JPS Board Meeting - 3/20/24

001e voice in there waiting it seemed like I was sitting there for a half hour it was actually four minutes um I want to thank you for coming to the March meeting of the Jackson Public School Board and I really appreciate you taking your time to come and contribute especially our little hunt people over here who are going to entertain us tonight a reminder that if you wish to address the board there's a form on the back table uh fill that out as soon as you come in and pass it off to Michelle Oxley and we'll make sure that you get your moment time um let's start out by welcoming Mary Joe and the little hunt little Hunters um for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you can the audience please stand at this time as

002well thank you you can say now could everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all hunt pledge today I will listen to all adults in their directions I respect my classmates and the right to learn I will practice being kind patient and respectful to myself and everyone I am proud to be a h and I am proud to be me Mission we will bring our community together to create a culture of academic excellence and work for sweatiness vision we envision our community where all students become lifelong Learners and remember you can be anything be and the hyp go and that is a peak of

003how we start each morning at Hunt Elementary so good evening Schoolboard members cabinet members and Michelle we are so excited to be here the 3D through fifth grader grade students here tonight are from our after school program these students get on a bus at 6:30 in the morning and return home about 5:30 at night 4 days a week for 32 weeks so needless to say they are very dedicated to going to school they have volunteered to be in this program they have worked very hard on this presentation they are a tad nervous for that matter so am I I'd like to thank Miss dentman who helped assisted me in uh getting the students prepared I'd like to thank the after school staff for adapting their schedules to help us practice I'd like to thank our

004music teacher Miss Bradshaw for writing and choreographing our song that we will be performing later tonight and finally I would like to thank the hunt staff and parents who are here tonight supporting our [Applause] students at this time our students will be presenting Hunt's School Behavior Matrix positive behavior intervention support PE b i is the best responsible in control show man earn and give respect we love to rise above We rise above in the restroom on the playground in the in the hallways on the bus in the classroom in technology these posters are hung throughout our building these posters remind us how to rise above we know what it looks like we know what it sounds like every classroom has a smaller version postage we earn daily tickets for weekly prizes we earn monthly celebrations

005our first celebration was pop schools and games outside our second celebration was the glow stick and dance party our third celebration was eating Donuts while drinking apple cider and watching a movie our fourth celebration was painting Christmas ornaments and eating candy canes but our favorite celebration was get in the face they love me and that ends our first portion of tonight's and at this time we have the lovely Miss Bradshaw here to lead us in one song hello everyone Mrs R has been the Principal at Hunt Elementary for 25 years and in the district for 38 years this is her last board presentation so we wanted to dedicate this song to her the students help with changing the words of the song and they help with the choreography they did not want Mrs Ras to

006hear or see them practice because they wanted it to be a surprise but I know and you know that Mrs Raz likes everything on point and precise so I invited her to watch us practice hunt students will sing this song and other songs on May 15th which all of you are invited to so thank you and I hope you enjoy [Music] loves [Music] us loves us yeah [Applause] [Music] yeah you lost her we saw her yesterday it's [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] sheing you think you lost the love saw her yesterday it's she's thinking and she told [Music] [Applause] us [Music] [Applause] usad [Music] uses us with a love like that you [Applause] be with [Music] aad you should be glad she loves us yeah us yeah and at this time I'd like to introduce

007the lovely kids from Hunt Elementary cayra diaria kir zakaya McKenzie Jaye zeny Shila Natalie Amber come back here Sophia Payton Gabby Eli Savannah Cadence and [Applause] ronell and our lovely staff back there does anybody have any questions all right thank you very much you are a great audience we appreciate wonderful thank you I don't have a question I just wantan to uh give a huge shout out hunt has been very busy all day long with the governor of Michigan coming over and meeting with the Ken Garden babies and they were fantastic and this is just uh always mindblowing you know how we're going to be entertained and seeing the great things that our students are doing at Hunt Elementary so shout out to their leader shout out to the staff and especially the students and

008the families that made it here tonight you guys are color coordinated and just a highlight for Jackson public school so thank you very much than you Mrs axley will you do the roll call please uh Miss Hamilton present Mrs Brown Mrs Mitchell here Mr does Miss Acton present Miss hunt present and Mrs Fitzgerald here okay at this point here we go at this point I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda deliberation yes I'd like to um I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda to um move the discussion item 232 2493 to an action item support discussion yes um is it was this going to have a presentation with it tonight or did you all have a presentation in February do we know we have it tonight we're having it tonight

009okay okay all in favor I opposed thank you passes now superintendent report yes oh the approval of the agenda okay now we need the approval of the agenda as amended support support y okay all in favor I opposed thank you the motion of the motion passed superintendent report okay again we're um little out of order here but that's okay because it's a great way to start out the meeting with Hunt Elementary School so thank you again principal uh Ras Kowski Shannon and her staff always do a fantastic job at this point in time we're going to hear a Dei update from Kelly Crum so let's give her a moment to get set with the information she is prepared to share with us today all right thank you Jeremy thank you superintendent bill for this space

010good evening everyone good evening I had to follow Northeast I mean hunt wow that was awesome I got to sing my presentation not [Laughter] today so as most of you know I've been here for five months as an Alum of Jackson Public Schools I am excited in this role I have been boots on the ground to see the amazing amazing things that are happening in the district and I just wanted to take an opportunity to share with you today so as part of my summary I just want to emphasize our commitment to fostering an inclusive and Equitable learning environment I want to make sure that our students um and our staff um and our parents feel that this is a welcoming place in our K through 12 Educational Systems and we are promoting Dei which

011is diversity Equity inclusion across our district I wanted to note today that when we look at our students that come to us they are 58% diverse diversity in representation is very important important and I wanted to highlight who those folks are that are part of our diversity which includes our African-Americans our Native Americans our Pacific Islanders our Hawaiians and Hispanics which brings togetherness which Empower our students to feel valued as they succeed academically here at Jackson Public Schools some of the key initiatives that I wanted to talk about today are four curriculum enhancement professional development the student voice and parents and Community engagement as we look at our curriculum as I said earlier um I have been in classrooms of course not all classrooms because I'm only one person but as I've engaged with principls

012and teachers and been able to be eyes on the curriculum and see what is happening it's happening right I've see diverse perspectives um in the classrooms where pictures are being displayed in classroom books supplemental um things are going into the curriculum to provide a historical narrative and Multicultural content for our students um I believe that our students and teachers have intentionally valued the unique needs that make each student different and acknowledge them for who they are which which is very important so myself and assistant superintendent Jeremy Patterson as well as Dr Johnson um who we are still Consulting with have been doing instructional rounding in the classroom which is have been amazing experience and so I believe you have the equity rubric that has been sent to you which we have used um to make

013sure that there are world real world experiences in the classroom with instruction so those teachers are observing other teachers in the classroom they're applying they're receiving feedback and input from all of us to make sure that there's Equitable learning outcomes happening in the classroom which is very important so a couple things again that I want to highlight is making sure that we are affirming students identities um supporting and collaborating the learning environment heing um and supporting our educators we want to make sure that they have the tools that they need in the classroom to be successful um responsive teaching and learning practices and again Equitable learning environment as we look at professional development um there is D TR Dei training that are happening we're right now have two cohorts of teaching staff that are going

014through um just want to share with you some of the topics that are included which is the definition of what is equity um what is bias we talk about culture and identity cultural relevant um instructional practices and the historical implications of schooling our building administrators have also been a part of that PD and they have been participating um as of tomorrow they will have had five Dei trainings through the month of October when I started till March um they it will be ongoing um it doesn't stop here right the learning never stops um some of the things that I've been doing I've been doing some PD with um John R Lewis Elementary on culture responsive practices um again supporting our teachers and administrators being available to them having one-on-one conversations be invited to their staff

015meetings to talk about the Dei work that is being done especially when you're talking about race and racism I want to make sure that um if we're are uncomfortable which is you know that does happen that we can become comfortable talking about those um topics um attending again um staff meetings apparently aison um I just got a training with them which was marvelous a Dei training where we talked about creating a culture of care with an equity lens we want to make sure that when they're having conversations with our parents um that they have the tools that they need and and that I'm available for them um I did a co- I co-presented um with a Day of Discovery with Marcus Gil with the ISD and that was great because there were folks that from

016around the districts that were a part of that and then the ongoing training that I talked about will be with our secretaries um our bus drivers I am having some uh Dei training with our custodians on Friday I want everyone in the district to have that Equity lens that look this is my passion so I wake up every day with that Equity lens this is heart work so I try to bring my energy which is always positive but I want to have real conversation so I want to make sure that people um know where I'm at know who I am um and so that we can have those conversations as we look at student voice um which is I think an amazing thing because these are our customers this is who we serve we need

017to hear from our students they are valuable they are important important so when they show up every day I want to make sure that they have a place where they feel like this is belonging and this is a safe space so our building administrators have been working with our students with a student voice where they're listening I will be going around um I have been at Jackson High School um a few of us have been with their student voice but I'm going to be hitting each building to make sure there's representation um not just of race but of gender of socioeconomic status as well to make sure that all voices are heard and then um those students will be able to speak to our superintendent um in the future to make sure that he can

018hear what they're saying and he's excited about that so right now we have 150 students throughout the uh District that are participating in our student voices as we look at at parents and Community engagement as I spoke earlier um with the parently on I'm giving them uh credit they've been doing some great things um I know that's new to the district they are boots on the ground making sure that families are invited into the schools that there are spaces for them to talk um and being part of the conversation there's a lot of cultural events so as we partner with our community um the city has the 100 homes so I made sure that they had a space to talk to our not just our families but even our employees about home ownership it's important

019for our students to have a place their statistics that speak to that if a child is placed in a safety safe environment then they're able to make sure that they get to school where we can work on attendance as well of course we partner with our school-based Health Center Health Equity is important we want to make sure that our students are here at school that they can see the doctor right social and emotional needs um and just all of the other things that are listed on here I'm not going to read every one of them but as you see we had the um academic Excellence dinner we have coffee hour for our elll families which is which is nice that's happening at Shar Park currently and a lot of other great Partnerships and things that

020are happening with our parent and Community engagement I do want to note that we did have um District Improvement meetings October 24th and February 27th there will be two more that will be coming up um this year that students um and their families right can come and share with um their voice so that we can make sure that whatever they need we are supplying what they need um interventions for marginalized students as we saw with hunt School the diversity the makeup of our students that was an after school program so those are things that are helping our students when I'm talking about marginalized students that incorporates those things that are listed above our gay straight Alliance we have prayer groups that are going on we are partnering with Jackson college with JCC men of Merit

021and sisters of strength trying to give students options here um so that they feel like they can whatever you see you can be I want to make sure that they are exposed to all type of things and that's what we're doing here at the district and so recommendations for the um upcoming school year that we're going continue to provide Dei professional development for our staff and administrator to discuss race racism and Equity we will have Equity teams something I'm really passionate about I talked to superintendent Bill about having Equity teams um in our buildings because each building is unique and I want to make sure that we incorporate what is needed for our um Equity teams that will consist of Administrators um parents if they want to be involved which we want them to be

022involved teachers parents and so forth to make those connections of belonging uh the third thing is empowering students Akin with that student voice leadership group um again right now principles are leading that group but we want students to be empowered we want them to be able to lead we're teaching them to be student leaders and the fourth thing is again app parently aison and building principles will provide opportunities for engagement with their families to listen to their experiences and so as I end my presentation just want to make sure that you all know that I am here to do the work for the district to be committed we all are committed to the Dei it remains un unwavering steadfast to making sure that we have equitable an inclusive experience for all our students and including

023our employees too so thank you for listening to my presentation thank you Mrs Crum and she asked me to maybe kind of chime in where I could and I absolutely um just want to recognize her expertise and the work that she's done since being here with our district last year you'll recall we had a report from Dr Johnson with a list of recommendations from his time and what Kelly has been able to do with those recommendations is just really um Expediting the process of providing support and spaces based on the recommendations that were provided for Dr Johnson so she's been a tremendous asset and we always talk about you're not going to solve this Challenge in a year's time and Jackson Public Schools is committed to the long game but we're really impressed with how

024far we've come thus far in just a short period of time and not just the training but the action behind the training so well done and at this time we'll open it up for any other further comments any comments from the board at this point yes um so amazing presentation thank you um so much great information that you are sharing um over your last four five months um so thank you um I appreciate also what Jeremy just mentioned that you know addressing the issues that uh Dei sets out to address it's not a five Monon process it's not a year process this is a journey and I recognize that we're on it um but we definitely have the right person in the job for it so I'm excited about that um you mentioned student voice

025so you mentioned a bunch of stuff um and you answered a lot of my questions that I had already um you didn't know it but you know I had a bunch of questions and you've you've been answering them but I did highlight a couple that I still had um student voice I recogniz or you mentioned that um I think teachers or somebody like that is leading that group um I'm is there a plan for having the students choose their leader at some point you know I imagine them being more comfortable different ones absolutely so right now our building principles are leading that um and the goal is to have students right we want to empower our students to be leaders and we can't do that if we don't let them lead so yes we will

026be doing that thank you the other question I have for them um and I think it's vital and I'm I already know like I said I know we got the right person in the position so I know you already have this in your mind but I do want to put this out there I think it's a good for the community to be aware of as as well um what's our what's our what's our commitment what's our guarantee to our students you know we we're asking to open up talk to me tell me what you're feeling tell me what you're thinking how can I improve what's our are we saying okay when you tell me these are the things that we're going to like what's the what's the message to them you know because I know

027it's necessary absolutely um when students and I'm thinking about uh particular students who have questions that they want answered here and now right we're going to make sure that we hear their voice we will put a plan in action to make sure whatever that is that safety is number one right I want to make sure they're they're safe in that in that environment when they speak up as well as putting a plan together because I don't want them to feel like we're just here and nothing is happening we're showing up and we're pouring out that this is happening and we're not following through so absolutely we will give space to them to make sure that we hear them and that we take action as we can to make sure that they get what they need

028because the end goal is for them to graduate and leave here with the diploma right I know we can't do pizza every day or you know start school at n o'clock every morning but you know right right right those are some of the things try to get other stuff all right a couple more questions for you um you know this is my area I don't know if you all know or not but this is my area folks so you know I got some questions um the district Improvement meetings and this mayor may not be the question for you so if somebody else is supposed to answer that's totally fine um one we we so just a quick background on this I don't know if our community is aware of but we are um a school

029district right now that the state has come in and said hey look Let's help you set some plans up because you do have some failing schools and so because of that they've come in and they said let's let's set up all these things in place um I have been fortunate to be able to be in both of those uh District Improvement meetings that we've had for the past couple these ones that uh Miss Crum just mentioned and we are doing some amazing work um some Pres presentation that they've given where we are really shifting a lot of things um one of the things that this data showed in our district Improvement meeting which um Julie the first meeting came to and uh showed us or told told us about was that 58% of students the

03058% of students that you that you referenced today in your Dei report were the primary student group that was um I don't want to say failing because I I hate to use terminology because it can be used in all these different kind of ways but the primary student group that needed more support um and so we've been doing a lot of work around that which is really good this is why your position is amazing because you know until we start to one look at the problem and then address the problem you know one looking at it right then we got to put a plan in place to address it it doesn't get fixed so I'm glad that we're doing what we're doing so my question is um how are we going about trying to get

031more Community involvement because while you know we've had a couple meetings and like I said Kelly this might not be for you or not but we've had a couple meetings and what I recognize and what this plan is showing us is that the more involvement that we have from parents and students when we're hearing them listening to them guaranteeing that we're going to respond to what they're saying um the better our outcomes are but we need to have them here what's our plan for better advertisements so that we can get them here what's our plan what what's that and may or may not be your uh question for you I don't know do we have a plan for that I'll just um add to what's been going on because I know one of the things

032that we wanted to add was the parent voice the community voice so our parently Liaisons we have some examplar buildings who have hundreds of families coming in to participate in activities whether it's a March's reading month activity a naid parent involvement activity But continuing to find out what's working where our parents are attending and then asking them about their experiences and how they might continue to come alongside of us I think it ultimately is about building relationships because uh we do a lot of rooc calls and a lot of social media posts and that works for some people but when you're intentional about folks that you're inviting into the school and they feel welcomed and they feel like they have a space there um we seem to find that they're more engaged and they're more

033likely to show up so that's something that we're tasking our parently aison is building the relationships for our school buildings to provide those events and activities and then our teachers really know our kids and they really know the families so we lean on our staff to um help us identify who those parents are that want to come alongside of us and be a part of the process so that when they're here we get their feedback I'm looking at Parkside specifically because I've seen all the feedback and and how parents want to continue to engage with us I love that what I love about that and thank you jemy for kind of at you know uh speaking on all that what I love about that is one we're trying to reach out in different ways because

034different communities respond in different ways different people you know so Social Media Mail phone call like all the different ways which is really good um one of the things I was thinking about with the and I'm not won't prolong this real long you know but one of the things things I thought about was that with all these programs that we have the nap it and the this and that these programs a lot of them were here before Kelly came in and yet before Kelly came in and you know this was before she came here our school was still a priority school and I know that's not the correct term for but that just the state had to come in um so with all those programs in place we still became that type of school um

035and that's I guess where I'm hoping that again five months we don't have it together just yet but I'm hoping that we will recognize that um we we were there with all these programs what might we be missing so that we're connecting the dots and I know we're at the beginning you know I mean if we consider uh position you know being 5 months old but that's really um what I'm hoping that we are paying attention to as we move forward thank you okay so moving along the next part of the superintendent report is lifting up a board member we receive communication from masb which stands for Michigan Association of school boards directed to uh superintendent Beal the Michigan Association of school boards is pleased to acknowledge the accompt of at least one board member

036Andor your District's whole board for their achievements in 2023 and so uh masb will list all award recipients uh publicly and congratulations to Jackson Public Schools and thank you for supporting your board members in improving their leadership skills on behalf of Michigan public schools from the executive director of masb recognizing um shalanda hunt for a level one certified board member award and also shalanda hunt level two award Merit for Jackson public school so thank you for your [Applause] service okay one final comment just because this has been a biggie today I was able to go on JTV earlier today with a laundry list of great things that are happening with Jackson Public Schools uh our governor has come to Jackson again she's been here before and took the time and Hunt just uh was a

037great building to Showcase so you may see some of those things on our social media as well as um JTV uh March is reading month in all of our buildings it's really contagious and just lifting up the importance of reading and children are really falling in love with books we have a variety of people coming in and um reading to our children as well as uh Community organizations providing incentives to recognize our students efforts Jackson high school I said it on JTV just a uh a commitment to Excellence so they went to the state festival and received number one ratings in five different categories so those students had a huge shout out as well as our Deca students when the young um Hunt Elementary students were up here talking about our mission statement about College

038and Career Readiness our deca students are taking what they're learning and they're applying that knowledge in a field of their interest it could be business it could be Hospitality could be finance and um they are excelling at what they do so shout out to their teacher and leader uh Chuck Cunningham uh we have students um a record setting number for Jackson Public Schools in attending the state and four students will continue continue on to Nationals and the same thing with academic game um this is a tradition of Excellence for Jackson Public Schools and the tradition continues with our middle school students and our high school students one thing that I really want to recognize here is our former students are coming back and are now leading this program so the leader at Parkside and Jackson

039high were former students who had these experiences who now continue to come back and invest in our young people so those are just some things things that I just want to lift up I that was only the first page of of two so I'll pause with that and just can that will uh conclude the superintendent report for today thank you thank you and congratulations shalanda I know that's not an easy task especially with your plate being so full as it is um at this point I'd like to uh entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda support support um any comments from the board before we continue I do I just would like to recognize our HR report we do have Jesse heinson present with us in the Human Resources report um we are going

040to hire Jesse heinson as director of Technology he has been around for a number of years with the Jackson County Intermediate School District and he has uh going to help us continue to build our capacity within the tech department so uh Jesse thank you for your service and welcome aboard okay we're there [Applause] Jesse Tech is not a a funny thing especially in the school systems they're so different and it's so intricate and so much depends on it being right I always feel sorry I I met JC when I call for Tech I always feel bad because I know I'm one of 3,000 people who absolutely cannot get their password to work um um and it's it's the little teeny things all the way to the big huge things welcome Jesse um okay citizens requesting

041to attend a which one oh the consent agenda I'm sorry yeah just a vote okay all in favor of approving the consent agenda I oppose the same motion curies thank you good job that's what I'm here that's right okay now we're going to do the request to address board uh people uh we have Miss Selby and Joanie in that order please uh five minutes each go ahead it turn red okay all right well I'm glad I got the opportunity after Miss Kelly crumb um did your de de report because I wanted to recommend that the school board considers um implementing a trauma smart curriculum into the school district um and I want to make sure that we're not forgetting about students with disabilities or hidden disabilities in that de um I and I'll be curious

042to know the percentage of students who are on IEP plans and things like that to make sure we are incorporating things to speak to that group as I know they are a large part of um you know the students that we talk about at the district Improvement meetings and so um a lot of organizations Across the Nation two two local organizations has start in Community Action Agency have become a trauma smart um agency to better help serve the families um and students that they serve and um they have offered it to some of the parents of the students and I just think that the administration will be better able to serve some of the the students and families um considering that I just I brought you know the workbook just for you to see what

043it looked like but just just something to consider thank you Joanie and then William so first I'd like to start by saying thank you because some of your comments are some of the same that I have and also miss Crum I'm a big fan of yours I've followed you before you were here and I'm glad that the district has added you um with that said I did notice that students with disabilities or students with IEP was missing and I wanted to point out to the board and anyone who's listening that the last District Improvement meeting or maybe it was the one in October we got a robo call within like 10 minutes of the start of that meeting someone who works full-time or who has to get babysitters for the kids are not going to

044be able to participate in that District Improvement meeting um I was very disappointed to find that I didn't have time to get to it I try to come to all the meetings um additionally Mr Patterson you stated how are those buildings getting the family involvement I can tell you I'm pretty sure that the monasi school is one of those schools that have a lot of family involvement and it's because the staff make everyone feel at home they say hi every single time they talk to you about your concerns when my daughter's not feeling good the person she turns to is her principal and a lot of the people that I consult with that I advocate for do not feel that at all and I want to go through some of that because I've been coming

045to these board meetings for a year and a half and I haven't seen the Improvement and the people that are coming to me and I still haven't heard any updates about the board policy I've asked you guys to revise over and over and over again that prevented my from graduating because her 504 plan which she's a student she was a student with a disability allowed her to complete her classes in June but because of the board policy she was not allowed to walk during her graduation that she worked very hard for and I got a phone call from a former assistant superintendent telling me the board policy and he was very rude and he made me cry considering the work I do that's pretty hard to do um so there's my daughter that was prevented

046from walking during her graduation when there was a Cyber attack there were students at the virtual school that didn't have access to curriculum for two months nothing was provided to accommodate them I've never once heard the board mention that all I hear is all the positives and I never actually hear the work that needs to be done okay a student that I know that comes and talks to me because she's friends with my daughter was traumatized after witnessing a loved one die a year ago she has an IEP she has anger issues she was told by Sharp Elementary or Sharp Academy that they couldn't accommodate her needs so they sent her to the virtual school which was my exact fear that was going to happen and she couldn't handle the virtual schools because her mom's

047a single mom works full-time and her grandma doesn't understand the technology as Miss fitzerald acknowledged is difficult for a lot of people and I'm only going to list a couple of them and I wrote them down and I'm keeping a notebook from this date on another parent is forced in being in the presence of their abuser even though she has a PO order she's forced to attend Zoom meetings as an accommodation for that PO I can tell you by the law that's not an accommodation that's a violation and nobody should be forced to be face Toof face with their abuser um I mean I can go on and on and if we look in the news just this past week there was a child with disabilities that was sexually assaulted on a JPS bus I

048have friends who work for the ISD in the busing department and the reason why that student was on that bus or many other students like her is because Jackson Public Schools didn't provide for special transportation for them because ISD is in need of bus drivers so I love hearing all the great things but if you guys are here to fill a volunteer position if you guys are here to make comments at each other you shouldn't be on the school board you should resign because there's important work that needs to be done and there are a lot of families that are too afraid to come talk to you guys because they think there's no point thank you um before I begin I'd like to congratulate our new superintendent Mr Patterson and I'd like to thank you

049Mr Beal for uh your distinguished service and wish you the very very best in the near and future hey the positioning doesn't lie so okay so as promised um I've returned to this board to speak again about the massive revolutionary impact of AI as it is unfolding in real time in front of us so by the numbers here's what's been going on since I last year in January on January 30th UPS announced the elimination of 12,000 White Collar jobs which the CEO specifically specifically attribute to AI permanently supplanting their roles so if you think for a second about what what uh UPS does they've millions of packages in transit every day they Peak at something like three to five million packages a day around Christmas it's Logistics which is something which is absolutely uh char

050are made you know for for machine learning um it is it was reported in the business press that as of January 20th there there've already been 53,000 uh layoffs in the top 120 uh tech companies in in in the US this year so that's not in the last 12 months that's in the first seven weeks of this year um the CEO of open AI a guy named Sam Alman and name I'm sure at least some of you are familiar with he said in an interview uh last year quote a lot of people working on AI pretend it's only going to be good it's only going to be a supplement no one is ever going to be replaced jobs are definitely going away full stop that's a direct quote jobs are definitely going away full stop

051I had the chance to share a uh see time had a chance to share a generative AI website builder with your uh superintendent your your previous superintendent very recently and using this tool he was able to create um with some keywords a specific Niche uh interest multifaced website in 75 seconds 75 seconds to create the entire website top to bottom using a few dozen keywords um Jensen Hong who's the CEO of Nvidia I'm sure most of us are familiar with says there's no need anymore for stem students to learn coding anymore which was long considered a right of passage in the tech industry to put this in perspective there are 4.4 million software engineers in the US so effectively they are entering uh economic obsolescence that's a lot of White Collar jobs um the Pew

052research which is uh very very well respected uh and considered on partisan they published a long piece easy to find on Google which talked about the effects of AI and noted among many other things that if you look at the part of our Workforce that possesses a a high school degree or less they will have 3% 3% of that Workforce will be significantly affected by AI when you look at the portion of our Workforce that that possesses a four-year degree or above fouryear Master's doctorate and so on 27% of those people will be in the highly affected category um so I I just want to reiterate uh we are on the verge of a white collar jobs Wipeout that has never been seen in this country's economic history the only parallels that really come to

053mind or the Great Depression which would I think maybe give you example of the scope of it though it's going to be very very different in a lot of ways I would also remind uh remind everyone that the top 10% of earners this is according to on the IRS website the top 10% of earners um pay 40 47% all federal income tax so this is also going to be a a tax Wipeout at the state city and local at the local level um so category's most affected uh web designers Financial analysts technical writers graphic artists most clerical job most and most clerical jobs also scientific and Technical so to put in a human perspective think you've had one of one of your outstanding kids who's moved through moved through uh gradua from JPS they moved

054on to Michigan technologically moved on to the U ofm they're graduating with with with a masters with a with a with a fouryear or a masters in a stem field it was the way to go that's how they were guided it to everyone it seemed like the right thing to do and in their mid 20s with $100,000 in college debt it looks like their their their job field is going to be looking at 50% attrition in a few years think of a 50-year-old guy in in that field who just got the kids out of the house and is and wants wants to pay down the mortgage and so forth so he can retire and that his job that job Field's gone thanks thank you okay it'd be fine that uh completes our citizens uh repeat

055uh speaking to the board and since we moved elementary math curriculum from discussion to action we will start with that okay elementary math curriculum Madam chair move approval oh did you move that to the first me you're doing the math first or the budget oh okay all right good evening everyone I have a wonderful group here um let's see we've also got Mrs Graham can we have Mrs Graham come up too so uh we are at the end of our journey in um trying to find a new math curriculum for our elementary students the last time that we purchased was in 2000 and uh 13 so it's been quite some time um so the people that you see before you are um a portion of the team that did that work so um what I'd

056like to do is start by passing the microphone if you could give your name and also your position Barb Hy instructional coach at Northeast Elementary Sarah lewig instructional coach at Hunt Elementary I'm Vicki holstead with curriculum Associates Samantha Graham the great teacher at Northeast Angela Turner instructional coach Al at Northeast Elementary Jen slat instructional coach at Shar Park Academy Tara Oliver instructional coach at Cascades Heather Spangler instructional coach at dible elementary so each of our Elementary uh instructional coaches was involved with this work along with 15 teachers in grades K through five in almost every one of our schools so we have had representatives from all of our schools on our team and so we spent some time looking at um probably a dozen different math curriculums math programs and we looked for things like

057a good alignment we looked for supports for our elel students um we looked for programs that had really good ratings and uh recent publishing um or recent updates so that we weren't purchasing something that was going to be need need to be updated right away we looked at the assessments um and whether or not the programs were culturally relevant and how correlated they were to the mstep um and so we wound up piloting two programs everyday math and I ready and um I think you've got the timeline up here let me pass this on okay so um our timeline for the math program was a little different than what we did for for reading uh it was a little shortened because we could easily take a unit um from math and pilot each unit so

058that's essentially what we did this time around we started as soon as we got back from winter break uh we did a four-week pilot for the teachers chose a unit um from each of the programs and did a four-week pilot of those units um first starting with everyday math and then uh they did another four weeks with I ready program um we also after that in February we had a stakeholder pilot uh review where parents could come in and ask questions about the pilot we then did a survey with the teachers that were piloting the program um and asked them various questions what they thought of the program what they liked what they didn't like how they felt it covered the standards how it felt how they felt that uh it covered students that struggle

059um does it cover any additional uh needs does it have handson um manipulatives that go along with the program and once the survey was done we did ask what their choice was and majority uh found that they like I ready so I ready is our selection for this and so we are recommending that we purchase I ready um all the work has been put into it and so we would like to move forward with that and our rationale is our current elementary math program is a bit outdated um it was purchased in 2013 it is no longer supported by the publisher I actually tried to get in there yesterday because I still had my login information information and it's just a blank screen there are no books there's no access to anything um because we're

060currently still using that so I was trying to support a teacher and could not do that um so we want to provide our teachers with updated curriculum um that would be uh well aligned with the state standards and fall in place with our Equitable practices to provide them with those Educational Tools that they need so I am with I ready Vicki holstead and I am here to kind of give you just a quick overview of what I classroom math has to offer so if we can go to the next slide so when we think about um reimagining what's possible for students we want to make sure that we build a solid foundation for Success so thinking about our youngest Learners and making sure that they have those Foundation skills um to be ready for number

061sense and to be ready for everything that comes at them as they grow older um we also want to create a student centered classroom um and making sure that our teaching strategies meet those students needs and honor who they are and then we want to look at data and we want to make sure that we turn that data into action so um what comes with the program is student Le teacher-led materials um that you can see there's a student addition there's online learning there's manipulatives at the students will be working within class teachers have their teachers addition they also have access to multiple resources online and um one of the big parts of our program is a discourse driven classroom so teach uh students will have the opportunity to discuss what they're learning partner with

062others and so you can see that there are some discourse cards there as well the curriculum starts out with an assessment um it's a diagnostic assessment that is going to determine where students are performing con to grade level content it's a Criterion referenced assessment so when we think about how can we best help our students and what are their needs within um the standards um that they are working onad and click from that assessment we get lots of reports that can help support student learning and so this is an example of a prerequisite report where teachers can use this prior to teaching a unit and they can use this information to determine what students are ready for that unit of instruction and then what students need additional support and then there'll be hyperlinks right there

063to help support that learning prior to the unit um and looking at we talked about Hands-On activities we talked about centers making sure that students um are actively engaged in their learning um and one of the things when we look at our youngest Learners we want to make sure that we are also looking at assessment a little bit differently so we want to look at um activity based assessments rather than putting students in front of a computer or pencil paper to see how they're learning so this is a great way for formative assessment for teachers all right click so the lessons work and and this is very important as far as if if we can just click all the way through this um we are a multi-day lesson on a standard so that's what we

064offer we want to make sure that students have enough time to be engaged in the standard to show their learning so on that day one we're going to be looking at prior knowledge to build into the instruction on days 2 three and four we're going to be focusing on that grade level instruction and really digging in deep having those Rich conversations in the classroom about how they're learning what they're learning and sharing with others and then on day five it's a little bit different than other programs we look at um after you've gone through assessment if students don't know it you just don't move on right you really want to take that time and look at how can we differentiate instructions so on that day five students are assessed and then we kind of work

065with them on what are their additional needs before we move on and then lots of opportunities for practice for students um one of the things in the the middle is for centers we offer Ong grade level below grade level and above grade level so same topic but students can be working on um where they best fit their needs another support that we have is for parents if a student is absent a parent can go online and actually see that lesson taught by a teacher that was in the classroom that that we provide but what was taught in the classroom that day so that's a really nice feature for those students that uh you know weren't there for the lesson itself and then you can see in the far right hand corner personalized instructions so our

066assessment then drives instruction to online learning as well so in class we're going to be working on grade level content and then online we're going to be meeting those students needs dependent on how they performed on the diagnostic and then especially for teachers we want to make sure that they are well vered in the instructions so we do have a professional development plan in place where we will be coming out three times per year to touch base with those teachers to make sure that they are ready and well prepared for the instruction and then the last thing I wanted to share here is that um if you're familiar with Ed reports it's kind of like consumer reports for Education um we just received two weeks ago um an all green perfect score we are the

067only math program out there that has a perfect score so we're very excited about that and one of the areas that other programs often get um less points on is usability and as you can see perfect there but we want to make sure that even if you have a great program we want to be make sure that teachers are able to use it as well and then I just wanted to share too I was listening to miss Crum um and I wanted to share with you too that Dei is very important to us and we partner with Dr shaki Holly and I'm not sure if you're familiar with him but um you know he's a national educator in the area of cultural responsiveness and he is one of our advisors so he goes through our

068curriculum to make sure that we are honoring students to see themselves and that they can learn from others as well great so at the conclusion of the um pilot the teachers were able to give some feedback in their surveys and I won't read them all but I will highlight just a couple of them um the first one being I would love to have I ready I love this program I love all the ways it engaged the students and how it has multiple ways of presenting the material the online platform for teachers was so easy to use and I love the way that the resources were laid out um another one I ready is engaging which is so important for our students it is Al also culturally relevant it actually had names of my students in

069it all right so we also asked for student and parent feedback and some feedback we got from our elementary students was that they really liked taking the diagnostic test they'll take that three times a year and it's adaptive and it gives them immediate feedback and that also provides them with a personalized learning path so it's right where they're at targeting their skills that they need they also said the lessons are kid-friendly they're easy to understand they love playing the games there's lots of characters in the games they can earn coins so that was a big one that the students said we love the games centers handson um students have the opportunity to discuss their rationale and thinking like Vicky said earlier with those discourse cards they really like to be able to do that math

070characters make learning fun it promotes overall Student Success and again it provides creative ways to engage our students in multiple ways so they have lots of ways to provide their answers and their thinking so the plan would be for us to use our sr3 resources to purchase this updated program for our teachers um The Proposal that was presented is a fiveyear subscription which gives us a discounted rate digital licenses for all of our K through 5 students which is approximately 285 teacher additions and digital access 3 years of professional development and then students would also have access to that my path personalized instruction so once they take that diagnostic then they can take off on their own and um and be able to progress at their own pace one of the big pieces we're really

071excited about is the IR ready math diagnostic which is one of the Diagnostics are one of the assessments that's approved by Michigan Department of Education as a benchmark assessment um and it's also approved um as part of the read by grade three legislation to use as an intensive and an extensive hello everyone I'm gonna sit down if it's okay with you because I played in the student staff basketball game and it's been a while since I've played basketball I say won um so thank you for your time with your thoughtful consideration And Timely approval teachers will have access to the following um onboarding professional development which is full of an um a teacher toolbox which has support videos Math Games a professional development Library which makes all of the instructional coaches very very very happy

072three years of professional development is included um includes I I ready diagnostic a my path which is a digital access um for students and teachers um classroom observations and teacher coaching instructional coaches will work with administrators to establish a checklist or rubric for GR instruction to use for classroom observations support teachers with coaching and targeted training as needed in addition to the uh professional development Library and then with our review of implementation we will continually review how teachers are successfully implementing the program and provide coaching support um ongoing professional development and supports also built in provide continuous and intentional opportunities to learn I ready content through early release staff meetings PLC Etc and one of the things that's not on my script I'm going rogue here just for a second I was um honored to

073go to the literacy Symposium the district sent me to the literacy Symposium and Dr Anita Archer talks she's like an expert she's a guru in um ele Elementary education and how kids learn and one of the things that she talks about is explicit instruction in the a lesson plan template and I already I when I came back I was so lathered up about uh Dr Anita Archer um and when you compare her lesson plan template with I Ready's format the explore the preview the the explicit instruction content it directly aligns so it feels good to hear that all of the instructional coaches kind of knew that it was a good program and that we're validated our our decision making has been validated by people who have been in the field for 30 40 Years thank

074you for your time she has a cape they were cap they did I have two capes I did not bring either of them um the the I ready I just loved it um I was at the Mcall conference last week and so it the routine of the learning in I ready was so fast that my kids I was able to actually leave the slideshow presentation for the sub to teach the next lesson that needed to go on so that made it very comforting to know like that my math wasn't interrupted but my kids knew what the routine was and they picked it up so quickly um they absolutely love love love math time and they never want it to end they want to do I ready all day long um and I also like that

075I can pull up the lessons and we can do them as a class on the Smartboard um together so like if we needed to like we needed to rediscussed a special needs student that when I'm not in the classroom and I have a sub he goes to a different classroom and he insists he needs to learn more than third grade math so for tomorrow while I'm at my Dei training he gets to go to his other classroom and I was able to go in and I could find different lessons for him and the things that he wants to learn and I could assign those to him in I ready so that tomorrow morning when it's bath time and he's not in the classroom he's able to go in and do lessons and practice on the

076lessons that he wants to because we have access through I think 8th grade or 8th grade um so it gives him that opportunity or any of my students that want to they can have those I can go in and assign the lessons for them to do and play so that was what I'm I've mean just all of the stuff that's came up and I'm familiar with the program I've used it before um but very big very big number one fan of it thank you very much so i' just like to sum it up by first thanking all of the teachers and the instructional coaches that participated in this process um they they gave it their all they worked very hard um to try out the materials to look through everything um and to get feedback

077from their students um to be able to really see how this would work for us thank you also to um Vicki Hallstead and her team we've had some really excellent training to really help us understand what was available and what this program could do for us um and we would also like to um thank all of our instructional coaches for all of the work that you do you did getting us to the pilot helping us to find what programs would work for us that we could try them out and we would also like to thank you for your attention this evening um we are open for any questions or anything any other information you'd like Thank You Hamilton yes so um I want to so thank you um all of you all um I know

078the the first time that you all came to the board back in April um I mentioned then I'm going to repeat it now because I think it's important um I I always recognize the teacher as the expert on this curriculum and just the stuff that you all do that's that's a given for me um when I asked you all to come back in April of last year um it was because I knew that you were the experts and I wanted to hear from the experts um me when it comes to purchasing curriculum our job my job as a board member is to make sure that you have everything you need to do the job that you're an expert in so I'm it's always going to be a yes for me you know you can say

079we need more money and I'm gon say yes you know you can say we need more you know rugs in the class I'm going to say like whatever it's always a yes for me because I'm Pro teacher like that but um it was necessary then and I'm grateful that since then we've had a couple uh curriculum updates that you all have done you've piloted Etc and you've come and you've given us a presentation because I just I want to know that the experts you know that you want the stuff that you like it that you've done your work with the parents you've done your work with the students you know so that we can make sure that we're getting what you all want so thank you for doing that like I said I recognize you

080all as the experts I'm just trying to make sure I have all my stuff on here that I wanted to say um yes but again I appreciate you all appreciate you um you know even coming out I know that you know it's cold out there and whatever and you might not feel you have long days but I really appreciate you all coming out and saying hey look we've piloted this we've Rec we've done the work we want this just say yes and my answer is always going to be a yes Julie Jen Slatt didn't talk she not like math or the curriculum do you want to give some thank you for that no um we didn't have anybody in our building pilot the program I did do all the training with the other coaches and

081one of the things that we really loved at Sharp Park was the diagnostic because one of our criticisms of nwea is that it is not standards based it's skill-based so it gives you a list of about a hundred skills that you need to practice with a student but it's not linked to any standard so it's really not applicable to any teaching or reteaching that you can do in the class room so that's one of the things that we are really excited about I love the structure of all of the um lesson plans and I was a really big fan of I ready right now we're um we're using um every or we were using um engage New York math at Sharp Park because our other uh math program was obviously out of date and not

082accessible but I can really see this being impactful alongside of Engage New York and that's a big thing for us to say so y we're excited about it too so thanks Derek I'm glad we got to hear from you anyone else have a comment or question no motion for approval Madame Cheryl me uh move approval of the proposed new elementary math curriculum at the cost of inclusive of professional development paid through our sr3 funds support all in favor I opposed motion passes thank you good job [Applause] guys okay our next action item is the 23242 budget amendment move appr approval of the budget amendment Madame chair support discussion yes would you give a who who who does the update I would like to hear a summary on it sure um just to give a couple

083of highlights that we also gave to the finance committee last week uh the second of three budget amendments that you have here tonight shows us adding approximately $750,000 to our fund balance this includes all of the transition costs for the technology move to all covered along with money set aside for repairs at the high school for the roof elevators so on and so forth it does recognize uh at this time $83 million in Revenue about 10 million of that is Esser funds which as we know will be going away next year so just some fun facts about it thank you any other questions or comments okay all in favor approval I I opposed motion passes thank you now we're on to the nonunit salary schedule I'm sure I'll move to approve the non-unit salary schedule

084for this year support support discussion comment questions Miss Hamilton same thing I just want to summary sure and um I believe we did bring this to the February board meeting um I know some people might not have been here um so again this would be for all of the non-unit folks that are not covered under a collective bargaining agreement um we've typically historically done a 2% increase for these for individuals and the impact to next year's budget is an increase of just under $50,000 in total it's just Cost of Living raises thanks any other questions or comments all in favor I opposed motion passes okay thank you that's the end of the action items now we're to board comments any comments from board members Miss Hamilton yes so um just want to say again appreciation

085for uh hunt that those was amazing you know nice presentation from them actually is really really good um also thank you to Kelly I appreciate your uh uh update on Dei I can imagine that soon we are going to need to uh write into the budget some more people on your team because you're going to be doing a lot of work um this may or may not be what you do but I would also like to see uh more learning around Dei for the board and again not you know you Kelly but um I'd like to see the board uh partake in more learning around Dei one of the things I mentioned during your presentation was that the students that brought us to the state coming in um that group of student um they've been

086that same group of students for um a very long time um and that same group of students have been the students that have not um traditionally their voices have not been heard and we have not uh addressed their concerns like we should um and there are many groups of them in that that group that set but as many programs that we have and they are necessary and they're good like Napp it and the other ones they're necessary and they're good they were not filling whatever Gap was there that still brought the state in because we're failing these different schools primarily because of this particular group of students um I recognize that part of that is one we didn't have an amazing Dei director coming in yet um two we weren't focusing on this work and

087three and four and there's so many other reasons but um the board also so um doesn't necessarily know how to hear from that group of people um to the point that they often shut down uh their voices um because I'm one of those people I was one of those students um and I'm I'm also a voice that reflects a lot of their needs so it would be really nice if the board um understood better how to hear from that community because if we don't the work that Mrs Crum is doing in her Dei space um won't be as effective because we won't be meeting you know she'll be doing her work down here and we'll it'll just be floating so hopefully you know as some point the board can um engage in some type of

088learning that uh becomes more effective so that we're hearing these folks and so that this stuff isn't just performative so that we're you know hearing from all these communities I also want to thank some of our speakers tonight um mentioning the need to ensure that we're addressing our um IEP students and our students with disabilities in that group um Dei diversity equity and inclusion that's why it's diverse it talks about all the different groups but it is also good to name those groups so that we're ensuring that we are addressing their concerns um the student voice again I thought it was really good and amazing that you all have that you know that particular thing I remember when I first became a board member it was very important to me that we were hearing from

089our students but I wanted to mention and I did and I'm going to say it again it's really important to make sure that we have some on us on us um as to how we're going to address their voices because a lot of times this group of students that 58% they're willing to give their experiences but when we're not responding to them then they stop talking and I one of our folks here sat and said that a lot of people don't want to come and talk to us because they've said hey look this is what I need this is what I need this is what I need and we're just letting them say it and not responding to them in a way that meets it um so I'm hopeful that maybe through this student voice

090leadership program we can maybe get a a student Advisory Board to the a student advisory committee to the board I mentioned this before a parent liaison Advisory Board parent advisory board to the board you know those types of things are are beneficial to connect all those dots um we had uh a this is almost the last thing I'm going to say we had last month where in January the board voted the board had a conversation around the dates for the board meetings you all recognize that today we are on Wednesday night versus Tuesday night um I mentioned in January that I did not have space in my schedule to change the dates um in February I had a conference that was already planned and I did not ask the board to change the February date

091because I had a a conference I just went to my conference and I missed the February meeting and had to catch it online or someplace else because I recognized that this board you know um they don't have to accommodate my schedule for one or two months in a row that's to me that's selfish and unfair February I was like I said not in the meeting and so they came back to the board and requested shelanda came back to the board and requested that we change um January I'm sorry March and April for her personal schedule um which is is problematic primarily because one it's selfish but then two when I think about that group that 58% those folks whose voices are not being heard often times it looks like individuals like myself saying I can't

092come to another meeting tonight I'm only here because I had a meeting that was scheduled for tonight that they said we're going to take the meeting to the board meeting for you so that you can be there that's the only reason why I'm here otherwise I had an obligation tonight um but it looks like that 58% saying hey this is what I need and folks who are in the majority saying you know bunk what you need you know I I want to be I want to have my needs met I want to have my personal position position uh addressed and and and and uh you know honored regardless to whether you you know regardless of what you got going on and then what happens as a result of that is we become a priority school

093because now they're not coming now they're not responding now they're not reaching out um so again we do have a board members ethic policy 0144 point2 that has a few things in it but one of the things that says is avoid that this is regarding board members it does says and B you can go look it up yourself 014 4.2 board member ethics on our you know website B on here says avoid being placed in positions of conflict of interest one and then you know that's a lot of the abstaining for stuff that's going on you as you continue to pay attention start paying attention and then C does says remember always that their first and greatest concern must be for the educational welfare of the students attending the public schools the educational welfare of

094the students attending the public schools we all come from different perspectives and all of those perspectives are very important but they all should be honored and when one person says and then the next three people who are around them um affirms that one person says for my personal gain do this for me regardless to how this is going to negatively impact somebody else and then three people co-signed that now their first and greatest concern is not for the educational whereare of the students because all of us speak for students we all of our voices should be heard um that was necessary for me to put that out there because I'm also going to be missing April's meeting because I have something on in April um so yeah it's it's March we are we're coming to

095a close for this school year we're doing an amazing job like I said I appreciate the comments um one thing we do very well at this board is Showcase all of the amazing things that are going on um and then there's that 58% which is more than half of our district who despite all of our programming are still failing so there's some connecting things that we need to be doing better and some conversations that we need to be having that we're not having that we should be having um but yeah I'm here in it for the long we're not going to stop talking we're not going to stop bringing this stuff up um and we hopefully with you all's support you know you all's involvement we're gonna get some things accomplished thank you Libby I'm

096amazed at all the presentations that were given tonight because it seems that we have such excellence in in terms of presenting and and it doesn't matter what department it is it doesn't matter which school it is but it seems like we focus on doing the best we can also um I agree with Kesha in terms of focusing on the 58% because these people um as far as the 58% have have not been focused on and if they have a problem and you had the problem with your daughter in high school um it seems to be brushed aside and not taken seriously so I I'd like to see us do a better job of dealing with that um I just wanted to say I enjoyed the presentations as well from hunt and Kelly and I also

097appreciated Kelly speaking to um Parkside at the parent involvement day um last month that was very nice and um Christa Darvey and her staff did a great job at Parkside welcoming families um I really like the format there it's all day I can be I'm sure a little chaotic for teachers but all day long parents are welcome you can stay for two minutes or you can stay all day long and it's very welcoming and nice and it was nice having you there Kelly and speak to families so thank you so I had been given the opportunity to read at Hunt Elementary and the children were so well behaved courteous sweet and so um I realized that the kind kindgarten teachers were on their planning time so it was the par pros and the Tas that

098had all those kids and there must have been it looked like a hundred there were a ton of kids so I just want to acknowledge those parapros and teas so uh the young five staff was Carol crava and Caro and Spicer um Mrs goal's class Sandy Moran and Lisa prey Mrs Miller's class Joe Ry and Cassidy H heso heso Mrs Stewart's class Megan Basher Basher and Emma Basher and the specialist teachers were Tanisha Bradshaw Mike French and Aisha Parker and Aisha was the one that um got it all together so and then I was thinking that I wanted to read this the Jackson High School Tower which is on the south side side has an inscription this is what it says faith without credulity conviction without bigotry charity without condescension self respect without vanity meekness

099with power my my father I don't know if um anyone knows this my father was a graduate of this fine Institution I went here my siblings went here my kids went here it's a great place to learn it's I what I've seen so far the schools are run beautifully and the hype is real so thank you um I'm still reeling from uh Hunt's performance um incredible uh it was great to be there this morning uh with the governor's visit and uh I've been doing some reading month uh participation around a couple of different elementary schools and I did uh go to hunt um Miss Parker helps out that up uh read to a couple of classes and uh I remarked to Mary Joe that when the kids were walking down the hall they were all

100silent uh arms crossed hands themselves and I was like scared that if I talked I would get in trouble too so um but I also uh went to uh Miss Lindy's class and schlicker class at Sharp Park Academy did some reading uh was just at the monor um today reading to Mrs fish's fourth graders and uh have a couple other visits to close out the month but um I'll say it about serving on this board with all of you uh as well as my previous Service as mayor uh this is like one of the uh most impactful like cherished things uh of Public Service of being able to get in the classrooms uh talk to the kids uh answer questions about how tall I am um things like that old I am but uh it's

101great to see uh the next generation of uh jacksonians and leaders uh in the community and be able to talk and engage with them about what they not only want to see in their Community but what they want to see in our school so uh it's exciting to see and also uh to see uh how incredibly uh proud uh the staff um teachers uh Administration is in each and every one of these schools uh of what they do um and uh what they're uh excited to do for the future with um being provided with new tools uh like we did here tonight and what they can do with that um like we saw here with um hunts kids um you know I I think uh I'll close out on on this um Kelly I'm glad

102uh glad you got a name tag and you're up here um at the table um and and given a presentation I hope uh we continue to see uh your an update from you in future uh agendas um I think that that uh keeps these issues at the Forefront um I know that the board has had um conversations around diversity Equity inclusion I think that's important and I know we've uh commissioned some uh studies and some work in that endeavor um I think uh while some of us have uh continued to raise this as an as as an issue at each and every point I would like to um I've been thinking about how we can work on this from Ab board to provide some direction uh to the administration uh to you around uh this

103space and have um taken a look at some other school district policies um around Equity um and kind of setting the framework around um what we want to do so look forward to hopefully being able to work know I've talked to um uh trusty hunt about this um and look forward to continuing to uh work with her uh work with the administration hopefully work with you on um tooling through some of these ideas and hopefully bring something back in April that's all I have they didn't like my hair now it was cute little kindergartener said I like your hair to the governor so if they liked him all that much they didn't like his hair all right so I want to thank Kelly crumb as well awesome presentation again something that we've been wanting for

104a while and it's it's here thank you for the work that you're doing a lot has taken place in five months and so we're just encouraging you to continue to bring back those reports to us so that we can speak to the community about the work that's being done I want to thank masb for acknowledging me for uh my participation and my commitment to continuing to attend all of the scheduled annual leadership conferences I don't know I don't think I've missed one yet so if it's not just one class um some days I take three classes four classes a day but I am committed to really broadening my understanding about the importance of education and they provide a lot of um clinics and workshops and opportunities for us to network with other school districts and

105ask questions and figure out what's happening in their districts that we could possibly um look into implementing here at JPS March is reading month and I also had the opportunity to um sit in several classes I was able to attend the mon Sor John our Lewis as well as Cascades and the smiles and the I got my kid fixed this week it was so many hugs and you're nice and what's your name it was just adorable just the um innocence of our children and how they just Beam with excitement when they see individuals carving out time to come in and be in their space and I remember and at the time when I got ready to leave I said Thank you for allow me into your learning environment and that was very meaningful and impactful

106to me I also want to speak to um joonie your comment you have mentioned to U mention about that policy myself and two other board members we are a part of the policy committee I'm GNA make a public commitment to you that we will pull that policy and we will lay eyes on that and come back to this body to this governance table with an update Mrs just want to make that commitment to you publicly um Mrs Selby thank you for the information that you brought um regarding the trauma smart I have gone through personally trauma informed training and let me just tell you how important it is we better understand children when we understand the trauma that they have gone through it's very important and I hope that this is something that the board

107can review and see how we can find this a part of our district initiatives moving forward in addition to that I wanted to speak to um the the meeting changes truste um Hamilton has not only made um a comment here today but it was also a comment made publicly social media and I didn't know if I was going to say something but it's imperative that I do speak to my truth and I'll just go back to my campaign I I ran my campaign on a vote for Hunt is a vote for you a vote for Hunt is a vote for you which means there's no selfishness in that I support the voices of the people I support the vulnerable individuals that don't know how to navigate these Educational Systems and because of that I was

108chosen by my community to represent you here today have many conversations with parents with children talking about how can we change this what are your thoughts about this shelanda and I am there not just to let this information fall on death ears but I'm asking questions I'm digging I'm finding out how can I better support the community that I live I'm a Jackson native and a place that that call home so I come before you today to address an issue brought to light through social media by truste Hamilton necessitating a departure from our Norm of resolving matters in internally to speak publicly for clarity and correction regrettably the Airing of our board's internal disagreements particularly those based on misunderstandings in a public for is concerning it's more disheartening Mrs Hamilton and I that you and

109I the board's only africanamerican members have not had a chance to resolve differences in a face-to-face discussion where we could have gained a Mutual understanding it is critical to clarify that no single board has the power to dictate the board's decision I am one of seven our governance model is inherently Democratic with decisions made collectively through vote and the dialogue and discussion the choice to revert to our original meeting schedule was based on a Collective Agreement emphasizing operational efficiency and respect for historical precedence rather than personal convenience not only am I the vice president of JPS Board of Education I was recently appointed to city council I am committed to this city that I was born and raised in I will continue to work tirelessly to meet the needs of the individuals that have support

110and not only my reputation the hum dignity and integrity that I have consistently demonstrated claims suggesting a priorization of personal interest over our community needs are both Incorrect and very offensive these assertation Overlook the Democratic process our board adheres to and the thoughtful consideration behind our decisions and my individual decisions furthermore portraying this situation as indicative of a broader pattern of selfishness or inequity within the board is misleading harmful and should not be shared in relation to our educational Mission our processes and decisions are transparent and I encourage the community to review our deliberations to witness the integrity and dedication guting our actions we do have Equity situations that we are addressing thank you Mrs Crum for helping us navigate some of those challenges the changing of our meeting dates is not one of those

111issues again I am one of seven and in order for any changes to take place amongst this board it requires a vote what happened to just ask I did that and I received the support how that is interpreted by others I have no responsibilities to others interpretation in closing governance and Leadership demand a professionalism and the Quorum that rise above personal grievances this public heing of disagreements is unfortunate un especially among members committed to a unified educational Mission we are here all of us here represent academic Excellence we our focus and our primary focus should and should always remain at the heart of our children the future of our community the idea that internal conflict should be exploited for political or public sympathy undermines the essential principles of trust collaboration and mutual respect crucial for

112Effective governments in closing the public heing of disagreements again is unfortunate especially among members committed to a unified educational Mission inspired by Maya Angelo's wisdom it says do the best you can until you know better then when you know better do better I shalanda hunt am committed to upholding these values our board and Comm Community deserve a unified approach focused on dialogue understanding and the collective well-being of our students and Educators if there's anyone in the community that would like to have a personal conversation with me I am happy and willing to entertain that what I want to leave with you is that I am committed to all of the work that I have extended myself to do it's not just JPS board it it's not just um city council I was appointed to the

113Michigan Association of school board I was appointed to unite way of South Central Michigan Board my heart is to serve people and in serving people it requires time energy enthusiasm compassion patience understanding and above all of that dignity and humility thank you thank you Jeremy why don't you go ahead thank you little last as assistant superintendent uh like to leave a few parting comments to thank the board of education for the support of Jackson Public Schools I would say this is probably a record setting year for curriculum adoption and the one question that we frequently ask our teachers is what tools and resources do you need to do a better job in serving our students and I think those needs are being heard and being met when I saw our teachers this evening I agree

114that we have the experts in the room um I also believe we may have some aspiring teachers in the audience today and I would encourage you to seek these experts out in the building I remember being a first second and third year teacher and that's the reason why I felt I grew tremendously because they're willing to go the extra mile uh they know their stuff and they're willing to share it with others so if we do have aspiring teachers here uh I see you taking diligent notes and wanted to add that there because we have the best of the best with Jackson public and that's how that Legacy continues and finally a couple highlights for the district uh the 2024 2025 school year is fastly approaching Kindergarten Roundup will begin as soon as we get

115back from um spring break so uh parents who may have young fives and kindergarten age students uh see the building calendars for when those rounds up are taking place as well as for our other students transitioning from one building to another uh Middle School at Parkside will have a sixth grade step forward this is is intended for new students who um are new to a a big middle school and have an opportunity to get some specialized attention to help them acclimate to the middle school as well as eighth graders stepping up to Jackson High School we've identified these areas as being very important academically as well as students just feeling comfortable in the building so our eth grade orientation to enter Jackson High School will also take place in the month of April so those

116are key important dates for our families and communities to make sure their needs are being met and I hope everyone has a safe relaxing and enjoyable spring break thank you okay I'm going to go last I just got a couple things to say um first off I was so impressed with how our kids from hunt acted with Governor Whitmer today they were absolutely amazing in that school building Mary Joe's been there for you know 300 years and it is so welcoming and so just uplifting makes you smile walking in the door I really appreciate that and the last thing I want to say is when I was growing up I had one brother and my mom and dad said a lot of things to us but one of the things that they said to us

117that I repeat to my kids and I have six they range in age from 52 to 20 so I've said to them I'm going to say it here if you're going to misbehave or you're going to say something mean it better be at home and not in public my parents said to me a lot I've said to my kids a lot and I'm saying it to my board if you have a disagreement or a personal issue with one of the other people please please please let us create a home where you can discuss it you can have somebody listen in you can have some um um input some cooperation and some collaboration but I do not want to again hear board member against board member in public it is not the least bit healthy for

118us and it does not make our students more successful thank you for coming and thank you for being patient about the switch in the schedule I'll entertain and motion to a Jour to Jour support in favor I osed motion passes e