001All right, Mike, are we we're ready? Great. All right, love to call the meeting to order and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Well, welcome everyone. We have just a couple of quick things that we go through before we are here for the main performance. Very excited. Thank you, fifth grade, for being here. Um and also a big thank you to the parents for coming, grandparents, friends. Um and then also we have Vic Bugni in the crowd, too. He will become our superintendent starting in July, so we will be voting on his contract and welcoming him to the Fease family. Um any other
002Turn it off. No, we're all set. Okay, any changes to the agenda? No. No. All right. Um with that, I would look for a motion to approve the consent >> to do one thing before that. Oh, sorry. Right. We have These are closed minutes. I'm going to pass these around to everybody, take a quick gander, and then I need them back. And then we'll make the we'll do the consent agenda. Did you send some that way? Yeah, just the one. All right, we're just reading our closed session agenda. >> Just a second. Um our um meeting notes real quickly. Yeah, she wrote them. Yeah, I read them, too. So, just want to take a quick look and then I'll need and then we'll pass those right back and then we can do the consent agenda
003motion. Just one of those items we need to do. Bring pass those back in when you've taken a look at them. That's that's quite all right. It's a little out of the ordinary. We don't typically have to do this. Great. Um can I get a motion to approve our consent agenda items? Thank you. So moved. Megan. Second. Liz. Any comments, questions? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Great, thank you. And now we will do we have somebody we're introducing specifically? We're excited to have the fifth grade here. >> you help us with that? Or Miss Gwaltney, excuse me. Can you help us with that? So, I'm really excited to have our fifth graders here. So, this is part of our intervention program that we have. Oh, Ann. I am happy that well, we have
004part of our intervention program is our extension group. So, we try to meet the needs of all of our students and these students happen to be the ones who have excelled academically and we were trying to give them a challenge. And so, we are thrilled to have them here tonight um with Mike Tarkington. He's a member of the community and he's been working with these students. And then Emma Kelly is one of our uh educational aids in the elementary building and she also works with them. And then we have Suzanne Shermack is here tonight. She's one of our fifth grade teachers um and they help support and facilitate uh to make sure that these students are getting the challenge and achieving the goals that they've set out for themselves. So, I'm going to quit talking
005and I'm going to turn it over to them. Should I start? How do we get the presentation up? It's coming. Oh, it's coming. Okay. Nice. Two steps forward. I'll tell you when to start. They have one. Hopefully with our work on projection they won't need it. Should I start now? I'm Rebecca. I'm Sophia. I'm Harper. I'm Maggie. I'm Brixton. I'm Noah. I'm Maverick. And I'm Cora. And we are the fifth grade Wonder Woman Power Hour team. Our teachers made the Power Hour group we are in. We were given the responsibility to think of projects that help the community. We brainstormed topics and chose compost, garden, animal shelters, and bat and bird houses. Miss Emma and Mr. Mike come to help out during Power Hour. We split up into different groups to research the stuff we
006are doing. First, we started composting in the fall, then bat and bird boxes, finally native plant garden. If we have free time, animal shelters. For the garden, the first thing that we did is looked for native plants that we all liked. Then we went back and forth with the idea of a fruit garden, but decided to start with native plant garden. Next, we had a meeting with Mrs. Gwaltney and she said she already had a plan and the money for the raised garden beds. So, we went outside to see how much space we had for the garden. After that, we laid out a plan saying 30 of each flower and how much space we had in between each plant. Our group researched the best time to plant the seeds and companies that had seeds for
007us in the right prices. We also researched seed trays with the right length and width that we needed. Oh, yeah. The plants that we chose are asters, black-eyed Susan, butterfly milkweed, cardinal flower, blue wild indigo, and columbine. Our first step for bat boxes was to research different bats in the area. We then chose a design for the northern long-eared bat because they're endangered. Our next step for bird houses was to research local birds and bird houses. Did you know that cardinals and robins like open bird houses? Chickadees and nuthatches, on the other hand, like closed ones. When my sister and I moved to this school, we came from a school that had composting. So, we were really enthusiastic about that. We saw how much trash there was here, and we were really wanted to change
008that. And so did everyone else. We were originally going to do curbside pickup, but it's a small town, so there's no availability. We were We then debated whether to do a pile or bale. Then chose a pile because it's less space limiting. The compost process is we have our fruits and veggies, which turn into leftovers cuz not everyone likes to eat their broccoli. That gets broken down by worms and other decomposers, which turns it into the beautiful soil that we love and use in our gardens. Then the process repeats. We talked to Miss Gwaltney, Miss Gage, and Mr. Mr. Frank about having a compost bin on the playground and compost buckets in the cafeteria. We made posters like this one so people would know what's compostable when we aren't there to help. After we made
009the posters, we had our own separate presentations to second through fifth grade classes. After the presentations, we had our We added our own separate part to the announcements so people would know what's compostable for that day. We also stand by the compost buckets each day during our lunchtime to help people know what's compostable for that day. Compost bin building. When it came to building the bin, Mr. Mike supplied the wood, and we learned about all the safety precautions for building. We built in the afternoon. A problem was that the screws went through the board because we had the wrong angle, but then we fixed it. And finishing. We were thrilled to finish the compost bin. We had signs made to show community access, and one of them explains what can and can't go in the
010compost. And after lunch, we take the compost out and dump it in the bin. We want to raise money for the Benzonia County Animal Shelter so the cats and dogs inside can have cozier cages and hopefully a home of their own. We decided the easiest way to have people donate would be a donation box so we wouldn't have to stand there all day. And the most convenient spot to put it would probably be the Benzonia Shores Library in Frankfort. We still need to make posters so people will know to donate. Our next steps for the garden are buying soil, seeds, and seed trays. Our next step for the compost, continue composting. For the animal shelter, making posters and updating a donation box. And for bat and bird boxes, continue building. Thank you to Mrs. Shawmac
011and Mrs. Miles, Miss Gage and Mr. Frank, Miss Colleen and Miss Becky, Miss Emma and Mr. Mike, Miss Gwaltney, our cafeteria staff, our parents, and our community. Thank you. As you probably picked up, they have some pretty ambitious goals, and I have been really impressed with has worked on and been able to accomplish this far. Um I will say that the mentorship that they've had from the adults who are helping them, Mr. Mike and Miss Emma, has been really beneficial. They've helped them to uh take their ideas, ask them questions, critically think. You heard them talk about the compost bin with the the screws at the wrong angle. They've had to go through, and they've had to stop, and they've had to really think about what they're doing. So, um I wanted to share with
012you um what this group of students is doing and the remarkable uh ideas and everything that they have. So, they're available for questions. Mr. Mike, if he has anything to add, you're welcome to add it. Uh all I can say is parents, grandparents, relatives that are here, you got great kids in stock. Um everything that they have done, they have done based on their own initiative. All that is uh and said, our whole idea was trying to get them to a point. You should have seen what the original list looked like, I'll tell you that. It's to get them to pare it down to what's important and just facilitate whatever we can to them. This is all that. Great group of kids right here. So, the school board is going to ask you guys some
013questions. So, figure out who the best person is to I think that the topic on your slide. I had a question about composting. Mhm. Um can you tell me more about what you're going to do with the compost once you've got a good deal of it besides putting it um in with the soil mixture? Um well, we were thinking we could um use it part of it for the garden, but also we were thinking a bit about maybe selling it. Mhm. To local gardeners? >> To local gardeners. Very smart. Thank you very much. Um with all that you guys have learned during this project, has it influenced any of your home lives? Are any of you guys doing any of the composting or thinking about gardening at home this spring? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely definitely
014Our bird boxes, building bird boxes or bat boxes. And one more question about the garden. Can you tell me how you decided on um the native plants? Um Did you look at other kinds of plants, and why did you decide to go native? Because we just wanted to to make it easier to plant them, and we wanted to help the environment, too. How many birds did you get in your bird houses? Um we're building the bird houses right now, so we haven't really put the bird houses up. So, the bluebirds will be ready to get in quickly. Yes. Have the other kids in the school noticed what you guys are doing? And And what do they think about it? Um They definitely know what we're doing because right behind that third table near the corner
015is a giant poster like the one I mentioned on my slide and two compost buckets. And we do that at lunch and also on one of our recent assemblies, we presented this slideshow to the entire school. Also, every day, as Braxton mentioned, we have what's compostable in the in the announcements, the morning announcements. Um and we also went around and presented to classes what we were doing. What's the reaction that some of your classmates have given? Um a lot of our classmates are very enthusiastic about the composting, and um some of them have like questions about it. Um Like when can we join? Yes. Do they sometimes get confused about what goes in what bin? Yes. Yeah. But you help them? Yes. Okay. Every day Every day we stand over there, and if someone comes
016and asks, "Is this compostable?" then >> Can you give us examples of what is and isn't? Well, stuff that is compostable is like um fruits, veggies, um coffee grounds, and egg shells. But stuff that isn't is like meat, bones, plastic, citrus. Dairy allowed in compost. Dairy? Um if you have a pile compost like us, um citrus, you can't have citrus because it'll kill the worms. And worms are a pretty big part of composting. What's been the biggest challenge? Um I think building was probably the hardest part and the most challenging because sometimes we would mess up and have to restart some of the parts. Um there was also some challenge when we were thinking about what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. Like when we first So, the
017first thing with composting, it was just an idea and we had to get the steps to make it not an idea and make it actually a thing. Can you explain how you came up with your very unique name? It was Mrs. Miles. And don't worry, Brix didn't know it and Maverick have bought in completely. I think just just just to be clear, I think you guys asked Mrs. Miles what her favorite things were. And she told you, she didn't say like you must be Wonder Woman. I think she I'm pretty sure she actually like said um like I'm pretty sure she said like um we were going into power hour groups and she was like assigning different groups and we were all in the Wonder Woman group and we were all just like, well Yeah,
018it was named that from the start and then we were like, do we want to change our name to something different? And everyone was like, no. They were out voted. I wasn't here so I did not have a say in that. Still out voted. Wow. This is great, you guys. What a what a great amount of work you guys have put into this. I mean, it the school year's just over 100 days, right? Whenever you call it. What was snow days, right? Um you've accomplished so much and your enthusiasm is really contagious and I mean, I'm proud to be a panther watching you guys and and listening to this. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. And again, thank you to the volunteers, the parents, the teachers. Thank you so much. This is great, really inspiring. No,
019we won't. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. They should run the meeting. All right. It's going to be really hard to follow that but um I at this time we'd love to open it up for public participation should anybody want to publicly participate. No? Okay. Um superintendent's report. All right, thank you. Just a little closer. There we go. Um on page 43 in the packet, we'll just zip through this quickly. Um our early childhood committee is still uh working hard. Uh we have a lot of this morphs over a little bit to our long-range planning committee as well. But early childhood committee is still moving forward. We're working diligently on getting ready for 26-27. Uh the teaching positions and all the open positions they've been pretty much internally posted and we're now going
020to venture out a little bit, see where some of that lands us. Our health and well-being of students um as I said, things have been going really well. I appreciate Mr. Stapleton's letter to our parents regarding the vaping uh I'll call it a concern cuz it is that we've been dealing with. I did talk with Mr. Stapleton today and we are in contact with a vendor that we're he's going to meet with that vendor tomorrow. We'll have some more conversations to see if there's anything we can do from a preventative point of view for our kids. Uh school board workshop, that's going to come up in a minute but right now we have that for March 23rd. Um and I I I can briefly touch on it. There might be more Amy wants to touch
021on on 8.3 but we're looking at data points uh where we've landed to this up to this point in the school year. Uh we're very pleased. Um both staffs have been working really hard. Our data is looking better and we really appreciate that. We're most likely going to have a conversation at the workshop on cell phones as well. Um long-range planning committee, that meets this Wednesday at 1:30 and we have a number of items we're going to work through. Some of those are summer projects we hope to get off the ground. So, if we I've divided into short-term which is work over the summer, mid-term um maybe late fall and then long-term, that continual conversation so we can keep the district moving forward. Our count day is very stable following that this page. Uh there's
022some count day information and our spring break dates are there and truant law notes. Does anybody have any questions to this point? We're floating right around 491. Oh, I'm sorry. My mistake. Um we've been look working really hard with kids with vaping. And we're working some preventative things and we're just trying to figure this out to help our kids. It's a tough item we're dealing with and we're not alone so we're we're going to keep moving forward. Any other questions? >> The vendor the preventative is what like to detect when it's happening? >> detection Okay. But I I don't have any really any other information to share but that's part of it is is detectors in the buildings. Um helping kids understand and unfortunately, if it happens then it has to be dealt with but
023more importantly, we're trying to figure out a way to help kids. It's a tough habit to kick and that's what we're trying to work on more than anything else. Great. Okay. Um truant law notes any any questions? These were all pretty self-explanatory, I believe. So, what policy committee will do something with the NIL or the I mean The NIL is still kind of a mystery. I don't know if we're going to have to do a lot with that just yet but I think it is something we'll have to be dealt with at some point. Um one of the pressing issues is the whole Neola packet uh that we'll deal with through the through the policy committee. But I have heard some conversation that we should go into a little more detail on cell phone usage
024for 26-27 mainly because of the law Governor Whitmer has put in place. We're already no cell phones in the elementary school no cell phones instructionally at the 6-12 building. Still dealing with uh we still they still have the option in between classes and at lunch. And there's a lot of other things if you take a look at the law on page 45 that we'll have to discuss and meet with Matt and Anne and the board and the policy committee to see how we want to put what we want to put in place for 26-27. Great. Um I don't know if there was really anything else I need to touch on unless anyone has specific questions in the truant law notes. No? Okay. Thank you. Great. Moving on. Finance Committee. Thanks, guys. Um Finance Committee meeting
025last week, we spent most of our time running through the uh uh revised sort of um mid-year budget and generally speaking, the budget's looking pretty good. Um expenses are up a little bit uh and revenue is up a little bit as well. The net difference is we're we're like $70,000 sort of ahead of budget relative to where we expected to be which given all the things that can move around is really good. Um and um generally speaking, we're in strong financial shape as of as of this budget update. Uh we addition additionally additionally, we discussed the planning for the Hadley override ballot which is coming up um as we've spoken about several meetings and that's all on track. Um and a few a few items on open positions and I think there's some things in
026our agenda today to cover but that we're making progress with filling open positions. Um for the Hall Street project with the potential for teacher and staff preference housing, we continue to wait on Home Stretch so there's no um active um items for us to take there. Um and then um uh we spoke a little bit about the 27L education compensation from the state that is is for teachers and staff and planning for that. Um and that's about it. Um unless you guys have any questions. I actually I should add we spent a lot we spent a fair amount of time on things that overlap with long-range planning. So, as Jeff mentioned, we started to think about lighting and um flooring and the storage building and stuff that is out of bond funds. Um we didn't
027get into much detail cuz that's kind of long-range planning item, but just basically the committee said we want long-range planning committee to come up with some ideas and plans and and and and help us um figure out how we're going to spend the bond money. Perfect. Any questions? Okay. Thanks, Brian. Uh technology report. Let's do this up. Sorry. Um just uh we've been through a little bit of a change with the Northwest Ed uh tech person. Uh that was uh Britain Shank. He has found another job. He's working for Mr. Beast. This is social media guy that we all know and um he's doing some video stuff for um gaming and things like that down in North Carolina. So, he's going to move on to that. The ISD uh in cooperation with uh Jeff and
028I went through an interview process and um I don't know I'm going to accredit it to our social media stuff that we had probably um the best candidates that they as a Northwest Ed that they've seen come through the interview process, which was great. We had six people, I think, that interviewed for the Frankfort job. And again, that was through Traverse City, but we we helped with that. Um so, we did narrow it down to somebody. They're approving that this week, so we can't talk about it yet, but um we do have a replacement for him coming, which is great because then that gives us two three months of uh working with that person, having them get to know the staff and get to know all the aspects of uh the technology, the nuts and
029bolts of the job, um not so much the communication side. That part comes later in the promotions, but uh in Brit's job as far as supporting and and being a help desk for all the people that that's going to be set. So, I'm happy that that system's kind of been taken care of. Um along with the ISD, I I continually praise them for being involved in helping me with stuff. Um they noticed in our phone system that we were paying a lot of money in support costs every year. In addition, we're paying too much to uh Telnet, the phone company, and they said that they can come in and give us a different phone system and support it for free and also work on knocking down the telephone bill a little bit more. So, um
030they're going to save us over a 3-year period probably around 15 grand, and the new phone system probably cost a little bit less than that, which will pay itself off in 3 years. Um they also helped us with the cabling project that we're doing throughout the district. That's in all the closets. Nobody sees it except me, but um it helps us troubleshoot a lot, all the wires that are going all over the place in the racks that they're put in. Uh they helped to apply for the E-rate funding, so we got received 85% discount from what it's going to cost us for that. Um we have a a vendor that we're going to probably come forward with at the next board meeting for you guys to take a look at and approve for that. That's
031a it's a small job for the summer time, but um I'll be involved with the phone system and the cabling uh in June for that. Uh lastly, I really wish I would have said this while I had my parents and the kids in here, but um as a a technology integration person, and you've heard this before, that this is this is where the magic happens here. I know we're we're talking about like the best the best this uh group is a great they're really interested in science and math, but um the amount of learning that took place in that situation there was amazing. And the stuff that they're doing that if you bring the kids and continually K-12 bring the kids forward, you're going to have amazing things happen. They they don't have to be
032as cute as as these guys where they could be even like Bella's age. You guys are adorable, too, but any age group. You get them out in the community and learning about something that really pertains to something and means something to them, it's going to be crazy good, right? Yeah. She knows. That's it. That's awesome. Thanks, Mike, for all that work and for saving the district money and and making things better. Yep. As always, thank you. Thank you. All right. School board workshop or any other questions for Mike? Sorry. Technology part. Okay. Um the school board workshop uh March 23rd, does that work for people? Great. Um and as Jeff said, we'll um look at some of the data from the winter, uh a comparison fall winter, um and then if we have time, cell
033phones. >> Yeah. Yes. Uh I just we just need a time. I have the data in the bottom of the agenda, but I don't think we determined the time yet. If 6:00 is fine, if that's the direction or earlier or whatever works. 6:00? We have it in our calendar as 6:00. Okay. Okay. All right. 6:00 it is. Calendar discussion. So, in front of you is um the proposed school calendar, and correct me if I'm wrong, but this generally starts with the teachers and the >> And then I put some highlights in your packet on page 53. I can zip through real quickly. It's a very similar calendar to last year with the exception it's a post-Labor Day start. We would start on the 8th uh with students, and then staff would be here the week
034before, 3 days before that. A regional staff development day would stay on the 2nd. Uh good news for elementary teachers in the room. It was determined that regional staff development um will always be away from Halloween. It's the best way I can put it. So. Yeah. Uh seven early release days. Uh there is one item on the calendar that uh we will talk to Matt and Anne and the admin team tomorrow. That would only be uh ERW date on the colored calendar I gave you. We have an ERW on the 23rd. It's a um in September. We might move that to the 30th, mainly because we're getting a later start into school. We didn't want to just get in the groove and then go to a half day. So, we'll talk about that our admin
035meeting tomorrow. But the calendar that I provided to you, which will hopefully act on later in the meeting, that's pretty much in place. Um other highlights, spring break is set, the winter break is set. Uh we would have a 4-day break in February, and I will be honest with you, that was really a wonderful time to have that. I actually think it allowed us to count some days because our sickness in the both buildings was at the tiptop of winter, and it gave an opportunity for kids to be away from each other for 4 days, which I think was really helpful. Um spring break, it's a 6-day spring break. Uh Martin Luther King Day, we would like to still be in session because that's part of our curriculum and our content. Fall parent-teacher conferences would
036operate as they have in the past, and then spring teacher conferences, we have a just an evening by invitation. And the tentative last day of school would be June 16th as per the calendar. It's 180 student days and 184 staff days. Very similar it's same as last year. So, we'll act on that. Uh there may be more discussion now or or at the meet as we act on that, and I'll call that for a vote hopefully to put this in place for the year. The other reason we like to get this in place is I know Anne is working on some uh professional development dates. Uh they have a a lot of reading content coming in, and they want to make sure they can get the presenter here uh for those days or at least
037one of them for sure. So, it's a very similar calendar last year. It's just a later start. And then would we look to do that back to school bash before Labor Day? Yeah, that would have to be conversation with Matt and Anne, and I can't say Mike. Can't say me, but we'll have some conversation uh prior to that how we want to do that. We have talked briefly about maybe not combining the middle school and the high school on the same night or at least at the same time. That was a lot of people going through the building. So, we've talked we've talked more of keeping it to 9-12 and 6-7-8, especially for our new 6th graders coming over. But that'll be conversation, and we'll get back to you once we finalize that. Could do
038back to school tailgate bash. We could. few football games before school starts. >> Um and then I I my only concern, and obviously I'm I don't have the boots on the ground as a teacher. I mean, I it makes sense to start after Labor Day. A lot of good reasons to do that. I just whatever supports we're going to need in June because that tends to be a really hard month. It feels like people get a little squirrely and Yeah, I being new to how this gets developed. That was my question was um what kind of conversation or, you know, what was discussed on on doing it that much later? I met with um the representation from the staff, and they were very clear they would like to continue the post-Labor Day start. In order
039to do that, you have to go later. We also had the conversation about that's pretty late, and we know what happens. It does help more at the high school cuz we can hold them to exams, and that helps a little bit. But I think that's just going to have to be a message. My suggestion would be a message throughout the school year that we're not done with school until potentially the 16th of June. And instruction's important. We got to keep pushing all the way through. And when you say potentially, that's It's snow days, but that would be the earliest, yeah. Yeah. So, again, is there you know, I I get like we'd like to start after, and being a Midwest tourist town, you know, it makes all the sense in the world to like kind
040of start after Labor Day. Are there any other um kind of data points that are put forward as to why we wouldn't maybe even just start right before Labor Day? No, I don't >> I'm looking for more clarification as to the >> I don't really have any data points. It wasn't a formal survey or anything like that. It was a conversation the way our past practice has been. There's a representative group that represent the staff. They come and we have a conversation. We talk about the calendar and their message to me was they would like to start after Labor Day knowing very clearly that the earliest they would get out of school would be June 16th. Do we know yet what the other schools in ISD are doing and what the ISD calendar is? I
041T-Cap the the ISD calendar actually goes a little bit later than this one. Couple days later. Um what districts do with kids that are at the Career Tech Center if they start early, they just have to go. Um I do know that uh T-Cap's our biggest district in the region, they will start after Labor Day and there's some that are starting before Labor Day. I don't have the exact number. Um if you take it by representation, T-Cap's is the biggest in the in the district in the ISD. Um I know Benz is starting early, a couple others. I don't have the exact number. I would say there's probably more starting earlier than later. At least they're going to try it. So. Did we look at any opportunities for additional days maybe in December? It looks
042like we have nine um days off for the holidays or maybe the February two-day off for the President's Day. Well, the President's Day I mentioned, in order to per law, in order to get away from this calendar, you have to get a waiver from the state and then you end up with kids some go to CTC, some do not. So, we have just always followed the ISD calendar for a variety of reasons, travel to the Career Tech Center and so forth. Huh. Yeah, but if you get Benz and Glenn Lake all going before it, so they're all getting waivers? You can get a waiver, it's a process. Um What do we need >> again, our I have to keep in mind our staff who I have the utmost respect for, they're asking to start after
043Labor Day. I think yeah, I don't argue with the after Labor Day start necessarily, but I wonder if there's the June 16th date is what concerns me and you know, attention spans when uh we live in a resort town and it's clearly vacation time and all the kids see that. I you know, I just >> Well, I understand that. Once again, it's a negotiated calendar. I can look at it from the other side. It's a lot nicer in September than it is in June. >> Right. As as a person that goes to school, I would prefer to go a little bit later into June like and getting those extra days like during the holiday time and it's warmer in September and it's usually busier end of August, September for the kids that are working and
044it's not as busy at in June. From my perspective. Probably pushes exams away from the end of spring sports, too, right? >> It would. Yeah, there's Or are all the sports going to No, the sports won't shift, but it does would end spring sports and then wrap up with strictly academics at the end of the school year. That would also be helpful. What was the decision for seniors cuz usually seniors are out Memorial Day, but >> have to extend. They they still have the amount of time. They would not get out earlier than earlier. It would be the same everything would just shift forward. >> So, okay. Um you mentioned that we would have to get a waiver. Is that waiver for everything that we've discussed or is there, you know, like for instance, the
045February four-day weekend, could we do three days or do we need to get a waiver for something like that or No, the the biggest waiver you would have to get is to start is the start of the school day because we're getting away from this calendar. The February I have to look here. The February 12th day is not part of the ISD calendar. That's something the staff have requested for the reasons I said earlier that four-day weekend in the middle of the winter has been very helpful. But once again, it's a negotiated item. I have to go back and have a conversation with the staff. You wouldn't need to get a waiver if you change the uh winter break in December. Because it's a law we have to follow the ISD calendar unless you get
046a waiver. Yeah. Yeah, I just want to know what what support is going to be needed from the board or or funding-wise in that in June day you know, whether we need more hands-on projects or what whatever it is that's going to keep everybody engaged in the learning. Cookies during It's going to be cookies and parties. >> just I just I think as I said earlier, I think it's just conversation throughout the year and from the staff's point of view and administration saying instruction is important. We're going to push through. Yeah. Um and and being respectful to the group of teachers that are have their boots on the ground every day, that's what they would like to do and with that said, then there's the other side to it then we got to push through
047to June. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think that's the message. I think I was thinking as a parent, I think I would prefer to start earlier and end earlier. Pardon me? I think I think as a parent, I think I'd rather have school start before Labor Day and end earlier than June 16th, I think. Well, we've never put that out there because it's it's done through the teachers and the and the district to make that decision. It's you know, if you put something out like that, you're going to get 100 different answers. For sure. >> Um so, we've never done that. We've we're following the past practice and that's that's what we've done in with the agreement in the contract. I'm not saying following past practice, but this is as late as it could this is
048basically a week later than it than you know, it's like a week it's a week. All right. So, it's it's the latest it could possibly be and looking at it from this perspective, it does strike me that it is you know, way into September and way into June. Yeah. It's just how it falls this year, right? And then Yeah, it starts to back off as you go through the years. This is just the anomaly of this one. Yeah. >> I mean, the opportunities go with what what we're proposing, evaluate it and when it comes around again, we'll start as earlier earlier as we can. I mean, it's going to adjust, not a ton, but it will just start to move backwards. What's done the like the first two weeks of school? The start? >> Yeah.
049Kind of academic like are we are we digging in? We pretty much get rolling right away. >> Right away. >> That's one of the reasons we try to do the back to school to get all that stuff out of the way and we start on the first day of school, we're moving forward. Mhm. I mean, it's here we go. Yep. I mean, these guys can answer this better than I can. Elementary might be a little bit different, but when middle school and high school, when it's the first day of school, they're rolled out and and we're Right. Yeah. >> We're in instruction. >> Yeah. Our second day we're fully in instruction. Yeah, first day every other class is instructing or giving syllabuses and second day you're moving. Mhm. >> Right. And again, as a student,
050I like our four-day weekend in February and it gives a good break in in between that spring break and our holiday break in December there. I find that helpful and again, with the sickness that usually hits us there and then it's just a nice little refresher to push through till spring break. Are all of the facilities air-conditioned? So, we're talking about Well, they've never been air-conditioned. Right, but this is pretty far to go into June with that kind of heat. Well, my experience has been we have actually more heat in August and September than we do in June. Yeah. June's actually a more pleasant time to go to school, to be honest with you. Yeah, it could be. >> Yeah, no, it's really hot in town. >> been my experience. When we're in staff development
051in the first few days of school, it's hot. I think Who knows how the weather pattern's going to go? I think it's worth discussing. There's a lot, you know, there's changes and I feel like I remember a state law something about having to have time off after, you know, we couldn't start before Labor Day or something odd about that. Um but the practicalities of I mean, to Brian's point, modern parenting, um it's just really going to be a struggle those last two weeks of June and it wouldn't be a lot easier to keep their attention, I think, front-loaded than to try to keep their attention in those last couple weeks. I'm very uh I want to make sure that we get the most out of that instruction time and I just if we're not really
052pushing up to the very, you know, to mid-June with instruction, I just don't I just don't want it to be fluff days. I don't think it would be. I I mean, Anne is it I mean, do we have a little bit for elementary towards the end? Sure, but we're not going to start having field days June 1st. Yeah, it may be able to spread out some of the field trips Yeah, there's a lot of different ways to do it. I understand what what your concern is, Liz. We just don't want to come to school and hang out for the month of June. I will guarantee you from past practice, there's way too much stuff to get through just to stop. I don't see that happening. Uh something else I want to throw in here is
053I hear concerns about students getting antsy and that definitely is a concern, but I don't think going later is necessarily I think they're going to be antsy anyways. We're going for the same amount of time. Yeah. Right, but it does make quite a difference in the time of the year. There's a mindset shift that happens, you know, towards the end of the year. Um the the fall sports schedule will start uh that'll be kind of going mid-August, I'm I'm assuming. That >> Uh I don't have I don't have it in front of me, but typically we would play um we would start the week of the 20 at least with football the week of the 20 it'd be probably the 28th. And then the we play the third we don't play on Labor Day weekend.
054So, there'll probably be two football games prior and probably three or four volleyball matches. It's one more than we've done in the past. So, it's not like we have half the season over with before we start. >> Football practice can start on August 10th um Right. this year. And last year But I think we were talking about the games. Yeah. That doesn't change a whole lot. Uh you're just going to play one more game before kids are in their seats than we typically do. But that's also not uncommon. And I know we want to be cognizant about the students who are working, um you know, and being able to have a full season, especially the ones headed off to college in next year. Um but if we're willing to bring them back for athletic practices,
055I feel like we should be willing to bring them back for academic purposes. Yes. I think the resistance here that the math is just Correct me if I've got calendars wrong. But like this is the only way it's one out of seven years it's a it's it's the it's it's the it's a full week before we get to Labor Day, right? I believe that's correct, yeah. >> I mean, it's just how it's It just as I said, it's one of these we're landing. >> So, I think you know, the rest of the time it's oh, it's a little bit this, a little bit that, a couple days, but this is a full it's the second week. Which is instead of sometime during the first week. Uh which is which is what feels very different, I
056think. Well, it is different. I'm surely not saying it isn't, but I'm only going back with my conversations with the staff is that this is the calendar they're they proposed. What was the what were the Do you know why? I think it's just that Labor Day start. It's it's what we've done it's past practice. Um I I I guess you would have to ask them specifically. >> Probably a lot of them are working, too. >> I think part of it's their own it's work. It's a number of things. >> I was just going to say I mean, we value ourselves as a community school. And it seems like, you know, we talk about community community businesses. I think businesses rely on our on our young people heavily. And um you know, I I mean, I
057understand the parenting concern. I understand the concern at the end of the year. Um we're never going to solve those problems. Um you're never going to make everyone happy kind of like Jeff was saying. I I think I don't know. I'm just I'm kind of putting it out there don't not to forget this other element, you know, we talk about community school and um and I know I mean I don't know. I I just I guess I'm kind of sorry. I guess I'm kind of good with this calendar. Um because no matter how you skin it, it's going to be tough, but I I don't know. No solid answer. No, I think we're not >> But I just I want you to I want you thinking about it, right? There's there's a big there's a
058big part of our of our community that gets supported by our young people. Maybe we could have the juniors and seniors start after Labor Day and everybody else can start Yeah, no, I I hear you, but Well, I think we have to go back to what's best for kids. And our job is to educate kids. So, regardless of the community aspect, we have to go back to our number one thing. I would like more clarification on what the process is. So, we get this from the teachers, then what's the next step, and what's the next step before finalizing? Yeah, and there's a certain amount of education that goes on outside the classroom, too. I mean, those young people in jobs and stuff are getting a great education. Yeah. So, I don't know. The I don't
059think it's an easy problem to solve. So, you're asking so that the teachers work on the calendar and then they bring it to Jeff and the admin team and then they look at it and >> The way it works is I meet with a couple representatives from the associations. We go through the calendar. We devise it together. We agree on the calendar from the associations' point of view, and then my directive is to bring it to the board to have the calendar approved. So, it's a it's a conversation from where the where the teachers feel this is the best calendar for this given year, even though it's different. I mean, that that's our conversation. So, I'm I'm not I guess I'm not sure what else you're looking for. So, the it's standard that the teachers
060basically set the academic calendar. It's a negotiated calendar. Yes. And you? Are we allowed to speak during this time? Technically, no, but we're a small district. No. The half It's an interesting process from pupil accounting. You have to be in school 180 student days. Doesn't matter they're half or full. That's the first part. The next part is you have to have 1,098 clock hours of instruction. Those can either come from a full day or a part day. So, what we do is Margaret, our pupil accounting person, will go through and look at this calendar and say, "Okay, step one, you have 180 student days. Step two, do we have enough clock hour days? Clock hours, excuse me, 1,098." And Anne, you might be a little bit over. Um we might be 110 something, but we're
061always over 1098, but it's really close. So, it's not a day counts as a day, whether it's a half or a full. Which is an interesting, but that's how it works. And and we've done a lot of work around ensuring that those days are really very they're staff, you know, development days, ensuring that they're really used that the the work they do is valuable because we understand that there is a real pain from a parent standpoint from from the half days. And the I think the number, correct me if I'm wrong, is down from where it was a couple years ago. >> Yeah, we were aware of that, and we did lessen those days to we put some more heavier days in the before school, and then we also lessened the E R W days,
062understanding that was difficult for parents, but we still needed that time to get some things accomplished. >> And the development is very useful for the staff. They're they're learning new um curriculum techniques and planning new programs, and they they do make the most of it, but I think we recognize they are chal- they can be challenging. Yeah, it's a great question. It It's kind of odd, but that's that's the way it works. >> Yeah, is there is there a compromise here? So, what I'm thinking is like I know that it would be ideal. I know that because of the way the calendar falls and where Christmas is and where New Year's Eve is, but like theoretically, we could go to school until the 23rd, right? And the 23rd could be a half day. And if
063you did that, that would get rid of the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, that whole second week. So, you instead of getting out on the 16th, you could get out on the 11th. If you had only 1 and 1/2 week for Christmas, because sometimes we only have 1 week for Christmas because of the way the calendar falls. It just happens that this year it would be two. And so, I feel like that's a way to compromise where some of what's being said here is like because realistically, we'll probably have snow days and we'll probably have to make them up. So, I mean, we're probably going to go into that second week anyway, but at least it makes you guys feel a little bit better about not being there. I don't know if that's something you could take
064back to the teachers and see how they feel. >> take back the comments from the board that the thing you do risk is when you take a day or two off before a long break like that, a lot of kids don't come anyway. And the other thing you have is you have 45% of our kids driving in back and forth. I hope this doesn't happen, but it has, to say, "No, we're good. We're going to go on a trip. We're going to take those 2 days, whatever." And the other flip flip side to that, you have to be careful when you do the calendar because if you don't have 75% of attendance during the school day, it doesn't count as a day anyway, and then you have to make it up. So, there's more to
065it than just you got to kind of put things in the right spots to not encourage people to not come to school. I'm also looking at Margaret Evans' email with the final counts, and 75% of our student body is not old enough to work yet. How old is that? I'm thinking 14. I'm averaging. Well, once again, I'm only going by what how it's worked in the past. It's been a good process for us. I hear that we need to keep kids for Labor Day to work, but I can take back your concerns and see what I can come up with. I mean, it has to be approved by the board. We know that. Yeah. So, if more discussion needs to happen, I I can do that. I'm not sure where that will land, but at
066least we can take it back. Yeah. And Anne, I'm sorry. I know you're waiting to try to get our day calendar set. You just speak for myself. Like as I said, I I think thinking about it as a parent, I but I I don't know if that's how I don't know how the majority of parents from the parents' side, for whatever their vote is worth, if they would prefer one or the other. I I I don't I don't know if I feel like I have enough information to say. And it might be worth a community survey one of these. I mean, we've talked about this. We've never actually done it, but um when we were trying to determine the half-day schedules, we talked about we should do an overall attendance community survey and figure out
067what's easy you know, is it easiest for kids to come in the morning and leave early or leave, you know, come late and leave at the regular time. I All these things I think we could put on a community survey. I don't know if we have time this year and I certainly don't want to hold up any processes that admin is trying to do. I have heard from other schools, downstate schools, friends who have kids in these schools that that they that their tradition is recent tradition is that they'll start like Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday before Labor Day and have a couple days of syllabus sharing and kind of back to school and it's a little bit low pressure because everyone knows there's a big weekend coming up and they actually make the weekend
068like a four-day weekend, but they knock they get some count days in and they knock out like the where's my locker and meet your teachers and and all that stuff and get a couple days in before and then the day after Labor Day they're they're up and running kind of they've they've covered off, which sounds interesting to me. I I don't know if we've ever considered something like that. Um but Well, Mike it sounds like you'd like me to take this back, which I can. The only and I understand that, Brian. It's kind of it's called a soft start, okay? But once again, with that soft start, then you've lost three days of three days of instruction. If we do it by we dive in and we do our back-to-school night, we get all that
069stuff out of the way, we're instructing on day one. So, that's the flip side to that. >> I I again, I don't know the the ins and outs and I'm just trying to One other thing Just one other thing to just consider, um is that the when you cuz you guys were asking about sports and stuff, so I was wondering about AP exams, too, and I don't know how many of our kids are in AP classes, but the AP exams for May of 20 or for 2027 are May 3rd through 7th and May 10th through 14th. So, they're not um they're not pushing that back is my point. Like that's not getting pushed. So, they'll have It doesn't seem like. Hm? Okay. So, yeah, good to know. >> When does MSTEP? So, you'll have less
070lessons in a week less instruction before the tests arrive. Well, and as a as a local business owner, too, I'm I I'm certainly cognizant of wanting to have folks available, you know, students available to help out. Um but I feel like that's also accomplished by that weekend when they're not in school anyway. Right? They're going to be you're going to have a big tourist draw for Memorial Day weekend that Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday, Monday you're not going to have school anyway. You know, so I I'm less concerned, you know, with with that portion of it. Um but I would also say, you know, if the staff has come to us and I feel like I want I want a a I want better clarity on the decision-making that that went into that so I can
071say yes or no, um based on, you know, their line of thinking and what is best for them because of their experience and boots on the ground. Um but if that's, you know, what they've come to us with, um you know, that's certainly not to be taken lightly. Yeah, and there could be factors that they might come to us and say this is actually best for kids because and I I completely agree with you. Correct. Mike sounds like you'd like me to go back conversation, that's fine. I don't think our staff would do anything that isn't best for kids. They brought this to us from the aspect of this is what we believe as a staff works best for our community and works best for our kids. But I'm happy to take it back. I
072don't know what other clarity we're looking for, but I can try to get more information if we want to table this for tonight. I think that's probably the best move. I mean, I'm fine supporting what our staff has come up with and then you know, the the concern is making sure that June going that deep into June becomes a productive educational time and it's our way of okay, we're going to try it this year and we're going to see where it goes and see what happens in June and if we have to not do that in pri- future years, then I I just brought the calendar you on behalf of the staff. This is what they feel works best. So, that's what we've done. It's been a conversation between the superintendent and the staff to
073set the calendar. We bring it to the board. The calendar has been approved. Granted, this is a little bit different. But the staff did have an opportunity to say their concerns and why they thought this was the best start and that's why I brought the calendar to you. And as a student, I think that like the two weeks before summer, whether that's you're leaving the 9th or something or the 16th, I I think like kids are going to ants see whether that goes into June further or not. Um Like personally, just like my summer, it's warmer in September and I prefer to be enjoy my summer a little later and it I don't know. That's my point of view. Yeah, I think it's just clear that there's a lot of different perspectives to take in.
074I'm not saying no to this, certainly. I just think um I think we have enough questions right now that we would just like to get some additional clarity. I know I you've said this is what the staff's brought to you. It might just be helpful for us to be able to hear firsthand kind of what is your reasoning, what is your thinking along these lines and I think that'll help for future conversations, as well. Okay. We put a deadline on it so that other people that are trying to plan around it. Well, the only time we meet again would be the 23rd for the workshop and we could do that. We'd have to start it as a special board meeting to approve the calendar or we'd have to wait until the uh April meeting to
075approve the calendar. Or we could move forward and vote. Yeah. I I Just make a motion. Well, that's coming and then I guess you can decide what you want to do with it at that point. I'm I'm just trying to determine a direction from the board. But it is still an agenda item for 9.5. Right. I I think we've been really clear like what, you know, I think the board has been very clear about the things that give us a bit of agita um and things that we wanted more clarification on. So, I'm that doesn't seem like that's been obfuscated in any way. Um but I think we've also been very clear that we completely respect what's coming to us from the staff. I just don't think there's any um we're not we're looking for
076the clarification of what was the reasoning, what was the process, how many people thought, "Hm, maybe that is a little bit too late." or what are the pros and cons for us that aren't as familiar with the process of calendaring in in the district. And I think that's the only thing that we're looking for. That's fine. If that's going to take us two weeks and stop us from being able to move forward on a lot of other things, then I'm not sure, you know, then then I'm not completely convinced that that's something that we should take on and and wait for. But I don't think that anything we've been talking about here ad nauseam it has been unclear from our point of view. I completely agree. So, I'm I mean, we we get to a
077point of voting on this. I mean, are you guys and we can talk about it when we vote, but are you comfortable with saying like, "Hey, these are our questions and concerns, but we trust that you have presented something to us that was well thought out. We just don't know what the thinking behind it was, so we'd just like that information." Yes. I mean, we could Yeah, I guess because what I'm hearing right now is this is what we've always done. I just want to know that pushing, you know, with the calendar falling the way it is, okay, we're these things taken into consideration and I mean, Okay. All right, moving on. Uh Bella and Griffin. presentation I'm sorry. So, we're not voting on this today. Coming up. Oh, later on. Got you. >> down
078at the business item, so Okay. So, this was just pre-discussion. Got you. >> makes a motion. All right. So, first we'll start we had the Reading Across America. I believe it was last Monday on the 2nd. And I know I and the rest of the NHS group who was available at the time went over to the elementary school, came over here, we walked. It was a little chilly, but it was great. Um and we read to the kids. I believe I read to fifth graders. And I know I had a blast. It was really fun answering the questions about high school and reading them books and seeing the kids and taking some time away from first and second hour helped a little bit, too. Um The next thing on the report is the Model UN
079trip. I was um very honored to go as were 27 other students. While they were there, they were delegates. We were all very formal and it was a great trip. I know you guys put a lot of money into it. We had a lot of class growth this year and it's definitely worth it. We definitely all learned a lot and it's a really amazing experience. Yeah, it's great. And uh before I give it to Bella, I'll just cuz I know she's not going to talk about it. She's too humble. Um she's an amazing wrestler and she did great at the same time. I know I sat right next to Keith while he was at the Model UN conference and he had his phone out trying to watch these blurry videos. He was very sad to
080miss and she did amazing this weekend. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thanks Griffin. Um yeah, to go off of that, our winter sports are kind of wrapping up. Our boys basketball is officially done. They had a good season. Our wrestling wrapped up. Um our girls actually just started their game 7 minutes ago. They're going against Mayo. So, it's a regional semi-finals. Hopefully maybe get to watch them Wednesday. Um and then skiing finished up this well and Lily Wolfe and Ben Stoops, they placed at states. And spring sports started today. So, we're rolling right into it. Um busy, busy. And then the senior trip is next week. We're going to Washington D.C. Very excited about that. Um Uh we had a NHS blood drive a little while ago. Our numbers were a little bit down for
081that. Um so, if anybody is like wanting to donate blood or has opportunity to, we would really appreciate it. And just feel free to reach out to any NHS student. Yeah. Blood drive coming up at the school soon? >> I would have to look at our next date, but I just know that we had one last month and our numbers were a little bit more. All right. Um they were decreased compared to other years. So. Cool. Awesome. Thanks. Any questions or >> All right. >> the weather that day? I don't know, honestly. I can't remember. Yeah, that might have to do with it. >> was bad. >> Right, yeah. Like people didn't want to drive in or something. Yeah. Ann Oh, sorry. Yeah. So, at the at the Model UN, was there anything that you
082guys were like caught off guard by? And was there anything that you were like totally prepared for? Um so, I'd definitely say we're all really prepared with our positions for our countries. We spent a lot of time researching and working and preparing. So, we're very prepared to represent ourselves um at the conference. Um two things that we were kind of unprepared for is there was a little bit sickness going around. Sadly, we had to send two students home early, but some of most of us made it through. And then the other thing we weren't quite prepared for was some last-second changes that they had. There's some inconsistencies in the way the organization communicates with us. So, not everything was as communicated. So, some of that stuff can catch us off guard last second, but generally,
083we were very well prepared for it. Cool. Nice job, Griffin. Which countries did you guys have this year? We had, I believe it was six or seven, not to make a pun for those out there. It was Pakistan. I know Keith picked up Denmark last second. That was a special thing. They needed a position filled. We had Spain, we had Egypt, we had Did I say Pakistan already? >> Yeah. Uh we had >> Ukraine, yeah. Ukraine and Canada. Very cool. 27 kids. That's a lot. That's a huge number. That's awesome. I don't have a complete report from Model UN, but I did stop in and say hi to the kids today and congratulate them. Mr. Reedy said our kids did very, very well and even came back with some individual awards that I'm sure we'll
084get some more information about that. He's still kind of recovering. I think it was a rough week uh health-wise. It's a crazy 3 days. 4 days? First day is kind of a half day. The last day is kind of a half day. 3 to 4 somewhere in there. It's really unbelievable experience for our kids and they represented our district and themselves very, very well. And I'll get some more information or Matt will from Brad. Great. Perfect. Ann Um I I want to say I didn't include this in my report. I had it in my newsletter to the community, but um the Read Across America Day was amazing and the number of students who came, their openness, their their true joy in participating with the students. I walked around and observed some some different students reading
085and I went into a preschool room and these wonderful humans asked the preschoolers if they had any questions. And then it was a difficult situation from that point on. Um but they rolled with it. They were really they were really great. So, um I thank uh Mrs. Stevenson uh and the NHS for coming in providing that really special day for us. Um this weekend, we had 13 staff members who went down to the Michigan Reading Association conference in Lansing. It was an amazing experience. I included some pictures um of our staff members with the amazing Anita Archer and also um Joe Beckman who was inspiring and um really did a presentation that got to the heart of what we do and the connections we make and the relationships we have. Um so, we are grateful
086for the opportunity for 13 of us to spend our weekend um down in Lansing learning. And I really think that shows the growth mindset of our staff that they are not done and they always want to do better. And it was really affirming as well that we're doing things really, really well. We have good curricula in place. We are using good um practices and our multi-tiered system of support is in good place and in good shape so that we're able to support lots of students. So, um we are really grateful for the opportunity that we had there. Um you can see we had our second behavior incentive. Um Nordic Rocks ended. We're so grateful to Crystal Mountain and the um Crystal uh ski club for providing the opportunity for our third through fifth graders to
087go and cross-country ski at Crystal Mountain. Um they're learning something they can do for the rest of their lives and I think it's wonderful. And we had lots of volunteers who went and they braved those bitter cold days um to help support our students. So, it was wonderful. Um I met with our garden angels. Um those a couple of neighbors decided that our flower garden was in terrible shape and they just started working on it. And now it's turning into the the spot that we're going to have our school garden as well. And so, they have helped write some grants. We have some grants out there and we're hoping to get new tools and we're hoping to um get a grant for a couple of grants for uh buying the beds, the materials for the
088uh raised beds and the soil and the compost and the vermiculite and all of the things that we have to get for our raised garden. So, um very excited to see what happens with those grants that we have um worked on and just grateful for our community. It's an amazing place. And you saw the enthusiasm of our students and uh we're hoping that their enthusiasm will lead to enthusiasm of younger students as well. Um We um I attended a a webinar after our last um board workshop where we talked a lot about what kind of classes people should be taking, students should be taking. So, I can share that information at our next board member our board workshop. Um We hosted our child study team. Again, our monthly multi-tiered system of support is in really
089good shape. We met on 10 students. That's half an hour across a day where we sit and talk about a student. And we brainstorm and we problem-solve. We look at what we've done in order to try to help meet those needs of those students. Um we had our um Panther Parents Mother-Son, Daughter-Daddy Glow Dances and that was a lot of fun. Um the the Mother-Son dance is definitely a lively event. Um not sure there's a lot of dancing that goes on, but it's really a lively event. And then the girls love to get dolled up and their dates accommodate them. We have lots of um really well-coordinated um daughters and dads who come to those dances. Um and it's it's just a great event. Um We had a lot of uh good attendance at our
090spring conferences. We had some struggles as well getting people to be here and we had them set for one night, but they kind of spread across 2 weeks in order for us to see the the parents that we really needed to see. And I'll have more data at our workshop or by the next board meeting because they're still meeting with people. So, I'll have more information then. Um I attended the regional uh elementary principals meeting on Friday. I know that you wanted to hear a little bit about what we're doing in those meetings. Um we've been focusing this year on budgeting and how school budgets work. We talked about PA 146 and 147 which are the the so-called dyslexia laws that will be impacting us um in our instruction in the 2027-2028 school year. We
091talked about the walk and foci that we've been doing as part of teacher clarity. Um Matt's building more than this one. Staffing and staffing. We talked about all of the difficulties with staffing and substitutes. And we completed our final lockdown of the school year. Um and it went very well. So, I'm happy to answer any questions. That was great. Thanks, Ann. And um the the webinar on the course rigor, were there some insights that I mean, you don't have to share them now, but it'd be great to hear like kind of the key takeaways from that. Yes, there were some things that I I think might impact some directions we go. Okay, great. Thank you. And I just want to say thanks to the 13 people who took their weekend um and learned more and
092um it sounds like there was a lot of enthusiasm at that, but I I do appreciate the PD on their weekend time and and I know a lot of the people who participated are parents and trying to balance a lot of things, so I I just really kudos to them and thanks for doing that. Thank you. Also, if there's anything we can do as a board to help support um the parent-teacher conference spread, please let us know, even if it's just snacks for teachers staying late or on extra days. I I really don't know, but if there's anything we can do, we'd like to do it. Thank you. I appreciate that. It did the spring is hard just because it's it's not as stacked of an event and so just trying to reach people and
093you know, there were people who were doing conferences over a phone, there were people who did Google Meets, there were people who stayed late a lot of other nights and so we will let you know if we can make a voice you can support. All right. How many students or parents did you have? I will tell you that soon. We're still getting the data, we're still having conferences. But it was pretty good. Yeah, well, this one is is a limited one, it's not the you know, not the 94 to 97% we get in the fall because we don't invite as many people. Any other questions for Anne? Great. Um and Matt's report is in front of you. Um did you have some highlights Just a couple. Just a couple highlights, our student reps did a
094really nice job representing the high school. Uh one that we that I would do want to make mention, robotics is moving forward and their competition is coming up. Middle School band concert, we haven't been to a festival like that in a long time, our kids did very well. Um ceramics awards, uh our seniors on track, senior scholarship packets are due this Thursday, March 12th. I saw a lot of kids hustling getting their packets done in the hallways today. Um musical theater's coming and one congrats is to Briley Wilson. Um she'll be honored at the 2026 National Tech Honor Society induct induction ceremony uh on March 12th this coming week at Dinos Museum. And it's uh inductees have demonstrated dedication to the career and technical programs maintaining a grade uh B or higher, so she's inducted
095into that program at the Technical Honor Society. Um lots of things are still happening, it's a very busy uh time in the spring and it's just kicked off and then also at your table, Matt wanted me to share with you the senior trip itinerary. That's at your table as well. Great. Good stuff. Lots of good things are happening with our kids. Yeah, that middle school band getting a one is really amazing. That's great. Very cool. Any questions? All right, moving on to business. I'll turn the first item of business over to our board president. >> Okay, all of you uh received a little while ago the um contract for Do you have the little sheet? Oh, yeah. You want that? Yeah. I do have it printed somewhere. Here you go. Got it. Oh, there it
096is. All right, never mind my piles of paper. Um so again, I want to welcome uh Mr. Vic Bugni who will be serving as our superintendent starting July 1st um and he will overlap a little bit here and there with Jeff just to get a feel for what's going on and be involved in some of the hiring of of some of the key positions in the district and that sort of thing. Um so welcome. We're glad that you've agreed to join the Fees family. Um and tonight what we'd like to do is approve the contract. Um this is a three-year contract with the first year in place again starting July 1st, 2026. Um the total annual salary for 2026-2027 will be 145,000. Um and that does not include the retirement or FICA. Um same full
097health and benefit package as our certified teachers and 35 paid time off days. Any questions? Then I would seek a motion to approve the contract. >> I move that we approve the contract of Mr. Vic Bugni as our new superintendent. I'll second. All right. Any questions? All those in favor? I. I. Any opposed? Great. So when we're done, we'll have a little signing party. Thank you. All right, our second item for business is the approval of um additional spring coaches. As you'll recall in the fall, we approved as many of the coaches for the year that we knew of at that time, but we had some changes or some openings and so So Yeah. With that said, um our spring coaches, our varsity head coach will be Ed Schindler, our varsity track assistant Steve Brain,
098uh second assistant will be Alex Moreno and our third assistant will be Dale Townsend. Um our varsity softball assistant will be Chris Myers and our middle school track will be Sarah Anderson. And once again, some of these were approved back earlier in the fall, these are just the the blanks that we had to complete our coaching roster for the spring. So it's the recommendation of the superintendent and the athletic director to approve the spring coaches for 2026 season with the understanding all background And I will abstain for obvious reasons. Um Jeff, is this more track assistants than we normally have? It is, but it's done it was done that way purposeful and that was put in schedule B that way. We typically had a a girls head coach and a boys head coach. >> Okay.
099Ed will be the head coach for the program. Yeah. >> And then we took that other head coach assistant and split it out and with 34 events, that's the way track is. So >> And and just so that I'm remembering correctly, we have a varsity softball coach, a varsity softball assistant. Right. There do we have middle school or is that still under the other program? >> under FEASB. >> That's what I wondered. Okay, and then we have the middle school track coach and then varsity baseball, varsity baseball assistant and then there's a golf coach and no golf and no golf assistant. >> there's no assistant for golf. Okay, thanks. >> And those were approved earlier in the fall. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that I was remembering that correctly. Thank you. Mhm. Who
100was who was support? Uh Scott. Oh, thank you. >> So we have a motion by Megan and support by Scott. Any other questions? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? And I abstained. Oops, better fix that. There we go. Thank you. All right, moving along a custodial hire is recommended. Um Oops, I skipped a page, excuse me. Here we go. This is on page 57 in your packet. Uh this is a full-time year-round position in accordance with the FEAS support staff master agreement. In talk with Frank Aikens, the additions of new spaces warrants the additional custodial help. This will also allow for an evening custodian during events. It's the recommendation of the superintendent and Frank Aikens to approve the hire of Aaron Ray for the full-time year-round custodial position as long as all background checks
101are cleared. And this has been something we've been working on for a while. And this is a strictly uh the middle and high school That's correct. >> Okay. Yeah, yes, during the school year and they all work together through the summer to get all those things accomplished. >> Right. Perfect. I move to approve. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'll go with Brian motion, Megan second. Any other questions? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Thank you. Uh moving to the next item. This has to do with our third-party payer for our substitute teachers and coach off-staff coaches. This is a company we've used for many years. Um and the reason we do that in your packet, I gave you a couple examples that this does save us money by using a third-party payer because we don't
102have to we don't pay the retirement. Uh there is a fee, but even with the fee, it saves the district money um by not needing to pay those retirement benefits. So as I said, this is a savings to the district and this is something we have used for many, many years and it's been a good practice for us. It's the recommendation of the superintendent to renew the contract with ESS Midwest Incorporated, also known as WillSub, as a third-party payer for our student substitute teachers and off-staff coaches. So moved. All right. Megan and then seconded by Scott. Um And I this is the the only one that we know of that really does this in our region. >> as I know, yes. Barb, I I don't know of anyone else. No. Okay. And then I just
103think some way of making sure whatever we need to do to help people navigate through the WillSub cuz I've heard it can be a little bit easier. >> Barb helps and keeps people moving forward. We've had some conversation and we know who those people are in advance. Maybe we could do a little um WillSub workshop in the fall to get everything up to speed. We haven't done that, but it might make it easier for everybody if we did that. Yeah. I mean, especially if we're having substitutes a difficulty finding subs, let's make the barrier lower. >> they shy away cuz it is it's not a fun process, but if we could do it in a manner that could make it more enjoyable and be supportive, we might get more subs. >> Yeah, and maybe we
104can do something like that with Benzie Central and, you know, just try to get more subs. Yeah, I felt like when I did the process, I had to go to the sheriff's department for something and I had to go to the Maples because there was someone there who had some certification. So Yeah. >> go to Maples? Yeah, it's really Well, I had to do Okay, so I ended up having to do both. I was following the whatever, but I mean, if we could bring them here maybe and have it all in one place, that would be awesome. Oh. Okay. And it's a process. As an example, if you're going to be fingerprinted, you have to get the form directly from Barb. That's by state law. She helps you with the form. You you take it
105to the county sheriff, get fingerprinted. Um it's just not an easy process, but on the flip side, it is a good process cuz we want to make sure our kids are safe. Right. Right. >> of those catch-22s, but if we could we could do something to make it easier, we'll try to do that. Okay. Great. Um any other discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Wonderful. Okay, we are back to item 9.5, approval of the 2026-2027 uh school calendar. Once again, um for our discussion, I understand those concerns as far as making sure we're diligent with the end of the school year. I'm happy to take that message back if you choose to move forward. Just to clarify once again, the way the process works is there's association members who represent the association. They
106bring that in Brad Reedy and I sit down, we bring that information back, we devise the calendar for those suggestions and then we present the calendar to the board. So that's the process. Okay, I'm going to move that we approve the calendar for 2026-2027 um in part because I noticed we have almost the exact same situation for 2027-2028. So I don't want to hold up any processes. I feel like at the end of the day we're going to come back to the same decision to go forward with this calendar. I feel like we've noted our concerns um and we can have the conversations about clarification offline. I don't want it to come across at all that we're not trusting our teachers. Um I think it's, you know, we just had fair questions. Besides, it's what
107we've been we've been doing every year. Um and if we did want to pilot a program with starting earlier, we have plenty of room to discuss that now when we're not under a deadline for potentially the 2027-2028 year. So in short, I would move to approve the 2026-2027 school calendar. Megan. Any other questions? I mean, I I agree with Liz's rationale, too. I mean, one of our priorities is, we've said, is school morale. And if this is what our educators are saying they think is the best for our kids, then let's Yeah, provide whatever supports we need, recognizing that it's, you know, June may be a difficult time to keep everybody corralled and interested. Um so we're just need guidance from them as to how to help support that. That's really good. Yeah. And as
108to Scott's community point, I feel like it still would be worth doing a survey of the community to talk about both the early release and the school start time. Yeah. Seasonally. Because this is a big thing for parents and Yeah. Granted, that's true, too. All right. Uh any other discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. I will take this information back. I'll meet with a couple people from the association and share some of those thoughts. Um and I think it and I think it is a good process from that aspect, but I I think it also, as someone mentioned, these calendar I think it was Liz calendars are going to look kind of the same for a while. So maybe this is the year we do some looking um and
109some real assessment and make sure this was the best way to go. And if it's not, I I you can adjust, someone else can adjust, and moving forward. But I think it's a good time to try it and keep good data, can keep track and see how it goes cuz in another year you may be sitting back here and having the same conversation, but you may have some better data points. Yeah. And and just for things like this going forward, just, you know, maybe a cover page from the the teachers group that says this is the reason why we want to do it this way. I mean, it just helps build the clarity of understanding and >> will take that back as well as a procedural aspect. Cool. All right, with that, we will open
110it again for public participation should anybody Are you leaving or you participating? Oh. I You looked like it was going to go fast. >> running from the microphone. All right, Beth, so you're supposed to say your name and because >> Beth Rolls are I teach second grade. I'm also the current president of Panther Parents. I just wanted to give you guys also an update. Uh Spring Fling is soon to arrive. I know that the melting snow is uh slightly a hint. Um winter will be back in 2 days, but that's okay. Um uh set your calendars for April 18th, uh Saturday, April 18th at 7:00 p.m. at the Garden Theater. Um we are all working diligently to collect donations. Um I we this is the year of the Blackstone, so hopefully everyone needs a new
111Blackstone grill. We have two of those now donated and we're getting lots of donations from local businesses, which we really truly appreciate. Um uh we also have a new website. Uh well, we had a it's an old site, but it's been updated. Um it'll be virtual and in person. So even if you can't make it in person, you can get a $10 virtual ticket, so people can vote donate there and bid on auction items. We're going to look at over 100 items this year, which is really really a testament to like what Scott said as a community um to have that support. Also, if people can't make it, they can just donate on the website and just click donate now, which is splendid. Um so Saturday, April 18th, Barefoot will be there to sing as
112well and we're really grateful. Um Jeff and Judy had uh have volunteered to be greeters as well. Um and we'll have a lot of student work there, too, as auction items as uh in addition to local businesses. Um also with that, um just give you an update, senior banners are coming to Main Street. That's kind of one of our things to help celebrate our seniors, so watch for those faces. That face right there there. You guys are going to be up on Main Street. Um so those quotes should be coming in and Miss Kay and the yearbook group really worked hard to get those pictures in early. So we Usually we try to be one of the first communities to have senior banners on Main Street. Also up for Spring Fling in time, too. Uh
113we were really grateful. We had almost 13 new volunteers come to our Panther Parent meeting last month. Uh we had a lot of our preschool parents and kindergarten first grade parents. Um we're really hoping to start to pass the baton to other human beings uh which uh will be great. Um and then that next Panther Parent meeting will be next uh Monday at 5:00 p.m. So if anybody wants to come, we're going to be talking Spring Fling and other items. So just wanted to give you guys an update on that. And we're always looking We're always looking for more people to come join us. Yes, sir. Do you find Sorry, do you find that sometimes you get How many folks do you think go from like K through as a Panther Parent? involved in the
114organization actively. I'm just curious. It's kind of a >> So I started about 10 years ago when my youngest started preschool or no, my oldest was in preschool and my youngest wasn't even here yet. Um it's really easy to like to jump in the boat and be like, yes, we're going. But then I I will say it's harder when your kids get older and not because you're not wanting to be involved, it's because there's other so many other things, right? So like, you know, I have a middle schooler who's like doing softball and this and that and you want to be there to support them, but that's also like taking some more out of the timetable. So it is hard to keep parents involved all the way up. Um but I I think it would
115be easier if we had more hands, you know, many hands make light work. Um that being the case. But it it's also fun to get to know the families of, you know, students with different age like that we had parents that have kindergarteners, preschoolers. We still have a few high school parents involved. It is hard, but I think that's the case in any community. I was just curious. I was just wondering on my own. Thanks. See, we do have like Mr. Mike, who's one of our volunteers. We have a lot of really great volunteers um that don't even have kids enrolled that are starting to become a part of Panther Parents, too. So, that's also really refreshing, too. That whole community. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. Thanks, Beth. I'm Tammy Zimmerman. I'm also
116employed here at the elementary school. And I'm just speaking to maybe give a little bit of clarity about the um school calendar situation. So, it hasn't historically always been a start after Labor Day. When my um oldest kids were young, um we started prior to Labor Day. And I will say as a kindergartner, that 3-day weekend was extremely difficult for her to come back. She's an an anxiety child. And having just that one extra day at home made it increasingly hard to get her to come back. Um so, uh as a parent of anxious children, I will say that was a um a difficult thing. As a staff member, um we're all hands-on deck that first couple of weeks of school because we have so many kids who are Velcroed to their parents and don't
117want to leave. Um it's an anxious time for kiddos. And so, that extra on the on the opposing side, I would say the argument is exactly the same. The extra third day home will likely cause kids to be more anxious and more reluctant to come back to school. So, just a little bit of clarity from a parent and a staff member of why that decision may have been made um or part of why that decision may have been made. And um and I wasn't part of making that calendar decision or that um calendar. So, anyway, thank you. Thanks, Beth. Thought of that, but that consistency of starting and being in school for 4 days versus one and off. That's a good perspective. Anyone else? All right. Well, with that, our workshop meeting will be on
118March 23rd at 6:00 p.m. And our next regular board meeting will be April 13th, also at 6:00 p.m. Motion to adjourn. >> Not yet. No. Oh. I would just like to I've haven't had much opportunity. Vic and I have talked on the phone once. I would really welcoming you. I look forward to helping do whatever I can to help, knowing that your own vision needs to be created. But, I'm happy to help with the transition and so glad you're on board. Thank you. All right. Motion to adjourn? Anyone? Anyone? I'll make that motion. All right, West and then seconded by Brian. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Thank you. Oh, Scott wants to stay.