001Good evening. Good evening. It is 6 o'clock. We are calling our board of education meeting for Jackson Public Schools to order. At this time, we will conduct the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. At this time, Sarah, would you like to do a roll call for us, please? Mrs. Simonetti, Miss Sharp, here. Mr. Ready? Here. Miss Actton here. Mr. Dobies, Miss Hunt, present. Thank you. At this time, ask for a motion to approve the agenda, please. Support. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, all those in favor of the approval of the agenda say I. I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank you. I am not in receipt of anyone requesting to address any citizens requesting to address the board. Is there anyone that haven't had the opportunity and would like to do so at this time? Please bring
002your slip forward. Yes. Anyone else wishing to address the board, please? Yes. One more coming. All right. Pam Fitzgerald, please. Please start the five minutes right now and be respectful and courteous. Shelanda, that's your job. um that we've we've come down to a couple amazing people um internally and a couple things I wanted to do. one was encourage you to make a decision um tonight and I also wanted to say that I think we have two very good candidates but I also believe that I think I think that one of them has a breadth of experience K12 and that's real important um to do just an elementary person or just a high school person I think really leaves um a gap in that Um, both of them will get things done and that's not there's
003I'm not going to slay either one of them, but I do want to say that I'm going to support Jeremy Patterson. Um, his breath of experience paid and unpaid within JPS. The importance of JPS can history can't be minimized. JPS is a unique district. I used to um certify districts for the NCA accreditation. So I got to peak in all sorts of people's business all around the state and I never except Portage Northern I never had that feeling when I walked in that I get when I walk into Jackson High where there's an excitement, there is diversity. Um, and I think being having a history with JPS is extremely important. Jeremy also gets things done as does uh Julie. That's not not a problem. But I have seen him in serious situations that would require
004a background of community respect as well as a history within Jackson of fair play and compromise. He has a plethora of experience at all grade levels um as an administrator, a coach, a teacher, elementary and secondary principal, and community liaison um far beyond the borders of JPS. He's a fixture on expulsion and reinstatement committees. And I'll tell you, when I sit in and hear him do those very, very difficult things and say those very very difficult things to students and parents, I just had a a comment from another from a friend who said, "You feel like you're in church. You want the kid to succeed." You know, I might want I might think I don't want you back. Look what you did. But oh no. So I think that we have a situation that affords
005us the opportunity to choose the most qualified at this point. Um he's had occasion to handle curriculum, handbook ratification, budget decisions, personnel decisions at every level and within every bargaining unit. But whomever you support, do not leave here tonight without a 60 vote. make the verbal commitment to support the new superintendent, no matter which one you pick, 110%. This has to has to go on as we have just put us in a great place um financially and every single surface of this district in the last several years has been touched and it looks great and people are appreciating where their money goes. So that's why I'm asking you to make a commitment and whichever one you decide to pick, you commit 110% to that superintendent's success. I do not want another situation where someone comes
006on the board specifically to get rid of a superintendent and go through all we've gone through in the last several years. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Fitzgerald. Shaneer Taurus. Hello. How are you? Uh, thank you for having me today. Um, I'd like to um give honor to Mr. Jeremy Patterson, who has been a great citizen uh throughout um the Jackson area. Um we graduated together in 1993 here at Jackson High School and um the work, the effort, the commitment, the dedication that Jeremy has shared throughout his lifetime is unremarkable. um as a basketball coach, as a assistant coach, as a trainer, as one who's um helped the community in regards to basketball outings, being informed with the community. Um it's just a phenomenal um effort from on Jeremy Patterson's part. Um, I
007was recently employed in Lanton area and Jeremy took the time out to recruit me as a teacher to come here to Jackson High School. And that's unbelievable for the fact that his job that he does now entails a lot more than to It says a lot about him reaching out to me to bring me to Jackson High to make this school a better place. um he helped me to u become certified. Um I'm so proud of him in regards to the work that he continues to do throughout the community. His character is unbelievable. I vote Jeremy Patterson and wish you guys the best. Thank you. Thank you, Elise. Did I pronounce that correctly? Um, I just wanted to thank you guys for taking the time to um allow us to speak and considering what we
008have to say and for um posting the board meetings online. I appreciate that um because that was how I was able to view the interviews and everything. So after listening to the interviews of both candidates, I would um politely request for external candidates to also be considered. Um I did appreciate many of the comments made by the candidates, but I'm curious to see who else um might be curious for the position or might be interested in the position and possibly also qualified um while also giving time for the current candidates to maybe strengthen their um strategies. I heard a lot of questions that were asked that there weren't um necessarily special specialized answers given. So if a question was asked, it was kind of a generic a general almost a political response where I didn't
009hear an answer that was satisfactory to me at least. And I'm thinking maybe possibly to some of you. So maybe giving them some more time to think outside of the box while also considering external candidates um could just help us bring in new perspectives. Um just because currently I I live in Jackson on Wisner Street and I have two sons and we do not attend Jackson Public Schools. Um a big issue of why would be the culture. Um, I have friends who are teachers at Jackson public schools who do not allow their children to attend even though they teach. Um, and their reason would be the culture and that wasn't addressed enough I felt in the responses. Um, that would be something to consider. And then also, I didn't hear a specific answer to the
010shared time um proposition, which could be a win-win for the Jackson Public Schools. Um because we homeschool, but we do a virtual school. We would we would be interested in some shared time opportunities. Um so I would like that to be explored more, but I didn't hear any of that. But with a deficit in the budget, it seems like that should be something that we would be considering more. I know hundreds of homeschool families that would be interested in this as an opportunity for them and it would be an opportunity um to get more funding. So um that's all I have to say. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you so much. William Beard. Good evening. Um it's really surprising for me to consider exploring external candidates. Um, when you think about when
011the interview process was going and the gentleman that coordinated all this, he stated in front of the board very clearly that you have two very strong candidates, which concerns me that we would even consider looking at external candidates when you have the strength with two people right in front of you. Um I question the success uh the necessity of seeking um external candidates given the wealth of experience that both these individuals have. Um you have teaching experience, you have principal experience and the duties that they play presently are carrying. Um, furthermore, I'm concerned that the board's decision is based on not necessarily the facts in front of them. Um, if they do decide to go externally, it's more of a personal issue. And I've been in the I worked in the banking industry for 32
012years. I worked for some very large corporate a large corporation. You always go with what's in you have inside because they have the experience, the knowledge, and they know the the ins and outs of, in this case, the school system. I find it interesting that we'd want to waste resources when you already have two qualified people. So, I would highly recommend that you consider the two individuals that you have. I know both of them very well. They are very strong candidates. But as a board, I would highly recommend that you consider the two that you have in front of you. The one thing that I have a really big concern is knowing that all the things that have been going on with the board, the animosity towards people, the fact that it doesn't seem like
013there's cohesiveness with individuals. I'm not convinced that if you have external candidates that you're considering are going to be attracted to this school because you have a a ton of information out there right now that has been publicized of the fact that sometimes board members can't even get along. They can't get along with the superintendent. We have to first of all make sure that the board members as a whole are working together. These two individuals whichever one that may be selected if you don't go externally have to have the confidence in all of you to be able to do their job. And I'm not convinced that that has been always the case. So with that said, I hope you strongly consider using the individuals that you have presently. Thank you, Mr. Barrett. William Hastings, please.
014Good evening board. Uh so I'm here tonight to uh discuss the uh the uh superintendent hiring process. Um, so I noticed there was sort of a flurry of activity on social media over the weekend of various people um, uh, unhappy with the process and who are asking and soliciting people to come to this meeting to ask for an external candidate search. So for the people tonight who support the external candidate search, I'm very big on first amendment, free speech, political expression. I respect your views. I don't even disagree with them in their entirety. But what you have to understand is miss uh the current superintendent announced he was going to step down from his job on February 28th. It's May 6th. If there was a time to inject or uh or to incorporate an external
015candidate search into this process, it should have been back in March. I mean, we're on item six of this of this agenda. Item eight is going to be this board formulating a recommendation based on the interviews they've already had. So again, as I say, I'm not opposed to people supporting the external uh candidate search. I think actually there's a lot to be said for it, but it's a very very light in the day. It'd be like if my kids came to me on Christmas afternoon at 3 p.m. and said, "We don't like what, you know, we don't like what you have set for Christmas dinner. We want something different." Well, you know what? I'm already prepping and the stores are closed. It's kind of how it goes. It's very very late in the day um
016to do that. Um so, yeah. So, I think that's what we're we're going to look at is the uh two internal candidates. Um, and I will say regardless of the board's final recommendation, which again we're going to hear tonight, is that um, both candidates, you have to understand that uh, I think one thing Jeff Beal has attempted to do is delegate a lot to his subordinates in the administration and, you know, not to sort of, you know, whole hog. He pulled the power to himself. So, I think it will kind of speak well to either candidate whom you look at. I have my favorite, but it doesn't really matter that they have had a chance to build and grow in those subordinate positions. So that's it. Thank you, Mr. Hastings. At this time, we will
017move to item number seven on the agenda, the bond planning committee presentation. Please come forward. Um, yeah, you you got to come up. You look good, by the way, in the Viking apparel. I like that. Um, hey, real quick. The this process is one we've done before, and I want to make certain that everybody understands we when we look at a bond, we take this matter very seriously and we do a lot of community outreach. There's a lot of folks who come to the table um who have the best interest of JPS at heart and who um really take a look at what we have available, what our proposition might look like, what are our needs. Um and um we spend several weeks uh reviewing the process. And so I am thrilled tonight. Uh Christie,
018I think I think you're going to lead us off. Yes, I am. All right. So, I'm going to let Christy Dylan, who you're going to lead us off, and I'll let you kind of roll this through. Um, this group, uh, you guys are part of the committee that's been working on this, and as as is the case, or often the case, we let this community or this committee come and make the presentation to the board because it's not it's not Jeff's bond. All right? This is a Jackson Public Schools bond. It's not just JPS. This is our community because we're talking about building the future of our our community. Yep. All right. So, thank you all for being here tonight. Um, my name is Christy Dylan and I am a proud and loyal JPS alumni
019along with my husband from the class of 1995. We have two sons who also are uh alumni. They graduated in the class of 2020 and the class of 2023. So, we really bleed Viking. Um so uh JPS is um so I've worked in the district for over a decade and I am currently the district parent liaison coordinator which has allowed me to build so many amazing and great relationships with JPS families. Best part of my job. Um I have been a part of two bond committees and I'm excited to keep building up our Viking community. So now I'm going to let the other two introduce themselves. Hello everybody. My name is Kitty Lataki. Um I am a parent in the JPS school district. Have been since 2017. And I currently have four girls in the
020district. Um I have a high schooler at at Jackson High. I have one at Parkside. I have two at Sharp Park Academy. And I have a fifth one that's not quite ready for school yet. So um I don't have any alumni. I'm not an alumni of Jefferson public schools, but I will have five coming through these doors at some point in time in the near future. So, I personally am extremely invested in this bond. This is my first opportunity to be a part of any sort of planning commission for JPS. Um, but I will see the impacts and my daughters will see the impacts of this bond and our future ones. Um, you know, over and over and over and over again. Um, so I'm really excited to be here tonight. I'm also a business
021owner in the community. I'm a local real estate agent. So, we do a lot in the Jackson community in and of itself and within the within the district um consistently. So, thank you guys for your time today. Good evening everybody. My name is Jacob Inosencio. Um, I'm also on the bond planning committee. I'm also not an alumni of Jay High. I went to Western class of 2016, but I did not go to Lumen as Chris Janetti thought earlier. So, I've got that going for me. Um, in all seriousness though, I have a 2-year-old little boy named Forest. He attends the Felician Daycare at the Monasuri School, and he will eventually be an alum of JH High. I think probably like 2037 if I I think if I got that right, maybe 2039. Um, which makes
022me already feel old. And but I'm very invested in the community. I'm lucky enough to serve as the executive director of Grow Jackson and we are a program partner with every elementary school and middle school at Parkside working with over,400 JPS students. I deeply believe in the tenants of public education and I think there's no more important investment we can make as a community and uh as an organization and as taxpayers instead of into the next generation. So really honored to be here with all of you tonight and looking forward to sharing what we have come up with. Thank you. Okay, let me adjust you. I would have worn my tall shoes I said if I knew the podium wasn't going to be this tall. Okay. So, thank you uh to the board for allowing
023the committee to present our recommendation and for your consideration of this exciting scope that we are about to present. So our process began with the district charging sharing the charge for our committee which simply states to critically interpret information and bring consensus to a strategic plan for upgrading educational facilities and learning environments that foster exceptional and global learning opportunities. Therefore aligning curriculum activities and space. The committee will work toward developing a bond program recommendation for the board of ed education at the conclusion of their analysis process. And also Kittyan just passed out a copy of this um board presentation so that way if you want to make any notes or see it up closer. The committee was comprised of the 46 individuals named in this chart. They represent not only teachers and administrators but also
024parents, students, board members and other community members. We were also supported by many team members from the professional team, architects and construction managers and district leaders who provided us with important information along the way. Now we're going to be on to like the basic steps in the process. So this process was divided into three main parts which each of us will speak on. So the first part is discovery where we learned a great deal about our district, our buildings and the vision for modern learning. The second part is exploration and this is where we began to react to concepts and ideas for changes to our buildings. Then we move those ideas in a direction we felt supported the vision and mission of the district. Finally, the recommendation phase where we are at tonight. Our committee
025had four key meetings and two community engagement sessions. In addition, we had access to our team's Google Drive, which all of you have access to as well, board, where we were able to access and download a great deal of important information covered at our meetings or if we missed a meeting, it was nice to be able to have access to that to go and review anything that was discussed. These images illustrate some of our work sessions. It was great to see the continuity continuity sorry of attendance at each meeting and the energy generated in the room through our discussions. So this is actually one of our favorite parts. Um I was a part of like I said two bonds and I really enjoyed this part where we got to kind of build up what pieces
026that we thought were important in the bond. So that's kind of where you see on the right there, those LEGO pieces where we put important parts that each of our groups felt were um what we wanted with this bond. Okay. So now we're at discovery. I'd like to take you through the process we undertook beginning with discovery. During the discovery phase, we've covered many topics including district overview and financials, the facilities condition assessment, program assessment, and we also discovered what the broader community like through these community engagement sessions. All of this information gave us a very solid understanding and foundation to help in our decision making. The stu or the district gave us a thorough understanding of the goals and vision of the district as well as enrollment trends for the district. As you see
027in this graph, the statistics for every building owned by the district were shared. Although many wonderful things were accomplished in the 2018 bond program, our buildings minus Cascades and John R. Louis are still on average 78 years old. The district's financial consultant presented details about how school construction programs are financed through bonds and more specifically shared the fact that right now voters could consider a bond proposal of approximately $120 million in November 2025 without an increase in the current debt millage rate. So that's important to remember, without an increase. We also learned about the state statistics with regard to school elections. When a bond proposal does not raise the millage rate, voters have passed those proposals 84% of the time compared to only a 51% passage rate if there is an increase to the millage
028rate. That is why many districts take advantage of these windows of opportunity. We then learned about the scope of infrastructure needs across all of our district buildings. The team that investigated the needs included architects, engineers, construction professionals, and our technology leaders. They visited all of our buildings and compiled data on roofing, electrical, mechanical building systems and conditions. The information was separated into three end of useful life categories including immediate needs or those past useful life 1 to 5year needs and 6 to 10year needs. The entire detailed report was prepared and shared with committee members on the Google Drive. This chart summarizes the needs across all buildings. Upgraded heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems were reviewed as well to provide more comfortable and healthy environments for our students and staff. And I'll tell you, the air
029conditioning was the first Lego block everybody put on there. Okay. Another important aspect of evaluating our schools included the program assessment. This is where the professional team looked at the district's curricular vision and goals and the spaces that house our programs to see if upgrades are necessary to allow programs to flourish instead of impeding activities. The program assessment looks at the relationship between curricular vision and goals in the spaces that house the district's programs. The question they were trying to answer is how might the school environment better support teaching and learning? This effort began with the professional team meeting with district leaders to understand the vision and values of the district. JPS's vision to create a culture of academic excellence and workforce readiness where all students become lifelong learners translates into the values that the
030professional team used to evaluate whether spaces support the vision and values. Throughout this process, we learned directly from our curriculum leaders to understand the vision for preparing our students. When the professional team met with principles, four questions were discussed. The goal of these discussions was to evaluate whether their buildings were supporting education in the optimum way. We are very thankful to our principles for engaging and being a part of the committee so we could best support our students. A full report was developed that includes all of the important details of these conversations, but overall a common theme across all buildings was the need for handson learning. Looking at how activities and goals can be supported, these became the tangible ways space can be upgraded to better support teaching and learning. Here are more thoughts on
031possible areas for upgrades. After taking away a great deal of discovery information, we headed into the interactive phase of our meetings. In our first exercise, we were asked to rank a list of guiding principles. Guiding principles are broad goals that guide the development of potential upgrades to our schools and ultimately are the basis for outlining bond program scopes. The prioritization ranked handson active learning opportunities first followed by career technical education optimizing comfort and safety steam equitable collaboration space etc. The professional team used these goals as they embarked on developing concepts. Now, I'd like to bring up Jacob to talk to you about our exploration phase. Thank you. Okay. So, at this point, uh we're going to talk a little bit about the exploration. uh and just want to highlight uh for you that there's going
032to be a tremendous amount of consensus. I know many of you were already involved in the process in some capacity, but there's a lot of consensus from the entire committee about what the needs are uh from this bond. So, at this point, the professional team took all that was learned through the facilities and program assessments overview and our ranking of the principles and began to conceptualize what might be needed at each building. So as the exploration be began uh the professional team shared these conceptual directions with us and then articulated how the ideas connected back to the guiding principles and those needs that were identified in the discovery phase. Uh the comprehensive ideas shown in these con conceptual directions uh was accompanied by a detailed description of the proposed upgrades as well as images to
033depict what might be achieved at each building which you can see here. a great deal of feedback. Oh, one second. Sorry. Maybe where should I point this maybe? I don't Okay, great. Sorry. Uh a great deal of feedback was shared based on the exercises and discussions that took place at each meeting. And the feedback helped guide the principal, excuse me, the professional team in refining the concepts, keeping true to the guiding principles established up front, but leaning into the majority direction of the committee. And as I said, that direction was pretty uh resoundingly on the same page. They didn't teach us this at Western. Just kidding, Elena. I don't know. I'm sorry, everybody. Oh, maybe point it down. I know. Okay. I I got this one, but 0 for two so far. So, yeah, I'm
034hitting the arrows. Yeah. Yeah. Not at all. Please. Thank you. I'll talk about Yeah. Yeah, I will for sure. Okay. Um, so we did the build your program exercise uh that we referenced earlier and basically what happened was we broke down into all these different categories what the costs would be and uh what would what the investment would cover and you can see that uh here in the build your program exercise. Um we had a budget of $120 million and if we did everything on this list it'd be about 152 million. Uh but the refinements of the concepts were presented in meeting three. Thank you, sir. And we moved into an exercise called the build your program where we were asked to formulate this budget. Okay. Well, now it's definitely not the battery. Oh, there
035we go. Okay. Um though the dollars presented in the build your exercise were over 150, each table had to work to bring it down to 120. Uh as we said earlier, that air conditioning, the student comfort was absolutely critical. uh and I'm sure many of you can empathize with that. Uh after working on the builds, representatives at each table shared their program scope and the professional team of course was looking for those commonalities of thinking and differentiators. Uh and as you're going to see in a moment here, there were many similarities from all the tables. So really important to highlight here and it's a little hard to see on the screen but you have it in front of you that in most uh situations we had 8 n and 10 out of 10 tables on
036the same page about what these priorities were. We also had overwhelmingly strong feedback from community engagement. uh community members were invited to two different presentations where the process and the recommended direction that we had come up with was shared. The group was asked to rate the scope presented and then to participate in discussions about a number of topics. Student groups were also presented the scope for the high school upgrades and provided valuable input. The broader community input dovetailed with our direction perfectly and a 100% of those who participated in the community engagement session said yes placed the proposal on the November ballot. Following the community engagement sessions, the bond planning committee met one last time to evaluate input from the community and student sessions. At this final meeting, we learned that the financial consultant ran
037numbers again because actual tax values and not estimates were now known for 2025. Based on these new numbers, we learned that there was about $6 million more to work with. Various scope items were brought up by the community members which the professional team felt would provide equity and student opportunities that were valuable to include. These equated to approximately $6 million more in spending. After discussion, consensus was reached and the group unanimously agreed to move forward with the recommendation that we will now present. And with that, I'm going to hand it off to Kitty. I turned it off. I went to Northwest, so I didn't live in that area there. Don't hit this. Don't hit that one. It was my fat and then over. Right. Aha. All right. All right. All right. Okay. Um, believe it
038or not, I'm excited to be here minus my uh faulty equipment. Um we are extremely excited to be able to move forward with um this recommendation for our bond. Um it's been a very rewarding process evaluating and preparing for this recommendation and on behalf of the entire bond planning committee. I'm excited to be able to present it to you guys. Um as you can see and as we talked about it Jeff mentioned we've spent a lot of time preparing for this today. So over 400 hours of time were invested by the committee members, including four meetings, two community engagement sessions, student feedback, and a great number of conversations about the assessments, surveys, and concepts. We're confident and enthusiastic by this final bond program recommendation. We feel that this process brought to light the needs of
039our school district, staff, and students, and also brought the desires of our community to the forefront, a desire to support its school and its future. Through collaboration and consensus building, we believe our committee's work has culminated in the exceptional bond proposal that we serve the students and the community for years to come and continue to keep our district as a forefront in the districts in Michigan. The highlights of our recommendation are listed above and we'll now go through them, each detail by each building. Um, our recommendation is to place $126 million bond proposal on the November 4, 2025 ballot. This represents a zero increase for the current bond millage. The following are the highlights of our recommendation. We'll provide details at each building following this infrastructure improvements across all districts or against all district buildings
040covering needs from years 0 through 8. Upgrade all district cafeterias that were not remodeled in the 2028 bond. Upgrade space at the JPS Monasuri and at Sharp Park Elementary. Create outdoor create outdoor learning spaces for all the school sites. Identify technology improvements, upgrade current pathways and science areas at Jackson High School to create lab and collaborative spaces to support current and future programs and create a new JA Jackson High School innovation center which will also serve as home to the Jackson Public School Administration offices. We're going to work through each school now and we'll start with Dibble Elementary. Um, as I describe each of the schools, please note that infrastructure items are are that are needed are listed and we're going to talk about um the program updates within each building. So, at Dibble, we'll
041renovate the cafeteria to provide and provide outdoor learning opportunities. At Hunt Elementary, the program upgrades upgrades will include renovating the cafeteria and in and add outdoor learning areas. At JPS Monasuri, we will renovate the cafeteria, add outdoor learning areas, add lockers in the hallway, or remove cubbies from the classrooms. We'll also repurpose the center cluster to create more hands-on learning and collaborative experiences. We'll also repurpose the stage area for office storage and conferencing space. Uh Northeast Elementary program upgrades include renovating the cafeteria and repurposing the stage as well as out adding outdoor learning space. Oh um at Sharp Park there will be a kitchen edition which is very exciting. Repurposing of the stage area for collaboration, renovating that cafeteria, renovating the teachers lounge for upgraded community space, and adding an outdoor learning area. Parkside at
042the middle school at Parkside. Most of the items needed there are the infrastructure upgrades. Um, but we'll also be adding outdoor learning area as well as upgrading the tennis courts. At Jackson High School, a number of the program upgrades are planned. Um, those include renovating and upgrading the cafeteria, new furniture for our cafeteria, creating collaboration space and marketing opportunities in the cafeteria, upgrade to the student school or the school store. Gez, it is a student school, right? uh to the school store. Um and then we will renovate the current pathways and science space to accommodate future programming. And finally, we will also be adding an outdoor learning area. Additionally, at Jackson High, there are a lot of infrastructure upgrades coming. This includes um upgrades to the stadium and restoration of the tower. And then additionally
043at Jackson High School, we will finally the new innovation center will be built that will also house the administration offices due to the removal of Reynolds Hall. Using this site allows for the innovation center to be physically connected to the high school for ease of use by both students and staff. The innovation center will promote Jackson public school's commitment to lifelong learning and and life skills preparation. The center will also be visible, highly visible to our community. To conclude, I'll once again share the financials. This is a per building breakdown. There it is. Per building breakdown. the scope is achievable within that zero increase to the current debt millage. Um, in conclusion, if you guys want to join me here, I know I speak on behalf of all three of us. Um, and we just
044want to give a big thank you to everybody who's in this room and to our school board for considering this bond proposal. Um we're very honored and grateful for the opportunity to having been involved in this process. It's it's really neat to see it come from idea to actualization. So looking forward to that. Um we look forward to your favor favorable consideration within our recommendation. Thank you for asking us to be a part of this important effort and we believe will have a positive impact not only on our students and our staff but on our entire community. Thank you guys. [Applause] Thank you very much. Did the board have any questions? I know you you've seen kind of some of this along the way. Any questions or comments? Um, Madam President. Yes. Um, happy to
045be a part of this. I think there's been a lot of incredible work invested by uh the bond committee and and the community to put all this together and it's really exciting to see that uh we potentially have even more resources to expend improving our district. Uh just to kind of keep the ball moving forward, um I'd I'd move that we direct the superintendent to initiate the process to advance the bond proposal as presented here tonight and take all necessary steps to prepare and recommend at our May meeting ballot language for placement on the November 2020 2025 election ballot. support. We have a motion on the floor, a support. Any discussion? Yes, Trusty Hamilton. So, a couple questions. Um, the window of opportunity that was mentioned in here, um, are you answering questions, Jeff? Is
046this that we'd recommend you? Okay. Um so the window of opportunity I think it's important for um us to understand um why it's important to do this right now. Is there no other opportunity ever for us to have another bond put on the what's the what's the is the window of opportunity and that other question I'm asking as far as whether there's another opportunity at some other time to have a bond do those questions go together are they separate help me understand that I think the the broader conversation is how schools are funded and I'm going to give you a real quick answer is when we structure our bond debt that bond debt rolls off as property values increase in our community we knew when we passed the 2018 bond that our property values would
047increase and that allows us to collect less taxes to to pay that debt. By holding the tax level steady, we can collect we could take that taxes that we could collect and apply that pass the bond now. And there's a reason that now is important because then that tax dollar will diminish and we'll have to go back and ask for new taxes. Back in 2018, we had to ask for roughly three mills in increase. That was a a a huge lift as we went to our community and said, "Hey, we've got crumbling concrete and our buildings need repair and we we need to do something right now." And and in order to do that, we had to ask everybody to raise their taxes. As you saw, that's a flip of a coin as far as
048passing the bond. when you are able to offer a bond with no increase um you have a much higher 81% I think was the number on the screen um success rate if we and there are a couple of stages coming forward right we've got one next year we'll have another one in about 2032 we'll have another one in about 2040 and about another one in in 2045 and so these they come around periodically as our bonds are structured that way to to come to maturity. And so when we look at how that works out, it really creates this cycle for us that allows us to um to address our infrastructure needs. And that, by the way, is how schools in Michigan are funded. There's no state fund to build new buildings or new no state
049fund that that provides for the repair or maintenance and upkeep of our facilities. So the answer to your question is we need to do it now or the lift will be we'll have to ask for new taxes in order to get it done in the future. So that's probably the short answer. So if I'm um understanding you correctly, thank you. Um if I'm understanding you correctly, um the window of opportunity is in the fact that we currently already have a bond or we're already collecting monies from our community. um these monies that we collect, we can only use those monies or the infrastructure rather that the district needs to uh address can only be addressed through those monies that we're currently collecting. The window of opportunity is that because we're already collecting it, we will
050we're asking the community to say yes, let us keep collecting it. Um and we're not asking them to raise it. The other part of that is that if we don't ask for this right now, um we could ask for it later, but it would be more difficult because um we're not because we'd have to raise taxes essentially. Thank you. One more question for you. Um what was the average number of folks that we had at the community meeting? So, I know we had um staff and um you know, teachers and uh but like about how many parents did we have aside from like just staff and and board members and folks at the meetings? How many of those were at the Community meetings? That's a Yeah, it might be a better question for Chris. I
051I would say probably about a third, a third, a third represented. What's a third look like? What's the number? Well, we Sorry. Um, so I would say that we had about 10 to 12 parents at the meeting, about a handful of community members, a lot of crossover staff and family. So a lot of our staff has kids here. So on average we had 30 to 40 at these meetings. A lot worked for us. Some were just straight community members. Some were dualpurpose. They were community members and they had kids in our schools. Some were dual purpose as they worked for us and had kids in our school. So that's the amount of people. But how we broke them down, you know, we we didn't because so many people cross over from different parts because we're
052Jackson, right? So everybody's sort of related around here and everybody comes to these meetings but it was a mixture of staff, parents um and uh community members and then we personally went to the classrooms at Jackson High and did the surveys there with them surveys at Jackson High with teachers or students students for student and we also went to the eighth grade in Parkside. So we we know they're not coming to our meeting. They don't have a way to get there. So, we personally went over it and and sent out and did um surveys with them. Really interesting to listen to the eighth graders and the differences in high school and you see the maturity level, but they they were all excited about the innovation center for sure. Thank you. Um just to dig into
053your question, your answer just a little bit. Um and it makes sense because Jackson's pretty small and you know, we're all related like you said to some degree or another um whether we want to be or not. Anyways though, um it sounds like just if I'm hearing you correctly, the meetings in general had about 30 or 35 folks or so. The community meetings had about 10 folks or so. Oh, no. I thought you were asking about the community meetings. Yes. So, the community had we had 30 to 35 people at those, but our bond development committee was way over that was the list of everyone who really attended on a regular basis. a couple meetings, we had more because someone could only attend one meeting, but then those were the people who actually all attended
054the most meetings and got the most understanding out of it. Um, but yeah, that's that was our our number. Yep. So, if I'm understanding you correctly, it sounds like at our community meetings, we had about 30 or 40 folks and we didn't break down who didn't have a direct uh connection to JPS because most of them were staff or people who had a connection with JPS. Yeah. I mean, I I I guess I would say that there were staff, but there were a few community members and we had a lot of new parents, which was kind of cool, too. So, we all went around the room to get to know who was there, but we didn't take any sort of uh tally of where they came from. Thank you, Chris. Any further discussion on the
055presentation? All right, we have a motion, a second. We will call the vote. All those Can you clarify what we're voting on again? I'll restate my motion. Uh move that the superintendent initiate the process to advance the bond proposal as presented this evening and take all necessary steps to prepare and recommend to us at our May 20 meeting ballot language for placement on the November 2025 ballot. One thing real quick. Um, I can get everything. I can't promise the ballot language in two weeks, but I can get everything else, the timeline, the treasury, the all of that for you by the 20th. The lawyers have to do the theang ballot language, but I can I'll get you close. I just can't promise that on the 20th. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Yeah. Um
056I'm opposed because uh we had this scheduled for the next meeting. Um we would have been able to have more time to have more conversation around this. So I'm opposed for that reason because I would have liked to have a little bit more conversation um after this meeting. So no. Motion passes. All right. At this time we are going to move to agenda item superintendent interview recommendation. As we prepare to engage in this discussion, I would recommend that we pause as a courtesy to give the opportunity for the two candidates to leave the room. Mark, if you would please. Shelanda, can we also dismiss our bond committee as well? The from the Thank you guys very much. We appreciate you. Thank you, bond committee. We appreciate your efforts. This pause will allow the privacy for
057each candidate to choose to watch our debate, our discussion, to react in private, and individually choose when they are ready to return to this space. Thank you everyone that is present tonight. Mark, if you would please. I'll wait till you come back. At this time, we're just going to wait for Mark to return to the room. Mark, if you could just come to the desk far as please and be available for any questions that we may have. Thank you. I would like to say that we are about to make one of the most important decisions of our tenure on this board. New management, new challenges to financial decisions, funding, uncertainties at the state and federal level. Significant adjustments to the way in which we are teaching and learning will also occur within our JPS district.
058As a board, we must be united and support our administration with trust and mutual commitment. Mutual commitment toward improving student academic achievement and to stem the outward exodus of students from this district. Therefore, after thoughtful deliberation and consideration of the internal candidates that will be chosen tonight, we will open the floor to further discuss who will take the leadership role for Jackson Public Board of Education. Madam Chair, yes. Um, I'd like to offer a motion just to begin the deliberations on the matter and if seconded I'll go into some of my reasoning behind it. Um, it's a little lengthy, but uh, I would move that we direct the board president and vice president to engage district legal counsel in good faith contract negotiations on the terms of employment agreement for superintendent of Jackson Public Schools
059with Jeremy Patterson and further that we arrive with a draft contract for review and consideration no later than our June 17th board of education meeting. support. At this time, we have a motion and support on the floor. Any discussion? Vice President Delies. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I've served on a number of different boards and commissions and been in elected office for well over a decade. Uh, I didn't expect this, but this is probably one of the hardest decisions that I've made in my tenure in public service. Um, some board members never get this responsibility um, in this space. Uh, as schoolboard members, I think it's a good problem for us to have. Uh, it's exciting time to be a Viking and I'm really proud of Jackson Public Schools for a few reasons. Um the
060work that we've done and the culture that we've built has produced two really stellar candidates for us to consider uh as our next superintendent and probably even more uh in the district that could take that leap. Both German and Julie uh meet the requisite qualifications that we set out um originally in our search. Both went to school here, both taught here, both served as principles and now administrators. both exceeded my expectations uh for support from the schools and the community. And at a time when other districts are struggling to attract quality superintendent, I think we can all be proud that this district has produced two really superb internal candidates. Uh it was a really challenging decision. Um that's why I asked for some more time uh in between uh the interviews and tonight. Uh Jeremy
061has some incredible leadership skills. He's been a coach and mentor to many across our district. I've answered a lot of calls on his behalf from community supporters who uh have seen him put our values into practice and spoken to folks. He's directly recruited in our district. He's worked at the elementary, middle, high school, administrative levels. He's well respected in the community, well-rounded, passionate, and determined. Uh, Julie has a really intricate knowledge of curriculum and instructional design. Frankly, I knew less about her in this process and was incredibly impressed at her interview and blown away by her written responses to our questions. I've heard a lot of praise from those that she supervises at the elementary level. She's well liked by our teachers and the teachers union. Uh, no doubt she understands what our curriculum and
062instructional needs are for enhancing academic achievement. and supporting our principles in those buildings. Uh both would make excellent superintendent and I've spoken with both personally. I think this is important. They've expressed the desire to work with the board and not to work the board of education. Uh in my conversations with each, they assured me that they'd maintain that kind of relationship with the board and made commitments to prioritize a healthy relationship uh with the JA and the teachers that they represent. Um, I view this as an opportunity for us to reset the relationship between the board and superintendent and set clear expectations. Uh, what I weighed through this process is not only our priority to advance economic achievement, but how else to grow our district, bring new partners, uh, manage the human capital, finances, um,
063the facilities to make our district successful. Uh, our bond vote tonight shows an immediate need to have someone in our community who knows how to drive that conversation in the community. Um, I know both Jeremy and Julie are already critical components of an incredibly talented uh, cabinet and both have expressed that they're all in for the district. I made my decision think of thinking of this more as building a team of who would be the best at playing what role to truly serve the students of the district. While we can only select one superintendent, I do see Julie playing an elevated role here in advancing academic achievement as um a deputy uh superintendent uh role um with a responsibility for advancing that curriculum and instruction for our buildings. Um nobody has proven more capable in
064that space and I think the feedback we've received validates that. Uh ultimate ultimately uh this is about building our team. I think we need to do what it takes to keep both of those highc caliber individuals at JPS and look forward to being able to come out of this meeting with both of those candidates continuing to feel that they can be allin for JPS that they're both valued members of the team that they're both needed for this district to be successful and they're both needed to continue ultimately to deliver for the kids that we serve um with the understanding that uh this board will do whatever it takes to help them each see continued success for JPS. So that's kind of the reasoning that I came to my decision. Thank you, Vice President Doies. Anyone
065else would like to speak? Trusty Hamilton. All right. So, um I didn't speak at the last meeting because I wanted opportunity and time to um you know really process what I had been hearing or what I had heard um during the interview uh and then also to be able to hear from uh parents and different ones um after the fact who were watching and who were here. Um so I'm grateful that I had that opportunity to be able to uh listen. Um, I'll say about Julie. Um, I've had opportunity to work with her for the past 5 years and have heard amazing things about her as a teacher. Um, and as a principal, um, she gets glowing reviews, um, in that space. Um, and you know, her interview though, uh, while listening to Julie, um,
066I think it reveal for me, um, revealed a deep disconnect with, um, the diverse population that we serve here in this school. um uh not all leadership and not all roles can be scaled. Um and sometimes individuals just can't scale um up. So, while she was definitely probably, you know, at least from all the information that we heard um regarding that I've heard regarding her as a teacher, um it does not sound like based on her interview that she understands the diverse district that we have and the needs, uh the innovation, the creativity, the thinking outside the box that would be necessary for somebody who's leading a district of our kind. Um so, I would not support Julie for that read reason. Um Jeremy um I was concerned with Jeremy. So Jeremy, you know, he's
067uh been groomed and uh you know give an opportunity to uh operate um more in a superintendent role so they potentially he could take on this role at some someday. Um but uh during the interview he gave the board a gift that really concerned me. um as small as it is um you know to bring a gift during an interview um it it just it just it just did not sit well with me. Um it felt like you know almost like bribery. It felt almost like you know influence. I want to try to influence you to think better of me. A gift maybe after the fact, you know, I could see maybe um but before the fact and he didn't have opportunity to explain it. He did say that he wanted to be able to
068explain what that looked like. Um, but regardless, um, I don't know that I've ever, uh, been in an interview process where an individual will bring a gift. Um, and and anybody think of that, well, you know, I just it it it really bothered me because if that's the type of leader that you are, what else are you doing to get by or to get your way? I just that that bothered me a lot. The other thing about Jeremy, I asked him a specific question around um his leadership as far as, you know, understanding as a leader, you know, mistakes that you've made and addressing those mistakes and how did you fix those mistakes. Um Jeremy, he was unable. Um he did not answer that question at all. Um he didn't even come back to the
069question. You know, he said, "I'll come back to it." But as leaders um if we are unable to acknowledge our mistakes um leading a district or any type of space you know even as parents you know a lot of you all know I always come back to the parent uh example because I am a parent but even as parents but especially somebody in a space like this your inability to um to acknowledge mistakes to acknowledge them as loudly as you've made them um as a leader um is very uh telling um you know because how can we trust you? How can we trust that you're self-reflecting? How can we uh you know, how are we how do we know that you're hearing us? How do we know that you are uh you know, addressing the
070concerns that that that we have that because you've listened to them? How do we know that you're honest with us? If you can't, you know, as a leader be humble enough to say, you know what, I made a mistake. You know, I' I've definitely made mistakes in different spaces and I'm a loud person when I make a mistake to say, you know, I made that mistake. That was wrong of me. You know, I'm going to move forward in this way. Um if you can't do that as a leader, then to me, you're not a leader. You're not a leader. um you're somebody who's been polished, you're somebody who's been groomed, you're somebody who knows how to say the right things, you're somebody who's given gifts um to get your way. Um but as a leader
071leading a district with a bunch of different people, a lot of diverse perspectives, um you're going to clash, you know, just naturally so. And and that's okay. Clashing is okay. Um what's not okay is acknowledging, you know what, I should have listened to you. You know what, I did that wrong and I'm going to do differently. If we don't have leaders like that um in our space um then again I don't feel like they're leaders. So for that reason I would not be in support of Jeremy either. Um yep and that's all I have for tonight for those. Thank you Trusty Hamilton. Anyone else? Thank you Lena Sharp. Thank you Madame President. I just want to take a moment to express that I think humbly this is um an opportunity that I did never I
072did not expect to be able to participate in and one of the reasons that I think um I was elected to the board was because I am a teacher and I have a unique perspective as a teacher to the realities ities of a classroom. And so I just I would be remiss not to mention that I think pouring over all of these responses in the interview, pouring over letters of recommendation, looking at these written responses to say as a teacher, sometimes being in the classroom can feel like you're holding on to a stick on the side of the river and just praying that you don't get swept away. all of the different demands and expectations. Um, when I read Julie's written responses, I felt like someone was throwing a lifeline. Um, when I read things
073that were specific about what could be done in the classrooms to address real needs, I was moved. Um, and I compared that to what I felt were adequate responses from Mr. Patterson, but nothing that made me feel if I were a teacher that I had something that was going to propel me forward and help me do my job much better. I will say that I am in support of an internal candidate. I see the perspective and I understand the want and need for an outsider to come in with a fresh with a fresh perspective. However, um when we have two qualified internal candidates and as a board, we have an opportunity to take charge of what we want to see out of these individuals. Um we we have that opportunity as a board to collaboratively
074decide what that looks like and then hold them accountable to that. Um, so I would be in support of either. My preference is Miss Julie Baker. Thank you, Trusty Sharp. Treasurer Actton. So these two candidates are really extremely wellqualified. Um, and I've met with both of them. I've taken a week to hear from stakeholders and constituents. I've really thought long and hard about this and I think Julie does amazing work um with curriculum. She just when she wants to, she's really good at what she does, she gets the job done. But I'll tell you what, I've worked um I've been with Jeremy Patterson, Mr. Patterson when he's doing disciplinary hearings, he just knows people. He knows the families. There's so much history. He's coached the basketball. He and and like I think I was telling
075um Pam Fitzgerald, it it felt like a church, you know, meeting. He was so kind and so considerate and so encouraging. And I'll tell you, I think that he's got so much um public he's always out in the public. I see him all the time and so and he's intentionally relationship building. He recruits people to come to this school and he recruits teachers and um I just I I think that that's the the type of person we need for a superintendent. He's highly visible in the community and he's got the credentials. He's worn every hat and I think that um I would be delighted to have him as our superintendent. Thank you. Any further discussion? Trusty Ready? Yep. I wrote a lot of things, but I don't think I'm going to read. Um, so, um,
076not many people know. I've been living in this town for 30 years. When I first came to this town, I didn't know a single word in English. I have to spend a lot of time to myself learn and able to communicate with everybody and all started right here at Jackson High and I've been involved in a lot of things especially in the recreational department last especially about 13 years uh direct soccer refing soccer tennis running tennis programs you know and I'm everywhere where I mean there's not a single corner in this town I'm not here even though I was living in Brooklyn at times with my uncle but I was here everywhere one person I see everywhere is Mr. comparison. I see this guy so many places. There were times I got sick of seeing
077him, you know, because it's so important, you know, a lot of times, you know, I I teach I coach tennis. I've been coaching tennis for 16 years for boys and girls at Jackson High. I tell one thing to my kids is what you put in is what you get out. This guy put so much into this community. There's no reason for not to select this individual, Mr. Patterson, as a superintendent just because I I came through so many students who got inspired and motivated by this person. I've seen so many parents myself, not many people know this, when I ran for the board, exactly right after my tennis season, in 20 days, I walked 128 miles in this community. And I'm glad we took the one week to decide on this. I was able to
078talk to I had total of 300 signs, yard signs and I put in 287 yard signs. I had 13 yard signs left. I talked to most of them who supported me in this process and I got one answer and that is Mr. Patterson to be the next leader for JPS. So, I hope uh this board will make the right decision to move forward and succeed together tonight. Thank you, Trusty Ready. I too have had the opportunity to speak with our constituents, many different teachers, parents, stakeholders in the city of Jackson and overwhelming positive reaction for support of Jeremy Patterson. I stand sit here today in awe of both of our incredible leaders. They have demonstrated a connection and a commitment to our district. We had the opportunity to look at their resumes, the letters of
079recommendations. Over the weekend as board president, I was still just kind of wrestling with my decision on what direction do we go in and sent a few more questions out to both candidates, both of which responded again eloquently with a true vision of how they plan to move JPS forward. Today, I support Jeremy Patterson to begin building a healthy working relationship with our existing board. While we have new board members, again, Elena kind of spoke to that this is new. You didn't know that you was going to come into this within what, three, four months. But we've tried to prepare you. I think we've had an awesome MASB consultant that has helped us navigate these difficult conversations, answer some of our questions, and um prepare us for this critical decision. I'm confident that either candidate
080has the qualifications to this job, but as it's been mentioned earlier, we can only select one. And my selection today personally as an independent decision my personal support would be Jeremy Patterson. Any further discussion hearing? None. At this time we will take a roll call vote. You conduct that. Yeah. Miss Hamilton, we're voting on Jeremy right now. Is that the the motion? That's the motion. That's correct. Miss Semini. Yes. Miss Sharp. Yes. Mr. Ready? Yes. Miss Actton? Yes. Mr. Dobies? Yes. Miss Hunt? Yes. Motion carries 6 to one. At this time, we will move to agenda item number nine. Motion for adjournment. Move to adjourn. Second. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Meeting is over. Thank you. Kindly