001I assume you're all here for the budget presentation is that right yeah please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance under God indivisible with liberties [Music] start I will make a motion for exciting welcome song waiting Spike present Jason hansman here Brian Stoddard here John travatana here Lisa Trust Scott here Brad Weaver here hey Lucas here we have more thank you we have a motion to adopt the agenda let's slow you down just a little bit Brad sorry president I'd like to move to amend the agenda at this meeting with an addition of a presentation of these three Decor award to the high schools so a motion to to approve the agenda with that Edition as item or a on the agenda moved and supported a discussion all in favor please say aye aye opposed
002we have an agenda let's move on to item 4A Angelina we'll do that thank you all right good evening everybody and thank you so much for spending yet another Monday night with us so uh here we are 6 p.m not on the field but uh couldn't be happier to have all of you here today so we want to welcome you here and thank each and every one of you for taking the time to be present at the sport of Education meeting and honestly I am so glad to see each and every one of you I just wasn't ready for the season to end um this is a Monday nights have been really special for us but they've also been filled with things like hard work setbacks and repetition all of us know what it means
003to go back to chart zero right uh things like and it's also been filled with comments like bass drums why are we playing the same old thing or that was a bucket of skunks that's a personal favorite of mine um not to mention uh this is not Johnson baby shampoo No More Tears so uh with all those things as well as the friendships laughter and tears and the frustrations they got you here and so where exactly is here um here is the recipient of the 2022 bands of America a spree decor award and believe me I couldn't have been more shocked and honored to be present there with Noah to accept this award on your behalf the only thing I would have changed is I wish every single one of you would have been there
004and to hear the kind things that were said about you from cam one of the directors of boa she was kind enough to share with us some of the things that were reported about your courtesy your kindness your demeanor your enthusiasm and your spirit and all the things that Embrace this particular award I want to share just a little bit about the award the Esprit de poor award was first awarded in 1978. it was then renamed the El Castronovo Esprit de corps award in 1987 after his death since then one band has received the award at the Grand National Championship competition except for 1993 and 2012 when two groups tied and both received the award the boa staff Grand National event staff and volunteers nominate a ban to receive the award and then the boa
005Awards of America executive staff reviews those nominees and makes this final selection this is based on observations of others around you and your peers in the marching Arts uh Albert J Casanova was a nationally acclaimed band leader choreographer educator and administrator and he was also an authority on the use of computers for music education and designing marching band shows he was one of the first to actually use a computer and plotter to design such shows DeWitt band you now join the esteemed list of other bands who have received this award before you and I think you had the opportunity as we traveled to Indy this past weekend to see some of these groups and other recipients 2012 Avon High School received this award 2010 Broken Arrow High School received this award along with Plymouth Canton
006Avon High School received it again as well as Tarpon Springs and you know the incredible caliber of those those bands from our experience in Indy but you're only the second band in the entirety of the state of Michigan to receive this award and for that you should be incredibly proud um I just want to end with one final thing I had the opportunity this weekend to go to a conference called pasic um it is the percussion Arts Institute uh Noah help me out here percussion percussive arts society International Convention okay and I mentioned that because we had the opportunity to attend a session by a gentleman a German drummer who is world class named Benny Grubbs Mr Grubbs gave a speech on what it means to go from good to great and he listed five
007things he talked about sound quality uh technique repetition and various other things that he felt would take you from good to great and I want to add on that and build on that just a little bit I think one thing that this word demonstrates that'll take you from good to Great is having the essence of what you've demonstrated in winning this award and specifically so that I get it exactly right this award goes to the band with the most pride Spirit enthusiasm friendliness camaraderie and unity of purpose in marching band activity you guys embody all that is marching band in the movie of arts and you should be incredibly proud and your board of education is incredibly proud of each and every one of you so and now they've made it from Andy if I
008could have our drum Majors or field commanders come up and receive this award and give it its rightful home if you're able to get out thank you foreign [Applause] thank you thank you congratulations thank you foreign [Music] okay awesome well thank you for allowing us to come and share just a little bit I was about seventh grade Camp which we're really excited uh made its uh triumphant return after a three-year absence week we're certainly bummed you know some of the freshmen there and obviously our 8th church this year didn't get the experience came um that was just you know something we all know that happened over the last few years but I'm really excited to bring back just want to give a little bit of brief uh background before we get into uh hearing from
009some of our students about camp this year uh Camp has been experienced here in seventh grade uh into it for over 50 years and it's a huge uh tradition that's been going on for a long time and uh turkey mudros and Alicia Bennington are two uh Cemetery cave directors and they truly deserve the large and large book of all the creditors and I for updates together but be honest tonight and this year I want to say that they explained two camps that never happened basically so um they planned a year and we're ready to go and then obviously things sit and then last summer we were even still working at it they went and visited other camps to see are there possibilities of what we could do so I don't give a lot of credit
010they put a lot of work into things we all know we put them working the things that didn't happen over the last years sometimes and this is a huge lift and we were able to take the large majority of our seventh graders to camp this year uh we did we as we've been doing for the past several years we did a day camp here at school on October 25th which was a Tuesday and if anybody else remembers that was the David handle internet um in our district and everything went down and honestly I was like at least we have to worry about our seventh graders because they went out as planned and they really went pretty uh pretty seamless for them because everything was um done outside or planned off of Technology basically and so
011that Tuesday ran really well for a day camp here and then we were able to take our students to store camp in Jackson overnight from the 26th through the 28th uh ended up with beautiful weather report in the most part which was great but we've been partnering with the YMCA campus store it out for about what 10 years or so and it's been a great partnership and they're wonderful so with that I will stop talking turn over to our students and let them introduce themselves share about their experience so you can say your name and hello my name is Nate Bingo and um one of my favorite activities at seventh grade Camp was but In Cold Blood where you got told snakes called Turtles um but it's fun you also you want to talk about
012anything at all about um it's the only really bad thing about it was having to wait outside it was really the um great um one thing I really enjoyed at Camp was just how everyone could bond and uh being in cabins and I liked him to just talk to his happy mates and play games with them and the cabins were really nice um everything was just really nice about them and then you can play games in the cabin you could just hang out in there and talk foreign [Applause] [Music] fun to learn about how to like make a fire or build a shelter and it was really fun the experience of it was foreign 's mom was also a chaperone as well so and we've worked out that with Olivia so the bonding it's also
013a great thing because obviously with Meg didn't have you know her own child in there but still having the other girls and having such a great experience with that so you'll see some of the things right on the slideshow that we did as well like they were talking about all of the different greats oh that one especially earning earning the golden toilet seats and the golden dustpan for cleaning their for cleaning their Cabins this is our first seventh grade dance that they get to take part in when they are there so during day camps with us on doing an activity that we have always done the yodeler right so there's just so many there's so many bonding moments and so many things that um we hear from so many people about this is something that
014they're at the point now we're grandparents right have went to seventh grade camp and parents have and it's just a fabulous tradition so we just wanted to make sure that everyone here sees it and is aware that we're back on track and we're excited to keep to it moving forward 7 30. um I just really liked uh being a counselor I actually went to seventh grade Camp um but going as a mom was really cool experience to see your kid in that type of experience with their classmates and I just feel like it's something that they're bonding in a totally different way because they're living with each other for two nights and instead of just seeing that kid at school they're starting to see that this kid is pretty similar to what I am like
015they might not be my friend at school but I lived with them for two nights and maybe if I have them in a class I might say hey let's do a group project together or something you were pretty cool when I lived with you in the cabin um so just seeing it Through The Eyes of an adult instead of a kid was really cool because I get to experience it both ways so um I think it is a great tradition that do it has and hopefully it continues get up here and standing and talking in front of these adults that is something I would have been courageous enough to do as a seventh grader so I mean we've got a couple board members come join us at the camp in the past as parent chaperones
016and um so it's good to see you but um the the classes that when I first started working with seventh grade camps for camp program maybe 10 or 12 years ago I thought it was all about the outdoor education piece I was excited to get out of the classroom and start kind of uh you know learning in a different way or or helping these kids to learn and grow in a different way but as time's going on I realize that really the biggest benefit of Camp is just like like some of the students and adults have talked up here just getting to know people who are different than you uh getting we hear it all the time with the wit sometimes it seems clicky you know you've got these pockets of groups we want to
017hang around with people who are similar to us uh and and you're forced to hang around with some people that are different than you at seventh grade camp and what the highlights I walked in to make the Great's cabin at night one day to check them in and they're all sitting around at table playing cards and if you saw the crew at that table there really could not have been four more different people sitting at the table laughing and joking and having fun together and without this Camp experience I you know I don't know that that they would ever have an experience like that and I think that the more you get to know people who work at the venue the more you learn like Mike said that hey you have more in common than
018you want stock the less you rely on stare at a touch that might exist if I can go to real place uh that that kind of kind of hang around into it and so we feel that Camp's a great experience and we feel like it helps the environment in our middle school and and with the great that that particular class moving all the way up through of course it doesn't take care of all the problems all going then it's always gonna you know it's gonna be little bits and pieces throughout that throughout their experience but what we think that it helps we really believe that we hope that 52 years now we hope that goes another 52 at least with your support um in the upcoming years so yeah thank you for your support and
019again big round of applause thank you guys I'm just gonna add one final thing too it just uh I also want to thank all of our adults that came with us uh campus is is definitely not at all possible without the support of everyone and even this year I even knew more unique was that a store as many camps have done has gone away from providing their own health person on staff um there so we had to bring some of our adults that were registered nurses and trained in medically to there and we were able to do that which is amazing so it's just a huge huge thing thank you to Megan all of the adults that came with us this year and helped with our camp so um just thinking about the past I'm
020thinking about this as such a bonding experience have you noticed a difference in those classes that didn't have that experience you know I think that's a tricky to answer the tricky dancer only because the code has been so different for everybody so um but but I do think that more so than that we notice a difference right now and in our students coming back from seventh grade camp and then we used to notice in the past two as students fans so I think there is um that there a lot of these pictures as as you were putting the slideshow together I'm thinking these kids I usually see them sitting together in the lunchroom or here and there and and they're they're all smiling and laughing truly you know true Smiles there um so I think
021it's it's tough to answer but I think that it definitely um it's a big experience I know you know all of you also go to graduation each year and I'm there and for the many years that I've been there almost every year Seventh Grade Campus mentioned in those graduation speeches so I know it's something that resonates on the students and um as as you know Mr moonross was saying we do recognize in the buildings we just kind of did this it makes as they come back well I am so glad great so very exciting thank you DeWitt Memorial side student reports are Lucas all right first of all good job to those three students I also would not have been able to make that type of speech as a seventh grader I think uh but
022he did both know because at the seventh grader um I also wanted to congratulate uh Mr Hansen reelection support of Education I look forward to working with you three and continue uh for those of you who don't know me and Luke's Crosby under 16. I a junior at DeWitt High School and I'm very happy to be in this position so I can give your voice to students who feel like they don't really have one at the school and just to overall give a voice to our student body um I want to start off just talk about homecoming because I didn't get to give that a part in the last month overall students very much enjoyed homecoming a lot more this year then last year I know that we had Student Government had hired two decorative
023coordinators to come help it was I believe the company was called 11-11 and homecoming would not have been able to happen without those two so I wanted to give a quick shout out to them um students especially the freshmen were very enthusiastic about participating in spirit days this year in other activities we're very happy to have a very enthusiastic Freshman Class um homecoming parade occurred on October 7th uh the board members also participated in that parade and it happened right before the soccer game and soccer game was of course also new this year for homecoming and students enjoyed that I know they did because I was also there and I was talking to a bunch of people and they were having fun a lot of people had fun Mr Dodson brought pizza after the game
024and we had a student band called Bernie van hosterman Mr Weaver's son he's in that band and students enjoyed it I was there they were very good um overall School climate we've had the first nine weeks of school it just came to an end on October 28th um students were feeling very stressed out I've talked to many of them they were very feeling burnt out over midterm assignments or other kind of work and as the second week started on October 31st more students were receiving this time is just like nice fresh start to build back up and work on time management working on new scientists to build better habits we're very happy to also welcome in some new teachers this year um this is Nolan who teaches English this is Waltman who teaches business and
025of course our new principal Mr Dodson we have some up-and-coming activities and also pasta activities that were happening on November 11th there was a Veterans Day breakfast that occurred I was very lucky to have been able to volunteer and help with that breakfast I got to meet many of the veterans over there and help serve them they're all very nice they all appreciated what the work that we were doing for that there and I know they all are very happy uh this week from November 14th through November 18th we have the food drive that is happening so parents are able to have their students bring in food and a student will receive a prize uh today's prize I believe it's Donuts tomorrow's pie we also have pot cider candy and other kind of things there
026is a I think I know that later so there will also be no school on the 23rd 24th and 25th for a Thanksgiving break and also this week November 17th there will be a school by the assembly on substances going to Athletics on November 11th uh with Panthers defeated Linden's football team uh just sent us apart football team into the semi-finals and on November 18th they will play in Mason City they go to the finals our volleyball team has also had an eventual the last couple of weeks they have November 2nd they won their District semifinals against Grand Ledge on November 8th they won their volleyball Regional Championship for semi-finals against Battle Creek in October November 10th the volleyball team won the Regional Championship at school we have winter sports happening they're starting in the
027next couple of weeks tryouts for ice hockey took place on October 31st trials for gymnastics took place on November 2nd uh tries for the competitive tier took place on November 7th and then tryouts for JV varsity JV varsity girls basketball as well as bowling and both men and women's wrestling took place today November 14th and then tryouts for Varsity JV infraction and boys basketball as well as boys swim and die will take place on the 21st uh we have some new clubs and other extracurriculars that have been coming in the last couple of weeks including film club uh film club I've talked with the creator of this what I was a student at ocelmeyer she the vision of this is to have students come in to the media center or at the presentation room and
028to come in every other Wednesday and just watch a movie with friends have just a nice time to escape the kind of stresses or like questions to school um so for more information that you can contact the advisor Mr Woolsey or metal yourself or you can follow the DHS from cloud histogram page model un is a wholesale new club where students can take on the roles of Nations around the world and debate Global issues this club gives them an idea of global situations and how to work um it allows them to learn like art honesty uh also for more information you can contact the advisor Mr Wisner or about the modeling web Instagram page for more information um another new club is students against destructive decisions this is I think very important as we come
029into this type of ERA with students especially with social media and other types of information coming in is just a way for students to their goal is to assist students and against like the risks and pressures that they receive in everyday lives and just peer pressures and extremely horrible issue that's unfortunately happening all across the U.S and not Justin wood but I think working on this here is a very good thing and important as we move forward I know they're planning monthly activities to help students pursue healthy decision life foreign student government has also been working very hard as I said before they've organized their annual food drive which is happening from today November 14th the 18th um there's all spirit days that are going along with it for the rest of the week to
030kind of motivate students to bring donations and just have fun throughout the week in seminar tomorrow there will be a seminar competition where students will bring in their donations and try to stack them up in the seminar bring seminar that Stacks their donations the highest wins price our marching band we saw them earlier but now they've all gone so um on November 5th they marching band went for a field and George compete their Statewide Championship they formed their show 15 minutes of fame and even a close second to Reese Buffer's Marching Band still good um the marching band also went to Indianapolis this last weekend and they beat in their national championship and we just saw them receive the reward for I don't know what was it called again it was called the espritical all
031right um we also just had our musical the last couple of uh on October 27th 29th and 30th I know every night was either close to being or was sold out so it was very popular the show was Newsies I went to go see it it was amazing everyone who was in it performed very well um I think just as a closing statement you can I think just overall the students have been trying to keep moving as things are changing around them and I think that's important to see when we look back at it years of coven where students were either not performing well or performing to lesser extend to and now they're moving forward and they're getting back I think that's overall very good and most students are starting to move back to where
032we were so thank you Lucas thank you thank you before we move on to a discussion item I'd like to make a statement that's okay sure yeah all right so we have had a couple of emails and phone calls about some of our policies and I know we'll have more discussion when it comes to the policy and the first week but I want to talk a little bit about um some of the phone calls and emails that I have received and I guess there's been some stuff on social media so all the policy updates that are for the first read are brought To Us by Neola so we use Neola because they're attorneys and expertise across the state in the country keep the district in compliance with both state and federal regulations so policy 9150
033there's really been very little change but the changes are proposed changes law specifically public act 295. so all parent all parents with legal custody have rights they can attend IEPs they can attend parent-teacher conferences but the district is extremely careful with scheduling those events and meetings before and after school and alternative locations such as central office and not allowing any sex offenders who are parents with other students in addition we are still prohibited from hiring anyone on the registry as we are still able to implement reasonable guidelines and expectations like alternative locations alternative times having an escort with anyone and it's also important to understand this update has legal requirements for us and that's why it's in the language but we still use ichat and any sex offender or for other crimes students priority and
034safety our student safety is our priority and we make sure that I mean I've turned away even workers for the bond and construction based on how ad chats have come out we've turned away a grandparents that couldn't attend an event so we're very very careful to make sure that our students are safe that is a priority we will and do everything possible to keep them safe so even though we are required to have certain language I also have the discretion to have certain procedures in place to make sure that our students are safe so to boil it down someone has to come into the building because it makes that makes sense thank you District Memorial side yes so this is a discussion item and an action item later on I wanted to talk to you
035a little bit about this so one and the bond was to update our sign our road sign hasn't worked for a while and the best way to bid that out was to have it with another project where Mason would be involved or certain work would be involved to help make sure that the price was kept however we're trying to be very careful so we're doing something of an alternate um because that is something that could be done now with a particular project so it was actually built out with the maintenance building or it could be bid out with it with another building so we did it as an alternate and what came back was over six figures so we kind of said oh we're going to put this on pause we're going to take a
036look so I've actually been working with Dan Cox from the city to see if the city is interested in going in together with it we also took a look at what would the cost be if we left it where it was and not we were planning on kind of moving it where that thank you sign was to be kind of on the corner so we started exploring some other ideas we do have 75 000 that's in the tech budget for the bomb to go toward the sign but we're also trying to create or reap any savings that we possibly can so a couple of different designs that I brought to you I'm going to recommend I'm asking that the board approve up to 70 five thousand dollars which is what was already budgeted but because
037it was an alternate it was not approved previously and anything over fifty thousand dollars the bond has to vote on so the sign that I would like to go with is uh I think it's about six thousand more but it's a better sign it's a better quality sign um so the I was recommended to do 10 or less so the 10 pixels and what that means is that's the amount of space that's in between each dot so the smaller the number the closer the lights are together which means the better resolution that you're going to get so with this particular resolution it's high enough that it can even play some short videos so it'll be a pretty cool good quality that's on the sign but in addition part of the increase of cost is because
038that is going to need more power and the way the sign is 21 point I'm not real sure for whatever but it's it's it needs more power so there's an increase of increasing the the power so that's this I'm looking at the better quality sign um and again I the the city is still having conversations I'm working with them but the problem is is I can't go to them and ask you know Dan to take something to his board if you haven't approved that yes we have to go ahead um so there'll be an action item later but I wanted to discuss it now and answer any questions that you might have what's up so why would the city contribute that's a good question so they are looking to have more presence as well so
039they have the sign on the corner that's pretty much kind of lost visibility as well as quality we would not um if they go in because they just talk about going in half with us it's pretty substantial savings and I don't know if the board will agree to that or not but we wouldn't do any third parties so sometimes they have people asking them to put things on their sign it would only cover like City events so like elections cleanup you know things of that nature and we would have an agreement on what that would look like work so but there is a there is a possibility of being able to reach some more savings and we're trying to be good stewards of the money save wherever we can because between lead times and increased
040costs wherever we can save money we want to do that I have a question about there's two design options here is is there a particular design option that is that part of the we could do either we could do either a design if you like one better than the other the committee kind of likes the option to design because it fits a little bit better with some so that's that's the one we're looking at regardless of which um video I'll call it a video monitor it's assigned um so no matter which one we go with um we could we could do the different Caps or design okay but I'm leaning toward um the eight Mega the 8mm pixels with the second design option I was trying to figure I like that one better too but
041I was trying to figure out the sizes and if they were close it looked like they were quite different but I didn't know if it was like the screen area the screen yeah the screen is the same regardless okay same size and it's actually the same size that's out there it's just better quality it just wasn't like an apple staff it wasn't because to be honest with you I had to kind of tweak um Design One um it's deceiving because it looks it looks longer um from the second option any other questions public invocations for items on the agenda uh Michaela Smith [Music] Charter Township I come before you to speak this evening in regards to the first meeting of policies I appreciate the superintendent statements ahead of time um the reason that I wanted
042to address the school board to see if you can talk more about this is when I was reading through the information and the proposed revision of these policies what was most alarming to me and caused a great deal of red flags is that the current policy language restricts the visitor policy I just want to make sure people can hear you on TV yeah tip it up better okay all right so um as I was saying the current policy language restricts it in this regards to the visitor policy course of course uh 9150 so the current policy language restricts it specifically to parents and Guardians who are the registered sex offenders um and obviously if they want to attend their child's school activities there are steps outline to follow but the new language broadens the scope
043to include individuals who are registered sex offenders so I was just very concerned um that this that the language of individuals replacing parents and Martians really does broaden that with that particular stroke so I wanted to bring that to the board's attention I wasn't sure why this generalized term was being utilized for this particular policy revision so I would hope that the school board would give careful consideration to the safety of the students and I do appreciate the superintendent having the different processes in place to keep all the students in the district safe you know my other concern is should there be a future superintendent with that type of process still be followed because policy is of course everything so thank you all for your time thank you Peter Thompson hello Lucas thank you for
044your for your presentation very insightful I really appreciate it um interesting about the sign I think that's exciting I do you said baby playing short video clips with having student drivers that would might be a big concern because there's accidents Transportation there's a new distracted driving yeah red flag um I was also coming here to talk about the um policy 9150 and I thought it was very interesting that it was changing from parents and Guardians to individuals and I understand that there's the Public Act 295 and we're trying to be more um gender neutral in terms of our language however at the same time if you look at policy regarding the vendors 64.60 it's actually adding language that talks about parents and variance so there's kind of a discrepancy there in terms of Viola is
045saying okay we have to change this policy to say individuals and get rid of parents and areas but in policy 64.60 they're saying Guardians again I agree with what Michaela just spoke about in terms of being very cautious in terms of individuals is very broad all policies or bylaws laws whatever they just they clearly Define academic definitions at the beginning of the the bylaws or any laws dating here's this word this is how it's defined in our bylaws we clearly have parents defined individuals is very Broad and it's not defined anywhere um and then just one other thing reading the defender relations policy I was wondering do we have and I know you can't answer me right now but do we had on the district have any contracts or looking into contracts with cengage National
046Geographic learning because that might be a potential um uh conflict of interest thank you it's um cengage learning National Geographic learning thank you Chelsea Brown first thing I'd like to do is do this afternoon to publicly take parents is that advocacy over the past few months and years have thought about all the transparency reports that the board is found and taking credit for despite the board having been initially against all of it one of these reforms which made policy updates available in the advanced coding without that we would have had no notice of the changes being placed to the visitor policy so thank you to the parents for that heard what you said about legal obligations where was that concerned when parents were barred last year MCL 380 1137 required you to allow parents last
047year and you ignored it this it's offensive and dangerous what you guys are proposing I understand what you said about that we need to broaden the language parents who are sex offenders were already allowed under the current language so I just don't really understand your explanation but on a positive note maybe now all people on the board will read some of these policies that I have been asking for answers about and get back to me about that it's interesting last year and this year that I have been asking what was going on with the policy last year the policy was Shadow amended to ban all parents from District openings last year from the superintendent didn't like what she said what it said but nobody's ever gotten back to me and given me what those policies
048were so maybe now this policy is a topical discussion somebody could do that I've been informed recently multiple times that everyone's questions are always answered and that everyone has the documents that they've asked for I don't have this document I foyed it I don't have it I don't have what the visitor policies were last year I thought I don't have it I followed up on my full app I don't have it so I would appreciate maybe if the board could do some more discussion about this in front of us so we can hear the reasoning behind this because what was said previously just doesn't really make a lot of sense to us and we're very concerned about the fact that more people might have access to children when they should be in a protected safe
049place Mr McCleary um while the speech I wrote me stage a little and I did not have time to do so based on your response I am here questioning the policy of 9150 um so my next question to you is did your questions State on why this like are you just doing it because I told you to do it like I think that that's a good question is why they choose to change the language and that's important for apparently not just how school districts but every school districts in the state of Michigan and maybe we can be on the Forefront of a bad answer right um I'm a parent I'm a homeowner and I'm a business owner in the community and I'm truly don't understand really why the state of Michigan would choose to change
050this language and why you would consider to change this language to include all individuals versus just parents and Guardians I don't even understand why it is a priority over our kids actual education versus again including sex offenders inside schools and making exceptions to them and things like that so maybe something else to consider I talked to over 50 parents today about this policy it's probably one of the people that you've heard that you know it's a buzz on social media that was I'm one of those parents that got the conversation started um and the response back that I got from all of them is why is this the best for our children and serious question is is not a single one of them could come up with a positive answer and I guess I just
051don't understand how you could come up with one positive answer for this thank you thank you hi everybody my name is Jonathan Berry long-time listener person caller so I'm a homeowner in Watertown Township I have a student in the school district and I also was privileged enough to coach the varsity lacrosse team to their conference Championship I'm here tonight on behalf of concerned parents for the policy a change to 91.50 I have a couple issues that I want to bring up and I hope that you'll entertain these items before you draw your conclusions and make a vote so please keep your minds open one of the issues relates to the superintendent's consolation consolidating power within that office as opposed to delegating that among principals the language that changed actually removed the principles from being able
052to make that on-site judgment call and meeting with the offender in question versus having all that run through an off-site person's office that probably already has a playful with a lot of other things so empowering on-site principle to make the Judgment call to what's best for his or her school would be probably preferred in my book I don't know why everything would be Consolidated Under One Roof as opposed to broadening that scope um staying on a topic here now we're moving into the fact that what was the original intent of this policy was to protect children when we talked about that you said he would keep them safe however that's just a pretty broad brush to paint that with and safety is is Paramount to our children and a lot of best intentions actually end
053up having unintended consequences attorneys are make a business at finding the loopholes and criminals actually do the same thing criminals find loopholes and work their ways in so you may have the best intentions and a broad brush say you can keep your children safe but when you open up yourself to a broader policy you're going to get a broader swath of people trying to knock down the door so not to touch on anything too sensitive because there are small ears here um so I apologize but I just want to open up the conversation to who may be a sex offender and you do know that pedophiles are sex offenders and those are people adult individuals who prey on children and actually want a Orca feel that they're sexually attracted to children so that's that's not
054a starter there sometimes sex offenders may find themselves in the dry clean community and our own attorney general Dana nessel has actually been quoted as saying she would prefer to have a drag queen in every classroom because drag queens make everything better if we talk about what a drag queen might be it might be an adult man dressed as a woman to find their own Joy they entertain with outfits and dances that are sexually suggestive and provocative this leads to grooming and promotion and behavior that's not consistent with the education of our children that we're a trusting you with so it goes really fast from we're trying to be inclusive to work almost already two and inclusive and where do you draw that line because whether it's you know sex offenders now or you know
055you know practicing safeness where do you draw that line when you just include everybody so we do have to have standards and I hope that you guys think about this policy change because it opens the school doors up to potential problems lawsuits injuries children and who benefits who really benefits Beth angles enough uh Jamie Torres same okay so yeah consent agenda recommendation by the superintendent Channel speaker the Board of Education approve adapt and accept the following items from media implementation of production as presented minutes from the meeting at October 10 2022 the special meeting of October 19th 2022 and a curriculum Improvement meeting from also from October 19 2022. the treasures reported bills for payment for the month of October 2022 the treasurer is reviewing confirm the checks and PCH debits the purchase card for
056the month of October 2022. and we need to approve the summer tax Revolution we have a motion support move to support a day discussion all in favor please say aye aye you post carries for Action items recommendation by superintendent Chinese speaker the Board of Education charges for change your order Construction work required excuse me for the monument sign for the contract agreement the DPS design DPS team may select either proposed design from the attachment closed request for change order number 13 and 14 issued by Cloud Construction some less amount approved to get the motion report move to supported any more discussion than what we already had on this issue all in favor please say aye carries I'll give the kind of some pre-written background I'll give a little bit more the old representative Pat Kruger
057reviewed the fall 2022 policy updates on episode October 7th with the superintendent trustee Angelina Barnes and Deb Smith you meet every fall and spring and we get some recommendations recommended policy updates do two two rings this is our first reading we'll prove it we sometimes make tweaks to it we go back to Neola what changes typically they recommend changes that are designed to help us comply with the law I think this one is in that category but I wrote down some questions I think we'll talk about how to address some of those questions before the second reading which we'll have next month so with that it's a recommendation by superintendent speakers of the Board of Education approved the following policies for first year as presented policy zero one four four point one policies 6108 policy
0586460 policy 6700 policy 7440.03 and policy 9150 support move the support into any more discussion questions Mike I I'm gonna vote to move these forward for this first reading I know we're gonna have another crack Cadet specific to 9150 I would like I want a full kind of history of why the state did this I believe in the court case involved I think the history of this is a little bit more simple than what what's being presented here so I think it's good the get that full history out there I believe it was a bipartisan bill that passed the legislature it was in 2000.20 25. so I think yeah correct so I I just I think it's good to get a full history from Viola before we kind of move it past second reading next
059month thank you that's a lot a lot of the existing language unconstitutional there's a thousand feet that's considered I don't know but I'll bring I'll bring does the court case have anything to do or individual versus parent and guardian well because people can work and live within that proximity as well so this is about school events so that's why I want to get a little bit more clarification on why that particular language was whether they're trying to speculate let's let's get a difference a completely different policy um and I apologize I didn't send uh this question prior I think I probably overlooked it till now but on policy 7440 this is on drones essentially um I know this past the prior time of 2019 before we had the Drone Club so it excluded the students
060as authorized but I noticed it still doesn't authorize the students as part of that club it only authorizes uh an employee of the district so what what is that is as far as I know but we have a drone racing team yeah so we'll add that to Sean okay I'll have to look into that because this this policy is because of federal regular ly yeah yeah we'll put herself in a loophole look right okay and this would allow you to give someone approval to operate a drone that had the requirements the authorization the license right which I have done with somebody that has the license and has the registered drone but I don't know if all the students would be licensed and have registered I was thinking like construction images okay it might be because
061our the team goes in yours well I don't remember the policy yeah doors it just says in the district I'll look into that you could call it those two a follow-up question all in favor please say aye aye opposed motion cures last night we have some early graduation requests as a recommendations six requests for early graduation as presented we have a motion we've supported any discussion okay all in favor please say aye aye any opposed cheers public Communications for items not on the agenda uh Amanda karstuh right yes thank you hi I'm Amanda Carson and I'm uh co-parent in this District as well as taxpayer and I'm having this conversation in the overall heading of school safety on 10 12 the Glen Primal runs bill was signed into law you won't effectively have to have
062the posting up until January 1st of 2023 but it will require this District to have language of the Michigan revised school code 1976 and article 8 of the Michigan Constitution describing parental rights please make sure that it's ADA Compliant and larger than 12 point font awesome in regards to the policy change regarding sex offenders there's currently 17 sex offenders registrants into it um what is the exact statutory requirement that is requiring this change versus hiding behind the fact that Neola recommended this wanted highlighted with the actual citations of the statutory requirement I believe it was around October 26th the school had the active shooter drill and in talking to some of the students that were in school that day the most that they remember from that drill is that they were required to stand next
063to the Whiteboard what are we actually doing to teach our students about safety during these active shooter drills how are we teaching them to deal with situations that they're caught in the hallway if they're caught in the cafeteria if they are not in a classroom what are we doing awesome I find it interesting that the okay to stay email recently went out to parents followed by the fact that we are discussing the sex offender registry changes and what is the school district doing about the fact that a high school student put a kill list on Snapchat why is the district been silent about it why is this community been silent about it and why are we quietly getting emails about okay to say why were the police not immediately involved as of October 12th Bloomfield
064Hills had a middle school student who was discovered to a public secure list they removed that student from school the police department was immediately contacted the police investigated and then the police were the ones that made that determination as to whether or not there was a credible threat the police also were the ones to contact the parents who were impacted by this if this school really has safety in mind what the hell are you doing about it no one is that thank you for the opportunity to speak I want to congratulate Angelina invite and John for the re-election to the board and three of them ran campaigns that were positive and informative this community is very fortunate that they are willing to continue to serve on the sport I'd also like to acknowledge the voters
065in this community who took the time to be engaged and informed when they cast their ballots together we were able to push back against the influence of groups such as moms for Liberty whose intent seems to be to have the public lose confidence in public education the election results in Dewitt clearly show that most voters support the direction the board of education is guiding to what public schools in the election is behind us the three fabulously well-qualified candidates have retained their seats it's time now to step back and ask how can we as a community better support our schools Are there specific ways that people like me can help how do we as a community continue to Buck the trend of politicizing the work of school boards let's roll up our sleeves and work together
066to support this board School administrators and most of all the Educators who are doing their best each and every day to meet the needs of the student into which questions thank you thank you feel good evening everyone um just here to speak in on behalf and what we've touched base on the last two meetings I hope you guys all have gotten my emails um I'd love to touch base more on that unfortunately with what I have going on personally at the end of the month my next meeting we should have a lot of dancers figured out to present to you guys properly I'm here tonight to ask that the parents that are trying to put together this program properly for the school for the program be on the agenda but their voices be heard these
067are great people I've worked with them worked with their children I would love to have them have the opportunity to chat with you all in that format so that you can see what they're trying to do right for everybody thank you and George Bernard good evening Dr specker members of the duet Board of Education my name is George berghorn I'm a resident of a Township and I have a child who attends to Public Schools we do an archery program is a concept has served a great purpose giving kids from diverse backgrounds and opportunity to compete at a level that they might not ordinarily have despite that great concept I understand that you will be having discussions about ongoing issues with the club with legal counsel at some point in the near-term future in fact you
068have heard from many parents and community members about concerns with past and current Club operations and behaviors I'm coming before you tonight with a potential solution for those concerns I'd like to let you know that there is a group of parents that have organized an option for a different administration of the archery program in Dewitt and I stand before you tonight asking for your consideration for those efforts this new Option has many features that I believe you will find in public it is set up as a 501c3 not an LLC it is organized by a majority group of past and current parents who are solely focused on the club's longevity and success the club is structured to provide a focus on accountability to that end the club is governed by a fully elected board that
069is elected by Club membership this provides a self-governance structure that addresses issues without the need to come to the school board for resolution and the organization is set up to function as either a booster organization to a school-run club or as a standalone certified program through NASA on behalf of the leadership of this new organization I would like to request a special meeting with the DeWitt Board of Education to discuss this alternative and to find a path forward thank you for your time into consideration thank you thank you superintendent report all right so thank you Lucas for such a nice report you've kind of did some of my updates I'll skip through those but first congrats to our incumbents John Angelina and Dwight I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you we've done a
070lot of work on strategic plan and foreign happy to report that Mike Frye received the 22-23 Michigan AAA which is Athletics administrators Association region 7 Athletic Director award so he is not only a great representation of our Dwight Panther song of strong loyal United and true but he's also brings perspective understanding and a wealth of knowledge to the profession he is in every essence of the words team player and we're very lucky to have him on our team the Veterans Day celebration was a fantastic day and thank you to Stephanie Perez and all the staff who helped and students who helped make that a special day you've heard about the camp a musical diamond and denims pta's event was a huge success you heard about the band award Transportation had stuffed a bus which was
071a huge success so we're excited about that and then we finally had our career fair for 8th and 10th graders another huge success um a little bit of bad news unfortunately we are down yet another driver for medical reasons so um probably up until January we still have transportation mechanic secretary anyone who can drive bus driver bus that we will have to rotate a bus cancellation up until then so Transportation will be notifying families runs as well as the affected building administrators and if parents can't make it work we'll try to reroute them or put them on another stop to where they could possibly be picked up but we are in desperate need of of substitute bus drivers I know you said you were interested in getting closer [Laughter] as far as the Strategic plan
072is concerned we're continuing to update our website and web pages and we've added the November Bond dashboard to the bond site academic programs we had our career fair we're working on gifted and talented Hub and resources and we're having discussions about our elementary offerings as well as building transitions for safety and operations the principals have attended a threat assessment training and David Casada and I have done the national for it's a virtual national Safety Summit and then we're also taking a look at Cyber safety measures I don't know if you saw on the news but nearby district and Jackson had a Cyber attack with ransomware I've been through that in another district and it's very crippling to a district so we want to make sure that no one's clicking on things that they shouldn't be
073um in addition um we are just I've sent out a couple of emails we're training and run hide fights we're very lucky with tree Chief Maroney who's trained with the FBI and with Michigan State University and so um we had to get our staff trained it's an ongoing training so we have our teachers training some of our support staff trained and the safety task force is working on age-appropriate lessons because we're obviously not going to teach young children how to fight um but we are going to teach them other ways other than locking down so there are several things that we'll be practicing how to barricade a room how to lock rooms into the high school has done a lot more with this because they're older kids and they've been exposed to what run high
074five looks like and the elementaries have started with just kind of tweaking their drills a little bit um learn about run to the whistle this is our destination or where to go if a staff member is not able to to go with you so those are all things that are in the works but obviously they take a lot of time and then our learning environment and culture we're working on mentoring and at our December meeting you're going to hear about a hopefully adopting an amend amending the curriculum guide to offer a mentoring class because our assistant principals have been working really hard on setting up mentoring between middle and high school and so far that's been very successful and then Personnel we're really working on recruitment efforts and sending out information on that the enrollment
075is at 3108 but FTE is 3105 and then lastly the foundation has their Patron drive going on so for forty dollars you can become a patron you'll get a window cling and a thank you card from the foundation but that also goes into teacher grants so right now those are open for teachers so you can apply for classroom grants for special projects or or activities that they're wanting to do and those teacher grants are due on December 5th so I would encourage you all to become a patron foreign requirement can you run that Angelique Barnes well first I guess we need a motion first I'm sorry support we'll be supported now leaderboard play hamstring Jason yes Senator yes yes Bradley yes okay motion carries we will go into closed session now thank you all foreign
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