001Good evening everyone. It is 6 o'clock. At this time, I'd like to call the meeting to order. Thank you everyone for being present today. If you are interested in addressing the board, we do have those slips of paper on the back desk as you enter into the media center. At this time, we will stand and do a pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Sarah, will you please conduct a roll call? Thank you. Miss Hamilton, present. Mrs. Simonetti. Mr. Dobies. Miss Sharp here. Miss Actton here. Miss Hunt here. Thank you. At this time we will entertain uh the approval of the agenda. I move to approve the agenda as written support. Motion and support. Any discussion? Any deliberation? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Hearing no opposition. The motion carries. Thank you. Agenda item
002number five, superintendence report. Mr. Patterson. Thank you, Madame President and board of education and community members that are here with us today. Uh we are very busy this time of year as it's been about a month since we've been back in session for school and there is a lot of things that are happening throughout the district. Um I kind of established a communication protocol with the board of education. So, I kind of shared those last month notes, so I'll try not to duplicate some of my efforts here, but it is it is worth stating over and over again that Jackson Public Schools is running a bond campaign for this November 4th for $126 million and a 0% tax increase to the community. So, we want to make sure those viewers at home get that information.
003This past week on September 9th and September 11th, we had two informational sessions at middle school at Parkside, uh 22 people were in attendance on Tuesday and 16 people were in attendance on Thursday, including media. So, we're really working hard to get the community uh informed about what's in the bond program. And so, we're glad that people are showing up to those events. We have another opportunity October 14th. Um I've been on JTV. I've reached out to all of our administrators to contact our PTO groups. We have now an active citizens for school improvement which has been established and has uh some regular meeting dates established and roles within that. So we have folks out there supporting Jackson Public Schools. Uh, and again, most importantly, just making sure people are well informed. If you go
004to our website, you can't help but um see that information pop up. So, that's great that anyone who visits Jackson Public Schools, the first thing they'll see is information about our bond. Also, there's a frequently asked questions uh location that's easy to find. In case um our community has other questions, they can reach out to our offices and or view that information online. So again, um I will continue to be out in the community to different service organizations. I've been to the Chamber of Commerce and just a lot of different groups that we have set up in the next months to come to get the information out. uh there's been a lot of opportunity for discussion, asking questions, get clarifications on things. So, uh very proud of the work that we're doing as a district
005as well as those citizens for school improvement in the community coming alongside of us. Uh district leadership team talking about back to school and the school improvement process. You all know that we have a district improvement um opportunities four times throughout the year to bring uh inform the community about how things are going. So we have a diverse group of Jackson Public Schools employees from central office to teacher assistants, teachers, administrators, and uh special education union reps. Today was our first meeting of the 2025 2026 school year and that went very well. our big three ideas that we keep coming back to and we have subgroups that meet around attendance goals, academic goals and recruit and retention goals. So again having a lot of different stakeholders at the table to understand our plan to understand
006how that gets rolled out. One final thing that we wanted to make sure uh I think there's like 30 people who were in attendance today. K30 district employees is that this information gets back to every school and every employee. So working on that communication plan in the same manner that I want to communicate with our board and have that two-way communication. This group finds it essential that we have a well-informed district that everyone understands the plan and what their role is in that plan. So, every month there'll be a communication that goes back to all JPS schools about what the district improvement um team is working on and that's including we'll dig into some more data and progress monitoring along the way specific to attendance, academics and um our recruit and and retention plan for
007both staff and students. A lot of community touch points. Couple athletic activities this Friday is the pink Viking project. I saw our student athletes and coach on JTV getting the word out, but this is a great opportunity. I um presume our fieldhouse is going to be packed for this kind of ceremonious. Our student athletes will wear pink in honor of a family member or friend that they'll wear on their uniforms and our community are encouraged to purchase a t-shirt to support this kind of cancer awareness, cancer prevention uh football game. So that's this Friday at Jackson High School, 7 o'clock p.m., but an hour before the event, we'll have kind of a special ceremony where they take a walk around the football field with uh those people who have purchased a uniform. So a family
008member could purchase or any community member could purchase a uniform and have a name put on the back of their jerseys and the student athlete will wear that uniform for the game and then present it to the family afterwards. So we're proud of our athletics department. and our football team has been doing this for a number of years and it's a great um community touch point this Friday at Jackson High. Also Saturday, this Saturday at Justin Mihal Field, we have a JV and varsity game, but they're kind of doing a rededication to the field. And one community member noticed, we know the Justin Mihal name is named after the soccer field, but there wasn't much else to commemorate. So, they've got kind of a um some signage and a picture and uh the family of
009Justin Mihal is going to be present this Saturday. Jackson High takes on Northwest and it's going to be another one of those feel-good moments for Jackson Public Schools just remembering, you know, um Justin Mihal was tragically killed in a car accident many years ago. He was a classmate of mine here at Jackson High School and they're cons continue to preserve his memory and kind of a rededication of um the field in his name. And two two final notes and then I'll try to wrap it up here. Our baseball team had a program under the lights. And the reason why I bring this all up isn't just because I'm a big athletic fan, but just a big community fan. So it's not baseball season. There's some fall baseball going on, but it's just a really an
010opportunity to bring We talked about community engagement, hearing from our community and and sharing all the beautiful facilities that we have. So, our baseball coach is brand new and they had a program called Under the Lights. They had a lot of community donations for like hamburgers and they came out and just played with the kids, interacted, meet and greet with some of the coaching staff and of course, you know, teach some of the fundamentals of the game. So, that was exciting. Shout out to our baseball program. And finally, homecoming is going to be epic. I think homecoming has just been growing and growing. There are class reunions that are come back. There's class celebrations. There's obviously a football game parade. We reach out to our littles from every building in the district, I think, is
011going to show up. And uh you all have been challenged or uh invited to do some judging on floats. And so hopefully uh you'll be able to take uh partake in those festivities Friday, September 27th. So there's a basketball game, there's alumni band, there food trucks, there are so many things happening at Jackson High School. And this is the definition of where community comes together. The roads will be lined in our path from Walmart to Jackson High School with everyone cheering on our beloved Vikings. So, uh, bond, uh, leadership and academics with our district improvement team, a lot of community touch points. And I will conclude my presentation at this time and ask if you have any questions. Absolutely. Um, the um, citizens for school improvement sounds amazing. Can you tell me a little bit
012more about more about it? Yes. So there's some kind of dos and don'ts to what we can do during work hours, right? We have to teach and we have to lead and we have other things. So we are looking for folks who are active in our community that can come alongside of us. Like they don't have to abide by those same rules on, you know, whatever it is they do because they don't work for Jackson Public Schools. So they're they become champions for this because they are citizens or um they could be parents, they could be retirees, just a lot of different folks have said yes, I want to lead this work or I want to do social media or I want to do fundraising because these are not Jackson Public Schools resources. And so
013this group is goes out and finds those resources to run a successful campaign such as media, such as yard signs, such as walking doortodoor, things of that nature. Okay. So this this wasn't just created for the bond. It sounds like this something separate from the bond, but they're just also participating with supporting. Yes, this is this is created um specifically for the bond program. So that's their task. Okay. So this so once the bond is over, does this dissolve or this continue or how's it what's Well, I think it will dissolve, but I think that's kind of up to them because I think the specific purpose is to get the word out regarding the bond. So that's why they're raising funds and there's going to be things that speak specific to the vote on November
0144th. Okay, that sounds good. I I was wondering if it was within the bond and, you know, a part of that or if it was just in general. I would recommend keeping it. I love the idea of a separate group of folks that are just, you know, highly supportive of JPS in all the ways that they can be. One more question for you. Um, the school improvement group, um, I know you all usually do that each year, you know, good stuff. Um, and I know that they I think this is the, uh, information that they, uh, gather, share, whatever they do with it. That's what comes in those school improvement meetings that we usually have for the community. Is that kind of Yes. So, that's the overarching theme. You know, we talked about um, student
015and staff retention. So, this group is like the boots on the ground, right? and we try to look through a lot of different lenses and making sure we're well represented so that way um you know that work gets done. So what we see is kind of the reporting out of how did we do at those district-wide meetings and this is like your action team and committee that has representatives from every building. Perfect. Do we know how soon those meetings are startup? Have that already been sent out? Julie might have sent it out to me already. The the when the meetings are the next Thanks. Are you speaking specific to this team or the community dates where we get reported out? Okay. So, we'll look for those dates on quarter. That's soon. Okay. See the community
016one? Yeah. The community one. But you said we'll get dates out soon. Yes. Okay. You know, I like to be at those. Thank you. Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff, Jeremy. Thank you. Anything else? Any other questions for Mr. Patterson? Thank you, Mr. Patterson. That concludes the superintendent report agenda item number six, consent agenda. I move that we um approve the consent agenda as written. support. Motion and support to approve the consent agenda as written. Any deliberation hearing? None. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Hearing none. The motion carries. Moving through the agenda. Item number seven, citizens requesting to address the board. Tonight we do not have any. We will move to discussion item. There are no discussion items. Agenda item number 925-26-20 playground update for John R. Lewis in Northeast Elementary. Marcus, will you
017please present? Yes, thank you. Um, so last month we brought this for discussion. I think we are we've been looking at how to spend down some of our uh remaining 2018 bond funds and we've uh decided that some of the some good uses would be to continue adding on and upgrading some of our playgrounds throughout the district um especially um to ensure children of all abilities can safely participate which promotes health, social interaction and accessible play. Uh we did receive quotes for a total of $127,736 for both buildings which includes um accessible inclusive world merrygoround pieces and freestanding musical pieces that all kids can come up and and interact together and play at the same time. We did review this at the finance committee meeting in August. And from the last month's board meeting, I
018did include pictures in the packet this time so everyone could see what we're looking at. The pictures of the merrygoround or the whirl is the actual piece that's at Dibble Elementary right now. Um the picture of the musical pieces, those are all nine pieces is what we would be getting in that package. Um, so at this time we would recommend the board approve the purchase of the new playground equipment for John Lewis and Northeast Elementary. Thank you, Marcus. Um, motion to approve. So I'd like to make a motion to approve the purchase of the playground um equipment for John R. Lewis and Northeast Elementary. Support. Thank you. We have a motion and a support on the floor. Any deliberation? Any further discussion? Trusty Hamilton, I have a question for you, Marcus. Um, you said we
019have one of these pieces already at Dibble Dibble. Good. Um, and so, um, we've probably assessed how well it's being played with and how accessible it actually is and done all that type of work to ensure that it's extremely popular both at Dibble and I've seen it in other districts, too. And and a lot of times I hear that there's lines of kids waiting to use it. Good to know. Um, that way we know that we're getting something that they're going to use. Thank you. Um I love that we are doing this. I appreciate the pictures that you sent and I hope that we can expand this to all of our elementarymentaries. Yep. That would be the plan is we wanted to start here and see what else we could add elsewhere. Any other discussion?
020All right. All those in favor? I. Any opposed hearing? No opposition. The motion carries. Thank you, Marcus. Agenda item 25-26-21 MD EB bus grant Marcus. Please try to put as many abbreviations and initials as possible. Yeah. So again, we talked about this again last month and um at the time we had not spoken with our electric partners at Highland Electric. We have had those uh discussions and included a copy of the proposed contract for this bus purchase. So again, I'll just short history. Last October of 24, we applied for and received uh funding from MDE for their clean school bus grant for we're looking at an additional two electric buses at this time. Um that grant is has a 90% funding level, meaning there'd be a 10% cost share with for the district. Um so
021Highland is going to manage this program as they manage the other one where they own the buses. They will be paying the 10% cost share. So there won't be an out-of- pocket cost for the buses from JPS. Um the amount you see would is the amount per bus for the first year of the service contract. Again, we have a very similar uh contract for the first 20 buses. all of the major items are the same and we've tried to line this contract up so they both end at the same time. Um, and then we could renew, you know, going forward under one contract. Um, just to give a little background information on the first round of buses as we completed our first almost full year of running them, we found out that we've saved about
022$65,000 in fuel. Um, we were able to purchase over 30,000 gallons less of propane, diesel, gas last year just by running these buses. And keep in mind, we didn't have them all year. And just with new technologies and things, we weren't running all 20 of them for the year. Um, so we are definitely starting to see those savings hit our bottom line. Um, and this just makes sense to continue the partnership. Thank you, Marcus. Um, I move that we approve the purchase of the MDE EV bus grants. Or is that actually just approving the grant? It's not a purchase contract. Thank you. Approve the contract of the MDE EV bus grant. Support. Motion to approve. Support any deliberation. All those in favor? I have one question. Oh, I missed that. For um uh for Marcus,
023the um 82 uh K amount that I'm seeing versus the 15 14K amount. Um you said the you did say that there's a first year cost and I'm reading first year cost is 14k amount. What's the 82? Just help me understand why that why that's So I I brought I just left that in there from last month. So that was the potential out of the 10% cost share the district could have had if we purchased the buses. I just wanted the board to see that again. Yep. Just for historical. Thank you. That's helpful. Any further deliberation? All right. All those in favor? I. Any oppose? Hearing no opposition? The motion carries. Agenda item 25-26-22. JPS authorized signatures. Marcus, thank you. So, this is a little bit of a newer one. Um, and and we do
024have our superintendent or designate is currently an authorized signer for contracts and things of that nature. But sometimes we run into um entities that require documentation of who our authorized signers are. I'll say um our most recent example is we had a former employee who had passed away. I don't remember when or the employees name and in their will they had left or named JPS as a beneficiary of their life insurance policy. Whatever that is, we don't know what that is. The company will not discuss it with us without a copy of a board approved resolution naming sign specific signers for JPS. So, and this is something that we'll probably bring back to renew each January at our organizational meeting. We're just bringing it now so we can in essence talk to this life insurance
025company and anything else that may come up in the future. So would recommend approving the resolution as proposed and and the four designates. I move that we approve the JPS authorized signatures. Support motion and support. Any further discussion? I'm sorry. Who are the existing signers currently? Technically, the superintendent is the authorized signer and he will just he could verbally authorize designates. Typically, cabinet assistant superintendents are authorized to sign contracts that are relevant for finance or curriculum or what have you. Is it necessary to have four designates? It's not necessary. We just tried to figure out who would be our most used signing contacts, right? Um myself, Mr. Patterson, Miss Baker, a lot of times Matt Farhat's our executive director of business services, and he does deal a lot with benefits, life insurance companies, and things
026like that. So, it's up to the board if they want to have four or more or less. These are the um ones we felt made the most sense. Trust the doies. Um, I I guess I'd be interested in the superintendent's uh perspective on this whether it makes sense to have like I mean on checks and stuff. There's typically two this wouldn't be for things like checks. Those are already approved. This would just be for any company that requires contracts and any sort of obligations. Correct. And it doesn't have to be all four signatures. It's just sometimes Mr. Patterson's out of district and you know if there's a time and I would just piggyback on what Marcus has shared you know Matt Far hat's role Julie with federal funds you know a lot of those things
027that she works on all those budgets Marcus and uh Matt work hand in hand and so I would support that recommendation for those purposes. One last question based on the conversation. Um, you would always be in the know about everything though, for sure. They would be running things through. Hey, this is this has come up and we need to get it signed. We're going to sign it. You would always be in the know. That's correct. So, normally there's multiple people that receive those communications or it's part of what we discuss at cabinet on the regular or it's part of building budgets and resources that we're reviewing. So we have discussion at the cabinet level about those significant figures and obviously who's signing what. Is it necessary to to say you know at minimum you know
028get at least a verbal okay from you first? Is that already like implied or is that something that we should ensure that you know just so that you're always for sure in the no? I mean yeah I think that happens pretty consistently. I think that's there's things that I don't need to be in the no that are just kind of automatic with payroll and I don't you know sign everybody's time cards like other people do. So um so far I feel yes. So it sounds like um Marcus just said that the checks were already that there's something that's already there that this is just something a little different. And so that's what I'm referring to. Whatever this difference is based on whatever those differences are, these things seem like they're a little different. Contracts, whatever,
029whatever. It just seems like you should always be in the no. Now, whatever, however you all do that, I just, you know, I would hate for them to sign something and then you're like, well, hold on, wait a minute, you know, and then we're like, and it's black and white and it's in black and white that we can sign. Not that, you know, anybody's doing anything nefarious, but, you know, it just seems like you should always be in the no. And not to say that you're not, but, you know, I don't know if that's something that should be, you know, at minimum, you know, run this through the superintendent. those bigger things that this thing is designed around. Understood. It just I don't know be in the know. And that's that's not like a uh
030you know that was like a question like you know I'm assuming that that's a thing that's occurring anyways, right? I mean I would imagine I don't know. I I would assume and and I running an organization myself, I I understand that the need for flexibility and the level of contracts um and the number uh that it doesn't make sense for you to to sign all of them and you need an instrument like this to have that level of flexibility. I would just imagine that um with these four individuals there's a level of trust and that if there is something that is uh fairly egregious uh that is signed that you're not aware of um that certain like actions would be taken 100% and I would I would say thus far you know in my new
031capacity to the role that I ask a lot of questions. I think that's part of the things where there's a financing facility and there's no one person who just has access to everything. So having multiple people here I think is also a safeguard that there's multiple people who have access to those statements so that it's not just one person working in isolation. So I think that's something a lesson that's been learned in the past. when one person has all the keys then there aren't other people looking at um those statements. So this is being brought to the board which means we have some say in it. Is it understood or is it the expectation that we'll revisit this annually or this is this is new so we've not I've not had to make a decision
032on this prior to today. So, this is I think I mentioned earlier this is something I would probably be bringing every January as part of our organizational meeting just as a refresher. So, if we do have um staff changes or whatever, we could name new designates at that time. Um so on so forth. Thank you, Marcus. Any other comments, questions? All right. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Agenda item 25-26-23, certification of tax levy. Marcus, please. All right. Um, so at the May 20th meeting, we like we do every year, we bring our our tax levy or our L429 for the board to approve to levy taxes to the different municipalities um for both operating, recreation, debt millages and so on so forth. Came to our attention over the summer that the
033wreck mill was incorrectly routed up from 7470 mills to 7471 mills. Um and every every decimal point does count. So um uh we uh you know after talking with the municipalities and the county they do require a signed amended 4029 for their documentation and audit purposes. Again this only affected the rec millillage which is not which is a pass through for JPS. We merely collect the funds and remit them back to the city. These are not JPS funds um in the arrangement and it'll be up to municipalities to um decide whether they're going to re, you know, how they're going to process their refunds or credit taxpayers on their winter taxes. You know, some cases, a lot of cases, it's as little as a penny or nothing. I mean, it's it's that small of a
034rounding erp apologize for that. But um we are bringing this tonight because we do need to have the board again approve an amended 4029 for that purpose. Thank you Marcus. Move approval of the amended 4029 support. Motion and support. Any discussion? um question for you because I believe that no question is a dumb question. Um explain the difference between um the bond that we have going on and this millillage that we're about to renew or whatever. So this is the recreation millage that the city runs. I I believe it funds the parks and wreck department at the city. All the we're mostly jumping and helping me out. I'm not a resident. Um I believe if you remember uh last August the you know they renewed the rec millillage and had asked for an increase from
035up to the 75 um the odd number we've talked about a little bit before there was a headly roll back meaning taxable values went higher than the rate of inflation so that's why it was taken down from the 75 that it was voted on. Um and then um I forgot the rest of your question. So for the record I did hear you say that at the beginning. I still was just like, is there a difference between the two? So I sound has nothing to do with JPS other than we collect the money and remitt it back to the city. You know, you mumble a little bit, right? Yep. Okay. So say it again, please. So it is nothing to do with the bond. Um it is just um funds for the city that's collected by
036JPS and sent back to the city. Okay, that's very helpful. Thank you. Any other discussion? All those in favor? I. Any oppose? Hearing? No opposition. Motion carries. Agenda item number 10, board comments. Anyone wish to address the board. Trusty Sharp. Um, I want to thank Miss Julie Baker for meeting with my introduction to K12 students this week. Oh my goodness, what a rich and wonderful conversation we had. And those students I think walked I I was walking around the room listening to their discussion afterwards and one of the many things that I heard was just how much you do and it so even from that short 30 minute conversation was really obvious and we just really appreciate you and everything that you do and thank you for taking time out of your day to talk
037to these students. Um, also shout out there's many others in this room who have agreed to meet with my students uh and share your share your passion and insight for education with future educators. So, thank you. Um, I just want to say I love this time of year. I love the beginning of school and all the excitement and I'm really looking forward to the activities uh between now and the end of the month. Thank you. And I'm excited about this school year. Good things are going to happen. And I will be walking in the homecoming parade with a couple kids. So, it'll be fun. Um excited about back to school. Uh at Sharp Park, they literally rolled out the red carpet uh for the kids, which uh was really cool. Um so uh appreciated that
038and all the enthusiasm and planning uh that went into creating a very nurturing and welcoming environment for the students coming back from summer. Uh appreciate the work that has gone into the bond proposal um and the informative meetings uh that we've had that Superintendent Patterson has led and all of the marketing and effort that has gone into the materials. Chris um and everyone else uh that has uh put time and energy into that. I think um having uh been in and around uh bond proposals and and helped uh numerous uh bond proposals in the past, in particular the recreation proposals. Um I'm continually impressed uh with JPS's efforts to inform the public about uh the decisions in front of them. uh looking forward to homecoming myself and finally uh looking forward to uh the state
039uh passing a budget. Um as we all know uh July 1st was the deadline for the state to pass a budget including funding for the schools. Uh they failed to do that. Uh so that puts school districts like uh JPS in a pretty uncomfortable space. Um so those that are out there whether you are a um parent um an educator, a student, uh the more that we the more voices that we have joining the chorus to ask our state representatives and state senators to do their job and pass a budget to deliver to the governor's desk uh as quickly as possible uh before the September 30th deadline when state government shuts down. and per uh pushes school districts into an even more precarious position. Uh please uh take the time to to do that. Thank
040you. I just want to thank everyone that came out tonight. I appreciate the comments that were made. Um I want to thank Mr. Patterson just for the productive meetings that we've had weekly. I did have some correspondence from um individuals and um we do plan to increase our communication platform. So looking forward to continue to demonstrate exactly what JPS community looks like externally and internally. So thank you everyone for being present tonight. There's no other board comments. We will move to agenda item number 11. the calendar. September 19th, this was mentioned earlier during the um superintendent report, but September 19th, 2025, the Pink Viking Wington Stadium, 700 p.m. September 26, 2025, JPS homecoming at the Wington Stadium, and then 700 p.m. the parade will start at 6:00 p.m. 1 hour prior. October 21st, 2025 is
041our regular meeting here at the JHS media center. 6 pm and agenda item number 12 adjournment. Madame President, can I just um interject one second just to let you guys know that the bond advocacy group has asked me to tell you that if you would like to help with campaigning for the bond prior to the football games, they will be outside on the circle off of school property as we are not allowed to the there is no campaigning allowed on school property, but they will be off passing off buttons and talking about campaigns and would be happy to have you guys support them in getting out the message to very large crowds. Thank you. So, Chris, are you saying every home game? I am saying that, but I didn't know if you wanted me to
042go that far in advance. So, for uh Yeah. So, the next three home games, which are the 17 or I'm sorry, this next Friday, is that the 20th, 19th, 19th, 26th, and then I think it's the third. Yeah, I think it's the 3rd is the next one. But all the home games one hour uh prior to they'll be meeting in the circle right by the front entrance um ready to talk with anybody and everybody about the bond campaign. Oh, that's great. Thank you. Thank you. Move to adjourn. All right. Support. Motion and support. All those in favor? Any oppose? Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned. 6:38 p.m. Have a good night, everyone. Thank you for coming out tonight.