001Good afternoon. It is 6 PM. We are going to call the meeting to order. Thank you everyone for coming out tonight for the special meeting. I want to remind you if you have intentions on having comments speaking during uh citizens to address the board, make sure you grab one of those slips on the back shelf, provide your contact information, and then give it to Sarah. At this time, we will do the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Sarah, would you do a roll call for us, please? Cheryl Simonetti, Suba Ready here. Elena Sharp here. Shelanda Hunt present. Thank you. At this time, I would ask for a motion to approve the agenda, please. Yes. Say it. I approve. You approve. All right. Support. Support. We have a motion and support for the agenda. Any deliberation? Hearing
002none. All those in favor of approving the agenda say I. I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion carries. Agenda item number five, citizens requesting to address the board. At this time we have Fred Texler. Followed by Gina Hastings and William Hastings. I'm Fred Trexler. I live in Summit Township, Jackson Public School District. I think it's quite obvious that uh Mr. Adobe's has done a very deceptive thing in putting into the superintendent's contract um that he should be a member of the American Federated uh principles association which is in the part of the ACLU I mean the U labor union and uh that this was the board was not aware of this. It's deceptive. It's a conflict of interest and I think Mr. Dobby should resign as a result of it. And that's what I have to
003say. Thank you, Mr. Trexler. Gina Hastings, please. Good evening. I'm Gina Hastings, 1231 Highland Boulevard in the city. I would like to address the serious breach of trust by board member Derek Dobies as detailed in the June 2nd, 2025 letter from Brendan Beer, JPS attorney. I call for Mr. Doby's immediate resignation due to his unethical and deceptive actions. This incident is extremely alarming. We have evidence that on May 15th, 2025 at 8:53 p.m., Mr. Doby's Dobby's covertly added a section to Mr. Patterson's contract, falsely stating that the superintendent is part of the American Federation of School Administrators. This is not true. Mr. Patterson is not affiliated with that group and had no knowledge of this addition to his contract. Mr. Doby's made these edits remotely by accessing a shared document and the systems tracking confirms
004his unauthorized changes. This deliberate act of deception undermines the board's authority, violates its governance protocols, and jeopardizes the trust we must maintain with our new superintendent during this critical transition. Mr. Doby's conduct, his undisclosed conflict, his fraudulent manipulation of the contract demonstrates a profound betrayal of this board and our community. We cannot allow such behavior to continue, especially if we support Mr. Patterson's leadership following Jeff Beiel's resignation. I propose that we request Mr. Doby's resignation immediately. If he refuses, we must hold a new vote on the employee employment agreement, ensuring transparency and legal compliance. We owe it to the students, staff, and Jackson public schools to uphold the highest standards. I urge this board to act decisively tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Hastings. William Hastings. Good evening board. Um, we all know why this
005special meeting is being convened tonight. So, let's get kind of right to the heart of the matter. I believe that everything that the JP JPS board needs to know in order to address the situation at hand is contained in the letter from Mr. Beer which is as detailed and very specific as it is damning. And the only other thing you need recourse to is your own bylaws. So, looking under the ethics sess board member ethics section of of your bylaws, um section J or excuse me, section I, avoid being placed in a pos a position of conflict of interest and refrain from using their board positions for personal partisan gain. Okay, that's a flagrant flagrant flagrant violation. J take no private action that will compromise the board or administration and respect the confidentiality of information
006that is privileged under applic uh compromising the board or administration because as this meeting begins this is a Derek Doby's problem. These are his actions which he committed. It has now been brought to the attention of the entire board and the administration. If we if we leave this meeting tonight and the board does not properly address these ethical un very unethical actions with the severity they deserve. At that point it will no longer be his problem. It will be a board problem. And um if there's one thing I could express to you is the importance of you have a duty not only to preserve the integrity and good name of the JPS school board which includes those who will come after you. Okay. You the same goes for the entire district. You need to protect
007the integrity and good name of the JPS board district. And um I know Mr. Patterson's just about to begin a new term and as superintendent and hopefully be here for many years to come, but eventually there'll be another superintendent as well, other administrators as well. So, this must be localized and dealt with with the seriousness that that deserves. Um, I am therefore calling on the board to ask for Mr. Doby's resignation tonight. For anyone watching, the board does not have the power to remove him. You do have you do have the power to ask for his resignation. Should he choose not to do so, the board should, in my opinion, uh, send a lawyer, send a, um, a request to the governor, Whitmer, um, who is empowered to remove rogue school board members. She does
008have the the legal discretion, authority to do that. And, um, again, if he does not step down, I think you should immediately uh, look to strip him of his, uh, position as vice president of the board. and um and and you and he he would also be in need of public censure. I think the fact he's in there. Well, but to go back to to this to the to the uh to to the uh the nub of this the language being inserted and attaching the name of a professional group attached to the AFL CIO. Just so everyone here clearly understands because there's some people who do not know this. Derek is not just an employee of the Michigan AFL CIO. He is the chief of staff. He's the number two person in the entire statewide
009organization. He has one report, one direct report, and that is is um Ron Bieber who's the head of the union. So, this isn't just some guy. This isn't some local yogal down at, you know, union shop number 1 2 3 4 5 6. Okay, which again given the nature of the insertion in here that was done without the knowledge of Mr. Patterson, it makes it even even more grave. So, um I I just like to add the fact I think the fact that Mr. Mr. Dobies isn't here tonight, as I said, as this very powerful figure. He he he controls his own schedule. He controls his own schedule. He chose not to be here, in my opinion. Um, and I think he'd like nothing better than to drag this out, than to have time to
010lobby you guys, plead with you, smoo a little, try to turn on the charm, however you want to do it, in order to avoid the consequences. I think you need to deal immediately and and firmly with this uh with the issue at hand tonight. And and by the way, if the section I read about board ethics isn't enough that the subsequent se the subsequent section of your bylaws deal specifically with conflicts of interest. If you read through those carefully again on one side and this on the other, it will tell you the severity of what has occurred and should strongly inform you as to what your next actions should be. Um, and I really really do not want to see I'm excited to see Mr. Patterson starting very soon as superintendent. There shouldn't be anything
011that that hangs as a uh ethical cloud over him or JPS or the board. Thank you, Mr. Hastings. I saw some individuals come in. If is there anyone else that would like to speak during this time? We will move forward to agenda item number six. I would entertain a motion for the board of directors to go into close session to discuss the superintendent contract as it specifically relates to the language. So moved. Support. All those in favor? I I this time we will go into close session. re-enter open session support. All right, we have met and I as the board president will like to make a motion that the board approve Mr. Patterson's contract as previously ratified by the board on May 20th, 2025 with the exception of the language located in paragraph 9 of
012the agreement as to the American Federation of School Administrators which shall be deleted from the contract. So moved. Any deliberation? support motion support any deliberation anyone any comments all right hearing no deliberation all those in favor of removing the language from superintendent Mr. Patterson's contract say I I I I. Any oppose? Motion carries. At this time we would entertain an adjournment. Um, Madame President, yes. Um, before we do that, I make a motion that we remove Derek Dobies from his position as vice president on this board and make him ineligible to run for any office for the remainder of his term. Support. We have a motion on the floor. Support any deliberation. Um, I feel pretty strongly that I have no further trust in Mr. Doby's and I would really question anyone who would approve
013of him maintaining his role as vice president. Um, he's violated the ethics policy. He's violated the conflict of interest policy um to say the very least. So that's my reasoning. Thank you. Um, Miss Simonetti. Yes. Come on. Come forward. Can you come on the microphone for us, please, for those listening in? I think the board, you know, can consider whatever action it would like to take. Um but what I would suggest is that um because this was called as a as a special meeting with a very specific purpose uh and there was not notice provided within the publication that this would be an agenda item that this be saved for a regular meeting of the board at another time rather than being taken up. That's what that's what I would suggest. Okay. Thank you, Brendan.
014Based on we haven't alerted I mean obviously Mr. Dobies was aware of the meeting was not able to attend but more importantly public at large is not aware that this is a potential issue for the meeting and it's not a regular meeting. It is a special it is a special meeting that was called for a specific purpose. Um and I would stick to the purpose within the agenda. Um that's all I have to say. Thank you, legal counsel. Um I would make a new motion that um based on a special meeting being called and it was when a special meeting is held just for the community to be made aware, it is um convened only for one or two businesses to be specified in the notice of the meeting. And to echo what um Mr.
015Brendan has just made mention of there is not a agenda item on here to discuss how the um the issue with the contract should be um addressed further. So at this time I would entertain a motion that the board those that are represented here tonight give consideration to move this to an agenda item for our June meeting at which point we would have a full board present for further discussion. I move that we move this agenda item to a discussion item for the June agenda. Support. Motion and support. All those in favor? Any discussion? Yes. So based on the recommendation from legal counsel, I would accept that amendment. Thank you, Mrs. Simeonetti. Thank you, Mr. uh Ready and Mrs. Sharp. Um, now that the deliberation has taken place, all those in favor at this time,
016we're going to approve the amended motion that has been supported. So, coming June at our next scheduled regular meeting, we will have this on as a discussion item. And anyone in and all those in favor of that say I. I. I. I. Any opposed? Hearing no opposition, we will um move that agenda item to our June meeting. We just put on the amendment for the new motion to be finalized. All those in favor of the new finalized motion. I I I. Any opposed? Hearing? No opposition. The agenda item will be moved to our June regularly scheduled meeting for further discussion. Moving forward to agenda item number eight, adjournment. I move to adjurnn. Second. Second meeting has been adjourned. All those in favor? I. Any oppose? Thank you. Thank you everyone for coming out to the
017meeting. We are meeting again in June for our regular scheduled meeting.