001Please stand alsisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, Mr. Angelina Barneski here. Carpenter here. Just barely hand here. John here. Brad Weaver here. We have four. Great. Thank you. Uh do we have a motion to adopt the agenda? Support any discussion. All those in favor, please say I. We have an agenda. We will kick off tonight's meeting with a presentation for stewardship management plan with James Gray from the National Capital Forestry LLC. Welcome James. Thanks for being here. Thank you very much. Nice to be with all of you. I'm just getting fired up so you No problem. And I'll give you kind of a little background on why James is here tonight. This is James card. Uh so I think it was 11 years ago we entered in our first forest management plan with
002the district uh after kind of a lengthy process working with nature center and part of that plan they recommended that every 10 years you review the plan and update the plan. So back in the fall uh again we had some conversations with the nature center about who we would use and James came very highly recommended after we did some interviewing and talking with the state. Uh so this I believe it was January or February uh we officially entered into an agreement with James to update our plan and uh he spent the last few months getting to that point and I wanted him to have about 10 minutes with you tonight to be able to walk through the highlights of the plan. So hopefully you'd be able to approve the plan tonight uh and we'd be
003set for the next 10 years. So with that, thank you. So has everyone had a chance to see the plan? Have you received the document and yes? Yeah. Well, it's a pleasure to be with all of you this evening and it was a real treat to be able to uh to to compose this forest management plan. So as as Rob said, this is an this is an updated plan. But um my company, Natural Capital Forestry, um based in East Lancing, we um we tend to take a more holistic approach and a more ecologically focused approach to forestry than most um most companies. And so the um the plan that was put together uh instead of being called just a forest forest management plan or forest stewardship plan, it's actually more comprehensive and I titled it
004a forest stewardship restoration and and education plan. So looking at what resources we have today, how can we restore them to be the best and most most resilient forest they can be and then how can we use use the forest itself and the restoration process as as tools to be able to engage youth in um in ecology and hands-on hands-on learning and also helping us to actually make restoration possible. And so if if you compare what the uh the original plan from from 10 years ago was more of a timber management plan, but in in this plan um it's really it's really interesting because the discipline of forestry is um is going in a lot of interesting directions and and I'm very interested in in a more ecological approach to forestry. So we're looking at
005the entire forest system and how can it more have more biodiversity uh be have um be suitable for more wildlife and and then be more resilient for the long term. As you know, we have a lot of challenges in our world, invasive species, climate change, and so how can we have our our forests be as as strong and resilient as possible against all of those threats. And so, uh we're not just looking at what what timber we can we can sell for income. That is one component, but we're also looking at the biodiversity of the system and the vegetation at all levels. Not just the big trees that we can cut for timber, but everything from the the large trees, the midsize trees, the shrubs, and the ground vegetation. So, the idea is to look
006at all of those in their in their complexity and manage them such. And then, as I mentioned, we're we um there's a a discussion of of restoration. How can we improve these forests, make them the best they can be? How can we uh leverage these resources for education and greenerh career development? And then how can we there's also information about how we we can obtain adequate resources to be able to invest back into these forests to make them the best they can be. And so uh one thing I did was take a look back to the historical imagery. So in 1950, as you can see, it looks quite different than it does today. These these orange outlines are are what are today's forests. And so the school buildings are kind of mixed in there along
007with homes and other um in other buildings. And so as you can see these um as I as I noted over there, these forests are survivors. They've been more in in in a um in a context of agriculture. So they've been they're really um you know, especially the center has these amazing grand trees, but they really have been kind of cut off from the rest of the forests in the region. And then as you can see, uh much of these, you know, here and here, some of it is is former agricultural land. So, it's actually recovering from, you know, from this blank land state, from this bare field state. And so, one thing we look at is what what does a healthy forest look like? And this kind of gives you the idea of um
008just very briefly, you want to have have um dynamic vegetation at each of these levels from the super canopy down to the ground level and ground cover levels. So those are those are covered. And essentially when when we have a dynamic forest, we want to manage it so that we have forests of all sizes. You can kind of see you've got your large trees and mediumsized trees and small trees. And so one big challenge we have today is we don't have a dynamic set of um of seedlings, young young trees um seedlings and saplings that are developing to to grow into the the future forest that we want to see. And so that's where the restoration comes in is is um working to make sure that all of those all those ages and species are
009represented. And then uh with um I am a part of initiative called the uh forestry for Michigan birds initiative and we're working hard to manage forests so that they're beneficial to all wildlife. But but birds are very interesting because they have such a wide range of needs. And this kind of gives you a quick idea of how different birds um utilize different vegetation and different ages of vegetation. So all the way from small brown vegetation all the way up to older old growth um trees. And so that's indication that we need to manage so that we can support all of those different birds and and other wildlife. And then um one issue that we have in in these forests is that we have a lot of grand uh oaks in the in the overstory in
010the canopy. But because there's been so little change, there's a lot of shade. And so, um, oaks need more light to be able to oaks and hickories, which is the original, uh, land cover type, uh, need more light to be able to establish. And so, currently, they're not establishing adequately. And, and then also, if you're looking at wildlife, uh, oaks uh, provide much more benefit for for wildlife than any other uh, group of trees. And so the acorn is a a super, you know, super valuable. It's kind of an ecosystem in itself. And so, uh, I've recommended doing restoration efforts that make sure that we are, uh, we are adding oaks to the system, which currently isn't having that happening naturally today. and and just in general the um kind of the the historic roots
011of forestry has been a timber focused forestry where the values are homogeneity and similarity. If you think of sort of like a pine plantation where you have all the same species and just in rows you know five six feet apart and it's super efficient. you plant the trees, come back, you know, in certain certain um um intervals, and then you harvest trees for income. And it's it's more of a more of a a like an agricultural model. Nothing wrong with it, but when we're looking at a forest like like here where conservation and and wildlife values are very high, we want to look ecological forestry which values complexity and heterogeneity and providing a wide range of benefits rather than simply managing for for maximum timber production. And so here this this um situation uh illustrates
012what's going on today. We have these amazing some of the grandest trees I've ever seen uh here in the DIT Nature Center. But um down down in the understory we have we have either missing or low quality trees. You can kind of see here that there are a lot of areas that that are devoid of vegetation and then like here I mean you know that we have deer every place and they're basically everything that that develops essentially gets gets munched and so um so we want to focus on restoration efforts that protect our our oaks and other seedlings to get past this stage. And then in other cases where especially where I noted the um the areas where where the forest is developing from uh former agricultural areas you know there's they're just um you
013know this forest is doing its best to get established but there are a lot of trees that are in this this kind of situation where they have poor form and really are never going to be I mean they will provide some benefit but um you know this will never be a timber tree for example. has kind of a has a limited uh limited utility and limited lifespan. And then this is just another situation where you know these trees for example I mean it's just generally lower quality trees and um you know really isn't providing you know will not have a will not provide future timber benefit nor are they providing much um because here we're we're looking at a single species red maple rather which is lower value for wildlife versus the higher value of
014the of the oaks that I mentioned earlier. invasives will take over the world if we let them. This is a uh this is a a grove of black locust that is super aggressive. It's kind of over um you know over on the east side here. And so these are issues that we really should we'll never fully contain them, but we should at least do our best to um to put them in check so that the desired species will thrive better. And like this picture was taken in December. autumn olive is green and and photosynthesizing in December where whereas all of our native native shrubs are not doing that. So these you know these are um species that have an advantage and are expanding and growing and are displacing our native native species and and then
015uh in in the plan I also illustrate opportunities for timber income which which is adequate and like I said can obviously be used for a number of things environment educational initiatives, restoration initiatives, but like for example on the that picture on the left there's a tree that that has some damage to it and so has a high risk of of declining and eventually dying. So that would be something that we could a tree that we could harvest in the short term for income to do other things with. And then here, this is a this is a picture of the the nature center where there are a number of trees that have either broken crowns or they're leaning poor form. And and I know that currently the the policy is to not do any timber harvesting
016there. But in the plan, I recommended some very strategic strategic timber harvesting of some of these lower quality trees, but then not touching any of the the largest grandest trees. Uh but then leverage those for their seed production and essentially create growing space where these you know the best trees can then um drop their genetic material and then those can be our next generation of oak and other other tree species. And then uh I presented some ideas of of um working with kids to essentially do some biodiversity monitoring having benchmarks like um We want to have our our timber production, but also our our biodiversity benchmark. So, we could look at that and and and our young people could be useful in helping us to do do long-term monitoring to reach those those benchmarks. And
017then there are a number of of restoration opportunities, places we could uh that are ready to plant right away or where we could remove small lower quality species and replant. And um I I have a lot of experience with uh working with youth and volunteers. I recommend setting up a a volunteer system with utilize the infrastructure of the friends of the Wit Nature Center to just have a a network of volunteers that do the recommended restorations and then also doing that long-term monitoring, making sure that, for example, when you're putting up tree tubes, you're making sure they're not falling over or we do fencing, same kind of thing. have um have volunteers, you know, do that planting and monitoring. I'm working with a school where uh where we've set up a um a seed collection
018program, you know, do the do the planting and then actually have some of those trees be the ones that we replant the next season into the forest. And then um this this is a new thing for me but I well this is like one thing for example uh we could have a number of project based learning and career certifications. One thing I've started with East Lancing High School where my kids go is um I've set up like a a Spanish learning Spanish in the forest uh course and I'm working with the Spanish teacher there with the Spanish uh Spanish three and Spanish four kids. So that's something we could build upon. But then also if we could we could have you know we could we could do these restoration projects but then at the same
019time you know you know more about this than I than I do but if we could could have you know give kids the hands-on experience but then also some kind of certification that they could then take on to to their next level when they're applying for college and so forth. They've already got those uh those experiences. And another project and I'm starting this with Elma College is um looking at the um at the what's it called the the carbon footprint of um of the the district. So in in Alma College we're looking at the the greenhouse gas emissions from the college but then looking at the um what we can do in our forest to essentially offset some of those some of those emissions. So we kind of look at our accounting. You've got your
020emissions on the on the um infrastructure side, but then we can use the forest to essentially um increase the the carbon that's that's taken out of the atmosphere and put into put into forest. So we can essentially measure that and like like for example we could do some planting projects and we can get those trees in the ground and then measure how much carbon dioxide those trees are taking out of the atmosphere. And then you know the kids could look at for example how the emissions are versus the uh the sequestration side. And so that would be a really amazing project we could involved in. And then finally um I recommend setting infrastructure so that we can we can figure out what our asks are for these restoration projects, get donors in the community to
021to donate um set up a grant writing infrastructure, as I mentioned, a volunteer network. We could look at um receiving income from carbon credits for for tree planting. And so there are a number of uh recommendations in that area. And then back to those um certifications, I'm working with a number of organizations like the MSU Kell Biological Station where and perhaps other companies maybe border water and light or consumers energy and you know looking at some of these holistic sustainability measures and then involving involving community partners for those efforts. So anyway, there was a lot a lot I wanted to share with you, but I think that covered the uh covered the essential details questions. Thank you. You're welcome. just to be clearest. I'm all for it, but certain we're not going to get people
022coming in here. Well, they might but we could we could go out in the woods and explain why and I could, you know, I can do the same with you as well. But essentially, you humans human beings are changing aspects of of nature today. And and if we essentially so so hands-off management is one one management technique or one management approach, but then you're essentially essentially letting letting all these forces that are battering our natural systems to just just take over. So, like I was mentioning with the with the invasive species, if we just let them if we don't do anything about that, I mean, it's just going to be probably eventually all, you know, all invasive species. But then, um, you know, like like for example, we um there used to be fire everywhere
023on the landscape and that kind of created a mosaic of different species and different ages of trees. But we we have a more, you know, our civilization maybe lets that happen in some places but not in most places. And so so now now our dynamics are different in the forest. And so if we if we just kind of let let things happen, then we're going to we're kind of a lower quality forest is developing unless we take action. And so and and I think I think if if I could kind of show you in the forest like what's going on, you know, you can kind of see like, oh yeah, that makes sense. You know what I mean? But but then I I am also looking at at planting so that we we essentially, you
024know, not just let nature take it. Well, we'll have a mix of letting nature take its course, but then also say here's here's what what we want to see for the future and put it in there because otherwise it's hard Just one question. We're sitting here talking about 10 years. Do we ever look at this? You mentioned presentation pretty quickly. 10 years might seem like a long time. So do we look at anything or do you adjust the plan as you go around or what is your you know ability to be able to shift somewhere? Well, this is just active management project. Usually, usually I make a 20-year plan, but then it it's always being modified and massaged and tweaked as things go along. And a lot of times if you if you do something
025we have a rough idea of how this natural system is going to respond, but it may respond differently. And so it's just always you're just always modifying as you go for and And then one thing too with you may have seen in the plan that that um you know all of this was I tried to be as creative and interesting and and productive as possible. But then in speaking with Rob and Kevin, it's like the idea is not to obligate you to something like you absolutely must do everything, but here's a here's a really great vision and let's approach it. But then if that's not working out, then we'll we'll take a different path depending on on what you decide because essentially what I'm doing is is trying to fulfill your objectives. So your objectives
026may change. We talked about students as much as possible. So we process middle schoolers. I'm very excited to talk public comment. Any further questions? Thank you so much. Just on that point, there's there's so much going on with like bird monitoring and managing for birds and I mean it's just so much fun and dynamic and so fun to talk about. All right. Next, we'll move on to public communication for items found on the agenda. Welcome. Hi. Welcome Brian Buyers Wit Road representing the teachers today. Um mildly concerned if we're doing a plan again which we're all for. We were very for the last time but there was multiple references to harvesting timber and if the plan is locking us into harvesting the timber I think we're remiss not having the presentation of where we're harvesting
027the timber besides two or three trees in the nature center but in all our other forests. Um if we are getting locked in I think we should table this until other stakeholders get a chance to look at the plan and go through it. We do have people who are very involved with all the forestry stuff in our thing and I think there's two valid reasons if we are getting locked in why we should kind of wait thing one is we don't want to repeat when we made the national news before we harvest the trees and we didn't bring it to the stakeholders first and it became a huge snafu and then it was great after we involved the stakeholders and time went on. Um, the second reason is when we did our plan last time,
028there was a minor oversight where they didn't account for what it would damage when they took out the trees. And so, this one was a little bit more personal, but it destroyed our start area of our cross country course. And we had to spend another $30 reeding it and releing it because they dragged logs through the start area of our course back there, right? And so we didn't realize they were going to do that damage when we were like, "Yeah, these are good trees to harvest." And then we had just redone that area had to then spend money to redo again. So the money that we brought in for timber, we put right back out in that area. So anyway, if we're not locked in, if the plan is fluid, then yay. And if the
029plan is not, then we should probably wait and let stakeholders take a look at it. Thank you. So yeah, I think that it is a fluid plan. First of all, if I'm misunderstanding that, let me know. But this plan wasn't made to lock us into any path. But at the same time, I think it's always important to get feedback. Certainly not something you have to pass today. We certainly could push this out to our staff. look at it. Um, give us feedback for sure. So, there's nothing on the table that I would say we need to, you know, pass. Yeah. There's nothing. We don't have any contracts with any harvesters. We haven't identified any trees. That's why I had James put into the plan. We actually made it larger and bold. These are just recommendations.
030This is nothing locked in from district's perspective. Um and we actually James Philer sorry um sat through this whole process with us. So um we had friends nature center involved through Phil Larry wasn't as able to like he was last time but he was of the process and Phil actually highly recommended James for this project he knows on that side of things. We haven't had any uh anything come back from Bill saying he was uncomfortable with the plan. He's had opportunity to review everything that was in there and provide his thoughts and recommen Thank you. All right. Any more? That's what I was looking for for our newer members or those don't recall that was for the close session. I have to approve it. All right. Well, let's get discussion. Let's get a motion on
031the table and we'll get into that. So, uh, first we will talk about the consent agenda. Recommendation by superintendent Kevin provide the board of education approve, adopt, accept the following items for immediate implementation and action as appropriate as presented. Approval of minutes work session June 23rd 25. Close session June 23rd 25. Treasurer's report for month of June 25. The treasurer has reviewed and confirmed the checks, AC debits, and the purchase cart for the month of June 2025. professional hiring of Kelly Corbett as director of human resources and Noah Hansen as communications coordinator 2526 to its salary schedule for nonaffiliated personnel. Do we have a motion? So move any support. Okay, move and supported discussion. The basis for going into close session appears to be statuto. cited here 8A is to discuss the periodic evaluation of
032an employee as their request to close the session. Um if I recall correctly the basis for going into this was 15.2681H which was actually to discuss an opinion and legal council and H is allows us to go into session to discuss opinion because we make that change. Restate that. Yes. So the basis going into close session should be MCL 15.268 26. Um, I guess I'll entertain a motion for amended. Okay. So, let's do that first. All those in favor of the amended minutes, please say I. Any oppose? Now we will go back to the consent agenda with those minutes in there. Um, any further discussion? Okay. All those in favor of approving the consent agenda, please say I. Any motion carries? Deb. If you could write. Okay. Thank you. Just to confirm that. Excellent. And
033I know we have Noah Hansen who's here today. So, just wanted to give you a shout out and welcome. as part of the team. So, thanks for being here today. I'm so excited. No, just we went, you know, we went through process actually joined us with some interviews. Uh, super excited to have Noah as our new communications coordinator and I just think he's really lift up as far as transparency and so forth. So, thank you. No, nothing other than what you just shared. I to be part of the interview process. I think you're going to be a fantastic addition to the district. So, I have really really positive feelings about I think it's a great choice. Thank you. Great. Thank you. All right. We will move on to action items now. Uh the first is
034the school bond loan fund preliminary loan application resolution is a recommendation by superintendent Kevin Rob public schools board of education approve the school bond loan fund application resolution as presented. We have a motion support. Move to support. discuss this annual payment right now. So it's all kind of determined by the state how we go through this process and it just requires resolution by the board. All those in favor please say I any motion carries. Okay. Next is a water main easement for the city of Dit recommendation by superintendent Kevin Robotic that the board of education approved the resolution between DIT public schools and the city of Dit as presented. Rob, do you want to just touch briefly on that on why they need to have an easement to get in? Yes. So, uh, the county
035in coordination with the city is undergoing a water extension project. It's running along road. It actually comes up drive here stopping kind of just short of the rock that we got from the middle school. The benefit of that water flow. There'll be a couple hydrants added tucked right along Panther Drive space and then it's actually going to church as well on that side of Panther Drive. And then the ultimate goal is to create a loop. So they would eventually come back behind the middle school and tie into our water man that we already have through here kind of create a whole system to increase water. So they need to be able to actually bring that extension on our property. I'm sorry. Can they regrade that whole space? We we can ask but there agrees. Any
036further discussion? Um was there a time sensitivity to this? like they need to start work or because I know okay because I noticed that it's a resolution to ratify action taken and then the resolution itself has a section called authority that indicates the signator typically I would think that would approval like that you have authority to do it. I just never seen it. There's nothing that says that we come after the typically it's not done this way but actually to John just to make sure that from a perspective we were okay and then we're actually working through our legal counsel that process. Okay. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. Uh, next, the 202526 DIT Education Support Personnel Association is the recommendation by Superintendent Kevin Board of Education approved the master
037agreement between the Dwit Public Schools Board of Education and the Dit Education Support Personnel Association for July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 as presented through the motion. support it. Any discussion? Sorry. Um, so I notic the page that starts with the longevity's it just isn't specific about and I know longevity is typically supposed to be an annual payment, but there it doesn't look like there's any langage in there. It starts on the top of page 40. So it just there's J and there's K. J longevity K is right above it. So it's a little bit weird. And then it just has like years and there's no and it defines it as having continuous service in the district. Is this intended? And then the only portion is page 42. Um there is we struck or
038proposed to strike on page 40 the reference to health plan. If you go to page 42, uh J on that references McLaren Health Plan B685 and it's a great clause. It's about how it doesn't include us from engaging in competitive bidding insurance and having a different program, but it appears that we're striking it above. It's also just restated here and so it would be here too with a different Well, I think the point is that the specific the whole point is to reference it specifically to say reference to the specific plan does notclude us from changing the plan. So, it's a great clause, but we just I think you just need to make the same substitution that was made in just Yeah, I think one of the clarification too, I don't think we touched everything,
039right? We didn't go through every piece of language, right? So, this one discussion. All those in favor, please say I. Any votes? Motion carries. Uh the 202526 DIT administrator association contract is a recommendation by superintendent Kevin Robotic, the board of education approve the master agreement between the DIT public schools board of education and the DIT administrator association for July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026 as presented. Motion moved and supported. Any discussion? Uh there's a letter of agreement at the very end. Um and it's page 17 of this agreement and it talks about insurance and salary schedule. Is it completing extra work or are we saying they already completed extra work and if so what's that composable wages for retirement which So these are just off schedule payments for what? So it's really just part
040of the negotiation process. increase. This is part of the negotiation process. Yeah. I guess the way you could explain it is this is something that while apply this year, if this was a three or four year contract, it wouldn't necessarily happen year after year, right? Correct. It's an off schedule. That's the schedule. into the future. It's not a wage amount. So, it's a bonus for extra work performed related, whe I guess I would defer to Kevin. Yeah, I mean, we certainly could, you know, outline But that's not how it's done. It's just an offc. Yeah. Well, you can't I mean before they used to be pay for us. Yeah. So they've asked you to go away from payers was really pushed and for a while we should do so and so forth and then they've
041kind of gone away from that. So I'm not sure I can always explain what is sorry I've interrupted you like 17 times ahead. Do we need to update this to pull keys out? We talked about that, but um we feel comfortable either way striking him out if we need to. He has provided his letter of resation as of July 11. But yes, we can strike that one through. So if this were to be approved now, then what's the next process? Is this final? Is this Yeah, this is this is what we agreed upon with with the if you guys want to see something different in the letter of agreement, we certainly could spell it out differently, but this is how us to do it in order to qualify. All those in favor, please say I.
042Any signatures approval signaturship management plan is recommended recommendation by superintendent Kevin for the board of education to approve the forest management plan and authorize to execute the plan. Is there a motion? Can I can I make a motion to you want? If there's a second vote on it, I make a motion. Second. Okay. Moved and seconded. A new motion. Um any discussion on the revised motion? All those in favor, please say I. Any opposed? All right. So, we have chosen to table this instead of approve it today. Next meeting is not like the beginning of August. Is that what we're saying? Table it for now. If it's definitely Is everybody okay with that amended motion? All right, we're going to table it until the September meeting. Okay, action items are over. We will move on
043to public communications for items not found on the agenda. All right, thank you. Uh, so our current enrollment is a little over 3100 right now. That's kind of where we stand. Obviously, our school of choice is closed, but there's still some numbers coming. So, we'll keep you updated on that. Yeah. Yeah. Rob and I worked on that earlier this year, but where we need to be. We've offered our school choices that appar. It's not a huge I'm curious more than anything the size of the incoming kindergarten class. Okay. So according to this Rob I have our number is at 208 currently for kindergarten is at 40 of July 17. historically don't know it'll continue in August but right now with our actual last year this was back what couple weeks ago we got those numbers
044so I don't know July is that n or 10 sections Thank you. So with that flexibility or or I should say with with the unpredictability of those numbers, are we having to float teachers back and forth because I know a lot of our grade levels have 10 or we just No, we had planned to be at nine. Okay. So we're all we're aligned. We've done the shuffle that we need to with teachers retirement. So we should have to make adjustments to the kindergarten teaching staff. Kind of that process has already occurred earlier in the year. I should say towards the end of last year last school year we kind of teachers bounced around where they where they felt most comfortable as far as their credentials and so forth. So we had a retirement obviously shorth.
045So I only ask to you because those seem like smaller classes that we have historically had and so I just I know you're on top of it but financially that that makes an impact at some point once we reach a critical mass of smaller classes overtaking. So yeah that's something we'll have to think about choice families are enjoying activities. Just not to check out the columns that put your door magazine. August 19 of our open houses are two for David Scott Elementary. August 20th is our Shady Elementary School and High School. And then Tuesday, August 26 is our first day of school. I'll send a reminder early August, but just We are in the middle school or in the middle of our middle school principal search. So we have first round interviews tomorrow and then
046we'll have second rounds on this Thursday as well. I don't yet, but I can get you one. Thanks. All right, we'll move on to any announcements for board members. Seeing none, we'll close announcements and we'll move on for a motion to adjourn. All those in favor? Any oppose? We are ajourned. Thank you.