001First people are talking to your dog. Look, >> I go in. I'm going to get a picture of the three of you guys for right now. Okay. You could stand I came out to see how good Come on now. What's up? Is that okay? Oh yeah. >> Is this your first Yeah. I was like >> I don't like it. You know what I mean? >> I'd rather shine. >> I mean We'll sit here while it's all done. >> Sit there. >> We'll need a four seat. >> Hey, Al. >> Maybe that other one. So good to see you. Okay. I invite him over time. I hope he meets. You know, he looks so good. He looks wow. He looks the same. So good. >> He looks a little older. >> Yes. But instead, absolutely. >>
002Hi. How are you? >> I just woke up. Hi. How are you, >> ma'am? What brings you here tonight? >> No, I want >> Oh, very good. >> Good. Very good. >> But we'll be able to see Hey, good to see you. Very good. I don't know. Very good. Well, Well, at least the beginning of baseball. Do I get it? Or do I get a bunch of people? funeral. >> I remember the funeral there. Where is the machine? This is Jason. You got my phone. Are you ready? And then I come Good evening everyone. Good evening and welcome to today's uh Lens School Board Education meeting of March 19, 2026. Everybody welcome those here and those watching on TV. Will you all please stand for our pledge to the for it stands one nation under
003God indivisible with liberty and justice for all >> thank you um trust can you read our u dasis this uh mission >> sure the mission statement for the lancing school district is to provide provide a highquality education in a culturally safe and nurturing environment that supports all students to live purposeful and fulfilling lives. >> Thank you. >> Trusty Moore, can you read our land acknowledgement? Excuse me. We collectively acknowledge the Lansancy School District occupies the ancestrial, traditional and contemporary lands of the um Ashab and Shambbe, excuse me, three confederacy, three fires confederacy of Abjab, Adua, I can never please excuse my pronunciation and Pam Timmy. Thank you. I chopped that up, but that's okay. >> It's okay. It's okay. Thank you much. Uh, can I have a roll call, please? >> Dr. Kavana, Mr. Herd,
004Miss Lamia McKisk, >> present. >> Mr. Lopez, >> present. >> Mrs. Moore, >> present. >> Mr. Nabiski, >> present. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> present. >> Mrs. Strode, >> present. >> Ms. Williams, >> qu is present. >> Thank you very much. Uh we have a public comment on agenda items and we do have a speaker, Miss Rachel Willis and I'd like to just uh remind everybody that the board does not respond to public comment. Miss Willis, you have three minutes. >> Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon uh or good evening board of board of education interim superintendent Benvitas. It's a pleasure to be before you all this evening. I wanted to speak to you all regarding the agenda item of update on superintendent selection process. Um I just wanted to comment that speaking as a former board
005member and parent of a student at the district at Cumberland Elementary School, which is one of the schools being featured here tonight, I just wanted to speak about the importance of the continuity and stability of leadership within the district and the impact that has on families. I know that you have a strong or a big job ahead of you having sat in your shoes and gone through multiple superintendent selection processes, but I wanted to just note um some reflection and feedback of my observations of seeing Miss Benitas not only in her interim superintendent role um but also as uh fulfilling many other roles within the district before stepping into this role. I would ask you to strongly consider issuing her a um at least a two-year interim contract that allows for you all to um
006provide the assessment necessary while also giving continuity to uh leadership in the district that provides stability for your workforce and for your children. So that was just my comment for this evening. I thank you all for your time and attention. Um, you've all read the minutes. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? >> Mr. President? >> Yes, sir. >> I had one correction on the reg uh minutes from March 5th in the adoption of board policy 5460. I had made a modification uh to read class of and I've already told the the clerk about that. So just changing what got printed from class of 2025 to class of 2026. Will our um Alex make that correction. Thank you. Any other um comment, correction, addition, delution here? None. All those in favor say I.
007Um the poll same side. No. Okay. Motion carries. Uh presentations. Uh actually we're going to move the agenda a little bit. We're going to move uh the superintendent's report to the front of the um inter superintendent report and then junior board as well. So they will come up and uh uh I'll superintendent go ahead. >> Good evening everyone. It's a pleasure to be able to address you all this evening as I continue my listening tour across the Lancing School District. I just want to start by saying how grateful I am for our community. I've had the opportunity to sit with parents, staff, and students and what I'm hearing is powerful. People are sharing their points of pride, the things we need to improve, and some truly innovative ideas of where we can go next. What
008I appreciate most is the honesty and care behind every single conversation. It's clear that people believe in the Lancing School District and want the very best for our students, and that only happens when we are willing to really lean in and listen. At the end of this at the end of this listening tour, I will be bringing all of the feedback together to share with the board of education and the community. And from there, I will take what I've learned and use it to help craft a meaningful vision for the work ahead. Because the truth is, we are so much stronger when we do this work together. And through all of these conversations, one thing continues to stand out. Our students are at the heart of everything we do. And their voice matters. When we
009create space for students to speak, to share, to lead, we are helping them grow into thoughtful, responsible citizens who understand the impact that they have on the world around them. This is something that we can all be proud of, and that is what it means to be proud to be LSD. For the first time, we're excited to welcome members of our junior board to join us for the board meeting this evening. I'm going to turn it over for a minute to our policy chair, Seria Strode. Thank you, Superintendent Benvdz. I just want to note that the board of education recognizes the importance of student perspectives in shaping district policy and governance to promote civic engagement and to strengthen communication between students and the board. The district shall include two junior board members as student board
010representatives who will serve in an advisory nonvoting capacity. As the policy chair, I will be bringing this effort to the policy committee to make all the necessary policy and administrative guideline changes necessary. Thank you. >> Thank you. Tonight, I'd like to welcome to the dis Washington Sio. Come on up, Washington is the president of our junior board and is a senior at Eastern High School. Washington is an international baloria student, a member of the Eastern soccer team and I'm hearing track team too. Awesome. And basketball. So, lots of sports. and a dedicated student leader who has served as secretary and vice president before stepping into his current current role as president of junior board. Welcome. I would also like to welcome Lola Flores. Come on up, Laura. Lola Lola is the vice president of the
011junior board and a junior at Eastern High School. Lola is also a member of the Eastern soccer team and has demonstrated strong leadership through her service as treasurer and secretary. She currently serves as vice president and will step into the role of president next year. Welcome, Lola. Lola and Washington are here as part of our commitment to elevating student voice and ensuring our board benefits from the perspectives of those that we serve every day. Our junior board provides students with an opportunity to engage in governance, share insights on their school experiences, and contribute to meaningful discussions that impact our district. As part of their role, junior board representatives will participate in open meetings, contribute to discussions when recognized, and take part in their designated student perspective segment, which will be coming next on our agenda.
012They will receive meeting materials in advance and be supported through the training in board governance, communication, and ethical conduct. While they do not hold voting rights and will not participate in close session, their presence is an important step in strengthening student engagement and leadership in the Lancing School District. And I know all of us are super excited and proud to have them here tonight. Uh we're proud to have them with us this evening. And of course, we look forward to their perspectives as we move forward. So, welcome them again from us. And that concludes my superintendent report. >> Now we'll uh are we going to have you make your reports now? >> Yes. >> Is it working? Okay. Um I'm Lola. I'm the vice president of junior board. Uh on our report tonight, we have
013our athletic achievements. Um at least eight schools highlighted strong engagement in winter and spring sports. Standout moments include Patentill's boys basketball team winning their championship and undefeated seasons noted for for both Dwight Rich's middle school team and Luton's boys team. Um field trips and experential learning. Nine schools reported an increase in out of school learning and college prep. Notable trips include Eastern students attending a national leadership conference in Washington DC, Luton's Disney creative writing trip, Postto STEM trip, and multiple eighth grade transition tours to Sexton High School. Positive behavior initiatives including several schools uh that are successfully boosting morale. Atwood's energy bus initiative distributed over a thousand positive behavior tickets in the first marking period alone. Patentill's Panther celebration days and Sexton's senior to underclassman buddy system are also actively improving school culture. And then
014we have academic milestones. Um multiple schools are successfully navigating NWA WEDA PSAT and SAT testing windows. Um and Eastern is actively supporting its seniors with a lot of FASA FASA nights and on-site college admissions. And then for um cultural celebrations and inclusion um for Black History Month um it was highlighted across the district um featuring a black history museum at Post Oak, a community dinner at Patenill, and a dedicated Paris student event at Dwight Rich. Multicultural events um Sexton and Easter hosted highly successful schoolwide culture days featuring diverse foods, music, and languages. Gardener is currently planning a um parade of nations and post is celebrating the Chinese lunar new year and lantern festival for um Hispanic heritage. Patale celebrated with Hispanic foods and blet oh I do not even know how to pronounce this focal
015floral thank you dancers while Luton incorporated Spanish songs into their early elementary holiday concerts. And then for um religious accommodations, Wexford noted in that their facility generally allows students to wear cultural headear and pray during work times. However, there are they also reported an incident where a Muslim student was not allowed to pray to avoid missing an NWA testing window. And then lastly, um I don't need the paper for this. Um we went for um junior board, we went to Eversaw, right? And we kind of did this to not only meet with everyone in a different environment and kind of like crank out some more creative like ideas, but we also did this to like come together as a group and support unity cuz that is our goal today or like our mission statement at
016the end of the day. Um, so it was it was pretty fun and I thought it was like a really good time to like meet everyone like again and like kind of connect with them not in like a professional sense but more in like a I'm I'm one of you guys. I'm a student too. And it was really fun. like I made made a lot of friends and even though like they were younger I was like oh I don't want to go like little kids I still had a lot of fun. So um I think that it was like a it was a great time and I think that um junior board should continue doing it. So yeah and it it'll be in the superintendent's newsletter. I forgot to say so if you guys want
017to read more about that you guys definitely should. >> Well thank you very much both of you for for your reports and I want two things. One is that I'm going to ask uh Miss Trusty Lemieux McKisik to join trustee Devant Levante in in being part of the junior board uh leazison committee. >> I would love to. Thank you. >> Okay. You're welcome. Also, because they're going to be joining us as soon as uh the policy committee does all their work and so on and so forth, uh we're going to have to have an onboarding for you too. Okay. So, um maybe uh Trustee Moore and and others would like to do that uh at a future date to on board you as to what the the policies procedures are of the school board of
018education. Okay. Thank you very much. So, you're going to stay here for a little while tonight >> till 8 o'clock. Okay. Pass your bedtime. Okay. Let's give him a hand. Okay, we'll we'll now go back to our agenda and and um pick it up with the presentations and I will uh send it back to Superintendent Benites. >> Okay, everyone knows this is my favorite part of the entire month. Although, junior board, you might, you know, that might top it because this is a new feature. So, so happy you guys are here. We have our visual learning boards tonight, which means that we have six schools that are here along with their families and students to talk about their learning that is happening at each of our schools. They come each month and they put up
019their bulletin boards about all the learning that's happening there. And it is so fun to see all of our students in this space to be able to showcase all of the hard work that they're doing and the fantastic that's learning the fantastic learning that is happening at all of our schools. Tonight we have and if you could please stand if you're from this school because we like to clap at the beginning because at the end it gets a little there's everybody around the room so we want to make sure that we applaud you for being here. If you are part of Averil, could you please stand so we can acknowledge you? Averil and Cumberland, Everett High School, Gardner Patentill and Sheridan Road. So, if you haven't been here for visual learning boards, how this works
020is each of our schools will stand in a few minutes and stand in front of their boards. And then each of us will rotate for about two minutes to see each of the boards and hear from our students and our staff about what is happening at their schools and the amazing learning that's taking place. And every two minutes, we'll rotate through each board to give everyone an opportunity to see all of the work that's happening at all six of our schools that we're showcasing tonight. So, we welcome all of you to join us. And if schools would like to stand and head to their boards, we will join you in just a minute. Thank you. Great job. Yeah, it's all good. Wait for you. by >> Bye. back wall of stress cuz I Board members,
021please come back to your seats. I'll >> try Board members, please return to your seat. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Superintendent Benvidas. Those were nice presentations and we learned a lot of what kids are doing in their classrooms. Okay, we move on to the agenda. We now have uh information study presentation session enrichment athletics arts college and career readiness. Superintendent. >> All right. Good evening everyone again. I'm very excited tonight to have with us uh Keith Cvata, our director of enrichment and engagement. And I have Brian Maher and he Oh, I don't even know your title, Brian. >> Visual and performing arts specialist. >> There it is. I was like a specialist of all things in the arts for sure. >> So, we're happy to have them both with us tonight. We also
022have four special guests that will come up after um part of the presentation is uh over for them and they they will go over our career and college readiness part. But enrichment is something that the school district really believes in and it is something that we are developing. Uh we are on our way. we're headed there and I think you're going to see a lot of improvements that have been happening across the district to build a wonderful pipeline for both athletics and art the arts tonight. It also will outline kind of where we're headed in the future to build those programming and all the equity for those programs for our schools. So, welcome both of you and we look forward to your presentation tonight. >> Thank you, Superintendent Benvites and we appreciate the opportunity to
023be with you all tonight uh here. So, I was I was commenting as we were transitioning. Uh it's been wonderful. The theme of this meeting so far has been all about our students, the heart of our uh district here and and everything. And uh in my previous uh district, I had I had a role where a lot of my board presentations involved students and then somebody like uh central office director or things needed to take over a presentation after that and they always said, "Well, that was tough to follow." And now I realize that here we are and we're saying, "Well, that's tough to follow." So, uh, but certainly our presentation is very focused on students as well, although we don't have them right here with us right now. Um, certainly, uh, we are all
024about our our students in many different ways. So, uh, we're going to go ahead and get started here. Uh we uh uh I'm Keith Cravada and I know that I've met uh some of you in person and uh and some of you had the opportunity to talk to a little bit more um than others, but uh very fairly new to the district and started in this role last July and it has just been absolutely amazing to be here in Lancing. Um being fairly new to the Lancing School District, I have just been so impressed with the heart of our uh students and the heart of our adults here to support those students. uh we work with adults in many different ways as they help our students in athletics, arts, uh many different enrichment type of
025activities, but I figured also a little background on who uh I am and what brings me here and what also you know continues to make this a passionate work that I do every day. So um this as I said is my first year here. I was 15 years as a middle school principal and uh in that role I also crossed over sometimes as athletic director and assistant principal um helping at high school and middle school levels. So um I have been able to have a lot of experience around uh students but um really through all of that my passion was always how do we engage students and truly not just engage them in math and language arts and social studies and science and all of those other important content areas but how do we really
026engage them to a school community and I always found that for me uh growing up as you'll see on there um playing uh trombone and participating in uh various sports that's what kept me engaged in school and that's what kept me connected to school. So, those are the things that really um drive uh this work and and it's something that um isn't just work. It's a passion and coming in and helping our students and helping all of our adults to continue to uh work with all of our students in these various ways. Um I'll also point out that I do have uh some passions uh outside of uh my work when I'm not engaged right in it and running is definitely one of them. I was a former cross country and uh and track runner
027and I continue to make that my my place to kind of uh think and free my thoughts and uh and be able to go out and I'm also Michigan State Spartans fan. So, nobody tell me about the game yet. Saving that till later for tonight. Uh we've got another women's game coming up tomorrow. So, um a lot going on, but uh Michigan State definitely root for them. And then I also did uh grow up in New Jersey about an hour uh west of New York City and uh so the New York Yankees are also a team that I uh vehemently root for and uh and keep track of. So uh a few things about me and I'll now turn it over to Brian Maher, our visual performing arts specialist. >> Great. Thank you. Uh I'm
028also uh new to the district and new to the area. Um I just started in this position in August. Um so I'm going to start from now and kind of work backwards. Um, so currently I'm working on a masters in music production at Berkeley College of Music through their online school. So I've been learning a lot about modern music um, which is building on uh, my work in my previous job which was a teacher uh, and the Philadelphia school district. So I taught in Philadelphia for the last 11 years. Uh, I taught K to8 for two years. I taught middle school for four years and high school for five. Uh and during that time I found that a great way to uh engage with my students was to learn about the music that they were
029interested in and teach them music theory and technique through those uh through that music. So that's something I'm really passionate about. Um I also attended uh Eastern University um for undergrad. Uh some famous alum from there include uh Brian Stevenson if you're familiar with his work. Um but uh while I was there I studied I studied uh classical percussion and jazz. So, I also do have a background in, you know, classical music. I love jazz, opera, all of it. Um, and a large part of where I got my musical training was in Drumc Court International, which is sort of like a professional marching band. Um, so I did that for eight years. I won two world championships and two high percussion titles. Uh, the last group that I was in, the Blue Devils, um, they're
030kind of like the Yankees of Drumcore. Uh they um the people from that group have gone on to perform in the Super Bowl. Uh one of the guys that I marched with uh he was front and center right at the end playing one of the hand drums with Bad Bunny. Um so very very talented musicians. I was very grateful to to learn with them. And then um for my K to 6 uh I went to the school in Rose Valley which is a it's a private school. Um it was developed by parents in the area modeled after the philosophies of John Dwey. So, it was very hands-on, very uh, you know, experiential learning. Uh, and I learned so much and really, uh, appreciate that experience. When I switched over to, uh, public school in the
031Philadelphia suburbs, it was a very different environment. Um, and I really struggled with that. And that's part of why I wanted to be a teacher and get involved in education is how can I bring more of that um, hands-on experiential learning experience to a public school setting. Um, and I think that's it. So, thank you. Thanks, Brian. I also want to mention uh Daniel Fam is another critical member of our team. Uh he is actually at a middle school wrestling meet right now at Dwight Rich, so he is probably uh helping to clean up and take care of things there, but he may be joining us uh at a portion of our presentation as well. Um, and also just to uh mention that, you know, we as a team help manage, oversee, support all of
032our uh various programs, but there are a ton of adults um around the district that participate in all of the work that we're going to go over today. So, huge shout out to our athletic directors, our coaches, our teachers, our uh club advisors, um everyone who really helps to uh make this work meaningful and helps to engage our students in so many uh a variety of ways. Tonight, our presentation uh we're going to uh we've broken it up into five different sections. We've intentionally integrated uh things about athletics, arts, uh and STEM into all of our uh areas. So, we're going to start with our opportunities and talk about some of the current opportunities we have in our district in these areas. Then we'll move into participation and we'll have um an opportunity to show
033you some data on some current participation and what that looks like. Uh section three will be about growth where we'll look at a little bit of historical data and then some of our plans moving forward. Um section four is on partnerships. We have some amazing community partnerships and um the Lancing community just full of people who want to do great things uh with us and for our students and so we're really grateful and uh and want to talk a little bit about some of those partnerships. And section five is college and career readiness, but we'll hand over the mics to uh Mr. Foster and uh others that are going to present on that area. We will pause uh for questions and reflection after each section. So, as you may have noticed from seeing some of
034the material ahead of time, we have about six to eight slides uh in each section and then we'll pause for an opportunity for some discussion and questions to get us started. Also, I think it's really important to uh connect this word to the strategic plan that uh all of you really uh thankfully have put together so thoughtfully for our district and um and we know that this is is very meaningful in what it is. And so um our uh area of enrichment is a huge part of that strategic plan and looking at that main goal uh of that participation and also then the all of the objectives that go along with it. I won't read those all because there's a lot there, but you um obviously are very familiar with them and know them. And
035all of them are things that we keep in mind and at the forefront as we work through helping our students and supporting this uh the enrichment activities throughout our district. So belonging and connectedness. Um I've mentioned those words a little bit, but truly this is uh the passion that not only I come into this work with, but I know that we all really want for our students. And um and you could see some of my favorite quotes there some from some of my favorite authors, Dr. Muhammad uh Breny Brown and um some of the things that they have to say about that belonging and about that connection and just how important it is to really make sure that our students are seen and that they're validated and known and that they're really then connected not
036only to what they're doing in a specific class or in a specific area, but they're connected to their entire school community as a broader community. and uh and we have a department of belief that 100% of our Lancing School District students will have a strong sense of belonging and connectedness. And so um that is what you know we keep in our mind as as the pinnacle every day. We want 100% of our students to have that strong sense. We know that can look different for various students, but our goal is to make it 100%. We care about every single one of them. Uh starting off each of our sections, I do have some pictures in here. Uh and this is um just an opportunity again to highlight some of our amazing uh students. You'll see
037there uh on the left uh Olivia Dela Cruz uh Eastern wrestler who was in the state finals amazingly uh just a a couple weekends ago. Um did phenomenal at the state finals and super proud of her and um shout out to all of our Eastern students and staff and everybody here who did a nice sendoff for her at the school too and made it a really um a great event to to send her off and that was really neat. Uh and then on the right you'll see our uh our Eastern Quakers uh girls basketball team and and it's amazing to be at so many different events and see our students uh participate. And as I mentioned before, the heart is what's there and that was on display so many times throughout the season from so
038many different teams. Um this team in particular, I do remember a playoff game that they played in. um they were not favored and yet all the way through the third quarter uh they were right there and and even in the fourth you know a few shots could have fallen their way and they would have done it and it was just the way that they played in the heart that they played with I mean it was almost deafening sitting behind their bench hearing how how loud they were cheering for each other and bringing each other on. So um just really neat but you see that in so many areas throughout our district and so uh really amazing work by our students. So currently in high school athletics, uh this is what our current opportunities look like.
039We have three different seasons as you may be familiar with, fall, winter, and spring. Um and you can see the various uh opportunities listed underneath each season. Um just a couple of notes. The uh things that are listed with asterisks means that it's a co-op team made up of two or three of our high schools. Uh so we combine some of our high school students together for some of our sports and um and we then transport them to one spot for practice and um they combine they compete as a Lancing team rather than Eastern Ever Sexton in those particular sports. Uh also uh we have amazing opportunities in our district in Lancing Tech and CA12 online and so those students are all eligible to participate in sports at their base high school as well. We're
040going to move into uh opportunities down our middle school athletics. And you'll see, I know that it was mentioned in the uh report from our uh junior board members just about uh some of the middle school success. And we were fortunate enough to be able to hold a middle school tournaments at the end of our volleyball season in the fall and then our boys basketball in January and our girls basketball just uh last weekend or two weekends ago. and uh and really neat just to see uh the way that those teams compete and just really uh work hard but also build such a chemistry together. Um I think that picture on the right is just really emblematic of what you see a lot of times where they're just coming together and on the left is
041that fight that you see from them a lot of times when they're out there. They're ready to ready to get after it. And so it's neat to see opportunities in our middle school athletics. Uh we again I uh we've broken them into three seasons here. uh knowing too at middle school age there are a lot of opportunities that students may participate in that may not be specifically uh with the school. It's just a you know different type of um environment but these are ones that specifically we have school teams they participate with. So some of these sports operate as a co-op between multiple buildings. So for example our cross country team in the fall even though the students practice at individual sites they compete as one Lancing middle school team when they go out to
042compete at a meet. Um, same will be tr for our track and field teams and some of those. Uh, depending on the sport, the grade levels involved could either be six to eight or 7 to eight. That's very typical for middle school sports in the state of Michigan. Um, and that just depending on the sport which uh grade levels are involved. U currently volleyball, basketball, and wrestling uh compete in LSDon competitions. So, they're competing only against other Lancing school district students at this time. Um, we'll talk about some areas that we're growing in in that too, uh, coming up in our growth section. And then, uh, last note there just about soccer, um, and kind of prepping a little bit. And, we're going to talk throughout our presentation a bit about our Lancing Parks and
043Wreck agreement that we have and that we're partnering with them to help offer some of those sports and, uh, middle school soccer being one of those. And then youth athletics. Uh so beyond our middle school, obviously we have a whole uh variety of activities that our students participate in throughout the community and specifically when it comes to athletics, these are some of the ones that we are partnering with our uh Lancing Parks and Recreation on which has been a really um strong partnership that uh I was fortunate enough to come in and help kind of uh bring to the finish line as far as what we were doing with it. And then um really this year has been a growing year for us in this and learning things about it and also having good participation
044which we'll get to in participation. There are a few things listed here that we didn't actually being end up being able to offer through the agreement this year only because the agreement wasn't fully put into place until we had started the school year. Uh but one thing just to kind of highlight here too is that part of the agreement is that the district covers the registration cost. So all of our students participate for free. Um, I know that that's a, you know, the value that I've heard from every leader in this district is that, you know, whatever we do for our students, we want to make sure that it's free to them and that they can, that's not a barrier at all. And so, um, we pay the registration cost for these, but we don't
045incur any coaching costs because it is run through Lancing Parks and Recreation. I'm going to turn over to Brian. All right. Uh, so for pictures here, you can see a few of our high school opportunities. We've got the historic Everett Dance Company uh on the left there and on the right we have the choir at Everett. Okay. Uh we've also been trying to get more after school club opportunities at all of our schools especially the K to8s. Um so currently you can see this list of uh nice variety of different opportunities um ranging from media club. We even have uh Dungeons and Dragons at a couple schools. Um, and a few of our partners like Reach with their afterchool program and, uh, all of the above with their cookup at our three high schools. For
046elementary, um, we have the Disney musicals and schools, uh, which has been very popular. Uh, so we have that currently going at Wexford, Post Oak, and Dwight Rich. Uh we also have uh some arts clubs uh choir, elementary choir at Patentill um and uh arts and crafts. And just to mention about these last uh two slides that we went through with these clubs, these are not only a partial list of all the clubs that are offered at some of our schools throughout the district. Uh really these are ones that focus a little more in the VAPA range or kind of our um range, but there's a lot of other clubs that focus in many different areas that the school improvement teams at the schools also um uh sponsor and help to put into place. >>
047Thank you. >> All right. So, this is uh our first opportunity to kind of take a little pause and reflect on um the opportunity section in particular. So, I'll go ahead and open it up to the board. >> Trust Williams. I have a couple of questions. Um the first question is with so we have these combined teams because we don't have enough students coming out to want to participate. So how are you going to change that where possibly we can have teams at all schools? >> Yes, great question Trusty Williams. Thank you. So we uh yes the combined teams are a result of us needing enough numbers for a team not having at each one. So, our goal is to really focus on how we build those from the middle school and the youth on
048up so that we we we're going to continue to work on getting our current high schoolers out to participate. Um, and part of that is through the relationships our coaches are building and the recruiting that they're doing and in their own high school. But the bigger thing we see too is if we can build those uh pathways to the high schools, we feel that will really help us to build those teams. And our goal, my goal is that we eventually don't have co-op teams and that we're back to everybody having their own team. Uh but uh certainly right now it's something that helps us to have a team. >> And I also saw that you saw we I saw esports on there. You didn't talk about it. Is that including or aligning with our robotics
049team? >> No, esports and robotics are two separate activities. Um but we do have both. So we have an awesome robotics uh program at each of our high schools as well that um is going on. And then and currently they're actually in competition season. um had a competition a couple weeks ago and next week all three of them will be over at Mason for competition and so super excited about that and then um our esports is currently happening right now too but those are two different activities that happen. >> So when we say esports can you tell people a little bit more about it? Yeah, absolutely. So, esports is an opportunity that students have to participate in competitions based around various different types of video game experiences. And so, um, they it's, you know, I
050am not a gamer, but when I see them in action, it's amazing to see how they think about things and how they kind of go through and they're like, "Okay, yeah, I can do this here. I can do that here." And they're and they're literally communicating with each other on the spot, but doing things. So, um I will in one of my other slides coming up um I I will highlight some opportunities coming up for actually a inner intrad district esports competition that if anybody wants to come see you're welcome to. >> So my final question because I do know that there's a big push around esports right now and I do know that there's funding out there. Are we partnering with other agents, other entities outside to build our esports and then are we
051incorporating AI into that aspect as well? So that's a a great question. So we are just beginning some conversations on some partnerships. I have had some people reach out. So we're going to be exploring those a bit and also talking about what you know AI is in that world too. So that's something that's just kind of right now we're we're starting into but don't have kind of specifics yet on those. So >> yeah. Awesome. Let me know. I will definitely reach out. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Trusty Ninski. >> I was wondering if you could just expand on Lancing Tech. I know next year it'll be I think four full grades in the building. Has there been any thought on if those teams would continue to be co-op or if they might have
052some of their own schoolbased teams? >> Great question, Trusty No Whiskey. So or treasure whiskey. So at this time um right now we for next year still plan on co-op teams with Lancing Tech and that's part of also we um designate that as part of our MHSA enrollment declaration in February. And so we made that decision then. But we are certainly cognizant that there will be 9 through 12 there. And so, um, we are going to continue to have conversations about what that may look like, um, in the future. Uh, there are multiple factors to consider as far as, you know, what teams could even potentially be built, what that would look like, what, you know, facilities. So, there's a lot. So, those are all conversations we're having, but right now we're continuing to co-op.
053Yeah. >> Go ahead. I appreciate that. Is it Washington? Is that right? Yes. So, yeah, thank you for that. And that's been a uh you're not alone in that sentiment and asking those questions. And I really appreciate that cuz our student athletes have voiced that multiple times. Like what are we going to do during our offseason, during our summer, knowing that so many teams that are successful do a lot of that work. And so we have intentionally been working with coaches in thinking through what summer training is going to look like and also um working on kind of strategic programming at each high school as well as especially for our middle school looking at how we are going to coordinate with our student development program and others to continue to build our students during that
054summertime. And I think that um I've had that conversation with a lot of people having come in over the summer. I noticed that, you know, we have some we have some work to grow and some opportunities we have to continue to build that stronger. Thank you. Yeah. >> Other questions? I I do have one on page five. You have middle school athletics. >> Yes. >> And spring season, you don't have baseball. >> No. So, uh so baseball is part of our Lancing Parks and Wreck agreement. And it does run up through 8ighth grade, but since it was a youth and uh uh middle school, I put it into the youth section rather than into the middle school section. So, it is it is something that is operating through our Lancing Parks and Recreation Agreement. Yeah.
055>> K through 8. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> If there's no other questions on this uh section, let's move on. >> All right. Thank you. We'll move on to a section on participation. And uh again, these pictures give us a nice opportunity to just highlight some of our uh student athletes. And uh if anyone went out to see any of our uh soccer teams this fall, boy, our boys soccer team just really rocked it this fall. And um all three of them really competitive and um and just very very much played with that heart. I mean, I think I saw every single one of them fall behind in games and then come back and win those games. And um and that's just a testament to what they're doing or what what our student
056athletes are doing, what our coaches are doing. So there's a picture of Eastern and Saxton who actually um ended up by you know luck or unluck of a draw to play each other in a in a um playoff competition uh there too. And then on the right uh you could see uh that's actually a picture of one of our JV uh football players and just kind of we had some successful football teams as well this fall and um continue to build that program also from um not only varsity JV and we um are hopeful too in very short time we're going to have some freshman teams at some of our um schools again too. So, I'm just highlighting some of that from the fall. Speaking of fall season, here are some numbers. Uh, and so,
057um, I am a former math teacher and I do love numbers, but um, I know that looking at a graph of all these numbers can kind of be like what does all of this mean? So, um, I'll attempt just to give you a little bit. There's many different ways that we could really disagregate and look at um data on athletics and um and really it is something that we take seriously because we know the data helps us to understand a current reality and helps us to think about areas we can grow into. And so um in this case we have chosen to look at the data from a grade level and gender uh perspective. And so you will see that for example, if you look at the column that's male participation and the row that
058is ninth, that means that we had 72 of our 9th grade male students throughout the district participate in fall athletics in one of the sports that was offered in the fall. Um, and so each of those numbers corresponds to that. the percentages across the rows. So on the uh right hand column, that percentage shows that uh for example, 17% of our ninth graders throughout the entire district participated in fall athletics. And you'll see that works down 18 to 20 to 22 goes up as you go through the grade levels. And then on the bottom row there, the uh column and gray there or the cell and gray is 23% of our male students in our high school uh partic high schools participated in fall athletics and 60% 16% of our females. And so if you
059take the total of all of our high school students and this includes Lancing Tech and CAK12 online, uh 19% of them participated in fall athletics. Uh so obviously as I mentioned before 100% of our students uh belonging connectedness is the overall goal. We know that not every single student would participate in sports or even in just fall sports since it's one season. Um but we also are kind of setting our our our our bar high to say we would like to get that up to at least 40%. If we have at least 40% of our students participating in a season um of athletics, we feel like that's also um a good sign that we're we're headed in direction. So that's that's our growth area and that's what we're working hard on and going to be
060looking at and continuing to to work towards. This is our winter season for high school athletics. So you'll see the same kind of um pattern to these numbers or not same kind of pattern but the same uh meaning to these numbers. So again you'll see for example in our 12th grade our females 36 of our females uh in 12th grade throughout the district participated in our winter season athletics. Uh you will notice percentages are a little bit lower. Certainly we want to see those continue to go up. Also though just to note that there are a few less opportunities in winter than there are in fall. So naturally there would be a little bit lower but again um we're still going to set our sights at 40 and see if we you know that's where
061we're headed and um we want to do continue to increase that participation. Middle school athletics. This is a great picture of uh of some of the uh great things that happened on the court uh with some of our middle school athletes. Uh these were our uh our boys basketball season. As I mentioned, we had a really successful boys basketball and girls basketball season. And we have um wrestling going on right now. So, we're not even done with middle school uh winter sports yet. Uh and that's where, as I mentioned, Mr. Fam is right now. Uh data for middle school. Uh this is something that we are working on really um refining our data collection for middle school and having some more robust information. It's a little more difficult than high school to track only because
062obviously as you know we have 10 different middle schools that um students participate in and um and so that makes it a little bit more difficult but we do have the numbers there for what we um from the fall we know and we're just gathering now our final numbers for winter as those seasons are finishing up. with our youth athletics. As I mentioned, we uh do have an agreement with Lancing Parks and Recreation this year that allows us to uh pay registration costs for our students to participate through Lancing Parks and Recreation. Um and so these are the sports so far that we have actually been able to bring to completion on those uh agreements. And so you could see a number of our students participated in some of those fall sports and then um
063another number in those winter sports. The only special note that I mentioned earlier too as well, um K2 flag football and K5 soccer are really popular and um and we and so next year uh our agreement will be able to start with that. We didn't have our agreement finalized until September and so the registration period for those had already been through. Right, I'll turn it back over to Brian. All right, so for pictures here we've got on the left that is from uh Eastern's choir concert um earlier uh in the winter. Um, and then on the right we have a picture of a talent show that happened at Sexton. Um, so we've got a trumpet player and a clarinetist. All right. So I do also have some data. Um, this would be like a baseline
064audit of participation in VAPA. Uh, this data is based on class rosters. Um, so it's not going to show uh exactly how many unique individual students are taking the classes because there will be some overlap. Um but it does show us a picture of which arts uh courses are offered at each school. Um and helps us compare how equitable the arts offerings are across the district. Um so even from uh I have two versions of this chart. The first one is full K to 12 and the next one is just 6 through 12. And you're going to see some some differences there. Um uh there's also a few points of pride also. Um, we can see that the uh visual art program at Everett is very strong. Um, we've got two amazing art teachers there
065with uh Pamela Collins and Sarah Wills. Uh, Pamela's classes are always completely stacked. Um, so her classes are very popular. That program is doing very well. Uh, we can also see the band program at Eastern is also doing very well. Um and then so to compare that with the uh just middle school to to high school, we can see that um when we remove the elementary from from this chart, uh we see the gap that there is for middle school uh opportunities. Um there are some schools that have very limited opportunities, some that actually don't have really anything for music and arts for middle school at the moment. Um, so that's something that we're really uh invested in trying to address with growth. Um, yes. So, uh, yeah, I think that's, uh, I would like
066to hear any questions you have about this, but, um, yes, Trusty Williams. >> So, I noticed that you have dance under the visual and performing arts. So, I'm okay there, but are the cheerleaders included? Are the cheerleaders, the drill teams and all of that included in the athletic side in in their count? Because we don't I didn't see any of that. >> The cheerleaders are in the athletic count. Yes. >> What about the drill teams? >> The drill teams as far as our marching bands and >> flags and all of that. >> So the So those would be so the marching bands um some of those would be in specific classes. They would be in this, but some of the others would be some of our after school clubs. We don't have that data included
067on the VAPA slides. Those are just class rosters on the VAPA slides. >> And so, yeah, Trusty Williams, let us off, but go ahead with questions on this section. Yeah. >> Um, you started the presentation with the strategic plan, which currently measures our goal to be a increase in participation based on student survey or parent survey data. I think um we've had some discussion about potentially adjusting that goal to be based on hard numbers like you presented. So you presented this year, but do you have uh a trend line of students or percentages over time? How far back do we have so far? I guess would be the >> Sure. So that's a great question, Treasure. No whiskey, and it's coming up in the next section. Some of our trend data that we have for
068athletics. Um we don't have as much trend data or really hardly any fora. So um those are some areas uh we're looking at, but um but definitely that yeah, we know that 20% is there. I know our data isn't specifically what's referenced in the strategic plan, but certainly um it's another point of data around this. >> Yeah, I think we might come asking for a recommendation on how to shape that a little better on hard data versus >> participation in surveys. >> Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah, >> Washington. Yeah. So >> so we have really uh when we've looked into that it's been a lot of uh taking some survey data from students and also then really conversations with our students and our coaches and and asking them what they need and some of them have
069said like you know I I don't know about some of this stuff sometimes or some of them have said things like you know I really you know I want to participate but I don't know if I'm good enough to and so there's kind of those kind of things too. So, working through some of that, but really that's um where we've taken some of it. So, it's anecdotal and it's uh that, but we're open to also ideas of how to get more of that because we know also that there's many opportunities that we probably aren't getting all of the information yet. >> Okay, awesome. Thank you. Appreciate that. >> Any other questions? >> Oh, go ahead. Okay, we'll move into our next section which is on growth. Um, and when we look at growth, one of
070the things we wanted to lead this section off was with was our uh our pathways that we have in our district that um and um you could see the graphic up there that shows those really clearly. And one of the things that we are really um focused on with these pathways is we know that um to create strong programs at our high schools, we need to really focus on strengthening those programs throughout the pathways leading to those high schools. And that's why you've seen us focus on um not only our high school participation and what's going on at our high schools, but also what's happening at middle schools and um with our uh younger students as well at the elementary. So, um just kind of wanted to ground us in that as we get started
071into this section. Here's again some pictures of uh some of our winter uh high school student athletes in action here. Uh we had uh or sorry, fall for volleyball there and then winter on the left with our basketball. Uh we had some great participation actually in um in volleyball in the fall. Um something we want to continue to grow on. Uh and and you know, part of that is confidence. One of the things we talked about with some of the um student athletes in volleyball. Um on the left you'll see uh and I don't know if any of you were at this game at the fieldhouse, but that was a really phenomenal game between Ever and Sexton, but we had a lot of phenomenal games that went on u throughout our district. Um and uh
072and in boys basketball certainly would highlight our JDubs that uh went to the regional final again this year um and lost a close one uh there. But um but all of our teams, our girls and uh boys basketball, it was just really neat to see them in action again. So just highlighting our student athletes there. This is the trend data uh that treasure whiskey had um started to ask about in the um uh reflection section there. And so um when you look at this tread data, this is our high school athletics. Um on the left is uh the number of uh participants and then um you'll see the line that uh shows where it started in 2018-19 um to where we're looking at now. Um obviously we all understand the pandemic and the impact that
073that had on participation throughout. Um, I also would note just uh to this graph and to the next one that um that 2425 school year as you see that dip down a little bit um one of the things that we know to be true is that the definition of what a participant is was changed just prior to the 2425 school year in our um district for athletics to include participating in at least half of the competitions and finishing the season. So, um, so there were likely some students before that that may have started the season and not continued on, um, or only participated in a couple of, uh, games and and weren't a part of the team the rest of the time. And so, we felt, you know, I think that at the time the
074decision was made to move to this definition of a participant to be more accurate. moving into middle school. This is one of our uh middle school volleyball players and they had a a great we had a great turn as you saw from the slide. We had almost 100 students participate in middle school volleyball. And so um again we see that kind of participation that's where we look at and say how do we take those students and continue to engage them um through offseason summer and keep them going to high school. But um and really really good volleyball. I mean you know when you when you watch them play um it it's it's neat to see how they grow throughout the season. So, here is a similar graph to the high school for what we're looking
075at for middle school. Uh, and you can see uh where things are and um looks similar in that pandemic dip and then a little bit of that 2425 school year. Uh, as I mentioned, we don't have winter and spring data yet for our middle school because our middle school winter season stretches a bit longer than our high school. um with having uh girls basketball, boys basketball, and then um also wrestling going on right now too that we're gathering data on. Uh also really want to mention here now in growth. Uh so this is one of the things I did mention earlier is that um to this point, our volleyball and um basketball has participated in competitions that only involve Lancing School District students. Um, in a lot of our conversations with student athletes, um, and
076coaches and looking at what other programs do throughout the area, we felt it was important that our teams have the opportunity to play other schools and to, um, and to be able to host those schools here and to be able to travel to those schools and, um, continue to see other competitions. So, for next year, uh, we have been accepted into the CAAAC Middle School League for, uh, those sports. our football teams at the middle school have already been participating in that league as well as our middle school cross country and track and field in a number of events. And so now we're excited that our basketball volleyball um this will in essence force us an increase in participation which we're really working on um pushing this spring an exciting increase for our students in
077that um they'll have more opportunities because we'll have more um teams per grade level at the seventh and eighth grade in those areas particular. So, um, it's going to force us there and also allow us to get out and compete against other schools, which we're really excited about for youth athletics. Uh, some of the things that we're really growing in here is again that, um, really evaluating and growing in that partnership with Lancing Parks and Wreck. Um, continuing what is going well and making improvements or changes. Um, continuing to strengthen partnerships, strengthening our summer program. And when I say partnerships, I mean not just organizations, but individuals. I can't tell you the amount of individuals that have contacted me and want to say, "What can I do? How how can we do this?" And it's
078just amazing to have. And so, we're trying to really lean into all of those conversations, think strategically about how we involve people, but also really um get people involved in the way that we know they can. Um, and enhancing communication. I also think this might be a nice uh spot to also mention our um amazing uh facilities and operations team that has really helped to be forward thinking in a lot of the buildings that we've done where we've put in um gyms that are going to be able to help us to continue to house these kind of things or other um types of uh facilities. And so um you know, thank you to Miss Slate and her team for all of the work that they do because it's been critical in helping us to continue
079to grow. I'll turn it over to Brian. All right. So, again, for uh photos here, we have the Silver Bells event um where a couple of our marching bands uh you know, prayed around Lancing with these amazing light displays. So, on the left we have uh Eastern and the right we have Everett and actually Eastern together. They were marching together for a little bit. So for uh growth um based on the uh data that I talked about previously um we're really focused on building those middle school programs. Um that's really going to be key for rebuilding the pipelines and making sure that our students are prepared for high school level uh music and art work. So, for music specifically, um what we would really love to see is uh middle school ensemble electives that are
080rostered consistent uh for consistent consecutive years. So, if a student wants to start learning an instrument in sixth grade, they should be able to continue playing that instrument in school all the way through 12th grade. So, um again, to that mission, um we're hoping to establish middle school uh choir programs at Patengill North and Sheridan Road. Uh we're also hoping to expand the grade uh three to four strings program to at least two other schools. Currently it's at Willow. I was just at their concert today. It was adorable. It was amazing. Kids are doing so well. Um we also would love to start uh an upper elementary band program at uh Dwight Rich Gardner and Mount Hope which are the three middle schools that currently do have uh middle school band programs. So to help
081support those programs as well. Um and also we would like to see uh some modern band and music production um coming into the district. This is something that is uh is offered. There's a movement around the country around uh modern band and music production, but in this area specifically, there isn't a whole lot going on. Um especially in the surrounding areas in the suburbs. So incorporating modern band and music production would be one way that we can make Lancing kind of unique. We can offer them something that they can't get anywhere else. Um, so we're hoping to start those programs uh at Mount Hope, Sheridan Road, um, Wexford, North, Postto, and Sexton. So then for art, um, we would love to continue seeing each school with a full-time, uh, dedicated art teacher in their own
082classroom. We are very close. Uh, most of our teachers do have their own classroom and are full-time at one school. Um, we recently purchased a curriculum called the Art of Education. Uh I've gotten really good feedback around this, but with this curriculum, we're uh increasing students exposure to color theory, to art history, elements of art and design, all the things that they're going to need for high school level artwork. Uh and again, for middle school, we're hoping to see more um specific uh middle school art electives. So, uh electives that are focused on like a specific medium um instead of more of a general class. So this could be an elective like woodworking or screen printing, ceramics, jewelry design, uh things like that that could really uh be engaging for our students and help them,
083you know, find a path in the arts. Uh for dance, um we do have programs at uh Everett, Dwight Rich, and Eastern. Um we're definitely, you know, excited to keep supporting that. One of our um middle school programs that we're working on is with a uh a Everett and Pleasant View graduate uh Jared Autry. Uh he is Everett class of 2015. Um he is also a dance instructor. He works with Reach and all of the above. He is a great guy, really good with the kids. Um, so we're hoping to uh create afterchool dance programs at North and Atwood, uh, which are feeder schools for Everett, um, to try to build that pipeline. Um, and then for theater, we do have a few, uh, you know, good good news points here. Um, next year there
084will be a full-time uh, middle school drama teacher at Dwight Rich, which is really great to hear. Um, we also will have a full-time high school drama teacher at Eastern. Um and then um to build on the success of uh Disney musicals and schools at Post Oak, we would love to see a middle school drama course at Post Oak and hopefully expand the Disney musicals in schools to at least two other schools. All right. All right. And that takes us to our next opportunity for some pause for reflection on the growth section. >> Yep. Go ahead, President Lopez. Yeah. Uh absolutely. So currently um we are purchasing instruments for the students to use. Um, so all of the band programs, the the instruments are, you know, either things that we've had for a while. Uh,
085we did actually put a lot more money into that at all the band programs. Um, so they've all been able to purchase new instruments. So if a student wants to learn an instrument, we have that available for them at no cost. >> So at no cost. That's okay. Uh, but there's responsibilities, right? They use it, they clean it, they whatever. >> Yes. >> So, it's not just go ahead. >> No, absolutely. And that's such a good point. And that's one of the things that I really love about um some of the music teachers in our district is they really teach that responsibility intentionally. Um for example, Tanya Hicks at Eastern, she takes time specifically to go over cleaning instruments, taking care of instruments. So, she's teaching the students like to be independent, to really take
086care of themselves and the things that are important to them. um which is just a great thing that uh that band can offer. >> Okay. And this goes for everything else, right? >> Yeah. Yeah, for sure. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> If there's no other questions, we'll move on. >> All right. We're going to move on to our last uh section that we'll be presenting and this is around partnerships. And um it's also just before we even jump into our partnerships in the community. just, you know, another opportunity to kind of highlight um all of this work obviously takes a huge commitment from all all of our areas and you know working with all of our uh our our directors and everybody here um from finance with you know Miss Adams and her team
087I already mentioned Miss Slate and um Miss Black and Mr. Kek and their teams just it it's been a great coordination. So we really appreciate those are critical um partnerships within the district and and so then we're going to kind of focus and look a little bit outside the district. these partnerships now that we've been able to um build upon. So, as many of you know and probably have seen, um we were fortunate to partner with Moneyball this year to provide our students with some new uniforms. Um some of the uniforms I saw when I was in over the summer, I said, "Oo, we got some work." And so, um they and they said, "Well, exciting. We are already on that path." And so um and so with Moneyball, one of the things that's great
088too is if you know money a ball um the owner is a um ever alumni and Lancing uh native and is has certainly um they designed some things that are very specific to Lancing and took some really good detailed time on these designs and our students have loved wearing these uniforms. We are rolling this out over the course of three years um to help us spurt out some of the uh cost of this and financial. And so it looks um we this year we outfitted our basketball teams. Um we will have our track and field teams in new uniforms this spring. Um we've also been able to do some things with uh girls tennis uh this spring and also um some of our uh girls soccer uh a little bit. So, we've been able to
089do some of those and next year we'll be moving into additional sports and then um everyone by the end of those three years we'll have new uniforms um at the varsity level. So, um that's what we're looking forward to. So, one of the things around partnerships too that I really um think is is valuable is we don't just um take anybody that calls and says, "Hey, I want to do something or I want to give something." thing. Um, we really have intentional conversations with people because a a lot of people have really great ideas and it and it's awesome, but we also need to make sure that they really align with what we're trying to do and be strategic about it. And so, um, some of the strategy we think about the high school is
090how do how do the partnerships really help us to strengthen the quality of our programs and our branding um, so that people know who we are and also know what we're about and also look at that um, quality. Um, we partner with uh companies and organizations that have aligned values. And so, again, you know, one of those core values I know I mentioned is we want to make sure that our students don't have barriers such as cost to participating. And so, um, when people come to us and they may say, you know, I've got a great idea, but this, we kind of say, okay, well, hold on, let's talk about this because we've got to be, um, strategic about what this is going to look like for our students. Um, and then also, uh, logistics.
091Logistics are massive in um in in all of enrichment activities, but particularly in athletics. And so, um, some of the partnerships or companies that we work with here, you'll see really help us with some of those logistics as far as scheduling and ticketing and and things like that that, you know, seem on the on the, you know, to the consumer. And when I was a consumer, it seemed like, oh, it just happens, but it it the backend work of that really makes a difference. And, um, not having people stand in line for hours to get into an event makes a big difference. Having people being able to know where an event is and when it's happening makes a big difference. So, um those are all things that we are focused on, but you can see
092some of the uh organizations and companies that we are fortunate to partner with right now. We're going to continue to grow those. And uh this is a great opportunity then to also highlight what's coming up a little bit here. I know that um as I mentioned, you know, finding out some things um can be uh tricky and we're going to continue to blast these out as we get closer to them. But um we've got an awesome esports uh competition between our esports teams in our district coming up that week of April 20th to 23rd. So um stop on out to Lancing Tech if you have any time that week uh to see some of the head-to-head going on and see esports in action there. Uh we're also really excited sounds like to bring back um
093a uh exciting event uh this Saturday, May 23rd. Uh all of our district high school baseball uh ball teams will be playing each other at uh Lugnut Jackson Field. And so that'll be the Capital City uh classic. And um we the Lug Nuts have been really great to work with through this and are um providing some awesome um things for our student athletes as far as you know food and feeding them and um and helping to make it a really special event. So we're looking forward to that day. And then um we're also uh Moneyballs helping to spons all city track and field meet this spring at our Eastern track on May 11th. So, we're excited to uh host that and have um again our uh our our three high school teams uh compete against
094each other in that all city track and field meet. As far as middle school partnerships, um again, I think that critical to kind of mention just the, you know, the mission behind these um middle schools that time were about development and so when these partnerships can help us to develop our student athletes, we're all about them. Um and also aligning our values with them. all of the organizations you can see listed here align um our values with them and that's you know important we've had conversations with these organizations before we entered in partnership to say are we aligned and do we know um what we're going to be about with you and so and then also again logistics and um handling that logistics presents a special challenge in our district and opportunity um when we
095have 10 different middle schools so always something and I think um we're continuing to work on that so uh feedback I get from a lot of different people and that is very helpful I'll turn over to Brian. All right. So, for uh partnerships, for the photos on the left there, we have uh a photo of Pamela Collins and one of our partners, uh Mila Lynn. I'll be talking about her later, but she is also an Everett graduate. Um and then on the right, we have um the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company came in and did a clinic for our dance students at Everett. Um this was sponsored by uh TAC. So, the overall goal um for our uh visual and performing arts partnerships is to provide more access to high quality VAP experiences for our students.
096Um we've been working to connect our uh partners with schools that have the highest needs in order to create more equity uh for arts offerings across the district. Our community partners excel at creating unique experiences and community spaces where students can build community, find belonging while developing the skills needed for creating music, dancing, visual art uh with a variety of mediums. So, we've got some uh photos of our partners here. So, we have, you know, the Wharton Center. They have been uh great. They're going to be putting on a professional development for our teachers tomorrow. Really excited about that. Uh we have Reach Art Studios that's been around for a while. They have after school programs at several of our schools. They're great to work with. Um and also kind of similar, we have uh
097all of the above. Uh Hip Hop Academy. They have also uh several programs for after school. They also provide free programs for our students or just students in lancing. They do great work. Uh we also have Transcendence uh performing arts center. Um, they have been helping support the strings program at Willow and again like I mentioned they've brought in the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company uh to work with our students. They also created a summer intensive music program um free of charge for Lancing uh school district students. Uh we have uh we just started working with Dreamworld Studio for the Arts uh which is a dance company um that does more of the uh drill uh team kind of style dancing. They're looking to incorporate a drum line. So, we're just excited to see where that
098goes. To the right of that, we have uh the mind of Mila, Mila Lynn. Um so, Mila was a Everett class of 2013 graduate. Um she was also part of the first early college program at LCC and finished her associates degree during high school and she's also a graduate of REACH and she's a professional artist. Um so, we're bringing her back to Everett and she's going to be working with some of our students to design a mural. Um and we're super excited about it. Um, she's also been great to work with. I also mentioned uh Frisco Dance, another uh Everett graduate, Jared Autry. We're going to be working with him to develop uh middle school dance programs at several of our schools. And then last, we have uh Lancing Matna Musical, and they have been
099such an a tremendously helpful partner uh for our teachers. Uh recently they provided nearly $20,000 in grant funds for our uh music teachers through their project Crescendo which has been just amazing. Um this was uh gave our teachers an opportunity to buy ukuleles, uh keyboards, hand drums from across the world, um costumes, materials for musicals. Um and we are incredibly grateful for their work. And that takes us to our final uh opportunity for some reflection questions. >> Uh Trust Rodriguez, >> thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. >> And um this presentation was only about middle school and high school. >> Yes. And so uh a couple of our sections were on the youth athletics. Um and that was uh mostly our u lancing parks and recreation and then some of our elementary
100vapa opportunities. >> Yeah, that is what >> I want to see. Elementary. >> Sure. >> And I hope that we can receive a report about how many music classes we have physical education. I am not talking about the that they can play basketball, but there are I go to the YNCA and I see parents of little kids doing a lot of things there. Then um I want to see the the we start with them as soon as possible to prepare them for the middle school and for the high school then then um I don't see why we don't have music and kindergarten then maybe sooner or later we receive information about that and I think that we if we don't have it we had to see the curriculum and we put them >> yeah some
101of that data is included um in the charts that I showed if you look at the first chart It does include the rostering data for the elementary schools as well. Um so we do have uh K to 5 music at a number of our schools. There are a couple that we don't um but uh largely we do have uh K to 5 music. >> Justice Stro. >> Thank you. Uh to Trustee Rodriguez point um I do want to highlight the opportunity for the younger youth to participate. Um I am a parent of our district as well and my child is in first grade and she does utilize um parks and rex to participate and I see all the time our flyers for you know third grade and up registration is covered or etc. And so
102um I do have the same sentiments of wanting to get the introduction to them at a younger spot. Um, I am fortunate enough to be able to, you know, pay out of pocket, but if there were other opportunities for our younger youth to have those things, I would love to see that. Um, I will say I do know that a lot of our, uh, schools do have music and art and gym. Um, it might be on a rotation. Um, I think like sometimes there's a semester where they only do art once a week and the next semester they do music. So, I have seen that. Um, just for people watching that, we do have or offer that. Um, but I would be very curious to see if there's any additional partnerships uh through parks and
103rack or whomever for those youth that are K through third grade because it feels like they're a little bit left out. And so the other part that I wanted to say thank you to as I'm looking at all these partnerships on here and hearing about the opportunity that we're bringing back our students, I think that's absolutely amazing. um that should be a highlight of all the work that we do um to show that we do invest in our students and they come back and invest in us. And so I just wanted to highlight that that um was very amazing to hear and it made me excited as a parent but also excited as a board member as well um to really be proud to be LSD. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Anybody
104else? >> Thank you very much for your presentation. Yeah, thank you very much and we appreciate all of your um continued work and support uh throughout the district and please don't hesitate to reach out when you have um ideas or or questions or anything else. Um we're certainly, you know, working passionately um intentionally but continue to go towards that goal. So, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to uh Mr. Foster who's going to introduce our next section. >> Thank you. Uh superintendent, do you have anything? >> Just want to thank you for those opportunities. As many of you know, as part of my 90-day plan, I'm doing a lot of the opportunity mapping. And I think that's going to be really critical as uh I've worked alongside with Keith and with Brian
105to really look at what are the opportunities that are available to our students at what ages and then how are we going to make sure that there's equal opportunities for students in the areas of arts, athletics, and so forth. So that you don't have to go to one particular school to join choir. You should have that option no matter where you attend. So those are the things that are going to be outcomes of the data that you saw this evening. But just really proud of these two that first of all new positions to the school district which I think signals to everyone that these are things that we're really investing in and that we really believe in but we really couldn't do it without the two of them and their leadership. So I just want
106to thank them for that. Um for this next section for our career career and college readiness I'm going to turn this over to senior director uh Mitch Foster and I'll have you introduce your counterparts to us. >> Thank you superintendent. Um, and you kind of took the words. I'm going to reiterate both in their first year, both these gentlemen have just hit the ground running, doing incredible work. So, I just want to reiterate that. Uh, yeah, good evening. Um, I'm Mitch Foster. I'm the senior director of high schools. In this fifth and final section of tonight's presentation, we're going to talk about some especially academic and career related um, opportunities that we have basically around college and career readiness. Um, we'll introduce the the folks first and then we'll go through kind of four big
107areas of those opportunities. So, I'm Mitch. Hi, I'm Lisa Dean. I'm the director of instruction for high school. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Nicole Milsap. I'm the director for career and technical education or CTE and I'm an every grad. >> I'm Marcel Cars. I'm the principal at Eastern High School and I'm so happy to see our two Quakers here. And I'm a grad of Eastern High School. >> Yeah, he's Eastern grad. Okay. Okay. And initially I want to make sure that we point out to this aligns to a strategic uh uh plan especially around enriching uh teaching and learning and specifically increasing our uh exposure or opportunity for students in CTE. Okay. So this is part lines right up with our strategic plan as well. Um there we go. Sorry. This year we kind of
108took some baseline data on four areas of these opportunities that I'm talking about. Those four areas are around dual enrollment, career and technical education, CTE, advanced placement courses, and the international balorate program that's specifically at Eastern. Uh so some of this is kind of baseline. We're looking at all those together. And in this this year, uh we have about 755 incidences of upper classes participating in one of those four areas. I use the word incident because it could be that a student is doing CTE and takes an AP course. So there's just incidents, but it's approximately 64% of mostly our upper uh classmen. There are some sophomores that take uh dual enrollment and AP uh but almost twothirds of our high school kids right now are participating in some kind of opportunity like this. Similar
109to athletics, we'd love to see this get to a 100%. Right? So, first to talk about dual enrollment. Uh, you see the numbers there for each of our schools and then a total just to point out for example where it says Eastern and then it has 18 and then plus three CTE. What that represents is there's 18 Eastern students that have taken dual enrollment courses and also three Eastern students that have received dual enrollment via CTE specifically. Um so all those the 15 plus 12 3 plus zero. So a total of 56 total um dual enrollment courses that our kids have taken advantage of a variety of those. I love this variety on this slide because these are it's kind of looks like code. I guess we could have spelled it out but all the
110different courses, right? So, the dual enrollment credit that they re receive from college ranges from math and stats to English, but then child development, um, Japanese, psychology, Spanish, right? Um, specifically up there too, the business risk management course that is actually dual enrollment credit through CTE where students receive the credit via college. Most of these credits are received through LCC. students can receive them through uh can dual enroll at MSU Davenport. Right now LCC is our biggest partner with dual enrollment. I will also say on here Everett has piloted in the last year a a specific LCC dual enrollment program they call high school advantage where it kind of flips the idea. Of course there's a great opportunity when a student goes to a college and experiences the campus gets that credit. Uh but they
111also have a program which is kind of cool too where they their instructor will come on site to one of our campuses. So Everett has gotten about eight or nine students in a English 121 class. The instructor from LCC goes to Everett. Uh and it's actually more cost-effective. Not that that's the the bottom line, but it is more cost effective, too. So that's pretty cool. They've piloted that and that's been successful. Lastly, I'll say most of these courses you see here are typically three or four uh credits, college credits, right? Occasionally there's five credit courses, but most of these are three. Okay. And I'm going to pass it on to Miss Nicole. >> Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, Mitch. Um, I'd like to start off talking about CTE and just explaining a little bit
112of the the background, um, the foundation of what makes CTE different from what students receive in a traditional high school setting. Um, so we essentially have four different pillars. Um, thinking about classroom instruction, what's unique about CTE is that students are receiving academic and technical skills and the skills that they are receiving align to industry standards and what businesses and the professionals in the field are looking for when they're looking to to hire new employees. Um, each of our programs has a lab and anywhere in the world where you go where there's a CT program, you can expect that there is a lab. in labs. You walk in and you will oftentimes see um industry standard equipment and software. Um students spend time in labs three to five times a week where they can work
113on problem solving. They can work on um building and tearing down. They can work on their critical thinking skills, but also really work to utilize again that industry standard equipment so that by the time that they go on to uh future their learning or they go out into the workplace, they're familiar with the equipment. they're familiar with the terminology, they're familiar with the practices that are in those businesses. Um, we also have work-based learning. Um, what makes work-based learning different from other experiences that students may have at the high schools is that those interactions are sustained. So, it's not just a oneanddone. In CTE, uh, we have apprenticeships, we have clinicals, we have ridealongs. Um, students are able to participate in internships. So, as soon as they get those skills under their belt, they start
114to earn those certifications, they show us that they're ready, that they have the skills and the professionalism to go out into the field. We really work to get them out of the classroom and into the workplace. Um, the last of our pillars is student leadership. A huge part of CTE learning is working on those soft skills. So, we start with attendance. We talk to students and we help them develop teamwork skills. We do a lot with problem solving, with critical thinking, um with looking at situations through a workplace lens, but also you know that persistence piece. How can you work through this? How can we work through this problem when this happens in this particular place? How can we go about solving this? And we don't do it as a eye. We do it as
115a team. Most places where you go in the world, you have to be able to work well with others. So that's a huge component of what we're we're striving to help our students develop. um who do we serve? And so our staff, we are extremely proud to be able to say that in CTE we serve every type of learner and also that students have multiple entry points into CTE in the Lancing School District. And you oftentimes you don't see that in other districts. And so here in Lancing, um if a rising freshman wants to get into CTE, they have the option to enroll at Lancing Tech where a student can enroll as a ninth grader and then they're able to receive four years of college and career readiness as opposed to the traditional two. They
116also have at Lancing Tech their option of one of four pathways. Um so they can enroll in computer science and coding, construction, health science or uh culinary. So 9th grade is an entry point. Um students who are in the 11th and 12th grade, what's unique about this is that they have the option of three different career centers that they can choose from. Each of the career centers offers something different. So for example, at the Hill Center, we are one of the only high school preparation CTE programs in the state that offers a fire science academy and an emergency medical technician program. So that's an option for our students that students in other districts don't have. Um if a student is interested in aviation, they can sign up to go to eat and resa where they
117can learn to fly planes. If a student is interested in automotive technology, they can sign up to go to Wilson Talent Center through the Ingam ISD. And so students in the Lancing School District have multiple options and multiple entry points to get into CTE. So, as you can see on the chart, um we have some really robust numbers that we are super proud of. And it hasn't always been that way. Um when I started as the director, we had approximately 70 students, 70. And in the course of four years, that number has increased a ton. As you can see, we're now up to 425. And again, that's because we've been working really hard to um expand our programming and really make sure that students understand that CTE is an option and it's a great pathway
118to graduation. It'll help you to get to where you want to be and it'll also help you to understand your why and connect the learning that happens dayto-day in the classroom. So, we're super proud of that. Um, also in terms of who we serve, um, we are proud that again we serve every type of learner. Um, to break down for you the demographics of our students, um, 14% of our students are students with disabilities in CTE. 15% of our students are multilingual learners, which is a huge benefit in CTE because it makes them more employable in many places. Um 49% of our students are female, 51% of our students are male. So we have a good balance of gender equity across all of our programs. 34% of our students are African-American, 18% Hispanic, 18% two
119or more races, 23% white, and 7% Asian or Pacific Islander. So over half of our students are students who identify as a student of color, which is huge and also a great opportunity for expansion within our district. Um, one of the other things that's great about the diversity that we have in CTE is that when you walk into any classroom and you see the sea of faces and you see the diversity that's in the classroom, it resembles the city of Lancing. It resembles many of the businesses and the workplaces that you go into. So when our students are learning, we try to capitalize on that. We try to let them know how special it is that we have uh many different cultural, religious, linguistic, races, ethnicities. Like there's so much in this room right here.
120And we need to be able to capitalize on that because that means that you all are bringing different experiences to the table which in the end is going to help us to um approach problems and approach the workplace and approach life with different perspectives and to be able to understand where others are coming from. And so we really work to highlight that. Um I want to leave you with a couple of success stories because we love to toot our CTE horn. Um, these are three of our um, best and brightest students and they're all wonderful. They're all best and brightest, you know, by the time that I leave us, but these are three that are really special to us because they graduated and they went on to do great things coming out of COVID, which,
121as you all know, was extremely challenging. You know, many of our young people felt hopeless. Um, weren't sure what the next steps were, were really struggling with kind of getting back into the world and getting back into things. And so on the left uh we have Miguel Solis. Uh Miguel graduated from Everett went on to um pursue finance and business and risk management at MSU. He came up came out of our insurance program with Dave Aldridge. And so as soon as he graduated from Everett through um the partnerships that we have with different employers, Miguel was able to secure an an internship at Wrathbut Insurance. And Miguel is actually the first intern that Wathbun took on that Ben Rathbun took on which is uh phenomenal and exciting. Part of his work at Rathbun Insurance was
122that he helped their team to figure out how to be more effective when working with Spanish-sp speakaking communities. And so he has spent his last four years at MSU specializing in projects continuing that work. And that's pretty impressive. Um in the middle is Charardu. Um, Char is a graduate from Sexton High School. Char is the very first student who applied for our fire science academy when we started that up in 2021. I'd also like to add that during COVID, we were the only live in-person class that fire science academy. We started with seven kids. We didn't have transportation. We didn't have food services. But all of the instructure instructors and the fire department members, everyone kind of pitched in. We went and picked the kids up. We took them to Hill We fed them. We
123made it through the year. And Shardu is one of uh a handful of Asian-American firefighters currently working for the Lancing Fire Department. To the right in that yellow vest, that's CJ Hollander. Um CJ is a former Quaker. And upon graduation, CJ was able to um step into an apprenticeship with the brick layers, the local brick layers, which is huge. He's making lots of money. um he's working long days, he's taking advantage of overtime, but he absolutely loves the work that he's doing and um he motivates other students to to continue pushing and working towards graduation. So, those are just three success stories that I wanted to leave you all with. Good evening. I get the privilege today to talk to you about our advanced placement opportunities. So advanced placement is just one of the opportunities
124that we have in lancing for students to be exposed to rigorous content. U one of the things I want to highlight on this slide is that we actually have all four of the cores and beyond represented with our offerings. And one I'd like to highlight is African-American studies was something new brought by the college board and Lancing was an early adopter of that class. And we had a teacher that took that on and had a 74% um qualifying score for students to get college credit for that course. And I can go on with the points of pride. When we look at our four-year trends, I'd like to direct your attention to the last line where it says totals at the bottom. Um, I really think that that statistic exemplifies our belief in lancing of our
125staff that all students can achieve at high levels. Um, I think that I would attribute that to a dedication of our students and our staff with intentional recruitment, training, and collaboration. And examples of that right now would be um the vulnerability that our staff is showing to say that I need to be a learner sometimes too. And so they're taking um they're joining in collaboration with their colleagues in other schools that are teaching the same course and actually going and visiting. Um we just had an example recently where somebody said hey I used to learn I that was my mentor teacher and now they're going and observing. Um no he was the he was the mentor teacher and now he's going and observing. So, we have a lot of vulnerability. Our staff is showing to
126be learners um and to really embrace this idea that all of our students can achieve at high levels. >> Okay. Good evening. I'm glad to say we have an international baloria student here, Washington, and we also have an AP student here, Lola. So, thank you. So, if there are any questions afterwards, please feel free to ask them. What is an IB diploma program? Well, it's for our 11th to 12th grade year students. Uh it's a full diploma, which means they have to take six classes, AP level classes, uh a theory of knowledge class, also um what we call a CAS and extended essay. So, there's three additional things they have to do along with taking those six college credits classes. Some quick facts about Eastern. This is our 20th year since we've been an IB
127school. So May of 20 20 May of 2026, we'll be just fine with 20 years. And we were accredited in 2009. And from that time, we had 145 full diploma candidates and 33 received a full diploma, uh, which is 24 out of 45 points. And even though they may not have made it, those students have still received college credits. So even if you're in the program, you may not have qualified for the full diploma. you've earned the college credits. Uh, quick IB program fact, 85 to 90% of our IB diploma students are enrolled in colleges and I have to say we have 18 students this year and all have already been accepted by Michigan State University. Go green. >> So, we're very pleased to say that and we'll have a slide at the end and
128tell you some other places students have um attempted to attend. Our cohorts has jump increased in the past few years. Uh you see cohort 2026 we have 18 students. Last year we only had eight. Uh 2027 it reopened. We actually closed it down because we had to sequence it differently uh based on we had an alle cart system in our IB program where students could take four or five different classes and what that meant you may have had 10 or 11 students in that class. It just wasn't fiscally responsible. So we had to close that window. uh and what we did we offered more AP classes because what happened we lost students who were in CTE or also work experience which now we have four pathways we have a pathway for IB students we have
129a pathway for CTE AP and our traditional so because of that something grand happened and we're able to add some more AP classes for a student like Lola uh but also keep the IB program for a student like Washington so because of that uh six students said no Mr. correct. We wanted to make sure we stay with IB, so we had to reopen that. So, we're pleased to say we have six. And what they're doing now, they're actually taking classes with Washington, but they'll be just fine. And our our 9th and 10th grade year, what we have, we have 50 students. So, that means we have two cohorts in that class. So, we have those sections going to be 25 to 27 students in each one. So, it's amazing what we have. And those students
130had to take a entry level exam uh in eighth grade. and all those students decided to come and I'm proud to say that 18 of those students are from out of state or out of district who came to Eastern High School to be in our program. >> What makes each unique and they're both great programs, but we know that the AP is only a one-year uh commitment where DP is a two-year commitment as you see on the DP the second and third bullet uh six level courses and they also have to take those exams. So you have to think these students are taking six AP class exams at the end of the year. In addition to that, they're also doing their 4,000word extended essay. They're also have a cast project was a community project and
131also a theory of knowledge class. So that's all. And so Washington is still playing sports. So all those things we're asked them to do and time management is what they learned first and foremost. How do I manage my time? Uh AP once again I talked about Lola great thing there. She's able to take her AP courses also with her work experience and if a student wants to take CTE it's great >> cholesterol medication >> that's what makes us unique okay levels of rigor uh we have AP uh standard level for DP and a higher level if you look at the first bullet point each AP and standard level each in high school is equivalent to freshman level work. And then you go to the higher level um it's for sophomore level work. So a DP
132student would take three standard levels and three higher levels in their courses. A sample schedule for 11th to 12th grade program here. As you see uh they have three higher levels and we offer an English and history of Americas and biology. They take a standard level with math, world language and they can choose between art, anthropology and they have to take that seven class which is theory of knowledge and the 11th grade and you see the 12th grade it moves everything up but that elective now just become the theory of knowledge we can embed in that schedule our road show happy to say we've been on the road for the past three days now uh we went to Patill Post Oak Dwight Rich north and gardener uh today we went to Adwood in Wexford. We
133actually have over 70 students who participated and 70 students have interested in our IB program. So, we're excited to say that. So, if we continue to go the way we have in the past two years, hopefully we'll have another chance to get between 50 and 60 students in our DP program there. And here is some of the university that students have applied to. You see Michigan State's first and foremost. Uh we actually have a student who went aligating college. I think that's where she's going to go which is H.B.CU in Pennsylvania. We have a student, our valiator is waiting on NYU right now. Uh but once again, these are just a few of the university students have applied to and we're hoping for the best for all of them. Okay, I'm going to turn it
134over to >> Mr. Foster, please. >> Well, this concludes our fifth and final section. Uh I'm going to go back. You see our contacts, all seven of us, our contacts are on there. Feel free to reach out to any of us about anything, but we do have a a last chance for any pause and reflect questions. >> Uh, Mckis, trust me. >> Yes, thank you guys for that presentation. The um college and career readiness is where I'm most interested for sure. So, I have a few questions for I think maybe all of you. Um, Mitch, you mentioned the dual enrollment classes. Are all of the classes available to all students who participate in dual enrollment or or or are any specific to different high schools? >> No, it's well by law it's actually by law.
135Okay. 9th through 12th it's available but of course they have to qualify, right? So you do have to place and enroll in a college, >> right? >> Um but all the classes well when you say all the classes there are some rules too. >> Okay. >> Uh you cannot uh you cannot for example take uh courses in theology or religion. uh many you can't take hobby courses, you know, no underwater basket weaving just because the the idea is basically >> and it also can't be a course that's already offered in the high school, right? So, generally it's an extension of core subject areas in high school when they're ready to go above and beyond. >> Perfect. That makes sense. >> Thank you. That does. Thank you. I appreciate it. Um >> Nicole, you talked about
136um apprenticeships and internships. I was interested to know more about that. Are they um are you referring to like after graduation opportunities or are they um during school? Are they temporary? Are they all paid? That's a lot. So, sorry. >> No, it's okay. Um so, most of them at this point are not paid. I can start there. The goal eventually is to be able to get students paid because again, it's a motivator. um depending on the program some of the well let me backtrack a little bit it depends on the program so like with patient care tech um emergency medical tech and fire science those kids start right alongs and clinicals second semester so first semester is a huge push a lot of learning they have to learn all of the basically um life-saving work
137yeah >> to be able to respond on a scene and then second semester granted they met all their skills they're able to start going into McLaren, into assisted living facilities, into um Lancing Fire Department and our other uh partners and right along on an ambulance. >> Yeah. >> Um construction, we're working on pre-apprenticeships. Um we also our goal is to make sure that they're not just um you know experiences where students can walk in and start learning, but that they're registered apprenticeships. And so that becomes a little bit more difficult. Um, we're currently working with uh, and when I say we, I'm talking about myself and Kareem Milo, our director of workforce development. We've been in talks with Michigan Area Capital Works and some other folks who specialize in pre-apprenticeships and registered apprenticeships. And our
138goal is to really get those set up, especially starting with our construction students because that's the best population and segue into a formal apprenticeship. Um, every student though, our goal is that by the time they leave us, whether they're with us for one year or two, that they have an experience that is individualized. Um, that will allow them again out of the classroom and into the workplace. >> Um, and the students are motivated by that. They're excited by that. They feel very grown, very professional. They get to see how all the work and all the effort in first semester, how it's now worth it because I'm actually putting those skills to use. Yeah. >> And so it ranges, you know, to answer your question, it really just depends on the program. >> I completely agree.
139I was definitely motivated by getting during high school too, even not in these like technical fields. So I would love to see as that continues some more some data about like tracking maybe who is placed in different internships, paid or unpaid. I think that would be really interesting to see develop over the years. Um, and you mentioned that you started only um well, you increased this number and it started at 70. How long ago was that? Was it 2020, 2021? I think you >> 2022.2. Wow, that's amazing for that much growth even in that short amount of time. Thank you. >> Okay, I'm almost done, guys. One second. >> Um, okay. Kthers, this IB program, I'm very interested. This is my first time really hearing about it. Um, immediately this is something that I know
140my younger brother, he's at Everett. Um, he would love to participate in. Um, so I'm wondering, or maybe this is just a thought or something, but we've been doing it at Eastern for 20 years and I'm wondering how we get it into Eastern and Ston as well as an opportunity for other students. I don't know if you can speak to that, but I think that is my initial question. >> I will humbly defer to our superintendent to answer that question. >> Sorry. Right call. Right call. >> Well, it took 20 years to build it. So, um there is actually I I I'm really so impressed with the work of the IB programs, but I have to tell you that it's very intense. >> It seems intense. >> And it really is something that's not just
141a program or something that you can drop into a school or just add a course. It is something that is there's accreditation, there's training. It is very intense. it would be a huge undertaking to put into our other schools. I think it's also one thing that makes uh Eastern unique in its way. So, I would say as much as we would love to have the IB experience at our other schools, it would be very difficult to do that to have at our other schools because there is such an intense commitment even by our staff. There's intense training. If you can talk just a minute about what does it take to be an IB teacher? Yeah. >> Yes. Well, we have we have training that they go to every two years. Uh we have some of
142our teachers have been doing it. They're going back to be retrained because things change each year. Uh so every two years they have to get reertified uh in what they're going to teach. So this year, like I said, we have two to three that are going. We actually because we have our cohorts or our section numbers are different. Uh there's more. So we're having to train more teachers now, which is a good thing. So it's it's pretty intense. And it's all summer long. It's like an eight-week course. Yeah, it seems intense for both faculty and students. And then my last question is with the sample schedule where you have it laid out for 11th grade requirements and senior year. Could a student finish the full program in their junior year if they completed all of
143these things or is it something that has to be across those two years? >> It's across the two years and that's how that's how diploma program is set up. >> Okay. >> So we even like we talk about theory of knowledge. We would like to because it's all based on minutes. If we can get that accomplished in their junior year, which would be great, but DP has it where you have to have for a two-year program. So, >> thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you all of you. >> Uh, Trusty Rodriguez, >> thank you very much. All these programs especially the IB program require support from the families and um what is between the school and these families communication is a different kind of communication do we because these students and AP and and they
144are very concerned about their grades and what is going on and psychologically maybe could be a problem for them. the how is the the school and the parents supporting them the this this and the teachers and the students move smoothie that they can really succeed because IB is international >> right >> and I had tutoring and student from another place and it's so intense >> yes sir >> them that they are concerning every single day these students they How are the parents? How how we deal with the parents to be sure that they are happy and what they are doing? >> Well, the parents have been very supportive. I mean, they understand uh the rigor that it takes and if there's anything that goes on, it happens. So, it's it throws things off. We contact
145the parent immediately. We also have a counselor now specifically for um our DP kids, which is Miss Robinson. We just had her do that this year. Uh we also have um a coordinator who works with our students. And if I can have Washington, if he has a second to talk about how that has impacted him because he's the ones experiencing right now, but anytime a student has a a challenge, we try to make sure we have a conversation with them and get them anything they need. Uh because once again, any student who's experiencing uh we talk about our students who experience trauma who are not doing well can also experience trauma who are doing well because of the pressures. So we want to make sure they're the whole student. work from those um who needed
146help for other things and those for IB as well. So, Wash, you want to speak on uh how's it going for you and your IB program, please? >> Okay. Sorry. Okay. Um so, um in IB like junior year, I was kind of stressed, but then like we worked with Mr. Boore to like not really stress about our grades. So, like although like my grades aren't like all A's, but like I'm still I'm learning a lot more, but I feel like in order to maximize learning and like especially in DP, I feel like we have to take a little more like a few more steps as like a school district to support those students. Like for instance, um my um TK teacher is also the IB coordinator at our school and he's also the debate coach
147and he also has classes on top of that. So, I know it's a lot and he's always like stretch like stretched thin and he doesn't grade my stuff on time and stuff. So, um >> I think that it would be a good idea to like find like an IB coordinator that is not a teacher and that's like their only job. I also think that um like for DP students, I think we should bring back the um cuz I've been talking to my teachers. I think we should bring back the um four block or the eight block schedules where we have four classes one day and four classes the next day because um wait they're each for two hours right look okay it sounds crazy but like the teachers talk for like an hour and then
148we don't have any time to do work so if we have an hour to work and an hour to like listen we can learn more like we can like I can get so much done in two hours but an hour with six classes I feel like overwhelmed and stressed when I go home I have like if I had my backpack I'd show you all the work I have like a it's like this high but if I two hours to like really like dive deep and like still have time to do work. I feel like it would like lessen the workload like I have to do at home. And then also um senior year you would have like senior year you would have two years cuz music and art you're supposed to complete in two years
149but our um arts programs like for DP are forced to do it in one year. So it is like it's really like it's really difficult and a lot of people like get got on the first first like the the arts the arts is really what gets people a lot of the time and then if we have two years we can also have an extra class schedule or like an extra block or like like class chunk to like work on our extended essay and our um to essays and any other IAS because it's like like the extended essay it's like you need like support that can't always get when you're at home doing it alone. And a lot of times I feel like students, they need like like it's hard for students to like focus, especially
150DP students because they have like their homework assignments and then they have their CAS and then this. So I feel like having those like that eight block schedule again would really like maximize student work and like make it more efficient and like relaxing for a lot of students and teachers. So >> thank you Washington. >> You asked you asked you you >> and thank you for your question Dr. Rodriguez. No, that that is what the the beauty of this conversation is each other and how we improve what we are doing. >> Yes sir. Thank you very much. >> Rust this road. >> Thank you. I will not start any fires. I promise. >> I of course in my true Dr. Kavanaaugh vibes here I am going to ask about the data. I know that data
151helps us drive our decision-m and one of the things that I love to be able to brag about when we talk about our great wonderful district is the numbers. And so when you start talking about the results from those kids that are in AP and CTE and all of those things, I'm wondering do we have any data metrics over the years of how many of them either went to LCC and graduated or went and did amazing. I know we have the success stories for a handful, but if I see a and maybe this is later on for our superintendent, um a data mapping or we call it um uh you talked about a road show. if you even had an opportunity to use that data and we call it a data walk and it's something
152that you're offering as a part of your road show um to get that parent involvement that shows their investment and what it's doing. And so we can kind of um miate the problems of well our kids are graduating and they're not ready or they're not successful or they go here and what does that look like later? And so I was just curious about that of the crossover and with the credits as well as any partnerships um I know like promise so how many of those students are utilizing that space after graduation that have already gained that associates or etc. Um the other part that I was curious about and I'm so happy that Dr. Rodriguez uh touched on this is the balance. Um I think that hearing Mr. Washington. The balance is definitely going to
153be something that we want to uh bring in as key. Um being a uh when I was a student, I was AP, I was honors. I went to Oakland University and I graduated high school at 16 and went to MSU. I don't recommend, but you know, it was very stressful and it was a lot of pressure and I feel like um knowing now what I know, what are we doing, right? So, I love all of that. And then my last point of thought, I've been begging for a gifted and talented program since I got on the board, right? This sounds a lot like that. And what are we doing with those kids who are qualified in that space in middle school? And how are we preparing them as a part of their road tour of,
154hey, this is your neighborhood. So technically, we're saying right now, you're going to be an Everett High School graduate of 2037, right? but you're a gifted and talented kid right now and so this is coming and so I'm just curious um is there any ways for us to get the parents involved get the data out there and then create these waves where it's already ingrained in them in middle school so that they know when I go to Eastern there's this opportunity of this and I can reach that because the data says this and if you have parents backing you because they see it and know it and believe it. They'll get on board, the community will get on board, and that we can continue this proud to be LSD. And that's my little speech. >>
155Now, we talked about dual enrollment, and I noticed that we did not mention our partnership with Capcom because we do have juniors and senior students going through CapCon who are doing dual enrollment. Hint hint Grand Valley was not up there and my child is doing that. Just saying. We got to make sure we know. So Capcon because they they're training youth ambassadors. So right now as they're doing as the 12th graders are graduating, they're working with the 11th graders to start this process as well. So I didn't know if you knew about that or not. >> You know what? Honestly, I didn't. I mean, I know we are involved with CAP CAM, but I didn't know that to the point of actual uh uh credit. Thank you for that. I'll add that. Any other questions?
156>> Well, if there's if there's any doubt about rigor and talent, I think we've um taken care of that this evening. uh you know from the two individuals that are here tonight when I hear things about our students and you know I'm huge on proud to be LSD. We have amazing amazing amazing things happening in the school district. I think you heard about those this evening. We have talented children. We have talented educators and we have phenomenal programs that even over the last four years are just skyrocketing in their numbers. Think about CTE we heard tonight from 70 to 425. our AP courses. We have 600% more students in our AP courses and passing those. We've increased our programs for IB. It's a phenomenal the the programming and the success that we're having. One of
157the things I am interested in that you brought up uh Trusty Strode is what happens after >> right so how are they taking those experiences and I know you shared some of those tonight um Nicole about the success stories and some of our students who are took the the things that they earned and learned in CTE and then carried it into kind of the next step after graduation. So, I do think that that's a an opportunity for us to even partner with Lancing Promise to look at some of the data that they have been collecting um because they've been kind of actively pursuing that over the years. It's tougher for us once they leave us to to get that data, but I think it's really important. I know a lot of our high schools keep
158in touch with their um high school students afterward and and students come back and they want to show us what they're doing, which is really great. Um, I just received an email recently about a young lady named Lily who um just graduated from LCC is heading to Michigan State and it was in our Lancing Promise newsletter. So, our students are doing incredible things and I think tonight when we hear things like about our graduation rate of 93%, this just shows us the things that are backing our students as far as opportunities that they're experiencing in high school and the rigor and the opportunities that are there, but then also just the opportunities that we have for growth to really build those pipelines for students. And we have a ways to go. we see some of
159the gaps that are there, but the fact that we have individuals on staff like these that you've seen tonight really pouring over the data the data and finding where those opportunities and those nuggets are and really working toward that really shows the Lancing School District is a really promising place not only for our employees, but just that it is student centered. So, I just wanted to thank the six of you for being here tonight and um just all of the incredible hard work that you put in knowing that students are at the center and then hearing from our own students tonight. Again, if there's any doubt about anything happening in Lancing, you heard it here tonight from the our students and we're just so incredibly proud of all of you. So, thank you, >> uh
160Trusty Rodriguez. Thank you as um superintendent but also I want to give a lot of merit and credit to the teachers >> they dedicate >> all this time to support these students and support others. uh without them will be difficult then um that we are we are in a brilliant future together with the teachers at board I think we can even do better then and have more and more successes in our district thank you very much Mr. president. Uh, also the um I think the support that we saw here for teachers and support for students can go a long way because this is what we're here for as we said before. So teachers teach but they also need support and I think the support and the and the um um things you you help teachers
161with help our students. So that's very important too. So, thank you very much for your presentation. Appreciate it. Uh, I know we kept our students here more than they were supposed to be here for, but you can stay as long as you want. Okay. Uh, we're not saying good night. Just stay here and thank you very much again. >> Thank you. We appreciate the opportunity to speak. Thank you. >> Okay. So, um, we'll go back to the agenda and we're at reports from officers. report from the secretary. >> Thank you, Mr. President. So, the secretary's report is as follows. We have the celebrate National Teacher Appreciation Week, which is May 4th through the 8th all month long. The Michigan Department of Education invites parents to submit a 15 to 30 second student videos thanking a
162special teacher. So, contact your school for submission details. Graduating seniors, apply for the $1,000 scholarships from the Capitol City Brown Bakers. Contact your school for application details. That deadline is April 30th. Seniors, once again, apply for the LCAA scholarship award. Submit your application and essay by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 31st. Ask your school for the application link. on tomorrow, March 20th, PD day, no school. March 27th, no school. Spring break, March 30th through the 31st. And April 1st through the 3rd. Our next board meetings are scheduled as follows. April 9th, regular board meeting. April 16th, regular board meeting held only as needed. April 23rd, regular board meeting and information study session. That concludes the secretary's report. Thank you. Uh, thank you uh, Secretary. Uh, I have to bring this up right now. April 9th
163is in question. Um, it appears that we may not have a quorum. So, um, am I right to see one, two, three? How many of us are going to an SBA? >> You won't be here. One, two, three, four, >> five. You're not going to be here either. Okay. >> I'm sorry. >> Oh, okay. Well, >> so that means that five of us will not be here. It means we don't have a quorum. So, if we have uh the April 16 as a regular meeting as only as needed, we might as well move the April 9th meeting to the 16th and that'll take care of uh of that particular situation. Check your phone. >> Yes, ma'am. However, we also got that request. Um, I've we've spoken to the superintendent about that situation and we're working
164on it. Okay. Um but certainly um the program is from 5 to 7. I think if this meeting starts at 6, we can still support him by being there for for a portion of it and coming back to our meeting because if we start moving too many meetings, it's going to become a possibly a a problem. But but we'll work with them and I we spoke to superintendent and we're trying to do the best we can to support him. Okay. So, we got take taken care of that. Now, we're going to new business and uh board policies. Uh Trusty Strode. Thank you. I have been speaking about this um for now. This is going to be our request for second reading um for policies uh 1422, non-discrimination, equal employment, opportunity, and anti-harassment. uh 33122 as
165well as 4122 all again under that non-discrimination discrimination equal employment opportunity and anti-harassment >> trustee Dr. Rodriguez. >> Yeah. Thank you. I move that the board of education receive the policies for second reading and approve then as presented. >> Motion's made. Motion's been seconded. Discussion. Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All same sign. Thank you. Motion carries. Now we have an update on the superintendent selection process. Um the board has met a couple of times and we have had uh deep discussion about the situation and and the board has um decided not to have a um a national search and um today uh we have a motion and um uh Mr. Niski. >> Yes, Mr. President. I move that the board of education approve the board president and vice president
166to have discussions with the interim superintendent Jessica Benvdes regarding the superintendent position. >> Second >> motions remain and second it discussion. >> Yes sir. >> Uh I'll just speak to the motion. Um this was based on a draft from the attorney which we've had uh conversations with in the special meeting. U I think it's become clear to me that it it's necessary to have stability. We've heard from members of the public um speaking to that. We know that we have collective bargaining coming up soon and we need to have uh stable leadership for that along with other budget considerations and things happening in the district. And so I think uh we know the interimm superintendent right now is in the midst of a 90-day uh process of of speaking with the community and our school
167community at large. So, we want that to continue as we have this discussion, but we want to authorize the president and vice president as we typically would to start to have those conversations. Um, hopefully you'll support this motion tonight. That also will continue to notify the public that the board is moving in this direction, allow opportunities for more input and and comment for the public as we uh have these discussions through our officers, eventually hopefully coming back with um something that we can act on formally. But this will take that next step in the process of notifying the community and opening up those opportunities along with giving uh our superintendent some more uh leeway throughout those discussions to present specifically to the community towards this goal now that we hopefully will name it if you
168support this motion. >> Uh trusty Dr. Rodriguez. >> Yeah, Mr. President, I think that I hope that this conversation are going to be positive and we come back and I know the feelings of the board and the feelings of the community that we want a superintendent that knows this community very well. Then I hope in few days we had very good h negotiations and we can keep going because our district need to have unity and and we can see that in the presentations today that we had work to do together. >> Thank you uh Trusty Strode and then Trusty Williams. Thank you. And I appreciate uh treasurer trustee Ninsky um for making uh effort of motion to discuss at lymph the um thought that has gone towards this decision or not decision but to start
169having conversations for our community um to give them opportunities to give their input to have their voice at the table. Um but to also have the example through the everyday efforts that we're seeing on the board level from our current interim uh superintendent. I just want to lift um that I believe at in this district. I am a parent in this district and I think stability right now is the most important thing that we need um as we're going into some of the things in the future. Um I think you mentioned about the bargaining. Um there's a couple of other things that we need to push the needle forward with our district and we don't want this to pause our progress. And so I um am just leaving a comment that uh we are really
170hoping to um support um our community and also support our schools with having a committed and consistent uh selection in that space. Thank you. Uh, Trusty Williams, >> I am in support of the conversation to start to be had. However, I still, as I've mentioned before, would love for the community, more of the community to come in where we can have a town hall discussion where they can kind of it structured as as as we know, but have the dialogue with the community with the inter with the superintendent, intermittent so that we hear everybody because a lot of times we're in different spaces and we're hearing different things. I would like where we all hear the same thing from the community, be it good, bad, and ugly, while we're supporting our superintendent. So, I still
171would love for us to have this community forum or town hall or however you want to call it where we're supporting our superintendent, but we need to hear what's happening, what what what people are saying, and what the expectation people would like to see going forward. >> Any other discussion? Well, thank you very much. I I I just want to say that uh it's um it's something that that that it's um that we have discussed thoroughly, something that uh we have uh uh reflected upon and I think that the comments made by by this board reflect those conversations >> and uh but but to me the the the most important thing is that the community needs to know that we're moving forward, that we're not staying still. But we want to do it right and
172I think that that's uh the most important thing. Um I uh I have have a chance to work with the superintendent for the for the last few weeks or months, whatever. And uh uh it's it's been it's been a good conversation even with with her. So um that being said and the motion being on the table, um yeah, it was moved and second. Yes. So, we have a motion on the floor and I think this requires a roll call vote, >> please. >> Miss Leia McKisc, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopez, >> yes. >> Mrs. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Nabis, >> yes. >> Dr. Rodriguez, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stro, >> yes. >> Ms. Williams. >> Thank you. Motion carries. Now, we're now to comment on unaggenda items. Do we have any? Okay. Uh comments
173from the board. Let me start with Miss the Trusty Williams. >> Uh good evening everybody. Um it has been a long week. I've been popping in different places and doing different things. But before I do my reading quote, I have to stop and say this week's uh superintendent roundt was awesome. The superintendent brought in Sen Senator Anthony to talk about what the budget looks like and how it's going to be moving in the next few years. A lot of things are going to be working in our favor. She actually took several questions from parents in the community and created some aha moments that I'm sure she's going to be reaching back out to the superintendent and her team so that we can make that happen. So kudos for a great round table this week. Um
174we are three weeks away from testing, testing, testing. Are we going to bed early? Are we studying with our children? What is your plan? Please make sure that you're creating this plan. Spring break, yes, you want to relax, but be prepared during that time to start te preparing for testing because when we come back, April 6th, April 7th, we start testing. This is National Women's Month as well. It so to anybody that knows a woman, celebrate her. I'm not going to call out people's names. We celebrate all women, but celebrate the person next to you, your mom, your dad. Celebrate them. And we also know that this is reading month. So, here's my quote for today. I am where knowledge is easily sought. I am where history is told. I am sometimes in a place
175where I get worn and old. You can find me everywhere you go and in everything you see. Currently in life, people want to eat, ban, or silence me. I am not a person but I am a movement. Without what I have, you will perish. I strengthen many things. You grow and attain with me. No one can take what I give you. I provide you the good, the bad, and the ugly truth. I am full of adventures, crimes, romance, and so much more. I am a superstar that keeps growing and growing with different sizes, languages, and youth. I am a book. Let's read and grow. Thank you. Any other comments from from board members? Trust >> Ninsky. >> Uh yes. Uh just report quickly on today's MASB uh lunchtime learning session was about a district sharing
176lessons and things they got wrong from rebuilding. It was very interesting to hear kind of the dysfunction they had as a board and and very inappropriate things that they were doing. Um so I'm grateful to hear where we are at as a district. I did have opportunity just to think about clear roles between governance of a board and superintendent. As we're going through this process, it's a great opportunity to revisit that. And then one quick thing that they mentioned was that culture eats strategy. So no matter how well laid your plans are, if you don't have that culture as a district and things were very toxic there, uh it wasn't going right, but they've turned that all around and are now recognized as one of the top schools in their county. So it can be
177done to to change that culture. Also just wanted to share from the Lancing Empowerment Network. It's a group that meets uh every week to talk about reducing uh cyclical and retaliatory gun violence. That continues to take place every Wednesday at noon, now in person or online. Uh they're also having a general community meeting this Saturday, March 21st, from 10 to 12 at Rio School. And was mentioned this week, um our Ever High School is hosting a program called Drums for Hands. Um, next Thursday, March 26th from 6:00 to 9:00, there'll be a screening of a documentary which was student produced called Run, Hide, Fight. And there'll be discussions and activities. I think it's already won an award from some organizations in Michigan for what they've put together. So, um, they're inviting the community to that
178next Thursday, 6:00 to 9:00 at Ebert High School, uh, to hear some voices of students related to to gun violence and and violence prevention. >> Thank you, Dr. Trusty Rodriguez. >> Thank you very much. Um the presentation from the CI schools today has extraordinary. I because of the student achievement committee. I find out that they are all of them follow the standards and the students that were here they they did a good real presentation. I think that is everybody every student were like the one they were here tonight. I am sure that we will be not only the best one in the best but the best in everything. Then um really I hope that we can send a note to the principles of this school and the teacher that were here and the students. Thanks
179them for being here and the parents is possible but I think there was really a great great presentation today and I I think we should recognize that and and congratulate them. Do you want to send that from the board or the superintendent? >> Give job to anybody. The superintendent go when we do it together. Then if the superintendent has delegate to somebody to do it, that will be fine. I hope so. Thank you. on behalf of the school board of education superintendent and uh go ahead Trusty Lemu. >> Can I say L&M? >> Yes, you can. I don't mind. >> Um I wanted to mention last Friday I had the opportunity to attend and volunteer at Everett's pep rally. It was an amazing um show with presentations, performances from the cheer team, the dance company,
180um the band, and also student athletes participated in fun games throughout. It was supported by Lancing Save. So, I got to actually go around and um slingshot some t-shirts into the audience. It was really, really fun. Um I also wanted to mention quickly um a community event that's coming up in a few in a week or so. um a longtime community member and ever graduate, Chanel Henry. Um she's also a Lancing community advocate is having having hosting a community love popup cookout. Um, and that is on Sunday, March 29th, 2026 from 4 to 7:00 p.m. where she will be um providing back to the community free food, free haircuts, um some fitness segments, games, giveaways, and she will be recognizing a few Everett senior um students as well because she is a graduate from that.
181So, if anyone would like to attend, I think that's an amazing opportunity to get involved. Thank you. >> Anybody else? Okay. I would like to thank uh uh trustee LM for representing the board at that uh Pepelli. I would also like to thank uh Trusty Strode for uh joining teacher superintendent at uh uh Riddle was it Riddle School and being part of the uh comforting folks at at at that space. So, uh, thank you very much to both of you for that. And and to all of you who who represent the board in any function, thank you very much. Uh, I know Trusty Ninsky goes to several committee community committees and of course uh, Trusty Williams um, does as well. So, thank you. When you're out there, thank him because you represent this board and
182and as long as you mention it, you say it, you know, we're with the community. So, thank you very much. There being no other business, this meeting is ajourned. Thank you.