001There you got it. Good evening everyone and welcome to today's special not special every meeting is special anyway to today's meeting [laughter] but it is special in a sense that we have uh all our young kids here and um family and friends and the oath of office for our newest uh school board member. Sora, can you please stand and with uh let's see when we need to give him a a mic. >> So, who's going to give your order of office? >> Okay. >> I guess [clears throat] There you go. >> Yeah. Raise your hand. >> I do solemnly swear >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this state >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this state. and
002that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education of Lancing School District. >> And that I willfully [laughter] >> Okay, hold on. Hold on. [gasps] >> That I will faithfully discharge the duties >> That I will faithfully discharge the duties >> of the office of member of the board of education of Lancing School District. >> of the office of member of board of education of the Lancing School District. According to the best of my ability. >> according to the best of my ability. >> CONGRATULATIONS. [applause and cheering] [applause] And of course that was mom and dad. Right. Moving on to u the agenda. Well, first of all, our congratulations and welcome >> as a member of the school board of education. >> Thank you. Okay, we now
003order the um everybody please stand for pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [clears throat] >> Let me see. Um, Dr. Rodriguez, can you please read our um uh land acknowledgement? >> Thank you, Madam President. The mission statement. >> No, the land acknowledgement. No, the the mission statement. Go ahead. I'm sorry. >> Okay. Thank you, M president. Mission statement. Lancing school district is provides a highly quality education in culturally safe and nurturing environment that support all students to live purposely and fulfilling lives learn a knowledgement. We collectivity and knowledge that the Lancing school district occupies the central traditional and contemporary lands of the anabetire confederacy of Jiuway
004Adawa Abotawa Tommy people. >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh can go ahead roll call please. Dr. Kavanaaugh >> present. >> Mr. Herd. >> Ms. Lemier McKisk >> present. >> Mr. Lopez >> present. >> Mrs. Moore do Mr. Niski >> present. >> Dr. Rodriguez >> present. >> Mrs. Strode >> present. >> Miss Williams. >> Warm is present. Thank you. Um board member uh Moore will be here. Uh you know just uh run a little late but she will be here. Okay. Um we don't have any comment on agenda items. So we'll move on to uh our next item which is approval of minutes. Do I have a motion to approve minutes? >> Second. Moved and second to approve minutes. Uh discussion, additions, corrections, delions. Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> Post same sign.
005Okay. Thank you. Now we have presentations. Um, Mr. Superintendent. >> Uh, good evening everyone. It's a pleasure to see such a packed house. Uh, and I love these days because it's time to hear from the students and the educators. So, I'm going to turn it over to uh, First Deputy Jessica Benvitas to take us through the learning boards. >> Good evening everyone. It's my pleasure to have all of you here this evening. Uh, we have four schools represented here this evening for our visual learning boards. when I call your name, if you're here to support that school, if you could please stand up. We like to applaud at the beginning because at the end there's so much conversation and fun happening that sometimes we don't get to applaud all of the people that are coming
006out to support our schools. So, if you are here to support Dwight Rich, if you'll please stand [applause] and Forest View [applause] Thank you. Postto [applause] and Lancing Tech. [applause] So, if you haven't been here uh before for our our learning boards, what we do is we have each representative from the school stand at their boards and we have about two to three minutes per board that we rotate through and we invite the audience to uh join us in that. We often have students, staff members, principles come to these um meetings and they'll be presenting their information on their boards. This is the learning that's been happening at our schools and we're just so proud of what our teachers and staff and students have been able to accomplish. So, let's invite you to each of
007the boards this evening and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do. >> Counter clockwise. >> Well, then we're going to be all in the audience. Please feel free to also uh look at the boards and listen to the students. Hey y'all. >> Hey, we're here. >> This is our sixth grade. All right, man. That's right. So this is uh sixth grade on the left on the right. This is one of the projects for us mainly focusing on the background of geography. So I believe one of the social So just >> I don't remember anybody's name. >> I know you can go. >> [laughter] >> So part of it is an advertisement like sell me your >> not touch it again. Thanks for being here. >> So this is a sixth grade on
008the left and right. This is their project. >> If you please rotate to your next board. >> Thank your speaker at your board and rotate to the next one. Please. Thank you. pages that Alex. Yeah. Yeah. So the on the right we've got the payload page. This is basically the first three chapters first seventh grade and then over here we've got basic geography on the left for student. Um, so for sixth graders, you're looking to giving a map of Michigan, a population of multiple physical features. I believe four was an environment. Um, on the right, we're looking at a technology from the social institutions from the paleo page. What is the item you chose? How has it evolved over time? What was it initial use? What do we use it for today? And and then
009create an advertisement to sell something. Um, so it's a big combination of reading through that kind of material, finding academic material, successfully citing that information. And because I'm doing this Do you have any questions? >> I will pass it on to the >> unfortunately. They get very shy. So this was our sixth grade and seventh grade studies. This was the first unit. This is what we just wrapping up the second. But so for over here we're looking at uh the first basin. So I wanted them to give me a graph. And so I wanted them to tell me >> she still loves seeing you, I'm sure. No. >> All right, everybody. Let's move on to that next learning board, please. Let's move on to the next board. Even more to see at the next one.
010>> Not really. 21. >> If you haven't already, please move to your next board. If you have not already, please move to your next board. Thank you, >> or [laughter] It was >> Yeah, I can see >> students will So nice. Thanks for taking my delivery, >> girl. I was I was stalking Googling you guys. I was going to say another [laughter] Um, it's always [laughter] real bad. >> Well, my dad's on there, but good. Okay. I was studying. here. Morning class. We really do. You can never hear it in here. >> All right, everyone. This is your last. If you haven't, you have one board left. Yep. Three more minutes. So, you have one board left. Make sure you make it to your last school if you haven't already. So this is seventh grade,
011right? Let me get it. [laughter] We're looking at the first unit. Uh so what I wanted I wanted to get some of I wanted to do a map and I wanted them to tell me about the city. So um this is what they end up with. Uh and with that choice I gave them choice with I did say I want a population and I want I gave him an opportunity how do you know can we do a Google doc? Yeah that's fine. Can we do a video if you can make it if it if it satisfies the rubric? Yes. you know, so that's what I try and do. Like for example, this new one we're given. That's awesome. >> So, I want them >> to be excited. [laughter] >> Um It's kind of sens. >>
012All right, everyone. That concludes our visual learning boards for tonight. Please get in your last minute of learning and then if you'll find your seats. >> Thank you again. Thank you, Miss Benas. Thank you very much for that. >> Your mic is >> Oh, yeah. >> Yep. It is on. Maybe I'm just not speaking loud enough. Uh board members, we're going to resume our meeting. >> Now we're um going back to the agenda. Have reports from officers. Report from the secretary. >> Nope. >> Oh, meet and confer. That's right. Yes. Okay. I we did eight. Let's go to item B under presentations. Uh Mr. Superintendent. >> Sure. Uh good evening everyone. Uh, I hope you enjoyed the learning boards. It's really a great opportunity for us to share all of the wonderful work that our
013students are doing. But speaking of wonderful work and people who really give back to our community, we would like to call up uh the meet and confer president and board because what happened at the last uh board meeting is this wonderful austere group uh signed a contract uh for our meet and confer bargaining unit. And so if they are here, which I see. Hello everybody. If you want to come up so we can congratulate you, shake hands and take lots of pictures. So come on up. [applause] [clears throat] >> Good job. Thank you. Thank you for your work. >> Thank you much. Appreciate Appreciate your work. Congratulations. Perfect. That's a picture. So, I just want to continue by saying first of all, we really appreciate you being here and being able to thank you personally.
014You know, the school district is a large district with over 1500 employees, and almost all of our employees are in a collective bargaining unit, teachers, principles, secretaries, public safety, uh, you know, assistants, and then we have this wonderful bargaining unit called meet and confer. And so what that is is a group of people that represent all of the folks in our district that aren't those other groups. And rather than thinking of them as the aren't, I would think them as the this amazing what what are they? And they are people that work in our public safety office. They're people that work in our comm's team. They're people that work in the budget office. They're people that work, you know, in all of the different offices uh throughout this district. And they really make this district
015hum. They make this district work. And all the stuff kind of behind the scenes uh is thanks to this wonderful uh group called Meet and Confer. So, with that, I really want to thank all of you again, and you know, it's been a pleasure bargaining with you, and we're really proud of the contract or the uh economic reopener that we just signed and really thanks to the four of you and all the people that you represent. Thank you. [applause] >> Okay, now we'll move to item seven, reports of officers, um from Secretary. Thank you for our announcements, communications, and invitations this evening. We want to extend a congratulations to Everett's wrestling team. They captured first place overall out of 22 schools at the Flint Jaguar Legends Tournament this past week. Information for seniors once again
016for 2026 2027, our FASA form is now available. Colleges and career schools use the FASA uh form to determine how much financial aid students are eligible to receive. The MSU College of Music will present its annual jazz. Um it's a spiritual prayer and protest concert on Sunday, January 18th at Fairchild Theater. This event is free. Tickets are available over the phone at 517353-5340. On January 19th, next Monday, there is no school for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On January 21st and 22nd, it's testing half day for high school students only. On January 23rd, there is a planning and records day. That's a half day for all schools. On January 30th, there's also a PD day, no school. The next board meetings are as follows. February 5th, there is a regular board meeting. February 19th, regular
017board meeting. And March 5th, there is a regular board meeting. Thank you. This concludes the secretary's report. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, then we'll go to committee reports. Equity committee. >> Mr. Tro, >> me again. Due to the new selection of our officers and re uh commitment to committees, we have not met but that information is further to come. Thank you. >> Okay. Going to facilities that is uh Miss Williams and me. So I will defer to Miss Williams to just give a little overview of our meeting that we had uh last week. No, this week and then continue on with with the report. >> Good evening. [clears throat] I'm sorry. Can you guys hear me? Good evening. So, we had another meeting this past Monday because we did have some bids that
018were due in last Thursday to do some more upgrading to our schools. So, we had a bid for Forest View bus line, which means they're we're going to be extending their bus line. We also had a bid for Forest View's air conditioning system, their Mason Street, structural steel, glass and glazing. Basically, inside out, we're doing some upgrades to the Forest View. Same thing with Guyer Park, Post Oak, Dite Ridge, Sax Auditorium. So with that, that are those are all of our bids that are out there. We did use all of the general contractors who turned in the lowest bid with an exception of a few who have been contractors with us at before. So if [clears throat] you have any other questions, we are sure to answer them. But in your packet, you should see
019all of that. And with your approval, we will move forward. So, I'm going to actually ask at that time at the same time is if the board um I would like to make a motion that the board accept the bid request A through F as presented. >> Second. So, move a second that we um accept this U as presented. Questions, comment? No. Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All same sign. Thank you. The only I I'll just add a comment that uh is that uh we talked about um getting a um an overview of how our projects are coming um really nicely and keeping keeping in in line with what we predicted it would cost. So we're we're on budget and later on we'll present some documentation to that effect. But
020we did talk about that. >> Sen, >> yes. can let us know how the Luton construction or how the process is going over there in Luton or they are not still in the agenda or how is the process going? >> Yeah, Luton they're um >> they did the demolition now they're going to work on the on the what you call it Christina the uh underground stuff. IP >> the entire uh the exterior building is down and uh they were spending last week and then this week getting the footings and foundations of the prior building removed from the ground. Um and at that point in time we'll kind of pause for a minute until frost is gone. Um and then we will start construction. >> Thank you. And I think a few meetings ago I asked
021him to see if we can see the plants >> the plants >> the the the designs that they are having there how this school is going to be look like. >> Yeah. Uh Christina uh well Mr. Superintendent [laughter] >> of course uh you know but also I know this is a is a great question but Christina if you want to Yeah. Well, what what I was what I was going to suggest, Christine, is that we had the uh the the the pictures of of of of how it's going to look at uh when it was the open house before the demolition and people came and say goodbye to the building and and took lots of memories and whatever. Maybe we can get them here. >> Sure. I can bring the large pieces and then I
022can also um send out the PowerPoint presentation that was given to the staff members and parents as well that show a few more renderings um besides the larger ones but I'm happy to have those in this space. >> Okay. So >> and any other questions >> sir President and for those who are wondering we are a lot of our schools are moving to green energy and so this is one we are super excited about it. Um, so look for it. If you guys really want to know how some of the things are going and looking, drive past Willow both during the daytime and at night. You'll see. You'll see it, but you'll see in two different lights. It's beautiful. I I encourage everybody in the community to take part. Just drive by and see. And
023then you can expect things like this except for in different areas as we change and move over. And also stop by the new Mount Hope if you haven't been there already. >> Okay. There any other questions? We'll move on to uh finance committee. Mr. Mr. Whiskey. >> Uh, yes. Thank you. The finance committee has not yet met. We just got our assignments this week. So, we're in the scheduling process. But I do have a treasures uh narrative to share with the board to go along with the reports you received. The detailed treasures report for the period of December 1st, 2025 through December 31st, 2025 is attached to this evening's agenda. The following are the highlights of the report. The beginning cash and investment balance was $65,899,491. Receipts totaled 16,336,294 while dispersements equaled 20,999,875. Net interfund
024transfers totaled $794,44 and interest from fund investments to the student and bond funds as well as journal entries to remove the due to/d2 froms in all funds. The monthly transfer to the general fund for bond expenses was $0. The ending general fund cash and investment balance on December 31st, 2025 was 62,30,314. The general fund's cash and investment balance is $27,151,934,000 less as compared to the same time last year. Uh [clears throat] donations received during the month of December totaled $5,746. There were several donations from the Hartland School Solutions, my school bucks program, uh the Blackbot and General Motors, the Blackbot and Axenture, Boringer and Gelheim, Dean Transportation, uh Capital Area United Way, and the Blackbot and Jackson National. And then I wanted to just highlight three significant donations. $1,000 from the Allen Wallace Youth Sports
025Foundation to Everett High School Athletics, $1,000 from Daniel and Kelsey Leair to the Sexton Orchestra, and $1,000 from United Mentoring Program to the Sexine Sexton Clothing Closet. Mr. President, this concludes the December 2025 treasures report. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Niske? Hearing none, we'll move to personnel committee. >> Uh yeah, the personnel committee, newly constituted for 2026, will be meeting on the second Monday of the month. So if you are interested in attending those meetings, you are welcome to spend your lunch break with us second Monday of the month. Um that means we have not yet met as a committee. However, you will see that you have the board personnel report uh within your your packet. We would like to congratulate all of our new hires. Um and for those that are leaving the
026district, we wish you all the best. Um, and on that I would like to move that the board of education approve the new hires from December 1st, 2025 to December 15, 2025 as presented. >> Second. >> It's been moved to second to approve the new personnel. Um, discussion. No discussion. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Post same sign. Thank you. All right. We'll move on to uh policy committee. Trust Stro. Thank you so much. Again, with those new assignments being uh determined this week, we have yet to have a meeting. I will note that I did uh reach out to those former members of the policy committee on last week asking for suggestions um any notes or any updated goals or um opportunities that they see for this upcoming year within the
027policy committees. Um I will be receiving and looking forward to receiving that response from our board uh governance. I will also note that I will be meeting uh briefly with uh Sergio and Claudia uh in the next couple of weeks to determine our cadence of these meetings as well as establishing any predetermined goals to move forward with policy. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] Um we now go to recognition at hop committee. Uh Mr. Herd is not here. Um, is there you have a >> uh currently we are still accepting applications until January 31st. As of last time check, how many do we have? >> Oh, we're down. We're up to 34. So, the selection is going to be [clears throat] pretty hard. So, we closed the window ex on January 30th.
028So, please get your nominations in. Everybody in this district is important, but these are your voices that we're hearing at this point. So, I'm excited to read some of the things that are coming and I can't wait. But please, if you know somebody that's making a difference in the community, please nominate them. Fill out the forms. Community, family, school, educator, somebody post humulous. I can never say that. Forgive me you guys. But whomever you think has made an impact in this community and in the district, please. You still have two more weeks to get those applications in and I look forward to it. >> Thank you. Thank you for that update. Uh moving on, we have um student achievement committee. Uh Dr. Rodriguez, >> thank you very much. due to the changes in the members
029roles in that committee. uh we had the first meeting that is a new I want the community to know that that is a new committee that was created just last week last month or two months ago and um has a lot of responsibilities and we are going to talk with the administration to start the new as soon as possible to have the meeting and then move on and how we already decide what the vision and the mission statements are we are going to review them again to be sure that that we had done was approved by the board and um I think responsibility and the dream of this uh this committee is going to be essential for the student graduation and student preparation for the future. Thank you Mr. President. >> Thank you Dr. Rodriguez
030and Mrs. Williams also serves on that. So, thank you very much. And and uh and that brings me to a point. I did uh pass out a draft of uh assignments. So, that it's a little bit different than the first one because there was an initial one. This a draft. If there are no changes from you, please review it. If you if you're okay with those assignments, um or schools, maybe you want to trade schools with somebody else, I don't know. But if you have any any changes that that uh that we can make uh let me know and then it'll it'll become the final document as far as for this year's assignment of board members to boards and committees and uh for your schools. All right. So I will wait for that and and
031uh and then I'll just give it to our uh administrative assistant and and then he will put the final document together. Okay. So now we know we're we'll come down to item C. He probably doesn't have much to say but uh anyway we'll we'll call in the superintendent. >> Well uh good evening everyone. Uh it's a it's a pleasure to be here. Um unless the board calls a special meeting, which is certainly their prerogative, uh this will in fact be my last board meeting. Uh I will not uh spend too much time uh regailing you a story of these last five years. But I do want to just say a heartfelt thank you to this community. Uh you all who know me know I am not from here. uh grew up on the 19th floor
032of an apartment building uh on a 100th street in Columbus Avenue in uh Manhattan. Uh then spent uh most of my adult life in Brooklyn, New York. Uh and then was lucky enough uh to be chosen by this wonderful board to have the privilege of serving Lancing. Uh you know, I will be leaving at the end of the month. Uh so it's weird because it's like goodbye, but not really yet. Um, but just to know how proud I've been to be the superintendent of Lancing. Um, I can list off, which I of course will, the amazing things that we've done that are the data graduation rates. And you know, I saw Tio was in the back. Um, you know, our high school when when I got here, the graduation rate was 62.1%. It's now 88%
033and this year we think we're going to break 90 and not thanks to anything I did but thanks to people like Tia Bell and Pac and you know James War and you know uh the entire team at Eastern uh the idea that we were able to move the needle so quickly uh so thoughtfully was really incredible but graduation is kind of the end but what happened during the years attendance rate 70% to 85% 15% increase of attendance in just three years, virtually unheard of. And of course, why does that matter? Children are coming to our school more often. And then things like test scores. Uh not only did we double proficiency rates in some of our schools, but then it's also the higher level stuff. We increased the AP pass rate by 638%. Those are
034the kinds of things that have happened over these last five years. And again, I'm not going to take any of the credit. The credit goes to all of you and goes to this community. But it's been an honor to really be a part of that. But then it goes further. Almost five years ago, July I think it was like July 6th or something, 2021, I stood here and in my first act uh you know we sent all the students back to school. If you remember when I got here, students were still learning remotely. Uh and then we got kids back into the school. The next thing we did was created universal prek where any child who lives in the Lancing area, the Lancing school district, if they are of the right age, they get to
035go to preschool. Doesn't matter how much the families make, it doesn't matter anything else that we believed so deeply in in preschool that we made it universal. And we're still the only district in Michigan. I thought people were going to follow us, but they didn't. But it's okay. Um, and you know, things like creating Lancing Tech, an entire new high school for technology and careers where they're learning to become, you know, nurses and uh, you know, construction workers and, you know, cooks and computer scientists. All of that was created over the last five years. Um, the student development uh, program where we have an entire group of literally thousands of kids every month do sports and training but also tutoring and they get fed. uh at Don Johnson. Um we have a care closet that
036was something new. We're again showing that our job isn't just to educate our children, but to support them and their families in times of need. Um, you know, again, we can kind of go on and on about the numbers, but I think for those of you who have been really here for the last 5 years, the most important thing is that there is a a sense of revitalization and a sense of new and great things happening. Do we have a lot of work to do? Absolutely. Uh, but the progress that's been made over these last 5 years is really tremendous. And I want to thank all of you certainly uh in this community who have been a part of it. I want to thank this board. I want to thank the executive team and all
037of our employees, all 1500. Uh but really just, you know, it's been very bittersweet these last couple of weeks. I mean, random things will happen where I'm leaving a store and somebody will just like drive their car up to me and I think they're going to hit me. Uh and they roll down their window and they'll just say, you know, "Thank you." And I was like, "Hi, I'm Ben. Who are you?" you know, and then they'll tell me a story about their child, you know, in fifth grade or eighth grade. And, you know, we're not perfect. We still make mistakes. There's a lot of work to be done. Um, but I just hope that everybody listening and and being part of this is that this is your story, right? It's not my story to say
038we raised the graduation rate. It's your story to say that we all collectively did it. That we raised the AP pass rate, that we raised the attendance rate, that we raised the the happiness, the healthiness. um all of that. But we always have things to do and I think it would probably uh be the most appropriate thing for me to do is to leave giving you the bus numbers. Uh because if anybody has been watching for the last however many years um when I got here, if you remember, uh we were supposed to have 72 triple tiered bus routes, which means that we had 72 buses that would do three bus routes in the morning and three bus routes in the afternoon. So that's almost it's over 200 routes. And when I got here, of
039course, because of COVID, all the bus drivers were gone. you know, it's like and so we met with, you know, our wonderful partners, Dean, and they said, well, look, we only have half. I was like, what do you mean half? Like, what are we supposed to do? And they said, well, good luck. I said, well, that's probably not a good answer, but we'll figure it out. And, you know, we have the high school kids on the on kata. We have gas cards now. And what's been amazing is we now have a higher attendance rate in high school now than we did precoid. And we actually have a higher attendance rate overall than pre-COVID. But for years it was high school. And you know, it was funny. I remember talking to a student uh years ago
040and I said, "Well, you know what? What's the difference?" And he said, "Well, if I missed the yellow bus, I didn't have to go to school, but if I missed the catab bus, my mom knows there's always another one." And so, you know, just the idea that we would create those kinds of things was really powerful. And yet, we still have work to do. We still don't have all of our children routed. We're very, very close. Um but it is something that I think shows the collective belief of this city right there was there was like oh my god what are we going to do and we came together and we created uh solutions and now our attendance rate is higher than it was even pre-COVID which almost no district in the state can say.
041So for my final uh transportation numbers uh we have 596 uh kata requested and 596 handed out. So, that's wonderful and perfect. Uh, for gas cards, we have 2,927 requested. Uh, but we've only distributed 2,699. But please know that sometimes people will request uh gas cards and they're not eligible. Either they're within the walk zone or they actually don't live in the district, things like that. But the fact that we're uh distributing 2,699 almost 2,700 uh is terrific. And then for the Dean buses, um, we have 4,224 requests and we've routed 4,58. So there's a differential of 166. But within that 166 are also some students that don't qualify for whatever reason. So you know, when I started the unouted number was like, you know, 500, 600. Uh, we're down to 166. And of those
042166, many of them, you know, are not um are not eligible. And so, you know, I think it's kind of symbolic, right? We've made a lot of progress, but there's a lot of progress to be done. And I think, you know, the way that I would end is, you know, I am thrilled of the the support of this board, the work that they have done over these last five years as I've been here, but that I'm honored uh I think in two symbolic ways. one, we have a a brand new uh board member who um is an alum uh cares deeply about this school, has been so wonderful to this community, and you represent the kind of the next step, and so it's great to see you here. It's always nice when I see you
043in the community, but you know, thank you for being part of this. And then of course, uh to thank the executive team. Um, you know, uh, Christina Slate has been an incredible COO, uh, for this district and all the things that she's done, all these, uh, things, uh, in terms of new buildings. Um, but, um, you know, Sergio Kek, who's not here today because he's of course outarning, uh, doing his work, uh, the the work that he's done with our newcomer center, with our ELLL population, uh, Cordelia Black, uh, she's also out learning and doing some amazing work. uh but the way that she's been able to increase our health and wellness of this district. We have our wonderful Kim Adams who you'll hear from uh later who's helped make a budget that uh is
044the envy of every school district in Michigan. Uh the fact that we have you know in the bank uh $50 million after having been losing $20 million a year. Um and then of course finally uh first deputy Jessica Benvdas who will um get to sit in this chair in 16 days or something like that and just to thank her for all the incredible work uh that she's done. And if there's ever an indication that the you know that the community is happy just look at like the Facebook accounts of people when they name Jessica as the interim you know from students to teachers to community members. And I think that's what's so wonderful about this district. It's it's big but small. Everybody knows each other. Uh everybody has a history with each other. Um and
045the fact that the interim superintendent could be somebody that was a teacher, a principal, a central office administrator. Um I think really speaks volumes to the way that this place, this city, uh grows its leaders. And so uh with that, you know, I will give unless the board calls an emergency meeting, which is always possible. Uh that is, uh my final report. Uh Mr. President, thank you very much. >> I think we should give him a hand. Should we [applause] [applause] And >> and of course, >> of course, Ben, I if we had the thing in the middle, we would go to the middle, but it's on the side. >> Sure. >> I think we're going to have to make a change right there. Okay. But um in gratitude and appreciation, the board of education
046of the Lancing School District recognizes Ben Schner for his unwavering dedication and tireless service to the students, families, and broader Lancing community. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And there's more. >> Oh, there's more. Oh god. [laughter] There is more >> questions now. >> Well, you can sit now. >> I can sit, >> but maybe. >> Here you go. It's not your birthday, but >> Oh, there's cake. >> We still have like presentations to do. [laughter] >> Well, the cake is there. So, >> so we can all have a piece of cake while we continue to work. Okay, >> fair enough. >> So, um again, thank you, Ben, for all you've done. I uh you're my sixth superintendent I believe as a board member and uh certainly had uh many different types of leadership and one
047thing that I can say honestly is that they all meant well and and you meant well and and you've uh done what you've done. you've lended your leadership abilities to to our executive team, our our staff, and um we're going to continue uh working on that and continue to move forward and we wish you lots of luck in Seattle, Washington. I mean, who wants to go to Seattle being in Lancing? I don't [laughter] know. I I think you're you might have a problem. Anyway, let's move on to our uh new business. And the new business is information study session. You know what I if if you will allow me a board, why don't I go to public comment on unaggenda items so that people that are here have a chance to speak and then we
048can go into our uh study session. So I have the first one is um Jody Washington. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Thank you. I'm Jody Washington and I want to say good evening to all of the members of the board and thank you for letting me speak. If my voice sounds shaky, it's my vocal cords. I'm not sick, nor am I nervous. Okay. Um, having said that, I want to be really clear that I respect the board's authority and the outcome of the recent appointment of our newest board member. My comments this evening are not about the individual selected, but about the process and the public statements made during your deliberation. During that discussion, statements were made indicating that one person had been for had formed her decision prior to the interviews being held,
049as well as remarks that explicitly tied the selection to personal characteristics and physical um characteristics rather than the qualifications discussed. When comments like these are made from the day, excuse me, during an official meeting, they raise legitimate concerns about whether the process was f was fully impartial. As elected officials, you are entrusted not only to act fairly, but to demonstrate fairness through your public words. [snorts] When pre-selection or bias is voiced openly, regardless of intent, it undermines confidence in the board's governance and discourages qualified community members from seeking to serve in the future. I respectfully ask that the board reflect on how the appointment deliberations are conducted and communicated in public meetings and to recommmit to transparent impartial and professional governance standards going forward. Again, I welcome I really do. It's not you, it's the
050process. Further, I would recommend that if you have an individual making public comment, making slanderous and outrageous comments against a private citizen, that those comments be stopped immediately. I am not an elected official. There is nothing in the freedom of speech that allowed what occurred Friday night. I say this with all due respect. Thank you for your service and I hope you consider my comments when you deliberate in public in the future. And I would like to thank the superintendent for quickly and thoughtfully responding to my comments, my email. I would have expected the same from the rest of you. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is uh Mia Barnes. And let me uh just remind u members of the public may address the board for three minutes. It is board policy not to respond
051to public comment. I'm here to appeal the decision made um to suspend my daughter Mileia Reed and on in October and the decision to suspend my cousin Isaiah Prince back in November and just January 14th. Um I feel like they have no proof. Um it was a decision made haste hastily made I would say on um an administration uh an administration's a part and um he came to school yesterday and was told that he was suspended for absolutely no reason. There is absolutely no proof as to why he was suspended. In fact, he has proof that shows his innocence and no one's listening. Not only that, he was suspended for 10 days unjustly. Back in November, he was attacked by a boy um after having an argument, which everybody has, you know, disputes. and he
052turned around, turned his back to, you know, let the argument go and he was attacked. And not only was he attacked, but then he was suspended for trying to de deescalate a situation, which I felt was wrong because he was attacked and it wasn't like he was face to face with the person or any of that. And then back in October, my daughter was suspended because they claimed that a video was circulating around that was sent through a text message which was never sent. The reason I know is because like a good parent I am, I actually have my daughter's iPhone through my iCloud. So anytime a text message comes through her phone, I actually get that message as well. in any video. So, the video that they claimed that she was suspended for never
053came through. And I allowed the assistant principal to know all the things that have been going on up to this point. And he's not listening. He keeps saying that he's going to do something about it, but in the end, they're the ones that get punished for it. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Yeah, just if you don't mind, uh one of the staff members will talk to you if you just uh Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Our next speaker is uh [clears throat] Mayor Andy Shore. Well, um, honorable school board members, um, I just heard that you all can't say anything for three minutes, which is awesome. Um, no, I I came because I know this is this is our superintendent's last meeting. First, congratulations to our newest school board member.
054Um, congratulations to our leadership. um as a a citizen, as a a a parent of two Everett grads, you know, I always say we count on you to make sure that that uh that our children get the best possible education. You definitely succeeded with mine. So, thank you. Um and that leads me into uh Ben Scher. Um I do want to thank you, Mr. Superintendent, for all the work that you've done here in Lancing. Um, as a parent, as a mayor who worked with you, um, it has been tremendous to really have that relationship with the with the the school district. I've had it with the school board for years. You know, we're all on the ballot and elected officials. Um, but being able to to pick up the phone and call the superintendent at
055any time to hear from the superintendent, not just bad things, but good things, you know, good things. And there's so much good going on in this district and we talk about it a lot at the city. Um, it's because of the decisions you make and it's because of the administration led by led by Ben and because of all the folks sitting at the table on the side. Um, it's not every I've learned this as mayor. It is not every mayor that gets along with the school district like we do. And um, when I first ran for office, that was a priority. It was one of my my kind of highlighted priorities. Um, so I wish you the best of luck. Everyone always says it doesn't rain that much in Seattle, but I think it does.
056So, I'm with uh with with Germo that uh be staying in Lancing. Um but um I'm really excited for you and uh and your future. Um but I'm really sad for us that um that we don't have your leadership. Although I am very excited for the leadership of Jessica Benvitas. Um so I feel like um um you're leaving us in a great place, but you also got us to that great place. And as mayor and as a a dad um I thank you. And uh and I thank you to the school board for everything that you've all been doing. Lancing is one of the best districts in this state and in this country. And I don't care what anybody says. Our kids when they graduate are succeeding. And again, for me, my experience is uh
057is what I can share with people and I do and I will. So, thank you for all that you do. >> Thank you. >> I'm sorry. [laughter] Right. >> Our next uh speaker is uh Mr. Bñena. >> Commissioner Pap Pñena. >> Thank you. And good evening, esteemed members of the Lancing School District Board of Education. Um it is it is with some some uh sadness that we say goodbye to our our director here, Mr. for uh Superintendent Schuliner. So, um but with knowledge comes, you know, uh everything and thank you for taking the time for what you've done in this city. Uh I'd like to share a few stories that maybe the the audience might not be wary of. There there is uh a family by the name of Harrison uh who has ties in
058history back to World War II and who had uh memorabilia in Eastern high schools, old high school that was lost for a while and you were um instrumental in recovering those items uh ribbons to a high school swimmer um who who during the war was thrown off of his ship and rescued people with his ability to swim. We each came from the Lancing School District pools. Um, so you know, you are the top and you may not know every little thing that has happened behind you, but things have happened behind you and things will happen forward in your life, too. I'd like to equip you with a little bit of knowledge about the city of Seattle. Um, I don't know if you know this or not, sir, but it's named after an Indian chief. Seal.
059Yeah. And one of his big one of his big precipuses of knowledge was that we are a web and I know you move forward in this web of your life but you are a little link here and will always be a little link here in Lancing. Uh we wish you the best. Um we will always remember your presence in the concerts at Eastern Quakers uh band. we will remember you uh coming through our football games uh when when sometimes you would we would think we would win and wouldn't and sometimes we think we would be smeared and the Quakers won. So, but uh and we do realize on that Friday night you were busy and you had two other high schools to go to. So, but we do appreciate you for for uh running down
060the field, maybe not catching a ball, but thank you for that. Um and we we would like to uh just um well we do acknowledge that we amongst others are politicians in this room and one of the biggest things you can do is show up. So thank you for showing up while you were here. >> Thank you Mr. Pre. And our final speaker is Marcus McKisik. >> Hello. Uh am I supposed to say esteemed members of the board? Is that is that the process here? Uh um >> say hi friends. >> What up my people? That's that's how I'll do it. Um I want to say uh give a moment. Thank you uh superintendent. Uh it's it's been a long road, you know. Um and you know, you'll take all the lessons learned here, put
061them in your backpack, and hopefully that prepares you for whatever lies ahead of you. Okay. Um but Aurora, okay, you know, you were worried about whether or not to take this leap of faith and yet you did. And it's something that you just have always done is jumped into the deep end. Okay. And what I think is one of the biggest things that everybody here will start to learn is that when you jump into the deep end, it's because you are confident that you will swim. Okay? Now, I know that it's the deep end and there will be uh names and people will say, you know, well, this name or this person or you don't have this or that. It doesn't matter because you jump into the deep end. Okay? And when you start swimming,
062we all swim with you. Okay? You have an entire tribe of people that swim with you. Okay? And once you find your seal, they will start to listen. Okay? And it won't be immediate and there will be uh you know this politic and that politic. It does not matter baby because once you start swimming people follow okay you do you and you do it seriously. Okay. And if you're on the fence about something seriously do it. Okay. I love you. Your mom loves you. Your brother loves you. All of the people that showed up here and all the people that are looking on the YouTube channel, they all love you. Represent for JDubs. That's number one. Okay, that's the first one. Forever, for every kid, for every tear, for every smile, for every opportunity. You
063represent for a vision of the future that only you can see because only you are jumping into the deep end. We'll follow you. I love you. Well, saying thank you is not enough. >> Thank you. Uh just one last thing about Mr. Shelner, superintendent. He will always remember that this was his first superintendency. >> That's right. >> And this is this is the school who made him. >> So wherever he goes, wherever he goes, >> it it's us. So, don't forget that. >> I will. I promise. >> Okay. [laughter] Okay. Then we're going to go into our um uh information study session. Um let's take a couple of seconds so that you can get a piece of cake and then come sit down again and and we'll we'll get on with the uh information study
064session. So, we're in in recess for a second. Okay. >> I I put one there. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay, we're back into regular session and continuing with the agenda. We're into information study session. Presentation of grants and sustainable green energy projects. >> Thank you. Apparently, nobody wanted to stay for this. [laughter] >> You did. You did. My heart's hurt. >> [snorts] [laughter] >> You were given two documents for this evening. The first one is uh labeled 2526 budget and grant programs presentation companion document. This document is not meant to be gone over right now, but as you have time and you feel like reading more about the various grants we have, the eight pages after this reflects all of our current active grants um and the status. So, as you look through, it will give
065you our grant number. It'll give you our grant name, whether the grant is state, local, or federally funded. uh the budget, the amount spent, the amount encumbered, and the balance left. The amount encumbered for staff is their wages from this point in time forward. The amount encumbered for everything other than staff would be POS on the system. So that's just for your reading pleasure. And Christina and I will present the PowerPoint. So this evening on our agenda we talk about what grants are, some types and examples, what is sustainable energy types and examples, the district impact and current grant budgets, and then the district budget at a glance, and then questions are at the end, but I honestly don't mind if you ask questions as we go through, however the um president would like us
066to proceed. So what are grants? Grants are purpose-driven, typically applicationbased, generally nonreimburseable, so they don't require repayment, and accountability is required. So, those of you that have been on the board for a long time know we have a lot of internal controls and procedures that we follow. We have audits and you have an annual audit. So we are very careful with all of our grants, actually all of our funding to ensure that we adhere to state and federal requirements. What types of grants do we have? We have local and donations. We have state and federal grants and we have competitive grants. Local grants and donations are typically funds provided by a community organization, business, or individuals intended to support our schools in our educational initiatives. These grants are generally flexible and tailored to meet specific
067needs of local students, teachers, and schools. You want me to take that? >> Thank you. >> A couple of examples of our local grants. One is the Laura Bush Library Grant. This year we received $25,000 and this grant allows us to extend, update, and diversify our library books in our schools. We also just recently received the Jod D Pentecost Grant. This grant provides us $8,000 to help support the books for the reading is fundamental program. We have um another annual grant that we generally receive for Eastern High School, the Capitol Region Community Foundation grant. $48,521. This one's a little bit unique. It's not intended for one purpose. Rather, several teachers applied and all of their requests were put into one pot. So we have a total of 48,000 but many programs embedded in that. We
068also are in our second year of receiving the project Crescendo Grant which is $19,260 and this enhances music and the arts in our schools. Another grant we have is the Hap Care Source donation. This donation is $10,000. It helps provide essential health, well-being, and personal care items to our students and families. Another donation that we received is the Jacqueline Mars estate donation of $169,000. Mr. Superintendent, would you like to speak about this? Well, I just want to say two things for uh all the people uh listening at home and the one audience member uh is that this is an example of somebody who worked in the district, loved the district, and in their will put the district in there. And so we actually got $169,000 uh from this wonderful person named Jacqueline Mars. And so,
069you know, if anybody is thinking about estates and wills and planning, uh please remember to put the Lancing School District in your will if you uh would like and it is really wonderful. When we got the letter, it was so warm and and lovely. And when we learned about this, it was great. So, we thank the Mars estate and we certainly uh want everybody to know that if you are thinking about estate planning, please think about us. >> Thank you. We also have state and federal grants. These are typically governmentf funded financial awards provided to the district to provide support specific initiatives, student needs, and school improvements. These grants are typically larger in scale and come with strict guidelines and reporting requirements. Some examples of our state grants, title one part A. This year we
070have a receipt of 7.3 million. And you may ask, what is Title One Part A? Title One Part A is designed to provide additional support to schools serving economically disadvantaged students. It provides targeted academic support. It provides school-based decisionmaking, professional development for our educators, parent and family engagement, and then there also is a resource allocation and equity piece where we ensure that schools have access to instructional materials, technology, and additional personnel to create a more equitable learning environment. We also have Title 3 grants. This year's allocation is $127,433. This is a federally funded grant to help support schools serving students with limited English proficiency. This grant has English language acquisition support, targeted academic support, professional development for educators is also embedded in this grant. There's a parent and family engagement component and again resource allocation
071and equity. Another one of our state grants is the 31A at risk grant. This year our allocation is 21.4 million and I'd like to rem uh remind the board that we received an additional 3.5 million this year that we weren't counting on. Um 31A is a state-f funded grant that supports students who are at risk of educational failure due to various challenges. This grant helps to improve attendance, reading proficiency, math proficiency, career and college readiness. Another one of our grants is the high impact tutoring grant for $150,000. The board may recall that this is one of the grants that had been uh recaptured earlier this year. That was deemed unconstitutional and the funds are now back at the district and the services will be provided to our schools. This grant provides high impact tutoring, has
072datadriven instruction, personalized support, is intended to close learning gaps, accelerate academic process, I'm sorry, progress, and it has evidence-based strategies, and again has equity and access as a component of the grant. Some of our competitive grants um will be followed after this slide, but competitive grants are typically opportunities where we compete against others to receive funding. Awards are given based on the quality of our proposal in alignment with grant priorities and potential impact. One of our competitive grants is the team's grant. If you recall, this was a five-year grant that was uh we thought was ending as of December 31st, and that was also deemed um I don't remember the words they used, but they have reinstated the grant and are giving us the funding after they took the last two years away from us
073unexpectedly. This grant provides counseling services, supplies and resources, staff training and PD, early intervention and prevention, community and family engagement. Another one of our competitive grants is our magnet grant. This year's allocation is also 2.9 million. Our magnet schools are Lancing Tech High School, Forest View, North and Wexford. This grant provides diverse and inclusive learning environments, specialized curricula, innovative instructional strategies. There's PD embedded within, and it's a sustainable school improvement, meaning it's supposed to support long-term strategies for magnet school success, including community partnerships and continuous program evaluation. I'm going to turn the next few slides over to Christina. >> Thank you, Kim. Uh, so the next few slides we're going to talk about um are a lot of grants that have involved the operations team um in moving forward and several of them you're going
074to be familiar with except for our newborn member and hopefully you'll become more acquainted with them. Uh so the first one is our 12c consolidation grant. So, this was a grant through Michigan Department of Education in consolidating our schools uh to help provide us um initiatives for renovating, upgrading school buildings to accommodate the changes in the student ro program um and enrollment offerings or I'm sorry, student enrollment and program offerings. So, the different schools that we did this with were the Riddle Willow consolidation. So, we've used this money to help us with our new Willow build, the Wood Creek Waxford consolidation. This summer, we will be adding an addition of three classrooms and a new uh middle school full-size gym at that location. And then in the past, um where we just did our tour
075in November, uh this helped us in paying for the new gymnasium addition at Atwood Elementary for the Atwood Rio consolidation between those schools. Another competitive grant is our 12A Michigan Healthy Schools grant. Um this year we will be using $9.8 million. Last year we used some additional funds as well in this. Um it's used to improve indoor air quality, um create sustainable and green environments and enhance the comfort and learning environment and create a healthier school infrastructure. We're using this to install air conditioning at several of our schools. So last summer we used this at Cumberland and Sheridan Road as well as window units at Forest View, Guyire Park and Postto. This year we will be installing full building air conditioning with this with these dollars at Dwight Rich, Forest View, Guyire Park, Postto and
076Pleasant View where we have our learning hub um and our um online school and our staff there. they will be getting window air conditioning units um and updated electrical at that location. Another grant is our USDA forestry grant. We actually partnered with the city of Lancing on this grant. So, this is part of a much larger initiative throughout the entire city of Lancing. Um our portion of this is almost a million dollars. We will be using this for additional tree planting and maintenance, involving our community around efforts focused on environmental stewardship and education, developing green workforce pathways uh within our student body at our Lancing Technical High School. Um and then we will also be demonstrating how to reuse urban wood race waste through sustainable lowcarbon building materials projects. There's a lot of great work
077already happening with this and this is going to be a lot more to come this summer and into the fall as well. So, I look forward to bringing additional information to you. Um, but we will be looking to plant planting a lot more trees and urban forests within our community. Next, just a quick uh what is sustainable green energy? The next few things we're going to talk about are a lot of our initiative around sustainable energy and green energy. So, sustainable green energy projects are initiatives that generate, store, or use energy in ways that reduce environmental impact, lower our greenhouse gas emissions, and conserve natural resources over the long term. These have a long-term cost savings. They reduce our carbon footprint, and align with climate and energy goals. The Lancing School District's green energy initiatives
078include renewable energy generation, energy efficiency projects, clean transportation projects, and energy storage and grid support. Our renewable energy generation includes our geothermal system that we're installing at Willow, the new Willow Elementary, and our solar panels at the locations listed here. We are excited um that this also has allowed us to um for the first time ever um be able to use tax credits um both a 30% tax credit in our investments and then an additional 10% lowinccome bonus tax credit for several of our projects. Um we I'm excited to announce for a couple of things. We just turned on um two of our solar arrays. They're getting towards the end our two of our towards the end of our project. one of them being our largest um Hill right before the winter break we turned
079on that's generating 1.2 it's a 1.2 megawatt solar system and as we showed a little bit earlier that's the picture that we were all standing in front of. So that just got turned on and that is going to generate the most power of any solar system that we have in the district. Um so far this school year for the projects that we have turned on uh which would be Kavanaaugh, Lions, North, Patengill, and Wexford. Um we have generated over 500 megawatt hours of solar energy. Um, so we're very excited about that and over the next two months we will be working with uh Kim and the finance department to claim our solar tax credits. [snorts] Next are energy efficiency projects. Um, these are building retrofits. Um, they create high efficient systems like LED lighting upgrades.
080Uh, so we had our energy bond that we did. Um, we've used that for the schools listed above. We put in retrofits such as lighting um so new LED lights in several of our schools um specifically Everett um high school, Sexton High School, Lions Elementary. Um and we've also put in controls. So, a lot of things that have to do with energy efficiency is making sure we put controls on our systems to monitor how much heat we're using, how what does our air look like, monitoring our set points so that we're keeping the building's temperature stable so we're not using as much energy uh to heat or cool the building. We've also put in energy or flow water flow systems in several of our schools. So, how much water are we using when we're flushing
081the toilet? It may not seem like something that big, but it actually is a very small uh change that we can make that can make a great impact. So, these are some of the projects that we've done for these our clean transportation project. Uh so, this is about our electric school buses um which several of us got the opportunity to ride on our first electric school bus when we did our school tour. Um for those of us that got to ride, I think we were all super excited to hear how quiet it was. Um and that is one of the really cool things about our electric school buses um besides the fact of how much impact it has um on our emissions um input um into the into the system. So um as the board
082members, you guys have approved 20 electric school bus purchases. Seven have already been received. Um so we're excited to get those ready and get them in uh to commission and using them in the system. We are currently installing our infrastructure for 10 electric bus chargers at the Dean facility so we can make sure that all of them are ready to be charged obviously before we start using them. Um and one of the other things that we will do with this project um is to design electrical upgrades and to install install additional bus charges bus chargers excuse me and battery storage system at the Hill facility. So since we s have that large solar generating system out at Hill, we'll be able to install additional chargers there, which leads me into the next slide, which is
083energy storage and grid support. So, one of the really cool things that this will allow us to do with both the electric school buses and the solar power system that we have and the chargers is during our low times, which would be the summer, which is a high generation time for our solar, we'll be able to use our school buses as batteries and storage. So, the batteries that are on those buses, we can use them as storage. And when there's really high peak times in the summer, which is very usual, a lot of people using air conditioning and those types of things, then we can actually feed additional energy back into the grid and help support BWL and keeping the grid stable. So, we're using all of this for those projects. All very exciting. And
084now I'm going to turn it back over to Kim. Thank you. So, as we look at our budget, the adopted budget as approved by the board of ed in June, of the $263 million, 63% of that is general funded or 165.7 million and 37% or 97.7 million is grant funded. When we look at our current grant budgets, you can see the blue is budget, the gray is spent and encumbered. Everything appears to be pretty equal except for when you look at the state grants. I would love to tell you and I am going to tell you that tonight you adopted and approved many bids. That state bar in gray is going to go up as soon as Christina gets her POS on the system. The other thing is that some of that state money is
085multi-year. It runs over two cycles. Otherwise, you can see we're right on track with budget. And when you look at our district budget at a glance, federal grants are 10%. State grants are 29%, local is so small it shows up as zero, and general is 61%. And now I'd like to open up for any questions or comments. >> Really quick before we get into that, I did want to point out for all of the items that I was speaking out, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that we did not do this alone, even here within the district. Um, our partners with Green Link Education helped us get tens of millions of dollars to be able to do a lot of our green and renewable energy projects. So, I just want to make sure that
086the board is aware, you know, we don't do this in a silo and we have a lot of partners that work with us to make this happen and we're super thankful to have those partnerships. >> I know some folks raised their hands. I just want to make sure that uh those contractors >> um do we pay them or are they they get paid by the grants they get? >> Correct. Yep. So the Green Link Education the vast majority of their funding we can't because of the letter of the grants we can't pay them 100% out of the grant. We usually pay them about 10% out of capital or general funds but the vast majority of the money that is in their contract is actually paid out of the grants which we're awarded which they helped
087us get. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> I saw Trusty Williams and Trusty Stro Miss Williams. [clears throat] Yes. So, we um actually had made a contingency plan. We were going to use our 31A mental health grant to support those staff. Now, they can go back into the team's grant. We're still working through the logistics with the federal uh government because they seem to be peacemealing the rest of our award. But yes, in answer to your question, >> thank you so much. I just want to first say that this is amazing presentation. Uh great detail, attention to detail and work and data. I appreciate that. Um, one of the questions that I wanted to more so ask in the sense of for the community purposes, there's been a lot of
088talk in regards to what's happening at the federal level. Um, I do appreciate that you stated right now we are in a great spot within our budget. Um, it appears that a lot of our state grants um will cycle through within this u cycle year and that's all amazing. However, I just want to maybe ask if you can expound a little bit on that 10% of those federal grants. If and when we do not become awarded those funds, how does that impact the district? I'm sure I know those answers, but I wanted to ask it specifically um because this is a question of a hot topic around all of our folks down here downtown today. Thank you. What I will say is we don't know what might happen in the future. As of today, we're
089in a good spot. Am I concerned about grants vanishing? I can't. I have to focus on what I can control. And what I can control is that we've received these grant awards and I can strongly encourage our schools and our departments to spend timely um when it has to do with staffing. Sometimes positions are open for an extended length of time. There may not be much they can do about that, but they can follow their plan and order their supplies and materials for their programs. Um, in the future, title two, title three, I'm not quite sure. Um, we'll wait and see, but we will build contingency plans because the staff we have are all valued, the positions are all needed, and we will work with the board to enact those contingency plans if needed. Superintendent,
090>> thank you very much. I mean, it's a wonderful answer, you know, to Trusty Strode's question about, you know, what happens. You know, I think I can make some conjectures. you stipulated that title two and title three are certainly the ones that are probably the most at risk. Uh what we saw this summer was that even when Congress approved it, uh the administration had held back that money. Then after about a month or two, they did release it. If you kind of look at the politics of it, it is possible that title two and title three might not be reallocated in the future, year from now, two years from now. The good news is that the largest part of the federal money is typically title one and title one seems to not really be on
091the chopping block by any stretch of the imagination. Um the good work that uh Kim and her team have done of course is that we could probably take care of title two and title three with our own budget. But again, this is why I'm so thankful to have this board is that we've been able to kind of keep our fund balance relatively high, bordering between 45 million and 50 million. And what I would say is if the federal government does decide that Title 2 and Title Three go away, we certainly understand that and would be able to close some of those programs down, but they're really wonderful. And so it would be a conversation with this board is would you feel comfortable dipping into the fund balance? The good news is we're keeping that fund
092balance a little bit higher than normal because of the possibility that these would go down. If for whatever reason reason Title One goes away, that's a very different story. But to be honest, if that happens, most school districts in the country uh would be heavily heavily impacted. So the good news, and I will point this out, if you remember when I became superintendent, the budget was split almost 5050 between grant and non-grant. That was mainly because of the COVID money because of ESSER. That's always a dangerous thing. If you're getting a lot of money through grants, those grants can go away. This budget of federal at around 10, state around 29, and general at around 61 is much more imbalanced in a historic way. And so that actually is a really good thing for us
093as of today. But I would say pay attention to the news and the newspapers and we just have to react uh if and when the federal government does do something. >> Okay. Um Kevin, VP Kevin. >> Uh yeah, thanks. Thanks so much for this presentation. Um I was actually looking back and comparing it to last year's presentation. Uh because I, you know, I'm a longitudinal person. Um, and one thing I want to point out is that um, in talking about grants, uh, the proportion of the district budget that was funded by grants last year was 45% and this year is 37%. And it might seem odd that I am pointing this out since it's a decrease. But I actually think that given the truly dire landscape of grant making um both at the federal level,
094the state level and the local level um I think that the fact that we were only you know we only dropped like eight percentage points in terms of what proportion of our budget is grant funded um really speaks to the team thinking creatively about how we can continue to fund some of our programs. And so, yes, while it's true that um at the federal level it's it's not quite certain what's going to happen and we can't predict the future, um I do I do feel very heartened that um this year, even with a significantly larger overall budget, um we didn't see like a massive drop in the percent of that budget that is funded by grants. And so, your team is to be congratulated by continuing to find creative solutions to make sure that we
095can um fund our projects. >> Thank you, >> Trusty Rodriguez. >> Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation. And I was looking for that for a long time. It's very clear. Thank you. And I was concerned about put state and federal grants together. But now I can go at 10. 10% is a federal and 29% is a state. Um I hope the title one will continue. Doesn't matter we have a department of education or not. Still the fund should be there. Should be there but nobody knows. uh I think it should be prepared for any other eventualities that how we can keep going the services over there and and the other thing I will ask at the board is when when the budgets state budget start we start going to the senators and
096to the legislators to tell NS you have to support the schools and I think that is something we can do later together we do it the the universities are doing that everybody's doing that then maybe Michigan State Board of Education when our our president is member they can work together to support education in Michigan. Thank you >> Trustee McKisk. >> Thank you guys so much for the presentation. It was very informative. I learned a lot about all of the different types of grants that support us. I just wanted to say that I'm really excited about the green energy going on, the solar panels. That's really exciting. And also the electric buses. I just think that it's a really good direction for us to be moving into. And I think that students will be excited about
097being able to ride on a silent bus eventually. So that's all. >> Thank you, >> Justin. >> Yes. I want to uh say thank you for all the efforts and the wonderful work being done. And I want to continue on that line of thought asking about those green energy projects now that we're starting to turn on some of those systems and uh put the buses on the road, etc. Uh we expect to see some savings to the district. Is the plan overall to continue to do more projects with those savings or will that just decrease um expense bottom line? Uh what's the thought going forward from here? >> Yeah, so I think um it's kind of twofold, right? We'd want to work together with the board to talk about where where do we want to
098continue to go? I think we've got a lot of opportunity in front of us um to continue and expand on some of those projects. Um while we have some upfront costs, we could look at our long-term reduction of our normal utility bills um and just making it a a better environment for our students with that being a green energy. Um so I think that's something more we need to talk about, but I would love to see us as a district continue to reinvest in additional green uh projects and sustainability projects. Um, a few of the other things that don't require such a large investment, but we could take some of these dollars from is starting to do things like waste recycling in our schools. Um, to start to move to more sustainable, so reusable food
099trays and silverware and glasses and those types of things. Um, not real glass um, but cups um, inside of our school cafeterias and those types of things. So, it's much smaller budget type projects where we could start to see this. Um, and I do want to also point out that we have started looking at our utility bills and we are already recognizing a savings. Um, so even though we turned some of these on a little bit later in the summer, the summer generates most of our solar. Obviously, it's mostly sunny, but today it was beautiful and sunny as well, and I have a nice lovely app on my phone that I'm happy to show all of you. I can monitor how much uh uh power we're generating every day. um that we can take that
100we're seeing tens of thousands of dollars of savings already and that's in a climate where we're not having as many sunny days as we would in the summer. So, we're looking forward to monitoring those savings and looking to see how many how many more projects we'd be able to do. >> And just to follow up on that, is it are the it seems like it's settled now that the tax credits are still available for another couple of years if we were to pursue that. >> Correct. So, uh, we qualified under the previous rulings of them and we actually qualified even under the new rulings under the current, um, administration at the federal level. Um, a lot of that has to do with the fact that we pre- purchased our solar panels. So, since we spent
1015% of our total projects, which the board thankfully approved, um, we qualified under both administrations in both types of projects. Um, and he did extend them as well as far as how long we have to claim. Um, so we do have three more projects that we need to install. We already have the solar panels purchased, so we will be doing that at Everett, Atwood, and Wood Creek. Um, we put the new roofs on Atwood and Wood Creek this summer, and we'll be installing those panels coming up soon. And then Everett will be our additional prop uh property that we'll be installing all of our pre-purchase panels, and that'll kind of be the end of our first initiative uh for our solar panels. So, looking forward to that, but thank you for pointing that out. We
102did qualify under both, so happy news there. Um, just out of curiosity, how much energy is 500 megawws of power? >> A lot. >> I know it's a [laughter] lot, but for people that are wondering, well, >> yeah, I >> would that would that uh what light up lensing? >> Yeah. Oh, no. No, definitely would not light up lancing. Ben, you might have a better idea on this exactly how much it would it would run, but we did install install our smaller solar projects on the roofs of our buildings with the idea that it could generate enough power to run that individual school when it was generating at 100%. Um, so with that being said, we're not generating at 100% right this moment, but Ben, if you have any. Yeah. So, kind of there's a
103rule of thumb with rooftop solar, which is if you fill the roof with solar, it's usually about one for one with how much uh energy you use in that building. And so, the good news is all of these rooftop solars that we're doing will hopefully offset most of the charge, most of the costs. Um the hill one, which is 1.2 2 megawws which is quite big that is large enough to probably do hill as well as some other things. Um so you know we're not powering lancing though that would be awesome. Um but what the hope is is that we'll be able to power the district and if we can do that that's pretty impressive and then the thing that we haven't necessarily calculated yet because we won't know exactly the interface. But one of
104the issues about solar, of course, is that you produce this energy and you use what you have, but if you don't have a place to put it, it goes away. um we're able to give it back to BWL at times, but once we start having the batteries from the buses, we'll actually be able to uh keep the energy and then actually make money uh by reducing our costs at night uh or during days where the peak load where the expenses are quite high. So, you know, we'll hopefully when all is said and done, we'll be able to really reduce our energy bill and still make some extra money when we sell the the power back to the grid. So, you know, anybody listening at home or for the board, if you put the solar on
105the roof and you kind of fill the roof, it should in fact pay for the building itself. We don't fill all of the roofs for safety reasons and things like that, but it's a significant amount of energy for us, which is pretty great. And, you know, thanks to all of our partners for doing that. The other um >> excuse me the other piece of information is that um in terms of federal funding um National School Board Associations is having an advocacy day, advocacy um weekend actually and um Trustee Williams, Trusty Hurt and I will be there and we're going to go to Capitol Hill and speak to our elected officials about this issues u public education. So I know Trusty Williams has been busy learning uh through some trainings that have been um done through
106um Zoom and presented. So hopefully we'll we'll bring some information. But um I think that's one way that we can get involved in that. As far as the state um funding, MASB is very uh MASB is very uh involved in that and I know you all receive information from MASB talking about the um the bills that are in the house, those that um have to do with education, etc., etc. So, keep track of those in that way. And uh like Dr. Rodriguez said, "I think we need to get into the um practice of addressing our uh our legislators." Eons ago, eons ago, if I just finish my thought >> is that the district had a um >> what do you call it? A a a person at the capital. >> So, Rosie Ray, >> yeah,
107we used to have one right >> in the district, but I know I don't want to talk about >> But but we [laughter] don't have that. So, so then >> but that was the year between the legislators and launching a school district. >> Just to support your point, we need to get into that practice of sending our our own letters to legislators or making a phone call, sending a text and say, "Hey, you know, um, and the problem that I have, which is a good problem to have, is that our local legislators support us and support public education. The problem is the other folks that are not in our local area. But I think we can still touch base with them and let them know that that we expect their support. Anyway, uh Dr. Rodriguez.
108>> Oh, you didn't have anything. Okay. [laughter] >> Absolutely. We have. So, as part of that uh recycling of the food piece, um we're creating compost. And so, that's kind of our next thing is getting into the compost, then using that in the gardens that we have at several of our schools. Um so, that is absolutely something that we're looking to. It's all kind of full circle part of that initiative. So, thank you for raising that. >> Okay. Any other questions? Yes, ma'am. >> Not to be pedantic, but I would like to amend my earlier comment um because what kind of longitudinal researcher would I be with only two data points? So I went back to the 2024 budget report and in 2024 38% of our budget was grant funded which is statistically equivalent to
109the percent that is currently funded. Um and so given that I think we all recall in 2024 there was an extremely different uh political situation at both the state and the federal level. And so for have for us to have maintained the same proportion of grant funding um from 2024 through some very different administrations um to the present I think is particularly laudable. Uh and so I I apologize for speaking too soon only looking one year back. Uh but I would just like to congratulate the team. See, see what you're gonna miss. [laughter] >> Well, um, thank you very much for the presentation. Was wonderful. And, um, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now, we're at um comments from the board. Uh, you want to start? Okay. >> Sure. >> Um, first uh, Trustee
110Lemieux Mckis. Uh, Trusty Herd said, "Congratulations again." He's sorry he can't be here. I think everybody knows that he So, congratulations. Um, I'm super excited to work with you. I think we all are. Congratulations team today for your presentation. Even though I did my homework, so you know, I already was ahead of the game and that's why they didn't have no questions this time. Um, also, um, I just got wind that starting next week there's going to be a couple after school programs in the community for our children. So, um, as I get more information, I'll pass it on. But I think it's something exciting that we're looking about partnering with the community and some of these things to help our kids educate and also going to Capitol Hill. We do have appointments with Alyssa
111Slock and uh Tom Barrett and Senator Peters. So we have meetings with all of them. So one of the things they did ask us is come up with a one piece ask. So Christina, are y'all paying attention? No. You need to make sure you're paying attention >> besid Okay, so now we need a one page ask of what we need in our district. So, we need all that stuff, too. So, you got about a week or so to give it to us. But, I I think going forward, uh, Superintendent Shelinger, it's going to be I ain't gonna have nobody to fight with org with. No, I'm just playing. We And I say this in all honesty and heart. We have a lovehate relationship, but it grows and we've we've grown fond of each other. You
112know, that's what brothers and sisters do at the end of the day. You know, they fight. They fight. They don't they don't get along. They don't talk to each other. Then after a while, it's like, forget it. I love you and keep going. I am going to miss you. I'm still trying to figure out what wedding to give because y'all list keep changing on me. But we'll just come to Forks, meet you in Forks where all the rain is at. I ain't coming all the way to Seattle. We got to meet in the middle and hang out. So, best wishes to you and your family and everything. >> Dr. Thank you very much. Um, there are three members here. They hire you. [snorts] >> Yeah. >> And five years ago. And I remember that night
113when you were interview and together this group of members and the previous Boso member they are not here have done or helping all together create the district that you are living. Um I only had one words and I already told you my words is very simple. Thank you >> BP. Um I also want to thank the superintendent for uh his many years of service. Um you know statistics is my love language and so I am very glad that the superintendent was able to shout out some of his and his team's many accomplishments um that can be measured numerically whether that's enrollment, graduation attendance, the AP pass rate, etc. But um Ben, I hope you know that your impact has been far beyond numbers. Um and really uh changing the culture and the reputation of this
114district um which was a long time coming. And so although that is harder to measure, trust me that that will be felt uh long after you leave. Um and we are just so appreciative to your leadership. Although GMO has had six superintendents, I've only had one. Uh and so I can confidently say you are my favorite and the best one. Um but but truly uh you will be very missed in the district and I know that your legacy will live on because you've put us on such a positive trajectory. Um that was something that I really felt uh financially during my time as treasurer. But um I think it's obvious in any of our numerous roles. Um the positive trajectory that the district is on thanks to your leadership. So, um, even though you will
115be serving other students and other families in another district, know that, um, the legacy of your impact here, uh, lives on through the good work that you've done and the path that you've put us on. So, thank you very much, >> Secretary Schro. >> Thank you. I won't be long at all. Uh, thank you, uh, Superintendent. I stand and say thank you as a parent first. Um, I thank you for always putting our students first. Um, even uh, and you're always working. I don't know if people understand, you're always always on. And so I thank you for, um, your dedication. Um it's funny how they said today that this was your first superintendent um opportunity and it has also been my first opportunity serving on the board of education and uh you always forget the
116years of first and so I hope that you'll take a piece of all of us with you and thank you for all the work that you've done um as that will go forward with you um even after you're gone. So, thank you, >> Trusty Moore. >> Benjamin, I really won't be long because I This is a little emotional. Ben is my friend. Yeah, Ben is my friend. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for all that you've done for the district. I'm a product of the Lancing district and I've seen um I've seen change, but I appreciate your integrity, your love for the district, even though you're from the city. But I do um I appreciate everything that you've done. We came in together. I told you we were going to ride out together. This
117is my last year and you're leaving. But I do I want to thank you for all that you've done. And we've already talked. So you already know, friend. that is from the heart. Okay. So, take care of yourself and you you better not forget the Lansancy school district. All right. Okay. >> Trust in the whiskey. >> Yes. I just want to share with the board again that the Lancing 360 group meets every week and have been trying to join that when possible. that did discuss this week some about the efforts of um student employment uh for young people that that's part of the model in Omaha and how uh many uh groups are working on that in Lancing. I know the district is connected to that. So, thank you to the staff working on that
118uh and invite anyone in the community to continue to join those efforts to uh address gun violence in our community. Um, and to the superintendent, you know, I also kind of got involved here when I didn't agree with some of the things that you were doing, but I appreciated so much your willingness to communicate even with a community member. And I know that you respond uh to everyone and that's been a phenomenal example of leadership for this district and a a complete change I think in the way communication has taken place um with family members and and that's been appreciated I think by many even who didn't agree with a particular decision to know that you would explain that decision listen to them um share the opportunity to to come to the board or others
119for that and I think that's a a huge testament to your uh integrity as said and your leadership and and wish you the best in in your next opportunity. >> Trusty Lemieux McKisik. >> Well, first I'm very excited to be here. I'm excited to serve with you all and I've had a great first board meeting. Um, superintendent, I don't know if you remember, but I was trying to graduate early from Everett in your first very f like first couple of months. And I remember emailing you when that probably wasn't the process to try and get my graduation because I really wanted to graduate while I was still 16. um and you responded and I even remember you meeting me at Everett at some point um after that conversation and I just felt in that moment
120that I could really like reach out to the superintendent and hear back from the superintendent and being a high schooler that felt really cool. So I wish you the best in Seattle and I hope that everything goes great from here on out and I'm excited to serve with you all and continue working together. >> Well, what can I say? >> [laughter] >> Everybody said everything, but I do have a couple of things. One is that uh thank you for for your work, but thank you for for the systems you put together. I think we had a fantastic staff, but they needed some cohesion and and and strategies and and those uh processes that you put in place really helped everybody, you know. Um uh it gave him a direction I guess you know u also
121like the uh school-based budgeting which I think it's great um and I think it gives leeway for the principles to really um evaluate along with their uh school improvement team what they really need in the schools and I think um that process put in place with uh training for principles who before were not involved in budgeting they were just given a budget and here you go spend it. So I I think those that was a great learning experience, a great process and um so all to say that um uh those are the things that that started to move the district okay in in in the right direction and I'm very hopeful and I know that we will continue in the trajectory. Um I know that Mrs. Benovas is going to um help us out in
122the journey. Um and that you will just go to the sunset and [laughter] in a horse maybe. I don't know. You know how to ride a horse. Well, we will send you in a donkey because those are those are bad things. But anyway, thank you, Ben. It's been a pleasure. I'm glad, like doctor said, you know, it's three of us that were here when we hired you. We really didn't know what to expect, but but um I think our discussion was we need somebody with uh fresh eyes, you know, and and that's what happened. So, thank you much. We wish you the best of luck uh in Seattle. And again, don't forget Lancing is your daddy. >> That's right. Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. And um >> Oh, should we take a picture
123with the superintendent >> meeting?