001I was telling um I was telling Bev and Debbie that the highlight of my day was going to see the um support people of the year. So, we did a a custodian, a secretary, a food service, and a parah. And it was just so fun. So, who got them? Uh oh. I don't have my cheat sheet. Um, are we going to acknowledge him at the next meeting? Yes. Yes. Um, I'm sorry. No, you're fine. The one for the district was uh the custodial woman at the high school who was Rachel. Did I get that right? Yes. Who was just so happy and she's awesome. She's phenomenal. So, we had uh four. We did one from each group. We had Rachel. Then we had Janelle Fastfender who does web SXI. Uh Janet Roberts, the Edison secretary
002and food service at Lori Patterson at Well, then it went south. Oh, with a off a civil rights report that we have to do. So Stephanie dropped everything and Oh. Anyway, we'll get that straight. But it was fun while it lasted. I used to say that about the high school. They could write a book. I swear every day. Good, bad, ups and downs. Oh, you don't even need the remote. I don't even know where it's I know. You see He hit it on you on purpose. [Applause] Look how hard that was to find. Right. Right where Bren left. Should have just asked your mom. She was ready. One more second. I said all night last night writing out everyone's softball schedules on my I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what day can I not go? What
003day does my dad have to go? What which days are doubled?" And then they all get cancelled because of the weather and rescheduled, right? Yeah, I know. Today's weather, you just couldn't predict it. So, and it was supposed to be at East Point, so I think we're good there. They could have postponed it like an hour, though. Right. Instead of like postponing to a later date, they could have been like postpone to 4:45 instead. It's going to be 10 degrees warmer and the snow will be gone. Are they putting it up, Genie? Okay. I had to download it as a PDF. They didn't have access to to that. Got it. Sorry guys. Christy, we're putting up the therapy dog handbook. How's your Well, can we start while they're working on that? Next week. Well, I
004wanted to compare the policy to the I thought she was having it like right away. We're all set. Well, we got a lot of We got public comments and stuff before we get to that. That's enough. Got dark. Calling the special board of education workshop of Visa Park schools to order at 5:37 on what is it? April 7th, 2025. Roll call. Eaton here. Becker here. Fortress present. Fox here. Le boys here. Rati here. Hinton here. Approval of the agenda. I move the board of education um accept the agenda as written. Support. Any discussion? Motion by Heidi. Support by April. Any discussion on the agenda? Okay. Roll call, please. Fortress, yes. Yes. Becker, yes. Fox, yes. Boys, yes. Yes. Yes. Uh public comment. Anybody wishing to speak at public comment? Seeing no one, we go on
005to new business. Therapy dog policy. So the policy came up first. Somebody's waiting to be able to bring their dog. And so the handbook says we have a policy and we don't. So um I handed out three policies that were people asked to work on. However, this one is pending to somebody wanting to do it. So, um, and the rest of the meeting will be about what we want to do about policy, but since somebody's waiting, I started with this dog one. So, I had him bring up the book. This is the true and dog policy. I gave everybody tonight and I gave it to everybody a couple weeks ago. So, I went through it and all the yellow part is is already policy and it's in our handbook. So, we may want to just
006take take it out of the handbook because this is a policy. So, the policy is actually in the handbook, most of it. Okay. So, I thought we could kind of go through and see what you think. Um, I'm assuming this would be page one, maybe page two of the handbook. Next page, please. I should have looked uh up there. Thank you. Oh my gosh, I can't see that. Okay, this first page says definitions and it's a whole long thing on definitions. Is it this page or the next? Okay, the definition here is it's in this this it's in the get confused. This is the policy. Therapy dogs are not service animals under the American and Disabilities Act. That's probably in that definition. That size is I can see that a lot better. But hey, maybe
007bigger. Yes, that's much better. Oh, is it the last sentence? The ADA 31. Okay, can we do the next page? Yeah, that would be helpful. Thank you, Christie. That's very kind. [Applause] It's in there because I read it. It could be in a different spot. Can we go? Let's see. Keep going until we get to because this actually could be handbook. the purpose of therapy dogs, make a connection, why you have a therapy dog. That's not actually policy. That's kind of handbook. So, you're saying that would remain in the handbook? Yes, that would stay in the handbook. The first one is the owner wants to bring a therapy dog on district property and must submit a written request to the superintendent. Most of that is policy and it's in the handbook. An owner wants to
008bring a therapy dog. I guess we need to keep scrolling cuz the handbook is not in the exact order of this true and policy. Mhm. Reading to dogs. That's handbook also. Those are the good reasons to have a therapy dog. So that's kind of like handbook explaining why you would want to do it, why you would want to have it. Their dogs make the connection at risk. Okay. Need to keep going. Request training. So this is a partic But they have to make request. So that request part should be in the policy. I should have had the the book right next to me. Okay, it's coming. But training and registration that's in here, identification of disruption, health and safety, training and certification. The policy says the owner must submit any training certification information requested by
009the superintendent or designate. Any certification required by the district must remain current at all times. So part of that is in the policy. So we could rewrite we could rewrite that a little bit. Um that one up there says training and certification the handler and we the policy says owner that says the handler must submit any training certification so we could use that same thing but I think we need to take that out use that language because we can't do word for word of what Truan says we have to create our own policy and Dr. Krooppy created that to say that. So I think we just move that out of the handbook or just we could leave it in the handbook but also have it in the policy. I guess then we could just leave
010it all in the handbook and in the policy if we don't want to Well, isn't anybody have anything? I mean policy what the board directs the district to do and the handbook is kind of like the procedure how to get there is that that's how I understand it to be is that not the case the policy correct that's why that's policy because that is directing that you must remain current at all times and bring the certification that's policy directing that you must do that. So I think how then would be how they get the certification. Do they have to fax it in? Do they can they bring it with them? Do they have to whatever? Whatever. Mail it to us. Email it. Thanks Christie. I have no idea. I don't know. Thanks Christie. Thank you.
011Do you want to give me some? And I can be I'll just give myself a good half of it. Thank you. This is easier. Thank you. I was going to say thank Thank you. And to answer your question, Debbie, I don't believe you need to be that specific because it says insurance for employee owned therapy dogs. The owner or handler must submit a copy, not you know, fax a copy, mail a copy, bring a copy up, give it to the principal. I don't think you have to go in depth that Yeah. I think submit a copy takes takes care of the you know you're going to need to submit a copy. Just my opinion. So I think that that is policy because you're if somebody wants to bring their dog, they're going to look it
012up that says you must submit the certification information. I don't think that's a handbook thing. Anyways, moving on. Must submit written request as superintendent. That's on my highlight. Okay. And then also must submit train um certification. So there there should be two certifications. Both the handler and the dog should both be certified. Is that how it works? Well, if you're looking at uh therapy dog uh for through point B and then A individually trained and certified by an approved therapy dog training organization and then C is managed by a handler who has been individually trained, evaluated and registered with their therapy dog to provide animal assisted activities and animal assisted interactions on district property. That's in the handbook, right? That's on the throne. I don't know if it's in the handbook. Oh, that that's comes
013from that's in the true policy. Which one? Where's it at? Under page. That's under the definition. Oh, because you're right. I think it should say the handler should be certified because they go through the training with the Yeah, I would think they would both need to have C some sort of certification. So the second one um let's see request only wants to bring the therapy dot on district training and certification. We should add that beginning piece from is it in this paragraph the use of instructional where is it at uh underneath that section B therapy dogs. Okay, it would be A and C under that. Okay, points A and C and then just move B on the next page to policy and add that to it. Training and certification includes individually trained the handler and
014submitting the proof to the superintendent, right? Yeah. So certificate I think I might be a little bit unclear about what our objective is here. Are we in order to have the are we writing the policy today? Trying to Okay. Are we replacing the handbook? No. Okay. So, I don't I think that we're overthinking this a lot and that we can be really really brief in the policy and then close close a brief policy that has a couple of these bullet points with, you know, the the superintendent will um further direct staff to follow procedures in the Hazel Park Schools therapy dog handbook 2425 because if not, we're I mean this the truth policy is good, but it's really long. It's 99% covered in our handbook. Um, you know, I think we take the top of
015this to reference that there is the the definition of a therapy dog. Um, make sure we state that it doesn't diminish any rights a person with a disability may have to be accompanied by a service animal. Um, do those couple quick bullet points about um certification of the dog, certification of the handler, um, insurance, sorry, the the request, the training and certification of both the dog and the handler. I don't think the handler specifically gets trained. It just says it um I just don't want to limit anybody. I don't think that a handler specifically gets trained. It doesn't say a credential of a handler. It just says that they should be trained to properly care for the dog. Okay. So, I think it if you're taking your dog to therapy dog school, you're also learning
016how to handle it. That's getting to And I think it says in here specifically that that handler with the dog is not like you can't it out for me, right? Yep. Yeah. And then I think the last like really important one is health and vaccination just to like tap into it in the policy-wise and then close it out by saying um you know it is it's the responsibility of the superintendent or their designate to ensure that staff are following the therapy dog handbook. I think that's because otherwise we're going to rewrite. No, I agree with you that maybe necessarily needs to be rewritten. I think that a lot of this was pulled from the policies we had in place at the time. If I recall, a lot of this was pulled from policies we had
017in place at the time. And I think that really just stressing that the dog belongs to that specific person. That is the specific person that will be with the dog while they're performing any of their duties. Um so that if there is a training for the for the handler that you know there was one with the dog. No, you're right. Cuz as I'm rereading that bullet point C, it says a handler who has been individually trained, evaluated, and registered with their therapy. They must So this true policy is very long and that's why I highlighted what is in yellow is policy. So I figured the handbook would be cut in half. Half would be policy, half would be handbook. A lot of the handbook remains It's pulling out the things where it's giving direction. If
018you want to bring your dog, here's the rules that you need to do. So, I thought it would be simple. I would show you that what what is meant to be policy and the handbook would remain pretty much the same except for 10 12 items coming out of there. So, does somebody want to write policy? Somebody want to look at it? handbook the policies are right in there like our hand list that specific policies are printed right in there as well. Um so I mean if you want to pull them out certainly that's you know the will of the board. Um but in our other handbooks we do specifically list those policies just right in there. I mean, this being a a document that's only uh besides the appendices, you know, eight pages long, I
019don't know that. And having it all in one place, I think, too, is is valuable. We have to have a policy as a board of education. The board of education writes a policy and we're mandated to have a policy. The handbook says see the policy that we do not have. So that's how it came about because it says we have one and we don't have one. Yeah, I think we all agree with you there. Yeah, absolutely. I'm just saying I wouldn't take it out. I would just leave it all in the same document and then just add the policies to the policy document. Okay, this is a board discussion. Anybody else have anything to say? Do you want a policy or do you want to leave it in the book? No, we have to have
020a policy. No, like we agree with you of having a policy, but if we left the book the way it is and still did the policy like April said, just like a short with a few bullet points and then have them revert back to the handbook, like then everything is there instead of redoing two separate things. So, what bullet points we want that the the dog and the h well the dog is certified, the handler is the package deal. Um, can I ask a question real quick to help unconfuse me? So, why can't we just make this handbook our policy? This handbook was developed by a committee of people. I mean, we did have a committee of people who who um work with therapy dogs, I believe. So, for for instance, the employee that's waiting
021to bring her dog, she was a part of writing this whole thing originally. So, um, so why can't we incorporate this handbook as our policy? I'm gonna make a motion. Should we? No, I don't agree with that. I think it references the policy. This is the how. We need to tell the district on what the board wants via policy. This states to reference the policy. We need to have a policy and the policy is going to have experts of this probably thing. Probably. Yeah. It depends on what the board wants to direct the district to do. [Applause] So, I'm not opposed to leaving the handbook as it is and pulling out the pieces that we want to reiterate our policy. Yeah, I'm I agree with that. Yes. And then maybe we just make sure that
022nothing in the handbook contradicts our policy. Correct. It would basically be what's in our handbook. So hopefully it shouldn't, you know. Yeah. We just make sure we cover whatever these points are. So the only one that's allowed to bring a therapy dog is a district employee. No, I don't believe that that is what's in here. The people who are allowed to bring therapy dogs are the people that uh submit all of the items listed in the handbook. So students are allowed to bring therapy animals if they they submit everything in the handbook. Those would be service. That would be a service animal. I think I don't know that students would be um trained to have a therapy dog with them in the in what we're what we're working with here. Mhm. Um, so then the
023answer to my question would be a yes. The only one that's really allowed to have a therapy dog is staff employees. Well, I wouldn't say necessarily staff. I'm sure there's certainly people who are not employed by the district who could meet the qualifications of having a therapy dog, you know, that were perhaps visiting the district. Um, I wouldn't say that they all necessarily would have to be employed by the district. um you know would there be any interest in you guys maybe starting a subcommittee for this and perhaps we could pull the employee who is um you know who was part of this in the beginning um to specifically go over this. I think um the nature of our policies is to make them a little bit more broad and then define them with your
024administrative guidelines and then your handbooks as well like you guys were talking about. It's the board's decision that makes policy how broad they are and how broad they're not. Board creates policy. So, so if we pick certain bullet points, one being certificate, what would be another bullet point? Insurance updated on their vaccinations. [Applause] Um, do we want to say it can be a a district employer or non-district employer? I think anybody can bring in their It does say in here a handler is an individual school district staff member or volunteer who owns a therapy dog and who has been individually trained, evaluated, and registered with their dog. That's on um That's in the handbook. Yeah, it's on page four. Yeah. Mhm. Right. About purpose. And it it's also in the in the example from true
025law. It well it says if the therapies dog handler is a misty, the therapy dog will not interfere with the employees primary job responsibilities. So I'm looking at a policy currently um that is it's called therapy animal policy. So points for inclusion. Um but the board of education recognizes and then there's a brief paragraph about why a therapy dog would be in the building therapy animal. Um there is a reference to like we said um not superseding ADA or infringing on any individual's rights to bring a service animal onto a school campus. Um and then there are specific bullet points for um certification, certification and training, vaccination and veterinary requirements and it does list four specific vaccines. Um hold on I have to scroll. Um what are you reading from? April Redford. by insurance. Yeah,
026insurance was um liability insurance was the next um there's a single line about the building principal having discretion to ask for the animal to be removed from the campus. Um and then the closing line which is very fancy um says the superintendent will further promulgate administrative administrative regulations consistent with this policy and then goes on to a document called administrative regulations which very closely resembles so I have to assume is just different verbiage for a handbook. So there, so the administrative regulations are longer. The specifics of the requirements, the benefits of a therapy dog, um mentioning who can bring it, it does say staff or volunteer, um but specifies that the like this p sorry this administrative regulation does not supersede district policies for background checks or eye chats. Um I mean it's who cleans
027up after the animal. um how they request that it that the animal be allowed onto the campus. So, it's it seems to flow into again what they call administrative regulations, but seems to be what we have as a handbook. And I I think it kind of checks both of those boxes for us because it dives in deeper so that we know that we're covered and there are, you know, rules and procedures for the staff to follow. but does reference back to a policy. Um, and sort of like doesn't involve us recreating the wheel and having to decide what to take in and what to take out because there's something for it to reference. So, we've gone in four different directions in the past 20 minutes. No, not really. Well, I mean, that's the way I
028see it. What what is our goal and what what are we going to did? Our goal is to write a policy to All right. So, how do we with the handbook? Who's going to write the policy? How do we get started? What's the first paragraph? So, in the past, I I'm just, you know, I don't know. Um, we we did convene a committee to to work on this before and then they brought it to the board with recommendations for the board. That's how things have been done before. Um if that's something that you would like, I'm certainly can pull together a committee of um interested folks. And if we want some board members on that as well, um we can happily, you know, pull that together to get that done. Beth, can we appoint somebody
029to do a draft and then bring it to the next board meeting to discuss and tweak it? Would you do a draft with Nate? Would you do a draft with Heidi? Yeah, absolutely. Sure. Would that help you, Bab? Yes. Perfect. Yeah, I think that's what we needed. Something like that. Okay, I'll email this to you. Thank you. Okay, cuz we got to keep going on. Correct. All right. All right, Nate and Heidi will work on it and we got questions. You can call anybody on the board. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. and bring it back to the committee of the whole next week. Yes. Is that the goal? Yes. Are you good with that? Yes. Thank Thank you. Thank you, Karen. Thank you, Heidi. Thank you, Nate. The next thing on this agenda is
030policy discussion. So, you have the prices for the three companies. I can tell you this is uh Clark Hill is who we have currently that I was not in support of to begin with. So I could tell you I have spent hours and hours and months and months going over this. This is what I this is what I have. Okay. In our bylaws, we do not have purpose. We do not have boundaries. We do not have the address of the district. We do not have board powers in our bylaws. We do not have the philosophy, administrator guidelines, judicial direction, electoral process, qualifications, recall, orientation, public expression, discrimination, harassment, motions, preciding officer, change of regular meetings. How to do that? We do not have consent agenda in our bylaws. Use of electronical mail, use of social
031media, legal council, association, membership, and school conferences are no longer in the bylaws. In the here's the bylaws. I have all the missing things written on each page. I have every law written that's not written in the Clark Hill. It says you have to follow the law but it does not give you the number of the law in the policies we are missing how to rec that recording meetings are okay drones concussions service animals do not resuscitate latch key summer school alternative school shared time tuition students early graduation hazing motor vehicles bikes credit from non-public schools Student activity fund, online fundraising, naming of a school, safety and security, surveillance, recognition, flags, attendance at public events, opioids, administration, non-renewal, employment of professional staff, and AI is brand new that Clark Hill has not sent us any
032update to do an AI policy. So I took truin policies and I did the index. So everything that's highlighted in yellow we have and true and has everything not highlighted we do not have. Do we have a copy of this or we're Miss Kes? Is there a reason you need to speak? Uh yeah I was just going to say that there were some updated policies given by Clark Hill and AI was specifically in there. I did read through them today. didn't come here. Okay. Didn't come to the board. Wanted to let you know that. Anyways, I went through everything yellow we have and Truan has. Everything that's not highlighted. Truan has or we do not have. Anyway, you can look at it. There's tons of stuff that we don't have that they have. I just
033read the list that Clark Hill does not include. Clark Hill went from I don't know Niola went from 150 pages, we went down to 60 in Clark Hill. So that can give you indication. A lot of policy went into administrative guidelines which shortened our policies, but it's still we're still missing all of those policies. So we can stay with Clark Hill and we can build them to what we want because we can create policy or we can go with one of those companies and we can switch. So that's the discussion if you want to spend the money or if you want to work on it. Um when Gross Point took on Clark Hill, it took them eight months to do their policy correctly. It took us 15 minutes to vote on policy and that was
034it. So it takes longer than 15 minutes when it took somebody 8 months. So if you're willing to put in the work, if you want to meet once a week or for the next five or six months and we update Clark Hill, we can do that. I definitely think that there's a ton of work that needs to be done on policy. have said it from the very beginning. I believe I even voted no for Clark Hill. I don't I didn't care for their policies personally. Um the policies are what we govern the school to do as a board. Um, it's one of our main, it's probably our main focus as a board. And to adopt Clark Hill and have it approved within one meeting, I just I found was absurd or two meetings cuz you
035do the first and then the second. Um, I liked when we went um to a couple conferences. I've had conversations with Truan. I like Truan policy. A lot of districts in Oakland County use Truin. I think that we need more guidance than what Clark Hill is giving us. But is Clark Hill not going to give us if we talk to them and say we want more? I mean, instead of spending $19,000 or $15,000. Well, it says annual updates. I guess my next question is how many annual updates have we gotten from Clark Hill? As zero that I know of. We adopted them last February of 2024 and I've not seen any updates. I do believe their intent is to send an annual update. There was an update that was I believe January 17th. So they're
036coming. We're we as a board are not getting them. So they were sent January 17th and now we're on April 7th and the board has seen nothing. Yet there are yet there are policies. So I think the the problem was that they were sent to Dr. Krooppy and she was not able to bring them forward and so that's where the lag the lag happened. So I would surmise that each January Clark Hill would provide an update. I'm just I think isn't it by annual? Don't they do it in January and July or January and June or It says the annual updates. Yes. Oh, the only did it twice a year. That's where I got that from. Okay. Um, it does annual dates, but I don't think it's anything if we were to ask them, hey,
037do you can you do it in January and June if there is more updates? I mean, I don't want to wait once a year if there is updates. Right. Right. Um, so, and this is because I don't know, are they supposed to come and sit with us and go through the policies when they do this or are they supposed to just say, "Here they are. Do it yourself." Or is it whatever we request? When Niola did it, they came and sat with us, I don't know, for a couple months and then we just did it on our own and they didn't come anymore. I think it's our choice if we wanted them to. Is there a cost difference? I don't think so. cuz I mean in having somebody physically come and walk through them or
038Okay, I would think maybe I think it would be part of the I mean I can't imagine they would just come and take their time for free but that would what that cost was would would it be part of the 4,000 or the 2750 depending on which company we went with for free if we I don't know that Clark Hill would come for free because they're giving us the policy for free but would they give us their time too? I don't know that. Did we ever get that in writing that they're giving us to it for free? I asked for it because nothing's for free. No lawyer is going to do anything for free. I we have not we've not received a bill for that. And the way um some some boards approach this is
039as you know the the policies are broken up into sections. there's a curriculum instruction, a personnel, a finance and so groups um a small group or committee of the board would work on a certain update and then you know for example if you were to um adopt trune you might in small groups work on those different sections and bring proposed changes back to the whole board and you all would work on different subcommittees of that. That's one way to do it. You know, I wasn't looking for a decision tonight. I thought maybe a few people would look into Miller Johnson. A few would look at Truan. I'm not pushing Truan. I just h I've been looking at that for probably since conference. Miller Johnson is pretty cool, but it's more money. If you look under
040certain topics, it will have the the law in blue. So, they're not long. It doesn't take a lot of paper because it will say here revised school code 38012000 and you just click on the blue and you get the law immediately, which is kind of cool. Um, because if it's printed on here, you're going to have to type it in your computer and Google it to get it. If you go Miller Johnson, you're going to click on blue. It's going to take you right to what the law says. Isn't that something we can do though? adding a link to it instead of spending so much money. I don't, you know, the Clark Hill, I don't like them. They really need to be worked on, but I'm not going to, if that's what the board desires,
041we'll work on them. I I'm not fond of $19,000 for Miller Johnson, but it's I thought, you know, everybody can take a look at it because tonight's not for the decision. It's moreformational. I mean the other one's 15250. It's not much of a difference. Yeah. But that is I mean to me it's money well spent. That's how the board governs the district. Yeah. It's like our number two job is to put the rules for how the district functions, right? And so when these are so weak, even when we don't follow them, you have chaos because people don't have direction of how they're supposed to handle things. But is this something we can talk to Clark Hill about and say we would like more and see if they how much more can you recharge us? What's
042that money cost? If we were to reach out to them since right now it is zero costing us nothing and say we would like more. Can you work with us as opposed to spending 19 or $15,000 and see what they say before? Yeah. Can you reach out? Just a thought. No, that's a good suggestion. I think I like that too. It's I think that's a real good suggestion cuz maybe we wouldn't have to work on them a couple days a week after 6 months. Maybe they'd come and help help us add to it, rewrite them and make sure that they're what we want them to be. All right. Yeah. Okay. I like that. Could you check Dr. Cost and see if they um Well, you're you can call too, can't you? Since they're board policies.
043Yeah, you could. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. No, that's a good idea. Um, just for clarification for me. So, we're calling and asking if they're going to do that for free or if they're going to or if they're able if it's free with the charges. I don't know when Gross Point did it. Maybe they came and helped Girls Point cuz they worked on it for eight months. Maybe they assisted them when when they uh came, you know, when they switched over. Do you know what districts use um the Johnson? What was that ID? Do you know what districts use Miller Johnson? I don't have it here, but I do. A lot of districts are getting away from Neiola because it's long and most of them are going to Truan more than Miller Johnson, but I know
044uh Rochester has Miller Johnson and Oak Park has Miller Johnson. Traverse City has Truan. Um I know I have done some work on this before, Eddie, about who had them in Oakland County. If you're interested, I could share the results I had found before. Okay, that'd be great. Thank you, Christie. And can we get the policies that they did send to Dr. Krooy? Yeah, those the ones that we have the ones we haven't seen yet. Yeah. Whatever the updates are. Is there any way we could Can you Yeah. get those sent to us. You'll have them tomorrow. Okay, good. All right, public comments. Anybody out anything? We're good. We're going to call Clark Hill. We're going to do the dog policy. We're going to come back committee in the hall. We're going to get um
045updates. It would be I mean before we vote it would be nice to have I I was hoping that the links that were in board books sort of led to some of the things that were missing or some of the things that we're referencing because I don't a lot of that pops out at me as something that we had just spent a bunch of a bunch of time going back and forth on in the protocols. Um so I mean to hear that we don't have something surprises me because we just sort of went through that. Um it prior to voting I would like to be able to make an informed decision outside of just links to other school districts. I clicking on these Clark Hill leads to Hazel Park board policies. Miller Johnson leads to
046their own website with an advertisement and truins leads to a school in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Michigan at least. Um but it doesn't it doesn't really give us much to go on as far as looking into it outside of cost. Um I would also if if discussions have been had with Truan or we know what they can provide us that would also be really nice to know. I mean, way back in January when we approved the retainer to Truan, we did so under the premise that it was because they were going to be doing our policies. We sense no that didn't happen. Um, and then at our last meeting, we also discussed keeping district council so that he could go through policies with us and that's an option that's not presented here. Um, so having like just
047more of a robust these are the selections that we have to choose from. Um, and then a benefit to them outside of just the cost. You know, if we have to spend $15,000 on doing this, we have to spend $15,000 on doing this. But sort of a justification of that would be I think helpful for us and helpful for our community who is going to see us pay an additional large sum of money towards an attorney. Um and I mean I hate to laugh when I say it but it's it's getting to be like every meeting we're just pouring more and more money into legal fees. Um it it would be nice to just have actual information. um to go on before making the decision. Is that what you It would be helpful. I mean,
048if we can get that scanned into board books, I mean, just so that we're all referencing the same thing and we know what's missing and we know what we need to work towards. So, Bev, how does it work that there's the bylaws which the board follows, correct? Yes. And then there's board policy which the board develops for the district to follow. And then there's board procedures which are the how we're going to do the board policies. Right. Okay. I just want to make sure that everybody clearly understands the definition of each three. The three. How do you think this is going to cost attorney [Music] money? I mean these are literally attorney firms that we're paying. She's saying that just that Truan is an attorney that Yeah. Clark Hill, Miller, Johnson, and Fuent are all
049propert. So, so it's not necessarily attorney fees, but it's to an attorney fee. Oh, I'm thinking that you think they have to be here and they're going to get paid to be here. No, no, no. This is money that we're putting into them. And how does this work differ from the work of district council, who we discussed at our last meeting? I the sort of the justification of keeping that position at almost $200,000 a year was that district council could set forth or work on policies with us. So that I mean it would be nice to have sort of a line of demarcation of what would that position be handling versus the policy package that we would be purchasing and how would those two feed into each other. Yeah, that makes sense. What's a $200,000
050Well, at our last meeting, we discussed bringing forward to vote retaining the position of district council. And during that discussion, it was mentioned that that person, whether it be the person that is the incumbent or whether or not we just keep the position of district council, that that that position would be working on policy and yeah, would put forth board policy. And that is that's a salaried position, a high salaried position with benefits that we would be paying. And would they be helping us to interpret the policy package? Would they be helping us write the policy package? Would they be um you know applying and holding the district accountable to it? There's where where where where is that line of we're paying for this but it's feeding into this and how are those two those
051things working together. So how would the service work with that position or does one replace the other I guess is the question. I don't think the district council position has even uh it was just like um part of the mix but not we're still waiting for the contract to see does he still have a year left? Does he you know do do we get uh uh messed up if he does have a year left? Do we you know do we have to give him a job or we just you know get rid of his position? We that that was the discussion before, right? And it was mentioned at the last meeting that we would have we haven't even we haven't even gotten the the contract has not been sent to us. So it doesn't it
052it's difficult to make both of those decisions without understanding how they overlap. I mean they're they're both really costly. So we're not making that decision today, right? I don't I don't think we're making either of those decisions today, but I don't think we have enough information about either of them to really move forward without understanding where this intersection is. And I think that's why she's going to call Clark Hill and Wise and then we need to compare it to the in in console person and Chrissy's going to send us the list of uh other people that they've used or you know other people have used. Um I I don't think that we're at what you're saying right now. I think we're going to be but not right this minute. But I do we have clarification
053on whether or not the the district council is not an academic administrator. Correct. Per no. Per the contract. So the deadline deadline is a non-issue. his contract runs through next year. So through 2026. So we have to look at Clark Hill and we have to look at him and see how we can put him together for the most cost effective situation that we can do. So, any anybody else anything? Just no. Go ahead. What? April said that if we could get where what these lapses are that you highlighted just so I know what how what time. Oh, I'll type it up and how whatever however you want to do. Well, I'll type it up and I'll send it out to everybody. Okay. I spent hours I have probably taken a year on this. I am
054not joking you. I start at 7:30 in the morning because I don't want to be wrong. And I go back and I read it and it's like, did I miss that policy? Is it really not in here? You know what? I'm retired. I don't have little kids at home. Bless you. I can spend I can spend time and I do because I sit up here. I take this very seriously and people don't think I do, but I do. So, anybody have anything? because I have something. When I came on board, when I was elected, Superintendent Msinger gave me this open meetings book. When you got on the board, this is the laws. I use it all the time. You can see it's ripping. It's highlighted. I cut I when I I want to know what
055I'm talking about. So, I bought everybody an open meetings law book. I bought them. in the district did not buy them because I think it's a gift that you need. Um, thank you. Thank you. Another book I recommend is $50. How to be a better school board member book. It's 50 bucks. I didn't buy those for everybody. Why not? But it is very very She said she's retired. Heidi cut her bra. Pages are tore out. The cover is tore off. Um, so thank you. I hope you enjoy those. Um, it is loaded with how school districts the the laws that we seven are supposed to follow when we're giving direction. So, please enjoy it. Anybody have any else? Public comment. Maybe public comment. Just don't forget about spring sports. They're all starting. That's it. Tons
056of games this year. New season. It didn't feel like spring today. No, new season. Maybe for a minute. It did. Yeah, for a minute. Right now, maybe. Ajourn. Motion to motion. Everybody said unless we skipped over the public, but I don't know if he wanted to speak. Okay. Head shaking. No.