001terms must be submitted prior to the first person called to speak okay so if you want if you want to speak let Michelle know okay let's start with the Pledge of Allegiance for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all Michelle will you handle the roll call please Thomas Miss Hamilton present Mrs Marilyn Acton Dowell present Miss hunt here Mrs Mitchell here and Mrs Fitzgerald here now we need the approval of the agenda so moved so moved second support any discussion about the agenda all those in favor I opposed the same motion carries I'll now turn over to superintendent bill for the superintendents report thank you very much um actually we're going to open up with Julie Baker and she's going to open us up with the elementary update foreign
002first try get it figured out good morning or good afternoon everybody it's been a long day um so we are we just ripped up or quite a little while ago now um our March's reading month celebrations and uh we had a wonderful turnouts for our celebrity readers really great events happening in all buildings um and right now what we're doing is we're really focusing in on our Kindergarten Roundup so we have those happening and all of our buildings our elementary buildings um this week and also next week um we already had Cascades last night had a nice turn out there we will have I believe Dibble tomorrow and then the rest of them are next week um so we oh hunt this week as well oh sorry sorry hunt um and so really great um
003events and and we hope to see you step out and and check those out um they're interesting because and fun because they we do a bike giveaway um but really the the point of them is to help students and their parents um gives them a first exposure to school uh for some of them they can get on the bus and check that out they can see what their classroom is going to look like they can meet the staff and it gives them an opportunity to um also find out what types of things they need to do to prepare for the fall um this year we are also seeing quite a few schools getting some of that kindergarten screening done ahead of time which gives parents good information so that they can choose whether kindergarten or
004the young fives program is the best fit for them um we have a lot of other great things happening in our buildings um field trips to the Potter Center and some um of course a lot of m-step testing and that's kind of where we're living right now is m-step world and after that we'll be doing our nwea to wrap up the year but um we're we're excited to see how our kids did um we do have some call outs some shout outs for buildings uh for Cascades we have Joel landenberger for being a team player um at Dibble Tammy Sherry Matt and the taher staff for being the friendliest most efficient staff around um at hunt the March's reading month committee so Sarah Ludwig Aisha Parker um Amy Gokul Patty Montgomery Carol Castro castrava um
005Jacob jabkowitz Karen Mitchell Carly Breeze and Amanda Amanda beiswanger at Montessori Carrie Chapman for being a great custodian all of their marches reading our marches reading month guest readers Tanya Kender from the ISD which I will second that she is just she is a general education social worker at the ISD and has been so helpful with our some of our homeless families and our families that are inadequately housed just helping us to find great services for them Chandra Howard um is their PTO leader in that building and she's doing a fantastic job at Northeast um shout outs to the board trustee Marilyn Acton Dowell and to Shalonda hunt superintendent Beale assistant super Brenda Baker assistant superintendent Genetti for attending the pause assembly and that was really cool it was that was a neat thing to
006see provided by the Tigers at Sharp Park Cara burkettor and Maureen Hyler are starting an after school running club similar to girls on the run but it's free of charge to students and then um Jasmine Isaac from the Teen Pregnancy prevention um at Jackson County Health Department and she's working with students high school students and brings them to Sharp Park for community service and Outreach so that's a great program at Lewis to enviroclean for keeping the building nice and clean um to Karen and Kay from taher um for fun tasty festive meals for kids bus drivers and monitors for having such an excellent rapport with kids and being timely and efficient and to all the guests who read during March's reading month and that is what I have for our elementary border report for this
007evening any questions who donated the bike oh the bikes I believe through the Lions Club and then I was kind of curious about um do all kindergarteners get screened like a kindergarten Readiness test before they can come okay yes okay it's nice because it gives us some beginning information but also it really does help parents make a decision you know if if their child um really could use that extra time with our young guys program or or if they're ready to go right into kindergarten thank you awesome one of my favorite times a year Kindergarten Roundup lots of folks don't know this um our account recently was 48.72 we are the fastest growing District in Jackson County and my anticipation is that there's a potential we could break five thousand next year which will be
008a really nice thing there wasn't too long ago we were down around 4 400 in our budget so to see that those kids coming back is a good thing and see those you know obviously when they come in kindergarten you know we we hope to keep them not just you know for one year but for 13 years so Mr Patterson you want to share the secondary update absolutely thank you doing a little sound check make sure I'm not too loud too quiet so it sounds good so far all right uh let's see Middle School at Parkside and Forestry Learning Center you'll hear a reoccurring theme lots of testing going on so uh Parkside has 229 8th graders and all of them but 12 were present for the initial day of testing and we ended up
009finishing with 210 219 or 97 percent of those students took that test that week at forestry Learning Center we did a little tour of the building recently with trustee Hamilton and Marcus Leon Mrs coppin was just ecstatic about the students participation there they had 74 percent which is 14 and 19 8th graders at Four Street Learning Center so uh pretty strong testing strategies and stamina for those students to take the PSAT and the 8th grade 7th grade is coming up soon and sixth graders to file there uh at Parkside thank you to all of our JPS families that came out to LEAP into literacy night was Tuesday April 11th they had a great evening of food games reading prizes and more shout out to the ELA departments and World language teachers for helping to put
010this event on also our partnership with the Jackson District Library uh they had lots of prizes the Viking mascot made it out and every day is a great day to be a viking when we're celebrating reading for our K-8 students so that was a big celebration and forgive me I missed last month and I was just so excited to report out um I was sick but the um sixth annual black history celebration of academic Excellence from Middle School at Parkside partnering with the NAACP of Jackson Jackson college and JPS we celebrated 125 families that are students that are 3.0 or higher African-American students also establishing an NAACP youth Council and so we had over 20 applicants from Parkside and 20 from the high school that have been participating in the past and I look forward
011to partnering with Mrs Mahoney and uh having those students take a leadership role within our community at Jackson high school I just passed a student and parent they are preparing for our JHS theater a year with frog and toad so that's coming up in our Auditorium this Friday Saturday and Sunday hope we're able to come out and support the Arts and lots of graduation so in addition to testing you hear a lot about graduation activities so uh Baccalaureate honors night commencement Project Graduation is a primary focus and I think that's on our Board of agenda so you can see the times and dates there uh also just a lot of gratitude from Jackson High School they've had a challenging year so there's just a lot of uh thankfulness from their counseling team across the district
012Jackson highest especially central office staff and others who just came up to the high school to provide support when support was needed we had a loss of a student recently and so supporting our young people our teachers and it was one of those where Community comes together in their time of need and so Jackson High School just wanted to say thank you to everyone who did whatever they did to support Jackson Pathways finished their testing this week with the highest percentage of students testing the s.a.t since Pathways began they are working on co-hosting a summer job fair with a business tech department May 3rd the goal is to set up employment opportunities for our students this upcoming summer we have eight students that are doing a summer internship with Michigan Works in the Jackson violence
013task force we'll be taking a group of young men to reduce the violence Summit Friday April 21st so that's this Friday so lots of community engagement activities and getting back towards graduation Pathways had a recovery of 35 credits from the last trimester so this is students who didn't give up didn't give in continue to earn credits towards graduation in addition to focusing on what they need to do this third trimester and finally South Central Michigan virtual also testing PSAT s-a-t-s-a workkeys m-step and getting ready to wrap up m-step three through eight graduation coaching out of the 105 seniors 49 are on track for graduation 16 are in range and of the other of 650 of 65 seniors 52 of them have zero to three credits remaining and seniors who have advocated for themselves to get
014the remainder of their classes open so they're doing a lot of self-advocacy um at semv they're taking one class at a time and so some of them need multiple classes opened up and that's what they're doing to accommodate to increase the the percentage of success for our seniors uh uh let's see and and again uh success coaching is going well students are conducting meetings and moving to increase the number of students on track and I believe this concludes the secondary report for the month of April if there's any questions be glad to take them thank you very much Jeremy Chris you want to talk about some believe the hype of course I do um good evening everybody just a couple things I wanted to get uh you uh interested in that we're doing at Jackson
015Public Schools um just a note that we are under a complete revamp of our website School wires was bought over by final site and so we are working on a brand new website um it will be obviously not live until it's um all done but it's it's starting from scratch just because of the buy over so lowest stunning is leading that and there's just lots of work being done on that we're very excited about it it'll have a nice new fresh look um won't change our mass communication of Blackboard but they'll be all tied together in PowerSchool a little bit easier too so we're pretty excited about the new features that will not roll out until the summer though so I uh we we it will take us a few months to get there so
016we'll roll that out in the summer and let everybody know when that's coming out another thing that we're doing so in the past we have done our surveys via SurveyMonkey and while we will not discontinue using that tool because for surveys where we have a lot of information that we need to get which will be the next one coming up um in the next few days you'll see going out to staff and students and families that's a pretty in-depth one that asks a lot of questions that we're trying to find information about this is uh with our partnership with the Michigan Department of Ed and some you know key areas that we're trying to find uh where the barriers and struggles are for families but we've introduced a new product called um a thought exchange
017which I really liked because we are very interested in finding people's voice and a lot of times the survey is just a series of questions that they answer but there's no interaction between the people taking the surveys so thought exchange uh you kind of centralize yourself on a on a few questions one or two and people are able to comment back and forth and start a discussion that really helps us because they it really pulls in some key issues so we experimented first with the Kindergarten Roundup we just kind of wanted to see how it was going so that was to all JPS uh families to see what struggles they may have had when they were enrolling in kindergarten we do a really great job I'm always so impressed with our elementary principles the entire
018Elementary staff for what they do for kindergarten roundups and uh partnering with all of our Community Partners but we thought what else could we be doing and and so our thought exchange provided us with a couple of suggestions and one that I thought was really neat is that parents new to the district or new to having a student come into kindergarten was they would like a timeline of you know what do they need to do when what do they need to have so um we put that together for our Kindergarten Roundup so that we could answer those questions so our next survey like I said is a district-wise survey that we do at the end of the year and then um before I get to that we did then use our thought exchange to do
019a food service survey we surveyed students and staff and um and families to find out some just how you know what could we do to improve our food service and it's been interesting it's uh in the works now and so um we've had a lot of good funny suggestions but good suggestions but overall I'm pleased with the response from that so I like this thought exchange product it kind of like starts the conversation I think so then we will do our overall um yearly uh in the next I think they go out Wednesday or Thursday of this week and we will be sending out our our yearly survey with uh quite a few questions from everybody and then what we're excited about is then we'll take a look at that Survey Monkey and the results
020and find out what were a couple of key issues that we could hone in on and go thaw exchange with and that would be with families and parents and students so I'm looking forward to using that just so that we can have some more in-depth conversation I think a lot of times when you answer a survey you only know what you know but you're not thinking about some other things and that's what thought exchange does it brings up other people's ideas and then you can kind of say oh yeah I hadn't thought about that here's what I think about that and so um like I said we're excited to do this and it's a great way to get student voice too so um I had about 796 kids respond to the Food Service survey so
021far so you know we're working on trying to get that to be A Little Bit Stronger I just wanted to make sure that we remind you that the um the ISD special education millage is coming up in a few weeks here on May 2nd and also one of the things we didn't mention was on 519 is decision day at Jackson High School from 10 to 11 20. and I just uh person and and if you're out at the Jackson Crossing don't forget to visit the art show because it's pretty cool they were on JTV today so if you get home and you want to catch it it you know reruns all night long um and finally I just wanted to put out a big thank you to our community businesses and partners um I sit
022on the board for the Jackson chamber and we have garnered you know our picnic comes up at the end of the year and we're able to ask for donations and and we have received a large amount of money to be able to provide along with a lot of donated cool products that will be able to give giveaways and Baskets at the end of the year for our teachers I really believe our Jackson Community comes up to step up and and really appreciate all the staff at JPS and the hard work they do so I just wanted to make sure I said Thank you and if you are out here and would like to donate something please don't hesitate to come to me and that's all I have could I just ask a question um so
023look at surveys could I get a list of the surveys that you send out or is there a master list with those what goes out to kids yeah I can get jealous yeah I'm just curious okay thanks and then I one last question um Chris who monitors the um thought Exchange in addition to yourself so monitors it um when we are including students it is monitored by me when we're including you know it comes to me first so that I can see to make sure there isn't anything that we wouldn't want people to talk about and I don't mean you know it's swear words and you know kind of some of those things so that monitors to me then the results go to cabinet right so then we look at it as a whole so
024moderating it um just simply means that during this discussion while the survey is running I'm moderating it just to make sure that there aren't any hurtful comments it is set up to not have those go through so they come to me first so and that's been interesting because even if somebody slightly spells the wrong like shot wrong it comes to me so I get to you know just kind of filter those things out but I'm I'm all about hearing everybody's voice it's just that we don't want you know some things to get through but it's been really interesting and even even for those comments that may not be um shared explicitly or in a positive manner do you let the individuals know do they still know that their voices were heard when I say that
025they're monitored or moderated it's things like my teacher made me do this right so it's not contributing to the conversation I I don't mind if the com if the comment is misspelled or it's their thoughts we don't I don't take those away it's things like that that we're just trying to moderate out of there right like so that's not really gonna further our discussion but um if there was something you know I haven't seen anything yet that I need to address somebody um it's it's Anonymous so I can't go to that person and say Hey you know you can't do this but that's the idea of the moderating is just to make sure that it's Community friendly it's not to moderate our ideas or thoughts or anything thank you okay at this point I would
026entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda deliberation any discussion on this no okay all those in favor I I opposed motion carries thank you we're now ready for citizens to address the board um again we can only take your request to speak until our first person speaks so if you've got one in your hand you want to get up here uh please do it right now Pam is that new did we vote on that I don't remember that Pam did we vote on that did you say Robert's Rules of Order will wait to be addressed we haven't voted on that either Robert's Rules of Order is it aboard policy we don't vote on that like I said we haven't voted on that so we just create and rules as we go along I mean
027he announced two names so we keep the the people moving and not having to wait uh for a long period of time so I'll start with the two and at the end of one I'll do the next one Etc uh first we have Cheryl Simonetti and then Vanessa mulnix good evening um I'm here to talk about your agenda item about board Norms which is discussed at the last two board meetings uh personally I think it's a shame that you have to even have Borden Norms as an agenda item a fourth grader could write these norms for you if they were asked how you behave in a group setting it's called adulting and so I challenge the board to consider what the consequences are for violating the norms just like censoring a board member all it
028is is a slap on the wrist I think it's unfortunate that you have spent so much of your time and the community's time working on a document that is not going to make a difference you have a board member who interrupted a presenter last month no less than eight times and then turned around and said that you couldn't interrupt her you can't have it both ways this is no different than insisting on back and forth dialogue when it suits their needs yet not allowing the superintendent to participate in back and forth dialogue the superintendent is by definition of the Michigan Association of school boards a member of this board and that same board member has made it quite clear that they're going to continue doing what they have been doing in the same way that
029they've been doing it and even though I believe that the social media posts do not get a whole lot of attention and do not get very much traffic I also will continue doing what I have been doing in the manner that I have been doing it and call out the behavior the creation of these board Norms is not going to change a thing the behaviors that you are looking to minimize are not going away that has been made very clear I hope that the community realizes that you as a board are powerless against this behavior and it's the community who voted all of you members in who needs to decide whether or not they want to see this Behavior continue thank you thank you um Virginia then we have Nancy Thorpe yeah and Nancy good
030evening um I took the opportunity today to review some of the data and the academic report that was referenced in the March meeting as mentioned then the report numbers are dismal ranging from an asterisk which I don't know what that means and in the low double digits in some cases the highest I saw I believe was the lowest quartile performance all of which is unacceptable in my opinion this at a time when we are funding public education at never before seen levels with increasing tax dollars at least for the last three years probably longer than that as a matter of fact looking at my property tax bill the ISD as a single entity consumes the majority of my tax bill exceeding even my local school district funding clearly allocating more money is not the solution
031so poor academic performance poor attendance sexualizing children invading student and family privacy by surveys promoting racial division all while getting ready to present tonight board norms behaviors that in the business world are recognized as standard professional Behavior for our sake and the sake of the students public education must do better please stop placing students as Pawns in the agenda all resources of the district should be focused on the singular objective Echo to academically educate our future generation thank you for your time thank you Nancy Thorpe and then Michael Young good evening superintendent veal and members of the board I'm Nancy Thorpe I do not live in the JPS District however I did have a grandchild who attended Jackson high in 2022. I have been actively engaged with JPS as well as many other schools in
032Jackson County I had written superintendent Beale and all the members of the board considering an agenda item at the March 21st board meeting under item 22 23 88 with regard to board norms most of these board Norms are simply common courtesy and shame on you board members if you do not already practice Commons courtesy within this Council nevertheless it is number six on the list of board Norms which prompted my writing and compelled me to speak before this board Number Six States employee now I believe that's a typo and was meant to be employed employ a racial Equity lens when looking at policies and programs in response to my letter to the board members trustee Hamilton stated and I quote viewing things at the board table through a racial Equity lens which is vastly different
033than a racialized lens allows us to acknowledge how our beginnings have impacted all of communities and the right the wrongs of our racialized foundation seems to me trustee Hamilton has gone off the rails and assumes her place on the board of education is to right the wrongs in our society her Duty as a board member is not to make us as a society in her words good enough as humans to acknowledge her viewpoint the school board has several duties and responsibilities and due to time constraints I will not delve into them however I would like to remind each and every board member that your number one priority is to see to it that the children of JPS are afforded the opportunity to receive the best education possible the children of JPS all children red yellow
034black white regardless of sex regardless of size regardless of social standing all children enrolled at JPS deserve the members of this board fulfilling their Duty they took an oath to uphold assuring the students receive the best education this school is able to provide it's that simple diversity is not difficult be accepting of differences inclusion is not difficult include everyone and equity in my opinion really has no place in education every student is an individual every student learns at their own pace to remove meritocracy and make sure outcomes are the same or Equitable regardless of the knowledge acquired is ludicrous too many taxpayer dollars are spent in this area which should be spent on education in closing if race and changing the wrongs in society are your first priority perhaps you should step down from your
035position on this board of education and take a position elsewhere allowing the JPS board to focus the education of the students as the board should thank you for your time thank you at this point we have Michael Young and then Jan tornga I'm in an uncomfortable position is that person going to be able to speak Army is that person going to be able to speak is that person going to be able to speak what why because someone has just ran a slip up to the table made its way up hasn't it Pam didn't I just and everybody in the room we just hear you say once the speakers start yes and nobody else yeah that's exactly what I said okay and I do have a hesitance to enforce that make an exception except that it's
036the first time and nobody nobody knew it you know I'm scared some people here isn't that what Miss Keisha Hamilton was just questioning I'm sorry this is not a back and forth time so you have five minutes for your so it starts now yeah okay so um I'm reading from the Jackson County Republican committee uh a resolution that they are beginning to pass around Jackson County says whereas Jackson public school trustee Keisha Hamilton has recently made numerous race-baiting and anti-white statements of a highly offensive nature I like to say for my own self as a community member I did not feel race-baited and I not feel anti-weight statements coming from Keisha Hamilton a few months ago under social media post I realized that sometimes you won't like to hear the truth we wouldn't hear the
037truth in way that we want to hear it not the way the truth that some is presented such as Martin Luther King Jr we didn't like the way that he presented the truth so he was assassinated um and I'm a pastor so there's this guy named Jesus who did the same thing they didn't like the way that he presented his truth so they hung it up on a cross it was after he said you snakes you Hypocrites you brood of vipers they didn't like to hear that so I understand it and I've said this to Keisha personally and I said it to other groups and other people in the community that sometimes I don't necessarily like the way that Keisha speaks I don't like what she says but the other underlying truth of what she
038speaks is why it's so important that I listen to her as a white person the reason I wanted to talk to that resolution because I wanted to set that record straight I didn't appreciate when I'm live but Maisha Jones on their front page and show the entire video as if an angry black woman was representing the people that stood for Keisha and all white people were standing against Keisha as a matter of fact I think it was about 70 percent of the people that spoke in favor what Keisha was doing on the board in favor of Keisha let's make something clear this isn't about Keisha this is about how we are reacting to what Keisha says that's what it's about and I know that sometimes I get my nerve gets nicked and somebody says you
039know what you're kind of a white arrogant guy and I say no I'm not just and then I go okay maybe I am that nerve gets nicked every once in a while and I understand that Keisha may have nicked some nerves in the community but I think it's important that we speak to this truth of what happened at that board meeting and I was not intimidated I was not worried I was not scared the worst thing to happen at that board meeting actually make sure we can set the record straight was it I was called the Antichrist that was the worst thing that happened at that board meeting to me nobody else has insulted nobody else got screamed at nobody else got threatened right so let me get to this foreign I want to help
040us move through the weeds of what's going on there's a pastor friend of mine her name is Tracy Blackman United Church of Christ pastor and she asked the question how are the children that's what we have to ask ourselves how are the children all children that JPS serves all children that JPS serves and if you continue to ask that question you will get down to some children are not receiving the education that they deserve not because of something that you all did but because we live in a system that for the most part Khan is on the verge of really not caring that starts at the state the way we fund schools it comes down to local communities and it comes down to the school boards and a school would have the responsibility to ask
041that question how are the children all children not just the ones that are academically achieving but the ones who are not academically achieving how are the children in this community that JPS is serving that's the question and we all know that if you look at the data there are some children who are not getting what they deserve from school districts it's not just JPS it's across the state it's across the country so how are the children and as each individual child being honored is their Humanity being honored or just kids that fit some sort of norm so I leave you with that question and if I'm setting up goals if I'm setting up evaluations and if I'm setting up pay raises and if I'm setting up goals and I'm setting all that stuff up that's
042the question I'm asking how are the children all children thank you for your time I appreciate it thank you very much we have Jan Tonga and then Gina Hastings good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak today I've lived in the city of Jackson for two-thirds of my life I graduated from Jackson high I'd love to hear them I am concerned about the number six which states employee through a racially quality lens when looking at policies or programs how can you sit there as the board and believe that what you are promoting isn't divisive to this school city state and eventually this nation jobs businesses careers and the trades are attained by Education Plus hard work the best in each field should be hired promoted or fired by the previous standards I mentioned no
043one is indispensable number 11 which states no surprises or agendas will continue to dictate topics for discussion I believe this to be an attempt to take away our First Amendment right of free speech do you think the people all over the country are going to put up with this kind of marxist movement not I'm just like Mark Levin the end and plus I am not a racist white woman thank you very much Gina at the at the March board meeting which lasted well over four hours the board discussed what they coined board Norms what are these Norms well if you think about a kindergarten teacher spending time with her class of six-year-olds to give them the ground rules things like write on your paper not on your desk Keep Your Hands to Yourself flush the
044toilet be kind to your neighbor and wait your turn basic stuff but the decision to create these guidelines or Norms was the final culmination after a long series of outrageous unprofessional non-constructive and downright dangerous behavior of the past two years I know this because I've attended nearly all of the board meetings over the past two years one of the worst times I experienced was in January when Keisha Hamilton called her radical out of town activists and lied to them about a protest occurring against her there was no protest the radicals filled the JPS Auditorium and menaced the audience they were yelling insults cursing telling people they could not sit in certain seats heckling one another heckling us one audience member was pushed some of these same hecklers have attended since then weirdly snapping and disrupting
045but back to these norms Keisha looked at the list of norms basic adult behavior that fortunately had to be entered into the public record because of her lack of professionalism and what did she do well she nitpicked and bickered for Two Plus hours she also added an item of her own she added employ a racial Equity lens when viewing all policies and procedures let's talk about Dei Dei is an expensive distraction I will unpack that it's expensive we all remember Dr J marks who was a really a wonderful man a warm gentle man it was brought to JPS to give sort of a smooth introduction to JPS to the world of Dei well he makes over a hundred and twelve thousand dollars per year in the Oakland School District that's a pretty good gig huh
046is there someone else here who has their own side gig of racial Equity Consulting is that a conflict of interest please reject this massive giveaway to Keisha Hamilton thank you thank you we now have William Hastings and then Danita Bentley I want to begin tonight by thanking all the teachers and staff at Jackson High for an outstanding job teaching and help prep our kids for adult life thankless job is a cliche but so many go above and beyond in so many ways that thankless job is the only way to describe your service that is true during ordinary times but this is not an ordinary time the last five weeks have been a time of heartbreak grief and mourning at JPS we mourn with the staff and students of this school and with the doulos and
047Newman families You Are Not Alone on to the business of this meeting this board is voting on New Port Norms tonight which must be discussed at this time 11 Norms are up for of board Behavior are up for a vote and I'm going to discuss one through five and seven through eleven first then discuss Norm six which is not a Norm at all we've all heard of The Ten Commandments but these proposed Norms are more like the ten suggestions they are only being discussed because of the Endless turmoil and Chaos created by one member of this board Mrs Fitzgerald you are the board president who is pushing for these policies which as I said are non-bidening and therefore 100 percent unenforceable if you have any doubt about that whatsoever you only need watch the last
048two hours of the March meeting where Ms Hamilton furiously contested every word and phrase of the proposed norms you are asking pretty pretty please be civil and a courteous team player to someone who holds you in personal contempt Mrs Fitzgerald JPS board Norms died when friends of Keisha accused the superintendent of this District of raping students of raping children and instead of shutting off their mic and escorting them out of this building they were allowed to finish their remarks and return to their seats the 10 suggestions under discussion will do absolutely nothing to address the crisis and it is a crisis on this board withdraw them or vote them down Mr adobe's you served two terms from Ward six my ward and two terms as mayor presiding over a body with seven equal votes kind
049of like this one it is inconceivable that you would ever allow a member of city council to flood the Zone with supporters who made slanderous and evil statements about you or anyone else at a public meeting or disrupt in other ways you also hold a high position at the Michigan AFL-CIO which involves organizing people and resources to get very specific policy goals accomplished I cannot imagine anyone participating uh on a committee or group that you served on who would be allowed to not do their job and refuse to speak with other members of the group for any reason when her mic was off for those of you in attendance tonight please understand Keisha Hamilton literally does not speak with the Vast at all with the vast majority of members on the sport offline when that
050mic is off kind of shocking when you think about it the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments is 220 minutes long including intermission the last GPS board meeting was 246 minutes long 246 minutes the last two hours of that meeting were dominated by a single bitter and combative board member almost no actual business was accomplished enough is enough dump the 10 suggestions and get real for the sake of the district the board Norm that is not a norm but a massive policy shift is number six which states board members will employ a racial Equity lens when looking at policies or programs this would redefine the core mission of this body from JPS Board of Education to JPS Board of Dei you will enable one person to dominate and filibuster the entire monthly meeting No Holds Barred
051forget about four hour meetings six hour board meetings will be the new Norm and your job as a board member will become truly hellish this Norm 6 is a massive gift to Keisha Hamilton but a poison pill to the rest of the board and District do not empower the one person who continually undermines the rest of you thank you thank you Danita Bentley and then Fred rexler hello um back again to say oh sorry Donita Bentley teacher in the district back again to say um much of what I've already said and I'll probably keep coming until I start seeing differences and start seeing action um I really like um one of the previous commenters said how are the children um as somebody who spends every day in a classroom full of children in a school
052full of children to come to these board meetings and hear a lot of the stuff that's detracting from how are the children it's really disheartening um so I'm here again to challenge the board what are you doing to make sure the children are okay what are you doing to make sure that truancy is getting figured out what are you doing to bring our test scores up what are you doing to make sure that the mental health the mental health the emotional health of our students is okay because in my opinion most of you are not doing enough you still need to be asking the hard questions you still need to be asking again it's great to hear the wonderful updates what are the struggles at each school what are the hardships because until the community
053actually knows we can't really change anything so I ask again what is our district Dei plan because if it's just to train teachers that's great it's a place to start but now you are having teachers who are trained the only Dei training they've ever had is from the district you're opening their eyes and they are now running into District systems that are keeping them from doing the equity work you want them to do so you're opening their eyes and they are now running into these systems where they can't serve their students the way they want to because the system is broken because the system is not falling within Dei and for somebody who spoke earlier about Equity Equity means every student is getting what they need to be successful every student so it's not a
054waste of time it's not a waste of money are there ways we could do it more equitably probably but if we want our numbers to come up test numbers then we have to really really go after Equity if we want truancy to stop being an issue we have to go after equity so again where is our Dei plan what's the long-term goal how are we going to get there what are the steps to get there and I think to create that plan you need local school admin as a part of that plan you need staff as part of that plan you need parents you need students everybody needs to have input on what that plan looks like to make sure that everybody's needs are met as best as possible and something that happens with these
055kind of plans is they grow and develop as we go through them so can we decide right now what everything will look like in the end no but we need to have steps that we're moving forward to so what's the next step what do we think the next step after that is do we need to change it as we go as of right now I've looked quite a bit I can't find a full Dei plan and if there's one that was out there that crew was created by admin or the board it's not good you got to go back and get the input of the people it's affecting every day so one more thing I want to say is one of our taglines is where Community comes together and in a lot of ways we
056do that we don't do it enough um as somebody who sat in a position my previous position before being a teacher at Community tables where with all the big nonprofits in town that we're offering Services Partnerships all kinds of things to the district and that that was not said yes please come help us yes we'd love to partner with you and now I'm working in the district and I see how badly we need it we are not where Community comes together like I've said before we have experts in Dei right in this community and I agree Dr Mark's great guy do we need to pay him no we have people right in this community that could have done a great job we have people right in this community that could help help us with trauma-informed
057training so all of our teachers can be trauma-informed trained we have people right in this community that could help us with restorative justice because I guarantee you if we did a better job at restorative justice truancy would probably go down our suspension rates would go down test scores would go up and until we fix some of these big problems we're butting our head into the same wall over and over and over again I heard mention at the beginning of the meeting about becoming the biggest District um we need to focus on keeping and caring for the students and staff that we have because that's part of the problem is we keep losing people who love this District but they're not being treated accordingly so then we're constantly trying to bring in new and if you
058only ever care about bringing in New then you're constantly going to be chasing that number that you want you need to keep and care for who you have staff and students and again how are the children they're not great thank you okay after Fred we have Bella fibbler I've been looking at scores of Jackson Public School District compared to the state of Michigan for naep National assessment of educational progress and a lot of the scores are pretty pretty much like the state of Michigan the state of Michigan ranks pretty low in the country we can do better for the m-step scores Jackson Public School tends to rank quite a bit lower than the state of Michigan for the averages I think we need to concentrate more on the reading the writing the math the science
059and make less of racial issues a lot of people have spoken about the board Norm number six a racial Equity lens racial issues divide and that seems to be what's happening in our country right now using race to divide us not bring us together our Declaration of Independence says that all people are created equal we should treat all people with respect and courtesy yes I notice skin color but I ignore it just like I ignore what's shoe size you happen to wear it doesn't matter Equity means equal outcomes and this can only be achieved by dumbing down standards hiring should be based on Merit and character Awards should be based on Merit not on race and then one other issue you're considering buying electric vehicle buses these haven't worked in other cities the batteries are
060too heavy for the chassis and charging shifts pollution to the generating stations I think your diesel buses are still the best deal don't buy electric vehicle buses you're going to regret it later on thank you Bella bibler and then Joni arendello she wants to talk to the issue of truancy hello I am Bella bibler and I go to JPS Montessori and yeah sometimes I have to miss school or be late because of doctor's appointments and I may be feeling not well sick and some of the reasons why I have so many doctors appointments is normal stuff and because I have a heart condition she just want you guys to know that the reason why thank you Bella is free to Mason thank you Joni orendello and I live in the Jackson School District um it's
061hard to really pick which item I want to talk about today there's so much that has been coming and changing I will start with the changing of the rule about public comment and having to have your name in before the first person speaks for me I work I work a lot and it would be very difficult for me to get my name in before the first person speaks and without having that notice and what out there actually being a vote I don't feel that that rule is fair and I haven't had the opportunity to actually check the rules but if I'm remembering correctly I think the board rule said that you can change the time but not the rest of the rules and I'm going to be looking into that role and I just wanted
062to bring that up the other thing I want to talk about is last meeting when you guys were discussing the board Norms there's a lot of comments today about the board norms and it's normal to have rules regarding meetings I'm a facilitator of meetings and a mediator and I've been doing that for over 10 years now longer than I've been a lawyer and every single meeting I go into I set the ground rules we call them ground rules whether you call them meeting rules ground rules board Norms I just saw a news article with East Lansing school having a special meeting to set their board norms and it was probably more tedious and more controversial than it was with you guys in your meeting so I'm not sure where the other public commenters are getting
063their information but board Norms are 100 normal controversy regarding board Norms is 100 normal so I don't see that there's an issue with having board Norms I actually think it helps to have a healthy board to have board norms um my concern with the board Norms is the way it was conducted I feel as someone who does facilitation that a facilitator would really help you guys it was hard for me to sit in the audience and not be able to facilitate the meeting because there was interrupting and it wasn't just by Miss Hamilton as some people feel it was going back and forth and sometimes when people are doing that they don't realize that they're doing that and I'll just give the benefit of the doubt so a facilitator would be able to set forth
064ground rules to be able to have that discussion um one thing that I notice and the agenda today was that the word succinct for the comments was still in there and I know not just miss Hamilton but other people felt that succinct didn't actually capture what they wanted I think Miss hunt actually said that she wants to be able to say her full thought and she worded it slightly differently so I don't think that captures what the board was um saying when they wanted to be able to say their comments um one person said that being a teacher is a thankless job I think that's unfair to the teachers to say that I mean they may not feel as appreciated as they should as they feel they should but I don't think it's a thankless
065job seeing students light up it's it's a lot I think a book that I've read recently was reading for Patrick or reading to Patrick and I would recommend everyone read that because it was very inspirational to me um when it comes to the Dei and the racial equity and everything I am a white person I've worked in um equity and everything since I was in high school at Fort Lauderdale high school and I would highly recommend that if you feel uncomfortable about any conversation as a person of Hawaii color sit with that ask yourself why because even if you have black friends Brown friends multi-color friends if you have people who are of color in your family that doesn't mean you are excluded from implicit bias you always need to look inwardly and and understand
066why you may feel a certain way I do it all the time my best friend growing up was a black young lady and I didn't even realize that I told her something my dad said and that was her first experience with racism and I had no clue and I made her feel bad and that was eye-opening for me the last thing I want to talk about is about the superintendent's goals I feel that goals should be measurable when I read through those goals I am unsure on how the board would be able to measure those having the student's voice I brought my daughter up here so you guys can hear her voice but I don't know how you're going to be able to get the student's voice I read an article from the former Brian
067Callie former lieutenant governor and he went around and did a listening tour for the state about special education um the first one collecting data I think we already get the data summaries so I think it needs to be more than just collecting data we need we need something more thank you Rita Mason hello I'm Freda Mason um I work in the city of Jackson and I also do a lot of Community things in Jackson and I also work in Jackson at DHS the first thing I'm going to read is something that I found on the Michigan Association of superintendents and administrators this is also to show that I am in support of Keisha and a lot of this kind of reminds me of things that have been going on during the board meetings this was
068from Monday October 18 2021. it says Partners in public education several major Statewide education organizations aft Michigan Michigan Association of school boards Michigan Association of superintendents and administrators Michigan Association of secondary school principals Michigan Association of Intermediate School administrators and middle cities Education Association are calling on the public to stand together against angry rhetoric proactive threats and harassment of school board members and Educators at school board meetings online and in the local communities let's be clear we support and cherish the right to free speech and individual rights of everyone to engage in local control of our schools however that must be done in its civil and constructive way not only because it's the right thing to do in our society but it's also the right example to set for our children threats and vitriol often
069based upon false information or creating wholly unjustable disturbance to everyone's efforts in the education Community to promote safe quality public education for Michigan students beyond the pandemic some have used school boards public comment periods as an opportunity to avoid opposition to honesty and education including calls to Center sensor educators from our varnish discussion about art history Educators have an obligation to provide an age-appropriate fast based education that follows Fosters the critical thinking skills to succeed in a complex world rather than respectfully raise opinions Behavior has escalated into bullying of Public School Employees parents and unpaid elected officials that only want to accomplish good things for kids michiganders has faced adversity and disagreements before with the common denominator to overcome division has always been must continue to be the well-being of our youth we are confident
070that the mass majority believes as we do in stability and setting a good example for our students and we call on the majority to be silent as some use these difficult times to promote Division and controversy in our schools and committees we believe that elected schoolmen board members and dedicated educational professionals should be able to serve their communities without the threat of harassment or violence civility must return to our public discourse if not the ones if not the ones who suffer are most the students that was all that you can find online at m-a-s-a which again is the mission Association of superintendents administrators my next thing I wanted to talk about during all these discussions is the board Norms number six to employ a racial Equity lens when looking at policies or programs Dei is
071important it really does matter diversity equity and inclusion is crucial in our community the state of Michigan which I work for DHS has several communities in offices across the state and that's just not ours it's all over the state this is to ensure that the policy and and procedures are written to ensure that these are written with Dei in mind it is to show how important Dei affects the state I graduated with my Master's Degree last year they also ensure Dei is important in our education they have discussions and classes about it in closing it is important to ensure JPS is following these important aspects of Dei for the sake of her children to discredit Dei when our own government believes in the importance of Dei would be a disservice to our children at JPS
072thank you we have one more John Ken and before everybody says well you said we were going to you know start whatever absolutely and that was my intention but I also want to make sure fairly that people are aware of it so they know that we can't just take them all the way to the end of the meeting and end up with 20 and or 30 and have another lengthy lengthy so John please join us thank you John King 203 Third Street here in the city the board of norms before this board wouldn't be an issue if not for the behavior of Keisha Hamilton some of the important ones are assuming positive intent and being respectful that is something Keisha doesn't often do she has had her politics at the Forefront of everything she does
073her comment her communication skills are clearly deficient yet I'm sure she will suggest she is an expert communicator she doesn't unders she doesn't appear to understand listening is a part of communication in in in in interaction with superintendent bill she tried to push she is an expert in diversity but when it comes to communicating appropriately or working with diverse groups or individuals superintendent bill s years of effectively doing so makes him far superior in both respects than Keisha number two on the Norms is listening to learn and understand but with Keisha if you're not a black woman or even black you're never going to understand I've witnessed her interactions with other school board members and superintendent Beale in which she really has been trying to be impassable to work with she had enemies picked out
074before she even joined this board and just add it to that list since then her contempt for the superintendent and Other Board of members has been made clear I'll bet everyone here is lost track of how many times Keisha stated don't interrupt me or mention that she was a black woman I watched meeting last year when Cheryl Simonetti asked about having the date of an August meeting moved by a week three or four months in advance Keisha immediately spoke up and stated she was busy the that day uh the request that the D of the request um that the meeting would be moved to she picked her phone up looking at it not swiping it to reopen it or swiping it to actually get to her August schedule then she said it back down saying
075yep I'm busy in a meeting back in 2019 in which both heesh and I were attending with others in which the group we were both in he had an infighting largely related to perceived racial issues with sides divided largely long color lines the side with quiche and other black members were giving grief to white lady in which it was mentioned she used her hands when speaking and it was threatening shortly after he shall come out that she was a black woman and talked with her hands and have an absurd double standard but by the way Keisha and others politics works these days uh um the right racial Equity lens politics be avoided attention some of the people that uh you know use the word sick uh you know Tasha Carter was here oh I know
076three four months ago she had her grandson speak so that was cute but then she proceeded to see her grandson he had five years of racist history being put on his shoulder um Sarah Allison the the mean meeting I think back in January with her young child uh was saying how bad she basically saying she's bad because she's white with her two-year-old or one-year-old um and despite the fact that her husband is a Jackson police officer he should really uh uh more of a defund the police type person then there's Michael Young the Antichrist who I mean hopefully I get out of here uh without you know assaulted again and for him to just lie I mean it's uh just shameful politics so thank you for letting me speak foreign thank you okay that ends
077our public comment for tonight um number eight our discussion item the first one is 22 23 106 superintendent goals may ask me the first goal for superintendent Beale is improving student attendance and it was identified as a district concern and was also scored low on his 2022 evaluation Jeff will reduce the amount of chronically truant students year over year Jeff will provide year-over-year data for percentage of students missing 20 or more days per building 421-22 -23 as well as present a robust set of restorative interventions and their impact on student attendance this goal will flow into the 2022-23 school year with data that demonstrates continued Improvement in The Chronic student absenteeism by building you'll notice that that's a goal and a measurable goal and a follow-up number two improve opportunities for and building level District
078decisions influenced by student voice this was an identified area in Jeff's 2022 evaluation he will provide a detailed report identifying the number of opportunities for student input and the number of student interactions by building as well as how those interactions influenced decisions at either or both the building or District level again specific and measurable goal number three in this I may ask you to talk about a little bit um School Improvement partnership District because we are a school Improvement partnership District we will be participating in school Improvement initiatives that are part of that partnership for the 2022-23 school year Jeff will be responsible for developing the partnership agreement between Jackson Public Schools the Jackson Intermediate School District and the Michigan Department of Education upon successful completion of this agreement Jeff will budget funding for training
079and implementation of all identified goals the partnership agreement identify academic and behavioral goals for each partner building and create a district-wide implementation strategy this goal will flow into the 2023-24 school year and by the end of the year all buildings will report out on both positive behavioral intervention and supports PBIS the Michigan Department of Education multi-tiered System of supports mtss by May 24 2024 all features for tier one school-wide PBIS TFI for all buildings in the district will show as partially or fully implemented oh I'm sorry I did this that bottom part mtss by June 2024 each building will implement the decision-making interior delivery system components of the mde mtss practice profile with Fidelity and integrity and score at a rating one or two for each item and we are tackling one or two components
080at a time now do you want to talk a little bit about the practice profile document those are just the rubrics so attached in the document here are the rubrics that are used okay simply to identify the uh the implementation so when you talk about PBIS the the TFI is that inventory and the practice profile and JPS profile self-assessment those are again yeah if you go in those will be our Baseline um so very clearly this were identified as a CSI School of comprehensive Needs school based on John R Lewis speak to that for just a second because those scores came from um from April a year ago 2022 which was the first year the school was in business um I say that not making any excuses but everybody should understand what that means um
081the students at John R Lewis had never taken taken any standardized test prior to last year last year was their first effort because in 2020 students in three four five participate in the standardized testing so in 2020 third graders would have been home not taking the test in 2021 the students were excused from the test and in 2022 that test came back into play and so our fifth graders the first time they had seen that it was was also based on several other indicators that the building needed and so there's there's a lot of work to do and this again talks about the need for not just John R Lewis although that is our identified School the work actually touches every building in Jackson Public Schools so this is not a small lift it's not
082a small bit of work that we're doing and I think the team spent two hours today most the time the meeting are anywhere from two to four hours every week on this work so we're closing in on that partnership agreement and I'm anticipating that Jeremy and Julie will be prepared to present um for the the content of the the partnership agreement at our May meeting and then we'll begin the school improvement process centered around that in August at the building level so okay um this is not a time for a vault it is time for discussion please put your light on and I will recognize you Marilyn um can you just explain a little bit more about how the first two goals would be measurable I'm kind of confused a little bit so if you
083remember um at my evaluation um we have a couple of areas that were identified as um as of need um or or lower than than highly effective so the areas of of improving student attendance in last year our number of chronically absent students was significant and so what we're doing right now is with our attendance coordinator Milton Barnes we are developing a series of strategies that will be in place for next year aiming to look at the reason to break down the barriers and the obstacles for what's keeping students from participating in school what's keeping students and parents it's it's really deemed at a partnership model so what you will see in that regard as far as measure will be year-over-year data of chronically absent students those students with 20 or more days meaning they're
084missing more than a month of school out of a 10-month school year and so that will be we will see an increase in or a decrease rather and chronically um absent students and then um on improving opportunities for district level decision making and influence by student voice this is not um one thing that we're going to be doing but there'll be lots of opportunities but what we're looking for are ways that we can take that student voice and have that student voice influence decisions either at the the building or District level and that was identified as a deficiency on my 2022 evaluation so with those two deficiencies in mind those are the the rationales for how that will be in place and then the board will have an opportunity to take a look at what
085student voice opportunities and how those student voice interactions influence decisions at the district and building levels so that data specific to what was done and how it was done to improve that indicator and and I could get you the the exact language off of my evaluation um make sure I find it oh let's see here I apologize uh forgive me I'm just reading through make sure I can find the exact language off the evaluation for the highly effective rating yes we could I'm working on it I'm working on it um act so the the language in the in the super intense evaluation for highly effective is actively seek student input creates methods for students to be actively involved in setting district-wide goals so that's the that that will be the direction that we will be
086aiming uh in the data and information that you will be using I'll have to present that to you in order for you you'd include it in my evaluation and then it'll be up to the board to determine if I have met that criteria or threshold so I was wondering when I took a training with um Pam Fitzgerald and Shalonda they talked about weighing in like um six months into your goals or something I was just wondering maybe we could check back in to evaluate how the progress is going I think it would be completely appropriate to to take a look at this um probably at the beginning of next school year and so you can then see what's what we're doing not just at the beginning but um but that way you have an idea
087before we get to the end of November when we do my evaluation thank you any other discussion I do I have a question um so I appreciate the attendance man one of the goals because we do understand that it's not just a um chronic issue it's a crisis but for me personally I think I would better understand how this is being measured if part of the robust set of restorative interventions was outlined in in this goal so if we those will be the action steps for us to measure what those restorative interventions are yeah and that's a developmental I mean we're in development so if you if you ask me do I have all of those interventions we simply don't what we recognize is that we need to create partnership model to break down the
088barriers that are keeping parents and students from engaging you know or interacting in their education this is not about truancy truancy is when you're you miss enough days we send you to the ISD to the attendance coordinator and they refer you over to the prosecutor's office and you could end up in Family Court that's not that's not what this is about this is about how do we reduce what's when we have so many students missing more than a month at school and in some cases it's 50 percent of the building so you know when we talk about academic progress and 50 percent of the building is missing more than a month of school I don't care how we do this folks you're missing a significant portion of what we're asking you to learn and so
089it it is a crisis in your words I I don't have all of the strategies I can tell you we've we've hired folks we're we're meeting to discuss those strategies to look at what it is but is it's really not something that I I don't have like if you want me to lay out five strategies I'm just not there today but two Marilyn's Point um we're going to have to report out on this by you know in six months so potentially by the beginning of the school year and so I don't think it's unreasonable to say Jeff what strategies are we using uh in August and then when again when we come back in November for the evaluation show me the results and I don't think that's an unreasonable request thank you Keisha um so
090um did you say Milton Barnes is doing something Milton Barnes the coach Milton Barnes is our he we hired him to be our attendance Co um no he's an attendance coordinator district-wide he's he started work specifically at um at Jackson high and South Central Michigan virtual um but his work is is gearing to move district-wide so on most of the work has been done at the high school at this point more questions on your goals um so the student goal the student attendance rather that you have up here um we had this you had this as one of your goals and I remember in my first year when Libby um was requesting student attendance to be one of your goals um at that time the board was pretty hesitant to make that one of your
091goals um and now here it is we have this as a goal seemed like last year we might have had this as a goal I did did you get the questions that I sent you did you want to go through those or do you want me to go through them myself I I have your questions um that you sent me this afternoon at three o'clock so I can try to answer to most of them otherwise Miss Hamilton I'd be happy to get these back to you prior to probably the end of the week but more real realistically you would have them so that you could have this information before we needed to vote on my goals next month so um because we're voting on your goals tonight um we're not oh good perfect good so
092then we can still I still ask these questions I think it's important for the community to know what the questions are um so um in reviewing these goals like I said you know we've had this issue of you um our attendance you know it's which is confusing to the not only to me but also to the community as well on the one hand we're you know almost bursting out the scenes with with you know new students coming here and then on the other hand we have a severe truancy issue sometimes up to it sounds like you just said up to 50 of a school building so it'd be interesting if this the information that you're sharing um even if um you just have to qualify it it would be interesting if you would at least
093qualify you know we have 4 500 plus students you know we're growing like crazy we might get up to five thousand um and yet we have 50 of a school that is you know um having attendance issues it'd just be nice to have that information qualified so it was it can be consistent and so it can be better understood I am concerned though with this student attendance this truancy goal which I don't think is a a good goal for you to have but um and we did have somebody in the audience talk about your experience as a superintendent if nothing else from the number of years that you've been here which is accurate you've been here for about what is it eight years seven eight years um student attendance has been an issue um that
094this that that you've experienced before so to shalonda's question that she just asked as far as what are you doing what interventions are planned I would expect you to have some idea about what you're going to do one I would expect that you have reviewed what we've done in the past to see what you know whether or not these things worked or not and then based off of that say okay these are the other ways that we're going to um intervene so that students could be here so I'm highly interested in knowing um what those interventions are when we come back and we vote on this I would like to know what you plan to do how it's different than what we've already done um and and where you even got the idea from you
095know I mean a lot of times one thing that we are should be good about doing is not necessarily Reinventing the will if we don't have to there are places that are likely uh doing um you know student uh making sure that their students are in school and they're doing it well and so sometimes when we research that we can get ideas about you know how we can get our students here but I'm concerned that um with this attendance goal that we're just going to continue to do what we've been doing and get the same results again this is not a new goal for you you've had this before um in the past since I've been here at least um and so now that it's another goal again how one you should have some ideas
096about the interviews that you did before so what are you going to do different and then how are you going to make this sustainable you know what what makes it sustainable where this is not a goal that we keep having to come to um the other goal that you have student voice we had that as one of your goals when I first came here you had a goal of student voice and you conducted I think once yearly um uh a forum for the students I'm concerned about this student uh voice goal as to um how is it different than Student Government you know what what's the difference how is it different than our student paper so just so we know I am all about student voice but how are we doing student voice if it's
097simply another um you know round of conversations with them you know that you we've done that you know how do we make sure that this goal is not going to um come up again how is it going to be sustainable how are we creating something where student voice is sustainable a suggestion of what we could create would be a student advisory Council to the board we could have a student advisory Council that is sitting here with the board each month where they are having an opportunity to to um to advise us again clearly student government is not getting it you know clearly the once yearly you know conversations is not getting it um so we definitely need to have something that again where this is not coming up as a yearly goal you know because
098that how are you making it sustainable you know I mean and then like I appreciate the question even that Marilyn had as far as houses how are these going to um you know be measured because it's not clearly not clear that it can be measured and I appreciate also Maryland that you accidentally we have a report within I think you said six months then the Improvement partnership I have so many questions about that um CSI for John R Lewis what does that mean what does CSI you said it but could you repeat that again so we are a CSI school which means we are a school that reads comprehensive yeah don't get me wrong I just had it now my brain it's a comprehensive support intervention can you speak into the mic too Jeff that
099okay it's hard for me to hear you down here yeah I'm sorry I apologize Julie can you one more time only because my brain is you and and again that was identified specifically because of test scores from last April and then a number of pieces that a new school simply didn't have in place and we're graded on things like the accessibility to a librarian you know so so there's there's other pieces besides test scores that simply have to be brought into place um within that school system and so are in that building and we know that last year was again like I said first year I make no apologies or excuses for the for what we need to do I am and have every confidence that John R Lewis academics will not be the challenge
100going forward but we've got academic challenges across the district and so we're using this plan uh much broader than that so it's not simply while we're identified with John R Lewis we're using many of these same systems to to guide our school improvement process across the district so I hope that helps you out so this CSI um is it you said comprehensive support intervention is that the last the I is that what that stands for improvement thank you um so this comprehensive support Improvement plan um is this a requirement by the state it is okay so so this is a requirement but I said okay um goodness um more questions for you um how does this involve our school Improvement committee I'm really concerned because this is it sounds like it's putting a lot of
101different people together who are not local these are state folks it sounds like that are you know the Jackson ISD you know um they're not local to JPS itself like how are our students being involved how are parents being involved we're talking about school Improvement I'm sure that I know for a fact you know the issues and things that we have at John R Lewis as far as the academics and you just you just mentioned which is really disheartening that we have academic issues across the the district which we know but still disheartening but these um academic issues all these things that are going on without student Voice without parent Voice without bringing them in if we're just a bunch of people sitting up here talking about the issues then um we're we're failing our
102comprehensive comprehensive support Improvement plan so how our students and parents being included and what this is uh what this this goal that the state requires of us so two different things Ms Hamilton first this is uh it is very much driven by local by our teachers our administrators our um our building instructional coaches and Lansing because MD comes down and they assign us a consultant we do work specifically as we are required to at the Jackson County Intermediate School District for supports um this part is is not something that's negotiable this is work that that we all have to do but this is the framework that our district school Improvement plan will fall within and so as we wrap up the the process of building out our our comprehensive support Improvement our partnership agreement next
103fall we will be building doing building level School Improvement and District level School Improvement and those goals will involve parents and teachers in the building as well as you know student voice so that's again two separate things but but the answer to your question is is that school Improvement Falls underneath this umbrella so um thank you for answering that question it sounds like you're saying um that this goal is not negotiable because the state is requiring it of you um it also sounds like you're saying that you know because of the players that are involved that makes it local um which that's that's fine my question is you know how are our students and parents being involved in this and it would be nice to know exactly how they're going to be involved in this
104what does that look like you know I mean um sorry one more one more thing um even our school Improvement committee which I've been on for the past three years since we've had it um we haven't had it the first year we had one meeting so to be clear we had one meeting where I was notified of it and we've never we've not had one meeting since then and this is three years in that I've been here without a school Improvement committee so what I'm hopeful for is that the school Improvement committee will be um utilized to support this goal as well as our students and our parents like I said with details about how that's going to happen yeah no I don't I don't disagree with you um School Improvement will take place you
105know as far as those meetings as far as the the district goals and the building level goals that that'll come in place next fall but you are correct the district school Improvement committee hasn't met last year was the first year we were doing my Kip which is a whole brand new um system out of MD for how we did School improvements so there was a lot of training and then before we even get out of last year now we're into the the partnership agreement and so we're we're we've been kind of rolling with this a little bit and so to say that that we've had our feet underneath us we haven't self-admittedly so so you know you are you are accurate you are correct our our district committee needs to be uh meeting again next
106fall and um you'll be able to Monitor and watch how our building level meetings happen as well so I think you'll be able to see Mr Speaker I think you're trying to wave me down I would like to um speak to this as well I want to own it um it was we were doing a transition over to my Kip and um and and you know doing the training for it and it has been a difficult transition um and then we got into to covid and so this has been the work that we're actually doing with the state of Michigan is really really really good stuff and we're having we've had an opportunity um it's every school in the district it's every um every principal our coaches um and it is it's a framework that
107gives us very large broad overarching goals for our district that include things like PBIS they include building a system of supports that is much more consistent and robust than what we currently have and what this will do the work that we're doing is going to really point us in the right direction we've had a chance to do a comprehensive needs assessment we're looking at all kinds of different data and we've worked on we've tweaked our surveys and then I've talked about how we're going to make those more robust That We Gather the same information every year but then we use the thought Exchange change to dig deeper into things with students and parents and others so lots of great planning going on that sets us up to be the best that we've ever been in
108school Improvement and District Improvement we've got this big overarching umbrella that we're designing um and that that kind of gives a framework for the buildings to come up with the activities and the strategies that they're going to use to meet those goals and so um we are we've been it's been a lot of training in some ways for us the support from the ISD has been very helpful and they are going to assist us as we move in from the partnership agreement implementation to the school Improvement and District improvement process and we're really looking forward to their partnership with that thank you Julie Derek I'm sorry I wasn't done with my question no no and actually if you don't mind Pam I just a couple couple more things real quick Julie thank you for that
109but and and I'm anticipating that you and Jeremy able to present broader on that but Keisha to your point and you are 100 accurate in this I have no no issues or no concerns with that we need parent involvement that we need Student involvement and that our staff need to take ownership over their the school improvement process I'm anticipating you will see that by next August um and then again what you'll be able to see um prior to my evaluation is is how we're progressing along those those goals but we know that the the required pieces the mtss the PBIS those right there we've already sent very specific goals to but the as far as school Improvement plan stuff that will happen again at the building level and the district level next fall so I
110hope that answers your question thank you um the last thing and Julie you can answer this in just a minute the mcap I just want to understand what that is you said you all got um I think you said MCAT MCAT is that what you were saying M cap M cap we'll resend my cap what is that what is it yep it is a um it's a framework it's a it's the online app that we enter all of our um School Improvement pieces in but it's not just a new application it's also a mind shift or it's it really is a mind shift because it took it from being very building based um where the plants move from the buildings up into the district and um and it's moved it from you know the district
111level down into the building so it's been it's it's uh it's a it's a major shift for how we do this work and this is this is new you said this is what the state is training you Allah yeah thank you um so just just Jeff just when you come back I would like to know again like I said how was how are these things gonna be sustainable specifically student voice and I'm proposing a student advisory Council um that is not pulled from Student Government um we need something that's different um or if it is pulled from student government it's not only pulled from Student Government um that that advises you know what it'd be nice if we had one that's advising admin teachers and the board but we need a student advisory Council that's
112uh different than what we currently have and then I am concerned as well that we see no Dei in your goals nothing that speaks directly to how you are continuing to sustain that work thank you dear uh I just I uh share some of uh trustee Hamilton's comments about um maybe including some Dei um I've just you know I'm new here so I'm digging a little bit into uh some of the past work that uh JPS has done around um the uh reviewing the 2019 audit and some of the subsequent work since that time uh you know would support these goals provided that they have some more metrics uh raise my hand uh to actually ask a question I know I'm on the finance and Facilities committee um who's on the school Improvement committee and
113is there a chair of that committee I guess I think I don't think we've I I to be fair that I don't know who's put in for that we typically ask for folks to email I know that Keisha has been part of it in the past might be thank you Michelle Keisha Shalonda Angela represent the board in in that capacity is there a um chair of the committee it's a it's a district committee it's Jeremy's committee not not a board committee okay but it's appointed by the board by the president no no it is in such that what we do is we at the in the January meeting when we're kind of talking about committee assignments that District committee has always had board representation or board members sit in on that committee that then come
114back and share out what what we're doing as a district so it's that level of interaction but no it's that's how it that's how members get on that committee yeah they're they're appointed by the president at the beginning of the uh you know typically all we do is people email us and say this what I'd like to do yeah so as long as we have no more than three um we're pretty good to go my question though is like who call who like calls that committee okay let's move on to our jcisd preliminary budget Jeff so every year by law we are required to adopt the uh I shouldn't say we are required to adopt we are required to vote um to approve or disapprove of the isd's budget um buy and no later than
115June 1st so it gives us a very limited window since the ISD is developing their budget for next year in the same timelines that we are ours um so what you have in front of you is a copy of the budget sent over from the ISD typically we have them join us prior to the vote so realistically all I'm asking for at this time is for you to take a look at it dig into it if there are questions that you have on it reach out to Marcus he will do his best to help decipher that and then if you have questions that you would like the ISD to be able to answer if you can get those to us I will try to have representatives from the Intermediate School District here to present and
116answer questions at our May meeting so that we're able to to fulfill that obligation prior to June 1. so I'm not I'm not asking or really even anticipating that anybody's going to say well I'd I'd like to know about the specific line item um I certainly wouldn't have that information because it's not our budget but knowing what I'm looking for take a look at it dig into it if you've got questions send them my way Marcus will try to answer them and or we will get those questions to the ISD so that when they come if you have questions when they come they are prepared to answer those questions for you so I had no actions at this time Derek do you have another question no all right so as you may remember back in
117the fall we were awarded a an award from the EPA for their electrification bus rebate program to convert up to 21 of our diesel buses we put out an RFP in conjunction with our energy advisors at Guaranteed Clean Energy we received those and reviewed them with GCE we've had several types of proposals for just equipment or full service proposals we discussed these at our March finance and Facilities meeting as well as last month we brought a summary to the board at this time or since then we've gone through and received a formal contract from Highland electric which we've vetted internally along with our district attorney and Partners at GCE to come up with an equitable contract for both sides with Highland electric to provide an all-inclusive electric bus program which includes equipment buses design engineering
118construction site work along with Fleet Management Services over a long term period so the contract has been prepared and is part of the board packet at this time we would look to approve the contract with Highland electric to move forward I have a motion so moved second then let's talk about this any discussion on the buses and the contract for the buses okay all those Oh Derek um I'd like to make a motion to postpone this to May 16th the contract that I got and granted we did discuss this in our finance and Facilities meeting as just an agenda item the full contract is 38 Pages um we got kind of The Proposal from Highland electric uh previously I'm you know uh potentially this full 38-page contract was provided at uh last month's meeting but
119my understanding is that it was here there was here Monday maybe um and at least what I'm looking at some of the highlighted things are still maybe left to be filled in um and I I haven't had a chance to review the whole contract I'm not sure if that gets into any conflicts with uh the purchase ordered it my motion would be to postpone a date certain of May 16th support so right now we're you want an amendment do the motion yeah he's made a motion to amend ment we'll go back to a discussion Maryland is seconded it so did you second the postpone it okay I did okay all those in favor postponing it until next month hi hi opposed okay looks like motion passes to postpone until May 16th okay the next one
12022-23-109 smart boards Marcus all right GPS is looking to purchase smart boards for multiple classrooms in multiple buildings this is something that we piloted in a few classrooms I believe at Northeast Elementary these have already been approved through mde through our Title One Grant as an allowable expense and will be funded by that Grant so at this time we would recommend approving the quote from cdwg in the amount of 102 900 for 42 smart boards that will be installed at four buildings hunt Northeast Montessori and Cascades move approval of the purchase minimum present okay support thank you deliberation can you just tell me what a smart board is [Laughter] it is an interactive it's almost like um taking a like a touch screen or a tablet and putting it right up on the wall but
121huge and so what's neat about it is that um kids can interact with the um in a in a big way it's like putting virtual manipulatives up on the wall and so they can solve problems on the board they can move things around the teacher can do the same um it can be used in a lot of different ways but it's it's an interactive surface what were the scores again for Northeast Montessori hunt and Cascades maybe I don't know um so those classes of schools um so who have them we said we have some people already have them some schools already have them building rather I believe there's a few at Northeast already and hunt the northeastern hunt Northeast is getting more hunts getting more in Montessori and Cascade are getting some is the plan
122to um have them at all the buildings eventually it's possible so that would be you know if the buildings want them if they want to use their title funds to purchase them that'll be a building level decision um do they get trained on these do the teachers teacher trained and the students get trained yes they work on making sure that they know how to use them that's a wonderful thing that Scott and John are able to do for us um as our our tech people they reach out to Scott and John for training definitely and then if they can't help then they will find somebody who can so they've they they're really helpful in in teaching us how to use educational technology in the rooms thank you okay I vote all those in favor hi
123any opposed motion carries thank you K5 English language arts curriculum Marcus foreign has funding included in it for curriculum updates throughout the district district has been piloting the Open Court K-5 Ela curriculum we received quotes that were presented to the finance committee meeting at our April meeting you have the cost listed per building for a total amount of 856 642 we expect to receive these orders over the summer so we will be able to start the new school year with this new curriculum and implement it this purchase is funded and been approved through the SO3 grant that we've been talking about for quite some time now so at this time we would recommend approval of this K-5 curriculum as presented purchases for discussion support thank you is there any discussion on this one yeah yeah
124I have lots of questions okay um so um are we changing the curriculum is this new or these are the curriculum we we focus on the Michigan standards so the standards are the same but this is a new resource for us to use um we have been using Reading Street I believe it's been at least 10 years since the last adoption it is now out of print um and the online platform is no longer available so it's it's not a viable resource for us anymore okay so not a new correct well it is a new curriculum but it's new only because the other one is is that yeah it's it's so old that it's it's out of print and we don't have online resources for it anymore thank you how often do we review or
125have these curriculum conversations um we usually do an adoption we're on a cycle we're supposed to be on a cycle but with covid and everything we are knocked off of it so we we should have replaced this a while ago um we usually do every five or six years so we won't see this again for another five or six years yeah and and actually I mean it this we actually could do um we could be with this resource for longer than that so um because we've you know they it is a brand new resource this year it's it'll be new as of 2023. and we said sorry and um if I'm reading correctly on our agenda paper or somewhere I read it that this was uh piloted in some classes yep we piloted um we've
126actually been piloting for almost two years we we looked at two others we actually we've been we went through and we looked at a variety of different curriculums or programs and selected two we did a cockins units of study and no I'm sorry fountas and panel um reading and then we did my view last year and we were just not satisfied with it and decided that it was worth the time to go out and find something that we thought would do much more for our students especially to deal with learning loss we wanted something that really hit hard and the foundational skills because that's where our kids are struggling um and so this year we did um we did wonders was one and then we also did this open Court Reading and we're just really
127really impressed with that foundational piece um which is it will help to build those those pieces in for students that missed that because of the pandemic and will get us off to a strong start for our students in phonics and phonemic awareness um we were just really impressed with it for these review with cultural relevancy in mind um we did actually that was one of the things we were looking at was on our Matrix as we considered each curriculum was how culturally relevant it was and then also um do do is there literature where students can see themselves in the stories and then does it take into consideration cultural bias and we felt that this did a great job even down to the the cards the cue cards for letters instead of for the letter
128c having it say cat it took into consideration that um that you know that's only in English and we'll be working with students who are coming from English as a second language background so their cat may be gato so that doesn't match that doesn't help so they use sounds so they use the picture of a camera clicking because that's the that's a c sound that we can all whatever language you speak that one works so um if they've done everything that they can think of to try to remove that cultural bias awesome that's super awesome so um I do have some more questions and um I'm proposing that we push this back till June um with us not looking at curriculum for I mean since the general cycle for looking at curriculum is five to
129six years meaning that we won't see this again potentially for five to six years um I would like us to push this back to June I would love to hear from the teachers who who piloted this program I'm hopeful that there were some very experienced teachers who were using it and maybe some teachers who were less experienced using it I would love to hear from the students you know who had this program piloted in their classrooms I would love to hear from parents who had this Pro program piloted and with their students you know how how um you know accessible or how easy it was to be able to support their student at home with this curriculum it'd be nice to see the curriculum I would love to see you know what it looks like
130um with us one being introduced to this tonight as an action item not having any of this information with this being a decision that will last for at least five or six years I think we need more information um on on the whole thing as well even the different ones that you reviewed um what's what you reviewed before the you said you think you said sign aboard or something is Wilson or somebody you review them it'd be nice to um you know just kind of understand why this one rolls to the top and just to see it you know I mean especially since this is uh happening this is only coming up every five years um so I make a motion that we propose that we postpone this one until June just so that we
131can have more information maybe you can get us a presentation in May um or however soon you think you can get it to us um that just allows us as the board to be able to look at this more thoroughly because our students our parents are we need to know what they're thinking we need to know what there's emotions on the table and I can make another one just like Derek just did um I can make another motion um on the table to say that we push this back um till June so that we could have more information okay so you're making a motion support a lot of support any discussion did you say June June and actually you know I would love to hear Julie Baker say you know if that's a sufficient time
132for you but enough time for you to get a a presentation my concern is that we do this we will not have materials for next year yeah right so my concern is that and thank you for that Julie my concern with that is that again we're not looking at this for another five or six years you know and I think it's unfair to to rush something through on the board and on our parents and students and children that the board has not had opportunity or this parents have not had an opportunity to weigh in on and students and teachers as well so so very quickly I apologize this this hasn't been rushed through this has been a pilot for over two years uh the educational experts throughout our district have weighed in on this we've
133taken a significant amount of time with um with our staff and students I recognize you would like to see some information it would not be the superintendent's recommendation to delay um because these are purchases Associated not just with our sr3 grant um which we are required to spend a portion of that on curriculum and learning loss and that is specific to this I appreciate what you're asking I would not recommend until June I think it would be something for you to say or a reasonable expectation for Julie and Jeremy to potentially make this purchase in May but if we want to have this curriculum I think that we're going to be a hard-pressed to to move forward and remember that the curriculum that we have in place is defunct it is no longer supported and
134no longer in print so we we have a simply a different issue with this than we did with the the bus contract and I respect what you're saying Miss Hamilton I'm just simply saying it would not be the recommendation to wait until June my concern with that excuse me for two years it's kind of unfair to Spring this on us so I would like for us to wait those two months um my comment on it it have having done curriculum forever okay is that it's the board's responsibility to fund programs brought by the experts in the field that only has this been piloted for two years but it's not like we went out to seek a new one out the one we're using is gone you can't do that so this was by experts in
135the district vetted decided upon piloted and having been in charge of curriculum for many many years we can't wait even another month to order these things I there's no way in the world I would expect people to put together some presentation for something that's been in place not only for two years but it's already been gone through by the people who have the responsibility to choose it that is not the board's purview to choose the curriculum it is to pay for it and make sure it's it's where it needs to be financially that is not in our purview Derek uh thank you madam president uh my questions uh speaking to the motion to postpone would be I guess uh in the opinion of uh the superintendent or uh Julian Marcus um about uh the final
136line here spoke to orders are expected to receive over summer in order to implement the beginning of the 23-24 school year um what is the latest that we could order this stuff um I would need to get with our rep but um what I my understanding is is that um this is because it speaks so strongly to the science of reading um it has been adopted Statewide in several States and so we need to get our order in if we expect to get any materials yeah so it is this was not something that was selected hastily um our very best are in each building every one of our instructional Specialists our coaches literacy coaches um we're at work on this we had um multiple teachers in each grade um that that piloted this we looked
137at it very very carefully and and we weren't satisfied the first time around so we went back until we found something we were satisfied with um I trust their judgment I trust the Judgment of the teachers Who deliver this curriculum and piloted it and I think it would be a great disservice to the students and to the teachers to not have these materials in place for them to start the next school year thank you Jeff well I think two things Miss Baker you are at the moment attempting to reserve professional development for our staff either the very first day back or the second day back and right now we are waiting to see which of those days is available for this professional development we talk a lot about um teacher voice we talk a lot
138about making certain that they have the ability again a group of professionals has weighed in on this they've made their recommendation to the Board of Education I think it would be a disservice to the to the work that they've put in for us not to honor and recognize their expertise in the field so again it's it's a recommendation superintendent that I would not delay this purchase I don't think it's appropriate nor do I think it's timely to do so are we within any parameters of um accessing these Esser funds does that play a role in this decision I know our current we are required to expand the SR funds by next June of 2024 so funding wise we're fine Angela um I also think it's such a disservice um to the staff that's worked on
139this um and personally I have a fifth grader myself and I would love for him to have these materials by the start of the year instead of this out of date stuff along with all the other children that are waiting on this so I definitely think we should get this voted and ordered to conclude my comment on this there is absolutely no benefit to going through all this work choosing one piloting the program having it be fantastic everybody's all excited about it states across the country are adapting this particular one and for us at the 11th hour to say wait let's look at other things and decide who's going to decide that is not the board's purview to decide which curriculum are is to pay for it but to put a budget on it okay
140I'd like to call for a motion on the vote to delay oh I'm sorry Maryland actually all I wanted to say is I'm new to the board so I didn't know that you were doing this and so maybe in the you know maybe we could know next time you're doing something like this you know what I mean like kind of a heads up maybe for us because you're asking us to vote 856 thousand dollars and 64. 642. you know 856 000. so it's a lot of money it's like oh goodness I guess I just wanted maybe more information that's all I guess maybe and I got some I'm I'm kind of impressed right now but it's kind of moving forward so it's a big number for me you know that's one of the the issues
141we run into is boards change people who made decisions or people who were involved in even initiating a project move on new people move in so it's almost a matter of catching up and I don't think it'd be a bad idea at all as part of our orientation to identify the big ticket items that are on the horizon something like that I just wanna but for this point one last comment yeah so I think I just want to provide clarification I don't know that uh presentation would be a requirement but I think collectively we're saying more information more information to help us make a sound informed decision we want the best interests we have the best interest of our children you know at our heart and so I think maybe some personal testimonies from the
142teachers you know something brief that could be emailed to us and allow us the opportunity to review I'm not opposed to it but I would appreciate hearing from students teachers that was a part of the pilot process and I think that's easy for us to obtain I mean maybe make an assumption but I think it would be pretty easy one last comment Keisha yeah go ahead thank you floor thank you um with this being a two-year pilot program um to your Point Maryland none of us knew that they were titled in this program I'm not necessarily saying saying that we had to know that you were piloting this program but bringing this up um to us today after you've been doing it for two years then expecting us to give you an answer because um
143we because you failed to give us this information sooner is unfair to the board um we have questions this again is a a curriculum that we likely won't look at for another possibly five or six years maybe 10 years um and it's unfair to sit here at this board table and attempt to force this down our throat um the experts that are reviewing our curriculum they are not only our teachers we as a school say that we are where Community comes together we and all of our data says that our parents and um and their voice is very important to what we do that their partnership in their in their child's education is very important so hearing from our parents and our students and our teachers on a curriculum that they're are using that they've
144been piloting for two years which I think is a good amount of time like that's great you know I mean it's the Pilot's not the issue the issue is that we're just now finding out about it and again you're trying to force us down our throat as well I ran on a platform that said I wanted more tea more parent voice I wanted teacher voice I want student voice and in that platform that means I need to hear from them so when we're talking about the teachers as being their experts we know that they are experts and we appreciate them for their expertise but they are not the only experts parents are also experts in their child's education and hearing from them is very important as well as students and teachers as well so um
145to that I want you to be clear about what I'm saying as far as what this issue thank you so again I I don't disagree that and I'll make certain you understand I'm not trying to force anything down anybody's throat um I understand that this is a surprise it is my recommendation not to delay until June because I don't believe that materials will be available I specifically spoke to and suggested that Julie would be prepared to present at our May meeting okay there's motion on the table what exactly is it at this point that we postponed to June not till June that's my motion that's the motion oh your emotions on the table okay motion on the tables postpone this decision until June that we can get more information all in favor that that that's
146included in the motion that we get more information the information that we're waiting for should come in May about all these the motion is to get more information and postpone the vote until June all in favor say aye aye opposed I I as an opposed opposed okay this motion fails let's keep moving oh sorry oh go ahead roll call what are we we're all calling right now we're rolling We're Gonna Roll Call them right so which which one the you said the main ones the the original one the yes nope she's saying mine which one which one are we doing I apologize I'm gonna clarify we are going to call for a roll call on the motion to approve your Amendment Miss Hamilton and that is because we were unable to discern a clear vote
147so from my motion to postpone it to June so that we can have a presentation in May that includes parent student and teacher voice I am voting yes on that motion yes Miss hunt I'm not sure because I feel like we need more information but I want I would be satisfied with it being provided in May so right now the motion issue the motion is no to June when I would like to make another motion no motion failed okay is there another motion there's a third motion I would like to make a motion that we revisit item 2 2-2-3 Dash on the curriculum 110 in May if we are provided with additional information from our expertise our parents our teachers and the students that were a part of this piloted program okay the motion on
148the table is to postpone until June the final decision I'm sorry postponed until May a final decision that would include feedback from those who piloted the program including parents students teachers who are involved um since the pilot again presentation and approval on a presentation or just the yeah from people sure okay so we have a motion and a second another discussion I'm sorry no I just saw that another discussion no oh Derek thank you madam president um I guess uh similar question as to June um I understand uh that this is coming to us um kind of at an inopportune time for discussion my concern is to be able to um and I think we're all um interested in hearing more we're all interested in in trusting our instructors and our teachers uh my question
149remains as to whether if we delay to the May 16th meeting for uh hearing more about the curriculum updates if we would be able to get the materials before the start of the 23-24 school year I I don't think we could answer that tonight I that's a conversation as Ms Baker indicated that we would have to give with the provider so in that regard I can't answer that question a full month at the end of the year does make a huge difference in all the rest of schools are ordering at the same time that already have their curriculum in place okay we have a motion we have a support do I do a roll call or just I and I okay go on Roll Call yeah okay yes uh Miss Mitchell no Miss hunt yes
150yes Mr Dobies no Miss Hamilton yes and Mrs Fitzgerald no it's a tie Libby's not here ocean fails in a tie the motion failed oh so it's not being postponed at all right now no we have an original motion the original motion which we had a motion in a second to order the books please could we call for a roll call vote on that motion this is back to the original go ahead and do it and not wait 30 days that one failed the other one failed also uh Miss Hamilton because we are not including parent student voice in this and teacher voice my vote is no Mr Dobies yes no no missed hunt no Mrs Mitchell yes and Mrs Fitzgerald yes motion fails all right we will bring this back to you yeah we
151have no we have no approved motion on this item um you know I do want to just make a comment that a month is not going to make a difference in the information we have we have people who have been involved in this since the beginning that have gone through this and done this are we going to go another whole series and find something different find different people to Pilot it and we don't have that kind of time and additionally I'm going to just reiterate this as much as I possibly can that is not the board's purview Oh Derek oh I was just point of order we've taken a vote um and it's failed and we have the rest of the stuff on the agenda here all right so we will you'll see this one
152again next month um okay we now are looking for support for 22 23 111 6 to 12 social studies curriculum Marcus again just like the previous one we have curriculum updates for social studies program to refresh the current outdated curriculum the cost of the 612 curriculum is 365 596.97 to be funded as follows 355 000 596 96 through sr3 and ten thousand dollars to the general fund and future fiscal years that represents future fiscal year professional development for this curriculum which Falls outside of the grant period which is why the general fund would pick up that cost so at this time we recommend approval of the social studies curriculum as presented foreign actually if if I may um just save some of the consternation and and challenges we had uh with our Ela curriculum um
153the superintendent would like to recommend that the board have an opportunity to review this material ask questions of Jeremy Patterson and have him provide you that information for the exact same reason I would like this back in May so that we have an opportunity to order it and have it available to us potentially by next fall I do not know if the supplier will be able to get it to us if we wait but that is a question I can't answer but I recognize the concern of the Board of Education that you expressed on our Ela curriculum and it would be the recommendation of the superintendent to try to alleviate that by saying let's um my motion would be to table this one until next month and Jeremy Patterson will provide you questions and then
154we would ask for a vote on this curriculum in May so that's my recommendation I guess I would still need somebody to table that support okay it's going to make a motion there we go once again I'm going to say that it's dangerous to do that if you want our kids well prepared these have been vetted by the people who will use them and it's not the board's business once again I need a motion to table this until May um you the motion point of order Derek made a motion together I was just a point about our admit a motion to um approve of the curriculum as presented okay second is there a second I approving the curriculum as presented motion dies new motion to wait until May to go through this again I make
155a motion to postpone this until May provided information on what our expertise the knowledge that they have around this curriculum how it's in the best interest of our student population I second that all in favor is there any more discussion on that is that it there's discussion on it um when when we come back social studies is um super duper duper important to our children being history um so when we come back um and we have a presentation about the K-5 Ela curriculum um I would like information on this one as well you know uh samples of what they're doing teacher parent and student voice as well I'd like to hear from them when we come to vote on this in May um and then I really really really want to see what this curriculum
156looks like how it was vetted for cultural relevancy specifically with it being history thank you we've got a motion got a second Derek yeah um same questions as before in terms of uh preparing us for the subsequent school year um would a delay until May uh cause any harm to the curriculum implementation you know I don't think we can answer that without talking to the corporate the company itself um this particular curriculum is very new and deals with a lot of uh things that they we haven't before yeah and it's really important the kids have it in their hands when they start you know start with some Antiquated thing and you know try to move forward when it comes in if it comes in um I well you know my feeling on it's not a
157secret I guess it's ridiculous my my um I guess follow up on this and and I'll say at the uh finance and Facilities meeting uh we talked about these expenditures and I know that uh trustee Brown was excited uh to see some of the um uh curriculum development around the African-American history courses that are proposed in here and I think a future worker I'm bringing AP course um I think was discussed as well um uh anyways I'm not sure if we don't know uh procedurally if we don't know um the time frame around um working with the contractors or um the contractors for the books if May will be too late then maybe it's uh more fitting to lay something on the table so that if we need to have a special meeting we can
158um remove it from the table and order the books to make sure that they arrive in time even if that means you know two weeks so if we postpone it to a date certain then we have to if it pleases the board what I would do is I will talk to both of these vendors tomorrow try to make certain I can have that information um and if it is timely I will call if a special meeting specifically to address both you know the conversations that Miss Hamilton is requesting with regards to dive into the curriculum and in the meantime Miss Hamilton Mr Patterson and Miss Baker can provide you with the curriculum so that you can review it but we'll have a presentation prior to asking you to vote and if it's timely or if
159if May will work you know it's up to you if you want me to call a special meeting if if May is going to be pushing it then um or if may you know then I'll call a special meeting if we can't but that makes sense if it's laid on the table then may would be our next regular meeting um but if we need to have a special meeting so if it pleases the board I'll get you information tomorrow on the next day um and if we need a special meeting I'll let you know that we need a special meeting and we'll post it and call that meeting is that fair and I look forward to that information from them thank you two items uh on 22 23 110 and 22 23 111 but I
160think right now we're in the middle of a emotion so we need a vote to table this I think was the motion and the second so table this to May and if we and if we find out that there is a problem time wise we'll have a meeting to discuss at a special meeting Madam president if uh trustee or vice president um hunt would remove the motion to table to I think there's a motion on the table to postpone it to table it on the table to table the motion right now is to table it until May um so so again I can call a special meeting we can take that up again I thought I thought the motion was to postpone it to the May 19th it was to table this entire issue until
161May 19th you want to you want to remove that motion and simply motion and I guess you're gonna have to walk me through what you would like because I think what we can do is she's requesting not to vote until May and I think what we can do is if needed if that's not gonna work I'll call a special meeting and we'll present the information requested um and in the meantime I would ask the board to ask as many questions of Jeremy and Julie as possible um but that would be the goal but there are a few prefer to have it worded some other way I'm more than Robert's resource of order um and maybe I misheard the motion if we are um laying something on the table we're just saying that we're not going
162to take action on it right now and we can pick it up at any time if we make a motion to like postpone it to a date certain we're all agreeing that we're going to talk about it on that certain date so I guess just a clarification on what the motion is absolutely so miss hunt I think Mr uh Dobies is asking that you amend your motion to so that it reflects that we'll table it until a later date I'll table that I'll make a motion the table yes and then two just the um comment to what you said Jeff about um contacting the individuals I think this would be a transparent moment for us as a district just to you know just say the board was not provided this information in a timely manner
163this is considered an extenuating circumstance which this is in our pattern this is in our routine we're not always asking for an extension or for Grace to be extended so I think this is an isolated situation where we be upfront forthcoming with where we are and the challenges that we've faced at this governance table and then I think that we may be like assuming what their response is and we haven't given that honest effort to let them know where we stand as a board so so to be clear you are correct Miss hunt um our pattern is to bring an item forward for discussion uh in one month and um and action the following month uh so we are out of our Norm in this regard again the district's not not intentionally trying to to
164do this this is simply an expedience based on on timeliness for the curriculum um but we certainly have no issues with conducting the conversation uh at the best of the board so I think where we stand right now and again I'm just trying to keep this is we have a motion to table this to a later date and I think we're just looking for a second okay all right so Motion in a second any I had one more comment well it's your discussion this is the way I've been a curriculum director for 12 years for whole districts this is not how it's done and if we're gonna pick it social studies if we're going to pick it reading does that mean that every single adoption of a textbook is going to go through the board
165because if that's what you're looking at I really want to talk to masb that is not our business and you start playing with the high school teachers chemistry books or their um economics things we are not the experts they are the experts so I'm just telling you ahead of time point of order yeah um a motion to table uh because if we're following Robert's Rules isn't debatable so we can just take a vote on whether we want to vote on that table letter yep you're going to do a roll call or just a a yay no let's do roll call Miss Hamilton yes to table s yes to table yes to table yes Mrs Mitchell and Mrs Fitzgerald no okay now we're going to the um the literacy quote that's an action item okay 22
16623 112 Marcus GCM summer literacy quote JPS will be providing take-home reading materials to help prevent summer learning loss the cost for the curriculum is forty six thousand two hundred nineteen dollars for purchases at Northeastern Cascade Elementary Schools other buildings are also receiving these materials however the amount of the purchases doesn't meet the threshold for board approval is why it's not included in this dollar amount the purchase again will be made through Title One funding this was discussed as well at the April Finance facility committee meeting so at this time we would recommend approval of the quote from TCM in the amount of forty six thousand two hundred nineteen dollars for those two buildings president support um what other schools are getting them I believe all of the elementary schools most of them everybody but
167W said yeah yeah these were materials that they chose to use their Title One funds for and the only school that didn't chose to do that was Dibble more questions for you um have we so this is this is new to the board as well right we didn't see this before correct this year okay um we ordered these last year okay did we get a presentation last year on what what comes in it do you all have that information available where we could know what comes in the books did you so I don't want to overflow you with questions I'll let you answer some of them there were there is a workbook that comes with it um that has materials to help them get ready for the next grade um there are several books that
168they can read over the summer in their materials to help parents know how to help their child with those materials over the summer and we sent them home with students who um are not low enough to qualify for the summer school so it's something to help them um avoid the summer slide but also prepare for the next grade level thank you I'm all for this just so you know um did this do we measure these for cultural relevancy no but we didn't notice that there was any cultural bias in them it wasn't noted by anybody so um or or complained by about by parents we saw that there was um good literature in these that um was uh that it seemed to appeal to a wide group of kids and um when we saw good
169titles where the where students saw themselves in the books as well so I I am concerned that um if it wasn't measured for cultural relevancy whether or not it's actually culturally relevant because it is important to measure for that um so next time we have this come forward I would like for us to make sure that we're measuring for cultural relevancy you know if possible there might be something that's more culturally relevant or that's actually culturally relevant I believe that we should measure for that so that we can know um did we get do we get sounds like we use these each year this is our this is our second year we were relieved to find something that was such a nice um some things that was so nice to be able to provide parents
170and students with over the summer and you said the feedback that we've gotten has been yeah I what we've heard are in its anecdotal um that you know I don't think any student likes to do work over the summer but for parents um you know that it's positive that we've given them something that they can work with their students on that is um very parent friendly so thank you so just in the future Jeff or whoever needs to know I do like the idea of us measuring and making sure that we're assessing the uh you know sufficiency or the um I'm drawing a blank on the correct word but that it's actually doing what the parents are able to you know work with it well the students are liking it that it's actually doing what
171we wanted to do I like the idea of getting those measurements thank you any other discussion okay let's vote Michelle you think okay all in favor all right opposed motion passes thank you okay the ca JPS room rental agreement Marcus every year the district contracts with Community Action Agency for classroom space for their head start and grade start Readiness program so we've prepared the contract for 23 to 24 school year which will not exceed 66 675 dollars this has been reviewed and signed off on by a Community Action Agency so at this time we are recommending approval of this room rental agreement um as presented approval for discussion okay go ahead guys what are your what are your thoughts on this room rental agreement is this price different than the previous years it is different
172we are increasing the rates by five percent which is like four hundred dollars a room it's very minimal but something to help with the rising costs of utilities and custodial services and things like that we have not raised their rates in a few years now but just with everything going on this year we did need to look at things a little differently but we try to keep it very minimal so it says it will Natick say 66 000. what's the exact what does the contract read like exactly what's the exact amount so there's different rates depending if the rooms are classified as Head Start or gsrp and that'll that will be based on on their enrollment which obviously they won't have yet yet at this time so that would be a max amount that they
173would pay us based on the configuration of the rooms in the discussion any thoughts okay let's take about all in favor I opposed I am abstaining thank you and Miss Hamilton just for clarification because outstanding because you're an employee just for the record I know the answer it makes a difference that's a good thing no problem okay Jackson High School painting project 22 23 114 Marcus all right so last year we went through and and refreshed and painted Middle School at Parkside as we worked through the bond project so this year we're looking at refreshing Jackson high and we're going to take a floor-by-four approach to better plan plan things out um we've reached out to leadco painting who has been the painter involved in many projects at the high school including the natatorium Welcome
174Center the current the media center here and some of the other areas in the building so we are looking to paint again just the third floor at the high school this summer at a cost of 68 580 which will be able to split over both this year and next year as it is summer work so some of that will count towards June 30th which is the end of our fiscal year and the remainder that's painted after June 30th will be on next year's budget so it'll be a smaller budget hits each year to make them a little more palatable and then going forward we'll look to do the rest of the building floor by floor move approval I'll support I was just kind of curious if you got any other bids we did receive another
175bid from another Painting Company the name escaped me at the moment overall for the entire building their price was about 80 000 higher I want to say more discussion okay let's go ahead and vote all in favor aye aye aye opposed the same passes thank you okay now we're going to board norms we've been through this wait a minute hold on the board Norms 22 23 115. I call for a motion to accept motion motion to approve so moved second discussion apologies no if we have no second oh no second motion dies okay we have no board norms old business we have an old business nothing okay let's do board comments now or comments Marilyn you had something didn't you were going to talk about no I don't think so well I was just gonna
176make a comment oh okay Keisha went first so I was like oh you go hey Marilyn okay I'll go after you so um I loved reading month and I was invited to go to hunt for a third grade classroom and I'm not sure how to say her last name Jordan Fabi f-o-b-be yes oh my gosh her classroom was so well behaved and in the middle of my reading we had a tornado drill so I got to go with the kids to the bathroom it was hysterical but she's an amazing teacher and the kids were just delightful so when I went back into the Hall it was at Hunt I started talking to a couple gals in the hall and um this woman who's a teacher said I know you and we were trying to go
177around and around why we knew each other and it was so sweet because it was her first year teaching at hunt in 2015. I was her parapro and we just laughed and laughed and hugged it was Aisha Parker and it was the it was so funny and this is really funny because she said um I said how did you how did you recognize me and she goes it was your voice so I just had such a good time with the kids and they were actually everyone was really well behaved the school was clean and beautiful and so I just really appreciated that opportunity so thank you yeah anybody else Keisha so yes um some board comments um so I am concerned about the superintendent's goals being introduced so late in the year how that's going
178to impact his ability to um perform them well um and then how this is going to impact or affect rather his evaluation um board board uh his superintendent goals are generally introduced in January um and we should have had these a lot sooner you know because I do believe this is going to impact his evaluation so that's a concern um our leadership on this board um leaders you know should be examples of what they expect those who they think they're leading um what they think you know those people who they're leading what they expect them to do leadership reflect what they expect people who they think they're leading um their behavior should be of such that those looking on would want to emulate it um we don't have that right now and so I'm hopeful
179that maybe we'll get that at some point um masb says in reference to the role of a board this is very specific because you can look at masb.com.org rather give me a minute I gotta get you the correct masb um I'll get in a minute but anyways though masb says to the role of the board you can Google masb role of the board and this will come up for you it is to approve recommended curriculum and texts based on standards goals and policies established by The Board review and evaluate curriculum as it relates to school I'm sorry as it relates to student assessment results so our board President says over and over that this is not in our purview and she says that we should talk to masb and masb says on their website under
180the role of a school board member that part of our role is to review and to evaluate curriculum as it relates to the student assessment as well we are to deter adopt policies governing School community relations advocates for the public school system and remain responsive to to community ideas and needs it's difficult to remain responsive to community needs and ideas if we're not hearing from them which is why it's incredibly important and why you constantly hear me talk about parent student and teacher voice this is what I'm constantly saying it because part of our job as board members we are not the experts in everything our expertise comes from listening to those who are in the community our expertise comes from those who are experiencing these things our teachers yes they are experts but they're
181not the only experts and as part of our job as board members to ask these hard questions to be insistent that we are hearing from our community per masb that's what masb tells us um there are other things that masb says that a school board member should be doing but I thought it was very important that we hear directly from what masb says regarding how a board member is supposed to review and evaluate curriculum which is impossible to do when we're not seeing it otherwise um I'm very grateful for our community continuing to show up as often as they do at each meeting um you know we want our school district to actually be one where Community is coming together you know all the voices and things that we get to hear each month you
182know at our board Public public comment time it's important for us to hear your voices um even those voices that are in opposition to different ideas that sit at this table is still important to hear your voice um so thank you all for continuing to show up and for continuing to lend your voice your ideas your those things that are important to you to this table so that we can make the best decisions for this community thank you um I just wanted to say the student account number is very exciting and encouraging so that was great to see and I appreciated um the reports from the cabinet and all of their work you took my student account thanks okay but I do want you to to reiterate that um we are one of the very
183few districts in the county that's growing and it's growing for a lot of reasons and it has to do with the quality of our employees the quality of people making the decisions and I really appreciate the continued support when you come in and are willing to share your voice with us and that's it any more comments April 17th through the 28th which is right now we're in Period board self-assessment assessment watch for email from Michelle with instructions has everyone received their board assessment okay all right May 16th regular board meeting in the media center 5 30. now this week is one heck of a week it's graduation week and there's so many activities and I would love to have as many people there as possible to support our graduates support our teachers graduation is a
184big deal some of our kids have had a lot of hurdles to cross and they did and the teachers are there to acknowledge their hard work in the classroom the kids I recommending in the classroom May 24th is Baccalaureate every year that's held at a different Church in the area this year is Kingdom Life Ministries May 25th is honors night in the auditorium and that honors the kids from 9th grade through 12th grade different levels of the honors like the first year pin and the last year dictionary whatever it is they have a specific award for each year that they've been involved in honors then the 26th Pathways South Central commencement withington Stadium one o'clock May 26th Jackson high commencement Worthington stadium six o'clock June 6th is the JPS retirement dinner that's at Cascades Manor
185at 5 30. we have quite a few retirees this year um so make sure if you want to go to that that you're able to put down your calendar anything else I haven't put on here for calendar okay then I would entertain a moment a motion to approve emotion move to a German president adjournment second all in favor aye opposed okay