JPS Board Meeting - 02/21/23

001foreign right okay come on hello and welcome to the February 21st board meeting Jackson Public Schools um we'd like to get started um before I get into the real meat and potatoes are the whole thing though I have a couple things I wanted to say first of all I know we're all thinking about this um our condolences to Michigan State University and those students and the ramifications of long-term effects on that kind of situation I was astounded how many of our Vikings our Spartans this year of course me being a Michigan State person I enjoyed that a lot but I thought it was nice and our kids were great they were strong and my heart goes out to them and their families okay I have an opening statement good evening and welcome to the February

00223rd to 20 February 2023 meeting of the JPS board my name is Pam Fitzgerald I was elected board president last month this is my first full meeting before I call the meeting to armor order formally however I need to address the elephant in the room as most of you know some negative comments on social media were picked up by national news outlets and spread like wildfire I received 473 emails I answered everyone but I want to make two points first people don't seem to understand this and I think something we just need to know we're all elected officials and because we're elected by the citizenry we can all be removed by a citizen's recall or by an action of a governor we are not subject to firing second I want to make it clear the

003comments of concern were in no way a reflection of the board our board members as a unit did not express those sentiments this was one voice the diversity of our district and our community has always been our strength and to say otherwise is a grave disservice over the past few years we've grown as a district in the areas of course offerings Community hourly Outreach athletic Athletics enrollment and financial solvency we've received Bond dollars donations and grants upgrade all facilities for the 21st century this board is looking to move forward make improvements in our identified areas of weakness thank you covid-19 for some of our identified areas of weakness and building our successes I encourage each of you to contact me with any question or concerns and I will respond if I don't know the answer

004at that moment I will find someone who does and get back with you as soon as I can we're not going to dredge of the past point fingers place blame but move on to the future we have work to do we need to get to it thank you for your time at this point I call the meeting to order formally and let's stamp the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands indivisible Mr Dobies this is Mitchell here this is Acton Dowell press and Miss hunt here and Mrs Fitzgerald see I can't try my mic down right there we go um is approval of the agenda I need a motion in a second move adoption agenda support okay is there any

005discussion about the agenda no okay all those in favor aye opposed the same okay fast thank you now we go on to the superintendent's report all right um so actually I'm going to start a I love this meeting because every year we get to to speak with Nancy Peters Lewis from the College and Career Access Center so Nancy if you'll come up if you don't know that College and Career Access Center serves actually I'll do it I'm going to let you introduce all of the wonderful things you do that'd be amazing all right I don't want to do it works would it be okay for me to can I stand with us makes me feel more comfortable I got my back to everybody I'm like hello um wonderful to be here thank you so much

006superintendent beo and the board for having me my name is Nancy Peters Lewis and I am from the College and Career Access Center here in Jackson let me just ask a quick question on the board who do we have new to the board okay so let me give you a little brief history of the College and Career Access Center and this is for the community too so you know who we are and what we do the College and Career Access Center was originally established in 2008 to administer the Jackson Legacy Foundation scholarships through the Jackson Community Foundation and we had a little cubby down by Sears and we were called the college Access Center at that time and then in 2013 my predecessor who was a previous assistant and Superintendent at Jackson high Linda Bryan

007and a few other folks got together and they said hey we have people come into this little Center they're asking all sorts of questions about how do I get my FAFSA completed how do I look for a job how would I do a resume what's this thing called the FAFSA so we see people coming in here why don't we look after this and take a into the schools and really create an advising core that comes up under the counselors in the 13 districts and provide an advising Corps to really support College and Career Services so since that time we're in our 10th year of partnership with Jackson high in the 13 districts and we're in our 15th year of existence as a non-profit so we're really excited about that so our vision is that by

00820 30 60 of all Jackson County residents will have some type of post-secondary credential post-secondary to us does not just mean College okay it can be a skilled trade certification a two to four year degree we do endorse going into the military and going straight to work at a company that offers a stackable credential and a livable wage so that's what post-secondary means to us does anybody want to take a quick guess where Jackson County is in terms of the percentage of folks that have a post-secondary credential anybody want to take a stab at it our goal is 60 by 2030. 40. good guess it's 32.3 percent so 32.3 percent we have a ton of work to do okay and I'm gonna just hit on a few data points in a few minutes of Jackson

009high particularly because there's some encouraging news um but there's also some discouraging news Nationwide and Statewide and the trend is um there also with um the 13 Connected Community School Districts but I'll talk about that in a minute so I'm gonna be under 10 minutes superintendent bill so don't worry I'm not going to be too long with it so let me just talk a little bit about the collaborative services that we provide together with Jackson Public Schools in terms of the College and Career Services so if you think about a stair step at the bottom level level at the elementary level we are collaborating with Jackson public and My Brother's Keeper Martin Luther King Center the Housing Commission Chalet and shahan Terrace and the YMCA in the summer and during that time we offer robotics

010training stem training to the students out at their camps at the elementary level at the middle school level we're at Parkside and in the 13 Connected Community School Districts and we provide a program called kids to college and Pathways to professional skilled trades and the goal in that is to really equalize the playing field between a two and a four year in the skilled trade certification we don't really get into the argument which we don't think there should be an argument but that's that's another story because really it's about match and fit right for the student so we really want students to be exposed to all of those different Pathways so we provide a curriculum that's taught in the schools during the school day and at the end we send all of the students in

011the eighth grade to a manufacturing visit in a college visit so they can see what that looks like at the junior level we have an initiative called Juniors of a local circuit that is for all the Juniors at Jackson high school and they're all sent to the three local colleges Baker College Spring Arbor University and Jackson college so they can get exposure to a community college a liberal arts institution and a career college and then at the senior level is really the meat of what we do okay and what that looks like is we do senior one-on-one advising and we do workshops in the classroom and these are really focused on planning pieces for post-secondary education so we have what we call the four college or skilled trades Frontiers and we have the five or

012seasons and we have the five career Frontiers so what that looks like is if you have a daughter niece nephew adult that wants to go back is they come and see us at the center or in the schools at Jackson high we have an advisor that's housed here a day and a half a week and they work specifically on those consultations with your students with your seniors so we'll take them through the application process for getting into a college or the skilled trades will take them through the financial aid process getting the FAFSA done the scholarship process and the making decision if they want to go straight to work we're supporting them with a career assessment resume cover letter job search job shadow support and interview soft skills so those are the consultations we offer

013a little bit about the data and I I know I don't I had to put these on sticky notes like old school sorry but Jackson Public is doing some things right okay and I say that because we have a particular Affinity towards closing the Gap gaps among our traditionally underserved populations our underserved populations being our economically disadvantaged students our first generation students so their parents have never gone to a post-secondary institution and our students of color who are economically disadvantaged so we know among those populations historically for lots of different reasons we don't need to get into the history of it but historically we know there's been large gaps so Jackson Public along with all the nation has seen a decline in enrollment into a two to four okay as as we have seen in

014the state however Jackson Public just the 2022 numbers just came out and I just want to say congratulations on this because I looked at it today and I was excited to see that the gaps among your all your students and your economically disadvantaged students and students of color are the smallest in the county which what that means is that you're really servicing your students equitably which you don't see we love all of our other school districts but that's not necessarily the case now the numbers aren't the greatest but I'm gonna I'm gonna give you the numbers so all for 2022 class of 2022 43.9 percent entered into a two to four 42.5 percent were students of color of the students of color entered into a two to four and 38.8 percent entered of economically disadvantaged

015students entered into a two to four those don't sound like great number percentages and they're not okay we're not going to sugarcoat that but that's it's a trend in this the nation and the state and county-wide but the one thing that you should be proud of is even post pain or in the pandemic post covid shutdown is that we're seeing those gaps not super wide so that's something that we should be encouraged by so as a county we're going to continue to try to support all of our students get those percentages up county-wide Statewide Nationwide we do see increased FAFSA rates right now which are a big indicator of going into a post-secondary institution so we're excited about that and we're going to continue to work with the community at large to support adults as

016well one more piece and I'm almost done if you know anybody that's 25 or older right now that does not have a degree or a certification they can go back to a community college tuition free through the Michigan reconnect program they just need to do their FAFSA and come in and we'll support them with that they can go back and get an associate's degree tuition free and then the Michigan achievement a scholarship it's a new state of Michigan scholarship it's geared towards middle income families and it means that if a student gets the FAFSA done and they have what we call an estimated family contribution of twenty five thousand dollars or more which is very high they can get a scholarship to go to a Michigan University or private college so GitHub has done is

017the message all right we thank you sir and board for the partnership and collaboration I think I did it under 10 minutes but if I didn't I apologize any questions or comments no I'm I'm going to say a couple things so we we have our own person here at the high school works with every C their job is to make certain that we connect them with an opportunity whether it's a skilled trade whether it's a two to four but I want to give you one more bit of encouraging news in 2022 at this time in 2022 I think we had 28 percent of our seniors had completed the FAFSA and in 2023 that number is 34 so so we're doing we're ahead of the we're ahead of pace compared to where we were at a

018year ago you are yes good homework well I think that has to do with your your reports here oh well thank you thank you so much and one best practice if I can say if we can ever get these four seasons of five Frontiers to be uh a grade we've seen that as a best practice and part of the curriculum that's just a bug in your ear as I leave thank you very much what what percent go into trade schools that's a great question uh Mr dubo dubies Dobies Mr Dobby I'm not a comedian that was that was so um skill trade certifications okay okay apprenticeships are not tracked through a centralized hub we love apprenticeships we love unions we want unions to get the people that they need we want students to get apprenticeships

019but there's no tracking system for that so only a way we can track skilled trade certifications is it's enveloped in that two to four year degree piece from Mi School data which is where we get it and they do not disaggregate it by skilled trade certifications it's all wrapped up into that too for a percentage so we don't have any way to disaggregate that right now and neither does the nation neither does Michigan which is horrible so if you're in the skilled trades like come on let's Advocate get up there and make that make that change I want to sing a Michael Jackson song right now because I just said make that change and that's a great question any other questions for Nancy Nancy thank you so much thank you your crew and we love

020what you do with her thank you so much I appreciate it Jeremy uh Mr Patterson you want to give us an update on Jackson high school I know we got a lot going on and I have to follow Nancy gosh I've seen Michael Jackson along with you Nancy all right here we go for a secondary report uh good evening everyone at Middle School at Parkside and Forestry Learning Center they had the national African-American parent involvement day on Monday February 13th it's called Napa day our wonderful acronyms was a huge success again we had over 250 parents attend so one initiative that we would really like to see as parents back in the school and doing a lot of different activities with the staff and um with their students Mr John Willis Chief Executive Officer of

021equity for the city of Jackson he spoke to a pat Kraut in the uh Library over there to the parents and students they had an opportunity to decorate cookies get help with power school help parents to be engaged with the academics online our counseling staff was president and Center for Family Health Partnership as well so shout out to Parkside also over 300 students were invited for Honor Roll celebration at all skate having some fun with the Middle School kiddos and so they're having a great time and the owner of all skate wanted to comment on how polite and respectful our young people were in their space and with their equipment so right on Parkside uh this weekend this Saturday we had the sixth annual black history celebration of academic Excellence at the potter Center so

022we have a partnership with Jackson College in the NAACP of Jackson and so uh if you're at all available this Saturday and interested in that program just email me and we can get you a ticket for this Saturday we have a celebration a dinner and some keynote speakers and recognition of our students and we're also working in partnership with the NAACP to develop a youth Council so their voice can be heard and things that are happening in our community uh finally Save Our Youth as working on a Fourth Street uh Learning Center uh kind of like a school book what is your experience in developing that book at Fort Street Learning Center attendance at Parkside was 92 percent and Fourth Street was 86 percent for the month of January and a couple shout outs to

023Courtney Perry for running the after school tutoring program we had a good problem 151 students attending after school we had to hire two more teachers so we're ecstatic about that and having the additional supports and our young people taking advantage of that okay moving on to Jackson High School Jackson high school has two teachers nominated for top five teachers by Jackson magazine congratulations to jonelle Hasselbeck and Ray savicki it is nice to see our teachers nominated and celebrated for their hard work and efforts so that is a major accomplishment for those teachers and we had a lot of teachers in every building nominated so congratulations to those two for recognized and um for the future events coming forward to recognize their excellence okay uh today at the high school they had a black history assembly

024they had alumni Brandon Marcel Larry Sumner the Olivet College Choir Jackson high students Administration and keynote speaker Dr Quinny it was a fantastic celebration 8 30 this morning so this is going to continue into our community on February 23rd at the Martin Luther King Center and one thing we want to do as the school system is not just have wonderful events here in our space but get into our community so February 23rd Daniel Mahoney Dr Quinney Monica Pierce and others from 5 30 to 7 so we look forward to that community of them Jackson High School attendance was 98 percent for the month of January and Mr Barnes one of our attendance coaches has been working with our students who have poor attendance he has made contact with their families and had one-on-one meetings so

025as we sit through a lot of these partnership meetings we keep saying why aren't they coming what what is the problem like this is really bad and the one of the best intervention strategies is really just personal contact understanding their why because it's it's different than you know what we might be thinking it is so we're grateful to have Mr Burns here digging into Why students are coming and providing support so they can get that turned around another shout out to our combined choirs at the high school who went to Festival on February 16th they performed well at the concert portion and showed the the judge's good focus on sight reading and that led to uh number one division ratings so nice job to our choirs and uh one final shout out at the high

026school Milan Weatherspoon a senior was honored at the third annual black excellence awards for his entrepreneurship actually saw him at his place of employment and he told me he's gonna he's gonna be his own boss one day so he's got a plan Jackson Pathways uh Wednesday February 22nd taken a group of students to Consumers lineman training facility in Marshall a great experience helping our students get connected in those career Pathways so we look forward to that Pathways monthly attendance was 91 for the month of January they are holding already meetings you know Pathways is predominantly Juniors and seniors okay so they are holding one-to-one meetings with students who are at risk based on graduation and attendance so graduation conversations taking place already okay I see I'm the S South Central Michigan virtual uh they started

027their second semester so they're not on trimesters like the rest of their District they're on semesters and they're holding in-person orientations both in person and virtually they're also having uh senior meetings uh and they're they're in their second block so they've done some shifting and how they're delivering their academics and they're pretty much working on one class at a time because students have said six classes all at once virtually doesn't work well for us but one class at a time with that help and support is is a best practice for them uh their success coaching what do we do when they're not doing well they have 84 students participate in success coaching and this is updated every 30 days so they continue to progress monitor who needs that help and support the coaches and students

028are helping them with their uh to become independent workers with new soft skills such as time management problem solving and communication is sometimes not just the academic portion right but it's those soft skills that go into being a good student and shout out to Nicole spagnolia for creating and coordinating our newsletter getting the good word out what's happening at scmv for her creativity and coordinating uh month-to-month celebrations so they also have a Black History Month celebration focused on black authors and artists so this concludes a board report for secondary education I know Julie is going to touch base on our 98 academic benchmarks here soon so if you have any questions about that now or later just let me know thank you I have one question thank you Jeremy for the updates you spoke about

029you provided the data for the attendance High and you said one of the most effective ways that we're seeing that increase is from the students that personal contact when we're having those personal dialogues can you share with us what is the circumstances of some of the students are we collecting that data I don't know if we're collecting the data like that but it's really just listening it's it's engaging and trying to listen what are their barriers sometimes they're watching other siblings sometimes they've moved residents and haven't navigated where that bus is going to pick them up sometimes life happens that could mean they're ill or a family member is ill and there's times it's just not being engaged with school I don't want to go so we're seeing a lot of different reasons and I

030haven't seen the data that says that you know on a case-by-case basis but really just thank you and then just a follow-up question the those that you're having those conversations with do we see the consistency meaning is it the same adult that you're engaging with or is it you know maybe this week a mile next week a grandmother what does that look like so it's I I would say it looks like whoever their person is okay and so that that's different from everyone but um who's the person who's really in most invested in uh that that child uh the second thing is a good contact of many of our people are hard to reach because the phone number has changed or they've moved and we don't have good contact information so I'd say those are

031the big two just good contact information and which person at this point in time has kind of stepped up for that person and that that's a it could be a variety of different people thank you you're welcome thank you Julie you're up good evening everyone um I'll start out by talking about we've got some some great things that are happening in our buildings and have been happening over the last month or so lots and lots of celebrations for Black History Month that look very different from building to building um and so um you'll notice we talked about um at Northeast there was a really big uh there were there were several events that were scheduled for Northeast and so they had a black history night at Northeastern also had the the choir from Olivet College

032they had just some really great activities and learning opportunities set up for students and for parents and then they also they got to see Mr Keeley dance and there's a video of that out there but um and it was really he did a great job um and then they also we have a wonderful group there called the teaching for black lives study group and that group sent some information to us and then also out to parents and students families about black lives matter to school and so that is something that we're looking forward to expanding we thought that that was it was really great stuff there were activities for families in the afternoon during the week of the week of action where families could they could sign on and they could learn more about whatever

033the activity was that was happening really rich things happening though that parents could be involved in um at Sharp Park there was a black history wax museum so students did research they created a report and then they became the the people that they researched and the report was available so people could read as they walked through so that was for parents and other students there is a black history napid culture um family night at John R Lewis at Montessori they had two wonderful assemblies they had one the African folk tales assembly and I think the others called um seeing Freedom our freedom songs assembly so um some great assemblies coming in at Cascades they every morning did little known black history facts so a little bit of learning every single morning and um just some

034some great things happening assemblies all over the place so um also we had um we're still doing there's still lots of interesting and wonderful things happening around positive behavior intervention and support because we are seeing that that students need that extra support from us they need the extra reminders they need the extra lessons that tell them what the expectations are in each area and I always equate this to us and our seat belts just because we know that there's a seat belt law just because we may have gotten a ticket for it before it doesn't mean that we always remember and kids are just like us so we notice that something's happening on the playground we do some extra teaching about the expectations and so a lot of that happening especially after a big break

035like this but also a lot of incentives to try to encourage kids in lots of ways to really celebrate great Behavior so at Cascades they have a daily Behavior incentive now they have a golden trophy that somebody gets to keep for the day because they had such great great Behavior we're seeing Razzle Dazzle day and Extravaganza and some of those things that you're seeing on that report they have everything to do with our PBIS just us coming together to celebrate great Behavior so that's continuing um some really fun activities for our students we have at Double A true Community simulation for our fifth graders they had a jazz band assembly assembly and they and Sharp Park are they're working together on a skiing trip for students so that's coming up at Hunt they had baseball

036Jones was a wonderful assembly that they had somebody come in and it was a social emotional learning piece for students they have monthly attendance prizes and and also just recognize good behavior wherever they're seeing it um for Montessori they have Junior achievements that's happening with fifth grade they had a parent's night out and again we talked about the um the two assemblies that they had but they've also got a Kiwanis Lego club that is up and running so great things happening with that at Northeast we already talked a little already talked a little bit about some of the black history events that have happened but they also had the lovely Diane Washington come to visit and she talked to students about famous Jackson residents and historians so some neat things there and it looks like

037um they're looking forward to a visit from the Detroit Tigers I just need to know when and where and I will be there I attended um Art In Action is a program over at Sharp Park that they've had going throughout the year and parents are responsible for teaching art so it's a it's in addition to the things that are already in place there and so parents take this very seriously and if you were able to go to the opening that happened last month or earlier this month it was amazing just the art that was generated by students working with parents so that was a very big event and it was it was wonderful to be there that whole school was just full of really beautiful pieces that have been created by students they also have

038Lego robotics every Wednesday Lewis got started its spring over there they're doing mileage club they're doing an ice cream award party for students that are have worked hard on their NWA EA and they've got an extravaganza that has already happened so celebrating great behavior and then I've got some shout outs happening so starting with Cascades a shout out going out to Victoria Carmona she is our new social workers there social worker there and she is just winning the hearts of kids and and adults and parents all over the building just doing a fantastic job Christina centers is she she really has stepped in to hold the fort down while we were experiencing a little bit of a shortage in our special education department there just she's so talented and we're really fortunate to have her

039at Dibble Heather Spangler who is a right hand woman to to principal Q in there she's hard working and supportive to everyone and I can attest to that she she's very helpful to everyone very knowledgeable Kevin Bristol is organizing the fifth grade ski trip for both Park and dimple at hunt a shout out goes out to Tracy Tuthill and to Julie Yocum the new secretaries there they are doing a fantastic job the school Improvement team is rocking it out over at Hunt um and then oh the Black History Month committee planned on the activities that they had there and then Julie Carly and Sarah Ludwig Sarah's in the house right over there very dedicated very hard-working ladies that are keeping things moving at Montessori Kelly Hardman and Lachey gray they work in the kitchen they

040go above and beyond with our students every day Carrie Chapman wonderful custodian at Montessori and then Jen biela for being the glue that holds the school together she's a brand new secretary and she is just doing a fantastic job I work with her frequently for mckinney-vento you know students that are displaced or they're inadequately housed she she just watches over them um and is just really really phenomenal so we're very fortunate to have some of these folks with us at Northeast Lindsay Adams a wonderful pair of professionals she is doing restorative circles with students so above and beyond there um Sean McCully he's the dean of behaviors he deals with difficult situations on the daily basis and he's very patient and caring Sally look out she's in charge of the food program over there and

041there are a lot of visitors for professional developments in the building and she makes awesome lunches and again I want to recognize the teaching for black lives study group they they've been at work for the entire year and before that and they bring different things to our attention and as I said they brought the black lives black lives matter to school at Northeast this for the first time and we're hoping to do that in a district-wide fashion in years to come at Sharp Park Kevin Bristol again for the ski trip and then Don riggleman another secretary who just really keeps things running smoothly over there and also if you don't know something that you need to know you call Dawn she's just she's an encyclopedia and last but not least at Lewis we want to

042do a shout out for Sam Steelman she's the secretary there she single-handedly runs the office she's smart and diligent and personable and she's a problem solver so there she's very much appreciated there that is what I have for our elementary buildings are there any questions before I move on to 98b okay all right so um 98b is something that you'll see three times a year there are sheets that the state of Michigan sent to us and they are a goal progress report and so last year we did 98b using inspect the inspect Assessments in this year we moved to nwea so it looks a little bit different so in the fall we set we have our building set beginning middle I'm sorry middle of the year and end of the year goals for reading and

043for math so every building does this k through eight for 9 through 12 it looks very different we are not required by the state of Michigan to do Benchmark assessment reporting for 9 through 12. so when you come to Jackson high or Pathways or the upper grades at South Central Michigan virtual you'll notice that 98b looks very different the next thing that happens is that our students take the nwea for the first time in the fall in September and so we get our preliminary scores but nwea also assigns what's called a writ score and I've put down on your report it's called a rash unit it doesn't mean anything what it is is it's just they've taken all of the units of growth that are capable you know from kindergarten through 12th grade and they've

044just assigned a regular unit sort of like an inch on a on a on a ruler so the regular units of growth and so every student when they're finished they um they it's an Adaptive test so it the student takes it and every answer that they give right or wrong will determine what comes up on the next question so when they get finished with that it kind of gives us an idea of exactly where they're scoring and and where that fits in with the normative data for nwea and then they they get a Target so there's an expected amount of growth that we according to nwe a would expect to see by winter when we do the testing in February and then an expected growth Target for the entire year so by the time that

045we hit June or May we would expect to see that many units of growth and so what you're seeing in front of you today is looking at that mid-year growth Target we're looking at how our students actually did and in almost every grade level in every school in every student group we exceeded the goal that was set at the beginning of the school year for student growth so some really good numbers there I mean I I think that we would all love for them to be even higher but what that tells us those are the percent of students that hit their mid-year growth Target so that's what you'll see in front of you um the very first table shows you the goals that were established the second table shows you the percent of students who

046met their goal and that's disaggregated by student group and then the third one will show you those numbers according to grade level are there any questions on that yes who decides on the growth Target it's 20 and 40. oh the the buildings they set their goals for the beginning of the school year what they're hoping that they'll see you know that percentage of students will have at least hit it they're they were playing a little safe but they we saw really nice results from our students in terms of the growth Target that's set for each student that's part of the the assessment itself nwea it says that students that test at this level they score at this level at the beginning of the year usually make this many writ units of growth in a in

047a full year and then they just divide that sort of in half and this is what you can expect for half a year so that's that's just it's part of what they call the normative data so they look out and see the majority of their students where the majority of them score at the end of the year when they start here is that how okay any other questions yes Julie for some of these I'm looking at the schools and how they're broken down individually and on some of these graphs there's missing data can you provide an explanation for us which one is that um so we'll go to Northeast Elementary School and the last graphs the in-person instruction where there's no data provided there it would be the same as all students because what we

048did originally what the state did is we had three cohorts we had a hybrid we had an in-person and then we had those kids that were completely virtual and they've left that piece there but it's still we only have in person at Northeast so their numbers should be the same as the all students if you look at table B those percentages would be the same as all students so it'll be 66 percent yes sorry about that okay and then one more one more four middle school and Parkside for the economic disadvantaged area I see for the reading they have 79 percent but the math data is missing all right yeah it's actually 76 percent okay yeah okay so then I don't have the most updated copy if you um the the link that's in your

049board report has a link to every building's report and you should be able to see the most updated data there thank you yes and then I do want to just on for scmv the scores are coming soon it's a little harder to get everybody tested when you're virtual for the K-8 piece but you will see the data there for 9 through 12. okay that was the last question thank you so much you're welcome thank you very much all right uh so one last shout out real quick before we jump out of the superintense report if I could I'd like to recognize um vice president Shalonda hunt she was nominated to the masb board of directors last month so Jackson Public Schools sitting at the board of directors for the Michigan Association of school boards we

050are thrilled thank you very much Miss hunt for all of your work and what you do for Jackson Public Schools thank you and that concludes the superintendent support for the month of February thank you shalanda that's way cool you know that right that's a big deal okay it's going to consent agenda um at this point I would like to entertain a motion to accept the conjun the consent consent agenda as presented so moved support discussion no questions okay let's vote all in favor aye aye opposed the same Carrie motion Carrie okay now we're going on to Citizens requesting to address the board and we are at this point going to reduce the time today to three minutes um to make sure we get through everybody and nobody's rushed and does it take 25 hours so

051what I'm going to do is call two people at a time to come up and that will get us through a little bit quicker they're just by The order they received okay starting with Peter bermuth Bournemouth and Vanessa mulnix Peter Bournemouth 142 West Pearl Street here in Jackson I wanted to comment on the time reduction I think it's appropriate when you get lots and lots of um citizen comments so the meeting doesn't run that long but um I would like you to keep the five minute limit as a normal policy and I believe that's up for vote today and then the second reading will be next month um I wanted to talk a little bit about history it is Black History Month but these are things that I learned when I was at Parkside High

052School in 1972 and the class was called American history it was not black history it was not critical race Theory it was American history so on June 18th and 1452 and this is stretching a little before American history Pope Nicholas V issued the bull dumb diversis and the Portuguese were given the right to attack conquer and subjugate Moors pagans and other enemies of Christ wherever they might be found and three years later the pope issued a second bowl of the Romanesque pontefects which declared that captives can be purchased as slaves as long as efforts are made to win them for Christ and those who was it was permissible to acquire were described as and the inhabitants of Guinea and that was the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade you know it was a Christian Enterprise

053when the slaves were brought over here to the United States originally as you note they were enslaved because they did not believe in Jesus the slaves learned that with baptism they could become Christian and so many of them did and that was the origin of a lot of the black freed slaves particularly in the South some Masters Freedom the states immediately said this is not something we like so in 1669 the fundamental Constitution that Carolinas stated every Freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over negro slaves of whatever opinion so ever in 1705 Virginia passed an act concerning slaves and servants which stated that all slaves imported and brought into this country by sea or land who were not Christians in their native country shall be accounted to be slaves and as such

054bought and sold notwithstanding a conversion to Christianity by 1800 there were 857 000 slaves in the United States slavery is Aunt Cheney cross who was a slave said the whole place was strewed with mutilation there was branding when you first came in 1760 the Covington Plantation was bequeathed to the society for the promotion of Christian knowledge thereafter each slave was branded Society with a hot iron there was whipping particularly if a slave had a piece of paper learning to read or write yes your time is up oh thank you okay uh Vanessa molnik Springport Township I want to be here about as much as to speak about as much as you probably want to hear from me but sometimes a person just has to speak up I think about all the descriptors have been said

055of the publicly published comments by Miss Hamilton um I wish she was here I I once heard Miss Hamilton make a case for the rights of parents to take a part in their child's education by volunteering at the school and I don't agree with her on much but I definitely agreed with her on that on the topic of parent rights which I might add puts her and probably some others at odds with the State Board of Education so the good news is I found ground a common ground with Miss Hamilton the bad news is her commentary racist and devices divisive comments make supporting her untenable I'm sad about that because I like to find common ground and work with people on topics that may not be when we don't agree on everything I'm also concerned

056that the impact of Miss Hamilton's beliefs on her decision making as it relates to the board and the the education of students is harmful so I'm sad about that as well um but I do appreciate the board president publicly denouncing the derogatory and divisive comments of Miss Hamilton thank you [Applause] Stephanie Sandy what's your last name Riley thank you good evening I'm Stephanie Riley I'm a Jackson resident and a taxpayer I would like to address the board and specifically Mrs Ms Hamilton unfortunately she's not here on my so-called whiteness privileged life this is just a part of my story as some people feel being born to a two-parent home is privileged I was born to a two-parent dysfunctional home my father was an alcoholic and a very abusive man on many nights I'd awakened by

057yelling arguments and screaming cries of Terror traumatizing to a grade school's child um I'd find it or my mother in the morning covering her black eyes and bruises before going to work my pain for her was immense because my father squandered his money we received an IOU and a silver dollar for my mother for Christmas honestly I only remember one birthday party that the family was together to celebrate my parents divorced when I was in fifth grade it was a feeling of relief knowing he'd never hurt my mother again yet I was torn because I loved my dad when he wasn't drinking I thank God my mother was a very strong woman she worked all over time hours so she could provide for my brother and me with housing clothing and food my father didn't

058pay his child support but on a rare whim he would sew up with groceries and some money if he felt compelled my mother sacrificed her own desires she wore the same clothing for many years she was talented at mixing and matching clothing to look like it was different when she bought a new piece of clothing it was always coordinated in the same color with what she already had purchasing under clothing was a luxury for her what I love seeing in my childhood was my mother's constantly reading she was that was her entertainment she would go to the library because it was free she read self-help health and healing books she found if she found a book highly enlightening she occasionally bought it on payday every two weeks we received an allowance for chores this money

059was ours to spend if we wanted to go to a school function ball game Etc or the movies I might not eat lunch for a few days to be able to go this so-called privileged allowance taught me how to budget my money I had a part-time job in high school that money allowed me extra privilege for things I wanted to buy or engage in like buying my own prom outfit yes I said outfit not a fancy dress I didn't purchase a dress that I knew I'd never were again that wasn't practical when I graduated my mother constantly buzzed in my ears about going to college you have only yourself that you can count on no one else is going to give you support if you marry someone what happens if he dies with that with

060that my privilege I applied for Grants and took out a loan knowing that she couldn't afford to pay my debt my work didn't studied hard to again to obtain my education in hopes of finding a well-paying job I achieved with Dean's List honors my associate degree in nursing from JCC and my 36-year career I have encouraged or encountered many types of people I strive to make a difference in people's lives no matter what life or Walk of Life they came from I once had a physician tell me to treat a patient special because she had private insurance this frustrated me I looked at him and said insurance doesn't matter Stephanie that's your time what an unusually quiet evening tonight so far so here's some of the things we have learned over the past month first

061Jackson's most famous race baiter has doubled down on her hate speech and is Basking in the media attention didn't someone stand in the podium at the last last month and describe Miss Hamilton as a malignant narcissist who craves attention both positive and negative I think that guy might have had a pretty good handle on the mentally unstable mess that is Keisha Hamilton we also learned that Keisha lied on her social media and claimed that quote proud boys and Other Extreme right-wing groups were going to protest at the last board meeting this was a dog whistle meant to create sympathy and to bring in thuggish groups from out of County who cursed threatened shouted down and menaced citizens seeking to address the board that was a it was a major failure that the JPS board did

062not immediately halt the meeting when it was when it saw that Keisha's rent a mob was harassing and even assaulting people trying to speak to the board your weakness and inaction that night made JPS look far worse by the end of the meeting than it did at the beginning so we've all heard quite a bit of racial rhetoric lately I think it's time for a little bit of a reality check for starters Keisha voted to mask school children and lock them out of their classrooms for months on end actions which have severely damaged poor and struggling school kids in Jackson for years to come is it that her judgment is poor or she really just doesn't give a single damn about the UN underserved kids she claims to care so much about black kids have

063academically Lost Years of ground due to the presence of Keisha Hamilton being on this board when the mostly black John R Lewis Elementary School in Jackson was flagged by the state of Michigan for severe underperformance social justice Warrior Keisha had not a single word to say that was three months ago by the way not a word not one single child black or white poor working class has achieved Proficiency in grade level math or reading because of Keisha sitting on this board not one she's an angry sociopath who attempted to incite a riot last month in order to intimidate this board from calling her out Mr Patterson Mrs Pierce Mr Lewis and Mr Coffee and and many others do more in in its in an average single school day to positively impact the lives of poor

064and struggling kids both black and white then Keisha will do will probably do in a lifetime yet Keisha tells her dimwit supporters to spit on these capable and caring men and women as well as members of this board um I only ask that this board do not Bend to the continuing public Tantrums of Keisha Hamilton thank you thank you William hi I think I was next was it oh okay um okay good thank you I'm Dr Linda Lee Tarver I have a Doctorate in Education and theology I live in Lansing and I'm not part of the proud boys I was invited by family members here to speak about the issue with Keisha Hamilton board member Keisha Hamilton and as a correction Madam president a recall is one option but you certainly have within the board

065the option to Center her for her remarks and I would hope that you would consider that this is Black History Month and as a former Michigan civil rights commissioner words matter and Leadership matters with respect to words that are shared especially in a community of color as Jackson is and I wanted to share a little bit about my history I'm the youngest of 10. I grew up in Lansing I currently live there my parents um Wilbert Lee and Lily and Lee were born in 1923 and 1924 respectfully and so my father fought in World War II he and my mother are buried at Fort Custer in Battle Creek I share that because they knew racism and discrimination intimately they came to Lansing Michigan from Evergreen Alabama because my uncle was lynched by the Ku Klux

066Klan so they fled Alabama moved to Michigan my father worked for Coca-Cola he was a Teamster there and my mother retired after so many years from the county as the first black woman deputy sheriff of the Ingham County Sheriff's Department she worked for three sheriffs so my father and mother I had seen them called the n-word I've called I've seen my father as a grown man of course called a boy in my presence they were treated like animals they were restricted and not allowed to participate in a lot of different things until laws had changed I was blessed my parents decided to participate in civil rights and I was bussed from the west side of Lansing to the east side of Lansing as part of integration in the late 1960s I am younger than you

067think I'm sure I'm I'm going to say that right now but I was called the n-word by my middle school teacher I had opportunities not afford it to me in my predominantly all-white School in Waverly Lansing Michigan and Waverly schools however I know that my brothers several of my brothers married white women I have biracial nieces and nephews and my maternal mother was white at no time did my parents refer to white people as animals at no time did my parents call white people anything less than human beings in no time in my presence did my parents call anyone out of their name they were Christian folks and despite what you're hearing about Christianity yes they were Christian folks who believed in the word of God I asked that Miss Hamilton does not speak for

068black people and she should be censured for her remarks and that is your black history moment thank you thank you very much [Applause] Fred Traxler and then I'm Fred Trexler resident of summit Township and and I had hoped to address Keisha Hamilton because my wife and I voted for her in 2020 because we don't judge people by their skin color we thought she had a good character and would represent us on the Jackson School Board but she has betrayed us and brought shame on Jackson County by judging us by our skin color she posted publicly that whiteness is so evil that white people don't care and that we are dangerous how can she say that about all white people I tried to treat her with respect and even thanked her for her work on the

069school board I'm offended by her public racist comments that will only stir up hatred Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is quote to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind this is the first and greatest commandment and the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself that's in Matthew 22 verses 37 to 39. there may be some neighbors that act in evil ways frankly we all have evil in us we're all Sinners and we need to be saved by the grace of Jesus but people who act in evil ways could be white or they could be black the problem is not a skin problem but a sin problem [Applause] Danita Bentley followed by Leland stocks hello Donita Bentley teacher here in

070the district I also have two students who attend the district so I just want to start by saying that I feel like JPS has a lot of good going for it if I didn't feel that way I wouldn't have enrolled my kids in kindergarten and kept them here through sixth and seventh graders which is where they are now and I wouldn't be teaching for the district if I didn't feel that I do feel that there is a disproportionate way that the board is getting the information about the district and I don't feel like every board member is getting an entire picture of what's happening in the district I think there's a lot that we need to work on and I think that there's a lot that a lot of you board members don't know that

071we need to work on and I'm challenging you here tonight to keep asking the hard questions to dig deeper and ask even harder questions to maybe ask you know all of the like I said last month all of the updates that were shared are wonderful and are true and are good but as a teacher who's working in this District every day to come and see that and hear that that's the only updates that you're getting it feels disingenuous to me I feel like you're not getting a true picture of what my day looks like I feel like you're not getting a true picture of what I'm dealing with on a daily weekly basis and not just me obviously um so I'm challenging you to ask those hard questions to maybe say you know the updates

072are great we love hearing the positive things but we need to hear some of the challenges that each building is facing we need to hear the hard things that teachers are facing I told you last month that I had been away from teaching for 20 years and just came back last year so in a lot of ways you could say I'm a new teacher I am not a new and young professional I have a lot of professional experience there is a disconnect that's happening in the district where people don't feel safe to share openly and talk openly about what's happening when you're venting to a veteran teacher and you say I don't know what else to do I guess I'm going to go to the board and they go don't do that and then you

073come to the board and you speak and they watch the recording and then they come to you and they quietly say thank you for what you said at the board meeting that's a disconnect there's something unhealthy happening here it's like a dysfunctional family that's unwilling to admit that it has a problem and that it needs counseling and I feel like that's where we are and it's up to all of you our elected people to insist to know the whole story like I said we have a lot of good happening we are a bit like a dysfunctional family and we have a lot of issues that need addressed I'll say one more thing if you're a parent of a child in this District you can't take your experience alone on what's happening in this District I

074did that for five years well six years and then I became a teacher and my eyes were opened especially if you have a child at Sharp Park or Dibble you have no idea what the whole District looks like or what's going on or if you have a child who's doing exceptionally well in the middle school high school you have no idea of the entire picture and as board members you should know and you should be asking the hard questions and demanding the answers thank you next we have Leland Snooks and Joni orindello so just a quick question um did you shorten this because you need to get through the meeting or you can stop my times I have these times are short okay so piggybacking on what Danita said um yeah you guys need to

075start asking the hard questions I was in Parkside today you guys know how many times students put their hands on each other and started fights how would you start asking about the negative side of things and what these student environments look like because I have the privilege of going around to many districts and seeing how those school districts are ran this one very rough not as bad as Lansing but it's rough so there was some gaslighting done today too I wanted to address that we are doing great for this college readiness but our students are not even ready for college the gaps that are closed that was stated are not uh they're due to changes and drops in requirements not in changes and increased of greatness of practice so I want you to think about

076that one graduation rate as of 20 22 is 72 percent at the end of the school year math proficiency 15 of your student body was at or above the required level reading proficiency 28 at or above the necessary level on a 0 to 100 index the reflection of your 12th graders that took an AP or an IB Course Jackson was at about 11. out of a hundred so I am familiar with the nwea I was in Chelsea when they did that with the switchover it's not bad but from the explanation that was given individual the individual students are not involved in setting targets of Their Own this has proven to be ineffective so I would suggest that you allow the students to be part of that Target setting and so far I've not heard anyone

077that has made any good stride towards keeping their comments productive about helping students so if you want to vote on making some board Norm of citizens addressing adjust the content because we are here to help the students and you should be wanting to hear if you're going to shorten the time make a restriction on the content Probably sounds good thank you Joni arendello I'm from Jackson Michigan and I originally wanted to comment about the location of these meetings I don't go to Jackson high school the only interaction that I've ever had with Jackson high school is through the office if I'm coming here to do a restorative justice or mediation or a facilitation of an IEP meeting and it is not in this location so it took me 20 minutes to find this meeting I

078went on my JPS app because I have students in JPS to try to find any indication of where these meetings are and all it gave was the address for Jackson High School so anyone else who has that experience would have a very difficult time attending these meetings and often in my practice I'm the voice for people who feel like they don't have that voice so I would like to make the board aware of that um how I knew it was located in the library is because Keisha Hamilton shares on all of her Facebook and social media sites that it's in the Jackson High School library if I didn't have that information I would not have known about it and she sends out frequent reminders my kids do not get any information from their school or

079anything about the Jackson board meetings so that's important I wanted to add to my public comment because we were referred to as dimwit followers of Keisha Hamilton I have two master's degree in a doctorate degree I'm not a dimwit supporter but whenever I've had a concern she has addressed my concern I'm also white so her comments I didn't find offensive I think they've been taken out of context and the school board meetings should focus on the students there a lot of students here and I have the privilege to meeting with a variety of students from a variety of backgrounds through my work as a mediator as a facilitator as an attorney working with those families and some of the concerns that she brings to the table are valid concerns of the family I've worked with

080students who have felt like they were targeted because of the color of their skin I've worked with families who felt like they didn't have a voice because of their income levels I've worked with families who felt like they weren't being listened to because their children have disabilities that is all stuff that I've worked with in Jackson Public Schools and I have personally had the same experience although I have the level of Education I have with my children with disabilities with IEPs and 504 plans and that's my comment thank you that's a probable comment thank you very much I found that really enlightening I really appreciate that um now we're going on to discussion items 22-2377 non-unit employee contracts all right every month uh every year in the month of March I bring for you the

081non-union employee contracts so this month that is discussion uh we have a number of in employees who under Union contracts and and those are are negotiated in a collective bargaining section these employees do not have a an association if you will um and so um we are going to recommend a one-year renewal so they have a two-year contract this contract will extend their contract out for one year so rather than ending in for it well their contracts will run through June 2025. the recommendation is for a two percent raise and a one percent increase in their annuity where applicable um these employees include Julie Baker Milton Barnes Alex Bono Crystal Brinker Jessica Carter Scott Coons Lois Dunning Sarah ebersol Christianity Rachel Henry Jillian Jones Marcus Leon Lori near past Michelle Oxley Jeremy Patterson khalib Reed

082Nicole Scott Diana Stewart Jessica southwell carry Tynan and John Wright time I'm not asking for Action that'll come back to you next month but this is consistent with the same ask that we've done for other employee groups so two percent one percent and not a vote first no uh you gotta call there's there's no vote for this is the motion no motion just are there any questions are there any questions about this um I I have a question are there caps on salaries no there's not a cap on the salary as such anything else all right and again this will be back for your uh okay our next item is board policy zero one six seven point three public participation in board meetings first reading all right uh Pam you asked to have this one

083on the agenda I know you've been talking with masb you want to talk specifically about our thoughts on on this I know part of it was shortening our comment when public comment could come in and then as well um content content okay um as you probably know there have been a few things that would cause a brand new president to go to our umbrella of all boards Michigan Association School boards for legal advice four questions and I have been concerned about a couple things one of which I addressed earlier but the second one is contact board comments are really supposed to be about in a disagreement with an agenda item agreement with agenda item or anything that you want to um discuss that has something to do with the school district we have had in

084the past um some significant negative comments directed at one another in the audience not even just the board members but at one another and we are looking at a way to curb that and to make it clear that board comments are not for insulting one another if there's a purpose Point um if Mr Beale broke into a bank and stole all the money we've no ought to know that okay you would want to know that but that has nothing to do with school and so I just really would like to explain my interest in that which is to get the negativity out of the boardroom at all levels and I have a some information from masb that I'm going to be looking over more closely and we will bring this back for vote in a

085policy change form but that's what it's about sisters any questions Derek can you grab your mic and around discussing there's about citizen comment then pretty much content yeah the content of it um in the time limit the time limit too yeah and the time limit thing pretty much goes we've had five for a long time years ago we had it lower but most districts around us have three or even two um and we don't often have 47 comments in one meeting but you figure 47 times 5 we're sitting here until tomorrow morning you know it's a really really really long time well I've had those I I know you have uh I just I if if we're a discussion on her questions um one just being a father of a kid in a school who's

086brought my kid to the board meetings when there are would be easier to I don't know if we I I know we have the forms um it might be if it behooves the president or presiding officer uh to maybe give some preference to like parents with kids in terms of like ranking them yeah I mean sometimes it's hard to sit through a bunch of comments with kids and sometimes when taking or you know being able to speak to the board and then uh remove your student or kid from the room will be something we consider maybe it's just a check mark on the board or on on your sheet if if you have like a student or a kid with you you might show some deference to people that are um trying to keep their

087kid here to deliver comments or to participate um the other question I had too on citizen how is there a my experience of the city we do that kind of right out the gate so that people can can speak even before we take a vote on you know like the consent agenda um is there a reason why it's number seven and doesn't just kind of come after we adopt the agenda and listen to listen to this comment just Apartments okay I might uh yeah I I would just um no that's a uh not I don't think it was outlined in the policy maybe it was it says somewhere in the policy on it's just oh number eight uh indicated in the order of business so maybe it's just one of those Robert's Rules things or

088not oh it's it's on there uh maybe we just make it a policy that it comes out before the gender so it's an agenda I mean uh accepting the minutes and then that or after the I mean I don't know I mean there may be reviewed the minute um it might also give the opportunity for like during the superintendent's report to address some of the some of the questions or issues that might get raised yeah it makes good sense we'll talk about that and see if that would work out for us cool anything else any other questions or comments on that one just to clarify what um Mr Adobe just said you're you're making a recommendation or a suggestion to move citizens addressing the board up on the agenda as it stands currently see because

089in the order of business I mean any one of us that us at Art of the start of the meeting okay move whatever around on the agenda agenda so we can just move it around apparently doesn't have to be part actually we can just move around nope the president sets the agenda typically the week before so that's an easy one oh I'm sorry no that's okay I just would also like to be mindful of right now we allow individuals to come in and no matter what time they come in they still have the opportunity to um fill out one of those forms to have the opportunity to speak to the board and I'm afraid that maybe that would eliminate some of the voices being heard so just be mindful of um emphasizing the importance of

090arriving timely to have that opportunity to speak that's a good point good point thank you okay where are we at now we are does it Pam yeah doesn't the uh doesn't the policy have to be voted on to okay there's just discussion today okay it won't be until next next month all right well I middle of in the middle of uh you know some of their thoughts and their information that they want to bring to us and really we don't usually have this many people we usually have a handful so the five minutes you know would be okay I think that shortening it to three minutes when you have several comments I understand that because you would be here till midnight but um otherwise I think we should keep it at five minutes thank you

091so being one of those participants that would always have a public comment I actually like the five minutes because then I could get my idea and sometimes people do it shorter anyways but I I really like the five minutes personally well you know we decide not to make a you know plan of the five minutes um built into that policy the president can always shorten it as necessary if we have two people you know that would be a it may end up being a minute by a meeting by meeting kind of thing I don't know we have to decide then and we'll you know vote on next so think about that this month okay um action items hey no go figure lots of discussion tonight and really only one item of action so South Central

092Michigan virtual uh was started back in 2016. we started as a retail um uh application over at Jackson Crossing we saw that a growing number of students either through home school or across the state and really it's it's moved across the country we're taking college or we're taking High School classes online and so we opened up a retail establishment if you will in the mall for the purposes of advertising our version of of virtual education we started with 78 kids and it has grown each year and we we service a large homeschool population we service kids going to college through 13th year programming we service alternative education programs and we service students who simply fit better or transition better within that online setting it is currently sitting at over 500 students and those are not

093just within JPS those are students from across Michigan so down I-94 Corridor to Battle Creek Kalamazoo all the way up to Lansing St John's and so we we certainly recognize that we need a bigger space because JPS does not do virtual learning as as in here's a computer you know when you're on your own our students are encouraged to come in we provide highly qualified highly certified teachers in that location we provide field trips and parent-teacher conferences and we have a dedicated group of Staff who meet with students there all the time from success coaches to graduation coaches and so on that being said we we grew the space a number of years ago we started with one storefront and then when we grew I want to say we hit about 200 students that that

094small footprint needed to be enlarged and we created a learning lab to create more drop in space for students to come in and we really ran whole classrooms out of there so if you needed help in math we became the Mac the problem is we have one of those and so a year ago we met with our staff about what it might look like to expand and we really needed to set up a permanent footprint that would allow us to have IEPs out there because there are a growing number of special needs students within this population we needed to be able to do those reading groups not just at the elementary level but at the middle school level in the high school level and and the the staff really dictated to us a whole host

095of of programming that they would like to see within South Central Michigan virtual to to help their students uh to that end we've been looking uh a number of different options at The Crossings at the mall and an opportunity came uh well an opportunity really struggled to appear um simply because of some of the space requirements we were looking for we we currently have about 3 000 square feet and we really need to get somewhere in the neighborhood of about 9 000 square feet we don't see this program shrinking in fact we see this program only growing as it continues to to be available or something that our families are seeking again whether they're here in Jackson or across the country across the state excuse me um to that end this Sears building has the

096developer there has reached out to us and we've toured that site they originally had a monster space about 15 000 square feet which was more than we could use about a 9 500 square foot space that would be a perfect build out for Jackson Public Schools so I'm asking the board to give me permission to sign this letter of a tent intent for the lease agreement it's ten dollars a square foot for approximately 9 500 square feet for 10 years so but this is this will allow us to begin the work that's needed in order to provide for the services of those students so at this time I am asking for recommendation to sign the letter of intent as presented so moved here support and discussion on this Mr Dobies um does the lease come

097back to us for review and approval you'll get it all but you guys essentially is assigned me to do the the paperwork on it yeah sure but that comes back to us to review I'm guessing there's some sort of when the lease is negotiated some sort of termination provision this one's a 10-year release on on this location so the only termination provision is if virtual education is no longer supported by so why 10 years is that kind of a necessary that's the mall's requirement and when you look at the financial investment this is going to be the the remodel of this space will be several hundred thousand dollars this isn't pocket change I mean when you go into an empty space and you create those classroom spaces within there it's the so if virtual learning

098went away would there be a penalty if we had to break a lease or something is there are there Provisions in there okay awesome questions all right my comment is I was absolutely thrilled it was going into um Hobby Lobby how cool is that I always worry when we have an empty building that's big what's going to go in there if anything goes in there and how much Decay is going to happen if it's left empty so I was thrilled to find out that it's not only being leased but by us there'll be an educational component out there at and I know that superintendent calls at the mall it is so pack a Plaza um the mall of course is Westwood okay so that was my comment I'm just thrilled they were going to use

099that space in such a positive way all in favor aye aye opposed the same here thank you we went through this over a year ago and we spent a lot of time with masb um going through what board Norms are what they should address what other districts have just so we kind of knew the parameters and the board Norms that I'm going to put forward for a vote next month so where did they go thank you hopefully this gives us some kind of a template to address some of the concerns we have about the board itself the Norms include assuming positive intent listening to learn tweeting one another with respect no name calling or personal attacks agree to disagree challenge ideas not people deliberate and rebut respectfully employ a racial Equity lens when looking at

100all new programs or policies remember that positive public relations will be expected of each board member for example negative accusatoria racially charged social media posts may not be posted on a site that identifies the author as a JPS board member freedom of speech does not include postings that appear to represent the board itself be respectful and conscious of time parameters report comments two or three minutes is suggested it is not the forum for bringing in new arguments be prepared prior to all meetings questions may be directed to the superintendent prior to public meeting follow meeting Protocol no surprises a public board meeting will not be used as a place to Spring a new concern of the board for discussion the agenda will continue to dictate topics for discussion and because there have been questions about

101how do you get something on the agenda by next month's meeting I have a procedure for adding items to the agenda that will be ready for discussion how do we actually get items on the agenda okay Pam so if we want an item on the agenda we can't do it now during um our board comments we have to wait until next month well anytime we don't have a we don't have a real policy for that but we have a practice what's the practice for agenda items so we can amend the ethically um president sets the agenda president prior to the meeting and then the board president can put those on or assign them to a committee committee does that answer your question that's how it's done right now so the answer is really written down

102anywhere we just kind of do it and at the beginning if you want to add to the agenda that's uh we have typically added that at the beginning we make a motion to amend the agenda and have a discussion but this is so again items would go on and discussion and then go and go to sometimes is in this case we have a item item sitting out there for a number of months sits on there as old business and so how do we bring this back forward from all to action item next month action item next month so if we want new items on the agenda do we also bring that to the president before the meeting now I want you to really pay attention to these norms and give me lots and lots of

103feedback because these are just what I pulled off remember those boards we had up and she was writing on different colored things with different ways okay that's what this was was uh called from are we voting on this or nope next month okay point of discussion starter no problem okay did everything you wanted to question or clarify I just have some suggestions but I can hold on until next month what discussion is the time to do suggestions isn't it yeah uh bullet point number seven um I think I would just recommend striking like for example freedom of speech of speed sentence leave that there take that out I would just strike that I think that was a legal opinion for masb to put that there that we're all cognizant of like our rights there's been

104a lot of discussion in the last few months about freedom of speech and freedom of speech ends with things like uh crying fire in a crowded theater we should have heard that one but there's also if you are um writing something onto on a site that identifies the author as a member of the Board of Education DX Public Schools that's not okay unless it is a jack smoker school thing I mean there's a difference between what was going on in that or if um you have a site that is Derek Dobby's and you put it on that that indicates that it's coming from the Board of Education or at Sanctuary Board of Education freedom of freedom of speech does not cover I would be interested in uh looking at the legal opinion on that the

105what Derek because I can get it for you okay yeah I follow up on okay uh uh number eight I've got a number of these so I guess bullets now each time I count the one that starts with be respectful and conscious of time parameters for board comments um strike like the for bringing up new uh there's a history in every one of these here I get it I get what it seemed at I I'll I'll save my comments for board comments okay um I think number 10 . it's the last one oh okay uh following meeting Protocol no surprises uh public board meeting will not be used as a place to bring new concern on the board for discussion I would um I I guess I just disagree with that um and in my

106experience at least with other boards I might just change that to read following meeting protocol and Robert's Rules of Order um this is the intent of this is to be like a deliberative body on behalf of the public schools schools and and uh following protocol and following some sort of like Robert's Rules I think is uh constructive to quality board input into the agenda and stuff and I think so long as we're following Robert's Rules then you know we can add stuff to the agenda at appropriate times uh if the board determines that that is something that we want to add to the agenda for discussion oh I I I and I recognize I I wasn't on the board in September um of last year so I'm just uh oh sorry the year before that

107um so I wasn't I wasn't there I didn't participate I'm just offering my feedback for discussion as we address this in March thank you so actually have in front of me so I'm not trying to remember who said what thank you okay we have some things oh how about evaluation we've got a training as required I know that masb strongly supports that if um there's dysfunction amongst the board that is imperative or um it would be conducive for us to evaluate ourselves and find out what um what areas of improvement we need to work on I know that's old business but um I would like to move that forward as an action item so that we can schedule a forward evaluation and I believe masp has got that tool out I'll make certain that I

108provide that for the board before next month excellent thank you and just for clarification for the community this evaluation is facilitated by a masb representative and the our responses are Anonymous they gather that data and then bring that data back to us and we hope it helps us provide a picture of where we need to begin as far as those priority needs so it's not just sitting there deciding what to do and there's actually a plan it sounds like you know board of directors of masb we went to that meeting said Maryland we were all the three of us were at that meeting as a workshop was great okay now run to board comments four comments people lib I'd like to say that it's really exciting hearing from Julie and and uh Jeremy about what's

109going on at the elementary and secondary level it sounds like a lot of exciting things are happening regarding Black History Month and other things that are going on and I'd like to go to that what is it honors assembly yeah okay thank you so much Derek no comments appreciate the everyone coming out tonight and appreciate everyone that um helps out across the district I am very excited about the growth with a CMV I think that's very exciting and it's so nice that JPS has a Continuum of services so if you don't fit within the traditional high school there are other opportunities across the district it's so exciting that it's growing and I appreciate the reports from Jeremy and Julie as well so I want to thank everyone for their comments speak publicly so and I'm

110very excited about the attendance rates going up yay so Yolanda I would like to end this meeting with just reminding our community of what jps's mission and vision statement reads it says the mission of Jackson Public School District is that we will bring our community together to create a culture of academic excellence and Workforce readiness our vision we want to Envision a community where all students become lifelong learners to Julie and Jeremy Patterson thank you for your data thank you for the updates I think if we continue to keep that in the Forefront of everything that we do we will begin to close some of those achievement gaps that our children are suffering from we know we have all been impacted our Nationwide the in the covid-19 impacted our academic education system as a whole

111when we know our why we can address the areas when we know our why we understand the deficits one of the public comments they mentioned let's talk about our challenges it's important I would like to move forward with us bring in all of those glistening Sparkles and fireworks right all of those great astronomical things that are happening and then what can we tackle collectively what area can we focus on right now whether it's incremental or large as a board we want to not just hear these public comments they're not falling on deaf ears our education our children are Center focused it's about our children I would like to see us move forward and demonstrating personally understanding of why our children are suffering and what role we play and impacting that positive change thank you thank

112you okay now getting off all those wonderful things I wanted to give a personal thank you for sending me to that black Excellence um it was a dinner but it also um they gave Awards and presentations but what was so great is it was really representing and honoring and recognizing black businesses in Jackson and how these business owners are helping one another to get started at three different on three different occasions we have a person who's had a food truck in town who's not going into a brick and mortar building it was wonderful and it's Big Bear Burgers right is that his name oh baby bear Biggers okay so that's the mama bear papa bear baby are they okay baby bear Burgers um this family is so entrenched in what they do and they're so

113proud of their product and they're going to get a brick and mortar building and it's the one that's the old Taco House on page Ave remember that one okay by a a market out there okay so please please frequent this place I have just heard wonderful things about their sliders just sharing but it was a wonderful chance to hear a keynote speaker who was phenomenal and to see people really interacting and honoring helping one another that was fantastic you know nobody ran the mile in you know three seconds or anything it was because they had a real heart to help people succeed so I truly enjoyed that dinner and I appreciate it very much I saw your sister there okay thank you okay Mr Beale has a comment yeah I apologize because I was remiss

114a little bit during this we've spoken to the uh uh last couple of weeks um so I'll I'll start with the incident at Jackson High School the swatting incident this is unfortunately a nationwide trend an individual or individuals use an internet phone number to hide behind technology and they call in a threat they call it into 9-1-1 they don't call it into us they call it into 911 the essentially for lack of a better phrase the SWAT team arrives I'm going to tell you that I I've shared this story but when the call came and 911 calls me and says Jeff there's a situation so we're locked down and while I'm on the phone with 9-1-1 within 90 seconds of them receiving that phone call law enforcement showed up and they didn't show up to

115sit in the audience they didn't show up to stand outside the building to wonder what situational awareness looked like they showed up and went in the building to to stop the challenge right now if there was a danger they were going to to protect our students um and something that we that with great partners and it wasn't just Jackson Police Department it's the county sheriff in leonie and Blackman literally Michigan State Police everyone came together on this and I couldn't be more proud because Emergency Services Fire Department EMS Rescue Services were here protecting the area helping to make certain that a they were here to respond if needed but also to keep you know the area safe so that we didn't have facility providing for the safety of our students in an ever-changing world is

116something that we take very seriously our staffs talk about it ever have drill on it multiple times a year we provide specific training active shooter training to all of our buildings so our employees unfortunately live in a different world than than when I went to school but I am super proud of of the way that that was handled what I will tell you is investigation on this because obviously it wasn't just Jackson and they didn't Target Jackson high like a high it's Jackson high they targeted schools all across the state um and so when when that comes about the the FBI really has come in and and taken ownership over that investigation and I am hopeful while we may never know the outcome that that Justice will be served on that and then um I

117really you know everybody we talk about thoughts and prayers and and I really wish that we never had to say thoughts and prayers in that conversation again but my heart goes out in all of Jackson Public Schools stands in support of Michigan State University the students and the parents and the faculty I know that when I received my call last week I immediately started checking in students on families I mean we have dozens of kids who go to Michigan State out of each graduating class we did a viking roll call a check on each other find out what's going on out there make certain that people are safe or that they know that we're still connected with them and that includes our own family it includes our teachers our parents our secretaries our not just

118those former students and then in many cases are students who have siblings up there so again I won't belabor the point um I hope I never have to uh but I'm very proud of our Viking family and and standard support with them as we we deal with the tragedy that happened last week Jeff did we send anything to Michigan State like a letter of we we have not no no we last week we took care of our own and and I apologize that's that was the direction we went um Jackson high Ambassador auctions at the field house it's five to seven you can RSVP to Michelle if you're interested in tickets to go to that it is fantastic not only is it a beautiful venue it looks gorgeous when you go in but they have

119such good prizes and the money goes for scholarships for our graduates and it's just a great fundraiser for the high school and we've had to uh this is the first time we've had it since covid reared his ugly head so we've had in person this year the first time in a while okay and the next thing is our regular board meeting for March will be March 21st also in the same place right here 5 30. and I do want to mention one thing if you ever have a question about anything going on at Jackson high where it is or how to get there our website jpsk12 you know that thing has all that information on it or you can email anybody on the board and they can tell you what it is and where it

120is okay I will entertain a motion for adjournment report you're too quick Derek all a favor I opposed