001Good evening everyone. It is six o'clock. We're going to get started for our April meeting. Thank you all for coming tonight. If there's anyone in the audience that would like to speak during the citizens addressing the board, please grab the form off the counter as you walk in the room in the back and pass it to Michelle Oxley, please. At this time, we're going to do the pledge of allegiance. Michelle, will you please the roll call? Miss Hamilton present. Mrs. Simonetti, Miss Sharp here, Mr. Ready here, Miss Actton here. Mr. Dobies here. And Miss Hunt here. Thank you, Michelle. At this time, I would move to approve the agenda. Make a have a motion to move to approve the agenda, please. I move to approve the agenda. Support. Thank you. Motion support. Any deliberation hearing?
002None. All those in the fa in favor of the agenda say I. I. I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank you. We'll move to item number five, superintendence report. Good afternoon everybody. And uh as uh Miss Hunt said, welcome to our April meeting. Um I'm going to cover a couple of things because there's um we obviously got a lot of things we want to get to as we as the meeting progresses. Um but I'll walk through a few of them. Um so tonight we're going to take a look at um a Neola policy packet update. Um our policy committee met over uh the at the beginning of April and most of these policies are are strictly driven by law and and we'll kind of walk through them briefly. Uh there were three policies that are sitting
003at policy committee or three three items that are sitting at policy committee that need a little additional work. And so what I'm going to ask the board to do um specifically um the policy um written to uh have a conversation about uh therapy dogs. Um our attorney has some questions on that policy and and feels the language could use a little bit of word smithing prior to adoption. And so what I would like to do is invite uh interested parties to potentially meet with Brendan Beer and kind of walk through that policy. Uh I would do the exact same thing um Miss Hamilton for the welcoming position that that you uh presented. I think uh again there's a couple of concerning lines in there and again it's it's there's just some areas I that Mr.
004Beer feels presents liabilities for the district. Um and then um with regards to uh student representation on the board, all of those policies that committee and I think the committee and and um you know I think Miss Simonetti and uh Miss Actton were there could share more there. There's simply some some meat on the bone that needs to be fleshed out with regards to uh student representation and what this what the the board is looking for. What do they want? What's the the end goal? And kind of start with the end in mind. And I'm I'm not sure yet that that the policy as written provides that vehicle. So again, that was where we came from for policy. And I didn't want to leave those two sitting out there um for too long or those
005three policies sitting out there for too long. Again, policy committee would like to be able to have that discussion, but I think what they're looking for is those authors to potentially sit with Mr. Beer and walk through the language so that the attorney can kind of vet that through for the district. Cheryl and um Marilyn, any additional information? I know you all were present for the meeting on April 8th. Anything else you would like to add to what Jeff just presented? I think he covered it at this point. We all got the email also in addition from uh Mr. Beiel covering these three policies and the explanations for why they were being held. Thank you. I think referred forward is probably a better way to phrase that. Yeah, I I'm good with um Superintendent Bill's
006explanation also that we just need to um have it looked at by our lawyer Brendan Beer and maybe the MASB lawyers too. Point of clarity. Yes. Are we going to discuss this again in discussion item eight? Is this also are we preempting that discussion? My paper still says eight. Did we change it? The only thing in in eight are is the Neola update discussion. So, it's just the Niola policies. That's all. So, are you So, what are you talking about right now? Are you talking about Nola policies right now as well or No, no, I was referring to three policies that this that this board has taken up over the last couple of uh meetings specifically. Um uh those come during the policy meeting. They came up in policy. Yes. Okay. So, so we're not
007You're saying we're not going to talk about that during the Neola update, which also includes the meeting that they had. That's correct. Why wouldn't we do that? I'm confused. Help me understand that. Well, again, I I I I mailed it out to you and I just shared it with you here that the I understand what you said. What I'm trying to understand is why we're not talking about that during the discussion portion of Neiola. That's what I'm trying to understand. Because we're not prepared at this time to recommend it for approval. So that update couldn't come at that time is what you're saying. You need to tell us before then because we don't want to have any discussion around it or No, I'm having the discussion. That's brought up. So this is what I'll say
008then. Um and I still may end up saying some more at that time, but um if Brendan Beer is the one that you want us to hear from regarding those policies, he's going to need to come to a board meeting. Um I was informed last time that um the Niola person couldn't come after 6:00 and I can only be at meetings after six o'clock. Um, so he's going to need to come to a meeting that's after six o'clock at minimum. Um, so that I can be involved in that meeting. Um, because again I'm on the policy committee and me not being able to be at that meeting because our Neola person which I really think we should uh consider changing because it shouldn't be that board members who have jobs and lives and you know
009other ways of uh supporting their families if we can't get here till 6, they should be able to accommodate us. And so since they can't and if they won't um at least at the minimum have Brendan Beer come at a time when we all can have conversation with him which we can maybe do that at a board meeting. I'm okay with that or just make sure it's after six o'clock so I can be in that meeting. Again at the pleasure of the board I think the conversation is I think Mr. Beer has some concerns with some of the language specific in that and and he'd be happy to word smith or work that with you but I think that was really the the point of of that particular conversation with regards to the welcoming district.
010I think exactly the same conversation around um therapy dogs. Mr. Beer has some concerns about uh a couple of the items in there as far as the liabilities that they create for the district. And so again, same conversation an opportunity to sit down and look at those. And then again, like I said, I think probably where the policy committee sat with regard to student representation is is that we're simply I don't know that as a board we've got that end in mind. and does this policy accomplish that end? Um, and so I think that's just a work group conversation is is how I took it. And again, Marilyn and Cheryl, I think that's a fair representation of where you left me. Mr. Dobies, did you have a question or Yeah. Um, I I read that
011we're having a MASB award of distinction. Um, but since you opened up uh conversation on uh these policies, I think it's I am a board member. I've been uh I've served in Jackson for over a decade and I can't wrap my head around like the process for all of this stuff. Um I find it highly irregular. um the and and I think at least um maybe it's it's just me struggling to understand, but I feel like um I don't really understand um how we're supposed to have discussion as a board um when we can't add things to the agenda. That discussion is happening at a policy committee with a super minority of this board. Concerns are being raised with those with with that subcommittee. um without uh any discussion here at the board um even
012with the author of that policy because I've authored both the transparency dogs and the um student representation on the board. Um at the last meeting I attempted to place both of those for discussion uh in front of this board. I've had without violating the open meetings act discussion with uh a fair amount of the board members here about my thoughts on uh therapy dogs, facility dogs. Uh I have pursued um and researched uh this well enough. I've talked to the public a good amount about this. I have uh produced the therapy dog policy. Um, I actually sat down with the superintendent twice last year, uh, to talk about the policy and to see if you were all right with the policy. Um, intended to bring it up for discussion at this at the last meeting
013and was told that it was referred to the policy committee um, not by this group. So, um I kind of feel like [Music] um uh we didn't get the opportunity to have that discussion. Uh that concerns me for a couple of different issues. One, that uh we're not having that debate here and discussion about what that looks like in front of the public. Uh two, uh there's um not an opportunity for me to speak about it in front of the board, um and debate the merits of the idea before we even go into detail on uh some of some of the language around it with um paying our attorney uh to do that uh just to debate. And I I have a fair idea of um where some of us stand up here. Um but
014to have that full board um conversation about the policies in an open discussion uh in a transparent way uh so that we can then decide is this something that we want to do similar to uh trustee Hamilton's resolution for us to uh debate the resolution decide how we want to dispose of that resolution whether we want to pass it whether we want to reject it, whether we want to send it to policy committee with uh such direction to do x y and z. The same thing with the therapy dogs. The same thing with the student representation in uh what February maybe um maybe in January we had like a 4-hour meeting talking about a variety of different issues, student representation being one of them. We heard comment from every single member of this board about
015whether they supported having student representation on the board, how they supported it. I actually gave my feedback that I think we should just go to uh student council uh the student government. Um listen to all of the feedback uh some of which was this board should appoint someone to serve a student to serve on the board. The policy that I wrote struck a balance uh between those two viewpoints which I tried to put on to the meeting last time to discuss that and all of a sudden it's at the policy committee and not surprising people at the policy committee have questions about it. Uh we're told that like there's concerns. um we're not whatever the um uh we're unsure about the goals of the board. We literally had a 4-hour discussion about what the board
016wanted and the ideas from the board and we have to start somewhere from some policy to debate that as a board and then figure out what we want to do with it. I'm, you know, I'm kind of getting a little frustrated that everything has to come through one person that continues to say we're not prepared to make recommendations for approval when we haven't even had a discussion on this board directing what we want the administration to do. I think the challenge that you might run into, Derek, is when um when board members write policy, they often, you know, they they copy language from other places or they often um add language that creates liabilities or legal challenges for the district. And those aren't languages that we're prepared to present and and we shouldn't be debating
017without having an attorney walk through those. We buy our policies from Niola and we could buy them from Trun if you'd rather spend it for another set of attorneys, but we buy our policies from Niola because they are policy experts for the Midwest area. It is their job to to vet all of our policies. Um it's their job to make certain that we're uh in compliance with the law. So, um, how we've handled it since predates me since before I arrived here is Jackson Public Schools adopts policy by by bringing policy through the policy committee. But candidly, this is still in line and in keeping with our own board policies that we have, which very clearly state that the board shall not adopt policy that's not recommended by the superintendent because the superintendent is the
018educational expert that you hire to run the district. So, I I understand that there's a level of frustration, but it's not because we don't want to have the conversation. And it's because the policy that we want before you can debate it, we need to make certain that the that what you're presenting is actually something the district can live with. So you can debate it and adopt it, but then what are where are we at if we adopt it and it's not something that is legal or something that the district can can um can manage. And I I think that's the greater challenge when it comes to this and why we've ended up in this situation. Um, I think there's a a process forward and I've kind of outlined that and articulated that, but that's that
019would be my recommendation at this time. Yes, I'm not saying debate something and then adopt it there. There is a there's a process to go through, but I feel like that process isn't clear. Um, if it is Nola recommends stuff, then why aren't we just saying we want a student representation on the board policy, have Niola send us a 100 examples of it and we can pick. I mean, if the intent is for us to like find something that uh is the goal of the board uh and not sure that that policy aligns with the goals of the board, are we then talking about the goals of the board or whatever Neola is going to tell us that we can have? Because like to me, the student representation in particular is how we want to
020craft that. We send it to the attorney for review to make sure that it's compliant with um you know local, state, federal regulations. Nola can give us some examples, but ultimately like we're the board that determines what we want to do in terms of policy setting. So I would speak to the um student represented on the board from the policy committee perspective and the issues that we had with that was I agree with you 100% Derek in February was that big discussion everybody gave their input on students on the board and towards the end of that conversation you Derek made the recommendation for going to the students so that we could get a larger voice and a larger representation. And there were a lot of people on this board who were very excited about that
021idea of us going to the students. But then in March when we sat down at the table, we were presented with this piece of paper with a policy that I have to disagree with you on this. It did not balance those two different ideas. It was back to one student representative sitting at this table. And that was where the policy committee had difficulty understanding what the board really wanted. That is why it did not move forward. Elena, what I keep hearing uh it sounds like is we have on the one hand policies that come up and that have details that need to be fleshed out that we agree on and then there's a lack of opportunity for us to then flesh them out. So I guess my question as a new board member is if
022there are things like this that are questions or that are concerns about legalities, details, etc. Where what's the action step? Where where's the in between? Um if it went to policy and there's concern, is it a work session? Is that what you're saying? This is the course of recommended action. I I think that you said something like that. So So what what do we do next? Like so how do we move forward? So I'd like to circle back and do a committee of the whole and agree to meet to hash these things out. I found um I I'm going to agree with what Cheryl said. We that those were our reservations and then um I wanted to go a step further and add um a few more things that um that we would be able
023to vet the students. Um as far as paying an attorney, Derek, um we have our attorneys on retainer and um there are just a lot of the language. I was real concerned on um not the student representation, the other two policies. I was very concerned um that it could open us up to litigation. It's always about we have to be real cautious and we do pay Niola to keep us up to date with the law. We've got to follow the law. So yes, that's why Niola, you know, it's the language and we were at that meeting at least two and a half hour well two two hours and 15 minutes. We were there way after 6 and we really went over all of these and there's just a lot of things um that was it
024it was almost with the therapy dogs um being a veterinarian's daughter our business was dogs and I just there are some things in that policy it was opening the Pandora box and we have to be real cautious that these policies stay a long time even after we're not in office anymore and sometimes there's unintended consequences and that's why we are proceeding with caution and um having lawyers look at the language. Our lawyer uh Brad Banis at the MS MASB over looking at things too or just being cautious. That's that's really it. And it's not that we nixed um the student representation at all. We're going to bring it back. So, Trusty Dway, any last minute comments? Yeah. Um, you know, we there was a reference to to going to the students and going to the
025to the youth. Um, I have reached out to the student government. Um, sent them the the policy uh for review to the um to their counselor. Uh, received some feedback. Um I think another comment about needing to follow the law like yes um that would it would be a big concern if this was a novel idea but school districts across the state have therapy dogs and I'll just kind of end on um we're airing a lot of concerns about my my point in all of this is we're airing a lot of concerns and we're having a discussion here which is good about a whole bunch policies that are all um in different places. But like my point is that we should be having this discussion in public. Uh we're having a discussion about policies that
026nobody in in the public in this room uh has likely seen because they haven't been on an agenda. they have just uh were rejected from the last agenda and then uh taken up at the policy committee. I'm not sure what actual policies were taken up at the policy committee because I'm not on the policy committee, but the my intent is that we have the discussions about uh the merits of these ideas uh what we want to see. Um and frankly we had a a long discussion uh at the first meeting about youth representation. Uh it actually caused me to to slightly change my mind. Um, which is why I wrote a slightly different policy from what I said that we should just go directly to the people to the students and brought something back with
027the intent that we could start from there, debate that and have that change and evolve and get to a place where we could send it to um, Brendan or to Niola for feedback. So, I'll close with that. um you know, happy to continue having conversations about uh all three of those policies and issues because I think they're important for us to discuss. Well, I will I'll just say I'll I'll meet with Brendan and bring these um policies forward to him and have some conversation and report back out to the board. So I'll just add that um I think it's really important that we hear each other as we have just done tonight. Um and part of the hearing each other is that you know we don't want to report back. We want to hear from
028him directly is one thing. The other thing Neiola should be willing to come at a time when we all are available to meet with them. Um that's really important. Um that so that we all can be there. The other thing um is that you know if we want to be able to hash these things out in a a way that allows us to without being uh restricted by time a committee of the whole as was presented before would be the route to go. Um the other thing the last thing that I'll say is that when we as board members um two things actually for the last thing us understanding the process for putting things on the agenda will be beneficial particularly for new folks who are here. Um, we should be able to list that
029out. This is the process because, you know, Robert's rule does allow us to add things to the agenda at the last minute if we want to. And we also have stated that, you know, send something to the board president at a certain time and then they can add that to the agenda because when, this is the last thing, when we as board members know our duties, we know our leadership, we know our responsibilities, we know our rights as board members, then we understand that we should be setting the board agenda together. That's a thing that we can and should be doing which you know goes through the board president but still we should be able to put things on the agenda whenever we want to you know given the process that we should be able
030to have stated and written out and we also know that Jeff as much as he is and we'll say for superintendent the superintendent whoever they are yes we rely on them to give us their opinion but as board members we have the final say that's why we've been elected to sit in these seats he can say all day long he she they whoever that superintendent person is this is not a good idea but if we as the board say yes we still want it then it goes it then it becomes policy whatever that is now clearly we you know would take his recommendation but when we know our roles our duties our leadership and our responsibility then we're not relying on him to tell us everything him whoever that person is a superintendent to tell
031us what to do so it's important that we know all those things but again I'll end with you know if we want to be able to discuss these things appropriately one Nola needs to come when we are available and that might look like here at the table with all of us and then two we should consider a committee of the whole Well, Miss Hamilton, I I can't promise that anybody No, I'm not asking you, Jess. You know, that's something that we should be able to tell them. The board said come here when we're available. You know, I mean, that's that's going to call the question at this at this point. Yep. We're going to call the question. We've had a lot of conversation about these policies. U we're going to move forward with the agenda
032item. What I will end with, I'll make the final statement on this one and then pass it back to you, Jeff, for the recognition and um superintendent report. I will provide a narrative to the board about what Robert's rules of order indicates about the process in which we can add agenda items. I will contact Niola to see what their availability is. I do find that there's value in having an expert available for us to ask questions. They can be a sounding board. We can get some of that. um it reduces the time in which these policies would need to be turned around. So if they can be here in the moment, that would be great. And then um as far as the policies, I think I'll just agree with Cheryl, Marilyn, and Derek. Discussion must
033be had if we're going to we're policy makers. That's our that's part of our roles. I mean, that's part of our roles and responsibilities as board members. we were elected and we do have an obligation to review policy, create policy, um amend policy and I think with all of that being said, we do need to bring those policies that are currently sitting within the the policy committee. Those need to come back before the board with some support from our legal counsel. Back to you, Jeff. I think that's the goal. Um, all right, enough hard conversation. Let's let's actually celebrate for just a moment if we could because um our board members do a lot of training um including some yet still coming up before the end of the year uh for some members. But um
034the Michigan Association of School Boards is uh proud to recognize and if you will all join me in uh congratulating uh our board president Shelanda Hunt on receiving her level three award of distinction uh for her continued uh work through the Michigan Association of School Boards. [Applause] All right. And with that, I'll stop talking and we'll pass this on to the that'll close the super test report. Thank you, Jeff. At this time, I'll move to um request a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Support from anyone. Support. Any deliberation? Yes. I have one question, a couple questions. Um the and we may or may not know this right now. Marcus, you might be the one for this. I don't know. But the um all of the folks that had retired, two questions, I
035think all the people that had retired, do we know if these some of these ones who had gotten hired like around two 2019 and etc. were they a part of the folks who got the um sign on bonus? Were some of those folks did they get a sign on bonus? Think we had about nine or 10 folks that were nine folks I think that were or um nine 10 folks that would be for Jessica. Yeah. Did they get the sign on bonus? I believe they would have had to been hired in the 2122 school year to be eligible for that bonus. Okay. So quite a few of them did. I think 2019 only had a couple of them. Um did we have any um conversation around that with regard to the folks that them retiring
036now getting uh did was there anything in that first you know when you come on we give you 15,000 or whatever they got but if you leave too soon you don't get the full amount. Was there some of that in there? Do or did they all still qualify for the full amount to keep the sign on bonus in? It was paid over three years so you had to be here for those three years. Correct. Okay. So three years. That's that's good to know. Thank you. Um the last one I want to know um and you may or may not have this at this time. Um with the large number of folks that are retiring, do we know how that impacts that 4 million? Do we know what that number is sitting at now that we'll
037have to roughly know an idea of like we're still in the process of figuring out who we need to replace and who we don't need to replace. So we don't have that answer today. Okay. So we don't know if we're like we saved two million yet because we still have to figure out who we have. We're still working through that process. Okay. Okay. Those are my questions. Thank you. Wait, wait. I had one more. This is a food service program. Yes, the food service program. Um, couple questions around there. Um, so with this program, is there any packact any impact and I don't know who has the answer to this, any impact that we're going to see um from the federal government with this program? So, it looks like the program's free and that we
038already had whatever, but what's the are there any impacts that we have to be concerned about potentially? We don't know where it's going to shake out. I know there's been talk of raising the eligibility rates for the C program. Currently, we're even higher than what they're proposing it goes to, but like a lot of things that are going on right now. It's just a lot of unknowns today. And this is this is uh we're in year three, so we only have one more year of this. So, what's that? Is there what's that look like? Five year. I'd have to double check, but I think we have another year or two. uh we were looking at maybe re-upping it now before anything takes place to give us a fresh set of years or whatever under the
039current um guidelines. So we're looking at some of that stuff. So it looks like the program will still be in operation regardless our best as of today. So what's the re-uping part? Help me understand that. So every five years you have to reertify that you're eligible to participate in the C program and I think that gives you five years I believe. Okay. And so we're expecting the C program to to remain in effect regardless of what's kind of going on. Maybe there's there's no guarantees on anything right now. Just as of today, that's all that's the information that we have. That makes sense. Thank you. I think the the conversations we sit just under about 80% free and reduced lunch and with the changes to Medicaid that are proposed out there and some of how
040they will calculate free and reduced lunch um that threshold could drop to about 65% ballpark and if that does take place then the question will be what's the threshold required for participation in the C and I we don't know that yet. So I So depending on what happens at the federal level, that's the harder question right now that I I got to be fair with you. Just like we're dealing with some of the other policies or just like we're dealing with other areas from the federal government, we don't know that answer yet. It's and it changes daily. And this is because this is a federal program, not state. That's why it's okay. Yeah. And it's uh funded from largely through the US Department of Agriculture. But I would caution that even state programs, our state
041budget is largely backfilled by block grants from the federal government. I think the number I heard with regards to um Gretcha Whitmer's latest budget was about 42% of her budget was made up of federal dollars. So even if even if it doesn't touch us directly, if it touches Lancing and then those there's not enough dollars there that could touch us indirectly. So there's a lot lot at stake there. Point of order. Trusty Hamilton, typically in a consent agenda, if there's items that you want to discuss, you would request to pull those. Are you requesting to pull human resources 242571? I just had questions. They answered them. Okay. So that's a no. You don't want to pull them. I just had questions. They answered them. Okay. Any other deliberation? All right. All those in favor? I.
042Any oppose? Hearing none. Motion carries. Before we jump on, Miss Carter, I think you got a couple of folks you want to at least acknowledge while we got a minute. Sure. We've been busy in human resources the past couple of weeks and we've made um several new hires and some of them are here tonight and I want you to help me welcome some of them. Um we have Destiny Davis who's going to be our new principal over at Cascades Elementary. Destiny Bobby Berky is going to be our principal for instruction at Parkside. And over by Michelle Oxley, we have Sarah Ebers Soul, who's going to have a split assignment. She's been working um exclusively with HR. She's now going to be halftime with HR and um halftime the executive administrative assistant. So, help me welcome
043Sarah. She's going to be your new contact as Michelle goes off for retirement. We'll miss you, Michelle. Thank you. And I just did the math. This is my 324th regular board meeting. So, plus any special meeting. So, thank you. Welcome everyone to your new positions. That's exciting news. And yes, Michelle, you will be missed. We appreciate your service. Is this your last meeting? [Laughter] Potentially. We appreciate your service. You've been amazing. All right, citizens requesting to address the board. We have two. And Joanie, if you would come up to the podium, please to the table, followed by Nicholas Thirststeing. Thank you. I want to say that it's interesting that you guys are talking about policy because the reason I start coming to the board three years ago now was because there's a policy that the
044school has for graduates and it doesn't allow for any accommodations for someone with a 504 plan. Um it still hasn't changed and I recently had someone send me a copy of the email where their child may not be able to walk graduation due to them having a 504 plan and not being able to complete their classes in time. this is a violation of their rights and this is not fair. I appreciate that so many board members made comments about not understanding the policy for or the process to get policies passed because I'm just as confused and I'm a lawyer. So you guys are talking about presenting language to lawyers. I review policies all the time for nonprofits and I've never seen a process like this. Three years when a policy clearly violates someone's rights. I
045chose not to sue the district, which would have cost them a lot of money, because I rather have action by attending the board meetings, and that has gotten me nowhere. Now, I'm considering pulling my children from this school and having my sister pull her kids from this school because it's it doesn't care about people who have special needs. And that's very clear. Um, I am glad that there are several people who are in favor of transparency because I'm in favor of transparency, too. Um, it's mentioned that the superintendent presents the policies. Well, I'm curious why my policy hasn't been presented to be changed. I'm also concerned that the superintendent has so much power here at JPS, including being the FOYA coordinator. It was brought to my attention that a certain email was sent by the
046superintendent about me personally, and I had my mom do a foyer request, and that email wasn't included. and it was less than four days later. And the email I was looking for says, "While I appreciate this input and believe you want nothing but good things for JPS, Joanie has been openly hostile over the past several years, often sharing inaccurate or misleading information at our board meetings. The committee is uniquely a JPS yes committee and Joanie has not to date shown herself as able to fit into this space. We are encouraging a diver diversity of thoughts about programming and needs for the district, but we are hesitant in our message that this group is not an open to the public committee, but rather an invitation only for those stakeholders that can carry the water on moving
047a bond project from concept to completion. Joanie is more than welcome to join our committee forum event coming up where this group will share the work, concepts, and ideas with the general public. I am not against JPS. I have not been hostile. I have been focused on one policy that prevented my daughter from walking for graduation that violated her rights. She has a 504 plan because she has a disability. I am very pro- disability rights. I'm pro- diversity. All my work is that there are so many people that come up to me in the community and say, "Thank you so much for what you do." If you go into the JPS Monasuri School, they're going to have positive things to say about me. I spend extra money and provide teachers books when my students are
048in their class. I go to all their events. I support them. I support the teachers. I support the local administration within the schools. And this is BS. I'm not against JPS. I'm not hostile, but I am against my daughter's rights being violated. Thank you. Thank you, Nicholas Thirststein. Um, hello. Can you hear me? Uh, hi, my name is Nicholas Thirstston. I live here in Jackson, Michigan. Uh, I live here in W 5. I was JPS alumni and also Jackson College alumni. I want to talk a bit about the policies and practices that are coming out of JPS and how they do not reflect the needs of the community and um the um current landscape that uh Jeff briefly mentioned and others also mentioned uh that shaping up at the federal government and their approach to
049education uh nationwide. Um I want to say that uh the previous speaker I support what she's saying. Um I do believe that disability rights are very important and critical to education and making sure that you know um accommodations are being made. There are legal rights in in this arena. Uh people put a lot of work to make sure that there were uh protections in place especially in the public school system. So I think you guys should take this seriously. Um, there is a possibility if the board continues to promote DEI policies or policies like uh saying you will not cooperate with any law enforcement investigations or instructing your employees to do things that are illegal. Um, you could lose potentially between four to maybe $10 million a year in funding permanently. Um, so when there
050was concerns here, uh, people came to me and said, "Hey, Nick, what's going on? Like, uh, have you seen the news?" And I said, "Yeah, I'm seeing all this stuff." And they're asking me like, "Do you feel this way about me? Do you feel this way about uh you know your friends that we you grew up together with in schools?" And because my best friend still to this day is a Polish kid. Well, what's a Polish kid in Northeast? And um we've been lifelong friends. I don't think that anything will ever tear us apart. And um you know, I did have serious concerns and it was very bizarre to see that Derek Dobies who promoted a non-discrimination policy at the city government level. there's this non-discrimination ordinance that you would move on to the school
051board and then directly violate that law and encourage others on the board to violate that law. And um also our state has uh some restrictions on race and sex based policies and practices that the board is not adhering to. And so, you know, I tried to at least figure out what was happening and see if it was true. And you know, sure enough, Geish Hamilton said, "I don't apologize. I'm not sorry. I Are you mad that I said it? are you mad that it's true? Um, and then continues to say that all the white people are evil and racist. But when Jeff hurt somebody's feelings, he was very quick to say, I'm sorry I've hurt your feelings and uh hope that you'll accept my apology. But big double standard there. Um, when we contacted people
052in Congress and um candidates that will run for office, we literally told them to give JPS0 for the next 100 years in federal funding if these practices continue. Uh we've also looked into local nonprofit organizations that are promoting the same things and we requested the same. We also went to HUD and asked them to ban every single DEI contract that existed in the country and we went down the list of every single uh government agency and department. We also reached out to people in other states because it's not fair that this is happening to anybody. Um you know Derek of all the people you should have been the first one to say this is wrong and we're not going to do this. we're not going to tolerate this on the board. You should have been
053the first one to speak up for the customers here and the people that work here and the contractors here. Um because you were the Mr. Spear head of the NDO policy you're so proud of. But then when you get elected here, you do the exact opposite. And um you know there's just a bad track record of some of the stuff you promoted. You have a needle program going across the street that is killing people. That was yours. There's a big view on the news with a big smile on your face shaking somebody's hand to install it across the street next to low-inccome housing and one of the units was inside of low-inccome housing. Then they started fighting the workers dead inside of the building. You did that? Why did you do that? Now there's needles
054littered all around our city. This is a school zone. It's directly across the street from here. Um I requested that the mayor shut this down, the city council do something about this. No actions were taken. Shan Hut was on city council at the time. no actions were taken. There's cops in our neighborhood all the time. It's never been the same since you guys did that. Why? I have no idea. Um, our current mayor also doesn't follow the law. Um, our current city council members, many of them don't follow the law. Our district 7 and district 8 county commissioners are in violation of law. Um, Shelanda Hunt, you're like five years late on filing any campaign finance reports. You've never filed one. What's up with that? and you're the leader of the school board and you
055want us to be proud of you. You want to make all the decisions for everybody else. We can't trust you. We cannot trust you to do the right thing. Period. And I've bit my tongue long enough about this stuff. I've tried to be nice about it and a lot of people have come up here and asked you guys to change and still they get nothing. That's your time. Thank you. Thank you. That's it for our citizens requesting to address the board. Um agenda n number nine discussion item niola update Jeff. All right. This one's uh first reading. Um and so there are a number of policies um ironically the very first policy is uh 0131 um which uh talks about how Neola intends to look at and view the technical changes. A lot of times
056we see policies come back before us that are technical changes only. So in other words, they might be um pronouns, they might be adding uh periods or changing how a paragraph is structured without making any substantive changes to the policy. Uh and so I' I'd encourage you to kind of walk through that. Um there's there's other ones in here obviously field trip um immunizations, epinephrine and injections. uh student medications, um personnel files, human uh food service, wellness. There's there are several policies to be reviewed u and these will come back before the board. Uh you can see the changes in your packet highlighted in green. Um so, and the strikeouts obviously are are I think with a with a strikeout so you could see the old language uh next to the new language. Um and
057then uh on the bottom you'll see the US or the MMC number uh that refers to what law or um this this was referring to. So uh those are there and this was first reading. You have about a month. If you have questions on any of the policies as you're going through here, please don't hesitate uh to reach out and I will try to assist you with that um discussion. Thank you, Jeff. Item number 10, action item discussion. Any discussion? No, no, no. Okay. I do have I do have some questions. Um, so you went through um I think a number of them and mentioned those that are um that came from the um laws. which ones specifically are not um legal you know so the ones legal as far as you know we have
058some that come down so just so the audience knows there are some policies that come to us that um we really can't make any changes with then there are other policies that we can make more changes with which ones are we able to make changes from among these that have been given to us and I know there are some you know within again not again but also within some of the polic policies that come from law, there are some specifics that we can select, you know, whatever. But generally speaking, which ones can we touch and which ones can we not? Um, I think every one of these is driven by a law that I I'm opening them up one by one and every one of them you'll see the MCL or the US number at
059the bottom. Um, there are a couple. Uh the one I just jumped to was food service and it has some options that that you obviously can see um modifications um you know and and we actually have our our food service vendor kind of walk through how they'll handle you know things of dietary restrictions or dietary needs. Um and so you can see that we've selected those options um as far as what we can do. But when there's an option in there, it'll have an X in that option box and it'll it'll articulate end of option. Um, uh, same conversation. You again, I I didn't see one policy in here. It wasn't driven by law. Potentially with the exception of the the very first one, that bylaw, which again was just a description of how Nola
060was going to approach um technical changes of a non-substantive nature. Thank you. Um so I'll add to this conversation that um for the board's sake and you know community members if you are looking at the policies when it says MCL and those are some letters call letters basically at the bottom of the policy that lets you know which ones we kind of can't touch. So when you're looking through the policies as board members, um that was a question when I got on a policy committee years ago, you know, how much latitude do we have and where at? And um understanding that those that come down that have MCL on those are ones that we really can't touch as much. Um and as mentioned, Jess just mentioned there are um selections that we can make. Just
061because the box is checked on your policy doesn't mean that's the one that we have to select. If you've been on the board any number of years, you know I've come back from the comm policy committee with the other policy committees members feeling one way about the policy and me feeling another way about the policy. And we absolutely can come back to the table as board members and say I don't like that selection. I want this other selection. That's a part of our uh duties and roles. Um the look I'm looking at the wellness committee. This is a question PO8510. I'm seeing that that does not have the MCL on there. Um, so that would mean that this is not one that's sent by the state. Want to give a little more talk about this
062one? How this came about or what's going on with that? Yeah, bear with me while I open that one up. Um, it's 8510. Yeah, it that one's US law, so I apologize. If you were to look down at the bottom, you'll see USC 1751 section 204. Um, and so that's that's where that one comes from. and it's essentially a non-discrimination statement from the federal civil rights law and US uh Department of Agriculture. So, you'll see that in green added to the bottom of that policy. So, that's that's the change there. And um again, that one's driven by by law. It just happens to be the US law, not the Michigan compiled law. Okay. So, good to know. So, MCL is Michigan and US is federal. That's correct. Okay. Good to know. Thank you. Um the
063food service, I did have one question about this. I know we're going to have more discussion about it or we're actually going to vote on it. And just so we know, this is actually our discussion time part of it. We actually can have more discussion time later. But anyways though, um for this food policy um and you said that he mentioned some uh the food service guy came and talked about some things, but um the question I have which he may have answered, but I wasn't there for to hear it. Um, do we all always offer a variety of um things? Like say I don't eat meat and I realize in here in our policy that we're saying we're not uh giving any special accommodations to anybody, but do we still um always have like
064a salad bar that's free for students that, you know, don't eat meat or whatever? Do we always still have options? What I want to know. Yes. Every every day there's multiple options for lunch at every level. And they're free. That's what I want to know. That's correct as well. Okay. Thank you. But but we do have dietary restrictions. There are lots of folks who have issues with with food and we accommodate all of those. Okay, that's I'm glad you said and actually that's checked in here. So, explain that a little bit because I read where we were saying no, but just just help me understand what you know what I what I was confused about. Actually, what it says is when requested for a special dietary accommodation, uh is not supported by authorized medical statement
065or special dietary needs um such as that might be included in IEP or 504, the school cannot provide a modified meal. that if they have a a a 504 medical need or an IEP, then they can. That does not obviously disclude them from participation in grabbing a different choice for lunch because there's multiple choices that that at the meal. Can you kind of explain give me an example of what that uh uh exception might be? You said if they have a 504, we have to think of somebody that's got a gluten intolerance or a celiac or something like that that can't have grains or something along those lines might be an easy example. a diabetic that we deal with uh and in every building who has to have very specific um you know intakes uh
066that may be something very specific that again would be driven either by a 504 or potentially an IEP if they have a restriction that way. That's good. And how do we accommodate that? Help me understand. They'll they literally will make the specific meal for that that student. Okay. So, this this is confusing then because I'm reading at least in A, B, and C, I think it says the school district shall have no legal obligation to accommodate, which is why I was asking the question, do we have other options? But it sounds like we do have some legal uh responsibility to accommodate. Yes, we do. And we we do accommodate where necessary. Again, and again, I think you would find that every cafeteria is serving multiple meals, so there's there's choices for everybody. Okay, good to
067know. Thank you. Y Trusty Dobies on the first policy um 131.1 you said previously the board shall not adopt a policy that's not recommended by the superintendent in your superintendent report. Is that in is that in here under how we adopt our bylaws and policies or is that in a different It's in I think it's in the I'm going to get the wrong number here. 1240. So, it's not in that bylaw. It's in the board policy, superintendent board relationship. Okay. The um related to what uh Dererick just mentioned, um you said there's another policy that references this policy. Is that what I'm did I did I just hear that correctly? This is how Neiola is updating by their language. So when the the bylaw that you're looking at that we're being asked to consider from
068Neiola is Niola is going to start to do some changes and what they're recognizing is that there's a lot of back and forth on the technical changes. We see policies sometimes two and three times in a year because they make technical changes. Um and again it might be something as simple as as as pronoun changes or something uh as simple as restructuring or reordering how things were in. And I think Nola is simply articulating in that bylaw how they intend to make those changes moving forward. Did I hear him ask you a question around the board not adopting any policies unless they were um uh recommended by the superintendent? Did I just hear that out of him? That's in 12. It's not 124. I don't 12:30. It'll go to this board superintendent related. Is that
069related to this policy 131.1 that he just referenced? Okay. So that's what you were correcting him on that. 1210. 1210. Thank you. 1210. And that's not in our packet group right now. That's not a that's not a policy that that Nola is adjusting today. But you were just just letting him know that it was not this one, right? That's correct. Okay. I was trying to understand where that was coming from. We should look at that policy, too. That's all I got on policy. Thank you. Item number 10. Well, that was just a discussion item. Okay. Item number 10, action items 242578, custodial services RFP Marcus. All righty. I know we talked about this last month both here and at the finance committee meeting earlier in February. We put out an RFP for custodial services as
070our current contract ends at the end of this fiscal year on June 30th. We had a bid opening on March 13th. 14 vendors came to our pre-bid meeting. We received 11 responses. As I mentioned before, um me and the facilities team narrowed the bids down to four companies with their closest office location listed. I know that question was brought up last month. There were no local Jackson um vendors that that successfully bid on this. Um, so we have EnvirroClean, DMBmber, ABM, and GRBS. After reviewing the proposals, we're recommending continuing a relationship with EnvirroClean for another three years, and their total contract price of that $6.8 million, which is approximately $2.2 million a yearish. Um, and then I know there was questions about whether the staff at these companies were union versus non-union. Um, all of
071the companies responded to that question with uh the answer of non-union. Um, and so at this time administration's recommending approval of the bid to Enviral Clean. Thank you, Marcus. Motion to approve this agenda item. Discussion. Motion. Support. Discussion. I have a couple questions. Um, did you answer the question around uh local? What was the local? Yep. I listed their most closest local offices on the on the cover sheet there. So, there was none. They don't have Jack local Jackson offices. I think um um the last question I have for you, we wanted to know um I wanted to know if we had customer satisfaction surveys if we got, you know, from all of them. You did. Did you send that to us? It's um at the table there. I think Michelle put Oh, for all
072of them. No, I thought the question was for Envirro Clean if we had customer satisfaction scores. So, Envirro Clean every month puts out a um monthly report card that I included a blank copy of what they sent to the buildings and the uh principles will fill that out with comments and grades. The um you do have a summary for the current year for all buildings and district. Um so, the average score for Envirro Clean throughout this year on the low end goes anywhere from 89 to almost 95% of satisfaction scores within our buildings. Um, so given those high caser satisfaction scores, we just feel it's in our best interest to continue the relationship. Thank you, Marilyn. That was it. Okay. All right. Any more discussion? All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion
073carries. At this time, we're going to take a 10m minute break if we can have a motion. So moved. Thank you. Motion and motion and a support has been made. We're going to take a break before we go into our work session with Mark. We'll be back in 10 minutes. All right, I think that was 10 minutes. We are going to reconvene. Thank you everyone that have continued to stick around with us. We do have some business that we are about to handle. We have Mark Palmer with us tonight. Thank you Mark for joining us. We are excited about the information that you are prepared to share with us. I am going to pass it to you. Okay. Thank you, uh, President Hunt, and I'm happy to be here. I spent a couple of good
074days at, uh, Jackson Public Schools last week and and, uh, got to know the community a little bit and so, it's, uh, good to come back and report on those results. We have a few tasks to do this evening. Um, I want to report back on the results from the survey that was given to the community and staff. Um once we do that, we also want to look at um some of the re some of the responses from the um uh face toface meetings that that took place last week. And then um we will go over what we call selection criteria. So it kind of gives you an idea as a board. Um we try to match it up with what the results were from the survey and so on. And um you know I
075I made a draft and we can word smmith that or change some things if you see it differently. But uh we always publish that so everybody knows. And then finally um at the end and when we get to that point we will probably ask that the live stream be shut off to discuss what questions you um will ask in the uh um interviews when they come up on the 28th. So, um, but for now, uh, we'll just, uh, go as is. So, and please, if you have a question and I get going, uh, just interrupt me and ask the question. So, I I don't want to be, uh, don't want to miss anything. So, you should have about an 18page or so, um, u PDF of the the results. Um, I'm going to go through
076a PowerPoint here. Um, unfortunately when you put it into PowerPoint, not everything fits. So, this has all the plus it'd be really small writing for some of it. So, this will um this gives you all the information that came out of the survey. So, as we go through the slides, it kind of matches it should match um what you have in front of you there as well. Um, and I recommend since it was asked by some of the community members if they would see these results and this is this is public information. So, it can be put on um right on your website where where you have your superintendent search um information already. So, in case you're wondering. So, to start out um there were 161 responses to the survey. We had it out for
077about two and a half to three weeks. Um this is a typical response that we get usually anytime we can get over 150. Doesn't matter the size of the district. It seems to be that's the magic number getting at least 150. And um so we're just going to go through some of those results. Um question one was how long have you lived in the school district? And you can see it's it's nice because um 72% of the survey or the people who responded um have been here for over 10 years. So it just shows a commitment from people in the community. Um that's a you know it's not uh it's kind of typical of what we see, but it's it's good to see that people were engaged on that one. You look for how long
078you work for the district. Um this is also another good thing you see uh the blue is the 10% or over 10 years it's uh 30.63% so 49 people have worked for the district for over 10 years and that is something that came out in the uh survey as a strength that uh um there's a lot of longevity with people on staff that they want they they grow up here quite often they come back and want to stay here. Um you can see 56 people do not work for the district at all. So can I so by including the people who don't work in the district does that kind of skew the responses for how long the employees like if you look at the percentages I mean those numbers would change if you eliminated those
07956 people who don't work. Yeah. Yeah, if you took the 56 people that don't work for the district, then you would have out of the 160, you'd have, you know, you'd be taking your percentages out of uh um 104. So, yes, it it would change it a bit. So, for example, that uh if I'm doing my math right, um it's been a long time since I taught math, but uh 49 were over. So, you're approximately 49% would have been work for the district. So, yeah. Uh question three is which type of stakeholder you the survey taker was and you could check you you checked every box they fit. So some people are employees um some have students some are parents um they may be grandparents they could fit multiple categories. So that just gives you
080an idea um of what kind of uh you know what re what roles some of the surveyors uh played in here and you can see if you don't really like graphs you can you can see all the numbers on the following pages. Uh next we get into uh the question is what is the minimum level of education you want the board to consider when evaluating candidates for a superintendent position and they were to check one answer on this one and um you can see that a master's plus administrative certification was the top this is highly typical of what we see um and it's uh um this matched what I learned in the uh face toface meetings as Well, so masters plus uh certified. I didn't switch it. There we go. Um positions that uh you'd
081like the next candidate to have had held in the past. And in this one, you may check up to three. Um I'm going to say these are typical results. the top four are usually what we see um on this and usually having been a teacher and a building principal is usually the top two um almost all the time. So uh and that that also goes along with what I heard in the face toface meetings. We'd like to see somebody that's done several positions within within a district. you know, they've been a teacher, they've been a building principal, they've been uh they've worked in central office, um done district-wide things. Um and quite often, yes, you do get um the as you can see, uh 46% were saying they would prefer that uh they've been a
082superintendent in another school district, so they have superintendent experience. Um it's usually a little bit higher than that, I think. Um the assistant superintendent isn't quite as close, but um you see that there. I think we're going to get to some of these. I apologize to the audience where you may not see all of it um that the board can see. Um so these are specific areas of expertise that different superintendent candidates may possess. From your perspective, how much weight should be should the board place on each area? rate the importance of the each area using the scale to the right. Um then the scale is basically um it's critically important to down to relatively unimportant. Um and you can tell here when we look at this. So it's from one to five, five being
083the highest. um budget development and management is the number one concern or number one area of expertise that uh people chose here. That's usually in the top three. Um it depends on u the district and where your finances are at any given time on that. Public relations um is actually quite high here and uh that's usually down a little bit further, but uh public relations and again that that I think goes with communication and um engagement being visible. Um those are types of things that I heard when I went out to the face toface meetings. You can see all the uh other areas in there as well. So leadership styles. So you have uh six different leadership styles and we all do something different at any any given time. Um we're not wedded to one.
084This is the only one we ever use. Um so they were a they were asked to uh look at the list and choose up to two management styles you would like to see in the next superintendent. And you can see here 60.87% 87% of the individuals chose a collaborative leader. Um and this is a leader leads by using consensus building and other group processes to arrive at mutually beneficial decisions. Um that was quite a bit higher and that is not unusual. Um it also matched what I learned in my in the face to face. Um they would like a leader that will work with others that will listen to others. um you can't be an expert in everything. And so um that was uh this is a typical what you would see um on that
085on the position or experiences. Uh question eight experiences in um question eight is listed below are specific experiences and skill areas that could be important when evaluating the superintendent candidate. From your perspective, how much weight should the board place on each area? Um, rate the importance of each area using the scale at the right. And again, it was that fivepoint scale, five being the highest, one being the lowest. And the um this is where it kind of gets cut off for the audience, but um the all of them are listed here. And usually they're all quite high because you get to choose six. However, exceededly responsive was the number one. And uh that's also um that's also typical exceededly responsive and I believe it's follows through and follows up was the was the question. Um
086a big one recognizes values and affirm staff members. Um that was a little bit higher than a lot of times that we'll see. So, that was good. Um, the one that I found very interesting because you don't often see this is the overarching low of kids. It's usually down the page a little farther and it was high here at at Jackson. So, um, I think that's significant. So you can see the results there as you go down and you all should have the the numbers on every one of them. Question nine, personal characteristics. So these are um what are personal characteristics that different superintendent could possess? From your perspective, how much weight should be should the board place on each personality characteristic when assessing each candidate? And again, it's a rate from 1 to five.
087Number one, honest and ethical. Um, that's quite often the response that we get and I think that we should all expect that from our uh school leaders. So, transparent was quite high, a problem solver, strong listener is always uh up there as well, approachable is typically up there, collaborative again is up there, a strong communicator. Um, as you can see, those are maybe not always right in that exact order, but that's kind of typically what we would see um across the across the board. And you can see all the uh all the It's interesting because um thick skin gets to the second page and uh that's one of the things with people uh um in the face toface meetings they brought up. So, um, I came a little more a little higher on the scale,
088I guess, although I wasn't really I can't really measure it that way, but okay. In choosing your next um, superintendent, which path or strategy below do you think the board of education should take? And you get to choose one. As you can see, 46% or 75 chose find a candidate with the same basic educational management philosophy as the current administration, but who can sometime can make some necessary changes. Close following closely up with 65 people at 40% um find a very different candidate kind of candidate who is ready to take the district um in a significantly different direction. Um the bottom one there at 13% um almost is always on the low end. The uh usually the top two they are not uh quite as close. Although this spring, interestingly enough um in at least
089one other district that I did, they it was even closer than that where it was almost 5050 where they they selected those two on top. Any questions about that portion of it? One question for you. A couple questions for you. So, we um how long did we have the survey out for? It was about uh two and a half to three weeks, I believe. And we just got, if I'm understanding correctly, just 161 folks. That's the number of people who responded. Thank you. Those are my questions. Again, that's typical. Um, and we had it out for about the same amount of time we always do. Most of the people do it within the first couple of days. Like I think within the first three days there were hundred or something like that that were taken.
090And um I know that a second reminder was sent out um with a few days to go and and uh to pick up a few more. So, okay. The uh second thing, and I just stuck it in my papers here somewhere, is you should have a paper that I don't have. There's not a uh there's not a PowerPoint to go with this. So, I met um with a number of different groups last week on two different days. Um, I had, I believe, three meetings with community groups trying to do it on different days, different times to see if we get more to come in. Um, two separate meetings for staff and staff could go to the community groups if they wanted to, whichever time would fit best to them for them. Um, I had a
091meeting with building administrators. I met with uh union leadership. I met with um central office administrators um at least ones that weren't considering putting their name in and also um central office support staff that that work in in that office. Um so I'm going to I will say they were not real well attended. Um I think uh the administrator group was the probably the largest group um in your there was good leadership meeting means from the uh um union leadership but you you know they you usually only send one or two per per group and when you have I think it's five I think they're I believe all but one were represented at the uh at the meeting. So, um, community meetings, uh, the first night I had two and, um, the second afternoon one,
092I think there were six, I want to say. Um, with a couple of those being, uh, staff members and then the evening one, we had uh, I believe another six at the evening one. staff. Um we had none for the first session and then the second one which was right after that um we had I believe uh about six at that one as well. So um that's not atypical. That happens quite often, especially it depends on what's happening on on any given day and time, what the weather's like. It could if the weather is bad, sometimes people don't come out. If it's good, sometimes they don't come out. So, you just you just never know if they have events. Staff particularly, we had them right after school was out. Um tried to stagger a couple
093times so you could catch people at the different times they get out of buildings. And um you know this the spring of the year this time of the year it's just some of them are and they have families it's like you know what I just can't go do another thing right now I need to um so they that's quite often not not unusual. So uh I ask for questions. So we'll look at the boxes here and what I've done is I have um summarized what much of what I heard um and I tried to write down what was said um and each each one I explained the process that we were going through um in the interview process. So if we look at the box on strength of the district, you can see uh staff
094is caring, supportive, passionate, responsive, committed committed and again longevity in the community. And this really came from all groups. I mean that's that's why I like to put those kind of things down because there wasn't an outlier saying, you know, one thing or another. Um almost every group somehow brought up the community partnerships that uh JPS has um and they continue to try to foster um whether you know just just different agencies that sort of thing. [Music] Um they're quite proud of the diversity of students and staff. Um I think a comment was JPS is welcome welcomes all. Sorry a little misprint there. I should say JPS welcomes all. Don't don't need the S in there. But um very proud of the off the variety of programming. um they feel like a a secret of
095JPS is there is the availability of high academics um CTE courses certainly early college um but not only in academics but um clubs extra extracurricular activities um all groups felt that there's something for everyone at JPS and on the other side of things there's support for all so whether it's academics mental mental health um crisis situations um services for all students. They felt that they were uh that that did exist here. I'm very proud of that. Um facilities are wellmaintained and um a few comments on open to try new things. Um AI, artificial intelligence and was one specific thing that was mentioned in the tech innovation center. Um just to I wanted to put that in as examples of trying new things. Moving over to the challenges that will be faced in the next 3
096to 5 years. Um not a surprise budget and finance was brought up. That's typical. Um recruiting and retaining quality staff. um declining enrollment and unfortunately that's happened to about 70% of the districts or something like that in the state of Michigan. Uh many groups um community staff all brought up uh they're seeing challenging behavior issues with students that um and that is something I've heard in other districts I've been in. everybody's been facing that um particularly after the uh pandemic um changes in parenting style. Um I think that uh the perception of the district was really an important part of what people brought up. You know, they they feel like if you're here, there's some really good things happening, but the perception from people outside is very different. So um I thought that was interesting.
097Um the challenge of implementing programs initiatives with fidelity. Um so for example the PBIS um it's not really considered a program but it's an initiative that um positive behavior systems um those are a challenge for every district and JPS is not a not not alone on that. So doing it to get everyone every building um to cohesively uh across the district to to implement these types of programs is an is a is a challenge. And finally, one that came up several times are political issues. And really what was meant by that is like there's so many unknowns. What is going to happen with the federal uh education department? What how is that going to affect JPS? that's going to be a challenge that um it's just as we all know we no one knows what
098from day to day what's going to take place. So um that certainly was a concern on uh people's minds. Um experiences that the sup next superintendent has had. This is typically it mirrors um what the survey said which this did here as well. They really want them to have experience at all levels, district-wide activities, um, experience in urban and diverse settings. Uh, I think one person put it, I thought I worded it was worded quite well. Um, said, you know, we're a small town with really big bigger city makeup and and issues. Um, so that's when she we have more urban urban uh issues. So that's kind of why I summed it up and put it that way. Um and it was brought up for a curriculum background uh which was also in the survey
099as well. So there was um I didn't put this on here because they would have been conflicting and so I'm just going to tell you about it. Um, there was a couple that said the superintendent should be from someone outside the district and then there were a couple that said it should be someone that really knows the district well and and uh is committed to the community and has been here. So, um, you got both perspectives. So, I didn't quite know how to put that on here. I'm just going to tell you, I don't know if they really offset each other, but that was out there. Um, both those perspectives was uh, expressed And finally, um, what will it take to be successful? So, this is really your personal attributes. Um, almost, uh, everyone said,
100and they they would say this together, you need to be committed to the community and JPS, you know, it's they're they many people see them one and the same. Um, and which makes sense. um someone who has a presence or can command an audience um is a great communicator basically. Um, it was it was an interesting comment that I I uh I usually get the great communicator, but uh when they just it was a person that talked about, you know, kind of when you walk into the hallway of the high school or wherever, you know, you you just have that presence about you and people understand you're the superintendent and and um people are there uh to support you and listen to you. Um, again, kind of with a thick skin comment, uh, ability to
101make hard decisions, a fresh perspective, and again, that's kind of along the lines of maybe somebody that's been outside, just a different perspective, collaborative, that came up several times. Um, a culture builder, um, build better relationships within buildings. And I I'm gonna be honest, I'm not certain I really read my hand own handwriting correctly, but um I think there was also a feeling that um that uh the relationship between the superintendent and staff students in the building is also important that is going to be important to be successful. um several times open to other ideas, work with the staff, listen to other ideas, willing to do things differently. Um sense of humor came up, someone with a vision and uh I should put on here not only vision but uh um willing to carry out
102that vision, stick to it and carry it out. Um balance support with accountability that uh cames very strongly. Um again strong community involvement, personable, approachable, consistent, a forward thinker. Um again I always want to re-emphasize ability to be humble and lean on others when you don't know the answer because we don't know the answers to everything. And um willing to go anywhere and talk to anyone in the community. So that's kind of uh a synopsis of what I had learned when I met with people. And again, I think it was a total of about 42 to 45 something like that. But I wanted to give you a picture of what was said. Many of things mirrored what was said on the surveys. So any questions so far? All right. Now, your first little bit of
103work here. So, we're going to look at this one that has the uh Jackson Public Schools logo on it. And what we like to do is develop a uh we particularly use this for external searches, but um it's also it's good for any search. Um we'd like to look at the survey results, listen to what you have to say, um which we'll do at this point. um and develop what se selection criteria of what we you what the community thinks you should be looking for um in your next superintendent. So, um I'll give you a minute to read over this if you could please and uh then we'll talk about if there's anything you'd like to change, anything that uh you'd like to add, um that sort of thing. So, uh, why don't I give
104you about three minutes to get through it and and we'll go from there. Mr. Palmer. Yes. Um, can you Where did this come from? This right here. I made this from the results of the um survey. Thank you. You're welcome. And you want us what? To choose. Well, I want you to look it over and and read it over if you feel like there's um something you would like to add, there's anything you'd like to delete or maybe some word smithing of some things, changing up a little bit. Um because this is your chance, you get input as well. So, um you're the ultimate decision maker. So, because this will then be what you use to what this this would be this would be really a guide for you when we're going through the interview
105process. um you can kind of have this in mind and and uh to help you select how you want to go about this is what the community feels like they're looking for. Thank you. And in many ways, yes. I guess I missed that. Um I I well my my girls tell me I'm not very I don't have a sense of humor. So I mean I I'm more than happy to do it. I know. Mark, I like the content that's provided. Just um how does this align with our superintendent evaluation tool? Um I I don't I didn't look at the tool to build this. I took the survey results. So there are certainly um some aspects on here that that you rate on the superintendent tool, but they're not all here. I see I have a
106typo on the and I like it. I am going to fix it. That second sentence in the uh first paragraph should say a successful candidate will strengthen relationships with community and staff. So is there anything that you would like to add? Um change up the wording a little bit or anything? Yeah. You said you're going to change this. The last sentence, a successful candidate will strengthen. What is it? Yes. Because I I I missed putting the word will in there and strengthening. It should be just strengthen relationships with um so vision long range planning. I would like to see develop and implement a strategic plan with the board. I want someone who's interested in that and who understands the importance of it. have another one, too. You're ready. Just a second. I'm trying I'm trying
107to uh in I don't know if I like that word but I'll so I I have written down develop and implement a strategic plan in cooperation with the board. I may words with that a little bit. Is there anyone like that? But that sounds good start to me. The other couple that I have is just in the very next portion of it. Desired professional experience. Um central office experience. I don't think that that's necessarily important. That's just my personal opinion. Um master's degree um plus administrative certification. I would say um a master's degree with the willingness to obtain it with support from the board. Um I'm I'm uh interested in someone who has the master's degree but able to get the certification. um is just my p personal perspective on that and then um the
108strong knowledge and experience with school finance. Um I I would say just the working knowledge in my opinion. I don't know that they have to have super strong because we do have a strong uh finance director. Um and then the last one I would have I need to better understand demonstrated ability to develop an value curriculum. Is that the idea that they have done it before or what's what's that um trying to get at for the next? Yeah. I think I I think what we're looking for is um what came out in the survey and in the conversations is someone that um has demonstrated they developed and knows how to evaluate curriculum that you have in place. So I don't know that I would make that a requirement myself because I feel like we do
109have other individuals who could um you know be that sounding board for that person. Um I don't have a strong feeling on that. You're not you're probably not going to have any candidate that will have every single one of these things. So you just asked so I'm just telling you what I had. what I came up with. But yeah, like I said, I don't have I'm not super married to that either way, one way or another, but that was just one that I looked at. That's So, could I ask are there the rest of the board would I mean the master's degree plus administrative certification? That's not a a huge thing. You can get you can get administrative certification fairly easily. Not I shouldn't say easily. There's a process to go through. Usually, if you
110retained your master's degree, you you can if it's in the right area, you can uh apply and you've got your certification. Eventually, you have to have it, but you don't have to start out with it. Okay? So, I personally would not choose to change that. I would like these bullet points to be our ultimate goals. I don't want to minimize criteria. Um, and if you don't meet it, okay, but I would like to see these stay as they're stated. Yes, I want someone with a strong knowledge and experience with school finance. And if you don't, then I'll evaluate you accordingly, but I don't want to decrease the criteria. Okay, I agree. That is true. These are these are ultimately an applicant may be able to highlight things a little more if they know the because
111they'll see the I recommend this gets published um and they'll be able to see the the uh criteria that's here and maybe they'll say well you know what I have um I'm going to make sure I highlight in my letter or or whatever my curricul work. Um or and and again, central office experience doesn't mean they're all going to have it. Um but you know, we can we can keep it there. We're we're never going to get at someone that has every every everything. So, I mean, I would be fine personally eliminating that one, too, because honestly, I mean, what does it even mean? If you're if you've been an administrator, what does central office experience mean? Maybe you you know, yeah, where that's there's so many roles in the central office. I mean, maybe
112you worked for human resources. I don't know. That's a good point because you're really probably going to be looking more for um districtwide responsibilities, I think, is a better way to put it. that you've experienced maybe contract negotiations or you've experienced building a budget or you've experienced. So, um if everybody's okay, I'll take that central office experience one off of there. I'm okay with that. Um and I don't recall where did we end up with administrative certification. I mean, that's it really we can go either. I'm interested in um not creating barriers if they don't have to have it. that if the law doesn't require them to have it on higher um and it says that you can you know that you are willing to get it in my opinion we should be willing to
113open up the space for that you know we've already closed the search down to the school district only um at minimum we shouldn't be placing barriers around individuals who may be in the district who you know have a master's degree and are willing to clearly if you have a master's degree then you can absolutely obtain you know the administrative certification if it's in the right area that up you know just saying that you'd be willing to get it and I Even I would be willing to say as well that the board will support you in that whether we're helping pay for that or whatever. I'm interested in that. I would be interested in that as well, but I definitely don't think we should close it down to this administrative certification because who's walking around with
114administrative certifications, you know, just in general, you know, I mean, that are in the district. If you didn't have to have it, why would you have it? You know what I mean? So, but if you're willing to get it, I think we should sign up for that. Yeah. Right. Chances are 95% of the people that apply in any position we have have the have the um the certification already. And again, we're saying these are desired characteristics, not required, right? And they're not required. and and because you can if you don't if you don't have it. Um the district would apply for a um a permit in the the um uh the person would have to start a program within six months of of hire. Um which there's a lot of different ways you can get
115it. And usually if they have a a master's degree, um that will just transfer right over as long as it's in education. If it's not in education, then it's probably a few more steps. Um it transfers I mean it's it just transfers over to easily just sign a piece of paper and send in your check in to be honest with you. So is it that simple? Seriously, what's that? It's that simple to obtain administration. Sometimes if you if you've gotten your master's degree. Yes. And then and then once you get it, you have to get so many hours like 150 hours every three or five year five years. Okay. Um to renew. Um there's also the central office endorsement that they should have which you get time to do that as well. Um quite often
116they'll have the certification but they don't have a central office endorsement and you can go through different you can go to colleges and get it or you can I did a program um through the superintendent association MASA and it was great because I met with other superintendent about 10 times throughout the year um and uh we did project and works on things that applied to our position. which was it was excellent. So that's not difficult to get in. We could also list it as master's degree. You know, it's in one spot in another bullet point that says um administrator certification preferred. Sometime when you're looking at applications and they're, you know, the wording is there, individuals may read it as I have to have this. So if we put the word preferred in there, then
117we know that the word prefers it, but that it's not required. That again eliminates that. We can we can do that. I do that quite often actually. So, I'll do that. Okay. I have I just have one. Um, in addition to the strategic plan and maybe facilities planning, uh, somewhere in the vision long range planning, I think Trusty Hamilton suggested, um, I'd like to see maybe to sub out central office experience, experience in board relations and governance, something like that. I think the rest of these kind of talk to um teaching experience, building level, administrative experience, got a master's degree, you got knowledge and experience with finance, student achievement, curriculum, the rest of those bullet points. I think experience in board relations and governance. Yeah, that's that's well said. That's an important part of, you
118know, managing down throughout the schools and then also managing up to the board. Okay. So, I'll clean this up and I'll send it to Miss Saxley uh tomorrow at some point and you can put those um wherever you have the posting um along with the survey results would be great. And yeah. So, okay. At this point, we're going to move to the questions and I'm going to I'm going to uh