001Good evening everyone. It is 5:00 p.m. We are going to call the meeting to order. Welcome community. Welcome to all of the individuals who are online. Thank you for joining us for this opportunity to interview for our next superintendent. If you are sitting in the audience today and you will desire to have citizen comments, there are forms located on the back shelf as you enter into the room. There are also forms for feedback as the interviews after the interviews take place and you wish to provide any feedback or ask additional questions, we will collect those feedback forms and if it is a question that has not already been asked, we will present that question at that time. At this time, we will do the pledge of allegiance. Michelle, will you please do a roll call
002for us? Thank you. Uh, Miss Hamilton, present. Mrs. Simonetti, Mr. Ready? Here. Miss Sharp here. Miss Actton, present. And Miss Hunt, present. Thank you, Michelle. On the agenda number five, citizens requesting to address the board. We have one form at this time. Any discussion on the agenda? All those in favor of the agenda? I I. Any opposed? Motion is passed. Any discussion? All right. Number five, citizens addressing the board. Avon, please come forward. All righty. So, a microphone doesn't carry a voice. It doesn't give you something to say. It only makes what's already inside you louder. I'm here tonight because I represent a group whose future is still being decided, but who too often are not at the table when decisions are made. The youth of Jackson, the ones sitting in the classrooms, walking through
003the hallways, trying to figure out who they are, what they can be, and whether the people leading them believe in their potential. And the truth is, school is not just a place where we learn math, science, or history. School is a place where our minds and our spirits are shaped. Every adult in the system has power. Power to lift a child up or to tear them down. Power to build confidence or to cause lasting doubt. Power to nurture curiosity or to silence it. That's why the decision you make when it comes down to the superintendent is not just about management. It's about the soul of our school. We need a superintendent who understands that children are not projects. We are not statistics. We are not trophies to show off when scores look good. And we
004are not problems to push aside when they don't. We are people, young people with real emotions, real struggles, real dreams. The youth of Jackson are asking for a leader who knows students, not just the names on the list, but as minds in motion, as lies and formation. A leader who does not manipulate us, shame us, or treat us like problems to be solved, but who challenges us, believes in us, and helps us grow. Because the wrong kind of leadership can mess with a young person's vine. It can make a student doubt their own worth, silence their voice, or give up on their dreams. The right kind of leadership tough, the leadership we deserve strengthens our minds. It teaches us to believe in power, to trust our voices, to imagine something bigger for ourselves and our
005community. You know, people often uh say to me, "You're the voice of the youth because of the role I have because of the education I've gotten or because I've learned how to use my voice." But I've always corrected them. I tell them, "I'm not the voice of everybody. I'm a microphone. A microphone that is here to amplify your voice, their voice. I may speak for you but only to make sure your voice is heard. That is the kind of leadership we are asking for tonight. A superintendent who doesn't just use the microphone to speak at students. A superintendent who uses the microphone to lift up students to make sure we are heard, seen, and respected. Both candidates before you have worked hard. I'm sure both have earned experience but we are not looking for someone
006who simply knows the system. We are looking for someone who will transform it, who will make it better. Someone who understands that education is not about control. It is about empowerment. It is about mana. It's not about managing students. It's about inspiring them. When you hand someone a microphone, you are giving them a choice. They can use it to make themselves louder or they can use it to make a whole community louder. Tonight we are asking you to choose a superintendent who will do the second. A superintendent who sees every young mind not as a blank page, not as a broken thing to fix, but as a voice ready to be heard, ready to be amplified, ready to change the world. Thank you, Avon. At this time, we will turn it over to our Michigan
007Association of School Board consultant, Mark Palmer. Thank you. Address the audience first so we make sure they understand our directions here. So, there are Sure. Guess I'll turn around like this. Um, thank you for coming out this evening and I wanted to make you aware the feedback forms were back there. If you need one, you would fill one out for each um, as an interview if you would like to. And um we will collect those at the end of the interview and uh make copies for the board for the board uh of education right after the interview is completed so that they can read your comments and uh know your thoughts as well um before we go into deliberations later this evening. The second thing is we do have uh question cards. If you uh
008have a question that you would like to ask the um person being interviewed, um write it on here. With probably about 15 minutes to go in the interview, I'll kind of give a signal to collect these and then I will take out repeats, things like that and uh hand them to the board uh to President Hunt and uh she can uh proceed to ask those questions uh if you would like. Uh, I believe that is it for you. And so if you need either of these forms, again, they're in the back or I can hand them to you as I go to get the candidate here shortly. As for uh the board, I you should have uh blank question forms in front of you of the questions that we determined uh a week and a
009half ago or so. And uh please follow those. I just want to remind you um I also had sent you some interview tips. Hopefully uh you had a chance to look at that and uh keep in mind um keep an open mind. Um give the uh each interviewer a chance to answer the questions. Um you can uh have follow-up questions if something comes to mind as you're going through. um go ahead and answer ask those questions and I the plan will be that we go we're designed for about 75 minutes. Um we don't have to stick to 75 minutes but we generally like to try to. So that's kind of a ballpark. You know we're not going to we don't want to go on for two hours or something like that. So if it's an
010hour and 20 minutes that's not a big thing. But uh um you want to make certain that you get the information that you want though at the same time. So um once both interviews are complete, we will have a short recess for you to be able to read all the feedback forms um and put some thoughts together. we will I'll sit down here and we'll talk about the strengths um andor questions we have about each candidate and deliberate um go through those so everyone knows what we're thinking know what you're thinking and um then we can decide to uh make a decision from there. I'll turn the pres the uh proceedings back over to President Hunt and um decide uh what you're going to do at that point. So, if you have any questions for
011me and how we'll when the evening will go. Okay. I will uh go get our first candidate and introduce him and then uh it will begin. Thank you. Good evening and welcome. Thank you Mark. Before we begin, welcome Jeremy. We will conduct questions in a roundroin format. Each board member has a question. We will ask that. And if there are follow-up questions that the board member would like to ask, just be prepared for that as well. Understood. Are we missing one today? We are. Okay. Thank you. I will ask the questions for Vice President Doby's in his absence. Thank you. All right, Mr. Patterson. We've had the opportunity to review your resume. Please tell us, Jackson Public School Board of Education, how your background and experiences make you a good fit to be our next
012superintendent. Okay. Thank you for that question, Madame President. Um, I do have the questions here printed out on my paper. I'm kind of a visual person, so if I glance down, I'm going to make sure I answer the question fully. Um, you've seen my resume and I provided it for you again today. I have 27 years in public education and I am just blessed to have had uh that long of a career mostly with Jackson Public Schools dating back to student teaching experience and coaching in about 1998 after leaving as a student. So, I'm I'm homegrown. And I think this is important for Jackson Public Schools and your next superintendent. I have a wealth of experience as a teacher, coach, and administrator at all three levels, meaning elementary, middle school, and high school. As a
013teacher, coach, and administrator. The last three years I've spent at Jackson Public Schools as assistant superintendent for secondary schools. Um, and I've sat at the executive committee and central office very close to the superintendent and the cabinet level administrators. So, I think you're this will well prepare me for um the opportunity to lead this district as superintendent. I think that the people of Jackson and Jackson public schools want somebody who's walked the walk and I think I've done that at all three levels and I've been successful based on my performance evaluations and feedback from students, staff, and families in this community. You've seen my career highlights that I've shared with you today. They've been inside of this community and outside. One thing that I'm very proud of is I was elected uh by MEMSPO, which
014stands for Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principles Association, as their president. And so I served on that board for approximately eight years, I think two years as a minority rep. Then I was nominated president. And that looks like president-elect, president, and past president. So that's five. So seven years. than two years. I remained on longer as past president because people uh retired and did not continue to fulfill that. So, AMPA is a phenomenal organization that benefits our leaders and administrators here with Jackson Public Schools. Um, some of our highlights are professional development. It's all about helping Jackson Public Schools to get better and have a lot of experience in that area as well as growing membership. It's important to us as a district that we grow our teaching membership as well as our student membership.
015And finally, being a connected educator. We don't do this alone in education. Um, we all don't have the same gifts and same strengths. So, we need to lean upon one another. And that's my personal experience and my personal testimony. And finally, I'll end this question about what makes the ne me a good fit as the next superintendent is this is home. At the end of the day, I have very strong ties uh to the greater community of Jackson, both inside this community and outside of this community. And I want nothing more to to be a champion for the city of Jackson. I've been here all my life. The furthest I got away was Spring Arbor about 15 minutes down the road. Thank you. Thank you, board members. Any follow-up questions you may have? Hearing none,
016we will proceed to the next question. You have not held this position of superintendent before. How are you planning to grow within the role and advance your knowledge in areas such as finance, contract negotiations, etc.? What role do you envision the board playing in this process? Yeah, that's a great question. I have not had the role of superintendent, but I always try to do my best to be proactive, to not wait for the opportunity, but my friend said you interview every day of your life. And so for 27 years, I've been preparing for this opportunity. In 2019, you saw on my resume that I participated in the Michigan Leadership Institute Soups Academy. And that program is designed to support current superintendent or aspiring superintendent. And so I learned everything from active participating superintendent. They showed
017up uh weekly to talk about board governance, finance, communication, interviewing, and more. Um, I participated with a cohort of people who are superintendent today. They are colleagues and friends today. And you saw in my letters of recommendations previously, a letter from Dr. Steven Tunningcliffe as well as a former superintendent of Grand Rapids public schools. So that networking component is essential to my growth and development because I don't have all the answers. But when I don't do this work in isolation, when I do this collaboratively with this board of education as well as people that I've made connections with outside of this district, I feel like I'm in a better spot. I'll speak to finance and I'll speak to uh negotiations. I served as JPSA administrative president for eight years with Jackson Public Schools. And so
018during that time, I sat at negotiations tables. matter of fact led that because I was elected by our association to do so. So I've negotiated multiple contracts from the principal association and have a strong understanding of those contracts at central office the past few three years. Uh last summer we negotiated the teachers contract which I was an active participant and also the secretary. So those contracts are in place currently. We began initial uh negotiations with administrators which I'm well verssed um paraprofessionals and teacher assistants. So I have years of experience in that place. I don't know it all again but I belong to professional organizations such as Michigan Association of Superintendent uh which I've been to their annual conferences over the past three years. Funny story, today I was supposed to go to Michigan School
019Business Officials Conference to learn more about finance. And so I know I don't know it all and there's a lot of hot topics going on right now. So I cancelled my reservation, but I did not cancel my membership. So I receive ongoing communication and there's a lot of communication in that space right now. So I'm learning every day. And then finally, I've been able to partner with this board of education at the board table at finance and facilities. We have ongoing conversations. Um, let me see if this is the place. What role do you envision the board playing in this process is really just having a clear vision of where we're at and where we see ourselves as well as um just continue to grow and get better together. Uh I think we're in a
020pretty good situation when you look at uh the finance and the contract negotiations as we have um good contracts in place and we're always trying to make them better to support our our staff. Thank you board. What questions do you have if any? I do. Um Jeremy, you mentioned um some call letters. Can you just when you do your um some initial something? Yeah. JPSA maybe or Jackson Public Schools Administrative Association. Was there another Was there another something that started with an N? Um so just just so you know when you would you mind just saying it just Absolutely. because I won't know. Thank you. Thank you. What was that one though? The other one. The one do you remember what it was? Jackson public schools. And then I said uh Michigan school board officials
021MSBO for finance. Maybe that was it. And then um it was a couple. I didn't want to interrupt you. Yeah. But the the the MASA for superintendent maybe Michigan Association of but it's okay just so you know. Um that way I know. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Just a follow-up question regarding finance. Given our current budget deficit, what is your plan if given the opportunity to lead our district to come in and um address that deficit? Absolutely. I think that is more than the elephant in the room. Um I think we have a strong finance department at Jackson Public Schools and one thing the board responsibility has been is to prepare for a rainy day once those esser funds have kind of dried up. So we know we put those away expecting to spend down
022that f foundational allowance. And so when I come in during this period of time, we understand that we have to control the spending. And so I think it's a question further in here, but I'll go further. And so um we have two opportunities between the monies that we bring in and the monies that go out. And so we're in the current process. My role currently in that process as secondary superintendent is to look at our contracts and what are the contractual obligations that we have to fulfill for secondary programs. And when we were um overstaffing for example because that's what we said we were going to do with ESSER funds is to um provide extended learning opportunities and um to um recover from the learning loss. So, we hired additional staff to do so. Now
023that those resource aren't continuing to come in, I'm looking with high school, middle school, secondary um numbers based on department summaries or or students that are in the building to rightsize our classrooms based on the agreed upon contract language. Thank you. Any additional follow-up questions? Hearing none, the next question will be provided by trustee treasurer Actton. So, what methods will you use to attract and retain quality staff? Also, what will you do to attract and retain students to Jackson Public Schools? Thank you for that question, Treasurer Actton. I think that's a first things first with Jackson Public Schools and it actually has been. So, as you know, we offered an incentive to attract teachers to this district, which was successful. And now that we're not doing that, um again, I'll repeat, I have strong ties
024having 27 years across um education where I have personally recruited people to this district. I love Jackson Public Schools and I don't mind telling everyone. And so having done so, um, I've been able to personally recruit teachers that are in Teachers of America, if you will, alternative routes to education. I've been able to track and follow people because I don't give up real easily over, I don't know, three, fouryear period of time. And I swing for the fence for Jackson Public School. So, I show up um I make sure that Jackson Public Schools is a priority and I tell them all the great things that are happening in our district. And I think everybody knows this. It's not a secret the greatness of Jackson Public Schools. Jackson Public Schools just has to be for you.
025And and it might not be for everyone, but that won't come out of my voice. And so when I go out and talk to people about Jackson Public Schools, um it's going to be in a positive light. I'm going to share my story about elementary, middle school, high school. It doesn't matter what they teach in the classroom. They teach Encore. I have those experiences that I'll be able to celebrate with Jackson Public Schools. I think it's essential and something that I've done is create partnerships with um colleges and teacher preparation programs. I'm an alumni of Spring Arbor. So, I'm there as much as I possibly can be, including last week at an opportunity where I sat at a table with a young lady who is an aspiring educator. Matter of fact, in church yesterday, young
026lady told me she graduated from college and I handed her my business card cuz she doesn't have it figured out yet what she's going to do next. So, everywhere I go, I'm going to take my Jackson Public Schools cap with me. I got to give a shout out to Destiny Davis because she graduated from University of Michigan and she encouraged me to participate in their secondary teacher education program. So I've done that annually, I don't know, five or six years now because Jackson Public Schools will be at the table with Jeremy Patterson. And so a lot of schools on the east and west side of the state are there and present and they're wellto-do districts. And I am proud to hand out my business card. I'm proud to support the next generation of educators and
027I will continue to do so to be a champion and and cheerleader for Jackson Public Schools recognizing there is a critical shortage in in teachers but to develop our teachers. I I got to get back on track. This is part of our current partnership agreement. So this is not a new goal for Jackson Public Schools. We are actually achieving this goal based on data that human resources is collecting. There's two goals. One is for early career teachers because the retention is a little bit more challenging. Did I get into something I didn't fully understand? That's why the support and professional development and mentorship and extra wraparound services need to be there for early career educators. And then for our veteran staff, same thing. We can't treat them any less valuable because they have the skills
028and the tools and the resources. And so one thing that I've done in my career is make sure they're seen and they're recognized as leaders. They become mentors to other teachers because they've been effective or highly effective and they have opportunity to um lead professional development within our school or at our staff meetings to be recognized as experts in their field. And I think that goes a long way in recruiting and retaining teachers, staff, excuse me, students. Climate and culture is everything. Um, student achievement is driven as well by the climate and culture of this district. This is what I do when I'm in the buildings. I build a positive climate and culture. I talk about the celebrations. I don't turn a blind eye to the things that aren't going well. But I'm going to
029shout it from the rooftop that if you do your part and we do our part, this is going to be a great experience. And so, same conversation I had with teachers. Um, wherever the young people go, um, I don't mind telling them about the great opportunities that are Jackson Public Schools. And, and sometimes they're surprised. Wow, you guys offer a lot. And other times they're like, I didn't know. No one's ever told me about Jackson Public Schools. Um, currently participated in kindergarten roundup and make sure I use my social media platform and other opportunities to get the word out about our programs and offerings. I'm just going to get my timer out to keep myself on track. Thank you, board. Any follow-up questions? I have a question. Um, so Mr. Patterson, yes. Um, I know
030that um, you know that not all of your children went to JPS. Some of them uh, graduated, I believe, from a different district. So what could we have done or what will you do differently or what could have you know what could occur to have attracted your son here? And I don't know if that changes your answer or not at all cuz I did everything. I was a elementary principal. I was a middle school principal. I was a high school principal. I went to court to try to make that decision happen. because my son didn't reside with me for 50% of the time or more. I lost that argument and my son also had a great experience and so realizing what was beneficial to him. I didn't want to be a barrier for that. But
031thank you. No, thank you. That's very good information. Um because you know when I got on the school board I didn't have all my children going here and I understood how important it was for me to put my child in the best place you know and in the best district possible. But again, I wanted to know if that would change your answer because, you know, coming on as our next superintendent potentially. Um, you know, people are going to ask because people know, you know, his one of his kids didn't go go here. So, what would be different? You know, this he's recruiting. You know, I hear a lot of recruiting is going to occur potentially should you become the next superintendent. So, people will want to know, you know, what you know, what do we
032what didn't we do right for your son to come here? So, it's very beneficial for you to have answered that question. Thank you. Abs. Absolutely. And here's the rest of my beautiful family with the all-in for Jackson Public Schools. Any additional questions? Secretary Simonetti, please. Question number four. Um, unfortunately, crisis events and trauma can happen in schools. How have you managed crisis situations to ensure student safety and maintain continuity in education? Thank you, Treasurer Simonetti or Secretary Simonetti. Again, I'm going to use my timer on my phone. No other purposes. So, yes, I'm very wellversed in our emergency operating procedures at Jackson Public Schools because safety is priority number one. Unfortunately, there have been approximately 26 opportunities to utilize that plan this year. Um, some of them are inclement weather. Okay. So, not super dangerous,
033but just not safe to be on the roads. Um, I had an opportunity where we had to pull a fire alarm because there was smoke in the science wing and thought there might be fire around chemicals. We should evacuate quickly and we did so and it turned out to just be a burned out motor. So, crisis averted. Um, there was an incident last Friday when I was in my office that things happen in our community that sometimes are too close for comfort for our school system. So, that was taken care of quickly. Thank you, Jackson Police Department. Our strong partners. So, something that we don't get to practice a lot is a evacuation. So, when I was the middle school at Parkside, principal, Sharp Park Academy was evacuated because of a gas leak. They all
034had to get on a bus quickly, evacuate their campus, and middle school at Parkside became the reunification center. And so the bottom part of this question is how did you manage the crisis situation to ensure student safety and mi continuity in education? All of middle school at Parkside continue to go to school except for the gymnasium area which we designated as a reunification center. It went very well and I compliment the staff at Shar Park Academy as well as middle school at Parkside for making this priority number one. As the young people got off the buses, they were placed into sections with their teachers so we knew where everyone was accounted for, which was in the bleachers. Um, we had restroom needs taken care of. We had an isolated area. We had student rosters that
035were printed out so we could take attendance again to make sure everybody got on the bus and they were safe at middle school. At Parkside, I was kind of a facilitator in this process. Um, the team from Sharp Park gets all the credit because they took care of business for their young people. They had to set up a station so that when parents were notified to pick their child up at Parkside, they had to go through one person to sign in and sign out. They had a process to go back and forth getting the kids, which our staff supported. We also wanted to make sure because you spoke about trauma that it was comfortable, that they had food, they had water, and any other needs were taken care of and addressed as well as communicating
036with families, which is scary and and nerve-wracking. But I I'd say looking back on that experience, it went very well. We don't often get a chance to pick a whole building up, put them somewhere else, and find a way to get them home. But we did it, as I recall, pretty seamlessly. Um, and it was a good practice opportunity, thank goodness, and no one was harmed in that situation. We do have situations which have been traumatic. I think about social media and some threats that sometimes name people. And that's why it's important that we have the staff in place all hands on deck to talk to our kids about what their experience was and to make sure we provide the space and opportunities for them to meet with our professionals including our partners with Lifeways
037and other community partners that come alongside us when we do have traumatic events that occur in school. Thank you. Any follow-up questions? Thank you. Um could you talk about staff training and what your vision is on how they are prepared to also handle this variety of situations? Absolutely. So every month um I forgot to say the emergency operating procedures is not a manual that's placed on a shelf. This is something that we use every month in a staff meeting where we take up our parts. So it might be inclement weather in the season. So there's a part in the manual which we want to make sure we keep at the forefront so we don't get um we haven't used it in a while so we kind of forget. Uh every teacher has a flip chart
038in their classroom as well as um we have training coming up that we partner with our local law enforcement agency so we can receive feedback from the experts. We have school resource officers in our buildings that help to provide this training on the day-to-day basis and so professional development is ongoing. We've also received ASUS training which stands for oh shucks. See good one. I'll say it here in a second. Um adverse childhood experiences. Okay. And so when you have adverse experiences, how do you help to cope and support and overcome some of those adverse experiences? Thank you. I have a question for you. Um I appreciate the seems like we have a pretty comprehensive plan around the physical bodies of our students. Um which is obviously very important. You know what I mean? Um and
039you also did mention some of the ways that we would manage um our mental health after the effect, you know, after the events that potentially could occur. Um you know, knock on wood, hopefully they won't, but you know, reality is that they might. Um and I know we probably I'm a guest that we might have something like EAP, which is like the employee something support number that people can call. Yes. you know um any other um ideas that you have around um that even when I when I think about the teachers and and you know the impact of events that is occurring on them as well you know um our students I hear you say we've got lifeways we have counselors which is you know good stuff you know but any anything more would you
040want to expand on that any more and thinking about the students teachers and even our parents any any other and again I'm not talking about our physical bodies because it's pretty comprehensive but anything more on the mental health of our folks should trauma and when trauma occurs. Yes. So, it makes me think of our wellness and and at middle school, we talked a lot about social emotional learning and social emotional wellness. And when you talk about the whole child, it's academic, but it's how are you doing, too? Are you seen? Are you heard? Do you have a trusted adult? Do you have someone you can talk to? So, I think absolutely um I've done these things in the past where we've had wellness groups for our staff. Our human resources department reaches out regularly to
041communicate, hey, these services are available. They're anonymous so you can feel comfortable if you have a need and they explain the variety of different ways that they can help and support too. So, um I think being a former physical educator, that whole wellness aspect and part of our wellness committee, we do touch on other opportunities to check in with our staff or to create spaces where um they uh how do I want to say it? I just I'm thinking of professional development. I'm thinking of book studies. And so those are some of my experiences just providing space that your wellness is more of a priority than you know how you performed on your test today so to speak. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Any additional follow-up questions? Trusty Hamilton. Question number five. What are important
042issues in creating a good board superintendent relationship and how do you facilitate such a relationship? Second part of that question, how will you communicate with this board? Yes, this is very important. It's something I want to share a couple examples of what I've already done. This board of education had three open vacancies this year. There were 10 candidates that applied. I was proactive in meeting with all 10 candidates because it was important for me to understand their vision or their interest in Jackson Public Schools as well as communicating my own. And so I feel like you have to start by building the relationship. And that's what I do. I'm a people's person. So I reach out and I have conversations with people. Uh the second part of that is um I reached out to this
043board of education once I once superintendent Beiel said that he was going to resign. That's always an area that I never really wanted to cross over and have discussions with the board until that happened. At that time, I reached out to all board members here to express my interest in this position, being proactive, as well as share what other people are saying about Jeremy Patterson through letters of recommendation and simultaneously building that open dialogue and communication with you all. Some was on a phone, some was in person, some was via email, but I just appreciated the opportunity to begin that two-way discussion. I think all good working relationships start with trust and I consider myself a person worthy of trust and I consider other people worthy of my trust as well but that only happens
044with regular and ongoing communication. Uh the other point that I'll say to that is there have been a lot of opportunities for us to work and partner together that are um outside of the school day if you will or inside the school day. I think of homecoming as a big opportunity where we all come together. I think of the policy committee when I've worked with board members, discipline hearings, you've seen my work, um other opportunities for us just to gauge. So, as a superintendent, um I want to make sure I understand how you like to be communicated with. One thing that I tried to do with this board is make sure everyone has the same information, and that's important to me. The other part is just ongoing communication. I think we'll get to this question
045later, but you can never communicate too much. Um, I'd like written communication so we can track that communication over time. And I think I want to mention just no surprises. I don't want you to be caught off guard. You hear about something that I didn't communicate. So, I'll hold myself responsible if something happens within the district that I'm making sure I'm reaching out to you. So, how will you communicate with this board? Um, and then another opportunity is we've done building walks and gone throughout the schools and we can talk about um things that are happening in our schools. So, you get that up close and personal and that's been an opportunity to build relationships with there. So, it's important for me to ask you how you want to be communicated with and it's important
046for me to have ongoing two-way communication with the entire board. Thank you. Any additional questions? Vice President Dobies. Thank you, President. Um, Mr. Patterson, obviously at the the last meeting um we had some kind of some issues brought to light. How do you kind of view uh that relationship um that you would have with the board? Um would it differ from kind of what you've seen uh the board interact with the super the current superintendent? Would um uh how would you kind of approach that uh relationship generally as it relates to engaging the board on different um policy committees or um just the different work um of of this board? Yes. Uh I think a clear plan and vision. How do we communicate with one another? I think I've heard this board have conversations about
047how do we get things on the agenda and how do we move work forward? So, I heard you say, I don't understand that process. So, I think what I would work to make sure everything is clear and transparent about what that process is. And um the other thing that I think is just the vision of the district. I think sometimes there's all these wonderful things out there that are happening. I think Jackson Public Schools has to be real intentional about this is what we're doing and this is why we're doing it. And I was once a young administrator and I wanted to do everything. And they said, "Whoa, we got to we got to rein this in a little bit." And I think Jackson Public Schools is phenomenal, but we have to rein in some
048of our focuses on those first things first. I can promise you the world, but I'm hearing retract and retain staff, retract and retain students. I think there's some first things first that I'd like to vet out with this district to say these are our top priorities. These are nice to haves, but these are our top priorities and stay focused. And when we can get everyone's voice moving in the same direction, I think we'll accomplish all the things that we want to accomplish. Thank you. Any additional questions? Trustee ready. Question number six, please. Tell us about a time in your professional life when you needed to be the true to your personal integrity even though there were negative consequences for you. In other words, tell us about a time when you had a when you had
049to stand up for what you believed in the face of opposition. Thank you. You trust that you're ready. Well, this isn't going to make me popular today, but I'm just going to throw it out there. The one area where Jackson Public Schools is not meeting our expectations is in suspension data. And so, I think that is not a good vision for the district to have over suspension and haven't been able to get that harnessed in. And I've had different opportunities within my career that I haven't been popular. Sometimes it's at discipline hearings. Um, sometimes it's students that get suspended and sometimes it's when students don't get suspended. But I think it's something that uh we have to address. Out of 13 out of 14 indicators, Jackson Public Schools was successful with the partnership plan. Suspension
050data is not one of them. Everybody does not want to do the things that need to take place to minimize that number. One of the things that is working very well in this district is restorative practice and restorative justice. And so that is an opportunity where everyone's voice is heard and that's a step that we get so busy sometimes we don't take the time to sit down and have the conversation. Maybe it's had in the principal's office. Maybe it's had at the superintendent's office. But involving all the parties that been harmed or hurt or negatively impacted is a best practice. Another thing that seems to be working well is following the law of the seven mandatory factors. Consider what else can be done before we suspend. Because sometimes we just get it in our mind.
051If you have a cell phone, you get this. If you have a vape pen, you get that. If you fight, you get this. And it's nice to be predictable, but also you need to look at the circumstances and then again ask yourself, are these consequences going to make a difference moving forward, or are we going to continue to just find ways to disengage some students from being in school and not finding success? So, I'm sure it doesn't make me popular, but it's something that I have to get better at myself. I won't sit over here and claim to be perfect. Um, it's an area that I reflect on myself and I've had some hard conversations with my critics and I listen to say this is something that we has to get better. I don't want
052Jackson public schools to continue to be monitored for certain subgroups having disproportional rates of being suspended or saying that we're going to move the instructional needle when kids aren't in class. Are there are there real opportunities and reasons why students should have that type of a consequence? Absolutely. But continue to reflect on our practices. So with that, um, I've reinstituted the community of practice with partnership with the Jackson County Intermediate School District. This is something that I did as a principal years ago and it's something that we stopped doing and it's something that we reinstituted again this year where our administrators come together and they talk about what's working well, how are things going. It's again being collaborative and networking to find a solution to some of our problems and communicating that back to our
053staff like let's try a different way moving forward. Thank you. Any follow-up questions Mr. Patterson? Can you describe the progression of discipline? And you made mention that there are some behaviors that warrant certain consequences. Can you for the community describe a couple of those situations, please? Yes. So, when we talk about school safety, fighting is a non-negotiable, right? But fighting looks different in first grade than it does in 11th grade. And so, I think um one thing that we look at is um is is there an opportunity? I've had brothers, right, came to school with mom and brothers got in fight in school before. Do we need to suspend William and Jeremy for fighting each other in school? I don't know. Maybe Mary can help solve that problem and not have to have us both
054at home doing chores for 5 days. But there are unique scenarios in that. Um, when people get hurt, those are non-negotiables. And when it causes a major disruption to the learning, there need to be consequences. um other opportunities. I think of vape. Vape is not a Jackson Public Schools problem, right? And so there are programs that we have students agree to truly go through the steps to seek some help and guidance and understand what you're doing to your body at this young of age and how this is not healthy for you. And hopefully you can make a difference by some behavioral interventions as opposed to suspension. because often times we hear what are they doing at home when they're suspended. Some of them are doing work, but I I don't know that that's really addressing
055the issue. So, we like to when when you issue discipline, the hope is that the behavior won't continue to occur by some kind of teachable moment. Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Sher. Question number seven, please. How do you view the role of the superintendent when working with and negotiating with our multiple unions? Yes, thank you Trusty Sharp for the question. I think it is essential that the superintendent is a leader in negotiating with our associations. Again, I'll just share again that I have 10 years of experience as a administrator on the other side of the table, if you will. So I'm very familiar with I think again it starts with trust and relationships. You kind of come into negotiations and you lay out some ground rules and hopefully uh both sides can agree that we're
056going to be clear and transparent and we negotiate in good faith. Meaning we're going to share what the district's issues or concerns are and you're going to share from your membership which represents a body of people. And so they've gotten feedback from their membership and says this is the areas that we want to see um impacted during negotiations. Uh I I've had good experiences every time I've been in negotiations. That does not mean everyone gets what they're asking for, including the district. Another area that I'll reference, the superintendent needs to be knowledgeable in laws that are changing because that might not have been addressed in in previous contracts and negotiations. And the other thing, this board of education is going to expect the superintendent to um have something that you can say yes to and
057agree. So I can say everybody gets a 10% raise, but then we might be back here in financial trouble again. So that's just not fiscally responsible. So, it's the superintendent's responsibility alongside the executive committee of cabinet to collaborate and work towards a fair and um appropriate contract negotiations. And again, three contracts are getting ready to expire this summer. And so, there's a lot of work to do for the upcoming superintendent. Any follow-up questions from the board? Vice President Dobies, please. Just just one real quick. Um, Mr. President, you've had a lot of positions um held a lot of positions with uh JPS um from uh that that span the scope of um the experience here. Can you talk about some of the the growth that you've seen in yourself through those positions as it relates
058to being able to now be um you know the superintendent dealing with um the teachers through those unions? Absolutely. Thank you for the question. I'm a lifelong learner. I'm not a perfect person. Um I own my mistakes and I I I just have to be honest. And so, uh, I've I've grown tremendously. I've been mentored by people. I've had opportunities outside of the district to learn and get better. And that's always what I want to do. In these last few years, um, I just think about support, support, support. And and I I say that it's it's going to come up in another question, but the last thing we want to do is go down the wrong direction of discipline or removal. The we always want to go towards the gold standard of effectiveness or highly
059effectiveness and these what those practices look like. So I try to communicate and just be open and honest that this is not personal but we have a job to do. And so we might not agree at all times but one thing I do well I think is I listen and I can own my mistakes and I can come to the table and meet with anyone. I think that's a skill that I have is that I don't refuse to meet with people whether they agree with me or disagree. Um, sometimes I say yes and sometimes I say no. And so people are going to be upset with Jeremy Patterson because he may have said no once or twice around the career. But at the end of the day, um, I want to celebrate our staff. I
060want to work collaboratively with our staff and I think I've been respected for we agree to disagree sometimes but when I can say yes and when I can repair that relationship that I'm I'm not above re repar or repairing things that have been damaged I I truly believe in the restorative process and I will sit down with anyone and everyone whether they like me or don't like me to have an honest conversation about why we came to the conclusions that we came to. Thank you. Any additional questions? Yes, I have a question for you. I really appreciate um you know the uh phrase owning your mistakes. I love that. Um I think the mark of true leadership, you know, there's several marks in true leadership, you know, but one of them I think that's very
061important is um leaders being able to acknowledge the fact that we're humans and we do make mistakes. Yes. Um and I think that what makes us real leaders is when we are accountable to those mistakes, when we're responsible for those mistakes, you know, when we're uh confident enough yet humble enough to say, you know, yeah, I messed up, you know, and uh you know, um and I can do differently and will do differently. I think that's how we um I really think that that's one of the the the biggest marks of a true leader. um you talked about in uh uh trustee uh ready uh he me uh question you or asked you about the um your integrity and being able to um you know acknowledge when you've had to stand on your integrity regardless
062of what people feel about and how they feel about it and I think that's also a huge mark for you know a superintendent to have. Um you didn't mention any specific mistakes and they didn't say you know would you but are there any mistakes that you might would reference that you would say you know I did make a mistake here. um and this is how I would do it differently. Do you have anything like that? Yeah. Um I look back on a situation, the parent was tough and I appreciate that in hindsight and really holding me accountable about the decisions that I make that impact lives. The example is a student that was being referred to an alternative placement and I felt like there was a prepoundonderance of evidence of what the student was doing
063well and not doing well in that situation and I'll just say it like it is. They gave me the business and I took it and I listened and that was the decision. But it's never the final decision. So then I begin with this isn't a forever thing, but these are the here's the su success criteria about how you can get back on track. Because I don't look at discipline or situations as being permanent, but being fixable, if you will, or an ability to approve. And so that's exactly what this student did and the family accepted and met the success criteria. Came back to middle school at Parkside, was highly successful at Jackson High. Had a couple issues and challenges because we're not perfect. Graduated, went to college. We have a positive relationship to this day.
064It was difficult, but it was fixable. Thank you. I definitely heard the student. I didn't hear personally, you know, any mistakes unless it was just you thought one way and then they were able to change your mind. Is that what the mistake was? And I mean, if you're just choosing not to answer that, you know, you have an option as well, you know. But I did hear about the student though and I'm glad for him them. I'll come back to you if I think about a a should be able to think of but I make mistakes all the time. I mean I give you little things but I'm trying to give you something good. Should we ask a lady behind you? You making it real easy. Oh, a mistake. Yeah. I mean I can think
065of a lot of easy things. They're just little things. But I I own it in public. I have no problem with that in front of my staff. I think that demonstrates humility that if the boss can make mistakes, then the staff can make mistakes. And I I try to use that as a teachable moment that when you're in the classroom and we've shown grace, right, that they can show grace in the classroom, too. So, I just I think that's important what you're getting to and I'm trying to think of a better example of a mistake and I'll I'll let you know when I think of one. Thank you. Thank you. Should be easy. Any other questions? Question number eight. President Hunt, tell us what your role as superintendent is in the budget development process and
066what do you envision doing differently than what's currently being done to correct our budget deficit? Okay. um hot topic item in public education is the budget. I'm well aware that we have a significant shortfall. One of the things that I think this district is looking to do is to make conservative assumptions about the upcoming budget, which we did last year. However, it's still going to be an unknown when this board has to approve a budget on June 30th. Um, we can look at some historical numbers such as revenues. We can look at our past foundational allowance and we can look at our past student count and come up with the monies that are coming in. There are some uncertainties as far as those additional pots of funds and will they be fully funded, but we
067tr traditionally budget conservative, meaning instead of everything that we got last year, 75% or 80%. And so the superintendent's responsibility is to be conservative and sometimes plan for a worst case scenario so you don't um wind up in a situation where you have to do layoffs at the beginning of the year relative to expenditures. I think we're being financially respons responsible now understanding that we've continued to extend the learning loss opportunities and programs especially with staffing. If you look at our budget, the bulk of the expenditures are relative to staff salaries and benefits. And so that is 80% of the budget that we have to reduce, which is why we're currently looking into the buyout program as well as potential layoffs still um looming because of the significance of the budget. And what we cannot
068do is continue to be in this situation because the rainy day fund is there. We're going to utilize it this year, but our goal is not to continue to dip because we're staffed um in excess of the students that we have in the district. This district has been a declining enrollment district as far as um students that are in our brickandmortar buildings. Uh this district has been able to uh secure additional revenue revenue through shared time services, which we anticipate will continue to grow. My current role in that as secondary curriculum director is to look at those opportunities and curriculum that other districts might have an interest in. And so I'll use an example of uh I think I told you guys about Photoshop and innovation and learning labs. So robotics that is an item
069that we're able to um share with other districts and receive student FTEEs for. And so I look for areas and I've asked the question, what else could we be adding at Jackson High School or middle school at Parkstat or South Central Michigan virtual or elementary schools to be marketable for those shared time resources and simultaneously you all brought up I think it needs to be goal and priority number one to do a better job recruiting and retaining our students. And with that, I mean every month having a report on students that are coming in and students that are going out. It's a big task, but it's priority number one. Another thing that we're currently doing that I'm currently doing is making sure we have letters of intent. Many of our families will tell us, "I'm
070coming back. I'm not coming back. This is where I'm going." Sometimes it's Houston, Texas, and that's a little bit outside of our reach if the job moved there or the family lives there. But other times it's local county schools, and that's where we have an opportunity to have a a session with the parents to understand better just like we do with our staff on exit interviews. And this should be our practice. And we know this information. We have to do something about it and put our best foot forward to again recruit and retain. And I looked at the kindergarten numbers for this year, 427. That is huge. Now, we know some of those are developmental kindergarten students that might not move on. But even if 350 became the norm instead of 250, we'd be in
071a much better situation and everyone be happy. I think it's everyone's responsibility from the board of education to the superintendent to the administration to the teachers, the bus drivers, everybody who touches the lives of students should be a part of this plan. So the communication plan that gets rolled out is it's all hands- on deck. Uh let me make sure I answered the question of our budget. Going back to budget, um we talked about living within our means and the the other thing. So this is kind of new. I don't I haven't seen that. I know we have a monthly you can see the budget that's presented, but I want that communication plan to be clear and transparent especially for this board of education because sometimes I think it's easy for us to get busy
072and forget that we said we were going to do these things or to expect these things. So I'd like kind of a running record of week to week, month to month on what's going on with finances one because this is an area of growth and develop for myself and again I have full confidence in our finance department and I will continue to learn and grow in this space but I think making the communication clear and visible is an important priority for myself. I talked about um shared time services. I talked about living within my means and that concludes my answer for correcting our situation and doing things differently moving forward. Thank you. Any follow-up questions? Actton, um, how would you communicate the shared time resources to the community? How could you how could we advertise
073that? Yeah. Um, how do we advertise that? basically advertising for other districts that are interested in our curriculum. But I think we could um communicate again that Jackson Public Schools has the best of the best curricular offerings that our students have access to as well as we use the example of our local pro parochial schools that they sometimes can't offer because they're maybe a little bit smaller in in staff. And so I mean this is historical when a few of us went to Jackson High School that we had neighboring schools actually physically sent their students to our schools. So this is like a new version of that when they don't physically send their students but we provide support and professional development and curriculum for their districts. Thank you. I expected a question from our treasurer.
074Any additional questions? one. Vice President Dolby, please. This will be an easy one. Um so the um Trump administration has recent rec recently submitted uh distributed a dear colleague letter which I'm sure you're familiar with um that requires the state and local school juris jurisdictions uh to reertify compliance with title six in order to continue to receive federal funding. there's a a variety of perspective on um what that letter means and the interpretation of some of the uh verbiage in that letter. Um uh clearly I think it's um inconsistent with some of the things that um we have been doing um here here at JPS um and some of the values that we share and and we have talked about and we've seen different approaches from uh from right here in Jackson County um with
075with Jackson College taking different approaches uh to U of M to to Harvard Um, how do you uh as a superintendent uh that is charged with advising this body um kind of balance some of those um conflicts between uh potential conflicts maybe uh between our budget and um our values? Uh how do you advise uh this board on those decisions? and uh potentially how do you advocate um for some of those changes and be kind of a fighter for the district? Phenomenal question. Can you write that down for me, please? Okay. So, the Jeremy Patterson approach is um I don't do anything reactionary. I think many people act too quickly sometimes because of threats or pressures. Obviously, $8 million is significant. So, that's going to catch my attention and raise my level of concern. But
076what I'm understanding today is there um is this legal and is this going to pass multiple lawsuits that been filed by advocates? um to threaten to take away resources that our public educators need based on work that's been done currently. So, is that legal? And so I want to be fully informed and learn as much as I can because again I don't know everything in this space. But the people that I've spoken to encourage us to pause because we have to be who we say we are and we also have to be able to be fiscally responsible and and be able to turn the lights on and pay the bills. So today the answer is I have on my resume that I've done advocacy work and I've been trained in Washington DC. I've taken other
077administrators to the capital here in Lancing in our community. I've sat down with lobbyists and legislators and educators to give them our voice and say how this is harmful in this how this is impacting how we're currently doing business. And so I feel like I would be a champion for this district because we have a high um one of the other items that was discussed is our our food and our meal program. And so that was another area that current boards of education within Jackson public schools were able to secure. And a lot of our families and communities would tell tell us to fight for that. That that's absolutely essential. And so I'll repeat that. Um, I don't make knee-jerk reaction decisions. Um, I want to be fully informed. I want to let not just
078that process play out, but continue to advocate for Jackson Public Schools. Did I answer that question? Thank you. Any additional questions? Question number nine, Vice President Dobies, please. Thank you. Uh, Mr. President, can you tell us about a time when you have evaluated and adjusted your communication system to ensure stakeholders feel well informed and engaged? Yes, I I will publicly state that communication is the biggest thing that there is to the job of the superintendent kind of. That's one. The biggest growth area for Jeremy Patterson, that's two. So the question says evaluated and adjusted. I learned so much going through the Jackson Public Schools partnership plan and my lens as a building administrator has always been I'm busting my butt over here. We we are doing so much. The teachers and the parents and everybody's
079going to say the same thing. We are working as hard as we possibly can. How can we do more sometimes? The thing that we learned is we're not communicating as a system collectively. So everybody knows their role and their part. So they feel like we're really moving the instructional needle. We're really moving the district forward because you're taking care of this part, you're taking care of this part. You're we're all surrounded. Okay. And I think it's the collective impact that gets us to where we need to be. And from this partnership agreement when you looked at 14 indicators and a lot of data we have to communicate that back out to our staff that are not a part of the leadership team from to the administrators to the staff meetings down to everybody again that
080touches the students. So, I've evaluated and just adjusted my communication to understand that communication just doesn't end. And the forms of communication, it's not just pumping information out, but it's doing what we're doing now. We're having a back back and forth conversation. And so, that's something I think we can do better at Jackson Public Schools. So, I look forward to being out into the community. I actually done this three times in probably the past two or three weeks. We have changes in programming at Monasuri and I was in a listen and learn situation with the Monasuri program on how we're going to do things differently in the 56 transition which goes back to student retention. I was in a listen and learn session with the four street learning center and south central Michigan virtual program
081because we're in a change situation there in that programming and have talked to the majority of the families and there was some frustrations and concerns out of the athletic department that administration not just myself but others sat down with our parents and communities and I'll tell you how I've adjusted my communication based on some of that feedback that was given in athletics aletics. I rewrote half the questions for the interview process of our next athletic director based on a lot of the feedback and discussion because it was valuable. It was rich. We were listening. We agree that we have work to do in this district that we're capable of doing better. And hopefully they'll see that their feedback was heard and listened to and followed through upon. So those are the next steps. We listen,
082we learn, we take those notes, we have honest ongoing um communications, but they're going to wait and see um what's next. And so it started with a partnership agreement and um it it continues to other aspects of the district. Thank you. Any follow-up questions? Question number 10, treasurer act in place. Sometimes we are in situations where our role is less about being the one to come up with creative ideas and more about facilitating the creative process or helping others get their ideas implemented. Describe a time when you played this type of role. What did you do to facilitate the process and what were the results? Thank you, Treasurer Actton. When I took this position as a assistant superintendent three years ago and Dr. Patterson left, the social studies department had started u curriculum revision or
083review. And so they were worried when Dr. Patterson left that it was going to fall flat on the floor and they weren't going to be heard. And so I was a part of the process to come in from ground zero. I don't know anything about the work you all were doing but let's have those conversations. So they shared with me all the work that they had been doing and my job was to facilit facilitate the next steps. So they had already done the review. So we began the pilot process. These are the next steps. So we got on board with multiple U publishing companies and they were able to go through the pilot experience and I told them the feedback that would be required about why we make the decisions that we make to move
084forward. So some of you may recall the situation. There was also a letter from the social studies teacher uh describing this experience. So really I was a facilitator in the process. I was also listening at the board level because the board was asking for feedback from the teachers, the students, and the families. And so I communicated that back to the social studies department. So there was an ongoing communication, an ongoing partnership, which I love being in the trenches with our teachers, helping them to get what they need. I didn't know that they thought I wasn't going to be able to carry the torch or move forward with that because they were just expecting someone else to do that. And so I think that was a celebration of how I was able to bring that feedback
085and bring them to the board of education. I like to think that I just kind of stayed in the background and those were their slides that they were presenting which was great information. Um so I can't say that I did that work in the classroom. I give them all the credit for the pilot for identifying their strengths and weaknesses where we're doing well. And then I asked that question, what's our return on investment? And so I've been able to observe those classrooms from sixth grade to high school through the instructional rounding process and actually see the curriculum. Next steps after that is how are our students performing? But not only was that social studies, but that was world languages, that was math, that was special education. So we were able to repeat that process multiple
086times. and what did you do to facilitate and what that were the results. Teachers had resources and materials at their hands that they hadn't had in 20 and 30 years. When we talked about our retention process and early career teachers walking into the classroom, do they have the tools and resources that they need to be successful? The answer was no. Today, because of the action of the board of education and myself facilitating that process with the teachers to bring them to this table, we have them today. Thank you. Thank you. Any additional questions? Question number 11. Secretary Simonetti, please. Jeremy, please share an example of a time you've led a sustained multi-year improvement initiative such as a bond project, syncing fund, or facilities upgrade. Please be specific regarding the situation, the task at hand, and
087your specific role and outcome. Thank you, Secretary Simonetti. I think currently I see myself as a leader of the current bond initiative, which we've had a bond planning committee. I've tried to take an active leadership role in that knowing that Superintendent Beal was going to be retiring by the time we one get ready to present to the board of education and two um hopefully potentially bring this to our community in November. Uh, prior to this, my experiences with bond programs as principal for instruction at middle school at Parkside. In the 2018 bond, there were some work that could be done in the summertime at Middle School at Parkside, and there was other work that had to be done throughout the course of the school year. I felt like I was a liaison and a communicator
088between our construction management team. Okay, what's going on at middle school at Parkside this week and our staff because there were significant disruptions to the facilities and the learning experience and there was a lot of apologizing but more importantly than that there was just an immense amount of communication. Sometimes the internet didn't work. Sometimes the phones didn't work. Sometimes there was plastic set up in the hallways. I literally took the science wing and moved it to the math wing in the middle of the year because of the renovations to the science wing. So, was it fun and comfortable? Absolutely not. But was it a means to an end? Absolutely. And our teachers, I helped them to understand this process that kind of begin with the end in mind. It's going to be good one day.
089And they bought into that. They kind of rolled with the challenges that was the construction bond process and I did my best to be right there if something was going wrong to understand what their experiences was and is there any solution that I had for them at that time or is there something I could communicate back to the construction company that hey we have to do this work after school or hey we have to work without technology today and so I felt like it was a a lot of extra work and my job changed from sometimes of instructional specialist to construction manager but it's a a hat I mean the beautiful is absolutely building today we have safe and secure entryways our science wing is phenomenal our schools are filled with orange and black and
090the Viking spirit and so now all those teachers that are still there and and administrators in that building and students that are in that building had a a phenomenal experience and as equally as we had to communicate with our staff. We had to communicate to our families. Yes, there was um construction in the hallways today or this is how you can move safely throughout the building because it was different from what they accustomed to. So, a lot of communication, a lot of wearing different hats and a a beautiful um opportunity for middle school at Parkside in the end. I look forward to another opportunity to continue to improve our facilities and the work that we continue to do at Jackson Public Schools. Thank you. Thank you. Just being mindful of the time. Yes, we do
091have several more questions. Um we may wait to have follow-up questions. Thank you. Okay, Trusty Hamilton, question number 12, please. Please describe how you have engaged and supported staff members in a way that is meaningful to them. How did you know they felt supported? Also, please provide a specific example of how you get staff to follow school policy or new policies. Okay, I'll try to move quickly. I shared with you all about the instructional rounding process, a process that I enjoy and I think a process that our teachers have had a positive experience with both at middle school at Parkside and Jackson High School. This is an opportunity where teachers get to collaborate with other teachers. So, the district provides a substitute teacher so a group of us can go in with a rubric of
092things that we're looking for. What are their learning targets and objectives? what are the teaching moves or strategies that are being used in the classroom and what are the students doing and what is their experience. So this is a best instructional practice because we want to move the instructional needle. I come in with a disclaimer. This is not evaluative and I say it like 10 times so they can understand. I'm here in a supportive capacity because we have great things that are happening. So the majority of our feedback 90% of our feedback is wow look at the great things that are happening in our classroom and I think they feel valued and supported and appreciated and as well as our students for us to see our students in that light and to compliment them and
093to ask them questions about what is your experience and kids are telling me I get to school on time for this class this class is up and so you have to hear those things and you have to see how um how many skills that our teachers have in and supporting the diverse needs of our students. So, um how do they feel supported? By providing time to have discussions that are not evaluative and celebrate them as teachers and then give them some feedback that can help them to move forward through looking through a different lens. Okay. Also, one thing that they did was they came to the whole group. if we did this pro process with the English department, they came back to the whole staff meeting and shared it out with everyone. And so I
094think that's what my leadership looks like when I wasn't present is teachers are talking about this is a great practice at Jackson High School. Let's give someone else a heads up. It's coming your way. You're going to enjoy it. It's going to bring lunch and it's going to be a productive process. But really, it's written feedback that is delivered back to them. I like face to face. I don't like to just send emails, but we did this face to face and I feel like it was celebrated as a best practice at both the middle school and high school. Um, finally, this I think is kind of a different question uh specific to school policies and procedures. There's a lot we could talk about off and away, which is our cell phone procedure. I'll talk about
095um 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after school was a newer expectation that was written into the contract. This goes into safety and security, right? Because we have issues with students as they get off the bus and by the time they get to the classroom. So, we did 10 minutes before and 10 minutes after. And so, one thing we did was ask staff, "Where will you be during this time?" And they said, "I'll be outside my classroom door. I'll be at Hollywood and Vine." So, they had I'll be at the buses doing dismissal. Everybody had a space to be and you have to follow up and monitor and explain why we're doing these things. This is safety and security. This is relationship building during um non-instructional time. If you look at our data, this is
096where kids have issues sometimes is when they're not being supervised. So, that was a strategy that we implemented through the contract that our groups understand the why and we monitored that and had conversations, try to be supportive conversations of, hey, I need you to be on your post. If you have a dentist appointment or you have to leave today, just communicate this so that we know and we can provide additional coverage and support because people are absent sometimes and that's okay. But to communicate the expectation to follow through and make it very clear what the expectations are. Thank you. Thank you. You've reached our time. Board, we have four remaining questions. How would we like to proceed? I'd like to hear the answers. Maybe you could just try to make them brief. I'd like to
097hear them. Thank you, Trusty Hamilton. Question 13. Trustee ready. Question. Yep. Mr. Patterson, uh, could you please tell us about a challenge you have experienced in bringing a group with varying perspectives to a consensus on a difficult issue? How did you lead and communicate and what was the outcome? Yes, I'm going to um share a story about when I use Southeastern Dispute Resolution Services. Sometimes I have success myself as a leader in the building and sometimes asked to ask for outside help. There was a very delicate and different difficult situation that took place in the community that was spilling into our schools. I had tried to talk to the young people to no avail. And so I was getting to be in a difficult situation. So I called in for support. Um they do a
098tremendous job. I was concerned about safety in this meeting but they said no. Uh we will not invite the police department in to this conversation. It doesn't go well when we do that. So we didn't um we facilitated these circles and everybody had a voice. There are ground rules that meet need to be met and so everyone had extremely different views coming in in a common understanding that their voice was heard at the table at that meeting in a respectful sequential process. I never had another issue out of those young people again. Not from the families, not from the students, and I'm grateful for the community partnerships that we have in Jackson. Thank you. Question number 14, Trusty Sher, please. As superintendent, how would you work to ensure the sustainability and reputation of Jackson Public
099Schools? Yes, thank you, Trusty Sharp. Jackson Public Schools has a rich tradition of academic excellence dating all the way back. I believe people love Jackson Public Schools. I'm one of those people. I will be the champion for Jackson Public Schools. I will be highly visible in this community and continue to leverage every resource that this community has for the betterment of Jackson Public Schools. A better Jackson Public Schools is a better Jackson. Um, finally, some of my norms are continuous improvement, um, seek solutions, and focus on the needs of our kids. That's why we're doing what we're doing. And I think if we continue to take care of our kids, we'll continue to be a a trusted entity in this community where people feel safe and valued sending their children here in the future. I
100think we do a good job, but I think we can be great in this space. Thank you, Trusty Shar. Question 15, please. Our survey indicated that a majority of respondents would like to find a candidate that is willing to make changes. Some saw the need for some minor changes and others were ready to take the district in a significantly different direction. As the next superintendent, what would you do differently from the current administration to make your own mark on Jackson Public Schools? I feel strongly that Jackson Public Schools needs a strategic plan. I think that will create a vision. I think that will create a comprehensive program that everyone can understand that everyone's voice is represented in the plan. I believe we currently have a close model in the partnership agreement and I strongly believe
101we won't have that agreement after we successfully complete at the end of next year. So, I'm not necessarily saying this summer, but I'm saying by the end of 20 25 26 school year, we should have a strategic plan in place that we've had a lot of thought and feedback from our community and specific and targeted goals that we can move this district forward and everybody can agree to those things and move this district uh together collectively. I think many many people understand the value of Jackson Public Schools and I think when we have one voice and we are one moving forward um we'll only get better. Thank you. As we wind down our time together, would you like to ask the board members any questions or leave us with any closing remarks? Thank you, Madame
102President. to respect your time. I'll ask my question and maybe you can just email me. How about that if you so choose? What qualities do you believe are the most essential for the next superintendent to be successful here? I don't think that's anything that you have to answer right now, but I'd like to know the success criteria for the next superintendent. Um, I want to thank the community for the support. I want to thank my family for their unwavering support of Jeremy Patterson. I want to bring the fun and enthusiasm and passion and energy to Jackson Public Schools. And if I haven't said this before, I absolutely love it here. Jackson Public Schools has built Jeremy Patterson to be the professional and the person that I am today. And I'm going to conclude with this
103because many of my mentors and people have asked me along the way, are you sure you want to be a teacher? Yes. Are you sure you want to coach basketball? Absolutely. Are you sure you want to be the principal at Frost? Yes. Parkside? Yes. Superintendent of Jackson Public Schools? I'm all in. Thank you for this opportunity to share a little bit about Jeremy Patterson. I hope I have the opportunity to speak to you in the very near future. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We do have some questions, some feedback questions from the audience. and we have time. Yes, that's part of the process. Yes. Okay. Thank you. First question. JPS is undergoing a huge staff turnover which could result in a big loss of expertise. Do you have a plan for encouraging
104a new wave of leaders that is girded with the expertise of those leaving? Yes, that is a beautiful question and I agree that there is a lot of talent leaving the building. It happens every year and even a little bit more so at this time with the magnitude of the buyout. However, I believe strongly in the workforce that are still Jackson Public Schools. The cupboard is not empty. We have new talent that we will be onboarding in the fall. We have returning talent that will we rely on to be the new leaders. Again, superintendent leaving, athletic directors leaving, principles are leaving, coaches, etc. I like to think of it as next man up, next woman up to fill those roles to be the next leaders of Jackson Public Schools. This is not a first time
105that this has happened. This is a next time and it's a tremendous opportunity to build the new culture that's Jackson Public Schools. Thank you. Have you given any considerations to the top Michigan strategic plan and its metrics? Do you see yourself using any of those metrics as it relates to recruitment and retainment of staff and students? Well, that's a phenomenal question as well. I wish I had that outlined in front of me. I have seen the top 10 strategic plan, but I think specifically I do have a plan that I communicated that staff and student retention is a top priority and that I do believe we have the met the metrics but need to do the progress monitoring of the students coming in and the students that coming out. I know that there is a
106high transient rate within the district, but I want to dig into that and I want to put actionable steps and items in place to make sure that's being addressed so that it's favorable for Jackson Public Schools. I've given a couple examples of what we're currently doing, but I think we need to continue to not just have some people doing that work, but everybody has a role in the recruitment and the retention and going back into that strategic plan of the state of Michigan. I'm strongly encouraging this board to have a strategic plan of our own. Thank you. Next question. JPS was involved in a lawsuit filed by former staff. What steps will you take to prevent similar situations? Yes. And so that's another opportunity for growth and reflection. That's the last thing that I think
107any of us want to do, and I'll just name myself because I'm the candidate here to put our district in harm's way. I'm hopeful that there's opportunities to um have a peaceful resolution before we get to that end result of legal litigation. Um I think we have strong relationships with our unions and associations this time to uh come to those agreements. I But again, it's building trust for the next superintendent on how we move forward with that. uh obviously following the law and seeking counsel on what are the advisable next steps, but I think just treating people well and following the law, following the contracts, and trying to find a common ground as much as possible so it doesn't get to litigation. Thank you. How will you repair the relationships between JPS and parents? How
108will you engage them better? The second part, please. How will you engage parents and JPS staff better? I heard staff and parents parents better. How will you engage them better? I think just being accessible. I I'm everywhere in Jackson. I don't feel uncomfortable going anywhere. I've done that in the past. I will continue to do that to make myself accessible. Similar to this process today, I think this would be phenomenal to build trust. Again, am I going to promise everybody's going to get everything they're asking for? I think that might be impossible. I've seen some of the ass before, but relative to educating their child to the best of our abilities at Jackson Public Schools, I'm all in for that. And so, I want to be accessible. I want to be available. I want to
109listen. And I've already given a couple examples of what I've already done in the past three weeks to do things differently and to try to improve our programming moving forward. Thank you. Last question. The Trump administration has changed the policy which did not allow ICE in schools. How can we ensure our students are protected? Beautiful question again because safety is our top priority. I think this district was as proactive as we possibly could be considering the turbulent times in politics and creating a plan and practice and procedures in place. one, two, consulting with our local law enforcement who are experts in this space and potential enforcement and those are potential things. I'm not aware that this has happened yet. And so, but the number one thing is just having a plan because it's it's been
110newer. It was kind of around before and it is unsettling for folks. So, whatever we can do to communicate that safety is a top priority for all students, specifically for groups that feel targeted. Thank you. Thank you. We the board appreciate your time. Thank you for participating in this important process. We encourage the audience to provide feedback, make sure that that is provided to our MASB consultant and for us as the board to have in our transition to deliberate discussion. Thank you so much. I just want to say thank you for the community. I didn't get to turn around and acknowledge you and so I just want to acknowledge you before I leave. Thank you so much for being here. At this time, we will ask for a motion for recess support. At this time,
111we will go into a 10-minute recess. At this time, we are going to call the meeting back to order. Our consultant Mark is getting our second candidate. Welcome. Hi, Mrs. Baker. Welcome. Welcome community to our second candidate for interviewing for this um Jackson Public School Board Superintendent position. Again, if you are in the audience and you wish to ask questions, we do have forms in the back on the shelf um for feedback as well as questions to the interviewe upon completion. Welcome, Mrs. Baker. All board members will participate in a roundroin type question mayor for you. And so I will state their name, their question, and then we ask that you just respond appropriately. Okay. I'm excited to be here tonight. I know it's already been a long night, so I'll do my best to
112keep you interested. Awesome. All right. First question. We've had the opportunity as a board to review your resume. Please tell us your background and experience and how it makes you a good fit to be our next superintendent. I have been a Viking since fifth grade. Um, I broke open my chin on steps that no longer exist at Sharp Park. The scar is still here, but the steps are gone. Um, running up to try to get to the office. And I graduated from Jackson Public Schools in 1987 as a Viking. Um, after I finished my certification and all of my coursework, I returned to Jackson Public Schools where I was a teacher, mostly at McCullik Academy for 17 years. Um, I then became the principal of that school and uh the principal of two other schools
113during the six years that I worked as a principal at JPS and became an assistant superintendent uh around a little over five years ago, just before COVID. Um, so through I I've been here for a really long time. I I've held many roles in the district. Um, and those roles have brought me a deep knowledge of our district, our students, our staff, and our community. Um and then direct leadership experience in curriculum instruction and in assessment, finance, operations, um contract negotiations, evaluation, crisis management, bond campaigning and management, the entire bond process and I'm in it for my second time now, which is exciting. And then community engagement. Um and during during my time at JPS, I have led initiatives that improved student outcomes uh through the adoption of two curriculum programs um that I led
114those committees. I developed and launched a new Young Fives program for our district. Um, it's not new anymore, but we we have four rooms in the district. And that's been a wonderful way for us to provide an opportunity for students that may not be quite ready for kindergarten to get up to speed so that they can be super successful kindergarteners. Um, and then I opened a new school at JPS, um, JPS Monasuri School. Um, it's the only free public monastery in the county. most exciting thing I ever did. Um because I knew nothing about Monasuri. I just got tapped. Guess what? You're opening up a Monasuri school next year. Um but it it was a wonderful opportunity. And um I also led our district team through the creation and implementation of the partnership plan. Um
115that's been my baby uh for a while since that happened and we've we've done some really important work through that. Um most recently we held a uh structured conference and our district met 13 of our 14 first 18month benchmarks. So I'm really proud of the work that that group has done. Um I have proven myself repeatedly um to be a highly self-motivated um and capable to be highly self-motivated and capable of independently driving projects from their inception to their completion. I'm Viking to the core. Um I I was going to say that I bleed orange and and black, but that's taking it a little bit too far. But I am so passionate about public education and the promise of it for our students. I strongly believe that every student has the right to a free
116quality public education and that's something I'm willing to fight for. Um, these things along with my strong relationships across the district, my commitment to collaborate, um, and an unwavering focus on what's best for kids, I think makes me uniquely qualified, um, to be the next superintendent of Jackson Public Schools. Thank you, Mrs. Baker. Any follow-up questions from the board? Hearing none, we will proceed to question number two. Vice President Dobies, please. Um, thank you and welcome uh to uh the interview. My question is uh you haven't held the position of superintendent before. So, how are you planning to grow within the role and advance your knowledge in areas such as finance, contract negotiations, so on and so forth? and uh what role do you envision the board playing in that process? Okay. Um I haven't
117held the title of superintendent, but I have been engaged deeply engaged in superintendent level work um including um budget development, contract negotiations. I'm going to probably list a few more that I already listed, but curriculum development, um, district improvement, and then that bond work from the planning stages all the way through completion. Um, and I have a commitment to continuous learning. I have always loved to learn. I'm um a a huge nerd and you will see if you look at my calendar, many of you I've shared my calendar with you that whenever I can find a time to do it, I'm I'm constantly looking for new learning that is going to make me a stronger um stronger in the role that I currently hold um and any future role that I aspire to. Um, so
118I I plan to continue doing that um if I become your new superintendent by engaging with a strong network of mentor superintendent. Um and then continuing in my um my membership with professional organizations that provide up to the moment updates on all the all the things that's really important for our district to stay on top of from finance to what's happening um on Capitol Hill that that will impact our district. Um and then also trainings that they offer. So um organizations like MASFPS and MASA. I'm already a member of MAS FPS and that's been especially with our current the current issues that we're looking at around finance has been an invaluable um connection. Um, and so I envision the board as key partners for active collaboration. Um, that you will offer strategic direction, accountability, and
119support as I grow into this role, but always with students at the center of every decision that we make. Any follow-up questions from the board? Hearing none, we will proceed. Treasurer act in question number three, please. So, what methods will you use to attract and retain quality staff? And also, what will you do to attract and retain students to Jackson Public Schools? Um, I'll start with staff. um to attract and maintain staff, quality staff, we need to continue to strengthen our onboarding systems and programs. Um that is something that our partnership team, our MTSS implementation team, we've looked at that and we know that if we want to maintain the staff that we have, we need to give them all the tools that they need in order to do to be successful, um to to
120be safe in the work that they do and to be effective. Um, we also need to make sure that we're continuing to create um, school environments that um, are safe and warm and caring and where staff feel valued and supported in the work that they do and make sure that our compensation stays competitive. Um, I I foresee that we are headed into another period where where we will be competing for teachers um, to you know to replace those that retire and everything else. So, we need to make sure that we're staying competitive and we need to constantly build the capacity of our staff by making sure they have opportunities to lead and then grow in the positions that they're currently in and and maybe the ones that they would like to um take on later
121on. Um to attract families and students, we've just got to keep telling our story. That's a really big one. We need to highlight the great things that are happening here. We have safe and secure buildings. We've we have done an amazing job through the bond. Um in if you look at the 21st century learning environments that we have. We've replaced every chair, every desk in our schools, we've created these beautiful environments for students to learn. Um but we've also got a strong commitment to growth and um achievement for students and we have a skilled and very dedicated teaching staff, instructional staff. We're a strong district that offers a breadth of opportunities for students that you won't find anywhere else in the county. Um everything from free public monastery to our early college and all the
122things in between. We need to continue expanding those opportunities. We need to offer some more um some more ways for students to get into the trades um and um other other um career pathways and continue continue actively marketing all the great things that we have going on here. Um, but most importantly, we need to enter into partnership with our families by building and maintaining maintaining trust and transparency by continuing to increase opportunities for us to have conversations with each other. It's not enough to just reach out. We need to make sure that our parents are reaching back and that we're taking that information to um to shape our our district. Thank you. Any follow-up questions? Treasurer Actton, please. Can you just elaborate on MTSS? Sure. Okay. Multi-tered systems of support um is it's a it's
123a framework really and it can be applied to just about any um system in a school. So, for example, it can be applied to attendance. So there's a tier one um intervention or a tier one work that we do and that's what we do to incentivize or encourage all students to attend school. And then there's tier two and so students that we see that might be trending towards some chronic absenteeism. There are other um strategies that we might use to encourage their attendance and to support them, remove barriers as needed. And then students that are really struggling with it, there are tier three interventions that we would put in place. And the same can be applied to um it could be applied to reading, it could be applied to math, it can be applied to
124behavior. Um really it's a it's a wonderful uh foundation and structure for us to um to really apply to all of our systems. Vice President Dolby, uh you spoke about competing for teachers. Um in a similar sense, we compete for students. Um where do you think we can go to attract um students to JBS? I think that we need to continue um finding every opportunity to get onto campuses and put ourselves in front of um these pres-ervice teachers. Um, and so I know that this year I participated in it was a wonderful event um where I got to do mock interviews for those teachers and I handed my cards out and um talked about my district and and I know that um Jeremy Patterson did the same. Um, but there are so many opportunities like
125that that we need to seek out and get ourselves in front of these pres-ervice teachers wherever they are and um try to get them to come and visit our district, come and do their student teaching here. Um that's usually the route that we um in the past that we always took was that we would have teachers that would come in and they would either long-term sub for us or they would be uh they would do their student teaching here and then it was just a natural thing that they would roll over into an actual position. Um and so if we can get them in the door, I think that we can hold on to them, but we've got to really get out there and find them. Miss Baker, you mentioned that your goal is to
126enter into partnerships with parents and build that trust and transparency. Can you describe what that looks like currently and how do you address parents who are resistant to engaging with you? Um, I think that I have always I have always been a strong relationship builder um since my days in the classroom. And so um I think that some of the strategies that um that I used then still you still work now. So there are times that we have difficulty reaching parents. We don't we we have trouble finding contact information um or we can't um we invite and they don't they don't show up. I think that there are some things that are um sort of have been like a silver lining with COVID in that you know if they don't feel comfortable walking through the
127doors we can always offer phone calls but we can also offer um zooms for them so that they maybe they don't have to leave work maybe they uh if they don't have transportation we can still make it work out then there's the other piece where we can um we can go where parents are um and I think that that's a really important part of that first 90 days for any superintendent um is to go out and to start laying the foundation for that. Go to go to booze, go to um the Martin Luther King Center um and go to churches and um just ask for an invitation and go in and and meet the parents um that um and the community members that are there and um and and if necessary offer to meet in
128places that um that you know are not at school. Another thing that I've seen that I think is really powerful is um part of our English language learners program um in one of the schools they are um they are doing these wonderful tours for parents. So um we've got parents that are new to not just our district but to our our state and maybe even our country. And so, um, they they got a van, I a van or a bus, I can't remember which one it was, and they offered to pick parents up and they took them on a tour of Jackson and showed them the things that would be important for them to know. Where are the grocery stores? Where are the places, you know, that they can get support. Um, I think more
129out of the box things like that. Um, everybody had a fantastic time and they felt, you know, they they felt greeted with open arms and I know that that is uh those are parents that we won't have trouble um engaging next time. Thank you, Secretary Simonetti. Question number four, please. Unfortunately, crisis events and traumas can happen in schools. How have you managed crisis situations to ensure student safety and maintain continuity in education? Um, JPS has invested in the development of a very robust emergency operations plan, but it's not just something that we bought and we put on the shelf. Um, it is something that is constantly evolving and changing. Um and and I'm very proud um of my collaboration with our EOP team to continue to update um and strengthen this plan based on experiences
130that I have as a building principal where I had to um manage crisis. Um but also through each of each crisis event. Um, one of the things that I I think is really important about this group is that um, they debrief after every event and they look at what worked well. Um, what didn't go so well? What could we do next time? What is something that's missing? For example, we had a situation where um we had a lockdown situation that lasted through lunch and kids weren't free to walk around and they weren't free to go get lunch and yet they didn't have in-class bathrooms and um and they didn't have any snacks. So, the team went to work and they put together a plan where they would put snacks, an emergency snack box in each
131classroom um and came up with as much of a plan as they could around bathrooms. Um and so um an example that I have is I I witnessed this. One of our schools had to um evacuate to Parkside on two different occasions. The first time it was it was fine. Everybody made it home safely. Nobody was hurt. Um you know, everybody was accounted for. It really did go well. It we accomplished our goal. But it could have been smoother. um students had to sit in bleachers in the fieldhouse at Parkside to eat dinner or to eat their lunches. Um and the it we didn't have um what we needed in order. We've got students sitting in the bleachers and we got parents trying to pick pick them up from the front and the sound is
132not great. So we're we're running back and forth calling names for kids that are being picked up. It was just a little bit of chaos, but um but it worked. We got together afterwards and reworked all of that. Um, the other thing I will mention is that first evacuation completely interrupted class for Parkside PE class was they they weren't able to use the entire fieldhouse for it. And that's not what we're looking for. We need to make sure that we're continuing um our our programs during something like this if at all possible. So the second time that we um evacuated, we wound up in the cafeteria at Parkside where kids were able to comfortably sit and eat their lunch and they came up with a much more orderly and safe and fast way to pair
133up students with the parents that came to pick them up. Um and that happens every single time. Um so I mean I've been I have been a person in charge in my own building during crisis events. Um it's important to demonstrate calm to make sure that you are utilizing those emergency protocols. Um and that there's clear communication. Um but I know that in my own building our communication or our evacuations were orderly and they were fast because we practiced because we did drills because we reviewed so that we knew what the lingo was. Um we didn't have to say what is what is uh green? Um, we used to have some crazy names for different events in our buildings. Um, but we but we are we trained, we were prepared for that. And I've seen
134that that is the hallmark of the um the EOP here. Um, and I think that that's the most important work of our EOP teams and the work that our principles do is they build muscle memory through practice. Um, and as a superintendent, I plan to strongly support the continued work of that group as they're knocking it out of the park. Thank you. Any follow-up questions from the board? Yeah, I have one Hamilton. Um, so I'm I'm hearing the EOP plan and and the the differences and the changes that they uh, you know, make based on, you know, the debriefing, which is very important. Um, so we're talking about kind of like the physical body, you know, of uh, the student, which is very important, you know what I mean? Um but could you uh share
135a little bit more around um psychologically how we address you know social emotionally you know what that uh you know I'm trying to see how they worded it how you'd ensure the safety and uh maintain well just the safety of the students in that space from that angle so you know u emotional we've had um some other really serious and um heavy situations that have happened in our district and um one of the things I think is really important is making every social worker and counselor available. Um and that has happened repeatedly for those situations. Um when we've had um very sadly a student pass away or a staff member pass away, all of those all of our um we've got our our it's a little crisis team. all of our social workers and counselors
136will move to that location to provide support for the staff and for the students and they're available for anybody that needs to talk to provide services. So that's one example of how that happens. Thank you. Any additional questions? Thank you. Question number five, Trustee Hamilton, please. What are important issues in creating a good board superintendent relationship and how do you facilitate such a relationship? Second part of that, how will you communicate with this board? Okay. Um I think it's important to build um trust and transparency with the board. I think that that's crucial and a big part of that is our communication. Um it is making sure that the board is always informed. Um so that might be weekly updates. It might be that um some members or all members of the board would like
137to meet um on a regular basis. Um so regular check-ins um and then when there are critical events that take place, it's making sure that the board receives timely communication about that so that they are aware um and then they're not hearing about that first through an from an email from um one of our parents or someone else that has a concern. Um, so I think that that's really really an important part of that um that relationship between a superintendent and the board. Um, I think it's also um important to be proactive by making sure that the board has all information that they need to make informed decisions. Um, and that also includes I I have I have a good example of some other types of informations that I think it's important that a board
138um receives and it's sort of the I don't want to call it the minutia of education, but when you're sitting there and people are doing reports on finance or um on emergency operations procedures, um it's making sure that you have um good information about that so you understand what's what's there because there's so many acronyms, there's so many um funding streams um that it's it can sound like Greek sometimes. So, another way that I would strengthen the relationship with the board is by finding every opportunity to um add to that education uh about all things education. Um so, a good example of that would be, and I've I had a request for this and I think it's such a fantastic idea, but we need more of this. um is that when we're talking about funding
139and I start spewing things about title one and title two and title three and 31A and all of these different funds um that doesn't mean anything to to most of you. Um if I if if I'm speaking out of turn and you and you do understand that, please forgive me, but I think the majority of you could really would really love to have more information on that and it would really help you to understand the information that gets presented to you on a on a on a monthly basis. And so, um, havingformational sessions during board meetings and then providing you with maybe some cheat sheets afterwards so that you know what the acronyms mean and you've got some way to check on it and you know what those funding streams are, where they come from,
140what they're used for, um, how we apply for them, whatever other information you need. Just a couple of good examples. Thank you. Any follow-up questions? Hearing none, we will proceed. Question number six, trustee ready. Could you please tell us about a time in your professional life when you needed to be true to your personal integrity even though there were negative consequences for you? In other words, tell us about a time when you had it when you had to stand up for what you believed in the face of opposition. Okay. Um I would say that during um during my time in education that I have always been a very student centered leader. Um and it's important to me to live with honesty and integrity and I hope that anybody that has worked with me knows that
141to be true. Um there are several times that I've had to take a stand when um I believe that it was the right thing to do. Um, one situation recently that occurred was um, there's a lot of discussions right now um, in cabinet and throughout the district where we're trying to make good decisions around um, how to utilize space um, around bond, you know, some of those bond issues and then also um, about cuts that we might need to make to programs and um, those types of things. So, we had a conversation about closing one of our young fives um classrooms in one of the buildings and um and I think we we may have discussed either closing it or moving it. Um but it really I was taken back by that and um and
142I was given a directive to do this but I really felt deeply that it was wrong that it wasn't the right decision to make. I kind of went home and I stewed on it. It was a difficult thing for me to push back on this because the person making the directive is somebody that I respect um deeply and that who has been a mentor for me for a large portion of my career. So it was difficult to push back on this but I really felt like it wasn't the right thing to do. This young f program in this in this building um is one that is sought out um by parents. It is the um the most attended. So, we have the largest um population. We fill that classroom up and it provides an important
143role. It plays an important role in supporting kindergarteners as they enter school. Um and they might not quite be ready for it. Um so, I really felt like this was this was not the right thing to do. Um, and so I decided to go ahead and speak up and um, and I was relieved because I was told that it was my program and it was my decision to make. So that's a the time that I wasn't quite sure how that was going to go and um, I was glad that I said something. That program will remain where it is. Thank you. Any follow-up questions? Hearing none, we will proceed to question number seven. Trustee Sharp, how do you view the role of the superintendent when working and negotiating with our multiple unions? I have to
144say that this has been one of the biggest surprises for me um getting into district administration because um when I was seeking when I was completing my administrative certification, there was a there was a class on collective bargaining and I was ready to you know it s we were you kind of need to get your boxing gloves on. I understood that it was going to be um it was going to be tough and people weren't going to like each other and um that is not what I've experienced at JPS in any way, shape or form. I have participated in multiple um collective bargaining sessions with um our five units. Um and what I learned is that um the role that we all play in collective bargaining is that um we need to make sure that
145we come to the table um as fair, respectful, and solutionoriented people. um and that I need to another big part of this is making sure that you come uh really informed about what each side is hoping to accomplish through that negotiation. Um being very transparent with each other. So it's not what I expected at all. Um it is um in the end our goal has to be to balance out making sure that we are supporting the district has to support our educators and make sure that they can do the job. We also have to balance that with making sure that the district is financially stable um and is the work that we're doing is sustainable um or we don't have the funds to continue doing it. Um I have become convinced that strong relationships between
146district leadership and our educational units is vital to um the the success of students at in our in our district. um it really leads to positive more positive student outcomes when we're on when we're we're both looking at that as being the goal. Um so I've witnessed this positive respectful tenor that these negotiations um have been conducted with in the district and I will 100% make sure to um continue with that um if I am the superintendent of this district. Thank you. Any follow-up questions from the board? Question number eight, tell us what your role as superintendent is in the budget development process and what do you envision doing differently than what's currently being done to correct our budget deficit? Okay. Um, as the assistant superintendent of elementary education and state and federal programs, um,
147I'm very well acquainted with all aspects of, um, school finance. Um, I attend our finance committees regularly and then I belong to um, several professional organizations like MAS, FPS where I get um, monthly updates and training um, to make sure that I know what's going on. I also submit grant applications and documents um through multiple state platforms and I work very closely with Marcus Leon to submit reports and then confer with one another around um budget related issues. Um one of the regular tasks that I um am responsible for every year um is working with schools to develop their title one budgets. Um and the way that that's done is schools they complete a needs assessment. They look around and see what their students need. Um, and then they develop goals. Um, and then identify
148strategies and activities that will help them to meet those goals. And their budget needs to be based on that plan. And so when they come to um our meetings usually in June, I give them a preliminary allocation because I don't know what the final allocation will be until January, December or January. So, we've always started out with you have 85% of the money that you had last year. Um, what what were we what will we be using it for? Um, the majority of that funding goes towards people. Um, and some of the other pieces are for educational programs and supplies, afterchool programming, those types of things. Um, and so that is something that we uh we do and then we repeat that process when we get our final allocation in December or January when they
149know that they have a few extra dollars to spend. Could they maybe fund some of their um some of the things that were maybe a lower priority on their in their plan. Um, so that is something I've always looked forward to, but um, as you probably everybody has heard, um, all bets are off this year. Um, we, um, nearly every funding stream, every bucket that we depend on is really up in the air. And we don't know um, whether we're going to receive full funding in um, most of those pots or if it will be cut entirely or if we'll get more than we expect. and we probably won't know that until September. So, it has really changed the way that we're looking at budgeting right now. Um, we've been told that uh, for example,
150title funding might our title one, which is what our bu our buildings use, what we use for summer school, what we use for after school, and um, what our buildings use to um, hire many of their support staff might be cut by up to 25%. Um, and so other and other funds we may not receive at all. Um, so as superintendent, um, I will work closely with Marcus, the finance department, building principles, um, our facilities and operations, um, and budget using zerobased budgeting principles, which means you throw out last year's budget and you work from a list of priorities. What is your highest priority item? That goes in first. Um, that's going to be things like facilities and infrastructure. that's going to be people, making sure that you can pay your teachers. Um, and then
151we start working our way down the list until we run out of money. So, the this the lower priority items, they may not make the cut, but maybe they will, you know, if we get a little bit more money in December or January. Um, but that's that would be my my plan for um moving forward. We just have to start from scratch um and then add other expenditures um as funding allows to address our current and future deficits. I think it's going to be very important for us to continue to engage our stakeholders in tough conversations to identify what those priorities are. What are our strongest most important priorities um and then keep an eye a watchful eye on enrollment and then watch the programs. Um continue to monitor the progress of programs to see
152how effective they are. when they stop being effective, we need to get rid of them um and move that funding to things that are actually going to work for our students. Um with all of that information, um I I will work with the board to make those strategic adjustments to our budget to make sure that we maintain um fiscally sustainable. Um, and I really truly believe that my my strong school finance background makes me the right person um to lead our district through what are going to be some turbulent and um just rocky financial times coming um coming up. Thank you. Uh, Vice President Dol, please. Speaking of rocky and turbulent times coming up, um, as you're probably aware, the Trump administration uh submitted a dear colleague letter to um the state and to uh
153to cause our reertification of our compliance with Title Six. Um, and there's the the um request for local districts to uh sign that reertification letter uh in anticipation of being able to um continue to get title funding. We have seen a variety of educational institutions from uh here in Jackson County, Jackson College to U of M to Harvard all take different approaches. um cognizant of that threat um and trying to um figure out how to align their response consistent with their values and um some of the policies and uh steps that they've undertaken to express those values in their programming. How do you uh juxtaposing those two things? How do you uh balance, you know, kind of the uh the values and the funding of the district? How do you advise this board on uh
154steps that they may need to take? And then I think also how do you uh in that space advocate and fight for you know JPS values. I think that um we've effectively been placed between a rock and a hard place right now. Um, and I believe in the values um that our district has um embodied and um but I I think J just position is a is a is an apt word because I also with an eye on our finances don't know how we move forward if we lose up to $8 million worth of funding. That's what's at stake for us. Um, I see the pain that our district went through um in trying to find the $4 million that we needed to cut. I don't know where we how we move forward without the
155other funds. My my thought is um we have received um guidance from um I believe it was TR that provided us with four different options. Um, and one option is to go ahead and sign that baby, turn it in. Um, which I think, um, the way it's currently stated, um, I think puts our district in harm's way, very much so. Puts us in in the crosshairs of, um, of legal problems. Um, I've heard uh another option was to just submit Superintendent Rice's letter as a response that we've we you know this we've already said that we were going to do this. Here's the letter. Another one was to submit a response um like an an altered letter. Um and I can't remember what the fourth one is, but there's there's um I think what's really
156important for our district and for this board is do nothing. Do nothing. There you go. I guess if I was going to forget one, that would be the best one to forget, right? Um I think the most important thing for our district and um and our board to keep track of is I think that we need to make sure that we are receiving good guidance on this. Um, I think that there are there are pieces in all of our policies um that protect our families the way that we want to protect them. Um, I I would love to see us move forward with our diversity policy, but I I don't, as I said, I don't see how we move forward with um a deficit of $8 million if we truly don't receive that. I think
157some of this will play out in the courts um and that some of this will be u figured out before we have to make that decision. I hope that that's the case. But in the meantime, I think we need to make sure to seek um seek wise counsel and to follow that moving forward. Secretary Simonetti, please. Um, Julie, just to clarify, you mentioned using a zerobased budget, and is that something that we currently do, or is that something you're proposing that you would do differently? I believe that Marcus currently does that, our current um um officer, assistant superintendent of finance. Um, I believe that that's how he functions. It has not been the way that I have done title um based funding um prior to this, but that's where we're headed this year because we
158we just have to make sure um that we get those high priority items covered before we do anything else. So, it'll be a change. It'll be a switch for us moving forward. Trusty Ready, please. I just got a quick uh follow-up question. Um, sure. You did mention, as you're aware, we're in deficit right now. You did mention, you know, to retain teachers, we got to pay competitive wages. How are we planning to accomplish that with our current situation? I think that um we in our in our um in our last bargaining agreement um we did make sure that teachers were able to um well I I could talk through that process um in developing the the salary table that went into our last bargaining sessions with um for example JA. I know that we looked
159at every um district in the county to make sure that we were on par with them. Um I I know that we will continue that going forward. Um and I think that that's one of the pieces that we may have to cut things that are not as crucial to our um to the education and the benefit of our students um as our teachers. So I I think that that's the first thing that's one of the first things that go in the bucket along with lights and heat. Um so that's that would be the plan going forward. Trusty Hamilton. Um so thank you for all your answers so far. Um I wanted to go back to the um the budget stuff as far as highest priority, lowest priority and you've mentioned some examples of higher priority
160items or things or people or you know so are teachers and lights and gas and you know food you know what are some lower priorities that likely would be pushed aside potentially in your you know if you were superintendent is low even if I mention some lower priority things I still think that they're the things that we have in our budgets I think are really vital to our success. But some things that might go into the to the basket last might be programs like Lexia um where we're paying for an online platform. Um they might be um in terms of maybe materials, finding cheaper um versions of some of the things that we use for um our classroom materials or consumables. Um maybe deciding that we're not going to purchase consumables, but instead um make
161sure every teacher has a copy of the of booklets and and that they need to make copies from. Um, those are some of the pieces that that I think that we can comfortably cut. But I I was a student in this district when we had to cut transportation one year and um we all had to find our way to school. I I don't ever want to see that. That's definitely not one of the lower priority items. Um, thank you. I never knew that. Thank you, though. Yeah, we won't do that. It was awful. Thank you. All right. Question number nine, Vice President Dobies. Thank you, Miss Baker. Can you tell us about a time when you have evaluated and adjusted your communication system to ensure stakeholders feel well informed and engaged? Okay. Um definitely we
162in in November of 2024 um our uh district team, our partnership plan team, we conducted an 18month um benchmark review with the state of Michigan and we presented the progress that we'd made. I I don't know if I mentioned it, but we hit 13 out of 14 benchmarks. I probably will say that again, but um so we were really excited about it. Um, and we were looking for the best way to um, communicate this to make sure that we were getting it to everybody, not just the the progress or not just the success of that moment, but also the work that was being done. Um, and we felt like it needed to be concise. It needed to be easy to read, maybe a page or two. Um, but it needed to be something that was
163easily consumable. Um, and so I worked with a small um team of people, a little uh a little um co-group and um a small committee co-committee and we drafted um together a communication that would basically sum up the goals that we had set, the work that we had done up to that point, and then um the progress, you know, that we'd made along with the outcomes for that day. um the benchmarks that we had that we had um met and that um I I gave that to Lois Dunning and she created a beautiful it's almost like an infographic but then that went out to teachers and it went out to families. um it was shared with board members and um and it just was um something that I want to see us do more of
164things that are that are easy to consume and that that tell our families and our stakeholders about the important work that we're doing. Any additional questions? Vice President Dobies just have one. Um, having having been uh the mayor of Jackson, I kind of understand um that as kind of the county seat, you speak for a broader audience in some cases. And I think um I've always kind of looked to JPS in this role as well as kind of being the the namesake uh district of uh the city of the county. Um, can you speak to kind of your your comfort level in as we talk about communications? Um, can you speak to how comfortable you are in kind of um being that larger communicator uh advocate um and uh ultimately kind of uh competing uh
165because we do compete uh with surrounding districts um with uh districts across the state. um and trying and and doing all of those things at like a a much higher level of um uh as a as our next superintendent. That's a great question. Um I started out my school experience um as a very shy um very introverted kid who I I I remember I think it was Mr. Stevens. um I would get up to do a a report um or a speech in um speech class at Parkside and I would just giggle and then he would tell me to go sit down. And so um I am not that person anymore. um the roles that I have taken on in the district have really afforded me an opportunity to um build a tougher skin to
166um to build some better speaking um skills. Um and I'm not going to say it always feels easy to me but I hope it looks easy. Um and so I feel confident that I can I can communicate with um the community at large. will also say that I think you can look at my resume and and my body of work in this district since I started and um I have created many strong community ties um not just with the families that I've worked with but um different partnerships with groups that have come in and worked in the school um worked in my classroom um I think that there are already some some partners partnerships. There already some relationships that I've built that um I want to continue um and I'm I'm have been also working
167with um KellyRum and Christianetti to continue to to build some new partnerships looking at ways that u we can grow our McKenna Vento programs by working in collaboration with um the interfaith shelter and some other um some other groups in the community. So, I feel comfortable in that role and I um I know that that is vital to the acu the success of our district and to the well-being of our students. Question number 10, treasurer acting, please. Sometimes we are in situations where our role is less about being the one to come up with creative ideas and more about facilitating the creative process or helping others get their ideas implemented. Describe a time when you played this type of role. What did you do to facilitate the process and what were the results? I think
168I'll look back to um our curriculum adoption that have taken place over the last two years. Um we recently we we started by adopting a new English language arts curriculum and then a math curriculum. Um and during each of those processes I facilitated teacher and instructional coach le um committees. um they did the research, they went out and they identified um they started by identifying a wish list. These are the things that we need um this this program to include and embody for our students. This is these are the look fors. Um and then they went out and did their research. um each of them took a different um program and um contacted the reps and did the work on it and then brought that information back for our team to um to review and
169then we made cuts based on that. Um things we we saw things that weren't going to work. either their publishing date was too far out and we knew that we needed something that was more current or it didn't have um we didn't see our students reflected in the pages of you know even if it's a math book every student should see people that look like them in the pages and so those were sort of the things the types of things that we looked for in addition to that alignment with state standards um so it seems like it would be a super easy process but there's a lot that goes into that um I just provided resources in terms of scheduling the meetings, setting those up, um and then um making sure that we had documents
170to collect all of our research in um helped to set up different events for parents um where they could come in and look at materials. That's where I got to meet um Suba's wife, his lovely wife. Um, and so I I also worked to remove any barriers and I believe that because that was there were teachers that were piloting those those programs. I believe that that because of that our teachers w up feeling a greater sense of ownership um of the the the implementation and of the the program that we selected. And then implementation was smoother because we already had some experts in in most of our buildings that had already used the materials. Um, and they were the first adopters and they could they could support teachers in their implementation. Any follow-up questions from
171the board? Hearing none, we will move to question 11. Secretary Simonetti, please. Julie, please share an example of a time that you have led a sustained multi-year improvement initiative such as a bond project, syncing fund, or facilities upgrade. Be specific regarding the situation, the task at hand, and your specific role and outcome. Okay. Um I I did participate um in our first bond which was passed in 2018. Um I was there um when we started deciding what our priorities were. Um so we we put our bond development committee together. Um once we decided what we were uh what we were what our plan was going to be, what we um what our projects were that we wanted to um to um implement or to um put in place with the bond. I walked doortodoor with
172um all of our other bond development team members. Um and then I have been um part of uh watching that work be done. um watching that uh the completion of that work and um making sure that you know we've I helped to do check the you know walkthroughs to make sure that things look the way that they needed to. Um another example of a program that I've seen through um would be the partnership plan. Um it's definitely something that's going to take us three to five years to to do a full implementation of the the hefty job that we gave ourselves with this plan. It didn't need to look this big or involve all of the schools in the district, but we felt like it was really important to do that and to to build
173something that would be lasting and have a massive impact on our students um and their achievement. And so um when we were identified as a partnership district in 2022, um we were tasked with developing that partnership plan. And so um I took that on and I worked very closely with our partnership agreement liaison and um the our whole child coordinator from JCI ISD they were extremely helpful in helping us to develop the plan and then pull together a district team because almost immediately we said this is not just going to be for our identified schools. We're doing this as a district. We can all improve through this. We we need to make sure that we're building consistency throughout the district. And so that became um very important. We um so that district team pulled from
174every school um and then we did a district um comprehensive assessment to look at you know what are the needs of our students in our district. Um we identified several areas that we wanted to focus on including um student achievement of course um days of suspension um truency and then also staff and student retention. We wanted to make sure that we're holding on to students and holding on to staff um at our in our district. Um, we quickly decided that as I as I spoke about before, MTSS was the structure that would really fit all of those pieces. And so then we decided that um it was important to put together an MTSS implementation team. Um, and so we our district team went through all of the training through the technical assistance center um at
175MIMTSS. Um and we um did a uh we did a district self assessment which really informed the work that we were doing. We where we saw were we at the beginning of implementation and some of the different indicators. Um we were somewhat implemented but not fully or were we fully implemented. And um with that all of that information we developed goals, we developed um strategies and activities and that has become our school improvement plan. Um but we know that this process is going to take us as I said three to five years. Um and so we um set up that training and then we continued the training. But we found that I found that it was absolutely impossible for me to do planning of of the meetings and all of these other things and um
176do the training and and the training that we were getting from the technical assistance center. it was virtual and it also didn't allow us um to stop. We found ourselves wanting to to get the recording and then cut out the parts that we didn't need and provide time for our our people to have the conversations that they needed to have in order to plan. That led to us creating um our core team, our MTSS core team, and they became this planning team. And so they do that work um which is a a really wonderful way to share that leadership. So um our team measures progress by looking at all these pieces of data from survey data to attendance and everything else and we adjust the action plans that we have created um in order to
177you know once we we achieve one benchmark we move on to another one and we also um use a tool called um tiered well multiple of these tiered fidelity inventories. They're like a rubric. two times a year, every school. Um, and then our district overall, we go through and we do this tiered fidelity inventory which um gives us these different indicators and we have to grade ourselves and um be very honest about it and collect evidence and when we achieve a two then we know that we need to pick a new goal and we we move forward that way. So, it is really um it's taking school improvement from and district improvement from being something that you create and you put on a shelf and it gets dusty to something that we're constantly working on
178um on a monthly and a weekly basis. Any follow-up questions? Um Miss Baker, just one quick question. You said the team measures progress and that's through the data that is gathered. Who is the team accountable to? Who's their accountability partners? Um well, we mTE ultimately um because of our partnership plan. Um but also I mean we have we have these benchmarks that we've set for ourselves. Um and so schools the accountability um falls to um you know district leadership making sure that they are completing these and that they are developing action plans and moving forward. And then ultimately um you know in order for us to no longer be a partnership district, we've got to we've got to hit those benchmarks. Thank you. Question number 11, Trustee Hamilton, please. Please describe how you have engaged
179and supported staff members in a way that is meaningful to them. How do you know that they felt supported? Also, please provide a specific example of how you get staff to follow school policy or new policy. Okay. Um okay. Um I am um a good listener and a good thought partner. And so um just starting with principles as as one group. Principals call me regularly to discuss issues in their buildings and I make myself available to them whenever um whenever they need me. Um, so we talk, we um, work through their concerns um, with all of them. I have regular meeting time set up that we will get together and catch up. I have a couple of principles that have a page in their planner that's just called the Julie Baker page, and it has
180all of the to-dos for me, things that we need to discuss. Um, and so, um, I think they know that they can count on me to be, um, somebody that's going to come alongside them and roll up my sleeves and do what needs to be done. Um if that work in includes attending meetings with parents um or coming to school study team meetings where we need to do some problem solving to assist a student or help to improve attendance or something else and there's and and I can help in any way I principles know they can invite me if there's an issue um that they need to discuss or they want my um help with um anything they know that they just have to ask and I have um done everything from um meeting them
181in their parking lot during dismissal or arrival to also um I've served as a monitor on buses as needed a couple of times which is like my favorite thing to do but um that's they could pay me to do that. Who's your favorite principal? Was I can't tell you that. I'm not doing that. They're raising hands in the back. Don't They're all my favorite. Um, so I go where the principles and teachers need me to go. I try to make sure that I get into buildings regularly. Um, because I know that visibility is very important. Um, so I do all that I can to get into buildings and observe and and talk to people. Um, I do everything I can to find funding for programs that um, schools are trying to put in place. Um
182and um what I I I know that um I am a a quiet leader. I'm reflective. I'm collaborative. Um and I um I take the take any survey information that I receive from district surveys about me um as a leader. I take it to heart. Um, and one of the things that I would like to do um, as a superintendent is to gather more survey information from um, staff and students and parents about my specific um, performance because I think feedback is really important and and um, and that's what I have used to grow throughout my uh, throughout my career. Um, I don't have all the answers. Um, I know where to find them, though. I know that I have excellent staff and um and I know who my experts are and and I I
183and if I don't have anybody, I know exactly where to to to look. I know how to search things out. Um, how do I know if I've been um successful in providing support? I think it is because I will check back. I I I don't I'm just not going to let that lie if um if I have somebody that I'm providing um maybe additional training to or I allow them additional time to maybe go and observe in a classroom or um something else. I'll check back with them to see how that went. There have been times that my principles have needed release time because they're trying to implement a system in their building and they need to go and see what it looks like in person because they learn like I do. I'm very visual.
184I need to see things in motion. And so I do everything I can to make sure that they have that opportunity. And I encourage them to do the same for their teachers so that we can meet their needs. And I check back to see how it went. Oh, thank you, Mr. There's a piece that I missed. The new policy part. um a good example of implementing a new policy I think you can look at curriculum adoption as a good model for that um because um often what works really well is to um find some first adopters, find some people that are really excited about that new policy um and have them or that that new strategy um and have them have them start to do that and then have them come in and share at
185staff meetings about how it's going and invite other teachers to come in and look at um what that looks like in their building or in their classroom and um and then share the results that they're getting from that. Um there's another thing that I used to do as a principal that is kind of a it was a sneaky thing. Um but it's it's also it was a celebration too. Um, I I wanted every week for every every classroom to have a student of the week. And so I decided um when I it was kind of slow sometimes to get my certificates from each classroom. And so I made a bulletin board and there was a spot for every classroom. And so um Monday your spot needed to have the new certificate stapled up so that
186um that we could celebrate your student. And um that was a policy that it was uh it was it became very important for people to make sure that that their students got included in that as well. So some visibility sometimes helps too. Any follow-up questions from the board? Hearing none, we will proceed to question number 13. Trustee ready. My bad. Could you please tell us about a challenge you have experienced in bringing a group with varying perspectives to a consensus on a difficult issue? How did you lead and communicate and what was the outcome? Um I think that um the best way to ever achieve consensus is through um open communication through participants being active listeners and having an open mind and um sharing their ideas and their understanding. Um and I have I have
187an example of um a process that we went through that I think is a really good example of that that was very successful. Um so I talked about the self- assessment um tool that we used and our our team we had to reach consensus on every indicator and so the scores were were between zero one and two and then we put a zero a one and a two in the corners and um when everyone had had a chance to read through all of the materials and to make their decision we asked them to go to those corners. Um then we and we asked the people that were in each corner to have discussions about why they made the selection that they made, why they scored our district the way that they did. Sometimes you would
188see people move just based on that discussion with people that they thought they were in agreement with. Um once that was done, they had a much clearer understanding with one another of why they had decided on that score. And we asked each of those groups to explain their their reasoning and their understanding of that indicator. And through those discussions, we came to a deeper and um a more common understanding. And we were able to come to um we always started with disagreement on every single indicator. We were able to come to consensus on each of those. But it was because we all everybody came forward with an open mind. Um they were um they were good listeners. So they they listened to those other points of view. Um and then they they entered into it
189with um with good intention that they that they really were trying to to come to some sort of a consensus together. And I think that that's the best way um to make sure that um that you come to a consensus. So, it's very difficult process sometimes, but I think through that open communication and that um that respect for one another to listen and to be open that that we can we can get there. Any follow-up questions from the board hearing? None. Question 14. Trustee Sher, please. As superintendent, how would you work to ensure the sustainability and reputation of Jackson Public Schools? Um, to be sustainable, we have to be very, very careful stewards of our resources. Um, I think that that's more clear right now than ever. Um, and not just our finances, but also
190the buildings that we're sitting in. We have to take good care of these buildings. Some of them we've got areas that are very new, but we've got old buildings and we have to make sure to um maintain them. Um they're they're very important resource for us. We have to develop strong community partnerships. Um it helps to strengthen our district and it helps to get the the services that our families um often need in order to um help their children to be successful in school. Um, we need to continue to innovate to meet the needs of our the current needs and the future needs of our students. So, I I'm just thinking about I was watching a movie this weekend that I watched when I was a child. There were no cell phones anywhere. I mean,
191it's amazing how far we've come just in our lifetimes. Um, and I and we never could have imagined that you'd be able to watch a show on your watch, you know, when we were children. I think in the same way, we can't begin to envision what the future's going to look like for our kids. Um, we don't know even what the jobs will be in the future. So, it's really important for us to continue to stay on top of innovations. Um, a big one right now is looking at AI and um, and I think that there's some trepidation. We look at we look at AI with some suspicion but the truth is it is a tool that can um help our teachers make their jobs um much easier. It can help them with their lesson
192planning. Um and we can't ignore it. We have to be open to AI because um we can't teach our children if our teachers don't receive that training. they can't help our children to be ready for um for the future that we can't even envision at this time. Um so another piece is providing more career pathways. I think that we need to continue to partner with groups like Michigan Works um to bring some um trades um those pathways to our to our district. I think it would be wonderful if if we can get our our students on a path to um get into um electric uh you know to be electricians or plumbers. Um those are wonderful those are wonderful careers for um for people that allow them to make a really great living and they
193are um they it's job security. That's those things are never going to go away. We need to make sure that we've got really great pathways for our students and keep adding to those career pathways that allow our students to be employable right outside the door. Um, even if they, you know, if they choose not to go on to college, um, our reputation is going to be built by telling our story. We have to keep celebrating student successes. We have to demonstrate results. We need to continue to improve every year. And then we've got to continue to invite all stakeholders to the table to become part of the JPS family. Any follow-up questions from the board hearing? None. Question number 15. Trusty Sharp, please. Our survey indicated that a majority of respondents would like to find
194a candidate that is willing to make changes. Some saw the need for minor changes and others ready to take the district in a significantly different direction. As the next superintendent, what would you do differently from the current administration to make your own mark on Jackson Public Schools? I I believe that it's important to um start by to start slowly. I think we need to have a smooth transition. Um so I wouldn't make huge changes at the beginning. I think I think a really great path for a new superintendent is to spend the first at least 30 days listening and learning. going out to speak with stakeholders, getting to know their concerns, um hearing their suggestions. I think that that's a very very important um piece of that. Um and I I deeply respect and I'm
195excited by um the things that have happened in our district during during my time here. Um I I love the work that's been done, but I think every leader is going to bring a new energy with them. Um and and I I definitely um see that as being true for me. I think I would u focus on um developing and improving on our current systems. I think there's there's a lot of systems work that needs to be done in within the district. Um, so I I think that there I I think my guess my answer would be starting with small changes but surveying the land and and um listening and learning before um before making huge changes would be important. Um I think it's also important to continue growing our community partnerships. There's some exciting
196things that have happened with that. Um you can kind of look around and see how our district has changed because of some of those partnerships. Um and then expanding those career and education pathways and making sure to continue and expand our um commitment to student voice. Um we've we've done an excellent job of of starting down that road. Um and I I think it's really important for us to continue that work. I hope he answer question. Thank you. As we wind down our time together with you, Mrs. Baker, would you like to ask the board any additional questions before we address the okay the audience? Okay. Um, first I'd like to thank you u for the opportunity to speak with you today. Um, I think that Jackson Public Schools is an incredible place to be
197and we're sitting um at the precipice of a lot of of wonderful um things. We're, you know, a new bond that we're looking at um at passing and that I know that we can pass um and some really great things that have started the implementation of MTSS throughout the district. um we're seeing um improvement in our um attendance and in our um out of school suspension rates. So there's I I think that we're sitting at the at the start of some really incredible and exciting things. Um but I I really look forward to um bringing my my commitment um and my passion for this district um into um into the future. And I and I I just appreciate the opportunity to speak today. Um, a question I would have for the board is, um, what
198do you view as your top priorities for, um, the new superintendent, especially within the first year. Of course, it's always about reading, writing, and arithmetic, but I'd actually like to see if we could tackle absenteeism. That's that would be a big one. And um possibly the phone issue, cell phones. Okay. Cell phones. Vice President always. Oh. Um, I would I would just say without question, um, I mean, with a new superintendent, um, you know, taking charge of the bond campaign, uh, making sure that that is successful because that's going to set us up for long-term success and figuring out how we, um, emerge from the current climate, um, with the budget that we have, um, in a, you know, as strong and sustainable position as we can financially. Trusty Hamilton. Um, so right off the
199top of my head, you know, haven't had some time to think about it. Um, but I would love to see um the next superintendent really uh focus on the details. Um, sometimes I think the shiny buildings and the uh, you know, colors and the catchphrases, you know, um, people get caught up in that and the details go lacking. So, I would love to see a superintendent who is um aware of the necessity of a decent building but not placing the highest um priority and success label um for them in that space. you know, so we could, you know, easily, you know, look around and and if we're saying that we're successful because, you know, the carpets have orange in them and the walls, uh, you know, coordinated with it, you know, then that then we
200stop there, you know. But, um, we don't always pay attention to, you know, the feelings of our students, the feelings of our parents. um you know uh sometimes the data will look at suspension data or we'll we'll look at the retention of our students you know those types of things we'll be looking at um or and and just kind of looking at it and saying we need to get them in here and not considering why they're not here so the details like I would really appreciate a superintendent who is focused on the details on uh creativity on innovation in the solution you know because you know sometimes we can say well we just we'll make more pause, you know, and that's we've done that, you know, so what else are we going to do to
201so just again, you know, a superintendent who's focused on the details, who's um innovative and creative and who's listening and then doing what they're hearing the uh stakeholders say. Thank you, Trusty Hamilton. Miss Baker, I would love to focus on student achievement. We know what our numbers are. we're aware of our numbers and find new strategies to increase those outcomes. Biggest priority for me is someone who prioritizes keeping a tether to the realities of the challenges of the classroom. So having a measure of humility, recognizing experts in the spaces where they work every day, soliciting their ideas and supporting them to let them run with those ideas. I think that helps us build those innovations we're looking for. I think it also when staff feels seen and valued, they have the capacity to work with
202students in all their lovely and unique needs and challenges. And so it all comes from there. If we're motivating our staff, then they have the capacity to love and impact our students. So I'm looking for somebody who starts at the top with recognizing those experts in the space. Thank you, Trusty Sharp. Miss Baker, we do have a few questions from the audience that we would like to present to you as well. First question, many students, specifically secondary students, may not know who Julie Baker is. How do you ensure students know who their next superintendent could be? I think the most important place to be sometimes um is in the cafeteria, especially in in um a secondary school. Everybody's going to make their way through there um and and I think that that's a great place
203to meet students and introduce yourself and um to find out who they are. I think I'm going to know some of them because um I've had them or I had their parents or I know a lot of families in the district, but I think that that's a great place. And then um making the time to be in the hallways um and to come to student events. Um I've been very elementary focused, but um I I really look forward to getting in and meeting our um our secondary students or reacquainting myself with them now that they're grown. So, thank you. Second question, what is your vision to support new administrators across the district? I would like to um to start a um a new administrator academy only almost the way that we have one for teachers
204um where we come together on a monthly basis and we cover topics that are um crucial for that new administrator. Um it's we have mentors for um all of our admin our new administrators, but that's a busy job. They're busy um all of them. And it's tough sometimes to find time to get together. But I think um setting some time aside outside of the school day um to maybe have a meal together and to cover some of the topics that they need and then also to just give them time to um throw their concerns, their questions, their quandries out to the group and to seek um to seek assistance to problem solve together. I think that that's uh that would be that would go a long way in helping them to u meet the challenge
205of those first few years. Thank you. Next question. How do you intend to bridge the gap between administration and students to directly engage with their feedback and concerns? If I'm understanding correctly, um it's it's asking about increasing opportunities for students to be heard by building administration. I can repeat the question for you. Okay. Yes. How do you intend to bridge the gap between administration and students to directly engage with their feedback and concerns? I think that we have um a wonderful start. We have a strong start um down the road to do that uh with our student voice groups in each of the buildings. Um, and I think that, um, we need to continue to grow that, um, providing opportunities for, um, sometimes with administrators in the room to to have conversations and, um, to
206have to participate in a back and forth with with an administrator. But I also think that there's value to be had in um doing a focus group where it's conducted by somebody that's not their principal and it's not a you know a teacher and they can feel free to really speak about what their concerns are. Um but Kelly has just done a fantastic job of mobilizing um each building to create these opportunities for to collect student voice. And I I think um I know that she's only planning on increasing those opportunities and uh we're we're off to we're off to the races with that. So I want to see more of that. Thank you. Next question. JPS was recently named in a lawsuit by former staff. What will you do to ensure JPS avoids a
207similar situation? I think it's important to make sure that um a superintendent and and the board receive guidance um from um an attorney whenever we're unsure about something. Um, so there's there's that piece when um when we're looking to um to make a decision regarding human resources or um if we're if we are looking to implement a pro program and we're just not sure about what the implications might be. I think it's really important to um to to consult with uh the district attorney in those situations. And then I think it's also important for us in every opportunity to um enter situations with staff members and students and parents with the best of intentions um and to be really focused on solutions. And I think that when uh we build trust and transparency and we
208are um we are truly um attempting to deal with one another to deal with others with that um that good intention um I think that we we make better decisions. Final question. What is one specific thing you would change from the way the current superintendent does things and how? Save the best for last. That one's from Jeff. Was that from Jeff? No, he's not. Is he watching? I think that um I think that that Jeff is really has been really good about getting into buildings and um and being visible and present. And my thought would be only to to improve on that that um that um to make a commitment to be in buildings and to um to be in the cafeterias, to be in the teachers lounge um and to be as visible as
209possible and to be um as um approachable as possible. I don't think that those are things that he's failed at. I just believe that I I would I would like to do even more of that if that makes sense. Thank you, Mrs. Baker. We appreciate your time. We appreciate you um your interest and again if there are any feedback forms in the audience please submit those to Mark for submitting to the board for further consideration. Thank you so much. Thank you again for the opportunity. I look forward to hearing your decision. Awesome. Thank you. At this time, we will turn it over to Mark. Oh, 10-minute break. 10 minute break. Okay. Thank you, Kylie. I believe everyone has returned back from the break. So, we are going to call the meeting back to order and
210at this time give the board some time to look over the feedback forms that were received by both candidates and then turn it over to Mark to facilitate a thoughtful deliberation. Thank you. Madam President, Vice President Dolby, please. Just curious um as we as we all kind of um are flipping [Music] through some feedback from our interviews, uh both with additional comments from Mr. Patterson and uh Mrs. Baker. Um I think we had a um a couple hours of some really good discussion and feedback and uh there's certainly a lot to think about. This is a big decision and um it seems like the I mean some of this feedback is like pretty pretty thorough and I want to give it like due consideration considering the fact that we're going to be back here May
2117th um for sixth for a meeting. Thank you. Um May 6th for a meeting. Um, I think it might, you know, if it pleases the board, um, give us a little bit of time to digest the, um, interviews and some of the feedback that we took ourselves and to be able to review this, um, and maybe come back at a at a different time and allow Mark to kind of um, give us some pointers uh, to think about between now and then. Um, so I would I would maybe I don't know if we have to like make a motion, but I would maybe make a recommendation that we um postpone a decision until um the the May 6th meeting. I would entertain a motion. Someone entertain a motion and a support and then we can
212discuss if this is the direction that the board would like to proceed. Um then I move that support support any deliberation just a point of clarification so including any discussion is going to move back to May 6. So, we're not going to discuss anything until we have time to thoroughly digest what we have here. If I am understanding the motion correctly, um we can have some discussion but review have some additional time to review what we have in front of us and come back at the May 6th meeting as an action item to make a decision. So both. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm happy to have, you know, discussion stuff. I just think I I want to be intentional about, you know, reading through all of this stuff before making a decision. Trusty Hamilton. So,
213um, Mr. Palmer, question for you. It seems like we were in a rush to, um, get this process started and going because we needed to make a decision, uh, super fast. um um around this. So with that in mind, what is our time frame if we were to postpone it? Um are we still within time frame? I know we have to have somebody by um I think June 30th. I think that's the law or something like that. Um but um do we is it are we within time frame? Is it you know possible that we could postpone it and be okay? What's the what's our time frame look like? Yeah, you you would be okay if if uh you postponed it until what say May 6th. Um you know, we you I have worked out
214yes, you would be you'd be okay. Um if worse came to worse and you hadn't had somebody in place by July 1, you would just have to name someone um currently in the district or along those lines to be the interim. You just have the school district's required to have a superintendent at all times. So yes. So the um the process basically at this point, you know, if we don't uh postpone this is a conversation and then a vote. Otherwise, we postpone it and then it's still the conversation, a vote. Am I correct on that or was there something else? I would I would recommend that whether you make a decision tonight or wait until you want to review your notes, review the feedback forms um and come back on May the 6th. I would
215re I would recommend that we at least talk about the strengths and concerns of each tonight so you have you know you can hear what others have to say and then as additional information. I don't know if that's is that asking answering questions. Yes. Thank you. Any further deliberation regarding the motion and the support? So my only thought is that if we have discussion tonight and we talk about strengths and weaknesses, if we're all on the same page with our thoughts, then then why wait? So, I would maybe wait to vote on Derek's motion until after we've had a chance to discuss strengths and weaknesses and then maybe decide about postponing. Just a thought. Well, the other thing too is um if we can just make sure we clarify the motion, you know, is it
216you know, is that are we including this or are we not? So, if we do it, let's just clarify the motion. I would just then I would just move that we um table uh the decision as to whether or not to um I guess uh make a selection as to the next superintendent to the May 6 meeting because we I we have a a a couple of different options of um selecting either of these candidates or making a alternative decision. So I would just table that entire uh decision to May 6 which doesn't preclude us from having discussion about that about you know the interviews now and then continuing that discussion May 6th which gives us time to review some of the materials that have just been submitted in front of us. Any additional questions,
217comments, [Music] concerns? Hearing none, we will proceed with deliberation on the information. So you change retracted that. Okay. So, Vice President Doby's has placed his motion on hold. I would just move to uh postpone the uh that we deliberate tonight and postpone consideration of our uh vote to the May 6th meeting. Thank you. Do we have a second? Support. Any discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? No. Motion carries. We will proceed with discussion. Okay. So, what we uh what I'd like to do right now is we've went through the interviews. You have a lot of information and interviews are obviously just one part of it and I think you you know these candidates um so I'd like to talk about their strengths that you saw so everybody can hear you know your initial
218thoughts and then um any questions or concerns you may have about each of the candidates. So, um, we'll do that and then, uh, the board can obviously decide what, uh, what's going to happen after that. So, does that make sense? So, let's start with Mr. Patterson and, uh, and looking at his um, interview and his process, uh, what would you, uh, what did you like about him? What were the strengths um that you'd like to share with the rest of your with all the board members? To me, one strength is that he has worked at all levels including elementary, middle, and high school. And just to add to that in multiple capacities. So not just the teacher principal but also a coach and currently the position as assistant superintendent and I'm an administrative role. I
219think his education and training demonstrates that he has gradually been preparing himself for this next step. I think uh his involvement in the community over two decades tells me that he got meaningful relationships with the students, parents, staff, and local organizations that will help him succeed in this role. He's very knowledgeable about um the families that are at JPS and um sitting with him in disciplinary meetings, it's very obvious he knows, you know, the cousins and the older brothers, the younger brothers, the his um his just his knowledge of families. He's just been in the district so long and has worn so many hats. I think um when he speaks he's confident that uh plays a major role in this job. The other thing I would add to that is that he thinks before he
220speaks and his what he speaks is well thought out. Um, I think Jeremy certainly uh is confident, has a commanding presence and um certainly uh similar to uh you know Jeff can can work a room and and really be a great advocate for uh the district and certainly as um Trusty Sharp said has worked worked at all levels uh throughout his career and um certainly feels like he could be a natural uh fit for this position. Um I liked his strong advocacy for a strategic plan. He spoke to being proactive and I feel like that is critically important given the culture and climate in which our district currently lies. Um to quote him, he said, "I don't do anything reactionary." And his willingness to lean into his mentors and legal counsel for advice and direction.
221How about uh and you can certainly tell me if you have more um as we go on, but think about also on the other side questions, concerns, wonders about uh Mr. Patterson. I know Trusty Hamilton had asked him about a mistake that he could vividly recall. I was hoping that he would circle back around and provide that to the board. His only mistake is that he has no mistakes. I thought some of his answers were vague vague. To piggy on that, but a little bit as a teacher, there was a lot of talk about professional development. Um, and as a professional or as a teacher, professional development does not mean something is meaningful. And without more specifics about what that would entail, uh, and just saying professional development, my concern is that what that becomes
222is just one more thing for teachers to try to manage as opposed to something that is going to impact students. In fact, I think it can be detrimental because teachers are trying to manage yet more things and then have a lesser capacity to deal with the important things. Um, so what I just had written over and over again, you know, professional development, PD, PD, PD, PD. Um, that's that's concerning to me without more specifics. We like to move on to uh Miss Baker or a little more time with Mr. Patterson. Any other strengths or areas of growth that we would like to share for Mr. Patterson? Yeah. Um, just echoing what um, Mark said. Is there any other um, deliberation, Mr. Patterson, before we transition to Mrs. Baker? We don't want to cut anyone short.
223One last thing, um his strengths are um he is visible everywhere in the community which is very important um to to retain students or to attract students or to um um for a matter of fact, you know, to get teachers recruited who will be here for a a longer period. Mr. Pison also made mention that he is willing to own his mistakes, be accountable, be transparent, visible, approachable. And I think that goes a long way when we have teachers and students and community members that um that want to be heard, find value, and amplifying their voices, their voices and their concerns. Okay. Should we move to Julie Baker for right now? and talk about strengths, what you liked about her. Um, certainly a huge strength of hers is her knowledge of title funding and grant
224funding. Um, I don't know how she keeps them all straight, but she could recite that in her sleep. I was really impressed with her knowledge of the MTSS and I think that's a really important component. Um I thought her answers were clear and concise and she had um good reasoning behind everything and um very very well thought out. It was real concrete. Everything she said was concrete. Um and and then she was able to give really um good answers about why things worked the way they did. So and that she really shared specific things that she had done that she had success in. So, and I thought her plan for moving forward was really good, especially taking over and moving slowly and um seeing what every she wanted consensus to see what everybody else want,
225you know, was she was just looking for feedback to just take her time to see what she should be doing, what everyone wanted her to do. I thought that was really mature. But I have kind of consistently written through um that I find to be two huge strengths is student centered decisions and studentled or excuse me teacher le decisions. So making decisions with students best interests in mind or best for the best of students in all things, but also giving opportunities for teachers to not only have a voice but um take on responsibility and and elevate their responsibility leading to their ownership comes up over and over again in her answers which I appreciate. I do see that you've also there's like hearts on some [Laughter] of um I thought Julie was um you know
226frankly um you know exceeded my expectations. Um I'm I'm less familiar with um with Julie. I thought she gave really detailed answers tonight and um did did very well. Um certainly some of the the things that uh Trusty Sharp said are important around um student centered uh decision making. I think she um you know I this is the first time I kind of heard this but um you know talked pretty with with fairly good detail about um some of the visions of some of the things that we're going to be confronting in the next you know 90 to 180 days and and what some of the students are going to be confronting um you know in the next decades uh with with AI and some of the other things that we need to start to
227consider now and and what we need to do to prepare our teachers to address those challenges or opportunities. I thought Mrs. Baker. Um, she she also used the language solution focus and as a district I believe our goal is to transform what is currently in place and solution focus is part of that process that is a ingredient to that recipe toward achieving that desirable outcome. She also made mention um she's invested in JPS the robust EOP and programs and initiatives are constantly evolving and changing which means in essence um there's value in going back to revisit what has been implemented and finding those necessary changes that need to be considered. I like that she had a Julie Baker page. I thought that was really interesting. I like that she said that she wanted to be
228a careful steward of our resources and that she actually said we have to keep telling our story and write and invite all stakeholders to the JPS family. I like that also and actually focusing on more career pathways when she said plumbing and electrical, you know, people doing electricians. So, I thought that was, you know, she's just got a really good um scope of what needs to be done here. Miss Baker also mentioned that it's important that we keep an eye on enrollment. We know that um there has been some declining um actually over the years of being in this space. We've seen some declining um our numbers declining and being intentional to focus on that looking at the reason and how to reverse reverse that um that reality. And then also um when programs become
229ineffective, looking for ways to remove those programs and replace them with something that is valuable and meaningful for our district. Uh, one more thing that I will add is that I I did state that one of the priorities for me in looking for a superintendent is somebody who had a high administrative in a high administrative position can have a a pulse on the reality of the classroom, a tether to the actual challenges that we face. And I got that impression from her mostly with her very specific examples of working alongside teachers in buildings for real solutions to actual problems. She was very much data driven. Well, questions, concerns, wonders. Um, so she made no mention of strategic plan. I, so I don't know her position on that, whether, you know, that's something she would be
230interested in developing or not. She made no mention of it. And my concern is her ability to command a room. And I am looking for someone to be the face of Jackson Public Schools. And I'm just not sure that she's it. So, I email her. I email a lot of people, but she's not always quick to get back with me when I ask her a question. Um, I want to reiterate what Cheryl me just mentioned that yeah, she is she's great, nice, but for JPS to you know superintendent to succeed you got to be commandable I mean you've seen last decade now you know uh you got to be you got to lead so saw that any final thoughts that you want to share on either one that you think it'd be important for the
231rest of the board members to know that's on your Does this include like deliberation like responses to other people's concerns or are we are we engaging in some respectful dialogue about that or we just saying our thoughts right now? Yeah, this is so I just as a teacher I'd like to respectfully disagree about a commanding presence being required for a leader. Um I could not care less if my superintendent commands a room. I want my superintendent to care about what's going on in my room and to care about me and to know what's actually going on. So I think it's important to ask ourselves what what's more important is if we look good on the outside or if we care about what's happening in classrooms. So that's just my two cents. Thank you. And now
232Mrs. Baker um she said that she would reaclimate I believe that's the language that she used to secondary. So I believe most of her experiences in elementary and that would be a concern for me as it relates to the whole system the the global perspective of leading The hardest part is just being silent and letting you think. Try to remember the wait time of the old classroom. Yeah, it's it's Yep. So, I think you you do have a difficult uh decision ahead of you because you have two very good candidates. I'm just going to give you my two cents worth of what I see um when in the what I do. You do have two very good candidates. Um, the positives are that you uh know these people because they've been in your system for
233a long time. They know Jackson. Um, the negative, they've been in your system for a long time and everybody knows their warts. Everybody knows um there are people out there that are there's there's always going to know more than if there was someone that came in here um as the first time they've ever been in in Jackson. So, it's it's kind of a double-edged sword because you you know more about them, you know, the good things and you know the bad. So, um I don't envy that u position whatsoever. Um but I do believe in what I've seen um you do have very two two very good candidates um for your position. So I I think we're very fortunate to have these candidates knowing the amount of vacancies in the state and you know the
234pool of candidates that are out there. I agree. I think we're very fortunate to have two great candidates. Thank you. If there's no further deliberation, we will call the question and we will cease conversation and move forward with the motion that has been presented to have an action item at our upcoming meeting on May 6. Hearing no more discussion. All those in favor to end this to end the discussion. Yes. Support. All right. I move that we adjourn. Support. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Mo the meeting has been adjourned. Thank you so much everyone for coming. We