001uh Miss hore can we get a roll call Mr Martin here Dr Lions here drel here miss feris Dr Chambers present um Dr Torres herei here um student representative Stella alfredson and Miss Leo here thank you m hore uh trustee uh trusty Torres can you read our mission statement our mission statement nurturing each child educating all students building World citizens thank you sorry I didn't mean to can I get a motion for the approval of tonight's agenda I move the Board of Education approved the February 24th 2025 regular meeting agenda as presented second uh moved by truste edil seconded by trusty Torres all in favor of the motion as presented please say I I the opposition the motion carries unanimously can I get a motion for the approval of the minutes from our last meeting
002move the go ahead move the Board of Education approve the following minutes one February 10th 2025 regular meeting and two February 10 2025 close session second motion was made by trusty Guerrero lions seconded by trusty taaki all in favor of the motion please say I I I any opposition all right the motion carries unanimously the next item on the agenda is recognition is there any recognition trusty Chambers I am not aware of any recognition items this evening all right thank you do any other board members have recognition take that as a no all right let's move on to miss alfredson the student representative report hi I'm going to talk a little bit about Key Club as we had our first conference in about six years we got to go to the SLC student leadership conference
003um apparently Co we kind of got disconnected from the Key Club International and no one even knew that we weren't official until like this year when I talked to one of my friends who was apparently the international trustee and so he was like wait a minute East Lancing is not official I'm like oh so we got to go to our first conference and it was super fun it was me and three freshmen um hazel Hatfield kala I don't know what her last Garza I think and then soay Schwarz and Miss Schwarz attended with us and it was so fun and such an experience and we got to talk to so many people and understand such deeper deeper levels of Key Club that we like did not know so if anyone's kids or anything is interested
004in like service or um just like political science or anything like it was such a deeper level than we ever knew that Key Club was and it it was a really eye opening experience and I know that spring Sports St in oh two weeks to the day and basketball is finishing up and hopefully making it all the way so just a really exciting it's warm today so it's an exciting time of year so new things and yeah thank you thank you was Albertson where was the conference did you just say and I didn't hear yeah it was at the um Crown Plaza okay a little bit fur but we got to go for free want to sponsor it so nice cool well thank you for that information the next item on the agenda is our
005superintendent report so I'll turn it over to superintendent Leo thank you um first I'm sharing a link to um our Ingam County Common calendars this will go out to all of our families tomorrow uh the school year calendar is a negotiated topic with our teachers union while we are in negotiations we want to provide everyone with the m County Common calendar that shows winter break and spring break weeks through 2027 28 um east landing Public Schools often has the Friday before spring break off but that day is negotiated as part of the calendar and then I've included the link so it'll give at least the winter break and Spring Breaks that folks are asking about um coming years a a little bit of a recap from our February 14th professional learning day our most recent
006day of professional learning for staff was held Friday February 14th here uh is a highlight of some of the courses we offered in the morning uh move mindfully introduction to mindfulness movement and social emotional learning trauma and an introduction to the neurosequential model in education we offered another session of AED CPR training um empowering success and overview of special education maximizing potential navigating and implementing unique Learning Systems School AI training for teachers that's a district pilot where folks um volunteered to be part of uh School AI training um pilot uh one on restorative mindset uh again we offered understanding the Els religious and cultural calendar and when bias gets in the way how to recognize and address barriers to supporting lgbtq plus students and families so we had quite a wide variety of a lot
007of different uh sessions that fall under our three buckets of our mission statement and and we are turning around and getting the next set ready for next Friday already it's a quick turnaround this time for session number four and then finally I have some upcoming dates down here March 4th and 6th and then for the 11th for elementary only are half days of school for conferences March 7th there's no school that is our next professional learning day for staff um March 21st through 28th spring break and our final staff professional learning day is April 25th and and uh that's all I have tonight thank you for that uh are there any questions or comments for the superintendent seems pretty straightforward thank you let's move on to the next item on the agenda it is public
008comment uh Miss hok do we have public comment no does anyone here wish to make public comment all right well I will dispense with reading the public comment statement if that's the if that's the case and we will move on to the next item on the agenda it is presentations so first up it's Miss Leo um Ela elhs construction project update good evening board and Community I wanted to share some renderings uh maybe a couple months ago I was up here to share some renderings with all of you for our new um central office administration building and we just last week um principal schwarzbeck was able to share with high school staff some renderings of the new high school edition because we were getting close to going out to bid for that so I will
009walk through um some renderings I remember renderings mean it doesn't look exactly like this yet we still have to pick out materials and finalize some of the design decisions but it'll give you a good sense of what this new space will look like so if just to kind of pick picture this on our um site the little part that says new addition um is where the addition is going to be you can kind of see the parking lot out front uh the um the drop off Loop and then the two sidewalks that kind of converge up to where the new addition will be which is in front of the current um set of door number ones along the front of the building and it hooks on to part of that curve of the Student Union
010so next slide okay so that's just the actual cutout of that little um piece shown in the last slide and uh the lower right hand part is kind of where you see those uh different rooms those are going to be the high school main office space the more open spaced on the left is the cafeteria Edition and I'll point out there are there's a ramp because you're still coming in at kind of that mid level so the ramp on the left goes down to the cafeteria level and then that ramp um kind of up up right goes up to the um main level of the high school and there's some stairs in there and I'll show you as we go along kind of how it hooks into the current part of our building too so
011there's an exterior rendering of the new addition and the front door entrance and now the fun ones so yeah this is um a start this is if you were to enter the main office um through the vestibule door so just like our elementaries in middle school there will be a secure vestibule that folks will be able to enter and then to from the vestibule into the main office um will be buzzed in and that's what uh we imagine it looking something like this again we got to pick out materials and actual items um but having it um East Lancing High School they've got Trojan true that they've kind of Taken on as um they're like phrase that's used often as part of our um PBIS systems and that's one of the main um Administrative Assistant
012workstations right when you walk in so this is a view if you first were to come in through the vestibule so if you're looking straight ahead those two um those kind of silver well they appear they're silver doors they are they're fire rated doors so they can't be glass so but they will be held on hold opens those are our current front entrance doors so that's where you can kind of see how it'll connect to the current front entrance and then that where it says main office and that door right there is what you were like looking through and just going into for the last slide when you were going into the main office so this will be the entrance students will come in they'll kind of go through this area and then enter that
013second set of doors and that will be in the main hallway right inside actually they'll be where they have to go up the stairs like our current entrances so this is a view of if you were standing at the current doors looking back to the entrance the new entrance doors so it's kind of just a reverse um looking back that office is kind of down at the end on the right we're still you know making selections for lighting and materials um flooring things like that as well if you look at the bottom left there's that little plan and where that dot is is kind of where it's showing you kind of where you're looking from like which part of the new um entrance or the new uh addition you are in at that point okay
014so this is looking kind of this is looking toward our Student Union so it's looking um from the addition area into toward our current student union which we'll have an addition onto it this is the ramp that will take you from that mid level and if you weave back and forth um you'll end up at the upper level on the right so if you take that ramp you'll end up upstairs um right up above us here and if you go straight ahead you'll take some stairs down or a ramp down to get to the new cafeteria Edition on the left are like the the offices and the main office area so this is the kind of backwards view from it like you were just looking toward this way and now we're looking back at it
015so those are the stairs I just mentioned that will come down to the new cafeteria Edition um around uh the corner here to the left like behind that Trojans word which we'll get close up to show show you what that is in a minute that's where the ramp is to go to the um top the upper level um we will the new seating for the cafeteria um while we haven't picked out selected furniture yet it's anticipated to see about 160 additional um individuals so it'll give us additional seating space at lunchtime but also you'll see it'll give us a separate space for events when we have multiple events here in one evening and could use two different cafeterias or two different spaces so that wall go back one there go ahead Terra with the door
016is that like our existing exterior door exterior wall yes okay oh all right I'm with you yes so those are like these right outside here yeah yes got it exactly good eye good eye okay so here's yep another view of um so those are windows the outside so that kind of goes out to the front it's like the new front edition where the we'll have lots of natural light into the cafeteria area area you know looking at some different types of seating in there you know some kids like to sit up higher and can also be you know a work space and used for a flex space for a lot of different um activities as well so this is kind of the right outside like these windows here it's like the closest part to the
017current building of the new addition and it still has like you know a little bit more of a secluded area for some seating um it's got some workstations you know bench over there some workstations for kids to work um we're also looking at the end here what you're looking at are what we're calling the learning stairs so it'll be they they don't go anywhere besides just being stairs and um but it's a place where you can take groups of kids for presentations or that whole Space can be you know kind of small group space for classes to go to and then the next slide is a closeup of it so you can see it better um of how students might utiliz that space and then we also designed that backdrop um as a background for
018like group photos or Club photos so that we have something that we can utilize too for um uh yearbook and other photos that we might need to take so we've worked on again the final design isn't um finalized yet but we've kind of tweaked it to um with input from our high school staff yeah so this is just a further back view of it to kind of show it's that mid level and that lower level um there's also that kind of built-in bench in that u-shaped area right there with some different types of seating for small groups or pairs or individuals to work um and work on homework work on uh computers whatever they need to do eating and oh one of the things so this is looking into the new um the additional cafet
019interia space and you can see that there's also a presentation wall straight ahead so that when we do use this space for banquets and other types of activities we'll have a presentation wall in both of the well we have a screen that comes down in the current student union this will have a presentation wall so we can utilize it the same way and um those are the stairs down there's still a ramp that goes down there as well so we also in addition to providing that ramp just for ada8 compliance um we also think that it'll promote more inclusivity with our students because we really see a lot of kids using the ramp not just students who may need um a ramp instead of stairs or the elevator but we see just a lot of
020kids utilizing that instead of just the stairs or elevator as well it allows us some flexibility in holding events or two Banquets simultaneously as scheduling can get really tough in the winter and spring there's a closeup up close version um of the presentation wall and those double doors on each side of it lead into the current student union so those can be held on a held open they have to again be fire rated so that's why they aren't clear but they can be held open with magnets so that if if wanted um they can pass freely freely back and forth between the two uh Student Union spaces that is a photo just of the uh rendering of the workroom in the office um for the office staff to utilize we're still keeping um the workroom
021for the current office um that's really pretty accessible to teachers where they have their mailboxes already this will be just a kind of another work room for the main office staff so that we'll really have two of them two of them available for office staff and uh reg and staff and the rest of the building too is she on her basketball team I know yeah know we sometimes go oh that looks like so and so um but none of them are intended to be anybody sevenet tall yeah very fashionable yeah and um yeah that's it so that's uh High School addition renderings and again we'll be going out to bid next month tonight you'll be taking action on um some of the bids for the central administration building with the rest of them coming to
022the board next um next meeting and then these will go out to bid next month and you will see them um in April yes so everything is moving along we've really kind of designed and worked on both of these projects kind of simultaneously um you know the admin buildings a little in front of the high school admin because that needs to get taken that needs to take place first so then we'll move out and they'll have um use of this space down here too while the upstairs while the addition is being um added on yeah when which summer are we thinking the addition is going to happen if everything goes um I uh I think it'll be ready in Fall of 26 yes okay looking for confirmation fall of 26 okay and is that is
023that timeline changed in light of the actions we took last week to consolidate the bonds or is that always been our calendar that's always been the calendar yeah it was just financially better off for us to do that with the refunding and refinancing of the bonds but that's been the timeline So the plan is move in ready fall 26 if everything goes according to plan correct and the temporary entrance will there be needed one will that be door Eight coming in that way okay and we'll be able to manage security and entrance and all of that yes it'll actually be easier yeah with only one door right until we get the new addition added on and part of what I I didn't share about part of what the new entrance does have is a um
024a safety person or a security uh Booth or you know a dedicated space for someone um to yeah um to welcome our guests and keep track of who's coming going so couple questions the you said that the new addition to the cafeteria will add 10 seting for 160 approximately what's the capacity of our cafeteria as currently constructed I don't know the answer that off top of my head and I I would have I would have it just occurred to me when you were doing it um and then I guess the other question is do we have a plan for what happens to the current main office once you transition into a new main office we've been talking with high school admin about that kind of like you know like thinking about what that could be
025we haven't landed on anything yet we'll also see if there are funds available you know at the end what we might be able to allocate to repurpose that space but um it's a little on hold till we see what funds we still have available at the end but we have had conversations about what they might do with it because it is um it will be some additional really Prime you know Loc space that they could use and really flexible because it's you know pretty large in there with a lot of um separate rooms but that won't affect all the counseling offices and the student right yeah student services will stay as is Right anything else good I wanted to go first because I certainly didn't want to follow our next presentation so um yes uh
026I will turn you over to Deputy superintendent Mr Mitchum thank you Miss Leo hi everybody yes please anyone else who wants to get out before I start might be smart was like I'm out of here yeah so um you have in your packets board members a uh copy of an email that I sent last year to third grade teachers um and this is born out of just you know events in my life and my growing up and you'll kind of hear about it in the in the presentation and so I offered to do this little thing with third graders because are so cute and awesome I love third graders in fact Miss Sanchez I I'm gonna be in your class tomorrow Wednesday Wednesday you and Miss cash yes and so she's seen this presentation um
027actually your class was the first one I ever did so I hope it's a little bit better now we'll see but um so miss Leo for some crazy reason said you know you should show the board this I have no idea why so blame her for the pain you're about to experience but well hold on yeah so here's the deal I when she asked me that I said okay I'm glad to do it however it's so geared towards third graders so she said okay we'll make them third graders so that's what we're going to do Mr Martin you are the teacher of this third grade class he is your teacher teacher I knew it I knew there was some experience Audi you're about to transfer you were all third graders there's no more adults in
028here except for Mr Martin and I would like for all of you if you would please move to these seats here do this something going on do you still get snacks at third grade do we get to take naps that's K my full third grade I need a snack I need I to tell you you have to be perfectly yeah in the you all of the element I go to wherever there's no pressure for teachers to invite me in anyone to invites me so I've hit quite a few of them okay let's see let me turn this on okay Mr Martin [Laughter] what's the sign if it's go the bathroom there's a sign your head's in my way F Mr Martin thank you for having me into your classroom today so glad to be here
029third graders I came to tell you a story and uh you know it's February it's and February do a lot of things we do Valentine's Day but also February is Black History Month and that's a time where we look to honor and and learn from uh black people in history that have done some really cool things so I wanted to come and tell you about two of them one you all know Martin Luther King Jr raise your hand if you know Martin Luther King Jr is awesome awesome and the other one is this guy you don't know him because he's my dad no you don't know he's my dad yeah so I'm going to tell you a little story about how Martin Luther King Jr and my dad's story two different stories right cross paths
030on one special day a long time ago I'm going to tell you about that but before I do that third graders I got to tell you a little bit about myself because I'm read your minds you some of you are thinking who is this guy talking to me right now so I'm going to do a little test with you third graders and see if I can explain to you who I am so first of all third graders does anybody in this room think that this is me right here no okay good I would have been worried how about this do you think this is me no I have a do I I have three you know what I'm so glad you said there are going to be things third graders there are going to be
031different things that I'm going to say that's going to make you think of things that you want to tell me there's going to be other things I'm going to say that's going to cause you to have questions and here's what you have to do when that happens cross your fingers and put that thought or question or thing you want to tell me into your fingers and just hold until the end because I'm not going to answer any questions until we get done at the very end perfect perfect we're going to get there you're going to have time so look this you know like Mr Martin is the boss of this class right and then you have a boss of your school right the principal well East Lancing we don't even have just one school building
032we have eight of them and do you think there might be a boss of the whole school district and that's who this is this is Miss Leo she's the superintendent of the whole school district and she loves dogs if you ever see her you need to talk to her about her dogs because she will just talk with you all day long about her dogs and Miss Leo who is in charge of the whole District do you think third graders that she could run the whole District completely by herself probably yeah do you think do you think do you think third grader she might have someone else to like help her along like an assistant superintendent or Deputy super that's who I am does that make sense all right air high five on three one two
033three B good job all right so here is oops I went the wrong way here's the story I want to tell you when I grew up I did not call my dad Papa the great right I just called him dad I grew up calling him dad but then the crazy thing is me and my sister did too her name's Tracy we both grew up and we both had kids in fact there's five of them five grandkids and they call him Papa but then the crazy thing third graders those kids now have grown up and so far There is five great grandchildren and they don't call him Dad they don't call him Papa they call him Papa the great and you they don't just say papa the great sometimes they do it like this Papa the
034great try it with me third grader see if you can do with me ready 1 2 3 Papa the great that's right that's how they do it you guys are good that's awesome so this is the story of him there he is right there Papa the great this is the whole family right there there's his uh oldest great-grandchild that's Samuel and his sister Ellie and their other sister MJ that's an Nia and the youngest one is true that's five his five great-grandchildren and this was a special day third graders we were all there in Atlanta that's where he lives now and we celebrated his birthday not just one day we did it all Thursday evening all day Friday we did this celebration and then again Saturday we came back and celebrated some more and you
035know why you know why we made such a big whoop to-do deal out of this celebration you won't believe me when I tell you papa the great is a hundred years old can you believe that and when I tell you that third graders you're probably thinking oh you might be like in a bed and kind of like oh I can't hardly see or talk that's not how Pap the great is he goes swimming every day I talked to him last weekend and he said his his ankles were a little bit puffy so he thought maybe running would be a good thing so he goes and runs a lap and walks a lap he got all the way up to a half a mile last Saturday he's in a book club he reads three newspapers a
036day Pap of the great is doing real well he's he's doing great so this is a story my story is about Papa the great remember and Martin Luther King Jr and how their stories cross over and I'm going to tell you what third graders not all the parts of my story are happy there's some harder or sadder things that happen to both Martin Luther King Jr and papa the great but the thing I love about both those guys they just they have what I call perseverance you know what perseverance is it means even when things get hard you get up and keep going you keep trying you keep pushing you keep trying your best and so that's what I want to tell you about him so po of the great story starts in World War
037II um in 1943 Papa the great graduated from high school and back then when the War World War II if you don't know if you've heard of World War II that's great but if you don't you'll hear lots more about it as you go through school but that war they made all of the boys when they graduated from high school they had to go into the war it's called a draft so Papa the great when he graduated from high school he got drafted into the army and he did pretty good there he was uh there's some pictures of him he had kind of cool uniforms that's my grandma his mom and uh there's him taking some pictures of the people and his some of his buddies and there and you can't see it but right
038there he's holding this old kind of box camera and he's taking a picture of those guys remember that about cameras I was going to come back to in my story later on but Papa the greaty went into the army and he did pretty good in fact he did so good that they said we think you should be go into what they called officer candidate school officer candidate School third graders is where you go learn like how to be a leader and lead other troops and and and be in charge of them and so he said all right I don't know if I can do this but I'm going to give it my best and he went into officer candidate training school school and he graduated number two in his class he was pretty proud of
039himself he felt good about it and so when you got done and you graduated you were a second lieutenant and you got to be in charge of some troops now well at that time and this is one of the first like hard things that happened to Papa the great or the part of the story is that they didn't have any more black soldiers for him to be in charge of and the only soldiers that still needed uh lieutenants to be their leader were white soldiers and they said you couldn't do that because he was black see the Army was what we call segregated they believed black soldiers are here white soldiers here and no mix in between they had to be segregated separate from each other so even though Papa the great was a second
040liutenant and ready to be in charge of troops he had just go back into the army and serve for four years just as like a regular private uh Soldier so that was kind of hard he didn't love that but that was sad but a good thing that happened was that when you if you served your country well when you got done you were allowed to get this this thing called a GI Bill it was like a scholarship and you could go to college anywhere you wanted to for free Papa the great was so excited about that he was such a good student in high school and he said I'm definitely taking that GI Bill and going to college and for some reason he picked the University of Colorado I asked him I said why did
041you want to go there he said something about the mountains cuz top of the great was from Indiana kind of close to around here near Michigan and he wanted to go see the mountains and go to University of Colorado he got on a train third graders all night long on a train all the next day he got off that train and he was so excited because it was College registration day College registration day third graders this when you go into a big building maybe it was this one down here big old building and you went to different lines to get ready for college and he went into the first line and he decided he wanted to be a sociologist that's a big word it's like a study of people and he wanted to get a
042sociology degree and he got in his first line and got classes registered for the classes so he got those all figured out then he went to the next line and that's where you got your books and he got his books for his classes he was so excited then he went to the next line and this is another hard thing that happened to Pap of the great when he got to the third line this is where you got your assignment of where you were going to live which dormatory you're going to live in dormitories like where you live and study there's a bed there's a desk down the hallway there's a bathroom it's where college students live so he was in line to find out which dormatory he was going to be in and they said
043oh we don't allow black students to live on campus you have to go out into the community and find some maybe other black folks out there will let you live with them and then commute back into college or back in for your classes oh Pap of the Great was so sad about that he just was so um sad that University of Colorado was kind of like the Army white students over here black students over here no mixing up between them in fact he got so upset about that he just decided you know what can't do it I'm not I'm not going to do it he got back in line gave his books back got in the other line deregistered from his classes got back on the train and took it all the way back home
044and he was It was a kind of a sad sad time part of his life the only good thing that happened during that time though was he's he learned about photography and third graders back then you could not just pull your phone out and snap a picture and just have a picture and it's all good to go no if you wanted to take a picture you had to get some film it's like in this cartridge put it in the camera and wind it in there take the picture and when all the pictures were done you had to go into the dark room because if you took it out in the daylight it ruined the film take it out and put it in all these different chemicals make another image on another piece of paper and
045then finally you had a photograph there a whole process Pap of the great learned all about photography when he was back home and he really liked it he kind of had a knack for it so although that was a really good thing the other good thing that happened was he didn't give up he said you know what even though that was hard out here at University of Colorado I am going to still try to find a way to go go to college so he started researching and looking at different schools and he heard about this school that had this football coach that did something that no one else did back then he allowed black players and white players together on the football team now you guys are like what Mr Mitchell that's no big deal
046that's how it always is it wasn't like that back then it was white football teams and black football teams but he heard about the school where the coach put him together so he started researching a little bit more about it then he found out the president of that University he said you know what at this school we're going to allow black students and white students to live and go to school together in fact he believed in not segregation he believed in integration that that that black students and white students could be together Brown students any kind of students could all be together going to school together now you probably haven't heard of the school before let me see if I can give you a little bit of a hint what if I said go green
047go white go white that's right it was Michigan State University there's the coach Duffy dhy there's some of the black players that he recruited these guys were oh I forgot to tell you during the years he was doing that when he first started over the 50s 60s they won like four national championships they were so good that's John Hannah he was the president that I told you about anybody heard of the Hannah Community Center there's there's a building on campus the Hannah administr in fact anything you you hear about Hannah in this town is probably named after John Hannah and he was the one that said black students and white students are going to go to get school together at Michigan State so Papa the great went to Michigan State University he got his degree
048in sociology and he graduated and he was so happy to find this place well another thing that happened remember I told you about that camera thing and he learned about photography well when he started as a freshman he had to have a job and so he got a job at the Michigan State photo lab the photo lab is the place where any pictures that need to be taken in the University they call up the photo lab said hey can we get some pictures on this they' send a photographer out there take some pictures develop and all that stuff I told you about and send them out right so he just started there as a freshman he worked there his freshman year sophomore year all four years he worked there and when he got done they
049said hey papa the great you want to just keep working here instead of being a sociologist he said sure why not let's do it so he kept working there and working there he started just low level at first and he worked his way all the way up and he was the manager of the photo lab and he worked there for 37 years can you believe that and he just took pictures all the time he took pictures of the football players on the Press day that's him when he first started he took pictures of portraits he I don't even know what he was taking pictures there when I grew up every time I turned around he was telling me to stop and take my picture we have a basement full of just pictures everywhere me and
050my sister here because Papa if he came in here right now third graders he'd make you all get together and he take your picture he had a camera with him wherever he went he was all about taking pictures now third graders this isn't just a story about Pap of the great right who was the other person that I was going to tell you about Martin Lu Martin Luther King Jr well Martin Luther King Jr he was also all about integration not separate not black people white people but integration together and he heard about this School Michigan State University that was allowing integration to happen and he thought you know what I need to go there and find out more about this Martin Luther King Jr was down in the South and he was working on
051getting black people registered to vote that was really important back then and so he wanted students to come with him and uh to help with this effort of getting black people registered to vote so he came came to Michigan State University in 1965 and he gave a speech at the MSU Auditorium that building is still there it was a biggest deal third graders it was pet with people and he gave this speech about some really cool things on February 11th 1965 just past 60 years ago okay now he gave a speech it was for grown-ups okay it was for grownup but I'm telling you third graders if you listen to his speech I think you would understand some of it and I brought with me today a recording of a speech 1 minute and 12
052seconds now if I try to show this speech or listen have the speech um for kindergarteners they just be like w they wouldn't even listen they'd be messing around but third graders I think you can handle it I think you can pick up even though it's pretty adult I think you can pick up some of the words in this speech that are important in fact this is where Martin Luther King Jr is talking about loving people see back then there was a lot of hard stuff going on between the the races and a lot of people believed if you hit me I'm going to hit you back or if you say something mean to me I'm going to say something even meaner back to you but Martin Luther King Jr said no no no don't
053do that nonviolent let's not be violent in fact if someone does something mean to you love them back and maybe that will change their heart and in this speech you're going to hear a little part part see if you can hear it where he's talking about even if you do really bad things to me I'm going to love you anyways you ready for it third graders all right listen to this to create the Beloved Community and I believe it is this kind of love that can lead us out of a dark yesterday into a bright tomorrow and so in our best moments when we have been true to nonviolence at its best we have been able to stand up before our most violent opponents and say in substance we will match your capacity to in
054flict suffering by our capacity do to endure suffering we will meet your physical force with soul Force do to us what you will and we will still love you we cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good and so throw us in jail and his difficult as it is we will still love you bomb our homes and threaten our children and as as difficult as it is we will still love you yes in your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hours and drag us out on some Wayside Road and beat us and leave us half dead and as difficult as it is we will still love you Martin Luther King Jr February 11th 1965 at
055the MSU Auditorium pretty cool huh now let me ask you this third graders if Martin Luther King J as famous as he was came to the MSU Auditorium to give this speech do you think the photo lab would want to take some pictures of Martin Luther King Jr when he was here and if the photo lab wanted to take some pictures who do you think they sent to take pictures Papa the great Papa the great he told me all about it he was so nervous about it you know I told you about the cameras he had his camera and he was in there and there's all these photographers and press people all around and you know back then if you didn't have your camera focused just right and got bumped it' just be a big
056blurry picture and so he had to like really work hard and he took some really cool pictures of Martin Luther King Jr at that speech now let me ask you this third graders do you think if Papa the great took some pictures of Martin Luther King Jr at this speech in 1965 do you think me his son might have some of those pictures and do you think that if I have some of those pictures I might bring to show you today it's right I did so but listen don't have too high of an expectation they're old pictures they're 60 years old but in a minute Mr Martin is going to lead us and show us the pictures because I have them set up right there in the back and but here's the deal third graders
057when we go take a look at them first take a quick look don't stand there too long and making everyone else line up behind you don't touch them because they're super old we have to be careful with them and then when you're done come back to your seat and then I promise we'll have time for all those questions does that make sense all right Mr Martin take charge of your class Mr Martin so what we'll do is we will approach it [Music] you guys can go back to real I did it not this year I have not I did last year man son girlfriend's got yeah that's an interesting one it's a really cool story so yeah so it has been so fun to do that presentation I love doing it I got to do
058it um I think in 11 classrooms last year and um think I'm doing I can't remember how many this year but awesome teachers like Miss Sanchez invite me in I really try to make no pressure on them you've seen the email to like oh you know Deputy superintendent like I have to do it you know I just some some places it works and some places it doesn't these pictures were uh when I was in kindergarten um my somehow my school Central Elementary in Grand River it used to be East Lancing school um they put up in the library and my dad then every year during Black History Month put those photos up and then when my kids were little I um got invited in to come read a story to my to my uh they
059they said anybody you know hey if you want to read a story about Martin Luther King on Martin Luther King Day come do that and so I did that one time I thought oh my God I could bring those pictures I but I had no idea where they were so we had to like do a freak out and you know and my sister do you have those pictures do I have them you know and we but we found them and so I took him into the classroom and showed kids uh tell me they weren't in the shoe box please no well they were not kept that you know they were just kind of in a pile somewhere and uh we found him and uh showed him to that CL and then uh my daughter who
060was a uh first grade teacher and then she's a de now she was she's off having babies right now but she was a dean of um a school in Grand Rapids she had to have a speaker for an assembly and so I kind of put this together for that just just whatever and then that's kind of where the idea came to you know offer it to teachers so you know no big deal but it's just a fun fun thing to do fun thing to talk about so thank you for listening does your dad still have his box camera he has a lot of old cameras he doesn't have that one he does have one but not that that one I have one from my grandfather somewhere oh yeah yeah yeah they're pretty cool tried to
061drag it out and show my he's passed most of them on to my oldest daughter has a interest in photography so she's been able to get her hands on those I bet third graders would love to see that camera too oh yeah bring the camera in yeah great idea I think they have no concept of developing film that when I'm explaining that part they're looking at me like what they just but when you look around in that camera and it's got the mirrors and all of that it's kind of a cool thing to just um look through and third graders have been phenomenal as Ally could tell you they they listen extremely well they're engaged they you know at the end when I say what questions do you have they have some do have questions
062most of them tell me about their grandparents no and what they did or someone they know that was in the war whatever you know which is awesome you know it's great so yeah fun thing to do guessing their grandparents were not in World War II no some of them will say that they'll be all mixed up like my grandfather was in World War I wow it's amazing possible yes so he's that 150 year old Social Security right right right right now far from not a big deal I think this is incredible and such a really thoughtful presentation I'm really really glad that our students are able to learn from you and I appreciate you taking the time to you know travel to so many classrooms and to do it for a second year thank you
063so much yeah yeah you bet thank you yeah you [Applause] bet and thanks for letting us be third graders you guys are pretty good that was that was just incredible and I think we should get Papa the great in here to give us a wellness and Longevity Expo also yeah because he looks he looks amaz he he would look amazing for 85 like he looks great we got his side of the jeans what a what an incredible life that's that's awesome I also think this is how our Schoolboard meeting should go forward like can we do this now somehow please D you have to do your presentation superintendent report I will be on Paramount coffee company that's what i' have to talk about my dad work oh yeah dogs dogs where's my dog family we
064have two sessions now just pick something you love yeah yeah I love it the next item on the agenda is board discussion are there any topics for discussion from members of the board I have not received any emails all right move on to the next item uh actually the next thing is our action items um the first item is item a the thrun policy Updates this policy here I move the Board of Education approve the January 29th 2025 TR policy updates as presented second by trusty edel second by trusty Chambers is there any discussion on this topic I brought it up briefly at the last one these are changing most of the Title Nine policies back to free this Administration um and we all had a chance to look at them so get it up
065today is there any discussion before we vote on this this topic right all in favor the motion as presented please say I I any opposition the motion carries unanimous ly let's move on to the second item uh investigations arrests and other law enforcement context I move that the Board of Education approve the update to policy 5201 to include the link to the safe and supported resolution adopted on January 13 2025 second mve by truste edel second by trusty gr alliance any discussion on this topic all in favor of the motion as present please say I I I any opposition the motion carries unanimously next uh topic is East Lancing High School band an orchestra trip to Orlando Florida move the Board of Education approved the East Lancing High School band and Orchestra trip to Orlando
066Florida in March 2026 as presented second lot of competition for that one uh mooved by trusty gr Li and seconded by trusty Chambers I noticed that Mr Lars Leer's here would you like to say few things um I if you guys have questions for us we're happy to answer questions um as many of you may know we were planning this trip in in uh in 2020 and we're not able to take because of Co and so we kind of feel like things are kind of back in the you know back in the swing of things we um are hoping to offer this to our students again for next spring so I think it's incredible any questions for Mr larier no just to say that my high school show choire performed at Disney and it was
067definitely a core memory so I'm really glad you're working to bring this forward for our students thank you appreciate do you want to just share a little bit for the community you hundreds of hundreds watching on TV sure our plan is we are um leaving on the Thursday before spring break flying to Orlando uh and then planning to spend um two three days in the Parks down there in Orlando but the kind of main reason we're going is the performance opportunity so right now the marching B is playing to perform at um at the magic Kingdom they do like a parade through the Magic Kingdom if you've ever been down there and then the orchestra will perform at Downtown Disney on the stage down there um and uh we included in our package is like
068a a a clinic that we get from um Physicians that are a Disney and so there's a a nice educational component plus a performance component so um this is a if you've ever been to Disney this is not an uncommon thing there's groups down there all the time that do this from all over the country that come and make this kind of part of their experience high school music experience so uh and then planning on coming back depending on which tour company we pick either Sunday night or Monday um the first week of spring break so it's like basically three days in Florida um and then probably three nights or maybe four depending if we if we choose to come back on Monday so thank you yeah thank you for being here you bet thank
069you I actually really loved hearing about pop of the great so I'm glad I got to hear that but that was really awesome you picked a good one yeah exactly yeah come to all these meetings they're all like that it's funny because it's not true any other discussion before we move to a vote all in favor of the motion as presented please say I I any opposition the motion carries unanimously thank you thank you uh the next item on the agenda is purchase of new technology can I get a motion I move the Board of Education to approve the purchase of 325 Chrome books from SEI in the amount of $843 7650 second mov by trusty taaki seconded by trusty Chambers is there any discussion on this topic right all in favor of the motion
070as presented please say I I I any opposition the motion carries unanimously and I actually heard something about technology being like there was some concern with the way the administration is doing tariffs that technology be harder to acquire so I'm glad we at least approve this um I hope we're able to get that um the next item is budget calendar can I get a motion move the Board of Education adopt the budget calendar for developing the East Lancing Public Schools 2025 26 budget as presented second moved by trusty chamers seconded by trusty taaki any discussion on this topic all in favor with the motion as presented please say I I any opposition the motion carries unanimously uh item F awards for award bids for safety security accessibility Bond bid package number one for the new
071administration building I'm move that the Board of Education award the following bids related to the new administration building as follows category 1 building demolition Chrisman Construction Incorporated $43,750 Category 2 concrete Proline concrete $210,700 category three site work and site demo demo uh verland construction $453,100 category 13 fire protection system Grand Rapids fire $86,500 category 15 electrical H&R electrical $732,500 to Clark construction for 86,5 N3 for a total of $2,973 2,973 th17 second move by trustee edel seconded by truste gr Alliance we have our general contractors here are any discussion on this topic before we move to a vote all right I don't think we need to bring you guys up all in favor the motion did you want to tell us anything did you I was gonna say is there yeah appreciate the ongoing partnership
072with these Public Schools as I over to Joe and this is be my last board meeting so members have been around I also buil all these I was here for the last Bond so I will be here but I'm giving to Joe to kind of handle for me going forward okay I look forward to it welcome Joe thank you look forward to working with you you've been around too Joe yes I have help High School originally so I was this well welcome back CH thank you to be that high school's holding up okay it actually it's been almost 25 years it's it looks amazing yeah I think it does too we have it's really really been well cared good people maintaining it too it's a it's a te team effort but it certainly has well
073constructed and we're fortunate for that yeah so um so I think we've had our opportunity to discuss the motion all in favor of the motion as presented please say I I any opposition the motion carries unanimously let's get to work that's great thank you guys thank [Music] you item F first budget revision can I get a motion I will the Board of Education adopt the 20242 first budget revision resolution for the general fund as presented on pages five and six of the budget book second um part one moved by truste chamber second by trustee etel uh is there any 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 number two I move the Board of Education to adopt the
07420242 first budget ision resolution for the Food Service fund as presented on page seven of the Pledge book second U by trustee chamers seconded by trustee Torres um all in favor of oh is there any discussion on this topic all right all in favor of the motion as presented please say I I any opposition motion carries unanimously and then School item three student school activity fund I move that the board of educ a adopt the 24 2024 25 first budget revision resolution for the student school activity fund as presented on page eight of the budget book second all right move by trusty gu lion second by trusted P hocki all in favor of the motion as presented please say I I I any opposition motion carries unanimously all right a lot of business today the
075next item on the agenda is committee reports we'll begin with academic and Technology committee trustee Lions um we met on February 12th um we had discussion about um uh 7th through 12th curriculum um Sexual Health classes um that will be coming to the full board so we'll be getting more information about that because um I has to get full board approval um and then we had a a nice discussion about a new high school course proposal video game design um and so that was really really exciting and all the wonderful notes are on the website so if you want to read more about it and more to come on that and our next meeting will be on March 11th at 12: pmk you and I was at that meeting uh I agree with everything you
076said about the the video game design course and I was so impressed by the two teachers who presented and their dedication to the project I thought thought that was just so thoughtful and R Smith and Kevin Mays Mr Smith Mr Mays they were just incredible leaders and so nice to to see what they were working on to to benefit our students so I think just the other thing I would add because it's a different process Mr Mitchum step in if I go to the left but normally um we the when we have a curriculum adoption um we have a pilot it goes through a whole process and then it comes to the board but in this case we have to before it Pilots right we have to what we're going to have to approve do
077an approval before it goes to the pilot so we're not approving we're not approving the new curriculum we're approving yes thank you we're approving the pilot to happen yeah for the health for the health curriculum yes for the health curriculum yes so it'll be a little bit different than normal how it normally comes to the board but because of this curriculum it's required to have been approved by the board before they can do the pilot yes perfect and we have great people on that committee too uh working toward toward that goal so um there's lot to look forward to there facilities committee it's trusty Ferris Highland uh I know that there was no meeting uh and we have a meeting to be determined um based on truste fairs Highland's Ava availability uh finance committee truste
078atel so much of what we voted on tonight was discussed in our um Finance meeting but I'll just summarize a little bit um we discussed several items we discussed the consensus Revenue estimating conference which happens twice a year um the new revised economic and revenue figures show increases in both the general fund and the school aid fund for 2025 and 2026 the school aid fund is projected to be about 300 million higher in both years from previously estimated so that's good uh we do have the governor's budget um in for next year very early this is very very early in the budgeting cycle and um for most of you know the house and the Senate will still come forward with theirs and there'll be a bunch of back and forth on that uh but her
079budget um recommends bringing back the per pupil fund of approximately $392 a student but removes the 147 A4 funding from the last budget that had removed the per pupil funding so it's kind of just flipping it back to before um and kind of ends up being a wash um but there uh looks like there will be a decrease in the mypers rate which will help provide an uh overall increase of revenues of about $725,000 if her budget is the final budget um we looked at the average countywide fund balances to expenditures for fiscal year 23 24 uh the average was about 22.5% we were at about 28% so we have a healthy fund balance as we adjust to the loss of covid funding um we all had looked at had a copy of the first
080budget revision which did show an a projected increase in revenues of about 2.8 million and an increase in expenses about 2.1 million thus a projected draw from the fund balance decrease of about 700,000 uh dollars from 1.9 million to 1.2 million leaving a projected fund balance of 14.7 million you guys getting all these numbers um and lastly we discussed the bid package awards for the administration building that we voted on tonight our next meeting is March 3rd at 1M thank you trusty edel intergovernmental relations has been a meeting yes we have our first meeting on February or 10:00 here in February 27th so this Thursday great thank you trusty Tes U Personnel committee that's me we have not had a meeting we probably should um just to figure out where we stand with the valuation
081process in light of the state statute the statutory changes and we can meet about that um policy committee trustee edel right uh we have not met since our last meeting we will meet March what did I just tell you for that Finance uh March 3D at 10:30 we all look forward to that uh Ingam School Officers Association trusty taaki we have not met since the last one I think the next one is on March 5th thank you all right next on the agenda is announcements our next meeting is scheduled for March 10th 2025 at the usual time here are there any other announcements well I just wanted to say um you mentioned Kevin ma is he freshman coach or JB JB JB so um uh he had his JB kids play the um unified special
082ed team in basketball which was a nailbiter the whole game and the unified team pulled it off by one point with little bit of thumb on the scale by the referee SL coach Kevin Mason so I just want to appreciate and share my appreciation for uh his players who are all phenomenal and kind and wonderful and all the kids that were involved and it was great fun great any other announcements all right host thing I would say we had a really fun cool pep assembly here Friday to um recognize all the winter sports and activities um after the um the fire alarm that got knocked was by a ball that was being voled we have video of it so no deliberate pulling of that alarm um and we're hosting you'll probably see on your way
083out we're hosting boys basketball districts here in East Lancing this week we drew a by so we had no game tonight so there was a 7 o'clock game between dit and Eastern and then Wednesday night we'll play at 7 there'll be a 5:30 game and then a 7 o' game that we play and should we win we will play Friday night that was pretty fast just to let you know seventh grade girls a team is still undefeated undated they won today against Mason it was very it's it was a nailbiter but they got it done so so you do have that woman on the basketball team yeah yeah and um this is not nearly as exciting as what you guys are saying but um I am a volunteer coach for a baseball team and we
084had a practice here at the high school this week weekend and I was just reminded that like this place is like Grand Central Station for our community we have so many people in and out from not just from East Lancing but from around the area and our facilities people do a great job of keeping it up but it's also a credit to the district that we've made the space accessible for the community because it is the type of thing that brings people together which means a lot in the current uh climate so I'm appreciative of that as a coach and also as a member of this community also Flor hockey season oh yeah which is a big thingy season yes I did not know that all right well if there's nothing further I will adjourn
085a meeting at 8:10 p.m. thank you all for being here see you