001So, I will call us to order. This is the regularly scheduled June 9th, 2025 meeting of the East Lancing Board of Education. Thank you all for being here. Uh, Miss Hok, can we get a roll call? Mr. Martin here. Dr. Lions here. Dr. Edel here. Miss Ferris Highland here. Dr. Chambers present. Dr. Torres here. Miss Techagi here. Miss Leo here. Thank you. Trusty Torres, can you read the mission statement of East Lancing Public Schools? The mission statement is nurturing each child, educating all students, building world citizens. Thank you. Uh the first item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion? I move to approve the agenda of the June 9th, 2025 regular meeting as presented. Second. The motion was made by Trustee Ferris Highland, seconded by Trustee Torres. All
002in favor of the motion, please say I. I. Any opposition. Motion carries unanimously. Can I get a motion for the approval of the minutes of our last meeting? I move to approve the minutes of the May 19, 2025 regular meeting as presented. Second. Motion made by Trusty Taiki, seconded by Trustee Chambers. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. Next up on our agenda is recognition. We have a lot of folks to recognize. So I'll turn it over to uh Superintendent Leo. Yes. Uh typically uh trustee Ferris Highland does a recognition, but because we have such a long list of retirees um that have encompassed this past calendar year. So a number of these individuals um retired since we did recognition last year, but we
003still want to uh formally recognize them tonight. And then we do have a couple of them here in attendance that I will acknowledge as well. Um Mon'nique Smith retired last summer. Mon'nique was uh retired as our special education administrative assistant. Um very many years here. Um Sabrina Aro retired last year and Sabrina was an art teacher um most recently at Marble Elementary. Nicole Moore Cos retired this past year. Nicole was a counselor here at the high school. Gary Smith retired um as a lunch monitor. Barb Balin was a paraprofessional most recently here at the high school who retired along with Amy Japinga. Um Richard Pew, our finance director, retired uh in February along with our payroll um supervisor Gail Alone. And Greg Schm high school social worker is uh just completed his last day here
004at work on Friday. Claire Floyd uh was a teacher consultant in the district. She finished her last week last week as well. Marie Veloc uh retired as a PE teacher at White Hills Elementary. And then the two folks we have here tonight with us, uh, one is Heather Duffner, and Heather, uh, retired most recently as a special education, um, resource teacher at Green Elementary, but in my, uh, 12 years in the district, served in multiple roles, um, as a classroom teacher and in the special education department. And also we have uh Rob Smith here and Rob is in the back and Rob is uh retiring as a high school uh PE and health teacher. So I want to give um recognition and thanks great thanks to both of them. Um they touched a lot lots
005and lots and lives here um in our district and both students, families um and staff as you can see. there's some colleagues here of theirs as well to recognize them. So, um I just want to thank you both for your service. Um we have a little uh token of appreciation here for you as well. And um please do not feel pressured to at all, but I want to offer the opportunity if you'd like to say any words at the podium, but there is no pressure to. But if you'd like to, you're welcome to. You're good. Okay. How about you, Rob? I'll say something real quick. You bet. You got to come to the podium for the thousands thousands of viewers at home. For everybody watching at home. Um well, so Zack Kennet and I came
006in at the same time and we had this bet who was going to make it the longest and uh we both agreed that one of us would die on the playground, but I gave in. He got me. He's going to stay. Um, and uh, but I just want to thank East Lancing, uh, the board and and, uh, the the school district. It's been an awesome experience. Just love this school district. I, uh, I met my wife at Spartan Village. Um, Mandy in the back. Happy birthday, Mandy. This is her birthday. I asked her, I said, "What do you want to do for your birthday?" Let's go to a board meeting. Wow. But she's going to Olive Garden in a little bit. And uh so we met at Spartan Village. He was a sub for uh
007Denise Skolski. And uh over there we had six all day kindergarten classes over there at Spartan Village. Uh just love that school over there at Spartan Village. And uh uh they needed me over here for sexed. That's back when you could get bumped. Um and you know, there's nothing you could do about it. But then I loved it and I love being here. And um I mean basically beyond that um you know uh some of the happiest moments of my life were here uh coaching and and teaching uh you know uh gez the the girls in basketball obviously were amazing here for us and uh my wife was there when we won the state title in 2010 and then Tate my son was born uh the next uh month and so there's just so many
008good things and and of You know, when you teach the song, you feel a lot of other emotions, too. There was some things, you know, and we all experienced those things together. And I guess the thing that I'm most proud of is that uh this board and especially Dory uh her support for teachers just phenomenal. And uh I can also say too that uh Ashley Schwarz back back here and Jeff Lampy who just uh ran out of the building to get his family. um they really made uh the last couple years here for me uh the best and uh we really appreciated that as a staff and going out on a good note going home to see family and we're getting called home because uh uh there's some illnesses and some different things going on
009back home with our folks and and uh you know home is home and and sometimes you just got to go and uh but this has been my home for 26 years and and I just want to say thank you and have a great meeting and a great uh 2026. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Hey, Rob. Rob, you know I still have kids in the district, right? You can't leave sooner than the last Edel Power comes through. You'd be here in that first uh all day kindergarten class. Great memories. Thank you so much. Take care. Good luck to you, Mr. Smith. Thank you so much. Thank you. And you too, Mr. Duffner. Thank you. Also, I know Heather Duffner doesn't want to speak, but I will say that my son had you for third grade
010and he loved you and you made a real impact on our family. Thank you. I can't remember when you had Jackson, but Right. Yes. Well, he's 28 now, so yeah. Did that change your mind, Heather? Oh, it did. Yes. Oh, no. She came up to get her gift. She wants your gift. [Laughter] You're welcome. All right, that was really nice. Uh, is there any other recognition that we would like to offer before we move on to the next part of the agenda? No, I have nothing submitted. All right, no other recognition. Okay, let's move on to the superintendent's report. I'll turn it over to Superintendent Leo. Thank you. Uh, first I want to say congratulations to the class of 2025. Our graduation ceremony was held last Thursday evening at the Breland Center. East Lancing High
011School recognized 308 graduates. So, congratulations to the graduates and their families and friends. Summer construction work here at East Lancing High School um will begin this week. Uh this construction is a result of the community approval of the 2024 safety, security, and accessibility bond proposal. The high school will be getting a new secure entrance and a new front-facing main office space, additional cafeteria space will also be added along with an interior ramp, a learning stairs space, and additional flex space for our students. Uh the work is scheduled to begin today, June 9th. Doesn't look like much happened out there today. um will continue through the 2526 school year. As part of this project, access to our current main entrance, which is door number one, will be affected. During construction, our new temporary main entrance will
012be door number eight, also known as the night activities entrance. We kindly ask all students and families to use door 8 to enter the building for the duration of the construction period and to be sure to follow all posted construct construction signage and directions for your safety and convenience. Uh summer office hours for central administration. We are open all summer here. Uh our office hours are 8 to 4 Monday through Thursday and then the office will also be closed June 19th in recognition of Junth. Uh for appointments or access to individuals here in central office. We ask that you make an appointment and the individual will be able to meet you at the entrance or not notify the door safety monitor of your arrival. So we will have the doors uh door number eight monitored.
013We have one of our safety monitors uh there throughout the months of June and August. July is a much quieter month here, so that's where we're um more specifically, we'll ask folks to make appointments and then we'll go down and meet them um at the door to let them in. We are still enrolling for preschool. It's free preschool is available um for the 2526 school year. Please contact Michelle Huskin and I've let put her contact information. Again, this will be sent out to all staff and families tomorrow. Um, our preschool classrooms are all at Red Seedar Ele Elementary School and are now five days a week, which is a change from the past. They've been four days a week and this fall they'll be five days a week. Children need to be four years old
014by December 1st, 2025 to be eligible. I have a few new um construction updates and photos for you if you want to look up on the screen. We've got some progress. If you remember last meeting, I showed you a bunch of dirt. Um, but it was moved dirt and like, you know, nice and uh flat dirt. Um, but uh we now, let's see here. Some progress that's been made since our last meeting on the tower new administration building. Um, some inground plumbing corrections per mechanical engineer were made. Structural steel placement nearly complete, which is ongoing though. uh whole board and foundation wall for water service line. Uh risers for fire suppression and water service lines were installed in this slab area and through foundation walls and filling and compaction of soil for building pad is
015in progress. So I just added a few photos up there. That's probably the one that looks the most up like biggest change from last time is that there is a structural steel frame um up there on the building and uh you can drive by it right up on Tower Avenue just north of the quality area on Lake Lancing Road if you want to uh watch progress. uh for the high school edition ent uh front entrance and cafeteria. The board will be taking action this evening on a group of contract recommendations for the high school front entrance and cafeteria edition. The outdoor space in front of the main entrance to ELHS will be fenced off this week and designated as a construct construction zone until the fall of 2026. A few upcoming dates. Um, again, I
016mentioned our offices will be closed uh on June 19th in recognition of the Junth holiday. And I know it's really soon, but I just need to keep putting out there that the first day of school is August 25th. Um, for students. Um, and then I've again attached the tenative calendars just so folks get them a few times. They are available. They're still tenative because they're part of our uh teachers union contract that is still under negotiation, but we've tenatively agreed on these con uh calendars, which is what's allowed us to share them. So, while they're not fully approved yet, um they are still in the tentative category, but uh eventually uh we'll be able to make them official. And that is all I have tonight, but happy to answer questions. Are there any questions for
017the superintendent or comments? I just have one for the free preschool. Is it in district only or do you accept school of choice or how does that work? Um preschool is I believe indistrict only. Is that right, Kelly? I think so. Sorry, Michelle is our expert on that. I know. Um but I think it's in district only. They may fill them if we end up having spaces available to um um non-resident families, but I know priority is given to resident families for that for our preschool spaces. Cool. Thanks. You're welcome. Uh Superintendent Leo, do we know how I know it's temporary door 8, but do we have a sense of how long we'll be using door 8 for the most like this whole school year? Yes. Till fall of 2026. Well, I have a comment
018and um I just want to pass it along. Something I've heard a lot in the community over the last few days. Uh you mentioned that the graduation ceremony was Thursday. It was a wonderful ceremony. It was so well done and I think we do a really good job of it. I think that the the folks who put that together deserve a ton of credit. our class of 2025. It was so neat to see what our students are going to be up to in the future and I can't wait to see what they accomplish and there were the speakers were great. A young man from Bangladesh made a just amazing talk about his experience in East Lancing public schools and it was a great reminder of the awesome things happening at our high school and in
019this district. So I commend everybody who was a part of that and one more congratulations to the class of 2025. Mhm. I should uh give some recognition to uh Heather Mueller, high school teacher. She is the one who pours hours into the planning and organization of that event and uh deserves some recognition and acknowledgement for all of her work. She's done it for lots and lots of years. Um but we always uh really rely on her to get us where we need to be uh what by the minute. And I mean we we have we always have it scheduled for about for an hour and a half. And I know that when we walked out the other night, you know, he started at 7:00 and I walked out it was 8:32. I don't think you
020can get much much closer than that when you've got 308 students coming, you know, through um only one backflip. He landed it, which is a good thing. Um always a little concerned about that, but um very impressive. Yeah. When he landed it, there was anxiety was gone. Exactly. Yeah. When those that starts, you just kind of got to step back because you're not going to get in the way of it. and um be helpful. So, uh just one, but our our everybody was amazing and I agree. I thought the student speeches this year were really really exceptional. Yeah, it is. Uh you can um watch this uh we have a a YouTube uh link to it. So, if Yeah, we can get it to anybody who would like to uh watch it or even just
021fast forward to the speeches. Um yeah, uh that's available too for everyone. So, thank you. All right, let's move on to the next item on the agenda. Uh, the next item is the consent agenda. There's no discussion on the consent agenda. So, can I get a motion? I think we should disagregate these by item A and then do item B second. So, we'll do item A first. I move to approve the consent agenda to include the following items. MHSA resolution 202526. Second. Uh the motion was made by trustee Ferris Highland, seconded by Trustee Edsil. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. Can I get a motion for item B? Um I move to approve the Wait, the I move to approve the consent agenda
022include Wait, yeah, B. Oh, I just have to do that part. B. The hiring of Latoya Benson as a conditional hireer pending obtainment of certification 1.0 FTE counselor at McDonald Middle School at BA step three effective at the beginning of the 2526 school year. The individual will be paid at a daily rate of $200 until certification is received. Two, hiring of Colin Eden Idolen. Shoot. Idleen. Okay. Um 1.0 I know FTE counselor at McDonald Middle School at MA step 15 effective at the beginning of the 2526 school year. Uh the hiring three hiring of Lance Enderlay. I should check these. Enderly sorry Enderly. I want to make sure it's right. 1.0 FTE resource room teacher um e focus. EI EI focus. There we go. at the at East Lancing High School at MAPEP 16 effective
023at the beginning of the 2526 school year. Four, hiring of Julie Tobin, 1.0 FTE speech and language pathologist at Donley Elementary at MAPEP 10, effective at the beginning of the 2526 school year. And five, hiring of Jessica Harden, 1.0 FTE elementary uh instructional coach at MAPEP 17, effective at the start of the 2526 school year. Second. All right, it's moved by Trustee Chamber, seconded by Trusty Edel. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition. The motion carries unanimously and uh congratulations to everybody that is joining our team here. Um my understanding is that a few of you, I think four as I counted are in the audience. It is our custom to invite new hires to come up and introduce themselves at the podium, say a few words about
024where you're coming from, what you're excited about with the district, but it is not required. It's totally optional, but if you'd like to, we'd love to hear from you. Our favorite part. So, hello. Um, I'm Colin Idolen. uh from Okamus. Um I'm coming from the uh Okamus. I worked at the elementary level. Uh was split between two buildings. So I was excited to see a middle school opening. Um I've worked at the ele uh middle school level before uh both at a counseling, special ed, and coaching. Um I live in East Lancing, so I'm excited to to be here um and join this amazing district. um and look forward to it. So, thank you. You're welcome. You're welcome. Hello everyone. I'm Latoya Benson. I'm from Lancing. I went to Lancing schools. Um a little bit
025about my history. I worked in Lancing School District Eastern High School. I also worked in Waverly for a short period of time as a special education parah. Currently, I kind of do children's therapy. So, that's kind of where my heart is and that's where I discovered that I love middle schoolers. So, um I'm excited to learn about the district. I'm excited to meet the staff and I'm excited to come on board. So, thank you for the opportunity. Welcome. Um good evening. My name is Lance Enderly. I want to say thank you to the board and thank you to Ashley and Precious for bringing me on. I look forward to serving our students and the community of East Lancing. It's going to be a great honor. Something Ashley Ashley knows a secret. I was a Quaker.
026Uh but I'm all right with that. I'm all right with that. Made terms with it. I am coming from Mason Middle School. My my time in the comm in education has been basically middle school and high school and in the EI focus. So, I look forward to uh good things to come this year and thank you again. Welcome. Thank you. We'll get to know that. Y good evening. I'm Jessica Harden. Um I have about 18 and a half years of experience in education. Um, I spent 11 and a half years in the elementary classroom. And for the last nine years, I've been at Hasllett School District at Murphy Elementary as their instructional coach and interventionist. Um, this evening, I brought my family with me. Um, it's my husband, Brian, and my two kids, Brady and
027Briana. Um, I am very grateful for the opportunity to be an instructional coach here in East Lancing. Um, I am very excited to get to know the staff and the students and learn and grow with East Lancing. Thank you again for having me. [Music] Four for four. I love it. Pretty good. Well, uh, except there was five. Well, out of out of those in attendance, the in the audience. I got it. I got it. Def deficit framing. Okay. Um, that's me. Uh, thank you all for being here. It means a lot to have you here. I I I Trusty Chambers always says this. I'm going to steal this from her, but one of the greatest things about preparing for these meetings is going through and seeing where you're coming from, what your commitments are, and
028uh what brings you to our district. And so, you're going to do great things for our students. You're going to do great things for this community. We're just so happy to have you. So, you free to leave. You can also stay for the whole meeting if you want. Let's go to Olive Garden. Olive Garden. I heard Olive Garden's a place to go. Bottomless salad. All right. So, we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is a public hearing for the 2025 2026 budget proposed budget. So, we will open the public hearing and we'll first receive comments from Miss Allen, our director of finance, and then we'll open up for public comment. So, Miss Allen, thank you so much and welcome everybody. I sorry everybody left for the most personal appreciate this time
029in front of our community, the board, and our staff here. Uh the first thing that we're going to talk about is Oh, is that what it looks like? Okay. So, oh, that doesn't look through. Okay. All right. So, we're going to start with the agenda here. We're going to look at the school aid fund proposals. That would be the governor, the Senate, and the House. We are then going to look at the major assumptions that went into our general fund budget, followed by the major assumptions for the expenditure budget. Then, we're going to put it all together looking at the revenue, the expenditure, and then the fund balance for the end of the year. And then finally, we're going to close with our proposed 2025 tax rate and then I'll open up to questions as
030we um finish up. So to start off uh looking at the school aid proposals, this was a lot of fun, especially for someone who has just looked at this. Um in every meeting, conference, everything I went to, there were three words that were constant. Uncertainty, volatility, and unpredictability. which if you're ever an accountant, those are like four-letter words to you. Um, so as I was uh developing this budget, I leaned on colleagues to kind of point me in the right direction because of the specific words and also just because there's just so much uncertainty and I think that's in every budget. I always say when you do a budget, you have to use your crystal ball a little bit in the rearview mirror to go forward. So, with those two um situations going on at
031the same time and then adding all this, we just want to make sure that we're doing the very best we can at this moment in time. So, the first one is our foundation allowance. This is really, as it says, the foundation of our revenue. So, we do have a governor's proposal for $392 per pupil, and that raised it to $10,000 per pupil. That's a 40 41 Oh, wouldn't that be nice? 4.1% increase. The Senate also uh threw $400 per pupil. That a 4.2 uh% increase. And then the House and I put this in italics and you'll notice this throughout here is the House earlier earlier, I'm going to say Marchish, May, March, April, May, somewhere in there, they threw out a skeleton budget. So they just threw out some very highlevel numbers. There wasn't a
032lot of meat on it. just kind of hitting some of the highlights like this is what we think we might do and but they haven't done anything yet and before I came in here I actually did check the news to see if the house had put a proposal out there yet. They had not. So in this skeleton that they put out there and that was at $417 per pupil. So given all of those um most people that are using these numbers are going with the governor's number of 10,000 as did I. Uh the next one is uh the 31A which is the mental health and school safety. The governor um has proposed $150 million ongoing. This is no change from last year. The Senate concurred and the House had no specifics on this particular grant.
033And I'm hitting these ones particularly because they are the highest dollar amounts and the ones that we like to talk about most. The next one is the Mipers retirement rates. The employer capped rate went from 31.36 to 29.91% of payroll. So that is a reduction and that's a cap. So that's the most. So that actually did lower a bit. Also the stabilization rate did increase. It went from 10.59 to 1502 and that's an in and out. So you're going to see it on the revenue side and you're going to see it on the expenditure side. So for the bottom line it's basically a net zero. The next is the unfunded actuarial acred liability. Um I always um love actuarial science. They take a lot of information, mush it all together and come up with some
034really cool assumptions and and rates. And if anyone says let me explain that to you as an accountant, I'm not going to just because simply because actuaries is a different science. But I have great respect for all actuaries. And so what they did is from the cap they changed it from 20.96 to 15.21. So in this uh particular arena of Mipers's rates, the governor had proposed the elimination of 147 A4. So, this is one piece that is not an in-n-out. This would actually hit our bottom line. And then also the Senate kind of agreed with that, but then they came back and had some second thoughts and thought about um 581.5 million one time moving it from the only in which is the for u 147A but moving it to what they call 147 C
035which is an in and out. So that doesn't really help the district but it does help u mipers in their funding. So those were some of the discussions and then at the bottom the the house had no specifics on this at all. So moving forward to the major assumptions that go into the revenue. Uh the first starting is the blended enrollment and this is our our our best estimate at the time and it is an increase over where the final budget we're projecting to land by uh just over 25 additional pupils. The foundation allowance we've talked about that. Uh the property tax values these um have an increase of 3.1%. This is an estimate. Part of that is um the timing of getting all the taxable values in from all of the municipalities around the
036area. And we did have some um they weren't broken down very well into excluding the captured value, which I'm not going to go into that at all just because it's um I don't think anybody wants to learn about tax tonight. Um may maybe someday, you know, someone might want to learn about it at go to Olive Garden and we can all go to Olive Garden. I would love that. There you go. So um the property taxes are going up as are the um taxable values. Those kind of go hand in hand. Then the Prop A discretionary special ed Headley funding is is also going up. And what this is is it's a um factor that brings your enrollment, your blended enrollment, your taxable values or foundation allowance and comes up with the amount that you
037will receive under Prop A. Basically, so that is um going up as well. The myster is what I was just talking about. This is actually a reduction of almost $1.1 million of revenue. And this is uh the net of several different factors and some of it will be shown on the expenditure side but all in all we did have a reduction of the one not the in and out but of close to $ 1.5 million. Uh prior year adjustments um we get these every year. This is an estimate are at risk which is our 31A that's staying relatively the same. federal grants. This is staying relatively the same, but kind of going back to those words, unpredictable, volatile. Um, we really are hopeful that the federal grants um stay uh at the levels they are
038or increase, but again, the crystal ball is a little cloudy on that one. So, we have budgeted conservatively where we were last year basically. And then the very last line here is the county special ed. This is a reduction this year, but we have had a change in the formula for special ed with Ingam County ISD. Uh this year it is a reduction. Next year it will be an increase and it's based upon the formula that they use. And so between the two years we will have a net of positive $100,000. But this year is is the negative. So that is our assumptions for the revenue. Now we're going to go to the other side and the biggest expense with any school district or actually any service is is your is your personnel. Uh for
039us it's about 81% of our budget. So I'm going to focus mainly on that in our assumptions. So right now all three of our collective bargaining agreements are in negotiations. So, um, we do not have anything specific to put in this budget, but we did include the steps. We also have our other staff contracts, our at will contracts, uh, open at this time. They will be, uh, closed in June 30th, but we just used an average for budgeting as a factor there. Fringe benefits is another, uh, large expense. The health insurance, we estimated it at 12% to be an increase. Health insurance, another area that um has been volatile, hard to predict. Um 12%. We'll see. Um you never know what's going to happen on that, but I I feel pretty good about that, but
040we'll see. Uh the dental is actually on a two-year rate guarantee, so there is no increase in that this year. and our vision life LTD and workers comp I budgeted relatively flat those are pretty small there there might be small increases on them but not enough to kind of sway the budget one way or another we've talked a lot about mipers this is the mysters rate and another thing that has had an effect on this is we've had teachers retire we recognize them tonight we've had them resign and we're replacing them and I've looked over the last couple years and most recently what I used for the budget was a BA5 scale um we're going to have some that come in at, you know, master 17 and we're going to have some that come in
041at BA3. So, that was just kind of an average over the last year that I've seen. And then our staffing levels, uh relatively flat overall, but we did have an increase in teachers and an increase a slight increase in the Atwell and then the pair of professionals. And these are just some of the positions that we've seen and we've approved and um individuals coming in actually here tonight. So that is the expenditure budget. Now I want to bring it all together for you here and this is the um top part is the revenues that we talked about. We talked about all those and we have um revenue of right around $56.7 million. Looking at all the expenditures, we are um estimating 59 just just north of $59 million and the ins and the outs are
042like I had mentioned about the salaries, the benefits actually are lower and part of that is um because of the health plans that Mesa does offer, we had a reduction um in premium automatically for movement there. the mipers. Remember I said that there was one side. This is the other side of it. The in the out and purchase services um supplies, materials and capital outlays. Those are relatively smaller. Um the other category looks quite large at close to half a million dollars. And um typically I don't like to call anything about a half a million dollars other but really what that is is we had an adjustment to um one of our taxable values in Meridian Township. So um Meridian Township had sent us money back to be refunded back to that organization or that
043property. So that was an in and out and it won't it won't be here next year because that property has already been adjusted. So that is the reason for that. So as we go down the line um we include our favorable variance. Uh that was uh something that we put in there just our auditors always have around a 1.5 in there. Uh we are still at a fund draw this year of close to $ 1.5 million. So, we are continuing with um the structural deficit so far for this year, and that's ending our fund balance at $3.4 million. And uh one of the things that 13.4. Did I I'm sorry. I apologize. 13. Wait a minute. I know. I was like, sorry about that. So many numbers. So little time, right? Um we were all
044paying attention. I love it. Right. That's that was purposeful. So, um for uh the upcoming school year, uh 23.0% uh fund balance to expense is the ratio. Uh last year it was 25.1. So, it is it is lower for this coming um proposed budget. The revenue is 23.6. Uh for last year it was 25.3 of fund balance to revenue. So now that you haven't seen enough numbers, let's look at some more columns of numbers. So these are the proposed tax rates for 25 um for the 25 tax year and they are exactly the same as the 24 tax year. Uh part of that is is in past years there is a headley um fractional number that is put in there and the headley is um to basically cap the growth of property values so it
045doesn't grow faster than inflation of the previous year. So this year when they did the analysis it's actually 1.0. So which makes it exactly the same as last year. Uh the differences that you will see here is down in the debt fund. The debt fund total is 6.3, but the split between the various debt funds has shifted. Part of that being because um later today or tonight, you'll be um looking at the 25 bond issue. Uh so for the operating revenue for the non-homestead, it is still 18 mills. The 2019 syncing fund is still n956. And um listed are the various bond funds there equaling the 6.3. And that concludes my comments. So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to take those. Are there any questions? I don't know that there are any
046questions. So thank you. Thank you for being here. Um, we'll open this up now for public comment. This is public comment specific to the um to the budget resolution. I come back. No. Okay. All right. I don't see anybody jumping up for public comment, so I will close public comment. And with that, we'll conclude this public hearing on the 2526 proposed budget. Thank you for being here, Miss Allen. That was very informative. Yeah, very much. The next item on the agenda is public comment. Uh, this is general public comment. Uh, and if you'd like to make a public comment, make sure you fill out one of the blue forms. Have we got any blue forms, Miss Okore? All right. Um, I don't know that anybody here is going to make public comment. So, um, all
047right. So, we will move on to the next item on the agenda, which is board discussion. Um, would anybody like to make uh to raise any topics for board discussion. Is this the time where I should bring up the resolution? Sure. Okay. Um, so I submitted a resolution um via email to everyone and um Kelly printed some up tonight. Um, so we can we have the option, right, to vote on it tonight or table it for two weeks. Um, for you know, people in the audience and every the millions watching us on YouTube. Um, this resolution has been written in support of the Women's Center of Greater Lance Lancing, the resolution resolution services center of central Michigan and the East Lancing Public Library grant application for student mental health and wellness services that they're putting
048forward and we just um as a board I wanted to put together this resolution in support of that. So, um, would we like to vote on this tonight or table it for two weeks? So, first of all, I want to thank you for writing this and all of the organizations that are working on the grant to do this. I think it's a really invaluable service and something we've been talking about for um a long time as far as what programming can be done at the library to help after school. Having made that comment, I uh move that the board of education uh pass the resolution in support of the fored that's not a word affformentioned. There we go. Um organizations second. So before we get into this, do we need to add an agenda item?
049Do we need to retroactively okay amend the agenda to add this so that it's reflected in our public records that are reviewed by the millions of people who are watching at YouTube. So I'll retract my motion and I'll make a new motion. I move that we amend the agenda to include a resolution in support of the women's center of greater lancing the resolution services center of central Michigan and the east lancing public library grant application for student mental health and wellness services. So this would be a proposed agenda item H um for um the adoption of the resolution. Once it has a second. Okay. So the the new agenda item H was uh the motion was made by Trusty Edoul and seconded by Trustee Taiki. Um, I guess we can move to discussion. Is there
050any discussion of this? Um, I agree with everything Trusty Edel said, thanking uh, Trusty Ferris Highland for her work on this and also recognizing the efforts of the organizations that are working on this project. Um, oh, so we had to amend the agenda then, right? Yeah. So, yeah. So, let's vote on the So, that's right. We'll vote on amending the agenda. So all in favor of the proposed amendment to the agenda, please say I. I. I. Any opposition? So that motion carries unanimously. Now that that's been now that the agenda has been amended, would you like to make a motion, Trusty Edel? I will when we get to Oh, it'll be okay. We got to get to H. I'll make a world languages department motion. All right. There we go. Thank you. Is there any
051other topics for board discussion? All right. So now we can move to our action items. Um the first item is item A, world language department trip to France and Spain. I move that the board approve the trip request from Miss Pratt to travel to France and Spain June 15 to 23rd 15 to 23, 2026. Okay. Excited. Moved by Trusty Chambers, seconded by Trustee Edsil. And it looks like we have some folks from our world language department here. Y just in case you had any questions or Yeah, we call this a spans trip, right? Spans trip. I remember. Are there any questions or comments about the spans trip? It sounds way better than I don't like that again. Oh my god. No, that doesn't No. Is there anything you want to share with us about details
052about the trip? What is it? 10 14 days. How many days? Nine days. Okay. And how many students can you accommodate? Um up to 30. Okay. Um probably looking more like 20 to 25 probably because we did run the trip two years ago and they do have a group of about I think 12 12 or 13 are going to Quebec. We've got 20 going to Quebec. Oh, 20 to Quebec. Oh, okay. So, um kind of have to see how that I do have been talking to quite a few students that are interested. It'll probably be smaller than in the past just because you did just go two years ago, but yeah, we went in 2024, so just last summer. Yeah. Yep. And so, I have been on this trip actually twice before, so it's fantastic
053one. So, Sure. Yeah. And you said you needed all the board members to cher. We'll keep you posted. We ask every time. Never take you up on it. I have an actual high schooler. Yes. Well, thank you. Thanks for being here. Yeah, I remember from two years ago like approving this and this seeing the pictures um is so exciting. So, I appreciate the time that goes into organizing a trip like this, even though you've done it before, it still is a ton of work and a lot of planning and organization and logistics and all of those things. Um, and I also appreciated the um, information about fundraising and just an eye on um, increasing participation and not letting financial barriers be um, a limitation. And it's just appreciated that additional thought. All right. Is there
054any other questions before we move to a vote? Are we voting on the couple name for Spain and France or it's not even we don't discern. It's it's referred to as this. It's already done and dusted. It's advanced, right? We would have to amend the agenda again for that. That's true. And and that's a whole thing. Um, so I feel very strongly about I'm going with Breelina because that seemed to last. So, all in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your work. You're obviously you're free to leave. You don't need I think you already got a plus one from my kiddo. Joe was Joe. Oh, Joe. Then there was thankful to see you. That's great. All right.
055The next item on the agenda is item B, East Lancing Health Center. I move the board of education approve the following items related to the ELPS health center as presented. One, the location of the ELPS health center. Two, the ELPS health center parent consent policy. The three, the administration of the MI5 [Music] survey to students in grades 7, 9, and 11 for the ELPS health center list of services provided. Second. Motion was made by Trustee Lion and seconded by Trustee Edel. All in favor of the motion. Oh, I guess I should say, is there any discussion on this topic before we move to a vote? I know that there was an email that was sent out last week that really did get into the weeds on this and that was appreciated. So, all right. Well,
056if there's no discussion, we'll move to a vote. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. The next item is the BNA agreement with the city of East Lancing. I move that the board of education approve the ninth addendum to contract for services and use of school facilities agreement as presented. Second move by Trusty Ferris Highland, seconded by Trustee Edsil. Um, is there any discussion on this uh on this topic? All right. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. The next item is item D, certification of form L4029. I move the board of education approve the 2025 millillage rates to be levied on July 1st, 2025 as calculated according to the Michigan Department of
057Treasuries form L4029 as presented. Second move by Trusty Edel, seconded by trustee Taiki. Uh, is there any discussion on this topic? All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. I. Any opposition. The motion carries unanimously. The next item on the agenda is award bids for safety, security, and accessibility bond bid package number two for the high school edition. I move that the board of education award the following bids related to the high school edition as follows. Category 2, project testing, soils and materials engineering, $33,500. Category 3, concrete foundations, Proline concrete, $970,600. Category 10, flooring, DF flooring coverings, $87,684. Category 12, aluminum and glass, Daniel's glass, 789,875. Category 21, fire protection, Wolverine Fire Protection, 134,923. Category 22, plumbing and HVAC advanced mechanical, $1,377,500. And category 26, electrical to Centennial Electric, 79,215 for
058a total of 4,13,297. Second. Motion made by trustee Ferris Highland, seconded by Trustee Lions. Is there any discussion on Edel? I I was Oh, I'm sorry. It was Trusty Edel that read that made them. Can't read all those numbers out like her. I don't know why I said I don't know why I said that. I must have Trusty Edel is the numbers guru. I I gave you guys three seconds and nobody took it. I started but you Yeah, you were going to read it. So I I will So motion was made by trustee Edil and seconded by Trusty Lions. There you go. So um is there any discussion on this topic? I don't know that we we need any guidance on this. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any
059opposition? The motion carries unanimously. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Sorry to stick around for all that. I'll just [Laughter] Thanks, Joe. Bye, Joe. [Music] Let's say he's doing his job. Yes, he is. All right. So the next item is item F, the 202526 original budget. I move that the board of ed or wait, are you you do the budget stuff? Go ahead. Thank you. Okay. Uh I move that the board of education adopt the 202526 original budget resolution for the general fund as presented on page five and six of the budget book. Second. Right. Motion was made by trustee Zel, seconded by trustee Taiaki. Uh is there any discussion on this topic? All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. I. Any opposition? Motion carries unanimously. Next is food
060service fund. I move the board of education adopt the 2025 20226 original budget resolution for the food food service fund as presented on page seven of the budget book. Second. Moved by trustee, seconded by trustee Torres. Uh is there any discussion on this topic? All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. The next is the student school activity fund. And I move that the board of education adopt the 2025 2026 original budget resolution for the student school activity fund as presented on page eight of the budget book. Second. Moved by trustee Zel, seconded by trustee Taiki. Is there any discussion on this topic? All right. All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously. The next
061item on the agenda is item G, the ratifying resolution for the 2025 uh bond school buildings and site series 2 and refunding bonds. I move that the board of education approve the ratifying resolution for the 2025 school building and site series 2 and refunding bonds as presented. Second. May be made by trustee Edsil, seconded by trustee Ferris Highland. Is there any discussion on this topic? All in favor of the motion as presented, please say I. I. I. Any opposition? Motion carries unanimously. And then the next item is item G relating to a resolution for uh in support of the project of East Lancing Public Library. Should I say I What you want to say? You want to move it? You want to make a motion to pass your So I move to pass the resolution
062in support of the Women's Center of Greater Lancing. The resolution services center of central Michigan and the East Lancing Public Library grant application for student mental health and wellness services. Second motion was made by Trusty Ferris Highland, seconded by Trustee Edel. Now is there any discussion on this topic? And before we vote, would we like to read the resolution aloud into the into the record? Sure. Sure. Um resolution in support of the Women's Center of Greater Lancing, the resolution services center of Central Michigan and the East Lancing Public Library grant application for student mental health and wellness services. Whereas the East Lancing Board of Education recognizes the ongoing need for supportive mental health and wellness programming for students, particularly during the afterchool hours. And whereas the Women's Center of Greater Lancing, the Resolution Center Services
063Center of Central Michigan, and the East Lancing Public Library are jointly applying for a $100,000 grant to fund services that would directly benefit our students and broader community. And whereas if awarded, this grant would allow for the placement of a licensed therapist from Women's Resource Center and a restorative justice facilitator from Resolution Services Center at East Lancing Public Library from 3 till 6:00 p.m. each weekday. And whereas this grant-f funded programming would offer vital mental health support, including limited one-on-one therapy sessions with parental consent, group wellness programming, and restorative justice practices designed to support the emotional development and behavioral health of our students. And whereas these services are intended to create a more supportive and positive environment for all library patrons, reduce behavioral issues stemming from unmet mental health needs and foster a culture of
064empathy, accountability, and personal growth among among our youth. Now therefore, be it resolved that the East Lancing Board of Education supports a collaborative grant application submitted by the Women's Center of Greater Lancing, the resolution services center of Central Michigan and the East Lancing Public Library and acknowledges the potential of this initiative to positively impact the well-being, academic success, and community engagement of our students. Right. Thank you for that. So, u now that the resolution has been read out loud into the record, is there any discussion on the resolution? Now, often when we pass these resolutions, we would uh direct them to certain community leaders, elected officials. Um I don't know if there is I'm sure there is some sort of a committee that's awarding this grant. Um, do we want to direct this to anybody
065in particular at this point or is that something that we'll do down the road after we've adopted the resolution? Um, so I did send a the note to because I had worked a little bit with Tally on this. I mean, she wrote it. I just I sent a note to Kelly that one, it needs to go to the groups that are named at the top of the resolution. Um, I didn't think about the East Lancing City Council, but that probably should be included in the list. Um, uh, and then I think my understanding from talking to the director of the women's center is that they would then take this support letter, uh, to the organization that's issuing the grant. It becomes part of their application package. Yeah, I believe so. That makes that makes a
066lot of sense. and Kelly submits you would submit to the organizations and city council. Okay, I think that's great. I think the city council is wise and to leave the place as secretary of president for you guys to sign and she would put all the eyes's and nays on the on the resolution formal, you know, like to make that a formal document and then send that on. All right. This would be a really great thing. We got it. Yeah, it would be awesome. Happy to support it. So yeah, it's a, you know, it's kind of a a good example of potential community partnerships and collaboration and something that I' I'd love to see more of and across the different governing bodies. Absolutely. All right. Is there any other discussion of the uh of the resolution?
067Right. All in favor of the motion support the resolution, please say I. I. Any opposition? The motion carries unanimously and thank you for all your work on this. Trusty Ferris Highland and Trusty. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is closed session. We need to vote to go into close session. So, can I get a motion? I move that the board of education move into close session according to section 81c of the open meetings act related to collective bargaining. Second. Moved by Trustee Ferris Highland, seconded by Trustee Edsil. Motion for close session has to have a roll call vote. So, Miss Hokort, can we have a roll call vote? Mr. Martin, yes. Dr. Lions, yes. Dr. Edel, yes. Miss Ferris Highland, yes. Dr. Chambers, yes. Dr. Torres, yes. Miss Ty, yes. Thank you. So,
068I guess we'll make the necessary arrangements to go into close session here and then we can um address the topics that are on the close session agenda. [Music] everybody. [Music] for me. [Music] Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] My mind [Music] Da [Music] da. [Music] Hey, [Music] behind. [Music] me. [Music] Down. [Music] This is [Music] a [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] down. [Music] Hey, [Music] dance. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, [Music] down. [Music] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. [Music] Down down
069down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] with hey [Music] baby. [Music] Hey Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] dance. [Music] Hey [Music] that [Music] going down. [Music] get it. [Music] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] fine. Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Danc [Music] down. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] D. [Music] Hey. Hey. [Music] be fine. Heat. Heat. [Music] I need to do my homework. I feel the yellow envelopes with her evaluation. Oh, the folder. Yeah. Oh, she's got it. Look at her. She is carrying the homework. I'm nervous. I like I read
070it lots over and over. That was that webinar scared me. Oh my goodness. Okay, so we're back into open session. Um the next item on the agenda is committee reports. Uh the first committee is the academic and technology committee. Believe it's trustee Lions. No report. Facilities committee. Trusty Ferris Highland. No report, but we have a meeting June 16th I believe. Lieutenant Day. Uh, finance committee trusty. Uh, if you guys could all pull out this thing, a few things that you want to start with. Oh, god. Jeez. Basically, everything we've covered, we voted on tonight was covered in uh we had two finance meetings and and there's nothing really additional to add. Great. Intergovernment relations and we don't meet again until September. Oh, at least when I looked at my calendar, I think personnel committee, uh,
071we have our valuation at our next meeting. Um, there might be a couple moving pieces that we'll be in touch about over the next couple over the next couple weeks. The policy committee, Trusty Edel, uh, we did not meet. We meet next month, July 7th, I believe it is, at 10:30. Awesome. isa trusty taki. Oh, like I messaged you all, we met on June 2nd for our big election and uh and we voted in the two the two people being reelected were reelected and then after four rounds of ties, three rounds of ties, uh the third position went to Caitlyn who which is who we uh supported with our resolution. Very cool. And we're done meeting for the year as well. Yay. For this school year. pick up again in the fall. September. Thank you
072for doing that. All right. Um announcements. Our next regular schedule board meeting is June 23rd. That's the day of our um of our evaluation. Do we expect there's going to be much else on the agenda besides the evaluation? After tonight, I do not. Okay. Tonight was a heavy agenda. We will have um Lisa will have her uh final budget revision uh to bring forward and we will likely have some new hires. Okay. But I don't expect much else. Uh there should there might be more. I feel like there's still some outstanding maybe been packed without having to ask. I'm not positive. So no, I wouldn't expect it to be long, but we will be using door eight at that time. Any other announcements before we before we conclude? We're adjourned at 8:46. Thank you all
073for being here. See you in a couple weeks. Thanks for all your help with the school setting as well. Love you all. Byebye. All right.