Lansing Board Of Education Meeting_06_26_25

001Check check check check check check you guys. [Music] Oh, how cool. Thank you. It takes it. [Music] Good. How are you? We don't have to Just waiting for You're welcome. We found two. Did you get both? Yeah. Okay, good. Good evening everyone. We're just waiting for Trusty Ninsky so we can have a quorum present. Thank you for your patience. Good evening everyone. Good evening and happy Thursday. Welcome to our public hearing. Um today, June 26, 2025, um a little after 5:30. Um could the clerk please call the role? Dr. Kavanaaugh, Mr. Herd, Mr. Lopez, Mrs. Moore, present. Dr. Nars Martinez, Mr. Niski, present. Dr. Rodriguez, Mrs. Tro Williams quarum is present. Thank you. I do want to note that our trustees that are absent did notify me to um inform me that they would not

002be here for this portion of our meeting. Are there any um public comments on agenda items at this time? Seeing none, I would like to move on to our presentation, our fiscal year 2025 2026 budget presentation. Miss Kim, thank you and good evening. Good evening. This evening, as mentioned, we're going through our 2025 2026 proposed budget. I'd like to start with our presentation outline. We'll be reviewing our assumptions, the revenues, expenditures. We'll look at our four-year budget and our fund balance trend. And then we'll open it up for questions. What we know, we used an average retirement rate of 32.23%. We factored in a hard cap increase of 6% which was very conservative at the time. And our property taxes remain unchanged, 17.4478. 4478 for general, 4.1 for bonded debt, and 2.9575 for syncing fund.

003Over the upcoming year, we'll be having conversations about a um restoration millage. The 17.4 mills that are collected now should be 18 mills. So, we'll be providing information to the public and the board of education in the forthcoming months. Hello everybody. I'm just going to add to reiterate what assistant superintendent of budget and finance said for those of you listening at home and for those of us on the board and executive team, the state law has funding at 18 mills for each district. This district currently does not get what it is owed. It is does not get its full 18. It only gets 17.4478. But who's counting? So, it's really, really important that we understand what this is all about. This is all about something called the Headley roll back. And it's something that we're

004going to try to inform the public about quite a lot. And just know again that we are supposed to be getting 18 mills, but we're only getting 17.4478. And that's something that we would really, really like to rectify. So, we're going to be spending some time in the next year getting the public and the community to really understand what this is about so that our children, our wonderful Lancing students, get the money they deserve. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. What we don't know, we don't know what the state aid adjustments for our foundation allowance will be. We've conservatively estimated a 300 per student, which would mean our foundation allowance would increase from 9,68 per child to $9,98 per child. We've also estimated enrollment at 9,600 students, which would be a projected loss of 178 students

005compared to the blended count on the April state aid status report. For our revenues, I'd like to just briefly discuss what types of revenues we have. We have local revenues, which are comprised of the property tax levies, miscellaneous revenues from print, shop, rebates, and interest, facility rentals, and leases. Under state revenues, we have state aid, and the Ingram ISD special education transportation funding. Under federal revenues, we have Ingam ISD medical I'm sorry, Medicaid outreach. Under the Ingam ISD category, we have special education tuition, county special education, and revenue from center-based programs. We also have transfers in from other funds, which is primarily indirect from the food service fund. And then our large category of grants. Under the grant category, we also have local, state, and federal funding. And there's various grants listed as an example

006of what each type is. For fiscal year 26, we've budgeted revenues at $251,911,000. Our local revenues are 14% of that budget. Our state revenues are 38%. Our federal is minute. it shows up at zero. Um, our Ingram ISD is 22.9 million or 9%. Our transfers from other funds shows up at zero because the dollar amount is so low. And then our grants are 39% of our entire budget at $97.7 million. For our expenditures, we have staffing, which is comprised of salaries and benefits. Our non-grant staffing costs are estimated at $113 million. Our departments and schools receive other than wage cover supplies, materials, um, copier machines, etc. And those budgets are 52.7 million. Also included in there are our custodial contracts and um I'm sorry, our transportation contracts. The grant budgets for the categorical funds equal

007the revenue budgets of 97.7 million. Just a reminder, for budgeting purposes, grant revenues always equal grant expenditures. For our expenditure budgets, we have $263.4 million. Wages and benefits are 43% of that total. The discretionary allocations are 20% and the grants are 37%. If we looked at wages and benefits between the two categories of general fund and grant, the percentage would be closer to 60%. It used to be 80% but now we have a lot of infrastructure grants which lowered the amount of wages and benefits. The estimated staffing by bargaining group. This excludes food service. The food service fund has one full-time FTE and 17 partial FTEES. The food service fund covers 50% of our noon assistants. It covers the portion of time that the noon assistants work in the cafeteria. Our general fund staffing, you

008can see our cabinet has total of 12 FTE. Lassa has a total of 72 FTE. Of that amount, I'd like to say that 45 FTE is principles and assistant principles. We have 27 directors, six of which are special ed, one is CTE, one is magnet, one is preschool, one is WEOA, and then we have various other directors in our departments. For our teachers union, we have 853 staff. Um those are full-time and LSEA hourly positions. For our assistants, we'll have 221 staff, 50 from our secretarial group, 27 from our public safety group, and 119 from meet and confer for a total estimated staffing for the district next year of 1,354 staff. The general fund staffing and enrollment data is before you as well. So for next year we are looking at um an increase of

00924 staff and a reduction in students of 176. As mentioned before you might ask what the 24 staff are. Those are mostly related to a shift of 18 FTE from IDA flowth through which was our resource room teachers. They'll be funded with the general fund next year as the ISD is spending the flow through money for the county. In addition, we added staff for Lancing Tech and also staff for schools and departments, additional positions. The 4-year financial revenue analysis is also listed with our expected revenues of 20 I'm sorry I'm blind 235 million. Sorry I can't read that little small. We also have our expenditure budgets and we're showing that we're using 11.5 million of fund balance for next year. I'd like to clarify that. That is assuming positions are filled from day one. We

010know that doesn't happen. That is also assuming that every budget will be spent in full, which again doesn't happen. So, as we proceed through the school year next year with our various amendments, we'll be fine-tuning our budget as we go. Your first amendment will be in the fall once we know our fall count and once we know what we're getting from the state. From there, I expect the budget to proceed um in a positive direction. Any questions or comments from our board at this time? No. We are going to have this presentation again, right? No, that is the public presentation or it's also board presentation. No, it's the public presentation. We're actually being recorded now and we'll vote on the board I mean on the um proposed budget at our um next that is that

011is the difference between public presentation now and then the board education meeting after that this is the public presentation that uh Kim is giving and then there will be a vote next time we meet or whenever it is or now at the 6:00 at at the six o'clock meeting. Yeah. Yeah. But this is a good time to ask questions. Yes. I think that this time was time to the public to ask question, not to the board education members to ask question. But I don't have any problem. I can ask question now and later couple of times. And the first one um uh um do you know you you has about $9,900 for every student. Are you counting the prek2 in this account? No grep universal preschool those numbers are not included in there but maybe

012will be part of the next bud of the budget in the future. We don't know yet. Um the second is you are giving us general numbers. I as a board member I would like to know for instance some location of money for the strategic plan, some location of money for the curriculum, some location money for different programs and I remember I received a letter from previous dire president of the board asking be sure that when you receive the information about the budget also receive information about some of the programs we are having and how we support that programs in the budget. Any idea about that? We don't need it today. But I think in the future we need to have some money allocated to the programs that this board concerned about like for instance a

013strategic plan like for instance if we had reading to the third grade like for instance we have now new curriculum in math. Do we have any money allocated to that? Yes. So for the math curriculum, we'll be issuing payment for that over the next eight years. So we have built in 1/8 of the cost into the budget for next year for various programs such as um literacy or any other board initiative. We met with all the various departments um during the months of February through May and we built our budget according to need. Should the board decide that they would like to add something to it or have us explore an additional program definitely can add that to the budget and then I'll account for it with our next amendment. Think I think that is

014great answer but I think also the maybe a what I call iss not a presentation ISS who mean we dialogue all together that we had a presentation about the budget and specifically tell me about programs they are having in the district that this board is concerning about. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Um, pardon, did you have something, Trusty Ninsky? Um, well, I guess to follow up on that point then on the expense list that you've given those categories, are those statemandated categories to do uniform reporting for all school districts? The formatting of the expenditures toward the end is yes. So, as far as seeing a particular line item for Lancing, it would be within one of those categories that that's correct set by the state. Um my question was about the

015uh employees funded by grant funding. So when we have that break out of the general fund versus grant, that means a portion of that position is funded by one of those state, federal or local grants. Is that correct? That's correct. And so if we hear from the federal or state level of not having those grants in the budget potentially for schools, that's the number we're looking at. In theory, if all those grants were gone, it would affect 346 positions. Yes. Yes, potentially we'd have to fund them either with our fund balance or some other way. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Although one thing I do want to add is we have a lot of different grants from a lot of different places. So it would have to be the feds, the state, whoever. So even if

016the federal government does take away more of the grants that they've already taken away, it won't bring the grant category all the way to zero because that would also include things like at risk and what have you, which is state. Now the state is also having a conversation about possibly getting rid of those. But I think it's a really great question from the board to to recognize and this is something that I will say every year is I love that we get so much grant money but it always concerns me how much of our budget is grant derived. You know when you look at page four the idea that grants are 39% of the district that's a lot of money for grants. So we as good shepherds of the money are going to keep our

017ears and eyes out to see if anything's going to happen. But as of now, we feel comfortable with this budget uh today. Tomorrow, who knows? President uh Trusty Rodriguez, thank you. Um when you're talking about 97 millions for grants, that is in one year period or two years period or five years period because the grants sometimes are more than one year. So that is supposed to be a one-year amount. But yes, some of those grants run through September of next year and carryover is often allowed. So they could be multi-year, but we also could fully spend I I doubt it, but we could fully spend the allocation next year from July 1st to June 30th. Then this 97 millions is nothing for year 2027 2028. No. If they don't spend all of the money by

018June 30th and the grant runs through September 30th, that portion could be spent in the following year. Yes. And I am I am so glad that you're talking about um how much money go for this to pay with this grant and what programs and what money we use regular money. I mean staffing money to pay for the others that we can see the different because the budget is really the the the budget that we had by revenues the budget of grants can be here cannot be here that's correct then I think to make the different and present to the public and to us how we spend these two monies differently I think that will be the public a good idea how we use because what we are doing tonight is be open and transparency to

019our our community that is the reason I am talking because I represent the community they are not here today then that is the the reason I asking questions yes thank you very much but I think that the future maybe you give us another ISS presentation and how much money your ground go for this how much money your regular budget go for that and that way we we we feel better that what we are doing with our money. Certainly. I I I do want to chime in and say I think it would be nice to have a presentation also on if we lose those grants. What does that look like because we are dealing with the livelihoods of individuals and I know we've got a nice little nest egg, our general fund. However, we'll still have

020to be able to maintain the district. So, I think we should consider that as well. Um Trusty Williams, did you have something? I did. I had I had a couple of questions, but I thought Vice President had a question. Sorry, Vice President. Oh, no. Go ahead. So, I do have a couple of questions. Um, Superintendent Kim, Assistant Super, Let me get that right. Um, can you I'm looking at the expend expenditure sheet and so it says instruction basic programs then instruction added needs. Oh, I see. What's the difference? Yep. So instruction for basic programs is direct instruction in elementary, middle school or high school. Added needs is special ed services but direct instruction as well. Okay. And then the instruction for adult and continuation is just our adult adult ed. Yes. Okay. So I'm kind

021of going through all the expenditures to get clarification. Okay. So supportive services pupils. Yep. So that's additional help. That could be your non assistance. That could be some special ed assistance that um is provided to students that isn't direct instruction such as nursing or psychologist or school social workers. Okay. Supportive services. Supportive services is mostly staff development. Um it could also be librarians. Okay. The reason I asked is because I noticed that as we're going through some of the categories um that we're losing like special ed. It looks like we're losing about 200,000 in as as our proposed budget for 2026 and that we're losing money in some of those key categories instead of increasing. Can we talk about that or is that still being fine-tuned? Oh, so you're not looking at apples to apples

022when you look at fiscal year 25, the current versus next year because we've had grants that have fallen off such as ESSER, such as IDEIDA flow through um and many other grants that fell off this year that we will not have next year. So, the numbers aren't actually apples to apples. Okay. Then I had one other question for my clarification because I'm looking at the 2026 budgeted expenditure and the presentation it says total 23 20 263,432,000 and we're looking at 43% of that are just wages and salaries. That's on page I can't even tell you what number I'm on. I went backwards. I that's okay. And so wages and salary takes up 433% of the budget. And then is the discretionary just like the inschool stuff and things like that, the 20%. Yep. That's utilities,

023transportation, supplies, materials, etc. It's everything except for staffing and not grant funded items. Okay. Okay. All set. Trusty Williams. All right. Trustee or Vice President Lopez. Thank you. Um, so this budget is really an overall picture of of the big items. Yes. That that that uh makes up the total budget of the district, including grants and our tax revenue, etc. Right. But I think that if I heard it right, because I may not. Okay. Um maybe that at some point in time this budget we can have a anformational session to see how this budget supports education in the district because they say you know if you support something the budget will have to support it right. So if we talk about initiatives for example um literacy for example, math, you know, so how does this

024budget support those things that are the basis for our existence, you know, so maybe the the superintendent, you know, we can work on a on a presentation that that takes these budget numbers in a way and says this is where the money, you know, is is utilized for the benefit of our students. And obviously, we have to have benefit of our staff. without staff we don't have students without students we have no staff so it goes both ways so I I think that that will also show uh us that that we are supporting you know the initiatives that we talk about in our um in our plan our strategic plan. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. I I want to point out a couple of things. So, first of all, I very much appreciate Trusty Williams going through

025line by line because a lot of these things are in education ease and why would anybody understand or know this stuff? So, I really appreciate you doing that. Um, and to just remind everybody that this is the kind of the yearly presentation kind of overview. What I'm hearing from the board, which is something we've done before and I hope we do again, is for those of you listening at home that don't know this or in the audience, this board does something really special, which is they have the instruct, they have these things called we call ISS's where it's these instructional kind of uh study sessions where we actually can go deep into something. And so what we did last year was we went deep into the budget. This coming year, I think we should go

026deep into the budget. So all the questions that are being asked when it comes to line item stuff, what are we doing for literacy, that's not going to necessarily be in a big kind of topline budget. What that's going to do is going to be in something like an ISS where we can spend an hour or even more um going deeply into how are we spending money, why are we spending money, and then also highlighting the work the board has done in terms of saying this is what we're going to focus on and this is what we're going to want to do. So what we're doing today is giving you the kind of the broad 10,000 foot view. This is where the money is. These are the different pockets. Again, as uh was asked, these

027are certain line items that the state kind of tells us. This is how you're going to do it. But to remind the public and certainly to thank the board is an ISS will allow us to go really deeply into this. And I look forward to that conversation. And we could also do one for grants, one for general. We could put it together. I really um it's up to the board. And the one request I would have for the board, don't do it now. Uh just email us. If there's specific topics you would want us to highlight in the presentation, we can do that too. So no, thank you very much. Thank you, Superintendent Vice President Lopez. Yeah. Yeah. One other point. Um in this budget also, uh some grants or title monies do not allow

028us to supplant salaries. For example, supplement versus supplant. I'm sorry. Supplement versus supplant, right? So that that becomes a little, you know, um well, it's it's it's an issue that we need to understand because if we have all this money but we cannot pay for somebody's salary because we're supplanting and not supplementing, you know. So I think those are the things we need to keep in mind as well. Okay. Thank you. Mhm. All righty. Are there any any more questions from our board members at this time? Thank you so much, Miss K. Appreciate the presentation. On to our public comments on non-aggenda items. I have a Kathy. Okay. Okay. Wonderful. Well, I don't have a comment from a a community member. Alrighty. So, are there any comments from our board at this time? Seeing none,

029our board of education um meeting is or excuse me, our public hearing meeting is adjourned at 6:05. Yes. And we'll be back for our six o'clock meeting in just a second. I got to turn this on first. Yeah. All right. Good. We're just waiting for our quorum and I see my trusty Ninsky coming in now. So, we will have a quorum to get started. Thank you for your patience to this evening. Alrighty. Good evening everyone. Welcome to our June 26, 2025 regular board meeting and information session. Um, may I please ask everyone to rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance 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. Thank you. Could I have

030a volunteer to read our mission statement this evening? Sure. Am I on? Okay. Trustee Williams. Our mission statement is to provide a highquality education in a culturally safe and nurturing environment that supports all students to live purposeful and fulfilling lives. Thank you. May the clerk please call the role. Dr. Kavanaaugh, Mr. Herd, Mr. Lopez, present. Mrs. Moore, present. Dr. Nars Martinez, Mr. Nveske, present. Dr. Rodriguez, Mrs. Strode, Ms. Williams, Quir, Miss President. Wonderful. And our trustees that are absent tonight did inform me that they would not be here. Are there any um comments on agenda items? Public comments on agenda items at this time. Seeing none, are there any corrections to our minutes from our June 5th meeting? Seeing none, moving on to our presentation this evening. And it looks like our first presentation is

031the sustainability presentation from Miss Christina. Christina, would you please join us? Good e good evening. Can you hear me okay on this? Not really. I didn't think so. Oh, let's turn it on. I think she's on. Good evening. Are we better now? Great. So, good evening everyone. Um, at first before we go ahead and get started, I want to introduce um our partners to our right. Um, first is Karen Goldmark. She is the president of Green Link Education. And to her right is Christopher Dean, the director of innovation at Dean Transportation. Um, so they're going to help lead this presentation tonight on our sustainability update for the Lancing School District. Just gonna wait for it to be get pulled up here. There we go. You can also run that. Great. Yep, you're good. Go ahead.

032Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Is this on again? Still. Yes. Okay. Thank you. It is lovely to be here with you. Uh we are going to just provide a refresher background on work that uh the district has been doing over the last several years. Um address some questions that have come up around awards and recognition because the district has received many of them um over the last year and a half. uh and talk a little bit about the funding that's come in um in the just previous meeting where there was discussion about grants that uh this is an area where the school district has gotten a lot of grants and other accomplishments and then we'll spend some time on the EV bus project update which is the item that has some action on the board

033agenda this evening. Any questions or topics we should have? Okay. So, just uh a bit of history. Uh in 2022, uh the district partnered with Green Lake Education and we developed a sustainability plan for the district um and have been helping implement the plan since then. Also, in that year, the district won the first of many prizes being the energy champions prize. that was funding um and recognition of the district's uh early work on energy efficiency. Um and the district issued an RFP to develop 11 solar sites um which are in process. We'll talk a little bit more about that. Um and then starting in 2023, the grants really started coming in. Um, under the prior administration, there was the inflation reduction act, which included $300 billion in funding with a focus on uh low-income

034and disadvantaged communities. And so, the Lancing School District was not only very successful in its own grants, but also was a very much sought after partner for some of the city of Lancing grants and regional grants. Um so uh the district has been again not not only for itself but also for the whole region a really major driver of the tens of millions of dollars of funding that have come in um for the region on sustainability issues. And so these include the clean school bus grant which was $5.9 million, a rebate grant that was $1.725 million um and several other grants. We've got a page on all of them so I won't go through them now. Um, and the other really notable achievement in that year was for the first time ever, there were low-income

035bonus credits for solar projects. And so you didn't have to have the solar project built at that time. Um, but there was a deadline for that application. And so the Lancing School District was in the first round of applications. Um, we worked with uh Miss Adams and Miss Slate too. and at times a lot of people up to the very last minute putting in those applications. Um so there were 10 applications because there were 10 sites that were eligible. Uh one site in the city was was not and over time so in the first year four of them were approved and the ones that were not approved the district was allowed to resubmit. So, we've been resubmitting year after year, and at this point, all 10 of those projects have received the 10% bonus. Um,

036this is something that very few school districts in America have done. Um, and certainly in that first round, uh, to get all 10 through uh is really, uh, impressive. Um so in 2024 the district won another award that was the efficient and healthy schools program award and you may remember this because this is the award where the uh student from Sexton Cadence Jackson was the person who led that application process. Um I've just heard that she is uh going on to college with numerous scholarships uh in the fall. Uh and um she also won a student climate leadership action grant which led to the planting of many pollinator gardens which we have done across the district. Um several of our schools including our GSA GSRP programs uh spent time going outside planting pollinator gardens. Uh

037we have lots of photos happy to share them uh with the board. But it was a great project that we spread across our whole entire district. Um and also last year we were able to actually start to recoup the first set of savings. So, there was a geothermal uh unit at Eastern High School that had um stopped functioning and through some of our energy use analysis, we were able to identify that it wasn't uh in use. Through a lot of effort on Miss Late's part, the system was recommissioned and it's now actually generating geothermal heat and so there's some savings already. The gas use in that building has been down by 30% even though the winter this winter was actually quite a lot colder than the one before. Um, and you're seeing so far about

038$11,000 in annual savings just from that one piece. Um, with more to come. And then this year, uh, let's actually go ahead to the awards page and we'll talk about that. There's more to talk about. Um, so awards and recognition. So, let's start with the good news. So the good news is that two schools applied for the Michigan level award which is Michigan green schools and were awarded that. Um and as I've already mentioned there was efficient and healthy schools program and energy champions. And now in the kind of good news but more complicated, the US Department of Education's Green Ribbon Schools program, the district applied and the way that process works is the district applies to the state, so to MDE, and then the state nominates applicants who they think meet the bar to

039the federal government. So the district applied to MDE and MDE nominated Lancing for the federal award. However, that federal award was not awarded this year at all to anyone anywhere. So, it's not a matter of Lancing not getting it. It's more uh I think caught up in everything that is happening at the federal government and a um sort of turning away from those kind of awards. So, the state of Michigan decided that they still think Lancing did great work and awarded the district a Michigan Green Ribbon School Award, which is a new award that has not existed before this year. And uh presented, I believe Deputy Superintendent Benvites went to the uh ceremony and I don't know what else to say about that other than that unfortunately the federal award is not available. I I

040mean I will add to say that we were the nominee for the state which would have allowed us to win the Green Ribbon Schools since the Green Ribbon Schools does not exist quite yet anymore. Uh it was very nice that Michigan in essence gave us uh the award but just now it's the Michigan green schools. Uh but just to put this in perspective, this means that the Lancing School District is at the top. I mean, the real pinnacle of green work uh for schooling. Uh you can't even be nominated for the state award, let alone the national award, without doing some good stuff. And we really appreciate MDE being creative and creating an award basically just for us. Uh which was really really nice of them. Um but just to to remind everybody that this

041this is it was a national program to highlight the best school districts in the entire country and that we were the nominee for the state is really really quite wonderful and so I want to thank everybody but there is some clarity here because there are no green ribbon schools this year. We hope that they bring the program back and of course we will apply for it then. Thank you Ben. Uh, one of the other items I want to point out, um, is Karen said that we had two schools that won the Michigan Green School. So, I just wanted to give a shout out to those two schools, which is North Elementary and Forest View Elementary. Um, so those two schools did great work with their focus teachers and their principles and their staff and students

042there. Um, so kudos to them for getting those awards. Uh, and correct me if I'm wrong, I believe that's that effort was entirely schoolled. It was I know Green Link didn't do anything, but I also think entirely schoolled. Yes. Uh shall we move on? Sure. Okay. Okay. So, other achievements. These are actual pictures from your district here at the top. So, here's an update on solar. It does take a while to build all of this. Um the first five solar projects are expected to come online this summer. We actually, I believe it was yesterday, got an email from BWL for the first uh sort of sign this document, then we'll turn it on email. Um we're taking a minute with the lawyers before we sign before we actually correct then this district would be ready

043to sign. You want to go ahead? Yep. So we're just having Trune and review the contract with BWL um just to make sure that that whole process we're all in line um once that all of that is done and we come to an agreement then we'll go ahead and turn officially turn on our solar start realizing the savings um and also a buyback program with BWL. And that's it's particularly nice to do that in the summer because obviously the sun is shining strongest and your energy bills are lowest. So you would start building up the credit over the summer. So you would be able to report on the what you've done over the summer in terms of energy savings for you in the fall. Again coming soon and I would say there's not quite ink

044on it. So the ink's not dry but that's the update. Um and on EV buses this is where there's an item on your agenda for this evening. The first seven EV buses have been purchased. They are um they were actually they were ready to go early. The original projection was that they would be ready in September. Um but the manufacturer contacted us and said that they the buses are now ready to go. They're at the dealer and so this summer pending action by the board. Um there'll be a big project at the bus depot to install chargers and the buses will be ready to go in the fall. Um, you should know that the buses won't start out on the first day of school because um, Dean Transportation is taking a very careful approach of

045testing the buses fully before. So even though the buses will be there in September, when we say there, we mean they're going to be on the depot lot and they're going to take test runs, etc. And so you'll see them rolling on to uh, routes over the course of the fall. Do you want to add anything to that? Thank you for I think Karen said it well. I think um we're going to take a very measured approach to this is a whole new frontier and the the number one thing that uh we work on is consensus among all our teams, driving staff, mechanics, uh safety professionals that everyone has a comfort level. So we'll spend a great deal of time allowing drivers and others to get familiar with really a brand new technology. Um how

046you charge it, how you do all the things you need to do to make it function. So I think Karen said it very well. Um there will be more of an onboarding process, if you will, once these vehicles are on the lot and and available to hit the road. Uh by the time they're out transporting students, that will mean that everybody has reached an agreement on, you know, what do we do in situation A, B, C, D, and E to make sure we can safely transport students to and from school. And of course, as part of that process, the opportunity for the board members to ride a bus will be part of that introduction for the students to get on to it, too. and and and just get familiar with it. It's very quiet on

047an electric bus. Okay. So, uh this is just to show you what the Lancing School District has accomplished in terms of bringing in grants, prizes, and incentives. So, um and I believe you have this in your packet, so you can see the fine print here. Lots of funding. It's uh it's over $25 million. Some of that is in the form of those solar incentives that get paid once the solar's turned on. So, you haven't gotten $25 million in cash into your accounts yet, but it is money that you are entitled to. And that is not a grant. That is by rights. And those checks have been getting sent out to other eligible entities. And so, um, there's always a weariness and a cautiousness. Um but as of now those incentives are claimable once the solar

048systems are turned on and we do expect that the district will see those funds. Um in the federal grant category the EPA competitive grant of $5.9 million. The district has begun drawing down those funds and there have been no issues with drawing down the funds. um that grant has not been affected by other grant cancellations etc. And so so far so good. We don't expect that funding to be at risk. Um there's another federal amount of funding of $1.725 million which similarly the district has started claiming and we do not expect that money to be at risk. And so from a federal funding point of view um it's on these grants it's as good as it can be. it's either already been paid out in the case of some of those smaller ones or it's

049in process um or so far other entities are able to draw down the funds and when the district is in the position to do so it will be able to do so. Um with respect to the state of Michigan, state of Michigan a year ago awarded $4.1 million to the district for EV bus support and awarded another $4.3 million this year. So that funding comes to the district. The first amount was already paid last summer when you get your per student aotment and the second amount presumably will be paid this summer. So there's really the I don't know low to zero risk there because it will be in your accounts. All you have to do is spend it in accordance with the grant guidelines and those grant guidelines are about chargers, buses, electrical upgrades, all

050of the things that are in the in the project. So, um, unlike some other, uh, situations, we we view this set of funding sources for the Lancing School District as, uh, in pretty good shape. We do have clients who have lost grants and had money taken back, but but we do not see you in that situation or at at severe or even serious risk of that. That said, it's always better once the money is in. So, we are working with the district to make sure the draw down happens as quickly as possible for each of these sources. Any questions about that? Okay. Um, and then I don't think I think your agenda is packed enough that you don't want me to go through each and every one of these items, but there's a brief description

051of each of the grant items uh in your deck. And then on the EV bus project update, just a reminder, it's 20 school buses over the next two and a half years. Seven have already been ordered. The next seven, as you'll see in a moment, uh will be ordered uh in the near future pending action and approval by the board. Um the district released uh an RFP for chargers, software, and maintenance. Um there were numerous respondents. Six of them were interviewed. Two finalists were reinterviewed and a vendor um has been identified for proposed uh for tonight. Um the charger software and maintenance RFP is to buy the chargers and also to uh get service and maintenance. And one of the things I just want to pause here and say is that that is a really

052important partnership. So, uh, for the district and and for Dean Transportation, the company that's responsible for making sure those charters are working, uh, is that's a very high stakes relationship. Uh, so we really took a lot of time. We asked a lot of follow-up questions. Um, and it feels like a kind of a a big uh decision and we did a lot of reference checking on uh the finalists uh and even some of the semi- finalists and um the entity that that we are proposing to the board tonight really came out best across the three categories of do they really know EV chargers and can they help guide the selection of the chargers? Do they really have a robust plan in place to make sure those chargers are working? And is their software system really

053strong so that it will be both easy to use and um will be able to be interoperable with all of the other systems that it needs to uh interact with. And so across those three domains um through this process we're proposing to partner with a company called EO Charging which none of us had ever heard of before I think um and are happy to answer any questions about that process and about uh them. Um it is the contract is going to be in two sections. So today's uh proposal is really just to buy the Chargers. Um but you you will see in your next meeting a proposal for the software and maintenance uh part of that work. It's just that that that piece of it is still with the lawyers at Trun and we wanted

054to get the chargers going so that the work at but at the dean bus depot can happen over the summer so as to be sure that everything is smooth for the start of school. So I'll stop there and see if there are questions about that. Trusty Ninsky mentioned 20 20 buses over the the next couple years. How big is the fleet that Lancing uses or how much would this convert to electric? Yeah. So that it you could generally think of it as 20 of about 60 buses total. Um 60 between 60 and 65. So it's a generally about a third of the fleet. And what's the sort of cycle for replacing those buses normally? Like the other 40 ideally we'd want to make that switch when the time comes. Yeah. So, ideally in Michigan, you'd

055you'd really like to get 12 to 14 years out of a a ICE bus, an internal combustion engine. Um, with these electric buses and and one of the reasons to kind of phase them in is certainly there's a new technology here. We're all adapting it kind of we're adopting the generation two, if you will, units. It's ideal to kind of let let the industry self-develop. Then the next seven uh be kind of gen three. The problems in gen two will kind of be smoothed out and so on and so forth. And also in the long term what that does it it avoids any major uh purchase bulges in the cycle. So if you purchase 20 buses at once or 40 or whatever the number is you may have very new fleet but on the flip

056side of that 10 to 14 years from now it's going to be the opposite. So I think it's been a very collaborative process trying to work on all the dynamics and and individual inputs about various topics to come together to the to the plan we have today. And one more then would be we're switching from diesel fuel to electric. That just means Dean is purchasing a different fuel within our contract. It's not our site. Um the chargers are at the Dean facility and purchasing that through VWL or Well, how does that work? Because we're working through that. But Ben, go ahead. So So it's a great question. Um, as many of you know, the way that the Dean contract has worked uh since really we started is that the gas price is a pass through.

057So, we pay them a fee for running the buses and then whatever it is that they um they pump at the gas, you know, that's what they get. We are working and again the collaboration with Dean is wonderful. The entire family, everybody is terrific. we are actually working on ways for us to be the provider of those electrons. The issue is just setting it up. Uh so one of the great things about all of the solar work that we're doing is having the ability to actually pump the gas as it were to our own buses. That way there's no pass through. We just get to pay ourselves. Um it's complicated. And so the first run through this we might be paying for those electrons. The hope is over the future as we build more solar

058at the schools we have do dual directional chargers so that we actually are taking the sun we're then pumping it into the the bus. But I mean I can certainly defer to the experts on this but it's the way we need to be thinking about it. And that's one of the other benefits that the community can see of us having solar at our schools is that the buses could hopefully in the future actually charge up there. We're also one of the big projects that you saw a picture of at Hill, you know, a huge project, one of the largest I think in Lancing. If we can do it right, we can actually have buses think of Hill as a semi- depot where they can actually charge there. But I mean there's more detail that they

059can answer. So what you will see in this bid recommendation is actually a recommendation for permission to buy up to 30 chargers. And you may wonder why 30 chargers for 20 buses. And the answer is precisely the question you raised. We definitely want to have a onetoone at the bus depot so that you can always charge all the buses there. The additional 10 chargers would be for Lancing Tech and possibly other sites that have solar across the district at the schools. um that work for Atlancing Tech is anticipated to happen. Uh there's an R there'll be an RFP process etc. So we will identify the chargers but then there's there's a lot of electrical work that needs to happen to actually make it possible for the chargers to be installed there um because of all

060of the electrical work that's already happened there with the community center grant and the solar were kind of maxed out at that site from a power point of view. However, what will be possible is then to charge the buses and also to use the buses as batteries so that when the electricity is most expensive, you can actually take it from the bus and put it into the building. So that is part of what makes this project so complex is that there's the birectional charging component, there's the solar component and then there's the um what's called V2B vehicle to building component of it in the beginning and eventually if BWL develops a dispatch rate then there'll be a V2 G moment. Right now, it's better for the district to sell the solar to BWL than to

061sell it from the bus because there's no price advantage. So, it's not worth charging the bus and then sending it back. However, there will be cases where it's worth doing that. Where where the district can save even more money beyond what it's already going to save on the solar is really in using those buses as batteries um and lowering the demand charges. So that's part of why the request is for approval for up to 30 chargers. And because also that Michigan money that just came in of the additional $4 million means um the district is not constrained to doing one charger per bus. There can be a char there can be 20 chargers at Dean and you could also have these 10 chargers across the the district. So a follow-up question then uh you mentioned

062a buyback with BWL. So, the five sites that are coming online, are they considered separate sites that each have a net meter? And if we produce more than we use, we have to sell that back at whatever negotiated rate. Yes. So, it would be negotiated per site. So, right now, the only one that's currently on the table is North. That's the one that's fully ready. That's the one that um Karen spoke to that we have the kind of contract. Inc's not wet yet. Um so, we're discussing that. Um but each one yes um is a buyback and it is based on BWL's regulations um as they move through their process with this. But yes, each site is their own contract district account that we could somehow use the credit another school that can't have solar

063per se. We can it's just the buyback is per solar location. Um but we do have a district account. We get build per per school. Um it doesn't mean that we can't then you know spread that out through each school but each contract is per school for the buyback site and and the rate right now is 7 and a half cents per kilowatt hour. It's a pretty good rate and it's well lower than your cost of building the solar. Um while while you don't have a right now a kind of district-wide plan given that it's distributed generation and it's essentially a fixed rate for no matter how many kilowatts um up to 100% of that site's capacity the real um question will be you know can you start to do something about demand charges and

064uh and it is a good question for BWL of to talk about a whole sitewide, but really the district um there are some sites that have heavy demand charges like Lancing Tech, which is why the one of the many reasons the array is so large there. Most of the most of the arrays are sized to meet 130% of on-site use, not to be as large as the as the Lancing Tech site is. That's the site that has $100,000 every year in demand charges that we'd like to Is the netting per month and that or does it per calendar year? Like if we you produce more than we um use in July, we can carry that over through the month, but at the end of the year if we've produced more than we need. Okay. Yes.

065And and that's really important because you're not going to produce that much solar in December and you don't use that much energy in July. So it is an annual. Yes. Okay. I'm just going back forward from those pictures. Okay. So, the next steps and this is slightly different from uh what you were sent last Friday just uh because some of the dates have changed. So, today there is a charger purchase contract recommended for approval as we've just described and in July will be the authorization to purchase the next set of seven EV buses. Um it's you may recall uh your action last fall involved two steps. You approved uh using the Michigan School Business Officials process and then you approve the actual purchase. It'll be a mirror of what you did last time, but it

066will be for the 2526 fiscal year. So that will be what the proposal will be in July. And then you'll also see a proposal for the software and maintenance part of the work with uh EO. Um and then what will happen this summer is um there'll be upgrades at the Dean bus depot uh and the installation of the first set of chargers, the order of that next set of buses if you approve them. Um and then we said October as a general guess around when the first set of buses will start running. Um, any questions about that? That's the last page, right? Okay. Yep, that's it. I just had one that came up. Are you aware of any other districts in the area doing any work with EV buses? I will I will let Chris

067answer most of that. The short answer is there's a monthly meeting at which most of the districts doing this work meet and talk a lot and we've learned a lot from it. But I'll let I'll let Chris. Yeah, that's a great question. I uh none in the immediate area. Um some on the west side of the state, some kind of in southeast Michigan. Um we have a handful on the road uh currently. This certainly will add to that and we're also working with some other district partners on this. Um I do just want to add on and and commend Superintendent Karen. By far Lancing's the most forwardinking district we have that we're partnering on projects like this. talking about the net metering, how buses can be used to offset building energy costs. Um, it's been

068a very collaborative effort to try to put together all of our expertise because there's a lot of partners and players in the in the space, if you will, chargers, software, buses, utility, how you meter all that. Um, but really credit to superintendent, all of you as board members, Karen, uh, Christine and and the district leadership on how forward thinking it is to have the buses as part of a a bigger district-wide plan. So, that's a long way of saying um Lancing's going to be one of the first to have a size of of the fleet of electric buses that will be on the road. Thank you. That's great news. I'm excited about that. Any other questions from our board members at this time? Yes, Vice President Lopez. Yeah, I know it was it's been mentioned,

069but just so that we not forget, these buses are the district's buses, right? Correct. operated by by Dean Transportation. Correct. Right. So, um I guess it's a mutual agreement that that that we have with Dean and we're upgrading our property and we're upgrading the the for the buses are going to be stationed, right? So, I guess it's a win-win for all. Yes. And actually you raised a great point which is that it's it is not frequent that federal grant money flow can flow in this way to the district and then to the transportation services provider. This grant was structured that way on purpose recognizing how the VA essentially across the United States 50% of districts run their own buses and 50% use transportation service providers. And so the folks who put this grant together really

070needed to make a structure that worked for both of those scenarios. Um so yes, uh there will be at some point and I don't quite know how you'll do it, but as a there'll be some kind of amendment to the dean contract because it doesn't currently take into account the notion of federal dollars flowing to the district and then upgrading the the depot. So far, it's all been in very transparent and and in good faith and I'm sure that will continue. Uh it is it's it's really unique as far as I know to the bus grant program that that money can do upgrades that it is happening across the country that this funding is flowing to kind of the private companies who provide these services in the sense that the upgrade goes to the bus

071depot and it's also again to that Michigan money providing a full really the full rest of the funding that's needed this the the net cost to the school district of this should be something like $120,000 out of a $16 million project because there's one thing that no one will pay for that you're going to have to get from BWL and apart from that all of that funding is grant funded. So, um yeah, that's it's a rare structure. Um and it is a win-win as you say. Yeah. Well, I guess it's all to say that we have a good relationship with Dean. Yes. And we're working with them. They're working with us. All's good, but I think there should be some sort of agreement. Yes. Just in case. Yes, of course. Uh I don't foreseeing it,

072but just in case. All righty. Well, I think that concludes our presentation from you all. Thank you so much for being here again um and presenting the wonderful work that you all are doing to assist us and that the district is a part of. So we do want to save mother earth and thank you for your leadership in this. This really is I mean there it's you're really doing national leading work here. Thank you. Wonderful. Thank you so much. All righty. Well, you're not leaving. I'm staying right here. I'm not going anywhere. Do you have your posi here? I have my posi. They're coming up. Okay, next we have our bond our 2022 bond update. I should have caught it there. Right there. Your Mr. Alexa right in the middle. Yep. There you go. Heat

073is on. The heat is on. Okay. Got enough room down there. All right. We're good. All right. So, welcome again. Uh we've got a whole um presentation for you tonight about our operation projects. What we're going to do is go ahead and start out with our 2022 bond update, move into additional capital projects that we've had going on outside of the bond or with bond funds as well, um collaborating with other funds, and then move on to our master facility plan update as well. Um so we're going to go ahead and start out with plant manoran. And I'll let the gentlemen here to my right introduce themselves um as we move through this. Um we'll have different people here. Some of them you recognize, some of them you may not. So go ahead. Uh Mark

074Alexa with Plataran Real Point working as the district program manager in conjunction with my partner Paul Wills. Uh Paul Wills partner with Plant Moran and I just real quick Mark was just recently promoted to senior vice president. So again, congratulations Mark. And I want to note that um he was invited to go to a meeting where he was going to be told he was invited to be the senior vice president, but he was here working with me on a project in our team and couldn't make it. So, somebody else had to take uh that honor on for him at that meeting. So, this is a gentleman that works very hard for our district. Uh thanks uh Andrew Dos, project manager with Chrisman Company on most of your bond projects. And then to my left, Todd

075Co. I work with the scing fund and some other things with the district. So he's been working with us for about 25 years now. So we love Todd. So go ahead. All right, if we can Oh, you got click. Yep. Green button. Look at that. So uh first and foremost, I just want to say thank you guys for being uh part of the spawn team. Uh Mr. Wills and I presented to you folks about three years ago. We were fortunate enough to be awarded uh the the you know bond rep and program manager for the Lancing school district and uh it's just been a pleasure. I I I want to say that uh with Ben's guidance, the facilities team, Christina, Todd, Tex, everyone across the board, Jessica, uh Sergio, like everybody, like it's been a

076tough job. I will say that. But it's been a lot of fun. And first and foremost, I just want to say that um with Ben's leadership and Christina's leadership, it's always been program first. Like we if we're going to cut, we're not going to cut program. We're going to we're going to be a little bit less bougie on finishes or things like that, but we're not going to cut the program. Like the program I like bougie. I have to cut that stuff. Sometimes the team knows this. It's it's always been apparent that kids are number one and I really appreciate that. And um you know it's just again we're a long way from finished so I'm not you know uh tooting anybody's horns yet but we're we're doing a great job and this team has

077been amazing to work with. So I'm really looking forward to you know working through the next uh four years with that. There's kind of a snapshot up here uh of the schools we're working on. For the most part we highlighted the the new builds and the projects that we've either completed or in process. Obviously, the projects that we've completed with are the smaller HVAC projects that we did in the summer, but our um kind of benchmark project right now is Mount Hope. And with uh the the Chrisman team and the AE team, we've done a hell of a job. I'm going to say that uh where we're at right now. Um I'm pretty proud because we've spent that less than 2% of our contingency. And that goes to how things were bid out, how the

078design was done, uh leadership from Mr. bills, making sure we stay to our square footage plan, working with Andrew's team to make sure we have ample um mandatory alternates and voluntary alternates. And literally today, we've spent just under $600,000. So that's less than 2% and we would typically um target anywhere between 5% and 7 and a half% for a contingency. So um we're kicking butt and I'm I'm just proud of that team. So um with that, like I said, you can see the schedule. Mount Hope Willow's underway. Willow's about halfway done. uh will be turned over next year. That's a little different project. Um it's a campuswide project. It's it's a really neat project and it's been really exciting to work with those teams there too. So um we've gone through some learning curves there

079that's got geothermal, that's got solar, that's got a lot of things that we've talked about and kind of touching on what Karen and her team uh talked about previously. Uh and then followed by that is Luton. Luton is currently in the uh design development phase and what we're really trying to do is make sure um you know we stay in budget there very similar to where we're at with Willow and then upon that we're going to follow up with Sheridan Road. So, the nice thing is um we're going to get those four new schools that were promised uh in the bond and we just want to make sure that um you know I I guess the really the neat thing for me is that again this district is no matter what sector or corner you

080are in the district, it's always been said that every child should get the same opportunities. So, and and that's pretty amazing. So, um, again, I'm going to, uh, I'm going to toot the horn a little bit at the district because we've got some really educated people here that that care about the, uh, the staff, the students, and also the parents. And again, we're not going to sacrifice on program. We're going to make things happen. So, again, with that, Sheridan Road is next project. Um, we're in process of doing that right now. Averil and Lions. We obviously did some nice HVAC projects continuing with Kavanaaugh and then obviously Sexton we're working on right now in the schematic design phases to do some HVAC and uh interior interior renovations especially for that beautiful auditorium. So down below

081that um before I jump into just a quick budget snapshot any questions comments? I know I go fast sometimes schedule-wise, but I just want to make sure we we hit hit everything and you guys have an opportunity to um answer questions. Obviously, GMO and um Brazen and Caitlyn are typically in the BFC meetings, so we have some interaction with you folks, too. So, it's been a minute since we've got a chance to sit in front of you guys. So, I just want to make sure that we answer your questions. I'll take silence as good. So, so you're saying we're on schedule, right? Yes. Good. Uh we are on schedule again. um great construction team and the Chrisman team that Andrew's been uh leading and again just a lot of you know innovative designs and things

082that we're doing and I I just think it's they're going to be really dynamic schools and I think you guys are going to be proud for a long time in this district. So snapshotwise originally this is a $129.7 million bond. Right now we're at 143.5. And why that reflects that is because you folks were fortunate enough to get a consolidation grant. We we helped you guys. We assisted in that process. But the nice thing is, um, when we did that, we were able to pump some money into the bond projects and make sure we get those four new schools designed and built. So, uh, if you look to the far right where it says forecasted over under budget, we always want to see that as zero. We never want that to be in the red

083and we're not in the red. Um, we've done a really good job, like I said, of man managing contingency and and escalation costs. Um, I hate to use the T-word, but we have a tariff sheriff actually on our team and she's amazing. Um she's very legal uh uh what's the word I want to use? Um she's yeah very legal minded and and very um driven on reading all of the mandates and whatnot to make sure that we stay on top of things and um we're ordering parts and pieces materials uh ahead of tariffs hitting anything and it's it's kind of a you know we're chasing our tail right now with that but we're staying on top of it to our the best of our ability. Long story short, um as we work through the next

084projects, any contingencies that we have left that will roll into the construction contingency and the owner contingency and we use those towards the next project. So, uh we're in really good shape right now. Um we've done a great job with again managing that contingency and making sure that we're designing uh buildings that fit the the students needs, fit the teachers needs, and we're taking advantage of uh the actual um the land that we're using. um all all of these new facilities are singlestory buildings and we're doing our best to make sure like for the K8 schools that we're keeping the littles away from the bigs and that you know you guys can have a great learning environment. So, uh, with that, yes, sir. Real quickly on the budget. So, um, this is actually the first

085series and so obviously is a multi-series bond. The next series will be here shortly. So, the good news you've actually complied with the IRS spending requirements of 85% in the first three years. That's actually done with the multiple architectural teams. And again, Chris been having the ability to have multiple teams work simultaneously. So, we're trying to accelerate work as much as possible, offset any escalation, things of that nature. But from a bond compliance standpoint, the district's done a really good job making timely decisions um to allow the construction team to really put construction in place. So that's a great part of the second series coming up being sold in the spring. So next one. Yeah. So here's just some highlights of where we're at. Obviously, uh Mount Hope, uh I'm just going to go through

086quickly where we're at, uh in in the process schedule. So Mount Hope's going to turn over in August. Um we're cranking right now. Actually, Christina and I have a walk on Monday morning with AE teams and Christmas team to do the punch list for Mount Hope. Um, if you haven't been to that site, it's gorgeous. Uh, I think the neighbors a little frustrated with us with all things are going on, but I think now they really understand what a beautiful school you're going to have. And, uh, people are starting to creep out. We have some surprised news teams there last week, but, you know, that's good publicity. It's great. Have some good tours. I told Paul and Andrew to make sure I didn't forget the Chamber of Commerce meeting we had a week ago. That

087was very well um, attended. That was awesome. Really good questions asked. I mean, people were excited with the concrete floors and the design and the technology and all those things, audio enhancement, the safety, the security, all those things. So, uh, anyways, we're going to turn that over in August. And we're on schedule for furniture. We had a little trouble with some deliveries that were, you know, they're on a boat across the sea, but they're going to be there the first week of August. So, that's our last delivery. And we'll have ample time for teachers to get acclimated to their classes, owner training, commissioning, and the like. Uh, Willow, we're about halfway there, Andrew. Right. We're going to be done uh next next uh winter. So, fall winter uh and of of 26 and that'll open

088uh you know, the following spring. So, uh that's looking great. Obviously, that's a more of a campus style uh structure and just a really cool complex. So the the nice thing is with the design designs we've done with Mount Hope with Willow and now Luton. Luton's kind of a hybrid of of both and then with Sheridan Road, we'll see where that goes goes with the design teams and with you know the parents and students but we've involved those folks the whole time and you know given each uh neighborhood an an opportunity to have input on the school they want for their kids and just you know very specific to those neighborhoods but also making sure that we hit you know the proper parts and pieces. the um the academic requirements and whatnot. So again, um

089I'll let Andrew talk a little bit. We had a safety standown. That far right picture, the bottom right corner, uh we do a safety stand or Chrisman does a safety standown just to make uh the contractors aware of how important it is to be safe every day. I mean, we certainly want to make sure while we want things done on time, on budget, to the quality we expect, and on schedule, we want everybody to go home every night um to see their family and their children and make sure they're safe and come back the next day. So, uh, Andrew, you want to hit some highlights or anything from your perspective from the Christmas team? Thanks. Uh, I just want to reiterate, um, what Mark has said that it's been a pleasure working on these projects,

090working with you guys. Uh, I've worked with a lot of school districts and, um, not many school districts are this forward thinking. So, it's pretty pretty awesome to work on these type of projects where you're not just building the same cube over and over again. you're doing new designs and you're always trying to think of the best new way forward. Um, yeah. So, appreciate it. We're continuing to work. Uh, Willow's going well and we're looking forward to doing Luton and then Sheridan Road right afterwards. Same time. Thank you, Andrew. One of the things I just wanted to point out is everybody that drives by Mount Hope always wants to know what are those blue things sticking out of the building. Everybody wants to know. We've had lots of inquiries worrying if it's one thing or

091the other. Um, I kind of can't wait for everybody to see what's inside. Those are reading nooks in every single one of our classrooms. So, those can fit anywhere from about six to eight students in them for small group. Um, maybe for just a moment for a student to, you know, have a moment to themselves, those types of things. Um, and speaking on that as well, just for anybody who is listening, maybe all five of you. Um, August 5th will be our grand opening for I'm sorry, Rosyn, I'm stealing your thunder. Um August August 5th will be our grand opening for Mount Hope and that will be from 4 until 7 pm. We welcome anybody and everybody to come and tour the building um that evening. So we'll also get things posted on our website

092for that as well. Any other questions uh comments before we roll into the next segment? Trusty Ninsky, you uh mentioned that um the Willow would be ready next spring. Would the move in be then or wait until the fall? we would wait until the fall. Uh the superintendent and I have discussed this with our instructional team as well. We don't feel that it's um the best move instructionally for our students to make a midyear move that large into a new space. Um so while the building would be turned over to us in the late winter, early spring, um that just allows us more time to have families tour it, have the students go over and even have some, you know, maybe do field trips there, spend time there, but not actually turn over the full

093building until the fall. Anybody else? All righty. Okay. All right. So, we will move to the next section of uh the presentation, which is just all of our capital projects. So, while we have all of our large bond projects going on, we also have a lot of other funding sources happening in the district and a lot of other projects going on. Um just to kind of give an update and at our board facilities meeting, um we've talked about this as well. We're working on about 96 projects this summer. Um so, there's a lot going on. pretty much everywhere you go, there's something happening to our schools. Um, so just a quick overview of all the different funding sources that we're using to do upgrades, uh, renovations, different construction projects at our schools. Uh, we have

094our sinking fund that we get an average about 8 million annually. We have our Michigan Healthy Schools grant that we receive for $15 million to assist with air conditioning in our schools. our 31A school safety grant um which uh Miss Cordelia and her office um in the office of school culture applied for. We've used that for a lot of our fences about $1.5 million. Our community center grant uh in the amount of $2 million. Um you guys just approved additional uh change orders at our last board meeting. So this is for a new gymnasium at our Hill location at our Southside Community Center and for our Lancing Tech students, our CTE grants. So, a lot of work happening, about $4 million worth of work happening this summer there, um for our Lancing Tech and CTE

095programs at our Hill location, brand new entrances, continued updates to our classrooms, um additional culinary arts kitchen, those types of things. We also were lucky enough to receive an Everett facilities grant in the amount of $2 and a half million dollars. Uh so, we were making upgrades to our lighting at our football stadium. Super excited to have our Vikings have that feature uh this fall. We're also updating our track and field at Everett as well with a brand new um it's called a bath house, but it'll be where there'll be locker or not locker rooms, excuse me, bathrooms, ticket stand, concession stand as well at our track area. Um we also received an additional Lancing facilities grant in the amount of two and a half million. So we're putting another half of million half a

096million dollars at our um Everett location. We're going to be looking at next summer upgrading our press box at our football field and then $2 million will be going to Sexton as well to make additional upgrades there. And then we just have our capital projects, our general fund of $5 million. Um so we've had money put into that over the years. There's different um projects that we're using that for painting upgrades, exterior upgrades, uh to the like. One thing I just want to add, especially in uh reference to the budget conversation that we had with uh with Kim, one of the really wonderful things about being very good at the budget and having enough money in our general fund is that we're been able to move money towards what we just call capital projects. That

097is in addition to all the other money that we've had. So when you see sometimes the budget uh showing let's say we're you know down five million or six million this board has been really really thoughtful about how do we want to use our fund balance and so when we have a lot of money in the fund balance we want to make sure that we spend it down to an appropriate level and this allows us to spend on things like these extra capital projects. So, you know, if you see like last year's our budget was a we spent more than we took in. We did that on purpose. We did it so that we could spend down the fund balance a little bit, but it allowed us to do these extra things that we weren't

098able to do previously. And so, I do hope that the community and our students especially, but our families really see the quality of the facilities in which our children and staff work in is coming up inexraably. Not just do you see fences and playgrounds and we're going to go through all that, but even the stuff you don't see like a new boiler or new electrical, all of that is happening because especially through uh Kim's guidance and the board's guidance, we've been able to be such good shepherds and stewards of the money is we actually have this extra money to spend on things that we need to. Now, the flip side, I want to be very clear and Mr. Wills can certainly tell more than anybody. The district when I started had almost a billion dollars

099of deferred maintenance. So just put that in perspective that the the district itself had a billion dollars that it needed to spend just to kind of come up to par. And that's why we're spending as much as we can on these facilities because our kids deserve the best. Our staff deserve the best. And so I'm really grateful to this. But I wanted to point out that that general fund money is we are able to do that because of the way that we've been kind of really good with the with the budget and with asser. So absolutely. Thank you for pointing that out. Vice President Lopez, just a quick question. Um on the capital projects funding sources, um is there a reason why you didn't include the the bond? Yes, I kept that separate because we

100just had the bond presentation. And so these are additional projects that are happening outside of the bond. So these are additional funding um that we're using to to complete other items outside of the four new schools and the two um air conditioning projects that we did with the bond. So that's why we didn't put it on this part. Thank you. You're welcome. Just just to add to superintendent's uh point, I think how many years ago, there was a bond proposal for $420 million that of course didn't pass. And that was because we needed roofs, we needed new schools, we needed boilers, we needed everything, right? So I think that um starting in 2001 2002 when we started building new schools with new pengale and a lot of improvements to our current buildings we're still were

101not up to par and we had still had other buildings that needed a lot of help. So I know that we uh sold uh at least 10 schools before and then have vacated a couple of others. So, I mean, it's a long haul and uh so I you know, I think we're doing things more uh carefully and and with more thought, you know, in mind. So, yeah, I I really want and I thank the the team because at this point started a little while ago, but now we're here. Yeah. Well, thank you. Yeah, I really want to thank this board and the facilities committee to recognize what we were doing and that's really you're right. The the the path was started and now with the bond and with what we're doing, we're able to to

102make it and you know this doesn't happen in isolation. You don't get brand new buildings without the community, without a board, without uh the staff really caring about this. So, you know, I I agree very much, Vice President Lopez. Thank you um really for the guidance that that we've been given because it's really pretty great to drive down the streets and see these new buildings and these new fences and all the great things. So, thank you. New parking lots. New parking. We we it's coming. We got it all on here. New track at Everett. I remember when I first got on the board, I was like, what's going on with Everett's track? And look at you all here. Thank you. You're very welcome. Um so, I'm just going to go through a few of the

103large bucket projects that we're doing. So, obviously I talked about us doing 96 projects. I'm not going to go over all 96 tonight. I'm going to hit some of the larger projects that you'll be seeing. Air conditioning. We know this is, you know, something that is very important to our students and our staff. Um so, just to recap, in the summer of 2023, we put in um full building air conditioning at both Averil and Lions. This summer, we are putting in full building air conditioning at Kavanaaugh. That work is happening right now. Uh just to point out the additional work that is also happening at Kavanaaugh. We are putting in new ceilings, new lighting, um new paint. They're getting new whiteboards, new tack boards. So we're doing a kind of a whole building revamp on

104the interior of that school. Cumberland, Forest View, Guyire Park, Pleasant View, Postto, the Sexton Annex, um and Sheridan Road are all getting air conditioning this summer as well. Um, so they are all getting not full building air conditioning at this moment, meaning kind of that what we would consider central AC. Um, kind of like what we're currently sitting in. Um, but we are going to be getting floor units and or window units in all classroom spaces for all students at all of those locations this summer. Um, we are buying um what I'll call high uh they're not BTU um high output air conditioners for all of those spaces. So, not even your traditional small window air conditioner that you're thinking of. These require a much larger electrical load. They are meant for the space, the

105classroom spaces, um to pump out enough air for all of all of our students and and staff. Um in the summer of 2026, we will be looking at doing full building air conditioning at Dwight Rich. Um so, right now, we are currently in the planning process of that um with SCES and with Chrisman. So, right now, Dwight Rich has partial building air. I'd say maybe a fourth of it has air conditioning. Um, so we will be looking at making that a full building air conditioned space uh next summer. And then Sexton High School, we will be looking at adding additional air conditioning in the classroom spaces in the traditional building next summer as well. So Ston is our last high school that does not have full building air conditioning. So next summer we are looking

106to make some updates there as well. Um the funding for all of these projects come from the Michigan Healthy Schools grant, sinking fund, capital projects, and the 2022 bond. Um so, as we've kind of talked about different things, we, you know, and Ben mentions, we pull lots of different sources of money. We go for grants. Um we take all the opportunities we can to make these changes in our schools. The next bit is our fences. Uh last summer we were able to do Averil, Cumberland, Lions, North Post Oak, and Willow at Riddle and Wexford. This summer we are finishing all of the rest of our locations. Um in addition, we did add a location of our Hock Center. Um so we were able to put some fences there. Uh Miss Cordelia is super excited about

107that. Uh we have a lot of ste uh you know, some things that kind of happen over there. Uh as most of you know, we have parks that abut all of our school locations. So sometimes, you know, people happen to have quads and dirt bikes in the cities and like to ride through properties. So, uh, we went ahead and put a fence up there as well. Um, so we're super excited about that. Um, right now, most of these fences are already complete for this summer. So, we're already we're only, you know, we're not even done with June. Most of these fences are complete. So, if you happen to drive by any of these locations, you're going to see fences going up. Um, with the exception of Kavanaaugh because we have so much other work going

108on. That'll kind of happen at the end of the summer. Um, and just a reminder, 31A safety and security grant and sinking fund are paying uh for our fencing. Next, our playgrounds. Uh, so thankfully the board approved a bunch of playgrounds last summer and you guys have approved another the rest of the playgrounds for this summer. Um, so the picture that you're seeing here is at Guyire Park. Uh, Guyire Park's playground is no now fully complete. This picture was taken at the end of last week. So we're super excited about that. If you get a chance to drive by Guyer Park, you can see their new playground. Um, so we are completing the rest of our playgrounds at all of our locations. So all of our elementary schools will all have new playgrounds by the

109end of this summer. Um, we are also adding at the Wood Creek location. So just as a reminder, our Mount Hope students were at Wood Creek while their school was being built. They will now go into their new site. Our Luton students will then go to Wood Creek and be there until their new school is built. Luton has preschool. So, we are adding a preschool playground at Wood Creek this summer for our preschool students. Um, this is being funded out of sinking fund and our magnet art grant fund that also helped build a beautiful playground at Forest View. There we go. Uh, preschool. So, our GSRP classroom renovations. Um, if the board remembers, we did two major renovations at two classrooms at Gardener last school year. Um we've continued that and we are creating two

110new classrooms at Dwight Rich. So the pictures that you're seeing um are at our old shop classrooms at Dwight Rich. For any of you that are familiar with the Dwight Rich location, um we have started to turn those into our new preschool classrooms at Dwight Rich. Um they are almost complete. We just have a couple of things left um that we're kind of checking off the boxes for. Um, and then at Wood Creek, we're also creating two new preschool classrooms there. Again, because Luton will be using the Wood Creek site while their new building is being created, and this is being funded by Stinking Fund and our general fund parking lots, as President Moore uh had mentioned. Uh, so we're putting in several new parking lots. Uh, the top picture that you're seeing is the

111entry to Gardener uh International School. So, we're placing all entry and all parking lots at Gardener as well as their basketball court. Um, so super excited to get that done. The entire west lot is already done and we are currently working on the east lot. And then your bottom picture is Dwight Rich. Um, so the giant parking lot in the back where our staff uh that our staff uses and our parents use for drop off, we are completing that area and we are also redoing the sidewalk area at the back of the school and the basketball court as well. And then at Cumberland, we are doing the parking lot there. So, we're continued on site work and we are also doing the uh basketball court at Cumberland. So, while we're doing the parking lots, we're

112also redoing the basketball courts and this is being paid for out of our sinking fund. So, bottle fillers. Um, one of the things um that the board uh may know about is there's new filter first legislation. A lot of this stemmed out of the uh Flint water crisis. Um, and so there's an expectation for schools and daycare centers uh to have their lead levels in schools and at daycare centers at a much lower level um than I would say the community might have. Um so new filter fresh first legislation has gone into play. We must be compliant with it um by this fall. Um pr proud to report that the district is fully compliant um at this moment in time. We did receive a filter first grant uh that allowed us to replace all of

113our old bottle fillers and all of our old water fountains with new bottle fillers that meet all of the current legislation. We and also in all of our preschool rooms, we put in undermount filters at those sinks because we know our preschool rooms use a lot more water in the classroom and spend a lot more time in the classroom. So, we put filtration systems right at the sinks in those classrooms. Next is our Hill Community Center gymnasium grant that I kind of mentioned a little a little bit ago. So, we got about 2 million for that. Um, straight from our community center grant, we put in um in the gym, we're doing new HVAC, a new floor, windows, bleachers, ceiling fans, and electrical upgrades. Um, we're also using that money to put in new flooring

114and paint in the main office in the community rooms for the community center. And then we're putting in new doors in the hallways to separate the center from Lancing Tech and the rest of the high school. Um, so obviously that school was built to be a full high school. We have community partners in that space and we also have our high school students. So we're adding additional doors to go ahead and separate out that space so it's more clear to both the community and the students where the boundaries are inside of the school building. Then we have our $6 million grant. Um, I had mentioned we did a little bit of work last summer, about $2 million, and we're doing the remainder of $4 million this summer of our CTE program. Um, we're putting in

115a brand new main entrance, uh, that we jokingly say is the Dr. Rodriguez entrance um, after he came to a capital projects meeting. Um, we're also doing a remodel of the remaining CTE classrooms, a full remodel and upgrade to the CTE kitchen uh, for our culinary arts program, and we're moving the main office to the front of the school where the where the new main entrance is that we're doing and putting in a secure vestibule. Um, so all of that work is happening this summer and we'll be ready by the time that school opens up this fall. Um, and we're super excited about that. Um, I can't wait for you guys to see it. We'll start bringing some pictures over the summer as we go, but everybody that knows Hill knows that it's kind of

116a dark brick building. We are absolutely lightening that up. Um, and you know, adding more storefront and super excited for you guys to see what that looks like. Everett facilities. So, we're doing the football stadium upgrades. We're putting in new summer lights this summer or new stadium lights, excuse me. You guys approved that several board meetings ago. Thank you so much for that. One of the things I like to point out um is that those lights are a lot of fun. I said I liked bougie earlier. I think this will be fun for the kids. We paid a little bit more money. Um it will be attached to different things that could happen during a football game. So if a touchdown is scored, if there's a great running play, the lights will kind of do

117a little theatrical thing um out in the stadium. Didn't cost us very much more money, but I think it's something super fun for the students uh to get to have. So super excited about that for them. Uh the new press box will come next summer. So we're currently working through design on that and we'll be going out to bid for that sometime soon. And then again the track upgrades. So I just want to mention this will be an MHSA regional level track uh for competition. So we will be able to host regional level sports. It will be a nine-lane track. It'll have the amount of um additional competition spaces that we would need to host um the new bath house storage concession building. Um, and then we're putting in additional shot put and long jump

118areas there as well. And that was paid for out of the Everett facilities grant ston. So this summer we are doing new doors and storefront at the main entry. So they'll get a whole new set of doors um and new windows out front. We are completing the AC in the annex building. And then we're going to do new paint throughout the first floor corridor. So brand new bursts of paint throughout the entire first floor. Super excited about that. Um, fall of 2026, we'll be doing the new stairwell doors. So, um, those of you that have been at Sexton, you can see kind of the doors that are at each stairwell need a nice uplift and a new, you know, they need some love. Uh, so we are absolutely doing that. The reason it isn't happening

119this summer is due to the lead time on doors. So, doors have had quite a lead time, especially after, uh, the pandemic. Um, so we're still kind of working through that, but we will be doing that at nights and weekends, you know, throughout the school year as we get those done. And we'll also be working on in the spring and summer um doing some uh the auditorium upgrade that was mentioned earlier. We're super excited to bring that to life and revamp the auditorium. And then we'll be working on classroom flooring and paint upgrades. Any questions on the capital projects before we move on? Trusty Ninsky. Yeah. Could you briefly share what the syncing fund is and what the timeline is currently for our syncing fund milk? Sure. Absolutely. So, the scing fund is something that

120our community approved. So, thank you to the community. Um, that is to help with uh I don't want to say dire needs um but structural needs. Uh it allows us to pay for a lot of things that need to be done. Roofs, boilers, um upgrades to facilities. We can't use it to build new buildings, but we can use it to make upgrades to our facilities. Um it is a 10-year um thinking it's it's a 10-year fund. We are currently in our sixth year, so we have four more years to go um on our syncing fund. Um it is based off of taxes every year. So the average, that's why I mentioned that the average is about 8 million. Um when the syncing fund started, we were closer to 7 million. Um now we're a little

121bit closer to 9 million. So it just depends um on the tax um incentives, but that's what we use it for. Every year that's annually, correct? Uh four more years. Vice President Lopez for the sex and auditorium uh is going to be AC as well, right? Correct. And lighting and all that. Correct. So, we're currently working through that. Um we're the biggest components for us and we've worked through the school to ask them what are the most important needs for you. We've worked with um our architects, our engineers, basically everybody that's sitting at this table have done multiple walkthroughs with additional people. we have a set fund of money, you know, what can we do now and then what can we make upgrades to as we go on each year. So, one of the biggest

122things that we'll be doing is upgrading the stage. Um, upgrading the seating will will be a huge part. Also making it more ADA um friendly in that area. Um we'll be looking at the um the rigging, some of the lighting, the curtains, um some of the sound, um upgrading the cameras, upgrading the walls, the vents, the uh the currently the HVAC systems are actually connected to the chairs um at Sexton. So again, one of those things that um was innovative kind of back in the day um is a little bit more troublesome now. So, we need to make some HVAC upgrades to have the vents come in through the floor instead of them being um attached directly to the chairs. Uh so, we're making all of those upgrades to the stage um making that more

123sustainable for a long time. And then what we'll do is work on doing additional upgrades, adding additional sound quality um as the years continue to progress. Got a really nice balcony. It does have a beautiful balcony. We're going to concentrate on the first floor for now and then the balcony we will explore in later years. Uh um Trustee Rodriguez, thank you. Thank you very much. Um I was waiting for the word painting. Yes. And finally, you mentioned that when you mentioned sex. Yes. Do we have a kind of a schedule and how to paint the schools on how they look inside now because we are doing many things outside but I didn't hear anything about inside of the buildings. Yes. about painting. Absolutely. Thank you for bringing that up. So, I kind of kept it

124on the large projects, but we are painting several of our schools on the inside as well this summer. I just didn't want to go through all of the projects. Um, Everett is getting a complete overhaul on paint on the interior as well. That work has already started and they're currently on the third floor. So, we're doing an update of paint there. Several of our elementarymentaries are getting updated paint on the interior as well, including their cafeterium. So, their cafeteria/ gymnasiums. Um, so we are doing several paint projects throughout the district. Sheridan Road, Cumberland, Guyire Park, more more than that. Um, but we are doing several of our schools on the interior paint. We're also doing some flooring upgrades in several of our offices and schools. We're looking at door upgrades, both exterior and interior, at

125several of our several of our schools right now. We have multiple roofs happening right now as well. Um so we have lot of other projects but thank you for bringing up the painting. Um when you're doing this project of painting do you had different organizations or you had uh people applying to the jobs? How how that process goes? Sure. So we ask for bids. So we have a um a large list of painters who are approved already to work through the district. I want to say about 15. So what happens is our team reaches out to that list of vendors and says, "Hey, can you take on more work this summer for one uh for two, please submit a bid?" So we try to get in as many bids as possible. And right now we

126have five different painting groups that are working on painting in on the inside of our district. Wonderful. Thank you. Yes. Any other questions before we move on? Okay. I'm basically going to be turning this one over to Mr. Wills because we're going to be talking about um our strategic capital planning update or our master facilities plan uh which plant marin point has been assisting the district with. Thank you Miss Leight and good evening president Moore uh superintendent Scheler and board members. So again as Miss Light mentioned uh there was a request for proposals uh to provide a facility masters plan for the district. So again the district has been very forward thinking. You're not waiting for the $129 million bond to be finished. It's like what does the next 5 to 10 years look like?

127So today we're kind of at a great point where we've wrapped up three of the major initiatives. The first one being a facility needs assessment. So as Superintendent Scheler mentioned, um we had a chance to walk through all 38 buildings about 2.2 million square feet. Um if you may or may not know, we were actually the program managers on the statewide facility assessment. So we've incorporated some of that information. Had a chance to meet with the facilities team, um technologies team, etc. to really come create a 10-year capital look for your existing footprint. I want to be very clear for your existing footprint. So if you decide to maybe renovate versus build, obviously that's where this this corrects point going forward. We took a look at pupil enrollment uh utilization and financial modeling and strategies.

128But right now we thought it would be important to provide an update to the board of what does the next six looks uh six six months look like? Board interaction, community interaction, etc. going forward. So the first part was the facility needs assessment. Um so again, we've walked over 38 buildings and sites. Um you've got 2.2 2 million square feet, hundreds of acres of parking lots, tracks, um, fields, uh, etc. More importantly, our partners at Chrisman, uh, actually did what's called a Matterport 3D scanning. So, it's an amazing tool that facilities is going to have on hand to be able to walk through any building, any classroom, any storage room, and do a real lifetime 3D model like you walk into on your computer like you're standing there in the building. So if someone says,

129"Hey, I want to renovate the hallways at class or building B." You pull it up on the screen screen, you can actually see it. It actually provides the square footages. Then as a team, you can make some informed decisions versus having to physically go out there and walk the site. So again, thank you to the Chrisman team for completing that task. Um, going forward, I just wanted to make one like point out how important that is for us as an operations and facilities team. Um, sometimes something will happen in a classroom. we have flooring coming up, something's happened to the wall, the bathroom is overflowing, that type of thing. We're able to pull instead of sending somebody out to the site to take a look at that, we're able to pull it up on our

130screen, take a look at what's currently in that space. So, it saves time. Um, it's an efficient thing for our team to be able to pull up exactly what's in that space. Um, and then make decisions immediately on the spot if it's not an emergency of how we need to move forward. So, it's been an extreme um extremely helpful tool for us to be able to use in the district and I just again want to thank the Chrisman team for for contracting with us and and partnering with us for that work. I know Mr. Crow's been here for 25 years. You always ask how many existing facility footprint, you know, floor plans do you have? And it's kind of hit and miss. This is literally a 3D model of every floor plan of every building

131of the 38 educational facilities that they have as at their fingertips now to really take a look at forward thinking of um what you do with your facility maintenance and and improvements. So the next step of that was kind of the findings. Um so again we take a look at we'll call the infrastructure. So right now if you take a snapshot in time you obviously have a lot of building envelopes, tier renovations, mechanical, electrical, plumbing. It's about $350 million of critical needs. Keeping in mind that, you know, you're currently accomplishing about 183 million. So, as Superintendent Sheldon mentioned, if you look at replacement costs for a building, so here's the question you always get into. Do I renovate a building that's 70 years old or 60 years old or do I build something new that

132has 21st century learning, more efficient operational systems? That number again, if you're looking at $400 to $500 a foot for new construction, could easily be in excess of 900 to a billion dollars. So, we're at one of those points of what does our footprint look like? What is our current capital of infrastructure? And that's really this next steps is asking the community members and the board of what are those financial opportunities for improvements? Should we renovate versus build new? Do we utilize our sinking fund for the next, you know, four years? Do we potentially look at a next bond because taxable values are very strong here in the Lancing area. So again, that's about the capital need um from an infrastructure critical standpoint. So that financial modeling. So we've been working with public financing management

133or PFM, who's the district's financial adviser. Um, we've taken a look at when does your current millage rate potentially drop. So, you've restructured some of your existing debt service, which is great. You're getting a better um interest rate. You're saving tax dollar money from interests. But more importantly, because of the millage uh current mill rate, taxable values, you may have an opportunity in the near future to consider another bond. Um, what does that bond include? Again, that's part of this next steps. Uh, Miss Slight mentioned a great thing, a syncing fund. Some districts do not have a syncing fund. Um again that syncing fund is tied to the to the taxable value. So as that starts to increase you're going to see 8 to million 8 and a half n 10 million maybe let's say

134over the next four years. How do you prioritize that money as part of that capital? Another thing that's been continuing on is the section 179D or inflation reduction act. Um we've actually helped numerous districts with these opportunities of credits back to the district. I'm working with the the architect and construction partners for these projects. So, as we start to wrap up in Mount Hope and Willow would want to work with those business partners to see if again there's some opportunities. Uh, I think Miss Sled did a great uh great summary of the um almost $40 million of grant funding. Um, that's really just this last couple years. And again, other funding considerations. So, right now, as um Mr. Alexa mentioned, you were the first district to receive the 11X uh consolidation study funding uh money

135and then obviously the the 12C funding. So, there's going to be another round. I think that's what you're going to see coming out of Lancing is helping districts really look at facilities holistically. So you've done a phenomenal job with that aspect going forward. So next steps again today is our board update. Um one of the things we were working with the administration team and ultimately with the board is um who should be as part of the community and and stakeholder meetings. You've done a great job previously with strategic planning reachouts with capital planning with the 2021 uh 22 bond. So again, kind of building off that success and working with those groups you really August, September, October, come back to the board in November with some preliminary findings and and and recommendations. And ultimately, um,

136as in the RFP by December 2025, you wanted a final facility master plan recommendation with funding in facilities and things of that nature. So with that, I'll turn it back over to Miss Slate or President Moore for any questions from that perspective. Thank you. And what does FPM FPM stand for? It's a facility master plan. it it's a really long title and I sometimes say master facilities plan there's lots of different acronyms but yes thank you thank you for that yes Dr. Rodriguez. Thank you. It is incredible, Madame President, to have the presentation and the progress of our buildings and how our buildings are ready for our students and to be the best place for them to be. My first question is tell me five differences between Man Hope and Cheridon schools educationally. What is

137better in Man Hope? that we don't have in Sheridan school currently like the current Sheridan Road Elementary in the new Mount Hope. Yes. Yes. So, um one of the um educationally education Well, I might be looking at you Jessica, but I the first one. Yeah. I is ready for AI. The manhood is ready for technology. It is better than Cheroke. It is. It absolutely is. So, we have brand new school, brand new technology. One of the amazing things that I think that we've implemented at the new school, there's a couple of things, two of the things I'll point out and then I'll turn over to Miss Benetus as well to assist with this. Um, one of the things that we have put in, um, is our what's called audio enhancement. So, in every single one

138of our classrooms, a teacher will have a very small lanyard that is around their neck. Um, there are speakers throughout the entire classroom. a teacher will be able to speak in their normal voice. So they won't have to use what we used to call teacher voice to protect to project their voice out to the students. Um so they'll be able to save their voice, talk in their normal voice, and this will allow students to be able to hear throughout the entire classroom no matter what their hearing levels may or may not be. The people who invented audio enhancement actually had several different students that had hearing disabilities. And so they created this company to be able to allow students at different disability levels and hearing levels to be able to hear their teacher better. So

139that's one instructional thing that will assist teachers. Um, one of the other things that's not necessarily instructional, but I'm going to go ahead and say it because I'm super happy about it. Um, is we've kind of removed keys from teachers for their classrooms. So we've put in swipe card access at every single one of our classroom doors. So, we will not have to worry about keys and the hard keys, the brass keys potentially getting lost, moved, changed in between employees when employees leave, that sort of thing. It will be directly um hooked up to their key card access, the same one that they would use to get into a parking lot into the school. They'll be able to get into their classroom with their key card. So, those are two things I'm super excited about.

140Um, but I can also help turn it over to Jessica and she can assist with some of the other instructional things. I'm very excited about Mount Hope. Uh, a couple of things that in doing the walkthrough that I noticed, um, especially having been the principal of Sheridan Road, so I definitely could compare apples to to that is, uh, the cafeteria at Mount Hope has a full stage. And so therefore, it will be wonderful to do all school assemblies, plays, um, whatever it might be that kids could perform and do things. And with their full-size cafeteria, there's a cafeteria and a gym. And the gym is a regular middle schoolsiz gym, unlike Sheridan Roads, which is a caf gymnasium. Whatever you call it, you want to call it cafasium. Yeah, which is the cafeteria and gym

141is all in one at Sheridan Road. Um, the other thing that I really noticed about Mount Hope, of course, the reading nooks, which are these amazing, the little blue boxes that you see are really cool reading spaces in each of the classrooms. I noticed when I was there, the high ski the high ceilings uh for students, there's lots of light that's coming in the classrooms. And then, of course, Sheran Road was originally a K5 school. And so, if you visit Sheridan Road, it's a beautiful school because I was there. not as beautiful as Mount Hope um clearly. But uh the other thing that you'll notice is the classrooms at Mount Hope are appropriately sized for all of the students that will be going there where if you go to Sheridan Road, we have these really

142large classrooms that used to be kindergarten rooms and we have these much smaller classrooms that were the upper classman uh classrooms. And so it's really very well well designed for students. There's white wayfinding for for uh schools for the students there as well. So, I could go on and on. There's really wonderful things. So, Sharon Road families, you'll be well taken care of next year in that facility, but we welcome the new school for sure when uh that gets to be built. I only asked for five knowing that you had more than five. I don't want you to fail. But number two, Mr. President I think that we mentioned a lot of time the sinking fund the bond money and we still have projects to do. I think that we need the information know now

143but how much money we were asking in the bond how many millions how many millions are already used how many many more millions we still have and what we are going to do at the same thing the sinking fund now knowing this four years then I think the board need to know that the we we know what what is going on um Lancing Um, I think I had to collaborate what the superintendent and other board member was saying about the renovations of the Lancing buildings. Um it is incredible the when I go around the the city and I see the schools the way they look today. Lancing should be very pleased and very happy about to have the kind of the buildings that we offer to our students and I think that they are going

144to see how our students are going to be learning better because they are having this kind of building. It's going to take time but sooner or later that will come. Then thank you to all of you. Um I had my question to all of you. I don't I hope the noise and man hope I can talk about that. It's going to be less than cherry. Don't it is I can talk about it. So we've actually started to do some noise studies. So, we absolutely took your recommendation when you came to our board facilities uh committee. So, we've decided to do some noise studies at those locations to see how how how noisy is it going to be and I'm happy to tell you it is going to be no more than hearing the rustling through

145the trees. So, that is what I'm happy to provide you with reports as well. But, um we did the noise study and what they com what they compared it to was a 5 to 10 mph wind blowing through the rustling of the trees. is about the noise level that a student would hear if it was completely quiet in the building. So, I never lose. When I lose, I learn. Yeah, that's that's very true. Thank you very much. You're welcome. I love that. When you lose, you learn. All right. Any other questions from our amazing board members tonight. Okay. Vice President, not a question. But as we look at um upgrades to schools and building schools or whatever, I think we also need to do a study on student population within for the next 10 years

146and see how our facilities, you know, are rightsized. Do we need less? Do we need more? Because uh well, that's just the fact of life. We need to do that to compare how our planning will be for the future. Thank you. All righty. With no more questions for our I have one more comment. Oh yeah. Um we don't talk about this often, but we're we all get to sit here and present to you and give kudos and praise to all the wonderful things are happening, but I just want to give props to Andrew's team, the guys in the field, Logs' team, Todd Tex. You guys don't see that a lot, but those those are the folks that are here on Saturdays, that are here late at night, you know, weekends. Um, you know, I've heard

147many times you get a a not so favorable contractor that says it's just a school and they've been corrected many times. So, it's not just a school. Somebody's kids go here. Your kids could go here. They might not even live in a district. But those are the folks that are making these schools beautiful. They care about the quality. Um, I'm going to say some things just because I'm getting old in my years, but Mark Hidela, the superintendent for Mount Hope, that kid is awesome. I love him to death because he will say things like to contractors, they're like, "Stop pointing things out to Alexa." And he's like, "Alexa's been doing this for 30 years. You think I'm going to put anything past him?" So, I love it. And he just knows what we look for.

148And I'm like, "If I don't catch it, Christina's going to catch it. Todd's going to catch it. T's going to text, you know, catch it." So, you know, you guys are getting some amazing schools and I just really want you to know that there is a love for LSD and they're really damn proud of the work they're doing and I just I want to give Andrew's team and Alex's team and all the smaller contractors props because you have some really damn good contractors out there that are taking care of you guys. Wonderful. Thank you for that. And I could feel the passion in your Oh, I I love what I do. All right. Wonderful. While I have the floor, really, really quick. We haven't done this in a long time, but we have a new

149director of operations. We do. Um, Kimberly, can you stand up for just a second? Uh, so Kimberly Vaughn is our new director of operations. He is she has been in the field for a very long time, but she has been with us for just a few short months and she is absolutely amazing. I know some of you have met her already. So, I just want to take this opportunity to end introduce her to you. So, wonderful. Welcome to the land. He's got all kind of good stuff going on tonight. All righty. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you for presenting. Thank you so much. You and your pasta. You all are. Thank you. All righty. All righty. We will move on to our reports this evening and I will act as trustee Martinez because

150she's not here. So I'll be reading our secretar's report for June 5th, 2025. Families must, I say must and please, request transportation for coming school year by July 13th. Families, please and must request your transportation for the com for the coming school year by July 13th. The food summer service program is available. will call 517-755-2750 with questions regarding the summer food service program for children's ages 18 and under. August 18th will be our teachers first day back and August 20th will be our first day of school. The next board meetings will be held on July 24th will be our regular board meeting and ourformational study session. August 1st and 2nd will be a special board meeting. It'll be our board retreat located at the Eblesauce Center and August 7th will be our regular board meeting.

151That concludes the secretar's report this evening. Moving on to our committee um reports. Our first committee report is from our facilities committee and we just heard from them, but we're going to hear again from Vice President Maybe not. Yeah. No. Yeah. Okay. Vice President Lopez. What I'm going to do is just gonna pass the ball. Okay. You want me to? Yeah. We just to say that um we have uh one, two, three, four items um that we uh we're being asked to uh to approve and those are for uh from LAS uh Son uh RTU and door replacement. Uh I'll I'll find out what RTU is. Rooftop units. That's for air conditioning. Rooftop units and door replacements. Okay. From Christmas, change order 120 for Willow Wall panel system. C bid recommendation electric school bus chargers

152that we we heard already the presentation. And D bid recommendation for Sheran Road elementary room renovations. And do you have any questions or to give us some highlights? I'll turn it over to Christina. Sure. Happy to talk about them. Thank you. So, um, for the EO charging, obviously we went into that during our sustainability update. So, I'm happy to take any additional questions. Um, also put together a document for you explaining the entire RFP process that we went through um, and how we ended up with, um, EO for Beckerine Construction for Shared Road Elementary. What we're doing is taking what is currently the library. We are going to move the library to another location in the building. So, I just want to make sure we reiterate, we will continue to have a library at Sheridan

153Road. Um, but we are going to take the library and divide it into two classrooms. So, kind of as Miss Benvitas mentioned earlier, Sheridan Road was meant to be a K5 elementary. Um, but now we have fourth through 8th grade or fifth through 8th grade at Sheridan Road more of a middle school environment. Um, so we're needing to create an additional space there as well. So, we're dividing the current library into two classroom spaces. So, um, ultimately we are adding one additional classroom at Sheridan Road by doing this recommendation. Um, it came in at one of our lowest bids. This is a company that we have not worked with before. Um, but we have had we have heard good things about them through our partners, some of them that were sitting at the table with

154me presenting earlier. Um, and they have worked in other districts as well. Um, just a reminder, it's a good thing for the district to have multiple partners to work with, especially when we have a lot of projects going on. uh the change order for um the Sexton RTU, again, the rooftop units and door replacement. Um so we already have some work going on at Sexton with part of the air conditioning with electrical and the storefront. Um this is to go ahead and finish furnish and install all of our doors um and the existing frames. So some of those the doors that I talked about at the stairwells um to add that onto their scope scope of work and add in fire rated glass and door hardware um doors have a again long a long lead

155time. Uh so we'll be doing work with Sexton during nights and weekends as well as the school year continues. Um and then for the change order for Chrisman um for Willow. So, when we initially started Willow, um if any of you have driven by Riddle Elementary or Willow at Riddle, you'll see what I call the decorative panels on the exterior of the building. So, it's a way for us to add some life, some flare to our schools. In the original Willow design, we had had those types of panels on uh the building as well. When we looked at what custom colors would look like because we're looking at having each building have a custom color for wayfinding for our students, um the original build bid, excuse me, was to have a traditional aluminum or or

156that kind of color. When we looked at adding in the custom colors, the bid then went up significantly. So, we started looking at other options to put on the building that might still provide us that color option um but maybe at a lesser cost. Um, so this additional increase in the change order um of a little over $300,000 is to put in what is called Niha. Um, so there's a Wendy's right up the road. Sometimes if you see Burger King, some of these, these are the easiest buildings for me to kind of describe. It almost looks like a wood grain, a panel system kind of on the exterior of some restaurants. Um, it's a very smooth, sleek, and that's actually a panel system. So, we're we're choosing to use that system instead of the metal

157metal panels because the metal panels would have been much more to do a custom color than the $300,000. We would have been looking at a half a million dollars um to do the custom color. So, we decided to go with the nichi colored panels instead. So, that is that change order that you're seeing is to flip to the niha, not do what I would call the stainless steel normal colored panels on the outside of the building, but add those pops of color for our students. happy to answer any questions. Christina, you didn't tell them that it we were still within budget for that. Oh, yes. We are still within budget for Willow. So, even with this change order, thank you very much for pointing that out, Miss Williams. Um, we are still within budget. This

158is using some of our contingency, but this is not putting us over our overall budget for Willow by adding this dollar amount in. I see that it's a large amount, so thank you for pointing that out. Um, this is not putting us over total project cost. It's wonderful. Alrighty. Thanks for lifting that. Yes, Trusty Ninsky, could you just speak to the Sheridan Road projects? I know this and some others. Are are those being done with the mindset that they could potentially be moved once we replace that school or is this I know we have years left. We have to do the work. Sure. So, with Sheridan Road, it's going to be not we wouldn't open up the new school at Sharon Road until fall of 2028. So, we still have three school years that we

159need to to get through until we get to that new building. when I speak through some of the air conditioning projects, they are absolutely being considered being able to use those units then at other locations. So, we're going to start the work at um Sexton High School with some of the units as we look at maybe some of these new builds and we would take some of these units and then use those at other locations as we move through the project. So, thank you for raising that. Thanks. All righty. Well, I move that the board of education approve items A through D as presented. Wonderful. It was moved by Vice President Lopez and second by Trusty Rodriguez. Um may I all in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5. Next we're

160on to our report from our superintendent. All right. Uh, good evening. It's definitely evening, uh, 7:50. Uh, it's great to see everybody. I don't want to, uh, take too much time. We've already had a lot of really great presentations, but I think it certainly behooves me to talk about what you saw today in both both major presentations. You had one about a budget. That budget explains kind of very clearly the top line, the you know 10,000 foot view of what we're doing with uh everybody's tax dollars. What I'm really pleased about is that this budget shows a real commitment to students. It's a real commitment to teachers. It's a real commitment to this community. Um, you might be reading newspapers of other districts that are cutting their budgets, uh, even firing staff, uh, letting go

161of people. Uh, we're not in that position. Uh, the Lancing School District has a really strong budget, and I'm really proud of that. not only the work of Kim Adams and her team, but really this board and the staff and the community for allowing us things like the bond and syncing funds and also just winning literally tens of millions of dollars worth of grants. That consolidation grant that they talked about, you know, we were the first district in the state to to win the first part and the second part. all of the great uh green initiatives that you see when you win these grants and you get to use that money, it can be used to offset kind of other things that you might have spent general funds for. So, you know, we're in a

162really really good place right now and that allows us to have, you know, one of the highest starting salaries of teachers in the entire Mid Michigan area. It allows us to pay our people well. You know, this board signed a terrific contract with our LEA members that was a new huge contract for them. When you're good stewards and shepherds of the do of the dollars, you're able to remunerate your staff in ways that they deserve, but also then of course give them places in which to learn and to teach. And so I hope that people see this budget uh really really kind of in a positive way and that we have been able to push more money into classrooms. we've been able to have more adults in schools. Uh, you know, so many of our

163schools now have, you know, an an extra assistant principal or a dean or a behavior specialist or assistants or, you know, a spe an an extra special ed teacher. All of those new people who were built specifically to help support our kids wouldn't be available if we weren't doing well with our budget. And so, it's really something to be to be proud of. And we're already seeing some positive things. Our, you know, embargoed, so I don't want to go too far. Our embargoed MTEP MSTEP scores look good. Um, certainly our NWA scores, which are not embargoed, look good. You know, we almost doubled math scores, uh, you know, over the last couple of years. You know, it's a long process. We certainly have a lot more to go, but, you know, when you push money

164into classrooms, when you hire more adults to work with kids, the the outcomes are usually quite positive. And then of course that's the academic side, that's the budget side, but then you saw a great presentation about all of the extra work that's being done in Lancing. And you know, I really do want to say to the community, come see for yourself. Uh it's all well and good for the superintendent who gets paid to say stuff like this, uh to say how great the school district is, but it's a lot different for the community to see it with their own eyes. And you know, for however many years you might have lived in Lancing or whatever your relationship with the school district is, you know, I really want to make sure that people are seeing this

165incredible new Lancing. You know, I remember I was at a a a a board strategic plan meeting. I maybe it's my first year, second year here. And we were talking to this wonderful person and he had such negative thoughts about the district. And I saying, well, you know, where did all this come from? It was like, well, in 1989, my third I was like, look, man, in 1989, your third grade teacher, I can't speak to that, but let me tell you about the great things that are happening right now. And through that one-on-one conversation, that person who uh was really ended up really changing and being a a very positive person for this district because we have to go and we have to tell this community about the great things we're doing. Um, because I

166don't want you to just believe my words. I want you to see it in action. come visit these schools. When we have our open house for Mount Hope, I hope we pack that building with hundreds and hundreds of people. When we open up Willow, hundreds and hundreds of people. But even if there's just a neighborhood school you want to go see, you know, knock on the door. You're going to have to show ID. We're going to go through a background check. But, you know, we want you to know what's happening. And even as you just drive by, look at the new Willow that's coming up from the ground. Look at the new Mount Hope. Look at the fences and the paint and the new playgrounds and the new basketball courts. I mean, even we didn't

167even talk about it. We have a brand new gymnasium at Atwood. It's amazing, right? And so, I just hope that this community can can be really proud of what's happening. It's it's your community. You've helped us do this. I want you to take that win. And so when you look at the budget and what it means and the focus on children, the new the new buildings, the new playgrounds, the focus on children and staff, I just hope that people really uh don't just take my word for it, but go out there, you know, email me, uh text me, you know, email the staff if you want a tour, if you want to see something, please let us know because it really is quite special. Um, other than that, you know, we haven't had a board

168meeting for a while. You know, I just want to say congratulations again, of course, to all the graduates. Uh, having graduation at Breerlin is awesome. I hope we never change that. Um, it's really just a terrific day to see all of our families out there. Uh, you know, there's parking, there's, you know, 20 t tickets at a minimum per family. you know, we can get everybody in there, but really just the the the warmth and the love and the support of the community uh when their children pass across the stage and we hand them the diploma and congratulate them is really something special. And so, you know, as we end the month and we end June, you know, I always think of June as graduation month. And so, it's really just a a privilege to

169to be here and also to be, you know, one of the people that can hand those diplomas off to the children. And again, I hope the community is really really proud of those children. uh they've done some amazing work in order to graduate and wherever they go off to, you know, college, career, military, what have you. Um we should be really really proud of them and uh I know I am. So with that, there's a a lot more on the agenda, so I don't want to take up too much time, but I will kind of pivot towards one of the things that's on the agenda is that this board's going to have an opportunity to uh vote on a new math curriculum. Now, I'm gonna certainly let Jessica explain all this and she's the right

170person for it, but what I can say as a superintendent is having standardized highlevel curriculum for our children is one of the best ways to move our kids toward success. Our teachers are awesome, but we have to make sure that they have in their hands the best tools. We've already had a year of CKLA, which is a top-notch English curriculum. We've already seen gains. Now, today, we're going to have a conversation about a new math curriculum, and we're doing something really innovative, which I'm going to have Jessica explain, and then my hope, of course, is that we're going to move forward and have top-notch math curriculum in front of children. And I really guarantee that you will see some major changes and major gains in our students over the next couple of years. So, with

171that, I thank uh the board uh of course, as always, and turn it back to our president. Thank you. Thank you so much, Superintendent. I'd like to hear we are focused on student achievement. That's extremely important. And I'm going to channel my Trusty Herd and tell everybody to come on home. I can't say it like Trusty Herd, but come on back to the Lancing School District. All right, moving on to new business. May I have a motion to adopt the 2025 2026 budget resolution at this time? Madam President, Trusty Ninsky, I move that the board of education approve the 2025 2026 budget as presented. Second. It's been moved by Trustee Ninsky and second by vice pair by Vice President Lopez. Um is there any discussion at this time? Madame President, Trusty Ninsky, I just want

172to note one thing that wasn't in the the general fund um that's also in this resolution is the food service fund. I know there was one note on the audit from last year to fund spend down that fund balance um to the guidelines and that this does achieve that um by the end of next year on what's in the proposed resolution getting into that three-month goal. So, thanks to the staff for preparing that, meeting that audit uh guideline. Thank you for bringing that to our attention, Trusty Lewinsky. Are any other questions um from the board this evening? With that being said, all in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. Moving on to uh B um under new business, and that's the uh K through2 math curriculum um purchase. Miss Benvitz,

173would you like to speak on behalf of So, I'm excited tonight to bring the quotes for the uh math curriculum purchase to the board. Uh I do want to tell you a little bit about the process. I know I did send an email kind of outlining that, but I think it's important for all of the people in our community to kind of understand how this is is pretty innovative. So, I am lucky enough to be able to chair the instructional council with our LSEA president, Chuck Alberts, and it's a group that meets um once a month, and it includes a lot of directors, uh teachers across the district on the council. Uh, one of the primary responsibilities of the council is to review curriculum, uh, to review data and make sure that we're putting the

174best instructional materials in front of our our teachers and our students. Uh, the math materials that I'm recommending for adoption this evening have all gone through extensive audits. One is through ed reports, which makes sure that it is aligned to the core curriculum. it has rigor um all of the good things that you need to have for curriculum and those were all um selected as green which is the highest um indicator for curriculum. So we know that we already started out with some wonderful curriculum to put in front of teachers to pilot and then we also put it through the um a scorecard to make sure that it is alo also culturally responsive and that again indeed was um highly scored through that process through instructional counsel and through some of the leadership from Dr.

175Sarah O'Neal. So uh this evening I'm bringing forward for you uh for approval uh SAS which is also called envision. That's our high school program for algebra geometry and algebra 2. They do include hard uh textbooks as well as consumables for students and a digital um bundle as well. So it will kind of um touch all of the pieces that we think the high schoolers will need for those materials. It was piloted by our high school along with another uh curriculum tool and um was highly voted by the pilot teachers to move on. The unique thing about the way that the high school teachers uh treated this was they had we typically bring it to our high school steering committees once a month and that's really wonderful but sometimes people can't attend or it's after

176school and so they utilize some of our um DPPD days to get together as whole uh departments across the entire math department across every high school to be able to have meetings very frequently about how the pilots are going, what are they recommending? um everyone got to ask questions and so this one really went with without fail that they felt like they were all highly involved in the process and they recommended to instructional council that we adopt envision for eight years for our high schools. We as instructional counted voted and unanimously uh put that forward to the re for the recommendation of our superintendent who then also um put it through and approved it through that process. So I'm coming forward with what you have as a savas. Uh the program is actually called envision.

177The K8 process however is a really unprecedented way that we are moving forward with this math curriculum. So as you know I'm sure all of us learn math a little bit different. If you watch um lots of things on Instagram, there's lots of shortcuts and different ways that you can learn different ways to do math. And what we found was the two curricular tools that we put up for pilot which was KDUm or illustrative math and then we also had McGraill reveal they're really quite different in their mode of um instruction. One is a much more traditional approach but is very highly scored across the nation for student achievement and for students understanding the math curriculum. And then there's KDUm which is illustrative math which is more problem based math and it is a different

178way of teaching math also with the traditional um problem solving but giving kids uh more time for conversation and problem solving kind of at the front end of the lessons. They're both again highly highly regarded across the nation, highly scored. If I had to say there's one better than the other, I really could not say that. They're both um they're both very well put together curriculums and meet all of the um common core state standards uh for math. However, when teachers pilot it, they were torn. We had very much two camps of I really love the way this is this I'm I love illustrative math. I love the problem solving. I love the way the lessons are structured. And then we also had teachers that were all in on reveal. This is great. I've seen

179great um gains for our students. And when we came to instructional council and we reviewed the vote, we had over 35 teachers pilot this across kindergarten through 8th grade, which sounds really great. Um, but we only ended up having 16 teachers complete the full pilot and vote. So, we were torn, right? because we have 250 teachers teaching K8 math and we really as a council did not feel comfortable having 16 individual teachers making that decision for all of um the 250 that would be impacted by this decision. So what we decided to do as a council, we brainstormed, we were trying to figure out what we needed to do next steps forward. And what we ended up doing was we had the vendors put together um some videos for our staff. We put it out

180to every single math teacher in the district kindergarten through 8th grade to be able to watch that. We had the um hard materials um the books, the tees, all of the materials that came with them at the helock center so they could come and see the different math materials. And then we had open office hours through Zoom where they could come in and ask any of the questions that they wanted. Then every teacher was invited to again uh put a vote forth and then their school improvement teams at each of the individual schools decided which math program they best fet met their students and their teachers where they were with instruction where they felt that that was the best match for their their classes. Again knowing that the district would be thrilled with either of

181these because they're very top-notch curricular materials. So moving forward, we have Guyer Park, Gardener, Mount Hope, and Capitol Area K12 that would like to move forward with a luster of math, which is your kiddum vote that you have in front of you or quote that you have in front of you. And then we had all of our other schools outside of those four that chose reveal, and that also is in your packets. Um, so for next year, we have a one-year quote that we're moving forward with instead of the 8-year quote that we're doing for the high schools because we really want to see how these two programs are in our schools. We're going to be collecting data. We're going to be interviewing students, interviewing teachers. And at the end of the year, we're going

182to need to make a decision again through instructional counsel. And that decision will be one of a couple of things. If we see really wonderful data with one or the other and they seem to be going well at their schools, then we will let the schools keep two paths. So we will have two math curriculums in the district for kindergarten through 8th grade. If we see that one really outperforms the other, then through data we will determine then that that will be the program we will move forward with for years 2 through 8. So that is why we are doing a one-year um K through 8 uh implementation. It'll be a full implementation though uh where every teacher and every school will use these curriculum materials and we will have a full uh professional development

183plan which is also included in the quotes for you this evening for each of our teachers to be able to take part in throughout the entire school year to make sure that it is implemented with as much fidelity as you can with a firstear implementation. Yeah. If I I just want to to share a couple things. One is I want to thank uh Jessica for all of her really hard work, but also to the staff, you know, they took this really really seriously. And the idea that we are letting schools decide the kind of pedagogy that they want to work with, but yet choosing only highlevel curriculum is really quite amazing. uh you know having spent you know my entire career in education there are it is possible to have two really good uh incredibly

184high level curriculum that think of things differently and there are different pedagogies and there are different ways of of working and the fact that our staff was so invested in this is really quite wonderful. Uh historically districts will pick, you know, one curriculum and say everybody use it. But the idea that we can do a year of schools that want to do a certain curriculum to do it and then to see how it works. And you know what's nice about our district is our district, you know, it we can look at the data throughout and we can see what's working and what's not. So, you know, it's really I want to thank uh Jessica. I also want to thank uh Chuck Alberts, the president of the teachers union. I want to thank the instructional council.

185I want to thank all of the people that were part of this because what you saw were two great programs and there were rationals ration for both from teachers we really respect and so the fact that the union leader and the deputy superintendent could really come to this type of idea with the staff was really special and I hope it actually works well because I think it's a model not only for us but for other districts around the country. So, um I'm certainly happy to answer any questions about the pedagogy, but I certainly defer mostly to Jessica, but just know that these two um are really best in breed for for math. All righty. With that being said, um Trustee Williams, I have a couple of questions. Can you give me those schools again that

186want to go with Kendom? Yes. There's a delay here. uh Guyire Park, Gardener, Mount Hope, and Capitol Area Online. Of those four schools, um how many are on our um are we looking at for math testing scores that have had below math testing scores? So, four of three of those four schools were on our partnership list. Okay. Um, and then I I know that we said that the high schoolers are going to be doing the Revel or the Envision. I guess my question or concern because I remember sometime we talked about having going to a standard unilateral where everybody's on the same curriculum. And so with that, if the high schoolers are going to be doing rebel, why aren't we going to also have our K through eight? So that that transition will be smoothly

187and everybody's learning the same thing versus these four schools being able to choose because again, they start one way, then they get to and then you have to kind of retach it. I just feel like that's gonna I mean it may be good for the teachers but the students itself I think it may create some type of influx of un uncertainty and then with us saying that we want our students to all we're moving to one unilateral or primary curriculum but then to have this out there because only one set of students will get to test it for one year. That's does that make sense to Yeah. So just for clarity our our high schools are actually not doing reveal. They're doing Envision. That was one reveal was one of the um the pilots that

188they could have chosen. The high school teachers had between Reveal and Envision and they actually selected Envision. So we are already going to have our high school kind of in a different program which is pretty common. We have that currently now uh with our go math. But for uh in your response to yours which is a very smart question to ask and that's something that our instructional council did look at. we will be pacing the curriculum so that it is the same curricular standards at the same time. So for example, if I'm a student who is um in fifth grade math, it will still be paced so that if my mom or dad moves to the north end of town and I in a transfer, I won't miss a beat even if I go from

189Guyire Park to let's say Luton in a different um on a different math curriculum. So that will offer some of that um continuous instruction and that was one of the questions that we also asked at instructional council was how will that work if we have students move between schools. Vice President Lopez Trusty Williams, were you all set? I'm all set for now. Okay. Thank you, Lopez. So in the high school math, um you know, we're always talking about kids being prepared for college. So, is this math program one that will kind of uh blend in, but that would uh be something that that colleges would uh uh be teaching as well? I mean, how does it blend into that? And so, have we talked about that? Yes. So, Envision again was rated uh highly through

190ed reports. In fact, it got the highest designation in Ed reports, which is the curriculum um uh analysis tool that's used nationwide. Um our teachers also really loved the Envision because it's by the company that's Savas, which often does all of our AP programming and so there is a level of rigor that is definitely there that would make sure that kids are ready and prepared um for college. Okay. All righty. Doc or trust trustee Rodriguez, excuse me, Dr. Rodriguez. Yes. Very very much. I am glad they use the word that dog or whatever you teach. I am so happy to hear the word curriculum. That's number one. Because a distance curriculum is more than to have a book. my I had several question because that was one of my work in the past and I

191had to be very sensitive for what is going on today and the first thing is first of all we are buying a curriculum that we didn't create was created for companies that they dedicate their time to produce curriculum I am glad that they study the curriculum and I hope that this curriculum are good for our students. How much money we had to pay for all these total? Great question. So for all of the um quotes that we have put forth in front of you this evening, the total is $1.2 million. $1.2 million. 12 15 16 15 teachers went through the whole process for kindergarten through 8th grade. Kindergarten through 12th grade. And how we are going to help the teachers and teaching that not only in knowing the curriculum that is number one but second

192how we are going to help them prepare them to teach this new curriculum because many of them don't even know what is there. the we has a job to do in the district and I am doing that because I want the students to be what Mr. Lope said number one. And I just learned the Mississippi state curriculum and Louisiana state curriculum and reading went from being number 49 in the nation to be number 12 in the nation or number 16 because they were teaching a curriculum and that is our opportunity today. How we prepare them, how we are enthusiastic about our challenges, then that is how we are going to prepare them and how they are going to be responsible and learning this curriculum because that will be the benefit for our students. And my

193question is do we have you have a plan? Okay. So yes, we have a plan. Um, I'm actually very excited about this. Having been a teacher in the Lancing School District, there has been times where we have adopted curriculum and we have a one-day professional development and then we say, "Tada!" and you're supposed to kind of figure it out as the year goes. Um, I'm really proud of the work of our instructional division, specifically uh, Ivonne Thomas, Heather, and Lisa who are there. Um we have an extensive curriculum plan and we did this also with our ELA this year for our implementation where we had instructional um coaches from these actual companies work and spend time in each of our classrooms coaching real time modeling what it should look like. They would also look at

194lessons and then critique um give critiques to teachers on tips and tricks of ways that they can better implement the curriculum. So they had real time coaching in the classrooms. we will continue that for our math um adoption. But the thing that's most important even to think about ELA for example is that was not a one-year professional development. So the coaching will continue in years two and in years three. We will be also doing that with math. So it's not a one-time thing. Um this will start with our brand new teachers during our teacher orientation. They are going to get a a firsttime glimpse at uh the curriculum. Then is a full district during our welcome back day. We will have uh full curriculum training happening then and also in the summertime for those uh

195teachers that would like to come and join us during the summertime to do that. We're also really blessed to have uh seven district-wide professional development days where we will be taking several hours each curriculum day um that we have for the district to be able to do curricular coaching and professional development. that will be mandatory for all students or all uh teachers uh kindergarten through 12th grade. So that will give teachers eight specific days of curriculum training throughout the year and then embedded training in the classrooms real time through these uh curricular companies. Not to mention the fact that we do have three instructional directors and instructional coaches that are also steeped in this model. So, I really feel proud of the work that the instructional division has done because we've been very very thoughtful

196around the teacher education part to make sure that they really fully understand the curriculum and have an opportunity to ask questions not just in year one but across multiple years. Thank you. And also are we going to have testing our students they were testing to see that our students are learning the curriculum? Are we going to have periodically the whole district kind of how how our students are doing? We had the opportunity having a new curriculum to advance knowledge in our students and I think they will don't know if our students are learning. We are not going to change the way we are teaching. Then do we has a plan to find out if the curriculum that we supposed to teach are learning by the students? So we are implementing uh common assessments. We started

197that this school year and then we'll continue again next school year with common assessments which are crosswalked against our standards. And so then each time a student takes a common assessment or summitative assessment or quiz, we can then compare them across grade levels, across teachers to make sure that we're cover like making sure that each standard is actually taught, not just covered. And so we can very much see, for example, in a math test, if number two is missed by all of our students and that's aligned to a certain standard, then we need either we need to make sure we retach that standard to make sure students get that. So, we are crosswalking our uh assessments with the standards and then that way we can even get down to the layer of inviting students for

198tutoring or tier one uh small groups based on the standards that they've either mastered, they might even need enrichment if they've already gotten that standard. What can we do to enhance the learning if we're going to take some more time on those particular units of study? Then finally I think the we will ask the superintendent in about I would say it by November to come back and tell us how the curriculum is going. All righty. How the student the teacher are are prepared, what kind of difficulties I found and how modification we need to or how much money we had to put there or how more people need help in order to be successful because just to continue the same is not going to change. That's right. Then I hope the that is the kind

199of the collaboration they are looking for. Then in three months, four months to try to come back and have the dialogue and how to show the the the community that this curriculum is helping our students or is we are doing as much as possible to help them. Thank you very much. Thank you. You too. Thank you Dr. Rodriguez. Yes, Trusty Williams. Um, I I guess I have a couple of questions because in looking at the breakdown, I only saw about 14,000 set aside for professional development. I think if we're going to be implementing that at that needs to change because it should be continuously ongoing and that money needs to be there where people can may not be able to have the eight hours to do but they can set aside some time with that

200coach oneonone afterwards. Second question is, how soon will this the curriculum be in once the voters made it? Because I then have a third question. That's why I'm here tonight because this is really the lynch pin. We need to make sure that um our goal for ordering was July 1. So, this still puts us in in range of that. Um it depends on the particular company. Uh we are anticipating the m curricular materials to be here between the third and fourth week of July. Okay. So, just out of curiosity, and this is me being me, if we had to delay till the next meeting, because what I I personally would like to see the different curriculums uh for each each one that we're looking at and just to see how to finagle it and go

201through it because as a parent, we still have to be able to understand that. And that parent piece, I haven't heard yet. And bringing in the community on that. And then my final question slashs suggestion would be from those schools that are going to be using that program versus our other schools. I would see like to see us just do I know everybody's going to be doing it but have se sample samples where these kids can come in and show us what they're learning. I mean we need to have everybody involved and especially with the new new curriculum being involved. I like to learn. I'm always going to learn. I think until they bury me and I might learn while I'm dead too. But I think bringing the parents in, bringing the students in, everybody

202having a say because sometimes we just say here, you're going to do this and kids are like thrown off. And I think we've heard that in prior meetings before. So I would even dare to say even if we could start identifying young people even though they're going to be everybody's going to be doing it that we're going to say we're going to target these group of kids. They're going to be our samples that compared to this. If that makes sense. Absolutely. I'm actually glad you said that because I didn't want to over overwhelm the board with too much information tonight. Um, this year we actually did an open house for all of our families, um, parents, teachers, whomever wanted to come out and we actually had a decent turnout. Um, so they could actually look

203at all of the various curriculums and even cast a vote of which of the original pilot materials they felt would be the best for their students. And then throughout the school year, I really want to give kudos to our pilot teachers. um it's a lot of work to pilot and to um be accountable for reporting back and creating the summary documents and etc. So um there is no additional pay unless it's out outside of contractual hours. So I really want to say kudos to our pilot teachers. One of the things that the pilot teachers did as well was they did survey the parents during the pilot period um for the samplings of students like you're talking about to say um what is your child coming home and saying are you seeing these materials at home?

204Do you think it's benefiting your child? So the parents did have a vote during this process as well as well did our um our students. And so the parent the uh teach pilot teachers also surveyed the students in their class to say if you had to pick a curriculum which one would you pick? And it was really funny because the not unlike you know when teachers are really excited about something their students are but it really seemed that the students were split just like our district is around which of the two curriculums that they really liked best. Um, to answer your last question around if we were to delay this, if we were to delay this any longer than this board meeting, we probably would be in jeopardy of putting this in the hands of

205kids and teachers for the beginning of the school year. All righty. All right. Well, if there's Oh, Trusty Ninsky. Yes. I just had a few more questions. A few might have been answered. One, um, I also had some concerns when hearing the decision was two different curriculums and how that would work out. Uh, I can see some benefits with that. one was, you know, what would happen across the district. You've answered that pacing guide is helpful. Um I'm curious on the the roll out then we'll have to have some staff obviously kind of focusing on one curriculum and some on another. Will that mean we'll have to have some staff doing both or will all of the training staff be involved in both? How will that work? So we will have identified staff for both

206of the programs. Um if we our instructional coaches really are by school, so they will be more steeped in one of the programs than the other. But as far as our professional development days, we've already um made sure that the trainers are available for those times. And so if I'm a Guyire Park teacher, I will have access to that training. And if I'm a Luton teacher, I will have access to that training. So I don't think we'll be spreading the resources thin because we do have multiple presenters across the district. Thank you. I guess in connection with that would be, you know, we're purchasing a curriculum which is not I mean the consumables would be there either way, but all of the kind of the materials and all that we're purchasing for these four schools

207to do a separate one. If they were to choose not to go forward with it because we see benefit in the other one, those are kind of sunk costs for us or is there a way to repurpose those or what does that look like on this one-year kind of trial period for either of them as opposed to a spreading this out over eight years? So, because these curriculums are newer curriculums, meaning that they're up to-date, um we actually would be it would be very easy to have buyback from um the curricular companies. We've done that even with some of our go math materials that were left unused um for whatever reason. So, we would have buyback and there are some materials that are cross um that would apply to both, but that was considered because

208that was something the instructional council we were also concerned about as well. And then you kind of touched on this, but I was curious what the barriers might have been to getting more teachers to complete and vote in the pilot. Obviously, if it's a voluntary thing and it's not there, that's probably the major one, but were there other factors just for our, you know, knowledge. So, why didn't we get more teachers to that point to give input? So, I think the biggest barrier and it is actually something that we are trying to work through hopefully with this um next series is in when you adopt a curriculum, there's what we call end of life. And so go math end of life actually um began last year. We could not adopt and pilot ELA and math

209in the same year. So we were lucky enough that we were able to extend our um math materials for one more year. And we really think uh in our department that that was the reason especially at a high school, no big deal. If you're a math teacher, you're a math teacher, right? That's the curriculum or the subject that you teach. But as an elementary teacher, you teach both ELA and math. And so as they are, we heard from many teachers that they were hesitant to do the pilot because they really wanted to learn the new ELA curriculum, but there was no way for us to extend for another year because Go Math was already at end of life. So then that's an interesting point. So the the question about if we were to delay this

210and we'd be, you know, living with the current materials then for another year. You're saying we're already a year beyond what we had originally agreed to do with go math. Yes. And so we really don't have the option to continue with that. Okay. No. And so we are hoping that by having this one year that we will be able to then do an 8-year and then we will be what we call off cycle so that next time when we go for another ELA or math curriculum we won't have that overlap for elementary. So the hope is this one year and then the following year fully year. Yes. Thank you. Wonderful. Great questions everyone. All set. Alrighty. All right. Can I have a motion? Yes, Dr. Rodriguez. I move that the board of education approve the

211K12 math curriculum adoption purchases as presented. It's been moved by Dr. Rodriguez and second by Trusty Williams. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Motion passes 50. Moving on to C. Um, a foyer for your appeal. the Lancing School District. We received a Freedom of Information Act request by email dated May 2nd, 2025. Copies of the final report by Trun Law Firm provided to the board in 2025 was requested. The Lansancy School District considered the report to be attorney client privileged and was the subject of closed sessions. Because of that, the request was denied. A foyer appeal was received on June 10th, 2025. After reviewing the appeal, the Lancing School District considers considers to deny the appeal because the report is exempt from disclosure because it's subject to attorney client privilege. School

212districts are entitled to seek legal advice and hold that and hold that advice confidential. Can I have a motion to deny the appeal for the reasons stated more fully in the proposed response letter? Madam President, Trusty Ninsky, I move to deny the FOYA appeal for the reasons stated in the response letter. It's been moved by Trusty Ninski. Can I have a second? It's been seconded by Vice President Lopez. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Motion passes 5-0. May I have a motion to take a 10-minut break? Recess. President, I move to have the break of 10 minutes. Thank you. It's been moved by Trustee Dr. Rodriguez. Can I have a second? It's been second by Trusty Williams. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Motion or motion passes,

213I guess. Thank you. Let's take 10 for a sec. Thank you. So, All right, we are back from our 10m minute recess. Thank you for um from your patience everyone. Um, at this time, Lulu Lulu, can I have a motion to remove? Yes, I move the table. The recommendation um item 11. Okay. Can I have a second? So, it's been moved by um Vice President Lopez and second by Trustee Williams. All in favor signifi signify by saying I. Madam, I wasn't clear on the motion. What? Yeah. Oh, you weren't clear on the motion. Is there a motion on the floor currently? Yeah, it was a motion on the floor to Excuse me. I couldn't I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. It was a motion on the floor that um item 11 the action item 11

214was tabled that it's tabled. So I'd raise a point that there is no motion currently on the floor to table. There's we are in recess. I'm not sure anything's on the floor. You're moving too fast. We don't need to do anything. We don't need We don't need to do anything. We don't. No, because you get just to move for the agenda. Remove from the agenda. That's what I I move to remove item 11 from the agenda. Wonderful. Can I have a second? So, perfect. It's been moved by uh Vice President um Lopez and it was second by Trustee Williams. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Okay. Motion passes. No. Pass. No pass. No. Did you vote no? He voted no. Doc Trusty Ninsky voted no. So it's 4-1. No, but

215it doesn't mean So that means it's not off because you because it didn't pass. Correct. I'm I'm not supporting removing I'd like to go forward with the business if we don't want to. I'm I'd be supportive of adjourning the meeting if Okay. There's no further business. Okay. So if there's no further business before the board, then meeting adjourned at 9:24. No, we have Oh, we have public comment. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you. We are working this out. Um Elena Herrera what she left comment from the board. Comment coming from the board to some comments or no more. Thank you very much. Has been okay. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. All righty. So Alina Herrera, she's not here right now. All right. So comments from our board. Yes. M president, thank you. Thank you very much.

216So we had been five board members here tonight. has been a lot of great presentations. Um you know it's summer time for our students but also there are many many activities going on in the schools and the parents and the students should know that we continue learning during the summer time. Um I know the board also is going to to meet only one time in July 24 I think. But also I was not in the graduation and I'm so sorry is the first time but um congratulations and also I attended the Junth celebration and I want to the community to know how great celebration was been during last weekend and you the celebration in Lancing Community College and the African-American community and all communities should be so proud of this celebration. Because when we celebrate

217the freedom of one, we celebrate the freedom with all and with this. We need these celebrations today more than ever. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you. Um Dr. Rodriguez, any other comments from our board members? Madame President, I want to thank Christina and Ryan and the comms and printing team. Um, we had a student that passed away at shortly after graduating and his parents did not get to see the pictures, but our comm's team and Christina were was able to make those happen. So, thank you all for that. We do have great so great teams that can make stuff happen in the last minute. And so, thank you all for that. Thank you all who participated in the graduation. It was long day, a lot of hard work, but we did it. I'm still getting

218pictures of some of the smiles and some of the things y'all faces and some of them pictures were funny cuz y'all was like, I'm so tired. But it's it's just to see the love and the support that everybody has from from the horseshoe all the way back to see that our kids succeed. So, thank you all for your services. Thank you, Trusty Williams. Madam President, any other um Yes, Vice President Lopez. Well, again, you know, we haven't met since uh graduation. So, I just want to congratulate all our graduates um all of them from adult and uh um you know, uh yeah, you know, um high school completion and everything. Uh we congratulate all and every one of them for reaching that goal and uh hopefully that uh they're now preparing for their next uh

219educational experience uh either in uh secondary you know college level courses or um world of work. Congratulations to all wonderful trustee Ninsky. Thank you madam president. I just wanted to uh again highlight the important work being done around sustainability for the district and how proud we should be uh of being recognized for that and being a leader. It was said so many times throughout the presentations. I hope uh community members will hear that and our partners in the media and other places will pick that up and show um the great work that's being done here in Lancing that's going to benefit our community uh and school district for years to come. Uh, I know we we don't have twothirds to consider what was on the agenda for close session, but I really hope uh a

220meeting or something can be scheduled or worked out so that we can uh accomplish the business that needs to get done as soon as possible. Thank you so much for that uh Trusty Ninsky and and all of the board members. Um, at this time if there's no further business before the board meeting adjourned at 9:28.