001e e e at this time we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance Michelle will you do a roll call for his place uh Miss Hamilton present Mrs Simonetti here miss Acton present Mr ready present Miss sharp here Mr does here and Miss Hamilton oh I'm sorry Miss I'm sorry I'm here thank you thank you sorry approval of the agenda at this time I can have a motion Madam president I'll move approval of the agenda with an addition under discussion items for the uh memo I just passed out int uh amending policy 8390 on uh animals on District property under discussion items thank you so we'll add that as an as a discussion item for today thank you anyone want to no we haven't I'm asking for that second right now adding adding it to the agenda
002do we have a second to add that to the agenda for discussion a second wa have a second any discussion um I would like to we just got this document haven't had a chance to read it I'm not prepared to discuss it at this time I would vote no yeah I'd like to read it first also I just received it I'm also in the same position any other discussion yeah I'll um there there really isn't a way um old business is a new thing to our items but uh there really isn't no way uh to discuss something without adding it to the agenda um my intent here uh is honestly to refer this to uh the policy committee um this is something that I have uh talked broadly about um and I think shared different
003vers versions of uh previously about allowing therapy dogs at JPS um my intent is to get it on here and then refer it to um this copy to the uh policy committee trusty does would you like to make an amendment to your motion and just have it go directly to the board to the policy committee our policy committee is scheduled to meet april8 yes as we are we're setting an agenda to have that discussion um and add that as an item to then take action on and have sent but I mean typically it is added to the agenda so that we can discuss it at that appropriate time on the agenda if it's I withdraw my motion and I would move approval of the agenda with the addition of adding the policy that has been
004passed out policy 8390 allowing therapy dogs at JPS under old business because it is old business and then we don't have to discuss it I guess we have a support do we have a support for the motion that has been withdrawn motion fail now we need a motion to any more discussion before we approve the agenda I'd like to make a motion uh to amend the agenda in place youth representation at board meetings and resolution affirming JPS as a welcoming District to all students and send it to the policy committee okay support any discussion I'm going to be a no on both of those so no discussion based on that um one we had conversation around this uh last month those of us that have been um in decision-making positions for any length of time
005some of us sat on city council and we even attained you know the mayorship position um some of us have been sitting at this board table for a long time and we know that there are um ways to get things on the agenda and that's usually by uh you know sending it to the president or the mayor um and uh it getting on the agenda in that way you do not have to put something on the agenda the day of um and we've had these two items on the agenda we went through the proper routes for both of them to get on the agenda um so I'm going to be a no on that we've had time to discuss it um we can see what happens in discussion uh based on whether or not we
006decide or whether we you know wait on them a little bit longer but this doesn't need to go to the policy committee policy committee simply uh you know reviews items and then brings it to the board table the policy committee does not make the decision the board table does um and the board should be reviewing the policies period you know um whe whenever the policy comes out so um we've had an opportunity to do that we don't need more time to sit in um policy committee for us just simply come back to the board table to have the same discussion that we would eventually have and then make a decision on it so we don't need this to go to the policy committee at this time I'm going to be a no on that sorry
007Miss Hamilton I'm going to respectfully disagree with that uh actually that would be in violation of board policy 1210 what in violation board policy 1210 clearly states policy policy should not be originated or changed without the recommendation of the superintendent so if you would like a policy to be originated it should go to policy committee which has been this board's practice for longer than I've been here okay so so I don't know what you're talking about but what I'm talking about is that once it comes from the policy committee and it gets to the board table the board are the ones who decide on that policy even with your recommendation or anybody's recommendation who sits in the superintendency it still does not become policy until the board decides on that the point that I'm making
008is that when things go to policy committee it's still coming back to this table that's one point that I'm making the second point that I'm making is that both of these items were placed on the agenda in the proper way as a way to reference Derek saying that the memorandum has to get put on the agenda tonight that's not accurate that's not true so the two points that I'm making is one is coming back to this table already we've already had discussion on these items we've already placed them on the uh the agenda in the correct way and the items that I'm referring to are the youth representation and the resolution we've already had those policies placed on the agenda the board has already discussed them the superintendent is not the one who decides on
009those yes we accept your recommendation as in listening to it and reviewing it we do not necessarily have to go along with it that's what the board the elected officials are for I'm not sure what you're referring to do we have you in that seat and whoever's going to sit in that seat to kind of advise us yes but do we have to go with your advisement not at all so I'm not sure what you're referring to but that's what I'm talking about I would I would refer you I apologize I would refer you to policy 1210 Miss Hamilton trusty Hamilton just to give some clarification yes you are correct they did come before the board last month as far as the youth board representation we did not come to a consensus last month as
010I did send out some um models that we could consider and that's the reason why we are asking that this goes before the policy committee so that we can decide on which model we would like to embrace or adopt as the board so we have those options that were provided thank you for that Clarity um I understood that this didn't go before the policy committee it doesn't have to go before the policy committee that's my point now in discussion the motion that's been made is that we table this to the policy committee that's the motion that's been made I already explained that in the policy committee the policy committee simply does a overview and brings back ideas to the board the board itself should be reviewing everything period they should be they should be right
011so in that interest and because we've already discussed this at the last meeting the conversation that we have today if we were not dealing with this issue as far as removing it and send it over could have included and should include we've got these things that we've discussed that we've sent out that's been in our emails we have some options do we want to make a decision on one of those today or not like that could be the discussion that's that's that's reasonable that's the expectation that's what I expected at least we don't need it to go to the policy committee for for that reason that reason alone especially if we're going to end up having a committee of the whole because in that committee we be discussing it but at this point we don't
012necessarily have to send it to policy Committee in order for the policy to come back and say hey look we've got these different ones we think that this one is the better one we should all be able to have that conversation at the board table so I'm just saying we don't have to send it there whatever the decision we end up making that's fine but you know we don't have to send it there the idea that it has to go before the policy committee before it can come to this table is inaccurate and true it does not have to do that we don't have to do that that's all I'm saying trusty Hamilton do you find Value in this going to the policy committee I find Value in us as a board um diligently reviewing
013everything that has been put out around the youth representation if that's the one since that's the one that we're referring to the um value for me is uh in the resolution I don't find Value in it going to the policy committee um I find Value in us having the discussion at the board table around these things and saying hey look you know what we might need some more time on this this one is Rose to the top this one didn't rise time like I find Value in that I'm not sure that now the policy committee could come back and bring like specific uh you know we found these are items that we each individually think work better but if we as board members are not looking at all the different options that are um there
014we won't be able to see that hey look actually I think this one work would work better and for why and and this is why like I find Value in that process we all should be looking at it now could we we as you know policy committee look at these individual ones yeah we could we could you know I mean bring back the the ones that Rose to the top but we should all be doing that our due diligence anyway so again I'm I'm going to be a no on those as far as going to the policy committee for those reasons but if if during our discussion we end up voting to go to send it there it you know that's what happens and you are part of the policy committee correct I'm very well
015aware of that you know that I have for four years I just wanted to make that clear to the to the community any more discussion um I am in favor of tbling this and sending it to the policy committee and a recent example of this same thing as with the Dei policy it was brought to this table by individual board members it was discussed at this table it went to the policy committee and came back for further discussion and approval that is our practice thank you trusty Simonetti trusty dolis any last thank you president and to speak to uh what was just said that's uh more or less what I was attempting to do with the uh policy to allow therapy dogs to bring it in front of the board uh introduce it and then
016refer it uh to the policy committee I think that we are uh I'll be voting against uh the amended agenda I think that um the agenda is to decide what we want to talk about um at the meeting and then those individual items if we want to take action on those items we should do so in discussing those items but not discuss the entirety of all of those individual points um before we actually have an adopted agenda so there's a motion on the flooor we have a second discussion has taken place all in favor of can you can you clarify what the motion is since we had a couple other this discussion what what are we actually vote on so I made a motion to amend the agenda and to send um the youth representation
017at board meetings and the resolution affirming JPS is a welcoming District to all students to send it to policy committee not opposed to that it's just a procedural thing that I think we should address those as they come up under old business all in favor of the motion that trustee acting just provided say yay hi i i i any oppos no motion passes 4 to three superintendent report Jeff Bale actually good evening and welcome to uh point of order we still need to approve the amended agenda we voted on the amendment correct thank you thank you very much can I at this time can we approve the amended agenda based on Acton's motion support and the vote so I move that we um accept the amended agenda all in favor I I anyone oppos superintendent
018report all right welcome to March Madness everybody um it is a you know going to be a great tournament for those boys in blue and um I'm going to actually open the superintendent report and invite uh Monica Pierce and Jackson high school and Jackson Pathways to come forward and kind of give us an update on uh what's going on here at the high school and and those great things that are taking shape all right good evening thank you Mr Beal for inviting us to present here at this um board meeting tonight we are going to begin our presentation with our um some students from Jackson High School Mr Cunningham is their teacher and adviser so I will have them come up and do their presentation good evening my name is Chuck hunningham thank you so
019much for the opportunity to come share a little bit about what our marketing and business program is all about I'm proud of you guys line up this way as you can see everybody yeah that's that's better that way they're single file line I love it I love it so um no I'm proud these are five of our awesome seniors they all represent us in different uh capacities uh throughout our program I kind of give you a little bit of an idea about what our program looks like uh the few pictures on the screen uh uh really a lot of what we do over the course of the day is connected to the program Deca which a long time ago used to stand for uh distributive education clubs of America that's really what it means uh
020it's kind of branched out over the years and it's really to kind of prepare emerging leaders in business entrepreneurship management Hospitality finance and much more um we had 64 of our students participated the District conference uh 27 qualified for the state competition uh so those are a couple of the different pictures on the left-and side and we had three state champions who now are uh continuing on to represent Jackson High School in Orlando Florida at the end of next month uh Tom V tiagi lenon craves and Tobin Warren uh two of them are uh here to be uh to share a little bit about their role and then uh our other three seniors uh Grayson Dean Isabella Ortiz and Marian Moore um they really are a true representation of like the full growth of what
021we want out of our program our program really starts at the marketing level where it's we look at that as like our foundation course we want them to be able to have the good tools that are necessary to be able to really kind of understand how to Market how to Pro how to promote a product how to price it properly how to connect with your uh consumers etc etc and the cell for our Advanced program is all about doing marketing it's really just Hands-On at that point their you their experience is unique we like to use the word like Controlled Chaos um um a massive independent study with if you will because they really kind of go on their own Journey um and that'll that's part of what they'll be able to kind of talk
022about here in a little bit about the doing marketing aspect of things uh three major components throughout the course of the day that we handle and you'll see Our Brands the cafe orange which we run right here out of the media center we're open Tuesdays through Fridays Mondays our classroom day we also have our Viking store which still functions under the same capacity Tuesdays through Fridays with Monday being the classroom day and then we also run the Viking news so if you've ever tuned in our Viking news two days a week we also have students that uh make that possible so that's what's great about the five of them that are standing here they all are our leaders in different capacity so I'm Maran and T our um Big Time leaders for our Vikings store
023is and Grayson uh play a large role in our Cafe orange then Tolman uh he he does a few different things but like the Viking news is the big thing that he does along with the Vikings store so um I'm going to pass over the microphone to each of them let them kind of tell about their experience their fouryear Journey here at the high school and uh so forth so thank you so much for uh the time hello everybody my name is Maran Moore and I run the product and beverage through the Vikings store through through the last couple years I've learned many and many skills that I wouldn't learn any other way through Deca I've learned just confidence and just believing in what I've learned throughout these last couple years thank you hi everyone
024my name is tanby tiagi and I have been doing the marketing retail program as well as a Deca program all four years and I would say that it's built me up a lot as a person so the retail program it really teaches you kind of like it gives you a foundation on the work space like the corporate workspace that most people go into so you know the different teams the collaboration between them how tasks like are designated to each team it really helps you like get a feel for that so you don't feel like you're going in blind when you actually go into like that kind of workspace um and you know we do a lot of cool stuff with the Vikings store we do like many events we do limited time products and I
025think it's just a great way students always look forward to it we always have sales every single day um and the DECA program I think benefits everyone even if they're not going into like a specific business or entrepreneurial role or career um because there's people that are going in all sorts of different careers and that but it just tells you a lot of like it gives you a lot of like communication skills and just like builds you up better as a person um and that's why I think it's really really important hi my name is Isabelle I've been taking this class for four years and I've developed a lot of skills that I wouldn't have in any other classes along with a lot opportunities and experiences and I oversee the cafe orange hi I'm toin
026um I've been in the marketing program for three years um I work on the clothing team for the Vikings store and I'm also a manager and for the Viking news I helped produce edit and just put together all the episodes that are released out through the week um it's also my third year in the DECA program and I was representing the Vikings store with the under the um school-based Enterprise event um yeah through all these I've learned a ton of skills with I've G gained a lot of confidence with like public speaking and all that and I've built up a lot of connections how's it going everyone I'm Grayson Dean I am a senior I've been taking this marketing class for four years and to the classroom side of things it's really helped me uh
027find my way you know find my career path find what I want to do with my life find some Focus um it's given me confidence I wouldn't my freshman year I would have never done anything like this I would came up and talk in front of all of these people um but really the DECA program is where it comes uh really shows what I've learned and how like my my focus in life I've done a lot of the business operations management um uh what is it call competitions and it's really uh that's what I prand uh pursue in life Mr Cunningham has done an amazing job with us and it really gives you some focus it helps all the students in the class know what they want to do and even if they don't particularly
028know what they want to do it helps them find their way [Applause] thank you so much there do you have any questions for our students um I don't have any questions but I am so proud of you guys the reason is I known all these kids including lenon who is not here today for a long time and the great great thing about these guys are they're all part of tennis every one of them we do we make sure so we give you we we give your du as much as we can for middle one right there is a Bella but her brother is a VAR City tennis player for the last three years so I am proud of you guys and especially you Mr Cunningham thank you for all you do for the kids well
029thank you and again thank you for your support again I I mean I can't take their credit they they work hard they make they make me look good at the end of the day like they're awesome kids and um we we again thank you as the token of our appreciation we'd like to uh bring you a little uh one of our special items from the cafe orange our special what we call our Viking smoothie you can see has a nice little orange color uh has mango strawberry and coconut milk so we'll pass it around if you'd love to try some we'd love for you to test it out but thank you again so [Applause] much again uh a real shout out to Mr Cunningham and his whole crew and we are looking forward to hearing
030how our kids do at Nationals uh next month so it uh again a great opportunity for those Deca students to be able to come back and share with us all right great job Vikings um so hopefully you enjoy your smoothies when you have a chance um on our agenda we have some points of discussion we're going to talk about MinGa a software management system we use at Jackson High School Jackson County early college um our Viking eminent mentoring program our PBIS system and then I'll pass it to Mr Slater who is our mtss coach and he is going to talk um about PBIS and Pathways all right so some of you who attended Jack in high school can remember um Miss Don chasing folks through the hall um checking for hall passes and in some
031sense we still were using our our passes the paper passes for students to get um to and from classes and different spaces so we recently implemented a digital C digital Campus Management System called MinGa students are uh able to have digital student IDs and they have digital hall passes as well so so this system is allowing us to access um the software on our phone or on our Chromebooks students are able to create their passes in the classroom um on their teachers's device that is set up for them and then they can go to the bathroom or to the office and it's um makes it just seamless for them to move around and for us to kind of keep track of them um it allows us to put things in place for them to not
032have you know too many gatherings in spaces they shouldn't be instead of being in class and it also provides an opportunity for us to implement reward systems in the management system so we're able to implement our PBIS through MinGa and different um things like that so it's been new for us but it has been pretty smooth transitioning into and we love it so far so that is one great thing that's going on at Jackson High School another piece that um is very important and we love um we'd love to thank Mr Beal for encouraging all of us to uh get into the Shon County early college program where our students are able to enroll when they uh start the ninth grade and they can remain after their graduation so they go into a 13th year
033if they are enrolled in uh the count Jackson County early college program which we call JCC so here are our numbers and right now we have 119 students in the fall we had 119 students enrolled and they're showing 80% success rate which is wonderful my son is currently enrolled in the college courses um he has taken an English College course and he's enrolled currently in the psychology course so he's a junior this has given him a great opportunity to be on campus in class he comes home and tells me great stories of his interactions with the professor with the other students students and uh the things that he's learning so I appreciate that opportunity for um Trey and then I know we usually have here and there a student in this class of 2025 we'll
034have a student who's graduating with an associates degree from Jackson College along with her diploma so we get excited about that as well I know the clicker all right a new exciting Pro program we have at Jackson high school is uh called our Viking Eminem which stands for mentor and mentee U the purpose of the Viking Eminem is for seniors to support freshmen and feeling welcome staying on track and be successful the seniors will achieve this by being role models and supportive Partners throughout the school year our advisers are and they can stand that believe they are here um Janine Bush Michelle Shelton Mitchell Ernst and Hannah Dort and Cecilia said are also so if we can give them a round of [Applause] applause they are doing a wonderful job working with our freshmen and
035seniors um we decided to start this as part of our uh Viking collect Community Collective um goals and we want to ensure that here are some more pictures of them getting together we want it just to ensure that our freshmen again are transitioning into high school and able to get some information from our seniors to to know kind of what to do where to go and and how to be a Jackson High School Viking so that is them together making posters um some of our goals providing incoming freshmen with the guidance encouragement and sense of belonging which this is doing for them it also allows our seniors to be mentors and enhance their leadership um opportunities helping them build communication and mentoring skills so we are looking forward to this program continuing um and we
036feel it will greatly enhance the school environment hi my name is Corey Slater and I am the Jackson high school and Pathways mtss building coach uh mtss stands for multi-tiered systems of supports and that ranges from academic attendance or what we call our ABCs attendance acade behavior and course completion so one of the things that we had to do this year was to implement what we call PBIS positive behavior interventions and supports now this is we know like some of our kids are involved with PBIS in the elementary schools and you know we know at the high school and the secondary levels this can be really different it can you know it's not just given sometimes we get award rewards for tickets and things like that we decided not to do that we decided to
037you we reward our kids with our Viking values which is to be uh respectful responsible and resilient and one of the things that as Mrs Pierce um said earlier was we use MinGa we can reward our kids through that um and we can also have our teachers reward the kids we we send a Google form out every week and teachers reward as many students as they would like um their names appear on these slides the slides are put uh on Facebook the slides are put throughout the uh our TVs in the building um Mr zessen reads them at lunchtime and the kids like to know that like what was my name read for so uh they really like that um one of the other things that we do with these is we do gift card
038giveaways with them if their name was in we draw you know you know once their name is in there we can draw their name out give them a random gift card we've done gas cards we've done uh uh uh gift cards to the cafe orange uh to the school store we've done things for movies and things like that so um our kids are really starting to like this and not only that is but our our kids are starting to see their names in a positive light I think that's huge huge um and it creates a positive um environment sometimes kids you know they say well I didn't know that they saw me like that and it's it's really it's really been a good thing for our students the other thing on there it says Wharton
039Center shows we have actually partnered with the Wharton Center and as you know what a great opportunity for our students to be able to go to the famous Wharton Center and they've we've got the opportunity to send um our students to they call them one act place um and we've done four we've done stop there was uh acrobats and you can see a lot of different things there but our kids have really really enjoyed that once they get nominated for a viking value they're able to go on these if they want to now some kids opt not to go because they have tusks and things like that they want to stay back or college classes um but our kids not only they love to do this but they love to go to the famous Brody
040hall for for lunch after we take them on campus um and uh they really enjoy that get actually getting them out of the um I've been on a few of these getting them out of Brody is kind of a pain in the but um but uh they they really enjoy it uh and I think we all come back about 15 lbs heavier so um that's been that's been fun for our students and they do a great job um they really they represent our school with uh with just I mean just like a viking should let me get to the next one other great things obviously we just finished our winter uh Sports season lots of uh positive uh out outcomes there lots of state qualifiers All Conference um members uh academic All Conference members we
041finished very strong looking forward to a a great spring season that's uh that was last week was the first uh first week of um of spring Athletics so that's great spring testing unfortunately that's that's coming I say unfortunately but it's just a lot of work uh um that's one of my one of my jobs here is to is to coordinate spring testing along with uh Murray um that will come up the second week after after spring break it's not nothing like you know hit the ground running we're testing so um our students will our Juniors will take the um uh the mstep they'll take the uh uh sat and they'll also take the ACT work keys and our freshmen and sophomores will take the um PSAT 9 and 10 and our seniors don't have to
042test they're probably the happiest group of all um prom uh popup viously we have a prom popup at lunch uh that's that's always exciting for our kids um we've also done instructional rounds for the teacher aspect of things and really you know as as my job as the mtss coordinator uh really good feedback from our from our teachers in the core areas uh Mr Patterson Mrs Crumb they've come they came through uh and with they got to sit in classrooms with teachers and teachers in their own subject areas got to go see the cool things and the awesome things that are instru instructors are doing with our children and they got to debrief with each other and sometimes we don't get to do that like sometimes we don't get that opportunity to sit down and
043say man you're awesome like you're doing great stuff and not only do we get to do that we found some great ideas that people have been kicking back and forth so those have been very positive we have some class of 2025 activities I know uh I have a I have a senior um looking proud proud father of a valorian so I'm looking forward to this um we obviously it's not up there we have our doop to senior baskets uh I know that's been uh put on Facebook that's uh Mrs newbound wanted me to make sure that that was announced prom is April 20 uh 26 we will do our elementary walkthrough which is one of I think the best things that we do in our district so our our elementary teachers can see the kiddos
044and how they've grown up um to be grown men and women uh that's on May 16th Balor is on May 21st honors night May 22nd commencement May 23rd we're praying that it's outside and then Project Graduation will be on May 23rd also on Facebook Project Graduation is also doing a pizza fundraiser so you have that available for you and the next thing is not only did do I my job is not only encompassing with Jackson high school I do work with the pathways teachers and the administrative staff and um I am speaking out uh on behalf of Mr Clifton Foster um our our administrator and uh Alexis Hackett our administrative assistant and our wonderful staff at at at our Pathways program um it it creates such a great opportunity for our kids to get uh
045the same to get the same thing but different I think that's the best thing to say about it and so I have I met with our uh pathway staff and they wanted me to share about five six things that they're doing with our Career and Technical educa education our CTE and not only that but we do have a Pathways uh wonderful pathway student that would like to share her experience with us when we're done with this so um our pathway seniors participated in a manufacturing Day event at American one event center over 50 local and state manufacturing businesses presented their companies employment opportunities available for our senior upon seniors upon graduation Junior Achievement sponsor this event the CTE Department hosted a job fair here at Pathways the event featured six local employers holding onsite job
046interviews to hire our students on the spot over 30 of our 78 students participated in this on-site interview process and the employers included KFC Subway Little Caesars Taco Bell Wendy's and McDonald's our pathway students participated in a financial reality Fair sponsored by the Community Choice Credit Union our students were given real life simulations based on income levels and different occupations with various budgeting options designed to help them learn the harsh realities of planning a monthly budget and building a solid Financial Foundation over 40 of our students participated in this for the second year in a row our Pathways personal finance courses were able to offer the popular Dave Ramsey personal finance curriculum the course materials are all encompassed and userfriendly and include the new state of Michigan standards and benchmarks for the newly required personal
047financial credits needed for graduation also our personal finance classes were privileged to have a weekly guest speaker from American One Credit Union that speaker was former Jackson high high school student and Ohio State University graduate Joseph Hines Mr Hines provided valuable personal finance materials and Hands-On activities that also are integrated around the new state of Michigan personal finance standards and benchmarks it was great to have Joel back in the building our Co-op work release program currently has 15 pathway seniors on early release from school working throughout the Jackson Community these seniors are earning their final High School graduation elective credits while gaining both valuable work experience and employability skills our Co-op program has several sophomores and juniors currently working outside of the school day earning extra high school credits helping them to graduate early and
048gain valuable work experiences as well and finally our CT department has a lot of upcoming events and two of them are very important for them these include a visit to the lean rocket lab downtown and our annual job shadowing day in which our career students are placed with local employers to spend the school day job shadowing various Jackson businesses and I think one of the things that I listening to to the staff talk about this yesterday and the day before was just what a sense of community we have here in Jackson and for these these businesses and these communities to reach out and help our kids we're lucky we're lucky to live in Jackson we're lucky to have our kids have these people here and not only that but we're lucky to have a student
049come up and share her experiences with Pathways Miss Earl Miss Pierce no okay hello I am Ura Earl I am an honored student of Pathways um I have only been with in Jackson High School since 10th grade I've only been here for two years and within my two years I have spent most of that time in Pathways within Pathways I have grown and learned very many logical skills for my life what I want to do um going for uh forwards and I would like to thank Miss Pierce I would like to thank Miss Alexis hacket she has been my biggest encouragement doing this entire time of Pathways I have made very many friends lost a couple but that's what happens um I have definitely gotten out of my shell a lot more thanks to being
050in Jackson high school I came to Jackson High School fearing for the worst believing that I would get tormented teased and picked on like I have my entire life being in the Jackson School District but when I got here I noticed it was completely different everybody is very mind welcoming and caring and especially within Pathways I've made so many friends never thought I would have as many opportunities as I do have and I now am a part of the co-op program being able to leave school early and pursue my career in culinary arts one day um yeah I've had a really great experience here thank you Miss Pierce I really appreciate you [Applause] ooo she did a great job all right um that is all we have do we have any questions before we leave
051the table um that was an awesome information packed presentation thank you my only question is what is pom popup yeah the prom popup that's a great question is when we have an opportunity for our students to go into our community closet and select dresses or um suits ties shirts all kind of attire and we usually have a seamstress who comes in and does their alterations for free as [Music] well I just love how you teach real life skills I love it your Enthusiast Mr Slater is awesome I had a couple questions um I was adding them up while or not adding them up writing them down as you all were speaking um the 13 year the 13th year can you just explain that a little bit more how that works yeah so students are enrolled
052in again the JC program uh when they are ninth 10th graders they have to do it before they get into 11th grade so after they're enrolled in the program they are able to take college courses with us and then the 13th year just means that they still are a Jackson high school student they're enrolled with us they um can walk stage they won't receive the diploma until they finish that 13th year at Jackson college so they have their senior year here they walk the stage with uh the students at with their cohort at graduation then they go on to Jackson college and everything is still on Jackson Public Schools and then when they finish their 13th year they get their diploma they get their high school diploma then correct thank you I have a couple
053sorry you had some and maybe they're associates oh that's okay yeah good good to know a couple more questions um the Viking mentor and mentee program which seems amazing um does every freshman get a m Mentor does every freshman get one so Mitchell hi guys thank you um thank you Miss Pierce so we're working on that that is the ultimate goal we created this under the Viking Community Collective hoping that it would blossom into something bigger so right now we've working really closely with the ninth grade principal and the nth grade counselors to kind of see those that are faltering on those ABCs that Mr Slater mentioned like maybe attendance is an issue or maybe behavior and we're trying to identify those that are slipping through the cracks before they slip through the cracks and
054so that's how we've identified the Freshman but I think our goal and I think I speak for all of us um is to get started on next year as soon as we can and open it up to perhaps Viking Voyage when we have those eth graders come up and explore the high school that we offer this as an opportunity for every single one of them so that's awesome that question that's awesome I love it that you know you all have chosen to you know try to grab those that need the most support to try to start with them first and then expand it out I think that's absolutely amazing I love that a couple more questions for you um or I'm not sure this one is around the uh PBI so maybe not PB the
055Wharton Center um you said everyone so all of the students that are in those three categories they are offered the opportunity to go to the Wharton Center and they can choose whether or not to but every last one of them are offered that any any one that was offered within that that like time period of that yes that's awesome so yes so we can we can do that and you know and and like we we send that out to everybody and you know obviously we know the high school kids are like I don't want to go you know I don't want to do that but the kids that do go are it's it's phenomenal they they really really enjoy it and and our teachers they get to go get to see the kids and they
056get to go do it they they've loved every one of them too as well so I'm I'm hearing that what I'm hearing from you I think is that one you know aside from the names being called which is this recognition which I think is amazing you know I mean and placed all these different places they have the uh the the uh the what is it called where you pull name we draw like so only a couple people you know because ideally that's just how that works out but everybody also still gets to go if they want to to the warten center if they want to that's awesome yes okay last question for you um or or for whoever Miss Earl thank you it was great to hear from you tonight around pathways um how many
057I think it's good for the community to know how many students are in Pathways to kind of place perspective on why the 40 or the whatever number you're given is such a big number it's funny I knew this question was coming tonight so I actually wrote the enrollment down I track enrollment all the time so 10th graders we have 24 this was the first year we added our 10th graders um 11th graders we have 26 and then 12th graders we have 28 so we have 78 total students so when I say 40 we're we're we're talking a lot of them and and that's awesome thank you thank you both you're welcome anyone else any more discussion thank you so much awesome presentation thank [Applause] you thank you Monica thank you Corey I hope everybody got
058a good dose and could hear that not only do we focus a lot on character development a lot on academics um a lot on workplace skills and and helping our students find their path whether it's uh into some measure of Education post high school but or into uh from the classroom into a career so Monica you and your crew thank you very much and excellent job as always uh and that concludes the superintendent report for the month of March thank you Jeff at this time we'd like to make a motion if I can have a motion to approve the consent agenda please I make a motion to approve the consent agenda support any any discussion i' like to pull off the minutes for separate consideration minutes all right so we have a motion to um
059pull out the minutes that is 24- 25- 59 for consideration so I'd like to pull the human resources as well I don't know if we need to do that separately or not but we could add them I'm not sure if that'll if we should or not but I'd like to pull the human resources out the request has been made to also pull 24-25 D60 Human Resources I'll support discussion all in favor of the motion to pull those two documents say I Madam Madam president yes the correct motion would be to approve of the consent agenda with those items removed and then to discuss those individual items that have been f off the consent agenda at this time we would like to approve the agenda with 24-25 59 the minutes being removed as well as 24-
06025-60 human resources put for discussion all in favor discussion any appos my apologies any appos discussion how about they wanted to pull those for consideration later yes the motion passed okay all right point of order are we going to take up the minutes and the other item that was pulled I believe those items get moved to under discussion items okay so those still have been moved to the action items at this time we will move to item agenda item number eight citizens addressing the board we have two Nicholas thiren followed by John C King uh hello can you hear me hi my name is Nicholas Thon I live here in Jackson Michigan uh my address is 410 B Baron Street Department B I live in w 5 downtown I was a former I was a
061JPS graduate and um I wanted to talk about some of the policies and practices that have been coming out of JPS in recent years that are uh extremely disappointing and um uh unlawful uh the board has made international news for promoting uh anti-white philosophies um these things are unacceptable and uh I don't care what the label is if it's Dei or whatever uh the trend is or whatever uh term people want to use it is a form of racism and so I heard the stories of people like Jeff beel I remember when he was hired here I still I looked back at some of the news articles when you first got hired and you had a huge smile on your face and you were ready to uh put in a lot of hard work for
062the students here and uh you excited you're passionate and we're lucky to have a guy like you around and I heard all these terrible stories and they didn't match reality they didn't match reality of uh people or places that I knew knew and uh a lot of political activists uh were making weird demands on corporations government agencies uh colleges schools it was kind of like an allout assault not just in Jackson but across the country and so local people like me took action to send somebody to Washington to take a look at these policies and address what's happening to uh preserve the reputations of people that put in a lot of hard work and to um you know do something about the radical extremists the identity extremists that were uh saying these things and putting
063them into action into law and um destroying people's lives and reputations for really no good reason and I'm proud to say that we have got a federal Dei ban the national level Jackson college has also recently responded with a a Dei ban and um hopefully the city of Jackson will cons reconsider their policies and practices as well we'd also like to see JPS reanalyze what the priorities should be here to make JPS a you know an inclusive uh campus like they say they want to Dei doesn't do that and there's been so many different names for policies and programs like this throughout the past and all of them have done the opposite of what they said out said they were going to do and we have lost an unspeakable amount of money to fraud waste
064and abuse for the last 100 years on diversity training diversity programming and if you look at the reality of it what it has done is it has set people especially minorities and um also many women uh it set people in a a reverse course from where they were in the 1960s we saw a lot of people becoming more similar you know uh household sizes and family sizes income things like this were becoming more sort of normalized and things were you know your neighbor's house was probably about the same size as your house your neighbor's family was probably about the same size as your your own family and uh you know people worked together and did business together they Sho together and then suddenly when all this Federal funding came out a lot of racial hostility
065a lot of boys versus girls sort of competition came out and um it caused significant harm to the point where a lot of these minority groups actually have went so far in reverse that they're uh looking at like you know late 1800s or early 1900s turn of the century uh growth in comparison to other demographics does the opposite and we saw that Dei was doing the opposite and so we looked for people that would ban it um it's something that I'm proud of I see that you guys are considering uh Student Government Association here at uh JPS I was the founding member a founding member of the Jackson College Student Government Association so I do know a little bit about these things all of the Dei programs at Jackson College have been eliminated and the
066student government Association has been the only one that survived it's also been turned into a scholarship program for JP or Jackson college students and um you know I'm not surprised by the the decisions made at the board with the uh recent board meetings and I'm proud to say that the student government Association is doing what they said they were going to do all those years ago they have supported the students they've supported the staff they've helped to address local issues and sort of fill the Gap that we saw many many years ago that was you know there was an unmet need uh people were not focused on academics they weren't focused on performance they're preoccupied with identity politics thank you thank you Mr thin John King please thank you I'm John King I live at
0672033 Street here in the city not far from the high school um just a few minutes before 6 o' you know for anyone that uh might have missed it after 9 months uh at the space station which in Sunny uh safely splashed down into the golf of America so um we all can have gratit itude to Elon Musk for his company being able to go up and get them and and bring them back to Earth speaking of Elon Musk he's been making um trying to help the Trump Administration make Cuts uh the news has been kind of uh portraying it as if by cutting the the national Department of Education you know that all kinds of disabled students and other students immediately are being adversely affected um one thing that uh and I don't think
068they probably intended to do it but they there was one person with the national dep Department of Education her sole job she was an attorney was working with Dei and you know kind of pushing that um you know the uh with different students telling students you're either an oppressor or you're the oppressed your skin color is what really matters so when I seen that uh you know I thought great you know as Elon Musk did with the chainsaw there's a lot of that that just needs to be cut out that goes along with here at JPS uh as the previous speaker mention Dei needs to be cut out alog together um is President Trump's executive order uh had so politics over the last oh like since the pandemic The Last Five Years A lot of
069those extra funds unfortunately were to push a lot of politics now that those funds are going down we need to take the politics out like Dei um so that will to balance the budget uh that needs to be done they'll make it much easier to just get rid of the Dei department and everything like that uh Jeff Beal you know as far as his Sovereign package it's kind of a case I thought boy you know that that's kind of relief you know to see him be able to I mean he's been it's been more than a decade which is a lot of years for the normal superintendent traditionally but when you figure in the politics of covid the black lives matter and everything else Dei that's being forced down by a certain particular party you
070know they it just I mean it's almost like may maybe could have doubled the years that seems like so I'm happy for him that he's at a point that he can just you know retire um hopefully he gets the good severance package and everything like that and hopefully we can get someone nearly as good as him if not better that would be great but um so I want to thank him for the years he put in in trying to make JPS the best school possible and hopefully when you get the turn to replace him uh you will look at things other than skin color as Martin Luther King said I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation judged not by the color of their skin but by
071the content of their character please make Dr King's dream come true thank you thank you Mr King William Hastings so I'd like to um kind of begin my remarks tonight with just sort of a concept I'd like for all of you to keep in mind as I speak I'm going to come back to it and um that concept is which has been used by members of this board before is the idea of performative policies and what really a performative policy um would is it would be could probably best be described as going through the motions it could be described as sort of a engaging in a dog and pony show instead of in addressing important issues of great substance to the School District so I'm going to start off with the news headline if you
072hadn't seen this this was in M live today it was just published this afternoon I believe the author is here hey Mitchell um so just to read the first two paragraphs if you haven't been following the story Jackson College trustees said they made the controversial decision to end support for diversity equity and inclusion programs to preserve nearly a third of the school's annual budget the roughly $20 million the college stands to lose accounts for about 30% of its annual budget um said a trustee and another trustee was quoted as saying concerning the decision quote it all came down to Simply keeping our doors open so as we've kind of already established um GPS gets about $5 million in Baseline federal aid every year you have less than 5,000 students that's about $1,000 potential $1,000 hit
073for every student in the entire District every kindergarten every second grader third fourth fifth seventh Junior Senior all of them and you are really whistling past the graveyard at this point by failing to repeal what is an legal policy okay because right now uh the University of Michigan is having to stand in the fire I believe um is it Spring aror Valley University is standing in the fire as well um so you are creating an enormous Hazard that could affect your own budget in the upcoming school year which starts just five months from now um so just to be clear that the da policy that was passed was really the worst forward world number one it is performative it was not a serious policy it was it was objected to by two of the three
074members of the board who served on the policy committee okay I believe this this policy was crafted to benefit M hunt politically it's sort of the equivalent of bringing home like a macade craft from Summer CRA from summer camp it's something she's supposed to wave around say look what I did look what I did it had no effect and never would have any effect on the very serious issues addressing this district for to Wi to Wi so we all like hearing about the positive things going on and there always are positive things going on within the four walls of of of this building and all the buildings in the district but something that never seems to be discussed at these meetings is you have a crushing crushing uh problem with student absenteeism so approximately 40%
075of your students are missing or actually excuse me I might be there's different stat um but it's you're now starting to push well into the upper 40s of the percentage of your students at different across the district who are missing uh minimum of 18 school days a year unexcused the average of the kids who are missing who are in that absent chronic chronically absentee category is they're missing average of 40 days of school a year that's eight weeks that'd be like if a kid didn't show up the first day of school the second day the third day of school then they showed up maybe like 3 days before Halloween that's not a plan that needs to be addressed that must be addressed um telling it all up um there's about 172,000 days a year in
076JPS of unexcused absences which comes out to 498 uh school years 18 Day School years 498 years that are missed every single year um so it's really time I think you just have to decide this is this is a for work in the road you have to say are these students educable or not if they are please stand up and act like they are number two do we have do we have compulsory p uh public education for a reason is it something you support if it is stand up and acttiv and act as if you do okay this is a major problem the absenteeism has gone up 50% in since 2019 that's a lot okay and I strongly encourage you to to embrace this and address it thank you thank you Mr Hastings at this
077time we will move to our discussion items 24- 25- 63 custodial Services RFP Marcus all right good evening um about a month ago the district put out a request for proposal for custodial services for the district just a little bit of background the last time this was done was back in 2019 these are for a three-year contract with an option for two one-year renewals with which the district exercised so their contract is up at the end of this year the district held a pre-bid meeting and walkthrough on February 28th and there was an enormous response we had 14 ventur show up for that meeting which was amazing um last week we had a bid opening and received 11 responses from the 14 vendors at this time we are in the process of reviewing all those
078bids and Ving them getting clarified questions answered and we will bring a recommendation to award a new contract to the winning vendor at the April board meeting next month any questions trusty dois thank you madam president um and I reviewed our purchasing policy and didn't see this but maybe this is an old form but on the bid tabulation there's check boxes for bid security familial relations and then IR Iran's sanctions correct those are some standard boiler plate uh things that are we cover through all the bid processes whether it's through Bond through this um and not just here at JPS but throughout the state and nationally em your mic a Little Closer I got trusty Hamilton um can you thank you dear for asking that question because I would like to know bit you said
079this uh um this is just uh basically happens all the time you just still got kind of give a brief maybe paragraph of what each of these mean that you were considering in each of these what's that mean the bid you know security familial relations Iran sanctions like what in the world sure so the bid security is um in in the bids um the companies are required to submit a bid security basically promising or solidifying their bid right so they can't go back on their Awards or whatever um every they're validating that everything in their in their bid they're going to live up to the familial relationship just States if there is or is not any um conflict of interest is the best way to put it any any employees of that company that have
080a connection or conflict with the district so it's a c ific ation form whether they do or do not um and uh with the Iran sanctions that's a a national one where um companies are required to certify that they comply with all of the terms of any sanctions towards that country is that just because there's federal funds I think it is a federal requirement of a bidding process that's new or no that's not new to my knowledge since I've been in in the industry two more questions for you um who do we currently have are they on this list and viral clean is our current vendor and then the um when you come back um I don't know if you're doing this or not but can you bring us like your top three and the
081reasons why um we are going to Y we are going to narrow down to our top uh three or four vendors and um um then a deeper dive conducting reference checks clarifying questions things of that nature so we'll bring you our final list with recommendations of why we've uh selected the vendor that we selected it was our initial hope that we could bring that tonight but just due to the overwhelming response and the amount of um material to go through just wasn't possible so you'll bring us at least three you say it correct the next question for you um enviral clean um so was their contract just ending is that why we took this RFP out correct the last time was 2019 and then we exercised it to one-ear renewals so this would be the
082end of that period do we ever do any type of um evaluations or surveys of like how well you know the the the staff appreciates or or likes or does not like enviral clean have we done that do we do that they do uh every month enviral clean um sends out surveys to each building for the building principles to fill out and send back um almost like a customer satisfaction can you include at least the the summary of that in in your um because if they if they make the top three I would like to see what the summary and that is in all of the bids they do have some sort of customer satisfaction um thing as part of the RFP okay and you'll include that too sure thank you MH so I have
083a question in the familial relations Comon column the first one is the dash the rest our checks is there a difference there yes the first one did not include the familial relationship certification in their bid we could not find it and then can you maybe tell us a little bit about what your process is to vet these so right now what uh we're doing with facilities and custodio is we're creating a spreadsheet so we can compare every everybody on a on a in one area very similar to the process we used when we identified our construction manager last year right we'll pull out all the relevant information pricing uh some of the stuff that um you know means the most to those departments here um we'll have that all on one spreadsheet so then we
084can compare and go down and and really drill down into the information and the bids as opposed to we have boxes of binders and and and bids to just read through and information's on different pages and really just to get it all in one place to see it a lot easier so our process is we're setting that up right now our goal after spring break is to return and be able to get into the information on that uh spreadsheet trusty dois I'd be interested see I know we have a like local um policy around purchasing um I'd be interested see which ones are within uh Jackson County um and which ones um I mean there's maybe not a good way of evaluating this other than if they have um if they're like unionized and they
085have some sort of contract or something but um maybe evaluating you know if it's in their RFP we can try to weed that out there's a lot of information in all of those um including where they're Corporate Offices or local field offices may be located right one more question for you um do do you all assess whether or not they are hiring locally that may D's question just made me think of if they're local or not but even if they're not do you assess you know how many people they're hiring from locally as part of that you know uh spreadsheet is that part of it or no I don't think that's part of the RFP requirements is where they're hiring from um my assumption again is it's easier to hire and use local local Workforce
086that makes sense I would love to also just to uh add some support to what dererk is saying know if they're local or not no further discussion agenda item 24- 2564 the taher annual contract renewal Marcus all right so this is something that we bring every year every I'll back up every five years we bid out food service and last year we did we had gone through that RFP process um and each of the five years and this is mandated by the state um the contract must be approved annually even though we've approved a five-year contract already um within that um um what we're basically approving is the administration management fee for taher the Food Service management company and the guidelines are it's the lower of a flat rate of 3% or the CPI or
087Consumer Price Index um for the month of December of the current school year which happen to be 3.1% this year year so 3% is the mandated increase that we're allowed to give the Food Service Company which is basically they're overhead for some expenses or Administration Management fees and district managers things like that um again this is an annual thing we're bringing for discussion this month we again bring it back next month for approval all of this um all of these are paid for through the Food Service fund not the general fund so again that's a self-supporting fund on its own thank you margus any questions um the general the Food Service fund and this is a little off topic but not quite um does that get funded from the federal government is that where that
088money comes from part of that is yes so we might be looking at some issues around that potentially in the future right now we have not heard of any change to the federal funding for food service at this time and food service that and this dumb question but I like to ask all my questions um food servicing uh the money around that thatb the food program as far as like the students that the federal funding that's the money that funds that would be our our reimbursement claims from um the meals that we serve in the district the freedom reduce the C programs so we would submit meal claims every month and that's the federal funds that we receive back so we are paying attention to that okay because we see some stuff yes we are
089thank you you any other questions at this time we will go to 24- 25- 59 and that is the minutes from the consent agenda Mr dois move approval liines the was the support discussion discussion okay um yeah i' I had some questions so uh inside here's the finance and Facilities committee it lists members present who who is a who's a member member of the finance and Facilities committee Mar yes currently we have um Marilyn Acton truste Acton and trusty Simonetti okay and there's a chair I'm I don't know but a chair has been designated I believe that would just be my committee with the two board members as Representatives any more discussion Mr dois nope I just I um I didn't know if the Committees had actually been appointed yet or if these were from
090previous appointments or how that worked so this was from the January meeting when all the Committees were presented and we were asked to let president hunt know what we might be interested in that's where this these came from and then got those names were put forth to Michelle and then the final spreadsheet was sent back out through board correspondence that yeah so is that the committee list because the header at the top of it said these are the people that are interested in that committee my understanding was that we finalized that list we can take a look at that trusty there any other discussion regarding the minutes we will make sure that that final list is provided to the board and if chair um if board members need to be represented on that list as
091a chair we'll make sure that that is communicated based on interest we have a motion we have a second we've um had some discussion all in favor I any oppose to the minutes motion carries agenda item 24- 25-60 and that is the human resources item that was pulled from the consent agenda and make a motion to approve this item support support any discussion yes um I would just like a summary on this I see that we have this summary here but I would like more just another summary for the community um I'll have some questions as well but I want a summary first is that you Jeff or somebody else yeah I can I can certainly summarize so we offered um as you know last month the board approved $115,000 um amount as a for
092a voluntary subance agreement um that agreement was drawn up for three different groups by our attorney Brendan beer um and we had um active participation across all three groups uh I think there's a total of 37 uh folks that that took advantage of it um a number of those folks uh will fall under um positions that will have to be replaced I mean this is obviously a cost cutting effort to reduce our staff uh and and reduce the amount of of potential layoffs I don't have that number today because obviously we're going to still go back and take a look at I I'm going to say this candidly like how many special ed teachers I got a number of Math teachers here from the high school so you know obviously we'll have to replace some
093of those and then we'll look at the rest of our staff to see who has certifications that can be used to backfill some of those positions and once we know that we'll be able to to have a better understanding of of how far into our deficit for next year this this a away at and what our layoffs will will look like moving forward all right thank you a couple questions I got about four so far um the ones that we because you had mentioned before you might have just said it out but you had mentioned that we potentially might have to hire some of these folks back is that correct um not these folks back all right so again we're very careful on that so the state of Michigan requires a bonafide termin ation which
094means we cannot have any discussion with any of these employees about potentially returning in fact our severance package very clearly states they cannot return to JPS um if we offered a a potential for them to return at this time that might look like what we're talking about is um that would violate the the the state of the spirit of the law with OS so we won't put any of our people In Harm's Way That Way um there are a number of folks on here who coach or who sub or or things along those lines and those pieces May yet still be available but at this point the the the severance package is exactly as written there's no intent to hire any of these back we could have to hire to fill those positions so we
095have a number of special education teachers who are leaving I have to we're going to have to have special ed teachers uh we have a number of Math teachers that are leaving we're going to have to employ Math teachers so uh we will have to refill some of these positions even though um but it but it probably won't be with the same people who were leaving thank you I I distinctly remember you saying we would hire some of these people back so thank you for clarifying that we actually won't be hiring any of them back because we can't legally it sounds like that's actually what the terms in the in the severance package that you got last month that's exactly what it said couple questions for you so when we are the new people that
096were hiring in obviously were hiring at a lower rate which is why we did this whole severance package thing because they coming in to the collective bargaining agreement yes I'm sorry repeat that they would be subject to the collective bargaining agreement yes but the goal would be to lower the the salary hit to the general fund well help me understand because it sounds like they okay they're going to be subject to the collective bargaining agreement meaning that they might be hired at the same uh rate that these folks so they're not going to be hired at the same rate no the collective bargain agreement would prohibit them from being hired in that was my question that answers it thank you a couple more questions for you um with all of these folks leaving um what
097concerns you know do we have for the budget at all concerns or or or benefits what's what's what are we looking at obviously we're getting some benefits but what what's what's what's it look like well Marcus will talk to the budget and sorry let me just add to the because I want the part that I also wanted you to address um the 15,000 that's going out to all these folks how is that impacting us you know what's the how's it balancing yeah so again and I'll I'll I'll use a couple of different examples on how it's how it's hitting us so we'll take a there were a couple thresholds that you had to hit um for administrators it was 95,000 for uh teaching staff it was 81 139 I think and then for nonunit it
098was 75 or 70,000 and um for folks who take the buyout the goal is is obviously if you took somebody making 81 and we could hire him in at if we had to replace that teacher we'll use that math teacher you you exit a math teacher making 81 we hire a math teacher making uh 50 so there's a $30,000 difference we're going to spend 15 of that 30 right right now to to do the buyout we're going to immediately save 15 but the Legacy cost is is that we're not on the hook for 81 year after year after year we're now on the hook for that 50 and then rolling so it does AB absolutely lower and then for folks who are not being replaced so then we we we obviously will pay out the
09915,000 but then we're going to save the remainder so again I'm going use that same 81 you subtract the 15,000 and then all of a sudden we're going to we're going to save the 66,000 the first year and then the full 881 every year thereafter thank you any more discussion all right all those in favor say I I I any oppos motion carries 24- 25-65 the 2425 budget amendment Marcus all right so as everybody knows we amend our budget three times throughout the year uh we amended in December so this would be our Second Amendment here in March um you know in December we first look at our revenues as we have our state budget we have our student enrollment numbers in um we try to get as many expenditures caught up in that as
100well we take another look at expenditures and any changes to revenue this time around um we did present this in summary form at the facility and finance committee um long and short of it is there's been a little bit of change but we are pretty much on track from where I projected Us in December we did receive a little bit more state revenue than in December some some funds have come in for um onetime retirement uh pass through money which has a matching expense with it so our revenues are higher so our expenses they kind of went dollar for dollar in some of those categoricals um we also had some prior adjustments additions to revenue um you know as well um so at this time you can see we're about $330,000 better today as far
101as the budget looks of course that will change again and we'll take another look at it in May we'll have a much better look at where our expenses will wind up um you know we're not quite through the season of paying our winter utilities gas and things like that so we're still estimating what those final bills are like and as an example things of that nature um but for the most part most of our categories are tracking to where they were in December thank you Marcus any discussion any oh I'll move approv of the4 support support discussion all in favor I any opposed motion carries thank you Marcus 24- 2566 JHS summer painy Marcus all right and again we talked about this last month the over the last few years we've been uh working on
102painting this building starting from the top floor down um you know we mentioned both last month and at the finance and facility committee meeting um to do the whole floor the last couple of years is run us about $80,000 a year um in light of of the uncertainty right now and budget but also recognizing the need to keep moving forward with work in the district that just does not stop um we have um we're looking to slow that and and break up a floor into two different Summers so um I think the amount for this one is 39,2 $25 which would Encompass the hallways and staircases on the ground floor and then we would look to do the classrooms the following summer and then move back to the first floor to complete the building it's
103just a measured approach keeping the budget in mind but also recognizing the work that still needs to continue on move approval of the quote from Len coating the amount uh presented support any discussion um I have I'll support this also just because it's going to be spread over two fiscal years okay a couple questions for you um the money for this which pot is it coming from this is budgeted in our general fund it's already incorporated into the budget amendment that you saw most recently and it is something that I planned for last June although I plan for a larger amount and again like Miss trusty Acton had mentioned that that 40,000 is spread over this fiscal year and next just based on what it you know they finished the work I think the last
104two years it's been about a 6040 split so about 40% of that cost we would see this year and 60% if everything holds true on the next budget so two more questions for you one do you have a copy of this in front of you yes and the reason why I'm asking is because I see 39225 up it happen I see 29 225 I saw that I think the 29 it's a 39 if you look on the second page that there's the the corridors and the stairways are broken it's just a typo yeah I just want to confirm that okay um the other thing did we um so again uh the general fund is where we pay our teachers from and a lot of other stuff that we do want to give me just a
105quick summary of what we do in the general fund the general fund is just that it's for General operations of the district so it's salaries benefits all the maintenance repairs that the district performs painting custodial cleaning all of that except for food service right um and our electric buses they got their own pot uh that's shared between two different pots of money not the general fund though partially yes oh I learned something new tonight okay the thing I was asking questions okay last question for you um last month I was asking um about the condition of these um spaces so I I heard you right I mean I heard you clearly I think that the ground floor where it's pretty gray at like literally gray that's the floor that we're trying to change to these
106orange and nice not to the orange so if you remember we started the third floor we did all the hallways and classrooms brightened it up with the the we matched the paint that we had been using in the bond projects throughout the district we moved on the second floor last summer and then we made the decision that ground floor is so visible we thought we would hit that next and then go back and finish first floor last so right now we're talking about the ground floor but not the gray ears we're talking about the stairwells not the hallways and the stairwells and then the following summer we the class on ground okay so the last question I have for you did we look at the condition um and could could this be something that we
107could wait on yes and no we can always wait on it but since we've started the building it makes more sense to finish the building because if you wait on it by the time we get back to do it the floors that we've done then it'll also be mismatched and you'll have a building right now where half the building's been repainted and half the building is not been painted and I don't know when last question for you maybe how often do we paint I don't know I know we paint when we're allowed to through Bond if we touch a room as far as uh General Repair maintenance it would just be as needed depending on the situation in District so these walls haven't been painting in a long time the ones you're about to the
108hallways correct I unless Mr Bill knows I couldn't tell you the last time no we again you're exactly right as needed most of the most of the immediate painting really dives into classrooms or someplace where we've got a high need um for for a variety of reasons and we we pick those apart piece by piece the bond took care of a lot of spaces that we were able to use Bond dollars for you can't just use bond to paint if you remodel a space you can use Bond dollars to do that and so the the the 2018 Bond did a lot of the work but it can't touch the areas that you're looking at thank you both I'm going to be a no on this just because I'm not not comfortable with all the cuts
109and stuff that's coming up I understand and thank you for you know it makes sense what you're saying but I still just not super comfortable with it yet any more discussion if not motion to support this agenda item all those in favor I I I any opposed no 24-25 d67 bus purchase Marcus presing all right so and again we brought this last month both to this board and to the finance committee um as you know from our EV project where we transition the majority of our diesel fleet away into EV we did hold back a few handful four diesel buses for those longer field trips where there's just not infrastructure for Ev or propane buses so we need to have a few on hand for athletics or whatever field trip or or need there is
110that's out of Jackson or JPS boundaries um we would feel more comfortable with having a five bus diesel fleet only for the fact that if a bus goes down needs maintenance something breaks we want to be able to provide transportation for those students for those field trips um we have uh received a quote from Holland for an off leas bus I believe a 2018 model number with uh fairly low miles as we've done in the past for approximately $55,100 so would not be part of the general fund and as you know through the 2018 Bond we were uh replacing buses periodically with those um allowable bond funds Madam president I'll move approval a purchase of a diesel bus from the Holland bus company in the amount of 55,00 319 as presented support support all those
111in favor I discussion so I'm in favor because we're using Bond dollars that are left um we we normally keep five of these buses in our Fleet sounds like that's what we'd like to have that's what we would like to have just knowing the number of buses that we would have at the most use at the same time if everybody you know historically that would be going on an athletic or whatever field trip out of JPS what of what's the most number of buses we've used it's about that four or five number so we would like to stay in that range because before we had all the diesel buses so we didn't really necessarily we had 21 more diesel buses okay one more question for you um um rates this this one this quote from
112from uh Holland did we get any other quotes from anywhere else I don't know if diesel buses are just like you know on every corner or not but do we get other we do not our entire fleet is um through Hollander Bluebird type bus and that's for consistency for parts ordering um you know for um you know some of the buses look different they feel a little different just to have that consistency um we we try to stay as simple and efficient as possible and Holland's the only one that sells these diesel Bluebird buses Holland is the manufacturer of bluebird so Bluebird is the one help me understand that so Holland is a dealer Bluebird is the manufacturer or like Chevy right be the name rightand and the only people only way we can get
113this Chevy is from hland that what we're saying so that's only correct but there are no other places that could offer manufacturers we have four plant that give us a Chevy there's not correct there Bluebird is Bluebird and Holland is our dealer so basically I just want to know we shop around and is that possible we have we have um looked at other styles of buses um we've replaced them over the last few years um sticking with the same one just again makes operations more efficient and consistent for you know things down the road and this was the least expensive one that we could I mean we don't know always want to be least expensive but you know I'm just looking at the money right now so is this you know our best choice at
114this time it is um it just for comparison of brand new a bus would be probably close to about $125,000 today okay minimum yeah thank you any more discussion on the bus purchase all those in favor I I any opposed motion carries thank you Marcus 24-25 D68 the non unit salary schedule Jeff will be presenting on this all right um so every year we bring forward the non-unit salary schedule um a couple things and I know Marcus kind of updated this uh I think this number that's on the item from last month 95 517 slightly smaller Marcus correct the updated impact to the next year's budget is 9,6 $114 that takes into account some non-unit um folks that have accepted the buyout we weren't able to look at that number until the buyout period ended
115on Friday end of day and the board packet was already released at that time so it is a about a $5,000 to the good and there are a number of individuals on here that or positions on here that will be evaluating based on some of those folks that have taken the voluntary severance package and so we'll we'll be evaluating how those positions kind of shape up so uh there could yet be additional savings but this represents a cola increase uh that that 2% um increase across the board it's the same one we've done in the past it's the same one um uh that every other unit uh has received um so there are a couple of uh exceptions on here um Jessica car um is due for a raise associated with her uh anticipated additional
116duties uh with my separation so as I uh step out we will anticipate that Jessica Carter will assume uh the the assistant superintendent role um accordingly um and then we made a commitment to Kelly crumb uh when she came on challenged her very intentionally and said look you're going to have to do more um to for JPS and so we challenged her to um go out and earn her school administrative certificate she did that last I'm G get this wrong October November um and so uh we've been kind of sitting on this one to to make this this this raise official until um until this time because this is our cycle but she certainly has done with what that looks like and we anticipate Kelly as you've already heard taking on a variety of different
117roles uh she started IM immediately in the fall with mckenny vinto and with our homeless and with our El population so uh we have no doubt that that Kelly's um Kelly's work as executive director of people services will continue to to grow um and uh so those are the the the two outliers on the uh on the sheet but it is a recommendation of administration that we approve um these salary changes as presented motion to approve the move approval of the non-unit salary schedule support support discussion so since we're running a deficit and it's taxpayer money I'm going to be voting no on this trusty Hamilton um what's our did we already approve this stuff at some point is do we have a legal obligation to like is there a contract or something that's already
118in place for these raises so for folks that that are sitting out there minus the the two that I spoke of specifically everybody everybody has already got a contract for next year we we run these folks for a contract for two years um the raises associated with with Kelly and with Jessica were very specific to um additional duties and positions that they're taking on um and again kind of pre-commitments but the contracts for everybody else on that list is already in place for next year with the the same 2% raise that's it's much like when you do mine you're you're not really talking about next year you're talking about when you add a year to the end so we're voting on um 26 27 27 28 what is that what are we voting now the
119raise will go into effect yes which one was that 26 27 what is it so well they're already on schedule for next year so we're set to add a 2% raise for them for next year and and we're adding it for the Okay so we've already voted on next year they get that and we're voting on 26 27 for the 2% but we're also at this time voting on this 40 $40,000 the 20,000 between the two of them what's Kelly's title director executive director of student services and then uh uh Jessica's going to be uh assistant superintendent of HR is that what that her title would be I think it's Executive Director of Human Resources okay thank you um I would just like to say for anyone considering voting no that unfortunately for this group
120of employees they happen to be the last ones coming to the table and all of the other units have been to this table and been approved already and I don't think it's fair that we pick out this one group because all of a sudden we're more aware of a budget deficit to say they don't get a raise it's not their fault that they're the last ones at the table and they deserve it every bit as much as every other employee in this District Jeff can you um so this is the last group is there a a phase in which the other ones are yep so we we approved the contract for the teachers last fall um and we're currently entering bargaining for our um our T peras and administrators so that will take place this
121summer um and and their contracts expire this year the contracts the older contracts expired um last year so yes we tend to run two and threeyear contracts it's hard right now to kind of predict more than a year or two so um but this group doesn't have anybody to represent them I'm I'm it I hate to to say it this way everybody every other group is an association they're represented by the mea or or some factor of of leadership this is a non-affiliated that's why we call it the non-unit group um and so they really have the least um representation to be able to to to bargain for them in in this capacity so we bring them again like I said every March um uh you'll see it in February February and again every March
122um and this group has been pretty consistent you know our salaries increases are not anything other than those Cola increases across the board did I answer that question you did so is there anything so you say the cola increases is there anything any language in the increase has anyone ever not received an increase based on the cola language not in not in well there's no Cola language we we simply allow a 2% increase that's that's what that's what the raise is is that 2% that's not cost of living so we already know that that Cola is is already behind the cost of living we're not keeping up with inflation it's it's simply what we've been able to do for a number of years is be able to commit to that 2% and our folks out
123there rely on that that 2% um you know it it's hard because you know this is a group of of Administrators or non-unit administrators in some cases there's secretaries in this group there's Tech folks in this group this is not one person or one group as Cheryl said so it's hard to hard to say that but but every one of them is facing the the increasing cost of eggs that you and I are facing every one of them is facing the increasing you know cost of of daily life and so that's that's how we do the cola increase if you will I would love to be able to say we could give them more but um but that's that's how we have traditionally bargained this particular group of employ employees and again it's not just
124it's not just the the folks sitting over here at senior cabinet if you looked at the list you know that's a small fraction of the 24 people that that we're actually talking about here when would that increase go into effect July dides D have questions is that why your mic is open okay I do have trusty Hamilton thank you another question um so I'll be um supporting this um while I will not support um you know painting the walls at this time because of our budget um because I do you know in my opinion you know because humans you know matter more than walls um for that reason I'm going to be supporting it even though we're at a deficit um and facing a deficit you know we got all these folks who've retired um
125and and you know whether or not it's going to balance out you know we'll see we're at $5 million that we you know are in a deficit so these 37 folks four five whichever it is these 37 folks who have retired um you know or took taken the sance package clearly um are not going to get us where we need to be in that space um but U you know in my opinion if if the boat goes down maybe we'll go it'll go down with us being a little better paid maybe we have some time to save up so I'm I'm in favor of supporting humans um getting the pay that they uh deserve based on the you know uh education that they received in the work that they'll be doing um because again if
126the boat goes down we we'll just all go down together and you know so yeah I'll be in support any more discussion Michelle can we do a roll call for this agenda item please uh Miss Hamilton what are we doing we just doing a roll call on this uh vote on this so yes so we've had discussion we've um approved a motion all those in favor of this agenda item we want to do a roll call on it yes okay I have one more question that you know before we do it if we could um the teacher salaries are they tied to enrollment yes there is a provision within the contract for future raises based on enrollment so the answer to that question is yes are these folks uh the these non-unit folks um packages
127tied to enrollment is there a reason why once again they're not tied to the same they don't have a salary schedule the same way that that the teachers have a salary schedule so in our salary schedule steps are not tied to enrollment um there's three different pace schedules if you will in our teacher contract uh for each year so the first year everybody got their raise and the step everybody gets their step next year uh we're waiting on final numbers to be able to determine if those folks will get their raise and the step next year but everybody who's able to step always is going to step um according thank you um I'll probably have more questions around that eventually but my answer is a yes as far as the vote and thank you for
128letting me ask that question while we were voting yes Melle no Miss Acton Mr ready yes Miss sharp yes Mr does and Miss hunt yes motion passes at this time we will move to 24- 25- 69 and I am going to ask that superintendent Jeff Bill be excused excuse myself thank you very much everybody thank you madam president can we have a brief five minute recess yes can it motion to have a recess has been asked support support all in favor all right we'll take a five minute recess for got e for e e e all right I want to thank everyone that as still sticking around with us for the remainder of our meeting at this time we are going to go to agenda item 24-25 69 that is a superintendent vacancy and before
129we entertain this conversation I just want to introduce Debbie ster who's here from Michigan Association of school board um Debbie all the most of the local school boards have a membership with masb we um I as president sought out some support from masb to come and help facilitate this conversation Debbie comes to us with a lot of knowledge and experience with decision making um critical decisions for local districts superintendent searches and helping ensure that there's a seamless transition when we are faced with situations like what JPS is today so I'm going to just open up this conversation by allowing Debbie to um introduce herself and then we're going to go right into um a discussion with the board and how we would like to move forward there will not be an action item tonight we
130do plan to move forward with a special meeting but this is our opportunity to discuss our next steps moving forward thank you shelanda um I just want to say I'm I'm happy to be here tonight to be a potential resource for you um as you explore your options and your next steps um I've been on staff at masb for 12 years now but prior to that I sat in your seats um and I have found myself in your position um and worked through it um successfully So and I've certainly helped a lot of other districts and provided guidance not only in governance but in other areas as well so I'm here to serve at the pleasure of the board it's very typical for for a board president to reach out to us um upon a
131notification that a superintendent is leaving and seek some guidance and so um I'm happy to be here to do that this evening thank you Debbie to the community and to everyone in the audience on February 27th we received the board received notice of Jeff Bale superintendent Jeff Bill his expressing his interest to take advantage of the voluntary sants agreement and as a result of that we have had to um come to an understanding of what our options are as he plans to separate from our district and today I just want to share some of the options that the board has to consider moving forward in Jeff's resignation he expressed that he um his last day is would be based on the direction of the board June 30th if the board agrees to that tonight that
132would allow for us to have some time to work with masb um discuss any other options as it relates to internal versus external search if we're going to do a internal search that would um definitely be at the the decision of the board we could appoint we could appoint an interested worthy candidate within our district and that would not require a search if indeed we decide on an internal search we would open it up to any other candidates that would express interest and look to have a board interview process to vet and provide some questions and expectations for that candidate or those candidates that would be interested in the internal process and then we have an option to do a full external search where if not masb is going to be utilized as our superintendent
133search agent we would um look at some other firms externally someone that come in with a fresh lens and provide some support as we make a decision moving in that direction so just a kind of paraphrase we can appoint someone from within we can conduct an internal process which would require a posting and have individuals that are interested the board would conduct interviews or we can do a full external search utilizing masb to facilitate that super superintendent search or I have been provided with a list of other firms that we could um discuss moving forward if we decide as a board to conduct an external full comprehensive superintendent search truste does um thank you madam president and thank you um for masb for um attending to tonight and hopefully addressing any of the questions that
134we may have and for working uh with us through this process as we transition um hopefully before the end of of June um I've had a opportunity to have a conversation with uh Jeff about his you know intent to retire and what the best path forward might be um and thought about a lot myself over the last week um you know I don't know what the rest of the board's uh interest is but I do think being able to have someone um if we are going internal have a internal application process that lands us with a fair amount of time uh to have uh said internal candidat uh if appointed uh to work with Jeff in the transition um so that we can have a very smooth transition with all of the things that are
135happening uh right now uh with our budgetary considerations with the bond proposal uh with some of the chaos and confusion that we're seeing from the federal government um so I would offer a motion just to to be able to start to discuss this to to accept superintendent be's uh resignation effective June 30th uh and move that we post the superintendent position for internal applicants only uh that we ask interested candidates to submit a cover letter expressing said interest along with the resume to the superintendent's office prior to 5 o'clock April 1st um that gives folks a couple of weeks that the superintendent's office be direct to work with masb to compile relevant interview questions um and that we aim to have uh those interviews on uh the 15th and hopefully you know I know we
136have a um meeting on uh May 6 um maybe have deliberation between the 15th and arrive at a decision if we do want to move forward with an internal candidate then that gives a little bit less than 60 days uh before superintendent B's departure but I feel like that timeline is um well suited for internal applicants and for us to have some uh continuity um and a smooth transition going forward point of clarity um the superintendent's uh acceptance didn't we do that with the with all the other folks do we need that portion there help me understand what are we doing did we accept his resignation with the with the other group of people with the contract or the voluntary sance agreement yes yeah so we don't need that because I heard you say accepted
137I'm just trying to understand if a formality okay so we know it's formal so we've already accepted it folks okay I just want to point a Clarity for that I think there was some clarification on the date the yeah and what what was the clarity help me what that so he's because his is different than everybody else's what's the so in his resignation he said that he would be um he's expressed interest for the separation the voluntary separation agreement and then based on our decision today approving the group of individuals that have um met the criteria he's in that group they have seven days to resend that agreement Jeff has no desire to resend that he has made mention of that and after that seven days exhausted then he plans to formally submit his resignation
138and his resignation letter he is proposing that his last day is June 30th of 2025 okay I I understood the part about his uh the date was there something what was the part that you were clarifying just help me understand yep that we've already accepted it in that previous agenda item however we need to accept that we agree to June 30th okay okay that make that doesn't it it's it's confusing me but it's okay it makes sense that you know but so we have to what come back in this is what what month we in we got to come back in April and then accept his I'm I'm just confused around this acceptance thing tonight we can we we need to accept his letter with those dates in there so he would stay with us
139throughout the end of the school year to June 30th okay so this and that would be a part of the superintendent vacancy is that motion okay so that's a different that's another motion too there we going the voluntary s the voluntary sance agreement indicates the resignation is effective June 30th I think what Jeff was trying to say is like if there's another date that would be sooner or whatever okay that's helpful because I knew the June 30th date because we've been hearing that the whole time that's I was like what what are we doing differently I think he wants to be accommodating to the board if want to give him a different date a sooner date or whatever but oh we can give him a sooner date I think I think he wants to uh
140work with the board to figure out the transition is so I would offer that June 30th uh we accept June 30th with the intent of being able to move forward with some internal applicants in order to if the board uh finds an internal qualified applicant uh that they want to select as the next superintendent uh with the kind of schedule that I recommended that gives you know less than 60 days to to kind of Shadow Jeff and make that transition sole Hamilton any more questions no thank you you're welcome support for the Derek's motion Derek can you restate your motion please I'm sorry yeah um so move to accept uh superintendent bu's resignation with the effective date of of June 30th and uh to post for the superintendent's position uh to internal applicants at JPS
141and that we asked interested candidates to submit a cover letter expressing that interest along with a resume to their superintendent's office prior to 5 o'clock on Tuesday April 1st and that the superintendent's office be directed to compile relevant interview questions probably working with masb uh and schedule interviews of those internal candidates for our next meeting on April 15th um we can uh interview those candidates have an opportunity to deliberate we want to take action then I suppose we can but we also have a special meeting on May 6 as well um so that's what I would say the that we deliberate uh interview candidates on at our next meeting on April 15 truste act and you supported that motion support okay any discussion no so first I'd like to know did Debbie did you come
142here with a presentation for us with information no I did not I came to be a resource and to you know answer any questions that might arise so for instance um in your motion Derek you you've listed the dates in there I don't know if you want those to stay in there there might have to be a little bit of flexibility when you start having a conversation with um Jay Bennett who's the assistant director of of executive Search Services um about what your process might look like there's some nuances to it that you can choose to do or not for instance you might want to set up input sessions for your staff Andor Community you may want to put together an online survey even if you're doing just an internal search those things need a
143little bit of time to happen doesn't mean we can't meet that deadline but I I would hate to have you have those dates specifically in the motion and not have had the conversation about whether or not you want to take those steps um often districts um especially when you're looking only internally like to take those steps to to get feedback from from you know community and staff members um it gives um it it helps them to understand you're trying to be transparent in the process and that you care what they think and that you're going to take some of those responses you know into consideration as you make your decisions and so it is a good opportunity to allow for that time in there but again it's going to be your process and and your
144timeline we'll certainly work with whatever it is you want to do but I think you might want to just pull those dates out to give yourself a little flexibility so that's the kind of thing I'm here to talk about thanks I would also ask dck that you would consider breaking them into two different motions the first simply being accept accepting his resignation effective June 30th and then to make a second motion regarding any kind of search um I agree I don't think we really need all that detail in the motion and that can come after but I'd like to see it be two separate motions okay I will uh withdraw my motion and make a motion to accept superintendent bu's resignation effective June 30th support discussion hearing no discussion all in favor I I anyone
145opposed motion carries to support Jeff Bill's resignation letter final date with the district effective June 30th 2025 I would make a second motion uh to direct the superintendent's office to work with masb so that we uh can have a process by which we can interview candidates and receive Community feedback by April 15 at our next meeting support discussion so I do have also a question about when you say internal search does so does that mean that it gets posted on the JPS website it does not go to m live it does not get posted in the regional W ads what what does it mean I think internal internal candidates means current employees of JPS you can post it wherever so that internal candidates can apply but internally I mean candidates that are already working for
146JPS are qualified so that we can uh be sure first to see if we can uh you know promote from within um before going outside to external candidates trusty Acton so um would it be do people do boards usually just appoint or do they usually use an outside Source like masb you know there's not one answer okay you know given the 500 boards across the state it's a little of this and a little of that and that's why you know board presidents call the office and sort of discuss what are the specifics of the district right what are the current needs you know there was a lot of discussion tonight about your your budget situation you have a bond issue that you're trying to move forward because of those things you might have a different
147answer from us than another District who is not involved in those situations right so it's really about what best suits the district at a given time and even if this was two years from now it might be a different answer right because again you might find yourself in a different situation so we want to customize our our assistance to match your situation um I do think as I was talking with shelanda earlier today that going through an internal process whether it's an appointment process without you know any interviews and those sort of things or you go through the inter you know the internal search sort of full-fledged um there's a real shortage of candidates out there right now the pool is not very deep just to give you an idea um last year there were
14890 superintendent transitions in the state and only 16% of those candidates or previously sitting superintendant and so when you think about that you're not likely to find necessarily a superintendent who already has that experience you're likely going to hire someone who has assistant superintendent an executive director in some instances building principles and that's why for many districts if they feel like they have some really good potential candidate from inside that they go ahead and consider those candidates first it doesn't mean that you can't go out and do an external search at the end right you could come to the conclusion that that's not what's going to be right for the district but many times it is what's right um and that's why I suggested you know if you're going to do internal then you really
149ought to consider those other pieces around that feedback thank you truste DOL do you have any more questions light is on but I I do want to clarify that whatever the process is at the end of the day yes we will appoint the next superintendent from this board Debbie can you talk to us a little bit about current vacancies and what the if anyone's doing an external search what candidates they might be pulling in um so my depth of knowledge there is going to be a little bit less um you know specific because I don't typically do searches um and I've been traveling for the last few weeks but um I know that we currently have I believe it's 12 searches posted and in process right now this is the time of year that superintendents
150notify boards that they're going to be done at the end of the year and so there's quite a few now there's also some that are being run by by other organizations so there's more than 12 active searches in the state right now the more there are at any one time as you can imagine the less likely you are to get a large pool because candidates want don't want to go out and just apply for everything they're going to be very specific about where they apply um and so that's going to lessen likely the pool um in my conversations with with our Consultants that's what I hear Debbie can you um just give us um how much does it typically cost if we were to consider a full search comprehensive search what would that you guys
151are getting into the nitty-gritty questions and unfortunately the two people best suited to answer these are out in districts tonight working with them on their searches um you know I think it if we look at an internal search obviously the the cost would be less um than a full-blown external search um because there are additional pieces to that process right there's advertising and there's you know other other um checkpoints along the way um but I'm going to say that you're likely in the neighborhood of less than $10,000 um even for a full pledge search some of it it depends on the consultant that's assigned and the expenses you know I don't know who will be assigned to to work with you um part of that would be determined once again with a discussion with with
152Jay um to find the right fit right we have a number of Consultants who do the work but we want to select the person to work with you who's the right fit for your district and so that might mean they might live a little farther than somebody who's close but if it's the right fit you know that's what we want to make happen so there's a little give and take there but I would say if you considered probably about $10,000 you would be pretty safe Jay might be mad at me for saying that tomorrow I don't know well I had conversation with Jay regarding that and he said it you know he his first question was what's your student count we have to look at the student count what's the geographic area and some of
153the identified needs in your school district um he gave me a Range 7 to $10,000 Okay so did pretty good you did pretty good um but again he said that there would be some other factors that we would need to consider and one was the travel and the marketing that would yeah that would need to happen and and we really I I have to say we really try to keep our fees low because you are our members that I mean we're here to assist you as much as possible so um you may find a higher fee from other search firms um and and there's also a couple of options for you you know should you decide to move forward with either the internal or external search we have something called Our member assistance fund and
154I would say given your current budget situation you would likely uh be a candidate for that um that comes from our a subset of our board of directors that could be up to $1,500 off of the initial proposal fee um if you haven't used your 75th anniversary rebate there's $750 there so there's some ways that the fee might be reduced based on some programs that we have and and again we wouldn't know all of this until we are assigned a consultant to work with us yeah Jay Jay would you know work through all of those issues with you yeah thank you hi thank you for being here um so I just this morning there's 20 postings on masb for for superintendent oh they might have gotten a lot more work while I was on May
155they popped up this morning but I was just what's the feasibility knowing that we have to have someone in place by July 1 it's more expensive to consider an external candidate but it's also more time intensive is it realistic to even consider having someone quality where we can consult the community and be transparent with an external commun with an external candidate at this point yeah so an external search typically takes about four months from start to finish if you go through all the steps so you're not going to meet your June 30th deadline and in that instance um you would either have to have a conversation about either an extension that Jeff would stay over or that you would um assign you would appoint an interim because you do have to have a superintendent named
156by law um and so that's I think why much of the conversation has been around thinking internally first knowing that you'd like that transition period um that they can spend time in the district with Jeff and you know get the lay of the land and obviously for someone who's in the district they don't have to come in and learn it right there's a shorthand that happens with an internal candidate and that in term cannot be someone who's interested in the position correct that's what Jay Bennett would recommend to you correct it changes the pool so let's say you named an interim from within um and then you decide to do an external search many external potential candidates would look at that as you've already made up your mind you're only going through the steps so
157we usually suggest that if you have an internal candidate and you know you want to do a full-fledged external search that they not be named the interim and that we provide you with some um ideas of who other you know you might look to for that period of time thank you trusty Hamilton all right um so I would not be in support of this motion um and I have a few reasons why um one I feel it would be tainted two I feel it would be rushed three I think we we would be missing a huge opportunity four I think it would exclude authentic engagement from our community and five the cost in my opinion is minimal um in comparison to what we hope um and we recognize we end up being our superintendent for
158the next 5 to 10 years potentially so tainted in the sense that um we have enough uh individuals here at JPS who have institutional knowledge um and uh awareness and even experience around what it looks like to at least sit in an intern position should we need that um as far as Jeff being able to walk somebody through what that looks like I think we have enough individuals at his cabinet in his cabinet um and also within our staff that we don't need him to we don't need to rush this so that he can be here to to do that we don't need to do that and taint it also in um him being the one to do that we need we don't need him helping to create the questions we don't need him trying
159to guide the board on which direction to go um his service is over with it being over we don't need him to guide any of that we can get outside support outside folks to do that to help us with that and some of us have been on the board long enough so at least have some really good ideas around uh the resources that are available out there and uh directions to go to to ensure that we're doing a good job with this process so taint it in that way rushed because again with institutional knowledge that we have in our uh District already you know we just don't need to rush it for that reason um I get the four month thing thank you for clarifying that that it could take four months and that legally
160we have to have somebody by uh July 1 we could definitely name an interim so that we can go through the process and give our due diligence to it um and we don't have to name that interim tonight we can spend some time on that as well a huge opportunity um we would be missing if we try to just push this along um which uh is a related to my next uh issue and that is the exclusion of our authentic authentic engagement with the community this district has dealt with Jeff for um these all these years and now that we that he's leaving this is an opportunity for our district and our community to say this is what this is what we would like for our next superintendent to look like the district you know
161the community may say they want it to look like him and the community may say they don't want it to look like him we won't know what the community wants what they want if we don't authentically engage them and attempting to you know Rush the process even with us being this is what March and need to have somebody by July that not being a full four months or whatever even us not having it if we didn't have somebody named by four months I feel like we need to give our community an opportunity because we're not going to have this opportunity again for another five to 10 years so we need to be authentic in our engagement with them and then the cost um again having him here for who him he heard they whoever they
162are who comes and becomes our next superintendent they'll be here for five or 5 to 10 years or so this is similar to the uh issue around curriculum you know the cost in my opinion when I made the when I said yes to the curriculum I think we were spending 300 something thousand you know what I mean um and the cost didn't matter to me because we got to have curriculum we've got to have um you know we've got to be able to educate our students and so the cost is not is as important as the fact that we have relevant information you know and and appropriate you know curriculum for our kids so that's why the cost wasn't so in relation to this we are looking at somebody who's going to be here for
163the next 5 to 10 years you know I mean um we as a board we work you know me the you know the meetings that we that we will need to diligently due diligence attend the the uh applications that we'll need to read the questions the interviews that will need to happen um we need to give ourselves a time to do that so um I would make a motion that we amend uh dereck's motion to open this up to uh external candidates which would in my opinion well I won't say in my opinion which would include internal candidates as well we have a motion on the floor any support hearing none the motion fails mam president like to um speak in support of my main motion uh understanding all of the things that were uh
164previously said um and I think this is an incredibly important decision uh the reason for the tighter time frame uh is because we're evaluating internal candidates um my understanding is that that likely will be a smaller pool of applicants uh we will uh probably know uh we will certainly know uh those individuals and uh the opportunity for engagement um can happen at every point when we walk out of this room to have a conversation about um who is going to lead JPS next uh who is the best candidate for that position um I am sure that that um individuals have already been expressing their interest to members of this board and uh engaging authentically uh with different community members um to have discussions with us um this is not to say that uh the motion
165means that we have to uh appoint the next superintendent on April 15th but it is to set in motion excuse me uh the the start of that conversation um and the ability to uh engage in a process over the next couple of weeks to see if there are any um internal candidates uh that want to help JPS uh over the next 5 to 10 years um that is um it's it is the most important decision that this body will make um but I also will say that you know depending on uh the contract that the board uh negotiates with the next superintendent it's not something that can't be undone um if things don't work out um so you know I think that going through internal candidates first um makes a lot of sense and will
166save us uh resources from starting there before evaluating um uh external candidates trusty Simonetti um I would support your motion also Derek and I think that in this whole process I don't think that it was ever implied that Jeff Beal would guide this process and I think that's evidenced by the fact that he left the room for this discussion so I don't have any concern concerns about that um and I will say whether you are talking about Henry Ford Health consumers or Jackson Public Schools Jackson's tough to recruit to and you can go out there and ask those HR people and I think it's extremely important that we look for someone that has ties to Jackson and that was the one thing that stood out when we hired Jeff and and it kept him here
167for 11 years and I think it's important I think if you bring someone in from the outside and they sense any dysfunction they're going to be gone and that's the problem with superintendent turnover in general and I I think it's difficult to recruit it's hard to bring someone from another Community who has to relocate I think ties to Jackson are important which then would lead us to internal candidates trusty Del so I have a question for Marcus um Marcus is there because there may be some costs incurred throughout this process with the engagement with the engagement of uh external organizations uh to help us internally uh do we need any sort of motion for costs not to exceed or anything like that or is there anything within the budget that would allow the super I
168suppose you could I don't know of any guidelines surrounding that um we would just whatever the negotiated cost would be we would figure that into the final budget amendment in June okay it' be board discretion I guess trusty ready you your I just W to um I think Cheryl hit a bull ey you know um and Derek I also agree with both Cheryl and Derek yeah we need to look at somebody who is part of this community who knows inside out of this community who is who is knowledgeable about this community uh I think like like DK said um we're not you know trying to close this by April 15th but at least we get a chance to meet who are those uh who those individuals are U we find somebody body well and good
169if not we still got all the options open right M so trusty Hamilton um sh this is question for Cheryl were you here when Jeff came on the first time was he living in Jackson when we but he had ties to the commity so thank you for that so he was not living here um and he had ties to the community so if we opened it up to external candidates there's a potential that there are individual ual who don't live here but yet have TI to the community that would be interested in coming here just so we clear on that um so we don't have to choose somebody who's internally for that reason alone because again he wasn't living here and he had ties and there are actually you know individuals that have moved away
170from here and have ties to the community who could come back so just so we clear on that um yeah thank you just point of clarification um is that another concern that you might have offering internal and external simultaneously that some external candidates May hesitate to apply yeah absolutely um when they sense that there um are potentially good candidates from within the district um oftentimes you know they don't want to put themselves out there knowing that once they've accepted an interview it's public knowledge that they you know are choosing potentially to leave their current situation and so they become much more cautious when um you do the two together and that's why typically Jay would say do your internal first if you think you have you know some folks who who might fit the bill
171and then you can always say thank you but we still would like to look outside and so then you could still move to that that option I do want to clarify a couple things maybe I didn't do as good a job of presenting because this isn't my normal thing um one um Kesha the superintendent the current sitting superintendent is not part of the process they do not work on questions they do not um influence the process at all of any of our services this is the one probably where the consultant works most closely with the board and not really with the superintendent at all um now Michelle is another story she'd be helping to schedule things um you know and work with the consultant in that way but the superintendent is not involved in that
172part of the process at all um I I do believe that I stress the importance of Engagement of your staff and community and that we should make space for that to happen because it is an opportunity to build trust and transparency for the district and so um I know that Jay would suggest that you do that and just so you know um while we might hope for another 10 years for the next superintendent um the average tenure of superintendence is much closer to around four years now just because of the way things are so I just wanted to share those pieces is it Debbie Deb Debbie which one is it Debbie because I know it's a Deb too yeah there is thank you for clarifying that um I think it's important for the board to
173understand that he won't have any engagement in that because that was really bringing some you know some real check marks red ones in my mind that this is a horrible that's be a horrible situation um for him to be guiding that or helping with questions or um and I think that one of the things that they did say and you can provide some clarity on this just from your experience that might help uh the board better understand I think what they were saying was that not only him helping to guide the process some but also him to be here to help uh maybe Orient the new superintendent coming in I think that's what the board was trying to say is that what you were getting as well or no yeah I think those are two
174different things yes involvement in the process orientation right and there is definitely some benefit um you know there's always pluses and minuses to every situation right but there is definitely some benefit to having that orientation opportunity um I remember when when we actually hired our internal candidate the second time I went through a superintend search um one of the comments she made to us later was you know I worked closely with the board I thought I understood the Dynamics I I thought I really knew it said but I didn't realize until I worked with the superintendent in that transition period that there was a lot that I was still missing and she really appreciated having that time it doesn't mean that your next superintendent is going to do everything the way Jeff does it they
175aren't going to right I mean just not the way it is and so it that orientation is not about um instilling in them the right way to do things it's more about making sure they have the full breadth of knowledge that they can about operations thank you that that was those were the points that I was making when I set up the things that I said we didn't NE necessarily need him to do that orienting because we have his staff and we have and this is for the board not necessarily you we have him his staff and we have other members in the uh district with institutional knowledge who could uh do that orienting as well um the other thing you mentioned about space um the the other thing that I was making a note
176of is that we do need time to authentically engage the community which I heard you say and which I you know you heard me also repeat um and as you mentioned we didn't we don't we won't necessarily have enough time at least with his timeline which is why I heard you mention to him he probably should take the dates out um but again that authentic engagement of our community is not uh incidental it's not it shouldn't be antidotal you know one person here or there we actually need to have Community sessions we actually need to have opportunities for the community to engage us and talking to somebody while you walking down the hallway or through an email is not authentic engagement that's not for you this is for the board um so yeah thank you
177I do think it's important that we engage our community and so I think part of our motion should include that um Mr dois so so again I moving forward I would hope that that is part of our Direction moving forward is that the whether it's a community Forum it's a survey and it could be all of them it could be a discussion a special meeting where everyone comes in and discuss that but I do feel that before we can make a decision that Community engagement must be a part of the process point of clarity is that does that need to be stated in his motion or help me understand what what your desire is in relation to his motion for now that was a discussion item but I would like to add that to the
178motion so are you amending your motion Derek or what I would like to withdraw my motion again for the fourth time and offer a new motion if you will um that we post the superintendent's position to internal applicants that the superintendent's office not the superintendent the superintendent's office be directed to work with the masb uh to uh conduct uh assist the Jackson Public School Board of Education in conducting our internal search with the intent of arriving at April 15th the opportunity to evaluate and interview those internal candidates and I would also add uh that the costs of which uh are not to exceed $115,000 point of clarity um Deb can you answer this question um superintendent office he said that a second time supporting this position help me understand the process yeah because what I
179give me a minute because what I understand is the board is the one who uh who does the whole who works directly not the office is that help me understand should that be in his motion is that appropriate what is it yeah there there are definitely logistical issues that we would work with Madam chair typically the superintendent secretary on point of order okay uh the if if I may address my own motion um and and the point of ask questions through the chair is so that the chair can direct those questions or answer those questions uh but with respect to this there are certain like scheduling things um even with Jeff removed uh there are postings there are things that Chris is going to have to do that uh anyone that is not planning on
180applying uh will probably have to help with and assist with that Michelle will help with so that is why I said the superintendent's office the superintendent is the one person that reports to the board um that works directly for us um Ergo I said is office and working with masb to facilitate that process I'm happy to restate my motion if appropriate it otherwise I would call the question question is C any more discussion yes one last thing Madam chair I called the question well she asked the discussion so you know my my call the question is a um is a vote of the board that's correct dere Do's called the question at this time Del Liberation has taken place the motion has been made it has been supported at this time all those in favor
181of the motion on the floor say I all right we're we're we're calling the question which means that we have to take a vote to end debate it requires two-thirds of a vote of us to stop talking about this motion my third motion or whatever but we have to take a vote to close debate at this time we will take a vote to close the debate all those in favor I any oppos motion carries now we immediately proceed to take the vote on the motion all those in favor of the motion hi hi hi any oppose no okay yes thank you Debbie for coming we appreciate your time um I will be in touch with you um myself and Michelle moving forward yeah I I will um let Jay know tomorrow that um he you
182know I know he's already had some thoughts about how to move forward I know that you've had that discussion um we do appreciate that you've put your faith in us and to assist with with this process um I I I'm sure they'll find exactly the right fit with your consultant and um you'll be in good stead with whoever that is so thank you for allowing me to be here this evening with you and I hope that you found it helpful awesome thank you we are have we're going to move to the old business we have two more agenda items under old business strategic plan the Strategic plan came before the board last month and there was a lot of discussion around implementing that within our district after receiving notice of our superintendent um plan to
183Res design we think that it is important that we table this for now and bring it back before the board in June or July at which point we should have some direction on who the next um candidate will be and we will um plan to begin that process with our new candidate as Superintendent at this time I'll make a motion to approve the Strategic plan that a motion to approve this agenda item what yes so we we've already discussed it so basically approve the motion to bring it back before the board June July once we as the board has made it um have some guidance on moving forward our path forward with another candidate so without putting a time frame on it because we really don't know that time frame I would make a motion
184that we table the Strategic plan until we have a new superintendent in place discussion all in favor of tbling this until we have a new candidate in place say I I any opposed motion carries Committee of the whole that was another item that was brought before the board last month and at the time that I presented that agenda item there was some concerns with the feasibility of scheduling and ensuring that the full board would have the flexibility the availability to um join another meeting each month we were not able to meet the needs of everyone's work schedules and at this point um we're going to table this I move to table the committee of the whole support we have a motion to move this to table the committee of the whole discussion item or business
185item pardon me motion support any discussion all those in favor I any opposed no all right that takes us to board comments anyone like to speak tonight um I thought it was a good meeting we accomplished a lot I would like to congratulate everyone who took advantage of the voluntary separation and especially those people who will be retiring um congratulations for that and for everyone in the district I would like to wish a happy healthy safe spring break to our students our parents and families and especially to our graduating seniors to be safe thank you so I had the privilege to read at Hunt um in Mrs swope's class and Mr van ep's fourth grade class they were wonderful students and also the um sh Park the kindergarteners with Mrs Rando and just congrats again
186to our Deca students and um just what a great job Mr Cunningham's doing and good luck at Nationals and um yeah have a great spring break trusty does um congrats to to everyone that is um you know taking advantage of the voluntary sance agreement um and those that um will be um hopefully uh applying for um the superintendent position internally look forward to um seeing what sort of interest that we get there uh looking forward to um having some well-deserved time off for Spring Break um you know I I know it's a um uh time of relaxation and vacation for some um you know I I'm not from here I'm I'm from uh come from Brighton and um you know one of the things that uh touring the schools at different times um you know
187we we may not all talk about it at our board meetings uh but we do all do that and I certainly do and I've been doing it for a couple of years and have um toured through some of the schools uh right before Spring Break um and I think it's um you know it's it's hard to see some of those uh students that uh don't look forward to spring break for various reasons and see our school system as a resource and as a safe place as a place where they're going to get at least uh two meals a day and be able to be close to people that love them um so you know I just want to um recognize those teachers and administrators and people that work in the schools that um care so
188much about those kids and go above and beyond to make sure that they feel loved and um cared for in our school system around this time that's it I'll pay you back off of that I had the opportunity to visit Shar Park and also the district Improvement meeting this month and I'm just so encouraged by the intentionality of loving on our students that I see um yes we see some things academically that are being addressed and we are we we are pursuing those tenaciously but we see students as a whole person and we see that in our efforts as well um and we are addressing those with intentionality which I so appreciate and thank you to everyone who is working with in a classroom with students or outside to love on those students We Appreciate
189You y so I want to start with um my 10-year-old son really wanted to come to the meeting today but mama said no because last last time he was here we went home around you know 11:00 you know so but today I I yep I strongly believe that the meeting went beautiful uh I know there are couple things uh uh which were brought up here um first uh Deca congratulation to all those students it's amazing how we go out compete nationally and then uh I got a couple more kids uh tan tagi who's part of the DECA and Jacob cherle both uh got their uh National marriage scholarship congratulations to them I know both of them for more than a decade both the kids uh the other thing academic games you know uh all the
190players uh of Jackson high academic games they got selected to Nationals too so which is amazing accomplishment by our kids this is something I want everybody to to uh make this viral because this is what who we are you know so uh again yep I miss my son he's not here but next time I'll bring him for sure yeah I know I too had the opportunity to participate in March's reading month and um so much respect for the teachers so much respect for the teachers their patience um one of the teachers was sitting down and holding the hand of another student and just watching the children lean into those supportive adults if you haven't had the opportunity to volunteer you still have a couple weeks um please contact us and let us know what school
191you want to um attend contact um Michelle let um let her know but those opportunities are you get to see something different it's one thing for them to come here and do a presentation but to go into their space that they're in for five six hours out the day is really um awesome to see and just want to say thank you to all the teachers the administrators the hard work that you're putting in with our students and watching the students smile and feel that connection Deca congratulations to all the students wow I saw the um JPS post on Facebook and just went through and kind of reading some of that post content and feeling like how can we better promote this program there's so many more students that could benefit from participating in this so
192that's my goal is to try to promote some awareness for the DECA program and Pathways to have that young lady come here tonight and share her experience of the longl lasting relationships that she's created with peers and she prefaced her her statement with saying she was afraid she didn't think you know that it was going to be a great experience and she came from other JPS schools within our district so that says a lot about our leadership and our Administration and Pathways thank you to your hard work we have a lot of work to do at the board table we had three policies that went before the was directed to go to the policy committee tonight I'm hoping that when those come back that they are presented with the refin like the fine tuning that
193we are anticipating so that we can make those informed decisions moving forward definitely want to make sure that we are moving in a direction that is inclusive to all students thank you for everyone that stayed to the end we appreciate appreciate your commitment to JPS no other questions no comments I will move to the calendar April 1st 2025 we have another Community engagement session that is scheduled for the bond it will be held at Parkside Media Center at 5:30 p.m. we will have another one on the 3D so a Tuesday and Thursday I believe if you can't make one you have another opportunity to attend the other uh scheduled one they're in the same week please we value your input come support the bond and with sharing your your perspective on what you how you
194reimagine what our district can and should look like and then April 15th 2025 our regular board meeting again back here in the JHS media center and Chris really quick anything that you want to add to the bond before yeah just real quick so those are our first Community engagement meetings so the bond uh committee has met they've put together their ideas of what they think they should look the bond should look like and now it's coming to the community so you can pick either day to go um but those you don't have to RSVP we're going to share it out we want everybody to come we encourage you to invite people to come and get the word out there that these these meetings exist um and and there meant to be presentational and we'll have
195some refreshments but uh mostly it's meant to prese present what the bond committee thinks the bond should look like and then get the community feedback from that then there'll be two more meetings that talk about what did we hear from our community once we sent it out so it's kind of a process so but this is a really important one for you to come to to see what what we've come up with as a bond committee and that included a lot of um community members and then where do we go from here thank you Chris motion to approve Jour it move to journ support all in favor I'd like to amend my motion toour have a good night everyone thank you Michelle next time you know try to make sure it's not too cold I've
196been shivering for last one hour e e e