Clarkston Community Schools' Board Interviews

001It's Five O'Clock we will call the meeting to order and begin with the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance 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 right Mrs McLean may I have a roll call please McGinnis here Mrs crane here Mrs love here Mr heyer here Mrs Egan here Mrs Horst here 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 a 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 removed the

002approval of the consent agenda as submitted all in favor say aye aye any opposed the motion carries item three is Citizen's request to address the board you were given two opportunities to address the board under item 3.1 you can request to address the board on any topic that's on tonight's agenda and under item nine you're welcome to address the board on any topic when making comments please state your name and address and direct your comments to Kelly horstboard 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 speakers are limited to those who follow the correct procedure so please fill out the sign up sheet as directed it's the blue sheet located over here on the side

003table uh and so if anyone wishes to address the board on our agenda item tonight we really only have one item this evening now is the time to sign up to do so once that sheet is picked up you will have to wait until item nine to address the board Mrs herzin still since you're sitting closest could I ask you just to take a quick look at that sheet and see if there's any name I need to review please we're good to go okay thank you so much so uh good evening Dr Ryan um we have no superintendent update no regular agenda tonight we will move on then to item four which is our board candidate interviews so as you know we are filling a vacancy that was left when a trustee resigned um each

004candidate who submitted a letter of interest was provided with the candidate information form that gave us a consistent set of facts about that individual plus a rubric that we discussed at our last meeting that described four categories by which we agreed by consensus to evaluate the candidates this evening each candidate was asked to present themselves to us as they see fit based on their strengths skills and experiences found in those categories members of the board will then be able to ask follow-up questions in the time allotted and trustees I ask that you signal me either verbally or with a quick hand raise if you would like to ask a question uh we are maintaining a consistent time window for each interview as agreed upon and the interview order was drawn randomly by an administrative assistant

005here at the district office on Monday evening after the application deadline passed following the interviews we will take a brief recess so trustees May compile their notes and we will continue on with our discussion is there any questions from the board and so I see some folks are arriving who look like candidates we do have a room set up back here if you want to wait back there and then we have a staff member who will come and get you when we are ready for your interview there we go I was going to say and there she is right back there so yeah if you like yes oh is everyone a candidate I thought we were having a big audience tonight yeah oh well you're welcome to if you want but if well our preference

006is that they wait back there and then we could bring you out one by one I think everyone would be more thank you Nancy after the interview you're welcome to stay in the room there goes our audience that's okay that's okay I thought we were doing better great okay Mr Jensen thank you welcome yep we were going to ask everyone to have a seat at the table so good evening Mr Jensen welcome we will kick this off with you and so as as I've shared with you we have about seven minutes for you to share what you'd like to with us in terms of the categories that we've provided and and when you are are finished speaking we may have some follow-up questions from trustees so when you're ready over 20 years ago my primary

007motivation at that time was because I knew this is where I wanted to reason okay 2004 my son was born and after short time you've heard over the years that observed with their staff is done and has done the students have done for him and I have to say unemployment prices this is by our first class school system that you have here it's something all of us as a community can be quite parallel the efforts of of the staff will not lost on me and there are even more articles supporter than that possible at the time that I've been allocated back into 1990 the field it's now my turn to give back to the community and to become a part of Studio one biggest challenges that I see the public school space our finances security

008cyber security hiring quality teachers and staff employee retention and special interest groups trying to influence the course of Education on Clarkston bases many of these challenges do a degree I see that our biggest challenge that we face um to maintain the high standards of our solar system audience Administration teachers and support staff as a former educator I know that education is a lifelong process that includes learning through them the position of being the trustee and part of the Community School Board I'm a mature professional and over the years have achieve the flexible work schedule for my employer I'm available most of our days from 3 P.M onward I'm very few commitments on weekends so that makes me available for meetings outside the normal course of new businesses as School Board member there's special needs a

009training that I need to attend I also have the benefit of buying piece of paper time off over the years certainly that and that can use at any time of my discussion definitely be interested in continuing and learning for a full term in 2024. I believe that my current role is safety officer for the white employer demonstrates my ability to respect multiple viewpoints I'm often ask for opinions on a variety of applicable safety regulations it forces me to weigh all sides of the issue and work towards a general agreement that will satisfy everyone and work towards his consensus to the base current regulations I have no issues supporting the decisions of the majority units against my own personal and political viewpoints during the course of the discussion however if I can offer a constructive PowerPoint

010I'm willing to do so my previous position working is a technical roadside assistance advisor for the Chevrolet motor Division I had engaged customers who are often offset angry and wanting you to do things that were not possible given considerations of their vehicles working I think probably everyone wants to move the problem relate to being stranded on the side of the world with one time or another and we'd be angry at a party ownership got about three minutes left and with that I want to say that I've been reversed in education since which land's foreign thank you very much thank you very much trustees I'll give you a second to look at your notes and um who may have a follow-up question Madam president uh Mr Jensen thank you so much for coming to see us

011tonight and applying for this position my one question would be um do you have interest in running for the full term in 2024 for the same position thank you Mr Jensen I wonder if you could talk for a minute about your experience with special education and what ideas you might bring to the table in terms of how we could continue to serve those students or even improve that um already okay thank you anyone else trustees fantastic great thank you very much appreciate your time and appreciate your interest just give us one minute and we can make some notes thank you good evening hello Miss Frankie rinky rinky great all right just have a seat and whenever you're ready I'm gonna start my timer here and and uh we have seven minutes and so whenever you're

012done talking I'll give you kind of a warning if you're still talking at four minutes I'll I'll give you a warning because there may be some follow-up questions from members of the board great go ahead we can um so you asked candidates to discuss challenges facing the school district considering not only my own experience and perspective very stable and then it came up with the following the student CPU is the number one concern higher interchanging qualified staff there continues to be controversy surrounding the curriculum concept there's a lot of misunderstanding of what certain acronyms actually mean and how certain initiatives inform teaching practices on a day-to-day basis the continued support of Social and emotional accomplish students and staff alike is a huge priority and we should be continued effort on behalf of the district research

013has shown that SEL supports development of empathy effective communication and problem solving it should be a priority within the district I'm here personally for several reasons number one I truly believe in Clarkson schools in 2011 when our world is consistency movement now Incorporated the definition of energy of the entire NSA staff has company walks away they've always been supportive of our children and every other child attending as a former member of PTO at e and I've also built relationships and how they work for these challenges and what their goals are for the future I want to be a part of ensuring that all students and staff within the district are supported and continue to thrive I am optimistic about the future of the district and I want the opportunity to be a part of tangible

014and positive change uh next reason the important higher education for 13 years the core experience at local University in Japan recently about University of Pittsburgh nursing a happy new unique experience of seeing students and after they finish their K-12 careers I teach freshman writing courses and I run the Writing Center at University of Detroit University many students are woefully underprepared for the rigors of academic writing and just I would like the opportunity to support curricular efforts these gaps are closed for all students whether they decide to go to college pursue a entry level of employment or skill tree I believe that we have the responsibility to ensure our students are prepared to affect positive changing any of our schools they should be capable of empathizing with others accepting of differences and having the ability to

015understand and critique news and information I want the opportunity to a global economy secondly you asked candidates to discuss their ability and commitment to participate fully in boardmanship I'll start by saying that if I could be a permanent student I would if there was a job where you could just do research instead of it I could have that job I love learning new skills and research is what I'm excited to learn and consistently in search of professional opportunity I did consider running for the board in 2020 22 election however I just started my full-time career and was not sure I would make a commitment however now that I have the handle on my new position and the flexibility of us I'm ready to work hard for the district and I am interested in running for

016a full term that's that's about four minutes there so let me just pause and see if anyone has questions and then we can come back to you McGinnis of all stakeholders in the district I do not believe that political views should be a part for a decision-making and thus my best to remain I understand this important towards consensus looking toward the future academic achievement and further supporting social emotional health and continuing to teach critical thinking and media literacy support teachers and staff so that they have the tools and to be adaptive in their teaching you should continue to support measures of educational and equity for all students and work toward Creative Solutions to ongoing problems thank you so much um Mr Rinke thank you so much for coming forward as an educator yourself I feel

017I can ask this question of you that I might not ask of other candidates I'd like to understand your take as an educator on the third grade reading Law okay what types of curricular supports do you feel a district should put in place to Aid students who may be impacted by this law what type of actions can the board ask of the administration to put in place to prevent such students from being held back as the law technically requires it's been a long time since I've worked with kids being for literacy development things to be able to Creative Solutions and allowing the teachers to have opportunities to development opportunities to allow them to be great and they're approaches thank you Mrs love dedication to Dei initiatives research and educational faculty I was just curious what

018kind of initiatives you want to see more of or employ ER absolutely so that's one of the acronyms I mentioned in my local speeches actually look like um go ahead and finish your thought s was to feature diverse voices in the academic um a lot of times in college students all right thank you everyone sorry I mean I'm not heartless yeah we're going to finish an answer I'm gonna let him finish his answer okay all right thank you so much appreciate it all right everyone take a minute jot down any notes foreign go see where okay thanks good evening hello hello is Cunningham oh no they want to hear you okay so uh what seems to be working with our flow here is is you know we asked you just to talk to us and

019when if you go to four minutes I'll kind of give you a warning because typically we've had a couple of follow-up questions so that gives the board time for a couple of questions so forgive me if I interrupt but that's kind of what's been working okay go ahead I have three children I I that was why I have a vacancy a lot of experience towards PTA PTO Rewards of that earlier this year allowed me to want to do this I thought it was maybe a conflict inside not to mention all my other artists who want your opportunities and as I looked after the shoot that I did I was remembering all the time so I just I uh my life second one right trustees who would like to ask some follow-up questions oh no no

020everyone's everyone's we have 500 pieces of paper back here everyone is checking notes I promise you Mrs Green thank you uh in years two years to really learn the world do you then see yourself wanting to run and do the full campaign for the 2024 election thank you okay let's get us thank you Miss Cunningham for coming tonight my question would be with your extensive internal knowledge of the district being a parent in almost every building and our community extensively with the task force I'm curious what you see is the biggest challenge facing our education system here in Clarkston oh so I kind of feel like the right the lack of mind so I think that's far from here now you know and then of course you know the numbers that's always been um being

021hot topic is um so I really think that we need to kind of look at the child as a whole body to figure out what each time in their learning capability to talk about overcome what Mrs Egan yes yes um I'd like to ask you if you could describe for us what you think the role of a trustee is so basically partnership the importance of the community and basically we're here to govern to care to the oil can I just oversee and have the best interests of thank you I get to ask one too every once in a while so um could you talk about um talk about a situation where you found yourself in the middle of maybe some opposing sides two different viewpoints and whether you were the final decision maker or you

022had to be a part of a decision just talk about how maybe you navigated that especially when one side was going to be disappointed or maybe angry knowing that you've been involved in some board service before in some of your organizations um there's been many many different times today one person that money for those words that's why a lot of the schools here developed that Ways and Means type of operation so one of the things that you know Drive everybody in it is so I kind of take an approach sorting out the story what what is the act and then hopefully guiding people to figure out what is the best because really you know when you guys are tied for fighting no one's going to be happy there's always and so I think that you

023know kind of working out to be the Ocean or that is no one's no one's going to be um so we really need to look at what is investigation and bring it back to the kids but the one of the fun facts thinking of is we've had an issue with a science teacher asking for Billy was like a magazine um and someone that you're in the general membership not so much on board the general membership had an issue this was basically one of the one type of situation so we actually asked the teacher wanted to have them in the classroom but we can use it in year after so that was one of the we got more clear on is work email account with hours but also all right thank you very much the magic

024buzzer went off so I appreciate your time thank you all right trustees take a minute and compile any notes foreign I think so yep Ready good evening okay whenever you're ready you can just talk to us I'm going to give you kind of a wave if if after four minutes you're still going I'm just gonna let you know that we may want to save a few minutes here for some follow-up questions from trustees but um you you know what we want to hear about so I'm just going to go ahead and let you introduce yourself and and start talking thank you thank you thank you and telling you this to let you know that I'm that applying for this position because I'm super summary against the district um I apply because I want help and

025I think I can help and I want to do it in a way that will drop this back to my kids and my community members okay um that's nice to say that I don't have appetitas or flags that I would like to pick up around with I really acknowledge that I do not have a board of education experience I do not have a background in education however I hope that you as a board can see that as a positive all effective reports are diverse and I hope to bring a juvenile justice Crossover with the Carson School District Board of Education I would love the opportunity that you just I would love the task of research research words I actually just got back from Dallas where I was introduced to the handle of care initiative that

026is helpful with local law enforcement in extreme parents are compared to drop off their kids in school they're looking at private schools nearly out of fear of sending their kids to they just don't real estate and I want to be a part of the solution that helps believing that fear in any sort of increment environment my background my experience my training my connections to help you succeed and unfortunately our unfortunately schools um this might sound naive but I would think in public service without politics with that being mean to combat this is a elected Thursday required I have volunteered over the last 15 years I do appreciate the time and financial commitment you the support system I'm very exceptionally grateful for the support and guidance that I have of how many common elected and I

027do have a very energetic community that has already pledged their allegiance and support in the future campaign at the end of the day I would have dedicated a commitment to safety reasonable allegations of funds and just operating ccs I have the energy I have this I do believe that between that and I you need qualifications in this position that so thank you very much in this position or not great thank you so much um okay and please I'm sorry I didn't say your name when you walked in Jacqueline cyber's I I couldn't remember it was an i or an e so thank you so much cybers yes okay Mrs crane please go ahead thank you so one of the questions I have comes from both your letter and from what you just you just um

028one of the things that I learned when I joined the board is sometimes you have to put aside your feelings about your own personal family and making the choices that affect your children and look at the rest of the district and all of the children in the district and do you think that that would be a problem or would you be able to do that unbiased by accidentally yes um I don't think that you have to do it in that nice way I think that you can still have that bias and um to be honest I like doing so I don't know just love for our partnership with the Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard or do you think that we could use you said safety is very important what are your ideas to increase um

029yes yes as well and I actually work with sros multiple um I was at the office um again one of the things I love to see is always rules um it's trauma informed I've read research on it I've listed material based presentation um I think there's a lot I would love to see these little Outreach unit have um is not quite and then just out of my personal and who has pledged support to your campaign just a couple so I would love to name them they're all Ohioans we don't ask blue and green questions up here so we got to keep that one there's a lot of okay any other questions Mrs McGinnis quickly I have uh hopefully two quick questions um an idea give us an idea from your court perspective on issues facing

030school districts and mental health how can we do better I will let her answer that one and we'll have to move on I'm sorry but I don't know what they want to help kids most of the behavior that you see him is I would love to see a recognition of the child not labeled but a child that is exhibiting from the responses and that response in the school be drama informed versus inform you ask our own that's just one right yeah thank you very much appreciate it absolutely all right yep we're good thank you thank you so much for your time all right take one minute all right good evening hello Mr camera welcome hi good evening we've got uh seven minutes here so we are going to let you just speak to us and

031and when it gets down to about three minutes left I'll I'll give you a little signal just because we've we've tended to have a couple of questions follow-up questions from the board and we'll go until till the bell rings so to speak so okay so please introduce yourself and tell us what you'd like us to know history my daughter is a second grader at Springfield he attends preschool uh Funtime preschoolers so um I am an active most of my activities as far as school district or related to Logistics so I understand the first hand and a lot of the stresses of having two little kids in school my son had been a little background just to experience my son had been in special education services he was 18 months old so at the Early Childhood

032Center he also received services and programs like adults program now he's in sunshine I myself am a graduate from Facebook sometimes to earn a bachelor's degree from the University of Detroit University history and that I earned a master's public administration in 2013 from Wayne State University and I just recently completed the second last episode of Sciences experience I've worked and Famous I served as the assistant City administrator um city world executive performing and shopping district as well so um so I have a significant experience with local government municipal government dealing with boards trying to achieve consensus most of is on the administration side and uh one of the Cornerstone cornerstones of all the administrations learning about the public administration from my experience it tends to vary as an organization's organizations there are typically some lines

033that are typically drawn where the policy major expression it's left that's beneficial to the leader and supporting information some of the things I went to was list the evaluation criteria over a couple of things that jumped out what I would consider primary challenge questions I thought these challenges primarily are anything that could be barriers so I think that that influenced things like that um secondly I think as a former student of Clarkston School District myself coming up from a lower income background I'm very familiar with with a lot of the challenges that a lot of students face you know where they're maybe going out with their parents to to work on a job and don't have time to complete their homework that's been assigned to them and so their grades suffer I think additional barriers

034may include things like mental health as well feelings of feelings of safety I think the CDC just did a study and reported that upward record levels of depression exist among teen girls and I know that mental health States definitely are a barrier to learning so what kinds of solutions can school districts generate what kinds of services can be offered to students so that the school board can be an institution that helps supports uplifts builds students regardless of the challenges that they're facing their backgrounds whether it be low income whether they're facing you know mental health crises you know what kinds of tools and what kinds of supports can be made available to these individuals so that they when they you know eventually graduate and go into adulthood they're not adrift you know that they feel

035like they've they've been given an infrastructure let me pause and see if anyone at this point we have a couple of minutes left does anyone want to ask questions or continue to hear from the candidate does anyone have questions right now I'd like to continue to hear okay good questions oh okay go ahead if someone just speak up if anyone wants to ask a question we've got about 245 left certainly a couple other things that I I saw on here were working towards consensus this was something that I routinely did as an administrator working for uh the Royal Oak DDA trying to get consensus on issues you do have to stay engaged with board members and you do have to find ways to meet in the middle um you know I'm not quite sure what

036the temperaments of everybody on this board are but I certainly don't have the intention to to come onto the board as some kind of polemic uh you know with some pet project that you know masks or CRT or do some kind of theater or whatnot I I I'm coming from the perspective of uh you know sensible public policy you know and what I've learned working in municipal government and I think that that's a much more stable and adult approach to uh to managing a public organization okay I'd like to ask a question um so Mr camera since you have um a lot of experience in municipal government do you see any opportunities where Clarkston Community Schools could work more closely with Independence Township or the city of the village of Clarkston I think it's certainly

037possible um I haven't given any significant thought as to what specifically could happen but I I think it's definitely possible I know the township does uh have programs my daughters at one of them right now it's an art program over in the Clarkson Community Education Center and that's that's put on by the township I think that's your parks and rec department so I think there could be some opportunities for collaboration I think that could be one of them for instance I don't know um but I'm happy to explore that I think that's a great idea screen yeah yeah Father which I commend you it's uh do you think that you have the time for learning this new role for going to conferences over weekends for all of all of what it entails um that's a

038really great question and I think if it were a year ago or two years ago I don't think I would be in the position to do that so I think now uh I'm working at a job where I'm able to work from home so that makes the logistics moving my kids to and from school all day a lot easier I can Flex my time a great deal so I think I've reached that point where I'm I've got an open enough calendar where I can take on something else and fortuitously I open the Clarkson news one day and I said oh hey here's something I can you know say yes to now so yes I I think I'm up to that task thank you okay Miss Love um have you ever attended a school board meeting

039in the last five years and have you ever attended a Independence Township meeting please go ahead uh I have not so uh I'm a recent move back to Clarkston in the last couple of years I uh prior to that working in municipal government i i attended several municipal government meetings in the past but it was usually with other cities like Royal Oak or Birmingham or Lathrop Village or the city of Flint or something like that so okay all right thank you very much yeah thank you appreciate your time thank you okay all right everyone let me know when you're ready okay we've finally worked out the signal I signal you you ignore okay great because I'm staring around the corner she can't see me sorry it only took me good evening hello hello Mr boozing

040did I say button what scene sorry I'm trying nice to see you thank you so much for coming tonight I uh my first want to thank you for the opportunity to apply for this position uh and I also like the transparency of the process I think that's very important and I I have a feeling that's the way you operate which is good a little bit about my background I I've been married for 48 years with my wife Cheryl who happens to be here tonight and I had three children that went through the Clarkston school system um two three went on to get Bachelor degrees one of those kids went on to get a master's degree um I have my own professional background as I work for Clarkston schools for 36 years as a school social

041worker I was the first director of the Scamp program I helped develop that program and I also want to thank you as a board for your continued support for that program it's it's very worthwhile while I was a school social worker for 36 years I was also a faculty member at Oakland Community College for 35 years teaching in the psychology department and I did a little bit of Private Practice but that's kind of that thin amount to a lot and um that's that's my background Community I was a representative for the school social work council at the Midwest level so I also was the president of the state of Michigan school social workers Association and at that time I I learned a lot about politics and education because I always thought there's no politics in

042education and it's just education yeah I know it's pretty naive but uh that's the way it is and at that time back in 1985 when I was president president of our board um they were trying to do away with school social work or certainly minimize that they were they were attacking psychologists social workers speech clinicians that kind of went at us all at once and during my tenure I was able to get the board I helped the board be convinced that they needed to hire a lobbyist and they've had a lobbyist ever since and as you know mental health is an extremely important situation in our schools it has so much to do with safety as well as their ability to learn anything and I I felt blessed and I I've said this in many

043places that all my life I had two jobs I'd look at the two main jobs the teaching and the social work jobs that I love going to every day not too many people can say that and and there were some days that were very very difficult um we had to deal with the death of a School principal we had to deal with many student deaths tremendous drug abuse issues off and on in the schools and all kinds of crises I even remember the one time I was asked by a parent to lead a memorial service at the high school when they dedicated a tree in their child's name and I I went to my pastor to get help with that one I also in terms of the community have been involved with all kinds of

044community things but I won't get into that advocacy for Clarkson schools I've always I've always fought for parks in schools and public education I believe public education is the soul of America and for people that that disagree with that I I understand why we have other school systems because after I retired in in 2010 I worked for four charter schools one of them for four years and the others in and out because they were temporary jobs and so I got a picture of what's non-public education is also like and the the charter school that I that I love is still going and it's in Grand Blanc um the biggest challenges facing public education I think continue to be funding it's going to continue to be that way if you read your paper probably tonight or

045certainly by tomorrow you're going to see that several states have just passed laws to fund private education Arkansas being one of them and um that's it's going to be a continuing issue I feel fairly good about the political climate in the state right now that that won't be as quite big a crisis as it has been but you you can't count on that you can only count on what we have today yeah tell you what let me just ask you to hold one minute and see if we have any questions at this point otherwise we will let you continue Miss Love uh I just was curious if you wanted to run again in a year and a half and if you are you up it can be very difficult time consuming I know I had

046to knock on a lot of doors raise money are you up for that I'm very sorry but I had a hard time hearing that could somebody repeat sure she's she's asking about plans for 2024 if you would be interested in running again this is a two-year where the seat you know goes expires in 2024 so is this something you're looking at as a temporary you know to fill or are you looking as a long-term no I'm interested I know I've been around a while but yes I intend to continue to be around okay and as long as my health is with me um I actually was going to run for the school board a number of years ago after I retired but I had bouts with two different types of cancer and had to get

047through that and I would have been I wouldn't have been able to do anything consistently okay so I I didn't didn't do that okay okay here's another please keep talking I just wanted to pause and give the trustees a chance to weigh in but we have another minute and a half so anything else you'd like to tell us please go ahead challenges facing the school district obviously funding is always a challenge although as I said I think it's probably a little better than it has been but um helping the broad range of students that come into the schools achieve at their highest level is always a challenge and there's always new theories new ideas I can't tell you how many times in my 36 years we were doing something different the next year than we

048did the year before and sometimes it doesn't hold up to the research that was that said it was going to do so it's a very difficult job you all have a very very difficult job I don't look at this as a any type of oh I'll just spend a few minutes here and there it's a it's a challenge and I respect all the time that you put in obviously you have a major building project people are not there's going to be people that are not going to be happy with it that you're never going to please everybody when you have a building project you do the best you can and hope that you have enough consensus that you can get through that safety is still an issue who always will be an issue it was

049an issue when I was a student I remember one time I had a parent come to me and she said I want to tell you something about my son and I want you to do something about it I said well what's that and she said he's involved in a gang and this was many years ago several police Liaisons ago and I I said now it doesn't do me any good to just have that information are you telling me you're willing to have me share it I shared it with our police officer at the time one of our first police liaison officers and he acted upon that and we unfortunately we had a get the student out of school it was that serious there had been a whole series of robberies and thefts in the community

050and that gang was responsible for it but to have a parent come up and to share that information was so helpful and that that might not be the the Oxford situation but it's still safety is an issue and if kids are losing stuff from lockers from teachers or losing money out of their their desk or whatever it happens to be it's something to be concerned about right and that's something we have to make sure that we have a real strong program and I'm really pleased that you have a police liaison officer in the Clarkston schools so more than one thank you thank you so much my buzzer went off so I'm sorry I'm gonna have to cut you off I'm sorry thank you very much we appreciate you coming out tonight it was wonderful to

051meet you and we'd certainly heard about your history in Clarkston schools you've even been here longer than Steve heyer wow I've never seen that it's not it's I know it's it's not a meeting if we don't get a Steve hire joke in thank you so much hi hello there hello I can say all right my name is Dave mendren mentioned I'm gonna let me just tell you I'm gonna start the timer when it if you're still talking after about four minutes I'm just gonna pause you for a minute to see if we have any questions from the board if not I'm going to let you continue talking okay great okay please go ahead all right my name is Dave mention I was born and raised here in Michigan I went to Troy Athens um when

052I was a kid my friends would go to go skiing up north into me Clarkston was up north I didn't know any different you know by now I went to Alma College my parents relocated here to Clarkston in 1988 and over the next five or ten years my brother my sister and I all ended up moving to Clarkston um I helped I joined a struggling software company in 2000 and I brought in some clients that put us on the map and actually made us a viable company and by their three Partners we every decision is discussion or compromise sometimes they get what I want sometimes I don't get anything I want and sometimes we meet in the middle which is most office we find something that works right having multiple inputs slows the process but

053it usually gives us the best results I manage customers projects and people all the time even though I specialize on the hospital Hospitality side it's like uh Airlines trains hotel chains Etc our company doesn't have sales people we work on basically our a reputation a quality of work and word of mouth and integrity is what we focus on it's not necessarily good business decisions that we make sometimes because we're not making more money but it's the best decision for our people and our clients and ourselves I was on the board of Michigan Sports Unlimited we do adaptive sports and recreation for several years I play wheelchair rugby which I've done for 23 years but I also have had the opportunity to help start leagues in nine other countries one of which is now ninth in

054the world Columbia I was commissioner of the 500 player league for eight years I worked with the board by interpreting the rules the Constitution the bylaws and enforcing those rules and working with the board to help move things forward and and develop the league it's a male and female league so we had to make decisions that impacted not just based on gender or age or even quality of play right so if it impacts a USA player it has I have to make a decision that also impacts the same way for a player who is a new player or a non-impact player right we've got to make sure that you would you would make the decision the same way right for everybody uh I'm a foster parent so I'm constantly building relationships with and negotiating with

055natural parents who sometimes see you as the enemy when you're really just you're there to help them right you want to reunite families we had a foster daughter who was with us four years from two months old and she went home recently and that was that was difficult but that's the goal right to reunite personally I've been impressed with the the principal and the staff at Independence Elementary and the district services for my son who is OT Services he has an IEP I think the pandemic response we all had to make difficult decisions regarding safety and liability as you know as a commissioner of a 500 player League we did the same thing I feel like that the board in the district did a good job of following State and the CDC and the guidelines

056that were given and quickly adapting and and making a a virtual solution and now I I really like the the hybrid solution and the virtual solutions that are being developed my son is currently virtual we expect to get Hybrid next year I'm excited about what's going on there as far as challenges um safety is clearly one of the big challenges now if the world's changed so much since we were kids they in their pockets they have constant bullying and misinformation and and distractions from their score um maintaining quality of Education facilities and Educators obviously is a challenge that we have because there are shortages right there's less teachers out there or they're being pulled away because other people have shortages and they're offering more so that's that's going to be important coming up and obviously

057responsibly managing the budget let me get you to hold on just a minute sorry I've been looking down instead of looking up nope I understand let me see if anyone has any questions that they want to ask while we still have a minute okay could I get you could I ask one question let me just get you to expand you mentioned that you know that you were on a board as well so could you just talk a little bit about that experience of serving on a board kind of negotiating with your fellow board members coming to consensus maybe just give us some examples of of that kind of working relationship and then understanding the role of a board member versus the organization how the organization you were serving sure uh you know as as a

058commissioner of the of the league for rugby um I did the interpretation of the rules and I would make rulings um but on the day-to-day operations I kind of try I was tasked with making sure that the day-to-day stuff happened but the board implemented it um so when things would come up we would have uh an issue with a player for example who didn't register and technically they're not registered and they're not on a roster and by the bylaws they're not supposed to play so I would make a ruling on that and the board would have the opportunity of the player um chose to contest that uh I would give the board the reasons for my decision but I didn't weigh in on their decision I let them do their thing because otherwise you know

059that became a problem if I included them my decision early on then they didn't have the opportunity to be part of that appeal process um you know as as we went through that the league isn't doesn't have a lot of money so the decisions that were made financially obviously there's a lot of negotiation there to to try and figure out ways that we could use the League's funds that best serve the players and the and the people that it served does that answer your question it does thank you very much any other any other questions okay oh sorry my phone timed out here okay well it's about to beep so very good thank you get that appreciate it okay thank you thank you so very much appreciate you coming tonight there we go oh yeah

060thank you okay ready good evening Miss Joyner [Music] so we'll just let you start talking uh if you're still going after about four minutes or so I might just give you a wave and pause and see if we have any follow-up questions from the board just to make sure our questions get answered otherwise we're just going to let you keep talking okay okay thank you great good evening I'm applying for this position because I am a little closer to the microphone please just pull it a little closer to you if you can closer okay thank you how's that yeah that's fun I am applying for this position because I am an enthusiastic supporter and advocate for public schools my husband and I are graduates of a local public school and our two children are recent

061Clarkston High School graduates I believe that public schools are the foundation of our future providing Essential Knowledge support and skills to all of the children in our community it is here that students who have different backgrounds interests family situations and resources are brought together and learned to function as Unique Individuals and as members of a community of their peers it is in public schools that they become aware of opportunities and ideas that are bigger than their own life experience and they learn to respect and listen to cooperate and discuss with students who have different perspectives as the daughter of two retired Public School teachers I understand the challenges and frustrations that teachers administrators and school boards have the necessity of meeting the needs of the students and their families within the demands of the educational

062guidelines and the ever-present financial constraints of our times I'm inspired by the teachers I have known my parents and family members my teachers my my children's teachers to want to contribute and build upon their dedication to improving the lives and Prospects of young people I would be happy to share my skills in time by committing to and participating in the board meetings events and training that would come with this responsibility as my adult children are pursuing their own Endeavors and my engineering career is winding down I have more time and energy to dedicate to the community and the causes that I am passionate about I am willing and able to participate in the respectful discourse that this position will demand my professional engineering experience has required me to work with people from many backgrounds on

063complex and extensive projects our responsibilities and objectives had areas where they overlapped and areas where they conflicted I was able to lead project teams through difficult decisions facilitate objective evaluations and discussions and arrive at Solutions and decisions that all could agree on as a member of the school board I would be greatly interested in learning the perspectives of all students families teachers and evaluating the issues with a broad mind I believe in transparent and respectful discussion and would work towards solutions that can benefit and satisfy the team and the students I understand the role of a trustee and look forward to learning more about the interactions and complexities of this vital role in our community and our future I would value the opportunity to participate in the process of working with the administration and establishing

064the district goals and policies with reflection on the needs of our community and attentiveness to the importance of this in the curriculum I believe that is Our obligation to ensure that all the students in our community have a safe place to learn where they feel seen and heard it is also Our obligation to provide the best preparation possible for the opportunities and challenges they will face our future rests on the shoulders of our children and the more we can acquaint them with what the world looks like outside of Clarkston the more unique skills and perspectives we can give them the better their chances of success public schools are the right and responsibility of all of us and they support our future I would be honored and inspired at being selected for the position of school

065board trustee hopefully I haven't bored the board that was there all right thank you very much questions Ms love um I was particularly interested in your letter about your valuable insight into this stem program and I was just curious if you had any ideas for recruiting kids into these types of programs that are rigorous and academically challenging yeah so actually when when I was growing up and going to high school we didn't have those kinds of programs like like we have here at Clarkston I participated in a world in motion here at Springfield plains as an engineer when my students or my children were young and I thought that was a wonderful application but I do believe that you know anything we can do with stem more Pratt you know shows projects increased involvement exposure

066at a young age is very important and and especially for girls because I was a very small minority when I went to college in the early 90s for engineering school so um I believe early early opportunities are important [Music] expand a little more on what you said I wrote the word challenges and then I kept writing and so would you mind just going back to that for me for a minute and talking a little bit about what you see the challenges are facing the district like right now whether it's the district or public education overall but what what do you see is like the top couple of challenges we have to deal with so right now I guess I do see the division in the community my kids had wonderful experiences at the school but

067they also witnessed some of the division in the community and Society in general and so I've appreciated the opportunities that I've seen for dealing with that I do think that's a challenge for everybody in the community not just the school district right parents too so I also know that there's uh there are challenges with prioritizing different programs for different levels of learning right some kids need a lot of different support we have wonderful AP and IB programs that many kids take advantage of the stem program the skilled trades programs that they're able to you know go get training in and and the collaboration and that kind of education is very important these days so I know those are challenges because not every kid wants to go to college you know not every kid is aspiring

068to to get that to get those degrees but they do need their High School degree and some some additional opportunities and support sometimes thank you up and down we didn't Boris who apparently did a very thorough job because I'm not seeing any follow-up questions here everyone good okay other questions thank you Miss Joyner thank you very good okay good evening Mr need um we're just going to let you talk for a little while if it gets to be after about four minutes or so I might just have you pause and see if we have any questions at that point so the board gets its questions answered if not I'll just let you keep talking okay until we're done okay well thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to apply for this vacancy I

069think there are a few reasons why I think I'm well suited not the least of which just my experience is all most of you know I've been on the board for seven and a half years um and this is you know this is a time where I think you need someone experienced as opposed to trying to orient somebody that has no understanding or background necessarily but the district and how it operates budget time is almost upon us and I've been through that process many times when that's done then it'll be the new year and doing goal setting and establishing priorities and I've been through that process several times and of course we have the bond that uh we have to exercise our fiduciary responsibilities for the bond and I've gone through that process with the

0702015. I know the key administrators I know Dr Ryan I don't need to go through an introductory process there so I think it's I'm well suited basically based upon certainly the experience I also think that in my seven and a half years on the board I brought a different perspective to board matters and board decisions I think but may our board so strong for the last several years is that we do have diversity in terms of backgrounds and expertise and employment as an attorney I think I bring a different kind of perspective not necessarily better or worse but different um I also have experience in things like bylaws and policy discipline and Personnel matters in my day-to-day job I work a lot with the open meetings Act and the Freedom of Information Act again issues

071that are you know important with regard to the district District's operations um I also of course as I've said for during my campaign number four I'm strongly supportive of our Administration and the direction that they have for the district I believe we're in a very strong position but there is work yet to be done certainly and we want to see our test scores improve we want to see our kids be safe and again I have some background on that and I believe I can be bring a constructive Viewpoint there as well I do believe in the consensus approach that the board is adopted with regard to making decisions respect all viewpoints in an attempt to come up with a solution that people can accept not necessarily be wildly enthusiastic about but at least accept because

072at the end of the day we all want what's best for our kids that I think needs to be uppermost and it certainly is in my mind when I make decisions um I really don't have a whole lot else to say except you know for seven years I've sat up there and watched a parade of kids students make presentations I've always been pretty amazed at their Poise and and the way they managed to be so articulate and they kind of tell you sitting on this side of the table that ain't easy so I even have more respect for what they've done that's about all I have to say you know most of you know me I'd be certainly happy to answer whatever questions anybody has Miss Love well I really respect the fact that you

073you ran you lost but now you're coming back it really proves your dedication I guess my question to you is are you up for it again in two years you know I'm gonna do in 2024 what I did this last time which is after the first of the year I'm going to you know take a long hard look at it see where I am talk to my wife about what she's willing to support and then make a decision there I'm not going to commit to if you're asking if I committed to run in 2024 no I am not I'm going to make that decision probably earlier in 2024 like I did last time spring and I also you know I I do think that having run for office and you know gotten about 8 000

074votes that does demonstrate some community of support as well so it's a bit of a difficult question to be in because I think yeah we do know you well so I don't want to belabor the point and anyone else does not have questions we'll all right thank you Mr need thank you good evening hello thank you so much for coming thank you Hannah Peter Parker yes very good well it's nice to meet you thank you so much for being here tonight of course uh in just a minute I'm going to hit the button and I'm just going to let you start talking as we had discussed in our emails and so if you're still going after about four minutes I may just pause you and see if the board has any questions at that point

075if not I'm just going to let you continue to share with us whatever you have so wonderful please go ahead and tell us what you'd like to tell us okay Parkers you already know a little bit closer to the microphone please sorry um I'm a 2012 Clarkston graduate I went through Clarkson school starting in kindergarten so very familiar with the schools and my class was the first one to go through with the new 6789 setup which I thought was awesome um so I've lived in Clarkston for 21 of the last 28 years I have a almost two-year-old that will eventually go to Independence Elementary so just kind of using this as an opportunity to become involved in the schools before I'm a parent in the district I'm in my fourth year of teaching at Our

076Lady Of Refuge in Orchard Lake so I'm very familiar with the demands of teachers of school staff of students and everything that comes along with that and the challenges that teachers face every day the challenges that parents face every day and students but also the wonderful things that teachers and students and parents experience every day I have a bachelor's degree in history and math from Oakland University and I have a master's degree in secondary education also from Oakland University that I finished in 2020. I started teaching where I am in 2019 so my first school year there was the year that everything shut down and we transitioned to online and still have Incorporated that online component not so much this school year but the previous two and certainly understand the different demands of teaching now

077than even when I was in school and what was kind of taught to us so understanding the importance of students having access to outside resource resources outside of the classroom and just being very fluid in what we do as teachers as administrators as a district as a whole to accommodate when the whole world kind of flips upside down at the drop of a hat and kind of the strain that that puts on Educators hopefully whenever experience that again but I certainly experienced it firsthand and know you know kind of the strain that that puts on everybody um I guess like I said I do understand being an educator the challenges that we face as far as like security and teacher shortages and enrollment certainly changing I know recently it was in the newspaper about Clarkson's

078enrollment slightly declining which I kind of always make the joke with our declining birth rate as a just as a nation that we could start turning elementary schools into nursing homes since we're building so many of them in the community but I do know that's a concern on the other side I do know working in a private school that our enrollment has been up and so you know trying to it potentially as a board member work to see how we can make that shift even that out a little bit um think that's about it I guess okay well let's open it up some questions from the board the screen yeah thank you very much for coming I was a K-12 private school student and so it was a big adjustment coming to the public school

079side can you talk a little bit to that the fact that you are a private school teacher which we very much appreciate having an Educator's perspective up here um but the public school is very different yes it is my experience as a student was only in public school so certainly making the change to teaching in a private school was challenging I'm you know still adjusting a little bit to that but I do understand that would be kind of challenging and maybe questionable um so I guess just trying to immerse myself back into the public schools at every opportunity I have because I realize they do function a lot differently and you know certainly don't attend Mass every Wednesday and very strict um you know differentiation of church and state unlike what I experienced now and

080so certainly keeping personal values and things like that to myself and not um you know saying to students when they're misbehaving you know I know you weren't raised this way in the church and things like that so I do um you know it would have to make that adjustment as need be thank you you could maybe share an example of when you've had to uh kind of be in the middle of a of a situation or a conversation where there were some opposing viewpoints that have been at your school or in another situation and how how you sort of work of course um we where I'm at right now have a huge parent involvement and I know that's not always the case in public schools but um certainly run into a lot of issues where

081you know as one situation happens in the classroom a student goes home and says one story and the parent comes at me you know after school in an email or shows up at the school the next day and there's a lot of conflict and so really just trying to explain to the parent the situation that occurred you see if we can meet in the middle trying to just keep clear communication and you know while it's still maintaining my boundaries and understanding where the student's perspective is coming from and I usually like to with the students set goals to make sure maybe that the situation doesn't happen again or how we can you know work to better the situation over a couple of days but I've had many instances where the parents you know are fired

082up and come at me and really just trying to stay calm through it and explain the situation and understand their side of it and without letting boundaries go kind of compromise when we need to and certainly try to make sure that everyone walks away maybe not happy but at least in a better light this is Eagan yes could you tell us what you think are the biggest challenges in public education today um I think definitely the biggest one is safety with everything that's been happening Across the Nation and um I know Clarkson has worked a lot recently to improve security or just you know bring it up to um par with everything that potentially happens and so I think just reassuring parents and students and staff as well that you know police response time is

083quick or you know there's someone on site or you know the buildings are all locked and secured and so I really think that is I just on the Forefront of everyone's mind recently and when staff feels safe they can certainly reassure students and parents that their children are safe at school thank you very much my little bell is quieter tonight than it seems to be usually but it just went off so thank you so much we appreciate you coming tonight appreciate your time thank you can y'all hear it when the timer goes off well I'm sitting right now okay we are sitting next to me usually you can hear it through this but it seems to be and uh trustees just a note on our agenda I received a word that Mrs Paul is not

084joining us this evening she said she had a family emergency come up and not be able to interview in person so we will have we have two more candidates um to interview in person so uh uh I think we will be ready here in just a moment for Mr presidentowski good evening how are you good thank you thank you so much for coming tonight thank you and I'm sure it's been a marathon of conversation for you guys so appreciate you sticking through it so absolutely absolutely we're just as I as we described in our email we just want you to kind of tell us your story and and tell us your thoughts on some of the issues that we identified for you and then uh if it gets to be where there's about three minutes

085left I may just interrupt you and just pause to see if we have any questions from the board if not I'm just going to let you keep talking until until we run out of time so absolutely please go ahead this is Mark pizanowski yep and so um well like I said first of all thank you guys for the opportunity to discuss this role um you know I and to be honest in talking to people back there in seeing you know everybody that's here it's it's great to see that there was 14 well probably less than that now there was you know a dozen people that were willing to step up to this you know and that's that's great to see that shows that you know they care about the kids that they care about you

086know the community as a whole and you know regardless of the outcome here you know I'm just happy to see that there's that much involvement we were talking in there about how um it's hard to see ballots when somebody's running unopposed you know and it's like we want to know these people and I'm sure everybody here wants to know exactly who we are too so um me personally I'm a father of two Elementary aged kids I understand that these are young pliable Minds who spend you know 30 plus hours per week in the classroom um you know if I was brought onto the board I understand that I would be part of the group that's tasked with the responsibility of shaping their education their lives and approving the curriculum the textbooks and electing the superintendent

087and hiring faculty members and ensuring that the facilities are safe secure and properly maintained um I don't take any of this stuff lightly so should I be given that privilege of serving on the board my goal would be to give everybody a voice in the room because I know that's something that a lot of people I see a lot of board meetings on YouTube and things like that where people don't feel like they have that voice and that's really what I want to be you know whether the person is or the families are affluent they're from the lower class they're outspoken they're quiet whether it's the family or the faculties or the the community as a whole regardless of race color creed gender I think everybody needs to work together to grow and improve the

088school system the community as a whole because we all see each other you know whether it's at CVS whether it's a restaurant whether it's here at the schools so it's important to know who you're who's looking out for your children when they're when they're at school so um while I understand there might be times where people don't agree on everything wholeheartedly kind of like my family it's important to listen to each other as difficult it may be take the time to understand everybody's point of view and ultimately support each other in the decision that's made so we can move forward in the best way possible for everyone though we all may have different ways of getting to our intended result the fact remains that we're all here for the students and the kids so I

089don't look at this as a short-term assignment you know I know this is to cover a vacancy through 2024 if I was brought onto the board I would definitely want this to be something long-term I would absolutely be looking for for re-election in 2024 and Beyond throughout my career as a small business owner I have always made the decision that when I commit myself to something I do so with the intention of succeeding to the fullest extent and I'm willing to do all that I can to ensure that success and this would be no different so I would strive to earn the trust and respect from the my fellow board members as well as the more than 5 000 families and thirty thousand members in the community with that open to any questions you may

090have okay trustees it's worst Mrs Eagan ask a question could you describe your perception of what the roles and responsibilities are of a trustee yeah yeah so I've been doing a lot of a lot of research the past few days on on everything um you know in terms of the trustee the school board member you know obviously I mentioned in here curriculum working with the superintendent budgeting proposals things like that um but also being an active member of the community so being available being accessible being open to everybody who has questions who has comments and concerns and taking those in like I said sometimes you take the brunt and you you know you get railroaded I mean it's it's what happens but you have to be able to take that you have to be able

091to engage in conversation with people and understand their point of view even though you may not agree with it but also you know come to some sort of consensus where everybody is at least satisfied thank you I'd like to ask respectfully since I see your children are in private schools and you denoted that personally um I'm just curious as to why you would want to be a public school board trustee well my kids were in public schools until covet uh we actually and I mentioned it in my form we relocated here from Lake Orion so once covet hit and everything was virtual learning both of my children crashed and burned I'm not gonna not gonna sugarcoat it my son would come out of math class telling me what he wanted from Bass Pro Shops my

092my daughter was in the bottom corner Zoom window putting on my wife's lipstick and those are the stories that we tell kind of tongue-in-cheek so we looked for we looked for Alternatives and tried to find who was on site still and that that turned out to be Oakland Christian now there was one spot at the time in third grade for my son and we took that spot my daughter was in kindergarten at the time so they did not have any any room for her so we had to tough it out for the year with my daughter and ultimately they had a vacancy for existing families the next year because my son had been there but you know really what drives me and what really kind of hit home with a lot of this is that

093my my daughter doesn't have a kindergarten yearbook she doesn't have a first day of school photo and so things like that you know when I say I'm looking out for the kids those are the things that really hit home with me you know in terms of I want to be confident that where I send my my children is a safe place to be and it's a good education and at the same time I will say our full intention is to move them back into the public school system know we moved here in September so we had already paid that invoice and I respect you putting it on there but I just thought I had to ask no absolutely so let me ask a final question here and I think then we'll run out of time

094um so what are your thoughts about how a district focuses and then improves on student achievement I believe that every child brings their own set of skills strengths and weaknesses so I think it's it's important to identify what those weaknesses are and tailor to the specific child um and and I realize that sometimes you have to also weigh the needs of the many versus the needs of the few but I also feel that sometimes a child's you know lack of development isn't necessarily a result of something that they did or that they can even control so I think you have to identify those things early and address those things early and the earlier you do the quicker you can nip those things in the bud and the worst thing that you can see is is

095a child who slips through the cracks you know who's an eighth grader reading at a second grade reading level you know things like that just just break my heart so I think it's really just taking a child by child thank you very much thank you appreciate your time okay and our final candidate of the evening good evening so uh please we're just going to have you as we discussed you know just share your story with us whatever you want to share with us and then uh if it gets to be about three minutes left I may just pause you for a minute see if we have any questions up here so I'm sure trustees get their questions asked if not we'll just let you continue to talk okay great um so I'm Jason Nolan um

096I've lived in Clarkson for 23 years all three of my children attended Clarkson schools from K through 12. I had a great experience um we moved to Clarkston specifically for the schools we lived in Waterford my wife was adamant our kids are going to Clarkson schools we built a house here and I feel very strongly that one of the things that makes Clarkston a a destination community in a place that people want to live is because of the schools um I own a small business I've owned a mortgage company Michigan Mortgage Solutions uh we're located in Pontiac I started that company 20 4 years ago so I've kind of been through the highs and lows of that business and so uh certainly have a lot of experience with budgets and compliance and dealing with state

097and federal agencies and all the fun stuff that goes with licensing and whatnot um I wanted to just kind of discuss some of the highlighted points that you had sent um so one of the things you were talking about was just you know General advocacy for public education and specifically Clarkson schools I'm a big believer that public education is like a Cornerstone American value um I think that some of the challenges facing public education especially here in Michigan is just consistent funding I think that there's things that we can advocate for as a board to ensure that funding stays consistent from the state um I think teacher shortages are a problem throughout the state including Clarkson so finding ways to attract and retain good teachers and then of course school safety um and I think

098school safety obviously you know with the situation in Oxford horrible situation finding ways to ensure that kids are safe staff is Safe Community safe without um you know making the experience Dreadful you know trying to find ways to find that balance um I think Clarkson's in a good position compared to the state I think we have a great District I think that we need to continue to be you know focused financially I think we need to still always be looking for efficiencies and ways to do more with less and I think that we need to again find ways to retain good teachers find new teachers um and then I I you know I was looking at the um the Strategic plan and I think it's really important I love the work that you guys have

099been doing like focusing on the whole student and the social emotional learning aspect of recognizing it's not simply teaching it's not simply grades it's a whole person that we're nurturing through this process um I'm the reason I'm interested by the way is because I have the time now my kids have are grown and gone I'm an empty nester and I really feel like I have the time that I could commit to something like this um and I would definitely consider running for re-election if I was to be chosen that certainly wouldn't be a question um as far as working with a board I feel like the board number one the board's a non-partisan group I think it's important to leave your personal politics at the door I think you have to be an advocate for

100public education if you don't care about public education serving on a Board of Trustees of a public school system doesn't make a lot of sense in my opinion so I think you have to at the core care about public education I think you need to recognize that you have to speak with one Voice once the decision is made so I think it's important to be able to disagree without being disagreeable but once a board makes a decision you need to honor that decision and speak with one voice because we're all on the same team ultimately the board is a team and really all the stakeholders are on the same team um other than that I mean I've served for years on my church board as president and and as a trustee so I'm kind of

101used to policy governance uh in a smaller fashion um and I just think that as a board member you need to be a good listener you need to be an eager learner and you need to be willing to um you know support the larger mission great thank you very much still some time miss love please go ahead nice to meet you in person um I know we disagree on a lot but I do like how you're very respectful and um I do believe that you would consider all viewpoints my question for you is do you think that your personal relationship with any member of the board or our superintendent is a conflict of interest you can say the very last part about my personal relationship do you think you have any relationships with current board

102members or our superintendent that would be a conflict of interest I do not no no anyone else well I'll just ask a quick question sure um so if you were not selected tonight would you consider running in 2024 uh possibly yeah possibly this when this opportunity came across when I saw an email um I was uh you know I said boy this might just be the right time for it I had recently had back surgery so I was spending a lot of time uh working from home and I said you know this is you know it just seemed like a a good fit I'm happy to see so many people have applied for it I was happy to see Greg need you know put his name back in there as well so I mean I

103think that you've got you have a good problem which is you've got a lot of qualified people agreed I guess I would ask why you um I think that um where I'm coming from again long time member of the community I've got the time I think I've got the demeanor um I think I've got the you know the business Acumen from from a life of what I've been doing and and more importantly that I think I'm coming from a place that is uh very genuine I I just I care about education I care about public education um I am somebody who who is I think very capable of putting my personal concerns aside to recognize that there's a bigger Mission here when it comes to public education in Clarkston um and it's really about all

104of us and it's really about the whole Community um you know recognizing the value and this really it's a Clarkson schools are a gem it's one of probably the the biggest reason people come to Clarkston and the reason they stay in Clarkston anyone else okay great thank you very much thank you okay trustees and ladies and gentlemen that concludes our interviews for this evening um we are going to take a short recess um to allow us to kind of compile our notes um organize our thinking uh it looks like it's what about nine till I'd say 10 minutes at the most do we have I know I need to take a run down the hall so let's take no more than 10 minutes let's plan to reconvene here at seven certainly candidates we invite you

105to stay for the next part when we actually start our discussion um and we'll be back we are now recessed foreign order we lost the superintendent but no worries he'll come back he'll come back um and we'll move on to our discussion item regarding the candidates and so uh we had no one sign up for public comment on an agenda item earlier correct it's okay right now we can hold on a minute but that's what I remember from earlier so uh each candidate who submitted a letter of I'm sorry let me move on um we have no public comment at this time first I want to thank and acknowledge all of our candidates because now friends comes the difficult part for you we're going to discuss you in public which we are required to do

106by law been through this process um so we know firsthand how uncomfortable it may be maybe dissect s we have an amazing pool of a dozen candidates in front of us with so many interesting perspectives um and any one of you could fill this seat and do an admirable job several of you toward the end mentioned the conversations you had in the back room and acknowledged you know that I mean really how amazing in this day and age to have a dozen people show up for a job in this climate so we're grateful to see how many people in our community care so deeply about our Public Schools and I hope that we'll be able to count on those of you who do not join the board this evening to continue to be a champion

107for our district and I have a feeling that we will look for ways to involve many of you in the lives of Clarkson Community Schools and now of course we know how to find you so thank you so very much for that thank you again trustees our goal through this phase through our discussion is to see if we have a consensus on our top contenders so I'm going to ask each of you to now summarize your thought process what you heard from candidates that resonated with you overall how you were assessing the different criteria some of those factors may be more important to some of you than others in terms of how you're weighing them what strengths you heard that you think will complement our board team finally and Mrs McLean will track this for

108everyone to see please identify your top two candidates in each of those four categories and we'll see at the end of this process if we're thinking along the same lines or if we need any further discussion we clear on that okay so we are going to start kind of in officer order not me but with the vice president Egan I warn her she would have to go first so I was warned so I will thank you again everyone who is sitting in this room and I was one of the city board members who went through the appointment process originally so I would just start with um a few of the attributes that are important to me after 13 years of experience and I will say that um understanding the role of trustee and the trade

109the Trent takes to really be effective and there is a learning curve that is um you know I was looking for you know both at the time and engage in that process and I heard a lot of people willing to listen to the different perspectives and and I find that very important because I I'm the losing side of the vote before um but the wonderful thing is it doesn't bother me because system of my summer board and I'm counting on them the smarter than me because I don't know everything um I also took into consideration the answers on challenges in public education I'm looking for you know a trustee victim at the table would really be a big supporter not just of our students but really of um this great American institution that we have

110of making free and accessible education to all students being willing to advocate for those students and their success and I heard a lot of that tonight um I also consider the experiences that each candidate can bring to the table there are a lot of different perspectives out there but I'm looking at looking at professional experience and diversity um so having said that I have a quandary here because I picked three top candidates so I'm just going to say them um that's okay I'm breaking the rules already I have three names I'm sorry I just have three outstanding questions so okay okay well we're gonna kick down to one so um was I hear wait was I no I was hearing I was seeing I was before you do that I was looking to see whatever

111one thought I mean we agreed to two did we yeah we agreed to two I would be fine to go with three I second that well I think it messes up the well if we're doing tallies it's her weight's 50 more than than ours I mean I'm gonna quickly add three if she's if you're gonna you're gonna like work absolutely okay all right are we not good with it or we are good with it well I'm good okay you can do three if anyone else who wants to add a third May how's that if you're comfortable with your two that's fine but if she's gonna do three and anyone else wants to add a third that's fine how's that all right all right okay um um so candidate two four and nine which is um

112Jacqueline Cyrus you're not doing them by category are you sure are you sure you picked the right person to go first foreign are we just gonna put I I would be completely fine just listing three names I have three in my categories and okay let me ask that then okay so hold on we'll we'll have a little discussion moment here while we process this well I okay so let me ask this was everyone seeing similar names there and would everyone prefer to just have three based on these rather than boxes no I'm seeing nose and nose okay because that's not how we agreed to do it I still like kind of like with what you said because I have some what I'll call honorable mentions that I would like to discuss and not just so

113I just don't want to throw out three names okay I want to talk about more names than just three okay because I want I want to honor what they brought to the table all right then your three names are gonna have to go in every box they are okay yeah three months we hit the okay it's okay we work it out as we go here as long as we're all kind of in agreement okay so we'll go treasure crane thank you I don't get to use the titles very often that's kind of fun yeah yeah I was elected I've always sat on the same board until this last election and so so one new member and then one resigns so all of a sudden everything is changing for me some of the things that I

114came into tonight really looking forward we're in particular I was looking for somebody who would be willing to take these next two years learn build up the trust that we have on this board and then be willing to run again mainly because I'm up for re-election in two years and so I would like to have somebody that I could go through that process with so I was really kind of looking for that and listening to that um so many of you said really great amazing things and Mr Nolan had the benefit of going last so I remember his really great things the most right now and I really need to take better notes but one of the things that you said Mr Nolan really touched on something that means a lot to me and that's

115remembering that this is a non-partisan position and that you have to leave a lot of your feelings your politics your friendships everything at the door when you come up here and you discuss things and then even if you're on the losing side of that vote you move on as a unified front much like we try to parent often right so and I also appreciated what you said Mr Nolan about this being a really good problem to have I don't want to have a problem but it is a really good problem to have um I think there's a really fine line between the experience of people who have put their kids through the system and then people who have kids coming up and have these great fresh ideas that's really hard to balance so that's why

116I think it's really important to also have the diversity of the backgrounds the education the jobs everything sitting up here so with all of that I mean for the advocacy one I had an incredibly hard time with that one mainly because there were like 10 out of the 12 that I would have said fit that box amazingly so I would say that I definitely agreed that Ms Rinke Mr need and Miss sivers were on there I would also add Mr Nolan on there for the other categories I was able to narrow it down better wait a minute you don't get four I I said ten so I feel okay no you get three okay then to three in each category all right then it's it's the three that were up there sorry are we clear

117on the three I'm not having this conversation every time I said 10. I was trying to sneak in an honorable mention um for the willingness to consider and respect others I have three I have MS Rinke Miss sivers and Mr need for the ability and commitment to participate fully in boardsmanship I have three I have Miss Rinke Miss sivers and Mr need for understanding board and policy governance I have two I have Miss sivers and Mr need thank you and now we'll go with secretary McGinnis so I'm a change maker I like to break the rules every now and then um I am not at the moment I am not but we'll see how this goes so I'm going to talk about my honorable mentions so that I can do those before I have to

118tell you my three names here um I also like several of you kind of waited before I became a school board trustee I've been in this community for 37 years I have had three graduates come and gone grandchildren now coming into the system and I waited until my youngest was a junior in high school before I ran having worked in the district of volunteering since the day since before my children were even in the school district um so I can really appreciate those individuals Mr Nolan Mr butzine um I can see you there my engineer mom from that you can you want to wait until your kids are done I didn't become a school board trustee or even seek it because I didn't want anybody to think that I was doing what I was doing

119as a trustee for the benefit of my kids so I waited until my kids were nearly out of the district my baby was the only one left before I even sought a position as a school board um I am so honored that every single one of you have put your names in the Hat to um to ask to be selected as a school board trustee um a couple of you um professional backgrounds really affected my thought process a teacher we're losing a teacher perspective from the board that was a really important perspective to me um we lost a legal perspective off the board that was also very important to me so those types of background add to the diversity of who we all are as a unit as one voice I know somebody said that

120I think it was Mr Mr Nolan um I'd like to um I'd like to make a comment that Miss Cunningham your advocacy in this District does not go unnoticed and I really appreciate you stepping forward and for yourself to be considered um Mr Kamer as a single parent I was honored that you should also consider coming forward to be a school board trustee I think it's uh an admirable thought to be a single parent whether it be a male or or a female and seek a position such as this to lead our district again another perspective I think that diversity brings perspectives that some of us may never think about and I think that we need to always be connected to what we don't potentially know um Mr but scene your your history in our

121district precedes you and I was so honored to see you in front of us seeking this selection and uh Steve and I were talking I've been on this board since 2007. my kids did go through the district when you were a social worker in the district and I really honor what you bring to the table for us thank you um trying to read my scratches I unlike the two who have been who are up here who were sitting in your spot once upon a time I was sitting up here working to select who they were and at that time I did not vote for them so um I was looking for a different background at the time um I appreciate all our teachers that came forward honestly to be a teacher in the classroom and

122then to seek being a board member setting the policy for maybe not even necessarily your District but for the education the public education of your community is um I I also hold very near and dear to me the concept of public education that it should be guaranteed for every child and that we should be providing every child every tool that they individually need for their success um mark panowski excited to say that right um I wrote that you were genuine I really appreciate you coming forward um I did not ask this of of all of you because I just thought of it like I'm the last person I wish I would have asked should you not be selected who of you are going to run in 2024 because if you need any guidance I want

123you to call me um because I think it's really important that we stay connected because if you're connected with our district today because you have something to offer I still think in 2024 you're going to have something to offer and I want you to know that I'm here if you need any advice or support um so I ages I did use the quadrants like she asked um I put um Lauren Rinke is an advocate and Greg need is an advocate and Mark manowski is an advocate since we're getting to use three names I um willingness I did have Jaclyn Silvers Lauren Lauren Rinke and bring Mead in the ability to commit and boardmanship I had Jacqueline Silver's cyber cybers I'm sorry cyber's um trying to read my Greg need and Mark ponowski and in understanding

124board policy and governance role I wrote Greg need Jacqueline Silvers and Lauren sivers and Lauren Rinke thank you for some Guinness Mr heyer thank you madam president and I will do my best to follow instructions I I will say you got me back for the earlier comments having gone through a number of [Music] um uh times having gone through this process a number of times I appreciate the length that with which you've gone to make this uh as positive as possible and I would say that's really really easy in this case because out of all the candidates that interviewed I would say any one of them could step into this seat and and be effective and and I don't know that that's I could have said that in any other time I've gone through this

125process or at least I that I felt that way and so I think we're in a extremely positive situation where I genuinely you know every candidate had some great positive aspects to them and this is a difficult decision to pick you know the most qualified and I think you know I looked at this as you know we have some experienced candidates we have some up-and-comers you know some folks in the middle and so I would put three names in each category um is kind of the way it worked out I actually did follow instructions that put two names in each category but there's three total names um that appear and and uh that would be uh Mrs Rinke Mr Nolan and Mr need and I think the experience of having a quick start is really

126valuable and I think having some younger kids having different perspectives um diversity and in our team I think is really important um as well the same three names I'm using the same three in all four categories and I will say like some of you I I know and have met some of you I haven't like absolutely please stay involved like the fact that you'd be interested in putting your name in for this process at this point I think we're always looking for folks to be involved in a positive way and if there's any way we can keep you involved we would we would love to do that for all the candidates that came forward hey Mrs love yeah I would just like to reiterate that fact I have already talked to Kelly Horst about you

127know trying to keep everyone who applied engaged I think it's really important and I'm loving the fact that we're seeing so many applicants I came in here I didn't know most of the names um I came in with a really open-minded an open heart so um I saw good things in everybody typically I would like to see kids a candidate who has kids who are School aged just because you kind of get it's hard to get the pulse truly of what's going on in the classroom when your kids when you're just when your kids aren't there however there's exceptions to that and anybody is qualified to be on the board whether they have school-aged kids or not so that wasn't necessarily A deciding factor for me in the end I also appreciate different perspectives uh

128and so some of the candidates who had experienced both of them had experience both in public and private I didn't see that as a negative I think it's actually a strong point um and I did I did definitely like the different perspective of you know the stem program I appreciated that so that being said I will just go along and give my names three now so advocacy for Clarkston Tanya Cunningham Stacy Joyner and Greg Dean ability and commitment to participate fully Hannah Setter Parker mark pesnowski and Greg need um willingness to consider multiple viewpoints Tanya Cunningham Mark presnowski Greg need understands Board of policy governments the role of a trustee Greg need Tanya Cunningham and Stacy Joyner all right thank you everyone I will add my two cents here and then we'll see where we

129stand um oh sorry yeah Greg need Tanya Cunningham Stacy Joyner she's the real boss down here she's the one who keeps us on track I'm just making sure we're good okay thank you so much so um you know to me there was uh one sort of overall um qual it's not even a quality it's just sort of one thing that I was looking for and it's why we kind of came up with the rubric in the first place so we would have a way to sort of quantify it and it's something I've heard Dr Ryan say um many times when he has spoken about the board um you know we aren't we aren't experts in public education but we all bring something to the table and he says you each have your own superpower and

130that's always resonated with me right and so that's really what I was looking for tonight is what was your what's your superpower and it's why we asked you to send us a letter um you know and articulate that in a way even though you didn't know that's what we were asking you to do and it's what we wanted to hear from you tonight and so that's what I was listening for in those categories because to me that's kind of what makes up the superpower of a board member were those four big categories and uh and so I was looking for who who was going to compliment the team that we have here tonight and there are a lot of ways that you can do that right I mean and it's diversity of thought and experiences

131diversity of place in life um and and so those were kind that was really the big thing that I was looking for under those categories is is is that then there's the idea of this very odd moment of time it's March uh it's an off election year it's four or five months after an election this is not ideally when we're seating a new board member we're still onboarding a new board member who has committed a great deal of time to um you know to learning about the role which we all appreciate you know and so this is sort of a weird moment in time where we have to decide you know what's more important in terms of of now bringing someone else brand new on versus someone who has experience and or experiences that will

132make that process a little bit smoother and so that to me was I'd say the second big factor that I was trying to weigh as I was listening so I was looking for things like a level of familiarity already with our district um experiences with with um Clarkston schools because that onboarding process is uh and I know you can speak to this it's not easy it's intense and early on there were people who would email me and say well how much time outside of board meetings is committed none of you who are here but there were people who said that to me and I thought well boy initially it's going to be a whole heck of a lot um so you know but there really isn't a way to quantify that time it's Quantified by

133how you articulate your willingness to do it to put in the work and and to learn what needs to be learned um and and so those were kind of the two big things I was I was trying to assess in our in our time together here is is uh you know who what superpower are you bringing to the table and you know how how quickly are you going to be able to uh share that superpower with us I guess if you will and so um you know hopefully I've done that to uh you know to to what I can deduce and so um I will Echo what I said at the beginning what all my colleagues have said is that we just couldn't be more grateful that a dozen of you um saw this through

134from the letter to tonight that came here and actually sat before us and uh you know like we said a couple of us I think you figured out who by now maybe Miss vegan have been in that shoe in those shoes one of us was successful one of us was not so uh it was uh it was maybe not the most fun evening but um but I think it is uh important that we now know who was out there um who can make a difference in the life of our school district in the vision for our school district so again I thank you for that okay here let me add my names to this list in terms of advocacy for our schools and our public education I would add Mr need Mrs sivers and Mrs

135Joyner um willingness to consider and respect different viewpoints uh and and some of the experiences that they shared with us are really impressed that upon me and some of the experiences they detailed in the materials they provided Mrs sivers Mr Kammer and Mr need uh the commitment to participate I'd say in the enthusiasm with which a lot of you expressed that Mrs Rinke Mrs Joyner and Mr need and who understands the board and policy governance and role Mr need Mrs sivers and Mr Kammer okay thank you for the real time I have to turn around I can't see that screen foreign like we have I'd say three top candidates I mean it appears we have three yeah three that receive voltable and so the question now for us is is there more discussion warranted or

136are we going to move on to our action item we can't discuss any one individual here without a motion on the table an emotion on the table puts that person up for discussion and a vote and the vote is either you know up or down that's that's just the way the you know the the procedural mechanism is for us to then discuss them individually so I guess procedurally are we going to start following the rules now excuse me I think our rules have been pretty clear I think they're being monkeyed with at the table question for Mrs Egan thank you let's be clear about who we're questioning I'm still gonna sit at the table with him even though it makes fun of me um so I just thought that when we were supposed to do

137this when we picked our two names that I mean if they're the top in all my categories I can just put them in the categories right so that's what I did so I didn't really break the Press no all right um I am willing to make a motion and um I move that the Board of Education appoints Mr Greg need is everybody good down here okay support okay questions or discussion the motion on the table is to appoint Greg need I've I'd just like to say um that even though so many of the candidates all of the candidates were amazing um I don't think we could find somebody more uniquely qualified to fill this vacancy he's he's shown everything that any of us were looking for in in his last seven and a half years

138so I just it doesn't say anything negative about anyone else who is here tonight it's just a very unique qualification that he has no I would agree with um that representation so the last time I had to do this but I didn't vote for the person who's sitting to my furthest left I voted with it for an individual who was a prior board member and I voted for that person because we're in the middle of the game we're we're paddling Upstream in the middle of the game and as Mr knee did clearly State we'll be setting a budget which is required by law by June 30th we'll be setting goals in um it's very hard for a person who has no background to that to feel you're just not nodding your head and going with

139the other six people that you feel that you're really part of it and while miss love has done a fantastic job so far I would think that she can tell you that it's been a lot of reading and a lot of material to get where she's at and I can tell she's done her homework because you can see it in how she presents herself at the table and how the questions she asks so it's obvious she's done her homework it's obvious when a person is up here who hasn't done their homework and I don't mean to say that any person who has been who has applied for this position would not have come up here to do their homework to have the seven and a half years of experience behind you really um is a

140benefit that of course nobody else has here so I'm going to stay consistent with the premise of what I did what 10 12 years ago now and and support a prior board member for the filling of an open seat I think I'm in kind of a unique situation here um having ran against Greg need in the election it's probably I guess it might be a little strange that I'm voting for him now but I can definitely tell you that he was very respectful the whole time I can tell that he cares the fact that he lost and he's here today like I said to him that's impressive um see my first choice honestly probably not but he's the only one of these top three that I can definitely guarantee that he'll see in here both

141sides of the issue so it's really important to me as a new board member that I feel like somebody's open-minded and so that's why I'm fully putting my weight behind Greg Mead tonight which I'm just happy that we all kind of came on a on a reasonable conclusion which as we've discussed might not be perfect for everybody but this is something that we can all live with so I'm I'm happy about it the other comments okay we have a motion on the table do I need a roll call Vote for This it doesn't stay on the agenda I didn't think so okay all right all in favor say aye aye any opposed the motion carries well Mr need welcome back to the board thank you [Applause] item nine is citizen comments citizens are welcome to

142address the board on any Topic at this point on the agenda usually I encourage people to sign up during the meeting but we were all a little bit focused is there anyone I'll just throw it open that wishes to address the board at this time normally I would not but since we're breaking Rules tonight Mr hire wants to know what we're doing with your tree that we announced well we haven't planted anything yet oh thank God item 10 is information items we left out one very important information item folks next week is spring break thank you very much so everyone go enjoy have a healthy happy safe spring break we will be back for our next Board of Education meeting on Monday April 10th at seven o'clock Mr need if you could stick around one

143minute I believe we have stuff for you to sign item 11 is adjournment May I have a motion please I moved to adjourns the support all in favor say aye aye we are adjourned