001to order the meeting of the Clarkston 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. >> Thank you. >> Mrs. Mlan, can you please call the role? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ne, >> here. >> Mrs. Egan, >> here. >> Mr. Clark, >> here. >> Mrs. Love, >> here. Mrs. McGinness here. >> Mr. Hyer >> here. >> Mrs. Crane >> here. Thank you, Mrs. Mlan. Item 1.3 is the 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
002public community hearing. There is a time for public participation during the meeting as indicated in agenda items three and nine. Item two is the approval of the consent agenda. May I have a motion, please? >> I move that the board of education approves the consent agenda as presented. >> Support. >> Motion made and supported. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Item three is the first opportunity for citizens to address the board. You are given two opportunities to address the board. Under this item, item 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
003the board president. Each person may speak for up to two minutes. Per 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. Item four is our superintendent update and I will turn it over to Dr. Ryan. >> Thank you, President Crane. Uh, good evening community. Welcome. We're glad to see a little audience tonight. We're very excited about having some updates of our construction trades program here in Clarkson. Also see Mr. Steve Whiteoff in the audience and be able to recognize his efforts and how he helped build Clarkson over the years literally as part of the trades program. And I'm excited to also uh be able to welcome our community group members of
004the Clarkson Preservation uh that are here to also be part of our evening's events. Uh we also have um Mr. Bob Isgreg in the front wave who's here uh on behalf of the Tamar Van Denberg uh Ferguson Foundation and will be part of our events this evening as well. So excited for our uh board meeting tonight. And I also want to wish as this is December and as we get ready to kind of wind down um this first half of the school year into our holiday break that everyone has uh a safe and wonderful and incredible uh time off to be able to engage with family and to come back hopefully rested and ready to go as I know our students will be in January. So thank you and look forward to a good evening.
005Um, >> we'd also like to take this opportunity quickly to introduce our brand new student reps. Um, they are not officially sworn in yet, but we are doing an orientation and I asked them to join us in what will be their seats. Uh, if you guys could just stand up and say hi. I have Jay Pon who is our senior rep and I have student representative Boon Mcnotton who is our junior rep. Thank you guys. All right. Item five is now our presentation items. Item 5.1 is an update on our construction tech program. >> Thank you. And this evening we have Mr. Adam Goring, Neil Granlin from the construction tech program along with Scott Scott Albal and several of our students that are within the program. So I'd invite them all to come down and
006share their story with us and our community. Sorry. >> Don't all come at once. [laughter] >> Well, thank you ladies and gentlemen for this time. I'm Adam Goring, the instructor for the Clarkson Construction Technology Program. This is our team behind us here, some of our uh key partners and members of the of the class, students as well. And I just want to say first off uh just to thank you for everybody and all their support. This has been a great experience for me. This is my sixth year now into this program and it's been an amazing experience for me to the support of our board of our administrators of our community and of course our students and families and and the partners of our program. So as we're looking through this we've had a lot
007of uh opportunities you can see in the pictures behind you there to continue to grow. We've had a lot of work in shop. We've had a lot of of work on site. And as I've gone through this process, you can see right there in the upper right hand corner, we've got our practice house. And that's given us an opportunity to bridge that distance between our current students that are in the program, our community members, our community sponsors. they can come in, work with the students, see what their skill levels are, and then take those skills and apply them into the real world. They interact with those partners, and then as they continue to grow in those experiences and those relationships leads into jobs, into opportunities and career paths that we hope to have for years
008on end for them as they move forward. So, as we look at some of the other opportunities there, we've also got our clubs and competitions. some other uh speakers here will talk more detail about that, but just as a note on that, many of our students participate in our club and in the skills program. And in the past 5 years, we've had seven gold medalists in that program. So, we're going to talk more specifically about that. So, I just want to say how thankful I am to be here. What a great time of year it is right now to be thankful and to look out into the future and say, how can we take some of these opportunities and some of these existing programs that we have here and how can we continue to grow
009with them? We've got the partnerships. We've got the talent, we've got the students, we're continuing to grow in our numbers. Could we take that and potentially lead that into something where as a district maybe we're considering looking at getting into a independent home build or into an independent home restoration project that as a district we are supporting. That's something we'd like to look into and consider as we move forward. So that's what I have to say for right now. Mr. Mister, take it from there. Neil Granland. Um, you just heard him say Mr. Mister. That's the kids call me Mr. Mister. I guess uh Granland is too hard to say. So, it's Mr. [laughter] Mister. They asked me to do a little bit of the history here of our program. Um, and probably the better
010person would have been Steve Woff himself. I didn't know he was going to be here. That's wonderful. But, uh, there's a lot of people to thank for this program as this program developed. Um, I came back out of retirement to come into this program. I've retired several times from Clarkson schools, but I've been back first of all to take over uh some of the uh steam, I think it's called, at uh Sasha Middle School when the teacher fell on the stairs and had an accident. So, I took that over for a semester, then came back when I saw this was open here. This is my kind of program. I love this. I love the kids that work in this program. Uh we developed uh I started at Clarkson what was Clarkson High School, Clarkson Junior
011High School uh now. And it's been great to be there in that building and to watch what's going on in this community to see Independence open up. Independence Elementary, Springfield Planes, and all the new schools and all the additions and everything going on. Cuz when I came here to Clarkson, it was a one stoplight town. There was only one fast food restaurant in Clarkston. It was called Champs. There was no restaurants downtown to speak of except maybe the village cafe and I've seen it develop and said I had no idea coming from the upper peninsula I thought this is my kind of town just a little town just great I think I remember when I took over as a first head coach of the soccer team that we'd go down south and we were in
012Royal Oak and they would say um oh the farm boys are here from Clarkston. Well that has changed a lot these days. the farms have closed and the subdivisions are open. There's a lot of people to thank for this program. I remember Connie Bruce in the building of this program and construction. Dick Moskovic, Steve Woff of course, and Jeff Paraso. I came in as uh Jeff Paraso's health was going down and it has been healthy for me to be there and I'm thankful that you guys will have me there today. Our program is working not only uh to help kids in a new and different surrounding what they have in a regular normal classroom. It's quite different being in a classroom here. I don't feel like I'm inside of four walls all the time as
013I was I I taught architectural drawing and that was I loved it and I loved being there. But right now these these kids to see their success more success than they've had in any other class is just wonderful. So, I've watched the development of the junior high school and our kids get to watch it. That that's what's great about this program. Right now, we're right in a position where we're seeing that building from the ground on up. And we've worked with such great people here as Alba that they will bring us any learning situation, they will call our kids down and we get them right onto the the site and watch what's going on. We have Elliot who's the foreman for O. He invites us out. We saw that gymnasium from nothing. Watch the walls
014going up. It has just been wonderful. I'm just so happy to be with this program. And I think the kids love being with this program. And I had one more thing I wanted to mention. Yeah, we can't wait to see that new junior high school. And our kids are in and the new construction tech building. We are crowded. We are jammed in there. They are We There is equip. We We have to move equipment around to to plug in something else. When that opens up, that's going to be just so wonderful. I hope I'm still here to see it. I am 80 years old, but I'm going to try a few more years because my grandson's in the program. So, I'm waiting to see what that uh new building is going to look like. And
015amazing. I know it is. The part that's done now is amazing. And I'm glad that our kids get to be a part of it. Maybe we could actually get out there and have each of our students lay a brick >> that >> they could say they were part of the building of that part in building that program. So that I'd like to thank you and the community. And I wanted to mention one more thing. Last year we gave you each a cutting board. I see some new faces. If you need a new one and I wanted to tell you, I forgot to tell you if you need to shine that up, you use go to Ace Hardware and you have to use a mineral oil that's food grade. It's in the food department and you
016rub that on there. If it's too scratched up, return it to the building and the kids will bring it back looking like new. Okay. Thank you very much. >> Please share. How many years have you been in Clarkson schools as an employee? >> 56 years with the schools. Yeah. >> 56 years. That is absolutely amazing. [applause] >> I might be 80 years old, but last summer you should I got to show you if you want to see a picture of a fish I caught. uh deep sea fishing off of the Wiki Beach with my grandson who is in the program and I caught 108 lb AI tuna and as big almost as big as I was. I'm still at it. I'm ready to go a few more years. >> Thank you. >> Hi, I'm uh
017Scott Albba. I'm the president of Alba Masonry. We are the Mason contractor that's building the new school. We we couldn't be happier to be involved in the community. We um we started with Mr. Woff and you know we we are thoroughly thrilled with where it's heading. We have an enviable program there. I am a board member of the Masonary Institute of Michigan and this specific program gets talked about considerably and um I just want to say that I'm glad to be part of the community and I couldn't be prouder to be helping these these kids. Sorry. It does get me down. >> Thank you. >> I'll just jump in and talk about that. [applause] So just just on behalf of of Scott here. So when I first started here, Scott was on board. Anytime we
018ever needed anything, he's in. I want I want to be part of it. If I need somebody on the advisory board, he he would sign up for it. If if I need somebody to come in help with a project that that project house that we've got in the back doesn't doesn't happen without him. He's he's come in. He's donated the materials that they're stand they're standing on slabs of concrete that Clarkson Schools has never seen a bill for. They they take care of the materials. They take care of the time. He brings in his professionals that are working on multi-million dollar homes all over southeast Michigan and they're coming in and showing our students the best of the best of all the techniques and trade skills that are in masonry. And as we've moving forward
019into the bigger projects, he's always been on board with that. Him and Rachel as they've worked together with us. She she's always there with us when we have our our trades days. They're there working together handinand helping us bring our students up and bring them into the real world of of the trades. and we couldn't be more thankful for their time, their efforts, and their dedication to our program. So, thank you to them. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Hello. Uh I'm Duncan Ruby. This is my third year in the program and I to put it um lightly, I've had a blast. It's been a lot of fun. Um I had the opportunity to work with the Skills USA team and compete in the um teamworks build and in the individual build. Um a couple
020years ago we went to nationals and last year at states we played second and that was phenomenal. Um in the future I plan to go to college and I want to study business but as a minor I want to do construction. Um that was something that I had not even thought of until I joined this program and uh this program has it it's its possibilities are endless. Uh my plan as far as now is to saunter um study entrepreneurship and I would like to start my own construction company one day and the resources that I have gained through this program have been very very helpful towards that path. Um construction I love. I'm in many AP and honors classes that take up a lot of my time and stress. Um, the ACT is coming up
021and it's taking up a lot of my time. And one of my favorite things has been to come every day to the construction program and uh work out my stress and building things from um molding and um baseboard stuff to building walls and plumbing and electrical. Many things that I would have never touched if it weren't for the this program. Um uh recently I've been getting into making cutting boards and pens and that's something that I had never also never um seen before, but it's been very cool to see and I get to donate back to the program um which I'm very grateful for. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. [applause] >> My name is Avery Evans. I am a junior or excuse me, I'm a sophomore and it's my second year in construction. Um, I
022also had the opportunity to join Skills USA. Last year when I was a first year, Mr. Goran came up to me and he's like, I have this opportunity to join Skills USA. You'll be competing in carpentry. And I had no idea what I was getting myself into. And it was probably one of the greatest decisions I've ever made because I was learning things that I never thought I would learn. things that people my age in my construction class haven't even learned yet. I was so far ahead and it put me so far ahead and I'm so grateful that I um took the opportunity. And the big question is what do you want to do in your future? And that's the thing that draws a lot of people into the construction tech program is they they
023really want to go into construction or plumbing or whatever it is. But for me, it was that I didn't know. I still don't know. And that's what brought me into construction, that even if I don't know when I'm done with high school, I have something. I have construction. I have the things that my teachers have taught me. And I can like I can honestly say that every teacher I've worked with, Mr. Goring, Mr. Mister, and Mr. Wood, who's not here tonight, have put a lot of trust in me and built my confidence so high because they believed I could and I did. Um, this program means a lot to me and that's it. Thank you. >> Nice. >> [applause] >> I'm Carson and I am a sophomore at the [clears throat] high school. Um, this
024is technically my second year, but I've only been in the class program for one year and um, it's been great. uh like the other kids were saying, um you get to uh meet new friends and to just meet new peers that have the same interest that you do. And um it gets you uh to learn new things that other classes don't. Like I remember last year in ELA just sitting there wondering uh listening to my teacher teach just wondering like what in the world does this have to do with like my future life? Um, and uh, that's not what construction is in my opinion. You learn like skills that you will probably use throughout the rest of your life. And um, like I said, I'm currently not in the class. I'm in the uh, construction
025club uh, due to like uh, scheduling issues that I had. Um, I needed some credits that I needed to get this year before so that I could graduate. And when I told Mr. goring about that. Um, he offered me this club and it it's it's great. It helps me to um keep my skills sharp um and to also see the friends that I've made. Um, in the future, I'm hoping to uh join the the class next year and senior year. So, I'll graduate with the class and um I'm hoping to one day work for a trade company. I don't know if that's in like the electrical field or the roofing or just I'm hoping to either one day uh own my own business or just work for someone in the trades. Thank you. >> Thank
026you. [applause] Hey everybody, my name is Wyatt. I'm going to be talking about the uh practice house that we get the absolute joy to work on. Uh on the left of that picture, you see all ball working over there with us. And then on the right, uh we have Hilty tools. Uh the practice house is great because we get to have partners come in and teach us new things. Um Hilty came in and did a tool demonstration for us on some really cool concrete tools. And one of the reasons I love the practice house is because it gives us experiences that we'd never get in the classroom. Classroom's great, but it's really nice to be able to work on the full scale thing and get that experience. Um, I'm sure my dad enjoys it because
027he just helped me help remoduddle our house this past summer and made me climb up in the attic a bunch, do the electrical he didn't want to do. But um one of the things I love most about the practice house is we get to work with heavy equipment and that inspired me. I want to go into heavy equipment operating when I'm out of high school. I've got to operate things like skid steers, excavators, sky lifts, skyjacks, concrete buckets, and that I didn't never would have thought that would have been a calling for me, but it's been a great time. Um I wish we had the picture, but Mr. Bennick went out there and joined us and got an excavator one day and that was a great time having the principal out there with us. But
028it's overall just going out in the practice house. It's a great time. It's a great sense of community. Both classes are out there. Mr. Wood and Mr. Goring are corraling us all to do different assignments and it's a great time. Thank you very much. [applause] >> And that wraps it up for us unless we have other questions. And I just want to once again say thank you so much to the community, to our families, to you know the these students, the staff. We're nothing but that which we've been given. It's it's it's a great blessing to be here and we're just looking forward to seeing where things go from here as we move forward. >> Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. >> Does anybody have any questions or comments they'd like to >> I
029have a comment? >> Mrs. McInness. >> Thank you, President Green. Um, what I love so much about what I just heard is that we haven't just um developed a class of tradesman's, but we've developed entrepreneurs. And I think that that is something that is not really easy to teach in a textbook kind of environment. It's more of an engaging hands-on. Um, I come from a long line of skilled trades. My grandfather built this was part of building Empire State Building. He was also a striking mill right for the Ford Rouge plant and my um all my uncles were tradesmen. So none of them ventured out to become entrepreneurs and I just love how you've taken the skilled trades and helped them see that they can be their own bosses. And I think that that is
030so much more important than sometimes the class book work that they can learn. And so I really greatly appreciate not only the teachers and what the teachers have done to them, but the support of what the community has provided for them also. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Mrs. McInness. Does anybody else have anything they want to say? >> No. Well, I my colleagues I know are sick of hearing how much I love the construction tech program, but this is one of my favorite presentations. I love to see the updates. Um, as you've all heard, my son was in the very first class and I've always been incredibly grateful for all that it taught him. Um, he's never heard me brag about it, but he is in the audience tonight, so he gets to
031hear me brag about it. Um, I feel like it's just done great things for him. Um, you guys, you students, uh, talked to somebody who's been through it. He's been able to while he didn't end up going into it, he's been able to buy a condo and use the skills that he learned to really fix up his condo. Um, and I've just been really grateful for everything he's done. So, um, I would love if you guys could come through and just shake our hand so we could say thank you and thank you for coming tonight. We would very much appreciate it. >> Thank you for coming tonight. >> Thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you so much. [laughter] >> Thank you so much for coming. I hope you're
032here many years. Thank you so much for everything you do. >> Thanks, Miss. I appreciate it. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> I should I got to see >> that wasn't written down. But that wasn't all written down. [clears throat] >> All right. Thank you. Uh that was our first presentation which I loved. And our second presentation item 5.2 is a recognition of Mr. Steve Woff. >> Thank you. I get the honor of carrying the ball on this one 100%. Mr. Woff, if you don't mind, come up to the podium. [applause] Thanks, Sean. [applause] Some relationships go way, way back. And the one that Steve has with Clarkson Schools is over 30 years. And I could give you the bio part of it, and I will, but that's not where the heart of what this
033evening is about. Steve Whiteoff retired in June of 2024 after 34 years of Clarkson Community Schools. As you heard, he's one of the founding fathers of our construction tech program which beame in 2017. Other positions held by Steve, subcustodian, freshman assistant football coach, PE teacher, and various roles as a community ed instructor, buildings trade instructor at OTC, and par profofessional. Steve had so many different roles as part of Clarkson Community Schools. When I first met Steve, I was principal of Clarkson Junior High School and it was more than uh as as time flies going on 20 years ago, which is absolutely amazing. And knowing Steve at the time, he was a PE teacher and I was a younger man at the time as well. And uh not only did I instantly gravitate uh towards Steve
034and his positivity and can do attitude, he was also very much in into you know physical fitness and and weight training and everything at the time. And got to go down during some of the weightlifting classes and again as principal to have you know your suit and dress shirt on and go down rip off the tie and start doing bench presses uh with the kids. It was a lot of fun. and Steve and I started that that little I think he thought it was a little odd for okay the principal's bench pressing and he can outbench press the class at the time except for you and I thought that was awesome as well but we used to have a lot of talks and it was kind of like it wasn't quite father son it was
035more like uh principal teacher big brother little brother type conversations and we had these over years and we talked about everything and anything and uh one of the topics I distinctly remember talking at the time was he'd be, "Sean, what have we let happen to the handson kids in Clarkson schools?" He's like, "When I was younger in Clarkson schools, we had shop classes, we had metal shop, we had auto motive, we had so many different he said, I thought we had like 13 teachers or something crazy like that, right, Steve? It was we we filled up these classrooms and then everything became about college prep and every kid has to go to college and slowly they whittleled away and they disappeared. and how sad it is. And he's like, "Sean, if you're ever in charge,
036if anything more than Clarkson Junior High, I'll ride shotgun with you. We will get something to happen and we can rebuild it." He's like, "But you can't wait too long because all us old-timers are eventually going to die. And when those embers are gone," you remember saying, "When those embers are gone, you're going to have a hell of a time getting it going again." That's a quote from you, Steve, I recall, all the way back then. And it stuck with me as we had different opportunities to start looking at the trades. And it started to become more apparent in Michigan that if you're even a little aware, some figures have it as high as over 200,000 jobs in Michigan are open in the trades. And as the baby boom generation retires, it's it's even a
037steeper decline. And anybody who's been out there who's ever tried to hire a a plumber or work with a carpenter, have somebody do remodeling, you know how difficult it is. And it's not one of those jobs that's going to be replaced by AI. It's not going to be shipped to Japan or China or overseas someplace. It's something that we have to build here in America if we're going to stay strong and be vibrant and continue to build our infrastructure because it's much more than just houses. It's bridges. It's roads. It's all the things that we count on that we depend on that take hands and students that have skills not only in the classroom but can build things and really take things to another level that really matter. And Steve had that vision and he
038stuck with it through several superintendents and landed to where we thought, you know what, now it's high tide, but what can be different? And the great thing about Steve as a visionary is, you know what, again, another one of those side big brother talks is you can't just have another wood shop class, Sean. You need to make it so they can have skills that they can take into the workforce. He says it's got to be bridged. No longer can high school for kids be an end point. When they leave treat trades and skilled uh areas in high school, they need to be go out right into the workforce because there's such a terrible need for it. We can do that here, but we have to be deliberate. He said to me that we had to
039put into context that we really have to have the students that are getting those skills and ready to go out into the workforce as they leave high school and also have opportunities whether it's dur thinking about entrepreneurship, building their own businesses or carrying their own fields within the trades and opportunity to move further in their education past Clarkson schools. He saw it at so many different levels and he was a way ahead of his time. And him and the crew as as we built the program, you know, to me that that in itself is exceptional. But that's not even why we're here tonight. Because [snorts] to me, looking at Steve and what he brought when I saw the relationships, whether it was a PE class or students that were swinging a hammer, he knew how
040to make connections. Old school connections. Kind of like you think about that old football coach that grabs the helmet, pulls the kid in because he loves him and gives him exactly what he needs to know at that moment to kind of engage. As my kids say, lock in, lock on, right? Ready to roll. And he brought that. And one student in particular [clears throat] caught my attention when I was transitioning as an interim superintendent trying to get the real job here in Clarkson was a kiddo named Jagger Woody. And some people might remember him. He totally captured my imagination to the level that I actually shared it out to the community in one of my updates. And what was cool about Jagger is that uh or actually really out of respect to him, Woody, because
041that's what he'd wanted to be and always wanted to be called is that I went out and visited uh work going on at the Clarkson family farm. And Woody was standing there on top of a roof and uh I said hello. He popped down. He immediately grabbed my hand. I can still remember to this day. Firm handshake, looked me eye to eye. And he's like, "You know what? It's good that you're here because you need to see this." Me, he had me. So I said, "Okay, well, what am I here to see?" He took me around the work site, had an incredible grasp of everything going on and what he was doing and what they were building there. And he told me that, you know what, if you're paying attention, you think this is neat,
042you have to know from a student perspective that this is incredibly important. You have to know that teachers like Mr. Whiteoff make a difference. I've been raised by my grandparents and you know I've had some tough times. He's like but I got a lot of pride and I know how to work hard and when I showed up to Mr. Whiteoff he was able to capture that with me and he got me not only a track that I wanted to be but I know where I'm going. And you know what it gave me goosebumps at the time it still gives me goosebumps thinking back to that day because Woody knew where he was going. And he might not have been in the old days being like the, you know, the early 2000s been ready for, you
043know, going on to, you know, astrophysics, but he had skills and they were with his hands and he had abilities to go to college and he did. He went to Northern Michigan University and he graduated and it was beg borrow steel to try to help support him to get there. But Steve made it happen. And that's just one kid. You have to understand the number of students that Steve affected and influenced over the years besides Woody here behind me is without number. They're out there. They're out in our community. They're working. They're giving back. They're engaging in kids in their own way and helping build our community. And I can't give any more higher respect or nod to a person or human being than one that has that kind of depth and ability to affect
044the lives of children. I have the utmost deepest respect and affection and just of all the people I've come across in education, Steve Whiteoff is towards the top. So, in looking at being able to honor him tonight, we want to be able to not only look at his accomplishments in here in Clarkston, which is one piece, and I just want to say to everybody, if you could please give him a hand. Thank you, Steve White. [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you. That's wonderful. Sean, those were very kind words and I do remember those conversations in that smelly fitness room. [laughter] >> Good times. >> And Jagger. Yeah, Jagger turned out to be a stud. Very proud of him. He graduated with our daughter all through elementary school. I heard a lot of uh Jagger Woody
045stories and uh you know he's a great example of what really can happen when you set your mind to it. Um yeah, I haven't been here as long as Mr. Mister at least employed. I've been here for 62 years, but I only taught for 34 and uh you know 17 years of construction, 17 years of fizzed. That was a very colorful ride. Um, I remember 1990, Tom Morris, nail gun right through the foot, right to the floor. It's never a dull moment. Um, [cough] I take my granddaughter to daycare. I run into the adults. They have as much gray hair on their face as me, some of them. They go, "Hey, coach, how you doing?" "Hey, Mr. Woff." I'm going, "My god, am I old? But um thank you so much. Uh I want to
046thank my number one fan, my wife Nikki. Raise your hand. [applause] She's uh she's allowed me to coach late. She's allowed me to go mow the Bailey House yard. She's allowed me to leave early in the morning to prep. Um so without her, you know, I really couldn't do a lot. without the board of education, your support, I mean, helping out funding the trips to Northern Michigan, um, believing that we could actually finish what we thought we could finish and, you know, sometimes making chicken salad out of things that aren't chicken salad. Um, Adam taking the torch, carried on. Scott, you know, I called Scott up on a whim, say, "Hey, you want to help out? This is what we do. I don't know what we're trying to do exactly yet, but he was all
047on board. And you know, everybody, the passion has always been there. There's never ever not been any support. There is no way this program could be bad because of the support the community gives us, the optimist give us, the board of education, the parents. Um, you know, I just happen to be the lucky guy to be in the right spot at the right time. So, it's kind of how I view it and anything I could do to help the kids or the parents or whatever, you know, you you just go ahead and do it. And I'm looking out there now, you got got Lucas over there. He was one of the first students in uh I think 2017 when we started. So, you know, I have uh other kids in his class that are linemen
048now, doing quite all right. There's others who've graduated and are now journeyman down in the carpenters union. There's several out there who are um project managers and graduate from Northern Michigan, Ferris. Um there's there's it's amazing what can happen. And what I'm going to go back to Jagger Woody is um every time I talk to him, he's like, "I just didn't think I could do this till you told me we could or he could." You don't know what you can't do. You know, you just got to keep plugging away. Sometimes it's not real fun. So what? It's just rain. So what? It's just snow. Your fingers will get warm. you can get in that air conditioned building later. Just got to suck it up and get done. So, I feel like we did that. I
049feel like Adam's taking them the next next step. Um I know when they work with Scott and they're mixing that mortar and carrying those blocks. I did that. That's great stuff right there. That's character building. I remember my old man, we would build houses from the footings through the shingles. Dad, they got a forklift. We can move all those blocks with that forklift. Oh, no we can't. We're set those right there, sir. And then I'd get to move them. Same thing with the shingles. [laughter] It always seemed like dad had them drop the lumber at the road. [laughter] So, yeah, I didn't like them then, but I love them now. So, once again, thank you so much. It's quite an honor. Preservation Clarkston. >> Mhm. the work they went through these people behind me to
050get that Bailey house going. I don't know anybody in the country who would go through that in Sam Morocco. Every time I had a problem, he was out there. He wasn't just, "Well, Steve, you just got to do this." I go, "Sam, what do you mean?" And he'd come out with his tool belt on. We'd have some colorful conversations and we'd get things done. Without these people backing us, that project never ever would have got completed. And um Sam, I just want to thank you every time. Um I know I felt like quitting even though I just talked about not quitting, but I sure felt like it a lot. You know, Sam's a little old school himself and would have some good conversations. Well, in in that spirit, Steve, don't go anywhere, but you can
051step a little to the left. I have two individuals because I'm going to call up in a sec. But another area that you and I used to talk about was the lack of support financially and otherwise for students to take the next step past high school. And we talked I already mentioned that the whole idea about you know making students being able to be work ready as they leave high school but knowing that there's other type of uh education and training not only to get more skilled in a particular trade area but also to achieve a level of a associates or bachelors or higher in construction management or all those different things are absolutely critical to the trades as well. And in that we kind of looked at the big picture and many of you
052are familiar when we do our senior awards um night in the spring to where we hand and be able to celebrate students that are receiving scholarships to be able to pursue on their next level of education. And one thing we noted was sorely missing. There's practically zero zero when it came to students that wanted to pursue specific careers in the trades. Careers in the trades again can be a program that they take right after high school to learn a specialized skill. It could be six months, could be a one-year program, it can be an associates, or they can get a full outall bachelor's or beyond. And all those levels cost and take resources. And it breaks my heart to think how bad this country needs people working in those fields. And there's not the level
053support there are in a lot of other areas. So I called upon and look to our our larger community to be able to look forward from this point into the years past to be able to support that dream that Steve had of making that available to everyone. Uh and kind of this honor and with support of two different groups which I'm going to call up a representative right now from each we're going to look to seed money moving forward not only this year but next year the year after in a hundred years from now hopefully for the support of this in our community. So this time can I miss Miss Miss Joey Coun on behalf of Preservation Clarkston and Mr. Bobbyg on behalf of and I want to mess this up. Tamara Van Denberg Ferguson
054Foundation you'd like to both come up to the podium right now. Um in courting and talking to both these groups about looking into the future of being able to support students in the trades. I asked for support as not only now looking at what we have but looking in to again next year the year after how can we really systemically and longitudinally and over time be able to draw in those financial supports and I have commitment from both uh preservation Clarkston over the next number of years as being part of the core belief system not only in building and taking on projects to restore the history of Clarkston but they are putting into their um really the core what they're about being able to support students that are in programs that lead to the trades
055and supporting their further education. and the other uh uh Tamara Vanderberg Ferguson Foundation along the same lines of providing major scholarship support and looking at at least this year and working together with uh Preservation Clarkson, we're able to bring an additional for a seed of $20,000 that we're going to build on year upon year to draw off a scholarship fund. And from the Tamara Vanderbin Bird Ferguson Foundation, we're looking at a commit of 190,000 including three four-year scholarships at 15,000 a year, plus two additional $5,000 trade program certification completion programs. What an incredible start that we can move forward. And this doesn't end here. I'm going to be really looking first gets me back. [applause] I'm hopeful that these organizations help draw in our community as a whole to support students in the trades because
056we can't not move forward. We need to have the individuals that kids that you sought today have those financial resources supports so that we as a as a community and as a country can move forward with support for the trades. So, I I'd invite Joette real quick if she'd like to say a couple words and then also uh Mr. Isgre. >> Thank you. Uh I'm going to speak. These are Sam's words. Uh Preservation Clarkson is a 501c nonprofit in our community which was started by a group of residents in an effort to save local historical buildings including the Bailey House and Sashbar Road. We participated with the Clarkston Community Schools construction technology program in 2019. The mission was to teach students construction skills for entry into construction field at either an apprentice or a level
057or a college level. Besides saving one of the founding family's homes, this Bailey house who came here in 1835 with roots in the Mayflower and the American Revolution was also renovated and expanded. The village the village of Clarkson City Hall in partnership with the construction students was also renovated. Preservation Clarkston was also instrumental in saving the oldest barn in Waterford, which was located on Scott Lake Road at the time and was moved to a park in a holly. The skills learned on these types of projects exceeds what would normally be learned in a new construction or classroom environment. Renovation work accounts for more than 50% of the construction company's um work. Over 600 billion was spent in 2024 on renovation work in the United States. The need for the need for students to learn renovation
058work is imperative to their success and ability to complete uh to compete in the construction field. The partnership between preservation Clarkston and the tech program helps bridge the gap for the stu for the skills needed to excel in the trades by working in the field with licensed contractors. It was important to us to be able to provide aid to students so they could pursue the career in trades. This scholarship program will help with our goal to do that. Uh special thanks to the board of directors uh of Preservation Clarkston, Steve Wyoff, Sam Morocco, Maggie Morocco, Jennifer Denino, Bob Msino, and Bill Coun. Notable sponsors who made this possible were the D- Ribbon and the Ribbenberg family, John and Molly Austin and Karen uh Advanced Carpets. So uh thank you for uh this um introduction. >>
059Thank you. Thank you Mr. >> Thank you uh President Crane. I want to say in Dr. Ryan, you have a gift because uh I just uh was involved with my grandson going to Michigan State was a graduate from Clarkston and I saw what it cost and I realized that the small scholarships that the Ferguson Foundation was giving to Waterford and Pontiac and some other areas, $5,000 was great, but it didn't cut it. and it's a nice gift, but it's not $30,000, which is what a tuition at Michigan State would be. Uh, and kids graduating from colleges or trade programs, uh, owing a house is is very difficult. I went to Dr. Ryan. We he and I talked, we met, and he took the ball and ran with it, and I went to the board with
060his proposal. We were able to get this year $190,000 for scholarships. My hope is that we can do that or better every succeeding year. So, u I'm hoping that the Ferguson Foundation can uh continue with that program. We already bought you a piano uh >> which we orchestra uh grandkids. But anyway, uh we're hoping that we can continue the scholarship uh program uh contribute to it. Uh Dr. Ryan took this program or the idea and ran with it and his office was really great to work with and I'm hoping we can continue it in this ensuing years. We have uh a pretty large fund that we have to give every year and so I'm hoping that we can continue that in the ensuing years. Uh we as I told Dr. Ryan, we gave a million
061and a half to Wayne State for to fund a chair. So, we're looking to do more for Clarkston. I wonder whose kids went to Clarkston. All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Ryan. It was great. >> Thank you. Please pass on a race to a whole foundation. [applause] Thank you. >> Thank you. If you don't come through, please come through to shake our hand. We really want to give you a personal thanks and thank you all for coming tonight. >> Come on. I want >> Yeah, we'll we'll we'll get up front in a minute, Sam. Let's just We want to Well, we would like to shake your hand and then we'll all come up and do that. Is that okay? >> Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah. >> Thank you, I got chills. I have
062kids in college. I know. You're right on. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, I will. Well, exactly. Thank you so much. >> Is this all of us so we can see you guys? >> No, all of us. >> Okay. Thank you. We're going to take a short five 10 minute recess so that we can get a picture and then the people who do not want to stay for the rest of our business meeting do not have to stay although I welcome you to stay. So we're going to take a quick recess. Thank you. Yeah. All of Thank you very much everybody who's come. We appreciate you. Um item 5.4 is our pupil accounting update. I have I had I still have Mr. Lceto. >> Yes. Thank you very much for being here, Mr. Lucido. I know.
063I hope you're feeling well, recovering. >> Yep. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> So, this is an analysis of our um enrollment and where we're at for this year. This first slide here is a breakdown of all of our FTEES. I want to define this what these mean for you in the middle of the page here. So, an FTE is defined as a full-time equivalent. That's that's what we use to define a student who goes here full-time. Every full-time equivalent that we get in Clarkston, we get $10,50 from the state of Michigan. The CCS gain of 2958. When we say CCS gain, we're referring to our brickandmortar buildings. The CCSV loss, that is our virtual program. The RVS loss, that is the same virtual program, but that is are the students that we have
064in restorative agreements and then also students that we took from outside of the school district into our virtual program. the [snorts] sharetime program that is the partnerships that we have with the private schools and we are down 5.31 FTEES in that program this year for the first time in many. So with all of those programs that we're highlighting up there, we're down 40.73 FTEES. If you look at the red dot up there, we are at 8,885.67. That's the total FTEES we have for the district. When you take our brick and mortar, our virtual, and our shared time FTEES, [sighs and snorts] the blue line that you see there, that's currently what's showing up every day in our schools in Clarkston, the 6 um 467.74 FTEEs. Down at the bottom, you you can see our shared
065service FTEES is 2,228.93. And then our virtual program, you can see the decline that we had since COVID when we created it. And right now we only have 111 in Clarkson virtual and 18 in Renaissance virtual. This slide is a comparison to the heads versus the FTE. So when we say head, that's a student showing up in Clarkston or showing up at one of our private schools. And then the FTE is actually what we're able to collect. So I want to point out the the difference in the amount of f the heads that we have for share time. It's 7,694 and the FTEEs were actually collecting is 2,288.93. So we actually have more students enrolled in our student information system and that we're tracking in shared service than we actually do in our brickandmortar buildings.
066So that's what I wanted to highlight on on this slide here. This is the students by grade level. Couple things that stuck out to me here. The shared time, we are very heavy in the secondaries and that is very um that is excellent for us because we're collecting more of an FTE on those heads in the secondary because they're taking more non noncore classes in the secondary than they are in the elementary. Also, our virtual program, if you look young fives through fifth grade, we only have one student in elementary virtual right now. So the teacher that we have she's she has wide range. She's teaching from young five. So she's teaching all the ele the elementary student all the way through 12. And has over the last few years she's done every grade level
067in our in our school district. So it is really phasing out organically in the elementary. [snorts] This is our key subgroup enrollment. Um ESL special ed those are pretty consistent. that huge dip that you see with free and reduced lunch, that is that's when they had to stop filling out paperwork to get free and reduced lunch when we did free lunches for everybody. Um, and then there's been a spike in the last this year, but but not much. It's not something that we're we're studying or looking deeper into. This is the attrition data that we have. Um [snorts] I I I have this for since 2015 up here. Um nothing is really sticking out to us. There was outside of COVID it's been pretty consistent. This is where um we have the data just from
068last year. So these is where kids went just from last year. So we have 27 that enrolled in a non-public. I want you to pay attention to it. I do hear that a lot in the community and within the school district about how many kids we're losing to private schools. We lost 27, but if you look at this sheet and you look at um 25, we took in 48 from non-public. So, we're actually gaining this year and all from our private schools. And this is our K12 pupil enrollment history. This shows basically if their class size from the time that we started increased or decreased. If you go back to 9798 that we used to we were getting tons and tons of kids and then we stayed the last five years it's been kind of
069consistent the last two we're shrinking a little bit and this is by the numbers of where we're at. So shared service headcount 7,664 Renaissance we're at 18 Clarkson virtual 111 the total district FT 6,467 and district headcount total is 6,484. So if you look up there the difference that we have right now our young fives were up and our brick and mortar 29.58 our virtual program um that down to 33 post ties down 10.83 83. Project search, which was part of our adult transition program, is down four. Clarkston Virtual down to 32. Our early childhood FTEEs that we're getting for special eds at 1.5. Total FT loss 51.75. When you factor in shared service with that, we're down 57.06. This is our school of choice programming. This year, we took in 109 kids to school
070of choice. Those are the programs that we have there. And when you look at the top, the fall 24 to fall 25 comparison, that's how many um kids are currently in the program or transitioned um from 24 to 25. But this year we brought in 109 total. So some data on our school of choice kids. That's another thing that we hear a lot is the drain that's out of school district kids are having on our school. So we we studied the attendance. the attendance is is they slightly they have more unexcused absences than our district but it's it's not even by a half a day when you look at this data academically when you look at the um fast bridge for the winter math and reading our school of choice kids scored higher than our
071brick and our Clarkson resident students. And then when you look at the spring of um we our school of choice kids um scored higher in reading but slightly less in math over so that's for the whole of 2425 where we um were how our students performed. This is our capture rate. This is where we take and and study what percentage of the Oakland County bursts we are capturing. And if you look over the last couple years, 5.34, 5.16, 4.93, we have elevated a little. This does have our school of choice numbers on here and we did make a increase at that time. So our capture rate has has gone up based on our our school of choice. So there's a correlation between that going up over five where it's been steady more in that four
0724.2 to 4.5 range. Um but if you look down at the bottom when I when we look at the capture rates for young fives this bas in kindergarten the last um line there at the last box you have young fives um kindergarten gain student gain loss projections if you look at the capture rate next year it'll have us down seven then for 27 it'll have us up seven and then um zero it'll be flat for going into 28. We just had a study done by Plant Moran, which we have done every few years. Plant Maran looks at a few other things like building permits and so forth in the area. And Plant Maran's projected enrollment has us down um 36 next year, then an additional eight, then an additional 13 for young fives and kindergarten
073enrollment. >> To be clear, is that with or without the additional school choice students? That just >> that would be with school choice. >> Yep. And this is the enrollment summary analysis. So like I said, we are down 51.75 FTEEs when comparing that. That put us down at 5706 with shared service. Virtual programs down 33. Renaissance virtual loss 32. And then our brick and mortars are up 29 and we have the shared service going down by 5.31. You remember what I said on the first slide that this is all tied to the funding that we get for the state. We have a $536,97.15 deficit that we weren't expecting. So that's where we're at with enrollment. If we didn't have those school of choice kids, we'd be down 1,575 337.50. So, you know, when we when
074we talk about our staffing and finances, we always equivalate $100,000 to roughly what it cost us to have a teachers. That would be taking over over a teacher FTE from each one of our buildings if if we didn't have this. So, um it does look like it's it's going to plateau our projections, but um we have had these projections that showed us going flat or losing slightly and we we've dipped significantly more. So, recommendations continuously monitoring the trends, evaluate the general and special ed programming for open enrollment, evaluate current program offerings, and evaluate sustainability given a projection continuation in the enrollment decline. When we lose students like this, it is hard to offer all the foreign languages, the CSM texts, the IBS, the construction text. There's not enough kids to fill these classes. So, that's
075that's very important that we have enough enrollment to keep this going. About 7,000 is where we would like to be. This is my 13th year with the district. When I started here, we were well over 8,000. 1,300 kids at the junior high and at the middle school, 1,800 at the high school. We're down to 1,500 and under 1,000 at the other two. and we haven't cut any programming. So, it is very very challenging for us to sustain this model going forward without making some difficult decisions on either programming, more open enrollment or other other ways to increase funding because the money we're getting from the state is not enough to operate with the current offering and class sizes that we have. [clears throat] And I'll take any questions you have. >> Do we have any
076questions? Mrs. McInness >> with this families that choose um at home schooling [snorts] at home. >> Mhm. Is there any possibility or have we looked at considering making a magnet school at any one of our buildings to provide them an environment that might be conducive to what they're looking for in their home environment segregated from the school district full environment. >> We do have some homeschool kids coming here to take co-curriculars. That is something that you're the home school kids are allowed to do. We have not done any target marketing necessarily to homeschool kids in the community. Um, but that that that is that is an opportunity. >> I I'm just thinking about, you know, that what might be their first and second reason >> for why they choose and if any of those reasons
077are something that could be accommodated through a magnet school building where if we have available seats of which we're already trying to fill with school of choice to begin with. Mhm. >> Um could we consider making a magnet building or magnet wing on a building where we could house um current families who choose to school their students at home? >> Thank you, Mrs. McInness. Thank you. Does anyone else have it? Mr. Need. >> Yeah, Mr. Ludo, thanks again. You do this every year. You do a great job presenting this information. And you mentioned on the K12 history and I think you mentioned it in your comments the last they're relatively flat for several years and the last couple years we're down like 50 kids. Do you have any reason can you come up with any
078reason for that? >> I I haven't and when you look at the attrition where the students are going I I don't see some trend of concern. >> Okay. >> Thank you Mrs. Love. >> So I had two questions. Um, is this just a like Greg me said, you just do this every year or are you kind of getting at something that we might need to do because it says I don't remember it saying evaluate current program offerings in the past. Are you trying to lay groundwork to potentially cutting some programs or >> Well, I think I it's not part of this presentation, but we're looking at a pretty sign we have we have a healthy um fund balance right now, but we're we're spending it down. So, we don't have a crisis by any means.
079Clarkson Community Schools is doing excellent, but um we we do need to we're going to need to make some tough decisions over the next 12 to 36 months. Um because that's that's probably about the timeline where our fund equity is going to we'll be borrowing. >> Okay. And so by tough decisions, you haven't really come up with them yet, but it could be cutting >> um >> certain programs. It could be increasing class sizes. It could be >> Yes. raising class sizes, cutting programs, um cutting services to students. Most of our most of our budget is is staffing. So, yes, that would that's that's most likely where it would come come from. We're trying to do some creative things right now. Um you know, since Kirsten's been on board, I think we found a half
080about a half a million dollars worth of efficiencies that we've already implemented um going into next year and a couple hundred for for this year. just some different things with our our food balance being where it is and so forth, you know. But yes, we we probably can't run all the programs that we have, keep the class sizes exactly the same without getting into a budgeting uh a borrowing issue within about 36 months. >> Okay. Okay. And would you be willing to add a recommendation that we invest in programs that attract students into our district such as >> gifted programs, things we've talked about in the past? >> Yep. Yes. I think a marketing program for for those programs would be good. I think something else to look at too would be doing some general
081open enrollment for the middle school and the junior high and the high school would would be some of my recommendations. very limited to offset where we're at. Um because I think we I think those students would would come. We we've had specialty program open enrollment programs for years now. And if you look, we have 109 kids and 72 of those came from the general open enrollment. [snorts] >> But if we we don't have a problem by we could still add more school of choice kids for younger grades. we wouldn't have to add open enrollment for middle school. I don't think we're there yet, right? >> Um I you're you're you're stealing my thunder from the next couple board meetings, but we're looking at a $5 million deficit roughly. That's how much money we're taking out
082of the bank annually going into next year. So, if we we only had even if we took every kid that wanted to come here for our our [snorts] younger open enrollment, it was only 115. Now, even though they all applied, we're probably going to have realistically, if you guys said, John, take every and Sean, Dr. Ryan, take every student that wanted to come here, young fives through fifth grade, I bet you we would have ended up with 95 100 if we were lucky. That's $250,000. We have a $5 million structural deficit that we're going to need to correct over time. So, um I that's why I'm thinking and that's it might be better to look at some other programs, do some targeted marketing um like Mrs. McInness and s I think you were suggesting with
083the specialty programs, but that won't that probably won't won't be enough in my estimation if you're asking for my professional opinion. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mr. Could you go back to the cohort graph, >> please? cohort. [snorts] >> The the one with the colors on it, >> one that goes down, >> that one. Um, does kindergarten here include young fives? >> Yes. >> So, is that that's why the kindergarten class size is way bigger than first grade because some of those kids stay >> Yes. >> for kindergarten. >> Thanks for clarifying that. >> Thank you. Do we have any other questions or comments, Mr. Clark? So, in the few years that have that have been here, like let's say the last five or so years, I've noticed that there's quite a few new subdivisions
084in Clarkston. >> Um, [clears throat] are are we getting any students that are moving in into those subdivisions? Because it seems like Clarkston's growing with, again, there's I can think of several new subdivisions. It just seems like Clarkson's growing. Are we not pulling students from there or are we is Clarkson attracting I guess an older crowd that they don't have kids or >> I [clears throat] I'm speculating. I don't have hard data. What I'm I think what we're seeing a lot in Clarkson is people don't leave. It's not a community that people leave and newer younger families are moving in. I do think that those communities are attracting young families and that's keeping us, you know, that's keeping us where we're at. But I I don't have hard data to tell you that. That's just
085my perception. But we're not having like that new subdivision that's being built on like Walden and uh the Sasha there. There hasn't been like an an huge influx of students from that um that that we've seen or been like, "Oh, this is fantastic. Let's add another section out of all these schools." So, that's kind of where, you know, we're not seeing it yet. So, it would be it was it was tough to see the decline. We did not expect that this year. Thank you. Is there anything else? >> No. Thank you very much, Mr. Lucid. I appreciate it. Uh, that wraps up our presentations. We will move on to item six, which is our action items. Item 6.1 is approval of personnel changes. May I have a motion, please? >> I move that the board
086of education approves the personnel changes as listed on the attached sheets. >> Support. Uh, are there any questions or discussions about the personnel changes? All right, seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 6.2 is approval of the construction change order. May I have a motion, please? >> I move the board of education approves the construction change order for Metro Electric in the amount of $52,814. >> Support items made or motion is made and supported. Are there any questions or discussions about the construction change order? All right, seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Item 6.3 is approval of the Clarkson High School bid pack. May I have a motion, please? I move that the board of education
087approve the contracts noted in the attached schedule for the amount of 6,937,878 and include a 7.5 construction contingency of $520,341 for a total of $7,4582. Let me try that again. 7,4582 Last time. I'm going to get it. >> All right. I believe in you. >> 7,458,219 as presented. Thank you. >> Support. >> Motion made and supported. Are there any questions or discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item 6.4 4 is approval of the OCSBA resolutions regarding House Bill 4558 and early on Michigan. May I have a motion, please? >> I move that the board of education votes to approve the recommended OCSBA resolutions as presented >> support. All right. Are there any questions or discussions about this? Mrs. Love. >> Yes. I would like
088to oppose this resolution on two fronts. First of all, I don't think that this is the role of the Oakland County School Boards Association to take positions on or to respond, as it says, to House bills. That's why we have a legislature that's elected. Um, I also just disagree with it on its front. Uh, I don't believe there's any data that it would decrease the number of willing candidates. It certainly wouldn't decrease campaign or it wouldn't increase campaign costs in my opinion. Um, I had to spend a lot of money to let my views known and that they did in fact reflect the community. Um, and I believe that we should knowingly support candidates that align with our values. And I feel like not Clarkston, but Oakland schools or the left in general is oftentimes
089trying to guise things that are in fact leftist or uh democratic policies and they're trying to uh hide it basically as nonpartisan. Uh that's my opinion. I know everybody doesn't share that, but I don't think that we should go down this path either. that we are opposing or uh supporting certain house bills. I don't think that's the role. I think there's [clears throat] a separation of these responsibilities and this crosses that line. Uh Mrs. Le, could I just ask because as the person who's on the OCSBA board, we recently talked about kind of more like we do at delegate assembly and taking each resolution separately rather than having us vote on because you said are you only opposing the the first one that was in this and not the second one? Yes. >> Okay. So,
090it would have probably worked better for you had we done these separately. >> Uh yeah. >> Okay. I just I will take that back to the board of directors because that has come up very recently. >> Okay. >> So, I appreciate that. Thank you. Is there any further discussion or questions? >> It's great. Is it possible to separate? >> Do we have to have one resolution this board for both or can we sever these two? as the committee of that chair. Someone else just asked me that and I allowed them to separate it. So, I would say that we could separate it as well. >> And as a point of order, we're not actually approving the resolution. We're we're approving to OCSBA that we support the resolution. >> Right. >> Yes. in response to this
091House bill and then it's giving history of the House bill that it's coming up again for a second reading which leads me to believe that it's a political position which in fact kind of goes against what this resolution is even about. >> So go ahead. >> I I I agree Mrs. love that OCSBA should not be taking these positions like this is an organization that should focus on professional development for schoolboard members >> and they are not an a activist arm of advocacy. Um we can choose to do our own advocacy and if they give us the information and we choose to take the position on this we certainly could. >> Yeah. Um, but I I don't think OCSBA should be duplicating what our other organizations are that promote this, like the ISD, like MASB
092>> that have a delegate assembly where we can offer our opinions and >> fully engage on this. But our our membership in OCSBA is it like we don't affirmatively belong or not belong. It just exists to help us. We don't pay to belong >> because of that. Like I I don't know that they could say they represent us. >> Yeah. So that is something that has come up especially more recently and especially since I've joined the board of directors. So I appreciate this conversation. I will take it back. Um I'd love to have more conversation and with the board of directors. I will bring it back to the table. Um so I appreciate it. Mr. Ne, did you have something else? I'm sorry. No. Okay. Does anybody else have anything further? Mrs. Madam President, >>
093if it is of the desire, then let's split it. And I would offer a friendly amendment to split the two >> uh resolutions because I do think that they represent two different complete set of questions and values. >> Um I also agree with some of the comments M Mrs. Love made and also agree with some of the stuff that Mr. Hire made. I do think it is our responsibility to provide the facts to our community about legislation that is before our representat our legislative or elected representatives so that they may also um field their concern to those elected representatives. Um I do think the resolution number one is something that the district could provide factual information to our community about. um so that our community can be aware of what the representation of a potential
094elected board in the future could represent. Um um but I'd be more than happy to provide us friendly amendment to uh split these two resolutions so that we may vote on them independently. >> Thank you. >> How do we do that, Mr. Hire? >> I'd be happy to walk us through that. Thank you. Before I do, I just uh will state as a board of order like the the ballot that we have to return says the board approves all proposed new resolutions as presented. >> And I I don't know that that's the right language. >> It is probably not. And I will say that the last the other district that asked me if they could do that, I asked them to hand cross out and write ballot or resolution one and resolution two. >> But
095it it like we're not we're not adopting these resolutions as a board. >> No. >> Like we're approving >> supporting the OCSBA position. >> Yes. >> Right. Like these would be OCSBA adopted resolutions that we would support. >> Correct. >> So like I I guess I would be uncomfortable with a >> Okay. splitting >> in that states where we can split them, but like the motion shouldn't be that we're approving the resolution because like I I I wouldn't be we haven't discussed these to approve them as a board. Like it's not something we would do. >> Okay. >> So, I think um I think the language is wrong on the ballot. So, I'm not sure how we like we can split these into two with a with a amendment and another motion, no problem. But
096like what language do we use for that? Can we say we support the OCSBA position as outlined in the resolution? >> I think that would be the best way to do it. >> Okay. So, somebody can make a motion to separate somebody can make an amendment to the motion currently on the floor to separate resolution number one and change the language to support the resolution as proposed by OCSBA. I move that the board of education separates proposed resolution number one from action item 6.4 to read that the board supports the resolution. Right. >> Do we have support for the separation? support. >> Thank you. Um All right. So, um do I need I need to carry that? Right. >> So, that >> we vote on that. >> Then we vote on the the amendment which
097is now on the floor and then we vote on the original. >> Sorry, I am we are still learning Robert's rules. I'm trying. >> Uh okay. All those in favor of the amendment that's on the floor to separate uh please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Right. That motion carries. All right. The resolutions are now separated. So now >> now the motion on the floor is to just approve the first one. >> Okay. >> Madame President, could we denote that is 6.4.1? >> Yes. >> Thank [snorts] you. >> Yes. So may I have a motion for item 6.4.1 which >> I think the motion is on the the original motion is on the floor but it's only for >> only for the first resolution. Okay. We have that motion. >> We're discussing that. Thank
098you. And then when you're ready to call for the vote, we're voting on just one. >> Just one. Do we have any further discussion on 6.4.1 the first resolution? All right. Uh I know we said we needed a roll call, Mrs. Mlan, but I don't believe we do. >> I don't think so because we're just supporting. >> Correct. All right. All those in favor of supporting the OCSBA position on resolution number one, please say I. >> I. Any opposed? >> No >> opposed. >> All right. I believe that is 5 to2. Motion carries. And now I to 6.4.2 for the second one. >> We'd have to we amend the motion to support. >> Got it. >> I And like this is where I think the ballot is slightly misaligned because you have continuing resolutions in
099here too also. >> Yes. So, is is this asking us to to [cough] support [clears throat] the continuing resolutions as well? >> And I'm looking at the ballot. >> I'm looking at the ballot. The ballot >> because the ballot just says new. >> It says new and >> and or amended. >> Yeah. I do not believe that includes the continuing. I think we put the continuing in just as a point of order. Mhm. >> Okay. So, the motion would be appropriate to support the uh second new resolution. >> May I have a motion, please? >> I move to approve resolution number two >> from OCS, excuse me. I move to support resolution number two provided by OCSBA. Do I have support? >> Support. >> Is there any further discussion or questions about the second resolution?
100>> I I just stand by my objection that I don't think OCSBA should be taking the positions. >> Noted. Thank you. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> No. >> Motion carries. Item 6.5 is approval of the annual summer tax resolution. May I have a motion, please? >> I move that the board of education adopts the resolution to continue the process of 100% of summer tax collection until revoked by the school district. >> Support. Are there any questions or discussions about item 6.5? [snorts] All right. Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oh, thank you. Sorry. I apologize. May I have May I have a roll call vote, please? >> Mr. Ne, >> yes. >> Mr. Hire, >> yes. [snorts] >> Mrs. Love,
101>> yes. >> Mrs. McInness, >> yes. >> Mr. Clark, >> yes. >> Mrs. Egan, >> yes. >> Mrs. Crane, >> yes. Thank you. Motion carries. Item 6.6 is approval of ITV studio equipment purchase. May I have a motion, please? I move the board of education approves the purchase of TV studio equipment from Key Code Media for a total of $47,118 as presented. >> Support. >> Are there any questions or discussions about this? >> Seeing none, all those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Item seven is report items, of which there are none. Item eight is discussion items, of which there are none. Item nine is the second opportunity for citizens to address the board. Citizens are welcome to address the board on any topic at this point on the
102agenda. Miss Nag, would you please go check the list for me? While the signup sheet is being retrieved, I would like to remind everyone that speakers will be limited to those who follow the correct procedure. So, please fill out the signup sheet as directed. I would also like to remind everyone that calling out individuals in this forum is inappropriate and personal attacks will not be tolerated. Anyone who engages in criticism of and or a personal attack of an individual, whether by name or any other means of identification, will be prevented from doing so. Please keep your remarks and your attention directed to the full board, and you will have two minutes. [snorts] Thank you, Miss Nag. I appreciate it. All right, we have two citizens who would like to address the board. I think uh
103I'm sorry, please correct me. Miss Norma Haiduck, is that correct? Thank you very much. Miss Haiduck, could if you could please state your name and address and then I will start your two minutes. >> Sure. My name is Norma Haiduck. Uh 4434 Coastal Parkway, White Lake, Michigan. >> Thank you very much. Here you go. >> Good evening. Um, I'm here to discuss the proposed 1.5 mill increase disclosed by the board member at the Rochester High School. I want to thank the board for answering my letter that I sent about a month ago and you explain the ballot process to me and I appreciate that. However, I'm here to discuss housing affordability, the crisis um that we are having in our country and in our county. I believe that housing affordability is a local, state, and
104federal responsibility. And property taxes are composed of that. Um, I always tell stories. It's part of my theme. It's part of my nature. And if I don't have my whole two minutes, I'll come back again because I think my stories mean a lot. But my dad had this philosophy. He had a 25% philosophy when I was growing up. The gas tank was at 25%. You got to go get gas. even though I didn't have money to ever fill it up. He also had 25 philosophy about finances. 25% of your income should go to your mortgages, your taxes, and association fees, things like that. 25% to food, electricity, gas. Maybe some of you guys live this way philosophy. 25% to car payment insurance and 25% for emergency fees and potential retirement someday. Your speaker, they've had
105previously is right. Right now, students are graduating with college expenses equal to a mortgage. And I do not know how that fits in my dad's equation. Um, what you're proposing or what they're proposing with the county and they're talking about is equivalent to a 4.5% increase in property taxes. Um, and that I sent you a spreadsheet today. And if a person was making $52,000 a year, it is equivalent property taxes now in Clarkston about 8% of their take-home pay. Just to let you know, 30 years I moved to Clarkston. 30 years ago, started out in Andersonville. I have four family members that are my best best friends and have been with us since Andersonville. Um, out of the four families, we all have children that continue to live with us. Each one of them has
106graduated from college. Each one of them is not living there by choice but by necessity. >> Thank you, Miss Hayduck. Your two minutes is up. I appreciate it. Thank you. >> Let me say your last name. Joets. That's what I thought. Uh Miss Joet Counz, thank you very much for coming back up to the podium. Please state your name and address and then I will start your two minutes. >> Um Joet Coons 94 Reese Road. >> Thank you. >> Um I would I'd like each of you uh on the board to mark your calendars for January 5th at Clarkston uh Independence Township Library. We uh as you know we're in America 250. This is our 250th year uh going forward to July 4th. Uh we are uh blessed uh by the D to have the
107Battlefield Trust American Revolution Museum. It's a national museum. coming to us for one week at the library and we're going to have a little kickoff and so 4:30 January 5th at the library. So please put on your calendar you will get an invitation. Um and I have just a uh a short thing. Um, I'm part of uh REITs Across America, which usually you will see at Great Lakes National Cemetery, but we have 1139 veterans at Lake View. And um, I had a broken arm and I didn't get the the graves marked in November, but I called the National Honor Society today with a few adults and a few of your great kids. We just put those like uh Miss Dig flags out there because it's hard to uh put Reese out in a community cemetery.
108There's 9600 graves there, but 1152 of them are veterans. So, I thank you and thank you the honor society. >> Thank you very much, Mrs. Couns. Item 10 is information items. Our next board of education meeting is a week from tonight at 6:30. We have our close session superintendent evaluation and our next regular board of meeting comes in the year 2026. I can't believe it. On Monday, January 12th at 700 p.m. Item 11 is adjournment. May I have a motion, please? >> I move to adjourn. >> Report. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you everybody.