly that I'm very disappointed that this is I think you just said this is your best thinking and this is just school of choice slowly thrown at us year by year. This is not innovative. This is not the the program that we discussed at our meetings talking about bringing in gifted children and trying to build our district in a different form. This is just every district is has done this and it's the beginning of the end and I'm just extremely disappointed. And we've grown our administration here. We've added positions that we
094don't need and now we're talking about school of choice and cutting other innovative uh programs that focus on academics. We just spent $1,500 today on talking to our students about crushes and how appropriate those are and relationships. I mean, you guys, we got to get a handle on this and we got to go looking forward and this is just not the answer. Oh, and we represent our community. We're elected officials. If you did a poll of Clarkston and said, "Do you want open school of choice in Clarkston?" They would say no. I trust me on that. >> Student reps. >> All right. So I wanted to firstly ask you Mr. a question. So as a school of choice student myself Mrs. love. I wanted to quickly verify this because you mentioned they're going to continue
095secondary school of choice programs. >> But uh are you referring to like all the programs? Because there are a number of secondary school of choice programs. There's IB, there's CSM Tech, there's construction. So are you trying to um continue all of them as they currently are? Are you trying to continue specific ones in different ways, you know? Yes. So all those specialty programs I will go back. So these specialty programs the IB Clarkson virtual the career immersion construction talk CSM talk we are going to continue those as unlimited programs. Okay. So that means we'll take as many students who who qualify with the behavior backgrounds and the academic requirements to get into those programs. What we are proposing is taking 25 general open enrollments. that would be limited. So, um, Mrs. Love, that would not
096be in a full open enrollment. I just want to make sure that's clear, >> but it's heading in that direction. That's all I'm saying. Every year I get on the board, it's worse and worse and worse and worse. >> This is all parts of a larger plan, as Dr. Ryan said, that'll be shared at the next board meeting. So, without open enrollment, there will be 10 other jobs that will have to come up to be reduced. So, like when you talk about taking 10 positions just from our elementary division, it would be devastating. That means you'll have at least one classroom at each one of those buildings where a teacher is teaching two grade levels. So, and you're absolutely right. You represent the community and that's a decision you'll have to make. But I just
097want to be aware that there there there's only so much things to be had that we have a product that people want and and we could we could generate a million of this or we can cut a million dollars of staffing and and services and I'm I'm fine and I'll implement whatever plan that you want. But um this is not this is part of our overall plan. The timing of the open enrollment program needs to get approved by you guys in April before the rest of it goes. So I just wanted to be crystal clear on uh on that process. Correct. And we have several millions worth of other innovative ideas coming in future meetings in addition to looking at you know our continued enhancement in other areas. And we also, just to make sure,
098I want to make sure Miss Low hears this as well. At our next meeting in a workshop, we're going to bring back our some of our uh ideas with elementary scheduling that we'll have gifted program at least, you know, looking at um novel schedules that I know the board has been very interested in. So, we're really trying to work at all elements at once. But we definitely appreciate your your feedback. >> Dr. Ryan, as I as I look at this, I'm more comfortable with the elementary piece because Mr. Dito has been very successful, I think, in filling spaces without increasing class size and we haven't had to add any FTEEs to to bring those students on board and we've got some good data. I feel more confident continuing what we've been doing at the elementary
099level. I'm I'm a little more nervous at the secondary level just because the only experience we have is fairly limited with the specialty programs. um on here. I I wonder is there an opportunity to get some, you know, more qualitative data from other districts that might be doing this? Like can can we learn from, you know, their mistakes? What's gone well with this? What hasn't gone well? I I'd love to avoid making mistakes that other folks have already experienced and, you know, wished they' done something different. Um, I don't know who those districts are, but my feeling is that you folks probably do because you know all the districts around us. >> Absolutely. >> I I would agree with Mr. Hire. Um, I am skeptical, a little worried about just the o the 25 at
100each of our secondary schools. I appreciate all of the open unlimited enrollment we have. I think it has brought high achieving students like Representative Pon who came in for the IB. Is that correct? No madam president. Um CSM Tech. >> Oh, CSM Tech. Okay. Um which, you know, as Mrs. Love has said many times, we really want to get as many people in to those programs as we can. Um I know this is a very open question. If you don't have the answer, I completely understand. Um has there been questions from non-Clarkson residents about joining our middle school, junior high, high school? I mean, do you get call? Do we get calls? I don't know. We do. So what happens is I think you might you'll have a student who's not specifically interested in one
101of those programs and there's no other option. So the >> this would just be 25 spots to just let students in. They'd have to have behavior and at the secondary level it's much easier because you don't know what when you're young's kindergarten even the parents don't know what kind of student they're going to be. So the the secondary we have behav we're able to deny kids based on any behavior that they have and we get to decide that >> the the numbers we have with that is just it's hard to fill bands CSM tech it is hard to fill these classes. So if we continue to lose kids that's what we have to do. Is 25 going to make a big difference? No. But it says seven teachers jobs. >> These 25 at each of
102the secondaries this would be exactly like the elementary right. it's open 30 days and we have two weeks afterwards and correct >> then okay and it's not like we can fill them and I will say one of the things that I had to wrap my head around almost every year for the first couple years was how adding 75 students actually can decrease our class sizes >> yes >> I it's it it does though I mean you've shown me more than once which I appreciate so >> Mrs. love. >> Uh, and you can deny people based on behaviors, but you can't actually pick people based on academic it. No other factors. You just have, it's just a random selection is my understanding. So, we don't know what we're getting. We don't know what their background is.
103So, they could be extremely behind. I mean, having somebody start in nth grade that's not part of the IB, not part of this type of thing. I mean, that's that could not be a very good fit for the teachers or for the student. >> It very well could be. But when we were studying the academic success of these students in the elementary, it's they do pretty well. Their parents are driving them from outside of the school district. They they've they've proven to be pretty committed families has been our experience so far. >> Madame President, >> yes, >> I appreciate Mr. Lceto making that last comment because I think that is for me the foundation of why I'm okay with our school of choice um process. I know families who I know personally families who bring
104their children to our school district and I believe not only that what I know of those families but the data that you've already shown us shows that there is a specific profile that I believe these families exhibit when it comes to their belief and quality of what education means to them. they'll drive a distance to get the quality they're looking for. And so I believe that when there's a family profile that says that education is equality, it's a systemic belief throughout the entire family. Um I have a couple questions. Is your school of choice number does it include staff who bring their children to school? >> Yeah. So right now we have 492 total. The the 117 of those are employees children. >> Okay. Does your school of choice number include Clarkston residents who choose
105not to be at one building and choose to be at another and drive their student there for whatever the convenience and reason might be. I know my neighbor particularly is one of those parents. >> We do do we do do internal school of choice but no that wouldn't be factored in here. So, they're not they're not counted in your school of choice number. >> Correct. >> Um, >> have you tracked whether or not your school of choice number includes a demographic of parents who once homeschooled their children? >> I do not have that data. I could I could get that, but I don't I don't have I would like to see if there's a trend because I think it would be again helpful to show the profile of what a school of choice parent family
106represents. >> Okay. >> Um of the additional 25 that you're asking for in K5, are those only for entry at kindergarten moving forward or their entry at any grade level? They would be any grade level. Okay. >> But the board's given direction before that they want most of those positions filled in the in the young fives kindergarten. That's what that's what we've done. >> Um do you know or do we have a capacity for our construction tech program? >> Yes. >> Because I see in your enrollment numbers that the construction tech program went from 16 students to 27 students. that's probably in any well career uh career immersion pathways went up 11 also. So I see those as high probabilities of growth in those programs. I would also only suggest that more students, especially students
107who I believe are in a family of a profile that demand a higher level of education only therefore increases the possibility of a higher population wanting um higher level academic opportunities. So, we can't make our current students take a class. Can't make our students take classes or do things that they're they don't want to do or that their families don't enforce for them to do. I would love to be to have 30 and 40 kids in team rush. Okay. But I can't we can't get students to do it for whatever reason and we can't get the parents to enforce that that's a good idea to do it as well as any one of these other programs. So if we were to have a gifted and talented program and we had two and three students, I'm
108only suggesting not saying that that's it's the case. We can only if uh offer it, we don't know how many will take it. And I would love to see us offer opportunities and I know that our teachers offer opportunities in the classroom for students who are of a gifted need and they see it and they provide them additional support but uh uh support andor challenges. But I would like to see us within this whole realm of school of choice and how we're trying to service our students with what our students need continue to keep on the table providing gifted and talented opportunities as equally. >> Yes, Mr. McNotton, >> has there been a formal process where this information and um just the idea of school choice in general has been communicated to our community, parents
109in the community? Has it been a process that >> like a survey or >> or anything, right? >> So, we we market the programs if if the we market the program. So, like if basically we're talking about it now if if the board wants to move forward, it'll be approved in April and then we would market all of these dates in all of these programs. >> And for the ones for the secondary ones that we've talked about, they get marketed heavily in district. Um, so >> yeah, I would be also interested in in some sort of data collection to see are people in the community supportive of this in general, but it's not saying we think this or think this. I think that specific data about this public could be helpful for making these decisions.
110>> Mr. I I know we have the data and I know it's been in our kind of annual enrollment update. I I wonder if we could look at we looked at school of choice and say we roughly lose maybe 10% a year. Um you know with your 32 out of 322 I wonder if we could look at what is our attrition rate for our resident students. You know we try to see where they go and where they come from when we get them. Um that would be an interesting number because part part of my concern with expanding this has been volatility that um is going to be a challenge for us and I just wonder if if that number is that 10% you know obviously an estimated number you're giving me a number of years
111and and uh the number of students I wonder if that is comparable to our resident you know students and and how many leave um or it's it's different than that? >> That's a good question. Yeah. >> Does anybody else have any reps? >> Um, I actually had a question for you, Mr. Guinness. So you mentioned that we could instead have a general gifted and talented program. Was that um but do you think that having a a broad G&T program would would it do you think that it would cause enrollment in our specialty programs in that regard like IB like CSM Tech to decline in favor because parents will go to the general program instead of the more career focused one? Well, I would say that for the most part in the previous years in Clarkson,
112our gifted and talented programs was K5 because in the secondary level, all these other opportunities exist. And so the giftedness of certain individuals to go down certain career pathways already exists for secondary. It doesn't exist for elementary. And that's where developing a career um a gifted and talented program, even though we are doing great work in the career pathways in our K5 area, helping students learn early on where their strengths might be, whether it's healthcare, whether it's technology, whether it's science, whether it's whatever is um in it can be a thread through a K5 gifted and talented program. Whereas secondary, I think we're doing a very good job at creating those pathways for gifted and talented through these additional kinds of enrollment. >> And you do you don't propose that we add a gifted and
113talented general program for the secondary education >> for >> and and you don't propose that we add an additional gifted and talented program for the secondary education? >> Secondary? No, I wouldn't. >> Um I don't know what the model of the K5 program was. none of my children were in the gifted and talented program at the time when it was here in Clarkston. Um so I don't know what the curriculum did to advance those um students thought process and thinking. Um but I think that there are plenty of parents who want to say well what what programs out there for my kid? And I just think we need to be conscious of providing access of programming that serve all our students. Okay, we have one student in the international balora. I'd love to have 50,
114but we only have one right now. If we only had one in the gifted and talented program, I could say, see, we're providing equal to equal so that your child you your child wants a gifted and talented program. Okay, there's that one child. I'm just being facitious in the elementary school that wants it. Here it is because there's only one child in the secondary that wants it. But right now, we don't even have it for the K5 student. And that's all I'm trying to say is that we're providing all of these choices. We need to recognize that there are parents who want a gifted and talented program of some sort. I don't I don't know what it should look like for a K5 student versus a one5 student, however you want to look at it.
115>> Okay. Uh, I actually also had a similar question for Mr. Lceto. Um, so do you think that having the secondary general school of choice spots would cause fewer people to want to apply for the specialty programs? >> I do not. So here's my theory. What happens when we have these programs that are have these windows that we know are going to generate? So what happens with the programs if we get more applicants on the limited ones, we have to do a lottery. So, in the elementary, we've been doing a lottery. What happens when those families don't get in? They're they're usually devastated. They they they try they they tried to get in through the lottery. Their name wasn't selected. I think it's going to be very nice for our pupil accounting department and myself
116who takes a lot of these phone calls to be able to say, "I'm sorry you didn't get into the general open enrollment at the high school. However, we have all of these other programs that your student can apply for that are that are unlimited and they have until August. So that will give them the opportunity to apply and still get into Clarkson schools, but it I think it's going to I I actually think it's going to increase the number of enrolles we have in these program. At least that's a theory and I I think that is highly probable. >> Thank you. >> You should you should have started with that, Mrs. >> I was going to say that was actually a good argument. >> I agree. I agree. >> It goes I I guess to
117Mr. Ledto's point and to my point it goes to the profile of who these parents and these families represent and I believe our data >> nobody before the last year I think is the first time you started showing us this data and we're just now still even still trying to see other things that we can track I'd like to see you track how many were homeschooled ch students got that >> okay so I think we start building a profile of who these individuals are that choose this and I think you're right these ch these students will look at these career pathways in the secondary and go, "Yeah, I can give that a try. And if I don't like that one, I'll move to this one." >> At least I I I like the concept of
118testing like may maybe we start with 10. I was actually 10 was the number in my head by the way >> at high school as a way to look at that to see like will that drive will that come to fruition because like that makes sense what you said that you know these parents will try to get their students in and we have these other options and it'll be a win-win in that regard. Um you know I I I would I would like to see that maybe as an option. Um I'm not sure Mrs. screen how you want to navigate bringing back a proposal for us to approve at a future meeting. >> I think it has to be approved at the April meeting in order to get the 30-day window. So, >> um so
119I think I mean we actually already have a pretty full workshop meeting, but I think we need to talk about it one more time. I really do. I'd recommend we talk about it, but also look at it in the scope of the other $3.5 million worth of ideas that we have so that it feels more like I think the contingency pressures that myself and the and the team are on which is making hard choices. You know, sometimes the idea is not what you always want, but then I didn't know we this would happen if we didn't have that type of conversations as well. And I think we can provide we're working right now to provide final uh focus on on our proposals for that and I think we can bring it as part of the
120share at the workshop and kind of show how it fits into a larger puzzle. I think that's really informative. It's really difficult to do this in the order it has because of that because you don't want to be in a position where it's May and my board's looking at things well come up with anything else because we don't want to have X removed from our program or this class size or these number of splits or anything like that yet you know it kind of comes in a in a reverse order just by the nature of how we have to kind of make make things you know work. So yeah, we'll come up with a we'll come with a broad piece and then we would love in that uh workshop to get any final um you
121know thoughts you have on a proposal that you want us to formulate uh for that first April board meeting. And I can tell and I'll echo Mr. Lceto is whatever the desire of this board is to move forward, we'll absolutely implement that. Yeah, I I will say I I I appreciate you guys coming up with a proposal, the whole team coming up with a proposal and bringing that to us and then being open for us to to tweak it and change it. I I I want to be careful that, you know, I I mean, I'm not an educational expert. Um you guys are the educational experts. It is my job to represent the community and and what I think is right in our community. And so I think this is one of those things where
122like I I don't want to not use data in making this decision. Um and I think there's probably a way to find the middle ground here. And I appreciate you your administrative team, Dr. Ryan, has always been extremely flexible saying, well, we have to start somewhere. Here's our best thinking and you know, let's make it work for this board and our community. I appreciate that. >> Thank you, Dr. or Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Lucido. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Rep. Pon for letting us pick on you a little bit as our token school of choice student, our high achieving student. We appreciate that. Um, Mrs. Mahoney, could you please just check the I don't think anybody signed up, but just to check. Um, item nine is citizen comments. Citizens are welcome to address the board
123on any topic at this point of the agenda. There are none. Okay. Uh item 10 is information items. Our next board of education meeting is the workshop we were just talking about which is getting very full. We'll be talking about our core values and culture, elementary program, district finances, and the school of choice enrollment program. It will be here in the boardroom uh starting at 6:00. Item 11 is adjournment. May I have a motion, please? >> Move to adjourn. >> Support. >> All those in favor? I >> opposed. We are adjourned.